Thursday 28 February 2013

Back in the UK

SNAFU

Back from a warm break in the Canaries. From 25C to -1C in 4 hours

Returning to:-

  • Horsemeat
  • Bankers bonuses
  • NHS Mid-Staffs plus other death rate scandals
  • Loss of credit rating
  • Retrial of Vicky Price
  • Eastleigh By-election
  • LibDem sex harrasment -
  • Clegg inept
In the last war a phrase/acronym emerged: SNAFU

This stood for 'Situation Normal, All Fouled Up' though there was a stronger version....

Welcome back.

Tuesday 5 February 2013

Not in my name


Open Society - Justice Initiative

Despite the best efforts (and shedloads of cash) the evidence keeps creeping into the public domain. Rendition, covert flights, use of UK airports and distant bases to move so-called terrorists around the planet to CIA ‘black prisons’ - all part of the special relationship - the dossier grows month by month. Many of these 'terrorists' were handed over for cash and the CIA were not scrupulous in their checking just how bona fide they were. A human rights organisation ‘Open society: justice initiative based in New York have compiled a 200+ page report detailing just what America got up to in the years following the Twin Towers attack. The report is called Globalizing Torture : Feb 2013
The whole report can be read online. It also has an Executive Summary which is a lot shorter and paints a pretty grim picture. In all 54 countries colluded with Bush and his goons to ride roughshod over international and national laws. 

France did not get involved; neither did Norway, but Blair and his bunch of nasty duplicitous cronies did. It took a lucky find amongst the rubble of a Libyan secret service office to discover just how deeply vicious and venal our rulers are. Two opponents of the Gaddafi regime were sent back –  with our help  – to be tortured and their families abused and threatened. One has since settled out of court for a huge sum of taxpayer’s money which kept the lid on the, ‘who did what and to whom’ revelations. This little glimpse into the murkier world of our secret services had little to do with terrorism – but everything to do with getting BP’s hands on Libyan oil. 

Straw is currently in the frame for the Libyan rendition but it is unlikely that he acted alone. A practiced arse-coverer, he would not act on his own initiative. 

Another who spent a great deal of our money fighting to keep our collusion with rendition and torture out of the public gaze is non other than Mr David ‘squeaky clean’ - “oh I wish he was leader of the Labour Party” Milibean. He clearly recognises that like Huhn, his days are numbered and so is busy amassing a small fortune. The poor people of his Sunderland constituency can get lost. There is serious money to be made jetting round the globe ‘hosting’ or contributing to conferences of the extremely rich and powerful. He is truly beneath contempt. As are the other Hoon, Reid, Harman et al.

And as for Blair with his sanctimonious platitudes about peace and the Middle East .........! The only plausible explanation for his behaviour and utterances is that he is quite mad. Knowing what he knows yet still keeping this front up all the time must be very wearing - as must constantly being on the lookout for citizens wishing to arrest him. 

All of this was done in my name without my knowledge or agreement. The bunch of shameless ‘leaders’ who acted for us should have their day in court. This is not the bleating of a liberal leftie - what has been done has been so crass and counter-productive. For every terrorist killed they have spawned a further hundred. The only beneficiaries are the arms dealers.......

We also have to work, through, sort of the dark side, if you will. We’ve got to spend time in the shadows in the intelligence world. A lot of what needs to be done here will have to be done quietly, without any discussion, using sources and methods that are available to our intelligence agencies, if we’re going to be successful.” Dick Cheney

Monday 4 February 2013

Stealing the identity of dead children, Huhn and Richard the Third.


Dead Children's Identity Theft

Among the many disturbing aspects of the revelations which have dripped into the public gaze over many months is the latest from an investigation by the Guardian. It appears that an undercover unit of the Met was putting police officers out in the field monitoring ‘potential threats’ (otherwise known as peaceful protesters) equipped with passports and other identity documents lifted from the records of dead children. 

These officers lived a strange existence which seems to have put some of them under great strain. Leading double lives, having intimate sexual relations and even having children with women who were unaware of the reality must be disturbing. 

It was certainly a great strain on one of the women who, when the love of her life disappeared did what she could to trace him. She traced him back to where he was born then to local records to find out to her shock that he was officially a dead 8-year old boy. Fortunately the original family had left the area. Imagine the shock some 24 years later to be confronted at the doorstep by a woman claiming to have had a relationship with your long dead son. Further digging revealed the truth - that the man she had a relationship with was married and was a police officer. 

Just how much of this has been (and is) going on? It seems from what is known so far that the supervision of these undercover officers left a lot to be desired. Another concern is the ‘who watches the watchers’ dilemma? Britain has a long and often inglorious tradition of using agent provocateurs to stifle opposition to the government or reign of the day. Getting pliable people to commit crimes they would not otherwise have thought of is still going on today. 

Huhn and Richard the Third

Talking of crimes it is an amazing coincidence that the egregious Huhn has admitted being a lying devious bastard on the day that the ‘car park remains’ were confirmed as being those of Richard the Third. 

Huhn follows in the great Parliamentary tradition of having lying scoundrels plausibly protesting their innocence when they knew full well what they were doing. Anyone remember “The sword of truth and the shield of honesty” as wielded so pathetically by Jonathan Aitken? 

Alas poor Huhn!  He should have settled on fiddling his expenses like so many of his colleagues, where the chances of being caught are remote. Even when your crimes are exposed, you can expect to get away with an apology to the House of Commons and a week at home, c.f. David Laws

Huhn can expect some time at Her Majesty’s displeasure. 

Let us all hope that he does not come out mouthing the pious claptrap that Aitken did. 

P.S. Rhyming slang....
Richard the Third = Chris Huhn.

Sunday 3 February 2013

Anti Tory Majority


Letter from the Guardian


“When the Tories tried to push through changes to constituency boundaries because it would gain them more seats, they lost by 292 to 334 (Report, 30 January). Even if they had voted at full strength, they would still have lost by 301 to 334. It's a reminder that there is a potential anti-Tory majority in this Commons and that the reason we have a Tory-dominated government is simply that the Lib Dems chose in May 2010 to sign up to the Tory agenda. As Alex Salmond argued, the Lib Dems did not have to do this. The consequences of their decision are legion: Michael Gove's attacks on our education system, Andrew Lansley's Health and Social Care Act, the miseries heaped on so many by Iain Duncan-Smith's Welfare Reform Act, the cuts in the police and other public services. There was an alternative, yet hardly any of the delegates to the special Lib Dem conference in Birmingham was prepared to argue for it. Sad.
Pete Ruhemann” 
Letter in the Guardian 1/2/13