Dear President Ahtisaari,
I had the pleasure of meeting you on a number of occasions over the years, including when I was British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, and I recall your genuine concern for democracy and human rights in a region where they are sadly neglected.
Like a great many people in Scotland I was shocked that CMI is employing Jim Murphy. Of course, in a democracy there are always losers as well as winners in elections, and both are genuine and valid participants in public life. It is not the fact that CMI employs a politician who has been so recently, comprehensively and humiliatingly rejected by his national electorate that will do any damage to CMI. In a sense I think it does you credit.
What shocks many people here is that Mr Murphy is by any standards a dedicated warmonger. He was a major and important proponent of the invasion of Iraq, and is the strongest of supporters of the massive increase of Britain’s nuclear arsenal, in breach of the Non Proliferation Treaty.
Mr Murphy is a member of the Henry Jackson Society, which as you know is a body which exists to promote United States neo-conservative foreign policy in its most aggressive sense, and openly and actively supports and condones extraordinary rendition and the use of torture by the CIA. It has supported every single military action by the USA since its formation, and defends United States exceptionalism in international law, including US non-membership of the International Criminal Court.
Mr Murphy’s belief set is therefore fundamentally at odds with the stated aims of CMI. Indeed, his employment by you can only lead to the suspicion that CMI’s stated objectives are not its real objectives, and that like Mr Murphy and the Henry Jackson Society your overriding goal in the regions where you operate is to promote the interests of the United States.
As you are funded by charitable donations and by governments, I think some explanation of your employment of Mr Murphy is in order, particularly when you have employed him as a conflict resolution expert in the Caucasus and Central Asia when he has no relevant experience of conflict resolution at all, virtually none of the Caucasus, and absolutely none of Central Asia.
I was the Head of the UK Delegation that negotiated the Sierra Leone Peace Treaty, and certainly under no circumstances would I let Jim Murphy anywhere near that kind of negotiation.
With All Best Wishes,
Amb (rtd.) Craig Murray
Osborne’s speech this morning to those jolly people at GCHQ is eerily reminiscent of the Reichstagsbrandverordnung.
If I remember correctly, Corbyn didn’t issue a statement about the Paris terror attacks until Saturday afternoon. As soon as news of the attacks broke on Friday the media and the comment thread trolls were attacking Corbyn. These attacks have continued relentlessly ever since.
I would suggest that this is further evidence that the Paris attacks were a ‘staged event’.
‘We consider it to be a provocation. We are working with the Spanish authorities to get it cancelled’
Love that “working with”. O to be a fly on the wall:
“you see wh’appen in Paris, France amigo. Lessope no ISIS guys come visitin’ no Spanish rock gigs, capiche?
And then again, might be this, assuming Invisible* Mary hasn’t already found it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/17/world/europe/israel-west-bank-violence.html?_r=0
Collective punishment’s alive and well. Imagine 1000 IDF troops assembling to demolish the residence of an Israeli who has shot a Palestinian if you can. It’s as near as you’ll get to that happening.
*To those retaining Habbabreak.
“There was woman lying across a table, her drink was beside her, her husband was crying; then I realised I was standing in a puddle of blood…”
Turks had given the heads up on one of the culprits of Paris attacks to French. Despite which Turks never heard anything from the French until after the attacks in the current year!
Megalomaniac fascist does do what megalomaniac fascists do
Mary
“‘Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and seven other former and current government officials are at risk of arrest if they set foot in Spain, after a Spanish judge effectively issued an arrest warrant for the group, it has been reported.
According to the Latin American Herald Tribune, Spanish national court judge Jose de la Mata ordered the police and civil guard to notify him if Mr Netanyahu and the six other individuals enter the country, as their actions could see a case against them regarding the Freedom Flotilla attack of 2010 reopened.’
Spain ‘issues arrest warrant’ for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over 2010 Gaza flotilla attack
‘We consider it to be a provocation. We are working with the Spanish authorities to get it cancelled’”
________________________
Let’s see how much you really know.
What are the charges under the arrest warrant?
More arrest warrants…
https://www.enca.com/south-africa/sa-journalist-secures-local-arrest-warrant-israeli-commanders
That Mavi Marmara terrorist attack again.
Here he goes. Let’s have a really big war this time.
‘PM: We must do more on IS in Syria
2 minutes ago
David Cameron giving Commons statement
David Cameron has said he will set out a “comprehensive strategy” for military action against the Islamic State group in Syria as well as Iraq.
The prime minister told the Commons that the terror attacks in Paris had strengthened the case for tackling IS on its home ground.
An “important first step” would be setting out the case in a personal response to the recent report by the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, he said.’
Supported by Dr Fox needless to say who wants boots on the ground.
I can see the troughers giving it support. There’s warmongering in the air.
Tomorrow P William will be at Wembley for le football leading the singing of the Marseillaise. Song sheets and little tricoleurs will be given out for the people to wave. The police will be armed for extra effect and the stadium will be bathed in red white and blue light.
Mary,
Your desire to get a series of cheap digs in overtook your usual ‘accuracy’. The soccer match, to which you referred, is being played this evening, with an 8pm kick off. I do hope you will be heartily singing the anthems!
“Song sheets and little tricoleurs will be given out for the people to wave. The police will be armed for extra effect and the stadium will be bathed in red white and blue light”
The colours of the Russian Federation are also red, white and blue. Almost twice as many civilians were killed in the Russian plane than were killed in Paris. Shouldn’t we be taking this opportunity to make it a twofer?
Who downed the Metrojet airliner has been consigned to history unsolved, like the Palme assassination, thanks to the Paris massacre which got Russia back on track with the West on Syria.
Doubt the $50 million that Putin is offering to catch the perpetrators will also be collected unless the Mediterranean Dialogue people in NATO turn themselves in.
I’m beginning to agree with the PM about bomb attacks, Co-ordinated strikes at the sponsors of terrorism, London Washington Paris and Ankara would go along way to solve the problems of the Middle East.
HairBrain
I studied the anthropomorphism of internet sea-lions, their likes and dis-likes and the smallness of their brains and testicles. How about you?
Mick My bad then. Shame that Storm Barney is heading Wembley’s way.
Storm Barney to hit UK with winds of up to 80mph
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34834799
Mentioning arrest, if agent Cameron our Prime Minister ventures to force a vote, furtively or slyly through Parliament to ‘reinforce his own or UK preponderance, after the carnage in Iraq, I will take upon myself to bring to bear justice in the Internationally court of law and seek admonition.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/11999927/Paris-France-terror-attacks-isil-Belgium-Molenbeek-suspects-Syria-Raqqa-bombing-live.html
As one or two commentors have already posted the Russian Metrojet, incident has now been confirmed as a terrorist attack, using a bomb.
Radio reports confirm the explosives did not originate in Russia, all plastic explosives carry a signature, which can be found in the blast residue, of course this information doesn’t discount Russia as a possible suspect, as the explosives could’ve been intentionally of a foreign nature.
If however Russia is the innocent party, then attentions much be drawn to Sharm el Sheikh, and its international airport.
Sharm el Sheikh is of course in Egypt, Egypt is compliant to Western goals, through its puppet president el-Sisi, Mansour, held the position of president, until an obedient Western puppet president could be found, in the form of el-Sisi.
Prior to Mansour, their was Morsi, the first democratically elected president, in Egypt, in its history. This must’ve horrified Western security services, and the wheels of the propaganda machine kicked in demonising Morsi, as the West backed a covert coup.
Anyway I digress, the point I am trying to get across is Egypt and ergo Sharm el Sheikh airport, are open to Western intentions, the explosive device may well have been planted on the Russian jet at the bequest of forces friendly to el-Sisi and Egypt.
The goal I presume, to turn Putin and Russia, against forces, the West see’s as terrorrists.
The good doctor should have worked in Gaza during Cast Lead and Protective Edge like Dr Mads Gilbert alongside the Palestinian doctors at el Shifa Hospital. They were wars.
Paris attacks: Doctor on ‘feeling of war’ in A&E
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34837572
The Resident Invigilator (who never reveals anything about his own education) is curiously insistent in demanding that others reveal what they studied and where.
By the way, whether or not it was Foreign Minister (later Prime Minister) Villepin who called Israel a shitty little country, he had and retains a very low opinion of that state.
Dominique de Villepin dénonce le « massacre perpétré à Gaza » par Israël (Aug. 1, 2014):
Reading several articles of late, it has become patently obvious, why the search for terrorists has widened its net to Belgium and the Netherland.
Both Belgium and the Netherlands are home to dissidents and exiles from many countries, in the African and Middle Eastern region.
Friday’s henious event has given the security services a green light to arrest and interrogate those seen as a possible threat to the goals and stabilisation, of foreign interests in their countries.
Some of those dissidents forced to flee their own countries have suffered intellectual terrorism in their adopted countries, Belgium, the Netherlands and France, are high on the list, of stifling political activists, and their quests to redress foreign intervention and injustice in their homelands.
This is how agent Cameron intends to side-step the British vote:
France invokes Lisbon Treaty article in asking EU allies to support military action.
http://www.breakingnews.ie/world/france-invokes-lisbon-treaty-article-in-asking-eu-allies-to-support-military-action-706062.html
By his brutal suppression of the Muslim Brotherhood and other opponents of his coup, al Sissi has fostered the development of terrorism within Egypt. And the same may be said of Israel and the U.S., who have both supported the Egyptian coup government (despite laws in the U.S. that prohibit supporting coup governments).
The Russians think it’s been solved, T’bridge…
Russia’s security chief Alexander Bortnikov told Putin that the passenger jet carrying tourists back from Egyptian resort Sharm el-Sheikh on October 31 was brought down shortly after take-off over Sinai peninsula by a home-made bomb containing explosives of “foreign production” with a force equivalent to one kilo of TNT.
“According to our experts, a homemade explosive device equivalent to 1 kilogram of TNT went off onboard, which caused the plane to break up in the air, which explains why the fuselage was scattered over such a large territory,” Bortnikov said.
“We can say unequivocally that this was a terrorist attack,” Federal Security Service [FSB] head Bortnikov added.
The FSB later said it would pay “$50 million for information helping to arrest the criminals.”
http://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2015/11/17/russia-downing-of-passenger-plane-over-egypt-terrorist-act
Don’t forget there is a precedent for the USA paying off Russia when its covert operators go off the reservation.
When the US sub Toledo sank the ‘unsinkablw’ Kursk with a shaped torpedo which could penetrate its two hulls, thinking that the Kursk had sunk its sister sub, the USS Memphis, Clinton wrote off $10 billion in Russian debt to stop the continuing embarrassment caused by America;s gung-ho admirals.
Imagine Moscow will want about half that for the crash of the Metrojet airliner.
Why doesn’t Israel take any Syrian refugees ? It’s a nice civilised,liberal democracy isn’t it ? and it’s quite close to Syria.
What are the Spanish charges against the Israeli officials? El diario explains: http://www.eldiario.es/politica/Netanyahu-policiales-espanoles-Flotilla-Libertad_0_451455848.html
The USA is no better, arguing about taking in a mere 10,000 when Washington is the leading destroyer of the Middle East.
And talking up the alleged threat of all Muslims, it’s just putting its millions ofMuslim citizens at risk.
Think the next massacre will be the result of the KKK and its most numerous kind shooting up a big congregation during Friday prayers somewhere.
their quests to redress foreign intervention and injustice in their homelands.
Oh. You mean like this?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-politics/12000148/Islamic-State-sex-slaves-Sinjar-mass-graves-show-what-were-fighting.html
Lemme see if I can’t anticipate the response…
1. It didn’t happen.
2. The Israelis/ Americans/someone else (but not Assad or the Russians) did it.
3. What’s wrong with that? Daesh invaded the area perfectly legitimately and was applying something universally recogniseable as justice.
…. so leave them alone and let them get on with it. Eh?
It’s not just the West, who can make good on the reputation of Daesh China has cottoned on and jumped on the fictitious band wagon so too speak.
China has called for help, on a war on terror, the communist party has appealed to the West in the wake of the Parisian horror, claiming Islamist militants are terrorising the Xinjiang region of China.
The province is home to the Uighur people, who are mostly Muslim, China has committed atrocities, and persecuted them, this has led to retaliation and the hope of an independent region for the Uighur people.
I wonder who else will jump on the “war on terror” band wagon.
El pais outlines the charges against the Israeli officials more clearly. http://politica.elpais.com/politica/2015/06/11/actualidad/1434032745_001926.html
“Oh. You mean like this?”
___________
No Baal, not like that of course African and Middle Eastern countries commit crimes against their own people.
But you tell me what good we’ve achieved in Angola or the Belgian Congo,or (DRC) or Libya, or Iraq or even Syria.
Not since David Livingstone’s visit to Africa has the white man had good intentions on that continent.
My point of course is that African dissidents who live in Europe and speak out about Western oppression or asset stripping, (France is currently stripping Mali of precious minerals, using a proxy civil war) are silenced or marginalised, or even implicated in terrorism to shut them up.
I though you’d be a little more savvy Baal.
Lysias
“By his brutal suppression of the Muslim Brotherhood and other opponents of his coup, al Sissi has fostered the development of terrorism within Egypt”
Mursi phoned Zawahiri on his brothers phone to assure him of Egypt@s support against Assad in Egypt.
The Muslim Brotherhood is a creation of the British Empire. Mursi was a US stooge and Cameron wants to put a similar one in Syria. Na Be = Kurdish for Not going to Happen.
Muslims will never accept another form of USUKIS Muslim stooge now that they have had the opportunity to remove the dictators. The Muslims would rather have anything except more US stooges. even if from Washington a MB stooge might look like a good idea. Never never going to happen.
In this respect Jeremy Corbyn is right to condemn Cameron’s bombing because Cameron thinks that after the bombing the Muslim Brotherhood stooge can be forced on the desperate Syrians.
Repeat Na be. Never ever going to happen.