Here in South Eastern Turkey I have been watching a great deal of news coverage, on a satellite system showing news channels of many regional countries, of the major massacre of Sunni Muslims in Mosul which is taking place as you read this. The video of a couple of people being thrown off a cliff is something I wish I had not watched; it is on the Independent website here. Human Rights Watch have confirmed the location in Mosul. This video had become so viral on social media that some Western mainstream media felt obliged to note its existence. But I have been watching, on other national channels, TV images still more disturbing. These include images of mass shootings. Most chilling of all have been much less graphically violent pictures, of shambling columns of men –and boys – being marched off. It is fairly plain that these are residents of Mosul rather than ISIL fighters. The images reminded me forcefully of Srebrenica.
Whether the number killed in cold blood will exceed the horror of Srebrenica only time will tell. It is currently too hard, without being there, to discern the truth from the propaganda on all sides. But there is one way in which, morally, this is a much worse outrage for any British citizen than Srebrenica. The Shia troops carrying out the massacre only were able to conquer the Sunni city of Mosul because the British and Americans had not only armed and financed them, but British and American forces were actively fighting alongside them. It is not possible to shrug off the moral responsibility for the massacre we have actively launched.
In Srebrenica the cowardice and bureaucratic blinkers of a group of Dutch officers were shameful. But Mosul is the equivalent of the Dutch having fought alongside the attackers then pretended not to notice anything at all was happening.
There is also another great difference in western culpability. In the Balkan Wars the Serbs were the “enemy” of the West – NATO even bombed them – so justified mainstream media outrage was screamed at us. In Mosul, those perpetrating the massacre are on “our side”, so you will never hear much of it. The deliberate conflation of Sunni tribesmen defending their homes against their traditional enemy, with the separate forces of ISIS, aids this lie.
The greater irony is of course that in Syria the UK and US forces are operating on the opposite side of the same conflict. There the Sunni jihadists, with precisely the same ideology and the same financing as ISIL and before Mosul was cut off sometimes the same physical people, are our allies. There is no distinction of the remotest importance in beliefs, funding or operational methods between the jihadists who were controlling Mosul and those who were controlling Eastern Aleppo.
Yet, despite the glaringly obvious intellectual paucity of the position, the devastation of Mosul by western backed forces was described as a “liberation”, whereas the precisely analogous devastation of Eastern Aleppo by Syrian government forces was described as a… “devastation”.
Still more astonishing, the Western media in co-ordinated fashion played up fears of a massacre in Eastern Aleppo, whereas in fact no massacre took place. In the event, so concerned were the Syrian government (of which I do not generally approve) to refute allegations of intended massacre, they allowed many of the actual jihadists to bus out to Raqqa, where they are fighting again today.
Whereas whilst an actual massacre does take place in Mosul, the Western mainstream media has fallen almost completely silent.
The other interesting silence is from Saudi Arabia, which poses as the defender of Sunni Islam throughout the world, but actually has no interest at all in it, except as a tool for promoting the much more worldly interests of the Saudi elite. It was Saudi fury at the US effectively handing Iraq to Iranian control through its majority Shia population, that caused the USA to change policy to back the Saudi inspired and financed Sunni proxy war throughout the rest of the Arabian peninsula, and especially in Syria. The USA turned a blind eye to the Saudi military invasion of Bahrain to crush its majority Shia uprising, and actively facilitated the devastating aerial attacks on Shia civilian populations in the Yemen. The Saudis have found their grievance over Iraq to be useful leverage on the US.
For the Saudi elite, the money they pumped into ISIS in Iraq was a trifle; Mosul ISIL were pawns to be sacrificed and the Sunni civilian population of Mosul is no more important to them. By the combination of funding the spread of Wahhabi ideology and providing unlimited arms and organisational financing, the Saudis can pop up another Al Qaida, Al Nusra or ISIL more or less anywhere, any time it seems useful. Meantime they are focused on cementing their burgeoning axis of Saudi Arabia/Israel/USA to continue the violent promotion of Saudi regional ambition.
I found this article from “International Clearing House” to be very interesting:-
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/47434.htm
NATO has passed it’s sell by date.
@Patricia
NATO was formed to counteract the Warsaw Pact Forces of the now defunct Soviet Union. The Soviet Union collapsed in 1990 and the Warsaw Pact Forces were disbanded. The former Soviet satellites of the Eastern bloc and ex members of the Warsaw Pact, are now members of NATO.
There are presently 30k NATO military ‘exercising’ on the Russian/Baltic border, ostensibly to counteract Russian ‘aggression’.
When you got a hammer you got to look for a nail.
NATO is nothing more than a troughers paradise for redundant Generals and Admirals and a ready source of weapons sales for the Armaments Industry. It has been deployed mainly as an arm of Washingtons regime change wars.
The NATO organisation is a danger to peace and stability on the European continent and Europe will again be the buffer zone in a WW3 as envisaged by the USA.
The Ukraine and the Baltics are provocations to attempt to entangle Russia in a new European land war.
The larger picture is to disrupt the trading between China and Europe along the New Silk road hi-speed train routes, one of which ends in Duisburg Germany.’
Palmyra and Antioch in Syria were also on the old Silk Road routes. The regime change war in Syria had as one of its objectives the disruption of this route ,by the imposition of the ISIS Caliphate.
All tactics to ,of course . maintain the supremacy of the US dollar as reserve currency.
Yes, that’s about the size of it! NATO should have been dissolved in the 1990s…
” the Syrian government (of which I do not generally approve) ”
Yeah damn that Syrian government for having the audacity to fight the 300 thousand jihadists that the US/NATO/EU/Turkey and Gulf state countries sent in to kill Assad and destroy Syria in the biggest international criminal conspiracy of all time
What a bunch of wronguns eh? How dare they !
That bit jumped out at me too…
Me too – spat my coffee all over my laptop.
Me also.
Aah that is because you four too partake of the “goodies and baddies” delusion that is so much comfort to the simple-minded like yourselves. The fact you choose the governments of the “other side” from NATO as the “goodies” gives you the delusion of independent mindedness, whereas you are just cheerleading for a different faction of the 1%.
Trump, May. Putin, Assad all very wealthy bastards exploiting ordinary people.
I doubt any of them regard Assad as an ideal-type leader, Craig; anymore than anyone did Saddam or Gaddafi. Just that none of them posed any threat to us and memories of the bedlam that’s resulted when “we” sought to depose them are very vivid.
‘Trump, May. Putin, Assad all very wealthy bastards exploiting ordinary people’.
Perhaps, but are, Assad, Iran and Russia supporting or fighting these particular ways of ‘shaping’ of the middle east? Saudi, the gulf states, Israel and the west in general do seem to be.
1 Yinon Plan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yinon_Plan
2 A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Clean_Break:_A_New_Strategy_for_Securing_the_Realm
“We” supported Saddam, Gaddafy and Assad when it suited us to do so, and fuck their human rights violations. There was nothing wrong with Bashar al-Assad’s regime when the United States was pleased to render suspects to it for torture after 9/11.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/feb/05/cia-rendition-countries-covert-support
Craig, how dare you not subscribe to binary thinking. You’ll be shot by both sides, and deservedly so!
How rude! 🙂
I may not be an intellectual… simple minded? Oh well. I dislike the deeply entrenched British/western colonial mentality that ‘we’ have a right to judge all foreign leaders and countries from our own self righteous, often one sided, perspective. I am more concerned with criticising our leaders and getting them under control myself!, there we should have real influence… we don’t though do we? Our governments constantly interfere in foreign countries covertly and overtly so affected countries never have the opportunity to develop without our, usually negative, manipulative and coercive pressures. It’s high time we afforded foreign countries the respect and sovereignty ‘we’ take for granted and consider our right… time we extended that right globally and learned to work with other countries as equals not expect them to bow to our needs and so called values.
Sharp, no doubt the “holiday with the family” dulled sensibilities.
Where’s the uptick when you need one?
“simple-minded like yourselves.”
Oh is that right? Coming from the man who says don’t worry folks, the official version of 9/11 is the one to trust. “It would have taken months to lay enough cable around the WTC” and blah blah “nothing to see, here, move along”. A really developed inquisitive mind there, eh?
Coming from the man, who when a massacre of Ukrainian citizens took place in Odessa in May 2014, said the victims were just Russian thugs. Like they had it coming, right? Turns out they were Ukrainian citizens including women and teenagers, brutally murdered. One of the dead was pregnant. I suppose you still think Russia annexed Crimea illegally and invaded Ukraine?
Coming from the man who after the latest gas attack in Syria, while ostensibly saying it was unlikely Assad was responsible, still got in the snidey dig that you “wouldn’t put it past him”
Yeah WE are the simple ones. Right, got it.
You don’t get to be an ambassador if you aren’t a certain kind of person. You think you’re punk rock but at the end of the day you’re a gatekeeper, Murray. You’re just an establishment stooge.
@ craig Post author July 15, 2017 at 12:32
You don’t have to be simple-minded to be aware Assad is fighting for his people, against US, UK, French and Mideast cronies hordes of head-choppers, just fairly well informed.
Perhaps you should check out a few links, which have high-level people giving personal testimony:
‘Former French Foreign Minister: The War against Syria was Planned Two years before “The Arab Spring”:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/former-french-foreign-minister-the-war-against-syria-was-planned-two-years-before-the-arab-spring/5339112 (Dumas is also on various TV interviews making the same statements, available on youtube):
‘Global Warfare: “We’re going to take out 7 countries in 5 years: Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan & Iran..”:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/we-re-going-to-take-out-7-countries-in-5-years-iraq-syria-lebanon-libya-somalia-sudan-iran/5166 And he was told that in 2001!!:
‘Former DIA Chief Michael Flynn Says Rise of Islamic State was “a willful decision” and Defends Accuracy of 2012 Memo’: https://levantreport.com/2015/08/06/former-dia-chief-michael-flynn-says-rise-of-islamic-state-was-a-willful-decision-and-defends-accuracy-of-2012-memo/
Independent journalists, as well as priests, nuns, and Muslims of various persuasions agree Assad has very high support in Syria – obviously not all do. But I doubt you’s find many who prefer the head-choppers imposed on much of the country by the West and their cronies.
As for Russia, they clearly want war with the US and NATO, that’s why they located Russia in the middle of 180-odd US bases around the globe…
Hilarious lesser evilism and srawman construction from those taking exception to Craig’s reminder of the fucking obvious that we should not approve of the torturer Assad.
We are the old privilegees new media counter culture grappling propaganda with comments of lesser lies! Long live Bashir! He’s not that bad!
It really is a total oversimplification to look at this as goodies and baddies I agree. However it is also important to contextualise. Most countries are governed in ways that we may not approve of but to claim that the only way to govern is through our western ‘democratic’ ways has been one of the main arguments used by the imperialists to civilise the rest of the world. Moreover it has become the custom to make these statements about such leaders in the this manner as a way of establishing ‘leftist’ credentials. Assad is no better and no worse than any average leader in such a position and to single him out in order to justify interventions has been the mainstay of all the neo-colonialists.
Perhaps Stephen Gowans is also “simple minded”? Speaking on 14th July 2017 to the hands off Syria coalition.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HOgPsZkCM8
At some point we have to recognise our governments, corporations and banks have a deeply malign influence on many countries for profit and lobby for interventions of various kinds to enable their control of resources and economic activity against the interests of the citizens of targeted countries. We ourselves are in the sights of corporate profiteers via privatisation, austerity, looting public assets etc. Will a moral, ethical or humanitarian line be drawn for profit extraction in our countries without coordinated, effective resistance? The evidence from actions abroad points to the answer of ‘no’ in my opinion.
Agreed.. Speak the truth-stop trying to please everyone. The deliberate destruction of Syria (everyone’s second home) is evil and its not for anyone but the Syrian people to approve or disapprove of their government – they would have good reasons to form opinions of our government – we don’t because their government hasn’t attacked us or our infrastructure.
“… its not for anyone but the Syrian people to approve or disapprove of their government ”
Hear, hear!
Meanwhile US is busy getting congress approval to build airfields and bases in Syria… without the permission of Syrian people or government I might add! The whole western allied cabal is a law unto itself and behaving as if there are no sovereign countries except those in the western led neo-colonial cabal as far as I can see!
An interesting and thought provoking talk by John Laughland. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mgLUrFRt6k
“The lunatics have overtaken the asylum” (re UN) I couldn’t agree more.
Erm, actually no.
But I have a very different view on governments. One which doesn’t see things as disconnected or inconsequential and imo closer to reality.
One of my major inspirations is Chris Packham (& thanks for the reminder) telling people in “other” places their business. And rightly so.
As long as we continue seeing this as a divided world, we head toward CERTAIN peril. We are intimately connected, and I’m all for people power intervention.
The world is divided, between us and them… the Rentier classes and us people who want comfortable, safe, meaningful, healthy, enjoyable lives for ourselves, children, environment and the rest of the world.
I do not subscribe to the view we the majority of world citizens are divided at all, any divisions are manufactured and encouraged by the Rentier classes and their representatives in governments, media etc, etc.
The problem I see is if we cannot even collectively and effectively rise up against our own countries systems and change them how are we going to do that on a global scale without the grave danger of ending up in a system non of us wanted by being covertly steered and possibly ending up under a global tyranny of a corporatocracy ultimately in charge of all levers of power and economic system globally. A Global parliament of mayors is already off the ground meeting and pushing for city states… I have huge reservations and concerns about where this is going in the current power nexus in todays world… perhaps I’m just a “simple minded” cynic? This global parliament of mayors has not come from us people… or did I miss the vote on it and wide discussion about it? https://globalparliamentofmayors.org/
Is this a step to us all globally working as one, or, for one board of directors at UN? elected/appointed by global elite Rentier class?
Yea Manda, Im aware of that divide.
I think what I’m saying is for effective alternatives we have to think about the world as is, in more of a “material” sense. Like with issues in nature and the climate. Pushing things that don’t have a divided world view, That view comes from the top down.
This does not mean pushing for an overarching power nexus like that of oligarchs, is just means you factor in the global to the local. And as individuals or groups work in a global way. There really is no way to be effective otherwise. This is surely why national governments have such issues with many things. & United Nations doesn’t have to mean one nation.
The Guardian are starting to cover it; this is worth reading: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/15/stream-of-floating-bodies-near-mosul-raises-fears-of-reprisals-by-iraqi-militias
The reporter, Fazel Hawramy, appears to get a story on to the Guardian website approx every 2 months
It’s no surprise our media refuses to cover western atrocities because their push for war means they’re complicit in all of them, while so many lies means it must be difficult for them to put together a coherent story. Last week I heard Frank Gardner waffle through a three-minute broadcast because he had to avoid all the facts, else it gives away we’re the terrorist killers and Arabs the freedom fighters.
@ Michael McNulty July 15, 2017 at 10:31
‘…else it gives away we’re the terrorist killers and Arabs the freedom fighters.’
Not all Arabs are ‘Freedom Fighters’, for instance the Gulf-paid, Western trained and armed head-choppers.
But the West are the principal ‘terrorist killers’, harnessing the mercenary head-chopping ‘Hornet’s Nest’, as Israel called them.
Iran and Russia will eventually have to deal with these modern day cavemen, the political leaders of the west will oppose them, whilst the most of the population of the west will support them.
Saudi Arabia funding linked to terror in UK by Britain’s former ambassador to Riyadh
Comments were made at Conservative Middle East Council event after government refuses to publish a report into extremist funding
Saudi Arabia funds ideologies which lead to extremist activity in the UK, the former British ambassador to Riyadh has said.
“The Saudis [have] not quite appreciated the impact their funding of a certain brand of Islam is having in the countries in which they do it – it is not just Britain and Europe,” Sir William Patey said, speaking at a round-table debate in Parliament.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/saudi-arabia-terror-funding-uk-extremism-islamist-william-patey-former-ambassador-home-office-qatar-a7840406.html
It was all visible in the dark black eyes of the Syrian child some days ago, drained of emotion, deep dark, unable to feel any more horror, emptiness and fearful disbelief.
Thanks for the local upgrade of our phoney toxic news here, Craig.
Why is it that NATO troops are allowed to take part in such obvious fighting for economic and selfish reasons?
I’m ashamed and embarrassed to have ever served time in this expansionist and now globally threatening organisation. It is out of control of its substitute parts and acts like a shop window display for new weapons and sabre rattling entertainment to endear us all with fear.
Fear is a motor to kick lacklustre economies into gear, get consumers out buying stuff they already have.
This organisation is wholly discredited now with its biased expansionism and violence for violence and money’s sake, it has swallowed all the worst bits of the Monroe doctrine and incorporated it in its structure and policy making bodies, so it seems.
What will the Sunni backlash be like? Is this the beginning of a dirty Iran campaign, an agenda written long ago?
The psychological trauma being created in the young generation is beyond imagining – and everyone is going to have to live with the fallout for the next 50 years.
Meanwhile, Blair is back on the scene – talking some sense about Brexit, as it happens – but unchastened, unpunished, never brought to account for unleashing this hell.
You sure he’s talking sense? He’s giving us the second-hand, unverified opinions of some unnamed figures in Brussels. Which, given they existed, could and should have been directly imparted to the UK’s elected government, not a sleazeball self-appointed mediator.
Anything Blair ever says is deniable, unless you are very good at reading the small print, and Blair, more than anyone, is pro-mass-immigration.
Incidentally (see An Apology) he has just returned from visiting Sierra Leone- one of two nations on earth where they still like him – Togo, where he is giving what he calls advice on a port contract, and is probably helping a mining company, and Nigeria, where he is schmoozing the probable next vice-president-unelect*, and sold him some reflected glory in a propaganda press call. Even in Togo and Nigeria there’s a sizeable chunk of opinion is that he is a UK-sponsored conman. Doesn’t seem to have penetrated the BBC yet, though
*Faure Rufai. Dark Gove lookalike implicated in massacre of Shi’as and untrusted even by his mentors.
Nasir el-Rufai, not Faure..which is the first name of Togo’s president, and which suffered a memory scrambling event. Bah.
@ Strategist July 15, 2017 at 13:53
Not only is Bliar ‘back on the scene’, he’s 50-1 at Coral as next PM!!
Jeremy is 3 – 1 favourite on same sight – worth a flutter!
That’s plausible – the Tories and DUP might well boot Theresa May out and install TB in her place. All he needs is a by-election.
Paul Barbara
“he’s [Blair] 50-1 at Coral as next PM!!”
That is a classic suckers bet. The odds have absolutely fa to do with the chances of Blair being PM. They reflect the price the bookie calculates to most steal from mugs.
Why is it not surprising that someone so committed to uncovering exotic intrigue seems to lack basic understanding of how the local high street works?
We should not forget the false intelligence, supported by Cameron and May that is held against Assad as evidence that Syria uses Chemical Weapons against its own people.
Free thinking individuals know damn well that the false intelligence that took the UK to war with Iraq was false, proved to be false evidence and based on the lies of Blair and Mi6 chiefs.
Many people may not be aware of the evidence against Assad is equally false and based on lies.
MP’s from both Labour and the Conservatives accept these lies as true because they are frightened. Frightened of losing their jobs or even their lives or suffer from being set up in some money scam or sex scandal. These are the people who took the UK to war in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria.
They don’t want us to know the truth, the truth being that we are ruled by murderous lying bastards. Keep voting for the same, you get the same.
Postol Lloyd analysis of Damascus Nerve Agent Attack of August 21, 2013
https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1006045/possible-implications-of-bad-intelligence.pdf
Postol on 11 April 2007 Nerve Agent Attack
https://www.sott.net/article/348296-MIT-Professor-eviscerates-White-Helmets-evidence-of-Syrian-chemical-weapons-attack
“This report provides unambiguous evidence that the White House Intelligence Report (WHR) of April 11, 2017 contains false and misleading claims that could not possibly have been accepted in any professional review by impartial intelligence experts”
Correction
Postol on 11 April 2007 Nerve Agent Attack
should read
Postol on 11 April 2017 Nerve Agent Attack
The lies about Assad’s responsibility for chemical attacks in Syria have been a disgrace and stand as proof that our once free press has been suborned and degraded into mere warmongering propaganda.
Postol is a professor emeritus of Science, Technology, and International Security at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who has on many occasions advised the US government on matters concerning chemical weapons.
His exposes of lies surrounding the use of sarin gas in Syria are frequently posted on “Sic Semper Tyannis,” a blog run by ex-Western intelligence and special forces officers opposed to our neo-conservative foreign policy, and providing expert analysis on the various wars taking place in the Middle East and the infighting within western capitals over those wars.
http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2017/04/addendum-to-a-quick-turnaround-assessment-of-the-white-house-intelligence-report-issued-on-april-11–1.html#comments
A blog well worth following.
One small correction. Postel is not an expert on chemical weapons, his specialty is missiles and trajectory analysis — the work you refer to was in collaboration with a chemical weapons expert.
A blog deeply sympathetic to Russia.
http://russia-insider.com/en/sic-semper-tyrannis
You are referring to two different blogs.
The “Sic Semper Tyrannis” you refer to seems to be the title of a news thread on the “Russia Insider” blog.
The one I refer to has been run by mainly American ex-intelligence and military officers since about 2005. I doubt if ex-Chief of the DIA’s Middle Eastern bureau, the peppery Colonel Patrick Lang, would appreciate being described as “deeply sympathetic to Russia.” He is opposed to America’s present neo-conservative foreign policy.
http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/
I had hoped you would notice.
The next discovery for you to make is how often certain blogs which ostensibly have nothing to do with – let’s say … a foreign power; it’s not restricted to Russia – are quoted approvingly by distinctly Russia-oriented sites, and those by Russian state sites. As to Russia Insider, you may take the view that it is a Soros/Illuminati/ NWO/CIA creation. Sites exist which say so, and if your confirmation bias needs a boost, help yourself. You may think that it is, as it claims to be, a crowdfunded source of impartial news with a Russian slant. Or you may feel as I do that it is specifically crafted to appeal to disaffected Westerners while not too radically transgressing the limits of Russian-approved commentary on selected issues.
And then take a look at the author of the pieces on that RI page: no less than the proprietor of the Sic Semper blog. Is he what he claims to be? And, as a supposed ex-Special Forces soldier, is his opinion any more valid than yours or mine?
The trouble is, anything you find on the web is questionable. Question it. And ask:
Is Russia your friend?
How will that friendship benefit you?
Why is an autocrat-managed oligarchy preferable to an oligarchy with (even now) some residual democratic accountability? Take your time with that one.
Is Trump a good man?
Why on earth would you think so?
Is the West alone in wanting to project its power and secure its interests?
Hmmm?
Think, man.
@ Peter Beswick July 15, 2017 at 11:57
Hear, hear!
I read a v interesting comparison on Twitter of Iraqi op in Mosul with SDF in Raqqa. Though on a different scale the SDF light infantry approach seems to have generated much less ‘collateral damage’ and SDF has a more humane approach to population.
Maj Gen Rupert Jones, son of ‘H Jones’ of Falklands War (in which he was killed) infamy is Deputy Commander-Strategy and Sustainment of the so called ‘Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq doing the job for Theresa and ‘Sir’ Michael Fallon**. That is another one of those ridiculous names dreamed up at the MoD like ‘Operation Enduring Freedom’ which is a total contradiction in terms.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combined_Joint_Task_Force_%E2%80%93_Operation_Inherent_Resolve
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Jones_(British_Army_officer)
Killing is in the blood.
** Nine reasons why Agent Cameron gave a knighthood to Fallon, previously i/c of the propaganda for fracking and Business and Skills!| before he went to the MoD.
9 times Michael Fallon convinced David Cameron to give him a knighthood
http://www.kentlive.news/9-times-michael-fallon-convinced-david-cameron-to-give-him-a-knighthood/story-29585467-detail/story.html
I imagine Fallon as the school sneak who told on you to the teacher.
Killing is in the blood – what a stupid statement.
We all have the capacity and ability to kill, and with the right training can be very good at it. Your personal morals might find it objectionable but all societies have a military, whether they be democratic of despotic. Our Army is as good as any and better than many. In becoming the youngest general in the Modern British Army, Rupert Jones is probably more of an efficient administrator than a killer. I don’t know the man and neither do you but he deserves a great deal more respect than your pathetic comments show him.
MoD PR Dept?
I expect many readers are aware that there is considerable controversy over the meaning of the Srebrenica massacre, but others may not be. That there was a gigantic massacre of Bosnian Muslim males by Bosnian Serb and Serbian military forces in Srebrenica in 1995, accompanied by the forcible transfer of thousands of Bosnian Muslim women and children, major war crimes, is disputed by almost no-one. These events have been officially termed “genocide” by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Court of Justice. Major areas of dispute are the following:
– Body count. The official narrative is that something over 8,000 outright murders occurred, and supporters of that position cite over 6,000 bodies discovered in mass graves. Detractors point to the considerable fighting and combat deaths prior to the massacre, and argue that therefore the 8,000 figure was vastly inflated for political purposes.
– The term “genocide” is hotly disputed by many respected international lawyers and others who argue that it is nonsense to regard an event which deliberately spared women and children as “genocide”, and that this was a political construct to inflame opinion against Serbia, regarded at the time as an enemy of the West.
– Reprisals for massacres of Bosnian Serbs. Opponents of the “genocide” position argue that there had been appalling atrocities on all sides of the conflict, including indiscriminate killings of Serbian civilians by Bosnian Muslim soldiers, and that this was therefore a reprisal for those crimes, but that prior atrocities were largely ignored by Western media and administrations in favour of politically convenient blaming of the Serbs.
I will take no position on this other than to note that people I trust, such as Edward S. Herman, David Peterson, Diana Johnstone, John Pilger, and Noam Chomsky, are strongly on the side of the critics, along with a host of much more respected and respectable establishment figures, and that therefore the official narrative cannot be fully trusted. Here are a few references. J
https://www.counterpunch.org/2015/07/16/denying-the-srebrenica-genocide-because-its-not-true-an-interview-with-diana-johnstone/
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-srebrenica-massacre-was-a-gigantic-political-fraud/5321388
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/jul/19/not-genocide-deniers-uncover-truth
I regret to say that I am very uncomfortable with beliefs that a war of annihilation is guided by Israel and that 9/11 was done by Israel. Sorry about that. J
I believe it. Look at life for the Palestinians. The state of Israel was borne out of the terrorism committed by the Stern Gang during WW2 and Menachem Begin’s Irgun Zvai Leume after 1945. While fighting the British in Palestine these outfits developed the letter bomb and aircraft hijacking. What’s happening today is a broader continuation towards Eratz or Greater Israel.
We’ll all be Palestinians if Israel becomes ruler. That includes Zionists like Blair who will have no more use after that.
History is a bitch.
http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.711115
“We have people in your Country, that will be on our side.”
Rabbi Shapiro Exposes Netanyahu & Zionist Movement.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ssl6o1kA5k
Sometimes you just have to follow the evidence and see where it takes you. Having sifted through most of the 9/11 evidence I’d say there’s nothing to suggest that Israel was directly involved but strong evidence to suggest it had foreknowledge (not the same thing).
I’ve been looking for a Srebreneca article I read the other day but so far have been unable to find it. Thanks for those links.
Lest we forget Milosovic was posthumously found not guilty of ALL charges.
John Laughland again talking about state leaders being put on trial and the trials, including modern international trials. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4_J-ZxYnMw “They are all rigged”!
Blair would do the same today. He doesn’t have to of course because we had Cameron and now May
Aerial photos of Mosul taken recently (use side arrows to go from one pic to the next)
http://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/ap-photos-drone-captures-mosuls-destruction-from-above/
It was all worth it because they are now liberated from tyranny.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/borzoudaragahi/this-is-what-its-like-inside-liberated-mosul?utm_term=.xl94pwWxj#.sfL9z1oMn
That’s what Weapons of Mass Destruction can do
I’m astonished that you are (presumably) holidaying in Turkey, Craig, given your expressed reservations about its politics. Still, grab a bottle of Yeni Rakı – no longer State owned but by global octopus Diageo – and have one for me!
aah now why do you presume I am on holiday?
Business trip then?
Sorry, being facetious. Another commentator had rather tartly explained the hiatus in your previous thread thus to someone who was apparently expecting hourly updates. SE Turkey is certainly no holiday destination right now.
Western propaganda, Mosul a great victory for feedom and liberation. Aleppo a tragedy, a humanitarian crisis.
In Turkey you say, are you quaffing the odd whisky or two, and celebrating the quashing of the Turkish coup, that’s a year already, my how time flies.
Like Libya Western forces have left Iraq in a terrible state, civilians more often than not end up paying the ultimate price, in the axis of evils vile war games.
The fact that Craig is able to blog peacefully from Southern Turkey says it all. Turkey has assisted USUKIS to create and fund Daesh while cranking up dictatorial powers to control its own population. The removal of Islam from Turkey by the British Empire and the establishment of a secular state in its place has resulted in Erdogan being able to use the slogans of Islam to win a majority, and exactly the same was done in Pakistan before it.
The Islam that results from the political interference by the British , in Saudi Arabia Salafism, in Muslim Brotherhood Mursi’s Egypt and Erdogan’s Turkey or in Pakistan has no meaningful relationship to the teachings of the Qur’an. However to have connections with the devils who follow the British version of it, is essential if you want to go on holiday in its midst.
Those of us who practise the Islam that the Qur’an teaches are unable to murder our brothers and sisters in order to gain political ascendancy from the greater and lesser satans , France Germany UK US and Israel.
If the Sunni Arabs who hosted USUKIS’s Daesh on Mosul were stupid enough to believe the USUKIS version of Islam, they will not have been taken away and massacred. They are gold-dust, moonshine dust for the global hegemony project of the US.
The Iraqi government has claimed that the UN has provided them with a list of all the inhabitants of Mosul. The list is of those who are willing to fight for the confederacy of the USUKIS, i.e. Al Qaida. The rest will probably be conscripted into the male harems of the Saudi ruling class, or sold as battle fodder to the Muslim Brotherhood or Saudi armies
There are of course definable principles in all walks of life. Moral relativism is the dream of the Blairites , Thatcherites and their tin-pot dictators in the Middle-East. Islamic State has used the residents of every city they occupy as human shields because Political Islam has deviously produced them false fatwas to do it.
The Shi’a are on another false fatwa ideology. USUKIS just manipulate the truth to divide and rule. most of the false intellectuals of this false Islam reside here in the West.
“Turkey has assisted USUKIS to create and fund Daesh while cranking up dictatorial powers to control its own population.”
True, but Turkey, or to be more precise Erdoğan, is playing all sides against the middle. Erdogan is a ally to Qatar, and a ally to the West, though German/Turkish relations are somewhat strained at the moment, as were those of the Netherlands.
The only group of people I can safely say that Erdoğan isn’t allied to are the Kurds. Erdoğan, in my opinion, would make a Faustian pact, if he thought he could consolidate his position.
Are calling USUKIS Dr Faustus and Erdogan satan? or some other combination. Either way it is extremely unprincipled of Craig to take a holiday in a country which has destroyed Syria. Like Robert Graves and Greece, I’ll not be setting foot in a country run by tyrant who murders journalists who criticise him while they are travelling through his airports. Which bit of Islam does that come from?
I agree that Erdoğan is a tyrant, in the making, however in my opinion, Turkey is still a fairly open and religiously tolerant society for now.
Faustian pact eh? Like the one done in London recently.
@ Republicofscotland July 15, 2017 at 16:44
But Erdogan was subject to a CIA/Gladio II coup attempt. Turkish coups have traditionally been extremely violent and bloody, with Grey Wolves death squads and mass imprisonments and torture..
His cleaning out of the CIA-associated Augean Stables of Turkish military and Intel can only be applauded, imo, but he is certainly no saint, nor to be trusted.
I cannot understand why Russia is negotiating the sale of S400 missiles to Turkey – some will inevitable be sold by Turkey to Israel and the US, so they can study them to develop countermeasures.
“I cannot understand why Russia is negotiating the sale of S400 missiles to Turkey”
Business is business, virtually all nations trade to some degree, whether they are at loggerheads or not.
There are no innocent countries no global heroes, all governments are complicit in one way or another.
Trump, May, Assad, Merkel, Netanyahu, King Salman, Shinzó Abe, etc etc etc, all trade with onehand, and are duplicitious with the other.
@ Republicofscotland July 16, 2017 at 11:40
Business may be business, but given the West’s belligerence to Russia, why would they risk (or rather guarantee) the S400 getting into Western hands? Sure, they have a later S500, but I should imagine a lot of it will be the same or similar to the S400. I hope Putin drops the sale, for the sake of not hastening WWIII.
Anent Assad and taking sides. Craig’s fallback position of a-plague-on-all-their houses falls into two pitfalls of state indoctrination. One is to personalize criticism of the head of state in conformity with US war propaganda. The other is to forget that objective standards permit comparison of states. And like it or not, the Syrian state’s human rights compliance is superior to that of the US.
Syria acknowledges more core human rights than the USA does, accepting international review that the USA struggles to avoid.
http://indicators.ohchr.org/
Syria lets its people appeal to the outside world. The USA does not.
http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/HRIndicators/IndividualCommunications_Dec2015_map.pdf
Syria developed the modern concept of human rights defenders, while the USA persecutes its human rights defenders. The Syrian state respects non-derogable human rights to a greater extent than the USA does. Responsibility for internationally wrongful acts in the Mideast falls overwhelmingly on the US state aggressor through the armed bands or irregulars it sends to Syria on its behalf. Recognizing that’s not taking sides.
I have to say that I’m somewhat hesitant about this one, Mosul worse than Srebenica. One thing one can conclude with certainty is that if it’s Human Rights Watch certifying the video, you can be sure it’s a fake. HRW being a wholly owned subsidary of the US government. If the USG wants to get at Iran, which is current Trumpian policy, then accusing the supposed pawns in Iraq is one way to do it, especially when the pawns have also been ordering weapons from Russia, and blocking the Americans in al-Tanf.
I happen to know both sides in this particular conflict, and I was in Baghdad and Samarra in March. Tensions between Sunni and Shi’a were high. You could see it. My guess is that it is because of the extremely high casualties the Baghdad troops have suffered in getting in to Mosul, a town which will never be Shi’ite. Said to be 40% casualties by Cockburn. This is vengeance, rape and pillage, much like at the end of a mediaeval siege.
The fact is that the Sunni Arabs of north Iraq are getting it in the neck from everybody, ever since Saddam was overthrown in 2003, and nobody protects them (not even Saudi, who are obsessed by the Shi’a). Firstly discriminated against by al-Maliki, and treated like a subjugated race, which is why some preferred Da’ish, who then overran them, and treated them like Da’ish do. Ethnically cleansed from Sinjar by the ‘noble’ Kurds, who are about as noble as anybody in the area, i.e. not at all. And now massacred, raped, and pillaged, by the Baghdad army, who did at least keep the Shi’a militias out of the city, because of this very danger. They’re all much of a muchness there, those the west praises and those it demonises.
I do hope that Baghdad can sort out a better policy in the future, though I am not particularly optimistic. The Shi’a in Iraq don’t have a very open-minded attitude. They’re still enjoying their sectarian victory over Saddam.
Srebenica was caused by the same Al Qaida as formed Daesh. USUKIS will take Sunni Arabs and brainwash them with torture and mind-controlling drugs. Unlike Craig I see moral absolutes. The sole cause of all the problems of the last thirty years is USUKIS scuppering the Muslim world for Israel. We in the West are the sole distributors of terror. Tinpot dictators like Erdogan might purchase a franchise in terror from USUKIS for their own political ends.
The USUKIS idea is that if you can brainwash enough Muslims to believe the opposite of Islam, you rout the Muslims. The brainwashers have to do all the surface things of Islam like Praying and marriage, but after that they are professionally trained by USUKIS to teach the opposite of Islam. Nearly all the Muslims in the UK believe that Islamic State represents the real Islam. That is principally because the imams want power from the UK government and the way to get it is to preach false Islam.
Update on the cliff throwing video, the Independent newspaper, which Craig links to, doesn’t actually show the men being thrown over, and machine gunned to finish them off.
This link however, does, it’s not a pretty sight.
https://www.liveleak.com/view?i=c70_1499982557
Thanks, I’d say stay safe but seems good work is rarely safe.
Interesting, I wish I could understand this whole thing better, what a violent mess. Elite and powerful keeping a firm grip on their privilege.
Elite keeping a grip on “privilege”..Guess you could call it that. Bit simple thought.
Powerful? No. Impotent and play a role which they must, & have no control over. That kind of “Power” owns you.
~~~~~ It is not possible to shrug off the moral responsibility for the massacre we have actively launched.~~~~~
“They” Craig, the British state has nothing to do with the British people.
I agree, We obviously all play some role in our lives, but choices are made by just a few people. Sometimes Under huge public and political resistance.
I sometimes wonder if Craig doesn’t feel to much responsibility, though as humans we surly do have some if we are aware, no matter what we have actually done. I mean as far as most thing go I live in a hole, but still have SOME role I feel I should play.
The guilt trust upon the shoulders (form above) to those who have been (from above) cut from any role in the state, Are certainly hardly to blame. And awareness, even among individuals isn’t static. Even when they are furnished with the facts (rare in this country) have their own lives to contend with.
The children of the 1% at the private schools I attended were discussing the best place to head after this country had been blown up by a nuclear bomb, aged 9. Africa seemed to be the toff choice for post Armaggedon. I find it quite distressing that toffs like Boris Johnson automatically plan for their vomit of sponsoring Al Qaida hitting the fan. If all goes according to their evil plans the Muslims will fight eachother to destruction and after WW3 the Southern hemisphere beckons. Mad May can go and be a missionary in Africa. No hint of a problem for the possessed 1%. Two options,: 1/ rapture or failing that 2/ go and be a “humble” nun. Pity they can’t engage the humility button before destroying the world’s Muslims. But hey ho, someone’s got to destroy them. Just imagine a world run by believers in God and social justice Jeremy Corbyn.
@ giyane July 15, 2017 at 23:32
I posted this on the 9/11 thread, but it is obviously relevant to your comment:
‘Here’s the answer to why the ‘Crazies’ would devastate the earth, or risk it (similar to the ‘Dr. Strangelove’ idea:
‘Survival Condos’: http://survivalcondo.com/the-f-a-q-s/
Of course, the ‘Chosen Ones’ of government, military, Intel, Banksters etc. will be protected in much larger ‘Continuity of Government’ facilities; these ‘Condos’ are for the rich who don’t qualify.
Russia not long ago had a 40 million person ‘Civil Defense’ exercise, and an even larger one of 60 million person exercise some years back.
But for the States, if you’ve got the dosh, you’ve got a five-year guarantee of life after ‘Armageddon’ (or so they are told).
The poor or middle class can go whistle.
Seems no one is telling these rich suckers that ‘nuclear winter’ will last more than five years…
‘Life after a nuclear war revealed: Computer models reveal Earth would suffer a 20-year-long winter and worldwide famine’:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2699854/Life-nuclear-war-revealed-Computer-models-reveal-Earth-suffer-20-year-long-winter-worldwide-famine.html
@ K Crosby July 15, 2017 at 21:37
But the public, due to their apathy to foreign military interventions (in the main) would rather believe the propaganda, and watch ‘Britain’s Got Talent’, football, soap operas or whatever, so they do bear some responsibility, as do those workers who have well-paying jobs in armaments factories and would sooner keep their jobs than worry about Yemenis and others who are being murdered and mutilated by the products they produce (including potential mass murder weaponry, like Trident).
Hopefully, if and when Jeremy becomes PM, they will do something about producing a REAL working peoples’ newspaper, sans advertising, with REAL international and local news and views, rather then propaganda BS.
Who are you to judge public apathy? Snobbery like this helps no-one but the b’stards. More than a third of the adult population boycotted the last fascist pseudo-election, that isn’t apathy. The British state has spent the last fifty years doing to British society what the German boss class did from 1930. The state abolished the British army etc in 1963 and replaced it with a mercenary rabble, rather than keep ordinary everyday conscript squaddies around, writing to their MPs.
@ K Crosby July 16, 2017 at 16:02
‘Who are you to judge public apathy? Snobbery like this helps no-one but the b’stards’:
It’s not ‘snobbery’ at all; I’m a member of the public, didn’t even finish High School (in the States).
I have campaigned for Human Rights since the early ’70’s, and I can assure you that my use of the term ‘apathy’ is correct.
At work, in the pub, wherever I ventured, it was largely disinterest. There were and are many exceptions, more now than there were in the ’70’s and ’80’s, but still the majority just don’t give a damn about what our troops get up to overseas.
And remember, I was talking about apathy regarding foreign interventions. Many will get very hot under the collar re emigration, and many rightly about the NHS.
What could be a better alternative to May’s War Mongering and servility to the Banksters and Corporations? Why, a jJeremy Corbyn-led Labour Party. By not voting, those you say aren’t apathetic missed an early opportunity to elect JC.
As it is, the bookies have him favourite for next PM (from 9-4 to 3-1, depending on bookie).
Ah, you’re an American; It’s different here, the impression of apathy was exploded during the recent fake election when Liarbour did well, despite the fascist electoral system. Obviously this has been entertaining but it doesn’t alter the fact that Liarbour is still fulfilling its historic role to be the Judas goat of British fascism.
Good piece. When Russia tried to bomb terrorists out of east Aleppo it was depicted as one of the gravest crimes in history. Now the concerned celebrities and sundry other outraged humanitarians are nowhere to be seen.
@ frankywiggles July 16, 2017 at 01:12
Absolutely. And Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq – look at Fallujah. Or Gaza.
And where are the ‘White Helmets’ in Mosul?
Here’s Moazzam Begg’s reflections:
‘Reflecting on Srebrenica: Moazzam Begg’: https://cage.ngo/article/reflecting-on-srebrenica-moazzam-begg/?
’22 years ago today, the worst genocide since World War II was carried out, where over 8,000 Muslim men and boys were massacred by Serbian Armed forces in Srebrenica. This day is still within living memory and serves as a warning of the catastrophic effect of the perpetual dehumanising and demonising of the other.
The impunity and duplicity of many of those who stood and did nothing back then, echoes much of what we see happening across the world today, especially in the so called ‘War on Terror’.
On this most important of anniversaries, Moazzam Begg provides some timely reflections on the Bosnian conflict and the Srebrenica Genocide:
In 1994, I took the first of numerous trips to bring aid to the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina and helped to defend them. Like many others, I was horrified by the murder, torture and mass rape which was meted out against the Muslims of Bosnia and perpetrated at notorious concentration camps like Omarska, Trnopolje and Uzamnica.
All of this happened before the killing of 8,000 men and boys at Srebrenica – a place where internally displaced Bosnian Muslims had sought refuge in since it was a designated safe zone under the protection of Dutch United Nations soldiers.
In today’s ‘post-ISIS’ world, it is a sobering reminder that the largest genocide of civilians in Europe since World War Two, was carried out by people who described themselves as followers of Christianity and secularism.
As well as the unimaginable loss faced by the victims and their relatives, we must never forget that many who today claim higher values and principles, simply stood by and watched.’
I try to explain on this blog but nobody takes any notice. The UK Muslims of all ages support Al Qaida, Taliban and Daesh. The imams want armed struggle in the West. The imams want this message to infect the Muslims without the indigenous people finding out. The imams from the Indian sub-continent do not regard the UK population as people of the Book, who believe in God, marriage, and civiled instituions of justice. They regard the extremely uncivilised systems of justice under the Muslim dictators as better than anything that exists in the West.
I’m sorry to say that the Deobandi imams are in extreme ignorance both of Islam and also of the West. They have a pre-formed idea of what the West is and because they do not go out to work with ordinary English people they never get their pre-formed ideas put to the test. The ordinary Muslims who do work in the community feel compelled to support the very wonky ideas the imams have because of loyalty , but this loyalty is very misplaced. Ordinary Muslims in the UK are living a double life, setting a good example of Islam to the non-Muslims, but at the same time trying to agree with and conform to the aggressive and misguided dreams of the imams against the West.
one example I have cited before of the extraordinary hypocrisy of the UK imams is a lecture by the head of the Deobandi sect at central Birmingham Mosque about 15 years ago in which he addressed the issue of Muslim men sleeping with non-Muslim women either before or after marriage. His fatwa was that it is not a sin in Islam for the Muslims to take benefit from the non-Muslims in this way. It is not a sin against their own partners or future partners. it is a matter between the individual and God. even the Christian religion with all its confusions and contradictions doesn’t contain such a blatant contradiction of the stated rules of the religion.
How then if the imams regard theft from the non-muslims , like the jews, as legitimate, can they be civilised into regarding the enslavement of non-Muslim women and ultimately the slaughter of the non-Muslim men as desirable and achievable aims? The Pakistani and Afghani participants in Al Qaida and Islamic State do not regard the Sunni Muslim populations of Kurdistan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon or Palestine as Muslims. they regard them as deeply inferior to their Islam and they make takfir of them by the fatwas of their imams. How then can you avoid the slaughter and rape of Sunni Muslims by Shi’a Muslims when their own Sunni Muslim brothers and imams from Pakistan have disowned them on purely racist distinctions?
The fact is that USUKIS have recruited Muslims from an extremely inward looking community in Asia to attack and occupy the lands of the Muslims of the Middle east. The racist ignorance of the Asian imams extends to all people not in their own community. They make no distinction in their racism between making takfir of Muslims of the Middle east and making takfir of the Christians of the West. in reality it is the imams who are totally in the wrong and they misguide the people, both in the distan war zones of Syria and Iraq and also in this country. Islam forbids all racism unconditionally. Islam instructs Muslims to treat all peoples of the book with humility and kindness because they already believe in God and the 10 commandments of Moses pbuh. by treating them with compassion and educating them by good example they are supposed to reach out to them.
It isn’t permitted to reside in a non-Muslim country except for the purpose of Da’wa/ invitation to Islam. So far the Asian imams nor their followers have started any form of plan to do this. The Muslims are instructed that if they fall out with their own on sectarian or ethnic grounds a great calamity will come upon the Muslims and it certainly has! The Political Muslims say ‘oh they fell out with us’. Utter and complete bollocks! The political Muslims were indoctrinated by the sects that the British created sowing seeds of hate between the Muslims. And the political Muslims followed them like chickens after corn.
I see the political Muslims asking themselves how I can be a Muslim when I totally disagree with their sects, their stupid imams and their stupid genocide of their own brothers and sisters. They know in their hearts they are wrong. But the easiest thing to do against an individual is to ignore them. After all if you’re with the Deobandi at Naqshabandi of Muslim Brotherhood jihadist self-slaughtering shite, you’re in a big gang.
The Syrian people have resisted 6 years of slaughter by all of USUKIS,EU, Saudi, Qatar plus the self-slaughtering nasties of political Islam. Allah helps his own, and the jihadists will eventually have to crawl under their stones in disgrace.
How do politics get into prayers? What happens when you attend a mosque in Britain? What has happened to remembrance?
Where does the legitimacy of he who talks politics derive from? Is it spiritual or community business political, by which I mean what is it that prevents the Muslim, who works and engages in the non-Muslim community, from leading prayers, from being the elder?
I had thought (perhaps I am wrong) that one of the attractive features of Islam is that unlike so much Christianity (or institutionalized Christianity) it avoided doctrinal supremacy because anyone can be an Imam either he has some spirituality grace or Baraka or he is simply the elder in the group and so he leads in the act of prayer. Of course in day to day life someone has to organise find accommodation, pay rent, find money. If you pray ask who is running the show. Is it the one with baraka or an elder, or is it the one who is arranging the practical stuff, getting the money in etc. If the latter. Ask what is the price for their funding and administrative support?
Are politics on the side or in the centre of activities in the mosque? Detach funding from the religious practices…..tough maybe….
fwl: How do politics get into prayers?
From my understanding of the Gospels and the Qur’an, Islam tells us that what is in the heart i.e. the inner human will lead the individual to right or wrong.
If you put into your heart the fundamental Islamic truth of either religion, that God is One and has no partners it will lead you to a totally different destination from someone whose purpose is to subvert the Omnipotent either through politics i.e. lies, or through changing the concept of what God is by saying that He is a human being.
The job of the Muslim is merely to convey the message that God is One and His rule is absolute. when mayor of London Sadiq Khan says that Kensington Council is incompetent, he means that the whole UK Thatcherite system of not taking responsibility, just looking after No 1 and cashing in the money, is incapable of achieving any useful solutions .The dictator system of politics in Muslim countries is the same but worse. Ultimately if you put falsehood into your heart, it will lead you to evil-doing.
That’s how it happens. The remedy is simple: put truth into your heart and goodness will automatically follow. What is truth? That God is One and His rule is absolute. If God tells you in the Qur’an not to fall out with eachother, and you do it regardless of the obvious disobedience, you will get the absolute disaster that God predicts will happen.
Whoops! Time to change direction. If you’re in a hole, stop digging. Please take note, all builders of high-rise flats and all leaders of Islam. This takfirism has to stop. Now. The takfiris have been usurping the seats of authority in Islam for far too long.
Oh! and the architects of modern high-rise buildings please take note that these tacky constructions of bent tin and plasterboard now so fashionable in modern building, create vast cavers and tunnels for rodents to move through and live in. So if you put the garbage from the residents inside the box of the building there is nothing to prevent them from taking full control of the whole building. The garbage should be placed in bins outside the fabric of the building and the building itself should be sealed against vermin. Cue a Craig Derrrr!. Modern architecture has fallen to Thatcheronomics. Build it as cheaply as possible and sell it on.
Grenfell Tower pre-dates this disaster of modern design. Exactly what will happen when one of these modern buildings experiences an electrical short from rats chewing cables in the unseen cavities of the building I don’t know, but I can only suggest people watch the rats leaving like ships before the whole edifice disintegrates. Like dogs and Tsunamis.
I’m getting a strong inner feeling gnawing at my inner being to leave the UK permanently if Mrs May and the Tories continue much longer at the helm. Always follow your inner instincts is my motto. Mosul or Alleppo might be a better destination.
@ giyane
July 16, 2017 at 05:30
I find it extremely difficult, in fact impossible, to believe most Muslims support Daesh and Al Queda. I worked as a mini-cab driver for 40 years, many of which were after it was sold to Muslims, and that was certainly not the impression I got. Most of the drivers were Bangladeshi or Pakistani (both of which I have visited – in all I have visited about a dozen Muslim countries – including two years in Morocco – and have nothing but admiration for the reception I got, almost without exception).
‘….one example I have cited before of the extraordinary hypocrisy of the UK imams is a lecture by the head of the Deobandi sect at central Birmingham Mosque about 15 years ago in which he addressed the issue of Muslim men sleeping with non-Muslim women either before or after marriage. His fatwa was that it is not a sin in Islam for the Muslims to take benefit from the non-Muslims in this way…..’ Do you remember the Imam’s name? I ask this for two reasons – I know that the Imam, Dr Mohammad Naseem, was a very good man (who believed 9/11 and 7/7 were False Flag ‘Inside Jobs’.
Perhaps it was this other, unidentified pile of excreta:
‘My Imam abused me nearly every day for four years at the local mosque’:
http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/midlands-woman-tells-how-sexually-1753440
If you remember the guy’s name, perhaps you could assist the police in tracking him down, to see if this was the alleged abuser.
Did Mr Begg witness the Bosnian atrocities against Serb civilians in the three years before Srebrenica?
Yep
Sometimes the Wise Refrain from watching EVEN The Wrong videos ( RoS )
anyhoo NATO are Fixers of U.S..Western Creepy crawling ..Destroying of Worlds ( someone’s world ) Like Libya, ect
And the Evil little Shit McCain – Russia, China.. irrelevant .. You think so you Blood soaked little Prxck
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mscMShD_la8
Very true, Brian… I have no wish to look at such videos. Not sure what benefit anyone would get from it TBH. I just know something like that would stick in my mind for freaking ages, giving troubling thoughts which I’ve got enough of as it is.
There are Imams and there are Imams. A long-time acquaintance in a pub told me he knew an Imam who was the head of the Mosque burial service, whom he knew through his trade, whom he drank with and who as well as drinking, ate bacon sandwiches (I’m sure they were Halal!).
Yanis Varoufakis’ Adults in the Room – My Battle With Europe’s Deep Establishment is a compelling “must read” of interest on a human as well as a political level. I liked this upon learning that the troika had pulled the plug on an algorithmic hunt for tax cheats:
“My fellow Syriza MPs looked at me as I were the village idiot, incapable of shutting up about inconvenient truths. Nothing was reported in the press.”
His tale has so much to tell about negotiating, the EU, party politics, human psychology, insiders and outsiders, insiders bluff without conviction & outsiders threaten with conviction, power, hypocrisy, honesty, subtle and blunt deception, wearing down, scapegoating. One can’t read it and then consider Brexit without reflecting on it. Both Britain and Greece held futile negotiations and then held a referendum those who called it wished to lose (secretly in Greece but openly in Britain) But whilst Alexis Tsipeas U turned on the Greek referendum here in Britain May has served her A 50. Now she is in a lonely place and our negs begin. We had 2 weapons. The first was that we would call a referendum which might result in Brexit. We were rebuffed. Our 2nd is to threaten to leave with no deal whilst arguing we wish to avoid that and skilfully setting out our offer and explaining to (who????) why it works for GB and Berlin.
Varoufakis’ fundamental lesson is that the Euroworking group (Wolfgang Schauble) would not allow reason to prevail because there was a bigger context, namely France and Berlin seeking to control the French budget deficit.
When it comes to Brexit what are the big concerns for Berlin: 1) German exports 2) capturing financial markets 3) killing the monkey (Britain as it was Greece) to scare the chickens (or PIGS) and 4) ?
Macron is an interesting character in Adults in the Room. I had thought of him as a potential troika placement, but Varufakis has him on his side?
Left thinking – keep thinking and if only we had a decent press.
This is one I’m definitely going to have a look at, nice review. I was going to say hopefully Britain’s negotiating team will have read and learned from it, but then I recalled the individuals involved. Just one query: what made you think Cameron openly wanted to lose the EU referendum he called?
Well, I suppose it’s a possibility but I haven’t seen any evidence (yet) for Cameron secretly hoping to lose.
Sorry, thought that’s what you were saying above.
Blair must have been thinking of what has been happening in Mosul to have used this phrase.
Tony Blair: May’s on cliff edge and I feel sorry for her
The former PM said Theresa May was surrounded by people “waiting for the moment they decide to throw her off the ledge”.
http://news.sky.com/story/tony-blair-feels-sorry-for-theresa-may-as-job-under-threat-10950283
@ Sharp Ears July 16, 2017 at 16:39
I should think there are even more itching to push Bliar off a ledge, not that I support May.
But I am glad she’s forging (slowly) ahead re Brexit.
I believe it is well past time Bliar retired, preferably to Afghanistan or Iraq, so he could end his days watching the idyllic ‘Freedom and Democracy’ he had helped bring to the region.
Tomorrow Kate/Wills are being dispatched to Germany and Poland to smooth the way whether the German and Polish people want them or not.
Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on ‘historic’ tour
Britain’s envoy to Germany says the Royal couple ‘are important ambassadors’ for the UK whose foreign visits are significant.
http://news.sky.com/story/duke-and-duchess-of-cambridge-on-historic-tour-10950671
‘Sky News has spoken to the two key diplomats who will guide the royal couple through their week-long trip; Sir Sebastian Wood, the British ambassador to Germany, and Jonathan Knott, Britain’s man in Poland. The visit comes as the next round of Brexit negotiations get underway in Brussels.
Speaking in Warsaw at the start of the tour, Jonathan Knott told Sky News: “One of the features as you know of the royal family is that they are apolitical, they are above politics, so this is really about the connection between peoples, between organisations. “That’s one of the reasons why we’ve made sure that they talk both about Poland’s past, but also that they see some of the potential for collaboration in future.”‘
LOL
The poor people. How many decades of war have the Iraqi people been subjected to?
Mosul’s residents tell of hopes and fears after Isis flees Iraqi city
Shias’ victorious taunts, vast battle damage and a lack of cash for rebuilding are critical problems in the former Isis stronghold
Iraqis sheltering in an Isis-controlled part of Mosul’s old city on 11 July. Government forces have declared victory but fighting continues in several pockets.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/15/mosul-residents-iraqi-troops-shias-battle-isis-stronghold
Just a few of the shattered survivors, very old and very young, in the photo.
Interesting fact not much commented on. The decline of IS came when thier link to the external world through Turkey was cut off by a combination of the YPG and SDF and also the efforts of the SAA. The supply of fighters , weapons and the oil smuggling obviously ended abruptly. Another interesting fact is that there is also an isolated IS pocket lodged in the South of Syria and with borders to Jordan and the occupied Golan. I wonder how they survive?
@ SA July 16, 2017 at 17:50
Doesn’t take much figuring!
Paul Exactly my point.
The isolated pocket is Ansar al Islam, which used to be a CIA operation in Kurdistan to de-stabilise Saddam Hussain and the rest is history. Being extremely reliable idiots Israel has engaged them to destabilise their own neighbours in the Golan. So extremely reliable that their leader, Mulla Krekar was flown from house arrest in Norway to sign the USUKIS agreement in Amman to release Islamic State fighters from their Saudi-Israeli training camps in Jordan, through Turkey to attack Mosul.
I have met him, but unfortunately the full Zionist indoctrination failed to take root. a very pleasant kind of man, up to his eyeballs in USUKIS slime.
SA
I think you are writing out imperialist muscle. From my understanding:
The SDF is the YPG with a few additional forces thrown in for PR. To this day because of their radical politics and connection to the PKK no one would give the YPG adequate weaponary. So, the YPG were being beaten by ISIS. At a low point columns of Turkish tanks watched ISIS bombard Kobane. The situation only properly reversed when the US piled in with sf and air support. The YPG morphed into the SDF so the US would not appear to be giving support to those they called terrorist revolutionaries.
I’m less familiar with the SAA but I’m pretty sure Russian support was equally instrumental.
It all seems to be a game of smoke and mirrors. The SAA and Russia have now been given the tacit go ahead to neutralise IS in the Syrian desert whilst the YPG and SDF take Raqqa.
I can’t help but notice the seemingly obligatory disclaimer “of which I do not generally approve” when Craig refers to the legitimate government of Syria. Is this a remnant of the colonial mental legacy? I don’t think the people of Syria give a toss whether any foreigner approves or disapprove of their democratically elected president or his government.
As for president Assad, his only crime, as far as Arab nationalists are concerned, is that he dared to defend his country rather than surrender to those who blindly carry out Israel’s regional whims as commands.
Notice that it is not just Assad , it is the ‘Axis of resistance’ that is targeted. If you look this up you will see the geopolitics behind it all. More recently the main protagonist has been declaring its hand.
Goofd comment apart from getting the purpose of the occupation wrong. They are a US proxy, just as much as the Saudi head-choppers, which is why American Caesar makes such good use of them.
The US is Israel’s proxy, period! I thought it was common knowledge that Palestine was not the only Zionist occupied country.