Fighting the proscription of Palestine Action has become more urgent as eight brave activists enter the crucial period of their hunger strike.
12 January has finally been set for the court hearing on holding a Scottish judicial review of the proscription of Palestine Action.
I am frankly terrified for the hunger strikers.
- Qesser Zuhrah
- Amu Gib
- Heba Muraisi
- Jon Cink
- Teuta Hoxha
- Kamran Ahmed
- Muhammad Umer Khalid
- Lewie Chiaramello (a diabetic so on modified hunger strike or he would die very rapidly).
The Starmer government is quite prepared to let them die: to emphasise devotion to Israel, to show their Zionist donors they are earning their money, and to reinforce the hardline macho image they believe appeals to Reform voters.
Indeed I have no doubt that Starmer, Mahmood, Lammy and Cooper hope for their deaths as a political positive; just as Thatcher thought she would win plaudits for facing down IRA hunger strikers.
It is important to state that none of the hunger striking prisoners has been convicted of anything – all are on remand – and none of them was in any way involved in the incident in which a policewoman was allegedly injured.
The coordinated response from government and other Zionist troll farms and stenographers is that none of the hunger strikers deserve sympathy as “a policewoman was hit by a sledgehammer”.
It remains astonishing to me that this assertion is constantly and stridently made by the state and its myriad acolytes, despite the rules against prejudicing a jury trial. This stance ignores the detailed accounts of the trial itself which paint a far more complex picture.
As well as the real danger to the hunger strikers, there are thousands of entirely peaceful protestors facing terrorism charges simply for speech. These are life-changing, bringing not just jail sentences but loss of employment, debanking and travel restrictions.
All this while the genocide of Palestinians continues, with appalling conditions in Gaza, stringent restrictions on aid (which is still at less than half the required levels), and continued Israeli bombing – despite the “ceasefire”.
The judicial review of Palestine Action in the High Court of England and Wales appears to have been “fixed”. The last-minute change of judges – including the total removal of the original judge from the panel – and the conduct of the review, have left little room for optimism.
My own most striking impression from that judicial review is the difference in how the judges treated the counsel for Huda Ammori and the counsel for the UK government.
Counsel for Huda Ammori, Raza Husain KC, was treated with impatience and at times disdain. That is difficult to quantify, but one thing that could indeed be measured was this:
Every time Raza Husain KC referred the judges to a passage in a past judgment or other quoted authority, they quickly skated over it and moved on, frequently with a phrase like “Yes, we have seen it” or “We are familiar with that”.
Every time James Eadie KC for the government referred the judges to a written authority, they ostentatiously physically found it in their bundle and took time to peruse it, on one occasion taking over a minute to demonstrate they were reading and absorbing at the government’s direction, before Eadie moved on.
The contrast was stark. Not just once, but over and over.
My favourite moment in the English judicial review was when Raza Hussain quoted the Proscription Advisory Committee’s recommendation to Yvette Cooper that Palestine Action should be proscribed because “Palestine Action kept hiring good lawyers” and defendants kept being acquitted as it was difficult to prove guilt to the criminal standard.
Yes, they really did say that. Palestine Action should be proscribed because it was being found by juries not to be criminal.
By proscribing Palestine Action, this makes it a criminal offence of strict liability to support it, whether or not you were doing anything that a jury would have found criminal before the proscription.
Raza Hussain KC described this as “Not the Proscription Advisory Committee’s finest hour”. I thought much more could have been made of it, but a feature of the English judicial review – and I think a mistake – is that there was no playing to the gallery of public opinion.
It was conducted as a legal conversation between the lawyers and the judges, often incomprehensible to the onlooker because it was based on documents to which the public do not have access. Yet there is an extremely concerned public looking on.
The demands of the hunger strikers largely refer to the appalling prison conditions in which they are kept, despite the fact that none of them have been convicted and none of them have previous convictions, or can reasonably be said to present a danger to the public, or be a particular flight risk.
- Immediate bail/release on bail for the remand prisoners (many held longer than standard limits).
- The right to a fair trial, including access to all relevant documents and an end to demonization or “terrorist connection” claims.
- An end to prison censorship/restrictions on communications (e.g., blocking letters, phone calls, and books).
- De-proscription (lifting the ban) on Palestine Action as a terrorist organization.
- Shutdown of Elbit Systems’ UK sites (Israel’s largest arms manufacturer, accused of supplying weapons used in Gaza).
On right to a fair trial, it is worth noting that there is huge evidence of outside influence on the prosecutions, and there are communications between the police and prosecutorial authorities on the one hand, and Elbit, the Israeli Embassy, and various Zionist groups on the other, which have either not been released to the defence, or have only been released in very redacted form.
In the day of the Filton trial which I attended, I found the parts the jury was not allowed to know (when they were sent out) particularly interesting. I cannot tell you more than that until the trial is over.
We can help lift the proscription of Palestine Action if we win the judicial review in Scotland. We have finally been given a court date of 12 January at 9:30am in Edinburgh.
This hearing is to decide whether there will be a judicial review. It will look at only two points.
Firstly, whether I as an individual have sufficient connection to Palestine Action, or have my rights particularly infringed by the proscription, in order to have standing in the case.
The UK Government is arguing that I have no connection to Palestine Action. (I wish they would tell their police that!!)
We will however also be relying on the Supreme Court judgment in Walton vs Scottish ministers, which states that it “is sufficient that the applicant has a genuine concern about the legality of the act or decision, and that the issues raised are of general public importance”.
The second ground to be heard is whether there can be a separate judicial review in Scotland when there is already one in the High Court of England and Wales.
Our view is that the principle has already been established in the Joanna Cherry and Gina Miller cases, where judicial reviews in London and Edinburgh came to opposing decisions on the legality of Boris Johnson’s prorogation of parliament.
I am resident in Scotland, where the High Court of England and Wales has no jurisdiction. If my rights are infringed I am entitled, even within the United Kingdom, to the protection of my own courts of my own nation in first instance.
Scots law is different. Its intellectual basis and maxims are different. There is a reason why lawyers legally qualified to plead in courts in England and Wales are not automatically qualified to appear in Scotland; and vice versa. The Court of Session is not inferior to the High Court.
We intend to submit substantive evidence of the oppression of numerous individuals in Scotland as a result of the proscription.
We will need the maximum public support inside and outside the court of session at Parliament House, Edinburgh on 12 January from 9am.
Unfortunately we will not be able to go ahead if we do not raise sufficient funds. The crowdfunder has got us into court, but needs to supercharge to get us further. Please do help:
https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/scottish-challenge-to-proscription/
I know these are the most difficult of times. But that is why we have to keep fighting. The sums needed to mount a successful legal challenge to the power of the state can be eye-watering. But we are the many. Every penny helps, but please do not cause yourself hardship. You can contribute via the crowdfunder above or via these methods:
Alternatively by bank transfer:
Account name: MURRAY CJ
Account number: 32150962
Sort code: 60–40–05
IBAN: GB98NWBK60400532150962
BIC: NWBKGB2L
Bank address: NatWest, PO Box 414, 38 Strand, London, WC2H 5JB
Or crypto:
Bitcoin: bc1q3sdm60rshynxtvfnkhhqjn83vk3e3nyw78cjx9
Ethereum/ERC-20: 0x764a6054783e86C321Cb8208442477d24834861a
Am I unique in thinking that, given that Israel has engaged in acts of terrorism against the Jewish diaspora in the past (in Iraq or Egypt possibly) to persuade them to migrate to Israel, and that they allowed funds to go to Hamas before the Gaza uprising to provoke it, and provide them with an excuse for genocidal revenge, that they could have agents provocateurs on internet forums stirring up potential jihadis, useful idiots who might engage in acts of anti-semitic terrorism, whether in Manchester, Bondi beach or elsewhere, with the intended effect of urging diasporan Jews to support Israel and migrate there, just as Iraqi and Egyptian Jews did in the 1950s?
As well as Iraq and Egypt, see also bombs etc. in 1948+ in Yemen, Libya, and Morocco.
Emigration to Palestine is always a consideration in anything that Zionists do. This is more out in the open in some countries (e.g. France) than others. Or I should say establishment in Palestine, because many rich types who emigrate to the colony retain a degree of business and personal presence in other countries such as the USA.
When Zionists were developing an “ethnic bomb” (a biological weapon designed to hurt people of some ethnicities but not others), some of the people they tested it on were Arab Jews – from Iraq if I recall.
They don’t believe in this “shared genes” nonsense. For them, everything – including every idea – is instumental.
Another interesting story is how a lot of the diamond biz was got out of Rotterdam to Tel Aviv. Zionists are gangsters in every sense of that term.
Another recent one was the “antisemitic” attack on a synagogue in Brooklyn the day Zohran Mamdani won the NYC mayoralty. CCTV showed swastikas being spraypainted by a man wearing a Jewish fedora. An item of headwear that zionists insist was a ..”cowboy hat”.
Also there are Christmas markets. I doubt they would be main targets for jihadist nutters in general, but the assessment changes when the controller is neither Christian nor jihadist.
(FWIW I was at a Christmas market before Christmas and the security seemed performative only – there were patrols but the vehicle blocks weren’t serious and might just as well have been made of tinsel.)
But this is the country that allows Marks and Spencer to operate premises at railway termini – some of the top targets for those who want to carry out acts of mass terror.
Relevant to how other blatantly obvious things are ignored in the media, as well as the fact that “Israel” is an ethnic supremacist colony:
the US government’s bombing of Nigeria is
a) framed as “protecting Christians” in order to link up with current seasonal thoughts (it took place on Christmas Day), and
b) unlawful – I mean it is definitely and without a doubt unlawful under the UN Charter.
The end of the BBC report suggests that it was a reprisal for the killing of three Americans in the area, including one civlian interpreter.
That was Syria.
I stand corrected! I wonder whether the US raid in Africa was a reprisal, though.
Yes, a reprisal for opposing the hegemon.
Africa is now the battleground between western domination and independent sovereignty as enabled via China. The Israeli attack dogs are heavily involved.
Sounds like Trump; bomb Nigeria for something that happened in Syria.
AG
December 26, 2025 at 02:32
Of v.d. Schulenburg from his Wiki page: “In 2025, he travelled to Moscow to celebrate Victory Day (9 May).”
Tells me that he is either an idiot or subject to Russian “influence”.
I love your Xmas cracker logic. What were all those who died on the north Atlantic convoys, idiots or influenced ?
Tells me that he is a German who – unlike some other Germans and indeed non-Germans – is pleased and grateful that the Soviet Union played an instrumental part in the defeat of Nazi Germany and is not cowed into not attending the Russian celebration of the 60th anniversary of that defeat.
In 2024 Schulenburg declared his support for China’s ‘peace plan’ which was nothing of the sort, simply a list of principles.
In his 2017 book, On Building Peace, Schulenburg argues that peace cannot be imposed from above but must emerge from functioning, sovereign states with legitimate governance. He claims that external interventions, … often destabilize rather than rebuild because of their neglect of local political structures. In his view, the United Nations has drifted from its original mission and become a tool for powerful states. He wants it refocused on enabling states to manage their own peace processes, not on dictating terms.
The inference for Ukraine is clear.
Pears
Certainly, a list of principles, but principles pointing in the direction of peace and not continued war. I assume you do not disapprove of any of those principles?
On the subject of Schulenburg’s book, firstly one should note that it appeared 5 years before the start of the Russia-Ukraine war. Therefore it cannot be considered to be an apologia for that war. Hence your insinuation is anachronistic.
Futhermore, when you think about it he may have a very valid point. For example, look at the Middle East crisis: have top-down interventions, whether most UN resolutions or US support for Israel, or the threat of EU “sanctions” or the fulminations of Turkey or Iran or for that matters Trump’s “peace plan” brought peace any nearer? So perhaps Schulenburg is right when he says what you have quoted.
Luis Cunha da Silva
December 26, 2025 at 14:47
Attendance at the Victory Day event in Moscow is participation in a Russian regime propaganda event.
And lends support to that despicable regime.
Lots of toy soldiers marching and saluting the Little Dictator.
Tankie Heaven.
“Attendance at the Victory Day event in Moscow is participation in a Russian regime propaganda event.”
When Marshal Zukhov said “We liberated Europe from fascism, but they will never forgive us for it”, he must have been thinking of attitudes like that.
JK’s posts are usually misleading, diversionary or mere quibbles, but they are rarely as silly as this one.
Firstly, there have been Victory Day parades since 1945: not yearly, at first, it is true, but on major “jubilee” anniversaries and then yearly since 1995 (under President Yeltsin). Therefore, they precede the recent war and indeed even the annexation of Crimea. So it would be interesting to hear from JK exactly what they are propaganda for, except for the historically attested for fact of the Nazi defeat and the USSR’s rôle in that defeat. While we’re at it, we could recall that in the past, contingents from several Western European countries, including the UK, participated in the march pasts. Hence those counries must have been happy with Russia’s “propaganda”.
Secondly, attendance at any event is evidently participation in a physical sense. At best, JK is being tautologous, at worst insinuating.
Thirdly, I believe JK is over-egging the pudding when he claims that the presence of various foreign leaders “lends support” to the Russian regime (top marks to JK for following the rule to use the word régime when you disapprove of a government). I rather doubt if, in the real world, the presence of the leader of Mali or Tadzikistan provides much tangible support to the Russian government (sorry! régime).
Fourthly, I’m not sure how intelligent it is to talk about “toy soldiers” or whether that opinion of the fighting qualities of the Russian soldier is shared by the militaries of the main West European protagonists. It does not appear to be the view of the Polish authorities, who have turned down flat the idea of Polish participation in a military guarantee force in post-war Ukraine, saying that Poland will need all of its troops to defend its own territory.
But perhaps JK talks about “toy soldiers” because of the splendid uniforms they wore at the parade? He should take a look one day at the no less splendid uniforms worn by US, UK and French troops on important ceremonial occasions.
JK Redux
Your personal ideology leaving aside – you have to keep in mind that v.d. Schulenburgs are an old German aristocratic family which was involved with the Third Reich and against it, ie resistance. 2 members were executed after participating in Operation Valkyrie. One was the Ambassador to Moscow until 1941. The “bad apple” – Wolf-Werner von der Schulenburg – was a high-ranking SA-officer and responsible for several massacres. He died in combat over St. Malo in 1944.
Vd Schulenburg acts based on this personal family history and moral responsibility. Visiting Moscow for May 9th had been standard and had been expected of you for decades in Germany. By all such high-level strata from Germany. To show presence and respect in Mosoc on that day was core to international diplomatic conduct on the continent.
This is not least due to the 24-29 M killed Soviets simply because Germans with the support of most of Europe invaded the USSR in order to destroy it and kill its population or get rid of it in some other form. So we are talking about a genocide. Plain and simple.
By the way: Until 2022 I believe Europeans sent their high representatives to this military parade. And in 2010 German state broadcaster ARD did a complete live coverage of the parade when NATO participated.
And Schulenburg is certainly not the tankie you think he is. That claim is nonsense. You are not a tankie just because you think that the Russians were provoked. And Schulenburg from day #1 wanted an immediated end to the war.
p.s. Imagine: While German government officials do not attend May 9th any more they still got to Israel for similar occasions.
Of course officially in West Germany the “Generaplan Ost” – the destruction of USSR incl. potentially extermination of population – and the military operation to prepare it, Operation Barbarossa, have never been acknowledged as what they were intedended, as genocide.
So “tankie” is not only totally out of place it is abosuletly improper a term – whatever your feelings and opinions over this war in Ukraine.
The actions of the Third Reich, the actions of vd Schulenburgs family don´t change. And remember, FDR, Eisenhower, Churchill – they all stressed that WWII would have ended not the desired way withouth the USSR.
They destroyed 80+% of Wehrmacht. And paid dearly for it. Back when it happened everybody knew this. And whether you understand it or not: From Russian POV today looks like a repetition of history.
I could use Mearsheimer´s “what´s good for the goose” phrase in this context vis-à-vis Israel´s official explanation and justification for all its crimes – genocide suffered.
p.s. According to Wiki – I trust em on this number – vd Schulenburgs had 41 family members who were members of NSDAP. Doesn´t mean they all were war criminals. But it is a figure.
US military action anywhere in the world must enhance its hegemonic ambitions, hence its backing of groups in Syria, Al Qaeda and Islamic state, since 2011, this is all well documented culminating in the overthrow of the Syrian government in Dec last year. The ex leader of Al Qaeda and ISIS supporter Al Julani now Ahmed al-Sharaa had a $50 million dollar bounty on his head a short while ago, now he is fated in the US, last seen playing basketball with top US Generals and being interviewed by Gen David Petraeus, such is the hypocrisy of US foreign policy.. i.e. ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’.
Timber Sycamore was a classified weapons supply and training program run by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and supported by the United Kingdom and some Arab intelligence services, including Saudi intelligence. The aim of the program was to remove Syrian president Bashar al-Assad from power. Launched in 2012 or 2013, it supplied money, weaponry and training to Syrian opposition groups fighting Syrian government forces in the Syrian Civil War.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timber_Sycamore
Standard USA playbook. Same happened in Iraq and the same is happening in Iran, Caspian states, Burma and elsewhere. ISIS supported and trained by USrael, and the white helmets by UKrael. Go figure. The presence of BBC and USAID are a giveaway.
Colonel Jacques Baud has been sanctioned by the EU essentially for not peddling the official line/narrative on the Russia- Ukraine war.
But there are several podcasts run by or regularly featuring people such as Lt Col Daniel Davis, Professor John Mearsheimer, Aaron Maté, Andrew Napolitano, some of whom (unlike Colonel Baud) have been to Russia, appeared on Russian state TV, etc.
None of those people has been sanctioned by the EU.
Could it be because they are American and that the EU fears an unpleasant reaction from Donald and J.D.?
Whereas, even if Colonel Baud’s country were to react negatively (it wouldn’t anyway), who’s afraid of little Switzerland…..?
Baud has been following the official line; Russia’s.
The US has already carried out ‘tit for tat’ sanctions against five EU officials over what it regards as censorship. If any of these podcasters did visit the EU or UK I expect they’d find themselves detained at an airport somewhere.
Pears
Merely repeating something ad nauseam does not make that something any truer. And what is meant by “following”? Does “following” mean having the same ideas on certain things as someone else? To help you by giving an example: if I believe that the solution in the Middle East consists of a single Israell/Palestine state and not of two states, does that make me a follower of PM Netanyahu, who is also opposed to a to state solution?
Your second point is more than puzzling, because I don’t quite see the connection between Colonel Baud following (or not following) the Kremlin’s line and the US sanctioning five EU officials (actually fact check: EU “officials” are what the Americans call “staffers”; Thierry Breton is a former Commissioner and Commissioners are not staffers (officials).). Nor do I see an analogy between the podcasters I mentioned and the EU people who have been sanctioned (who are not podcasters as far as I’m aware) and thirdly your idea that if said podcasters visited the EU or the UK they would be arrested seems highly speculative – on what is that idea based?
All in all, your points sorely need further development…..
My second point was a response to your questioning why American podcasters had not been sanctioned by the EU. Thought that was perfectly clear.
Pears
I did more than to question why certain American podcasters had not been sanctioned by the EU – I even offered a possible explanation. Perhaps you have a better one?
Now, having got that out of the way, Pears, allow me to point out that your comparison was not only not clear, it was plumb off the mark. The US is sanctioning some Europeans whom it accuses of furthering or participating in censorship (ie, the US claims to be acting against censorship). The EU, on, the other hand, is sanctioning Colonel Baud because it appears to disapprove of his opinions – ie, it is in effect censoring him. See the difference?
Lastly, on your arrest point, I believe that a couple of those US podcasters have actually visited European countries over the last year, but am unable to find any record of them having been detained on entry. I somehow think you’re indulging in wishful thinking…….
Being sanctioned for having an opinion is bad enough, criminalizing having an opinion is a lot worse. for instance the US and many other states regard the Iranian IRGC as a terrorist organization, just as our legislation regard certain proscribed groups as terrorist organizations. Having an opinion such as ‘I think Hamas or Hezbollah are legitimate resistance groups’ could be construed as support for those groups i.e. It is a criminal offence to
“invite support for a proscribed organisation (the support invited need not be material support, such as the provision of money or other property, and can also include moral support or approval) (section 12(1)
express an opinion or belief that is supportive of a proscribed organisation, reckless as to whether a person to whom the expression is directed will be encouraged to support a proscribed organisation (section 12(1A)”
A cross-party group of more than 550 MPs and peers have signed a letter calling on the government to label the IRGC a terrorist organization. The signatories include prominent figures such as former Labour leader Lord Neil Kinnock, ex-Conservative Party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith,
https://www.iranintl.com/en/202505175476
Many of these individuals would like the UK to declare the IRGC (who are an integral part of the Iranian army) and the equivalent Russian group a terrorist group within the meaning of the proscribed terrorism act, I have no doubt many EU/UK politicians are considering such a step in order to silence people like Baud (with a 14 year jail sentence) and any others who have an opinion on the Russia/ Ukraine conflict which is contrary to the European narrative.
Yes, no doubt he believes (and would even say aloud) that 2 + 2 = 4, and that the Earth orbits the Sun.
Obviously a Bolshevik, as Mr Putin also believes those things.
“Baud has been following the official line; Russia’s.”
Tell me, when did the EU declare war on Russia? If the EU is not at war with Russia, why are those who follow the official line of other countries outside the EU not similarly sanctioned?
The first individual to be sanctioned by the EU was Nathalie Yamb who I mentioned in a comment up thread, her ‘difference’ of opinion began when she questioned the French colonial attitude toward Africa, this anti colonial opinion will not be tolerated in France, her latest updated sanctions include her opinions on the Russia/Ukraine debacle, she like Jacques Baud has been sanctioned by Switzerland, closing her Swiss account which was in Swiss Franks and Euros, They wired her Swiss Franks to another account but would not transfer her Euros, in effect they have stolen her money. This is an incredible state of affairs, but not surprising, i.e. If you have a different political opinion from that of the EU Commission, then you will be punished, we will steal your money, ensure you cannot return to your own country (Switzerland is land locked) and we will make it impossible for any disobedient citizen to live a normal life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXq89FryYzo
Glad you mention her, so I don´t have to ;-P
This is a major scandal.
And there is an important angle to this story which I am not sure Pascal Lottaz is aware of. It was not mentioned at all in the conversation.
I am not through with my research lacking time but:
In order to understand why everybody is bowing to the sanctions see this for further background:
The US State Department issued a pretty long text about African pro-Russian propagandists which Yamb is regarded to be member of (with courtesy of Wiki! I just love them…)
Yevgeniy Prigozhin’s Africa-Wide Disinformation Campaign
Nov. 4th 2022
https://2021-2025.state.gov/disarming-disinformation/yevgeniy-prigozhins-africa-wide-disinformation-campaign/
The text is insanely embarrassing. A nuclear power is afraid of a woman in Africa with 200k followers???!
And so they start this huge sting operation. Of course it´s not just her. It´s several people.
I looked only into one provided text so far from the SoS.
But all this reads very much like another anti-Assange or Russiagate scheme.
One linked study is by the “Free Russia Think Tank”!
“THE COMPANY YOU KEEP: Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Influence Operations in Africa”
by Michael Weiss and Pierre Vaux
https://thinktank.4freerussia.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/The-Company-You-Keep-Yevgeny-Prigozhins-Influence-Operations-in-Africa.pdf
So it has to be understood that – as I see it so far – Yamb got picked out as an easy target – and since Prigozhin is attached to her name on whatever fraudulent grounds anybody in Europe or Africa will back off immediately because it is obvious that you get into conflcit with the most powerful geopolitical entities.
I might well be off here but I imagine that the French asked the Americans to do the dirty work instead (Russia was a great excuse for that) so that the French don´t leave their fingerprints on it. Because it would immediately come back to them in a negative way, “French colonizers” and so and with the “liberal” elite would be much more diffiult to defend.
With Russia, Prigozhin its much easier to frame Yamb. As the history has shown.
Now one conspirator in this is a US “investigative journalist”, Michael Weiss, who most likely cooperates with US intelligence services.
This Weiss guy wrote an entire study about African activists conspiring against Western interests and calls them “pro-Russian propagandists”. This sounds very much like the 1960s again…
I find it staggering that nobodoy calls out Weiss´s name and that he is the one doing propaganda and awful disinfo here and as a so-called journalist destroys the lives of activists who stand up against goddam empire. He is the one who should be brought to court.
Michael Weiss
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Weiss_(journalist)
About the co-author Pierre Vaux I find less.
The study says (sounds like an intelligence asset too. What is he actually doing?)
“Pierre Vaux is a researcher specialising in open-source
investigations, conducting digital forensic analysis of hostile
state activity, disinformation and extremism. As a journalist, he
covered the Ukraine war and the Russian military intervention
in Syria since their beginnings. He has also reported on Russian
disinformation efforts concerning Syria and engagement
with the xenophobic far-right in Europe for The Interpreter, The
Daily Beast, Polygraph.info and RFE/RL.”
Gosh, these people…
Sigh…
p.s. perhaps we might be better off opening a new topic in the forum if this grows…but for now I just wanted to share this. Maybe others wanna pick up on it.
Al-Jazeera interview with Ilan Pappé, about polls indicating a worsening of racism in Israel.
Thanks
59 individuals have now been sanctioned by the EU Commission, I suppose they are working on the principal that to punish one high profile “offender” is to deter all, this approach may be legitimate action when conducted within the law, however having a different opinion is not illegal, whether having an anti colonial or anti membership of the EU or anti war against Russia is not illegal.
To be consistent, all individuals with a different opinion on Russia/Ukraine, like myself, should be sanctioned, we may even be approaching the time when having a different opinion in the EU/UK, means being put to death as in Saudi Arabia for apostasy, now that would certainly concentrate the mind of “trouble makers” like Baud.
It’s a ratcheting up across the board, using both headline cases and increasing vigilance and clampdown everywhere. See the state newsreader (Martine Croxall) who had a complaint upheld against her because her facial expression was construed as critical when she had to read some bullshit about “pregnant people” and she even (the horror!) managed to slip in the word “women”. That is very reminiscent of what things were like at the height of the Stalinist dictatorship in the USSR, when for example people would have to clap a speech, and nobody wanted to be the first to stop, so the clapping would go on for 10, 15, or 20 minutes until leading figures in the room stopped. A boot stamping on a human face – forever. The operative word being “forever”.
Saying or even suggesting that only women can get pregnant, a truth that the entire world has known for thousands of years until Posh State Decree Number 7043 was issued about five minutes ago, gets you in hot water, now that everyone’s carrying microwave trackers and “they think they are free”.
Similar developments abound in the school system, the “health” system, local councils, even the police. And the mentality of the enforcers of course becomes ever more cruel and robotic.
Meanwhile one in five in Britain are skipping meals, and one in three are cutting back on heating.
It won’t be long before social credit applies to what a person can and can’t buy or otherwise do with their money.
You talk about “illegal”, Harry, but the concept of the state needs to be revised. The law has always been whatever the ruling class can get away with, but now who can put a cigarette paper between corporations such as banks and Apple and the govt?
The late Uri Avnery claimed the US Congress were like clapping seals when Netanyahu addressed them some years ago, claiming that the first to stop clapping would be in trouble with the ‘lobby’, things have not changed, Netanyahu’s latest speech was described thus….
“While Congress interrupted Netanyahu’s speech 39 times to clap and give the Prime Minister a standing ovation, Mondoweiss’s Ben Norton said to describe the speech as “well received” would be a criminal understatement.
Out of the 39 applause’s, 23 were standing ovations. In minutes, out of the 40 minutes and 30 seconds during which Netanyahu stood at the podium, 10 minutes and 55 seconds consisted of clapping. Statistically, over one-fourth, or 27% of Netanyahu’s speech was applause.
https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/congress-applauded-netanyahu-once-every-minute-during-his-sp
Don’t forget this is a PM under indictment at the ICC for grave war crimes. In previous speeches Netanyahu had to quell the applause with an imperious sweep of his hand.
Someone once said that Congress was Israeli controlled territory, they were not wrong. Am I to be accused of Anti semitism?
“Meanwhile one in five in Britain are skipping meals, and one in three are cutting back on heating”. A small price to pay for security against ‘the dirty red scum’ /S The 3 little piglets are going to borrow money to build up European armed forces since those forces are inadequately manned and ill armed. Broom handles have been suggested for training, they may insist those broom handles be taken into combat, I’m keeping my pitch fork for when they send the recruiters around. Oink, oink.
Article 2 paragraph 4 of the UN charter is plain… “All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations”.
Russia regards the expansion of NATO to its doorstep with NATO missiles only several minutes flying time to Moscow as a grave threat, Russia was not even consulted, as if Russian security concerns were of no consequence. NATO were also in breach of its promises not to expand 1 inch further east after the re unification of Berlin (East Germany). NATO LIED. Russia had every right to regard NATO expansion as a threat since many western Politicians had claimed their aims were the break up and dissolution of the Russian Federation. Many other provocative acts by the west including the coup in 2014 and the bombardment of the Russian speaking peoples of Dombass were so provocative that Russia had to implement its SMO to save lives. The West said the Russian SMO was an unprovoked attack, nothing could be further from the truth, Russia felt threatened (it was) and had every right to act in its defence, completely in line with article 2 (4) of the UN charter. Jacques Baud, Harry Law and others with the same opinion on this blog must be silenced and severely punished for telling the truth.
Sorry I have to go, there is a loud knocking on my door.
Harry Law
December 27, 2025 at 11:30
You repeat the claim that NATO “promise(d) not to expand 1 inch further east after the re unification of Berlin”.
When did NATO make that promise? A link would be helpful.
Thanks.
Declassified documents show security assurances against NATO expansion to Soviet leaders from Baker, Bush, Genscher, Kohl, Gates, Mitterrand, Thatcher, Hurd, Major, and Woerner
Slavic Studies Panel Addresses “Who Promised What to Whom on NATO expansion in his meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on February 9, 1990, was part of a cascade of assurances about Soviet security given by Western leaders to Gorbachev and other Soviet officials throughout the process of German unification in 1990 and on into 1991,
Washington D.C., December 12, 2017 – U.S. Secretary of State James Baker’s famous “not one inch eastward” assurance about NATO expansion in his meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on February 9, 1990, was part of a cascade of assurances about Soviet security given by Western leaders to Gorbachev and other Soviet officials throughout the process of German unification in 1990 and on into 1991, according to declassified U.S., Soviet, German, British and French documents posted today by the National Security Archive at George Washington University (http://nsarchive.gwu.edu).
https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/russia-programs/2017-12-12/nato-expansion-what-gorbachev-heard-western-leaders-early
JK redux, your welcome.
Yes to repeat. Baker’s Memorandum of conversation between Mikhail Gorbachev and James Baker in Moscow. 9th February1990 (p6)
“We understand the need for assurances to the countries in the East. If we maintain a presence in a Germany that is a part of NATO, there would be no extension of NATO’s jurisdiction for forces of NATO one inch to the east.”
https://nsarchive.gwu.edu – a valuable source of documentary information, a recent addition being exchanges between Presidents Putin and George W Bush who said of Putin in 2001.
“You’re the type of guy I like to have in the foxhole with me.”
Harry Law
December 27, 2025 at 13:07
Thanks but none of the links that you provided support the claim that NATO (as distinct from individual politicians) gave a commitment not to permit new states to join NATO after German reunification.
Baker, Bush, Genscher Gates, Mitterrand, Thatcher, Hurd, Major, and Woerner .
4 of whom Bush, Mitterrand, Thatcher and Major were heads of state, the others were Foreign ministers and/or Defence secretaries, Manfred Hermann Wörner was also Sec Gen of NATO. Yes they were all involved as individuals representing their respective states, President Bush of course was the head of the NATO alliance. JK redux are you trying to pull my plonker?
Formally JK is correct that NATO as such never gave that assurance. But I do not think that the various personalities cited by Harry Law and Crispa were speaking in bad faith and with an intent to deceive, nor do I think it is reasonable to hide behind the argument that they were only speaking as individuals and therefore their promises were worth nothing. Let’s be honest, those personalities were the big beasts of NATO. The only thing the Russians could be reproached for is that they were too naive/trusting to get the commitment nailed down more firmly.
JK redux
Now you are nit picking.
The US IS NATO ( intentional block caps with the IS).
As Ukraine is about to find out.
JK redux
Mary Elise Sarotte published a study about this titled “Not One Inch” in 2022. Sarotte is part of the Atlanticist community:
“Not One Inch
America, Russia, and the Making of Post-Cold War Stalemate”
by M. E. Sarotte
https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300268034/not-one-inch/
Her article in FOREIGN AFFAIRS
https://archive.is/Yq3YG
John Helmer wrote the most critical review that I know of.
If you are willing to go into detail.
https://johnhelmer.org/stab-in-the-back-not-one-inch-but-right-to-the-heart/
He points out inconsistencies/flaws in her study.
Tariq Ali wrote one too.
But Helmer is way more the genuine specialist.
“Before the War”
by Tariq Ali
24 March 2022
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v44/n06/tariq-ali/before-the-war
The late French Foreign Secretary of those years, Roland Dumas (1988-1993), gave an interesting interview where he spoke about those negotiations. It´s French with German subs but there are the YT automatic subs. I have nothing better to offer.
But I find it worth checking out since Dumas is about as authoritative as can be on this process.
Febr. 12th 2022 (Dumas died about one year ago)
27 min.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=onuDtr2Kgb4
Dumas says very pointedly that in those highest diplomatic circles – whether signed document or not – it was beyond doubt that the promises made were binding. But to quote the famous Austrian legal scholar Georg Jellinek: “The normative power of force” is the only truly binding act.
And whenever Putin says they need signed documents the NATO expansion and how it went against Russian interests and promises made he has this historic episode in mind.
By search engine you will find many reviews hailing Sarotte´s book.
So I provide you with the few critical ones.
(Unfortunately due to language limitations I am confined to European and US studies. It would be highly interesting what scholars have to say about this in other parts of the world.)
p.s.
This Noam Chomsky quote on the promise of “Not One Inch” from a 2014 interview:
“(…)
There’s a very good article on this in the current issue of Foreign Affairs, the main establishment journal, by John Mearsheimer, a well-known IR… international relations specialist. Now this goes back to 1990, the collapse of the Soviet Union, fall of the Berlin wall….collapse of the Soviet Union, right in those years. At that point, Mikhail Gorbachev, who was a real statesman, made an incredible offer. He offered to allow Germany to be unified and to join NATO, a hostile military alliance. You take a look at the history of the last preceding century, that’s astonishing. I mean, Germany alone had several times virtually destroyed Russia, even when Russia was supported by western power. Now he was offering to allow Germany to join much…huge western power, far beyond Russia’s, in a hostile military alliance. Now he did have a quid pro quo. The phrase was “not one inch to the east.” That was the phrase he used together with President Bush, number one, and James Baker, Secretary of State in working out this issue…also Helmut Kohl of Germany. The “one inch to the east” meant East Berlin…East Germany. The condition was that this militarized, united Germany part of NATO would not move to East Germany. Well the Bush Administration quickly moved to East Germany. Gorbachev was outraged, but he was informed that it was only a verbal agreement — there was nothing on paper…which was correct, there was nothing on paper. And so he had no basis for objecting, well, not very convincing. But anyhow, under Clinton, NATO was expanded much further to the east, way beyond East Germany….right to the borders of Russia.
(…)”
source:
“Conversation Between Noam Chomsky, Paul Craig Roberts and Rob Kall:
The future of capitalism, climate change and suicidal Russia policy”
Noam Chomsky with Paul Craig Roberts and Rob Kall
Bottom Up Radio Show
September 28, 2014
https://chomsky.info/20140928/
“All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state,
Political independence means the state is free to join what alliances it wishes whether that be NATO or the EU. As it is there was little support on either side for Ukraine joining NATO until 2014. NATO’s best recruiting sergeant is without doubt Vlad Putin, since his aggression towards Ukraine NATO has gained two new members which both have borders with Russia. When is Putin going to invade them?
Why are Russia’s security concerns of such great importance? What about western Europe’s security concerns? Don’t they matter? Russia has stationed nuclear armed missiles in its Kaliningrad enclave which can reach much of NATO ‘within minutes’ and are claimed to be unstoppable. Surely by the same thought process that’s an unacceptable threat that would justify NATO ‘liberating’ the country?
Pears Morgaine, “Political independence means the state is free to join what alliances it wishes whether that be NATO or the EU”.
I do not agree, what would the US do if Mexico or Canada [dare I say Cuba] had a military alliance with Russia or China? Of course it would not be allowed, there would probably would be an invasion by the US military to forestall such a possibility. I cannot believe some of the gibberish you come out with.
The US might well take military action against Mexico or Canada if they formed an alliance with Russia but that wouldn’t make such action right or legal. Would it?
Pears, you supported the completely unprovoked, illegal attack on Iran this year. Do you seriously expect anybody to believe you would oppose a US attack on an anti-US military alliance parked hard on the US border? (And please, please do not insult my intelligence again by claiming you opposed the invasion of Iraq, opposing every one of your political and media idols..)
Pears, you supported the completely unprovoked, illegal attack on Iran this year.
Did I? Do you have any proof.
Anybody can consult your comments on this blog at that time (late June?), attempting to justify it and steadfastly refusing to condemn the attackers.
The contradistinction with every one of your remarks about Russia could hardly have been more stark.
Or perhaps I am misremembering. Maybe you did express outrage at that flagrant breach of national sovereignty/ international law by a genocidal state and its accomplices.
Am I misremembering?
Pears Morgaine
Trumps route is through Alberta – with Albertan officials already in Washington discussing Alberta’s exit of Canada – Albertans in the most part want to see Alberta leva Canada and become its own nation – Carney may take some drastic action to stop Alberta leaving – and Trump will of course militarily – back the Albertans which will give Trump a foothold – in the Canadian sphere.
Pears
I am not sure that “political independence” means what you say it means.
Yours is certainly one interpretation. But another interpretation would be that no state can be obliged or forced to join a particular alliance.
On a point of fact: the events of late 2013/early 2014 were not related to possible Ukraine accession to the EU but to an envisaged trade agreement (perhaps even a primitive kind of association agreement, I don’t remember). You will recall that there as no Russian objection to Austria and Finland acceding to the EU, their neutral status notwithstanding.
Touching on another point you mention: it seems fairly clear that EU membership is becoming let us say synonymous with membership of NATO. Finnish and Swedish membership should be seen in that context. At the moment, the only EU countries not in NATO are Ireland, Austria, Malta and Cyprus. They will almost certainly not be under any pressure to join, mainly because they do not border on Russia and are militarily insignificant. It is no coincidence that all of the Western Balkans countries queuing up to accede to the EU are already in NATO (although that is not a formal requirement for membership) and that Serbia, which would also like to join but is being given a hard time is not a member).
“Political independence means the state is free to join what alliances it wishes whether that be NATO or the EU. As it is there was little support on either side for Ukraine joining NATO until 2014.”
and what happened in 2014? Oh yes, a coup orchestrated by a foreign power toppled the democratically elected government of Ukraine. Once under the control of the US, of course Ukraine’s membership of NATO now had support. It’s hardly likely that any country would think that membership possible while Ukraine remained on the side of Russia, is it?
Russia actually invaded Ukraine on 24th February 2022. Not just a threat, imaginary or otherwise. But that wasn’t the beginning of Russian aggression. It had invaded Crimea 10 years previously, which was sovereign Ukrainian territory. Nor was that the beginning, because Georgia had been invaded before that in 2008 following a plan from 2006. All this is about Putin trying to recreate the Russian empire with himself as the Tsar. His playbook has been consistent for decades, which is why the Baltic states are right to be concerned about the future.
The late Frederick Forsyth wrote a good novel Icon about post-Soviet Russia. If the country really wants to return to ‘God and the Tsar’ it will need a real Tsar and a constitutional monarchy as Britain and European countries have, not a dictator.
Meanwhile, I hope that Germany (apart from Count Michael von der Schulenberg) with other countries will give Ukraine the tools it needs to fight off the invader.
Слава Україні!
Jonn Bolton said. “He gave us notice of his strategy seven or eight years ago when he said, in what is now one of the most frequently repeated quotes from his leadership in Russia, when he said, ‘The breakup of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical tragedy of the 20th century.’
Please M.J. finish Putins quote which was…..
“Does he (Putin) want to turn the clock back? People often quote his statement “the demise of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century”. But it bears pointing out that he enlarged on it by saying: “Anyone who doesn’t regret the passing of the Soviet Union has no heart. Anyone who wants it restored has no brains.”
Most western leaders and MSM quote Putin saying the first part of the quote, but leave out the second part, such sophistry could end in nuclear war, stop it.
Putin is casting his ambitions back further, back to the Tsarists era.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-42051352
Imagine the British royalist regime’s broadcasting service complaining about a foreign leader putting up statues to dead monarchs.
Centralism and security are important to the rulers of Russia … what a shocker.
Well at least they would be free to complain should they object. As many have.
PM
Perhaps you might like to remind us dunces what it was about Alexander III that led you to cite him as an evil aggressive Tsar. Wiki says of him: “During his reign, Russia fought no major wars, and he came to be known as The Peacemaker.” What went on in domestic policy is not the rest of Europe’s business, in respect of the comparison to Putin’s policies that you are so keen on.
Having just seen and appreciated Laguerre’s post on Alexander III, I have the strong impression that Pears and JK have been getting the worse of it over the past couple of days!
In domestic policy Alexander III was a reactionary; an autocrat who reversed the liberal policies of his father. You can see why that might appeal to Putin.
He was also anti-Semitic, several Pogroms took place during his reign and he was responsible for the May Laws of 1882.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_Laws
No sooner had I suggested that Pears and JK were getting the worse of it than up pops Pears again to rubbish Tsar Alexander III (and via him, Putin)!
Truly desperate if you have to bring up a Tsar of more than one and a half centuries ago…….and bring out the anti-semitism card to help do so!
Large majorities in the six disputed territories wish to be in Russia, and all the referendums showing that result were genuine.
Unfortunately many Ukrainians voted for Princess Leia from Star Wars, then for Mr Punchy the Puncher from international boxing, and then for the Servant of the People, from Yes Minister – except that Paul Eddington, unlike Volodymyr Zelensky, wasn’t known for pretending to play Hava Nagila on the piano with his penis. You just wonder how many more dead Ukrainians this horrible war is going to take. Let’s hope as few as possible. After all, it’s obvious where right lies – if people in those six territories wish their homelands to be in Russia, then of course they should be in Russia.
I should add that if majorities of people in any of the six DPs wanted their homelands to be in Ukraine, then I would support them being in Ukraine. But this is counterfactual. They want to be in Russia. This is nothing to do with “imperialism”.
all the referendums showing that result were genuine.
Only in the eyes of Russia and that great beacon of democracy North Korea. Elsewhere the UN branded the sham referenda as illegal under international law and contrary to the UN Charter.
In March 2021 a survey showed support amounst Donetsk’s Russian population for joining the Russian federation at just 25%; somehow in a about a year that was swung to 99%+ of all residents in favour. Anybody who doesn’t smell a giant size rat has lost their sense of smell.
Russian bears, Putin orcs and now giant size rats – what’s next? I think we need David Attenborough to explain!
Pears Morgaine
No need to go as far as NK – closer to home will suffice.
https://nitter.poast.org/thomsonchris/status/2004534746089705627#m
Sixteen foreign observers including the ICSA monitored the Scottish Independence Referendum. Either side could’ve invited the OCSE, who I thought were not held in high esteem by everybody, but didn’t.
Pears Morgaine.
ICSA a London based institute – of course to you it was all above board – but many folk know it wasn’t.
Different ISCA.
https://isca-aidc.ca/update-isca-sends-observation-mission-to-scotland-referendum/
Pears Morgaine
December 28, 2025 at 15:05
I am still puzzled as to why there wasn’t an exit poll in IndyRef 1.
Surely the SNP could have raised the funds?
Pears Morgaine @23.04pm.
After extensive searches across the web I’ve found that ISCA -AIDC is funded partly by the Gates Foundation, the Wellcome Trust – (England’s) FCDO, and the World Bank.
Enough said.
Yes Brian Red, its called self determination, which according to the UN charter is the ‘Right of all peoples to self determination.
The ICJ also said when adjudicating on the dispute between Serbia and the breakaway region Kosovo, self determination trumps National boundaries…
“Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia in February 2008 did not violate international law, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) said today as the United Nations court released its advisory opinion on the issue.”
https://news.un.org/en/story/2010/07/345532
There was no referendum, the Judges ruled that because the Kosovo parliament claimed independence, that was a sufficient ‘will of the people’ argument.
You might enjoy this long read Harry.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/why-is-nato-in-yugoslavia/21008
the Judges ruled that because the Kosovo parliament claimed independence, that was a sufficient ‘will of the people’ argument.
Because the government was freely elected on an independence ticket perhaps?
“Russia actually invaded Ukraine on 24th February 2022. Not just a threat, imaginary or otherwise. But that wasn’t the beginning of Russian aggression. It had invaded Crimea 10 years previously, which was sovereign Ukrainian territory. Nor was that the beginning, because Georgia had been invaded before that in 2008 following a plan from 2006. All this is about Putin trying to recreate the Russian empire with himself as the Tsar”
The UK actually invaded Iraq in 2003. Not just a threat, imaginary or otherwise. But that wasn’t the beginning of British aggression. It had invaded Afghanistan 2 years previously, which was sovereign territory. All this is about the UK trying to recreate the British empire with the monarch as Emperor. Sound about right?
At last a German leader has recognized reality, the obvious, that the US is looking to its own interests, and, ‘shock horror’ is not looking to fight a war with Russia. More importantly NATO expansion must stop, Oh no, does that mean Europe (the Piglets) must face the big bad bear all alone. Trump is saying yes, he is too busy constructing his White House Ballroom.
“Merz has crossed a line that few European leaders have even contemplated since the Cold War – triggered by the shock generated by the new US National Security Strategy (NSS), issued earlier this month. The document no longer even identifies Russia as a threat, describing it instead as a factor in the Trump administration’s efforts to reach peace in Ukraine, an objective now presented as a strategic interest for Washington, alongside the stabilisation of relations with Moscow.
To rub salt into the wound, the NSS states that “the perception and reality of Nato in constant expansion must stop”. In a single sentence, nearly three decades of western narrative, which has brazenly denied any link between Nato’s eastward expansion and the war in Ukraine, were quietly discarded by the alliance’s leading power.”
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/rearmament-without-strategy-why-europe-risks-another-bleak-year-2026
The pigs may have to fight the bear alone, but they must buy and use the orange one’s weapons.
The art of the deal, for European f*ckwits.
One can imagine a kind of medieval “entertainment” for the pleasure of the Monarch, with, in an arena, wild pigs (they can be ferocious) pitted against a great big bear. Beats cock fighting or cricket racing!
In my prevous post (24/12/2024) I advised that Professor Jeffrey Sachs had posted this article on Scheerpost- European Russophobia and Europe’s Rejection of Peace: A Two-Century Failure . Having reviewed this again I may have been in error but I can now confirm that it was posted on 24th December 2025 on Consortium News ( https://consortiumnews.com/2025/12/24/jeffery-sachs-two-centuries-of-russophobia-rejection-of-peace/ )
This is a really helpful summary articulating the geo-strategic history post 1815 (Napoleon) to the current war in Ukraine vis a vis Russia and its relations with the “west”.
I had not realised that the Soviets had applied to join NATO ! This is highly recommended and the article references the academic work and research undertaken to support the thesis.
Are you sure it was the Soviets and not post-Soviet Russia?
Hi Luis:
Here is a quote from the article:
“In March 1954, the Soviet Union applied to join NATO, arguing that NATO would thereby become an institution for European collective security. The U.S. and its allies immediately rejected the application on the grounds that it would dilute the alliance and forestall Germany’s accession to NATO.”.
As I said I was surprised to learn this.
– Sorry for the length and number of links. But I believe this is important. Especially now of course. –
re: NATO + USSR/Russia
We owe it to historian Geoffrey Roberts who published his findings with the Wilson Center in 2011. I believe he was the first one who came up with the actual documentation of the Molotov suggestion that you write about:
“Molotov’s Proposal that the USSR Join NATO, March 1954”
Geoffrey Roberts
21.11.2011
Quoting from the Molotov suggestion:
“(…)
if NATO relinquished its aggressive character the USSR would consider participation in the organization. In those circumstances, concluded the note, NATO “would cease to be a closed military alignment of states and would be open to other European countries which, together with the creation of an effective system of European collective security, would be of cardinal importance for the promotion of universal peace.”
(…)”
https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/molotovs-proposal-the-ussr-join-nato-march-1954
The Germans/NATO as you say naturally rejected the offer.
But the same was true for other peace offers, like Stalin´s Notes in 1952/53 shortly before he died: German unification in return for neutrality.
Adenauer mocked the idea. In fact the West European states hated every attempt to come to terms with them from the Russian side. It was not unlike today: EU needs Russia as an enemy in the public to secure their way of doing business and keeping their wealth to themselves.
In the 1950s this contempt by the West extended to East European proposals too, like Rapacki´s famous peace plan and some more.
After the dissolution of USSR we had 2 attempts by Russia to join NATO. Again they never materialized:
“SOVIET DISARRAY, Yeltsin Says Russia Seeks to Join NATO”
NEW YORK TIMES
21.12.1991
https://archive.is/CkTPq
Then in 2000 Putin came with the idea, again:
THE GUARDIAN:
“Ex-Nato head says Putin wanted to join alliance early on in his rule
George Robertson recalls Russian president did not want to wait in line with ‘countries that don’t matter’”
4.11.2021
“(…)
Vladimir Putin wanted Russia to join Nato but did not want his country to have to go through the usual application process and stand in line “with a lot of countries that don’t matter”, according to a former secretary general of the transatlantic alliance.
George Robertson, a former Labour defence secretary who led Nato between 1999 and 2003, said Putin made it clear at their first meeting that he wanted Russia to be part of western Europe. “They wanted to be part of that secure, stable prosperous west that Russia was out of at the time,” he said.
The Labour peer recalled an early meeting with Putin, who became Russian president in 2000. “Putin said: ‘When are you going to invite us to join Nato?’ And [Robertson] said: ‘Well, we don’t invite people to join Nato, they apply to join Nato.’ And he said: ‘Well, we’re not standing in line with a lot of countries that don’t matter.’”
The account chimes with what Putin told the late David Frost in a BBC interview shortly before he was first inaugurated as Russian president more than 21 years ago. Putin told Frost he would not rule out joining Nato “if and when Russia’s views are taken into account as those of an equal partner”.
He told Frost it was hard for him to visualise Nato as an enemy. “Russia is part of the European culture. And I cannot imagine my own country in isolation from Europe and what we often call the civilised world.”
(…)”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/04/ex-nato-head-says-putin-wanted-to-join-alliance-early-on-in-his-rule
Or via WASHINGTON POST:
“Putin Says ‘Why Not?’ to Russia Joining NATO”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2000/03/06/putin-says-why-not-to-russia-joining-nato/c1973032-c10f-4bff-9174-8cae673790cd/
Charles de Gaulle expressed ideas for a pan-European security agreement from “Lisbon to Vladivostok” in a 1959 speech “Le voyage présidentiel en Alsace”.
Gorbachev picked this up in 1985 with his (in)famous “Common European House” speech during “The visit of the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, Mikhail Gorbachev, to France, 1985”.
Btw not everybody in the US publishing on these matters is a liar or idiot.
James Carden who briefly had been an advisor to the Obama Administration on Russia until he realized it was all a scam writing 2 years ago, on the Ukraine War now that is:
Febr. 28th 2024
“ACURA ViewPoint: James W. Carden: Letter from ThinkTankLand”
“(…)
At Brookings, I heard not a word uttered about casualties (now estimated to be verging on 500,000 or closing in on about ten times the losses sustained by the US in Vietnam). I heard not a word about the estimated 700,000 who have fled military service in Ukraine. Nor was a word uttered about the cost of reconstruction, now widely estimated to be at around $1 trillion. And why would I expect to? After all, doing so would, among other things, puncture the dream-like state in which these places operate.
(…)”
https://usrussiaaccord.org/acura-viewpoint-james-w-carden-letter-from-thinktankland/
So the historic truth bleeds through everywhere. But our legacy media and intelligence-service-driven anti-Russian entities such as SWP in Gemany, RUSI or Chatham House in UK, or CSIS, Atlantic Council, Heritage, Brookings etc. in the US or the various Foreign Relations Councils, or NATO itself have actually done a stellar job in the only thing they are capable of: PR aka fabricating and spreading lies and scare people.
Thanks AG.
That is really useful information.
@ Johnny
Thanks for that. I admit I was unaware. Having said that, though, 1954 is a long time ago and a period (failure of the EDC/future German accession to NATO, etc) swirling with various proposals from the both sides for this, that and the other in the defence/security/military sphere. . More important with respect to the present situation is the Putin request/proposal to join NATO (as set out by AG hereafter).
I think earlier you mentioned Communists´ purge in Belgium after 1945. Can you briefly write how that was? Unfortunately in big oh-so important Germania we know little about small Belgium…
@ AG
I would be happy to, but the online account is very succinct and I would really just be copying it out. Just google “Communist ministers in post WW2 Belgian governments” in deepened AI mode and you will see everything.
The only thing I would point to here is that those ministers were kicked out more or less contemporaneously with the the Communist ministers from the French and Italian governments.
@ AG
Oh, and I should have also said that the Communist party remained a considerable factor in Belgian politics for some time after the ministers’ ouster.
Thanks!
I was intrigued by a link in a comment by AG up thread, in it he mentioned what Noam Chomsky said “about a certain logic of the state capitalist institutional structure as it now exists. So let’s say take offshoring, the CEO of a corporation has actually a legal obligation to maximize profit and market share. Beyond that legal obligation, if the CEO doesn’t do it, and, let’s say, decides to do something that will, say, benefit the population and not increase profit, he or she is not going to be CEO much longer — they’ll be replaced by somebody who does do it”.
Paul Craig Roberts then while agreeing with Chomsky called it Greed. I would be more charitable and say the CEO’s profit motivation is the ‘American way’ to which the CEO has been brought up, of course if he deviates from that way he will be replaced ‘tout suit’.
About 3 decades ago the Chinese leadership figured it out that the best way to grow their economy was to invite US/EU capitalists to China with the offer of cheap wages, an educated workforce and the fastest growing market in the world (1.4 billion people).
Western capitalists could not refuse quick profits, and, they say, it was their fiduciary legal obligation (some say greed) to off shore to China.
Major US corporations General Motors, Tesla, Apple etc now manufacture in China and make huge profits, these corporations even sold their patents freely to the Chinese, the Chinese did not steal anything.
Now the Chinese have ‘dark factories’ working 24/7 with hardly a human being in sight, the ‘West’ cannot compete with China who together with Russia, whose land mass covers 11 time zones and is imbued with natural resources which are the envy of the world , oil, gas, food and every mineral known to man. Oh I forgot they have more nuclear weapons than the US and are producing conventional weapons of a quality and quantity exceeded only by China.
The EU/UK vassals have been told by their Master the US, not to deal with Russia or China, hence their economies are disintegrating due to no cheap Russian gas, and the US insisting on expensive US liquid gas via ships. (with a little help from Biden when the Nord Stream pipe line was blown up). Here we are, why do we still have to take our instructions from the US or should we trade freely with Russia/China and the BRICS or remain vassals forever?
All very interesting, HL.
One thing you might want to note – it’s “tout de suite” (all/everything of a sequence/ suite/ continuation), not “tout suit(e)”, even if that’s how it sounds. The ‘de’ (of) is touched upon very lightly and briefly, so much so that it blends in with the ‘t’ at the end of ‘tout’ to English speakers and often goes unnoticed.
Yes I think nearly every Xmas present people have given and received has been made in China, not forgetting the lights which many people put up these days. Even the hedgehog house consisting of a few wooden slats to be slotted together, which my wife bought for her mother’s garden, has MADE IN CHINA on the box. Multiply that productivity around the world, small wonder that China has become what it is now.
“Tout de suite” is pronounced as if it were “toute suite”.
Trump could be so tough and abrasive against every world leader there is, but when it comes to israel he turns into this pathetic submissive, wimpy man, the other day he cheered on people that “love israel” (and not America), then, all talk about “America first” suddenly do not apply apparently: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/yzs4jxpyT5M
Same here, Trump think it is “funny” that Miriam Adelson loves israel more then the U.S. Not treasonous?!
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPyryBjj_Ri/
But when it comes to pro-palestinian protesters etc he call out them regularly as “anti-american”, “traitors” etc to the U.S
And now Trump welcome Netanyahu, once again, to do his bidding, the alleged anti-war, peaceful America-first president is once again set to green light (most likely) aggression against Iran, just because this foreign leader tells him to.
What kind of made up name is Netanyahu anyway? If you are going to pick a name why on earth pick a name that will be read as yahoo (as in lunatic)?!
US hegemony is being tested in three areas of the world, Europe (Ukraine) the Middle East and the containment of China, it has been found wanting in all three.
US planners have world hegemony as its aim, Halford Mackinder in his series of books about ‘the Heartland’ and Zbigniew Brzezinski in his book ‘the Grand Chess board’ both envisaged the control of Ukraine as key to who controls the world. Similarly it could be said, as Joe Biden blurted out last year, “If Israel did not exist, we would have to invent it”. This was endorsed not long ago by UK Conservative leader Olúkẹmi Badenoch and ex German Chancellor Merz who claimed that Israel is “Doing the Wests dirty work in the Middle East” backing Israel means control over, as Jimmy Carter said the stupendous wealth of the region.
“Let our position be absolutely clear: An attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America, and such an assault will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force”.
Jimmy Carter, state of the union address, Jan. 23, 1980.
Now alliances are being formed in the far east to contain, or maybe a better phrase, confront China, hence the US must leave the losing Ukraine debacle, and pivot to its major threat, China. All in the service of US hegemony.
Non of these schemes seems to be working, but the US will never give up, and is unraveling in all global sectors.
In the Middle east backing for Israel takes many forms, keeping Israels enemies weak and divided, US Turkish Envoy Tom Barrack wants the Lebanese government to disarm Hezbollah, causing an immediate Lebanese civil war, if they will not do this he will encourage Israel to do it for them.
These machinations blend in with another scheme called the Yinon Plan…
“[The Yinon plan] is an Israeli strategic plan to ensure Israeli regional superiority. It insists and stipulates that Israel must reconfigure its geo-political environment through the balkanization of the surrounding Arab states into smaller and weaker states”. Unfortunately many people in the Middle East are more than eager to fight each other and will not utter a peep even when the people in Gaza are being subjected to Genocide. The final piece in the Middle east chess board is the subjugation of Iran, they are working on it, unfortunately Iran is far too strong and independent to capitulate, the US realize the Iranians have too many cards to play, not least causing a world wide economic collapse through it ability to close the Strait of Hormuz and or lay waste to Israel with its massive underground facilities producing unstoppable hypersonic missiles etc. Outch!
“Europe is discovering three painful truths:
It cannot defend itself without the US. NATO’s European pillars lack ammunition, industrial capacity, and high-end military technology.
Sanctions have weakened Europe more than Russia. Energy-intensive industries in Germany, Austria, and Italy are relocating to the US. Deindustrialisation is underway in Europe.
The peace negotiations will not include Europe as a co-author. Europe will receive the final document, but not be invited to shape it.
This is why European strategists are furious: the security architecture that defined the continent is being rewritten over their heads.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/beginning-end-europes-old-security-order
“United Nations experts have called on Britain to protect the lives and rights of detained pro-Palestine activists who are on hunger strike.”
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20251229-un-experts-urge-uk-to-protect-lives-of-pro-palestine-hunger-strikers
Audi alteram parted is a Latin phrase meaning “listen to the other side”, or “let the other side be heard as well”. It is the principle that no person should be judged without a fair hearing in which each party is given the opportunity to respond to the evidence against them.
“Audi alteram partem” is considered to be a principle of fundamental justice or equity or the principle of natural justice in most legal systems.
Unfortunately ‘hear both sides’ is increasingly rejected by ‘the west’ hence Jacques Baud and others have been sanctioned for opinions i.e.telling the truth in opposition to the western narrative (propaganda) on any political subject.
This is notable by the exclusion by the US MSM of such luminaries as John Mearsheimer and Jeffrey Sachs probably the two most prominent Geo strategic authorities in the world, being excluded by most US MSM, Sachs makes this complaint repeatedly.
Therefore the ‘west’ is being led up the primrose path of military confrontation by a narrative dictated by Neo cons and warmongers on both sides of the Atlantic, to the exclusion of basic natural justice ‘Audi alteram partem, which will end in disaster.
Harry
But you will have noticed that the EU is not sanctioning either of the two American gentlemen you have mentioned despite the fact that they reach much wider audiences than Colonel Baud.
Could it be that the EU is afraid of the wrath of the Americans? Don’t want to give grist to Donald’s and J.D.’s mill?
Whereas this little Swiss guy…….
Ah yes, but you understand only authors of the ‘rules based order’ the US has the reach and theoretically has the power to enforce its will on the whole world. For instance its legislation on sanctions of 30% of the world is reinforced by secondary sanctions involving a lot more than 30% of the world, thus the US can tell other states which crops they can grow and who they can trade with, the US recently threatened both China and India with 500% tariffs on goods unless they ceased trading in oil with Russia, thankfully they both told the US to take a hike, with the Chinese threatening to freeze their rare earth minerals to the US, China has a monopoly of these rare earths, vital for missile production, aircraft and other high tech. The US folded, not so easy for smaller states.
What I meant to say, was said better by Major General Smedley Butler, who, when talking about US Foreign policy said in a speech and book (War is a racket), Al Capone (the Mob) had nothing on the US, He only operated in three US Districts whereas he (Butler) operated on three Continents, as the muscle for major US conglomerates.
“Audi alteram parted is a Latin phrase meaning “listen to the other side”, or “let the other side be heard as well”. It is the principle that no person should be judged without a fair hearing in which each party is given the opportunity to respond to the evidence against them.”
This has been a fundamental mistake that now lies at the heart of these frantic efforts to dredge up a ‘Coalition of the Willing.’ The NATO countries could have accompanied their support for Ukraine and sanctions against Russia whilst maintaining diplomatic activity. They made no attempt to do so from the outset, presumably intoxicated with the idea of ‘giving Putin a blody nose.’ Bellicose bombast which rings hollower by the day is now their fall back position, a position ridiculed by Trump (who has been prepared to engage diplomatically) when addressing Zelensky and later Starmer in the White House.
So having eschewed diplomatic channels, the EU (plus the UK) is now in the patently ridiculous position of complaining about being excluded from a dipomatic settlement it has studiously avoided partaking in for almost four years. Neither Russia nor the USA sees the EU as a relevant player in the game at hand and they, the Europeans, have brought it all upon themselves. When the former entity of Ukraine is carved up Yalta style the European politicians will have to explain to their electorates why, having suffered economic hardship in the Slavia Ukrainia project, there is no peace dividend coming their way.
Thank you for a helpful explanation. It occurs to me that “audi alteram parted” then is a principle that democratic governments should always follow in its decision – making but is noticeably absent in such as:
– imposition of economic sanctions, think of Baud and Graham Phillips as examples
– proscription of Palestine Action
– detention of the Filton 18 without trial within a reasonable period
– refusal of courts to take and weigh evidence of political intention behind acts of protest into account and so on.
Rushing legislation through Parliament as it did with the proscription of Palestine Action and as it often tends to do under the pretext of “emergency” is hardly adherence to the principle of “audi alteram parted”.
I think that should be “Audi alteram partem.”
Unfortunately there are no electoral alternatives to the scammers, at least in Britain. Every party is on board and complicit. There is not a peep of dissent or even rudimentary questioning.
There is some acknowledgement of reality in certain media quarters like the FT and even the Telegraph, but none in the political world.
zoot
Many will be hoping May, 2026, sees Starmer’s ousting.
I previously had no time for Andy Burnham – too Blairite – but he’d be a vast improvement over deep state bag carrier, Sir Keir Starmer, or the equally atrocious Wes Streeting.
Amazes me, how so-called progressives can still defend a Labour govt that offers nothing remotely progressive; whether it be their neocon-inspired foreign policies and hawkishness; their fiscal conservatism or their domestic authoritarianism. Their unwillingness to countenance democratic/constitutional reform also adds insult to injury.
They’re basically unrecognisable as a progressive party or a party of the left. It’s as though UK politics is frozen, exactly where Sunak’s Tories left things, awaiting a Tory revival, under a caretaker PM. Do the UK elite really hold democracy in such contempt?
Oh very much so. Likewise the public interest, peace, free speech, human rights, honesty and integrity etc. Anything in fact that we’re told they believe in. In reality the British elite have a quite different, anti-human agenda that they’re barely bothering to conceal anymore.
The English establishment does not want the common people to ever prosper.
I was taken by this line in an excellent letter in The NATIONAL Full letter :
https://www.thenational.scot/politics/25305616.enough-stupid-ideas-clownish-politicians/
Yes, it seems ever more incredible that Scots rejected a golden opportunity to escape being ruled by them. At the height of the Cameron-Osborne austerity regime too! Something very odd about that result.
Happy New Year to you Goose and to all.
I see that you are aware of the correct “Audi alteram partem”. I imagine the incorrect ” Audi alteram parted” is the doing of Autocorrect.
Anyone know if Craig is okay? I notice he hasn’t posted on X since Christmas Eve.
Preparing for world revolution in 2026 with a bottle of that Whisky he was writing about 2 years ago.
I forgot to bookmark the post for the exact name.
Anybody who remembers?
Lagavulin?
He posted on X about wanting to arrange travel to Venezuela, so maybe that, who knows?
It would be great to see Craig’s reports from there.
Right!!!!
thanks!
Our host retweeted a couple things on New Year’s Eve, zoot, so presumably he’s still with us:
https://nitter.poast.org/craigmurrayorg
Maybe he’s overdone things a bit over the festive period. Good job that the Scots get both the 1st & 2nd of January as bank holidays to recover. Anyways, as he’s yet to wish his loyal and often generous readership a Happy New Year, could I take the opportunity to wish everyone here (including all those who don’t like me) all the best for 2026.
Thanks, yes I did see that. Good he’s getting some R and R before going again, possibly to Venezuela. He is not slowing down in any shape or form. 👍
Thanks for your reply, zoot. Happy New Year to you. I see our host has now tweeted some of his own stuff, though he’s still referring to Stepan Bandera as ‘Banderas’* Things seem to have ticked up a notch overnight in Caracas. Going by the lack of casualties, I’m guessing the Yanks bribed Maduro’s security detail to hand him over (plata o plomo – that’s the way things tend to work in that part of the world). Anyway, let’s hope it’s not the prelude to a large-scale civil war.
* That’s Senor Machine-Gun-in-a-Guitar-Case:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Banderas
Movie trivia: Robert Rodriquez’s Desperado original ‘El Mariachi’ is still the lowest-budget film ever to gross over a million at the US box office. Turns out people can make popular feature films for about the same cost as our host’s 13-minute documentary about the retail banking system in Beirut.
Happy New Year to everyone, above all our host Craig Murray and moderators!
___
[ MOD: Thanks! Same to you! ]
+1
Decent article in Al Jazeera:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/12/31/how-many-countries-has-trump-bombed-in-2025
The terrorist US government led by the deranged former casino owner Donald Trump has bombed seven countries this year:
Venezuela, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Nigeria, Yemen, and Somalia.
Sooner or later someone’s going to hit back.
It would be good if a “non-aligned” movement arose, meaning unaligned with the USA or PRC, but….elites around the world are too venal, scummy, and co-opted. Gotta wonder whether there’s even 1% of cabinet ministersin the world who would say no to their brats studying in the USA.
Brian Red
December 31, 2025 at 13:22
Would you include the RF in the list of States to be excluded from a non aligned group?
Probably yes. It would be a bit of a giant. Maybe give it observer status?
It has violated all 5 of the NAM’s basic principles.
I t would be good if a “non-aligned” movement arose,
Something like this?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-Aligned_Movement
@Pears – FFS, of course I am aware of the NAM. Its era disappeared decades ago. Its members include South Africa and Egypt. It doesn’t even fight for formal decolonisation nowadays, let alone against imperialism. Delegates probably get together at its meetings to jockey for favour from the Clubs of Paris and London.
I have just watched the Crispin Flintoff show, he interviews thee doctors who have recently been arrested for Inter Alia ‘incitement to cause racial hatred’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWd4wReY2QI very disturbing. There are some words and phrases the police will not allow, for instance ‘ globalize the intifada’ which I take to mean ‘resistance’ an anodyne phrase but which the police will arrest you. From the river to the sea is also frowned upon. It is difficult to know which words/phrases to choose, one would have to have a PhD in the English language to know.
Is Criticism of the Jewish lobby, Incitement? Is criticism of the Israel lobby incitement? they could be since Jewish [a religion] and Israeli [ a Nationality] are both protected characteristics under the Equal Opportunities Act 2010. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/section/4 Helpfully Professor David Miller when sacked from his Bristol University job was awarded damages for wrongful dismissal, successfully arguing that his critic of Zionism was legitimate since Anti Zionism is an ideology and not a protected characteristic. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-68211872 The Muppet’s are watching all clutching their dictionaries and ready to pounce for Kermitting a non crime.
Kiev regime and backers responsible for terror attack in Crans-Montana? Who does the security there? Who was warned? Much more clout required than in Bali or Nairobi.
See the Crans Montana Forum:
https://www.cmf.ch/
“Since 1986, the Crans Montana Forum brings together key government officials and business decisions makers to boost international cooperation while building a more humane world”
Their publicity material sounds as though it was written by a dude working for a local council or maybe a 16 year old trying to sell cryptocurrency. (I prefer Adrian Mole.) The forum may be mostly about relatively low level money laundering. (Oh, sorry, I meant it’s about international experts creating a sound environmental future and nurturing much needed humane conditions as we go forward together.)
Brian
Indeed, the Kiev regime might have been behind it (assuming of course, as you seem to do, that the explosion/fire was an attack and not an accident).
But so could the Moscow regime, or ISIS, or any one of several terrorist groups.
What makes you point the finger at Kiev?
And what in your opinion is the relevance of the “Crans Montana forum” you mention – of which I’m sure no more than 1 in 10,000 people have ever heard of (including on this blog)?
The Truther’s Paradox:- Every terror attack is a false flag carried out by the PTB to raise the level of fear but serious events such as this fire are real terror attacks which are covered up by the same PTB.
Accident involving a candle currently being blamed, probably the usual story of inadequate fire precautions, inflammable materials, overcrowding etc waiting to be told.
Indeed, Swiss Radio International is talking about a fire but not an explosion and mentions one guest having talked about flares which were lit inside (I suppose by revellers).
“Accident involving a candle currently being blamed, probably the usual story of inadequate fire precautions, inflammable materials, overcrowding etc waiting to be told”
Just like that broken rail in Poland was the usual story of inadequate maintenance and safety inspections on the railway, or is it always different when Russia can be somehow blamed?
A viable alternative reason is someone letting off fireworks indoors ! Best to wait for a reasoned explanation than going off on one with random theories, I’d say ?
I doubt this was more than what it is at the surface. As Pears suggests, lack of precautions etc.
It is a not seldom occurence in rich Ski resorts that especially locations like these venues/clubs creating a lot of revenue are lacking in some elementary precautions. (Think the Boeing syndrome, “size neuters caution”)
The Swiss representative on TV to my shock did utter the word “attack”, however saying – at least – “we exclude it was an attack”. That of course without saying it out loud meaning “Russian” attack (ISIS has been replaced by Russia now in the official lingo in Europe.)
But the idea to even assume the Russian government agencies could have been involved would have been unthinkable to in Switzerland just a few years ago.
Anyway.
Jacques Baud said that in France during the Olympics due to lacking hygiene conditios (again profit sacrificing standads) there were problems with living bugs in hotel rooms, I believe, and Macaron immediately suggested those were put there by the Russians. Although every Parisien knows about the problems in Paris (tourism). It´s not a very new issue rather a cliché about Paris.
My 2 cents…
p.s. SBU doesn´t care about low level targets. A Budanov-style flase flage would rather be an attack on one of these conferences. But then they would mess with their donors and that´s risky.
Chabad are reporting on this:
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/three-jewish-people-unaccounted-for-after-blaze-in-swiss-ski-resort-bar/
Macaron immediately suggested those were put there by the Russians.
Not quite true, Russia was blamed for spreading misinformation making out the problem was worse than it actually was.
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2024/03/01/bedbug-panic-was-stoked-by-russia-says-france_6575870_7.html#
Bed bugs have been increasing across Europe for the past 25 years or more, I stayed at a four star hotel in the UK when on a training course in 2006 and two guys on the course got bitten. As in Paris the management blamed some foreign tourists but the real root cause is that the EU banned all the chemicals used to control them.
Saint Hilarion,
Anchorite, holy father,
Pray for Gaza, please.
Amen. St Hilarion was revered in all parts of Christendom. He was a disciple of St. Anthony, the latter who is regarded as the father of monasticism.
An interesting confrontation is developing off the coast of Venezuela, two large Chinese oil tankers [not sanctioned] are on the way to Venezuela, to pick up a cargo. Trump has said the embargo includes any oil from there. Maduro has said he will continue selling oil as is their right as a sovereign country, I agree, if Trump has his way Venezuela would be finished.
“Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America. It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before — Until such time as they return to the United States of America all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us,” Trump said Tuesday night”.
China can see the Gauntlet has been thrown down, if the Chinese capitulate the precedent will have been set to deny China its life blood of supply from say Iran, who export 85% of its oil to China. Both Venezuela and China with huge investments in Venezuela are on the chopping block. Could be China will need to curtail its rare earth exports to the US, vital for missiles, aircraft and other high tech products.
I suspect Taco will back down, if not, buckle your seat belts. https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/trump-xi-showdown-emerges-chinese-tankers-press-ahead-venezuela-despite-blockade
A question for readers in Scotland: what do they make of the abolition of the Not Proven verdict?
AI Overview gives this response :
The idea that the desire to remove jury trials is driven by the acquittal of Palestine protesters is a widely circulated concern among activist and civil liberties groups, who argue that recent government proposals for court reform are a direct response to juries exercising their right to “jury equity” (acquitting defendants based on conscience, even if the law was technically broken) in protest-related cases.
Key advocates proposing scrapping jury trials : Lord Brian Levinson and Sarah Sackman KC MP, the Minister of State in the Ministry of Justice – both of whom happen to be Jewish.
The most despicable thing is how the are citing delayed rape cases due to the backlog. As Helena Kennedy, Baroness Kennedy KC stated, a simple solution to that would be to simply prioritise serious cases, like rape, rather than scrapping our historic rights.
I was actually talking about the “Not Proven” verdict in general, not Palestine Action. But there is an interesting possible historical connection and possible future parallel to what you’re talking about: the “Not Proven” verdict, as I understand, was originally introduced because Scottish juries were reluctant to convict “Covenanters”. So they were made to choose between “Proven” and “Not Proven” verdicts, and the judge would decide whether to convict. Thus the “Not Proven” verdict was actually an attempt to limit jury trials in Scotland. But later juries demanded the right to find people “Not Guilty”, and that was added on! (The theoretical distinction between a jury’s verdict of “Proven” and a judge then finding someone “Guilty” doesn’t seem to have been a problem).
Now, could the reluctance of juries to convict members of Palestine Action in England lead to the introduction of a “Not Proven” verdict in England, in order to take the power to acquit out of the hands of juries? That’s what I mean by a possible future parallel. We might find out soon enough!
Yeah, I should of clarified, it was a related judicial matter applying to England, Wales.
It’s amusing how blunt AI can blurt out this obvious conclusion, but no politician would dare say it, fearing being accused of antisemitism.
I have little doubt these changes are motivated by establishment and the Israeli lobby’s frustration, over the series of high-profile acquittals. It’s like wanting to change the longstanding rules of the game, simply because your side loses. MPs should reject the reforms.
My own view on this issue is that the traditional courtroom dichotomy of guilty and not guilty should be abolished and replaced with verdicts of proven or not proven, and, subsequently, what is on trial would be less the defendant than the case for the prosecution. I believe that the burden of proof must, in the vast majority of cases, be solely upon the prosecution and that the standard of proof be maintained at a dauntingly high level to prevent the creeping trend towards the likes of the West Midland Serious Crime squad, among sundry other corps of bent coppers, simply fabricating evidence against innocent people. Personally I would only return a conviction where I would be sufficiently convinced by the prosecution case that I would pledge my own liberty against the possibility of the defendant’s innocence, which is to say, within kissing distance of mathematical certainty, and in a capital trial, my very life, which would mandate a standard of proof which is empirically unattainable :this consideration leads me to the belief that the death penalty can never be entertained in a civilised society.
Moreover, I would never return a guilty verdict against individuals whose actions I consider to be morally justified, irrespective of the standard of proof attained by the prosecution – the multiple forthcoming and ongoing actions concerning Palestine Action being the prime example of recent times. For I hold that law can only ever stand to justice and other ethical principles as shadows stand to actual objects, and must give way when in conflict with these kinds of considerations. (And yes, here I am pilfering from Plato’s Parable of the Cave.)
Random thoughts as we enter 2026.
I see Shamima Begum is back in the news, with the European court rightfully imho, questioning the UK’s perverse decision to revoke her citizenship. The predictable tabloid, broadsheet and political fury with the court, shows how immature the UK and its political class have become. This, from the same press and politicians who have expressed enormous sympathy for the then young ‘trafficked’ Epstein victims. Accused of no crime, other than, traveling to Syria at the tender age of 15 to join a banned group, after being lured by western security services and campaigns that used slick marketing, with high-production quality videos to glorify and romanticize handsome jihadi fighters, does she not share much in common with Epstein’s victims? Western security services allegedly established Islamic State and lured jihadists to Syria with the intention of bolstering anti-Assad forces’ numbers. Of course large groups of bored young men arriving in Syria to train to fight needed female companions in order to stick around. The two girls who traveled with Begum, are believed deceased, via western airstrikes.
Begum is now stuck in limbo, possibly to protect dark state secrets; prevent awkward questions being put to complicit politicians and officialdom. The threat she poses, we are told, is simply ‘classified’ with no further explanation forthcoming. If Syria’s blood-soaked leader can have his reputation rehabilitated, to become an international statesman, why can’t someone who was trafficked? Someone not personally accused of any violent crime? Is a life sentence(stuck in limbo) for joining a banned group aged 15, proportional or justified? Is this what the Labour party has become?
Is it the fact, were she to come home she could potentially take legal action against authorities, and the last thing govts want is a political feeding frenzy over past behaviour. Pressure could grow for a formal judge-led inquiry, and having a light shone on all political decisions and security services anti-Assad activities in Syrian is no doubt their nightmare scenario.
It’s a mark of the dire state of UK reporting and lack of investigative and moral probity that the Guardian isn’t taking up Begum’s case. The state of reporting in the UK is appalling. On Ukraine, we are subjected to nothing but endless pro-Ukraine propaganda; all reporting is highly partisan and TV crews are embedded with Ukrainian forces. The whole UK press seems to have voluntarily subjected themselves without debate, to war-time reporting restrictions too, despite the fact we aren’t at war ourselves. Contrast UK coverage to that in serious US newspapers, which do report objectively on the conflict, and in great detail too, Whereas their UK counterparts tell us nothing… as if information itself is dangerous. Why is it so hard to get objective, factual information on either sides losses, for example? This is the problem with journos submitting to the MoD’s paranoia-driven notion that we are in some great battle over the ‘information space’; justifying censorship of any and all information they deem potentially helpful to an adversary, even that which is purely factual which we should have a right to know in a free-functioning society. We don’t want a military dictatorship imposed by stealth.
One problem I have with stripping UK citizens of their citizenship is that I think such power, effectively that of banishment, should not be wielded by politicians, but only by judges (if at all). I also have a problem of treating people differently on the basis of their claimed eligibility for dual citizenship. This is creating two tiers of citizenship based on the laws of other sovereign states, which in my view is unfairly discriminatory.
I don’t think anyone should be capable of being stripped of their citizenship unless they have, as adults, voluntarily accepted the citizenship of a foreign state. 15-year old schoolgirls groomed by extremists who run away in the hope of adventure (which is what I think Shamima Begum & Co were doing) don’t count as responsible adults, as far as I’m concerned.
But let’s see what the ECHR makes of the case.
She was allegedly groomed by undercover western intel operatives, that’s why it’s so murky.Jihadis – also groomed- needed female company. How reprehensible is that when they, as teenagers, could easily be killed in a war zone?
If you recall, in the early stages of the Syrian civil war 2011-13, Channel 4 reported alongside British jihadis who’d traveled to Syria, with them stating they had the tacit approval of UK authorities to go out there and fight against Assad. It was a bit like the UK soldiers turning up in Ukraine now, who seemingly aren’t being prosecuted on returning home. It was only when lurid tabloid headlines and images emerged of public beheadings and other depravities, by ISIS, that western govts really washed their hands of them.
As to your other point, I agree. She was born here , apparently speaks no Bangladeshi – her parents ancestral country. Absolutely ridiculous claiming she’s somehow the responsibility of Bangladesh.
“It was only when lurid tabloid headlines and images emerged of public beheadings and other depravities, by ISIS, that western govts really washed their hands of them.”
How do we know they really washed their hands?
A revocable citizenship is a contradiction in terms and is only an indefinite residence permit. Thanks to this concept we all now have only indefinite leave to remain in the UK.
Well, Timber Sycamore – the codename for the US programme, arming, funding and training of Jihadists in Syria lasted 2013-2017, so there is that information,
If you’d suggested that at the time c.2013, you’d have been shouted down as a conspiracist, and accused of peddling mis or disinfo.
That’s the whole problem with those in govt trying to police discussion, and having those empowered to act as if arbiters of truth. The politicians probably don’t even know what MI6 and the CIA are up to themselves, because the information is classified.
There seems to have been multiple western agencies involved alongside the US, as it was a Canadian operative that’s said to have helped the trafficked UK girls cross into Syria, where two later died.
We see what’s happening in Iran, today, and you can wager the CIA and MI6(?) are involved at some level. The UK boasts we have “global reach” i.e. we meddle a lot in other countries, and it’s something politicians take pride in; as if they think it’s like some James Bond movie. But do similar sized countries do it? Genuinely curious. Does Italy have an equivalent to Mi6, with MI6’s scope, or Spain, or France even? Or is it just the UK with a colonial mentality that makes us think we have a right to meddle?
The guardian finally has an article on this. There are apparently other stranded citizens too : https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/jan/02/ministers-cannot-go-on-ignoring-the-shamima-begum-case-for-two-important-reasons
The question I’d ask ministers and officials, is this : do they think the trafficked Epstein girls are to blame for their exploitation? Because that’s the logic being applied to a then 15 -year old Begum.
The nazis deprived Jewish Germans of citizenship, not a good look.
An unknown number of people who actually fought for IS in Syria, are believed to have slipped back into Britain we’ve been told. So the idea she represents some uniquely serious threat seems absurd. We don’t know the backgrounds of those crossing in the small boats, some of whom may well have carried out atrocities in Syria, Libya and elsewhere. Why the media sensationalise her case, as if she’s the sum of all fears, is just bizarre.
One problem I have with stripping UK citizens of their citizenship is that I think such power, effectively that of banishment, should not be wielded by politicians, but only by judges (if at all). I also have a problem of treating people differently on the basis of their claimed eligibility for dual citizenship. This is creating two tiers of citizenship based on the laws of other sovereign states, which in my view is unfairly discriminatory.
You’re far from alone here: the UK Supreme Court has endorsed the principle of ‘foreign act of state’ {Maduro Board v Guaidó Board [2021] UKSC 57}, citing Lord Neuberger’s four rules, first and second of which read as to assess Javid’s interpretation of Shamima Begum’s dual nationality irregular:
‘113. Lord Neuberger considered that the domestic cases suggested that there may be four possible rules which had been treated as aspects of the doctrine.
(1) The first rule (“Rule 1”) is that the courts of this country will recognise and will not question the effect of a foreign state’s legislation or other laws in relation to any acts which take place or take effect within the territory of that state ([2017] AC 964, para 121).
(2) The second rule (“Rule 2”) is that the courts of this country will recognise, and will not question, the effect of an act of a foreign state’s executive in relation to any acts which take place or take effect within the territory of that state (at para 122).
[…]
Eligibility for citizenship does not equate to possession of it, evidently, and neither should the UK Govt’s view of her eligibility override a Bangladeshi act of state in assessment of an application for it.
Regardless of what one may think, Shamima Begum is a UK citizen and as such should be dealt with, assuming any wrongdoing, here in the UK. Another example of two tier Britain, IMO if anyone should have their citizenship revoked it’s all the zionists and Israel first scum.
The Telegraph reports Shabana Mahmood has pledged to fight European judges over this.
Would anyone be surprised If Shabana Mahmood announced her defection to Reform at this point? Just what is the point in electing a Labour govt only to watch them compete with the worst elements on the far-right in a Mirror, Mirror game of who is the most draconian of them all?
Shabana Mahmood apparently has leadership aspirations too, don’t laugh, this despite being viciously unpopular on the left…and right (they’ve got their own parties). Just who she’s trying to appeal to, is a mystery. In May they’ll likely be handed a defeat they won’t understand or believe.
Since Bliar, Liarbour has had one policy, to not be outflanked on the right.
For all of the atrocities of 2025, I am enjoying a measure of schadenfreude that many of them are the death throes of the US empire.
In May they’ll likely be handed a defeat they won’t understand or believe.
That’s going to be so true. Funnier, in many respects, is that in July 2024 they were gifted a victory for which they still do not understand the reasons why it transpired …
How are the Hunger strikers getting on? Are they going to get bail?
According to Al Jazeera four have ended their hunger strike, while four continue.
re: Italian Palestine solidarity under attack – from German daily JUNGE WELT, the only paper reporting about Palestine in a serious manner but tiny and yet still surveilled by German domestic intelligence. They were the paper that hosted that event with Francesca Albanese until cops raided the place…and no association of journalists gave a fuck.
machine-translation
Palestine activism
“Italian dish, Israeli screenplay
Allegations of financing terrorism: Palestinian activists arrested with “evidence” from Israel’s military and intelligence apparatus.”
By Fabio Nacci, Modena
https://archive.is/AHyuL
This country and its elites are literally a joke. Fortunately I never understood the sense behind patriotism. So there is no loss for me here.
Of course regardless of that realities this harsh concern everyone whether one takes these morons seriously or not. Police will go to your place or arrest you no matter what.
What it so shocking, how stealthily this happened. It starts with protest against 9/11 and now this.
edit: protest against the post-9/11 surveillance state of course!
So this is about an invisible breaking down of critical conscience, a sea change nobody saw coming. I didn´t see it. And I believe hardly anybody did.
I remember Chomsky warned about that this could happen as political change is always reversable. Long ago he did. I doubt though this is the way he pictured it. I still am not byuing into the fascism trope.
The quote with “first they come in boots then in suits” is much better. More open to the changes in tactics by the elites over the decades.
AG
Talking of sea changes – this is frightening stuff, the EU MUST be dissolved.
“As of early January 2026, there were 59 private individuals on the EU’s Russia sanctions list. Originally, this tool was levied only against Russian businessmen and people living in Russia (which was already problematic in my view), but since 2024, the EU has begun using sanctions as a political sledgehammer to crack down on various forms of dissent. Yamb, for instance, was sanctioned mostly for her activism against France’s neocolonial behavior in Africa, and Dogru for being a vocal German journalist for the Palestinian cause. The little text snippets that serve as justifications for the decision to include them in the sanctions list even mention those non-Russia-related activities for their listing.
Naturally, one would assume that in a free and liberal society, based on the rule of law, sanctions against citizens and residents must be illegal. Right? In fact, the EU parliamentarian Michael von der Schulenburg has commissioned a report that is very clear in its verdict. Sanctions, it holds, break existing EU law on individual freedoms”
https://pascallottaz.substack.com/p/what-goes-around-the-eus-extralegal?r=a0tww&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true
Republicofscotland
January 2, 2026 at 19:41
Why must the EU be “dissolved”?
That’s just silly.
Should the USA, the RF and the UK be dissolved too?
Mebbe the PRC and the DPRK?
All the above have restricted freedoms.
FFS.
Thank you MJ, I hope they all get freed/bailed and their cases get thrown out on the grounds ‘ that they prevented a greater evil of repetative genocide in Gaza, South Lebanon, Syria and in the West Bank.
Add to that the morally, law trouncing move by the orange
Attack World police man, changing just about everything once abided by and trusted in organisations that framed ethical and humane exchanges with some emphacy and mutual understanding.
America has no humane lessons to give to any nation, their Monroe doctrine is dripping with blood.
Viva Venezuela
Good news: according to a Guardian report Mamdani scraps the IHRA definition of anti-semitism, among other things.
M.J.
Yesterday, Zarah Sultana mocked London mayor,Sadiq Khan, over his congratulatory message to Mamdani, Sultana rightly pointed out, that Mamdani would’ve almost certainly have been kicked out of Starmer’s ‘zero tolerance for criticism of Israel’ Labour party.
The one, maybe the only thing, I admire about US democracy, is the fact they have primaries. Establishment candidates can be defeated by grassroots campaign candidates. But even then, the unlimited campaign funding, makes it extremely difficult to dislodge party careerist incumbents.
Having found hardly anything in the English language media re Sandra Cohen and her daughter Mila when I did a search just before Xmas (which I did in respect of of being criticised by several posters , including Stevieboy), it just occured to me a bit earlier to translate >sandra cohen mila< to hebrew and, as such, do a search and have a gander through a few of the results that came up. And that led to me coming across the following passage in one article/piece:
The tombstone of Ohad [Sanda’s huband] and Mila was written about “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”, the musical work of Ohad’s favorite Pink Floyd. His wife Sandra wrote: “Ohad was a dream father, a full partner in raising children and managing the house, there is nothing he did not do at home, a man with a huge heart, full of a sense of humor and a huge love for music and life. That black day he was a hero, did everything he could to save us.
He did not leave the safe door for hours and did not give up even after he was shot on both of his legs. When we couldn’t breathe more in the safe room, he climbed up with his hands, opened the window and helped me get the boys out the window. He saved us. He was so brave and didn’t give up for a moment. His lack is incomprehensible and I have no idea how to live without him. He was my other half.”
“Ohad Cohen was murdered with his 10-month-old daughter Mila Cohen in his home on Kibbutz Be’eri” (20 Oct 2023) – Yeshuvnik.net news article in Hebrew (web archive) or English (translation)
(what a weird looking link…. just hope it IS!)
The first results I opened were tributes, as is the one above, but unlike the others it contained a few details regarding what happened on Oct 7th. And I expect if I was to look through some more of the results I’d eventually find a detailed account of what happened but, needless to say, I’m not gonna bovver. But I DID come across the following when I did a search just before Xmas – ie a fundraiser for Sandra Cohen, in which it says the following:
Imagine terrorists barging in, turning your home into a battlefield. Bullets, flames, and the inconceivable loss–a 9-month old child dying in your arms as gunshots rip through your body.
This was the plight for Sandra Cohen, a paediatric nurse, wife, and mom of three. On October 7th, Sandra and her husband Ohad were shot multiple times, their home set on fire, and her 9-month old daughter Milla, murdered via a machine gun bullet that pierced through Sandra’s arm.
They managed to escape through a window, only to be caught by the terrorists, who subjected Sandra and her sons to a heart-wrenching display of cruelty; Ohad was executed before their eyes.
Terrorists then took Sandra and her sons captive. Hours later, she and her sons were eventually freed…..
https://www.gofundme.com/f/sandras-tomorrow
I only noticed after I’d read it, that right at the top above where it says Sandra’s Tomorrow. it says ‘Donations paused’, for which there is no explanation. And it appears to have been paused for some two years!
That link looks well tasty. Might have been better just putting a dotted-decimal IP address : XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX
—
[ Mod: The text has been amended to point to a copy of the original Hebrew article on the Wayback machine (web archive) as well as an automatic translation into English courtesy of Google Translate. ]
It didn’t occur to me to check the date of the article in hebrew when I posted the passage from it, but it just DID, and it was 20.10.2023.
Ah, I just spotted that the moderator moderated my 23.32 post. And added the headline AND the date of the article! Many thanks.
So which is it? Was Ohad “shot through a door” or “caught and executed outside”? There seems to be a certain amount of confusion.
Whatever the case Bayard, he wasn’t killed by the IDF. Agreed?
He could still have been killed by the IDF if he was shot through a door, hence perhaps the emergence of a different story of his death where he couldn’t have.
Some good news…. except for zionists and Fascist Talk TV et al.
Mamdani revokes IHRA definition of antisemitism on day one as mayor, thus the title of this Fascist Talk TV piece:
‘New Yorker’s Are SCARED’ | Jews And Zionists ‘Attacked’ By Zohran Mamdani
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsMg7ATsyNc
Will the world ever be free of these evil malignant hate-mongering fear-mongering shitheads!
And DO check out some of the demented deranged comments!
So Trump has launched a attack on Venezuela.
Thereby legitimating attacks by Russia and China on Ukraine and Taiwan.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/jan/03/caracas-explosions-venezuela-maduro-latest-news-updates-live
Trump offered on “Truth Social” to fly Maduro out of Venezuela. Maybe trolling or consciously echoing Bidens offer to Zelenskiy.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/jan/03/caracas-explosions-venezuela-maduro-latest-news-updates-live
Trump claims Maduro captured and flown out of the country.
Remarkable if true.
https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20260103-live-venezuela-declares-state-of-emergency-after-reported-us-military-aggression
“Trump says Maduro ‘captured and flown out’ of Venezuela.”
“The United States of America has successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the Country. This operation was done in conjunction with U.S. Law Enforcement. Details to follow. There will be a News Conference today at 11 A.M., at Mar-a-Lago. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP.” (From Truth Social.)