Beyond Irony 181


The videos of both my speech and my interview at the Berlin Freedom of Expression Forum have been taken down. This is not an accident. All the other speeches and all the other interviews are still there. Both series have been renumbered to hide the fact that someting has been removed.

Given that my talk was about censorship and exclusion of whistleblowers, and the lack of genuine freedom in western societies to explain an alternative policy narrative, it is hard for words adequately to describe the apparent behaviour here. The full title of the event was “Censorship and Freedom in Traditional and New Media: The Revolution of Media as a Tool of Freedom of Expression “.

I have written to the organisers to ask what is happening. It is conceivable there is an innocent explanation, though the removal from different places of both the speech and the interview seems hard to explain. Once I hear back from the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy I will let you know. I do not intend to let this lie.

Craig


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181 thoughts on “Beyond Irony

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  • Mary

    CheebaCow You might think I am hard hearted but I have not the tiniest shred of compassion for any one them and their PTSD – and never will have. Or their lost limbs etc. They took up killing for a living, trained for months to kill and perfected the art. Then they say they didn’t know what they were letting themselves in for. Tosh. We and all the other warmongers should NOT be there and should NOT be waging offensive war. Defensive war I can just about take.
    .
    As for the Turkish commander talking about his troops being martyred, that is yet more rubbish. Perhaps the Taliban shot it down or tampered with the fuel. One less helicopter to terrify, maim and kill the inhabitants. Small fleets of Chinooks come overhead here and the noise alone as they beat the air is enough to scare me.

  • Anon

    Summary.
    .
    there are two videos – the speech and the interview. Both were deleted but later re-uploaded, The speech itself appears complete but the second (interview video) has 20 minutes missing starting about 43 mins in.
    .
    Is this accurate?

  • CheebaCow

    Don’t get me wrong, I think joining the army is just about the stupidest thing you can do. However I realise that I am also a product of my family and environment, and not all people are so blessed. Most people in the army are pretty low on the socio-economic ladder and see it as their only way to advance in life. The socio-economic situation coupled with being exposed to pro war propaganda their entire lives, many actually feel they are making an honorable sacrifice for their country. Entirely misguided, but their heart is in the right place, and this in turn is completely abused by the really evil people, those who send young men and women to fight wars in foreign lands.

  • Passerby

    Anon,
    No.
    1- The video of Craig delivering his lecture which is edited and there is a twenty minutes missing/redacted section.
    2- The video of the interview post the lecture.
    ,
    Both these were originally linked to and were available for viewing. Then the videos were removed by the “user” (whomsoever who uploaded these. ie not Craig).
    ,
    Then the absence of the videos were noticed, upon which all manner of correspondence by differing individual were entered into with the event holders. This culminating in mysterious reappearance of the videos, with a slight missing twenty minutes. Therefore aliens could have abducted the videos from youtbe is a strong possibility, or is it due to swap gas and stuff? whatever, this is a more accurate synopses.

  • Rob Royston

    CheebaCow,
    That’s a good summary of what soldiers and wars are all about. General Montgomery, addressing the men he had taken under his charge in North Africa in WW2 told them, “There are no bad soldiers, only bad Generals”.
    Today he would have had to have said, “bad Generals and evil politicians”.

  • Derek Martin

    Craig – It would be a very great help to me and possibly to everyone else if the text of the lecture and a transcript of the interview could be available, together with an identification of any bits that have been excised from either. Even when the videos are in place the speed with I can receive data on my line is so low that it is very hard to make sense of what I suspect could be a very important story, and it is virtually impossible in the context of the present situation.
    May I just add that I am immensely impressed by your efforts – I’m very envious of your dedication and insight. Derek Martin.

  • Komodo

    The murderer was Col. Werritty, with a pair of scissors…
    As I said, Wayfarer appears to have an uncensored copy, downloaded before the disappearance and redaction: perhaps he might be gracious enough to torrent it or find some other means of publicising it. Put it on a memory stick and send it to Craig, even…

  • Nextus

    FWIW, I watched the video of Craig’s talk well before before it disappeared, and at that point it was about an hour in length (I checked the duration to make sure I had the time available to watch the whole thing). A few hours later I posted “If I had an hour or so to explain to anyone how the global machine embraces and promotes corruption, I’d sit them down in front of this video …” Later someone commented that the video had been removed; I checked the same link, and indeed it had.
    .
    I guess it’s possible that the “original” version was quietly hot-swapped with an “edited” version some hours before it was withdrawn and was subsequently restored, but that’s pretty dubious to say the least. It doesn’t fit the conspiracy narrative so neatly. Does anyone actually have the fabled longer version (or some kind of evidence of its existence, such as a screenshot with a progress bar)?
    .
    In any case the fact it vanished for a few hours still requires some official explanation. Maybe it was removed for checking, then replaced when word started to circulate about its disappearance.

  • Nextus

    To be more specific, my browser history shows I viewed the video of Craig’s speech at 14:33 on Monday 12-03-2012 – about 4 hours after Craig first posted the link (and about 18 hours before the first mention that the video had been removed). It was about an hour in length then, and I had noticed the jump in the picture that indicated an edit.
    .
    Two days later on 15-03-2012 the commenter “John” claimed that the original had been 1:20 in length. Is that the only testimony we have? Wayfarer, can you tell us how long your version lasts?

  • Passerby

    The Irony is the masters of the universe and their pimps, have porked us right under our noses, and there seems to be little we can do about it! This is about as poxy as you can get in any banana republic.

  • technicolour

    CheebaCow: I think you are entirely right. It surprises me that people do not realise salient facts about the British army: the only one in the ‘civilised’ world to recruit children under 17 direct from school. Many of these children also come from children’s homes, where they can be forced for minor misdemeanors to sign up to the TA, or be thrown out. And of course the TA were sent to Iraq. I have met young men in a dreadful state after their experiences. Some do start off thinking it will be like Rambo, but not for long. And then they are sewn into contracts of years which they cannot get out of: at least, people have been known to break their own limbs in an attempt to get out. Penalties for going awol are serious. Thousands have gone on the run regardless, but it is rarely reported. Thank you for your view.

  • Vronsky

    Vronsky, Specialist Subject, the Bleedin’ Obvious. Let’s ask Craig if the video has been edited and if it has, what he said in the part that has been removed. Craig?

  • Mary

    A long piece with footnotes on what is going on in the Great Lakes region of Africa vis-a-vis Obama and the US. It would be good if Clooney, Jolie, Winfrey and other right wing celebs read through it. Note Clooney was at the Cameron/Obama love in at the White House this week.
    .
    The Congo conundrum: Truth catches up with Obama
    Antoine Roger Lokongo
    2012-03-15, Issue 576
    http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/80773
    .
    Africa is being recolonised. American interventionist activities in the continent’s Great Lakes region provide a perfect example. African peoples must rise up to protect their own interests by demanding a new relationship with the West.
    .

  • Mary

    Americans Love the IDF, Raise $26 Million
    Reports Arutz Sheva: March 16, 2012

    .
    Americans love the IDF. More than 1.300 business and philanthropic leaders donated $26 million at a Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF) dinner in New York.
    To accuse these American citizens of “dual loyalty” one would also need to know how much they donated to Friends of the U.S. Defense Forces — if there is such an organization.
    .
    .
    AIPAC preparing Congressional minds for next false flags?
    From AIPAC in Action:
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    Ilan Berman, vice president of the American Foreign Policy Council, briefed some 40 congressional staffers on Iran’s support for terrorism worldwide.
    .
    The Feb. 24 event, hosted by the American Israel Education Foundation, a charitable organization affiliated with AIPAC, highlighted Tehran’s efforts to cultivate a global terrorist network, explaining how Iran’s ties to countries in Latin America and other regions could lead to attacks against the United States and its allies.
    .
    Berman also discussed the nexus between Iran’s terrorist activities and its nuclear program, demonstrating how a nuclear-armed Iran would embolden Hizballah and other Iranian clients to launch attacks against U.S. interests across the globe.
    .
    Both items are on http://thepassionateattachment.com/

  • Scouse Billy

    @Nextus – I noted it was 1 hr 20 mins when I first viewed it.
    .
    The questions remain, what was cut and why?

  • Nextus

    > @Nextus – I noted it was 1 hr 20 mins when I first viewed it.
    .
    Did you? When was that?
    .
    As it happens, the duration stamp is still on the original link (i.e. the one that says it was removed by the user) and it says “1:00:28” (precisely the same duration as the one on the new link, which is allegedly the ‘trimmed’ version). You can see it by clicking on the embedded link in Craig’s original message.

  • haemoglobin

    I watched the amazing disappearing/shortening film clip the evening Craig linked to it and it was only an hour long.

  • Scouse Billy

    Nextus – apologies I must have confused the 28 secs as minutes.
    .
    O/T but anyone with Sky I recommend Channel 235 at 11pm – F.William Engdahl on Monsanto, Rockefeller etc.

  • Fedup

    These ridiculous arguments about the time lines and durations somehow overlook: the cut in the film, and the evident excised part from it.
    ,
    Now anyone of the for+s and against+s can wax lyrical about any number of Charlie Chan scenarios , but there shall remain the sudden death/disappearance of a mysterious pot of money in the video.
    ,
    The whole fucking affair stinks, given the disappearance, and reappearance of the clips only after disparaging quips with all manner of innuendos and the usual shite to portray the stinking disappearing clips act affair as the results of over active: “imaginations”, “Paranoia”, and tin foil hat job.
    ,
    Fact remains the “user” has so far shied away from explaining their reason for removing these particular videos in the first place. Further those who supposedly located the videos, have so far not explained how did they come by their lucky find.
    ,
    Then there is the cut, that is as yet unexplained and the missing content there of unknown.
    ,
    Finally this episode has only far too clearly indicated the break down of trust in a very practical manner, highlighting the all too prevalent lack of any faith in anyone in authority/leadership/ownership. This outcome cannot be just magically blamed on the punters’ faulty imaginations.

  • Nextus

    @Fedup: that as may be. Fact is, we just don’t know. It would be great to find out the official “user”‘s explanation – or what Craig reckons was left out. Maybe he should take a dictaphone to all his speeches.
    .
    I’ve taken many amateur videos of events that I’ve organised, and when I compiled them for the people concerned, I had to edit the recordings in various places, because members of the audience walked in front of the camera (and infuriating stood there wondering where to go next!). Or they held a private conversation not knowing they were right beside the microphone. It could be really annoying. In some cases, all I ended up with was a series of clips. Very rarely did I get an uninterrupted segment, no matter where I positioned the camera or instructed the people around me (somebody always turned out to be very forgetful).
    .
    By recording DI via the PA, you can usually ensure an uninterrupted audio track. If Craig can manage to get in touch with the organisers, there may be hope of recovering whatever was omitted.
    .
    I’m not saying I know what happened in this case – I wasn’t there … just that I know enough not to be too hasty with filling in ominous explanations. Can’t argue with the breakdown of trust, though.

  • glenn_uk

    What about the second video in the Berlin Conference post? Maybe I missed an explanation above, but the first was fractionally over one hour, the second one a half hour.
    .
    The first one of 1:00:28 that we’ve seen and is still up, with the jump at 42′-odd, is the same length exactly as the one that way ‘removed by user’. The second video (youtu.be/d1GwdXE7Xp8) is 0:30:01, while the ‘removed by user’ original appears to be 0:30:04.
    .
    It’s hard not to conclude that we have available on alternative youtube channels what was originally on the ICD blogsite, notwithstanding that rather iffy edit.
    .
    The ICD blogsite, incidentally, blames it on a ‘temporary technical problem’ which beset this video and none of the others. CM’s spot has been replaced with the 1/2 hour interview, instead of the original lecture.

  • crab

    OT.

    Jon Snow & C4 team are trying sticking their necks out a bit, reporting centered on a particular faked anti-terroism operation by sri lanka where they exterminated many thousands of Tamil people in one demonic ~operation. The documentary contains a milliband robot raising a programmed eyebrow about the ‘alleged’ horrific events while apologising for the Sri Lankan Forces conduct in a war against ‘terrorists’
    His statements sit strangley in the editing of the documentary , with others from more human contributors.

    http://blogs.channel4.com/snowblog/sri-lankas-killing-fields-project-affect-history/15457

  • Candle Power

    Google is an Israeli company. Mossad + NSA provided US tax-payer’s dollars for the start-up and operational funding for and run google as an intelligence gathering oeration, it’s their creation as was yahoo; youtube, once not part of google, they acquired long ago too. All competitor search engines wilted, became ineffectual and died, many of the alternatives left simply search google in the background and substitute their sponsor’s advertisement results, rarely relevant to your search, plus the obfuscated google search results. It’s long been known that these not-so secret organisations are gatekeepers and censors for the internet and their control has been TOTAL since 2003, the common social media sites are another arm. The internet still has great potential but for the masses is as revoltingly rotten, manipulated and controlled as the mainstream press/tv so blatantly are
    .
    All MS products are riddled with intentional back doors, and is anyone surprised by this – no – but still they use them. Technology hasn’t liberated us, its enslaved us.
    .
    Lone voices grumbling on obscure blogs, Craig is tolerated as he’s helpless and ineffectual. The marching morons can’t ever be reached, are nevertheless content with their vacuous lot, are rewarded for their thickness and compliance, they breed; they’ll swallow anything. Where will it end? Human extinction I think, and we deserve it.

  • Brendan

    This is indeed a most curious tale. My initial reaction was to assume that it was some sort of mistake, perhaps a copyright issue. However, the subsequent difficulty in getting a full un-edited copy is deeply suspicious.
    .
    Curiouser and curiouser. I have been vaguely aware that Google results are manipulated (see Leon Panetta for example), and that sites disappeared, but this is a whole new level of blatant. Craig seems, essentially, to have been silenced, for no reason at all. With respect to Craig, I can’t really see why anyone would trouble themselves. And so, it does make me wonder: what could Craig possibly (perhaps unwittingly) revealed?
    .
    I hope thread author keeps us posted, as I think we are all rather intrigued. Maybe we all have to investigate anonymous IP’s, TOR etc? A troubling thought.

  • Mary

    Staff Sergeant Bales is one of the good guys for goodness’s sake. He joined the Army one week after 9/11.

    ~~~~

    Plus ça change plus c’est la même chose. Murdoch met Thatcher secretly at Chequers in January 1981. He was allowed to take over the Times and Sunday Times without the Monopolies and Mergers Commission authorities being involved.
    .
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17366040
    .
    His letter to her is on the link plus details on how he changed the newspaper printing industry.
    .
    I also read on the BBC website that the Osborne cabal is set to abolish the national pay rate for the public sector. *Instead there will be local rates. A telling extract –

    .
    ‘Local pay rates for teaching and hospital staff could begin next year. A Treasury source told the BBC’s Chris Mason the move is not about saving money but about ensuring the UK has “a responsive, modern labour force”‘.
    .
    More grinding down of the 99% to come.

  • Mary

    MPs say independence of PM adviser must be strengthened
    The advisory role was created in 2006
    .
    New adviser questioned by MPs
    Fox resigns as defence secretary
    New watchdog for ministers named
    .
    The role of David Cameron’s adviser on ministerial interests needs to be strengthened to ensure its independence, a group of MPs has said.
    .
    The Public Administration Committee said Sir Philip Mawer seemed to have been “cut out of the loop” during ++the recent inquiry into Liam Fox’s links with his adviser Adam Werritty.++
    .
    The ++probe++:) was conducted by the then Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O’Donnell
    .
    /..
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17398149

  • Rob Royston

    @ Mary, “the Osborne cabal is set to abolish the national pay rate for the public sector. *Instead there will be local rates.”

    This sounds like dynamite. If they get away with it, it will lead to people moving to higher paid areas and a lower quality of service in the poorer areas.

    The UK is already breaking up with Scotland having had enough of the same kind of treatment from Westminster for decades. How long will it be before the rest of the UK realise that they have to stop sending all their wealth to these evil people in Westminster and set up a peoples parliament.

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