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Sullivanirish rebel, john devoy and america fight for irish freedom, by terry golwaythe greatest of the fenians john devoy and ireland, by terence dooleyrossa recollections, 1838 to 1898 memoirs of an irish revolutionary, by jeremiah o donovan rossafenian fire the british government plot to assassinate queen victoria, by christy campbellprelude to the easter rising sir roger casement in imperial germany, by reinhard doerries1916 the easter rising, newsweek sale for top high schools zombies tumblr konami code sean hayes straight jacket glee by tim pat coogandesmond rising memoirs 1913 to easter 1916, by desmond fitzgeraldpadraig pearse, the triumph of failure, by ruth dudley edwardsthe life and times of james connolly, by charles desmond greaves principles of freedom, by terence macswineyenduring the most life and death of terence macswiney, by francis j. Newsmax newsweek gold stock adv to buy jokes health buying tv media kit costello. 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Peace by ordeal an account, from first-hand sources, of the negotiation and signature of the anglo-irish treaty, 1921, by frank pakenham longfordthe irish civil war, by tim pat coogani signed my death warrant michael collins and the treaty, by t ryle dwyerthe path to freedom articles and speeches, by michael collinsmichael collins a biography, by tim pat cooganmichael collins the man who won the war by t. Ryle dwyermichael collins a life, by james a. Mackay. Michael collins, by margery forestermichael collins and the women in his life, by meda ryanthe day michael collins was shot, by meda ryanmichael collins the secret file by a. T. Q stewartde valera long fellow, long shadow, by tim pat coogana memoir, by terry de valerathe irish republic, by dorothy mcardlein time of war ireland, ulster and the price of neutrality, 1939-45, by robert fisk a u. S. Spy in ireland, by martin s. Quigleywar and an irish town, by eamonn mccann bloody sunday in derry what really happened by eamonn mccann eyewitness bloody sunday by don mullanthe bloody sunday inquiry the families speak outpoint of no return the strike which broke the british in ulster, by robert fisk on the blanket the inside story of the ira prisoner dirty protest, by tim pat cooganten men dead story of the 1981 irish hunger strike, by david beresford the ira, by tim pat cooganthe provisional i. R. A. By patrick bishop and eamonn mallieforty years of controversy, by t ryle dwyerthe troubles ireland ordeal 1969-96, by tim pat coogan. Lost lives the stories of the men, women and children who died as a result of the northern ireland troubles, by david mckittrick, seamus kelters, brian feeney, chris thorntonunfinished business state killings and the quest for truth, by bill rolstonendgame in ireland, by eamonn mallie, david mckittricksinn fein a hundred turbulent years by brian feeney the sdlp and sinn fein, 1970-2001 from alienation to participation in northern ireland, by gerard murray, jonathan tongeireland in the twentieth century, by tim pat cooganwherever green is worn the story of the irish diaspora, by tim pat cooganan irish navvy the diary of an exile by. Error of judgement truth about the birmingham bombings, by chris mullinirish manchester, by alan keeganopen cut, by j. M. O neilli could read the sky, by timothy e. O gradyhide that can, by deirdre o callaghanfaces of nationalism, janus revisited, by tom nairnglobal matrix nationalism, globalism and state-terrorism, by tom nairn, paul james global nations, by tom nairn the modern world-system capitalist agriculture and the origins of the european world-economy in the sixteenth century, by immanuel wallerstein reorient global economy in the asian age by andre gunder frank the black jacobins toussaint l ouverture and the san domingo revolution, by c. L. R. James the scramble for africa, by thomas pakenham the boer war, by thomas pakenham culture and imperialism by edward w. Saidthe fateful triangle united states, israel and the palestinians by noam chomskypity the nation lebanon at war by robert fiskthe great war for civilisation the conquest of the middle east, by robert fisk the market for force the consequences of privatizing security, by deborah d. Avant iraq,inc. A profitable occupation, by pratap chatterjeea history of god by karen armstrong. It has been a strange month in the politics of northern ireland, and last week was no exception. On monday, there was optimism that abreakthrough on the devolution of policing and justice was in the offing. A few days later, talks had collapsed amid recriminations betweengerry adams and peter robinson. Uup leader reg empey was predicting an assembly election would be called by the end of the coming week, agood indicator of the likely timeframe before a definitive breakthrough or breakdown. Over-shadowing the weeks events was a remarkable scoop from slugger otooles eamonn mallie, the veteran journalist who first revealed thebritish governments talks with the ira in the early 1990s. He reported that last sunday, the dup and ulster unionist leadership took part in secret talks inengland with shadow northern ireland secretary owen paterson aimed at unionist unity and copper fastening maximum unionist support for a future conservative government, should there be a hungparliament. The conservatives denied that any discussion of a hung parliament had taken place, stating what this was, was the shadow secretary of state as somebody who could potentially be the actual secretary of state in a matter of weeks,holding private talks with representatives of the two main unionist parties to explore how we might overcome some of the politicalinstabilities at stormont, and to avoid a situation in which we might potentially, should we win the election, inherit a collapsed assemblyand direct rule. . On the face of it, this makes sense, particularly as the dup would want political cover from the tories ulster unionist allies in the eventof a deal with sinn fein. However, a series of intriguing stories undermined this picture. The belfast telegraph reported that the dup wasconsidering giving the ulster unionists a free run in two nationalist-held westminster seats. Rte reported that robinson was considering anoutright alliance between the two parties, and the bbc reported that three consevative parliamentary candidates had resigned. The bbcs mark devenport summed up the situation at the end of the week when questioned about the prospect of sinn fein becoming stormonts largest party, neither unionist leader would rule out their respectiveparties merging into one bloc. Although the conservatives claimed there was no discussion of a hung westminster parliament during the secrettalks in england last sunday, senior dup sources are talking up the significance a single unionist force could have for the parliamentaryarithmetic at westminster. They are pointing out that 12 pro-conservative seats equals 24 in a balanced parliament. Of course that presumesboth north down and fermanagh south tyrone could be counted in such a bloc which is a big assumption. Nevertheless it gives a sense of thekind of calculations now being made. . The location of the talks may be significant hatfield house, the ancestral seat of lord salisbury, who as viscount cranborne was the keyally of ulster unionism in john majors cabinet. His home has hosted a unionist unity conference once before. The uup and dup were both representedat this gathering which took place a few months after the election of tony blair in 1997. It was ostensibly organised at the initiative ofsean ocallaghan, a former provisional ira member who became an advisor to david trimble. Another member of trimbles inner circle, thejournalist eoghan harris, declined to attend because, in the words of dean godson, the event had too much of the air of 1912-style resistanceto home rule, with unionists coalescing with what he saw as reactionary elements on the mainland. Those words found something of an echo this week from sdlp deputy leader alasdair mcdonnell, whose south belfast constituency is the mostvulnerable to a pan-unionist alliance. He accused david cameron of orchestrating a cynical attempt by the tories to grab a few orange votesahead of the forthcoming westminster election. If however,it emboldens the dup to risk the collapse of power-sharing, it will only serve the tuvs agenda. That would attract an extremely negativereaction from nationalists of all shades. It would also raise profound questions for all strands of unionism. The dup has spent forty years building at the expense of traditional big house unionism. How will its electorate take to becoming pawns ona chessboard at the home of a tory grandee? The ulster unionists and the conservatives have spent months talking up their alliance as the beginning of a new non-sectarian unionism thatcan attract catholic voters. If even their own candidates no longer have confidence in that agenda, why should anyone else? David cameron believes he is on the verge of winning broad support from the british people as the responsible choice to lead the nextgovernment. So why is he engaging in what looks uncomfortably like an opportunist manoeuvre for a dozen or so seats?. Events in london in recent weeks have highlighted the growing collusion between american neoconservatives and the european far right in stirring up hatred of muslims. Richard bartholomew has details of a meeting at the george restaurant in east london in august attended by jihad watchs robert spencer and douglas murray of the centre for social cohesion at the invitation of the christian action network. Also invited were the english defence league, the group responsible for a number of recent violent anti-muslim protests. Robert spencer says on his blog that he and murray refused to meet with the edl, and cites adrian morgan as a witness to this version of events. But the presence of morgan, who did meet the edl, is itself evidence of the emerging relationship between the neocons and the far-right. . Just a quick pointer to to my latest piece for spinwatch, web 2. 0 warfare from gaza to iran. It a story i m slightly ambivalent in one sense, because there has clearly been important information coming out of iran on twitter. There have also been a lot of poorly sourced rumours, of which perhaps the most suspicious is the one cited by robert fisk, that the iranian government is using hamas and hezbollah operatives to suppress the demonstrators. . If my story comes across as slightly sceptical about social media, i hope that the links to spinprofiles and neocon europe show some of the potential for using the technology in a more considered way. Indeed, i think there is potential for wikis like these to develop a symbiotic relationship with blogs and social networks, providing a more structure long-term memory for the blogosphere. . The current fiasco over expenses at westminster has created a major opportunity for political reform in britain. You might not know it from the medias focus on celebrity populism, but there has actually been some useful thinking on the left over the past year which addresses the causes of the crisis quite precisely. . Ive been collating some of that conversation for my own reference, and i thought it was worth sharing it here. Please feel free to suggest any other relevant links in the comments. . Tim gore, democratic republicanism. And the eu, next left, 07 02 09. Billy bragg opened the second half of his 2008 st george day celebrationat london barbican theatre with jerusalem. And, as kittyempire put it in her review, the audience responded coyly when billyinvited them to join in by holding above their heads the carefully laidout sheets of red and white paper distributed on the auditorium seatsto form one huge st george cross. Hardly an exercise of leniriefenstahl proportions, but more than enough, apparently, to getobserver readers searching for any excuse not to join in. (a jigsaw state (pdf)). In a previous collection of essays, 2008s imagined nation, perryman explored the possibilities for english national identity in the wake of devolution. A session on english nationalism at last years compass conference provided the inspiration for the new volume, whichbroadens the debate to look at the prospects for all of the nations in the uk. . There is plenty of irish interest with contributions from arthur aughey, gerry adams, inez mccormack and peadar kirby. Adams contribution is largely based on his speech to februarys sinn fein ard fheis, but its interesting to see it set in this context, not least because sinn fein has often been wary of drawing parallels with nationalist movements in the various nations of britain. . Tony blair has cited the precedent as cause for optimism in his role as quartet envoy, while gerry adams called for inclusive negotiations during his visit to gaza last week. The analogy isnt universally welcome, however. . Two recent articles reflect the parameters of the debate. In the new statesman, blairs former chief of staff, jonathan powell, argues that the british governments engagement with irish republicans provides a model for an israeli approach to hamas. In standpoint, douglas murray reiterates a longstanding neoconservative critique of such suggestions, arguing that the claims of the peace process in northern ireland itself are unproven - but they are also unhelpful to the point of uselessness. This dispute is significant given the identity of some of the key actors now emerging on the middle east stage. More over at ourkingdom. . Soviet front groups might have been more effective, but stalinist paranoia made impossible the operational autonomy needed to succeed. To the extent that future practitioners of this type of propaganda have learned lessons from the soviet experience, we may expect that the nonstate groups will be controlled in a more sophisticated manner and their ties to a given state will be less obvious. New methods of spreading propaganda (such as via internet web sites of non-governmental organizations ngos , or specialized email lists) allow a deceiver to reach target audiences via multiple channels. Many of these channels may remain relatively invisible to the public at large. (elements of strategic denial and deception by abram shulsky in strategic denial and deception the twenty-first century challenge, edited by roy godson and james j. Wirtz, transaction books, 2002, p23. ). Shulsky went on to note that despite the medias self-image of hardheaded cynicism, it is relatively vulnerable to this type of manipulation. (p24. ) the suns experience would seem to bear this out. . Time once again to dust off the cobwebs on here and draw together a few threads from my writing over the last couple of weeks. First of all my report for ourkingdom from the sinn fein ard fheis two weeks ago. It was a very interesting time to be in dublin, with 120,000 people marching on the streets against the governments swingeing austerity measures. Gerry adams cannily tapped into the mood by calling for a left-wing alliance with the labour party. . As a result craig is publishing the book online today. The green ribbon is delighted to be one of the many blogs supporting craig by hosting a copy of the file here. You can also support craig (and a range of charities) by picking up a privately-printed hard copy edition from amazon. The book includes an indispensable account of murrays dealings with spicer during the arms to africa affair, as well as his views on spicers role in the peter mcbride case and his subsequent career in iraq. . Heres an interesting postscript to nick cleggs attack on policy exchange for privately briefing against the global peace and unity event in london. One of the organisations cited by policy exchange, the society of americans for national existence, has objected to my characterisation of them in a post at spinwatch. On their blog a sane staffer writes. In this linkthe leftist brits continue to blather on about sane and its deep, secret powers. We continue. To get many visitors from england trying to figure this out. In this blog and in the links, sane is tied to iasps (true, we are indeed closely linked to iasps), but then we are both (iasps and sane)labeled neocons--which merely demonstrates these folks are either illiterate or fools or just dont read or are wholly disingenuous. . One point worth making is that the society of americans for national existence are not just some bunch of marginal crazies. Sane is actually a project of the institute for advanced strategic and political studies. Iasps was where key neoconservatives like richard perle, david wurmser and doug feith worked out the clean break strategy, which many believe formed the basis of the iraq war agenda they went on to pursue in the bush administration. . Neither the quote nor the full article labels either sane or iasps as neocon institutions. Much of what the article does say is specifically accepted by sane. Indeed, sane goes on to provide two articles which elaborate on iasps role in formulating the clean break strategy. The first of these, israel the advanced case of western affliction, states (my emphasis). Anyone who studies that institute document and the voluminous studies and analyses provided by iasps over the years to policy makers and politicians in israel and washington, d. C. , knows that iasps does not advocate democracy as a tool of foreign policy. It doesn t even advocate democracy as a tool of domestic policy. Indeed, the institute founder, loewenberg, has made clear that the drift in this country to democracy and away from a constitutional republic built on a federation of states, themselves layered on a bedrock of judeo-christian values, is very much a continuation of the decline of the west. . Anyone who looks at iraq or jordan and doesn t understand, not just the shia-sunni divide, but the important tribal ones that make claims going back to the terrorist founder freedom fighter nation builder of islam, mohammed, will never come to grips with the geo-strategic realities in that part of the world. The evidence of this claim is before us now in iraq, in afghanistan and in gaza. . The piece also alludes to the role of wurmser, perle et. Al. The institute has of course gained enormous worldwide attention through its pre-iraq war publication titled, a clean break a new strategy for securing the realm, in which it advocated a triangulated strategy between israel, turkey and jordan to remove saddam hussein from power in iraq and become the base of a tripartite power alliance to rule over and secure a strategic stability in the middle east. Because the reports contributors included many of the policy professionals that took up important positions in the bush administration, left-wing types, right-wing types, arabs, and main stream media soon gravitated to this study as the blueprint for the jewish neocon war in iraq. . At this point, sane would seem to have recapitulated most of my original argument. So what are they trying to establish with their rebuttal? I think there are two key points which also emerge in the second article does pat buchanan have a flea problem, a blind spot or both?. First things first. As i have written in the past, the clean break document was not about america at all, but about a strategy those of us at the institute (i was then a trustee and legal counsel) proposed. So the clean break document was aimed at the israeli government, not the us, and strategic security was the goal not spreading democracy. It is worth comparing this with what some of the neoconservatives critics have said. For example, stephen. J sniegoski has written. It should be emphasised that the same people - feith, wurmser, perle - who advised the israeli government on issues issues of national security would later advise the george w. Bush administration to pursue virtually the same policy regarding the middle east. (the transparent cabal, p. 90). Sniegoski went on to note the very same points sane make about the differences between a clean break and the case for war presented in 2003 while neocons present american policy in a very idealistic light, their policy prescriptions for israel, which involved similar concrete policy objective, were devoid of such sentiment. Written in terms of israeli interest, the study made little mention of the benefits to be accrued by israels neighbouring countries, such as the establishment of democracy. (the transparent cabal, p92)the conclusion that sane invites us to draw is that the aims of the israeli geopoliticians of 1996, were unrelated to those of the american idealists of 2003, despite the minor coincidence of their being the same people. The more credible view is that a right-wing likudist analysis of israels geopolitical interests was a key factor in the neoconservative drive to war. The clean break document was not silent on the role of the united states. To anticipate u. S. Reactions and plan ways to manage and constrain those reactions, prime minister netanyahu can formulate the policies and stress themes he favors in language familiar to the americans by tapping into themes of american administrations during the cold war which apply well to israel. . The subsequent emphasis on bringing democracy to iraq was consistent with this principle. In the transition from a clean break to the us invasion of iraq the neocons presented a false identity between american and european interests, and a hard-line likudist conception of israels interests. This is a habit that arguably did not end in 2003, and may explain episodes such as policy exchanges private briefing. If europeans oppose engagement with the muslim brotherhood at home, they are not likely to press for israeli negotiations with hamas. Likewise, if europeans fear muslim population growth at home, they are more likely to accept extreme responses to palestinian population growth. A clean break is not, incidentally, the only evidence that sane and iasps have neoconservative links. Sane president david yerushalmi is general counsel and policy advisor to the center for security policy, a think tank headed by the former assistant secretary of defense, frank gaffney. Gaffneys neoconservative record has been documented by jim lobe, who also revealed earlier this year, that gaffneys sister, devon gaffney cross has been organising pentagon-funded private briefings by fellow neoconservatives for reporters in london and paris. . Well done to nick clegg for becoming the first major party leader to take on policy exchange over its unscrupulous approach to islam. (hat-tip sunny hundal)in a statement carried by the politicshome website on friday, clegg criticised the think-tank over for a privately circulated briefing against the sundays global peace and unity event in london. The policy exchange briefing i have seen seeks to raise alarm over a number of the speakers planning to attend the conference. The accuracy of the allegations is variable, with a notable lack of evidence to support many of the claims. In particular i was appalled to see evidence quoted from the society for american national existence, an organisation which seeks to make the practice of islam illegal, punishable by 20 years in prison. I need hardly point out how illogical it is to attempt to criticise one set of extreme views by citing another. My concern is not limited to the facts in the document, however. Your attempt to raise a boycott of this event by privately briefing against it is bizarre, and underhand behaviour for a think-tank supposedly interested in open public debate. The information you are disseminating is extremely narrow in focus and as a result tars with the brush of extremism the tens of thousands of muslims who will be in attendance. This looks exactly like the kind of activity which led the charity commission to identify a need for greater transparency from policy exchange earlier this year. . The following is a mirror of an original post from craig murray this is the key section from my new book which the publisher is unwilling to publish due to legal threats from schillings libel lawyers, acting on behalf of the mercenary commander tim spicer peter penfold was back in the uk. He was interviewed separately. Both penfold and spicer were interviewed under caution, as suspects for having broken the arms embargo. Then, suddenly, tony blair intervened. On 11 may 1998, without consulting the fco, he gave a statement to journalists. Penfold, blair declared, was a hero. A dictatorship had been successfully overthrown and democracy restored. Penfold had done a superb job in trying to deal with the consequences of the military coup. All this stuff about security council resolutions and sanctions was an overblown hoo-ha. I believe this episode is extremely important. In 1998 the country was still starry-eyed about blair, but with the benefit of hindsight, this intervention points the way towards the disasters of his later years in office. It is extraordinarily wrong for a prime minister to declare that a man is a hero, when customs had questioned him two days earlier under caution over the very matter the prime minister is praising. It shows blair belief that his judgement stood above the law of the land, something that was to occur again on a much bigger scale when he halted the serious fraud office investigation into british aerospace foreign bribes. But of course blairs contempt for un security council resolutions on the arms embargo, and the belief that installing democracy by invasion could trump the trivia of international law, prefigures precisely the disaster of iraq. As with iraq, blair was also conveniently ignoring the fact that sierra leone was left a mess, with kabbah in charge of little more than freetown. In the fco we were astonished by blair intervention, and deeply puzzled. Where had it come from? It differed completely from robin cook views. Who was drafting this stuff for blair to the effect that the un and the law were unimportant? For most of us, this was the very first indication we had of how deep a hold neo-con thinking and military interests had on the blair circle. It was also my first encounter with the phenomenon of foreign policy being dictated by alistair campbell, the prime inister press secretary, the military lobby, of course, was working hard to defend spicer, one of their own. A few days later customs and excise concluded their investigations. A thick dossier, including documentation from the fco, from the raid on sandline offices, and from elsewhere, was sent to the crown prosecution service. The customs and excise team who had interviewed us told me that the recommendation was that both spicer and penfold be prosecuted for breach of the embargo. The dossier was returned to customs and excise from the crown prosecution service the very same day it was sent. It was marked, in effect, for no further action. There would be no prosecution. A customs officer told me bitterly that, given the time between the dossier leaving their offices and the time it was returned, allowing time for both deliveries, it could not have been in the cps more than half an hour. It was a thick dossier. They could not even have read it before turning it down. I felt sick to my stomach at the decision not to prosecute spicer and penfold. So were the customs officers investigating the case, at least two of them called me to commiserate. They had believed they had put together an extremely strong case, and they told me that their submission to the crown prosecution service said so. The decision not to prosecute in the sandline case was the first major instance of the corruption of the legal process that was to be a hallmark of the blair years. Customs and excise were stunned by it. There is no doubt whatsoever that spicer and penfold had worked together to ship weapons to sierra leone in breach of uk law. Security council 1132 had been given effect in british law by an order in council. I had never found in the least credible their assertions that they did not know about it. I had personally told spicer that it would be illegal to ship arms to sierra leone, to any side in the conflict. Penfold claim never to have seen an absolutely key security council resolution about a country to which he was high commissioner is truly extraordinary. But even if they did not know, ignorance of the law is famously no defence in england. Who knows what a jury would have made of this sorry tale of greed, hired killers and blood diamonds. But i have no doubt at all and more importantly nor did the customs officers investigating the case that there was enough there for a viable prosecution. The head of the crown prosecution service when it decided not to prosecute was barbara mills. Barbara mills is a very well-connected woman in new labour circles. She is married to john mills, a former labour councillor in camden. That makes her sister-in-law to tessa jowell, the new labour cabinet minister with a penchant for taking out repeated mortgages on her home, and then paying them off with cash widely alleged to have come from silvio berlusconi, the friend and business colleague of her husband david mills, who according to a bbc documentary by the estimable john sweeney has created offshore companies for known camorra and mafia interests. Tessa jowell and david mills were also both camden labour councillors, and are close to tony blair. Blair is also a great friend of berlusconi, despite the numerous criminal allegations against berlusconi and his long history of political alliances with open fascists. Just to complete the cosy new labour picture, another brother-in-law of barbara mills and tessa jowell is alan rusbridger, editor of the guardian. Did any of those relationships of barbara mills, the director of public prosecutions, affect the crown prosecution service decision not to proceed with the case, and to take that decision in less time than it would have taken them to read the dossier customs and excise sent them? Barbara mills was to resign as director of public prosecutions later that year after being personally criticised in his judgement by a high court judge who ruled against the crown prosecution service for continually failing to prosecute over deaths in police custody. That has not stopped the extremely well connected dame barbara from being appointed to a string of highly paid public positions since then. It is infuriating that, maxwell style, spicer (who has made millions form the war in iraq) is using the prohibitive costs of defending a libel case to intimidate my publisher. The result is that important information i received at first hand, and an account of events to which i am eye-witness, is being repressed, as is an important independent critique of early blair foreign policy. I am not currently confident the book will get published at all - i am not prepared to put out anodyne pap, which hides the truth, under my name. . . But it is pretty firmly in hibernation mode at the moment. In part this it has opened up a number of other opportunities for me that are now taking up most of my time. One of these is an editing gig at opendemocracys ourkingdom blog, which is involved in some very exciting thinking around the future of the uk. My involvement with spinwatch has also deepened to the point where an argument that started out as a response to a slugger thread has led to me starting a ph. D at the university of strathclyde. Both opendemocracy and spinwatch have got some interesting new projects in the works over the next few months. In the meantime, id like to flag up some good posts elsewhere on the themes that ive been neglecting here lately. If you had been following the coverage of tim spicer, tony buckingham and assorted mercenaries here, then you will want to look up craig murrays recent encounters with same. If youre interested in the neocons, london bloggers have produced some great coverage of policy exchanges relationship with boris johnson in recent months. Notable examples can be found at dave hill, liberal conspiracy, boris watch and tory troll. Its also worth noting arun kundnanis article earlier this month, and the guardians profile on policy exchange last friday, which both picked up on dean godsons cold war background. The hiatus here is likely to continue but do please keep an eye out my stuff at ourkingdom and spinwatch. . Last year a supporter of the pfc in the us contacted senator barack obama regarding the controversial pentagon contract with lt col spicer, the former scots guards officer whose troops murdered peter mc bride - see excerpt below from obamas response - today- september 4 is the anniversary of peters murder. We urge supporters to contact senator obama and call on the presidential candidate to keep his promise if elected and cancel the aegis contract!. . As you know, the ceo of aegis defense services tim spicer has been implicated in a variety of human rights abuses around the globe. Given his history, i agree that the united states should consider rescinding its contract with his company. . Jean mc bride (mother of peter) senator obama has appointed a high level advisory panel on irish issues, comprised of seven well known irish american politicans. The group is comprised of senators george mitchell (retired, maine), chris dodd (connecticut), edward kennedy (massachusetts) and pat leahy (vermont), governor martin o malley of maryland and congressmen joe crowley (new york) and richard neal (massachusetts). Again we would urge supporters to contact all or any of the above and call for the aegis contract to be cancelled. Please cc responses to us. See http www. Patfinucanecentre pmcbride mcbindex. Html for extensive background on the aegis private security contract in iraq and spicer role in the case of the murder of 18 year old teenager peter mc bride who was murdered on september 4 1992 by soldiers under his command. . It& ,s about time that i broke radio silence on here, and this certainly merits it. Former diplomat craig murray is having another run-in with schillings, the lawyers who briefly managed to get his website taken down on behalf of uzbek oligarch alisher usmanov. Now they are attempting to block the publication of my new book in the interests of mercenary commander tim spicer, one of those who has made a fortune from the iraq war. It is sad but perhaps predictable that private profits from the illegal iraq war, in which hundreds of thousands of innocent people have died, are providing the funding to try to silence my book. . The road to samarkand sounds as if it will be very interesting. Among the incidents i cover in my new book are the murder of peter mcbride, the aegis trophy video, the papua new guinea coup, the equatorial guinea plot, executive outcomes& , murder of civilians in angola and the arms to africa affair. I do hope that other bloggers will generate another streisand effect through blogging on these subjects. . Spinwatch has just published my latest profile piece, on the euston manifesto group. I doubt the broad thrust of it will come as a huge surprise to anyone. It looks at the groups connections with american social networks around the (apparently now defunct) social democrats usa and the national endowment for democracy, two organisations which played a part in the iran-contra affair. Some more strands in this particular web were highlighted in a recent post from the yorkshire ranter you may recall that the famous document that was meant to show iraq buying uranium from niger originated with the italian secret service, and then appeared in yer dossier, just in time for the americans to start using it in public speeches. It has long been suspected that the meeting in rome was somehow involved in this exercise in policy-laundering, or rather bullshit-laundering. So how did the thing get from italy to the uk? Well, there was harold rhode, also at the meeting, who made it to the december 2002 iraqi opposition conference in london. That may give us some idea. Now thats what i call the exigencies of the service - youve got to meet gems like ledeen, ghorbanifar, chalabi,. . Its hell in the diplomatic, as harry flashman so wisely said. (selling the dummy). David habakkuks latest piece brings us some interesting reflections on the neoconservatives and their various exile clients much more could be said about the sheer oddity of a conceptions of a forward strategy in which conmen like chalabi or berezovsky come to be seen as appropriate vehicles to make other societies liberal and democratic. What cannot be claimed, however, is that these conceptions are simply the fig-leaves of cunning machiavellians. In relation to their own societies, the neoconservatives and their british fellow-travellers may indeed be masterly manipulators. But their propensity to see alien societies through thick ideological filters makes them easy prey for conmen in their dealings with the wider world -- so that the actual outcomes of the strategies they advocate are highly liable to be quite different from those they envisage. (european tribune). As it happens, the us senate intelligence committee released a report this week which neatly illustrates davids argument. It concerns a series of meetings which began in rome in 2001. The meeting included larry franklin (office of assistant secretary of defense, international security affairs), harold rhode (office of net assessments), michael ledeen (former office of the secretary of defense and national security council consultant), manucher ghorbanifar (iranian exile), iranian 1 (iranian living in exile in morocco), iranian 2 (iranian revolutionary guard official), and an unidentified employee of a foreign government. Michael ledeen arranged the meeting with the help of his contacts in italy and the foreign government who provided the meeting place and the logistical support. (partly redacted in original links added). . A later passage in the report considers the counterintelligence implications the most significant matter raised in the counterintelligence field activitys report was the possibility that mr. Ghorbanifar of his associates are being used as agents of a foreign intelligence service to leverage his continuing contact with michael ledeen and others to reach into and influence the highest leveles of the u. S. Government. The report noted that there were multiple occasions where information from mr. Ghorbanifar entered u. S. Government channels via mr. Ledeen. These channels included personnel from the federal bureau of investigation, cia, dod, the white house, and congress. As a result, mr. Ghorbanifar was able to communicate with us government officials via mr. Ledeen without having direct contact. While the report concluded that mr. Ledeen was likely unwitting of any counterintelligence issues related to his relationship with mr. Ghorbanifar, their association was widely known, and therefore it should be presumed other foreign intelligence services, including those of iran, would know. . The website of standpoint, the new magazine published by the social affairs unit, is now live. In his inaugural column, editor daniel johnson highlights the magazines neoconservative credentials when you have a good idea, start a magazine. This, according to our board member gertrude himmelfarb, is the motto of her husband irving kristol. In a long and fruitful life, he has started three. (their son bill has started one, too. ) the first was encounter, which kristol co-founded with the late stephen spender in 1953. It was a transatlantic monthly in which the intellectuals of the free world could debate with one another and their communist counterparts. To write for encounter was a privilege. . Johnson doesnt mention it explicitly, but it is, of course, well-known that encounter was founded and financed by the cia as part of its psychological warfare strategy during the early cold war. According to historian hugh wilford, the magazines greatest achievement was in creating a certain kind of intellectual-cultural milieu in which american and european interests came to appear as if they were identical. . Back in january i suggested that martin brights knocking documentary on ken livingstone was connected to his relationship with policy exchange. Well now livingstone is gone and boris watch informs us that policy exchange is firmly ensconced at city hall during the electoral campaign, boris was aided by dan ritterband, a one-time director of policy exchange, and soon after his victory, nicholas boles, the founder of the organisation, was named as the mayor chief of staff. Boles was, the observer reported, asked to help the new mayor find the right staff , and one of his first appointments was munira mirza - an employee of policy exchange - as director of policy, arts, culture and the creative industries. Ritterband, meanwhile, maintained his position among boris advisers. . Given the way livingstone was red-baited over his socialist action advisers, it is particularly ironic that johnson should have appointed mirza, who was formerly involved with the manifesto club, an organisation associated with the the living marxism revolutionary communist party network. Splintered sunrise has some interesting thoughts on the parallels between socialist action and the rcp. For my money, the classic example of an upwardly mobile marxist or ex-marxist clique is the lovestoneite faction which started out in the american communist party and ended up working with james angleton and the cia. The key lovestoneite figure in britain was roy godson, father of policy exchanges dean godson. The rise of neoconservatism marks to a significant extent, the emergence of a post-marxist movement as a dominant strain on the right. It seems not everyone involved in promoting neoconservatism understands that. . Very interesting thread on sic semper tyrannis about the us investigation into bae the biggest aspect of the bae al yamamah story is the offshore fund. To summarize bae delivered about billion in arms and services to saudi arabia. Bae padded the bills substantially, up to nearly billion. The pad was used, in part, to bribe saudi officials who helped swing the deal, including bandar and prince turki bin-khaled, a top official of the saudi ministry of defense. That part is fully detailed in the guardian and other british coverage of the bae scandal, going back three or four years. What is not covered in the british press is the fact that saudi arabia paid for the arms with oil. The oil was sold on the spot market, and this generated an estimated (in current dollars) 0 billion in cash. I am told by former u. S. Treasury department officials that the funds generated from the oil sales, after bae got their cut, went into offshore bank accounts. . As jamie notes at blood and treasure theres not a lot of evidence offered, but the allegation about the oil fund has come up before. In his book in the public interest, the former chairman of astra, gerald james, highlights a partially blacked out memo that was sent to jeff rooker mp, which suggested some of the funds found their way to the conservative party. . The green ribbon books the hidden hand britain, america and cold war secret intelligence, by richard j. Aldrich. God englishman oliver cromwell and the english revolution by christopher hill writings of william walwynmilton and the english revolution, by christopher hillthe century of revolution, 1603-1714, by christopher hillthe rights of man, by tom painethe vote how it was won, and how it was undermined by paul foot the english, a portrait of a people, by jeremy paxmanthe making of english national identity by krishan kumarthe scottish insurrection of 1820 by peter berresford ellis, seumus mac a ghobhainn blackshirt sir oswald mosley and british fascism, by stephen dorrilhoney trap, by stephen dorril and anthony summers the celtic revolution, by peter berresford ellis this time our constitutional revolution, by anthony barnettpariah misfortunes of the british kingdom, by tom nairngordon brown bard of britishness, by tom nairn cromwell an honourable enemy by tom reillythe narrow ground aspects of ulster 1609-1969, by a. T. Q. Stewartthe year of liberty history of the great irish rebellion of 1798, by thomas pakenham the galtee boy a fenian prison narrative, by john sarsfield caseythe voyage of the catalpa a perilous journey and six irish rebels escape to freedom, by peter stevensjohn devoy catalpa expedition, by philip fennell and marie kingvoyage of the hougomont and life at fremantle, by thomas mccarthy fennellthe fenian diary the hougomont diary of denis b. Cashman, by denis b. Cashman, c. W. Sullivanirish rebel, john devoy and america fight for irish freedom, by terry golwaythe greatest of the fenians john devoy and ireland, by terence dooleyrossa recollections, 1838 to 1898 memoirs of an irish revolutionary, by jeremiah o donovan rossafenian fire the british government plot to assassinate queen victoria, by christy campbellprelude to the easter rising sir roger casement in imperial germany, by reinhard doerries1916 the easter rising, by tim pat coogandesmond rising memoirs 1913 to easter 1916, by desmond fitzgeraldpadraig pearse, the triumph of failure, by ruth dudley edwardsthe life and times of james connolly, by charles desmond greaves principles of freedom, by terence macswineyenduring the most life and death of terence macswiney, by francis j. Costello. I die in a good cause, by sean l ing tans, terror and troubles, kerry real fighting story, by t ryle dwyer. Enchanted by dreams the journal of a revolutionary by joe goodsam maguire the enigmatic man behind ireland most prestigious trophy, by margaret mary walshthe squad the intelligence operations of michael collins, by t ryle dwyer. Michael collins intelligence war the struggle between the british and the ira - 1919-1921, by michael t. Foybloody sunday how michael collins agents assassinated britain secret service in dublin on november 21, 1920, by james gleesonno other law, by florence o donoghuethe real chief, the story of liam lynch, by meda ryanflorence and josephine o donoghue war of independence a destiny that shapes our endguerilla days in ireland, by tom barrytom barry ira freedom fighter, by meda ryanmy fight for irish freedom, by dan breendan breen and the ira, by joe ambroseon another man wound a personal history of ireland war of independence, by ernie o malleyliam mellows and the irish revolution, by c. Desmond greaves. Who who in the irish war of independence, by padraic o farrellthe ira at war 1916-1923, by peter hart. The black and tans, by richard bennett. Peace by ordeal an account, from first-hand sources, of the negotiation and signature of the anglo-irish treaty, 1921, by frank pakenham longfordthe irish civil war, by tim pat coogani signed my death warrant michael collins and the treaty, by t ryle dwyerthe path to freedom articles and speeches, by michael collinsmichael collins a biography, by tim pat cooganmichael collins the man who won the war by t. Ryle dwyermichael collins a life, by james a. Mackay. Michael collins, by margery forestermichael collins and the women in his life, by meda ryanthe day michael collins was shot, by meda ryanmichael collins the secret file by a. T. Q stewartde valera long fellow, long shadow, by tim pat coogana memoir, by terry de valerathe irish republic, by dorothy mcardlein time of war ireland, ulster and the price of neutrality, 1939-45, by robert fisk a u. S. Spy in ireland, by martin s. Quigleywar and an irish town, by eamonn mccann bloody sunday in derry what really happened by eamonn mccann eyewitness bloody sunday by don mullanthe bloody sunday inquiry the families speak outpoint of no return the strike which broke the british in ulster, by robert fisk on the blanket the inside story of the ira prisoner dirty protest, by tim pat cooganten men dead story of the 1981 irish hunger strike, by david beresford the ira, by tim pat cooganthe provisional i. R. A. By patrick bishop and eamonn mallieforty years of controversy, by t ryle dwyerthe troubles ireland ordeal 1969-96, by tim pat coogan. Lost lives the stories of the men, women and children who died as a result of the northern ireland troubles, by david mckittrick, seamus kelters, brian feeney, chris thorntonunfinished business state killings and the quest for truth, by bill rolstonendgame in ireland, by eamonn mallie, david mckittricksinn fein a hundred turbulent years by brian feeney the sdlp and sinn fein, 1970-2001 from alienation to participation in northern ireland, by gerard murray, jonathan tongeireland in the twentieth century, by tim pat cooganwherever green is worn the story of the irish diaspora, by tim pat cooganan irish navvy the diary of an exile by. Error of judgement truth about the birmingham bombings, by chris mullinirish manchester, by alan keeganopen cut, by j. M. O neilli could read the sky, by timothy e. O gradyhide that can, by deirdre o callaghanfaces of nationalism, janus revisited, by tom nairnglobal matrix nationalism, globalism and state-terrorism, by tom nairn, paul james global nations, by tom nairn the modern world-system capitalist agriculture and the origins of the european world-economy in the sixteenth century, by immanuel wallerstein reorient global economy in the asian age by andre gunder frank the black jacobins toussaint l ouverture and the san domingo revolution, by c. L. R. James the scramble for africa, by thomas pakenham the boer war, by thomas pakenham culture and imperialism by edward w. Saidthe fateful triangle united states, israel and the palestinians by noam chomskypity the nation lebanon at war by robert fiskthe great war for civilisation the conquest of the middle east, by robert fisk the market for force the consequences of privatizing security, by deborah d. Avant iraq,inc. A profitable occupation, by pratap chatterjeea history of god by karen armstrong. It has been a strange month in the politics of northern ireland, and last week was no exception. On monday, there was optimism that abreakthrough on the devolution of policing and justice was in the offing. A few days later, talks had collapsed amid recriminations betweengerry adams and peter robinson. Uup leader reg empey was predicting an assembly election would be called by the end of the coming week, agood indicator of the likely timeframe before a definitive breakthrough or breakdown. Over-shadowing the weeks events was a remarkable scoop from slugger otooles eamonn mallie, the veteran journalist who first revealed thebritish governments talks with the ira in the early 1990s. He reported that last sunday, the dup and ulster unionist leadership took part in secret talks inengland with shadow northern ireland secretary owen paterson aimed at unionist unity and copper fastening maximum unionist support for a future conservative government, should there be a hungparliament. The conservatives denied that any discussion of a hung parliament had taken place, stating what this was, was the shadow secretary of state as somebody who could potentially be the actual secretary of state in a matter of weeks,holding private talks with representatives of the two main unionist parties to explore how we might overcome some of the politicalinstabilities at stormont, and to avoid a situation in which we might potentially, should we win the election, inherit a collapsed assemblyand direct rule. . On the face of it, this makes sense, particularly as the dup would want political cover from the tories ulster unionist allies in the eventof a deal with sinn fein. However, a series of intriguing stories undermined this picture. The belfast telegraph reported that the dup wasconsidering giving the ulster unionists a free run in two nationalist-held westminster seats. Rte reported that robinson was considering anoutright alliance between the two parties, and the bbc reported that three consevative parliamentary candidates had resigned. The bbcs mark devenport summed up the situation at the end of the week when questioned about the prospect of sinn fein becoming stormonts largest party, neither unionist leader would rule out their respectiveparties merging into one bloc. Although the conservatives claimed there was no discussion of a hung westminster parliament during the secrettalks in england last sunday, senior dup sources are talking up the significance a single unionist force could have for the parliamentaryarithmetic at westminster. They are pointing out that 12 pro-conservative seats equals 24 in a balanced parliament. Of course that presumesboth north down and fermanagh south tyrone could be counted in such a bloc which is a big assumption. Nevertheless it gives a sense of thekind of calculations now being made. . The location of the talks may be significant hatfield house, the ancestral seat of lord salisbury, who as viscount cranborne was the keyally of ulster unionism in john majors cabinet. His home has hosted a unionist unity conference once before. The uup and dup were both representedat this gathering which took place a few months after the election of tony blair in 1997. It was ostensibly organised at the initiative ofsean ocallaghan, a former provisional ira member who became an advisor to david trimble. Another member of trimbles inner circle, thejournalist eoghan harris, declined to attend because, in the words of dean godson, the event had too much of the air of 1912-style resistanceto home rule, with unionists coalescing with what he saw as reactionary elements on the mainland. Those words found something of an echo this week from sdlp deputy leader alasdair mcdonnell, whose south belfast constituency is the mostvulnerable to a pan-unionist alliance. He accused david cameron of orchestrating a cynical attempt by the tories to grab a few orange votesahead of the forthcoming westminster election. If however,it emboldens the dup to risk the collapse of power-sharing, it will only serve the tuvs agenda. That would attract an extremely negativereaction from nationalists of all shades. It would also raise profound questions for all strands of unionism. The dup has spent forty years building at the expense of traditional big house unionism. How will its electorate take to becoming pawns ona chessboard at the home of a tory grandee? The ulster unionists and the conservatives have spent months talking up their alliance as the beginning of a new non-sectarian unionism thatcan attract catholic voters. If even their own candidates no longer have confidence in that agenda, why should anyone else? David cameron believes he is on the verge of winning broad support from the british people as the responsible choice to lead the nextgovernment. So why is he engaging in what looks uncomfortably like an opportunist manoeuvre for a dozen or so seats?. Events in london in recent weeks have highlighted the growing collusion between american neoconservatives and the european far right in stirring up hatred of muslims. Richard bartholomew has details of a meeting at the george restaurant in east london in august attended by jihad watchs robert spencer and douglas murray of the centre for social cohesion at the invitation of the christian action network. Also invited were the english defence league, the group responsible for a number of recent violent anti-muslim protests. Robert spencer says on his blog that he and murray refused to meet with the edl, and cites adrian morgan as a witness to this version of events. But the presence of morgan, who did meet the edl, is itself evidence of the emerging relationship between the neocons and the far-right. . Just a quick pointer to to my latest piece for spinwatch, web 2. 0 warfare from gaza to iran. It a story i m slightly ambivalent in one sense, because there has clearly been important information coming out of iran on twitter. There have also been a lot of poorly sourced rumours, of which perhaps the most suspicious is the one cited by robert fisk, that the iranian government is using hamas and hezbollah operatives to suppress the demonstrators. . If my story comes across as slightly sceptical about social media, i hope that the links to spinprofiles and neocon europe show some of the potential for using the technology in a more considered way. Indeed, i think there is potential for wikis like these to develop a symbiotic relationship with blogs and social networks, providing a more structure long-term memory for the blogosphere. . The current fiasco over expenses at westminster has created a major opportunity for political reform in britain. You might not know it from the medias focus on celebrity populism, but there has actually been some useful thinking on the left over the past year which addresses the causes of the crisis quite precisely. . Ive been collating some of that conversation for my own reference, and i thought it was worth sharing it here. Please feel free to suggest any other relevant links in the comments. . Tim gore, democratic republicanism. And the eu, next left, 07 02 09. Billy bragg opened the second half of his 2008 st george day celebrationat london barbican theatre with jerusalem. And, as kittyempire put it in her review, the audience responded coyly when billyinvited them to join in by holding above their heads the carefully laidout sheets of red and white paper distributed on the auditorium seatsto form one huge st george cross. Hardly an exercise of leniriefenstahl proportions, but more than enough, apparently, to getobserver readers searching for any excuse not to join in. (a jigsaw state (pdf)). In a previous collection of essays, 2008s imagined nation, perryman explored the possibilities for english national identity in the wake of devolution. A session on english nationalism at last years compass conference provided the inspiration for the new volume, whichbroadens the debate to look at the prospects for all of the nations in the uk. . There is plenty of irish interest with contributions from arthur aughey, gerry adams, inez mccormack and peadar kirby. Adams contribution is largely based on his speech to februarys sinn fein ard fheis, but its interesting to see it set in this context, not least because sinn fein has often been wary of drawing parallels with nationalist movements in the various nations of britain. . Tony blair has cited the precedent as cause for optimism in his role as quartet envoy, while gerry adams called for inclusive negotiations during his visit to gaza last week. The analogy isnt universally welcome, however. . Two recent articles reflect the parameters of the debate. In the new statesman, blairs former chief of staff, jonathan powell, argues that the british governments engagement with irish republicans provides a model for an israeli approach to hamas. In standpoint, douglas murray reiterates a longstanding neoconservative critique of such suggestions, arguing that the claims of the peace process in northern ireland itself are unproven - but they are also unhelpful to the point of uselessness. This dispute is significant given the identity of some of the key actors now emerging on the middle east stage. More over at ourkingdom. . Soviet front groups might have been more effective, but stalinist paranoia made impossible the operational autonomy needed to succeed. To the extent that future practitioners of this type of propaganda have learned lessons from the soviet experience, we may expect that the nonstate groups will be controlled in a more sophisticated manner and their ties to a given state will be less obvious. New methods of spreading propaganda (such as via internet web sites of non-governmental organizations ngos , or specialized email lists) allow a deceiver to reach target audiences via multiple channels. Many of these channels may remain relatively invisible to the public at large. (elements of strategic denial and deception by abram shulsky in strategic denial and deception the twenty-first century challenge, edited by roy godson and james j. Wirtz, transaction books, 2002, p23. ). Shulsky went on to note that despite the medias self-image of hardheaded cynicism, it is relatively vulnerable to this type of manipulation. (p24. ) the suns experience would seem to bear this out. . Time once again to dust off the cobwebs on here and draw together a few threads from my writing over the last couple of weeks. First of all my report for ourkingdom from the sinn fein ard fheis two weeks ago. It was a very interesting time to be in dublin, with 120,000 people marching on the streets against the governments swingeing austerity measures. Gerry adams cannily tapped into the mood by calling for a left-wing alliance with the labour party. . As a result craig is publishing the book online today. The green ribbon is delighted to be one of the many blogs supporting craig by hosting a copy of the file here. You can also support craig (and a range of charities) by picking up a privately-printed hard copy edition from amazon. The book includes an indispensable account of murrays dealings with spicer during the arms to africa affair, as well as his views on spicers role in the peter mcbride case and his subsequent career in iraq. . Heres an interesting postscript to nick cleggs attack on policy exchange for privately briefing against the global peace and unity event in london. One of the organisations cited by policy exchange, the society of americans for national existence, has objected to my characterisation of them in a post at spinwatch. On their blog a sane staffer writes. In this linkthe leftist brits continue to blather on about sane and its deep, secret powers. We continue. To get many visitors from england trying to figure this out. In this blog and in the links, sane is tied to iasps (true, we are indeed closely linked to iasps), but then we are both (iasps and sane)labeled neocons--which merely demonstrates these folks are either illiterate or fools or just dont read or are wholly disingenuous. . One point worth making is that the society of americans for national existence are not just some bunch of marginal crazies. Sane is actually a project of the institute for advanced strategic and political studies. Iasps was where key neoconservatives like richard perle, david wurmser and doug feith worked out the clean break strategy, which many believe formed the basis of the iraq war agenda they went on to pursue in the bush administration. . Neither the quote nor the full article labels either sane or iasps as neocon institutions. Much of what the article does say is specifically accepted by sane. Indeed, sane goes on to provide two articles which elaborate on iasps role in formulating the clean break strategy. The first of these, israel the advanced case of western affliction, states (my emphasis). Anyone who studies that institute document and the voluminous studies and analyses provided by iasps over the years to policy makers and politicians in israel and washington, d. C. , knows that iasps does not advocate democracy as a tool of foreign policy. It doesn t even advocate democracy as a tool of domestic policy. Indeed, the institute founder, loewenberg, has made clear that the drift in this country to democracy and away from a constitutional republic built on a federation of states, themselves layered on a bedrock of judeo-christian values, is very much a continuation of the decline of the west. . Anyone who looks at iraq or jordan and doesn t understand, not just the shia-sunni divide, but the important tribal ones that make claims going back to the terrorist founder freedom fighter nation builder of islam, mohammed, will never come to grips with the geo-strategic realities in that part of the world. The evidence of this claim is before us now in iraq, in afghanistan and in gaza. . The piece also alludes to the role of wurmser, perle et. Al. The institute has of course gained enormous worldwide attention through its pre-iraq war publication titled, a clean break a new strategy for securing the realm, in which it advocated a triangulated strategy between israel, turkey and jordan to remove saddam hussein from power in iraq and become the base of a tripartite power alliance to rule over and secure a strategic stability in the middle east. Because the reports contributors included many of the policy professionals that took up important positions in the bush administration, left-wing types, right-wing types, arabs, and main stream media soon gravitated to this study as the blueprint for the jewish neocon war in iraq. . At this point, sane would seem to have recapitulated most of my original argument. So what are they trying to establish with their rebuttal? I think there are two key points which also emerge in the second article does pat buchanan have a flea problem, a blind spot or both?. First things first. As i have written in the past, the clean break document was not about america at all, but about a strategy those of us at the institute (i was then a trustee and legal counsel) proposed. So the clean break document was aimed at the israeli government, not the us, and strategic security was the goal not spreading democracy. It is worth comparing this with what some of the neoconservatives critics have said. For example, stephen. J sniegoski has written. It should be emphasised that the same people - feith, wurmser, perle - who advised the israeli government on issues issues of national security would later advise the george w. Bush administration to pursue virtually the same policy regarding the middle east. (the transparent cabal, p. 90). Sniegoski went on to note the very same points sane make about the differences between a clean break and the case for war presented in 2003 while neocons present american policy in a very idealistic light, their policy prescriptions for israel, which involved similar concrete policy objective, were devoid of such sentiment. Written in terms of israeli interest, the study made little mention of the benefits to be accrued by israels neighbouring countries, such as the establishment of democracy. (the transparent cabal, p92)the conclusion that sane invites us to draw is that the aims of the israeli geopoliticians of 1996, were unrelated to those of the american idealists of 2003, despite the minor coincidence of their being the same people. The more credible view is that a right-wing likudist analysis of israels geopolitical interests was a key factor in the neoconservative drive to war. The clean break document was not silent on the role of the united states. To anticipate u. S. Reactions and plan ways to manage and constrain those reactions, prime minister netanyahu can formulate the policies and stress themes he favors in language familiar to the americans by tapping into themes of american administrations during the cold war which apply well to israel. . The subsequent emphasis on bringing democracy to iraq was consistent with this principle. In the transition from a clean break to the us invasion of iraq the neocons presented a false identity between american and european interests, and a hard-line likudist conception of israels interests. This is a habit that arguably did not end in 2003, and may explain episodes such as policy exchanges private briefing. If europeans oppose engagement with the muslim brotherhood at home, they are not likely to press for israeli negotiations with hamas. Likewise, if europeans fear muslim population growth at home, they are more likely to accept extreme responses to palestinian population growth. A clean break is not, incidentally, the only evidence that sane and iasps have neoconservative links. Sane president david yerushalmi is general counsel and policy advisor to the center for security policy, a think tank headed by the former assistant secretary of defense, frank gaffney. Gaffneys neoconservative record has been documented by jim lobe, who also revealed earlier this year, that gaffneys sister, devon gaffney cross has been organising pentagon-funded private briefings by fellow neoconservatives for reporters in london and paris. . Well done to nick clegg for becoming the first major party leader to take on policy exchange over its unscrupulous approach to islam. (hat-tip sunny hundal)in a statement carried by the politicshome website on friday, clegg criticised the think-tank over for a privately circulated briefing against the sundays global peace and unity event in london. The policy exchange briefing i have seen seeks to raise alarm over a number of the speakers planning to attend the conference. The accuracy of the allegations is variable, with a notable lack of evidence to support many of the claims. In particular i was appalled to see evidence quoted from the society for american national existence, an organisation which seeks to make the practice of islam illegal, punishable by 20 years in prison. I need hardly point out how illogical it is to attempt to criticise one set of extreme views by citing another. My concern is not limited to the facts in the document, however. Your attempt to raise a boycott of this event by privately briefing against it is bizarre, and underhand behaviour for a think-tank supposedly interested in open public debate. The information you are disseminating is extremely narrow in focus and as a result tars with the brush of extremism the tens of thousands of muslims who will be in attendance. This looks exactly like the kind of activity which led the charity commission to identify a need for greater transparency from policy exchange earlier this year. . The following is a mirror of an original post from craig murray this is the key section from my new book which the publisher is unwilling to publish due to legal threats from schillings libel lawyers, acting on behalf of the mercenary commander tim spicer peter penfold was back in the uk. He was interviewed separately. Both penfold and spicer were interviewed under caution, as suspects for having broken the arms embargo. Then, suddenly, tony blair intervened. On 11 may 1998, without consulting the fco, he gave a statement to journalists. Penfold, blair declared, was a hero. A dictatorship had been successfully overthrown and democracy restored. Penfold had done a superb job in trying to deal with the consequences of the military coup. All this stuff about security council resolutions and sanctions was an overblown hoo-ha. I believe this episode is extremely important. In 1998 the country was still starry-eyed about blair, but with the benefit of hindsight, this intervention points the way towards the disasters of his later years in office. It is extraordinarily wrong for a prime minister to declare that a man is a hero, when customs had questioned him two days earlier under caution over the very matter the prime minister is praising. It shows blair belief that his judgement stood above the law of the land, something that was to occur again on a much bigger scale when he halted the serious fraud office investigation into british aerospace foreign bribes. But of course blairs contempt for un security council resolutions on the arms embargo, and the belief that installing democracy by invasion could trump the trivia of international law, prefigures precisely the disaster of iraq. As with iraq, blair was also conveniently ignoring the fact that sierra leone was left a mess, with kabbah in charge of little more than freetown. In the fco we were astonished by blair intervention, and deeply puzzled. Where had it come from? It differed completely from robin cook views. Who was drafting this stuff for blair to the effect that the un and the law were unimportant? For most of us, this was the very first indication we had of how deep a hold neo-con thinking and military interests had on the blair circle. It was also my first encounter with the phenomenon of foreign policy being dictated by alistair campbell, the prime inister press secretary, the military lobby, of course, was working hard to defend spicer, one of their own. A few days later customs and excise concluded their investigations. A thick dossier, including documentation from the fco, from the raid on sandline offices, and from elsewhere, was sent to the crown prosecution service. The customs and excise team who had interviewed us told me that the recommendation was that both spicer and penfold be prosecuted for breach of the embargo. The dossier was returned to customs and excise from the crown prosecution service the very same day it was sent. It was marked, in effect, for no further action. There would be no prosecution. A customs officer told me bitterly that, given the time between the dossier leaving their offices and the time it was returned, allowing time for both deliveries, it could not have been in the cps more than half an hour. It was a thick dossier. They could not even have read it before turning it down. I felt sick to my stomach at the decision not to prosecute spicer and penfold. So were the customs officers investigating the case, at least two of them called me to commiserate. They had believed they had put together an extremely strong case, and they told me that their submission to the crown prosecution service said so. The decision not to prosecute in the sandline case was the first major instance of the corruption of the legal process that was to be a hallmark of the blair years. Customs and excise were stunned by it. There is no doubt whatsoever that spicer and penfold had worked together to ship weapons to sierra leone in breach of uk law. Security council 1132 had been given effect in british law by an order in council. I had never found in the least credible their assertions that they did not know about it. I had personally told spicer that it would be illegal to ship arms to sierra leone, to any side in the conflict. Penfold claim never to have seen an absolutely key security council resolution about a country to which he was high commissioner is truly extraordinary. But even if they did not know, ignorance of the law is famously no defence in england. Who knows what a jury would have made of this sorry tale of greed, hired killers and blood diamonds. But i have no doubt at all and more importantly nor did the customs officers investigating the case that there was enough there for a viable prosecution. The head of the crown prosecution service when it decided not to prosecute was barbara mills. Barbara mills is a very well-connected woman in new labour circles. She is married to john mills, a former labour councillor in camden. That makes her sister-in-law to tessa jowell, the new labour cabinet minister with a penchant for taking out repeated mortgages on her home, and then paying them off with cash widely alleged to have come from silvio berlusconi, the friend and business colleague of her husband david mills, who according to a bbc documentary by the estimable john sweeney has created offshore companies for known camorra and mafia interests. Tessa jowell and david mills were also both camden labour councillors, and are close to tony blair. Blair is also a great friend of berlusconi, despite the numerous criminal allegations against berlusconi and his long history of political alliances with open fascists. Just to complete the cosy new labour picture, another brother-in-law of barbara mills and tessa jowell is alan rusbridger, editor of the guardian. Did any of those relationships of barbara mills, the director of public prosecutions, affect the crown prosecution service decision not to proceed with the case, and to take that decision in less time than it would have taken them to read the dossier customs and excise sent them? Barbara mills was to resign as director of public prosecutions later that year after being personally criticised in his judgement by a high court judge who ruled against the crown prosecution service for continually failing to prosecute over deaths in police custody. That has not stopped the extremely well connected dame barbara from being appointed to a string of highly paid public positions since then. It is infuriating that, maxwell style, spicer (who has made millions form the war in iraq) is using the prohibitive costs of defending a libel case to intimidate my publisher. The result is that important information i received at first hand, and an account of events to which i am eye-witness, is being repressed, as is an important independent critique of early blair foreign policy. I am not currently confident the book will get published at all - i am not prepared to put out anodyne pap, which hides the truth, under my name. . . But it is pretty firmly in hibernation mode at the moment. In part this it has opened up a number of other opportunities for me that are now taking up most of my time. One of these is an editing gig at opendemocracys ourkingdom blog, which is involved in some very exciting thinking around the future of the uk. My involvement with spinwatch has also deepened to the point where an argument that started out as a response to a slugger thread has led to me starting a ph. D at the university of strathclyde. Both opendemocracy and spinwatch have got some interesting new projects in the works over the next few months. In the meantime, id like to flag up some good posts elsewhere on the themes that ive been neglecting here lately. If you had been following the coverage of tim spicer, tony buckingham and assorted mercenaries here, then you will want to look up craig murrays recent encounters with same. If youre interested in the neocons, london bloggers have produced some great coverage of policy exchanges relationship with boris johnson in recent months. Notable examples can be found at dave hill, liberal conspiracy, boris watch and tory troll. Its also worth noting arun kundnanis article earlier this month, and the guardians profile on policy exchange last friday, which both picked up on dean godsons cold war background. The hiatus here is likely to continue but do please keep an eye out my stuff at ourkingdom and spinwatch. . Last year a supporter of the pfc in the us contacted senator barack obama regarding the controversial pentagon contract with lt col spicer, the former scots guards officer whose troops murdered peter mc bride - see excerpt below from obamas response - today- september 4 is the anniversary of peters murder. We urge supporters to contact senator obama and call on the presidential candidate to keep his promise if elected and cancel the aegis contract!. . As you know, the ceo of aegis defense services tim spicer has been implicated in a variety of human rights abuses around the globe. Given his history, i agree that the united states should consider rescinding its contract with his company. . Jean mc bride (mother of peter) senator obama has appointed a high level advisory panel on irish issues, comprised of seven well known irish american politicans. The group is comprised of senators george mitchell (retired, maine), chris dodd (connecticut), edward kennedy (massachusetts) and pat leahy (vermont), governor martin o malley of maryland and congressmen joe crowley (new york) and richard neal (massachusetts). Again we would urge supporters to contact all or any of the above and call for the aegis contract to be cancelled. Please cc responses to us. See http www. Patfinucanecentre pmcbride mcbindex. Html for extensive background on the aegis private security contract in iraq and spicer role in the case of the murder of 18 year old teenager peter mc bride who was murdered on september 4 1992 by soldiers under his command. . It& ,s about time that i broke radio silence on here, and this certainly merits it. Former diplomat craig murray is having another run-in with schillings, the lawyers who briefly managed to get his website taken down on behalf of uzbek oligarch alisher usmanov. Now they are attempting to block the publication of my new book in the interests of mercenary commander tim spicer, one of those who has made a fortune from the iraq war. It is sad but perhaps predictable that private profits from the illegal iraq war, in which hundreds of thousands of innocent people have died, are providing the funding to try to silence my book. . The road to samarkand sounds as if it will be very interesting. Among the incidents i cover in my new book are the murder of peter mcbride, the aegis trophy video, the papua new guinea coup, the equatorial guinea plot, executive outcomes& , murder of civilians in angola and the arms to africa affair. I do hope that other bloggers will generate another streisand effect through blogging on these subjects. . Spinwatch has just published my latest profile piece, on the euston manifesto group. I doubt the broad thrust of it will come as a huge surprise to anyone. It looks at the groups connections with american social networks around the (apparently now defunct) social democrats usa and the national endowment for democracy, two organisations which played a part in the iran-contra affair. Some more strands in this particular web were highlighted in a recent post from the yorkshire ranter you may recall that the famous document that was meant to show iraq buying uranium from niger originated with the italian secret service, and then appeared in yer dossier, just in time for the americans to start using it in public speeches. It has long been suspected that the meeting in rome was somehow involved in this exercise in policy-laundering, or rather bullshit-laundering. So how did the thing get from italy to the uk? Well, there was harold rhode, also at the meeting, who made it to the december 2002 iraqi opposition conference in london. That may give us some idea. Now thats what i call the exigencies of the service - youve got to meet gems like ledeen, ghorbanifar, chalabi,. . Its hell in the diplomatic, as harry flashman so wisely said. (selling the dummy). David habakkuks latest piece brings us some interesting reflections on the neoconservatives and their various exile clients much more could be said about the sheer oddity of a conceptions of a forward strategy in which conmen like chalabi or berezovsky come to be seen as appropriate vehicles to make other societies liberal and democratic. What cannot be claimed, however, is that these conceptions are simply the fig-leaves of cunning machiavellians. In relation to their own societies, the neoconservatives and their british fellow-travellers may indeed be masterly manipulators. But their propensity to see alien societies through thick ideological filters makes them easy prey for conmen in their dealings with the wider world -- so that the actual outcomes of the strategies they advocate are highly liable to be quite different from those they envisage. (european tribune). As it happens, the us senate intelligence committee released a report this week which neatly illustrates davids argument. It concerns a series of meetings which began in rome in 2001. The meeting included larry franklin (office of assistant secretary of defense, international security affairs), harold rhode (office of net assessments), michael ledeen (former office of the secretary of defense and national security council consultant), manucher ghorbanifar (iranian exile), iranian 1 (iranian living in exile in morocco), iranian 2 (iranian revolutionary guard official), and an unidentified employee of a foreign government. Michael ledeen arranged the meeting with the help of his contacts in italy and the foreign government who provided the meeting place and the logistical support. (partly redacted in original links added). . A later passage in the report considers the counterintelligence implications the most significant matter raised in the counterintelligence field activitys report was the possibility that mr. Ghorbanifar of his associates are being used as agents of a foreign intelligence service to leverage his continuing contact with michael ledeen and others to reach into and influence the highest leveles of the u. S. Government. The report noted that there were multiple occasions where information from mr. Ghorbanifar entered u. S. Government channels via mr. Ledeen. These channels included personnel from the federal bureau of investigation, cia, dod, the white house, and congress. As a result, mr. Ghorbanifar was able to communicate with us government officials via mr. Ledeen without having direct contact. While the report concluded that mr. Ledeen was likely unwitting of any counterintelligence issues related to his relationship with mr. Ghorbanifar, their association was widely known, and therefore it should be presumed other foreign intelligence services, including those of iran, would know. . The website of standpoint, the new magazine published by the social affairs unit, is now live. In his inaugural column, editor daniel johnson highlights the magazines neoconservative credentials when you have a good idea, start a magazine. This, according to our board member gertrude himmelfarb, is the motto of her husband irving kristol. In a long and fruitful life, he has started three. (their son bill has started one, too. ) the first was encounter, which kristol co-founded with the late stephen spender in 1953. It was a transatlantic monthly in which the intellectuals of the free world could debate with one another and their communist counterparts. To write for encounter was a privilege. . Johnson doesnt mention it explicitly, but it is, of course, well-known that encounter was founded and financed by the cia as part of its psychological warfare strategy during the early cold war. According to historian hugh wilford, the magazines greatest achievement was in creating a certain kind of intellectual-cultural milieu in which american and european interests came to appear as if they were identical. . Back in january i suggested that martin brights knocking documentary on ken livingstone was connected to his relationship with policy exchange. Well now livingstone is gone and boris watch informs us that policy exchange is firmly ensconced at city hall during the electoral campaign, boris was aided by dan ritterband, a one-time director of policy exchange, and soon after his victory, nicholas boles, the founder of the organisation, was named as the mayor chief of staff. Boles was, the observer reported, asked to help the new mayor find the right staff , and one of his first appointments was munira mirza - an employee of policy exchange - as director of policy, arts, culture and the creative industries. Ritterband, meanwhile, maintained his position among boris advisers. . Given the way livingstone was red-baited over his socialist action advisers, it is particularly ironic that johnson should have appointed mirza, who was formerly involved with the manifesto club, an organisation associated with the the living marxism revolutionary communist party network. Splintered sunrise has some interesting thoughts on the parallels between socialist action and the rcp. For my money, the classic example of an upwardly mobile marxist or ex-marxist clique is the lovestoneite faction which started out in the american communist party and ended up working with james angleton and the cia. The key lovestoneite figure in britain was roy godson, father of policy exchanges dean godson. The rise of neoconservatism marks to a significant extent, the emergence of a post-marxist movement as a dominant strain on the right. It seems not everyone involved in promoting neoconservatism understands that. . Very interesting thread on sic semper tyrannis about the us investigation into bae the biggest aspect of the bae al yamamah story is the offshore fund. To summarize bae delivered about billion in arms and services to saudi arabia. Bae padded the bills substantially, up to nearly billion. The pad was used, in part, to bribe saudi officials who helped swing the deal, including bandar and prince turki bin-khaled, a top official of the saudi ministry of defense. That part is fully detailed in the guardian and other british coverage of the bae scandal, going back three or four years. What is not covered in the british press is the fact that saudi arabia paid for the arms with oil. The oil was sold on the spot market, and this generated an estimated (in current dollars) 0 billion in cash. I am told by former u. S. Treasury department officials that the funds generated from the oil sales, after bae got their cut, went into offshore bank accounts. . As jamie notes at blood and treasure theres not a lot of evidence offered, but the allegation about the oil fund has come up before. In his book in the public interest, the former chairman of astra, gerald james, highlights a partially blacked out memo that was sent to jeff rooker mp, which suggested some of the funds found their way to the conservative party. . The green ribbon books the hidden hand britain, america and cold war secret intelligence, by richard j. Aldrich. God englishman oliver cromwell and the english revolution by christopher hill writings of william walwynmilton and the english revolution, by christopher hillthe century of revolution, 1603-1714, by christopher hillthe rights of man, by tom painethe vote how it was won, and how it was undermined by paul foot the english, a portrait of a people, by jeremy paxmanthe making of english national identity by krishan kumarthe scottish insurrection of 1820 by peter berresford ellis, seumus mac a ghobhainn blackshirt sir oswald mosley and british fascism, by stephen dorrilhoney trap, by stephen dorril and anthony summers the celtic revolution, by peter berresford ellis this time our constitutional revolution, by anthony barnettpariah misfortunes of the british kingdom, by tom nairngordon brown bard of britishness, by tom nairn cromwell an honourable enemy by tom reillythe narrow ground aspects of ulster 1609-1969, by a. T. Q. Stewartthe year of liberty history of the great irish rebellion of 1798, by thomas pakenham the galtee boy a fenian prison narrative, by john sarsfield caseythe voyage of the catalpa a perilous journey and six irish rebels escape to freedom, by peter stevensjohn devoy catalpa expedition, by philip fennell and marie kingvoyage of the hougomont and life at fremantle, by thomas mccarthy fennellthe fenian diary the hougomont diary of denis b. Cashman, by denis b. Cashman, c. W. Sullivanirish rebel, john devoy and america fight for irish freedom, by terry golwaythe greatest of the fenians john devoy and ireland, by terence dooleyrossa recollections, 1838 to 1898 memoirs of an irish revolutionary, by jeremiah o donovan rossafenian fire the british government plot to assassinate queen victoria, by christy campbellprelude to the easter rising sir roger casement in imperial germany, by reinhard doerries1916 the easter rising, by tim pat coogandesmond rising memoirs 1913 to easter 1916, by desmond fitzgeraldpadraig pearse, the triumph of failure, by ruth dudley edwardsthe life and times of james connolly, by charles desmond greaves principles of freedom, by terence macswineyenduring the most life and death of terence macswiney, by francis j. Costello. I die in a good cause, by sean l ing tans, terror and troubles, kerry real fighting story, by t ryle dwyer. Enchanted by dreams the journal of a revolutionary by joe goodsam maguire the enigmatic man behind ireland most prestigious trophy, by margaret mary walshthe squad the intelligence operations of michael collins, by t ryle dwyer. Michael collins intelligence war the struggle between the british and the ira - 1919-1921, by michael t. Foybloody sunday how michael collins agents assassinated britain secret service in dublin on november 21, 1920, by james gleesonno other law, by florence o donoghuethe real chief, the story of liam lynch, by meda ryanflorence and josephine o donoghue war of independence a destiny that shapes our endguerilla days in ireland, by tom barrytom barry ira freedom fighter, by meda ryanmy fight for irish freedom, by dan breendan breen and the ira, by joe ambroseon another man wound a personal history of ireland war of independence, by ernie o malleyliam mellows and the irish revolution, by c. Desmond greaves. Who who in the irish war of independence, by padraic o farrellthe ira at war 1916-1923, by peter hart. The black and tans, by richard bennett. Peace by ordeal an account, from first-hand sources, of the negotiation and signature of the anglo-irish treaty, 1921, by frank pakenham longfordthe irish civil war, by tim pat coogani signed my death warrant michael collins and the treaty, by t ryle dwyerthe path to freedom articles and speeches, by michael collinsmichael collins a biography, by tim pat cooganmichael collins the man who won the war by t. Ryle dwyermichael collins a life, by james a. Mackay. Michael collins, by margery forestermichael collins and the women in his life, by meda ryanthe day michael collins was shot, by meda ryanmichael collins the secret file by a. T. Q stewartde valera long fellow, long shadow, by tim pat coogana memoir, by terry de valerathe irish republic, by dorothy mcardlein time of war ireland, ulster and the price of neutrality, 1939-45, by robert fisk a u. S. Spy in ireland, by martin s. Quigleywar and an irish town, by eamonn mccann bloody sunday in derry what really happened by eamonn mccann eyewitness bloody sunday by don mullanthe bloody sunday inquiry the families speak outpoint of no return the strike which broke the british in ulster, by robert fisk on the blanket the inside story of the ira prisoner dirty protest, by tim pat cooganten men dead story of the 1981 irish hunger strike, by david beresford the ira, by tim pat cooganthe provisional i. R. A. By patrick bishop and eamonn mallieforty years of controversy, by t ryle dwyerthe troubles ireland ordeal 1969-96, by tim pat coogan. Lost lives the stories of the men, women and children who died as a result of the northern ireland troubles, by david mckittrick, seamus kelters, brian feeney, chris thorntonunfinished business state killings and the quest for truth, by bill rolstonendgame in ireland, by eamonn mallie, david mckittricksinn fein a hundred turbulent years by brian feeney the sdlp and sinn fein, 1970-2001 from alienation to participation in northern ireland, by gerard murray, jonathan tongeireland in the twentieth century, by tim pat cooganwherever green is worn the story of the irish diaspora, by tim pat cooganan irish navvy the diary of an exile by. Error of judgement truth about the birmingham bombings, by chris mullinirish manchester, by alan keeganopen cut, by j. M. O neilli could read the sky, by timothy e. O gradyhide that can, by deirdre o callaghanfaces of nationalism, janus revisited, by tom nairnglobal matrix nationalism, globalism and state-terrorism, by tom nairn, paul james global nations, by tom nairn the modern world-system capitalist agriculture and the origins of the european world-economy in the sixteenth century, by immanuel wallerstein reorient global economy in the asian age by andre gunder frank the black jacobins toussaint l ouverture and the san domingo revolution, by c. L. R. James the scramble for africa, by thomas pakenham the boer war, by thomas pakenham culture and imperialism by edward w. Saidthe fateful triangle united states, israel and the palestinians by noam chomskypity the nation lebanon at war by robert fiskthe great war for civilisation the conquest of the middle east, by robert fisk the market for force the consequences of privatizing security, by deborah d. Avant iraq,inc. A profitable occupation, by pratap chatterjeea history of god by karen armstrong. It has been a strange month in the politics of northern ireland, and last week was no exception. On monday, there was optimism that abreakthrough on the devolution of policing and justice was in the offing. A few days later, talks had collapsed amid recriminations betweengerry adams and peter robinson. Uup leader reg empey was predicting an assembly election would be called by the end of the coming week, agood indicator of the likely timeframe before a definitive breakthrough or breakdown. Over-shadowing the weeks events was a remarkable scoop from slugger otooles eamonn mallie, the veteran journalist who first revealed thebritish governments talks with the ira in the early 1990s. He reported that last sunday, the dup and ulster unionist leadership took part in secret talks inengland with shadow northern ireland secretary owen paterson aimed at unionist unity and copper fastening maximum unionist support for a future conservative government, should there be a hungparliament. The conservatives denied that any discussion of a hung parliament had taken place, stating what this was, was the shadow secretary of state as somebody who could potentially be the actual secretary of state in a matter of weeks,holding private talks with representatives of the two main unionist parties to explore how we might overcome some of the politicalinstabilities at stormont, and to avoid a situation in which we might potentially, should we win the election, inherit a collapsed assemblyand direct rule. . On the face of it, this makes sense, particularly as the dup would want political cover from the tories ulster unionist allies in the eventof a deal with sinn fein. However, a series of intriguing stories undermined this picture. The belfast telegraph reported that the dup wasconsidering giving the ulster unionists a free run in two nationalist-held westminster seats. Rte reported that robinson was considering anoutright alliance between the two parties, and the bbc reported that three consevative parliamentary candidates had resigned. The bbcs mark devenport summed up the situation at the end of the week when questioned about the prospect of sinn fein becoming stormonts largest party, neither unionist leader would rule out their respectiveparties merging into one bloc. Although the conservatives claimed there was no discussion of a hung westminster parliament during the secrettalks in england last sunday, senior dup sources are talking up the significance a single unionist force could have for the parliamentaryarithmetic at westminster. They are pointing out that 12 pro-conservative seats equals 24 in a balanced parliament. Of course that presumesboth north down and fermanagh south tyrone could be counted in such a bloc which is a big assumption. Nevertheless it gives a sense of thekind of calculations now being made. . The location of the talks may be significant hatfield house, the ancestral seat of lord salisbury, who as viscount cranborne was the keyally of ulster unionism in john majors cabinet. His home has hosted a unionist unity conference once before. The uup and dup were both representedat this gathering which took place a few months after the election of tony blair in 1997. It was ostensibly organised at the initiative ofsean ocallaghan, a former provisional ira member who became an advisor to david trimble. Another member of trimbles inner circle, thejournalist eoghan harris, declined to attend because, in the words of dean godson, the event had too much of the air of 1912-style resistanceto home rule, with unionists coalescing with what he saw as reactionary elements on the mainland. Those words found something of an echo this week from sdlp deputy leader alasdair mcdonnell, whose south belfast constituency is the mostvulnerable to a pan-unionist alliance. He accused david cameron of orchestrating a cynical attempt by the tories to grab a few orange votesahead of the forthcoming westminster election. If however,it emboldens the dup to risk the collapse of power-sharing, it will only serve the tuvs agenda. That would attract an extremely negativereaction from nationalists of all shades. It would also raise profound questions for all strands of unionism. The dup has spent forty years building at the expense of traditional big house unionism. How will its electorate take to becoming pawns ona chessboard at the home of a tory grandee? The ulster unionists and the conservatives have spent months talking up their alliance as the beginning of a new non-sectarian unionism thatcan attract catholic voters. If even their own candidates no longer have confidence in that agenda, why should anyone else? David cameron believes he is on the verge of winning broad support from the british people as the responsible choice to lead the nextgovernment. So why is he engaging in what looks uncomfortably like an opportunist manoeuvre for a dozen or so seats?. Events in london in recent weeks have highlighted the growing collusion between american neoconservatives and the european far right in stirring up hatred of muslims. Richard bartholomew has details of a meeting at the george restaurant in east london in august attended by jihad watchs robert spencer and douglas murray of the centre for social cohesion at the invitation of the christian action network. Also invited were the english defence league, the group responsible for a number of recent violent anti-muslim protests. Robert spencer says on his blog that he and murray refused to meet with the edl, and cites adrian morgan as a witness to this version of events. But the presence of morgan, who did meet the edl, is itself evidence of the emerging relationship between the neocons and the far-right. . Just a quick pointer to to my latest piece for spinwatch, web 2. 0 warfare from gaza to iran. It a story i m slightly ambivalent in one sense, because there has clearly been important information coming out of iran on twitter. There have also been a lot of poorly sourced rumours, of which perhaps the most suspicious is the one cited by robert fisk, that the iranian government is using hamas and hezbollah operatives to suppress the demonstrators. . If my story comes across as slightly sceptical about social media, i hope that the links to spinprofiles and neocon europe show some of the potential for using the technology in a more considered way. Indeed, i think there is potential for wikis like these to develop a symbiotic relationship with blogs and social networks, providing a more structure long-term memory for the blogosphere. . The current fiasco over expenses at westminster has created a major opportunity for political reform in britain. You might not know it from the medias focus on celebrity populism, but there has actually been some useful thinking on the left over the past year which addresses the causes of the crisis quite precisely. . Ive been collating some of that conversation for my own reference, and i thought it was worth sharing it here. Please feel free to suggest any other relevant links in the comments. . Tim gore, democratic republicanism. And the eu, next left, 07 02 09. Billy bragg opened the second half of his 2008 st george day celebrationat london barbican theatre with jerusalem. And, as kittyempire put it in her review, the audience responded coyly when billyinvited them to join in by holding above their heads the carefully laidout sheets of red and white paper distributed on the auditorium seatsto form one huge st george cross. Hardly an exercise of leniriefenstahl proportions, but more than enough, apparently, to getobserver readers searching for any excuse not to join in. (a jigsaw state (pdf)). In a previous collection of essays, 2008s imagined nation, perryman explored the possibilities for english national identity in the wake of devolution. A session on english nationalism at last years compass conference provided the inspiration for the new volume, whichbroadens the debate to look at the prospects for all of the nations in the uk. . There is plenty of irish interest with contributions from arthur aughey, gerry adams, inez mccormack and peadar kirby. Adams contribution is largely based on his speech to februarys sinn fein ard fheis, but its interesting to see it set in this context, not least because sinn fein has often been wary of drawing parallels with nationalist movements in the various nations of britain. . Tony blair has cited the precedent as cause for optimism in his role as quartet envoy, while gerry adams called for inclusive negotiations during his visit to gaza last week. The analogy isnt universally welcome, however. . Two recent articles reflect the parameters of the debate. In the new statesman, blairs former chief of staff, jonathan powell, argues that the british governments engagement with irish republicans provides a model for an israeli approach to hamas. In standpoint, douglas murray reiterates a longstanding neoconservative critique of such suggestions, arguing that the claims of the peace process in northern ireland itself are unproven - but they are also unhelpful to the point of uselessness. This dispute is significant given the identity of some of the key actors now emerging on the middle east stage. More over at ourkingdom. . Soviet front groups might have been more effective, but stalinist paranoia made impossible the operational autonomy needed to succeed. To the extent that future practitioners of this type of propaganda have learned lessons from the soviet experience, we may expect that the nonstate groups will be controlled in a more sophisticated manner and their ties to a given state will be less obvious. New methods of spreading propaganda (such as via internet web sites of non-governmental organizations ngos , or specialized email lists) allow a deceiver to reach target audiences via multiple channels. Many of these channels may remain relatively invisible to the public at large. (elements of strategic denial and deception by abram shulsky in strategic denial and deception the twenty-first century challenge, edited by roy godson and james j. Wirtz, transaction books, 2002, p23. ). Shulsky went on to note that despite the medias self-image of hardheaded cynicism, it is relatively vulnerable to this type of manipulation. (p24. ) the suns experience would seem to bear this out. . Time once again to dust off the cobwebs on here and draw together a few threads from my writing over the last couple of weeks. First of all my report for ourkingdom from the sinn fein ard fheis two weeks ago. It was a very interesting time to be in dublin, with 120,000 people marching on the streets against the governments swingeing austerity measures. Gerry adams cannily tapped into the mood by calling for a left-wing alliance with the labour party. . As a result craig is publishing the book online today. The green ribbon is delighted to be one of the many blogs supporting craig by hosting a copy of the file here. You can also support craig (and a range of charities) by picking up a privately-printed hard copy edition from amazon. The book includes an indispensable account of murrays dealings with spicer during the arms to africa affair, as well as his views on spicers role in the peter mcbride case and his subsequent career in iraq. . Heres an interesting postscript to nick cleggs attack on policy exchange for privately briefing against the global peace and unity event in london. One of the organisations cited by policy exchange, the society of americans for national existence, has objected to my characterisation of them in a post at spinwatch. On their blog a sane staffer writes. In this linkthe leftist brits continue to blather on about sane and its deep, secret powers. We continue. To get many visitors from england trying to figure this out. In this blog and in the links, sane is tied to iasps (true, we are indeed closely linked to iasps), but then we are both (iasps and sane)labeled neocons--which merely demonstrates these folks are either illiterate or fools or just dont read or are wholly disingenuous. . One point worth making is that the society of americans for national existence are not just some bunch of marginal crazies. Sane is actually a project of the institute for advanced strategic and political studies. Iasps was where key neoconservatives like richard perle, david wurmser and doug feith worked out the clean break strategy, which many believe formed the basis of the iraq war agenda they went on to pursue in the bush administration. . Neither the quote nor the full article labels either sane or iasps as neocon institutions. Much of what the article does say is specifically accepted by sane. Indeed, sane goes on to provide two articles which elaborate on iasps role in formulating the clean break strategy. The first of these, israel the advanced case of western affliction, states (my emphasis). Anyone who studies that institute document and the voluminous studies and analyses provided by iasps over the years to policy makers and politicians in israel and washington, d. C. , knows that iasps does not advocate democracy as a tool of foreign policy. It doesn t even advocate democracy as a tool of domestic policy. Indeed, the institute founder, loewenberg, has made clear that the drift in this country to democracy and away from a constitutional republic built on a federation of states, themselves layered on a bedrock of judeo-christian values, is very much a continuation of the decline of the west. . Anyone who looks at iraq or jordan and doesn t understand, not just the shia-sunni divide, but the important tribal ones that make claims going back to the terrorist founder freedom fighter nation builder of islam, mohammed, will never come to grips with the geo-strategic realities in that part of the world. The evidence of this claim is before us now in iraq, in afghanistan and in gaza. . The piece also alludes to the role of wurmser, perle et. Al. The institute has of course gained enormous worldwide attention through its pre-iraq war publication titled, a clean break a new strategy for securing the realm, in which it advocated a triangulated strategy between israel, turkey and jordan to remove saddam hussein from power in iraq and become the base of a tripartite power alliance to rule over and secure a strategic stability in the middle east. Because the reports contributors included many of the policy professionals that took up important positions in the bush administration, left-wing types, right-wing types, arabs, and main stream media soon gravitated to this study as the blueprint for the jewish neocon war in iraq. . At this point, sane would seem to have recapitulated most of my original argument. So what are they trying to establish with their rebuttal? I think there are two key points which also emerge in the second article does pat buchanan have a flea problem, a blind spot or both?. First things first. As i have written in the past, the clean break document was not about america at all, but about a strategy those of us at the institute (i was then a trustee and legal counsel) proposed. So the clean break document was aimed at the israeli government, not the us, and strategic security was the goal not spreading democracy. It is worth comparing this with what some of the neoconservatives critics have said. For example, stephen. J sniegoski has written. It should be emphasised that the same people - feith, wurmser, perle - who advised the israeli government on issues issues of national security would later advise the george w. Bush administration to pursue virtually the same policy regarding the middle east. (the transparent cabal, p. 90). Sniegoski went on to note the very same points sane make about the differences between a clean break and the case for war presented in 2003 while neocons present american policy in a very idealistic light, their policy prescriptions for israel, which involved similar concrete policy objective, were devoid of such sentiment. Written in terms of israeli interest, the study made little mention of the benefits to be accrued by israels neighbouring countries, such as the establishment of democracy. (the transparent cabal, p92)the conclusion that sane invites us to draw is that the aims of the israeli geopoliticians of 1996, were unrelated to those of the american idealists of 2003, despite the minor coincidence of their being the same people. The more credible view is that a right-wing likudist analysis of israels geopolitical interests was a key factor in the neoconservative drive to war. The clean break document was not silent on the role of the united states. To anticipate u. S. Reactions and plan ways to manage and constrain those reactions, prime minister netanyahu can formulate the policies and stress themes he favors in language familiar to the americans by tapping into themes of american administrations during the cold war which apply well to israel. . The subsequent emphasis on bringing democracy to iraq was consistent with this principle. In the transition from a clean break to the us invasion of iraq the neocons presented a false identity between american and european interests, and a hard-line likudist conception of israels interests. This is a habit that arguably did not end in 2003, and may explain episodes such as policy exchanges private briefing. If europeans oppose engagement with the muslim brotherhood at home, they are not likely to press for israeli negotiations with hamas. Likewise, if europeans fear muslim population growth at home, they are more likely to accept extreme responses to palestinian population growth. A clean break is not, incidentally, the only evidence that sane and iasps have neoconservative links. Sane president david yerushalmi is general counsel and policy advisor to the center for security policy, a think tank headed by the former assistant secretary of defense, frank gaffney. Gaffneys neoconservative record has been documented by jim lobe, who also revealed earlier this year, that gaffneys sister, devon gaffney cross has been organising pentagon-funded private briefings by fellow neoconservatives for reporters in london and paris. . Well done to nick clegg for becoming the first major party leader to take on policy exchange over its unscrupulous approach to islam. (hat-tip sunny hundal)in a statement carried by the politicshome website on friday, clegg criticised the think-tank over for a privately circulated briefing against the sundays global peace and unity event in london. The policy exchange briefing i have seen seeks to raise alarm over a number of the speakers planning to attend the conference. The accuracy of the allegations is variable, with a notable lack of evidence to support many of the claims. In particular i was appalled to see evidence quoted from the society for american national existence, an organisation which seeks to make the practice of islam illegal, punishable by 20 years in prison. I need hardly point out how illogical it is to attempt to criticise one set of extreme views by citing another. My concern is not limited to the facts in the document, however. Your attempt to raise a boycott of this event by privately briefing against it is bizarre, and underhand behaviour for a think-tank supposedly interested in open public debate. The information you are disseminating is extremely narrow in focus and as a result tars with the brush of extremism the tens of thousands of muslims who will be in attendance. This looks exactly like the kind of activity which led the charity commission to identify a need for greater transparency from policy exchange earlier this year. . The following is a mirror of an original post from craig murray this is the key section from my new book which the publisher is unwilling to publish due to legal threats from schillings libel lawyers, acting on behalf of the mercenary commander tim spicer peter penfold was back in the uk. He was interviewed separately. Both penfold and spicer were interviewed under caution, as suspects for having broken the arms embargo. Then, suddenly, tony blair intervened. On 11 may 1998, without consulting the fco, he gave a statement to journalists. Penfold, blair declared, was a hero. A dictatorship had been successfully overthrown and democracy restored. Penfold had done a superb job in trying to deal with the consequences of the military coup. All this stuff about security council resolutions and sanctions was an overblown hoo-ha. I believe this episode is extremely important. In 1998 the country was still starry-eyed about blair, but with the benefit of hindsight, this intervention points the way towards the disasters of his later years in office. It is extraordinarily wrong for a prime minister to declare that a man is a hero, when customs had questioned him two days earlier under caution over the very matter the prime minister is praising. It shows blair belief that his judgement stood above the law of the land, something that was to occur again on a much bigger scale when he halted the serious fraud office investigation into british aerospace foreign bribes. But of course blairs contempt for un security council resolutions on the arms embargo, and the belief that installing democracy by invasion could trump the trivia of international law, prefigures precisely the disaster of iraq. As with iraq, blair was also conveniently ignoring the fact that sierra leone was left a mess, with kabbah in charge of little more than freetown. In the fco we were astonished by blair intervention, and deeply puzzled. Where had it come from? It differed completely from robin cook views. Who was drafting this stuff for blair to the effect that the un and the law were unimportant? For most of us, this was the very first indication we had of how deep a hold neo-con thinking and military interests had on the blair circle. It was also my first encounter with the phenomenon of foreign policy being dictated by alistair campbell, the prime inister press secretary, the military lobby, of course, was working hard to defend spicer, one of their own. A few days later customs and excise concluded their investigations. A thick dossier, including documentation from the fco, from the raid on sandline offices, and from elsewhere, was sent to the crown prosecution service. The customs and excise team who had interviewed us told me that the recommendation was that both spicer and penfold be prosecuted for breach of the embargo. The dossier was returned to customs and excise from the crown prosecution service the very same day it was sent. It was marked, in effect, for no further action. There would be no prosecution. A customs officer told me bitterly that, given the time between the dossier leaving their offices and the time it was returned, allowing time for both deliveries, it could not have been in the cps more than half an hour. It was a thick dossier. They could not even have read it before turning it down. I felt sick to my stomach at the decision not to prosecute spicer and penfold. So were the customs officers investigating the case, at least two of them called me to commiserate. They had believed they had put together an extremely strong case, and they told me that their submission to the crown prosecution service said so. The decision not to prosecute in the sandline case was the first major instance of the corruption of the legal process that was to be a hallmark of the blair years. Customs and excise were stunned by it. There is no doubt whatsoever that spicer and penfold had worked together to ship weapons to sierra leone in breach of uk law. Security council 1132 had been given effect in british law by an order in council. I had never found in the least credible their assertions that they did not know about it. I had personally told spicer that it would be illegal to ship arms to sierra leone, to any side in the conflict. Penfold claim never to have seen an absolutely key security council resolution about a country to which he was high commissioner is truly extraordinary. But even if they did not know, ignorance of the law is famously no defence in england. Who knows what a jury would have made of this sorry tale of greed, hired killers and blood diamonds. But i have no doubt at all and more importantly nor did the customs officers investigating the case that there was enough there for a viable prosecution. The head of the crown prosecution service when it decided not to prosecute was barbara mills. Barbara mills is a very well-connected woman in new labour circles. She is married to john mills, a former labour councillor in camden. That makes her sister-in-law to tessa jowell, the new labour cabinet minister with a penchant for taking out repeated mortgages on her home, and then paying them off with cash widely alleged to have come from silvio berlusconi, the friend and business colleague of her husband david mills, who according to a bbc documentary by the estimable john sweeney has created offshore companies for known camorra and mafia interests. Tessa jowell and david mills were also both camden labour councillors, and are close to tony blair. Blair is also a great friend of berlusconi, despite the numerous criminal allegations against berlusconi and his long history of political alliances with open fascists. Just to complete the cosy new labour picture, another brother-in-law of barbara mills and tessa jowell is alan rusbridger, editor of the guardian. Did any of those relationships of barbara mills, the director of public prosecutions, affect the crown prosecution service decision not to proceed with the case, and to take that decision in less time than it would have taken them to read the dossier customs and excise sent them? Barbara mills was to resign as director of public prosecutions later that year after being personally criticised in his judgement by a high court judge who ruled against the crown prosecution service for continually failing to prosecute over deaths in police custody. That has not stopped the extremely well connected dame barbara from being appointed to a string of highly paid public positions since then. It is infuriating that, maxwell style, spicer (who has made millions form the war in iraq) is using the prohibitive costs of defending a libel case to intimidate my publisher. The result is that important information i received at first hand, and an account of events to which i am eye-witness, is being repressed, as is an important independent critique of early blair foreign policy. I am not currently confident the book will get published at all - i am not prepared to put out anodyne pap, which hides the truth, under my name. . . But it is pretty firmly in hibernation mode at the moment. In part this it has opened up a number of other opportunities for me that are now taking up most of my time. One of these is an editing gig at opendemocracys ourkingdom blog, which is involved in some very exciting thinking around the future of the uk. My involvement with spinwatch has also deepened to the point where an argument that started out as a response to a slugger thread has led to me starting a ph. D at the university of strathclyde. Both opendemocracy and spinwatch have got some interesting new projects in the works over the next few months. In the meantime, id like to flag up some good posts elsewhere on the themes that ive been neglecting here lately. If you had been following the coverage of tim spicer, tony buckingham and assorted mercenaries here, then you will want to look up craig murrays recent encounters with same. If youre interested in the neocons, london bloggers have produced some great coverage of policy exchanges relationship with boris johnson in recent months. Notable examples can be found at dave hill, liberal conspiracy, boris watch and tory troll. Its also worth noting arun kundnanis article earlier this month, and the guardians profile on policy exchange last friday, which both picked up on dean godsons cold war background. The hiatus here is likely to continue but do please keep an eye out my stuff at ourkingdom and spinwatch. . Last year a supporter of the pfc in the us contacted senator barack obama regarding the controversial pentagon contract with lt col spicer, the former scots guards officer whose troops murdered peter mc bride - see excerpt below from obamas response - today- september 4 is the anniversary of peters murder. We urge supporters to contact senator obama and call on the presidential candidate to keep his promise if elected and cancel the aegis contract!. . As you know, the ceo of aegis defense services tim spicer has been implicated in a variety of human rights abuses around the globe. Given his history, i agree that the united states should consider rescinding its contract with his company. . Jean mc bride (mother of peter) senator obama has appointed a high level advisory panel on irish issues, comprised of seven well known irish american politicans. The group is comprised of senators george mitchell (retired, maine), chris dodd (connecticut), edward kennedy (massachusetts) and pat leahy (vermont), governor martin o malley of maryland and congressmen joe crowley (new york) and richard neal (massachusetts). Again we would urge supporters to contact all or any of the above and call for the aegis contract to be cancelled. Please cc responses to us. See http www. Patfinucanecentre pmcbride mcbindex. Html for extensive background on the aegis private security contract in iraq and spicer role in the case of the murder of 18 year old teenager peter mc bride who was murdered on september 4 1992 by soldiers under his command. . It& ,s about time that i broke radio silence on here, and this certainly merits it. Former diplomat craig murray is having another run-in with schillings, the lawyers who briefly managed to get his website taken down on behalf of uzbek oligarch alisher usmanov. Now they are attempting to block the publication of my new book in the interests of mercenary commander tim spicer, one of those who has made a fortune from the iraq war. It is sad but perhaps predictable that private profits from the illegal iraq war, in which hundreds of thousands of innocent people have died, are providing the funding to try to silence my book. . The road to samarkand sounds as if it will be very interesting. Among the incidents i cover in my new book are the murder of peter mcbride, the aegis trophy video, the papua new guinea coup, the equatorial guinea plot, executive outcomes& , murder of civilians in angola and the arms to africa affair. I do hope that other bloggers will generate another streisand effect through blogging on these subjects. . Spinwatch has just published my latest profile piece, on the euston manifesto group. I doubt the broad thrust of it will come as a huge surprise to anyone. It looks at the groups connections with american social networks around the (apparently now defunct) social democrats usa and the national endowment for democracy, two organisations which played a part in the iran-contra affair. Some more strands in this particular web were highlighted in a recent post from the yorkshire ranter you may recall that the famous document that was meant to show iraq buying uranium from niger originated with the italian secret service, and then appeared in yer dossier, just in time for the americans to start using it in public speeches. It has long been suspected that the meeting in rome was somehow involved in this exercise in policy-laundering, or rather bullshit-laundering. So how did the thing get from italy to the uk? Well, there was harold rhode, also at the meeting, who made it to the december 2002 iraqi opposition conference in london. That may give us some idea. Now thats what i call the exigencies of the service - youve got to meet gems like ledeen, ghorbanifar, chalabi,. . Its hell in the diplomatic, as harry flashman so wisely said. (selling the dummy). David habakkuks latest piece brings us some interesting reflections on the neoconservatives and their various exile clients much more could be said about the sheer oddity of a conceptions of a forward strategy in which conmen like chalabi or berezovsky come to be seen as appropriate vehicles to make other societies liberal and democratic. What cannot be claimed, however, is that these conceptions are simply the fig-leaves of cunning machiavellians. In relation to their own societies, the neoconservatives and their british fellow-travellers may indeed be masterly manipulators. But their propensity to see alien societies through thick ideological filters makes them easy prey for conmen in their dealings with the wider world -- so that the actual outcomes of the strategies they advocate are highly liable to be quite different from those they envisage. (european tribune). As it happens, the us senate intelligence committee released a report this week which neatly illustrates davids argument. It concerns a series of meetings which began in rome in 2001. The meeting included larry franklin (office of assistant secretary of defense, international security affairs), harold rhode (office of net assessments), michael ledeen (former office of the secretary of defense and national security council consultant), manucher ghorbanifar (iranian exile), iranian 1 (iranian living in exile in morocco), iranian 2 (iranian revolutionary guard official), and an unidentified employee of a foreign government. Michael ledeen arranged the meeting with the help of his contacts in italy and the foreign government who provided the meeting place and the logistical support. (partly redacted in original links added). . A later passage in the report considers the counterintelligence implications the most significant matter raised in the counterintelligence field activitys report was the possibility that mr. Ghorbanifar of his associates are being used as agents of a foreign intelligence service to leverage his continuing contact with michael ledeen and others to reach into and influence the highest leveles of the u. S. Government. The report noted that there were multiple occasions where information from mr. Ghorbanifar entered u. S. Government channels via mr. Ledeen. These channels included personnel from the federal bureau of investigation, cia, dod, the white house, and congress. As a result, mr. Ghorbanifar was able to communicate with us government officials via mr. Ledeen without having direct contact. While the report concluded that mr. Ledeen was likely unwitting of any counterintelligence issues related to his relationship with mr. Ghorbanifar, their association was widely known, and therefore it should be presumed other foreign intelligence services, including those of iran, would know. . The website of standpoint, the new magazine published by the social affairs unit, is now live. In his inaugural column, editor daniel johnson highlights the magazines neoconservative credentials when you have a good idea, start a magazine. This, according to our board member gertrude himmelfarb, is the motto of her husband irving kristol. In a long and fruitful life, he has started three. (their son bill has started one, too. ) the first was encounter, which kristol co-founded with the late stephen spender in 1953. It was a transatlantic monthly in which the intellectuals of the free world could debate with one another and their communist counterparts. To write for encounter was a privilege. . Johnson doesnt mention it explicitly, but it is, of course, well-known that encounter was founded and financed by the cia as part of its psychological warfare strategy during the early cold war. According to historian hugh wilford, the magazines greatest achievement was in creating a certain kind of intellectual-cultural milieu in which american and european interests came to appear as if they were identical. . Back in january i suggested that martin brights knocking documentary on ken livingstone was connected to his relationship with policy exchange. Well now livingstone is gone and boris watch informs us that policy exchange is firmly ensconced at city hall during the electoral campaign, boris was aided by dan ritterband, a one-time director of policy exchange, and soon after his victory, nicholas boles, the founder of the organisation, was named as the mayor chief of staff. Boles was, the observer reported, asked to help the new mayor find the right staff , and one of his first appointments was munira mirza - an employee of policy exchange - as director of policy, arts, culture and the creative industries. Ritterband, meanwhile, maintained his position among boris advisers. . Given the way livingstone was red-baited over his socialist action advisers, it is particularly ironic that johnson should have appointed mirza, who was formerly involved with the manifesto club, an organisation associated with the the living marxism revolutionary communist party network. Splintered sunrise has some interesting thoughts on the parallels between socialist action and the rcp. For my money, the classic example of an upwardly mobile marxist or ex-marxist clique is the lovestoneite faction which started out in the american communist party and ended up working with james angleton and the cia. The key lovestoneite figure in britain was roy godson, father of policy exchanges dean godson. The rise of neoconservatism marks to a significant extent, the emergence of a post-marxist movement as a dominant strain on the right. It seems not everyone involved in promoting neoconservatism understands that. . Very interesting thread on sic semper tyrannis about the us investigation into bae the biggest aspect of the bae al yamamah story is the offshore fund. To summarize bae delivered about billion in arms and services to saudi arabia. Bae padded the bills substantially, up to nearly billion. The pad was used, in part, to bribe saudi officials who helped swing the deal, including bandar and prince turki bin-khaled, a top official of the saudi ministry of defense. That part is fully detailed in the guardian and other british coverage of the bae scandal, going back three or four years. What is not covered in the british press is the fact that saudi arabia paid for the arms with oil. The oil was sold on the spot market, and this generated an estimated (in current dollars) 0 billion in cash. I am told by former u. S. Treasury department officials that the funds generated from the oil sales, after bae got their cut, went into offshore bank accounts. . As jamie notes at blood and treasure theres not a lot of evidence offered, but the allegation about the oil fund has come up before. In his book in the public interest, the former chairman of astra, gerald james, highlights a partially blacked out memo that was sent to jeff rooker mp, which suggested some of the funds found their way to the conservative party. . The green ribbon books the hidden hand britain, america and cold war secret intelligence, by richard j. Aldrich. God englishman oliver cromwell and the english revolution by christopher hill writings of william walwynmilton and the english revolution, by christopher hillthe century of revolution, 1603-1714, by christopher hillthe rights of man, by tom painethe vote how it was won, and how it was undermined by paul foot the english, a portrait of a people, by jeremy paxmanthe making of english national identity by krishan kumarthe scottish insurrection of 1820 by peter berresford ellis, seumus mac a ghobhainn blackshirt sir oswald mosley and british fascism, by stephen dorrilhoney trap, by stephen dorril and anthony summers the celtic revolution, by peter berresford ellis this time our constitutional revolution, by anthony barnettpariah misfortunes of the british kingdom, by tom nairngordon brown bard of britishness, by tom nairn cromwell an honourable enemy by tom reillythe narrow ground aspects of ulster 1609-1969, by a. T. Q. Stewartthe year of liberty history of the great irish rebellion of 1798, by thomas pakenham the galtee boy a fenian prison narrative, by john sarsfield caseythe voyage of the catalpa a perilous journey and six irish rebels escape to freedom, by peter stevensjohn devoy catalpa expedition, by philip fennell and marie kingvoyage of the hougomont and life at fremantle, by thomas mccarthy fennellthe fenian diary the hougomont diary of denis b. Cashman, by denis b. Cashman, c. W. Sullivanirish rebel, john devoy and america fight for irish freedom, by terry golwaythe greatest of the fenians john devoy and ireland, by terence dooleyrossa recollections, 1838 to 1898 memoirs of an irish revolutionary, by jeremiah o donovan rossafenian fire the british government plot to assassinate queen victoria, by christy campbellprelude to the easter rising sir roger casement in imperial germany, by reinhard doerries1916 the easter rising, by tim pat coogandesmond rising memoirs 1913 to easter 1916, by desmond fitzgeraldpadraig pearse, the triumph of failure, by ruth dudley edwardsthe life and times of james connolly, by charles desmond greaves principles of freedom, by terence macswineyenduring the most life and death of terence macswiney, by francis j. Costello. I die in a good cause, by sean l ing tans, terror and troubles, kerry real fighting story, by t ryle dwyer. Enchanted by dreams the journal of a revolutionary by joe goodsam maguire the enigmatic man behind ireland most prestigious trophy, by margaret mary walshthe squad the intelligence operations of michael collins, by t ryle dwyer. Michael collins intelligence war the struggle between the british and the ira - 1919-1921, by michael t. Foybloody sunday how michael collins agents assassinated britain secret service in dublin on november 21, 1920, by james gleesonno other law, by florence o donoghuethe real chief, the story of liam lynch, by meda ryanflorence and josephine o donoghue war of independence a destiny that shapes our endguerilla days in ireland, by tom barrytom barry ira freedom fighter, by meda ryanmy fight for irish freedom, by dan breendan breen and the ira, by joe ambroseon another man wound a personal history of ireland war of independence, by ernie o malleyliam mellows and the irish revolution, by c. Desmond greaves. Who who in the irish war of independence, by padraic o farrellthe ira at war 1916-1923, by peter hart. The black and tans, by richard bennett. Peace by ordeal an account, from first-hand sources, of the negotiation and signature of the anglo-irish treaty, 1921, by frank pakenham longfordthe irish civil war, by tim pat coogani signed my death warrant michael collins and the treaty, by t ryle dwyerthe path to freedom articles and speeches, by michael collinsmichael collins a biography, by tim pat cooganmichael collins the man who won the war by t. Ryle dwyermichael collins a life, by james a. Mackay. Michael collins, by margery forestermichael collins and the women in his life, by meda ryanthe day michael collins was shot, by meda ryanmichael collins the secret file by a. T. Q stewartde valera long fellow, long shadow, by tim pat coogana memoir, by terry de valerathe irish republic, by dorothy mcardlein time of war ireland, ulster and the price of neutrality, 1939-45, by robert fisk a u. S. Spy in ireland, by martin s. Quigleywar and an irish town, by eamonn mccann bloody sunday in derry what really happened by eamonn mccann eyewitness bloody sunday by don mullanthe bloody sunday inquiry the families speak outpoint of no return the strike which broke the british in ulster, by robert fisk on the blanket the inside story of the ira prisoner dirty protest, by tim pat cooganten men dead story of the 1981 irish hunger strike, by david beresford the ira, by tim pat cooganthe provisional i. R. A. By patrick bishop and eamonn mallieforty years of controversy, by t ryle dwyerthe troubles ireland ordeal 1969-96, by tim pat coogan. Lost lives the stories of the men, women and children who died as a result of the northern ireland troubles, by david mckittrick, seamus kelters, brian feeney, chris thorntonunfinished business state killings and the quest for truth, by bill rolstonendgame in ireland, by eamonn mallie, david mckittricksinn fein a hundred turbulent years by brian feeney the sdlp and sinn fein, 1970-2001 from alienation to participation in northern ireland, by gerard murray, jonathan tongeireland in the twentieth century, by tim pat cooganwherever green is worn the story of the irish diaspora, by tim pat cooganan irish navvy the diary of an exile by. Error of judgement truth about the birmingham bombings, by chris mullinirish manchester, by alan keeganopen cut, by j. M. O neilli could read the sky, by timothy e. O gradyhide that can, by deirdre o callaghanfaces of nationalism, janus revisited, by tom nairnglobal matrix nationalism, globalism and state-terrorism, by tom nairn, paul james global nations, by tom nairn the modern world-system capitalist agriculture and the origins of the european world-economy in the sixteenth century, by immanuel wallerstein reorient global economy in the asian age by andre gunder frank the black jacobins toussaint l ouverture and the san domingo revolution, by c. L. R. James the scramble for africa, by thomas pakenham the boer war, by thomas pakenham culture and imperialism by edward w. Saidthe fateful triangle united states, israel and the palestinians by noam chomskypity the nation lebanon at war by robert fiskthe great war for civilisation the conquest of the middle east, by robert fisk the market for force the consequences of privatizing security, by deborah d. Avant iraq,inc. A profitable occupation, by pratap chatterjeea history of god by karen armstrong. It has been a strange month in the politics of northern ireland, and last week was no exception. On monday, there was optimism that abreakthrough on the devolution of policing and justice was in the offing. A few days later, talks had collapsed amid recriminations betweengerry adams and peter robinson. Uup leader reg empey was predicting an assembly election would be called by the end of the coming week, agood indicator of the likely timeframe before a definitive breakthrough or breakdown. Over-shadowing the weeks events was a remarkable scoop from slugger otooles eamonn mallie, the veteran journalist who first revealed thebritish governments talks with the ira in the early 1990s. He reported that last sunday, the dup and ulster unionist leadership took part in secret talks inengland with shadow northern ireland secretary owen paterson aimed at unionist unity and copper fastening maximum unionist support for a future conservative government, should there be a hungparliament. The conservatives denied that any discussion of a hung parliament had taken place, stating what this was, was the shadow secretary of state as somebody who could potentially be the actual secretary of state in a matter of weeks,holding private talks with representatives of the two main unionist parties to explore how we might overcome some of the politicalinstabilities at stormont, and to avoid a situation in which we might potentially, should we win the election, inherit a collapsed assemblyand direct rule. . On the face of it, this makes sense, particularly as the dup would want political cover from the tories ulster unionist allies in the eventof a deal with sinn fein. However, a series of intriguing stories undermined this picture. The belfast telegraph reported that the dup wasconsidering giving the ulster unionists a free run in two nationalist-held westminster seats. Rte reported that robinson was considering anoutright alliance between the two parties, and the bbc reported that three consevative parliamentary candidates had resigned. The bbcs mark devenport summed up the situation at the end of the week when questioned about the prospect of sinn fein becoming stormonts largest party, neither unionist leader would rule out their respectiveparties merging into one bloc. Although the conservatives claimed there was no discussion of a hung westminster parliament during the secrettalks in england last sunday, senior dup sources are talking up the significance a single unionist force could have for the parliamentaryarithmetic at westminster. They are pointing out that 12 pro-conservative seats equals 24 in a balanced parliament. Of course that presumesboth north down and fermanagh south tyrone could be counted in such a bloc which is a big assumption. Nevertheless it gives a sense of thekind of calculations now being made. . The location of the talks may be significant hatfield house, the ancestral seat of lord salisbury, who as viscount cranborne was the keyally of ulster unionism in john majors cabinet. His home has hosted a unionist unity conference once before. The uup and dup were both representedat this gathering which took place a few months after the election of tony blair in 1997. It was ostensibly organised at the initiative ofsean ocallaghan, a former provisional ira member who became an advisor to david trimble. Another member of trimbles inner circle, thejournalist eoghan harris, declined to attend because, in the words of dean godson, the event had too much of the air of 1912-style resistanceto home rule, with unionists coalescing with what he saw as reactionary elements on the mainland. Those words found something of an echo this week from sdlp deputy leader alasdair mcdonnell, whose south belfast constituency is the mostvulnerable to a pan-unionist alliance. He accused david cameron of orchestrating a cynical attempt by the tories to grab a few orange votesahead of the forthcoming westminster election. If however,it emboldens the dup to risk the collapse of power-sharing, it will only serve the tuvs agenda. That would attract an extremely negativereaction from nationalists of all shades. It would also raise profound questions for all strands of unionism. The dup has spent forty years building at the expense of traditional big house unionism. How will its electorate take to becoming pawns ona chessboard at the home of a tory grandee? The ulster unionists and the conservatives have spent months talking up their alliance as the beginning of a new non-sectarian unionism thatcan attract catholic voters. If even their own candidates no longer have confidence in that agenda, why should anyone else? David cameron believes he is on the verge of winning broad support from the british people as the responsible choice to lead the nextgovernment. So why is he engaging in what looks uncomfortably like an opportunist manoeuvre for a dozen or so seats?. Events in london in recent weeks have highlighted the growing collusion between american neoconservatives and the european far right in stirring up hatred of muslims. Richard bartholomew has details of a meeting at the george restaurant in east london in august attended by jihad watchs robert spencer and douglas murray of the centre for social cohesion at the invitation of the christian action network. Also invited were the english defence league, the group responsible for a number of recent violent anti-muslim protests. Robert spencer says on his blog that he and murray refused to meet with the edl, and cites adrian morgan as a witness to this version of events. But the presence of morgan, who did meet the edl, is itself evidence of the emerging relationship between the neocons and the far-right. . Just a quick pointer to to my latest piece for spinwatch, web 2. 0 warfare from gaza to iran. It a story i m slightly ambivalent in one sense, because there has clearly been important information coming out of iran on twitter. There have also been a lot of poorly sourced rumours, of which perhaps the most suspicious is the one cited by robert fisk, that the iranian government is using hamas and hezbollah operatives to suppress the demonstrators. . If my story comes across as slightly sceptical about social media, i hope that the links to spinprofiles and neocon europe show some of the potential for using the technology in a more considered way. Indeed, i think there is potential for wikis like these to develop a symbiotic relationship with blogs and social networks, providing a more structure long-term memory for the blogosphere. . The current fiasco over expenses at westminster has created a major opportunity for political reform in britain. You might not know it from the medias focus on celebrity populism, but there has actually been some useful thinking on the left over the past year which addresses the causes of the crisis quite precisely. . Ive been collating some of that conversation for my own reference, and i thought it was worth sharing it here. Please feel free to suggest any other relevant links in the comments. . Tim gore, democratic republicanism. And the eu, next left, 07 02 09. Billy bragg opened the second half of his 2008 st george day celebrationat london barbican theatre with jerusalem. And, as kittyempire put it in her review, the audience responded coyly when billyinvited them to join in by holding above their heads the carefully laidout sheets of red and white paper distributed on the auditorium seatsto form one huge st george cross. Hardly an exercise of leniriefenstahl proportions, but more than enough, apparently, to getobserver readers searching for any excuse not to join in. (a jigsaw state (pdf)). In a previous collection of essays, 2008s imagined nation, perryman explored the possibilities for english national identity in the wake of devolution. A session on english nationalism at last years compass conference provided the inspiration for the new volume, whichbroadens the debate to look at the prospects for all of the nations in the uk. . There is plenty of irish interest with contributions from arthur aughey, gerry adams, inez mccormack and peadar kirby. Adams contribution is largely based on his speech to februarys sinn fein ard fheis, but its interesting to see it set in this context, not least because sinn fein has often been wary of drawing parallels with nationalist movements in the various nations of britain. . Tony blair has cited the precedent as cause for optimism in his role as quartet envoy, while gerry adams called for inclusive negotiations during his visit to gaza last week. The analogy isnt universally welcome, however. . Two recent articles reflect the parameters of the debate. In the new statesman, blairs former chief of staff, jonathan powell, argues that the british governments engagement with irish republicans provides a model for an israeli approach to hamas. In standpoint, douglas murray reiterates a longstanding neoconservative critique of such suggestions, arguing that the claims of the peace process in northern ireland itself are unproven - but they are also unhelpful to the point of uselessness. This dispute is significant given the identity of some of the key actors now emerging on the middle east stage. More over at ourkingdom. . Soviet front groups might have been more effective, but stalinist paranoia made impossible the operational autonomy needed to succeed. To the extent that future practitioners of this type of propaganda have learned lessons from the soviet experience, we may expect that the nonstate groups will be controlled in a more sophisticated manner and their ties to a given state will be less obvious. New methods of spreading propaganda (such as via internet web sites of non-governmental organizations ngos , or specialized email lists) allow a deceiver to reach target audiences via multiple channels. Many of these channels may remain relatively invisible to the public at large. (elements of strategic denial and deception by abram shulsky in strategic denial and deception the twenty-first century challenge, edited by roy godson and james j. Wirtz, transaction books, 2002, p23. ). Shulsky went on to note that despite the medias self-image of hardheaded cynicism, it is relatively vulnerable to this type of manipulation. (p24. ) the suns experience would seem to bear this out. . Time once again to dust off the cobwebs on here and draw together a few threads from my writing over the last couple of weeks. First of all my report for ourkingdom from the sinn fein ard fheis two weeks ago. It was a very interesting time to be in dublin, with 120,000 people marching on the streets against the governments swingeing austerity measures. Gerry adams cannily tapped into the mood by calling for a left-wing alliance with the labour party. . As a result craig is publishing the book online today. The green ribbon is delighted to be one of the many blogs supporting craig by hosting a copy of the file here. You can also support craig (and a range of charities) by picking up a privately-printed hard copy edition from amazon. The book includes an indispensable account of murrays dealings with spicer during the arms to africa affair, as well as his views on spicers role in the peter mcbride case and his subsequent career in iraq. . Heres an interesting postscript to nick cleggs attack on policy exchange for privately briefing against the global peace and unity event in london. One of the organisations cited by policy exchange, the society of americans for national existence, has objected to my characterisation of them in a post at spinwatch. On their blog a sane staffer writes. In this linkthe leftist brits continue to blather on about sane and its deep, secret powers. We continue. To get many visitors from england trying to figure this out. In this blog and in the links, sane is tied to iasps (true, we are indeed closely linked to iasps), but then we are both (iasps and sane)labeled neocons--which merely demonstrates these folks are either illiterate or fools or just dont read or are wholly disingenuous. . One point worth making is that the society of americans for national existence are not just some bunch of marginal crazies. Sane is actually a project of the institute for advanced strategic and political studies. Iasps was where key neoconservatives like richard perle, david wurmser and doug feith worked out the clean break strategy, which many believe formed the basis of the iraq war agenda they went on to pursue in the bush administration. . Neither the quote nor the full article labels either sane or iasps as neocon institutions. Much of what the article does say is specifically accepted by sane. Indeed, sane goes on to provide two articles which elaborate on iasps role in formulating the clean break strategy. The first of these, israel the advanced case of western affliction, states (my emphasis). Anyone who studies that institute document and the voluminous studies and analyses provided by iasps over the years to policy makers and politicians in israel and washington, d. C. , knows that iasps does not advocate democracy as a tool of foreign policy. It doesn t even advocate democracy as a tool of domestic policy. Indeed, the institute founder, loewenberg, has made clear that the drift in this country to democracy and away from a constitutional republic built on a federation of states, themselves layered on a bedrock of judeo-christian values, is very much a continuation of the decline of the west. . Anyone who looks at iraq or jordan and doesn t understand, not just the shia-sunni divide, but the important tribal ones that make claims going back to the terrorist founder freedom fighter nation builder of islam, mohammed, will never come to grips with the geo-strategic realities in that part of the world. The evidence of this claim is before us now in iraq, in afghanistan and in gaza. . The piece also alludes to the role of wurmser, perle et. Al. The institute has of course gained enormous worldwide attention through its pre-iraq war publication titled, a clean break a new strategy for securing the realm, in which it advocated a triangulated strategy between israel, turkey and jordan to remove saddam hussein from power in iraq and become the base of a tripartite power alliance to rule over and secure a strategic stability in the middle east. Because the reports contributors included many of the policy professionals that took up important positions in the bush administration, left-wing types, right-wing types, arabs, and main stream media soon gravitated to this study as the blueprint for the jewish neocon war in iraq. . At this point, sane would seem to have recapitulated most of my original argument. So what are they trying to establish with their rebuttal? I think there are two key points which also emerge in the second article does pat buchanan have a flea problem, a blind spot or both?. First things first. As i have written in the past, the clean break document was not about america at all, but about a strategy those of us at the institute (i was then a trustee and legal counsel) proposed. So the clean break document was aimed at the israeli government, not the us, and strategic security was the goal not spreading democracy. It is worth comparing this with what some of the neoconservatives critics have said. For example, stephen. J sniegoski has written. It should be emphasised that the same people - feith, wurmser, perle - who advised the israeli government on issues issues of national security would later advise the george w. Bush administration to pursue virtually the same policy regarding the middle east. (the transparent cabal, p. 90). Sniegoski went on to note the very same points sane make about the differences between a clean break and the case for war presented in 2003 while neocons present american policy in a very idealistic light, their policy prescriptions for israel, which involved similar concrete policy objective, were devoid of such sentiment. Written in terms of israeli interest, the study made little mention of the benefits to be accrued by israels neighbouring countries, such as the establishment of democracy. (the transparent cabal, p92)the conclusion that sane invites us to draw is that the aims of the israeli geopoliticians of 1996, were unrelated to those of the american idealists of 2003, despite the minor coincidence of their being the same people. The more credible view is that a right-wing likudist analysis of israels geopolitical interests was a key factor in the neoconservative drive to war. The clean break document was not silent on the role of the united states. To anticipate u. S. Reactions and plan ways to manage and constrain those reactions, prime minister netanyahu can formulate the policies and stress themes he favors in language familiar to the americans by tapping into themes of american administrations during the cold war which apply well to israel. . The subsequent emphasis on bringing democracy to iraq was consistent with this principle. In the transition from a clean break to the us invasion of iraq the neocons presented a false identity between american and european interests, and a hard-line likudist conception of israels interests. This is a habit that arguably did not end in 2003, and may explain episodes such as policy exchanges private briefing. If europeans oppose engagement with the muslim brotherhood at home, they are not likely to press for israeli negotiations with hamas. Likewise, if europeans fear muslim population growth at home, they are more likely to accept extreme responses to palestinian population growth. A clean break is not, incidentally, the only evidence that sane and iasps have neoconservative links. Sane president david yerushalmi is general counsel and policy advisor to the center for security policy, a think tank headed by the former assistant secretary of defense, frank gaffney. Gaffneys neoconservative record has been documented by jim lobe, who also revealed earlier this year, that gaffneys sister, devon gaffney cross has been organising pentagon-funded private briefings by fellow neoconservatives for reporters in london and paris. . Well done to nick clegg for becoming the first major party leader to take on policy exchange over its unscrupulous approach to islam. (hat-tip sunny hundal)in a statement carried by the politicshome website on friday, clegg criticised the think-tank over for a privately circulated briefing against the sundays global peace and unity event in london. The policy exchange briefing i have seen seeks to raise alarm over a number of the speakers planning to attend the conference. The accuracy of the allegations is variable, with a notable lack of evidence to support many of the claims. In particular i was appalled to see evidence quoted from the society for american national existence, an organisation which seeks to make the practice of islam illegal, punishable by 20 years in prison. I need hardly point out how illogical it is to attempt to criticise one set of extreme views by citing another. My concern is not limited to the facts in the document, however. Your attempt to raise a boycott of this event by privately briefing against it is bizarre, and underhand behaviour for a think-tank supposedly interested in open public debate. The information you are disseminating is extremely narrow in focus and as a result tars with the brush of extremism the tens of thousands of muslims who will be in attendance. This looks exactly like the kind of activity which led the charity commission to identify a need for greater transparency from policy exchange earlier this year. . The following is a mirror of an original post from craig murray this is the key section from my new book which the publisher is unwilling to publish due to legal threats from schillings libel lawyers, acting on behalf of the mercenary commander tim spicer peter penfold was back in the uk. He was interviewed separately. Both penfold and spicer were interviewed under caution, as suspects for having broken the arms embargo. Then, suddenly, tony blair intervened. On 11 may 1998, without consulting the fco, he gave a statement to journalists. Penfold, blair declared, was a hero. A dictatorship had been successfully overthrown and democracy restored. Penfold had done a superb job in trying to deal with the consequences of the military coup. All this stuff about security council resolutions and sanctions was an overblown hoo-ha. I believe this episode is extremely important. In 1998 the country was still starry-eyed about blair, but with the benefit of hindsight, this intervention points the way towards the disasters of his later years in office. It is extraordinarily wrong for a prime minister to declare that a man is a hero, when customs had questioned him two days earlier under caution over the very matter the prime minister is praising. It shows blair belief that his judgement stood above the law of the land, something that was to occur again on a much bigger scale when he halted the serious fraud office investigation into british aerospace foreign bribes. But of course blairs contempt for un security council resolutions on the arms embargo, and the belief that installing democracy by invasion could trump the trivia of international law, prefigures precisely the disaster of iraq. As with iraq, blair was also conveniently ignoring the fact that sierra leone was left a mess, with kabbah in charge of little more than freetown. In the fco we were astonished by blair intervention, and deeply puzzled. Where had it come from? It differed completely from robin cook views. Who was drafting this stuff for blair to the effect that the un and the law were unimportant? For most of us, this was the very first indication we had of how deep a hold neo-con thinking and military interests had on the blair circle. It was also my first encounter with the phenomenon of foreign policy being dictated by alistair campbell, the prime inister press secretary, the military lobby, of course, was working hard to defend spicer, one of their own. A few days later customs and excise concluded their investigations. A thick dossier, including documentation from the fco, from the raid on sandline offices, and from elsewhere, was sent to the crown prosecution service. The customs and excise team who had interviewed us told me that the recommendation was that both spicer and penfold be prosecuted for breach of the embargo. The dossier was returned to customs and excise from the crown prosecution service the very same day it was sent. It was marked, in effect, for no further action. There would be no prosecution. A customs officer told me bitterly that, given the time between the dossier leaving their offices and the time it was returned, allowing time for both deliveries, it could not have been in the cps more than half an hour. It was a thick dossier. They could not even have read it before turning it down. I felt sick to my stomach at the decision not to prosecute spicer and penfold. So were the customs officers investigating the case, at least two of them called me to commiserate. They had believed they had put together an extremely strong case, and they told me that their submission to the crown prosecution service said so. The decision not to prosecute in the sandline case was the first major instance of the corruption of the legal process that was to be a hallmark of the blair years. Customs and excise were stunned by it. There is no doubt whatsoever that spicer and penfold had worked together to ship weapons to sierra leone in breach of uk law. Security council 1132 had been given effect in british law by an order in council. I had never found in the least credible their assertions that they did not know about it. I had personally told spicer that it would be illegal to ship arms to sierra leone, to any side in the conflict. Penfold claim never to have seen an absolutely key security council resolution about a country to which he was high commissioner is truly extraordinary. But even if they did not know, ignorance of the law is famously no defence in england. Who knows what a jury would have made of this sorry tale of greed, hired killers and blood diamonds. But i have no doubt at all and more importantly nor did the customs officers investigating the case that there was enough there for a viable prosecution. The head of the crown prosecution service when it decided not to prosecute was barbara mills. Barbara mills is a very well-connected woman in new labour circles. She is married to john mills, a former labour councillor in camden. That makes her sister-in-law to tessa jowell, the new labour cabinet minister with a penchant for taking out repeated mortgages on her home, and then paying them off with cash widely alleged to have come from silvio berlusconi, the friend and business colleague of her husband david mills, who according to a bbc documentary by the estimable john sweeney has created offshore companies for known camorra and mafia interests. Tessa jowell and david mills were also both camden labour councillors, and are close to tony blair. Blair is also a great friend of berlusconi, despite the numerous criminal allegations against berlusconi and his long history of political alliances with open fascists. Just to complete the cosy new labour picture, another brother-in-law of barbara mills and tessa jowell is alan rusbridger, editor of the guardian. Did any of those relationships of barbara mills, the director of public prosecutions, affect the crown prosecution service decision not to proceed with the case, and to take that decision in less time than it would have taken them to read the dossier customs and excise sent them? Barbara mills was to resign as director of public prosecutions later that year after being personally criticised in his judgement by a high court judge who ruled against the crown prosecution service for continually failing to prosecute over deaths in police custody. That has not stopped the extremely well connected dame barbara from being appointed to a string of highly paid public positions since then. It is infuriating that, maxwell style, spicer (who has made millions form the war in iraq) is using the prohibitive costs of defending a libel case to intimidate my publisher. The result is that important information i received at first hand, and an account of events to which i am eye-witness, is being repressed, as is an important independent critique of early blair foreign policy. I am not currently confident the book will get published at all - i am not prepared to put out anodyne pap, which hides the truth, under my name. . . But it is pretty firmly in hibernation mode at the moment. In part this it has opened up a number of other opportunities for me that are now taking up most of my time. One of these is an editing gig at opendemocracys ourkingdom blog, which is involved in some very exciting thinking around the future of the uk. My involvement with spinwatch has also deepened to the point where an argument that started out as a response to a slugger thread has led to me starting a ph. D at the university of strathclyde. Both opendemocracy and spinwatch have got some interesting new projects in the works over the next few months. In the meantime, id like to flag up some good posts elsewhere on the themes that ive been neglecting here lately. If you had been following the coverage of tim spicer, tony buckingham and assorted mercenaries here, then you will want to look up craig murrays recent encounters with same. If youre interested in the neocons, london bloggers have produced some great coverage of policy exchanges relationship with boris johnson in recent months. Notable examples can be found at dave hill, liberal conspiracy, boris watch and tory troll. Its also worth noting arun kundnanis article earlier this month, and the guardians profile on policy exchange last friday, which both picked up on dean godsons cold war background. The hiatus here is likely to continue but do please keep an eye out my stuff at ourkingdom and spinwatch. . Last year a supporter of the pfc in the us contacted senator barack obama regarding the controversial pentagon contract with lt col spicer, the former scots guards officer whose troops murdered peter mc bride - see excerpt below from obamas response - today- september 4 is the anniversary of peters murder. We urge supporters to contact senator obama and call on the presidential candidate to keep his promise if elected and cancel the aegis contract!. . As you know, the ceo of aegis defense services tim spicer has been implicated in a variety of human rights abuses around the globe. Given his history, i agree that the united states should consider rescinding its contract with his company. . Jean mc bride (mother of peter) senator obama has appointed a high level advisory panel on irish issues, comprised of seven well known irish american politicans. The group is comprised of senators george mitchell (retired, maine), chris dodd (connecticut), edward kennedy (massachusetts) and pat leahy (vermont), governor martin o malley of maryland and congressmen joe crowley (new york) and richard neal (massachusetts). Again we would urge supporters to contact all or any of the above and call for the aegis contract to be cancelled. Please cc responses to us. See http www. Patfinucanecentre pmcbride mcbindex. Html for extensive background on the aegis private security contract in iraq and spicer role in the case of the murder of 18 year old teenager peter mc bride who was murdered on september 4 1992 by soldiers under his command. . It& ,s about time that i broke radio silence on here, and this certainly merits it. Former diplomat craig murray is having another run-in with schillings, the lawyers who briefly managed to get his website taken down on behalf of uzbek oligarch alisher usmanov. Now they are attempting to block the publication of my new book in the interests of mercenary commander tim spicer, one of those who has made a fortune from the iraq war. It is sad but perhaps predictable that private profits from the illegal iraq war, in which hundreds of thousands of innocent people have died, are providing the funding to try to silence my book. . The road to samarkand sounds as if it will be very interesting. Among the incidents i cover in my new book are the murder of peter mcbride, the aegis trophy video, the papua new guinea coup, the equatorial guinea plot, executive outcomes& , murder of civilians in angola and the arms to africa affair. I do hope that other bloggers will generate another streisand effect through blogging on these subjects. . Spinwatch has just published my latest profile piece, on the euston manifesto group. I doubt the broad thrust of it will come as a huge surprise to anyone. It looks at the groups connections with american social networks around the (apparently now defunct) social democrats usa and the national endowment for democracy, two organisations which played a part in the iran-contra affair. Some more strands in this particular web were highlighted in a recent post from the yorkshire ranter you may recall that the famous document that was meant to show iraq buying uranium from niger originated with the italian secret service, and then appeared in yer dossier, just in time for the americans to start using it in public speeches. It has long been suspected that the meeting in rome was somehow involved in this exercise in policy-laundering, or rather bullshit-laundering. So how did the thing get from italy to the uk? Well, there was harold rhode, also at the meeting, who made it to the december 2002 iraqi opposition conference in london. That may give us some idea. Now thats what i call the exigencies of the service - youve got to meet gems like ledeen, ghorbanifar, chalabi,. . Its hell in the diplomatic, as harry flashman so wisely said. (selling the dummy). David habakkuks latest piece brings us some interesting reflections on the neoconservatives and their various exile clients much more could be said about the sheer oddity of a conceptions of a forward strategy in which conmen like chalabi or berezovsky come to be seen as appropriate vehicles to make other societies liberal and democratic. What cannot be claimed, however, is that these conceptions are simply the fig-leaves of cunning machiavellians. In relation to their own societies, the neoconservatives and their british fellow-travellers may indeed be masterly manipulators. But their propensity to see alien societies through thick ideological filters makes them easy prey for conmen in their dealings with the wider world -- so that the actual outcomes of the strategies they advocate are highly liable to be quite different from those they envisage. (european tribune). As it happens, the us senate intelligence committee released a report this week which neatly illustrates davids argument. It concerns a series of meetings which began in rome in 2001. The meeting included larry franklin (office of assistant secretary of defense, international security affairs), harold rhode (office of net assessments), michael ledeen (former office of the secretary of defense and national security council consultant), manucher ghorbanifar (iranian exile), iranian 1 (iranian living in exile in morocco), iranian 2 (iranian revolutionary guard official), and an unidentified employee of a foreign government. Michael ledeen arranged the meeting with the help of his contacts in italy and the foreign government who provided the meeting place and the logistical support. (partly redacted in original links added). . A later passage in the report considers the counterintelligence implications the most significant matter raised in the counterintelligence field activitys report was the possibility that mr. Ghorbanifar of his associates are being used as agents of a foreign intelligence service to leverage his continuing contact with michael ledeen and others to reach into and influence the highest leveles of the u. S. Government. The report noted that there were multiple occasions where information from mr. Ghorbanifar entered u. S. Government channels via mr. Ledeen. These channels included personnel from the federal bureau of investigation, cia, dod, the white house, and congress. As a result, mr. Ghorbanifar was able to communicate with us government officials via mr. Ledeen without having direct contact. While the report concluded that mr. Ledeen was likely unwitting of any counterintelligence issues related to his relationship with mr. Ghorbanifar, their association was widely known, and therefore it should be presumed other foreign intelligence services, including those of iran, would know. . The website of standpoint, the new magazine published by the social affairs unit, is now live. In his inaugural column, editor daniel johnson highlights the magazines neoconservative credentials when you have a good idea, start a magazine. This, according to our board member gertrude himmelfarb, is the motto of her husband irving kristol. In a long and fruitful life, he has started three. (their son bill has started one, too. ) the first was encounter, which kristol co-founded with the late stephen spender in 1953. It was a transatlantic monthly in which the intellectuals of the free world could debate with one another and their communist counterparts. To write for encounter was a privilege. . Johnson doesnt mention it explicitly, but it is, of course, well-known that encounter was founded and financed by the cia as part of its psychological warfare strategy during the early cold war. According to historian hugh wilford, the magazines greatest achievement was in creating a certain kind of intellectual-cultural milieu in which american and european interests came to appear as if they were identical. . Back in january i suggested that martin brights knocking documentary on ken livingstone was connected to his relationship with policy exchange. Well now livingstone is gone and boris watch informs us that policy exchange is firmly ensconced at city hall during the electoral campaign, boris was aided by dan ritterband, a one-time director of policy exchange, and soon after his victory, nicholas boles, the founder of the organisation, was named as the mayor chief of staff. Boles was, the observer reported, asked to help the new mayor find the right staff , and one of his first appointments was munira mirza - an employee of policy exchange - as director of policy, arts, culture and the creative industries. Ritterband, meanwhile, maintained his position among boris advisers. . Given the way livingstone was red-baited over his socialist action advisers, it is particularly ironic that johnson should have appointed mirza, who was formerly involved with the manifesto club, an organisation associated with the the living marxism revolutionary communist party network. Splintered sunrise has some interesting thoughts on the parallels between socialist action and the rcp. For my money, the classic example of an upwardly mobile marxist or ex-marxist clique is the lovestoneite faction which started out in the american communist party and ended up working with james angleton and the cia. The key lovestoneite figure in britain was roy godson, father of policy exchanges dean godson. The rise of neoconservatism marks to a significant extent, the emergence of a post-marxist movement as a dominant strain on the right. It seems not everyone involved in promoting neoconservatism understands that. . Very interesting thread on sic semper tyrannis about the us investigation into bae the biggest aspect of the bae al yamamah story is the offshore fund. To summarize bae delivered about billion in arms and services to saudi arabia. Bae padded the bills substantially, up to nearly billion. The pad was used, in part, to bribe saudi officials who helped swing the deal, including bandar and prince turki bin-khaled, a top official of the saudi ministry of defense. That part is fully detailed in the guardian and other british coverage of the bae scandal, going back three or four years. What is not covered in the british press is the fact that saudi arabia paid for the arms with oil. The oil was sold on the spot market, and this generated an estimated (in current dollars) 0 billion in cash. I am told by former u. S. Treasury department officials that the funds generated from the oil sales, after bae got their cut, went into offshore bank accounts. . As jamie notes at blood and treasure theres not a lot of evidence offered, but the allegation about the oil fund has come up before. In his book in the public interest, the former chairman of astra, gerald james, highlights a partially blacked out memo that was sent to jeff rooker mp, which suggested some of the funds found their way to the conservative party. . The green ribbon books the hidden hand britain, america and cold war secret intelligence, by richard j. Aldrich. God englishman oliver cromwell and the english revolution by christopher hill writings of william walwynmilton and the english revolution, by christopher hillthe century of revolution, 1603-1714, by christopher hillthe rights of man, by tom painethe vote how it was won, and how it was undermined by paul foot the english, a portrait of a people, by jeremy paxmanthe making of english national identity by krishan kumarthe scottish insurrection of 1820 by peter berresford ellis, seumus mac a ghobhainn blackshirt sir oswald mosley and british fascism, by stephen dorrilhoney trap, by stephen dorril and anthony summers the celtic revolution, by peter berresford ellis this time our constitutional revolution, by anthony barnettpariah misfortunes of the british kingdom, by tom nairngordon brown bard of britishness, by tom nairn cromwell an honourable enemy by tom reillythe narrow ground aspects of ulster 1609-1969, by a. T. Q. Stewartthe year of liberty history of the great irish rebellion of 1798, by thomas pakenham the galtee boy a fenian prison narrative, by john sarsfield caseythe voyage of the catalpa a perilous journey and six irish rebels escape to freedom, by peter stevensjohn devoy catalpa expedition, by philip fennell and marie kingvoyage of the hougomont and life at fremantle, by thomas mccarthy fennellthe fenian diary the hougomont diary of denis b. Cashman, by denis b. Cashman, c. W. Sullivanirish rebel, john devoy and america fight for irish freedom, by terry golwaythe greatest of the fenians john devoy and ireland, by terence dooleyrossa recollections, 1838 to 1898 memoirs of an irish revolutionary, by jeremiah o donovan rossafenian fire the british government plot to assassinate queen victoria, by christy campbellprelude to the easter rising sir roger casement in imperial germany, by reinhard doerries1916 the easter rising, by tim pat coogandesmond rising memoirs 1913 to easter 1916, by desmond fitzgeraldpadraig pearse, the triumph of failure, by ruth dudley edwardsthe life and times of james connolly, by charles desmond greaves principles of freedom, by terence macswineyenduring the most life and death of terence macswiney, by francis j. Costello. I die in a good cause, by sean l ing tans, terror and troubles, kerry real fighting story, by t ryle dwyer. Enchanted by dreams the journal of a revolutionary by joe goodsam maguire the enigmatic man behind ireland most prestigious trophy, by margaret mary walshthe squad the intelligence operations of michael collins, by t ryle dwyer. Michael collins intelligence war the struggle between the british and the ira - 1919-1921, by michael t. Foybloody sunday how michael collins agents assassinated britain secret service in dublin on november 21, 1920, by james gleesonno other law, by florence o donoghuethe real chief, the story of liam lynch, by meda ryanflorence and josephine o donoghue war of independence a destiny that shapes our endguerilla days in ireland, by tom barrytom barry ira freedom fighter, by meda ryanmy fight for irish freedom, by dan breendan breen and the ira, by joe ambroseon another man wound a personal history of ireland war of independence, by ernie o malleyliam mellows and the irish revolution, by c. Desmond greaves. Who who in the irish war of independence, by padraic o farrellthe ira at war 1916-1923, by peter hart. The black and tans, by richard bennett. Peace by ordeal an account, from first-hand sources, of the negotiation and signature of the anglo-irish treaty, 1921, by frank pakenham longfordthe irish civil war, by tim pat coogani signed my death warrant michael collins and the treaty, by t ryle dwyerthe path to freedom articles and speeches, by michael collinsmichael collins a biography, by tim pat cooganmichael collins the man who won the war by t. Ryle dwyermichael collins a life, by james a. Mackay. Michael collins, by margery forestermichael collins and the women in his life, by meda ryanthe day michael collins was shot, by meda ryanmichael collins the secret file by a. T. Q stewartde valera long fellow, long shadow, by tim pat coogana memoir, by terry de valerathe irish republic, by dorothy mcardlein time of war ireland, ulster and the price of neutrality, 1939-45, by robert fisk a u. S. Spy in ireland, by martin s. Quigleywar and an irish town, by eamonn mccann bloody sunday in derry what really happened by eamonn mccann eyewitness bloody sunday by don mullanthe bloody sunday inquiry the families speak outpoint of no return the strike which broke the british in ulster, by robert fisk on the blanket the inside story of the ira prisoner dirty protest, by tim pat cooganten men dead story of the 1981 irish hunger strike, by david beresford the ira, by tim pat cooganthe provisional i. R. A. By patrick bishop and eamonn mallieforty years of controversy, by t ryle dwyerthe troubles ireland ordeal 1969-96, by tim pat coogan. Lost lives the stories of the men, women and children who died as a result of the northern ireland troubles, by david mckittrick, seamus kelters, brian feeney, chris thorntonunfinished business state killings and the quest for truth, by bill rolstonendgame in ireland, by eamonn mallie, david mckittricksinn fein a hundred turbulent years by brian feeney the sdlp and sinn fein, 1970-2001 from alienation to participation in northern ireland, by gerard murray, jonathan tongeireland in the twentieth century, by tim pat cooganwherever green is worn the story of the irish diaspora, by tim pat cooganan irish navvy the diary of an exile by. Error of judgement truth about the birmingham bombings, by chris mullinirish manchester, by alan keeganopen cut, by j. M. O neilli could read the sky, by timothy e. O gradyhide that can, by deirdre o callaghanfaces of nationalism, janus revisited, by tom nairnglobal matrix nationalism, globalism and state-terrorism, by tom nairn, paul james global nations, by tom nairn the modern world-system capitalist agriculture and the origins of the european world-economy in the sixteenth century, by immanuel wallerstein reorient global economy in the asian age by andre gunder frank the black jacobins toussaint l ouverture and the san domingo revolution, by c. L. R. James the scramble for africa, by thomas pakenham the boer war, by thomas pakenham culture and imperialism by edward w. Saidthe fateful triangle united states, israel and the palestinians by noam chomskypity the nation lebanon at war by robert fiskthe great war for civilisation the conquest of the middle east, by robert fisk the market for force the consequences of privatizing security, by deborah d. Avant iraq,inc. A profitable occupation, by pratap chatterjeea history of god by karen armstrong. It has been a strange month in the politics of northern ireland, and last week was no exception. On monday, there was optimism that abreakthrough on the devolution of policing and justice was in the offing. A few days later, talks had collapsed amid recriminations betweengerry adams and peter robinson. Uup leader reg empey was predicting an assembly election would be called by the end of the coming week, agood indicator of the likely timeframe before a definitive breakthrough or breakdown. Over-shadowing the weeks events was a remarkable scoop from slugger otooles eamonn mallie, the veteran journalist who first revealed thebritish governments talks with the ira in the early 1990s. He reported that last sunday, the dup and ulster unionist leadership took part in secret talks inengland with shadow northern ireland secretary owen paterson aimed at unionist unity and copper fastening maximum unionist support for a future conservative government, should there be a hungparliament. The conservatives denied that any discussion of a hung parliament had taken place, stating what this was, was the shadow secretary of state as somebody who could potentially be the actual secretary of state in a matter of weeks,holding private talks with representatives of the two main unionist parties to explore how we might overcome some of the politicalinstabilities at stormont, and to avoid a situation in which we might potentially, should we win the election, inherit a collapsed assemblyand direct rule. . On the face of it, this makes sense, particularly as the dup would want political cover from the tories ulster unionist allies in the eventof a deal with sinn fein. However, a series of intriguing stories undermined this picture. The belfast telegraph reported that the dup wasconsidering giving the ulster unionists a free run in two nationalist-held westminster seats. Rte reported that robinson was considering anoutright alliance between the two parties, and the bbc reported that three consevative parliamentary candidates had resigned. The bbcs mark devenport summed up the situation at the end of the week when questioned about the prospect of sinn fein becoming stormonts largest party, neither unionist leader would rule out their respectiveparties merging into one bloc. Although the conservatives claimed there was no discussion of a hung westminster parliament during the secrettalks in england last sunday, senior dup sources are talking up the significance a single unionist force could have for the parliamentaryarithmetic at westminster. They are pointing out that 12 pro-conservative seats equals 24 in a balanced parliament. Of course that presumesboth north down and fermanagh south tyrone could be counted in such a bloc which is a big assumption. Nevertheless it gives a sense of thekind of calculations now being made. . The location of the talks may be significant hatfield house, the ancestral seat of lord salisbury, who as viscount cranborne was the keyally of ulster unionism in john majors cabinet. His home has hosted a unionist unity conference once before. The uup and dup were both representedat this gathering which took place a few months after the election of tony blair in 1997. It was ostensibly organised at the initiative ofsean ocallaghan, a former provisional ira member who became an advisor to david trimble. Another member of trimbles inner circle, thejournalist eoghan harris, declined to attend because, in the words of dean godson, the event had too much of the air of 1912-style resistanceto home rule, with unionists coalescing with what he saw as reactionary elements on the mainland. Those words found something of an echo this week from sdlp deputy leader alasdair mcdonnell, whose south belfast constituency is the mostvulnerable to a pan-unionist alliance. He accused david cameron of orchestrating a cynical attempt by the tories to grab a few orange votesahead of the forthcoming westminster election. If however,it emboldens the dup to risk the collapse of power-sharing, it will only serve the tuvs agenda. That would attract an extremely negativereaction from nationalists of all shades. It would also raise profound questions for all strands of unionism. The dup has spent forty years building at the expense of traditional big house unionism. How will its electorate take to becoming pawns ona chessboard at the home of a tory grandee? The ulster unionists and the conservatives have spent months talking up their alliance as the beginning of a new non-sectarian unionism thatcan attract catholic voters. If even their own candidates no longer have confidence in that agenda, why should anyone else? David cameron believes he is on the verge of winning broad support from the british people as the responsible choice to lead the nextgovernment. So why is he engaging in what looks uncomfortably like an opportunist manoeuvre for a dozen or so seats?. Events in london in recent weeks have highlighted the growing collusion between american neoconservatives and the european far right in stirring up hatred of muslims. Richard bartholomew has details of a meeting at the george restaurant in east london in august attended by jihad watchs robert spencer and douglas murray of the centre for social cohesion at the invitation of the christian action network. Also invited were the english defence league, the group responsible for a number of recent violent anti-muslim protests. Robert spencer says on his blog that he and murray refused to meet with the edl, and cites adrian morgan as a witness to this version of events. But the presence of morgan, who did meet the edl, is itself evidence of the emerging relationship between the neocons and the far-right. . Just a quick pointer to to my latest piece for spinwatch, web 2. 0 warfare from gaza to iran. It a story i m slightly ambivalent in one sense, because there has clearly been important information coming out of iran on twitter. There have also been a lot of poorly sourced rumours, of which perhaps the most suspicious is the one cited by robert fisk, that the iranian government is using hamas and hezbollah operatives to suppress the demonstrators. . If my story comes across as slightly sceptical about social media, i hope that the links to spinprofiles and neocon europe show some of the potential for using the technology in a more considered way. Indeed, i think there is potential for wikis like these to develop a symbiotic relationship with blogs and social networks, providing a more structure long-term memory for the blogosphere. . The current fiasco over expenses at westminster has created a major opportunity for political reform in britain. You might not know it from the medias focus on celebrity populism, but there has actually been some useful thinking on the left over the past year which addresses the causes of the crisis quite precisely. . Ive been collating some of that conversation for my own reference, and i thought it was worth sharing it here. Please feel free to suggest any other relevant links in the comments. . Tim gore, democratic republicanism. And the eu, next left, 07 02 09. Billy bragg opened the second half of his 2008 st george day celebrationat london barbican theatre with jerusalem. And, as kittyempire put it in her review, the audience responded coyly when billyinvited them to join in by holding above their heads the carefully laidout sheets of red and white paper distributed on the auditorium seatsto form one huge st george cross. Hardly an exercise of leniriefenstahl proportions, but more than enough, apparently, to getobserver readers searching for any excuse not to join in. (a jigsaw state (pdf)). In a previous collection of essays, 2008s imagined nation, perryman explored the possibilities for english national identity in the wake of devolution. A session on english nationalism at last years compass conference provided the inspiration for the new volume, whichbroadens the debate to look at the prospects for all of the nations in the uk. . There is plenty of irish interest with contributions from arthur aughey, gerry adams, inez mccormack and peadar kirby. Adams contribution is largely based on his speech to februarys sinn fein ard fheis, but its interesting to see it set in this context, not least because sinn fein has often been wary of drawing parallels with nationalist movements in the various nations of britain. . Tony blair has cited the precedent as cause for optimism in his role as quartet envoy, while gerry adams called for inclusive negotiations during his visit to gaza last week. The analogy isnt universally welcome, however. . Two recent articles reflect the parameters of the debate. In the new statesman, blairs former chief of staff, jonathan powell, argues that the british governments engagement with irish republicans provides a model for an israeli approach to hamas. In standpoint, douglas murray reiterates a longstanding neoconservative critique of such suggestions, arguing that the claims of the peace process in northern ireland itself are unproven - but they are also unhelpful to the point of uselessness. This dispute is significant given the identity of some of the key actors now emerging on the middle east stage. More over at ourkingdom. . Soviet front groups might have been more effective, but stalinist paranoia made impossible the operational autonomy needed to succeed. To the extent that future practitioners of this type of propaganda have learned lessons from the soviet experience, we may expect that the nonstate groups will be controlled in a more sophisticated manner and their ties to a given state will be less obvious. New methods of spreading propaganda (such as via internet web sites of non-governmental organizations ngos , or specialized email lists) allow a deceiver to reach target audiences via multiple channels. Many of these channels may remain relatively invisible to the public at large. (elements of strategic denial and deception by abram shulsky in strategic denial and deception the twenty-first century challenge, edited by roy godson and james j. Wirtz, transaction books, 2002, p23. ). Shulsky went on to note that despite the medias self-image of hardheaded cynicism, it is relatively vulnerable to this type of manipulation. (p24. ) the suns experience would seem to bear this out. . Time once again to dust off the cobwebs on here and draw together a few threads from my writing over the last couple of weeks. First of all my report for ourkingdom from the sinn fein ard fheis two weeks ago. It was a very interesting time to be in dublin, with 120,000 people marching on the streets against the governments swingeing austerity measures. Gerry adams cannily tapped into the mood by calling for a left-wing alliance with the labour party. . As a result craig is publishing the book online today. The green ribbon is delighted to be one of the many blogs supporting craig by hosting a copy of the file here. You can also support craig (and a range of charities) by picking up a privately-printed hard copy edition from amazon. The book includes an indispensable account of murrays dealings with spicer during the arms to africa affair, as well as his views on spicers role in the peter mcbride case and his subsequent career in iraq. . Heres an interesting postscript to nick cleggs attack on policy exchange for privately briefing against the global peace and unity event in london. One of the organisations cited by policy exchange, the society of americans for national existence, has objected to my characterisation of them in a post at spinwatch. On their blog a sane staffer writes. In this linkthe leftist brits continue to blather on about sane and its deep, secret powers. We continue. To get many visitors from england trying to figure this out. In this blog and in the links, sane is tied to iasps (true, we are indeed closely linked to iasps), but then we are both (iasps and sane)labeled neocons--which merely demonstrates these folks are either illiterate or fools or just dont read or are wholly disingenuous. . One point worth making is that the society of americans for national existence are not just some bunch of marginal crazies. Sane is actually a project of the institute for advanced strategic and political studies. Iasps was where key neoconservatives like richard perle, david wurmser and doug feith worked out the clean break strategy, which many believe formed the basis of the iraq war agenda they went on to pursue in the bush administration. . Neither the quote nor the full article labels either sane or iasps as neocon institutions. Much of what the article does say is specifically accepted by sane. Indeed, sane goes on to provide two articles which elaborate on iasps role in formulating the clean break strategy. The first of these, israel the advanced case of western affliction, states (my emphasis). Anyone who studies that institute document and the voluminous studies and analyses provided by iasps over the years to policy makers and politicians in israel and washington, d. C. , knows that iasps does not advocate democracy as a tool of foreign policy. It doesn t even advocate democracy as a tool of domestic policy. Indeed, the institute founder, loewenberg, has made clear that the drift in this country to democracy and away from a constitutional republic built on a federation of states, themselves layered on a bedrock of judeo-christian values, is very much a continuation of the decline of the west. . Anyone who looks at iraq or jordan and doesn t understand, not just the shia-sunni divide, but the important tribal ones that make claims going back to the terrorist founder freedom fighter nation builder of islam, mohammed, will never come to grips with the geo-strategic realities in that part of the world. The evidence of this claim is before us now in iraq, in afghanistan and in gaza. . The piece also alludes to the role of wurmser, perle et. Al. The institute has of course gained enormous worldwide attention through its pre-iraq war publication titled, a clean break a new strategy for securing the realm, in which it advocated a triangulated strategy between israel, turkey and jordan to remove saddam hussein from power in iraq and become the base of a tripartite power alliance to rule over and secure a strategic stability in the middle east. Because the reports contributors included many of the policy professionals that took up important positions in the bush administration, left-wing types, right-wing types, arabs, and main stream media soon gravitated to this study as the blueprint for the jewish neocon war in iraq. . At this point, sane would seem to have recapitulated most of my original argument. So what are they trying to establish with their rebuttal? I think there are two key points which also emerge in the second article does pat buchanan have a flea problem, a blind spot or both?. First things first. As i have written in the past, the clean break document was not about america at all, but about a strategy those of us at the institute (i was then a trustee and legal counsel) proposed. So the clean break document was aimed at the israeli government, not the us, and strategic security was the goal not spreading democracy. It is worth comparing this with what some of the neoconservatives critics have said. For example, stephen. J sniegoski has written. It should be emphasised that the same people - feith, wurmser, perle - who advised the israeli government on issues issues of national security would later advise the george w. Bush administration to pursue virtually the same policy regarding the middle east. (the transparent cabal, p. 90). Sniegoski went on to note the very same points sane make about the differences between a clean break and the case for war presented in 2003 while neocons present american policy in a very idealistic light, their policy prescriptions for israel, which involved similar concrete policy objective, were devoid of such sentiment. Written in terms of israeli interest, the study made little mention of the benefits to be accrued by israels neighbouring countries, such as the establishment of democracy. (the transparent cabal, p92)the conclusion that sane invites us to draw is that the aims of the israeli geopoliticians of 1996, were unrelated to those of the american idealists of 2003, despite the minor coincidence of their being the same people. The more credible view is that a right-wing likudist analysis of israels geopolitical interests was a key factor in the neoconservative drive to war. The clean break document was not silent on the role of the united states. To anticipate u. S. Reactions and plan ways to manage and constrain those reactions, prime minister netanyahu can formulate the policies and stress themes he favors in language familiar to the americans by tapping into themes of american administrations during the cold war which apply well to israel. . The subsequent emphasis on bringing democracy to iraq was consistent with this principle. In the transition from a clean break to the us invasion of iraq the neocons presented a false identity between american and european interests, and a hard-line likudist conception of israels interests. This is a habit that arguably did not end in 2003, and may explain episodes such as policy exchanges private briefing. If europeans oppose engagement with the muslim brotherhood at home, they are not likely to press for israeli negotiations with hamas. Likewise, if europeans fear muslim population growth at home, they are more likely to accept extreme responses to palestinian population growth. A clean break is not, incidentally, the only evidence that sane and iasps have neoconservative links. Sane president david yerushalmi is general counsel and policy advisor to the center for security policy, a think tank headed by the former assistant secretary of defense, frank gaffney. Gaffneys neoconservative record has been documented by jim lobe, who also revealed earlier this year, that gaffneys sister, devon gaffney cross has been organising pentagon-funded private briefings by fellow neoconservatives for reporters in london and paris. . Well done to nick clegg for becoming the first major party leader to take on policy exchange over its unscrupulous approach to islam. (hat-tip sunny hundal)in a statement carried by the politicshome website on friday, clegg criticised the think-tank over for a privately circulated briefing against the sundays global peace and unity event in london. The policy exchange briefing i have seen seeks to raise alarm over a number of the speakers planning to attend the conference. The accuracy of the allegations is variable, with a notable lack of evidence to support many of the claims. In particular i was appalled to see evidence quoted from the society for american national existence, an organisation which seeks to make the practice of islam illegal, punishable by 20 years in prison. I need hardly point out how illogical it is to attempt to criticise one set of extreme views by citing another. My concern is not limited to the facts in the document, however. Your attempt to raise a boycott of this event by privately briefing against it is bizarre, and underhand behaviour for a think-tank supposedly interested in open public debate. The information you are disseminating is extremely narrow in focus and as a result tars with the brush of extremism the tens of thousands of muslims who will be in attendance. This looks exactly like the kind of activity which led the charity commission to identify a need for greater transparency from policy exchange earlier this year. . The following is a mirror of an original post from craig murray this is the key section from my new book which the publisher is unwilling to publish due to legal threats from schillings libel lawyers, acting on behalf of the mercenary commander tim spicer peter penfold was back in the uk. He was interviewed separately. Both penfold and spicer were interviewed under caution, as suspects for having broken the arms embargo. Then, suddenly, tony blair intervened. On 11 may 1998, without consulting the fco, he gave a statement to journalists. Penfold, blair declared, was a hero. A dictatorship had been successfully overthrown and democracy restored. Penfold had done a superb job in trying to deal with the consequences of the military coup. All this stuff about security council resolutions and sanctions was an overblown hoo-ha. I believe this episode is extremely important. In 1998 the country was still starry-eyed about blair, but with the benefit of hindsight, this intervention points the way towards the disasters of his later years in office. It is extraordinarily wrong for a prime minister to declare that a man is a hero, when customs had questioned him two days earlier under caution over the very matter the prime minister is praising. It shows blair belief that his judgement stood above the law of the land, something that was to occur again on a much bigger scale when he halted the serious fraud office investigation into british aerospace foreign bribes. But of course blairs contempt for un security council resolutions on the arms embargo, and the belief that installing democracy by invasion could trump the trivia of international law, prefigures precisely the disaster of iraq. As with iraq, blair was also conveniently ignoring the fact that sierra leone was left a mess, with kabbah in charge of little more than freetown. In the fco we were astonished by blair intervention, and deeply puzzled. Where had it come from? It differed completely from robin cook views. Who was drafting this stuff for blair to the effect that the un and the law were unimportant? For most of us, this was the very first indication we had of how deep a hold neo-con thinking and military interests had on the blair circle. It was also my first encounter with the phenomenon of foreign policy being dictated by alistair campbell, the prime inister press secretary, the military lobby, of course, was working hard to defend spicer, one of their own. A few days later customs and excise concluded their investigations. A thick dossier, including documentation from the fco, from the raid on sandline offices, and from elsewhere, was sent to the crown prosecution service. The customs and excise team who had interviewed us told me that the recommendation was that both spicer and penfold be prosecuted for breach of the embargo. The dossier was returned to customs and excise from the crown prosecution service the very same day it was sent. It was marked, in effect, for no further action. There would be no prosecution. A customs officer told me bitterly that, given the time between the dossier leaving their offices and the time it was returned, allowing time for both deliveries, it could not have been in the cps more than half an hour. It was a thick dossier. They could not even have read it before turning it down. I felt sick to my stomach at the decision not to prosecute spicer and penfold. So were the customs officers investigating the case, at least two of them called me to commiserate. They had believed they had put together an extremely strong case, and they told me that their submission to the crown prosecution service said so. The decision not to prosecute in the sandline case was the first major instance of the corruption of the legal process that was to be a hallmark of the blair years. Customs and excise were stunned by it. There is no doubt whatsoever that spicer and penfold had worked together to ship weapons to sierra leone in breach of uk law. Security council 1132 had been given effect in british law by an order in council. I had never found in the least credible their assertions that they did not know about it. I had personally told spicer that it would be illegal to ship arms to sierra leone, to any side in the conflict. Penfold claim never to have seen an absolutely key security council resolution about a country to which he was high commissioner is truly extraordinary. But even if they did not know, ignorance of the law is famously no defence in england. Who knows what a jury would have made of this sorry tale of greed, hired killers and blood diamonds. But i have no doubt at all and more importantly nor did the customs officers investigating the case that there was enough there for a viable prosecution. The head of the crown prosecution service when it decided not to prosecute was barbara mills. Barbara mills is a very well-connected woman in new labour circles. She is married to john mills, a former labour councillor in camden. That makes her sister-in-law to tessa jowell, the new labour cabinet minister with a penchant for taking out repeated mortgages on her home, and then paying them off with cash widely alleged to have come from silvio berlusconi, the friend and business colleague of her husband david mills, who according to a bbc documentary by the estimable john sweeney has created offshore companies for known camorra and mafia interests. Tessa jowell and david mills were also both camden labour councillors, and are close to tony blair. Blair is also a great friend of berlusconi, despite the numerous criminal allegations against berlusconi and his long history of political alliances with open fascists. Just to complete the cosy new labour picture, another brother-in-law of barbara mills and tessa jowell is alan rusbridger, editor of the guardian. Did any of those relationships of barbara mills, the director of public prosecutions, affect the crown prosecution service decision not to proceed with the case, and to take that decision in less time than it would have taken them to read the dossier customs and excise sent them? Barbara mills was to resign as director of public prosecutions later that year after being personally criticised in his judgement by a high court judge who ruled against the crown prosecution service for continually failing to prosecute over deaths in police custody. That has not stopped the extremely well connected dame barbara from being appointed to a string of highly paid public positions since then. It is infuriating that, maxwell style, spicer (who has made millions form the war in iraq) is using the prohibitive costs of defending a libel case to intimidate my publisher. The result is that important information i received at first hand, and an account of events to which i am eye-witness, is being repressed, as is an important independent critique of early blair foreign policy. I am not currently confident the book will get published at all - i am not prepared to put out anodyne pap, which hides the truth, under my name. . . But it is pretty firmly in hibernation mode at the moment. In part this it has opened up a number of other opportunities for me that are now taking up most of my time. One of these is an editing gig at opendemocracys ourkingdom blog, which is involved in some very exciting thinking around the future of the uk. My involvement with spinwatch has also deepened to the point where an argument that started out as a response to a slugger thread has led to me starting a ph. D at the university of strathclyde. Both opendemocracy and spinwatch have got some interesting new projects in the works over the next few months. In the meantime, id like to flag up some good posts elsewhere on the themes that ive been neglecting here lately. If you had been following the coverage of tim spicer, tony buckingham and assorted mercenaries here, then you will want to look up craig murrays recent encounters with same. If youre interested in the neocons, london bloggers have produced some great coverage of policy exchanges relationship with boris johnson in recent months. Notable examples can be found at dave hill, liberal conspiracy, boris watch and tory troll. Its also worth noting arun kundnanis article earlier this month, and the guardians profile on policy exchange last friday, which both picked up on dean godsons cold war background. The hiatus here is likely to continue but do please keep an eye out my stuff at ourkingdom and spinwatch. . Last year a supporter of the pfc in the us contacted senator barack obama regarding the controversial pentagon contract with lt col spicer, the former scots guards officer whose troops murdered peter mc bride - see excerpt below from obamas response - today- september 4 is the anniversary of peters murder. We urge supporters to contact senator obama and call on the presidential candidate to keep his promise if elected and cancel the aegis contract!. . As you know, the ceo of aegis defense services tim spicer has been implicated in a variety of human rights abuses around the globe. Given his history, i agree that the united states should consider rescinding its contract with his company. . Jean mc bride (mother of peter) senator obama has appointed a high level advisory panel on irish issues, comprised of seven well known irish american politicans. The group is comprised of senators george mitchell (retired, maine), chris dodd (connecticut), edward kennedy (massachusetts) and pat leahy (vermont), governor martin o malley of maryland and congressmen joe crowley (new york) and richard neal (massachusetts). Again we would urge supporters to contact all or any of the above and call for the aegis contract to be cancelled. Please cc responses to us. See http www. Patfinucanecentre pmcbride mcbindex. Html for extensive background on the aegis private security contract in iraq and spicer role in the case of the murder of 18 year old teenager peter mc bride who was murdered on september 4 1992 by soldiers under his command. . It& ,s about time that i broke radio silence on here, and this certainly merits it. Former diplomat craig murray is having another run-in with schillings, the lawyers who briefly managed to get his website taken down on behalf of uzbek oligarch alisher usmanov. Now they are attempting to block the publication of my new book in the interests of mercenary commander tim spicer, one of those who has made a fortune from the iraq war. It is sad but perhaps predictable that private profits from the illegal iraq war, in which hundreds of thousands of innocent people have died, are providing the funding to try to silence my book. . The road to samarkand sounds as if it will be very interesting. Among the incidents i cover in my new book are the murder of peter mcbride, the aegis trophy video, the papua new guinea coup, the equatorial guinea plot, executive outcomes& , murder of civilians in angola and the arms to africa affair. I do hope that other bloggers will generate another streisand effect through blogging on these subjects. . Spinwatch has just published my latest profile piece, on the euston manifesto group. I doubt the broad thrust of it will come as a huge surprise to anyone. It looks at the groups connections with american social networks around the (apparently now defunct) social democrats usa and the national endowment for democracy, two organisations which played a part in the iran-contra affair. Some more strands in this particular web were highlighted in a recent post from the yorkshire ranter you may recall that the famous document that was meant to show iraq buying uranium from niger originated with the italian secret service, and then appeared in yer dossier, just in time for the americans to start using it in public speeches. It has long been suspected that the meeting in rome was somehow involved in this exercise in policy-laundering, or rather bullshit-laundering. So how did the thing get from italy to the uk? Well, there was harold rhode, also at the meeting, who made it to the december 2002 iraqi opposition conference in london. That may give us some idea. Now thats what i call the exigencies of the service - youve got to meet gems like ledeen, ghorbanifar, chalabi,. . Its hell in the diplomatic, as harry flashman so wisely said. (selling the dummy). David habakkuks latest piece brings us some interesting reflections on the neoconservatives and their various exile clients much more could be said about the sheer oddity of a conceptions of a forward strategy in which conmen like chalabi or berezovsky come to be seen as appropriate vehicles to make other societies liberal and democratic. What cannot be claimed, however, is that these conceptions are simply the fig-leaves of cunning machiavellians. In relation to their own societies, the neoconservatives and their british fellow-travellers may indeed be masterly manipulators. But their propensity to see alien societies through thick ideological filters makes them easy prey for conmen in their dealings with the wider world -- so that the actual outcomes of the strategies they advocate are highly liable to be quite different from those they envisage. (european tribune). As it happens, the us senate intelligence committee released a report this week which neatly illustrates davids argument. It concerns a series of meetings which began in rome in 2001. The meeting included larry franklin (office of assistant secretary of defense, international security affairs), harold rhode (office of net assessments), michael ledeen (former office of the secretary of defense and national security council consultant), manucher ghorbanifar (iranian exile), iranian 1 (iranian living in exile in morocco), iranian 2 (iranian revolutionary guard official), and an unidentified employee of a foreign government. Michael ledeen arranged the meeting with the help of his contacts in italy and the foreign government who provided the meeting place and the logistical support. (partly redacted in original links added). . A later passage in the report considers the counterintelligence implications the most significant matter raised in the counterintelligence field activitys report was the possibility that mr. Ghorbanifar of his associates are being used as agents of a foreign intelligence service to leverage his continuing contact with michael ledeen and others to reach into and influence the highest leveles of the u. S. Government. The report noted that there were multiple occasions where information from mr. Ghorbanifar entered u. S. Government channels via mr. Ledeen. These channels included personnel from the federal bureau of investigation, cia, dod, the white house, and congress. As a result, mr. Ghorbanifar was able to communicate with us government officials via mr. Ledeen without having direct contact. While the report concluded that mr. Ledeen was likely unwitting of any counterintelligence issues related to his relationship with mr. Ghorbanifar, their association was widely known, and therefore it should be presumed other foreign intelligence services, including those of iran, would know. . The website of standpoint, the new magazine published by the social affairs unit, is now live. In his inaugural column, editor daniel johnson highlights the magazines neoconservative credentials when you have a good idea, start a magazine. This, according to our board member gertrude himmelfarb, is the motto of her husband irving kristol. In a long and fruitful life, he has started three. (their son bill has started one, too. ) the first was encounter, which kristol co-founded with the late stephen spender in 1953. It was a transatlantic monthly in which the intellectuals of the free world could debate with one another and their communist counterparts. To write for encounter was a privilege. . Johnson doesnt mention it explicitly, but it is, of course, well-known that encounter was founded and financed by the cia as part of its psychological warfare strategy during the early cold war. According to historian hugh wilford, the magazines greatest achievement was in creating a certain kind of intellectual-cultural milieu in which american and european interests came to appear as if they were identical. . Back in january i suggested that martin brights knocking documentary on ken livingstone was connected to his relationship with policy exchange. Well now livingstone is gone and boris watch informs us that policy exchange is firmly ensconced at city hall during the electoral campaign, boris was aided by dan ritterband, a one-time director of policy exchange, and soon after his victory, nicholas boles, the founder of the organisation, was named as the mayor chief of staff. Boles was, the observer reported, asked to help the new mayor find the right staff , and one of his first appointments was munira mirza - an employee of policy exchange - as director of policy, arts, culture and the creative industries. Ritterband, meanwhile, maintained his position among boris advisers. . Given the way livingstone was red-baited over his socialist action advisers, it is particularly ironic that johnson should have appointed mirza, who was formerly involved with the manifesto club, an organisation associated with the the living marxism revolutionary communist party network. Splintered sunrise has some interesting thoughts on the parallels between socialist action and the rcp. For my money, the classic example of an upwardly mobile marxist or ex-marxist clique is the lovestoneite faction which started out in the american communist party and ended up working with james angleton and the cia. The key lovestoneite figure in britain was roy godson, father of policy exchanges dean godson. The rise of neoconservatism marks to a significant extent, the emergence of a post-marxist movement as a dominant strain on the right. It seems not everyone involved in promoting neoconservatism understands that. . Very interesting thread on sic semper tyrannis about the us investigation into bae the biggest aspect of the bae al yamamah story is the offshore fund. To summarize bae delivered about billion in arms and services to saudi arabia. Bae padded the bills substantially, up to nearly billion. The pad was used, in part, to bribe saudi officials who helped swing the deal, including bandar and prince turki bin-khaled, a top official of the saudi ministry of defense. That part is fully detailed in the guardian and other british coverage of the bae scandal, going back three or four years. What is not covered in the british press is the fact that saudi arabia paid for the arms with oil. The oil was sold on the spot market, and this generated an estimated (in current dollars) 0 billion in cash. I am told by former u. S. Treasury department officials that the funds generated from the oil sales, after bae got their cut, went into offshore bank accounts. . As jamie notes at blood and treasure theres not a lot of evidence offered, but the allegation about the oil fund has come up before. In his book in the public interest, the former chairman of astra, gerald james, highlights a partially blacked out memo that was sent to jeff rooker mp, which suggested some of the funds found their way to the conservative party. . The green ribbon books the hidden hand britain, america and cold war secret intelligence, by richard j. Aldrich. God englishman oliver cromwell and the english revolution by christopher hill writings of william walwynmilton and the english revolution, by christopher hillthe century of revolution, 1603-1714, by christopher hillthe rights of man, by tom painethe vote how it was won, and how it was undermined by paul foot the english, a portrait of a people, by jeremy paxmanthe making of english national identity by krishan kumarthe scottish insurrection of 1820 by peter berresford ellis, seumus mac a ghobhainn blackshirt sir oswald mosley and british fascism, by stephen dorrilhoney trap, by stephen dorril and anthony summers the celtic revolution, by peter berresford ellis this time our constitutional revolution, by anthony barnettpariah misfortunes of the british kingdom, by tom nairngordon brown bard of britishness, by tom nairn cromwell an honourable enemy by tom reillythe narrow ground aspects of ulster 1609-1969, by a. T. Q. Stewartthe year of liberty history of the great irish rebellion of 1798, by thomas pakenham the galtee boy a fenian prison narrative, by john sarsfield caseythe voyage of the catalpa a perilous journey and six irish rebels escape to freedom, by peter stevensjohn devoy catalpa expedition, by philip fennell and marie kingvoyage of the hougomont and life at fremantle, by thomas mccarthy fennellthe fenian diary the hougomont diary of denis b. Cashman, by denis b. Cashman, c. W. Sullivanirish rebel, john devoy and america fight for irish freedom, by terry golwaythe greatest of the fenians john devoy and ireland, by terence dooleyrossa recollections, 1838 to 1898 memoirs of an irish revolutionary, by jeremiah o donovan rossafenian fire the british government plot to assassinate queen victoria, by christy campbellprelude to the easter rising sir roger casement in imperial germany, by reinhard doerries1916 the easter rising, by tim pat coogandesmond rising memoirs 1913 to easter 1916, by desmond fitzgeraldpadraig pearse, the triumph of failure, by ruth dudley edwardsthe life and times of james connolly, by charles desmond greaves principles of freedom, by terence macswineyenduring the most life and death of terence macswiney, by francis j. Costello. I die in a good cause, by sean l ing tans, terror and troubles, kerry real fighting story, by t ryle dwyer. Enchanted by dreams the journal of a revolutionary by joe goodsam maguire the enigmatic man behind ireland most prestigious trophy, by margaret mary walshthe squad the intelligence operations of michael collins, by t ryle dwyer. Michael collins intelligence war the struggle between the british and the ira - 1919-1921, by michael t. Foybloody sunday how michael collins agents assassinated britain secret service in dublin on november 21, 1920, by james gleesonno other law, by florence o donoghuethe real chief, the story of liam lynch, by meda ryanflorence and josephine o donoghue war of independence a destiny that shapes our endguerilla days in ireland, by tom barrytom barry ira freedom fighter, by meda ryanmy fight for irish freedom, by dan breendan breen and the ira, by joe ambroseon another man wound a personal history of ireland war of independence, by ernie o malleyliam mellows and the irish revolution, by c. Desmond greaves. Who who in the irish war of independence, by padraic o farrellthe ira at war 1916-1923, by peter hart. The black and tans, by richard bennett. Peace by ordeal an account, from first-hand sources, of the negotiation and signature of the anglo-irish treaty, 1921, by frank pakenham longfordthe irish civil war, by tim pat coogani signed my death warrant michael collins and the treaty, by t ryle dwyerthe path to freedom articles and speeches, by michael collinsmichael collins a biography, by tim pat cooganmichael collins the man who won the war by t. Ryle dwyermichael collins a life, by james a. Mackay. Michael collins, by margery forestermichael collins and the women in his life, by meda ryanthe day michael collins was shot, by meda ryanmichael collins the secret file by a. T. Q stewartde valera long fellow, long shadow, by tim pat coogana memoir, by terry de valerathe irish republic, by dorothy mcardlein time of war ireland, ulster and the price of neutrality, 1939-45, by robert fisk a u. S. Spy in ireland, by martin s. Quigleywar and an irish town, by eamonn mccann bloody sunday in derry what really happened by eamonn mccann eyewitness bloody sunday by don mullanthe bloody sunday inquiry the families speak outpoint of no return the strike which broke the british in ulster, by robert fisk on the blanket the inside story of the ira prisoner dirty protest, by tim pat cooganten men dead story of the 1981 irish hunger strike, by david beresford the ira, by tim pat cooganthe provisional i. R. A. By patrick bishop and eamonn mallieforty years of controversy, by t ryle dwyerthe troubles ireland ordeal 1969-96, by tim pat coogan. Lost lives the stories of the men, women and children who died as a result of the northern ireland troubles, by david mckittrick, seamus kelters, brian feeney, chris thorntonunfinished business state killings and the quest for truth, by bill rolstonendgame in ireland, by eamonn mallie, david mckittricksinn fein a hundred turbulent years by brian feeney the sdlp and sinn fein, 1970-2001 from alienation to participation in northern ireland, by gerard murray, jonathan tongeireland in the twentieth century, by tim pat cooganwherever green is worn the story of the irish diaspora, by tim pat cooganan irish navvy the diary of an exile by. Error of judgement truth about the birmingham bombings, by chris mullinirish manchester, by alan keeganopen cut, by j. M. O neilli could read the sky, by timothy e. O gradyhide that can, by deirdre o callaghanfaces of nationalism, janus revisited, by tom nairnglobal matrix nationalism, globalism and state-terrorism, by tom nairn, paul james global nations, by tom nairn the modern world-system capitalist agriculture and the origins of the european world-economy in the sixteenth century, by immanuel wallerstein reorient global economy in the asian age by andre gunder frank the black jacobins toussaint l ouverture and the san domingo revolution, by c. L. R. James the scramble for africa, by thomas pakenham the boer war, by thomas pakenham culture and imperialism by edward w. Saidthe fateful triangle united states, israel and the palestinians by noam chomskypity the nation lebanon at war by robert fiskthe great war for civilisation the conquest of the middle east, by robert fisk the market for force the consequences of privatizing security, by deborah d. Avant iraq,inc. A profitable occupation, by pratap chatterjeea history of god by karen armstrong. It has been a strange month in the politics of northern ireland, and last week was no exception. On monday, there was optimism that abreakthrough on the devolution of policing and justice was in the offing. A few days later, talks had collapsed amid recriminations betweengerry adams and peter robinson. Uup leader reg empey was predicting an assembly election would be called by the end of the coming week, agood indicator of the likely timeframe before a definitive breakthrough or breakdown. Over-shadowing the weeks events was a remarkable scoop from slugger otooles eamonn mallie, the veteran journalist who first revealed thebritish governments talks with the ira in the early 1990s. He reported that last sunday, the dup and ulster unionist leadership took part in secret talks inengland with shadow northern ireland secretary owen paterson aimed at unionist unity and copper fastening maximum unionist support for a future conservative government, should there be a hungparliament. The conservatives denied that any discussion of a hung parliament had taken place, stating what this was, was the shadow secretary of state as somebody who could potentially be the actual secretary of state in a matter of weeks,holding private talks with representatives of the two main unionist parties to explore how we might overcome some of the politicalinstabilities at stormont, and to avoid a situation in which we might potentially, should we win the election, inherit a collapsed assemblyand direct rule. . On the face of it, this makes sense, particularly as the dup would want political cover from the tories ulster unionist allies in the eventof a deal with sinn fein. However, a series of intriguing stories undermined this picture. The belfast telegraph reported that the dup wasconsidering giving the ulster unionists a free run in two nationalist-held westminster seats. Rte reported that robinson was considering anoutright alliance between the two parties, and the bbc reported that three consevative parliamentary candidates had resigned. The bbcs mark devenport summed up the situation at the end of the week when questioned about the prospect of sinn fein becoming stormonts largest party, neither unionist leader would rule out their respectiveparties merging into one bloc. Although the conservatives claimed there was no discussion of a hung westminster parliament during the secrettalks in england last sunday, senior dup sources are talking up the significance a single unionist force could have for the parliamentaryarithmetic at westminster. They are pointing out that 12 pro-conservative seats equals 24 in a balanced parliament. Of course that presumesboth north down and fermanagh south tyrone could be counted in such a bloc which is a big assumption. Nevertheless it gives a sense of thekind of calculations now being made. . The location of the talks may be significant hatfield house, the ancestral seat of lord salisbury, who as viscount cranborne was the keyally of ulster unionism in john majors cabinet. His home has hosted a unionist unity conference once before. The uup and dup were both representedat this gathering which took place a few months after the election of tony blair in 1997. It was ostensibly organised at the initiative ofsean ocallaghan, a former provisional ira member who became an advisor to david trimble. Another member of trimbles inner circle, thejournalist eoghan harris, declined to attend because, in the words of dean godson, the event had too much of the air of 1912-style resistanceto home rule, with unionists coalescing with what he saw as reactionary elements on the mainland. Those words found something of an echo this week from sdlp deputy leader alasdair mcdonnell, whose south belfast constituency is the mostvulnerable to a pan-unionist alliance. He accused david cameron of orchestrating a cynical attempt by the tories to grab a few orange votesahead of the forthcoming westminster election. If however,it emboldens the dup to risk the collapse of power-sharing, it will only serve the tuvs agenda. That would attract an extremely negativereaction from nationalists of all shades. It would also raise profound questions for all strands of unionism. The dup has spent forty years building at the expense of traditional big house unionism. How will its electorate take to becoming pawns ona chessboard at the home of a tory grandee? The ulster unionists and the conservatives have spent months talking up their alliance as the beginning of a new non-sectarian unionism thatcan attract catholic voters. If even their own candidates no longer have confidence in that agenda, why should anyone else? David cameron believes he is on the verge of winning broad support from the british people as the responsible choice to lead the nextgovernment. So why is he engaging in what looks uncomfortably like an opportunist manoeuvre for a dozen or so seats?. Events in london in recent weeks have highlighted the growing collusion between american neoconservatives and the european far right in stirring up hatred of muslims. Richard bartholomew has details of a meeting at the george restaurant in east london in august attended by jihad watchs robert spencer and douglas murray of the centre for social cohesion at the invitation of the christian action network. Also invited were the english defence league, the group responsible for a number of recent violent anti-muslim protests. Robert spencer says on his blog that he and murray refused to meet with the edl, and cites adrian morgan as a witness to this version of events. But the presence of morgan, who did meet the edl, is itself evidence of the emerging relationship between the neocons and the far-right. . Just a quick pointer to to my latest piece for spinwatch, web 2. 0 warfare from gaza to iran. It a story i m slightly ambivalent in one sense, because there has clearly been important information coming out of iran on twitter. There have also been a lot of poorly sourced rumours, of which perhaps the most suspicious is the one cited by robert fisk, that the iranian government is using hamas and hezbollah operatives to suppress the demonstrators. . If my story comes across as slightly sceptical about social media, i hope that the links to spinprofiles and neocon europe show some of the potential for using the technology in a more considered way. Indeed, i think there is potential for wikis like these to develop a symbiotic relationship with blogs and social networks, providing a more structure long-term memory for the blogosphere. . The current fiasco over expenses at westminster has created a major opportunity for political reform in britain. You might not know it from the medias focus on celebrity populism, but there has actually been some useful thinking on the left over the past year which addresses the causes of the crisis quite precisely. . Ive been collating some of that conversation for my own reference, and i thought it was worth sharing it here. Please feel free to suggest any other relevant links in the comments. . Tim gore, democratic republicanism. And the eu, next left, 07 02 09. Billy bragg opened the second half of his 2008 st george day celebrationat london barbican theatre with jerusalem. And, as kittyempire put it in her review, the audience responded coyly when billyinvited them to join in by holding above their heads the carefully laidout sheets of red and white paper distributed on the auditorium seatsto form one huge st george cross. Hardly an exercise of leniriefenstahl proportions, but more than enough, apparently, to getobserver readers searching for any excuse not to join in. (a jigsaw state (pdf)). In a previous collection of essays, 2008s imagined nation, perryman explored the possibilities for english national identity in the wake of devolution. A session on english nationalism at last years compass conference provided the inspiration for the new volume, whichbroadens the debate to look at the prospects for all of the nations in the uk. . There is plenty of irish interest with contributions from arthur aughey, gerry adams, inez mccormack and peadar kirby. Adams contribution is largely based on his speech to februarys sinn fein ard fheis, but its interesting to see it set in this context, not least because sinn fein has often been wary of drawing parallels with nationalist movements in the various nations of britain. . Tony blair has cited the precedent as cause for optimism in his role as quartet envoy, while gerry adams called for inclusive negotiations during his visit to gaza last week. The analogy isnt universally welcome, however. . Two recent articles reflect the parameters of the debate. In the new statesman, blairs former chief of staff, jonathan powell, argues that the british governments engagement with irish republicans provides a model for an israeli approach to hamas. In standpoint, douglas murray reiterates a longstanding neoconservative critique of such suggestions, arguing that the claims of the peace process in northern ireland itself are unproven - but they are also unhelpful to the point of uselessness. This dispute is significant given the identity of some of the key actors now emerging on the middle east stage. More over at ourkingdom. . Soviet front groups might have been more effective, but stalinist paranoia made impossible the operational autonomy needed to succeed. To the extent that future practitioners of this type of propaganda have learned lessons from the soviet experience, we may expect that the nonstate groups will be controlled in a more sophisticated manner and their ties to a given state will be less obvious. New methods of spreading propaganda (such as via internet web sites of non-governmental organizations ngos , or specialized email lists) allow a deceiver to reach target audiences via multiple channels. Many of these channels may remain relatively invisible to the public at large. (elements of strategic denial and deception by abram shulsky in strategic denial and deception the twenty-first century challenge, edited by roy godson and james j. Wirtz, transaction books, 2002, p23. ). Shulsky went on to note that despite the medias self-image of hardheaded cynicism, it is relatively vulnerable to this type of manipulation. (p24. ) the suns experience would seem to bear this out. . Time once again to dust off the cobwebs on here and draw together a few threads from my writing over the last couple of weeks. First of all my report for ourkingdom from the sinn fein ard fheis two weeks ago. It was a very interesting time to be in dublin, with 120,000 people marching on the streets against the governments swingeing austerity measures. Gerry adams cannily tapped into the mood by calling for a left-wing alliance with the labour party. . As a result craig is publishing the book online today. The green ribbon is delighted to be one of the many blogs supporting craig by hosting a copy of the file here. You can also support craig (and a range of charities) by picking up a privately-printed hard copy edition from amazon. The book includes an indispensable account of murrays dealings with spicer during the arms to africa affair, as well as his views on spicers role in the peter mcbride case and his subsequent career in iraq. . Heres an interesting postscript to nick cleggs attack on policy exchange for privately briefing against the global peace and unity event in london. One of the organisations cited by policy exchange, the society of americans for national existence, has objected to my characterisation of them in a post at spinwatch. On their blog a sane staffer writes. In this linkthe leftist brits continue to blather on about sane and its deep, secret powers. We continue. To get many visitors from england trying to figure this out. In this blog and in the links, sane is tied to iasps (true, we are indeed closely linked to iasps), but then we are both (iasps and sane)labeled neocons--which merely demonstrates these folks are either illiterate or fools or just dont read or are wholly disingenuous. . One point worth making is that the society of americans for national existence are not just some bunch of marginal crazies. Sane is actually a project of the institute for advanced strategic and political studies. Iasps was where key neoconservatives like richard perle, david wurmser and doug feith worked out the clean break strategy, which many believe formed the basis of the iraq war agenda they went on to pursue in the bush administration. . Neither the quote nor the full article labels either sane or iasps as neocon institutions. Much of what the article does say is specifically accepted by sane. Indeed, sane goes on to provide two articles which elaborate on iasps role in formulating the clean break strategy. The first of these, israel the advanced case of western affliction, states (my emphasis). Anyone who studies that institute document and the voluminous studies and analyses provided by iasps over the years to policy makers and politicians in israel and washington, d. C. , knows that iasps does not advocate democracy as a tool of foreign policy. It doesn t even advocate democracy as a tool of domestic policy. Indeed, the institute founder, loewenberg, has made clear that the drift in this country to democracy and away from a constitutional republic built on a federation of states, themselves layered on a bedrock of judeo-christian values, is very much a continuation of the decline of the west. . Anyone who looks at iraq or jordan and doesn t understand, not just the shia-sunni divide, but the important tribal ones that make claims going back to the terrorist founder freedom fighter nation builder of islam, mohammed, will never come to grips with the geo-strategic realities in that part of the world. The evidence of this claim is before us now in iraq, in afghanistan and in gaza. . The piece also alludes to the role of wurmser, perle et. Al. The institute has of course gained enormous worldwide attention through its pre-iraq war publication titled, a clean break a new strategy for securing the realm, in which it advocated a triangulated strategy between israel, turkey and jordan to remove saddam hussein from power in iraq and become the base of a tripartite power alliance to rule over and secure a strategic stability in the middle east. Because the reports contributors included many of the policy professionals that took up important positions in the bush administration, left-wing types, right-wing types, arabs, and main stream media soon gravitated to this study as the blueprint for the jewish neocon war in iraq. . At this point, sane would seem to have recapitulated most of my original argument. So what are they trying to establish with their rebuttal? I think there are two key points which also emerge in the second article does pat buchanan have a flea problem, a blind spot or both?. First things first. As i have written in the past, the clean break document was not about america at all, but about a strategy those of us at the institute (i was then a trustee and legal counsel) proposed. So the clean break document was aimed at the israeli government, not the us, and strategic security was the goal not spreading democracy. It is worth comparing this with what some of the neoconservatives critics have said. For example, stephen. J sniegoski has written. It should be emphasised that the same people - feith, wurmser, perle - who advised the israeli government on issues issues of national security would later advise the george w. Bush administration to pursue virtually the same policy regarding the middle east. (the transparent cabal, p. 90). Sniegoski went on to note the very same points sane make about the differences between a clean break and the case for war presented in 2003 while neocons present american policy in a very idealistic light, their policy prescriptions for israel, which involved similar concrete policy objective, were devoid of such sentiment. Written in terms of israeli interest, the study made little mention of the benefits to be accrued by israels neighbouring countries, such as the establishment of democracy. (the transparent cabal, p92)the conclusion that sane invites us to draw is that the aims of the israeli geopoliticians of 1996, were unrelated to those of the american idealists of 2003, despite the minor coincidence of their being the same people. The more credible view is that a right-wing likudist analysis of israels geopolitical interests was a key factor in the neoconservative drive to war. The clean break document was not silent on the role of the united states. To anticipate u. S. Reactions and plan ways to manage and constrain those reactions, prime minister netanyahu can formulate the policies and stress themes he favors in language familiar to the americans by tapping into themes of american administrations during the cold war which apply well to israel. . The subsequent emphasis on bringing democracy to iraq was consistent with this principle. In the transition from a clean break to the us invasion of iraq the neocons presented a false identity between american and european interests, and a hard-line likudist conception of israels interests. This is a habit that arguably did not end in 2003, and may explain episodes such as policy exchanges private briefing. If europeans oppose engagement with the muslim brotherhood at home, they are not likely to press for israeli negotiations with hamas. Likewise, if europeans fear muslim population growth at home, they are more likely to accept extreme responses to palestinian population growth. A clean break is not, incidentally, the only evidence that sane and iasps have neoconservative links. Sane president david yerushalmi is general counsel and policy advisor to the center for security policy, a think tank headed by the former assistant secretary of defense, frank gaffney. Gaffneys neoconservative record has been documented by jim lobe, who also revealed earlier this year, that gaffneys sister, devon gaffney cross has been organising pentagon-funded private briefings by fellow neoconservatives for reporters in london and paris. . Well done to nick clegg for becoming the first major party leader to take on policy exchange over its unscrupulous approach to islam. (hat-tip sunny hundal)in a statement carried by the politicshome website on friday, clegg criticised the think-tank over for a privately circulated briefing against the sundays global peace and unity event in london. The policy exchange briefing i have seen seeks to raise alarm over a number of the speakers planning to attend the conference. The accuracy of the allegations is variable, with a notable lack of evidence to support many of the claims. In particular i was appalled to see evidence quoted from the society for american national existence, an organisation which seeks to make the practice of islam illegal, punishable by 20 years in prison. I need hardly point out how illogical it is to attempt to criticise one set of extreme views by citing another. My concern is not limited to the facts in the document, however. Your attempt to raise a boycott of this event by privately briefing against it is bizarre, and underhand behaviour for a think-tank supposedly interested in open public debate. The information you are disseminating is extremely narrow in focus and as a result tars with the brush of extremism the tens of thousands of muslims who will be in attendance. This looks exactly like the kind of activity which led the charity commission to identify a need for greater transparency from policy exchange earlier this year. . The following is a mirror of an original post from craig murray this is the key section from my new book which the publisher is unwilling to publish due to legal threats from schillings libel lawyers, acting on behalf of the mercenary commander tim spicer peter penfold was back in the uk. He was interviewed separately. Both penfold and spicer were interviewed under caution, as suspects for having broken the arms embargo. Then, suddenly, tony blair intervened. On 11 may 1998, without consulting the fco, he gave a statement to journalists. Penfold, blair declared, was a hero. A dictatorship had been successfully overthrown and democracy restored. Penfold had done a superb job in trying to deal with the consequences of the military coup. All this stuff about security council resolutions and sanctions was an overblown hoo-ha. I believe this episode is extremely important. In 1998 the country was still starry-eyed about blair, but with the benefit of hindsight, this intervention points the way towards the disasters of his later years in office. It is extraordinarily wrong for a prime minister to declare that a man is a hero, when customs had questioned him two days earlier under caution over the very matter the prime minister is praising. It shows blair belief that his judgement stood above the law of the land, something that was to occur again on a much bigger scale when he halted the serious fraud office investigation into british aerospace foreign bribes. But of course blairs contempt for un security council resolutions on the arms embargo, and the belief that installing democracy by invasion could trump the trivia of international law, prefigures precisely the disaster of iraq. As with iraq, blair was also conveniently ignoring the fact that sierra leone was left a mess, with kabbah in charge of little more than freetown. In the fco we were astonished by blair intervention, and deeply puzzled. Where had it come from? It differed completely from robin cook views. Who was drafting this stuff for blair to the effect that the un and the law were unimportant? For most of us, this was the very first indication we had of how deep a hold neo-con thinking and military interests had on the blair circle. It was also my first encounter with the phenomenon of foreign policy being dictated by alistair campbell, the prime inister press secretary, the military lobby, of course, was working hard to defend spicer, one of their own. A few days later customs and excise concluded their investigations. A thick dossier, including documentation from the fco, from the raid on sandline offices, and from elsewhere, was sent to the crown prosecution service. The customs and excise team who had interviewed us told me that the recommendation was that both spicer and penfold be prosecuted for breach of the embargo. The dossier was returned to customs and excise from the crown prosecution service the very same day it was sent. It was marked, in effect, for no further action. There would be no prosecution. A customs officer told me bitterly that, given the time between the dossier leaving their offices and the time it was returned, allowing time for both deliveries, it could not have been in the cps more than half an hour. It was a thick dossier. They could not even have read it before turning it down. I felt sick to my stomach at the decision not to prosecute spicer and penfold. So were the customs officers investigating the case, at least two of them called me to commiserate. They had believed they had put together an extremely strong case, and they told me that their submission to the crown prosecution service said so. The decision not to prosecute in the sandline case was the first major instance of the corruption of the legal process that was to be a hallmark of the blair years. Customs and excise were stunned by it. There is no doubt whatsoever that spicer and penfold had worked together to ship weapons to sierra leone in breach of uk law. Security council 1132 had been given effect in british law by an order in council. I had never found in the least credible their assertions that they did not know about it. I had personally told spicer that it would be illegal to ship arms to sierra leone, to any side in the conflict. Penfold claim never to have seen an absolutely key security council resolution about a country to which he was high commissioner is truly extraordinary. But even if they did not know, ignorance of the law is famously no defence in england. Who knows what a jury would have made of this sorry tale of greed, hired killers and blood diamonds. But i have no doubt at all and more importantly nor did the customs officers investigating the case that there was enough there for a viable prosecution. The head of the crown prosecution service when it decided not to prosecute was barbara mills. Barbara mills is a very well-connected woman in new labour circles. She is married to john mills, a former labour councillor in camden. That makes her sister-in-law to tessa jowell, the new labour cabinet minister with a penchant for taking out repeated mortgages on her home, and then paying them off with cash widely alleged to have come from silvio berlusconi, the friend and business colleague of her husband david mills, who according to a bbc documentary by the estimable john sweeney has created offshore companies for known camorra and mafia interests. Tessa jowell and david mills were also both camden labour councillors, and are close to tony blair. Blair is also a great friend of berlusconi, despite the numerous criminal allegations against berlusconi and his long history of political alliances with open fascists. Just to complete the cosy new labour picture, another brother-in-law of barbara mills and tessa jowell is alan rusbridger, editor of the guardian. Did any of those relationships of barbara mills, the director of public prosecutions, affect the crown prosecution service decision not to proceed with the case, and to take that decision in less time than it would have taken them to read the dossier customs and excise sent them? Barbara mills was to resign as director of public prosecutions later that year after being personally criticised in his judgement by a high court judge who ruled against the crown prosecution service for continually failing to prosecute over deaths in police custody. That has not stopped the extremely well connected dame barbara from being appointed to a string of highly paid public positions since then. It is infuriating that, maxwell style, spicer (who has made millions form the war in iraq) is using the prohibitive costs of defending a libel case to intimidate my publisher. The result is that important information i received at first hand, and an account of events to which i am eye-witness, is being repressed, as is an important independent critique of early blair foreign policy. I am not currently confident the book will get published at all - i am not prepared to put out anodyne pap, which hides the truth, under my name. . . But it is pretty firmly in hibernation mode at the moment. In part this it has opened up a number of other opportunities for me that are now taking up most of my time. One of these is an editing gig at opendemocracys ourkingdom blog, which is involved in some very exciting thinking around the future of the uk. My involvement with spinwatch has also deepened to the point where an argument that started out as a response to a slugger thread has led to me starting a ph. D at the university of strathclyde. Both opendemocracy and spinwatch have got some interesting new projects in the works over the next few months. In the meantime, id like to flag up some good posts elsewhere on the themes that ive been neglecting here lately. If you had been following the coverage of tim spicer, tony buckingham and assorted mercenaries here, then you will want to look up craig murrays recent encounters with same. If youre interested in the neocons, london bloggers have produced some great coverage of policy exchanges relationship with boris johnson in recent months. Notable examples can be found at dave hill, liberal conspiracy, boris watch and tory troll. Its also worth noting arun kundnanis article earlier this month, and the guardians profile on policy exchange last friday, which both picked up on dean godsons cold war background. The hiatus here is likely to continue but do please keep an eye out my stuff at ourkingdom and spinwatch. . Last year a supporter of the pfc in the us contacted senator barack obama regarding the controversial pentagon contract with lt col spicer, the former scots guards officer whose troops murdered peter mc bride - see excerpt below from obamas response - today- september 4 is the anniversary of peters murder. We urge supporters to contact senator obama and call on the presidential candidate to keep his promise if elected and cancel the aegis contract!. . As you know, the ceo of aegis defense services tim spicer has been implicated in a variety of human rights abuses around the globe. Given his history, i agree that the united states should consider rescinding its contract with his company. . Jean mc bride (mother of peter) senator obama has appointed a high level advisory panel on irish issues, comprised of seven well known irish american politicans. The group is comprised of senators george mitchell (retired, maine), chris dodd (connecticut), edward kennedy (massachusetts) and pat leahy (vermont), governor martin o malley of maryland and congressmen joe crowley (new york) and richard neal (massachusetts). Again we would urge supporters to contact all or any of the above and call for the aegis contract to be cancelled. Please cc responses to us. See http www. Patfinucanecentre pmcbride mcbindex. Html for extensive background on the aegis private security contract in iraq and spicer role in the case of the murder of 18 year old teenager peter mc bride who was murdered on september 4 1992 by soldiers under his command. . It& ,s about time that i broke radio silence on here, and this certainly merits it. Former diplomat craig murray is having another run-in with schillings, the lawyers who briefly managed to get his website taken down on behalf of uzbek oligarch alisher usmanov. Now they are attempting to block the publication of my new book in the interests of mercenary commander tim spicer, one of those who has made a fortune from the iraq war. It is sad but perhaps predictable that private profits from the illegal iraq war, in which hundreds of thousands of innocent people have died, are providing the funding to try to silence my book. . The road to samarkand sounds as if it will be very interesting. Among the incidents i cover in my new book are the murder of peter mcbride, the aegis trophy video, the papua new guinea coup, the equatorial guinea plot, executive outcomes& , murder of civilians in angola and the arms to africa affair. I do hope that other bloggers will generate another streisand effect through blogging on these subjects. . Spinwatch has just published my latest profile piece, on the euston manifesto group. I doubt the broad thrust of it will come as a huge surprise to anyone. It looks at the groups connections with american social networks around the (apparently now defunct) social democrats usa and the national endowment for democracy, two organisations which played a part in the iran-contra affair. Some more strands in this particular web were highlighted in a recent post from the yorkshire ranter you may recall that the famous document that was meant to show iraq buying uranium from niger originated with the italian secret service, and then appeared in yer dossier, just in time for the americans to start using it in public speeches. It has long been suspected that the meeting in rome was somehow involved in this exercise in policy-laundering, or rather bullshit-laundering. So how did the thing get from italy to the uk? Well, there was harold rhode, also at the meeting, who made it to the december 2002 iraqi opposition conference in london. That may give us some idea. Now thats what i call the exigencies of the service - youve got to meet gems like ledeen, ghorbanifar, chalabi,. . Its hell in the diplomatic, as harry flashman so wisely said. (selling the dummy). David habakkuks latest piece brings us some interesting reflections on the neoconservatives and their various exile clients much more could be said about the sheer oddity of a conceptions of a forward strategy in which conmen like chalabi or berezovsky come to be seen as appropriate vehicles to make other societies liberal and democratic. What cannot be claimed, however, is that these conceptions are simply the fig-leaves of cunning machiavellians. In relation to their own societies, the neoconservatives and their british fellow-travellers may indeed be masterly manipulators. But their propensity to see alien societies through thick ideological filters makes them easy prey for conmen in their dealings with the wider world -- so that the actual outcomes of the strategies they advocate are highly liable to be quite different from those they envisage. (european tribune). As it happens, the us senate intelligence committee released a report this week which neatly illustrates davids argument. It concerns a series of meetings which began in rome in 2001. The meeting included larry franklin (office of assistant secretary of defense, international security affairs), harold rhode (office of net assessments), michael ledeen (former office of the secretary of defense and national security council consultant), manucher ghorbanifar (iranian exile), iranian 1 (iranian living in exile in morocco), iranian 2 (iranian revolutionary guard official), and an unidentified employee of a foreign government. Michael ledeen arranged the meeting with the help of his contacts in italy and the foreign government who provided the meeting place and the logistical support. (partly redacted in original links added). . A later passage in the report considers the counterintelligence implications the most significant matter raised in the counterintelligence field activitys report was the possibility that mr. Ghorbanifar of his associates are being used as agents of a foreign intelligence service to leverage his continuing contact with michael ledeen and others to reach into and influence the highest leveles of the u. S. Government. The report noted that there were multiple occasions where information from mr. Ghorbanifar entered u. S. Government channels via mr. Ledeen. These channels included personnel from the federal bureau of investigation, cia, dod, the white house, and congress. As a result, mr. Ghorbanifar was able to communicate with us government officials via mr. Ledeen without having direct contact. While the report concluded that mr. Ledeen was likely unwitting of any counterintelligence issues related to his relationship with mr. Ghorbanifar, their association was widely known, and therefore it should be presumed other foreign intelligence services, including those of iran, would know. . The website of standpoint, the new magazine published by the social affairs unit, is now live. In his inaugural column, editor daniel johnson highlights the magazines neoconservative credentials when you have a good idea, start a magazine. This, according to our board member gertrude himmelfarb, is the motto of her husband irving kristol. In a long and fruitful life, he has started three. (their son bill has started one, too. ) the first was encounter, which kristol co-founded with the late stephen spender in 1953. It was a transatlantic monthly in which the intellectuals of the free world could debate with one another and their communist counterparts. To write for encounter was a privilege. . Johnson doesnt mention it explicitly, but it is, of course, well-known that encounter was founded and financed by the cia as part of its psychological warfare strategy during the early cold war. According to historian hugh wilford, the magazines greatest achievement was in creating a certain kind of intellectual-cultural milieu in which american and european interests came to appear as if they were identical. . Back in january i suggested that martin brights knocking documentary on ken livingstone was connected to his relationship with policy exchange. Well now livingstone is gone and boris watch informs us that policy exchange is firmly ensconced at city hall during the electoral campaign, boris was aided by dan ritterband, a one-time director of policy exchange, and soon after his victory, nicholas boles, the founder of the organisation, was named as the mayor chief of staff. Boles was, the observer reported, asked to help the new mayor find the right staff , and one of his first appointments was munira mirza - an employee of policy exchange - as director of policy, arts, culture and the creative industries. Ritterband, meanwhile, maintained his position among boris advisers. . Given the way livingstone was red-baited over his socialist action advisers, it is particularly ironic that johnson should have appointed mirza, who was formerly involved with the manifesto club, an organisation associated with the the living marxism revolutionary communist party network. Splintered sunrise has some interesting thoughts on the parallels between socialist action and the rcp. For my money, the classic example of an upwardly mobile marxist or ex-marxist clique is the lovestoneite faction which started out in the american communist party and ended up working with james angleton and the cia. The key lovestoneite figure in britain was roy godson, father of policy exchanges dean godson. The rise of neoconservatism marks to a significant extent, the emergence of a post-marxist movement as a dominant strain on the right. It seems not everyone involved in promoting neoconservatism understands that. . Very interesting thread on sic semper tyrannis about the us investigation into bae the biggest aspect of the bae al yamamah story is the offshore fund. To summarize bae delivered about billion in arms and services to saudi arabia. Bae padded the bills substantially, up to nearly billion. The pad was used, in part, to bribe saudi officials who helped swing the deal, including bandar and prince turki bin-khaled, a top official of the saudi ministry of defense. That part is fully detailed in the guardian and other british coverage of the bae scandal, going back three or four years. What is not covered in the british press is the fact that saudi arabia paid for the arms with oil. The oil was sold on the spot market, and this generated an estimated (in current dollars) 0 billion in cash. I am told by former u. S. Treasury department officials that the funds generated from the oil sales, after bae got their cut, went into offshore bank accounts. . As jamie notes at blood and treasure theres not a lot of evidence offered, but the allegation about the oil fund has come up before. In his book in the public interest, the former chairman of astra, gerald james, highlights a partially blacked out memo that was sent to jeff rooker mp, which suggested some of the funds found their way to the conservative party. . The green ribbon books the hidden hand britain, america and cold war secret intelligence, by richard j. Aldrich. God englishman oliver cromwell and the english revolution by christopher hill writings of william walwynmilton and the english revolution, by christopher hillthe century of revolution, 1603-1714, by christopher hillthe rights of man, by tom painethe vote how it was won, and how it was undermined by paul foot the english, a portrait of a people, by jeremy paxmanthe making of english national identity by krishan kumarthe scottish insurrection of 1820 by peter berresford ellis, seumus mac a ghobhainn blackshirt sir oswald mosley and british fascism, by stephen dorrilhoney trap, by stephen dorril and anthony summers the celtic revolution, by peter berresford ellis this time our constitutional revolution, by anthony barnettpariah misfortunes of the british kingdom, by tom nairngordon brown bard of britishness, by tom nairn cromwell an honourable enemy by tom reillythe narrow ground aspects of ulster 1609-1969, by a. T. Q. Stewartthe year of liberty history of the great irish rebellion of 1798, by thomas pakenham the galtee boy a fenian prison narrative, by john sarsfield caseythe voyage of the catalpa a perilous journey and six irish rebels escape to freedom, by peter stevensjohn devoy catalpa expedition, by philip fennell and marie kingvoyage of the hougomont and life at fremantle, by thomas mccarthy fennellthe fenian diary the hougomont diary of denis b. Cashman, by denis b. Cashman, c. W. Sullivanirish rebel, john devoy and america fight for irish freedom, by terry golwaythe greatest of the fenians john devoy and ireland, by terence dooleyrossa recollections, 1838 to 1898 memoirs of an irish revolutionary, by jeremiah o donovan rossafenian fire the british government plot to assassinate queen victoria, by christy campbellprelude to the easter rising sir roger casement in imperial germany, by reinhard doerries1916 the easter rising, by tim pat coogandesmond rising memoirs 1913 to easter 1916, by desmond fitzgeraldpadraig pearse, the triumph of failure, by ruth dudley edwardsthe life and times of james connolly, by charles desmond greaves principles of freedom, by terence macswineyenduring the most life and death of terence macswiney, by francis j. Costello. I die in a good cause, by sean l ing tans, terror and troubles, kerry real fighting story, by t ryle dwyer. Enchanted by dreams the journal of a revolutionary by joe goodsam maguire the enigmatic man behind ireland most prestigious trophy, by margaret mary walshthe squad the intelligence operations of michael collins, by t ryle dwyer. Michael collins intelligence war the struggle between the british and the ira - 1919-1921, by michael t. Foybloody sunday how michael collins agents assassinated britain secret service in dublin on november 21, 1920, by james gleesonno other law, by florence o donoghuethe real chief, the story of liam lynch, by meda ryanflorence and josephine o donoghue war of independence a destiny that shapes our endguerilla days in ireland, by tom barrytom barry ira freedom fighter, by meda ryanmy fight for irish freedom, by dan breendan breen and the ira, by joe ambroseon another man wound a personal history of ireland war of independence, by ernie o malleyliam mellows and the irish revolution, by c. Desmond greaves. Who who in the irish war of independence, by padraic o farrellthe ira at war 1916-1923, by peter hart. The black and tans, by richard bennett. Peace by ordeal an account, from first-hand sources, of the negotiation and signature of the anglo-irish treaty, 1921, by frank pakenham longfordthe irish civil war, by tim pat coogani signed my death warrant michael collins and the treaty, by t ryle dwyerthe path to freedom articles and speeches, by michael collinsmichael collins a biography, by tim pat cooganmichael collins the man who won the war by t. Ryle dwyermichael collins a life, by james a. Mackay. Michael collins, by margery forestermichael collins and the women in his life, by meda ryanthe day michael collins was shot, by meda ryanmichael collins the secret file by a. T. Q stewartde valera long fellow, long shadow, by tim pat coogana memoir, by terry de valerathe irish republic, by dorothy mcardlein time of war ireland, ulster and the price of neutrality, 1939-45, by robert fisk a u. S. Spy in ireland, by martin s. Quigleywar and an irish town, by eamonn mccann bloody sunday in derry what really happened by eamonn mccann eyewitness bloody sunday by don mullanthe bloody sunday inquiry the families speak outpoint of no return the strike which broke the british in ulster, by robert fisk on the blanket the inside story of the ira prisoner dirty protest, by tim pat cooganten men dead story of the 1981 irish hunger strike, by david beresford the ira, by tim pat cooganthe provisional i. R. A. By patrick bishop and eamonn mallieforty years of controversy, by t ryle dwyerthe troubles ireland ordeal 1969-96, by tim pat coogan. Lost lives the stories of the men, women and children who died as a result of the northern ireland troubles, by david mckittrick, seamus kelters, brian feeney, chris thorntonunfinished business state killings and the quest for truth, by bill rolstonendgame in ireland, by eamonn mallie, david mckittricksinn fein a hundred turbulent years by brian feeney the sdlp and sinn fein, 1970-2001 from alienation to participation in northern ireland, by gerard murray, jonathan tongeireland in the twentieth century, by tim pat cooganwherever green is worn the story of the irish diaspora, by tim pat cooganan irish navvy the diary of an exile by. Error of judgement truth about the birmingham bombings, by chris mullinirish manchester, by alan keeganopen cut, by j. M. O neilli could read the sky, by timothy e. O gradyhide that can, by deirdre o callaghanfaces of nationalism, janus revisited, by tom nairnglobal matrix nationalism, globalism and state-terrorism, by tom nairn, paul james global nations, by tom nairn the modern world-system capitalist agriculture and the origins of the european world-economy in the sixteenth century, by immanuel wallerstein reorient global economy in the asian age by andre gunder frank the black jacobins toussaint l ouverture and the san domingo revolution, by c. L. R. James the scramble for africa, by thomas pakenham the boer war, by thomas pakenham culture and imperialism by edward w. Saidthe fateful triangle united states, israel and the palestinians by noam chomskypity the nation lebanon at war by robert fiskthe great war for civilisation the conquest of the middle east, by robert fisk the market for force the consequences of privatizing security, by deborah d. Avant iraq,inc. A profitable occupation, by pratap chatterjeea history of god by karen armstrong. It has been a strange month in the politics of northern ireland, and last week was no exception. On monday, there was optimism that abreakthrough on the devolution of policing and justice was in the offing. A few days later, talks had collapsed amid recriminations betweengerry adams and peter robinson. Uup leader reg empey was predicting an assembly election would be called by the end of the coming week, agood indicator of the likely timeframe before a definitive breakthrough or breakdown. Over-shadowing the weeks events was a remarkable scoop from slugger otooles eamonn mallie, the veteran journalist who first revealed thebritish governments talks with the ira in the early 1990s. He reported that last sunday, the dup and ulster unionist leadership took part in secret talks inengland with shadow northern ireland secretary owen paterson aimed at unionist unity and copper fastening maximum unionist support for a future conservative government, should there be a hungparliament. The conservatives denied that any discussion of a hung parliament had taken place, stating what this was, was the shadow secretary of state as somebody who could potentially be the actual secretary of state in a matter of weeks,holding private talks with representatives of the two main unionist parties to explore how we might overcome some of the politicalinstabilities at stormont, and to avoid a situation in which we might potentially, should we win the election, inherit a collapsed assemblyand direct rule. . On the face of it, this makes sense, particularly as the dup would want political cover from the tories ulster unionist allies in the eventof a deal with sinn fein. However, a series of intriguing stories undermined this picture. The belfast telegraph reported that the dup wasconsidering giving the ulster unionists a free run in two nationalist-held westminster seats. Rte reported that robinson was considering anoutright alliance between the two parties, and the bbc reported that three consevative parliamentary candidates had resigned. The bbcs mark devenport summed up the situation at the end of the week when questioned about the prospect of sinn fein becoming stormonts largest party, neither unionist leader would rule out their respectiveparties merging into one bloc. Although the conservatives claimed there was no discussion of a hung westminster parliament during the secrettalks in england last sunday, senior dup sources are talking up the significance a single unionist force could have for the parliamentaryarithmetic at westminster. They are pointing out that 12 pro-conservative seats equals 24 in a balanced parliament. Of course that presumesboth north down and fermanagh south tyrone could be counted in such a bloc which is a big assumption. Nevertheless it gives a sense of thekind of calculations now being made. . The location of the talks may be significant hatfield house, the ancestral seat of lord salisbury, who as viscount cranborne was the keyally of ulster unionism in john majors cabinet. His home has hosted a unionist unity conference once before. The uup and dup were both representedat this gathering which took place a few months after the election of tony blair in 1997. It was ostensibly organised at the initiative ofsean ocallaghan, a former provisional ira member who became an advisor to david trimble. Another member of trimbles inner circle, thejournalist eoghan harris, declined to attend because, in the words of dean godson, the event had too much of the air of 1912-style resistanceto home rule, with unionists coalescing with what he saw as reactionary elements on the mainland. Those words found something of an echo this week from sdlp deputy leader alasdair mcdonnell, whose south belfast constituency is the mostvulnerable to a pan-unionist alliance. He accused david cameron of orchestrating a cynical attempt by the tories to grab a few orange votesahead of the forthcoming westminster election. If however,it emboldens the dup to risk the collapse of power-sharing, it will only serve the tuvs agenda. That would attract an extremely negativereaction from nationalists of all shades. It would also raise profound questions for all strands of unionism. The dup has spent forty years building at the expense of traditional big house unionism. How will its electorate take to becoming pawns ona chessboard at the home of a tory grandee? The ulster unionists and the conservatives have spent months talking up their alliance as the beginning of a new non-sectarian unionism thatcan attract catholic voters. If even their own candidates no longer have confidence in that agenda, why should anyone else? David cameron believes he is on the verge of winning broad support from the british people as the responsible choice to lead the nextgovernment. So why is he engaging in what looks uncomfortably like an opportunist manoeuvre for a dozen or so seats?. Events in london in recent weeks have highlighted the growing collusion between american neoconservatives and the european far right in stirring up hatred of muslims. Richard bartholomew has details of a meeting at the george restaurant in east london in august attended by jihad watchs robert spencer and douglas murray of the centre for social cohesion at the invitation of the christian action network. Also invited were the english defence league, the group responsible for a number of recent violent anti-muslim protests. Robert spencer says on his blog that he and murray refused to meet with the edl, and cites adrian morgan as a witness to this version of events. But the presence of morgan, who did meet the edl, is itself evidence of the emerging relationship between the neocons and the far-right. . Just a quick pointer to to my latest piece for spinwatch, web 2. 0 warfare from gaza to iran. It a story i m slightly ambivalent in one sense, because there has clearly been important information coming out of iran on twitter. There have also been a lot of poorly sourced rumours, of which perhaps the most suspicious is the one cited by robert fisk, that the iranian government is using hamas and hezbollah operatives to suppress the demonstrators. . If my story comes across as slightly sceptical about social media, i hope that the links to spinprofiles and neocon europe show some of the potential for using the technology in a more considered way. Indeed, i think there is potential for wikis like these to develop a symbiotic relationship with blogs and social networks, providing a more structure long-term memory for the blogosphere. . The current fiasco over expenses at westminster has created a major opportunity for political reform in britain. You might not know it from the medias focus on celebrity populism, but there has actually been some useful thinking on the left over the past year which addresses the causes of the crisis quite precisely. . Ive been collating some of that conversation for my own reference, and i thought it was worth sharing it here. Please feel free to suggest any other relevant links in the comments. . Tim gore, democratic republicanism. And the eu, next left, 07 02 09. Billy bragg opened the second half of his 2008 st george day celebrationat london barbican theatre with jerusalem. And, as kittyempire put it in her review, the audience responded coyly when billyinvited them to join in by holding above their heads the carefully laidout sheets of red and white paper distributed on the auditorium seatsto form one huge st george cross. Hardly an exercise of leniriefenstahl proportions, but more than enough, apparently, to getobserver readers searching for any excuse not to join in. (a jigsaw state (pdf)). In a previous collection of essays, 2008s imagined nation, perryman explored the possibilities for english national identity in the wake of devolution. A session on english nationalism at last years compass conference provided the inspiration for the new volume, whichbroadens the debate to look at the prospects for all of the nations in the uk. . There is plenty of irish interest with contributions from arthur aughey, gerry adams, inez mccormack and peadar kirby. Adams contribution is largely based on his speech to februarys sinn fein ard fheis, but its interesting to see it set in this context, not least because sinn fein has often been wary of drawing parallels with nationalist movements in the various nations of britain. . Tony blair has cited the precedent as cause for optimism in his role as quartet envoy, while gerry adams called for inclusive negotiations during his visit to gaza last week. The analogy isnt universally welcome, however. . Two recent articles reflect the parameters of the debate. In the new statesman, blairs former chief of staff, jonathan powell, argues that the british governments engagement with irish republicans provides a model for an israeli approach to hamas. In standpoint, douglas murray reiterates a longstanding neoconservative critique of such suggestions, arguing that the claims of the peace process in northern ireland itself are unproven - but they are also unhelpful to the point of uselessness. This dispute is significant given the identity of some of the key actors now emerging on the middle east stage. More over at ourkingdom. . Soviet front groups might have been more effective, but stalinist paranoia made impossible the operational autonomy needed to succeed. To the extent that future practitioners of this type of propaganda have learned lessons from the soviet experience, we may expect that the nonstate groups will be controlled in a more sophisticated manner and their ties to a given state will be less obvious. New methods of spreading propaganda (such as via internet web sites of non-governmental organizations ngos , or specialized email lists) allow a deceiver to reach target audiences via multiple channels. Many of these channels may remain relatively invisible to the public at large. (elements of strategic denial and deception by abram shulsky in strategic denial and deception the twenty-first century challenge, edited by roy godson and james j. Wirtz, transaction books, 2002, p23. ). Shulsky went on to note that despite the medias self-image of hardheaded cynicism, it is relatively vulnerable to this type of manipulation. (p24. ) the suns experience would seem to bear this out. . Time once again to dust off the cobwebs on here and draw together a few threads from my writing over the last couple of weeks. First of all my report for ourkingdom from the sinn fein ard fheis two weeks ago. It was a very interesting time to be in dublin, with 120,000 people marching on the streets against the governments swingeing austerity measures. Gerry adams cannily tapped into the mood by calling for a left-wing alliance with the labour party. . As a result craig is publishing the book online today. The green ribbon is delighted to be one of the many blogs supporting craig by hosting a copy of the file here. You can also support craig (and a range of charities) by picking up a privately-printed hard copy edition from amazon. The book includes an indispensable account of murrays dealings with spicer during the arms to africa affair, as well as his views on spicers role in the peter mcbride case and his subsequent career in iraq. . Heres an interesting postscript to nick cleggs attack on policy exchange for privately briefing against the global peace and unity event in london. One of the organisations cited by policy exchange, the society of americans for national existence, has objected to my characterisation of them in a post at spinwatch. On their blog a sane staffer writes. In this linkthe leftist brits continue to blather on about sane and its deep, secret powers. We continue. To get many visitors from england trying to figure this out. In this blog and in the links, sane is tied to iasps (true, we are indeed closely linked to iasps), but then we are both (iasps and sane)labeled neocons--which merely demonstrates these folks are either illiterate or fools or just dont read or are wholly disingenuous. . One point worth making is that the society of americans for national existence are not just some bunch of marginal crazies. Sane is actually a project of the institute for advanced strategic and political studies. Iasps was where key neoconservatives like richard perle, david wurmser and doug feith worked out the clean break strategy, which many believe formed the basis of the iraq war agenda they went on to pursue in the bush administration. . Neither the quote nor the full article labels either sane or iasps as neocon institutions. Much of what the article does say is specifically accepted by sane. Indeed, sane goes on to provide two articles which elaborate on iasps role in formulating the clean break strategy. The first of these, israel the advanced case of western affliction, states (my emphasis). Anyone who studies that institute document and the voluminous studies and analyses provided by iasps over the years to policy makers and politicians in israel and washington, d. C. , knows that iasps does not advocate democracy as a tool of foreign policy. It doesn t even advocate democracy as a tool of domestic policy. Indeed, the institute founder, loewenberg, has made clear that the drift in this country to democracy and away from a constitutional republic built on a federation of states, themselves layered on a bedrock of judeo-christian values, is very much a continuation of the decline of the west. . Anyone who looks at iraq or jordan and doesn t understand, not just the shia-sunni divide, but the important tribal ones that make claims going back to the terrorist founder freedom fighter nation builder of islam, mohammed, will never come to grips with the geo-strategic realities in that part of the world. The evidence of this claim is before us now in iraq, in afghanistan and in gaza. . The piece also alludes to the role of wurmser, perle et. Al. The institute has of course gained enormous worldwide attention through its pre-iraq war publication titled, a clean break a new strategy for securing the realm, in which it advocated a triangulated strategy between israel, turkey and jordan to remove saddam hussein from power in iraq and become the base of a tripartite power alliance to rule over and secure a strategic stability in the middle east. Because the reports contributors included many of the policy professionals that took up important positions in the bush administration, left-wing types, right-wing types, arabs, and main stream media soon gravitated to this study as the blueprint for the jewish neocon war in iraq. . At this point, sane would seem to have recapitulated most of my original argument. So what are they trying to establish with their rebuttal? I think there are two key points which also emerge in the second article does pat buchanan have a flea problem, a blind spot or both?. First things first. As i have written in the past, the clean break document was not about america at all, but about a strategy those of us at the institute (i was then a trustee and legal counsel) proposed. So the clean break document was aimed at the israeli government, not the us, and strategic security was the goal not spreading democracy. It is worth comparing this with what some of the neoconservatives critics have said. For example, stephen. J sniegoski has written. It should be emphasised that the same people - feith, wurmser, perle - who advised the israeli government on issues issues of national security would later advise the george w. Bush administration to pursue virtually the same policy regarding the middle east. (the transparent cabal, p. 90). Sniegoski went on to note the very same points sane make about the differences between a clean break and the case for war presented in 2003 while neocons present american policy in a very idealistic light, their policy prescriptions for israel, which involved similar concrete policy objective, were devoid of such sentiment. Written in terms of israeli interest, the study made little mention of the benefits to be accrued by israels neighbouring countries, such as the establishment of democracy. (the transparent cabal, p92)the conclusion that sane invites us to draw is that the aims of the israeli geopoliticians of 1996, were unrelated to those of the american idealists of 2003, despite the minor coincidence of their being the same people. The more credible view is that a right-wing likudist analysis of israels geopolitical interests was a key factor in the neoconservative drive to war. The clean break document was not silent on the role of the united states. To anticipate u. S. Reactions and plan ways to manage and constrain those reactions, prime minister netanyahu can formulate the policies and stress themes he favors in language familiar to the americans by tapping into themes of american administrations during the cold war which apply well to israel. . The subsequent emphasis on bringing democracy to iraq was consistent with this principle. In the transition from a clean break to the us invasion of iraq the neocons presented a false identity between american and european interests, and a hard-line likudist conception of israels interests. This is a habit that arguably did not end in 2003, and may explain episodes such as policy exchanges private briefing. If europeans oppose engagement with the muslim brotherhood at home, they are not likely to press for israeli negotiations with hamas. Likewise, if europeans fear muslim population growth at home, they are more likely to accept extreme responses to palestinian population growth. A clean break is not, incidentally, the only evidence that sane and iasps have neoconservative links. Sane president david yerushalmi is general counsel and policy advisor to the center for security policy, a think tank headed by the former assistant secretary of defense, frank gaffney. Gaffneys neoconservative record has been documented by jim lobe, who also revealed earlier this year, that gaffneys sister, devon gaffney cross has been organising pentagon-funded private briefings by fellow neoconservatives for reporters in london and paris. . Well done to nick clegg for becoming the first major party leader to take on policy exchange over its unscrupulous approach to islam. (hat-tip sunny hundal)in a statement carried by the politicshome website on friday, clegg criticised the think-tank over for a privately circulated briefing against the sundays global peace and unity event in london. The policy exchange briefing i have seen seeks to raise alarm over a number of the speakers planning to attend the conference. The accuracy of the allegations is variable, with a notable lack of evidence to support many of the claims. In particular i was appalled to see evidence quoted from the society for american national existence, an organisation which seeks to make the practice of islam illegal, punishable by 20 years in prison. I need hardly point out how illogical it is to attempt to criticise one set of extreme views by citing another. My concern is not limited to the facts in the document, however. Your attempt to raise a boycott of this event by privately briefing against it is bizarre, and underhand behaviour for a think-tank supposedly interested in open public debate. The information you are disseminating is extremely narrow in focus and as a result tars with the brush of extremism the tens of thousands of muslims who will be in attendance. This looks exactly like the kind of activity which led the charity commission to identify a need for greater transparency from policy exchange earlier this year. . The following is a mirror of an original post from craig murray this is the key section from my new book which the publisher is unwilling to publish due to legal threats from schillings libel lawyers, acting on behalf of the mercenary commander tim spicer peter penfold was back in the uk. He was interviewed separately. Both penfold and spicer were interviewed under caution, as suspects for having broken the arms embargo. Then, suddenly, tony blair intervened. On 11 may 1998, without consulting the fco, he gave a statement to journalists. Penfold, blair declared, was a hero. A dictatorship had been successfully overthrown and democracy restored. Penfold had done a superb job in trying to deal with the consequences of the military coup. All this stuff about security council resolutions and sanctions was an overblown hoo-ha. I believe this episode is extremely important. In 1998 the country was still starry-eyed about blair, but with the benefit of hindsight, this intervention points the way towards the disasters of his later years in office. It is extraordinarily wrong for a prime minister to declare that a man is a hero, when customs had questioned him two days earlier under caution over the very matter the prime minister is praising. It shows blair belief that his judgement stood above the law of the land, something that was to occur again on a much bigger scale when he halted the serious fraud office investigation into british aerospace foreign bribes. But of course blairs contempt for un security council resolutions on the arms embargo, and the belief that installing democracy by invasion could trump the trivia of international law, prefigures precisely the disaster of iraq. As with iraq, blair was also conveniently ignoring the fact that sierra leone was left a mess, with kabbah in charge of little more than freetown. In the fco we were astonished by blair intervention, and deeply puzzled. Where had it come from? It differed completely from robin cook views. Who was drafting this stuff for blair to the effect that the un and the law were unimportant? For most of us, this was the very first indication we had of how deep a hold neo-con thinking and military interests had on the blair circle. It was also my first encounter with the phenomenon of foreign policy being dictated by alistair campbell, the prime inister press secretary, the military lobby, of course, was working hard to defend spicer, one of their own. A few days later customs and excise concluded their investigations. A thick dossier, including documentation from the fco, from the raid on sandline offices, and from elsewhere, was sent to the crown prosecution service. The customs and excise team who had interviewed us told me that the recommendation was that both spicer and penfold be prosecuted for breach of the embargo. The dossier was returned to customs and excise from the crown prosecution service the very same day it was sent. It was marked, in effect, for no further action. There would be no prosecution. A customs officer told me bitterly that, given the time between the dossier leaving their offices and the time it was returned, allowing time for both deliveries, it could not have been in the cps more than half an hour. It was a thick dossier. They could not even have read it before turning it down. I felt sick to my stomach at the decision not to prosecute spicer and penfold. So were the customs officers investigating the case, at least two of them called me to commiserate. They had believed they had put together an extremely strong case, and they told me that their submission to the crown prosecution service said so. The decision not to prosecute in the sandline case was the first major instance of the corruption of the legal process that was to be a hallmark of the blair years. Customs and excise were stunned by it. There is no doubt whatsoever that spicer and penfold had worked together to ship weapons to sierra leone in breach of uk law. Security council 1132 had been given effect in british law by an order in council. I had never found in the least credible their assertions that they did not know about it. I had personally told spicer that it would be illegal to ship arms to sierra leone, to any side in the conflict. Penfold claim never to have seen an absolutely key security council resolution about a country to which he was high commissioner is truly extraordinary. But even if they did not know, ignorance of the law is famously no defence in england. Who knows what a jury would have made of this sorry tale of greed, hired killers and blood diamonds. But i have no doubt at all and more importantly nor did the customs officers investigating the case that there was enough there for a viable prosecution. The head of the crown prosecution service when it decided not to prosecute was barbara mills. Barbara mills is a very well-connected woman in new labour circles. She is married to john mills, a former labour councillor in camden. That makes her sister-in-law to tessa jowell, the new labour cabinet minister with a penchant for taking out repeated mortgages on her home, and then paying them off with cash widely alleged to have come from silvio berlusconi, the friend and business colleague of her husband david mills, who according to a bbc documentary by the estimable john sweeney has created offshore companies for known camorra and mafia interests. Tessa jowell and david mills were also both camden labour councillors, and are close to tony blair. Blair is also a great friend of berlusconi, despite the numerous criminal allegations against berlusconi and his long history of political alliances with open fascists. Just to complete the cosy new labour picture, another brother-in-law of barbara mills and tessa jowell is alan rusbridger, editor of the guardian. Did any of those relationships of barbara mills, the director of public prosecutions, affect the crown prosecution service decision not to proceed with the case, and to take that decision in less time than it would have taken them to read the dossier customs and excise sent them? Barbara mills was to resign as director of public prosecutions later that year after being personally criticised in his judgement by a high court judge who ruled against the crown prosecution service for continually failing to prosecute over deaths in police custody. That has not stopped the extremely well connected dame barbara from being appointed to a string of highly paid public positions since then. It is infuriating that, maxwell style, spicer (who has made millions form the war in iraq) is using the prohibitive costs of defending a libel case to intimidate my publisher. The result is that important information i received at first hand, and an account of events to which i am eye-witness, is being repressed, as is an important independent critique of early blair foreign policy. I am not currently confident the book will get published at all - i am not prepared to put out anodyne pap, which hides the truth, under my name. . . But it is pretty firmly in hibernation mode at the moment. In part this it has opened up a number of other opportunities for me that are now taking up most of my time. One of these is an editing gig at opendemocracys ourkingdom blog, which is involved in some very exciting thinking around the future of the uk. My involvement with spinwatch has also deepened to the point where an argument that started out as a response to a slugger thread has led to me starting a ph. D at the university of strathclyde. Both opendemocracy and spinwatch have got some interesting new projects in the works over the next few months. In the meantime, id like to flag up some good posts elsewhere on the themes that ive been neglecting here lately. If you had been following the coverage of tim spicer, tony buckingham and assorted mercenaries here, then you will want to look up craig murrays recent encounters with same. If youre interested in the neocons, london bloggers have produced some great coverage of policy exchanges relationship with boris johnson in recent months. Notable examples can be found at dave hill, liberal conspiracy, boris watch and tory troll. Its also worth noting arun kundnanis article earlier this month, and the guardians profile on policy exchange last friday, which both picked up on dean godsons cold war background. The hiatus here is likely to continue but do please keep an eye out my stuff at ourkingdom and spinwatch. . Last year a supporter of the pfc in the us contacted senator barack obama regarding the controversial pentagon contract with lt col spicer, the former scots guards officer whose troops murdered peter mc bride - see excerpt below from obamas response - today- september 4 is the anniversary of peters murder. We urge supporters to contact senator obama and call on the presidential candidate to keep his promise if elected and cancel the aegis contract!. . As you know, the ceo of aegis defense services tim spicer has been implicated in a variety of human rights abuses around the globe. Given his history, i agree that the united states should consider rescinding its contract with his company. . Jean mc bride (mother of peter) senator obama has appointed a high level advisory panel on irish issues, comprised of seven well known irish american politicans. The group is comprised of senators george mitchell (retired, maine), chris dodd (connecticut), edward kennedy (massachusetts) and pat leahy (vermont), governor martin o malley of maryland and congressmen joe crowley (new york) and richard neal (massachusetts). Again we would urge supporters to contact all or any of the above and call for the aegis contract to be cancelled. Please cc responses to us. See http www. Patfinucanecentre pmcbride mcbindex. Html for extensive background on the aegis private security contract in iraq and spicer role in the case of the murder of 18 year old teenager peter mc bride who was murdered on september 4 1992 by soldiers under his command. . It& ,s about time that i broke radio silence on here, and this certainly merits it. Former diplomat craig murray is having another run-in with schillings, the lawyers who briefly managed to get his website taken down on behalf of uzbek oligarch alisher usmanov. Now they are attempting to block the publication of my new book in the interests of mercenary commander tim spicer, one of those who has made a fortune from the iraq war. It is sad but perhaps predictable that private profits from the illegal iraq war, in which hundreds of thousands of innocent people have died, are providing the funding to try to silence my book. . The road to samarkand sounds as if it will be very interesting. Among the incidents i cover in my new book are the murder of peter mcbride, the aegis trophy video, the papua new guinea coup, the equatorial guinea plot, executive outcomes& , murder of civilians in angola and the arms to africa affair. I do hope that other bloggers will generate another streisand effect through blogging on these subjects. . Spinwatch has just published my latest profile piece, on the euston manifesto group. I doubt the broad thrust of it will come as a huge surprise to anyone. It looks at the groups connections with american social networks around the (apparently now defunct) social democrats usa and the national endowment for democracy, two organisations which played a part in the iran-contra affair. Some more strands in this particular web were highlighted in a recent post from the yorkshire ranter you may recall that the famous document that was meant to show iraq buying uranium from niger originated with the italian secret service, and then appeared in yer dossier, just in time for the americans to start using it in public speeches. It has long been suspected that the meeting in rome was somehow involved in this exercise in policy-laundering, or rather bullshit-laundering. So how did the thing get from italy to the uk? Well, there was harold rhode, also at the meeting, who made it to the december 2002 iraqi opposition conference in london. That may give us some idea. Now thats what i call the exigencies of the service - youve got to meet gems like ledeen, ghorbanifar, chalabi,. . Its hell in the diplomatic, as harry flashman so wisely said. (selling the dummy). David habakkuks latest piece brings us some interesting reflections on the neoconservatives and their various exile clients much more could be said about the sheer oddity of a conceptions of a forward strategy in which conmen like chalabi or berezovsky come to be seen as appropriate vehicles to make other societies liberal and democratic. What cannot be claimed, however, is that these conceptions are simply the fig-leaves of cunning machiavellians. In relation to their own societies, the neoconservatives and their british fellow-travellers may indeed be masterly manipulators. But their propensity to see alien societies through thick ideological filters makes them easy prey for conmen in their dealings with the wider world -- so that the actual outcomes of the strategies they advocate are highly liable to be quite different from those they envisage. (european tribune). As it happens, the us senate intelligence committee released a report this week which neatly illustrates davids argument. It concerns a series of meetings which began in rome in 2001. The meeting included larry franklin (office of assistant secretary of defense, international security affairs), harold rhode (office of net assessments), michael ledeen (former office of the secretary of defense and national security council consultant), manucher ghorbanifar (iranian exile), iranian 1 (iranian living in exile in morocco), iranian 2 (iranian revolutionary guard official), and an unidentified employee of a foreign government. Michael ledeen arranged the meeting with the help of his contacts in italy and the foreign government who provided the meeting place and the logistical support. (partly redacted in original links added). . A later passage in the report considers the counterintelligence implications the most significant matter raised in the counterintelligence field activitys report was the possibility that mr. Ghorbanifar of his associates are being used as agents of a foreign intelligence service to leverage his continuing contact with michael ledeen and others to reach into and influence the highest leveles of the u. S. Government. The report noted that there were multiple occasions where information from mr. Ghorbanifar entered u. S. Government channels via mr. Ledeen. These channels included personnel from the federal bureau of investigation, cia, dod, the white house, and congress. As a result, mr. Ghorbanifar was able to communicate with us government officials via mr. Ledeen without having direct contact. While the report concluded that mr. Ledeen was likely unwitting of any counterintelligence issues related to his relationship with mr. Ghorbanifar, their association was widely known, and therefore it should be presumed other foreign intelligence services, including those of iran, would know. . The website of standpoint, the new magazine published by the social affairs unit, is now live. In his inaugural column, editor daniel johnson highlights the magazines neoconservative credentials when you have a good idea, start a magazine. This, according to our board member gertrude himmelfarb, is the motto of her husband irving kristol. In a long and fruitful life, he has started three. (their son bill has started one, too. ) the first was encounter, which kristol co-founded with the late stephen spender in 1953. It was a transatlantic monthly in which the intellectuals of the free world could debate with one another and their communist counterparts. To write for encounter was a privilege. . Johnson doesnt mention it explicitly, but it is, of course, well-known that encounter was founded and financed by the cia as part of its psychological warfare strategy during the early cold war. According to historian hugh wilford, the magazines greatest achievement was in creating a certain kind of intellectual-cultural milieu in which american and european interests came to appear as if they were identical. . Back in january i suggested that martin brights knocking documentary on ken livingstone was connected to his relationship with policy exchange. Well now livingstone is gone and boris watch informs us that policy exchange is firmly ensconced at city hall during the electoral campaign, boris was aided by dan ritterband, a one-time director of policy exchange, and soon after his victory, nicholas boles, the founder of the organisation, was named as the mayor chief of staff. Boles was, the observer reported, asked to help the new mayor find the right staff , and one of his first appointments was munira mirza - an employee of policy exchange - as director of policy, arts, culture and the creative industries. Ritterband, meanwhile, maintained his position among boris advisers. . Given the way livingstone was red-baited over his socialist action advisers, it is particularly ironic that johnson should have appointed mirza, who was formerly involved with the manifesto club, an organisation associated with the the living marxism revolutionary communist party network. Splintered sunrise has some interesting thoughts on the parallels between socialist action and the rcp. For my money, the classic example of an upwardly mobile marxist or ex-marxist clique is the lovestoneite faction which started out in the american communist party and ended up working with james angleton and the cia. The key lovestoneite figure in britain was roy godson, father of policy exchanges dean godson. The rise of neoconservatism marks to a significant extent, the emergence of a post-marxist movement as a dominant strain on the right. It seems not everyone involved in promoting neoconservatism understands that. . Very interesting thread on sic semper tyrannis about the us investigation into bae the biggest aspect of the bae al yamamah story is the offshore fund. To summarize bae delivered about billion in arms and services to saudi arabia. Bae padded the bills substantially, up to nearly billion. The pad was used, in part, to bribe saudi officials who helped swing the deal, including bandar and prince turki bin-khaled, a top official of the saudi ministry of defense. That part is fully detailed in the guardian and other british coverage of the bae scandal, going back three or four years. What is not covered in the british press is the fact that saudi arabia paid for the arms with oil. The oil was sold on the spot market, and this generated an estimated (in current dollars) 0 billion in cash. I am told by former u. S. Treasury department officials that the funds generated from the oil sales, after bae got their cut, went into offshore bank accounts. . As jamie notes at blood and treasure theres not a lot of evidence offered, but the allegation about the oil fund has come up before. In his book in the public interest, the former chairman of astra, gerald james, highlights a partially blacked out memo that was sent to jeff rooker mp, which suggested some of the funds found their way to the conservative party. . The green ribbon books the hidden hand britain, america and cold war secret intelligence, by richard j. Aldrich. God englishman oliver cromwell and the english revolution by christopher hill writings of william walwynmilton and the english revolution, by christopher hillthe century of revolution, 1603-1714, by christopher hillthe rights of man, by tom painethe vote how it was won, and how it was undermined by paul foot the english, a portrait of a people, by jeremy paxmanthe making of english national identity by krishan kumarthe scottish insurrection of 1820 by peter berresford ellis, seumus mac a ghobhainn blackshirt sir oswald mosley and british fascism, by stephen dorrilhoney trap, by stephen dorril and anthony summers the celtic revolution, by peter berresford ellis this time our constitutional revolution, by anthony barnettpariah misfortunes of the british kingdom, by tom nairngordon brown bard of britishness, by tom nairn cromwell an honourable enemy by tom reillythe narrow ground aspects of ulster 1609-1969, by a. T. Q. Stewartthe year of liberty history of the great irish rebellion of 1798, by thomas pakenham the galtee boy a fenian prison narrative, by john sarsfield caseythe voyage of the catalpa a perilous journey and six irish rebels escape to freedom, by peter stevensjohn devoy catalpa expedition, by philip fennell and marie kingvoyage of the hougomont and life at fremantle, by thomas mccarthy fennellthe fenian diary the hougomont diary of denis b. Cashman, by denis b. Cashman, c. W. Sullivanirish rebel, john devoy and america fight for irish freedom, by terry golwaythe greatest of the fenians john devoy and ireland, by terence dooleyrossa recollections, 1838 to 1898 memoirs of an irish revolutionary, by jeremiah o donovan rossafenian fire the british government plot to assassinate queen victoria, by christy campbellprelude to the easter rising sir roger casement in imperial germany, by reinhard doerries1916 the easter rising, by tim pat coogandesmond rising memoirs 1913 to easter 1916, by desmond fitzgeraldpadraig pearse, the triumph of failure, by ruth dudley edwardsthe life and times of james connolly, by charles desmond greaves principles of freedom, by terence macswineyenduring the most life and death of terence macswiney, by francis j. Costello. I die in a good cause, by sean l ing tans, terror and troubles, kerry real fighting story, by t ryle dwyer. Enchanted by dreams the journal of a revolutionary by joe goodsam maguire the enigmatic man behind ireland most prestigious trophy, by margaret mary walshthe squad the intelligence operations of michael collins, by t ryle dwyer. Michael collins intelligence war the struggle between the british and the ira - 1919-1921, by michael t. Foybloody sunday how michael collins agents assassinated britain secret service in dublin on november 21, 1920, by james gleesonno other law, by florence o donoghuethe real chief, the story of liam lynch, by meda ryanflorence and josephine o donoghue war of independence a destiny that shapes our endguerilla days in ireland, by tom barrytom barry ira freedom fighter, by meda ryanmy fight for irish freedom, by dan breendan breen and the ira, by joe ambroseon another man wound a personal history of ireland war of independence, by ernie o malleyliam mellows and the irish revolution, by c. Desmond greaves. Who who in the irish war of independence, by padraic o farrellthe ira at war 1916-1923, by peter hart. The black and tans, by richard bennett. Peace by ordeal an account, from first-hand sources, of the negotiation and signature of the anglo-irish treaty, 1921, by frank pakenham longfordthe irish civil war, by tim pat coogani signed my death warrant michael collins and the treaty, by t ryle dwyerthe path to freedom articles and speeches, by michael collinsmichael collins a biography, by tim pat cooganmichael collins the man who won the war by t. Ryle dwyermichael collins a life, by james a. Mackay. Michael collins, by margery forestermichael collins and the women in his life, by meda ryanthe day michael collins was shot, by meda ryanmichael collins the secret file by a. T. Q stewartde valera long fellow, long shadow, by tim pat coogana memoir, by terry de valerathe irish republic, by dorothy mcardlein time of war ireland, ulster and the price of neutrality, 1939-45, by robert fisk a u. S. Spy in ireland, by martin s. Quigleywar and an irish town, by eamonn mccann bloody sunday in derry what really happened by eamonn mccann eyewitness bloody sunday by don mullanthe bloody sunday inquiry the families speak outpoint of no return the strike which broke the british in ulster, by robert fisk on the blanket the inside story of the ira prisoner dirty protest, by tim pat cooganten men dead story of the 1981 irish hunger strike, by david beresford the ira, by tim pat cooganthe provisional i. R. A. By patrick bishop and eamonn mallieforty years of controversy, by t ryle dwyerthe troubles ireland ordeal 1969-96, by tim pat coogan. Lost lives the stories of the men, women and children who died as a result of the northern ireland troubles, by david mckittrick, seamus kelters, brian feeney, chris thorntonunfinished business state killings and the quest for truth, by bill rolstonendgame in ireland, by eamonn mallie, david mckittricksinn fein a hundred turbulent years by brian feeney the sdlp and sinn fein, 1970-2001 from alienation to participation in northern ireland, by gerard murray, jonathan tongeireland in the twentieth century, by tim pat cooganwherever green is worn the story of the irish diaspora, by tim pat cooganan irish navvy the diary of an exile by. Error of judgement truth about the birmingham bombings, by chris mullinirish manchester, by alan keeganopen cut, by j. M. O neilli could read the sky, by timothy e. O gradyhide that can, by deirdre o callaghanfaces of nationalism, janus revisited, by tom nairnglobal matrix nationalism, globalism and state-terrorism, by tom nairn, paul james global nations, by tom nairn the modern world-system capitalist agriculture and the origins of the european world-economy in the sixteenth century, by immanuel wallerstein reorient global economy in the asian age by andre gunder frank the black jacobins toussaint l ouverture and the san domingo revolution, by c. L. R. James the scramble for africa, by thomas pakenham the boer war, by thomas pakenham culture and imperialism by edward w. Saidthe fateful triangle united states, israel and the palestinians by noam chomskypity the nation lebanon at war by robert fiskthe great war for civilisation the conquest of the middle east, by robert fisk the market for force the consequences of privatizing security, by deborah d. Avant iraq,inc. A profitable occupation, by pratap chatterjeea history of god by karen armstrong. It has been a strange month in the politics of northern ireland, and last week was no exception. On monday, there was optimism that abreakthrough on the devolution of policing and justice was in the offing. A few days later, talks had collapsed amid recriminations betweengerry adams and peter robinson. Uup leader reg empey was predicting an assembly election would be called by the end of the coming week, agood indicator of the likely timeframe before a definitive breakthrough or breakdown. Over-shadowing the weeks events was a remarkable scoop from slugger otooles eamonn mallie, the veteran journalist who first revealed thebritish governments talks with the ira in the early 1990s. He reported that last sunday, the dup and ulster unionist leadership took part in secret talks inengland with shadow northern ireland secretary owen paterson aimed at unionist unity and copper fastening maximum unionist support for a future conservative government, should there be a hungparliament. The conservatives denied that any discussion of a hung parliament had taken place, stating what this was, was the shadow secretary of state as somebody who could potentially be the actual secretary of state in a matter of weeks,holding private talks with representatives of the two main unionist parties to explore how we might overcome some of the politicalinstabilities at stormont, and to avoid a situation in which we might potentially, should we win the election, inherit a collapsed assemblyand direct rule. . On the face of it, this makes sense, particularly as the dup would want political cover from the tories ulster unionist allies in the eventof a deal with sinn fein. However, a series of intriguing stories undermined this picture. The belfast telegraph reported that the dup wasconsidering giving the ulster unionists a free run in two nationalist-held westminster seats. Rte reported that robinson was considering anoutright alliance between the two parties, and the bbc reported that three consevative parliamentary candidates had resigned. The bbcs mark devenport summed up the situation at the end of the week when questioned about the prospect of sinn fein becoming stormonts largest party, neither unionist leader would rule out their respectiveparties merging into one bloc. Although the conservatives claimed there was no discussion of a hung westminster parliament during the secrettalks in england last sunday, senior dup sources are talking up the significance a single unionist force could have for the parliamentaryarithmetic at westminster. They are pointing out that 12 pro-conservative seats equals 24 in a balanced parliament. Of course that presumesboth north down and fermanagh south tyrone could be counted in such a bloc which is a big assumption. Nevertheless it gives a sense of thekind of calculations now being made. . The location of the talks may be significant hatfield house, the ancestral seat of lord salisbury, who as viscount cranborne was the keyally of ulster unionism in john majors cabinet. His home has hosted a unionist unity conference once before. The uup and dup were both representedat this gathering which took place a few months after the election of tony blair in 1997. It was ostensibly organised at the initiative ofsean ocallaghan, a former provisional ira member who became an advisor to david trimble. Another member of trimbles inner circle, thejournalist eoghan harris, declined to attend because, in the words of dean godson, the event had too much of the air of 1912-style resistanceto home rule, with unionists coalescing with what he saw as reactionary elements on the mainland. Those words found something of an echo this week from sdlp deputy leader alasdair mcdonnell, whose south belfast constituency is the mostvulnerable to a pan-unionist alliance. He accused david cameron of orchestrating a cynical attempt by the tories to grab a few orange votesahead of the forthcoming westminster election. If however,it emboldens the dup to risk the collapse of power-sharing, it will only serve the tuvs agenda. That would attract an extremely negativereaction from nationalists of all shades. It would also raise profound questions for all strands of unionism. The dup has spent forty years building at the expense of traditional big house unionism. How will its electorate take to becoming pawns ona chessboard at the home of a tory grandee? The ulster unionists and the conservatives have spent months talking up their alliance as the beginning of a new non-sectarian unionism thatcan attract catholic voters. If even their own candidates no longer have confidence in that agenda, why should anyone else? David cameron believes he is on the verge of winning broad support from the british people as the responsible choice to lead the nextgovernment. So why is he engaging in what looks uncomfortably like an opportunist manoeuvre for a dozen or so seats?. Events in london in recent weeks have highlighted the growing collusion between american neoconservatives and the european far right in stirring up hatred of muslims. Richard bartholomew has details of a meeting at the george restaurant in east london in august attended by jihad watchs robert spencer and douglas murray of the centre for social cohesion at the invitation of the christian action network. Also invited were the english defence league, the group responsible for a number of recent violent anti-muslim protests. Robert spencer says on his blog that he and murray refused to meet with the edl, and cites adrian morgan as a witness to this version of events. But the presence of morgan, who did meet the edl, is itself evidence of the emerging relationship between the neocons and the far-right. . Just a quick pointer to to my latest piece for spinwatch, web 2. 0 warfare from gaza to iran. It a story i m slightly ambivalent in one sense, because there has clearly been important information coming out of iran on twitter. There have also been a lot of poorly sourced rumours, of which perhaps the most suspicious is the one cited by robert fisk, that the iranian government is using hamas and hezbollah operatives to suppress the demonstrators. . If my story comes across as slightly sceptical about social media, i hope that the links to spinprofiles and neocon europe show some of the potential for using the technology in a more considered way. Indeed, i think there is potential for wikis like these to develop a symbiotic relationship with blogs and social networks, providing a more structure long-term memory for the blogosphere. . The current fiasco over expenses at westminster has created a major opportunity for political reform in britain. You might not know it from the medias focus on celebrity populism, but there has actually been some useful thinking on the left over the past year which addresses the causes of the crisis quite precisely. . Ive been collating some of that conversation for my own reference, and i thought it was worth sharing it here. Please feel free to suggest any other relevant links in the comments. . Tim gore, democratic republicanism. And the eu, next left, 07 02 09. Billy bragg opened the second half of his 2008 st george day celebrationat london barbican theatre with jerusalem. And, as kittyempire put it in her review, the audience responded coyly when billyinvited them to join in by holding above their heads the carefully laidout sheets of red and white paper distributed on the auditorium seatsto form one huge st george cross. Hardly an exercise of leniriefenstahl proportions, but more than enough, apparently, to getobserver readers searching for any excuse not to join in. (a jigsaw state (pdf)). In a previous collection of essays, 2008s imagined nation, perryman explored the possibilities for english national identity in the wake of devolution. A session on english nationalism at last years compass conference provided the inspiration for the new volume, whichbroadens the debate to look at the prospects for all of the nations in the uk. . There is plenty of irish interest with contributions from arthur aughey, gerry adams, inez mccormack and peadar kirby. Adams contribution is largely based on his speech to februarys sinn fein ard fheis, but its interesting to see it set in this context, not least because sinn fein has often been wary of drawing parallels with nationalist movements in the various nations of britain. . Tony blair has cited the precedent as cause for optimism in his role as quartet envoy, while gerry adams called for inclusive negotiations during his visit to gaza last week. The analogy isnt universally welcome, however. . Two recent articles reflect the parameters of the debate. In the new statesman, blairs former chief of staff, jonathan powell, argues that the british governments engagement with irish republicans provides a model for an israeli approach to hamas. In standpoint, douglas murray reiterates a longstanding neoconservative critique of such suggestions, arguing that the claims of the peace process in northern ireland itself are unproven - but they are also unhelpful to the point of uselessness. This dispute is significant given the identity of some of the key actors now emerging on the middle east stage. More over at ourkingdom. . Soviet front groups might have been more effective, but stalinist paranoia made impossible the operational autonomy needed to succeed. To the extent that future practitioners of this type of propaganda have learned lessons from the soviet experience, we may expect that the nonstate groups will be controlled in a more sophisticated manner and their ties to a given state will be less obvious. New methods of spreading propaganda (such as via internet web sites of non-governmental organizations ngos , or specialized email lists) allow a deceiver to reach target audiences via multiple channels. Many of these channels may remain relatively invisible to the public at large. (elements of strategic denial and deception by abram shulsky in strategic denial and deception the twenty-first century challenge, edited by roy godson and james j. Wirtz, transaction books, 2002, p23. ). Shulsky went on to note that despite the medias self-image of hardheaded cynicism, it is relatively vulnerable to this type of manipulation. (p24. ) the suns experience would seem to bear this out. . Time once again to dust off the cobwebs on here and draw together a few threads from my writing over the last couple of weeks. First of all my report for ourkingdom from the sinn fein ard fheis two weeks ago. It was a very interesting time to be in dublin, with 120,000 people marching on the streets against the governments swingeing austerity measures. Gerry adams cannily tapped into the mood by calling for a left-wing alliance with the labour party. . As a result craig is publishing the book online today. The green ribbon is delighted to be one of the many blogs supporting craig by hosting a copy of the file here. You can also support craig (and a range of charities) by picking up a privately-printed hard copy edition from amazon. The book includes an indispensable account of murrays dealings with spicer during the arms to africa affair, as well as his views on spicers role in the peter mcbride case and his subsequent career in iraq. . Heres an interesting postscript to nick cleggs attack on policy exchange for privately briefing against the global peace and unity event in london. One of the organisations cited by policy exchange, the society of americans for national existence, has objected to my characterisation of them in a post at spinwatch. On their blog a sane staffer writes. In this linkthe leftist brits continue to blather on about sane and its deep, secret powers. We continue. To get many visitors from england trying to figure this out. In this blog and in the links, sane is tied to iasps (true, we are indeed closely linked to iasps), but then we are both (iasps and sane)labeled neocons--which merely demonstrates these folks are either illiterate or fools or just dont read or are wholly disingenuous. . One point worth making is that the society of americans for national existence are not just some bunch of marginal crazies. Sane is actually a project of the institute for advanced strategic and political studies. Iasps was where key neoconservatives like richard perle, david wurmser and doug feith worked out the clean break strategy, which many believe formed the basis of the iraq war agenda they went on to pursue in the bush administration. . Neither the quote nor the full article labels either sane or iasps as neocon institutions. Much of what the article does say is specifically accepted by sane. Indeed, sane goes on to provide two articles which elaborate on iasps role in formulating the clean break strategy. The first of these, israel the advanced case of western affliction, states (my emphasis). Anyone who studies that institute document and the voluminous studies and analyses provided by iasps over the years to policy makers and politicians in israel and washington, d. C. , knows that iasps does not advocate democracy as a tool of foreign policy. It doesn t even advocate democracy as a tool of domestic policy. Indeed, the institute founder, loewenberg, has made clear that the drift in this country to democracy and away from a constitutional republic built on a federation of states, themselves layered on a bedrock of judeo-christian values, is very much a continuation of the decline of the west. . Anyone who looks at iraq or jordan and doesn t understand, not just the shia-sunni divide, but the important tribal ones that make claims going back to the terrorist founder freedom fighter nation builder of islam, mohammed, will never come to grips with the geo-strategic realities in that part of the world. The evidence of this claim is before us now in iraq, in afghanistan and in gaza. . The piece also alludes to the role of wurmser, perle et. Al. The institute has of course gained enormous worldwide attention through its pre-iraq war publication titled, a clean break a new strategy for securing the realm, in which it advocated a triangulated strategy between israel, turkey and jordan to remove saddam hussein from power in iraq and become the base of a tripartite power alliance to rule over and secure a strategic stability in the middle east. Because the reports contributors included many of the policy professionals that took up important positions in the bush administration, left-wing types, right-wing types, arabs, and main stream media soon gravitated to this study as the blueprint for the jewish neocon war in iraq. . At this point, sane would seem to have recapitulated most of my original argument. So what are they trying to establish with their rebuttal? I think there are two key points which also emerge in the second article does pat buchanan have a flea problem, a blind spot or both?. First things first. As i have written in the past, the clean break document was not about america at all, but about a strategy those of us at the institute (i was then a trustee and legal counsel) proposed. So the clean break document was aimed at the israeli government, not the us, and strategic security was the goal not spreading democracy. It is worth comparing this with what some of the neoconservatives critics have said. For example, stephen. J sniegoski has written. It should be emphasised that the same people - feith, wurmser, perle - who advised the israeli government on issues issues of national security would later advise the george w. Bush administration to pursue virtually the same policy regarding the middle east. (the transparent cabal, p. 90). Sniegoski went on to note the very same points sane make about the differences between a clean break and the case for war presented in 2003 while neocons present american policy in a very idealistic light, their policy prescriptions for israel, which involved similar concrete policy objective, were devoid of such sentiment. Written in terms of israeli interest, the study made little mention of the benefits to be accrued by israels neighbouring countries, such as the establishment of democracy. (the transparent cabal, p92)the conclusion that sane invites us to draw is that the aims of the israeli geopoliticians of 1996, were unrelated to those of the american idealists of 2003, despite the minor coincidence of their being the same people. The more credible view is that a right-wing likudist analysis of israels geopolitical interests was a key factor in the neoconservative drive to war. The clean break document was not silent on the role of the united states. To anticipate u. S. Reactions and plan ways to manage and constrain those reactions, prime minister netanyahu can formulate the policies and stress themes he favors in language familiar to the americans by tapping into themes of american administrations during the cold war which apply well to israel. . The subsequent emphasis on bringing democracy to iraq was consistent with this principle. In the transition from a clean break to the us invasion of iraq the neocons presented a false identity between american and european interests, and a hard-line likudist conception of israels interests. This is a habit that arguably did not end in 2003, and may explain episodes such as policy exchanges private briefing. If europeans oppose engagement with the muslim brotherhood at home, they are not likely to press for israeli negotiations with hamas. Likewise, if europeans fear muslim population growth at home, they are more likely to accept extreme responses to palestinian population growth. A clean break is not, incidentally, the only evidence that sane and iasps have neoconservative links. Sane president david yerushalmi is general counsel and policy advisor to the center for security policy, a think tank headed by the former assistant secretary of defense, frank gaffney. Gaffneys neoconservative record has been documented by jim lobe, who also revealed earlier this year, that gaffneys sister, devon gaffney cross has been organising pentagon-funded private briefings by fellow neoconservatives for reporters in london and paris. . Well done to nick clegg for becoming the first major party leader to take on policy exchange over its unscrupulous approach to islam. (hat-tip sunny hundal)in a statement carried by the politicshome website on friday, clegg criticised the think-tank over for a privately circulated briefing against the sundays global peace and unity event in london. The policy exchange briefing i have seen seeks to raise alarm over a number of the speakers planning to attend the conference. The accuracy of the allegations is variable, with a notable lack of evidence to support many of the claims. In particular i was appalled to see evidence quoted from the society for american national existence, an organisation which seeks to make the practice of islam illegal, punishable by 20 years in prison. I need hardly point out how illogical it is to attempt to criticise one set of extreme views by citing another. My concern is not limited to the facts in the document, however. Your attempt to raise a boycott of this event by privately briefing against it is bizarre, and underhand behaviour for a think-tank supposedly interested in open public debate. The information you are disseminating is extremely narrow in focus and as a result tars with the brush of extremism the tens of thousands of muslims who will be in attendance. This looks exactly like the kind of activity which led the charity commission to identify a need for greater transparency from policy exchange earlier this year. . The following is a mirror of an original post from craig murray this is the key section from my new book which the publisher is unwilling to publish due to legal threats from schillings libel lawyers, acting on behalf of the mercenary commander tim spicer peter penfold was back in the uk. He was interviewed separately. Both penfold and spicer were interviewed under caution, as suspects for having broken the arms embargo. Then, suddenly, tony blair intervened. On 11 may 1998, without consulting the fco, he gave a statement to journalists. Penfold, blair declared, was a hero. A dictatorship had been successfully overthrown and democracy restored. Penfold had done a superb job in trying to deal with the consequences of the military coup. All this stuff about security council resolutions and sanctions was an overblown hoo-ha. I believe this episode is extremely important. In 1998 the country was still starry-eyed about blair, but with the benefit of hindsight, this intervention points the way towards the disasters of his later years in office. It is extraordinarily wrong for a prime minister to declare that a man is a hero, when customs had questioned him two days earlier under caution over the very matter the prime minister is praising. It shows blair belief that his judgement stood above the law of the land, something that was to occur again on a much bigger scale when he halted the serious fraud office investigation into british aerospace foreign bribes. But of course blairs contempt for un security council resolutions on the arms embargo, and the belief that installing democracy by invasion could trump the trivia of international law, prefigures precisely the disaster of iraq. As with iraq, blair was also conveniently ignoring the fact that sierra leone was left a mess, with kabbah in charge of little more than freetown. In the fco we were astonished by blair intervention, and deeply puzzled. Where had it come from? It differed completely from robin cook views. Who was drafting this stuff for blair to the effect that the un and the law were unimportant? For most of us, this was the very first indication we had of how deep a hold neo-con thinking and military interests had on the blair circle. It was also my first encounter with the phenomenon of foreign policy being dictated by alistair campbell, the prime inister press secretary, the military lobby, of course, was working hard to defend spicer, one of their own. A few days later customs and excise concluded their investigations. A thick dossier, including documentation from the fco, from the raid on sandline offices, and from elsewhere, was sent to the crown prosecution service. The customs and excise team who had interviewed us told me that the recommendation was that both spicer and penfold be prosecuted for breach of the embargo. The dossier was returned to customs and excise from the crown prosecution service the very same day it was sent. It was marked, in effect, for no further action. There would be no prosecution. A customs officer told me bitterly that, given the time between the dossier leaving their offices and the time it was returned, allowing time for both deliveries, it could not have been in the cps more than half an hour. It was a thick dossier. They could not even have read it before turning it down. I felt sick to my stomach at the decision not to prosecute spicer and penfold. So were the customs officers investigating the case, at least two of them called me to commiserate. They had believed they had put together an extremely strong case, and they told me that their submission to the crown prosecution service said so. The decision not to prosecute in the sandline case was the first major instance of the corruption of the legal process that was to be a hallmark of the blair years. Customs and excise were stunned by it. There is no doubt whatsoever that spicer and penfold had worked together to ship weapons to sierra leone in breach of uk law. Security council 1132 had been given effect in british law by an order in council. I had never found in the least credible their assertions that they did not know about it. I had personally told spicer that it would be illegal to ship arms to sierra leone, to any side in the conflict. Penfold claim never to have seen an absolutely key security council resolution about a country to which he was high commissioner is truly extraordinary. But even if they did not know, ignorance of the law is famously no defence in england. Who knows what a jury would have made of this sorry tale of greed, hired killers and blood diamonds. But i have no doubt at all and more importantly nor did the customs officers investigating the case that there was enough there for a viable prosecution. The head of the crown prosecution service when it decided not to prosecute was barbara mills. Barbara mills is a very well-connected woman in new labour circles. She is married to john mills, a former labour councillor in camden. That makes her sister-in-law to tessa jowell, the new labour cabinet minister with a penchant for taking out repeated mortgages on her home, and then paying them off with cash widely alleged to have come from silvio berlusconi, the friend and business colleague of her husband david mills, who according to a bbc documentary by the estimable john sweeney has created offshore companies for known camorra and mafia interests. Tessa jowell and david mills were also both camden labour councillors, and are close to tony blair. Blair is also a great friend of berlusconi, despite the numerous criminal allegations against berlusconi and his long history of political alliances with open fascists. Just to complete the cosy new labour picture, another brother-in-law of barbara mills and tessa jowell is alan rusbridger, editor of the guardian. Did any of those relationships of barbara mills, the director of public prosecutions, affect the crown prosecution service decision not to proceed with the case, and to take that decision in less time than it would have taken them to read the dossier customs and excise sent them? Barbara mills was to resign as director of public prosecutions later that year after being personally criticised in his judgement by a high court judge who ruled against the crown prosecution service for continually failing to prosecute over deaths in police custody. That has not stopped the extremely well connected dame barbara from being appointed to a string of highly paid public positions since then. It is infuriating that, maxwell style, spicer (who has made millions form the war in iraq) is using the prohibitive costs of defending a libel case to intimidate my publisher. The result is that important information i received at first hand, and an account of events to which i am eye-witness, is being repressed, as is an important independent critique of early blair foreign policy. I am not currently confident the book will get published at all - i am not prepared to put out anodyne pap, which hides the truth, under my name. . . But it is pretty firmly in hibernation mode at the moment. In part this it has opened up a number of other opportunities for me that are now taking up most of my time. One of these is an editing gig at opendemocracys ourkingdom blog, which is involved in some very exciting thinking around the future of the uk. My involvement with spinwatch has also deepened to the point where an argument that started out as a response to a slugger thread has led to me starting a ph. D at the university of strathclyde. Both opendemocracy and spinwatch have got some interesting new projects in the works over the next few months. In the meantime, id like to flag up some good posts elsewhere on the themes that ive been neglecting here lately. If you had been following the coverage of tim spicer, tony buckingham and assorted mercenaries here, then you will want to look up craig murrays recent encounters with same. If youre interested in the neocons, london bloggers have produced some great coverage of policy exchanges relationship with boris johnson in recent months. Notable examples can be found at dave hill, liberal conspiracy, boris watch and tory troll. Its also worth noting arun kundnanis article earlier this month, and the guardians profile on policy exchange last friday, which both picked up on dean godsons cold war background. The hiatus here is likely to continue but do please keep an eye out my stuff at ourkingdom and spinwatch. . Last year a supporter of the pfc in the us contacted senator barack obama regarding the controversial pentagon contract with lt col spicer, the former scots guards officer whose troops murdered peter mc bride - see excerpt below from obamas response - today- september 4 is the anniversary of peters murder. We urge supporters to contact senator obama and call on the presidential candidate to keep his promise if elected and cancel the aegis contract!. . As you know, the ceo of aegis defense services tim spicer has been implicated in a variety of human rights abuses around the globe. Given his history, i agree that the united states should consider rescinding its contract with his company. . Jean mc bride (mother of peter) senator obama has appointed a high level advisory panel on irish issues, comprised of seven well known irish american politicans. The group is comprised of senators george mitchell (retired, maine), chris dodd (connecticut), edward kennedy (massachusetts) and pat leahy (vermont), governor martin o malley of maryland and congressmen joe crowley (new york) and richard neal (massachusetts). Again we would urge supporters to contact all or any of the above and call for the aegis contract to be cancelled. Please cc responses to us. See http www. Patfinucanecentre pmcbride mcbindex. Html for extensive background on the aegis private security contract in iraq and spicer role in the case of the murder of 18 year old teenager peter mc bride who was murdered on september 4 1992 by soldiers under his command. . It& ,s about time that i broke radio silence on here, and this certainly merits it. Former diplomat craig murray is having another run-in with schillings, the lawyers who briefly managed to get his website taken down on behalf of uzbek oligarch alisher usmanov. Now they are attempting to block the publication of my new book in the interests of mercenary commander tim spicer, one of those who has made a fortune from the iraq war. It is sad but perhaps predictable that private profits from the illegal iraq war, in which hundreds of thousands of innocent people have died, are providing the funding to try to silence my book. . The road to samarkand sounds as if it will be very interesting. Among the incidents i cover in my new book are the murder of peter mcbride, the aegis trophy video, the papua new guinea coup, the equatorial guinea plot, executive outcomes& , murder of civilians in angola and the arms to africa affair. I do hope that other bloggers will generate another streisand effect through blogging on these subjects. . Spinwatch has just published my latest profile piece, on the euston manifesto group. I doubt the broad thrust of it will come as a huge surprise to anyone. It looks at the groups connections with american social networks around the (apparently now defunct) social democrats usa and the national endowment for democracy, two organisations which played a part in the iran-contra affair. Some more strands in this particular web were highlighted in a recent post from the yorkshire ranter you may recall that the famous document that was meant to show iraq buying uranium from niger originated with the italian secret service, and then appeared in yer dossier, just in time for the americans to start using it in public speeches. It has long been suspected that the meeting in rome was somehow involved in this exercise in policy-laundering, or rather bullshit-laundering. So how did the thing get from italy to the uk? Well, there was harold rhode, also at the meeting, who made it to the december 2002 iraqi opposition conference in london. That may give us some idea. Now thats what i call the exigencies of the service - youve got to meet gems like ledeen, ghorbanifar, chalabi,. . Its hell in the diplomatic, as harry flashman so wisely said. (selling the dummy). David habakkuks latest piece brings us some interesting reflections on the neoconservatives and their various exile clients much more could be said about the sheer oddity of a conceptions of a forward strategy in which conmen like chalabi or berezovsky come to be seen as appropriate vehicles to make other societies liberal and democratic. What cannot be claimed, however, is that these conceptions are simply the fig-leaves of cunning machiavellians. In relation to their own societies, the neoconservatives and their british fellow-travellers may indeed be masterly manipulators. But their propensity to see alien societies through thick ideological filters makes them easy prey for conmen in their dealings with the wider world -- so that the actual outcomes of the strategies they advocate are highly liable to be quite different from those they envisage. (european tribune). As it happens, the us senate intelligence committee released a report this week which neatly illustrates davids argument. It concerns a series of meetings which began in rome in 2001. The meeting included larry franklin (office of assistant secretary of defense, international security affairs), harold rhode (office of net assessments), michael ledeen (former office of the secretary of defense and national security council consultant), manucher ghorbanifar (iranian exile), iranian 1 (iranian living in exile in morocco), iranian 2 (iranian revolutionary guard official), and an unidentified employee of a foreign government. Michael ledeen arranged the meeting with the help of his contacts in italy and the foreign government who provided the meeting place and the logistical support. (partly redacted in original links added). . A later passage in the report considers the counterintelligence implications the most significant matter raised in the counterintelligence field activitys report was the possibility that mr. Ghorbanifar of his associates are being used as agents of a foreign intelligence service to leverage his continuing contact with michael ledeen and others to reach into and influence the highest leveles of the u. S. Government. The report noted that there were multiple occasions where information from mr. Ghorbanifar entered u. S. Government channels via mr. Ledeen. These channels included personnel from the federal bureau of investigation, cia, dod, the white house, and congress. As a result, mr. Ghorbanifar was able to communicate with us government officials via mr. Ledeen without having direct contact. While the report concluded that mr. Ledeen was likely unwitting of any counterintelligence issues related to his relationship with mr. Ghorbanifar, their association was widely known, and therefore it should be presumed other foreign intelligence services, including those of iran, would know. . The website of standpoint, the new magazine published by the social affairs unit, is now live. In his inaugural column, editor daniel johnson highlights the magazines neoconservative credentials when you have a good idea, start a magazine. This, according to our board member gertrude himmelfarb, is the motto of her husband irving kristol. In a long and fruitful life, he has started three. (their son bill has started one, too. ) the first was encounter, which kristol co-founded with the late stephen spender in 1953. It was a transatlantic monthly in which the intellectuals of the free world could debate with one another and their communist counterparts. To write for encounter was a privilege. . Johnson doesnt mention it explicitly, but it is, of course, well-known that encounter was founded and financed by the cia as part of its psychological warfare strategy during the early cold war. According to historian hugh wilford, the magazines greatest achievement was in creating a certain kind of intellectual-cultural milieu in which american and european interests came to appear as if they were identical. . Back in january i suggested that martin brights knocking documentary on ken livingstone was connected to his relationship with policy exchange. Well now livingstone is gone and boris watch informs us that policy exchange is firmly ensconced at city hall during the electoral campaign, boris was aided by dan ritterband, a one-time director of policy exchange, and soon after his victory, nicholas boles, the founder of the organisation, was named as the mayor chief of staff. Boles was, the observer reported, asked to help the new mayor find the right staff , and one of his first appointments was munira mirza - an employee of policy exchange - as director of policy, arts, culture and the creative industries. Ritterband, meanwhile, maintained his position among boris advisers. . Given the way livingstone was red-baited over his socialist action advisers, it is particularly ironic that johnson should have appointed mirza, who was formerly involved with the manifesto club, an organisation associated with the the living marxism revolutionary communist party network. Splintered sunrise has some interesting thoughts on the parallels between socialist action and the rcp. For my money, the classic example of an upwardly mobile marxist or ex-marxist clique is the lovestoneite faction which started out in the american communist party and ended up working with james angleton and the cia. The key lovestoneite figure in britain was roy godson, father of policy exchanges dean godson. The rise of neoconservatism marks to a significant extent, the emergence of a post-marxist movement as a dominant strain on the right. It seems not everyone involved in promoting neoconservatism understands that. . Very interesting thread on sic semper tyrannis about the us investigation into bae the biggest aspect of the bae al yamamah story is the offshore fund. To summarize bae delivered about billion in arms and services to saudi arabia. Bae padded the bills substantially, up to nearly billion. The pad was used, in part, to bribe saudi officials who helped swing the deal, including bandar and prince turki bin-khaled, a top official of the saudi ministry of defense. That part is fully detailed in the guardian and other british coverage of the bae scandal, going back three or four years. What is not covered in the british press is the fact that saudi arabia paid for the arms with oil. The oil was sold on the spot market, and this generated an estimated (in current dollars) 0 billion in cash. I am told by former u. S. Treasury department officials that the funds generated from the oil sales, after bae got their cut, went into offshore bank accounts. . As jamie notes at blood and treasure theres not a lot of evidence offered, but the allegation about the oil fund has come up before. In his book in the public interest, the former chairman of astra, gerald james, highlights a partially blacked out memo that was sent to jeff rooker mp, which suggested some of the funds found their way to the conservative party. . The green ribbon books the hidden hand britain, america and cold war secret intelligence, by richard j. Aldrich. God englishman oliver cromwell and the english revolution by christopher hill writings of william walwynmilton and the english revolution, by christopher hillthe century of revolution, 1603-1714, by christopher hillthe rights of man, by tom painethe vote how it was won, and how it was undermined by paul foot the english, a portrait of a people, by jeremy paxmanthe making of english national identity by krishan kumarthe scottish insurrection of 1820 by peter berresford ellis, seumus mac a ghobhainn blackshirt sir oswald mosley and british fascism, by stephen dorrilhoney trap, by stephen dorril and anthony summers the celtic revolution, by peter berresford ellis this time our constitutional revolution, by anthony barnettpariah misfortunes of the british kingdom, by tom nairngordon brown bard of britishness, by tom nairn cromwell an honourable enemy by tom reillythe narrow ground aspects of ulster 1609-1969, by a. T. Q. Stewartthe year of liberty history of the great irish rebellion of 1798, by thomas pakenham the galtee boy a fenian prison narrative, by john sarsfield caseythe voyage of the catalpa a perilous journey and six irish rebels escape to freedom, by peter stevensjohn devoy catalpa expedition, by philip fennell and marie kingvoyage of the hougomont and life at fremantle, by thomas mccarthy fennellthe fenian diary the hougomont diary of denis b. Cashman, by denis b. Cashman, c. W. Sullivanirish rebel, john devoy and america fight for irish freedom, by terry golwaythe greatest of the fenians john devoy and ireland, by terence dooleyrossa recollections, 1838 to 1898 memoirs of an irish revolutionary, by jeremiah o donovan rossafenian fire the british government plot to assassinate queen victoria, by christy campbellprelude to the easter rising sir roger casement in imperial germany, by reinhard doerries1916 the easter rising, by tim pat coogandesmond rising memoirs 1913 to easter 1916, by desmond fitzgeraldpadraig pearse, the triumph of failure, by ruth dudley edwardsthe life and times of james connolly, by charles desmond greaves principles of freedom, by terence macswineyenduring the most life and death of terence macswiney, by francis j. Costello. I die in a good cause, by sean l ing tans, terror and troubles, kerry real fighting story, by t ryle dwyer. Enchanted by dreams the journal of a revolutionary by joe goodsam maguire the enigmatic man behind ireland most prestigious trophy, by margaret mary walshthe squad the intelligence operations of michael collins, by t ryle dwyer. Michael collins intelligence war the struggle between the british and the ira - 1919-1921, by michael t. Foybloody sunday how michael collins agents assassinated britain secret service in dublin on november 21, 1920, by james gleesonno other law, by florence o donoghuethe real chief, the story of liam lynch, by meda ryanflorence and josephine o donoghue war of independence a destiny that shapes our endguerilla days in ireland, by tom barrytom barry ira freedom fighter, by meda ryanmy fight for irish freedom, by dan breendan breen and the ira, by joe ambroseon another man wound a personal history of ireland war of independence, by ernie o malleyliam mellows and the irish revolution, by c. Desmond greaves. Who who in the irish war of independence, by padraic o farrellthe ira at war 1916-1923, by peter hart. The black and tans, by richard bennett. Peace by ordeal an account, from first-hand sources, of the negotiation and signature of the anglo-irish treaty, 1921, by frank pakenham longfordthe irish civil war, by tim pat coogani signed my death warrant michael collins and the treaty, by t ryle dwyerthe path to freedom articles and speeches, by michael collinsmichael collins a biography, by tim pat cooganmichael collins the man who won the war by t. Ryle dwyermichael collins a life, by james a. Mackay. Michael collins, by margery forestermichael collins and the women in his life, by meda ryanthe day michael collins was shot, by meda ryanmichael collins the secret file by a. T. Q stewartde valera long fellow, long shadow, by tim pat coogana memoir, by terry de valerathe irish republic, by dorothy mcardlein time of war ireland, ulster and the price of neutrality, 1939-45, by robert fisk a u. S. Spy in ireland, by martin s. Quigleywar and an irish town, by eamonn mccann bloody sunday in derry what really happened by eamonn mccann eyewitness bloody sunday by don mullanthe bloody sunday inquiry the families speak outpoint of no return the strike which broke the british in ulster, by robert fisk on the blanket the inside story of the ira prisoner dirty protest, by tim pat cooganten men dead story of the 1981 irish hunger strike, by david beresford the ira, by tim pat cooganthe provisional i. R. A. By patrick bishop and eamonn mallieforty years of controversy, by t ryle dwyerthe troubles ireland ordeal 1969-96, by tim pat coogan. Lost lives the stories of the men, women and children who died as a result of the northern ireland troubles, by david mckittrick, seamus kelters, brian feeney, chris thorntonunfinished business state killings and the quest for truth, by bill rolstonendgame in ireland, by eamonn mallie, david mckittricksinn fein a hundred turbulent years by brian feeney the sdlp and sinn fein, 1970-2001 from alienation to participation in northern ireland, by gerard murray, jonathan tongeireland in the twentieth century, by tim pat cooganwherever green is worn the story of the irish diaspora, by tim pat cooganan irish navvy the diary of an exile by. Error of judgement truth about the birmingham bombings, by chris mullinirish manchester, by alan keeganopen cut, by j. M. O neilli could read the sky, by timothy e. O gradyhide that can, by deirdre o callaghanfaces of nationalism, janus revisited, by tom nairnglobal matrix nationalism, globalism and state-terrorism, by tom nairn, paul james global nations, by tom nairn the modern world-system capitalist agriculture and the origins of the european world-economy in the sixteenth century, by immanuel wallerstein reorient global economy in the asian age by andre gunder frank the black jacobins toussaint l ouverture and the san domingo revolution, by c. L. R. James the scramble for africa, by thomas pakenham the boer war, by thomas pakenham culture and imperialism by edward w. Saidthe fateful triangle united states, israel and the palestinians by noam chomskypity the nation lebanon at war by robert fiskthe great war for civilisation the conquest of the middle east, by robert fisk the market for force the consequences of privatizing security, by deborah d. Avant iraq,inc. A profitable occupation, by pratap chatterjeea history of god by karen armstrong. It has been a strange month in the politics of northern ireland, and last week was no exception. On monday, there was optimism that abreakthrough on the devolution of policing and justice was in the offing. A few days later, talks had collapsed amid recriminations betweengerry adams and peter robinson. Uup leader reg empey was predicting an assembly election would be called by the end of the coming week, agood indicator of the likely timeframe before a definitive breakthrough or breakdown. Over-shadowing the weeks events was a remarkable scoop from slugger otooles eamonn mallie, the veteran journalist who first revealed thebritish governments talks with the ira in the early 1990s. He reported that last sunday, the dup and ulster unionist leadership took part in secret talks inengland with shadow northern ireland secretary owen paterson aimed at unionist unity and copper fastening maximum unionist support for a future conservative government, should there be a hungparliament. The conservatives denied that any discussion of a hung parliament had taken place, stating what this was, was the shadow secretary of state as somebody who could potentially be the actual secretary of state in a matter of weeks,holding private talks with representatives of the two main unionist parties to explore how we might overcome some of the politicalinstabilities at stormont, and to avoid a situation in which we might potentially, should we win the election, inherit a collapsed assemblyand direct rule. . On the face of it, this makes sense, particularly as the dup would want political cover from the tories ulster unionist allies in the eventof a deal with sinn fein. However, a series of intriguing stories undermined this picture. The belfast telegraph reported that the dup wasconsidering giving the ulster unionists a free run in two nationalist-held westminster seats. Rte reported that robinson was considering anoutright alliance between the two parties, and the bbc reported that three consevative parliamentary candidates had resigned. The bbcs mark devenport summed up the situation at the end of the week when questioned about the prospect of sinn fein becoming stormonts largest party, neither unionist leader would rule out their respectiveparties merging into one bloc. Although the conservatives claimed there was no discussion of a hung westminster parliament during the secrettalks in england last sunday, senior dup sources are talking up the significance a single unionist force could have for the parliamentaryarithmetic at westminster. They are pointing out that 12 pro-conservative seats equals 24 in a balanced parliament. Of course that presumesboth north down and fermanagh south tyrone could be counted in such a bloc which is a big assumption. Nevertheless it gives a sense of thekind of calculations now being made. . The location of the talks may be significant hatfield house, the ancestral seat of lord salisbury, who as viscount cranborne was the keyally of ulster unionism in john majors cabinet. His home has hosted a unionist unity conference once before. The uup and dup were both representedat this gathering which took place a few months after the election of tony blair in 1997. It was ostensibly organised at the initiative ofsean ocallaghan, a former provisional ira member who became an advisor to david trimble. Another member of trimbles inner circle, thejournalist eoghan harris, declined to attend because, in the words of dean godson, the event had too much of the air of 1912-style resistanceto home rule, with unionists coalescing with what he saw as reactionary elements on the mainland. Those words found something of an echo this week from sdlp deputy leader alasdair mcdonnell, whose south belfast constituency is the mostvulnerable to a pan-unionist alliance. He accused david cameron of orchestrating a cynical attempt by the tories to grab a few orange votesahead of the forthcoming westminster election. If however,it emboldens the dup to risk the collapse of power-sharing, it will only serve the tuvs agenda. That would attract an extremely negativereaction from nationalists of all shades. It would also raise profound questions for all strands of unionism. The dup has spent forty years building at the expense of traditional big house unionism. How will its electorate take to becoming pawns ona chessboard at the home of a tory grandee? The ulster unionists and the conservatives have spent months talking up their alliance as the beginning of a new non-sectarian unionism thatcan attract catholic voters. If even their own candidates no longer have confidence in that agenda, why should anyone else? David cameron believes he is on the verge of winning broad support from the british people as the responsible choice to lead the nextgovernment. So why is he engaging in what looks uncomfortably like an opportunist manoeuvre for a dozen or so seats?. Events in london in recent weeks have highlighted the growing collusion between american neoconservatives and the european far right in stirring up hatred of muslims. Richard bartholomew has details of a meeting at the george restaurant in east london in august attended by jihad watchs robert spencer and douglas murray of the centre for social cohesion at the invitation of the christian action network. Also invited were the english defence league, the group responsible for a number of recent violent anti-muslim protests. Robert spencer says on his blog that he and murray refused to meet with the edl, and cites adrian morgan as a witness to this version of events. But the presence of morgan, who did meet the edl, is itself evidence of the emerging relationship between the neocons and the far-right. . Just a quick pointer to to my latest piece for spinwatch, web 2. 0 warfare from gaza to iran. It a story i m slightly ambivalent in one sense, because there has clearly been important information coming out of iran on twitter. There have also been a lot of poorly sourced rumours, of which perhaps the most suspicious is the one cited by robert fisk, that the iranian government is using hamas and hezbollah operatives to suppress the demonstrators. . If my story comes across as slightly sceptical about social media, i hope that the links to spinprofiles and neocon europe show some of the potential for using the technology in a more considered way. Indeed, i think there is potential for wikis like these to develop a symbiotic relationship with blogs and social networks, providing a more structure long-term memory for the blogosphere. . The current fiasco over expenses at westminster has created a major opportunity for political reform in britain. You might not know it from the medias focus on celebrity populism, but there has actually been some useful thinking on the left over the past year which addresses the causes of the crisis quite precisely. . Ive been collating some of that conversation for my own reference, and i thought it was worth sharing it here. Please feel free to suggest any other relevant links in the comments. . Tim gore, democratic republicanism. And the eu, next left, 07 02 09. Billy bragg opened the second half of his 2008 st george day celebrationat london barbican theatre with jerusalem. And, as kittyempire put it in her review, the audience responded coyly when billyinvited them to join in by holding above their heads the carefully laidout sheets of red and white paper distributed on the auditorium seatsto form one huge st george cross. Hardly an exercise of leniriefenstahl proportions, but more than enough, apparently, to getobserver readers searching for any excuse not to join in. (a jigsaw state (pdf)). In a previous collection of essays, 2008s imagined nation, perryman explored the possibilities for english national identity in the wake of devolution. A session on english nationalism at last years compass conference provided the inspiration for the new volume, whichbroadens the debate to look at the prospects for all of the nations in the uk. . There is plenty of irish interest with contributions from arthur aughey, gerry adams, inez mccormack and peadar kirby. Adams contribution is largely based on his speech to februarys sinn fein ard fheis, but its interesting to see it set in this context, not least because sinn fein has often been wary of drawing parallels with nationalist movements in the various nations of britain. . Tony blair has cited the precedent as cause for optimism in his role as quartet envoy, while gerry adams called for inclusive negotiations during his visit to gaza last week. The analogy isnt universally welcome, however. . Two recent articles reflect the parameters of the debate. In the new statesman, blairs former chief of staff, jonathan powell, argues that the british governments engagement with irish republicans provides a model for an israeli approach to hamas. In standpoint, douglas murray reiterates a longstanding neoconservative critique of such suggestions, arguing that the claims of the peace process in northern ireland itself are unproven - but they are also unhelpful to the point of uselessness. This dispute is significant given the identity of some of the key actors now emerging on the middle east stage. More over at ourkingdom. . Soviet front groups might have been more effective, but stalinist paranoia made impossible the operational autonomy needed to succeed. To the extent that future practitioners of this type of propaganda have learned lessons from the soviet experience, we may expect that the nonstate groups will be controlled in a more sophisticated manner and their ties to a given state will be less obvious. New methods of spreading propaganda (such as via internet web sites of non-governmental organizations ngos , or specialized email lists) allow a deceiver to reach target audiences via multiple channels. Many of these channels may remain relatively invisible to the public at large. (elements of strategic denial and deception by abram shulsky in strategic denial and deception the twenty-first century challenge, edited by roy godson and james j. Wirtz, transaction books, 2002, p23. ). Shulsky went on to note that despite the medias self-image of hardheaded cynicism, it is relatively vulnerable to this type of manipulation. (p24. ) the suns experience would seem to bear this out. . Time once again to dust off the cobwebs on here and draw together a few threads from my writing over the last couple of weeks. First of all my report for ourkingdom from the sinn fein ard fheis two weeks ago. It was a very interesting time to be in dublin, with 120,000 people marching on the streets against the governments swingeing austerity measures. Gerry adams cannily tapped into the mood by calling for a left-wing alliance with the labour party. . As a result craig is publishing the book online today. The green ribbon is delighted to be one of the many blogs supporting craig by hosting a copy of the file here. You can also support craig (and a range of charities) by picking up a privately-printed hard copy edition from amazon. The book includes an indispensable account of murrays dealings with spicer during the arms to africa affair, as well as his views on spicers role in the peter mcbride case and his subsequent career in iraq. . Heres an interesting postscript to nick cleggs attack on policy exchange for privately briefing against the global peace and unity event in london. One of the organisations cited by policy exchange, the society of americans for national existence, has objected to my characterisation of them in a post at spinwatch. On their blog a sane staffer writes. In this linkthe leftist brits continue to blather on about sane and its deep, secret powers. We continue. To get many visitors from england trying to figure this out. In this blog and in the links, sane is tied to iasps (true, we are indeed closely linked to iasps), but then we are both (iasps and sane)labeled neocons--which merely demonstrates these folks are either illiterate or fools or just dont read or are wholly disingenuous. . One point worth making is that the society of americans for national existence are not just some bunch of marginal crazies. Sane is actually a project of the institute for advanced strategic and political studies. Iasps was where key neoconservatives like richard perle, david wurmser and doug feith worked out the clean break strategy, which many believe formed the basis of the iraq war agenda they went on to pursue in the bush administration. . Neither the quote nor the full article labels either sane or iasps as neocon institutions. Much of what the article does say is specifically accepted by sane. Indeed, sane goes on to provide two articles which elaborate on iasps role in formulating the clean break strategy. The first of these, israel the advanced case of western affliction, states (my emphasis). Anyone who studies that institute document and the voluminous studies and analyses provided by iasps over the years to policy makers and politicians in israel and washington, d. C. , knows that iasps does not advocate democracy as a tool of foreign policy. It doesn t even advocate democracy as a tool of domestic policy. Indeed, the institute founder, loewenberg, has made clear that the drift in this country to democracy and away from a constitutional republic built on a federation of states, themselves layered on a bedrock of judeo-christian values, is very much a continuation of the decline of the west. . Anyone who looks at iraq or jordan and doesn t understand, not just the shia-sunni divide, but the important tribal ones that make claims going back to the terrorist founder freedom fighter nation builder of islam, mohammed, will never come to grips with the geo-strategic realities in that part of the world. The evidence of this claim is before us now in iraq, in afghanistan and in gaza. . The piece also alludes to the role of wurmser, perle et. Al. The institute has of course gained enormous worldwide attention through its pre-iraq war publication titled, a clean break a new strategy for securing the realm, in which it advocated a triangulated strategy between israel, turkey and jordan to remove saddam hussein from power in iraq and become the base of a tripartite power alliance to rule over and secure a strategic stability in the middle east. Because the reports contributors included many of the policy professionals that took up important positions in the bush administration, left-wing types, right-wing types, arabs, and main stream media soon gravitated to this study as the blueprint for the jewish neocon war in iraq. . At this point, sane would seem to have recapitulated most of my original argument. So what are they trying to establish with their rebuttal? I think there are two key points which also emerge in the second article does pat buchanan have a flea problem, a blind spot or both?. First things first. As i have written in the past, the clean break document was not about america at all, but about a strategy those of us at the institute (i was then a trustee and legal counsel) proposed. So the clean break document was aimed at the israeli government, not the us, and strategic security was the goal not spreading democracy. It is worth comparing this with what some of the neoconservatives critics have said. For example, stephen. J sniegoski has written. It should be emphasised that the same people - feith, wurmser, perle - who advised the israeli government on issues issues of national security would later advise the george w. Bush administration to pursue virtually the same policy regarding the middle east. (the transparent cabal, p. 90). Sniegoski went on to note the very same points sane make about the differences between a clean break and the case for war presented in 2003 while neocons present american policy in a very idealistic light, their policy prescriptions for israel, which involved similar concrete policy objective, were devoid of such sentiment. Written in terms of israeli interest, the study made little mention of the benefits to be accrued by israels neighbouring countries, such as the establishment of democracy. (the transparent cabal, p92)the conclusion that sane invites us to draw is that the aims of the israeli geopoliticians of 1996, were unrelated to those of the american idealists of 2003, despite the minor coincidence of their being the same people. The more credible view is that a right-wing likudist analysis of israels geopolitical interests was a key factor in the neoconservative drive to war. The clean break document was not silent on the role of the united states. To anticipate u. S. Reactions and plan ways to manage and constrain those reactions, prime minister netanyahu can formulate the policies and stress themes he favors in language familiar to the americans by tapping into themes of american administrations during the cold war which apply well to israel. . The subsequent emphasis on bringing democracy to iraq was consistent with this principle. In the transition from a clean break to the us invasion of iraq the neocons presented a false identity between american and european interests, and a hard-line likudist conception of israels interests. This is a habit that arguably did not end in 2003, and may explain episodes such as policy exchanges private briefing. If europeans oppose engagement with the muslim brotherhood at home, they are not likely to press for israeli negotiations with hamas. Likewise, if europeans fear muslim population growth at home, they are more likely to accept extreme responses to palestinian population growth. A clean break is not, incidentally, the only evidence that sane and iasps have neoconservative links. Sane president david yerushalmi is general counsel and policy advisor to the center for security policy, a think tank headed by the former assistant secretary of defense, frank gaffney. Gaffneys neoconservative record has been documented by jim lobe, who also revealed earlier this year, that gaffneys sister, devon gaffney cross has been organising pentagon-funded private briefings by fellow neoconservatives for reporters in london and paris. . Well done to nick clegg for becoming the first major party leader to take on policy exchange over its unscrupulous approach to islam. (hat-tip sunny hundal)in a statement carried by the politicshome website on friday, clegg criticised the think-tank over for a privately circulated briefing against the sundays global peace and unity event in london. The policy exchange briefing i have seen seeks to raise alarm over a number of the speakers planning to attend the conference. The accuracy of the allegations is variable, with a notable lack of evidence to support many of the claims. In particular i was appalled to see evidence quoted from the society for american national existence, an organisation which seeks to make the practice of islam illegal, punishable by 20 years in prison. I need hardly point out how illogical it is to attempt to criticise one set of extreme views by citing another. My concern is not limited to the facts in the document, however. Your attempt to raise a boycott of this event by privately briefing against it is bizarre, and underhand behaviour for a think-tank supposedly interested in open public debate. The information you are disseminating is extremely narrow in focus and as a result tars with the brush of extremism the tens of thousands of muslims who will be in attendance. This looks exactly like the kind of activity which led the charity commission to identify a need for greater transparency from policy exchange earlier this year. . The following is a mirror of an original post from craig murray this is the key section from my new book which the publisher is unwilling to publish due to legal threats from schillings libel lawyers, acting on behalf of the mercenary commander tim spicer peter penfold was back in the uk. He was interviewed separately. Both penfold and spicer were interviewed under caution, as suspects for having broken the arms embargo. Then, suddenly, tony blair intervened. On 11 may 1998, without consulting the fco, he gave a statement to journalists. Penfold, blair declared, was a hero. A dictatorship had been successfully overthrown and democracy restored. Penfold had done a superb job in trying to deal with the consequences of the military coup. All this stuff about security council resolutions and sanctions was an overblown hoo-ha. I believe this episode is extremely important. In 1998 the country was still starry-eyed about blair, but with the benefit of hindsight, this intervention points the way towards the disasters of his later years in office. It is extraordinarily wrong for a prime minister to declare that a man is a hero, when customs had questioned him two days earlier under caution over the very matter the prime minister is praising. It shows blair belief that his judgement stood above the law of the land, something that was to occur again on a much bigger scale when he halted the serious fraud office investigation into british aerospace foreign bribes. But of course blairs contempt for un security council resolutions on the arms embargo, and the belief that installing democracy by invasion could trump the trivia of international law, prefigures precisely the disaster of iraq. As with iraq, blair was also conveniently ignoring the fact that sierra leone was left a mess, with kabbah in charge of little more than freetown. In the fco we were astonished by blair intervention, and deeply puzzled. Where had it come from? It differed completely from robin cook views. Who was drafting this stuff for blair to the effect that the un and the law were unimportant? For most of us, this was the very first indication we had of how deep a hold neo-con thinking and military interests had on the blair circle. It was also my first encounter with the phenomenon of foreign policy being dictated by alistair campbell, the prime inister press secretary, the military lobby, of course, was working hard to defend spicer, one of their own. A few days later customs and excise concluded their investigations. A thick dossier, including documentation from the fco, from the raid on sandline offices, and from elsewhere, was sent to the crown prosecution service. The customs and excise team who had interviewed us told me that the recommendation was that both spicer and penfold be prosecuted for breach of the embargo. The dossier was returned to customs and excise from the crown prosecution service the very same day it was sent. It was marked, in effect, for no further action. There would be no prosecution. A customs officer told me bitterly that, given the time between the dossier leaving their offices and the time it was returned, allowing time for both deliveries, it could not have been in the cps more than half an hour. It was a thick dossier. They could not even have read it before turning it down. I felt sick to my stomach at the decision not to prosecute spicer and penfold. So were the customs officers investigating the case, at least two of them called me to commiserate. They had believed they had put together an extremely strong case, and they told me that their submission to the crown prosecution service said so. The decision not to prosecute in the sandline case was the first major instance of the corruption of the legal process that was to be a hallmark of the blair years. Customs and excise were stunned by it. There is no doubt whatsoever that spicer and penfold had worked together to ship weapons to sierra leone in breach of uk law. Security council 1132 had been given effect in british law by an order in council. I had never found in the least credible their assertions that they did not know about it. I had personally told spicer that it would be illegal to ship arms to sierra leone, to any side in the conflict. Penfold claim never to have seen an absolutely key security council resolution about a country to which he was high commissioner is truly extraordinary. But even if they did not know, ignorance of the law is famously no defence in england. Who knows what a jury would have made of this sorry tale of greed, hired killers and blood diamonds. But i have no doubt at all and more importantly nor did the customs officers investigating the case that there was enough there for a viable prosecution. The head of the crown prosecution service when it decided not to prosecute was barbara mills. Barbara mills is a very well-connected woman in new labour circles. She is married to john mills, a former labour councillor in camden. That makes her sister-in-law to tessa jowell, the new labour cabinet minister with a penchant for taking out repeated mortgages on her home, and then paying them off with cash widely alleged to have come from silvio berlusconi, the friend and business colleague of her husband david mills, who according to a bbc documentary by the estimable john sweeney has created offshore companies for known camorra and mafia interests. Tessa jowell and david mills were also both camden labour councillors, and are close to tony blair. Blair is also a great friend of berlusconi, despite the numerous criminal allegations against berlusconi and his long history of political alliances with open fascists. Just to complete the cosy new labour picture, another brother-in-law of barbara mills and tessa jowell is alan rusbridger, editor of the guardian. Did any of those relationships of barbara mills, the director of public prosecutions, affect the crown prosecution service decision not to proceed with the case, and to take that decision in less time than it would have taken them to read the dossier customs and excise sent them? Barbara mills was to resign as director of public prosecutions later that year after being personally criticised in his judgement by a high court judge who ruled against the crown prosecution service for continually failing to prosecute over deaths in police custody. That has not stopped the extremely well connected dame barbara from being appointed to a string of highly paid public positions since then. It is infuriating that, maxwell style, spicer (who has made millions form the war in iraq) is using the prohibitive costs of defending a libel case to intimidate my publisher. The result is that important information i received at first hand, and an account of events to which i am eye-witness, is being repressed, as is an important independent critique of early blair foreign policy. I am not currently confident the book will get published at all - i am not prepared to put out anodyne pap, which hides the truth, under my name. . . But it is pretty firmly in hibernation mode at the moment. In part this it has opened up a number of other opportunities for me that are now taking up most of my time. One of these is an editing gig at opendemocracys ourkingdom blog, which is involved in some very exciting thinking around the future of the uk. My involvement with spinwatch has also deepened to the point where an argument that started out as a response to a slugger thread has led to me starting a ph. D at the university of strathclyde. Both opendemocracy and spinwatch have got some interesting new projects in the works over the next few months. In the meantime, id like to flag up some good posts elsewhere on the themes that ive been neglecting here lately. If you had been following the coverage of tim spicer, tony buckingham and assorted mercenaries here, then you will want to look up craig murrays recent encounters with same. If youre interested in the neocons, london bloggers have produced some great coverage of policy exchanges relationship with boris johnson in recent months. Notable examples can be found at dave hill, liberal conspiracy, boris watch and tory troll. Its also worth noting arun kundnanis article earlier this month, and the guardians profile on policy exchange last friday, which both picked up on dean godsons cold war background. The hiatus here is likely to continue but do please keep an eye out my stuff at ourkingdom and spinwatch. . Last year a supporter of the pfc in the us contacted senator barack obama regarding the controversial pentagon contract with lt col spicer, the former scots guards officer whose troops murdered peter mc bride - see excerpt below from obamas response - today- september 4 is the anniversary of peters murder. We urge supporters to contact senator obama and call on the presidential candidate to keep his promise if elected and cancel the aegis contract!. . As you know, the ceo of aegis defense services tim spicer has been implicated in a variety of human rights abuses around the globe. Given his history, i agree that the united states should consider rescinding its contract with his company. . Jean mc bride (mother of peter) senator obama has appointed a high level advisory panel on irish issues, comprised of seven well known irish american politicans. The group is comprised of senators george mitchell (retired, maine), chris dodd (connecticut), edward kennedy (massachusetts) and pat leahy (vermont), governor martin o malley of maryland and congressmen joe crowley (new york) and richard neal (massachusetts). Again we would urge supporters to contact all or any of the above and call for the aegis contract to be cancelled. Please cc responses to us. See http www. Patfinucanecentre pmcbride mcbindex. Html for extensive background on the aegis private security contract in iraq and spicer role in the case of the murder of 18 year old teenager peter mc bride who was murdered on september 4 1992 by soldiers under his command. . It& ,s about time that i broke radio silence on here, and this certainly merits it. Former diplomat craig murray is having another run-in with schillings, the lawyers who briefly managed to get his website taken down on behalf of uzbek oligarch alisher usmanov. Now they are attempting to block the publication of my new book in the interests of mercenary commander tim spicer, one of those who has made a fortune from the iraq war. It is sad but perhaps predictable that private profits from the illegal iraq war, in which hundreds of thousands of innocent people have died, are providing the funding to try to silence my book. . The road to samarkand sounds as if it will be very interesting. Among the incidents i cover in my new book are the murder of peter mcbride, the aegis trophy video, the papua new guinea coup, the equatorial guinea plot, executive outcomes& , murder of civilians in angola and the arms to africa affair. I do hope that other bloggers will generate another streisand effect through blogging on these subjects. . Spinwatch has just published my latest profile piece, on the euston manifesto group. I doubt the broad thrust of it will come as a huge surprise to anyone. It looks at the groups connections with american social networks around the (apparently now defunct) social democrats usa and the national endowment for democracy, two organisations which played a part in the iran-contra affair. Some more strands in this particular web were highlighted in a recent post from the yorkshire ranter you may recall that the famous document that was meant to show iraq buying uranium from niger originated with the italian secret service, and then appeared in yer dossier, just in time for the americans to start using it in public speeches. It has long been suspected that the meeting in rome was somehow involved in this exercise in policy-laundering, or rather bullshit-laundering. So how did the thing get from italy to the uk? Well, there was harold rhode, also at the meeting, who made it to the december 2002 iraqi opposition conference in london. That may give us some idea. Now thats what i call the exigencies of the service - youve got to meet gems like ledeen, ghorbanifar, chalabi,. . Its hell in the diplomatic, as harry flashman so wisely said. (selling the dummy). David habakkuks latest piece brings us some interesting reflections on the neoconservatives and their various exile clients much more could be said about the sheer oddity of a conceptions of a forward strategy in which conmen like chalabi or berezovsky come to be seen as appropriate vehicles to make other societies liberal and democratic. What cannot be claimed, however, is that these conceptions are simply the fig-leaves of cunning machiavellians. In relation to their own societies, the neoconservatives and their british fellow-travellers may indeed be masterly manipulators. But their propensity to see alien societies through thick ideological filters makes them easy prey for conmen in their dealings with the wider world -- so that the actual outcomes of the strategies they advocate are highly liable to be quite different from those they envisage. (european tribune). As it happens, the us senate intelligence committee released a report this week which neatly illustrates davids argument. It concerns a series of meetings which began in rome in 2001. The meeting included larry franklin (office of assistant secretary of defense, international security affairs), harold rhode (office of net assessments), michael ledeen (former office of the secretary of defense and national security council consultant), manucher ghorbanifar (iranian exile), iranian 1 (iranian living in exile in morocco), iranian 2 (iranian revolutionary guard official), and an unidentified employee of a foreign government. Michael ledeen arranged the meeting with the help of his contacts in italy and the foreign government who provided the meeting place and the logistical support. (partly redacted in original links added). . A later passage in the report considers the counterintelligence implications the most significant matter raised in the counterintelligence field activitys report was the possibility that mr. Ghorbanifar of his associates are being used as agents of a foreign intelligence service to leverage his continuing contact with michael ledeen and others to reach into and influence the highest leveles of the u. S. Government. The report noted that there were multiple occasions where information from mr. Ghorbanifar entered u. S. Government channels via mr. Ledeen. These channels included personnel from the federal bureau of investigation, cia, dod, the white house, and congress. As a result, mr. Ghorbanifar was able to communicate with us government officials via mr. Ledeen without having direct contact. While the report concluded that mr. Ledeen was likely unwitting of any counterintelligence issues related to his relationship with mr. Ghorbanifar, their association was widely known, and therefore it should be presumed other foreign intelligence services, including those of iran, would know. . The website of standpoint, the new magazine published by the social affairs unit, is now live. In his inaugural column, editor daniel johnson highlights the magazines neoconservative credentials when you have a good idea, start a magazine. This, according to our board member gertrude himmelfarb, is the motto of her husband irving kristol. In a long and fruitful life, he has started three. (their son bill has started one, too. ) the first was encounter, which kristol co-founded with the late stephen spender in 1953. It was a transatlantic monthly in which the intellectuals of the free world could debate with one another and their communist counterparts. To write for encounter was a privilege. . Johnson doesnt mention it explicitly, but it is, of course, well-known that encounter was founded and financed by the cia as part of its psychological warfare strategy during the early cold war. According to historian hugh wilford, the magazines greatest achievement was in creating a certain kind of intellectual-cultural milieu in which american and european interests came to appear as if they were identical. . Back in january i suggested that martin brights knocking documentary on ken livingstone was connected to his relationship with policy exchange. Well now livingstone is gone and boris watch informs us that policy exchange is firmly ensconced at city hall during the electoral campaign, boris was aided by dan ritterband, a one-time director of policy exchange, and soon after his victory, nicholas boles, the founder of the organisation, was named as the mayor chief of staff. Boles was, the observer reported, asked to help the new mayor find the right staff , and one of his first appointments was munira mirza - an employee of policy exchange - as director of policy, arts, culture and the creative industries. Ritterband, meanwhile, maintained his position among boris advisers. . Given the way livingstone was red-baited over his socialist action advisers, it is particularly ironic that johnson should have appointed mirza, who was formerly involved with the manifesto club, an organisation associated with the the living marxism revolutionary communist party network. Splintered sunrise has some interesting thoughts on the parallels between socialist action and the rcp. For my money, the classic example of an upwardly mobile marxist or ex-marxist clique is the lovestoneite faction which started out in the american communist party and ended up working with james angleton and the cia. The key lovestoneite figure in britain was roy godson, father of policy exchanges dean godson. The rise of neoconservatism marks to a significant extent, the emergence of a post-marxist movement as a dominant strain on the right. It seems not everyone involved in promoting neoconservatism understands that. . Very interesting thread on sic semper tyrannis about the us investigation into bae the biggest aspect of the bae al yamamah story is the offshore fund. To summarize bae delivered about billion in arms and services to saudi arabia. Bae padded the bills substantially, up to nearly billion. The pad was used, in part, to bribe saudi officials who helped swing the deal, including bandar and prince turki bin-khaled, a top official of the saudi ministry of defense. That part is fully detailed in the guardian and other british coverage of the bae scandal, going back three or four years. What is not covered in the british press is the fact that saudi arabia paid for the arms with oil. The oil was sold on the spot market, and this generated an estimated (in current dollars) 0 billion in cash. I am told by former u. S. Treasury department officials that the funds generated from the oil sales, after bae got their cut, went into offshore bank accounts. . As jamie notes at blood and treasure theres not a lot of evidence offered, but the allegation about the oil fund has come up before. In his book in the public interest, the former chairman of astra, gerald james, highlights a partially blacked out memo that was sent to jeff rooker mp, which suggested some of the funds found their way to the conservative party. . The green ribbon books the hidden hand britain, america and cold war secret intelligence, by richard j. Aldrich. God englishman oliver cromwell and the english revolution by christopher hill writings of william walwynmilton and the english revolution, by christopher hillthe century of revolution, 1603-1714, by christopher hillthe rights of man, by tom painethe vote how it was won, and how it was undermined by paul foot the english, a portrait of a people, by jeremy paxmanthe making of english national identity by krishan kumarthe scottish insurrection of 1820 by peter berresford ellis, seumus mac a ghobhainn blackshirt sir oswald mosley and british fascism, by stephen dorrilhoney trap, by stephen dorril and anthony summers the celtic revolution, by peter berresford ellis this time our constitutional revolution, by anthony barnettpariah misfortunes of the british kingdom, by tom nairngordon brown bard of britishness, by tom nairn cromwell an honourable enemy by tom reillythe narrow ground aspects of ulster 1609-1969, by a. T. Q. Stewartthe year of liberty history of the great irish rebellion of 1798, by thomas pakenham the galtee boy a fenian prison narrative, by john sarsfield caseythe voyage of the catalpa a perilous journey and six irish rebels escape to freedom, by peter stevensjohn devoy catalpa expedition, by philip fennell and marie kingvoyage of the hougomont and life at fremantle, by thomas mccarthy fennellthe fenian diary the hougomont diary of denis b. Cashman, by denis b. Cashman, c. W. Sullivanirish rebel, john devoy and america fight for irish freedom, by terry golwaythe greatest of the fenians john devoy and ireland, by terence dooleyrossa recollections, 1838 to 1898 memoirs of an irish revolutionary, by jeremiah o donovan rossafenian fire the british government plot to assassinate queen victoria, by christy campbellprelude to the easter rising sir roger casement in imperial germany, by reinhard doerries1916 the easter rising, by tim pat coogandesmond rising memoirs 1913 to easter 1916, by desmond fitzgeraldpadraig pearse, the triumph of failure, by ruth dudley edwardsthe life and times of james connolly, by charles desmond greaves principles of freedom, by terence macswineyenduring the most life and death of terence macswiney, by francis j. Costello. I die in a good cause, by sean l ing tans, terror and troubles, kerry real fighting story, by t ryle dwyer. Enchanted by dreams the journal of a revolutionary by joe goodsam maguire the enigmatic man behind ireland most prestigious trophy, by margaret mary walshthe squad the intelligence operations of michael collins, by t ryle dwyer. Michael collins intelligence war the struggle between the british and the ira - 1919-1921, by michael t. Foybloody sunday how michael collins agents assassinated britain secret service in dublin on november 21, 1920, by james gleesonno other law, by florence o donoghuethe real chief, the story of liam lynch, by meda ryanflorence and josephine o donoghue war of independence a destiny that shapes our endguerilla days in ireland, by tom barrytom barry ira freedom fighter, by meda ryanmy fight for irish freedom, by dan breendan breen and the ira, by joe ambroseon another man wound a personal history of ireland war of independence, by ernie o malleyliam mellows and the irish revolution, by c. Desmond greaves. Who who in the irish war of independence, by padraic o farrellthe ira at war 1916-1923, by peter hart. The black and tans, by richard bennett. Peace by ordeal an account, from first-hand sources, of the negotiation and signature of the anglo-irish treaty, 1921, by frank pakenham longfordthe irish civil war, by tim pat coogani signed my death warrant michael collins and the treaty, by t ryle dwyerthe path to freedom articles and speeches, by michael collinsmichael collins a biography, by tim pat cooganmichael collins the man who won the war by t. Ryle dwyermichael collins a life, by james a. Mackay. Michael collins, by margery forestermichael collins and the women in his life, by meda ryanthe day michael collins was shot, by meda ryanmichael collins the secret file by a. T. Q stewartde valera long fellow, long shadow, by tim pat coogana memoir, by terry de valerathe irish republic, by dorothy mcardlein time of war ireland, ulster and the price of neutrality, 1939-45, by robert fisk a u. S. Spy in ireland, by martin s. Quigleywar and an irish town, by eamonn mccann bloody sunday in derry what really happened by eamonn mccann eyewitness bloody sunday by don mullanthe bloody sunday inquiry the families speak outpoint of no return the strike which broke the british in ulster, by robert fisk on the blanket the inside story of the ira prisoner dirty protest, by tim pat cooganten men dead story of the 1981 irish hunger strike, by david beresford the ira, by tim pat cooganthe provisional i. R. A. By patrick bishop and eamonn mallieforty years of controversy, by t ryle dwyerthe troubles ireland ordeal 1969-96, by tim pat coogan. Lost lives the stories of the men, women and children who died as a result of the northern ireland troubles, by david mckittrick, seamus kelters, brian feeney, chris thorntonunfinished business state killings and the quest for truth, by bill rolstonendgame in ireland, by eamonn mallie, david mckittricksinn fein a hundred turbulent years by brian feeney the sdlp and sinn fein, 1970-2001 from alienation to participation in northern ireland, by gerard murray, jonathan tongeireland in the twentieth century, by tim pat cooganwherever green is worn the story of the irish diaspora, by tim pat cooganan irish navvy the diary of an exile by. Error of judgement truth about the birmingham bombings, by chris mullinirish manchester, by alan keeganopen cut, by j. M. O neilli could read the sky, by timothy e. O gradyhide that can, by deirdre o callaghanfaces of nationalism, janus revisited, by tom nairnglobal matrix nationalism, globalism and state-terrorism, by tom nairn, paul james global nations, by tom nairn the modern world-system capitalist agriculture and the origins of the european world-economy in the sixteenth century, by immanuel wallerstein reorient global economy in the asian age by andre gunder frank the black jacobins toussaint l ouverture and the san domingo revolution, by c. L. R. James the scramble for africa, by thomas pakenham the boer war, by thomas pakenham culture and imperialism by edward w. Saidthe fateful triangle united states, israel and the palestinians by noam chomskypity the nation lebanon at war by robert fiskthe great war for civilisation the conquest of the middle east, by robert fisk the market for force the consequences of privatizing security, by deborah d. Avant iraq,inc. A profitable occupation, by pratap chatterjeea history of god by karen armstrong. It has been a strange month in the politics of northern ireland, and last week was no exception. On monday, there was optimism that abreakthrough on the devolution of policing and justice was in the offing. A few days later, talks had collapsed amid recriminations betweengerry adams and peter robinson. Uup leader reg empey was predicting an assembly election would be called by the end of the coming week, agood indicator of the likely timeframe before a definitive breakthrough or breakdown. Over-shadowing the weeks events was a remarkable scoop from slugger otooles eamonn mallie, the veteran journalist who first revealed thebritish governments talks with the ira in the early 1990s. He reported that last sunday, the dup and ulster unionist leadership took part in secret talks inengland with shadow northern ireland secretary owen paterson aimed at unionist unity and copper fastening maximum unionist support for a future conservative government, should there be a hungparliament. The conservatives denied that any discussion of a hung parliament had taken place, stating what this was, was the shadow secretary of state as somebody who could potentially be the actual secretary of state in a matter of weeks,holding private talks with representatives of the two main unionist parties to explore how we might overcome some of the politicalinstabilities at stormont, and to avoid a situation in which we might potentially, should we win the election, inherit a collapsed assemblyand direct rule. . On the face of it, this makes sense, particularly as the dup would want political cover from the tories ulster unionist allies in the eventof a deal with sinn fein. However, a series of intriguing stories undermined this picture. The belfast telegraph reported that the dup wasconsidering giving the ulster unionists a free run in two nationalist-held westminster seats. Rte reported that robinson was considering anoutright alliance between the two parties, and the bbc reported that three consevative parliamentary candidates had resigned. The bbcs mark devenport summed up the situation at the end of the week when questioned about the prospect of sinn fein becoming stormonts largest party, neither unionist leader would rule out their respectiveparties merging into one bloc. Although the conservatives claimed there was no discussion of a hung westminster parliament during the secrettalks in england last sunday, senior dup sources are talking up the significance a single unionist force could have for the parliamentaryarithmetic at westminster. They are pointing out that 12 pro-conservative seats equals 24 in a balanced parliament. Of course that presumesboth north down and fermanagh south tyrone could be counted in such a bloc which is a big assumption. Nevertheless it gives a sense of thekind of calculations now being made. . The location of the talks may be significant hatfield house, the ancestral seat of lord salisbury, who as viscount cranborne was the keyally of ulster unionism in john majors cabinet. His home has hosted a unionist unity conference once before. The uup and dup were both representedat this gathering which took place a few months after the election of tony blair in 1997. It was ostensibly organised at the initiative ofsean ocallaghan, a former provisional ira member who became an advisor to david trimble. Another member of trimbles inner circle, thejournalist eoghan harris, declined to attend because, in the words of dean godson, the event had too much of the air of 1912-style resistanceto home rule, with unionists coalescing with what he saw as reactionary elements on the mainland. Those words found something of an echo this week from sdlp deputy leader alasdair mcdonnell, whose south belfast constituency is the mostvulnerable to a pan-unionist alliance. He accused david cameron of orchestrating a cynical attempt by the tories to grab a few orange votesahead of the forthcoming westminster election. If however,it emboldens the dup to risk the collapse of power-sharing, it will only serve the tuvs agenda. That would attract an extremely negativereaction from nationalists of all shades. It would also raise profound questions for all strands of unionism. The dup has spent forty years building at the expense of traditional big house unionism. How will its electorate take to becoming pawns ona chessboard at the home of a tory grandee? The ulster unionists and the conservatives have spent months talking up their alliance as the beginning of a new non-sectarian unionism thatcan attract catholic voters. If even their own candidates no longer have confidence in that agenda, why should anyone else? David cameron believes he is on the verge of winning broad support from the british people as the responsible choice to lead the nextgovernment. So why is he engaging in what looks uncomfortably like an opportunist manoeuvre for a dozen or so seats?. Events in london in recent weeks have highlighted the growing collusion between american neoconservatives and the european far right in stirring up hatred of muslims. Richard bartholomew has details of a meeting at the george restaurant in east london in august attended by jihad watchs robert spencer and douglas murray of the centre for social cohesion at the invitation of the christian action network. Also invited were the english defence league, the group responsible for a number of recent violent anti-muslim protests. Robert spencer says on his blog that he and murray refused to meet with the edl, and cites adrian morgan as a witness to this version of events. But the presence of morgan, who did meet the edl, is itself evidence of the emerging relationship between the neocons and the far-right. . Just a quick pointer to to my latest piece for spinwatch, web 2. 0 warfare from gaza to iran. It a story i m slightly ambivalent in one sense, because there has clearly been important information coming out of iran on twitter. There have also been a lot of poorly sourced rumours, of which perhaps the most suspicious is the one cited by robert fisk, that the iranian government is using hamas and hezbollah operatives to suppress the demonstrators. . If my story comes across as slightly sceptical about social media, i hope that the links to spinprofiles and neocon europe show some of the potential for using the technology in a more considered way. Indeed, i think there is potential for wikis like these to develop a symbiotic relationship with blogs and social networks, providing a more structure long-term memory for the blogosphere. . The current fiasco over expenses at westminster has created a major opportunity for political reform in britain. You might not know it from the medias focus on celebrity populism, but there has actually been some useful thinking on the left over the past year which addresses the causes of the crisis quite precisely. . Ive been collating some of that conversation for my own reference, and i thought it was worth sharing it here. Please feel free to suggest any other relevant links in the comments. . Tim gore, democratic republicanism. And the eu, next left, 07 02 09. Billy bragg opened the second half of his 2008 st george day celebrationat london barbican theatre with jerusalem. And, as kittyempire put it in her review, the audience responded coyly when billyinvited them to join in by holding above their heads the carefully laidout sheets of red and white paper distributed on the auditorium seatsto form one huge st george cross. Hardly an exercise of leniriefenstahl proportions, but more than enough, apparently, to getobserver readers searching for any excuse not to join in. (a jigsaw state (pdf)). In a previous collection of essays, 2008s imagined nation, perryman explored the possibilities for english national identity in the wake of devolution. A session on english nationalism at last years compass conference provided the inspiration for the new volume, whichbroadens the debate to look at the prospects for all of the nations in the uk. . There is plenty of irish interest with contributions from arthur aughey, gerry adams, inez mccormack and peadar kirby. Adams contribution is largely based on his speech to februarys sinn fein ard fheis, but its interesting to see it set in this context, not least because sinn fein has often been wary of drawing parallels with nationalist movements in the various nations of britain. . Tony blair has cited the precedent as cause for optimism in his role as quartet envoy, while gerry adams called for inclusive negotiations during his visit to gaza last week. The analogy isnt universally welcome, however. . Two recent articles reflect the parameters of the debate. In the new statesman, blairs former chief of staff, jonathan powell, argues that the british governments engagement with irish republicans provides a model for an israeli approach to hamas. In standpoint, douglas murray reiterates a longstanding neoconservative critique of such suggestions, arguing that the claims of the peace process in northern ireland itself are unproven - but they are also unhelpful to the point of uselessness. This dispute is significant given the identity of some of the key actors now emerging on the middle east stage. More over at ourkingdom. . Soviet front groups might have been more effective, but stalinist paranoia made impossible the operational autonomy needed to succeed. To the extent that future practitioners of this type of propaganda have learned lessons from the soviet experience, we may expect that the nonstate groups will be controlled in a more sophisticated manner and their ties to a given state will be less obvious. New methods of spreading propaganda (such as via internet web sites of non-governmental organizations ngos , or specialized email lists) allow a deceiver to reach target audiences via multiple channels. Many of these channels may remain relatively invisible to the public at large. (elements of strategic denial and deception by abram shulsky in strategic denial and deception the twenty-first century challenge, edited by roy godson and james j. Wirtz, transaction books, 2002, p23. ). Shulsky went on to note that despite the medias self-image of hardheaded cynicism, it is relatively vulnerable to this type of manipulation. (p24. ) the suns experience would seem to bear this out. . Time once again to dust off the cobwebs on here and draw together a few threads from my writing over the last couple of weeks. First of all my report for ourkingdom from the sinn fein ard fheis two weeks ago. It was a very interesting time to be in dublin, with 120,000 people marching on the streets against the governments swingeing austerity measures. Gerry adams cannily tapped into the mood by calling for a left-wing alliance with the labour party. . As a result craig is publishing the book online today. The green ribbon is delighted to be one of the many blogs supporting craig by hosting a copy of the file here. You can also support craig (and a range of charities) by picking up a privately-printed hard copy edition from amazon. The book includes an indispensable account of murrays dealings with spicer during the arms to africa affair, as well as his views on spicers role in the peter mcbride case and his subsequent career in iraq. . Heres an interesting postscript to nick cleggs attack on policy exchange for privately briefing against the global peace and unity event in london. One of the organisations cited by policy exchange, the society of americans for national existence, has objected to my characterisation of them in a post at spinwatch. On their blog a sane staffer writes. In this linkthe leftist brits continue to blather on about sane and its deep, secret powers. We continue. To get many visitors from england trying to figure this out. In this blog and in the links, sane is tied to iasps (true, we are indeed closely linked to iasps), but then we are both (iasps and sane)labeled neocons--which merely demonstrates these folks are either illiterate or fools or just dont read or are wholly disingenuous. . One point worth making is that the society of americans for national existence are not just some bunch of marginal crazies. Sane is actually a project of the institute for advanced strategic and political studies. Iasps was where key neoconservatives like richard perle, david wurmser and doug feith worked out the clean break strategy, which many believe formed the basis of the iraq war agenda they went on to pursue in the bush administration. . Neither the quote nor the full article labels either sane or iasps as neocon institutions. Much of what the article does say is specifically accepted by sane. Indeed, sane goes on to provide two articles which elaborate on iasps role in formulating the clean break strategy. The first of these, israel the advanced case of western affliction, states (my emphasis). Anyone who studies that institute document and the voluminous studies and analyses provided by iasps over the years to policy makers and politicians in israel and washington, d. C. , knows that iasps does not advocate democracy as a tool of foreign policy. It doesn t even advocate democracy as a tool of domestic policy. Indeed, the institute founder, loewenberg, has made clear that the drift in this country to democracy and away from a constitutional republic built on a federation of states, themselves layered on a bedrock of judeo-christian values, is very much a continuation of the decline of the west. . Anyone who looks at iraq or jordan and doesn t understand, not just the shia-sunni divide, but the important tribal ones that make claims going back to the terrorist founder freedom fighter nation builder of islam, mohammed, will never come to grips with the geo-strategic realities in that part of the world. The evidence of this claim is before us now in iraq, in afghanistan and in gaza. . The piece also alludes to the role of wurmser, perle et. Al. The institute has of course gained enormous worldwide attention through its pre-iraq war publication titled, a clean break a new strategy for securing the realm, in which it advocated a triangulated strategy between israel, turkey and jordan to remove saddam hussein from power in iraq and become the base of a tripartite power alliance to rule over and secure a strategic stability in the middle east. Because the reports contributors included many of the policy professionals that took up important positions in the bush administration, left-wing types, right-wing types, arabs, and main stream media soon gravitated to this study as the blueprint for the jewish neocon war in iraq. . At this point, sane would seem to have recapitulated most of my original argument. So what are they trying to establish with their rebuttal? I think there are two key points which also emerge in the second article does pat buchanan have a flea problem, a blind spot or both?. First things first. As i have written in the past, the clean break document was not about america at all, but about a strategy those of us at the institute (i was then a trustee and legal counsel) proposed. So the clean break document was aimed at the israeli government, not the us, and strategic security was the goal not spreading democracy. It is worth comparing this with what some of the neoconservatives critics have said. For example, stephen. J sniegoski has written. It should be emphasised that the same people - feith, wurmser, perle - who advised the israeli government on issues issues of national security would later advise the george w. Bush administration to pursue virtually the same policy regarding the middle east. (the transparent cabal, p. 90). Sniegoski went on to note the very same points sane make about the differences between a clean break and the case for war presented in 2003 while neocons present american policy in a very idealistic light, their policy prescriptions for israel, which involved similar concrete policy objective, were devoid of such sentiment. Written in terms of israeli interest, the study made little mention of the benefits to be accrued by israels neighbouring countries, such as the establishment of democracy. (the transparent cabal, p92)the conclusion that sane invites us to draw is that the aims of the israeli geopoliticians of 1996, were unrelated to those of the american idealists of 2003, despite the minor coincidence of their being the same people. The more credible view is that a right-wing likudist analysis of israels geopolitical interests was a key factor in the neoconservative drive to war. The clean break document was not silent on the role of the united states. To anticipate u. S. Reactions and plan ways to manage and constrain those reactions, prime minister netanyahu can formulate the policies and stress themes he favors in language familiar to the americans by tapping into themes of american administrations during the cold war which apply well to israel. . The subsequent emphasis on bringing democracy to iraq was consistent with this principle. In the transition from a clean break to the us invasion of iraq the neocons presented a false identity between american and european interests, and a hard-line likudist conception of israels interests. This is a habit that arguably did not end in 2003, and may explain episodes such as policy exchanges private briefing. If europeans oppose engagement with the muslim brotherhood at home, they are not likely to press for israeli negotiations with hamas. Likewise, if europeans fear muslim population growth at home, they are more likely to accept extreme responses to palestinian population growth. A clean break is not, incidentally, the only evidence that sane and iasps have neoconservative links. Sane president david yerushalmi is general counsel and policy advisor to the center for security policy, a think tank headed by the former assistant secretary of defense, frank gaffney. Gaffneys neoconservative record has been documented by jim lobe, who also revealed earlier this year, that gaffneys sister, devon gaffney cross has been organising pentagon-funded private briefings by fellow neoconservatives for reporters in london and paris. . Well done to nick clegg for becoming the first major party leader to take on policy exchange over its unscrupulous approach to islam. (hat-tip sunny hundal)in a statement carried by the politicshome website on friday, clegg criticised the think-tank over for a privately circulated briefing against the sundays global peace and unity event in london. The policy exchange briefing i have seen seeks to raise alarm over a number of the speakers planning to attend the conference. The accuracy of the allegations is variable, with a notable lack of evidence to support many of the claims. In particular i was appalled to see evidence quoted from the society for american national existence, an organisation which seeks to make the practice of islam illegal, punishable by 20 years in prison. I need hardly point out how illogical it is to attempt to criticise one set of extreme views by citing another. My concern is not limited to the facts in the document, however. Your attempt to raise a boycott of this event by privately briefing against it is bizarre, and underhand behaviour for a think-tank supposedly interested in open public debate. The information you are disseminating is extremely narrow in focus and as a result tars with the brush of extremism the tens of thousands of muslims who will be in attendance. This looks exactly like the kind of activity which led the charity commission to identify a need for greater transparency from policy exchange earlier this year. . The following is a mirror of an original post from craig murray this is the key section from my new book which the publisher is unwilling to publish due to legal threats from schillings libel lawyers, acting on behalf of the mercenary commander tim spicer peter penfold was back in the uk. He was interviewed separately. Both penfold and spicer were interviewed under caution, as suspects for having broken the arms embargo. Then, suddenly, tony blair intervened. On 11 may 1998, without consulting the fco, he gave a statement to journalists. Penfold, blair declared, was a hero. A dictatorship had been successfully overthrown and democracy restored. Penfold had done a superb job in trying to deal with the consequences of the military coup. All this stuff about security council resolutions and sanctions was an overblown hoo-ha. I believe this episode is extremely important. In 1998 the country was still starry-eyed about blair, but with the benefit of hindsight, this intervention points the way towards the disasters of his later years in office. It is extraordinarily wrong for a prime minister to declare that a man is a hero, when customs had questioned him two days earlier under caution over the very matter the prime minister is praising. It shows blair belief that his judgement stood above the law of the land, something that was to occur again on a much bigger scale when he halted the serious fraud office investigation into british aerospace foreign bribes. But of course blairs contempt for un security council resolutions on the arms embargo, and the belief that installing democracy by invasion could trump the trivia of international law, prefigures precisely the disaster of iraq. As with iraq, blair was also conveniently ignoring the fact that sierra leone was left a mess, with kabbah in charge of little more than freetown. In the fco we were astonished by blair intervention, and deeply puzzled. Where had it come from? It differed completely from robin cook views. Who was drafting this stuff for blair to the effect that the un and the law were unimportant? For most of us, this was the very first indication we had of how deep a hold neo-con thinking and military interests had on the blair circle. It was also my first encounter with the phenomenon of foreign policy being dictated by alistair campbell, the prime inister press secretary, the military lobby, of course, was working hard to defend spicer, one of their own. A few days later customs and excise concluded their investigations. A thick dossier, including documentation from the fco, from the raid on sandline offices, and from elsewhere, was sent to the crown prosecution service. The customs and excise team who had interviewed us told me that the recommendation was that both spicer and penfold be prosecuted for breach of the embargo. The dossier was returned to customs and excise from the crown prosecution service the very same day it was sent. It was marked, in effect, for no further action. There would be no prosecution. A customs officer told me bitterly that, given the time between the dossier leaving their offices and the time it was returned, allowing time for both deliveries, it could not have been in the cps more than half an hour. It was a thick dossier. They could not even have read it before turning it down. I felt sick to my stomach at the decision not to prosecute spicer and penfold. So were the customs officers investigating the case, at least two of them called me to commiserate. They had believed they had put together an extremely strong case, and they told me that their submission to the crown prosecution service said so. The decision not to prosecute in the sandline case was the first major instance of the corruption of the legal process that was to be a hallmark of the blair years. Customs and excise were stunned by it. There is no doubt whatsoever that spicer and penfold had worked together to ship weapons to sierra leone in breach of uk law. Security council 1132 had been given effect in british law by an order in council. I had never found in the least credible their assertions that they did not know about it. I had personally told spicer that it would be illegal to ship arms to sierra leone, to any side in the conflict. Penfold claim never to have seen an absolutely key security council resolution about a country to which he was high commissioner is truly extraordinary. But even if they did not know, ignorance of the law is famously no defence in england. Who knows what a jury would have made of this sorry tale of greed, hired killers and blood diamonds. But i have no doubt at all and more importantly nor did the customs officers investigating the case that there was enough there for a viable prosecution. The head of the crown prosecution service when it decided not to prosecute was barbara mills. Barbara mills is a very well-connected woman in new labour circles. She is married to john mills, a former labour councillor in camden. That makes her sister-in-law to tessa jowell, the new labour cabinet minister with a penchant for taking out repeated mortgages on her home, and then paying them off with cash widely alleged to have come from silvio berlusconi, the friend and business colleague of her husband david mills, who according to a bbc documentary by the estimable john sweeney has created offshore companies for known camorra and mafia interests. Tessa jowell and david mills were also both camden labour councillors, and are close to tony blair. Blair is also a great friend of berlusconi, despite the numerous criminal allegations against berlusconi and his long history of political alliances with open fascists. Just to complete the cosy new labour picture, another brother-in-law of barbara mills and tessa jowell is alan rusbridger, editor of the guardian. Did any of those relationships of barbara mills, the director of public prosecutions, affect the crown prosecution service decision not to proceed with the case, and to take that decision in less time than it would have taken them to read the dossier customs and excise sent them? Barbara mills was to resign as director of public prosecutions later that year after being personally criticised in his judgement by a high court judge who ruled against the crown prosecution service for continually failing to prosecute over deaths in police custody. That has not stopped the extremely well connected dame barbara from being appointed to a string of highly paid public positions since then. It is infuriating that, maxwell style, spicer (who has made millions form the war in iraq) is using the prohibitive costs of defending a libel case to intimidate my publisher. The result is that important information i received at first hand, and an account of events to which i am eye-witness, is being repressed, as is an important independent critique of early blair foreign policy. I am not currently confident the book will get published at all - i am not prepared to put out anodyne pap, which hides the truth, under my name. . . But it is pretty firmly in hibernation mode at the moment. In part this it has opened up a number of other opportunities for me that are now taking up most of my time. One of these is an editing gig at opendemocracys ourkingdom blog, which is involved in some very exciting thinking around the future of the uk. My involvement with spinwatch has also deepened to the point where an argument that started out as a response to a slugger thread has led to me starting a ph. D at the university of strathclyde. Both opendemocracy and spinwatch have got some interesting new projects in the works over the next few months. In the meantime, id like to flag up some good posts elsewhere on the themes that ive been neglecting here lately. If you had been following the coverage of tim spicer, tony buckingham and assorted mercenaries here, then you will want to look up craig murrays recent encounters with same. If youre interested in the neocons, london bloggers have produced some great coverage of policy exchanges relationship with boris johnson in recent months. Notable examples can be found at dave hill, liberal conspiracy, boris watch and tory troll. Its also worth noting arun kundnanis article earlier this month, and the guardians profile on policy exchange last friday, which both picked up on dean godsons cold war background. The hiatus here is likely to continue but do please keep an eye out my stuff at ourkingdom and spinwatch. . Last year a supporter of the pfc in the us contacted senator barack obama regarding the controversial pentagon contract with lt col spicer, the former scots guards officer whose troops murdered peter mc bride - see excerpt below from obamas response - today- september 4 is the anniversary of peters murder. We urge supporters to contact senator obama and call on the presidential candidate to keep his promise if elected and cancel the aegis contract!. . As you know, the ceo of aegis defense services tim spicer has been implicated in a variety of human rights abuses around the globe. Given his history, i agree that the united states should consider rescinding its contract with his company. . Jean mc bride (mother of peter) senator obama has appointed a high level advisory panel on irish issues, comprised of seven well known irish american politicans. The group is comprised of senators george mitchell (retired, maine), chris dodd (connecticut), edward kennedy (massachusetts) and pat leahy (vermont), governor martin o malley of maryland and congressmen joe crowley (new york) and richard neal (massachusetts). Again we would urge supporters to contact all or any of the above and call for the aegis contract to be cancelled. Please cc responses to us. See http www. Patfinucanecentre pmcbride mcbindex. Html for extensive background on the aegis private security contract in iraq and spicer role in the case of the murder of 18 year old teenager peter mc bride who was murdered on september 4 1992 by soldiers under his command. . It& ,s about time that i broke radio silence on here, and this certainly merits it. Former diplomat craig murray is having another run-in with schillings, the lawyers who briefly managed to get his website taken down on behalf of uzbek oligarch alisher usmanov. Now they are attempting to block the publication of my new book in the interests of mercenary commander tim spicer, one of those who has made a fortune from the iraq war. It is sad but perhaps predictable that private profits from the illegal iraq war, in which hundreds of thousands of innocent people have died, are providing the funding to try to silence my book. . The road to samarkand sounds as if it will be very interesting. Among the incidents i cover in my new book are the murder of peter mcbride, the aegis trophy video, the papua new guinea coup, the equatorial guinea plot, executive outcomes& , murder of civilians in angola and the arms to africa affair. I do hope that other bloggers will generate another streisand effect through blogging on these subjects. . Spinwatch has just published my latest profile piece, on the euston manifesto group. I doubt the broad thrust of it will come as a huge surprise to anyone. It looks at the groups connections with american social networks around the (apparently now defunct) social democrats usa and the national endowment for democracy, two organisations which played a part in the iran-contra affair. Some more strands in this particular web were highlighted in a recent post from the yorkshire ranter you may recall that the famous document that was meant to show iraq buying uranium from niger originated with the italian secret service, and then appeared in yer dossier, just in time for the americans to start using it in public speeches. It has long been suspected that the meeting in rome was somehow involved in this exercise in policy-laundering, or rather bullshit-laundering. So how did the thing get from italy to the uk? Well, there was harold rhode, also at the meeting, who made it to the december 2002 iraqi opposition conference in london. That may give us some idea. Now thats what i call the exigencies of the service - youve got to meet gems like ledeen, ghorbanifar, chalabi,. . Its hell in the diplomatic, as harry flashman so wisely said. (selling the dummy). David habakkuks latest piece brings us some interesting reflections on the neoconservatives and their various exile clients much more could be said about the sheer oddity of a conceptions of a forward strategy in which conmen like chalabi or berezovsky come to be seen as appropriate vehicles to make other societies liberal and democratic. What cannot be claimed, however, is that these conceptions are simply the fig-leaves of cunning machiavellians. In relation to their own societies, the neoconservatives and their british fellow-travellers may indeed be masterly manipulators. But their propensity to see alien societies through thick ideological filters makes them easy prey for conmen in their dealings with the wider world -- so that the actual outcomes of the strategies they advocate are highly liable to be quite different from those they envisage. (european tribune). As it happens, the us senate intelligence committee released a report this week which neatly illustrates davids argument. It concerns a series of meetings which began in rome in 2001. The meeting included larry franklin (office of assistant secretary of defense, international security affairs), harold rhode (office of net assessments), michael ledeen (former office of the secretary of defense and national security council consultant), manucher ghorbanifar (iranian exile), iranian 1 (iranian living in exile in morocco), iranian 2 (iranian revolutionary guard official), and an unidentified employee of a foreign government. Michael ledeen arranged the meeting with the help of his contacts in italy and the foreign government who provided the meeting place and the logistical support. (partly redacted in original links added). . A later passage in the report considers the counterintelligence implications the most significant matter raised in the counterintelligence field activitys report was the possibility that mr. Ghorbanifar of his associates are being used as agents of a foreign intelligence service to leverage his continuing contact with michael ledeen and others to reach into and influence the highest leveles of the u. S. Government. The report noted that there were multiple occasions where information from mr. Ghorbanifar entered u. S. Government channels via mr. Ledeen. These channels included personnel from the federal bureau of investigation, cia, dod, the white house, and congress. As a result, mr. Ghorbanifar was able to communicate with us government officials via mr. Ledeen without having direct contact. While the report concluded that mr. Ledeen was likely unwitting of any counterintelligence issues related to his relationship with mr. Ghorbanifar, their association was widely known, and therefore it should be presumed other foreign intelligence services, including those of iran, would know. . The website of standpoint, the new magazine published by the social affairs unit, is now live. In his inaugural column, editor daniel johnson highlights the magazines neoconservative credentials when you have a good idea, start a magazine. This, according to our board member gertrude himmelfarb, is the motto of her husband irving kristol. In a long and fruitful life, he has started three. (their son bill has started one, too. ) the first was encounter, which kristol co-founded with the late stephen spender in 1953. It was a transatlantic monthly in which the intellectuals of the free world could debate with one another and their communist counterparts. To write for encounter was a privilege. . Johnson doesnt mention it explicitly, but it is, of course, well-known that encounter was founded and financed by the cia as part of its psychological warfare strategy during the early cold war. According to historian hugh wilford, the magazines greatest achievement was in creating a certain kind of intellectual-cultural milieu in which american and european interests came to appear as if they were identical. . Back in january i suggested that martin brights knocking documentary on ken livingstone was connected to his relationship with policy exchange. Well now livingstone is gone and boris watch informs us that policy exchange is firmly ensconced at city hall during the electoral campaign, boris was aided by dan ritterband, a one-time director of policy exchange, and soon after his victory, nicholas boles, the founder of the organisation, was named as the mayor chief of staff. Boles was, the observer reported, asked to help the new mayor find the right staff , and one of his first appointments was munira mirza - an employee of policy exchange - as director of policy, arts, culture and the creative industries. Ritterband, meanwhile, maintained his position among boris advisers. . Given the way livingstone was red-baited over his socialist action advisers, it is particularly ironic that johnson should have appointed mirza, who was formerly involved with the manifesto club, an organisation associated with the the living marxism revolutionary communist party network. Splintered sunrise has some interesting thoughts on the parallels between socialist action and the rcp. For my money, the classic example of an upwardly mobile marxist or ex-marxist clique is the lovestoneite faction which started out in the american communist party and ended up working with james angleton and the cia. The key lovestoneite figure in britain was roy godson, father of policy exchanges dean godson. The rise of neoconservatism marks to a significant extent, the emergence of a post-marxist movement as a dominant strain on the right. It seems not everyone involved in promoting neoconservatism understands that. . Very interesting thread on sic semper tyrannis about the us investigation into bae the biggest aspect of the bae al yamamah story is the offshore fund. To summarize bae delivered about billion in arms and services to saudi arabia. Bae padded the bills substantially, up to nearly billion. The pad was used, in part, to bribe saudi officials who helped swing the deal, including bandar and prince turki bin-khaled, a top official of the saudi ministry of defense. That part is fully detailed in the guardian and other british coverage of the bae scandal, going back three or four years. What is not covered in the british press is the fact that saudi arabia paid for the arms with oil. The oil was sold on the spot market, and this generated an estimated (in current dollars) 0 billion in cash. I am told by former u. S. Treasury department officials that the funds generated from the oil sales, after bae got their cut, went into offshore bank accounts. . As jamie notes at blood and treasure theres not a lot of evidence offered, but the allegation about the oil fund has come up before. In his book in the public interest, the former chairman of astra, gerald james, highlights a partially blacked out memo that was sent to jeff rooker mp, which suggested some of the funds found their way to the conservative party. . The green ribbon books the hidden hand britain, america and cold war secret intelligence, by richard j. Aldrich. God englishman oliver cromwell and the english revolution by christopher hill writings of william walwynmilton and the english revolution, by christopher hillthe century of revolution, 1603-1714, by christopher hillthe rights of man, by tom painethe vote how it was won, and how it was undermined by paul foot the english, a portrait of a people, by jeremy paxmanthe making of english national identity by krishan kumarthe scottish insurrection of 1820 by peter berresford ellis, seumus mac a ghobhainn blackshirt sir oswald mosley and british fascism, by stephen dorrilhoney trap, by stephen dorril and anthony summers the celtic revolution, by peter berresford ellis this time our constitutional revolution, by anthony barnettpariah misfortunes of the british kingdom, by tom nairngordon brown bard of britishness, by tom nairn cromwell an honourable enemy by tom reillythe narrow ground aspects of ulster 1609-1969, by a. T. Q. Stewartthe year of liberty history of the great irish rebellion of 1798, by thomas pakenham the galtee boy a fenian prison narrative, by john sarsfield caseythe voyage of the catalpa a perilous journey and six irish rebels escape to freedom, by peter stevensjohn devoy catalpa expedition, by philip fennell and marie kingvoyage of the hougomont and life at fremantle, by thomas mccarthy fennellthe fenian diary the hougomont diary of denis b. Cashman, by denis b. Cashman, c. W. Sullivanirish rebel, john devoy and america fight for irish freedom, by terry golwaythe greatest of the fenians john devoy and ireland, by terence dooleyrossa recollections, 1838 to 1898 memoirs of an irish revolutionary, by jeremiah o donovan rossafenian fire the british government plot to assassinate queen victoria, by christy campbellprelude to the easter rising sir roger casement in imperial germany, by reinhard doerries1916 the easter rising, by tim pat coogandesmond rising memoirs 1913 to easter 1916, by desmond fitzgeraldpadraig pearse, the triumph of failure, by ruth dudley edwardsthe life and times of james connolly, by charles desmond greaves principles of freedom, by terence macswineyenduring the most life and death of terence macswiney, by francis j. Costello. I die in a good cause, by sean l ing tans, terror and troubles, kerry real fighting story, by t ryle dwyer. Enchanted by dreams the journal of a revolutionary by joe goodsam maguire the enigmatic man behind ireland most prestigious trophy, by margaret mary walshthe squad the intelligence operations of michael collins, by t ryle dwyer. Michael collins intelligence war the struggle between the british and the ira - 1919-1921, by michael t. Foybloody sunday how michael collins agents assassinated britain secret service in dublin on november 21, 1920, by james gleesonno other law, by florence o donoghuethe real chief, the story of liam lynch, by meda ryanflorence and josephine o donoghue war of independence a destiny that shapes our endguerilla days in ireland, by tom barrytom barry ira freedom fighter, by meda ryanmy fight for irish freedom, by dan breendan breen and the ira, by joe ambroseon another man wound a personal history of ireland war of independence, by ernie o malleyliam mellows and the irish revolution, by c. Desmond greaves. Who who in the irish war of independence, by padraic o farrellthe ira at war 1916-1923, by peter hart. The black and tans, by richard bennett. Peace by ordeal an account, from first-hand sources, of the negotiation and signature of the anglo-irish treaty, 1921, by frank pakenham longfordthe irish civil war, by tim pat coogani signed my death warrant michael collins and the treaty, by t ryle dwyerthe path to freedom articles and speeches, by michael collinsmichael collins a biography, by tim pat cooganmichael collins the man who won the war by t. Ryle dwyermichael collins a life, by james a. Mackay. Michael collins, by margery forestermichael collins and the women in his life, by meda ryanthe day michael collins was shot, by meda ryanmichael collins the secret file by a. T. Q stewartde valera long fellow, long shadow, by tim pat coogana memoir, by terry de valerathe irish republic, by dorothy mcardlein time of war ireland, ulster and the price of neutrality, 1939-45, by robert fisk a u. S. Spy in ireland, by martin s. Quigleywar and an irish town, by eamonn mccann bloody sunday in derry what really happened by eamonn mccann eyewitness bloody sunday by don mullanthe bloody sunday inquiry the families speak outpoint of no return the strike which broke the british in ulster, by robert fisk on the blanket the inside story of the ira prisoner dirty protest, by tim pat cooganten men dead story of the 1981 irish hunger strike, by david beresford the ira, by tim pat cooganthe provisional i. R. A. By patrick bishop and eamonn mallieforty years of controversy, by t ryle dwyerthe troubles ireland ordeal 1969-96, by tim pat coogan. Lost lives the stories of the men, women and children who died as a result of the northern ireland troubles, by david mckittrick, seamus kelters, brian feeney, chris thorntonunfinished business state killings and the quest for truth, by bill rolstonendgame in ireland, by eamonn mallie, david mckittricksinn fein a hundred turbulent years by brian feeney the sdlp and sinn fein, 1970-2001 from alienation to participation in northern ireland, by gerard murray, jonathan tongeireland in the twentieth century, by tim pat cooganwherever green is worn the story of the irish diaspora, by tim pat cooganan irish navvy the diary of an exile by. Error of judgement truth about the birmingham bombings, by chris mullinirish manchester, by alan keeganopen cut, by j. M. O neilli could read the sky, by timothy e. O gradyhide that can, by deirdre o callaghanfaces of nationalism, janus revisited, by tom nairnglobal matrix nationalism, globalism and state-terrorism, by tom nairn, paul james global nations, by tom nairn the modern world-system capitalist agriculture and the origins of the european world-economy in the sixteenth century, by immanuel wallerstein reorient global economy in the asian age by andre gunder frank the black jacobins toussaint l ouverture and the san domingo revolution, by c. L. R. James the scramble for africa, by thomas pakenham the boer war, by thomas pakenham culture and imperialism by edward w. Saidthe fateful triangle united states, israel and the palestinians by noam chomskypity the nation lebanon at war by robert fiskthe great war for civilisation the conquest of the middle east, by robert fisk the market for force the consequences of privatizing security, by deborah d. Avant iraq,inc. A profitable occupation, by pratap chatterjeea history of god by karen armstrong. It has been a strange month in the politics of northern ireland, and last week was no exception. On monday, there was optimism that abreakthrough on the devolution of policing and justice was in the offing. A few days later, talks had collapsed amid recriminations betweengerry adams and peter robinson. Uup leader reg empey was predicting an assembly election would be called by the end of the coming week, agood indicator of the likely timeframe before a definitive breakthrough or breakdown. Over-shadowing the weeks events was a remarkable scoop from slugger otooles eamonn mallie, the veteran journalist who first revealed thebritish governments talks with the ira in the early 1990s. He reported that last sunday, the dup and ulster unionist leadership took part in secret talks inengland with shadow northern ireland secretary owen paterson aimed at unionist unity and copper fastening maximum unionist support for a future conservative government, should there be a hungparliament. The conservatives denied that any discussion of a hung parliament had taken place, stating what this was, was the shadow secretary of state as somebody who could potentially be the actual secretary of state in a matter of weeks,holding private talks with representatives of the two main unionist parties to explore how we might overcome some of the politicalinstabilities at stormont, and to avoid a situation in which we might potentially, should we win the election, inherit a collapsed assemblyand direct rule. . On the face of it, this makes sense, particularly as the dup would want political cover from the tories ulster unionist allies in the eventof a deal with sinn fein. However, a series of intriguing stories undermined this picture. The belfast telegraph reported that the dup wasconsidering giving the ulster unionists a free run in two nationalist-held westminster seats. Rte reported that robinson was considering anoutright alliance between the two parties, and the bbc reported that three consevative parliamentary candidates had resigned. The bbcs mark devenport summed up the situation at the end of the week when questioned about the prospect of sinn fein becoming stormonts largest party, neither unionist leader would rule out their respectiveparties merging into one bloc. Although the conservatives claimed there was no discussion of a hung westminster parliament during the secrettalks in england last sunday, senior dup sources are talking up the significance a single unionist force could have for the parliamentaryarithmetic at westminster. They are pointing out that 12 pro-conservative seats equals 24 in a balanced parliament. Of course that presumesboth north down and fermanagh south tyrone could be counted in such a bloc which is a big assumption. Nevertheless it gives a sense of thekind of calculations now being made. . The location of the talks may be significant hatfield house, the ancestral seat of lord salisbury, who as viscount cranborne was the keyally of ulster unionism in john majors cabinet. His home has hosted a unionist unity conference once before. The uup and dup were both representedat this gathering which took place a few months after the election of tony blair in 1997. It was ostensibly organised at the initiative ofsean ocallaghan, a former provisional ira member who became an advisor to david trimble. Another member of trimbles inner circle, thejournalist eoghan harris, declined to attend because, in the words of dean godson, the event had too much of the air of 1912-style resistanceto home rule, with unionists coalescing with what he saw as reactionary elements on the mainland. Those words found something of an echo this week from sdlp deputy leader alasdair mcdonnell, whose south belfast constituency is the mostvulnerable to a pan-unionist alliance. He accused david cameron of orchestrating a cynical attempt by the tories to grab a few orange votesahead of the forthcoming westminster election. If however,it emboldens the dup to risk the collapse of power-sharing, it will only serve the tuvs agenda. That would attract an extremely negativereaction from nationalists of all shades. It would also raise profound questions for all strands of unionism. The dup has spent forty years building at the expense of traditional big house unionism. How will its electorate take to becoming pawns ona chessboard at the home of a tory grandee? The ulster unionists and the conservatives have spent months talking up their alliance as the beginning of a new non-sectarian unionism thatcan attract catholic voters. If even their own candidates no longer have confidence in that agenda, why should anyone else? David cameron believes he is on the verge of winning broad support from the british people as the responsible choice to lead the nextgovernment. So why is he engaging in what looks uncomfortably like an opportunist manoeuvre for a dozen or so seats?. Events in london in recent weeks have highlighted the growing collusion between american neoconservatives and the european far right in stirring up hatred of muslims. Richard bartholomew has details of a meeting at the george restaurant in east london in august attended by jihad watchs robert spencer and douglas murray of the centre for social cohesion at the invitation of the christian action network. Also invited were the english defence league, the group responsible for a number of recent violent anti-muslim protests. Robert spencer says on his blog that he and murray refused to meet with the edl, and cites adrian morgan as a witness to this version of events. But the presence of morgan, who did meet the edl, is itself evidence of the emerging relationship between the neocons and the far-right. . Just a quick pointer to to my latest piece for spinwatch, web 2. 0 warfare from gaza to iran. It a story i m slightly ambivalent in one sense, because there has clearly been important information coming out of iran on twitter. There have also been a lot of poorly sourced rumours, of which perhaps the most suspicious is the one cited by robert fisk, that the iranian government is using hamas and hezbollah operatives to suppress the demonstrators. . If my story comes across as slightly sceptical about social media, i hope that the links to spinprofiles and neocon europe show some of the potential for using the technology in a more considered way. Indeed, i think there is potential for wikis like these to develop a symbiotic relationship with blogs and social networks, providing a more structure long-term memory for the blogosphere. . The current fiasco over expenses at westminster has created a major opportunity for political reform in britain. You might not know it from the medias focus on celebrity populism, but there has actually been some useful thinking on the left over the past year which addresses the causes of the crisis quite precisely. . Ive been collating some of that conversation for my own reference, and i thought it was worth sharing it here. Please feel free to suggest any other relevant links in the comments. . Tim gore, democratic republicanism. And the eu, next left, 07 02 09. Billy bragg opened the second half of his 2008 st george day celebrationat london barbican theatre with jerusalem. And, as kittyempire put it in her review, the audience responded coyly when billyinvited them to join in by holding above their heads the carefully laidout sheets of red and white paper distributed on the auditorium seatsto form one huge st george cross. Hardly an exercise of leniriefenstahl proportions, but more than enough, apparently, to getobserver readers searching for any excuse not to join in. (a jigsaw state (pdf)). In a previous collection of essays, 2008s imagined nation, perryman explored the possibilities for english national identity in the wake of devolution. A session on english nationalism at last years compass conference provided the inspiration for the new volume, whichbroadens the debate to look at the prospects for all of the nations in the uk. . There is plenty of irish interest with contributions from arthur aughey, gerry adams, inez mccormack and peadar kirby. Adams contribution is largely based on his speech to februarys sinn fein ard fheis, but its interesting to see it set in this context, not least because sinn fein has often been wary of drawing parallels with nationalist movements in the various nations of britain. . Tony blair has cited the precedent as cause for optimism in his role as quartet envoy, while gerry adams called for inclusive negotiations during his visit to gaza last week. The analogy isnt universally welcome, however. . Two recent articles reflect the parameters of the debate. In the new statesman, blairs former chief of staff, jonathan powell, argues that the british governments engagement with irish republicans provides a model for an israeli approach to hamas. In standpoint, douglas murray reiterates a longstanding neoconservative critique of such suggestions, arguing that the claims of the peace process in northern ireland itself are unproven - but they are also unhelpful to the point of uselessness. This dispute is significant given the identity of some of the key actors now emerging on the middle east stage. More over at ourkingdom. . Soviet front groups might have been more effective, but stalinist paranoia made impossible the operational autonomy needed to succeed. To the extent that future practitioners of this type of propaganda have learned lessons from the soviet experience, we may expect that the nonstate groups will be controlled in a more sophisticated manner and their ties to a given state will be less obvious. New methods of spreading propaganda (such as via internet web sites of non-governmental organizations ngos , or specialized email lists) allow a deceiver to reach target audiences via multiple channels. Many of these channels may remain relatively invisible to the public at large. (elements of strategic denial and deception by abram shulsky in strategic denial and deception the twenty-first century challenge, edited by roy godson and james j. Wirtz, transaction books, 2002, p23. ). Shulsky went on to note that despite the medias self-image of hardheaded cynicism, it is relatively vulnerable to this type of manipulation. (p24. ) the suns experience would seem to bear this out. . Time once again to dust off the cobwebs on here and draw together a few threads from my writing over the last couple of weeks. First of all my report for ourkingdom from the sinn fein ard fheis two weeks ago. It was a very interesting time to be in dublin, with 120,000 people marching on the streets against the governments swingeing austerity measures. Gerry adams cannily tapped into the mood by calling for a left-wing alliance with the labour party. . As a result craig is publishing the book online today. The green ribbon is delighted to be one of the many blogs supporting craig by hosting a copy of the file here. You can also support craig (and a range of charities) by picking up a privately-printed hard copy edition from amazon. The book includes an indispensable account of murrays dealings with spicer during the arms to africa affair, as well as his views on spicers role in the peter mcbride case and his subsequent career in iraq. . Heres an interesting postscript to nick cleggs attack on policy exchange for privately briefing against the global peace and unity event in london. One of the organisations cited by policy exchange, the society of americans for national existence, has objected to my characterisation of them in a post at spinwatch. On their blog a sane staffer writes. In this linkthe leftist brits continue to blather on about sane and its deep, secret powers. We continue. To get many visitors from england trying to figure this out. In this blog and in the links, sane is tied to iasps (true, we are indeed closely linked to iasps), but then we are both (iasps and sane)labeled neocons--which merely demonstrates these folks are either illiterate or fools or just dont read or are wholly disingenuous. . One point worth making is that the society of americans for national existence are not just some bunch of marginal crazies. Sane is actually a project of the institute for advanced strategic and political studies. Iasps was where key neoconservatives like richard perle, david wurmser and doug feith worked out the clean break strategy, which many believe formed the basis of the iraq war agenda they went on to pursue in the bush administration. . Neither the quote nor the full article labels either sane or iasps as neocon institutions. Much of what the article does say is specifically accepted by sane. Indeed, sane goes on to provide two articles which elaborate on iasps role in formulating the clean break strategy. The first of these, israel the advanced case of western affliction, states (my emphasis). Anyone who studies that institute document and the voluminous studies and analyses provided by iasps over the years to policy makers and politicians in israel and washington, d. C. , knows that iasps does not advocate democracy as a tool of foreign policy. It doesn t even advocate democracy as a tool of domestic policy. Indeed, the institute founder, loewenberg, has made clear that the drift in this country to democracy and away from a constitutional republic built on a federation of states, themselves layered on a bedrock of judeo-christian values, is very much a continuation of the decline of the west. . Anyone who looks at iraq or jordan and doesn t understand, not just the shia-sunni divide, but the important tribal ones that make claims going back to the terrorist founder freedom fighter nation builder of islam, mohammed, will never come to grips with the geo-strategic realities in that part of the world. The evidence of this claim is before us now in iraq, in afghanistan and in gaza. . The piece also alludes to the role of wurmser, perle et. Al. The institute has of course gained enormous worldwide attention through its pre-iraq war publication titled, a clean break a new strategy for securing the realm, in which it advocated a triangulated strategy between israel, turkey and jordan to remove saddam hussein from power in iraq and become the base of a tripartite power alliance to rule over and secure a strategic stability in the middle east. Because the reports contributors included many of the policy professionals that took up important positions in the bush administration, left-wing types, right-wing types, arabs, and main stream media soon gravitated to this study as the blueprint for the jewish neocon war in iraq. . At this point, sane would seem to have recapitulated most of my original argument. So what are they trying to establish with their rebuttal? I think there are two key points which also emerge in the second article does pat buchanan have a flea problem, a blind spot or both?. First things first. As i have written in the past, the clean break document was not about america at all, but about a strategy those of us at the institute (i was then a trustee and legal counsel) proposed. So the clean break document was aimed at the israeli government, not the us, and strategic security was the goal not spreading democracy. It is worth comparing this with what some of the neoconservatives critics have said. For example, stephen. J sniegoski has written. It should be emphasised that the same people - feith, wurmser, perle - who advised the israeli government on issues issues of national security would later advise the george w. Bush administration to pursue virtually the same policy regarding the middle east. (the transparent cabal, p. 90). Sniegoski went on to note the very same points sane make about the differences between a clean break and the case for war presented in 2003 while neocons present american policy in a very idealistic light, their policy prescriptions for israel, which involved similar concrete policy objective, were devoid of such sentiment. Written in terms of israeli interest, the study made little mention of the benefits to be accrued by israels neighbouring countries, such as the establishment of democracy. (the transparent cabal, p92)the conclusion that sane invites us to draw is that the aims of the israeli geopoliticians of 1996, were unrelated to those of the american idealists of 2003, despite the minor coincidence of their being the same people. The more credible view is that a right-wing likudist analysis of israels geopolitical interests was a key factor in the neoconservative drive to war. The clean break document was not silent on the role of the united states. To anticipate u. S. Reactions and plan ways to manage and constrain those reactions, prime minister netanyahu can formulate the policies and stress themes he favors in language familiar to the americans by tapping into themes of american administrations during the cold war which apply well to israel. . The subsequent emphasis on bringing democracy to iraq was consistent with this principle. In the transition from a clean break to the us invasion of iraq the neocons presented a false identity between american and european interests, and a hard-line likudist conception of israels interests. This is a habit that arguably did not end in 2003, and may explain episodes such as policy exchanges private briefing. If europeans oppose engagement with the muslim brotherhood at home, they are not likely to press for israeli negotiations with hamas. Likewise, if europeans fear muslim population growth at home, they are more likely to accept extreme responses to palestinian population growth. A clean break is not, incidentally, the only evidence that sane and iasps have neoconservative links. Sane president david yerushalmi is general counsel and policy advisor to the center for security policy, a think tank headed by the former assistant secretary of defense, frank gaffney. Gaffneys neoconservative record has been documented by jim lobe, who also revealed earlier this year, that gaffneys sister, devon gaffney cross has been organising pentagon-funded private briefings by fellow neoconservatives for reporters in london and paris. . Well done to nick clegg for becoming the first major party leader to take on policy exchange over its unscrupulous approach to islam. (hat-tip sunny hundal)in a statement carried by the politicshome website on friday, clegg criticised the think-tank over for a privately circulated briefing against the sundays global peace and unity event in london. The policy exchange briefing i have seen seeks to raise alarm over a number of the speakers planning to attend the conference. The accuracy of the allegations is variable, with a notable lack of evidence to support many of the claims. In particular i was appalled to see evidence quoted from the society for american national existence, an organisation which seeks to make the practice of islam illegal, punishable by 20 years in prison. I need hardly point out how illogical it is to attempt to criticise one set of extreme views by citing another. My concern is not limited to the facts in the document, however. Your attempt to raise a boycott of this event by privately briefing against it is bizarre, and underhand behaviour for a think-tank supposedly interested in open public debate. The information you are disseminating is extremely narrow in focus and as a result tars with the brush of extremism the tens of thousands of muslims who will be in attendance. This looks exactly like the kind of activity which led the charity commission to identify a need for greater transparency from policy exchange earlier this year. . The following is a mirror of an original post from craig murray this is the key section from my new book which the publisher is unwilling to publish due to legal threats from schillings libel lawyers, acting on behalf of the mercenary commander tim spicer peter penfold was back in the uk. He was interviewed separately. Both penfold and spicer were interviewed under caution, as suspects for having broken the arms embargo. Then, suddenly, tony blair intervened. On 11 may 1998, without consulting the fco, he gave a statement to journalists. Penfold, blair declared, was a hero. A dictatorship had been successfully overthrown and democracy restored. Penfold had done a superb job in trying to deal with the consequences of the military coup. All this stuff about security council resolutions and sanctions was an overblown hoo-ha. I believe this episode is extremely important. In 1998 the country was still starry-eyed about blair, but with the benefit of hindsight, this intervention points the way towards the disasters of his later years in office. It is extraordinarily wrong for a prime minister to declare that a man is a hero, when customs had questioned him two days earlier under caution over the very matter the prime minister is praising. It shows blair belief that his judgement stood above the law of the land, something that was to occur again on a much bigger scale when he halted the serious fraud office investigation into british aerospace foreign bribes. But of course blairs contempt for un security council resolutions on the arms embargo, and the belief that installing democracy by invasion could trump the trivia of international law, prefigures precisely the disaster of iraq. As with iraq, blair was also conveniently ignoring the fact that sierra leone was left a mess, with kabbah in charge of little more than freetown. In the fco we were astonished by blair intervention, and deeply puzzled. Where had it come from? It differed completely from robin cook views. Who was drafting this stuff for blair to the effect that the un and the law were unimportant? For most of us, this was the very first indication we had of how deep a hold neo-con thinking and military interests had on the blair circle. It was also my first encounter with the phenomenon of foreign policy being dictated by alistair campbell, the prime inister press secretary, the military lobby, of course, was working hard to defend spicer, one of their own. A few days later customs and excise concluded their investigations. A thick dossier, including documentation from the fco, from the raid on sandline offices, and from elsewhere, was sent to the crown prosecution service. The customs and excise team who had interviewed us told me that the recommendation was that both spicer and penfold be prosecuted for breach of the embargo. The dossier was returned to customs and excise from the crown prosecution service the very same day it was sent. It was marked, in effect, for no further action. There would be no prosecution. A customs officer told me bitterly that, given the time between the dossier leaving their offices and the time it was returned, allowing time for both deliveries, it could not have been in the cps more than half an hour. It was a thick dossier. They could not even have read it before turning it down. I felt sick to my stomach at the decision not to prosecute spicer and penfold. So were the customs officers investigating the case, at least two of them called me to commiserate. They had believed they had put together an extremely strong case, and they told me that their submission to the crown prosecution service said so. The decision not to prosecute in the sandline case was the first major instance of the corruption of the legal process that was to be a hallmark of the blair years. Customs and excise were stunned by it. There is no doubt whatsoever that spicer and penfold had worked together to ship weapons to sierra leone in breach of uk law. Security council 1132 had been given effect in british law by an order in council. I had never found in the least credible their assertions that they did not know about it. I had personally told spicer that it would be illegal to ship arms to sierra leone, to any side in the conflict. Penfold claim never to have seen an absolutely key security council resolution about a country to which he was high commissioner is truly extraordinary. But even if they did not know, ignorance of the law is famously no defence in england. Who knows what a jury would have made of this sorry tale of greed, hired killers and blood diamonds. But i have no doubt at all and more importantly nor did the customs officers investigating the case that there was enough there for a viable prosecution. The head of the crown prosecution service when it decided not to prosecute was barbara mills. Barbara mills is a very well-connected woman in new labour circles. She is married to john mills, a former labour councillor in camden. That makes her sister-in-law to tessa jowell, the new labour cabinet minister with a penchant for taking out repeated mortgages on her home, and then paying them off with cash widely alleged to have come from silvio berlusconi, the friend and business colleague of her husband david mills, who according to a bbc documentary by the estimable john sweeney has created offshore companies for known camorra and mafia interests. Tessa jowell and david mills were also both camden labour councillors, and are close to tony blair. Blair is also a great friend of berlusconi, despite the numerous criminal allegations against berlusconi and his long history of political alliances with open fascists. Just to complete the cosy new labour picture, another brother-in-law of barbara mills and tessa jowell is alan rusbridger, editor of the guardian. Did any of those relationships of barbara mills, the director of public prosecutions, affect the crown prosecution service decision not to proceed with the case, and to take that decision in less time than it would have taken them to read the dossier customs and excise sent them? Barbara mills was to resign as director of public prosecutions later that year after being personally criticised in his judgement by a high court judge who ruled against the crown prosecution service for continually failing to prosecute over deaths in police custody. That has not stopped the extremely well connected dame barbara from being appointed to a string of highly paid public positions since then. It is infuriating that, maxwell style, spicer (who has made millions form the war in iraq) is using the prohibitive costs of defending a libel case to intimidate my publisher. The result is that important information i received at first hand, and an account of events to which i am eye-witness, is being repressed, as is an important independent critique of early blair foreign policy. I am not currently confident the book will get published at all - i am not prepared to put out anodyne pap, which hides the truth, under my name. . . But it is pretty firmly in hibernation mode at the moment. In part this it has opened up a number of other opportunities for me that are now taking up most of my time. One of these is an editing gig at opendemocracys ourkingdom blog, which is involved in some very exciting thinking around the future of the uk. My involvement with spinwatch has also deepened to the point where an argument that started out as a response to a slugger thread has led to me starting a ph. D at the university of strathclyde. Both opendemocracy and spinwatch have got some interesting new projects in the works over the next few months. In the meantime, id like to flag up some good posts elsewhere on the themes that ive been neglecting here lately. If you had been following the coverage of tim spicer, tony buckingham and assorted mercenaries here, then you will want to look up craig murrays recent encounters with same. If youre interested in the neocons, london bloggers have produced some great coverage of policy exchanges relationship with boris johnson in recent months. Notable examples can be found at dave hill, liberal conspiracy, boris watch and tory troll. Its also worth noting arun kundnanis article earlier this month, and the guardians profile on policy exchange last friday, which both picked up on dean godsons cold war background. The hiatus here is likely to continue but do please keep an eye out my stuff at ourkingdom and spinwatch. . Last year a supporter of the pfc in the us contacted senator barack obama regarding the controversial pentagon contract with lt col spicer, the former scots guards officer whose troops murdered peter mc bride - see excerpt below from obamas response - today- september 4 is the anniversary of peters murder. We urge supporters to contact senator obama and call on the presidential candidate to keep his promise if elected and cancel the aegis contract!. . As you know, the ceo of aegis defense services tim spicer has been implicated in a variety of human rights abuses around the globe. Given his history, i agree that the united states should consider rescinding its contract with his company. . Jean mc bride (mother of peter) senator obama has appointed a high level advisory panel on irish issues, comprised of seven well known irish american politicans. The group is comprised of senators george mitchell (retired, maine), chris dodd (connecticut), edward kennedy (massachusetts) and pat leahy (vermont), governor martin o malley of maryland and congressmen joe crowley (new york) and richard neal (massachusetts). Again we would urge supporters to contact all or any of the above and call for the aegis contract to be cancelled. Please cc responses to us. See http www. Patfinucanecentre pmcbride mcbindex. Html for extensive background on the aegis private security contract in iraq and spicer role in the case of the murder of 18 year old teenager peter mc bride who was murdered on september 4 1992 by soldiers under his command. . It& ,s about time that i broke radio silence on here, and this certainly merits it. Former diplomat craig murray is having another run-in with schillings, the lawyers who briefly managed to get his website taken down on behalf of uzbek oligarch alisher usmanov. Now they are attempting to block the publication of my new book in the interests of mercenary commander tim spicer, one of those who has made a fortune from the iraq war. It is sad but perhaps predictable that private profits from the illegal iraq war, in which hundreds of thousands of innocent people have died, are providing the funding to try to silence my book. . The road to samarkand sounds as if it will be very interesting. Among the incidents i cover in my new book are the murder of peter mcbride, the aegis trophy video, the papua new guinea coup, the equatorial guinea plot, executive outcomes& , murder of civilians in angola and the arms to africa affair. I do hope that other bloggers will generate another streisand effect through blogging on these subjects. . Spinwatch has just published my latest profile piece, on the euston manifesto group. I doubt the broad thrust of it will come as a huge surprise to anyone. It looks at the groups connections with american social networks around the (apparently now defunct) social democrats usa and the national endowment for democracy, two organisations which played a part in the iran-contra affair. Some more strands in this particular web were highlighted in a recent post from the yorkshire ranter you may recall that the famous document that was meant to show iraq buying uranium from niger originated with the italian secret service, and then appeared in yer dossier, just in time for the americans to start using it in public speeches. It has long been suspected that the meeting in rome was somehow involved in this exercise in policy-laundering, or rather bullshit-laundering. So how did the thing get from italy to the uk? Well, there was harold rhode, also at the meeting, who made it to the december 2002 iraqi opposition conference in london. That may give us some idea. Now thats what i call the exigencies of the service - youve got to meet gems like ledeen, ghorbanifar, chalabi,. . Its hell in the diplomatic, as harry flashman so wisely said. (selling the dummy). David habakkuks latest piece brings us some interesting reflections on the neoconservatives and their various exile clients much more could be said about the sheer oddity of a conceptions of a forward strategy in which conmen like chalabi or berezovsky come to be seen as appropriate vehicles to make other societies liberal and democratic. What cannot be claimed, however, is that these conceptions are simply the fig-leaves of cunning machiavellians. In relation to their own societies, the neoconservatives and their british fellow-travellers may indeed be masterly manipulators. But their propensity to see alien societies through thick ideological filters makes them easy prey for conmen in their dealings with the wider world -- so that the actual outcomes of the strategies they advocate are highly liable to be quite different from those they envisage. (european tribune). As it happens, the us senate intelligence committee released a report this week which neatly illustrates davids argument. It concerns a series of meetings which began in rome in 2001. The meeting included larry franklin (office of assistant secretary of defense, international security affairs), harold rhode (office of net assessments), michael ledeen (former office of the secretary of defense and national security council consultant), manucher ghorbanifar (iranian exile), iranian 1 (iranian living in exile in morocco), iranian 2 (iranian revolutionary guard official), and an unidentified employee of a foreign government. Michael ledeen arranged the meeting with the help of his contacts in italy and the foreign government who provided the meeting place and the logistical support. (partly redacted in original links added). . A later passage in the report considers the counterintelligence implications the most significant matter raised in the counterintelligence field activitys report was the possibility that mr. Ghorbanifar of his associates are being used as agents of a foreign intelligence service to leverage his continuing contact with michael ledeen and others to reach into and influence the highest leveles of the u. S. Government. The report noted that there were multiple occasions where information from mr. Ghorbanifar entered u. S. Government channels via mr. Ledeen. These channels included personnel from the federal bureau of investigation, cia, dod, the white house, and congress. As a result, mr. Ghorbanifar was able to communicate with us government officials via mr. Ledeen without having direct contact. While the report concluded that mr. Ledeen was likely unwitting of any counterintelligence issues related to his relationship with mr. Ghorbanifar, their association was widely known, and therefore it should be presumed other foreign intelligence services, including those of iran, would know. . The website of standpoint, the new magazine published by the social affairs unit, is now live. In his inaugural column, editor daniel johnson highlights the magazines neoconservative credentials when you have a good idea, start a magazine. This, according to our board member gertrude himmelfarb, is the motto of her husband irving kristol. In a long and fruitful life, he has started three. (their son bill has started one, too. ) the first was encounter, which kristol co-founded with the late stephen spender in 1953. It was a transatlantic monthly in which the intellectuals of the free world could debate with one another and their communist counterparts. To write for encounter was a privilege. . Johnson doesnt mention it explicitly, but it is, of course, well-known that encounter was founded and financed by the cia as part of its psychological warfare strategy during the early cold war. According to historian hugh wilford, the magazines greatest achievement was in creating a certain kind of intellectual-cultural milieu in which american and european interests came to appear as if they were identical. . Back in january i suggested that martin brights knocking documentary on ken livingstone was connected to his relationship with policy exchange. Well now livingstone is gone and boris watch informs us that policy exchange is firmly ensconced at city hall during the electoral campaign, boris was aided by dan ritterband, a one-time director of policy exchange, and soon after his victory, nicholas boles, the founder of the organisation, was named as the mayor chief of staff. Boles was, the observer reported, asked to help the new mayor find the right staff , and one of his first appointments was munira mirza - an employee of policy exchange - as director of policy, arts, culture and the creative industries. Ritterband, meanwhile, maintained his position among boris advisers. . Given the way livingstone was red-baited over his socialist action advisers, it is particularly ironic that johnson should have appointed mirza, who was formerly involved with the manifesto club, an organisation associated with the the living marxism revolutionary communist party network. Splintered sunrise has some interesting thoughts on the parallels between socialist action and the rcp. For my money, the classic example of an upwardly mobile marxist or ex-marxist clique is the lovestoneite faction which started out in the american communist party and ended up working with james angleton and the cia. The key lovestoneite figure in britain was roy godson, father of policy exchanges dean godson. The rise of neoconservatism marks to a significant extent, the emergence of a post-marxist movement as a dominant strain on the right. It seems not everyone involved in promoting neoconservatism understands that. . Very interesting thread on sic semper tyrannis about the us investigation into bae the biggest aspect of the bae al yamamah story is the offshore fund. To summarize bae delivered about billion in arms and services to saudi arabia. Bae padded the bills substantially, up to nearly billion. The pad was used, in part, to bribe saudi officials who helped swing the deal, including bandar and prince turki bin-khaled, a top official of the saudi ministry of defense. That part is fully detailed in the guardian and other british coverage of the bae scandal, going back three or four years. What is not covered in the british press is the fact that saudi arabia paid for the arms with oil. The oil was sold on the spot market, and this generated an estimated (in current dollars) 0 billion in cash. I am told by former u. S. Treasury department officials that the funds generated from the oil sales, after bae got their cut, went into offshore bank accounts. . As jamie notes at blood and treasure theres not a lot of evidence offered, but the allegation about the oil fund has come up before. In his book in the public interest, the former chairman of astra, gerald james, highlights a partially blacked out memo that was sent to jeff rooker mp, which suggested some of the funds found their way to the conservative party. . The green ribbon books the hidden hand britain, america and cold war secret intelligence, by richard j. Aldrich. God englishman oliver cromwell and the english revolution by christopher hill writings of william walwynmilton and the english revolution, by christopher hillthe century of revolution, 1603-1714, by christopher hillthe rights of man, by tom painethe vote how it was won, and how it was undermined by paul foot the english, a portrait of a people, by jeremy paxmanthe making of english national identity by krishan kumarthe scottish insurrection of 1820 by peter berresford ellis, seumus mac a ghobhainn blackshirt sir oswald mosley and british fascism, by stephen dorrilhoney trap, by stephen dorril and anthony summers the celtic revolution, by peter berresford ellis this time our constitutional revolution, by anthony barnettpariah misfortunes of the british kingdom, by tom nairngordon brown bard of britishness, by tom nairn cromwell an honourable enemy by tom reillythe narrow ground aspects of ulster 1609-1969, by a. T. Q. Stewartthe year of liberty history of the great irish rebellion of 1798, by thomas pakenham the galtee boy a fenian prison narrative, by john sarsfield caseythe voyage of the catalpa a perilous journey and six irish rebels escape to freedom, by peter stevensjohn devoy catalpa expedition, by philip fennell and marie kingvoyage of the hougomont and life at fremantle, by thomas mccarthy fennellthe fenian diary the hougomont diary of denis b. Cashman, by denis b. Cashman, c. W. Sullivanirish rebel, john devoy and america fight for irish freedom, by terry golwaythe greatest of the fenians john devoy and ireland, by terence dooleyrossa recollections, 1838 to 1898 memoirs of an irish revolutionary, by jeremiah o donovan rossafenian fire the british government plot to assassinate queen victoria, by christy campbellprelude to the easter rising sir roger casement in imperial germany, by reinhard doerries1916 the easter rising, by tim pat coogandesmond rising memoirs 1913 to easter 1916, by desmond fitzgeraldpadraig pearse, the triumph of failure, by ruth dudley edwardsthe life and times of james connolly, by charles desmond greaves principles of freedom, by terence macswineyenduring the most life and death of terence macswiney, by francis j. Costello. I die in a good cause, by sean l ing tans, terror and troubles, kerry real fighting story, by t ryle dwyer. Enchanted by dreams the journal of a revolutionary by joe goodsam maguire the enigmatic man behind ireland most prestigious trophy, by margaret mary walshthe squad the intelligence operations of michael collins, by t ryle dwyer. Michael collins intelligence war the struggle between the british and the ira - 1919-1921, by michael t. Foybloody sunday how michael collins agents assassinated britain secret service in dublin on november 21, 1920, by james gleesonno other law, by florence o donoghuethe real chief, the story of liam lynch, by meda ryanflorence and josephine o donoghue war of independence a destiny that shapes our endguerilla days in ireland, by tom barrytom barry ira freedom fighter, by meda ryanmy fight for irish freedom, by dan breendan breen and the ira, by joe ambroseon another man wound a personal history of ireland war of independence, by ernie o malleyliam mellows and the irish revolution, by c. Desmond greaves. Who who in the irish war of independence, by padraic o farrellthe ira at war 1916-1923, by peter hart. The black and tans, by richard bennett. Peace by ordeal an account, from first-hand sources, of the negotiation and signature of the anglo-irish treaty, 1921, by frank pakenham longfordthe irish civil war, by tim pat coogani signed my death warrant michael collins and the treaty, by t ryle dwyerthe path to freedom articles and speeches, by michael collinsmichael collins a biography, by tim pat cooganmichael collins the man who won the war by t. Ryle dwyermichael collins a life, by james a. Mackay. Michael collins, by margery forestermichael collins and the women in his life, by meda ryanthe day michael collins was shot, by meda ryanmichael collins the secret file by a. T. Q stewartde valera long fellow, long shadow, by tim pat coogana memoir, by terry de valerathe irish republic, by dorothy mcardlein time of war ireland, ulster and the price of neutrality, 1939-45, by robert fisk a u. S. Spy in ireland, by martin s. Quigleywar and an irish town, by eamonn mccann bloody sunday in derry what really happened by eamonn mccann eyewitness bloody sunday by don mullanthe bloody sunday inquiry the families speak outpoint of no return the strike which broke the british in ulster, by robert fisk on the blanket the inside story of the ira prisoner dirty protest, by tim pat cooganten men dead story of the 1981 irish hunger strike, by david beresford the ira, by tim pat cooganthe provisional i. R. A. By patrick bishop and eamonn mallieforty years of controversy, by t ryle dwyerthe troubles ireland ordeal 1969-96, by tim pat coogan. Lost lives the stories of the men, women and children who died as a result of the northern ireland troubles, by david mckittrick, seamus kelters, brian feeney, chris thorntonunfinished business state killings and the quest for