Felicity Arbuthnot
Warrior for Peace and Justice
“An ambassador is a … gentleman sent to lie abroad for the good of his country.” (Attributed to Sir Henry Wotton, 1568-1639.)
Samantha Power trying to dragoon the UN Russian delegate, V. Churkin on a vote on Ukraine. She knows she will not be rebuked or criticized by her superiors or the servile US media.
They would have done well to hear Mr Churkin’s full address (1) it lays out home truths and the reality of international State sponsored terrorism – resulting in Syria’s living nightmare – in succinct detail. He began:
“It is the sixth year that the Syrian people have been suffering a grave tragedy. In 2011, Washington and some other Western capitals decided to continue the reshaping of the geopolitical space of the Middle East and North Africa, which started with the US and UK criminal invasion in Iraq in 2003. Besides, both in Libya and Syria they continued to ‘use an axe’ without any disdain for the support of terrorist groups … consequences of countries’ break-ups and flows of millions of refugees were qualified as an unforeseen ‘irritant’.”
Samantha Power, has never seemingly found a conflict she would not embrace (safely, from afar, of course.) The Balkans, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and now Syria, “liberation” by annihilation seemingly ever her preferred option. The UN welcomes some unlikely Representatives to uphold its founding aspirations.
“What Russia is sponsoring and doing in Aleppo is not counter terrorism, it is barbarism”, railed Ms Power. Clearly she has forgotten the US led, multi-country barbarisms above and further that Russia has been invited to work with Syria to attempt to resolve the country’s terrorist crisis. The US and their “allies” – in the air and on the ground – are illegals, in contravention of a swathe of international law.
Nest of vipers in the White House: Obama, Power, and fierce neocon imperialist Susan Rice (leaning on desk). What they have done to Syria and other nations fully qualifies as a Nuremberg-class war crime.
She appears to also have forgotten the numerous substantiations of the US (and allies) funding and arming the head chopping, organ eating, child murdering other illegal immigrants from over one hundred foreign countries, according to varying analysts. Another irony is America appointing itself the “world’s policeman” – as the world is seeing what its policemen are doing at home.
Criminal at large Matthew Mycroft: An Oxford-educated Blairite, and active war plotter with other highly placed officials in the Anglo-American crime syndicate that passes for legitimate government.
Also dropped through Ms Power and her fellow UN absconders memory hole seems to be General Wesley Clark’s near immediate post 9/11 revelation from a Pentagon colleague that:
“ … we’re going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran.”
Moreover, not to be forgotten is that the plans for Syria’s destruction were plotted in detail from within the then US Embassy in Damascus. (2)
Interesting is also the UK walkout Representative’s background, recalling that the UK is ever willing killer-in-arms with the US. Matthew Rycroft has trailed around varying war zones or war enablers in a “diplomatic” capacity since graduation from Oxford University in 1989.
An early placement was at the NATO desk in the British government’s bailiwick, Whitehall. After various Foreign Office placements he joined the British Embassy in Washington in 1998, from where he was seconded to both the US State Department and US Congress. On returning to the UK he became, in February 2002, Private Secretary Foreign Affairs, to the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair, according to his evidence to the Chilcot Inquiry on Iraq. (3 pdf.)
February 2002 was of course the time the planning in the Foreign Office was concentrating on Tony Blair’s now infamous meeting with George W. Bush in Crawford Texas in the coming April. Rycroft denied having any involvement in those plans, however he had integral involvement in the infamous Downing Street memo of 23rdJuly 2002. (4)
The memo related to the plans to overthrow Saddam Hussein, discussed at a meeting held by Tony Blair at which Rycroft was one of the attendees. His memo began:
“SECRET AND STRICTLY PERSONAL – UK EYES ONLY “DAVID MANNING
From: Matthew Rycroft
Date: 23 July 2002
S 195 /02
“cc: Defence Secretary, Foreign Secretary, Attorney-General, Sir Richard Wilson, John Scarlett, Francis Richards, CDS, C, Jonathan Powell, Sally Morgan, Alastair Campbell
“IRAQ: PRIME MINISTER’S MEETING, 23 JULY
“Copy addressees and you met the Prime Minister on 23 July to discuss Iraq.
This record is extremely sensitive. No further copies should be made. It should be shown only to those with a genuine need to know its contents.
“John Scarlett summarised the intelligence and latest (Joint Intelligence Committee) assessment. Saddam’s regime was tough and based on extreme fear. The only way to overthrow it was likely to be by massive military action …
“C reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The NSC had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime’s record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action.” (Emphasis added.)
In the memo’s “Conclusions” Rycroft’s first is:
“(a) We should work on the assumption that the UK would take part in any military action … “
The rest is Nuremberg’s “supreme international crime …” and bloody, genocidal history. Ongoing.
Rycroft has now turned his attentions to Syria. On walk out day, the 25th September in a speech to the UN (5) which includes too many inaccurate and misleading statements (many might say mistruths) to address here, he includes:
“ … the death and destruction that the sectarian Assad regime has unleashed upon them. Nor will they forget that Russia aided and abetted this ruthless sectarian dictator in waging war against his own people.”
Goodness, word for word out of the US-UK Saddam Hussein hand book – “waging a war against his own people”, “sectarian dictator.” As Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, Syria is secular and the government is fighting a war to rid the country of the terrorists who flooded in as a result of the fruition of the US plans formulated in 2006.
Rycroft also alleged the use by the government of chlorine bombs – he had clearly not read, or chosen to ignore the various Reports, including by the UN, categorically disproving this.
Iraq had the US inspired “Iraq Liberation Act” of 1998 held over the nation’s head until destroyed by the US and UK in 2003. Syria has the “Syria Accountability and Liberation Act” (6) of July 2009. Apart from imposing draconian sanctions of the sort that resulted in the deaths of half a million children between 6th August 1990 and 12th May 1996 in Iraq, the Act:
“Sets forth diplomatic measures intended to isolate the government of Syria.”
And: “Authorizes the (US) President to provide assistance to support a democratic transition in Syria.”
In another re-run of the Iraq lies, Rycroft adapts the “Saddam starves his own people” line – when in fact the US-UK driven embargo even denied baby formula – and accuses President Assad of “failing to stop starvation.”
Incidentally, in 2003, after the invasion of Iraq, Matthew Rycroft was awarded the CBE: “ … an honour awarded to an individual by the Queen for a leading role at a regional level or a prominent … role at a national level in any activity. The definition of CBE is Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.” The cynic might speculate that his part in “Empire’s” Iraq slaughter might have been a contributory factor.
But he has not lost talent for plotting and economy with the truth, it would seem. But then, experience in the Foreign Office, the State Department and Congress would be a peerless education. An example:
On 12 September, the eve of the ill-fated ceasefire: “President Dr. Bashar Al-Assad vowed to regain every inch of Syria from the terrorist forces.
“The Syrian President made this promise during his visit to the rural Damascus town of Darayya on Monday.
“In addition to his promise to recover every inch of the country, the Syrian President stated that his government will rebuild Darayya after the four year long battle left the town in ruins.” (7)
On 15th September, Matthew Rycroft translated this statement in an address to the UN as: “Earlier this week, Assad said it was his objective to regain the entire country by force …” (8) He surely learned well from his part in Iraq plotting.
Meanwhile, on 25th September (clearly a very busy plotting day) the UK’s new Foreign Secretary (it is hard to think of anyone less suitable to be a diplomat) was in Turkey. He tweeted:
Boris Johnson
@BorisJohnson
Follow #Turkey is a vital partner to the UK. Pleased to visit for first time as Foreign Sec for talks with Govt, civil society & #Syrian Opposition 9:34 AM – 25 Sep 2016
Meeting “opposition” head choppers, eh? Another shocking international conspiracy against a small, proud nation, which threatens no one. The onslaught against Syria, the betrayal of a fellow Member of the United Nations will be added to the list of crimes of enormity laid at the feet of the “Special relationship” – the barbarism of the US-UK alliance.
Incidentally, diplomacy: “The art of dealing with people in a sensitive and tactful way.”
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- http://www.globalresearch.ca/syria-and-conspiracy-theories-it-is-a-conspiracy/29596
- http://www.iraqinquiry.org.uk/media/234076/2010-09-10-transcript-rycroft-s1-declassified.pdf
- http://warisacrime.org/node/1
- https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/it-is-difficult-to-deny-that-russia-is-partnering-with-the-syrian-regime-to-carry-out-war-crimes
- https://www.congress.gov/bill/111th-congress/house-bill/1206
- https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/video-assad-vows-regain-every-inch-syria/
- https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/we-cannot-afford-to-repeat-history
Senior Contributing Editor FELICITY ARBUTHNOT resides in London, UK, and is an internationally respected expert in Middle East affairs — particularly Iraq —which she has visited dozens of times. She was a senior researcher on John Pilger's film Paying the Price — Killing the Children of Iraq, which investigated the devastating effect of United Nations sanctions on people of Iraq.[1] Ms. Arbuthnot is a dedicated pacificist, and her work proves the adage that "the pen is mightier than the sword."
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