In the summer of 1975 I was sixteen years old and sitting on the edge of the fountain in the Aviemore Centre, waiting to fix a kiddie kart when it broke down or the coin mechanism jammed, and reading a Penguin edition of The Quiet American by Graham Greene. It detailed the origin of the US entry into the Vietnam conflict as the French colonial hold weakened, and of course the plot revolved around a false flag bombing incident designed to facilitate American intervention. The introduction to that edition made very clear that the novel was closely based on true events by Greene – who was there in Vietnam at the time – and in my memory across 43 years it actually named and discussed the real life false flag bomb incident on which the book was based. I do not think the existence of the real false flag bombing at the heart of the story has ever been seriously disputed. The novel was quite startling to a sixteen year old boy.
It was impossible not to recall The Quiet American while watching Trump and Macron give their presser at the White House yesterday. Reinstating the role of France, the former colonial power, in Syria though a continuing US/French military presence was the main theme, under the guise of “preventing hegemony” – clearly aimed at Iran. The haunting parallels to Indo-China are striking. So too is the fact that Graham Greene was a deservedly admired figure in British culture and society. The BBC and the Times never attacked him as a “conspiracy theorist” or a lunatic for writing passionately of a false flag attack. This was partly because everybody understood these things actually do happen, and partly because in the early part of my life political dissent was permitted without social ostracism. The latter is no longer the case and an orchestrated media is trying to eradicate the former knowledge.
My personal dislike of Harvey Weinstein dates from 2002, when he acted successfully to minimise the release and the publicity for the excellent film of The Quiet American starring Michael Caine. Weinstein thought the film was anti-American. It was perhaps Caine’s greatest performance and he was nominated for Best Actor at the Oscars, but Weinstein helped ensure he did not get it.
The reason that I know this is interesting. The film rights to my own memoir, Murder in Samarkand, have been continuously owned by a series of major producers for twelve years. In that time film scripts have been written of Murder in Samarkand by some very big names. There have been four finished scripts including one by Sir David Hare (which is still owned by Paramount) and one by Michael Winterbottom. But a film producer sat me down and explained to me that a film about the “War on Terror”, in which the Americans are the bad guys and the main protagonist is nowadays known as a pro-Palestinian campaigner, is never going to get financed. And he cited what happened to The Quiet American as an example.
Macron is frequently described as a French Tony Blair, but to me he seems more a French Margaret Thatcher, seeking to use a jingoistic military policy to distract from very unpopular neo-liberal destruction of worker protections at home. It is hard to believe his peculiar love-in with Trump is going down well in France. The danger is that he will feel obliged to commit to more military adventurism to live up to the hype. I know that those close to Merkel look on all this posing with dour disapproval.
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I am not surprised that those close to Merkel look on “with dour disapproval”
Trump is not interested in Syria – although the deep state is desperately interested. Most likely Trump sees an opportunity to insert the French between him and Syria. This gets him (and the people that he is elected to represent) away from Syria, distracts the French and hopefully opens up the Germans – a country that Trump is very interested in.
It could have all been so different – Brexit should have been the battering ram to force open the gates of German mercantilism, but the British preferred to betray their own population, to foster war in far off lands, to conspire with the DNC and to smear Trump at every opportunity. Most likely the British now believe their own lies but Trump is a serious man and he has never lost sight of the need to get the Germans by the throat. Even reinforced with British traitors the Germans are being outmaneuvered by a man under attack by his own globalist deep state. Says a lot more about Germany than anything Merkel may have to say.
Meet the new Germans, same as the old Germans. Tactical geniuses, strategic idiots.
You should also be packed by the throat, Loony.
The germans think before they kump to conclusions, they do not act hastily, they have Mrs. May to look and learn from. How not to do it.
Germany is well aware that this neocon spat regime and the little wee two bit French sweetie will not going to changing the EU, as for terrorezza’s attempt to manage the news away from hungry English children and dying Yemeni wedding parties, the Aalisbury theatre macabre or her chemical weapons trade with the Saudi paid terrorists in Syria.
Why follow fools?
There may well be hungry English children – if so that is a consequence of UK government policy. There are hungry children in Greece – they are hungry as a consequence of German government policy. Do you spot a causal difference?
I am not aware of there being any definitive evidence regarding Chemical weapons attacks in Syria. Contrast that with clear evidence of a 1988 chemical weapons attack by Iraq on the Kurdish town of Halabja. Although some time ago, this attack formed part of the basis for the subsequent Anglo-American destruction of Iraq. Do you know who manufactured and supplied the weapons for this attack? Here is a clue the current head of the supplier country is called Angela Merkel.
You are obsessed about Germany, Loony. Greece’s problem was its own fault.
Greece’s problem are partly of its own making and partly due to Anglo financial imperialism. The left has totally discredited itself by joining the imperialists to fabricate a false narrative for making European tax payers foot the bill.
@ Loony April 25, 2018 at 20:48
Britain could hardly wait to restart selling weapons to Saddam after Halabja, and as well as Germany, the US also arranged for Chile to send Saddam CW precursors, via a Chilean firm in Paraguay (‘Profits of War’, Ari ben Menashe).
And the US engineered Saddam’s attack on Iran, just as it did his later attack on Kuwait.
And CW’s with US markings were found in a very large weapons store by US troops. The guy who disclosed that was the US Major who does most of the narrating in the following 20 minute video – well worth watching to see the absolutely horrendous birth defects caused by the US, British and their cronies’ use of Depleted Uranium. I just rewatched it, and he doesn’t say it here, but I’m sure there was another, longer version where he did say that the reason the massive Iraqi weapons dump was blown up rather than the CW’s being safely disposed of was because the PTB did not want to expose the facts of where the weapons had come from.
I know and have campaigned against the trade in Mustard gas from Germany to Saddam Hussein, and they probably sup[plied chemicals to Syria, just as the UK did, and very likely S. Skripal, with special dispensation from PD, Germany has not acted premature like the rest of the western ejaculator’s of missiles, they just can’t hold their mettle.
Question is what were you doing when Halabja was gassed? worked for Matrix Churchill?
Trump the strategist…. I don’t think so
I can highly recommend this analysis of Trump – it’s full of psychological insight: https://psychoanalyticactivist.com/2017/12/17/trumps-pathology-is-also-his-brand/
The problem is UKUS imperialism and super-mercantilism not German fair trade.
Like I said Germans are tactical geniuses and strategic idiots.
The UK and the US are causing the world a lot of problems – but “super mercantilism” is not one of them. That title belongs firmly to China and Germany.
Germany has the largest trade surplus in the world – coming in at a staggering $203 billion. How is it doing this?
Germany is a currency manipulator par excellence – that is why it is so keen to be wrapped up with Greece and the rest of the PIGS. Not only does this depress the value of the euro it also allows for German economic colonization of the south. In addition to manipulating the currency Germany is a lawless country far beyond anything dreamed of in the US or UK. Take a look at the emissions scandals effecting substantially every German vehicle manufacturer. What is happening here? What law is being upheld? Take a look at Siemens and their voluminous history of corruption scandals.
Ah you might say – what about Anglo American banks? Yes it is true the Anglo-American banking sector is also a criminal sector and is firmly embedded within the City of London and Wall Street – both global finance centers. Germany has no such nest in which to protect and cosset Deutsche Bank – and yet still the crimes of Deutsche Bank are able to compete very effectively on the world stage.
It is for these reasons and many more that President Trump has Germany firmly in his sights. Despite all the hype and rhetoric Syria is no threat to the US, but Germany is, and Trump knows it.
The only way left for Germany to protect itself from the vengeance of Trump is to further empower cultural Marxists and allow them to destroy Germany – hence the strategic idiocy.
You demonstrate very well there your obsessions about Germany.
Why did Trupm and Macron fail to wait for the results of OPCW investigation in Douma? I’m far from thinking we Russians are the the most rightful nation in any of the wars occurring on this planet, but after all in The Quiet American Vietnam war we were on the right side of history. And in the Syrian war it looks like we are on the right side. And we are winning that war in spite of all false chemical attacks, absolutely counterproductive to Assad or Russia but very convenient to the US or UK.
Excuse my French. Sorry I’m not so exquisite as Craig Murray is.
Basil, I am English, living in England, and I am as certain as I can be, that our British Government, made the entire story up about the supposed Chemical attack in Salisbury (though I am not 100% certain)
What I am as close to I can be to believing is the accuarcy of the Testimony, The Direct Observation, in not Just The Syrian Warzone, but also Gaza are what these (Two Independent Investgative Reporters) who are being Serially attacked by The Mainstream – English, American Official Press, and Most of The American Supposedly Left Wing Press write about them .. I am watching you cnts – I was on Alternet for over 5 years,,,
These girls are Telling The Truth – and its Extremely Likely they will Again get my Awad for 2018 like they did in 2017
Best Journalists in The World
Vanessa Beeley
Eva Bartlett
I’m in awe at your courage.
Thank You
Tony xx
Tony, thank you for the post, but I’m not sure what courage you mean. Not a great courage is needed to speak what you think. I don’t care much about our Russian authorities and Putin personally but in the case of Syrian war I believe Russia is right. The war is nearly won, Syrian people are returning to their homes – with a whole lot of problems, but returning. Least of all Assad and Russia need chemical attacks – but they happen (or not, but supposedly happen) and western MSM are more than ready and eager to speculate about them
Basil,
I am well travelled as a tourist (never been in any military) I have flown over wazones, but never actually landed in one.
The courage, is not if you are a soldier invading foreign lands ( I have never done that – though my Dad helped design and build the Mulbery Harbour – and deployed it under enemy fire in WWII)
The courage is if you are just a girl, and you deliberately go to Gaza or Syria alone, to find out what is going on, and write about it and take photographs – meet people from both sides..
That is what Vanessa Beeley and Eva Bartlett do.
That is Courage.
Tony
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulberry_harbour
haha just a girl. Maybe its time you altered your view on just how feeble women are
OK, Tony, I’ve got it about courage of Vanessa and Eva type. As the majority of Russian men I’ve been in the army as a conscript soldier, that’s why the word “courage” for me first of all associates with military things. I also travelled as a tourist alright, especially like Paris and Amsterdam, and a lot of my relatives fought and died in WWII, but in warzones I never landed, and I hope will never have to.
Thanks Tony. They are both wonderful beings. So is Carla Ortiz. I strongly recommend her interview on thr Jimmy Dore show. She is passionate and reveals much of the deeper social story in Damascus.
On Micron though, I get the awful impression he seeks his own personal dien bien phu in Manbij. The French have so many enemies in the Arab lands that a French military expedition will unite all to give them un petite slaughter for old times sake. Onward christian soldiers!!
Carla Ortiz interview on Jimmy Dore is heartbreaking but also shows the absolute determination and unity of the Syrian people to resist this onslaught on their beloved country.
Yes, I was moved and shared it sucessfully with family. It is another key piece of journalism. Blessings to EB & VB too.
Hear hear…………
Perviy Kanal (Russian BBC One TV) which I’m watching here in a freezing Monaco, had a hilarious Trump/Macron bromance mashup-edit news item, to the backdrop of Serge Gainsbourg’s “Je t’aime… moi non plus” – more kisses and hugs than the Birkin version; the French railway workers however are convening countrywide meetings on May 3rd, according to radio France Info, as they remain unhappier than usual. Economy on the Côte d’Azur however seems to be booming.
Couldn’t Ken Loach make Murder in Samarkand? It’s got such an evocative title, lots of people would probably go to see it by mistake, and you could both get rich! I would love to see the scene in which Jack Straw tells you that you’ve got your priorities wrong about human rights and interests of state. Reminds me a bit of the scene in which Jack Lemon goes to see the American ambassador in Chile, in the excellent film Missing. Anyway I hope to live to see it make the screen, even though I’d have to shut my eyes for the torture scene. Don’t like that sort of thing
The other director who might make it is Paul Greengrass. He made Green Zone – about the search for weapons of mass destruction after the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Admittedly, on the debit side, he also made United 93 – the fourth hijacked pane on the day that cannot be named.
Hi Craig,
I was wondering if Roy who worked at the Games Room in Aviemore was your boss?
Brus
If you knew Roy you probably knew my dad Bob too. My brothers and I still miss Roy and talk of him and his big Honda “the Beast” and raise a glass every time the TT comes round. Roy Anderson was one of a kind. I remember a machine three of us were struggling to drag across the games room and Roy just came and picked it up and walked away with it.
Probably! Depends on what his job was. Was he Roy’s (nominal) boss? Roy is/was definitely a legend. The coolest dude in Aviemore.
Yes. Roy of course would make plain he was from the Boat and that was a much more important place than Aviemore. He worked for my dad for a great many years. Roy did the Games Room, but we had machines and juke boxes in pretty well every pub and leisure location in the Highlands, which is why I have an improbably detailed knowledge of them. When I went to university at Dundee, Roy’s mum knitted me a jumper to go with.
Pretty sure that I must have met your dad then while buying records that had been used in the jukebox. We got them for 20p when a new single would have probably been 45p. I can distinctly remember buying “I know what I like (in your wardrobe)” by Genesis on the Chrysalis Records (Mad Hatter Label). I still have it. You and your brothers must have literally had the pick of the pops. Happy days.
I guess this is a reference to the Tonkin Gulf incident? There’s been a few great deceptions like that over the centuries.
I’m inclined to think that if one power or another is determined to go to war, they will do so anyway, false flags or not. When you think about it, a false flag operation is a measure of a country’s determination to pursue ‘policy by other means’ — it isn’t in itself the cause of the war, as conspiracy theorists tend to suggest, that decision had already been taken.
The real victim of false flags, of course, is the general public. We shouldn’t forget that. In most cases they are intended to sway public opinion. If Tonkin hadn’t happened, though, I think the US would have invaded South Vietnam anyway. And I actually don’t think they needed a false flag operation to sway public opinion — back then US foreign policy went largely unquestioned by the public. The Korean War is a good example and I don’t think one protest against it took place.
On Syria, I think we are sadly in much the same position. I think the decision has been made to go in and take over. The only question concerns Russia’s reaction. I think they will bribe Russia and depose Assad. If they guarantee Russia naval port access on the same terms they have now in Syria and offer to reduce sanctions, I think there’s a deal to be struck.
Hi Hatuey, not its not the Gulf of Tonkin. It was a terrorist bombing in a market.
Craig.
If you want to see the full list of SIU donors (I won’t post it on your blog) then go to wings and open link the of RogueCoders @20.39pm.
Better be quick I don’t know how long it will be up, some of the names are surprising.
RoS, had to laugh when I read, “I appreciate you are concerned about the security of your data. However, the relevant staff are not in the Edinburgh office but here in London”. A bit like Scottish Labour/Libdems/Tories then! (and, unfortunately, Scotland until the union ends).
It made the front page of the only newspaper in Scotland that counts.
https://mobile.twitter.com/ScotNational/status/989245206364151808
Which names were surprising in your opinion?
I will watch that film, Craig, and look into this incident you mention. I should be ashamed, the Cold War was one of my core subjects at university. Ty.
I always thought Truman got away with murder with his Truman Doctrine based on supporting the Nazi supporters and monarchists in Greece against those who had fought against the Nazi occupiers of Greece. Not sure if its true, but I seem to remember that in the film Z (Costa-Gavras), it emerges that the Greek secret police were funded by the CIA
I think you’ll find it was a British decision to engineer what they called ‘the Greek civil war’. Truman’s doctrine came later, in 1947 I think. It’s quite a skeleton in the cupboard. Then again, the British cupboards are full of them.
Interestingly, when the war ended Greece was under Nazi occupation. Britain had up until then been supporting the rebels who were fighting the Nazis. But when the war ended Britain turned against the rebels and asked the Nazis if they would hang on until a British battalion got there to take over.
They call it a ‘power vacuum’ when there’s a chance of something resembling real democracy breaking out. So it goes.
@ FranzB April 25, 2018 at 23:30
It was mainly the British army (and RAF) that turned against the Greek Partisans after WWII. The squaddies were told that the Partizans had supported the Germans! Indeed, the CIA were later behind the Greek Colonels Coup (I believe that was what ‘Z’ was about, rather than WWII and it’s immediate aftermath). The coup was led by the Greek Gladio group, which had infiltrated the military, just as were the 3 or 4 coups in Turkey were instigated by the Turkish Gladio.
@ Craig
Blimey! That’s one I never heard of – reminds me of the recent Borough Market shenanigans.
Spooks are having problems with pervasive modern technology, and may hence soon become software-agents rather than physical officers. I’m sure the current AI doughnut servers will be labeled “SkyNet1” etc
https://thenextweb.com/artificial-intelligence/2018/04/23/cia-plans-to-replace-spies-with-ai/
Truman set up the CIA and later regretted it .CIA was initially a Wall St tool, has diversified to include the US Corporations, Finances its Black ops by drug running out of the Golden Triangle, Afghanistan and Cocaine from S.America.
@ Salford Lad April 26, 2018 at 00:06
That was another major reason they invaded Afghanistan, as well as pipeline routes from the Caspian and a strategic base area.
The CIA was responsible for the massive crack cocaine in the Black ghettos, which helped fund the Contra war.
JFK had sworn to disband the CIA, and replace it with an accountable Intelligence Agency (a CIA Colonel Phillips was the coordinator of the JFK assassination, which with the cover-up involved the Mafia, Mossad, anti-Castro Cubans, Oil Magnates as well as the CIA, FBI (he was also going to retire J Edgar Hoover), local police, and LBJ).
It’s also been suggested that the laundering of drug money by banks is about the only thing keeping them afloat. Gosh, I hear you say, banks knowingly laundering drug money? Remember, children, laws are only for the little people. Even if banks get busted, nobody goes to jail: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/feb/15/hsbc-has-form-mexico-laundered-drug-money .
It’s one of the reasons why the so-called War on Drugs will remain in place: it’s too damn lucrative for many groups. Plus, it, along with “terrorism”, provides a splendid pretext for oppressive laws and policing. And don’t forget the private US prison system needs fresh inmates to keep those profits rolling in. Yep, all just a tiny bit corrupt.
I think ‘The Odd Couple’ is what much of the French press make of the current Trump-Macron cosy.
Actually, the photo reportage did make the meeting look like The Odd Couple Squared: Trump with the 25 year younger, ‘child bride’ and Macron, who as the French press keep reminding us, has married his grandmother.
@ copydude April 25, 2018 at 21:31
Maybe they were negotiating a swap!
I kinda like Stepto and son.
Prince Vichy de Macron.
That is all.
Doubtless there will be even more smooching when May and Trump are given a standing ovation in July by both Houses of Parliament crammed into Westminster Hall.
They are all warmongers now and Salisbury/Douma are but the first of this summer’s false flags.
Macron is merely channeling Sykes-Picot.
Watching lying Macron Sreetch about Syria the other day..and to warmonger cheerleaders.. Sometimes one feels like putting my hand into the screene.. Grabbing some evil shits by the throat
Media Lens have a very good Piece up, including an brief exchange between Craig, and George Monbiot
” In the Observer, Andrew Rawnsley also deceived in plain sight by blaming the Syrian catastrophe on Western inaction:
‘Syria has paid a terrible price for the west’s disastrous policy of doing nothing’.
However terrible media reporting on the 2003 Iraq war, commentators did at least recognise that the US and Britain were involved. We wrote to Rawnsley, asking how he could possibly not know about the CIA’s billion dollar per annum campaign to train and arm fighters, or about the 15,000 high-tech, US anti-tank missiles sent to Syrian ‘rebels’ via Saudi Arabia.
Rawnsley ignored us, as ever.
Just three days after the alleged attack, the Guardian’s George Monbiot was asked about Douma:
‘Don’t you smell a set up here though? Craig Murray doesn’t think Assad did it.’
Monbiot replied:
‘Then he’s a fool.’
Craig Murray responded rather more graciously:
‘I continue to attract attacks from the “respectable” corporate and state media. I shared a platform with Monbiot once, and liked him. They plainly find the spirit of intellectual inquiry to be a personal affront.’
Monbiot tweeted back:
‘I’m sorry Craig but, while you have done excellent work on some issues, your efforts to exonerate Russia and Syria of a long list of crimes, despite the weight of evidence, are foolish in the extreme.’
The idea that Murray’s effort has been ‘to exonerate Russia and Syria of a long list of crimes’ is again so completely false, so obviously not what Murray has been doing. But it fits perfectly with the corporate media theme of Cold War-style browbeating: anyone challenging the case for US-UK policy on Syria is an ‘apologist’ for ‘the enemy’.
http://www.medialens.org/index.php/alerts/alert-archive/2018/868-douma-part-1.html
It’s the highly disciplined stonewall approach of the mainstream media that suggests Syria is going to escalate massively. It’s frightening. I can’t remember this sort of blanket denial before with Libya, Iraq, or anywhere. And I’ve never seen alternative and dissident opinion so marginalised.
Should we assume it’s more than coincidence that all these news agencies and newspapers are singing from the same hymn sheet on this? Should we assume some sort of government order is in place? It stinks, of course, when you weigh up what they are saying against what we know is being said online and on non-corporate news channels.
This is more evidence that points to a planned invasion of Syria, and more evidence that they’re fearful of a Russia Backlash.. Sleepwalking into a potentially major conflict is one thing, going in eyes wide open and fully aware that it’s all based on the flimsiest pack of lies is much more unsettling. Still, we march on regardless.
People should note the semiotics of the British state’s intention to murder working class baby Alfie Evans too.
I don’t think it has been mentioned in the comments here, but it is high up in the news consumption of much of the population and it is having an effect on people’s minds. The message going out loud and clear from the state authorities to the working class in this country is as follows: WE decide whether someone lives and dies, and you are ANTI-SOCIAL SCUM if you dare to contest our right.
You will notice that this kind of preparation will be useful when the BZ or sarin or VX, or perhaps it will be anthrax, starts flowing and it’s not just Salisbury that gets the army on the streets.
Those who want to maintain a profoundly critical attitude towards exploitation and totalitarian rule need to be clear about what is going on.
D’you know what? The current political shape of things in Britain would not survive an event similar to Bataclan in Paris 2015, the promenade massacre in Nice 2016, or the theatre siege in Moscow 2002.
It’s interesting that no journalist has come up with the idea of asking Jacob Rees-Mogg what his view of the Alfie Evans case is.
I should add that if Rees-Mogg were to voice the view that I think he would express if he didn’t weasel out, I would agree with him. And I am not Catholic or even Christian.
@ N_ April 26, 2018 at 00:06
‘.. The current political shape of things in Britain would not survive an event similar to Bataclan in Paris 2015, the promenade massacre in Nice 2016, or the theatre siege in Moscow 2002.’
Maybe not, but at least London wouldn’t order the local police to clear the CCTV tapes (like Paris did in Nice). Here, we’d just be told ‘Unfortunately they were all down for maintenance’ or some such twaddle.
@Paul. Agreed that there is something very specific about the way the British authorities tell lies. It’s to do with social deference. When things get pushed, those who step out of line, who insist on two plus two making four, are perceived as muck, psychotic, ultra-antisocial.
Thank you N_, the obscene circumstance of state dismissal of Alfie Evans is cogruous with the plight of children in Gaza and Palestein.It is revolting!
I agree with your conclusion, any significant event could unleash a major civil response.
There’s already been such a civil response, of course I’m talking about the riots of 2011 which were absolutely political. Everything is sort of political, except me, I’m above all that and completely objective.
I remember thinking the juxtaposition of things was quite funny back then; one minute we were talking about the credit crunch and the expenses scandal, which when you boil it down represented theft and criminality on a massive scale at the highest levels, next minute we had groups of skint kids blagging jeans and TVs from shops.
One group were severely punished by being given huge pay rises, tax payer bail outs, and quantative easing, whilst the evil teenagers were rewarded by being sent to prison; as we all know, thanks to the tabloids, prisons are basically holiday camps.
If as most suspect the west is intent on invading Syria and confronting Russia, I hope Russia will use its new missile systems to strike our political, military and economic establishments once it is compelled to counter-attack. Take the head off the snake. Once the elite start dying and their centres of power are turned to dust, and the rest of them know they’re, targets they will quickly start talking about peace. Those missiles could end naked aggression forever if they ensure many elite are amongst the first to die in this war.
Take out Wall Street, the Pentagon, Capitol Building, the Square Mile, Parliament, the Knesset, military bases, docks etc. They could end the west as a world power for less than $1 billion and bring peace at last. Then hunt down our war criminals on capital charges.
Monbiot is a real buffoon, but i bet the pay is good working for the empire..
@ BrianFujisan
April 25, 2018 at 22:37
I posted this on the previous post, but it’s relevant here – once the following is confirmed Craig can tweet nicely back to Monbiot:
‘Well, looks like I was too hasty in knocking the OPCW:
‘OPCW Finds No Chemical Weapons at Syrian Facilities Bombed by US – Russian MoD’:
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201804251063884207-opcw-chemical-weapons-syria-damascus/
‘…The official further noted that thousands of people could have died if there was any chemical weapon on the sites that were attacked by the US-led coalition.
“Immediately after the attacks, many people who worked at these destroyed facilities and just bystanders without any protective equipment visited them. None of them got poisoned with toxic agents,” Rudskoy said.
He said the logic of strikes on alleged facilities with toxic agents in Syria was unclear, because if toxic agents had theoretically been stored there, tens of thousands of people would have died after the cruise missile strikes….’
Let’s hope they also get samples from the other two sites attacked.
There is also this, which I found after I’d put up the other comment:
‘US REPORTER VISITS DOUMA, FINDS NO EVIDENCE OF CHEMICAL ATTACK (VIDEO)’:
https://southfront.org/us-reporter-visits-douma-finds-no-evidence-of-chemical-attack-video/
‘Pearson Sharp, a reporter of One America News Network has visited the Syrian town of Douma and found that all the locals say that the so-called April 7 Douma chemical attack had been staged by militants.
Such things happen when somebody has real sources on the ground or visits the site of the events.’
But it still won’t stop ‘Assad’ not doing it again.
Paul
Sorry i missed that post, I must have flashed past it.. as it is my Habit to back read.. But as you say relavent on this post too, Powerful stuff, I await Medialens Part Two
“Monbiot tweeted back:
‘I’m sorry Craig but, while you have done excellent work on some issues, your efforts to exonerate Russia and Syria of a long list of crimes, despite the weight of evidence, are foolish in the extreme.’”
Now I read “despite the weight of evidence” as referring to Craig’s “efforts to exonerate Russia and Syria of a long list of crimes” at first and thought that Moonboot was being clever, but sadly, it seems he was only spouting the party line.
From the Daily Mosley: “Journalist Hilary Freeman spoke about aborting her unborn child after doctors advised her it would be severely disabled if it was born. She said: ‘I took that decision on medical advice.”
What?? A medic says “Have an abortion because if you don’t then your baby will be born disabled” and you said “yes sir”? I’m pro-choice but that’s the MOTHER’s choice, not any damned medic’s choice! And now she has the gall to tell Alfie Evans’s mother and father to stop trying to save their son’s life because he’s disabled and medics and judges don’t want any more effort to be made?
Freeman added, “We should take the doctors’ authority and the judges. This has nothing to do with the church“.
It’s got fuck-all to do with journalists. Since when did moral issues not have to do with the church? I thought speaking on moral issues was precisely one of the reasons the church was there.
My understanding is that if the parents can get their son, who has been given Italian citizenship, into an Italian diplomatic car then the British authorities are allowed to stop the car but not to search it.
One understands that the filth called medics and judges don’t like to be disrespected, especially in public, any more than headteachers do or the Kray twins did, but those who understand how the ideosphere works will be wondering why it may be so important for the poshboy elite in Britain to sacrifice a working class baby under huge media attention at the present time.
Before you call medics “filth”, I think you should realise that the decisions are made by politicians, administrators and very rich “consultants”, and have nothing at all to do with very fine people who work long hours to save lives and heal people.
You are extremely naive.
Medics are a moneygrabbing brotherhood and the average one probably tells more lies every day than a solicitor, if not quite as many as an estate agent or dentist. The idea that they are self-sacrificial is the opposite of accurate. The entire medical paper system is based on lies. If you were to decode some of the correspondence between consultants and GPs, and some of the other stuff that gets written in records, you might have an epiphany.
The specifically British flavour comes out in the role of the GP. Compare with the way the legal “profession” is divided into two too. I don’t mean to be rude, Andy, but please just think some more about what kind of attitude medics have towards most of their patients who are on incomes maybe a sixth the size of theirs, rarely have foreign holidays, and “probably saw something on the internet”. Medics whether super-rich or only very rich aren’t some oasis of decency within a collection of social castes. Quite the contrary.
It is extremely important that those who want to be critics of social conditions search for some kind of handle on the “health” and “education” systems, which sadly no part of the political spectrum in Britain ever has. This is not for “theoretical” reasons, but because of the great influence these systems have on real people’s real lives.
N, You are so correct about doctors and judges not liking their opinions to be challenged. GPs and Consultants today are extremely authoritarian and, unless you have the strength of character to refuse their diagnosis or even to challenge them to send you for tests because they cannot be bothered to diagnose, they will strike you off from their surgery before you know it. Judges are completely and I mean completely unaccountable – however bad their conduct is. It’s the protection of vested interests rule o.k. One more nail in the coffin of democracy and choice. The system cannot and will not be beaten.
I have always been interested in cases where people break the habit of social deference and stand up for what is true, right, humane and assertive of human dignity (such actions by Craig are precisely why this blog is here), and where on the other side of the barricades the collectivity of state bureaucrats, the rich, judges, professionals, etc., circle the wagons and insist that the resisters are a mixture of anti-socialness, stupidity, mental illess, and dirt.
It’s as if the true character of both sides comes out.
The Hippocratic Oath survived twenty-five centuries of human upheaval but survived barely twenty-five years of neo-liberalism.
Macron is a pop-up politician propped in with “quand meme pute” support that saw him elected in a political void by the absentee non vote that matched his promise everything rhetoric with its non appearance .
France continues in its own wheel of protector of near eastern Christians and harbinger of modernity to the “lost civilisations” there… well just as long as there is a geopolitical advantage to be had anyway
http://manchester.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.7228/manchester/9780719089909.001.0001/upso-9780719089909-chapter-7
but the question is what is the advantage this time?
For those that know something of the deeper motives at play, a complete give away was the recent pledge to rebuild the country by the frenchman… we must wonder if he asked Assad before or after launching missiles, not that the answer would have mattered.
This is why we must fear this theatre of conflict. Assad was welcomed then trampled by western opinion makers, they cannot accept him now again for looking incompetent for doing so.
In other words, according to our own establishment, there is only one end of scene written in, and that is the removal of Assad and an interruption of Iranian presence as a near neighbour of Israel.
I would be proud to sponsor your site Craig. You’re a fucking star. The only reason MI5 haven’t taken down your site is because if they do, they won’t know what’s going on themselves.
Getting an error from Paypal at the moment, but you got it, Craig. Your presence is essential to getting out truths.
Would this be the time to crowd-fund Murder in Samarkand? I am certainly going to request The Quiet Man as a member’s choice at Wimbledon Film Club: it would surely stir some parallels with the current agenda re Iran, Syria, Yemen, etc
Craig I admire your work and am willing to make a donation towards your blog. I have two problems though: I wish to make an annual contribution not monthly; and I will KT use PayPal of whom I disapprove since the time they cut off Wikileaks
So could you guide me how to pay you? I have in mind £50 annually
Thanks
Lawrence
Good to hear it for the Quiet American, book and film. One of Michael Caine’s best without a doubt. Does anyone write stuff like this any more?
Craig
Can you put an option for one-off donations. Thanks
Craig, can you make it possible to donate smaller amounts? I’m a pensioner and I currently donate to several other bloggers – one of whom has had her benefits stopped for… er… blogging.
It now becomes clear that Macron is truly modelling himself on TB, complete with war crimes.
Absolutely no doubt. Same nonsense about defending democracy to justify neocolonial carve up of the middle east and aggressive militarism in the far East.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/04/26/macr-a26.html
Joe, true, problem, neither President know what democracy actually is
FYI: On his radio talk show George Galloway recently interviewed journalist Miles Goslett, author of the recently released book An Inconvenient Death: How the Establishment Covered Up the David Kelly Affair. Interview starts after some introductory remarks in which GG admits to his own long held suspicisions that an orchestrated government coverup of the true circumstances of Dr Kelly’s death has been put in place. (Audio only, the section with Goslett interview starts at around the 6:47 mark):
https://youtu.be/fn8GqMGLSRU
‘Russia Widens EW War, ‘Disabling’ EC-130s In Syria’:
https://breakingdefense.com/2018/04/russia-widens-ew-war-disabling-ec-130s-in-syria/
‘GEOINT: The Compass Call is supposed to be one of America’s foremost electronic warfare weapons, but the EC-130s flying near Syria are being attacked and disabled “in the most aggressive EW environment on the planet,” the head of Special Operations Command said here today.
“Right now in Syria we are operating in the most aggressive EW environment on the planet from our adversaries. They are testing us everyday, knocking our communications down, disabling our EC-130s, etcetera,” Gen. Raymond Thomas told an audience of some 2,000 intelligence professionals.
While, for obvious reasons, we don’t know many details about the nature of the attacks on the EC-130s, we do know the Russians have done what one EW expert called a “good job” in several recent conflicts using EW. And the Russians are in force in Syria and provide most of the gear used by the Syrian military.
“The Russians have redone and reengineered their entire EW fleet in the last 20 years,” notes Laurie Moe Buckhout, a retired Army colonel who specializes in EW. After the Russians attacked Georgia, they concluded they needed to upgrade their EW capabilities, she says. “The Russians put in millions on upgrades after Georgia. They’ve ended up with killer capabilities, jamming in a multitude of frequencies for hundreds of kilometers.”
She also notes that the Russians may not have gone head to head against the EC-130s EW attack capabilities. They may have taken the much easier route of interfering with the Position, Navigation and Timing (PNT) or their communications gear, making it more difficult to fly the aircraft since crews would have had to rely on maps, line of sight and other techniques.
“The problem the EC-130s have is that, while they are jamming, the crews aren’t doing much else,” making them more vulnerable to attacks, she says. “They could have gone after the PNT or the comms.” The Russians “know all of our vulnerabilities.”
There are other problems US forces must cope with, says Loren Thompson, a well known defense consultant: “We’ve spent so much time fighting enemies in Southwest Asia who were technically unsophisticated that we are not up to speed on tactical electronic warfare.” Buckhout said Thompson has a point.’
‘…There are other problems US forces must cope with, says Loren Thompson, a well known defense consultant: “We’ve spent so much time fighting enemies in Southwest Asia who were technically unsophisticated that we are not up to speed on tactical electronic warfare.” Buckhout said Thompson has a point.’
Indeed, Loren Thompson does have a point, a point that many people around the globe have also noted – the US and it’s NATO cronies are far happier, and more at ease, fighting against people in mud huts and caves.
Are they really, really SURE they want to push the Bear into a corner?
“After the Russians attacked Georgia…”
Funny how even retired U.S. officers keep repeating this tripe. Anyone who has investigated the Georgian-Russian conflict knows it was Georgia that attacked Russian peacekeepers in South Ossetia in the middle of the night.
Macrons’ only real virtue is that he is not Le Pen. And absent any real ideas to get the Eurozone back to the point where a near majority feel reasonably well off, he resorts to the image of France being a great power, which is something that it has not been since Boney was consigned to St Helena.
Trouble is, whilst the French are not immune to the ‘Days of Yore’ image, it has a far less lasting effect than it does on the British. So in a very few years time there’ll be another election in which its a safe bet that Le Pen will be running. In the absence of any real progress towards getting capitalism restarted, there’ll be a greater number of middle class voters who feel disgruntled enough to maybe cast a vote for the FN.
Needless to say, if the extreme’s of populism manage to gain government in any of the larger EU nations, then today’s problems will seem very small beer indeed.
Macron was of the banks (Rothschild Bank) prior to politics and Blair sold his soul to the banks (JP Morgan) post politics. Say what you will about Margaret Thatcher, but she wasn’t in it for the money.
Macron has deliberately offered himself up as a feather in Donald Trump’s cap. Will he get anything back for it? An ego-wank is probably all he seeks.
Yankee Doodle went to town
Riding on a pony
Stuck a feather in his cap
And called it Macaroni.