Four UN Special Rapporteurs have written jointly to the UK government demanding explanation of its inappropriate persecution of journalists and political activists under the Terrorism Act. They state that those persecuted:
appear to have no credible connection to “terrorist” or “hostile” activity
The cases taken up by the United Nations are those of Johanna Ross (Ganyukova), John Laughland, Kit Klarenberg, Craig Murray (yes, me), Richard Barnard and Richard Medhurst. The UN letter is signed by:
Ben Saul
Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorismIrene Khan
Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expressionGina Romero
Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of associationAna Brian Nougrères
Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy
Under this UN special procedure, the letter is sent to the government in question which has sixty days to respond. This letter was sent by the UN to Starmer’s government on 4 December. No reply having been received, it has now been published.
It is worth noting that even with the UN letter on its desk and ignored, Starmer’s government in fact stepped up the use of the Terrorism Act against pro-Palestinian journalists and activists in this period. The cases of Asa Winstanley, Sarah Wilkinson and Tony Greenstein, among others, happened after the letter was drafted.
I should be clear that I was, working with Justice for All International (for which we had a crowdfunder last year in relation to the Assange case at the UN), heavily involved in assisting with preparation of this initiative, and made three visits to the UN in Geneva on the subject together with Sharof Azizov, and on one occasion Richard Medhurst. Your subscriptions and donations to this blog are the only funding I have to make such activity possible, so thank you.
The letter is in two parts. The first consists of an outline of the information received by the UN on each case and a request for a response from the British government.
But the second part is a devastating critique of the UK’s terrorism laws and their inappropriate use to stifle dissent and freedom of expression. This legal analysis on lack of conformity with the UK’s human rights obligations is not dependent on any of the particular cases cited.
While we do not wish to prejudge the accuracy of these allegations, we
express our concern regarding the potential misapplication of counter-terrorism laws
against journalists and activists who were critical of the policies and practices of
certain governments, which may unjustifiably interfere with the rights to freedom of
expression and opinion and participation in public life, lead to self-censorship and
have a serious chilling effect on the media, civil society and legitimate political and
public discourse.
We are particularly concerned by the broad scope of section 12(1A) and
schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000 and schedule 3 of the Counter-Terrorism and
Border Security Act 2019…
We are concerned at the vagueness and overbreadth of the offence in
section 12(1A) of the Terrorism Act 2000, which criminalizes expressing an opinion
or belief that is supportive of a proscribed organisation and being reckless as to
whether it encouraged support for that organisation…
The term “support” is undefined in the Act and in our view is vague and
overbroad and may unjustifiably criminalize legitimate expression.
…the meaning of expressing support for a
proscribed organization is ambiguous and could capture speech that is neither
necessary nor proportionate to criminalize, including legitimate debates about the de-
proscription of an organization and disagreement with a government’s decision to
proscribe…
We note that there is no requirement that the expression of support relate to
the commission of violent terrorist acts by the organization. As such, the offence may
unjustifiably criminalize the expression of opinion or belief that is not rationally,
proximately or causally related to actual terrorist violence or harms. The offence
further does not require any likelihood that the support will assist the organization in
any way. It goes well beyond the accepted restrictions on freedom of expression under
international law concerning the prohibition of incitement to violence or hate speech…
We note that some proscribed organizations are de facto authorities
performing a diversity of civilian functions, including governance, humanitarian and
medical activities, and provision of social services, public utilities and education.
Expressing support for any of these ordinary civilian activities by the organization
could constitute expressing support for it, no matter how remote such expression is
from support for any violent terrorist acts by the group…
Further, the section 12(1A) offence does not require the person to intend to
encourage others to support the organization…
We are further concerned that the absence of legal certainty may have a
chilling effect on the media, public debate, activism, and the activities of civil society,
in a context where there is a heightened public interest in discussion of the conflict in
the Middle East, including the conduct of the parties and the underlying conditions
conducive to violence in the region. We are further concerned that a person could be
prosecuted for isolated remarks or sentences that mischaracterize the overall position
of the individual, or despite the individual’s intentions or continued and express
disavowal of terrorist violence, given the subjectivity and contested meanings of
certain expressions in relation to sensitive or controversial political conflicts…
We encourage your Excellency’s Government to repeal section 12(1A), or
otherwise to amend it to protect freedom of expression, and to develop prosecutorial
guidelines for its appropriate use to avoid the unnecessary or disproportionate
incrimination of political dissent…
We are concerned that police powers at UK border areas and ports under
schedule 7 may be unjustifiably used against journalists and activists who are critical
of Western foreign policy. We note that the examination of each journalist named in
this communication under schedule 7 was premeditated, and that the examination,
confiscation of devices, and DNA prints were conducted despite the apparent absence
of a credible “terrorist” connection. We are concerned that such powers carry a risk of
intimidating, deterring, and disrupting the ability of journalists to report on topics of
public importance without self-censorship…
We are concerned that the distinction between “examination” and “detention”
under the Act is artificial given the punitive sanctions for of non-compliance, and that
this distinction may be inconsistent with the accepted meaning of “arrest” or
“detention” under article 9 of the ICCPR. We are further concerned that the extensive
powers authorised under section 2 do not require any degree of suspicion that a person
falls within the meaning of “terrorist” at section 40(1)(b). The extreme breadth of
such power enables unnecessary, disproportionate, arbitrary or discriminatory
interference with an individual’s rights, including freedom from arbitrary detention,
freedom of movement under article 12(1) of the ICCPR, and the rights to leave and
enter one’s own country under article 12(2) and (4) of the ICCPR…
we refer your
Excellency’s government to article 17 of the ICCPR which requires that “[n]o one
shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with [their] privacy, family,
home or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on [their] honour and reputation”.
We note that several journalists detained under schedule 7 have had their electronic
devices confiscated for a significant period of time and have not been updated on the
use, retention or destruction of their data, or advised in relation to their personal data
protection rights.
We urge your Excellency’s Government to consider the growing number of
instances where schedule 7 may have been inappropriately directed towards
journalists and activists, and to consider addressing this through amendments to the
legislation, guidance for relevant officials, and training of border security officers. We
further encourage your Excellency’s Government to address the judiciary’s concerns
regarding the retention of electronic data
It is a stunning letter well worth reading in full; the legal language and diplomatic formality does not disguise the extreme concern of the UN at the extraordinary authoritarian attack on freedom of speech in the UK.
I might reveal that some of the UN Special Rapporteurs who signed were very sceptical of the issue until studying the details. One told me personally they were too busy to look at such a minor problem; their attitude changed completely when faced with papers on the cases involved.
There is no sign the UN has given the Starmer government pause; human rights are extremely low on their agenda. Support for Israel and the crushing of pro-Palestinian sentiment, or of any criticism of western foreign policy, is extremely high on their agenda.
The legislation concerned has been brought into disrepute by the widespread support in public from Establishment figures for HTS in Syria, even though it remains a proscribed organisation and any expression of support is an offence under the Terrorism Act. To my knowledge, not one person has been charged or even questioned for supporting the HTS coup in Syria.
This occurred after the UN letter, but they could now mention extreme arbitrariness in police and prosecutorial application of the law in their critique. The Terrorism Act is being used to criminalise peaceful criticism of western foreign policy. There can be no doubt about that at all.
It also remains the case that there has not been one reference in UK mainstream media to the persecution of dissident journalists using terrorism laws. I don’t expect the prostitute stenographers to power to change that by covering this censure from the United Nations.
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A persecution ignored not only by ruling-class media, who laud the ‘quintessentially British’ value of free speech, but also by ‘independent’ respectable left gatekeepers like Owen Jones and Novara.
Conversely, the media is this week celebrating the great coup by MI6 Rory and unrepentant Alastair in landing a podcast interview/ hagiography with the Lion of Idlib, ISIS decapitator al-Jolani.
To be fair to Owen Jones, despite his past failures regarding Israel and the antisemitism scam, which myself and many others castigated him for, he has apparently had his eyes opened since the start of the genocide and his reporting on Gaza has been excellent and as such he deserves recognition and praise.
Owen Jones’s heart may well be in the right place, but what has his journalism achieved?
Jones would be of no use if he was no longer accepted as the gatekeeper of the left. He needed to be allowed to worm his way back somehow and the Gaza genocide provided the perfect opportunity. It seems to have worked like a charm, even though his non-personing of Craig, Asa, Richard, etc, shows he hasn’t changed a sod.
Owen also remains very much a zionist. He has not backed down one iota from asserting the “right” of a western settler colony to exist in Palestine. Anybody who asserts otherwise is deemed to be outside the gate of respectability, as were those who questioned the Labour AS ‘crisis’ he suddenly invented when Corbyn became leader.
There is no direct evidence that Jones has changed his spots.
He has not turned on the Ziofascists he has been mentored and worked with at the Obsessive Groaniad doing his propoganda function and f heard I g a portion of that deluded red warship that still believes it was a Labour ‘paper’ which it never was.
He would have to admit to their lies about Assange.
He would have to admit to their lies about Syria Campaign and the White Helmet head choppers.
He would have to admit to the lies of Novichok, Skripals
The Russophobia etc
He would have to admit the lies of Salmonds (RIP) persecution which perhaps had a hand in his early death. The fake charges , the fake trial and the Obsersive Groans direct involvement in that miscarriage of justice whilst undermining Scottish Nationalism and supporting the Crown agent Sturgeon and her handlers in that despicable saga which led to our hosts kafkaesque trial and real imprisonment!
He would have to admit to the lies about Corbyns AS and the ziofascist NuLabour wolves who slaughtered the Labour party core and smuggled themselves into the redwall wearing the bloody skins. Depriving the country of a genuine Labour Social democratic government by postal vote rigging – twice that paved the way to the utter disaster of our public services and NHS by private medical insurance.
I could go on..
Unltil and unless he admits these CRIMES.
He gives evidence against the Observer Guardian and Scott Trust
He must be suspected as just evolving his function.
As not just a gatekeeper but a sheepdog that is sent out wide into the leftfield to gather these that have moved away from the ‘centre field’ he was gatekeeping at that sordid deepstate intelligence run and funded liberal rag.
Currently he is being developed to occupy the alt media-scape that has been made to measure for Carlson and Morgan both from Murdoch stables.
A model they stole from the likes of Brand that made it a theme.
Now apparently there is the arch Nazgûl WMD sexer up of illegal war Campbell and shits.
If you still think Owens a good guy just because he is LGB well there are no suitable words for me to use here.
Good day.
Novara I have no time for. Fake leftists.
See above Margaret
There’s no free speech in Britain for those who want to criticise the regime, as the owner of this blog can well attest given that he was jailed for a piece he posted here.
Dunno whether you live in Britain, but neither the authorities nor the chatterers and scribblers in this country have ever made a big thing here of “free speech” or said that it’s a fundamental national value. There’s nothing like the First Amendment to the US constitution – as made into a theme in numerous Hollywood films – which was passed by slaveowners in 1791, at a time when in many states it was UNLAWFUL for a slave to learn to read and write, and for anyone to teach them. In some states it was unlawful to teach any black person to read and write, even if they were free. Penalties included whipping, and if a slave was caught writing there was a penalty of having their index finger chopped off.
In other words, “free speech” was always a lie.
Everything the ruling class says is sh*t. I doubt Owen Jones will make that point on Substack or Twitter or in one of his books though.
The suppression of free speech in approved enemy nations has always been one of the biggest flags the British media wave in their Wonderfulness of Us agenda.
Free speech, like voting, is just a sop for the masses to maintain the illusion of democratic Britain.
The way western democracy works is: you do as your told, we do as we like. Simples.
There’s plenty of free speech in Britain for people who want to criticise the government, Brian: e.g. The British government is shit – there you go, I’ve just done it, and I very much doubt whether I and/or this blog will face any legal sanctions. Our host was jailed for contempt of court for defying a court order, and then refusing to remove the offending blogposts & tweets, even though, by that time, 99% of people who were ever going to read them would have already done so.
Even a cursory reading of the 1st Amendment to the US Constitution reveals that it doesn’t guarantee free speech for US citizens. Rather, it states that *Congress* is not allowed to pass laws that abridge free speech, the freedom of the press etc; it mentions nothing about state legislatures. The US Supreme Court determined in ‘Gitlow v. NY’ that the 1st Amendment did apply to the states but, as with so much of what that court has ruled on, this was unconstitutional nonsense based on an incorrect reading of the 14th Amendment.
(NOTE TO THE MODS: I take it that, having had my own free speech on this site curtailed for a month for inadvertently ruffling a few of our host’s feathers late last year, I’m now allowed back. A belated Happy New Year to everyone.)
—
[ Mod: Your exile has indeed lapsed, LA. Welcome back. ]
There’s reportedly some provision for free speech in the English 1688 Bill of Rights. This was brought in following the tyrannical behaviour of the previous monarch, James II. However the document’s so old that it devotes space to various anti-Catholic sentiments … clearly a bit out-of-date now (!) although there are still restrictions on the monarch.
The impression is that power trumps law anyway. The UK ‘deep state’ (or ‘establishment’ as Tony Benn called it) has grabbed powers steadily all my lifetime, whether they formerly belonged to local government or to parliament. The judiciary both here and in the USA is deeply political, even if it dare not admit so.
Freedom of Speech.
That the Freedome of Speech and Debates or Proceedings in Parlyament ought not to be impeached or questioned in any Court or Place out of Parlyament.
Speech outside the hallowed chamber was covered by the sedition law. The key principals were “sedition in subjects to dispute what a king may do in the height of his power.” (James Stuart); and truth is no defence in sedition (Coke, to Star Chamber). Considerable disturbance arose from the reporting of Parliamentary proceedings (John Wilkes 1771): would this be a felony?
Of course it was embedded in the concept that political discourse supporting the governments policy was not sedition; only ‘disputing’ it. If I may slightly amend your dictum: state power is law, just as state law is power. Its why the billionaires spend so much time and effort stacking (corrupting) parties and their politicians.
This describes the legal status in England; is there a Scottish legal historian to hand that is better informed on the status in Scotland before 1708?
BBC, Al Jazeera, and the Guardian are all referring to Trump as having a “plan” of a “takeover” of Gaza by the USA, and Reuters are even referring to Palestinians’ “departure”. None of them are calling the roundup of 2.2 million people and the expulsion of survivors to camps in foreign countries as what they are.
Such a roundup and expulsion could only be effected by a mixture of large-scale violence and the use of control over food and water, and would constitute an obvious crime against humanity.
I knew there was some f***ing reason NATO had set up shop in Jordan.
If anyone is so foolish as to believe the line that the USA’s NATO allies “reject” the US “plan”, they might like to ask why none of them oppose the said NATO presence.
Those who were so concerned with Hillary’s emails and Hunter’s laptop may like to try to understand why Netanyahu and his backers in New York put the fascist Trump back into office.
Trump is only saying what Netanyahu ordered him to say.
What with Trump’s reference to “1.5 million” people, it seems they’re going by a figure of 0.7m to be slaughtered.
Those who enjoy middle-class discourse may wish to talk about the “envelope” being pushed, or perhaps the “Overton window” being shifted.
All talk of a “plan” that is being “rejected by Arab powers” is a pretence that this is some kind of normal move in the diplomatic world.
If this goes ahead, it will be impossible to have any respect whatsoever for any regime in the world that retains normal diplomatic relations with the USA.
The only respectable reporting by a mainstream national outlet I have seen is by PressTV in Iran:
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2025/02/06/742277/Iran-strongly-rejects-United-States-plan-ownership-Gaza-Israel-war-genocide
“Iran has unequivocally condemned a so-called “plan” by the US to force Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, calling it an extension of the Israeli regime’s broader scheme to erase the Palestinian identity.
“The plan to cleanse Gaza and forcibly displace the Palestinian people [from there] is an extension of Israel’s calculated agenda to wipe out the Palestinian nation,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said on Wednesday.“
The reason 19 million of Biden’s 2020 voters stayed home in November wasn’t Hillary’s emails or Hunter’s laptop, now was it? (Only 5 million of them switched to Trump). No, the reason they stayed home was because they couldn’t in good conscience vote for people who had murdered tens of thousands of Palestinians and destroyed 90% of Gaza’s infrastructure. Even if they had known Trump wanted to expel the remaining Palestinians from Gaza, they knew that was also Blinken’s plan!
And Israel doubles down, Palestinians should be expelled and the harshest critics of the genocide should take them.
The GALL of these people.
Israel unveils plans for Gaza deportations (LIVE UPDATES)
The Israeli government has unveiled plans to remove Palestinians from Gaza and force countries in Europe that have been critical of West Jerusalem’s controversial war against Hamas to take in refugees from the enclave.
https://swentr.site/news/612268-israel-gaza-relocation-plans/
This is also another proof how similar zionism and is with nazism: some hundred years ago world talked about the “jewish question”: where to expel the jews and now Israel go on and commit to the same disgraceful practice.
The Madagascar Plan (German: Madagaskarplan) was a plan proposed by the Nazi German government to forcibly relocate the Jewish population of Europe to the island of Madagascar.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madagascar_Plan
..adding to that, one also wonder if it was Israel/lobby that came up with this grand ethnic cleansing idea but since they knew it was a controverisal move they “tested” the idea to the public “through” Trump. Suddenly the criticism is against Trump, not Israel that is (most likely) the ultimate actor behind this new scheme.
It’s not a new plan or an Israeli one forced on Trump. Blinken was trying to cajol Sisi into taking the Gazans from the moment the genocide started. He dressed it up in humanitarian language but the effect for the Gazans would have been the same.
An inconvenient truth that can’t be whitewashed away.
Yes, a longstanding plan.
‘Trump’s proposal to remove the Arabs from Palestine to Saudi Arabia repeats the scheme of President Franklin Roosevelt of February 1945. ..
Roosevelt had already announced in the US: “Palestine should be for the Jews and no Arabs should be in it.” ‘
https://johnhelmer.net/trump-the-genocidalist-attacks-on-the-northern-front/
Good find. He’s still considered to be one of the most compassionate leaders in western political history.
On Roosevelt and Palestine, the Helmer website is not accurate. It says:
“Roosevelt had already announced in the US: “Palestine should be for the Jews and no Arabs should be in it.” ”
Checked up on that. That is not a public announcement [let alone a plan], something leaders usually and FDR in particular was very careful with. It is from p 170 of Edward Stettinius’s diary. (Secretary of State after Cordell Hull retired). He wrote:
“Palestine situation- I told the president what difficulty we were getting into and we should discuss the matter with Harriman. I said I would send him a memo on this ….The president feels confident, however, he will be able to iron out the whole Arab-Jewish issue on the ground where he can have a talk. He thinks Palestine should be for the Jews and no Arabs should be in it, and he has definite ideas on the subject. It should be exclusive Jewish territory. I told him of my recent talk with Dr. Wise.”
So it is only Stettinius’s view of FDR’s thinking for a time. Notably, before the Great Bitter Lake meeting with Ibn Saud, which is famously what made FDR see the depth of the problem, the depth of the Arab opposition. FDR & the others were busy redrawing the maps of the world, with many, many ideas and much more detailed plans that fell by the wayside when confronted by reality and difficult diplomacy. This was just FDR’s native optimism and (well enough merited) faith in his own ability to find acceptable compromises and persuade others of them.
So Helmer’s “Trump’s proposal to remove the Arabs from Palestine to Saudi Arabia repeats the scheme of President Franklin Roosevelt of February 1945” seriously twists history.
Actual and famous relevant FDR statements:
“I learned more about the whole problem, the Moslem problem, the Jewish problem, by talking with ibn Saud for five minutes than I could have learned in an exchange of two or three dozen letters.” (to Congress in March 1945). To American Jewish leader Stephen Wise “I have never so completely failed to make an impact upon a man’s mind as in his [Ibn Saud’s] case.”
“The legislation concerned has been brought into disrepute by the widespread support in public from Establishment figures for HTS in Syria, even though it remains a proscribed organisation and any expression of support is an offence under the Terrorism Act. To my knowledge, not one person has been charged or even questioned for supporting the HTS coup in Syria.”
Yes the above – with regards to the lack of prosecutions is absolutely staggering – a quick search online finds that several EU countries have sent delegates, including the EU to meet with the proscribed terrorist outfit (HTS) in Syria.
The flip side of this coin with the UK in mind, is that expressing any sort of support for say Hamas or Hezbollah – might lead to you being frog marched from your homes, into a police van and then charged for supporting a proscribed body – alternatively, expressing support for the utterly oppressed Palestinian people in Britain via demos – might lead to you being filmed by the police, then, kettled by the police, then arrested – but not before you’ve been roughly manhandled by them.
I’m utterly shocked and disgusted at the Wests (though not all Western countries support it) support of the genocide in Gaza – I know its unlikely to happen,, but the likes of Scholz, von der Leyen, Starmer, Biden and many more leaders and military-men/women – should one day, be standing in the dock at the Hague for aiding and abetting in genocide.
The world has gone mad – or should I say the West, has gone mad.
I think it was Chomsky who said, or something to that effect, that if the Nuremberg trail standards were applied post-WWII (and they should be) every POTUS, since WWI – would’ve been standing in the dock at the Hague – as would most of the USA’s allied leaders.
Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart were hailed this week for a celebratory interview with al-Jolani on their podcast.
Not the Hague, Nuremberg.
I’ve written to my MP. This won’t do. The international reputation of the head of the Commonwealth with its values is at stake!
Joel/MJ
I think Craig outed Stewart as Mi6 – Stewart was a governor general of a region of Iraq, after the illegal invasion of it – Stewart even penned a book – on his time as the overlord of the occupied region, the book is called – Prince of the Marshes.
If the British imperial state fails to achieve its objectives through deploying terrorism legislation against journalists and locking up peaceful protesters, what is their next move? Should we expect an ongoing multi-spectrum escalation in the Establishment’s Forever War against Nature and the General Public? Are there parts of the British Empire where journalists are already being persecuted by means beyond these UK cases?
I watched part of the White House press conference by Netanyahu and his lap dog Trump. The thing that struck me most strongly was the Netanyahu Smirk. I have never before seen one registering such a level of sneering contempt.
One wonders if one could get an AI enabled assassination drone to use the the SMIRK to home in on this noxious individual. It has to be the most identifiable contemptuous facial expression of any member of species homo sapiens ever. Yahoo is not just a run of the mill serial killer, he is a Hitler Level mass murderer given that the population of Gaza used to be 2.3 million but now only 1.8 million need to be expelled. Anyone who takes up the offer of temporary relocation will knows that it is a Nakba event, there will be no right of return.
Carlyle Moulton.
Netanyahu presented Trump, with a gold pager on his jaunt to the USA – Trump said to Netanyahu that that operation was brilliantly carried out or words to that effect – the pager gift was, if you don’t know, a nod to blowing up of pagers, by Mossad, that people were carrying around – in which people later died of their injuries – due the pagers which had explosives added to them, exploding – when detonated by the Zionists.
Ian.
Trump would be wise to keep keep that pager well away from him or to have it inspected for explosives. Even if it is not booby trapped it may be meant as a mafia style implied threat.
How many Palestinians expelled from their homes by Zionist terror have ever been allowed to return?
Netanyahu smirks as his pet does a prepared trick. And to think, just a small while ago there were those bullsh*t reports that Steve Witkoff had told Netanyahu (who BTW doesn’t keep kosher) that he was the one calling the shots and he didn’t care whether it was the Sabbath or not. That was an obvious lie at the time.
No US government person has ever told Israel what to do.[1] No US government person would ever dare. They’d be out of office within hours, and quite possibly under arrest or dead – and I wouldn’t fancy the chances of their spouse, parents, and children either.
Can we please hold a funeral for the idiotic belief that Israel is a tool of the USA. No doubt some of its adherents were sincere. Everyone gets some stuff wrong. But now, sorry, there’s no excuse for keeping to a belief that is being shown ever more clearly to be false.
Note
1) Although it may possibly be that JFK flirted with the idea of forcing Zionist organisations to abide seriously by the Foreign Agents Registration Act – and look what happened to him.
Did he look like a fox sucking shite through a wire brush?
The more I think about this, the more I think the crime against humanity committed by Zionist-armed Azerbaijan against the population of Nagorno-Karabakh in 2023 – about 100,000 Christian Armenians were expelled – may have been preparation for the coming nakba in Gaza.
It also makes a complete nonsense of analyses of the region that are based on Sunni versus Shia.
Where TF are Russia and China, the only grownups and non-NATO permanent members of the UNSC.
Russia is a bit preoccupied with Ukraine. I suspect the Chinese view is “not my circus, not my monkeys”. If/when China sees it in their interests to weigh in, eg by replacing funds that the US withdraws from states that aren’t doing what Washington demands, things might change very fast.
I used to work for a Japanese owned subsidiary alongside a number of people brought in from Japan. The local management was predominantly Jewish. There was a scandal and they were all dismissed. One of the Japanese asked me “what is this about Jews”. Presumably someone else had made a remark to him and he had little awareness of this particular ethnicity that takes up so much mindspace in the West. To him no doubt we were all indistinguishable barbarians though he was always very polite about it. I’m sure the same will be true in China.
“Evidence disclosed at the Investigatory Powers Tribunal last year showed that over a four-month period in 2011, more than 4,000 phone calls and text messages were monitored by the Met for the PSNI”, Birney told the committee.
“Basically, a UK police force was spying on the state broadcaster, the BBC, and its journalists, and sharing that unlawful surveillance data with at least two other UK police forces,” he added.”
Journalists Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey told MPs on the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee that the PSNI had unlawfully captured data from McCaffrey’s phone on multiple occasions.
PSNI officers also unlawfully seized computer equipment and phones from the journalists’ homes and office.
Birney and McCaffrey were unlawfully arrested in 2018 after they produced a documentary film, “No stone Unturned”, exposing police collusion in the paramilitary murder of six innocent Catholics.
https://www.computerweekly.com/news/366618778/Met-Police-spied-on-BBC-journalists-phone-data-for-PSNI-MPs-told
More hot air from the, compromised, UN. They have no power. Israel has gotten away with murder for nearly eighty years. Assange was locked up for 13 years. Guantanamo Bay still operates. The UK and USA governments treat the UN like their court jester, they have no morals or shame. Sorry, Mr Murray but I don’t think this letter will make any f***g difference.
Stevie Boy
Its a step in the right direction – but much more needs to be done.
“In a major breakthrough in the fight for justice for Palestinian people, the Brussels Parliament has passed a resolution to formally recognize the acts committed by the Israeli military in Gaza as genocide and call for sanctions against the occupying regime.
The March 30 Movement, which has long advocated for the Palestinian cause, stated that the historic step was adopted on February 3.
This comes as the movement’s electoral initiative during the 2024 campaign, Viva Palestina, focused on one key demand: for the Brussels Parliament to officially recognize the genocide in Gaza and take concrete action.
Throughout the campaign, Viva Palestina engaged extensively in debates with political parties, applied pressure to push them to take a stance, and mobilized public opinion.
With the resolution adopted at the commission level, the March 30 Movement urged all Belgian parties to vote in its favor in the plenary session, ensuring that Brussels continues to lead by example in the fight for justice and human rights.
It noted that “recognition of Gaza genocide is not only a moral and political victory, but also a powerful statement from the capital of Europe — one that will hopefully inspire other legislative bodies to follow suit.””
This as well Stevie Boy.
This is a good idea, however if its left solely up to von der Leyen to decide on it, then I’m afraid she’ll strike it down – for we all know she’s a US/Israeli puppet.
“More than 160 human rights organizations, trade unions and civil society groups have called on the European Union to ban trade and business with illegal Israeli settlements built in the occupied Palestinian territories.
In a letter addressed to President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday, the groups stated that it is “essential” for the EU and its member states to comply with their obligations under international law, and halt Europe’s support for the illegal colonial settlements and their underlying abuses.
Among the NGOs, trade unions and civil society organizations are ActionAid, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, al-Haq, Caritas Europa, Child Rights International Network (CRIN), Defense for Children International, International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Olof Palmes Internationella Center, Oxfam and Pax Christi.
They pointed to last year’s International Court of Justice (ICJ) advisory opinion on Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories, stressing that all states have “the obligation … to abstain from entering into economic or trade dealings with Israel concerning the [OPT] or parts thereof which may entrench its unlawful presence in the territory.”
“The EU’s current policy of distinguishing between goods produced in Israel and those produced in settlements falls short of these obligations. While this differentiation denies preferential trade terms for settlement goods, it still allows such goods to enter the EU market,” the letter read.”
An example, of von der Leyen acting alone and without consent.
“EU member states are growing frustrated with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen over her unilateral approach to foreign policy, Politico reported on Wednesday, citing diplomats. The latest criticism reportedly comes after von der Leyen announced a partnership agreement with Jordan.
The deal was inked last week following talks between von der Leyen and King Abdullah II. It aims to assist Jordan in facing the socio-economic impact of the Syrian crisis and broaden avenues for investments and business opportunities in the Arab country. The deal will be complemented by €3 billion ($3.1 billion) in financial resources, comprising grants, investments, and macro-financial assistance.
However, according to two sources who spoke to Politico, von der Leyen made the decision to allocate the funds to Jordan without consulting EU member nations.””
Small steps maybe RoS but, Whilst these bastards in suits talk, talk, talk, people are dying in Gaza, West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen. This is ‘the reality on the ground’ that Israel openly talks about.
The terrorists’ so-called “defence” minister, Israel Katz, has been reported by British government media as follows:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjexp347yxlo
“Israel’s defence minister has told its military to prepare a plan to ‘allow any resident of Gaza who wishes to leave to do so’, in line with President Donald Trump’s proposal for the US to take over the territory and resettle its 2.1 million Palestinians elsewhere.
Israel Katz said Gazans should have ‘freedom of movement and migration’ and countries critical of Israel’s war with Hamas were ‘obligated’ to take them in.”
Read that again for full effect. The head of the Zionist terrorists’ war ministry has said that people whom the British state calls “Gazans” should have “freedom of movement” – as he tells the army to prepare for … something.
So…it’s about “freedom”, right? This is surely one of the most lyingly-described genocides of all time.
You can just feel it that to make sure everyone licks Israeli army boots, Netanyahu will within not too long a space of time visit London, Paris, and Berlin.
As reported in today’s Irish Times:
https://archive.is/IiBvS/again?url=https://www.irishtimes.com/politics/2025/02/06/palestinians-must-be-allowed-return-home-and-israeli-comments-about-ireland-a-distraction-harris/
Mr Katz said countries who have opposed Israel’s military operations in Gaza should take in the Palestinians.
“Countries like Spain, Ireland, Norway, and others, which have levelled accusations and false claims against Israel over its actions in Gaza, are legally obligated to allow any Gaza resident to enter their territories,” he said.
Legally obligated, huh? Please explain.
Dear Mr.Katz, go f*** yourself.
“In response to the comments of Israel’s Defence Minister, a spokesperson for the Tánaiste said: “The priority for Ireland and the international community must remain on ensuring the sustainability of the ceasefire, the release of the hostages, a significant surge in humanitarian aid, the rebuilding of Gaza, and a political process that delivers a two-state solution. The objective must be that the people of Palestine return safely to their home and any comments to the contrary are unhelpful and a source of distraction.”
Another Irish TD (MP) who isn’t part of government said:
“We should very clearly now be working with European partners to remove Israel from the trade agreement they have with the EU. It is only through consequence that these tyrannical regimes will step back.”
Other such sentiments expressed in the archived link above.
In my opinion Ireland isn’t doing enough and is trying to be too diplomatic (because US multi-nationals in Ireland). Long past time to shout out condemnation.
The last two weeks have been filled with lunacy across the Atlantic. But the latest news, that Trump plans to get rid of half the CIA plus half the FBI (or something like that) makes me wonder: is Trump not merely losing his marbles (which is possible) but also a traitor, deliberately destroying his country and leaving it vulnerable, so that looking after “America first” or MAGA is precisely what he is _not_ doing.
Question 1: Who would benefit?
Question 2: What, if anything, can be done to prevent the destruction of American democracy?
M.J.
I’m pretty sure that the so called Deep State will call time on Trump when he veers away from their plans.
At the moment it is mainly posturing from Trump.
By the way – Putin has pulled a fast one.
He is welcoming/asking back all Israeli/Russian Passport holders to Russia.
I hear around a million Israelis have left already.
They may return though when Trump and his Merry men actually build these ‘ beeoodiful ‘ apartments in
The Gaza Riviera.
Remember the Wall?
He didn’t build that neither.
We shall see.
It’s good to get a summary of concerns from potentially neutral UN professionals. It’s really concerning if ‘support’ is so loosely and indirectly defined. So if I were to say that I met some Kurdish people in the mountains in Turkey who were armed with rifles and wore Ocalan badges, and they seemed like good people ready to protect local communities, I’d risk being prosecuted?
They’re very diplomatic , crouching their accusations in terms of these legislative powers “… carry a risk of intimidating, deterring, ….” etc., as if that were not the entire aim of them, and the government were caught unaware of same!
We now have governments in the West that are little different to those I have heard criticised my entire life.
Despite the fact that the Palestinian people ought to be in charge of Gaza, the fact is that the trillions of dollars of gas underneath the enclave, will never be allowed to belong to them. Emperor Trump may be intent on bequeathing the beachfront prime real estate to his daughter for her kingdom, and the weapons embargo has been lifted with the delivery of massive JCB bulldozers, but if the IDF is in charge of persuading the Palestinians to leave, when there is nowhere safe or free for them to go to, then I am saying again:
We need an international coalition of kind and welcoming diaspora communities willing and able to offer choice and safe passage for the refugees to survive and start afresh
The kindertransport was an international cooperative venture to save Jewish children from the Nazis and settle them in free countries. International cooperation is needed now. Right now. Before it is on all our consciences that we didn’t make it happen in time
Were we giving Nazi Germany’s officials the red carpet treatment at the time, selling them weapons, providing targeting intelligence, providing diplomatic support, amplifying their propaganda, and arresting our own citizens for protesting their genocide?
It’s been clear for a few years now that you shouldn’t take a laptop or cellphone with any confidential data on it, through passport control at an international airport.
Confidential data includes email addresses and phone numbers of people you know.
Obviously you are likely to need such information on your trip. The thing to do is load it onto a website to which you have access, or on an email account like tuta.com. You have to memorise the URL, account name, and password, of course. There must be nothing linking you to that website, or email account, on the computer you take on the plane.
Ideally, the computer you take on the plane should never have held your data. That may not be practical for you (buying a new laptop every time you fly can get expensive). In that case, be sure to (1) use a utility to delete your data securely (google for ‘delete data securely’) and (2) delete the “secure delete” program from your computer after you’ve used it.
This is good news, though I don’t suppose it will make any difference.
My own take on responding to incidents like these is to try to give
maximum publicity to what the targeted journalists (etc) have said/written.
So I am (far too slowly) putting together a website/blog called
“Streisand Effect”. At present it’s just a set of webpages.
If I may be forgiven a bit of self-promotion – I’ve written about
– some individual cases, at http://jeremydaw.github.io/pages/streisand-effect/uk-police.html
– the terrorism legislation, at http://jeremydaw.github.io/pages/streisand-effect/terrorism.html
Comments/suggestions welcome
Thank you Jeremy. Such links are very welcome here when they are to your own original work which is on topic.
In other news, Genocide-Donald and his cabinet are now introducing sanctions against international courts of justice.
Here is the first batch. More to follow…
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/2/7/live-trump-sanctions-icc-as-countries-warn-gaza-plan-will-cause-chaos
That is the rule based order alright, destroying your own institutions, sigh.
Is it not telling also that ICJ are not attacked by the US? Is it perhaps because ICJ perhaps is already in the pockets of the US, especially with the christian zionist boss that just took over?
Not yet one month into his 2nd term still Trump have proved to the world that it is not America First but Israel first. First the Gaza takeover, then the looming oil embargo against Iran, then sanctions on ICC. All to benefit Israel/lobby.
I wouldn’t be so optimistic about the ICJ. This shouldn’t avoid sanctions, presumably scheduled for the next batch, with the same fallacious excuse. It may exclude from sanctions those rare judges who voted AGAINST the conviction of the state of Israel, such as its new president.
And it must be noted that sanctions include the freezing of assets of the persons deemed to have “helped” in any way these inconvenient Courts of Justice. Encompassing mere statements of support, but obviously by providing rationale or evidence to the prosecution! Better watch out and cover your butts…
I would say, it’s not America first, it’s America Everywhere. Including its various proxies, the first of which is Israel for the Middle East.
Richard Medhurst was detained in Austria. I had warned a year ago that something like this would happen if he entered the Continent:
“Austrian Police Detain Richard Medhurst; Accuse Him of Being Hamas Member; UK Extends Probe Against Him”
https://consortiumnews.com/2025/02/07/medhurst-detained-by-austrian-police-accused-of-being-hamas-member-uk-investigation-against-him-extended/
p.s. It makes me sick that while we are posting here in German cities masses of people protest against AfD and the rise of Nazism. Mass murder and the suppression of free speech for German educated classes apparently are not part of any authoritarian system. Interesting choice.
As Chris Hedges pointedly put it past winter: We installed countless centers for Holocaust and genocide studies at universities and what did “we” learn? Nothing.
p.s. Jeremy Corbyn was supposed to appear in Berlin today. The event was postponed. There were hit pieces about him calling him an antisemite. It´s simply shocking how dumb and incompetent people are who get the right to publish on these matters.
Thanks, it is unbelievable how this harassment could pop out of nowhere and become normalized just like that and there is no backlash against it by political parties, media, journalists etc.
One wonder if this is not the work of some shady israeli activists/Israeli intelligence group working 24/7 creating files on pro-palestinian individuals, tipping off western nations with trumped up charges.
Recently it was exposed how the zionist group “Betar”, create lists of pro-palestinians and (most likely) work with the Trump administration to get them kicked out of the US:
The Far-Right Group Building a List of Pro-Palestine Activists to Deport
Betar U.S. said it has shared with the Trump administration a list of the “names of hundreds of terror supporters.”
https://x.com/theintercept/status/1887592646522101889
Zionism is without a doubt the biggest threat to the world, it is like cult with immense power, infiltration tactics and general ruthlessness.
I do not know what happened with the alleged socialists, leftists, green, socialists past couple of years, they have become increasingly authoritarian and pro-censorship and not so much against the Right but against their voting base.
Have you heard it said they have been neoliberal parties for at least a generation and imperialist parties since forever?
I think Richard Medhurst has been quite lucky to have Craig among his friends. Thanks to his connection with Consortium News, our host had a fine opportunity to empathize this new instance of arbitrary detention.
Otherwise, the major networks such as X or Facebook are now part of the trap. They have become another form of FIREFIGHTER ARSON. Under the guise of promoting free speech, they collect data that they ultimately share with authorities, to intimidate and/or prosecute individuals who profess undesirable opinions. Better than any jury trial to the ruling elite…
Still fb (who have been doing this since day#1 of their existence) and the other social media giants are corporations and as such regard anything as a commodity which is “normal” for them. The problem in Europe are now the governing institutions, the executive and the legal bodies, that are acting in conjunction with private capital i.e. non-democratic powers. Since the 1980s at least the European states had been safeguarding against corporations. Now that is gone. The people are left out in the cold.
In Germany this is under way under the pretense of fighting “Nazism”.
So its not fb who are the problem. Until law enforcement will be privatized in Europe it is till the state that puts you in prison, it´s still Austrian state police – not fb – that detains Richard Medhurst. So do not discount those who are in power.
This is profoundly disturbing
UK demands access to Apple users’ encrypted data
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c20g288yldko
I greatly hope that Apple has enough clout to simply tell HMG to fuck off..
What is possibly even much more disturbing is that, if HMG needs to request such service from Apple, it obviously means they already get same service from other tech giants without having to make a formal demand…
Yep, all your personal data is already on some server in Cheltenham and copied to the five eyes and Israel. This is one of the ways that they know who is travelling and who is arriving in the UK.
‘If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – for ever.’
More on this from Bernard (the comments are worth a read).
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2025/02/who-else-wants-access-to-apple-users-encrypted-data.html#more
The honest BBC, bastion of truth, helped in its mission to spread democracy to those nasty foreigners by USAID and the US State Departrment.
‘Declassified UK journalist Matt Kennard has called for a public inquiry into the US government’s funding of the ‘BBC Media Action’ charity. … BBC Media Action says the cut to USAID has “affected” its operations, as the organisation’s support “amounts to about 8% of our income in 2023-24”. ‘
https://www.thecanary.co/global/world-analysis/2025/02/07/bbc-media-action/
The BBC is also considering making users of streaming services pay the licence fee.
Hah, that just makes not paying it all the more worthwhile. It’s all pretty much theft, at this point.
Thus it’s almost morally *incumbrant* on you not to pay the regime’s larcenous & arbitrary levies any which way you can.
Netanyahu may or may not have ignored the Streisand Effect when he decided to order his servant Trump to sanction ICC officials.
I’d lean towards saying he didn’t. They want to be in yer face. Same as when the supposed “world’s richest man”, purveyor of tasteless cars and owner of an internet service for thickos, got up on stage and gave a fascist salute to hail the Trump victory. Same as when Trump’s foreign minister Marco Rubio invited countries that opposed the idea of “clearing out” Gaza to “step forward” if they think they’re hard enough.
For his next trick, perhaps the president of the USA – a country in which the “culture” has been detested by anyone with any taste for about 100 years, and in which the economy (based on weapons, drugs, protection rackets, gambling, and loansharking) is already halfway round the U-bend of the world’s toilet – will sanction the officials at rating agencies if they dare to downgrade the USA on the credit markets. Which is only a matter of time. I mean who’d want to invest in such a sh*thole?
By sanction he mostly means banning people from travelling to or holding assets in the USA. Those of us with taste have been sanctioning ourselves in that regard all our lives.
Very well said, Red. But let’s introduce a nuance to your argument. The US of A has for decades claimed the disputed right to universal jurisdiction. Their current attack against an international court of justice is just the latest example of this.
With or without taste, unless you keep all your assets under your pillow, you may find out sooner or later that Uncle Elon knows how to find you (even if you trust in cryptos).
Unlike what you repeatedly forecast, there’s been no bloodshed in America following Donald’s inauguration. But then, I predict a lot of painful change in many areas, including overseas surveillance, thanks to Starlink and many other strings.
Madison
Usually what one side says about another side in terms of deviousness is what the accusatory side is doing and has been doing for years.
No change there then.
‘Your Privacy is important Us’ is thrown about online as if this was an established fact.
The proof being you get adverts for related search stuff so some people are watching everything you do and everywhere you go.
This for myself ties into the attack on the ICC and their families.
How would Trump ( or Musk for that matter ) know who an ICC member banks with and who pays them?
Answer: They know because they know they can gain access to that data from the Banks via the Swift System.
The question – as in Apple’s case is, considering that banks are allegedly very big on encryption and online safety ( ‘ Your Privacy Is Important To Us ‘ ) – remember ? – how can they be trusted to protect our privacy and in the case of
the ICC members and their families and honour their legal duties to protect customers?
The US and Israel are not signatories to the ICC so, technically they fund nothing and pay no dues etc.
The only way of ‘ ‘sanctioning ‘ these people is to prevent any of them getting paid through the Swift System and any other means of payments from financially supporting countries paid to the ICC.
The way round it could be to find an alternative to the Swift Payment System and away from reliance on payments in Dollars.
All this un-official supply and payments for oil and gas is finding its way there and back to Russia and China itself, therefore it’s clear that the dollar and the Swift System is being circumnavigated currently.
No need to replace any of these payment systems, just agree your own payments between countries and various currency exchange price on any given hour/day.
If that happens Trump will then no doubt call the ICC Communists.
No expert but, it seems to me that this swerving of Swift is already being done.
The more countries join in, the sooner Trump and others will learn a harsh lesson.
And it will be great example to the world not to use the dollar and Swift in the future.
Yes, it’s yet another Western delusion. They forget the old saw “The customer is always right”. If your bank starts telling you where and how you can spend your money, you’re going to find another bank, use cash or Bitcoin or keep gold under your mattress. The tragedy for the West is that moving into financial services is the usual answer to deindustrialisation but we have closed off that route as a global player with this sort of nonsense. Making planes or computers takes a lot of special knowledge. Setting up banks: not so much.
There is already a viable alternative to SWIFT for international money transfers: the cryptocurrency Ripple (XRP). It was designed specifically for that purpose, avoiding a lot of the coin mining hassles of traditional blockchain currencies like Bitcoin, and is supremely fast and cost efficient.
What Is Ripple (XRP)? (Summary by Forbes)
Naturally, the US government wasn’t entirely happy about this development. Their Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) tried to throw a spanner in the works by alleging that Ripple was operating XRP illegally as an unregistered security. The SEC lost the case. (However, they’re still trying to bog it down in the appeal system, hoping to impose hefty fines.)
But the genie is already out of the bottle. Ripple XRP has so many operational benefits that, two days ago, the SWIFT payment system adopted it too. (If you can’t beat ’em … )
Anyone (with money) can invest in XRP via a cryptocurrency exchange (e.g. eToro, Coinbase or Binance). A pal of mine was always evangelising about it, boring people to the point there was nobody left to listen to him. He had invested his savings in it couple of years ago, but the value halved during the SEC court case and he stopped talking about it so much. But after Ripple won the case last year, XRP’s price suddenly soared and the value of his holdings sextupled in a month. So now he has lots of friends again, and the drinks are on him …
Savagery is the only thing the British establushment and for that matter, many other states understand.
When you see the pictures of Gaza and the utter destruction wreaked not by Israel, but by Israel with the support of their backers the USA and the UK you realise that.
And on the homecsoil the UK abusing laws to abuse journalists is just another part of the process. At the end of the day dead journalists could be easier arranged than dead Palestinians.
Maybe only when let us say London or Washington has sustained the devastation of Gaza, or some of these areas somewhere between Russia and Ukraine will the mighty necks be wound in.
We should never forget that two cities in Japan got atomic bombs dropped on them in what was two bigs shows of power. Terrorism but then again so was Dresden.
So yes Craig Murray and others I salute you for trying to go the peaceful lawfull route but really there is much more savagery to go. Un̈less and until that point the sane of the world move to rein in the thugs who run our so called democracies, the mayhem and slaughter will continue.
To each and every force an equal and opposite reaction or is it the biblical eye for an eyes and a tooth for a tooth.
The media have been just as scrupulous in covering up UK government/ British Army participation in the Genocide.
https://www.declassifieduk.org/national-scandal-the-bbcs-gaza-cover-up/
Never happened.
““It is high time for the corporation to be truly held to account and be reformed in the public interest”, leading media professor says.”
^ Surely it’s time for statements by academics calling for the Britto-nazi propaganda ministry to be “held to account” in “the public interest” to be accepted as Not Exactly a Sensible Way Forward? With critics like that, the regime hardly needs any friends.
The situation is far more serious than any liberal academic even begins to understand.
One purpose of today’s lie that occupier POWs released by the resistance were mistreated, which is currently being pumped out by western media, is to smother true reports about the mistreatment of Palestinians (some of whom are children) in occupation jails.
Some of the articles are mentioning the Islamic Resistance Movement’s name in Arabic about 10 times, whilst only using Hebrew to describe certain supremacist settlements on occupied land as “kibbutzim”. I wonder whether any pro-regime newspaper in the US or Britain has ever called a kibbutz a settlement. Probably more than any journalist’s job is worth.
Meanwhile there are the corpses. The ceasefire agreement includes a commitment by the resistance to hand back some occupier corpses, but the occupation is at the time of writing failing to meet its own obligation to allow enough equipment into Gaza to permit the location, extraction, and proper burial of the many many Palestinian bodies currently under the rubble.
Trump has spoken of levelling the site, meaning the whole built environment in Gaza. Which might make it difficult to find evidence of organ harvesting.
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/opened-abdomens-suspected-organ-theft-from-bodies-at-nasser-hospital/
“The condition of some of the bodies found in mass graves at the Nasser Medical Complex in southern Gaza has raised suspicion of organ theft by Israeli forces, a Civil Defence official in the enclave has said.
”Some bodies were found with tied hands, opened abdomens and stitched in a manner inconsistent with the usual methods of wound suturing in Gaza, raising suspicions of the disappearance of some organs,” Mohammed Al-Mughayer, the director of the supply and equipment department at the Gaza Civil Defense Agency, told a press briefing on Thursday, the Anadolu news agency reported.”“
Kit Klarenberg and Craig Murray are considered wrong un’s by the UK political establishment simply by being honest in their reporting, this is anathema to Zionist supporters and all means will be used to stop them, or chill any honest reporting on Israeli expansionism and genocide how about a threat of 14 years imprisonment for breaching that anti terrorism legislation, Craig would be 80 when he came out.
Kit Klarenberg has an excellent article out detailing how the greater Israel project is being enabled by Trump, Starmer and Lammy.
https://www.mintpressnews.com/conspiracy-theory-greater-israel/288988/
The Kit Klarenberg piece I referred to detailed Israels expansionism and ethnic cleansing and how this has alway’s been its modus operandi,
In my opinion this state of affairs will not/cannot continue.
Many commentators are critical of the Arab leadership and its relative silence in the face of US/Israel aggression, this seeming acquiescence has a long history, it is a consequence of US hegemony and particularly the agreements to price all oil sales in the dollar, the petrodollar was the reason Saudi Arabia agreed to be a willing satrap to the US. This in turn led the Saudis to look to the US for its protection and in turn buy huge amounts of military equipment in exchange, (the mafia would be proud of such a deal). This together with Saudi investments in US bonds, and real estate made it very difficult for Saudi Arabia to refuse US/Israel political requests. Keep in mind the US has just stolen 3 billion dollars of Russian foreign reserves and they have more nuclear weapons than the US. Saudia Arabia and all the other satraps have to be careful (they only have the camel corp).
For the Saudis there could be relative safety for them by joining BRICS (Saudi Arabia has China as its biggest oil customer). Indonesia population 285 million has just joined BRICS as a full member, almost on a par with the US population. The US is in decline, most of the world is fed up with US/Israeli bullying and its use of the dollar as a weaponized tool to enforce sanctions, regime change and tariffs on all nations it does not agree with. This heralds a dark future for the US/Israel, they can only succeed with using the big stick if other countries agree to bend the knee, and/or have no self respect. We shall see.
@Harry – There has been talk of BRICS establishing a new currency for so long now that I’ll believe it only when I see it. If they ever do it, they’ll only do it when they have absolutely no choice. More likely, they’ll just move to the yuan and that will be that.
I can see BRICS following in the footsteps of what’s now the EU. It faces much the same opportunities and challenges of pulling together a load of disparate nations, some of them historical enemies. It took the EU and its precursors over 40 years to reach the point of setting up a common currency so it could be quite some time with BRICS. Seems to me that the dollar reached its position because it represented real value. A holder could take their dollars to the USA and buy pretty much anything they’d ever want, produced there. Their dollar was just the same as the one an American would spend so the political cost of the USA debauching the currency and unleashing uncontrolled inflation made sure that wasn’t likely to happen. But now with so much being made in China, the Yuan could take its place, except that it doesn’t look like the Chinese government fancies that prospect. At the moment, BRICS seems to be concentrating on facilitating trade in the traders’ own currencies.
Many of these occupier POWs who are being released by the Palestinian resistance are known to hold other passports, e.g. British or German. They are colonial settlers in every f***ing sense of that term.
Probably other released POWs hold non-occupation passports too, without it being admitted.
Netanyahu’s line seems to be that they should all have been given slap-up meals every day – in a territory that his own forces were deliberately restricting the supply of food and water to. (As far as I am aware, none of the released POWs have actually said that, but it’s being said on their behalf.)
There seem to be levels of lies and hypocrisy that only Israelis can reach.
This is from the Sulzberger rag (!) :
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/08/world/middleeast/israel-hamas-hostages-prisoners.html
“Israeli forces raided the West Bank family homes of at least four of men before their release, warning their relatives not to celebrate their freedom. Israel has been particularly assertive in suppressing celebrations for detainees released under the current cease-fire, fearing that they may bolster the popularity of Hamas.
One of the prisoners whose family home was raided was Jamal Tawil, a senior Hamas leader in the West Bank, who had been imprisoned multiple times on accusations that included planning bombings against Israel. He was taken directly to a hospital in Ramallah after his release.
“He is struggling to breathe and is very weak,” said his daughter, Bushra Tawil, a journalist and activist who was released in an earlier exchange last month. “I was shocked when I saw him — he had been beaten on the head and other parts of his body until the very last moments before his release.”
She said her family had been threatened with arrest if they publicly celebrated his return.”
So to sum up: the ethnic-supremacist occupiers have beaten prisoners until the last moment, they’ve visited the homes prisoners are returning to and beaten up their families, and they’ve threatened violence if people celebrate.
They have some kind of problem with Palestinians being in Palestine? Even the French in Algeria didn’t think like that.
Craig, check out the new Feb 8 issue of The Lancet, where they printed 2 articles on death toll in Gaza:
1. “Traumatic injury mortality in the Gaza Strip from Oct 7, 2023, to June 30, 2024: a capture–recapture analysis”, by Z Jamaluddine et al, pp 469-77. [link]
2. “Life expectancy losses in the Gaza Strip during the period October, 2023, to September, 2024”, by M Guillot et al, pp 478-85. [link]
And a commentary “On the quantification of military violence in Gaza” by J Smith et al pp 440-1. [link]
To quote Smith et al, “Jamaluddine and colleagues estimate that the trauma-related death toll published by the MOH has under-reported the total number of Palestinians killed as a result of direct Israeli military violence by 41%, and extrapolate that 64 260 people (95% CI 55 298–78 525) had been killed due to traumatic injuries as of June 30, 2024. Where age and sex disaggregated data were available, women, children, and older people (aged >65 years) represented 59·1% of those killed….In a second study, demographer Michel Guillot and colleagues [14] estimated life expectancy losses throughout Gaza from October, 2023, to September, 2024. Guillot and colleagues matched MOH mortality data with the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) register and found that the proportion of refugees among individuals killed is similar to the proportion of refugees in the 2017 Gaza census, lending further weight to the reliability of the cumulative death toll as reported by the MOH. Additionally, the authors draw from multiple data sources to identify a precipitous decline of 34·9 years (–46·3%) in combined male and female life expectancy during the period October, 2023, to September, 2024.”
As someone who is currently undergoing police persecution in Britain, I totally fail to see why it’s worse for the authorities to abuse the Terrorism Act against journalists (i.e. people who get paid to write or say stuff for publication) than it is to abuse it against normal people (e.g. lorry drivers, checkout operators, binmen, the unemployed, or people who clean up after journalists in the hotels they stay in).
Perhaps the “fourth estate” should be renamed the “two and a halfth estate”, below the nobility and church but above the common people?
I totally agree. Double standards are never acceptable. Wish you good luck with the police.
Meanwhile, don’t forget that only 30 years ago, ‘journalists’ were people receiving a salary from an employer, working for a newspaper, magazine, radio station or TV channel. Abuse from authorities was sometimes happening, but usually settled in a diplomatic manner.
Today, many people call themselves journalists, but work freelance and make a living mainly through donations or sponsorship of some kind. And when they get abused by the same authorities, it’s a very different and ambiguous situation. They’re thwarted in their job, but it also makes panhandling more convincing. Life is complicated…
“It also remains the case that there has not been one reference in UK mainstream media to the persecution of dissident journalists using terrorism laws.”
Even the media outlets that specialise in journalism don’t seem interested in what the UN Special Rapporteur said about the persecution of British journalists. I couldn’t find any reference to it in these British websites which were the top results in a Google search:
https://pressgazette.co.uk/
https://www.nuj.org.uk/learn/news/all-news.html
https://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/
The NUJ’s site did indeed condemn the arresting and charging of journalists under anti-terror laws – in Egypt and the Philippines!