There was a revealing coincidence of timing yesterday. Philip Hammond made a speech in which he pleaded with the EU to allow the UK continued free access to their financial services markets, on the basis of mutually recognised standards. At the same time, Theresa May met the Saudi Crown Prince in Downing Street and discussed specific legal reductions of those standards in the City of London, to allow for the stock exchange flotation of part of Saudi state oil giant Aramco.
It is symbolic because the toxic addiction of the ruling classes to Saudi cash has been lowering British standards of basic decency for generations. The most blatant example was when Tony Blair as Prime Minister intervened directly in the justice system to prevent the pursuit of corruption charges against the stench-ridden arms dealers of BAE, on grounds of “national security”. The myths about the impartiality of British justice have seldom been so comprehensively exposed. Where there is really dirty money, Blair is seldom far away.
The use of British supplied weapons by the Saudis to maim and kill children in Yemen on an industrial scale has penetrated public consciousness despite the best efforts of mainstream media to sideline it, and Jeremy Corbyn was absolutely right to highlight the involvement not just of arms manufacturers but of the British military. The government and royal fawning has been accompanied by an extraordinary deluge of pro-Saudi propaganda from the mainstream media this last two days for Saudi Arabia and its “reforming” Crown Prince.
There is no doubt that Mohammed Bin Salman has shown a ruthless genius in internal power consolidation in Saudi Arabia, with rivals arrested, shaken down or dying by accident. That he is seeking to end corruption appears less probable than that he is seeking to monopolise its proceeds and thus concentrate power, but time will give a clearer picture. There is no evidence whatsoever that Saudi Arabia is stopping its funding of Wahabbist jihadism across the Middle East and South Asia; indeed it has been stepped up by him, as has the bombing of Yemen.
Bin Salman may have a slightly different take on religion to those previously controlling Saudi Arabia, but in fact he is a much more dangerous fanatic. He is an extreme Sunni sectarian, driven by a visceral hatred of Shia Muslims. This is expressed in an aggressive foreign policy, causing a further destabilisation of the Middle East which threatens to tip over into catastrophe, as Bin Salman seeks to turn up the heat against Iran in proxy conflict in Syria, Lebanon and elsewhere. That he is doing so in active and functional alliance with Israel is the world’s worst kept diplomatic secret. Saudi/Israeli cooperation in Lebanon and Syria is to my mind the most dangerous global flashpoint at present.
But despite his fawning reception in London, Bin Salman is not having it all his own way. I returned from Doha two weeks ago and in Qatar, Bin Salman has seriously overreached. Angry at Doha’s lack of hostility to Iran, including revenue sharing agreement on cross-border fields, Saudi Arabia has blockaded the small Emirate of Qatar for six months now. The excuse given to the West – that Qatar funds jihadist terrorism – is perhaps the worst example of the pot calling the kettle black in History. But the Saudi demands, including the permanent closure of Al Jazeera, expulsion of Arab dissidents and removal of a Turkish military base, reveal an altogether different agenda.
Qatar has proved much more resilient than anybody expected. The blockade has caused some economic damage but it has been survivable, and the effect has been entirely counter-productive for Bin Salman. Qatar has become closer economically to Iran and has developed new port facilities which reduce import reliance on Saudi Arabia and its satraps. The Saudis had massed troops on the border and threatened invasion, but the Qataris vowed to fight.
Then something remarkable happened which the world mainstream media has almost entirely ignored. Despite Saudi sponsored adverts all over US media portraying named senior Qataris as terrorist sponsors, and despite strong Israeli pro-Saudi lobbying, Donald Trump suddenly called Bin Salman to heel. With Saudi troops massed on the Qatari border, on 30 January the United States signed an agreement with Qatar “to deter and confront any threat to Qatar’s territorial integrity”. This was a massive slap in the face to Bin Salman from Donald Trump, and a result of Tillerson recognising the real threat to the world from Bin Salman’s extreme ambition.
I can only conjecture this received none of the publicity it deserved from the corporate media because it went against the prevailing narrative that Trump can never, in any circumstance, do anything strikingly good, and because it was a blow to Israel. The uber-hawk Clinton would certainly not have crossed Saudi Arabia and Israel in this way. It is an important sign that there is more to Tillerson’s Middle Eastern diplomacy than the stupid decision, motivated by US domestic politics, to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
The elite loves Saudi money all around the world. But the UK is unique in allowing that to blind them absolutely to human rights abuses, the appalling bombing of Yemen, and the extreme dangers posed by Bin Salman’s hyperactive regional aggression towards Shia Muslims. We should be used to seeing Tories kowtowing to money by now. But this week makes me still more sick than usual.
Saudi Arabia: a theocracy modelled on the Borgias, with the ruthless politics of Macchiavelli, and the popular vulgarity of Silvio Berlusconi. On each of these points the originals were vastly milder than the Saudis. It’s not just the English who go weak at the knees at the idea of Saudi money, Millions of Muslims try to emulate the indifference to evil and deliberate misuse of the verses of the Qur’an, which the Saudi Salafists follow.
Anyone who has ever gone to any school with the privileged boys from the Arab kingdoms knows how debauched and sociopathic they really are in “private”. And they are the perfect buddies of their super-rich young friends from the western oligarchies.
Remember the little red book?
“Make trouble, fail, make trouble again, fail again . . . until their doom- that is the logic of the imperialists and all reactionaries the world over in dealing with the people’s cause and they will never go against this logic. This is a Marxist law. When we say “imperialism is ferocious”, we mean that its nature will never change, that the imperialists will never lay down their butcher knives, that they will never become Buddhas, till their doom.”
Problem is that these days their doom is probably our doom as well.
Britain is a theocracy too, HoS head of the Established Church, senior unelected clerics sit as of right in the upper house of parliament.
Even more sick to see Her Maj, and the two princes, Charles and William, kowtowing to Bin Salman, the chief headchopper in waiting.
Quite agree, it’s about time that we detached the word Saudi from the country Arabia and referred to Saud perverts and Arabian people.
Very interesting article. I need to say Libyans particularly in the east blame Qatar for financing, arming and training the terrorists who spent four years blowing up hundreds if not thousands of innocent Benghazi citizens who refused to submit to Islamist/Muslim Brotherhood rule,
‘Arab Daily: British Diplomatic Cable Unveils US Plots to Disintegrate Syria’:
https://www.globalresearch.ca/arab-daily-british-diplomatic-cable-unveils-us-plots-to-disintegrate-syria/5630726
‘..The Arabic-language al-Akhbar newspaper wrote on Saturday that the US officials along with their western allies have decided to implement a detailed plan to disintegrate Syria and prolong the war in the country by continued deployment on the Eastern banks of the Euphrates.
In a somewhat familiar but precise English, Benjamin Norman – a diplomat in charge of the Middle East at the British Embassy in Washington – reports in a confidential diplomatic telegram of the first meeting of the “Small American Group on Syria” (United States, Great Britain, France, Saudi Arabia and Jordan), held in Washington on January 11, 2018.
In this five-page TD, he reveals the details of the “Western strategy” in Syria: partition of the country, sabotage of Sochi, framing of Turkey and instructions to the UN Special Representative Staffan de Mistura who leads the negotiations of Geneva. A Non Paper (8 pages) accompanies this TD in anticipation of the second meeting of the “Small Group”. It was held in Paris on January 23, mainly devoted to the use of chemical weapons and the “instructions” sent by the “Small American Group” to Staffan de Mistura….’
Saudi Arabia part of the ‘“Small American Group on Syria” intent to Balkanising Syria.
The Americans and their acolytes, proxies and stooges will never leave Syria in peace until they are driven out by force or an economic crisis makes waging war on sovereign nations prohibitively expensive. Is Russia prepared to fully commit to its stated goal of defending the Syrian Arab Republic’s integrity within its current borders? This remains to be seen. The Russian military has remained extremely passive in the face of increasingly lethal provocations against its interests and personnel in Syria and Putin still seems to think common sense will prevail and the belligerent and unhinged warmongers in Western capitals, who denounce Russia in much stronger terms than they ever did ISIS and even al-Qaeda after 911, will stand down and gracefully accept the end of Anglo-American global dominance. This will not happen. Putin and Lavrov may call these dangerous fools their “partners” but the feeling is not, and never will be, mutual. Also, American foreign policy is increasingly becoming eschatological, much like the forces that drive its allies in the region, Israel and their Saudi partners in crime, to accept nothing but total victory even if it leads to their defeat and apocalyptic destruction.
Trump has apparently accepted an invitation from his North Korean counterpart for a face-to-face meeting. The American liberal Twitterati and their ghoulish Republican allies are already uniting to furiously denounce this appalling new development.
Al-Akhbar appears to have some very good sympathetic sources,a sound ethos and a working relationship with Assange . It’s a pity, from my point of view, they have not been able to get the English-language version up again. I just wish some of the regular Western reporters from Beirut had their integrity.’The plot’ for the division /cantonisation of Syria has been periodically floated in the media worldwide over the last five or six years , but I have never met a single Syrian , even long-term opponents of the Assads in favor of it .
“It’s a pity, from my point of view, they have not been able to get the English-language version up again.” – Google Translate works.
The cantonisation plan is only a revival of what the French did in the 1920s. It didn’t work then, and is unlikely to work now. But then the Yanks bash on, regardless of whether the plan is feasible or not, because the victory of American might is presumed, although it is against the evidence of so many wars now.
“The Arabic-language al-Akhbar newspaper wrote on Saturday that the US officials along with their western allies have decided to implement a detailed plan to disintegrate Syria and prolong the war in the country by continued deployment on the Eastern banks of the Euphrates.”
There’s nothing new here. The point is the re-emphasis on “prolong the war”. The US, with UK poodle, has pretty much lost the war in Syria. It was a poorly thought-out plan, and it isn’t working. The obvious response is to threaten that the war will go on for ever, Russia is in a quagmire, etc. They insist on that, because the opposite is actually true. The war is not far from over. The Ghouta pocket has collapsed very quickly. Only the urban areas are left, and there’s a trick there. Most of the jihadis (the Syrian ones) are rural Sunnis, while the urban Sunnis have gone with Asad. The urban areas aren’t going to be keen to fight to the death. That’s why the busses have been ordered up.
Let me add – the Qatar stuff is all Tillerson.
Murray credits Trump – but where was Trump in all that?
Oh, that’s right – the UAE was trying to bribe him to dump Tillerson.
Isn’t that one of the things Mueller’s investigating?
How might dependence on Gazprom leaks to UK compromise the political mantra?
Ethnocentrism seems Central to your issues but Saudi Arabia is your focus..Natch!
Qatar has played a key role in interfering with the affairs of other much larger Arab states sometimes by direct support to Islamic terrorists as in Libya and Syria. It has also supported the war in Yemen until the 2017 disagreement with Saudi Arabia. Despite its apparently pro western veneer it has an Islamic core and an autocratic system of governance. The Qataris constitute about 11% if the population of Qatar in a country of about 2.5 millions. Qatar is therefore not a paragon of virtue in the region. My enemy’s enemy is not nescessarily my friend. Also of course Trump is playing games in the ME but the underlying agenda is not really to play as an honest arbiter or saviour of little plucky Qatar.
Even though I find KSA government extremely repulsive, I am not sure that singing the praises of Qatar is a way of countering this.
Let us also not forget that the countries of the Arab world were all artificial constructs because of the oil rich region and the small artificial states of Qatar, Kuwait Bahrain and the UAE were all deliberately hived off to serve the interests of colonialism and they have succeeded remarkably in this task.
good piece. slightly soils the narrative that britain is one of the world’s leading good guys, able and willing to lecture ‘ rogue ‘ states. but watching the bbc it seems the brits’ mirror remains as wooden as ever.
Craig,
Trump campaigned on a less aggressive American foreign policy, certainly in the ME, but people tend to think that, with all his aggressive rhetoric, he’s abandoned a less confrontational foriegn policy.
But he hasn’t had a full scale confrontation with Russia over Syria and Ukraine (which Clinton would have done). And he probably has a back door understanding with Putin.
He is now, apparently, going to have talks with the North Korean rocketboy.
And, if your analysis on Qatar is correct, he has slapped both Israel and KSA in the face which could, hopefully, portend a less confrontational stance against Iran.
Is their light in the darkness?
It would be nice to follow this blog on Steemit.
Very good – a classic of its genre.
You write “There is no evidence whatsoever that Saudi Arabia is stopping its funding of Wahabbist jihadism across the Middle East and South Asia” – and that is true. However there is also no evidence that Saudi is stopping its funding of Wahabbist jihadism in Europe and the UK in particular.
Strange then that Jeremy Corbyn has so much to say about the situation in Yemen and absolutely nothing to say about the situation in Europe and the UK.
Terrorism, sectarianism and human rights abuses would all appear to be considered high virtues by the Saudi crazies. Whilst repugnant none of these things appear to pose a systemic threat to civilization, but perhaps there is something connected to the KSA that does pose such a threat.
Ask why they are considering an IPO of Aramco. Ask why Bin Salman is so keen on shaking down his fellow Wahabbists. Ask why the KSA is adopting an increasingly aggressive regional stance – particularly toward Qatar. Note that Qatar is estimated to hold 14% of global gas reserves. Note that there are only 2.6 million inhabitants of Qatar and that of that 2.6 million some 88% are foreign workers. Foreign workers do not get to own any of the gas reserves.
Everything about Saudi oil reserves are a state secret (hence the need to change the rules to accommodate an Aramco IPO). As Jack Nicholson once said “you can’t handle the truth” – so best not to complain too much.
However if you want some approximation of the truth take a look at the Cantarell field in Mexico – one of the largest in the world. It was discovered in 1976 and by 2003 production peaked at 2.1 million barrels/day. Right now it is producing around 400,000 bbl/day which is a lot less than 2.1 million. So almost certainly Saudi is seeing similar type numbers.
Of course the Saudi’s are nuts – nothing like the oh so civilized west. Ask what could possibly explain the deranged stance toward Russia (here is a clue Russia contains over 40% of world gas reserves). The Russians have made plain there intention to kill everyone should they not be left alone and so you can see the “liberal” west wrestling with its twin virtues of greed and cowardice. Which virtue will win? Time will tell.
Noted. Thank you.
https://squonk.tk/blog/2015/03/15/the-general-discussion-thread/comment-page-96/#comment-28621
Thanks Craig – on the money in record time, as you often are.
The foul stench of british jurisprudence has, most pointedly, been exposed in recent weeks with yet another let-off for tory bliar.
The british had the most wonderful opportunity to raise this country the very highest status as a genuinely impartial in incorruptible standard of law and order that is mercilessly equal for all of us without regard to race creed colour gender or SOCIAL STATUS. Instead as Michael Mansfield sought to bring a prosecution against tory bliar for his monstrous and murderous war crimes, the judiciary – all too sadly – true to form found some way to let bliar off the hook.
So far as I am aware no country has ever been able to subject its own higher-ups for their cries without there being a revolution first. It is easy to put the Romanovs up against a wall after their defeat in a revolution;it is easy to put the Ceaușescus up against a wall after their defeat in a revolution; it is a whole new and different ball game to put your own on trial without having revolutionary violence to over throw the prevailing power.
The british judiciary and the judge concerned had the opportunity to place britain at the very pinnacle of justice and jurisprudence; but, as usual, they failed.
Bert.
What an excellent post C.M.
thanks
That was Bert who wrote the post you just replied to, not CM.
I am intrigued as to how Establishment critics negotiate the stories of Saudi criminality in relation to the huge crime in 2001.
Monbiot in 2014:
‘While the bombs fall, our states befriend and defend other networks of death. The US government still refuses – despite Obama’s promise – to release the 28 redacted pages from the joint congressional inquiry into 9/11, which document Saudi Arabian complicity in the US attack.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/30/isis-bomb-muslim-world-air-strikes-saudi-arabia
Pilger in 2016:
…Saudi Arabia was also behind the 9/11 attacks’
https://vimeo.com/192608722
The March 6th piece in the Guardian about ‘Bandar Bush’ hiring Louis Freeh to hide the involvement of the former in the BAE bribe scandal should bring up the contextual background that links Freeh with all those ‘intelligence failures’ in 2000 and 2001, and that links Bandar to the hijackers.
https://nypost.com/2013/12/15/inside-the-saudi-911-coverup/
Of course (according to Monbiot) only ‘morons’ would mention these things.
Trump Qatar agreement may have more to do with Kushner finances than Tillerson diplomacy.
An interesting thought but can you develop it?
The US gave the go-ahead to the blockade of Qatar not long after the Qataris refused to bail out Kushner’s family firm.
https://theintercept.com/2018/03/02/jared-kushner-real-estate-qatar-blockade/
Maybe they’ve since decided to oblige Kushner.
Wasn’t (Gaius) Flaminius killed by Hannibal?
I fear so, at the Battle of Lake Trasimene. Here’s some archive footage of the disaster
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QM9Bynjh2Lk
The Great Satan (consecutibve US administrations) and its minion Britain, has a large prescence at Qatar’s Al Udeid airbase.
Reading about it on Wiki, it appears to be a well established and important US central command base.
It could be military advisors urged Trump to intervene so as not to jeopardise the facility – and a US/British prescence in Qatar.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Udeid_Air_Base
As for Saudi Arabia, what is there to say except it’s one of the great evils in the world.
The career of Frank Gardner, the BBC “security correspondent”, is well worth a close examination, he is a shameless propagandist for the Saudi regime. His autobiography “Blood and Sand” is very interesting, as much for what it doesn’t say as for what it does say. For instance it makes no mention of his military career, nor of how he came to have a job interview with MI6 in the days when they didn’t advertise.
Yes. Very spooky. Just like Corera. I reckon that they have all come out of MI6’s emporium.
https://www.sis.gov.uk/
Their website is not as whizzy as MI5’s
https://www.mi5.gov.uk/
Strange about Frank ‘I was there’ Gardner’s interest in Saudi Arabia considering that he was injured and paralysed there. They did not look after him very well did they?
Bullseye.
Whadduknow? Saudi Arabia has signed a deal for 48 more Typhoon jets from the UK. Should be a few riyals in that for the Tories.
The Typhoon is of course manufactured by the Conservative Party
No, they just issue the export licences. And not cheaply I shouldn’t wonder.
Although I agree with the tenet of this article I think it reveals an inability to view the British establishment for what it is. The idea that they are being dragged down to the level of the Saudis shows a degree of British exceptionalism and arrogance. The British ruling elite are as, if not, more brutal and corrupt than that of Saudi Arabia. They certainly have a lot more blood on their hands and the scale of corruption when you think of what the City and its blessed banksters get up to not to mention the fact that it is British companies bribing the Saudis to gain contracts.
“Bitter Lake” is a 2015 BBC documentary by British filmmaker Adam Curtis it was never shown on BBC main channels only on iplayer. It argues that Western politicians have manufactured a simplified story about militant Islam into a good vs. evil argument, worth a look and is free to watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRbq63r7rys
The British and Americans have been in control of Saudi Arabia, since someone sniffed they had loads of oil around 100 years ago. Unlike their control of Iran, they never lost their grip. The idea, that Saudi Arabia, has any great influence over anything, except to some extent, their local politics and religious extremism, is simply not true. Even recent MBS events, where under direct influence and control of the CIA, and supervised by Jared Kushner. God knows, if Mr Trump knew much about it or even cared, with his dometic problems.
The British and Americans also wanted control of Russia’s energy resources. They must have thought they had it in the late 1990’s, and would almost certainly have got it, except Putin took over, smiled at The Americans, and gradually outplayed them, kicking their Russian Oligarchs out of the country, to places like London, where the ones who co-operated could do things like buy British football clubs. Many of the ones who didn’t are now dead. Who killed them and why is open to conjecture.
However our Salisbury friend and daughter are not in the same league. It’s a modern average semi, not a mega mansion. the idea that the Russians would have done the dirty deed, makes no sense at all. They had ample opportunity for donkey’s years. What possible motivation could they have to do such a deed now?
The Moon of Alabama, run by a very clever German man, has dug up some more information on our current favourite anti-Russian propaganda story, which no doubt will be forgotten after The World Cup.I was initially aware of the possible connection to Christopher Steele, but largely discounted it, of any significant relevance. However, there is another spy character involved, who also lives in Salisbury, and almost certainly knows, and has worked with our unconscious spy.
MOA acknowledges Craig Murray’s contributions, to the matter, but thinks this new information very relevant indeed.
All we can be fairly certain about is that Seth Rich is dead, though I am not 100% convinced of that either. His brother tended to smile too much when interviewed, and according to a doctor who initially treated Seth Rich, there were some very strange things going on in the hospital, before he unexpectedly “died”.
Tony
“Poisioned British-Russian Double-Agent Has Links To Clinton Campaign”
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2018/03/spy-posions-spy-and-the-anti-trump-campaign.html
Extract
“The former British ambassador Craig Murray suspects a different motive and culprit:
Craig Murray @CraigMurrayOrg – 10:21 AM – 8 Mar 2018
Russophobia is extremely profitable to the armaments, security and spying industries and Russophobia reinforces intellectually challenged voters in their Tory loyalty. Ramping Russophobia is the most convincing motive for the Skripal attack.
Ambassador Murray also points out that Salisbury, where the incident took place, is just 8 miles away from Porton Down, a chemical weapon test site run by the British government. As the BBC noted in a report about the place:
… chemical agents such as VX and mustard gas are still manufactured on site …
I believe that Craig Murray is wrong. Russophobia can be stoked without attempting to publicly kill a retired spy and his daughter.
More likely motives can be found in the tight connection to another important affair. The British Telegraph reports today:
A security consultant who has worked for the company that compiled the controversial dossier on Donald Trump was close to the Russian double agent poisoned last weekend, it has been claimed.
The consultant, who The Telegraph is declining to identify, lived close to Col Skripal and is understood to have known him for some time.
…
The Telegraph understands that Col Skripal moved to Salisbury in 2010 in a spy swap and became close to a security consultant employed by Christopher Steele, who compiled the Trump dossier.
The British security consultant, according to a LinkedIn social network account that was removed from the internet in the past few days, is also based in Salisbury.
On the same LinkedIn account, the man listed consultancy work with Orbis Business Intelligence, according to reports.
Meduza named the man the Telegraph declines to identify as:
Pablo Miller, who at the time was posing as Antonio Alvarez de Hidalgo and working in Britain’s embassy in Tallinn. Russia’s Federal Security Service says Miller was actually an undercover MI6 agent tasked with recruiting Russians.
Orbis is Christopher Steele’s company which was paid by the Clinton campaign to make up or find ‘dirt’ about Trump. Sergei Skripal was an agent Steele himself was likely involved with:
Steele had spent more than twenty years in M.I.6, most of it focussing on Russia. For three years, in the nineties, he spied in Moscow under diplomatic cover. Between 2006 and 2009, he ran the service’s Russia desk, at its headquarters, in London. He was fluent in Russian, and widely considered to be an expert on the country.
Steele was an MI6 undercover agent in Moscow around the time when Skripal was recruited and handed over Russian secrets to the MI6. He also ran the MI6 Russia desk so anything about Skripal will have passed through him. It is very likely that they personally knew each other. Pablo Miller, who worked for Steele’s private company, lived in the same town as Skripal and they seems to have been friends since Miller had recruited him. Miller or someone else attempted to cover up the connection to Steele by editing his LinkedIn entry.
Here are some question:
Did Skripal help Steele to make up the “dossier” about Trump?
Were Skripal’s old connections used to contact other people in Russia to ask about Trump dirt?
Did Skripal threaten to talk about this?
If there is a connection between the dossier and Skripal, which seems very likely to me, then there are a number of people and organizations with potential motives to kill him. Lots of shady folks and officials on both sides of the Atlantic were involved in creating and running the anti-Trump/anti-Russia campaign. There are several investigations and some very dirty laundry might one day come to light. Removing Skripal while putting the blame on Russia looks like a convenient way to get rid of a potential witness.”
If Russia were indeed innocent, and this theory (that Skripal was killed by MI6 or something due to a Steel dossier connection) were true, wouldn’t Russia have figured this out almost immediately and publicly rebutted the charges?
Instead, you have “Moon of Alabama” concocting conspiracy theories.
Seems pretty unlikely to me.
i.e. if Putin could make this argument, he probably would have, in the first 24 hours.
He wouldn’t need some dude from Alabama to dream it up for him.
Bob,
For years, I thought Moon of Alabama was an American. The blog has been going for many many years. The originator of the site may well have been an American, but it is not The German guy running it now – who continued it in the same fashion, except now after 20 years, I think he has retired, and his analysis and research is even better, cos he has got all the time in the world he wants, to do it.
He is one of the best I have come across. I have even sent him some money, and I rarely if ever do that for Germans. I tried with an American Tom Feeley – he runs ICH, but the Americans wouldn’t accept my money, and had my account locked up, so I had to phone my British Bank up to unlock it. Neither The British, nor The Americans could believe I was sending money to America.
Feeding America accepted it though.
http://www.feedingamerica.org/
Tony
A bit of Private Eye style pedantry:
MoA About:
“This site’s purpose is to discuss politics, economics, philosophy and blogger Billmon’s Whiskey Bar writings.”
Billmon was an American political blogger, and Moon of Alabama the discussion site, run by German Bernhard. Billmon gave up, and MoA carried on. He’s not retired, as far as I know, just out of a job, and devotes full-time to the blog. Become his life, I get the impression. Mainly American readership. Excellent liberal analysis, but far from “establishment”. The aim, as he says, is to provoke discussion. In many ways parallel to this blog.
Al Jazeera’s coverage of MBS’s welcome from the British public:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/03/mohammad-bin-salman-wraps-controversial-visit-uk-180309125131757.html
The story gets even dafter
“Russian spy may have been poisoned at home, police believe, as military deployed to Salisbury”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/03/09/russian-spy-may-have-poisoned-home-police-believe/
Does anyone believe this crap? Over 50% of The British Military have been surrounding Salisbury, since even before I went to Stonehenge. They won’t have to move far.
They are making it up, and they are rubbish at it.
I feel sorry for the poor Senior (Acting) British Police Spokesman facing All The TV cameras…
Before starting he winces and looks behind him thinking (Do I really have to read and say this crap in front of this lot?)
And they give him the thumbs up 3 2 1 Go
The poor bugger. Must be easier ways to earn a living.
It reminds me of The King’s Speech – though they did it much better.
Amateurs
Tony
Where have you been all my life, Tony?
I thought the same.
P.S. Do you ever read Ronald Thomas West? https://ronaldthomaswest.com/ There’s some really good stuff there. Such as this: https://ronaldthomaswest.com/2017/01/08/agent-assange/
How did Assange get his tracking device off and why was he escorted to the Ecuadorian Embassy by the police? It would all make sense if he were a CIA asset.
Other than the Typhoon fighter deal, another reason for the Crown Prince’s visit was to secure a deal with the European Golf Tour for an event in Saudi Arabia. The prize money is still to be announced – although it’ll be lots – and the inaugural event will take place early in 2019. The first ever pro golf tournament in Saudi Arabia. You can imagine the lavish hospitality and the Western politician freeloaders who’ll attend.
O/T
Corbyn told the Scottish Labour conference today that Brexit can stop immigrants undercutting British wages. Channelling his inner Farage. Scotland needs immigrants.
Corbyn also channelled his inner Rajoy by curbing democracy and making sure that no motions in favour of staying in the single market were allowed on the agenda at conference. His wee North British mouthpiece Richard Leonard saw to that.
Meanwhile the other bastards, the Tories have unveiled their Holyrood power grab. It’s huge and even worse than we thought. it’s not just a power grab. It’s like a Supermarket Sweep power grab where they load up their trolley.
Between them Tories and Labour are hell bent on ruining Scotland. Independence.
I think MbS’s main aim was to buy off the Brits, by charm and order for Typhoons. The Typhoon is a bit old now, isn’t it? Much in the way he bought off Trump by orders, during Trump’s visit to SA.
BAE would have to shut down and sack 359 people if it weren’t for the 48 Typhoon order, its such an old bird. maybe its the only jet the Saudi pilots can fly?
I misread that as Between them Tories and Labour are heil bent on ruining Scotland. On second thoughts, was it a typo on your part?
In this interview on BBC Today, Crispin Blunt came across as having been coached. He seemed keen to put in the phrase “Saudi-led coalition” and to keep on highlighting Saudi Arabia’s allies and supporters, adding tellingly that Britain was a key ally. He also persisted in framing the debate over Yemen as a question of making efforts to avoid a disaster rather than dealing with one which had already happened and the causes of it (as the interviewer pointed out). “Putting it in context” was another signal even when the interviewer fairly bluntly highlighted the scale of it.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-politics-43315346/crispin-blunt-roll-out-red-carpet-for-saudi-arabia
Actually MbS is genuinely a reformist. He wants to transform Saudi from a medieval tribal oligarchy, where the royal princes have power, in consultation with their tribesmen, to a modern, up-to-date, absolute monarchy/dictatorship, where only he has power. There’s no discussion of democracy.
In fact, this is an ancient history, a re-run of what happened to the tribal Umayyad Caliphate in the 8th century. There a sequence of sons of Abd al-Malik succeeded one another to the Caliphate, and when the last one was dead, the dynasty quickly declined into a religious revolution in 750, though religion did not turn out to be what they got. No doubt if MbS has read his history, he will be wanting to avoid that.
I was quite surprised that MbS felt safe enough to leave the country, without a revolt breaking out behind his back. That suggests he has had quite an effect on his rivals.
Nevertheless this visit is a charm offensive, intended to retain support in the West. Charm, so that if the worst happens in Riyadh, someone will help him.
The chief head chopper elect is off to Washington on 19th March.
Reprieve want you to write to him so that 18 young men can be saved from execution.
‘Eighteen young people face execution in Saudi Arabia, for the ‘crime’ of protesting against the repressive Saudi government. All of them were brutally tortured, and could now be beheaded at any time.
These executions are not just an affront to justice, international law, and human rights – they are also an attack on freedom of speech, democracy, and the right to protest.
The person who has the power to stop these executions – Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman – will be in Washington D.C on March 19. This visit gives us a rare opportunity to directly put pressure on Mohammed bin Salman. Will you make your voice heard, by writing to the Crown Prince, and demanding that these executions be halted?
Yes, I’ll send a message ➝
The execution of juveniles and attacks on freedom of speech are entirely incompatible with our country’s values. We must do everything in our power to stop them.
Thank you,
Etc
https://reprieve.org.uk/
Link to send the message:
https://secure.reprieve.org/page/speakout/mbs-dc?
Just name and e-mail address required.
Message sent, Sharp Ears
Yip Done here too Sharp Ears
Somtimes I think it’s easy ( ish ) for people to get mired in the Ink.. Writings.. And not Dwell too often on the Human suffering, of the west’s Criminal Colusion’s with Israel, Saudi Arabia..
I remembe Glen saying he can’t look at some images coming out of the M.E..cos they can Linger in the mind for weeks.. And He is absolutely correct.. I know this..as I have been caught out a few times Re Horrific images from Syria
The Obcene Criminality that just played out with the bowing to Bin Salman Bring’s Downing Street to the Gutter. ( not for the first time of course) It looks like most of the rest of these shores are now aware of the Genocide we are participating in, encouraging, making sure More Babies die in..All Aided by the BBC ..like last night’s Question Time .. but the Tories don’t give a Fuck.. What they are giving..for a few Dollars more..is 42 War planes . To hurry the Genocide along… All BIG ££££ $$$$ ZERO Humanity,
THE U.N…. X+@%X$£?$?£££$$$???
thanks for the link, sharp ears, message sent.