Many of you will recognise one of the faces in this photograph, Mark Regev. He is Israel’s new Ambassador to London and of course was the Israeli government spokesman who justified the massacre of more than 600 women and children in Gaza, and the murder of peace activists aboard the Mavi Marmara.
The other face of evil is Simon McDonald, head of the UK Diplomatic Service. You probably now think I am indulging in hyperbole. But no, I am not.
Simon McDonald was the Foreign Secretary Jack Straw’s Private Secretary at the time of the implementation of the British government’s extraordinary rendition and intelligence from torture programmes. When I became the only member of the UK’s senior civil service to make formal objection to these programmes, it was Simon McDonald who managed Jack Straw’s response in continuing to use torture.
I have indisputable documentary evidence of this, plain despite redactions by the British government censors (redactions which primarily remove all references to the CIA).
It is put to me frequently that people like McDonald, who were merely implementing a policy of torture, are not evil. That of course is the age old “only doing my job” defence. As somebody who was sacked for refusing to go along with torture, I think I have walked the walk and can describe him as evil. It is also worth noting that, while McDonald meets all new Ambassadors to London, he went far further with Regev than with anybody else. He tweeted out their photo with the message “Happy to see Mark Regev newly arrived Israeli Ambassador, an old friend from Tel Aviv ten years ago.”
Ten years ago, when they were friends in Tel Aviv, was of course the year in which Israel invaded Lebanon and Mark Regev was the chief Israeli spokesman justifying that attack, with its mass civilian casualties. Regev also defended the bombing by Israel of a United Nations observation post.
It is hardly surprising McDonald and Regev became friends at this time, as Gordon Brown’s government were doing everything possible behind the scenes to assist the Israeli invasion. As I wrote at that time
I have just watched on television sixty bodies being buried in a mass grave in Tyre, victims of Israeli bombing. At the same time I saw the odious Kim Howells, Foreign Office minister, arguing that a ceasefire would not solve the problem.
British diplomats at the UK Mission to the United Nations in New York – people I know personally – are putting massive effort into working against a ceasefire. They have the ultimate weapon that they and the US can veto any resolution at the Security Council, but are bending their backs into heading the subject off the agenda.
I hope they are proud of their succesful efforts. For every hour they prevent a ceasefire, on average two more Lebanese children are dying. Israel claims now to have killed 100 Hizbollah fighters. Even if true, that means they are killing two children to every fighter.
McDonald and Regev. Torture meets child-killing. Don’t they make a lovely couple?
This is going to make the resident troll cackle, Craig.
Alan,
No, not a troll. A Zionist shill.
Habbabkuk (For Fact-Based, Polite, Rational And Obsession-Free Posting)
15 Mar, 2016 – 8:36 pm
Craig
15 Mar, 2016 – 8:48 pm
I’m not sure you can deduce anything from Craig’s silence on that question, “Esclavo”.
But if you’re worried about it, you can ask Craig again.
Off you go! 🙂
Habb.
I must say in Esclavo’s defence, with regards to your comment.
“Craig
Incidentally, you write:
“…and I have outed some nasty Zionist shills.”
As a matter of interest (to me and surely to many an Eminence):
a) do you think I am a Zionist shill (nasty or otherwise)
b) in the context of your blog, am I a troll?”
Why would you think, that Craig “may” think that you’re a Zionist shill/troll?
Unless of course? ?
In your defence, I must admit the blog would be a less colourful affair without your quibbles and puns.
Of interest to some maybe, Michael Jackson’s friend and Liza Minnelli’s ex-husband, David Gest, has just died, aged 62, in a hotel in London.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Gest#Personal_life
“Why would you think, that Craig “may” think that you’re a Zionist shill/troll?”
______________________
Well, because I have often been accused of being one by various Eminences and their hangers-on and I was interested to hear whether Craig shared their view.
That’s because I attach more weight to Craig’s opinion than I do to the usually unbalanced and often deranged views of the Eminences and their hangers-on.
Was that simple enough for you? 🙂
Often it’s what Craig DOESN’T say……
You’re right, Ben Gonad.
Have you noticed, by the way, that Craig has never accused Israel of genocide?
So put that in your reefer and smoke it.
Thanks Craig we have one pervert sent as “ambassador” replaced by another ghoul of renown who can justify the mass murders, mass carnage, child torture, and disgusting policies of zionistan with its’ crazed lunatic supremacists that have been consistently supported by the UK, US et all in their low intensity wars on the populations of the mid east.
Take heart we all read you and whole heartedly agree with you Craig. Hold your head high for standing up to evil and as you put it; “walking the walk”.
I’ve usually got plenty to say, but you Sir(?) have phrased the perfect response.Down here in the little colony we’re not ignorant of this global cancer and the challenge it presents. As already acknowledged Mr Murray, your selfless work is both understood and appreciated.
“It is put to me frequently that people like McDonald, who were merely implementing a policy of torture, are not evil”.
The Israelis did not accept that defence from Eichmann, did they?
If Simon McDonald is Eichmann, does that mean that Mr Cameron is the Fuehrer?
***********************
BTW, I’m not entirely convinced by Craig’s idea idea that “managing Jack Straw’s response” is equivalent to “implementing torture”.
**********************
And as for Mr McDonald “going out of his way to welcome Ambassador Regev via a tweet, that might – just conceivably ? – be due to the fact that Mr McDonald was personally acquainted with him (which is presumably not the case with most if any of the other new Ambassadors. Call it politeness or evil, the choice is yours;
********************
I did also notice that Craig only mentions the 600 women and children killed rather than giving the total death figure. Can anyone offer an explanation of why, I wonder?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PS- ther you go, “Alan” (10h14) – happy now?
PS- ther you go, “Alan” (10h14) – happy now?
Did I mention any names, but if the cap fits, please do feel free to wear it? 😉
Headlines in The Guardian just make me ill these days.
The level of misandry that is published here and elsewhere is just way over the top. Any chance to attack the male species, and especially if they happen to be men of influence. Those who try and take issue with this misandry are, not surprisingly, labeled mysognistic.
Just as sickening is the labeling of any kind of political criticism of the establishment as antisemitic and a threat to national security.
I know we have been saying it all along, but Britain has become the epitome of the 21-st-century fascist state. Not America, which nobody can take seriously any more. While some think America is the biggest threat to the world, to me it just comes across as laughable. Britain is far more of a threat to stability and peace, because there are lots of people that still actually take its state media seriously.
Off to vomit now; need to detox after reading the headlines this morning.
I see David Miliband who has always denied any involvement in the rendition flights or knowledge of torture whilst Foreign Secretary is another unsavoury advocate of Remain. http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/apr/11/brexit-political-arson-david-miliband-eu-referendum
Quite some company Craig is keeping on that front.
Ooooooh! Craig Murray is an anti-Semite!!!
You must NEVER EVER criticise Jews, so there.
(my arse!_
Ethical dilemma: if you just happened to find yourself face to face with Mark Regev in the street would it be wrong to smash his teeth in? Or to put it another way – if you didn’t smash his teeth in, ie. you just stood there and did nothing, wouldn’t you regret it for the rest of your life? I think I’d be ashamed frankly.
Genuine Question: are you the same chap who posted a blog claiming the Protocols of the Elders of Zion weren’t faked after all?
‘Genuine Question’ – ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. What a laugh, that’s fantastic.
If you’d just asked the question that would be one thing but to tag it with the word ‘genuine’ at the header is just beautiful. You get today’s ‘Overcooked Mendacity To The Point Of Irony’ Award. Bravo.
Oh, and no, I didn’t. Any other ‘genuine questions’? How about spurious, subject-changing bullshit? Clearly you can’t tell the difference. Anyway, I’m up for a laugh so fire away.
Ah.
The little Aussie Goebbels goes to London.
I would just like to recall the result to GMP officer Mike Todd who had the responsibility of getting to the bottom of the secret rendition program when he was apparently murdered on Snowdonia after having been set up there by British and Israeli spooks.
And then there was the fate of former Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh who had the same concern in Sweden.
Our governments are run by scum.
Why was he accepted as the new Israeli Ambassador? He is a documented advocate for state sponsored child murder. Nothing he says in the interview with Jon Snow suggests otherwise. To merely claim that civilians are not targeted does not a defence make. I hope demonstrations are organised outside the embassy calling for his removal. He should never have been allowed to set foot here.
Regev, as a well-practised PR man for the Israelis, is actually far more savvy in what he says than the rest of the Israeli establishment.
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2015/05/15/israeli-cabinet-most-racist-extremist-in-history/
The UK changed its laws specifically to allow (alleged) Israeli war criminals to enter without fear of arrest. That followed an arrest warrent being issued for one. The police refused to arrest him and instead he was tipped off:
https://electronicintifada.net/content/british-police-failed-arrest-israeli-war-criminal/3321
But they changed the law so war criminals can come and go as they like now. Such is the power of Friends of Israel lobby. Here are some of Cameron’s personal backers:
http://website.thejc.com/home.aspx?AId=46698&ATypeId=1&search=true2&srchstr=++%22big+jewish+backers+%22&srchtxt=0&srchhead=1&srchauthor=0&srchsandp=0&scsrch=0
“But they changed the law so war criminals can come and go as they like now.”
_________________________
You know that the above statement is untrue and that that is not why the law was changed.
No… unlike the Zionist loons of the world – I neither make stuff up, nor write what I know to be untrue. Here they are coming and going as they please:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/13/israel-tzipi-livni-diplomatic-immunity-uk
There is no legal process in this country for Israeli (alleged) war criminals – its sidelined entirely.
That is nonsense, Je.
The law was changed to prevent arrests on the say so a magistrate sympathetic to a request from any individual or organisation. The agreement of the Director of Public Prosecutions is now needed for an arrest warrant to be issued.
The only thing that has been sidelined is the opportunity for vexatious action by publicity-seeking individuals or organisations.
Stay awake.and do your research.
Habbabkuk
“vexatious action by publicity-seeking individuals or organisations.” Yeah that’s the angle the Israelis use for complaints about children being blown to pieces in Israeli airstrikes, homes being bulldozed, collective punishment etc
There’s:
a) (Before) These “vexatious” people, who’s relatives may have been blown to pieces, could have a hearing in front of an independent member of the judiciary.
b) (Now) Instead a political appointee, a member of the government, and probably a member of Friends of Israel has the say.
Now… which would be the fairer hearing? You’re saying the ridiculous of course
Correction, I’m a bit behind. Yes, they wanted the Attorney General to decide but didn’t quite get that.
“the government promised it would be changed so that only the Attorney General, who is a political figure we can trust, would authorize universal jurisdiction arrests.
“Instead they decided that the Director of Public Prosecutions, who is a civil servant, may decide that he is going to authorize arrest warrants. We are still waiting for assurances on this from the British government.”
http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/fear-of-arrest-still-prevents-israeli-officials-from-visiting-britain.premium-1.433452
Not quite as safe as the Attorney General (Jeremy Wright MP who is indeed a member of Friends of Israel) then, Just someone appointed by him.
Demonstrations?
Reminds me of Baal’s call for people to stand outside synagogues and hiss at the people entering. Which he didn’t do himself, of course.
Here’s an idea – why don’t you kick off the demos and see if they grow? If you’re not from London, get in touch and I’ll give you the coach fare.
Baal????
You mean the “demon”??? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baal_%28demon%29
Yea, OK, and there are fairies at the bottom of my garden too. My daughter used to believe in the Pink Panther until she grew up and realised it was just a cartoon. What’s your excuse?
Ba’al Zevul is the handle of a contributor on here.
More to the point, who was he accepted by? And to whom are they beholden? Still, it will serve to distance his output from the office of Netanyahu, whom even our owners recognise as a conniving, lying shit. And add to the suppression of free speech (as applied to Israel) in UK institutions. No coincidence they appointed a PR wonk to the job.
Gan canny Craig.
“Don’t they make a lovely couple?”
A match made in hell. Seeing an image of Regev made my stomach churn.
The UK and western/allied policies that kill and inflict untold suffering on so many millions of civilians and kidnap (rendition) and torture complicity show the true depravity of our western/allied governments…
I have come to understand the true meaning of those so called ‘western values’ that western governments speak of. They are the age old values of Empire, ruthless, cold blooded willingness to go to any lengths to control and plunder for maintenance and increased wealth of the few and their ‘enablers’. Morality, ethics, respect for others, justice, the Law and fairness are not part of the ‘western values’ we are told ‘we’ have.
I wonder if we in the west are actually governed by a gangster cabal and their networks and agents?
Take note of your local hoodlums and gangsters who are left to roam freely and carry on their “business” without much of a hindrance from the local bobbies, and the justice system. These Teflon gangsters ensure the lasting of their none stick coating through working hand in hand with the local posse of politicos in most of the one horse towns across the land. The robber barons legacy is a much more clandestine and deep interaction of crime and politics. At the macro level the gangsters no longer are recognised as criminals and they have a much higher standing in the society. Ever wondered why there is such a “fascination” (of the telly men) with the criminals, who enjoy celebrity status?
“At the macro level the gangsters no longer are recognised as criminals and they have a much higher standing in the society.”
That was the point I was making. I just see it as nothing more than a massive, ruthless, cruel and pervasive gangster operation that makes laws for itself and different laws for those outside or who resist..
Inverting reality, outright lying, double standards and hypocrisy are endemic in the higher ranks.
Al capone had nothing on these two.
@Mavreux wren. More of a dilemma, what if you do not smash his teeth in, does that mean one is an apologist to this genocide duo?
Hullo Nevermind,
You seem confused. Apologetics differ from a failure to act insofar as the former equates to going into bat, as it were. Failure to act on the other hand equates to just sitting in the pavilion without even having put on your pads.
If you want to see some textbook apologetics you need merely look to Hasbarakuk a post or two ago wherein he declared that Al Qaeda was a perfectly fine institution on the grounds that it was originally organised and funded by the Americans in order to oppose the wicked Soviets, a perfectly laudable thing which in turn not only spoke well of the whole enterprise since but also meant that one ought not to criticise it, or even mention it really. Do you see? That’s apologetics.
Oh wait! Sorry, I just went back and checked and it seems that it was Operation Gladio that Hasbarakuk was apologising for, not Al Qaeda. I’m sure you can understand my confusion given that an argument for one is precisely an argument for the other. If Gladio’s depredations, bloodshed, and mayhem are beyond criticism on the basis of the rightness of its founding (at least as put forward by its founders) then so too are Al Qaeda’s (likewise).
On that basis, and given Habarakuk’s rhetorical unimpeachability, ie. God forbid he would say any goddamn thing if it momentarily suited, we may thus look forward to him defending Al Qaeda the next time some shit blows up. I mean, he’d look like a complete dickhead otherwise. And as if such an epithet does him justice! Terrible.
Nevermind, did that answer your question?
And Hasb! I’ll stick up for you even if no one else will. You and me against those who hate us for no reason apart from envy. And do pile in with a comment. I look forward to agreeing with you on lots and lots of things.
Good to see that the Brazilians are now threatening President Dilma Rousseff with impeachment and removal from office for puffing up expenditures during the 2014 presidential campaign, whatever that means. Wish our citizens would behave similarly about our leaders.
Did she bribe all kinds of people not to support Eduardo Campos, and did she provide funds to kill him in a plane crash?
Sure looks that way with Vice President Michel Temer, who was most upset with Campos’s death, taking the lead in her ouster, though you would never glean this by reading the most opaque accounts of the crisis in our media. It doesn’t apparently even read the accounts in Portuguese about it, much less translate them into English.
Rouseff is not accused of bribery but of being ultimately responsible for the Brazilian Treasury’s fudging of accounts to disguise an apparent deficit. The sort of thing which is quite routine in almost all governments.
The interesting thing is that her opponents are clearly, as investigations reveal daily, up to their eye teeth in real corruption, bribery, shaking down business for party funds etc.
The “scandal” is just another regime change operation, not unlike the one which just took place in Argentina and the ongoing ‘economic’ crisis in Venezuela.
There is no evidence whatever that she was implicated, or interested, in Campos’s death. As to the Vice President, he is as bent as a dog’s hind leg. I’ll forward links when I run across them.
In the meantime:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/04/12/socialist-senator-explains-the-difference-between-democrats-and-republicans/
But fudging the accounts can be because of bribery of all sorts.
And it is Rousseff who is facing removal fro office, a most unprecedented move in Brazil.
And don’t find an article on Counterpunch, a most dubious source usually for this conspiracy theorist, about the crisis.
Look at Glenn Greenwald’s Twitter feed. He lives in Brazil, knows Portuguese, and has been blogging on the impeachment of President Dilma.
Thanks for the link, Lysias, though I am not comfortable with what Glenn Greenwald does, especially trying to limit the fallout from Edward Snowden’s revelations.
Brazil is in a terrible mess, and Rousseff is most involved in it, especially calling for three days of unprecedented mourning to boost her election chances after Campos was killed, but will try to uncover what really happened to him as the impeachment process unfolds.
Here’s an article in the current Boston Review, Trowbridge.
http://bostonreview.net/world/leonardo-avritzer-brazil-petrobras-lula-moro
It may be helpful.
The Counterpunch article has an extremely good video of Huey P Long talking about the difference between Democrats and Republicans.
I am chasing Dilma, not Lula, about whom the article says nothing, especially who killed Eduardo Campos and why.
Are you just a troll?
Craig
How do you respond to Linda Duffield’s para 7 point that she understood you appeared to be making efforts to ‘balance’ HR work with “other FCO objectives”. This appears to satisfy Simon McDonald.
What would a balance have meant?
Did it mean that you were mulling it all over and wondering what next, or were you prepared to try and struggle on in post?
How long was it after this that things became unpleasant for you?
(Sorry its a long time since I read the book, which I borrowed from my local public library copy.)
Now sultry Anna Chapman is speaking out for Putin and Donald Trump, and against David Cameron over the Panama Papers diversion.
Of course, the DM is having a field day over the apparent re-activation of the Russian spy, though it is quite wrong is saying that the FBI caught her, and deported her.
She was found out by GCHQ/Mi6 agent and gifted hacker Gareth Williams, and exchanged by a most understanding Putin for the mistreatment of her and other CIA sleepers, and exchanged for real spies working of Washington.
And, of course, there is no mention of what happened to Williams et al. for their independence of thought and action.
Can’t wait to get out of this crappy world.
It’s good to think that the UK still merits Israel’s sending its very best slimeball to promote its hallucinatory policies here. Shows we still matter. So does this – *rubs thumb and forefinger together* –
https://www.gov.uk/government/world-location-news/strategic-agreement-between-el-al-israel-airlines-and-rolls-royce
Incidentally, our current ambassador to Tel Aviv worked as a private secretary to Blair. So something in common with Macdonald. Cosy little world, innit?
I’m not sure about it being a cosy world, but the FCO is quite a small one.
BTW, the man would have been the Private Secretary dealing with foreign affairs and so a high-flyer from the FCO and so not illogical that he would get an Embassy somewhere. The PM has several PSs.
But you know all that, don’t you, Baal.
Yup.
Cosy little world, innit?
With rare exceptions (eg, Peter Jay) HM Ambassadors are FCO people.
Bit you already knew that, did’t you, Baal?
And now switch your Habbabreak back on and stop wasting my time.
“And now switch your Habbabreak back on and stop wasting my time.”
Yea right! I notice you start posting at 15.07. Is that because you don’t get out of school until 15.00? That means we, the taxpayers, are paying for your time
Considering the probable uses to which your time is put, I’d say I’m enhancing it. Call me back when Israel sends a Christian Ambassador to the UK.
From your link Baal.
“Participating in the ceremony was the Ambassador of Britain in Israel, His Excellency David Quarrey.”
It’s very interesting to note that His Excellency David Quarry, was at one time Tony Blair’s private secretary. That position doesn’t seem to have harmed His Excellencies career, if anything it’s enhanced it, in my opinion.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Quarrey
“McDonald meets all new Ambassadors to London, he went far further with Regev than with anybody else. He tweeted out their photo with the message “Happy to see Mark Regev newly arrived Israeli Ambassador, an old friend from Tel Aviv ten years ago.”
__________________
Looks like McDonald is openly appeasing to Regev, and Israel, something most people in here probably already know about. I don’t know if torture can ever be justified, of course if the information obtained saved countless lives, then? But the moral question arises again.
Then there’s, torturing as punishment, and torturing to obtain a false confession, which are never justifiable in my opinion.
Then there’s rendition, abducting someone from off the streets or from inside their home flying them to an area or another country to frighten, threaten and finally torture them is in my opinion unacceptable. But if the duress that person is put under saves countless lives, then yet again, it clashes with ethics and the morality of a specific situation.
It may seem a bit cold or even heartless, but I can see certain situations where our security services, might need to take extreme measures to fill in the blanks, on information gaps, that could invariably save lives.
Meanwhile some operatives involved in rendition, could face prison.
“Portugal’s supreme court has rejected a former CIA operative’s appeal against extradition to Italy to serve a six-year sentence for her part in an “extraordinary rendition” programme.
A court official said Sabrina de Sousa’s only remaining recourse is to appeal to Portugal’s constitutional court, arguing her extradition order is unconstitutional.
De Sousa was among 26 Americans convicted in absentia in Italy for the 2003 kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric in Milan, when she was working in the country under diplomatic cover.
Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr – known as Abu Omar – was kidnapped by US agents in 2003 while walking down a street in Milan, allegedly with the knowledge and help of at least some Italian authorities.”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/11/ex-cia-agent-sabrina-de-sousa-loses-extradition-appeal-portugal-italy
Thanks for the update, Rofs, but still no mention of Lady’s leadership of the ground-breaking mission, and I’ll bet that an appeal to the CC would result in quashing the extradition at this late date, as she was just a flunkey cog in the disgusting process.
You are most welcome Trowbridge H.Ford.
Yes how very unsurprising that the suspects were convicted in absentia, I’d go as far as to say convenient for both, Italy and the USA.
As for De Sousa, could she be the scapegoat in this case. the sacrificial lamb, send down for a modest amount of time to appease the masses, we shall have to wait and see.
O/T.
Craig, the ex-editor of the National newspaper Richard Walker, is fronting a hour and half long tv show, from Glasgow’s Yes bar, entitled The Full Scottish.
The show begins at 12.30pm every Sunday, and former newspaper journalist Michelle Rodger will be Walker’s co-host. It is live chat infront of a audience. It began last week and Philippa Whitford, was one of the guest discussing how she spent Easter in Palestine, supporting Medical Aid for Palestine.
They also discussed the Panama Papers, David Pratt, foreign editor of the Sunday Herald will review the weekly papers.
I don’t have a link or contact, e-mail or phone number, but I’m sure if you got in contact, you’d be more than welcome to a slot on the programme.
Ugh, a more loathsome example of appeasement and craven, hand wringing sanctimonious lying would be hard to find. Should be in the dock, not ‘rewarded’ by the Israelis with a plum tax free job. He will find out, though, how much he is openly despised, given his car crash history of television interviews justifying apartheid and carpet bombing of civilians. In a way he is the perfect symbol for the Israeli government.
An examination of ticking bomb scenarios.
http://www.apt.ch/en/categories_res/publications/?search=Ticking+bomb
If torture is justifiable, it should be done right here, in the UK, in front of everybody, not hived off to some other country in a dark prison in the desert.. Let politicians stand up and say: “Yes, torture is justifiable and we want the legal power to do it here. We don’t want other countries to do our dirty work.” See what the populace thinks.
I was very disappointed to see how many Americans, influenced by the George W. administration and right-wing media, now accept torture, even want it.
Speaking of ticking time bomb scenarios, the TV series 24, which premiered on Nov. 6, 2001, must have been in production months before 9/11, and in planning for additional months before that.
The awful 2001 Pearl Harbor movie, which premiered in the spring of 2001, was made with extensive cooperation from the U.S. Department of Defense, and must have been years in the planning and production.
Of course, it is ten a question of whether these events were being predicted to happen or were unknown steps being taken to prevent them from happening.
The deep state was softening up the public for what it planned to do.
And the deep state planned badly.
I was astonished, shocked and felt sick when I read the details of this in your book Murder in Samarkand about 8 years ago. Bringing this to the attention of the people you were working for in The British Government must have been the defining moment – not just of your career, but also of your life. Not only were you very badly let down, so were all of us. It is completely shameful. The media are also totally complicit on what is an atrocity on humanity, with a clear British Government signature. As the lies and brainwashing continues, and the projected morality reverts back several hundred years to the time of the Inquisition, I wonder if now a majority of the British people actually support supposed “terrorists” being tortured, as they apparently do in the USA.
The fish rots from the head. We are all in big trouble and no one appears to have any solutions, to turn our culture back from descending towards the most horrendous evil.
You are a very brave man Craig.
Tony
Well said Tony_0pmoc.
“We are all in big trouble and no one appears to have any solutions, to turn our culture back from descending towards the most horrendous evil.”
I have come to think our British elite culture has always been like this or rather the elites, that really call the shots, have always allowed, encouraged or turned a blind eye to the descent into horrendous evil to plunder for power and more wealth. British have used terror tactics for centuries and exported them to US during the invasion and colonisation of North America. I only learned recently why Native Americans were called ‘Red’ Indians and finally understood why they are fighting to have all references to the ‘title’ removed from the military and other institutions.
Craig really was going softly-softly at the time (that is no criticism – as an rule-of-law mole you have to, or you’re shit through a goose). The unanswerable indictment was not Article 15 but acquiescence to torture under Article 1. It put the ambassador, and his superiors, in an impossible situation. Craig’s only option was to do as he did and push it till he got purged.
This is by no means water under the bridge. There is no statute of limitations on this gravest of crimes. Next week the CAT treaty body plenary meets and the Committee Against Torture will evaluate the US compliance with the Committee’s review recommendation. UN special procedures have described the US torture gulag in the legal terms defining crimes against humanity. That responsibility may be shared with US satellites like Britain.
Makes me ashamed to be English.
You’re on the right blog.
Oh, Israel wants peace? Really?! So, stop the siege than! But, no, Israel is willing to live in peace, but only as long as they can keep the Palestinians living in an open-air prison. As long as they can illegally occupy land. As long as they can steal all the water and arable land and relegate the Palestinians to unarable desert bantustans with no connection to Jerusalem or to each other, and imposing going through checkpoints to travel between them. As long as they can refuse to recognize the legitimacy of Hamas, which, no matter what the Israelis think, was democratically elected. As long as they can reject all offers from Hamas to negotiate, as long as they can demonize the Palestinians as simply terrorists. As long as they can conduct a lopsided war of attrition against an essentially defenseless civilian population and call it “defense”. As long as the Palestinians just keep quiet and continue to live in misery with no recognition of their right to self determination. As long as they can keep conducting their slow genocide, because in the end, that is Israel’s only interest. So yes, Israel is quite willing to live in peace. As long as their cruel and absolutely illegal demands are met…
‘Democracy Spring’ in the US seems to be coming out of what is happening in France at the moment (which I’ve banged on about a number of times on this board)…
https://news.vice.com/article/hundreds-arrested-at-us-capitol-during-democracy-spring-campaign-finance-protests
The Nuit debout movement continues apace here in France.
Solidarity, folks.
Far from being ‘annihilated’, I thought Regev did quite well in the video clip. Hamas uses Palestinian schools and hospitals for operations. It encourages, sometimes even forces, civilians to remain in the proximity of these areas so that it can score maximum civilian deaths in the propaganda war against Israel.
Snow couldn’t accept this point. There would be no advantage for Israel to deliberately target innocent civilians. There is a huge advantage for Hamas in being able to present a case to the world’s media that Israel is deliberately shelling schools and hospitals. That is why it uses human shields. Hamas sees Palestinian civilians as nothing more than cannon fodder in its propaganda war against the Jews.
Why would there be no advantage to Israel in deliberately targeting innocent civilians?
WW2, Vietnam, and current Anglo-US foreign policy are littered with examples where civilians were targeted both deliberately and on the basis that military planners did not care whether civilians were hit or not.
Islamic terrorism routinely targets innocent civilians.
What is it, exactly about Israel that means that it does not desire to prosecute its military activities in accordance with the practices adopted by just about everyone else?
Loony
Given the attention of the world’s media, the widespread opposition to Israel in organizations such as the UN, and the large number of people waiting (some might say hoping) to seize upon every instance of civilian casualties, why would Israel deliberately target schools and hospitals?
You make a meaningless point that there are many historical precedents for targeting civilians, but without applying it to the Gaza war or explaining why it would be advantageous for Israel to deliberately target civilians.
Furthermore, you fail to address anything I wrote about Hamas’s use of human shields, its operating out of schools and hospitals in order to attract Israeli shelling to areas where it can score propaganda victories against Israel in front of international media.
Hardliners in the Palestinian Territories long ago realised they cannot defeat Israel militarily, or by guerilla tactics and suicide bombings. It’s all a media war now and you are one of their willing dupes.
Deadly flechette shells ‘used by Israeli military in Gaza Strip’
solely to kill and maim and as the history records the zionistani tank firing these shells directly into the Palestinians leaving dozens killed and many more injured.
the supremacist fuckwits like you are the only dupes around, come the hour you will be standing trial and shall face the consequences for your support of the genocide and the mass murder in that shitty strip of land! Be assured this will come to pass, injustice cannot continue for ever going unpunished.
Flechette shells are like the bombs used in Brussels, in that they both spray out many potentially deadly pieces of metal. Israel using flechette shells in Gaza.
The United States used flechette shells in Vietnam.
Haven’t you heard Israel and its defenders say that the Israeli Defense (sic) Force is “the most moral army in the world”?
Anon1.
I know Israel sides with Saudi Arabia, in attacking certain states such as Iran, but why would Israel allow (Saudi money aside) the extreme form of religion Wahhabism to flourish and propagate.
When Saudi Arabia is finished flooding the Middle East with brainwashed Wahhabists fanatics, Israel will come on to their radar, as a must remove target.
Watch and listen to the nonsense that Saudi preachers are preaching.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=508_1460456237
Why did Israel foster Hamas in that movement’s early years? Israel is not noted for long-term thinking, and it was enough for Israel that Hamas’s growth would weaken Israel’s prime enemy of the moment, Arafat’s PLO, and thus serve a short-term goal.
Similarly, for Israel to support Saudi Arabia now serves Israel’s immediate goals of the moment: oppose Iran; and strengthen the tie between the U.S. and Israel, which is bound to be the result of there being more Islamist fanatics.
Fascists don’t bother about the long term because they believe that violence will always prevail.
If the Israeli government were rational it would seek to parlay its temporary tactical advantages into long term strategic gains: it would seek a peace treaty which would grant it recognition, it would seek borders and international recognition of them.
It could get Abbas’s signature onto just about any agreement it wished- the price would be very low. And it obviously shocks Abbas and his cronies that Israel has made no effort, since Oslo, to wrest concessions from them. It is very disappointing to them: they believed that they would, by now be long gone, counting their ill gotten gains and preening themselves before the Nobel Peace Prize juries. Instead they are still in Ramallah suffering daily humiliations.
But we can’t blame them. They are traitors but they are reasonable people. The Israeli goverrnment are not. They appear to believe that God-as exemplified in the USA- will always favour them and that they can never be defeated.
Fascists are like that: look what happened to Mussolini and Hitler. They embrace defeat and long for death. And Mussolini’s disciples in the Revisionist Zionist movement are just like their ideological mentors. Their fate is to hang from lampposts and, deep down, that is what they want. Unhappily for the people of Israel they are not fazed by the prospect of Armageddon either: thery figure as Hitler did, that if the let them get defeated they all deserve to die too.
That is why they are foolish enough to provide al qaida with hospitals, weaponry and air support. They are irrational- if you look back to the origins of Fascist parties you will see that they lie, philosophically, in a rejection of reason and morality, which they infer from their understanding of Nietzche and Georges Sorel (Reflections on Violence).
To sum up: the Israeli government is composed of elements coalesced around Netanyahu and his fascist core Likud. It doesn’t think long term because it doesn’t do ‘long term’ it lives, animalistically for the moment. It wouldn’t give up a bloodbath in Gaza or a spot of genocide in Lebanon for anything. It lives for the evil it can do.
There is a reason the world doesn’t like fascists. It isn’t the uniforms. Its the sheer evil of their deeds.
” Hamas uses Palestinian schools and hospitals for operations. It encourages, sometimes even forces, civilians to remain in the proximity of these areas so that it can score maximum civilian deaths in the propaganda war against Israel.
“Snow couldn’t accept this point”
No rational person, reviewing the clear evidence, could.
I love the use of “No rational person”, ie not Bevin…
“Reviewing the clear evidence”. Of which none provided.
Rational people don’t support Trotskyism. Go figure.
” Hamas uses Palestinian schools and hospitals for operations. It encourages, sometimes even forces, civilians to remain in the proximity of these areas so that it can score maximum civilian deaths in the propaganda war against Israel.”
There is ZERO evidence for this statement
“There is ZERO evidence for this statement”
Really http://blogs.channel4.com/factcheck/factcheck-hamas-civilians-human-shields/18534
Not that can be used as a justification for much of the IDF’s bombing. It is possible for both sides to be in the wrong.
MODs please note my comment is caught up in the moderation
[ Mod: Caught in spam-filter, timestamp updated ]
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Says the shill with confidence, but of course the rest of the world are goyim cattle and they cannot search the internet, can they?
Soldiers Convicted of Using 11-year-old as Human Shield in Gaza
That is without taking account of the other 1200 reported cases of use of the human shields, that brought this practice of the zionistani thugs in uniform to the full attention of the world in the Jenin refugee camp massacre and murder frenzy.
The notion of excusing the racist supremacist genocides practitioners, armed with the best weapons systems provided for free. to fight a rag tag bunch of resistance fighters* with little access to any kind of credible weapons and barricades. This is a clear indication of the the depth of the depravity of the shameless bastards who support that apartheid regime in the shitty strip of land. Through excusing their lawless and evil conduct of the zionist vigilante thugs in uniform.
* Rules of war allow/prescribe for the occupied nation to fight a war of resistance against the forces of occupation. But this little point is overlooked by the racist zionist thieves and murders, as the Nazi overlooked it by classifying the French Resistance as terrorists!
Excellent points!
Can you believe no possible connection between the incredibly vicious murder of Cambridge graduate student Guilo Regeni from Fiumicello in Cairo, and the much earlier torture of Abu Omar from nearby Milan who was kidnapped, and rendered to Cairo for lesser treatment by its security forces!
With Regeni, they made sure he never saw anyone alive afterwards to make damning statements to.
No wonder murders like this are rarely solved, as the authorities always make sure they never discover anything.
I don’t know if this is true, but it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if it is. This should scare everyone to hell.
http://thesaker.is/russia-sitrep-april-12-2016-by-scott/
RUSSIA SITREP April 12, 2016 by Scott
1852 Views April 12, 2016 5 Comments
Hours after the Russia-bound Metrojet flight 9268 A321 with Russian vacationers exploded in the sky over Sinai on October 31st, 2015, President Putin had not come on TV to address the people of Russia. Many immediately questioned why. Many observers had also noticed that before this act of terror and hours after it there was a coordinated influx of messages on social media declaring that Russian planes would be dropping down from the skies everywhere until, mind you, Russians surrender to some mysterious forces. If you go back on Twitter and search for those messages you might still find some of them, but the majority of them mysteriously vanished just as coordinated as they appeared. Russian planes have not been dropping from the skies by the hundreds, as it was projected.
So… Where was President Putin for several hours between the explosion of the plane and him talking to the Minister of Defense, Shoigu, on the news?
Minutes after the terror attack on the Russian passenger jet, the airborne strategic command center aboard an Ilyushin Il-80 aircraft, took off.
Immediately after, far away in the US, Obama was whisked away from Washington on his helicopter and the US “Doomsday plane” took off and started circling around. Russia’s nuclear forces took aim at major US targets. Apparently, some exchange of words took place between the Russians and Washingtonians.
When President Putin was finally seen on the news many people commented that he looked like he was “just taken off a cross.”
Whatever gleeful reaction was expressed by some Europeans and Americans on the account of the death of many Russian passengers, they apparently didn’t realize that these could be their last day on earth.
I am bringing up this little known factoid to illustrate that Russia’s government is not going to dance around when it comes to the preservation of peace and stability in the country. And that any attempt of such will be immediately forwarded back to Washington, militarily speaking. This all in accord with Russia’s new Military Doctrine 2014.”
As I recall, similar rumors were circulated after the unsinkable Kursk was sunk, implying that he had something to do with it, when the USS Toledo caught him by surprise by doing so.
I was simply amazed when Regev’s appointment was approved.
Great posting Craig.
Can you tell us what “aidwork” you do other than berating Israel online?
Strangely, given all the humanitarian crises around the world, I have never seen you post on anything else.
Um… Yes I work in Human Rights.
Gaza and the West Bank are the worst abuses of human rights in the world.
It’s amazing you compare human rights to humanitarian crises.
How much are you paid for this rubbish?
“Um… Yes I work in Human Rights.
Gaza and the West Bank are the worst abuses of human rights in the world.”
_________
No they aren’t. But putting that aside, do you really believe berating Israel online constitutes “working in Human Rights”?
You’re not an Aidworker. You’re a bullshitter.
Anon1, what are you on?!
Yes, Anon1, and he’s just another faker.
I know a surgeon who spent some time working as a volunteer in Gaza, and he was horrified by the conditions resulting from Israeli actions that he saw there.