Syria’s White Helmets: War by Way of Deception – Part 1
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Vanessa Beeley
21st Century Wire
White Helmets caught in a supposedly noble rescue operation in Syria. The whole thing is a professionally mounted hoax. Staged propaganda by the US government. See advert below. (Click for best resolution)
…
[box] “The Ivy League bourgeoisie who sit at the helm of the non-profit industrial complex will one day be known simply as charismatic architects of death. Funded by the ruling class oligarchy, the role they serve for their funders is not unlike that of corporate media. Yet, it appears that global society is paralyzed in a collective hypnosis – rejecting universal social interests, thus rejecting reason, to instead fall in line with the position of the powerful minority that has seized control, a minority that systematically favours corporate interests.” [/box] ~ Cory Morningstar
And here’s the smooth advert trumpeting the NGO’s good deeds. All the signatures of a professional marketing job.
In his recent speech Hezbollah leader, Sayyed Nasrallah, alluded to a multi-phase “soft war” which relies upon the mass media complex to disseminate propaganda and bias, propelling the Middle East into, primarily, a sectarian crisis before descending even further into regionalism and finally a devastating individualism.
Cory Morningstar’s body of work does more than any other to expose the bare bones of the non-profit propaganda industry that governs both our reactions – and inactions, through a network of multi-layered and multi-faceted media manipulation campaigns, of which the end result is mass thought control. She explains:
“The 21st century NGO is becoming, more and more, a key tool serving the imperialist quest of absolute global dominance and exploitation. Global society has been, and continues to be, manipulated to believe that NGOs are representative of “civil society” (a concept promoted by corporations in the first place). This misplaced trust has allowed the “humanitarian industrial complex” to ascend to the highest position: the missionaries of deity – the deity of the empire.”
In a paper entitled, Foreign Aid and Regime Change: A Role for Donor Intent, written just prior to NATO intervention in Libya, Prof. Sarah Blodgett Bormeo describes the “democratization” process for target nations. Unwittingly or wittingly, Bormeo perfectly outlines the role played by NGOs in this process. Bormeo even goes so far as to pinpoint the lack of impartiality rife among NGOs large and small, the majority of whom, receive their funding directly from western government and major corporation sources – all of whom have a vested interest in the outcome of their NGO’s activities and ‘intervention’ in a particular location. Bormeo emphasises the importance of “picking winners” in this scenario, as opposed to respecting and supporting the will of the people in any sovereign nation.
“Thus, it is possible that aid donors, in an effort to avoid further entrenching an “authoritarian” [my edit: this status is decided by donor] regime and perhaps increase the likelihood of democratization, channel funds through NGOs and civil society organizations in authoritarian states.”
In this short video below, we are introduced to the US military’s symbiotic relationship with NGOs in countries [in this instance, Iraq] where the policy is to Induce Pacification & Advance Western Ideologies. NGOs are cynically used to “soften” cultures and render entire communities dependent upon foreign aid in order to facilitate “Democratization”.
US Military Utilize NGOs to Induce Pacification & Advance Western Ideologies on Iraqi Citizens
In this role, and dependent upon their donor support, NGOs cease to be the neutral, unbiased ‘humanitarian’ organisations they publically purport to be, and instead become actual covert tools for foreign intervention and regime change. By default, they are assimilated into the Western modus vivendi of “waging war by way of deception” and their purpose is to alter public perception of a conflict via a multitude of media and “marketing” channels.
White Helmets: Follow the Money
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he White Helmets were established in March 2013, in Istanbul, Turkey, and is headed by James Le Mesurier, a British “security” specialist and ‘ex’ British military intelligence officer with an impressive track record in some of the most dubious NATO intervention theatres including Bosnia and Kosovo, as well as Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine. Le Mesurier is a product of Britain’s elite Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, and has also been placed in a series of high-profile posts at the United Nations, European Union, and U.K. Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
The origins of The White Helmets’ initial $300k seed funding is a little hazy, reports are contradictory but subsequent information leads us to conclude that the UK, US and the ‘Syrian Opposition’ [or Syrian National Council, parallel government backed an funded by the US, UK and allies] are connected. Logistical support has been provided and given by Turkish elite natural disaster response team, AKUT.
A further $13 million was poured into the White Helmet coffers during 2013 and this is where it gets interesting. Early reports suggest that these “donations” came from the US, UK and SNC with the previously explored connections to George Soros in the US.
However, subsequent investigations reveal that USAID has been a major shareholder in the White Helmet organisation.
The website for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) claims that “our work supports long-term and equitable economic growth and advances U.S. foreign policy objectives by supporting: economic growth, agriculture and trade; global health; and, democracy, conflict prevention and humanitarian assistance.”
In a USAID report update in July 2015 it is clearly stated that they have supplied over $ 16m in assistance to the White Helmets.
The USAID track record as a primary US Government/CIA regime change facilitator is extensively documented. From South America to the Ukraine and in the Middle East, USAID serve a malevolent and ultimately destructive role in the dismantling of sovereign nations and their reduction to Western hegemony vassal states, as always, all in the name of freedom and democracy.
“The United States does not lack institutions that continue to conspire, and that’s why I am using this gathering to announce that we have decided to expel USAID from Bolivia” ~ Bolivian President Evo Morales
“USAID and NED are in the business of “Democracy Promotion” which uses public money (from U.S. taxpayers) for secretive operations with the intention to support pro-U.S. governments [read: corporate agendas] with the help of political and social movements abroad. The goal is regime change.” ~ Timothy Alexander Guzman
With recent developments in Syria and as a consequence of the Syrian Government requested Russian intervention, we have seen a scramble to justify the shambolic US foreign policy and its clandestine terror operations in Syria. We have previously established the White Helmet connections to this US regime change operation and their undisputed exclusive integration into the Al Nusra and Free Syrian Army [Muslim Brotherhood] and even ISIS networks and strongholds.
SEE ALSO: Humanitarian’ Propaganda War Against Syria: Avaaz and The White Helmets
After RT and Sott.net among others, exposed the gaping holes in White Helmet propaganda whereby the group recycled older photographs on Twitter in an effort to blame Russia for ‘civilian deaths’ – even before the alleged Russian bombing had occurred. Since then, the propaganda “war” has only ramped up. The Russian involvement in Syria, did not only betray the US military deception, it also brought some heavyweight media giants of its own into the fray who set about de-constructing the Western media and NGO indoctrination that had, for so long, been largely unchallenged.
PHOTO: ISIS mercenary photographed outside White Helmet depot, in ISIS held area south of Yarmouk Camp.
At this point the London Telegraph went into damage limitation mode. It published an article expounding the White Helmet humanitarian role in Syria but with admissions of UK Government “majority” funding and that the White Helmets are embedded with ISIS (“in at least one ISIL held area”), claims previously vehemently denied but rendered indisputable after discovery of the photo showing an ISIS mercenary posing directly in front of a White Helmets depot located deep in ISIS held territory south of Yarmouk.
“The Foreign Office is currently the largest single source of funding. It is an irony that if Britain does effectively become an ally of Assad, and starts raids against Isil in Syria, it will be bombing from the air and paying for the bodies to be dug out on the ground. The White Helmets are also operating in at least one Isil-held area.”
Interestingly, the Telegraph stated clearly that the UK Foreign Office is the “largest single source of funding” for the White Helmets which may be perceived as an attempt to draw fire away from the USAID funding which still outstrips official figures released by the British Gov’t who “gifted” £ 3.5 million in equipment to “civil defence teams” in Syria [Report March 2015]. However, the British Government also committed to an additional £ 10m to “increase coordination between the Syrian Interim Government and civil defence teams” to be funded by: UK Government’s Conflict, Security and Stability Fund (CSSF).
If an organisation is funded by foreign governments who are directly involved in trying over-throw Syria’s government, how can they be rightly called an ‘independent relief organisation’?
It should be noted here also that although cries of ‘regime change!’ from both Washington and London have been muted since Russia entered the Syria conflict, both Washington and London have been supporting their own parallel, hand-picked ‘interim government’ for Syria since at least 2012.
So, with millions in hard cash and equipment being invested into the White Helmets by US & UK donors who have a very clear regime change objective in Syria, it becomes increasingly difficult to perceive their role as anything other than donor-biased propaganda merchants and a ‘humanitarian’ extension of a clandestine terror operation allied to the NATO proxy armies in the region.
White Helmet Leadership
[dropcap]J[/dropcap]ames Le Mesurier has been portrayed as a Humanitarian maverick hero, miraculously in the right place (Istanbul) at the right time, just as the need arose for the formation of a Syria Civil Defence team, perhaps coincidentally, only a few months prior to the now infamous and universally (except for a few diehard propagandists) discredited Ghouta ‘chemical weapon’ attack in August 2013, an event which has already been proven beyond a doubt to be a false flag attack, as well as subsequent accusations levied at the Syrian Government which narrowly failed to precipitate the NATO desired ‘No Fly Zone’.
However, when we delve deeper into the life and times of Le Mesurier we see that it was no happy accident that he was in Istanbul at this juncture. As Sandhurst Military Academy’s top student and recipient of the Queen’s Medal, his chequered career took him from OHR [Office of High Representative] in Bosnia to intelligence co-ordinator in NATO’s newly won prize, Kosovo. We’re told that Le Mesurier left the British Army in 2000 and joined the UN serving as deputy head of the Advisory Unit on ‘Security and Justice’, and Special Representative of the Secretary General’s security policy body within the UN mission in Kosovo. His career then took him to Jerusalem where he worked on implementing the Ramallah Agreement, then to Baghdad as a special advisor to Iraqi Minister of Interior, and to the UAE to train their gas field protection force, and later to Lebanon during the 2006 war. In 2005 he was made Vice President for Special Projects at private mercenary firm Olive Group, and in January 2008 he was appointed as Principal for Good Harbour International, both based in Dubai.
A quick flick through the other Mayday team members reveals some very interesting connections…
Mosab Obeidat, previous Assistant Chief of Mission with the Qatar Red Crescent, one of whose officials, Khaled Diab was accused of supplying $ 2.2 m to secure arms for the terrorist groups in Syria. Details of this transaction and its exposure can be found in this Al Akhbar article from June 2013. http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/16160
At least three other members of the team were a part of the Syrian “revolution” including Farouq al Habib, one of the 3 most prominent White Helmet leaders who was also a leader of the Homs uprising against the Syrian government and according to his testimony, was tortured by the Syrian “regime” security forces in 2012 for smuggling a journalist into Syria to “cover” the “peaceful protests”. Habib was a founder member of the “Homs Revolutionary Counci” (note that the CIA have been linked to nearly all ‘Revolutionary Councils’ in Syria) before fleeing to Turkey in 2013 (A more in-depth analysis of his anti-Syrian government testimony will be presented in Part II of this article).
In this photo taken by a mobile phone on Wednesday Sept. 24, 2014, Read Saleh left, the head of the civil defense units in the northern city of Idlib, and Farouk al-Habib, right, a media campaigner for the rescuers known as the White Helmets, sit on a panel to draw attention to their work in Syria as world leaders come together for the annual UN general assembly meetings, in midtown New York. ZEINA KARAM/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Le Mesurier is heavily involved in several organisations not mentioned in this article, but for the purposes of demonstrating that the White Helmets should not be considered impartial or neutral as they claim, we will focus on those that best substantiate that argument.
White Helmets: the women. Wearing the rancid aroma of US-style propaganda, from head to toe.
Both Olive Group and Good Harbour International are experts in private “security”. Taken from Sourcewatch on Olive Group:
“Olive Security was founded in 2001 by Harry Legge Burke. Olive lends their quick success to strong relations in the government and military industry. Harry Legge-Burke is an ex-Welsh Guard, and a former aid to chief of defence staff Sir [Charles Guthrie]. He can claim Prince William as a skiing partner and his sister was a nanny to the royal children.
Iraq: Olive were on the ground since the invasion began in 2003, and were able to deploy 38 former SAS employees within two days of the invasion’s completion in 2004
Jonathan Allum, Olive’s former director and co-owner, is also the son of Tony Allum, who is the chairman of the engineering company Halcrow and also the head of the UK government’s Iraq Industry Working Group. It was in the latter position that Tony Allum went to Washington to meet with Bechtel leaders, where he suggested, among other UK companies, Halcrow and Olive as companies worth considering for subcontracted work, all stemming from Bechtel’s $680 million contract with USAID. They were considered and contracts followed, though both Legge-Burke and Allum deny one had anything to do with the other.”
In May 2015, Olive Group merged with Constellis Holdings, in whose portfolio we can also find Academi, previously the notorious Blackwater Group (Nisour Square massacre, Iraq 2007). Taken from The Atlantic July 2012: Post 9/11, Bush enabled the CIA to subcontract assassinations allegedly targeting Al Qaeda operatives. Blackwater was awarded this contract.
“Running operations through Blackwater gave the CIA the power to have people abducted, or killed, with no one in the government being exactly responsible.”
The CIA can no longer hide its Blackwater/Academi connections, especially after this week’s Wikileaks data dump of CIA director John Brennan’s emails, whose contact list included now spy chief Robert Richer at his Blackwater contact address.
The outsourcing of intelligence operations was in full-swing. What Bush initiated, Obama ran with, awarding Blackwater/Academi a $ 250m contract in 2010 to offer “unspecified” services to the CIA, thus maintaining the apparatus for “unaccountable” covert assassinations.
It is true that James Le Mesurier only joined Olive Group in 2005 and left them in 2008, but his involvement with them and their subsequent merger with Constellis and by default, Blackwater/Academi, gives a degree of valuable insight into the elite intelligence and Pentagon circles that Le Mesurier moved in prior to working for Good Harbour International and creating Syria Civil Defence (not forgetting the USAID funding & influence that underpins both Olive and SCD/White Helmets).
In 2008, Le Mesurier joined Good Harbour International, another private “security” expert organisation, whose CEO is none other than former terror advisor to the Bush administration, the Terror Czar himself, Richard A. Clarke.
The jury is still out on whether Clarke was indeed the “whistleblower” he fashioned himself as, post 9/11, or a merely a high-level gatekeeper who aided in preventing a full and detailed investigation into Bush and Rumsfeld’s roles in 9/11.
Patrick Henningsen, a political analyst and writer for 21st Century Wire believes the latter is more likely:
“On first glance, one might buy into the mainstream media’s characterization of him, but it’s more likely that Richard Clarke is not a whistleblower at all. While appearing to oppose the Bush administration from a safe enough distance, I believe his role was inserted into the mix in the period of 2004-2005 in order to VALIDATE the bin Laden mythology and help to portray al Qaeda as an organic, independently run terror organization. He also claimed that Bush and Rumsfeld committed war crimes, but this means nothing because everyone knows that no US official will ever face ‘war crimes’ charges in any court of law anywhere on the planet. It’s effectively a straw man narrative that distracts from the real scandal in the US which is that the entire premise of the war on terror is completely contrived. Clarke’s ‘whistleblower’ status gives him brilliant cover from too much public scrutiny. I remain skeptical of his whole public narrative. He was, is, and always will be an insider.”
What is perhaps even more telling, is Clarke’s reported close ties with Israeli-US operative Rita Katz of the SITE Intelligence Group, another supposedly independent, albeit ‘private’ intelligence firm located in Bethesda, Maryland, a stone’s throw away from CIA headquarters. SITE are said to be responsible for the media release of the harrowing ISIS execution videos, al Qaeda videos, and their credibility has been extensively questioned.
Katz’s long term working relationship with Clarke began before 9/11 when she and her research associate Steve Emerson were commissioned by Clarke to identify ‘Islamic radicals’ inside the Unites States. Over time, Katz’s relationship with Clarke blossomed into a much more extensive one that included regular briefings at both the Clinton and Bush White Houses.
“One of SITE’s founders, Rita Katz, is a government insider with close connections to former terrorism czar Richard Clarke and his staff in the White House, as well as investigators in the Department of Justice, Department of the Treasury, and the Department of Homeland Security, according to SourceWatch. Her father was executed in Iraq as an Israel spy, a fact that suggests a connection to Israeli intelligence.”
~ Mark Taliano
Wheels Within Wheels
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his background on Le Mesurier should at least make us question the media portrayal of an affable, debonair and philanthropic leader of a civilian humanitarian mission. His military & intelligence roots, the fact that despite working for OHR in Bosnia, no visible record of his employment can be found there, his private security-centric career path, his appearance in Istanbul at just the right moment to partner USAID, the UK government & Syrian opposition in creating just the sort of “democratization” enabling NGO as described in our introduction, MUST at least cause us to doubt the transparency and neutrality of the White Helmets in Syria.
In addition, the White Helmet leadership consisting of known Syrian opposition protagonists such as Raed Saleh and Farouq al Habib must make us more cynical about the claims of impartiality and lack of bias and for those who will defend the “peaceful” revolution narrative upheld by Habib and Saleh, please take the time to read Professor Tim Anderson’s in depth analysis of events in Syria pre NATO intervention.
“I have seen from the beginning armed protesters in those demonstrations … they were the first to fire on the police. Very often the violence of the security forces comes in response to the brutal violence of the armed insurgents” – Jesuit priest Father Frans Van der Lugt, January 2012, Homs Syria
“The claim that armed opposition to the government has begun only recently is a complete lie. The killings of soldiers, police and civilians, often in the most brutal circumstances, have been going on virtually since the beginning.” – Professor Jeremy Salt, October 2011, Ankara Turkey
Our presentation of the White Helmets as regime change propagandists & terrorist allies in this article will be further explored and verified in Part II.
“Existing soft power initiatives and agencies, particularly those engaged in development and strategic communications, must be reinvigorated through increased funding, human resources and prioritization. Concurrently, the U.S. government must establish goals, objectives and metrics for soft power initiatives. Furthermore, the U.S. government can better maximize the effectiveness of soft power instruments and efforts through increased partnerships with NGOs. By providing humanitarian and development assistance in areas typically inaccessible to government agencies, NGOs are often able to access potential extremist areas before the government can establish or strengthen diplomatic, developmental or military presence, including intelligence.” — Joseph S. Nye, former US assistant secretary of defence, June 2004
END OF PART ONE
Author Vanessa Beeley is a contributor to 21WIRE, and since 2011, she has spent most of her time in the Middle East reporting on events there – as a independent researcher, writer, photographer and peace activist. She is also a member of the Steering Committee of the Syria Solidarity Movement, and a volunteer with the Global Campaign to Return to Palestine.
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Presidents and Prime Ministers Criminal Acts Forgiven and Forgotten with Each Election
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By Jason Liosatos
Posted on October 20, 2015 by Tom Baldwin on Progressive Activists Voice
The author rightfully castigates the numerous bastards who occupy the seats of power in the hypocritical West, and he correctly calls them sociopaths. But why is it that only sociopaths seem to gain high office in the so-called democracies of the developed world? Surely it can’t be a coincidence. So it must be systemic. And the system causing all this is simply capitalism.
The current criminal is not substantially different than his predecessors, nor from those who will follow him in 2016 and after. Being a global criminal is part of the requirements for those who aspire to occupy the White House.
Every time a President, Prime Minister or Government changes hands it seems as though all of the previous acts of murder and corruption are wiped clean, a sort of amnesia, particularly in the US and the West, where there seems to be a complete forgiveness and a forgetting of the previous elected persons criminal activities, and egregious crimes against humanity, as though just because leadership has changed, it automatically means all their previous war crimes, lies, deception, murder, and illegal, immoral acts and the consequences, are completely swept under the rug. There are no criminal charges and prosecutions, with them walking away quite arrogantly, as if they were innocent, and in Tony Blair’s case even having the temerity to accept the position of Middle East Peace Envoy, after giving the orders to slaughter hundreds of thousands of innocent people there, with no apology or any signs of remorse to this day.
Blair and Bush—a cynical duo who richly belong in The Hague and the gallows for major war crimes against humanity, but still enjoy deferential treatment by the establishment media and the official punditocracy.
Tony Blair, George Bush Junior and Senior, The Clintons, Nicolas Sarkozy, Colin Powell, and now David Cameron and Obama, to name but a few, have walked away from mass murders and unspeakable damage to people, cultures and the planet without a trial, with the usual amnesia. Meanwhile people like Saddam Hussein, Gadaffi, Bin Laden, were all murdered without a trial, for their crimes which pale in comparison to those by Western leaders who get off without charge, who even had the audacity to hang Saddam Hussein live on television, then watch the murder of Bin Laden together with a sickening pride, then supposedly dump his body in the ocean without an autopsy, identification, or a trial! Though it seems he may well have died long before this debacle, of a natural death. Are those who write the law therefore above the law? This must change, and these criminals must go to prison for psychological rehabilitation before they do any more damage. [Or get their real comeuppance.—Eds]
Ratklo Mladic the Bosnian Serb army chief was hurled in jail for doing a fraction of the killing compared to a Bush, Blair, Clinton or Sarkozy who also ordered ‘their’ troops and jet pilots to unleash a literal hell on earth upon The Middle East with depleted uranium nuclear bombs and shells, creating birth defects, cancers and infertility there for many millenia to come, and murdering over 1 million people, which all began with a lie about WMDs, and continues based on lies and deception. It is no wonder so many war veterans are committing suicide and suffering terrible depression, and cancer through depleted uranium contamination.
[dropcap]G[/dropcap]eneral Wesley Clark warned us all about the pre planned devastation and take over of The Middle East in a now famous video which must be seen to be believed, and thankfully we have many other people helping us all understand the insanity we are witnessing globally, such people are like the smelling salts alerting people to the dangers we face, such as guests on my own show like Paul Craig Roberts and Gerald Celente.
Clearly the elected leaders we are talking about here are not psychologically balanced and sane enough to have this kind of responsibility and power at their fingertips, and it is also very clear that we are now witnessing a global awareness and recognition of this fact, as people realize that humanity faces great danger while this type of psychopath has control of armies and nuclear weapons that have cataclysmic capabilities, and should we need confirmation of the grave dangers we face at the hands of these types of people we only need observe their daily actions in the Middle East and surrounding area, and the chaos that is ensuing from the consequences and feed back loops from those decisions made without vision and wisdom, but rather with a blinkered short shortsightedness predicated on short term greed and an insatiable lust for power and control at any cost to people, countries or planet.
We urgently require – and must demand – a complete change of law, with accountability and prosecution for Presidents and Prime Ministers even after they depart their positions, particularly those Western Governments who randomly and regularly commit massive murder, and crimes against humanity. We must also each take responsibility and have the courage to face the truth of what is being done, and also realize we are all complicit with our votes, if we vote.
Jason Liosatos site is at www.jasonliosatos.com
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Iraq – Official: Blair Mislead the Public and Chilcot Inquiry.
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Felicity Arbuthnot
Mislead: “to give false or misleading information to” (Collins Dictionary.)
Few members of the British establishment incarnate the incurable hypocrisy and sheer rot at its core as does Tony Blair.
In what The Mail on Sunday (1) has described as a “bombshell White House memo”, leaked classified correspondence from then Secretary of State General Colin Powell to President George W. Bush, of 28th March 2002, alleges that Tony Blair had done what the newspaper calls “a deal in blood” with Bush to support him, come what may, in the attack on Iraq – a full year before the invasion.
Blair at the time was claiming to be seeking a diplomatic solution in the Iraq crisis. “We’re not proposing military action”, he told the public, as he prepared: “to act as spin doctor for Bush”, states the Mail which also reveals Powell’s affirmation that: “the UK will follow our lead.”
Blair continued to claim to have made no decision regarding military action for most of 2002, a diplomatic solution was being be pursued he stated. Since there was no US or UK Embassy in Baghdad and UK Ministers and their US counterparts refused to travel there or engage with the Iraqi government, his assertions never rang even vaguely true. Powell’s memo proves the lie. Headed: “Memorandum to the President; Subject: Your Meeting with United Kingdom Prime Minister Tony Blair, April 5-7, 2002, Crawford, Texas”, he states:
“Blair continues to stand by you and the US as we move forward on the war on terrorism and on Iraq. He will present to you the strategic, tactical and public affairs lines that he believes will strengthen global support for our common cause.”
The paragraph confirms Blair’s integral part in the planning and all round strategy of the illegal invasion, whilst telling both Parliament and the public something quite else.
It should also be noted that whilst the line to Parliament and the public had been to tie Saddam’s government to the events of 11th September 2001, in the Powell, Bush, Blair circle they seems to be entirely separated, note: “the war on terrorism and on Iraq.” No mention of their numerous public allegations of Iraq and international terrorism being inter-linked.
Powell confirms: “On Iraq, Blair will be with us should military actions be necessary.”
Pointing out that Blair was not quite unfettered in his entirely illegal plans, Powell writes: “Aside from his foreign and defence secretaries (sic – no capital letters) however, Blair’s Cabinet shows signs of division, and the Labour Party and the British public are unconvinced that military action is warranted now.”
However: “Blair may suggest ideas on how to make a credible public case on current Iraqi threats to international peace” and how to handle demands for any action to be sanctioned by the UN Security Council.” Thus there was full awareness by the Bush and Blair regimes of the lawlessness of attacking a sovereign nation posing them no threat, and whose “sovereignty and territorial integrity” was guaranteed by the UN.
[dropcap]A[/dropcap]lso notable is that so keen was Tony Blair to ally George W. Bush in invasion plotting that he left the UK during the ten days national mourning for Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. The longest living member of the Royal family had died on 30th March 2002. Queues lined to pay their last respects as she lay in state in Westminster Abbey, the Monarchy grieved and Her Majesty’s Prime Minister, Blair, boarded a ‘plane to the US.
In September that year Blair claimed that Saddam Hussein’s government could release weapons of mass destruction on the West “within forty five minutes”, which Colin Powell used in his Iraq war speech to the UN the following February.
Blair would also: “demonstrate that we have thought through ‘the day after’ “, states the communication. Not only had “the day after” not been “thought through”, but the weeks, months, years as Iraq continues to implode and Iraqis continue to die in their uncounted thousands. Even Iraq Body Count – whose estimates of Iraqi deaths are so sanguine and understated that they are used by the US and UK governments – released a Report early this year (2) stating Iraqi deaths from violence are doubling year on year.
Blair, wrote Powell: “ … is sharply criticized by the media for being too pro-US, too arrogant and ‘presidential’ (not a compliment in the British context) and too inattentive on issues of concern to voters.”
“Blair knows he may have to pay a political price for supporting us on Iraq and want to minimize it. Nonetheless he will stick with us on the big issues. His voters will look for signs that Britain and America are truly equal partners in the special relationship.”
Powell had not been paying attention. The majority of British voters wanted no “equal partnership” and nothing to do with the Iraq assault or general US global belligerence.
[dropcap]A[/dropcap]fter George W. Bush left office and Barack Obama was elected with such (now dashed) hopes, numerous Americans living in the UK interviewed in the media repeated similar phrases, that they had tried to keep silent on public transport and in public places, ashamed of their American accent, so strong was the anti-American feeling over the treatment of and further threats to Iraq.
Today’s revelations have not come at a good time for Blair, scrutiny of whose hands in Iraq’s tragedy has only grown over the years. Currently circulating is a petition to Britain’s Parliament demanding his impeachment (3) and a poll asking: “Should Tony Blair Stand Trial for War Crimes?” (4) the affirmative in the latter ranges between 95 and 96%.
Further, it seems Mr Blair also was not entirely truthful with the £10 million, six year long Chilcot Inquiry in to the Iraq invasion – publication still awaited. (5) Sir John Chilcot has given varying reasons for the delay, including 2002 correspondence between Bush and Blair which has been withheld from the Inquiry. It will not be published for another year. He surely has now all he needs to know. Also according the Mail on Sunday:
“During his appearance before the Chilcot inquiry in January 2010, Blair denied that he had struck a secret deal with Bush at Crawford to overthrow Saddam. Blair said the two men had agreed on the need to confront the Iraqi dictator, but insisted they did not get into ‘specifics’.”
In the real world, was he not a long time associate of Blair, that should surely get Sir John going.
British MP David Davis, a former Shadow Home Secretary is clearly stunned at the memo, writing (6):
“This is one of the most astonishing documents I have ever read.
“It proves in explicit terms what many of us have believed all along: Tony Blair effectively agreed to act as a front man for American foreign policy in advance of any decision by the House of Commons or the British Cabinet.
“He was happy to launder George Bush’s policy on Iraq and sub-contract British foreign policy to another country without having the remotest ability to have any real influence over it.”
He adds:
“Judging from this memorandum, Blair signed up for the Iraq War even before the Americans themselves did. It beggars belief.
“Blair was telling MPs and voters back home that he was still pursuing a diplomatic solution while Colin Powell was telling President Bush: ‘Don’t worry, George, Tony is signed up for the war come what may – he’ll handle the PR for you, just make him look big in return.’ “
Further:
“What is truly shocking is the casualness of it all, such as the reference in the memo to ‘the day after’ – meaning the day after Saddam would be toppled.”
Davis concludes by linking the terrorism scourging Iraq and the Middle East directly to the actions in which Blair had such an integral part:
“We saw the catastrophic so-called ‘de-Baathification’ of Iraq, with the country’s entire civil and military structure dismantled, leading to years of bloodshed and chaos. It has infected surrounding countries to this day and created the vacuum into which Islamic State has stepped.
“This may well be the Iraq ‘smoking gun’ we have all been looking for.”
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair’s final untruths before the invasion were an address to Parliament on 18th March 2003. They included:
“And now the world has to learn the lesson all over again that weakness in the face of a threat from a tyrant, is the surest way not to peace but to war.”
And: “The real problem is that, underneath, people dispute that Iraq is a threat; dispute the link between terrorism and WMD; dispute the whole basis of our assertion that the two together constitute a fundamental assault on our way of life.”
Should the UK not enjoin the attack: “And then, when the threat returns from Iraq or elsewhere, who will believe us? What price our credibility …”
“To retreat now, I believe, would put at hazard all that we hold dearest … stifle the first steps of progress in the Middle East …”
“This is the time for (Parliament) not just this government or indeed this Prime Minister, but for this House to give a lead, to show that we will stand up for what we know to be right, to show that we will confront the tyrannies and dictatorships and terrorists who put our way of life at risk, to show at the moment of decision that we have the courage to do the right thing.”
How wrong, devious and duplicitous can one man be? For how long can he now avoid justice?
NOTES
- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3277402/Smoking-gun-emails-reveal-Blair-s-deal-blood-George-Bush-Iraq-war-forged-YEAR-invasion-started.html
- https://www.iraqbodycount.org/analysis/numbers/2014/
- https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/108495
- http://atrueindependentscotland.com/poll-should-tony-blair-stand-trial-for-war-crimes/
- http://www.globalresearch.ca/iraq-chilcot-inquiry-complete-whitewash-of-the-tony-blair-regime-ongoing-criminality-of-her-majestys-government/5469712
- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-3277403/DAVID-DAVIS-stunning-memo-proves-Blair-signed-Iraq-Americans.html
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Maria Bartiromo and the “Moral Imperative” of Capitalism
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SJ TGP Short Take* No. 5: Maria Bartiromo and the “Moral Imperative” of Capitalism
Steven Jonas, MD, MPH
Lavishly paid celebrity journo Bartiromo at her desk: cheerfully spreading ignorance and misinformation about social and economic realities. Her gender —and looks—in a milieu overpopulated by geeky, frat-boy mentality Wall Street honchos certainly didn’t hurt her career. Then came Fox.
The New York Times, and not so right-wing), was saying about the subject. In the course of it, Bartiromo uttered a quite remarkable phrase, hailing what she termed “the moral imperative of capitalism.” In that context I wrote a column about the tobacco and fossil fuel industries, and their “moral imperatives.”
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Several items came over the wires recently that made me think about the topic once again. First, there was the Times article on Thomas Donohue, President of the US Chamber of Commerce, who acts as a flunky (oops, I mean lobbyist) for the US tobacco industry in their attempts to prevent foreign governments of countries that are their export targets from enacting strong anti-smoking regulations against the world’s number one drug-habit killer. Then of course there was Volkswagen and the diesel-emissions cheating scandal (which seems to be getting bigger almost by the day). Coming right along, were a number of drug companies — Valeant comes to mind — that somehow corner the market on the supposedly cheaper generic versions of pharmaceuticals that are oldies but goodies and then jack up the prices. Finally, there’s Exxon, which knew back in the 1970s (!!!) that global warming was coming and that the burning of fossil fuels had a lot to do with it. It still funds PR companies and etc. that sow the winds of confusion on the subject, the whirlwinds of which all humanity will eventually reap. Now of course all of these moves were in search of profits, greater ones if possible, which of course is the number one focus of capitalism. However, given the “side effects” (or major effects, one might say) of each of these moves, all of which happen to affect health from the individual to the global level in one way or another, some would question the morality of all of them. Yet Ms. Bartiromo tells us that there is a “moral imperative” underlying capitalism, especially in contrast to “socialism,” even Bernie Sanders’ “democratic socialism” (otherwise known as The New Deal on Steroids, but that subject is one for another time). Golly gee, Ms. Bartiromo (and every other similar apologist for capitalism and its destructive forces), I just wonder how you square that circle. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Senior Editor, Politics, Steven Jonas, MD, MPH is a Professor Emeritus of Preventive Medicine at Stony Brook University (NY) and author/co-author/editor/co-editor of over 30 books. In addition to being Senior Editor, Politics, for The Greanville Post, he is: a Contributor for American Politics to The Planetary Movement (http://www.planetarymovement.org/); a “Trusted Author” for Op-Ed News.com; a contributor to the “Writing for Godot” section of Reader Supported News; and a contributor to From The G-Man. He is the Editorial Director and a Contributing Author for TPJmagazine.us. Further, he is an occasional Contributor to TheHarderStuff newsletter, BuzzFlash Commentary, and Dandelion Salad. Dr. Jonas’ latest book is The 15% Solution: How the Republican Religious Right Took Control of the U.S., 1981-2022: A Futuristic Novel, Brewster, NY, Trepper & Katz Impact Books, Punto Press Publishing, 2013, (http://www.puntopress.com/jonas-the-15-solution-hits-main-distribution/), and available on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=The+15%25+Solution). … Note to Commenters We apologize for this inconvenience.
Due to severe hacking attacks in the recent past that brought our site down for up to 11 days with considerable loss of circulation, we exercise extreme caution in the comments we publish, as the comment box has been one of the main arteries to inject malicious code. Because of that comments may not appear immediately, but rest assured that if you are a legitimate commenter your opinion will be published within 24 hours. If your comment fails to appear, and you wish to reach us directly, send us a mail at: editor@greanvillepost.comNauseated by the
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Video – Strikes on Syria seen from within Russia’s Regional Air Force Command Center
SPECIAL DISPATCH
War aviation and space technology is not only an Anglo-American game. (Click image)
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