The Forthcoming War With IRAN

Image via Wikipedia It is clear from recent press reports that the west, or its proxy Israel, is preparing for an imminent  attack on Iran. Indeed I have little doubt that the recurrence in the past few days of the virus attacks on Iran and the blowing up of a missile storage site are precursors to this action. It is also a well known fact that Israel is being supported by British and American intelligence and military entities in these activities and that such support will continue to be provided.

 The excuse for this will be that Iran, in recent years, has consistently failed to provide the International Atomic Energy Authority access to it's nuclear development facilities. Whilst Iran states that these facilities are being developed for peaceful purposes to provide nuclear energy the IAEA, in recent years, backed by the west are claiming that it is attempting to develop nuclear weapons.

 One of the many ironies in this situation is that whilst Iran is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Israel is not (together with India, Pakistan and North-Korea) and is believed to have between 75 to 400 nuclear warheads deliverable by long- range missile, aircraft and submarines. Iran meanwhile concerned about fears over Israel's nuclear weapons programme first proposed to the United Nations in 1974 that the middle east should be declared a nuclear weapons free zone. These proposals were repeated in 2006 and 2008 but, needless to say, they were thrown out.

 Another irony is that, "The nuclear program of Iran was launched in the 1950s with the help of the United States as part of the Atoms for Peace program.^[1] The support, encouragement and participation of the United States and Western European governments in Iran's nuclear program continued until the 1979 Iranian Revolution that toppled the Shah of Iran" (source Wiki).


 Just as in Iraq, the country that allegedly possessed "weapons of mass destruction" crucial to the debate was a recent report by the IAEA.  I say recent because previously Hans Blix (yes him again) had declared that there was no evidence of the development of nuclear weapons by IRAN but in 2005 the Agency (in a very rare non-consensus decision) first raised serious concerns about the issue. Despite this Israel accused its then Director General, the Egyptian Nobel Laureate Mohammed El-Baradei of being, "pro Iranian".


  Now the plot begins to thicken. The recent report from the new Director General of the IAEA, Yukiya Amano (more on him later) has whipped the hawkish voices, and the press, in Israel, France, the U.K. and the U.S.A. into an anti-Iran frenzy with British Foreign Secretary William Hague, "ruling nothing out". Now, dear reader, doesn't this all sound familiar? It is almost an exact pre-run of the talk that took place before the invasion of Iraq.


 Now for Director General Yukiya Amano and, enter left Wikileaks. Remember them?  Julian Assange is holed up on dubious charges in Sweden whist the much vaunted Free Market (courtesy of the U.S.A) has bankrupted the organisation by refusing to let the general public make donations to it through Visa, MasterCard or Paypal. It appears that in a 2009 diplomatic cable released by Wikileaks, the U.S. secured the Support of Amano in its campaign against the Islamic Republic's nuclear programme as a quid-pro-quo for their support of his candidacy for Director General of the IAEA following El-Baradei's resignation. In other words he was their place-man in the IAEA.


 The telegram makes astonishing reading and here is a brief extract, "In a meeting with (the US) Ambassador on the eve of the two week Board of Governors and General Conference marathon IAEA Director General- designate Yukiya Amano thanked the U.S. for having supported his candidacy and took pains to emphasise his support for U.S. strategic objectives for the Agency. Amano reminded Ambassador on several occasions that he would need to make concessions to the G-77, which correctly required him to be fair-minded and independent, but that he was solidly in the U.S. court on every key strategic decision,  from high- level personnel appointments  to the handling of Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program."


 There are going to be dark days ahead for us all.

On Remembrance Sunday - Blessed Are The Peacemakers

On the dawn of yet another bloody century why do we never learn from history?

Croatia Invaded Again!

  I have recently returned from a holiday in Croatia. This beautiful country, once part of Yugoslavia has been ravaged by war in recent times but seems to be catching up, for me a little too quickly, with some of the excesses of The West. Thank goodness there are no English pubs or McDonalds to be seen but I want to remember it now, as it is, for I fear that in ten years time it will be the new Spain overwhelmed with ugly hotels and its tranquility spoilt by the thud, thud thud of disco music.

 Houses, and very expensive ones at that, are springing up like little boxes, made of ticky tacky, for those of you whom remember the song, along side the beaches and estuaries and, as they did in Spain, are climbing further and further up the mountainsides each time that I visit so that there will soon be no exposed hillsides on show. To give you an example of what I mean I have included a few photographs.
 I stayed on an island, which is about fifty minutes sailing time from Dubrovnik and there is a rather poignant notice board there detailing its history back to Greek and Roman times but also stating that since 1992 it has been going through the most difficult period of its history. Just like Spain the island, which is now mostly overgrown, was once rich in vineyards, orchards and citrus and olive groves. Not for much longer though I feel, as the developers clearly see a killing to be had there in financial terms, whilst the charm and the character and its sanctity as a refuge, for monks and the locals as well as the occasional traveller will soon disappear. One agent I approached said that a plot of land that I had seen was for sale at for £100 a square metre.
 One monstrous hotel has already appeared on the island

and one former concrete shambles, from the Tito era, currently used by a few innocent squatters is about to go under the bulldozer, perhaps for an even more ugly Juggernaut - and these two between them, at peak season, will probably contain at least four times the population of the island, currently numbered at 250 people and where the pace of life is such that the post office is currently closed, temporarily, whilst the postmistress collects the mail from the ferry.

  For some unknown reason I am always more comfortable with decay as I wonder what stories lie hidden there and who passed by whilst the modern intimidates and shouts out with its ugly bravado. However some of the islands, thank goodness, will have none of the new and tastefully maintain the old or let what's not worth saving slowly rot which adds character to the place, so all is not paradise lost.

May your God watch over you, whoever it is!

Phil Ochs - And The London Riots.

 He is a man who never ceases to amaze me.  Most of his songs were written over forty years ago but they are as prescient today as they were yesterday. This song could have been written about the events of the past week.

Wankers That Caused the Global Financial Crisis Continue to Screw Us

 The world is currently reeling from a financial crisis because greedy bankers took an overdose of poisoned assets.  As a result people are losing their homes, their livelihoods, their quality of life and their dignity as governments around the world slash their expenditure to repay the debts that they incurred in bailing out these bankers.

 Meanwhile, their mates, the crooks in suits from the IMF are forcing the unpalatable medicine of cuts on the very same governments to repay loans that were taken out to prop up these very same banks. This is not only breathtakingly ironic  but  an outrage as well and Jesus was right to turf the money lenders out of the temple. As now, however, they they are having their revenge by crucifying him and us.

Related articles

• Paul Krugman: Letting Bankers Walk (economistsview.typepad.com)

Great Lost Hits - Part Unknown

Bruce Channel - Hey! Baby

Roman Abramovich and Rupert Murdoch - Take Your Filthy Business Elsewhere

 I was recently in Dubrovnik, when the biggest privately owned yacht in the world, moored opposite my hotel (see picture taken from my balcony below). It belongs to one Roman Abramovich, arch tyrant and crook, who dare not return to his native Russia because he would be locked up for crimes against the Russian people. According to the local paper he was in town trying to secure the services of Luka Modrich, a decent Croatian footballer, currently playing for Spurs. Whether this is true or not I don't know but, if so, it is typical of the dirty tricks that Abramovich is renowned for, as Spurs have refused Chelsea permission to talk to the player who they wish to retain. To my great annoyance the ship was flying the Red Ensign of the United Kingdom, which is a disgrace.

  The link with Murdoch is as plain as the nose on your face. Both of these crooks are practising their filthy businesses in the UK. Why?  Contrast this, dear reader, to the plight of innocent Tamils, who were recently deported from this country, having committed no crime, but were fleeing from an oppressive regime.  These two beauties should be kicked out and never allowed to return and it disgraces the United Kingdom that either are allowed to enter our country.