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1,681 thoughts on “One of the Following is True”

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    • Republicofscotland

      Thanks for that link, a quick check produced info that Sufi’s (though not all branches but the majority of them) trace their Islamic heritage through Ali, Muhammed’s son-in-law.

      So yes the attack at the Egyptian mosque could be a religious one possibly occuring fro the Sunni branch of Islam.

  • reel guid

    Richard Leonard says he’s “disappointed” by Dugdale’s decision to go on reality tv. He’s backed down. A few days ago – just hours after being elected in fact – he was all gung ho about getting her suspended from the party. Corbyn clearly reined him in.

    Looks like he might be a bit of a hothead who’s inclined to say rash things. Indy folks take note.

  • Tony_0pmoc

    Someone is taking the p1ss – but who is it? My wife was in London at the time, burt unaware of any problems whatsoever except the trains were a bit disrupted.

    Can people especially the police, be sensible when someone phones them up, and say that someone has farted really loudly on the train.

    The police could find no evidence. I mean FFS?. They just shutdown Oxford Street in Central London anyway??? How much was and will be lost to The UK economy in Christmas Trade from such ineptitude?

    “Oxford Circus: Met Police end operation after thousands flee in panic over reports of ‘gunshots’ ”

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/11/24/oxford-circus-station-evacuated-armed-police-respond-incident2/

    Tony

      • John Spencer-Davis

        I’d just like to offer something up for consideration regarding this matter, since Chris Rogers has raised it.

        Yesterday, I wrote the following tweet and copied it to Oliver Kamm and Neil Clark, among others:

        ——-

        @JohnMS_D “With breathtaking indecency, Herman fulminated: ‘Vulliamy of course gets
        on this Serb rape bandwagon’.” Kamm gives no link, of course. I
        will, so people can form their own opinion of Herman and Vulliamy.
        https://www.counterpunch.org/2009/11/23/vulliamy

        ——-

        The tweet refers to a quotation by Kamm of a phrase by Edward S Herman (and David Peterson, but naturally Kamm’s note is inaccurate), which comes from an article in which they comprehensively take apart the work of the journalist Ed Vulliamy. It obviously would not suit Kamm’s thesis to link to an analysis of Vulliamy’s inconsistency and dishonesty, so he gives only the quote and not the link, to cut down the number of people who will track the exposure of Vulliamy down.

        Within hours of tweeting this to Kamm, I was in the ugliest Twitter exchange of my life (which is saying something), with someone who retweets Kamm and clearly specialises in attacking the left. That person contacted me over a tweet I created two months ago, and haven’t heard anything about since, which approves of the Jewish Labour delegate Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, who was dismissive of the trope of Labour Party anti-Semitism. The tweeter picked an inexplicable fight with me over some people I have never mentioned in my life, accusing me of approving of their anti-Semitism, and ended by assuring me he was going to report me to my professional association and to the police for malicious Jew-baiting.

        These events may be wholly unconnected. But given Neil Clark’s experiences, it strikes me as a surprising coincidence that, on the same day as I tweet something which might be taken to be disconcerting to Kamm, I am attacked with such remarkable viciousness over an unrelated issue by someone who clearly has at least some connection with Kamm. I’ve written to Neil Clark asking him to review the Twitter exchange and tell me what he thinks, which he has kindly agreed to do. Cheers. J

        • nevermind

          Thanks for that, JSD, another little eye opener to the machinations that are Kamm’s daily muses. It has further strengthened my adversity to the limitations of twitter.

          I fail to see the advantage of, literally, spitting the gist of what one wants to say, into the sphere that is twitter., without being able to deal with the negative or positive aspects of one’s argument and or why.

        • Christopher Dale Rogers

          John,

          When dealing with Kamm & his numerous Bot posting friends on Twitter, may I simply advise to close him and his cohorts down you just post this link of Finkelstein demolishing him – essentially, his views are less meaningful than the dust one accumulates on the sole of their shoes – great to see Habbabkuk wade in, obviously another of the Kamm school of dishonesty. Here’s the link & this should close the buggers down: https://youtu.be/KiXxp89Lzks

        • John Spencer-Davis

          I’m grateful for everyone’s comments and support on this, including Macky, whose comment seems to have disappeared. J

      • Macky

        @Christoper, yes I have seen it, and also his other new hot-piece on Corbyn;

        https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/corbyns-woeful-record-on-defence

        Like JSD, I also have had the unpleasant experience of debating Kamm, quite a while ago, as it was before the Times Paywall. That was when I experienced for myself his shameless personal & intellectual dishonesty, as he censored my replies that proved unequivocally that he was deliberately misrepresenting . On Twitter he does not have that full control of the debate, hence the sort of distracting & smearing attacks tactics, such as the one that JSD has just experienced.

        • Habbabkuk

          The article by Oliver Kamm (referred to by Christopher Dale Rogers, above) really says it all about the vile Edward Herman, doesn’t it. The great white idol is revealed (not for the first time) to have great big feet of clay.

          Amid all the sound and fury on here, I notice that no one here is contesting Kamm’s assertion that Edward Herman has consistently denied genocide and attempted ethnic cleansing on the part of the Bosnian Serbs led by the likes of Karadzic and Mladic.

  • Stu

    “Political turmoil in Ireland will only help Mrs Theresa May’s government”

    An election in Ireland won’t help May and the Tories at all. Sinn Fein will put the border issue front and centre and either make ground or force FF and FG into fixed positions.

  • Macky

    Recently discovered Caity Johnstone, and in that short time she has written some of the most powerful pieces on current issues from RussiaGate, to Sexual Abuse, to Assange & WikiLeaks; this is her latest, on the accelerating road to tyranny;

    https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/fascism-came-to-america-wrapped-in-a-rainbow-flag-and-wearing-a-pussyhat-902118e62668

    (One thing that I think she should have mentioned is that the Democrats are cheer-leading RussiaGate in order to so damage Trump, so he doesn’t contest 2020, leaving it open for Biden, or even Hillary again.)

    • Anon7

      There’s no way Biden will be allowed to run. All his kiddy fiddling will come out and gift the Donald a second term.

  • reel guid

    I object to this continued use of the word illegal by the Spanish government and the western MSM to describe the Catalan independence referendum of October 1st. It implies wrongdoing and nefariousness. The referendum should be described not as illegal, but as unconstitutional. And it is only unconstitutional because the Spanish constitution is an imposing Francoist construct which denies the people of Catalonia their right to self-determine.

  • Sharp Ears

    Stupid people using Amazon for their so called Black Friday purchases have enhanced Bezos’s fortune. Pity the poor souls in the Amazon sheds packing up the stuff using vast quantities of packaging in the process and the delivery people chasing round against the clock. Robots are replacing the humans who ‘find’ the goods ordered and bring them to the slaves for packing and despatch.

    Amazon’s Bezos sees wealth top $100bn amid Black Friday boost
    The online giant’s founder has made another $32bn in the last year alone and is now the only person with a 12-figure fortune.
    https://news.sky.com/story/amazons-bezos-sees-wealth-top-100bn-amid-black-friday-boost-11142494
    Remember that he owns a media outlet now – the Washington Post. Where next Mr Bezos?

    As Amazon Pushes Forward With Robots, Workers Find New Roles
    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/10/technology/amazon-robots-workers.html
    Doesn’t actually say what the new jobs are!
    From the NY Times whose CEO is Mark Thompson, ** ex DG of the BBC and overseer of the SaVile cover up

    **
    https://www.channel4.com/news/mark-thompson-channel-4-news-jimmy-savile-bbc

  • Republicofscotland

    Suspended Scottish Deputy Police Chief Constable Bernard Higgins, has come under fire from some quarters.

    The backlash came as complaints were made that Higgins, incorporated the Union Jack flag into Police Scotland’s politically neutral uniforms worn by armed officers.

    Replying to enquires as to why the flag is now incorporated complainers were told, it represents a police charity in England. When asked why other police charities logos were not included on the non-political uniforms, no viable explaination was given.

    Flags or insignia, are not covered by Police Scotland uniform regulations.

    The recent flood of Union Jackery branding, wrapping, logos etc, flooding Scotland appears to be growing exponentially.

    • Habbabkuk

      “Suspended Scottish Deputy Police Chief Constable Bernard Higgins, has come under fire from some quarters”
      _____________________

      By an amazing coincidence one of the leaders of the Chilean independence movement in the early C19 was called Bernardo O’Higgins.

      Not a Deputy Police Chief Constable but a General, I believe.

      It seems that the two are in no way related.

    • reel guid

      On December 8th last year on their facebook, Aberdeen Conservatives announced their candidate Brett Hunt for the Bridge of Don ward.

      Using these phrases:

      “Brett will bring a fresh perspective to the council”.

      “He’ll be an excellent community champion”.

      Not being there. That is a fresh perspective.

      Someone needs to tell him that he’s the councillor for Bridge of Don, not Bridge of Gone.

  • Courtenay Barnett

    Lest we be complacent and/or complicit.

    What is the use of the right of “freedom of expression” if at every turn it is constrained because when truth is spoken to power, when injustice is called by its name to the unjust, when racism is termed as such against racists and those who are wrong are told that they are not all right – one is then to be censored for refusing to be compliant with the “wrongs” calling itself “right”? (Pun here intended).

    Read on and take very seriously please – and – share with all the thinking people you know. The article is spot on ( read below):-

    https://zcomm.org/znetarticle/from-open-internet-to-the-dark-ages/

    For as it was said, when it mattered and needed to be said:-

    Martin Niemöller: “First they came for the Socialists…
    http://www.ushmm.org

    Quotation from Martin Niemöller on display in the Permanent Exhibition of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Niemöller was a Lutheran minister and early Nazi supporter who was later imprisoned for opposing Hitler’s regime.

    Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) was a prominent Protestant pastor who emerged as an outspoken public foe of Adolf Hitler and spent the last seven years of Nazi rule in concentration camps.

    Niemöller is perhaps best remembered for the quotation:

    First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
    Because I was not a Socialist.

    Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
    Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

    Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
    Because I was not a Jew.

    Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

  • Sharp Ears

    One for Craig. I am sure that the BBC have covered all the facts in their video lasting for all of 1min 31secs. An insultt to understanding from the state broadcaster.

    Inside the secretive state of Uzbekistan
    The BBC was given permission to report from the Republic of Uzbekistan in Central Asia for the first time in over 12 years.

    Since the death of the authoritarian President Islam Karimov last year, a cautious programme of reform has been carried out in the secretive nation.

    We asked ordinary Uzbeks how they feel about the changes taking place in their country.’
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-asia-42116099/inside-the-secretive-state-of-uzbekistan

  • reel guid

    The Herald has the story of SNP group leader on Inverclyde Council Christopher McEleney suing his former employers the Ministry of Defence.

    Christopher worked as an electrician for the MOD and had security clearance for many years. However around the time of his candidacy for the SNP deputy leader post in 2016 his clearance was suspended. Christopher says he was subjected to impertinent questioning by an MOD official. He says he was so disgusted he quit the job.

    I need hardly point out that this kind of treatment by the UK state has echoes of the current treatment of pro-independence Catalans by the Spanish state.

  • reel guid

    Ruth Davidson tweets to celebrate the British womens bobsleigh team finishing fifth in the Bobsleigh World Cup.

    However Ruth doesn’t tweet anything to celebrate the Scottish womens curling team winning the European Championships.

  • Tony_0pmoc

    I hope Craig is O.K., but he has quite obviously been under a phenomenal amount of stress over the last year, and the last 6 months especially. I understand how he feels. Anyone subjected to such tremendous stress, during the stress – works even harder until the successful conclusion. The mind and body focusses on the objective, which quite simply needs to be achieved.

    Then you switch off, relax, do other things in order to survive, whilst your mind and body recuperates. This can sometimes take months.

    Otherwise you burn out. No one is fireproof to such stress, but bizarrely enough stress can be incredibly exciting and productive, especially if you are working as part of a team, and you are all literally determined to get there and make it work.

    Tony

  • Sharp Ears

    Here’s a Scottish woman to be proud of, Dr Elsie Inglis. She died, aged 53, 100 years today and achieved much in those few years.

    The female war medic who refused to ‘go home and sit still’
    26 November 2017

    Commemoration events will take place to celebrate the life and achievements of Dr Inglis
    https://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/660/cpsprodpb/17A8B/production/_98670969_elsie-inglis.jpg

    When Elsie Inglis asked the War Office if female doctors and surgeons could serve in front-line hospitals in World War One she was told ‘my good lady, go home and sit still’.

    Elsie, a pioneering Edinburgh doctor who had already become well-known as a champion of women’s health, did the opposite.

    Instead, she formed the Scottish Women’s Hospitals – all female units that provided support for Britain’s allies, the French, the Belgians and especially the Serbs.

    Elsie was 50 when war broke out and had already made a mark in Edinburgh by working with women and babies in the poorest parts of the city.

    /..
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-42096350

    and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Inglis

    • Tony_0pmoc

      Sharp Ears,

      I wonder if she knew my Great Uncle

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Smith_(forensic_expert)

      Sir Sydney Alfred Smith CBE (4 August 1883 in Roxburgh, New Zealand – 8 May 1969 in Edinburgh, Scotland), was a renowned forensic scientist and pathologist.[1][2][3] From 1928 to 1953, Smith was Regius Professor of Forensic Medicine at the University of Edinburgh, a well-known forensic department of that time.[citation needed] Smith’s popular 1959 autobiography, Mostly Murder, has run through many British and American editions, the latest in 1988.[4]

        • Alf Baird

          The predominantly British Unionist (British Unionism being a nationalist ideology) UK ‘Home’ civil servants make the appointments, and merely request a Minister to rubber stamp. Hence institutional Scotland is still controlled by British Unionists, as its aye been. The SNP are not in any real ‘power’.

    • Robert Crawford

      We are proud of all Scottish women, Sharp Ears.

      You act as if you have Scottish blood running through veins.

      Thanks for all you do, and well done. It is appreciated.

      • N_

        If you’re proud of all Scottish women, you must be proud of this one.

        Or maybe logic should go out of the window when love of nation is concerned, especially when those with the wrong “blood” dare to raise concerns?

          • N_

            I was wondering whether you would say that the woman in that article was responding to the sorry circumstances in which foreigners have for so long shat on her nation and suppressed the expression of the true qualities of its blood.

          • N_

            Serious question, not meant sarcastically: do you realise that you would have supported the Nazis in Germany? Or would you maintain that you wouldn’t and that the reason I think otherwise is probably that I’m a foreigner who wants to suppress the Scottish blood nation?

          • Phil the ex-frog

            “You won’t to trap me” said the nationalist to a question and with no recognition that nationalism itself is a trap designed to enslave him.

          • Alf Baird

            Thay dinnae seem tae ken it, but ‘British Unionism is a nationalist political ideology’. Scottish independence is about liberation and freedom, not nationalism. Unionism is the most aggressive form of nationalism, e.g. Russia, Spain, UK.

  • Courtenay Barnett

    Tony,
    In a perfect world there would be a charge, an indictment, a trial and hopefully conviction(s); but, that is the other world they live in w“Criminal’s Accomplice”
    (A one act/one scene play with a potentially horrific end.)
    Setting: A War Crimes Tribunal, somewhere in Europe.
    Actors: Three Judges; an international war crimes Prosecutor; a Court…
    “Criminal’s Accomplice”

    (A one act/one scene play with a potentially horrific end.)

    Setting: A War Crimes Tribunal, somewhere in Europe.

    Actors: Three Judges; an international war crimes Prosecutor; a Court Clerk; two armed court officers; Donald Rumsfeld

    Act 1

    Scene one. A black curtain is slowly drawn to reveal a somber setting. Three Judges ( A President of the Court; the Judge on the President’s right; The Judge on the President’s left); two armed guards; a Court Clerk who reads the charges; the Prosecutor; Donald Rumsfeld, standing as an accused before the Tribunal.

    President ( looking at Rumsfeld): Mr. Rumsfeld you have been brought before this Tribunal for reason that by international consensus, a vast majority of people in the world had petitioned for your trial for complicity in crimes against humanity. Should this Tribunal find you guilty, you can be sentenced to life imprisonment. Do you understand?

    Rumsfeld: Yes I do.

    President: Is there anything you wish to say before the trial commences?

    Rumsfeld: I am an American citizen, and this court has no jurisdiction over me. I am American, I am above international law, and in fact I am a law unto myself.

    President: Precisely, and it is those misconceived notions which got you into this predicament in the first place. Commence with the charges.

    Court Clerk: Reads a long list of jurisprudential formalities, and then adds…

    “ facilitating the procurement of chemical weapons , namely bis- ( 2-cholorethyl) – sulfide ( more commonly known as mustard gas) for sale to the Government of Iraq under the rule of Saddam Hussein.”

    Rumsfeld: Is that supposed to be a charge?

    President: Mr. Rumsfeld the international law applicable to your alleged heinous conduct was read out to you previously. Would you care to have the passages repeated?

    Rumsfeld: What’s this international law, international law indeed! I told you already I don’t give a damn about any international law – I am an American citizen.

    President: ( looking at Prosecutor) : Please begin questioning.

    Prosecutor: Mr. President there is one more charge.

    President: Clerk, please read the charge.

    Clerk: “Facilitating the procurement of chemical weapons , namely ethyl N, N-dimethylphosphoroamidocyanidate ( more commonly known as Tabun) for sale to the Government of Iraq under the rule of Saddam Hussein.”

    Rumsfeld: And that’s what you call a charge? So I helped in getting and approving sales of chemical weapons, and a lot of other weapons for Saddam Hussein, and what of it? There is no crime in that. We sold him weapons because it was in the interest of the United States to sell weapons to him and his bunch of bandits in Iraq . Don’t you understand that he was conducting a war with Iran, and we needed to have a no win situation. It was in US interest. I did my law abiding duty to my country. ( Rumsfled turns from his focus on the President, looks slowly to the center of the court room, lowers his head, and almost sotto voce says) – and I don’t see why I am in this damn court for all the good that I have done for God and country.

    President: Mr. Prosecutor – you may begin questioning.

    Prosecutor: Your name is Donald Rumsfeld, and you held office under President Reagan, and you have been Secretary of Defence for the United Stares of America?

    Rumsfeld: Yes.

    Prosecutor: During the period of the Iran- Iraq War – do you recall being an envoy to Baghdad?

    Rumsfeld: Yes.

    Prosecutor: And at the time you carried a hand-written letter and personally delivered it to Iraq’s President, Saddam Hussein?

    Rumsfeld: Yes.

    Prosecutor: It is also true to say that at the time of your visit to Iraq you were the highest ranking United States official to have visited Iraq in the previous six years.

    Rumsfeld: Probably.

    Prosecutor: It was either so or it wasn’t. Are you able to name anyone in the preceding six years, prior to your visit to Baghdad, who held higher office than yourself who had visited Baghdad; or, more precisely had at all visited Iraq?

    Rumsfeld: No.

    Prosecutor: So…

    Rumsfeld: Look, it’s all lawyers’ games, if this then that, so what ? O.K. yes I was the top guy who visited.

    Prosecutor: Would you have a look at the three exhibits which I am about to hand up to you – listed “A” , “B” and “C’ for ease for reference.

    ( papers are handed to Rumsfeld)

    Prosecutor: Please look at “ A”. And you accept that in March 1984 you were in Baghdad.

    Rumsfeld: Yes.

    Prosecutor: Now turn to “B”. From that United Press International report, you accept that it was reported internationally that, and I quote in part, “ Mustard gas laced with a nerve agent has been used on Iranian soldiers in the 43-month Persian Gulf War between Iran and Iraq….” And it goes on “ Meanwhile, in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, U.S. presidential envoy Donald Rumsfeld held talks with Foreign Minister Tarek Aziz on the Gulf War before leaving for an unspecified destination.” Do you accept that report as factually accurate?

    Rumsfeld: Well I already told you that I was in Baghdad, but I wasn’t there doing the gassing.

    Prosecutor: Do you have reason to doubt that at the time it was reported, you personally knew, and the day before your meeting with Tariq Aziz it had been reported that some 600 Iranian soldiers had been gassed with chemical weapons on the southern front.

    Rumsfeld: I told you I wasn’t there gassing, so how am I to know?

    Prosecutor: Look at exhibit “C” Mr. Rumsfeld. By reference to that document, is it no less a person than US Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick, who acknowledged, “ We think the use of chemical weapons is a very serious matter. We’ve made that clear in general and particular.” Now, do you deny that as a very senior US official you knew and were fully aware of the gassing with chemical weapons?

    Rumsfeld: O.K., you got me on that one.

    Prosecutor: And on March 29, 1984, it was reported in the New York Times, “ American diplomats pronounce themselves satisfied with relations between Iraq and the United States and suggest that normal diplomatic ties have been restored in all but name.”

    Rumsfeld: Look, I am no dummy, my name is Donald, not George, you are going to go to some paper and ask this, and question the other , and therefore this, and all that lawyer bullshit. Let me just tell you plain and straight. In May, 1984, I resigned. You want to suggest that I am the facilitator who gave support when Iraq was actively using chemical weapons. You are then going on to say that during my period Iraq was actively purchasing weapons and chemical agents from American firms. Well let me tell you something Buddy, that’s just how the world is. I did it for my country, The U.S. of A. which I love. Look, I am not some kind of Milosovic, or some criminal, who you put in some monkey cage and get away with it. We will bomb the shit out of this court before that is allowed to happen. You guys just don’t get it, yes we sold – yes I helped procure the weapons. I did what was right for my country at the time. I came back and I have loyally served George W. Yes, Saddam gassed the Kurds in 1988.Yes we sold him 60 Hughes helicopters and more stuff too.

    President: Mr. Rumsfeld, just a couple questions.

    Rumsfeld: Sure.

    President: Having just admitted as you did, you have been a great help to this Tribunal, and have probably shortened the trial considerably – however, just for the record, a couple points. Do you, personally, not feel any sense of remorse for the complicity in first facilitating the Iraqi government’s atrocities, and then never having done anything about it?

    Rumsfeld: Look, under Clinton I signed a letter saying that we should get rid of Saddam.

    President: But when you were in a position to inform the world about the atrocities you were totally silent.

    Rumsfeld: You just don’t get it. We sold him the stuff, and we needed him then, so why should I have said anything? It would not be logical. It would not have made sense. But when Geroge W. got back in we are focused on oil and we moved aggressively after him. The guy is a tyrant, so he had to be got rid of.

    Prosecutor: Mr. Rumsfeld…

    Rumsfeld: I have had enough of this court crap.

    Rumsfeld turns and walks towards the main doors of the court, and as he does so he is approached by the court’s two armed officers. Rumsfeld turns and says…

    “If one of you so much as puts a hand on me, the Marines will be here quicker than you can say ‘Saddam Hussein’ . I am out of here guys, back to God’s own country, the U.S.of A.”

    As he walks through the court’s doors a loud mocking laugh is heard.

    The End.here there is no law to reign them in…READ ON…

    • Ba'al Zevul

      War crimes were always going to be problematic. Far better to do the bastard for misconduct in public office (common-law offence, maximum penalty, life imprisonment). But Outrage will usually triumph over Bleeding Obvious.

    • N_

      Thanks for this, Macky.

      And the US national flag is displayed and worshipped all over the place in that country, with the US army and its values promoted not just in the national press but in most local media too, as well as in computer gamerland. Fascist or Nazi-style “collectivism” is so welcome in the land of “individualism”. And we think Britain is fucked up!

      • Xavi

        It’s madness. I was in LA last month during the world series and they had stealth bombers and all sorts of other dark shit flying over the stadium to wild whoops. As the empire continues its decline, I think there are going to be very ugly consequences.

  • BrianFujisan

    The Fkn bbC Jeeez.

    Big screaming Headline –

    ” Syria crisis: Army strikes kill 23 in Eastern Ghouta – monitor ”

    Then –

    ” Meanwhile, Syria’s state-run media said four people were injured in a rocket attack on Damascus’s al-Midan area
    .
    NEITHER of the two reports have been independently verified.”

    The Friggin SOHR JEEEEEZ…

    They have as much blood on their hands as the bbc.. I’d quicker believe Maria –

    “There are so-called mass media reports which allege that Russian aircraft bombed a field hospital in the Idlib Governorate in northwestern Syria and reportedly killed 13 people. I cannot say that these reports are written by journalists but their ingenuity delights,” Zakharova, told reporters.

    She questioned the credentials of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, pointing out that it is based in Britain and has no direct access to the ground in Syria.

    “This information appears with reference to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights based in London. As we all understand, it is very ‘convenient’ to cover and observe what is happening in Syria without leaving London and without the ability to collect information in the field,” Zakharova added.

    Here is a Real journalist – Eva Bartlett – on the SORH, and the White Helmets… And a few other Truths –

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uANudDRIYk

  • Sharp Ears

    Reference the earlier posts on Kamm.

    Never forgetting his attempt (failed:)) to smear the Media lens editors, David Edwards and David Cromwell, two good men and true.

    ‘There is an overriding theme to Kamm’s criticism. We are, he tells anyone willing to listen, “a reliable conduit for genocide-denial”. Indeed, we are responsible for nothing less than “the denial of genocide and the whitewashing of the single greatest war crime to have been committed on European soil since the defeat of Nazism”. (See comments following the Times Higher Education review of Newspeak at:
    http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=409008)

    He goes on: “Genocide denial is the organisation’s orthodoxy”. We are “an extreme, unsavoury and unrepresentative organisation whose function is the aggressive and often abusive targeting of working journalists”. (http://oliverkamm.typepad.com/blog/2008/01/media-lens-trie.html)

    Readers who have been receiving our alerts for many years – some hardy souls are into their ninth year – may be wondering what Kamm is on about. What genocide is it that we have been denying? Have we not been trying to +highlight+ allegations made by senior UN diplomats, such as Denis Halliday, of genocide in Iraq as a result of US-UK sanctions and the 2003 invasion? Indeed, when the Gandhi Foundation awarded us their 2007 International Peace Prize, the award was presented to us by Denis Halliday.’
    [..]
    http://www.medialens.org/index.php/alerts/alert-archive/2009/585-dancing-on-a-mass-grave-oliver-kamm-of-the-times-smears-media-lens.html

      • Kerch'ee Kerch'ee Coup

        When around the time of the Great War(the one Mr Wison kept’us’out of ) did it become normal in English to use ‘the United Sates is’rather than ‘theUnited States are’?And is it a subtle political signal of California dreaming or ‘good ole rebel anti-reconstructionism’ to use ‘the United States are ‘nowadays?This is a point for the moot rather than a mute pont.

      • nevermind

        the Times editorial believes that all Syrians should be allowed a democratic choice, not mentioning Assad in this context. but then it says ” His eventual removal must remain the strategic aim of the West and those in the Arab world who care about the stability of the region”.

        I’d like to say to the editors and proprietors alike’ you go and try and remove him, why not create the new improved IS with your Israeli friends?
        You could start by creating havoc, like blowing up Sufi women and children in a mosque, nobody in the Arab world says they like Sufi’s, a lie. But when inebriated Saudi’s start swinging their hips on best Scottish wiski and other cerebral enhancements behind closed doors, they soon dance just like them.

        • N_

          The Times: “(Assad’s) eventual removal must remain the strategic aim of the West and those in the Arab world who care about the stability of the region”.

          Imagine saying that removing Assad is good for stability! Like removing Saddam Hussein was? And they write with such a stinking “white man’s burden” of understanding the fuzzywuzzy and the fuzzywuzzies’ whole “region” too.

          Stability would mean less arms sales. Not that I’m offering that as the main explanation, but it’s certainly a factor.

          Did you see the report on the recent Oxford Street incident where a reporter was in one of the shops, maybe Selfridge’s, and saw everyone come running past. She asked one girl, “What’s happening?” The girl replied “There’s a gunman!” So she asked “Did you see him?” and the girl responded “No, but I saw it on Twitter”.

          It was Faceshit and Shitter that the CIA used to spearhead the “Arab Spring”.

          Such incidents will become normal here. And God help us when automatic weapons start getting used.

          • lysias

            Whatever may be said of the Syrian elections that purportedly elected the Assads, there was at least one genuinely democratically elected president of Syria: Shukri al-Quwatli, who was removed from power by a CIA-sponsored coup in 1949.

        • Habbabkuk

          Well, the Syrians have certainly been denied a democratic choice ever since Assad père seized the reins of power at the beginning of the 1970s. Let’s face it, any leader who regularly gets 95% of the popular vote in what passes for elections is probably not entirely kosher. All states in the region would do well to follow the Israeli example of vibrant democracy, characterised by a genuine civil society, free and fair elections, a genuine choice of parties, free speech and a free press. And, one might add, laws and a judicial system that does not hesitate to sanction the misdemeanors and crimes of members of the political class.

    • Habbabkuk

      It appears to me that Oliver Kamm is “on about” the denial, by some, of the genocide and ethnic cleansing carried out in Bosnia by the Bosnian Serbs under Messrs Karadzic and Mladic and their associates.

      But one doesn’t have to take Mr Kamm’s word for the truth of that genocide and ethnic cleansing – the verdicts of the International Tribunal in The Hague are unambiguous and reveal clearly the mendacity of the deniers.

      • K Crosby

        Except that all the deniers denied were the lies of tame journalists; it’s what reporters do.

      • Christopher Dale Rogers

        Habbabkuk,

        Having stated quite egregiously Israel is a democracy, which is indeed true, if it’s but a Jewish democracy where only Jews can only ever rule, which is the definition of a racist state in any other modern liberal democracy, you then come to the defence of the serial online stalker Oliver Kamm, who Prof. Finklestine quite correctly remarks is like the dirt on the sole of ones shoes.

        Further Habbabkuk, could you explain why your Israeli apologist friends, namely David Collier & Jonathan Hoffman are associating with known far right extremists in the UK, notably Mr Paul Besser and the Britain First cookie crew, Britain First being founded by former members of the BNP & EDL – they have some wonderful photography, almost as if replicating dress ware associated with the Nazis’s.

        Still, do keep up the good propaganda and do delight with tales of Engagements between British Royals and Yankee Actresses, most delightful don’t you think.

        • K Crosby

          No it isn’t true, the zionist occupation is as fascist as in any other colony; it’s as democratic as the Smith regime.

  • Sharp Ears

    Not Amazon but Amazing chutzpah.

    Amazon workers in Scotland are still not paid real living wage
    November 27 2017

    Amazon received £5.3 million of taxpayer money to help it to set up Scottish centres

    Amazon is refusing to pay its workers the Scottish real living wage a year after ministers were assured that it would consider raising pay.

    The US retailer has received more than £5.3 million of taxpayer money to help it to create jobs in Scotland yet it has not signed up to the Scottish government’s “fair work” programme. It is understood that starting pay at Amazon for most employees in Scotland is £7.65 an hour and staff move on to earning £8.50 after two years. Signing up to the fair work initiative would mean that they would be paid £8.75 and be given more rights.

    The details of several meetings between ministers and Amazon managers last year have been released by the Scottish government under freedom… paywall

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/scotland/amazon-workers-in-scotland-are-still-not-paid-real-living-wage-s2d03z92s

    • Robert Crawford

      Not paying the “living wage” and giving my details and yours, to the American Government is why I have taken my business away from Amazon, Sharp Ears.
      Took a bit of effort to delete my details, they make it difficult. Try it. Do they pay full tax here?

      • Sharp Ears

        Not with them Robert. Sorry that you have been trapped but are now free. Of course they don’t pay their full UK tax.

        Amazon paid just £15m in tax on European revenues of £19.5bn …
        10 Aug 2017 –
        …..Separately, Amazon UK Services – the company’s warehouse and logistics operation that employs almost two-thirds of its 24,000 UK staff – more than halved its declared UK corporation tax bill from £15.8m to £7.4m year-on-year in 2016.

        The cut came despite turnover at the UK business, which handles the packing and delivery of parcels and functions such as customer service, rising from £946m to £1.46bn.
        https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/aug/10/amazon-uk-halves-its-corporation-tax-to-74m-as-sales-soar-to-7bn

  • Habbabkuk

    If I were Ms Merkel I might well be willing to make up with Mr Schulz but I don’t think I’d be willing to kiss him.

    That is because Mr Schulz is far from being a beauty – in fact, his face is a curious mixture, so to speak, of the late unlamented Walter Ulbricht, the late and even more unlamented Vladimir Lenin and (to return to the world of humanity) a particularly mournful basset hound.

  • fred

    “The head of armed policing, Supt Kirk Kinnell, and his deputy, Bob Glass, are also thought to be under investigation.”

    Thought to be? Why don’t we know if they are under investigation and why don’t we know why?

  • Ba'al Zevul

    If only the EU were just a trading bloc. And as to ‘how we treat our partners’ , spare some thought for how our partners treat us. Or Greece. We signed up for 6 partners. We’ve got 27 now…

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