I think you mean The Spectator is now a neocon rag, not The Economist.

while being interviewed by a friendly neo-con rag – (which is all the once fine Economist now is).
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The Economist is not a “neo-con rag”!

Well, well, well.
.
There is nothing new under sun.
The problem is that foreign policy has become so much complicated that it cannot be trusted to the democratically elected assembly such as the parliament. Formally western foreign policy is constrained with various of so called liberal agreements such as respect of Human Rights, denunciation of torture or violation of Human Rights, unconditional respect of sovereignty of other nations. In practise at presently valued neo-colonial methods of foreign policy, western powers (US and UK primarily) had to use so called backdoors politics when it comes to establishing and formulating of a foreign policy. And parliament is just presented with already formulated and ‘ready to do’ strategy and asked or in some cases forced to approve it. Basically parliament was reduced to the rubber stamp establishment.
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Basically, I will not be surprised if in few weeks to come, parliament and Congress are presented with a ‘ready to do’ strategy over Iran. Nothing else is going to be relevant, because Iran is the major treat to Israel (or at least Israeli establishment think so) and also contributed to it the fact of strong pro-Israeli lobbies in both US and UK policy making circles.

Q382 Robert Halfon: So whether or not there was a separate policy is nothing to do with you
,
That collectively includes anyone other than the prime minister, so far as these rouge zionist cabal are concerned. They have all too easily bypassed all safe guards and have been busy implementing their own policies without so much as any hints of checks and balances. Further bypassed are; any scrutiny of the said policies by the elected representatives, engaged in adherence to democratic scrutinisation of the processes of implementation of policies of government.
,
This cannot be a healthy affair, ex director of the CFI Robert Halfon filibuster, and obstruction in this process of scrutiny, itself ought to be subject to a separate investigation, as to finding out what does he know, and why is he so intent to obfuscate the truth, by derailing any attempt in getting to truth?

Mr Murray,
.
Do not you think that there are few contributors to the current financial and economic crisis and that government’s overspending (including military) are also contributing factors to this crisis? Greedy bankers played major role in it, but also governments with their unproportionate budgets that they formed in the search of political support.
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Greece is one good example. Their economy is not only unbalanced but their public sector is totally unproportionate and still being subsidised by Germany

BBC, Guardian, Spectator, Economist. What a sorry bunch. Once they were worth watching and reading on Israel and the Middle East. Now they all tow the neo-con line. All of them are obsessed with “terrorism” in every imaginary form. That way they keep the Israeli lobby and the government (or do I repeat myself) off their backs. You can just see their reaction when we finally attack Iran.
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eg.”I know we may have been misled on Iraq but this time the threat is real…..”
.

The only real threat is from the mainstream media who have colluded in the assault on indpendent journalism, open government and the truth.

Comic books, all of them.

Arsalan,
.
Not to argue with you but for the last 15 years Arabs (or putting it more correctly leaders of Arabic nations) are amongst major investors in all kind of financial products. Some of the major banks are owned by some of the most lucrative investment funds from the middle east.

I personally think that deception does not have a side. Whether right wing or left wing, deception is all the same. I was born and grew up in the place where extreme form of left wing deception was supreme and it did not feel to be better than current supreme right wing deception.

If we have a secret foreign policy, then surely it’s quite logical to assume that real decision making does not come from parliament or the Cabinet; that there’s a secret power behind which evidence points to its control of the intelligence services and hidden control of a plethora of companies including those involved in natural resources, armaments and security.

The BBC’s report on this certainly leant heavily on Werrity in Sri Lanka. Where, as Bell Pottinger were rather in competition with him, he probably didn’t achieve very much at all. I don’t recall hearing Israel or Mossad mentioned, though.
The Spectator (interesting logo on its Blogs page: a megaphone)may not publish the piece until the 17th, with its print edition. If it isn’t pulled for reasons of national security that remain unexplained, like this one:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/nov/25/removed-adam-werrity-donors-tory-party

“real decision making does not come from parliament or the Cabinet”
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That was the case under Blair, was it not. He arranged policy (in relation to Iraq) with Bush. And isn’t/wasn’t there controversy over his communications with Bush being released in relation to the Iraq Inquiry?
I get a shiver down my back.

Heads up:
“WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US security firm formerly known as Blackwater, which was barred from Iraq over a deadly 2007 shooting, renamed itself a second time Monday.

USTC Holdings, the investor consortium that acquired ex-Blackwater firm Xe Services in December 2010, announced ACADEMI as the new name and brand for Xe Services.”

Sorry, source for the above:
http://www.activistpost.com/2011/12/once-called-blackwater-firm-changes.html

Uzbek in the UK,
Cease and desist from being a weather vane.
,
,
“Greece is one good example. Their economy is not only unbalanced”
,
Greece was the time bomb to destroy Euro, as were some of the other economies that were qualified for accession to EU by cooking their books, aided and abetted by US banks and rating agencies.

I bet that public sector workers in Greece did not mind 30% increase in their salaries in the last 3 years before the crisis struck and possibly the earliest retirement age in the EU.

Going back to the main debate.
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It is hard to recall a time when foreign policy was a result of broad agreement? Is not it always that some dark forces are involved in undermining and directing foreign policy? Various wars in the last century including WWII could produce some good examples.
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Basically foreign policy is always a policy directed to the domination of weaker party by a stronger party. Putting it in other words if you want to have good times, feed your own army, or you will feed foreign army on your soil. This doctrine has worked quite well since when humans learned to use tools.

I bet the banks don’t mind picking up Greece’s national assets at pennies in the pound. And why exactly did Papandreou cash in the Credit Default Swap his predecessor had purchased, a CDS which, had it remained, would have saved the Greeks from liability for any default?

The Economist is a neo-con rag.

As Jews for Justice for Palestinians reportedin mid-October:
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“Its advisory board has included George Osborne, William Hague and Michael Gove, all members of Cameron’s government, while the PM’s communications chief, Gabby Bertin, has been a researcher for Fox on the project.
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The advisers could not have been more right-wing or impressive. In 2007, according to the website Powerbase, they included: Lord Tebbit, Patrick Minford, Lord Astor of Hever, Clark S Judge of the White House Writers Group, Eleanor Laing MP, John Whittingdale MP, and Grace-Marie Turner of the Galen Institute.”
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http://jfjfp.com/?p=25985
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Cameron kept his nose clean in the Atlantic Bridge affair because he did not need to be involved. His wife, Samantha, is daughter to Lord Astor showing just how close Cameron really is to these other nasties. Believe me, there was no logical reason for him using a veto in Europe. His purpose is longer term and he disclosed it in the Sunday Express of 21 Aug 2011 when he vowed to fight the “hated” European Law and Law on Human Rights. The reason is clear. It is the same reason why the US is not a member of the International Criminal Court. If there is no higher authority than our highest authority then these nasty beings feel they can continue war-crimes, torture and abuse, theft of oil and other mineral wealth with impunity.

.

Banks never miss an opportunity to cash on anything, even and especially during bad times, including wars.
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The point I wanted to raise is that governmental overspending has also contributed to the current financial and economic crisis. Banks were cashing on public salaries, benefits, pensions as much as they were cashing on each bullet that was used by coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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Whenever you spend each of your pennies benefit greed of the bankers. We can of course suggest to run economy without banks but it has proven to be wrong in 1990th.

MJ,
For the same reason he had a rethink on the issue of referendum. JFK movies are always a good eye opener/mind change/force majeure for any of the would be self-reliant leaders.
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However, considering that there is such a rush to hand over the foreign policy to “special interests” or root it in the law of the jungle, perhaps BICOM are keeping an eye on this blog, seeing as its director Lorna Fitzaimons, holds; “public opinion does not influence foreign policy in Britain. Foreign policy is an elite issue.”, ie never mind the democratic processes, oligarchs know best.
,
Meanwhile back at the farm;
Peers banned from Lords In case they pay for their fielded expenses scam, by their attendance allowance.
,
Dounchyou like the smell of democracy in the morning?

Hi Craig,
With pleasure;
While at the Herzliyaa Conference, she is reported to have said that “public opinion does not influence foreign policy in Britain. Foreign policy is an elite issue.”

Ms Fitzsimons then went on to say: “Our enemies are going to international courts where we are not supreme.”
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It is believed that this was a reference to the ongoing attempts in Britain and elsewhere to have key Israeli figures such as former foreign minister Tzipi Livni arrested for war crimes over the invasion of Gaza …
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/content/view/full/86401

Craig;
Also, One of the most distressing moments at Herzliya came when

Lorna Fitzsimons, former Labour MP and now head of Bicom, a British-based pro-Israeli think-tank, pointed out that “public opinion does not influence foreign policy in Britain. Foreign policy is an elite issue.” Deal with the elite, and the proles will follow – that was the implication. “Our enemies are going out to international courts where we are not supreme,” she said.
,
However if you follow the footnote in the link forwarded in the former comment, you will notice the link to the Morning Star, a “crafty” move in “discounting” the impact of that statement.

Fitzsimons quote: probably in:
“On Criticism and Prejudice: The Arab-Israeli Conflict and Assault on Israel’s Legitimacy” – Herzliya Conference 2011.
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A list of Brits attending here:
http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/43956/brits-out-force-herzliya-conference.
Though Messrs Werrity and Gould are not named…

I put that BBC link up here yesterday describing it as meaningless drivel and saying there was no link on the Spectator. The Spectator editor Frazer Nelson with a strange Scottish accent is often invited on to the news channels for his ‘opinion’.

.
Reading the Times today, in a cafe I hasten to add – never give a penny to Murdoch remember, they had the same thing almost word for word. Who is putting out this stuff?
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See that Nelson was once with Screws of the World.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraser_Nelson

I can’t get a link or reference to this on either the BBC or Spectator sites. The memory hole appears to get faster and bigger by the day.At this rate the MSM will report no news at all just the results of X Factor type fodder.Worrying,really,when you think about it.

If you have a library nearby they may have a copy of the Spectator. Butlibraries are short of cash – and if I was looking to cut subscriptions it would be one of the first places I’d look. Having said that, they opposed the Falklands’ War – on economic grounds.

Iran Conducting Anti-U.S. Operations from Latin America.
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http://blog.heritage.org/2011/12/09/univision-confirms-iranian-threat-in-latin-america/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell
‘
‘
‘
This sounds like the classic entrapment techniques being used by the Americans these days. It is a very funny read in that it proves nothing at all and is very much like that other story of the failed Iranian/American business man supposedly planning to knock out the Saudi ambassador. Looks like a shed load of propaganda to me.

There are elements that still don’t add up in all of this story.It feels,for want of a better word,weird.On one hand you have the deftly controlled closing of ranks-from O’Donnell,the media and other bodies yet Fox still had to resign.I fail to understand how the story can be so effectively spiked yet,if the powers that be had so much clout i’m sure they could’ve saved Fox from the chop.I do get a sense the real story being,despite the apparent shoulder to shoulder stance of the Establishment,one of serious policy splits higher up; i.e. some quarters want to smooth over this issue and others want it out in the open.Is this really a deep Whitehall turf/policy war? I don’t know,just a thought.
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Thanks for the library suggestion John G. btw.

The BBC have assisted The Spectator in a sales op. Thought there was no advertising on ZBC.
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Werritty is sandwiched between Joan Collins and Taki. The mind boggles.

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Order your copy for just £4.95 – plus FREE p&p (UK only).
.
In this issue:

The Spectator: 17th / 24th December Christmas Double Issue 2011

ANDREW MARR
JOAN COLLINS
ADAM WERRITTY
TAKI
MARTIN REES
NEIL TENNANT
SUSAN HILL
QUENTIN LETTS
TOM HOLLANDER
NIALL FERGUSON
EMILY MAITLIS
.
http://www.spectator.co.uk/buy-this-issue/5324661/buy-the-current-issue.thtml

More lies from the BBC.
.
14 December 2011 Last updated at 16:57
Obama speech at Fort Bragg to mark end of Iraq war
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US President Barack Obama is about to mark the end of the Iraq war with a speech at Fort Bragg in North Carolina.

His address will pay tribute to the soldiers who served in the war – both those who died and veterans who returned home after long tours of duty.

More than 200 soldiers based at Fort Bragg died over the course of the nearly nine-year war.

Mr Obama announced in October that all US troops would leave Iraq by 31 December.

On Tuesday, Mr Obama was joined by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki in Washington as he said the US would still support Iraq as the two countries moved towards a more normal relationship.

US troops in Iraq peaked at around 170,000 during the height of the so-called surge strategy in 2007. The last combat troops left the country in August 2010. The final US soldiers are expected to leave Iraq within days

.

The reality -
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‘This is pretty ambiguous. “American presence” can be as simple as the diplomatic throng that will remain in Iraq, backed by a private military army. But a couple weeks ago, Gen. Martin Dempsey let slip that military trainers would remain at ten bases in Iraq beyond the December deadline. The top-line statement has always been that all troops will leave, and with the US down to 14,000 troops left, that is nearing reality. But there’s this residual force lurking in the back of everyone’s mind. Nobody will come out and say it, at least until Dempsey did. But in violation of the status of forces agreement, some trainers will stay behind. And now the Vice President enters the country to ensure that will happen.’
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http://news.firedoglake.com/2011/11/29/biden-enters-iraq-to-negotiate-continued-american-presence/

Jives,
The elements do add up. When the hidden government/policies face exposure, resignations usually follow. The most important aspect of all this is that the public remains ignorant of the hidden agenda.
In illegal activities which fund our shadow government such as excise or VAT fraud, participating informants are sometimes charged and convicted and then very often let out the back door of prison. Sometimes defendants are segregated into different trials to prevent exposure or the participating informants just disappear abroad.

There are elements that still don’t add up in all of this story.It feels,for want of a better word,weird.On one hand you have the deftly controlled closing of ranks-from O’Donnell,the media and other bodies yet Fox still had to resign.I fail to understand how the story can be so effectively spiked yet,if the powers that be had so much clout i’m sure they could’ve saved Fox from the chop.I do get a sense the real story being,despite the apparent shoulder to shoulder stance of the Establishment,one of serious policy splits higher up; i.e. some quarters want to smooth over this issue and others want it out in the open.Is this really a deep Whitehall turf/policy war? I don’t know,just a thought.

Sorry Jives,
I didn’t mean to include the whole of your comment. This is what my comment should have read:

Jives,
The elements do add up. When the hidden government/policies face exposure, resignations usually follow. The most important aspect of all this is that the public remains ignorant of the hidden agenda.
In illegal activities which fund our shadow government such as excise or VAT fraud, participating informants are sometimes charged and convicted and then very often let out the back door of prison. Sometimes defendants are segregated into different trials to prevent exposure or the participating informants just disappear abroad.

Going back to David Steel who withdrew his involvement with UK mercenary activity in mining in war-torn countries, this story has a similar unrealness. Like a grotto belonging to the National Trust. The name Werrity, a Zionist UK ambassador, mossad meetings.
We are witnessing a transfer of public assets to individual pockets on a scale not seen since the enclosure of land for the benefit of agriculture and the establishmentising of new wealth from black slavery colonialism. It is a collaboration of wealthy individuals and state terrorism.
The fact is that things like this happen from time to time in our culture. We are trained to turn the other cheek and see no evil. If we still had a law to burn witches, I would stick Maggie on the fire with my own hands. But the reality is that in two centuries time the actions of these bastards will be being uncritically glorified, just as neo-classical crap is today.

Craig have you seen that David Martin MEP is presenting a report on trade with Uzbekhistan tomorrow morning in Strasbourg Hugh

“Going back to David Steel who withdrew his involvement with UK mercenary activity in mining in war-torn countries, this story has a similar unrealness.” anno.
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Are you suggesting, anno, that Ceraig may have to repeat the apology, etc. wrt Werrity? I think the key difference b/w Steel’s case and the allegations in Werrity’s case is that it is clear now that Steel withdrew from any investments as soon as he found out they had questionable linkages, whereas it is alleged that Werrity was an example of just such a questionable linkage.

You don’t have to waste £4.95 to read the Werritty article. It says very little more than reported by the BBC and finishes:
.
“During all this I found myself revisiting the same question over again: what had I done that was so wrong? A good friend put it well: the whole thing was ‘a storm in a Sri Lankan tea cup’. For me, it’s time to move on to a new chapter of my life. I’ll always be a staunch Conservative, but other than casting my vote on polling day and delivering the occasional political leaflet, I’m planning a future well away from politics. For now, I’m looking forward to spending Christmas with family — and Hogmanay with Liam, Jesme and other close friends to toast the beginning of a new year. There are some things that even storms in a Sri Lankan tea cup don’t change.
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At the request of Mr Werritty, the fee for this article was donated to the Help for Heroes charity. ”
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There is a link (in red) just under the wedding photo entitled ‘continue reading’.

Thanks John. They have put it up this afternoon. It wasn’t there earlier.
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http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/7485558/breaking-the-silence.thtml

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I like the bit about Liam and Jesme at the end.

Mary, “I like the bit about Liam and Jesme at the end”, do you think he only included Jesme out of politeness?

From the same organ and by the political editor of the Jewish Chronicle, Martin Bright.
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Tuesday, 13th December 2011
Nazis, Aidan Burley and memories of the bad old days
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News of the antics of Aiden Burley and his friends at a Nazi-themed stag party in France made me think about the strange ways some Tories like to have fun.
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When I was at university in the mid-1980s the Tories were in their pomp. My time at Cambridge was sandwiched between the two Thatcher-era landslides of 1983 and 1987 and those of us on the left felt pretty embattled. Through a mixture of ignorance and accident I ended up at a particularly ‘traditional’ college, Magdalene, which was then all-male and…
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Continue reading…
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http://www.spectator.co.uk/martinbright/7480873/nazis-aidan-burley-and-memories-of-the-bad-old-days.thtml

The Medialens editors on that slimeball Mardell’s latest offering.
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BBC’s Mark Mardell on the US and Iraq
Posted by The Editors on December 14, 2011, 5:32 pm
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‘I put it to him that it is ironic that neo cons, who believe American power can be used to change the world for the better, made that less likely because of their enthusiasm for the Iraq war.’
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-16173117
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I feel like I could write reams and reams on the sheer awfulness of this tiny piece from Mardell: the basic framing of the issue, the absence of any sense of what was done to Iraq through sanctions and war, the choice of a blood-drenched neocon for opinion, and just everything that’s missing.
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And then you have to ask: what kind of journalism is it we’re faced with now that it’s just so conformist, anaemic, corporatised and empty? This is such an organisation piece by an organisation man. Was it worse under any totalitarian system? Surely it was – you’d have to think so. But how could it be? What could be more vacuuous and awful than this from Mardell?
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Eds

I read the Martin Bright article. As soon as it got away from the bit about him not eating meat (I was starting to warm to him) and wanting to start a poetry magazine, both worthwhile causes, his politics became evident and the inevitable slagging off of Paul Flynn M.P. (with multiple links) left me without any sympathy. To set up the poetry magazine he asked for a donation from under the foreskins of the Cambridge Boat Club the result of which one of them threatened to break his legs. Or did I not understand the paragraph properly?

John Goss,
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The fate of the Tamil(and the LTTE) in Sri-Lanka is a heart-breaking and distressing story of torture and war-crimes committed by government forces on the Tamil population in the North.
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I learned first-hand from a close friend, colleague and COIA researcher who I sponsored for political asylum in the 80′s.
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Many Tamil fled to Canada and Britain and my friend and his parents, who had a beautiful house near Elephant Pass, evaded a certain death by escaping to Britain.
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I hope to disclose the full story in some way when appropriate in the near future.

He would do that though, wouldn’t he John.
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I was struck by the adolescent style of the writing by both Werrity and Bright. The comments on Bright’s piece are repellent in that they support both the Zionism within and the Nazi carry-on. Just boys having fun. And as for the allusion to the placing ten pence pieces, well.
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PS. Bright doesn’t even get Burley’s first name correct nor can the QC in the comments spell ‘extravagant’.
.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Bright

‘Elite Issue’, indeed! Everyone who objects to this failure to show respect to ordinary citizens is right to make their displeasure known.

I don’t by any means agree with all of Maggie Thatcher’s policies, but when she spoke of “not-so-grand Grandees”, was she not also objecting this sort of “elitism”?

Actually the heart of it may be that the “elite” are not better than other people. If they were people of superior virtue, it might be another matter, but then they wouldn’t make foolish remarks about “elite issues”.

I’ve said it before, but the mainstream media’s job is to critique the MANAGEMENT of the state by whichever party happens to be in power. That’s all. The workings of the “deep state” – and the various strategic decisions that it makes – are strictly off limits. Iran/Israel (Gould/Fox/Werrity) fall into the latter category, as does the ongoing catastrophe at Fukushima, which is actually threatening to contaminate a fair slice of the northern hemisphere. Just don’t tell the nuclear industry that.

Mark_Golding, I have a Tamil friend too on whose behalf I petitioned for citizenship when he was an asylum-seeker, and for the last twelve months he has been able to work here. Only last Sunday he was telling me that there had been a death-threat on the Finance Minister – who I presume is a Tamil – causing him to seek asylum. (I can’t find anything on this on the web). So I was aware. I also have a Tamil friend and a Singalese friend, who work with me, who found out they were related last year. I wasn’t trying to deny the seriousness of Werritty’s affairs in Sri Lanka, or underplay the injustices of a war that lasted 26 years.
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The article, to my mind, is no more than a red-herring because of the photographic evidence of him with Fox and the Sri Lankan prime minister, something he cannot possibly deny. The purpose of using a neo-con rag to express his views rather than meet with responsible journalists lets him say what he wants to say and ignore disclosures he should be making about meetings with Gould, Fox and MOSSAD in Israel, and possibly elsewhere. The article is further laughable because of Werritty’s revelation that he is planning a future well away from politics. He may even be planning a future well away from the UK. That wouldn’t surprise me. But the police hierarchy rarely hounds one of those it feels is paid to protect. And Werritty is one of them (and one of them) with friends at the very top of the a**e-licking ladder.

@Mike

You said: The workings of the “deep state” – and the various strategic decisions that it makes – are strictly off limits.

From this it follows that a good way to tell what things are the doing of the deep state is just to observe the subjects where dissenting views are off limits. Like the JFK assassination, or 9/11.

@lysias – I am not sure that is entirely true. A mainstream consensus *can* form against one theory or another simply because it *is* ludicrous (and statistically, some of them must be). Or, alternatively, mainstream opinion doesn’t like radical alternative views, and so dismisses all of them.
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Hence, growth of opposition to a particular theory does not prove that it is true.

Mike,
You are aware that Fukushima was in the process of manufacturing the Japanese nukes, after the years of Bu$h administration’s push for Japan to become the member of the nuke club.
,
Also fact that the containment/pressure vessel was defective, from the word go, but the news of this too was hushed up.
,
Not forgetting the weird behaviour of the cooling pumps which could have been the direct result of the stuxnet genomic strain of the new industrial viruses.
,
,
Finally “deep state” affairs, as you have mentioned, without any references to the oligarchs, does that mean you approve of the needs for secrets? If so, would you point out who is qualifies to keep an eye on those whom are busy operating in secret?

Speaking after a mass murder in Belgium,
/
/
“Foreign Secretary William Hague said he was “saddened” by the attack.
/
“There can be absolutely no place for appalling acts of violence such as this in any society, and I condemn this attack in the strongest terms,” he said.
/
“I send my deepest sympathy to the victims of this attack, their families and loved ones.
/
“The Belgian authorities have our full support as they investigate this incident.”
/
/
I wonder if this applies to the Middle East as well ?

Way to go guys, now our next generation “professionals” are already “professionals”. The austerity for the poor and destitute to keep the too fat to slim, too big to fail, and too sacred to be told to fuck off principles have brought about our young students taking up prostitution as a route for attaining higher education.
,
Desperate British students “turning to prostitution” A sad and dreadful story that needs not to be spined but the degenerate DOMINIQUE JACKSON in DM So students are turning to prostitution? has just done that;
Eleven per cent? Is that all? I am pretty sure that working as an escort, ostensibly all above board, for apparently easy money, has crossed plenty more bright young female minds. Escort work would seem to be the most palatable end of a spectrum which presumably includes pole or lap dancing, stripping and goes through to full-blown intercourse in exchange for money.
,
Hopefully she will not be so mindful when her daughter (if she has any) start opting for payments in kind for their education.
,
Sick bastards have turned UK into a variation of the old Czech republic (scanty clad women looking for business along route 66), but are still plotting to go and spend more money on more fucking wars.

I hate the inept spam filter, ate my comment again

Challenging people’s beliefs. You really shouldn’t do that with your friends, particularly when they are highly intelligent and think they can out argue you.

I got – “everyone knows that is true.” “You don’t really believe that. You are just arguing to be contrary.” I got on my high horse and stormed out. “You must have a very low opinion of me, if you think I would argue just to be contrary. Have you looked at the evidence? Have you spent weeks researching the evidence? Do you think I would argue with you just for the sake of having an arguement?”

I gave her a kiss and a cuddle as she was leaving.

Last year she asked me one of the most intelligent questions ever.

My wife doesn’t give me this grief, cos I do what she tells me to do. Most of the time.

Tony

Cheyney’s at it again. With a bit too on his support for Newt Gingrich.
.
http://www.salon.com/2011/12/13/cheney_urges_a_quick_air_strike_against_iran/

She agreed with me on nearly everything else. The sticking point was about photography. I simply said, well I don’t know about that, but I am 100% convinced that at least some of the photography was done on a studio on Earth.

Of course, she immediately realised the implications run very much deeper, and she couldn’t handle it. Her brain is so fast.

Tony

Sell your arse, because there are too many; too big to fail, and too sacred to be told to fuck off, around

Then there are the degenerate cheerleaders for rara austerity rara; Dominique Jackson writes :
‘
Eleven per cent? Is that all? I am pretty sure that working as an escort, ostensibly all above board, for apparently easy money, has crossed plenty more bright young female minds. Escort work would seem to be the most palatable end of a spectrum which presumably includes pole or lap dancing, stripping and goes through to full-blown intercourse in exchange for money.
,
All the while the pricks selected to be in charge are busy plotting to start another war, these fuckwits can pay for the war, because the next generation professionals are selling their arse to service the debts of war for the duration of their life time.

Damn, so O’Bomber is going back on his word, and now will not veto this bill after all, which would allow the indefinite detention of anyone in the world, who was picked up without charge, on secret evidence, and without the need to notify anyone before or afterwards. It could be called the US Military Disappearance Bill.
.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/12/14/white-house-will-not-veto-national-defense-authorization-act/
.

John Goss,
Cheneys batteries are running low again, or have been spiked, he is talking out of his butt.
,
Glenn,
Have you heard about the predator drones getting used by the US police to apprehend the civilians in US?

Fed Up: You are aware that Fukushima was in the process of manufacturing the Japanese nukes, after the years of Bu$h administration’s push for Japan to become the member of the nuke club.

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That is just such rubbish.

Werrity>” Ohhh Sir’s in a bit of a bait and we don’t know why!He’s in such a woost with me,Liam and Gouldie!Gosh Sir! but we never Sir!! We never did anything Sir!Honest! We weren’t to know walking across the wicket on the eve of a 1st XI match was a crime,did we Sir?”
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Frankly this is the equivalent idiot schoolboy tone of Werrity in this nauseating article and it just won’t wash,not for a second.He can play the naif all he wants but it’s so obvious The Spectator article is a pathetic attempt by the formerly off-the-radar Werrity to dip his toe in the water and test for re-integration into the Establishment fold.Really nauseating.Does he expect us to believe that,as he orbited spookland,the MOD,MOSSAd et al,that he was just whirling around the social calendar because of his pal Foxy? The odious little shit should be ashamed at his blatant little act but,then again,his type are brazen to the last.Werrity,i’d argue,knew exactly what the game was and this awful article is as truly pathetic as i’ve seen for a long long time.
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“Delivering the occassional political leaflet”? Well that covers a multitude of sins and no mistake.Deductively there’s 2 options for Werrity based on this piece.Either A> he was genuinely naive and unaware of the game-in which case he,the MOD and Govt have a lot more to answer for by letting him wander at leisure through Whitehall or B>He’s up to his neck in the game and got found out big time.
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Either way he loses and looks like a complete fool.
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Maybe he’s being advised by Bell-Pottinger?

Nuid,
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Blackwater is a name synonymous with death, tantamount to violence, parallel to the rape of children and at best conjures drunken, disgusting and outrageous behavior that makes one sick in the stomach. That trademark cannot be erased, corrected or changed by losing the name and insignia, like faeces it sticks.
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Prove of their gung-ho depravity, proof of their iniquitous debauchery is found in WikiLeaks secret dispatches, archives, images and accounts of witnesses. I too have statements of amateurish, overpaid and, often, trigger-happy behaviour aimed at unarmed Iraqi civilians, Iraqi security forces, American troops and even other contractors such as a worker from DynCorp International and KBR.
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Few incidents have been made public and those known originate from US Army incident reports.
May 14, 2005, an American unit “OBSERVED A BLACKWATER PSD SHOOT UP A CIV VEHICLE,” killing a father and wounding his wife and daughter.
2005 An unprovoked killing by machine gun fire of 17 Iraqis at Nisour Square in Baghdad including a baby and several teenage girls in a school blown up with a thrown grenade.
July 2009, local contractors with the 77th Security Company drove into a neighborhood in the northern city of Erbil and began shooting at random, setting off a firefight with an off-duty police officer and wounding three women.
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ACADEMI board is blessed with ‘war of terror’ high priest JOHN ASHCROFT, the beast who backed up Rove’s lies in the outing of Valerie Plame having of course been paid $three-quarter million. The main man is President for North American Government and Defense – useful for getting a repeat of the required licensed contract in Iraq after the genuine fighters have returned home to families who pine for them.

A bit O/T, but look at Obama in this picture:
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http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/12/14/obama-ratings-down-but-gingrich-worse-poll/
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If he knew he’d age that much in three years since the Nov.2008 election:
http://cache2.artprintimages.com/p/LRG/35/3595/JVT2F00Z/art-print/barack-obama-during-election-night-in-grant-park-on-november-4-2008-in-chicago-illinois.jpg
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Do you think he’d have taken the job? Would anyone, with any principles at all? Looking at him now, I have sympathy. He knows he’s in an impossible situation, the likes of Dubbya just didn’t care.

Werritty: I actually know very little about defence policy and have never pretended otherwise. Why should I be paid by the taxpayer for an expertise I didn’t possess?
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Didn’t he run some sort of defence consultancy? Did he make the same confession to his clients? Did it say on his ‘adviser to Dr Fox’ business cards that he didn’t know much about defence?
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Werritty: I was funded by a number of donors and my job was to research and network. To meet various experts, attend forums and conferences and get a solid understanding of various foreign affairs issues.
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Yes, but to what end? Why did the ‘donors’ want Werritty to ‘get a solid understanding of various foreign affairs issues’? What was he to do for them with that understanding? He makes it sound as though he was being trained for some future purpose. I find it unlikely that he wasn’t already doing something active – especially as he says that he ‘contributed to the decision by the government to remove longstanding emergency regulations’ (presumably the Sri Lankan government).
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A silly attempt to whitewash himself – I imagine he hopes this will tidy the matter up and he can get back into some form of lobbying.

Suhayl
What I meant, and expressed so unclearly, was that an old school, honourable politician like David Steel rejected any involvement in the project as soon as he realised that its participants were unreal ex-SAS old-Etonian up-to-no-good mercenaries.
On the other hand the new breed of neo-con civil servants like go’d and and politicians like Halfon are happy as pigs in shit in this world of unreality and skullduggery. There is of course no difference between these two branches of politics except to confuse outsiders and make them think that the diplomatic service is disconnected from the dirty business of politics.

Abe Rene
The elite in politics are not mysterious bogeymen who(m!) nobody knows. They are people like Nick Clegg who cut their political teeth before school age by listening to political conversation in their homes. In my opinion Clegg tells Cameron what to do in international politics, because the Tory party never expected to win again for another 50 years and anyone with a whiff of intelligence had already abandoned them long before now.
Clegg postures opposition to Tory euroskepticism in order to keep his job in the Liberal party. I think it was Passerby who put his finger on it when he suggested that the Zionist/ Tory motive for Cameron’s walk-out of Europe was to wriggle out of the Court of Justice jurisdiction.
What I was trying to say in my first comment is that there is a coalition between the political elite, the masterclass of lying, and the financial elite. There is absolutely no difference between the old money made from the proceeds of black slavery and the new money made on the proceeds of the War on Terror after Mrs Thatcher opened the door for neo-colonialism.
The political elite, if the truth be told, have also not changed their spots. Plus ca change plus it’s always the same pack of lies. Amen.

@ John Goss:
“I read the Martin Bright article….”

Martin Bright is the (first non-Jewish) political editor of the Jewish Chronicle:
http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/martin-bright-join-jc
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Background:
{http://jfjfp.com/?p=27228&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=an-mp-and-an-editor-who-hope-we-cant-tell-zionism-and-jewishness-apart}

Komodo, thanks for that information. He’s almost certainly a friend of Israel! And why not?

It is a political fact that no foreign country can invade another sovereign country without assistance from its citizens who know how to influence their own country and who accept money and power for selling it to foreigners.
I visit Iraq frequently, but Maliki’s invitation for US enterprise to come to Iraq must have made most people squirm. The sickly sweet stupidity of that statement reminds me of one Christmas Eve when my godfather plied me with whiskey to the point when I realised I was totally intoxicated, but before I dropped into unconsciousness for the whole of the following day. I hate christmas, so that oblivion was welcome, long before I became a Muslim. Praise be to God, I am now free from the whole charade and it’s Maliki-like poison.
As the Arab spring unfolds, thousands of Libyan Muslims are being massacred on the pretext of their connections to Gaddafi by Muslim extremists seeking revenge for the repression and torture of his regime. Who pays them and arms them to commit these atrocities? We do, specifically NATO and William Hague.
I swear to God, that any Muslim who takes money and arms from the enemies of Islam. to commit outrages against Muslims, for the benefit of the enemies of Islam in pursuit of colonialism, is themselves a disbeliever.
They think of themselves as Amir Al’Mu’mineen, the righteous leaders of the believers, but by taking the Queen’s shilling (in both meanings of the word) and persecuting the innocent, I now name them ‘ Smear from the Queen ‘. The only purpose of the vile William Hague in arming the torture-maddened victims of Gaddafi/NATO rendition, is to smear Islam’s good name.

Taliking of secret foreign policy, Richard Perle just this second concluded his justification of USUS policy in the Iraq War on the Today programme in an interview with the excellent Jon Humphries.
We were scared of being hit again after 9/11 by weapons of mass destruction. Why were they not scared of Jahannam / hell for dismantling Iraq completely, when they knew all along 9/11 was a false flag operation?

Quite humorous.
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http://www.newsbiscuit.com/2011/12/13/scientists-capture-first-glimpse-of-elusive-clegg-boson/

I know the “straw man” is persona non grata here. But check out the HoC debate on Iran nuclear proliferation . Minister conspicuously fails to answer Straw’s question about why the UK got out so far in front so fast on financial sanctions, thus concentrating Iranian reaction.

Anno – the end of eight and half bloody years is discussed on Medialens including Perle’s contribution. Except it is not the end, the American contractors and other operatives are still there.
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http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/thread/1323936882.html

PS You should have heard Paxman and his two American guests last night including some crazed looking woman who was an adviser to Bush. It was just a little trifle that has ended. Can and could America do the same elsewhere and if so, where next time were the questions. Unbelievable. The true death toll in Iraq will never be given by the corporate media.

@ Mary:
lol @ Clegg boson.
But worrying to think that there is a Clegg field permeating the universe and that this elusive gauge particle can pop up anywhere…

- on the bright side, it is vanishingly shortlived -

Mary, that’s funny. But the whole of the Higgs-Boson business is ridiculous – even more ridiculous than Clegg if that’s possible. They wasted all of many nations’ finances building the Hadron collider, a massive underground construction, that gave scientists who believed the theory ‘a nice little earner’. They are going to keep bombarding on their merry-go-round for as long as the money keeps coming in and as long as they can keep convincing the world that there is a need for this flawed experiment. Bigging it up with “almost found” is a nonsense that no scientist would put their name to, and releasing information about not having found something is anti-science meant to mislead the masses into believing there is a need for this ‘white elephant’. Over to you Clark.
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Anno, I agree that the western world (not just Hague, but Blair, and Bush and all the nasties that came before this new bunch of nasties) has deliberately tried to besmirch the good name of Islam by setting Moslem against Moslem, brother against brother, sister against sister, friend against friend. It is a deliberate ploy so that Tony Buckingham’s Heritage Oil, and other companies that have their own armies protecting their greed, their interests and the resources they have stolen can thrive while Moslems are busy concentrating on killing one another. Until Islamic followers unite against the real enemy nobody is safe, and Islam’s good name will continue to be blackened. How that can be done under the NTC is not possible to gauge. Infiltration into the NTC will only lead to more bloodshed. I hope, pray even, that some good will come out of this for your faith.
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Having written that, I don’t believe everything in Islamic countries is the blame of the west. I signed a petition yesterday to stop Saudi Arabia from beheading people for practising sorcery, a trumped up crime that I believe is not on the statute book – if they have one in Saudi Arabia – but used to ‘vanish’ people who the repressive monarchic government finds a threat or objectionable. And women have no rights. I heard of a non-Islamic couple who are not married going this week to Saudi Arabia. They are allowed to sit together on the plane but from the airport they have to go to their hotel in separate cars. And these are the West’s friends!
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http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/stop-the-beheading-of-people-for-sorcery/

Mary, I saw Jeremy Paxman last night. That crazed-looking woman’s voice – I guess she can’t help it – was out of this world, siren-like, ethereal. She was scary.

They want to do to Iran what they did to Iraq.
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http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=18518&pid=240900&st=0&#entry240900

Coming to the UK, soon.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/dec2011/mili-d15.shtml

BBC, Guardian, Spectator, Economist. What a sorry bunch. Once they were worth watching and reading on Israel and the Middle East. Now they all tow the neo-con line.

This is an overstatement with regard to the BBC. Don’t know if the story made the radio or even TV news broadcasts but online the ongoing brutality of the IDF is covered, sometimes.

See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/mobile/world-middle-east-16136471

Coverage about the death of a young stone thrower shot at close range in the face, from the rear of an armoured car, with a tear gas canister.

Wonder how leniently the culprit will be treated?

“Bigging it up with “almost found” is a nonsense that no scientist would put their name to, and releasing information about not having found something is anti-science meant to mislead the masses into believing there is a need for this ‘white elephant’.”
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Most of the bigging up is coming from the media. And scientists have belatedly realised that the media aren’t interested if you mumble something about hypotheses and t-tests into your beard while looking everywhere but the camera. No misleading statements have been made by the researchers, that I can see. The data is showing some interesting events somewhere near the predicted energy range, and there is a 250:1 chance on the present showing that this is not random. Not statistically significant, or only just…and they say this.
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Whether you think it’s useful or not is another matter. Personally I’d be glad if quantum physics had never happened – no irritating flashing LED’s over every available surface and feature at Christmas, for one thing. But physics has a good record for throwing up spinoff technology which is of enormous use. And if we don’t do it, the Yanks, Russians and Chinese will.

@Chris Kanefsky
As soon as I looked at that link, I saw that ZBC were at it again.
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Israeli army says it is investigating the death of a Palestinian protester who died after being struck in the face by a tear-gas canister at the weekend.

Pictures of the incident APPEAR to show Mustafa Tamimi, 28, being shot at from close range by an Israeli soldier.
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Witnesses said he had been among a small group of Palestinians throwing stones at army vehicles in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh on Friday.
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Human rights activists have accused the army of using disproportionate force.
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Tamimi is BELIEVED to be the 20th person to have been killed over the past eight years at similar demonstrations against the seizure by Jewish settlers of land belonging to Palestinian villages in the area/
/…
A more truthful and factual account is on Information Clearing House. His face was blown off his head. The IOF were even firing these tear has canisters at the mourners.
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article29984.htm

Komodo, while most of it is coming from the media, somebody has released some information to the media, and scientists, including one from my university, are getting their faces on television without actually telling us anything of significance. They might as well have a politician before the camera because it amounts to the same thing. If they are looking for a particle of God perhaps they should go to church, or the mosque, or the temple. Unless, or until, they discover a Higgs Bosun particle, or anti-particle, or whatever it is supposed to be, my theory that the Hadron collider is a waste of money, is even more valid than their scientific theory, a theory not all scientists believe in. But I would be glad too if quantum physic had never existed, not just because I don’t understand it, but because of the bad uses to which knowledge is generally put. Unfortunately, we cannot uninvent nuclear weapon technology. As to ‘spin-offs’ from the Hadron collider (is that some kind of pun?) we’ll have to wait and see. Yes, we got satellite navigation systems but not before this technology had been used to strategically guide missiles to their destinations. Yes, we got power-steering but not before it had been used in tanks to wreak death and destruction on some poor sods, somewhere. What we need is a new political philosophy – one that works in practice.

My blood boils when I think of those bastards in the Friends of Israel groupings, busily collecting funds and propagandizing for the Zionist state, when I read this. The deliberate shooting has taken place of yet another child in Gaza collecting scrap for a living.
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NO CHILD SHOULD BE HARMED.
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Are you listening Livni and Major Liebovich and the others over there in Tel Aviv?
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http://www.dci-palestine.org/documents/voices-occupation-nedal-h-injuries
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Voices from the Occupation: Nedal H. – Injuries

Posted on: 14 Dec 2011 | Filed under:Case Studies Fatalities and Injuries
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Name: Nedal H.
Date of incident: 13 December 2011
Age: 13
Location: Erez industrial zone, Gaza
Nature of incident: Shot while collectinig scrap metal
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On 13 December 2011, a 13-year-old boy from Gaza is shot in the shoulder whilst collecting scrap metal, about 400 metres from the border with Israel.
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Thirteen-year-old Nedal describes his family’s financial situation as “very harsh”. “I was very weak at school,” says Nedal, “and had to drop out last year after only finishing the fifth grade because I failed three times. I dropped out and tried to learn a trade to help me support my family and myself, but I failed.”
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“Ahmad is my cousin and my best friend. He is like me, a drop-out. Everyday he collects scrap metal from Erez and earns 30 to 40 shekels, depending on how much he collects,” says Nedal. “I saw Ahmad yesterday evening, 12 December, and told him I would like to join him in collecting scrap metal from the industrial zone, and share the 15 shekel rent for the donkey cart. He told me to be ready the following morning at 7:30 am.”
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The next morning the two boys set off to collect scrap metal from the industrial zone as agreed. “We approached Erez Crossing and got off the cart and started walking and looking for scrap metal, about 400 metres from the border fence,” recalls Nedal. “We were not alone. There were around 30 collectors my age. I also saw two Israeli observation towers on the border, but I did not see any soldiers inside.”
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“We stopped the cart on the paved road and walked to the industrial zone to the west. Suddenly, shooting erupted from one of the observation towers. I was about 40 to 50 metres west of the paved road, and about 400 metres away from the border fence. The collectors started running because of it. I myself got scared. I turned around and started running away from the border, and headed back to the cart that was parked to the southeast. I kept running fast because the shooting was intensive,” says Nedal. “I ran about 10 metres when I felt something hitting me on the back of my left shoulder, and I felt my left arm had been paralyzed. I looked at it and saw my shoulder bleeding, and realised I had been injured by bullets from the observation towers.”
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Another scrap metal collector carried Nedal to a nearby horse cart and he was transferred to Balsam Hospital, and then to Kamal Odwan Hospital. Doctors at the hospital operated to remove the bullet and told Nedal that he would be hospitalised for two to three days. “I will never go back to the industrial zone. I went there to collect scrap metal to help my family, and I got shot on the first day. It is a very dangerous thing to do, and I do not recommend it,” says Nedal. “As for Ahmad, I was told he went back to the industrial zone to get the donkey cart.”
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PS A shekel is worth around 16p

@Mary
I was about to post that infoclearinghouse link. Appalling, shocking – in fact no words can really express how I feel about it.

Proud to be British when I read this about the author of the piece Pee.
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About

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I am a British volunteer working on the Right to Education campaign at Birzeit University, and I am also an activist and writer with the International Solidarity Movement.
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I have been given the opportunity to visit a country that has preoccupied all my thinking since being taken on a demonstration to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the 1948 Nakba as an ill-informed Fresher almost four years ago. As a slightly more politically concious 22 year old, I think that my experience here will most likely leave me with more questions than I have answers. Nevertheless, I intend to update this blog as regularly as possible – for my family and friends – but also for anyone who is interested in the occupation and would like to read about what life is really like in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
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Contact me at: holly_rigby AT hotmail.co.uk

https://carbonatingchange.wordpress.com/about/

The outcome for this little boy and his brother and their Dad was even worse.
http://www.dci-palestine.org/documents/voices-occupation-ramadan-z-fatality
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On 9 December 2011, a nine-year-old boy is killed and his eight-year-old bother is injured when their house is hit in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza City.
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Nine-year-old Ramadan lived with his family in the Al Murabetin neighbourhood of Gaza City, near a training camp of Hamas’ military wing, Al Qassam Brigades. On the evening of 8 December 2011, “planes were bombing different targets in Gaza, and drone planes were circling overhead,” recalls Ramadan’s mother, Sa’da. “Their sound was very annoying and they interrupted the television signal, so my husband had to turn it off.”
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“I prepared the beds as usual to put the children to sleep,” she continues. “That day, my husband had bought new blankets for the children, and Yousif and Ramadan started fighting to choose them. They were so excited about the new blankets. When they slept I went to bed with my husband and my little baby, Ahmad. Everything was quiet, and my husband told me that the training site had been evacuated in case there was bombing,” Sa’da explains.
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At around 2:00 am, “I was half asleep breastfeeding Ahmad, when I felt the house was collapsing and rubble and stones falling on me. I covered Ahmad’s face and mine with the blanket to protect him, and immediately after that I heard an explosion shaking the entire place. More stones started falling on me, and the walls started collapsing. The window fell on my chest and abdomen. I turned my body to cover Ahmad. I was in a lot of pain and could not understand what was going on.”

/…

@Mary
Thanks for Holly Rigby link.
Good work also being done here:
http://www.eappi.org/
” brings internationals to the West Bank to experience life under occupation. Ecumenical Accompaniers (EAs) provide protective presence to vulnerable communities, monitor and report human rights abuses and support Palestinians and Israelis working together for peace. When they return home, EAs campaign for a just and peaceful resolution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict through an end to the occupation, respect for international law and implementation of UN resolutions.”

Your cleggs boson links had me in stitches mary, thanks. Looks like the Occupy everywhere moevemnt is gathering speed today.
It is also news that will be supressed, no worries about that.
http://occupylsx.org/

When you read about volunteers like Holly Rigby, it warms your heart. But that the Israeli government prevents humanitarian aid getting in to Palestinians while super-advanced-weaponry is used to kill and maim (400 cases on the web-pages Mary just posted http://www.dci-palestine.org/documents/voices-occupation-ramadan-z-fatality) these tragic individuals whose land Israeli-Zionists continue to steal it freezes your heart. When you know that Friends of Israel in this country and the rest of the western world approves of this theft and these atrocities it leaves you speechless.

somebody has released some information to the media, and (xxxx), ….. are getting their faces on television without actually telling us anything of significance.

Situation normal, then.
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I agree, if the Higgs boson has any destructive potential, we’ll find a way of using it. That is because we are clever apes, not smart ones. However, as an activity, IMO, this kind of research ranks considerably above making Coca-Cola or selling each other credit default swaps, and much more money is tied up in these.
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As an aside, I can now detect picogram quantities of anything you care to name in a benchtop unit which is even affordable, record millions of data points and process them rapidly, using concepts and kit which would have been unthinkable pre-quantum physics. Down to the transistor. NMR scanning, CT imaging…mobile phones..none of this stuff would have been possible if someone hadn’t said “There’s no immediate commercial benefit to quantum physics, but it’s worth funding just to keep us ahead of the game.”
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And we, not the Orientals, would be making and selling this kit at a considerable profit if our commitment to research had been greater…

My sincere wish is that one day UK and US war criminals are brought to trial, as happened in the Nuremberg Trials. Nobody wins a war. Empires fall. But along the way everyone is a loser. Even weapons manufacturers only benefit financially and there are more important things than finance. The more advanced the technology the quicker the empires fall.
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The will of the people brought the Vietnam War to an end. None of the culprits was tried for the use of Agent Orange and all the other experimental weapons used on the Viet Cong. People in the United States were not happy then and are not happy now with their position of perpetual war.
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Things are different today. The US economy is on its last legs. Yes it will bring down other economies when it falls, but then the world is able to start again with new values, laws which really restrict what banks and the financial sector can do. Prohibition of weapons manufacture of any kind should be priority, and a world government with a single currency that can at least stop currency speculation. Yesterday, an Australian friend sent me the following link:
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http://www.linkedin.com/news?actionBar=&articleID=973126621&ids=0PdzoSd3cQdPAIe3kOdj8RdjsVb34OdzoOcjcTeiMOej4SdzsQdPAIcj4RdPsPcjsV&aag=true&freq=weekly&trk=eml-tod2-b-ttl-2&ut=2wqGknA5sFGB01
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It is an article by a rich person who believes that rich people do not create jobs, and finishes:
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“We’re all in this together. And until we return to more reasonable tax policies that help the 99% instead of just the 1%, our economy is going to go nowhere.”
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I think he’s underestimated the problem.

Fair comment Komodo. But who is we?

That’s the politician’s “we”, John. Designed to signal concern, one-of-us-ness and you-re going-to-be-paying-for-my-bright-idea.
Apologies for stepping out of character. I am of course a large smelly lizard. I meant “you”.

“Smelly dragon!” I never said that! If there are going to be any beneficiaries it will be, as ever, the neocons, weapons’ manufacturers to the neocons, and neocon energy-exploration exploitation companies! Have to go!

Me too. There’s a long-dead animal upwind and I need to freshen up with a nice roll in the remains.

@ John Goss
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You are absolutely right to state that all empires fall. However; throughout 5 thousand years of civilisations powers have always struggled for dominance in their region and since Great Geographical Discoveries for the global dominance. It is natural condition of power to spread it and dominate weaker. I am afraid that even in case when US is another fallen empire, power struggle will not be eradicated. Even today with weakening US supremacy we witness the raise of China, India and others. These tendencies will dominate the next few decades.
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Comparison of conditions of Vietnam war with Iraq is slightly irrelevant. There had been strong condemnation of the war in Iraq in the US and throughout the world. However; one major condition that lead to the end of the war in Vietnam, has been absent in the last 20 years. US is no longer one of the superpowers, but the only superpower with supreme influence over global economy, diplomacy, politics, military. It is declining now but when the war in Iraq started no one could question US supremacy.
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Things are quite different today. But again, there are no facts to support an argument that what is coming next is better. China today remind US in 19th century with only minor difference, China today is more assertive than US was then. Chinese economy is much more concentrated in the hands of even fewer powerbrokers and Chinese government is less dependent on public opinion or public support then US government ever was. This lead some to believe that what is coming next is not so colourful as some would expect. And your argument about world’s single currency is also a bit naive. Even in the EU where most of the 17 Euronations have quite common history, economic structure and political system the problem of single currency remains quite open. How would you expect for the Democratic Republic of Congo to have the same currency as UK, or Germany?

Uzbek
I like your phrase ‘ a ready to go strategy for .. Iran’.
In Libya it was a double policy: don’t know what to do/ready-to-go , i.e. pretend not to go but go anyway in the form of special forces, mercenaries and now probably regular troops on the ground.
The majority of UK citizens used to think it was unpatriotic to read between the lines of politicians even if they knew their hidden lies. That was before the increase of destructive ability of modern weaponry and the increase of information available through the internet.
The next generation were far too savvy to worry about patriotism or to worry that that firepower might one day be directed at themselves. They were too busy being consumer Thatcher spawn.
The new generation realise that consumerism was just a throwaway obstacle to distract attention from our evil foreign policy and greedy, elite class.
Well done Holly Rigby. Well done the whole new generation of under 30s who are really getting to grips with the threat of the Zionist New World Order destroying our Christian/Muslim civilisation. There is a vast difference between the ambition of China to be a superpower and the deranged psychopathy of Zionists Zombies wanting to regain their lost paradise of being the chosen people by destroying everything in their path. Only time will tell if Chinese society has an immune system to protect it from the virus of false-flag Zionist violence which is destroying us.
You are in a better position to tell because your origins are
closer to there.

With reference to the National Defense Authorization Act(NDAA) now before Congress the Rt Hon Bruce George MP, Chairman of the Defence Select Committee discusses the use of private armies.
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Quoting Alex Vines: Mercenaries, Human Rights and Legality in Abdel-Fatau Musah and J Kayode Fayemi, Mercenaries: An African Security Dilemma. Pluto Press 2000, the paper reproduced a paragraph on page 188 thus:
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“Their poor human rights record, their lack of transparency, their engagement in arms transfers, their training in psychological warfare against civilians . . .and their use of people with track records of human rights abuse does not bode well for the upholding of international law.”
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In light of the impending Senate decision to give the Department of Defense the explicit power to take civilians into military custody, detain them indefinitely with no charges or trial, I thought it prudent to examine the Royal Prerogative or non-statutory powers, of the Crown because it is impossible to define the exact limits of prerogative. These powers may allow an invasion (of Iran for instance) without a vote in Parliament. It also allows the disposition of the armed forces in the UK, in fact, the prerogative power to keep the peace within the realm may include martial law and tanks on the streets of Britain.
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Royal Prerogative powers, handed down direct from monarchs to ministers over many years, allow governments, among other things, to go to war, regulate the Civil Service, issue passports and grant honours, all without any need for approval from Parliament.
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http://www.asiantribune.com/news/2011/11/30/us-congress-enacts-laws-hold-civilians-under-indefinite-military-detention-without-t

@ Anno”Plus ca change..”

I thought Peter Oborne’s “The triumph of the political class” made it clear that the present-day political elite is worse than previous ones, in that it is more self-serving. The restraining power of the House of Lords (which could be seen as part of the “old” elite) is being taken aay.

It is this sense that I regard the Tories as better than New Labour – not that I approve of unrestrained capitalism, and certainly not the privatisation of public services.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2073054/The-horrific-moment-Palestinian-demonstrator-struck-tear-gas-canister-throwing-stones-Israeli-soldiers-army-jeep.html

There’s plenty of coverage of this – didn’t expect the Mail to have such.

Mark
You hit the apple through the centre, balanced on the head from 100 metres away. I guess the exit of US forces from Iraq gave sureness to your aim. As they leave for home, home has suddenly become Iraq for US citizens. It was ever thus. Whoever argues that we sidestep morality, as in the African Slave Trade, is visited with a complementary affliction, like the theory of evolution by Darwin which starts out by justifying white supremacy and ends up denying the main component, the soul/conscience, or as you call it conscious, of the human being. The rationale of one idea is contagious to the rest of the system. This is from Allah’s infinite power and wisdom.
I was reminded today that the people of the US, even Muslim male and female combatants, were brainwashed into thinking that they were saving an uncivilised society from its own barbarity by invading Iraq. What many of the troops found is that Iraqis are loving, vibrant, intellectual, human people.
May that awareness also pass into US cultural awareness. Maybe increasing numbers of people who are dissatisfied with the fruit of US aggression, viz, imposition of martial law on themselves, will seek out the fruit of Iraqi patience and hospitality and discover through that – the truth of Islam.

Mary,

Just heard a report on BBC Radio 4 6pm News about the recent case of the Palestinian shot in the face you link to. The BBC reporter was apparently at the scene and the coverage seemed to clearly blame the Israelis. So it probably won’t be repeated. I’ll listen again on iplayer when available as I only caught the end of it as I just had Radio 4 on in the background.

Attrocities all round and Netanyahu can’t do anything but spit out more land grabs. Its looking like the zionists are spitting venom at not getting it their way.
In a way of modernising their spite, the term ‘new antisemitismn’is being banded about in a bid to bury this discredited term, once and forever. Those who are opposing the self destructive course of Bibi Netanyahu are being targetted.
Obama’s envoy, asked to be removed by the Israeli right, has been re confirmed by Obama. looks like he has had enough of being president, because if he does not go to war with Iran, as much as the republicans want him to, the zionists will now try their utmost to get him out.
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/12/2011121894832846630.html

Good article in Lobster magazine which gives Craig Murray his justified centrality and importance in relation to this Fox-Werrity scandal and also in general wrt whistleblowing on the UK State:
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http://www.lobster-magazine.co.uk/free/lobster62/lob62-tittle-tattle.pdf