I wish a speedy recovery, both physically and mentally, to the people stabbed at Leytonstone tube station. It must have been horrifying.
The following comments are in part predicated on a presumption that the media reports of the incident are broadly true. This comes with a serious health warning. At this stage after another tube station incident, we were universally assured that various official “sources” and “eye-witnesses” had affirmed that Jean Charles leapt the barriers and ran through the tunnels, wearing a bulky jacket with wires sticking out. All of those turned out to be absolute lies deliberately spread by the Metropolitan Police and the Home Office.
But assuming this time the account of his shouting about Syria is not lies, what we can see from video is that a single man in a very silly hat, armed with a very small knife indeed, can carry out a vicious terrorist attack with apparently no need for planning at all. Not even planning enough to get a less tiny knife from his kitchen.
Because, sadly terrorism is easy. As I stated recently, if I were crazed enough to want to kill somebody tomorrow, and did not care how I did it, who I killed or if I died myself, I could kill a few people without too much effort or planning. That is why the continual propaganda about “seven foiled ISIS terrorist plots” or “4,000 active Islamic terrorists in the UK” is quite simply untrue. If all those terrorists existed, they would not be so entirely unproductive. What the authorities do catch continually are fantasists, often children, boasting and “plotting” online about being terrorists. That is quite a different thing. It is worth noting that nobody has been charged over any of these seven foiled ISIS plots. Strange that, isn’t it?
As for the man in the silly hat, I fear he is mentally unstable. That is no comfort to his victims. The truth is, of course, that it is always the little people who get hurt. None of the 1% who foment, promote and profit from war have ever set foot in Leytonstone Tube Station. But their agenda is forwarded today. By its continual acts of violence and repression, the neo-con state eventually goads a mentally unstable person into a nasty, vicious and pointless act. They then use that act to justify more wars and repression.
For the security and armaments industry it is a very profitable cycle.
David Halpin: “Anon 1 9.03. I take it you have not looked at the image in the Daily Mail? …”
David, you are talking as if you think your correspondent is a genuine human being. He is not. Anon1 is clearly a heavily partisan hack, a shill, and not a terribly subtle one. Anon1 is fed talking points and makes obvious retorts on a far-right, Israel, oligarch, US, and then England first basis – in that order of priority.
There is no point in attempting to persuade someone to a point of view, when their job is to crudely parrot the opposite view. That is why this low-rent unit is here, simply to provide “opposition”, however feeble, to Murray’s blog.
Glenn_Uk
” low-rent unit ”
I like it. Complete with autumn leaves, garbage bags, broken supermarket trolleys, worn tyres.
Sadly,Terrori$m is easy,quoth Craig.
Aye,just ask any 1&9 year old ex-mall rats n gamer freaks employed by the US to joystick kill anything they want like its some rechargeable version of SuperMario.
Hugely troubling paradigm.
Do any of them even yet know how to tie their own shoelaces?
^19 year old.
Here is the transcript of President Obama’s speech on Sunday, as provided by the White House.
THE PRESIDENT: Good evening. On Wednesday, 14 Americans were killed as they came together to celebrate the holidays. They were taken from family and friends who loved them deeply. They were white and black; Latino and Asian; immigrants and American-born; moms and dads; daughters and sons. Each of them served their fellow citizens and all of them were part of our American family.
Tonight, I want to talk with you about this tragedy, the broader threat of terrorism, and how we can keep our country safe.
/..
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/07/us/obamas-oval-office-speech.html?
Same speechwriter as Hilary Benn.
“Same speechwriter as Hilary Benn.”
No just basic decency – you should try it some time.
More speech from powerful Americans, same link as my last comment:
U.S. must adapt to an ever-changing world, former CIA director says
By Phillip Swarts, Staff writer
15 hours ago
The U.S. needs to have a vision of foreign policy that it tries to follow no matter which political party is in power, the former head of the CIA said Thursday.
“The world cannot afford the globe’s only superpower being radically inconsistent every electoral cycle,” said retired Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden. “We’ve got to make up our mind: What is our appropriate role in dealing with the world?”
Hayden — who led the CIA from 2006 to 2009, and served as head of the National Security Agency under President George W. Bush — criticized President Obama’s handling of some foreign policy issues, such as placing a time limit on troop surges to Afghanistan.
“[The president said] we’re going to surge in Afghanistan 10, 12, 18 months,” Hayden said. “To get the word ‘surge’ and time limit in the same sentence is a remarkable feat.”
Addressing the annual Association of Old Crows symposium on electronic warfare in Washington, D.C., Hayden said the White House may seem to be slow to take action, but that is because of the complexity of decisions it faces.
Hayden said he believes the administration is seriously struggling to decide what America’s world role should be, how active a part the U.S. should play, how the military should be deployed, and whether it’s better to pay attention to affairs within the U.S. instead of engaging internationally.
The world has been more dangerous in the past, Hayden said, pointing to the Cuban Missile Crisis and height of the Cold War as examples. But he argued that the world has never been so complex nor so interconnected before.
“We have actually seen it more dangerous, we really have,” he said. “I have never seen it more complicated … Frankly, I’ve never seen it more immediate.”
Hayden said that much of U.S. military and security policy is a holdover from the post-World War II era, when nation states held all the power and it still took time for messages to transverse the Atlantic Ocean.
Now, however, communication and transfer of information is near-immediate, and non-state actors are becoming increasingly empowered.
Hayden laid out four main “tectonic plates” he said are shifting the world culture and geopolitical structure:
• The empowerment of non-state actors — including terrorist groups — to affect events on the world stage.
• Things that once seemed permanent are changing, such as national borders and boundaries.
• The rise of “brittle” nuclear-powered states such as Iran, North Korea and Pakistan. [+KSA]
• The rise of China as a major world and economic power.
Well point 4, it explains the colorful “Urghyur uprisings”, & perhaps the attacks on Russia first (testing, testing)
point 3 looks like IRAN hasn’t escaped yet,
points 1 & 2, is he claiming these as his success? – surely it’s teamwork & billions to get to today’s terrorism
For those missing the Ukrainian (western-chocolate themed) version of world events, who do they blame for all the riots in England, for the Paris attacks, for . . . etc
http://www.unian.info/politics/1204376-ex-fsb-officer-in-tsntyzhden-russia-involved-in-london-paris-attacks-isis.html?
UA thinks ISIS is a Russian creation, er, ok maybe, maybe not?
. . . not quite PSYOPs – even tho’ you polygraphed Yevgeniy and you’re mostly certain that he wasn’t fibbing
Things in Syria are hotting up nicely. An extremely dangerous situation now exists.
Yesterday, Coalition troops attacked Syrian army troops and killed four Several injured.
Western coalition strikes Syrian army compound, several dead, dozen injured – reports
Published time: 7 Dec, 2015 06:50
https://www.rt.com/news/324940-syrian-army-coalition-strike/
and no show without the daemons.
Israel have also got involved.
“Israeli jets carried out several raids North of Damascus overnight
Thursday-Friday, Israel’s Channel 2 claimed, and citing foreign reports.
There were no immediate reports of casualties, the Times of Israel claimed.
The airstrikes were said to have targeted a four-truck Syrian army convoy, loaded with ballistic missiles.
The Israeli planes struck the vehicles after they left an army base, the reports claimed.
The Israeli Air Force also reportedly hit a gas supply, sparking massive explosions, According to FARS News Agency.
Israeli airstrikes in Syria have been widely reported over the last
almost five years of the country’s crisis in support of the Takfiri terrorists.”
/..
http://www.globalresearch.ca/israel-is-now-bombing-syria-claims-airstrikes-at-syrian-army-convoy-on-damascus/5493938
Israel’s covert involvement in Syria conflict to escalate
By Jean Shaoul
3 December 2015
A senior defence official has called on Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu’s right wing government to prepare to intervene in Syria and deal with the likely spillover of the nearly five-year long conflict into Israel itself.
Amos Gilad, the director of the political-security division in the Defence Ministry and a former senior Military Intelligence official, was reported on Israel’s Army Radio on Saturday as saying, “Syria is a dead state, and Israel must understand this and prepare accordingly.”
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s grip on his country was failing and it had become “a land without rule.”
/..
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/12/03/isra-d03.html
Biden is in Kiev. Checking up on his son’s Ukrainian investment perhaps?
Biden makes trip to Ukraine in sign of US support
http://news.yahoo.com/biden-makes-2-day-trip-ukraine-sign-us-095127776.html
Is Nuland in the party?
This man has been collared. We had better be really, really careful what we say and write.
‘Man charged with sending malicious messages to MP on Facebook
Craig Wallace, also known as Muhammad Mujahid Islam, 23, charged with sending “malicious messages” to an MP on day after Syria vote
By Steven Swinford, Deputy Political Editor
6:51PM GMT 06 Dec 2015
A 23-year-old man who described Hilary Benn, the shadow foreign secretary, as a “war criminal” and a “terrorist” on Facebook on the day after the Commons vote to bomb Syria has been charged with “sending malicious messages” to another MP.
Craig Wallace, who also goes under the name Muhammad Mujahid Islam, will appear in court on Monday charged with the offence of malicious communications.
Mr Wallace, of Willesden Green in north London, attended an anti-war rally outside Parliament on the day of the Syria vote and was pictured carrying a giant white poppy.
He also posed for a series of pictures with strangers carying a placard stating “I am Muslim, I am labled [sic] a terrorist, I trust you, do you trust me enough for a hug”.’
/..
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/12036173/Man-charged-with-sending-malicious-messages-to-MP-on-Facebook.html
Note how the Torygraph stick a photo of a Tornado taking off in Akrotiri at the top of this story whereas the caption says ‘A 23-year-old man has been charged with sending an MP malicious messages on the day after the Syria vote Photo: JULIAN SIMMONDS/The Telegraph.’
War porn.
Has anyone ever called you a cretin, Resident Dissident? You are really most abusive.
btw to whom should I show reverence? To Obama or to Benn. In either case, that would be farcical.
Hi Robert, thanks for your thoughtful post.
I have a friend who suffers from prostrate cancer, the last time I talked to him about it and asked how he felt after his last check up, he said ‘well, compare it to a chap who jumped down a tower block , I’m halfway down, raising my thumb shouting ‘so far so good’.
I felt really sad about his reply because he’s on the way down and has realised it.
Tory MP should ‘resign’ after faking death threat email from constituent
5th December 2015
Lucy Allan, Conservative MP for Telford, has been caught out after adding a ‘death threat’ to the end of an email she received from a constituent.
Adam Waitling, 27, who was writing using the pseudonym ‘Rusty Shackleford’, emailed Mrs Allan regarding the vote to bomb Syria.
Mrs Allan posted an excerpt of the email to Facebook, but Shackleford claims that she deliberately doctored the post to include the words ‘unless you die’ at the end to make it appear as if he had sent her a death threat.
/..
http://evolvepolitics.com/tory-mp-should-resign-after-faking-death-threat-email-from-constituent/
I don’t suppose she will face any charges.
Tom linked to this on the previous post btw.
Mary – I am aware the BBC is totally and unconditionally biased towards anti-Assad factions, including the Syrian Islamic Front, yesterday entertaining (13:00 BBC R4) a Syrian National Coalition spokeswoman prostituting and sowing the lie that Assad is culpable in the formation of ISIS by releasing terrorist radicals from jail by design specifically to focus attention away from so called Syrian government atrocities.
Israel is continually master-minding strike operations against Hezbollah/Iranian troops fighting paid mercenaries and Saudi thugs, while US and UK air-power is mission-creeping in an attempt to hinder the Syria army terrorist clearance from a number of strong-holds including Idlib.
Meanwhile the U.S. is continuing to ‘inadvertently’ drop TOW missiles in ISIS held ‘dump’ sites that are very effective at taking out government tanks.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/11/free-syrian-army-tow-missiles-regime-russia-air-cover.html
Mary – Before you jump to more conclusions, US general in charge of coalition airstrikes has said the nearest airstrike was 55km away. Now i’m not saying thats true but until you have actual evidence that it was a coalition airstrike i don’t think we should go overboard on this.
“war porn”
They love to splash the images of killing machines don’t they, click bait.
Myself, seeing these things (in real life especially) makes me want to throw up. Yet they are presented and a kind of pinnacle of desired achievement. Shown at every opportunity.
To me they illustrate the pinnacle of mankind’s degradation and folly.
“Lucy Allan, Conservative MP for Telford, has been caught out after adding a ‘death threat’ to the end of an email she received from a constituent.”
See, I said what she was like. That’s ‘my’ MP. After seeing the crass opportunist stuff she did on FB I wouldn’t put it past her.
Fuck. A Tory talking about normalizing and making acceptable, after voting for war like it was just another political advantaging strategy…
And as those innocent people are killed (And we can be assured of many) that’s just fine. They don’t just make promises to kill, they do it. And act like it’s WW2 to justify it.
It’s all quite insane. But i’m sure she is polite and well dressed, very “official”..
Sorry O/T. All the comments under the story of our bullying Tories driving a young man to suicide’ have disappeared.
http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/politics/watch_father_of_bullied_wisbech_tory_calls_for_culture_change_in_conservative_party_1_4336591
That has nothing to do with RD, but it could have something to do with the wider neocon bias over this story, merely asking the Tory’s for a ‘culture change within the Party’.
But it also points the finger to Lord Feldmann, who ‘knew all the while’ and who ‘did nothing’ to stop the excesses of Clarks bullying.
Something attacking this site? everything is much slower than usual?
Meanwhile the Saudis I believe have lost 2000 men in SW Saudi. The Yemenis have taken Jizan (I stayed in a hotel whilst mapping the Red Sea down there in 1998) and Najran. Most know how incompetent the Saudi army is. If the Yemenis who are a pretty tough bunch march on then ooer look out Uncle Saud.
Phil I am not jumping to any conclusions. I am putting up reports with links.
Mark:
“Hezbollah/Iranian troops fighting paid mercenaries and Saudi thugs”
If Saudi Royals want to be the first to hob nob with Jesus pbuh when he descends from heaven to Damascus, do they think he pbuh will be uninformed about the twisted way they fought in this war. Even when the US put their Muslim Brotherhood stooge in power, Mursi, in Egypt 2 million people came out on the streets to protest against his disgusting spydeology and warmongering threats.
This civil war is between USUKIS and the rest of humanity who refuse to be ruled by them. that’s a lot of humanity left to kill before Muslim Brotherhood take power in Damascus.
The SNP can’t even look after a bridge properly let alone run a country.
http://www.scotsman.com/news/brian-monteith-is-forth-fiasco-bridge-too-far-for-snp-1-3968160#ixzz3tcMwbLu7
Phi1
From Mary’s RT link:
““We’ve seen those Syrian reports but we did not conduct any strikes in that part of Deir Ezzor yesterday. So we see no evidence,” coalition spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said.”
I see no ships. He’s lying.
You do have a slight tendency to though Mary. I just like to try to show both sides of stories and arguments…..
I see reality Phil. Friends are becoming depressed by the terrible news on all fronts, domestic and international. All to the backdrop of the attempt for the usual commercial Christmas. I see a New Year slump coming.
Mary:
“A 23-year-old man who described Hilary Benn, the shadow foreign secretary, as a “war criminal” and a “terrorist” on Facebook on the day after the Commons vote to bomb Syria has been charged with “sending malicious messages” to another MP.”
Didn’t the PM call those who voted against bombing Syria ‘terrorist sympathisers’?
That was a malicious communication launched under protection of parliamentary rules.
The PM should be charged with ‘malicious communications’, but of course within their little Zionist freemasonry, they think they can say what they like. Cameron is an oil smuggler and a nuclear smuggler. He set up Islamic State with Erdogan in 2010, promising Al Qaida a caliphate in Syria/Iraq. Just to set the record straight.
Breaking news. Whaddauknow. A High Court judge has found Lord Janner unfit to stand trial. A January hearing was in the offing.
http://www.itv.com/news/update/2015-12-07/lord-janner-ruled-unfit-to-stand-trial-over-sex-abuse-claims/
Where’s low-rent unit Fuccone when you want him? I’m a human Acrotiri missile this morning and I’m looking for a flabby target.