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
Welp…Off the Glasgow Barrowlands to see the Amazing Waterboys
SPIRIT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7plNRs5kwgE
Scottish Jews are not happy with the organization that promised to make life under this snobby Tory government better for them:
http://www.jewishnews.co.uk/scottish-jews-protest-to-snp-after-politicians-anti-semitic-retweet
Fuji-san
“Even if Israel was a democracy, how would that give them the right to shit on all the international Laws on Crimes against humanity.”
_____________________
It is and it wouldn’t.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“But it was Never a Democracy..”
_____________________
People with your sort of views probably wouldn’t recognise a democracy if it stood up and slapped them across the gob.
I notice that your source for that egregious comment is the egregious and pretentiously-named “globalresearch” – which dispenses me from commenting further.
“I know you don’t mean the above seriously, you’re just foolin’ around on a boring Sunday afternoon in fascist England.”
_______________
Habb.
Boring Sunday afternoon? Erm….I think you’ll find in the land of the sane, it’s Wednesday.
If you dont even know what day it is, how can we begin to take you seriously?
Get your act together or you’ll soon be booted out of Denison barracks.
As the subject of paedophilia is attracting interest from some on here, I thought I would post this.
Child abuse inquiry to begin taking victims’ testimony in private hearing
Pilot hearings in Liverpool start next week, and regional offices will be set up elsewhere to take evidence from thousands of people
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/nov/11/child-abuse-inquiry-victims-testimony-hearings-liverpool
https://www.iicsa.org.uk/sites/default/files/sharing-your-experience_1.pdf
It has taken six months to get to this stage and it is reported that the inquiry could continue until 2020. So no holding of one’s breath. Another Chilcot in the making possibly. The cover up continues.
‘It never happened. Nothing ever happened. Even while it was happening it wasn’t happening. It didn’t matter. It was of no interest.’ Harold Pinter
Habbabkuk
‘I notice that your source for that egregious comment is the egregious and pretentiously-named “globalresearch” – which dispenses me from commenting further.’
My edition of the Shorter Oxford Dictionary lists as its first definition of egregious:
1 Remarkably good ; outstanding , striking ; distinguished , excellent .
It’s looks like you’ve spent so long among the Eminences you’ve turned into one.
The government trolls will all be put on trial one day, mark my word.
In the meantime, Rosa Luxemburg once famously said that the future facing humanity is either socialism or barbarism.
The United States is presently trying to push through two highly controversial trade agreements: the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). These trade agreements will be complimented by the the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA), which aims to further deregulate the financial markets. The agreements are all being negotiated in secret and are barely ever mentioned by the mainstream media, despite the fact that they will have a profound effect on everything from national sovereignty to workers rights to digital freedoms.
It’s only due to WikiLeaks that some details of these agreements have leaked out…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rw7P0RGZQxQ
“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”
—————
From the Israeli Democracy Index for 2014.
Although the State of Israel is defined as “Jewish and democratic,” only about
a quarter of the Jews surveyed ascribe equal importance to both of these
components.
Most of the respondents favor one of the two elements, with a
preference for “Jewish” (39%) over “democratic” (33.5%).
I think that makes my point a majority favour Jewish over democracy.
Fedup
11 Nov, 2015 – 12:50 pm
“We welcome the appointment of the former British ambassador to Israel, Matthew Gould, who will have a key role in cyber security inside the Cabinet Office…”
…………………………………………………………………..
That reminds me.
What happened to the other government advisor on porn filtering, Patrick Rock?
More from the Israeli Democratic Index 2014.
Freedom of Speech – The Israeli public is divided on the question of whether
harsh public criticism of the State of Israel should be banned, with 46%
supporting a ban of this nature and 47% opposing it.
________________
Unsurprisingly almost half of Israeli’s are intolerant to criticism of their country, they’re in denial.
__________________
Civic Equality – Although nearly two thirds (63%) of Jewish respondents
disagree with the statement that Jewish citizens of the state should have
greater rights than non-Jewish citizens, an overwhelming majority (74%)
think that crucial national decisions on matters of peace and security should
be made by a Jewish majority. For a sizeable majority (61%), the same is true
for decisions regarding governance, the economy, or Israel’s social structure.
____________________
So we say you are equal just don’t ask to use the powers to enforce it, because you’re not Jewish.
_____________________
Social Tensions – Despite the growing importance of the economic divide,
Jewish-Arab tensions are still seen as the major fault line in Israel, with 61% of
Jews and 45% of Arabs defining the level of tension between the two groups
as “high”
____________________
Yes we let you live in Israel, but we’ll make sure you’re constantly on your toes.
______________________
Low Marks – Israel ranked in the bottom third of countries with regard to
civil liberties (where Israel ranked quite low, with Lebanon), civic engagement
(which includes trust in the government and perceived ability to influence
legislation), and political stability and absence of violence/terrorism (where
Israel was ranked near Venezuela, India, and Turkey).
___________________
Turkey constantly persecuting Kurds.
Venezuela a country whose murder rate is through the roof.
India, probably the best of the them, though rape on women in the past few years has soared.
What does that say about Israel?
“…. a very reasonable question regarding the enhanced dividends paid by HMG’s protege, BP, among others. I don’t pretend to be informed on the cause, but hints may be found here –”
Thank you for taking up my question; nobody is interested but it was a generous spirited response, and a rest from the personal spats that have overwhelmed the debates on this site and seem to have become worse since last I visited. Of course I may be wrong about that. There, it is possible to be wrong…..and not resort to personal abuse.
“Raising taxation on higher pay bands has less of an effect as you are taxing the few to give to the many. A better plan would be to use targeted corporation tax cuts to reward business that pay the true Living Wage which would take people out of tax credit territory, giving people more money to spend in the economy and as wages have risen also increase overall income tax take. However Westminster won’t devolve corporation tax to Scotland even though it is being devolved to Northern Ireland.”
http://www.businessforscotland.co.uk/westminsters-devo-fail-is-an-economic-and-constitutional-timebomb/
Includes a very good proposal, to reward companies which pay the Living Wage, by a Corporation Tax cut. A happier ship, for crews and captains-of-industry.
Dividends and Tax as soothing balms of benign wisdom…. …. would you believe it?
I’m not sure how exactly the Living Wage is calculated, but clearly it must be variable regionally, to reflect higher/lower costs of living, housing costs, travel to work, for this to work across the UK. The Living Wage for say London and its environs would have to be considerably higher than almost anywhere else outside the SE bubble. Passes an element of housing cost rises onto industry, which might encourage industry to de-centralise, most administrative type jobs could be highly mobile and relocate without many practical difficulties.
We risk though, as if we did not already have, more tiers of employment, as well as gross meritless excesses, those which pay the living wage and those which don’t, the latter containing rogues and rascals, exploiters, no more interested in fair employee remuneration than in their basic health and safety, these two failures often going hand in hand. The 48-hour week maximum is nowhere complied with, gruelling inhuman 12 hour shifts, exposure to all sorts of harmful materials, still the norm. Why care when, for a while robust, replacements can be plucked, like mackerel off Millport, from the pool of DWP-whipped fresh blood, wishing to escape that torment for the greener astroturf of an alternative no better.
The weather was very pleasant here today.
I do know about Zionists stealing the Palestinians’ water. Here not so much stealing it but depriving them of it completely. Think if that happened to you and your family.
Israeli authorities demolish 3 wells in northern West Bank
Nov. 11, 2015 12:33 P.M
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=768742
~~~~
Could we have less of the asinine trolls complimenting each other on their contributions. It is a pathetic tactic.
The good news today is that UK unemployment has fallen by over 100,000 bringing it back below 2008 levels.
The bad news is unemployment in Scotland rose by 11,000.
Is Mundell’s fireguard Carmicheal going to go ‘down’?
“Republicofscotland” re *More from the Israeli Democratic Index 2014*
Are you the best your local DaveSpart Committee can put forward today? 🙂
Let’s look at a couple of bits from your cut-and-paste screed at 19h19.
****************************
“Freedom of Speech – The Israeli public is divided on the question of whether
harsh public criticism of the State of Israel should be banned, with 46%
supporting a ban of this nature and 47% opposing it.”
_____________________
So it may be, but so what? A majority of the UK population probably supports the reintroduction of the death penalty for certain offences. The only relevant question is : what does the law say? And the answer to that is Israeli citizens can harshly criticise the State of Israel without fear or sanction.
Which, by the way, is something that is just a tad risky in most of the other countries of the region……
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Civic Equality – Although nearly two thirds (63%) of Jewish respondents
disagree with the statement that Jewish citizens of the state should have
greater rights than non-Jewish citizens, an overwhelming majority (74%)
think that crucial national decisions on matters of peace and security should
be made by a Jewish majority. For a sizeable majority (61%), the same is true
for decisions regarding governance, the economy, or Israel’s social structure.”
_______________________
Again, this is about what people think and has nothing to do with the law of the land, which is one of the key criteria by which the democratic nature of a country should be judged.
Anyway – what is reprehensible about people believing that the will of the majority should prevail? Jews are in a majority in the State of Israel and it does not therefore strike me as strange that they think that the will of the (Jewish) majority should prevail.
Or do you believe that the minority should hold sway (that would be a little like the position of President Assad in Syria, wouldn’t it)?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Social Tensions – Despite the growing importance of the economic divide,
Jewish-Arab tensions are still seen as the major fault line in Israel, with 61% of
Jews and 45% of Arabs defining the level of tension between the two groups
as “high””
_______________________
Again, so what? All that proves is that there are certain tensions in Israel.
How does it suggest that Israel is not a democracy?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Low Marks – Israel ranked in the bottom third of countries with regard to
civil liberties (where Israel ranked quite low, with Lebanon), civic engagement
(which includes trust in the government and perceived ability to influence
legislation), and political stability and absence of violence/terrorism (where
Israel was ranked near Venezuela, India, and Turkey).”
_______________________
As for violence/terrorism in Israel proper, I should think that most of that comes from Palestinians. Fewer suicide bombers infiltrated into Israel might improve the mark obtained for violence/terrorism.
++++++++++++++++++++++++
KOWN
“My edition of the Shorter Oxford Dictionary lists as its first definition of egregious:
1 Remarkably good ; outstanding , striking ; distinguished , excellent .
It’s looks like you’ve spent so long among the Eminences you’ve turned into one.”
____________________
And mine gives the following as the second : b. (in a bad sense) Gross, flagrant.
I’ll leave it to you to work out in which sense I’m using the word when writing about the Eminences and Original Trolls and their works.
Israeli Settlements Explained (or if you prefer, how and why a “vibrant democracy” actively encourages and assists its own citizens in dispossessing their neighbours’ of their ancestral lands from under their feet.)
Apparently in Israel’s form of a “vibrant democracy,” if a majority believes its ok to abuse their neighbours and steal their property (as long as the victims are not Jewish) then that makes it right and democracy remains vibrant while it’s “Thou shalt not steal,” that becomes inoperative.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sib5HbdEV4
Reading matter for Rob G -looking forward to discussing it when he turns up to arrest me http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/in-focus/ttip/index_en.htm
Hasbara-uk
Your blue-rinse avatar reminds me of my Jewish grandmother.
Could you also be extremely intelligent like her? Are you an agent for Islamic jihad? Your trash is certainly not a good advertisement for Israel.
Reading matter for ‘Why Be Ordinary?’
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/i-didn-t-think-ttip-could-get-any-scarier-but-then-i-spoke-to-the-eu-official-in-charge-of-it-a6690591.html
https://wikileaks.org/tisa-financial/
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/nov/04/british-government-leading-gunpowder-plot-democracy-eu-us-trade
Looking forward to discussing it when he/she comes up with more propaganda.
Craig, if you’re tuning in, perhaps you might consider addressing the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA).
There’s nothing that exposes these vermin for what they are as these agreements do.
I read your links and would point out first that the Monbiot piece on ISDS is totally out of date since the Commission’s new proposals on ISDS following public consultation (described in my link) and debated extensively in the European Parliament (June and July plenaries plus discussion in the INTA committee). What do you think of the new proposal? Not yet formally put to the US because EU governments (elected by you and me) still have to decide what they want Mrs Malmström to do.
EU governments gave her a mandate. When she and if she comes back with a deal it will be published in all EU languages and won’t enter force until voted on by the EP and gone through national ratification procedures as well. You get two votes against it – your MEPs and your national representative’s too. The EP might decide that a petition signed by less than 1% of the EU population is a less than decisive influence. But it has made clear already that a deal including the old ISDS clause won’t pass.
Craig knows that this process applies to all EU trade agreements, including TISA if it ever gets anywhere.
‘Why be ordinary?’ I’ll get back to you tomorrow.
But in the meantime I will add that these corporate trade agreements will be passed on the nod by corrupt politicians who couldn’t even run a car park, let alone a country.
Its very puzzling, melikowalsky the turkic khazar slav mongrel is genociding the Palestinians saying I am a hebrew chosen, when it is the Palestinian muslims who actually have more yiddish DNA (like giyane here) ?! And we have a mass sayanim singalong in support here, with the aaronowitch,freedland,phillips, kuennsbergs in the press leading the choir.
Jobs in Scotland have been lost in the Oil sector and the renewables industry. Westminster still takes 50% of production and Oil tax despite the fall in Oil price. (Foreign) multinationals tax evade through the City of London. Westminster still borrows and spends what it likes in the rest of the UK and Scotland has to pay off the debt. £4Billion. Scotland has to pay for Trident/illegal wars. Can’t put a tax on ‘loss leading’ drink. Or produce Oil in the West because of Westminster policy. Scotland would be £10Billion better off Independent.
The Tories were always going to ruin the Scottish economy.
Cameron has the cheek to write to his Local (Tory?) Authority complaining about cuts to local services which his administration caused by cuts to their budget. English MP’s in the Englsh Parliament will not vote to change Sunday Trading in England. The SNP protects workers rights in Scotland.
Rob G
In that case why all the fuss in the European Parliament in June?
I keep mentioning that I’m personally all in favor of TTIP, whatever that means (no-one has shared the secret texts with me yet)
Im confused by a few things however A) UK Euroscepticism (just UK-oligarch-media led?) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/matt/
(tho’ of course UK has completely the right to vote to secede from the EU should they ever wish but that would mean leaving the TTIP, and as USA doesn’t sign trade agreements with individual countries – just with regional blocks – won’t the UK be further screwed into austerity?)
and B) these letters indicate that our Dear Leader hasn’t a clue about cuts in his own constituency, never mind complicated Syria, Putin or other grown-up thorts! http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/resources/files/35654
C) on the semitic question, pertaining to Semites [Arabs, Akkadians, Canaanites, some Ethiopians, and Aramaean tribes including Hebrews], this is a fascinating story & interview that gives a flavor of both sides, and Netanyahu was shot
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/11/sabena-flight-571-hijack-plane-black-september-film