It depends on whether you want your blog to be part of the entertainment industry or a means of public education. If the latter, whether you simply enjoyed reading something could be a dangerous criterion, since crank theories could easily provide enjoyable entertainment.

Perhaps ‘informative’ is a better selection criterion than ‘enjoyable’ for your ’4.45 Special’, even if it is something you don’t like.

Take David Aaronovitch’s “Voodoo Histories” which I finished today. Quite a few people heaped abused on it or its author soon after you did, many of them I suspect without reading it. As if the following game were being played:

‘Simon says, denounce Aaronovitch’s book!’

‘Yes Sir! Filth! Fascist SOB!’

‘I changed my mind. Simon says, ‘Aaronovitch is Good!’

‘Oooh he is really clever!’

‘Oh yes. We need more like him!’

‘Simon says, ‘Baaaaaaaaa!’

‘Baaaaaaaaa!’

And so on …

abe,

I am not in favour of earnest auto-didactic masochism. “Enjoyed reading” means neither more nor less than that.

“On the positive side, the UK is still a world-leading producer of weapons, mercenaries, unnecessary, arguably harmful, drugs, Ponzi schemes and money laundering. So, fingers crossed, if by some chance there happen to be a few really tasty wars, global pandemics and colossal financial frauds in the near future the outlook for UK plc isn’t entirely bleak”

Not forgetting Tim Spicer’s mob et al always good for a few more bucks in return for a few more innocent lives.

Hey Stef Zucconi! I used to enjoy reading his blog but he stopped posting because he went to NZ. I didn’t realise he was back. Thanks for the link, Craig, I enjoyed it. I think the 4.45pm link idea is a good one.

As for the comments about Aaronovitch, I heaped abuse on his book *after* I read it. It was totally lame-tastic. Guess what? He found all the conspiracy theories bogus. The world really is just as the PWB tell us it is.

Craig,

why 4:45pm?

Interesting article, and it seems to make sense. Bad news for the rest of the world if UK PLC follows the route of stoking up wars to boost its arms production and mercenary industries.

Iain Duncan Smith has just announced that welfare benefits are to be dependent upon willingness to work – so, enforced contribution to our war machine.; help kill people or starve.

I think I’d rather follow the suggestion of helping to grow vegetables.

http://www.transitionnetwork.org/

Is 445 a magic number?

Suhayl

Is 445 a magic number?

Yes, don’t you remember? It used to the time Blue Peter started. It doesn’t get more magical than that.

Obama’s letter to Lula exposes US dishonesty with Iran

Washington supported mediation by Brazil and Turkey when it did not expect them to succeed and turned its back when they accomplished exactly what the Obama administration said it sought from Iran.

The full text of a letter[ http://www.campaigniran.org/casmii/index.php?q=node/10195 ] sent by President Obama on April 20, 2010 to President Lula da Silva regarding Brazil’s and Turkey’s negotiations is now available and we reproduce it here. In the letter, the White House strongly encouraged the intermediaries to negotiate with Iran for a single purpose, namely to persuade the Islamic Republic to send 1200 kg of its low enriched uranium to Turkey in exchange for fuel rods for the Tehran Research Reactor. Brazil’s respected daily O Estado de S. Paulo yesterday quoted Turkish prime minister Erdogan revealing that he, too, had received a (presumably similar) letter from Obama.

This initial US stance completely contradicted Washington’s hostile response three weeks later to the Tehran Declaration, in which Iran agreed to precisely such an exchange. On May 18, a day after the Declaration was issued, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton dismissed the Brazil-Iran-Turkey offer and announced instead a draft UN Security Council resolution to impose a new round of sanctions on Iran. The punitive escalation, she said, was “as convincing an answer to the efforts undertaken by Tehran over the last few days as any we could have taken.”

This was predictable. Washington grew visibly nervous as signs emerged that Brazil and Turkey might achieve peacefully what threats and sanctions from major powers had not accomplished in Iran. Hours before the prime minister of Turkey and president of Brazil left for Tehran, Clinton told a Washington news conference their mission was doomed.

U.S. hostility to the Tehran Declaration contradicts also what Washington insisted it wanted last October, when the White House supported a UN-sponsored nuclear fuel swap that was essentially identical to what Iran is now offering.

Even if one disregards that background, the main point in the May 17 Tehran Declaration is precisely what Obama had asked for in his letter as a satisfactory step forward for Iran to prove its goodwill. To quote from Obama’s letter, “For us, Iran’s agreement to transfer 1,200 kg of Iran’s low enriched uranium (LEU) out of the country would build confidence and reduce regional tensions by substantially reducing Iran’s LEU stockpile. I want to underscore that this element is of fundamental importance for the United States. For Iran, it would receive the nuclear fuel requested to ensure continued operation of the TRR to produce needed medical isotopes and, by using its own material, Iran would begin to demonstrate peaceful nuclear intent.”

The contradiction between President Obama’s letter to President Lula and the US response to the Brazil-Iran-Turkey offer is the latest evidence that the US does not intend to negotiate with Iran in good faith and has hidden motives. Under pressure from the same neoconservatives and Israel lobby that pushed the Bush Administration to invade Iraq illegally, the Obama Administration is inventing excuses to avoid a peaceful resolution to the stand-off with Iran.

But as Obama initially agreed in his letter, the nuclear fuel swap agreed to by Iran is actually an historic breakthrough. A new round of sanctions on Iran that the US is now seeking would surely sabotage this historic opportunity. It is therefore imperative that the world public opinion, the international peace and justice movement, and all non-aligned countries exert pressure on UN Security Council members to defeat the US-led draft sanctions resolution. Washington needs to demonstrate it is sincere by negotiating with Iran on the basis of the Tehran declaration.

Courtesy CASMII

Mark Golding, I believe a war with Iran has been ‘on the cards’ for a long time. Israel will be the launch pad and the US will jump in with both feet to defend the ‘only democracy in the middle east’. William Hague has already declared his allegiance to the US and Israel and hinted of supporting a war with Iran. The Brazil-Turkey initiative has caught the US on the hop; or should I say: fucked-up their war plans? Having said that, I think the war will go ahead anyway. There is likely to be a crisis or a terrorist atrocity, possibly against israel, that will spark an all out attack on Iran that will be backed by the UN and justified by the media and our polititians. The UN has, in recent years, become a ‘paper tiger’ dominated by the United States.

O/T – Does anyone have any news of what has happened to Brian Haw since he appeared in court on Wednesday? Is he being held? I can’t find anything in the news.

King of Welsh Noir, Good point! I was thinking of ‘Crackerjack’, you see: “It’s Friday, it’s five-to-five and it’s Crackerjack!”. I’d forgotten completely about 445pm being linked to ‘Blue Peter’. But perhaps if it’s a ‘daily story’, it ought to be linked to ‘Jackanory’! Was that at 445pm?

Only my guess, but 4.30-4.45 may be a favourite time for people known for posting hostile messages to go home, and so be disinclined or unable to do it for a hour or two.

Ambassador Craig Murray,

Thank you for once again linking to a nutcase conspiracy site. The NWO, AIDS denial, global warming denial, 911 inside job, Alex Jones … it’s all there.

Have you lost your ability to discern good stuff vs. bad stuff. The Internet is full of bad stuff, you know?

Hi Larry

Lovely to hear that you, at least in the past, rated Craig’s opinions. Please supply a couple of examples of when that was the case

sincerely,

Zucconi, S.

cheers for the link Craig btw

attaining the disapproval of Larry from St Loius has made my day

well, OK, maybe not a whole day…