Where has all the money gone?

An unpublished letter to the Guardian on where all the money has gone:

"Each time I turn on the BBC I hear that difficult decisions have to be made, by whoever is elected. This comes down to: Do we want to give all our money to pay for the bankers this year or would we rather wait a bit? In all this debate no one has asked the obvious questions of how much wealth there is in the country, and who is best able to pay.

The focus groups which we conduct, light up when such issues are raised, but heaven forbid that politicians should be asked about such indelicate topics. The total UK wealth is £ 9 thousand billion, the top 20% own between 5 and 6 thousand billion of this, nearly all in property and pensions.*

Remember in a single year the denizens of the city paid themselves £21 billion in bonus payments and now we know where these went. The deficit is a mere £150 billion or thereabouts. But instead of discussing who could pay without missing it too much, public debate is constrained to issues like vat rises, which would hurt the poorest, who have no wealth, only debts.

Or alternatively we can choose if we want less schools and hospitals or more potholes. The class who caused all this will not be bothered in the least by the consequences of their actions, let alone be told on the BBC that they should pay for them."

Where has all the money gone?

The Rogue Nation

Three strikes and you’re out, Mr. Obama. Your government stands for preemptive killing and missile strikes on people living in countries with which America is not at war, lets torturers and torture enablers go free, and has asserted the right to assassinate its own citizens anywhere in the world based on secret evidence. Ronald Reagan once described his vision of America as a shining city on a hill. Over the past ten years the shining city has become the ultimate rogue nation, pumped up with power and hubris in spite of the clearly visible signs of decline and moving inexorably towards a catastrophic fall.

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Russia Today's Crosstalk on 911

Another useful contribution to the 911 affair where Russia Today's Crosstalk anchor, Peter Lavelle, interviews 911 investigators Richard Gage, Ian Henshall and Annie Machon.

You didn't see this in the West's corporate media.

Lies, lies and more damned lies

The British establishment must rue the day that Craig Murray was appointed as one of its ambassadors. Murray went on to blow the whistle on the UK government's complicity in US torture policy and for that he paid the price of being fired from his job.

Now he has exposed as a liar a former MI5 head who today claims that the UK was 'misled' by the US on its use of torture.

"Eliza Manningham-Buller, former head of MI5, is engaged in an outrageous attempt to rewrite history, by claiming we were unaware that the CIA was getting intelligence from torture."

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You won't hear Murray's side of the story in the corporate media. No prizes for guessing why.

Yemen: USA Are Fighting Against Democracy, Not Against Al-Qaeda

A pair of trousers catches fire in an aeroplane close to Detroit and missiles rain down on Yemen. Is this is what is called the butterfly effect? For Mohammed Hassan, the terrorist threat is only an excuse. Mohamed Hassan explains what is really at stake in Yemen: i.e. undermining democracy in the Gulf in order to keep control over its oil.

Since the failed attack on the Amsterdam-Detroit flight, Yemen has hit the headlines. It's there that the young Nigerian terrorist is supposed to have trained. How could this country, an ally of the US, become of refuge for al-Qaeda?

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