lets start with now! with Saudi Arabia’s illegal war of aggression with it’s impoverished neighbour Yemen. the Saudi regime, a rogue, terrorist, tyrannical & fundamentalist entity – but also possessing immense wealth – is armed, sustained, supported & excused by the west, most fervently by the US & UK who make it all possible with continuing sanction & sheltering.
the horrific war is over five years old, is considered by the UN as the world’s “largest humanitarian crisis” & repeatedly decimates almost every rule of engagement in extremis with copious & blatant war crimes & crimes against humanity which have been ‘naturalized’ into repeated & routine criminal policy without abatement or consequences from its western enablers & accomplices. in the UK, the Conservative governments fanatic support & continued arms sales & military assistance has been ruled illegal. literally, by means of it’s own legal system, a – CRIMINAL GOVERNMENT. in the United States, a measure to cease arms exports to the Saudi regime was passed (after the freshest criminal atrocity/massacre) but was then vetoed by Donald Trump in the latest exacerbation of his continued criminal commitment to a mass-murdering terrorist dictatorship waging a brutal illegal war in an already conflict wracked region.
“There was a decision, or a change of position, so that there would be no assessment of past violation of IHL [international humanitarian law]” by Saudi Arabia in Yemen, Etherton, Lord Justice Irwin and Lord Justice Singh concluded.
it is also worth noting/remembering the Justice Against Terrorism Act (JASTA). oddly (or not) despite the exponential implications, very few people know about JASTA, or that – “on 20 March 2017, 1,500 injured survivors and 850 family members of 9/11 victims filed a lawsuit against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Plaintiffs allege that the government of Saudi Arabia had prior knowledge that some of its officials and employees were al Qaeda operatives or sympathizers. The complaint alleged that Saudi Arabia “knowingly provided material support and resources to the al Qaeda terrorist organization and facilitating the September 11th Attacks“ so effectively, Saudi Arabia has admitted & “compensated” for the WTO terrorist attack! & the US & UK continue to arm this rogue/terrorist/despotic/fundamentalist regime as it expands it’s whimsical slaughters.
now, onto Paul Holden’s excellent book Indefensible.
Holden is a veteran researcher on the arms trade & has written at least two other books on this atrocious industry, one of which, The Shadow World, by Andrew Feinstein (Holden was a lead researcher), has also been made into an acclaimed documentary directed by Johan Grimonprez.
as you can imagine, the guy knows what he is talking about, & does not hesitate to relay the full destructive, mass murdering absurdity of this wicked, wicked trade in all it’s bloody, corrupt & insane criminality.
as he is keen to stress from decades of ardent research & study – the arms trade makes you less safe & less secure, with the proliferation of arms to pretty much anyone that’s got the cash & is willing to pay. of course, once those arms are out there, they may well fall into the hands of others as is constantly the result. ISIL in Iraq, who managed to commandeer colossal deposits of US manufactured & delivered arms, ammo & military vehicles to use in their campaign of murder, terror & atrocity in the region is just one recent example that the book debates.
“The list of biological material the US provided was shocking, including anthrax, botulinium, E.Coli as well as human and bacterial DNA.”
to whom you ask? oh! that would be Saddam Hussein.
“there is credible evidence that when the US invaded Iraq in 1991, US troops were exposed to the very agents the US had supplied, over and above and above fighting against the weapons whose acquisitions the US had helped to fund and arrange.”
Saddam would go on to use these chemical munitions & agents against the Iranians & against the Kurds.
Holden also explains the unique & exclusive capacity for corruption in the arms trade via the “offset” clause. as he explains – ” Offsets are agreements on behalf of the weapons manufacturers to invest in the economy of the buying countries, thus “offsetting” the economic cost of the imported weapons. Offsets are particularly prevalent in the arms trade, despite the fact that they are hugely controversial. part of this is because the defense trade is given a free pass when it comes to offsets. using offsets as a selection criterion is banned by the World Trade Organization, except in the defense trade.“
he goes on to deduce – “In reality, the corruption in the global arms trade is endemic and systemic. Indeed, it is arguably one of the most – if not the most – corrupt industries in the world.”
such a culture of corruption is enticing to a certain type. Prince Andrew has long been involved with the arms trade. it was Andrew, along with Tony Blair, who intervened & shutdown the public inquiry into the notorious Al Yamaha arms deal with, you guessed it, Saudi Arabia. this distinctly dirty deal had included allegations of ‘prostitutes’ being lavished on the Saudi’s to “sweeten” deals. given what we know about Andrew’s enduring & close affections for a then rampant Jefferey Epstein & Ghislaine Maxwell, we can imagine what that may of included. it is also worth recounting that Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) was one of the names to appear in Epstein’s ‘little black book’ of contacts.
The UK Conservative government remains in open & abject criminality regarding its bloody, murderous, illegal & inhuman support & arming for Saudi war crimes in Yemen. the last i heard of this unprecedented dereliction of law by a transnational crime organization masquerading as a legitimate political party, the Tory perpetrators were asking for a ‘stay’ on the ruling – so they could go on selling arms & giving military support in the criminal butchery. the government had also violated the rulings, three times! so open, repeated criminality as declared by arms of the domestic government/judiciary. so in Britain we have a legally declared criminal terrorist government/party that is continuing to repeatedly offend in support of a foreign terrorist entities unerring war crimes & military belligerence. that is not the only major breach of law the criminal Conservative party is committing. it has already been judged to be in gross violation of EU law in the High Court on three separate occasions on its illegal levels of pollution in the country that is killing over 60,000 British civilians a year. for years & years this has been declared a “public health emergency” in the UK by a cross-party committee, but they just ignore it & let Brits die, sicken & suffer in their millions, protecting the “interests” of their superiors in the petroleum & motor industry at the countries extraordinary & ongoing expense.
this is the true face of the Conservative party – mass murdering fraudsters protecting special interest groups whilst pretending to represent the public’s interests.
UK foreign secretary visits Berlin after raising concerns about impact of moratorium” –
“I am very concerned about the impact of the German government’s decision on the British and European defence industry and the consequences for Europe’s ability to fulfill its Nato commitments.”
there have been many other defeats in the High Court for the Conservative government on human rights grounds, clearly confirming their obsession with inhumanity & depravity, whether it be over their ‘unlawful discrimination against severely disabled people‘, ‘unlawfully freezing essential living needs payments’ to vulnerable asylum seekers or employment tribunal fees ‘inconsistent with access to justice‘ to name just a few. why is a government that is ostensibly protecting & improving peoples lives & living standards consistently breaking the law in the treatment of it’s populace & humanitarian duties? this stark reality exposes the folly of this wicked, cruel & corrupt organization that is clearly a modern day death cult.
watch the documentary & read the book – to understand the scale of evil & criminality we are dealing with here & the practice of mass murder through the politics of “business” & economic argument via ‘mainstream’ channels in our democratic structure.
https://shadowworldinvestigations.org/shadow-world-film/
Paul Holden, 2016, Zed Books, 177 pages
two exceptional & thoroughly detailed pieces of journalism on this sickening, ghastly & despicable UK/Saudi terrorism are here courtesy of the Guardian’s long read editions –
“The Saudi’s couldn’t do it without us:” by Arron Merat: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/18/the-saudis-couldnt-do-it-without-us-the-uks-true-role-in-yemens-deadly-war
“Yemen on the Brink:” by Ghaith Abdul-Ahab: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/dec/21/yemen-uae-united-arab-emirates-profiting-from-chaos-of-civil-war
further reading on source material/statistics for this article can be obtained from the following links –
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/16/uks-saudi-weapons-sales-unlawful-lords-committee-finds
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/05/mps-to-urge-ban-on-uk-arms-sales-to-saudi-arabia
special thanks to Blacc Pasha.