David Miliband Comeback?

A neat filleting of the little neocon, Blairite toad here:

But before we come to that, a word of praise to him for hewing the time from the ever-lengthening roster of commercial endeavours (a football club directorship, public speaking abroad, advising venture capitalists) that is earning him a reputed £500,000 per annum; a half-million which this strong advocate of a mansion tax reportedly channels through a private company in the way that is familiar to those seeking – entirely legally – to avoid paying income tax. Nothing wrong there. If being Baby Blair means anything, it means earning oodles from the contacts book and espousing the ancient Labour ideal that limiting tax liability is for the many, not the few.  More.

Iran - Israel Poised To Attack?

Who's Behind The Egyptian Riots?

Vigilant In An Uncertain World :Projectile Vomiting Emoticon:

The United States Department of State Bureau of Diplomatic Security produced a report 'Vigilant In An Uncertain World' last year. Some especially interesting language is found on page 26 in a section entitled "Unmanned Aerial Vehicles." It describes how the "Department of State coordinated with the U.S. Department of Defence and other government agencies to research using Tier 1 (low altitude, long endurance) unmanned aerial vehicles in high-threat locations such as Iraq and Afghanistan. This effort led to a successful test in Iraq in December. DS plans to deploy unmanned aerial vehicles to support U.S. Embassy Baghdad in 2011. The program will watch over State Department facilities and personnel and assist Regional Security Officers with high-threat mission planning and execution." The "unmanned aerial vehicles" to which the document refers are popularly known as "drones" and have already proved their usefulness in killing, among others, numerous collateral victims. Farmers, villagers, women, children and the odd militant.  

New Labour Goes From Strength To Strength

Plight of Kurdish Refugees In Iraq

Thousands of Kurds who fled when Assad's forces crushed uprising in Qamishli eight years ago, still live in camps. Clip HERE.

James Joyce Was Born 130 Years Ago Today

Taliban Momentum Not Broken

"You'd kill 15 or 20 of them, and then five minutes later, there was another 15 or 20 of them trying to attack you again. I mean, we'd kill so many that we went black on ammo, pretty much, and we just had to stop and wait," said Goodell. "They're motivated. I tell my soldiers this exact same thing: If they were to come into our country, into the United States of America, and they were walking in your front yard, what would you do? Damn right I would fight you, and then I'd find all my friends and we'd fight you, and then I'd find their friends, and then we'd come and fight you. And after I died, my son and their sons and their friends' sons would all come fight you. Of course. We're in their backyard." More.

Iraq-Style Ramp-Up Of Stories On Iran

Some observers believe the planned European and US oil embargoes, due to come into effect five months from now with potentially severe implications for the Iranian economy, along with a military build-up in the region, could themselves raise the risk of miscalculation on all sides.
"I don't think they are playing Iran anything like as well as they think they are," said Richard Dalton, a former British ambassador to Tehran. "The oil embargo tends to give those elements in Iran who want to have maximal defences, including nuclear defences, added weight to their arguments. Also they are poking Iran with a sharp stick but this is not accompanied by a new negotiating incentives." More here.

Gingrich and Romney Growing Closer

Newt Thinking What A Cute Ass Mitt Had All Along

Le Pakistan Et Les Talibans Afghans

Le rapport sur "l'état des talibans", auquel ont eu accès la BBC et le quotidien The Times, a été rédigé sur la base d'informations obtenues auprès des insurgés détenus et a été remis aux commandants de l'OTAN en Afghanistan le mois dernier, affirment ces médias mercredi.Il révèle notamment que le Pakistan et son agence du renseignement, l'ISI (InterServices Intelligence), connaissent les lieux de résidence des plus hauts dirigeants talibans. La BBC précise que le document est le fruit de vingt-sept mille interrogatoires de plus de quatre mille prisonniers talibans et membres d'Al-Qaida et de combattants et civils étrangers. "Les officiers de l'ISI soutiennent la nécessité de poursuivre le djihad et l'expulsion des envahisseurs étrangers d'Afghanistan", affirme le rapport. Une tactique habituelle des talibans est de se retirer de certaines zones, d'attendre que les forces de l'OTAN les quittent et de retourner alors aux endroits où ils sont plus populaires que le gouvernement de Kaboul, considéré comme corrompu par beaucoup d'Afghans, explique-t-il. Video ici

Voice of Otto Von Bismarck

A wax cylinder recording of German statesman Otto von Bismarck has been released. It's the first time his voice has been heard for more than 100 years.

The recording was made in 1889 by a technician working for the inventor of the phonograph, Thomas Edison. Clip here .

Chomsky On Wikileaks

CHOMSKY on WIKILEAKS from CaTV on Vimeo.

Scottish Referendum Question

Freedom In Fourteen Rose

The referendum choice should consist of only one question worded as follows : 


''As you know, Nu£abour, Bankers, News International and the Westminster Coalition have turned Britain into a neocon shitpit. Do you want to leave?'' Yes/No (Delete as preferred).

Iran And Iraq

Iranian products account for a significant chunk of Iraq’s imports, but Iran’s presence in Iraq is most pronounced through growing commodity exports and the numerous Iranian pilgrims who regularly visit holy shrines in Karbala and Najaf. Iranian commodities, from vegetables to electronic products, construction materials, machinery, and automobiles, have flooded Iraqi markets. Iran has also been active in health, education, and major infrastructural projects in Iraq. The relationship is friendly and comprehensive.
Prior to the fall of Saddam Husain, Iran had to contend with decades of hostile, expansionist pan-Arabist ideology, espoused by Sunni-dominated Iraq. Both the monarchical and revolutionary Iran had to grapple with a hostile Arab neighbor to the west. While the pro-American Shah of Iran was bent on reining in the intransigence of Soviet-backed Baghdad – a state which engaged in territorial disputes and sponsored separatist movements within Southern Iran – a nascent post-revolutionary Iran greatly suffered as a result of the 1980 Iraqi invasion. From here.

Iraqis Outraged By Drone Infestation

The drones are the latest example of the State Department’s efforts to take over functions in Iraq that the military used to perform. Some 5,000 private security contractors now protect the embassy’s 11,000-person staff, for example, and typically drive around in heavily armored military vehicles.

When embassy personnel move throughout the country, small helicopters buzz over the convoys to provide support in case of an attack. Often, two contractors armed with machine guns are tethered to the outside of the helicopters. The State Department began operating some drones in Iraq last year on a trial basis, and stepped up their use after the last American troops left Iraq in December, taking the military drones with them. More.

100,000 In Anti-Drone Protest

“We are not the enemies of the people of the West and the United States, but we reject the Americans’ attitude by which they always demand of a servile obedience from us,” JUI leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman told the crowd in Pakistan’s financial capital.
… “Movements like Occupy Wall Street are just the beginning of the end of the imperialism of America and its Western allies,” he [Rehman] said.
“We are being forced to become extremists. When you and your religion are humiliated in Guantanamo Bay detention centre and your children are being crushed under tanks, then what the victims will ultimately do? They’ll counter your extremism with extremism.” Link.

France's Armenian Genocide Bill

Although it has been passed by both the lower house of the French parliament, controlled by the UMP and its allies, and the Senate, recently won by the Socialists and their allies, the proposed law has divided both the major parties.
A Senate committee even tried to prevent it being debated, leading the leaders of both parties’ Senate groups to hack a deal to persuade dissidents in their own ranks to abstain.
When it came to the vote only 57 out 132 UMP senators and 56 out of 130 Socialists backed it. Nine Socialists and 19 UMP members went so far as to vote against.
The Communists and their allies and the centrists were also split, although they officially supported the bill.
A number of senators either abstained or refused to take part in the vote.
Only the Greens and a cross-party group called the Rassemblement démocratique et social européen managed to maintain unity. They all voted against. From here.

Crony Capitalism

The fuss over the bonus awarded to Stephen Hester, boss of RBS, a nationalised bank, has been running all week on the basis that it was conveniently just under a round £1m. David Cameron, one moment has been saying it was nothing to do with him, the next moment claiming credit for having cut it to 60 per cent of what it could have been. As we report today, Mr Hester's bonus turns out to have been a highly coloured decoy designed to draw outrage away from the main story, which is that the total sum he can hope to collect from his three years in charge of the bank, already heading towards £39m, could reach £50m in a couple of years more if the share price performs well. Read more.

Billions of Dollars Unaccounted For In Iraq

"Without more comprehensive knowledge about reconstruction projects the (Iraqi government) will not be in a position to maximize the use of its resources," the report says.
Billions of dollars in spending are not reported to Iraq under the current system, the report says.
In a response letter, Peter Bodde, assistant chief of mission for the U.S. Embassy in Iraq, says that while the current system is incomplete, "it does capture the vast majority of reconstruction projects and there is no other alternative that captures more." LINK.