The ethnic cleansing by the British of an entire small population and culture – the Chagos Islanders – is probably the most despicable act by Britain of my lifetime. As if the Iraq War and Extraordinary Rendition were not enough, New Labour’s moral dereliction – or more properly evil – was confirmed by the breathtaking cynicism of David Miliband’s proclamation of a Marine Protected Zone around the islands, designed to protect the American base on Diego Garcia and make it impossible for the Chagos Islanders to return to their living as native fishermen, and keep away any eyes that might see the secret prison inmates.
Extraordinarily and to their eternal shame, a number of prominent British environmentalists and conservationists lent their support to the Diego Garcia marine protected zone. These purblind fools, obsessed with a single cause and blind to wider policy and justice, are in the same category as the ridiculous “feminists” who were co-opted by the neo-conservatives agents (be they propaganda media or secret service or both) to frustrate the aims of Julian Assange and Tommy Sheridan.
In truth, if colonial conquest and force majeure are legitimate grounds of sovereignty, and if extermination of a population can wipe out the legal right to self-determination, then in international law Britain has the right to Diego Garcia and to give it as tribute to their US overlords. But if international law has any relationship of any kind to principles of justice, then Britain should not be permitted to reap the dubious benefit of genocide. What international law actually is in the neo-conservative era is the real question before the UN tribunal now looking at the Diego Garcia question.
The UK is represented by Sir Michael Wood. He is the man who overruled my objection inside the FCO to the use of “intelligence” gained from torture, and argued that British cooperation with extraordinary rendition was legal.
If anybody in Scotland can read through this and read through the links, and does not want to take the chance to leave the stinking cesspit of international shame that is the United Kingdom, they are severely deficient in moral sense.
Excellent Post Craig
” If anybody in Scotland can read through this and read through the links, and does not want to take the chance to leave the stinking cesspit of international shame that is the United Kingdom, they are severely deficient in moral sense.”
This is exactly my point to Floating/ No voters….
i can’t in all conscience, Vote for the alternative war criminal Fkers…responsible for Libya, and the Horrors of Syria.
But i came across this Kinda OT thing… From One Whistle Blower…to Another –
World Bank Whistleblower Reveals How The Global Elite Rules The World
” The goal is control. They want all of us enslaved to debt, they want all of our governments enslaved to debt, and they want all of our politicians addicted to the huge financial contributions that they funnel into their campaigns. Since the elite also own all of the big media companies, the mainstream media never lets us in on the secret that there is something fundamentally wrong with the way that our system works.”
“But most people have no idea that any of this is happening because the global elite also control what we see, hear and think about. Today, there are just six giant media corporations that control more than 90 percent of the news and entertainment that you watch on your television in the United States.
This is the insidious system that Karen Hudes is seeking to expose. For much more, you can listen to Joyce Riley of the Power Hour interview her for an entire hour right here.
Some More on this Piece @
http://www.globalresearch.ca/world-bank-whistleblower-reveals-how-the-global-elite-rule-the-world/5353130
The ethnic cleansing by the British of an entire small population and culture – the Chagos Islanders – is probably the most despicable act by Britain of my lifetime.
From a British point of view, this is obviously total bollocks. Far more despicable, and a crime on a vastly greater scale, is the ethnic cleansing by all three British mainstream political parties of more than half the English inhabitants of London, Leicester, Luton and Slough and the ongoing ethnic cleansing of other great English cities, by means of policies that derive from bogus liberal racial science, (aka, anti-racism) including promotion of non-reproductive sex and mass immigration of people who, for the most part regard liberalism with the contempt it deserves, and who are greatly outbreeding the indigenous people of England.
But what wonderful hypocrisy from a died-in-the-wool liberal bigot and promoter of multiculturalism, i.e., the subordination of English culture to that of a mass of aliens, to condemn the destruction of Chagos culture.
One wonders, are liberals all brainwashed morons, or just perverted, self-hating white humbugs.
RT on Freeview is suddenly off air for “planned maintenance”.
????
CanSpeccy,
Personally, I would go for “brainwashed morons”. They are not intriniscaly evil…They just did not do their research properly and see the effects of their colleagues who had been on the final course run by the Tavistock Institute and their “Management Teams”…The way they do it – is to take you away for a series of Residential Courses – where They Teach You Behaviour Analysis – and Behaviour Modification…and train you how to use these Techniques – and – it Really does work…You see, I knew what the final course was like – cos I could see the change…Basically, You are The Only Subject There as a Member of One of The Teams…and They have already found your most profound weaknesses – where you can be attacked from within…and of course when you are mentally destroyed there is your only friend there on the course and she invites you to come to bed with her and you have now betrayed your wife…Now they have got you every way they can…They Clean Your Mind – and We Will Tell Your Wife….They then Rebuild Your Mind – into The Company’s Image – You Will Do Anything For Them…
I not only didn’t go on the final psychological mind reprogramming course…I said I will go on any course you want to send me on..I will go anywhere you want to send me….even Scotland….so long as I come home every night and I sleep with my wife….
They said O.K. – You Can Fly.
Tony
CanSpeccy,
You must be aware that your outburst is absurd. I suspect you are taking the mickey, adopting the manner of a certain type of pub bore, but cranking the levels of crassness and ignorance right up to ‘dangerously deranged’, for comic effect.
But if I’m wrong and you are actually serious, I recommend that you take a relaxing holiday as soon as possible.
RT being off air is mentioned on their website. Don’t know how much advance notice they gave. Does seem a bit strange that you take down the entire service for “scheduled maintenance”.
http://rt.com/on-air/
Ah dinnae ken.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/crimes-against-peace-historic-class-action-law-suit-against-george-w-bush/5378507
OT-But have we just seen a classic example of history repeating itself, the kapos and Ukrainian concentration camp guards at it together again???!! Must have been something in Victoria’s pies!
John Pilger – Stealing a Nation – 2004 56 mins
http://johnpilger.com/videos/stealing-a-nation
‘The truth about the removal of the Chagossians and the Whitehall conspiracy to deny there was an indigenous population did not emerge for another twenty years, when files were unearthed at the Public Record Office, in Kew, by the historian Mark Curtis, John Pilger and lawyers for the former inhabitants of the coral archipelago, who were campaigning for a return to their homeland.
John Pilger first become aware of the plight of the Chagossians in 1982, during the Falklands War: “It was pointed out to me that Britain had sent a fleet to go and save two thousand Falkland Islanders at the other end of the world while two thousand British citizens in islands in the middle of the Indian Ocean had been expelled by British governments and the only difference was that one lot were white and the others were black. The other difference was that the United States wanted the Chagos Islands – and especially Diego Garcia – as a major base. So nothing was said, which tells us something about the ruthlessness of governments, especially imperial governments.”
[..]
In the film, John Pilger concludes: “Why do we continue to allow our governments to treat people in small countries as either useful or expendable? Why do we accept specious reasons for the unacceptable? The High Court issued one of the most damning indictments of a British government. It said the secret expulsion of the Chagos Islanders was wrong. That judgement must be upheld and the people of a group of beautiful, once peaceful islands must be helped to go home and compensated fully and without delay for their suffering. Anything less diminishes the rest of us.”‘
@ Lwtc247
“I’m puzzled at your seeming inconsistency between the Chagos Islands and Palestine. In the past you have resigned yourself to accepting the occupation and theft of Palestinian land. But not here with the Chagos Islands. Why?”
_______________________
Probably because the expulsion of the Chagossians was the responsibility of, and carried out by, the UK govt whereas what happened in Palestine wasn’t. And because what happened with the Chagos Islands could be (theoretically) righted/reversed by an act of the UK govt whereas what happened in Palestine can’t.
lwtc247
21 Apr, 2014 – 11:28 pm
I’m puzzled at your seeming inconsistency between the Chagos Islands and Palestine. In the past you have resigned yourself to accepting the occupation and theft of Palestinian land. But not here with the Chagos Islands. Why?
lwtc I think you are wrong in saying this. Have you ever heard Craig speak in public say after Cast Lead or Mavi Marmara? I have.
There are huge parallels between the Palestinians and the Chagossians or for that matter, any people removed from their homeland and made refugee.
Thinking of Spring in Palestine
by Mike Odetalla / April 16th, 2008
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/spring-552×35611.png
What benefit or joy if,
I were to gain the world,
But lose the almond blossoms in my land?
Drink a cup of coffee, everyplace
But my mother’s home
Journey to the moon,
But not to the graves of my ancestors
See the world’s wonders,
But not the setting sun as it dips behind ancient olive groves
Tour the world over,
But lose the flowers on the hills of my native land
Nothing but lethal silence…
No need to gain the world
Just a cup of coffee
In a familiar place and
An end to the lethal silence
Within the hearts of the living…
~~~~
Mike Odetalla is part of the large Palestinian diaspora and lives in the US. There is a photo of him here in 1979 and another photo of his great grandfather. The family home was stolen from them by deceit. There is also a photo of the key.
http://anniesnewletters.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/ten-of-thousands-of-dollars-in-legal.html
Hi Mary. Hope you are well.
I know Craig is a strong anti-Zionist, and I’m well aware of his admirable speeches and activism for the Palestinians etc. It’s partly what attracts me to him.
But he has in the past expressed acceptance of the Zionist theft and occupation of Palestine as a finality. It is wrong to do so. He is inconsistent in these matters.
“There are huge parallels between the Palestinians and the Chagossians or for that matter, any people removed from their homeland and made refugee.” – I fully agree and BOTH should be allowed back.
Thanks for that lwtc. Yes I’m fine but very stiff from a weekend surfeit of gardening! Perhaps the freezing water of the outsourced local authority swimming pool will help! Profit is king. All the staff previously employed by the local authority have been sacked/made redundant and kids (literally) now occupy their positions.
Perhaps Craig will clarify although it would be like putting him over a barrel. H above seems to think the ongoing 66 year old Occupation is a fait accompli. Nothing lasts forever!
Sorry I can’t join the discussion at the moment. Here is another potential example of islanders being deprived of land they have cultivated and planted, and seas they have fished, being taken from them without consultation. It is not the Chagos Islands but Ile a Vache off Haiti. This ongoing ‘land grab’, in which a policeman has been imprisoned without charge or trial, needs to be stopped until indigenous islanders are involved in discussions for the future. Here Dady Chery interviews Melinda Wilson, an expert on environmental issues, who visited Ile a Vache in February this year.
http://newsjunkiepost.com/2014/04/21/what-kind-of-tourism-is-sustainable-for-haitis-ile-a-vache-interview-with-melinda-wilson/
LWTC
I wish to see a single, democratic, secular state of Palestine encompassing all the land of Israel and Palestine and including in a completely non-discriminatory way everyone who lives there. To achieve such a solution will indeed likely require acceptance that the majority of settlers stay where they are – I don’t think you can in practice turn landholdings back to 1946. What you can do is pay the dispossessed proper compensation at real values.
As an Irishman living in Scotland I have a certain amount of sympathy with the nationalist cause although not enough to actually vote Yes. My prediction is independence will be rejected by a fairly healthy margi. Hopefully enough to prevent another referendum in five or ten years.
Mick,
I find that strange in an Irishman. Do you regret Ireland leaving the United Kingdom? If not, why do you not wish Scots to have the same opportunities? I have never met an Irishman who was opposed to Scottish independence, except for sad unionists, which from your name you are not likely to be. I confess that my immediate thought is that you are not a real identity or a real story.
Mary
Can you find for me what it was that Aaronovitch actually said about Amazon reviews? I still can’t actually find this. It seems to be behind the Murdoch paywall. I thought I might do a piece about it.
“As an Irishman living in Scotland I have a certain amount of sympathy with the nationalist cause although not enough to actually vote Yes. My prediction is independence will be rejected by a fairly healthy margi. Hopefully enough to prevent another referendum in five or ten years.”
Salmond has already stated that if independence is rejected this time there will be another, they will keep on having them till he gets the result he wants.
Craig,
Both my identity and story are real. In fact you were elected Rector of Dundee in the last year of my undergraduate degree.
I grew up in the North so I have a complicated outlook on the question of national identity but one which I am happy with. I believe myself to be Irish but I am happy to be a unionist in the context of NI remaining as part of the UK. Not sure if this qualifies as making me a sad unionist or not!
I don’t regret Ireland leaving the union as there was a mandate for such an action. I do regret that the country was partitioned. However, the parallels between Irish independance and the Scottish referendum are few and far between. I simply have not been moved by the Yes Campaign’s arguments. According to them everything is going to magically improve with independence, I simply don’t buy this.
“The stinking cesspit of international shame”
You wouldn’t be saying that if you hadn’t got the sack, would you?
“RT on Freeview is suddenly off air for “planned maintenance”.”
Oh no, not “planned maintenance”. Whatever next, “scheduled maintenance”?
Mary
“H above seems to think the ongoing 66 year old Occupation is a fait accompli.”
I didn’t say that. My post attempted answer Ltwc’s question. But I do think that to compare the two events in absolutist terms is unproductive and unrealistic.
Craig (10h08)
Subject to what you mean by a “secular state” I’d agree with what you say.
(I think that calling a state “Jewish” or “Islamic” – eg the Islamic republic of Iran – means nothing in itself – surely what is important is to determine what this means in practice, ie in terms of political, religious, etc freedoms)
Bluntly
““The stinking cesspit of international shame”
You wouldn’t be saying that if you hadn’t got the sack, would you?”
__________________
From what I know and have read of Craig’s story, it seems that that was precisely the reason he got the sack (in a more limited and specific way, of course)?
Habbabkuk, 11:57 am; well said.
Bluntly, 11:16 am; it was precisely because the system is a “stinking cesspit of international shame” that it acted against Craig’s humanitarian values, not merely sacking him (concurrently with his resignation), but smearing him and attempting to discredit him. It wasn’t just Craig it was suppressing; it was his values and their potential effect upon the public.
“I don’t believe for a moment Scotland would have invaded Iraq.”
It would have been worth a yes vote if it could have stopped the invasion of Iraq; I will agree with you on that.
Mick, 10:52 am:
Scotland’s electoral system is far more versatile and responsive to the will of the electorate than Westminster’s, where the misnamed “first past the post” electoral system creates an almost insurmountable threshold against modern and innovative candidates and parties. So with independence, Scotland would be relieved of the dead weight of Westminster, and thus freed to pursue improvement.
Foolish dissenter, 10:14 pm:
No, but the British people, English, Scots, Welsh, Irish and all, are inherently more moral than the Westminster government. Diego Garcia had to be covered up; the huge protests against the attack on Iraq could be simply ignored due to the unresponsive “FPTP” electoral system.
Vote for independence because it’ll throw a huge spanner in the works of the “British nuclear deterrent”, and thus the projection of immoral US/UK power across the world.
I have just heard Hugh Robertson MENA FCO minister on The World At One pouring derision on the planned election in Syria. He spoke of ‘getting rid of Assad and his henchmen.’ He is of course himself a henchman of the USUKIsNATO axis of evil. He had no answer to a question about supporting a moderate opposition when there is internecine fighting and killing ongoing in the rabble rebel groups in that benighted country.
I read the other day of Takfiris beheading a group of Syrian soldiers and photographed with the decapitated heads.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/04/19/359250/takfiris-decapitate-7-syrian-soldiers/