Tony Blair at Chilcot the Aftermath

Talk about a fizzle rather then a bang.Rather unsurprisingly the Inquiry not only let Blair off the hook but let him get on his soapbox for some last minute proselytizing from the book of Bush. It was unsurprising though really. A Government does not indict its old leader, especially when most of the cabinet where in close to the centres of power during the events in question, especially not publicly.

Madam Miaow has her own take on this farce.

And here's an account from the protest outside on the streets by Harpy Marx.

I didn't expect much from Chilcot and his colleagues but I didn't expect this:



He starts off by trying to link Iraq with 9/11 again by association. Though this clip is only a sound bite, this accusations is so false that I'm going to spend quite sometime pointing it out as some people do still believe it, and thats very dangerous for future foreign affairs.
This time he appears to imply that Iraq's weapon capabilities could be used by terrorists, Umm how exactly? ignoring the exhaustion of Iraq's military and technology -They couldn't even buy North Korean Rodong missiles- how exactly would groups like Al-Qaeda supposed to get hold of them? was Saddam going to sell them some old Scuds? thats the only possible link between Saddam and Al-Qaeda, and its not a very good one for a number of reasons. Saddam's Ba'athist regime was a Secular movement, his regime was also plague by Islamic terrorism of the Shi'a community who in response to Saddam's oppression had begun to ally with Ayatollah Khomeini and Iran, one of the reasons for Iraq's invasion of Iran in 1980 was to remove the Islamic Republics as a threat to his regimes stability. So it seems unlikely that Saddam would ally in any capacity with radicals,

Further Al-Qaeda itself is a Saudi Wahhabi branch of Islamic extremists many of the senior members including Bin Laden opposed Saddam's invasion of Kuwait and the Ba'athist movement as a threat to there interpretation of Islam.

Its true that AL-Qaeda would love to acquire much deadlier weaponry, but why would they go to an enemy with a crumbling military when they could go to Pakistan, where they have many supporters and fellow travellers in the military and intelligence services, and where their armaments program has not been curbed and where they do have nuclear weapons, which Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan has been more then generous in sharing. The only countries he hasn't tried flogging his secrets to are India, and Israel, probably has something against the letter I, a bit like the KKK and loathing for the lower case t.

And perhaps the most important reason why Saddam and Al-Qaeda wouldn't work together is that it would have no benefit to Saddam. Arming Al-Qaeda would be a direct provocation to the Americans, who remember monitor everything going in and out of the country. Al-Qaeda can't inflict lasting damage on the Americans, nor could they advance Iraq's geo-political interests. Saddam couldn't gain influence over Afghanistan Iran is in the way, all of Saddam's other enemies are also very close to the West(Saudi Arabia, Israel, Kuwait etc.) again provoking American response and so on.

"In the course of these discussions do you think you gave him any commitments?"

Oh come on, could you have phrased that any more softly? I could rest my head and fall a sleep on that sentence, unsurprisingly he rebukes that by saying that he only committed to dealing with Saddam's removal, which they don't bother questioning, Thats understandable I mean pursuing that line of questioning only has the potential to prove or disprove definitively whether Britain and America manipulated events to achieve the needed justifications for there commencement of the invasion. You'd think and Inquiry into the conduct of said conflict would be interested in finding settling that question once and for all. Its not a trial so they can't demand evidence, but at least ask, if not that then for some elaboration.

They also manage to muck up the issue of regime change (which is illegal) After he makes the claim that the UK/USA were united on dealing with Saddam, to let him divert it back onto WMD disarmament. Which if you remember Fern Britton managed to catch him out on that one. Yes Fern Britton was a tougher interviewer than Chilcot and Co.

Then there's the constant references to Iran which has many disturbing implications. I also quite like this little gem "Nobody, but NOBODY, thought that Iran would end up supporting Al-Qaeda because they both wanted to destabilise Iraq." There are two
extremely glaring flaws here. First what do you mean Nobody thought Iran would support Al-Qaeda? They aren't supporting Al-Qaeda. There supporting the Iraqi government which is headed by the Pro-Iran Islamic Dawa party which first came to prominence in Iraq as an anti Saddam insurgent group during the Iran-Iraq war. Why would it support a radical Sunni Islamist movement that has relatively little following in Iraq and is an enemy of its regime? The answer is simple it doesn't, what it does do is lead onto the second problem, Western laziness in identifying the "enemy". Time and again you will hear references to a growing number of Al-Qaeda groups all over the world, as if it is some sort of vast monolith sitting atop a global web of stockpiles and fanatics. When it isn't for example lets take a look at the most recent example, the Yemeni "Al-Qaeda" Lenin s Tomb does an excellent job of debunking this myth. In short just because your enemies share the same broadly defined religion does not make them the same organisation. If what Blair says is true and isn't just him being lazy, then this is a galling admission of the sorry state of our actual planning or lack thereof in regards to the invasion. In short if you can't even be sure who it is your actually fighting then how can you anticipate anything? like there goals and there capabilities? simple you can't. Again why didn't the inquiry pick up on this or correct him?

I could go on but really whats the point? all this did is confirm my and I suspect your suspicions of what would actually happen a white washing so Blair can move on to his trying work as an after dinner speaker once and for all.

Tony Blair at Chilcot

Well here its folks, the master of deception and the father of all lies himself as been summoned before the Chilcot inquiry, he will asked some potentially tough questions though unless he slips up he'll no doubt manage to turn his testimony into a piffy series of soundbites for the afternoon news.

So with it being a whole seven years since the invasion I though it would be best to remind are selves of what all this thus is about, and thought it best to so in song.
Fortunately for your ears a young group of radical musicians by the name of Convict/dead centrefold beat me to it by several years. So without further ado I give you Send the Troops by Convict

38 degrees

"People,Power,Change"

38 Degrees is newly formed internet based peoples power action group. Its free to join and it currently consists of over 60,000 members. It currently consists of a series of petitions and letter campaigns on a number of issues ranging from stopping Donald Trumps plans for another rich mans golf course (Complete with evictions of local tenants), to making sure Blair faces tough questions at the upcoming Chilcot inquiry as well as greater transparency for Lobbyists and a US style recall vote should constituents be fed up with there MPs, for a hypothetical example lets say an MP was less then honest when writing up an expenses claim form for (keeping it fantastical)say a Duck pond rather then having to wait till the next General election (where party allegiance can shield them) voters could implement an by election then and there.

Cynics might scoff a bit at what appears on there list of achievements were the group credits itself with some fairly impressive gains a few thousand signatures seem to have on decisions by Government, especially given the opposition to there stance by professional lobbyists. But that's the point of petitions and letters, there not going to change anything by themselves but they do give ammunition to those campaigning on the ground, and raise awareness of the issues that can often be done in the shadows, and show that a large number of people do genuinely care.

As for the future well, all members are invited to join an open debate and vote on what the group should do for the next year. Some have even suggested they form there own party, which in my few has thankfully been voted down by a wide margin (though 20 days remain for voting)but it does show that if a group like this maintains its momentum it could in a few years develop into a fully fledged pressure group with all the whistles and bells. (or at least stickers and buttons).

Haiti and the Devils Curse

Real News has done another excellent job debunking the sinister myths and laziness of the mainstream media- particularly Australia, Haiti is not the birth place of Voodoo that was founded in West Africa- for those who missed it Pat Robertson a fundamentalist Evangelical Christian stated in an interview that Haiti was poor due to a literal pack with the devil they supposedly made to overcome there Colonial French masters. While this absurd and historically in accurate diatribe (wrong Napoleon Pat) has received the pillorying it rightly deserves, they as Real News points out have not been that much better omitting the interference of outside powers in its affairs for example. Or the wretched Neo-Liberal economic agenda enacted by Papa Doc's Dictatorship. Or omitting the ousting from power Democratically elected popular Left Leaning President Jean Bertrand Aristide , Who as seen here wishes to return



Rather the main stream news seems content to ignore this (you know stuff of actual journalistic merit) portray the poverty and devastation of Haiti as something that is endemic with the country itself, as if it permeates the soil itself or rather that theres just some sort of bad Mojo about the land.

Gary McKinnon extradition postponed

Gary McKinnon's impending extradition as been recently postponed for a review following worries that his aspergers syndrome and deterioration of his mental health may lead to a suicide attempt should the extradition go ahead. Currently the Free Gary McKinnon campaign as many ways you can help to put pressure on the Home Secretary and the President to drop there hounding of this poor young man, but one way as the video above makes clear is to text (at no extra charge mind) the word Gary to 65000, Thats Gary at 65000.

Special thanks to George Galloway for his campaigning efforts on this issue and to Ignaciosanmon for his great work uploading the Mother of all Talk shows for the Masses.

UK Libel Reform

Readers of Private eye will no doubt be aware of the appalling state of Britains Libel laws, which allow the Rich and Corrupt around the world to punish journalists and scientists who dissent in the UK for very tenuous reasons. The judges allowed Khalid Bin Mahfouz a Saudi Banker to Sue the Author of Funding Evil Rachel Ehrenfeld even though she lives in New York and the book sold at the time of trial a mere 20 copies via Amazon.

Fortunately after a pretty glaring example the case against Simon Singh Pressure for reform has been mounting. Championed by the Libel Reform Campaign currently Libel reform seems to be making very encouraging strides into finally clearing up are dirty legal system. From the email they sent me as a supporter and there news items, it appears that many politicians are taken this issue seriously, The LibDems have made the issue a Manifesto commitment (stop sniggering)and Labours Jack Straw has been looking into the process with working group that has shown some promising signs.

But its not over yet.

The Cold War explained in under ten minutes

Oppression of Union activists

I recently read this at Socialist Unity,

Sadly the oppression of Union activists is nothing new and even goes on in the "free world". But in other corners of the world brave working men and women face horrors that make the Met's handling of the pit closures seem like an afternoon picnic as a brief gander at Colombia illustrates.

The story of the crackdown by the Iranian government on the sugar workers union(along with five others) highlights the special vulnerabilities of the food and drinks and workers.That's why I feel its important to highlight the work of the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers or IUF. The IUF a global federation of Unions in the food and drink and service industry has been in the process of launching a number of campaigns -a list can be found here- to end some frankly appalling injustices to Union members around the world.

I wish it and Trade Unions around the world every success.

Haiti

As you are no doubt aware Haiti the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere has been absolutely devastated by a major earthquake whose epicentre was just 25 miles away from the Capital Port-Au-Prince. Exacerbating the problem has been the long term lack of investment, particularly in the areas of housing and construction, and health care. The death toll which shockingly stands at around the 200,000 mark with many more left to desperately cling on to what little aid and support they can get. Among the Dead were the head of the current UN relief mission and his deputy,the Arch Bishop Joseph Serge Miot and many more.

However it appears that the suffering of the Haitian people has only just begun as despite a phenomenal response by both regional and world governments and charities-a list of aid pledged by country by country can be found here and the website of the Umbrella organisation for British Charities and relief efforts can be found here- The relief efforts have run into trouble. Or have they? it seems that wide scale looting and pagan voodoo rituals have been going on preventing effective relief action Apparently. I say apparently as evidence of this (especially the Voodoo connections) is thin on the ground as this report by Real News demonstrates. And when I searched for further evidence the first sites I came across where White Supremacists whose picture evidence was shaky at best (they could easily have been picture of local relief work) and kept cutting away to mantra's like "save whites now".




Lenin's Tomb has also been very adept at debunking these myths here here and here. I should also mention that before this Earthquake and after this mess is finally sorted out , There is group that has worked tirelessly to create a fairer and more prosperous Haiti, The Haiti Action group, which has an excellent history of the events of Haiti and the Politics of the Earthquake.

The Internationale

I feel some elaboration my be needed for my comments on the English Internationale, I find the sentiment and ideals it espouses to be wonderful its just well listen to it, it starts of very well but after "unites the human race" it becomes quite clumsy to and difficult to keep the rhythm going hell if you don't believe me checkout its wikipedia page, (and as always if we can't trust an online encyclopaedia that can be edited by anyone anonymously who can we?) or Billy Bragg (more on him in the near future) who made up his own version.

And yes if your wondering the Spanish version in this video is the Anarchist Internationale but since I like the Sex pistols, and the Clash I don't have a problem with that.

Oh and by the way if you want to here those versions in full you can find many here at the Soviet Music MP3 archive and much more including the rare Afghan version from the short lived and much lamented Democratic Republic of Afghanistan and an Orchestra version by Dr Goebbels (no I'm not kidding, check it out if you don't believe).

The Red Flag by Jim Connell

Well here it is the first in a series of mini posts. The Red Flag by Jim Connell is one of the oldest Socialist anthems, made in 1889 by Irish song writer Jim Connell originally sung to the tune of O Tannenbaum or O Christmas Tree in English. In my view this is much better then the English version of the Socialist Internationale which aside from the noble sentiment its lyrics are almost un listen-able. It is the Anthem of the British Labour party which ends its annual conference with a big sing along. Cynics might like to point out the irony of having lyrics such as "cowards flinch, and traitors sneer" being sung by the New Labour clique during the Blair years though.

Lyrics here

The people's flag is deepest red,
It shrouded oft our martyred dead,
And ere their limbs grew stiff and cold,
Their hearts blood dyed its every fold.

"Then raise the scarlet standard high. (chorus)
Within its shade we'll live and die,
Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer,
We'll keep the red flag flying here."

Look round, the Frenchman loves its blaze,
The sturdy German chants its praise,
In Moscow's vaults its hymns are sung
Chicago swells the surging throng.

It waved above our infant might,
When all ahead seemed dark as night;
It witnessed many a deed and vow,
We must not change its colour now.

It well recalls the triumphs past,
It gives the hope of peace at last;
The banner bright, the symbol plain,
Of human right and human gain.

It suits today the weak and base,
Whose minds are fixed on pelf and place
To cringe before the rich man's frown,
And haul the sacred emblem down.

With heads uncovered swear we all
To bear it onward till we fall;
Come dungeons dark or gallows grim,
This song shall be our parting hymn

Nation States

No, this isn't a tirade on the follies of Nationalism (that will come later on). This is just a few paragraphs on a fun little game for political anoraks like myself. NationStates by Max Barry an author with a quite interesting back-catalogue of fictional consumerist dystopia's and satires of Corporate America. Nationstates is one of those web browser games that seemed to have spread like fungus in the undergrowth of the Internet.

This one however is different, Its completely free to access all its functions, no members only area's, its a time consuming as you want it to be, theres absolutely no need to grind -unless you derive some sort of sick sexual thrill from it, but hey whatever floats your boat- unless you get really into the "role playing" aspects of Executive government, and coupled with that it lets you partake in pure escapism, you can quite easily construct the nation of your dreams or nightmares with relatively little time and effort by selecting one of several "proposals" by your advisers all of which are comically over exaggerated. And all of it is easily repairable should you change your mind.

If you get bored of domestic politics you can even get into the realm of international relations as Nationstates has its own UN analogue the World Assembly where nations can bicker endlessly about non events and waste time and money calling each other names (just like the real UN). And as well as having a very active forum many regions (where your nation is located) support there own mini forums to facilitate greater discussion and socialisation.

So there's a brief review/shout out to what I feel is a fun little game for those interested in the fun little world of politics.

Music

Don't worry I'm not going to sing. I am far to sober for that, but what I will do is post another entry about music. There's something wonderful about music that just touches you isn't there. A good song or catchy series of beats and whistles can just borrow straight through a man's skull and directly stimulate are emotive centres in our brains. They can uplift us and make are chests swell with pride as shown by the plethora of national anthems and marching songs, and sometimes make us sad and downbeat as shown by the depressingly lucrative emo music genre, They can even breakdown the language barrier as this video comically shows



Besides one of the biggest difficulties of keeping a blog going is of course finding things interesting enough to post; with that in mind coupled with the fact that my main reason for starting this blog is to help generate greater exposer of those already out there on the net who I feel have been criminally overlooked. I've been thinking about creating a series of mini posts us youtube videos and other such malarkey with maybe a brief paragraph of background information, or explanation of why I think it deserves greater attention then it has received, this should also help when time constraints hit or a get a dry spell.

Real News

Ah News, News is our window to the great outside world, a friendly mentor explaining complex situation in an accessible way that helps us the great ignorant mass know just what the bloody hell is going on in this scary world of ours. Or at least in theory thats how its supposed to go. If you've ever been unfortunate enough to read a newspaper or seen a program by owned by News International you'll no doubt quickly realise that in practice the news leaves a lot to be desired. As that infamous front page demonstrates, (more on Hillsborough here)

But instead of ranting at the evils of Murdoch like countless others have done many of which where much better then what I could do (here, here, and here ) though if you really want a fun game to play, go to any vaguely left wing blog search bar and type in one of the following phrases , Murdoch, Sun, News International, Fox news, Evil, Satan, bastard, Bloodsucker, and well you get the idea, what comes will probable boil the blood of any decent human being.

Where was I? oh right not talking about Murdoch.... the media in general, my old Sociology teacher had a saying regarding the media, "he who pays the piper calls the tune" this is really the main problem with media in general as frequent readers of Private eyes street of shame section will probably be aware of. To clarify, government owned and publicly run enterprises such as the old Pravda, and the BBC ( Bush and Blair Corporation according to George Galloway) are unlikely to be overtly critical of there paymasters and bosses for the sake of career and because the government if its smart will pick those who are ideologically a "safe pair of hands" those this can backfire, I believe were all familiar with Greg Dykes tenure as General Secre- I mean Director General and the Hutton Inquiry Debacle which while a win for the government ended up costing Blair pretty much all credibility on the war and honesty fronts, and strangely the aforementioned Pravda under the editorship of Stalin was initially split with Lenin in early 1917 by calling for support of the Provisional government of Kerensky, so nothing can be taken for granted.

However the private or "free" press as we in the West inaccurately call it is not much better and in my opinion thanks to this capitalist myth that because its a privately owned business it can do what it likes even worse on the question of stepping on there employers and moneymen toes.You know things are bad when you have the Guardian and the New Statesmen taking sponsorship and ad revenue from companies like Shell and E-on, I mean if your a pro environment anti mega corporation newspaper would you see any conflict of interest taking an oil companies money especially one that has a very dodgy record in the Nigerian River Delta and probably *cough definitely* has blood on its hands?

Then of course theirs the insidious PR lobby that stomps down on dissent like an NKVD agent who has a brand new Gulag to fill. A very good example of how powerful and manipulative they can be is found here at around 4:31.

There is also another phenomena linked to the dumbing down of the news which has dire consequences for democracy and decision making, which I'm unfortunately not very good at explaining but fortunately thanks to Charlie Brooker and Adam Curtis (the fellow behind the power of nightmares and the trap) I don't have to explain it I can just link to it here and tell you that the relevant information starts at 1:50 so you might as well just watch the whole thing really.

Anyway all is not lost there are still a few principled voices out there in say the blogosphere and youtube etc, and some unlike me have some actual weight, very good summaries of several victories over corruption via the internet can be found at the excellent A Very Public Sociologist and a somewhat more critical appraisal of these tools of social engineering can be found here at the very good Polemical report.

And of the old media there still exist a few crusaders for truth, for example the most factual and in depth account of the Coup against Hugo Chavez in 2002 and the horrendous state of the media in the Bolivarian Republic was the Irish Documentary the Revolution will not be Televised which can be found in links on the side bar or here if your lazy. But by far the most promising development for journalism of principal in my opinion is the Real news Network (youtube channel is here a news network that is entirely funded by its members and donations ensure full editorial control of content lies with the journalists themselves. Aside from the independence it also boasts some amazingly in depth interviews with scholars and academics (such as this one on Obama's health care reform failures due to some unlikely opposition with the head of campaign for America's future) as well as breaking some phenomenally important international developments which are ignored in the mainstream media for example this expose on the recent shame elections in Honduras which have either been ignored entirely in the West or have been ignored entirely or taken at face value. then there's the frankly excellent discussions on the opposition movement in Iran which for the most part is free of Jingoism and western snobbery, one highlight is the discussion of the legacy of the life of the deceased Ayatollah Montazeri and this in depth analysis of the Revolutionary Guard.

On behalf of myself I just like to take the time to say thank you to the Real news network and the others out there to which honesty and integrity still mean something and I hope to somehow raise awareness of you out there to as many fellow travellers as possible.

Pygmy

Well best to hit the ground running I guess, consider this a prototype if you will , I'll try my best avoid spoilers where the plot is concerned but will give a general outline so be warned
"He who owns the Youth gains the Future". Adolph Hitler.

Heres a diatribe on a book I've just read recently, Pygmy by Chuck Palahniuk (of Fight club fame)tells the fictional account of Operative 67 -the Pygmy from the title so dubbed by the Americans due to his diminutive size- and other operatives all children of around 13 years old who infiltrate the United States via a Church sponsored exchange program for the fulfilment of Operation Havoc, a mysterious and no doubt sinister plot worthy of Machiavelli himself.

One major make or break thing to mention with this book is the Prose. It is not your standard fictional narrative, it is in the style of a form of pigeon English as it comes the point of view of Operative Pygmy and while very apt has made this book for some unreadable, I very strongly advise those who are curious about this book to read the free excerpt from amazon first before you decide whether or not to buy this somewhat pricey book.

The book is an exercise in satire of the consumerist American lifestyle with a bonus wry look at its polar opposite, The Anti-America (AA) if you will . Which is the best description of the land where Pygmy comes from, Its never actually named or to be precise it is named but censored as is the name of the American town Pygmy infiltrates and the dates that these events take place, as the book is set out as a series of reports from Pygmy to a Spy master and therefore has all traceable information is redacted. Oh and by the way don't think that image on the cover of a toy Chinese Red Guard is a clue some of Pygmies fellow operatives have Asiatic names like Ling, whereas others have Slavic names such as Oleg and Pavel and at least one is describe as having a "Caucasoid" skull.

What is clear is that it is in all things the opposite to America, for example America is individualistic, where as Pygmy's land is thoroughly Totalitarian to quote "Useless American Poetry,and music no celebrate sacrifice lifetime to preserve the state", America is democratic where as AA is a one party state that replenishes its ranks from a small minority who are selected for there talents they show from the age of four. America is Capitalist where as AA is if not socialist then at least Communal like in structure. One other way that Chuck shows us AA s world and cleverly at the same time cloaks it is in Pygmy's education. Every lesson that Pygmy has been taught from Martial arts to Chemistry has been summed up by a qoute from one the guiding philosophers of the state all of which did exist, what confuses the matter in placing AA s ideology is that they are across the spectrum from <Stalin to Trotsky, To Bakunin through to Hitler and Mussolini, Even Pinochet and Idi Amin and the relatively speaking obscure Austrian Socialist Agitator Johann Most all recited with utmost respect and reverence.

The Americans in the book however are sadly all to familiar, there fat little narcissists who are more interested in pleasure whether it be food, masturbation, sex, or just aggression. There also extremely self satisfied and ignorant of others, Pygmy's host family never bother to find out what his name is, and at one point at a ceremony that is supposed to honour his bravery in an action (which I won't spoil here), the orator refers to his home as a "backward culture mired in the failed social experiments and misguided politics of long ago history" and then goes on to describe him as a "stunted, child , crusted with scabs and stooped with rickets with a stomach bloated with malnutrition and sparse thin hair he arrived illiterate and confused" when reading outbursts like this its important to recall how Pygmy is so strong and fit that he kill with one move, and during a "spelling bee" he and the rest of the Operatives stay on over 6 hours after the last American student was defeated.

But that is the point as this book is like fight club a big take that to this slovenly (both physically and mentally) and it does it well. It might seem like I'm being negative but I'm really not, its satire is biting and is quite funny once you get used to the unusual prose is a very enjoyable read until of course you get to the ending.

I hate the ending, I really hate the ending, I won't go into here as that would be spoiling but what I will say is this the last ten pages are awful and genuine feel ripped off.

Introductions

Well were to begin? I guess I should explain myself to you -whoever actually manages to trawl through the oceans of the blogosphere long enough to find this little narcissistic exercise- on why I decided to put finger to keyboard and then to cyberspace. I'm as the childish title of this blog suggests no Academic Professor or media talking head, nor am I a poet or comedian of any merit. I'm just a young man from "oop North" who likes to talk to people and have a good old discussion about anything from the latest geopolitical schism or an old cartoon from the 80's I haven't see for in years whose damn catchy theme song has some how seeped back into my skull to drive me mad.

But enough about me, lets discuss the blog, what can you expect from this little corner of the web space? well I am a firm believer that all knowledge regardless of content is the greatest gift we humans can give each other, with that being said will endeavour to give you as much of an eclectic (schizophrenic) information diet as possible and after a little while see where the tide has deigned to beach us.

Though I can say that it will probably be a blend of political and social commentaries (don't worry they'll be very generalist and as non partisan as possible), as well as a few book and film look overs, you know fairly standard blogging fare.