alan johnston freed

**_liam_** · 04-Jul-2007

army of islam released johnston today after 4 months.

hamas were basically behind his released, the foreign secretary said he "recognises the role of hamas".

johnston ate breakfast with hamas leadership

this fills me with renewed optimism tbh

**MinionZombie** · 04-Jul-2007

Glad he was released! I guess I should go and put Sky News on to catch up on this stuff...

**_liam_** · 04-Jul-2007

BBC news 24 has all the scoops, they got a 15 minute press conference with him that comes on every now and then.
it'll probably be on the 6pm news roundabout nowish too

**MinionZombie** · 04-Jul-2007

Saw a snippet of it, typical propaganda from the dicks who captured him, that stupid breakfast parade around, sickening.

At least he's freed now, looks like he's going to re-evaluate his work ethic now...I don't blame him.

**_liam_** · 05-Jul-2007

i'm not sure if you think Hamas (who he had breakfast with) were the ones who kidnapped him, but it was regional warlords under some generic name like "The army of Islam" that have held him for the past 4 months, connected to a party that is a rival to Hamas but has recently got its arsed badly kicked by them, hence the nervous handing over of a celebrity hostage.

I think Hamas are trying to get away from their crazy rock n roll suicide bombings adolescence and become players on the world stage, by bossing the nutters into letting high profile westerners go.

seems to have worked to a certain extent, what with the foreign sec's comments and all.

i cant remember what happened to their 10 year truce with israel. i presume it lasted a couple months before someone got caught doing something

**MinionZombie** · 05-Jul-2007

The whole conflict in that areas confuddles the bollocks off me, but even so, Hamas were still using the bloke to make a political point of their own like he's some ragdoll to pass around ... or the banana from the first couple of weeks of this year's Big Brother, if you have the banana you can talk.

**_liam_** · 06-Jul-2007

i guess they were using him in the way you say, but then all governments do things like that - it's called diplomacy, why do you think were in iraq?.

the israel/palestine conflict is a tricky issue.

on the one hand, israel do occupy land they shouldnt.

on the other hand, the palestinians do suicide bombings.

but then on the other other hand, if a minority suicide bomb a cafe in your city, dont level a suburb in their territory.

it's one of those things where neither are really in the right, but Palestine's situation isnt really helped by them not being Israel (our biggest ally in the middle east), also people in the west arent very keen on muslims at the moment.

Hamas i think are taking steps towards becoming a more recognised, legitimate government, it appears the efforts they made to secure johnston's release are an olive branch to the west.

It has to be recognised that they had absolutely nothing to gain by securing his release apart from recognition from the west - which could hurt them more than help, as Palestine is a poor country and stays afloat largely due to funding from Iran and elements within the UAE - funding that may be docked or cut off if those parties take a dislike to Hamas' schmoozing up to the west, which, with the current climate between iran & the west in particular, is very possible.

**MinionZombie** · 06-Jul-2007

Apparently Hamas are a bunch of Jew-murdering/hating folk though, right? Oooh, not good...

A tricky situation indeed, flat out f*cked up even.

Did you see Question Time last night? Purely for under 22's ... oh dear ... oh dear ... oh dear.

The odd good point made (from the youngsters, who seemed to completely forget we're in the UK and there are a myriad of serious problems HERE, take your eyes off the Middle East - which has pretty much always been a bugger up - and look homeward first), but there was far too much (what I like to call) "whiskers on kittens" views of the world...which is exactly why 16 year olds shouldn't be given the vote. You are not an adult at 16, voting is for adults, not for children - it's bloody simple.

Surprisingly, the politicians on the panel made more sense most of the time...and I know I'd prefer people with more life experience deciding who is voted into power, as well as actually running the country...at 16 you've only done 3 years of teenage-hood for cripes sake!

)

Ach, I'll shut up before I get all pissed off, we probably shouldn't get into a political debate, it's two brick walls hitting each other.

**_liam_** · 06-Jul-2007

well i can agree with you on the vote thing, i dont think you should be allowed to vote until you are 21.

hopefully that would piss off people enough to start reading up on how **** works!

every time i see "yoof" on a panel program like newsnight or on the radio commenting on current affairs, it makes me cringe, and it makes me angry.

I remember a few weeks back listening to some 19 year old art student on the radio talking about the Iraq war and such. They asked her if the British way of life was threatened, would she go to war? her reply - "no, because violence doesn't solve anything".

OF COURSE IT DOES YOU F***ING MONG.
I of course believe violence should be a last resort, but you can see what the girl was doing there, relying on a common saying as an answer because she lacks the grey matter to think for herself and formulate a reply.

the radio station obviously asked her college for some students who considered themselves politicised to come forward and share their views.

She, being a moon brained idiot, fed homogenised focus group decided opinions by the media she consumed, had obviously deluded herself into thinking she was a sophisticated, intelligent young madam with a mind of her own, and put herself forward for the show.

when in actual fact, she obviously had never sat down and tried to think things through for herself, relying on populist soundbites to further her self image of being more than just another idiot, rather than engaging in an actual discussion or fairly representing the rest of us in that age group who actually BOTHER to read books, papers, websites etc.

Now, i don't pretend to know everything, but by the time i was 16 i'd decided Chomsky was a bit of a tart and couldnt be bothered reading him anymore. With that in mind, there are people my age who read a Michael Moore book and think they know it all.

Personally i think people should take a vote eligibility test, i see far too many people mouthing off when they clearly don't know as much as they'd like to think they do.

**MinionZombie** · 06-Jul-2007

OF COURSE IT DOES YOU F***ING MONG.

If this wasn't the internet I'd be forced to give you a man-hug.

Brilliant.

Damn straight. I too don't try and know about everything (e.g. this whole Middle East thing, words like "Hamas" and "Hezbollah" just glaze my eyes over, it's all over my head and I really can't be bolloxed to figure it out when there's pressing matters to be dealt with at home - like I always say, if you can't provide for your own country, how can you go off fixing other people's countries...especially when there's so much resistance).

Totally - heck, I voted for the first time when I was 21, and that was when I was just getting into the politics "thing", prior to that I watched as few news bulletins as possible as it just depressed/bored me, but since then (as you well know) I'm in that passionate youth stage where much vitriol is spilled.

But aye, all these Michael Moore cock sucking know-it-alls who live in a fairy world of fluffy kittens and cotton wool...you know, the sort of people who say "I depise Capitalism" while wearing a Slipknot hoody ... while also failing to understand that Communism certainly doesn't work very well, and Capitalism is about the best we've got in the UK...if only the rich would understand the poor better then it'd be much better...

Speaking of that last point (rich/poor) I've had the privilege to work on a video diary project where folk in and around my county who are living on minimum wage/benefits/low income get to say their piece so that an edited version can go to government to show them what life is like. So far I've logged 40 tapes and I'll be honest, I did hold some assumptions which I'm now ashamed of, but have now re-aligned my sights with greater appreciation for what I have, even though me and my family have had plenty of our own struggles - I guess everybody struggles. From basics up to higher stakes struggles.

But mmm...where was I? Getting a bit off target here...but yes, I think the "yoof" are far too inexperienced and idiotic to vote at 16, but well ... personally I feel Darth Brown would suck the devil's dick for a single vote in his favour...that dirty bastard...but I'll leave that elsewhere, lol...

I certainly know at 16 I knew piss all, at 18 I knew not much, it was only throughout University that I really developed my thoughts and feelings beyond my own self and confirmed my hatred of bandwagon jumpers leaping on the "I hate America" bandwagon. Hey, they're not better and no worse than Britain or the rest of the world. I think the trendy "f*ck Bush" movement is just idiotic, people saying those soundbites to look cool, sheep politics basically - as we saw on Question Time last night, especially from that poncy little dick who won the competition. He was clearing popping a boner over himself under that desk, cracking jokes to get everybody laughing so he could stroke himself off at how "popular" he was ... ug.

Anyway...my back's getting stiff on this office chair, so I'd better speed up my forum stalking.

**MissJacksonCA** · 07-Jul-2007

i can't imagine how he's adjusting after being released... it can't be easy

**_liam_** · 07-Jul-2007

he's a tough bastard, he was on news 24 a couple hours after he was freed, laughing and joking, he didnt even look like he'd had a late night

**Tricky** · 07-Jul-2007

Violence maybe doesnt solve anything when it comes down to a spilt drink in a pub,but when you come to war?damn right it does!violence also counters violence to sort things out,world war 2 is a prime example of that.