If you want to understand what is really happening in the world today, a mid-ranking official named Ian Henderson is vastly more important to you than Theresa May. You will not, however, find anything about Henderson in the vast majority of corporate and state media outlets.
You may recall that, one month after the Skripal incident, there was allegedly a “chemical weapons attack” in the jihadist enclave of Douma, which led to air strikes against the Syrian government in support of the jihadist forces by US, British and French bombers and missiles. At the time, I argued that the Douma jihadist enclave was on the brink of falling (as indeed it proved) and there was no military advantage – and a massive international downside – for the Syrian Army in using chemical weapons. Such evidence for the attack that existed came from the jihadist allied and NATO funded White Helmets and related sources; and the veteran and extremely respected journalist Robert Fisk, first westerner to arrive on the scene, reported that no chemical attack had taken place.
The “Douma chemical weapon attack” was linked to the “Skripal chemical weapon attack” by the western media as evidence of Russian evil. Robert Fisk was subjected to massive media abuse and I was demonised by countless mainstream media journalists on social media, of which this is just one example of a great many.
In both the Skripal and the Douma case, it fell to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to provide the technical analysis. The OPCW is a multilateral body established by treaty, and has 193 member states. The only major chemical weapons owning powers which are not members and refuse the inspections regime are the pariah rogue states Israel and North Korea.
An OPCW fact finding mission visited Douma on April 21 and 25 2018 and was able to visit the sites, collect samples and interview witnesses. No weaponised chemicals were detected but traces of chlorine were found. Chlorine is not an uncommon chemical, so molecular traces of chlorine at a bombing site are not improbable. The interim report of the OPCW following the Fact Finding Mission was markedly sober and non-committal:
The results show that no organophosphorous nerve agents or their degradation products were detected in the environmental samples or in the plasma samples taken from alleged casualties. Along with explosive residues, various chlorinated organic chemicals were found in samples from two sites, for which there is full chain of custody.
The fact finding mission then returned to OPCW HQ, at which time the heavily politicised process took over within the secretariat and influenced by national delegations. 9 months later the final report was expressed in language of greater certainty, yet backed by no better objective evidence:
Regarding the alleged use of toxic chemicals as a weapon on 7 April 2018 in Douma, the Syrian Arab Republic, the evaluation and analysis of all the information gathered by the FFM—witnesses’ testimonies, environmental and biomedical samples analysis results, toxicological and ballistic analyses from experts, additional digital information from witnesses—provide reasonable grounds that the use of a toxic chemical as a weapon took place. This toxic chemical contained reactive chlorine. The toxic chemical was likely molecular chlorine.
However the report noted it was unable to determine who had used the chlorine as a weapon. Attempts to spin this as a consequence of OPCW’s remit are nonsense – the OPCW exists precisely to police chemical weapons violations, and has never operated on the basis of violator anonymity.
Needless to say, NATO funded propaganda site Bellingcat had been from the start in the lead in proclaiming to the world the “evidence” that this was a chemical weapons attack by the Assad government, dropping simple chlorine cylinders as bombs. The original longer video footage of one of the videos on the Bellingcat site gives a fuller idea of the remarkable lack of damage to one gas cylinder which had smashed through the reinforced concrete roof and landed gently on the bed.
[I am sorry that I do not know how to extract that longer video from its tweet. You need to click on the above link then click on the link in the first tweet that warns you it is sensitive material – in fact there is nothing sensitive there, so don’t worry.]
Now we come to the essential Mr Ian Henderson. Mr Henderson was in charge of the engineering sub-group of the OPCW Fact Finding Mission. The engineers assessed that the story of the cylinders being dropped from the sky was improbable, and it was much more probable that they had simply been placed there manually. There are two major reasons they came to this conclusion.
At least one of the crater holes showed damage that indicated it had been caused by an explosive, not by the alleged blunt impact. The cylinders simply did not show enough damage to have come through the reinforced concrete slabs and particularly the damage which would have been caused by the rebar. Rebar is actually thicker steel than a gas cylinder and would have caused major deformation.
Yet – and this is why Ian Henderson is more important to your understanding of the world than Theresa May – the OPCW Fact Finding Mission reflected in their final report none of the findings of their own sub-group of university based engineers from two European universities, but instead produced something that is very close to the amateur propaganda “analysis” put out by Bellingcat. The implications of this fraud are mind-blowing.
The genuine experts’ findings were completely suppressed until they were leaked last week. And still then, this leak – which has the most profound ramifications – has in itself been almost completely suppressed by the mainstream media, except for those marginalised outliers who still manage to get a platform, Robert Fisk and Peter Hitchens (a tiny platform in the case of Fisk).
Consider what this tells us. A fake chemical attack incident was used to justify military aggression against Syria by the USA, UK and France. The entire western mainstream media promoted the anti-Syrian and anti-Russian narrative to justify that attack. The supposedly neutral international watchdog, the OPCW, was manipulated by the NATO powers to produce a highly biased report that omits the findings of its own engineers. Which can only call into doubt the neutrality and reliability of the OPCW in its findings on the Skripals too.
There has been virtually no media reporting of the scandalous cover-up. This really does tell you a very great deal more about how the Western world works than the vicissitudes of the ludicrously over-promoted Theresa May and her tears of self pity.
Still more revealing is the reaction from the OPCW – which rather than acknowledge there is a major problem with the conclusions of its Douma report, has started a witch hunt for the whistleblower who leaked the Henderson report.
The Russian government claimed to have intelligence that indicated it was MI6 behind the faking of the Douma chemical attack. I have no means of knowing the truth of that, and am always sceptical of claims by all governments on intelligence matters, after a career observing government disinformation techniques from the inside. But the MI6 claim is consistent with the involvement of the MI6 originated White Helmets in this scam. and MI6 can always depend on their house journal The Guardian to push their narrative, as Guardian Middle East editor Brian Whitaker does here in an article “justifying” the omission of the Henderson report by the OPCW. Whitaker argues that Henderson’s engineers had a minority view. Interestingly Whitaker’s article is not from the Guardian itself, which prefers to keep all news of the Henderson report from the public.
But Whitaker’s thesis cannot stand. On one level, of course we know that Henderson’s expert opinion did not prevail at the OPCW. Henderson and the truth lost out in the politicking. But at the very least, it would be essential for the OPCW report to reflect and note the strong contrary view among its experts, and the suppression of this essential information cannot possibly be justified. Whitaker’s attempt to do so is a disgrace.
Which leads me on to the Skripals.
I have noted before the news management technique of the security services, leaking out key facts in a managed way over long periods so as not to shock what public belief there is in the official Skripal story. Thus nine months passed before it was admitted that the first person who “coincidentally” came across the ill Skripals on the park bench, just happened to be the Chief Nurse of the British Army.
The inquest into the unfortunate Dawn Sturgess has now been postponed four times. The security services have now admitted – once again through the Guardian – that even if “Boshirov and Petrov” poisoned the Skripals, they cannot have been also responsible for the poisoning of Dawn Sturgess. This because the charity bin in which the perfume bottle was allegedly found is emptied regularly so the bottle could not have lain there for 16 weeks undiscovered, and because the package was sealed so could not have been used on the Skripals’ doorknob.
This Guardian article is bylined by the security services’ pet outlet, Luke Harding, and one other. The admissions are packaged in a bombastic sandwich about Russian GRU agents.
Every single one of these points – that “Boshirov and Petrov” have never been charged with the manslaughter of Sturgess, that the bottle was sealed so could not have been used at the Skripals’ house, and that it cannot have been in the charity bin that long – are points that I have repeatedly made, and for which I have suffered massive abuse, including – indeed primarily – from dozens of mainstream media journalists. Making precisely these points has seen me labelled as a mentally ill conspiracy theorist or paid Russian agent. Just like the Douma fabrication, it turns out there was indeed every reason to doubt, and now, beneath a veneer of anti-Russian nonsense, these facts are quietly admitted by anonymous “sources” to Harding. No wonder poor Dawn Sturgess keeps not getting an inquest.
Which brings us back full circle to the OPCW. In neither its report on the Salisbury poisoning nor its report on the Amesbury poisoning did the OPCW ever use the word Novichok. As an FCO source explained to me, the expert scientists in OPCW were desperate to signal that the Salisbury sample had not been for days on a doorknob collecting atmospheric dust, rain and material from hands and gloves, but all the politics of the OPCW leadership would allow them to slip in was the phrase “almost complete absence of impurities” as a clue – which the British government then spun as meaning “military grade” when it actually meant “not from a doorknob”.
Now we have seen irrefutable evidence of poor Ian Henderson in exactly the same position with the OPCW of having the actual scientific analysis blocked out of the official findings. That is extremely strong added evidence that my source was indeed telling the truth about the earlier suppression of the scientific evidence in the Skripal case.
Even the biased OPCW could not give any evidence of the Amesbury and Salisbury poisons being linked, concluding:
“Due to the unknown storage conditions of the small bottle found in the house of Mr Rowley and the fact that the environmental samples analysed in relation to the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal and Mr Nicholas Bailey were exposed to the environment and moisture, the impurity profiles of the samples available to the OPCW do not make it possible to draw conclusions as to whether the samples are from the same synthesis batch
”
Which is strange, as the first sample had an “almost complete absence of impurities” and the second was straight out of the bottle. In fact beneath the doublespeak the OPCW are saying there is no evidence the two attacks were from the same source. Full stop.
I suppose I should now have reached the stage where nothing will shock me, but as a textbook example of the big lie technique, this BBC article is the BBC’s take on the report I just quoted – which remember does not even use the word Novichok.
When it comes to government narrative and the mainstream media, mass purveyor of fake news, scepticism is your friend. Remembering that is much more important to your life than the question of which Tory frontman is in No. 10.
For an analysis of the Henderson Report fiasco written to the highest academic standards, where you can find all the important links to original source material, read this superb work by the Working Group on Syria, Propaganda and Media.
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Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all the secret files from the security services could be made public – particularly the black-ops projects – so we can all appreciate the scale of corruption and illegality out taxes have been funding? We need a very big broom.
Plus a large shovel and buckets. And Hercules if he’s free.
Mark,
I think it would turn your hair white, and you’d never want to leave the house again
Good point, those of us who are, in the minds of the security services, enemies of the state need to believe in the fundamentals of British decency or we would be afraid to operate.
I’m sure Craig uses all his tradecraft skills to stay safe. Those of us without such skills have to improvise. My phone is as hardened as I can make it absent paying big bucks to a security company, money I don’t have.
Blaming Android when it behaves strangely is necessary for my sanity. Mr Snowden tells us the vast information trawl is hardly ever looked at by human eyes anyway, being searched by algorithm instead. I’m nowhere near important enough to warrant human eyes.
“Blaming Android when it behaves strangely is necessary for my sanity.”
One evening whilst watching TV I happened to notice text appearing on my phone’s screen. Upon investigating I found the speech-to-text feature had been activated. I started verbally questioning myself (talking out loud) how it had happened. While doing this the phone was rendering my words into text but it was also inserting words and phrases such as ‘terrorist attack’ and ‘police crimes’ which had never passed my lips. I too put it down to stupid Google. Maybe that transcript is now sitting on google storage waiting to be data-mined by GCHQ/MI5 at a future date – who knows?
Mark Curtis asked a similar but larger question on his twitter last year, I think. What if we all knew our real history? What an evocative question. Imagine being free of the bullshit of empire, the delusions of exceptionalism. For me it evoked a strange meeting with ourselves free to dream our own dreams, untethered by the strident ghosts of a past which never was, free to mingle with the other less certain ghosts of history, choosing our own priorities, marking our own paths, making amends. Imagine what could be discovered by asking different questions? Go on, imagine.
A reckoning with our real history would serve us well.
Excellent analysis Mr Murray.
I wonder if Trezza’s last ignominous task will be to explain the dead ducks and ill children photos that were presented to him by Haspell?
Jonathan Cook’s on the media complicity in the false flags.
“They see the world through a single prism: the system’s need to hold on to power. Everything else – truth, evidence, justice, human rights, love, compassion – must take a back seat.”
https://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/2019-05-24/media-syria-deceptions/
MH17 investigation – the Netherlands. Analytics of the OPCW on Scripal’s case and the Douma attack – the Netherlands. Latest news on Skripals say that their ‘representative in Russia’ Gulnara was contacted from the Netherlands (supposedly by Yulia). The Netherlands sent to the Ukraine the museum exhibits of Scythian gold, instead of returning them back to the Crimea. Their court decisions are always in favor of Ukrainian, not Russian commercial enterprises.
What has Russia done to the Netherlands? Is it a revenge for “Arctic Sunrise”?
The short answer is that in 1956 we had what can be best described as a palace coup. In due course Queen Juliana was more or less forced to abdicate. After that we gradually lost our sovereignty and external forces started to determine our foreign policy. Queen Juliana had wanted to limit our involvement with Europe to trade and the free movement of goods and services but to remain a sovereign nation, her husband the German prince Bernhard and daughter Beatrix were globalists and supporters of a European super state. A confidential interview conducted by the editor of Elsevier magazine H A Lunshof with the Queen’s Secretary Walraven van Heeckeren van Molecaten makes this clear and set’s out the Queen’s dilemma at the time. This article was never published but per accident found it’s way into the public domain when the Lunshof archives were transfered to the archives of the Press Museum. So when The Netherlands acts is probable that somebody else is pulling the string.
http://www.iisg.nl/exhibitions/censorship/pm-lunshof.php
1956? 2014 will do with PM Mark Rutte in the role of highest Dutch official blindly following the CIA script book. He sticks to it even today as he is now vying for the highest EU position.
Basic wrongs like making the second suspect into a jury member – Ukraine – be damned, keeping up appearances as long as possible.
The OPCW have denied that Henderson was part of the FFM (Fact finding Mission) so he would never have been on site.
Any evidence that the White Helmets and Bellingcat are funded by NATO? (As opposed to countries that happen to be NATO members.)
By the way who funds the Working Group on Syria, Propaganda and Media?
Kempey
You mean like your comments which though they appear on CM blog might not always represent the official CM viewpoint?
No one has confirmed it was Ian Henderson who leaked the document, which was copied to all members of the engineering investigation team, subcontracted by the FFM. As Craig says, Ian Henderson was in charge of the sub-contracted engineering investigation team and this has not been refuted by the OPCW. Naturally, as team leader, he would be expected to sign off the report; whether he himself was on site in Douma or not is irrelevant. The OPCW has confirmed the ‘leaked’ report is genuine. The OPCW’s primary focus at the moment is on finding out who the ‘whistleblower’ was. One would have thought that in view of the implications they would have (i) produced a full explanation as to why they ignored the extensive engineering data produced by the investigation team, (ii) explained what alternative evidence they had that led them to ignore the report and its conclusions, and (iii) explained why they did not acknowledge in the final report the existence of differing conclusions following the FFM’s investigations. Nearly two weeks have gone by, all this information should be ‘on the shelf’, so what is delaying them?
Bellingcat and Higgins are quite openly funded by the Atlantic Council. The White Helmets are funded by a number of NATO states, I accept that clarification.
Your claim on the OPCW statement on Higgins is news to me. Presuming they said who he actually is in the OPCW then? They have acknowledged the authenticity of the report. A link would be welcome.
Henderson.
The Working Group on Syria, Propaganda and Media, Offguardian and others have reported OPCW’s denial that he was a member of the FFM.
Naturally they blithely dismiss it as a lie without a shred of supporting evidence but then they would have to, wouldn’t they.
http://syriapropagandamedia.org/working-papers/assessment-by-the-engineering-sub-team-of-the-opcw-fact-finding-mission-investigating-the-alleged-chemical-attack-in-douma-in-april-2018
A more measured response:-
https://medium.com/@Brian_Whit/leaked-opcw-document-wheres-the-conspiracy-71d97d9ecf89
“…OPCW’s denial that he was a member of the FFM”.
My take on this is that the OPCW may have been trying to distance Ian Henderson from themselves on a technicality, and throw people off the scent. It could be argued that those experts working on behalf of the engineering sub-group (led by Henderson) were contracted by the FFM but were not officially classified as members of the FFM, thereby making the OPCW’s statement factually correct. It would be interesting to know in what capacity Henderson was asked to take on the role of team leader. From what I have read he has undertaken work for the OPCW over the past 20 years.
Re “a more measured response”
Have you had a gander at Brian Whitaker’s twitter feed and do you therefore feel his response is remotely reliable?
Now Kempe
You are an engineer I believe. Do you really believe that a cylinder of chlorine could pierce a reinforced concrete ceiling and then land on a bed, undented and not breaking the bed? Do your calculations and tell me.
I’ve been having this discussion with Kempe on a previous thread. If Kempe’s an engineer, my arse is my elbow.
Please don’t scratch your elbow in public.
I am indeed. I suggest you read the OPCW’s report thoroughly.
https://www.opcw.org/sites/default/files/documents/2019/03/s-1731-2019%28e%29.pdf
It should answer most if not all of your questions.
No. You explain what’s in it. Is Henderson’s assessment in it?
What do they say of Henderson’s assessment?
I am asking you as an engineer to really tell me, can a cylinder such as this penetrate a steel reinforced roof and just so happen to create a hole with a similar size to the cylinder, with the cylinder remaining intact and then gently land on a bed? Also is this really the way that chlorine chemical weapons are delivered if used?
Now what I am telling you is that the OPCW report is a pure fairy tale. If I say to you that I threw my mobile phone onto a car’s windscreen and it penetrated the windscreen, producing a hole of a size compatible with penetration of a mobile phone and the phone landed unscathed or with minor damage on the driver’s seat, would you not say I was bonkers?
“to create a hole with a similar size to the cylinder” — SA
I read the leaked document. Didn’t Henderson specifically say that the cylinder wouldn’t have fitted through that hole in the roof?
The real problem is with the rebar. It is exposed and the steel is thicker than the exterior of the allegedly dropped container, thus it is not possible the container passed through it. If such was to have taken place, taking into consideration height, speed (velocity), material strength and weight, then the container would show signs of significant damage. The expected damage is not present. Thus, the container did not pass through the rebar. Its physics 101, and physically impossible. Hence the reason for Team Leader Henderson taking an alternative viewpoint. The physical damage to the ceiling is consistent with shelling and not with an object falling through the rebar reinforced ceiling. The shape of the container shows no signs of contact with the rebar. The fact that the container sits on a bed which is also undamaged lends credibility to the theory that the container was placed there. Thus, whoever presented the scene to the OPCW team is the likely culprit. The chain of custody for control over the scene and the presented alleged evidence points towards the White Helmets.
It cannot correctly answer the question “how can a chlorine cylinder punch a hole through a reinforced concrete floor and remain undamaged?” except by the answer “It can’t”. If you are an engineer, you know this. If you think that there is some way that it could, then you are not an engineer, at least not an engineer of any discipline that involves knowledge of the strength of materials.
You’re an engineer in the ‘best of british’ tradition.
You drive a locomotive as part of your model train set.
You’re not even a machinist.
You’ve never seen the inside of a tertiary education facility, let alone graduate from an engineering degree course.
Your comments speak for themselves.
yeah, and with the valve intact after hitting the reinforced roof? a valve is the most fragile part of the cylinder design. the purpose of this dirty chemical weapon is exactly letting the deadly gas out, and this requires an open valve
15 seconds video gives the idea
https://youtu.be/TZCLFY0wb7k
Look at the pictures in the OPCW report and you’ll see the valve was shrouded by the framework built around the cylinder to support the fins. That would’ve protected it.
Only if it were made of Titanium.
Of a type not made in Russia – of course.
How many door handles did the OPCW test ‘environmentally ?’
Was it one or four?
One if the Skripals were in and went out.
Four if they went out and came back in?
If they only tested one door handle ( just the outer handle ) then the Skripals must have been in when the spraying/smearing took place.
An engineer could work that out.
How the valve on the cylinder remained intact?
Why don’t you answer this simple question, Kempe?
Pardon Kempe for not replying Tatyana as he is admiring the sequisite design of his elbows in a mirror.
I’ve no idea what type of engineer Kemp is but merely being “an engineer” doesn’t qualify one to comment on anything other than the area of engineering with which one is familiar. For example, a civil engineer may be qualified to comment on the structural soundness of, say, a bridge, but wouldn’t be qualified to express and opinion on say, the design of a supertanker.
I’m a lawyer but profess no expertise other then in the area within which I practice (even though a hundred years ago I needed to pass exams in all areas of law commonly encountered). So I wouldn’t go with what he says merely because he may be an engineer.
Question everything.
The gas cylinder pictured above and claimed to have been used to carry the chlorine gas would, in UK trade terms be recognised as a 47kg, being approximately 1290mm tall and 375mm diameter; this seems to fit with the presumed size of the bed and the space the cylinder occupies on it. The fabrication of the cylinder base seems also to conform with that suspicion.
Normally the valve is shrouded by a partial metal enclosure to protect it from damage during transport; it’s difficult to see whether it or the valve is still in place or how indeed on impact the release of gas was intended.
I’m no chemist (or engineer for that matter), so I have no idea of the relative weight of chlorine compared to that of propane; both are heavier than air; which a cylinder of this size would normally hold but a full 47kg cylinder of propane weighs 94kgs (207lbs) or the weight of a decent sized blacksmith’s anvil.
Whether it would pass through a reinforced concrete roof might depend on the height it was dropped from and how well constructed the roof was; however, it’s unlikely it would emerge unscathed the other side, the walls of the cylinder are relatively thin at about 3 to 4mm but granted, from a steel made to a high specification:
http://www.hse.gov.uk/cdg/pdf/standard/hsss2.pdf
If I dropped an empty 47kg gas cylinder onto our double bed, even from an average bedroom ceiling height of 2.4 mtrs, it would break the wooden base, a full one would collapse the bed frame.
I repeat, I claim no engineering expertise but do have extensive experience of handling full and empty gas cylinders.
I would doubt the cylinder in the photograph above passed through any ceiling, or dropped from any particular height onto the bed but then I’m just a member of the public attempting to use a bit of critical thinking based on what might be loosely termed empirical knowledge.
Yes the cylinder appears to be a re-purposed LPG cylinder.
Usually these have a safety valve which opens at 25 bar but the maximum pressure they can withstand is two or three times that. For this reason they have to be solidly constructed, 5mm to 8mm high quality steel, which as yr hen gof points out makes them quite heavy, especially when full and chlorine is significantly heavier than LPG. It would be possible to do some rough calculations to work out the kinetic energy of a dropped cylinder and the sheer strength of the building’s walls/ceiling but maybe those here who have already done this and deduced that it’s “impossible” would like to share their calculations and experimental results first.
@ Kempe May 25, 2019 at 18:01
As noted, the OPCW is rather careless with ‘la verite’.
And pray tell how the OPCW has opened an investigation into the report, if it doesn’t exist?
Kempe
There is quite a good article here regarding the White Helmets. There are any number of groups around the World which have been used/funded in order to facilitate regime change on behalf of the US.
https://off-guardian.org/2016/10/05/fact-sheet-on-the-white-helmets/
“The OPCW have denied that Henderson was part of the FFM (Fact finding Mission) so he would never have been on site.”
The conclusion he reached it is exactly the same as the one I reached after looking at the images for two seconds – there is no way a gas canister can punch through reinforced concrete but be stopped by a bed. It does not matter whether you are on the scene or not; it is a physical impossibility.
“these points has seen me labelled as a mentally ill conspiracy theorist”.
It doesn’t surprise me that someone who got pressured out of a top job in the diplomatic service and so had his career ruined might be bitter against the persons he held responsible therefter – namely the British government. It doesn’t surprise me that such bitterness might create a bias. It reminds me of a saying of Buddha from the Dhammapada:
What we are is the result of what we have thought,
is built by our thoughts, is made up of our thoughts.
If one speaks or acts with a pure thought,
happiness follows one,
like a shadow that never leaves.
“They insulted me; they hurt me;
they defeated me; they cheated me.”
In those who harbor such thoughts,
hate will never cease.
“They insulted me; they hurt me;
they defeated me; they cheated me.”
In those who do not harbor such thoughts,
hate will cease.
For hate is never conquered by hate.
Hate is conquered by love.
This is an eternal law.
What a wise man Buddha was, his wisdom is valid after two and half millennia. Of course human nature doesn’t change.
Sorry M.J.. I don’t recognise Buddha as an expert on international politics.
A comment which alleges a bias while making no attempt to dispute any of the argument presented is simply furthering the ad hominem insult. Despite all the religious bullshit.
Quite true.
But surely you must take some comfort that you inspire such esoteric and high-minded cheap shots. 😉
PS: I enjoyed your extended interview with Alex Salmond
It’s a shame Buddha has no ability to reign in the neo cons and neo liberals, with their retribution and revenge. But I doubt “MJ” wants that particular discussion.
@ Tony May 25, 2019 at 19:23
‘It’s a shame Buddha has no ability to reign in the neo cons and neo liberals, with their retribution and revenge….’
Retribution and revenge for what? Their own False Flags?
it’s always cute how the religious think the words and sayings of their revered ones have force in the real word. I bet that was supposed to really sting and harm your chakras.
It doesn’t surprise me that a truth-teller, who had to leave a high diplomatic position due to an excess of decency, presenting a vital, fact-based argument that is extremely threatening to the interests of the UK, (specifically it’s Orwellian security apparatus), draws paid & volunteer trolls who try to discredit his message. The religious blabber is certainly novel, however. Points for originality, maybe you’ll get a bonus for this post.
M.J. you are confusing the cause and the effect.
First Mr. Murray became bitter against some persons, and then he lost his job.
Religion is incompatible with logical thinking.
Are you sure about that?
Most people acknowledge Isaac Newton as being one of the all time most influential scientists. Presumably things like Newton’s Law of Motion was derived via a process of logical thinking.
Newton was a deeply religious figure and in his day operated as a natural philosopher which blended science and theology.
Maybe religion is in fact necessary for logical thinking.
Yes, Loony, I’m sure.
I know many words to describe people’s different worldviews.
e.g. “agnosticism” – belief that the God is unknown, or “faith in divine love” – a very humane philosophy in Christianity, or “belief in karma” – the system of rewards and punishments etc etc
Please notice, that one’s faith doesn’t necessarily makes one religious, because being “religious” means performing rituals and believing that it will help you in some mystical way. And it’s completely illogical 🙂
Well, his inner beliefs were hardly related to his Optics or Law of Motion. I’m sure Newton didn’t rely on prayer when he experimented. But I am also sure that in his time it was impossible to advance in the career without visiting a church. I see now in Russia people go to the church and don’t know simple prayers. Like visiting a weekend club which celebrities go to, in the trend now.
Newton was also an unpleasant, unhappy, occultist psychopath, but that part is left out of the official story and instead we are presented with a falling apple. Funny how official history loves these silly little stories.
Isaac Newton was a member of the totally bonkers Rosicrucian Order. They believed in Kaballah and alchemy; that is, he subscribed to various kinds of magical thinking. So evidently magical and superstitious beliefs are not incompatible with developing ground-breaking theories in mathematics, physics and optics.
FWIW, I do not think the Buddha’s original teachings were in fact religious. He said “Do not believe anything just because I have said it; believe only what you have tested and found to be true”. People who are promoting religious beliefs don’t say things like that. He also enjoined his followers against superstitious beliefs. Those utterances are at odds with the teachings of Mahayana Buddhism (apparently inaugurated about 500 years after Buddha’s death), which is full of superstition, prophecy, spells and so on. When you move on to Tantric Buddhism, it’s essence is a kind of magical transformation. In fact the early Tantric masters didn’t really care much whether they were Buddhists or not; their early practices were largely indistinguishable from Shaivite tantrists.
Newton believed that the alchemists were engaged in the description of natural phenomena and has made significant progress in the study of fire and secret properties of metals.
Newton did not recognize the Trinity.
Rosicrucian theories were alien to him because they took him too far from the Bible.
Do you really see no difference between analyzing holy texts and being religious? I see it clear, it is very scientific way of getting knowlege – study of available sources, different opinions.
Well, if Newton performed a religious ritual, and for that God revealed to him the laws of thermodynamics, well, then I would not only admit that Newton is religious, but probably myself would believe in God as well 🙂
@ Tatyana May 25, 2019 at 18:41
‘…Religion is incompatible with logical thinking.’
That of course is a matter of opinion. I disagree with both you and Craig on that.
Religion is almost entirely the product of (male) logical thinking, trying to figure out what God meant by such and such in the holy texts. The bit that isn’t is the incomprehensible revelations that the prophets tell us come from God.
A metaphor, religion as the concretisation of the experience reality. Like the shell of a long dead snail, it is neither the snail nor it’s experience, but something to do with both. Ideology always outlives the moment of it’s necessity.
All those people who are logical in parts of their lives, Engineers are prime for this but us scientists do it too, compartmentalise their minds so they can avoid applying the logic and reason to their beliefs. This lets them claim to be logical and reasonable but it doesn’t mean their religion is.
I used to, back in the day, hang out on alt.atheism on usenet and we had just such an engineer who had it ALL worked out. Called it Western Realism. We took him apart, on my part I proved his premise was circular and contingent. My Physics was better than his Physics.
I come from a line of Engineers, both grandfathers and my father, I know how they think and how they are prone to falling off the logic ladder. My father was, for a time, taken in my Erick von Danniken, we had a copy of The Kontiki Expedition.
I’m an engineer too, a genetic engineer, amongst other things, but I’m a Scientist and we think and reason differently and a bit less rigidly than many engineers, who are not scientists though some think they are.
I think it was Bhudda who mentioned, why all the hysteria when it comes to chemical weapons? Which middle eastern country, which has a modern military defence system, paid for by the American taxpayer, who deny the existence of their own nuclear weapons, would be worried about chemical weaponry?
“I think it was Buddha who mentioned…”
??
Well that was a complete waste of two minutes of my life.
@ M.J. May 25, 2019 at 18:08
Well, the Buddha may well have agreed with the following, if asked:
‘He who has a bias for truth and justice may oft times be labelled mad and bad, and persecuted.’
In case you didn’t notice, Craig has explained that his demonisation was for stating obvious flaws in the ‘government narrative’, which were later admitted by the MSM and PTB.
‘…Every single one of these points – that “Boshirov and Petrov” have never been charged with the manslaughter of Sturgess, that the bottle was sealed so could not have been used at the Skripals’ house, and that it cannot have been in the charity bin that long – are points that I have repeatedly made, and for which I have suffered massive abuse, including – indeed primarily – from dozens of mainstream media journalists. Making precisely these points has seen me labelled as a mentally ill conspiracy theorist or paid Russian agent…’
So it has sweet FA to do with his being ‘bitter’ about his treatment after his Uzbekistan whistleblowing. Though that understandably led to his taking a different perspective re HMG’s lack of morality.
Precisely so… ???
As, MJ, you concur: ‘Hate is never conquered by hate.
Hate is conquered by love.
This is an eternal law.’
The Buddha’s pivotal statement is considered to be: ‘I teach but two things. The nature of suffering & its transcendence.’
It follows that there is ultimately one disease: ignorance.
Rather than indicating a concern to identify truth, your assertion that, ‘It doesn’t surprise me that such bitterness might create a bias,’ bespeaks contempt.
I identified something in myself some years ago. Contempt is self-contempt projected.
The Buddha’s secretary is said to have asked him one day: ‘Would it be true to say that the cultivation of loving kindness & compassion is a part of our practice?’
The Awakened One is reported to have replied: ‘No. It would not be true to say that the cultivation of loving kindness & compassion is a part of our practice. It would be true to say that the cultivation of living kindness & compassion is all of our practice.’
On another occasion he’s reported to have said, ‘It is possible to travel the world seeking one who is more worthy of compassion than oneself. No such person can be found.’
Your are worthy of compassion:
On the evidence of your own remarks, your quotation from the Dhammapada applies in this context more to yourself, I suggest, than it does to Mr Murray.
In this 1998 document below which Caitlin Johnstone links to in her piece on Consortium News last week https://consortiumnews.com/2019/05/17/confirmed-chemical-weapons-assessment-contradicting-official-syria-narrative-is-authentic/
‘I. Henderson’ is quoted as team leader in South Africa. Wonder what his mission was there.
THE CBW CONVENTIONS BULLETIN
News, Background and Comment on Chemical and Biological Weapons Issues
ISSUE NO. 39 MARCH ‘1998
Quarterly Journal of the Harvard Sussex Program on CBW Armament and Arms Limitation
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/Units/spru/hsp/documents/cbwcb39.pdf
South Africa had a chemical weapons programme under the Apartheid govt. You should google Dr Wouter Basson. He was trying to develop certain chemical weapons that would only attack the black population.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/plague/sa/
Reminds me of Jame Puckle and his Puckle gun, which he devised square bullets to shoot non Christians in Africa. Normal round bullets were reserved for Christians.
Square bullets cause more damage then round ones. The stated intention was to encourage Muslims to convert to Christianity in order to avoid being shot with the square ones.
I can see why in “end justifies means” thinking, evidence is faked up to justify western allies’ intervention in Syria and whyOPCW evidence of this is suppressed in the interests of maintaing the official narrative.
But I am still completely baffled over the second bottle of Novichok agent planted in Salisbury. In whose interests was that? Even its appearance in Charley Rowley’s flat does not make any sense. I have followed the story carefully. Rowley’s flat was searched by police, we were told, while he was unconscious in hospital. But as I recall he perfume bottle was only found on the kitchen counter after he recovered and pointed it out to police. None of ithe Rowley episode makes any sense whatsoever in any context, however surreal.
Mary Paul
surreal is the right word to describe these shenanigans.
I think there are several Loci.
The Cyprus Crisis
The Suez Crisis
The Israeli/Palestine Crisis
The Iranian Revolution
and much more recently the Syrian War.
The end of the Turkish Empire at the end of the First World War, the end of the British Empire in the forties/fifties/sixties and seventies.
The American Empire hoping to take charge of the riches of these collapsing empires.
The most recent phase was kicked off by Mrs.Clinton.
She demanded Cyprus take charge of the Russian ship Monchegorsk,
this she imagined was a dastarly plot by Russia and Iran to furnish weapons to The Syrian Regime, this lead to
The Zygi Explosions of 2011
The explosion was the worst peacetime military accident ever recorded in Cyprus, and is ranked as the fifth largest non-nuclear human-induced explosion in history, with a yield of approximately 2 to 3.2 kilotons.
Mrs.Clinton was not wanting a Russian/Iranian/Iraqi/Lebanon/ Syrian arc of influence from the Gulf of Persia to The Eastern Mediterranean, carrying the Carbon bounty by pipeline from the CIS/Iran to Europe, not in U.S.A. dollars and without American say so.
There was never any ‘Novichok’ anywhere. A small pure amount was rustled up for testing by OPCW, but apart from that, none. That’s why none of the story makes any sense.
But why claim it killed Sturgess months later after the original Skripal episode?
Exactly.
2018 World Cup. “oh no, they wouldn’t” – “oh yes, they would”
Mary, one easy explanation that does make sense is simple opportunism. Dawn’s death had nothing to do with novichok or the perfume bottle. She died from a contaminated drug dose, or even from natural causes. But her death provided the authorities with a convenient opportunity to bring the whole evil Russians Skripal novichok story back to the boil and get it on the front pages.
That would also explain why the inquest keeps getting postponed.
Stonky
I’m with you on this. And the hope is that by the time this becomes evident the general public will have moved on enough not to care any more. We’re probably already near that point. I was talking to a lady a couple of weeks ago about the Salisbury events, I mentioned my doubts about the ‘official’ explanation for Dawn Sturgess’s death, and was met with a blank look followed by “Who’s she?”.
But I can see no reason to bring the story back to the boil.
June 28 the first bilateral meeting of Trump and Putin was announced. To be held in Helsinki on July 16. Dawn collapsed on July 4 and died on July 8.
Here is one of headlines:
“Novichok victim’s son urges May and Trump to confront Putin”
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/989403/amesbury-poisoning-salisbury-novichok-son-urges-May-Trump-to-confront-Putin
Don’t forget the calls to boycott 2018 World Cup, which Boris Johnson described as Putin’s Munich Games (from the man who used London 2012 to embellish his pockets and media reputation)
There was no dangerous chemicals at the Sturgess/Rowley scene – as was instantly confirmed by the Fire Service decontamination team sent there that day – they twitted it that evening on theit return to base.
Craig – it is tough being on the side of honesty and truth. It is also very lonely being against war and trying to understand how to wage peace in this time.
I believe people will look back at this era in 20 years and many people’s children will ask their parents why they did not make a stand against the evil. At least the WW2 generation had the excuse that they didn’t know. This bunch won’t have that luxury.
My view on the media nowadays is that you need to be as skeptical as to their true intentions as women had to be about male declarations of undying love as a means to get in their knickers before the days of readily available contraception.
Treat them all like two faced liars until proven otherwise, in other words.
Being mauled by a Guardian employee is evidence to be presented to an unbiased judge as to ones journalistic professionalism and honesty. How George Monbiot ever gained a Professorship from an institution of scholarship is beyond me. I wonder whether a few quotes from the statutes of the relevant organisation might also be presented to a judge at some stage?
This article neither shocks me nor surprises me. I would like t say it saddened me but after the past twenty years of institutionaised lying, my sadness brain centres have overdosed too many times already.
This is just the sort of article which needs mainstream exposure, even if to begin with it starts with links from other alt media sites.
Quite frankly if you could find the email addresses of every secondary school in the country, it might be a good bit of subject matter for classes…..
The only part of the news that’s true these days is the little fun piece at the end, usually involving a furry animal of some sort.
Nobody believes a thing and they don’t care if we believe it or not. It’s like the Soviet Union — the propaganda doesn’t need to be effective when you have everybody by the nuts (thanks largely to the gadgets we carry around and depend on).
@MJ “It doesn’t surprise me that such bitterness might create a bias.”
MJ: You completely miss the point.
When your employer is basically breaking all international laws and human rights it takes a good man to speak up about that.
Any bitterness Craig feels toward his ex-employers is understandable and fully justified.
If you support rendition (torture) and the breaking of International law, then go back to your Buddhist lotus position and meditate on your foolish and churlish comments.
I won’t presume to re-post a typically long-winded comment I posted to a recent WSWS article, “Amnesty International declares Julian Assange ‘not a prisoner of conscience’”.
But I’m posting this link to that comment because I believe that it strongly resonates with Craig’s informative and insightful post.
thanks ort… others would benefit from reading your post..
Thanks Ort,
IMO your comment there is important and very is relevant to Craig’s current post.
Sheesh. Thanks for the link to your comment.
That led me to a tangential link to an unexpected (to me) critique of MSF, an organisation that I’ve given money to for donkeys years. But like many grand critiques of INGOs that petered out a bit when it came to detail. Still, plenty to think about, thanks.
Craig,
I hate giving money to Paypal when it really isn’t necessary. Can you please provide a different source that costs you less and doesn’t fund the billionaires.
If you email bank details, I’ll set up a standing order. It may only be a couple of quid but I would want you to get it all.
Dear Craig, likewise, I would like to set up a standing order.
Unless things have changed, you can indicate that the Paypal payment is a gift (rather than some charge), and there is no fee.
glenn_nl
it works if you send directly to a PP account.
In case of subscription you won’t even see the e-mail address. Also PayPal charges a fee for every transaction and also a fee to withdraw money to a bank acccount, and PP’s currency exchange rate is unfavorable.
You have a point there – it’s not good for a regular donation. I despise PP myself.
Currency swindles are very common with just about everyone involved in international transfers – the “No fees!” merchants are the worst.
transferwise.com are about the best for international exchanges. I have to admit I’m happy that I’m paid in euros these days.
@ Tatyana May 25, 2019 at 22:17
Paypal has never charged a fee when I withdraw funds to my bank account.
Paul Barbara, you are right, my error. There is no fee for withdrowal, in my case it is additional % to the exchange rate.
I’d like if there was a way to make a one-off contribution. I would use it more than once, but I can’t afford to make a recurring one, monthly or whatever.
@ Ronnie May 25, 2019 at 19:22
Are you sure they charge a commission? I didn’t know that.
I’m a newbie here, but am struck by the high minded, cogent, progressive views found – I’ll certainly be a frequent visitor, and become a donor too.
Wrt PayPal, I recall when it disallowed donations to WikiLeaks, when the US got after Julian Assange. Fully with you on this❗??????
great post craig.. thanks for articulating all this so that anyone interested has a lot to think about contrary to the msm feed…
One minor criticism of Hendesons’s otherwise convincing report. Why offer a photo of the cylinder from site 2 (the one that failed to penetrate a reinforced concrete ceiling slab) next to other photos of “earlier”, pancaked cylinders? The inference is that the cylinder from site 2 should resemble the pancaked cylinders but the narrative in the report specifically states that the pancaked cylinders impacted reinforced concrete floor slabs, i.e. fully supported slabs. The false comparison can be construed as a little disingenuous.
As I said on previous thread, the OPCW’s credibility has taken a huge hit. Who funds it, well it states its funded by its members.
However after this deceit one could be forgiven for thinking its pushing an agenda. The Fourth Estate cannot be trusted to tell the truth either, we must read between the lines and ferret out information for ourselves, above all we must remain vigilant and sceptical of our MSM.
This all sounds eminently plausible, and it is highly likely that this, or something like this, constitutes the actual explanation. It is not as though these are isolated examples as there is a vast panoply of similar behaviors that can be observed.
The only real question of relevance is what, if anything, can be done to rein in an out of control state apparatus. Some answers may suggest themselves if it is recognized that it is precisely the same kind of people deploying the same modus operandi that have done all in their power to hobble the Trump presidency. Ask yourselves why public British figures are prepared to destroy both themselves and the institutions they represent in order to avoid the UK leaving the EU.
It is all a continuum and anyone that does not like fostering war via the staging of fake chemical attacks should be right behind both Trump and Brexit. There is not much hope, but what little hope there is is contained in those 2 twin opportunities.
The absence of joined up thinking by the many is what allows the few to abuse the many.
Get real and wise up.
Aaron Banks, Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson are all friends with The Donald.
Our axis will be tilting away from The European Union and towards
The Americas.
How many US bases and soldiers in UK ?
Some answers here. The US presence is still fairly extensive. Morwenstow is the most important to them as far as spying on our internet activity and listening in to us is concerned and Menwith Hill.
Unknown territory: America’s secret archipelago of UK bases
They’ve been over here for 70 years, but the ‘opaque’ presence of our US allies worries many critics
24 January 2014
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/unknown-territory-america-s-secret-archipelago-of-uk-bases-9084129.html
What about the royal family? The Withdrawal Agreement Bill that Theresa May was about to publish and table before she got forced out of office – did it get the “queen’s consent” then? Or was said consent refused? For those who don’t know, before a government bill gets tabled in parliament it has to be okayed by the monarch if it affects her financial interests. (There’s a similar process called “prince’s consent” regarding the crown prince’s interests.) Obviously leaving the EU does affect the monarch’s financial interests, so queen’s consent would have been sought.
Probably not a single journalist on any major paper has the guts to ask the question.
Yes, end of Empire
“Ask yourselves why public British figures are prepared to destroy both themselves and the institutions they represent in order to avoid the UK leaving the EU.”
As opposed to public British figures destroying both themselves and the institutions they represent in order to accomplish US foreign policy objectives?
War & Lies. That leaked engineering assessment. Ex-Pentagon advisor says evidence is ‘overwhelming’ that it was staged ◾️Where does that put alleged NATO propaganda conduit @bellingcat? To think that in its amateur early days I gave its founder money! I did ask him how he’d react if he got an offer from the security services difficult to refuse. Now, I think back, his reply wasn’t entirely unequivocal https://youtu.be/ptwEIX3yHeI
Re: “That leaked engineering assessment. Ex-Pentagon advisor says evidence is ‘overwhelming’ that it was staged”
The expert was MIT professor emeritus Theodore Postol: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Postol
Someone whose qualifications you could respect, whereas Monbiot’s degree was in Zoology, (again see Wiki) so his off the cuff judgement regarding missile dynamics is less than plausible.
Brilliant work Craig. Monbiot is much worse than a fool. He is a good fit for the Guardian.
And you don’t look a day over 79.
Jonathan Cook discusses Monbiot. In the same piece he explains how he was shelved by the Guardian for his support of the Palestinians. He became freelance having freed himself from the Guardian’s sticky tentacles.
Monbiot is a hypocrite and a bully
Jan 18, 2018
https://mronline.org/2018/01/18/monbiot-is-a-hypocrite-and-a-bully/
Craig, in your new photo you look like John Le Carre and in this latest article you show signs of writing like him. I’m a great fan of Le Carre so please consider that a compliment.
But you will not get to the point of all this and let us know what you think happened. Why did Sturgess die? Why was there deadly poison lying in a perfume bottle that was found in a bin? Who left it there, and why?
Now, I can understand the fake chemical attack in Syria. That’s garden-variety false flag stuff, as you know. Despicable for sure, but at least intelligible.
But this Salisbury stuff doesn’t come close to being intelligible. I hate this story for reasons that you allude to — where intelligence services are involved we are always left guessing and wondering.
I think you know more about all this than you are able to say.
My guess – as good as any – is that Rowley and Sturgess may be in the background of the CCTV footage that first witness Freya Church appears in. They were on the scene 20 seconds before Freya Church and may have seen something that she missed, hence they became witnesses that needed to be tidied up
I think it possible thatCharlie Rowley didn’t actually find the bottle in a charity bin, the Novichok was expected to carry them both off, but when Rowley survived he has since been under duress.
In other words, Rowley and/or Sturgess may have been deliberately targeted? And with a substance that had already failed to deliver on the Skripals? A substance that is extremely difficult to work with and deploy… that doesn’t even work.
This whole story has Great British Balls-up written all over it.
Lamb to the slaughter
Best not to have too many bright insights imho. Best stick to Putin wot did it like you’re told
I think they were more (unwittingly) involved. The CCTV image of the couple outside the fitness centre, which the police later said were not connected to the case, appears to be Rowley and Sturgess with her carrying a red bag, much like the one cited in numerous eyewitness statements as being later seen at the bench.
There are reports that Yulia Skripal was also carrying a red bag on CCTV images.
The Skripals did not and probably were not intended to come to any serious harm, so I don’t believe MI6 would be using Charlie and Dawn to carry out any operation, lethal or non-lethal.
The chances of Yulia Skripal carrying a bag with her are quite high, and so are the chances of it being left behind for police to collect later. You are left with the two alternatives either Yulia Skripal was not carrying a bag that day or the bag she was carrying was taken by medical first responders.
The fact that both bags were red is just one of this distracting coincidences.
It could be the same bag and it could have been stolen…
It is sad that our hero Craig has faced massive abuse.
But he has himself to blame for it.
He uses the methods he learnt as a member of the British Empire.
After making bold claims and promising to make revelations about the true culprits in the Skripal affair, he went silent for a year.
Before picking up the story again after others, especially, Rob Slane, had continued doing the hard work in exposing the government’s lies.
Our hero Craig should stop making emotional outbursts, stop trying to win sympathy at every opportunity and just stick to hard truthful reporting.
Like what Stuart Campbell used to do before he was defeated by Ms Dugdale in court.
Not your hero, ours.
“The supposedly neutral watchdog, OPCW, was manipulated by NATO powers to produce a highly biased report…”
— And remember: the OPCW’s Director-General at this time was Ahmet Üzümcü, previously *Turkey’s ‘Permanent Representative to NATO’*…
Is no-one going after him on this…? Is no-one even looking at his traceable activities as OPCW head…?
The previous head said Bolton called him up and threatened him !
@ Wikikettle May 25, 2019 at 22:51
To be more precise, he threatened his family.
Paul Barbara. Thanks Paul, yes indeed he did. These murderous cretins are hell bent on enveloping the whole world in ‘The Rapture’….
Consider that Barnes Wallis had to invent the “eathquake” bomb during WW2 to penetrate re-inforced concrete, and that this bomb weighed tons, had a casing inches thick to withstand impact and had to be dropped from high altitude so near supersonic speed could could be achieved by the falling bomb to allow it to bury itself deep into the concrete before the timed fuse detonated.
Yet, apparently, these canisters have no re-inforcing, have no damage, have a homemade carrying frame and stabilisers, and were presumably delivered via the usual reported Assad method of helicopter (remember barrel bombs) which are low level aircraft in the grand scheme of things. You don’t have to be an engineer to think the official OPCW report makes no sense. The military spend millions perhaps billions on weapons designed to penetrate hardened bunkers, shelters and other installations, yet all Assad has to do is bolt some sheet metal fins on a chlorine canister and drop it from a helicopter and presto, one re-inforced concrete busting chemical weapon. Pull the other one.
Robert Fisk writes : The evidence we were never meant to see about the Douma ‘gas’ attack. The Independent 23.5. Patrick Cockburn writes : Theresa May was a bad PM – but her resignation will do nothing to arrest Britain’s long term decline. the Independent 24.5. Craig is not a lone voice to speak truth to power. I wonder what happened to Max Hastings after his critical articles on drone assassinations. More and more influential Military and thinkers from the right are also speaking out.
@ Wikikettle May 26, 2019 at 02:28
I don’t know what happened to Max Hastings, but Michael Hastings was ‘Boston Braked’.
Another Kelly ?
Michael Hastings topped a US General in Afghanistan. He died a blazing death in his speeding Mercedes. Some say the merc was hacked and he was assassinated. The US general, McChrystal is alive and is a colourful player. See Rolling Stone for Michael’s brilliant story.
Mr Manoid
The Tories in the form of William Hague and Cameron decided to openly deploy Al Qaida in Syria in 2010. Mrs May inherited the mantle of their stupidity while they bolted for cover when they saw Russia taking control of the War against the People of Syria.
The Tories didn’t mind about winning the war in Syria because they didn’t want to give Al Qaida power near Israel as they had in Libya.
Mrs May inherits the whole web of Tory lies like a true pasty holding a ticking bomb.
That is why the unbelievable lies about Douma and the Skripals are so unbelievable because they are a camouflage sheet pulled hastily over a web of blatant lies.
That is also why May has achieved nothing with Brexit, because her Tory colleagues Cameron and Boris are using May as a scapegoat for the catastrophic failure in foreign policy of supporting Al Qaida against Syria.
The Zionist objective of destroying Syria has been achieved, but they need someone to blame for not putting Al Qaida in power.
That person is Mrs May.
Politics is a very dirty game and the people who do it are very stupid. And evil. They have no compunction whatsoever at throwing Mrs May under the wheels of the express train.
Mods stop being boring. This is the bigger picture. Like it or not, the reason it doesnt make sense is because the narrative is cobbled together by psychopath criminals in London Washington and Israel.
“That is also why May has achieved nothing with Brexit…”
We know that the state was against Brexit because it threw everything at stopping it.
3 years after the vote, would you say we are any closer?
If you assume May’s job was to thwart Brexit then she succeeded. Her deal was brino.
Hatuey
The deal as she so often said was stage one. No earthly reason to oppose it wasting time getting to the deal making stage.
The reason the Tory mafia shunted her was because they want to bomb Syria and Mrs May hasn’t got it in her. Very embarrassing having a lady in charge for the foaming pitbulld of Old Eton
What a bizarre statement.
The RAF bombed Syria in April last year. They’ve been bombing Syria since 2015. Britain has been intrinsically involved in Syria since the so-called civil war started, and evidence suggests they may even have had a hand in starting it. The policy continued uninterrupted when May took over.
The reason the Syrian war ended is down to Trump. You can say what you want about Trump but so far he has proved not to be the warmonger his Noble prize winning predecessor was; and you could probably argue that he’s one of the least gung-ho presidents ever.
Hatuey
I meant carpet bomb Damascus, Not test the water . As you please. Always ready to be picked over by the crows.
giyane
“The Zionist objective of destroying Syria has been achieved,” Nah, the war in Syria is almost over, and Syria is on the rebuild. But it will be slow, with the US trying to prevent the end of the war – they’ll continue till they get bored, and have other priorities, but the US is unable to change the direction of travel. One factor could be if the US were kicked out of Iraq, which could happen not so far away.
“The reason the Tory mafia shunted her was because they want to bomb Syria and Mrs May hasn’t got it in her.” Again nah, it’s not that important for them. In any case, what difference is 8 or 10 fighterbombers going to make to the war in Syria? It’s all we’ve got to put in. The Syrian war is already decided, and can’t be turned around, however bellicosely some Western politicians may talk. They’re not being realistic. E.g. John Bolton and his failing (or failed) attempt to stir up a war on Iran.
Giyane, Britain isn’t able to carpet bomb anyone. It’s a 7th rate military power with zero political credibility. So, when you talk about carpet bombing Syria and giving it the same sort of “treatment” that Iraq received, you’re really talking about the US carpet bombing Syria; and if the US was committed to doing that, they would have done it with or without a British role that goes beyond what Britain has been doing anyway.
Britain invested just about everything it had in Syria. If the war had been up-scaled, Britain couldn’t have contributed much more. With Russia there, Britain was always going to be dancing to US tunes and the US under Trump was not prepared to initiate WW3. Under Clinton they probably would have.
@ giyane May 26, 2019 at 02:50
British officials planned to overthrow Assad with the use of mercenaries in 2009:
‘Former French Foreign Minister: The War against Syria was Planned Two years before “The Arab Spring”:
https://www.globalresearch.ca/former-french-foreign-minister-the-war-against-syria-was-planned-two-years-before-the-arab-spring/5339112
The US also set up a secret base in Jordan to train mercenaries in 2009.
Paul Barbara
Thanks for that. Those mercenaries may have been Obama’s Daesh and the trainers Saudi Arabia Turkey and Israel
What keeps you awake at 3 a.m. ?
Dreadful anti-Assad propaganda was coming out last night on Sky News. The messenger was their Alex Crawford, dressed in black, wandering around Idlib amongst refugees. A tale of woe. Assad is killing us. etc etc.
https://news.sky.com/story/pregnant-mothers-fleeing-syria-violence-give-birth-in-olive-groves-1172832
Many other links in the same vein within ‘More on Syria’.
You don’t expect the government propaganda to change, do you, SE?
I like the typo Giyane. ‘Pasty’ 🙂
SE
I’m not entirely responsible for any of the spelling on my mobile.
“because they didn’t want to give Al Qaida power near Israel”
No, Al Qaida is a Western terrorist outfit. Al Qaida and it’s affiliates in Syria received bombing support from Israel as well as direct help through the setting up of field hospitals in southern Syria. There is a vast weight of evidence showing direct US/NATO support for Islamic terrorist groups in Syria, including ISIS/ISIL/Daeshe, who appear frequently fighting on behalf of the US, e.g. ISIS in Afghanistan killing Taliban, ISIS in Yemen killing Houthies.
The Power Of Nightmares: Part 1 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTg4qnyUGxg
Deb o Nair
You mean Yes
They do want to use Al Qaida to destroy Syria mentally and physically And they do not want them to take power.
Saudi gets info from Israel. Israel is the organiser of the Sri Lanka massacre.
Saudi doesn’t tell the Sri Lankans. It tells just its own staff . And the British mosque praises the Israeli / Saudi massacre of innocent people.
That is what is happening in the real world.
Written at the top of the leaked document is this:
> Is “TM” Theresa May?
That would seem to be a logical inference given the importance of the report and the “by hand” delivery.
> Is that really why she resigned?
Her resignation means she can avoid questions about the leaked OPCW report and the media will ignore any such questions if asked
If so, Theresa May is incredibly important to “what is really happening in the world today” because it shows that officials like Theresa May, Cameron, Macron, and Donald Trump are reliable servants of the Deep State.
Is it possible to vote for someone that isn’t? I suspect that only a Movement like the Gillets Jaune and standing by reformers like Julian Assange will change anything.
Thinking about this further, it may be that “TM” stands for “Technical Manager”.
The “TM” acronym is claimed to be “team members”…_
Fascinating idea, but surely if it was Teresa May the reference would be more likely to be ‘PM’.
I don’t understand why Russia agreed to sell Turkey SS400. Turkey, with its occupation of Syria and support of jihadists cant be a reliable partner. Its part of NATO and always been used by us to check Russia. I don’t understand why India capitulates to US and stops buying Iranian oil. I can understand why Russia cant afford to help Iran, but China can. Perhaps the Pentagon thinks it can engage China over Iran ? Its as Craig says a real pivot point. UK will however do as its told and its secret services will be at the forefront of meddling, still trying to show their transatlantic bosses that they are the original 007’s.
This will really wind up Bostic… yes we stopped Russia from getting a warm water port through Afghanistan and (NW India) Pakistan. Only for China to succeed.
Perhaps the South Stream influenced the decision. If there is a hub in Turkey, it would be good to protect it from possible attacks by disgruntled jihadists armed with NATO weapons.
Russia and Turkey have very close economic ties. Turkish vegetables, textile, fur and leather are in demand here and of high quality. Egypt and Turkey were the most popular tourist destinations before 2014. And the ability of Turkish men to fascinate Russian women has become a popular belief 🙂
Tatyana. You will enjoy the film ‘Shirley Valentine’ whole film on you tube.
The same process is seen over and over again, where Craig is amongst those who have stood up for reasonable scepticism, only to suffer abuse and dismissal, then finally to be shown to be right. Of the many instances of this, the Douma story is surely the most significant yet.
People are too polite about Monbiot, I think. He loves a good debate or an argument, so the fact that he takes pot shots from Twitter or from his Guardian column but refuses any engagement in discussion tells me that he does not really believe the line that he pretends to hold.
That he is willingly and knowingly lying is the only explanation that makes any sense to me. That he repeatedly stoops to smear and to promote belligerent propagandists (something that is egregiously hypocritical) sets him alongside the very worst of the ‘gutter press’. I cannot entertain that he is anything other than a crook and a fraud.
Considering Democracy Now’s decision to interview Whitaker on the issue, we should all now (if not before) be asking deep questions about the nature of our dissident media figureheads. Douma exposes the extent of medacious gatekeeping.
The condition of the gas cylinders calls to mind Warren Commission CE 399 aka the Magic Bullet. Tactics haven’t changed that much over the past 55 years.
The abandonment of evidential procedures and reliance on smearing questioners is the very same too.
It is a kind of watermark.
Hi Craig. Great article.
But Brian Whitaker is no longer The Guardian’s Middle East Editor, and doesn’t seem to write articles for them anymore. He’s 71 (according to Wikipedia) so probably just retired.
He is still on Twitter – Syria and Henderson are recent subjects.
https://twitter.com/Brian_Whit?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
I expect you noticed that his al Bab piece that Craig linked to was dated 21st May.
I guess the Tory party’s criminalisation of the Kurdish in Rojava says it all. The British government is only interested in perpetuating warfare and conflict, not peace.
They fetishize peace if it perpetuates the original imperialist crime. See Ireland, Palestine, etc..
To be honest, the Rojavan Kurds (to generalise on the various parties) aren’t interested in peace, but in their own success as a national group. If that involves war, so be it. And indeed discrimination against other ethnic groups. The Assyrian Christians in the area have a lot of complaints to make. And then there was the ethnic cleansing of Sunni Arabs by Kurds the other side of the border in Sinjar (though that’s not precisely Rojava).
It seems reasonable to suppose that you can do all manner of nefarious things in Syria without fear of consequence. Similarly no-one much cares about the date of a couple of obscure Russians. A more interesting line of inquiry is whether or not you can involve yourself in some form of coup against the President of the United States and, when it fails, walk away from that without consequence.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-05-25/trump-targets-uk-australia-and-ukraines-involvement-greatest-hoax-history-our
Donald Trump is coming to town and you can guarantee that the useful idiots will be out in force doing their very best to divert attention from reality. Anyone truly concerned about the issues raised in this blog should be 100% behind the President of the United |States. That most of those who wail most loudly will also be wailing about Trump tells you far more than you need to know.
Still bamboozled by 5D chess? It’s a sign of the pure delusion fed to you by marketing strategists. It’s a highway to cognitive dissonance. It’s a ballerina in a suit, dancing with your dreams, waltzing you out of your life and into someone else’s.
that is how Russia reports this news:
” …In March 2017 Trump said that the administration of former President Barack Obama followed him and his companions, in particular, bugged phones…
In May this year, the General Prosecutor of Ukraine Yury Lutsenko declared that there was interference in the US President elections from the territory of Ukraine done by the US citizens.
… printout of money transfers to the US citizens from Burisma company … led by people “closely associated with the top leadership of the United States, in particular, the Vice President and the US Secretary of State.”
https://ria.ru/20190524/1554901499.html
Not only him but Melania and ‘four adult children’ and
Not only him and Melania but four adult children and their partners! On Monday week.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/may/23/donald-trump-uk-state-visit-adult-children