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At the time of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow for political reasons, purportedly over the USSR's involvement in Afghanistan, Margaret Thatcher urged athletes not to compete in the Moscow Olympics and supporters to boycott the Games. One of the athletes who defied this advice was Sebastian Coe, who won a gold medal in the 1500 metres. I defied the advice too and went to Moscow where I was treated extremely well. Thatcher did not ban athletes from competing, she just advised them not to go.
The same Sebastian Coe who defied Thatcher has now, as President of the IAAF, spoiled the dreams of athletes, who like him in 1980, have been training for life for this opportunity. It is clearly a political decision and has nothing to do with the few athletes of all nations who choose to cheat by using performance-enhancing drugs. Sadly politics has ruined sport and sportsmanship as I demonstrated in my last post.
Ever since the west set up a puppet-government in Ukraine and imposed sanctions against Russia for following the wishes of the population of Crimea and its alleged military involvement in the civil-war started by Poroshenko, the west has not missed an opportunity to try to punish Russia. Blame Russia. Blame Putin. These are the slogans on the lips of every MSM mouthpiece.
It disturbs me that my country, and other western countries, have gone down the same road as Adolf Hitler in his attitude towads black and non-Aryan people including non-Aryan athletes. Thankfully Hitler was put in his place and Jesse Owens returned to the US with four gold medals only to be snubbed by President Roosevelt. Racism against blacks was the bigotry of the day replaced today by persecution of Muslims. The west in its xenophobic hatred of Russians is no different from Hitler in his belief that Aryans were superior, except he did not ban Jesse Owens from competing.
Sebastian Coe, no angel himself and in the middle of several corruption scandals, should be ashamed of himself for toadying to the US/UK attempts to discredit Russia. The US economy is on its last legs and this is a cynical diversionary tactic. As a lad I used to run, I was never any good, at the various clubs in the West Riding including Hallamshire (where Coe ran). Coe should think back to those days and all the work he put in building up the speed and stamina that made his dream come true. Then he should consider what this stupid decision of the IAAF has done to crush the dreams of good honest Russian athletes. Nobody from Russia will compete under any flag but Russian.
Can somebody with the knowledge please start a petition to support Russian athletes? I'll link it here and spread it. Thanks.
Showing posts with label Uk. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Uk. Show all posts
Saturday, June 18, 2016
Saturday, February 6, 2016
Hammond egg on his face
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The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention after due consideration reached the conclusion that Julian Assange was being 'arbitrarily detained', that he should be released, compensated and given back his passport. Our Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond, did not agree with the decision - though when earlier given an opportunity to appeal against the courts findings declined. Instead he waited for their conclusion and lambasted the international lawyers who had made the advice. This is most improper and childish of someone without a legal background yet so high-ranking in the UK government.
"I reject the decision of this working group. It is a group made up of lay people and not lawyers. Julian Assange is a fugitive from justice. He is hiding from justice in the Ecuadorian embassy.
He can come out any time he chooses.. . . But he will have to face justice in Sweden if he chooses to do so. This is frankly a ridiculous finding by the working group and we reject it."
First let us see if he is right. Are they lay people? I think not. Click on this link which gives the credentials of the five international lawyers. These are biographies of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights. The only person commenting adversely on these experts' credentials and opinions is someone least qualified to do so: Philip Hammond.
Can the UK reject the findings of the Working Group? Yes. One of the problems with international law is that findings can be rejected by a nation state. The UN Working Group is a higher authority than a nation state and the UK has a lot to lose by not applying the advice. You expect countries like Israel and Saudi Arabia not to abide by international law but traditionally, before the turn of the century, not countries like the UK.
All that changed with Tony Blair's illegal war on Iraq and since then human rights in the UK have gone decidedly downhill. There are all kinds of Acts to hold people in prison without trial, to hold courts in secret so that evidence cannot be tested, to prevent coroners from conducting inquests by replacing the inquest with an Inquiry, as in the recent Robert Owen Inquiry into the death of Alexander Litvinenko. Human rights, going right back to the Magna Carta (1215), are being dumped in the twenty first century. This, I believe, is part of a last-ditch attempt by failing empires to enslave the planet.
I am working on a draft to petition parliament, the European Court of Human Rights, Philip Hammond himself, and Jeremy Corbyn to compel Hammond to obey international law. The UK is a permanent member of the Security Council of the United Nations and Hammond is trying to make a mockery of that body. The reason the League of Nations (predecessor to the United Nations) failed was because certain countries did not abide by League of Nations' findings.
The powerlessness of the League of Nations was demonstrated most conspicuously in the Lytton Inquiry which investigated the false-flag Mukden Incident (1931), in which the Japanese blew up a railway siding, blamed it on the Chinese, and used it as an excuse to invade Manchuria. Despite Japan being culpable according to the League of Nations, Japan ignored the findings and withdrew from the League of Nations in spring 1933. Three years later Haile Selassie petitioned the League of Nations to intervene to stop Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia (Abyssinia). Again it proved to be powerless to help. Finally Hitler's planned invasion of the Sudetenland, in what may have been a genuine attempt to avoid war by the UK and France a quadrilateral agreement between Italy, Germany, UK and France, allowed Germany to march into Czechoslovakia. The League of Nations stayed silent. Some may be old enough to recall that Japan, Germany and Italy were enemies of the allied forces in World War II.
With the case of Julian Assange the UK and Swedish governments are proposing to disobey international law in order to perpetrate the same kind of nation-state criminality the League of Nations was unable to prevent. Even if Julian Assange took advantage of a woman he had earlier that night had consensual sex with, he has been incarcerated for five years, in prison, house arrest and where he is now at the Ecuadorian Embassy. For a first offence it would be more than a severe punishment. Thinking people know that this is an attempt to get him extradited to the United States because of his revelations through Wikileaks of war crimes by that country. We really need to oppose these breaches before we end up being called fascists ourselves.
"I reject the decision of this working group. It is a group made up of lay people and not lawyers. Julian Assange is a fugitive from justice. He is hiding from justice in the Ecuadorian embassy.
He can come out any time he chooses.. . . But he will have to face justice in Sweden if he chooses to do so. This is frankly a ridiculous finding by the working group and we reject it."
First let us see if he is right. Are they lay people? I think not. Click on this link which gives the credentials of the five international lawyers. These are biographies of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights. The only person commenting adversely on these experts' credentials and opinions is someone least qualified to do so: Philip Hammond.
Can the UK reject the findings of the Working Group? Yes. One of the problems with international law is that findings can be rejected by a nation state. The UN Working Group is a higher authority than a nation state and the UK has a lot to lose by not applying the advice. You expect countries like Israel and Saudi Arabia not to abide by international law but traditionally, before the turn of the century, not countries like the UK.
All that changed with Tony Blair's illegal war on Iraq and since then human rights in the UK have gone decidedly downhill. There are all kinds of Acts to hold people in prison without trial, to hold courts in secret so that evidence cannot be tested, to prevent coroners from conducting inquests by replacing the inquest with an Inquiry, as in the recent Robert Owen Inquiry into the death of Alexander Litvinenko. Human rights, going right back to the Magna Carta (1215), are being dumped in the twenty first century. This, I believe, is part of a last-ditch attempt by failing empires to enslave the planet.
I am working on a draft to petition parliament, the European Court of Human Rights, Philip Hammond himself, and Jeremy Corbyn to compel Hammond to obey international law. The UK is a permanent member of the Security Council of the United Nations and Hammond is trying to make a mockery of that body. The reason the League of Nations (predecessor to the United Nations) failed was because certain countries did not abide by League of Nations' findings.
The powerlessness of the League of Nations was demonstrated most conspicuously in the Lytton Inquiry which investigated the false-flag Mukden Incident (1931), in which the Japanese blew up a railway siding, blamed it on the Chinese, and used it as an excuse to invade Manchuria. Despite Japan being culpable according to the League of Nations, Japan ignored the findings and withdrew from the League of Nations in spring 1933. Three years later Haile Selassie petitioned the League of Nations to intervene to stop Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia (Abyssinia). Again it proved to be powerless to help. Finally Hitler's planned invasion of the Sudetenland, in what may have been a genuine attempt to avoid war by the UK and France a quadrilateral agreement between Italy, Germany, UK and France, allowed Germany to march into Czechoslovakia. The League of Nations stayed silent. Some may be old enough to recall that Japan, Germany and Italy were enemies of the allied forces in World War II.
With the case of Julian Assange the UK and Swedish governments are proposing to disobey international law in order to perpetrate the same kind of nation-state criminality the League of Nations was unable to prevent. Even if Julian Assange took advantage of a woman he had earlier that night had consensual sex with, he has been incarcerated for five years, in prison, house arrest and where he is now at the Ecuadorian Embassy. For a first offence it would be more than a severe punishment. Thinking people know that this is an attempt to get him extradited to the United States because of his revelations through Wikileaks of war crimes by that country. We really need to oppose these breaches before we end up being called fascists ourselves.
Friday, December 14, 2012
Torture is in fashion
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At a time when the tortured chickens of UN and CIA rendition are coming home to roost Gulnara Karimova flaunts herself as a dedicated follower of fashion and yoga exponent. She is also described as a diplomat, executing the duties of a UN envoy, a screenwriter, oh, and a jewellery designer. Keeping active is an important feature in the life of a dictator's daughter. She has always been conscious about her image even though two years back she was described, thanks to Wikileaks cables, as the most despised woman in Uzbekistan.
Her father is the notorious Islam Karimov, who has pretty well set himself up as permanent president of Uzbekistan and all the speculation suggests she is most likely to follow in his footsteps if he retires, being labelled in one Russian blog as the Mafia Princess. Karimov became president in 1990 and has no opposition, since serious opponents tend to disappear without trace. He is friends with US power-mongers and feels as comfortable in the presence of George W. Bush as Hilary Clinton appears in Karimov's company.
Photo courtesy of Dominic Streatfeild's, A History of the World since 9/11, published in February 2011 (UK) by Atlantic Books, August 2011 (US) by Bloomsbury Press.
The issue of torture in Uzbekistan was raised by Craig Murray when he was ambassador there but because of our transatlantic allegiance it was thought better to get rid of Murray than bring Karimov to international justice. Karimov's human rights record is even worse than that of the United States. As well as the disappearances of his opponents he has been criticised for his regime's widespread use of torture and the exploitation of children in the cotton fields.
Yesterday, both in Strasbourg and the UK, two torture victims were compensated for their ordeals.£2.2 million pounds of taxpayers money was paid in compensation to Libyan dissident, Sami al Saadi, for being illegally rendered back to Libya to face torture under the Gadaffi regime when Tony Blair was still friends with Gadaffi, while from Germany, Khaled el Masri, was rendered by the CIA to Macedonia where in front of Macedonian police, who witnessed the scene, CIA operatives buggered, shackled and beat him. The European Court of Human Rights ordered Macedonia to pay him €60,000 (£49,000) in compensation and requested that the US must apologise and make a voluntary contribution to Mr el Masri. Anybody see a connection that two cases are concluded at the same time? It is not a coincidence. The vast sums are paid to keep names like Jack Straw, and his culpability, off the record. It is hush money!
Today I co-wrote with editorial input an article concerned with Sweden's rendition programme at the behest of the CIA, concentrating mainly on the cases of Ahmed Agiza and Muhammad al Zery, who were extradited to Egypt where they were both imprisoned and tortured. In both cases the men were paid compensation of 3 million Kronors. Mr. Agiza spent 10 years in prison. We have British citizens, Babar Ahmad and Talha Ahsan, for whom this blog tried to prevent extradition, suffering in US supermax prisons because Theresa May extradited them to the US even though they had already spent unreasonable times in UK prisons without even being charged. They have done nothing wrong but in the US 98% of prisoners confess in plea bargains just to get a shorter sentence because of the harshness of conditions. It too is torture.
Back to Gulnara Karimov and her repressive regime backed by the US and UK. Thankfully not everybody is as complacent as the UK and US governments in seeking to end this human rights abuse. While Gulnara has been posting pictures of herself in suggestive Yoga postures on Twitter, and telling the world how she does not eat meat, only chicken and fish, Andrew Stroehlein has been questioning her country's record, as Uzbekistan's envoy to the UN, on torture, the Andijan massacre of April 2005, child labour, lack of freedom of expression and a whole host of other serious abuses that are not going to go away. So perhaps when she's meditating after her next Yoga session, she can meditate on some of those issues.
Her father is the notorious Islam Karimov, who has pretty well set himself up as permanent president of Uzbekistan and all the speculation suggests she is most likely to follow in his footsteps if he retires, being labelled in one Russian blog as the Mafia Princess. Karimov became president in 1990 and has no opposition, since serious opponents tend to disappear without trace. He is friends with US power-mongers and feels as comfortable in the presence of George W. Bush as Hilary Clinton appears in Karimov's company.
Photo courtesy of Dominic Streatfeild's, A History of the World since 9/11, published in February 2011 (UK) by Atlantic Books, August 2011 (US) by Bloomsbury Press.
The issue of torture in Uzbekistan was raised by Craig Murray when he was ambassador there but because of our transatlantic allegiance it was thought better to get rid of Murray than bring Karimov to international justice. Karimov's human rights record is even worse than that of the United States. As well as the disappearances of his opponents he has been criticised for his regime's widespread use of torture and the exploitation of children in the cotton fields.
Yesterday, both in Strasbourg and the UK, two torture victims were compensated for their ordeals.£2.2 million pounds of taxpayers money was paid in compensation to Libyan dissident, Sami al Saadi, for being illegally rendered back to Libya to face torture under the Gadaffi regime when Tony Blair was still friends with Gadaffi, while from Germany, Khaled el Masri, was rendered by the CIA to Macedonia where in front of Macedonian police, who witnessed the scene, CIA operatives buggered, shackled and beat him. The European Court of Human Rights ordered Macedonia to pay him €60,000 (£49,000) in compensation and requested that the US must apologise and make a voluntary contribution to Mr el Masri. Anybody see a connection that two cases are concluded at the same time? It is not a coincidence. The vast sums are paid to keep names like Jack Straw, and his culpability, off the record. It is hush money!
Today I co-wrote with editorial input an article concerned with Sweden's rendition programme at the behest of the CIA, concentrating mainly on the cases of Ahmed Agiza and Muhammad al Zery, who were extradited to Egypt where they were both imprisoned and tortured. In both cases the men were paid compensation of 3 million Kronors. Mr. Agiza spent 10 years in prison. We have British citizens, Babar Ahmad and Talha Ahsan, for whom this blog tried to prevent extradition, suffering in US supermax prisons because Theresa May extradited them to the US even though they had already spent unreasonable times in UK prisons without even being charged. They have done nothing wrong but in the US 98% of prisoners confess in plea bargains just to get a shorter sentence because of the harshness of conditions. It too is torture.
Back to Gulnara Karimov and her repressive regime backed by the US and UK. Thankfully not everybody is as complacent as the UK and US governments in seeking to end this human rights abuse. While Gulnara has been posting pictures of herself in suggestive Yoga postures on Twitter, and telling the world how she does not eat meat, only chicken and fish, Andrew Stroehlein has been questioning her country's record, as Uzbekistan's envoy to the UN, on torture, the Andijan massacre of April 2005, child labour, lack of freedom of expression and a whole host of other serious abuses that are not going to go away. So perhaps when she's meditating after her next Yoga session, she can meditate on some of those issues.
Monday, February 6, 2012
Another war pending
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Julie Pace in The Huff Post writes: "In a letter to Congress Monday, Obama said the tougher sanctions are warranted "particularly in light of the deceptive practices of the Central Bank of Iran and other Iranian banks." One of four countries in the world without a Rothschild-owned central bank is Iran. What Obama really means is that 'we' cannot control Iran's money supply.
This is what a Nathan Rothschild said about my country in the nineteenth century:
'I care not what puppet is placed on the throne of England's empire. The man who controls Britain's money supply, controls the British. And I control the money supply.'
I have resigned myself to the fact that the United States is going to war with Iran. I wish my country would not get involved but fear it will. Sanctions are already being imposed by William Hague and as everyone knows, that is the first stage in waging war on oil-rich countries. Our (US and UK) governments over the last twenty years have had little regard for international law and the fact that Russia and China used their UN veto will have no consequence on the actions of these nation states any more than the League of Nations could control the actions of Japan's occupation of Manchuria (following the Muckden Incident, 1931), Mussolini's Italian excursion into Ethiopia in 1935 or Hitler's German ambitions in the Sudetenland in 1939. Eventually the world passed judgment on these aggressors.
A further confirmation that Israel, the US and the UK are planning war is the removal of staff from the US embassy in Syria. A fleet of warships is already in the area awaiting commands. Aggression never pays in the long term. Today it is the US, UK and Israel who are the aggressors. And they think they are invincible. Judgement day is coming for all. Let this cup pass.
This is what a Nathan Rothschild said about my country in the nineteenth century:
'I care not what puppet is placed on the throne of England's empire. The man who controls Britain's money supply, controls the British. And I control the money supply.'
I have resigned myself to the fact that the United States is going to war with Iran. I wish my country would not get involved but fear it will. Sanctions are already being imposed by William Hague and as everyone knows, that is the first stage in waging war on oil-rich countries. Our (US and UK) governments over the last twenty years have had little regard for international law and the fact that Russia and China used their UN veto will have no consequence on the actions of these nation states any more than the League of Nations could control the actions of Japan's occupation of Manchuria (following the Muckden Incident, 1931), Mussolini's Italian excursion into Ethiopia in 1935 or Hitler's German ambitions in the Sudetenland in 1939. Eventually the world passed judgment on these aggressors.
A further confirmation that Israel, the US and the UK are planning war is the removal of staff from the US embassy in Syria. A fleet of warships is already in the area awaiting commands. Aggression never pays in the long term. Today it is the US, UK and Israel who are the aggressors. And they think they are invincible. Judgement day is coming for all. Let this cup pass.
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