Syria and Diplomacy 2917


The problem with the Geneva Communique from the first Geneva round on Syria is that the government of Syria never subscribed to it.  It was jointly chaired by the League of Arab States for Syria, whatever that may mean.  Another problem is that it is, as so many diplomatic documents are, highly ambiguous.  It plainly advocates a power sharing executive formed by some of the current government plus the opposition to oversee a transition to democracy.  But it does not state which elements of the current government, and it does not mention which elements of the opposition, nor does it make plain if President Assad himself is eligible to be part of, or to head, the power-sharing executive, and whether he is eligible to be a candidate in future democratic elections.

Doubtless the British, for example, would argue that the term transition implies that he will go.  The Russians will argue there is no such implication and the text does not exclude anybody from the process.  Doubtless also diplomats on all sides were fully aware of these differing interpretations and the ambiguity is quite deliberate to enable an agreed text. I would say that the text tends much more to the “western” side, and that this reflects the apparently weak military position of the Assad regime at that time and the then extant threat of western military intervention.  There has been a radical shift in those factors against the western side in the interim. Expect Russian interpretations now to get more hardline.

Given the extreme ambiguity of the text, Iran has, as it frequently does, shot itself in the foot diplomatically by refusing to accept the communique as the basis of talks and thus getting excluded from Geneva.  Iran should have accepted the communique, and then at Geneva issued its own interpretation of it.

But that is a minor point.  The farcical thing about the Geneva conference is that it is attempting to promote into power-sharing in Syria “opposition” members who have no democratic credentials and represent a scarcely significant portion of those actually fighting the Assad regime in Syria.  What the West are trying to achieve is what the CIA and Mossad have now achieved in Egypt; replacing the head of the Mubarak regime while keeping all its power structures in place. The West don’t really want democracy in Syria, they just want a less pro-Russian leader of the power structures.

The inability of the British left to understand the Middle East is pathetic.  I recall arguing with commenters on this blog who supported the overthrow of the elected President of Egypt Morsi on the grounds that his overthrow was supporting secularism, judicial independence (missing the entirely obvious fact the Egyptian judiciary are almost all puppets of the military) and would lead to a left wing revolutionary outcome.  Similarly the demonstrations against Erdogan in Istanbul, orchestrated by very similar pro-military forces to those now in charge in Egypt, were also hailed by commenters here.  The word “secularist” seems to obviate all sins when it comes to the Middle East.

Qatar will be present at Geneva, and Qatar has just launched a pre-emptive media offensive by launching a dossier on torture and murder of detainees by the Assad regime, which is being given first headline treatment by the BBC all morning

There would be a good dossier to be issued on torture in detention in Qatar, and the lives of slave workers there, but that is another question.

I do not doubt at all that atrocities have been committed and are being committed by the Assad regime.  It is a very unpleasant regime indeed.  The fact that atrocities are also being committed by various rebel groups does not make Syrian government atrocities any better.

But whether 11,000 people really were murdered in a single detainee camp I am unsure.  What I do know is that the BBC presentation of today’s report has been a disgrace.  The report was commissioned by the government of Qatar who commissioned Carter Ruck to do it.  Both those organisations are infamous suppressors of free speech.  What is reprehensible is that the BBC are presenting the report as though it were produced by neutral experts, whereas the opposite is the case.  It is produced not by anti torture campaigners or by human rights activists, but by lawyers who are doing it purely and simply because they are being paid to do it.

The BBC are showing enormous deference to Sir Desmond De Silva, who is introduced as a former UN war crimes prosecutor.  He is indeed that, but it is not the capacity in which he is now acting.  He is acting as a barrister in private practice.  Before he was a UN prosecutor, he was for decades a criminal defence lawyer and has defended many murderers.  He has since acted to suppress the truth being published about many celebrities, including John Terry.

If the Assad regime and not the government of Qatar had instructed him and paid him, he would now be on our screens arguing the opposite case to that he is putting.  That is his job.  He probably regards that as not reprehensible.  What is reprehensible is that the BBC do not make it plain, but introduce him as a UN war crimes prosecutor as though he were acting in that capacity or out of concern for human rights.  I can find no evidence of his having an especial love for human rights in the abstract, when he is not being paid for it.  He produced an official UK government report into the murder of Pat Finucane, a murder organised by British authorities, which Pat Finucane’s widow described as a “sham”.  He was also put in charge of quietly sweeping the Israeli murders on the Gaza flotilla under the carpet at the UN.

The question any decent journalist should be asking him is “Sir Desmond De Silva, how much did the government of Qatar pay you for your part in preparing this report?  How much did it pay the other experts?  Does your fee from the Government of Qatar include this TV interview, or are you charging separately for your time in giving this interview?  In short how much are you being paid to say this?”

That is what any decent journalist would ask.  Which is why you will never hear those questions on the BBC.

 

 

 


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2,917 thoughts on “Syria and Diplomacy

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  • guano

    Nice weather for long-legged-wading birds, snipes, curlews and bitterns, who flourish on the CM blog by stepping elegantly over the tedious-troll-tide.

  • mark golding

    The Council of Europe parliamentarians brace for a clash, the Israeli Knesset prepares a short film praising circumcision to be shown in response to other elements within the council actively seeking to fight the practice on human rights grounds.

    The pro-circumcision film will be presented on Monday at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe’s Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development by Israel’s representative, MK Nachman Shai.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QY9a4-UdhCU

    http://rt.com/news/israel-europe-council-circumcision-959/

  • Courtenay Barnett

    JUST THINKING – WILL SOMEONE PEN A LETTER TO BARAK OBAMA?

    I ask the above question because in 2006 I sent an open letter to then President George Bush. It seems time now for an update, but I believe ( sadly believe) that not much will need changing as regards content – but – maybe some contextual changes as regards specificity of events:-

    August 12, 2006

    From: The desk of Courtenay Francis Raymond Barnett

    To: President George W. Bush
    The White House
    1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
    Washington D.C.
    U.S.A.

    11th August, 2006

    Dear George,

    This is a personal appeal for you to decide. I know that you are “the decider” who will make sensible decisions once you read this letter. The topic is terrorism.

    The noun “terrorism” is on a lot of peoples’ minds.

    The Oxford English dictionary informs me that the word means, “use of violence and intimidation especially for political purposes.”

    I recall Nelson Mandela resorting to violence when peaceful requests failed to achieve his political ends of justice and representation for all South Africans. The Palestinians seem likewise to have been radicalised over time after their legitimate political grievances for justice, representation and statehood were ignored.

    Keeping occupied land, not respecting the dictates of UN Resolution 242 while not withdrawing to the 1967 borders, imprisonment of thousands of Palestinians, building Apartheid walls around the Palestinians, of course are the types of minor irritants that could never in the minds of fair and just people ever constitute any form of violence or intimidation for political purposes –never! It is the Palestinian terrorists that we need to fight George for they are the core of the problem.

    Your attitude does seem to be that we must fight Arabs ( unless they become compliant partners such as our friends in the House of Saud), Moslems, immigrants, communists like Hugo Chavez and the majority that democratically support him in Venezuela, poor people at home and abroad, minorities, liberals and working people everywhere – to mention a few of the human vermin we must oppose to defend democracy. Surely, it is not hard to accept that it is all the above people most likely to use terrorist bombs, but the ones who build and supply the bombs even from the US can never be termed terrorists.

    Your policies are truly just because you fight the Islamic terrorists. Best to supply bigger and better bombs to Israel George, to kill all the terrorists.

    It really was necessary to permit this war in Lebanon to escalate because you genuinely want a just and lasting peace and we do need to find and kill all the terrorists, every last one. As the world can see, your decision to let the war in Lebanon continue has produced admirable results. Terrorist bridges have been destroyed, terrorist babies have been killed, terrorist highways have been bombed, terrorist apartment buildings have been razed to the ground, substantial terrorist infrastructure has been reduced to rubble, terrorist highways are left impassable, entire terrorist families driving along with their few personal belongings have been annihilated, and even a fair number of terrorist octogenarians have been removed from their life of terrorism. We appreciate that this occurred because it was necessary and you had to decide wisely and humanely to let the cycle of hatred and slaughters continue so as to kill the terrorists.

    It is widely appreciated that your policies are ever increasingly promoting social cohesion and global peace being the compassionate conservative humanitarian that you are.

    The policy prescriptions relied on to find and kill all terrorists, has let the majority of sensible people in the world glean that terrorists are born and are not bred by their circumstances and perceptions. It thus remains constructive for you to continue pursuing every terrorist baby and get to them with more pre-emptive invasions to those countries in which the terrorists are born.

    It would, of course, be unjust at this stage, to suggest for a moment, that the idea of occupying others’ countries, ousting foreign leaders, or worse yet inviting their assassination is anything other than the use of violence or intimidation for political purposes. However, we can rest assured that legitimate force deployed by your good self as Commander in Chief is quite distinct from the savage terrorism that truly dangerous people employ in the world.

    George, with your brilliant mind, clear-headed grasp of the dynamics of world affairs, and even deeper knowledge of history these attributes leave us in no doubt that you will continue with the great job that you are doing. Your distinguished military career is an ever supporting great asset which gives us even more confidence in the personal sacrifices you are willing to make to protect our freedoms with the demonstrated bravery you have at heart.

    More time is needed George, we do understand. Your handling of the Palestine problem assures us of a lasting peace based on your decisions as we continue to rout out the terrorists. When we consider Israel, I, along with many more millions in the world, take solace that you are a faith-based leader and decider. Israel, you have decided, is totally correct and there was no need for an immediate ceasefire in the Lebanon war. Let the disproportionate bombing continue, the deaths and hatreds spread and the cycle of violence roam the Middle East and escape into the wider world. The world remains extremely appreciative of these charitable decisions – and we know that charity does begin at home from the White House.

    The sensible, decent, freedom and peace loving majority of the world are with you and your policies George.

    Believe me George, that I speak for literally millions of people around the world who see events in the way I have described. Despite the genie of hatred having been let out free to roam the Middle East – we are confident that you know how to and will catch and put him permanently back in his bottle with your policies. We also know that your polices are assured of winning your unending ” war on terror”. Obdurate as the “war on terror” is, you have a wonderful grasp of events and the laws of cause and effect that will ensure that you win this unending war that you have declared on the world.

    As we struggle for justice in this world of your design and desire, we ( some of us in graves) rest assured that so too do you struggle for your own special brand of justice and global peace.

    Compassionately yours as well.

    Yours faithfully,

    Courtenay

    P.S. Remember that you are a respected and great student of history George who will recall these words:

    “This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation’s homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love”

    — Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

    Courtenay Barnett is a graduate of London University. His areas of study were economics, political science and international law. He has been a practising lawyer for over twenty years, has been arrested for defending his views, and has argued public interest and human rights cases. His web site: http://www.globaljusticeonline.com

  • doug scorgie

    Someone
    2 Feb, 2014 – 10:38 am

    “Document Evidences Destabilization Plan Against Venezuela”

    Yes Someone, similar pattern to previous regime changes in Latin America and elsewhere.

    Democracy only allowed if a US friendly government is elected.

  • doug scorgie

    Mark Golding
    2 Feb, 2014 – 6:59 pm
    Circumcision

    “This German circumcision ban is an affront to Jewish and Muslim identity.”

    No it is not. No child should ever be subjected to physical abuse for any reason. That statement goes without saying in civilised communities.

    Circumcision (male or female) is child abuse; unless the procedure is medically indicated and carried out by a competent (qualified) medical practitioner.

    The practice of male or female circumcision for traditional or religious reasons has no legitimacy and is ethically and morally wrong.

    Female circumcision, in theory, is the removal of the clitoral hood (foreskin) without damage to the clitoris. In reality the clitoris is damaged or destroyed and in many instances is deliberately destroyed in some cultures.

    Historically, these procedures were carried out in primitive settings, by tribal elders using a sharp stone. Mutilation of the clitoris was common. It is carried out to this day in numerous Muslim countries (mainly in Africa) even in hospital settings for religious reasons.

    The same happens to male victims in Africa when the sharp stone used to perform this ritual in tribal areas, or the scalpel of a surgeon in a modern hospital, slips and cuts off the tip or the whole glans of the penis.

    In some Jewish communities (including in the US) the person trained in the practice of circumcision (a mohel) sucks the male baby’s penis after the foreskin has been cut and removed.

    To me this is not only a deliberate wounding of a child but also sexual abuse.

    There is no justification for allowing these practices to continue on religious or cultural grounds in any country. No one has the right to damage a child.

    Doug Scorgie
    London

    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jul/19/circumcision-without-consent-indefensible

    “This German circumcision ban is an affront to Jewish and Muslim identity.”

    No it is not. No child should ever be subjected to physical abuse for any reason. That statement goes without saying in civilised communities. Circumcision (male or female) is child abuse; unless the procedure is medically indicated and carried out by a competent (qualified) medical practitioner.

    The practice of male or female circumcision for traditional or religious reasons has no legitimacy and is ethically and morally wrong.

    Female circumcision, in theory, is the removal of the clitoral hood (foreskin) without damage to the clitoris. In reality the clitoris is damaged or destroyed and in many instances is deliberately destroyed in some cultures.

    Historically, these procedures were carried out in primitive settings, by tribal elders using a sharp stone. Mutilation of the clitoris was common. It is carried out to this day in numerous Muslim countries (mainly in Africa) even in hospital settings for religious reasons.

    The same happens to male victims in Africa when the sharp stone used to perform this ritual in tribal areas, or the scalpel of a surgeon in a modern hospital, slips and cuts off the tip or the whole glans of the penis.

    In some Jewish communities (including in the US) the person trained in the practice of circumcision (a mohel) sucks the male baby’s penis after the foreskin has been cut and removed.

    To me this is not only a deliberate wounding of a child but also sexual abuse.

    There is no justification for allowing these practices to continue on religious or cultural grounds in any country. No one has the right to damage a child.

    Doug Scorgie
    London
    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jul/19/circumcision-without-consent-indefensible

  • BrianFujisan

    Mary, And Daniel

    Thanks For the HRW links…Lots of info There…

    And Again Mary

    Re the Rodger Waters note to Scarlett Johansson …bit of a drastic Change in her thinking Re Blackwater and Iraq to nowadays…. Well said Roger.

  • guano

    I’m going to boycott you.
    And I’m going to boycott your boycott.
    Well, I’m going to boycott your boycott boycott.
    I’m going to boycott boycott your boycott boycott.
    Is it time for negotiations to end?

  • Habbabkuk (La vita è bella!

    Mary writes

    “What a silly troll. Fell for that one as I predicted.”
    _________________

    So you admit that your post (about Prince Charles’ visit to Somerset) was intended as a provocation? It appears therefore that you post in order to obtain reactions from certain people of whose presence on this blog you disapprove? Is that not trollish behavior?

  • guano

    Doug. A little bit of eye for an eye theory would soon put an end to genital mutilation. A little bit of Abrahamic tradition has never hurt me. He, peace be upon him, was a man so I can’t see how it has got transferred over to females. Where does that come from?

    I was once telling a world-worn-war-journalist-photographer about our visit to a traditional Jewish vellum-makers in North London.

    ‘Stop’ he said ‘ Don’t say any more. I can already see it. Pegging out the foreskins for …..’
    Sorry spambots. Really sorry. Nice botts. Clever botts. Sorry.

  • doug scorgie

    Daniel Rich
    2 Feb, 2014 – 9:42 pm

    “This is what real journalists should do.”

    Great link Daniel

  • Mary

    This is Julian Assange’s lawyer, Michael Ratner, speaking to Real News about the new NY mayor, Bill de Blasio who declared his support for Israel!

    NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio Facilitating Israeli War Crimes
    by The Real News Network (TRNN) / February 2nd, 2014

    Michael Ratner: President Obama and New York mayor de Blasio’s statements in blanket support of Israel enables it’s violations of Palestinians’ rights.
    http://dissidentvoice.org/2014/02/nyc-mayor-bill-de-blasio-facilitating-israeli-war-crimes/

  • Beelzebub (La Vita è Finita)

    Someone – re Gove –
    That’s an encouragingly angry site you linked to there. I’ll repeat the link.
    http://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/2014/01/06/dwp-give-michael-goves-wife-free-advertising/

    As someone remarks there – £90 for Cameron’s haircut (and an honour for his stylist…for his fruitless efforts on the bald patch?). And £71 a week for the feckless proles, competing for a place in our oh-so-flexible labour market against hundreds of others, to live on.

    Mrs Gove, aka Sarah Vine, has a column in the Daily Wail too. In which she recently revealed that Gove likes Wagner. Wheel out the tumbrils. Enough said.

  • Mary

    Town or country? This is the proposition from the NuLabour stooge, Lord Chris Smith, current head of the Environment Agency. Is the country so skint that we can’t have decent flood protection and even action which could have prevented the current emergency in Somerset?

    Leavis who runs Glastonbury was saying that all the specially designed river and channel dredging machinery was sent for scrap 40 years ago! Another bit of Heath’s handiwork? The 27 River authorities were abolished in 1973.

    ‘River Authorities controlled land drainage, fisheries and river pollution in rivers, streams and inland waters in England and Wales between 1965 and 1973.’

    Smith is leaving the post soon, as the job has been advertised.
    http://www.utilityweek.co.uk/news/environment-agency-begins-hunt-for-new-chairman/964562#.Uu9Y1WZFD4Y

    He has had some personal sadness
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2238981/Gay-pioneers-heartbreak-Lord-Smith-splits-partner-25-years.html

    and has many other interests.
    http://www.parliament.uk/biographies/lords/lord-smith-of-finsbury/186

    ~~

    The row is still going on about Gove’s decision to sack Lady Morgan from Ofsted.

  • nevermind

    Excellent link Daniel, and Doug Scourgie. No child should be subjected to pain due to the religious fanaticism of their parents.
    Indeed, its time for us to contemplate a fifteen year exemption period for all children, from undue pain or derogative onesided religious indoctrination. All schools should either drop all religious education, or be seen to educate pupils on all religions and that should include contemporary history.

    Our children should be taught that the church has morally failed, and that parents have no right to bastardise the bodies of their children as they see fit, or as some mullah, rabbi, or catholic priest tells them to.

    There is no Government or religiouys entety that has the right to control our childrens life’s, especially not when their control amounts to only one ideal, a rapid and greedy accumulation of mammon.

    Thanks for that snippet on Agnew, Mary, I nicked some of your resume and posted it on the EDP’s thread. The toriesa must be worried about money, otherwise Gove would not have gender disbalanced his ‘men at work’ party, what an own goal.
    BTW. Norfolks academies have not all perfromed well and some will have to pucker up to not go into special measures.

  • Mary

    Beelzebub. Mrs Gove, aka Sarah Vine, was a Murdoch employee like her husband. Her columns were full of details of the minutiae of the Gove household. Dire stuff.

    He picks up a lot of ‘donations’ and even got free tickets from the ROH for the Wagner.

    Name of donor: Royal Opera House
    Address of donor: Covent Garden, London WC2E 9DD
    Amount of donation or nature and value if donation in kind: 4 tickets (one for each opera of the Ring cycle) with a total value of £888 Date of receipt of donation: 12 September 2012
    Date of acceptance of donation: 24 September 2012; 26 September 2012; 21 October 2012; 24 October 2012
    Donor status: charity and limited company, registration no 480523

    http://www.theyworkforyou.com/regmem/?p=11858

    The United Jewish Appeal Federation paid for him to visit Canada in 2009.

    Murdoch used to pay him £60-65,000 pa for articles and I see the BBC paid him £700 plus for some contribution to Newsnight.

    What a ‘hard working’ trougher.

  • Mary

    Michael Gove warned against ranks of ‘yes men’
    Michael Gove and Sir David Bell worked alongside each other at the Department for Education

    ‘Raining men in the Tory party’ Watch
    Gove: Morgan exit to refresh Ofsted
    Ofsted row deepens as Laws ‘furious’

    A former Ofsted chief inspector has warned Education Secretary Michael Gove not “to believe his own hype”.
    LOL

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-26010767

  • Black jelly

    @Habs

    Seeing that you are a strident sayanim, the Holocaust figure of 6m has had to be revised down to 4m after a camp where 4m were supposed to have been exterminated has had its total revised down to 2.1m. Does this mean the 6m figure may now be regarded as a genuine Holohoax and 4m as the new genuine Holocaust figure?

  • Beelzebub (La Vita è Finita)

    Back to basics: how our economy works simply explained by ‘Boris Alotovkrap’, commenting at http://www.zerohedge.com

    ‘Boris is gather family together every year for making of delicious meat pie. Pie is huge, almost is 50cm diameter measurement round. In-law family is bring vegetable, cousin Ivan butcher is bring it meat, second cousin Natasha is bring it turnip and potato, and Boris is provide for very large industrial cooking oven. Every one is cut and prepare vegetable, roll out dough. Pie is huge and everyone is have more plenty spare.

    Neighborhood is smell pie while is baking and ask for slice for trying.

    One year, pie is in oven and Boris is think maybe can make little extra ruble sell excess pie. How is can do to be fair? So Boris is take number of family member as divisor, make same number of share and print “redemption certificate”. Everyone (except fat lazy nephew – long story for other time) is work hard and is have equal share entitlement.

    Boris, as owner of very large industrial oven, is authority to issue and administrate share certificate. When pie is done, everyone is claim share and joyous indulgence of delicious meat pie… or can sell share.

    But before is done for cooking, Boris is excitable for business prospect and is print extra redemption certificate. Boris is thinking, “there is much pie, maybe slice piece tiny smaller, more pie is can sell to hungry neighbor”. What for hell, so Boris is print 2X share and sell to hungry neighbor.

    Okay, okay, this is not real story, but you are imagining if one party is control issuance of redemption note (in case of central bank, “currency”), then when is double issuance, then share ownership is dilute for 1/2 but major holder (or bank) is now hold more and each of small share holder is reduce share. This is how central bank action is increase disparity between rich and poor. There is no additional delicious meat pie, just same as before, but everyone is have less for enjoyment except for bank which possess larger portion of smaller size piece.

    Inflation is evil design of money changer.’

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-02-01/how-central-banks-cause-income-inequality

  • Beelzebub (La Vita è Finita)

    See also ‘rights issues’ and ‘80% taxpayer holding, in NON VOTING shares of RBS’

  • ESLO

    @BlackJelly

    Since you are a strident racist who assigns a nationality to someone based on where their family last lived in 1890 might I suggest that you F*** off.

  • Mary

    An octogenarian US venture capitalist and multi millionaire likened Occupy protestors to the Nazis of Kristallnacht and caused a storm. He is just a ‘krazie’ by the sounds of it.

    “Progressive Kristallnacht Coming?”
    Wall Street Journal Headline

    by William Boardman / February 2nd, 2014

    This is a very dangerous drift in our American thinking. Kristallnacht was unthinkable in 1930; is its descendant ‘progressive’ radicalism unthinkable now?

    – Tom Perkins, January 24, 2014, in the Wall Street Journal

    Thomas James Perkins was born in 1932, a year before Adolf Hitler came to Power in Germany and six years before the Nazis escalated their persecution of the Jews to mass murder during Kristallnacht (Crystal Night, the Night of Broken Glass, so-called after the array of broken glass from Jewish synagogues, storefronts, and homes), November 9-10, 1938.

    /..
    http://dissidentvoice.org/2014/02/progressive-kristallnacht-coming/

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