Just between 2003-5, US forces killed 15 journalists in Iraq, the majority either Westerners or working for Western news agencies. The figure is from the mainstream American Journalism Review. 94 aid workers died in the Iraq conflict, according to Reuters. I don’t have a figure for how many of those were killed by the US forces, but many. Journalists and aid workers have been among the 2,540 people killed in “collateral damage” of drone strikes since Obama became President. Now the US has just killed medical staff and aid workers in Kunduz.
I do not want to downplay the horror and cold-heartedness of the grisly ISIL executions. But the United States military has killed more journalists and NGO employees than ISIL ever will. An inconvenient fact you will never see reported in the mainstream media.
Some of those US killings of journalists were not deliberate targeting. That is of little comfort to the dead people and their loved ones. Some were not accidental.
Excellent post Mark Golding at 6.57pm
These three secular Middle East countries that you mention, in reverse order Syria, Libya and Iraq, are surely victims, particularly their unfortunate citizens. They did nothing to deserve their treatment at the hands of these vicious psychopaths in the “West”.
One common thread, and another clear reason for their misery, is that all three had independent banking systems. That were not in debt or beholden to the western banksters. I believe that this one one of the factors in their targeting and destruction.
Anyone who takes the trouble to research the true origins of the “terrorism” that they are accused of surely realizes that it is a western construct and psyop.
RobG
4 Oct, 2015 – 2:45 pm
Apologies for off topic, but Manchester on a Sunday afternoon, the Conservative Party conference and two young Tories braving the baying mob, is just too good to miss…
_____________
RobG, are you also a Type Zero Global Civilisation Medieval Man?
There are no Muslim or African countries on the Permanent Security Council, one doesn’t have to think too hard as to why that is. It certainly wouldn’t do to have a P5 member veto an illegal sortie into, a chosen Middle Eastern country ripe for plundering.”
______________
There are also no Hindu orBuddhist countries represented in the UNSC.
Mark are you sure about this EMP? This is a temporary glitch that can be easily countered, though magnetic shielding etc. However this is one of the Hollywood’s favorites and a gift to the snake oil salesmen, who are busy planning for the next budgetary off takes from the public purse for their sponsors in the defence industry.
Russia is far too huge for it to be out of action, in fact one of the strengths of Russia in any nuclear exchange is its huge size and the distributed command structures (unless I am mistaken), as well as the hardy Russians to be less pampered than their counterparts in the West.
The rules have changed. Israel no longer has carte blanche.
Six Russian fighter jets intercepted four Israeli bomber jets over Syria. The Israelis turned back.
http://www.intifada-palestine.com/2015/10/air-duel-between-the-sukhoi-su-30-russian-sm-and-israeli-f-15/
pete fairhurst 4 Oct, 2015 – 7:49 pm :One common thread, and another clear reason for their misery, is that [Syria, Libya and Iraq] had independent banking systems. That were not in debt or beholden to the western banksters. I believe that this one one of the factors in their targeting and destruction.
I agree. Those who are unaware of the power of bankers to utterly control a nation through its monetary system should listen to the opinion of Robert Hemphill, for 8 years credit manager of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
“There are also no Hindu orBuddhist countries represented in the UNSC.”
_______________________
Alcyone, I afraid that’s not true, India have been on the UNSC in these years as a member:
1950 – 1951 , 1967 – 1968 , 1972 – 1973 , 1977 – 1978 , 1984 – 1985 , 1991 – 1992 , 2011 – 2012
China is of course a permanent member, with a Buddhist population of 244 million.
Does anyone believe a word in the ‘Press’? Regurgitated nonsense.
Great Post and Comments
MSF Response to Spurious Claims That Kunduz Hospital Was “A Taliban Base”
“MSF is disgusted by the recent statements coming from some Afghanistan government authorities justifying the attack on its hospital in Kunduz. These statements imply that Afghan and US forces working together decided to raze to the ground a fully functioning hospital with more than 180 staff and patients inside because they claim that members of the Taliban were present.
This amounts to an admission of a war crime. This utterly contradicts the initial attempts of the US government to minimize the attack as ‘collateral damage.’
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/article/msf-response-spurious-claims-kunduz-hospital-was-taliban-base
Hope The Rally went well in Dundee Craig, and that you are feeling better Soon
http://jackofkent.com/2015/10/an-odd-exclusive-the-home-office-has-a-mou-with-saudi-arabia-which-it-is-keeping-quiet/
How does the government decide on which regimes to respect and which to vilify?
TOTALLY OFF TOPIC- BUT PUTTING IT OUT THERE ANYWAY – AS AN OPEN LETTER TO PM DAVID CAMERON:-
Dear Prime Minister Cameron,
I noted your recent generous offer of 25m pounds as a partial contribution for the repartition of Jamaicans imprisoned in Britain. The problem, as I understand it, is that since Britain is a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) so then the appallingly bad prison conditions in Jamaica, if the UK convicts were transferred to a Jamaican prison, would breach the ECHR provisions and amount to cruel and inhumane treatment. Your offer then, being faced with a call for payment of reparations for slavery, is to substitute an offer of increased aid for the Caribbean and avoid reparations payments – is this not your strategy? Seems less than clever at best and at worst a racist insult. Forget the examples of the Canadian apology to the First Nation natives and reparations paid by the Canadian government; or, the substantial payment to the Jews for a significantly shorter historical time of suffering a crime against humanity; or the apology by the Government of New Zealand and payment of reparations to the Maoris – simply ignore these – right? One really can’t deny that these quite recent precedents do exist – can one? So what makes the Caribbean claim that different?
The figure of 400m pounds to the Caribbean in aid, is a paltry sum when viewed in the overall context of the UK’s overseas aid budget being/ is more than £11 billion annually, with not much at all coming to the Caribbean as bilateral aid. More importantly, when viewed in the overall historical context of the 300 years of free labour building Britain during the slavery and colonial period, the figure offered as presumably an alternative payment for reparations is simply laughable. Britain has no problem with the funding; it does, however, have a huge problem with its global credibility if this issue of reparations is viewed with honesty and sensibly with sensitivity and open eyes. It is a drop in the bucket for Britain to address this claim – but it seems as if some have no shame!
Consider your family’s own benefit by inserting the name Cameron to ascertain how much was paid as reparations to the Cameron slave owner family – https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/
Might I also contrast your approach to payment with a reflection on British responsibility in a modern sense, for the care and protection of persons who suffer from mental illness in the Turks and Caicos Islands ( TCI). The Islands do not have a mental hospital, but instead a section in the Lunatics Ordinance in the TCI requires transfer of the mentally ill to be hospitalised in Jamaica. Indeed the Turks and Caicos finds itself under ECHR jurisdiction. Yet, to save money the British Governor declared the prison a hospital for the care of the mentally ill. See below, the treatment of a Jamaican schizophrenic inmate, if you doubt me ( he died in his cell):-
http://www.mentalhealthworldwide.com
Might I therefore suggest that for the UK to meet its ECHR responsibility in the Turks and Caicos Islands, the 25m pounds be diverted and applied now as a matter of necessity and urgency to its own British colony for a state of the art mental health hospital. Thus, then the UK meets its ECHR obligations in its own colony of the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Prime Minister Cameron, I go further. It is absolutely appalling the approach that you have taken to this quite serious and important issue of reparations in the Caribbean. I shall substantiate and validate my last comment. It was you who recently referred to the “swarms” of refugees/ migrants into Europe. Do you not understand that it was British policy to support the US in its invasion of Iraq and then, as the whole world sees, made Iraq a ‘failed state’. Then even with that recent miscalculation the UK again was fully committed to the bombing and destruction of Libya. Tell me – where do the majority of these terrorists and refugees come from? Whose policies bred them; who funded and trained them; and – who now with astounding consistency wants to have the Caribbean abandon its claim for reparations? Who? There is nothing that you say and/or do that can be wrong – is it not so?
The real legacy and issue in the Caribbean is the lack of inter-generational capital at the end of the slavery and colonial period which can be discerned by considering the following data – in data. This represents GDP per capita as sourced from the International Monetary Fund. Draw your own conclusions based on reliable sources.
In both a historical and contemporary sense there remains a case for reparatory justice. The way forward will have to be, by your choosing after having addressed the Jamaican Parliament, a case before the international Court of Justice and an assessment of the claim’s total value.
Again, the approach via aid is wholly inadequate. As you well know this is a device to get British companies overseas work; monies not even leaving Britain in certain instances; high end professional jobs and consultancies on construction and other projects for British professionals; and at a disproportionate advantage to the donor country. “Aid” in this sense is false symbolism and not exactly reparations – is it not – and if your approach were to be accepted, you would in actuality be pacifying the Caribbean’s claim for reparations at knock down basement bargain price. Let’s analyse for a moment. In the 1830s there was a politically motivated prolonging of the emancipation declaration. In fact, there were women groups and persons of conscience in Europe who well before Wilberforce and Pitt had wanted immediate emancipation. But, what actually happened? The politicians prolonged the process to ensure that they could pay to the enslavers ( and themselves) the spoils of the enslavement and then left the enslaved with not one jot for their centuries of extracted free labour. Is this not simply disgraceful? Do you not have a human conscience? Look at what the Canadian and the New Zealand governments did – do you not have an iota of equivalent grace and dignity? When we move forward to the proposed 25m pounds prison ‘contribution’ to Jamaica are you for a moment in any way aware of what you are saying and doing? You are going back at least two centuries in your approach to this issue of reparations. First, the idea of paying not the group descended from the people who worked and laboured but the ones who by force, violence and torture had labour extracted for free over centuries is nothing short of disgraceful. Indeed that was then, and you, no doubt will say that this is now. But the British response as then is being replicated now. Why so? Well – you are offering to pay just about nothing and you are ensuring that yet again Britain takes all the lucre, but pretend that the UK is doing some great good for the Caribbean. Not so?
Your motive and approach is fully understood. However, weighing the horrors and contemporary consequences of slavery, is it you as Prime Minister or is it Britain as a country that is so shameless and blameless? Just consider the recent case of the Kenyan claims for compensation for being tortured in concentration camps during the Mau Mau period. The UK went as far as hiding some of the official records and files from the claimants’ lawyers, until discovered and released under court order.
Thus, here we go again. But, isn’t it not now time that we address this reparations claim in a mutually respectful, honest, dignified and just manner? No less should be sought; no less is deserved to the Caribbean.
Prime Minister Cameron, truth be told, I am a “nobody human rights lawyer”. You are perfectly free to ignore my correspondence – or – you might from your high office begin to consider the quite substantial issues I have raised. Myself, a humble person, not in the least with any state’s resources at my disposal. But – again – truth be told – I have my mind, my heart, my conscience and I would like to believe, the capacity of any other human being who believes that the cause that I have here defended and supported is a worthy and perfectly justifiable cause, and can now say ( to yourself Prime Minister Cameron) – why not so?
Respectfully,
Courtenay Barnett ( a supporter of the reparations claim)
O/T
Corbyn has worried the Tories enough for them to start thinking of change!
As carried by Telegraph
====
Good letter Courtenay Barnett
Fedup – Not to be confused with this rubbish:
http://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/us-air-force-confirms-boeings-electromagnetic-pulse-weapon/
Some info for you (intensive research on man-made EMP has been around for 50 years)
http://www.futurescience.com/emp/EMP-myths.html
@Robert Crawford
“The Americans are shit hot with “friendly fire.”
You can say that again “During the Korean war the a British regiment I know
of was returning fire at the Americans because they were bombing and shooting
at everything in sight and not in sight as-well
“Six Russian fighter jets intercepted four Israeli bomber jets over Syria. The Israelis turned back.”
There’s no source for that, other than this piece at Liveleak:
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=53f_1443836190
And no source at all for their piece. They don’t say anything about how they came by this info. Not even, “sources say”.
Perhaps someone’s getting a bit over-excited, now the cavalry have finally arrived.
Herbie,
At least one Russian media source reported this
http://3mv.ru/publ/v_nebe_sirii_rossijskie_su_30_perekhvatili_izrailskie_f_15/1-1-0-48706
Sqounk
Great.. Cheers
I’m Surprised too that no one has put up the Cultural war.. Rodger Waters Slyaying Bon Jovi..in Cosmic Lingo we have the ‘ WOW ‘ factor//well this letter caught me –
So the die is cast, you are determined to proceed with your gig in Tel Aviv on October 3. You are making your stand.
You stand shoulder to shoulder
With the settler who burned the baby
With the bulldozer driver who crushed Rachel Corrie
With the soldier who shot the soccer player’s feet to bits
With the sailor who shelled the boys on the beach
With the sniper who killed the kid in the green shirt
And the one who emptied his clip into the 13-year-old girl
And the Minister of Justice who called for genocide
You had a chance to stand
On the side of justice
With the pilot who refused to bomb refugee camps
With the teenager who chose eight prison terms over army service
With the prisoner who fasted for 266 days until freedom
With the doctor banned from entry for saving lives
With the farmer who was cut down marching to the wall
With the legless child growing up in the rubble
And the 550 others who won’t grow up at all
Because of the missiles and tank shells and bullets we sent
The dead can’t remind you of the crimes you’ve ignored. But, lest we forget, “To stand by silent and indifferent is the greatest crime of all.”
Roger Waters
http://www.salon.com/2015/10/02/roger_waters_to_jon_bon_jovi_you_stand_shoulder_to_shoulder_with_the_settler_who_burned_the_baby/
Shit Sorry Again. Squonk
No reason to apologise
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_Yayz5o-l0
Permanent members of the UN Security Council are nuclear powers with a global military reach. African countries HAVE been temporary members and one African country at any single time provides permanent representation. It’s a mischievous lie to say that Africa has no say in the UNSC and imply a non-existent racist motive for denying representation.
Herbie
That’s nonsense. Liveleak gives the source – a Russian blog in French called Strategika51. From his other articles, Strategika seems reasonably well informed about the Russian intervention in Syria.
O/T sorry:
http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/birminghams-ancient-koran-could-rewrite-9966936
The BBC Radio 4 yesterday’s religious Affairs programme highlighted this ridiculous controversy about its Qur’an fragment. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06f4z37
Carbon dating placed the fragment to a date before the Qur’an was revealed and Orientalist academics stated that Islam might have to re-think its tradition that the Qur’an was revealed to our prophet SAW and subsequently written down.
Sorry, no, you re-calibrate your carbon dating machine.
Birmingham University holds a huge collection of Christian texts in Arabic, originally donated by the Cadburys. I have known about the collection for 20 years. The manuscripts are not made available for academic study. These Arabic texts are likely to confirm that the Christianity which Jesus pbuh taught was unitarian not trinitarian.
boring though all this may be to the atheists here, this library is a nuclear bomb ticking away under our noses because unitarian Christian manuscripts were systematically destroyed in the era of Constantine 300 A.D.. The whole premise of 25 years of war on terror are premised on the US fundamentalist christian belief that Islam is wrong and needs to be destroyed.
Carbon dating placed the fragment to a date before the Qur’an was revealed and Orientalist academics stated that Islam might have to re-think its tradition that the Qur’an was revealed to our prophet SAW and subsequently written down.
Sorry, no, you re-calibrate your carbon dating machine.
Absolutely. You use known-for-certain dates to do this, like the date of Noah’s arrival on Mt. Ararat*, the day the Red Sea parted**, and the third day of creation***.
Giyane: Given the extremely derivative nature of the Q’ran – sorry, but it is – what’s so impossible about some of it having been in existence before the Prophet?
“And who knows which is which and who is who.” – perfect Squonk
More Americans are killed by guns in America than terorism. Americans shooting each other. 26,000 a year.
The US/UK/France have killed and maimed millions in the Middle East, leaving people starving. Israel should be sorted out. Or it will be a festering sore forever.
Bandits! Charlie Alpha Four:
http://www.intifada-palestine.com/2015/10/air-duel-between-the-sukhoi-su-30-russian-sm-and-israeli-f-15/
Giyane
You inhabit a strange world. Everybody knows that the Chrisian “Gospel” is a particularly selective collection of texts and that a great many other records of Christian teaching of equal validity (all are pretty remote) were discarded and excluded. Even Catholic priests have been taught the truth of that for centuries. Gnostic gospels, Dead Sea Scrolls etc etc are not news. There is absolutely nothing the manuscripts could say that would make any difference.
The Koran is very obviously derivative; it retells a great many stories. That is not in dispute either. Of course it has antecedents. Whether it is divinely inspired or dictated or not is a question of your belief; I don’t see why its having antecedents would affect that question.
re Ba’al
Load of nonsense. The Qur’an is no more derivative than the Bible. All holy books develop from previous ones. The only reason, to take an example, that Jesus’ birth is placed in Bethlehem, is that the Old Testament tradition demands that the Messiah be born there. He actually came from a Galilee family, and an improbable story had to be invented to put his birth far, far away from there.
In any case the Birmingham fragment is a perfectly standard early Qur’an style in hijazi script. If it really were earlier, it would look different. Two possibilities: 1) the Carbon 14 range of dates does include up to 649, 20 years after the Prophet’s death. So there’s no real contradiction. 2) The scribe reused a piece of old parchment. No tests were made on the ink.
Laguerre
“The Qur’an is no more derivative than the Bible.” So extremely derivative then. Both books are extremely derivative. Your belief that one or the other was divinely inspired is, in 99% of cases, a matter of which family you were born into. Which is not to say you are wrong. Just interesting that divine truth should choose to be able to be perceived largely through the accident of birth.