Not quite on topic, but I see that ‘journalist’ at the Guardian who published the Wikileaks password has just confessed to phone hacking. The Guardian is in it too!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/dec/06/leveson-inquiry-guardian-phone-hacking

I spend a lot of time on the internet and this website is my favourite. Thanks Craig Murray

I read the article earlier, then Cameron’s damage control strategy in the BBC, my God, if he believes people are that stupid then he is far too stupid to be PM.
Craig, yes I fully intended that after work, will go to the local supermarket and buy independent.

“He[Craig] sent cables to London detailing widespread torture and incidents such as the boiling alive of two Islamist dissidents. He was dismissed from his post by the Foreign Office in 2004.”
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“But he[Craig] has performed a valuable public service by following the dictates of his conscience.”
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2004/oct/16/foreignpolicy.comment?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487
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And exposed the absolute fraud that lies at the heart of the ‘war on of terror’…

Craig
I thought you would like to read this
http://www.heraldscotland.com/comment/tom-shields-on/secret-service-jobs.16063753

And if you’ve got a copy of today’s Independent you will know that there are more revelations to come tomorrow. It’s like the old days when journalists got the stories that mattered, and pursued the evil-doers like that famous journalist, Clark Kent.

Purchased! I too have been disappointed with the Indie for some years, but this is refreshing stuff.

The whole system is rotten to the core:

http://tinyurl.com/c3bpyfd

What happens when a Stae regains control of itself?

Iceland recognises Palestinian state
http://www.thejerusalemfund.org/ht/display/ContentDetails/i/32194/pid/895#.Tt1JaR7z8xg.email.

The Icelandic parliament said in a statement on its website that it had passed a motion with 38 of 63 votes in favour of a resolution to recognse Palestine “as an independent and sovereign state” based on borders predating the six-day war of 1967.

“Iceland is the first country in western europe to take this step,” Ossur Skarphedinsson, the minister for foreign affairs, told RUV, the Icelandic national broadcasting service. He said the vote had given him the authority to make a formal declaration on the government’s behalf, but before doing so he would discuss the move with other Nordic countries.

Not entirely off topic but I watched a news item where Cameron was entertaining recently returned members of the armed forces at No.10, congratulating them on a job well done. Naturally, there was not mention of the 50,000 or so dead civilians who died whilst under NATO protection. I have been scanning newspaper websites to see if any of them picked up on this. No point in checking the BBC website.
We are apparently in a huge hole of debt yet William ‘Boy Wonder’ Hague is pushing for action against Syria and Iran. From whom have we borrowed these massive debts both here and in the rest of Europe? We should be told (per Private Eye).

The Independent is the best of the major newspapers by a long way these days, particularly since they got rid of that dreadful Julie Burchill. Great shame about Richard Ingrams, though – his column was about the first I’d read on a Saturday.

I only check two newspapers for headlines – the Glasgow Herald to see what muck they’re trying to rake on Scotland, Scots and the SNP (watch the unionist kiddies making mud pies) and the Independent because they always try to do a different front page story. Unfortunately the Indy’s other pages tend to be the same old same old and (digression warning) the crossword puzzle is no good. I don’t think newspapers fully understand the pulling power of a good crossword compiler – I remember in my student days any number of Trots, and worse, buying the Telegraph for the crossword. They’re probably all bankers now, such is the power of anagrams.
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1 Across: Romance cuts in recklessly, sexually succinct description(7,2,1,4)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESc68eqaHgc&feature=related

This brings everything into focus and it all makes sense. Not a cheery thought.

The Banks , war , police state , and on and on. Well worth a view if you haven’t seen it already.

Cameron doesn’t give a toss about Great britain.But he’ll fight Merkel and Sarkozy on behalf of a corporation (square mile) of England that he has no power over.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/06/david-cameron-threatens-veto-eu-city
Wonder how much he gets paid for lobbying ??

I agree with Larry – this is also one of my favourite websites

I can’t buy the paper but clicking on a few ads at their website is something that the Independant’s marketing dept. will understand as positive response.

Regarding any reporting about meetings between Merkel and Cameron, it’s important to remember that Merkel supports the Tobin tax on financial trans-actions – Cameron does not, and I’m sure that’s a big issue now for the British government that they’re not talking publicly about – but I’ll bet that lobbyists are talking to the British government about it.

If only Araucaria would defect to the Indy, I’d go; though I’d miss Seamus and George.

“Most of the countries of the former Soviet Union have problems with democracy and human rights, to put it mildly. There is the unpleasant dictatorship of Belarus, on Europe’s doorstep …. ”
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http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/vicious-dictatorship-which-bell-pottinger-was-prepared-to-do-business-with-6272766.html
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Belarus, what! …. Greece and Italy … democracy has just been suspended. The bankers have to work out what is what, the worth …. do you go for the copper or the old lead roofing – what’s the market paying?

@vronsky

cameron is a …

The Indie expose of the dark arts, which included, erm, Search Engine Optimisation, was not really too shocking, was it?

But sure, it’s better than the usual rubbish, like the Guardian having the propaganda yesterday from some top brass rumbling on about honoring the ‘investment in blood’ in Afghanistan.

If they’d only poach Bell and Rowson, there would be no need to buy the Guardian (or look at its website, anyway) ever again. And yet, and yet….Bell Pottinger are only the very public tip of the lobbying iceberg, I think.

Interesting :
‘Changing perceptions of Uzbekistan’: A Bell Pottinger presentation :
http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2011/12/06/changing-perceptions-of-uzbekistan-bell-pottinger-presentation/
…
“Top lobbying firm Bell Pottinger prepared a presentation for Bureau undercover reporters, believing they were representatives of the Uzbekistan government seeking to promote the Uzbek cotton industry.”
…
Follow the link to the full presentation, too.

Belarus, eh. Funny you should mention them.
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Bellpot was involved in trying to make them seem whiter than white at an earlier stage.
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Some people will do anything for a few shekels.
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If bellpot had been around at the time I’m sure they’d have outbid Goebbels for the Nazi brief.
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Leni Riefenstahls the lot of them.

Oh yeah, and by the way. The Independent is owned by that ex-KGB bloke wotsisnamev.
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So don’t be getting your hopes up about any new era of sweetness and light.
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He’s just giving Cameron a slap for his own reasons.

Komodo, it’s an iceberg, or a pyramid. You’re right. Tonight I watched the headlines of BBC News (10, o’clock) and seeing that the biggest story today broken by The Independent was absent, turned over to ITV and watched a full news programme which contained about 3 seconds of reference to THE BIGGEST STORY OF THE DAY when it covered the papers. I like Jeremy Paxman, he asks some searching questions, but on topic of course. No mention again. Even when it got to the papers it was skipped in favour of a comment regarding the photograph to the right of the important news. There are more than one lobbying companies and we need to know the others. In a free market economy what is bad new for Bell Pottinger should be good news for its competitors. Anyway, whoever the lobbyists are they are doing a vrey good job. This story should be every newspaper’s main line! Let’s get digging.

Rob, I tried the Bell Pottinger link which worked but would not let me run the slide show. Adobe Reader encountered some problems. Looked interesting though. It started with the age-old technique of disarming your enemies, something along the lines of Uzbekistan has traditionally had a bad recrod on human rights. I don’t think I need to see the other slides.

There is a bit of a difference between a representative who waits in the lobby to catch a politician striding past on their way to the bar, and Fox, Werrity and Gould taking instructions from Israel in Israel.
Israel takes its pet-pit-bull Iran for walkies in the park so that it can play with UK dogs, US dogs, Russian dogs, Chinese dogs and exercise its spine bristles and show its fine Hisbullah teeth. The bond between dog and owner is not affected by a dog-fight between dog and dog. The intention of Israel is to draw these powerful nations into a civil war in Syria between the interested commercial parties and their Iran.
Meanwhile UK special forces and Assad’s security forces are traumatising the people and luring the Muslim jihadis with weapons to intervene in the dog-fight.
Like everything that emanates from Israel it is madness. Madness to terrorise a population, madness to infruriate aggressive colonial powers, madness to try to intervene in the ensuing war.
And yet it has been done before , in Iraq. Surely, somebody in our own government, somewhere, has registered that the Iraq war which Israel blackmailed us to start was a mistake. Surely somebody in our government can work out that the cost to the UK of the Iraq war was bigger than the amount of money by which we were being blackmailed by the Zionist banksters.
As usual the absolutely stupid Brits think that they got away with it in Iraq and in Libya by lying to the public and pretending we weren’t there and we didn’t bomb anything and we didn’t harm anybody.
How can they possibly think they can go to Iraq’s neighbour, Syria, and do the same thing without anybody noticing?
They are stupid enough to try it, because the blackmail price has got even higher, and they are stupid enough to believe that they can afford to make another mistake in Syria.

Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov and naval task force on way to exercise in Mediterranean, to be followed by visit to Syrian naval base at Tartus.

Anno,
What are you on about? What do you contend?
Is Assad the Bad guy?
Are hezbollah the bad guys?
Is Iran the Bad Guys?
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What do you think the UK plan is?
Why do you think Syria has been put in the cross hairs?
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Your dog story has too many mutts running around and crapping the place up, obviously you are not pleased, hence the allusion to the dogs, which incidentally are darn sight more civil than some of the so called people I know, but your blunderbuss approach makes it difficult to discern who is the most hated in among the list of the poopy pants you hate?

Terry Jones gives an historical perspective on what the scumbags are up to:
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/dec/06/iran-war-drums-terry-jones
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The declining US needs to strike for total control before Russia and China get up to speed and capacity.
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After the fall of the USSR and the supposed end of MAD (mutually assured destruction) that’s what PNAC (Project for a new American century) was all about. That’s the essence of the neo con.
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{http://www.newamericancentury.org/}
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Sadly for us, for we all will suffer in their madness, the Americans couldn’t beat a wet paper bag if it fought back, as has been demonstrated on a number of occasions. There’s much more to real war than superior weapons, as anyone who has lived though the 50s, 60s or 70s will attest.
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T’would be better now for us to view America as our enemy, forge alliances with the emergent, than die with them.
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Oh yeah, and get that total twat Justin Webb (I love America) off the telly before he does any more damage.

Former USSR ‘republic’ bashing is quite amusing when it comes from the ‘self-denial’ western ‘democracy pundits’. I mean which country under post-colonial Britain, the US, France or Dutch, even themselve are rule by the definition: “Democracy: A government by the people for the people”. The reality is – all countries are ruled by their local ’1% fatcats’.

http://rehmat1.wordpress.com/2010/01/16/it-is-not-a-democracy-stupid/

Herbie: I listened to that bastard Justin Webb degenerate for some time, on his hagiographies about America before finally stepping down from “from our own correspondent”. He allowed that some had accused him of “going native” on the place, which might be fair enough, but his problem was that he couldn’t see anything wrong there. He didn’t notice that a third of the population needed food stamps to survive, that 1/6 had no health care at all, that better than 40% faced real economic difficulties, and the governing process was seriously corrupt to the significant detriment of the entire world.
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Webb failed to see much past the gloss and high society, and his fawning over “insane” McCain at their last presidential election was truly awful. Isn’t a reporter supposed to do more than repeat right-wing talking points? I half expected him to break into song about how brave, mavericky and patriotic this wonderful old corrupt warmongering stooge happened to be.
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You can like a place but still recognise its problems, Webb failed utterly in that respect. If he was bought off, perhaps he’s making it deliberately obvious. Regardless, it’s tough to take the BBC seriously as an independent news source when they put out puff-pieces like his and pass it off as journalism.

Herbie – Terry Jones is just trying to divert his readers’ attention from the real Evildoers behind the drums of war against Islamic Republic, Syria and Pakistan.

https://rehmat1.wordpress.com/2009/12/13/israel-behind-us-iran-nuclear-conflict/

Vronsky: I believe the anagram is missing an ‘a’.

Yes Donny Darko worth a view; and this one – war and bankers:
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju7FZZfwb3I&feature=related
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I often think about the doomed passengers on the crowded United Flight 93 and what exactly did Rick Gibney witness as he closed in for a better view.

Glenn
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To be fair, Webb isn’t an intellectual. Far from it. That’s obvious enough. The issues you’ve raised would be well beyond his capacity to perceive let alone evaluate in any serious sense.
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He’s the perfect BBC employee. That’s the point. They’re all pretty much like that now.
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They got rid of all the good people subsequent to Thatcher’s sacking of Director General, Milne in 1987. That was the end of the BBC as anything worth treating seriously.
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It’s little more than a joke outfit today, trading on the reputation of great men and women in the 60s, 70s and early 80s who made it an immense force in critical journalism. She destroyed too the great Thames Television network which produced sometimes even better critical analysis than the BBC dared.
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These things don’t happen by accident. This was a plan to denude Britain of analysis and the critical view that is so important to ensure accountabilty and better practice.
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The only positive element out of all this is that the right wing goons have pushed their luck so far that there’s little left to maintain the stability that’s necessary to sustain their profits.
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No one ever said they were bright.

@ Herbie,
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“These things don’t happen by accident. This was a plan to denude Britain of analysis and the critical view that is so important to ensure accountabilty and better practice.
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The only positive element out of all this is that the right wing goons have pushed their luck so far that there’s little left to maintain the stability that’s necessary to sustain their profits.
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No one ever said they were bright.”
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Spot on.
,

Further reading….
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http://www.bilderberg.org/mi5bbc.htm

Sure, the lobbyist / political influence theme brings it all together. You’ve got: Werrity in bed with Fox, Gould and Mossad;
The banksters dictating bailouts, government support for 95% morgages and appointments of PMs in Italy and Greece;
The tabloid media swapping political support for business favors and influence over police enquiries;
Unsavory regimes swapping war support for trade and cash and god knows what.
And certainly much more besides.
All of which undermines the supposedly democratic process and makes a mockery of the cute idea that the government is serving the interests of the people.
But the reason it’s not going to change is that they are all in it together. Left and right, there is no difference any more. Blair or Cammeron? What’s to choose?
The old rhetoric of the left and right just perpetuates the situation as those on the right discount arguments from the left as a gut reaction and visa versa. When in fact, thinking people on both sides should be recognizing the shit that’s going down and doing something about it – like not voting for any of those slimy bastards any more.
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So guys – quit some of the more outrageous loony theories. Stick to the facts of each case, clearly presented, which are damning enough already. It’s the only way to break through…

Personally I’m in favour of a vote-strike. This upsets some people, but the truth is, nobody died for our current system of neoliberal consensus; they died fighting the equivalent of their own era. Any vote just now is wasted, it’s little short of embarrassing how alike they all are, and how ignorant they all appear. So, don’t vote, for any of them. The three main neoliberal parties aren’t worth 2 minutes of my time, the rightist groups we needn’t bother even discussing, and way too many lefttist groups are infiltrated to leadership level. The games up – elections are a fraud, even when they are counted correctly. Don’t bother.
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And, of course, if enough to this, the leadership cabal lose their authority. Winning an election on a 13% ballot? Do me a favour.
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None of the above.

The Grauniad finally beginning,perhaps,to sniff the wind?
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cartoon/2011/dec/06/steve-bell-lobbying-industry-row

Torygraph gets in on the action too..
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/8938480/Power-and-politics-whos-fleecing-who.html

Apologies,slightly OT but always good the see “Comrade” Jack Straw being ridiculed.The comments section is illuminating to say the least.
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/8938484/The-arrogance-of-eurozone-elites-could-kill-the-European-Union.html

Newspapers used to refer to Craig as the crazy Ambassador that goes to nightclubs.

Good to see some increasingly respectful references in the mainstream press.

@Jives:
True, the Torygraph has got the story. But just see how they have trashed it. Bellpot is just a con. You can get access just by asking. They’re not doing anything against the national interest. Then look at the author of the piece, Stephen Pollard:
{http://normblog.typepad.com/normblog/2004/02/the_normblog_pr_1.html}
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(You may add to his list of achievements, editor of the Jewish Chronicle. Excellent paper, supports Israel to the hilt..)
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Pollard admires Melanie Phillips’ blog. Irving Kristol is one of his intellectual heroes. And If he could effect one major policy change in the governing of your country, he would introduce education vouchers, and have no state involvement in the running of education. So, hooray for private enterprise.
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And he never, never tries to influence politicians himself. Perish the thought:
http://www.thejc.com/comment-and-debate/comment/50077/why-david-cameron-and-community-got-it-so-wrong.
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@ Komodo
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“True, the Torygraph has got the story. But just see how they have trashed it. Bellpot is just a con.”
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Yes understood.However it’s still important that the subject is being opened up and,judging by the comments of readers,Pollard’s puff-piece is back-firing spectacularly.

@ Dod

“Newspapers used to refer to Craig as the crazy Ambassador that goes to nightclubs.”
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Yep,and that cowardly little game is becomingly increasingly hard for them to play or justify.It’s about time too.

Half-listening about an hour ago, I caught the tail-end of someone on Today promising an interview with “a former ambassador of —–istan” so I stayed tuned until 8.35 thinking that Craig had been rehabilitated. Silly me!

Ahh, Bell Pottinger… we can polish turds into finest crystal, from shite (Uzbekistan) to sparkle (clearly fake Svarovsky)in one swift move, just ask the PM, he’s our mate we know him well.

@Ingo;
“There are more than one lobbying companies and we need to know the others.”
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I’m getting the impression that big, formally constituted lobbying companies per se are just one facet of the industry. Ex- MP’s or failed candidates or people who know their way around Parliament, who have multiple directorships of their own £1 companies with maildrop addresses – just like Werritty – are also of interest. Where the current company (they often seem to be wound up before accounts are due) shares an interest with a much larger company which wants the ear of a minister, then a dig seems to be worthwhile.
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The Halls of Life are bright and fair
The Waiting-Room is full;
And some get in through the door marked Push
And some through the door marked Pull.
(Winston S Churchill)

I know Komodo and they are all swinging around the big dick like pole dancers.
I can see no hope in scracthing about, seeking oinky little victories when the whole edifice is rotten and in need of scrapping.
Nobody in the cabinet should be accessed by lobbyists and Camerons lies at the last election, whether its lobbying or the £210,- supposedly to be given as a one off to the poorest workers, its all forgotten by our Guardinista’s, old news as they call it.

Herbie:
“Oh yeah, and by the way. The Independent is owned by that ex-KGB bloke wotsisnamev.
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So don’t be getting your hopes up about any new era of sweetness and light.
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He’s just giving Cameron a slap for his own reasons.”
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Never mind the reasons, we have to make do with the media we have. If some outlets are challenging the supine attitude of the others, that’s better than nothing. You still have to read between the lines, but at least they are offering different lines to read between.
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The only TV news I watch now is Russia Today, for this reason. It questions Western policy in a way that BBC or Channel 4 News don’t dare. (E.g. I’ve never even heard it suggested on the latter that we might be in Libya for its oil.)

Of course RT is biassed, but on international affairs less so than our news shows.

ingo, I put this on another thread, on this blog the other day, seems to have been missed, still, more comments have been made inside the link, worth a read
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=18475&pid=240201&st=0&#entry240201

Jives, and Jack looks exactly like a rat..and what a rat he is really! ( but there again I am sure rats will be offended if they knew JS is compared to them).

“Top lobbying firm Bell Pottinger prepared a presentation for Bureau undercover reporters, believing they were representatives of the Uzbekistan government seeking to promote the Uzbek cotton industry.

The slide show on ‘Changing Perceptions of Uzbekistan’ shows how the company would run a £1m plus campaign to drown out negative content”. Here:
http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/BellPottpresentationtoAzimovGp1.pdf
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Names to watch:
Richard Ottaway, MP
James Arbuthnot, MP
Rory Stewart, MP
Peter Lilley, MP
Andrew Rosindell, MP
Lord Waverley
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And see “Trade Engagement” for other sympathetic ears.

Azra – if I were a rat, I’d be insulted by being compared to J Straw.

‘You’ve seen those kind of eyes
Looking out from underneath a rock.’

Poisonous, slimy, invertebrate eyes …

Be there or be square…
https://zionist.org.uk/index.php?id=39&event=436
No, seriously. You never know who you’ll meet at these things.

This is a fresh look at why the same powerful Jews who support Israel as a “Jewish State” do everything they can to create a fractured society in nations they live in outside of Israel. Why Zionists preach one thing for Jews and the direct opposite for Gentiles.
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Mass immigration, multiculturalism and diversity makes any society vulnerable to the most organized, aggressive, ethnic people on earth. Their leaders know that that their team effort gives a huge advantage over a fractured, atomized society. Diversity is a weapon. in this video I give direct evidence of the Zionist technique for dominating a society.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJjSzXkm55o

One thing I bet you didn’t know about Peter Lilley MP – he’s a director of Tethys Petroleum (as well as vice-chair of the All-Parliamentary Group on Central Asia, of course). Tethys figured in a Wikileak, with Prince Michael of Kent, bless him:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/8199254/WikiLeaks-Uzbekistan-is-rampantly-corrupt.html

Good article on the Israeli Lobby in the UK
http://www.channel4.com/culture/microsites/D/dispatches/israel/proisraellobbypamphlet.pdf

Who schmoozes, wins:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45353672/ns/business-press_releases/t/tethys-petroleum-limited-uzbekistan-mou-signed/
Of COURSE it’s not about oil.

Very fat multi-account for which Bell Pottinger no doubt continue to pitch most vigorously:
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US still behind army atrocities in Egypt. (Surprise, surprise):
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http://bit.ly/uEMV2H

Hansard 27 Oct 2010 : Column 312:
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Siobhain McDonagh (Mitcham and Morden) (Lab): As a former PR man, does the Prime Minister agree that no matter how much Bell Pottinger tries to spin the Sri Lankan Government, the demands for an international independent war crimes tribunal intensify as more evidence of alleged assassination and civil rights abuses comes out?

The Prime Minister: The hon. Lady makes a fair point. We need to see an independent investigation of what happened. Everyone has read the papers and seen the TV footage, but we need an independent investigation to work out whether what she suggests is right.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sinhala/news/story/2011/11/111108_torture.shtml
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Just cuddly bunnies, then.

Mark Godling : A friend once told me “we plan, but God is the bigger planner”. Israel is such a fractured society itself, almost unbelievable. You talk to Israeli inside or outside of Israel and you will come to the same conculsion as I have, so I beleive what my friend believe, or the old saying “goes around comes around”.

Azra – David Cameron, like our Canadian Stephen Harper – is listed as “Author” on “Israel Hasbara Committee”. Therefore, it’s quite understandable that Cameron thinks the majority of Brits are “ignorants”.

On August 5, David Cameron, who is proud to have Jewish roots – said that “Iran is in possession of nuclear weapons”. The Opposition made fun of his ignorance. The Labour party blasted Cameron as a “foreign policy klutz” with his feet “firmly planted in his mouth”……

http://rehmat1.wordpress.com/2010/08/23/cameron-iran-has-nuclear-bomb/

@Doug.[Good article on the Israeli Lobby in the UK]
.
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You can watch the Channel 4 Dispatches episode about the Israel lobby in the UK here.

http://www.popmodal.com/video/4014/Inside-Britains-Israel-Lobby

Rehmat, there are times I wonder if the wonder boy is constantly high on coke and lives in a delusional world of himself ! he is such a real idiot, and same as other idiots think that what he says we believe, (ie we are the real idiots!).

As newspapers go, the Independent is one of the least Zionist contolled ones.

BTW, I have not seen Clark’s posts for a long time, is he still around?

Ken, thanks for the link, I had missed that.

I think a lot of commenters here have been led by the nose into assuming that our all-out assault on the Middle East is fundamentally about Israel. It’s not, it’s about oil and gas.
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America is not dancing to Israel’s tune, Israel is dancing to America’s. The deal is that Israel agrees to carry the can for much of the West’s belligerence in the Middle East, in return for American protection.
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If all the evil in the world could be put down to Zionism, that would be convenient for all the Internet’s single-issue experts and antisemites. You can tell from some of the comments here that some people are dying to blurt out “I hate Jews”. I find it disturbing. (And I’m guessing this comment will be auto-moderated…)

(Evidently not )

Ripples from the sting:
http://www.prweek.com/uk/news/1108054/PRCA-urged-investigate-Bell-Pottinger-Independent-sting
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5/10 lobbying firms approached expressed an interest in the proposal….more to come, perhaps.

Point of order, Franz. Most of the “can” being “carried” by Israel in the Middle East is not for America’s belligerence but its own. Israel has not (formally) participated in any of the US wars to date, and had to be positively restrained from joining in Gulf 1. Hamas and Hizb’ullah present no threat whatever to the USA, and their motives are clearly stated as opposition to Israel alone.
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Even so, if all US presidential candidates were not required to pass inspection by AIPAC, and if the US did not support Israel in its atrocious actions – in the face of world opinion, humanitarian concerns and even its own interests in the ME – I would perhaps be more inclined to see your point.
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By your logic, there are quite a lot of Jews who really want to say “I hate Jews”. Antisemites, the lot of them, eh?

Azra,
.
Clark has a personal concern right now although I am sure he will be back. I am worried that Mary has been absent for a while – .
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Agent Cameron is briefed by British secret services who previously monitored his blog ‘WebCameron’ and decided it should be shut down after a large number of posts on 9-11 – such as:
.
“Is 9-11 Truth being censored on this website
Posted by BrianH on Monday, 19 February 2007 14:15:06″

‘I note there was an article posted this morning which was voted number one on WebCameron with 14 votes. Then it vanished. The article posted was entitled: BBC vs 9/11 Truth: The Smear Continues Link:
.
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/february2007/180207smearcontinues.htm
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Why would the moderators here censor a free vote and free speech in this … – reproduced courtesy WayBackMachine.
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PressTV has been fined £100,000 by OFCOM after pressure from Pro-Israeli politicians.
.
In an email to OFCOM I said this:

Dear Sirs,

1. OFCOM were not prepared to issue a statement when I asked them on Friday 14th Oct. 2011 for the reasons behind the decision to take PressTV off-air in the UK. Instead they gave me an email address so that I can ask for a ‘phone-back’ from the ‘standards team’ who are considering the action to be taken against PressTV.
.
OFCOM had previously issued a statement that said:
.
2. UK law sets a very high standard for denying licences to broadcasters. Licences can only be denied in cases where national security is threatened, or if granting a licence would be contrary to Britain’s obligations under international law. Currently neither of these standards can be met with respect to Press TV, but if further sanctions are imposed on Iran in the coming months a case may be able to be made on the second criterion.’
.
3. The reference to ‘Royal’ by Press TV originates from an article by Dipesh Gadher of the Sunday Times who on information received, criticised PressTV over:
publishing an public opinion poll about the royal wedding. The results of the poll revealed that 65 percent of British people felt the royal wedding was an unnecessary official expense imposed on tax-payers.
.
4. Also a complaint by Simons, Muirhead & Burton, the legal firm representing journalist Maziar Bahari who was detained in Iran, complained to Ofcom that he was “treated unfairly and that his privacy was unwarrantably infringed in the making and broadcast of a discussion programme”. The complaint also said Press TV did not seek Bahari’s permission to film and air the interview.
.
5. In response, Press TV denied the interview was biased, saying Bahari did not “dispute the truth and accuracy” of the extract of the interview it broadcast, so it made “no logical sense” to claim it required his consent.
.
6. PressTV maintained its policy was not to accept “scripted” interview questions from any third party or to “put pressure on an individual to give an interview or continue recording if an individual requested the recording to stop”.
.
7. In summary Ofcom said Press TV’s presentation of Bahari was unfair because it “omitted material facts and was placed in a context in which inferences adverse to Mr Bahari could be drawn”.
.
8. According to the WikiLeaks cables, the Foreign Office told an American diplomat in 2010 that the government was “exploring ways to limit the operations of Press TV”.
.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/nov/30/ofcom-iran-press-tv

Franz : you should watch this and then you will know that the oil and gas are secondary , after all ME countries want to sell their oil and gas, but their public do not want it to be sold to the countries who totally support the state of Israel and its Zionist policies, no matter what those policies are. I hope the Arab spring will produce some kind of democracy in these countries, and I hope the house of Saud in Saudi Arabia and Khalifa in Bahrain will come down, once there are governments accountable to the people there will be the end of Zionism
http://www.popmodal.com/video/4014/Inside-Britains-Israel-Lobby#featureVideo

During the last few days anyone who has dared to question/slight the sacred ones, has been punished, and made an example of;
,
Paul Flynn MP; has been hauled over the coals for daring to suggest Gould of Tel Aviv may be afflicted with dual loyally concerns. (Although anyone who knows anything about zionfuckwits, will realise there is no such problems seeing as the ziofuckkwits are only loyal to the shitty strip of land. As per DSK interview in the Time; “Every morning I wake up thinking how can I help Isreal?”)
,
Hilary Clinton; has been denounced for her uncharitable remarks. She thought out loud in a confidential meeting about the dangers to democracy by the recent changes to the laws in Isreal.
,
Howard Gutman, the US Ambassador to Belgium; despite being a nice Jewish boy, has been denounced as antisemitic, and all the republicans paid for by the AIPAC have been clambering for his dismissal from his job. Howard made a big mistake, by stating the obvious; the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, could have something to do in creating antisemitism.
,
Zac Goldsmith; the Millionaire MP, has been denounced for daring to mention Auschwitz in a non reverential context. He said “”it is like keeping Auschwitz going, because it creates jobs”.
,
As we all know it is mandatory for everyone to; Love, Cherish, Honour, Protect, and genuflect to all Jews. Lest the Sacred Ones’ fragile sensibility, and even more fragile egos to be slighted with any less than absolute devotion and love from us all.
,
Hence the attempts in re-education of the recalcitrant bastards whom just don’t care about Jews, are indifferent towards Jews, and don’t see any reasons why Jews ought to be treated as exceptional cases, and for ever get treated with kid-gloves. Because of some awful events in past in last century.
,

The result of so much education, can be found in the season of good will in the Geordie land: good king Wenceslas last looked out, and found a fucking finger

Well, Israel buys politicians for a reason.

What reason would that be?

So, I thought, “This thread’s getting away from Uzbekistan and we are all obsessing about Israel/ The Jooos again. I’ll just find something to bring it back on track. Maybe something funny.”
.
FAIL.
.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2069715/Miliband-tycoons-21m-profit-Swiss-home-sold-daughter-dictator-boiled-enemies.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
.

Of course if anyone bothered to look at the Guardian they will see that they carried the same story http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/dec/06/bell-pottinger-claims-access-politicians

And whats more rather than name checking Craig they gave due credit to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism for unearthing the story – which suggests a higher degree of journalistic integrity on their part.

On the other hand you could place your faith on a Russian oligarch owner who got his money from who knows where. Just how the National Reserve Bank grew from such a small base by entering into various transactions to acquire assets from the Russian state is a very interesting question.

Komodo and Azra: I’m afraid I think things are more complicated than you see them. Of course Israel is embroiled in serious local conflicts, but I do not believe that these are the impetus behind the West’s moral assault on Iran; rather, they are a cover for it.

I don’t know how many people here are familiar with Peak Oil, and, of those who are, how many understand the economic implications of it. But any interpretation of modern geopolitics that ignores Peak Oil is off the mark before it has begun.

Peak Oil will prove the single most catastophic event in the history of the human race. I don’t mean to be alarmist, I am simply stating what is the case. As oil production starts declining, confidence in economic growth collapses once and for all, and our debt-based economic system comes crashing down. We have already experienced many of the foreshocks, but the big change is yet to come.

I won’t go into detail about it, there are plenty of sites out there – although fewer and fewer of the good ones are included in Google’s search results; read them before the free Internet closes down for good.

What does this have to do with Israel and Iran? Everything. The USA and its allies are bankrupt and know that they won’t be able to buy oil from the Middle East if the oil-producing countries do the sensible thing and give up on the dollar. The first Gulf War happened because Saddam threatened to stop trading oil in dollars.

So because we can’t (for much longer) BUY oil, we are systematically going into the Middle East, destroying its stability and infrastructure, and amid the chaos taking the oil.

Iran, for those who didn’t know, is the fourth biggest oil-producing country in the world.

Fedup:
“Hence the attempts in re-education of the recalcitrant bastards whom just don’t care about Jews, are indifferent towards Jews, and don’t see any reasons why Jews ought to be treated as exceptional cases, and for ever get treated with kid-gloves. Because of some awful events in past in last century.”
.
This is the kind of thing I was talking about. I am not denying that many Jews play the victim card to death, but you are tarring them all with the same brush and CLEARLY showing that you judge Jews first and foremost as Jews, and not as human beings.
.
I would concede you some ground if I agreed that Israel Rules The World, but I have gone into some detail as to why this is not the case. There IS a new world order emerging, and although undoubtedly a disproportionate proportion of its senior members are Jewish, most of them are not. This is not about a Jewish plan to take over the world, it’s about those with power – many of whom are indeed Jewish – going all out to save their own arses while the rest of the world descends in violence, disease and starvation.
.
Sorry to p**s on the bonfire of those who like simple explanations and crave hate figures.

Franz
You say;
“I think a lot of commenters here have been led by the nose into assuming that our all-out assault on the Middle East is fundamentally about Israel. It’s not, it’s about oil and gas.”
Yes you are correct; it is about oil and gas but when you say: “America is not dancing to Israel’s tune, Israel is dancing to America’s” you are mistaken. America is dancing to the Zionist lobby; the most powerful and wealthy lobby in the States. No candidate for President of the US will succeed unless AIPAC gives them the nod. They must attend AIPAC meetings and promise to be Israel’s best friend and give a guarantee that, no matter what, the US will defend Israel. The British Zionist Federation is also a formidable lobby in the UK with 80% of the Conservative MP’s declaring support for Zionist ambitions.
Israel knows full well that the US (and UK) are desperate for access to this oil and gas and Israel sits in the middle of it; armed to the teeth and with nuclear weapons. America is pleading with the Zionists for a permanent military base in Israel to strengthen their control of Middle East energy resources. Israel is in the driving seat here.
The Zionist ultimate goal is the complete annexation of the whole of historic Palestine from the river to the sea; a Jewish state run by Jews for the benefit of Jews. Any Gentiles living there will by definition, be second class citizens. Rather racist don’t you think?
Anyway, what does the US or UK care about Palestinian land being stolen or Palestinian lives being lost when oil and gas are at stake?
At the UN Security Council the US and UK regularly veto any criticism of Israel even when obvious war crimes have been committed. What we have here is an example of the tail (Israel) wagging the dog (the West).

Does anyone know a good lobbying firm? It looks like Bell Pottinger could use some revamping :
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/0d13cc7e-2104-11e1-8a43-00144feabdc0.html ($)
…
“Wikipedia, the online user-generated encyclopedia, has suspended 10 accounts associated with Bell Pottinger, the firm at the heart of a dispute over lobbying industry ethics, on suspicion there may have been a breach of its editing rules.

Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, told the Financial Times that it was conducting an internal investigation into changes made to the pages of Bell Pottinger’s clients in a case which has roused controversy over the methods used by lobbying companies to influence opinion.”

Craig,
I was not being racist, only projecting in the same manner.

It seems obvious that Fed Up is that collection of anti-semitic posters from before: “Apostate/Juniper/tungsten etc…”
.
But he’s not even the worst offender on this thread.
.
Mark Golding is now posting videos by David Duke, of all people. David Duke is literally part of the Ku Klux Klan and one of the Holocaust deniers who Ahmadinejad invited to his Holocaust Conference in Tehran.
.
And your comments about the video cannot even be disguised as “anti-Zionist” since they accuse Jews everywhere of subverting the norms of all societies in which they live. Absolutely flagrant Hitlerite anti-semitism.

Craig,
Not being pedantic, or rude, but I hope you would be in agreement, with the fact; there are no races in human species. For any distinct differences to exist, as per biologists; there ought to exist at least 35 percent of differences in genetic make-up.
,
Maximum of genetic differences found in the human species is in the order of 17 percent. Hence it is a none sense to claim one human being to belong to a different “race” from the other. In fact “racial” differences are only arbitrary measures introduced with a view to exploit an apparent underclass by a more “powerful” or “power Savvy” class of the same species of human beings.

The BBC and the American main media are poised to barrage the masses with hogwash, hype and brain-washing to portray and symbolise Assad’s government as torturers and murderers of the Syrian people. A two week window is all that is available logistically to foment and quicken a ‘manufactured’ civil war in Syria that will allow Britain and America to annihilate Hezbollah and attack Iran.
.
According to my information from an ex special forces trainer working out of Dubai the same ‘Al-Qaeda’ or CIA asset ‘terrorists’ who fought U.S. troops in Iraq and helped NATO overthrow Colonel Gaddafi are now being airlifted into Syria together with automatic weapons to aid the Free Syrian Army there fight government forces and kill civilians to boot while attempting to topple President Bashar al-Assad. It is known that Britain negotiated with Libya’s transitional ruling authority to mass weapons and fighters ready for air-lifting.
.
The exercise is in plain sight and has prompted Iran to organise Hezbollah fighters in an attempt to counter this insurgency and mutiny from Syrian government forces paid by the CIA to change sides. (Well it worked in Libya!)
.
Qatar and Turkey were also reported to be airlifting “volunteers” from Libya to fight alongside the rebel Free Syrian Army, some also transporting heavy weapons.
.
These ‘terrorists’ have already been implicated in the killing of 10 air force personnel at a Syrian military base last week, even as the western media continues to characterize opposition fighters as “protesters,” just as they did with Libyan rebels who were commandeering fighter jets and firing rocket-propelled grenades.
.
In related developments, DebkaFile also reports that “Israeli armored brigades pushed forward up to the Lebanese and Syrian borders,” over last weekend, while US and Russian warships are now “in the midst of a naval buildup opposite Syrian shores.”
We note an identical pattern to how U.S. warships surrounded Libya in the days before the NATO bombardment began, the aircraft carrier George H.W. Bush was repositioned off the coast of Syria in recent days having moved from its usual theatre of operations in the Straits of Hormuz.
.

Reports that Russian warships carrying sophisticated missile defense systems entered Syrian territorial waters last week as a deterrent to any NATO-led assault.
.
According to my source the BBC has undercover reporting teams in Syria to film the killing of civilians and the destruction of Syrian homes by Iran’s fighters. Pressure will then be applied to the UNSC for a strike on Iran before year end. This evening BBC News 24 in a one sided report condemned Assad in a recent interview where he denied any government killing of civilians. The BBC went on to legitimize Iraq war by interviewing returning America soldiers who confirmed the Iraq war was justified even though WMD was not found and that only tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians had been killed.
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Sources:
.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/8917265/Libyas-new-rulers-offer-weapons-to-Syrian-rebels.html
.
www(dot)debka(dot)com/article/21519/
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www(dot)jpost(dot)com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=246999&R=R3
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www(dot)prisonplanet(dot)com/us-warship-moves-to-syrian-coast-as-tensions-mount.htm
.
www(dot)haaretz(dot)com/news/middle-east/report-russia-warships-to-enter-syria-waters-in-bid-to-stem-foreign-intervention-1.396359l
.

Mark Golding – Children Of Iraq,
What is the word on Eric Prince? That bastard has been recruiting from among the worst scum, and training and equipping these, do you know anything about that?
,
Debka is the ziofuckwit mouth piece and has no credibility, hence don’t give much credence to the shit they throw around.

Anyone noticed the “new Syrian Flag” getting waved around in the condescending package of BBC? (the usual shaky, grainy clip)

The BBC and the American main media are poised to barrage the masses with hogwash, hype and brain-washing to portray and symbolise Assad’s government as torturers and murderers of the Syrian people.
.
Assad is a murderer and a torturer. You are the one spreading “hogwash and hype” and you’re thoroughly brainwashed by paranoid anti-semites.

you’re thoroughly brainwashed by paranoid anti-semites
,
,
Ergo, I rest my case. (suppression of all dissent)

Oh, and Paul Flynn has now apologized for his dual loyalty insinuations.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-16070880

Ergo, I rest my case. (suppression of all dissent)

.
You rest what case?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/dec/07/iran-war-already-begun

They don’t give up. After a decade of blood-drenched failure in Afghanistan and Iraq, violent destabilisation of Pakistan and Yemen, the devastation of Lebanon and slaughter in Libya, you might hope the US and its friends had had their fill of invasion and intervention in the Muslim world.

It seems not. For months the evidence has been growing that a US-Israeli stealth war against Iran has already begun, backed by Britain and France. Covert support for armed opposition groups has spread into a campaign of assassinations of Iranian scientists, cyber warfare, attacks on military and missile installations, and the killing of an Iranian general, among others.

The attacks are not directly acknowledged, but accompanied by intelligence-steered nods and winks as the media are fed a stream of hostile tales – the most outlandish so far being an alleged Iranian plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to the US – and the western powers ratchet up pressure for yet more sanctions over Iran’s nuclear programme.
===
Rest at link

“War on Iran has already begun. Act before it threatens all of us”

– Seumas Milne
The Guardian.

Angrysoba – I too have called Assad “a murderer and torturer” had I been a follower of the French Jew ‘philosopher’ Bernard-Henri Levy. He held a conference in Saint-Germain in France on July 4, 3011. Guess who he had invited to ‘save Syrian Muslims and Christians’ from Assad? Bernard Kouchner, former Jewish French foreign minister, Frederik Ansel, a member of Israel’s ruling Likud Party, Alex Goldfarb, former Knesset member and adviser to Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak and Andre Glucksmann, an Islamophobe French writer.

http://rehmat1.wordpress.com/2011/07/08/israeli-conference-on-syria/

Find me a head of government who is not in some way complicit in murder and torture.

First thought, Iceland – no, they’re in NATO
Then, Ireland – no, Shannon is used for rendition flights.

You probably have to go to somewhere like the Maldives…

“Komodo and Azra: I’m afraid I think things are more complicated than you see them. Of course Israel is embroiled in serious local conflicts, but I do not believe that these are the impetus behind the West’s moral assault on Iran; rather, they are a cover for it.”
.
So you are saying that Israel’s near-hysterical demands that someone (else) do something about Iran NOW, and the PNAC programme for inserting US-compliant regimes by violence in Iraq, Iran and Syria, are in some way covert? That’s not my impression, throughout a decade of close scrutiny.
.
We all know that securing US and European energy supplies – lacking any will to reduce the incredible waste endemic in their energy use – is central to the project. None of the actions taken during the last few years to achieve this need have involved Israel in any way, other than purely commercial involvement. In the US, Iraq and Afghanistan were not played as reducing the threat to Poor Little Israel, but as reducing the threat to the USA. In this not-quite-as-complicated-as-you-think scenario, big oil and Israel are ideologically joined at the hip. In 2003, Cheney and the dual-nationality zionists were reading from the same script. But the zionists wrote it; both for US and Israeli consumption. PNAC and “A Clean Break”, both.
.
The pressure for war with Iran emanates from Tel Aviv, and some of the US Jewish swing vote. Not from big oil. A devastated infrastructure does nothing for the oil companies.
Intact facilities and the co-operation of the oil-state’s government are far more in their interest (as we are seeing in the corrupt ‘Stans, whose regimes, far worse than Iran’s, we are doing our best to support). The only beneficiary from war with Iran or Syria is Israel. Whose regional supremacy, backed by its US-funded clandestine weapons programme, will then be unchallenged. And extended.
.
Does the US think that encouraging this is in its own interest? Probably. Certainly big oil does. But if the US had shown Iran half the tolerance it extends to Uzbekistan, it would not even be an issue.
.
[Oh, and DEBKA is absolute bollocks, as someone said. Also MEMRI. For giggles only.]

Our dear Mr Flynn accused of Anti Semitism for uttering what has been on quite a few lips, but the real story is still being silenced.
This link is from the Dubai newspaper.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle08.asp?xfile=/data/opinion/2011/December/opinion_December27.xml&section=opinion

The silence is deafening !

What Paul Flynn actually said:

“I greatly regret the interpretation that has been placed on [the remarks] and I fully understand why offence was given,” he said.

“Some of the interpretations of these words were exaggerated suggesting malign intent that was never present or intended. Inference was built on inference.

“There is no reason that anyone of any race or religion should be debarred from public office. That has always been my opinion.

“The comments were made in a heated exchange in a select committee discussion on probable warmongering.”

Mr Flynn added: “I have been an elected representative for the past 40 years and I do not have an atom of racism or anti-semitism in me.

“If there was someone would have noticed by now.”
.
Did anyone ever get an apology for this, I wonder?:
.
…one of the lessons we have learned in the last five years in politics is that Muslims that go to parliament don’t have any morals or principles…..
(Baroness Warsi)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/may/05/tories-lady-warsi-muslim-mps

DonnyDarko, I have just posted the following on Robert Halfon’s blog:
.
Dear Mr Halfon

I have read the debate, and seen the debate in which Paul Flynn was continually interrupted in a crass attempt to prevent him from getting a proper inquiry into the Werritty, Fox, Gould meetings which were not mentioned in Gus O’Donnell’s “Inquiry” if it can be called such. A Muslim newspaper sums it up.
“All too predictably, the serious issues raised by Paul Flynn are being indignantly rebuffed by Israel’s British apologists as rooted in old stereotypes about Jews and the Jewish state. The Jewish Conservative MP, Robert Halfon, maintains that Flynn is typical of leftists who, on the subject of Jews, ‘lose all sense of proportion’. What is conspicuously missing from Halfon’s outpouring of outrage is any reference to the one thing that might definitively settle the credibility or otherwise of Flynn and Murray’s allegations: ‘transparency’, a full public inquiry into the Adam Werritty affair and its palpably sinister ramifications.”

The Indy continues its examination of Bellpot.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/the-dark-arts-bell-pottinger-caught-rewriting-its-clients-wikipedia-entries-6273836.html
.
For a firm offering its clients expertise in the dark arts of media manipulation, it is astonishing that their history-rewriters had apparently never heard of proxy servers.

Bell Pottinger caught again.
.
http://lockerbiecase.blogspot.com/2011/12/megrahi-wikipedia-page-altered-by-pr.html

@ Komodo
.

Lol…yeah…the dark arts of media manipulation by PR mobs seems to be Search Engine Optimisation and Wikipedia editing…
.
£100,000 per month? Nice work if you can get it..

`Bell Pottinger caught again`
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/rebekah-brooks-we-helped-choose-her-police-station-says-bell-pottinger-6273278.html#

“It seems obvious that Fed Up is that collection of anti-semitic posters from before: “Apostate/Juniper/tungsten etc…”
.
Funny thing, Angry, that thought had crossed my mind …

I also agree with Franz, its oil gas and control over the latter. the convenience for Israel is palpable, going to war with Hezbollah/Syria and Iran will postpone the vitally needed negotiations with a soon united Palestinian people, something it is trying hard to interfer with.

We must not forget the issue of water and who controls it in the middle east, now must we ignore the other smaller hidden conflicts that also will erupt within the bigger confrontation. Turkeys unfinished business with the Kurds, Lebanons Maronites, Druze et al might decide to take sides the Gholan issue, the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees that still reside in Syria, and Iraq itself might also be a possible ingition point, again. All this will help to postpone the inevitability that are the peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine’s representatives.

Thanks for that link Guest, it seems that our spooks also need the services of PR companies, maybe thats the reasoning behind their artificial openess and new public face recognition campaign of their MI leaders.

off the subject, a really good investigative article in FPJ,
worth reading…
http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2011/12/06/gofer-and-trout-questions-on-two-flights-out-of-andrews-afb-on-911/2/

Bell Pottinger seem to have their hands into many pies
.
http://www.firmmagazine.com/news/2724/Bell_Pottinger_lobbying_%26_wikipedia_scandal_linked_to_Megrahi_cancer_doctor_.html

Komodo thanks for the Indy link. Bell Pottinger have not been entirely honest when they have edited Wikipedia articles under assumed names to get preferential client exposure. There should be a law against this making them say exactly who they are.

Angrysober,
.
You said, “Assad is a murderer and a torturer. You are the one spreading “hogwash and hype” and you’re thoroughly brainwashed by paranoid anti-semites.”
.
My judgement is based on history Angry and history records Bashar Assad as reflecting the heterogeneous nature of Judaism; Syrians and many more including me are an amalgam of Semitic origin that propels a great love for the entertainers, scientists and much more including business acumen that has made a lasting and enduring influence on our world and at home here in Britain.
.
Humanity and charity are the yardsticks of truth and judgement; history records such events – Bashar is quite capable of countering and unraveling the death squads in his country – he did the same in Iraq when death squads and militia were confused in the fog of war.
.
UPI’s report observed that the “difference between death squads and militia is an important semantic distinction to make as the new Iraqi government and the US military attempted to win back Baghdad,” – which during the previous three years has been in the steady and growing stranglehold of armed fighters.”

We now know in reality, the “semantic difference” was aimed at obscuring the fact that the death squads were an integral part of the US-recruited, trained and run Iraqi puppet security forces, and the real target of General Casey’s “crackdown on death squads” was the Mahdi Army militia of Shiite cleric Moqtada al Sadr, an outspoken opponent of the US-led occupation.
.
Assad who opposed the Iraq war supported Moqtada with funding logistics and training which lead to the failure of the US military offensive to kill Sadr in 2004 in Sadr, a Mahdi Army stronghold and the reason America lost hearts and minds and its ‘war’ in Iraq.
.
US officials had presented no evidence of death squads being operated by Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia, and had ignored the evidence, including past public admissions by Iraqi officials, that the death squads function out of the US-controlled Iraqi security forces – America’s attempt to divide and conquer by a bloody massacre or civil war that smashed Iraqi homes and murdered Iraqi children by the hundreds…
.
This carnage, this murder, this deception is the point and my will will prevail. America is in death throes as she pays for the blood of Iraqi children in the remaining weeks of 2011 – the year of retribution.

Again the following comment will be visible on Robert Halfon’s blog following approval.
.
John Goss said…
.
Was there something wrong with my last comment other than it was not in line with neocon opinion?

Anyone notice the tag team act between certain characters commenting around here?
It goes;
A; blah ..bl…. is one of those … comeback.
B; Me too….. bollocks…. blah…
Also A will jump to defend B on a difficult topic, and vice-versa.
Curious, as to the fact that have others noticed this too?
,
It should be added that I have been bestowed the “honour” of having a past life on this board too (I was a grenadier in the Queens own Lancers, in my past life!). This line of thought at best could be attributed to stubbornly turning a blind eye to the numbers of “fellow travellers” who share similar sentiments, and thoughts, (ie there are not that many “baddies”, this is a kind of having a comfort blanket handy, for distressing times). On the other hand and at worst, “he is bla.. apos…tungs…. etc”.. is an attempt to play a mind game with the other participants, in a sort of crass Homer Simpson psychology 101 kind of way.
,
,
,
I digress.
,
The appalling BBC package put together as a hatchet job on Assad from a Barbara Walters interview is in line with the same olde same olde, of ye Syke Picot agreement on steroids, given the numbers of the dead and injured among the civilians “liberated” so far.
,
The nostrum that gave the world the current fuckedup economic doctrine; “too big to fail”, is now being applied generously to carry on the traditions of the failure and mayhem well into the 21st century. Hence the rash of dictators abound from Mediterranean to Yellow Sea, all in the aid of breathing life into the same zombie system.
,
So far as the Oil is concerned, and henny penny skies are falling; peak oil theory, and so called big oil designs. Missing from the argument are the enormousness of the printed and fiat dollars that have saturated the market, and these dollars are in search of a succour to buy something with these. Hence the instability injected into the system that systematically increases the prices of oil to keep the same bunch of lazy bastards in a lifestyle they have become entitled to.

I don’t understand almost any of that, Mark. However, you seem to be suggesting that this is a “death squad” that Assad is righteously “unravelling” with the yardsticks of “humanity and charity” and “truth and justice”:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hama_Al-Assy_Square_2011-07-22.jpg
.
Oh, and have you looked up David Duke, yet?

“Anyone notice the tag team act between certain characters commenting around here?
It goes;
A; blah ..bl…. is one of those … comeback.
B; Me too….. bollocks…. blah…”
.
I think that may be directed at Angry and me. Which is priceless given the history of this blog, and what is in the archives.

Komodo:
“The pressure for war with Iran emanates from Tel Aviv, and some of the US Jewish swing vote. Not from big oil. A devastated infrastructure does nothing for the oil companies.
Intact facilities and the co-operation of the oil-state’s government are far more in their interest (as we are seeing in the corrupt ‘Stans, whose regimes, far worse than Iran’s, we are doing our best to support). The only beneficiary from war with Iran or Syria is Israel. Whose regional supremacy, backed by its US-funded clandestine weapons programme, will then be unchallenged. And extended.”
.
From what I understand, a devastated infrastructure has worked pretty well in Iraq – provided the oil infrastructure is insulated from the rest of the chaos. I think we are seeing a similar story in Libya. Look how quickly oil contracts have been handed to western companies. This was all part of the plan.
.
I really do not know whether there is a serious plan to invade Iran. The US may be coutning on threats being sufficient.
.
As I’ve said, you have to understand the seriousness of Peak Oil: if we don’t keep the oil coming, one way or another, our civilisation collapses. The stakes are high enough that our leaders really might do something ostensibly suicidal just to keep things going a bit longer.

“the seriousness of Peak Oil”
come again?
Prey tell how oil forms, and not the cock and bull stories about fossils, etc.
,
Further, even accepting the nonsense peddled as “peak oil”, why are there no moves to search for; fuel the next generation? So far it has been a lot of hot air, about wind farms, which are in effect useless as chocolate fire guards, and oh yeah solar energy, which depends on the whimsicalness and inadequacies of battery technology. Why are there no reactor buildings on a massive scale before the last gallon of “oil” is burnt and over and done with?
,
You want to talk about faith based pseudo science, you are welcome, but do not, emphasis do not explain away the deaths of millions of civilians as incidental to saving the civilisation, along the lines of eggs and omelettes allegory.

Passerby,

You’re not saying you believe that bullshit abiotic nonsense are you? Of course oil is a fossil fuel.

Why are there no reactor buildings on a massive scale? Plutonium Proliferation.

Passerby:
“You want to talk about faith based pseudo science”
.
No, but you clearly do.
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I will do you the credit of assuming you are being paid to purvey disinformation, rather than imagine that you are sufficiently uninformed to believe Peak Oil is not a problem. Either way, I have no interest in discussing the matter with you.

WSJ: ‘How to destroy drone shot-down by Iran’

http://rehmat1.wordpress.com/2011/12/08/wsj-how-to-destroy-drone-shot-down-by-iran/

How did the devastated infrastructure help the US in Iraq? It didn’t. It helped Cheney (Halliburton). The bill to the taxpayer was colossal. And which oil companies actually benefit from the invasion? Still in doubt:
http://money.cnn.com/2011/12/06/news/international/Exxon_Iraq_oil_deal/

And, with a Shi’a majority, likely to remain so especially if the US has a go at Iran.

Angrysober,
.
Duke sits at the extreme end of a intolerant non-humanitarian spectrum where prejudice dominates, yet we cannot and should not close our eyes and cover our ears to the bias(based on facts) in some of his his speeches.
.
We no longer drown and punish apostates and heretics for their ‘evil’ ways and we do not I believe condemn writers here for presenting information -not- promoting racism which quite rightly should be outlawed. Therefore your attempt Angry to discredit or vilify me for presenting is I believe simplistic and childish. I am even more worried about Mary, our best researcher, obliged/forced to move on by personal attacks.
.
Here is Duke again with a certain bias that strikes a chord for many of us irrespective of his more nasty and offensive views.
.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88AsArwYsTc&feature=related

[Jon/mod - Re-introducing the topic of trolling is off-topic]

@Mark Golding.[Here is Duke again with a certain bias that strikes a chord for many of us irrespective of his more nasty and offensive views.]
‘
You are not doing yourself any favours by posting the views of well known racists.
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`[Jon/mod - partly deleted text, the topic of trolling/name-calling is off-topic]

Not entirely related to this article, but I wanna be sure that people see this comment –

====
Might I suggest that an effective way of exposing any site’s draconian and worrisome censorship would be to:

1) Whenever you post a Comment to the , create a duplicate post on an alternate site (perhaps this blog has a dedicated page?). Quote the exact same text, and carry a link to the article and the time the post appeared.

2) Track all such deletions

3) Aggregate these deletions into a page of “deleted Comments”

4) Periodically, publish the “week’s” or “month’s” comments as a blog post.

For what it’s worth, I actually found this page through a comment on the , and was fascinated to learn that links to such blogs are being systemically censored. I’ve checked as well, and indeed can no longer find the comment w/ the link here on the article…

It is wholly unreasonable and completely undermines the credibility of the . I think a systemic caching of such censorship is extremely important.

“I have no interest in discussing the matter with you.”
,
,
Of course you don’t Franz, why should you? All you are doing is echoing the same shite that has been regurgitated over and over again.
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Peak Oil my foot. It is so peaked that the streaking jets, and fuel guzzling tanks, APC, and the plethora of military vehicles, crafts, ships and factories all running 24/7/52 to kill people, in a bid to save the oil for better uses!
,
Way to go shilling for the murdering bastards. Disinformation is asking how oil comes to be? Disinformation is not the Peaked Oil scenario. Slap my thigh, Titan in Jupiter’s orbit ought to have been home to oodles of dinosaurs, and shit too, as per fossil fuel theory!
,
,
Anon
Are you taking the piss, and being sarcastic, or serious? ( difficult to work out).

It helped Cheney (Halliburton).
,
Recollecting that Haliburton directors had to pony up seventy million dollars out of their own accounts/pockets to keep the company ticking over, and pay the staff.
,
Its fortunes were changed during the Iraq war. After all charging $2,500 for a sack of laundry (all the soldiers had to hand over their washing, these were banned from washing-up in the barracks), and charging $2.7 million for a fuel delivery, that including the fuel, and the truck came to cost about $270,00. Every “cent” soon adds up to become a fortune you know.

Get your facts right Ken I am not defending anyone and please correct the plural. btw thanks for dropping the ‘sunshine’ I am a bit too long in the tooth for that label – ‘sunset’ is probably more appropriate.

@Mark Golding. [I am not defending anyone]
‘
‘
‘
Sure sounds like you are but anyway you are posting up videos from a well known racist,looks like you are certainly defending his views from here.

[Mod/Jon - sorry to blanket delete everyone on the troll topic, but we need to make it off-topic]

[Mod/Jon - sorry to blanket delete everyone on the troll topic, but we need to make it off-topic]

[Mod/Jon - sorry to blanket delete everyone on the troll topic, but we need to make it off-topic]

[Mod/Jon - sorry to blanket delete everyone on the troll topic, but we need to make it off-topic]

[Mod/Jon - sorry to blanket delete everyone on the troll topic, but we need to make it off-topic]

[Mod/Jon - sorry to blanket delete everyone on the troll topic, but we need to make it off-topic]

[Mod/Jon - sorry to blanket delete everyone on the troll topic, but we need to make it off-topic]

“Jon has already told Passerby *not* to label people trolls. I suggest the same applies to Mary.”
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PC gone mad…guess the Trollish Chronicle will be calling Mary an antitrollite next. But I guess quoting a holocaust denier’s opinion on something else is a crime only punishable by death.
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“Stop it.”
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Happily.
A dozen or so comments back, before the shitslinging recommenced,, we were discussing Halliburton. Useful site:
http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/

I read (in a hurry) last night that BP are accusing Halliburton of destroying evidence regarding the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. While I wouldn’t trust BP as far as I could throw them, in this case I’d be inclined to believe them.
Oh here it is:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/dec/06/bp-halliburton-gulf-of-mexico-oil-spill

Passerby said

Peak Oil my foot. It is so peaked that the streaking jets, and fuel guzzling tanks, APC, and the plethora of military vehicles, crafts, ships and factories all running 24/7/52 to kill people, in a bid to save the oil for better uses!

===

In all western countries oil use has declined over the last few years as the price has increased. The USA is down about 2 million barrels per day since 2005. Total Crude production is also down from the peak. Only biofuels and natural gas liquids are helping prop the “All liquids” production numbers up but total net exports of oil are also well down from the peak.

The reason we didn’t build tens of thousands of reactors all over the planet was because of incredibly serious, justified plutonium proliferation worries. Reactor grade plutonium can be made into a bomb even though nobody wants to shout that too loudly so don’t tell anybody as I think they are hoping the public has forgotten.

Google Ted Taylor (US Nuclear Bomb Designer).

Fedup
Sorry not to follow up your questions. I have been away mastering the art of cheap hotels with moulded-plastic, self-dousing toilets and no free tea. I’m mentioning no names because much better than travelling up and down… maybe.

Anon,
Why don’t you google “peak oil myth”, then go and find a couple of books on nuclear power generation, to understand the concept of nuclear power. Then perhaps you can do a bit of research on Plutonium, only then come back and enlighten us all with your oodles of wisdom.
,
As per one of those eloquent characters; “you cannot be fucking serious man”! What is this unconscious cock and bull you have published?
,
Finally misanthropy (hatred of humanity) cannot be called a policy, and regardless of how clever this hatred is disguised as, and however scientifically spinned as, truth has a life of its own.
,
BTW how many do you intend to kill before you can call a halt to the cull? Sitting on this rock, that is shooting through the empty space to destinations unknown, can yield to all manner of hubris, fact is sooner than later the wheels come off the best laid plots, and the arrogant bastards bite the dust, alas by then these have left a legacy of destruction and poisoned mindsets behind.

[Mod/Jon - sorry to blanket delete everyone on the troll topic, but we need to make it off-topic]

[Mod/Jon - sorry to blanket delete everyone on the troll topic, but we need to make it off-topic]

One of the attractions of this Site, apart from the insightful blogs from Craig, is the normally high level of debate conducted by mature civility between Posters, which is what distinguishes it from the juvenile playground tactics that often plagues other Sites. Yes there have been some lapses, but normally caused by people who were, (and by some who probably also are), solely motivated to purposely derail & sabotage Threads, but they have been, and are, dealt with mostly without having to descend to unnecessary & nasty abuse.

That being the case, I have to agree with Komodo in that I find Ken’s repeated gloating over his “Gotcha” guilt by association point-scoring over Mary’s link, quite distasteful; firstly, it’s extremely irrational behaviour to try to infer that quoting or linking iro a topic of issue is “invalid” just because the Source has objectional views on other issues – a bit like saying that the BNP’s claim that our immoral & illegal wars in the ME fuel domestic terrorism is “invalid” because the BNP is a racist organisation; both statements happen to be true & are not mutually incompatible; and secondly, this trying to taint a person as having no more credibility because of this disingenuous guilt by association linkage is the favourite tactic of those more interested in their own ego than in honest debate.

For example Ken tries to rubbish Mary’s point about AI being highly politicised not by argument but by ridicule, so the question for you Ken, is are you are really interested in defending your points of view on their merits, or you are more interested in seeming to “win” by engaging in character assassinations ?

@Macky [I have to agree with Komodo in that I find Ken’s repeated gloating over his “Gotcha” guilt by association point-scoring over Mary’s link, quite distasteful;]
‘
‘
‘
Yawn. Another one of the gang come to defend their mate. It is getting a little fucking boring now. One turns up ignores what their mates insults towards me and have a go at Ken and then another and another and you are yet another. You have ignored all Marys insults against me to just come and back her up. It is a joke and the funniest thing is that you and your buddies cannot even see it. Give it a rest.

[Mod/Jon - sorry to blanket delete everyone on the troll topic, but we need to make it off-topic]

[Mod/Jon - sorry to blanket delete everyone on the troll topic, but we need to make it off-topic]

[Mod/Jon - sorry to blanket delete everyone on the troll topic, but we need to make it off-topic]

Macky,
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[Mod/Jon - partly deleted material on the troll topic, but we need to make it off-topic]
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Mary hopefully will be back and commenting soon, I enjoyed the links she used to come up with.

[Mod/Jon - sorry to blanket delete everyone on the troll topic, but we need to make it off-topic]

[Mod/Jon - sorry to blanket delete everyone on the troll topic, but we need to make it off-topic]

[Mod/Jon - sorry to blanket delete everyone on the troll topic, but we need to make it off-topic]

Returning to Halliburton ( would someone here rather I didn’t? Just say. No need to spam the blog)
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0531-02.htm.

Fedup,

I can google “moon-landing myth” but I don’t believe the moon-landings were a conspiracy either.

http://www.princeton.edu/sgs/publications/sgs/pdf/14_1%2073-74%20rodionov.pdf

Ted invented some extreme nuclear (fission) devices for the U.S. stockpile, for instance, the minimum-sized one as
well as the bomb with the highest explosive yield. He was the first to use the
reactor-grade plutonium as a kind of a nuclear explosive. But a few years later,
he did an about-face in his perception of nuclear weaponry, and after about a
decade, he rejected nuclear power as well. Ted’s paper, Nuclear Power and Nu-
clear Weapons published in Vol. 13, 1–2: 117–128 of this journal presents his
recollections of this evolution.

===

http://www.princeton.edu/sgs/publications/sgs/pdf/13%201-2%20Taylor-Feiveson.pdf

Contrary to widespread belief among nuclear engineers who have never
worked on nuclear weapons, plutonium made in nuclear power plant fuel can
be used to make all types of nuclear weapons.

====

Jimmy Carter declassified a “reactor grade” bomb test that took place in 1962 as he, as a nuclear physicist, understood the proliferation problem. The UK tested reactor grade plutonium in bombs in the 1950s

[Mod/Jon - sorry to blanket delete everyone on the troll topic, but we need to make it off-topic]

Anon
“moon-landing myth” has nothing to do with the “rock oil” Petroleum, and “peack oil”. Incidentally seeing as there is an ‘eum at the end of the petrol, don’t you thin it ought to banned too? Perhaps this too can be used as reactor grade bomb fuel (and it is, daisy cutter, thermobaric weapons), or get the tanks moving or transport soldiers, and worst still transport the bomb making scientists going to and fro from their homes to work and such. Heck, Ban the Oil movement has been far too slow in forming.
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“Reactor grade” my foot, what a lot of cods-wallop, this is the mindset of the paranoid bastards whom would ban the knives from kitchens and stop steel production because knives are made out of steel. You easily accept for moves to go ahead and “cull” millions of human beings, in case one of these turned out to be a nuclear scientist, or murderer to be precise, sort of King Herod fashion solution.
,
Your links are only satiating your paranoid outlook, perhaps it is time you took some prozack or some other anti psychotic drug of some kind. Peak Oil is an excuse to kill lots of people for the benefit of reducing the competition for the established bunch of fuckwits, whom cannot see past beyond their noses.
,
Stop making excuses for killing bastards and their dastardly creed, snap out of it, we live in a universe, and so far we have not even started to find out what is on this planet? and how it is formed? But for sure we know how to kill millions of human beings and have excuses galore.

Passerby,

I can’t possibly prove (even to myse4lf) Peak Oil but I think it is highly likely we are at or close to it.

However I can satisfy myself that excess plutonium-238 and 240 “contamination” is no insurmountable problem to detonating nuclear weapons. Spontaneous fission can be turned to the bomb designers advantage and excess heat is easily solved (one way is a bomb that assembles itself just prior to detonation). From public literature You would have to really screw up to get less than a few hundred tons of TNT equivalent with a “reactor grade” bomb and the 1-10 kton range is quite possible. The declassified US test was listed as “Less than 20 Kton”).

I understand the physics. I don’t think you do.

http://www.osti.gov/bridge/servlets/purl/437625-gCUCGr/webviewable/437625.pdf

Proliferation Vulnerability
Red Team Report
SAND 97-8203

Printed October 1996

The Authors:

Sandia National Laboratory:

…

4.1.2 Utility of Reactor Grade Plutonium
in Nuclear Explosive Devices

The single summary statement about the utility of plutonium from the disposition program and its potential for use in nuclear explosive devices is: “All plutonium is good plutonium; some is better than other.”

===

If you can explain to me why multiple nuclear bomb designers, Sandia and basic physics for that matter are wrong and you can’t detonate reactor grade plutonium then please do so.

By the way the reactor 3 explosion at Fukushima was a moderated prompt critical excursion set off by a smaller hydrogen explosion impacting spent fuel assemblies according to nuclear reactor engineer Arnie Gunderson. Time will tell if he is correct.