Seeing Tony Blair speaking at Ariel Sharon’s Funeral – one war criminal eulogising another – was so horrifying it has jolted this blog back out of retirement. There may be no justice, but there can be truth.
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Little bastard was in Vietnam in (?) November. Who knew?
They got the plane pic to prove it.
http://www.baomoi.com/Cuu-Thu-tuong-Anh-Tony-Blair-dien-thuyet-tai-Da-Nang/119/12441795.epi
That’s after this:
http://tuoitrenews.vn/politics/13068/vietnam-denies-adviser-deal-with-tony-blair
And after his two previous visits, no doubt on G_CEYL as well.
So did he finally get the contract to take a large slice of someone else’s money while channeling the rest to his new friends?* Google is silent on this.
*I realise this is not the way he might describe it.
“Of course, Craig, the problem remains moderation. Would it be too much of an infringement of your philosophy to insist that comments remain clearly on-topic, and that if they are not, they are deleted? I think that might solve a number of issues.”
Well I suppose arguing about whether a deleted post was on topic or off would give us something to talk about.
@ Fred:
I think that could be banned as well. Mod’s decision final. If not like, eff off. No appeals. Maybe ONE preliminary yellow card?
But it’s not up to either of us, Returning to the topic, this came up while I was still on holiday –
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/tony-blair/10551007/Tony-Blair-quits-as-adviser-to-Malawis-president.html
Heaven forfend that the taint of corruption attach itself to the Reverend….
The Telegraph has a resume of Blair’s commuting routine. The rich and powerful must surely think of him as the less fortunate regard doorstep salesmen:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/tony-blair/10293693/Tony-Blair-strikes-new-deals-to-advise-Vietnam-and-Peru.html
(no, he hadn’t done a deal with Vietnam at that point – see above – but I bet he has now.)
“I think that could be banned as well. Mod’s decision final. If not like, eff off. No appeals. Maybe ONE preliminary yellow card?”
Ah, a dictatorship.
How exactly were you proposing to ban someone?
@ Fred:
I wasn’t proposing anything. However, IP’s can be blocked if necessary even on this blog. Access can be restricted to registered members if not on this software on other site setups, and disruptive members can be blocked. For instance. But as I say, not my problem. Or yours.
Thank you.
Topic:
For those who missed it:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2477665/Alastair-Campbells-job-dictator-set-Tony-Blair.html
Funny how the Mail transcends its everyday awful journalism when dealing with Blair. And they’ve nailed the coincidental attachment of both Blair and Campbell to Nazarbayev.
Ah, a dictatorship
Sorry, missed that. We can have an elected politburo if Craig likes. But someone has to be in charge, don’t they? Don’t they? We’ve seen what happens when they’re not.
“I wasn’t proposing anything. However, IP’s can be blocked if necessary even on this blog. Access can be restricted to registered members if not on this software on other site setups, and disruptive members can be blocked. For instance. But as I say, not my problem. Or yours.”
What about people with dynamic IP, how do you block them?
Don’t care. Fuck off*
*Your approach, I believe.
A Career Drafted in Blood
Sharon the Terrorist
by JEFFREY ST. CLAIR and ALEXANDER COCKBURN
17.1.14
Ariel Sharon was elected prime minister of Israel on February 6, 2001. Some incorrigible optimists then suggested that only a right-wing extremist of Sharon’s notoriety would boast the credentials to broker lasting peace with the Palestinians.
Maybe so. History is not devoid of such examples. But Sharon’s record was not encouraging. His crucial role in provoking Palestinian uprisings by his excursions under heavy military protection to holy sites in Jerusalem is well known. A little more faintly perhaps people recall the verdict of an Israeli commission of inquiry finding that Sharon bore some responsibility for the dreadful Phalangist massacres in Palestinian refugee camps outside Beirut.
But in fact Sharon’s history as a terrorist, with documented participation in what can be fairly stigmatized as war crimes, goes back to the early 1950s. Here is a brief resume, culled in part from a two-part series on Sharon in the well-respected Hebrew-language Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz
/..
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/01/17/sharon-the-terrorist/
“Sorry, missed that. We can have an elected politburo if Craig likes. But someone has to be in charge, don’t they? Don’t they? We’ve seen what happens when they’re not.”
What if we elect someone who doesn’t like you?
The oppressive regime you propose doesn’t sound like much fun at all. Starting a fight to force people to be peaceful doesn’t tend to work. Wouldn’t it be a lot easier if we just started being nice to each other?
I am sick of hearing of B.Liar’s money making activities. Perhaps one day there might be one flight too many in that sleek black private jet he uses.
Thanks for your refreshing realism Komodo.
Fred, you have no point, its not serving anyone to argue the toss, we want to exchange information and debate the issues thrown up by Craig, mind bending does not come into it.
Thanks for the link to a very eloquent site, Daniel.
Blair quits as Malawi’s advisor? hmmm must have got something to do with it being a poor country and the air defence radar issue from some years back under Blairs reign, when malawi does not even have an airforce, seems synonimous with this creep jetting around the earth latching on to people’s riches and working the global trade/accounting systems with his lawyers.
Somebody please put some money up for him, lure him into a deep hole somewhere and let him rot.
We are blessed with sunshine in Norfolk this morning and with angry bees polluting the skies above in anticipation of further ruptures to come.
Slightly OT,forgive, the PM is visiting Norfolk in an attempt to electioneer his flock. He knows why they are angry and we know that he is too late, as he was in China, and he’s wasting his time. Its all done to placate UKIP, why they have to play up to the rabid, I do not know.
yesterday two of his worst councillors in Norfolk, Cllr.Allison Thomas of failed children services infamy, and Cllr.Cliff Jordan/gardener, who bought RAF Coltishall without a business plan, a man who bullies his way through local Government, they walked out of a meeting that was set up to change the cabinet system back to a committee system, because they could not get it their way.
These two failed councillors should resign, but Cameron has no control over these rogues.
http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/politics/conservatives_walk_out_on_norfolk_county_council_committee_talks_1_3212664
I am sick of hearing of B.Liar’s money making activities. Perhaps one day there might be one flight too many in that sleek black private jet he uses.
You are right you are sick.
I still think Blairio is being set up to take the rap.
There’ll necessarily be an all change moment at some stage in the near future and someone will have to be thrown to the wolves to create the impression of justice done. It certainly won’t be an insider.
Media are keeping Blair warm, and in the public eye. It’s remarkable too the way they allow the vicious and venomous comments against him to stand unmoderated. This is quite common where he’s concerned, and they’re always hinting at dubious business deals and whatnot with despotic dictators. I mean, look at this and especially the comments from that holy of holies, Bloomberg itself:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-04/blair-scorned-at-home-builds-business-empire-abroad.html
It’s very unfair I know, but that’s the way they work. Didn’t he watch The Sopranos?
I do hope they don’t seize his palaces and treasure as well. Poor Shree.
From that link Nevermind.
‘In his new incarnation, Blair is taking on highly paid roles that don’t sit well with Britons still agitated by what they saw as Blair’s foreign adventurism when he was in office.’
See how they let him off. It was not ‘adventurism’. It was a bloody offensive war and occupation in Iraq.
His punishment should rightfully be arraignment and sentence for his war crimes at The Hague, that life sentence to be spent in a solitary cell on a cold island with a tape on loop of the screams of the little ones having their dressings removed without anaesthetic. On the wall will be projected endless images of the babies born in Fallujah with gross deformities from the dust filled with depleted uranium that their mummies and daddies ingested and inhaled. That should suffice until he meets his Maker.
@ Komodo
“You asked earlier: “How exactly would you define the “spirit of the discussion”?””
_____________
Yes, but I didn’t ask you, Komodo. I should prefer the originator of the comment to respond to my question if that’s all the same to you. Bait and switch is so boring….
Cheers, mate!
Unlike Chelsea Manning who was sentenced to 35 years’ confinement and who is now in Fort Leavenworth, Texas, a military prison, Edward Snowden can breathe fresh air and see the sky.
________________________________________________
Mary,
Not to engage in argumental conversation with you, but more to note some thoughts. Snowden is comparatively free in Russia and only comparatively to Chelsea. Russia as you know have very strict registration (propiska) system where every ‘free’ citizen must register with local police. So no prison bars but the freedom in comparative. And air is Russia is not that fresh either. In fact Russia is one of the most polluted countries in the world, the most polluted of G7, 2nd most polluted in G20 and I certainly think that air in Moscow is more polluted than in Texas.
On other more (principal) note I am certainly puzzled by Snowden’s Russian rendezvous. I am puzzled because for someone who put himself at a great risk for the freedom of speech is now effectively locked in the country wich is listed under number 3 as most dangerous country for journalists. Comparatively peaceful Russia (with the exception of occasional slaughter of Chechens and Central Asians driven to Russia by poverty) is a leader by the number of assassinated journalists in the last 20 years. It is certainly not the principal destination for someone who made brave stance to the global spying intelligence. It reminds me the worst of the Cold War where ‘enemy of my enemy is my good friend’ way of politics. I am therefore puzzled by Snowden’s involvement in this dirt.
Uzbek I know he is not ‘free’ in terms of our understanding of the word. Remember though how he was being hounded and tracked. Everyone thought he was heading for a South American country but the restrictions on overland flying scotched that. Better Moscow than a disgusting Supermax prison in the ‘land of the free’.
‘Nobody did better out of New Labour than Tony Blair, who’s worth up to £40m and is the owner of seven properties. How the moneybags ex-PM amassed such a fortune is now attracting attention. The investigative Rottweiler Tom Bower is researching a book on Blair’s loot, as are the news hounds Francis Beckett and David Hencke. Kazakhstan should be interesting.’
http://www.newstatesman.com/2014/01/commons-confidential-grin-and-blair-it
Can’t imagine anyone wanting to buy or read such books.
Better Moscow than a disgusting Supermax prison in the ‘land of the free’.
____________________________________
It is indeed hard choice. Brings us to the point that freedom is only comparative – everywhere.
On the other hand, I am curious if asked now, would Snowden criticize appalling freedoms of speech in Russia? Or would he make this same choice of lesser of two evils.
“His punishment should rightfully be arraignment and sentence for his war crimes at The Hague, that life sentence to be spent in a solitary cell on a cold island with a tape on loop of the screams of the little ones having their dressings removed without anaesthetic. On the wall will be projected endless images of the babies born in Fallujah with gross deformities from the dust filled with depleted uranium that their mummies and daddies ingested and inhaled. That should suffice until he meets his Maker.”
Do you get some sort of perverse pleasure by projecting such punishments on the targets of your hate? All very primitive I’m afraid this “eye for an eye” rubbish!
“Can’t imagine anyone wanting to buy or read such books.”
I can.
Yes, but I didn’t ask you, Komodo. I should prefer the originator of the comment to respond to my question if that’s all the same to you. Bait and switch is so boring….
Cheers, mate!
Tough shit. Be grateful. You don’t even answer my questions.
While William “Heir of Churchill” Hague continues to assert that no-one did anything wrong to detainees-
http://www.irishexaminer.com/world/hague-rejects-move-for-iraq-war-crimes-prosecutions-255068.html
this was published at the end of last year, and he seems not to have read it:
http://www.detaineeinquiry.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/35100_Trafalgar-Text-accessible.pdf
The timeline (Chapter 2) is worth a look. Craig is mentioned re renditions to Uzbekistan, incidentally.
I am wondering how far Straw is likely to go to protect his then boss, Blair, should the shit hit the fan despite the best efforts of US-centric apologists like Hague. Not far, is my guess.
“Fred, you have no point, its not serving anyone to argue the toss, we want to exchange information and debate the issues thrown up by Craig, mind bending does not come into it.”
Who is this “we” you refer to?
It must be a great source of pain to all those involved in seeking to project their hatred of Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher that the 99% just don’t appear to have got the message.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/mps-vote-margaret-thatcher-best-modern-prime-minister-9035124.html
Perhaps those seriously interested in changing the World rather than in sounding off their own neuroses might wish to consider.
Sorry Fred, in a moment of inane tea induced monging, I dare assumed that there is a collective spirit present here, you’re part of it, unless, off course, you’d like to leave.
A technical observation. Glen Greenwald is not at salon anymore, the link’s going nowhere, so why not replace it with this one….:)
http://squonk.tk/earthling/
“Sorry Fred, in a moment of inane tea induced monging, I dare assumed that there is a collective spirit present here, you’re part of it, unless, off course, you’d like to leave.”
A collective spirit? Not seen any evidence of it. Even if there were I doubt they would want to see off topic posts banned.
“A technical observation. Glen Greenwald is not at salon anymore, the link’s going nowhere, so why not replace it with this one….:)”
Off topic.