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
Enabling them to do what exactly Ben?
This is just page 7 on one of thousands of Craig’s posts and its just a blog.
We breathe in and breathe out waste sir.
We eat and excrete waste matter.
We think and we speak or blog the waste of our thoughts.
Anyway did not Lysias concede that Israel does not use law to cower dissent. Have you noticed that law is being raised as a bogeyman to quell dissent here this week.
Maybe Ben my point was not clear for all their faults Israel and America still respect for dissent. Do we? Or are being rail roaded who knows where. Speak to everyone. Why not.
http://metro.co.uk/2015/11/15/why-didnt-facebook-offer-a-lebanon-flag-profile-picture-after-the-beirut-bombings-5502871/
A question most never asked themselves while some prefer to not have it asked at all .
V fat fingers today. We breathe out waste air ie carbon dioxide. Not “sir”
” Speak to everyone. Why not.”(?)
Not all have an honest perspective and to give them that space without substantiation is naive in the extremus.
They use that naivete for their own means if you haven’t noticed. Cease being used for their purposes. You will have no victory seeking such comity of futility.
Carbon dioxide is poisonous.
Not to plants in sunlight it’s not, they love it.
Plants love CO2. Humans, not so much if you haven’t noticed. Shall Israel plant wheat in Gaza?
Don’t quit TonyM. The ball is in your court.
It’s likely time to separate the two camps. Who requires the input of trolls for ‘balance’? Shit it out,
Yes, plants also like manure. Not so sure if they thrive on words maybe so. Point beings words are not so important as thoughts.
Naive maybe, but everyone is human. Anyway, enough of my crap for a while. I shall leave you to your work here and not interfere further….unless bored, mischievous or full of crap ideas looking for a compost heap.
Words are as important of thoughts if attended by consistent behaviors. Maybe you could benefit from advice, but that remains to be seen.
“PS – ask Craig to explain the difference between sovereignty and jurisidiction to you some time.”
Why?
What difference does it make to the mother who gathers the remains of her child, that it was Israeli sovereignty or jurisidiction that broke her heart.
I read an article the other day about how massive farming of seaweed might absorb enough CO2 to neutralize to a substantial extent the acidification of the oceans.
‘shit it out’ might have been unproductive in unearthing the rationalizations of enablers. But I really don’t care what the motivation is.
Surprising little mention, leave alone discussion about Putin’s announcement that people from 40 countries, including members of G20 are financing ISIL.
Or that Russia hit , 14 ISIL targets, but 140 in total–presumably the balance were anti-Assad forces….who are they? Anyone?
Reminds of the time of one of the Israeli Wars when the joke going around Tel Aviv was that Syria didn’t join the war because their pilot was sick.
“Israeli officer: ‘We will gas you until you die’
Israeli border patrol officer threatens to kill all residents of Aida refugee camp if Palestinians keep throwing stones.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/10/israeli-forces-gas-die-151031140951304.html”
__________________
The above reminds me of something.
I believe I said that the video in question was a fake but that I should be happy to withdraw if proved wrong. The whole matter was, according to various sources quoted on here by some of the anti-Israel brigade, under investigation by the Israeli police and the launching of that investigation was taken by that same anti-Israel brigade to mean that the story was true and the video genuine.
I remember instructing whoever it was who quoted those sources to follow up the progress of the investigation and report back on the conclusions it reached.
Naturally we have heard nothing further from him.
Terrorism, its modern-day roots, its modern day source.
http://lawrenceofcyberia.blogs.com/news/2015/10/and-what-did-you-do-in-the-war-saba.html
Herbert
““PS – ask Craig to explain the difference between sovereignty and jurisidiction to you some time.”
Why?”
____________________
Because it’s sometimes useful, when discussing foreign affairs, to know what those concepts mean and the difference between them.
Quite a death toll, and this is just amongst civilian police in Palestine.
http://www.policerollofhonour.org.uk/forces/colonial/palestine/bpp_roll.htm
One case was bit by a rabid dog, the dog’s religion isn’t given.
Habbabkuk: “…then could it not be argued that that person is – albeit indirectly – supporting terrorism?”
Sorry to just take a snippet (out of context) of your point there, but – qualifying as such – may I offer a thought.
Consider the probity of bombing countries, destroying their infrastructure, removing any order in society – however despotic it might be – and turning it over to militia, gangsters, and in particular radical religious nutcases.
Might that not be considered – albeit indirectly – supporting terrorism?
Little know-it-all Habbakuk is back, rebounding from her humiliation last time she ventured out above her head. Let’s see her define sovereignty in one word.
Don’t hold your breath.
She can’t.
Glenn_uk,
Christ almighty…and you were poppin me recently about needing an editor??
Still Glenn…its ok…you can borrow one of my question marks for free.
A Funeral March
by Jon Taylor / November 15th, 2015
The exceptional
and indispensable you-know-who
is a military and financial powerhouse
but a moral dead letter
It has the bomb
and it has the dollar
but the word and truth
and poetry have escaped it
The days are gone
when someone could write
A “God Bless America”
and sing it with a straight face
And have left us
with talking points
stale and recycled propaganda
and planted “news” stories.
http://dissidentvoice.org/2015/11/a-funeral-march/
Nice One by Jon Taylor Mary..All True Too, Thanks For that
Which word didn’t you understand, Jives?