WILLIE PUTS MURPHY UP THE POLE FOR PADDYS DAY

NewsFlash Newry/South Armagh

Willie Frazer was caught on NightVision putting Conor Murphy up the pole in South Armagh, while removing the Irish tricolur from poles, before Saint Patricks Day. Reports are also coming in, that Sinn Fein have offered the RUC/psni the use of a portacabin to use as a canteen while they are removing dissident posters from the poles in the area. It will be very tricky, with an election looming, so every election poster, has to be strip searched and their anal cavity probed, for boobies.

One traditional smuggler, who wishes to remain anonymous, said, "We have offered one of our biggest portacabins for use by the RUC/psni so they can all have a cup of tay and we'll throw in a drop of discount whiskey as well. We are also offering them discount cigarettes and diesel. It's one of our biggest portacabins and 20 RUC men could fit in there at a time. You could also throw in a few PSNI women if they are fit enough. However we want it back in time for the General election, so we can use it outside a polling station. We are also offering to send over a few of the Bhoys, for entertainment.

Willie Frazer asked us to help them out, so that they can remove all the dissident posters and Tricolours in South Armagh. We can also supply them with a bit of Waccy Baccy and anti-depressants, to keep their spirits up. He also said that Willie and his loyal brethern, can also use it for a night, on their motorcade to Dublin, while British drones overhead, can escort it all the way to Dublin using the backroads across the border, round Cross. We've also offered Willie a few of our Bhoys for the night and for the Craic"





How Governments Twist Terrorism


States craft terror definitions and designations to absolve themselves and satisfy their constituencies.

By Philip Giraldi

March 12, 2015 "ICH" - "American Conservative" - The Washington Post reportsthat “terrorism trend lines are ‘worse than at any other point in history.’” But what is terrorism? It has frequently been pointed out that “terrorism” is a tactic, not an actual physical adversary, but it is less often noted that a simple definition of what constitutes terrorism is hardly universally accepted, while the designation itself is essentially political. The glib assertion that one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter fails to capture the distinction’s consequences as the terror label itself increasingly comes with a number of legal and practical liabilities attached. Describing an organization as terroristic in order to discredit it has itself become a tactic, and one that sometimes has only limited connections to what the group in question actually believes or does.

The bone of contention in defining terrorism is where to draw the line in terms of the use of violence in furtherance of a political objective. In practice, it is generally accepted that state players who employ violence do so within a social framework that confers legitimacy, while nonstate players who use political violence are ipso facto terrorists, or at least susceptible to being tagged with that label, which confers upon them both illegitimacy and a particularly abhorrent criminality. But some on the receiving end of such a Manichean distinction object, noting that the laws defining terror are themselves drawn up by the governments and international organizations, which inevitably give themselves a pass in terms of their own potential liability. They would argue that established regimes will inevitably conspire to label their enemies terrorists to marginalize both resistance movements and internal dissent in such a way as to diminish the credibility of the groups that are so targeted. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has recently been doing precisely that, and one might reasonably argue that government use of violence is often in practice indistinguishable from the actions of nonstate players.

Some common dictionary definitions of terrorism include engaging in “the systematic use of terror,” surely an indication of the inscrutability of an issue when the word must be used to define itself. The United Nations has been unsuccessfully negotiating a Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism since 2002 that would define terror as causing death or serious injury or destroying or damaging public or private property “to intimidate a population, or to compel a Government or an international organization to do or abstain from doing any act.” The United States Federal criminal code uses similar language, as does the Patriot Act, with the key elements being the use of violence or physical destruction to “intimidate or coerce” a civilian population or an existing government.

Governments are aware of what can be accomplished by invoking the word “terrorism.” The diplomacy-averse United States frequently hides behind the label, as it is prohibited by law from negotiating with groups so-labeled, and thereby avoids having to confront the possible legitimacy of what they represent. And it also justifies a uniformly violent response, which is invariably described as self-defense.

Fourteen years ago the “global war on terror” was used to justify wholesale American intervention in predominantly Muslim countries. A number of European countries, including France and Britain, have followed the example of the two Patriot Acts by introducing antiterrorism legislation that provides special police and intelligence service authorities that limit normal legal protections in terrorism cases. The broadly written laws have largely rendered the authorities immune from either regulation or prosecution, and governments in the West have generally been reluctant to allow any third-party inquiries into the related behavior of military and police forces. In the United States the state secret privilege, originally intended to prohibit the exposure of classified information in court, has been used to completely derail judicial proceedings relating to offenses allegedly committed by the government in terrorism cases.

And critics of the essentially hypocritical double standard used in defining terrorism certainly have a point. One might reasonably argue that the use of drones, in which “signature” targets are killed because they match a profile, fits comfortably within the definition of terrorism. During 2003-4, American Army and Marine forces in Fallujah sometimes shelled and bombed targets in the city indiscriminately and were certainly responsible for hundreds of civilian deaths. The Israeli Defense Forces killed thousands of civilians in two incursions into Gaza as well as several attacks on Lebanon. There was no declaration of war to justify the use of armed force in either case, and independent observers noted that many of the civilian casualties could have been avoided, normally a defining factor that makes an incident terror. Both Israel and the United States turned the tables on the situation by referring to their opponents and victims as “terrorists.” There has been no accountability for the deaths because it was two governments that carried out the killing.

In a world seemingly obsessed with terrorism it was inevitable that something like ananti-terrorism industry would grow dramatically. Every television and radio network has its own stable of pundits who pontificate on every violent incident, and there also are well-compensated freelancers, who describe themselves as experts, such as Evan Kohlmann and Steve Emerson. Emerson recently had to apologize after claiming that Birmingham, England had a number of no-go areas controlled by local Muslim extremists.

It should be no surprise that lawyers have now also gotten into the game. In 1996 Congress passed the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, which allows victims of terrorism to file civil suits in federal and state courts against sponsors or supporters of terrorism. Once you have a group or individual labeled as terrorist, or providing assistance to terrorists, there are a number of options you can pursue. The burgeoning antiterrorism industry appears to be in some ways linked to the increasing employment of Lawfare, which uses the legal system to wage war by alternative means, making it possible to obtain a favorable judgment and damages from the assets of a recognized terrorist organization. Such litigation benefits from favorable legislation in the United States that makes terrorism a worldwide crime subject to U.S. judicial review.

Recent court cases have involved both states that allegedly sponsor terrorism or actual organizations that are now parts of governments that either currently or at one time were perceived to be terrorists. Many of the groups targeted are enemies of Israel, and the Israeli Lawfare center Shurat HaDin is most active in pursuing such litigation. In a recent case in New York City, the Palestinian Authority was successfully sued by a group of Israelis and Americans over terrorist attacks that took place in Israel in 2002-4. If the appeal fails, the Palestinian Authority will be required to pay $1 billion in damages and will be bankrupted, with negative consequences for the United States, which has been seeking to create a viable government on the West Bank.

The U.S. Department of State identifies four countries as state sponsors of terrorism, making them prime targets for sanctions and other legal action. They are Cuba, Sudan, Syria and Iran. Cuba is an anomaly as it has not threatened anyone in decades but remains on the list due to the deep passions within America’s politically powerful Cuban Lobby. Sudan likewise should not be so designated, as even the U.S. government admits that it is cooperative on terrorism issues.

This leaves Syria and Iran, both of which are regarded as state sponsors of terrorism even though both are themselves victims of terrorist attacks carried out by groups supported by the United States. They are on the list because they harbor or cooperate with Hezbollah, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. All three groups consider themselves to be resistance movements against the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine, but Israel regards all three as terrorists, a view shared by the United States on the state department’s Foreign Terrorist Organization list. That viewpoint is not necessarily shared by many European governments, which regard the organizations as having evolved into legitimate political parties. There are also thousands of individuals and groups considered to be terroristic or criminal, collected by the U.S. Department of Justice on its Special Designated Nationals List. Individuals and organizations on the list have their assets blocked and are subject to other punitive action by the United States government.

Being designated by the Department of the Treasury or state does not necessarily mean that someone or some organization was actually involved in terrorism. The Texas-based Holy Land Foundation, an Islamic charity, was declared a terrorist organization in 2001. Its officers were convicted and imprisoned in a 2008 trial because the Treasury Department determined ex post facto that it had given money to Hamas before that group was itself named as a terrorist organization.

Inclusion on the State or Treasury lists can mean that there is solid evidence of wrongdoing, but it can also represent mere insinuations or a strong desire to see a group singled out for punishment. In any event, once a group or person is designated for a list, it is difficult to get off. Organizations that have not engaged in terrorist activity for many years remain on the list while other groups that are active escape censure. Recently, the Mujaheddin e Khalq (MEK), an Iranian terrorist group thatkilled six Americans in the 1970s, was removed from the list under political pressure from Congress and the media. Again, Israel was involved. MEK is an enemy of the current government in Tehran and is itself an important component of the Israeli intelligence effort against Iran, having been involved in the fabrication of information suggesting that Iran has an active nuclear weapons program as well as participating in the assassinations of Tehran’s scientists.

So what terrorism actually consists of very much depends on one’s perspective, rendering the word itself largely meaningless. But those who are listed as terrorists experience real consequences even accepting that the designation is both selectively applied and politicized. The United States and Israel in particular use the terrorism label to demonize opponents, drum up fear, and generate popular support for security policies that might otherwise be unpalatable. They also justify their own behavior by asserting that they occupy the moral high ground in the defense of the world against terror, a claim that certainly should be regarded with considerable skepticism.

Philip Giraldi, a former CIA officer, is executive director of the Council for the National Interest

CROSSMAGLEN POLE DANCING

The main purpose of free speech, is to fight an authoritarian state peacefully. Currently, there is rampant censorship in Ireland, justified on the basis "that it's only purpose, is to offend." The Orange Order State has the veto on all freedom, so do battle against authoritarianism peacefully often requires the unorthodox. Now metaphorically speaking, the fiefdom of Conor Murphy, MP/Warlord of South Armagh is a good example of this. Everyone knows free speech is not allowed in South Armagh, after the execution of Paul Quinn, who tried to exercise that right, in opposition to the Murphys. 


So an Irish Blog reporter, took a trip over to a secret shebeen in Mullaghbawn, to investigate for himself, what the reality was, in the wake of all of the pole-dancing controversies there. Now as an Irishman from a Lily white background, the moment, he walked in the door, Jesus, Mary and Joseph he was mortified. There was a woman on stage called Orange Lily, pole dancing almost nude in her oily skin. The place was full and it was clear that everyone was from all over Ulster. He was going to to ask them, how many pence on the price of a litre of petrol, people were prepared to pay, in order see Orange Lily but thought better of it.

When she finished her gig, he made an appointment with her for an interview, for which she demanded a hundred pounds sterling, for her services for two hours. Now the place was full of the fumes of the people's duty-free whiskey, as opposed to the British Governments, pricey tainted stuff, which Murphy is currently protecting. It was unavoidable to inhale the ether of the wacky baccy, that engulfed the place. When he mentioned this to a fellow guest, he was reminded, that he did not have the right to demand, that South Armagh, throw away the principles of enlightenment, to kowtow to the outrageous, arrogant and risible demands of British Occupation and was politely asked, if I didn't like freedom of speech and it's practice, why he had I gone there in the first place? Fortunately at that point, Orange Lily arrived for her appointment and they retired to her chambers.


Her boudoir was well perfumed, with a very large bed. She ordered him to strip, shower and basically told him to roll onto his back and expose his genitals. While she worked on his resurrection, h interviewed her. She told him that Orange Lily, was not in fact her real name. It was in fact Lily Frazer, as baptized by the Pentecostal Church and that she had learned her pole-dancing in London's West End. She had been invited to return to South Armagh by Provo politicians, who used her services in London, when they came over to claim expenses, as MPs of the House of Commoners, and she was promised protection. She worked as a professional lobbyist by day and as a part-time pole dancer by night, in both London and South Armagh. She said most of the Provo politicians used her services in their extensive free time as a result of a point of principle, while not attending the House of Commoners, officially. She confided, that after the Queen's banquet for compliant Irish politicians, she had developed many new professional relationships in Ireland.


Asked if Gerry engaged her services, she replied, that he preferred his dog and tree show. When asked, if Marty engaged her services, she replied, that he was inspired by certain fetishes with royalty. So as he continued to ask her specific questions, the picture emerged, that most of theIrish establishment, used her services, which was perfectly legal, in her capacity as a lobbyist. Asked, if the British Secret Services employed her, she refused to comment, other than to say that she had a stick and carrot approach, with regard to the Irish establishment and that they were all feeding from the same trough in London. Lily said most of them were gobshites, who generally paid her for permission to lick her. 


Now at this point, our reporter being a paradigm of virtue, was forthright and asked her, if she had an assistant, explaining he preferred a sandwich. She told him, that unfortunately, she hadn't but she would be travelling up the Sinn Fein Party conference in Derry and would bring her assistant, if he cared to avail of their services, there. At this point, they were rudely interrupted by two heavies, wearing balaclavas, who apparently were listening, with some bugs in the bed. He was told, to pack his bags and fuck off. To which he replied, grow a pair and take off the balaclavas, or words to that effect. Now at this point, I must add, that our friend did not intend offence, to the fascist feminists, for the phrase 'grow a pair,' who regard it as misogynistic,  but our colleague was under stress.


The current situation in South Armagh, for most people, is horrendous and miserable, thanks to a bunch, of vile fascists political administrators, mentored by British Military intelligence, to extend Her Majesty's writ over South Armagh and collect taxes, from the Irish on the artificial, British border, they created. South Armagh today is much the same as it was 50 years ago. The people of South Armagh are regularly beaten, jailed and murdered for daring to express, differing opinions, in what is clearly a pseudo, peace process, environment. 


The majority of decisions in Ireland, whether in Stormont ot Leinster House, are made by a small group of people, who censor the views of large parts of the population. This is how the repressive Stormont Junta administers corrupt law and state-sponsored violence for the British. What protects people’s rights to say things objectionable, are precisely what protects the right to object. The “assassin’s veto, is the ultimate threat of murder, to silence any of those with whom we disagree. The attack and murder of Paul Quinn in South Armagh, was the ultimate censorship, by fascist hands, not republican ones. Censoring all debate, free expression, for one or the other, based on the absence of offence, results, not in less offensive speech, but no speech at all. It is the same intolerant Blueshirt fascism, that murdered more than 80 brave Irish republicans, overtly in the south of Ireland and approximately 50 covertly, in the north, during this phase of Struggle. British heavy weaponry, used by Blueshirts, bombarded the four courts in Dublin, starting the Irish Civil War in the south. Incidents like Loughgall, were used, in what the British term, "to sanitize" the republican movement, which in reality, was eliminating any opposition, to a neoliberal agenda, that facilitates Corporate Fascism.


What The BRICS Plus Germany Are Really Up To?

By Pepe Escobar

March 05, 2015 "ICH" - "RT" - Winston Churchill once said, “I feel lonely without a war.” He also badly missed the loss of empire. Churchill’s successor – the ‘Empire of Chaos’ – now faces the same quandary. Some wars – as in Ukraine, by proxy – are not going so well.

And the loss of empire increasingly manifests itself in myriad moves by selected players aiming towards a multipolar world.

So no wonder US ‘Think Tankland’ is going bonkers, releasing wacky CIA-tinted“forecasts” where Russia is bound to disintegrate, and China is turning into a communist dictatorship. So much (imperial) wishful thinking, so little time to prolong hegemony.

The acronym that all these “forecasts” dare not reveal is BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa). BRICS is worse than the plague as far as the ‘Masters of the Universe’ that really control the current - rigged - world system are concerned. True, the BRICS are facing multiple problems. Brazil at the moment is totally paralyzed; a long, complex, self-defeating process, now coupled with intimations of regime change by local ‘Empire of Chaos’ minions. It will take time, but Brazil will rebound.

That leaves the “RIC” – Russia, India and China - in BRICS as the key drivers of change. For all their interlocking discrepancies, they all agree they don’t need to challenge the hegemon directly while aiming for a new multipolar order.

The BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) – a key alternative to the IMF enabling developing nations to get rid of the US dollar as a reserve currency – will be operative by the end of this year. The NDB will finance infrastructure and sustainable development projects not only in the BRICS nations but other developing nations. Forget about the Western-controlled World Bank, whose capital and lending capacity are never increased by the so-called Western “powers.” The NDB will be an open institution. BRICS nations will keep 55 percent of the voting power, and outside their domain no country will be allowed more than 7 percent of votes. But crucially, developing nations may also become partners and receive loans.

Damn those communists

A tripartite entente cordiale is also in the making. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be in China next May – and ‘Chindia’ will certainly engage in a breakthrough concerning their bitter territorial disputes. As much as Delhi has a lot to benefit from China’s massive capital investment and exports, Beijing wants to profit from India’s vast market and technology savvy. In parallel, Beijing has already volunteered economic help to Russia – if Moscow asks for it – on top of their evolving strategic partnership.

The US “pivoting to Asia” – launched at the Pentagon – is all dressed up with no place to go. Bullying Southeast Asia, South Asia and, for that matter, East Asia as a whole into becoming mere ‘Empire of Chaos’ vassals – and on top of it confronting China - was always a non-starter. Not to mention believing in the fairy tale of a remilitarized Japan able to “contain” China.

Isolating the “communist dictatorship” won’t fly. Just watch, for instance, the imminent high-speed rail link between Kunming, in Yunnan province, and Singapore, traversing a key chunk of a Southeast Asia which for Washington would never qualify to be more than a bunch of client states. The emerging 21st century Asia is all about interconnection; and the inexorable sun in this galaxy is China.

As China has embarked in an extremely complex tweaking of its economic development model, as I outlined here, China’s monopoly of low-end manufacturing – its previous industrial base – is migrating across the developing world, especially around the Indian Ocean basin. Good news for the Global South – and that includes everyone from African nations such as Kenya and Tanzania to parts of Southeast Asia and Latin America.

Of course the ‘Empire of Chaos’, business-wise, won’t be thrown out of Asia. But its days as an Asian hegemon, or a geopolitical Mob offering “protection”, are over.

The Chinese remix of Go West, Young Man – in fact go everywhere – started as early as 1999. Of the top 10 biggest container ports in the world, no less than 7 are in China (the others are Singapore, Rotterdam, and Pusan in South Korea). As far as the 12th Chinese 5-year plan – whose last year is 2015 – is concerned, most of the goals of the seven technology areas China wanted to be in the leading positions have been achieved, and in some cases even superseded.

The Bank of China will increasingly let the yuan move more freely against the US dollar. It will be dumping a lot of US dollars every once in a while. The 20-year old US dollar peg will gradually fade. The biggest trading nation on the planet, and the second largest economy simply cannot be anchored to a single currency. And Beijing knows very well how a dollar peg magnifies any external shocks to the Chinese economy.

Sykes-Picot is us

A parallel process in Southwest Asia will also be developing; the dismantling of the nation-state in the Middle East – as in remixing the Sykes-Picot agreement of a hundred years ago. What a stark contrast to the return of the nation-state in Europe.

There have been rumblings that the remixed Sykes is Obama and the remixed Picot is Putin. Not really. It’s the ‘Empire of Chaos’ that is actually acting as the new Sykes-Picot, directly and indirectly reconfiguring the “Greater Middle East.” Former NATO capo Gen. Wesley Clark has recently “revealed” what everyone already knew; the ISIS/ISIL/Daesh fake Caliphate is financed by “close allies of the United States,” as in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Israel. Compare that with Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon admitting that ISIS “does not represent a threat to Israeli interests.” Daesh does the unraveling of Sykes-Picot for the US.

The ‘Empire of Chaos’ actively sought the disintegration of Iraq, Syria and especially Libya. And now, leading the House of Saud, “our” bastard in charge King Salman is none other than the former, choice jihad recruiter for Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, the Afghan Salafist who was the brains behind both Osama bin Laden and alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammad.

This is classic ‘Empire of Chaos’ in motion (exceptionalists don’t do nation building, just nation splintering). And there will be plenty of nasty, nation-shattering sequels, from the Central Asian stans to Xinjiang in China, not to mention festering, Ukraine, a.k.a Nulandistan.

Parts of Af-Pak could well turn into a branch of ISIS/ISIL/Daesh right on the borders of Russia, India, China, and Iran. From an ‘Empire of Chaos’ perspective, this potential bloodbath in the “Eurasian Balkans” – to quote eminent Russophobe Dr. Zbig “Grand Chessboard” Brzezinski – is the famous “offer you can’t refuse.”

Russia and China, meanwhile, will keep betting on Eurasian integration; strengthening the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and their own internal coordination inside the BRICS; and using plenty of intel resources to go after The Caliph’s goons.

And as much as the Obama administration may be desperate for a final nuclear deal with Iran, Russia and China got to Tehran first. China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi was in Tehran two weeks ago; stressing Iran is one of China’s “foreign policy priorities” and of great “strategic importance.” Sooner rather than later Iran will be a member of the SCO. China already does plenty of roaring trade with Iran, and so does Russia, selling weapons and building nuclear plants.

Berlin-Moscow-Beijing?

And then there’s the German question.

Germany now exports 50 percent of its GDP. It used to be only 24 percent in 1990. For the past 10 years, half of German growth depended on exports. Translation: this is a giant economy that badly needs global markets to keep expanding. An ailing EU, by definition, does not fit the bill.

German exports are changing their recipient address. Only 40 percent - and going down – now goes to the EU; the real growth is in Asia. So Germany, in practice, is moving away from the eurozone. That does not entail Germany breaking up the euro; that would be interpreted as a nasty betrayal of the much-lauded “European project.”

What the trade picture unveils is the reason for Germany’s hardball with Greece: either you surrender, completely, or you leave the euro. What Germany wants is to keep a partnership with France and dominate Eastern Europe as an economic satellite, relying on Poland. So expect Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy to face a German wall of intransigence. So much for European “integration,” it works as long as Germany dictates all the rules.

The spanner in the works is that the double fiasco Greece + Ukraine has been exposing. Berlin as an extremely flawed European hegemon – and that’s quite an understatement. Berlin suddenly woke up to the real, nightmarish possibility of a full blown, American-instigated war in Europe’s eastern borderlands against Russia. No wonder Angela Merkel had to fly to Moscow in a hurry.

Moscow – diplomatically – was the winner. And Russia won again when Turkey – fed up with trying to join the EU and being constantly blocked by, who else, Germany and France – decided to pivot to Eurasia for good, ignoring NATO and amplifying relations with both Russia and China.

That happened in the framework of a major ‘Pipelineistan’ game-changer. After Moscow cleverly negotiated the realignment of South Stream towards Turk Stream, right up to the Greek border, Putin and Greek Prime Minister Tsipras also agreed to a pipeline extension from the Turkish border across Greece to southern Europe. So Gazprom will be firmly implanted not only in Turkey but also Greece, which in itself will become mightily strategic in European ‘Pipelineistan’.

So Germany, sooner or later, must answer a categorical imperative - how to keep running massive trade surpluses while dumping their euro trade partners. The only possible answer is more trade with Russia, China and East Asia. It will take quite a while, and there will be many bumps on the road, but a Berlin-Moscow-Beijing trade/commercial axis – or the “RC” in BRICS meet Germany - is all but inevitable.

And no, you won’t read that in any wacky US ‘Think Tankland’ “forecast.”Pepe Escobar is the roving correspondent for Asia Times/Hong Kong, an analyst for RT and TomDispatch, and a frequent contributor to websites and radio shows ranging from the US to East Asia.



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WHO PUT FRANK McCABE UP THE POLE DANCE?

First of all I would like to wish Tommy McCabe, a full speedy recovery, having said that, I am not going to lose any sleep over it, and this why. There are two basic rules, that every child in the constituency of Conor Murphy, in Newry South Armagh learn at a very young age. First you do not Tout, or become an informer, to British Occupation forces. Number two, you do not remove flags or posters, from poles in the constituency, unless you are a foolish British soldier or an idiot member of their Occupation forces. You will not have much sympathy, from any Irish person, who is remotely republican, if something happens to you as a consequence. I've no doubt that when Tommy recovers, he will at least feature on page three of the Sun, when he makes a full recovery, as part of British propaganda, to replace their page three dolls. I hope he has learned a lesson from it, and the next time someone orders him to do some pole dancing, or remove a tricolour or poster, he tells them to do their own dirty work themselves.

As anyone who reads my articles will already know, I have regularly opposed in the strongest terms, violence of any sort, against any civilians, from whatever quarter it comes. This is not the road to liberation and I disagree vehemently with kneecapping. I believe there are far more progressive ways of dealing with anti-social behaviour, with the legalization of drugs, and rehabilitation, as a progressive step,  in the right direction. Now like most Republicans in the US, many Irish republicans believe, they have the right to bear arms, particularly in that part of Ireland, where the British are still conducting their Dirty War against Irish people. Proof of this has come recently, from the British Viceroyal's office, confirming, they have their own specialists inside the prison, where Irish POWs are tortured, stripped searched and anally probed, to break down their political resistance, psychologically.

As has been fully described in British handbooks of how to conduct Dirty War, part of their strategy includes bringing this into the politics of British Occupied Ireland and use tools like Conor Murphy, to break Irish resistance, along with the compliant fools of his party colleagues. As a former chairperson of their party in Newry, it took a while for me to cotton on to what was happening, after which I resigned, as a point of principle.As someone who was involved in setting up their first two offices in Newry, along with Tom Lonergan, I do have experience with regard to the issues that confronts Conor Murphy. First of all, let me categorically state, that those offices were never created for the purpose of collaborating with British Occupation forces, no matter what uniform they wore. Secondly I can categorically state, that it never happened on my watch in Newry, and I am certain it never happened on Jim McAlister's watch in Camlough or elsewhere, as it would totally defeat the purpose of the many sacrifices made by thousands of Irish republicans and would break the ethics of the struggle. Our voluntary, unpaid function, was to assist ordinary people, with everyday problems and with issues related to the Housing Executive.

I had one occasion, outside of the office, where I had a dilemma about this. I lived most of time in Newry, in North Street Flats, which were apartments of several floors. One day a mother from a ground-floor apartment, requested my help, because, she believed a bomb had been left in a dustbin right outside her front door, which was completely surrounded by apartments on all sides. I knew that no republicans had left it there, and the only ones who would do such a thing, would be one of Willie's mob. I also knew that it was potentially fatal, to lift the lid. I actually could hear, as she had told me, something ticking inside the bin. So I gently lifted the rather large bin and carried it into the middle of the square. Unlike the Tommy McCabe incident, I did not ask someone else to do it. Having moved it, I warned all of the children in the vicinity, to stay well clear of this threat. I then had the problem of how, if it was a bomb, to defuse it.

During my may interrogations In Gough Barracks, mostly by MI5, I was aware from the outset, that I was being profiled, as either a dove or a hawk, for future reference. I conducted myself, in such a way, as to pass the attitude test, without divulging any information whatsoever, that would betray my community or comrades. At the end of one of my three-day detentions, they gave me a phone number to call if I should change my mind. Now I have been interrogated so many times in my life, that I have lost track of it all, but it would be scores of times. Now I was also evaluating them, just as much as they were me. They knew for instance, that I loved hurling and wanted to talk about that, but I politely avoided this. However I came to the conclusion, that not all of them were rotten, and I have to be fair and say, that not all cops are malign, but like politicians I do not trust them. However in this dilemma with the potential bomb, I knew it would seriously compromise my community, if I called the RUC and asked for a bomb disposal unit. I knew any information, no matter how insignificant, would eventually find its way, to people like Willie Frazer, the UVF and British death squads, roaming Ireland. It is also a critical factor in the event of any civil war, caused by the British Occupation.

So I called this MI5 number and asked them to send a bomb disposal unit. To this day, I do not know if it was a real bomb or not, I also taped the conversation for transparency reasons. This was the one and only occasion I phoned British Occupation forces in Ireland, it was my responsibility, as I was the only person at that time, taking problems in the Provisional Sinn Fein office. Which takes me to Murphy's dilemma. The RUC/psni are a British force, they are headed by an ex-RUC man. Whether or not, he belongs to the Orange Order, is a matter of debate. There is an old saying in Ireland to the effect, that blood is thicker than water, which at the end of the day, I feel holds true. In almost every British ex-colony worldwide, as a result of their divide and conquer policies, there has been a civil war in almost all of them, as a result of their legacy. Sadly the DNA of blood, is where the lines are drawn. So when Murphy and his party are calling on Irish people to become informers to British Occupation forces, they are I believe being sociopathic.We already know of the many victims of Murphy policing in Newry South Armagh. There are numerous examples out there, of the Political Policing, that exists within the RUC/psni. Murphy policing, has involved death threats issued, to censor free speech and any alternative, legitimate, political activity. There is also the matter of Paul Quinn.

So these are some of the problems. My own expereince has taught me, that policing at all times must be apolitical. That it is primarily a community matter, to be decided and conducted by communities. In the village, I currently live in, this is the reality and it works well. The policing needs to reflect all interests within the community, decided by a dialectic uncensored, taking as much time as is necessary to decide, with every voice listened to patiently. The experience of elders, is very important in this. Women, particularly mothers, have much to contribute in this. In the event of serious or violent crime, then yes outside forces need to be brought in, with total transparency, which must be apolitical. The village should at all times, have a right to witness any aspect of custody or actions taken during this process, including interrogation and detention. Certain males and females need to be appointed, with the approval of all the community for purposes of physical restraint, in cases of violence. Domestic violence also requires counselling by both women and men. Laws and bylaws, need to be clearly stipulated and displayed in public places, so that there is no misunderstanding. Civic classes need to undertaken by the whole community, with discussion groups, to patiently tease out, differing views.

As I have said previously, the British Empire, was built on piracy and smuggling. They should not under any circumstance have a monopoly, on the artificial border, they created within the small island of Ireland. Smuggling is as old, as the oldest professions of banking and prostitution. It's a fact of life, created originally by poor people, to augment their paltry existence. I believe no one or any party should have a monopoly in this reality but British Occupation will exploit these common divisions, within communities, to divide and conquer. Anyone who co-operates with the British, exploiting these divisions or betraying the details, is betraying their own community.We Irish people need to learn to practice solidarity. The reason England conquered Ireland, is that they learned from the Roman empire, the importance of sticking together in close formation, while Celts went into battle mostly as individuals. We can have our division but it should be agreed, that they are resolved without violence among ourselves, in a dialogue and uncensored disagreement, for however long it takes. Violence is an admission of defeat and disqualifies the party from any civilized debate.

Paddy Barry, my first father-in-law, who joined the travelling community, from a farm in Kilkenny, when he fell in love with Norah Barry, the daughter of Maggie Barry, who was Queen of Gypsies, once said to me, there is no nature left in people these days at all. Nature is something picked up from being around nature and animals. It's the bond that keeps a tribe together. Tribes that stand the test of time and all the challenges of globalization, have a strong Elder element, because it has much experience, the most valuable thing in Life. Commonsense evolves with it and they both appear to be rare commodities these days. Newry & South Armagh, might reconsider the importance of these values, if it is not to tear itself apart, with the manipulation of outside British interference. They are important values to be passed on to the next generation, instead of pure individualism, short-sightedness, selfishness and self-centredness. We are all selfish to a lesser or greater extent, but there is such a thing, as intelligent selfishness, that can benefit the whole community. The Barrys lived outside Crossmaglen for many years in a caravan. They had a very big family, whom they fed with a bit of smuggling, selling turf and butter. along with Maggie singing at the many fairs around the place.They were treated well by both the Protestant and Catholic communities around the area.

Smuggling, bartering, prostitution, haggling, squabbling, bullying, are elements of human life, as old as time. Disputes need to be settled by a community of leaders, who listen carefully to the many sides of every story and adjudicate, with the benefit of experience. This people power should not be given away, to outsiders or politicians, who are motivated almost exclusively by self-interest and greed, who will always divide to get their way. We need to learn again and teach the value of respecting the Elders, instead of her Majestys brute forces or the whole community will perish, to the modern day sanitized, ruthless pirates, the Corporations. The Community needs people to empower themselves, to provide leadership with clarity, decisiveness, responsibility, communication skills, that realizes the importance of listening, as well instructing and above all patience to recognize the truth or essence, as much as possible. It's a big ask but if we really want an Ireland, that reflects th aspirations of 1916, we will work for it. I also reluctantly agree, that Irish republicans, do have the right to bear arms, strictly for defensive purposes, because, unfortunately, the invader is armed to the teeth. People also have the right to fly whatever flags or posters they want, and people who remove them, do so at their own considerable risk. Murphy if you don't like my pole dancers, go fuck yourself and don't be making a Blueshirt out of poor ould Tommy, with your propaganda! Below is an article from a newspaper, that many traditional Irish republicans, were very fond of. Unfortunately I heard last week, that there was some sort of issue, with censorship of the family of Mairead Farrell. I am not fully aware of all of the details but I do hope for the sake of Unity in the Movement, that it is sorted out by now. For those reasons, I will not comment further, until a solution is reached. I hope for the same in South Armagh but we have to stand up for ourselves, we are not sheep! Principles before Personalities!

Irish Republican News · February 28, 2015 ‘CRIMINALS AND TOUTS’ IN SOUTH ARMAGH Sinn Fein has warned that a lack of confidence in the PSNI police is encouraging illegal activity in border areas. Local Sinn Fein MP Conor Murphy spoke out after the son of a prominent republican was injured in an attack outside Crossmaglen on Wednesday.Frank McCabe Jnr (pictured) suffered injuries to the arms and face when a pipe bomb exploded at around 5am on Wednesday morning. The device exploded as he attempted to remove a poster labelling a family member as a ‘tout’ from near the family home. Sinn Fein said there had been death threats against his father, Frank McCabe Snr, as well as Mr Murphy himself in recent weeks. The incident represents a worrying development in a battle for public support in the South Armagh and North Louth region. British forces have long promoted criminal activity as a tactic to undermine and challenge republican communities. South Armagh was itself once referred to as ‘bandit country’ by journalists who demonised the area as a hotbed of crime and insurrection. The PSNI, and formerly the RUC, have traditionally avoided patrolling the staunchly republican area for fear of IRA attack. While the Provisional IRA has long since disbanded in the area, a breakaway armed group known as Oglaigh na hEireann has operated in the area in recent years. Sinn Fein has alleged that some of those currently involved in illegal activity in the area are linked to Oglaigh na hEireann, who they describe as an “unrepresentative militarist faction”. The party called for a show of solidarity from its supporters on Sunday in the wake of the attack and the threats against its members. “This area is a republican heartland and bedrock of support for Sinn Fein’s peace strategy,” it said. “The party’s electoral strength in the area, and widespread respect for the local republican leadership was a central element in Sinn Fein’s decision to support policing in 2007.” But it said here had been a “sinister and systematic upswing” in illegal activity across the area, which the PSNI and Gardai police across the border had failed to act against, “despite the active support of local people”. And Mr Murphy warned of “another agenda” being operated by the PSNI to oppose Sinn Fein’s political strategy. He said that “criminals” were being “protected by the protocols which govern policing in the north, in particular the way the PSNI respond to reports of criminal activity”. Newry Armagh Assembly member Megan Fearon added, “While it is the Tories who have imposed austerity cuts to public services it is the PSNI who are responsible for scrapping neighbourhood policing in south Armagh.

VICEROYAL BANDIT SANDWICH

NI secretary warns of ongoing ‘severe’ threat from dissidents
PSNI investigating booby-trap bomb incident in Armagh which left Sinn Féin supporter injured

Gerry Moriarty


The threat from dissident republicans remains severe in Northern Ireland but moderate in Britain, the Northern Secretary Theresa Villiers has informed Westminster.

Ms Villiers provided the British parliament with the latest MI5 assessment of the dissident threat on Thursday a day after the latest suspected dissident attack left a young south Armagh man seriously injured.

Francis McCabe junior suffered face and chest injuries when a booby-trap bomb exploded as he was taking down a poster on Wednesday morning from a pole close to his home in Crossmaglen.


The attack relates to continuing tensions in south Armagh between Sinn Féin and its supporters and members of dissident groups. Dissidents have been putting up posters accusing some Sinn Féin supporters of being “informers” because they are cooperating with the PSNI.

Booby-trap

Local Sinn Féin MP Conor Murphy accused those responsible for the bomb of attempted murder. He said the poster was placed on the pole in the premeditated expectation that someone would take it down, thus triggering the booby-trap bomb. Mr Murphy called on the police to act against the dissidents before “someone is killed”.

The PSNI has now cordoned off the scene of the explosion with a number of roads around the area also closed. “Police are working to deal with the risk to the public whilst minimising disruption where possible and are grateful for the continued co-operation of the public,” said PSNI Inspector Lorraine Dobson.

Sinn Féin Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said on Thursday that the bombing was carried out by “criminals masquerading as republicans” and was “an attack on the peace process and an attempt to intimidate the entire community of south Armagh and north Louth”.

“The attack has followed a campaign of intimidation in the south Armagh area against people in the community who have taken huge personal risks advocating accountable policing with the community,” said Mr McGuinness.

The attack happened as Ms Villiers was preparing to inform the British parliament on Thursday of the level of the dissident threat.

Attack ‘highly likely’

She said it was “severe” in Northern Ireland which means an attack is “highly likely” and “moderate” in Britain meaning “an attack is possible but not likely”.

Ms Villiers said there were 22 “national security” or serious dissident attacks in 2014 while there has been one so far this year. “PSNI and prison officers as well as members of the armed forces continue to be the principal targets for dissident republican terrorists and the threat to life persists,” she said.

“A number of these violent groupings continue to attack, or aspire to carry out attacks, including the so-called ‘new’ IRA, Óglaigh na hÉireann and factions of the Continuity IRA,” added the Northern Secretary.

She said that in addition to more serious incidents dissidents were also engaged in other activity including “brutal punishment shootings as a means to try to exert fear and control within local communities”.

Dissidents are also heavily involved in criminality and this latest evaluation of their threat came after British Revenue and Customs searched a vehicle in south Armagh on Tuesday and recovered raw leaf tobacco worth an estimated £236,000 in lost duty and taxes.

Earlier this month, 12 tonnes of unprocessed tobacco worth an estimated £2 million in lost revenue was seized in an unconnected operation in Armagh.

Ms Villiers said that although “risks endure” the PSNI, MI5 and the Garda continued to disrupt dissident activity and had had a number of notable successes against these groups. She referred to incidents such as the arrest of 15 men in Newry last November, the discovery of a weapons hide in Co Fermanagh last October, and the uncovering of an arms cache in Dublin.

She added: “The close working relationship between PSNI and AGS (An Garda Síochána), and their joint efforts both North and South of the Border, has led to considerable success in combating the threat from dissident republican terrorists over the last six months. I am confident that both police services will do all that they can to build on this through 2015 as they make progress with a number of ongoing investigations.”

Ms Villiers said that “with every attack that is mounted and the many more that are foiled, the PSNI and its security partners become more knowledgeable, resilient and able to tackle the threat and bring perpetrators to justice”.




Rise of Fascism is Again the Issue

By John Pilger

February 27, 2015 "ICH" - The recent 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz was a reminder of the great crime of fascism, whose Nazi iconography is embedded in our consciousness. Fascism is preserved as history, as flickering footage of goose-stepping blackshirts, their criminality terrible and clear. Yet in the same liberal societies, whose war-making elites urge us never to forget, the accelerating danger of a modern kind of fascism is suppressed; for it is their fascism.

"To initiate a war of aggression...," said the Nuremberg Tribunal judges in 1946, "is not only an international crime, it is the supreme international crime, differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole."

Had the Nazis not invaded Europe, Auschwitz and the Holocaust would not have happened. Had the United States and its satellites not initiated their war of aggression in Iraq in 2003, almost a million people would be alive today; and Islamic State, or ISIS, would not have us in thrall to its savagery. They are the progeny of modern fascism, weaned by the bombs, bloodbaths and lies that are the surreal theatre known as news.

Like the fascism of the 1930s and 1940s, big lies are delivered with the precision of a metronome: thanks to an omnipresent, repetitive media and its virulent censorship by omission. Take the catastrophe in Libya.

In 2011, Nato launched 9,700 "strike sorties" against Libya, of which more than a third were aimed at civilian targets. Uranium warheads were used; the cities of Misurata and Sirte were carpet-bombed. The Red Cross identified mass graves, and Unicef reported that "most [of the children killed] were under the age of ten".

The public sodomising of the Libyan president Muammar Gaddafi with a "rebel" bayonet was greeted by the then US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, with the words: "We came, we saw, he died." His murder, like the destruction of his country, was justified with a familiar big lie; he was planning "genocide" against his own people. "We knew... that if we waited one more day," said President Obama, "Benghazi, a city the size of Charlotte, could suffer a massacre that would have reverberated across the region and stained the conscience of the world."

This was the fabrication of Islamist militias facing defeat by Libyan government forces. They told Reuters there would be "a real bloodbath, a massacre like we saw in Rwanda". Reported on March 14, 2011, the lie provided the first spark for Nato's inferno, described by David Cameron as a "humanitarian intervention".

Secretly supplied and trained by Britain's SAS, many of the "rebels" would become ISIS, whose latest video offering shows the beheading of 21 Coptic Christian workers seized in Sirte, the city destroyed on their behalf by Nato bombers.

For Obama, Cameron and Hollande, Gaddafi's true crime was Libya's economic independence and his declared intention to stop selling Africa's greatest oil reserves in US dollars. The petrodollar is a pillar of American imperial power. Gaddafi audaciously planned to underwrite a common African currency backed by gold, establish an all-Africa bank and promote economic union among poor countries with prized resources. Whether or not this would happen, the very notion was intolerable to the US as it prepared to "enter" Africa and bribe African governments with military "partnerships".

Following Nato's attack under cover of a Security Council resolution, Obama, wrote Garikai Chengu, "confiscated $30 billion from Libya's Central Bank, which Gaddafi had earmarked for the establishment of an African Central Bank and the African gold backed dinar currency".

The "humanitarian war" against Libya drew on a model close to western liberal hearts, especially in the media. In 1999, Bill Clinton and Tony Blair sent Nato to bomb Serbia, because, they lied, the Serbs were committing "genocide" against ethnic Albanians in the secessionist province of Kosovo. David Scheffer, US ambassador-at-large for war crimes [sic], claimed that as many as "225,000 ethnic Albanian men aged between 14 and 59" might have been murdered. Both Clinton and Blair evoked the Holocaust and "the spirit of the Second World War". The West's heroic allies were the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), whose criminal record was set aside. The British Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, told them to call him any time on his mobile phone.

With the Nato bombing over, and much of Serbia's infrastructure in ruins, along with schools, hospitals, monasteries and the national TV station, international forensic teams descended upon Kosovo to exhume evidence of the "holocaust". The FBI failed to find a single mass grave and went home. The Spanish forensic team did the same, its leader angrily denouncing "a semantic pirouette by the war propaganda machines". A year later, a United Nations tribunal on Yugoslavia announced the final count of the dead in Kosovo: 2,788. This included combatants on both sides and Serbs and Roma murdered by the KLA. There was no genocide. The "holocaust" was a lie. The Nato attack had been fraudulent.

Behind the lie, there was serious purpose. Yugoslavia was a uniquely independent, multi-ethnic federation that had stood as a political and economic bridge in the Cold War. Most of its utilities and major manufacturing was publicly owned. This was not acceptable to the expanding European Community, especially newly united Germany, which had begun a drive east to capture its "natural market" in the Yugoslav provinces of Croatia and Slovenia. By the time the Europeans met at Maastricht in 1991 to lay their plans for the disastrous eurozone, a secret deal had been struck; Germany would recognise Croatia. Yugoslavia was doomed.

In Washington, the US saw that the struggling Yugoslav economy was denied World Bank loans. Nato, then an almost defunct Cold War relic, was reinvented as imperial enforcer. At a 1999 Kosovo "peace" conference in Rambouillet, in France, the Serbs were subjected to the enforcer's duplicitous tactics. The Rambouillet accord included a secret Annex B, which the US delegation inserted on the last day. This demanded the military occupation of the whole of Yugoslavia - a country with bitter memories of the Nazi occupation - and the implementation of a "free-market economy" and the privatisation of all government assets. No sovereign state could sign this. Punishment followed swiftly; Nato bombs fell on a defenceless country. It was the precursor to the catastrophes in Afghanistan and Iraq, Syria and Libya, and Ukraine.

Since 1945, more than a third of the membership of the United Nations - 69 countries - have suffered some or all of the following at the hands of America's modern fascism. They have been invaded, their governments overthrown, their popular movements suppressed, their elections subverted, their people bombed and their economies stripped of all protection, their societies subjected to a crippling siege known as "sanctions". The British historian Mark Curtis estimates the death toll in the millions. In every case, a big lie was deployed.

"Tonight, for the first time since 9/11, our combat mission in Afghanistan is over." These were opening words of Obama's 2015 State of the Union address. In fact, some 10,000 troops and 20,000 military contractors (mercenaries) remain in Afghanistan on indefinite assignment. "The longest war in American history is coming to a responsible conclusion," said Obama. In fact, more civilians were killed in Afghanistan in 2014 than in any year since the UN took records. The majority have been killed - civilians and soldiers - during Obama's time as president.

The tragedy of Afghanistan rivals the epic crime in Indochina. In his lauded and much quoted book 'The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives', Zbigniew Brzezinski, the godfather of US policies from Afghanistan to the present day, writes that if America is to control Eurasia and dominate the world, it cannot sustain a popular democracy, because "the pursuit of power is not a goal that commands popular passion... Democracy is inimical to imperial mobilisation." He is right. As WikiLeaks and Edward Snowden have revealed, a surveillance and police state is usurping democracy. In 1976, Brzezinski, then President Carter's National Security Advisor, demonstrated his point by dealing a death blow to Afghanistan's first and only democracy. Who knows this vital history?

In the 1960s, a popular revolution swept Afghanistan, the poorest country on earth, eventually overthrowing the vestiges of the aristocratic regime in 1978. The People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) formed a government and declared a reform programme that included the abolition of feudalism, freedom for all religions, equal rights for women and social justice for the ethnic minorities. More than 13,000 political prisoners were freed and police files publicly burned.

The new government introduced free medical care for the poorest; peonage was abolished, a mass literacy programme was launched. For women, the gains were unheard of. By the late 1980s, half the university students were women, and women made up almost half of Afghanistan's doctors, a third of civil servants and the majority of teachers. "Every girl," recalled Saira Noorani, a female surgeon, "could go to high school and university. We could go where we wanted and wear what we liked. We used to go to cafes and the cinema to see the latest Indian film on a Friday and listen to the latest music. It all started to go wrong when the mujaheddin started winning. They used to kill teachers and burn schools. We were terrified. It was funny and sad to think these were the people the West supported."

The PDPA government was backed by the Soviet Union, even though, as former Secretary of State Cyrus Vance later admitted, "there was no evidence of any Soviet complicity [in the revolution]". Alarmed by the growing confidence of liberation movements throughout the world, Brzezinski decided that if Afghanistan was to succeed under the PDPA, its independence and progress would offer the "threat of a promising example".

On July 3, 1979, the White House secretly authorised support for tribal "fundamentalist" groups known as the mujaheddin, a program that grew to over $500 million a year in U.S. arms and other assistance. The aim was the overthrow of Afghanistan's first secular, reformist government. In August 1979, the US embassy in Kabul reported that "the United States' larger interests... would be served by the demise of [the PDPA government], despite whatever setbacks this might mean for future social and economic reforms in Afghanistan." The italics are mine.

The mujaheddin were the forebears of al-Qaeda and Islamic State. They included Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who received tens of millions of dollars in cash from the CIA. Hekmatyar's specialty was trafficking in opium and throwing acid in the faces of women who refused to wear the veil. Invited to London, he was lauded by Prime Minister Thatcher as a "freedom fighter".

Such fanatics might have remained in their tribal world had Brzezinski not launched an international movement to promote Islamic fundamentalism in Central Asia and so undermine secular political liberation and "destabilise" the Soviet Union, creating, as he wrote in his autobiography, "a few stirred up Muslims". His grand plan coincided with the ambitions of the Pakistani dictator, General Zia ul-Haq, to dominate the region. In 1986, the CIA and Pakistan's intelligence agency, the ISI, began to recruit people from around the world to join the Afghan jihad. The Saudi multi-millionaire Osama bin Laden was one of them. Operatives who would eventually join the Taliban and al-Qaeda, were recruited at an Islamic college in Brooklyn, New York, and given paramilitary training at a CIA camp in Virginia. This was called "Operation Cyclone". Its success was celebrated in 1996 when the last PDPA president of Afghanistan, Mohammed Najibullah - who had gone before the UN General Assembly to plead for help - was hanged from a streetlight by the Taliban.

The "blowback" of Operation Cyclone and its "few stirred up Muslims" was September 11, 2001. Operation Cyclone became the "war on terror", in which countless men, women and children would lose their lives across the Muslim world, from Afghanistan to Iraq, Yemen, Somalia and Syria. The enforcer's message was and remains: "You are with us or against us."

The common thread in fascism, past and present, is mass murder. The American invasion of Vietnam had its "free fire zones", "body counts" and "collatoral damage". In the province of Quang Ngai, where I reported from, many thousands of civilians ("gooks") were murdered by the US; yet only one massacre, at My Lai, is remembered. In Laos and Cambodia, the greatest aerial bombardment in history produced an epoch of terror marked today by the spectacle of joined-up bomb craters which, from the air, resemble monstrous necklaces. The bombing gave Cambodia its own ISIS, led by Pol Pot.

Today, the world's greatest single campaign of terror entails the execution of entire families, guests at weddings, mourners at funerals. These are Obama's victims. According to the New York Times, Obama makes his selection from a CIA "kill list" presented to him every Tuesday in the White House Situation Room. He then decides, without a shred of legal justification, who will live and who will die. His execution weapon is the Hellfire missile carried by a pilotless aircraft known as a drone; these roast their victims and festoon the area with their remains. Each "hit" is registered on a faraway console screen as a "bugsplat".

"For goose-steppers," wrote the historian Norman Pollock, "substitute the seemingly more innocuous militarisation of the total culture. And for the bombastic leader, we have the reformer manque, blithely at work, planning and executing assassination, smiling all the while."

Uniting fascism old and new is the cult of superiority. "I believe in American exceptionalism with every fibre of my being," said Obama, evoking declarations of national fetishism from the 1930s. As the historian Alfred W. McCoy has pointed out, it was the Hitler devotee, Carl Schmitt, who said, "The sovereign is he who decides the exception." This sums up Americanism, the world's dominant ideology. That it remains unrecognised as a predatory ideology is the achievement of an equally unrecognised brainwashing. Insidious, undeclared, presented wittily as enlightenment on the march, its conceit insinuates western culture. I grew up on a cinematic diet of American glory, almost all of it a distortion. I had no idea that it was the Red Army that had destroyed most of the Nazi war machine, at a cost of as many as 13 million soldiers. By contrast, US losses, including in the Pacific, were 400,000. Hollywood reversed this.

The difference now is that cinema audiences are invited to wring their hands at the "tragedy" of American psychopaths having to kill people in distant places - just as the President himself kills them. The embodiment of Hollywood's violence, the actor and director Clint Eastwood, was nominated for an Oscar this year for his movie, 'American Sniper', which is about a licensed murderer and nutcase. The New York Times described it as a "patriotic, pro-family picture which broke all attendance records in its opening days".

There are no heroic movies about America's embrace of fascism. During the Second World War, America (and Britain) went to war against Greeks who had fought heroically against Nazism and were resisting the rise of Greek fascism. In 1967, the CIA helped bring to power a fascist military junta in Athens - as it did in Brazil and most of Latin America. Germans and east Europeans who had colluded with Nazi aggression and crimes against humanity were given safe haven in the US; many were pampered and their talents rewarded. Wernher von Braun was the "father" of both the Nazi V-2 terror bomb and the US space programme.

In the 1990s, as former Soviet republics, eastern Europe and the Balkans became military outposts of Nato, the heirs to a Nazi movement in Ukraine were given their opportunity. Responsible for the deaths of thousands of Jews, Poles and Russians during the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, Ukrainian fascism was rehabilitated and its "new wave" hailed by the enforcer as "nationalists".

This reached its apogee in 2014 when the Obama administration splashed out $5 billion on a coup against the elected government. The shock troops were neo-Nazis known as the Right Sector and Svoboda. Their leaders include Oleh Tyahnybok, who has called for a purge of the "Moscow-Jewish mafia" and "other scum", including gays, feminists and those on the political left.

These fascists are now integrated into the Kiev coup government. The first deputy speaker of the Ukrainian parliament, Andriy Parubiy, a leader of the governing party, is co-founder of Svoboda. On February 14, Parubiy announced he was flying to Washington get "the USA to give us highly precise modern weaponry". If he succeeds, it will be seen as an act of war by Russia.

No western leader has spoken up about the revival of fascism in the heart of Europe - with the exception of Vladimir Putin, whose people lost 22 million to a Nazi invasion that came through the borderland of Ukraine. At the recent Munich Security Conference, Obama's Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, Victoria Nuland, ranted abuse about European leaders for opposing the US arming of the Kiev regime. She referred to the German Defence Minister as "the minister for defeatism". It was Nuland who masterminded the coup in Kiev. The wife of Robert D. Kagan, a leading "neo-con" luminary and co-founder of the extreme right wing Project for a New American Century, she was foreign policy advisor to Dick Cheney.

Nuland's coup did not go to plan. Nato was prevented from seizing Russia's historic, legitimate, warm-water naval base in Crimea. The mostly Russian population of Crimea - illegally annexed to Ukraine by Nikita Krushchev in 1954 - voted overwhelmingly to return to Russia, as they had done in the 1990s. The referendum was voluntary, popular and internationally observed. There was no invasion.

At the same time, the Kiev regime turned on the ethnic Russian population in the east with the ferocity of ethnic cleaning. Deploying neo-Nazi militias in the manner of the Waffen-SS, they bombed and laid to siege cities and towns. They used mass starvation as a weapon, cutting off electricity, freezing bank accounts, stopping social security and pensions. More than a million refugees fled across the border into Russia. In the western media, they became unpeople escaping "the violence" caused by the "Russian invasion". The Nato commander, General Breedlove - whose name and actions might have been inspired by Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove - announced that 40,000 Russian troops were "massing". In the age of forensic satellite evidence, he offered none.

These Russian-speaking and bilingual people of Ukraine - a third of the population - have long sought a federation that reflects the country's ethnic diversity and is both autonomous and independent of Moscow. Most are not "separatists" but citizens who want to live securely in their homeland and oppose the power grab in Kiev. Their revolt and establishment of autonomous "states" are a reaction to Kiev's attacks on them. Little of this has been explained to western audiences.

On May 2, 2014, in Odessa, 41 ethnic Russians were burned alive in the trade union headquarters with police standing by. The Right Sector leader Dmytro Yarosh hailed the massacre as "another bright day in our national history". In the American and British media, this was reported as a "murky tragedy" resulting from "clashes" between "nationalists" (neo-Nazis) and "separatists" (people collecting signatures for a referendum on a federal Ukraine).

The New York Times buried the story, having dismissed as Russian propaganda warnings about the fascist and anti-Semitic policies of Washington's new clients. The Wall Street Journal damned the victims - "Deadly Ukraine Fire Likely Sparked by Rebels, Government Says". Obama congratulated the junta for its "restraint".

If Putin can be provoked into coming to their aid, his pre-ordained "pariah" role in the West will justify the lie that Russia is invading Ukraine. On January 29, Ukraine's top military commander, General Viktor Muzhemko, almost inadvertently dismissed the very basis for US and EU sanctions on Russia when he told a news conference emphatically: "The Ukrainian army is not fighting with the regular units of the Russian Army". There were "individual citizens" who were members of "illegal armed groups", but there was no Russian invasion. This was not news. Vadym Prystaiko, Kiev's Deputy Foreign Minister, has called for "full scale war" with nuclear-armed Russia.

On February 21, US Senator James Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma, introduced a bill that would authorise American arms for the Kiev regime. In his Senate presentation, Inhofe used photographs he claimed were of Russian troops crossing into Ukraine, which have long been exposed as fakes. It was reminiscent of Ronald Reagan's fake pictures of a Soviet installation in Nicaragua, and Colin Powell's fake evidence to the UN of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

The intensity of the smear campaign against Russia and the portrayal of its president as a pantomime villain is unlike anything I have known as a reporter. Robert Parry, one of America's most distinguished investigative journalists, who revealed the Iran-Contra scandal, wrote recently, "No European government, since Adolf Hitler's Germany, has seen fit to dispatch Nazi storm troopers to wage war on a domestic population, but the Kiev regime has and has done so knowingly. Yet across the West's media/political spectrum, there has been a studious effort to cover up this reality even to the point of ignoring facts that have been well established... If you wonder how the world could stumble into world war three - much as it did into world war one a century ago - all you need to do is look at the madness over Ukraine that has proved impervious to facts or reason."

In 1946, the Nuremberg Tribunal prosecutor said of the German media: "The use made by Nazi conspirators of psychological warfare is well known. Before each major aggression, with some few exceptions based on expediency, they initiated a press campaign calculated to weaken their victims and to prepare the German people psychologically for the attack... In the propaganda system of the Hitler State it was the daily press and the radio that were the most important weapons." In the Guardian on February 2, Timothy Garton-Ash called, in effect, for a world war. "Putin must be stopped," said the headline. "And sometimes only guns can stop guns." He conceded that the threat of war might "nourish a Russian paranoia of encirclement"; but that was fine. He name-checked the military equipment needed for the job and advised his readers that "America has the best kit".

In 2003, Garton-Ash, an Oxford professor, repeated the propaganda that led to the slaughter in Iraq. Saddam Hussein, he wrote, "has, as [Colin] Powell documented, stockpiled large quantities of horrifying chemical and biological weapons, and is hiding what remains of them. He is still trying to get nuclear ones." He lauded Blair as a "Gladstonian, Christian liberal interventionist". In 2006, he wrote, "Now we face the next big test of the West after Iraq: Iran."

The outbursts - or as Garton-Ash prefers, his "tortured liberal ambivalence" - are not untypical of those in the transatlantic liberal elite who have struck a Faustian deal. The war criminal Blair is their lost leader. The Guardian, in which Garton-Ash's piece appeared, published a full-page advertisement for an American Stealth bomber. On a menacing image of the Lockheed Martin monster were the words: "The F-35. GREAT For Britain". This American "kit" will cost British taxpayers £1.3 billion, its F-model predecessors having slaughtered across the world. In tune with its advertiser, a Guardian editorial has demanded an increase in military spending.

Once again, there is serious purpose. The rulers of the world want Ukraine not only as a missile base; they want its economy. Kiev's new Finance Minister, Nataliwe Jaresko, is a former senior US State Department official in charge of US overseas "investment". She was hurriedly given Ukrainian citizenship. They want Ukraine for its abundant gas; Vice President Joe Biden's son is on the board of Ukraine's biggest oil, gas and fracking company. The manufacturers of GM seeds, companies such as the infamous Monsanto, want Ukraine's rich farming soil.

Above all, they want Ukraine's mighty neighbour, Russia. They want to Balkanise or dismember Russia and exploit the greatest source of natural gas on earth. As the Arctic ice melts, they want control of the Arctic Ocean and its energy riches, and Russia's long Arctic land border. Their man in Moscow used to be Boris Yeltsin, a drunk, who handed his country's economy to the West. His successor, Putin, has re-established Russia as a sovereign nation; that is his crime.

The responsibility of the rest of us is clear. It is to identify and expose the reckless lies of warmongers and never to collude with them. It is to re-awaken the great popular movements that brought a fragile civilisation to modern imperial states. Most important, it is to prevent the conquest of ourselves: our minds, our humanity, our self respect. If we remain silent, victory over us is assured, and a holocaust beckons.

Follow John Pilger on twitter @johnpilger Visit his website http://johnpilger.com/

MURPHY COMPROMISED BY WILLIE FRAZER FACTS

Willie Frazer has challenged Sinn Fein's Conor Murphy on many occasions to a public debate on law and order in south Armagh. Willie was attacked by a gang near Crossmaglen some time ago but Murphy's’s reaction was to call him “a well-known fantasist”, without condemning the violent incident around an attempted kidnap. Many people have said that Murphy’s remarks were extremely defensive and not those of someone, who supported justice. Mr Frazer challenged Murphy to meet him face-to-face, in a public forum, to debate Murphy's remarks and debate law and order in south Armagh.” Willie said at the time; “He says I am a fantasist. Tell that to the cameraman who was in the car with me, at the time, shouting for a documentary. Did he imagine what happened? Sinn Fein want to discredit me, tarnish my name and pass me off as a crank. It is a classic tactic because I do not suit their agenda. It’s like the Northern Bank robbery or Robert McCartney. We were told they were nothing to do with republicans, it is all fantasy. Well I can tell you it is not fantasy that law and order does not reign over south Armagh.” Murphy was afraid of an open debate with Willie, and has hidden from Willie ever since that statement.


Willie may have a point, in that Murphy seems to brand everyone who disagrees with him, as criminals, when he calls on all of the people is South Armagh, to become informers to the RUCpsni/MI5. He seems while doing so, to be at best cherry picking, with a a very selective memory. Does he want all of the people of South Armagh, to become informers and pass on all the details of the murder of Paul Quinn? Does he want them to tell the British police, about the details of the resources and sources, he was given to fight his elections, personally along with his party. If someone wants to challenge Murphy for his seats, will they be allowed to have similar resources from similar sources, or is it only people, who work with the British Occupation forces, who are allowed a pass on this? Does he want the people of South Armagh to inform the RUC/PSNI about all of these details. Does he want the people of South Armagh to supply MI5, with all the details about his family's history? Does he want people to talk about, what MI5 were saying about his family in Gough Barracks? People in glasshouses should not throw stones. He and his party members and supporters need to consider well, what they are about, because Willie appears to have their number and so have others, according to the details of the article below by Suzanne Breen.

An informer within Provisional IRA ranks has come forward with crucial new information about the murder of South Armagh man, Paul Quinn. The disillusioned Provo has told gardai the name of the senior republican from the border area whom he alleges led the gang who brutally beat the 21-year-old to death in a barn in Co Monaghan seven years ago. Sources close to the investigation said the IRA veteran has recently been quizzed by detectives leading the murder inquiry as a result of this information. 

Paul Quinn died in hospital shortly after he was savagely assaulted on October 20, 2007. His family and friends will gather in Cullyhanna next weekend for a Mass and commemoration to mark the seventh anniversary of his murder. In an interview with Sunday Life, Paul's father, Stephen Quinn, accused Sinn Fein of continuing to shield his son's killers, but he warned that the garda investigation remained very active. “We believe we'll secure justice. This isn't a case gardai have put on the back burner. It's open and progressing all the time. “Those who murdered my son may think they've got away with it, but they shouldn't sleep easily in their beds. Their past will catch up with them,” he said. 

A source close to the investigation said the senior local Provisional went voluntarily to Carrickmacross garda station to be interviewed in the presence of his solicitor after hearing detectives had been searching for him. “Information that this man led the IRA gang who beat Paul Quinn with cudgels and iron bars has been conveyed to gardai. “They have been told he stood in the barn, giving the instructions to Paul's assailants,” the source said. The senior Provisional, who is in his 50s, has previously served a prison sentence and is well known in the south Armagh and north Louth area. He has held position within Sinn Fein. 

Police on both sides of the border believe he was one of three IRA men involved in the November 1994 murder of Newry post office worker, Frank Kerr, but he has never faced charges in connection with that incident. Kerr, the first person the IRA killed after its ceasefire, was shot in the head as he struggled with the gang robbing the mail office. They escaped with £130,000. The republican questioned about Paul Quinn's murder is known as a ‘heavy' for the Provos. He was one of those who knocked on the doors of Real IRA members to issue death threats against them in 1998. Although more than 20 people have been arrested during the Quinn murder investigation — including Padraig ‘Paudie’ Treanor, a former driver of Sinn Fein Newry and Armagh MP Conor Murphy. None has been charged. The gardai investigation reveals a high degree of planning on the day of the murder. Phone records examined by detectives showed the mobiles of around eight key suspects were turned off at the same time that afternoon. They were then almost simultaneously turned on after 6pm following the beating. 

The Provisional IRA targeted Paul Quinn for clashing with several local Provos over minor matters in the months before his killing. After the murder, Conor Murphy MP said he had spoken to the IRA and was satisfied they weren't involved. He branded Paul “a criminal” and linked his murder to a feud among criminals. Former Irish Foreign Minister, Dermot Ahern, and the SDLP both asserted that Paul wasn't a criminal. Stephen Quinn said: “Seven year's after Paul's murder, we appeal to Conor Murphy, as a politician and a father, to withdraw his disgraceful slur against our son.” Living in a small rural community, the Quinns regularly come face-to-face with the men who killed Paul. Stephen said: “There's not a day I don't meet those who were involved in some way. “Whether they ordered or directed it or beat him, they all have blood on their hands.” He accused Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams of failing to help their campaign for justice: “These two could come to south Armagh and secure justice for us within an hour because it’s prominent members of the provisional movement who murdered our son.”