Illegitimate Transfer of Inalienable European Rights via Convention(s) & Supranational Bodies Establishment of Sovereignty-Usurping Supranational Body Dictatorships Enduring Program of DEMOGRAPHICS WAR on Europeans Enduring Program of PSYCHOLOGICAL WAR on Europeans Enduring Program of European Displacement, Dismemberment, Dispossession, & Dissolution
No wars or conditions abroad (& no domestic or global economic pretexts) justify government policy facilitating the invasion of ancestral European homelands, the rape of European women, the destruction of European societies, & the genocide of Europeans.
U.S. RULING OLIGARCHY WAGES HYBRID WAR TO SALVAGE HEGEMONY [LINK | Article]
Who's preaching world democracy, democracy, democracy? —Who wants to make free people free?
"Karl Rove's career in U.S. President George W. Bush's administration began shortly after the first inauguration of George W. Bush in January 2001." [here]
"... authors of [book] Bush’s Brain produce material that underscores the fact that for the first time in modern history a president attained office through outright criminality." [WSWS]
Rise of Bush & Rove, apparently, coincided with therise of "semi-fascist elements from the Christian right," and Rove is said to "represents the rise of political gangsterism in the Republican Party." [below & here]
"In 2002 and 2003 Rove chaired meetings of the White House Iraq Group (WHIG), an internal White House working group established in August 2002, eight months prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. WHIG was charged with developing a strategy "for publicizing the White House's assertion that Saddam Hussein posed a threat to the United States." [here]
Long-term friend of thenSwedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt (prior PM, said to be the power behind the Sweden PM 'throne' - PM said to defer to him. Bildt exposed as US spy & in English (elsewhere) here (re Expressen's attempt at casting this as 'smear', see WikiLeaks press release - here.
Long-term friend & advisor of thenSwedish PM, Fredrik Reinfeldt
Julian Assange, journalist/publisher, WikiLeaks, who released:
the Collateral Murder video on 5th April 2010 (depicting US war crimes); and
the Afghan War Logs: 2004-2010 (comprising 91,000 US reports), on 25 July 2010);
before going on to release the Iraq War Logs (comprising 391,832 US reports) that same year: October, 2010.
EXTRACTS [this section - not strict order]
Bush’s hatchet man: two biographies of Karl Rove
Bush’s Brain and Boy Genius
By Joanne Laurier 19 July 2003
Both volumes are muckraking accounts of Rove’s career, but despite their varying levels of criticism, the journalist/authors cannot help but express admiration for him. At various moments, it becomes clear that the authors measure Rove by the standards of contemporary American culture: Rove is a success, a “winner” and not a “loser,” no matter how unattractive he is as a personality and political type.
Bush’s Brain begins by claiming that Rove is “something grander” than a presidential advisor. “His influence marks a transcendent moment in American politics: the rise of an unelected consultant to a position of unprecedented power,” which may “raise” constitutional questions. The book’s authors describe Rove as the “co-president of the United States.” This is a remarkable assertion, but even more remarkable is the failure of the authors to grasp that the rise of an unelected consultant takes place as the consequence of the rise of an unelected president! Rove’s prominence is one expression of the quasi-Bonapartist character of the Bush administration.
“Cabinet appointments were vetted through him [Rove], judicial nominations crossed his desk, as did the details of a proposed energy bill, administration policy on stem-cell research, steel tariffs, and health care policy. Nearly every speech was shown to Rove before it was delivered,” asserts Boy Genius.
This wide portfolio is all the more significant because Rove seems to have little interest in the substance of policy, outside of its impact on maintaining political office. He rose through the ranks of the Republican Party as a career political operative, concerned mainly with the process of manipulating public opinion to produce a desired electoral result.
While ahard-core right-winger, Rove is not a product of the Christian fundamentalists, the neo-conservatives, the Southern racists or other factions of the contemporary far right. He comes from a slightly earlier, but equally foul, political tradition—the McCarthyite red-baiter.
Born in Denver in 1950, Rove grew up in Colorado, Utah and Nevada. Beginning his political career as a die-hard Nixonite (from age 9), Rove “escaped the Vietnam draft, but loathed everything those anti-war protesters on TV stood for,” according to Boy Genius. “I came from a relatively conservative state, Utah, and it was hard to sympathize with all those Commies,” proclaimed Rove.
After dropping out of college, Rove’s first foray into dirty tricks campaigning was in Illinois in 1970.
The notion that Bush is unchallengeable, a quasi-mythical being, is patently absurd and, more than anything, demonstrates the political outlook of these supposed critics. The temporary success of the Bush-Rove team has less to do with their innate strength than with the historic collapse of liberalism and the prostration of the Democratic Party. The current crisis arising from the exposure of Bush administration lies about Iraqi “weapons of mass destruction,” whatever its immediate outcome, demonstrates the fundamentally narrow social base of the present regime and its inherent political weakness.
Bush’s eventual victory was only due to the machinations of the Republican Party on election night and in Florida in the subsequent weeks, a conspiracy in which Rove was centrally involved, culminating in the anti-democratic ruling by the US Supreme Court that shut down vote-counting.
To help his clients win office, Rove conducted “whisper wars”—a genteel way of saying slander campaigns—against political opponents. Whispers of homosexuality in the Texas state government purportedly undermined the gubernatorial campaign of incumbent Ann Richards in her unsuccessful 1994 fight against Rove’s client George W Bush. The same tactic was used in the 2000 GOP primary against John McCain. Rumors were circulated that McCain, a former Vietnam prisoner of war, had become mentally unhinged as a result of his imprisonment.
Although Bush was Rove’s premier asset—“the keys to the kingdom”—the latter maintained a list of private business clients who paid for his political advice. Among them was tobacco giant Philip Morris, which hired Rove to provide “political intelligence.” Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos and Angolan anti-communist guerrilla leader and mass murderer Jonas Savimbi also paid Rove to lobby for them.
The authors of Bush’s Brain produce material that underscores the fact that for the first time in modern history a president attained office through outright criminality. Documents released by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) some 19 months after the election reveal that the Bush team flew an estimated 250 operatives to Florida to disrupt the vote recount. Dubbed the “Brooks Brothers Riots” (after the upscale clothing worn by the disrupters), a successful effort was organized to stop the recount in Miami-Dade county of the estimated 10,000 “undervotes”—ballots for which no presidential choice had been registered by the original machine count.
The authors of Bush’s Brain contend that “Rove represents a new species of advisor,” a “product of the permanent campaign, the co-president, whose relationship with Bush, and his faithful guidance, have put him at the heart of power in a manner unknown to previous political consultants and U.S. electoral history.” But Rove must be placed within the appropriate political context—the takeover of the Republican Party by semi-fascist elements from the Christian right. He represents the rise of political gangsterism in the Republican Party, and his current political “success” is the product of the alliance of these forces with the Christian fundamentalists, for which he has been a leading facilitator.
In general, the authors elevate Rove’s role at the expense of other members of the Bush administration, such as Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Both books tend to exaggerate his significance in order to avoid a more probing analysis of the present government and the political and social crisis in America.
Nonetheless, the ascent of this right-wing mediocrity, whose only apparent skill is manipulation and deceit, to the highest levels of power is telling. It is one expression of the decay of bourgeois democracy in the US and the degeneration of the ruling elite as a whole. In the final analysis, semi-criminal elements like Rove come out of the woodwork to attempt to rescue, by any means necessary, a fatally diseased American capitalism.
Richard Phillips: Can you comment on the latest details of the United States grand jury indictment and what happens if you’re extradited to Sweden?
Julian Assange: The new evidence that emerged from the Stratfor files—emails from a Texas-based private intelligence agency—show that the US government has obtained a secret grand jury indictment against me. The US ambassador to the United Kingdom, Louis Susman, stated in February 2011 that the US government would wait and see what happened with the current Swedish extradition case as to whether it would pursue extradition itself.
The US ambassador to Australia [Jeffrey L. Bleich], one week prior to Obama’s recent visit, also told the Australian media that the Australian government might have to consider its extradition obligations in relation to me, presumably in case I returned to Australia. And while WikiLeaks has many of its people under legal attack, the organisation itself is also under an extra-judicial financial blockade. There are some 40 people who have been swept up in operations by the FBI, Scotland Yard or other police forces.
... Even if we are successful in the Supreme Court, the situation will be similar because the United States is likely to unseal its espionage charges through the grand jury and apply directly for my extradition from Great Britain.
RP: Do you have any detailed information on direct collusion between Britain, the US and Sweden over your extradition?
JA: What we can say publicly is that on December 8, 2010, the Independent newspaper published a report about informal contacts that were already occurring at that stage between the US and Sweden in relation to my extradition. The Australian embassy in Washington also sent a cable to Canberra round this time, stating that the US intelligence and criminal investigation into WikiLeaks was of “unprecedented scale and nature.” It also said that the criminal prosecution in relation to me was “active and vigorous”. That material was the result of a Freedom of Information request and printed in the Sydney Morning Herald a few months ago.
The UK crown prosecution service has also refused a request under the Freedom of Information Act in relation to communications over potential extradition arrangements, stating that it would affect Great Britain’s diplomatic relations with other countries. In the middle of last year, the UK’s extradition reform panel, which was appointed by the home secretary, met with Eric Holder, the US attorney general, and a number of members of the Defence Department in the United States. In addition, there have beenother recent meetings between Carl Bildt, the Swedish minister of foreign affairs [and close friend of Karl Rove], and William Haig, the UK foreign affairs minister.
RP: Can you comment on the role being played by Australia’s Gillard government?
JA: The reaction by the Gillard government to WikiLeaks activities, in particular our release of the US diplomatic cables, was publicly the worst of any nation. Gillard falsely stated that our organisation was engaged in illegal activities. This was found to be false by an Australian Federal Police investigation.
Together with the attorney general, she initiated a “whole of government task force” against WikiLeaks, recruiting the Australian Federal Police, the external intelligence agency ASIS, the domestic intelligence agency ASIO, the defence department and the attorney general’s department. Publicly, Gillard has not issued a single statement of support and we are not aware of any private support.
The US government is trying to erect a new interpretation of what it means to be a journalist. It wants any communications with a source to be viewed legally as a conspiracy. In other words, it wants journalists to be completely passive receptacles for others. But this is simply not how national security journalism has been traditionally done. If they succeed, it will be the end of national security journalism in the West as we know it.
These attacks on us have also been picked up by other countries and used to legitimise their own crackdowns. For example, two Swedish journalists are currently being jailed in Ethiopia. They were investigating a Swedish oil company by the name of Lundin—Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildthad previously been a director of the company—but have been sentenced to 11 years jail in Ethiopia on terrorism charges. The Ethiopian prime minister says that it is perfectly acceptable to treat journalists this way and has pointed to my circumstances as justification.
The issues facing WikiLeaks are entirely political and therefore a matter of public concern. My message to people everywhere is: do not wait until WikiLeaks is bankrupted or its members extradited to the United States before acting. It will be too late then. If people act strongly now, then the organisation will succeed. WikiLeaks has a lot of support and we’re battle hardened now. We’re not going down without a fight and if everyone pulls together then we will win.
Rove Suspected In Swedish-U.S. Political Prosecution of WikiLeaks
EXTRACT
Rove has advised Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt for the past two yearsafter resigning as Bush White House political advisor in mid-2007.
Legal Schnauzer blogger Roger Shuler scooped me on the story about Rove's Swedish work in a Dec. 14 column, "Is Karl Rove Driving the Effort to Prosecute Julian Assange?" But a big part of our role as web journalists should be following up on each other's work.
Shuler is an expert on how Rove-era "Loyal Bushies" undertook political prosecutions against Democrats on trumped up corruption charges across the Deep South, including against former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, his state's leading Democrat. The Siegelman case has turned into most notorious U.S. political prosecution of the decade, as readers here well know. It altered that state's politics and improved business opportunities for companies well-connected to Bush, Rove and their state GOP supporters.
Is Karl Rove Driving the Effort to Prosecute Julian Assange?
EXTRACT
That Assange's legal troubles would originate in Sweden probably is not a coincidence, our source says. Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt has been called "the Ronald Reagan of Europe," and he has a friendship with Rove that dates back at least 10 years, to the George W. Bush campaign for president in 2000. Reinfeldt reportedly asked Rove to help with his 2010 re-election in Sweden.
On the hot seat for his apparent role in the political prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman, Rove sought comfort in Sweden. "When [Rove] was in trouble and did not want to testify on the three times he was invited [by the U.S. Congress], he wound up in Sweden," our source says. "Further, it was [Reinfeldt] that first hired Karl when he got thrown out of the White House.
"Clearly, it appears that [Rove], who claims to be of Swedish descent, feels a kinship to Sweden . . . and he has taken advantage of it several times."
Why would Rove be interested in corralling Julian Assange? To help protect the Bush legacy, our source says. "The very guy who has released the documents that damage the Bushes the most is also the guy that the Bush's number one operative can control by being the Swedish prime minister's brain and intelligence and economic advisor."
PM's Biographer Sees Rove Influence In Swedish Politics
EXTRACT
George W. Reinfeldt: The art of making a political extreme makeover
Dr. Brian Palmer of Uppsala University in Sweden provided an illuminating interview on the Jan.13 edition of my Washington Update radio show regarding the influence of Karl Rove on Swedish politics as an advisor to the governing Moderate Party.
RT >> "Ed Balls went on a Sound of
Music tour in curtained costume that his wife made him" [Independent] ...
What's UK press smokin' ?
Didn't read article. Sure smacks of Dave Cameron's Samantha advising him to put more women on the front bench political 'feminism'.
Or it could just be The Independent taking the piss out of Balls. Yeeew. That doesn't sound right.
Obama | UN General Assembly
>> still dragging women into it. Getting
a bit tired, these politicians using the we're-feminist schtick.
>> TWICE ... >>used women TWICE!
>>dragged Eleanor Roosevelt into it, too!! [ie UN speech]
COMMENT
One person's 'impassioned plea' is another
person's manufactured propaganda. Go figure.
The above is my take on causes, politicians and UN (and other) celebrities 'campaigning' for women, feminism, equality, awareness and so on. F*ck off with your preaching.
We're not morons. We're aware.
We're not the lesser sex. We don't need 'special' consideration. And we certainly don't need 'the establishment':
(be it in the guise of prime ministers, presidents, actresses or advocates of causes)
defining us, manipulating our minds, our self-image or our social relationships, while exploiting our gender, our bodies and our perpetual 'victimhood' for hidden gains.
Obama talking freedom, human rights, legacy, women's rights and reminiscing about Eleanor Roosevelt is preposterous.
UK government attempts to conceal its involvement in rendition and torture By Robert Stevens 9 August 2014 The British government is seeking to cover up its role in the illegal “extraordinary rendition”—kidnappings and torture—programme run by the United States. Ahead of the delayed release of aUS Senate report on the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) torture system, in place under the previous George W. Bush administration, the Observer revealed that the UK government has approached its US counterparts to censor information regarding Britain’s involvement in rendition and torture through the use of the Indian Ocean air base of Diego Garcia. Diego Garcia, a tiny atoll, is a British Overseas Territory that has been leased to the US for decades. It became a strategic base for the US military during the Cold War and was used to supply its forces in the Red Sea and Vietnam. It was also the only base used for air strikes against Iraq during the first Gulf War in 1991. It was used again by the US military for the “shock and awe” bombardment of Iraq in 2003 as well as the heavy bombardment of Afghanistan in 2001. The Observer cites a letter from former UK Foreign Secretary William Hague to the human rights organisation Reprieve. Hague was Foreign Secretary for four years in the government of Prime Minister David Cameron until last month’s cabinet reshuffle. Hague informed Reprieve that, “We have made representations to seek assurances that ordinary procedures for clearance of UK material will be followed in the event that UK material provide[d] to the Senate committee were to be disclosed.” The meaning is clear: the UK government is insistent that details of its active participation in an illegal global kidnapping and torture network, in close collaboration with the US, remain under lock and key. The censoring being demanded by the British is just part of an overall mass of redactions being put in place by the US military-intelligence apparatus prior to the report’s release. Last Friday, Senator Dianne Feinstein said the Senate Intelligence Committee would delay the release of the declassified summary of its voluminous report on the CIA torture system, due to the scale of redactions being made. Successive UK governments have denied accusations that Diego Garcia was used as a “black site” prison and that rendition flights landed there. As far back as 2002, the Washington Post reported that Diego Garcia was “one of a number of secret detention centers overseas.” In 2008 then British Home Secretary David Miliband told parliament that two US flights each containing a prisoner did refuel on the island in 2002, but claimed those detained remained on board and that the “US Government has assured us that no US detainees have ever been held on Diego Garcia.” Andrew Tyrie, a Conservative MP, is the founder and chairman of Parliaments all-party group on rendition. [...] Tyrie has called for an inquiry in Britain’s involvement in rendition and torture on the basis that without this happening, the UK’s ability to portray itself as an upholder of democracy on the international stage is vastly undermined. “With the truth established, Britain can draw a line under these allegations and demonstrate that we abide by the values that we expect of others.” The lies that Diego Garcia has played no role in rendition and torture continue to unravel. An account by freelance investigative journalist Andy Worthington, published on Al-Jazeera last month noted, “In October 2003, Time reported that ‘a regional intelligence official’ had stated that Hambali, a ‘high-value detainee’ seized in Thailand two months earlier, was being held and interrogated on Diego Garcia, and in the years that followed, other claims were made, both by journalists and by retired US general Barry McCaffrey, who, in May 2004 and December 2006, referred to prisoners being held on Diego Garcia.” [...] continued @ source link http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/08/09/rend-a09.html
Feinstein's report's been delayed because they're whiting out the British, huh?
Wasn't democracy supposed to be transparent?
Kidnapping and torture ... lawlessness ... even terrorism ... isn't that what the powers that be supposedly stand 'against'. LOL
Hypocrisy, inscrutability and lawlessness is how you maintain an empire.
Retweeted 201 times [USA] Department of State@StateDept Jul 15
Russia says it seeks peace; actions don't match rhetoric. No evidence support has ceased for separatists in #Ukraine. http://goo.gl/fJIu4y
William Hague@WilliamJHague 17h
@sikorskiradek thank you Radek. Have appreciated our close views particularly on #Ukraine, Russia and @NATO
View conversation [ie POLISH PUPPET, RADEK SIKORSKI]
Geoffrey Pyatt [Geoffrey R. Pyatt, is the United States Ambassador to Ukraine]
Ukrainian military AN26 plane shot down at 6,200m: any plausible explanation other than attack by #Russia? Is this ‘de-escalation’? #Ukraine@GeoffPyatt 17h
Simon Smith @SimonSmithFCO Jul 15 Russia continues to provide militants with heavy weapons, equipment and financing, and allows them to enter #Ukraine. http://goo.gl/BuxJpb
Expand
[SMITH IS UK AMBASSADOR TO UKRAINE]
NATOSource @NATOSource Jul 14 - [ATLANTIC COUNCIL ]
.@UKNATO Amb Adam Thomson: "How do you counter Russian propaganda? How do we do better on cyber defense?" #Ukraine http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/natosource/nato-leaders-prepare-response-to-russia-s-information-warfare …
AtlanticCouncil @AtlanticCouncil Jul 14
'Russian involvement in #Ukraine is far more than tanks & soldiers.' - @ChathamHouse's James Nixey in @MoscowTimes: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/opinion/article/russias-invisible-hand-shapes-ukraine-conflict/503163.html … [MORE ATLANTIC COUNCIL]
-----------------------------------------------
COMMENT
These jerks have got their assistants tweeting away their propaganda, wondering how to counter 'Russian propaganda'.
Eurosceptic named new UK foreign minister as EU vote looms
British Prime Minister David Cameron named eurosceptic Philip Hammond as his new foreign secretary on Tuesday in a major cabinet reshuffle ahead of next year's general election.
Former defence secretary Hammond, who replaces William Hague, supports Britain leaving the European Union unless significant powers are returned to London before a referendum promised for 2017.
The prime minister has pledged to hold a referendum on Britain leaving the EU if he is re-elected. ... It also saw the government turn more eurosceptic as Cameron seeks to face down the anti-EU UK Independence Party (UKIP), which many lawmakers fear could take seats from the Conservatives at the election. "Belatedly, the prime minister has understood that his too-male, too-southern, too-posh cabinet is a serious political liability," wrote The Times. ... In his first public comments as foreign secretary, Hammond vowed that his approach to the EU would be one of "enthusiastic engagement with the reform agenda".
"But our position is very clear," he told reporters at the Farnborough airshow south-west of London. "It won't be the politicians in smoke-filled rooms who decide whether the deal is the right one.
"It will be the British people in a referendum who decide whether the deal is the right one." ... "But the fact that someone who has said that they'd vote to leave (the EU) if substantial powers were not returned to the UK in the renegotiation is now foreign secretary sends a clear message to the rest of the EU."
Hammond has been replaced as defence secretary by Michael Fallon, a veteran loyalist. ... Hague will remain in parliament until the next election but his resignation as foreign secretary marks the end of the political career of a man Cameron called "one of the leading lights of the Conservative Party for a generation".
A former Tory leader, Hague was a leading voice urging the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad before the House of Commons last year voted against conducting missile strikes.
Business interests in: house building; property; manufacturing; healthcare; oil & gas. Consulted in Latin America for WORLD BANK in Washington DC. Consultant for govt MALAWI 1995-1997. *appointed to front bench -- as spokesman Health - by William Hague in 1998. Minister of Defence 2011-2014. Claim to fame:
Reckons banks are not responsible for the financial crisis: "they had to lend to someone".
At first sight, his replacement by Defence Secretary Philip Hammond is bizarre, when Britain badly needs to build European alliances.
Hammond is an accountant who displays the warmth of an undertaker and less personality than most laptops. [LOL]
On reflection, however, we can see a logic in his appointment.
Hammond is no fool, and a paid-up Eurosceptic. When he tells European governments that if Britain does not secure a renegotiation of its EU membership he, for one, will vote to get out, they will need to believe him.
And if it all goes wrong and the Prime Minister finds it expedient to ditch Hammond downstream, there will be few mourners to make a fuss.
His replacement as Defence Secretary, Michael Fallon, seems a good choice. ...
Fallon inherits Armed Forces demoralised by Hammond, who seemed to care only for numbers rather than people. If Fallon, a bright and decent former Business Minister, can restore the confidence of our soldiers, sailors and airmen that they are not mere turkeys in Downing Street’s eyes, being fattened up for redundancy, he will earn his corn.
Of course, it is welcome that Cameron has promoted a string of women to ministerial roles. All that is now needed is that they should prove themselves worthy of them. [LOL]
EXACT ONLY Source - Daily Mail - here. -------------------------------------------------------- Daily Mail Article - Quentin Letts
... richest member of the Cabinet — his fortune, mainly from property development, is sometimes put at £7million but is probably more — yet there is nothing showy about Mr Hammond.
He has a mournful visage, cadaverous limbs, the shoulders of a hungry heron — and the resilience, as yesterday’s reshuffle appointment showed, of a mollusc on a storm-tossed rock. [LOL]
... young Philip won a scholarship to Oxford University from his state school.
,,, The voice has a faint John Majorish twang and like Major he is proud, particular, not to be underestimated.
He is discreet. Wary. Reliable. These qualities will earn him trust in diplomatic circles but the embassy dinner party circuit should not expect an injection of garrulous wit.
The new European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker may not find sober Philip much of a boozing companion. ... Some say that if the Prime Minister came to grief, a Hammond-Theresa May ticket — the Dull Duo! — may be in the offing.
But which would be the boss? Now he is Foreign Secretary, he is at least on level pegging with Home Secretary May.
Significantly, Mr Hammond has also spoken, briefly, of his desire to leave the EU. For the man now in charge of our Foreign Office, this is a potentially explosive position, yet somehow nothing with P. Hammond ever explodes. Rhetorically, he is the king of ‘phutt’. [what? LOL]
Yet the Euro News agency yesterday described him as ‘l’eurosceptique Philip Hammond’. In recent years, though, Foreign Secretaries have invariably ‘gone native’. Even William ‘Save the Pound’ Hague lost his zeal there.
History suggests Mr Hammond will go the same way, but if he can bring the same determination to EU renegotiation as he did to defence cuts ...
Hague Signals End to Rollercoaster Political Life
by Naharnet Newsdesk 20 minutes ago
William Hague's surprise resignation as Britain's
foreign secretary is the latest twist in a political career that has
seen soaring highs and deep lows.
Now 53, Hague began as a prodigy who first caught public
notice when he gave a rousing speech to a Conservative Party conference
aged 16.
...
Hague made a return to the forefront of politics when David Cameron won the Conservative leadership in 2005.
Named to be shadow foreign secretary as the
Conservatives were in opposition, he won back the support of the party
base with popular public speeches and confrontations with Labor in
parliament.
By the time he was named foreign secretary after the
2010 election, Cameron had already described him as deputy leader in all
but name.
Hague led negotiations to form a government with the
Liberal Democrats, as the Conservative Party did not win enough seats to
govern alone.
Educated in a local state school in Rotherham in
northern England before going to Oxford University, Hague was a contrast
in Cameron's team - criticized by Conservative Education Minister
Michael Gove as containing a "preposterous" number of alumni from the
prestigious private school Eton.
In his four years as Britain's most senior diplomat,
Hague navigated the upheaval of the Arab Spring, the Syrian civil war,
Russian encroachment into Ukraine and increasing skepticism towards
Europe in his own country. [NO, U.S. ENCROACHMENT INTO UKRAINE. LOL.]
Initially seen as a tough eurosceptic at odds with the
"compassionate Conservatism" of Cameron's 2010 election campaign,
Hague's pragmatic approach to Europe contrasted with the increasingly
vocal anti-EU wing of his party.
By 2011 he was accused by a prominent Conservative
eurosceptic as having gone soft on Europe, and in January he opposed
Conservative rebels who demanded the power to veto EU law, saying the
idea was not "realistic".
Writing on Twitter, Hague announced that he would act as
leader of the House of Commons until the May 2015 election, when he
would leave parliament.
He said he would continue a high-profile campaign against sexual violence in conflict.
"After such a long period in politics I want to embark on many other things I have always wanted to do," Hague wrote on Twitter.
"Renewal in politics is good, and holding office is not
an end in itself. After 26 years as an MP time will be right for me to
move on." - SourceAgence France Presse
British
Foreign Secretary William Hague has supported the Israeli regime’s
brutal military offensive against the defenseless Palestinians in the
Gaza Strip.
In separate phone calls to the president of the Palestinian national
unity government, Mahmoud Abbas, and Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor
Lieberman on Saturday, Hague said Israel has the “right to defend
itself” against rocket attacks from Gaza.
“I told Minister Lieberman that continuing rocket attacks
from Gaza are completely unacceptable. Israel has the right to defend
itself against such attacks, but the whole world wanted to see
de-escalation,” Hague said.
His comments came days after British Prime Minister expressed support for Israel in its ongoing war against Palestinians.
In a telephone conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu last week, Cameron reiterated Britain’s “staunch support” for
the ongoing Israeli bombing campaign against the besieged Gaza.
According to reports, at least 166 Palestinians, most of them women
and children, have lost their lives since Israel launched its offensive
against Gaza last week. Nearly 1,100 others have been also injured in
the ongoing deadly air raids.
This is while Israeli tanks have now lined up along the Gaza border,
firing into the region. Tel Aviv has also mobilized some 33,000
reservists in preparation for a possible ground incursion.
Thousands of anti-Israeli protesters on Sunday gathered outside the
Israeli embassy in London, calling on the British government and media
to stop supporting Tel Aviv's atrocities.
People in Iran, the US, Jordan, Tunisia, Turkey, France, Indonesia
have also taken to the streets, calling for a halt to the Israeli
attacks.
MOS/AB
Source: Press TV Iran - here.
----------------------------------------------
Israel is currently the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign
aid since World War II. Although aid to Israel began in 1949 with a $100
million bank loan, large-scale U.S. assistance for Israel increased
dramatically throughout the several Arab-Israeli wars in the 1960s and
1970s.
A 2012 report by the Congressional Research Service, “U.S. Foreign Aid to Israel,” characterizes the historical financial relationship, types of military spending and current trends.
Among the highlights of the report are:
To date, the United States has provided Israel $115 billion in
bilateral assistance. It is currently the second largest recipient of
aid worldwide, with Afghanistan now first.
Given some of the press and social media comment about my interview with Steve Coogan, and in particular the suggestion that he attacked Angelina Jolie's campaigning on rape, I would like to clarify.
Whilst the printed transcript is accurate in literal terms it does not reflect the fact that I was interjecting some words as an extra question into an answer he was in the middle of giving. It was I not he who raised Angelina Jolie and William Hague. He was not responding to that second question but continuing his previous answer. So his remarks were not directed towards Angelina Jolie.
I should also make clear that:
His comments about celebrities being off putting when campaigning on policy issues were a light-hearted dig at himself, while making the point that what is irritating is "people who are in the public eye for something else who suddenly start voicing opinions about everything else" rather than get stuck in properly to a particular issue.
His comments about celebrities not standing up for unpopular causes were directed at those who refused to comment on press abuses and excesses out of fear of unflattering future coverage.
And that he certainly did not put Angelina Jolie in that bracket, because he admires her work.
I like the Q&A format but this is an example of how sometimes the words on the paper fail to capture tone and context. I am happy to do that and hope it might help stop the unfair comments being directed his way.
The exchange in full:
Alistair Campbell: How does your mind work? Where is the creativity coming from?
Steve Coogan: I am quite driven by work. Sometimes I am passionate about things I believe in. Though I have been involved politically, I find people who are in the public eye for something else who suddenly start voicing their opinions about everything else quite irritating.
What? Like Angelina Jolie going out campaigning with William Hague?
I do find it a bit off-putting. If you are trying to do something charitable there is always a double-edged sword, because it is good PR for the celebrity. Better to do it than not to do it, but I have much more respect for a celebrity that goes out [campaigning] about something really difficult.
---------------------------------------- COMMENT
The Tokyo Rose blog post linked to above, refers to an article that was run by the Independent (links contained in original blog post etc.) and is based on the Independent's article regarding Coogan.
The original Independent headline was:
Steve Coogan brands Angelina Jolie’s humanitarian efforts 'off putting': 'I have more respect for a star that does something difficult
The independent headline associated with the link to the Independent has since been amended to take into account the following:
"Alastair Campbell insists his interview fails to capture tone and context"
Phew! I hope I've got that straight & I hope you're following.
If I have it straight, Alistair Campbell's Steeve Coogan interview was misunderstood by the media outlets that picked up the story.
------ ADDENDUM - see the GQ CLARIFICATION - here.
CLARIFICATION - ALISTAIR CAMPBELL - STEVE COOGAN INTERVIEW - see Tokyo Rose current post - for interview clarification particulars - here. GQ clarification - here.
-------------------------------------
Angelina Jolie’s humanitarian efforts have been the subject of high praise by most of her peers.
Most recently, the actress was honoured with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the Governor's Ball in November 2013 – a renown accolade she earned for her work as the co-founder of the Prevent Sexual Violence Initiative and as a special envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
But not all are as impressed by her charity work. In discussion with Tony Blair’s former Director of Communications Alastair Campbell – published by British GQ – Steve Coogan called Jolie’s effort’s "off-putting" and called for "celebrities" to butt out of international affairs and stick to their day jobs.
"Though I have been involved politically, I find people who are in the public eye for something else who suddenly start voicing opinions about everything else quite irritating," Coogan is quoted as saying.
"What? Like Angelina Jolie going out campaigning with William Hague?" Campbell added, referencing Jolie’s tireless campaigning to address the issue of rape in war zones.
"I do find it a bit off-putting," Coogan responded.
"If you are trying to do something charitable there is always a double-edged sword, because it is good PR for the celebrity.
"Better to do it than not do it, but I have much more respect for a celebrity that goes out [campaigning] about something really difficult."
Elsewhere in the interview, Coogan also voiced his opinion on the controversial Scottish Independence debate. His vote in the September referendum, if he had one, would resolutely be a "no".
"I don't want them to become independent," he said. "The reason I don't like Ukip is because I think we should be pro-European, a more not less cohesive world. Insularity isn't good."
The issue isn't whether or not the PR benefits the celebrity.
The issue is the worldwide platform and PR machinery that these celebrities command; the degree of influence on public perception; and the political (or other) agendas behind the emotive issues and causes etc that celebrities endorse.
The celebrity-politico-humanitarian aspect of Hollywood (and beyond) deserves its own study.
So he's bought into the notion of 'European' and 'cohesive' identity, while nationalism is now considered 'insularity'?
Wow.
MATERIAL REFERRED TO IN THIS POST IS AFFECTED BY FOLLOWING: THERE'S BEEN A CLARIFICATION OF INTERVIEW WITH STEVE COOGAN BY ALISTAIR CAMPBELL. ALISTAIR CAMPBELL'S GQ - CLARIFICATION ... HERE.
