Arab Idol winner Mohammed Assaf in European debut

Google – AFP, Charles Onians (AFP), 29 Sep 2013

Gaza's Arab Idol winner Mohammed Assaf smiles during a meeting with fans

 and journalists before a concert in The Hague, on September 29, 2013 (AFP,

Charles Onians)

The Hague (AFP) - The Gazan winner of the Arab Idol talent competition, a rare symbol of Palestinian unity, is to give his first concert outside the Arab world in The Hague on Sunday.

Mohammed Assaf, 24, became a national hero when he won the pan-Arab contest in June after transfixing millions of television viewers with his soaring renditions of Arab love ballads and patriotic Palestinian songs.

“I am happy, this is an opportunity to be in front of a non-Arab audience, and that's a good thing," Assaf told AFP in an interview. "I’d like to reach out to the world.”

Organisers said they expected the 800 tickets for the young heartthrob's concert in The Hague's town hall on Sunday night, his first outside the Middle East and north Africa, to be sold out.

“Music is a unifying message," Assaf said.

Mohammed Assaf meets with fans and

 journalists before a concert in The Hague,

 on September 29, 2013. (AFP, Charles

Onians)

"Maybe there are different audiences, or the techniques are different in the Middle East and in Europe and America, but what I know is music is something that when people first hear, they love.”

Assaf arrived in The Netherlands from his new home in Dubai and had dinner with Arab ambassadors on Saturday evening, a spokesman for the Palestinian delegation in The Netherlands, Roel Raterink, told AFP.

Organisers said Palestinians from Germany and Belgium are also expected to travel to The Netherlands for the concert, which will also be attended by most Arab ambassadors.

Israel in August took the exceptional step of allowing Assaf to move from the Gaza Strip to the Israeli-occupied West Bank as a "humanitarian gesture".

Israel has maintained a land, sea and air blockade on Gaza since 2006 which was tightened further when the Islamist movement Hamas seized control there the following year.

Assaf said he was now living in Dubai "because of the conditions in my country".

"Because of the siege, it is easier for me to go to Dubai, it makes travel easier because I have concerts in some Arab countries and in Europe, and in America over the next months.”

No Israeli diplomats will be attending. Israeli President Shimon Peres is on a visit to Amsterdam at the same time, the Israeli embassy said.

One-time wedding crooner Assaf was also to meet members of The Netherlands' Palestinian community before heading to Italy for another European concert, Raterink said.

Born to Palestinian parents in Misrata, Libya, Assaf grew up in the teeming Khan Yunis refugee camp in southern Gaza before winning the 2013 edition of Arab Idol in Beirut in June.

His victory sparked scenes of jubilation across the Palestinian territories.

The week after he won, Assaf performed in front of some 40,000 fans in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

The contest in Beirut transfixed the viewing public with Assaf's story which saw him sneaking out of Gaza, nearly missing his initial audition in Cairo, and then only making it through after a fellow Gazan pulled out.

Palestinians remain divided between the Islamist Hamas movement which rules the Gaza Strip and its Fatah rival which dominates the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority.

On his return to Gaza in June, Assaf called for an end to the "division" with the West Bank, and urged unity between Palestinians.

While this is his first performance in Europe as Arab Idol winner, he says he went to summer camp in France in 2003 and performed in Marseille in 2006.

“We took first prize for a cultural song. I was singing and there were guys dancing the debke, an Arab dance," he said.

Related Article:

Arab Idol favourite Mohammed Assaf carries hopes of Palestinians into final

Women's rights supporters condemn Saudi Arabia as activists ordered to jail

Supporters condemn length of sentences as bid by authorities to silence criticism

The Guardian, The Observer, Tracy McVeigh, Sunday 29 September 2013

A Saudi Arabian woman drives a car as part of a campaign to defy the
ban on women driving. Photograph: AP

Two prominent female rights activists who went to the aid of a woman they believed to be in distress are expected to go to jail in Saudi Arabia on Sunday after the failure of their appeal against a 10-month prison sentence and a two-year travel ban.

Wajeha al-Huwaider, a writer who has repeatedly defied Saudi laws by driving a car, and Fawzia al-Oyouni were arrested for taking a food parcel to the house of someone they thought was in an abusive relationship. In June they were found guilty on a sharia law charge of takhbib – incitement of a wife to defy the authority of her husband, thus undermining the marriage.

Campaigners say they are "heroes" who have been given heavy sentences to punish them for speaking out against Saudi restrictions on women's rights, which include limited access to education and child marriage as well as not being able to drive or even travel in a car without a male relative being present.

In 2007 a Saudi appeal court doubled a sentence of 90 lashes to be given to a teenager because she had been in a car with a male friend when they were abducted and gang-raped by seven men.

Suad Abu-Dayyeh, an activist for the group Equality Now, said the authorities had been trying to silence the two women for years and their sentence "is unfortunate and scandalous". It marked a dangerous escalation of how far Saudi authorities were willing to go.

"These women are extremely brave and active in fighting for women's rights in Saudi Arabia, and this is a way for the Saudi authorities to silence them," she said. "If they are sent to jail, it sends a very clear message to defenders of human rights that they should be silent and stop their activities – not just in Saudi Arabia, but across Arab countries. These women are innocent – they should be praised for trying to help a woman in need, not imprisoned. They now find themselves at the mercy of the system they have fought so tirelessly to change."

According to reports, this is also the first time in Saudi legal history that a travel ban has been imposed in a case involving domestic issues.

"This case and the system of lifelong male guardianship of women in Saudi Arabia shows that protecting a husband's dominant, even abusive, position in the family is far more important than his wife's wellbeing," said Suad Abu-Dayyeh.

The women themselves believe they may have been set up, that they were contacted by text message by a woman claiming to be the mother of Natalie Morin, a Canadian national married to a Saudi who has herself been campaigning for several years to be allowed to leave the country with her three young children – something she says the authorities will not allow her to do.

The text, in June 2011, said she had been abused by her husband, an unemployed former Saudi intelligence officer, who had then left for a wedding and left her and her children locked in their apartment in the eastern city of Dammam for a week and that they were running out of food and water. When the two women arrived in Morin's street they were immediately arrested.

"Actually when we went to there, the minute we arrived a police car arrived," said Wajeha al-Huwaider. "I'm sure the judge knows that it was a trap and they meant to catch us at that time in order to make a case against us."

At first they were charged with trying to aid Morin escape to the Canadian embassy in Riyadh, but the intervention of a local member of the Saudi royal family led to those charges being dropped, because, said Huwaider, even he was embarrassed at the obvious nature of the set-up.

Morin was also arrested and held for several hours. It was not until a year later that the two women were told they were to face the new charge of takhbib, a law that effectively puts all aid workers and activists helping Saudi women in need of protection from domestic violence, at risk.

Morin was not permitted to testify at their trial earlier this year that she had never met Huwaider and Oyouni. She has declared support for them on her blog writing: "I am sorry for what's happening to madam Wajeha al-Huwaider and her friend." She said the "two Saudi women find themselves in a serious legal problem with jail just for trying to help me … there is no evidence for the charges that are against her and her friend."

Huwaider and Oyouni's conviction has been condemned by numerous human rights organisations, including the Gulf Centre for Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, Equality Now and Pen International.

Related Articles:

Saudi Arabian Women Urged To Protest Against Driving Ban By Getting Behind The Wheel On October 26

Women in 15 nations need spouse's okay to work

Obama and Iran's Rouhani hold historic phone call

Google – AFP, 27 Sep 2013

US President Barack Obama speaks to members of the press in the briefing

 room of the White House September 27, 2013 in Washington (AFP, 

Brendan Smialowski)

Washington — US President Barack Obama and Iran's President Hassan Rouhani spoke by phone on Friday in the historic first direct contact between leaders of their two nations since the Islamic revolution of 1979.

The call, which came after the two leaders failed to have meet at the UN General Assembly in New York, provided dramatic evidence of an unprecedented opening in relations between the Islamic Republic and a foe it has reviled as the "Great Satan."

"Just now, I spoke on the phone with President Rouhani of the Islamic Republic of Iran," Obama said in a televised statement.

"The two of us discussed our ongoing efforts to reach an agreement over Iran's nuclear program," Obama said.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani

answers questions in New York, 

September 26, 2013 (AFP,

Emmanuel Dunand)

"We're mindful of all the challenges ahead. The very fact that this was the first communication between an American and Iranian president since 1979 underscores the deep mistrust between our countries, but it also indicates the prospect of moving beyond that difficult history. I do believe that there is a basis for a resolution."

Obama said he told Rouhani that he believed a "resolution" was possible to the dispute over Iran's uranium enrichment program, which the West believes is a covert effort to produce nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran denies.

Washington and Israel have both warned of the possibility of military action if diplomacy fails to assuage their concerns over the nuclear program.

The Iranian presidency confirmed the telephone call between Obama and Rouhani.

"The two insisted on political will for quick resolution to the nuclear issue, as well as paving the ground for resolving other issues and cooperation in regional issues," the presidency said on its website.

A Twitter account run by Rouhani's office also gave details of the call.

"In phone convo, President Rouhani and President @BarackObama expressed their mutual political will to rapidly solve the nuclear issue," one tweet said.

Another tweet paraphrasing Rouhani read: "I express my gratitude for your #hospitality and your phone call. Have a good day Mr President."

Obama meanwhile even apologized for the traffic in New York, according to a Rouhani tweet, in a startling sign of the new tone in relations between the two longtime enemies.

The call took place after pathbreaking bilateral talks Thursday between Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif at the UN, on the sidelines of wider discussions on the nuclear program between Iran and major world powers.

Rouhani earlier continued his charm offensive in New York, a trip which set the next high level talks on the nuclear program next month.

He said in a press conference that Iran would present a plan at the talks in Geneva to resolve concerns over its nuclear program and vowed never to deviate from promises to the West.

"Iran will prepare that plan and will present it in Geneva. We hope it will serve as an even more effective step to settle the nuclear issue," Rouhani said.

Rouhani said he hoped to resolve the nuclear row in a "short period of time," a day after his foreign minister said that major powers had set a goal of a deal within one year.

The soft-spoken cleric swept to power in June, succeeding the firebrand Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on promises to ease tensions over Iran's nuclear program, which has triggered a crippling US-led campaign of sanctions on Iran.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who meets Obama on Monday at the White House, has branded Rouhani a "wolf in sheep's clothing."

Israeli officials frequently cite Rouhani's past remark that Iran moved ahead with work on a uranium enrichment site in Isfahan while he served as nuclear negotiator a decade ago.

Rouhani rejected the allegations of duplicity, saying he had openly told European officials that Iran would complete the Isfahan facility and had cooperated with the UN atomic agency.

"We have never chosen deceit as a path. We have never chosen secrecy," Rouhani told the news conference.

Related Articles:

Iran, US hold unprecedented nuclear talks

Iran hails Obama's UN speech

Hassan Rouhani tells UN: Iran poses no threat to the world

China bans several weapon-related North Korea exports

"Recalibration of Knowledge" – Jan 14, 2012 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Channelling, God-Creator, Benevolent Design, New Energy, Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Reincarnation, Gaia, Old Energies (Africa, Terrorists, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela ... ), Weather, Rejuvenation, Akash, Nicolas Tesla / Einstein, Cold Fusion, Magnetics, Lemuria, Atomic Structure (Electrons, Particles, Polarity, Self Balancing, Magnetism), Entanglement, "Life is necessary for a Universe to exist and not the other way around", DNA, Humans (Baby getting ready, First Breath, Stem Cells, Embryonic Stem Cells, Rejuvenation), Global Unity, ... etc.) - (Text Version)

“…  I want you to watch some countries. I don't have a clock [this statement is Kryon telling us that there is no time frame on his side of the veil, only potentials]. I'll just tell you, it's imminent [in Spirit's timing, this could mean as soon as a decade]. I want you to watch some countries carefully for changes. You're going to be seeing changes that are obvious, and some that are not obvious [covert or assumptive]. But the obvious ones you will see sooner than not - Cuba, Korea [North], Iran, of course, and Venezuela. I want you to watch what happens when they start to realize that they don't have any more allies on Earth! Even their brothers who used to support them in their hatred of some are saying, "Well, perhaps not anymore. It doesn't seem to be supporting us anymore. "Watch the synchronicities that are occurring. The leaders who have either died or are going to in the next year or so will take with them the old ways. Watch what happens to those who take their place, and remember these meetings where I described these potentials to you. …”

"The Way Synchronicity Works" – Aug 24, 2013 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

US, Russia break deadlock on Syria chemical arms

Google – AFP, 27 Sep 2013

US State Secretary John Kerry (L) and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey

 Lavrov talk at the UN General Assembly in New York, September 24, 2013

(AFP/File, Emmanuel Dunand)

UNITED NATIONS (United States) — The United States and Russia agreed a draft UN Security Council resolution on destroying Syria's chemical weapons, breaking a prolonged deadlock over the country's conflict.

The 15-member council held its first talks on the text late Thursday and a vote could be held on Friday, diplomats said.

If agreed, the resolution would be the first passed by the panel on Syria since the conflict -- which the UN says has killed more than 100,000 people -- started in March 2011.

The United Nations has also called ministers from the major powers to a meeting Friday to try to name a date for a Syria peace conference.

A UN expert arrives to get in a vehicle

 before leaving an hotel in the Syrian

 capital Damascus on September 26,

2013 (AFP, Louai Beshara)

The draft US-Russian resolution, seen by AFP, does not propose immediate measures over a chemical attack in a Damascus suburb a month ago. But it allows for possible sanctions -- after a new vote -- if there are breaches of a disarmament plan.

The text says the council "decides in event of non-compliance with this resolution, including unauthorized transfer of chemical weapons or any use of chemical weapons by anyone in the Syrian Arab Republic, to impose measures under Chapter VII of the UN Charter."

It says the council would "promptly" consider measures if the world chemical weapons watchdog or UN leader Ban Ki-moon report a breach of a Russia-US disarmament plan.

Chapter VII can allow sanctions or military force. But diplomats said there would have to be a new vote for any action and predicted there would be a fierce new debate with Russia, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's last major backer.

Any action would be "proportionate to the gravity of the violation," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency as he welcomed the draft resolution.

Russia and China have vetoed three Western-proposed resolutions that sought to increase pressure on Assad. Russia has steadfastly refused to allow any UN sanctions against its ally.

European nations had also wanted the resolution to refer the Syria conflict to the International Criminal Court.

A Syrian refugee girl reads an old exercise

 book as she waits outside her makeshift

 house before heading to school on

September 26, 2013 in the northern

 Lebanese city of Tripoli (AFP/File,

Joseph Eid)

But the draft says only that the council "expresses strong conviction that those individuals responsible for the use of chemical weapons in Syria should be held accountable."

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius still called the proposed resolution "a step forward" and added "we are satisfied."

The resolution accord was announced after new talks between Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry.

Lavrov told reporters "an understanding" with the United States had been reached on a draft resolution and a joint disarmament plan to be approved by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

Kerry, meanwhile, said the international community "can now move forward and give life hopefully to the removal and destruction of chemical weapons from Syria."

If the OPCW executive council, based in The Hague, approves the disarmament plan Friday then a Security Council vote could be held later in the day, diplomats said.

-- US THREAT FORCED BREAKTHROUGH AT UN --

Lavrov and Kerry agreed a plan to put Syrian chemical arms under international control after the United States threatened a military strike against Syria over an August 21 chemical weapons attack on the outskirts of Damascus.

The two met again Thursday to seal the accord on the UN resolution.

"This is a breakthrough arrived at through hard-fought diplomacy," said a senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

A handout picture released by the

 official Syrian Arab News Agency

 (SANA) on September 25, 2013 shows

 President Bashar al-Assad giving an

 interview with Venezuelan television

station TeleSUR in Damascus (Sana/

AFP/File)

Lavrov and Kerry will hold more Syria talks Friday when they meet Ban and the foreign ministers from Britain, France and China for talks on a possible Syria peace conference in Geneva.

Growing divisions within the Syrian opposition have dented hopes of holding the conference. And there are increasing concerns that what started as peaceful protests is becoming an increasingly sectarian and extreme conflict.

Fighters from the Al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant set fire to statues and crosses inside two churches in the northern city of Raqa. They also destroyed a cross on a church clock tower, replacing it with their flag, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Meanwhile an Iraqi woman was killed and three others wounded when a mortar hit the Iraqi consulate in Damascus, a diplomat said.

The United Nations has major security concerns about a team of UN experts that resumed the hunt for evidence of other chemical weapon attacks on Thursday.

The team, led by Swedish expert Ake Sellstrom, has been given allegations of up to 14 attacks.

"This will be a very quick mission; they will only be in Syria a few days," a UN official said, without disclosing their movements for security reasons.

Iran, US hold unprecedented nuclear talks

Google – AFP, 26 Sep 2013

The five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus 

Germany meet with Iran over their nuclear program September 26, 2013 in

New York. (AFP, Stan Honda)

New York — Iran and the United States met for one of their highest level meetings since the 1979 revolution Thursday as their foreign ministers joined landmark talks on Tehran's suspect nuclear program.

The talks, involving US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif, came just after new Iranian leader Hassan Rouhani called on Israel to admit it has a nuclear bomb.

Chaired by EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, the meeting brought together the foreign ministers of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States plus Germany in a group dubbed the P5+1.

Smiling broadly, Zarif was sat at the head of the table next to Ashton looking down on the Security Council conference room, with Kerry to the right on an abutting table.

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani (C)

 arrives with UN Secretary-General Ban

 Ki-moon (R) during the UN General 

Assembly in New York, September 26,

2013 (AFP, Emmanuel Dunand)

Western powers have approached with caution the overtures made by the new Iranian leadership which took power in August.

"While we do not anticipate that any issues will be resolved during today?s P5+1 meeting, we are hopeful that we can continue to chart a path forward," a US State Department official said.

"We hope that this new Iranian government will show that it is prepared to engage substantively to address these long standing concerns and we will see today and in months ahead whether they will follow words with action."

It is the first time that Iranian and American ministers have sat together at the talks, aimed at reining in the Islamic republic's nuclear program, which western nations believe is a covert grab for an atomic bomb.

Iran has repeatedly denied the accusations, saying its nuclear program is for civilian purposes only.

Rouhani said he believed a deal could be struck with the international community within three to six months.

And he said Iran's arch-foe Israel should join the Non-Proliferation Treaty, which aims to contain the spread of nuclear weapons. Israel has never declared a nuclear arsenal, but is widely assumed to have several bombs.

Rouhani, speaking as current leader of the Non-Aligned Movement at a conference on disarmament, highlighted the failure of attempts to organize a Middle East nuclear free zone.

"Israel, the only non-party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty in this region, should join thereto without any further delay," Rouhani told the meeting.

Kerry met early Thursday with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi and the two men agreed "Iran should cooperate and should respond positively to the offer on the table," a US official told reporters.

The P5+1 made a new offer to Iran earlier this year, before Rouhani's election, on how to overcome the current stalemate in the nuclear dossier.

It is believed to have offered an easing of the international sanctions which have crippled the Iranian economy, in return for a slow down in Iran's uranium enrichment program.

Western officials say they are still waiting for a response.

"No nation should possess nuclear weapons, since there are no right hands for these wrong weapons," insisted Rouhani.

"As long as nuclear weapons exist, the risk of their use, threat of use and proliferation persist. The only absolute guarantee is their total elimination," he said.

Rouhani told the Washington Post he wants a quick deal on the nuclear standoff adding he has the full backing of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

"If it's three months, that would be Iran's choice, if it's six months, that's still good. It's a question of months not years," he said.

While US officials say no bilateral talks are planned between Kerry and Zarif, an unofficial encounter remained possible.

As he entered the room Kerry said he was "looking forward to a good meeting."

Western diplomats say the meeting will give Iran a chance to show there is substance behind Rouhani's statements that he wants to end the nuclear showdown.

The United States had sought a meeting between President Barack Obama and Rouhani on the sidelines of this week's UN assembly. But Iran said it was too complex to organise.

Related Articles:

Iran hails Obama's UN speech

Hassan Rouhani tells UN: Iran poses no threat to the world

China bans several weapon-related North Korea exports

"Recalibration of Knowledge" – Jan 14, 2012 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Channelling, God-Creator, Benevolent Design, New Energy, Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Reincarnation, Gaia, Old Energies (Africa, Terrorists, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela ... ), Weather, Rejuvenation, Akash, Nicolas Tesla / Einstein, Cold Fusion, Magnetics, Lemuria, Atomic Structure (Electrons, Particles, Polarity, Self Balancing, Magnetism), Entanglement, "Life is necessary for a Universe to exist and not the other way around", DNA, Humans (Baby getting ready, First Breath, Stem Cells, Embryonic Stem Cells, Rejuvenation), Global Unity, ... etc.) - (Text Version)  

“…  I want you to watch some countries. I don't have a clock [this statement is Kryon telling us that there is no time frame on his side of the veil, only potentials]. I'll just tell you, it's imminent [in Spirit's timing, this could mean as soon as a decade]. I want you to watch some countries carefully for changes. You're going to be seeing changes that are obvious, and some that are not obvious [covert or assumptive]. But the obvious ones you will see sooner than not - Cuba, Korea [North], Iran, of course, and Venezuela. I want you to watch what happens when they start to realize that they don't have any more allies on Earth! Even their brothers who used to support them in their hatred of some are saying, "Well, perhaps not anymore. It doesn't seem to be supporting us anymore. "Watch the synchronicities that are occurring. The leaders who have either died or are going to in the next year or so will take with them the old ways. Watch what happens to those who take their place, and remember these meetings where I described these potentials to you. …”

"The Way Synchronicity Works" – Aug 24, 2013 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

MoD study sets out how to sell wars to the public

Exclusive: Families angry at proposal to lower profile of repatriation ceremonies

The Guardian, Ben Quinn, Thursday 26 September 2013

A British soldier in Afghanistan. An MoD document written in November 2012
 discusses how public reaction to casualties can be influenced.
Photograph: Reuters

The armed forces should seek to make British involvement in future wars more palatable to the public by reducing the public profile of repatriation ceremonies for casualties, according to a Ministry of Defence unit that formulates strategy.

Other suggestions made by the MoD thinktank in a discussion paper examining how to assuage "casualty averse" public opinion include the greater use of mercenaries and unmanned vehicles, as well as the SAS and other special forces, because it says losses sustained by the elite soldiers do not have the same impact on the public and press.

The document, written in November 2012 and obtained by the Guardian under the Freedom of Information Act, discusses how public reaction to casualties can be influenced and recommends that the armed forces should have "a clear and constant information campaign in order to influence the major areas of press and public opinion".

It says that to support such a campaign the MoD should consider a number of steps, one of which would be to "reduce the profile of the repatriation ceremonies" – an apparent reference to the processions of hearses carrying coffins draped in the union flag that were driven through towns near RAF bases where bodies were brought back.

For four years up to 2011, 345 servicemen killed in action were brought back to RAF Lyneham and driven through Royal Wootton Bassett, in Wiltshire, in front of crowds of mourners. Since then, bodies have been repatriated via RAF Brize Norton, in Oxfordshire, with hearses driven through nearby Carterton.

The MoD's suggestion received a scathing reaction from some families of dead military personnel. Deborah Allbutt, whose husband Stephen was killed in a friendly fire incident in Iraq in 2003, described the proposals for repatriation ceremonies as "brushing the deaths under the carpet".

She said: "They are fighting and giving their lives. Why should they be hidden away? It would be absolutely disgraceful." Allbutt, with others, gained a landmark ruling this year that relatives of killed or injured soldiers can seek damages under human rights legislation.

The paper, by the MoD's development, concepts and doctrine centre (DCDC), recommends taking steps to "reduce public sensitivity to the penalties inherent in military operations" and says the ministry should "inculcate an attitude that service may involve sacrifice and that such risks are knowingly and willingly undertaken as a matter of professional judgment".

The paper amounts to what could be considered a prescient analysis of why the British public and MPs were so reluctant to support an attack on Syria. It also says that in any conflict the MoD should ensure that the reason for going to war is "clearly explained to the public".

The eight-page paper argues that the military may have come to wrongly believe that the public, and as a result the government, has become more "risk averse" on the basis of recent campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"However, this assertion is based on recent, post-2000 experience and we are in danger of learning false lessons concerning the public's attitude to military operations," the paper, which has no named author, adds.

"Historically, once the public are convinced that they have a stake in the conflict they are prepared to endorse military risks and will accept casualties as the necessary consequence of the use of military force."

To back this up, it cites "robust" public support for earlier conflicts – the Falklands war and operations in Northern Ireland between 1969 and 2007. "In those cases where the public is unconvinced of the relevance of the campaign to their wellbeing they are not prepared to condone military risk and are acutely sensitive to the level of casualties incurred.

"Neither the action in Iraq nor the operations in Afghanistan have enjoyed public support and we are in danger of learning a false lesson from the experience of the last 10 years."

The report adds: "The public have become better informed and our opponents more sophisticated in the exploitation of the sources of information with the net result that convincing the nation of the need to run military risks has become more difficult but no less essential."

Among other suggestions that could contend with worries about casualty numbers, the DCDC recommends a major investment in "autonomous systems for unmanned vehicles", cyber-operations and the increased use of mercenaries, referred to as "contractors".

Noting that the growth of private security companies has proceeded at a spectacular rate during the past 10 years, it adds: "Neither the media nor the public in the west appear to identify with contractors in the way that they do with their military personnel. Thus casualties from within the contractorised force are more acceptable in pursuit of military ends than those from among our own forces."

Investing in greater numbers of special forces is also recommended. The paper suggests: "The public appear to have a more robust attitude to SF [special forces] losses." In a reference to a May 1982 helicopter crash, it says: "The loss of 19 SAS soldiers in a single aircraft accident during the Falklands campaign did not arouse any significant comment."

An MoD spokesman said: "It is entirely right that we publicly honour those who have made the ultimate sacrifice and there are no plans to change the way in which repatriation ceremonies are conducted. A key purpose of the development, concepts and doctrine centre is to produce research which tests and challenges established doctrine and its papers are designed to stimulate internal debate, not outline government policy or positions. To represent this paper as policy or a potential shift of policy is misleading."

Christopher Dandeker, a professor of military sociology at King's College London, said that the issues raised in the paper were timely as the public had recently shown that they were unconvinced by what political elites wanted to do in relation to the use of force in Syria. It also made sense that the military would pay greater attention to the role of military families, who were becoming "a more politically active, questioning independent stakeholder in the military community".

Related Articles:

Britain says no Syria action before UN inspection results

Most Americans oppose Syria strike: poll

"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

“…  8 - The End of War

The last one is the best. For thousands of years on this planet, Human Beings have warred with each other. If you take a look at the reasons they warred with each other, you will quickly see there aren't any good ones - land, resources, greed. Those are not reasons. That is a description of old energy. Those are not reasons. Reasons would be perhaps defense against an aggressor. But what if there is no longer the consciousness of the aggressor?

When I appeared in my partner's life more than 20 years ago, I said to him privately that the first messages we're going to give will be unbelievable. There would be laughter. We told him that Human nature and consciousness itself would change, and that the seeds of peace would be planted and there would come a time where there is no more war. Indeed, the laughter was great because humans look at history and they see patterns based on an absolute energy called Human Nature. "Impossible! There always has to be war. There always has been. Therefore, there always will be." This is you, in a box, in a black and white potential, where you can only see the black and white of what is and the black and white of what has been. You have no idea the shades of color that are there in your consciousness and the beauty of the love of God.

North Korea is on the edge of change, as we told you it might be. What did this require? The death of the old energy, and I want you to watch this take place. The advisors of the young leader are going to do their best to pull him back into an old energy. This free choice of his will be far different than his father, for he sees some color. Watch for these things. They'll take longer than you want, but it is the beginning of the beginning.

You'll see a fresh unification of South America sooner than not, for what is going to take place potentially this year in Venezuela. You'll see Iran changing. We have no clock. These are the potentials. These can change with free choice. These are not prophecies. This is a reality shift, dear ones, so number eight becomes the propensity not to war again. This is what Humans are going to want. This is what governments are going to want. There is a wisdom factor that will begin to happen on the planet that is grander than what you think is possible. For when you look at government, what do you think about? You see dysfunction, and there is an axiom that says the more people that try to do something together, the worse it gets. It all settles to the lowest common denominator. I'm telling you even those things are going to become old energy concepts. Instead, you're going to watch wisdom become the top potential.

I have no clock. I cannot tell you when. I can just tell you it is in the works, and there will be the seeds of it for you to observe soon - right now, in every single of the eight categories I showed you.

There are those who will say, "Well, Kryon, you're doing a lot more predictions than you used to." I want to tell you what's going on, dear one. I am not predicting anything. I am just telling you what's already there in the potential soup of your reality. That's what Humans are doing on this planet, and for those who believe this communication, you should breathe a sigh of relief and say, "It's about time." ….”