The Attack on Truth: Julian Assange and Richard Medhurst 185


Julian Assange was released in the midst of the election campaign and the event was not really given the attention it deserves. Alex Salmond invited me to take a look back with him on what this persecution means and where we are now.

I do recommend that you subscribe to Alex’s show Scotland Speaks. He is a fascinating and, in my view, admirable man whose public image is massively distorted by the mainstream media. I think you will be pleasantly surprised by the range of topics he tackles and his approach to them, as well as his breadth of intellect.

I also had the opportunity on Consortium News to discuss at length the ramifications of the arrest of Richard Medhurst, in the context of the general attack on dissident journalism and particularly the widespread abuse of anti-terrorist powers against journalists.

Richard and I were meant to appear together, but unfortunately he was delayed due to technical difficulties caused by the police confiscating all of his equipment. But he was able to be interviewed shortly after I left (I have not been able to watch this myself yet at time of posting).

Our freedoms are disappearing all over the western world, and the panic of the political class as they lose control of the narrative over Gaza has accelerated this.

What we always feared is here, now.

 

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185 thoughts on “The Attack on Truth: Julian Assange and Richard Medhurst

1 2
  • Wilshire

    “More power to your elbow, Mr Murray”, as Alex Salmond pleasantly puts it.
    We’re all so glad the endless calvary of Julian Assange eventually ended. And we still hope he can someday speak again for himself, even though some NDA was probably part of the plea deal.
    The misadventure Rich Medhurst recently suffered is very significant. If a journalist, with fairly easy access to the media, can be arrested without a cause, what about the ordinary citizen. Beyond the Terrorism Act, there’s a clear warning being given.
    As you say, we’re already there, in a vacuum where freedom is just wishful thinking. And this isn’t limited to the UK or to the Western world, because of the global nature of today’s web. As McLuhan used to sum it up “The Medium is the Message”.

    • AndrewF

      Wilshire,
      There was no NDA or any condition in the plea deal restricting Julian from speaking about anything at all.
      The document can be found online, it is 23 pages – signed by Julian and certified by his US lawyer Barry Pollack as having been explained to his client.
      He can speak for himself right now today, no need to wait for “someday” in the distant future.
      It beggars belief that he simply doesn’t have anything to say.
      It’s also unbelievable that after 2 month’s rest he couldn’t put together a short video just to say hello and give an update on his plans.

        • AndrewF

          What we do know for a fact is that the plea deal contains not a single restriction on him speaking for himself publicly in his own voice.

          And anyone who suggests that “maybe he is taking a long break”, “needs time to recover”, “just wants to walk in the sand and swim at the beach” etc… is just speculating.

          Until we hear from him directly we can only conclude that he isn’t actually “free” after all.

          • nevermind

            Andrew, once again you are speculating as to what Julian can or can’t do.
            We are not engaging in creating some sort of conspiring fairy tale.
            You seem to have forgotten Craig’s description of the mind-bending de-humanising treatment Julian was going through.
            He owes you/us nothing, but the various campaign groups who have been collecting money during his psycho-f..k existence in Belmarsh owe him millions, and they don’t like to part with it. A very dark despicable affair.

            Now calm you down boar, as they say in Norfolk. Allow the man the human interaction he did not have for a very long time.

          • AndrewF

            “Nevermind”,

            By that reasoning no “missing person” case would ever be investigated.

            “The person hasn’t been seen or heard from in 2 months you say? Well, best leave it a few more years before we start getting concerned. They’re probably just relaxing somewhere.”

            And remember, he is supposedly having quality time with just Stella on a remote beach in Western Australia – except Stella was in Spain this Monday 19th August, and Julian wasn’t.

          • Ian

            What business is it of yours, or mine, what Julian is doing, or wishes to do? He has earned the right to privacy and recuperation. There are plenty of people who can speak out about the state of the world right now, and will do so. It is not incumbent on him to do or say anything.

            Or do you think he owes you something?

          • AndrewF

            Today Stella Assange is in London.

            She just posted a photo of her and Jeremy Corbyn on “X” saying she is catching up with old friends.

            Craig, hopefully you can catch up with her too and get an update on Julian’s holiday on the beach in Western Australia.

            Please let us know how he is and if you get the chance to phone him.

  • Alyson

    The Jewish historian Ilan Pappé was also arrested and detained when he arrived in the UK in May to give a series of talks on the Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (the title of his book, published in 2006).

    • AG

      Since you mention Pappé, I would recommend today´s long conversation between Pappé and Hedges. The fact that it came out when Medhurst was arrested is coincidence but highly symbolic.

      “The Rise and Coming Demise of the Israel Lobby w/ Ilan Pappé | The Chris Hedges Report”
      transcript / video, 80 min.
      https://scheerpost.com/2024/08/21/the-rise-and-coming-demise-of-the-israel-lobby-w-ilan-pappe-the-chris-hedges-report/

      It is a very good piece of scholarly exchange (albeit Hedges as usual leaves most of the space to his guest) which everyone should read.
      The occasion is Pappé´s latest book about the history of the Zionist lobby.

      Also instructive not least to the grey tones and contradictions it offers on the position of the early British elite.

      Here a little excerpt on the double-standard towards the Palestine cause in terms of anti-colonial struggle regarded as terrorism, unlike in any other former colony.

      Would Medhurst been arrested had he been speaking on behalf of Sudan, Yemen, Iraq? Of course not. (But this too might change if pressure on the West will increase in coming years in those regions.)

      “(…)
      Ilan Pappé: Absolutely. I mean in the history of anti-colonialist movements, in very few cases, you have pacifist, anti-colonialist movements. So yes, violence eventually is employed by those who rebel against colonization and oppression. But this is a violence which is employed for existential reasons, in order to prevent being colonized, and in the case of Palestine, not just being colonized, but being ethnically cleansed from Palestine. So nobody says that they haven’t eventually used, didn’t use an armed struggle, but what is, for me, so interesting, and again, this comes to me as one of the achievements of the lobby, that even years later, when you narrate anti-colonialist movements in Africa, Latin America and Asia many years later, people say, no these were noble movements of liberation, whether they were more violent or less violent, and they were right to demand that the colonialist empires would leave the colonies and would allow them to be independent. The great success of the lobby was that many years later, this natural, justified impulse of people to revolt against an attempt to both colonize them and then uproot them, for years, was still regarded as terrorism, for the sake of terrorism, something that comes out of a culture of violence, and not out of the reality of oppression.

      And I would say that even today in Britain and the United States, I can find a lot of educated people who would still say, well, what the Palestinians are doing is really terrorism. And it goes back to that period, because definitely in pro-Israeli narratives in American and British academia, the revolt we are talking about 1936 to 1939 and even the Palestinians attempts to prevent the ethnic cleansing of 1948 are still narrated as the early acts of terrorism motivated by antisemitism and by culture of violence, rather than a classical case of colonized people trying to prevent the colonization of their homeland.
      (…)”

  • Pears Morgaine

    Like Vanessa Beeley, Medhurst has spoken out in support of Bashar Assad’s regime which routinely arrests and tortures political opponents.

    To hear him whine about the comparatively mild treatment he got as being ‘barbaric’ sticks in the throat.

    • David Warriston

      That will be the Assad who we were confidently told would be ‘toast’ back in 2011.

      If you think section 12 of the Code used to arrest Medhurst is ‘mild’ then you have failed to grasp the main point of Craig Murray’s article.

      Shrugging off arbitrary arrest is easily done by those who have never spent one minute in a police cell.

      • Stevie Boy

        We were told lots of things about Assad, Gaddafi, Hussain. To name three. All the west’s friends at one time or another. We were all told these wild stories by the same people, the same people now telling us about Gaza and Hamas.
        Some people just keep feeding on the same shit and unquestionably believing it all.
        Got to remember who is responsible for Assange, Guantanamo, rendition, etc.
        See the connection yet ?

    • Republicofscotland

      Pears Morgaine.

      Let’s not forget – the barrel bombs that were never dropped on Aleppo – by Assad, instead the bombs were planted by the White Helmets ; and when several prominent OSCE inspectors – pointed out that there was no evidence to the contrary – they were sacked.

        • pretzelattack

          whatever offenses the Assad regime has committed – and keep in mind how often the US and its proxies have lied about it (are you still pretending the White Helmets are a legitimate group?) – it in no way justifies the US stealing Syrian oil and occupying Syrian land.

          • Republicofscotland

            pretzelattack.

            Whatever offences Assad has committed against his people – and I’m sure they’ll have been offences committed, but, they’ll be nothing in size and scale, to what the British and American empires, have committed against people’s of other nations around the globe, and spanning a far longer time scale to boot.

          • Alyson

            Two points about Syria and Assad:
            1) Assad’s tribe in the south of Syria has full confidence in his fair and steadfast government. The Syrians in the north live in fear of his brutal policing and have no confidence that his government is in the least bit fair.
            2) The white phosphorus which Israel was tipping over schools and hospitals in 2014, when international condemnation of Israel as a pariah state appeared to be gaining traction, the same white phosphorus which the white helmets were declaring was done by Assad, this white phosphorus is mined in Yorkshire. Perhaps this needs a bit more attention?

            And the pipelines crossing Syria, controlled by US and Russia are also a factor…

          • Tatyana

            Too many words spoken on one simple thing – the Golan heights.
            This territory is Syrian, but Israel wants it, Israel occupied it, and Israel holds it in spite of UN resolutions.
            So, Assad must inevitably be a dictator and his regime must commit terrible crimes (the point of view of Israel’s friends, who coincidentally are your governments).
            You just happened to live in a certain information bubble. You’d have had another point of view if you lived there in Syria.

        • Republicofscotland

          Pears Morgaine.

          Nice Try – but no cigar.

          “The Grayzone exposed how a shadowy communications firm, Valent Projects, enlisted a prominent YouTube influencer to front a covert state-sponsored influence operation designed to undermine critics of London’s pandemic policies. That company was founded by Amil Khan, a veteran of long-running and lavishly funded UK Foreign Office information warfare operations in Syria.

          The overriding objective behind Khan’s involvement in the Syrian dirty war was destabilizing the government of Bashar Assad, while convincing Syrians and international bodies that the militant groups rampaging across the country were a “moderate” alternative. Media across the world was subsequently flooded with pro-opposition propaganda.

          In fact, Khan ran communications for armed opposition gangs in the Syrian dirty war – the same militias that Amnesty had previously condemned for perpetrating egregious human rights abuses. He did so while maintaining a personal and professional connection with a top staffer at Amnesty International’s UK branch, Kristyan Benedict.

          Amnesty had once covered the atrocities committed by those armed Syrian gangs, but as Khan entered its orbit by way of a UK government intelligence cutout, Amnesty became a dependable organ of regime change propaganda.”

          Though Amnesty recently infuriated the US Department of State and Israel lobby by accusing Israel of the crime of apartheid, The Grayzone can reveal that Amnesty International has been subverted and made a part of the malign effort to destabilize Syria – a key objective of NATO states and the government of Israel.”

          https://thegrayzone.com/2022/02/08/leaked-documents-syrian-terror-amnesty-international-syria/

          The Douma cover-up.

          https://thegrayzone.com/2023/02/03/opcw-smoking-gun-backfires/

          • Republicofscotland

            Pears Morgaine.

            “Pro-truth”, more like. Who is Trent Toulouse? Phil Cross by another name, more like. You forgot to add that your link also states that the Grayzone is pro-China, -Russia, -Venezuela, etc.

            Let’s see, who to believe: Wiki Rational or the likes of Max Blumenthal, Kit Klarenberg, and Aaron Maté, to name but a few….. Hmmm – it’s a no-brainer, as they say.

  • S

    I know this is off topic but on Wikipedia there are other Philip Crosses. I will provide examples:

    For anime, there is Xexerss (formerly known as Moon 218)
    For India, there is Gotitbro
    For general topics, there is Materialscientist

    Please make an article on them.

    • Kathy

      Brian, enough of that kind of language, if you don’t mind. Mr Murray grew up in a very different era to most of us – please don’t give him a heart attack.

      Just hope the socks were darned by non-Brits looking for economic opportunities or they ain’t worth the fabric they’re made out of. 🙁

  • Courtenay Francis Raymond Barnett

    Craig,
    As a former Ambassador for the UK , you are fully aware of the farce which mascaraed as “ freedom of expression”.
    Our skepticism of Western democracy, should not be guided into total disbelief by way of absolute double-standards being seen as inflicted on the world; rather there are good hopes and aspirations within the laws on the books and the monetary/military objectives of the West .
    The Western system is deeply debased.
    Need I say more?

  • Jimmy

    I wonder what grounds the filth gave for half-inching that part of Richard’s equipment which doesn’t hold data, like microphones.

  • AG

    Palestine protest in the US in historic context via the editorial of Monthly Review.
    see forum:
    https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/forums/topic/breaking-news-gaza-only/page/26/#post-100173

    It´s a longer piece but let me quote this

    “(…)
    As billionaire Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir Technologies, a CIA-backed surveillance and data-mining corporation connected to the U.S. deep state and to Israel, declared on May 7: “We kind of just think these things that are happening, across college campuses especially, are like a sideshow—no, they are the show. Because if we lose the intellectual debate, you will not be able to deploy any army in the West [that is, by and for the Western capitalist powers], ever”
    (…)”

    I found the piece uplifting considering how long these social changes took and how much sweat and blood they demanded.
    It was by no means ever obvious how things would end. Hindsight should keep us from giving up in despair.

    So we should not let ourselves be fooled by the self-righteousness and affirmative display of self-assurance by state power.
    As Karp in above quote admits – without the people´s compliance the state is nothing.

    btw: Germany´s first Secretary of Defense, Franz-Josef Strauß, an infamous hardliner, anti-Communist Catholic, extremely ambitious and ruthless – lost his bids for chancellory – in the early 1960s warned of the student protest: The conservatives had to regain their mastery over language and public discourse. Otherwise they would lose control over social development of the country. (Which they did.). This sounds rather familiar.

    Monthly Review:

    “(…)
    It is increasingly evident that the pro-Palestinian movement is too strong to be defeated outright, and that attempts at repression are backfiring almost everywhere. Consequently, more and more people are suddenly seeing the fog lifted and learning about the realities of imperialism and racism, along with misogyny, class struggle, state repression, and capitalism.
    (…)”.

    The editorial finished with a quote from historian Bruce Franklin who has died at the age of 90 this May:

    “(…)The full implications of this kind of blatant rewriting of history in the late 1970s are ominous indeed. Tens of millions of people in the United States were awakened into consciousness by the events of the 1960s and early 1970s. A massive assault on this consciousness has been underway for several years now, marked by quite successful attempts to gain total control of the media, book publishing, and education. Integral to this offensive is the rewriting of history to conform to the interests of neocolonialism, which is constantly assuming new shapes and disguises. One of these disguises is in fact the cloak of phony “objectivity,” which is used to cover up the vital knowledge we won and need to reclaim. (Bruce Franklin, “On the Rewriting of History,” Monthly Review 33, no. 8 [November 1982]: 46–47) (…)”

    So the current repression is not new!

  • Anthony

    At one time, state persecution of anti-genocide journalists would have been headlined by the progressive liberal Guardian.

    But in this report about it appointing Sunak’s spin doctor as its new communications chief, Mark Curtis points out that 

    “..the Guardian is not the paper many progressive liberal-minded people think it is… its worldview routinely promotes the crucial establishment myths of benign British and American power.”

    https://www.declassifieduk.org/amber-de-botton-from-downing-street-to-the-guardian/

    • Anthony

      The Guardian’s promotion of this worldview is encapsulated in its veneration of Kamala Harris and Sir Keir Starmer even as they facilitate a genocide. For the leftmost mass media outlet in the UK, Britain and America will remain the good guys no matter what they do to the defenceless people trapped in Gaza or for how long.

      • M.J.

        I just listened to Kamala’s Harris’ powerful and moving speech to the Democratic National Convention. She said that Biden and she were working round the clock to bring about a cease-fire in Gaza and the release of hostages.
        But she is not President-Elect yet, and not free to dissent from Biden’s position, a Zionism held by most Americans as a part of their cultural upbringing. I will expect her to do more if (as I hope) she is elected, to help end Israeli apartheid and (by sanctions if necessary) to effect a transition to a full democracy between the Jordan and the Mediterranean. Not to mention allowing Palestinians to speak at future meetings of the DNC.

        • Anthony

          Like everyone else claiming to have been “moved” by Harris’s speech (not least the Guardian), every moment you were listening you knew that she and Biden were supplying and enagenocide.

          Harris has vowed, without equivocation, to keep on supplying and enabling the slaughter no matter what. That has been reported by the Guardian and by every other media outlet that is hailing her as a moral example for the world.

        • will moon

          MJ the power of belief is a wondrous thing but I would offer a word of caution – you may remember these previous moments. And as Obama said “Let us not look to the past” Or in Harris parlance “unburdened by what has been” lol

          Obama – “Yes we can” – “No you can’t, who do you think you are? It’s a club and you ain’t in it”

          Trump – “Lock her up” – “Don’t lock her up she’s my mate. It’s a club and you ain’t in it”

          Biden – “Mumble, mumble, mumble” – “Mumble, mumble, mumble. It’s a club and you ain’t in it”

        • Stevie Boy

          “She said that Biden and she were working round the clock …”, Ha Ha.
          An incompetent, diversity hire, who slept her way to the top and a dementia inflicted, Geriatric, puppet. C’mon these people are just window dressing for the ignorant masses !

          • Republicofscotland

            Stevie Boy.

            Indeed Harris – like Biden – is totally pro-Israel.

            “In July 2019, Kamala Harris was interviewed on the Kyle Kulinski show, and was asked whether she considered Israel was meeting international standards of human rights. Harris seemed determined to say nothing that could be remotely construed as critical.

            Her initial answer consisted of this word salad:

            “I think that Israel as a country is dedicated to being a democracy and is one of our closest friends in that region and that we should understand the shared values and priorities that we have as a democracy, and conduct foreign policy in a way that is consistent with understanding the alignment between the American people and the people of Israel.”

            Q: “Does Israel meet your human rights standards to your personal satisfaction?” A: “Overall, yes.”
            Unsatisfied, the interviewer followed up:

            “Does Israel meet your human rights standards to your personal satisfaction?”
            Playing for time, Harris asked:

            “What specifically are you referring to?” before finally answering the question: “Overall, yes.”
            This means that Harris sees no problem with Israel’s policy of sending snipers to systematically and deliberately kill unarmed civilians, including children, who protest their internment in the besieged Gaza Strip.”

            https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Kamala_Harris

            Not only is Harris, pro-Israeli she’s pro- Ukraine as well – she’s the perfect replacement for Biden, with regards to those two topics.

            “US Vice President Kamala Harris has vowed that Washington will “stand strong with Ukraine and our NATO allies,” should she win the presidential election in November.

            During her keynote speech on day four of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago on Thursday, the party’s presidential nominee emphasized her intention to “strengthen, not abdicate our global leadership.”

            Harris touted her record of helping Biden to rally Western nations to funnel arms and money to Kiev.”

            https://www.rt.com/news/602980-harris-trump-ukraine-support/

            Kamala Harris’s running mate – Tim Walz – has a few interesting points: Walz can speak Mandarin, and he’s also spent time in China teaching; Walz has already met with Ukrainian ministers.

            Here are a few interesting snippets about Walz.

            https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/08/06/tim-walz-55-things-harris-vp-00172790 we

        • Clark

          MJ, beware:

          [Kamala Harris] said that Biden and she were working round the clock to bring about a cease-fire in Gaza and the release of hostages.
          But she is not President-Elect yet, and not free to dissent from Biden’s position…”

          Eh? Can’t be both.

          The Democrats would quite like a ceasefire because the USA is haemorrhaging political credibility and international support. But not at the cost of losing its beachhead in the Middle East, the world’s biggest reserve of military jet fuel. So instead the Democrats resort to propaganda; “working (ineffectually) round the clock to bring about a cease-fire”, while granting billions in military aid to Israel and denying actual Palestinians any voice at its conference:

          https://skwawkbox.org/2024/08/22/democrats-ban-palestinians-from-speaking-at-their-congress/

          Orwell got something wrong in 1984; Palestine/Israel is Airstrip One, not Britain.

          • Anthony

            The Democrats could end the genocide at any time if they simply stopped sending Israel the weapons. They have been running the genocide, not protesting it out of office as opponents.

            Last week they agreed to send 20 billion more in arms to behead babies and old ladies.

            Harris has made it crystal clear for even the biggest deniers and dummies that the flow of arms for the genocide will not stop if she has anything to do with it.

            By sheer coincidence, she is a lady who has received millions of dollars from the Israel lobby and got married to her AIPAC babysitter.

          • pretzelattack

            i don’t think the Democrats have any desire for a ceasefire. see the most recent Caitlin Johnstone article, on the purpose of the Democratic Party.

          • Stevie Boy

            What’s patently obvious is that, exactly like in the UK, the USA elections won’t change anything. Two cheeks of the same arse – the uni-party. What’s sickening is how Harris and Trump seem to be competing to see who is the biggest grovelling goy for the Israelis. Let’s hope there is some sort of blowback for these poor excuses for humankind.

          • Laguerre

            Clark

            “But not at the cost of losing its beachhead in the Middle East, the world’s biggest reserve of military jet fuel.”

            Eh? You don’t improve your access to military jet fuel in the ME by allying with Israel. The sources of that fuel there are all opposed to Israel, apart from a couple of micro-states in the Gulf who have signed, but the embassies there are entirely isolated, walled off and fortified against the local population..

          • will moon

            What about Azerbaijan? They supply lots of oil and have an extremely close relationship with the apartheid state receiving weapons and intelligence cooperation at least. I read something that suggested Israeli intelligence operations are conducting from the terroritory with no hindrance from the local authorities

          • Fred

            The “ceasefire” that Biden, Harris, Israel and the West are pursuing is a fraud, a hollowed-out PR shell that requires Hamas to:

              •  hand across any hostages;
              •  agree to an ill-defined political settlement to be determined later with Israel holding veto power;
              •  accept that:
                ∙ Israeli forces will remain in Gaza;
                ∙ they will control all border and humanitarian exits;
                ∙ and no international peace-keeping forces will be present.

            It is a deal that gives Israel everything it wants, and gives Hamas and the Palestinians nothing.
            It is a total fraud.

          • Clark

            Laguerre:

            “You don’t improve your access to military jet fuel in the ME by allying with Israel. The sources of that fuel there are all opposed to Israel…”

            Not access; control. Military control. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain – all have big US/UK military bases. Iraq didn’t; it does now. Libya didn’t. Syria and Iran haven’t.

            “…the [US] embassies there are entirely isolated, walled off and fortified against the local population..”

            Indeed. The US protects its own bases and supports the host monarchies; in all cases, that protection is against the local populations. Divide and rule applies in diverse ways.

            The Saudi Arabian power structure was ‘normalising’ relations with the Israeli power structure, in defiance of its own public. Israel’s behaviour is threatening that fragile truce, but the US is addicted to military power and military power is utterly dependent upon liquid fuel, so such contradictions are to be expected.

          • Lapsed Agnostic

            Thanks to fracking, the US obtains around two-thirds of its oil requirements from domestic production, Clark, and most of the remaining third comes from Africa & Latin America. Most of the oil exported from the Middle East goes to the Far East. Worth noting also that oil for the military can be made from coal, like they did in apartheid South Africa – it just costs more. They may not be very big, but the US has quite a few bases in Syria: al-Tanf, Conoco, al-Shaddadi, Tal Baydar, Abu Hajar, Robariye Airport, Green Village, al-Omar…

          • Laguerre

            Clark 12.02

            Sorry Clark; you’re quite wrong there. Israel does not help the US “control”, as you put it, access to military fuel. Israel is in fact a complete dead loss for the US. The US has a direct relationship with the Gulf states; it doesn’t need Israel. You inserted the word US in front of my word “embassies” when I was talking about Israel. The so-called Abraham Accords have been a failure. You’ve been reading too much Israeli propaganda; it is Israel who is desperate for Saudi to sign, so keep telling us that Saudi is about to sign, when in reality there is no real indication. All the stories can be traced back to Israeli sources. Saudi will never sign, but MbS needs to be diplomatic.
            And since October 7th, everything has changed. I ‘ve repeated this stuff several times on this blog, but people still keep believing everything Israel says.

          • Bayard

            “Israel is in fact a complete dead loss for the US.”

            That very much depends on what you mean by “the US”. Israel exists to keep rich Zionists happy, whose support is very lucrative to various US influential people. Such people do not lose out by the existence of Israel. Yer average US citizen, on the other hand….

        • Fred

          Hamas ceasefire negotiators — one in Beirut and the other in Tehran — were assassinated by Israel.

          “The same day Right-wing vigilantes descended from their settlements, storming two military IDF bases. The anarchic scenes of mass break-ins, fomented by several members of the ruling coalition, some of whom took part in the forcible entries, sparked angry condemnation from Defence Minister Gallant. The invasions were supported by one minister and several Knesset members seeking to free reservists that are suspected of aggravated abuse and forcible sodomy against a Palestinian detainee.”

          An end-times, eschatological Right-wing cult now holds the majority in the Israeli cabinet – and wields a vigilante militia ready to attack the military establishment, and the Israeli state. There is no “liberal” core in the Israeli leadership capable of peace negotiations. US claims of pursuing ceasefire negotiations are just PR nonsense.

          https://strategic-culture.su/news/2024/08/05/the-1948-irgun-re-born/

        • Johnny Conspiranoid

          ” I will expect her to do more if (as I hope) she is elected, to help end Israeli apartheid and (by sanctions if necessary) to effect a transition to a full democracy between the Jordan and the Mediterranean. ”
          What has caused you to expect this?

          • M.J.

            I assume that you meant it in the sense of anticipate – what reason is there to anticipate that she will move in this direction? As I said, I think her room for manoeuvre is limited, while she is not as yet President-Elect. But I did notice one thing. She said “President Biden and I are working to end this war such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity. Security. Freedom. And self-determination.”
            That last bit is what I noticed. It doesn’t go far enough, because a two-state solution is unviable, and we need a complete transition from a racist apartheid state to full democracy. But let’s see what happens come November, and especially her own term, if (as I hope) she is elected and prevents Trump setting up a fascist state following the infamous “Project 2025”.

        • pretzelattack

          if people repeat “powerful and moving” enough will that make the speech anything more than a confection of lies? I don’t think so.

          • M.J.

            Better to not repeat it, if it doesn’t strike you in that way – but by all means examine a transcript of the speech for the ideals that you can recognise as being valid, the evils that you can recognise as being legitimately attacked, and the facts that to you are verifiable.
            That is, if you want to do her justice. I did say ‘if’!

  • AndrewF

    Craig,
    On Alex Salmond’s show you said Assange was taking an extended family holiday on a beach in Western Australia.
    Earlier you had replied to me that you had not spoken to Julian personally but that you had advised the family to take an extended break way from everything.
    Stella Assange then turned up on Monday 19th August, a few days later, on a stage in Spain at a reggae festival. She was speaking on a panel about free speech.
    I still wonder where Julian is and why he hasn’t uttered a word in public since arriving in Australia in June.
    It can’t be because the family is together relaxing on a beach in Western Australia if Stella is actually in Spain.
    Something is unsettling about Julian’s continuing silence.
    Maybe you could arrange to have a brief phone conversation with him to relay to your readers and allay any niggling concerns?
    Thanks.

    • Megan

      I think Julian Assange is dead, and the people purporting to speak on his behalf are liars. If he isn’t and they weren’t, it would be the easiest thing in the world for him to tell us directly what he thinks and what he wants.

      • Stevie Boy

        You appear to have no comprehension of his past or current predicament.
        Now if you were talking about the Skripals, I might agree.

        • Megan

          I’ve been following Julian Assange’s case closely for 15 years.

          What do you mean by “his past or current predicament”?

      • nevermind

        And I believe you are lying and at worst, starting a conspiracy by assuming that JA is dead.
        Maybe you are even involved in one of those campaign groups holding on to the garnered campaign funds, trying desperately to find reasons to help themselves to these considerable funds.
        I am glad you are not purporting to speak up for Julian, who is in need to recuperate from the psychological torture he received from the judiciary and the prison authorities during his incarceration in Belmarsh.
        You should be ashamed to spread rumours and assumption of his demise.

        • AndrewF

          Nevermind,

          How would we know if Julian was dead? More importantly, how do we know he is alive?

          Remember the stories about the CIA wanting to kill him? You think the CIA just got over that and wants to forgive and forget?

          Sometimes I wonder how many people who say they are supporters of Assange have actually read anything he’s written or published and seen any of the many hours of his interviews and speeches.

  • Republicofscotland

    Unsurprisingly – potential US POTUS Kamala Harris has said:

    “I will ensure America always has the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world”

    One wonders – just how much more of US taxpayers cash, a POTUS can give to the US MIC, I think in 2023, the USA’s military budget was a whopping – $820.3 billion dollars.

    • MR MARK CUTTS

      oohh…………..

      If I remember rightly a younger Donny Rumsfeld four days before 9/11 was going to testify before a Commission that many Trillions of US Taxpayer’s Dollars had mysteriously not been accounted for.

      After 9/11 no-one bothered to question that anymore.

      Not a Conspiracy Theory – an announced fact on the TV.

      There are Known Knowns and Unknown Knowns.

      And they will remain unknown as long as no one bothers to find out about the Unknown Knowns.

      Meanwhile the unelected by Unknown Knowns, Kamala Harris continues to act as though she IS the Opposition
      and that Joe Biden and the last Four years never existed.

      I think I know that unknown.

    • JK redux

      From the NYT: “Five of Kennedy’s siblings have released a statement on Instagram saying his decision to endorse Trump “is a betrayal of the values that our father and our family hold most dear.” His siblings, who have publicly disavowed his campaign since last year, conclude their statement: “It is a sad ending to a sad story.” ”

      The worm in his brain has finally hit the frontal cortex…

      • pretzelattack

        they have always been pro establishment bootlickers. RFK Jr, no doubt like the rest of the Kennedy’s licks the boots of zionists, maybe they have reconcile over that.

        • will moon

          pretzelattack my response after hearing of his declaration was to dub him “the Kennedy trump” – now he has declared for Trump I can correct myself.

          He shall for evermore be known to me as “the Kennedy Trump” lol

  • Republicofscotland

    Pity the same can’t be said for many Palestinians, who are rounded up and then herded into Israeli prisons – where they are beaten, tortured, and sodomised, and (for many) then killed.

    «An Israeli settler who spent months in captivity in Gaza says she was injured in an Israeli attack, rejecting Israeli media reports, which claimed she was beaten and had her hair cut by Gaza resistance fighters.

    In a social media post on Friday, Noa Argamani stated that the Israeli media had misquoted her.

    “I cannot ignore what happened here over the past 24 hours, taking my words out of context,” she wrote on Instagram, referring to the media coverage of her statements during a meeting with diplomats from G7 countries in Tokyo on Wednesday, where she detailed her conditions after being taken captive by Hamas on October 7.

    She clarified that she was not harmed by the Qassam Brigades but by the Israeli regime itself.

    “The Qassam members did not hit me while I was in captivity, nor did they cut my hair; I was injured by the collapse of a wall caused by an Israeli airstrike,” she added.

    “I emphasize that no one hit me during captivity, but I was injured all over my body after the airstrike. I am a victim of the October 7th incident, and I refuse to be victimized again by the Israeli media.”»

    https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2024/08/23/731925/Former-Zionist-captive-denies-Israeli-media-reports-of-abuse

    • AG

      The magnificent Margaret Kimberley mentions Medhurst at min. 65.
      The others pick up on this “very dangerous moment” – see 65 min. +
      (Hillary & Kamala speaking about “protecting us from domestic enemies”, now what are THOSE one wonders. NOT the FBI that´s for sure…)

      • Calgacus

        Surprised to see Margaret Kimberley’s name here, as she is from the other side of the pond. She is not magnificent, but an example of one of the worst problems of the left, worldwide and for decades. Extremism!, Revolutionism!, Voluntarism! is the ONLY thing given respect or value on the Left. Any contact with reality is denounced as contamination of revolutionary purity. Anybody with any contact with reality is denounced as a traitor.

        But whenever a true traitor like Mitterrand or Tsipras comes, the cult of revolutionary impotence makes excuses for them because they had to surrender-monkey to the all powerful capitalists. Who are the only ones that know that their greatest power is the alliance of left traitors and ultrarevolutionist idiots who snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory time and again.

        I first heard of Kimberley when she launched an attack on Cori Bush, who had just been elected to Congress, but had not even had time to take her seat in Congress. Kimberley claimed Bush and other members of “the Squad” had decided to “bend their knee” to the just elected Biden. Kimberley “supported” her accusation by a link to an interview with Bush. I checked up and was shocked at the extremity of Kimberley’s viciousness and dishonesty. For Kimberley claimed/claims that anyone elected MUST, inevitably and always, practically as a matter of natural law, become a loathsome traitor, and “proved” this with her link.

        A link where Bush said in the most unequivocal terms that she would not surrender to the establishment. Bush repeatedly said “We surrender and we die”. It is an index of Kimberley’s insanity or dishonesty and her sadly merited contempt for her audience that I could not get a single person to look at the evidence that Kimberley was an outrageous liar, but instead swallowed her lies about Bush!

        Back in reality, Bush was a real threat to the insane powers that be. She was the second member of Congress targeted by AIPAC , who gave many millions in a primary election to her opponent, who just unseated her. Wittingly or not, Margaret Kimberley usually works for the same side as AIPAC.

        Kimberley’s behavior is like somebody who would write an article on Craig Murray being sentenced to prison entitled “Ambassador Murray bends the knee to Nicola Sturgeon by moving into her house.” I wish I knew British politics well enough to know who is your version of Kimberley, even historically. Perhaps there are none around at present; count yourself blessed.

        • Brian c

          Do you think Cori Bush’s defeat has bolstered the old radlib reformist mantra – that “we can push them left from the inside”?

          Does that ideology look like it’s firmly in touch with reality?

          • Calgacus

            If I understand you correctly, if “inside” means “inside the national legislature”, then yes – electing anyone with Cori Bush’s, or Craig Murray’s, politics clearly supports that “mantra”. And further, that obsessive ideological deprecation of the power of the US Congress or the British Parliament – “anti-parliamentary cretinism” – is what is firmly out of touch with reality and history. That is the real problem of the Left in the rich countries and it is at its worst when people are so wedded to cretinous ideology, that like Kimberley, they shamelessly lie to support it.

            No, the reasonable attitude is One, Two Three, many Cori Bushes or Craig Murrays – 218 & 51 in the US, 326 in the UK to be precise. The zenith of such folly is what Noam Chomsky – for all his virtues – repeatedly said, that if he were elected president, he wouldn’t be able to do anything and would be assassinated in a month. As long as lefties can swallow that, the oligarchs sleep soundly.

    • Republicofscotland

      Megan.

      Its interesting to note – that one-time US democrat candidate, RFK. Jr – has now thrown his full support for POTUS – behind Trump, the Republicans candidate for the Whitehouse – and with the Head of the Secret Service – Kimberly Cheatle resigning recently, it now turns out that a Regional Secret Service Director – and several Secret Service Agents, have been suspended – as probes continue, into the failure to properly protect Trump from an assassination attempt.

      Meanwhile, Time Magazine has done a puff-piece on Kamala Harris – it would appear that the magazine is backing Harris for POTUS – though it does ask one pertinent question – “Harris has yet to do a single substantive interview or to explain her policy shifts” – said Time Magazine writer, Charlotte Alter.

      • Lysias

        In his speech in Arizona yesterday announcing he was joining forces with RFK Jr, Trump announced that, if he were re-elected president in November, he would appoint a commission that would investigate both the attempt to assassinate him, Trump, and the plots to assassinate JFK and the elder RFK. He also announced he would release all government documents having to do with the JFK assassination. He had promised to do the last in his first term and then had to backtrack as a result of pressure. But that was before the attempt to assassinate him.

      • Megan

        RFK Jr said he would pardon Julian – he was just using him as a prop. Cousin Caroline is US Ambassador to Australia, his former VP was Sergei Brin’s ex wife, his son fought against Russia for Ukraine, and his daughter in law is in the CIA. He’s a great lawyer, and speaker, and I thought he was a patriot, but not after he declared unconditional support for Israel.

        Kamala Harris said Wikileaks had “done considerable harm” to the US.

        Harris’ sister Maya was one of Hillary Clinton’s senior advisors in the 2016 Presidential campaign.

        Another Clinton advisor, Huma Abedin, is engaged to billionaire George Soros’ son Alex – who endorsed Kamala last month.

        Abedin wrote in an email: “If convicted he [Assange] will move from being a clever cyber thief to a convicted criminal and will find a whole different kind of game”
        https://www.vice.com/en/article/hillary-clinton-shows-some-candor-in-newly-released-emails/

        Interesting in light of this quote from Assange: “The merger between the CIA, the Democrats, Iraq war neocons, NBC, CNN … Washington [Amazon] Post is a baleful predictor for US democracy” – referring to this article a few weeks before he was gagged in March 2018
        -> https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/03/07/dems-m07.html

        And former US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper’s comment that the “plea deal came out pretty well”.

        (Clinton also pondered droning Assange
        https://truepundit.com/under-intense-pressure-to-silence-wikileaks-secretary-of-state-hillary-clinton-proposed-drone-strike-on-julian-assange/ )

        I asked Jill Stein whether she had spoken to Julian since he arrived in Australia, but she hasn’t responded – nobody has responded.

  • Jack

    I did a quick google search what had been said about Assange in the west last month. Nothing. It is like he does not exist for them. As I said before, if Assange had been iranian, russian etc oh Assange would have received Nobel Peace Prize by now, the Medal of Freedom by the american president and been invited to the EU parliament to standing ovations.

    The only mainstream media that have covered Assange was in relation to Anna Ardin, the swedish woman that was so obsessed with hooking up with Assange, and then accused him of rape, oddly, she stayed with Assange and apparently had a good time for days, afer the alleged rape.
    She accused WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange of assault. Then came the hate
    https://edition.cnn.com/2024/08/16/world/video/anna-ardin-wikileaks-julian-assange-amanpour-book
    …but Ms Ardin is an odd woman as this photo testify to: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EKEcQ1oXkAUKvv8?format=jpg&name=medium

    • will moon

      Jack it gives the phrase “going for a walk” new meaning – it looks a bit cultish wouldn’t you say? The sort of thing you might find in an Epstein residence

  • Alyson

    Y’know…. being woke is quite a challenge. So much is dreamlike and disconnected to what used to be consistent and rules based. I mean you could say Jack Straw started the rot, with torture and rendition, and Cameron made lying normal discourse in saying one thing and doing another. But now that it has become clear that Israel is like the parasite nation devouring the host nation of the former British Protectorate of Palestine, it appears that we gave them one country, and they trashed it, and now they want other people’s countries too?

    So when did we get conquered? Do we know yet?
    All our leaders are either Jewish or married to Jewish people. Until October 7th I wouldn’t have thought it mattered. We are a multicultural nation and some of us are still trying to hold back the Saxon, Saesneg, Sassenach and Norman invasions. So when did it happen?

    The Arab Spring in Egypt was the first I heard of the alliance between the US, Saudi, and Israel, and it seemed hard to believe. But when Bin Salman visited London and filled the city with huge posters of his face, on billboards and buses, and then drove through Central London in a bomb proof limousine, with trailers in front and behind carrying rocket launchers and machine guns hidden behind canvas screens with his publicity image on them, it seemed were were unable to refuse his ‘victory’ parade.

    So Trump and Musk want to promote a civil war here? Stoked by well funded fascist influencers? And then what? Does Israel erase everyone who isn’t Jewish? Our former National Defence sites have been sold freehold to Israeli Arms producer factories. Is this the legacy of trillionaire arms producer Mr (of Theresa) May? What is Labour actually planning? Civil liberties at risk? Human rights at risk? Democracy on the ropes?

    And what is the alternative? Because I don’t know how we can possibly extricate genocidal Israel from our foreign policy. We’re stuck.

    • M.J.

      The key to the extrication you refer to your last sentence but one may be the younger generation. Especially of American Jews depicted in the film Israelism. I’m not aware of any UK equivalent of the film Israelism, but there may be a parallel youth movement. Then there’s refuseniks, very courageous young Israelis refusing military service.

      • Stevie Boy

        Have to be very, very wary of movements/organisations particularly those coming out of the USA and particularly any related to Israel.
        IMO, any and every Israeli is a criminal fascist … unless they come out and state publicly that they support 100% equal rights for Palestinians. Until they do that, all these groups are just another facet of zionism with probable links to the Israeli state.
        Democracy or Destruction for Israel, their choice.

        • M.J.

          You may find books by ex-Zionists interesting such as Avigail Aberbanel’s Beyond tribal loyalties which is a collection of autobiographical essays from all over the English-speaking world. Book-length accounts by individuals include Miko Peled’s The General’s Son.

  • AG

    Craig Mokhiber via his TWITTER account yesterday on the new ICC report:

    “(…)The ICC Prosecutor today submitted a 49-page brief (attached) asking the ICC to reject the objections & delaying tactics of Israel & its allies (on jurisdiction, Oslo & complementarity). He urges the ICC to urgently issue the warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant & others. (…)”

    link to the ICC report is here:
    https://t.co/ZJrmTVp96n

    • Jack

      In my view this is some obvious PR campaign whereas Khan playing the good cop to the public – trying to pose as someone that try to create justice vs the judges at the ICC who “are” the bad cop, that in turn, will likely turn down the arrest warrants for the israelis but uphold the arrest call for the palestinians.

  • Megan

    “If we’re in a competition … between liars and people who detect lies, AI means that the lies can be automated and pumped out en masse … not something that is happening yet … but it will”
    — Julian Assange – 3 months before he was gagged [December 2017] https://t.co/LKFsQXOWzr

  • Jack

    World has really changed, for the worse, when Wikileaks exposed war crimes by the US https://collateralmurder.wikileaks.org/ , world was shocked. But today we have Israel that right in the open share videos how they commit war crimes, daily. Whereas the US was ashamed and tried to cover their crimes up – the israelis have no qualms about showing the world their depraved killings.
    Take this recent video: “Israeli soldier records himself blowing up buildings for his wife, saying “to wipe off the memory of Amalek” and “take revenge of the gentiles.” https://x.com/ShaykhSulaiman/status/1827012673684504782

    • zoot

      that’s because they are absolutely certain it will be covered up by western media.

      way back last year a bunch of kids singing hopefully of genocide was at the top of the Israeli music charts. every week selfies have been posted online by Israeli soldiers posing with the toys of kids they have just murdered.

      see any of this reported by western media or condemned by western politicians?

      they know they can do whatever they like.

      they can gang rape Palestinians, even *on camera*, safe in the knowledge that Kamala Harris will use her nomination speech only to condemn mass rape by Hamas on Oct 7, the genocide-justifying hoax she knows has long since been debunked.

      • Jack

        Yes that is true, I also believe it is the other way, the israelis really want to rub it in to the world that they could do what they do and get away with it. That is why they look into the camera with joy and laughter, they laugh at “us” knowing that we cannot do anything about their depraved antics.

    • Crispa

      Pavel Duroy’s arrest is certainly bad news for our host if he attempts to find refuge in an EC country as it appears from it that he will not be safe anywhere such is the assault on “Truth”.
      Evidently Russian born Duroy regarded himself as an oligarch of the world with his billions at his disposal and had citizenship of UAE, France and of St Kitts and Nevis amongst possibly others. He did not like living in the USA and was pestered by FBI to cooperate with the USA secret services. He is also said to have boasted in an interview with Tucker Carlson that he has 100 or so children growing up around the globe.
      There is lots of chatter in the Russian media about his arrest with some interesting comments from Dmitry Medvedev but I like this ironic one liner best found on Lord Bebo’s Telegram channel
      “Fled Russia to be free, gets arrested in France.”

      • Tatyana

        Most of the chatter in Russian social networks sees this as a reason to mock Western hypocrisy and double standards. And along the way, people practice their wit (such a typical Russian reaction).
        Today I saw several versions of what happened:

        1. Durov really organized drug trafficking, weapons, pornography under the guise of Telegram

        2. Durov did not give access to the correspondence of Russian politicians and military

        3. Durov gave access to the correspondence of Russian politicians and military, and the arrest is just a cover and protection from the likes of Krasikov, or, those inspecting the spires in Salisbury

        4. Someone influential in France found out that the child is not his, but Durov’s

        5. The French authorities took a training course in North Korea

        6. Durov himself started this. He dreams of Assange’s fame

        7. Zuckerberg’s revenge

        8. The reptiloids felt threatened and are dumping Durov

        7 and 8 can be combined

        • Tatyana

          Well, people bring origami airplanes to the French embassy, as a sign of protest. (It’s on the Telegram logo and a symbol of freedom).

          A few years ago, the Russian FSB also wanted to get access to data from Pavel Durov, but Pavel refused. Who would have thunk (c) that he would be able to freely leave an authoritarian dictatorship to be arrested in a liberal democracy!
          This brings to mind the dude Pavlensky, the one who nailed his scrotum to the pavement in Russia, and was arrested for similar performances in Paris. Well, and there is also the landing of President Morales’ plane in Vienna on suspicion of hiding Snowden, who is now safe in Russia.

          Today at 7 pm many here are going to join the flash mob and release paper airplanes from their windows as a sign of support. Freedom is a value, origami is a craft, so, I’m in 😉
          In case you haven’t practiced making paper airplanes in a while, here’s how to
          https://youtu.be/KCJxRtIuRSM

        • Stevie Boy

          Loved this article by the lovely Maria Zakharova:
          https://www.rt.com/news/603041-durov-telegram-france-zakharova/
          “Zakharova, who took to Telegram on Sunday, recalled how in 2018 a group of 28 NGOs, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Freedom House and Reporters Without Borders, condemned a Russian court decision to block Telegram in the country.”

          “What do you think, will they [the NGOs] appeal to Paris this time and demand Durov’s release, or will they swallow their tongues?”

    • Jack

      If Russia arrested Zuckerberg or Musk etc the west would howl for days – condemning Russia’s act of harassment and kidnapping and so on, now, when the west themselves kidnap russians the practice is suddenly ok. Always this “when we(st) do it, it is ok”.

      Most likely France kidnapped the Telegram founder to get their own national out of Russia:
      French citizen pleads guilty to military data offences in Russia, state media say
      https://www.euronews.com/2024/07/03/french-citizen-pleads-guilty-to-military-data-offences-in-russia-state-media-say

      “Rule based order” apparently include kidnapping, sigh.

      • Wilshire

        It’s even much worse than what you think. Because Pavel Durov has become a French citizen a few years ago, as he had become unwelcome in his native Russia. So it’s rather like America arresting Zuckerberg or Musk. Such things would never happen. The USA knows too well how to lead the world with soft power, and throw ethical concerns under the rug. The French still believe in EU-based regulations, such as moderation on social media. Their mistake.

        • Tatyana

          For clarity, Durov is not unwelcomed in Russia; rather Russia is unwelcomed by Durov.

          Back in 2013 Durov owned the social network VKontakte (Russian Facebook) and there were communities on the Ukrainian Maidan there. The FSB asked Durov to give access to the personal data of these people. Durov refused, and in 2014 he left the country.
          https://techcrunch.com/2014/04/22/durov-out-for-good-from-vk-com-plans-a-mobile-social-network-outside-russia/
          “I’m out of Russia and have no plans to go back, not after I publicly refused to cooperate with the authorities. They can’t stand me. Unfortunately, the country is incompatible with Internet business at the moment.”

          What’s curious is that the American intelligence services also approached Durov; they wanted to obtain data on the participants in the storming of the Capitol. And this was refused, and Pavel safely left the US.

          Only the ill-fated refuelling of the plane in France – right in the very heart of European democracy and liberalism – led to an immediate arrest.

  • Stevie Boy

    Re. Where could our host relocate to, to escape the clutches of the establishment. I have no suggestions other than he is probably better off in the UK, although Switzerland ‘could’ be an, expensive, option.
    However, beware apparently free countries since they are prone to ‘color revolutions’ formented by the USA. Ie.
    “the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a notorious CIA front, is laying the foundations for a color revolution in Indonesia.”
    https://www.mintpressnews.com/leak-cia-ned-color-revolution-coup-indonesia/285617/
    Current color revolutions:
    Georgia
    Pakistan
    Bangladesh
    Indonesia.

  • Alyson

    I think that having David Lammy as foreign secretary is a good thing. He is trying hard to bring about a ceasefire that will keep Palestinians and Israelis safe. I have advocated for the UK supporting relocating Palestinians, to be the diaspora in communities around the world, but instead I hear rumours that they may want to bring Israelis into the country instead. I would not want a single brainwashed former IDF soldier here, much less currently serving Israeli soldiers. And all adult Israeli citizens have had to serve. Only the Hassidic Jews were exempt from the military and they have been funded to merely reproduce and pray. Now they too will be required to leave their separate lives and kill gentiles.

    There have been massive protests in Israel before October 7th, when their new government told them they intended to erase all the Palestinians. Jews, Christians and Muslims stood together before October 7th, with 400,000 on the streets to object, in Tel Aviv alone.

    Perhaps a general election there could put a stop to this horror? Maybe the ICC? Not Kamala though, unless she says differently, and Trump is a wild card whose actions and their consequences are less predictable. Democracy is our best hope.

    • zoot

      Lammy and the Israeli public oppose the genocide .. just write anything and it becomes true.

      “Democracy is our best hope”

      you do realise you have posted here in praise of hereditary lords writing legislation for the UK?

      • Alyson

        Yes zoot, I have posted in favour of a stable upper chamber which checks that any new legislation, proposed by the elected members that the Sun and Telegraph have approved to serve, and line their pockets, for the next 5 years, is compatible with existing legislation and doesn’t jeopardise supply chains. Yes, that is so. Hereditary peers have already been greatly thinned out and have to compete for far fewer active roles in the House of Lords.

        Lammy too has stability and experience.

        And the Monarchy defines our sovereign land and sea borders. The multinationals want rid of them, and they are very few and less well resourced than formerly. Pomp and ceremony is reusing old relics so that we can respectfully enjoy a celebration of nationhood from time to time. Traditions in Parliament also prevent fisticuffs like happen in less well ordered democracies.

        Peace and stability and justice please. Thank you

    • M.J.

      The trouble with Lammy, as with other Western leaders is that they subscribe to the two-state solution. I used to think it was a good idea myself, till I found out about the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, thanks to Ilan Pappé. Knowledge brings responsibility.
      It seems to me to have been a recurring theme in Palestinian history to make strategic blunders by failing to recognise the reality of Imperial powers. The revolt of the 1930s against the British Empire robbed the community of their leadership. Boycotting UNSCOP in the 1940s failed to recognise the reality that Imperial power had been given to the UN, so that the decisions relating to the partition proposal were made without recourse to Palestinians and furthermore gave an excuse for the ethnic cleansing of 1948. Supporting Saddam Hussein when he invaded Kuwait failed to recognise American hegemony and its consequences. That may have pressured Arafat into agreeing to the 1993 Oslo accords, despite it not improving the quality of life for Palestinians generally. So here we are.
      But I’m not a qualified historian like Craig. His views or judgment on historic Palestinian mistakes will, I’m sure, be much more worth listening to.

      • zoot

        don’t be so sure. there are some who would definitely prefer to hear about “historic Palestinian mistakes” from a cheerleader for those currently genociding them.

        • M.J.

          Failing to do more to stop the genocide in Gaza may well be considered the biggest blot on Biden’s record. Hopefully next year things will change. But I would consider failing to do more to stop the Taleban taking power in Afghanistan just as serious, though Trump started the process.

          • zoot

            very surprised you consider the latter to be just as serious as the Democrats’ pitiless genocide in Gaza. would never have suspected that at all.

          • M.J.

            We have 20 million women, half of Afghanistan, who have now been reduced to near-slavery. Their lives haven’t been taken, but the quality of life is another matter. What has happened is less dramatic than the violence in Gaza, but consider the lost QALYs in both – Quality-Adjusted Life-Years. A whole lifetime with reasonable quality of life would have between 70 and 80 of these. If 100,000 lives have been lost in Gaza (including people buried) but most have lived part of their lives, we may have had the Gaza genocide cause the loss of 5 million QALYs. In Afghanistan the 20 million women because of their semi-slavery stand to lose every year say half of their quality of life, or 10 million QALYs. Even if you use a lesser figure, for these things are subjective, you might see why I consider what happened in Afghanistan a disaster comparable in seriousness to Gaza.

          • zoot

            Quality-Adjusted Life Years, eh? wherever you got that from did it mention how the USA demonstrated its concern for Afghan quality of life upon leaving? by freezing $7 billion of the country’s assets, knowingly pushing the nation into famine. do you recall the level of outrage that parting shot caused among “women’s rights” neocons in the west?

          • M.J.

            I’m not aware of the details of freezing of assets as you are, but economic sanctions against the Taleban by America such as this would not surprise me. I hope they can be put to good use in bringing the Taleban’s rule to an end, and for freedom to be restored to women there. someday.

          • will moon

            Be interesting to add Haiti to this discussion.

            Haiti has no Taliban. Their last important leader was kidnapped by America. Though quality of life is abysmal, both male and female citizens suffer the same level of depredation in a gender-equal kind of way, which I suppose you would see a win

            America has to search half way across the world so it can whinge about woman in Afghanistan but don’t say much about women in Haiti, or even women in their own country. They never mention the grievous problem of predatory prostitution and sex trafficking that women in Haiti face

            I wonder what the QALY’S are for Haiti?

          • M.J.

            Americans are generally disinclined to interfere in other countries unless it is in their national interest (e.g. Oil or the Cold War), at least for nearby countries. This explains their interference in Iran, Chile, and Grenada. In Cuba they did not succeed. Haiti has no oil, nor did it join the Soviet bloc, and so was of no interest to the USA.
            An exception was their reaction to 9/11, which may have been based on a wish for retribution more than anything. Once they got involved in Afghanistan, IMO they had a responsibility to do better than they did in preparing the country for their withdrawal.
            Haiti is now a lawless country, over-run by criminal gangs. Their neighbour, the Dominican Republic won’t admit Haitians who want out (racism may be involved here).
            But one group of Americans has an interest in Haiti as private citizens: evangelical missionaries, though this is a dangerous activity as this report shows:
            https://apnews.com/article/haiti-young-missionaries-killed-gang-violence-ba69910971aaa0542233d6bd2a947d78
            Regarding QALYs, I used the concept with some misgivings, because there seemed no other way as good for making my point. But I am wary of them because they potentially undermine respect for human life by commodifying it. I can see political regimes and their advisors misusing the concept. I will be happy if someone can come up with a better argument why Biden’s decision to pull out of Afghanistan (at least without more adequate preparation) was a very bad idea, though I suspect that the Americans may have decided that their interference cost them too much money, and wanted a way out for that reason.

          • M.J.

            PS. Israel is a special case because the Zionist lobby prevailed over the ‘Arabist’ argument about the American national interest. Ilan Pappé has recently published a book about the history of the Zionist lobby in the West, which I look forward to seeing in a cheaper paperback edition, though he has summarised his ideas in interviews available on Youtube.

          • will moon

            “ Americans are generally disinclined to interfere in other countries”

            Wrong, I suggest you try again

            America and the CIA are active in over 140 countries – oil or no oil, whoever is running America is aiming for global control – please come and join the 21st century

            Haiti has been a plaything for America and before that the European empires since its creation It is very, very close to America geographically. Did you know that the government of the country had to ransom its own citizens, former slaves and was forced to pay reparations to slaveholders. It took over a hundred years to pay the money, only being completed in 1905. Many believe this repayment ruined the chances of the country. If it is a failed state, ask the rulers of America, France and Britain

            Your point, if you remember, was about women. You care about Afghan women but not other women, which is a very curious way to care about women. Look around you, women are being abused on a global level, everywhere, try to show some respect for this harrowing fact. Being partisan about the plight of one group but not giving a hoot about any other groups reflects at best sloppy thinking.

            “ I was once some mother’s darlin’
            Some daddy’s little girl
            More precious than the ruby
            More cherished than the pearl
            My heart was full of mercy
            And my forehead full of curl
            Now I am nothing and I’m lost unto this world

            I was tortured in the desert
            I was raped out on the plain
            I was murdered by the highway
            And my cries went up in vain (oh, oh)

            I am lost unto this world
            I am lost unto this world
            I am lost unto this world
            I am lost unto this world
            Lost unto this world — Emmy-Lou Harris

          • M.J.

            will: I was referring to (very expensive) military interference. As for Haiti, it may well have been impoverished by reparations, but the political instability and lawlessness over many decades may reflect poor government as well. Afghanistan may well be the best example of a country lacking women’s rights in the world, though I don’t claim that it is the only one.

          • will moon

            MJ, you compare what – according to the Lancet – may be close to 200,000 people who have been killed by Israel to 2,000,000 women in Afghanistan who are still alive, and find an equal weighting.

            It is hard for me to take your comparison at face value when there seems to be no similarity between the two cases – between death and life. The girl children of Afghanistan may one day learn. The girl children, indeed all the murdered children of Gaza will never learn.

            Though life is terminal eventually, death is terminal immediately

          • zoot

            it is because it is a Democrat genocide. if the Democrats were not responsible MJ would not be trying to downplay it and deflect to Afghan women.

            if it suits their narrative they will just write anything. there is another one further down claiming that the Israeli public has come out in mass protest against genocide and that David Lammy is our great hope.

            it is intended to confuse the low hanging fruit.

          • M.J.

            will: You might as well argue that slavery and the present lot of Palestinians are not so bad because at least they are alive and may see better things some day. My point is that life itself is not all that matters, but quality of life as well. And in Afghanistan it has been drastically reduced for half the country. That’s 20 million people.
            Zoot: all genocide should be opposed, but the Democrats are more likely to move in the right direction, unlike Trump. This applies especially to the younger generation like Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez.

          • will moon

            MJ you are attempting to quantify death – it’s not quantifiable as far as I know. If you know something I don’t, now might be a good time to spill the beans otherwise you are offering a non-sequitur

            Death is an absolute

            If you’re uncertain about what this means have a look at that footage Mr Murray mentioned recently of families who been given bags of human meat to bury. The only possibility? – the meat can only be buried, education of the meat is not possible

            Your callousness to the lived experience of women in this world is not unusual. Are you attempting to emulate Bill Clinton or Donald Trump? These men are celebrated abusers of women and are held in high regard by some

            “I did not have sexual relations with that woman”
            President William Jefferson Clinton

          • M.J.

            will: I don’t think I’m the one being callous here, when I say that the suffering of 20 million Afghan women is comparable to the slaughter in Gaza. It well may not be possible to justify this judgment in quantitaive terms, if the idea of QALYs is not helpful. In that case intuitive judgments must suffice, though they can be debated democratically.

      • will moon

        Johnny I think we have to go there – there seems little chance of it coming here, if a landslide majority is generated by 34-35% of the vote

        Hitler got his feet under the table with 38% maybe 40% of the vote. His first cabinet contained only two Nazis, Frick and Goering, reliant as he was on the German Establishment both financially and politically.

        “Insight, foresight, more sight
        The clock on the wall reads a quarter past midnight”
        Midnight in a Perfect World – DJ Shadow

        • Lapsed Agnostic

          Hitler got his feet under the table of the German Chancellery after the Nazis only got 33% of the vote in the November 1932 elections, Will. They did get 37% four months earlier, but that only led to a short-lived confidence & supply arrangement with the presidential cabinet of von Papen.

          Thanks for reminding me about DJ Shadow’s ‘Endtroducing’, which I’ve just put on the hi-fi in my bedroom. Great album that – and apparently the first to consist entirely of samples, according to the Guinness Book of Records.

          • will moon

            I think my point was in the DJ Shadow quote, we are well past the stage of “democracy” where Hitler made a deal with devil to achieve power

            Many voices in the economics arena are suggesting some kind of dislocation, maybe even a crash, like 1929 even. I am ignorant as regards these sort of statements, viewing “economics” as a method to justify the initial distribution of goods in the current milieu, nothing more.

            Some historians speak of the Nazis “coordinating” the different branches of state power. The Germany of the Second Reich was made of a Quartet and a head. The head of the quadruped was the monarchy, the administrative front legs were the bureaucracy and the army, whereas the agrarians and the industry formed the hind legs – the rest was cartilage and sinew. Losing WW1 removed only the monarchy – all other instruments of state and private power remained completely intact. The Quartet awaited the grafting of a new head

            Coordination was akin to what we have seen in Britain recently, the continuous appointment of ideological suitable candidates to the machinery of state and private power. In our case, Zionist compliant functionaries who are comfortable with genocide but in Weimar, Nazis. They needed to replace the previous Imperial power structure with ideologically attuned components, the endgame being to brook no denial for any reason, from anyone as we have seen here in Britain with the power of the Zionist lobby, deciding who will lead political parties, who can speak etc

            This is much clear since at least the premier of Al-Jazeera’s “The Lobby” which famously depicted an elected British representative, Joan Ryan appearing to offer to sell her country out to an agent of a foreign power. She faced no sanction for this behaviour, no outcry from Murdoch’s proganda mills. Indeed it was completely ignored by British power structures because the foreign power was Israel

            “The clock on the wall reads a quarter past midnight”

          • Lapsed Agnostic

            Thanks for your reply Will. Hitler didn’t need to do any deals with the devil; he was the devil. The 1932 von Papen government, which was appointed by Hindenburg and ruled by decree under emergency powers without needing the consent of the Reichstag, cannot be in any meaningful way compared to modern democratic Western governments. Credit where credit’s due: The lyrics you quoted originally came from ‘Releasing Hypnotical Gases’ by Organized Konfusion.

          • will moon

            “ Hitler got his feet under the table of the German Chancellery”

            Not quite what I said is it?

            “ Hitler got his feet under the table with 38% maybe 40% of the vote. His first cabinet contained only two Nazis, Frick and Goering, reliant as he was on the German Establishment both financially and politically.

            My point stands. Hitler met the President of the Reich, Paul Von Hindenberg several times during 1932 to discuss his potential assumption of the Chancellorship – getting one’s feet under the table I think is a fair description. As I recall Hitler’s first cabinet contained only two Nazis, Frick and Goering – oh but I repeat myself yet only in the defence of the historical record as I have read it. If you wish to trade factoids Von Papen was appointed vice-Chancellor in this Cabinet. And if you wish to trade stats the actual high water mark of the Nazi share of the vote was 37.3% not 37%. I was speaking in the context of the Gardens of Menemosyne, taking refuge there from this discrete digital dystopia when I said “38% maybe 40%”, y’know amongst adults an’ all

            And so we come, inevitably, to your final transgression

            Hitler became the new head of the Quartet on 30th January 1933 – “Coordination” began almost immediately yet was not complete as “Gotterdamerung” was played out in the rubble of Berlin twelve years later. My comparison concerns the concept of “Coordination” nothing more – anything else you add yourself

            I suggest this ideological takeover, this “Coordination” of British institutions is now close to complete and we haven’t even had the war yet Zionist narratives abound – I could be wrong but the local police station was flying an Israeli flag recently.

            I can’t but describe the Pols, the higher Civil Service, the Armed Forces “and all the rest of the MFing hogs out there, rolling in the mud” as “comfortable with genocide” – I see a fair comparison here between Nazi “Coordination” and Zionist “Coordination”. What does “Finish ‘em” mean to you? What’s your opinion of Israeli functionaries talking atomics,“human animals “, “subhumans”, openly speaking about killing two million people.? What should one feel about “human meat”? Not to mention the Lancet figures of 200,000, not 50,000 people killed And on and on ad nauseum.

          • will moon

            A final point my lapsed omnivorous interlocutor – you will note the names of the German aristocrats mentioned above use the prefix “von”

            It has now been decided, by whom I know not, that this prefix is to be rendered as “Von” when displayed on digital devices and on the networks that feed them

            Back at the Creation, when I was cutting my teeth on the somewhat limited literature available on the Nazi experiment available in those ancient days, now a mere legend, the prefix could rendered happily as “von” or “Von”, dependent on the writer’s whim, acquired by habitude, the writer’s intent – their understanding of the historiography, their understanding of the history of the German language and their images of textual ethics and aesthetics

            I noted one author would use one form, another writer another. I would study their sources, form an image of them in their cultural milieu and thus was able to glean information concerning the world and the many tribes who there inhabit, based upon the presence or absence of what is a single binary digit – a bit.

            In a “discrete digital dystopia” one would think such “bits” would not be lost, making as it would, a mockery of the meaning of the term “discrete” but they are lost, they have been lost and they will be lost

            “The production of souls is more important than the production of tanks…. And therefore I raise my glass to you, writers, the engineers of the human soul”
            Josef Stalin (1932)

    • Republicofscotland

      Brian Case.

      Yes Brian – I read that on another site – it appears to me to be politically motivated – with Tucker Carlson calling for his release – I recall a few years back a high ranking Huawei executive – a woman, arrested in Canada – which also appeared to be politically motivated.

    • Wilshire

      Luckily, he was, just like Richard Medhurst, “arrested but not detained”. It’s rather usual for him, according to what he was telling Tucker Carlson in that recent interview, noting that every time he was landing in the US he was greeted by the FBI.
      Moderating social media sounds absurd. Why not moderate all websites?

    • Tatyana

      Elon Musk reported that the EU tried to make a secret deal with him on censorship. And today it seems Chris Pavlovsky, CEO of Rumble, left Europe. He explained that France has threatened Rumble and Durov’s arrest is the red line.

      Can I please ask you to verify this information, anyone? I don’t have access to Twitter, and Nitter is also down. I only see the screenshots and snippets.
      Message from Musk
      https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1811783320839008381
      Pavlovsky’s Twitter
      https://twitter.com/chrispavlovski
      reported here
      https://pikabu.ru/story/pervyiy_poshel__seo_videoservisa_rumble_svalil_iz_es_11743409#comments

        • Alyson

          Musk is under instructions from Netanyahu to ensure that the occupied territories cannot use his Starlink internet. He is now close to Trump

          • Stevie Boy

            Musk: : a substance with a penetrating persistent odor obtained from a sac beneath the abdominal skin of the male musk deer.

  • Republicofscotland

    The Italian police, have opened up a manslaughter case on the death of Mike Lynch (and friends and family) on his yacht. His business partner – Stephen Chamberlin – was mown down and killed in a car “accident” around the same time Lynch’s super-yacht sank in the Med.
    Coincidence? I don’t believe in coincidences – in matters such as this.

    • JK redux

      RoS
      The coincidence is remarkable but even the Powers That Be can’t arrange a tornado/wind spout…

      Easier to arrange a tragic drowning á la Maxwell pére..

      Sometimes a coincidence is just a coincidence..

      But in this case remarkable..

      • Republicofscotland

        JK redux.

        Indeed they cannot, but they can retract the retractable keel – which stablises the super-yacht in choppy waters, and that’s exactly what has been reported by the MSM: that the retractable keel was retracted.

        • JK redux

          RoS
          In any normal or even stormy conditions even with the keel retracted (lifted partly back up into the body of the boat) the huge weight of the keel would easily balance the “turning moment” caused by the force of the wind on the mast and hull/body of the boat.

          I’m no marine architect but one theory is that the crew was called on deck to clear the seating, tables etc in response to the increasing wind. Unfortunately the huge aft doors were likely left open as the crew were clearing stuff into the interior and when the extreme tornado force wind hit the boat heeled hard and the crew were tossed into the water.
          Where they boarded the automatically launched liferaft(s)…

          Tragically the passengers assembled below deck were unable to get up to deck level as the floors were now vertical walls and water in huge volumes was flooding in as the aft doors were still open.

          Imagine your sitting room turned on its side.

          Ironically, if the passengers had been in a sailing yacht of typical (10-20 metres) size, they would very likely have survived as smaller boats are designed to withstand extreme weather – crew have vertical posts and handrails to support them in extremis below deck.

          All guesswork of course but if the Powers That Be had wanted to kill the billionaire, there were far easier ways.

          But I agree that the coincidence of the billionaire and his sidekick both dying violent deaths within days of each other was remarkable.

          • Republicofscotland

            “All guesswork of course but if the Powers That Be had wanted to kill the billionaire, there were far easier ways.”

            JK redux.

            Not – if it was meant to look like an accident – the same applies to Stephen Chamberlin.

    • Stevie Boy

      And yet, Starmer the zionist, prosecutes UK Citizens for liking certain tweets, ’cause it’s ‘hate speech’, but he would never prosecute Benji and his pals. Two tier Keir.

      • Jack

        Heck even South African apartheid regime itself called out Israel for being an apartheid state, still, the west still refuse to use the term “apartheid”, “racism” to describe the state of affairs in Israel some 6 decades later:
        ” Hendrik Verwoerd, the South African prime minister and architect of the “grand apartheid” vision of the bantustans, saw a parallel. “The Jews took Israel from the Arabs after the Arabs had lived there for a thousand years. Israel, like South Africa, is an apartheid state,” he said” @theguardian

  • AG

    THE ATLANTIC has been known to be a duplicitous PR machine for US elite ideology.
    A new piece now attempts to rewrite the concept of settler-colonialism to absolve Israel (which is stepping up war against Lebanon right now)

    “The False Narrative of Settler Colonialism
    The rise of an academic theory and its obsession with Israel
    By Adam Kirsch”

    I am sure this will become a reference point for German apologists as much as all over the West
    https://archive.is/0wc9n

    The first phrase gives a taste:
    “On October 7, Hamas killed four times as many Israelis in a single day as had been killed in the previous 15 years of conflict.”

    And this malignance of mis-framing is going on throughout the piece. I assume like Kirsch does in his new book which – this article btw – is just like that promoting.

    At least truthout is calling out this text:
    https://truthout.org/articles/israel-using-ceasefire-talks-to-expand-colonization-of-palestine-un-expert-says/
    “These outlets seemingly seek to obfuscate the truth of the negotiations and run endless cover for Israel; in fact, perhaps sensing Israel’s positioning in the talks, The Atlantic published a much-criticized article recently essentially seeking to redefine the entire concept of settler colonialism in order to absolve Israel of the bloody practice.”

    Any sense to speak to such genocidal inhuman self-righteous liars?
    Nope.
    And Germany is full of them.

    So what you do?
    If you are Russia, you build an army of drones and hypersonics to defend yourself.
    And that´s why they all have nukes (FFS).
    If you are Palestinian?
    I don´t know.
    Hope? Die? Fight? Flee?

    • Harry Law

      AG, you may agree with Ilan Pappé when in conversation with Chris Hedges he describes how the legitimate self determination of movements in former colonies were good and noble movements of liberation in Africa and South America etc, whereas the Palestinians are called terrorists, even by educated people, like the framers of section 12 of the terrorism Act and the political elites of the West.
      “When you narrate anti-colonialist movements in Africa, Latin America and Asia many years later, people say, no these were noble movements of liberation, whether they were more violent or less violent, and they were right to demand that the colonialist empires would leave the colonies and would allow them to be independent. The great success of the lobby was that many years later, this natural, justified impulse of people to revolt against an attempt to both colonize them and then uproot them, for years, was still regarded as terrorism, for the sake of terrorism, something that comes out of a culture of violence, and not out of the reality of oppression.

      And I would say that even today in Britain and the United States, I can find a lot of educated people who would still say, well, what the Palestinians are doing is really terrorism. And it goes back to that period, because definitely in pro-Israeli narratives in American and British academia, the revolt we are talking about 1936 to 1939 and even the Palestinians attempts to prevent the ethnic cleansing of 1948 are still narrated as the early acts of terrorism motivated by antisemitism and by culture of violence, rather than a classical case of colonized people trying to prevent the colonization of their homeland”. https://scheerpost.com/2024/08/21/the-rise-and-coming-demise-of-the-israel-lobby-w-ilan-pappe-the-chris-hedges-report/

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