Britain's ambassador gushes admiration for a godfather of terror

daniel maris

Frances Guy should be sacked immediately. If she can't realise those remarks are completely out of order for the represenative of a democracy supposedly opposed to totalitarian movements.

Truly shocking.

There really is a sale of messes of pottage going on at the moment isn't there?

And our democratic birthright is being sold very cheaply.

John from Toronto

Diplomats are not stupid, in terms of career advancement. How many diplomatic positions are there in the Arab world and the Muslim world more generally? Don't want to bite the hand that will potentially feed you.

Noa

I would expect Cameron to sack Guy, preferably publicly, but behind closed doors will do.

Roger K

Frances Guy is an associated follower of the Orientalists or Arabists, whose Arab scholarship is impeccable but are driven by romantic emotions towards the Arabs.
It is the English sickness, spread to a group of the American university elite.
Most of the present and last century's mess of the Middle East can be squarely laid at their door.
Frances Guy has the emotion but not the scholarship.

Augustus

Hezbollah, hizbollah, or hizb'allah, the party of God, was founded in 1982, when a group of Lebanese Shi'ite Muslims declared themselves to be the party of God, and were influenced and assisted by 1,500
Iranian Revolutionary Guards, in order to fight against Israel. It has strengthened its base ever since, is notorious for its wave of suicide bombings, and has extensive foreign support by both Iran and Syria. It now has some 40,000 various types of missiles
stashed away in towns and villages south of the Litani River, and an IDF map shows that
these weapons are stored near schools, hospitals and residential buildings. They also have hundreds of longer range weapons capable of striking major Israeli cities.
they have a force of some 20,000 armed militants, many of which have had combat training in Iran. In the event of an Israeli invasion, each Shia Muslim village has anything from 30-200 fighters whose task it would be to hold off the advance of enemy troops. Hezbollah's ideology sees no legitimacy in the existence of Israel, and it's seed as a resistance movement against the occupation of Lebanon has today been elevated to a conflict based primarily on religious ideals. As a very real and dangerous part of Iran's overall strategy against Israel,
Hezbollah is a front line enemy of Israel and the West, and no ambassador of Britain's should certainly have any admiration for any of its leaders, spiritual or otherwise.

david elder

Mel, where do you Poms get these people? Under toadstools with the pixies? If any ambassador under our previous Howard/Downer no-bulldust government came out with anything like this they'd be sacked in 24 hours.

Peter Thomas

The link at 'here is Guy' is not currently working.

Adam B.

It's simple - she's an admirer of an antisemitic racist terrorist.

Perfectly acceptable in today's Foreign Office.

Ordnance

That page is now missing from the Foreign Office site.

gareth

I saw the Octavia Nasr story - you kinda knew CNN had already become pro-nazi or anti-israel, not sure it makes a difference.

The thing about Francis Guy is he's a venal coward and he's British. This seems to me to be quite normal these days - the elites are only lions in protesting against themselves and their own kind (the Greeks have taken this to it's logical conclusions and rioted against themselves)
It seems to be their main justification that all western values are hypocritical and arbitrary - so leaders from abroad who are passionate about murdering fellow humans should be admired - saying "they're a lot better than Thatcher" is the right thing to do.

The World Upside Down? oh no - this is wilful and hateful and truly meant, in a Wedgie Benn/Noam Chomsky/KenLivingstone/SusanSonntag kinda way......

Gábor Fränkl

My reaction to both reading this AND googling her in the "images" couldn't be anything else other than: "GIVE ME A BUCKET AT ONCE!"

p

gareth - this Guy is a girl.

BC

I recommend reading the blog of UK Ambassador to Jordan, James Watt. He is blatantly anti-Israel and one wonders how he can represent Britain's position on the 2-state solution if he is so decidedly against one of the participants.

http://blogs.fco.gov.uk/roller/watt/

Terry, Thankfully (for now) in Oz

"Just whose side is Britain now on in the war to defend civilisation?"

That of the enemy seeking to destroy civilisation. That's what happens when you allow enough muslim immigration and mad imams into a country in order to "rub the Tories' nose in it". If Britain ever seriously sought to defend itself against the modern nazism, it lost. Battle over. White flag aloft. And all those sacrificed in the name of freedom in WW2, merely a trashed and fading memory.

Terry, Eilat - Israel

Oh Melanie, ''Just whose side is Britain now on?'' - if you answer that question truthfully, you'd have to pack your suitcase today & make aliyah.

g

Melanie, please start a e-petition to get her sacked

Derek Pasquill

As I used to work with (sorry, this should be worked against) Frances Guy in her Engaging with the Islamic World Unit at the FCO, I can confirm that even then she gave every appearance of being out of touch with reality.

Bring Our Woman in Beirut Back Home ... for some well-deserved gardening leave!

Geoff Miller

Just whose side is Britain now on in the war to defend civilisation?

.......a question I have been asking since the 80's.

Well its certainly not on our side - the indigenous British people, and certainly not the Jews.

The Umma is coming.

just Louise

As has been pointed out on other blogs, Our Man in Amman has made some eyebrow-raising posts as well. Like this recent one, but there are others denigrating "The Zionists":
'Few observers would disagree with [David] Hirst [in his book Beware of Small States] that Israel has long committed itself to a policy of massive military deterrence, which is now becoming progressively more violent - and, by the account of its own officials, more ready to inflict civilian casualties on a large scale in pursuit of its political goals. Gaza showed that progression: more remote shelling and rocketing by the Israeli forces, with minimum risk to its own soldiers: ten lost their lives, and three Israeli civilians, while 1,330 Gazans (most of them civilians and 410 of them children) lost theirs. Compare that to the 43 Israeli civilians who died under Hizbullah rocket fire in July-August 2006, and 119 Israeli soldiers in the fighting, against over a thousand Lebanese civilians (one third of them children) and an unknown number of Lebanese combatants.'
These posts of our envoys are on an official FCO site - contemptible betrayers of Israel.

Andy Gill

Frances Guy is a disgrace to Britain. She couldn't crawl any further up Fadlallah's backside if she tried. Perhaps her diplomatic talents could be deployed elsewhere, somewhere like Antarctica might suit nicely.

Moderate Arab

Dear angry commenters with Ms Frances:
The lack of a clear cut victory over terrorism in the many years since September 11th (and even since before 9/11 - remember the millenium threats?) has forced the west and moderates in the arab world to change the tone of their language to a more friendly one - though the offense kept going at full steam (drying the finances of terror, winning the hearts and minds of the east, eliminating imminent threats with drones and the like, etc...). This sounds to me like a smart strategy to follow(though weasely! nothing wrong with being a weasel!). It also became very clear that cutting one head of the terror snake will beget seven others. The snake feeds on the seemingly hostile rhetoric against islam (accurate or not) - like the tone of some of the comments here. We all agree on the evil nature of terror. Wouldn't it be a great achievement for humanity to eliminate it? If you answer yes, maybe you would start understanding what drove Ms Frances to post her comments.
As an academic exercise, it is very useful to understand the nature of terror to try to tackle it. The ambassador sees this. Terrorists are humans with a demonic touch - nonetheless human. If you can reason with them maybe you can save yourself the human and monetary tolls!
The point is - don't be so harsh on Ms Frances, even if it feel like your first urge ... the same urge that made some of the commenters to mistaken her for a male ...

RR

What is the FCO for - apart from Pope and/or Jew bashing - it doesn't seem to have a useful role for the useful idiots in its employ. How do they get these jobs ?

Osred

Perhaps Obama's genuflections to various dictators, mediavalists and thugs was inspired by F Guy. This link shows her in a suitably obeisant manner with the great Fadallalallah.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=134026§ionid=351020203

Derek Pasquill

The answer to Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office problem, and the problem is significant as has been repeatedly demonstrated in recent times, might be to set up a commission or review similar to South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, only here the remit would be to extract the professional Jew-haters from their tax-payer funded sinecures.

But what to do with these blinkered people, Guy, Watts, once they have been thus extracted? That is the question, and perhaps it is better to leave sleeping dogs lie.

Mailman

Guy is merely spouting what the Foreign Office thinks. Therefore, she will not get the sack.

Mr. Mabutoh Afunfa

The British have to stop complaining about terrorism, I know a lot of them actually admire them, yesterday UK 3 muslims convicted in one of the most scariest terrorist plot the United Kingdom ever seen, I don't understand one time they are fighting against terrorism and the other time they have sympathy for them, like this woman Frances Gay.

Kennybhoy

Terry, Eilat - Israel wrote:

".. you'd have to pack your suitcase today & make aliyah."

Dinnae make me laugh! The Israeli liberal-left can give their British compatriots LESSONS in self-hatred! ROTFLOL!

William Boyd

Deleted when I went to your link but cached by Google at http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:TFmI-tgOGuoJ:blogs.fco.gov.uk/roller/guy/entry

I would quite like to see the source of Con Coughlin's assertion that Fadlallah issued a fatwa authorising suicide bombs though I don't doubt he defended them. This is Anwar Al-Awlaki defending the Detroit plane bombing attempt on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hs3zWlR5TaY&feature=fvst. The irony is that representing opposing factions of extreme Islam the two of them would happily have slit each other's throat.

Fadlallah was certainly a Holocaust denier and he certainly called for the destruction of the state of Israel so I would say you are right to express surprise that the UK amabassador to Lebanon has eulogised him on an FCO website.

But we're not really involved in a war to defend civilisation here, not really, and we don't need to be on anyone's side but just do our best to see that reason and humanity prevails in this conflict.

Adam

Truly shocking.
Should be sacked.

I hadn't realised the Foreign Office had adopted the French Diplomatic recruitment policies (AKA Daniel Bernard).

Dr Michael Salter

Frances Guy should resign, and start a new job... at the BBC.

Stinking bigots.

Daibhidh

Guy's deluded reflection is evidence of just how destructive postmodernist infestation of rationale is.

In the Wilderness in America

Melanie, the civilized world is going to hell with people like Frances Guy and Octavia Nasr. Here in the States we have Hilary Clinton shaking hands with tyrants in China, getting involved with Argentina in the Falklands sovereignty controversy, and chastising Benjamin Netanyahu for building houses in his county's capital.

We also have P.J. Crowley, Assistant Secretary of State, saying the following concerning the lashing of Sakineh Mohammadie Ashtiani in Iran and the potential (at the time) stoning of her:“We have grave concerns that the punishment does not fit the alleged crime. For a modern society such as Iran, we think this raises significant human rights concerns." Way to go P.J., legitimatizing the punishment by not condemning it and stating the obvious. This statement by an underling is the Obama administration’s strong condemnation?

When will the world condemn Iran for such barbaric practices? When will the U.N.? Oh, yeah, that’s right. On April 30 of this year, the U.N. named Iran to be on the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women. How is that for absurdity and hypocrisy?

Of course, Iran is just one example in history of an evil ideology corrupting and replacing the rule of law of a free society with the tenets of its immoral philosophy. Nazi Germany, Stalinist Russia, and Mao’s China are a few examples of this attempt at world domination through the destruction of civilization and its laws.

Iran will succeed in its attempt to destroy civilization if no one stops the barbarism it practices such as the lashing stoning. It is shameful that the United States does not more forcefully condemn these actions by Iran. President Obama himself should get on TV and castigate the Iranian regime for their disregard for humanity in general and women in particular. Reset button be damned. This is about inhumanity and systemic, institutionalized brutality. A wise saying applies to these sickening inactions: All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.

Louis Berk

"Moderate Arab" - I read your comments with sincere interest and "thanks for sharing". The problem is, the line of thought that we should buddy and appeal to terrorists just doesn't work. This was much the same view in Britain in the 1930s towards Hitler and the Nazis, if I recall correctly, and it ended badly.

paul, fed up with it all.

do not write britain off yet the the non muslim working class do not like islam i smell trouble coming.

Derek BLADES

Daibhidh July 9th, wrote "Guy's deluded reflection is evidence of just how destructive postmodernist infestation of rationale is." I might or might not agree with Daibhidh but I would first need to know what he/she is saying.

Apparently, something - let's call it A - seems to have been infested by something else - let's call it B. But quite what A and B are and how they relate to the matter under discussion are obscure.

Please help us, Daibhidh - and this time use English.

Peter Burman

Frances Guy represents is representative of the thoughts and private beliefs of all British diplomats and most British citizens. But changing subjects, Melanie, when will you write an article (or book!) about why the world denies the Kurds an independent Kurdistan? Is it because they don't use attention-getting suicide bombers? Is it because they have not embraced Al-Qaeda? Aren't there more Kurds than there are Palestinians? Haven't the Kurds suffered far more than the Palestinians? The Kurds have never fail to miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. Why do the liberals in Britain not clamour for a free and independent Kurdistan and an end to the Turkish and Iraqi occupations?

Suffolkbor

Peter Burman:

I cannot vouch for British Diplomats but I can assure you that Frances Guy does not represent the thoughts and private beliefs of most British citizens.

In short the statement that we are all in philosophical harmony with this Woman is complete and utter bollocks!

Original Tony

The British will strike their friends in the back if it serves to further their agenda. In this case, Arab oil.

As soon as the oil and money dwindles, you will find Frances Guy cosying up to Chavez or some other evil creep.

Duplicitous bastards, us of Anglo Saxon blood I'm sorry to say.

David Booth

Frances Guy is just another in the long line of Diplomatic Service fools who are taken in by a murderer with a stimulating conversational style and a twinkle on their merry face's.
Senior people at the Foreign Office felt Hitler was a man to be trusted and guess what, he wasn't!
Stalin we were assured by the F.O. would keep his word and millions payed with their lives at the hands of smiling "Uncle Joe"
Idi Amin was presented as a benign African clown who the F.O. could control if we just gave him what he wanted, and hundreds of thousands of Africans payed with their lives for that F.O. mishap.
The Diplomatic Service needs to be cleared out root and branch and re focused on dealing with mass murderers in a realistic way.

paul, fed up with it all.

yes right on david booth, and also dont forget magabe.

Lindsay

Are assertions of purported fact checked before they are repeated here?

Are we to discount testimony from within the agency itself that the CIA was responsible for the bomb that was targeted at Fadlallah but instead killed eighty innocents? If the testimony is correct, are we nevertheless to accept such bombing as a legitimate instrument of state policy because the agent who planted the bomb presumably avoided death himself?

Are we to focus only on the alleged views of Fadlallah? Are venerable representatives of other religions who advocate the killing of civilians to be honoured in death by the great and the good for the holiness of their lives?