Feile An Phobail Belfast 4110


The Respectability of Torture


St Mary’s University College, Thurs 1st August, 7.30pm

 

Craig Murray, former British ambassador to Uzbekistan, was a whistleblower who was removed from his ambassadorial post by Tony Blair for exposing the Tashkent regime‟s use of rape and systematic torture, including the boiling to death of political opponents. He has also spoken out against Central Asia‟s appalling dictatorships, regimes which are allies of the West, involved in torture and rendition, and was accused of threatening MI6‟s relationship with the CIA. Now a human rights activist, author and broadcaster, he outlines the dynamics of torture and the hypocrisy of incriminated Western governments.

 

My first public appearance for a while will be in Belfast on 1 August where I shall be giving a talk.  Long term readers of this blog will recall that, while my focus is largely on international affairs, the domestic political achievements I most hope to see are a united Ireland and an independent Scotland.


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4,110 thoughts on “Feile An Phobail Belfast

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  • AlcAnon

    And the “European Times” is another Sorcha Faal front. They cross-reference their stories to make it look like there are multiple sources. Even the nuttiest conspiracy site knows that.

  • Ben Franklin -Machine Gun Preacher (unleaded version)

    Mark, et al @ 1;43

    It is a bold move to attack the true attackers supported by the Western interests, Mark. Incredible sleuthing BF and Mark. The smoking gunpowder smell should lead bloodhounds like yourself directly to the Fox den. Excellent, impressive work.

  • BrianFujisan

    Hi Alcanon.

    yes i was trying to multiple source that story,

    i came across it first at eutimes, as mark has just posted,

    Cheers for the tip re, “Sorcha Faal … big Aurora on up these parts, nipping oot again to see if any luck going could the see the glow a while ago through thin cloud.

    Cheers mark…thanks for adding the Eutimes link too. one wonders then, at the Mega distraction of the Female pop star miley or some such…degrading the kids fave cudly toy…such effin outrage i hear FFS

  • Chris Jones

    Ok – no time for petty blog squabbling and intellectual masturbation now… How many people on here are qualified lawyers and available? There’s no time to fuck about. The Stop the War protests might have some effect but we know from history that essentially that will not work. Legal civilised justice is the only prevention now-beyond that are unpleasant and hopefully unnecessary aspects to consider..

  • AlcAnon

    Brian,

    Yes we’ve just had unexpected magnetic storming. A G1 minor storm alert is currently in effect until 6am GMT. Real time from Boulder Colorado suggests it is storming again as I type.

  • AlcAnon

    Ben,

    No significance in the Boulder link from me intended – other than that’s where the magnetometer is located. It really has to get to about 9 before you need to paying serious attention. But light shows below that if you are lucky and/or far enough north.

  • Ben Franklin -Machine Gun Preacher (unleaded version)

    AA; I have noticed some outage (once or twice on Sat TV today but we have have cloudy skies and thought that was the source. G1 pretty mild, no?

  • Ben Franklin -Machine Gun Preacher (unleaded version)

    Yes. I had that link, AA. It’s a bit dicey for reading.

    BTW; What do you think Russia will do wrt some ordnance targeting the Syrian first family? Is there any point where Putin antes up? Or is that seen by the Kremlin as a fool’s errand?

  • Krishnamurky

    Where art though Craig? Your hot knife that cuts through the falsehood butter is sorely needed right now, just a few incisive slashes before the vote for war in the Commons. We all know the “Friends of Israel” and gays across all parties will carry the day, but at least we fought the good fight. BTW-The gays so beholden, not even one murmur in defence of their own Bradley Manning, must be all these pics from 5 megapixel smart phones uploaded into mossad cloud archives!

  • Sofia Kibo Noh

    @Flaming June and Dreoilin. Nowhere to be Seen.

    Usually by this point in the morning there would be couple of links to digest.

    I’m missing the Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg of this blog. (BTW that’s a complement coming, as it does, from someone who thinks these two rather prickly ones are Terry Pratchet’s star creations!)

    Please don’t leave the playground to the boys, who bravely are doing their best in your absence.

    .

    @Phil.131pm yesterday

    ”it appears monkeys outperform economists when dishing out investment advice.”

    Correct. You couldn’t make it up!

    .

    @5566hh (gender unknown) 27 Aug, 2013 – 10:05 am

    From the horses mouth “…Brookings Institution? American military planning (re Iran, but linked to Syria) at its most callous.”
    Thanks.

    .

    @Donald. All over the place.

    Thanks for your take on things, and welcome to the menagerie.

    @NR. 10 10am 27th

    Could we be seeing the MSM spells losing their potency from overuse and plain ridiculousness?
    I hope so.

    More encouragement to continue to chip away at the stale Mandated Narratives!

    And much more. Thanks guys/esses.

  • Komodo

    UK gathers warplanes, military hardware in Cyprus base near Syria.

    Thanks, Mark. One reason for taking a long hard look at just what we might hope to achieve in Syria is right there; “…near Syria”. Near enough for Assad’s medium range missiles, I’m guessing. At which point, I am further guessing, the southern, Greek Cypriots express vast misgivings about the project, and look for Russian support, while the northern Turks pressure the motherland to do something about it.

    This has all the potential for a fur cup of gigantic dimensions.

    Note: our military think the idea stinks. Armchair warrior Hague loves it. I sincerely hope that this will mark the end of his opportunistic career.

  • Donald

    “Rejecting warning advice to evacuate to a shelter his ‘reserve’ hard moolah was lost including his wife and three children when a ‘doodle-bug’ hit Crystal Palace Park road”

    Ah, so you can in fact take it with you? Good to know.

  • Rouge

    We rely upon our intelligence services to advise us of the dangers that threaten us and the actions that need to be taken to protect us. This article by Adam Curtis shows that ‘intelligence’ is a complete misnomer: these are incompetent jerks.

    “But the trouble is there is no way we can ever find out. The spies live behind a wall of secrecy and when anyone tries to criticise them, the spies respond by saying that they have prevented attacks and saved us from terrible danger. But they can’t show us the evidence because that is secret.”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/posts/BUGGER

  • Krishnamurky

    Where is Wellby? Where is Ed Milliband? We all know where David Milliband and George Galloway are ! Is the Scottish Lithuanian, Malcolm Rifkind for or against an Independent Scotland, now is his chance to speak or forever be banished from Pentlands !

  • Phil

    BrianFujisan 28 Aug, 2013 – 1:18 am
    “Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan who warned that if Russia did not accept the defeat of Syria, Saudi Arabia would unleash Chechen terrorists”

    George Galloway said on rt last night that there is a westminster rumour that bandar threatened cameron, something along the lines of “if this doesn’t happen I cannot guarantee no more london bombings”.

  • Jay

    Please let their be an end to this madness!

    This day an age with our capabilities we ought to be nurturing and building a planet.

    This situation with our devided devineness let us build and create job’s for man!

    How?

    Where are the tillers!

  • Sofia Kibo Noh

    @Rouge 9 19am

    ”The spies live behind a wall of secrecy and when anyone tries to criticise them, the spies respond by saying that they have prevented attacks and saved us from terrible danger. But they can’t show us the evidence because that is secret.”

    @Phil.

    “if this doesn’t happen I cannot guarantee no more london bombings”.

    Convenient thing all this secrecy, isn’t it! The same goes for all the secret deals around the UK arms trade to Saudi Arabia. And if there’s any danger of the secrecy breaking down there’s always the means to use the justice system to keep them safe, all in the cause of “national security”.

    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/feb/01/bae.saudiarabia

  • Fred

    “UK gathers warplanes, military hardware in Cyprus base near Syria.”

    They could well be defensive.

    There’s a lot of oil and gas in that basin. Shit hit’s the fan and somebody might get greedy.

  • Komodo

    Have people read this document
    http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2009/6/iran%20strategy/06_iran_strategy.pdf
    by the Brookings Institution? American military planning (re Iran, but linked to Syria) at its most callous. One of the chapters (no. 5, beginning page 89) is even titled “Leave it to Bibi: Allowing or Encouraging an Israeli Military Strike”.

    I hadn’t, 5566hh. Thank you. Seems the Brookings Institution is the inheritor of the neocon PNAC. One of the authors of the paper is Martin Indyk….currently appointed by John Kerry to broker the peace talks between Israel and Palestine. His allegiances are clear, at any rate.

    However, the conclusion of the relevant chapter is really that “leaving it to Bibi” would not be a preferred option for advancing US interests in the region, and would only achieve limited damage to Iran’s nuclear programme. No doubt Israeli planners have long reached the same conclusion, and have written a paper of their own, with a chapter called “Leave It To Insert US President Here”.

    In which, as part of the process of isolating Iran, evidence of chemical weapons use by Syria is supplied to the American Right, and its hangers-on like Hague, with the assistance of Saudi Arabia, which also fears Iran and Syria. This takes the form of alleged communications intercepts – which attribute blame – and poisoned patients transferred to the West for treatment-to authenticate the fact that poison gas has been used. Meanwhile, UN attempts to find the truth on the ground are frustrated, not by the regime, but by its opponents. Curious, that. An eerie inversion of the Iraq situation.

  • John Goss

    For those who try to make me out to be anti-Jewish I quote from Habakkuk:

    “You will drink deep draughts, not of glory but of shame, drinking in your turn until you stagger. The cup in the Lord’s right hand is passed to you, and your shame will exceed your glory. The violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, the havoc wrought on its beasts will shatter you, because of the bloodshed and violence you inflicted on cities and all their inhabitants over the earth.”

  • Rouge

    Jay
    28 Aug, 2013 – 9:56 am
    “Please let their be an end to this madness!

    This day an age with our capabilities we ought to be nurturing and building a planet.

    This situation with our devided devineness let us build and create job’s for man!

    How?

    Where are the tillers!”

    Jay, Jacque Fresco is a tiller. Here’s an extract from an interview with him in 1974. His ideas for nurturing and building a planet would be agreeable to all of us, I’m sure – except for those who have the power to bring them about!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqsfeK-djb0

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