We shouldn't listen to the markets who caused the crisis - time the markets were forced to listen to the majority

Chancellor George Osborne says his economic policy is aimed at maintaining market confidence – and even his political opponents debate on his terms of “what the markets want”. If “the markets” – an impersonal sounding euphemism for stock market traders, hedge funds and bank executives - could be trusted to make the right decisions, we wouldn’t be in this crisis.

They caused it by demanding deregulation, getting it from governments ideologically driven to “listen to the markets”; and using it to create fraudulent “assets” like collateral debt obligations (a name designed to hide the fact that they were many bad debts packaged together and dressed up as good ones), then selling them to others or buying them and treating them as assets.

Most of them were euphorically confident that this was unprecedented genius that couldn't go wrong and would lead to everlasting and ever accelerating economic growth - right up until the crash - and this wasn't the first time - most of "the markets" believe this every time, never learning from experience. The minority who questioned these practices were laughed at or accused of maliciously trying to destroy others' incomes

No government has made any serious attempt to re-regulate the banks or financial sector since. They’re still out of control and still driven by short term greed, irrational swings between euphoria and panic; and now a selfish determination that everyone else should pay for the hole in their accounts created when everyone realised that marvellous new “financial products” or “financial instruments” like CDOs were worthless frauds.

“The markets” have no idea what policies will benefit the majority in the long term and no interest in the effects on the majority, they only care about how much profit or loss they might make right now. Getting a vote of confidence from a market 'rally' is like getting praise from a drug addict for securing them another hit. It means nothing in terms of the long term, the real problems or the real economy.

That’s why they tell us that we’re supposedly all equally to blame, that “we’re all in it together” and that “market confidence must be maintained”. Bank chief executives continue to award themselves annual incomes of millions a year topped off with millions in bonuses while accusing nurses, teachers and doctors of a “sense of entitlement” for wanting to keep their jobs and pensions.

The solution is to stop listening to “the markets”, start repudiating the debts we supposedly owe them; and demand interest payments on the bail-outs, plus repayment of capital. Governments can loan directly to businesses rather than subsidising banks to do it through quantitative easing.

Keeping on giving in to the people who caused the problem is dangerous and brings no benefits.

The Spanish government agreed to the markets’ demand for austerity measures including sacking public sector employees to avoid having their credit rating cut, then private credit rating agencies cut Spain’s credit rating anyway, citing unemployment as one of the reasons. The private credit rating agencies have a conflict of interest too – as many of them receive payments from the creditors for reports on creditworthiness.

Allowing uncontrolled and unlimited greed is not good, it does not benefit everyone. It brought us the Great Depression and the current crisis, just as it brought the South Sea Island Bubble and Tulipomania in the 18th century long before there was any real government regulation or intervention in the economy , any significant number of people employed in the public sector (other than police, soldiers and tax collectors).

The only period of economic stability (at least for the developed world) was between the end of World War Two when the markets were put under stricter government regulation and the 1970s – when it ended due to fuel price rises caused by the 1973 Arab-Israeli war and the subsequent OPEC oil price rises on the one hand – and deregulation like British Prime Minister Edward Heath’s scrapping of controls on capital transfers to and from the UK.

The only way to stop one crisis keeeping on turning into another - from financial crisis to recession to euro zone crisis and on and on - is to stop listening to "the markets" and start telling them what government and society will tolerate them doing and what they'll be jailed for

Saif Al Gaddafi & Megrahi Vs Moussa Koussa - Patsies vs Real Criminal aided and abetted by the US government?

(the latter a proven torturer and Gaddafi’s intelligence chief at the time of the Lockerbie bombing but “free to travel to and from the UK as he wishes”)

The propagandists tell us that Saif Al Gaddafi is a war criminal who must be brought to justice for the torture and killing of civilians. Yet Gaddafi’s torturer in chief Moussa Koussa, who has been identified by survivors as having personally tortured them himself, faces no ICC charges after he defected from the Gaddafi regime once he realised the writing was on the wall for it. British government spokespeople told the BBC that Koussa is “a free individual, who can travel to and from the UK as he wishes” and allowed him to go into exile in Qatar, another US allied dictatorship which refuses to extradite him (1) – (3).

Koussa had a parallel in Omar Suleiman, Mubarak’s Vice President and torturer in chief, who was the favoured candidate of the US government and it’s allies to take over from Mubarak. He, like Koussa, was one of the people that the CIA and MI6 contract out to for torture of prisoners kidnapped illegally under “extra-ordinary rendition” procedures (really just a vaguely legalistic sounding term to cover up illegal kidnapping and torture).

Muammar Gaddafi was certainly guilty of ordering massacres of civilians and torture, but the brutal, sickening, way he was killed did not suggest those who replace him will be any better. The Libyan rebels respond that ‘Gaddafi was a monster’.

Well, if you’re looking for a definition of a monster, a sadist who stabs an unarmed prisoner in the anus with a knife or metal rod to torture them before killing them, as one of the men who captured Gaddafi did, is a pretty good definition. One monster behaving like a monster to another is not justice, it’s just another atrocity (4).

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch confirm that the rebels have already been involved in torturing and killing prisoners and suspected Gaddafi supporters, though so far not nearly as many as were killed or tortured by Gaddafi’s forces. The way Gaddafi was treated does not suggest this will become a smaller problem (5).

If Saif Al Gaddafi is tortured and is not given a fair trial it will be another sign to the world that the Libyan rebels are at least as bad as Gaddafi’s killers were – and if at the same time Koussa, who co-operated with the US and its allies in torturing people based on mere suspicion is allowed to go free, the US government and it’s allies will look like total hypocrites with no moral standing, desperate to have people like Saif, who might reveal it’s involvement in these crimes, silenced, not for his crimes, but to cover up theirs and Koussa’s.

There are plenty of people who knew Saif who say he was attempting to make reforms which his father and hardliners in the regime refused to implement (6).

Then he was forced to make a choice between turning on his own father and helping people who were trying to kill him, or else backing a dictatorship that was killing it’s own people. Can anyone pretend that that would be an easy choice to make if they were put in the same position?

If there is evidence that Saif was involved in ordering torture and murders of civilians then by all means give him a fair trial with witnesses for the defence and prosecution and if he’s found guilty, jail him for it.

Incidentally Koussa, who claims Gaddafi ordered Lockerbie, was Gaddafi’s head of intelligence at the time of Lockerbie – so if the US and British governments believe him, why are they letting him go free, since he would be guilty of that atrocity? Too many people are tripping over their own lies here.

There are many reasons to doubt that another US and British scapegoat – Abdul Baset Al Megrahi – was ever involved in the Lockerbie bombing. His trial was a sham with bribed witnesses, no jury and evidence tampered with according to Scots Law Professor Robert Black, UN Observer Dr. Hans Koechler and Dr. Jim Swire, whose daughter died in the bombing.

Is Saif a real war criminal or just another patsy set up by the US and it’s allies?  Unless he gets a fair trial, I’d have to suspect it could be the latter.

(1) = BBC News 26 Oct 2011 ‘Gaddafi spy chief Koussa 'tortured' Libya prisoners’, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-15415793

(2) = BBC News 13 Apr 2011 ‘Moussa Koussa, ex-Gaddafi aide, leaves for Doha talks’, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13049308 ‘The most high-profile minister to flee Libya, Moussa Koussa, has left the UK for Qatar, the Foreign Office has said. The former foreign minister had been staying at an undisclosed location in the UK after travelling from Tunisia.

An FCO spokesman said it was understood he would meet the Qatari government and a range of other Libyan representatives in the capital city Doha. A spokesman said Moussa Koussa was "a free individual, who can travel to and from the UK as he wishes".’

(3) = BBC News 23 Oct 2011 ‘Libyan spy chief tracked to Qatar’, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15417947

(4) = ‘Libyan rebels 'guilty of torture' says Amnesty’ http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/libyan-rebels-guilty-of-torture-says-amnesty-2353988.html , ‘Rebels fighting to topple Muammar Gaddafi carried out unlawful killings and torture, human rights group Amnesty International has said….A report based on three months of investigation in Libya, said the crimes of Gaddafi loyalists were far worse than those of the former rebels, who now hold power in Tripoli:….But it said the crimes of the rebels were not insignificant…."Members and supporters of the opposition, loosely structured under the leadership of the National Transitional Council (NTC) ... have also committed human rights abuses, in some cases amounting to war crimes, albeit on a smaller scale," the Amnesty report said.’

(5) = Channel 4 News 25 Oct 2011 ‘Gaddafi buried at dawn in ‘secret’ location’, http://www.channel4.com/news/gaddafi-buried-at-dawn-in-secret-location (scroll down to video and then see under sub-heading ‘Concerns over human rights abuses)

(6) = Time 19 Nov 2011 ‘The Capture of Gaddafi's Son: The Reformer Who Refused to Reform’, http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2099890,00.html?xid=gonewsedit , ‘Sawani, who has a political-science doctorate from the University of Canterbury, had been hired by Saif in 2007 to oversee sweeping political reforms in Libya — changes that Saif has long claimed were blocked by his father's hard-liners. In interviews in February 2010 and in March this year, Saif told me that his strong efforts to bring democracy to Libya had been stymied by the Gaddafi regime.’

Repeating the Mistakes of the Past in Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain & Saudi – Backing murdering dictatorships to the end will backfire on the US UK & France

The US government and it’s allies are about to end up on the wrong side of history by backing dictatorships to the last gasp as they kill their own people, as they did with the Shah of Iran in 1979;  and so ensuring, as in Iran, that the new governments will have every reason to be hostile to them for decades to come, as in Iran.

They’re also increasing support for the Islamic extremists they claim to be trying to weaken – nothing boosted Khomeini more than the US backing the Shah as he had his own people killed.

In 1977 President Jimmy Carter, on a visit to Iran, made the following statement in a speech to the Shah – the western backed dictator of the country. “Iran, because of the great leadership of the Shah, is an island of stability in one of the more troubled areas of the world”(1).

Two years later the Shah had been overthrown and replaced by a government hostile to the US, which gained much of it’s support from the US government backing the Shah to the last moment, even as he had his army shoot hundreds of unarmed protesters dead (2).

Carter, like Obama, was seen as a dove and a progressive, but backed a dictatorship carrying out massacres to the last, just as Obama and Clinton are doing in Egypt, Bahrain and Yemen. (There’s even a widespread myth on the right in the US that Carter didn’t back the Shah to the end).

Earlier this year, just before Mubarak was overthrown by pro-democracy protesters in Egypt, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said “Our assessment is that the Egyptian government is stable and is looking for ways to respond to the legitimate needs and interests of the Egyptian people” (3). Meanwhile Mubarak’s police were shooting protesters dead in the street, torturing others and Mubarak fell – and so did the US government’s favoured successor Omar Suleiman, Mubarak’s Vice President and notorious torturer in chief.

Now the US government and it’s allies are backing General Tantawi (Mubarak’s Defence Minister for 20 years) and a military regime – and even as it’s on the point of falling, they’ve not ended military aid, political support or ‘crowd control’ arms supplies to it. There are similar situations in Bahrain and Yemen, where the US and it’s allies have only called for the dictator Saleh to stand down in favour of his Vice President – following their usual practice of dropping figureheads when they become a liability but continuing support for dictatorships under their deputies.

The US, British and French governments pose as defenders of freedom and democracy, but in fact only back the overthrow of dictatorships where those dictatorships are hostile to them (e.g Syria) or demanding an increased share of oil profits from NATO governments’ oil companies (Libya).

The focus on Libya and Syria is partly about distracting attention for backing for other NATO government backed dictatorships as they massacre pro-democracy protesters ; and partly about distracting from mass unemployment and inequality permitted by governments bought up by senior bankers, big companies and billionaires at home.

The contrast between US, British and French government statements and the tone of media coverage of the torture and killing of protesters in Syria and Libya could not be more different to their statements on exactly the same situations in Egypt, Yemen and Bahrain, where they support the dictatorships.

In the first case the calls for military action and the end of the dictatorships never end – in the latter the most that’s ever called for is a dictator to be replaced by their Vice President or one of their Generals – maintaining the dictatorship, the torture and the killings under a new figure-head. British arms sales and training of militaries in many of these dictatorships has never ended either (the only exceptions being a suspension of British arms sales to Bahrain, Libya and Syria). US military aid to Yemen and Egypt has never ended either, despite constant killings of unarmed protesters by those countries’ militaries.

British government claims that it is not arming dictatorships are shown to be lies by it’s granting of arms export licences to Egypt this year and it’s invitations to representatives of the Egyptian, Saudi and Yemeni dictatorships and their militaries in September this year.

Egypt

General Tantawi - Mubarak crony and his current replacement as dictator of Egypt

In Egypt , British Prime Minister David Cameron pretended that the Mubarak’s Generals taking over from Mubarak and Suleiman was democratisation and visited Egypt, Kuwait and other dictatorships to proudly promote British arms sales to the dictatorships of these countries while making the ridiculous claim that “small democracies like Kuwait” need help to arm themselves (4) – (6).

Kuwait has never, ever, been a democracy. Even the US State Department’s reports say it’s an absolute monarchy with a token parliament that has no power whatsoever – and Human Rights Watch reports show that it’s record on human rights and democracy has been getting worse, not better (7) – (12).

As the Egyptian military pile up the bodies of democracy protesters they’ve killed in Tahrir Square, Amnesty International reports that the Egyptian military government has used exactly the same methods as the Mubarak government used – torture, jail without fair trial, killings of opposition supporters by the military, the police and hired plain clothes thugs – but on a larger scale (13) – (14).

The army is trying to whip up violence against the Coptic Christian minority in order to be able to claim that it has had to step in to restore order and protect minorities from extremists – but Coptic Christian marchers in the last march supposedly attacked by Muslim extremists say it was hired government thugs and the army who were firing at them and killing them and running them over with armoured personnel carriers – claims confirmed by videos of those events (15).

Even after this the US government didn’t end military aid funding to the Egyptian military.

The face of General Tantawi, the head of the grandly named ‘High Military Council’, has already been put up on posters across Cairo calling on him to stand for President in the promised elections, supposedly due to popular acclamation. The posters are being promoted by a group calling itself ‘Egypt First’ which is an obvious front group for the military (16).

 This flies in the face of military promises that they would field no General as a candidate in elections. On the HMC’s record so far elections will involve arresting opposition candidates and using the police and hired thugs to attack opposition campaigners and voters to ensure a Tantawi win – just as under Mubarak, who held similar elections.

In Egypt as in Yemen they have never called for an end to the dictatorships – only for a change of figurehead at the top of them when it became clear that Mubarak and Saleh had become liabilities rather than assets (scroll down to sub-heading ‘Suleiman the torturer as Mubarak Mark II ?’).

The pretence is that getting rid of the dictator and replacing him with his vice President or his Generals is democratisation. Of course it’s not. General Tantawi is the new ruler of Egypt and plans to rig the next election with continuing jailing, torture and killing of pro-democracy protesters and opposition party supporters and candidates in exactly the same way Mubarak ran elections.

Yet government approved British arms sales to Egypt have never ended; and Egyptian officials were invited to an arms fair in London this September (17) – (19).

Tantawi was Mubarak’s Defence Minister for 20 years and his days are now as numbered as Mubarak’s. The Egyptian military will not survive this – and British and American backing for them will backfire badly if it continues as they will end up facing a government made up of the friends and colleagues of people the Egyptian military jailed, tortured or killed.

Yemen

Photo: Dead and wounded protesters killed in Yemen by US and British trained and funded military units

In Yemen, where the US and British trained and funded military killed dozens of unarmed civilian protesters in the last few weeks – as they have every week since the Arab Spring began – there is no end US and British support for the military units doing the killing. The BBC reported in March that ‘While some other military units have joined the opposition, the elite US- and British-trained troops, headed by Mr Saleh's son and nephew, remain loyal to the president.” (20)

In September Amnesty International reported that ‘security forces used snipers and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) against protesters marching to demand the resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.,,Around 26 people were killed on Sunday.’ (21)

AP reported 20 more killed on 20^th October (22).

On 25th October AFP reported ‘In Sanaa and in Yemen's second largest city Taez at least 15 people were killed, according to medical officials and tribal sources…..A seven-year-old child and a woman were among seven people killed in Taez, after what residents said was random shelling by government forces of neighbourhoods.’ (23).

The Arabic Al Arabiya newspaper reported that this was due to ‘mortars and artillery, hitting a hospital and a square where anti-government demonstrators were taking part in the Muslim Friday prayers’ (24)

On November 11^th the US government’s Voice of America news service reported that ‘Yemeni government forces have killed at least six civilians in Taiz, the country's second largest city….Medical officials and witnesses say the civilians were killed early Friday after forces renewed shelling in Taiz, where protesters have been calling for President Ali Abdullah Saleh's departure.’ (25)

Yet US military aid to Yemen has continued through almost a full year of this ; as have British arms sales which have also more than doubled in value from £300,000 worth in 2010 to £800,000 in 2011 ; and there’s not a word from the British or American or French governments on ending military aid to Yemen, never mind taking military action to stop the massacre of civilians there which has now been going on for 9 months; plus Yemen’s dictatorship was also invited to arms sales events in London in September this year (26) – (29).

(The £800,000 of arms or dual-use equipment sales to Yemen in 2011 were exported on a single licence, presumably so that British government spokesmen can say they reduced the number of export licences approved in 2011 to one, to sound as if less arms have been exported).

The most the US and it’s allies have come up with is a UN resolution based on a plan created by the Saudi dominated Gulf Co-Operation Council calling for Saleh to step down in favour of his Vice President and some waffle about the “need for dialogue” between the protesters and the government – in other words, as in Egypt, the US government and it’s allies have an aim of keeping the dictatorship but switching dictators to get rid of the one that’s become a liability (30) – (31).

While demanding Saif Al Gaddafi be handed over for trial for war crimes, the US government and it’s allies put forward a UN resolution that gives President Saleh and his allies total immunity from prosecution after months of having unarmed demonstrators killed every week (32).

Bahrain and Saudi Arabia

In Bahrain – another absolute dictatorship that has been torturing, jailing and killing pro-democracy protesters, the US government and it’s allies have similarly never called for the dictatorship to go, never called for action to stop the killing, Instead, as in Yemen and Egypt they call for “restraint from both sides”, express “deep concern” – and keep on backing the dictatorship.

The Saudi military has played a big role in Bahrain – the Saudi monarchy sent them in to help crush the protesters out of fear of a) constitutional monarchy (apparently even this is too much like democracy for the Saudi monarchy) and b) a Shia uprising (much of Saudi Arabia’s oil is in parts of Saudi with a large Shia Muslim population, while the monarchy are radical Wahabbi Sunni Muslims.)

The British government and military have continued training and arming Saudi Arabia’s forces all through this, including in the use of sniper rifles, knowing Saudi troops may then use them in Bahrain, train the Bahraini military in turn, or use them on Saudi pro-democracy protesters if protests begin (33).

A British Parliamentary Select committee was reported as finding that ‘military trucks sent by the Saudis to help suppress demonstrations in Bahrain were British.’ (34).

Bahrain, Libya and Syria are the only countries in which arms sales from the UK seem to have been suspended.

Only look at what we’re doing in Libya and Syria

The war in Libya and the constant demands for action on the similar mass torture and killing of civilians in Syria have never been about protecting civilians or promoting democracy or human rights, but about overthrowing governments which were either not clients of the US and it’s allies (Syria) or which were demanding a higher share of profits from oil companies (Libya).

Gaddafi was a dictator who had civilians tortured and killed, so is Assad – but so are all the dictatorships the US and it’s allies back – in Saudi, Bahrain, Yemen and Egypt.

The war in Libya served a propaganda function for NATO governments in distracting their past (and present) support for murdering, torturing dictatorships – from their past support for (and involvement in) torture by Gaddafi’s torturers ; to the French government’s offer to send riot police to help the Ben Ali dictatorship crush the first Arab Spring protests in Tunisia ;  and continuing support for the dictatorships massacring people right now in Egypt and Yemen (35).

Standard power politics – attacking governments who don’t do what they’re told and backing ones that do no matter whether they’re torturing and murdering civilians or not – is presented as if it was high principle.

Because we can’t do everything are you saying we should do nothing where we can do something?

This is the standard propaganda line of NATO governments when asked why they are overthrowing some torturing dictatorships that are massacring their people while actively supporting and arming others. Of course they could do something easily in the cases of the dictatorships they continue to support – they could condemn them, demand they stop killing, torturing and jailing their people, end all military aid and arms sales to them and demand free and fair elections. They don’t. They’ve temporarily halted arms exports to Bahrain and reduced the number approved to Egypt, which is welcome, but their only calls for change are for one dictator to step down in favour of another.

So, no, we’re not saying you should do nothing – we’re saying you should stop supporting dictatorships, torture and massacre in some countries while only selectively opposing them in a handful of others who aren’t your client regimes – and you should stop trying to dress up cold-blooded power politics that has no concern for human suffering or human life, never mind democracy or human rights, as if it was high principle.

Given the hugely different treatment of people and governments guilty of exactly the same crimes, can anyone really believe the NATO governments’ motivations really have anything to do with human rights, freedom or democracy?

Arms Fair events in London, September 2011, 9 months into dictatorships massacring protesters, most murdering dictatorships welcome

The Economist, Channel 4 News and the Campaign Against the Arms Trade all reported on that various arms fairs and arms sale events held by the British government and British arms companies in September this year. The governments invited included ‘Algeria, Angola, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Morocco, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Vietnam’ as well as Yemen (36) – (37).

Every single one is either a dictatorship or a one party state (Vietnam) with the exception of Nigeria, which is technically a democracy, but in practice a plutocracy where foreign firms can effectively hire government troops and private security forces to attack anyone who opposes them – and massacres of unarmed civilians by government forces are regular occurrences.

Are the profits for a few arms companies worth the torture and deaths of so many people? Will they be worth it if they alienate people from the majority in these countries who will form the new governments in these countries and so harm our foreign and trade relations with them for decades to come, as happened in Iran? Is it worth it if by backing dictatorships that murder their own people we boost support for radical Islamists at the expense of more moderate democrats?

Sources

Repeating the Mistakes of the Past

(1) = Freedman, Lawrence (2008) 'A Choice of Enemies', Weidenfield & Nicolson, London, 2008, Ch 4, page 66

(2) = Pollack, Kenneth M.(2004), ‘The Persian Puzzle', Random House, NY, 2005 paperback, Ch5, p127-140

(3) = Reuters 25 Jan 2011 ‘US urges restraint in Egypt, says government stable’, http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE70O0KF20110125

Egypt

 (4) = Independent 22 Feb 2011 ‘Cameron attacked for Egypt visit with defence sales team in tow’, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/cameron-attacked-for-egypt-visit-with-defence-sales-team-in-tow-2221695.html , ‘David Cameron faced charges of hypocrisy last night after he arrived for a tour of the Gulf with some senior figures from the defence industry…. After leaving Britain early, Mr Cameron became the first world leader to visit Egypt since President Hosni Mubarak was toppled…. Mr Cameron is still taking a large delegation from business and industry, including eight representatives of defence firms attempting to secure contracts in the Gulf states. Among them are: Ian King, chief executive of BAE Systems; Alastair Bisset, group international director at QinetiQ; and Rob Watson, regional director of Rolls-Royce.

(5) = guardian.co.uk 21 Feb 2011 ‘David Cameron arrives in Egypt to meet military rulers’,http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/feb/21/david-cameron-visits-egypt , ‘David Cameron has flown into Cairo amid tight security, becoming the first world leader to visit Egypt since Hosni Mubarak was ousted as president in the revolution 10 days ago….Cameron is due to meet Field Marshal Mohammed Hussein Tantawi, Mubarak's minister of defence, who is the head of the supreme council of the armed forces….Arms sales are expected to be on the agenda throughout the week, and Cameron insisted there was no contradiction in promoting trade and pushing for political reform, the two themes of the rest of his Middle East trip.’

(6) = guardian.co.uk 22 Feb 2011 ‘David Cameron hits out at critics of Britain's arms trade’, http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/feb/22/david-cameron-britain-arms-trade

(7) = US Department of State, Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs  ‘Background Note : Kuwait’, http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/35876.htm

(8) = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_of_Kuwait

(9) = Human Rights Watch 21 Jul 2010 ‘Operation Roll Back Kuwaiti Freedom’, http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/07/23/operation-roll-back-kuwaiti-freedom

(10) = Human Rights Watch 11 Dec 2010 ‘Kuwait: Permit Peaceful Political Gatherings  - Security Forces Violently Disperse Parliamentarians and Professors’,  http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/12/10/kuwait-permit-peaceful-political-gatherings

(11) = Human Rights watch 31 Jan 2011 ‘Kuwait: Free Speech and Assembly Under Attack’,http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2011/01/31/kuwait-free-speech-and-assembly-under-attack

(12) = Human Rights Watch World Report 2011: Kuwait , http://www.hrw.org/en/world-report-2011/kuwait ; ‘Freedom of expression markedly deteriorated in 2010. The government continued criminally prosecuting individuals based on nonviolent political speech, denied academics permission to enter the country for conferences and speeches, and cracked down on public gatherings. In April state security forces summarily deported over 30 Egyptian legal residents of Kuwait after some of them gathered to support Egyptian reform advocate Mohammed El Baradei.

In May prominent writer and lawyer Mohammad al-Jassim was detained for over 40 days and charged with "instigating to overthrow the regime, ...slight to the personage of the emir [the ruler of Kuwait],... [and] instigating to dismantle the foundations of Kuwaiti society" over his blog posts criticizing the prime minister. A judge released al-Jassim in June and adjourned the case until October.’

(13) = Independent 22 Nov 2011 ‘Dozens die, the cabinet teeters – and chaos rules’,http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/dozens-die-the-cabinet-teeters--and-chaos-rules-6265837.html , ‘At one point, the police appeared to fire live rounds in the direction of protesters…. five activists could then be seen…carrying a limp middle-aged man…Dr Magdy also said he had seen one dead body, of a person who appeared to have been hit by a live bullet directly through the spleen. "All we're asking for is our freedom," said Hassan Hani… Disturbing footage has since been uploaded on to the internet showing troops and police violently beating a man who appeared to have already been unconscious. Another showed an apparently lifeless protester being dragged across the square and dumped next to a pile of other bodies.’

(14) = Amnesty International Nov 201 ‘Egypt: Military rulers have 'crushed' hopes of 25 January protesters’, http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/egypt-military-rulers-have-crushed-hopes-25-january-protesters-2011-11-22,‘Egypt's military rulers have completely failed to live up to their promises to Egyptians to improve human rights and have instead been responsible for a catalogue of abuses which in some cases exceeds the record of Hosni Mubarak, Amnesty International said today in a new report…. The report's release follows a bloody few days in Egypt that has left many dead and hundreds injured after army and security forces violently attempted to disperse anti-SCAF protesters from Cairo’s Tahrir square………. “By using military courts to try thousands of civilians, cracking down on peaceful protest and expanding the remit of Mubarak's Emergency Law, the SCAF has continued the tradition of repressive rule which the January 25 demonstrators fought so hard to get rid of," said Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Acting Director.’

(15) = BBC News 10 Oct 2011 ‘Egypt clashes: Copts mourn victims of Cairo unrest’, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-15242413 , ‘Thousands of Egyptian Coptic Christians have gathered for the funerals of protesters killed during clashes with security forces in Cairo on Sunday. Many mourners expressed anger at the army, which they blame for the deaths.The protesters say they were attacked by thugs before the security forces fired on them and drove military vehicles into the crowds.’

(16) = Reuters 26 Oct 2011 ‘Posters back Egyptian army chief for president’, http://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFL5E7LQ3G720111026

(17) = CAAT Country Data Egypt - Approved UK export licences’, http://www.caat.org.uk/resources/countrydata/?country_selected=Egypt, shows 6 approved arms export licences to Egypt in first quarter of 2011

(18) = guardian.co.uk 21 Jul 2011 ‘MP attacks Hague over review of arms sales to Arab regimes’, http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/jul/21/uk-arms-sales-middle-east , ‘Senior MPs have delivered a severe rebuke to the government over its approval of the sale of a wide range of arms, including sniper rifles, machine guns and "crowd control goods" to countries in the Middle East and north Africa……….Britain supplied the weapons despite official guidelines stating that exports of equipment that could be used for internal repression must be blocked. In a damning report earlier this year, the Commons arms export controls committees demanded an urgent review of exports to "authoritarian regimes worldwide"………..They referred specifically to the Mubarak and Gaddafi regimes in Egypt and Libya, to Bahrain, Syria, Yemen and Saudi Arabia. Observers said military trucks sent by the Saudis to help suppress demonstrations in Bahrain were British.’

(19) = Channel 4 News 13 Sep 2011 ‘Arms fair opens in London amid protests’ , http://www.channel4.com/news/arms-fair-opens-in-london-amid-protests ,‘The countries invited from "authoritarian" regimes, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit are: Algeria, Angola, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Morocco, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Vietnam.’

Yemen

(20) = BBC 26 Mar 2011 ‘Saleh departure in Yemen: A matter of 'when', not 'if'’,http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12868544 , ‘second last sentence reads ‘While some other military units have joined the opposition, the elite US- and British-trained troops, headed by Mr Saleh's son and nephew, remain loyal to the president.’

(21) = Amnesty International 19 Sep 2011 ‘Yemen violence surges as protesters are killed’,http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/yemen-violence-surges-protesters-are-killed-2011-09-19 , ‘The Yemeni authorities must immediately stop the killing of peaceful protesters by security forces, Amnesty International said today following reports that dozens of people have been shot dead in the capital Sana'a since Sunday….Hundreds more are said to have been injured after security forces used snipers and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) against protesters marching to demand the resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.,,Around 26 people were killed on Sunday. The continuing violence has seen more killed in Sana'a today.

(22) = AP 22 Oct 2011 ‘Clashes in Yemeni capital kill 20’, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45000453/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/t/clashes-yemeni-capital-kill/#.TsvornKKyuI , ‘Clashes between Yemeni government troops and a renegade army unit killed at least 20 people, including three civilians, in the capital Sanaa on Saturday, officials said.’

(23) = Al Arabiya 11 Nov 2011 ‘At least 15 Yemenis killed as Saleh’s loyalist forces shell southern city of Taez’, http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/11/11/176529.html

(24) = AFP 25 Oct 2011 ‘15 dead as Yemen truce fails, Saleh says ready to go’, http://news.yahoo.com/five-civilians-killed-yemen-protests-110515565.html , ‘In Sanaa and in Yemen's second largest city Taez at least 15 people were killed, according to medical officials and tribal sources…..A seven-year-old child and a woman were among seven people killed in Taez, after what residents said was random shelling by government forces of neighbourhoods. The interior ministry said four policemen also died.’

(25) = Voice of America news 11 Nov 2011 ‘Yemeni Government Forces Kill 6 Civilians’, http://blogs.voanews.com/breaking-news/2011/11/11/yemeni-government-forces-kill-6-civilians/

(26) = AFP 05 Apr 2011 ‘No plans to suspend military aid to Yemen: US’, http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/04/05/no-plans-to-suspend-military-aid-to-yemen-us/

(27) = Reuters 05 Apr 2011 ‘U.S. urges Yemen transition, no aid cut-off-Pentagon’,http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/05/us-yemen-usa-pentagon-idUSTRE7346V720110405

(28) = CAAT Country Data Yemen, http://www.caat.org.uk/resources/countrydata/?country_selected=Yemen ,(shows £800,000 worth of arms export licences approved in 2011 – more than twice the value of approved arms exports in 2010)

(29) = Campaign Against the Arms Trade  (CAAT) 09 Sep 2011 ‘Government tries to hide embarrassing truth about arms fair invitees’, http://www.caat.org.uk/press/archive.php?url=20110909prs ‘On Thursday, 8 September, the government supported events promoting arms sales to countries including Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Yemen.’

(30) = AP 15 Nov 2011 ‘UN envoy: Yemen president should transfer power’, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/9947242 , ‘Yemen's embattled president must speed up reforms and begin a transfer of power according to a plan backed by the international community, said a U.N. envoy on Monday. …..Jamal Benomar visited Yemen for a week to promote a Gulf-backed proposal that calls for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to transfer power to his vice president in exchange for immunity from prosecution.’

(31) = guardian.co.uk 23 Nov 2011 ‘Yemen president arrives in Saudi Arabia to sign power transfer deal’, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/23/yemen-president-power-transfer-deal

(32) = Amnesty International 22 Oct 2011 ‘UN Security Council resolution on Yemen falls short ’, http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/un-security-council-resolution-yemen-falls-short-2011-10-22

Bahrain and Saudi Arabia

(33) = Observer 29 May 2011 ‘UK training Saudi forces used to crush Arab spring’, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/28/uk-training-saudi-troops , ‘Britain is training Saudi Arabia's national guard – the elite security force deployed during the recent protests in Bahrain – in public order enforcement measures and the use of sniper rifles… In response to questions made under the Freedom of Information Act, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed that British personnel regularly run courses for the national guard in "weapons, fieldcraft and general military skills training, as well as incident handling, bomb disposal, search, public order and sniper training". The courses are organised through the British Military Mission to the Saudi Arabian National Guard, an obscure unit that consists of 11 British army personnel under the command of a brigadier…. Bahrain's royal family used 1,200 Saudi troops to help put down demonstrations in March.’

(34) = guardian.co.uk 21 Oct 2011 ‘MP attacks Hague over review of arms sales to Arab regimes’, http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/jul/21/uk-arms-sales-middle-east

Only look at what we’re doing in Libya and Syria

(35) = Independent 27 Jan 2011 ‘World Focus: France favoured autocracy as a bulwark against radical Islam ’, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/world-focus-france-favoured-autocracy-as-a-bulwark-against-radical-islam-2189240.html

Arms Fair in London, September 2011, all murdering dictatorships welcome

(36) = Channel 4 News 13 Sep 2011 ‘Arms fair opens in London amid protests’ , http://www.channel4.com/news/arms-fair-opens-in-london-amid-protests ,‘The countries invited from "authoritarian" regimes, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit are: Algeria, Angola, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Morocco, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Vietnam.’

(37) = Campaign Against the Arms Trade  (CAAT) 09 Sep 2011 ‘Government tries to hide embarrassing truth about arms fair invitees’, http://www.caat.org.uk/press/archive.php?url=20110909prs ‘On Thursday, 8 September, the government supported events promoting arms sales to countries including Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Yemen.’

Citigroup aren’t fit to give advice on banking never mind energy policy

One of the main critics of government investment in renewable energy in Scotland – the Citigroup investment bank – failed to predict the financial crisis, was one of the four banks most involved in and hardest hit by the sub-prime mortgage crisis – and invests heavily in tar sands, oil and coal (1). Given it’s inability to know what it should invest in itself in it’s own area of expertise – banking – why should anyone accept Citigroup as experts in an entirely separate area – energy policy?

The New York Times website reports that Citigroup required not one but three government bail-outs in the US, totalling $45 billion. The US Securities and Exchanges commission also charged Citigroup with telling investors it had invested only $13 billion in subprime mortgages, when the real figure was $50 billion (2).

This makes me less inclined to take their advice on anything. These are bankers who can’t run a bank and lie to investors, offering advice (with likely ulterior motives) on energy policy – something they have no expertise in.

Their other ulterior motive is likely to be their own heavy investment in coal, oil and tar sands compared to a relatively tiny stake in renewable. The Rainforest Action Network found that in 2010 Citigroup invested $34 billion in the former and less than 2% of that amount in renewables , including heavy investments in tar sand projects in Canada (3).

It could well be that some of the investment banks who are writing reports praising the Scottish government’s renewable energy targets also have ulterior motives (perhaps having invested in renewable themselves) and wanting to promote them as a result.

There are other more reputable groups criticising the Scottish government’s renewable energy target of 100% by 2020 as being unrealistic and likely to increase fuel poverty – like the Institution of Mechanical Engineers - but I still wouldn’t trust a company with a record like Citigroup’s to advise me on picking my nose never mind on energy policy.

(1) = CNN 15 Oct 2007 ‘Citi profits tumble as execs scramble’, http://money.cnn.com/2007/10/15/news/companies/citigroup_earnings/index.htm , ‘Citigroup is among a handful of banks that have been hard hit by this summer's subprime mortgage crisis. Three other banks - JPMorgan Chase (Charts, Fortune 500), Washington Mutual (Charts, Fortune 500) and Bank of America (Charts, Fortune 500) - are scheduled to report quarterly results this week.’

(2) = NYT.com Business 19 Oct 2011 > Companies > Citigroup Inc, http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/citigroup_inc/index.html

(3) = Dirty Oil Sands blog 11 Mar 2011 ‘Citi needs an intervention’ By Brant Olson | Rainforest Action Network, http://dirtyoilsands.org/blog/article/citi_needs_an_intervention

(4) = Institution of Mechanical Engineers ‘Scottish Energy 2020? A target too far?’,http://www.imeche.org/Scottish-Energy-2020?WT.mc_id=HP_110661

The real Adam Werritty and Liam Fox scandal is the British government promoting arms sales to a government that ordered the massacre of civilians

Most media coverage and political debate over the Adam Werritty scandal is surreal and bizarre in treating Werrity’s status as the serious issue while not even mentioning that Werritty, Defence Minister Liam Fox and the British government are promoting arms sales to a Sri Lankan President who ordered war crimes including shelling civilians and hospitals with artillery after telling them they should move to what the Sri Lankan military and government had told civilians and aid agencies would be  “safe zones”, followed by massacres of Tamil Prisoners of War and of civilians, including children and aid workers. At least 7,000 civilians have been killed so far. (This is all recorded in multiple investigations by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the UN, as well as by soldiers in the Sri Lankan military who were eye witnesses and heard the orders given.)

Channel 4 News in the UK is the only exception I’ve found so far – they have covered the war crimes issue.

British MPs found that the previous Labour government in Britain also approved arms sales to Sri Lanka during ceasefires in the war. In fact  that wasn’t the whole truth – the British government sold £13.6 million of arms including armoured cars, machinegun components and semi-automatic pistols to the Sri Lankan government at the height of the civil war. So British arms were almost certainly used to commit the massacres and more sold to them now may be used for future massacres and continuing disappearances. The bodies of the disappeared are being discovered constantly.

The almost total silence on it in most media reports and opinion columns is despite the video footage and photos of Adam Werrity, standing alongside Liam Fox, shaking hands with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa which have been taken to be important because they show Werrity had taken part in official meetings with members of other governments.

In December 2010 Channel 4 News reported that

‘The Defence Secretary made five trips to Sri Lanka in the past three years, all while in opposition. Each trip was paid for by the Sri Lankan government.

On 2nd December, the Defence Secretary held a private meeting with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa in London's Dorchester Hotel, while he was on a private visit to Britain. The visit was aborted when a Tamil pressure group sought the arrest of one his entourage on war crimes charges.

The meeting was portrayed by the Sri Lankan government as a diplomatic coup on its official websites, which displayed prominent pictures of the President and Dr Fox warmly shaking hands.

Among matters reportedly discussed between the two were investment opportunities in the north of the island, where many of the alleged atrocities took place.’

More recently they reported that :

‘Highly-placed souces in Sri Lanka have told Channel 4 News that Liam Fox and Adam Werritty have both visited Sri Lanka every year now for a decade. And every time Dr Fox has gone there, Mr Werritty’s been with him – even while on holiday….

….Three highly placed sources in Sri Lanka independently allege that Adam Werritty’s frequent visits to the island were to do with arms deals – and that he stayed there, it’s alleged, at Sri Lankan government expense….. The sources have claimed that Mr Werritty acted as an interlocutor for a senior figure in the regime of President Mahinda Rajapaksa. This senior figure reportedly discussed with Mr Werritty whether he could lobby the British government over the supply of arms, security equipment and aviation parts.’

Rajapaksa arrested the General who headed the campaign, not for war crimes, but for standing against him in the subsequent Presidential elections and for revealing that the orders for the massacres came from Rajapaska’s Defence Minister.

Yet Fox and the British government are both promoting the sale of British arms to Rajapaska’s government and giving him political support by going on state visits to Sri Lanka.

Compared to all this I really couldn’t give a toss whether Werritty had security clearance ; and care even less about innuendo about whether he and Fox might be gay lovers or not.

On this issue much of the media and many politicians seem to have no moral compass, no sense of proportion and an amazing ability to fixate endlessly on trivia while ignoring the British government arming and supporting war criminals who ordered the deliberate killing of thousands of civilians and aid workers.

Labour Party MPs, many of whom were silent or stayed in cabinet as Ministers while the government armed Sri Lankan forces at the height of the massacres, make no mention of them when criticising Fox, Werritty and Cameron.

The new Labour Defence Spokesman, Jim Murphy MP, a typical Blairite and party hack, never mentions them because he knows he was part of a government that did the same. In his letter to Cameron he only mentions conflicts of interest and risks to ‘national security’ – not a word about arming war criminals with arms used to massacre civilians. It seems we can’t expect much improvement from the Labour party leadership under Milliband.

Sources

Channel 4 News 11 Oct 2011 ‘Liam Fox friend Adam Werritty accused over Sri Lanka arms deal’, http://www.channel4.com/news/liam-fox-friend-accused-over-sri-lanka-arms-deal

Channel 4 News 15 Jun 2011 ‘Killing fields video evidence ‘builds case for war crimes’’, http://www.channel4.com/news/killing-fields-video-evidence-builds-case-for-war-crimes

Channel 4 News 27 Jul 2011 ‘Sri Lanka ‘war crimes’ soldiers ordered to ‘finish the job’, http://www.channel4.com/news/sri-lanka-war-crimes-soldiers-ordered-to-finish-the-job

Channel 4 News 04 Oct 2011 ‘Liam Fox quizzed about friend’s access to MoD’, http://www.channel4.com/news/liam-fox-quizzed-about-friends-access-to-mod

HRW / The Guardian 21 Jan 2010 ‘Uncovering Sri Lanka's war crimes’, http://www.hrw.org/news/2010/01/22/uncovering-sri-lankas-war-crimes and http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jan/21/sri-lanka-war-crimes-investigation

Guardian 30 March 2010 ‘MPs call for review of arms exports after Israeli assault on Gaza’, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/30/arms-british-gaza-assault (also covers sales to Sri Lanka)

Times 02 Jun 2009 ‘Britain sold weapons to help Sri Lankan army defeat Tamil Tigers ’, http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/asia/article2610539.ece

HRW 08 May 2009 ‘Sri Lanka: Repeated Shelling of Hospitals Evidence of War Crimes’,http://www.hrw.org/news/2009/05/08/sri-lanka-repeated-shelling-hospitals-evidence-war-crimes

HRW 03 Aug 2011 ‘Sri Lanka : No Justice in massacre of aid workers’, http://www.hrw.org/news/2011/08/03/sri-lanka-no-justice-massacre-aid-workers

HRW 23 May 2011 ‘Sri Lanka: Military Conference to Whitewash War Crimes’, http://www.hrw.org/news/2011/05/23/sri-lanka-military-conference-whitewash-war-crimes

Human Rights Annual Report 2010 – Country Report – Sri Lanka,http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/related_material/Sri%20Lanka.pdf

Amnesty International 26 Apr 2011 ‘UN must act now on Sri Lanka war crimes report’,http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/un-must-act-now-investigate-war-crimes-sri-lanka-2011-04-21

Guardian.co.uk 09 Oct 2011 ‘Liam Fox allegations: Letter from Jim Murphy to David Cameron’,http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/oct/09/liam-fox-jim-murphy-letter?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487

The Iranian government did not plot a terrorist bombing in the US that would have ensured their own overthrow by US forces

The supposed Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador along with 150 Americans by a terrorist bombing of a restaurant on US soil is ludicrously paper thin war propaganda (1) – (2).

Why would senior members of the Iranian government or military plot an attack which, if it succeeded, would ensure their overthrow by the US military after September 11^th style anger in the US ; and likely lead to many Ayatollahs and Revolutionary Guard officers being either killed or jailed? (3).

The US, Israeli and Saudi governments by contrast have everything to gain from making this scenario up ; control  of the second largest oil reserves in the world ;  eliminating a rival for influence in the Middle East; and a distraction from domestic economic problems.

Obama’s poll rating fell to 41% a few months ago and hasn’t moved since due to the stalled US economy and high unemployment, which he can’t do much about it as long as the Republicans control congress (4). There’s a Presidential election next year. President Bush senior in 1990, faced with similar problems, made war on Iraq to try to restore his poll ratings. He still lost the next election.

The US charges call plastic explosives “weapons of mass destruction”, a propaganda phrase also used to whip up support for war on Iraq, despite the fact that it has previously referred solely to nuclear, chemical or biological weapons (5).

The US going to the UN for a resolution against Iran as a fig leaf for having tried diplomacy is also de ja vu all over again (6).

The whole thing reeks of Iraq war style propaganda and similar US government made conspiracy theories like the mythical alliance between Saddam and Al Qa’ida.

If the plot existed at all it was likely the idea of FBI agents, who have started to make a habit of posing as Al Qa’ida operatives and offering poor and unemployed Americans vast amounts of money to carry out terrorist attacks, then arresting them and having them jailed when they do. There’s a word for that – it’s called entrapment and as one American woman said they haven’t identified a terrorist cell in these cases they’ve created one just to boost their own careers (7).

(1) = Independent 12 Oct 2011 ‘US accuses Iran of bomb plot to kill Saudi ambassador in Washington’, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-accuses-iran-of-bomb-plot-to-kill-saudi-ambassador-in-washington-2369220.html

(2) = Bloomberg 12 Oct 2011 ‘U.S. Accuses Iran of Sponsoring Plot to Kill Saudi Official’,http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-10-12/u-s-accuses-iran-of-sponsoring-plot-to-kill-saudi-official.html ; ‘When the informant expressed concern that 100 to 150 people could be injured in a bombing of the restaurant, including “senators who dine there,” Arbabsiar said “no big deal,” the U.S. said in the complaint.’

(3) = Bloomberg 12 Oct 2011 ‘U.S. Accuses Iran of Sponsoring Plot to Kill Saudi Official’,http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-10-12/u-s-accuses-iran-of-sponsoring-plot-to-kill-saudi-official.html ; ‘The alleged plot was “directed and approved by elements of the Iranian government,” U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said yesterday. “High-up officials in those agencies, which is an integral part of the Iranian government, were responsible.”’

(4) = Gallup 07 Oct 2011 ‘Obama's September Approval Rating Remains at Term-Low 41%’,http://www.gallup.com/poll/149966/obama-september-approval-rating-remains-term-low.aspx

(5) = Bloomberg 12 Oct 2011 ‘U.S. Accuses Iran of Sponsoring Plot to Kill Saudi Official’,http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-10-12/u-s-accuses-iran-of-sponsoring-plot-to-kill-saudi-official.html ; ‘Manssor Arbabsiar, 56, and Gholam Shakuri were charged with conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction, in this case C-4 plastic explosives, to murder Ambassador Adel Al-Jubeir and attack Saudi installations in the U.S. in a plan hatched earlier this year. Targets included “foreign government facilities associated with Saudi Arabia and with another country,” the U.S. said in a complaint filed in Manhattan federal court.

The plotters, one of whom is in U.S. custody, also targeted Israel’s embassy in Washington, as well as the embassies of Israel and Saudi Arabia in Argentina, according to a federal law enforcement official familiar with the matter.

(6) = AFP 12 Oct 2011 ‘US seeks Security Council support for Iran action’, http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gR7JgD6nBBVFODzZfeiH-Sde-ecg?docId=CNG.31489099dea4e6b34171e1a5ec101a16.bc1 ‘The United States on Wednesday sought UN Security Council support for action to hold Iran "accountable" for an alleged plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington, diplomats said.

France and Britain have already given strong backing to the US government. But the US administration will also be sending delegations to Beijing and Moscow to give details of the investigation, diplomats said.’

(7) = Newsnight BBC2 08 Sep 2011 ‘Have US anti-terror tactics strayed into entrapment?’, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/9584637.stm

Any third round of quantitative easing money should by-pass the banks and go straight to businesses and people to restore employment and growth

then we have to deal with our energy and waste crises

The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee have said there may be a third round of Quantitative Easing, after the first two failing to provide any benefit except increasing the banks’ reserves (1).

They failed because the banks are not passing the money on in loans at an interest rate that businesses can afford, partly because they’re afraid of not having big enough reserves to meet another crisis; and partly because their top managers have decided they can get off with that because politicians aren’t willing to risk any bank going under in case it sets off others like a string of dominoes and they take the rest of the economy with them.

Quantitative easing has been much derided because it’s a euphemism for printing money, but printing money is not always a bad idea – it depends on the circumstances and who the money is going to.

Printing money when inflation is low, deflation is a serious risk and the economy is on the edge of another recession and banks are refusing to loan is not unreasonable. Since banks across Europe are private creditors of the Greek government, which may be forced to default on it’s debts unless it’s creditors forgive the majority of them (with either option involving losses for the banks), quantitative easing is also seen as a way of ‘recapitalising’ the banks (i.e boosting their reserves) to avoid runs on them in the event of a default.

However if we’re going to print more money it should go in loans directly from the government to small and medium sized businesses at reasonable interest rates to boost employment; and in payments to the unemployed, the disabled and people on low and middle incomes. That way it can keep viable existing businesses going, start new ones and increase demand in the economy, rather than just padding out banks’ reserves. It would also involve a modest redistribution of some of the wealth spent on bank bail-outs back to the majority.

This could restore growth and employment levels in the short term, but we also need to re-regulate the banks, undoing decades of de-regulation from the 1980s on, or else another financial crisis could happen at any time.

That could restore at least some of the economic stability of the early post-1945 period. However we also face problems now that we didn’t face then.

Avoiding an Energy Crisis

There is the coming crisis of energy as remaining oil reserves becoming increasingly costly in money and energy to extract, along with increasing demand from China and Asia. To meet this we need increased taxes on oil and energy use to reduce waste of energy. We also need government subsidies and tax breaks for research and development of new energy sources.

Basically, long before oil reserves run out, we will hit ‘Peak Energy’ running short of energy due to the increasing energy costs of extracting oil. In the 1930s when we were extracting mostly the easiest to get at and easiest to refine oil reserves there was a return of 100 barrels of oil for every barrel of oil used to extract it (in fuel for vehicles, drilling, setting up pipelines, oil tankers etc). Today that has fallen to about 11 to 18 barrels for every 1 barrel used. (For more on ‘Peak Energy’ and ‘Net Energy’ see Mandy Meikle’s blog post here and Chris Martenson’s here, as well as this one).

That’s before you even take into account the climate change and other pollution caused.

If you think petrol prices are already high you’re right. However we can’t afford to reduce them if we want to make alternatives to oil based transport and electricity economically viable to develop soon enough to avoid a Peak Energy crisis – and if we don’t do that we’re going to be looking at rationing electricity and being unable to get anywhere by car, train or bus at all except at insane prices at best - and societal collapse into some kind of former Yugoslavia or Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome at worst. Either will make expensive petrol look like a picnic.

Having said that, far more of the taxes on petrol should be going to improving public transport and reducing thecost of using it. It’s no use telling people to use public transport more while making it more and more unaffordable and over-crowded and without more railway stations opened and more trains running.

The Rubbish and pollution Crises

On top of this there is a waste management crisis as we run out of space for landfill of rubbish (which in any case can pollute groundwater and release methane and other gases harmful to people living nearby). Government responses so far have focused on either shipping waste to developing countries which don't have the same regulations, causing illnesses and deaths there, or else incinerators as the cheapest option in the short term and a quick fix, ignoring the waste of energy and resources (especially oil based plastics)  involved and the toxic emissions. These emmisions are likely to increase the incidence of cancers, especially among children and may pollute farmland and so food and water supplies.

Instead we should have a recycling tax on all companies in Scotland or the UK, with companies producing the least waste and the most easily recyclable products and packaging paying a lower rate – plus an import tax on foreign imports that don’t meet the same standards. Recyclable or re-useable products can then be given back to firms for re-use at no further charge, their recycling and delivery funded by the tax.

Taxing the businesses that produce products and packaging which can't be cheaply and safely recycled is the only way to impose a financial cost linked to the cost in terms of peoples' health, lives and environment which will force the worst companies to change their behaviour and allow the better ones, who were already making an effort, to avoid being put out of business by firms who only look at their own costs and profit

We have to act to prevent all the crises - we can't pick and choose which to deal with as if the others don't matter

To get a political climate in which we can deal with the energy and waste crises we first have to avert a second longer and deeper recession in which hunger, poverty and mass unemployment would lead to lots of suffering themselves and could lead to 1930s style politics with the extreme right and/or extreme left gaining support. People who are left scared about whether they can feed themselves and their children and avoid losing their homes will ignore everything else to get those and will be vulnerable to propaganda.

Providing them with some security in the short term has to be the number one priority, but as soon as that’s done we have to start dealing with the energy and waste crises before they lead to disasters just as bad.

(1) = Guardian.co.uk 09 Oct 2011 ‘Third round of quantitative easing possible, says MPC member’,http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/oct/09/third-round-quanititative-easing-possible