UPDATE: On 21 Jan 2010 I predicted exactly this wave of anti-Western violence from Uzbekistan, in this excellent Michael Andersen documentary for Al Jazeera:
“We are creating a timebomb of discontent in Central Asia; and because the West is seen to be backing the dictatorships, that discontent will take an anti-western turn.”
The latest Manhattan Terror Attack appears to have been conducted by an Uzbek, Sayfullo Saipov, and a worrying proportion of such attacks worldwide are being carried out by Uzbeks, including the ramming attack in Stockholm and the Istanbul airport bombing.
When I was British Ambassador in Uzbekistan I very explicitly warned that the support NATO countries were giving the appallingly repressive Uzbek regime – military, financial and political support – would cause hatred of the West among Uzbeks. I felt so strongly about this I was prepared to give up my career for it, and in Murder in Samarkand (Dirty Diplomacy in the USA) I published a 440 page account of how our policy was fundamentally wrong. It gives me no pleasure whatsoever to be vindicated in this way.
Newsweek today gets it spectacularly wrong, publishing:
The presence of radical Uzbeks around the world may seem damning, but Uzbekistan has been a U.S. partner in the war on terror. The U.S. operated an airbase in the country from 2001 to 2005, and continued to use Uzbekistan as a strategic location to bring goods and military equipment into Afghanistan even after the base closed. Former Secretary of State John Kerry visited the country in 2015.
The point they miss is that it is because of the Uzbek regime’s mutual cooperation with the USA in the War on Terror, and the use of that pretext by the dictatorship, aided and abetted by the CIA, to ramp up repression, that Uzbek terrorism is occurring.
There are two other points worth noting:
1) The rigid suppression of all religious belief, as in Uzbekistan, is equally as likely to promote radical religious extremism as the inculcation of a single religion in noxious form, as in Saudi Arabia.
2) I complain specifically in Murder in Samarkand that the successful and systematic attempts by Germany to prevent EU criticism of Uzbek regime human rights abuse, were motivated by Gerhard Schroder’s personal interest in Gazprom. I suffered some derision for this at the time, but his behaviour has now become notorious.
Fallon’s resigned. Good riddance to the bastard.
Bloody Hell, he’s fallen on his pork sword
That Wiki are quick
they update your profile, even before u resign?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Fallon
If you want to help bring down the Tory government, here is the question to shout from the rooftops in connection with the spreadsheet: WHY DOESN’T BORIS COMMENT?
I always thought Boris was reasonably O.K. At least he was funny. But John Ward (played for both the catholics and the swej’s in Manchester) mixed in his circles, and I suspect very strongly he has had the inside goss on Boris for years, but may have not written much of it down yet on his Slog. I got banned years ago, so can’t ask him, and am not that interested. There maybe a hint here, but I’ve not read it yet.
https://hat4uk.wordpress.com/tag/boris-johnson/
Thanks for the Boris Pass, Boris. It’s now been upgraded for Free to a Freedom Pass. I can now travel anywhere in London, or anywhere on local busses in England for Free.
I’m going to find that extremely useful, cos I am now “Officially Old” and I travel about a lot, and don’t drink and drive.
Tony
Bill de Blasio is the New York mayor appearing at press conferences
In June de Blasio agreed with Sadiq Khan that he was right in calling ‘terrorism’ terrorism. Stating the obvious there! This was after the vehicle attack on people leaving a mosque in Finsbury Park.
In July Trump attacked de Blasio, calling him pathetic. I think he has the same view of Sadiq Khan.
http://nypost.com/2017/07/28/trump-trashes-de-blasio-calls-him-a-pathetic-mayor/
Trump should take more care with his outbursts and personal attacks.
take the nuclear clock one hundreds of a second back, Fallon has resigned over his peccadillo’s, hurray, justice hits a low blow today and the defence ministers wobbles,
NEXT!
nevermind, yeh, but they are all completely useless eejits at best. some are completely evil too. they all have to go. they provide no useful function, and neither does any political opposition.
No one sensible wants to go anywhere near these useless creeps.
Tony
We’ve had another pretty good summer, and a succession of relatively mild winters. I hope we get another, but the weather is extremely unpredictable. It’s entirely possible that its going to get extremely cold this winter, and if it does, The UK is on an energy knife edge. It may not have sufficient energy reserves. The reason for this is to maximise short term profit. Under our current financial system, everything is designed to work on a just in time philosophy, and not to spend anything much on reserves, in case absolutely everything goes wrong…as it sometimes does.
How will you and your neighbours cope, if there is no gas or electricty – and no services – for 2-3 months, and it is incredibly cold?
Will you survive. Have you thought about it? Have you any food and energy in reserve..to last 2-3 months – with no resupplies?
Can you cook or warm up if nothing works and its incredibly cold?
Prepare now in case it all goes wrong.
If you’ve ever been camping, you should have some idea of what you may need to survive.
I’ve also got a load of coal as well.
Tony
Just about managing
Just in time
Any other ‘just…..’?
An Israeli air strike targeted a factory south of the Syrian city of Homs on Wednesday and the Syrian army responded by firing a surface-to-air missile at the aircraft, a commander in a military alliance fighting in support of Damascus said.
The commander told Reuters the air strike had hit a copper factory in the industrial town of Hisya, 35 km (21 miles) south of Homs and 112 km (70 miles) north of Damascus.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-mideast-crisis-syria-israel/israeli-air-strike-hits-near-syrias-homs-idUKKBN1D15W2
So are the Israelis/Americans
ever going to stop degrading Syria?
Only when they realise that all consciousness is one, experiencing itself subjectively, as Bill said.
So probably not. Maybe when they stop chopping down their best long term thinkers and using them for toilet paper.
No
Lebanon i think was Next.. Then Iran
I wouldn’t mind betting you are correct Brian.
Lebanon is sitting on a huge Methane resource, Lebanon and Israel are in dispute over the demarcation of the Mediterranean.
So far Lebanon has not gone too far, for Israel to degrade Lebanon, probably because Lebanon, imagines Israel would enjoy crushing Lebanon, as it has enjoyed being involved with the degrading of Syria.
I’m not surprised that an Uzbek “blew”. On the one side, I entirely agree with Craig that the Uzbek dictatorship is intolerable. However, the only outlet for resistance feelings is being provided by Saudi Wahhabism. This is not good. Wahhabism is not Islam, only a sect.
There are many Uzbek jihadis in Syria. What’s going to happen when Syria is settled (not too far off in my view.)?
http://sana.sy/en/?p=115452
This is Syrian State propaganda
but if a fraction of this is true,
it should be SHOUTED in PUBLIC.
The Ministry added that these large shipments of weapons were accompanied by the arrival of 20,000 foreign fighters from Turkey, which helped make Jabhat al-Nusra one of the strongest groups fighting the Syrian Army.
@Michael Norton : If you’re calling yourself “Freddy” now, you could boost your cover by not posting in _exactly the same way_ as before. You know, short sentences, tabloid-style, lots of disconnected stuff about Syria, replying to yourself repeatedly…
Well today is the centenary of the Balfour Declaration, in which Westminster gave the Zionist carte blanche to set their sights on Palestine.
Balfour, who was called “Bloody Balfour by his opponents set in motion (possibly unwittingly) the demise and oppression of the people of Palestine, which continues to this day.
The BBC is behind the times with this news.
Syria war: Israeli jets ‘strike factory near Homs’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-41844727
Syrian state television says Israeli warplanes carried out an air strike in western Syria overnight.
A report said the Hisya area in the countryside south of the city of Homs was targeted, and that Syrian air defences fired back in response
A military source told pro-government Masdar News that the jets attacked a storage warehouse in an industrial complex while in Lebanese airspace.
The Israeli military declined to comment on the reports.
Deir al-Zour: Syrian Government army ‘takes last Islamic State stronghold’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-41856330
Now the Kurds and the Iraqi Government are at each other, i wonder if Kurds, will withdraw from Syria to confront the Iraqi troops for taking control of Kurdistan?
I suspect that the terrorist was more motivated by Islam than he was by Western foreign policy.
By the way, this month is the 20th anniversary of the Luxor massacre, in which 62, mostly Swiss, tourists were shot and hacked to death by Islamic jihadist fanatics. A letter praising Islam was left inside the disemboweled corpse of one of the victims. Not sure quite how you fit that into your ‘blowback’ theory.
Chicken – home – roost
A loud explosion has been heard near Riyadh’s airport, with unconfirmed reports saying Saudi Arabia intercepted a ballistic missile from Yemen.
Saudi air defence forces were quoted by broadcaster Al-Arabiya as saying they intercepted the missile north-east of the capital.
Saudi forces have reported shooting down missiles fired by Houthi rebels in Yemen on multiple occasions this year.
Saudi Arabia is leading a military campaign against the rebels.
BBC
Lebanon on the slide
Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri has resigned, saying in a televised broadcast from Saudi Arabia that he feared for his life, while also fiercely criticising Iran.
He accused Iran of sowing “fear and destruction” in several countries, including Lebanon.
Mr Hariri’s father, former prime minister Rafik al-Hariri, was assassinated in 2005.
BBC
Yes, you reap what you sow, but the sowing is at home and abroad, to ensure the reaping continues, as a pretext for more sowing. That is the State welcomes blowback, so much, they organise false flags to ensure a regular controlled diet, to feed the war machine, as without a problem, no need for a solution.
when John Kerry visited Uzbekistan in 2015 it may have been helpful to have published his comments for vietnam veterans against the war statement to the Senate Committee on Foreign relations in 1971:
“We wish that a merciful God could wipe away our own memories of that service as easily as this administration has wiped away their memories of us. But all that they have done and all that they can do by this denial is to make more clear than ever our own determination to undertake one last mission – to search out and destroy the last vestige of this barbaric war, to pacify our own hearts, to conquer the hate and fear that have driven this country these last ten years and more. And more” http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/sixties/HTML_docs/Resources/Primary/Manifestos/VVAW_Kerry_Senate.html
What happened to principled, idealistic, young activists against ” the war” now become proponents of ‘perm-war’ by the industrial-military-complex?