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
“The Killing$ ofTony Blair? TBR next month according to Georgie on Sputnik…
Tell us something that we don’t already know Mr Carney.
‘Bank of England governor Mark Carney says public faith in financial markets has been shaken by “widespread misconduct”.
Markets have been “tainted” by scandals to an extent that the public now question their integrity, Mr Carney told the BBC.’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34786124
The new Barclays boss, ex JP Morgan Jess Staley, will ask for softer regulation at a dinner tonight. His take home pay will be +£10m when he starts on 1 December. He has already spent £6m buying Barclays shares. Spare pocket money presumably.
New Barclays chief Jes Staley spends £6m on shares in bank
Former US banker, who takes helm next month, snaps up 2.8m shares at 233p, the lowest price since January
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/nov/05/barclays-boss-jes-staley-spends-6m-bank-shares
Local Conservative MP is surprised at the effect of his party’s AUSTERITY cuts.
David Cameron hasn’t the faintest idea how deep his cuts go. This letter proves it
George Monbiot
Ever wondered how the prime minister sleeps at night? Now we have the answer: blissful ignorance http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/11/david-cameron-letter-cuts-oxfordshire
…Georgie on Sputnik…
And RT. But not Twitter (last entry September, as it happens, (my bad) when he claims to have recorded the last word on the film), the producer’s site, or the film’s site.
PR and logistical fail. He’d have been better simply adapting Blair Inc for screening, and saved the crowdfunders the money for a lot of duplicated research. Still, the faint hope exists that he can find something new. If he hasn’t…
ADVERTISEMENT there’s always the *An Apology* thread on CM for this year’s updates.
Ba’al
Victor Lewis-Smith tweeted the following in October: #GeorgeGalloway just gave me and Keith Allen a private screening of his Tony Blair film. Even unfinished it is utterly unremittingly brill
could it be for this reason?
I hope and pray it is unremittingly brill, King. That it is so unremittingly brill as to give HMG serious second thoughts about giving Blair its covert support in undermining human rights abroad. And if so, and it ever reaches the public domain, I will acknowledge its merits.
Blair will survive – narrowly – Chilcot’s assessment of Iraq. And public opinion has pretty well tried him already, but public opinion doesn’t worry our Tone. Being a mercenary lying shit is what he does best. He’s proud of it.
Galloway needs to do more than reiterate what we already know, and to go into non-Iraq regions. I’m convinced that informed access to his various company records is key to that. If Galloway can do that I will take off my nonvintage headgear to him. Place bets now.
…that’s Blair’s records, not Galloway’s. Though….no.
Ba’al
I have a feeling it’s going to be mind-blowing. We’ll see. I have no doubt it will come out, by all accounts it’s in the home straight. I’m happy to wait. I predict before Easter.
Also I sense the Establishment is slowly throwing Blair to the Wolves. This is Ken McDonald in the Times recently. It’s pretty damn scathing, hard to imagine it could get much worse:
Macdonald wrote: “The degree of deceit involved in our decision to go to war on Iraq becomes steadily clearer. This was a foreign policy disgrace of epic proportions, and playing footsie on Sunday morning television does nothing to repair the damage.
“It is now very difficult to avoid the conclusion that Tony Blair engaged in an alarming subterfuge with his partner, George Bush, and went on to mislead and cajole the British people into a deadly war they had made perfectly clear they didn’t want, and on a basis that it’s increasingly hard to believe even he found truly credible.”
Macdonald said that Blair’s fundamental flaw was his “sycophancy towards power” and that he could not resist the “glamour” he attracted in Washington.
“In this sense he was weak and, as we can see, he remains so,” Macdonald went on.
“Since those sorry days we have frequently heard him repeating the self-regarding mantra that ‘hand on heart, I only did what I thought was right’. But this is a narcissist’s defence, and self-belief is no answer to misjudgment: it is certainly no answer to death.”
Talk of Euan being shoehorned into Stockport at the next election within this advertorial for the BLiar PropCo.
Cherie and Euan buy three more cut-price flats: How the Blairs have built up a £25m property empire snapping up seven houses and 27 flats across the UK
Blairs’ company now boasts a total of 34 homes worth around £25million
The latest purchase in Stockport takes flat tally up to 27 plus 7 houses
Prices range from £5.75m mansion to £75,000 one-bed flat in Stockport
Tony Blair’s own decision to live in London led to revolt from neighbours
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3313450/Cherie-Euan-buy-cut-price-flat-Blairs-built-25million-property-empire-snapping-seven-houses-25-flats-UK.html
Repellent ex Bullingdon Boy messes up. His chances for succeeding Cameron have lessened.
Boris Johnson ‘banned from West Bank’ after enraging Palestinians
Boris Johnson has been forced to cancel a visit to the West Bank amid security concerns following his pro-Israeli comments. https://www.politicshome.com/foreign-and-defence/articles/story/boris-johnson-banned-west-bank-after-enraging-palestinians
He uses some of the same Hasbara script seen on this blog.
‘During a trip to Israel the Mayor of London said those calling for a trade boycott of the country were “really just a bunch of corduroy jacketed academics”. He added the nation was the “only democracy in the region” with a “pluralist, open society”.
The comments sparked outrage among Palestinian activists, leading one charity to scrap a planned visit by the Conservative MP. But now the BBC reports that his entire visit to the region has been spiked due to security fears.’
Silvio
“Western governments praise Israel as a bastion of freedom in an otherwise tyrannically governed, strife-torn region — a true “liberal democracy” along the lines of Canada, the US, and the European states.
In its reporting on the current wave of violence — in which 10 Israelis and an estimated 70 Palestinians have been killed and over 8000 Palestinians injured — mainstream media preserves Israel’s lustrous image by avoiding references to key practices of its fifty-year occupation of the West Bank…”
___________________
Silvio, you are either a fool or a knave. And a dab hand at diversion.
Israel is a vibrant, functioning democracy and the only one on the region. Nothing it does (or does not do) outside its frontiers can invalidate that fact. So diverting rapidly to talk about the West Bank is just silly.
Jives
“Heavy troll action piling large onto this thread last 8 or so hours..
Why the shift push?”
___________________
I’ve noticed you almost always post between 2am and 3am.
And, if I may say so, it shows.
Why is that?
Yes, I saw Macdonald’s comments. But that’s still Iraq. The Establishment is utterly indifferent to Iraq, and much of the Establishment agrees with Blair – if not as to his publicly stated reasons, then with his dogged adherence to the PNAC narrative. It would be more useful to out him as a player of both ends against the middle, a diverter of aid funding to his own political ends, and someone who goes well beyond mere diplomacy in his relations with countries whose systems depend on oppression, for the benefit of his various (foreign) employers. In other words, someone completely untrustworthy, whose Iraq misadventure was not an aberration but an accurate indicator of his thorough-going mendacity.
Just been to your website, King. I’m definitely going to buy a book. And go, briefly to Aberystwyth…
Mary
‘“Majority of Britons see Israel as key Middle East ally” read one headline. BICOM breathlessly tweeted: “52% of Brits see Israel as UK ally more than any country in Middle East!”
__________________________
I’m not surprised in the slightest. British people on the whole are sensible people. That is why most of the comments from the Eminences and Original Trolls of this blog find little resonance with the wider public.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Quite the claim. But what BICOM did not mention is that the only other regional countries included in the poll were Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar.’ LOL”
______________________
Of course, you silly goose. The poll mentions the region’s big hitters.
What would have been the point or relevance of mentioning, for example, Lebanon or Dubai?
“I point my figure at Israel for the actual deed of planting the bomb.”
___________________
Thank you, Mr Golding, for that delicious image of you pointing your no doubt svelte figure at Israel. 🙂
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
More seriously, though, isn’t it just a tad presumptuous for you to claim that
“It was excruciating for me to publish that a bomb, planted by the West, destroyed the civilian plane bringing home Russian men, women and children home from holiday.” ??
As far as I’m aware, we’ve heard everything about this event from the MSM and not from you.
“Talking of making a killing, and as we are on page 2, whatever happened to George Galloway’s definitive video takedown of our old friend and advisor to Azerbaijan, Nigeria, Rwanda, Burma, Kazakhstan (etc), The Killing$ ofTony Blair? The last reference to its existence I can find was in June, when the crowdfunded epic was supposedly almost complete.
I hope the man in the pretentious hat hasn’t abandoned the task.”
__________________
I second Ba’al Zevul’s question and look froward to one of Mr Galloway’s many admirers on here giving us a heads up after he or she’s thrown a few choice insults at Ba’al and perhaps myself.
But feel free to just throw some insults and then divert, of course!
Mary
Thank you for your post which starts:
“Why be Ordinary. Get it right.
I do not live in Aldershot. Lumley brought these retired Nepalese people in. She accused the local residents of being racist. The local Con MP challenged her.”
_______________________
There’s obviously more to you than meets the eye and I’m beginning to understand why you’ve never responded to my suggestion that you might like to put your money where your mouth is and offer temporary house room to a poor refugee of asylum seeker.
More hasbara bullshit from the Hab:
Israel is a vibrant, functioning democracy and the only one on the region. Nothing it does (or does not do) outside its frontiers can invalidate that fact. So diverting rapidly to talk about the West Bank is just silly.
Israel, the state of the settlers
by Uri Avnery
Of course, not all settlers are fanatics. Many of them went to live in a settlement because the government gave them, almost for nothing, a villa and garden they could not even dream of in Israel proper. Many of them are government employees with good salaries. Many just like the view – all these picturesque Muslim minarets.
Many factories have left Israel proper, sold their land there for exorbitant sums and received huge government subsidies for relocating to the West Bank. They employ, of course, cheap Palestinian workers from the neighbouring villages, free from legal minimum wages or any labour laws. The Palestinians toil for them because no other work is available.
But even these “comfort” settlers become extremists, in order to survive and defend their homes, while people in Tel Aviv enjoy their cafes and theatres. Many of these old-timers already hold a second passport, just in case. No wonder the settlers are taking over the state.
The process is already well advanced. The new police chief is a kippah-wearing former settler. So is the chief of the secret service. More and more of the army and police officers are settlers. In the government and in the Knesset, the settlers wield a huge influence.
Some 18 years ago, when my friends and I first declared an Israeli boycott of the products of the settlements, we saw what was coming.
http://www.redressonline.com/2015/10/israel-the-state-of-the-settlers/
Silvio (14h32)
I wondered whether you were a fool or a knave but, having seen your latest, tend toward the fool explanation.
I wrote that I was talking about democracy in Israel proper and not about what goes on (or not) in the West Bank and, lo and behold, you reply with 20 lines on settlers in the West Bank!
If you must divert, for Heaven’s sake do it more intelligently! 🙂
Mary asks
“Wonder why the subject of paedophilia arouses all this pointless and excessive comment from one person?”
______________
Well, Mary, perhaps one of the reasons might be because paedophilia is an accusation many of the Eminences and Original Trolls on here love to level against people whom they disapprove of politically.
Usually by trawling the internet and the much reviled MSM and then linking.
Of course, it’s usually about people who are safely dead so there’s no risk of anyone being sued. Very courageous.
But nevertheless, people on here sometimes get egg on their faces, especially if the person accused is still alive and can hit back (the Lord McAlpine affair refers).
__________________
BTW Mary, I recall you keepong very quiet indeed when the cases of child grooming , abuse and rape by gangs of mainly Muslim men in the Midlands were being reported on and when those cases were being tried in the courts.
Why was that, I wonder?
“Israel is a vibrant, functioning democracy and the only one on the region. Nothing it does (or does not do) outside its frontiers can invalidate that fact. So diverting rapidly to talk about the West Bank is just silly.”
————
It should classed as one of the greatest frauds of the 20th century, up there with the likes of John Myatt, (nicknamed Picasso) or Charles Ponzi, and his get rich scheme.
What am I talking about? The very quaint notion that Israel is a democracy, it isn’t.
Infact the word democracy is nowhere to be found in the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel.
http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/foreignpolicy/peace/guide/pages/declaration%20of%20establishment%20of%20state%20of%20israel.aspx
So why do the likes of Habb, Anon1 and Kempe, continually parrot the propaganda that Israel is a democracy?
The simple answer to that question is that’s it’s the official line that they have too take, by pushing the myth, it superficially makes Israel appear the most democratic and stable country in the region. America also parrots the democracy line, the USA invest millions of dollars every year pushing the “Israel democracy” theme in order to justify Israel’s actions.
Actions that are blatantly undemocratic, with the occupation of the Gaza Strip, and the relentless illegal land grabs.
It’s not uncommon to hear Whitehouse spokesmen, emphasis how democratic the Israeli government is, it’s an approach to gather sympathy for Israel, whilst at the same time portraying other nations in the region as barbaric.
So the next time Habb & Co parrot the “Israel democracy” myth, you’ll know exactly what they mean.
U.S. prosecutors on Tuesday unveiled criminal charges against three men accused of running a sprawling computer hacking and fraud scheme that included a huge attack against JPMorgan Chase & Co and generated hundreds of millions of dollars of illegal profit.
Gery Shalon, Joshua Samuel Aaron and Ziv Orenstein, all from Israel, were charged in a 23-count indictment with alleged crimes targeting 12 companies, including nine financial services companies and media outlets including The Wall Street Journal.
Prosecutors said the enterprise dated from 2007, and caused the exposure of personal information belonging to more than 100 million people.
It’s fair to assume that they could be Mossad agents, maybe JP. Morgan didn’t pay enough lip service to Israel.
I wouldn’t be surprised if like the sinking of the USS. Liberty, nothing comes of it.
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN0SZ1VM20151110
“So why do the likes of Habb, Anon1 and Kempe, continually parrot the propaganda that Israel is a democracy?”
___________________
Probably because the State of Israel possesses the characteristics of a democratic state, examples of which are regular elections at national and local level open to all electors, the right to vote in secret, the existence of political parties, including opposition parties and vigorous political debate, a free press, the right for its citizens to enter and leave the country freely, the existence of a civil society, the existence of the rule of law with independent courts…and so on.
I invite “Republicofscotland” to reflect on how many other states in the Middle East share even a small number of those characteristics.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And, as always, feel free to divert if you’re caught short! 🙂
Republicofscotland
“It’s fair to assume that they could be Mossad agents, maybe JP. Morgan didn’t pay enough lip service to Israel.”
____________________
I know you don’t mean the above seriously, you’re just foolin’ around on a boring Sunday afternoon in fascist England.
But, hey, I’ll play along with you to keep you happy.
So tell us, Ros – why is it fair to assume that? Talk us through your “reasoning”!
0655 Radio 4 Today
‘The NHS faces a steep bill as residential care homes shut their doors forcing hospitals to care for the elderly, according to a report from the independent think tank ResPublica. Phillip Blond is director of economic and social policy think-tank, Respublica, and co-author of its report Care Collapse.’
I have put up Guardian reports on this subject before.
NHS England and all its surrogates, including the CCGs*, are on the back foot as I have said. This crisis, created by the Conservative’s Health and Social Care Act 2012, is vast and growing.
* Hardly anyone knows what this acronym stands for.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinical_commissioning_group
8 out of the last 15 comments = usual pointless drivel.
It’s Wednesday here in the UK but it might be Sunday on the Planet Troll.
More precisely 10 out of 15. Missed the first two. Shift started early today.
Ba’al – stick to the book, the ‘real’ Aberystwyth contains numerous inaccuracies.
Even if Israel was a democracy, how would that give them the right to shit on all the international Laws on Crimes against humanity.
now AGAIN acting like fucking Barbarians.
But it was Never a Democracy..
Lior Akerman – former Brigadier General and division head in the Shin Bet (Israel’s Security Agency) – writes in the Jerusalem Post that Israel has never been a democracy.
Forbes Israel warned of oligarchy in 2006.
In 2012, Amir Owen wrote in Haaretz:
Since last week, Israel has been governed by an oligarchy. These are self-styled lords of the manor who have power over civil and military sectors, and share the spoils of rule between themselves. The subjects can talk, but have no influence. Israel has been transformed from the only democracy in the region, to a democracy where power is held by only a few.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/israel-is-not-a-democracy-2/5467775