The Times today carries an article on ISIS’ oil interests, Syria and Turkey. Nowhere does it inform its readers that the owner of the newspaper, Rupert Murdoch, has a vested interest in this subject through his role and shares in Genie Energy, an Israeli company granted oil rights in Syria by the Israeli government. Dick Cheney and Lord Rothschild are also shareholders.
No, they really are. This is not a conspiracy theory. It is a conspiracy.
That Israel should grant oil rights within Syria is of course a striking example of contempt for international law, but then that is the basis on which Israel normally operates. Of course Genie’s share value will be substantially boosted by the installation of a neo-con puppet regime in Damascus which can be bought to underwrite the oil concession granted by Israel. Contempt for international law has been the single most important defining characteristic of neo-conservatism, and the need to uphold international law the recurring theme of this blog. I never thought the UK government would make the withdrawal of its support for the concept of international law explicit, as Cameron has done by removing the obligation to comply with international law from the Ministerial Code. That is truly, truly disgraceful.
But to return to Murdoch’s oil interests in Syria, it seems to me a fundamental flaw that when Fox News, Sky News, the Times, the Sun and Murdoch’s numerous other media outlets bang the drum for Western military action in Syria, there is no requirement for the consumer of this propaganda to be told that the outlet is pushing a policy in line with the financial interests of its owner. Even for those actively seeking information, there is no register of the interests of media proprietors.
It is a wonderful irony that there is a register of the interests of the board members of the Independent Press Standards Organisation, but no register of the interests of media proprietors!
This is not an accident. The Leveson Inquiry did receive evidence and questioned a witness – Dr Rowan Cruft of the University of Stirling – who suggested that a proprietor’s financial interest in a story should be revealed. Robert Jay, QC to the counsel asked:
Robert Jay
This is on your page 8, our page 00885. You say:
“First of all, the code could do more to require proprietors, editors and journalist to declare their financial and also their political interests and to declare these to readers as well as editors.”
I don’t think the code does anything to require proprietors, editors and journalist to do that.Dr Rowan Cruft
That’s right.
Robert Jay QC goes on first to suggest any duty to declare financial interests should only apply to specifically financial journalists. He then moves quickly on to discuss the implications of declaring political interests of proprietors. Robert Jay QC is a clever man and he managed to avoid any discussion of the financial interests of proprietors whatsoever. Shortly after the Inquiry concluded, he was promoted by the Government to be a High Court Judge.
The Leveson Inquiry totally ignored the real rot in Britain’s media – the massive concentration of media ownership and its subservience to other corporate interests. The revised Code of Conduct which was its result does not contain any reference to proprietors’ interests even in the very limited context of writing about stocks and shares. A financial journalist has a duty to declare any interest which he or his family have in a company he writes about, but no duty to declare any interest of his proprietor – the person who is paying him to write.
If you think this is an accident, you are extremely naïve. It is just a tiny glimpse into one aspect of the UK’s extraordinarily dense web of elite corruption,
Fedup
05/12/2015 9:33pm
Many thanks, Fedup. Benn is less culpable than I originally thought, as Fred has helpfully pointed out.
Would be interesting to hear Craig’s take on it. Does Resolution 2249 legitimise the use of force against ISIL without the permission of the Syrian Government, or not?
Kind regards,
John
Aha. Craig’s already given his opinion.
“To bomb ISIS in Syria is now legal in international law, with authority granted by the Security Council. (I subscribe to the argument of my ex-boss Brian Barder on the interpretation of SCR 2249). Whether it is wise or not is a quite different question.”
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2015/11/legal-does-not-mean-wise/
J
The thought never crossed my mind before..so it can’t be classed as conspiracy theory..because it is just an idea..and it might well be wrong…
Now sure I had all this religious mental pain when I was a kid..and I really did not want to pray to the Baby Jesus in his beautifully decorated crib with real straw 60 years ago..almost every night throughout Advent – in the bathroom by the hot water cylinder…O.K…it was warm but not as warm as in front of the coal fire in the living room…
Sure The Catholic Religion did my head in..but they hadn’t chopped off my foreskin. I think that probably has a desensitizing effect (it doesn’t work as well as God intended. Some religious cultures do even worse things to girls I will spare you the details)
The theory
Is their muted sexual feeling and passion being turned into physical aggression, violence and war??
Do these people actually enjoy seeing ordinary people losing their arms, heads, legs and lives??? Cos their parents tried to improve? on what God intended??
Are these people Completely Mad? They don’t like us – cos we haven’t had our bits chopped off – like they have???
“Someone Stole A Circumcision Ambulance, Also Turns Out Circumcision Ambulances Exist
December 3, 2015”
Joel Golby Staff Writer
(Photo via @ShomrimOfficial)
“On Wednesday a circumcision ambulance was stolen in London in a violent carjacking, with thieves making off with an estimated £30,000 circumcision-themed Emergency Response-badged supercar. Again: circumcision ambulance. An ambulance for circumcision. Circumcision ambulance.
The vehicle was a private ambulance used by a home circumcision service. The driver was too shaken up by the carjacking to speak, but a friend told the Standard: “He believes they were waiting for him. They pounced on him, they ripped off his keys off his belt, and also stole his watch, before driving off with his car.”
Now I am thinking basically the same thing as you, here, mainly: yo, what is a circumcision ambulance? Who needs a circumcision doing so desperately that an ambulance – and this is an Audi TT, this thing, this thing can move – has to pick through traffic to come to your house and, as a point of emergency, irreparably alter the end of your penis?
“Hello, 999? Yes, my husband is having a heart attack. Convulsing on the floor in agony, shock turning him blue. Can you send someone immediately to cut the tip of his penis skin off?”
“Hi, 999, emergency: I’m stuck in a tree and I was hoping a medical professional could come and cut the last 20% or so of my penis away.”
“Emergency services please, thank you. Hi, emergency, help: the tip of my dick needs severing or I will die.”
I mean the police are on the case, anyway. People are sharing this photo of the ambulance on social media because that’s how justice works now. But you’ve almost got to feel for the thieves, don’t you? I mean yes: they pounced on an innocent medical worker and stole his livelihood and his watch and left him so shaken up he can’t speak, but you can’t really move a TT that says ‘Emergency Response’ on it, can you? Quite hard to avoid the police in London traffic when you’re in an extremely cognito ambulance with an overwhelming vibe of dick-chopping about it. “Hello Sir, it’s me, the police. Can you tell me where you got this Audi TT that says ‘ambulance’ on it, please? Can you explain to me why you have a boot full of foreskins, and where you are taking them?”
http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/someone-stole-a-circumcision-ambulance-also-turns-out-circumcision-ambulances-exist-404
Will Cameron be able to take time off touring the planet to visit the areas of the UK badly affected by the terrible flooding in the NW and Scotland today?
His predecessor G Brown oversaw similar scenes in 2009 following the financial collapse. They said he was jinxed and we wondered which plague would be brought down on us next. A plague of frogs or some such.
Fwl (re percentages)
I’d answer your questions if I could but I don’t know.
Seems Syria’s problems can be boiled down to oil and gas, with a smidge of lebensraum for certain near-neighbours thrown in.
Did Barzani really give permission for a Turkish bridgehead to set up shop near Mosul?
Sounds like a crock to me, but surely such a Big Lie would quickly be exposed. If training the Kurds means anything, then you’d have to say – not unless the brave 150 are going to volunteer for target practice, as targets.
Maybe the Turks figure there’s a carve up coming, and they want a slice of the pie. Assad with most of the West including the Golan Heights (tough luck, Bibi) thanks to Russia, and some kind of…what? east of the Euphrates.
It’s probably the uncertainty that Turkey is trying to pre-empt near Mosul. Unless the brave 150 are just filling up at the pumps.
Yesterday’s totals:
Nine beheaded by Islamic State in Yemen.
A suicide bomber in Nigeria kills three.
Late news: the Bernadino massacre of 14 appears to have been Jihadi.
______________
Be careful whom you greet at the office Christmas party.
Mary,
We hope not. We just love Grange in Borrowdale. It is actually very exciting particularly after a long dry period when it rains…and The River Derwent changes in hours from a mild slow almost stream…To a Raging Torrent…and the entire Valley is Flooded. The canoeists read the weather forecasts..They are the first ones there.
Its the equivalent of Surfers – surfing the Storm or Glider Pilots screwing The Best Thermals.
Its weather. It is normal..The last thing The North West needs is David Cameron turning up.
We will be there on Monday.
“The Cult – Rain”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kAgm7ijBaM
Tony
Update from the PSC on the CoOp Bank closure of their account and many others. No reason given.
‘Isn’t the Co-operative Bank a cooperative? No, not any more. The Co-operative Bank is now run by private investors including a USA based hedge-fund. This accounts for 80% of the shares. The Co-operative Bank is no longer the same as the Co-op group. It shouldn’t be confused with the Co-op supermarket or other Co-op brands.’
http://www.palestinecampaign.org/faqs-on-the-closing-of-our-co-op-bank-account/
In 2013 ‘In October it was reported that the Co-operative Group had been forced to renegotiate the bank’s £1.5bn rescue with US hedge funds Aurelius Capital Management, Beach Point Capital Management, and Silver Point Capital that owned its debt. As a result, the Group would lose majority control of its banking arm with the proportion of the bank’s equity remaining under its ownership dropping to 30%, less than the 75% proposed in the original rescue plan. The plan passed a creditor vote and on 18 December 2013 a judge on the UK high court allowed the plan to move forward.’ Wikipedia
Presumably there are Zionists within these hedge funds who are calling the shots.
Or is that a NATO bridgehead, with the Turks on point?
That is the most realistic case given Erdogan’s crooked dealings. Turkey’s economy was a basket case before the wars and sanctions on her neighbouring countries.
Nato has quietly dropped Turkey their aircraft are no longer fling around Syria, which could be the reason for the latest Turkish incursion into Iraq.
===================
True it could a be a racist fuckwit just like the anon/………….. and its many incarnations.
Of course it’s a conspiracy theory. People need to be made to realize that conspiracy theories can be true.
To believe otherwise is to accede to the psyops of the CIA, which dreamed up the pejorative use of the term in order to subliminally attack views of the JFK assassination that differed from the Warren Commission fairy tale.
Ok thanks for reply anyway.
The San Bernardino shooters met in Saudi. Chalk up one more for Wahhabism.
Surely you’d have to be among friends to send 150 into “hostile” territory without air support?
Although, at that far east they are out of range of the S400s Russia deployed in Latakia, so maybe they do have air support. The Turks say they’ve also got the KORAL jammer (rival to the krasukha-4) so maybe they ain’t fussed about Russian air defence. Having said that, the Russians do seem to be pounding Turkmen areas in northern Latakia (lovely green hills and valleys there) without being buzzed by anything Turkish.
Anyway, the game of Multipolar Chess continues.
Oh yes, and our boys are hitting the Omar oilfield just east of the Euphrates. Maybe the river is the new Skyes/Picot line. At least the whole pie won’t be served up to the AZ conglomerate. Russian and Ba’athist toes will be warm in the Med for a good while yet, methinks.
Mike
Turkish troops have been present in Erbil in N. Kurdistan since September this year. Their function was assumed by Kurds to be to defend Barzani personally against Daesh attacks across the border, and from mutiny from his own countrymen in Kurdistan for whom he has refused to pay any wages/salaries. The Turkish presence was very unwelcome because the Turks support Daesh and would be able to do the opposite of their declared function and shoehorn in a Daesh attack on Kurdistan.
Barzani, Erdogan, Saudi, Cameron, Israel, Jordan and Obama are all up to their necks in supporting and profiteering from the terrorist, non-Muslim Islamic state. Russia’s exposure of their crimes only reaches to Erdogan. Above him and alongside him Russia is diplomatically not exposing the chain of criminal mafia activity. They appear to wish to break the neck of IS by retaining the co-operation of NATO’s war criminal leaders Obama and Cameron. Lord Snooty’s ( Benn ) defence of Cameron’s theft of Syrian oil is because they don’t have a plan B to fill up the coffers of Western Banking bankruptcy.
Neo-colonialism is the only plan. Apart from honesty and fair trade by Corbyn. ha Ha Ha Ha ha! Corbyn is the only person who has got his head screwed on. Even Craig for all his protestations is , truth told, a federal, global man.
Shame about the Muslims,
“And answer came there none
and that was scarcely odd because
they’d eaten every one.”
Tony_0pmoc
5 Dec, 2015 – 10:20 pm
lol!
@John Spencer-Davis
5 Dec, 2015 – 10:06 pm
Military action in Syria is illegal under international law. I don’t agree with everything in the following link, but will say that the thrust of it seems to be correct…
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-uk-parliaments-decision-to-bomb-syria-is-illegal/5493200
The main thing is (and here’s where I disagree with Craig) is that Resolution 2249 does not in anyway invoke Chapter 7 of the UN.
Not that much of it makes any difference, anyway: the psychos will always go to war.
What happened in the UK Parliament last Wednesday was quite breathtaking, in the sense that the British public were conned yet again into going to another war.
Oh yes, and our boys are hitting the Omar oilfield just east of the Euphrates. Maybe the river is the new Skyes/Picot line. At least the whole pie won’t be served up to the AZ conglomerate. Russian and Ba’athist toes will be warm in the Med for a good while yet, methinks.
Yes such a relaxing affair isn’t it, bombing a few exhausted oil fields making out one hurts IS, whilst the business flourishes. Oil for Turkey oil for Israel and sweet Libyan crude from Libya for the west, who needs clean energy when we can have a bitch fight over tar oil and gas eh.
Bombing oil fields and installations, next to a major river that provides water for many, how much does that count at the Paris climate change conference? do you get extra points and a raffle tickets, or will this pollution created be on our national account?
BTW. these snipers yesterday hit by a RAF Marham Tornado crew, were ‘silenced’ not killed. The cycle of violence continues to grow.
Are We in a Clash of Civilizations?
Ron PaulLiberty Report
The neocons want us to believe that we are in a war to the death between Christian civilization and the Islamic world. But they know nothing of either Christian civilization or Islam. The only part they really want, is war. Perpetual war.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opYwBt9x64k
@Anon1
5 Dec, 2015 – 10:42 pm
Yesterday’s totals: about 300 women and children killed by British bombing in Syria.
I have to ask: what planet are you from?
Thank you Giyane. Very enlightening about the Turks and Barzani.
The new Fox News…
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/dec/05/suspect-custody-after-stabbing-leytonstone-london-underground-station
Lysias
“Chalk up one more for Wahhabism.”
What has wahabism ever done to harm you ?. As a protestant heir to the persecuted christian sect of huguenots who lived amongst fellow persecutees jews in France for 100s of years, I fully endorse the clarifications of Islamic theology proposed by Abdul Wahab now that I am a Muslim.
What has that got to do with Takfirism please?It is universally acknowledged by the scholars of Islam that a Muslim who makes takfir of another Muslim is unquestionably casting their assertion onto themselves because Allah alone is the Knower of the Unseen i.e. the hearts.
The term Wahabism is a slander invented by those who commit shirk, such as the Sufis and Shi’a, who explicitly disobey the teachings of the Qur’an and its entire meaning by venerating saints, holy men and prophets as being endowed with any delegated spiritual power, such as the Christian notion of God delegating His omniscience and authority on the day of Judgement to Jesus pbuh.
Assad belongs to a sect that derives from the polytheist fire worshippers that preceded Islam. The Alawites are not Muslim and never have been. Their power was a construct of the French against the power of the Ottoman empire, just as Israel is a construct of US and UK imperialism against the legitimate desire of Muslims in the Middle East to be rules by Muslims.
I assume that you would be annoyed if i declared the Red Indians to be the only legitimate power in the US, as we would be if you declared Druids to be the only legitimate power in the UK. So why do you use the terminology of the ignorant whose ignorance Abdul Wahab chastised?
Why not instead recognise that the scholars of Islam in Mecca who are the best able to define Islam are completely under the thumb and threat of every kind of punishment by the tyrannical saudi regime who claim to be Islamic Authority for themselves while tyrannising the scholars of Islam?
I expect tripe from your countrymen’s experts on Islam, re the latest terror shootings, but I expect you as a political analyst and a former serviceman to understand that Wahab is a slogan of respect utilised by an evil and corrupt monarchy to legitimise its totally un-Islamic fascism.
Mike
Whoops, my internet connection was lost and that ‘Mike’ got included in the copy and paste from my earlier reply to him.
An interesting discussion of Security Council Resolution 2249 (2015), and the IJIL critical review by Akande and Milanovic has just taken place here, for which thanks to the participants. The most significant point seemed to me to be the “constructive ambiguity” of the Resolution, which I suppose we may assume was deliberate. Milanovic, in subsequent discussion, described the drafter of, “the resolution and op. para. 5 in particular [as] a true master of ambiguity as an art form, the Rembrandt of ambiguity”. Precise and clear interpretation of the Resolution is clearly rendered difficult by the terms used and the ‘artful language’ (noticed by another critic) used in the drafting. Some of the terms inserted, appear to be quite unusual in Resolutions of this kind. It would seem fair to say that in spite of the legal dexterity there has in consequence been, at least, a loss of ‘legal certainty’ (in another critic’s words) in the process.
I might speculate that there is a good reason for such ‘constructive’ or deliberate ambiguity; driven by a practical, political desire by the Security Council to allow, permit or legitimate the action being taken by all parties in the various campaigns from all sides against Daesh, while allowing very different, flexible interpretations by the participants of the precise nature and justification for their actions (which are effectively irreconcilable); it is then, perhaps ‘permissive’ of, more than ‘authorising’, still less ‘compelling’ any specific actions. Perhaps the desire is to draw the disparate elements fighting Daesh together in a much larger coalition. Germany is now deploying Tornado reconnaissance jets, re-fueling aircraft and a frigate to the region; but presumably not directly participating in the bombing.
This may represent a dazzling exercise in legal drafting, but it does not of itself guarantee a coherent or convincing military plan will somehow emerge out of what appears frankly to be desultory proposals with no clear or compelling expected outcome, presented so unsatisfactorily and unconvincingly by David Cameron’s government.
For those who might be seeking some understanding on all this, part of an interview with Cameron back in October…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R42KCqgccZY
Look, I am getting even more pissed off now. My wife has just told me…that The Shepherd’s Bush Empire is Falling Down where we saw Hawkwind a couple of years ago..It was totally Packed – Totally Sold out – Rammed…and it is just such an exquisitely beautiful building…
I can’t believe that..are they doing a Bataclan there on that date…I have already got the tickets..they came yesterday…
No you can’t go there. Hawkwind are not playing at The Bataclan (Sorry Shepherd’s Bush Empire…) but now some place I’ve never heard of in The Elephant and Castle – South London..
How is My Ex going to get Home the same night. When She is Traveling From The North?…The Last trains etc…
“05.12.15 – Important announcement!! London venue change from SBE to the Coronet
As some of you may have heard, it seems Shepherd’s Bush Empire has been declared structurally unsafe and we have been told that they have had to cancel the rest of their shows this year.
Finding and booking an alternative London venue for a show 5 days before Christmas has been a nightmare, but we were determined not to reschedule til next year, which we were advised was the only solution…..We care too much about you guys to do that without leaving a stone unturned, so the last 24 hours have been spent not only tearing much hair out, but phoning around and pulling in favours from everyone we know and we are proud to say that with a little help from our friends, we have done it!
VENUE CHANGE TO THE CORONET AT ELEPHANT AND CASTLE. http://coronettheatre.co.uk/
We apologise for any inconvenience the change of venue will cause, but it could have been a lot worse..
Big thanks to the Coronet (a fantastic looking venue) for accommodating us and our hearts go out to the bands who haven’t been as lucky as us….
Thoughts are also with the great folk at SBE who have to cope with this situation through no fault of their own….We are just so thankful that their H&S checks uncovered the danger and prevented a potential disaster….
All tickets for the SBE show will be honored more details to follow”
Even You might like this..
“Hawkwind The demented man, Stamford 25 Aug 2013”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22TSQpCygCk
Tony
I’ve always thought it a mistake to blame Rupy for everything. Murdoch is a fraud and a liar, and I suspect his company’s tax affairs are an Enron-style mystery: I’d personally bet Newscorp doesn’t actually make any real profit at all, though can’t prove it. However, he’s like Mick Jagger: the world’s ugliest front-man; merely one of a number of fraud’s and liars, who is only allowed to carry on his business if he continues to play ball with other powerful people. I suspect Murdoch is a man entirely without opinions: if he lived in communist Russia, he’d be a corrupt old Stalinist, conniving with the party for personal gain; if we lived in a Buddhist dictatorship, he’d be the kindliest, most Buddhist fraud of all of them, etc. Murdoch the individual is a horrible human being – recall him pretending to be senile when questioned at parliament – but his main job is to run interference for neocon lunatics, and Saudi sadists. We should also look at his friends, I think. Any friend of one Dick Cheney is no friend of mine.
Do you know what it is like to be perceived as a Geek with the most awful NHS Specs..and obviously dressed by your Mum…Yeh but…he will never pull a girl – dressed like that…
Didn’t you Guys Realise..that I also dressed like that when I went to gigs
So I showed you the photographs..and you thought No Way is She even your friend let alone Your Girlfriend….No way
So they were doing all this job stuff and I simply had to turn up exceedingly well dressed..and I asked her..are you coming or what?
I just do not understand why we didn’t get Married..but She’s still my mate…and she is still completely Stunningly Beautiful.
Its her kids who are The Lawyers.
Tony