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.
ESLO – oh dear, that doesn’t sound very much like freedom of speech to me. Shouldn’t you rather be encouraging BJ and listening to his views, much as Cameron does with Farrage? Much as you would like the Eminences to do with you? Have you and the Excrescences learned nothing from a year of being called hasbara trolls and told to F*** (sic) off?
That said, Black Jelly aka, probably, English Knight is the sort of antisemite who gets antisemites a bad name, and I don’t think its disappearance would be a catastrophe.
Just sayin’.
Some victims of the military exploits of Bush, Blair and Obama et al.
The reality behind the statistics. See the eyes, they have seen everything. These mites are already old, have missed their childhood – as children of war everywhere. “These children are our children”, and our politicians and their collaborators are traumatising them, killing them – wherever they are caught in the middle of our murderous meddling.
http://english.pravda.ru/photo/album/7543/
‘Children of war
These images taken between Friday, Jan. 24, 2014 and Monday, Jan. 27, 2014, show Afghan refugee children in a slum on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan. For more than three decades, Pakistan has been home to one of the world’s largest refugee communities: hundreds of thousands of Afghans who have fled the repeated wars and fighting in their country. Since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan, some 3.8 million have returned home. But nearly 1.6 million registered Afghan refugees remain in Pakistan, with roughly another million living here illegally.’
AP
Regarding Michael Gove.
We barely mention neoconservatism in the UK, whereas in the USA its powerful influence is widely acknowledged. For example, the various neoconservative signatories of the Project for a New American Century document practically ran the G W Bush administrations – Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, John Bolton, Richard Armitage, “Scooter” Libby, Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, Robert Zoellick, and others. The PNAC document has since been a blueprint for America’s increasingly aggressive foreign policy – Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria – and many believe that 911 was engineered by them to provide the pretext.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_for_the_New_American_Century#Associations_with_Bush_administration
In this context, we would be fools to ignore the influence and motives of self-declared neoconservatives in this country.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_neoconservatism
Well known and powerful neoconservatives in the UK are :
George Osborne – Chancellor of the Exchequer; Conservative MP for Tatton[9][10]
Michael Gove – Secretary of State for Education; Conservative MP for Surrey Heath[11]
Liam Fox – Former Secretary of State for Defense; Conservative MP for North Somerset
Gisela Stuart – Labour MP for Birmingham Edgbaston[12][13]
Douglas Murray – Writer and commentator.
Charles Moore – Journalist and editor.
Michael Gove has declared his allegiance to a philosophical/political movement which is responsible for millions of deaths and which has ambitions beyond the interests of the UK. It is quite possible that other members of this movement have done grave harm to the institutions and citizens of their host country in furtherance of their global aims. I have every right to distrust this man and question his motives for keeping our education system in a state of constant upheaval.
Thanks A Node. And the Henry Jackson Society too.
Douglas Murray from that list, whom I consider one of the more dangerous for fostering hate, is given much airtime by ZBC, He was on Stourton’s Sunday on Radio 4 yesterday. I heard him refer to ‘Muslim anti-Semitism’ in this country.
‘Religion and immigration
Duration: 45 minutes
First broadcast:Sunday 02 February 2014
In a special edition of Sunday one month on since EU restrictions on Romanians and Bulgarians were lifted, Edward is joined by Rev Rose Hudson-Wilkin, Dame Julia Neuberger and Douglas Murray to examine the relationship between religion and immigration in the UK.
However, some Romanians have been here rather longer. Edward travels to Luton to meet Rev Martin Burrell, chaplain to the Gypsies, Travellers and Roma people of St Albans, to find out how the Romanian Roma community and the Church of England have been working together.
Former coalition minister Sarah Teather joins Edward to discuss why a month long Jesuit retreat helped her reach the decision to step down at the next election and how religion can inject humanity into the debate on immigration.
Almost 18 months after the government action plan to stop child abuse in the name of faith or belief we hear from people within the African church community who say not enough is being done to prevent future cases of witchcraft related child abuse. Trevor Barnes investigates what happens when religion and immigration go wrong.
Every year thousands of immigrants travel to the UK to start a new life. Kevin Bocquet meets the chaplains of Manchester airport who minister to people from all over the world.
Producer: Annabel Deas and Jill Collins
Series Producer: Amanda Hancox
Contributors:
Rev Rose Hudson-Wilkin
Dame Julia Neuberger
Douglas Murray
Sarah Teather
Rev Martin Burrell
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03sr5qz
More of the hate stuff from the BBC, this time about Gaddafi. They really are revolting. Note the multiple use of the ‘mad dog’ epithet.
Libya: Muammar Gaddafi’s secrets finally revealed
By Christopher Olgiati
Director, Mad Dog: Gaddafi’s Secret World
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-25979532
Watch Mad Dog: Gaddafi’s Secret World on BBC Four at 22:00 GMT on Monday 3 February or catch it later on iPlayer.
Mad Dog: Gaddafi’s Secret World
Image for Mad Dog: Gaddafi’s Secret World
Storyville, 2013-2014
Duration: 1 hour, 25 minutes
‘Colonel Gaddafi was called Mad Dog by Ronald Reagan. His income from oil was a billion dollars a week. He washed his hands in deer’s blood. No other dictator had such sex appeal and no other so cannily combined oil and the implied threat of terror to turn Western powers into cowed appeasers.
When he went abroad – bedecked in fake medals from unfought wars – a bulletproof tent was flown ahead, along with camels that would be tethered outside. His sons lived a Dolce & Gabbana lifestyle – one kept white tigers, while another commissioned a $500 million cruise liner with a shark pool.
Like other tyrants, Gaddafi used torture and murder to silence opposition, but what made his rule especially terrifying was that death came so casually. A man who complained that Gaddafi had an affair with his wife was tied between two cars and torn in half. On visits to schools and orphanages Gaddafi would tap underage girls on the head to show his henchmen which ones he wanted. They would be taken to his palace and abused. Young boys were held in tunnels under the palace.
Yet because of his vast oil lake there seemed no limit to Western generosity. British intelligence trapped one of his enemies overseas and sent him to Libya as a gift. The same week, Tony Blair arrived in Libya and a huge energy deal was announced.
Filmed in Cuba, the Pacific, Brazil, the US, South Africa, Libya and Australia, the cast of this documentary consists of palace insiders and those who gave shape to Gaddafi’s dark dreams. They include a fugitive from the FBI who helped kill his enemies worldwide; the widow of the Libyan foreign minister whose body Gaddafi kept in a freezer; and a female bodyguard who adored him until she saw teenagers executed.
Gaddafi was a dictator like no other; their stories are stranger than fiction.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03tj0n0
Mad dog, mad dog, mad dog, mad dog….. How many more times FFS?
A Node: ‘Michael Gove has declared his allegiance to a philosophical/political movement which is responsible for millions of deaths and which has ambitions beyond the interests of the UK. It is quite possible that other members of this movement have done grave harm to the institutions and citizens of their host country in furtherance of their global aims. I have every right to distrust this man and question his motives for keeping our education system in a state of constant upheaval.’
It’s been apparent for years that these people have let their infatuation for America override their concern (if any) for the British national interest. Which does not involve being the gateway to Europe for US pols and speculators. See also Atlantic Bridge, to which Gove, Osborne, Grayling and Hague were ‘advisors’, and which was hurriedly reorganised to lower its profile after Fox/Werritty. Lehman Bros and Israeli sympathisers funded it. Much more detail may be found on this blog, on old Werritty threads.
Where IS Werritty, btw? 😀
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26020070
Good – lets give credit to the Government when it gets it right on anti racism – pity they let in the Hungarian fascist with not dissimilar views.
@ESLO Sorry dear, I agree it was not a Holohoax it was 6m then, but that raises another big question. Why did the Good Lord not intercede as His chosen were being processed in the meat/gas grinders? Was there some unforgivable cause, it seems to happen time and again in history? How do we prevent the next happening, possibly in America?, lets be constructive and focus our minds on a solution.
BlackJelly
I don’t believe in the Good Lord – the cause of human evil lies within ourself, or at least that is my working assumption.
Read Gilad Atzmon on Dieudonné.
The Meaning Of Dieudonné
http://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/the-meaning-of-dieudonne.html
and
The un-controlled Opposition
http://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/the-un-controlled-opposition.html
Yeo joins Elizabeth McIntosh in being deselected.
BREAKING NEWS:Senior Conservative MP Tim Yeo loses his fight against being deselected by local party activists
Going down like ninepins.
That will teach Yeo a few lessons.
http://order-order.com/2013/06/08/sunday-sleaze-tim-yeo-stung-by-sunday-times-offered-to-sell-legislation-and-access-7000-a-day/
Mary
So what are your views on Dieudonné?
Is his behaviour that of a “definitive hero of genuine socialist thinking”?
AIPAC owns the new mayor, De Blasio, of New York and Obama, who we already knew about from his actions. Not all US Israelis are in support of of AIPAC and giving the Zionists a cover for genocide and war-crimes against Palestinians as covered in this report which interviews the Jewish US legal representative of Julian Assange.
http://dissidentvoice.org/2014/02/nyc-mayor-bill-de-blasio-facilitating-israeli-war-crimes/
““Suicide” By 13 Meter Embankment (40-50 feet)”
http://tradewithdave.com/?p=20094
“Scratch With Dave”
http://tradewithdave.com/?p=17066
“AIPAC owns the new mayor, De Blasio..”
The mystery for me, John, is that the NeoCons loathe De Blasio. Can he really be an acolyte?
Cat got your tongue Mary.
Also appreciate your views on the leader of Jobbik who recently visited the UK – given you pointed at those who tried to stop the visit.
Mary
Lots and lots of long posts from you, which must have kept you very busy. Will you have time to make supper, do a little cleaning and walk the dog today, do you think?
Ben, must be, from his own mouth. Unless he tells AIPAC one thing and does another. I know Cameron does that with the electorate over here.
Following on ESLO’s question (above), I would welcome Emonences’ views on the affair of the Ukrainian dissident who was badly beaten up and currently hospitalised?
Would they, for instance, say that he was a stooge of the evil West and therefore deserved what he got from the Ukrainian authorities or their bully-boys?
Or might they say that the beating was self-inflicted in order to discredit the Ukrainian President and his bully-boys?
All thoughts welcome and I shan’t be holding my breath 🙂
Although the exact figure will never be known, here are estimates:
The figure of 11 million people dead is often given but it is completely unclear where this figure comes from, and how it is calculated. It is far too low. One also encounters the range 11-17 million.
6 million of these were Jewish (close to two thirds of Europe’s Jewish population) and about one quarter of these were children under 15.
Up to 270,000 were Roma/Sinti (Gypsies).
Other estimates range from 15 to 25 million, including homosexuals, mentally and physically impaired, Jehovahs Witnesses, etc
Jews comprised the largest sub-group, but they weren’t the only victims. Some wish to focus only on the convenient sub-groups.
@ all Eminences :
Why are you all expending so much outrage about Sally Morgan and her ousting from OFSTED?
I hadn’t realised you were all so NuLabour. My mistake! 🙂
He must kiss the Ring, just as Obama must due to the make-up of the electorate, John. I think that would be Bliar’s excuse as well.
Some wish to focus only on the convenient sub-groups.
To true – just like some want to ignore the inconvenient sub groups.
“Jews comprised the largest sub-group, but they weren’t the only victims.”
___________________
And no one, to my knowledge, is saying that that they were, Ben.
“Some wish to focus only on the convenient sub-groups.”
Presumably Jews will focus on the Jewish victims, homosexuals on the homosexual victims, Roms on the Roma victims. Come to think about it, Armenians tend to ‘focus’ on the Armenian rather than on the Jewish genocide, don’t they…?
Where’s your ‘focus’, Bennie?
Same old. Same old. Just like our Royal Mail*.
‘It all stems over the troubling involvement of Goldman Sachs and other investors in Danish politics. Last Thursday, Thorning-Schmidt found the votes to partially privatise the state-owned energy company Dong Energy. In so doing, the neo-liberal fantasy of putting state services into private hands got a solid kick along in a state which has found such measures suspect. The late Margaret Thatcher might have just been interested to take a peek to see what all the fuss was about. Were those socialists up for turning?
The deal forged by Thorning-Schmidt will let Goldman and other investors buy up to an 18 percent stake in the energy provider for $1.5 billion. (Other accounts suggest 19 percent.) The aim of the arrangements is ostensibly to cut utility costs, reduce overall debt and increase investments in oil, gas exploration and wind farms. Goldman Sachs will acquire its stake through its European merchant banking unit in News Energy Investment S.a.r.l, partnering with ATP and PFA, both of which are Denmark’s two largest pension funds (Bloomberg, Feb 1).’
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/02/03/goldman-sachs-in-denmark/
* Royal Mail sell-off advisers allocated millions of shares
Shares allocated to advisory banks have risen in value by £29m since floatation
Rowena Mason, political correspondent
The Guardian, Friday 25 October 2013
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/oct/25/royal-mail-shares-record-price
and that was October. Share price has risen much more since then.
http://www.vineyardsaker.blogspot.mx
Habba for your interest.
Some interesting comparisons and views on political events.
Some of which may be worth holding.
Reading up on Tolstoys views on education. With today’s announcement by M Gove would Tolstoys views be relavent today?
When the focus is on Blair and his doings : Sally Morgan is BAD
When the focus is on Cameron and his doings : Sally Morgan is GOOD.
I love consistency!
And that’s why I love the Egregiousness of Excellences.
I will leave it to you ESLO to decide. After all you are much more ’eminent’ than me. 🙂
Q. Why is Ben being addressed as ‘Bennie’ by the RI? Is the use of the diminutive version of Ben’s name designed to insult or annoy him?