Yulia Skripal and the Salisbury WUT 1465


It was happy to see Yulia alive and looking reasonably well yesterday, if understandably stressed. Notably, and in sharp contrast to Litvinenko, she leveled no accusations at Russia or anybody else for her poisoning. In Russian she spoke quite naturally. Of the Russian Embassy she said very simply “I am not ready, I do not want their help”. Strangely this is again translated in the Reuters subtitles by the strangulated officialese of “I do not wish to avail myself of their services”, as originally stated in the unnatural Metropolitan Police statement issued on her behalf weeks ago.

“I do not wish to avail myself of their services” is simply not a translation of what she says in Russian and totally misses the “I am not ready” opening phrase of that sentence. My conclusion is that Yulia’s statement was written by a British official and then translated to Russian for her to speak, rather than the other way round. Also that rather than translate what she said in Russian themselves for the subtitles, Reuters have subtitled using a British government script they have been given.

It would of course have been much more convincing had Sergei also been present. Duress cannot be ruled out when he is held by the British authorities. I remain extremely suspicious that, at the very first chance she got in hospital, Yulia managed to get hold of a telephone (we don’t know how, it was not her own and she has not had access to one since) and phone her cousin Viktoria, yet since then the Skripals have made no attempt to contact their family in Russia. That includes no contact to Sergei’s aged mum, Yulia’s grandmother, who Viktoria cares for. Sergei normally calles his mother – who is 89 – regularly. This lack of contact is a worrying sign that the Skripals may be prevented from free communication to the outside world. Yulia’s controlled and scripted performance makes that more rather than less likely.

It is to me particularly concerning that Yulia does not seem to have social media access. The security services have the ability to give her internet risk free through impenetrable VPN. But they appear not to have done that.

We know a little more about the Salisbury attack now:

Nobody – not Porton Down, not the OPCW – has been able to state that the nerve agent found was of Russian manufacture, a fact which the MSM continues to disgracefully fudge with “developed in Russia” phrasing. As is now well known and was reported by Iran in scientific literature, Iran synthesised five novichoks recently. More importantly, the German spying agency BND obtained novichok in the 1990s and it was studied and synthesised in several NATO countries, almost certainly including the UK and USA.

In 1998, chemical formulae for novichok were introduced into the United States NIST National Institute of Standards and Technologies Mass Spectrometry Library database by U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical and Biological Defense Command, but the entry was later deleted. In 2009 Hillary Clinton instructed US diplomats to feign ignorance of novichoks, as revealed by the last paragraph of this Wikileaks released diplomatic cable.

Most telling was the Sky News interview with the head of Porton Down. Interviewer Paul Kelso repeatedly pressed Aitkenhead directly on whether the novichok could have come from Porton Down. Aitkenhead replies “There is no way, anything like that could…leave these four walls. We deal with a number of toxic substances in the work that we do, we’ve got the highest levels of security and controls”. Asked again twice, he each times says the security is so tight “the substance” could not have come from Porton Down. What Aitkenhead does NOT say is “of course it could not have come from here, we have never made it”. Indeed Aitkenhead’s repeated assertion that the security would never have let it out, is tantamount to an admission Porton Down does produce novichok.

If somebody asked you whether the lion that savaged somebody came from your garden, would you reply “Don’t be stupid, I don’t have a lion in my garden” or would you say, repeatedly, “Of course not, I have a very strong lion cage?”. Here you can see Mr Aitkenhead explain repeatedly he has a big lion cage, from 2’25” in.

So the question of where the nerve agent was made remains unresolved. The MSM has continually attempted to lie about this and affirm that all novichok is Russian made. The worst of corporate and state journalism in the UK was exposed when they took the OPCW’s report that it confirmed the findings of Porton Down and presented that as confirming the Johnson/May assertion that it was Russia, whereas the findings of Porton Down were actually – as the Aitkenhead interview stated categorically – that they could not say where it was made.

The other relatively new development is the knowledge that Skripal had not retired but was active for MI6 on gigs briefing overseas intelligence agencies about Russia. This did not increase his threat to Russia, as he told everything he knows a decade ago. But it could provide an element of annoyance that would indeed increase Russian official desire to punish him further.

But the fact he was still very much active has a far greater significance. The government slapped a D(SMA) notice on the identity of Pablo Miller, Skripal’s former MI6 handler who lives close by in Salisbury and who worked for Christopher Steele’s Orbis Intelligence at the time that Orbis produced the extremely unreliable dossier on Trump/Russia. The fact that Skripal had not retired but was still briefing on Russia, to me raises to a near certainty the likelihood that Skripal worked with Miller on the Trump dossier.

I have to say that, as a former Ambassador in the former Soviet Union trained in intelligence analysis and familiar with MI6 intelligence out of Moscow, I agree with every word of this professional dissection of the Orbis Trump dossier by Paul Roderick Gregory, irrespective of Gregory’s politics. In particular this paragraph, which Gregory wrote more than a year before the Salisbury attack, certainly applies to much of the dossier.

I have picked out just a few excerpts from the Orbis report. It was written, in my opinion, not by an ex British intelligence officer but by a Russian trained in the KGB tradition. It is full of names, dates, meetings, quarrels, and events that are hearsay (one an overheard conversation). It is a collection of “this important person” said this to “another important person.” There is no record; no informant is identified by name or by more than a generic title. The report appears to fail the veracity test in the one instance of a purported meeting in which names, dates, and location are provided. Some of the stories are so bizarre (the Rosneft bribe) that they fail the laugh test. Yet, there appears to be a desire on the part of some media and Trump opponents on both sides of the aisle to picture the Orbis report as genuine but unverifiable.

The Russian ex-intelligence officer who we know was in extremely close contact with Orbis at the time the report was written, was Sergei Skripal.

The Orbis report is mince. Skripal knew it was mince and how it was written. Skripal has a history of selling secrets to the highest bidder. The Trump camp has a lot of money. My opinion is that as the Mueller investigation stutters towards ignominious failure, Skripal became a loose end that Orbis/MI6/CIA/Clinton (take your pick) wanted tied off. That seems to me at least as likely as a Russian state assassination. To say Russia is the only possible suspect is nonsense.

The Incompetence Factor

The contradiction between the claim that the nerve agent was so pure it could only be manufactured by a state agent, and yet that it failed because it was administered in an amateur and incompetent fashion, does not bother the mainstream media. Boris Johnson claimed that the UK had evidence that Russia had a ten year programme of stockpiling secret novichok and he had a copy of a Russian assassination manual specifying administration by doorknob. Yet we are asked to believe that the Russians failed to notice that administration by doorknob does not actually work, especially in the rain. How two people both touched the doorknob in closing the door is also unexplained, as is how one policeman became poisoned by the doorknob but numerous others did not.

The explanations by establishment stooges of how this “ten times more powerful than VX” nerve agent only works very slowly, but then very quickly, if it touches the skin, and still does not actually kill you, have struck me as simply desperate. They make May’s ringing claims of a weapon of mass destruction being used on British soil appear somewhat unjustified. Weapon of Upset Tummy does not sound quite so exciting.

To paint a doorknob with something that if it touches you can kill you requires great care and much protective gear. That no strangely dressed individual has been identified by the investigation – which seems to be getting nowhere in identifying the culprit – is the key fact here. None of us know who did this. The finger-pointing at Russia by corporate and state interests seeking to stoke the Cold War is disgusting.

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1,465 thoughts on “Yulia Skripal and the Salisbury WUT

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  • Antonyl

    Regarding MH17: “In the JIT the Netherlands Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Dutch National Police work together with police and judicial authorities of Australia, Belgium, Malaysia and Ukraine. ” Russia has not been included in this “joint” investigation – Holland obviously was. There is reduction of Sentence for Ukrainian crimes, not for Russian crimes: https://www.politie.nl/themas/flight-mh17/witness-appeal-crash-mh17.html

    How blind can “Justice” be….

  • Sharp Ears

    100 injured: March of Return protests resume at Gaza-Israel border (VIDEO)
    100 injured: March of Return protests resume at Gaza-Israel border (Video)
    25 May 2018

    More than 100 Palestinian protesters have been injured after gathering at the Israel-Gaza border to continue the March of Return protests, which have been marred by violence for over a month.

    As of May 21, a total of 112 people have been killed, including 13 children and two journalists, and more than 13,000 people have been injured, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

    On Friday, violence erupted again near Khan Younis, when Israeli troops fired tear gas and live rounds to ward off protesters who had gathered and burned tires about 800 meters from a security fence. Around 1,600 protesters descended on the area, with the Israel Defence Forces stating that rocks and burning tires were hurled at troops.

    READ MORE: Use of live fire against Palestinian

    /..
    https://www.rt.com/news/427822-march-of-return-protests-gaza/

      • bj

        Why the endless repeat of Gaza casualties above any other tragedies like in Syria, Yemen, Turkey or anywhere else?”
        “Do Gazan lives count more because they are Muslims or because they target J_e_w_s?

        Quite a strawman you are rigging, my friend.

    • Loony

      According to Yassar Arafat between September 1970 and July 1971 the Jordanians killed 25,000 Palestinians. This seems to be quite a lot of people, however you never seem to mention these people. Could there be any logical and/or humanitarian reason that would explain such an omission?

      Given the referendum in Ireland concerning abortion – perhaps now would be an appropriate time to remember one Anne-Marie Murphy and the proposed non conventional plan of abortion that she was subjected to by one Nezar Hindawi. That also appears to be a subject that does not interest you.

      • laguerre

        Black September was not one-sided murder, as the Israelis do, but a civil war for control of the state, in which a good number of people died, on both sides. Arafat was leading one side, so his view was not entirely dispassionate.

      • David Avi

        Jordan also, after the 1948 war, took control o,f and exercised jurisdiction ove,r the West Bank and of East Jerusalem. Instead of establishing a Palestinian state there. That is also never mentioned, or when it is the line is usually ‘Jordan was acting under instructions from the British’ (that line is dreck).

      • David Avi

        Another point to make is that since 1948 very many more Palestinians have been killed in different ways by other Arabs than by Israel. Mr Loony only mentions one of those killings and conflicts. And I’m sorry to say that Israel’s Arab neighbours deliberately kept and continue to keep most of the 1948 Palestinian refugees and their families in refugee camps as a matter of political policy, dangling the prospect of return in front of them. Those refugees could have been absorbed decently in those neighboring countries. Seventy years!!

        • SA

          David
          Just explain to me what the justification of importing settlers with very tenuous connection to Palestine to home in illegal settlements on Palestinian land whilst denying the return of people born there from right of return?

          • David Avi

            When you write Palestinian land, SA, do you mean the West Bank, the State of Israel (pre-1967 borders) or both?

  • Sharp Ears

    Gavin Allen, BBC Controller Daily News Programmes, Salary £160,000pa, was unable to justify the 5 hour coverage of the Markle wedding on both BBC1 and the ‘News’ Channel.

    25.4.2018
    Newswatch
    Viewers’ reactions to BBC News output, presented by Samira Ahmed. Did the News Channel get too caught up in the frenzy of last Saturday’s Royal Wedding, neglecting other news in favour of coverage also shown on BBC1?
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b3q5pq

    PS Ms Markle has her own crest and coat of arms now. LOL.
    A songbird and sunshine
    https://edition.cnn.com/2018/05/25/europe/duchess-sussex-meghan-markle-coat-of-arms-intl/index.html

    Wonder what the ‘rorl’ family think of Ms Markle’s choice of cleric who made that overlong sermon. He is getting political and has marched against Trump. The ‘rorl’ family do not do politics or so we are told.
    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/royal-wedding-preacher-michael-curry-leads-march-against-donald-trump-in-washington-a3848346.html

  • Sharp Ears

    You cannot compare the two Antonyl. You should have given more background.

    The protests in India are against a corporate business Vedanta that is polluting the local groundwater with its copper smelting activity.
    https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/supreme-court-for-urgent-hearing-on-sterlite-violence-in-tamil-nadu-1857702
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterlite_Copper
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anil_Agarwal_(industrialist)

    The protests on the Gaza border are by Palestinians whose country has been Occupied and whose citizens are being oppressed and driven out of their land..

    In fact I have just read of this wanton destruction with chainsaws of a Palestinian vineyard by Israeli settlers. See the message left behind – ‘We will drive them out’.

    Gideon Levy – A Palestinian Vineyard Annihilated With Chainsaws, With a Chilling Message in Hebrew
    Vandals slashed hundreds of mature grape plants near Hebron, and the odds that the culprits will be caught are slim
    Gideon Levy and Alex Levac | 
    May 24, 2018
    https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-farm-terror-palestinian-vineyard-annihilated-with-chainsaws-1.6115888

    • David Avi

      No Palestinian Israelis are being driven out of the State of Israel. To be honest, I could imagine that many Israelis would be happy to see their Palestinian co-citizens leave Israel (I don’t defend that wish if it exists, by the way) but the fact is that they do not wish to leave because they know that they are better off, economically and politically, in Israel than they would be in any of their Arab neighbours. And the Palestinian citizens of Israel are increasing steadily – which also make a nonsense of accusations of ‘genocide’.

      • laguerre

        The fact that a genocide is not working doesn’t mean that the intention is not there. I’m surprised you suggest that the intention doesn’t exist. There are many speeches declaring it, and actions speak even louder than words.

        • Anon1

          But your lot don’t call it an attempt at genocide or an intended genocide. You call it a genocide.

          It’s not even an attempt at genocide, though. If the Israelis wanted to carry out genocide then they could do so quite easily and the Palestinian population would not exist (as opposed to rapidly increasing).

          You need to face up to the fact that whatever the sins of the Israelis, there is no genocide of the Palestinians. And there’s no apartheid either but we’ll save that one for when you’ve fully understood and accepted that there is no genocide.

          • SA

            genocide is not limited to killing people wholesale but also destroying thier livelihood and culture.

          • Anon1

            Well I suppose you call it a genocide to launch a few tear gas canisters in the loony world of pro-Pally activism. To most people genocide means a wholesale attempt at wiping a people out.

          • George

            From the Google dictionary:

            “Genocide: the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular nation or ethnic group.”

            It fits.

          • David Avi

            Never mind Google, George (I thought you didn’t think much of Google by the way?) – what does the UN definition say? Have you decided that Google is the definer and arbiter of international law?

          • SA

            Just killing over 100 unarmed people and wounding hundreds of unarmed demonstrators is not genicide so thats ok then as they are Palestinians. Well done.

        • David Avi

          Yes, Laguerre, you have understood properly – intention is key to the notion of genocide (see the relevant international text). If Israel is intent on genocide it’s had 70 years to do it in…and counting…. and has been singularly unsuccessful in that intention judging by the fact that the Palestinian Israeli population is increasing year by year. The fact is that there is no intention and not even a genocide without intention. I understand you’re a lecturer at a French university – as a matter of interest, do you teach your students that Israel has engaged and is engaging in genocide?

          • laguerre

            “If Israel is intent on genocide it’s had 70 years to do it in…and counting….”

            This is disingenuous, and old hat. Everybody knows it is being done slowly in order to avoid what happened to the Nazis, but the intention is the same: erase from the face of the earth every trace of Palestine and Palestinians. Lots of Israelis have spoken about it, usually the less wise public figures.

        • David Avi

          SA

          Nether the livelihood nor the culture of the Palestinian citizens of the State of Israel are being destroyed.

          Neither the UNSC nor the UNGA (the latter not very well disposed towards Israel, to put it mildly )has ever claimed that Israel is engaging in genocide – that should tell you something, shouldn’t it?

          • SA

            No it doesn’t. Israel is
            reducing the space for Palestinians to live in and have a functioning state it is eventually genocide. The Arab Israelis are used as a fig leaf to pretend that Israel is the “only democracy in the Middle East”, which of course it is not.

          • David Avi

            In that case, SA, one could claim that Jordan was engaged in genocide in that they had between 1948 and 1967 to create a Palestinian state. And what did Jordan do with the West Bank? Why, it subjected it to Jordanian jurisdiction and Jordanian law! No nonsense about creating a Palestinian state!

          • SA

            David
            You are deliberately obfuscating. Israel is attempting to make the Palestinians a non existent nation. They may not be doing it by killing each individual alestinians but they are doing it by a combination of killing, sequestering, as in Gaza is an open air prison, starvation, discrimination, prevention of intermarriage and stealing of water land and other resources. You have to be ideologically fanatic not to see this.

          • bj

            Nether the livelihood nor the culture of the Palestinian citizens of the State of Israel are being destroyed

            I’ve got a 100 murders of Gazans by Israeli’s the past weeks to contradict that statement.

        • IanA

          If the Israeli’s wanted to ‘genocide’ the ‘Palestinian’s’ that would be very easy. They have the power to destroy Gaza the West Bank and half the Arab lands that surround them. That they don’t never seem to reach the understanding of people like you. If the roles were reversed we can only imagine the outcome..

          • Skyblaze

            What do you mean if?

            And just because more power and violence could be used does not justify what they have done and are doing

      • John A

        No Palestinian Israelis are being driven out of the State of Israel.

        Palestinians are certainly being driven out of Jerusalem. Even the new US embassy is on stolen Palestinian property.

      • Keith McClary

        “they know that they are better off”
        The Apartheid supporters and US segregationists also used that argument.

        • David Avi

          I’m glad you mentioned the US segregationists, Mr McClary. Because you make one of my points for me. Negroes were free to leave the Southern states of the US and millions did so by going north). Millions of Palestinian Israelis are most definitely not leaving the State of Israel.

          • SA

            You really didn’t seem to understand that this is what is known as ethnic cleansing. Why should they leave.! It is thier Home and they know of no other, unlike the invaders.

          • David Avi

            I agree, Mr Squeeth. But In the heyday of segregation, black Americans were known as Negroes – as you know quite well.

          • SA

            Historically there are many derogatory terms that have been used for minority groups., using some of them now may end in a prison sentence in this country. But the fact that you are happy to use this term repeatedly plus your attitude to Palestinians places you firmly in a certain category of people.

          • bj

            By the way, mister David Avi; your points are quite clear — though you’re very careful never to explicate them.
            I suppose you realize the repulsiveness of them

          • David Avi

            If course you’re diverting, all the more so because you intrude yourself into an exchange between me and a Mr McClary, who has remained silent since. I was answering a comment by Mr McClary about segregation in the US Deep South; he compared it to the situation in Israel (or Palestine – the usual lack of clarity on what people mean when they write Palestine); I pointed out that the comparison was a false one. And you – what do you do? Why, you divert onto a question of terminology. Diversion usually means you’ve run out of valid arguments on the point under discussion. So it’d be better to keep quiet until Mr McClary replies?

          • SA

            Mr David
            I am not sure that you have any right to dictate any terms in this blog. I suggest you go to a blog that is more in tune with your rather outdated concepts of race.

          • David Avi

            No dictating any terms, just suggesting that you’re heavily into diversion. And as for the invitation to leave, I’m not sure you have any right to issue such invitations. But thanks anyway.

      • Skyblaze

        By your logic the holocaust did not happen because there arearly more Jewish people now

      • Akos Horvath

        Pathetic. They don’t wish to leave because people usually wish to live on their own land and in their own house. Some European Jews, on the other hand, want to live in somebody else’s house, which they take by force. Israel is a settler colony plain and simple. Europe should BDS that apartheid state. I surely do.

  • Clydebuilt

    Ireland’s Abortion Referendum

    There were 2 Exit Polls, Why were there none for Scotland’s Independence Referendum.

    The Scottish Government knew the environment the referendum was held in. Why did they not organise exit polls as a check against dirty tricks with the vote?

      • Northern Sole

        Really looking forward to that Armageddon scenario unfolding in full! Enjoy your vapourisation/heat blast flaying/drawn out radiation poisoning death Anon1! Rootin’ for ya!

  • giyane

    Clydebuilt

    Yesterday Radio 4 started a series on the grim discoveries from Institutions in Ireland for the care of fallen women. What they did to the children , who they sold them to, how they were abused and killed. Apparently anyone who knows they don’t want to be pregnant can avail themselves of a morning after pill. that leaves just the women who are afraid for some reason of their partners, family or society. Abortion is the product of guilt, fear and control. Cui bono? Governments love guilt , fear and control. Ireland is a million miles away from solving the root problem. There are societies in which people cherish children and they are born into loving wider families who also cherish them.
    And what about a little thought for all those little bones in unmarked mass graves. Who do those bones belong to? Allah. They are victims of a society run by a cruel religion, which imposed harsh fatwas and reinforced them by the law. Our USUKIS governments recently have tried to impose a terrorist version of islam, Islamism, onto the world. Even in Saudi Arabia, this Islamism has wrecked the society, which is full of drugs, alcohol and divorce.

    Letting women drive cars in Saudi Arabia or have abortions in Ireland postpones and prevaricates the implementation of radical change, freedom and choice. It institutionalises guilt, fear and authoritarian control , not vice versa.

  • quasi_verbatim

    Hamish de Bretton-Gordon OBE says that it is ‘one chance in a million’ that Yulia survived. That’s two in a million, if you count Sergei (or one in rwo million, if you prefer).

    One in the eye for Uncle Vlad, anyway. Back to the test tubes.

    • lysias

      For two, it would be one in a million squared, I.e., one in ten to the twelfth power. Here in America, ten to the twelfth power is called a trillion. In the UK, I believe it may be called a billion, as you have milliard between million and billion.

      • laguerre

        “In the UK, I believe it may be called a billion, as you have milliard between million and billion.”

        That’s France, not UK, which uses the American expressions.

    • Rhys Jaggar

      Or one in one billion if you believe in compound probability (which is probably not the case here).

    • Republicofscotland

      A British chemical weapons expert attempting, and failing miserably, to be melodramatic over the Skripals poisoning.

      The onus being how lucky the Skripals are to survive, after poisoning from a deadly nerve agent was somehow administered by the nasty Russians.

      Of course there’s not a shred of clear cut evidence to back up the claim.

    • SA

      With three people poisoned and all survived it begins to look that this agent has a very low chance of killing anyone.

      • Tatyana

        Novichok is probably not so much effective, it can explain survival (note 100 gramms applied onto poor victims!) It can probably explain why it was researched but put aside, and is not written into ChemWep Convention by OPCW.
        ——
        I recall a comment under russian article:
        – one fart in the elevator is more effective!

        • SO.

          Chem weapons and dosage don’t work in the way most people presume they do but Novichok 5 or 7 should exhibit a reliable extremely high level of lethality.

          The reason it was not researched by the OPCW was quite simple.The UK and US discouraged them from doing so because it would highlight the fact the soviet union wasn’t actually the first group to either create or recognise the weapons potential of the GV chemical family. The US with a bit of help from the UK did that in the mid 70s at edgewood. Replicated in the early 80’s by the czech republic. (some people might suggest the czech’s created it but they were only responding to the US’s GP program)

  • giyane

    Anon1
    May 26, 2018 at 10:50

    That’s your religion, force people to accept injustice. Bread and circuses to take their minds off being oppressed.
    Why can’t you imagine a society that is run by elected members who serve the community. Why does it have to be run by elected members who serve the interests of a different community 400 miles away in London.
    So long as Scotland is a dominion of the UK it will produce government servants who serve their Westminster overlords. I listened to Ruth Davidson. She spent the entire interview caustically castigating her fellow Scots in the SNP for not bowing to Mrs Thatcher, sorry, Mrs Thatcher’s wax replica.

    • Anon1

      There was no “injustice”. It was a free and fair referendum and Scotland decided it didn’t want independence.

      I’m struggling to see what bone you have in this other than that you virulently hate the UK and want to see it broken up.

      • JOML

        Anon1, what benefits do you get from the UK remaining as is, that makes you a staunch defender of it?
        As for the 2014 referendum, I don’t think you were exposed to the amount of biased shit and lies as those voting in the referendum. It’s well documented, with specific examples, of how one-sided the media were. However, I suppose it suits you to turn a blind eye to that. Roll on the next referendum. ?

        • Anon1

          All the benefits are yours. Like most of mu countrymen I am a supporter of Scottish independence.

    • Node

      @ giyane

      A lot of people resent Anon1. Not me. I’m grateful to him. He reminds me to hide Israeli produce in supermarkets.

      • Anon1

        Not one of those sad cases are you? All you achieve is screwing over Palestinian farmers whose produce is from Israel.

        • David Avi

          He doesn’t really do that, Anon1, he’s just trying to provoke. He’s just one of the many armchair blowhard warriors who’d run a mile if he ever tried it and got spotted by a supermarket security man (or even woman).

          • Node

            I assure you I DO do that. Tesco in particular try to trick people into buying Israeli produce by selling it under a deceptive name such as “Rosedene Farm.” I always check the country of origin, and if I find that Tesco have tried to con me into buying something from that genocidal nation, I think its a fair to reply in kind. Typically, I would pick up several packs of fruit or veg, pretending to compare them, while actually squeezing them hard so that within minutes they are bruised and unsellable. Then I would hide one behind some canned goods. I like to do a thorough job.

            I can’t pretend that I always remember to do it, sometimes I think of other things, I’m only human. That’s why I’m so grateful to Anon1 for reminding me that it’s worth while making the effort.

            I recommend the squeezing method to everybody. It’s quick, effective and undetectable. It would give me great satisfaction if other people did the same and dedicated it to Anon1. We could call it the “Anon1mous Payback Gesture.”

            Remember I said I like to be thorough? Well, David Avi, here’s a promise. Next time I’m in Tesco, I’ll especially search for some Israeli produce and destroy it in your name. Thanks for contributing to the cause.

          • Republicofscotland

            David Avi.

            I don’t do it, however as you know fine well, Netanyahu is terrified that BDS, will damage the Israeli economy.

            The BDS movement was launched by 170 Palestinian unions, political parties, refugee networks, women’s organisations, professional associations, popular resistance committees and other Palestinian civil society bodies.

            Inspired by the South African anti-apartheid movement, the Palestinian BDS call urges nonviolent pressure on Israel until it complies with international law by meeting three demands.

            Sound reasonable to me.

          • Vivian O'Blivion

            Moved my utility provider from Scottish gas last year to SSE. Scottish gas insisted in sending G4S meter readers round. Told Scottish gas where to shove it and why.

      • Akos Horvath

        Thanks for the tip on the squeezing method. I live in Germany and REWE, one of the supermarket chains, sometimes carries Israeli produce. I never buy anything from that apartheid state, but now I will employ your method to tender their crap unsellable. BDS.

        • Node

          Great, Akos, and double the destruction every time Anon1 defends Isræli genocide so that every time he spouts his racist bile he hurts Isræl.

        • Node

          Thanks, bj. When the site changed to the present type of avatar, I used a fractal filter in GIMP on the old type to get the best of both worlds.

  • giyane

    quasi_verbatim
    May 26, 2018 at 11:16
    There is no empire, thankfully.
    Why not just call it BO? British Order of T**sp**ts and Liars

  • Paul Barbara

    @ Rich May 25, 2018 at 17:10
    ‘With the mention of MH117.
    Putin’s aircraft was in the neighbourhood that day and had passed close by two hours earlier.
    I would assume his aircraft was the real target and the Malaysian aircraft was targeted by mistake and then all the other stories were invented.’

    I have been thinking about MH 17, and though I also entertained the idea it was mistaken for Putin’s aircraft, in fact that doesn’t fit the facts.
    MH 17 had been ordered to fly on a more northerly flight by Ukrainian Flight Controllers, taking it over a war zone, and also to drop from I believe it was 33,000 feet to 30,000 feet. This would make it easier for a fighter plane to shoot it down, which I believe was done.
    The plane pilot whom Russia claimed (rightly, I suspect), Vladyslav Voloshyn, who very recently ‘committed suicide’, was probably told it was Putin’s plane: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/mh17-flight-ukrainian-pilot-accused-russia-shooting-plane-kills-himself-suicide-a8265901.html
    A witness said he had seen the pilot take off with air to air missiles, then return without them, and in a distressed state.
    What an odd coincidence, ‘committing suicide’ just before the Official Narrative Final Report came out!
    So Ukrainian flight control knew exactly what plane it was. Also, there were reports at the time that some of the bodies had been dead for a considerable time, before they could have boarded the plane.
    It was a bad time for Malaysia Airline; it appears some entity was targeting them, first MH 370 ‘disappearing’ (probably hijacked through it’s remote anti-hijack pilot override to Diego Garcia), then MH 17. Perhaps it was payback for Malaysia hosting an international people’s court on the 9/11 attack.
    There were doubtless other agendas at work (MH 370 could have been about lucrative patents to an electronic breakthrough, and MH 17 a plan to demonise Russia).

    • SO.

      @Paul

      It was a captured Buk-M1 type telar with the missile launched in either manual or automatic stand alone mode.

      Most of the nonsense surrounding the loss of the aircraft is because Ukraine denied (and is still denying) losing 2 active units and an LLU.

      Basically Ukraine tried to hide it’s incompetence in losing the units and declared the air space open whilst knowing full well the rebels had at least 1 working telar. The rebels then shot down the biggest ‘transport’ they could see and started to freak out when it wasn’t a transport at all.

      A Buk telar doesn’t know what it’s shooting at, it can’t and doesn’t care ~ it’s an engagement radar, not an acquisition radar. (The target identification for a BUK comes from it’s snow drift ~ not the telar)

      Instead of acknowledging it was just a catastrophic cock up political matters decided to leverage it and jumped on the evil russia bandwagon.

      Ukraine knew planes were at risk and lied about the air corridor safety.

  • Sharp Ears

    And best not mention the litany of historic sexual abuse of children and minors by the clerics in the Catholic church and in the CoE I don’t know what the Evangelicals or the Christian Zionists get up to.

    ‘That alliance, however, is again coming under strain, in part over their different reactions to the Trump administration’s policy priorities.

    Some prominent Catholic leaders worry the country is becoming increasingly divided.

    “America has lost her way,” said Archbishop José Gomez, whose Los Angeles archdiocese is the largest in the country. “We no longer know who we are or what our national purpose is,” he said, in a commencement address at the Catholic University of America.

    Two days after Gomez delivered his commencement address, the Rev. Robert Jeffress, of the First Baptist Church in Dallas, had an entirely different message when he offered the opening prayer to God at the dedication of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem.

    “We want to thank you,” Jeffress prayed, “for the tremendous leadership of our great president, Donald J. Trump.”

    Jeffress serves on the president’s informal evangelical advisory group. During his campaign, Trump also had Catholic advisers, but since taking office he has consulted far more often with the evangelicals, and their current priorities are not the same. ‘

    http://wesm913.org/post/roman-catholics-and-evangelicals-move-apart-their-political-priorities

    The evangelical churches in America rely on donations from the right wing and from the NRA. $9trillion’s worth I heard.

    Many of the war criminals have a religion. There’s BLiar with the RCs and the Bushes with the Episcopalian church. Reagan and Trump are ‘Presbyterian’. G*d help us all.

    • joel

      All far less dangerous to world peace and survival than liberal fundamentalism.

      • laguerre

        What’s liberal fundamentalism? All the fundies I know are pretty hard right. I suppose you just mean that some “liberals” you don’t like are really fundamentalists.

        • joel

          Liberal fundamentalism is the project to extend the hegemony of western liberal “values” over the entire globe. Those values being neoliberal corporate globalism, with a smily facade of social liberalism that doesnt cost the plutocrats a dime.
          It’s subscribed to by virtually the entire “respectable” political-media class in the West. Any country deemed to be resisting or obstructing the project, from China and Russia to Iran and Venezuela, will continue to be demonized day and night as heretics.

          • laguerre

            Fundamentalism is a word with a religious meaning. You’re using it as a neologism for something else where it is difficult to see its relevance.

          • joel

            I thought I spelt it out pretty clearly for you. Liberal fundamentalism and market fundamentalism are secular religions of the modern age, guiding both domestic and foreign policy in the West. Devotees are imbued with just as much blind faith as any religious nut.

            If you wish to understand their evolution and repercussions, check out the work of people like John Gray, Pankaj Mishra, Chris Hedges.

          • laguerre

            Yes, you did spell it out. It’s just a meaningless reuse of the word to refer to something you don’t like by trying to hang some elements of the original meaning onto it. As nobody will understand what you’re talking about, it’s not a very successful transfer.

          • joel

            They are very well understood terms. I’m sensing you resent seeing the liberal faith deemed fundamentalist. But if you reflect on it, that is precisely what it is. The authors I cited will aid you in your journey of self-awareness/discovery/recognition.

    • Anon

      The 63m US Christian Zionists including VP Pence, fervently supporting the US Ziojews (albeit paradoxically since the destruction of the selfsame ziojews has to occur before the fundamentalist Christian yearning for “rapture” may be realised), are in for a surprise. The chabad cult of ivanka/kushner/abramovich behind the move of the US Embassy to Jerusalem actually believes its own (now dead) rabbi schneerson was in fact the long awaited jewish messiah??! So the return of the messiah Pence&Co so rapturously desire may be of a rabbi schneerson instead of Jesus !!

  • Sharp Ears

    There is an overwhelming majority in favour of abortion in the Irish referendum. There are caveats though.

    ‘Referendum on the Eighth: what are the key questions?
    May 25 2018

    Why are we having a referendum now?
    Today is the fourth time in 35 years the country is being asked to address this most divisive topic.
    When the Eighth Amendment was introduced in 1983, it gave equal rights to a woman and her unborn child which amounted to a ban on abortion. Previous referendums have dealt with issues such as allowing women to travel and whether suicide was considered a serious risk to a mother’s life.

    But campaigners have long sought the outright repeal of the Eighth. The Government committed to holding the referendum after the last election.

    So what are we being asked to vote on?
    Voters have to decide if they want to repeal the Eighth Amendment from the Constitution and allow the Oireachtas to legislate for terminations.

    If there is a Yes, will abortion automatically become legal?
    No, unless and until the Oireachtas introduces legislation permitting abortions in Ireland it will remain illegal.

    Even if the referendum passes, the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013 stays in place. It allows for terminations only if there is a serious threat to the life of the mother.

    When would the Government legislate?
    Health Minister Simon Harris has indicated he would like to bring legislation before the Dáil ahead of the summer recess in July. The target would be to have a GP-led abortion service legalised by the end of the year – but this might be ambitious.’
    https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/abortion-referendum/referendum-on-the-eighth-what-are-the-key-questions-36944576.html

    ‘More than two thirds vote to change Irish abortion laws – exit polls
    The vote on abortion has seen a wider margin than many people in the Catholic country had expected, says Sky’s David Blevins.
    https://news.sky.com/story/two-thirds-vote-to-change-irish-abortion-laws-first-exit-poll-11385655

    • Patrick Mahony

      I am in Ireland. I am utterly incredulous. It’s a bit like a reverse Brexit. I have a feeling it was rigged. The rural vote going more pro abortion than pro gay marriage makes no sense.

      • kbbucks

        Likewise I’m over here too & was very surprised by the size of the margin – not sure if it was rigged however as you know all the media, political parties (bar one insignificant one) & “influencers” were pushing for a yes & by the end of it the message being spun was pretty much “Vote yes if you support women”, “Vote no if you hate women”.

    • Antonyl

      According to Islam Christians and J_ews are Dhimmis. Hindus and Buddhists are not even that, so official untermenschen. Many poor of the latter two would love to live in the relative luxury of Gaza over slums in Mumbai or Colombo.
      Many Western European (ex)Christian leaders may be called dummies.

      • Anon1

        But, but, Christians are just as bad if you look at the American deep South for instance and Sufism is really rather mystical and fun and you can take drugs and maybe drink a little and really the only reason Muslims are extreme is because of the Iraq war, you see the J_ws are no different because they have kosher and circumcised boys so really there’s no difference between us all religions are evil but the Muslims are a bit better because they are oppressed.

      • laguerre

        Antonyl

        Hindus are dhimmis in Islam, Buddhists probably subsumed into Hindus

      • Skyblaze

        Source for your claim that Muslims or the Koran says other people are subhuman….

  • fwl

    If anyone is thinking of reading something by the late Philip Roth, then try Operation Shylock, whilst not suggested to be anything like his best work it sure has a lot to say about Israel Palestine relationships and is well worth a read.

  • Bunkum

    Like many towns and cities across the country Salisbury has a drugs problem. So much so they have had to board up a part of the town because “We were getting groups of up to 30 people there, and it was intimidating for people,”

    With this in mind when the Skripals were found on the bench they should have, and were, treated as a couple that had overdosed on a substance of their own choice. Paramedics and NHS hospitals have to deal with sort of thing many, many times a day up and down the country.

    The recent article suggests Salisbury is no different to any over town or city.

    Therefore to take the leap that within the hour of finding them, Salisbury was subject to a WMD that has not happened in Europe since WW1 just beggars belief, and anything this government has said since is complete bunkum.

    http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/16250398.Council_explains_reasoning_behind_Maltings_car_park_hoardings/?ref=mr&lp=2

    • Tom Smythe

      “Like many towns and cities across the country [ditto here in US] Salisbury has a drugs problem. When the Skripals were found on the bench they should have, and were, treated as a couple that had overdosed on a substance of their own choice. Paramedics and NHS hospitals have to deal with sort of thing many, many times a day [ditto here]”

      Excellent article. Under these assumptions, the horrific delays in getting the Skripals to a hospital so close by is perhaps understandable.

      The decency to the Skripals shown by bystanders was very impressive, better than in my home town where dead homeless lie in the creek for days. Cell phone photos, surely there are some out there. I do wonder who called in the paramedics, police, car and air ambulances and when. Those calls are recorded and to the second.

      Early arrival Freya Church’s interview was instructive: she quickly re-interpreted the bench scene as an attractive young woman clinging to the arm of a much older, chubby but well-dressed man, ie a sugar-daddy recreational drug situation gone south.

      She was later seen leaving the scene, herself clinging to the arm of a rather young policeman. Yes, I checked to see if it was DS Nick Bailey; no, it most assuredly was not.

      • Tom Smythe

        Life goes on in Salisbury, but barely. This puts my Skripal delay-til-they-die conspiracy theory into la-la land.

        “An elderly woman was left lying on the ground bleeding from the head for two-and-a-half hours while she waited for an ambulance. Judith Jones, aged 76, cracked her head open after tripping over a no parking sign outside Mompesson House on a visit to Salisbury Cathedral Close on May 5.

        Two police officers attended and helped to make the 999 call. During the first call at about 5.15pm, they were told to expect a 90-minute wait, but crews did not turn up until 7.45pm.

        Despite further calls to the ambulance service during the wait, Judith’s son Darryl was only told to keep her calm and that the ambulance “will be there when it gets there”.

        It comes after the Journal reported that South Western Ambulance Service Trust (Swast) was failing to reach the most seriously injured and ill patients in good time or meet national targets.

        Darryl said the ordeal left the family shaken, especially his mother who suffers from diabetes and Parkinson’s disease. “My mum was scared. She was bleeding from her head and she could see the blood. She was worrying about her blood sugars and her Parkinson’s and her shaking were getting worse.”

        Darryl and his wife were told not to give Judith food or water, but this made her condition worse, especially as it was a hot day of about 24 degrees. And despite being told Judith was safe to go home, the wound re-opened in the night and the family spent a further three hours in A&E, as doctors feared she had fractured her skull.

        24 May 2018
        http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/16247124.Pensioner_with_head_injury_waited_hours_on_the_ground_for_ambulance/?ref=mr&lp=20

  • Sharp Ears

    Well done to Nadira and Shahida. They have received the funding they needed..

    From Kickstarter.

    ‘Great news!
    Thanks to you and 68 others, UNWANTED:The Plight of Rohingya Muslims has been successfully funded. Your pledge has been charged, funds will soon be transferred to the creator, and they’ll begin working on their project.’

    I hope Kickstarter do not take exorbitant fees out of the donations.

  • Sharp Ears

    Rip off of OUR NHS by Boots aka Walgreens.

    Boots owner denies overcharging NHS for cancer mouthwash
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-44263620

    Of course they ‘deny’ it.

    ‘From 2013-2017, the paper says Boots charged £3,219 to supply three 200ml bottles, then £3,220 for the same amount, £1,843 for an 800ml treatment, £1,989.12 for 800ml and £6,374.25 for 2,600ml.’

    Meanwhile in 2016, a pharmacy in West Sussex charged £31.14 for one 200ml bottle, the equivalent of £93.42 for 600ml.
    ‘The newspaper also reported that the NHS had paid various pharmacies £2,645 for basic sleeping pills that can cost £1 and £3,200 for arthritis painkillers that have been charged at less than £1 per pack.’

    Imagine what income the privatised US system provides for them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walgreens
    Skinner the chairman used to be the chairman of McDonalds. Pessina the CEO and vice chairman is a Monagasque billionaire.
    Alex Gourlay, the president, is paid £7.95m pa ++

    A nice little earner.

  • Republicofscotland

    It would appear there’s no depths this untrustworthy British government won’t stoop to.

    “You couldn’t make this up. Two vice-chairs of the local #Tory party for MP Chloe Smith have been arrested for election fraud. Never heard of Chloe Smith? She’s the Minister in charge of fighting election fraud. Could only happen in @theresa_may’s corrupt government… ”

    https://mobile.twitter.com/ANMarshall/status/1000341527892197376

  • Sharp Ears

    You do talk rubbish Antonyl. You keep comparing the Palestinians’ situation to those living in the Indian sub-continent. Relevance?

    Read and compare.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_of_living_in_Israel
    v
    (The page “Standard of living in the Palestinian territories” does not exist!!
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_the_State_of_Palestine
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_State_of_Palestine
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_supply_and_sanitation_in_the_Palestinian_territories

    I cannot be bothered by you any further. You are obviously a supporter of Zionist Israel.

      • Paul Barbara

        @ David Avi May 26, 2018 at 18:15
        Everyone with any decency should hate Is***l, for the Nakba, for the whole Z**ni*t plot to drive the Palestinians off their land and out of their country (or area of generational habitation), and for their murderous attacks up to the present on Palestinians, their on-going totally illegal ‘settlement building’, and their Apartheid system against the Palestinians.
        I don’t know if Sharp Ears hates Is***l, but I certainly do. That does not imply I am anti-S*m*t*c, which I am most certainly am not.

        • bj

          I support BDS.
          Israel is an Apartheid state par excellence.
          (Whether or not I am decent is for others to decide, if they care.)

          (ceterum senseo The Israeli Army is the most immoral army in the world.)

        • certa certi

          Yes, but historically weak and support was stronger before the creation of Israel. There are many Zionisms ranging across the Left-Right spectrum, tolerant and intolerant. Zionism is compatible with a tolerant, single binational State.

    • Loony

      …and you appear to be devoid of logic and reason.

      There are an estimated 240,000 Palestinian refugees in Saudi Arabia. All of them are banned from applying for Saudi citizenship. Apart from Palestinians all foreign nationals who have been resident in Saudi for 10 years are eligible to apply for Saudi citizenship.

      Imagine if the British decided that a particular and specified immigrant group were disbarred from obtaining British citizenship. You think that would be a winning move? Nor even the BNP or the Brownshirts ever proposed that as a policy.

      Did you know that in 1948 there were an estimated 800,000 Palestinian refugees. By 2000 this number had increased to 5.2 million. The Israeli’s must be the absolute worst “genociders” in history. Think of all that money they spend on boats and tanks and planes and then compare that with what the Rwandans managed to achieve in a few short months with nothing more than machetes.

      • SA

        You seem to be blind to the other side of the coin. Refugees are created here because thier land was usurped by others so you want a third party to be responsible for rehoming them whilst ignoring the original act of the colonisers. Amazing logic.
        Why should Palestinians want to be Saudis when they have thier own country just because it is stolen?

        • Loony

          You are surely having a laugh!!!

          What do you think is happening all over western Europe?- refugees are pouring in. Western Europe is the third party that has assumed responsibility for re-homing these people. Why should western Europe assume this responsibility but not Saudi Arabia?

          The law in Saudi Arabia prohibits Palestinians from obtaining Saudi citizenship irrespective of the wishes of Palestinians.

          All of this talk of colonizers is garbage. Who colonized Guatemala and El Salvador if not Spain. They have been independent since 1821 and now almost 200 years later they are victims of Spanish colonialism and so must move to the USA. As you say, amazing logic.

          • SA

            Disingenuous as usual. You are using strange analogies here. Try a bit of history of what happened to Palestine on 1948 for a start and then don’t compare this to South America where at least legally the original inhabitants have equal rights and not segregated in an apartheid state as everyone recognises the current situation in Palestine is.

        • Paul Barbara

          @ SA May 26, 2018 at 19:38
          The point is not whether they want to, but that they are barred from doing so, even should they wish to.

      • David Avi

        Loony, I have learnt something from you, I didn’t know that the Palestinian refugees in KSA are specifically (and uniquely) disbarred from obtaining Saudi citizenship. It sounds very similar to Arab states deliberately keeping Palestinian refugees and their descendants in refugee camps for the last….70 years. Do you happen to know if the situation re citizenshipis the same for Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Egypt?

        • glenn_nl

          DA: “It sounds very similar to Arab states deliberately keeping Palestinian refugees and their descendants in refugee camps for the last….70 years. “

          Gosh, and there was me thinking it was the Israelis who’d put Palestinians in refugee camps, and kept them there for the last … 70 years.

          • David Avi

            In that case you thought wrong, Mr Glenn. The first refugee camps were set up in the West Bank. You know, the West Bank which to which Jordan applied jurisdiction and effectively ran as part of Jordan until 1967 instead of allowing a state called Palestine to be set up.

            When you think about it, the West Bank was occupied by Jordan until 1967, refugee camps and all.

          • SA

            Typical obfuscation, start the story where it suits you, not where it started. Refugees became refugees because they experienced organised terror from the Irgun and Haganah. Try to read some history.

          • David Avi

            Wrong, SA – the origins of the refugee event was the attack on Israel by the armies of three neighbouring Arab countries who refused to accept the UN partition plan. Those armies got their butt kicked. Blame it on them rather than on the objects of their aggression.

          • SA

            You forget that this land was not to give as it was already inhabited. What has since become the norm is that people like you advocate that the rule of the jungle, ie brute force, is the way international policy should be conducted. Although this may work, it does not make it right. The facts are that there are refugees created by the actions of terrorist organisations created by settlers which then encouraged more settlers. That is the primary event, others are secondary.

        • certa certi

          David. Rohingya refugees who number over 300,000 in KSA cannot get citizenship either. A few who arrived before 1950 are citizens.

        • Loony

          The Arab League has issued instructions banning any member of the League from granting Palestinians citizenship. Therefore and as far as I know no member of the Arab League will grant citizenship to Palestinians.

          Some may wish to compare and contrast this Arab League policy with current EU policy regarding granting citizenship to all manner of migrants.

          Some may like to know why it is racist to question EU policy and also racist to question (or in fact even mention) Arab League Policy. I am fairly certain that anyone in the UK who proposed discriminating against migrants from a specific country on the same basis as the Arab League discriminates against Palestinians would be arrested forthwith.

          • SA

            Loony
            Tou are not comparing like with like, nor are you looking at context. Moreover you do not provide links and references, mere opinion. So sorry your argument means nothing in real terms.

          • David Avi

            Loony : and the reason for that – as with keeping Palestinian refugees in camps for 7 decades – is that the refugees are being used as political pawns by those neighbouring Arab states. The hypocrisy and the evil of it is beyond belief: dangling the prospect of return before the refugees while saying to the outside world ‘oh look at those wicked israelis keeping the poor refugees in camps for so long’.

            The search for a lasting and equitable solution would do well to recognise the following facts, facts which can’t be washed away by wishful thinking, denial and minor irritants such as BDS, calls for boycotts and, last but not least, frantic truth-bending eercises on the internet:

            – the State of Israel is there to stay
            – US and Western support for Israel is not going to go away
            – the refugees and their descendants (over 5 million according to some on here – almost as large as the entire population of Israel, all religious confessions and none included!) are not going to return.

            Get used to it and try to be more constructive.

          • SA

            David
            What you say may be true in fact but does not make it right. Do you really believe that the settlers have a right above the palestinians to the land of palestine which is still being confiscated? We are not talking about the refugees around the world but the continuously internally displaced palestinians in the West bank, the original palestinian territory of which has shrunk to mere bantustans. Irrespective of what you say, Israel the united nations has condemned the illegal settlements. Also if you defend Israel so much to you not even recognise that palestinians have any rights? If you do then do you believe a one state solution or a two state solution? This is not a trick question although you might find it tricky to answer with the beliefs that you have already expressed.

      • Antonyl

        The obsession with Palestinians here by a few, while neglecting worse fate of many Alawites, Kurds, Yemenis, Baluchistanis, Pasthuns, Ahmadi etc. just to name a few who were all driven from their homelands BUT by other Muslims point to the root : the age old hate of J_ews.
        Millions of people were driven off their “original” homelands, even during the last century. Millions like many Armenians or Pakistani Hindus suffered worse fate (death). The Palestine-fixated are mum on these, thereby confirming their anti-Jewitism.

        • SA

          Yours is what I believe is called a strawman argument. It is impossible to discuss all the wrongs in the world in one post. Also I really don’t understand why you, who think the palestinian issue is so relatively small that it should not receive so much attention, are spending so much time in this blog, answering all others who have a point of view on this issue?

        • Skyblaze

          Mainly because Israel uses a victim mentality to con people that Palestinians are the aggressors….plus factor in western aid to Israel. Cut that aid and Israel will soon be forced to adopt a peaceful coexistence with its neighbours

  • Charles

    [ MOD: Caught in spam-filter, timestamp updated ]

    When is it OK to for the UK government and its agents to lie to the public?

    To protect the Public from alarm / protect against Official embarrassment? When the POTUS says so?

    And when they are found out is it OK for a judge / senior civil servant via a public inquiry to endorse that lie?

    What if the consequence of not lying might lead to mass riots?

    Or are they, by lying in the first place exacerbating an unhealthy situation (further mistrust / loss of confidence) and the inevitable will eventually happen anyway?

    “Four meals from anarchy is the maxim of Mi5”

    Less than that in France ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZE1nYyNsdgk

    Its been going on months apparently so maybe not 4. But I understand (no thanks to the British MsM) that similar scenes are being played out throughout Europe and other parts of the world including the US.

    In Britain we need the good weather to fuel contagion.

    So does it matter if the people on the bench were not the Skripals and they have been / are being debriefed at a secure location for very good reasons? And that the bench people (oddly enough) were volunteers that were not Novichocked? Or that very careful dabbing of a nerve agent was “safely” applied at strategic points in Salisbury for the benefit of the OPCW?

    Well the people of Salisbury might have something to say about the government deliberately fucking the economy of their beautiful city.

    I think it is wrong. I think Hutton standing as a judge and lying for the State was wrong. I think Chicot “Absolving” (ffs) Blair was wrong and I think any lie for whatever reason from a Minister ? Servant of the Crown is wrong 1) because its wrong and 2) Once they allowed themselves that grace they did what politicians and civil servants do, they abused it.

    Things don’t look good.

    • Andyoldlabour

      That just about sums up all my views on the Skripal fiasco Charles, particularly the distinct possibility that some kind of nerve agent was deliberately applied to various parts of Salisbury in order to fabricate a case.
      Considering that we have only heard about three possible “victims” who have since recovered, I am very surprised that the number of victims wasn’t in the thousands (at least) including hundreds of fatalities, given the nature of the stuff supposedly used.
      The Hutton and Chilcot affairs were simply a very expensive disgrace, particularly given the fact that everyone knows that Tony Bliar deliberately misled the House into voting for the Invasion of Iraq, and the subsequent slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, millions more displaced, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi babies born with birth defects, due to the use of depleted uranium ordnance (surely this counts as a chemical weapons attack?) contaminating large areas of the country.
      I regard Tony Bliar and all the other warmongers, as being directly responsible for all the terror attacks carried out in Europe by radical Islamic extremists.

      • Paul Barbara

        @ Andyoldlabour May 26, 2018 at 18:24
        And the use of DU in the cruise missiles recently used by the FUKUS War Criminals against at least three Syrian target, including a pharmaceutical facility (shades of the US bombing of the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum), must come under the CBN weapon categories.

  • Republicofscotland

    As the Tory Brexiteers push to leave the EU and its higher food standards regulations. Scientists in England tested the US claim that washing foods such as chicken, and vegetables with chlorine kills the bacteria on them.

    Remember after we leave the EU our supermarket shelves will undoubtedly be flood with cheaper American imported meats, and other food stuffs, which has a lower standard of scrutiny than the EU.

    Anyway it turns out that the chlorine does not kill the bacteria, it only makes it virtually impossible to detect after it’s washed in chlorine. The bacteria remained active.

    Not only will these inferior foods be detrimental to our health, our own meat and veg industry will need to denigrate its produce to compete with these US imports or face going out of business.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/26/chicken-health-fear-chlorine-washing-fails-bacteria-tests-brexit-salmonella-listeria

    • Andyoldlabour

      I really think that you ought to do more research if you think that Europe’s food laws are somehow higher than ours in the UK, particularly those laws regarding the rearing and slaughter of animals and food preparation.
      There is absolutely no proof that our market is going to be flooded with US, chlorine washed poultry, the same as we do not allow US reared beef which contain steroids and HGH.
      I am sure that you are aware which countries produce foie gras, allow bulfighting, bear baiting, indescriminate hunting of various creatures, catching undersized fish and endangered species – they are all in Europe and do not include the UK.

      • Republicofscotland

        Well, my concern is and it should be everyones concern for that matter, is that once we leave the EU, our trade deals with the US will include foods that have had less scrutiny (welfare quality etc) than we now
        take for granted.

        You appear not to be concerned, however the Westminster government are currently attempting to ride roughshod over the Scottish government, who want to see amongst other laws coming back from the EU, food standard laws head to Holyrood to protect against this very thing.

        I’ll be very surprised if US chlorine washed and antibiotics treated foods, that are banned in Europe don’t hit our shelves as part of a US trade deal post-Brexit.

        • Paul Barbara

          @ Republicofscotland May 26, 2018 at 19:01
          And, I suspect as part of the deals, they won’t have to be labelled. So, avoid any US food (I already do try to, as virtally all US food has GMO content).
          There used at one time be a slogan: ‘If it’s Boeing, I ain’t going’. Now we need a new one: ‘If it’s Yank sh*te, I ain’t buying’, on the cautionary principal (apart from the fact we ought to be boycotting US goods and holidays already, due to their War Mongering and Human Rights abominations.

      • Paul Barbara

        @ Andyoldlabour May 26, 2018 at 18:30
        There is no ‘evidence’ because the trade talks with the US by the Tory Government were held behind closed doors, and they are likely to stay ‘secret’ for years or decades. But many of us believe that those issues were discussed, and doubtless also GMO’s.

  • Garth Carthy

    “Laguerre” says: “Fundamentalism is a word with a religious meaning. You’re using it as a neologism for something else where it is difficult to see its relevance.”
    I disagree. ‘Fundamentalism’ can mean any rigid basic ideology – it can define secular as well as religious ideology.
    I suggest you check it out in a decent dictionary.
    I support “Joel’s” view that there is certainly such a thing as “liberal fundamentalism”. One of the problems is that in this post truth world, words like ‘liberal’ are used to euphemise global domination under the umbrella of neo-conservatism.
    The left see freedom for the masses as being ‘liberal’ while the right and those liberals pretending to be in the centre see freedom for the individual and privileged few to do as they please, regardless of democracy or long term viability.

    • laguerre

      And I suggest you think out what the word means. It means taking holy scripture literally. That Joel just means something he doesn’t like.

      • Herbie

        “And I suggest you think out what the word means. It means taking holy scripture literally.”

        So surely it can used for those who interpret any piece of literature literally. Political literature, for example.

  • Sharp Ears

    RoS. Chloe Smith is the MP for Norwich North where Craig stood in a by-electiion”. Various difficulties were put in his way. Schools not available for meetings etc.

    See ‘Occasional shafts of humour penetrate the stygian murk. Chloe Smith is revealed as completely inadequate by Jeremy Paxman. We could have told him that – at the Norwich North by-election the Conservative Party were desperate never to allow her to face questioning, and on this blog I offered a cash reward to anybody who spotted her with less than five minders. It was never claimed.

    What really made me laugh was the report in the Guardian that she was given her ministerial position in the Treasury by David Cameron in the mistaken belief that, as she had worked for Deloitte, she must know something about finance. Why this is really funny is that the only job she ever had at Deloitte was not, as variously reported in the mainstream media, in PR or human resources, but in fact to be seconded to the Conservative Party. Chloe never had any job except as Conservative Party staff. She was then taken on by Deloitte and instantly seconded back to the Conservative Party; her working for Deloitte at all was a fiction. Whether this was to evade political donation rules or just to burnish her CV as a parliamentary candidate, I have no idea.

    That the experience Cameron thought qualified her as a Treasury minister was actually a secondment to the Tory Party by one of those lobbying major corporate financial interests – and Deloitte was the Royal Bank of Scotland’s auditors – is so rich it moves beyond satire. I can scarcely believe it myself. In fact it gave rise to such paroxysms of bitter laughter that I found the strength to blog again. Thank you Chloe and Dave for that, anyway.’ https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2012/07/the-impossibility-of-rest/

    She is pathetic here. See Paxman and have a laugh – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bddWaHuxTzc

    Smith was seconded to Deloitte having worked for two MPs. One was Gillian Shephard, arch Zionist supporter and a one time member of the Committee on Standards in Public Life when a group of us were campaigning to have the Friends of Israel lobby groups removed from our Parliament on the grounds that they represented support for a foreign power. MPs are elected by the British people.

    ‘Newly elected Norwich North MP Chloe Smith was of course one of those seconded from the sector – from Deloitte – to the Conservative Party. It is an instructive case. After university, Smith worked for two Tory MPs, Gillian Shepherd and James Clappison – the latter famously bought 156 trees at taxpayer expense to mark the boundary of his country estate.

    Chloe’s theoretical “Transfer” to Deloitte – while still in fact working for the Conservative Party on secondment – appears to be not only a subvention from Deloitte in taking a full time Tory hack onto their books, but a deliberate attempt to build up Chloe’s CV by making it appear she had not only worked for the Conservative Party.

    As the Times put it: She describes herself as a “business consultant” but is vague about what she does for Deloitte. Perhaps this is because she is on secondment to the Conservatives’ implementation unit
    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6719526.ece

    https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2009/08/blogito_ergo_su/

    Incidentally little Chloe Smith is herself a member of the CFoI. There’s a surprise. Not. She went to Israel in July 2015 with them.
    https://www.theyworkforyou.com/regmem/?p=24691

    This is weird. ‘Until July 2016, I employed my wife, Jennifer Millar-Smith, as Personal Assistant. (Updated 08 June 2015, 3 August 2015, 2 September 2015 and 01 August 2016)’

    I had read that she married a man and that they had a baby??? Sandy MacFadzean, an ex soldier. whirlwind romance etc. Perhaps there’s a gleesome threesome or perhaps she swopped Sandy for Jennifer.
    http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/politics/norwich-mp-chloe-smith-ties-the-knot-1-2985965

    • Barry Bird

      Weapon of Upset Tummy. In other words the ‘nerve agent’ is the BZ toxin from seafood that’s gone orf.

  • Sharp Ears

    Someone said ‘weapon of upset tummy’.

    I looked it up on Urban dictionary.

    wut
    ‘Another spelling of the word “wat.” Used in response to an unclear or absurd statement when seeking to clarify it or expose said absurdity. Commonly used on internet message boards or online games, the word was originally used in 1337 speak and chat language, but has since been used humorously in many cases.’

    Who knows!

  • lysias

    According to an item on ZeroHedge, Leeds Crown Court not only ordered Tommy Robinson arrested but issued an order prohibiting media from reporting the matter.

    • Anon1

      You have a problem with Muslim grooming gangs. So you lock up the person reporting the Muslim grooming gangs.

      Welcome to da Yookay!

      • Paul Barbara

        @ Anon1 May 27, 2018 at 00:32
        No, you lock up someone who broke his suspended sentence regulations (as Kempe points out below).
        I’ve been on many anti-child abuse demos, mostly outside the High Court and Hampstead Church, and I’ve never seen these bozos there.
        This is clearly a race issue, not a child grooming issue.

    • E

      To the authoities’ regret, it appears that in an age of social media “D” notices to the Lamestream Media presstitutes to keep their traps shut about “sensitive” matters don’t have the same effect they once did.

      UK Protesters Flood the Streets to Demand the Release of Imprisoned Journalist Tommy Robinson

      In this dystopian nightmare, the father and husband was transported to jail to begin his sentence just hours after his arrest — without the ability to appeal the judge’s decision.

      Supporters of Robinson immediately called for a protest to take place the following day and hundreds have answered the call.

      The UK government had attempted to silence any conversation about his situation by issuing a ban against the press covering the case. Unfortunately for their plan, they cannot control social media and their effort appears to have had a Streisand Effect.

      Videos of London protests at link: http://12160.info/page/uk-protesters-flood-the-streets-to-demand-the-release-of-imprison

      • Silvio

        Above comment about UK protesters turning out to protest Tommy Robinson’s arrest and imprisonment was by Silvio. Sorry for the confusion with the “E” identifier. I finally got it straightened out and should appear in future posts as Silvio.

        • Paul Barbara

          @ Silvio May 27, 2018 at 02:48
          I wonder where all these EDL/National Front types are when there is a Gaza protest?
          Oh, I nearly forgot – they and the Zio’s are in each others pockets (or orifices).

          • Loony

            I think you find that the answer to your wondering can be found in the names. The E in EDL stands for English and the word National is a well known word and in this instance refers to the nation of the UK.

            As Gaza is neither in England or the UK then there is no reason for people who concern themselves with English or British nationalism to take an interest.

            It is a bit like wondering why a car mechanic does not work in a bakery.

          • Paul Barbara

            @ Loony May 27, 2018 at 09:09
            The Court was involved in a child grooming case, NOT a race case.
            This ‘journalist Tommy Robinson’, whatever he did that he shouldn’t have done, was clearly of a racial nature and not to do with child grooming.
            If they are interested in child protection, one would expect to see them at other anti-child abuse demos.
            And if they are so worried about child welfare, they should be worried about children been killed by snipers, or having white phosphorus, high explosives and fragmentary bombs and DIME bombs rained down on them in Gaza.
            Check out ‘Uncovered: the unholy *ionist-EDL alliance’; just replace the * with Z and search.
            Strange bedfellows, what? Well, maybe not – bird’s of a feather springs to mind.

      • Charles Bostock

        “UK Protesters Flood the Streets to Demand the Release of Imprisoned Journalist Tommy Robinson”

        but, in the same comment, this :

        “Supporters of Robinson immediately called for a protest to take place the following day and hundreds have answered the call.”

        The streets must have been pretty narrow ones.

        Read Kempe at 3:24 am and chill at the sound of another conspiracy theory balloon popping!

    • Kempe

      Loks like not everybody got the message.

      https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/tommy-robinson-arrested-leeds-court-child-grooming-trial-edl-founder-latest-a8368821.html

      About a year ago “Robinson” was handed down a 3 month sentence for contempt of court suspended for 18 months. That means he doesn’t have to serve the sentence providing he stays out of trouble for 18 months. He hasn’t; so he as to serve the sentence.

      Not surprised that none of the alternative news sources didn’t mention this.

      I suspect the real reason why more of the MSM aren’t covering the story is that they don’t consider him newsworthy.

      • Antonyl

        The MSN media don’t report anything negative about local Muslims because abroad these are presently the favorite expendable mercenaries for the CIA/ Pentagon. Look at Afghanistan, Ex-Yugoslavia Irak, Libya, Syria in their fight with Russia and Iran (oil). That is why Turkey was and is in the NATO and Pakistan is a close ally, apart from the KSA.
        Anything to keep the $unni oil dollar printing for free: it like an unlimited credit card and without interest, apart from making the 1% even richer. Delay the next 2008!

      • Silvio

        A female claiming to be a fomer police officer in the Leicestershire Constablary has made a Youtube video in which she claims that Robinson had not performed any actions which constitute a breach of the peace that she could see. Shouldn’t the authorities let the public know what exactly Robinson was doing which would be considered in the eyes of the law a breach the conditions of his suspended sentence? Could be good to bear in mind of course that at times, according to Charles Dickens’ character Mr. Bumble, “the law is a (sic) ass”.

        https://youtu.be/nc20aKiiStQ

        • Paul Barbara

          @ Silvio May 27, 2018 at 11:08
          It is not exactly an unknown phenomenon for police officers, serving or retired, to support the extreme Right-wing, and to be extremely racist.
          The States is a very good example, but the same is also very well known here, and probably most countries in the world, including Russia and China.

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