The entire “liberal” media and political establishment of the Western world reveals its militarist, authoritarian soul today with the screaming and hysterical attacks on the very prospect of detente with Russia. Peace apparently is a terrible thing; a renewed arms race, with quite literally trillions of dollars pumped into the military industrial complex and hundreds of thousands dying in proxy wars, is apparently the “liberal” stance.
Political memories are short, but just 15 years after Iraq was destroyed and the chain reaction sent most of the Arab world back to the dark ages, it is now “treason” to question the word of the Western intelligence agencies, which deliberately and knowingly produced a fabric of lies on Iraqi WMD to justify that destruction.
It would be more rational for it to be treason for leaders to blindly accept the word of the intelligence services.
This is especially true on “Russia hacking the election” when, after three years of crazed accusations and millions of man hours by lawyers and CIA and FBI investigators, they are yet to produce any substantive evidence of accusations which are plainly nuts in the first place. This ridiculous circus has found a few facebook ads and indicted one Russian for every 100,000 man hours worked, for unspecified or minor actions which had no possible bearing on the election result.
There are in fact genuine acts of election rigging to investigate. In particular, the multiple actions of the DNC and Democratic Party establishment to rig the Primary against Bernie Sanders do have some very real documentary evidence to substantiate them, and that evidence is even public. Yet those real acts of election rigging are ignored and instead the huge investigation is focused on catching those who revealed Hillary’s election rigging. This gets even more absurd – the investigation then quite deliberately does not focus on catching whoever leaked Hillary’s election rigging, but instead seeks to prove that the Russians hacked Hillary’s election-rigging, which I can assure you they did not. Meanwhile, those of us who might help them with the truth if they were actually interested, are not questioned at all.
The Russophobic witch hunt has its first real life victim in 29 year old Maria Butina, whose life is to be destroyed for chatting up members of the NRA in order to increase Russian influence. With over 20 years of diplomatic experience, I can tell you that every country, including the UK and US, has bit part players of its own nationals who self-start in a country to make their way, and if they gain any traction are tapped by their national security service as potential “agents of influence”. I could name quite literally scores of such people, but have no desire to get anyone in trouble. The elevation of Butina into a huge threat and part of a gigantic plot, is to ignore the way the United States and the United Kingdom and indeed all major governments’ Embassies behave around the globe.
The war-hawks who were devastated by the loss of champion killer Hillary now see the prospect of their very worst fear coming true. Their very worst fear is the outbreak of peace and international treaties of arms control. Hence the media and political establishment today has reached peaks of hysteria never before seen. Pursuing peace is “treason” and the faux left now stand starkly exposed.
She is at Reece Group’s factory, the old Armstrong Vickers works and latterly BAE.
‘Mainly military manufacturing. They make IED-sweeping vehicles, amongst other defence equipment. Formerly Vickers. Reece group also includes Responsive Engineering, who manufacture products on demand as a turnkey manufacturing contractor.’
Reece Group chairman John Reece receives MBE at Buckingham Palace
7 MAY 2015
http://www.thejournal.co.uk/business/business-news/reece-group-chairman-john-reece-9202409
Tory donors??
https://reece-group.com/about-us/
Recurring payments to blogger, good.
Sporadic blogging, bad.
Haha. Patience probably necessary, it’s the summer after all. Craig will probably become more prolific by autumn.
You’d also need quite a lot of readers who find your writing worthwhile. Which makes it a non-starter for you whichever way you wanted to work it, eh Charles? Just sayin’ …. 😉
Craig retweeted this 2 hrs ago from Jeremy Corbyn saying:
Very true. And Scotland should not forget Joseph Hume of Montrose, who campaigned for decades for legalisation of trade unions and eventually saw it through parliament. Redressing today’s extreme imbalance of employer and employee power now the most pressing single social issue.
‘Corbyn
@jeremycorbyn
The struggle of the Tolpuddle Martyrs sowed the seed for the modern trade union movement and @UKLabour.
We honour them by remembering why it took place and by pledging to secure what those workers fought for: the right to fair pay and decent working conditions.’
https://twitter.com/CraigMurrayOrg/status/1021374252178657280
I’m with Corbyn & Craig. But how will this work? Is it a case of international workers’ revolution, or protectionism (and rejection of globalism)? If the latter, Trump & Brexit are leading the charge.
Or perhaps a third way 😉
Trades Unions are so yesterday.
They served a function when there were factories, shipyards and mines. Those things have log since disappeared. All you have now are “Management” and “Executive” roles overseeing the gig economy and one or two entrepreneurial endeavors. None of these people have any need for unions.
What you do have is a highly unionized public sector – and all that does is provide a mechanism for the public sector to conspire with government to be as inefficient as possible and to extract as much money as possible from the few people left working in the private sector.. (There are one or two exceptions like the Fire Brigade Union)
Naturally in a country that considers cowardice a virtue no-one goes after the international class of asset stripping kleptocrats – rather they are after some poor guy who earns maybe 60k pa.
Like so much else reality has been inverted and the new role for Trades Unions is to oppress the people and shore up the corporate state.
Nonsense as usual.
Trade unions are still strong in skilled manufacturing.
Hard to know where to start with you.
There are about 2.6 million people working in manufacturing, so what about the other 63 million people?
In the past there were a lot more than 2.6 million people working in manufacturing – they were all heavily unionized and they all lost their jobs. So things didn’t work out too well did they?
All you need to do is look at numbers. Then you describe numbers as “nonsense” With that level of intellect things look like they are on track to work out well.
As usual you just insult anybody who questions your faulty logic. They didn’t lose their jobs because they were in unions. Duh. Although your alt right nonsense probably professes otherwise. Nor do the numbers prove anything about the efficacy or otherwise of unions.
What do you think Unions are supposed to do?
Surely maintaining the employment of their members must be one of their duties. It is certainly a duty that the Miners union believed it had – that is why they called a strike that lasted for over 1 year.
They failed in their duty as Miners have been consigned to history – oh and South American towns where the miners work almost for nothing.
I would say that the fact there are essentially zero miners says a great deal about the necessity for a miners union. If you don’t think this is the case please feel free to start a union for Unicorns.
Loony, who do you think you are convincing with these incredibly shallow right-wing talking points?
You’d doubtless have us believe that pensions, workers rights, safety in the workplace, the 5-day work-week and so on were just gifted by our munificent benefactors.
You don’t actually believe any of this simple-minded rot yourself, I take it, so why do you feel the need to keep pushing this utter garbage?
So if there hadn’t been miners unions, everything would be just fine, full employment in a thriving coal industry which would have a spotless health and safety record. Who’s talking unicorns now?
Ah yes unions and pensions.
Since 2008 almost $100 trillion has been looted from global pension funds. Where are the unions complaining about that? Where are the unions proposing any solution to this?
A lot of people would consider themselves lucky to be able to work 5 days a week. Have you not heard of the gig economy? What do unions have to say about that?
Sure health and safety has improved in your little world- but only because you exported the problem. In China some 66,000 people per year are killed in industrial accidents – all so that they can make cheap trinkets for you to buy. You cannot afford to pay a fair price because someone has stolen all you money.
Yeah things are working out really well are they not. And still you claim not to understand why Trump is so popular.
L: Trump might be popular with idiots who’ve been hoodwinked by that cheesy conman, it doesn’t make him right or the solution. I never claimed not to understand why the fascist had appeal, that’s yet another one of your little porkies.
Your points are all over the place, with a barely relevant anecdote thrown in here and there as if it were conclusive proof.
Yes, there are lots of industrial accidents in China. Lots of sweatshops. Very little in the way of worker’s rights. Not many unions though. Perhaps you’d like to think that one through, if you can stop writing grovelling homage to Trump for a few minutes.
Hey Loony,
Where are you on banking reform.
Or is it only the little guy suffers in your system.
The populations of the western world demonstrated their supine feebleness when they stood idly and watched the greatest transfer of wealth from poor to rich in all of recorded history. Similarly governments revealed the full extent of their corruption.
There should have been no banking bail outs beyond those necessary to safeguard depositors money. Senior bank executives should have been arrested and prosecuted in accordance with the law. Almost all large banks were (and still are) operating as criminal enterprises and should have been dealt with in the same manner that other criminal enterprises are dealt with.
But none of that happened – and so you saw in real time how the weak get crushed while the strong grow stronger. You should have been reading Shelly “You are many and they are few” – but instead you read lottery tickets. Whose fault is that?
Loony
The miners were deliberately crushed with all the might of the state and labelled ‘the enemy within’ by Thatcher. This was through the use of the police as well as in using state money to import vast quantities of coal. This was the beginning of the end of trade union power and also led to globalisation in order to cut the ground from under the unions and led to the de-industrialisation of Britain and concentration of wealth and power.
As usual with you loony, it is not what you say but the way you say it and the gloss you put on it that gets people’s hackles up. And I am not sure also that you are then really advocating socialism instead of the current kleptocracy.
The banker’s bailout without punishment and stricter regulation of thier criminal activity was done under new labour and many Labour MPs who served then are the same ones that are now fighting the current party leadership. Blair also continued the privatisation of the NHS with gusto and the boards of many companies trying to take chunks out of the NHS are former ministers in Blair ‘s government.
The true evil of new labour has then given rise to continuity through the Cameron government, aided by the opportunistic LibDems. The electorate is confused by all this aided and abetted by our press and BBC in leading very serious efforts to replace Corbyn.
The usual nonsense ! Hoe consistent you are in making nonsensical and post that defies every bit of common sense and experience. Unions are what built the Scandinavian democracies, the German and if Thatcher had thrown a spanner into it, maybe allso a true British Social Democracy.
“Redressing today’s extreme imbalance of employer and employee power now the most pressing single social issue.”
That of course conveys the traditional Labourist message that exploiters and exploited should live in harmony. I won’t dwell on that. But I will observe that the Labour party cannot deal with the fact that the employers have wanted immigration and lots of it, in order to keep wages down.
There is a very simple way that left wing people with any minds left can fight that: by pushing for stronger trade unions that actively recruit among immigrants as well as natives. Basically take a leaf out of the book of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). When someone arrives at the port, say the magic words: “Welcome, comrade. Here’s your union card.”
Let me be clearer: if a person who cannot address the fact that immigrant workers often price native workers out of a job, they do not deserve to call themselves left wing, they do not have a clue about real working class conditions, and they had better call themselves a one-nation conservative.
The proper anti-racist, anti-nationalist and leftwing attitude that should be taken is obvious when it is said. However, like a lot of things in this country, it’s the obvious things that are hardest to get heard. Before Lehmans I was about the only person on the left ranting about how the working class was being made to eat shit by means of massive debt. Tens of millions of people must have walked down high streets and seen signs in every bank’s plate glass window saying “Fancy a kebab? Come in and get a loan!”, but everybody’s head was too far up their arse to reflect on what this all meant.
Glad someone else has noticed.
Tony
https://www.globalresearch.ca/donald-trump-was-elected-by-russia-mass-dementia-in-the-western-establishment/5648031
“Donald Trump was Elected by Russia? Mass Dementia in the Western Establishment”
Intro:
“Where to begin to analyze the madness of mainstream media in reaction to the Trump-Putin meeting in Helsinki? By focusing on the individual, psychology has neglected the problem of mass insanity, which has now overwhelmed the United States establishment, its mass media and most of its copycat European subsidiaries. The individuals may be sane, but as a herd they are ready to leap off the cliff.
For the past two years, a particular power group has sought to explain away its loss of power – or rather, its loss of the Presidency, as it still holds a predominance of institutional power – by creation of a myth. Mainstream media is known for its herd behavior, and in this case the editors, commentators, journalists have talked themselves into a story that initially they themselves could hardly take seriously.
Donald Trump was elected by Russia?
On the face of it, this is preposterous. Okay, the United States can manage to rig elections in Honduras, or Serbia, or even Ukraine, but the United States is a bit too big and complex to leave the choice of the Presidency to a barrage of electronic messages totally unread by most voters. If this were so, Russia wouldn’t need to try to “undermine our democracy”. It would mean that our democracy was already undermined, in tatters, dead. A standing corpse ready to be knocked over by a tweet.”
Silly, it is easy to engineer a bespoke President, just spend $10,000s on Facebook ads add some PutinBots on the Internet, viola! Easily overcomes the $millions spent by business and entrepreneurs.
Your sarcasm is clouding your vision. Not much has been written from the inside about the Trump campaign and the role of the world’s two most powerful cyberarmies. Take a look at the Leave campaign in Britain. Money is a slippery category. Sometimes those who control the media don’t have to spend much extra to get it to say this rather than that.
Sorry N_ I don’t know what you mean,
“Not much has been written from the inside about the Trump campaign and the role of the world’s two most powerful cyberarmies”
China and America, OK. Or America and probably the UK for the English speaking Internet.
“Take a look at the Leave campaign in Britain.” They lied?
“Sometimes those who control the media don’t have to spend much extra to get it to say this rather than that.”
If we are talking America it is filled with (crazy) right wing outlets, talk radio, Fox, Sinclair and the toxic Republican party.The other side is the right wing “liberal” media and the Democrats. In one sense pretty similar to here, two “different” parties which give the same result. Until Corbyn came along. Resulting in a disillusioned electorate who feels their voice is not heard and their vote doesn’t count.
$billions, isn’t it?
This recent post from Washington’s Blog takes a somewhat similar line:
The Imperial Naivete of the American Public
by Charles Hugh Smith
snip
There’s another aspect of Imperial Naivete: the American public naively assumes that their Imperial Project is so god-like in its powers and prowess that no other great power should be able to meddle in our domestic affairs and elections.
In other words, we’re outraged to be vulnerable to any blowback, any intrusion, any meddling.
We implicitly or explicitly reckon that its our Imperial right to, say, blow up a wedding party in a destabilized nation we’re “helping,” killing dozens of innocent attendees, all on the off-chance we might nail a bad-guy who happened to be in attendance.
If he survives the slaughter, well, we’ll blow up the next wedding party he attends.
That is to say, there are no limits on our execution of power because we’re morally superior and this grants us carte blanche on everything from undeclared war to slaughtering wedding parties to manipulating (meddling) in every other nation’s domestic affairs and elections.
http://washingtonsblog.com/2018/07/the-imperial-naivete-of-the-american-public.html
“the American public naively assumes that their Imperial Project is so god-like in its powers and prowess that no other great power should be able to meddle in our domestic affairs and elections.”
Not so. The Trump base are happy to believe that “international interests” were backing the demonic Hillary Clinton. They’ll believe anything that someone on the wrestling or who comes across as sufficiently thuggish will tell them.
Perhaps the next line from Trump will be that “CROOKED HILLARY WAS BACKED BY RUSSIA”. Or it could be China or North Korea or Iran. A big chunk of the US population would lap that up.
Looks like Trumpy, Bolts and Pompers are mad up for a mother of all wars with Iran. With the great democrat Binyi also on board, how long before the war-starved liberal media starts portraying Trumpy as presidential again?
A week can be a long time in liberal hypocrisy.
John Bolton can, and must, fuck right off. I don’t have TDS, entirely immune actually. But Bolton should be nowhere near the President, at any time. Bolton is a moron, but a dangerous one.
Bolton is certainly dangerous but he is far, far off from being a moron. That makes him even more dangerous. Lex Tillerson would never, in a month of Sundays, describe HIM as “a fucking moron.”
A data analyst, Andrew Rowson, developed software to scan council accounts to discover duplicate payments and accounting errors. In the case of W Sussex CC who gave him a contract, he found that they had overpaid £1.5m. They did not appreciate his exposure of their incompetence and a dispute has developed.
He intends to take his files about them and other councils to the Local Govt Minister. That is Jo Johnson in Brokenshire’s department so do not hold out your hopes for some action, Mr Rowson.
’23 July 2018
Exclusive: Claims of millions of pounds being wrongly paid out by region’s councils
A data analyst who says he identified millions of pounds wrongly paid out by West Sussex and Kent county councils claims the authorities did not recover the money – or pay him – to avoid political embarrassment.
Andrew Rowson says his scanning of the accounts found hundreds of cases of suspected ‘double payments’ to contractors. He says it’s a scandal the money was not pursued, but the councils blamed him for the failure of the process.
/..
http://www.itv.com/news/meridian/2018-07-23/exclusive-claims-of-millions-of-pounds-being-wrongly-paid-out-by-regions-councils/
YCNMIU
So The UK Govt are bringing back The Death Penalty are They?
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair, fiddles with his 30 pieces of silver..and emails Theresa May
It finally dawns on Theresa Mary May (/təˈriːzə/;[1] née Brasier; born 1 October 1956, what has been going on.
Theresa Cries – “Why did no one tell me?”
Tony
I thought that they took away UK citizenship from them. In which case Uk has nothing more to do with them surely ?
Geoffrey,
The White Helmets = jihardist headchoppers = ISIS, were recruited, financed and trained and supplied with weapons, by The British Government, paid for by my taxes, with their propaganda, paid for and supplied, partially by the cost of my TV licence, via the atrocious BBC.
They never asked my permission to use my money in this way – but just did it.
Sorry if it somes as a shock to you – but that is the truth, which is also extremely well documented, if you care to look at the evidence.
Hard to believe eh?
I bet you believe the official story of the banned subject too – don’t you?
That’s just the way it is – these people are evil.
Stick your head in the sand, and ignore them, if it is too hard for your brain to understand.
You should be O.K. until the tide comes in.
Can you swim?
Tony
Tony, I agree with everything you say ! Did I reply in the wrong place ? my comment was was in relation to the alleged headchoppers who have had their British citizenship taken away from them. If I am correct,then surely it is not up to Britain to interfere with their trial and the consequences is it ?
Handing them over to U.S. authorities surely is an action involving the UK government. Or does the UK policy against capital punishment not include non-UK citizens?
“Handing them over to U.S. authorities surely is an action involving the UK government…”
They’re not in the custody of the UK government. They’re in the custody of Syrian Kurds. They’re not British. They are none of the British government’s business, and I have no desire to see our politicians interfering in this matter for no better reason than yet another parade of virtue-signalling. They’ve interfered more than enough already, thank you very much.
Elsheikh and Kotey are not only scum, they’re irredeemable scum. If you think they can be rehabilitated, feel free to go to Syria and rehabilitate them in your own time and at your own expense.
They are not being held by the UK .
A judicial review of the stripping of citizenship should be sought. While they were British citizens the British government had a duty to protect them against the death penalty whatever crimes they were suspected of or had been convicted of. There are no exceptions. If the stripping of citizenship put them at risk of the death penalty it was unlawful and should be reversed. Anyone who murders prisoners (whether POWs or otherwise) is of the same ilk as Daesh. Do it with “No other God but God” written on a black flag behind you in Arabic or a sign saying “Dieu et mon droit” in Norman French and it’s the same act.
Even for non-British citizens it is surely unlawful for the British government to assist with a prosecution anywhere in the world that may lead to the imposition of a death penalty.
I remember at the time of the murder of Saddam Hussein, the EU representative came out well. When someone from the BBC put it to him that bearing in mind the nature of SH’s crimes, blah, blah, wouldn’t just a little bit of premeditated ritual killing by officialdom be justified in this case, he said no and that there were no exceptions to the unacceptability of the death penalty.
The UK has always had the death penalty – there have been a few cosmetic adjustments to appease the cowardice of the population.
Consider that the period 1900-1964 some 827 people were the victims of judicial execution.
In the period 2013-2017 1,364 people died from self inflicted injuries in UK prisons. Added to this must be deaths in police custody, and the execution of certain individuals by the British police – executions that occur prior to any arrest and obviously prior to any judicial process.
Consider the case of Tommy Robinson – a man handed a suspended sentence by Canterbury Court for contempt of court. The Judge made clear that any repetition of this offence would see Robinson incarcerated, and also made clear that she did not care whether or not harm would befall him in prison. In theory the British now operate the death penalty for contempt of court. Still I suppose Contempt of Court is somewhat more serious than the crime of riding on the subway whilst being Brazilian.
More utterly bizarre non sequiturs. Cowardice of the population?? Ha, you of course not being a coward would gladly indulge in some head chopping, no doubt.
Judicial execution, when exercised judiciously, is one of the great protectors of the poor. That is why if there was a referendum on Capital Punishment then people would vote overwhelmingly in favor of it.
No human system is perfect, and mistakes will always be made in every sphere of human endeavor. So some innocent people will be executed. But not executing people also means that innocent people will suffer terrible fates at the hands of criminals.
Take a look at this case
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/apr/25/two-men-jailed-for-life-for-torture-and-murder-of-quyen-ngoc-nguyen
This Vietnamese lady lost her life as a direct consequence of the Judicial system.
The cowardice comes from people who agonize over the fate of the guilty because they consider themselves somehow responsible for miscarriages of Justice, and they are too afraid to accept that responsibility. That they don’t care about human life is obvious because they are prepared to preside over a murder epidemic – but they do not feel personally responsible for the victims of murder.
They don’t really care about criminals either as they are quite happy to allow them to commit suicide en masse – again they themselves feel no personal responsibility. This is the very definition of cowardice.
Sheer nonsense once again.
The poor are overwhelmingly penalised by the death penalty, only the willfully ignorant could not be fully aware of the fact.
The DP does not deter murder, nor does it bring closure to the bereaved, or save money on incarceration, or any other silly point you would like to put forward in its favour.
Why don’t you take this right-wing drivel to some semi-literate ditto-heads on an alt-right channel, who would probably hail you as some sort of visionary, in the same way you worship that fascistic bloated bastard Trump?
The point is that the UK does have the death penalty – plenty of people are subject to extra judicial execution. Indeed a lot of people on this blog have railed against this practice.
A lot more people have been killed by criminals who have been released by the judicial system. You are the only person I have heard argue that the UK population is NOT in favor of the death penalty. There are plenty of surveys that have been conducted over a period of decades and the results are always the same.
Your argument is not with me – it is with public opinion and with the state that clearly and obviously sanctions extra judicial execution.
There is nothing either right wing or left wing about this. However your hysterical response is the exact reason that the popularity of Trump continues to grow. You are a superb recruiting Sargent for the Trump train.
The most recent survey (2015) puts support for the death penalty at 48%.
Extraditing these men to possible execution or even detention in Guantanamo would breach Article 3 of the ECHR. I’m sure once their legal team have presented this to a court they ought to block it. The government lost a similar case in 1999.
“Extraditing these men to possible execution or even detention in Guantanamo would breach Article 3 of the ECHR…”
Another person who doesn’t seem to be aware that these guys are in the custody of the Syrian Kurds, and not the UK government (or any other signatory to the ‘ECHR’). The Syrian Kurds were some of the principal victims of ISIS, and I’m not sure they exactly care a tinker’s toss about Article 3 of the ECHR, which didn’t do a great deal to protect them from the ravages of Elsheikh and Kotey and their fellow scumbuckets.
But feel free to go to Syria and plead their case. I’m sure you’ll be given a fair hearing.
So why does any of this matter? Why don’t the Kurds just quietly bump them off and have done with it? They’re not even British citizens anymore.
“Take a look at this case (…) This Vietnamese lady lost her life as a direct consequence of the Judicial system.”
There’s no argument for the death penalty there. The perpetrators should have been kept in prison.
@Stonky
They’re not being extradited by Britain but the British government wants to assist in their prosecution in the US where a death penalty is not only possible but I assume will be called for by prosecutors. Giving assistance in such a case is unlawful.
Nobody here disputes the nature of Daesh.
“In the period 2013-2017 1,364 people died from self inflicted injuries in UK prisons”
That’s not accurate. That’s the official figure for the total number who died from any cause in a prison in England or Wales. Of the 1364, the official figures are 447 suicides and 21 killed by other prisoners. (Source: Prison Reform Trust.)
“The UK has always had the death penalty – there have been a few cosmetic adjustments to appease the cowardice of the population”
It is never brave to kill unarmed prisoners – not in Auschwitz, not in Marion prison in the US, not in Wormwood Scrubs. Any sane person knows that.
Whitewashing the White Helmets – Peter Ford, Former UK Ambassador to Syria Responds to UK Government Statement
VANESSA BEELEY
23rd July 2018
21st Century Wire says…
Former Ambassador to Syria 2003 – 2006, Peter Ford responds to the UK Government statement by Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt on “exceptional” Israeli evacuation of the UK/US Coalition intelligence construct, the White Helmets:
/..
https://21stcenturywire.com/2018/07/23/whitewashing-the-white-helmets-peter-ford-former-uk-ambassador-to-syria-responds-to-uk-government-statement/
Apologies if already posted.
These white helmets will probably get political asylum, while the true rescuer Julian Assange gets the boot.
Who will defend him?
O tempora, o mores!
Some people have got some courage, and some of them used to be British Ambassadors, and still tell the truth.
Tony
“Whitewashing the White Helmets – Peter Ford, Former UK Ambassador to Syria Responds to UK Government Statement”
https://alethonews.com/2018/07/23/whitewashing-the-white-helmets-peter-ford-former-uk-ambassador-to-syria-responds-to-uk-government-statement/
Extract
“Former Ambassador to Syria 2003 – 2006, Peter Ford responds to the UK Government statement by Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt on “exceptional” Israeli evacuation of the UK/US Coalition intelligence construct, the White Helmets:
“Following a joint diplomatic effort by the UK and international partners, a group of White Helmets volunteers from southern Syria and their families have been able to leave Syria for safety.
They are now being assisted by the UNHCR in Jordan pending international resettlement.
The White Helmets have saved over 115,000 lives during the Syrian conflict, at great risk to their own. Many White Helmets volunteers have also been killed while doing their work – trying to rescue civilians trapped in bombarded buildings or providing first aid to injured civilians. White Helmets have been the target of attacks and, due to their high profile, we judged that, in these particular circumstances, the volunteers required immediate protection. We therefore took steps with the aim of affording that protection to as many of the volunteers and their families as possible.
We pay tribute to the brave and selfless work that White Helmets volunteers have done to save Syrians on all sides of the conflict.”
Peter Ford responds:
“The government statement contains two bare-faced lies.
The White Helmets most definitely have not assisted all sides in the conflict. From the beginning they have only ever operated in rebel-held areas. Government controlled areas have the real Syrian Civil Defence and Syrian Red Crescent. This is quite a big whopper on the government’s part. It goes without saying that the media will not pick up on it.
Secondly the White Helmets are not volunteers. They are doing jobs for which they are paid, by Western governments. They have a press department 150 strong, bigger than that for the whole of the UK ambulance service. Their claims of saving over 115,000 lives have never been verified. The co-location of their offices with jihadi operation centres has been well documented.
Apparently the government are lying because they are nervous of being accused of importing into this country scores of dangerous migrants who have many times been reported to be associating with extremists (social media is rife with self-propagated videos of their misdeeds such as participation in beheadings and waving ISIS and Al Qaida flags), and wish to whitewash them.
The White Helmets’ dramatic exfiltration leaves many questions unanswered
1. Why was it deemed necessary to evacuate this particular group in the south when other groups of White Helmets simply got on the buses to Northern Syria when military operations concluded in Aleppo, Eastern Ghouta and elsewhere, and when similar exodus by bus has been arranged for rebels in Deraa?
2. Why should White Helmets be considered to be more at risk than combatants, many of whom have either ‘reconciled’ or been bussed out? In the demonology of the government side the White Helmets are not seen as worse than other jihadis.
3. Might the British government have been afraid of this particular group being caught and interrogated, revealing perhaps the truth about alleged chemical weapon incidents?
4. Will they now be foisted on to areas of the UK already struggling to absorb migrants, or will they go to places like Esher and Carshalton?
5. Will local councils be informed about the backgrounds of these fugitives? Will local councils be given extra resources to absorb them and cope with resulting security needs, bearing in mind that Raed Saleh, leader of the White Helmets, was refused a visa to the US in 2016?”
Tony
There is another reason suggested by Vanessa Beeley
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1021119384155316224.html
That’s an interesting summary . Thanks for link SA.
Speculation and rumour.
With better support than the speculation and rumour for which the white Helmets have been created by British government. I suppose that you are unaware that British special forces operate in rebel held areas in Syria?
If true that is an explosive suggestion !
The Sun, helped by Google, are running an article with a video of Polish woman pissing on the floor of an aeroplane flying from a British airport. (I won’t link to the article.) Expect more such items in the run-up to “hard Brexit”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdLlNCVvz2I&feature=youtu.be
Novara
War criminal made leader of Israel’s Opposition part y. She replaces Herzog as leader of Labor.
Tzipi Livni named leader of Israel’s opposition – Labor party
23 Jul 2018
Israeli lawmaker and former minister Tzipi Livni was named leader of the opposition on Monday, according to a joint statement by her and the head of the Labor party. Once a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud, Livni quit the party in 2005. The 59-year-old politician will replaces as opposition leader former Labor chief Isaac Herzog, who resigned his seat in parliament, AFP reported. Herzog will become head of the Jewish Agency, the quasi-governmental body that deals with Jewish immigration to Israel. Labor is the largest single opposition party in the Knesset, the parliament. However, its chairman Avi Gabbay is barred from serving as opposition leader as he is not a lawmaker. Livni has served as foreign minister, justice minister, deputy premier and immigration minister.’
RT News
Also there:
Bibi to meet Russian FM & top general, expert says Israel wants Russia to help get Iran out of Syria
23 Jul 2018
https://www.rt.com/news/434042-netanyahu-meets-russia-lavrov/
That’s Lavrov and Gerasimov.
And now for something completely different —
whatever happened to the Skripal operetta?
Some codswallop here.
Charlie Rowley. He recalled finding a cosmetics bottle which he gave to Dawn as a present. As you do.
http://news.sky.com/story/novichok-victim-i-survived-but-ive-lost-so-much-11446804
The latest episode of the saga is a story “told to the police” by the now-recovering Charlie Rowley. It involves Dawn Sturgess finding a perfume bottle and spraying perfume onto her hands, and then giving the bottle to Charlie. For some as yet unexplained reason the bottle promptly “broke in his hands”. But he has no idea what he then did with it or where it might be.
I know, I know.
It’s bit hard to find information now, as news outlets like the Guardian and the Indy have moved on from “Let’s publish this inane drivel, but we’ll block readers’ comments so we wont be exposed to universal ridicule…” to “Actually, let’s just not publish the inane drivel. It’s making us a laughing-stock…”
But Breitbart is still providing some coverage (with comments open). And guess what? Instead of joining the anti-Russia hatefest, to a man/woman Breitbart’s readership are ridiculing the inane drivel the authorities are feeding them.
I hate Breitbart.
I love the ridicule in this ‘case’.
Thanks for the info.
Vanessa Beeley suggest that the evacuation of the White helmets through Israel was also a cover for evacuation of special forces and other operatives from Arab and other nations and not Syrians.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1021119384155316224.html
Our Public Propaganda Organisation (aka the beeb) are trying their best to keep their distance from this major piece of news. They have an anti-Assad lie-packed ‘story’ tucked away in a far corner of World News, with comments turned off.
How about they’re at serious risk of arrest, torture and execution by the Assad regime? You won’t find Vanessa Beeley admitting that.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DULKwD8WAAAKUKs.jpg
“How about they’re at serious risk of arrest, torture and execution by the Assad regime? You won’t find Vanessa Beeley admitting that…”
Kempe, can you tell me where you bought your impenetrable lead-lined blinkers of stupidity? I’d like a pair too, so that I can believe that the ‘White Helmets’ were a bunch of noble crusading defenders of the oppressed, as opposed to a largely non-Syrian propaganda outfit created and funded by external forces conspiring to overthrow Assad.
Just a matter of being able to spot the real propaganda.
Even their evacuation, now, by Israel (the murderers den), makes the ‘what’ and ‘why’ what it really is.
Vanessa Beeley is a clever woman.
And she is there down on the ground, not embedded, but observing and commenting.
I think she might well have hit the nail on the head.
As opposed to this US senator. In the picture you Oates I see no Kalashnikovs.
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=john+mccain+posing+with+syrian+rebels&safe=active&client=safari&hl=en-gb&prmd=niv&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjc-MWTirfcAhUCMuwKHYGHCS8Q_AUIEigC&biw=320&bih=454#imgrc=JOHFCyfb9JQzpM
Are you even trying to be serious or are you having a laugh?
That’s one of the worst bits of Photo-Shopping I’ve seen in quite a while. The light on Mccain is clearly different and why is he wearing a lounge suit in the desert?
from his own twitter account:
https://twitter.com/senjohnmccain/status/339455679800700928?lang=en
Yes we know McCain was in Syria in 2013 but that photo is a fake.
The old f*khead McCain insn’t wearing a cap.
You now, the type that you wear to get some shade on your eyes?
McCain standing there with the headchopper brigade is very plausible regardless of the kind of sun protection worn by him and his companions.
You’ll have to do much better to call fake.
Kempe
So you are saying that McCain has posted a fake photo on his twitter account?
No Kempe, you are demonstrably wrong.The most heinous murderers and criminals have been allowed to get on buses (with their own weapons) in a bid to avoid further bloodshed and infrastructure damage by the Syrian authorities. So why did the White Helmets not just take off their uniforms and jump on the free ride to Idlib? It would be easy to get to Turkey from there and the world is your oyster.
I suggest you look at a map to answer that question.
Well done, you managed a comment without ‘regime’ in it. Unfortunately it makes little sense, the same as your amusing claim that McCain was photoshopped into a photo from about 10 different angles.
The US deep state is screeching:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-44930955
Keep it up Donald. This is great. If your only legacy is to expose these evil scumbags, you have been the best US president in over fifty years.
Interesting how people like that always invoke their right to freedom of speech. We’ve all to go around listening to their satanic commands — “attack Russia, attack Iran, attack the poor, attack everybody” — or be accused of being Nazis or something.
But I wish Trump would go after the BBC more than anyone else. The BBC has been up to its eyeballs in trashing him for the last two years. They’ve also supported every war that Britain and the US has been involved in over decades, and played a huge part in supporting the dogma of globalisation and other hazardous ideas.
Fingers crossed.
Isn’t it funny how John Major is on TV so much these days and presented as some sort of leading economics expert. I watched this recent interview with Peston and was astounded; https://adamsmith.wordpress.com/2018/07/23/now-what-john-major-talks-with-robert-peston/
People have suspiciously short memories.
In 1992, John Major and his essentially pro-European cabinet walked the UK into its worst economic crisis since the great crash of 1929. The cause of the crisis, as is well understood, was their insistence on aligning Sterling with the Deutsche Mark via the ERM.
It’s remarkable that John Major has the nerve to show his face on TV at all today — his pro-European stupidity cost us around £4 billion back in 1992 and totally destroyed the economy — and yet here he is posing as an economics expert whilst lecturing us on the virtues of Europe.
It’s like the Captain of the ill-fated Hindenburg turning up and lecturing us on the benefits of travelling in hydrogen-filled airships. As if that’s not bad enough, Major even managed to keep a straight face when he said the job of protecting the prosperity of the people was sovereign above all else…
My God, how thick do they think people are? I think it’s time I embraced Brexit just as I embraced Trump; not out of love but based on hatred of the alternatives.
“My God, how thick do they think people are? I think it’s time I embraced Brexit just as I embraced Trump; not out of love but based on hatred of the alternatives…”
I am with you on this one Hatuey. The so-called ‘progressives’ all over the Western media have become deranged in their obsessive hatred of Trump. There is literally no excrement that is too filthy for them to leap into bed with, no lie that is too much for them to swallow and regurgitate, in their demented campaign to ‘get’ the guy who dared to beat the greed-maddened psychopath they had all anointed.
The BBC report that Tony linked to doesn’t even try to pretend it’s anything other than one-eyed propaganda.
Stuff from the National Archives here on the Sky website.
http://news.sky.com/story/tory-pm-vs-rees-mogg-on-europe-national-archives-files-reveal-how-history-has-repeated-itself-11446778
and some other releases.
Would that be the same Rees Mogg who instructed his investment company SCM to pack up and move ops to Ireland, just to be inside the EU….
and to think that some regard this hypocrit to become the next PM…..
John Major. The loser who gave us Tony Bliar …
and who went off to join the Carlyle group as their European chairman. A nest of voracious neocons and one percenters involved in leveraged buyouts and asset stripping.
https://www.carlyle.com/media-room/news-release-archive/john-major-appointed-european-chairman-carlyle-group.
Read up about them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Carlyle_Group Even in the ‘defence’ industry.
Some of their acquisitions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Carlyle_Group_companies
Yes and Major let Lamont take the blame for it.
People in britain don’t jus have ‘poor memories’ – they just don’t care.
Another annonymous missive from the government’s own killing machine, the DWP – A DWP spokesperson told Welfare Weekly:
“The death of a claimant is a relevant change of circumstances affecting entitlement to Universal Credit. When a single claimant dies there are no further payments due. For the purpose of the award calculation, the death is treated as if it occurred at the beginning of the assessment period.
If an overpayment is caused because one member of a couple dies, an overpayment decision should be made as usual. The overpayment will be recoverable from the surviving partner.”
Just how low do we sink before somebody says STOP???
link: https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2018/07/23/the-dwp-is-forcing-loved-ones-to-pay-dead-relatives-rent/
We have no way of knowing what the people of Britain remember or think. Whatever appears on the BBC is no guide.
BTW could somebody get rid of these “disrupt and deny” tag teams? They are disrupting the development of usefull dialogue.
“BTW could somebody get rid of these “disrupt and deny” tag teams? ”
Put them in a concentration camp, perhaps?
“They are disrupting the development of usefull dialogue.”
Usefull (sic) dialogue of the sort you promote?
“Detente Bad, Cold War Good”
The Clinton/Obama appointed US bureaucracy shielded HRC also by destroying 2 Lenovo Yoga laptops containing 30,000 of her State Department mails that the Chinese hacked with pre implanted backdoors.
US House of Rep. committee of Judiciary member Goodlatte was on to comey about this in October 2016: https://www.scribd.com/document/384225319/102116-Letter-to-Director-Comey#from_embed
https://truepundit.com/fbis-comey-covered-up-china-hack-of-hillarys-emails-concealing-intel-from-congress-months-before-election-then-fbi-destroyed-the-evidence/
Throwing Russia up as detraction from Chinese hacking of State secrets from the Empress?
Julian Assange – World Socialist Web Site article on JA gives details of a protest to be held 24/7. If I weren’t on the other side of the world, I’d be there.
The WSWS urges readers to support a protest being held in support of Assange at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park on Tuesday July 24, where Lenin Moreno is addressing the Global Disability Summit. The protest begins from 7:30 a.m. at the Here East building in The Yard. The nearest rail station is Hackney Wick.
I very much hope that many of Julian’s defenders from this blog will be there to lend support. Perhaps they could give us their impressions afterwards?
More Detente bad; Cold War good this time from the rabidly funded Voice of America.
https://www.stopfake.org/en/estonia-spy-chief-network-of-operatives-pushing-russian-agenda-in-west/
the point of the article is, that you are all being very naughty people here on Craig’s eminent blog. You are enabling Soviet propaganda to prosper, without the pesky russkies even using detectable massed armies of sock-puppet AI bots. You’re (mostly) not even being paid! [those who are being paid, well, we haven’t found the traces yet – but we will]
“We [Estonian intelligence] have detected a network of politicians, journalists, diplomats, business people who are actually Russian influence agents and who are doing what they are told to do,” Mikk Marran, the director general of Estonia’s Foreign Intelligence Service said Friday, speaking of Moscow’s efforts in the West.
“We see clearly that those people are pushing Russia’s agenda,” Marran told an audience at the annual Aspen Security Forum in Aspen, Colorado.
Sigh, this predicates on their choice to see things as a idiopathic binary world view, whilst what the spooks are actually looking at is an analogue world with millions of viewpoints, rather than over-simple good/bad hard-military idiocy.
Now, analyzing further, if we take their ‘mechanism’ at face value , that they believe there are many (paid) followers of the enemy , a “network of politicians, journalists, diplomats, business people” – perhaps this is because NATO/OTAN themselves have organised their own “network of politicians, journalists, diplomats, business people” to complement the NATO/OTAN push of their massed armies of sock-puppet AI bots. If so, I bet they have hidden the payments well, except perhaps for the 32-years jail sentences being currently handed-out in South Korea, for bots, sock-puppets, disinformation, political idiocy etc. [correct me if I’m wrong, but was NIS aligned with NATO/OTAN?, did they share methods, training, ‘cyber-security’, public-diplomacy-communications], Да, Нет?
Paid? I have not got Anything ! Where can I apply?
I mean I have been called both a bot and now also enabler, surely it must pay a little, and I need my racehorse to the vet.
You never hear from Kempe on the absurdity of such things.
I guess he’s busy drinking and drinking, all the while pored over his map of Syria, or calculating Azimuth and Altitude of the sun.
That Kool-aid must go down so smoothly.
Kempe is a happy man.
Very informative article regarding the funding and PR company and donors behind the creation of the White Helmets with a view to Regime Change.
https://www.alternet.org/world/inside-shadowy-pr-firm-thats-driving-western-opinion-towards-regime-change-syria
Finian Cunningham nails the Oligarch Ethnic Cleansing Program for the offence of breathing British air while Russkie, but what of Yulia, the Mata Hari of Salisbury Plain?
I have just watched this excellent documentary film on Magnitsky and Bill Browder. I knew that there were questions about this whole story but this film unravels the whole saga. How is Browder ever given airtime?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=njzZcdoLP6c
If the link doesn’t work search YouTube for “the magnitsky act behind the scenes”
Thank you . I was looking for this .
Also worth looking at this
https://dxczjjuegupb.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/TheKillingOfWilliamBrowder_PrintLayout_6x9-1.pdf
Thank you SA. One doe sfeel sometimes that there is so much going on and it is all so inetrlinked that one would need to read for years to understand it all.
This year we have the continuation of Russophobia not only because of geo -politics but also because people refuse to accept Clinton’s defeat, we have the Babchenko farce which I have no doubt is related to it all , the Novichock farce and for years the White Helmets farce, this last so obvious and blatant. An institution that steals the name of teh real Cascos Blancos in Argentina and that acts with open hostility to the UN humanitarian aid in Syrya .
It will all come tumbling down , but I am afraid that only in a few years like in the case of the Kuwait war or the WMD.
Thank you,Norfolk eagle….really explosive and highly relevant to Skripal case as some have said that the UK needs an equivalent to the Magnitsky Act.
Browder appears shifty,dishonest and even threatening.
A remarkable film by a remarkable man. Thank you for bringing it to our attention.
Ecuador Will Imminently Withdraw Asylum for Julian Assange and Hand Him Over to the U.K. What Comes Next?
Glenn Greenwald
July 24, 2018
Ecuador’s President Lenin Moreno traveled to London on Friday for the ostensible purpose of speaking at the 2018 Global Disability Summit (Moreno has been using a wheelchair since being shot in a 1998 robbery attempt). The concealed actual purpose of the president’s trip is to meet with British officials to finalize an agreement under which Ecuador will withdraw its asylum protection of Julian Assange, in place since 2012; eject him from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London; and then hand over the WikiLeaks founder to British authorities.
Moreno’s itinerary also notably includes a trip to Madrid, where he will meet with Spanish officials still seething over Assange’s denunciation of human rights abuses perpetrated by Spain’s central government against protesters marching for Catalonian independence. Almost three months ago, Ecuador blocked Assange from accessing the internet, and Assange has not been able to communicate with the outside world ever since. The primary factor in Ecuador’s decision to silence him was Spanish anger over Assange’s tweets about Catalonia.
/..
https://www.globalresearch.ca/ecuador-will-imminently-withdraw-asylum-for-julian-assange-and-hand-him-over-to-the-u-k-what-comes-next/5648401
The Spanish government has now changed and finally Rajoy is out, so I am optimist they will deal with the Catalonia Referendum in a sensible and democratic manner. Here’s hoping.
Julian’s main problem is one of hubris and lack of consideration for his friends. He simply doesn’t know when to stop. Did he have to make anti-Spanish government noises re Catalonia while skulking in the embassy of a country with close and friendly links with Spain? Couldn’t he have thought or a couple of minutes and just shut up for once? Talk about your own worst enemy!
In an election were a vote to be cast:
I would Not vote for God if it ran as a Republican.
Nor would I vote for Christ himself if he ran as a Democrat.
But would consider voting for V. Putin if he ran as an Independent.
Adjust as necessary to your local governance scheme, e.g. federation, parliament, monarchy, other autocracy
Too much pathos, IMO.
Putin is doing his job, and he does it well. I mean, his job is politics, he does what russian people suppose to be right, interests of Russia. Not interests of EU, US or China etc.
We are not happy with economics and social things n the country, btw, and this is why Medvedev is so unpopular. That man does his job bad.
An addendum to above: (insert below line ‘But would consider …’)
And never ever vote to support any incumbent, a single stint in office can lead to very bad habits that cannot be broken easily.
Tatyana:
Might it be suggested that nowhere does a valid economic theory exist to measure an economy. Don’t confuse economic policies with their political cover. Unpopularity is a political quality, not economic. No matter how poorly Medvedev may appear to do their job, that job is to preside over government only, not to compete with those charged with head of state duties. Normally cooperation would be the measure of that relationship. Otherwise I refrain from advising about your held opinion. Thanks for your reply.
Medvedev is head of government and he was the head of state earlier. One may expect more competence from a man with such experience. His responsibility now is making social and economical plans and put right men into right places, and control results. Sanctions and oil price is minor evil, comparing to bad management
To explain my above comment I want to add, that we in Russia are fed up with propaganda since USSR, some kind of immune to it. Slogans like “Make Russia great again” or “for democracy sake” will not pass here. We prefer specific statements, what will be done and what will be the result.
That is why we don’t discuss our officials regardng ther hairdo, their sexual life, their vacations, their clothes or facial expressions. It is not relevant to their duties. We try to judge our officals by their acts.
Putin is a person elected by majority to do presidential job. He is skilled enough, diplomatic enough, he knows the country, has respect to russian history and people, he has ability and desire to stand for russian interests, he is clever and he knows how it all works in the world. That is all that matters. We don’t worship him or hate him, we are satisfied or not satisfied with his job.
It is like an employee in a company – one may like or dislike him personally – it is no relation to his work.
Very noteworthy response.
That’s how/what politics everywhere should be about.
Compare that to the country that’s spreading ‘democracy’ and ‘freedom’ all over the planet. Aieee!.
Thanks, bj.
Me personally, I have fun watchng Trump, american public want show, and Trump is an actor.
His white make-up around his eyes, his hair done to resemble american eagle’s feathers, he even learned to put his lips forward in a way to resemble a bird’s beack!
He is unnatural, as a teenager playing togh guy. As if he says to his domestic public – look at me, I am tough, tough with that Putin. Noone was tougher than me! I am a hawk, I am an eagle!
It is so silly and unexpected from the head of the state.
Can not he just be a serious man doing important work? Making reasonable well-grounded decisions based on his own believes?
Mr. Obama had more dignity and class, his actions were logic (though hostile to Russia).
@ Tatyana July 24, 2018 at 10:07
Russia is hampered by the Western sanctions and the deliberate manipulation of the oil price.
The eminently readable John Newsinger at Lobster reviews 5 books written in paean to Donald Trump by American, Christian evangelicals. Rather him than me.
https://www.lobster-magazine.co.uk/free/lobster76/lob76-donald-trump.pdf
Isaiah 45 tells us that the pagan, ungodly Cyrus the Great rebuilt Jerusalem and it came to pass that Donald Trump would be elected the 45th POTUS. Lots more bizarre, delusional guff where that came from.
Difficult to tell whether these professional God botherers actually think Trump has any spiritual credentials at all or whether as con artists themselves they are in awe of the sheer audacity of the greatest carnival barker of them all.
Thanks for that Vivian O’Blivion. I have great regard for John Newsinger. ‘The Blood Never Dried’ etc.
I never knew his output of work has been so prolific.
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=john+newsinger+books&ie=&oe=
I am pleased that Carey, the Christian Zionist ex Archbishop of Canterbury has been called to give evidence to the Peter Ball IICHSA inquiry.
‘A lawyer has voiced concern that the Prince of Wales is being treated differently from other witnesses at an investigation into child sexual abuse.
Richard Scorer said there was “surprise and concern” the prince did not have to provide a formal witness statement.
The inquiry into how allegations against former bishop Peter Ball were handled heard a letter from the prince would instead be read out on Friday.
The ex-Bishop of Lewes and Gloucester was jailed in 2015 for sex offences.
Ball, who was Bishop of Lewes, in East Sussex, between 1977 and 1992 and Bishop of Gloucester from 1992 until his resignation the following year, admitted a series of offences between the 1970s and 1990s against 18 teenage boys and young men at a trial in October 2015.
He was released from prison in February 2017, having served half his sentence.
The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) is focusing this week on how allegations against Ball were dealt with by the Church of England and other authorities.
Statement of truth
Mr Scorer, who represents some of Ball’s victims, questioned the status of the prince’s evidence, suggesting it might be “less than entirely frank about his personal relationship with Peter Ball”.
He said unlike the more usual witness statement, a letter was not verified by a “statement of truth” – regarded as the equivalent of swearing an oath.
But the hearing was told that the final line of Prince Charles’s letter – making clear that the information was true – was considered by the inquiry to comply with the requirements of a statement of truth.
Counsel to the inquiry, Fiona Scolding QC, said the prince’s lawyers had argued that the inquiry had no power to compel him to submit a statement.’
/..
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-44924297
The very last edition of Daily Politics is being broadcast now. Ms Coburn is joined by Ms Kuenssberg, a chocolate Labrador, James Cleverly, Quentin Letts, Helen Lewis and Tracy Brabin. (who owns the dog I believe).
Does this mean we have seen the last of Coburn and Neil? 🙂
Unfortunately not. They are back in a rehash of the programme in September, which is being called Politics Live. Groan.
Israel wants more war.
BBC Breaking news
Israel shoots down Syrian warplane
16 minutes ago
Israel has shot down a Syrian warplane flying over its airspace in southern Golan, according to its army.
The Israel Defense Forces tweeted that two Patriot missiles were fired at the Syrian Sukhoi fighter jet which was one mile inside Israeli airspace.
Haaretz news website reports residents in north Israel saw interceptor missiles fired and heard explosions.
Unconfirmed reports say that one pilot was killed.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.
The BBC report gives the Israeli account of the incident but not the Syrian.
https://www.rt.com/news/434099-idf-missiles-sukhoi-warplane/
Of course. The BBC – Israel says…… Israeli spokesman said……
The IDF have ‘soldiers’. The Palestinians have ‘militants’.
They probably feel entitled to a new handout by their daddy.
Like new air defense systems because you know — Syria, the Golan Heights, etc. — the usual justification of thieves.
Back to this Salisbury nonsense. The timeline so far, omitting political statements and sticking to events (as they have been presented to us helots).
March 4th: Skripals found unconscious in Salisbury.
March 7th: Porton Down states Skripals are victims of novichok.
April 10th: Yulia Skripal discharged from hospital.
May 18th: Sergei Skripal discharged from hospital.
June 30th: Amesbury poisonings.
July 4th: Wiltshire Police declare Major incident (novichok).
July 8th: Dawn Sturgess passes.
July 13th: Metropolitan Police declare source is “small bottle” found in Charlie Rowleys house.
July 19th: Police state that two suspects have been identified leaving the country on March 5th using facial recognition technology. Suspects are unnamed GRU officers.
July 20th: Charlie Rowley discharged from hospital.
Plenty of stuff omitted and much of what has been included may very well be guff. This is a critique of the official version. Pick your own three most glaring improbabilities or inconsistencies. For what it is worth.
How does a small bottle of nerve agent come into the possession of Dawn Sturgess? Does the highly trained team of GRU assassins dispose of their spare novichok in a public space where it is discovered by a member of the public some unknown time later?
118 days between the two poisonings (see point one).
134 days between Porton Down stating poisoning was novichok and authorities stating suspects had been identified. The highest priority case in recent history, why the delay? How did they match facial images at Heathrow on March 5th to unknown GRU officers (four months in a panel van outside GRU Headquarters, Central Moscow, photographing everyone coming and going)?
Plenty other improbabilities to choose from.
I favour the rogue chemist from Porton Down theory. Unfashionable I know and insufficiently tinfoil hat for many, but that’s my choice.
You should make a justification statement of you ‘filter’, i.e. your selection criteria, what is it that you accept as an ‘event’ and what is it that you reject.
Like you’re forgetting the critical event of the letter of Dr. Stephen Davies in the newspaper — one of a tiny few of hard facts in this case’.