“Security Intelligence Consultancy” SC Strategy Ltd has only three directors. One is the husband of the judge in yesterday’s Assange ruling. One is the former Head of MI6, Sir John Scarlett, who is synonymous with crooked security operations and personally wrote the notorious dossier of lies on Iraqi WMD, thus causing the subsequent deaths of millions of people. One is Lord Carlile, who was notably close to protected Establishment paedophiles Greville Janner and Cyril Smith. Is the British Establishment not endlessly fascinating?
The corporate media has published no information about “Lady” Arbuthnot’s background and sinister links at all, despite the fact it is uniformly carrying her jibes at Assange as a major story. There can be no clearer example of the fact that it is the corporate media which, deliberately and systematically, spreads fake news, while bloggers get out the actual facts via social media.
Directors of SC Strategy Ltd from Companies House Register
To anyone to whom British corruption is not axiomatic, it appears pretty rum that the judge in the Assange case is married to a government parliamentarian and close to the security services.
“Lady” Arbuthnot’s Husband
There is some interesting background in the Mirror here. The taxpayer paid £1,200 in restaurant bills for “Lady” Arbuthnot and her husband in one long weekend jaunt to Turkey alone.
If anybody thinks the Assange case had anything to do with justice, they are very mistaken. Please read my analysis of “Lady” Arbuthnot’s judgement here.
This starts quite slow, but then it gets rather interesting….Written by “John Kiriakou spent 14 years at the CIA and two years in a federal prison for blowing the whistle on the agency’s use of torture. He served on John Kerry’s Senate Foreign Relations Committee for two years as senior investigator into the Middle East. He writes and speaks about national security, whistleblowing, the prison-industrial complex, and foreign policy, and is an associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and winner of the 2015 PEN Center USA First Amendment award.”
“Why Does the CIA Prefer Corporate Media?”
https://www.opednews.com/articles/Why-Does-the-CIA-Prefer-Co-by-John-Kiriakou-CIA_Corporate-Media_Leak-Info_Publishing-180224-937.html
Extract “The CIA has a long and ugly history with journalists. From the early 1950s to the mid-1970s, the CIA carried out something called “Operation Mockingbird.” The purpose of the operation was, in part, to recruit journalists and to manipulate the news media for propaganda purposes, including the propagandizing of the American people. Then-CIA director George H.W. Bush restricted the program in early 1976, and by the time the Church Committee was ready to release its report on CIA wrongdoing around the world, Operation Mockingbird was over.
But routine and regular contact with journalists never ended.
If the CIA wants to be an equal opportunity leaker, well, I guess there’s not much to stop it. But the issue is far more serious, and that’s because the legal definition of espionage is “providing national defense information to any person not entitled to receive it.” That came from Judge Leonie Brinkema in US v. Kiriakou. She couldn’t have been any more clear about it.
So why does the CIA get to commit espionage? Because there’s nobody to stop them. I’ve said countless times in this venue that the Congressional oversight committees are cheerleaders and lemmings and will never challenge the CIA on these issues, at least not with the current lineup. Meanwhile, the CIA can leak whatever it wants to whomever it wants with impunity. There won’t be any espionage trials for the CIA’s Office of Public Affairs.”
Maybe Julian Assange or even Craig Murray would like to comment..It is in their field, qualifications and experience.
Thanks,
Tony
@ Tony_0pmoc February 25, 2018 at 15:31
John Kiriakou can consider himself extremely fortunate – he only got imprisoned.
Udo Ulfkotte contracted a ‘heart attack’; Gary Webb ‘committed suicide’; Allan Francovich contracted a ‘heart attack’ at the airport when he foolishly revisited the US (despite being fit and with no previous heart problems); Seth Rich was murdered in a ‘mugging’; Michael Hastings died in a ‘one car accident’ (after being hounded by the US ‘spooks’, telling friends he had to lie low for a while, asking a neighbour if he could borrow his car – the neigbour didn’t lend him his car, so using his own, we know what ensued): Aaron Russo ‘contracted’ cancer: Dr. Kelly ‘committed suicide’; and so on ad infinitum.
‘Dr Udo Ulfkotte confesses to being a CIA stooge’:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yamJ6zUcmI
Ulfkotte wrote a book, a best-seller in Germany. A US book publisher got the rights to print it in English, then ‘Privished’ it (made a tiny print run, no publicity, then sat on it, no doubt at the behest of the ‘Security Services).
HOWEVER, little old me solved that. Is there a competent English/German speaker reading this, who could and would be willing to translate the German book into English, for a small fee or a percentage of the book sales?
If so, please reply to this comment, and we can establish contact.
As for George H W Bush ‘curtailing’ ‘Mockingbird’, as you can see from Udo Ulfkotte’s testimony (and considering the appealing state of the MSM, should be blindingly obvious anyway), far from curtailing the program, it has totally succeeded in it’s objective.
In the clearest indication yet that the Tory government intends to scupper devolution, Cabinet Office minister David Lidington writes in The Telegraph that returning Brussels powers going to Holyrood would hamper the Westminster government in making post-Brexit trade deals.
Brexit is to be the spurious excuse for the dismantling of real devolution and replacing it with a charade.
The hardline Tories have no idea how many people in Scotland only go along with the union providing the Scottish Parliament is not downgraded
A Scotland subjected to hard brexit misery and with no democratic means left to escape it is something the vast majority of Scots would deplore. The Brexiteers are effectively finishing the union all by themselves with their febrile authoritarianism.
The former prime minister Tony Blair and the American author Michael Wolff have accused each other of lying, as the row about Blair’s dealings with Donald Trump’s White House reignited.
Wolff, whose bestselling book Fire and Fury presents a remarkable and highly negative account of Trump’s first year in office, said on Sunday that Blair was a “complete liar” in the way he dismissed claims in the book. Blair responded by saying Wolff’s stories about him were made up.
Blair features only briefly in the book, but Wolff claims that Blair was angling for a job as a Middle East peace envoy and that Blair told the Trump team that British intelligence may have been spying on them before Trump assumed the presidency.
As the book was published in January, Blair dismissed both claims, accusing Wolff of “complete invention”.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/feb/25/fire-and-fury-tony-blair-michael-wolff-trump-white-house
Heh..
All Stalinists must die
“The Russian-led air blitz has been the sum of all fears for the besieged population on the ground. Up to 400,000 people, with nowhere to run, have been pinned down by Vladimir Putin’s air force as Syrian and Iranian-backed ground troops edge closer to the largest and most important opposition area anywhere south of Idlib.
For Assad and Putin, Ghouta is the key to controlling the capital, and winning the war. But outside the Syrian cauldron, friends and foes alike are starting to believe both men have miscalculated.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/24/russia-putin-syrian-war-intervention-assad-ghouta-turkey-iran
Ben
Imagine if a terrorist group occupied Hounslow and randomly shelled the centre of London at regular intervals. What would you advocate? Giving in their demands to take over the government in order to avoid any blood shed that would occur if we were bro try and invade them despite their human shields?
Anyway. It appears that most of the civilians have fled East Ghouta a long time ago and the place is full of 4 rival terrorist groups that occasion fight each other. Formula for a great democracy.
Well, hospitals wouldn’t be my first retaliation even if ostensibly bad guys took some cover.
Unless optics and World opinion didn’t matter and I didn’t give a fig.
Sic Semper Tyrannis
Ben, you’re out of touch.
Our media, the same media that sold us the story that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction that could reach the UK in twenty minutes, is warped. So many people believe it because it’s ours, well yours not mine. There is an agenda. A country that coud pull off a false flag to turn the world against Moslems would have no compunction in telling a few porkies about what is going on in places where we cannot check, don’t speak the language, and prefer not to be. From RT which may have a different agenda.
“A naive viewer might imagine that Assad was just bombing civilians for the hell of it because the jihadi fighters are totally absent from the picture. And the pictures are literally provided by the jihadists themselves,” Peter Ford, former UK ambassador to Syria and Bahrain, told RT, referring to the controversial White Helmets, who have long been hailed by the mainstream western media as heroes. However, the UK-backed NGO has been plagued by allegations of having close ties with terrorist groups.
John, Ben does Know, he has just come back from the hospital and seen it with his own eyes.
Haven’t you? Ben in effect you are a secret journalist. Tell us who has smuggled in chlorine munitions from Turkey less than a week ago? Did you see that? has it been reported on Trumps trumpets? NO ?
Well there seems to be some use reported, as usual, its the same lot who’s done it before allegedly. Al Nusra Al Quaeda, all the best western ‘moderates one can muster’.
Nobody wants to see US soldiers in body bags. How many have died in Syria? any idea Ben?
Are as many dead as have died in Afghanistan and Iraq? Some 6845?
When will it get into US bump stock heads that you can’t just throw your weight around the world without paying your dues?
Yes of course. And the source of this information is? Yes you guessed it: the same terrorist throat cutters using human shields and thier apologists who have supplied them with weapons in the first place.
Chilly weather?
Gas shortage?
Call Gazprom..they’ll deliver
That sums up the Russiagate allegations. Maybe we will get indictments from Mueller next week.
The Guardian reporting is akin to ITN reporting (that is: lies) on Srebrenica. Thank God for Off-Guardian.
https://off-guardian.org/2018/02/21/the-guardian-is-right-ghouta-is-syrias-srebrenica-another-lie-told-to-justify-humanitarian-intervention-murder/
I’m sure Raqqa, Mosul, Sirte and Fallujah had plenty of hospitals. After all, you need medical attention when you can’t breathe because of the white phosphorus, or to give birth to a DU-deformed baby.
If this was a Yank onslaught there would be nothing left of Eastern Ghouta by now. Huge civilian casualties are nothing to the Hegemon, and that goes all the way back to North Korea, when practically every town was firebombed.
Thank you Mike for pointing out where the problem lies. What foresight GBS had in refusing the Nobel Prize (for literature) with the discredit brought upon it by many of those awarded the Nobel Prize (for peace). It is a disgrace to the name of Alfred Nobel that the White Helmets have been nominated for a Nobel Prize and their films twice nominated for Oscars.
Hey, it’s a slick operation, John. The Hegemon has learned a lot since Iraq.
Watch out chaps this septic tank has sprung a leak; too many indigestible facts and the filth overflows.
Pt II of Robert Stuart’s analysis of the BBC’s Syrian coverage
Fabrication in BBC Panorama ‘Saving Syria’s Children’
Analysis of the 30 September 2013 BBC Panorama documentary ‘Saving Syria’s Children’ and related BBC News reports, contending that sequences filmed by BBC personnel and others at Atareb Hospital, Aleppo on 26 August 2013 purporting to show the aftermath of an incendiary bomb attack on a nearby school are largely, if not entirely, staged.
09Feb / 2018
Saving Syria’s Children: the White Helmets connection (Part II)
https://bbcpanoramasavingsyriaschildren.wordpress.com/2018/02/09/saving-syrias-children-the-white-helmets-connection-part-ii/
to remind us of the US casualties that had to die in Iraq and Afghanistan before anyone made a fuss about body bags coming home.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/h-a-goodman/6845-americans-died-and-9_b_6667830.html
I can’t fathom why they are so upset if people get shot abroad, it does not matter much if their school kids get shot up, keep calm and carry on, lets arm teachers, that’ll keep them safe…..
Bump stock mentality also does not recognise that dead means dead, nobody ever cries about the 35.000plus that die on their roads, its only the propaganda value that counts.
Oh ye gullible, repent.
That ‘hard brexit’ many here were banging on about was never to be, as one world order neo commie Corben has recently proved, and Trojan horse Teresa has helpfully engineered, their combined treachery will ensure UKIP or something similar will rise from the dead to fight them all again.
All this with an imminent stock market crash, like a real crash, not a mere blip like a few weeks ago.
Well at least we live in interesting times..
The ultra British nationalist brexiteers are lining up quite a list of things they want to get rid of in pursuit of their hard brexit. Hard Brexit is just a euphemism for hard right authoritarian government. And the hard brexit Corbynites are just their stupid patsies.
Here’s what the hard right Little Englanders want to clear out the way.
The Good Friday Agreement.
Welsh devolution.
Scottish devolution.
Workers’ rights.
Animal rights.
Consumer rights.
Free health care.
Businesses’ access to the single market.
Ministers answering to parliament.
Regulation of City of London.
And much more besides.
Scotland must leave the UK. We are the Scexiteers who want to get away and rejoin the world community. Take back control. Not stay and be bullied in the Little Englander fascist mire.
Environmental regulation. Add that to the list.
Nationalist propaganda hasn’t changed much since 1939 has it.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DW8B03WVoAAHEEQ.jpg
I seem to remember you saying something right after the EU referendum about it being like Britain standing alone against Europe, as in 1940.
The Nationalists on the other side then just as they are now.
You said, I believe, that Britain was standing alone against Europe. When you should have said standing against the Nazis.
Then the Nazis were Europe.
“Hard Brexit is just a euphemism for hard right authoritarian government”
It’s a euphemism for leaving the EU. Which is what we voted for.
Sympathy for a hard right solution, growing throughout Europe, has identifiable causes.
1. The growing inability of liberal democracies to provide social security and relative equality, both of income and opportunity. Intentionally, at the behest of financial interests.
2. The flooding of national labour markets with cheap labour from very different cultural backgrounds. Intentionally, at the behest of financial interests.
3, The replacement of secure and adequately paid jobs for the people formerly engaged in productive employment, by a gig economy dependent on the free movement of low-paid labour, aggravating (2) above. At the behest of financial interests.
The individual’s aspirations and lifestyle have been subordinated to the accountants’ model of an ideal antheap society.
So, do we blame the stereotype rabid xenophobic Hitler-saluting Millwall fan. Or do we blame the incompetent and greedy politicians who saw personal advantage in swallowing the corporate economists’ self-enriching vision? Let’s blame Millwall, eh? So much easier.
Just wait Ba’al until Nazi-saluting Millwall fans start becoming Tory candidates in England. The Tories have fielded similar types in Scotland and quite a number of them are now councillors.
Your fault, then, for not providing an acceptable alternative. Sobbing ‘nasty nazi racists’ doesn’t deal with the underlying discontent that gives them a platform. Welcoming the poor, the huddled masses doesn’t give you a sustainable economy, either.
add to that the precautionary principle and the polluter pays principle, reel guid. Should an imminent person in Scotland start writing a resolution to full devolution/UDI/revolution?
please take you pick.
Corbyn is shit stupid. He wants hard brexit without the effects of hard brexit.
The EU is petrified at the prospect of the UK outside the customs union while maintaining an open border with Ireland. It would cause catastrophic losses of revenue and probably lead to the disintegration of the EU as remaining member countries refused to make up the shortfall.
Surely a better person to apply that phrase to would be someone who continually bores on about Brexit being an obstacle to smooth trade with the EU …… but then bitterly condemns the leader of the opposition’s announcement that he wants a customs union to remain in place.
His hatred for Corbyn is more than that for the Tories. Don’t know why.
“This Wednesday evening at Housmans, important discussion: ‘Taking Back The Debate: Left Wing Approaches to Fighting #Antisemitism’ Speakers: Aviah Day, Keziah Berelson and Annie Cohen. Chaired by Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi http://www.housmans.com/events.php ”
Hmm. One can guess how balanced this discussion may be.
Venue, Housman’s (little bookshop renowned in anarchist circles) next to King’s Cross Railway Station.
https://order-order.com/people/naomi-wimborne-idrissi/
Anon1 – You can’t possibly be stupid enough to take Paul Staines as anything other than a very poor joke, can you?
Point is that Naomi “Wimborne-Idrissi” is not exactly a raving Zionist, is she? Neither is Annie Cohen. Don’t know the other two.
The meeting is entitled ‘Taking Back The Debate: Left Wing Approaches to Fighting #Antisemitism’. Wimborne-Idrissi is
left-wing and Jewish – I’d have thought she’d be ideal. Is Anon1 suggesting that only ‘Raving Zionists’ should be allowed at this meeting?
Why won’t Jeremy Corbyn out these lying Evil B@stards – or is he on the same team?
“Boris Johnson ‘backs air strikes’ against Assad regime if has used chemical weapons in Eastern Ghouta”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boris-johnson-syria-air-strikes-eastern-ghouta-assad-regime-chemical-weapons-chlorine-gas-a8229506.html
I am disgusted with the lot of them.
We know who is funding and training these crazed head choppers. The evidence is overwhelming..
It’s The British Government using my taxes.
Tony
Tony
Or even Uber? Are they on Zero hours and do they get holiday pay + pension rights?
we should All be disgusted Tony..
” We know who is funding and training these crazed head choppers. The evidence is overwhelming..”
The Evidence is SO Overwhelming, that the ‘ Indepenend ‘ Know they are Lying, like the bbc ect..they are therefore commiting a war crime
Bastards
@ BrianFujisan February 26, 2018 at 19:01
But one thing in their favour is at least they allow comments, and vastly more anti the article than for it, unlike the Guardian, which rarely has comments on contentious articles, and when it does, it rapidly closes the comment section.
@ Tony_0pmoc February 26, 2018 at 18:06
Syria, Russia and Iran have been expecting this, but try as you will, you won’t find any mention of it in our lying propaganda MSM.
‘White Helmets Ready for ‘False-Flag’ Chemical Attack in Syria – Reports’:
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201802201061828547-white-helmets-chemical-attack-syria/
‘Breaking: 3 trucks loaded with ‘tons’ of chlorine enter Syria’s Idlib from Turkey – reports’:
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/breaking-3-trucks-loaded-tons-chlorine-enter-syrias-idlib-turkey-reports/
Note the dates of these reports, and the ever-present ‘headchoppers’ PR team, the ‘White Helmets’ involvement.
I note the source for these claims was the Russian Center for Syrian Reconciliation so maybe it’s Syria/Russia who are about to launch another chemical attack and they who are preparing the ground to place the blame elsewhere.
@ Kempe February 26, 2018 at 20:34
Never forget – Cui bono?
Then think Iraqi WMD, Kuwaiti ‘Incubator Babies LIE’, Colin Powell and his lying Iraqi tank formations on Saudi border (Powell was also the officer who tried to cover up the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam, so he’s got form). Beaucoup more, as you probably know.
Kempe
You seem to be a logical man. Can you please analyse logically what will be the strategic, military or propaganda benefit for the SG and RG to attackg a few civilians with chlorine? Please no fake outrage like’to show impunity’ because that is illogical in this setting.
In fairness, you have omitted the obvious tactical benefit. Which is to drive the opposition out of buildings and shelters in order to shoot it. The dead civilians are a byproduct. Chlorine’s a lot easier to make than something less lethal like Mace, too. This war is now beyond anyone’s control. No side (there are several, of course) can claim pure motives or methods. Arguing about who’s using what on whom is futile, since no-one can do a damn thing about it without contributing further to the chaos. The Russian strategy is to win, and let God sort out the victims. See Grozny for details,
Ba’al
You also seem to be a very clear thinker and I often admire your writing, especially on Africa and Blair. But I don’t always agree with you. When you hear about East Ghouta you hear about a ruined suburb, even Jeremy Bowen on Today said that all you can see is ruined buildings. Most civilians have long ago either fled or died. The Figure of 400000 civilians is being touted by the BBC but who knows. We heard the same story in Aleppo and as it turned out, the liberation of Aleppo did not end in a bloodbath and there were not all that many civilians there after all, they were mainly families of rebels.. The SG has always offered humanitarian corridors for any civilians, and some of this was seen in Aleppo and they also offer amnesty to rebels if they surrender and they even offer them transport to Idlib. As far as I know there are not many governments who offer this to those who are essentially terrorists.
Again thinking logically, what would you think the end point of this particular struggle in East Ghouta would be? Do you really believe that the 4 different factions trapped inside are democratic replacement government material? Do you think that if they win in any military way, that Syria would be a better place? I don’t think so as they have often been bickering amongst themselves and have never shown any attempt at democratic credentials.
Therefore, yes there is only one answer, to get rid of the terrorist enclave as no good will continue from them winning, only an islamic terrorist state with fundamentalist ideology. There is a much better chance that if the SG establishes control that there will be a proper democratic future in Syria, but not if Turkish and KSA and CIA backed rebels win. I would expect a good logical rebuttal from you. Attention to detail in the Syrian war is the key to understand why people like me would rather support the SG and the RG than those who advocate Wahabi democracy.
Given the extreme difficulty of getting impartial reporters into urban conflict areas, I reserve the right severely to doubt anything said by any of the participants. Your take seems to be that the SG, with massive Russian aid, is only shelling areas from which the civilians have been permitted to escape by SG humanitarian corridors. I don’t think this is true at all, based on what I understand to be the motivation and methodology of Assad’s actions. Looking at it from the Russian POV, the Chechen experience suggests far otherwise. As, to be impartial, Fallujah 1 suggests too. This is not a realistic option for eliminating an enemy embedded in an urban setting. In purely practical terms, the SG/Russia would be ill-advised to take the risk, and in any case, civilians held hostage in IS-controlled areas would not be permitted to leave even if the opportunity were freely available. That’s beyond doubt how IS works, and I should be very surprised if alternately-named salafist groups were any different.
Imagine the outcry if the US bombarded civilian areas (populated or not by civilians) on this scale.
You are right to disagree with me – it is a symptom of independent thought, which has become all too rare in these comments. But feel equally free to question all of the combatants in this clusterfuck of a hegemonists’ proxy war. Please.
Oh, and Bowen also said on Today that he couldn’t get into Ghouta. Which maybe he could have done if the SG had opened an escape route?
“Imagine the outcry if the US bombarded civilian areas (populated or not by civilians) on this scale.”
But it has already happened in Al Raqqa hasn’t it? And also in Mosul.What you are describing is a utopian vision where a government confronted by ruthless terrorists has to give in to these terrorists because they are using human shields. How really do you think you can otherwise solve this problem? Incidentally also what you may or may not know is that these civilised terrorists have been shelling Damascus frequently causing actual deaths amongst civilians.
You also carefully avoid the question of what is the alternative in Syria. Please tell me what your ideal scenario is for an end in bloodshed. Are you not aware that these terrorists have equally terrorised fellow Sunnis as well as annihilated other non-Sunni and many minorities?
“Oh, and Bowen also said on Today that he couldn’t get into Ghouta. Which maybe he could have done if the SG had opened an escape route?”
Please Komodo, Ba’al, Kempe etc… You really think that Bowen would venture to enter into E Ghouta even if he was allowed? Have you not heard of the number of journalist who were executed by the Islamists? This is why there is no impartial reporting within the terrorist areas because you can only report from these areas if you are a terrorist, otherwise your throat will be slit.
This is how the White Helmets get all that disturbing footage predominantly of ‘injured’ children. Pity the gullible masses keep swallowing this tripe.
https://www.facebook.com/ZolotarevDm/posts/10160028206395228
John,
That’s interesting, but why would the White Helmets leak that? That could be fake propaganda of fakery, filmed anywhere to depict what the white helmets are actually doing, to be later debunked. I am not saying it is, but the Russian guy who posted it, has a lot of British conservative and American friends. Like him, I don’t trust any of these people, but agree with him on his favourite film Groundhog Day. I wonder if he can fly that thing.
Tony
@ Tony_0pmoc February 26, 2018 at 19:53
‘Does this video show the moment Iraqis stage a car bomb terrorist attack?’:
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/558731/iraq-baghdad-staged-fake-car-bomb-suicide-terror-attack-video-viral-cctv-ISIS-trick-real
Can’t get much clearer than that; and obviously not just a ‘drill’. In the full video it shows the guy who plants the bomb, from a distinctive military-looking SUV, then runs back to the car which speeds off, just before the car explodes and the ‘crisis actors’ are delivered.
Because everything the Russians and Syrian government do is automatically right and everything the West does is automatically wrong. Complex and tragic situations are so much simpler if you think in terms of goodies and baddies. If ‘John Goss’ doesn’t live in a troll farm in St Petersburg/Leningrad, he sure does a good impression of someone who does. FFS, how can anyone take this crap seriously?
Still, it’s reassuring to see him spending so much of his time preaching to the converted. He’s not going to affect Western policy on this blog, that’s for sure.
“FFS, how can anyone take this crap seriously?”
The soft glove Stalinists are the first liquidees..
I don’t see any connection between the two videos. The first shows genuine victims being treated, the second volunteers being made up for an exercise in Palestine. Note the white vehicles and the guy with the “severed” hand.
https://www.liveleak.com/view?i=d0d_1486652255
Just because in can be faked doesn’t mean it was faked.
“Just because in can be faked doesn’t mean it was faked.”
Except the White Helmets have a reputation for faking.
@ John Goss February 26, 2018 at 21:23
As do our ‘cousins’ across the pond…
While the Russians always tell it exactly as it is, and are just wonderful human beings. Putin is God’s anointed Orthodox Tsar, possesses the wisdom of ages, and would never dream of subverting anyone via press and media campaigns designed to exploit the divisions permitted in the West, in order to Make Russia Great Again…#MRGA…
Hasn’t harassed and banned anyone looking like a contender in the presidential elections either, has he?
The procedure that we’re invited to take part is not an election. Only Putin and the candidates he has hand-picked* are taking part in it. Going to the polls right now is to vote for lies and corruption.
(Alexei Navalny , banned candidate)
*IE, candidates who are no conceivable electoral threat.
“The procedure that we’re invited to take part is not an election. Only Putin and the candidates he has hand-picked* are taking part in it. Going to the polls right now is to vote for lies and corruption.”
(Alexei Navalny , banned candidate)
Ba’al
He would say that wouldn’t he. One of the things that baffles me is why Putin does not allow this comedian to run for elections, he has regularly attracted very low polling and has no coherent policies. Now we might think he is a great guy to run Russia but it seems the Russian do not think so.
As to why the Russians and Putin are behaving the way they are behaving, it is not difficult to explain, without condoning in any way, why a country should so much wish for self survival, even under relatively limited democratic condition. Russia was given a chance to become democratic in 1989 under Gorbachev but the West squandered this opportunity by instead trying to plunder Russia under the alcoholic Yeltsin. The Chicago school moved in to apply shock therapy to the disadvantage of the ordinary Russians. A mirror of what you would get in Russia is already happening in Ukraine. One thief was replaced by another bigger thief whose only claim to being better is that he is that he is opening Ukraine to Western markets and might join NATO. If you talk to any Poles they will tell you that Poland is now flooded with Ukrainians who would do any job for a pittance because they have no prospects of livelihood in the thief ridden newly western influenced Ukraine. You Know Ba’al, I would agree with you and Kempe about anything that Russia does is wrong and undemocratic, if we lived in a perfect world and if democracy has led to prosperity for all in the West, but as it is Western democracy is a disappointing sham, and attempts atr ex[porting it to the rest of the world have ended in huge disasters.
You like to quote Grozny. Yes that was horrible but again faced with Islamic terrorists, the Russians behaved in a brutal manner. But you must also acknowledge that Grozny was made possible because on the other side were brutal fundamentalists who were also being armed by the Saudis and CIA and others. Also the chechen wars were started during the time of the West’s blue eyed boy, Yeltsin.
Unlike the West, Putin does not have too much baggage. He does not have Vietnam, Granada, el Salvador, Iraq Libya, Somalia, Yemen and Syria to contend with. He is by no means perfect.
Just to pick one nugget from that rich vein of propasganda, SA (and I am really beginning to doubt your bona fides, I’m afraid) …thief-ridden Ukraine…just remind me which totally honest and uncorrupt, Russian-backed president of Ukraine built himself a modern version of Versailles , furnished with bling, at the Ukrainian state’s expense, before the Orange Revolution (which, of course changed nothing except the Russians’ sense that their former puppet wouldn’t embarrass them). Yanukovych was from Donbas….go figure… See also ‘berkut’.
And this not long in –
https://www.kyivpost.com/ukraine-politics/mueller-manafort-secretly-paid-top-european-politicians-lobby-yanukovych.html
Which demonstrates that thievery knows no borders.
Komodo aka Ba’al
I advise you to apologise at least about Ukraine after you have actually read what I said carefully
“A mirror of what you would get in Russia is already happening in Ukraine. One thief was replaced by another bigger thief whose only claim to being better is that he is that he is opening Ukraine to Western markets and might join NATO.”
I am not a propagandist and I dare say nor are you so ;let us keep it polite.
See ICARUS Netflix doc on worldwide doping and Arch criminal Putins reach.
At least Mexico holds some sway over Cartels..
Whilst the CIA traffics drugs, and opium production has increased several fold in Afghanistan since the US took charge.
https://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/crime/item/12247-cia-manages-drug-trade-mexican-official-says
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/11/20/world/anti-drug-unit-of-cia-sent-ton-of-cocaine-to-us-in-1990.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegations_of_CIA_drug_trafficking
Maybe SA is really SVR..
Maybe Ben ran out of useful things to say.
Farage/Trump. ..heh
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/26/russian-millions-laundered-via-uk-firms-leaked-report-says
Please explain link to Farage/Trump? Never has been any evidence of Russia collusion. Never will be because it didn’t happen. I believe you Americans call it a “nothing burger”.
THere do seem to be some disturbing features of that juxtaposition, Ben…
https://www.thedailybeast.com/meet-posh-george-the-shady-money-man-tangled-up-with-brexit-russia-and-trump
heh.
Collusion is a Trump word favorite now, komo.
I’ve said from the beginning Trump is only interested in his bottom line. Mueller has been pursuing money laundering but I suspect Garage has bigger ideas which, is not difficult.
Farage..
Perhaps you and I could Team Teach the non-EURO Zeitgeist to your fellow travelers. 🙂
I have always been opposed to the death penallty. That goes for ISIS captives too. Two wrongs do not make a right.
This child, only a child, made a stupid decision based on, I suspect, adventure stories and a way to get even with the bastards who lied to steal Iraqi oil.
” Originally from the German town of Pulsnitz, a town near Dresden in eastern Germany, Wenzel converted to Islam in 2016. After meeting extremists online at the age of 15, Wenzel ran away from home and made her way into Iraq through Turkey and Syria.
There, she reportedly married a Chechen fighter, who was later killed. After being captured in Mosul last year, Wenzel made headlines across the world when footage emerged that showed her terrified and in tears as she was dragged along by Iraqi troops. But the teenager was just one of many women from Europe and elsewhere who traveled to the Middle East to become jihadi brides.
Since her capture, Wenzel has expressed regret for her actions. “I want to go home to my family,” she told reporters. “I want to get out of the war, away from the weapons, the noise.” “I don’t know how I came up with such a dumb idea. I’ve completely ruined my life.”
———————-
Nobody should not be hanged whatever the findings of a court. These 16 ISIS women are no exeption. The world needs to find a way to promote peace and get rid of weapons – all weapons.
https://nsnbc.me/2018/02/26/87905
John ^^^ I have always been opposed to the death penalty…
So have I, absolutely without exception. However, I make an exception for Hysterity Clinton and O’Bomber, for what they planned and carried out for Mr Ghaddafi (and millions of “collaterals”).
I may make an exception for Verity Fox, who is quietly going about some treasonous business dreadfully destructive to millions of lives and livelihoods, while the blond buffoon slyly distracts attention.
pietra
February 27, 2018 at 01:14
Don’t Try to forget David ameron’s War Crimes
Libya – now do check that. It was Sarkozy who kicked that one off. Ably (lol) assisted by our very own Cameron. And Clinton and Obama were being fed a crock of shite by people with a financial interest in losing Gaddafi, rather as Bush II was led up the garden path by the PNAC crew. I doubt very much if Trump would have made better sense of what was going on…and if he had would the situation today be any better?
https://news.vice.com/article/libyan-oil-gold-and-qaddafi-the-strange-email-sidney-blumenthal-sent-hillary-clinton-in-2011
Where is Werretty and where are Ghadaffi’s billions ha had in Swiss bank accounts?
Werritty was last spotted looking for funding for a Brexit Advent calendar – bizarre but true.
Attempts continue to release some of Gaddafi’s money to compensate British victims of Libyan-suppled IRA attacks. Hindered by Blair and Straw’s stalling and refusal to supply evidence of their doubledealing with Gaddafi.
@ Nevermind
23 February 2016
In a less shameless world, Liam Fox’s career would have ended in 2011
Or to give him his full title, the disgraced former defence secretary, Dr Liam Fox.
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2016/02/less-shameless-world-liam-fox-s-career-would-have-ended-2011
The word is ‘chutzpah’ as he struts the world stage.
I read he has travelled a total of 290,000 miles. What a waste of fossil fuel (on a par with BLiar) and taxpayers’ money.
Where has Liam Fox travelled as secretary for international trade …
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-interactive/2018/feb/26/where-has-liam-fox-travelled-as-trade-secretary
23 hours ago – The international trade secretary, Liam Fox, has flown 290,000 miles – slightly further than a trip to the moon – to meet politicians and business leaders … Ahead of a key speech outlining the government’s post-Brexit plans for trade with the rest of the world, the Guardian analysis shows Fox has travelled to …
Should be in the dock.
Simple. The USUKIS leaders, like Obama, Cameron, Johnson and NastyNasty should all be made to drink the same psychosis inducing drugs that their victims of torture -rendition were made to swallow. I’m sure the posh tailors of St James’s SW1 could provide gentlemen/women straightjackets and Bori’s pigsty could be adapted for them to stay, with running claret and oysters a la carte. And, once it had become fashionable to oink in a straight-jacket in a pig-sty, loads of other old wets and old etonians would copy them like your 15 year old girl copied customers of USUKIS brain-washing. The whole Tory party and half New Labour could be oinking away and copulating in captivity while the adults, Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell sort out the mess of 38 years of Thatcher rule.
Who are the US, UK and France trying to protect in Eastern Ghouta?
https://off-guardian.org/2018/02/26/who-are-the-us-uk-and-france-trying-to-protect-in-eastern-ghouta/
Bonus;
https://youtu.be/uhtnmDxDCPU
@ Macky February 27, 2018 at 08:16
I’m sure many of us on here have known this from day one, but it has become clearer as time goes on, to those who don’t rely on the MSM government propaganda.
‘Militants attack humanitarian corridor in East Ghouta: Russian MoD’:
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/militants-attack-humanitarian-corridor-east-ghouta-russian-mod/
‘Syria accuses US of transporting ISIS leaders to safety’:
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/syria-accuses-us-transporting-isis-leaders-safety/?
Then you have ‘accidental’ attacks on Syrian forces in Deir Ezzor, killing 100-odd and wounding many more, which was IMMEDIATELY followed by a Daesh attack, so clearly coordinated with the US attack.
And numerous cases of deliberate, as well as ‘accidental’ airdrops of weapons and ammunition to Daesh by US and British aircraft and helicopters.
In their desperation to carve up Syria, the US and it’s War Criminal cronies are getting increasingly desperate, providing more CW and advanced weaponry such as Stingers to their proxy headchoppers.
And our criminal MSM pretend not to notice, but blame everything on Assad, Putin and Iran.
What surprised me about all this was to learn that a suburb of Damascus was still under “rebel” control. Those terrorists (sorry, webels) must be very well entrenched indeed. Perhaps there are many Western assets embedded there also, which might explain the cringe-making outburst of shreiking from the MSM as the Syrians finally get their country back.
So, a week later, what are the facts of JA whereabouts? I expect that nobody has whizzed him away on a sledge yet and he is still stuck in his embassy cubbyhole.
In December 2016, during the liberation of Aleppo, a number of foreign “advisers” were nabbed by the SAA. They were named in a UN session by Syria’s envoy Bashar al-Jafaari. You can find him doing exactly that on Youtube.
Given the proximity of Eastern Ghouta to the capital, and its size, you can bet there will be SAS/DGSE is there co-ordinating the head-choppers’ defence.
Just WHO is targeting civilians? Apart from the daily bombardment of Damascus, the ‘Moderate’ headchoppers are also bombarding the humanitarian corridors out of East Ghouta (just as they did in Aleppo):
‘Militants attack humanitarian corridor in East Ghouta: Russian MoD’:
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/militants-attack-humanitarian-corridor-east-ghouta-russian-mod/
And what happened to the MSM frenzy over the ‘bloodbath’ being carried out in Aleppo? Well, as soon as Aleppo was liberated, the MSM has shown no inclination whatsoever to go there and interview the survivors, to check if their previous reports had been true, or even to publicise freely available videos and testimonies of people dancing in the streets, and of their utter relief being freed from being hostages and prisoners of the headchopppers.
Who trusts the BBC? . . . . I don’t
Mark Millar creator of KickAss “I don’t trust the BBC any more”
http://indyref2.scot/mark-miller-i-dont-trust-the-bbc-anymore
Good point, Paul. The Beeb did the same in Libya. Big Johnny Simpson was there when we “liberated” Sirte, but no one has been back since to find out what happened to the city we destroyed.
It’s too dangerous!
:
John Simpson also led the way to liberate I think Kabul. But my favourite JS clip:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uwWMaJJ_MSgPl
How the state propaganda machine the BBC, is used as a tool against Scots.
Yet the same story in Wales, is put across differently.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=lJt3jm5yGoY
Jeez.
BBC Scotland, more slant than an Olympic speed skater goin’ roon a corner.
Meanwhile the disaster that is Brexit begins to bite, even though Scotland didn’t vote to leave.
“David O’Brien, chief commercial officer of Ryanair “We think Brexit is particularly threatening to Scotland and its economy, and particularly to the aviation industry” 300 jobs at risk as Ryanair cuts Glasgow routes due to Brexit.”
They have moved the routes to Edinburgh, last I looked Edinburgh was still in Scotland so the move is a loss to Glasgow rather than a loss to Scotland.
What could be a loss to Scotland is the £50 million the SNP spent flogging the Prestwick dead horse.
Well, I’m sure you know better than O’Brien with regards to Brexit, when he said the above.
Mr O’Brien said: “Sadly the weaker Scottish market is even weaker still in Glasgow, which simply can’t bare the burden of APD at £13.
“This should not come as a surprise to the government, we did say that our growth in Glasgow was based on their promise to abolish APD, which morphed into a promise to half APD, which suddenly has disappeared into the ether and quite frankly we don’t have any more patience.
“There are other markets in the UK and Europe which offer a more compelling proposition.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-43209126
SNP broken promises behind the move.
Well again Labour and the Tories in Scotland vehemently opposed the abolition of APD on short haul flights in Scotland, as did the Greens.
Stuart Patrick, chief executive of Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, said on RyanAir’s decision.
Glasgow Airport has undergone a period of significant growth so to hear a carrier is choosing to reduce its services is quite surprising. The city’s hotel occupancy figures reaffirm this level of traffic, with Glasgow sitting above London in terms of percentage of total full rooms.”
However I agree that APD shouldve been for “short haul ” flights been cut by now. Still Brexit will inevitably affect negatively, the carriers at Scottish airports.
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/02/27/world/asia/north-korea-syria-chemical-weapons-sanctions.html?referer=
Nyet.
@ Ben February 27, 2018 at 15:25
Well, the ‘New York Slimes’ would say that, wouldn’t they?
Lots of ‘reported’ and ‘un-named officials’ , plenty of testimony from ‘Rebel’ sources, but sweet FA evidence.
Still, who needs evidence when you have ‘the UN’ and other ‘independent’ sources, like the ‘White Helmets’, to rely on?
Of course, the ‘NY Slimes’ can be relied on for unbiased, truthful reporting, surely?
I’m sure the BBC would back them up, along with the rest of our MSM propaganda shower.
Nazdarovya!
You have a pristine source untarnished by human contact?
Jacobs Ladder?
Sounds like all you’re doing is sliming the NYT, Paul, and offering absolutely zero in the way of genuine refuting of their story.
Perhaps we should look to you – personally – for unvarnished truth from impeccable sources, giving a sober analysis with due consideration to facts and probity all round?
@ glenn_nl February 27, 2018 at 17:17
They offer NO evidence, just ‘reports’ and ‘allegations’, which just coincidentally coincide with the US and it’s cronies ‘Regime Change’ agenda.
You believe the MSM, already? Despite Iraqi WMD; ‘Kuwaiti Incubator Babies LIE’; umpteen Iraqi tanks on border with Kuwait, ‘Guld of Tonkin’ Lie; all of Bliar’s faithfully reported lies; Assad using Chemical Weapons, yet with totally no evidence, and a flagrant nonsense as he knew it had been a ‘Red Line’ from the ‘Great Satan’, yet they ignored the most likely scenario, a headchopper ‘False Flag’ to get the West’s military involved.
Use a wee bit of logic, FFS.
Who do YOU believe?
Next door neighbor?
Cousin Juice?
Name your poison dude
@ Ben February 27, 2018 at 18:37
I believe the evidence of eyewitnesses like Vanessa Beeley and Eva Bartlett, and use my common sense and logic in posts from RT, Syrian, Lebanese and Iranian-based news sources (FAR more believable than our soul-sold propaganda MSM), and sites such as Voltaire Net, 21st Century Wire and Global Research.
Plus, to repeat, common sense and logic. And precedent. Cui bono?
So Paul – in your binary world, you either believe EVERYTHING the newspapers say, or NONE of it, right?
glenn_nl
This particular report is particularly poor on details or any evidence. Moreover the waffle is of such poor quality: why would Syria need North Korean expertise to make Chlorine, something you could produce if you have a bit of appropriate salt and acid and a testube?
Fair enough, and sometimes reports are a bit sketchy. They are easily identifiable as such, and should be taken on their merits. What I find rather curious is the knee-jerk dismissal of anything one might not like, on account of a dubious story from the same source 20 years ago.
David Lidington looks just like some jovially cruel and conniving Roman proconsul or general in the TV production of I Claudius.
Jeez it’s painful to watch Jeremy Corbyn, try to squeeze a camel through the eye of a needle. Meaning it bleeding obvious to one and all that Corbyn, a man who has been a eurosceptic all of his life, and at times mirrored the Tories aspects on Brexit. Is now jumping on the bandwagon, in the hope of winning over remainers who see him as a flip-flopper on other policies.
I guess, Corbyn now realises that the only possible way he can become PM is to change his life long prinicples over the EU and semi embrace remaining in some form of customs union, the need for power, overwhelms the principle.
No doubt remainers will flock to Corbyn’s new found tolerance of the EU, however he’s still a long off from becoming PM.
Ros
I’ve said it before on here. Corbyn can’t in the slightest bit do strategy. Not that that makes him unique among politicians.
He thinks that setting a list of goals – and that’s all his speech was – is strategy.
reel guid.
Corbyn’s U-Turn on a form of EU customs for Britain after months and months of repeating Theresa May’s we’re leaving and it would be undemocratic not to leave, is staggering.
It’s all the more flabbergasting, when you add in that Corbyn is a well known eurosceptic. It’s such a blatant flip flop, and principle breaker, of his to suddenly agree that a customs union of sorts is now needed.
I’m don’t watch QT, but several radio stations reported that it was only last Thursday, that John Prescott on QT was still pushing the we must leave it’s the democratic thing to do.
Ros
Corbyn is trying to placate both Brexiteers and Remainers. It’ll result in him displeasing both groups.
Rule number one: always blame der Wuskies, even when the real problem lies much closer to home.
It seems poor old Bernie Sanders is getting dragged into the Wuskie nonsense. As the evidence amply shows, he lost the Democratic nomination because of gross and illegal interference by the Clinton camp. But now he’s being implicated in Wuskiegate, presumably for having the temerity even to stand against her:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/02/26/bernie-sanders-struggles-to-address-russian-support-after-mueller-indictment.html
LOL. He lost because he people didn’t vote for him.
Simple as that.
People didn’t have the opportunity to vote for him, Hillary stole the nomination.
Simple as that.
It’s not particularly wise to quote Fox “News” on anything, MJ. It’s simply a propaganda outlet for the Republican party. Obviously, they are desperate to throw the heat off Trump, and hoping their brain-dead viewers are stupid enough to believe some of this utter BS.
Anyway, all this is about is an “anything but Hillary” attempt by all useful idiots, stooges, and moles of the Russian effort against her. Hardly a damaging indictment against Sanders, no matter how Murdoch’s Fox outlet tries to imply it.
Sounds like all you’re doing is sliming
the NYTFox News,Paulglenn_nl, and offering absolutely zero in the way of genuine refuting of their story.cf https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2018/02/assange-judges-husband-runs-security-firm-ex-head-mi6/comment-page-6/#comment-719070
You must have missed my second paragraph. And in any case, Fox is a propaganda outlet – and nothing but. The NYT is very far from a propaganda outlet, it’s a pity for you that you cannot tell the difference.
My point wasn’t about propaganda – it was about hypocrisy.
If it’s hypocrisy you’re interested in, Node, try this:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/florida-shooting-gun-control-laws-vote-bill-ban-assault-rifles-a8220401.html
Florida legislature opens with a _prayer_ for the 17 killed (not to mention many others wounded), before promptly deciding not to even debate the issue of banning assault weapons, or put any restrictions on them.
Paul probably thinks the whole thing is a hoax, though. This story came in the Independent too – part of the MSM – so he’d have a problem with that aswell. Doubtless you’ll stick up for his brave stance, and give me some crap for even mentioning anything.
My point wasn’t about Floridian hypocrisy, it was about yours.
Of course I realised that, Node, but I was addressing the point instead of making a personal attack. You might try it yourself once in a while.
Ha ha … classic! I can’t beat that. You win. Bye.
Sounds to me as though you haven’t bothered to read the story.
Sounds like both of you are highly selective on your sources, and believe only what you want to believe. Even if it comes from a notorious propaganda network, that’s good enough if you like the sound of it.
Meanwhile, back on the ranch… ‘Britain Officially Prepares Now for War Against Russia’:
http://washingtonsblog.com/2018/02/britain-officially-prepares-now-for-war-against-russia.html
‘On Wednesday, February 21st, the UK’s Minister of Defence, Conservative Gavin Williamson, announced that the United Kingdom is changing its fundamental defence strategy from one that’s targeted against non-state terrorists (Al Qaeda, etc.), to one that’s targeted instead against three countries: Russia, China, and North Korea. He acknowledged that a massive increase in military spending will be needed for this, and that “savings” will have to be found in other areas of Government-spending, such as the health services, and in military spending against terrorism…..’
Say again? ‘…He acknowledged that a massive increase in military spending will be needed for this, and that “savings” will have to be found in other areas of Government-spending, such as the health services, and in military spending against terrorism…..’
And some people on here keep slagging off Corbyn!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKqXu-5jw60
@ Paul Barbara February 27, 2018 at 16:56
How can we possibly be worried about the NHS, when the Great Russian Bear, the Chinese Dragon and the N. Korean ‘Rocket Man’ are after us?
Thank Old Nick, we have the Tories to save us!
@ Ben February 27, 2018 at 19:18
Who do you believe started the present Syrian war? And why?
Who caused the ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland to erupt in the early 1970’s?
Who has bases in almost all countries in the world, Russia, China and N. Korea, or the US and it’s gang of cronies?
If you had been campaigning in Human Rights as long as me, you would know that yes, it is very black and white.
We are not talking about the Stalinist Soviet Union, we are talking about Putin’s Russia, vast difference.