Aleppo 343


The Morning Star has today come under massive criticism for hailing the near total recapture of Aleppo by pro-Government forces as a “liberation.” I would agree that the situation calls for more nuance. However a feeling of relief that the fighting that has ravaged Aleppo for four years is coming to a close, must form part of any sane reaction. If we are not allowed to feel relief at that, presumably it means that we must have wanted al-Nusra and various other jihadist militias to win the hot war. What do we think Syria would look like after that?

I am no fan of the Assad regime. It is not a genuine democracy and it has a very poor human rights record. If Assad had been toppled by his own people in the Arab spring and replaced by something more akin to a liberal democracy, which kept the Assad regime’s religious toleration, protection of minorities and comparatively good record on women’s rights, and added to it political freedom, a functioning justice system and end to human rights abuse, nobody would have been happier than I. Indeed I strongly suspect I have in the past done much more to campaign against human rights abuse in Syria than the mainstream media stenographers who all decry the fall of rebel Aleppo now.

But sadly liberal democracy, human rights and women’s rights are not in any sense what the jihadist militias the West is backing are fighting for.

Of course it is essential that human rights are now respected in Aleppo by the government, that civilians are looked after, and that rebel fighters once identified are incarcerated in decent conditions. I add my voice to those calls. It should be noted that the threat to life and limb, and the violations and war crimes, have been on all sides, and the oppression of the government is most unlikely to be worse than the oppression of the rebels. The jhadists impounded relief supplies from the civilian population, shot those attempting to flee, and raped on a grand scale. That is not in any way to minimise the potential for mirror abuse from government supporting troops. But it is nonetheless true and must be stated.

The freedom from rebel mortar bombardment of civilian areas of Western Aleppo will also be an added mercy.

But it is not only the western media which has been hopelessly one-sided in its coverage of events. I have been deeply shocked by the heavily politicised role played by western charities and relief agencies. And sure enough, reports reaching me today from an independent source in Syria indicate that now the Syrian government has taken over most of the ex-jihadist held areas of Aleppo, those western agencies and charities that were screaming for a ceasefire so they could get aid in to the communities, have lost all interest now that it is safe to do so and the Syrian government is begging them to go in. They appear interested only in servicing rebel-held areas.

Last week saw a rare moment of truth in western diplomacy as Boris Johnson accused Saudi Arabia of financing proxy wars in the Middle East and spreading the ideology of terrorism. It is a strange world when it comes as a shock when a government minister for once says something which is true. But it was a rare moment. Boris is now in Saudi Arabia touting for more arms sales. In fact the anti-democratic regimes in the Gulf loom extremely large in the affections of the current Conservative government. Both Hammond and May have recently been to Bahrain. As I said, the Assad regime does have a poor human rights record, but the Bahraini government beyond argument has a much worse one, with torture a widespread and everyday measure of oppression. The Sunni “royal family” was only maintained in its despotic rule over its majority Shia population during the Arab spring by the invasion of the Saudi army. Torture and repression has been stepped up ever since even beyond its normal appalling standards.

To repeat, Bahrain beyond doubt has an even worse human rights record than Assad. It is also even less democratic. Yet this is the UK’s close ally, and in a stunningly stupid flourish of neo-imperialism, Britain has just opened a new military base in Bahrain, indicating our desire to indulge in further disastrous military intervention in the Middle East for decades to come.

I don’t think I have ever been more ashamed of my country than when reading Theresa May’s speech last week to the assorted despots, torturers and head-choppers of the Gulf Co-operation Council. A plea for our relationship with “old friends” that nowhere at all gives even a passing reference to democracy or human rights, to the extent that it even references the East India Company as a good thing in our history! A litany of begging for their cash, while at the same time focusing on the “security” and “terrorist” threats they face, the “terrorists” in question being their own disenfranchised populations.

Shameful, shameful stuff. yet where is the condemnation from those mainstream media journalists waxing lyrical today on the evils of Assad?

The game goes on. With financing and ideological underpinning from these Gulf states, and covert intelligence aid from the West, ISIS forces are allowed to slip out of Iraq, regroup and retake Palmyra as “retaliation” against Russian/Syrian success in Aleppo, and as a propaganda counter to ensure the West’s jihadist “allies” are not demoralised. The cynicism of it all is sickening. The Morning Star may indeed have not been sufficiently nuanced; but compared to the lies and elisions of mainstream media it is a beacon of truth.

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343 thoughts on “Aleppo

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  • Brianfujisan

    bevin
    December 13, 2016 at 18:29… Posted Re the Ghouta Sarin false flag, Here is Some more Bevin..a bit Longer with more..

    ” Putin: “Kerry Lies”

    Rarely does it happen that a president of a major country calls the head diplomat of a rival state a “liar,” but that is the label Russian President Putin chose for Kerry on the day after his congressional testimony. Referring to Kerry during a televised meeting of the Russian Presidential Human Rights Council on Sept. 4, Putin addressed the sarin issue in these words:

    Putin continued: “I watched the congressional debates. A congressman asked Mr. Kerry, ‘Is Al Qaeda present there? I’ve heard they have gained momentum.’ He replied, ‘No. I can tell you earnestly, they are not.’”

    Putin continued, “The main combat unit, the so-called Al-Nusra, is an Al-Qaeda subdivision. They [the Americans] know about this. This was very unpleasant and surprising for me. After all … we talk with them, and we assume they are decent people. But he is lying, and he knows he is lying. That is sad. …

    https://consortiumnews.com/2016/12/11/the-syrian-sarin-false-flag-lesson/

    • Brianfujisan

      More Detail

      Sharp ears.. Thanks for re-posting the Eva Bartlett video
      What a wee Heroine.. The truth from those that have been over there, and same with Vanessa Beeley.. Bless them..I seen your Before and after Alepo link
      I have seen such videos before..here is some drone footage –

      Drone footage shows devastation of deserted eastern Aleppo (EXCLUSIVE VIDEO)

      https://www.rt.com/news/370215-drone-footage-aleppo-syria/

      P.s Samantha Power is a fkn monster.

  • harrylaw

    The Syrian and Russian side were invited to put their views on the Newsnight programme devoted to Syria last night, they both declined. This is a disgrace on their part and enables the Western media to propagate endless lies about the Syrian and Russian Governments in East Aleppo without contradiction. Last nights programme featured “reports” which spoke of men, women and children being shot down in cold blood by Assad’s troops and doctors having to wear wellington boots because of having to wade through blood. The Syrian opposition speaking from New York said the West should have used US cruise missiles against Syrian airbases even with Russians there. All presumably to install the head choppers into power. WW3 as a result meant nothing to this spokesperson for the opposition. However former Ambassador to Russia Sir Anthony Brenton and Matthew Parris of the Times injected a more realistic tone to the programme which although still extremely biased due in no small part to Syrian and Russian unwillingness to appear, could have been worse.

    • Stu

      Lavarov appeared on Newsnight a few years ago and basically roasted and lectured to by Paxman.

      They are right to ignore the show. It’s irrelevant internationally and not very important in terms of setting UK opinion.

    • Manda

      “The Syrian and Russian side were invited to put their views on the Newsnight programme devoted to Syria last night, they both declined.”

      Assuming they were asked, why would they wish to legitimate the propaganda of and be part of a certain hit piece by BBC? BBC is a partisan outfit, not a ‘news’ organisation.. BBC has zero credibility regarding foreign affairs and especially wars UK is involved in.

  • Republicofscotland

    I find it quite extraordinary, how the majority of the Western media galvanised itself yesterday over events in Aleppo, in a desperate attempt to try and gain international sympathy.

    Top of the agenda was the (alleged) killings of civilians by pro-Assad forces. A common complaint by both sides during the conflict in Aleppo. Purportedly reported by Syrian Obsevatory for Human Rights, which is ran from a ladies clothes shop in Coventry, by a disgruntled Syrian, who opposes the Assad regime.

    Another widely used term by the Western media, is to describe the invasion of Syria by outside proxy forces, as a civil war, it’s nothing of the sort. It is however a orchestrated attempt to depose a dictator using outside forces, whilst claiming the Syrian people have risen against Assad.

    Assad however is a dictator, who removes any opposition, not an ideal scenario for the war ravaged people of Syria. Assad may have survived this attempt to depose him, however the people of Syria could depose Assad, in the long term, I’m all for that.

    It is however disturbing to note that since the conflict began in Syria in 2011, a quarter of a million people have lost their lives

    • giyane

      It is completely irrelevant that Assad is a dictator because he is a dictator by virtue of USUKIS and French foreign policy. We are proxy dictators. But Boris Johnson, not content to proxy warmongering onto other nations, is dissatisfied with the mellowing of the dictator and OPENLY in Parliament called for the UK to help a much nastier dictator, the head-chopping Al Qaida over the Syrian people.

      He should be sacked immediately for supporting the now defunct neo-con position. Fortunately for us his provocative remarks against Putin , who has rescued Aleppo from destruction at these basatards, will continue to allow Assad to retake the rest of Syria which Boris says is 2/3 of Syria in terrorist hands, by which he means USUKIS hands.

      The UK is receiving billions of dollars of revenues from its clients in Kurdistan as part of an agreement by which the democratic depots Erdogan and Barzani are kept illegally in power.

      What Boris is saying is ‘We’ve got the oil, using our proxy terrorists and puppet democrats. Our utterly evil plan of using terrorists has worked for us, even though the Syrian, Iraqi, and Turkish people have been beaten into submission.

  • Chris

    To the neocons – even if military intervention in Syria could save lives, I wouldn’t sacrifice even one of our own people for it. Not even to save the whole country. Our interests are not just the most important thing, they are the only thing.

  • K Crosby

    I am no fan of the Assad regime. It is not a genuine democracy and it has a very poor human rights record.

    Same as your ex-employer then. Nice to see that you aren’t in that sewer any more.

  • giyane

    Listening to the debate in parliament yesterday I believe the people of the UK need to march in their millions against the wars which these MPs were calling for. But this time we need to ransack parliament and hang the warmongers on the lampposts of Westminster Bridge. How dare they support headchoppers in our name?

    • giyane

      I will personally locate Boris’ neck , if he has one, if he does to Syria what Cameron and Hague did to Libya. We are 70 miilion. They are handful of spoilt Etonians. When I have located his neck I will personal chew it apart like a Dobermann if they take this country to war to place headchoppers over the beautiful and liberal Syrian population.

  • bevin

    Disgusting though it undoubtedly is, the great thing about the current propaganda offensive-and the Blairite speechifying in the Commons- is that it signifies not the energy but the impotence of these dregs of the neo-con offensive which has been going on for more than forty years now.

    The propaganda is becoming increasingly difficult for even the stupidest person to swallow. It is pitifully easy to refute. The ruling class media today revolves around two poles, both utterly incredible, the first is the “Russia stole our election’ nonsense, which isn’t even funny any more, a pathetic attempt to stir up the ashes of the Cold War. The second is the atrocities in Aleppo meme.

    What they mean is that the jig is up for Clinton-Blairism. They have nothing to say so they are repeating themselves. The lies about Yugoslavia are being brushed up and Syria and Assad substituted for Serbia and Milosevic, just as Iraq and Saddam and Libya and Ghadaffi were penciled in when the time was ripe.
    Listening to the Labour warmongers in Parliament is like enduring the performance of a band that covers a tribute act that keeps alive the hits of the Monkees. The originals were bad enough and they weren’t very original but all is forgiven now as we endure the wailings of Ben Bradshaw, John Woodcock and Tom Watson.
    The one constant is that the ‘victims’, according to media who generally compete in whipping up islamophobia, are always innocent wahhabi mercenaries, up to their armpits in blood, armed to the teeth with the money that we should be spending on the NHS or public housing, not civilians at all but the veterans of a dozen ghastly terrorist wars who specialise in massacring Christians.

    The more of this atrocity propaganda there is and the more reports there are of Russia’s role in the US Election (and Brexit!!) the better. It reminds us of how stupid and unimaginative the political sock puppets of capitalism are. And how easy it will be to crush them, when we stop fighting each other.

    • giyane

      Bevin, I wish my upper lip was as stiff as yours, mate.
      My 4 year old nephew watches scarey clown videos on his mum’s mobile. Is it that we live in an age where forcing men into slavery and women into sex slavery is entertaining, not shocking? Boris and Obama are calling for the cherishing of violent terrorist criminals as if they were darling little 4 year olds.

    • LeeJ

      Bevin, I watched some of the debate and I had real difficulty working out from which party the speakers represented! I watched one MP talking utter shite and Jeremy Corbyn sat behind her. My first thought was why is a right wing tory speaking from the opposition side!

  • RobG

    What a lot of people don’t realise is that the US President is not elected by popular vote, the President is elected by what’s called the Electoral College, some five hundred or so people known as ‘Electors’ who are spread across all 50 states.

    Following a presidential election the Electoral College meet on the second Monday in December (which is next Monday) to vote on who’s going to be the next president.

    The ‘Russia rigged the election’ stuff seems to be an attempt by Hillary to steal the election…

    http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/310220-electoral-college-members-demanding-briefing-on-russian

    It’s happened before, folks, and if the election is stolen in the present political climate expect large scale civil unrest.

    • giyane

      Is that why Trump has assembled a bunch of jerks as a team, to convince the electoral college he’s going to be safe?

    • michael norton

      O/T but including Islamic Terror or the threat of terror.
      Bernard Cazeneuve Minister of Interior – TERROR – now Prime minister in charge of TERROR

      Less than five months before the first round of presidential elections, France’s new government has desperate little time to accomplish any policy goals. But the new prime minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, could still succeed in leaving his mark.

      Delivering his debut speech as prime minister to France’s National Assembly on Tuesday, Cazeneuve said he would make “every day count” during the short mandate that will precede the second round of presidential elections on May 7, 2017. Cazeneuve was appointed prime minister by President François Hollande, a Socialist, on December 6 as Manuel Valls stepped down from the post to launch a presidential bid.

      His first significant action as prime minister has been to ask lawmakers to extend a STATE OF EMERGENCY
      that has been in place since November last year, following attacks by Islamist militants in Paris that killed 130 people.

      TERROR TERROR TERROR don’t bother with Elections because of the TERROR

      http://www.france24.com/en/20161215-france-new-prime-minister-cazeneuve-race-against-time-socialist-party

    • Tony_0pmoc

      RobG,

      In reply to your comment late last night, that the UK has become a Police State…well from personal experience – I thought the UK had become a Police State 10 years ago under Blair – when for no other reason (because they weren’t doing anything wrong) my daughter was arrested in the summer walking home from our local park at about 9:30pm with her friends. She had done absolutely nothing wrong, and unlike her friends didn’t run. She was thrown to the ground by a big burly policeman – cuffed from behind and thrown into the meat wagon with a lot of other kids they had collected.

      It seemed the entire reason for this was to collect her DNA under a Blair directive.

      I got her out of jail at 3:00 am.

      Then it happened again 3 months later. This time they had several of her friends too.

      They said we can let this one go – we’ve already got hers.

      I complained vociferously, and did my best to get the law changed, such that her DNA records were deleted.

      To be honest, I think things have improved since then.

      Our politicians are still rubbish of course, but most of our police are trying to do their best, and would arrest the criminals in power, if someone would prosecute them.

      Tony

      • RobG

        Tony, I’m now 52 years old, and from what you’ve said in previous posts I believe you’re a bit older than me.

        I can honestly say that in my five decades on this planet I’ve never seen anything remotely close to what’s been happening in recent years, with regard to politics and society. What’s now taken as the norm would have been unthinkable even a decade ago (such as the Snooper’s Charter, which has recently been passed into law).

        With regard to the police, I grew up in London during the 1970s and 80s, and during that time the police were incredibly corrupt/criminal. I agree with you that the police are thesedays much more on the straight and narrow.

      • Tony_0pmoc

        Incidentally, being arrested twice at the age of 15, whilst obviously totally traumatic..the experiences did not intimidate or phase my daughter. It just made her and her friends more determined to stand up against such atrocities.

        At the age of 16, now doing her “A” Levels..she asked me..”Dad – can you give me a lift to the train station”

        She was determined to be a Streatham Ice Rink (when it reopened) when a kid her age – got shot dead and died in a pool of blood on the ice.

        Her school friend is a brilliant ice dancer…and the kids were determined to be there when it re-opened.

        When she was 17 – Obama turns up in London..

        She skips school early afternoon – dresses as a Press Photographer wearing a Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Badge (it really did look like a Press Pass)..she’s little but got this big SLR camera…and she is there right at the front…with the Police in all their Riot Gear – Black Helmets the Lot… and my daughter is spinning between them taking photos of the Riot Police and The Protesters Banging their Drums…

        Do you want to see the photos??

        She embarrassed the hell out of all of them…

        The couldn’t fight each other now…

        She was in the middle and might get hurt..

        The next day the UK Police literally escorted her and her friends (she said its OK – I did it by myself yesterday) right to the front to take photos of the Obama Cavalcade.

        Do not underestimate our kids.

        They have got far more courage than us lot.

        We had it easy.

        Tony

    • lysias

      If Trump could be denied the presidency at this point, I think there would be civil war or a revolution. Trump would be backed by a lot of the military, a lot of the business community, and a lot of ordinary citizens armed with weapons.

      However, I don’t think there’s any real chance of Trump being denied the presidency.

  • harrylaw

    To all doubters of the ‘West’s rage for reime change in Syria here is a list of US regime changes since the second world war..
    Instances of the United States overthrowing, or attempting to overthrow, a foreign government since the Second World War. (* indicates successful ouster of a government)

    China 1949 to early 1960s
    Albania 1949-53
    East Germany 1950s
    Iran 1953 *
    Guatemala 1954 *
    Costa Rica mid-1950s
    Syria 1956-7
    Egypt 1957
    Indonesia 1957-8
    British Guiana 1953-64 *
    Iraq 1963 *
    North Vietnam 1945-73
    Cambodia 1955-70 *
    Laos 1958 *, 1959 *, 1960 *
    Ecuador 1960-63 *
    Congo 1960 *
    France 1965
    Brazil 1962-64 *
    Dominican Republic 1963 *
    Cuba 1959 to present
    Bolivia 1964 *
    Indonesia 1965 *
    Ghana 1966 *
    Chile 1964-73 *
    Greece 1967 *
    Costa Rica 1970-71
    Bolivia 1971 *
    Australia 1973-75 *
    Angola 1975, 1980s
    Zaire 1975
    Portugal 1974-76 *
    Jamaica 1976-80 *
    Seychelles 1979-81
    Chad 1981-82 *
    Grenada 1983 *
    South Yemen 1982-84
    Suriname 1982-84
    Fiji 1987 *
    Libya 1980s
    Nicaragua 1981-90 *
    Panama 1989 *
    Bulgaria 1990 *
    Albania 1991 *
    Iraq 1991
    Afghanistan 1980s *
    Somalia 1993
    Yugoslavia 1999-2000 *
    Ecuador 2000 *
    Afghanistan 2001 *
    Venezuela 2002 *
    Iraq 2003 *
    Haiti 2004 *
    Somalia 2007 to present
    Honduras 2009
    Libya 2011 *
    Syria 2012
    Ukraine 2014 *

    Q: Why will there never be a coup d’état in Washington?

    A: Because there’s no American embassy there.
    https://williamblum.org/essays/read/overthrowing-other-peoples-governments-the-master-list
    And that was only since the end of the 2nd World War.
    The US government are involved up to their necks in Syrian regime change, the only reason it will not succeed is because Russia wants International law to apply and for the Syrian people alone to decide Syria’s future, not the “democrats” of Saudi Arabia or Qatar.

    • Trowbridge H. Ford

      Very incomplete list as there are no entries for the USSR, Taiwan and Turkey , and the use of disasters to promote regime-change in many countries is not included.

      How Shit-Slinger Samantha Power can open her mouth about efforts by others in Syria boggles the mind when the West started the civil war.

    • John Goss

      Criminal. Yet many, including the UK government, continue to say we have a ‘special relationship’ with these mass murderers. Count me out.

  • harrylaw

    Anti-Trump Coup Attempt Underway?

    Anti-Trump Coup Attempt Underway?

    Nearly five dozen electors addressed DNI James Clapper by letter, asking for information on nonexistent Russian US election interference.

    Others may join them. Only one was from a state Trump carried (Texas), all others from Hillary-won states – including 17 from California, six from New York and five from Massachusetts – meaning they’ll vote for her on Monday no matter whether DNI complies with their request or not, regardless of what information Clapper may or may not have.

    Trump won 306 Electoral College votes to Hillary’s 232, hers heavily concentrated in the northeast, mid-Atlantic and west coast. He won 30 states to her 20 – 270 EC votes needed to be elected.

    It would take 37 electors, from states he won, to deny him their vote, thereby throwing the process to House members to elect the president.

    Republicans control the body by a 241 to 194 seat margin – 218 votes needed for one of the top three candidates to emerge victorious. https://sjlendman.blogspot.co.uk/ H L Mencken once said “Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people”

    • Shatnersrug

      Here is the grief model we call the 7 Stages of Democratic Party Grief:

      SHOCK & DENIAL-
      You will probably react to learning of the loss with numbed disbelief. You may deny the reality of the loss at some level, in order to avoid the pain. Shock provides emotional protection from being overwhelmed all at once. This may last for weeks.
      PAIN & GUILT-
      As the shock wears off, it is replaced with the suffering of unbelievable pain. Although excruciating and almost unbearable, it is important that you experience the pain fully, and not hide it, avoid it or escape from it with alcohol or drugs.

      You may have guilty feelings or remorse over things you did or didn’t do with your loved one. Life feels chaotic and scary during this phase.
      ANGER & BARGAINING-
      Frustration gives way to anger, and you may lash out and lay unwarranted blame for the death on someone else. Please try to control this, as permanent damage to your relationships may result. This is a time for the release of bottled up emotion.

      You may rail against fate, questioning “Why me?” You may also try to bargain in vain with the powers that be for a way out of your despair (“I will never drink again if you just bring him back”)
      “DEPRESSION”, REFLECTION, LONELINESS-
      Just when your friends may think you should be getting on with your life, a long period of sad reflection will likely overtake you. This is a normal stage of grief, so do not be “talked out of it” by well-meaning outsiders. Encouragement from others is not helpful to you during this stage of grieving.

      During this time, you finally realize the true magnitude of your loss, and it depresses you. You may isolate yourself on purpose, reflect on things you did with your lost one, and focus on memories of the past. You may sense feelings of emptiness or despair.

      More 7 stages of grief…
      THE UPWARD TURN-
      As you start to adjust to life without your dear one, your life becomes a little calmer and more organized. Your physical symptoms lessen, and your “depression” begins to lift slightly.
      RECONSTRUCTION & WORKING THROUGH-
      As you become more functional, your mind starts working again, and you will find yourself seeking realistic solutions to problems posed by life without your loved one. You will start to work on practical and financial problems and reconstructing yourself and your life without him or her.
      ACCEPTANCE & HOPE-
      During this, the last of the seven stages in this grief model, you learn to accept and deal with the reality of your situation. Acceptance does not necessarily mean instant happiness. Given the pain and turmoil you have experienced, you can never return to the carefree, untroubled YOU that existed before this tragedy. But you will find a way forward.

    • lysias

      All but one of the electors who signed that letter is a Democratic elector. Only one Republican elector has said he won’t vote for Trump. This effort to deny Trump the presidency is going nowhere.

    • bevin

      If it goes to the House, they vote state by state, with each state having one vote. At least I think that is the way it works. Anyway you slice it, it adds up to a republican victory.

  • Tony_0pmoc

    I read somewhere within the last week or so – I can’t remember where – I think it was an American website or blog something rather nice about Craig Murray.

    Someone suggested somewhere that our Craig Murray should receive yet another award this year…

    So I tried to find out where I read this by doing a google search.

    I typed into Google

    Craig Murray Man of The Year

    and all I got was Craig Murray recommending other people for Man of The Year – last year 2015….and its probably not even the same Craig Murray.

    But he has been on Top Form recently – and must be a serious contender.

    Well done Craig, I’m impressed. I think John Ward (The Slog) has been brilliant too this year.

    Tony

      • Tony_0pmoc

        Trowbridge H. Ford,

        If I am as bright as you when I am 89, I will think I have done well.

        I have read loads of your stuff over the years, and I think you are great..

        All I can suggest, is to keep contributing to blogs such as this.

        I think you are a very clever and courageous man.

        Well done.

        You will be 90 next year.

        Can I visit you in Sweden?

        Tony

        • Trowbridge H. Ford

          Thanks, Tony. You are an interesting old codger yourself, and not afraid to adjust your ideas to fit the facts.

          It’s my older brother who turned 89 earlier this year. I’m just a kid at 87.

          We come from a long-lived bunch of vermin. The Civil War got rid of too many of the young ones back then.

          I moved back to the States four years ago, and you are certainly welcome here.

          May well move back to Sweden if Trump doesn’t ignite a World War first, as I am still a permanent resident there.

          Take care,
          Trow

  • Sharp Ears

    Treeza brushed Angus Robertson aside today when he asked if she was following the US in banning precision guided weaponry for use in Yemen. He was cheered on his second attempt. She was very combative today so is obviously on the defensive.

    Angus Robertson (Moray) (SNP)
    [..]Civilians have suffered grievously from the bombing of hospitals, schools and markets. The United Nations believes that 60% of civilian casualties are caused by airstrikes. In the past 24 hours, the United States has stopped the supply of precision-guided munitions to Saudi Arabia to bomb Yemen. When will the UK follow suit?

    The Prime Minister
    As the right hon. Gentleman knows, we have a very strict regime of export licences in relation to weapons here in the United Kingdom. We exercise that very carefully, and in recent years we have indeed refused export licences in relation to arms, including to Yemen and Saudi Arabia.

    Angus Robertson
    The US Government have just said that “systematic, endemic problems in Saudi Arabia’s targeting drove the US decision to halt a future weapons sale involving precision-guided munitions”.

    The Saudis have UK-supplied precision-guided Paveway IV missiles—they are made in Scotland. The UK has licensed £3.3 billion-worth of arms to Saudi Arabia since the beginning of the bombing campaign. What will it take for the UK to adopt an ethical foreign policy when it comes to Yemen?

    The Prime Minister
    As the right hon. Gentleman knows, the intervention in Yemen is a UN-backed intervention. As I have said previously, where there are allegations of breaches of international humanitarian law, we require those to be properly investigated. We do have a relationship with Saudi Arabia. The security of the Gulf is important to us, and I would simply also remind him that Saudi intelligence—the counter-terrorism links we have with Saudi Arabia and the intelligence we get from Saudi Arabia—has saved potentially hundreds of lives here in the UK.’

    https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2016-12-14/debates/7053F896-FC84-4084-8AAA-CAC26A51EEBB/Engagements

    Shameful stuff. Dreadful woman.

    • Anon1

      If they want to buy them then we should sell them. That’s business, petal. You don’t object to Russia selling weaponry to Assad, do you?

      • Macky

        There must be untold number of jailed weapons dealers, & drugs dealers, who found that your moronic justification is well, moronic.

        • Anon1

          The thing to note about the support for Assad here is that if he were a Western- backed dictator fighting Iran, Russia, etc, the blog denizens would be chomping at the bit to accuse the UK of propping up dictatorships.

          The morals here are interchangeable depending on whether the tyrant is Western- backed or opposed to the West.

          • George

            It doesn’t bother you in the slightest that the economy is being kept afloat by mass murder?

          • Anon1

            It doesn’t bother me in the slightest that this country sells weapons to Saudi Arabia. It helps keep the Scots economy afloat, for a start.

            I would sell the Saudis all the weapons they want/need, together with the expertise to use them.

            The last thing on earth I would get upset about is a bunch of West-hating hypocrites who couldn’t give a fuck about Russia selling weapons to any of their preferred dictatorships.

            Let’s sell more weapons to Saudi, and Iran too while we’re at it.

  • michael norton

    The bombing of the last parts of Aleppo held by rebels is probably a war crime, the UN’s human rights chief says.

    BBC Ministry of Truth

  • Leonard Young

    BBC watchers might be aware that only a few years ago BBC4 ran a long series about education in Syria, identifying schools as a fresh and liberal change from other nations in the region, particularly in the encouragement of higher education for women. This was undoubtedly a reflection of the government’s view at the time that Syria was distinctly, in their view, more progressive than surrounding nations.

    The staggeringly schizoid attitude towards Assad by Europe over the last ten years came to a head when it was stupidly assumed that any rebel cause was a good one, and so began a policy of cash and military/logistical aid given over to any faction calling itself anti-Assad, without discernment, judgement or any kind of analysis or thought. It is NATO, the US, the UK and other Euro states that are at least partly the reason why Syria has become the nightmare that it is.

  • Hmmm

    Nasty accident on the A38 tonight… I reckon it was them Russians… Anyone remember the not the nine o clock sketch… “We phoned British Gas”

    • RobG

      Here in middle-of-nowhere France my uncle’s gas boiler has recently gone on the blink, and we all think that there can be no explanation other than Russian subterfuge.

      Inbetween hiding under the stairs to escape the twerrorists, we creep out and look under the beds.

      My psychiatrist recently called me a paranoid loon, but of course all doctors are Russian agents.

    • michael norton

      A deal to evacuate the last rebel-held part of eastern Aleppo is back on, opposition fighters say, a day after a previous agreement fell through.

      Rebel fighters and civilians had been due to leave early on Wednesday, but the ceasefire collapsed.

      Rebel groups said late on Wednesday that evacuations would take place in the coming hours.

      Ministry of Truth

    • Brianfujisan

      Macky

      Cheers for those Links… I think it’s the other way around though, and Not that the Tabloids tell the Balairites what to do..Rather the Gutter Press print what Gov tells them

      The mrzine Info is way too long, with all the links..for tonight, my Eye’s need a break .. but thanks i’ll deffo go back to that…In meantime..

      Check out this Trip down heartbreak lane –

      MEDIA 25 Before and After Pics Reveal What War Has Done to Syria

      http://www.anonews.co/syria-photos/

  • michael norton

    United Kingdom troops sent to train anti-Isis rebels ‘have arrived in SYRIA’

    Defence secretary to announce that force of 20 will join 500 infantry stationed in country with aim of inflicting ‘decisive blow’ on terror group
    The Guardian

    well, well, I did not know that the United kingdom had troops stationed in SYRIA

    would this be at the invitation of the Syrian government?

  • michael norton

    barrel bombs wreak havoc
    http://news.sky.com/story/aleppo-under-siege-a-timeline-10613396
    uprising against the regime of President Bashar al Assad spreads to Syria’s largest city and its former commercial capital.

    some pictures of the White Helmets lifting children into the air for their own cameras.

    There ought to be a media organization looking in to who is funding, who is directing these shameless crooks.

  • mike

    People talk about Russia’s role in Syria as being significant, and of course it is. But I think just as important is Iran’s presence. Yesterday, President Rouhani said they’d stand by Syria “until the final victory”, which seems to indicate they are in this for the long haul.

    If you think back to General Wesley Clark’s extraordinary admission in 2007 that the US plans to enforce regime change in seven countries, ending with Iran, then it makes sense for Iran to take the fight to USIS. If they don’t do it in the deserts of Syria, then they’ll be fighting and dying in the streets of Tehran, and I think most Iranians know that.

  • Manda

    Robert Fisk in Independent. “We journos are going along with this”
    http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/samantha-power-un-us-ambassador-america-syria-aleppo-massacres-srebrenica-rwandan-genocide-bizarre-a7476556.html

    Yes, and many of us are watching with absolute disgust and horror. I for one will never, ever forget or forgive the part British main stream and majority of so called journalists have played in enabling the destruction of MENA and especially the ongoing horrors in Syria and Yemen which could be brought to an end if our governments stopped arming, supporting, funding and propagandising for terrorists and stopped arming and assisting Saudi coalition, which is using US satellite targeting, surveillance and refuelling and UK and US advisors are in control rooms in Riyadh.. is the atrocity
    on Yemen really an Anglo American war?
    Fisk fails to mention Milosovic was found not guilty of all crimes he was accused of in ICC.
    http://johnpilger.com/articles/provoking-nuclear-war-by-media

    Fisk also fails to mention the opinion of the US observers to the 2014 Syrian elections when denouncing Syrian elections as a farce. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnFQd4wBXnk
    Also, Ryecroft’s speech on the same lines as Powers at UN but he escapes critique.

    At least Fisk goes some way to pointing out the utter hypocrisy and double standards and shows some outrage many of us have been feeling for years. I am finding it almost impossible to even glance at MSM now. Mail apparently claiming Russia and Syria could be behind rapes in EU now… the claims get more farcical and hysterical every minute.

    An Empire full on, kicking and squealing tantrum is a very disgusting, surreal and undignified thing to witness.

  • mike

    “Global shows (sic) of solidarity with Aleppo”, the state broadcaster tells us today. We are shown lots of close-ups of faces, but no crowd scenes. This could mean that the “crowds” were tiny. I also had to laugh when our state broadcaster chose demonstrations in Jordan, “rebel” held Syria, and – wait for it – Kuwait and Qatar !

    Qatar funds the head-choppers in al Nusra; the Emir of Kuwait’s daughter sold the corporate media the babies-thrown-out-of-incubators lie during Gulf War 1. Jordan of course is where at least some of the head-choppers have been armed and trained by US special forces.

    We have always been at war with Eastasia.

  • michael norton

    Just seen the ridiculous Michael Fallon with his tongue so far up the rear of Ash

    United Kingdom Secretary of State for Defence Michael Fallon

    In February 2016, the week after a leaked United Nations report had found the Saudi-led coalition guilty of conducting “widespread and systematic” air strikes against civilians in Yemen– including camps for internally displaced people, weddings, schools, hospitals, religious centers, vehicles and markets– and the same day the International Development Select Committee had said that the UK should end all arms exports to Saudi Arabia because of ongoing, large-scale human rights violations by the Kingdom’s armed forces in Yemen,
    Fallon was criticised for attending a £450-a-head dinner for an arms-industry trade-body.

    He said he was going to take no notice of the SYRIAN-RUSSIAN great game and carry on regardless.
    According to Michael
    Assad is finished.

    He was talking like the British Empire was still in place,
    utterly delusional

  • michael norton

    US F35 fighters to deploy from Royal Navy aircraft carrier
    or we are in this together best buddy
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38336101

    Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon has signed an agreement with his US counterpart to allow Marine Corps F35Bs to fly from HMS Queen Elizabeth.

  • michael norton

    Ministry of Truth

    Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson summons Russia and Iran ambassadors
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38332030

    Mr Johnson, who met Russian ambassador Alexander Yakovenko and Iran’s Hamid Baedinejad separately on Thursday afternoon, said he had conveyed the UK government’s “profound concern over the situation in Aleppo”.

    Our government should be a little clearer, especially towards the British people.
    Would they have rather the war in Syria dragged on for four more years until there was no Syria?
    Would they have rather Turkey took over, see how Turkey is a shinning example of fairness to all those who do not like Dictator Erdogan.
    Would they rather Saudi ran the place.

    Or would they just let the Syrian people with their chums the Russians a little time to attempt to sort it through.

    Some clarity Mr.Johnson, if you please, some consistency, some looking at it from the Syrian governments point of view.

    • michael norton

      Ministry of Truth

      Evacuations from eastern Aleppo suspended by Syrian government side, accusing rebels of breaking terms of deal

      • michael norton

        Russia Today

        On Thursday, the UK’s Defense Secretary, Sir Michael Cathel Fallon,
        said that “Aleppo is a tragedy of Russia’s making,”
        suggesting that the recapture of the city, supported by Russia’s Air Force, had a high human cost.

        “Their position is not consistent,” Yakovenko, who has been in his post in London for almost six years, said of the MPs.
        “They are emphasizing the humanitarian point of view, but the eastern part of Aleppo was held hostage by the terrorists, and hundreds, maybe thousands were killed, and I hope now these atrocities are in the past.”
        https://www.rt.com/uk/370467-uk-mps-russia-ambassador-aleppo/
        I also hope that the days of atrocities are coming to an end.
        “Moderates” are moving to TURKEY

        let us hope, not for onward move into Europe.

        “I put the question very straight: How are you going to fight with the terrorists, because they are the cause of the need for humanitarian aid? And I didn’t get a clear answer,” he added.

        Yakovenko stated that cooperation over local issues is only likely to be short-lived and situational, while the sides had a contrasting wider view of the nature of the Syrian conflict, which has raged for over five years.

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