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.
@ Karel (14h46):
“Kempe
you are deliberately obfuscating the issue.”
________________
I think not, Karel.
Kempe makes the historically correct point that the main groups in the German KZs and death camps were homosexuals, Jews and Gypsies.
Wherein lies the “obfuscation” (other than in what passes for your mind?)
Excellent Craig – Bravo !enjoyed Mary thankyou.
@ Fatty B. (10 August, 23h15), with copy to Mary (12h36):
A heart welcome to a new contributor, posting out of the blue!
Oh, did I just use the word “new”?
A few American spellings excepted, there’s something uncannily familiar about the approach and style of that post…..
What or who could I be thinking of, I wonder?… 🙂
@ Herbie
Mr Golding’s post read as follows :
““I am the life patron of the Oxfordshire Beekeepers’ Association. I think I have been neglecting my duties in not being able to give her a better answer today, but I know how important this issue is. If we do not look after our bee populations, very serious consequences will follow.” [A lie – Cameron had resigned as President]”
“Life patron” in line 1, “resigned as President” in lines 5/6.
Sloppy posting?
Projection; yet another chink in the armor of our carpet-bagger. If you think someone is socking ID’s, maybe it’s one of your cohort, trying to help you with questions you’re capable of answering. So far, you’re shooting blanks.
Mr Hammond must go back to his drawing board.
Army recruitment crisis
David Leppard Published: 11 August 2013
Comment (38)
Print
Soldier in training(PA)
THE government’s attempt to reshape the army is in danger of collapse because a recruitment drive has proved to be a disastrous flop, leaked documents reveal.
The confidential army memos reveal that in the past three months the number of people enlisting in the Army Reserve, the new name for the Territorial Army, was just 367 — barely a quarter of the target. Over the year, the number of recruits is predicted to be half what is needed.
Expanding the reserves is at the heart of the coalition’s new defence strategy. Ministers want to see a fully trained reserve force of 30,000 by 2018, to fill the gap left by cuts to the regular army, where numbers are to fall by 20,000 this decade.
However, the memos leaked to The Sunday Times suggest a hugely expensive television advertising campaign that was launched in February has failed.
The result, according to one…..
Remainder behind the Times paywall.
http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/Defence/article1298980.ece
Did you know the Sun now has a paywall. Can you imagine anyone paying money for their stuff?
Looks like Spain is thinking of joining up with Argentina in taking their cases over Gibraltar and the Falklands to the UN.
Sensing UK weakness, perhaps.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/spain-may-ask-united-nations-support-over-gibraltar-101642235.html
The UK is so tied at the hip to US financial scamming, weapons sales and other corporate thieving that it’s difficult to see how the UK would fare should the US change direction, which it may well be forced to do. In such circumstances the UK may well find itself friendless, lacking in resources and scapegoated for US post war crimes.
As Craig pointed out in his speech, the UK is very poorly adapted to playing the role of a small state at large in the world. Without the US it would find itself in that position very quickly, and very poorly prepared for it, not to mention all the uphill work it would need to do to repair the legacy of antagonism resultant from its own past and current colonial adventures.
Sloppy research = shallow thinking = paper tiger = empty suit = dinosaur…
Life is fragile! (e.g. bees and mutated children)
Perhaps, Habby.
But it’s a confusion caused by Cameron’s attempt to present himself as something he’s not, as Peter Chaunt, of Oxfordshire Beekeepers’ Association points out:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-22323880
The simple reality is that he’s forced to love Monsanto more than he loves bees and their importance to the ecosystem.
He pretended to a love of the NHS too of course and there again I’m afraid his true love lies elsewhere.
Norway PM Jens Stoltenberg works as secret taxi driver
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-23655675
~~
I vote for Chunky Dave to be our very own Artist Taxi Driver!
http://www.youtube.com/user/chunkymark
Former Guardian and Observer staffer, Jonathan Cook, has a new blog.
Cook is an award-winning British journalist based in Nazareth, Israel, since 2001, and writes on Palestinian/Israeli matters and other regional issues.
Well worth a visit:
http://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/
What’s Monsanto got to do with it? The main producers of neonicotinoids in Europe are Bayer and Syngenta. Syngenta have six locations in the UK including a manufacturing plant at Grangemouth; which might explain why the SNP wanted the ban delayed.
Kempe
You may substitute Bayer and Syngenta, should you wish.
Despite his pretensions to the contrary, Cameron loves Bayer and Syngenta more than he loves bees.
Yeah. OK.
Whatever.
Philip Morris, the Tobacco Giant holds the patent. Monsanto just took that piggy to Market.
‘Expanding the horizons of humanity’ should be their mission statement.
Maybe the bees just suffer from second-hand smoke.
“Maybe the bees just suffer from second-hand smoke.”
_____________
Not something I’d ever accuse you of suffering from, Ben. I’m sure all your smokes are fresh.
How many have you had so far today?
Bees that have visited crops containing neonicotinoids do not lose their ‘vector’ memory but their ‘landscape’ memory is severely affected to the extent that they lose their bearings as to the location of the hive, become lost and die of exhaustion.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/beekeeping/10206225/Radar-antennae-reveal-how-disease-and-pesticides-are-harming-bees-navigation.html
Neonicotinoids used in crop seed coatings are present in the soil for three years thereafter and are taken up by the plants that follow a crop and are present in the pollen and nectar of those plants.
http://www.xerces.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Are-Neonicotinoids-Killing-Bees_Xerces-Society1.pdf
Thanks for that half-apology, Herbie.
The confusion was all Mr Golding’s, who should learn to post more clearly and more accurately.
BTW, I’m all in favour of bees and also welcome the EU ban on the neonicotinoids.
I simply object to Mr Golding using a serious issue to make a little dig at David Cameron. It is cheap and, worse, irrelevant.
When Lady Liberty Wept
By Gary Corseri
“Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,” she recalled,
“With conquering limbs astride from land to land””
And yet, even so, it had come to pass,
With every military base, with drones
Hovering everywhere, in the drowned dreams
Of exiles, “refuse,” “yearning to breathe free.”
And what freedom now in the Surveillance State
Where every thought was subject to review
And “newsmen” scurried to assess the threat
From hydra-headed, huddled masses–lost,
Renditioned, imprisoned, killed at the behest
Of elected, cowardly Pinocchios,–
Smiling before drug-induced amnesiacs?
They could not remember who they claimed to be;
Nor why; nor how it mattered to posterity.
Only a looming sense of dread embalmed
Them in a kind of amber ghosts might study
In the years ahead–if there were years” ahead.
And so, she wept” as some say Mother Mary weeps;
As some say Rachel wept for her lost children.
Copper-colored tears from cupreous eyes;
Copious tears from her iron skeleton.
And the wind blew the tears upon her torch.
And the light went out.
~~~
So sad.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/1/When-Lady-Liberty-Wept-by-Gary-Corseri-130727-197.html
The accompanying photo is of The Statue of Liberty full face
http://farm9.static.flickr.com/8508/8410678920_df34c1a3b9_n.jpg
Bees are the canary-in-the-coalmine. We’re next.
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/08/10-0
“Arjun Makhijani, President of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER), sounds particular alarm around radioactive strontium that is being released from the trouble-stricken plant:
Fukushima continues to be an emergency without end – vast amounts of radioactivity, including strontium-90 in the groundwater, evidence of leaks into the sea, the prospect of contaminated seafood. Strontium-90, being a calcium analog, bioaccumulates in the food chain. It is likely to be a seaside nightmare for decades.”
They measure the contaminated water leaking into the Pacific in tonnes. Another article indicated much more than this; on the order of 600,000 gals per day.
Karel, I’m sorry what happened to your family during the second great unpleasantness in Europe and thanks for linking to Atzmon, because his article proofs my previous point, i.e. that the issue of homosexual oppression in Russia will be distorted with another, politically charged and multi faceted issue, detracting from the cause.
“You are free to think otherwise but you might also like to read Gilad Atmons article at
if Fry as a person is of such a great interest to you.”
He is a Norwich City supporter, just as Craig and myself, and I’m more likely to bump into him then into you, is reason No.1.
Should your second sentence allure to my male bonding side, some inner homosexual tendencies, then you are very much on the wrong track, try and be sweet to somebody else, I’m heterosexual and proud of it.
That does not mean I need to shout it from the roof tops, although I do here at the present time, endear myself to all and sundry by gallumping along the promenade with the missus once a year, every year, baring all and wearing little, That’s not really necessary.
Nail Fungus is beginning to affect my toenails. Using nail fungus as a metaphor for the Nineva Troll, is it some deficiency in the blog immune system/purpose that causes the infection to spread? Or is it the type of shoes/format of the discussion? Or is it necessary only to apply medication to control the infection?
Simply out, why has Craig allowed a Zionist troll to dominate discussion on this blog? Is it to appease the Zionists that comment here is not one-sidedly anti-Israel?
The recent wars in the Muslim world up to and including the Arab Spring arise from a coalition of political Zionism and Political Islam. You have to wear heavy duty steel-toe-capped boots on a building site so you will inevitably develop fungal infections in your shoes. We are the target of their machinations, we are the expendable cheese. The destruction of Socialism by the neo-cons has removed the principle means of opposition capable of challenging the Zionist/Islamist confederacy.
That’s why we attack the troll, instead of the source of the problem which is the Zionist-Islamist confederacy/Ahzabiah. We put cream on the fungus instead of throwing out the sweaty shoes.
Nevermind,
no reason to be sorry for what happened to my relatives. It is not fault of yours.
My problem with Fry is his pompous view of his sexual orientation and the rather eclectic perception of history. Why not to call Clement Attlee also “Hitler” because the law, as it was then, criminalised homosexuals during the 1948 olympic games in London? Fry also apparently said somewhere (I will dig up the source if you insist) that he was homosexual from the day he was born. Hence, Fry in fact admitted that he is a born criminal as homosexuality was partially (for those above the age of 21) decriminalised only in 1967 (cf. the Sexual Offences Act 1967).
1968 was the last time I visited Norwich and I have no immediate plans going there.
Thank you ever so much, Mr. H., for your response, generous as always with your time and wisdom. Subtly, as always, your pithy wit gets right to the crux of the matter, and you may well be right!
Article 67.1(g), that’s the ticket! Silence. Avoid self-incrimination above all. With an irrepressible character like Mr. Netanyahu in the dock, you don’t want him digging himself in deeper with some mischievous mot… put them on a diet, or drugged cockroaches in a bottle, or whatnot, not when they’re not among friends! When the prosecutors start trundling out the mountains of evidence painstakingly compiled by NGOs and the international community, why liven up the tedium with a wisecrack? Let their eyes glaze over.
Thanks again, Mr. H! You know, you’re such an interesting gentleman that I can’t seem to let go of my idle woolgathering! The thought occurs to me: Do you think that those enhanced-radiation munitions would fall under the rubric of poisoned weapons? Or do you think that the prosecution might be more apt to play the ‘indiscriminate’ card, 8.2(b) para. xx, invoking the ICJ Advisory Opinion of 8 July 1996 on nuclear weapons? That would smart, don’t you think – particularly in light of the decision’s express nuclear disarmament obligations and the damp squib of the nuclear-free zone talks.
Oh well, enough idle chit-chat! Yes sir, right to the point, that’s Mr. H! Unfailingly direct! Ba beneen!
“King World News interviews PCR on rigged financial markets — August 11, 2013”
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2013/08/11/king-world-news-interviews-pcr-on-rigged-financial-markets-august-11-2013/
Halibaba,
no need to be an advocate of Kempe, unless you two are one. You also obfuscate the issue as such an expression as a “death camp” (meaning KL) did not exist in German during the war. It was invented only after the war. Every camp was in principle a death camp as many inmates died or were killed there. Take a break, “la vita in culo”, as Fry would recommend.
“Overview
The GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG) is a complete implementation of the OpenPGP Internet standard as described by RFC4880 (formerly RFC2440). It is used for digital encryption and signing of data and mainly useful for offline communication (email) and data storage. Version 2 also provides support for the S/MIME standard and includes an integrated implementation of the Secure Shell Agent.
Availibility
Please visit the project pages to find out more about GnuPG. The current stable versions are 1.4.11 and 2.0.18.
Due to former U.S. export restrictions on cryptographic software, the program is not distributed via the standard GNU archives but from an European FTP site and its mirrors.”
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=18516&page=2
This very interesting interview explores possibilities for Palestinian resistance to occupation and oppression, through reimagining topography and architecture:
http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/architects-help-envision-palestines-landscape-after-apartheid
And here are some Palestinian beekeepers using one of the techniques, to break the seige of Gaza:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BM1nj8Wc4AA
Like TonyS on medialens, I heard Owen say these words. It has been the BBC mantra for more years than I care to remember.
BBC News: “Settlement homes are considered illegal, although Israel disputes this”
Posted by Tony S on August 11, 2013, 7:33 pm
In a BBC article titled: ‘New Israeli Settlement homes anger Palestinians’ we are told ‘”The settlements are considered illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this”. Newsreader Nicholas Owen also repeated this exact statement on the BBC Six O’Clock News.
Loving the content of both your links Herbie, especially the bees carrying back pollen and nectar from the Occupiers.