Monday, July 28, 2003
Well, technical probs have meant a trip to a local internet cafe, and I haven't really got time to surf or research a post. So this is just a note to say I'll be back as soon as I can. In the meantime have some sympathy with me at home swearing at my pc. Why does it have to start playing up just when I've got time off work and so don't have internet access?
Thursday, July 24, 2003
Damn computer grrrrrr. Internet Explorer hangs all the time, I can't send emails. My ISP reckon its something on my pc, but I've tried loads of things, including uninstalling and reinstalling the offending programs, installing spybot to get rid of all the adware rubbish etc.
Just lost a post because grrrrr grrrr.
Just lost a post because grrrrr grrrr.
testing
Been reading a few things about the good old Project for the New American Century, particularly the delightful Elliott Abrams. I see that "He was indicted by the Iran-Contra special prosecutor for giving false testimony about his role in illicitly raising money for the Contras but pleaded guilty to two lesser offenses of withholding information to Congress in order to avoid a trial and a possible jail term. He was pardoned by President George H.W. Bush along with a number of other Iran-Contra defendants in 1992", but nonethless "eventually became head of the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) where he wrote widely on foreign-policy issues" and subsequently "Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director on the NSC for Southwest Asia, Near East and North African Affairs". I know this isn't new news, but there's no harm in reminding people what trustworthy (!!!) individuals are out there.
Again, this is not entirely new, being first published in December 2002, but I think it is particularly appropriate, given the current questioning of governments about intelligence sources:
"The Pentagon is bringing relentless pressure to bear on the agency to produce intelligence reports more supportive of war with Iraq, according to former CIA officials. Key officials of the Department of Defense are also producing their own unverified intelligence reports to justify war. Much of the questionable information comes from Iraqi exiles long regarded with suspicion by CIA professionals. A parallel, ad hoc intelligence operation, in the office of Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas J. Feith, collects the information from the exiles and scours other raw intelligence for useful tidbits to make the case for preemptive war. These morsels sometimes go directly to the president."
"For more than a year, one of the main sources of Defense Department pressure on the CIA has been a unnamed, rump intelligence unit set up in Undersecretary Feith's policy shop at the department. Begun as a two-person group, it has since expanded to four and now five people, and was set up to provide Rumsfeld, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz and Feith with data they can use to disparage, undermine and contradict the CIA's own analyses. Established just after September 11, the unit's main focus -- though not its only one -- has been on Iraq, especially Iraq's alleged links to al-Qaeda and Iraq's alleged intent to use its alleged nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. "
"Informed sources say the person in charge of the unnamed unit is Abram Shulsky, another key member of the Perle-Wolfowitz war party. When Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.) was elected to the Senate in 1976, he "brought with him some of [Sen. Henry M.] Jackson's most militantly neoconservative former aides, among them Elliott Abrams, Chester Finn, Abram Shulsky and Gary Schmitt," according to a 1986 account in The Washington Post. Perle was also a former Jackson aide, and Shulsky, Perle and many kindred thinkers got jobs in President Reagan's Department of Defense in the 1980s. Shulsky also spent years at the Consortium for the Study of Intelligence, a project of the National Strategy Information Center (NSIC), and at the RAND Corporation. At RAND, along with other fellow neocons, including I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby (now Cheney's chief of staff), Shulsky contributed a study called "From Containment to Global Leadership: America and the World after the Cold War." That study was a forerunner of the recent military strategy document released by the Pentagon suggesting that the United States act to preserve its global hegemony, even if it means preemptive war or preventive war making."
I know thats rather a lot to read - there is a lot more on the webpage. The writer, Robert Dreyfuss has plenty more here.
Again, this is not entirely new, being first published in December 2002, but I think it is particularly appropriate, given the current questioning of governments about intelligence sources:
"The Pentagon is bringing relentless pressure to bear on the agency to produce intelligence reports more supportive of war with Iraq, according to former CIA officials. Key officials of the Department of Defense are also producing their own unverified intelligence reports to justify war. Much of the questionable information comes from Iraqi exiles long regarded with suspicion by CIA professionals. A parallel, ad hoc intelligence operation, in the office of Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas J. Feith, collects the information from the exiles and scours other raw intelligence for useful tidbits to make the case for preemptive war. These morsels sometimes go directly to the president."
"For more than a year, one of the main sources of Defense Department pressure on the CIA has been a unnamed, rump intelligence unit set up in Undersecretary Feith's policy shop at the department. Begun as a two-person group, it has since expanded to four and now five people, and was set up to provide Rumsfeld, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz and Feith with data they can use to disparage, undermine and contradict the CIA's own analyses. Established just after September 11, the unit's main focus -- though not its only one -- has been on Iraq, especially Iraq's alleged links to al-Qaeda and Iraq's alleged intent to use its alleged nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. "
"Informed sources say the person in charge of the unnamed unit is Abram Shulsky, another key member of the Perle-Wolfowitz war party. When Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.) was elected to the Senate in 1976, he "brought with him some of [Sen. Henry M.] Jackson's most militantly neoconservative former aides, among them Elliott Abrams, Chester Finn, Abram Shulsky and Gary Schmitt," according to a 1986 account in The Washington Post. Perle was also a former Jackson aide, and Shulsky, Perle and many kindred thinkers got jobs in President Reagan's Department of Defense in the 1980s. Shulsky also spent years at the Consortium for the Study of Intelligence, a project of the National Strategy Information Center (NSIC), and at the RAND Corporation. At RAND, along with other fellow neocons, including I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby (now Cheney's chief of staff), Shulsky contributed a study called "From Containment to Global Leadership: America and the World after the Cold War." That study was a forerunner of the recent military strategy document released by the Pentagon suggesting that the United States act to preserve its global hegemony, even if it means preemptive war or preventive war making."
I know thats rather a lot to read - there is a lot more on the webpage. The writer, Robert Dreyfuss has plenty more here.
In 1984, the US State Department had a slightly different view of Saddam Hussein to the view today. On March 5th 1984 they said that the US Government "finds the present Iranian regime's intransigent refusal to deviate from its avowed objective of eliminating the legitimate government of neighbouring Iraq to be inconsistent with the accepted norms of behaviour among nations."
How norms have changed!
Here is a tasty morsel taken from a US Air Force Instruction from 1994:
"Perception Management--Actions to convey and (or) deny selected information and indicators to foreign audiences to influence their emotions, motives, and objective reasoning and to intelligence systems and leaders at all levels to influence official estimates, ultimately resulting in foreign behaviors and official actions favorable to the originator's objectives. In various ways, perception management combines truth projection, operations security, cover, and deception, and PSYOP. (Joint Pub 1-02)
Psychological operations--(also called PSYOP)--Planned operations to convey selected information and indicators to foreign audiences to influence their emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of foreign governments, organizations, groups, and individuals. The purpose of psychological operations is to induce or reinforce foreign attitudes and behavior favorable to the originator's objectives. (Joint Pub 1-02)"
The science of propoganda is a fascinating subject, isn't it?
I've been having extreme pc frustration at home. Something is stopping me from sending emails. I can't do it through Outlook Express, Internet Explorer or Netscape. I can't post to my blog through either browser. The tech support people at my ISP haven't been able to help. Its driving me up the wall!
How norms have changed!
Here is a tasty morsel taken from a US Air Force Instruction from 1994:
"Perception Management--Actions to convey and (or) deny selected information and indicators to foreign audiences to influence their emotions, motives, and objective reasoning and to intelligence systems and leaders at all levels to influence official estimates, ultimately resulting in foreign behaviors and official actions favorable to the originator's objectives. In various ways, perception management combines truth projection, operations security, cover, and deception, and PSYOP. (Joint Pub 1-02)
Psychological operations--(also called PSYOP)--Planned operations to convey selected information and indicators to foreign audiences to influence their emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of foreign governments, organizations, groups, and individuals. The purpose of psychological operations is to induce or reinforce foreign attitudes and behavior favorable to the originator's objectives. (Joint Pub 1-02)"
The science of propoganda is a fascinating subject, isn't it?
I've been having extreme pc frustration at home. Something is stopping me from sending emails. I can't do it through Outlook Express, Internet Explorer or Netscape. I can't post to my blog through either browser. The tech support people at my ISP haven't been able to help. Its driving me up the wall!
Monday, July 21, 2003
There is so much in today's news about dossiers, death and who is to blame. I don't know who to believe. On this morning's Today programme on BBC Radio 4, MPs Peter Mandelson and Clare Short disagreed over the issue - and they are both Labour MPs. So what hope for the rest of us to know what the truth is?
The British detainees at Guantanamo Bay seem to be doomed. "Tony Blair indicated yesterday that two of the British men being detained at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba will still stand trial before a US military court because national security would be at risk if they were returned to Britain", reports The Guardian. It appears that Blair, as well as his buddy Bush, have decided already that these men are guilty. I've just finished reading Orwell's 1984. I hope that the prisoners have been treated better than Winston Smith was in the final section of the book. Reports of the conditions in which the prisoners are held don't fill me with confidence.
The British detainees at Guantanamo Bay seem to be doomed. "Tony Blair indicated yesterday that two of the British men being detained at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba will still stand trial before a US military court because national security would be at risk if they were returned to Britain", reports The Guardian. It appears that Blair, as well as his buddy Bush, have decided already that these men are guilty. I've just finished reading Orwell's 1984. I hope that the prisoners have been treated better than Winston Smith was in the final section of the book. Reports of the conditions in which the prisoners are held don't fill me with confidence.
Sunday, July 20, 2003
An interesting item from Schnews:
"SHAW THING
Simon Shaw was arrested at an anti war demo in Edinburgh in March for displaying an upside-down US flag with the words "Fuck Bush" and a swastika. The arresting officers said Simon's flag was likely to "incite racial hatred" despite the message being aimed at Bush and his administration and not the American people.
Following this, the Mark Thomas Comedy Product produced 13,000 postcards of the flag for the public to send to the local police station. On Thursday Mark and 60 friends arrived at the police station to hand themselves in, with a variety of "Fuck Bush" banners (including one carried by an American apparently inciting racial hatred towards himself!). The police were also covered in "Fuck Bush" confetti, but refused to make any arrests. Simon Shaw's trial is at 9:30am next Friday (25) at Edinburgh Sheriffs Court, Chamber St. Please bring your "Fuck Bush" banners, t-shirts and flags.
www.mtcp.co.uk
* The people selling the Fuck Bush t-shirts have said they'll donate half to the SchNEWS rent fund. More info from fuck_bush@warpmail.net (but mention us when contacting them)."
"SHAW THING
Simon Shaw was arrested at an anti war demo in Edinburgh in March for displaying an upside-down US flag with the words "Fuck Bush" and a swastika. The arresting officers said Simon's flag was likely to "incite racial hatred" despite the message being aimed at Bush and his administration and not the American people.
Following this, the Mark Thomas Comedy Product produced 13,000 postcards of the flag for the public to send to the local police station. On Thursday Mark and 60 friends arrived at the police station to hand themselves in, with a variety of "Fuck Bush" banners (including one carried by an American apparently inciting racial hatred towards himself!). The police were also covered in "Fuck Bush" confetti, but refused to make any arrests. Simon Shaw's trial is at 9:30am next Friday (25) at Edinburgh Sheriffs Court, Chamber St. Please bring your "Fuck Bush" banners, t-shirts and flags.
www.mtcp.co.uk
* The people selling the Fuck Bush t-shirts have said they'll donate half to the SchNEWS rent fund. More info from fuck_bush@warpmail.net (but mention us when contacting them)."
I found this from a link to Salam Pax's blog.
"The mother of a 6-year-old girl begged the doctor to write a report saying that her daughter's hymen had been ruptured because she fell on a sharp object, a common lie families tell in the case of rape, Dr. Younis said.
Shame and fear compel the lies, Dr. Younis said. "A woman's father or brother, they feel it is their duty to kill her" if she has been raped, Dr. Younis said. "It is the tribal law. They will get only six months in prison and then they are out."
Sanariya's family took her to a doctor three days after her attack only because the bleeding had not stopped. She had been sitting on the stairs at about 4 p.m. on May 22 when an armed man dragged her into an abandoned building next door. He shot at neighbors who tried to help the girl. He fled when she began screaming during the assault.
Her mother refuses to let her outside now to play. Fatin lied to her family and said an operation had been done to restore Sanariya's hymen. But when her eldest brother, Ahmed, found out otherwise, he wanted to kill Sanariya, Fatin said.
Out of earshot of her family, Sanariya said she feels no better now, two months after the attack. "I don't sleep at night," she said in the hallway. "I don't sleep."
That is what is happening in Iraq. My heart breaks for these girls.
This link to Human Rights Watch came from Salam Pax too.
"The mother of a 6-year-old girl begged the doctor to write a report saying that her daughter's hymen had been ruptured because she fell on a sharp object, a common lie families tell in the case of rape, Dr. Younis said.
Shame and fear compel the lies, Dr. Younis said. "A woman's father or brother, they feel it is their duty to kill her" if she has been raped, Dr. Younis said. "It is the tribal law. They will get only six months in prison and then they are out."
Sanariya's family took her to a doctor three days after her attack only because the bleeding had not stopped. She had been sitting on the stairs at about 4 p.m. on May 22 when an armed man dragged her into an abandoned building next door. He shot at neighbors who tried to help the girl. He fled when she began screaming during the assault.
Her mother refuses to let her outside now to play. Fatin lied to her family and said an operation had been done to restore Sanariya's hymen. But when her eldest brother, Ahmed, found out otherwise, he wanted to kill Sanariya, Fatin said.
Out of earshot of her family, Sanariya said she feels no better now, two months after the attack. "I don't sleep at night," she said in the hallway. "I don't sleep."
That is what is happening in Iraq. My heart breaks for these girls.
This link to Human Rights Watch came from Salam Pax too.
Listen to the Flaming Lips
Saturday, July 19, 2003
There is lots and lots of really depressing news out there. It has been DEPRESSING ME!
My job is really dull - it actually bored me to tears yesterday. Literally. So I might get round to 'the world' shortly, or I might not. To cheer myself up, I indulged in a few beers tonight, and watched Hackers on tv with my son. I know its not a new movie, but we hadn't seen it before. We both really enjoyed it. I loved the idea of hackers of the world uniting! (although I wouldn't have a clue myself). My favourite bit was when they screwed all the New York traffic lights, setting them all to green. Cool!
The Guardian weekly tv guide led me to Join Me - its a website dedicated to doing random good deeds. Now that I like! Check it out. Its not confined to the UK. You can join wherever you are. Just need a photo, and some goodwill.
I've been a bit distracted from blogging because I've declared war (!!!!) on the spammers who fill my inbox everyday with invitations to enlarge my penis (I'm a woman), get a cheap mortgage, buy viagra and other medications, enlarge my breast, buy porn etc etc. SpamCop will chase up your spam reports, saving you the bother of tracing the bastards yourself. Whether it will make any difference inthe long run, I don't know - chances are, for every spammer caught, a dozen others will step into their shoes. I'll probably get bored of reporting it after another week or so, and go back to just deleting it. But for now, I'm hoping a few of them will get closed down.
Ok. News.
"Tony Blair's government was last night shaken to its foundations by the apparent suicide of Dr David Kelly, the backroom Whitehall scientist caught in the lethal crossfire over weapons of mass destruction between Downing Street and the BBC". Police have since confirmed that Dr Kelly cut his wrist and bled to death. More blood on your hands Tony.
On February 15th, I marched through London with nearly 2 million others opposed to plans to attack Iraq. We carried placards reading 'No blood for oil'. Blair & Bush were insisting that plans to invade were all about Saddam's WMD. Secondary motivation related to Saddams record of massacring his own people. Well, he had been killing people for years, with weapons supplied by the US & UK. The US & UK governments had patted him on the back, supported him, while he arranged atrocities. Then after he invaded Kuwait and the West fell out with him, the US government encouraged an uprising against him, but when the people rebelled, the US backed off and thousands more died. Those are the bodies now being dug up from mass graves. So human rights atrocities was not a reasonable argument on which to justify invasion. Recent events, and the lack of WMD, show that the WMD argument was a pile of s**t. The British parliament agreed to go to war, in a vote on March 18th, because Blair argued that Saddam had the WMD and was ready to use them. He cited evidance supposedly provided by security services, as did Bush across the Atlantic. Now we are seeing that the evidence was not as concrete as our leaders were telling us. This man, Dr. Kelly, was pushed forward by the British government. What did he tell the BBC? Will we ever really know? Whatever he actually said, would he have had any reason to lie? I didn't believe Blair in February or March. I don't believe him or Campbell now. Blair & Campbell have a lot more to lose than Dr. Kelly did. The BBC report tonight says, "Iraq weapons expert Dr David Kelly reportedly warned of "many dark actors playing games" in an e-mail sent hours before he bled to death from a slashed wrist. " I'm sure they are. And the oil is flowing.
My job is really dull - it actually bored me to tears yesterday. Literally. So I might get round to 'the world' shortly, or I might not. To cheer myself up, I indulged in a few beers tonight, and watched Hackers on tv with my son. I know its not a new movie, but we hadn't seen it before. We both really enjoyed it. I loved the idea of hackers of the world uniting! (although I wouldn't have a clue myself). My favourite bit was when they screwed all the New York traffic lights, setting them all to green. Cool!
The Guardian weekly tv guide led me to Join Me - its a website dedicated to doing random good deeds. Now that I like! Check it out. Its not confined to the UK. You can join wherever you are. Just need a photo, and some goodwill.
I've been a bit distracted from blogging because I've declared war (!!!!) on the spammers who fill my inbox everyday with invitations to enlarge my penis (I'm a woman), get a cheap mortgage, buy viagra and other medications, enlarge my breast, buy porn etc etc. SpamCop will chase up your spam reports, saving you the bother of tracing the bastards yourself. Whether it will make any difference inthe long run, I don't know - chances are, for every spammer caught, a dozen others will step into their shoes. I'll probably get bored of reporting it after another week or so, and go back to just deleting it. But for now, I'm hoping a few of them will get closed down.
Ok. News.
"Tony Blair's government was last night shaken to its foundations by the apparent suicide of Dr David Kelly, the backroom Whitehall scientist caught in the lethal crossfire over weapons of mass destruction between Downing Street and the BBC". Police have since confirmed that Dr Kelly cut his wrist and bled to death. More blood on your hands Tony.
On February 15th, I marched through London with nearly 2 million others opposed to plans to attack Iraq. We carried placards reading 'No blood for oil'. Blair & Bush were insisting that plans to invade were all about Saddam's WMD. Secondary motivation related to Saddams record of massacring his own people. Well, he had been killing people for years, with weapons supplied by the US & UK. The US & UK governments had patted him on the back, supported him, while he arranged atrocities. Then after he invaded Kuwait and the West fell out with him, the US government encouraged an uprising against him, but when the people rebelled, the US backed off and thousands more died. Those are the bodies now being dug up from mass graves. So human rights atrocities was not a reasonable argument on which to justify invasion. Recent events, and the lack of WMD, show that the WMD argument was a pile of s**t. The British parliament agreed to go to war, in a vote on March 18th, because Blair argued that Saddam had the WMD and was ready to use them. He cited evidance supposedly provided by security services, as did Bush across the Atlantic. Now we are seeing that the evidence was not as concrete as our leaders were telling us. This man, Dr. Kelly, was pushed forward by the British government. What did he tell the BBC? Will we ever really know? Whatever he actually said, would he have had any reason to lie? I didn't believe Blair in February or March. I don't believe him or Campbell now. Blair & Campbell have a lot more to lose than Dr. Kelly did. The BBC report tonight says, "Iraq weapons expert Dr David Kelly reportedly warned of "many dark actors playing games" in an e-mail sent hours before he bled to death from a slashed wrist. " I'm sure they are. And the oil is flowing.
Friday, July 18, 2003
I'm back, after a minor template disaster. Hence the nice new orange one! I found myself suffering 'blog withdrawal' though, during the few days it took me to figure out how to fix the problem.
Today's Guardian reports on Phoney Tony's little jaunt to Washington: "Tony Blair last night used the rare opportunity of a historic address to the US Congress to declare that history would "forgive" him even if no weapons of mass destruction are uncovered in Iraq". Well, I won't. I wonder where the "even if" came from? Only a couple of weeks ago he was still adamant that WMD would be found. A few days ago he was insisting that evidence of WMD programmes would be found. Meanwhile, the Iraqi people are still suffering. Millions are being spent on keeping troops in Iraq, while Africans are dying of AIDS. I haven't time just now to find appropriate links, but I'll post them as soon as I can.
Today's Guardian reports on Phoney Tony's little jaunt to Washington: "Tony Blair last night used the rare opportunity of a historic address to the US Congress to declare that history would "forgive" him even if no weapons of mass destruction are uncovered in Iraq". Well, I won't. I wonder where the "even if" came from? Only a couple of weeks ago he was still adamant that WMD would be found. A few days ago he was insisting that evidence of WMD programmes would be found. Meanwhile, the Iraqi people are still suffering. Millions are being spent on keeping troops in Iraq, while Africans are dying of AIDS. I haven't time just now to find appropriate links, but I'll post them as soon as I can.
Sunday, July 13, 2003
The only day of the week when I buy a paper copy of The Guardian, rather than reading it online, is Saturday. This week's 'Weekend' magazine features an excellent article, Trading On Fear. It is about the media manipulation of war news, and well worth reading. It is taken from a book due to be published on July 28th - Weapons of Mass Deception. I'll be reading it! The 'Weekend' article is illustrated with the work of Micah Ian Wright, using his ironic propaganda posters from his book You Back The Attack! We'll Bomb Who We Want. I want one of those posters for my wall!
Friday, July 11, 2003
This article is taken directly from this weeks Schnews:
"On May 19th, the Indonesian government declared martial law in Aceh,
the resource-rich province in North Sumatra, and since then has been busy
doing what it does best: bombing, massacring, beating, torturing and raping
terrified civilians. Despite the fact that the majority of Acehnese want independence the Jakarta government has just announced that supporters and members of the Aceh independence movement (GAM) will be charged with treason. On Wednesday June 21st, members of GAM were gunned down. There is a news blackout and Human Rights activists are in grave danger. The Indonesian government has been at war in Aceh for 27 years with more than 5,000 civilian deaths since the conflict began. The imposition of martial law followed the cessation of hostilities agreement on December 9th 2002 - the only real glimpse of peace the traumatised Acehnese nation has had. And guess who's providing the sophisticated weaponry the US-trained local military (TNI) are deploying against defenceless villagers? Yep, those heroes of the war against terror, Tony and George.
Scorpion tanks, Hawk aircraft (both British made), OV-10 Bronco
counter-insurgency planes and F-16 fighter planes (from the US) are
among the 'sophisticated' weaponry being used to 'shock and awe' (not to
mention totally destroy) them pesky peasants right now. All this despite the fact that the duplicitous Blair government came to power in 1997 pledging 'not to permit sale of arms to regimes that might use them for internal repression.' With Robin Cook at the Foreign office, the fledgling Labour government sold 16 hawk jets to Indonesia in 1997 claiming the deal had been agreed by the previous Tory government and couldn't be blocked for 'legal reasons'. They didn't seem to feel the need to make any excuses however in 2002 when they announced a 20-fold increase in arms sales to Indonesia since 2000 - from £2m to nearly £41m! And last week, while the Indonesian government was deploying Scorpion tanks and Hawk jets against the civilian population in Aceh, the British government announced that it intended to increase arms sales to Indonesia yet further. Goodies being packaged up for export include components for military training aircraft, rocket launchers, tanks and armoured personnel carriers. It seems British arms exporters are expanding outward from their 'traditional' market in the Middle East and establishing a nice little niche for themselves in Asia. Last year the Foreign Office declared there was "no evidence" that any British military equipment had ever been used for counter-insurgency or repression in Indonesia. Yeah right! Here's a few well-documented instances:
1975 - Indonesia used UK armoured vehicles in invasion of East Timor;
1998 - Scorpions used on the streets of Jakarta to put down civilian unrest;
1999 - Hawk aircraft used over Dili, capital of East Timor... the list goes
on.
Last week Foreign Officer minister Mike O'Brien responded to the international outcry over the current use of British weaponry in Aceh by promising "an investigation". Nothing for the brutal TNI to fear there then, because the British government doesn't want to do anything that would upset its lucrative arms trade with Indonesia.
OILY WARNING SYSTEMS
But of course the war against Aceh - like the alarmingly similar war
Indonesia waged against East Timor - is not just about independence.
Nor is the predatory interest of the US and UK limited to selling military hardware. Aceh, like East Timor, is extremely rich in resources (as is
the whole area) and Exxon-Mobil control most of their oil and gas fields.
Incredibly, Exxon-Mobil provides the TNI with "economic and material
support" in exchange for their forceful protection of its vast plant and refinery in Aceh. If Aceh got independence the Acehnese would also get
control of the oil and gas fields ... you get the picture. The GAM and
Washington-based International Labour Rights Fund accuse Exxon of
complicity in TNI murder, kidnapping and rape of Acehnese civilians.
Comparisons with East Timor are inevitable. East Timor finally became
an independent country on May 20th 2002 - but not until a third of the
entire population had lost their lives in the struggle against the Indonesian
occupation which started in 1975. Jakarta's violent oppression of East Timor was encouraged and backed by consecutive US administrations, with Clinton in 1998 describing the murderous President Suharto as "our kind of guy." It was felt that American oil company interests were better catered for by the U.S. backed Indonesian government than an independent East Timor. As in Aceh, US and UK military hardware was used to oppress the East Timorese population for the best part of 26 years. Even after the 1999 UN-run referendum returned an overwhelming vote in favour of independence, the TNI went on revenge rampages slaughtering civilians and destroying buildings. Another example of the flagrant disregard of the UN by the US and the UK.
Tapol - the Indonesian Human Rights Campaign - together with the
Campaign against the Arms Trade and 90 other Human rights organisations around the world are calling for an international arms embargo on Indonesia and an immediate end to military operations in Aceh - www.tapol.gn.apc.org
One of the world's biggest arms fairs sponsored by the UK government
is taking place in London from the 9-12th September. Countries from around
the world, including ones on Amnesty International's human rights abusers
list, will be there to see if they can get there hands on some weapons of
mass destruction. Also shopping at the arms fair will be some of the poorest
countries from Asia and Africa, spending money on war instead of
education, development and medicine. Disarm DSEi is co-ordinating a week long festival of action, protest and resistance. To find out how you can get involved go to www.dsei.org"
Meanwhile, British MP Peter Mandelson told BBC's 'Newsnight' yesterday that we should give their Iraqi Survey Group TIME to find evidence of WMD programmes and products. Seems the tune has changed then, because the UK government weren't so keen to give Hans Blix time, were they?
"On May 19th, the Indonesian government declared martial law in Aceh,
the resource-rich province in North Sumatra, and since then has been busy
doing what it does best: bombing, massacring, beating, torturing and raping
terrified civilians. Despite the fact that the majority of Acehnese want independence the Jakarta government has just announced that supporters and members of the Aceh independence movement (GAM) will be charged with treason. On Wednesday June 21st, members of GAM were gunned down. There is a news blackout and Human Rights activists are in grave danger. The Indonesian government has been at war in Aceh for 27 years with more than 5,000 civilian deaths since the conflict began. The imposition of martial law followed the cessation of hostilities agreement on December 9th 2002 - the only real glimpse of peace the traumatised Acehnese nation has had. And guess who's providing the sophisticated weaponry the US-trained local military (TNI) are deploying against defenceless villagers? Yep, those heroes of the war against terror, Tony and George.
Scorpion tanks, Hawk aircraft (both British made), OV-10 Bronco
counter-insurgency planes and F-16 fighter planes (from the US) are
among the 'sophisticated' weaponry being used to 'shock and awe' (not to
mention totally destroy) them pesky peasants right now. All this despite the fact that the duplicitous Blair government came to power in 1997 pledging 'not to permit sale of arms to regimes that might use them for internal repression.' With Robin Cook at the Foreign office, the fledgling Labour government sold 16 hawk jets to Indonesia in 1997 claiming the deal had been agreed by the previous Tory government and couldn't be blocked for 'legal reasons'. They didn't seem to feel the need to make any excuses however in 2002 when they announced a 20-fold increase in arms sales to Indonesia since 2000 - from £2m to nearly £41m! And last week, while the Indonesian government was deploying Scorpion tanks and Hawk jets against the civilian population in Aceh, the British government announced that it intended to increase arms sales to Indonesia yet further. Goodies being packaged up for export include components for military training aircraft, rocket launchers, tanks and armoured personnel carriers. It seems British arms exporters are expanding outward from their 'traditional' market in the Middle East and establishing a nice little niche for themselves in Asia. Last year the Foreign Office declared there was "no evidence" that any British military equipment had ever been used for counter-insurgency or repression in Indonesia. Yeah right! Here's a few well-documented instances:
1975 - Indonesia used UK armoured vehicles in invasion of East Timor;
1998 - Scorpions used on the streets of Jakarta to put down civilian unrest;
1999 - Hawk aircraft used over Dili, capital of East Timor... the list goes
on.
Last week Foreign Officer minister Mike O'Brien responded to the international outcry over the current use of British weaponry in Aceh by promising "an investigation". Nothing for the brutal TNI to fear there then, because the British government doesn't want to do anything that would upset its lucrative arms trade with Indonesia.
OILY WARNING SYSTEMS
But of course the war against Aceh - like the alarmingly similar war
Indonesia waged against East Timor - is not just about independence.
Nor is the predatory interest of the US and UK limited to selling military hardware. Aceh, like East Timor, is extremely rich in resources (as is
the whole area) and Exxon-Mobil control most of their oil and gas fields.
Incredibly, Exxon-Mobil provides the TNI with "economic and material
support" in exchange for their forceful protection of its vast plant and refinery in Aceh. If Aceh got independence the Acehnese would also get
control of the oil and gas fields ... you get the picture. The GAM and
Washington-based International Labour Rights Fund accuse Exxon of
complicity in TNI murder, kidnapping and rape of Acehnese civilians.
Comparisons with East Timor are inevitable. East Timor finally became
an independent country on May 20th 2002 - but not until a third of the
entire population had lost their lives in the struggle against the Indonesian
occupation which started in 1975. Jakarta's violent oppression of East Timor was encouraged and backed by consecutive US administrations, with Clinton in 1998 describing the murderous President Suharto as "our kind of guy." It was felt that American oil company interests were better catered for by the U.S. backed Indonesian government than an independent East Timor. As in Aceh, US and UK military hardware was used to oppress the East Timorese population for the best part of 26 years. Even after the 1999 UN-run referendum returned an overwhelming vote in favour of independence, the TNI went on revenge rampages slaughtering civilians and destroying buildings. Another example of the flagrant disregard of the UN by the US and the UK.
Tapol - the Indonesian Human Rights Campaign - together with the
Campaign against the Arms Trade and 90 other Human rights organisations around the world are calling for an international arms embargo on Indonesia and an immediate end to military operations in Aceh - www.tapol.gn.apc.org
One of the world's biggest arms fairs sponsored by the UK government
is taking place in London from the 9-12th September. Countries from around
the world, including ones on Amnesty International's human rights abusers
list, will be there to see if they can get there hands on some weapons of
mass destruction. Also shopping at the arms fair will be some of the poorest
countries from Asia and Africa, spending money on war instead of
education, development and medicine. Disarm DSEi is co-ordinating a week long festival of action, protest and resistance. To find out how you can get involved go to www.dsei.org"
Meanwhile, British MP Peter Mandelson told BBC's 'Newsnight' yesterday that we should give their Iraqi Survey Group TIME to find evidence of WMD programmes and products. Seems the tune has changed then, because the UK government weren't so keen to give Hans Blix time, were they?
Thursday, July 10, 2003
Maybe politicians do tell lies, after all! - "A former US intelligence official who served under the Bush administration in the build-up to the Iraq war accused the White House yesterday of lying about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein.
The claims came as the Bush administration was fighting to shore up its credibility among a series of anonymous government leaks over its distortion of US intelligence to manufacture a case against Saddam. " Read the story.
In the UK, "BBC political editor Andrew Marr said "very senior sources" in Whitehall had virtually ruled out the possibility of finding the weapons." Apparently, "They believe they did exist - but were hidden or destroyed by Saddam Hussein before the war." Hmm, yes, many years before the war, methinks. The BBC report says that "Former foreign secretary Robin Cook, who resigned as leader of the Commons in the run-up to the war, said the admissions were a "dramatic development".
"Parliament voted for war because it was told that Saddam did have real weapons of mass destruction," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
"Indeed what the prime minister said on the eve of the war was that the weapons posed a real and present danger, either because [Saddam] might use them or because he might pass them to terrorist groups."
Basically, British MPs would not have voted to attack Iraq if it hadn't been for Blair's insistence that WMD were there, ready to be used. So someone was very, very, wrong. Was Blair fooled by the intelligence services? Did Bush & Co fool everyone? Will we ever know the truth? Someone somewhere knowingly made it all up.
Anyway, here in the UK, the government have to do something to make the voters like them again. So they are spending 7 billion on road building. They just daren't alienate motorists. The Guardian reports that,
"The Friends of the Earth transport campaigner Tony Bosworth said: "It is a betrayal of Labour's pledges to improve public transport and not concrete over the countryside. This announcement is just a giant, expensive and futile sticking plaster applied to the running sore that is Britain's transport crisis." Congestion is the big thing, it seems - oh, no! people get stuck in traffic jams! Tough. If they don't like it, they should get on the train. The report continues,
"John Whitelegg, professor of sustainable transport at Liverpool John Moores University and the Green party's spokesman on transport, said: "This is the last nail in the coffin of Labour's pretensions to any kind of integrated transport policy, or probably any green policy at all. You can't make decisions like this in one breath and talk about tackling climate change in the other.
"Road building like this also takes money away from sustainable transport. If we scrapped the road building programme it would save £30bn over 10 years, and we could fund a revolution in green transport."
Paul Hamblin, head of transport policy for the Campaign to Protect Rural England, said: "Firm government action is required to tackle car dependency and manage demand if the spectre of road building is not to continue to hang over valuable areas of countryside.
"The M25 is one of the best examples of expanding roads leading to more traffic. Widening it before charging is in place would be retrograde."
The claims came as the Bush administration was fighting to shore up its credibility among a series of anonymous government leaks over its distortion of US intelligence to manufacture a case against Saddam. " Read the story.
In the UK, "BBC political editor Andrew Marr said "very senior sources" in Whitehall had virtually ruled out the possibility of finding the weapons." Apparently, "They believe they did exist - but were hidden or destroyed by Saddam Hussein before the war." Hmm, yes, many years before the war, methinks. The BBC report says that "Former foreign secretary Robin Cook, who resigned as leader of the Commons in the run-up to the war, said the admissions were a "dramatic development".
"Parliament voted for war because it was told that Saddam did have real weapons of mass destruction," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
"Indeed what the prime minister said on the eve of the war was that the weapons posed a real and present danger, either because [Saddam] might use them or because he might pass them to terrorist groups."
Basically, British MPs would not have voted to attack Iraq if it hadn't been for Blair's insistence that WMD were there, ready to be used. So someone was very, very, wrong. Was Blair fooled by the intelligence services? Did Bush & Co fool everyone? Will we ever know the truth? Someone somewhere knowingly made it all up.
Anyway, here in the UK, the government have to do something to make the voters like them again. So they are spending 7 billion on road building. They just daren't alienate motorists. The Guardian reports that,
"The Friends of the Earth transport campaigner Tony Bosworth said: "It is a betrayal of Labour's pledges to improve public transport and not concrete over the countryside. This announcement is just a giant, expensive and futile sticking plaster applied to the running sore that is Britain's transport crisis." Congestion is the big thing, it seems - oh, no! people get stuck in traffic jams! Tough. If they don't like it, they should get on the train. The report continues,
"John Whitelegg, professor of sustainable transport at Liverpool John Moores University and the Green party's spokesman on transport, said: "This is the last nail in the coffin of Labour's pretensions to any kind of integrated transport policy, or probably any green policy at all. You can't make decisions like this in one breath and talk about tackling climate change in the other.
"Road building like this also takes money away from sustainable transport. If we scrapped the road building programme it would save £30bn over 10 years, and we could fund a revolution in green transport."
Paul Hamblin, head of transport policy for the Campaign to Protect Rural England, said: "Firm government action is required to tackle car dependency and manage demand if the spectre of road building is not to continue to hang over valuable areas of countryside.
"The M25 is one of the best examples of expanding roads leading to more traffic. Widening it before charging is in place would be retrograde."
Wednesday, July 09, 2003
Naomi Klein of NoLogo fame writes about the "fences" that capitalism erects to make sure the rich get richer and the poor stay where they are. The article has lots of useful links, providing hours of fascinating reading. Klein's website is one I'm sure I will re-visit many times.
Politicians don't tell lies, apparently. They just get things a bit wrong. Oh, thats alright then!
Politicians don't tell lies, apparently. They just get things a bit wrong. Oh, thats alright then!
Monday, July 07, 2003
I thought Christianity was about compassion and love. The current row within the Church of England shows that not to be the case. Its not quite witch burning, but the strength of feeling against the appointment of a gay bishop proves that bigotry survives.
What is Bush up to this week? "President Bush's trip to Africa this week signals a recent strategic decision to increase America's military presence to bolster what Washington now sees as two important national interests on the continent - the supply of oil and the struggle against terrorism." The report goes on to point out that, "The US is currently importing 1.5m barrels a day from West Africa, about the same as imports from Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile the US has so far invested $10bn (£6bn) in the West African oil fields this year. The US department of energy expects African oil imports to reach 770m barrels a year, and US investment in the oil fields to exceed $10bn a year." I wish the damn stuff would hurry up and run out. It has caused more truoble in the last few decades than religion! "In a report to Congress last year, an advisory panel including Pentagon officials recommended greater military cooperation with oil states.
The panel, known as the African Oil Policy Initiative Group, said it considered "the Gulf of Guinea oil basin of West Africa, with greater western and southern Africa and its attendant market of 250 million people located astride key sea lanes of communication, as a vital interest in US national security calculations". More wars to come, then.
John Pilger tells us that, "chemical weapons technology and capability are still being manufactured in Britain and sold to some 26 countries, including Israel. These are toxic chemical precursors, or TCPs, the sale of which is banned under the Chemical Weapons Convention. British sales of TCPs are recorded in the government's Strategic Export Control Annual Report, which is a model of obscurantism. In effect, it hides them and other banned or borderline weapons technology." Of course, if these countries use the stuff to make chemical weapons, the British government will weasel out of any responsibility.
What is Bush up to this week? "President Bush's trip to Africa this week signals a recent strategic decision to increase America's military presence to bolster what Washington now sees as two important national interests on the continent - the supply of oil and the struggle against terrorism." The report goes on to point out that, "The US is currently importing 1.5m barrels a day from West Africa, about the same as imports from Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile the US has so far invested $10bn (£6bn) in the West African oil fields this year. The US department of energy expects African oil imports to reach 770m barrels a year, and US investment in the oil fields to exceed $10bn a year." I wish the damn stuff would hurry up and run out. It has caused more truoble in the last few decades than religion! "In a report to Congress last year, an advisory panel including Pentagon officials recommended greater military cooperation with oil states.
The panel, known as the African Oil Policy Initiative Group, said it considered "the Gulf of Guinea oil basin of West Africa, with greater western and southern Africa and its attendant market of 250 million people located astride key sea lanes of communication, as a vital interest in US national security calculations". More wars to come, then.
John Pilger tells us that, "chemical weapons technology and capability are still being manufactured in Britain and sold to some 26 countries, including Israel. These are toxic chemical precursors, or TCPs, the sale of which is banned under the Chemical Weapons Convention. British sales of TCPs are recorded in the government's Strategic Export Control Annual Report, which is a model of obscurantism. In effect, it hides them and other banned or borderline weapons technology." Of course, if these countries use the stuff to make chemical weapons, the British government will weasel out of any responsibility.
Friday, July 04, 2003
"The battle over genetic engineering is being fought across the world, between those who champion farmers' rights to seeds, livelihood and land, and those who would privatize them. Food First, together with the Pesticide Action Network, has brought together a range of views from critics of GE food." Read the report.
Norman Mailer has written a pertinent article, questioning the motives behind war on Iraq. I particularly liked this section:
"The key question remains—why did we go to war? It is not yet answered. The host of responses has already produced a cognitive stew. But the most painful single ingredient at the moment is, of course, the discovery of the graves. We have relieved the world of a monster who killed untold numbers, mega-numbers, of victims. Nowhere is any emphasis put upon the fact that many of the bodies were of the Shiites of southern Iraq who have been decimated repeatedly in the last twelve years for daring to rebel against Saddam in the immediate aftermath of the Gulf War. Of course, we were the ones who encouraged them to revolt in the first place, and then failed to help them. Why? There may have been an ongoing argument in the first Bush administration which was finally won by those who believed that a Shiite victory over Saddam could result in a host of Iraqi imams who might make common cause with the Iranian ayatollahs, Shiites joining with Shiites! Today, from the point of view of the remaining Iraqi Shiites, it would be hard for us to prove to them that they were not the victims of a double cross. So they may look upon the graves that we congratulate ourselves for having liberated as sepulchral voices calling out from their tombs—asking us to take a share of the blame. Which, of course, we will not.
Yes, our guilt for a great part of those bodies remains a large subtext and Saddam was creating mass graves all through the 1970s and 1980s. He killed Communists en masse in the 1970s, which didn't bother us a bit. Then he slaughtered tens of thousands of Iraqis during the war with Iran—a time when we supported him. A horde of those newly discovered graves go back to that period. Of course, real killers never look back."
On yesterday's question about wind energy, it occurred to me this morning that even if millions of wind turbines appeared, and even if they did have an effect on climate, they would only be replacing (to some extent anyway) all the trees that have gone. I don't just mean rainforests, but general, global
deforestation.
"The key question remains—why did we go to war? It is not yet answered. The host of responses has already produced a cognitive stew. But the most painful single ingredient at the moment is, of course, the discovery of the graves. We have relieved the world of a monster who killed untold numbers, mega-numbers, of victims. Nowhere is any emphasis put upon the fact that many of the bodies were of the Shiites of southern Iraq who have been decimated repeatedly in the last twelve years for daring to rebel against Saddam in the immediate aftermath of the Gulf War. Of course, we were the ones who encouraged them to revolt in the first place, and then failed to help them. Why? There may have been an ongoing argument in the first Bush administration which was finally won by those who believed that a Shiite victory over Saddam could result in a host of Iraqi imams who might make common cause with the Iranian ayatollahs, Shiites joining with Shiites! Today, from the point of view of the remaining Iraqi Shiites, it would be hard for us to prove to them that they were not the victims of a double cross. So they may look upon the graves that we congratulate ourselves for having liberated as sepulchral voices calling out from their tombs—asking us to take a share of the blame. Which, of course, we will not.
Yes, our guilt for a great part of those bodies remains a large subtext and Saddam was creating mass graves all through the 1970s and 1980s. He killed Communists en masse in the 1970s, which didn't bother us a bit. Then he slaughtered tens of thousands of Iraqis during the war with Iran—a time when we supported him. A horde of those newly discovered graves go back to that period. Of course, real killers never look back."
On yesterday's question about wind energy, it occurred to me this morning that even if millions of wind turbines appeared, and even if they did have an effect on climate, they would only be replacing (to some extent anyway) all the trees that have gone. I don't just mean rainforests, but general, global
deforestation.
Thursday, July 03, 2003
Google Toolbar Installed
In an attempt to get my home pc to let me post, I'm trying 'blog this' from the new Google toolbar. Hope it works!
In an attempt to get my home pc to let me post, I'm trying 'blog this' from the new Google toolbar. Hope it works!
I was chatting with a friend about sustainable power. He made a point that hadn't occurred to me before, but its worth considering: since you can't create energy, but can only convert it, thus dissipating or reducing your energy source, what happens to the wind when wind turbines use its power to generate electricity? The wind turbine must reduce the energy in the wind, and wind has a major effect on weather and climate. So a proliferation of wind farms has to have an effect on the wind and consequently on the weather and the climate. The plus point is that wind power is clean and non-polluting, but on a large, long-term scale, what are the potential consequences? I expect there is someone researching this somewhere, and there must be info on the web.
I hope wind turbines aren't contributing to the global climate changes highlighted by the World Meteorological Organisation: "In a startling report, the WMO, which normally produces detailed scientific reports and staid statistics at the year's end, highlighted record extremes in weather and climate occurring all over the world in recent weeks, from Switzerland's hottest-ever June to a record month for tornadoes in the United States - and linked them to climate change", as reported in The Independent.
Meanwhile in Iraq, "Civilian deaths, particularly of demonstrators, are mounting. Basic services and basic rights are in scant supply, with neither democracy nor a reliable water supply on offer to Iraqis. The only advanced programme is for the privatisation of state industry. This occupation, which has no modern precedent, should be at the centre of political attention. Ending it needs to be at the heart of public activity.
Tony Blair has placed Britain at the service of the first major post-1991 attempt to fasten foreign domination by force on a sovereign country, an endeavour as unlawful as it is unwise. And there is no easy way out for the government. British troops in Iraq are now hostages to the Middle East policy of the Bush administration and its boundless appetite for domination". Read the whole story.
I hope wind turbines aren't contributing to the global climate changes highlighted by the World Meteorological Organisation: "In a startling report, the WMO, which normally produces detailed scientific reports and staid statistics at the year's end, highlighted record extremes in weather and climate occurring all over the world in recent weeks, from Switzerland's hottest-ever June to a record month for tornadoes in the United States - and linked them to climate change", as reported in The Independent.
Meanwhile in Iraq, "Civilian deaths, particularly of demonstrators, are mounting. Basic services and basic rights are in scant supply, with neither democracy nor a reliable water supply on offer to Iraqis. The only advanced programme is for the privatisation of state industry. This occupation, which has no modern precedent, should be at the centre of political attention. Ending it needs to be at the heart of public activity.
Tony Blair has placed Britain at the service of the first major post-1991 attempt to fasten foreign domination by force on a sovereign country, an endeavour as unlawful as it is unwise. And there is no easy way out for the government. British troops in Iraq are now hostages to the Middle East policy of the Bush administration and its boundless appetite for domination". Read the whole story.
Wednesday, July 02, 2003
They told us the war was over, although few could have really believed it. Now, the powers that be seem to be acknowledging that Iraq wasn't the walkover they had hoped. The Guardian reports that "Britain is to head an international force of more than 16,000 troops to enhance security and peacekeeping operations in southern Iraq, it emerged yesterday". While Rumsfeld denies that "coalition forces were facing a prolonged guerrilla war", others suggest that the situation could continue as it is for years. Still others consider that this may have been Saddam's plan all along.
I finished reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix at the weekend. A big fat book, but easy & compelling reading. I enjoyed it as much as I did the first four, so look forward to book no.6. Next to be pulled off the shelf was Orwell's 1984. I read it 20 years ago, and having picked up a cheap second hand copy in a charity shop on Saturday, decided it was time for a re-read. Big Brother's slogan - "War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength" seems particularly appropriate at the moment. Have a look at this slant on globalisation, freedom and democracy.
I finished reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix at the weekend. A big fat book, but easy & compelling reading. I enjoyed it as much as I did the first four, so look forward to book no.6. Next to be pulled off the shelf was Orwell's 1984. I read it 20 years ago, and having picked up a cheap second hand copy in a charity shop on Saturday, decided it was time for a re-read. Big Brother's slogan - "War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength" seems particularly appropriate at the moment. Have a look at this slant on globalisation, freedom and democracy.
