With over 50,000 sorties already flown by allied aircraft against ISIL, it added nothing substantial for a tiny number of British jets to fly instantly after the Westminster vote to hit an oilfield in Syria. It was purely war porn, to provide all those pictures of jets taking off to excite the public and continue the propaganda. Worth noting that none of the mythical magical missiles that don’t kill civilians was used last night, just high explosive freefall bombs. The target is also a useful reminder that, as always, oil features prominently in neo-con foreign policy. MPs spoke openly in last night’s debate of breaking up Syria, which will be music to the ears of Genie Energy and Messrs Murdoch and Rothschild, and the Israeli government which astonishingly has already issued oil licences within Syria.
If we actually wanted to bomb the oilfields that fund ISIL, we would be bombing Saudi Arabia.
Scotland is being dragged into a war it voted near unanimously against. 96.5% of Scotland’s MPs voted against the airstrikes in Syra. On platforms all up and down this country, I argued that I do not care a damn about how strong powers are given to Scotland’s parliament in domestic affairs, it we are not a sovereign nation and can still be taken to war against our will. I was proud of Alex Salmond last night for expressing contempt at the notion that civilians are not killed in British airstrikes, a big lie nobody else directly challenged.
I am reassured that last night’s events must be yet another step along the road to independence, and will have invigorated SNP hearts against the temptation of being too comfortable at Westminster.
I don’t know how many oil engineers, or people who cook and clean for oil engineers, we incinerated last night, but the triumphalism of the Blairite warmongers over it is not a very edifying sight. It says something for the strength of the delusions entertained in the Blairite bubble that the fact that Hilary Benn’s speech led to the rafters echoing with Tories making HWOAR HWOAR noises, is taken by them as a massive sign of imminent triumph within the Labour Party. The 28% of Labour MPs who supported Cameron – which they did with explicit attacks on their own leader and on Labour members who were opposing the Tories – will be experiencing the shock of hangover as the heady moment of triumph seems a lot less clever the next day.
UPDATE: I have withdrawn a statement about British aircraft intercepting Russian aircraft, as my informant has been in touch to say they were in fact referring to an incident several days ago.
Do you have a URL or reference for the incident in which British jets from Cyprus intercepted two Russian bombers on the way to bomb ISIL, and turned them back?
More info please on the Russian bombers turning back.
The idea of the Russians meekly accepting instructions from the British does not compute!
Do you have a source for that story re the Russian planes? Highly significant if true…
At least we did not shoot the Russians down.
NATO’s defence and enabling of ISIL is becoming more transparent by the day. Some factions within ISIL may have gone rogue, but they still serve a purpose for us – enabling the removal of Assad which always comes first.
Those cheers from the Tory benches at Benn’s speech made me feel sick. There are now rumours that some Labour MPs are plotting a coup to replace Corbyn with Benn. Tories were egging this on all over Twitter last night.
Speaking of Twitter, there’s a lot of people in my feed who can’t believe Chris Bryant, Labour MP for Rhondda, voted for the war. It seems many are his own constituents. Do these dimwit voters not do their research? He’s a supporter of the Henry Jackson Society!
On a brighter note, I am impressed at the long list of Labour voters – including Andy Burnham – who didn’t vote for the war. There were a few in the list who voted to go to Iraq, so it seems some have learnt their lesson.
Sensible comments Craig but why does everything have to be about Scotland? But since you raise it I recall you being rightly sceptical of unanimous votes in the past.
A link to the Russian bomber incident would be useful.
Dec 2, 2015 12:26
© syria.mil.ru
Russia presents proof of Turkey’s role in ISIS oil trade
The Russian Defense Ministry has released evidence which it says unmasks vast illegal oil trade by Islamic State and points to Turkey as the main destination for the smuggled petrol, implicating its leadership in aiding the terrorists.
https://www.rt.com/news/324263-russia-briefing-isis-funding/
Other commentators have suggested that Benn is turning into Blair. The content-free, thespian appeal to raw emotion to deflect any attempt at thinking about the issue supports this. And Benn is plainly positioning himself as the new Dear Leader, should anything unfortunate happen to Corbyn.
Disgusting.
Can anyone post a list of the Labour MPs who voted for bombing Syria and those who abstained? I assume that with Labour not imposing a whip, there were no paired abstentions.
“Scotland is being dragged into a war it voted near unanimously against.”
Ask 56 SNP MPs to think of a number between 1 and 10 and they’ll all give the same answer. “Whatever Nicola said”.
The SNP is not Scotland, opinions among the Scottish people are as divided as they are in the rest of the UK and in Westminster.
If nothing else in yesterday’s debate the two main parties demonstrated to the world how things work in a modern civilised democracy. The SNP demonstrated how things work in a Fascist dictatorship.
War planes hit oil region in Islamic State-held Syria – monitor
War planes from a U.S-led coalition carried out overnight strikes on oil-producing areas in an Islamic State-held part of eastern Syria, a group monitoring the war said on Thursday, after Britain said it had started raids for the first time.
POSTED: 03 Dec 2015 16:46
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/war-planes-hit-oil-region/2315892.html
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights is the quoted source. That’s the man in a flat over a Midlands shop so do not attach much credence to the report.
~~
Alistair Bunkall said the same on Sky News, so it must be true. 😉 He said that the air ops are controlled from a centre in Qatar. Hope the customers at Sainsbury, 25% owned by the Qataris, know where the money is going and for what purpose.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alistair_Bunkall
https://twitter.com/AliBunkallSKY
He’s loving it.
Craig –
“Worth noting that none of the mythical magical missiles that don’t kill civilians was used last night, just high explosive freefall bombs.”
High explosive freefall bombs with “Made in Great Britain” proudly stamped on them, probably. (Excuse me while I vomit).
“If we actually wanted to bomb the oilfields that fund ISIL, we would be bombing Saudi Arabia.”
Absolutely spot-on 100% correct. But the emphasis is on the “If”. I wish ‘we’ would just stop bombing other countries, PERIOD.
“I don’t know how many oil engineers, or people who cook and clean for oil engineers, we incinerated last night”
I am sure their friends, loved ones and dependents will have that information.
There’s going to be a similar vote tomorrow in the German parliament…
http://www.dw.com/en/bundestag-debates-bundeswehr-mission-in-syria/a-18888053
First three commenters: I have an informant in Cyprus but they have been back in touch to clarify they were referring to an incident about ten days ago of alleged Russian incursion towards Akrotiri. Can’t quite puzzle this together so have just withdrawn it for now.
Iain Orr The lists are on the previous thread. I got one from the BBC website and earlier the list of the Liebour lot who voted Aye was on Guido Fawkes’ Order Order.
Smoothface so managed to cover zio murdochs ass with the deceptive Leveson inquiry,even rebekah is back now. He has conneed us again with this “airstrike vote” which practically amounts to NOTHING – all this brimstone talk was just more spin, just a days Russian strikes are greater than what our tornadoes will do in a month. That Hammond is now talking of a one year at least operation, is an admission the plan all along has been Libya 2.0 regime change. But 600 MPs were unable to ask that simple question or we would have seen him refusing to get up from the despatch box, as he did even when repeatedly pressed by SNPs Angus Robertson over the 70k spin.
“Can anyone post a list of the Labour MPs who voted for bombing Syria and those who abstained? I assume that with Labour not imposing a whip, there were no paired abstentions.”
A list of those who voted for was posted to the blog last night.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2015/12/deselection-is-essential-to-democracy/comment-page-2/#comment-566002
What struck me was how many of them represented constituencies with a high ethnic population which leads me to think that Britain’s Muslims are in favour of the bombing.
Someone called Jane Nellist has got a list on FB Ian, but I can’t copy it from there…. it now belongs to FB so I believe.
Still, after this destabilising vote last night, the media is questioning those who have a conscience, not the perpetrators of this mess. Who in the media is asking what the Government is doing to stop the payments to IS/Daesh/ here in London, who is closing the accounts of IS’s paymasters? Will taxpayers still have to underwrite the risky deals of arms dealers supplying the proxies of IS? Why has Turkey , an IS collaborator, not been suspended from NATO membership? And why are we bombing oil fields during climate week? What, if anything, have we achieved during the last four years? and how will this possibly change now with our massive input of 8 extra jets?
No more Russians peeking at your facilities misery:
http://www.itv.com/news/update/2015-12-03/typhoon-jets-leave-uk-for-raf-akrotiri/#
(Second item on page)
Looks like machines designed for Cold War situations aren’t redundant after all.
Ah, nothing like a bit of “recreational bombing” to go with my morning coffee!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-3337618/PETER-HITCHENS-isn-t-just-war-s-recreational-bombing-Churchill-wannabe.html
So how many typhoons have we got left to patrol the realm, Ba’al. Whats gonna happen if we get another ‘overflight’ incident?
These low lives in Westminster are playing with fire. It’s just a distraction from the failing domestic policy. Benn et al will find themselves out on a limb of a soon to be broken branch. Ben has committed political suicide by voting with the Tories. A every Labour politician has found in Scotland. The Labour Party are being purged of Blairites. They lost the Labour Party millions of votes. Illegal wars and banking fraud. Cost £Billions. Brown/Blair should be in jail. Scotland will be Independent. The Tory/Unionists will meet their fate.
I’ve listened to Benn’s speech. Only because everyone is talking about it’s ‘greatness’. The whole thing leaves me with a feeling of utter despair at the human race. How could anyone be impressed by such blatant dishonesty, historical superficiality, and such a sickeningly stupid comparison with a noble struggle against Franco? It was like a room full of profoundly dumb people clapping hysterically at the words of an even more profoundly dumb human being, who is no doubt causing his father to turn in his grave. What utter disrespect to the nation!
The Labour MPs pro-war vote list is on http://order-order.com/ I was saddened to see that my own MP, Harriet Harman, is on it. Will she never learn? I did email her before the vote about my objections to the UK joining another pointless conflict.
@craig
Since your last post on Genie, if reports are to be beleived, there have been significant findings regarding oil deposits:
“Genie Energy, a company with headquarters in the United States, confirmed it made a major discovery of oil and natural gas in the Golan Heights.
The New Jersey-based company said data from exploratory wells drilling into the area confirm what it said were “significant” quantities of oil and natural gas.
“We remain optimistic given the results to date,” Genie Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Howard Jonas said in a statement. “We are now working diligently to determine the production costs and total quantity of the resource.”
The company’s Israeli subsidiary, Afek Oil and Gas, drilled into a column of reserves about 1,150 feet thick, about 10 times larger than the global average.”
http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Energy-Industry/2015/10/09/Major-reserve-discovery-confi
And, yes, it is quite a advisory board Genie have, including:
“R. James Woolsey
Director of Central Intelligence from 1993 to 1995 and as Under Secretary of the Navy from 1977 to 1979. Mr. Woolsey is co-founder of the United States Energy Security Council and is Chairman of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. ”
Bill Richardson
Governor of New Mexico from 2003 to 2011. Mr. Richardson has served asU.S. Ambassador to the United Nations (1997-1998), Energy Secretary in the Clinton administration (1998-2001), Chairman of the 2004 Democratic National Convention, and as Chairman of the Democratic Governors Association.
Marry Landrieu
United States Senator from Louisiana from 1996 to 2014. Senator Landrieu served as chair of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. In her capacity as chair, she sponsored and passed the U.S.-Israel Energy Cooperation Bill. The bill fosters partnerships focused on developing resources such as natural gas and alternative fuels, on the academic, business and governmental levels.
Richard Cheney
46th Vice President of the United States. Vice President Cheney also served as President and CEO of Halliburton Company and U.S. Secretary of Defense from 1989 to 1993.”
http://genieoilgas.com/about-us/strategic-advisory-board/
Wasn’t everybody saying ISIS oil supplies needed taking a few days ago. Suddenly now we’ve started its completely wrong????
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/03/first-uk-airstrikes-syria-deal-real-blow-isis-michael-fallon
Thank heaven for the RAF . According to our Defence Secretary Michael Fallon we have achieved obviously in 12 hours what the US Airforce has failed to achieve in 14 months !
How many of those despicable Labour MPs are ‘Labour Friends of Israel’? I think we should be told.
@Wanda, it was as if a demonic spirit had suddenly possessed him, and had turned him into a fiery orator, a la Tony Blair; the fake Left have always been the greatest danger, as an enemy within is generally more lethal than an external enemy.
Tony Benn’s greater fault was that he was too much of a gentleman not to make politics personal, as if he had told his son what he really thought of him for voting for attacking Iraq, maybe he wouldn’t still be such a disgusting war-monger.
Now that he has shown yet again that he is willing to have unnecessary innocent blood on his hands, more people will now reailise that like all Blairites, he is a dangerous monster that needs to be shunned.
It appears that of the 67 Labour MPs who voted for airstrikes no less than 30 of them were women.
Hilary Benn is the leader of Labour’s Military Tendency.