11/07/2011

Gordon Brown Threatened To Smash Murdoch Empire in 2009

In the article, headlined "Inside story of Murdoch's special relationship with our politicians", an aide was quoted as saying that Brown, when still at No 10, had warned Murdoch during a telephone call in late 2009 "that he would smash the tycoon's media empire if Labour won last year's general election" and that he "told Rupert he had made his choice politically and … 'you had better win the election or we are coming after you' – or words to that effect". This was after the Murdoch-owned Sun had ditched Labour and endorsed David Cameron. Full details here.
Some retrospective thoughts about Brown. His slide into ridiculous incompetence and paranoia probably started with his fake smile phase like this and this. As someone said, when Gordon Brown smiles, a fairy dies. His absurd gurning in the clips was an indicator of someone who had little grasp of how he was perceived by others. Why otherwise would have have gone through with such toe-curling behaviour. Thinking back, in the circumstances surrounding his character and lamentable shortcomings, two things stick out:
1. He was not suited to public office at all and was perhaps the most flawed person ever to hold  the office of PM either elected or, as in his case, not.
2. The government by fiasco we had in the years 2007-2009 was inevitable. 

The Israel Lobby And The UK Media

Introduction by Gilad Atzmon: The following is a glimpse into the Israeli Hasbara's/Mossad's/Sayanim's operation in the UK. It explains how Israel and its agents manage to dominate news coverage in Britain and beyond. It seems from the following leaked email as if BICOM (British Israel Communication & research Centre) runs the News desk for the BBC, Sky and the FT. I guess that last week the Guardian also joined the party. It is now an offical Israeli propaganda outlet.
Shockingly enough, not a single British paper was brave enough to report the story or publish the leaked email. Surely they know who their masters are. The message is pretty clear. British press is not trustworthy. It is as Zionised as our political system.
Bicom 'embarrassed' by misdirected email
Source http://www.totallyjewish.com/news/national/c-16955/bicom-embarrassed-by-misdirected-email/
There were red faces at Bicom this week when an email from its director intended for donors was in fact sent to the organisation’s media database. The email, sent by Lorna Fitzsimons, the director of the organisation, “dedicated to creating a more supportive environment for Israel in Britain”, stated: “Throughout the weekend, Bicom staff were in contact with a whole host of BBC and Sky news desks and journalists, ensuring that the most objectively favourable line was taken, and offering talking heads, relevant to the stories unfolding.”
She added: “Bicom has one of BBC News’ key anchors on a bespoke delegation. When planning her very first trip to the region, Sophie Long got in touch with Bicom to see if we could help her out with meeting in the region. Sophie is now spending three days of her trip
with Bicom Israel, taking a tour around the Old City, meeting [Israeli government spokesman] Mark Regev…as well as visiting Ramallah and Sderot.” Most embarrassing, however, was the revelation that Fitzsimons – a  former NUS president and Labour MP for Rochdale – had “briefed Jonathan Ford, the Financial Times leader writer for his upcoming
leading article” in the paper. She noted Bicom had “regular contact with the Editor at Large of
Prospect Magazine, David Goodhart, helping to inform him about the forthcoming UN vote on Palestinian statehood”.
A Bicom spokesman told the Jewish News that this “administrative error” was “slightly embarrassing”. He stressed that Fitzsimons had not been “asked to resign or had offered her resignation”.
 —–Original Message—–
From: Lorna Fitzsimons [mailto:lornaf@bicom.org.uk]
Sent:Mon 12/09/2011 16:44
To: censored
Subject: BICOM’s rapid response to events over the weekend and continuing work
on September and the UN
Dear████
 Please find the correct analysis attached.
                     
I thought you would be interested to hear of BICOM’s response to
events overthe weekend in Egypt as well as ongoing issues in the
region.

Events over the weekend

* Over the weekend, BICOM’s rapid response to the unfolding events in Egypt included distributing our analysis on Egyptian/Israeli relations to key UKMedia contacts, generated extremely favourable responses. Attached here is the link to today’s analysis on this subject.

BICOM Analysis: Israel-Turkey relations after the Palmer Report
http://www.bicom.org.uk/context/research-and-analysis/latest-bicom-analysis/bicom-analysis–israel-turkey-relations-after-the-palmer-report
which details the events that took place, their aftermath and associated implications. In particular, the briefing examines the explanations for hostilities between Israel and Egypt, and the responses to the events in Israel, Egypt and internationally.

* Throughout the weekend, BICOM staff were in contact with a whole host of BBC and SKY news desks and journalists, ensuring that the most objectively favourable line was taken, and offering talking heads, relevant to the stories unfolding. BICOM’s Senior Analyst Dr. Noam
Leshem, briefed the BBC World News Editorial Board on Saturday afternoon regarding the fall-out fromthe Israel Egyptian Embassy siege. After contact with the BICOM Media Team,SKY News changed their narrative in explaining the prior events in the region which lead up to this weekend, eventually acknowledging that both Egyptians AND
Israelis were killed in Sinai a fortnight ago.

This Week

* BICOM has one of BBC News’ key anchors on a bespoke delegation. When planning her very first trip to the region, Sophie Long got in touch with BICOM to see if we could help her out with meeting in the region. Sophie is now spending three days of her trip with BICOM Israel, taking a tour around the Old City, meeting Mark Regev and Dr. Alex Yacobsen, as well as visiting Ramallah and Sderot.

* My second article for the Huffington Post UK entitled ‘How to make the next9/11 less likely: myth busting and truth telling,’ will be published today.It is a timely response, synthesising the messages which can be taken from 9/11 with the current, unnerving events
unfolding between Egypt and Israel. The American version of the Huffington Post has 1.2 million readers in the UK,and 38 million in the U.S.

September & the UN

* I briefed Jonathan Ford, the Financial Times leader writer for his upcoming leading article in tomorrow’s paper.

* BICOM had regular contact with the Editor at Large of Prospect Magazine,David Goodhart, helping to inform him about the forthcoming UN vote on Palestinian statehood. The uniquely tailored BICOM 

Spotlight -http://www.bicom.org.uk/context/research-and-analysis/spotlight/un-vote-on-palestinian-statehood-
has the most up to date news, as well as BICOM analyses and podcasts
on the Palestinian drive to the UN.

I hope you find this of interest. Yours, Lorna

Background Sophie Long:-
http://knightayton.co.uk/Women-Presenters/Long-Sophie.html

Sophie Long is one of the main presenters on the BBC News Channel. She has covered many big stories and can regularly be found anchoring the channel’s output on location.
During the last General Election she was on the road with Nick Clegg in that extraordinary campaign. Her coverage was acclaimed for its wit and insight. She regularly presents bulletins on BBC1. After graduating from King’s College London with a degree in War
Studies, Sophie travelled extensively, including a period working as
an election monitor in Cambodia. It was there whilst working as a researcher for Reuters she crystallised her ambition to pursue a career in the media.

The BBC of course are impartial. They say so themselves.
excerpt
The Agreement accompanying the BBC Charter requires us to do all we can to ensure controversial subjects are treated with due impartiality in our news and other output dealing with matters of public policy or political or industrial controversy. But we go further than that,
applying due impartiality to all subjects.

11/06/2011

Yemenis For Change - Video

Scottish Journalist Among Those Abducted By Isael

A father has said he fears his son is in "extreme danger" after the Israeli navy boarded the protest ship on which he was travelling to Gaza.
Scottish journalist Hassan Ghani is on one of the two vessels which were trying to break Israel's naval blockade. The boats are being towed to the port of Ashdod by Israeli military after what it described as a peaceful takeover.
Mr Ghani, 26, from Glasgow, was also part of a Gaza aid flotilla stormed by the Israelis in a similar operation last year, which left nine people dead.
His father Haq Ghani believes his son is at risk because of his previous involvement.
He said: "I believe my son is in extreme danger because he was on the flotilla last year. He was one of the journalists on board and he was taken to Israel. I believe he is in extreme danger compared to the other people who are there for the first time.
"I'm worried and I've not heard from the Foreign Office to reassure me that my government has spoken to the Israelis to request that they take good care of a British national who was there in an official capacity."
He added: "I've not heard from him so far so I don't know if he is alive."
Mr Ghani said he did not think his son should have stayed away from the flotilla because of his previous experience, adding: "He risks his life for a worthy cause."
The journalist is on Canadian ship MV Tahrir which, along with Irish boat MV Saoirse set sail as part of a humanitarian mission with medical supplies. They are carrying 27 passengers from seven countries.
From AP.

11/05/2011

Robert Fisk On The Poppy Charade

'....all kinds of people who had no idea of the suffering of the Great War – or the Second, for that matter – were now ostentatiously wearing a poppy for social or work-related reasons, to look patriotic and British when it suited them, to keep in with their friends and betters and employers. These people, he said to me once, had no idea what the trenches of France were like, what it felt like to have your friends die beside you and then to confront their brothers and wives and lovers and parents.' Full article.

Obama Responsible For Iraq Debacle Apparently

Well he was according to this Neocon delusionist. Warning - berserker alert:- HERE.

Secret Iraq

Libya Oil Exports

The proportion of users of the oil broadly reflects the NATO involvement in the attack on Libya. 

11/04/2011

Michael Coleman From Inside Israeli Detention Centre Tonight

Freedom Waves Flotilla - Update

At 11.00 UK time Tahrir and Saoirse are 80 miles off Gaza. Their destination? The betterment of mankind. Still no attack from the Israelis. The world is watching.

Democracy US-Style Rooted In Terror

According to Pakistani sources, US strikes take 50 civilian lives for every alleged militant. The number of strikes increased dramatically since President Barack Obama took office in 2009.

Press TV has interviewed Mohsen Saleh, a political analyst and professor at Lebanese University in Beirut, to learn his opinions on the motives behind the US assassination drone attacks.

The video offers the opinions of two additional guests: Peter Rushton, a historian and a political analyst and Saeb Shaath, an author and Middle East affairs expert.

11/03/2011

Scotland Could Do With Another Waitrose - Report

SCOTLAND could prevent up to 40,000 deaths a year if it had another Waitrose, experts have claimed. The third-world country currently has just four branches of the delightful supermarket leading to a chronic shortage of fresh, organic scrumminess.
Scientists at Oxford University said if Scottish people had just one more Waitrose, the average lifespan for a man could reach 33 within a decade.
Dr Helen Archer said: "There would also be lots of knock-on benefits currently enjoyed by nice English people, such as knowing when an avocado is just right.
"And with some concentration and a bit of homework a typical Scottish housewife could soon learn to cope with the existence of olive oil."
She added: "Then they would be like us and we could have them in our houses."
Waitrose maintains four branches in Scotland serving the least dangerous parts of Edinburgh and Glasgow where many of the local customers have become so devoted to the shop that they have almost learned to talk properly.
Bill McKay, from Glasgow, said: "I just love the plumpness and freshness of these free-range, corn-fed poussin.
"None o' yer fuckin' Tesco pish." (Thanks again to the Mash).

Mathaba Service En Francais

Mathaba has launched a news service in French starting today. It can be linked HERE.
Mathaba a lancé un service en Francais.Ceci augmentera le lectorat de Mathaba en France ainsi que dans la plupart des pays de l'Afrique et des Caraïbes. Allez ici

Europe's Alliance With Israel


In carefully crafted official statements, the European Union presents itself as an honest broker in the Middle East. In reality, however, the EU’s 27 governments have been engaged in a long process of accommodating Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories.

Journalist David Cronin interrogates the relationship and its outcomes. A recent agreement for 'more intense, more fruitful, more influential co-operation' between the EU and Israel has meant that Israel has become a member state of the Union in all but name. Cronin shows that rather than using this relationship to encourage Israeli restraint, the EU has legitimised actions such as the ill-treatment of prisoners and the Gaza invasion.
Concluding his revealing and shocking account, Cronin calls for a continuation and deepening of international activism and protest to halt the EU's slide into complicity.

11/02/2011

Freedom Waves Flotilla - Follow The Twitter Feed

The freedom flotilla to lift the siege of Gaza has left. May a fair wind (of change) be with them. If you want to follow the Twitter feed it is HERE.    
http://twitter.com/#!/search?q=%23freedomwaves
The hashtag is #Freedomwaves  -  http://twitter.com/#!/search?q=%23Freedomwaves



Obama Has Stopped Smoking - Daily Mash

Watch it, Fucker
GIVING up smoking has put Barack Obama in the mood to launch a few warheads, it has emerged.
At an impromptu press conference seemingly arranged as an excuse to have a go at someone, the harried-looking US president warned Iran and North Korea that this would be a really, really, bad time to pull any of their shit.
He said: "I want to send a clear message to all potential agitators, any enemies of freedom - I am on the Nicorette gums. And frankly, they don't seem to be doing a whole fat fucking lot of good.
"Also Allen Carr's 'Easyway' is not living up to its name.
"So if we send weapons inspectors to your godforsaken country in the next few days, you'd better fucking let them in.
"And don't even think of trying that oh-we're-just-testing-some-missiles-in-the-ocean-to-see-what-happens antagonistic brinkmanship bullshit. Unless you like the idea of everything you've ever known or loved being atomically fried.
"Because believe me, those nukes will be heading your way in less time than it would take smoke a lovely, juicy full fat Marlboro that smells better, richer, more invigorating than a cedar wood forest after a late spring shower.
"Maybe in a few weeks' time I'll turn a blind eye to your crap. Right now though, I am drinking a lot of coffee, I'm not sleeping and the only thing keeping my smoke hand busy is the big red button it keeps tapping on."
He added: "Any of you idiots want to ask a fucking question?"

11/01/2011

Condoleeza Rice And False Values

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice cites her personal climb to power as a shining example of how civil rights benefited a worthy African-American, but her Faustian bargain for success within George W. Bush’s administration meant death for many Iraqis, notes Lawrence Davidson.
Condoleezza Rice, who was both National Security Advisor and Secretary of State under President George W. Bush, also was an administration spokesperson who helped scare the US people into supporting the invasion of Iraq.
She accomplished this by invoking the image of “mushroom clouds” incinerating the skylines of America. In doing so, she gave credence to the false story that Iraq was a threat to the United States because it possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMDs).
Rice is presently on a lecture tour promoting her 734-page memoir entitled No Higher Honor, which is what brought her to the Belk Theater on the campus of Queens University in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Oct. 25. She spoke to a packed house of 2m000 people.
Actually, what made this event notable was not the large numbers who had come to hear her, but rather that, among other things, Condoleezza Rice chose to speak about values.

According to Ms. Rice, America’s present challenge “is not China or Brazil or India, and certainly not Europe. The challenge is the United States gone bad.” Well, she should know.
Despite the fact that values are fluid concepts, most people esteem the precepts underlying honest government and respect for the law. Most but not all, and it may very well be that Rice is not with the majority on this.
There is no living group of individuals who have done more to undermine these sorts of crucial values than those who worked in the Bush Jr. White House. Truth in government, due process in the Justice System, personal protection from official spying, regulating economic greed and corruption, and a general respect for the Constitution and its Bill of Rights, you name it and they managed to trash it.
And, of course, Condoleezza Rice was there throughout the entire eight-year assault on those sorts of values. Not surprisingly, in her Charlotte address Rice avoided these topics and instead focused on the value found in equal opportunity.
“The idea that you can come from humble circumstances and also do great things” seems to her beyond the reach of today’s American youth, which is one of the ways America has “gone bad.” Ms. Rice seemed to be suggesting that she is one of the last to be able to make this leap, coming as she did “from segregated Birmingham to the highest reaches of government.”

It has always been one of America’s foundational myths that any child can “grow up to be president,” or the CEO of some giant corporation, or just become fabulously wealthy. Of course, some do. Some people hit the lottery as well, but the numbers are exceedingly small.
This reflects the very low probability that any one individual, not born with the proverbial silver spoon in his or her mouth, can succeed to this extent. The hard fact is that any suggestion on the part of Ms. Rice that there has ever been a time when such a jump from rags to riches was possible for most Americans is as misleading as the stories she spun to help get us into the Iraq War.
Yet it is clear that this myth never seems to die. For instance, it is this misconception that leads ordinary Americans to often oppose fair taxation of the rich. After all, someday they or their children might be rich and they won’t want to be taxed either.

This is the “lotto nation” syndrome sometimes referred to by Keith Obermann. Not only is Rice a true believer in this myth, but she seems not to understand that it was her boss, George W. Bush, who pushed economic policies that made her special value of equal opportunity ever harder to achieve.
One wonders if she was really paying attention during those eight years in the “highest reaches of government.”
Not wanting to be entirely negative – after all the “U.S. gone bad” is pretty tough – Ms. Rice sought to end her talk on a high note. Despite all, she told her 2,000-strong audience, “I believe we will again make the impossible dream inevitable.” What an unfortunate contradiction in terms from a lady whose day job is teaching at Stanford University.
But it is not Ms. Rice’s words that are at issue here. It is her sense of values. Condoleezza Rice might have improbably risen out of segregated Birmingham, but for what? What sort of values did she display? What great things did she accomplish?

Well, she assisted in the killing of between 600,000 and one million Iraqis and nearly 4,500 American soldiers in Iraq and did so on the basis of false claims. This is the sort of record that ought to put one before the International Criminal Court and not in the halls of a great university.
Compared to others of our age who have risen from obscurity, people such as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, Caesar Chavez, etc., Rice’s sense of values is just appalling. The fact that she rose to the “highest reaches of government” suggests a Faustian bargain that led to eight full years of the corruption of values.

Her memoir, No Higher Honor, is therefore grotesquely mis-titled. Indeed, it is hard to imagine a more dishonorable record.
Lawrence Davidson is a history professor at West Chester University in Pennsylvania. He is the author of Foreign Policy Inc.: Privatizing America’s National Interest; America’s Palestine: Popular and Offical Perceptions from Balfour to Israeli Statehood; and Islamic Fundamentalism.

Herman Cain - Yet Another US Israel Firster

Herman Cain in an interview with an Israeli newspaper said pushes by the "so-called Palestinian people" for statehood and an Iranian assassination plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to the United States are evidence that President Obama is perceived as weak in the Middle East.
"I think that the so-called Palestinian people have this urge for unilateral recognition because they see this president as weak," Cain said during an interview with Israel Hayom. "I haven’t seen all the facts but I think this whole assassination attempt was another example of seeing this president as weak, in that regard. So, weakness invites attack and I think that he has projected a sense of weakness."
The Republican front-runner also said that the president "threw Israel under the bus" when stating support for a peace process brokered around the framework of the 1967 borders. Another rightist, fruitcake candidate who could, just could, become the next occupant of the White House.

War Of Choice

Back in the twelfth century, the Jewish scholar Maimonides identified the distinction between an ‘obigatory’ war of survival and what he termed an ‘authorised’ or voluntary war for the aggrandisement of a country of its leader. Obvious contrasts lie between Britain’s confrontation with Nazi Germany during the Second World War and the UK’s invasion, along with France and Israel, of Egypt during the 1956 Suez crisis. However, the historian Lawrence Freedman, a supporter of liberal intervention who drafted sections of Tony Blair’s Chicago speech, has argued that this dichotomy is misleading. All wars, whether of necessity or choice, involve decision-making at some level, and to suggest that some might be thrust upon us suggests an abnegation of responsibility.

Spinning All The Way To The Exits

White House and Pentagon spin-men have been working overtime in the last two weeks to make clear that the United States had fully intended to continue its military presence in Iraq past the deadline, but was thwarted by the Iraqis' unhelpful refusal to allow American forces to commit crimes with impunity in their country.
The residual military presence of 3,000-5,000 troops, placed strategically around the country, was to be concentrated in Baghdad. The negotiations with Maliki failed, hence the claim that the WH was being forced to honoUr the existing agreement on withdrawal.
Meanwhile we are also told that the Pentagon will keep "at least" 5,000 armed "security personnel" -- mercenaries mainly. These 5,000 will be stationed in strategic locations around Iraq goes the story. The truth is most likely nothing like the message these statements convey.

Congratulations To The Palestinian Nation

The spoiled brat bully tactics of the US in cutting funds to UNESCO have only embarrassed America all the more. They have only further demeaned themselves. The vote was 107 to 14, a humiliating defeat for US diplomacy. Latvia, Tuvalu and Uzbekistan are among the states which did not follow the US lead against Palestine but which always have done in the past. The USA was also unable to coerce a single African state.
Here is the list of the 14 US puppets, the overwhelmingly defeated states which tried to block Palestine and which either have extreme neo-con governments or are completely susceptible to US aid blackmail, decide for yourself –
Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, Israel, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Palau, Panama, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Sweden, United States of America, Vanuatu.

Victory to the small nations!

UK Defence 'Critically Ill' - MOD Adviser

William 'Benghazi Bill' Hague
“The financial position of the department has not been resolved. For example, for all the promises of culling senior officer numbers your predecessor merely announced the appointment of a further four-star post, the new Joint Force Commander, but has failed to implement any of the suggested reductions.
“If you chose to leave things as they stand then you merely get to oversee a series of bloody annual spending rounds in which you will have to make unpopular choices and be blamed for them.”
He said the minister’s second choice was “to accept that the defence patient remains critically ill and the treatment so far administered has been remedial but not sufficient”. Read More.