What’s happening in Lebanon: interview with former British Ambassador Craig Murray
11 December 2024 – 19:00
The current situation in Lebanon is more delicate than ever. Despite the entry into force of
the fragile cease-fire between Hezbollah and Israel, the Jewish state continues to violate the
terms of the agreement, claiming that it is only conducting defensive operations. At the same
time, in Syria, the opposition front to Assad has conquered Damascus, bringing down a
dynasty that lasted over half a century without its ally Hezbollah being able to do anything.
Against this backdrop of uncertainty, Craig Murray travelled to Beirut to report on what is
happening from the ground.
Craig Murray is a former British diplomat, writer and human rights activist. He served as
UK ambassador to Uzbekistan from 2002 to 2004, exposing human rights abuses in that
country, and dedicated his post-diplomatic career to global justice issues. At the top of the
list was the Palestinian cause, for which – in the current climate of repression in the UK –
he was detained by the police, as has happened to other journalists.
I know you are currently in Lebanon: where exactly are you and what is the current situation in the
country?
Right now I am in the capital, Beirut. The city is relatively quiet, but there are Israeli drones flying
overhead all the time. They have not bombed Beirut since the agreement came into force, but there have
been many violations by Israel in the south of the country. I have been there three or four times since the
agreement was signed, and the situation is still very tense. A few days ago, Israel killed about six people,
including a shepherd, while other shepherds have disappeared. As these small-scale violations continue,
so does the bombing. The problem I think lies in the fact that the ceasefire agreement is extremely one-
sided. It stipulates that all Lebanese groups must cease all operations against Israel, while Israel must
cease only offensive operations against Lebanon: the qualification ‘offensive operation’ applies to only
one party to the agreement.
In southern Lebanon, the Israeli army is advancing and conquering more territory?
Yes. And, again, this is a problem with the agreement. The ceasefire establishes a demilitarised zone
extending from the Litani river southwards: both sides have to leave the area completely. During the
conflict, Israel had not managed to take any territory in the demilitarised zone. It only got as far as the
Litani river once, helicoptering troops there to take a few photo-ops and bringing them quickly back. In
short, Israel is exploiting the ceasefire agreement to claim the right to operate as far as the Litani river,
despite never having arrived there during the fighting. In addition, Israel is claiming that all its current
violations are only defensive in nature. Even when they shoot shepherds and kill people at funerals. The
fact is that Hezbollah is designated by the US and Israel as a terrorist organisation; for them, the Israeli
attacks therefore do not count as violations of the agreement because they are considered anti-terrorist
operations.
At present, what role does the United States play in this picture?
The United States is in charge of the ‘mechanism’ – as it is called – for monitoring compliance with the
agreement. The document introduces a distinction I have never seen in any agreement – something
extraordinary, indeed. It says that the UN will ‘host’ the monitoring committee, although that the US will
‘chair’ it. However, ‘hosting’ has no meaning in diplomatic or practical terms. What that comes down to is
this: the UN will be allowed to provide tea and biscuits, while the US will actually run the show, although
– and this is indeed extraordinary – they are one of the parties in the conflict, not an arbiter! The bombs
that fall in Lebanon are supplied and paid for by the US.
What about the rest of the Western powers? What interests of theirs are at stake?
UNIFIL, which is the only Western force on the ground, is to have a role in monitoring the ceasefire
agreement. France, the former colonial power, will also work with the US in monitoring the cease-fire.
Paris is very anxious to maintain its role here in Lebanon, and its status as the former colonial power is
very important to Macron. So much so that, in exchange for being included in the committee, Paris agreed
to reverse its position on the ICC and Netanyahu and announced that the Israeli prime minister could visit
the country without fear of being handed over to the ICC.
Given the composition of the monitoring committee and the continuous violations that we mentioned
earlier, what do you think is Israel’s ultimate goal?
I have no doubt that Israel’s ultimate goal is the annexation of southern Lebanon, which is part of the
expansion plan for Greater Israel. The Jewish state has a long history of Zionist propagandists claiming
the Litani river as its northern border, which would mean moving the country’s current border some 25
miles further north. And there are Zionists who believe it should go even further north. An interesting
story to better understand this point concerns one of the Israeli soldiers killed during the invasion. He was
a man wearing a full military uniform and carrying a weapon, but who turned out to be a 72-year-old
archaeologist: the Israeli army takes archaeologists along to look for signs of ancient Jewish settlements
and thus come up with an excuse for annexation. Moreover, it would seem that these objectives have been
coordinated with the rebel forces in Syria, supported by Israel and the US. It is no coincidence that the
rebel attack started on the day the ceasefire in Lebanon came into effect.
Speaking of Syria, how is the front line in Lebanon changing now that Damascus has fallen?
Hezbollah now finds itself caught in the middle. These Syrian rebels are the same people who were in al-
Qaeda and ISIS, and ISIS previously occupied the mountains above the Beqaa valley. They were defeated
by Hezbollah in the past, but they still want to regain the Beqaa Valley and northern Lebanon. Thus, what
Hezbollah is likely to face in the near future, is a simultaneous attack from the north and south, Israel
attacking Hezbollah’s southern flank. And Hezbolloah is not that big in size, so I don’t know if it would
be able to deal with such a double threat. Moreover, it is by no means certain that the Lebanese army
would fight against the Syrian rebels if they entered the Beqaa valley, because the Americans also support
the Syrian rebels – the Americans pay about 50 per cent of each soldier’s salary.
What about Palestine?
Obviously the situation for the Palestinians is already disastrous, but what is happening in Syria makes it
even worse, because it removes the corridor connecting Iran to Lebanon and Hezbollah and eliminates the
possibility of opening a northern front against Israel. Now the Israelis will no longer have to fear an attack
by Hezbollah when they decide to proceed with their ethnic cleansing and annexation of the West Bank –
because, you see, I believe that the ethnic cleansing and annexation of Gaza have effectively already been
accomplished. The Israelis still have some extermination to do, they will kill many more people, but their
plans for annexation are now quite public. The West Bank, on the other hand, is still under the control of a
subservient Palestinian authority. The Israelis have yet to complete this process, because what remains of
the Palestinian population is still hanging on: but the plan is extermination, ethnic cleansing, or expulsion
The regime change in Syria saves Israel from the risk of a northern front while they are at it.
In a recent article, you raised the prospect of a final solution in the Middle East, which would consist
of the creation of two blocs: Greater Israel and, to all effects, a Sunni caliphate. Wouldn’t this go
against what has been US policy so far, namely to preserve and play on the Sunni-Shia conflict?
Eliminating the Shias would eliminate the conflict, and there would no longer be any leverage to
counter a future Sunni rebel government in Syria or parts of Lebanon.
I agree. In the Sunni-Shia divide, the balance would end up tilting decisively in favour of the Sunnis,
potentially eliminating the Shia minorities in Lebanon and Syria. I now believe that the US is prioritising
the elimination of that threat to Israel, at the expense of maintaining the divisions, thus taking a short-term
view. I think this is an example of the fact that, when it comes to formulating its Middle East policy, the
US cares more about Israel than they do about themselves. For example, when they eliminated Saddam,
they probably did not fully realise that the consequence would be a Shia-majority regime in Iraq, and
therefore an Iraq close to Iran. For now the US thinks the balance is too much in favour of Iran and
Russia and that, to a certain extent, it should be rebalanced by helping the Israelis. However, this is
terribly short-sighted; indeed, I believe it is a disastrous miscalculation: true, these groups are subordinate
to the US but only for the time being; as happened with Al-Qaeda, as well as with the Taliban, and with
all these organisations that the US supports in the short term, there will be a backlash. Before long, once
they have consolidated their power, these groups will attack the US.
A final question, perhaps the most trivial and at the same time due to be asked in this turbulent context.
What is the future of the Middle East? Can there be a peaceful future for the region?
Right now, the future of the Middle East looks very bleak. Syria looks like it will regress into a failed
state, as happened with Libya. Should the Turks increase their repression of the Kurds and deprive them
of their territories, it will be the US and Turkey who will run the oil fields there, exactly as happened in
Iraq. The rest of Syria will see a continued attempt by the Salafists to impose very strict legislation, which
will increase in intensity in this culturally diverse country. All I see with the fall of the Assad dictatorship
is the lack of control from the centre, and this could lead to massacres and repression. For the
Palestinians, of course, the situation at the moment is just as bleak.
However, I do not think that Israel can survive for long. I think Israel has now proven itself to be
essentially a fascist, racial supremacist, and genocidal entity. People around the world are forming an ever
stronger idea of what is Israel is: a pariah state, an illegitimate entity. Eventually, through moral suasion,
Israel will disappear because people will want to have nothing to do with it, and a large part of the world
will promote an enormous economic boycott.
What are the possible repercussions in the Western world?
Senior politicians in Western countries, if they do not change, will share a similar fate, because people
will, at last, find a way to get rid of them. Indeed, it is interesting to note that the situation in the Middle
East has made the people around the world realise that politicians do not serve the interests of their
electorates and do not respond to their needs. One way or another, the Middle East scenario will help
trigger a revolutionary change in the West. The consequences of what the Israeli genocide will have
brought about, should be fascinating for future historians. Its effects will be seen in the decades to come.
The probable end result will be the abolition of the State of Israel, leading to a radical political change in
our so-called ‘democratic systems’ here in the West.
[by Dario Lucisano translation Patrick Boylan].
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Further to “our so-called ‘democratic systems’ here in the West”..
Every one of the principal bad faith actors involved in destabilising and ending Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership and his 41 years as a Labour MP has now been given a seat in the House of Lords: Luciana Berger, Smeeth, Hodge, Watson, Austin, Chapman, Woodcock, Mann, Mandelson, McNicol etc.
Oh! Are they all Jewish Zionists? Friends of Israel generously used Watson and Momentum to divide Corbyn’s Labour Opposition. Much of this was revealed in the fly on the wall documentary about the stranglehold Friends of Israel had on the Party. All of these were, it would seem, funded by a foreign government to undermine British democracy. Not good
So sad. Since Bojo has reluctantly retired, there’s been no one left to unleash like him the powers of Global Britain.
Clearly, most foreign governments on the Continent are understandably envious and do whatever they can to undermine this glorious nation. Isn’t friends of israel some EU troy horse to begin with? Corbyn has just been a collateral victim of a general attack on British dominance.
Mostly not Jewish, but all establishment centrists and Genocide supporters. Several were rejected by the electorate but have been “lords” or “dames” for life for their part in ending the brief glimmer of democracy in Britain.
Okay so not McNicol who is supportive of Israel. Mann is pro Jewish and has received awards but is not Jewish. Baroness Chapman has tried to restrict export licenses to Israel where they are implicated in war crimes. The rest are Jewish and vocally supportive of Israel.
Just concerned that a foreign country, implicated in war crimes, may be able to control decision making in parliament which has not been fully debated and approved
“may be able to control”, that should read, “is able to control”.
There is no doubt that UK foreign policy, in particular, is made in Washington/Tel-Aviv.
I thought that Sturmer had purged all of the Jewish members of the Liarbour Partei in favour of zionist antisemites?
We know which way Syria is heading under the rule of the Western-backed proscribed terrorists.
“A day before the US removed the $10 million bounty on Jolani’s head, his spokesman, Obaida Arnaout, declared that women are “biologically” incapable of holding certain govt positions, and suggested that suspended female judges would not be allowed to return to their jobs.”
https://nitter.poast.org/MaxBlumenthal/status/1870328833376674284#m
Seems the “War on Terror” was all a dream .. or a gigantic fraud.
A manipulated fraud,
But it will very soon be all over, thanks to Donald and his co-President Elon. Peacemakers as no others. They have already nominated Farage as their minister for the United Kingdom. And Vladimir is invited to the inauguration, not Volodymyr. F*** the ICC. We are only one month away from paradise.
One should thank the liberal left for making this possible.
What is ‘liberal’ or ‘left’ about the liberal left?
Try “reign of terror”.
The Saudi Taleb Al Abdulmohsen – who has lived in Germany since 2006, drove his car into a crowd at a German market, because – he alleged that the left wants to destroy Europe with Islam, Taleb Al Abdulmohsen is – anti-Muslim, and a pro-Israeli activist.
Lets watch and see how the BND, CIA and Mi6 spin it to make it look completely different – to make it look like the Russians/Iranians, were behind it.
He’s supposed to be a psychiatrist. He sounds like one of his own patient:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/dec/22/germany-christmas-market-attack-magdeburg-taleb-al-abdulmohsen-charges
Republicofscotland
The moral and mental gyrations of the German government is indeed a wonder to behold. He not Terrorist – he’s an Apostate and an ADF supporter.
Basically the Germans are saying that because he is no longer a Muslim, then he can’t be a Terrorist. Meaning: only Muslims can be called terrorists and no-one else.
Don’t forget that this is the guilty country that said that it should judge how many dead Palestinians constitute a ‘real’ Genocide.
Years ago the Germans were highly regarded as pragmatists. I regard them now as pragmatically stupid depending on what the US wants them to do.
Yemeni forces strike Tel Aviv with a missile today – this strike comes off the back of another Yemeni strike on Tel Aviv two-days ago – in recent weeks the US, UK and Israel have bombed Yemen – the only surprise is that Yemeni forces, haven’t struck Tel Aviv more often.
They’ve got new missiles evidently, to judge from the video of the strike.
Any Cyrillic writing on them?
The Pope says, that what the Zionists are doing to the Palestinian people – is the definition of genocide – he also added:
“Pope Francis says the killing of Palestinian children by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip is “cruelty, not war.”
In a Saturday statement, Pope said the regime’s brutality against the children of the Palestinian territory has touched his heart.”
RoS…The Pope(s) could have said that in November 2023 – and ten years ago and decades ago …the catholick church for you … Silence.
A previous pope would not have said that. This one is more open.
Laguerre … but he wasn’t … Till it’s Too Late – for 20,000 Murdered Children. Then there was the Silence on Libya, etc. etc.
Vatican politics is complicated and very conservative. I’d be surprised if he was free to say all he wanted. At least he’s making progress.
Agreed Brian, the Catholic church – just like many other Western institutions is just trying to protect itself – from any fall-out.
On the subject of the Holy See, I’m now enjoying Robert Harris’ novel Conclave (which is about fictional characters) and look forward to seeing the film. Another book including the conclave is Gordon Thomas’ novel Pontiff, based on real characters and events. I read it long ago, but may get it again.
MJ
I hope you enjoy your book – I read somewhere that the church owns more land than any other business (and it is a business) in the world – though Israel is fast catching up with its further theft of Syrian and Lebanese lands.
The church is a racket – Pope John Paul 1st found that out to his great demise, in the year of the Three Popes (1978) which led to the first non-Italian pope being elected in almost 500 years.
The Zio-Monster Netanyahu is skipping an event next month in Poland – which celebrates the liberating of Auschwitz (oh the irony) anyway, Netanyahu fears that he will be arrested in Poland – as Poland is a signatory to the Rome Statute, and is obliged to arrest Netanyahu due to the ICC’s arrest warrant.
Dave DeCamp of Antiwar.com has authored a report posted on Zerohedge
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-had-foreknowledge-hts-offensive-topple-assad-prepped-its-proxies-join
In my opinion not only do the UK government support Genocide, they have supported well-known and proscribed terrorist groups in their regime change activities over the years. This is proof positive that not only do the West reject International Law, they support the use of terrorism, to pursue those ends. This will not be lost on our adversaries.
Here is part of the UK Telegraph description:
« US ‘prepared Syrian rebel group to help topple Bashar al-Assad’
Fighters funded and trained by America and Britain tell The Telegraph they had advance warning regime would be overthrown
The United States prepared a rebel force to join the offensive that overthrew the regime of Bashar al-Assad, fighters have claimed.
British and American-trained fighters in the Revolutionary Commando Army (RCA), a group aligned against Islamic State, were told “this is your moment” in a briefing by US Special Forces before Assad was ousted.
In the first indication that Washington had prior knowledge of the offensive, the RCA revealed it had been told to scale-up its forces and “be ready” for an attack that could lead to the end of the Assad regime.
“They did not tell us how it would happen,” Capt Bashar al-Mashadani, an RCA commander, told The Telegraph from a former Syrian army air base used by Russia on the outskirts of the city of Palmyra.
“We were just told: ‘Everything is about to change. This is your moment. Either Assad will fall, or you will fall.’»
https://archive.vn/EwKOf
How was the regime overthrown? This has not been satisfactorily explained.
Meanwhile there has been a drone attack on Kazan FFS. The obvious question is where from. Has the specific model of drone been identified? If so, what’s its range? Draw a circle and that will tell you the area it was launched from. Does the circle cross into territory controlled by the Kiev government’s forces? I wouldn’t be surprised of the answer is “No”, nor if there’s difficulty identifying the type of drone used.
There’s an awful lot of unexplained military or probably military stuff happening right now.
At least eight Ukrainian Lyutyy drones struck Kazan, these are powered by a single piston engine, so slow and vulnerable. The Russians have to ask how they managed to fly 1,000km into Russia without apparently being observed or destroyed.
The physical damage is unimportant (except to the people who have lost their homes) but the intangible effects, creating a feeling of vulnerability and forcing Russia to divert resources away from the front line to home defence, might be more significant.
Anyone can cross the border, it is long and much undefended, apart from the concentrations of military. It is no real secret how the launch was done. And the situation cannot be changed, without excessive expenditure. It was the same in the 2WW
In his posthumously published “Night of Power: the Betrayal of the Middle East” (Harper Collins 2024) Robert Fisk refers in several places to the idea of “normalcy” that arises from the reporting and accounting of the various conflicts that have taken place and continue to take place in the Middle East. His writing is amazingly prescient in respect of the current Palestine situation although he might regard it as a pre-determined event.
Had he been alive to-day I think he would be describing Israel’s response to the current situation as entirely “normal” to its way of thinking and no different from what it has been for the last 80 years and before. Just one example.
“Talking of the destruction of south Beirut in 2006, he (an Israeli general) outlined to the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth that ‘disproportionality’ was now a military doctrine. ‘What happened in the Dahiyah quarter of Beirut (2006) … will happen in every village from which Israel is fired on … We will apply disproportionate force on it and cause great damage and destruction there. From our standpoint, these are no civilian villages, they are military bases. This is not a recommendation. This is a plan. And it has been approved.’ There was nothing new in Israel’s willingness to slaughter civilians. Most of the 17,500 victims of its invasion of Lebanon in 1982 were civilians.” (pp.376–377 Kindle edition)
What are also “normal” are the vicious attacks at every level – individual, institutional – on any opponents of Israel’s genocidal strategy, which is what disproportionality really means. Fisk also writes about this at great length.
A little bathos to follow the pathos of Craig’s presentation.
https://youtu.be/_Bm9VKBrIC0?si=Rxhr7loG1zbHNCyS
(YouTuber Bald and Bankrupt crosses into Syria from Lebanon – possibly sans visa.)
Okay, but it’s not fair play, he’s breaking the rules: doesn’t wear a suit and tie!
The bankrupt bit is evidently correct, as I watched that video and B&B managed to reproduce the American propaganda narrative perfectly at every point, and that’s very hard to do unless you’re following the script you’re given, i.e. being paid to do so, to help his bank account. He managed to get everywhere he was told to: there’s even a few seconds irrelevant shot at the end about the prison, which is quite unprepared for earlier in the video.
A Christmas-time picture for the Joe Biden-is-innately-decent, anti-Palestinian racist crowd.
https://x.com/kennardmatt/status/1870595433573315028
“This is Joe Biden’s legacy. Kamala Harris’s legacy. Keir Starmer’s legacy. David Lammy’s legacy.
Nothing else matters. They are repulsive war criminals doused in the blood of thousands upon thousands of dead and mutilated children.”
Just Sickening Zoot… As are the BBC, NYT, WP … Guardian, whom Owen J still works for. Owen Jones Exposes … is a Lie.
Another person to add to those instrumental in creating chaos across the world is Bernard Lewis, a US/UK historian, whose ideas have been lapped up by the hegemon. I despair!
https://larouchepub.com/eiw/public/2023/eirv50n45-20231117/eirv50n45-20231117_025-britains_road_map_to_armageddon.pdf
In Rome – as they say – do as the Romans do.
So the best wish we can have for Craig is that he followed the saying and, as soon as he returned from Beirut, went enjoy a hearty plate of fettuccine Alfredo. He deserved that, and MI6 don’t perform well on pasta…
Otherwise, another snafu in Syria. More bloodshed in Gaza. More confusion in Russkrain. Perfect storm. (Without nukes.)
Posted ten hours ago – the hospital is in Gaza.
“For exactly 10 hours, we have been posting about the attack on Kamal Odwan Hospital, from targeting the main gate to blowing up a booby-trapped vehicle and opening fire at the patients and doctors.
And not a single “major” (or even minor) western TV or newspaper mentioned a thing. Not a thing. Not even the attack on a tent in the quad of a school shelter that killed eight people four hours ago.”
https://nitter.poast.org/MosabAbuToha/status/1870680922904731966#m
Murdering proscribed terrorists is bad – but only if they oppose our Western hegemony.
“The US, UK and EU are normalizing the Syrian Islamist junta that hosts British Pakistani fanatic Shajul Islam, who was charged in the UK with kidnapping British photographer John Cantlie and his Dutch colleague, Jeroen Oerlemans. Both were killed by ISIS.”
https://nitter.poast.org/MaxBlumenthal/status/1870688063640543610#m
Of course, we all know Romania is a vital staging post for arms and supplies sent to Ukraine. The West just couldn’t allow Romania to democratically elect a person who wouldn’t continue to push their evil agenda – so the elections had to annulled, and some sort of lies about Russian interference had to be produced to try and turn heads and minds away from the glaring fact that Romanian democracy had been undermined.
“No Russian interference…
🇷🇴 The Romanian tax authority ANAF has determined that the campaign on TikTok for Kelin Georgescu, the winner of the canceled first round of Romania’s presidential election, was not funded by Russians, as claimed by Romanian intelligence (which was the formal reason for the cancellation of the first round’s results), but by the pro-European National Liberal Party of Romania.
This was reported by the Romanian publication HotNews.
According to their information, the tax authority found that Georgescu’s social media campaign was funded by the National Liberals, with the goal of drawing voters away from their rivals, the Social Democrats.”
RoS
There are plans to build the largest European NATO base in Romania, so there’s that too:
The military base at Mihail Kogqlniceanu, Constanta, southeast Romania, on the Black Sea coast, will become the largest NATO military base in Europe and will surpass the US military base in Ramstein, Germany, in size.
There’s not a shred of evidence of election-meddling, according to leading political figures in Romania. And officials are now saying there likely never will be any evidence produced, to support the allegations that supposedly drove the court’s annulment decision: simply not good enough! Elena Lasconi, who finished runner up to Călin Georgescu in the first round, was backed by both Ursula von der Leyen and Macron, but opposition figures, say it was Antony Blinken who personally intervened, to force the annulment – which raises more serious questions about sovereignty and the real source of interference.
The EU Commission is collectively losing its mind over foreign interference or election-meddling, which is kinda darkly amusing, considering the Commission aren’t elected by voters themselves. Thierry Breton, former Commissioner for the Internal Market, yesterday, warned Elon Musk about interference, after Musk tweeted in support of Germany’s AfD party ahead of upcoming German elections. Surely, private citizens can express an opinion on anything? Got to wonder whether Breton has ever heard of a certain Australian who became a US citizen, i.e. whether the name Rupert Murdoch rings a bell? NO ONE will ever match the amount of interference Murdoch and his titles and TV news media empire have had over many decades perniciously shaping European and US public opinion. Breton et al aren’t really against interference imho, they just don’t like the idea of those they aren’t directly collaborating with, doing it.
How it Started
January 2024
Defence minister and lieutenant colonel in the 77th Brigade Tobias Ellwood tells Britain to “wake up” and urges the Government to invest more in the armed forces after the head of the Army says Britain should “train and equip” a “citizen army” to ready the country for a potential land war against Russia.
How it’s Going
December 2024
Soldiers quitting British Army in thousands despite 6 percent pay increase over the summer (and retention payments.)
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/12/21/soldiers-quit-in-thousands-despite-labours-pay-rise/
No-one wants to die on behalf of warmongering politicians and generals who are not going to put themselves in danger.
No Westminster debating, no parliamentary oversight – gone are the days when there needed to be a discussion in the HoC to go to war – as Starmer ordered UK forces to join the Americans in bombing of Saana, the capital of Yemen, last night.
The UK is a rogue state that backs the Zionists and has aided in genocide – not to mention that the UK cuddles up to proscribed terrorists’ groups.
https://nitter.poast.org/Documark/status/1870774101398225160#m
What are the chances, of seeing these buses with the same livery going up and down your high street – let me guess – zero chance.
https://nitter.poast.org/DanielDumbrill/status/1870797337641271768#m
If it was Ukraine, I’d say high chance. The UK love to shower our tax monies all over the nazis.
Surprise surprise – not – the EU is run by racketeers.
“Emily O’Reilly, who’s been serving as the EU’s chief accountability watchdog for more than a decade, reveals that the EU commission is a totally opaque body run by unelected “powerful consiglieri” (a mafia term).
https://www.politico.eu/article/consiglieri-ursula-von-der-leyen-eu-commission-cabinet-ombudsman-emily-oreilly/
She discloses that over her 11-year tenure she was never able to meet even once with Von der Leyen, even though she’s the official European Ombudsman which, again, is the watchdog that theoretically needs to hold Von der Leyen accountable…
She also says that she’s incredibly “frustrated” that her “access to documents” requests to the EU Commission take “months” to be processed and at the end “they still say no”.
In effect we learn here that the most powerful institution in the EU is run like a black box by unelected officials (the “powerful consiglieri” O’Reilly speaks of) who systematically block oversight attempts, even from their own official watchdog.
Which raises the obvious question: if Von der Leyen refuses accountability to Europeans, to whom does the commission answer?
It also frankly raises question about O’Reilly herself and the European Ombudsman body: how on earth did she allow herself to be systematically stonewalled and blocked from doing her job for over a decade without raising public alarm sooner about this.”
https://www.politico.eu/article/consiglieri-ursula-von-der-leyen-eu-commission-cabinet-ombudsman-emily-oreilly/
The EU today is much, much worse in terms of accountability and corruption than it was in 2016. And yet the f*ckwit Labour government want to re-enter this appalling, undemocratic, shitshow. Westminster truly is the enemy.
The problem is von der Leyen, not the EU.
The European parliament re-elected Frau Genocide to be head honcho for another half decade in July. They clearly like what they have been seeing.
That’s not a comment on the system, as SB was suggesting. The problem is the person not the system.
von der Leyen, bibi, starmer, zelensky, Biden, etc. they are all symptoms of the rank corruption . These people did not attain their positions through talent or skills they were all put in place to act as the figureheads of the corrupt systems. Remove them and the next turd will float to the top.
The problem IS the system.
We got rid of sunak and now have starmer, nothing has changed, the system remains in place.
It looks like Scholz, and von der Leyen, will need to pull a ‘Romania’ (as it is now known – aka denying democracy to the voter) as Alice Weidel – of Germany’s AfD party shoots ahead as the most popular candidate – for German Chancellor in the upcoming elections.
There was serious talk about banning the AfD at one point, though that talk faded due to their electoral success in the East.
It’s been revealed that the horrible Magdeburg attack prime suspect, Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, sat down for an interview with the BBC in 2019. Why is there always a British connection? Will it be another case of ‘known to authorities’ ? Dogs being let off leashes? The TV news pundits (BBC, Ch4, Sky News , GB News) are trying to explain his alleged ‘motivation,’ based on his social media output; but their analysis is still completely nonsensical: an anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant, who arrived in Germany from Saudi Arabia, allegedly killed (mainly) white Christians shopping in a Christmas market, because he was angry with German immigration policies? None of it makes any sense.
Goose.
This is not a bad article, on the guy with regards to the German market attack – its penned by a guy who lives in Germany.
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2024/12/insane-anti-muslim-jihadist-terrorizes-christmas-market.html#more
Sounds very much like a typical security services plant. ‘Hey patsy go and kill some Germans and say you support the AFD’. Suddenly the AFD is proscribed as a terrorist organisation. Job done. Call Jack Ruby.
It’s a very strange case. And the attacker’s motivations are truly perplexing? He was a medical doctor, who presumably must have cared for many people in that role, so what made him snap?
Some would say the idea of a patsy being used to achieve some political goal is the stuff of dangerous conspiracy nonsense. I’d agree, but for the fact, there is a historical precedent of individuals and groups being used to conduct terrorism aimed at sowing fear and distrust in political movements and parties: Operation Gladio.
According to several Western European researchers, the operation involved the use of assassination, psychological warfare, and false flag operations to delegitimize left-wing parties in Western European countries, and even went so far as to support anti-communist militias and right-wing terrorism as they tortured communists and assassinated them, such as Eduardo Mondlane in 1969. The United States Department of State rejected the view that they supported terrorists and maintains that the operation served only to resist a potential invasion of Western European countries by the Soviet Union
The same levels of paranoia about an now albeit non-communist Russia are evident today. How far would security officials go in trying to stop parties and candidates deemed ‘too friendly’ or overly sympathetic to Russia, go? We are clearly being denied the truth about UK and European losses in Ukraine, and many European countries are invoking ‘war time’ levels of secrecy about their involvement, as if, directly at war with Russia. The military appear to be trying to steal democratic choice across Europe, in the name of countering Russia. It’s the mindset of fighting those ‘Commies and Reds,’ replete with a modern-day version of digital McCarthyism online.
The EU has reopened its embassy in Damascus, Syria, now that Assad has fled – and the proscribed terrorists are in control – what does that say about the crooks running the EU. All the usual suspects are now opening embassies in Syria, including the French.
The Germans are also in the process of opening up an embassy in Syria.
RoS
Indeed.
The undue haste, forgoing the normal security assessments, does indicate there was nothing organic about this rebel takeover, and that it was plotted and controlled throughout, in western capitals. For in any genuine, organic armed insurrection by rebel groups, it would take months of stability, before making such decisions about the safety of diplomatic personnel and lifting sanctions; and lifting the proscribed status, of what were previously terror organisations.
The haste also suggests that the West, collectively, are terrified that their hard work removing Assad, may be undone by any power vacuum. But Russia and Iran don’t really operate like the, at times, wholly unscrupulous West. For if either of those countries wanted to sow chaos, and destabilise Syria, it’d be very easy to assassinate key figures and do just that. Fortunately, Russia and Iran don’t seem to operate like that, so Syrians have a shot at creating a democracy. That is, until the US doesn’t like the election results it throws up.
The EU is a follower in the Syrian crisis, not a leader. Blaming them, when the real responsibility lies with the Americans (+Turkey+Israel) is misplaced.
The EU managers have chosen to follow so they share responsibility.
of course, but not the leading responsibility, as suggested by RoS
Only following orders …
Maybe Israel wants to open a spy base/ embassy in Damascus.
Or alternatively bomb Syrias historic sites and take some more land under their ‘security’ umbrella.
Land robbing bastards!
Indeed – they need a buffer-zone for the buffer-zone of their buffer-zone!
Anyone see the hypocrisy here.
“A man has been charged with distributing terrorist materials and supporting the Islamic State group.
Abdullah Bellil, 29, was arrested at his home in Southampton on Wednesday, police said.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy4p03jykyvo
Yet the UK government has backed proscribed terrorist outfits that have committed, and still are committing, heinous crimes across Syria. The same UK government has flown out diplomats from the FCO to meet with these proscribed terrorists.
UN Rapporteur Margaret Satterthwaite – wonder why ‘it sparks Uproar’ –
UN Rapporteur Margaret Satterthwaite … laying down International Laws … Thank you … But will the West listen? … Maybe we should all hope they do.
Syria = 3 N-powers on HIGH ALERT – 10 mins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzpNIdK_vkg&t=10s
And look at this headline in the Guardian today. It just sums up the deceitful, hypocritical game of the mainstream media (and, you can be sure, either no readers’ comments at all permitted in response or only the tiny proportion their editors have deemed ‘on message’).
‘A consensus is emerging: Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Where is the action?‘ Nesrine Malik
There is no lack of action from the west: the conveyor belt of weapons is rolling as strong as ever; as are the politicians’ and journalists’ justifications for what Israel is doing and their indignant denials that war crimes are being committed (let alone genocide). Her own newspaper is playing its part by covering up Britain’s key role in the Genocide.
Like many others, despite all the good gap-fillings here, I just can’t wait to see all the wonderful unreleased videos our gracious host has managed to produce in Lebanon. We all know the post-production costs were huge, but who cares. What matters is reporting the truth, and obviously this is something the MSM doesn’t. Better ask Craig!
Another question you should ask, who would be sneering at Craig’s reporting other than an Establishment-worshipping Zionist gimp?
For all his faults – as Gadaffi, perhaps the last pan-arab leader in our lifetime, perhaps the only arab leader with some type of intellectual basis – repeatedly said, unless the arab world unite against Israel the arab world will themselves feel the terror from Israel sooner or later:
Video: Gaddafi in 1988 – We have to wake up , 10:46 minutes
https://youtu.be/UjytKYR4z0o?t=433
Just as Gadaffi said, after Gaza & Westbank, Israel went after Yemen, Syria, Lebanon; next up is Iran and the so called “normalization” deals with the arab leaders, deals that would cement the position that Israel is the ruler of the Middle east, not the 500 million arabs that apparently want to live on their knees under the power of Israel.
Time and time again Gadaffi warned and tried to wake up the arab leaders to take on Israel to take on the western interventions but in return he was unseated and got Libya bombed by the same arab and western leaders. Just look at the video below, Gadaffi looks like a teacher schooling some spoiled, ignorant children, sitting there chuckling, smirking:
Video: Gaddafi Speech at Arab League Meeting, March 2008 – We all distrust each other , 9:40 minutes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMLmA4lnxXo
All the Arab states are essentially run by single, interlinked (royal) families and their followers: eg. Saudi and hashemites. All the government roles are taken by family members.
This, corrupt, setup means usurpers cannot be tolerated. Gaddafi was threatening their power by proposing an overarching, united african super power and thus had to be killed. Israel doesn’t threaten the arabs because the zionists love the fractured, divided, selfish, corrupt kingdoms.
Jack, what you say is true, the question is what are the pusillanimous Arab leaders going to do about it, the US/Israel have calculated [correctly] they will do F— all. Most Arab leaders are US vassals either because they have too much money tied up with US investments, bonds and real estate, or are dependent on US aid etc Egypt, Jordan or Iraq with all its oil receipts tied up in the US Federal reserve to be doled out to the Iraqi government on a monthly basis, provided they do not ask for the withdrawal of US troops and generally do as they are told. The US confiscated $300 billion of the Russian foreign reserves, even though they have more nuclear weapons than the US, the question is, are the Arab states going to grow a spine, find some self respect and stand up to the US/Israel masters, or are they forever going to be happy having a big stick hovering over their heads and be their willing slaves?
Harry Law
Add in that most of the Gulf States are dictatorships – the people are oppressed by the rulers – the likes of the USA blackmails them – with the idea that if they don’t comply with US wishes, that they’ll instigate and uprising and eventual coups.
When politicians like Starmer, Lammy, Biden and Blinken extol the virtues of the Israeli state they do so because they believe quite erroneously that Israel is a Democratic state when in fact it is a racist, Apartheid state which practices genocide. George Orwell thought about these contradictions when he wrote ‘Notes on Nationalism’ here….
“Indifference to Reality. All nationalists have the power of not seeing resemblances between similar sets of facts. A British Tory will defend self-determination in Europe and oppose it in India with no feeling of inconsistency. Actions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits, but according to who does them, and there is almost no kind of outrage – torture, the use of hostages, forced labour, mass deportations, imprisonment without trial, forgery, assassination, the bombing of civilians – which does not change its moral colour when it is committed by ‘our’ side. The Liberal News Chronicle published, as an example of shocking barbarity, photographs of Russians hanged by the Germans, and then a year or two later published with warm approval almost exactly similar photographs of Germans hanged by the Russians.[5] It is the same with historical events. History is thought of largely in nationalist terms, and such things as the Inquisition, the tortures of the Star Chamber, the exploits of the English buccaneers (Sir Francis Drake, for instance, who was given to sinking Spanish prisoners alive), the Reign of Terror, the heroes of the Mutiny blowing hundreds of Indians from the guns, or Cromwell’s soldiers slashing Irishwomen’s faces with razors, become morally neutral or even meritorious when it is felt that they were done in the ‘right’ cause. If one looks back over the past quarter of a century, one finds that there was hardly a single year when atrocity stories were not being reported from some part of the world: and yet in not one single case were these atrocities – in Spain, Russia, China, Hungary, Mexico, Amritsar, Smyrna – believed in and disapproved of by the English intelligentsia as a whole. Whether such deeds were reprehensible, or even whether they happened, was always decided according to political predilection”.
https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/essays-and-other-works/notes-on-nationalism/
Today regarding the way elite politicians consider the relative merits of war crimes perpetrated by ‘our friends’ and those of our enemies, is instructive, here William Schabas calls out Starmer and Lammy as hypocrites:
“One of the world’s leading scholars on genocide, William Schabas, on Monday denounced British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy for refusing to label Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide.
“These people are hypocrites. They speak with a forked tongue. They do not interpret or apply the Genocide Convention in a consistent manner,” Schabas, a Canadian academic specialising in international criminal and human rights law, told Middle East Eye.
“The statements of British parliamentarians vary depending upon whether they are referring to their friends or their enemies,” said Schabas, who is the former president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars and the author of more than 20 books on genocide and other international law topics.
Last week, Starmer was asked to share his definition of genocide and to outline what action he was taking to save the lives of people in Gaza.
In response, he said he was “well aware of the definition of genocide” and that this explains why he has “never described or referred to [the situation in Gaza] as genocide”.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/top-genocide-scholar-calls-starmer-and-lammy-hypocrites-denying-gaza-genocide
Came by this statement by Blinken that he made days after 7th of october where he claim that palestinians invaded an israeli family having breakfast, palestinians then began by gauging the eye out of the father, then they cut the breats off the mother and then they cut the foot of the child and finished the morning off by sitting down having a breakfast at the very kitchen table.
Video https://x.com/desmukh/status/1722872695996727451
Does not this sounds a bit too good to be true? So called Gruel Propaganda?
I tried to google what investigational reports by the UN said about this very kitchen-incident but I found nothing which seems rather odd considering how detailed, graphic Blinken’s statement was.
One also wonder of course why Israel refuse to collaborate with the UN investigational team. Surely it would be a great propaganda win for Israel to prove that palestinians commited all the alleged crimes so why miss the chance? Obviously Israel hide something and rather let myths, disinformation, half-truths rule:
“The (UN) commission said it was unable to independently verify the accusations of rape, sexualized torture or genital mutilation that had been reported in the news media. It noted that Israel blocked its access to witnesses, crime scenes and unedited versions of recorded testimonies.”
Link to New York Times: https://archive.is/SrsUJ#selection-4846.0-4846.1
It looks like Zelensky, won’t budge on allowing Russian gas to run through Ukraine after the end of the current deal – this has upset the anti-Russian leader of Moldova, Maia Sandu – Moldova is heavily reliant on Russian gas – and Sandu has come up with the plan of seizing Transnistria’s Cuciurgan power plant, which in itself is also gas fired.
Sandu, has been making noises of removing Russian peacekeepers – and reasserting Chisinau’s control – Moldova does not recognise Transnistria’s independence – and Sandu, won a very dodgy election earlier on in the year – that all but alienated hundreds of thousands of Moldovans living in Russia.