Sir Mark Lyall Grant was born with so many silver spoons in his mouth it is a miracle he didn’t choke. The National Security Adviser is, surprise surprise, an Old Etonian. He is also one of the nastiest people I have ever met.
In 1999 within the FCO he tried to remove me from my position as Deputy High Commissioner in Accra because, in a speech at an anti-corruption conference, I had stated that British firms too were sometimes involved in corruption. My speech had in fact been cleared in advance by DFID, and I survived. But Lyall Grant was dismissive of my argument that it was intellectually bankrupt to attend anti-corruption conferences and pretend corruption was just something foreigners did. In a very frosty interview, he told me my job was to promote British interests, not promote the truth.
I survived Lyall Grant’s attack only by appealing to the Head of the Diplomatic Service, John (now Lord) Kerr, in a minute in which I complained directly of Grant’s unpleasantly aristocratic attitude towards me, and used Hazlitt’s words about Byron applied to Lyall Grant “This spoil’d child of fortune…”. The entire episode was published in detail in my memoir “The Catholic Orangemen of Togo.”
Lyall Grant is now National Security Adviser and made responsible by Cameron for persuading Labour MPs to bomb Syria. A disagreement has arisen tonight over whether he admitted or not that a great many of the “70,000” are “extreme Islamists”.
But one thing that should be very well understood, is that I can personally testify that Mark Lyall Grant has no respect for or attachment to the truth. He directly told me that furthering the British interest is more important than truth. In that case, he was taking the interest of corrupt British companies – especially BAE – as being identical with the national interest.
In the current case, I have no doubt he will be conflating the interest of his fellow old Etonians in government and again of the arms industry with the national interest. I can guarantee nothing will pass his lips undistorted to suit that agenda.
That a truly obnoxious man like Mark Lyall Grant is such a senior official is the most complete proof you could have of the rottenness of the United Kingdom.
Anyway.
Looks like NATO is all a crumblin’.
Jolly decent of the British to go all out and take a last one for the team.
The deployment of S-400 anti-air missiles means Russia has effectively imposed a no-fly zone over Syria. If any military aircraft fly over Syria without prior agreement with Russia, then they will be shot out of the sky.
Russia has been invited by The Syrian Government to defend Syria from foreign invasion. The UK has not been invited. The nonsense from Cameron about 70,000 moderate rebels clearly indicates, that the UK’s main objective is not to defeat ISIS – but to attack the people, infrastructure, army and Government of Syria.
If MP’s vote for Military Action, then they are voting for a lie like WMD’s in Iraq. But this time it is far more serious, because they are effectively voting to attack a foreign country, that is already being defended by Russia. They are therefore voting to go to war with Russia.
Russia in the defence of Syria will shoot the RAF out of the sky. There is nothing then to prevent escalation. Many neocons in Washington want a war with Russia – some for Religious reasons. These people are literally crazy. Russia will not back down.
If our MP’s vote for war, they are highly likely to get a Nuclear War.
Checkout the real history of ISIS? Why is The West still in support of these crazed head choppers, that the West was instrumental in creating? Why are we risking total annihilation of the planet to defend our own Frankenstein monster?
If we want to defeat our Frankenstein monster, we can only do so, by telling the truth, stopping supplying it with arms and ammunition, and assist the Syrian Government to defend Syria. We cannot do this without a full and honest working agreement with both The Syrian and Russian Governments.
For MP’s to vote for war as now described in Cameron’s resolution is complete madness.
They are voting for the end of the world.
Tony
Eton has its imitators, of course. George Osborne achieved very nearly non-oik status at St. Pauls, as did Matthew
GoldkornGould. Whose latest outing we seem to have missed…http://cybersecuritysummit.co.uk/speakers/matthew-gould/
A natural extension of his previous employment, I feel.
http://www.csoonline.com/article/2981246/security-industry/israel-is-number-two-in-cybersecurity-behind-the-us.html
What will Emerge on that £50,000 i Know Not Fred..
But for now I’m Far more interested in what Alex says Re BOMB, Bomb, Bomb. Syria.. or Anywhere with Huge resources…Talking of Which –
US, British, French, Israeli and other energy interests could be prime beneficiaries of military operations in Iraq and Syria designed to rollback the power of the ‘Islamic State’ (ISIS) and, potentially, the Bashar al-Assad regime.
A study for a global oil services company backed by the French government and linked to Britain’s Tory-led administration, published during the height of the Arab Spring, hailed the significant “hydrocarbon potential” of Syria’s offshore resources.
The 2011 study was printed in GeoArabia, a petroleum industry journal published by a Bahrain-based consultancy, GulfPetroLink, which is sponsored by some of the world’s biggest oil companies, including Chevron, ExxonMobil, Saudi Aramco, Shell, Total, and BP.
Dismembering Syria to stave-off peak oil
Another of Genie Oil and Gas’s subsidiaries is American Shale Oil, a joint project with the French major Total SA. Total was among the sponsors of the 2010 international oil and gas exhibition hosted by the Assad regime in Damascus.
American Shale Oil (AMSO) operates in the US in Colorado’s Green River Formation, estimated to hold 3 trillion barrels of recoverable oil.
On its website, the company offers an extraordinary declaration regarding its rationale for focusing on unconventional oil and gas resources in the US and Israel:
“The peaking of world oil production presents the US and the world with an enormous challenge. Aggressive action must be taken to avoid unprecedented economic, social and political costs.”
This candid statement demonstrates that the interests behind Genie Energy recognise the reality of ‘peak oil’ usually denied by the industry. Peak oil does not imply that the world is running out of oil, but rather the end of the age of cheap, easy oil as conventional oil production declines, and therefore an increasing shift to a new age of expensive, difficult oil.
Declassified documents along with senior US and British officials involved in the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq confirm that fears around the impact of ‘peak oil’ played an instrumental role in the Bush and Blair administration’s plans for war.
As the US Geological Survey Minerals Yearbook put it:
“Most of the international investors who pulled out of Syria following the deterioration of the safety and security situation throughout the country… are expected to remain so until the military and political conflicts are resolved.”
In this context, as Russia and Iran consolidate their hold on Syria through the Assad regime — staking the claim to Syria’s untapped resources in the Mediterranean — the acceleration of Western military action offers both a carrot and a stick: the carrot aims to threaten the Assad regime into a political accommodation that capitulates to Western regional energy designs; the stick aims to replace him with a more compliant entity comprised of rebel forces backed by Western allies, the Gulf states and Turkey, whilst containing the most virulent faction, ISIS.
It is unlikely that this blood-soaked strategy to beat Russia and Iran to Mediterranean energy riches has any prospect of success, for any of the parties.
Judging by recent history, it is also likely to backfire in ways that cannot be foreseen, nor controlled.
Dr Nafeez Ahmed
https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/western-firms-plan-to-cash-in-on-syria-s-oil-and-gas-frontier-6c5fa4a72a92#.nc7pcs4x2
“The hashtag #SueMeSaudi is soaring after a source at the Saudi Arabian justice ministry reportedly said he would sue a Twitter user who compared Saudi Arabia to the terror group ‘Islamic State.’ ”
http://www.dw.com/en/suemesaudi-twitter-users-taunt-saudi-arabia/a-18884389
@Glenn_uk
1 Dec, 2015 – 11:05 pm
The formerly LibDems, unworthy as they now are of the handle, are lower than the vermin in my opinion.
“Shouldn’t all MPs find out what their constituents want or is democracy appointing one person to make decisions for thousands. I find all this talk of MPs following their conscience so patronising. Fcuk their conscience—-we don’t want war.”
They do, the good ones do anyway. As I’ve said before I think the majority where I live would be in favour of bombing. Different people have different values, some might do a google image search on Raqqa and their consciences tell them people need our help, some might feel solidarity with the people of Paris. There are many reasons someone might look at things differently to those who read this blog and come to a different conclusion without being any less principled.
I think Islamic State might have cause to sue. They behead far less people!
A joke about beheading, nice…
Statement of fact. Who said it was a joke?
The obvious solution is for all the competing gas pipelines to be allowed, isn’t ‘competition’ the cornerstone of this free market ruse of the elite which the deluded still espouse. This of course would put Syrians under President Assad and the Ba’athist form of socialism in a rather enviable and economically strong position. Renewables are the answer, this is a war of choice, better alternatives exist. Secondarily there is the Israeli occupation of the of oil and gas rich, prime farmland and water sources, hundreds of square miles, in the Golan Heights. You do not have to look hard to find the direct connection between David Cameron’s bosom chums, and those pushing this regime-change operation, the Genie Energy investors such as Rothschild, Murdoch, Cheney et al. who hope to gain from illegally by force redrawing the border between Syria and Israel in Israel’s favour. It stinks to buggery. It is shameful Parliament should be forced to go through the motions of putting a bogus seal of approval on what amounts to international banditry.
On a deeper level it is private, not state owned, banking that is ‘central’. This is a turning point in world history, the abyss stands before us, the Prime Minister invites us to join him in his descent to hell. You’re on your own David C, naked for all to see.
This is the end of even pseudo-democracy in the UK. We are by any standard a rogue state, the past was steeped in shame, as the song goes, but tomorrow after all not fair game, but just forever more of the same. Good Morning Britain.
ISIL is seeking to be what Saudi Arabia is – a fanatical bigoted state with an appalling human rights record, that exports wahabbism, jihadism and terrorism with the active support of its rulers. The only difference is that the Tories, Blairites and Battenbergs love Saudi Arabia,
It was said for comical effect, that was obvious…..
“ISIL is seeking to be what Saudi Arabia is – a fanatical bigoted state with an appalling human rights record, that exports wahabbism, jihadism and terrorism with the active support of its rulers. The only difference is that the Tories, Blairites and Battenbergs love Saudi Arabia,”
Arabia has been around a long time so have Arabs.
What IS is is people from many different countries with the same theocratic belief who decided they were entitled to be a state. Not having territory they decided to take someone else’s land to build their state on.
A similar thing happened last century and one of my main regrets is that Britain didn’t do anything to prevent it.
To deny that other human beings do not laugh, cry, feel is to deny their humanity. Standard Israeli religious supremacist demonising crap. You are one sick puppy Anon1, a real scumbag. I hope you can get help, perhaps the Samaritans or similarly could help you, their phone number is 116 123 and the call is free. Get well soon Anon1.
Jihadi Cameron is a terrorist sympathiser.
Godbothering nonentity’s u-turn:
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/tim.farron.reverses.position.will.support.syria.air.strikes/72319.htm
Hasn’t listened to Paddy Ashdown, then. Has he Saudi connections?
Therefore it can be safely assumed that the pederasts in al Saud “dynasty” are in fact the only workable model for the Muslim countries, which is being actively promoted by the; the Tories, Blairites and Battenbergs with their zionist lickspittles in tow.
Hence the trail of destruction left from Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and now Syria are in fact are steps in realisation of the above model! Africa was rendered obsolete as a credible source of competition through depletion of its human asset that was taken into slavery by the forefathers of the above. Mid East is now being rendered obsolete as a credible of source of any kind of competition through bombing the place back to stone age, and then ensuring a reactionary vassal in charge will oversee the process of degradation and destruction of any kind of enlightenment, and scientific progress.
Daesh are funded by the al Saud “dynasty” who are truly aware of the extent of the contempt that the said “dynasty” is held at by the benighted people of the lands of Hijaz caught in the iron grips of their regime. This can be corroborated in al Saud actively aiding and abetting other repressive and reactionary regimes in the area such as in Bahrain and Yemen, all the while al Saud ensuring that the tide of it’s brand of “tradition” disguised as Islamic practices are to be exported through every mosque built in the West with their money.
Meanwhile, freedomndemocracy is not yet at its promised level in Libya…
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/204278
So many jihadis. So little the Etonians can cut from social welfare to pay for the bombs. So much for the budget forecast.
“What you think about you bring about”.
To-day of all days, I ask the good people of these islands in particular to concentrate on “PEACE”.
Never mind the purple prose. The Saudi monarchy’s position is strictly conditional on their keeping the religious establishment happy. They might – it’s not impossible – actually want to finish Daesh. But they can’t. One hand washes the other. Or it gets removed.
Best to follow this Genie Energy ticker as a guide to how the Western Alliance is doing:
http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/GNE:US
Seems to well reflect ISIS’s fortunes too, funnily enough.
Robert Crawford – Just gave it a shot, has it worked????
Glad you’re following the money, Genie. That’s where it’s all at.
/Herbie, not Genie. Doh.
This statement is not strictly correct . Those pederasts in al Saud are the movers and shakers and the religious leaders are in fact their puppets! The fact that French forces dug a tunnel into the big Mosque in Mecca during their fight against hostage takers ought to give you the measure of their (al Saud) control over clergy.
There are countless Shiaa clergy who are incarcerated in the plethora of Saudi jails for all manner of trumped up charges, some of these in fact are in jail along with their children. The brutality of the Saudi internal intelligence cannot be overlooked, religious leaders have precious little to gain by rebelling against the injustices wreaked by the al Sauds!!!
Why does Saudi Arabia behead and crucify prisoners?
Phil.
Concentrate!!! Not a quick jerk!
We will know after the vote.
I’ll try my best, although i may forget when cheering my horses on!
“/Herbie, not Genie. Doh.”
Coming on top of this:
I cannot find it in me to disagree.
Yup. The money’s where its at.
And I’m sure they had a few laughs to themselves.
“Genie”, eh.
Magick, sorcery and funny handshakes:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jinn