We were opposed to Osama bin Laden when you were creating both Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. We were opposed to Saddam Hussein when you were arming him. We were opposed to Vladimir Putin when Tony Blair was taking him to the opera; of people still in the House of Commons, no one else comes close to the anti-Putin record of Jeremy Corbyn. We were opposed to Muammar Gaddafi when you were sending people back to Libya to be tortured by him, even though you were also turning Manchester into the world centre of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group that went on to attack the Arena; anyone would think that you had no idea what you were doing. And we were opposed to Bashar al-Assad when this happened.
Only one person in that photograph was born in the city in which it was taken. Either Asma al-Assad could re-enter the United Kingdom whenever she pleased, or she has been stripped of her British citizenship. I am opposed to the power of the Home Secretary to remove citizenship, but unlike her fellow London native, Shamima Begum, al-Assad does in fact hold another nationality, and she has been attached to the side that we have opposed in Syria, rather than, as in Begum's case, to the side that we have supported, such that we are now to rejoice in its victory, including the release from Sednaya Prison of men whom we would lock up on sight if they turned up here.
To say the least. Since 2018, the United States has offered a reward of $10 million for the capture of Ahmed Hussein al-Shar'a, otherwise known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani, the Emir of Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, at various times second-in-command both of Al-Qaeda and of the so-called Islamic State, and notable for having beheaded a 12-year-old boy on camera. But with a Government in which key figures laid claim to all the land from the Nile to the Euphrates, Israel has just seized a hefty chunk of Syria, so al-Julani can have the rest for now, assisted by Israeli bombing of key military and civilian targets in Damascus. Not for the first time, note how precise the Israelis are, and then ponder their frequent talk of collateral damage.
They are dancing in the streets of the Lebanese Salafi citadel of Tripoli, but Bezalel Smotrich wants every inch of that country. At best, it will be carved up between his church-burners and al-Julani's. We were right about Afghanistan. We were right about Iraq, which al-Julani and HTS also intend to take. We were right about Libya. And we are right about Syria. Look who disagrees with us. Assuming any strategic objective beyond the enrichment of themselves and of their corporate backers, then they have never been right about anything.
George's show and this post have kept me sane tonight.
ReplyDeleteIt may have been his best yet.
DeleteCitadel of Tripoli, oh you are good.
ReplyDeleteI am glad that someone spotted it.
DeleteThe Syrian people gathered outside the human slaughterhouse of Saydnaya prison-where 30,000 political dissidents were executed-are delighted the "last castle of Arab dignity" (as Galloway called Assad's regime) has crumbled.
ReplyDeleteWell, some of them did.
DeleteWhat were they in there for? Where would or should they be over here?
What were they in there for?
ReplyDelete“A 2017 report by Amnesty International citing ex-guards at the prison found that after the Syrian civil war began in 2011 the White Building was emptied of existing prisoners, and prepared instead to house those detained for taking part in protests opposing President Bashar al-Assad's regime. One former officer told Amnesty that "after 2011, [Saydnaya] became the main political prison in Syria". The organisation also quoted testimony from former prisoners claiming that those held in the Red Building were frequently exposed to various methods of torture, including severe beatings, rape and denial of access to food and medicine.
Housed beneath the White Building is what those speaking to Amnesty called an "execution room", where detainees in the Red Building would be transported to be hanged.
A former guard said that a list of those to be executed from the Red Building would arrive at lunchtime. Troops would then take those marked for death to a basement holding cell - which could sometimes contain up to 100 people - where they were subjected to beatings.”
And now the shoe is on the other foot.
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