mask of anarchy

The Mask of Anarchy Has Moved!

2010-03-15T22:53:00.002Z

Dear readers, The Mask has re-activated and is now at WordPress, rejoice!

maskofanarchy.wordpress.com

Guido Fawkes - A Policeman's Best Friend

2009-04-12T14:30:00.004+01:00

Good to see that fuckhead bloggers have a keen idea about what is important. Just a week ago we were confronted with the brutality of our police force. A police force that has been encouraged to brutally suppress legitimate, peaceful protest. A police force that thinks that a fair investigation into the death of an innocent man during the G20 protests should be conducted by themselves.

A week after these revelations, and where are we? Are 'serious bloggers' taking the police to task, further investigating their behaviour and exposing the brutality that the government has encouraged?? Are they exposing the very real danger to our liberties that is posed by a brutal police force empowered by anti-terror legislation?? No, they are writing about a smear campaign conducted by an advisor. Drawing attention from the far scarier story that has been emerging over the past week. Kind of puts Mr Tomlinson's death at the hands of the police into perspective doesn't it. Guido Fawkes? Cupid Stunt more like.

Filthy Fuzz

2009-04-08T23:14:00.003+01:00

How odd that the main story this morning was this:

Ian Tomlinson, the man who died at last week's G20 protests in London, was attacked from behind and thrown to the ground by a baton-wielding police officer in riot gear, dramatic footage obtained by the Guardian shows.

And by the afternoon we had this:

Counter-terrorist police arrested 10 young men across the north-west tonight in an operation hastily brought forward following an embarrassing security leak by a senior Scotland Yard commander.

Hmmm.

G20 Protest, London

2009-03-28T10:35:00.002Z

You can follow the events at the G20 protest via Twitter either through their live search or you can subscribe to the G20 feed.

Saakashvili - A Dictator in the Making?

2009-03-26T20:15:00.002Z

One wonders......

TBILISI (AFP) — A top US diplomat on Thursday said Washington has urged both Georgian authorities and opposition forces to avoid violence as fears of unrest grow ahead of anti-government protests next month.

US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza held unexpected talks with officials and opposition leaders here late Wednesday, returning to Tbilisi for the second time in less than two weeks.

His visit came after 10 opposition supporters were arrested on weapons charges this week and police released video recordings they say show plans to use violence during the protests.

The arrests and a grenade attack on a police car this month have raised fears that the protests, due to start on April 9, could spark civil unrest similar to the violence and civil war that wracked Georgia in the 1990s.

Burjanadze, who has accused the government of launching a smear campaign to discredit her, told Rustavi-2 television that she had informed Bryza of the recent developments involving her supporters.

"I want the reality of everything that is happening to be clear," she said.

Alasania said he had told Bryza that while the opposition welcomed US efforts to support democracy in Georgia, Washington should not be directly involved in resolving domestic political conflicts.

"Of course serious American support for the development of democracy in Georgia is necessary, but I explained that it is up to Georgians, through dialogue between the opposition and the government, to find a way out of this," he told Rustavi-2.

In a separate report, Burjanadze..

....accuses police of planting weapons at supporters' homes.

On Wednesday, officials released more recordings of alleged coup plans by opposition members. One recording purportedly shows a member of Burdzhanadze's party, Roina Bukhrashvili, as saying that a civil war would be in the party's interests.

Burdzhanadze said that "if it's confirmed that members of the party obtained weapons, they should be harshly punished. However, if this is a provocation by authorities, then the authorities should not go unpunished."

If only the media had explored this side of his charcter when the trouble in South Ossetia blew up last year. Too much to ask I guess.

The Chavez Deceit

2009-02-15T21:38:00.003Z

Once more, large sections of the media are representing the referendum in Venezuela in a very dubious light. The Observer's headline says much about the angle that they are taking:

Anti-Chávez lobby dares to hope for a last-ditch victory

The opening paragraph really underlines the standard Western view of Venezuela:

A ragtag coalition of university students, traditional elites and disillusioned "chavistas" will today try to end Hugo Chávez's dream of ruling Venezuela for life.

'Dream of ruling Venezuela for life'? That couches it in particularly disturbing terms. Do we talk of Gordon Brown or David Camerin dreaming of 'ruling for life'? Of course not. And yet there is little, if any, difference between the system being proposed in Venezuela and the system in the UK. Apart from one fundamental difference. The Venezuelan people are having a say in a change in the constitution. Can you imagine that happening in the UK? The idea would fill the political classes with dread.

One thing that characterises these reports about the situation in Venezuela, is the failure to put the opposition to Chavez into context. Quite often they are represented as respectable statesmen who are fighting to wrestle power away from an all too powerful President. What they fail to report is that many members of the opposition were deeply involved in the failed coup in 2002 that was backed by the Bu$h White House. These are not all democrats and respectable statesmen. Many of them are plotters and proxies for the interests of the United States. And yet, the opening quote in the Observer piece is from one of these fronts for the American government.

However, one of the most important quotes has been conveniently ignored:

"This is important for me as a human being and as a soldier in this fight.

"We'll recognize the result, whatever it is, once it is announced by the National Electoral Council."

Chavez swore last time that he would respect the result, and he did. What makes anyone think that this time it is any different?

Terrorist Sympathiser Set to Become Israeli Prime Minister?

2009-02-05T23:30:00.004Z

Remember those images of people celebrating when the two towers collapsed on 11th September? Despicable wasn't it? And yet Israel appears to be on the verge of voting in one of those flag waving terrorist supporters. Yep Binyamin Netanyahu is one of those people. Not only a terrorist sympathiser, but a sympathiser of a terrorist attack on the UK:

The rightwingers, including Binyamin Netanyahu, the former Prime Minister, are commemorating the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, the headquarters of British rule, that killed 92 people and helped to drive the British from Palestine.

They have erected a plaque outside the restored building, and are holding a two-day seminar with speeches and a tour of the hotel by one of the Jewish resistance fighters involved in the attack.

Simon McDonald, the British Ambassador in Tel Aviv, and John Jenkins, the Consul-General in Jerusalem, have written to the municipality, stating: “We do not think that it is right for an act of terrorism, which led to the loss of many lives, to be commemorated.”

In particular they demanded the removal of the plaque that pays tribute to the Irgun, the Jewish resistance branch headed by Menachem Begin, the future Prime Minister, which carried out the attack on July 22, 1946.

Smith To Be Questioned on Torture Collusion

2009-02-05T23:07:00.003Z

I'm guessing this won't go any further:

Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, is to be questioned over allegations that British security services colluded in the torture of terrorism suspects and operated under a "James Bond-style get-out clause".

The allegations, first reported in the Guardian last year, relate to a number of suspects arrested in Pakistan at the request of British authorities between 2003 and 2007. The men say they were repeatedly tortured by agents of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Agency (ISI) before being questioned by MI5.

Yesterday members of the joint committee on human rights (JCHR) heard that British officials put pressure on the Pakistani authorities to get information and "knew very well" they were using torture during their investigations.

We live in hope.

Obama - Same old shit

2009-02-05T23:04:00.001Z

Thought Obama was the saviour? Don't be a fool. He is no different to all other post-war Presidents:

Barack Obama's government was accused of "blackmail" after it emerged that America had threatened to withdraw co-operation in terrorist cases if a UK court ordered the disclosure of secret torture evidence.

In the first real test of the "special relationship" between Britain and the US since Mr Obama's inauguration, MPs and human rights groups called for an inquiry into the case that concerns the treatment of a British resident, Binyam Mohamed, still being held at Guantanamo Bay.

Secret CIA documents held by the Foreign Office detail the interrogation and treatment of Mr Mohamed, who claims he was brutally tortured after being flown by US agents to a secret prison in Morocco before his detention at the US naval base in Cuba.

Good work Messiah.

BBC & Gaza - Just Not Right-wing Enough

2009-01-24T09:17:00.002Z

Good work by the chaps at the BBC to prevent aid agencies getting the airtime that is desperately required to help the people of Gaza:

The BBC has refused to broadcast a national humanitarian appeal for Gaza, leaving aid agencies with a potential shortfall of millions of pounds in donations.

The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), an umbrella group for 13 aid charities, launched its appeal yesterday saying the devastation in Gaza was "so huge British aid agencies were compelled to act".

But the BBC made a rare breach of an agreement dating to 1963, saying it would not give free airtime to the appeal. Other broadcasters followed suit. Previously, broadcasters had agreed on the video and script to be used with the DEC, to be shown after primetime news bulletins.

The BBC, which has been criticised in the past over alleged bias in its coverage of the Middle East, said it did not want to risk public confidence in its impartiality. A BBC spokesperson said: "The decision was made because of question marks about the delivery of aid in a volatile situation and also to avoid any risk of compromising public confidence in the BBC's impartiality in the context of [a] news story."

Impartiality before humanitarian aid? Clearly the BBC is a hotbed of radical leftism.

Gaza Twitter....

2009-01-19T16:19:00.003Z

Do you have a Twitter account?? If so, ultimatejosh and AliveinGaza are taking questions via Twitter to pass on to their correspondent in Gaza. If you have any questions, simply send them to their Twitter accounts which I have conveniently hyperlinked above! One load of submitted questions have already been answered here.

The War on Gaza - The Finest Propaganda Campaign in History

2009-01-17T19:14:00.004Z

The war on Gaza is not only a humanitarian disaster of massive proportions, it has also witnessed a propaganda campaign on a scale not witnessed before. The amount of mis-information, half-truths and, let's be frank, lies that have emerged over the past few weeks has meant that the casual viewer has been presented with an incomplete picture of the events in Gaza and what led up to them. This is the direct result of an attempt by the Israeli government to win the media battle and convince the international community that their assault on the innocent people of Gaza was entirely justified. It is a media battle that the world's media has been happy to play along with.

Ever since the start of the campaign, Israel has ensured that a spokesperson is free to talk to as many of the networks as possible to put their side of the story across. Barely a day has gone by without either Mark Regev or Major Avital Leibovich bombarding us with their 'truth' about the assault on Gaza. And yet, most of their words have been accepted as fact, without much in the way of interrogation. They have been able to make their accusations and claims entirely unchecked without providing a shred of evidence to support anything they have said. And the reason why they have been able to get away with this is down to the methods that the Israeli government has used to manage their message.

Take the reporting from Gaza. Or rather, the lack of reporting from Gaza. Since the beginning of the war on Gaza, journalists have not been allowed to provide independent verification of the claims of the Israeli government. Every time a claim is made by the Israeli state, there is no way to verify their accuracy. We only have the word of Israeli state officials to go on, and since when has a mouthpiece of the state been trustworthy? Of course, the Israeli government has been extremely pleased with the way the propaganda campaign on the media has been waged. They were said to be delighted with certain aspects of the BBC's coverage. The appearance of a BBC correspondent in a flak jacket in Israel certainly did much to convey the idea that Israel was under siege. Little wonder the Israeli government was so pleased.

One of the greatest fallacies about the war on Gaza has been the accusation that Hamas broke the terms of the ceasefire and have been launching hundreds of rockets into Gaza every day. Whilst it is true that rockets have been launched into Israel on a regular basis, there was a noticeable difference in the number of rockets fired from Gaza before the ceasefire and during. During the ceasefire, the number of rockets launched into Israel dropped dramatically. Hamas largely adhered to the terms of the ceasefire and ensured that their military arm did not fire rockets into Israel. There were, however, various other groups in Gaza who continued to fire rockets across the border, groups that are essentially hostile to Hamas and were keen to provoke Israel into launching an assault in the hope it would weaken Hamas. However, these groups were dealt with and those responsible for the launching of rockets were locked up. Despite the fact that Hamas were observing the ceasefire, on November 4th Israel launched a raid into Gaza and killed six Hamas 'militants'. It was after this point that rocket fire into Israel reached pre-ceasefire levels. And this is the point often neglected by the media. I have observed many BBC correspondents say to Israeli officials that no-one argues that Hamas broke the ceasefire, when it is entirely the case that Israel broke the terms of the ceasefire. But such is the power of the propaganda machine, this has been accepted as fact.

And not only has this been accepted as fact, but various little details seem to have been ignored by much of the media. For example, on 23rd December, Hamas offered to renew the ceasefire but, as Israel had already drawn up their plans to assault Gaza, it was rejected. Not only was that offer ignored, but it is barely mentioned that Ismail Haniyeh offered a ten year ceasefire with Israel. There may well be competing voices within Hamas but, like all political groups, there are a wide range of viewpoints. But, again, such things are barely worthy of mention in the West, particularly given the idea that has been spread around that Fatah and Fatah alone are worthy of our support. Given the West's habit of supporting corrupt and incompetent parties across the globe, this support for Fatah is perhaps unsurprising. Fatah, after all, had done very little for the Palestinian people before their election defeat, a defeat mainly as a consequence of the corruption that ran throughout Fatah.

But this is not the worst of the mis-information put out by the media and the Israeli state. Take the attacks on the UN buildings in Gaza. After the first schools were hit, Israeli representatives went on TV and claimed that the responsibility for these crimes lay with Hamas, not with Israel. Now, it would appear, the victims of the crime are responsible for what happened to them. Compare this with standard right-wing rhetoric that is hostile to what it sees as the perpetrator being the ‘victim’. Remember all the times they have treated that idea with disdain and then wonder how they can claim (straight faced) that the murder of civilians by their bombs, their rockets, their military, is somehow not their fault, but that of Hamas. Strange, no?

Not only did they claim that the fault of their military murdering innocent civilians was not there fault, they also went on to claim that Hamas were using installations such as the schools to launch attacks on Israel. One spokesperson even claimed they 'booby-trapped' a building containing civilians. The spokesmen showed no remorse, no pity. And then what do we discover a few days later, when more than forty innocent people have died? That there were no Hamas fighters there and it was a 'mistake'. Too late for all those brothers who lost sisters, mothers who lost children, children who lost parents. Just a shrug of the shoulders from the Israeli government and then they move on. The dead becoming merely an inconvenient statistic that undermines their rhetoric about not wanting a war with the Palestinian people. What is this if it is not?

Despite their unfounded accusations, it is not as if Israel has abided entirely by international conventions. Whilst largely ignored or dismissed by much of the media, there is growing evidence that war crimes have been committed by the IDF. These crimes include:

• attempting to bulldoze houses with civilians inside;
• killing civilians trying to escape under the protection of white flags;
• the use of indiscriminate force in a civilian area and the firing of white phosphorus shells.
• using powerful shells in civilian areas which the army knew would cause large numbers of innocent casualties;
• holding Palestinian families as human shields;
• attacking medical facilities, including the killing of 12 ambulance men in marked vehicles;
• killing large numbers of police who had no military role.

Even the United Nations’ most senior human rights official suggested that Israel may have to answer for war crimes in the wake of their assault on Zeitoun. Of course, the chances of Israel actually being prosecuted for these war crimes is minute. Especially as the propaganda campaign by the Israeli government has been so successful in pushing out its message. Will there seriously be any support for an independent inquiry into Israeli war crimes? And, if there is an inquiry, what are the chances of Israel being censored as a result? Zero. Because, as always, the United States will ride to the rescue and ensure that the Israeli government are well protected. Besides, by then the assault will be forgotten about by the media and will make little difference for those in Gaza who have suffered at the hands of the IDF. And as for the change of government in America, is there anyone who seriously believes that Obama will launch a radical shift in foreign policy? With a Clinton as Secretary of State? The suffering of the Palestinians will continue and the Israeli propaganda machine will continue unabated.

Israel Using Human Shields

2009-01-13T21:40:00.002Z

From The Guardian:

Amnesty International says hitting residential streets with shells that send blast and shrapnel over a wide area constitutes "prima facie evidence of war crimes".

"There has been reckless and disproportionate and in some cases indiscriminate use of force," said Donatella Rovera, an Amnesty investigator in Israel. "There has been the use of weaponry that shouldn't be used in densely populated areas because it's known that it will cause civilian fatalities and casualties.

"They have extremely sophisticated missiles that can be guided to a moving car and they choose to use other weapons or decide to drop a bomb on a house knowing that there were women and children inside. These are very, very clear breaches of international law."

Israel's most prominent human rights organisation, B'Tselem, has written to the attorney general in Jerusalem, Meni Mazuz, asking him to investigate suspected crimes including how the military selects its targets and the killing of scores of policemen at a passing out parade.

"Many of the targets seem not to have been legitimate military targets as specified by international humanitarian law," said Sarit Michaeli of B'Tselem.

Rovera has also collected evidence that the Israeli army holds Palestinian families prisoner in their own homes as human shields. "It's standard practice for Israeli soldiers to go into a house, lock up the family in a room on the ground floor and use the rest of the house as a military base, as a sniper's position. That is the absolute textbook case of human shields.

"It has been practised by the Israeli army for many years and they are doing it again in Gaza now," she said.

UN School in Gaza - No Rockets Fired From School

2009-01-08T18:50:00.003Z

Couldn't find this anywhere other than a small section of The Independent, and even then it wasn't on their website. So I had to resort to scanning the section:

So after all the talk of 'booby-traps' and Hamas rockets, Israel has admitted to the UN that no firing originated from the school. So what to do about the 43 dead?? Say sorry?

Israel Using White Phosphorus?

2009-01-05T20:39:00.002Z

That is certainly one accusation doing the rounds:

Israel is believed to be using controversial white phosphorus shells to screen its assault on the heavily populated Gaza Strip yesterday. The weapon, used by British and US forces in Iraq, can cause horrific burns but is not illegal if used as a smokescreen.

As the Israeli army stormed to the edges of Gaza City and the Palestinian death toll topped 500, the tell-tale shells could be seen spreading tentacles of thick white smoke to cover the troops’ advance. “These explosions are fantastic looking, and produce a great deal of smoke that blinds the enemy so that our forces can move in,” said one Israeli security expert. Burning blobs of phosphorus would cause severe injuries to anyone caught beneath them and force would-be snipers or operators of remote-controlled booby traps to take cover. Israel admitted using white phosphorus during its 2006 war with Lebanon.

The use of the weapon in the Gaza Strip, one of the world’s mostly densely population areas, is likely to ignite yet more controversy over Israel’s offensive, in which more than 2,300 Palestinians have been wounded.

The Geneva Treaty of 1980 stipulates that white phosphorus should not be used as a weapon of war in civilian areas, but there is no blanket ban under international law on its use as a smokescreen or for illumination. However, Charles Heyman, a military expert and former major in the British Army, said: “If white phosphorus was deliberately fired at a crowd of people someone would end up in The Hague. White phosphorus is also a terror weapon. The descending blobs of phosphorus will burn when in contact with skin.”

Medical Aid For The Palestinian People

2009-01-04T22:17:00.003Z

Two good shouts from Ten Percent:

You can donate money to be used as medical aid for the Palestinians here
And a story that has been missed by large sections of the media....is the Israeli action part of an attempt to secure gas supplies?

The War on Palestinians

2009-01-03T21:07:00.003Z

So, Israeli propaganda dominates the airwaves. Israeli officials are wheeled out to proclaim that their murder of nearly 500 Palestinians and the launch of over 800 strikes is a 'defensive action'. It is barely possible to watch the news as these officials trundle out lie after lie with straight faces, apparently convinced of their own lies. The lie that Israeli action is defensive being just one of a whole pack of lies which the Israeli government know will be almost impossible to disprove. Still, if nothing else, the propaganda offensive has been 'impressive'.

One thing must be kept in mind when watching any news coverage of this murderous attack on Gaza. International journalists are not allowed into Gaza to verify any of the claims of the Israeli government. Even though the Supreme Court has ruled that the government cannot ban foreign correspondents, they remain banned. As a result, it makes it impossible to verify the claims of the government, a fact they are all to aware of. Take this morning's attack on a mosque in Gaza. On various networks, officials have been interviews and claimed that the strike was unfortunate, but that munitions are routinely stored in civilian locations across Gaza and, this implies, the strike was justified. One question is never asked: where is the proof? If the mosque contained munitions, why not provide the proof? Why not tell us where exactly these munitions were stored? Why? Because it is part of a blatant attempt to convince the people of the world that this mass murder, this attempt at ethnic cleansing, is in someway justified.

Every civilian death is seen as suspicious. Every civilian death is blamed on the Palestinian people. Oh, they say they blame Hamas, but by claiming that the Palestinians allow munitions to be stored on their properties, they are essentially saying that any Palestinian civilian that is killed is responsible for their own murder. It is ironic, nay perverse, that so often, the very same people who claim that the Palestinians (the victims) are at fault and that the Israelis (the perpetrators) are deserving of our sympathy, are the very same ones that proclaim that individuals should take the responsibility for their actions and not blame external factors. Why are Palestinians not deserving of this? Why, in this case, should the murderers not take responsibility for their actions? Which the victim suffer whilst the perpetrator has excuses made in their favour? It is the great double standard at the heart of much of the rhetoric that emanates from certain sections of the political spectrum.

And why should we believe what the Israeli government says anyway. Their propaganda has already been exposed for what it is only this morning. Footage that was uploaded on YouTube to prove the accuracy of the Israeli assault has now been revealed as a disgraceful piece of propaganda. Instead of missiles being loaded onto the targeted truck (as the Israeli government claimed), oxygen cylinders were being prepared for distribution. As a result of this action, eight Palestinians were killed. And yet, this video clip is being used as an example of how the Israelis are so careful in their targeting. And, given the lack of journalists in Gaza, one wonders how many other examples are waiting to emerge from the woodwork.

Despite the horrors that are being conducted in Gaza, one must remember that these are the actions of a corrupt elite that are in power in Israel. They are not representative of the people of Israel. The Communist Party of Israel and Hadash have been organising demonstrations in Tel Aviv in protest against the assault on Gaza and the continuing siege. There have been reports that over 10,000 people have taken to the streets in protest against Israeli action. And their bravery in expressing their right to free speech is underlined when considering the disgusting language of some of the extreme elements in Israeli political life:

Israel Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Lieberman said that "in the same way that the Israeli government knows that it is impossible to stop the operation in Gaza until Hamas is eradicated, [the government] must act against those Israeli citizens who are not loyal to the State of Israel."

"The demonstration in Sakhnin in which ten thousand protesters are participating proves that their loyalty is to Hamas and to those who want to destroy Israel."

Ironically those that really seek to destroy Israel are quite possibly the Israeli government themselves. After all, does anyone seriously believe that these attacks will put a stop to the extremists in Gaza? Does anyone really believe that the children who witness the deaths of their mothers, fathers, brother, sisters at the hands of Israeli rockets, will not turn their hatred on Israel? It would be foolish to think that they wouldn't. Each rocket that lands in Gaza produces another extremist. Another person intent on destroying Israel. Another suicide bomber intent on killing Israeli civilians. Until the Israeli government realises this simple fact, the cycle will continue. Unless, of course, that is what they want. To keep the people of Israel living in fear. Well, they may just get their wish.

I'm Coming Back

2009-01-03T12:42:00.002Z

Yes, after a brief (ok, long) break from MOA due to other stuff going on in my life, I will be back here blogging shortly. In the meantime, I have branched out into a couple of other areas which will enable readers to keep up to speed with what is going on in my head. Firstly, you can join my network on Delicious where I will catalogue any links that are of interest to make it just that little bit easier to build up evidence that may be used to smite the feeble trolls. Anyways, you can join my network here. And you can also follow me via Twitter which will be updated with various quick thoughts when I don't have the opportunity for full on posts, as well as informing you when I have added a new post (like now!). You can follow my Twitterings here.

Posting will resume shortly.......

Georgian Forces Targeted Civilians

2008-10-28T21:56:00.002Z

The evidence keeps on piling up that the Georgian forces committed atrocities in South Ossetia. If only the mainstream media had scrutinised the situation more thoroughly instead of just believing whatever the Georgian dictator said:

President Mikhail Saakashvili has denied that Georgia's armed forces committed war crimes during their attack on South Ossetia in August.

Evidence obtained by the BBC in the breakaway region suggests Georgia used indiscriminate force, and may have targeted civilians.

Witnesses said tanks had fired on an apartment block, and civilians were shot at as they fled the fighting.

The upcoming protests will certainly be interesting.

Georgia - 'Aid Lacks Transparency'

2008-10-22T12:53:00.002+01:00

According to Transparency International:

Transparency International Georgia today criticised a lack of transparency and local consultation ahead of a conference on 22 October, where decisions on hundreds of millions of dollars of international aid to Georgia will be made. Representatives of donor nations, multilateral institutions and the Georgian government will gather in Brussels for the conference, which is co-chaired by the European Commission and the World Bank and comes in the wake of the Georgian-Russian conflict in August 2008.

Commenting on the opaque decision-making process, Tamuna Karosanidze, Executive Director of Tbilisi-based TI Georgia said, “Aid given behind closed doors lacks accountability, to the taxpayers of donor nations as much as to the citizens of Georgia. The lack of transparency in giving this aid makes it less likely that money will reach those most in need. If donors want aid to support Georgia’s development, they must ensure that this aid is transparent and democratically accountable.”

Decision-making at the conference will be based on a “Joint Needs Assessment”, an extensive document drawn up by a mission coordinated by the World Bank and the United Nations. The Joint Needs Assessment estimates that Georgia will require USD 3.25 billion (€2.38 billion) over the next three years in budget support, social sector support and infrastructure development. This is more than Georgia’s government plans to spend in 2009, and the equivalent of nearly one thousand dollars for every person living in the country.

“Allocating these huge sums behind closed doors on the basis of a secret document does not set a good example for Georgian democracy to follow,” continued Karosanidze. “If Georgia’s citizens can have no say in how this money will be spent, democracy in Georgia will be weakened rather than strengthened. Aid will only be received positively in Georgia if Georgian citizens are confident that it will be well spent, which is something that only wide-spread civic involvement and transparency can achieve.”

Hmmm. Have you read 'The Shock Doctrine' by Naomi Klein? Perhaps there might be a reprint in the offing with a new chapter on the Georgian scam. Meanwhile:

TBILISI, Georgia — A political opponent of Mikheil Saakashvili, the president of Georgia, called on Monday for mass protests on Nov. 7, the first anniversary of a government crackdown on demonstrators that left 500 people injured.

The opponent, Levan Gachechiladze, who lost to Mr. Saakashvili in presidential elections in January, urged demonstrators to gather in front of the Georgian Parliament in Tbilisi, the site of last year’s violence.

Making his announcement about the protest on the Parliament steps, Mr. Gachechiladze said the purpose would be to call Mr. Saakashvili to account for Georgia’s losses in the August war against Russia over the disputed enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. He has also accused the government of tainting the results of parliamentary elections and presidential elections.

“The opposition is going to renew the waves of protest and ask President Saakashvili to take responsibility for his actions last year,” Mr. Gachechiladze said.

It will be interesting to see if these protests are as brutally put down. Particularly as there appears to be a new neo-liberal drive. Of course, if there is any trouble, it will be down to Russian interference (notice 'American interference' is almost non-existent). Events on 7th November will be very interesting indeed.

No Justice for Chagossians

2008-10-22T12:49:00.004+01:00

The evil empire is victorious once more:

Exiles of the Chagos Islands have had the right to return to their homeland overturned by the House of Lords.

The government won its appeal against a court decision that had ruled in favour of 2,000 former residents of the British Indian Ocean territory.

They were evicted in the 1960s when the colony was leased to the US to build an airbase on the atoll of Diego Garcia.

Lord Hoffmann said the case's subtext was funding - the UK may have had to pay for rebuilding their community.

'Funding'?? Well, we can't have that can we?

Palestine - Still a Dirty Word

2008-10-13T15:37:00.002+01:00

It's amazing to think that it is considered a slur on your character if you have too much sympathy with the plight of the Palestinians:

Republicans in south Florida predict a 10% spike for McCain in the Jewish vote over the 24% polled by Bush in 2004. Their campaign line is that if Obama wins he will be the first pro-Palestinian US president since the foundation of the state of Israel. The Democrats hit back with leaflets showing Obama by Jerusalem's Wailing Wall wearing a yarmulka.

The fact that any candidate accused of showing sympathy with the impoverished and dispossessed still feels the need to distance himself from the most needy and align himself with the most powerful tells you all you need to know about the race for the presidency.

Obama? Linked to Terrorism?? What About the Republicans?

2008-10-05T20:24:00.004+01:00

Now, I am no great fan of Obama. Let's face it, he is still going to protect the capitalist system, despite its obvious failings. However, the very idea that he supports terrorism, whilst Sarah Palin and John McCain are somehow free from such associations, deserves some scrutiny. After all, they are members of a party that have strengthened Osama Bin Laden beyond even his wildest dreams. They fell for the trap and every single day they have provided more and more propaganda for Bin Laden's ideology. They have done the terrorists job for them and, in any other country, these leaders would be tried for treason. And yet bizarrely, their support for terrorism has been overlooked. A McCain victory would be a dream come true for Bin Laden. More aggression, more proof that the West wants to destroy Islam. What more could he ask for?

But that is not all. John McCain has stood shoulder to shoulder with a renowned terrorist in the Americas. A terrorist who wields immense power. A terrorist who is responsible for the deaths of hundreds, if not thousands, of ordinary people. A terrorist who is financially supported by the current Republican administration. So where is the proof for this outlandish claim? Well..........

John McCain and Sarah Palin - The Terrorist's Choice

After The War Comes The Opportunity

2008-10-02T21:56:00.003+01:00

It is no surprise to learn that the American government is lining up potential investors in Georgia:

The US Department of Commerce is working with two private American-Georgian business associations to stage a trade summit in Tbilisi in late October. The initiative is part of a general effort to bolster investor confidence in Georgia.

The Bush administration has been a leading backer of Georgia as the Caucasus country rebuilds following Russia’s August invasion. The US Congress has already approved an administration-sponsored aid package worth as much as $1 billion. The idea for the business summit reportedly came from the "highest level" in Washington, and it is seen as a means to stimulate private-sector interest in Georgia’s economic recovery.

While the guest list for the summit has not been publicly released, organizers note that some Fortune 500 companies, as well as large private equity firms, have expressed an intention to attend. According to a partial list of confirmed companies made available to EurasiaNet, investors are considering multi-million dollar projects in several sectors including hydro-power production, power transmission, wind energy, hospitals and wine. The summit will be chaired by Deputy Commerce Secretary John Sullivan. In addition to organizing the Tbilisi summit, the US Trade Office is pushing Congress to expand Georgia’s eligibility for duty-free imports to the United States.

According to Tamara Koziridze, a deputy economic minister, the Georgian government is "hoping" that summit will bring new investment into the country. "We hope very much it will be productive in the sense that companies with a real interest in Georgia will participate and will have sufficient follow up," Kovziridze said.

What a fantastic opportunity for corporate America. Multi-million dollar contracts will be signed, huge swathes of the Georgian economy will be handed over to American companies and American hegemony in the region will be confirmed. It's almost like the US wanted Georgia (one of the fastest growing ecnomies in the region) to start a war it was bound to lose if only to pick up the pieces and have a tasty slice of future growth with the aid of a neo-conservative, anti-democratic Georgian leader. Good work chaps.

The Rich Need YOUR Help

2008-09-30T23:28:00.006+01:00

Here's an interesting little paradox. Here we are, in the midst of an economic crisis where all the talk is of things getting worse before they get better. Amidst all this talk of crisis, there is re-assurance from both the Conservatives and the Conservatives Lite...sorry, Labour, that the rich must pay the price for their failures. Fine words. Question is, when taxpayers are bailing out the rich to a massive degree, are the rich really hurting? Well, it appears not according to this story in today's Guardian which highlights just how much the rich are really hurting:

Super times for superyachts as billionaires buy into maritime bling
Monte Carlo boat show finds demand for floating palaces higher than ever

While others panic about the financial crisis, this weekend's Monaco Yacht Show proved that the mega-rich have never been richer. Yacht brokers describe an eastern European new rich, boosted by oil wealth, keen to outdo their rivals. Middle Eastern viewers and occasional Latin Americans are following suit.

As the number of multi-billionaires grows, the superyacht industry is enjoying such a boom that demand for the most expensive models outstrips supply. Boats built to personal specifications have grown to such vast proportions that the labels superyacht and megayacht are no longer enough. Those on the dockside now talk of the gigayacht - multi-storey, 120-metre floating mansions that resemble cruise liners. The cost of the biggest new boats exceeds €200m.

So, are the rich really paying the price? Or is it the average tax payer?

Jewish Terrorists Attack Academic

2008-09-25T23:15:00.004+01:00

'Self-hating' Jew is often a term applied to those that criticise Israeli policies, so why not also apply it to those ultra-rightist Jews that attack their fellow Jews? Like the nasty characters that carried out this attack:

A well-known Israeli critic of Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank, Zeev Sternhell, has been slightly wounded in a bomb attack.

Police suspect ultra-nationalists Israelis were behind the attack.

Professor Sternhall has also strongly opposed the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, describing it as immoral and ineffective.

Earlier this year, Professor Sternhall was awarded the prestigious Israel Prize for political science.

Mr Sternhell suffered minor shrapnel wounds in one leg.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said several assailants were waiting for Mr Sternhell shortly after midnight on Wednesday outside his home in Jerusalem.

Reports say police investigators found posters in Mr Sternhell's neighbourhood offering a reward of $320,000 to anyone who kills a member of Peace Now, an Israeli group that campaigns against settlement building to which the academic belongs.

A New Holocaust in Italy?

2008-09-25T23:10:00.002+01:00

Ethnic cleansing is still going on in Italy, and the media turns a blind eye:

Last night in Milan, in the ex Falck steelworks of Sesto San Giovanni (Milan) Ciprian, a young Roma boy of 13 was burnt alive. He lived with his family in conditions of intolerable marginalization and poverty. His family were unable to return to Romania, where they own nothing, and were therefore prisoners of marginalization in Sesto San Giovanni. A candle fell on the makeshift bed where the boy slept and he perished in the flames. The Roma families in Sesto San Giovanni have no electricity, therefore no safe heating and lighting. They make do the best they can to avoid freezing to death. They are offered no assistance at all, just repression from the police. The firemen, who arrived at the scene after midnight, found the boy’s charred body. How much longer will we carry on considering these bodies “accidents” and not victims? How much longer will we deceive ourselves we are innocent?

Another holocaust is brewing. Once more ethnic cleansing is making its mark on Europe. Isn't it time that a few more people spoke out about the despicable rise of fascism in that beautiful country?

The World Turns Upside Down (But The Tories Are Still Lying Scum)

2008-09-25T22:52:00.003+01:00

So, in the time since I last posted on a regular basis, what the fuck has been going on?? First Bush nationalises large chunks of the banking sector, making him the biggest socialist in history (tongue firmly in cheek). Then the Tories have the nerve to accuse the Labour party of being obsessed with de-regulation. Now this is certainly true but really, the Tories??? I'm trying to recall a time in the past when the Tories urged for more regulation.........nope, can't think of a single example. Bless them, it must be hard for the poor loves to be anti-free-market and pro-free-market at the same time. Duplicitous swines.

Bolivia, Venezuela - Coups in Waiting?

2008-09-13T21:08:00.003+01:00

It certainly appears that whilst the public are distracted by moose shooting censorship lovers and the second coming, the US government is once more attempting a spot of covert regime change in South America. As RickB has already noted over at Ten Percent, both Venezuela and Bolivia have now expelled their American ambassadors as a result of apparent attempts by the American government to remove these governments from power. It has also emerged that the American government may have been supporting officers within the Venezuelan army who are hostile to Chavez. According to The Guardian, Chavez said:

'...several Venezuelan military officers had been detained following an investigation by his intelligence services. During his televised address he played a recording of purported conversations between the alleged conspirators.

Earlier, the defence minister, General Gustavo Rangel Briceño, and a pro-Chávez TV host, Mario Silva, named several senior officers from the navy, air force and national guard as suspects.'

Not content with supporting anti-government forces in Venezuela, the US government has further attempted to smear Chavez by once more linking him to the Colombian drug trade and the FARC. Again, from The Guardian:

Separately, the US treasury accused three members of Chávez's inner-circle of materially assisting the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), leftist guerrillas who traffick cocaine and are considered terrorists by the US and EU. Hugo Carvajal Barrios and Henry Rangel Silva are senior intelligence officials and Ramón Rodríguez Chacin was interior minister until this week when he unexpectedly resigned, citing personal reasons.

Venezuela's government acknowledges talking to Farc to negotiate hostage releases but denies funnelling weapons or drug money.

Visiting Britain this week, the US drugs czar, John Walters, repeated claims that Venezuela and Bolivia were taking over from Colombia in the export of cocaine.

It would be funny if it wasn't so serious. After all, the US government also play a key role in supporting terrorist organisations in Colombia. Despite Uribe's well documented links to human rights abuses, as well as his links to right-wing terrorists operating within his borders, the US government continues to fund his government to the hilt. If Chavez is guilty of aiding a 'terrorist organisation' in Colombia, Bush is equally guilty. And yet, in this world of inverted mirrors and perverse logic, Chavez is the threat and Bush is the solution. And if anyone thinks that Bush Terror Inc will cease trading come 2009, I am afraid they are very much mistaken.

Obama - Lipstick on a Pig

2008-09-10T19:31:00.000+01:00

Let's take off our human hats, and put on our ass-hats.

2008-09-04T17:46:00.002+01:00

John McCain - 20th Century Candidate for 21st Century Presidency

2008-09-04T14:45:00.002+01:00

Seriously, McCain is not really the dynamic candidate to run the Empire, is he?

@ Yahoo! Video

America Stands Should to Shoulder With Georgian Murderer

2008-09-04T12:36:00.006+01:00

Dick Cheney has been vociferous in his support for Georgia during his visit to the country. In a press conference alongside Saakashvili, the American vice-president said:

"After your nation won its freedom in the Rose Revolution, America came to the aid of this courageous young democracy.

"We are doing so again as you work to overcome an invasion of your sovereign territory and an illegitimate unilateral attempt to change your country's borders by force that has been universally condemned by the free world."

Well, not universally condemned by the free world. Universally condemned by those subjected to Western propaganda, but I digress. Let's remind ourselves of what this 'courageous young democracy' stands for shall we?

During a peaceful anti-government demonstration in the capital city, the state authorities sent in special military forces armed with machine guns to violently disperse the crowds. Twenty-five people were arrested, including five opposition politicians.

In November last year, 50,000 people took to the streets to demonstrate against 'government corruption'. Tear gas, rubber bullets and water canons were used to once more break up the demonstration. Furthermore, men dressed in black (apparently working for the government) were sent in to attack protestors. As a result, over 500 people were admitted to hospital.

And, just last month, Georgian forces were sent into South Ossetia to assert Georgian authority in the region. Churches were burnt down, 15 Russian peacekeepers were murdered, 30,000 South Ossetians fled to the north and a further 1,500 civilians were murdered by Georgian forces.

Yes, this is what the 'free world' stands by. Repression, corruption, murder and violence. All this wrapped up in American friendly neo-liberalism. This is what Cheney stands by. This is what America stands by. Another nail in the coffin of the free world.

Georgia Receives American Aid

2008-09-04T09:59:00.001+01:00

The question is, what do the Americans get in return?

John McCain - More of the same?

2008-09-01T13:34:00.004+01:00

It would certainly appear so. After all, much like Bush, John McCain is enthrall to the oil industry. Bush and McCain may not like each other very much (and many people don't seem to like either of them), but you could barely get a fag paper between the two of them (nb. US readers, fag=cigarette, not some offensive term for homosexuals). Expect more of the same attempts by the US to control oil supplies across the globe if McCain comes to power (God forbid - although the alternative ain't exactly on a different plain).

Since 1989, McCain has received around $700,000 from the oil industry. Furthermore, McCain has worked :

....tirelessly to advance the interests of the oil industry. For example, McCain’s tax plan gives the top five oil companies $3.8 billion a year in tax breaks. McCain meanwhile has voted against reducing dependence on foreign oil, has twice rejected windfall profits tax for Big Oil, and has voted against taxing oil companies to provide a $100 rebate to consumers. If that were not enough, McCain also made a risky political decision recently to back new offshore oil drilling in the US.

Vote McCain, and you most definitely get more Bush (in terms of the President, not women you misogynist fool). But it doesn't end there. What about McCain's supposedly superior experience in international affairs? Ok, put aside his comments about Iraq and Pakistan sharing a border. And don't mention his acknowledgement of the state of Czechoslovakia (ceased to exist in 1993). Despite these gaffes, McCain has a very serious agenda on the international stage, particularly as a result of his relationship with the International Republican Institute (IRI). And just what are his links to the IRI?

Since 1993, McCain has served as Chair of the outfit, which is funded by the U.S. government and private money. The group, which receives tens of millions of taxpayer dollars each year, claims to promote democracy world-wide. On the surface at least, IRI seems to have a rather innocuous agenda including party building, media training, the organization of leadership trainings, dissemination of newsletters, and strengthening of civil society.

The hottest country in which IRI currently operates is Iraq. According to the IRI’s own web site, since the summer of 2003 the organization “has conducted a multi-faceted program aimed at promoting the development of democracy in Iraq. Toward this end, IRI works with political parties, indigenous civil society groups, and elected and other government officials. In support of these efforts, IRI also conducts numerous public opinion research projects and assists its Iraqi partners in the production of radio and television ads and programs.”

Furthermore, the IRI has been instrumental in events in Haiti. Funding from the IRI was used to foment a violent coup in Haiti against the leadership of Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Funding was also used to support opposition parties in the country, and an IRI representative persuaded the opposition parties to avoid compromising with Aristide. It is highly unlikely that Senator McCain was unaware of these events, although it is equally hard to say that he authorised them. However, with such a background in backing violent coups against democratically elected governements, he is perhaps perfectly placed for the role of US president. And, should that day arrive, it doesn't take a genius to work out which country will be first in the firing line. Somewhere rich in oil perhaps?

Drug Companies Spend Millions on Direct Advertising

2008-08-23T21:41:00.002+01:00

Following on from the attack by NICE on the drug industry in The Observer, The Guardian reveals today that the drug industry plows millions into persuading medical professionals to use their products. According to the report:

Drug companies are spending millions of pounds every year on all-expenses-paid trips to conferences around the world for doctors and other hospital staff, in what critics say is a massive marketing exercise dressed up as medical education.

The Guardian can reveal the scale of pharmaceutical company sponsorship following an examination of the registers of gifts and donations to doctors that all hospitals are required to keep. They show considerable largesse - from drug companies regularly picking up hefty bills for travel to international conferences in Europe, Asia and America, to specialist nurses' salaries, and weekly sandwich lunches for hospital staff training sessions.

Examples of the firms' hospitality include:

· Astra Zeneca paid £2,500 for a doctor at the Royal Bournemouth trust and £1,500 for a doctor at Sheffield teaching hospital to attend a cancer conference in Texas

· Sanofi-Aventis, the world's fourth biggest pharmaceutical company, paid for doctors at the Countess of Chester trust to go to conferences in Cape Town, New Orleans and Barcelona. At Gateshead trust, their reps gave a breakfast for 30 staff "to discuss drugs for the treatment of breast cancer". The trust's register records that "the donor was seeking to secure business".

· Roche spent £2,000 for an oncology consultant at Addenbrooke's hospital in Cambridge to go to a conference in May last year.

· GSK, the biggest British pharmaceutical company, paid £1,200 for a consultant at Sheffield teaching hospital to attend the 11th international congress of Parkinson's disease and movement disorders in Turkey last June.

· Companies have also been taking hospital staff to top football and rugby matches. Carillion, a public sector construction firm, spent £180 taking a senior manager at Milton Keynes trust to lunch and then a rugby match at Twickenham last August.

Fortunately, drug companies cannot advertise direct to the patient......yet. Only last year, drug companies and so-called 'patient groups' (funded by drugs companies funnily enough) lobbied the European parliament to relax the regulations on direct advertising. Should these patient groups be successful in battering NICE into submission, there is no doubt that the pressure would increase to allow the drug companies to advertise direct to the patient - a very dangerous prospect indeed when one considers the issues surrounding drugs such as Vioxx.

These are dangerous times in the medical world. Drug companies are scared of a decline in profits that will inevitably follow the expiration of their lucrative patents. This fear will drive them to ever ambitious attempts to secure their bottom line and patient groups are one of their biggest weapons. NICE must be allowed to carry out its work, no matter how hard it is for some patients to accept, or else we could find ourselves in a dangerous world where drugs are rushed to the market place after insufficient testing - leading to many more cases like Vioxx. NICE does a very difficult job, but it deserves everyone's support.

No More Mr Nice Guy

2008-08-17T14:58:00.005+01:00

For too long the media have focused on one side of the story when it comes to the debate about medication. Nice has been portrayed as a vicious, uncaring watchdog seeking to penalise those that require certain medications. That some of this criticism seems to emanate from various pharmaceutical concerns, barely seems worth mentioning. Finally, today's Observer goes some way to addressing this gross distortion and, in turn, reveals the real criminals in the drugs industry.

Professor Sir Michael Rawlins has finally spoken out about the media frenzy surrounding Nice, and what he says makes an awful lot of sense. Sure, the drug companies will be infuriated (and no doubt up their propaganda campaigns), but the truth is for all to see. Drugs companies are overcharging the NHS in order to protect their profits. This needs to stop. If things continue in this fashion, the NHS will be bled dry and the way will be clear for a privatised system somewhat like the one in the US. Free healthcare for all will become a curiosity of the past. Men, women and children will die as a result of a privatised system. Dramatic? Maybe. But there is no doubt that large sections of society will be severely affected by such a change.

Below is a short extract:

The drugs industry is overpricing vital new medicines to boost its profits, the chair of the health watchdog Nice warns today in an explosive intervention into the debate over NHS rationing.

Professor Sir Michael Rawlins spoke out after critics last week accused the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) of 'barbarism' for refusing to approve expensive new kidney drugs for NHS use, on the grounds that they were not cost-effective.

In an outspoken interview with The Observer, he warned of 'perverse incentives' to hike the prices of new drugs - including linking the pay of pharmaceutical company executives to their firm's share price, which in turn relied on keeping profits healthy. Traditionally some companies charged what they thought they could get away with, he said. 'We are told we are being mean all the time, but what nobody mentions is why the drugs are so expensive.'

Kidney cancer drugs could be produced for about a tenth of their current cost, Rawlins said. While developing such medicines from scratch added to these costs, as did some 'unnecessary' bureaucracy around clinical trials which should be scrapped, he said that was not the whole story. 'Part of the problem is that the pharmaceutical industry is looking at a very bad period in the future because a lot of their big earners are going off patent [allowing rivals to make cheaper versions], and many companies are looking at a 30 or 40 per cent reduction in the next five years unless they come up with new drugs,' he said. 'And so part of the cost is cushioning against that. The other thing, of course, is that the share price is very important to a pharmaceutical company.'

Fascist Government Upset at Being Called Fascist

2008-08-14T22:25:00.001+01:00

The Italian government has lashed out at an influential Catholic magazine which suggested fascism might be resurfacing within the government.

An editorial in the Famiglia Cristiana weekly is critical of government policy towards the Roma community. [BBC]

Might be? Still, I guess the Catholic church is in a better place to judge than most.

American Military To Prevent Coup in Georgia?

2008-08-14T21:56:00.003+01:00

There has been much talk of the aid being given to the Georgians in the wake of their folly a week ago. Which begs a few questions. Are the Americans providing aid for purely altruistic reasons? Doubtful. Are they sending a message to the Russian government? Certainly. Or are the Americans truly scared that Saakashvili will topple as a result of his humiliation in Georgia and are trying to pre-empt any attempts to overthrow this 'vital ally'? I would say almost definitely.

Saakashvili is certainly in a very precarious position at the moment. His poll ratings were already falling quite dramatically before this latest crisis, mainly due to his preference for sending armed police to disrupt any demonstrations against his rule. His utter failure to complete that which he had pledged (the unification of all parts of Georgia), ensures that even his staunchest supporters must be wavering right now. And that will come as a real concern to a White House that sees this part of the world as strategically vital to US ambitions globally. The toppling of a pro-American leader in this region could have massive implications for the US, not least in relation to the Missile Defence program.

Georgia is one of the countries muted to be a base for these so-called 'defensive' weapons, which is why the US has been so keen to push the case for their membership of NATO. The removal of a leader keen to bend to the wishes of the US would ensure that the 'missile shield' would not receive Georgian approval - a particular problem given the proximity of Georgia to Iran (the supposed target of the 'missile shield'). And with Poland now keen to sign up to missile bases on their territory, the US will be eager to get other allies on board as soon as possible. And what better way to ensure that there is no immediate likelihood of their prized possession in the region coming to harm than to send US troops into the region to provide 'aid'? No doubt the Georgian people will think twice about rising up against Saakashvili as long as they have a superpower paying a 'friendly' visit. Only a few days ago the Georgian leader was talking of Russian occupation in one of his more fantastical pronouncements. There certainly appears to be an occupation, but it is not Russian.

South Ossetia Through the Looking Glass

2008-08-11T16:30:00.007+01:00

We helped in Iraq - now help us, beg Georgians

So says the highly emotive front page of today's Times. Such a headline has reflected a broader trend across the media to represent Georgia as an innocent party in the current conflict. As ever, the story is far more complex than that, not least because the conflict was instigated by a Georgian leader eager to boost his ratings and please his Western allies.

Mikheil Saakashvili came to power in 2004 after the so-called 'Rose Revolution' that brought to an end the presidency of Eduard Shevardnadze. Saakashvili rode into power on the back of a commitment to unite Georgia and usher in a new era of pro-Western Georgian politics (much to the alarm of the Russian government). Eager to appeal to the West, Saakashvili's party, the United National Movement, moved away from its previous centre-left positioning and took up the mantle of 'liberal conservatism'. The main focus of the post-revolution party was economic liberalism alongside civic nationalism - a recipe clearly designed to appeal to the West (particularly America, who had already referred to the 'Rose Revolution' as a 'powerful moment' from a 'key ally in the region'). In fact, so wide-ranging have their reforms been, that the World Bank has named Georgia as the number one economic reformer in the world, and the country is ranked 18 for 'ease of doing business'.

As a supporter of free market economics, it was clear that the Georgian leader would seek closer links with the West, and so it has proven. Since coming to power, Saakashvili has courted the EU and NATO in a bid to gain membership to these prestigious Western organisations. So keen has he been to seek America's favour, that he even agreed to double the number of troops Georgia sent into Iraq, making Georgian forces one of the largest outside the US and UK. Furthermore, the Georgian government, through it's attempts to court NATO membership, has also shown it's willingness to be utilised as a base for America's so-called 'missile shield' in Central and Eastern Europe. Certainly, Bush has been keen to give the Georgian government full NATO membership, although he has so far been defeated (incidentally, it is worth noting that NATO intends to vote on Georgian membership once more in December). There is no doubt that this is Bush's man. An economic liberal eager to open up markets and adopt a Western style of government in a region dominated by the former Soviet Union.

Despite the appearance of the Georgian leader in the Western media, Saakashvili is certainly not whiter than white. On July 1st 2005, Georgian police violently clashed with protesters in central Tbilisi over the detention of two athletes for blackmail. The initial demonstration soon turned into a demonstration against the central authorities, who had already stopped attempts at an earlier rally. Anti-riot police and special military forces armed with machine guns proceeded to violently disperse the rally and put an end to the anti-government protests. As a result of the rally, 25 people were arrested, including 5 opposition politicians.

Further demonstrations occurred in November 2007 when 50,000 demonstrators took to the streets to protest against the allegedly corrupt Georgian regime. Saakashvilli was accused of presiding over an authoritarian regime and there was a growing demand for fresh democratic elections. Once more the crowds were dispersed with armed riot police utilising tear gas, rubber bullets and water canons. Protesters were beaten and men dressed in black clothes and black masks also attacked protesters. As a result of the violence, some 508 people were admitted to hospital, most suffering with the effects of exposure to tear gas.

This is, of course, the kind of leader that Bush admires. As Naomi Klein has demonstrated in The Shock Doctrine, new liberal policies go hand in hand with violent crackdowns on the civilian population. Saakashvili has been instrumental in Georgia's neo-liberal development over the past four years (hence it's standing with the World Bank) whilst simultaneously crushing dissent and cementing his position at the head of an authoritarian regime. It comes, therefore, as no surprise to see the Western response to the latest crimes against humanity perpetuated by this Friedmanite Georgian leader.

Whilst it appears to have been forgotten by much of the media, it was Georgia that instigated the recent violence. Keen to recover the kind of popularity he received at the instigation of the Rose Revolution, Saakashavili has seen his approval rating plummet from around 86% when entering office to around 16% at the end of 2007. Given the problems in South Ossetia, an attempt to unify Georgia would surely boost approval ratings. All that was needed was the support of the US and other Western allies to ensure that it could go ahead without getting in the way of Georgia's broader ambitions (EU, NATO etc). Given the strategic significance of the region for the US (particularly in light of the missile defence program), there was no way that the US would stand in the way. In fact, there has been some evidence that the US had been actively involved in the assault on South Ossetia.

As recently as July this year, around 1,600 troops from the US, Georgia and other Eastern European countries had been involved in exercises near the Georgian border. Good old Condi Rice even visited the region recently during a particularly tense stand-off in the region during which time one US state official stated that:

"Moscow should realize its Soviet empire is gone."

And it even appears that Israel has been involved in training the Georgian army in what appears to be a repeat of the assault on Lebanon in 2006:

“In addition to the spy drones, Israel has also been supplying Georgia with infantry weapons and electronics for artillery systems, and has helped upgrade Soviet-designed Su-25 ground attack jets assembled in Georgia, according to Koba Liklikadze, an independent military expert based in Tbilisi. Former Israeli generals also serve as advisers to the Georgian military.” [hat-tip InfoWars]

The fact that Georgia had increased it's military spending from $30 million to $1 billion, and that the US was giving massive military aid, indicates that the Georgian government were preparing for open conflict. Furthermore, the US has further worsened the situation in South Ossetia by airlifting Georgian troops from Iraq into Georgia in an attempt to aid the Georgian government. Bush's finger prints are all over this one. Clearly they have pushed the boat out to aid a fellow economic liberal in yet another disastrous foreign intervention. Much like the situation in Lebanon in 2006, the US's actions will only lead to a strengthening of the power they were seeking to undermine. The 2006 Israeli invasion of Lebanon led to the strengthening of Hezbollah and Iran. There is no doubt that this current conflict will lead to the strengthening of Russia within the region.

Putting aside the tactical error made by the Bush administration, there has been a series of serious human rights abuses perpetuated by the Georgian armed forces during the assault on South Ossetia. According to one source:

"Much of the city (Tskhinvali) was reportedly in flames Friday. The regional parliament building had burned down, the university was on fire, and the town’s main hospital had been rendered inoperative by the bombardment."

Vesti radio reported that Georgian forces burned down a church in Tanara in South Ossetia where people were hiding, to the ground, with all the people inside. The Deputy Director of an information agency as an eye witness reported that fragments of cluster bombs of were found in Tskinvali. There have also been reports by a South Ossetian reservist that civilians who were hiding in basements were shot dead by Georgian soldiers.

Wikipedia reports that, "Russian soldiers captured group of American mercenaries on territory of South Ossetia. Group was captured near of Zare village."

An estimated 1,500 people have died in the onslaught and 30,000 more fled across the Russian border. Large swaths of the city have been reduced to rubble including the one hospital that was pounded by Georgia bombers. Georgia has cut off the water supply to the city.The Red Cross now anticipates a "humanitarian catastrophe" as a result of the fighting.

“I saw bodies lying on the streets, around ruined buildings, in cars,” Lyudmila Ostayeva, 50, told the Associated Press after fleeing the city with her family to a village near the Russian border. “It’s impossible to count them now. There is hardly a single building left undamaged.”

At least 15 Russia peacekeepers were killed in the initial fighting and 70 more were sent to hospital. Georgia's army stormed the South Ossetia capital, Tskhinvali, killing more than 1,000 fleeing civilians. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin told news agencies in an interview how the hostilities began:

Russian peacekeepers "were killed by their own [Georgian] partners in the peacekeeping forces. There is a Russian battalion, an Ossetian battalion, and a Georgian battalion... and all of a sudden the Georgians, Georgian peacekeepers, begin shooting their Russian colleagues. This is of course a war crime. I do not rule out that the Hague and Strasbourg courts and institutions in other cities will be involved in investigating these crimes, and this inhuman drama that has been played out."

And yet, these human rights abuses seem to have underplayed whilst the US and her partners continue to attack Russian aggression, and simultaneously refusing to condemn the actions of the Georgian government. Saakashvili has shown his quality in the past. He is not afraid of abusing individual human rights to maintain his stronghold on the country and seek favour with the US. The fact that he is prepared to compare the situation with Kosovo when his own forces have behaved so barbarically in South Ossetia reveals the lengths to which he is prepared to go to win the PR battle, a battle that he certainly seems to be winning in the West when one glances at the media. Whilst there is no excuse for a Russian invasion of Georgia, observers must remember that the Georgian leader is behind this crisis and he has proven that he is nothing more than a war criminal with authoritarian tendencies. One can only hope that his gross folly will lead to his inevitable removal and the Georgian people can have a leader that cares about the interests of the populace and not neo-liberal global posturing to court favour with the West.

The Good Dictator Faces Impeachment?

2008-08-07T23:41:00.003+01:00

Could the former Pakistani dictator (now President) Pervez Musharraf, be on his way out? It's about time that the West's favourite military dictator (and boy, does he have some tough competition) got what was coming to him. Question is, which way will the army swing?

Pakistan's ruling coalition parties say they will begin impeachment proceedings against President Pervez Musharraf.

Party leaders Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif made the announcement after three days of talks. They would need a two-thirds majority to impeach.

Mr Musharraf took power in a bloodless coup in 1999.

He gave up control of the army last year and his allies were defeated in February's elections but he retains the power to dissolve parliament.

Mr Musharraf has previously said he would resign rather than face impeachment proceedings but he has made no comment yet on the latest move.

The BBC's Mark Dummett in Islamabad says an impeachment would take Pakistani politics into new territory, since no Pakistani leader has faced it before.

Iran - Stoning Halted

2008-08-07T22:11:00.003+01:00

Encouraging news from Iran, although I will hold my breath until it is definitively halted:

Iran's has suspended the punishment of death by stoning, state media say.

A judiciary spokesman said four people sentenced to die by stoning had had their sentences commuted and that all other cases had been put under review.

Lawyers and human rights campaigners have said at least eight women and a man are awaiting the punishment.

Stoning is the penalty for crimes such as adultery under Iranian law, but it is rarely carried out. The last such execution was reportedly last year.

Amnesty International called on Iran in January to abolish what it called a "horrific practice, designed to increase the suffering" of those condemned.

The country's penal code stipulates that before carrying out the punishment, men should be buried up to their waists and women up to their chests. The stones used must be large enough to cause the condemned pain, but not sufficient to kill immediately.

Amnesty also said a disproportionate number of those sentenced to death by stoning were women because they were not treated equally before the law and were particularly vulnerable to unfair trials.

China - Human Rights - Bad, Economy - Gooooood

2008-08-07T21:54:00.002+01:00

Much has been made of Bush's criticisms of China, but it wasn't all bad news for the Chinese government:

US President George W Bush has expressed "deep concerns" over China's human rights record in a speech on the eve of the Beijing Olympics.

"The US believes the people of China deserve the fundamental liberty that is the natural right of all human beings," he said in the Thai capital, Bangkok.

Mmm, very good. Almost makes you look like you give a shit. But what's this:

In his address, Mr Bush said the US recognised that the growth sparked by China's free market reforms was "good for the Chinese people" and the country's' purchasing power was "good for the world".

Ah yes, the free market reforms that were one of the driving forces behind the demonstrations in Tiananmen Square all those years back. Yes, Bush condemns the abuse of human rights whilst also giving a back handed compliment to one of the major factors in those abuses. You got to hand it to old Bushie - he sure knows how to pull the wool over the eyes don't he??

Chevron Lobbyists Accused of 'Misleading Congress'

2008-08-01T23:58:00.003+01:00

The Chevron/Ecuador scandal rumbles on:

Leaders from Ecuador's rainforest, suing Chevron over the "Amazon Chernobyl", are accusing the oil giant of misleading the Bush Administration and Congress to escape a potential $16 billion liability in an environmental lawsuit.

The indigenous leaders - from the Cofan, Secoya, and Siona tribes - are planning a trip to Washington, DC in September to talk directly with Members of Congress and the office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

"We are coming to tell the truth about Chevron's desperate attempt to quash the legal claims of thousands of vulnerable people in the Amazon rainforest who are struggling to survive due to oil contamination," said Pablo Fajardo, the lead Ecuadorian lawyer for the plaintiffs.

"These people deserve their day in court without interference from Chevron," he added. "Chevron must respect the rule of law."

The damages report prompted Chevron to disclose the liability to its shareholders for the first time, and to hire a slew of Washington lobbyists who have dedicated themselves to trying to block the extension of U.S. trade preferences for Ecuador. Luis Gallegos, Ecuador's U.S. ambassador, has said a failure to extend the trade preferences by the end of the year would cost the country 350,000 jobs and force 1.2 million people into poverty.

Among the lobbyists hired by Chevron are former Senators John Breaux and Trent Lott, and Mac McLarty, former White House Chief of Staff in the Clinton Administration. Their work has been focused on Ambassador Susan Schwab, the United States Trade Representative; key Members of Congress; and John Negroponte, Deputy Secretary of State.

Fajardo said the aim of Chevron's lobbyists is to use the threat of canceling trade preferences to intimidate Ecuador's government into extinguishing the legal rights of its citizens to save the country's economy.

Interestingly, one Democrat senator has alreay been involved in this case on the side of the Ecuadoreans.....one Barak Obama. From February 2006:

Senators Barack Obama (D-Ill) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt) have stepped up the pressure on Chevron, sending a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman urging him to ignore company's campaign to improperly exclude Ecuador from trade negotiations until the Ecuadorian government shuts down the lawsuit.

The senators write: "We are writing to seek your assurances that the U.S. Trade Representative will not allow negotiations over the Andean Free Trade Agreement to interfere with a case involving Chevron that is under consideration by the Ecuadorian judiciary, particularly one involving environmental, health and human rights issues that have regional importance. While we are not prejudging the outcome of the case, we do believe the 30,000 indigenous residents of Ecuador deserve their day in court."

Question is, will Obama stand by this letter when the time comes, or will he give in to pressure from the oil giant? Failing that, will Chevron increase the pressure so they can persuade the Bush administration of their case before it's too late (should there be an Obama presidency)? Or will Chevron fund a massive smear campaign against Obama? The people of Ecuador have a lot riding on the next couple of months. Let's hope that their day in court finally arrives.

More at Ecuador Rising.

Passport Fiasco - Another Privatised Cock-up

2008-07-29T22:33:00.003+01:00

There has been a lot of talk in the media about the recent passport fiasco. There have been a lot of attacks on the government for incompetence and carelessness in the face of the latest security breach. However, one thing that hasn't been made clear is that this would have happened under any government, Tory, Lib Dem or Labour. The root cause of the problem is the rise of privatisation within the public sector, for the real incompetents were the private security company contracted out to deliver the passports, as is revealed in some reports:

A firm was subcontracted to deliver them from 3M Security Printing & Systems in Chadderton to RAF Northolt.

Yes, another cock-up due to the subcontracting out of work previously carried out by state agencies. And this is where the Tories claims ring hollow. The policy of contracting out such work would have been done under the Tories as they would see no need for the state to be involved in such activities when the private sector does it 'better' [ahem].

The government must take the blame for this fiasco, but not in the way the Tories would want. They must take the blame for following the policies of the Tory party and contracting out as many activities as they possibly can. It is the culture of privatisation that is to blame, a culture that has flourished under Labour and the infatuation with Tory-style policies. As long as the main parties continue to support a policy of privatisation, incidents like this will continue to happen and the opponents will continue to attack the government (whether Tory or Labour) when they know it would be no different under their watch.

Daily Mail - Arse and Elbow

2008-07-29T22:25:00.002+01:00

Ok, minor story this, but it does highlight the reactionary nature of the Daily Mail. Yesterday's paper carried a full page piece on Carol Vorderman's exit from Countdown including accusations from Richard Whiteley's widow. These accusations include the claim that ageism was behind her exit:

Kathryn Apanowicz, who lived with Whiteley from 1994 until his death after a heart operation in 2005, said he would have been utterly appalled.

Miss Apanowicz, 48, claimed ageism and the downmarket tastes of Channel 4 programmers were a major reason in Miss Vorderman's decision to quit after 26 years.

Miss Apanowicz said Countdown should now be axed. 'Carol is an integral part of the show and it should not go on without her. They will probably get Myleene Klass, she does everything else,' she said.

Miss Apanowicz said TV chiefs were more interested in airing 'disgraceful behaviour' than looking after traditional viewers.

She believes this is the latest example of ageism and sexism being shown towards mature women presenters on TV.

Which makes you wonder, who is in line for the new look Countdown? Luckily, 20 pages further in, columnist Richard Kay has the answer:

It is said to be the Queen's favourite TV programme, so Her Majesty could soon be tuning in to see Channel 4's Countdown being presented by a very familiar figure indeed.

For I discover former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond is in the running to replace the departing Des O'Connor as host of the quiz show.

Jennie Bond is 57. Carol Vorderman is 47. So is Channel 4 indulging in ageism, or does the editor of the Mail not know his arse from his elbow? Answers on a postcard........

Monbiot Attacks Channel 4

2008-07-22T22:36:00.001+01:00

George Monbiot lays in Channel 4 over their global warming 'documentary':

So here we go again. For the second time, Channel 4 has been fiercely criticised by the broadcasting regulator for a programme attacking environmental science. For the second time, the director was Martin Durkin.

Ten years ago, his series Against Nature was found to have misled his interviewees about "the content and purpose of the programmes" and distorted their views "through selective editing". Now Ofcom has ruled that the programme he made last year — The Great Global Warming Swindle — treated two scientists and an organisation (the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) unfairly. For the second time, Channel 4 will have to make an embarrassing primetime statement.

But while the new ruling exposes some of the channel's practices, it also exposes the limitations of the regulator. The programme was peppered with distortions and misleading claims. But despite being presented with a vast dossier of evidence by climate scientists, Ofcom decided that it could not rule on the matter of accuracy. While news programmes are expected to be accurate, other factual programmes are not, and Ofcom "only regulates misleading material where that material is likely to cause harm or offence."

Read the full article here.

Privatisation of Welfare Green Lit by Labour

2008-07-22T22:11:00.002+01:00

So, you thought that the Labour party represented a left-wing constituency did you? Of course not, that boat has long since sailed east. Whilst the new crackdown on those that claim welfare (by those that claim thousands to furnish their second homes) is deeply troubling, the willingness to open welfare up to the private sector is even more worrying. What was once the preserve of the state has now, like many other aspects of British life in the past ten years, been handed over to those whose primary concern is profit. How long before the NHS is completely handed over to corporate Britain (it's half way there already)? From The Times:

Radical changes to the welfare state, requiring claimants to look for work in order to continue receiving benefit, will be announced by the Government on Monday.

James Purnell, the Work and Pensions Secretary, has been given the go-ahead by Gordon Brown to implement all the main proposals of the Freud report, which was originally commissioned by Tony Blair and which will be seen as heralding a significant privatisation of the welfare system.

The Times revealed two weeks ago that the proposals include plans to force unemployed people to undertake community service in return for receiving benefit as a way of preventing them working in the “black economy”. But Mr Purnell, who will entrench his reputation as the Cabinet’s leading Blairite moderniser, will pave the way for massive involvement of the private and voluntary sectors in the provision of welfare.

From being a sceptic over the Freud report during his last months as Chancellor, and opposing parts of it, Mr Brown has become an enthusiastic advocate and has given Mr Purnell full rein to implement it.

Under the plan, businesses could bid to run programmes including welfare-to-work schemes and projects to rehabilitate former offenders. Companies will be encouraged to come up with welfare solutions, rather than wait to be asked, a reversal of current rules which stipulate that the Government decides which services to put out to tender.

No doubt many claimants will be forced into jobs in order to get them off the books, rather than offered long-term solutions. A report produced last year looking into the welfare to work program in America made the following conclusion:

There are risks attached to the significant involvement of for-profit organisations. They are likely to follow profit maximisation strategies shaped by contract incentives and this may not necessarily deliver what is best for clients, especially for those with greater barriers. Moreover, if the entry of for-profits into local delivery systems displaces existing private and public infrastructure, then future capacity may be at risk when market conditions change and larger for-profits remove their capital to seek greater profits elsewhere.

Once again, the pooret in society will be kicked in the teeth as their concerns are overridden by the concerns of profit-making organisations who will put quick returns ahead of the interests of their clients. And some people call this government 'socialist'.

Knife Crime - Continues to Decline

2008-07-17T22:11:00.004+01:00

Apologies for the lack of posts in recent weeks. I have had a number of things occupying my mind in the real world and have been unable to post as much as I would have liked. However, here I am, and hopefully I will be able to get a few more posts under my belt as things settle down.

You may remember a little while back I posted on the reality of crime within the UK, particularly in relation to the media feeding frenzy related to knife crime. There have been a number of excellent posts in various other places regarding this matter in the past few days and weeks (see Obsolete and Five Chinese Crackers for more) perhaps in anticipation of the newly announced crime statistics. Before we go into those, a little reminder of my original post (just in case you didn't hit the hyperlink).

My original post noted the following:

So what about the statistics regarding knife crime? Well, according to the BCS, weapons were used in 24% of 'violent incidents'. Given that violent incidents stand at around 2,471,000, that means that 593,040 involved the use of a weapon. In terms of knives, 7% of 'violent incidents' involved the use of a knife. That means that there were approximately 172,970 'violent incidents' involving knives during 2006/7. What is also interesting, however, is that 'violent incidents' involving a so-called 'hitting implement' (which includes sticks, clubs and 'other hitting implements') was around 6% and incidents involving 'glass/bottles' was around 5%. Strangely, we don't hear many politicians speaking out about the rise in bottle/glass crime, perhaps it's not as catchy.

So, that was the story in last year's report, what about this year. Well, it seems to have actually got a little better. The amount of violent incidents involving weapons has remained broadly static at 24%. But what about the biggie, what about knife crime? Last year knives were used in 7% of all violent incidents, this year it was 6%. 6%!! Now, you don't need to be a mathematician to see that the use of knives in violent crime has gone down a whole percentage point. Not bad considering we are, if the media are to be believed, in the middle of an epidemic. However, as the use of knives in violent incidents has gone down, other weapons have gone up. Hitting implements were used in 7% of all violent incidents (hitting implements include, as we have discovered, sticks, clubs etc) compared to 6% last year. So, whilst violence involving knives has actually gone down, violent incidents involving sticks have gone up. Time to enact a stick amnesty I think.

Now, of course, it is a little more complex than that. Knives can obviously kill, whereas a nasty incident with a stick will, at worst, leave you with an overnight stay in hospital. However, the trend has continued downwards for all incidents of violent crime since 1995 when it reached it's peak. There was an overall decline by 8% incidents of violent crime compared to the previous survey, and such incidents are, in actual fact, at their lowest level since 2002. In short, the hysteria doesn't fit the facts. This perhaps the safest period in modern UK history, and yet the media and the political elite have tried their best to stoke the flames of fear (and have succeeded to a certain extent). You have never been safer, no matter what the Mail et al tell you.

Full report - you can read the full findings from the British Crime Survey and police recorded crime here.

No Increase in Cost of Motoring Despite Petrol Rises

2008-07-09T12:35:00.005+01:00

Interesting sense of timing by the Daily Mail with this report:

Gordon Brown wants to see petrol-driven cars off the roads within 12 years as evidence that Britain can break its addiction to oil.

The driving force to achieve that goal, he suggested, would be fuel costs and road taxes.

But the argument that soaring oil prices could benefit drivers in the long term appeared a high-risk strategy at a time when motorists are suffering like never before.

Mr Brown also risked further alienating drivers with a robust defence of higher road tax charges for vehicles with higher emissions - and zero rates for cleaner cars.

Mr Brown added that he would like to see petrol prices drop to 'a reasonable level', but the AA warned his comments could bring a backlash from drivers.

'Motorists are already suffering from very high prices. This just piles on the pain,' said spokesman Paul Watters.

Compare and contrast this with a report released by the RAC, a rival motoring association to the AA:

The cost of motoring has fallen by 18% in real terms over the past 20 years, despite the price of fuel rising by 210% in that time, an RAC report says.

The motoring group takes inflation into account and says cars are now cheaper overall and need less money spent on them than they did two decades ago.

But 60% of 1,116 people surveyed actually thought higher costs were the biggest change in motoring since 1988.

Little surprise that 60% of people thought costs were higher when you take into account the messages coming from the media. Surely the Mail's report is just sheer coincidence, coming on the day that it was revealed that the cost of motoring has come down, isn't it?

Sarkozy Taking Control of the Media

2008-07-08T22:26:00.003+01:00

Whilst Sarkozy has been turning on the charm of late, the story in France is altogether more worrying. Sarko seems to be taking a leaf out of Berlusconi's book and seeking to control the output of the French media and ensure that it is entirely uncritical of his presidency. Sarkozy's latest attempt to control the media revolves around France's public broadcaster, FTV. From The Guardian:

Earlier this year, Sarkozy surprised everyone - including his own culture minister - by proposing stopping advertising on FTV in January 2009. The cost? €850m - roughly the third of FTV revenues not covered by the licence fee. Was his aim, as he said, to help FTV avoid ratings-chasing and learn from the BBC, or to help his friends in commercial TV and disorientate the left? The answer, of course, is both.

He created a commission to sort out the mess. His majority leader in parliament, Jean-François Copé, headed a group of politicians and industry experts with the aim of modernising FTV and filling the funding gap. Inclusiveness extended to politicians, producers, film makers, a philosopher and me, for my expertise on the BBC.

Last week Sarkozy received the commission's report and said that from now on he would choose FTV's director general. Sceptics were to be reassured by safeguards: parliament could reject the proposed candidate - but only with a three-fifths majority vote, and Sarkozy has a majority in both houses. So how has an initiative, heralded in January as creating a French-style BBC by ending advertising, resulted in the most obvious attempt by any French government since De Gaulle to place public broadcasting under its control? The answers lie in attitudes to funding and governance.

But so what? FTV is only one of a multitude of media outlets in France, it's not as if free speech is under threat. Well, the assault on FTV is just the tip of the iceberg. Sarkozy counts many influential media figures amongst his personal friends. These influential figures include:

* Serge Dassault - owner of the historically conservative Le Figaro newspaper and a senator from the president's right-wing party
* Martin Bouygues - godfather to Sarkozy's youngest son, who controls the biggest French television channel, TF1
*Arnaud Lagardère - an aerospace company chairman who once said he and Sarkozy were as close as brothers
* Bernard Arnault - chairman of LVH, the holding company for the financial newspaper Les Échos and best man at Sarkozy's wedding.

Of course, there should be nothing particularly surprising about this. The political establishment has long seen the media as a convenient propaganda tool. The United States has long given up the pretence of having an objective media. For much of the past eight years they have failed to scrutinise the White House and have been keen to play the role of obedient puppy. And that's before we even begin to look at the influence certain elements had on the first Bush election 'victory'. The appointment of Roger Ailes as CEO at the Fox News Channel merely served to underline the point. Ailes was media consultant for Nixon, Reagan and Bush I and displayed perfect Republican credentials. As such, Fox was always going to be a tool for the Bush White House, and so it has proved.

And so it has continued. Berlusconi has a large chunk of the media under his thumb in Italy. Even the UK government has attempted to crush the independence of the BBC over the build-up to the Iraq war (much to the delight of the supposedly anti-state right). The political elite have seen what an effective propaganda machine the media can be. As a result, they have sought to control it in order to consolidate their positions of power and crush dissent. The line dividing media and the government is being eroded at an alarming rate. France is just the latest victim of the political elite's rush to control the media.

The City of London - Sponsored By Porsche

2008-07-08T22:15:00.003+01:00

Once again, we see how easily the Tories defer to the interests of big business, even in the face of their new found passion for the environment. Eager not to upset the bigwigs at Porsche, Boris Johnson has proven that he has no bollocks whatsoever and caved in to the pressure exerted by the gas guzzling manufacturer. As always with the Tories, big business comes first, the environment a very distant last. Whilst the taxpayer is forced to pay compensation to the manufacturing giant, Boris Johnson and his capitalist chums are laughing all the way to the bank. Any chance a sweetener might have been involved? From The Guardian:

London mayor Boris Johnson is to pay about £400,000 to Porsche after agreeing to scrap a plan to levy a £25 charge on the most polluting vehicles in the capital, it emerged last night.

The luxury sports car specialist had begun a legal challenge to the proposal, put forward by the former mayor, Ken Livingstone, earlier this year.

Yesterday Johnson withdrew the proposal, and a court ruled that the Greater London Authority should pay Porsche's legal costs. The company says that it will give the money to Skidz - a charity which offers youngsters training in mechanical skills and maintenance.

Last night Jenny Jones, Green party assembly member, said she was appalled by the decision. "This is a mayor who is telling us he wants to see value for money, and to account for every penny, and here he is paying one of the richest car companies in the world hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money."

And how many green initiatives will be cut by the Tories when they come to power? Leaders of big business must be dropping to their knees and praying to the Almighty for a Tory victory. For the rest of us, Johnson's regime in London has shown has just how far they are prepared to go to protect the giants of capitalism. And you thought Labour were a bunch of right-wing economic extremists, Cameron's mob just might have the edge on them and that's no mean feat.

Palestinian Journalist Abused By Israeli Agents

2008-07-02T20:16:00.003+01:00

This taken from John Pilger's piece in today's Guardian on the treatment of Palestinian journalist Mohammed Omer on his return to Gaza following his acceptance of the 2008 Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism in London:

Last Thursday, on his return journey, he was met at the Allenby Bridge crossing (to Jordan) by a Dutch official, who waited outside the Israeli building, unaware Mohammed had been seized by Shin Bet, Israel's infamous security organisation. Mohammed was told to turn off his mobile and remove the battery. He asked if he could call his embassy escort and was told forcefully he could not. A man stood over his luggage, picking through his documents. "Where's the money?" he demanded. Mohammed produced some US dollars. "Where is the English pound you have?"

"I realised," said Mohammed, "he was after the award stipend for the Martha Gellhorn prize. I told him I didn't have it with me. 'You are lying', he said. I was now surrounded by eight Shin Bet officers, all armed. The man called Avi ordered me to take off my clothes. I had already been through an x-ray machine. I stripped down to my underwear and was told to take off everything. When I refused, Avi put his hand on his gun. I began to cry: 'Why are you treating me this way? I am a human being.' He said, 'This is nothing compared with what you will see now.' He took his gun out, pressing it to my head and with his full body weight pinning me on my side, he forcibly removed my underwear. He then made me do a concocted sort of dance. Another man, who was laughing, said, 'Why are you bringing perfumes?' I replied, 'They are gifts for the people I love'. He said, 'Oh, do you have love in your culture?'

"As they ridiculed me, they took delight most in mocking letters I had received from readers in England. I had now been without food and water and the toilet for 12 hours, and having been made to stand, my legs buckled. I vomited and passed out. All I remember is one of them gouging, scraping and clawing with his nails at the tender flesh beneath my eyes. He scooped my head and dug his fingers in near the auditory nerves between my head and eardrum. The pain became sharper as he dug in two fingers at a time. Another man had his combat boot on my neck, pressing into the hard floor. I lay there for over an hour. The room became a menagerie of pain, sound and terror."

Almost as revolting is the reaction of the Israeli government:

An Israeli spokesman told the Reuters news agency that Mr Omer received "fair treatment" during his detention at the Allenby Bridge crossing.

He said officials carried out the body search because they suspected the journalist of smuggling.

He says two officers dragged him by his legs, with his head on the floor, in front of other passengers. He says he then vomited and fainted.

The Israeli official said at the end of the search Mr Omer "lost his balance and fell, for some reason unknown to us".

"A team of medics, an ambulance and a paramedic were summoned and he was transferred for treatment to Jericho".

A disgusting example of the utter disregard the Shin Bet have for basic human rights and dignity. As long as both the Shin Bet and Hamas continue this cycle, there will be no hope for Jew or Muslim in the Middle East.

Bulldozer Rampages in Jerusalem - Terrorist Attack??

2008-07-02T19:43:00.004+01:00

From the BBC:

A Palestinian man has driven a bulldozer into a bus and several cars in Jerusalem, killing three people, before being shot dead.

Dozens of people were hurt, at least seven critically, in the rampage on Jaffa Road, in the city centre.

A police officer shot the driver of the bulldozer dead after a struggle in the vehicle's cab.

Police said the attacker was a 30-year-old from east Jerusalem, with no known affiliations to militant groups.

The BBC's Tim Franks, who witnessed the attack, said that within a few minutes a stretch of Jerusalem's city centre had been turned into a blood-soaked mess.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called the incident a terrorist attack, and condemned it as "an act of senseless murderous violence".

Once the initial shock of such an incident sets in, a few things started to bother me about this incident and the way it has been reported by the media.

1) The report of this as an act of terrorism particularly bothers me. There is no evidence whatsoever that this was a terrorist attack. A horrendous incident no doubt, but an act of terrorism? The official US definition of terrorism is as follows:

The calculated use of violence (or threat of violence) against civilians in order to attain goals that are political or religious or ideological in nature; this is done through intimidation or coercion or instilling fear.

There is no evidence that the above definition fits this incident. There is no evidence that the perpetrator was linked to any terrorist organisation and there is no evidence that he had planned a terrorist attack, certainly not as yet. Despite the rhetoric of the media and the politicians it is dubious whether this was a terrorist act at all. In fact, an Israeli police chief claimed the following:

"It looks as if it was a spontaneous act."

Spontaneous, not 'calculated' as the definition above sets out. The reports that I have read suggest that he had recently divorced from his Jewish wife and had no links to any terrorist organisations. I would suggest that his actions are the result of a mental breakdown as opposed to an outright terrorist attack. Obviously it is difficult to judge at this stage but, with the limited information in the public domain, it seems a little rash to cry 'terrorism' regarding this incident when even the police claim it was a 'spontaneous act'.

2) There seems to be little comment on the fact that the police entered is cab and shot him dead. Sure, it was a repulsive act that he committed but he could have been 'neutralised' without resorting to cold blooded murder. I see no reason why the driver could not have been incapacitated in some way, arrested, charged and then imprisoned. Surely this was preferable to a man being murdered in the street by the state? The death penalty should be condemned in all its forms, and this is no exception.

Maybe we will discover that this was part of a calculated attempt to incite fear in the populace for political gains. With the information available at this moment in time, it is difficult to make such a case stick.

Italian Court Rules 'Acceptable to Discriminate Against Roma'

2008-07-01T22:29:00.002+01:00

The fascist takeover continues. You would think that given that fascism is a 'left-wing' ideology (according to the loony right), the right might have something to say about this. Particularly when the Jewish community are comparing recent developments to events in the recent past. From The Guardian:

Italy's highest appeal court has ruled that it is acceptable to discriminate against Roma on the grounds that they are thieves.

The judgment, made public yesterday, comes amid a nationwide clampdown on the Roma community by Silvio Berlusconi's government. Last week his interior minister, Roberto Maroni, announced plans to fingerprint all of Italy's Roma, including children.

The ruling by the court of cassation, which appears to provide judicial backing for the government's policies, was handed down in March, but reported only yesterday. The judges overthrew the conviction of six defendants who signed a leaflet demanding the expulsion of Verona's Gypsies in 2001.

Among those convicted of racially discriminatory propaganda was Flavio Tosi, an official of the anti-immigrant Northern League, who has since become Verona's mayor. He was quoted by a witness at his trial as having said afterwards: "The Gypsies must be ordered out because, wherever they arrive, there are robberies."

Two Arrested For Attacks On Settlers On The Susiya Settlement

2008-06-19T19:19:00.003+01:00

You may remember seeing these images recently of Palestinians being apparently attacked by Israeli settlers:

The pictures were captured as a result of B'Tselem's 'Shooting Back' scheme that provided video cameras for Palestinians to record the abuses they suffer at the hands of settlers. Amazingly, these pictures were posted on the BBC, amazing because it is very rare for a major media organisation to reproduce such footage. Usually such incidents are portrayed as mythical events in the imagination of so-called anti-Semites and are therefore disregarded.

In this instance, however, it would appear that the Israeli police have actually arrested two settlers that they suspected were responsible for the attack. B'Tselem reports [this link also provides further links to individual testimonies and further videos]:

Today [17 June 2008], the Israeli police arrested two settlers suspected of attacking Palestinians in the Southern Hebron Hills. On 8 June 2008, four masked settlers with clubs attacked three members of the Nawaj’ah family who were grazing their flock on private Palestinian land south of the Susiya settlement. The victims suffered severe injuries and required hospitalization. A fourth member of the family documented the beginning of the assault with a video camera she had received from B'Tselem.

The Nawaj’ah family lives in Khirbet Susiya, a small encampment in the Southern Hebron Hills just south of the Susiya settlement. They live in tents and support themselves by grazing their flock and working their land. As they are the object of frequent attack by settlers, B'Tselem has given the family a video camera as part of its "Shooting Back” project.

On 8 June 2008, ‘Imran a-Nawaj’ah, 32, went with two of his children to graze his flock south of the settlement, on a plot of land belonging to a resident of the nearby Samu’ Village. Although an Israeli court has declared the land a military zone closed to Israelis, two settlers drove up to the shepherds on a tractor and tried to drive them off the land. When a-Nawaj’ah refused and told the settlers he had court permission to be on the land, they threatened him and then drove off toward the settlement. Fearing an attack, A-Nawaj’ah sent his son to the encampment to call for reinforcement. Khalil, 61, Tamam, 60, and Rabiha A-Nawaj’ah, 29, came quickly to the spot along with Muna, 25, who managed to film the settlers leaving the site....

If you want to find out more about the 'Shooting Back' scheme, click here and see what other materials have been captured here. Sadly, most of these incidents will not be replayed on the BBC. Such exposure is clearly an isolated incident to provide 'balance' rather than to broaden understanding of the tensions in the region.

Waterboarding Was 'Actively Sought' by US Officials

2008-06-18T20:03:00.002+01:00

That's according to Carl Levin who is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee:

US military officials actively sought ways to implement harsh interrogation techniques such as waterboarding used at Guantanamo Bay despite legal objections, a senior Democratic senator has said.

Carl Levin, the Senate Armed Services Committee chairman, told a hearing the US government had "twisted the law to create the appearance of legality".

"If we use those same techniques offensively against detainees, it says to the world that they have America's stamp of approval," he said in Washington DC on Tuesday.

The committee was also shown US military memos saying that the techniques should be curbed while international monitors were present.

The hearing is the committee's first attempt to discover the origins of the harsh interrogation methods used in Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba and Abu Ghraib in Iraq and how policy decisions on interrogations were agreed across the US department of defence.

The CIA has admitted it used waterboarding, which simulates drowning, on several suspected al-Qaeda leaders, while US soldiers were photographed using dogs against prisoners at Abu Ghraib.

The interrogations have been widely condemned by international human rights groups.

Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator, said the Bush administration's legal analysis on detainees and interrogations following the September 11, 2001, attacks would "go down in history as some of the most irresponsible and shortsighted legal analysis ever provided to our nation's military and intelligence communities".

That's The Spirit

2008-06-18T20:00:00.002+01:00

Congratulations to the Bush administration for throwing their support behind the peace deal:

The Bush administration has reacted sceptically to news of an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

"We'll see first of all whether there is actually an agreement," Tom Casey, a US state department spokesman, told reporters in Washington on Tuesday.

"Even if this is a true report, I think unfortunately it hardly takes Hamas out of the terrorism business," Casey added, referring to the Palestinian group that controls the Gaza Strip.

US officials have rejected contact with Hamas because they view it as a terrorist organisation.

Egypt and Hamas said earlier the ceasefire would come into effect on Thursday.

Nice one.

Bush to Cement His Environmental Legacy

2008-06-18T19:55:00.002+01:00

From al-Jazeera:

George Bush, the US president, has called on the US congress to end its ban on offshore oil drilling and open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil exploration.

Bush said congressional restrictions in place since 1981 had become "outdated and counterproductive" after global oil prices rose to their highest ever levels.

"Congress must face a hard reality. Unless members are willing to accept gas prices at today's painful levels or even higher, our nation must produce more oil, and we must start now," Bush said.

Bush, speaking at the White House on Wednesday, also called for an end to the ban on oil shale drilling and for the US to build more oil refineries.

Global crude oil prices have risen to nearly 140 dollars a barrel, and US petrol prices now average more than four dollars a gallon, a rise of one dollar from a year ago.

Under the 1981 federal ban, states are prohibited from allowing offshore oil and gas drilling and exploration, protecting almost the entire Atlantic and Pacific coastlines and sections of
the Gulf of Mexico.

Al Jazeera's Rosiland Jordan said environmentalists were likely to be outraged by Bush's proposal.

Perhaps we ought to focus on cutting our dependency on oil full stop, or is that a little too radical?

Traitors Pass 42 Day Detention Bill in Commons

2008-06-12T22:16:00.003+01:00

Traitors one and all, but here are the worst of the bunch with their email addresses. These are the twenty rebels who voted against the 90 day proposals, but for the 42 day detention. I guess something must have spooked them, maybe the great clunking fist. Why not write to them and express your anger and hey, if you get a reply send it me and I'll post the response.

John Austin: austinj@parliament.uk (also happens to sit on Human Rights Joint Committee)
Martin Caton: catonm@parliament.uk
Michael Clapham: claphamm@parliament.uk
Ann Cryer: saundersma@parliament.uk
David Hamilton: info@midlothianlabour.com
Doug Henderson: hendersond@parliament.uk
Sian James: sianjamesmp@parliament.uk
Sadiq Khan: Homepage
Mark Lazarowicz: Homepage
Tony Lloyd: contact@tonylloydmp.co.uk
Andy Love: lovea@parliament.uk
Christine McCafferty: mccafferty@btinternet.com
George Mudie: george@gmudie.fsnet.co.uk or hilaryharris@cwcom.net
Nick Raynsford: Contact Details
Joan Ruddock: hoyleel@parliament.uk
Sir Peter Soulsby: peter@petersoulsby.org
David Taylor: taylordl@parliament.uk
Jon Trickett: trickettj@parliament.uk
Rudi Vis: visr@parliament.uk
Robert Wareing: Contact Details

Drop them a line and make it clear how appalled you are by their decision to support the 42 day detention plan. In fact, while you are at it, why not email Tony 'I'll whore myself to the media to look tough' McNulty and Jacqui 'hard as nails' Smith:

Tony McNulty: mcnultyt@parliament.uk
Jacqui Smith: smithjj@parliament.uk

Boris Johnson Determined To Screw Londoners and the Daily Mail Provide 'Proof' of Nuclear Intentions of Terrorists

2008-06-11T18:58:00.005+01:00

A couple of stories that I have picked up on from the latest issue of Private Eye (no.1212) that I think are worthy of sharing. First off, more revelations about the Boris Johnson debacle in London. Hot on the heels of Johnson's attempts to recruit former members of Shirley Porter's administration, Johnson has now added Steve Norris to the board of Transport for London. So far, so what. However, Norris has a rather chequered history in relation to transport.

Steve Norris was a director of Jarvis from 2000, and had a seat on the board at the time of the Potters Bar rail crash. Jarvis had a contract to ensure the maintenance of the line and, as a result of the crash, admitted liability for the crash after initially refusing responsibility and suggested that if the accident was a result of wear and tear, it would have been detected and fixed. After the revelation that the incident was not down to sabotage, Jarvis formally accepted "legally justified claims" and provided a provision of £3m. The company eventually wrote letters to relatives and passengers apologising for the "hurt and anger" it caused by blaming sabotage for the crash.

But it doesn't end there. According to PE, Norris sits on the board of a company called AMT-Sybex, alongside one William Hague. AMT-Sybex was a leading subcontractor to Metronet, the consortium running half of the tube PPP. In 2005, it sold Metronet a £15m computer system to list all the firm's assets. As a result of the privatisation, no-one really knew what had actualy been handed over, so a register would help to produce a schedule that would identify which parts of the rail and cabling would need fixing.

In 2006, the Tube regulator found that Metronet's costs were rising, in part due to the extra costs of the AMT-Sybex system. Despite this system, Metronet failed to get a grip on its assets and, due to problems with prices and schedules, eventually collapsed. The system was an unmitigated disaster.

As a result of Steve Norris' record regarding transport, it seems a little odd that Boris Johnson would want to put him in such an influential role in London, particularly as we are supposed to be witnessing the birth of the 'New' Conservatives. Guess they ain't so different after all. Corporations and shareholders first, general public a very distant last. [Much of the above is copied verbatim from Private Eye, who do not actually publish stories to the net yet - as far as I am aware. If you want to find out more, I suggest you seek out the latest issue.]

One other interesting story involved this headline and picture from the Daily Mail:

A terrifying vision of a devastated America in the wake of a nuclear attack

A story to strike fear into the minds of any discerning Mail reader (does such a thing exist). However, it appears this story is not what it seems:

A piece of concept art of a decimated Washington, D.C. from Bethesda Softworks post-apocalyptic RPG Fallout 3 (PC, PS3, 360) has been circulated through a handful of news publications, reported as terrorist propaganda after an intelligence contractor said the image was used in al Qaeda-related videos.

The artwork was released as part of Bethesda's early promotional campaigns for Fallout 3, which takes place in and around the Washington, D.C. area decades after a nuclear catastrophe. The image appeared on the Daily Mail's website under the headline "Al-Qaeda's terrifying vision of a devastated America in the wake of a nuclear attack."

"This is the apocalyptic scene terrorists hope to create if they ever get their hands on a nuclear bomb... posted on an Islamic extremists' website yesterday," wrote the Mail's Barry Wigmore.

The image also appeared on the Australian news outlet News.com.au, citing terror watchdog organization SITE Intel as having released the image "which reportedly appeared on an Islamist forum."

Though several members of the press have since pointed out the gaffe, neither the Daily Mail nor News.com.au have updated their stories with corrections or retractions of the claim.

Interestingly, according to Private Eye, if you try pointing this out in the comments thread on the Mail website, they will refuse to publish it. Still, I guess they made their point and scared enough people (conveniently just a few days before the 42 days vote, hmmm).

Interrogators At Guantanamo Told To Destroy 'Handwritten Notes'

2008-06-09T22:30:00.002+01:00

Yet more evidence of the crimes against humanity perpetrated by the Bu$h administration:

Guantanamo Bay interrogators were told to destroy handwritten notes in case they were called to testify on detainee treatment, a military lawyer alleges.

The lawyer, Lt-Cmdr William Kuebler, said the instructions were contained in a Pentagon operations manual.

He said this apparent destruction of evidence at the prison camp stopped him from challenging alleged confessions in the case of his client, Omar Khadr.

He would use the document to seek a dismissal of the charges, he said.

Mr Khadr - a Canadian - is the only Westerner still held at the jail.

The 21-year-old is accused of killing a US soldier and wounding another during a battle in Afghanistan in 2002.

Mr Khadr was 15 when he was captured during the firefight at a suspected al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan.

He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.

Two weeks ago, Canada's Supreme Court ruled the Canadian government had acted illegally by handing over documents from an interview with the suspect by its own intelligence services a year after his capture.

Chavez Out Manoeuvres Critics

2008-06-09T22:25:00.002+01:00

Chavez clearly caught a few by surprise with his statement regarding the FARC, particularly given the unsubstantiated allegations against Venezuela by Colombia:

Colombia's defence minister has welcomed a call by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez for Farc rebels to end their four-decade struggle.

Mr Chavez, whom Colombia has accused of financing Farc, had earlier said the group was "out of step" and called on them to release all their hostages.

He urged Alfonso Cano, Farc's new leader, to "let all these people go".

Colombian Defence Minister Juan Manuel Santos welcomed the comments as long as they were "translated into action".

"Our fundamental strategic objective is that our neighbours collaborate in the fight against terrorism," said Mr Santos.

He said the move meant that Colombia and Venezuela would be able to renew their ties, to the benefit of both nations.

Perhaps Chavez might use this opportunity to have greater influence on Colombian politics. Certainly, any perceived support for the FARC would have impeded the development of a political leader sympathertic to Chavez in Colombia. Perhaps this is not the best news for Uribe.

Knife Crime - A Media Feeding Frenzy

2008-06-05T13:21:00.011+01:00

So, are you scared yet? If not, you damn well should be. Just a glance across some of the headlines in the newspapers over the past few days should have you scared of leaving your house:

Brown toughens controls on knives after spate of fatal stabbings
Violent crime crackdown: Brown says young people carrying knives must be prosecuted
Teenage knife crime 'is one of biggest threats to London'
Knife crime doubles in 2 years
Police boss Sir Ian Blair calls on parents to tackle Britain's epidemic knife crime
KNIFE CRIME DOUBLES AS LABOUR FAILS ON PLEDGE

And so it goes, on and on, a feeding frenzy of almost epic proportions. Not surprisingly, this is yet another example of the media and politicians exaggerating the risks and mis-informing the public.

The problem with all of the reports above is use of the statistics to prove their case. The statistics are, as always, not put into proper context and manipulated to make it appear that the problem is worse than it actually is. Take, for example, the following paragraph extracted from The Times:

Of the 820 homicides in 2005 in England and Wales, 236 – or 29% – were with a knife or other sharp instrument. Those figures showed that knives are used in 6% of all violent crimes.

Sounds pretty scary. Twenty-nine percent appears to be a large figure, but what is the reality? Well, the reality is that the national police recorded crime statistics do not differentiate between the various types of weapons used:

It is currently not possible to identify offences involving the use of weapons other than
firearms from national police recorded crime statistics. Figures for serious wounding
involving knives and other sharp instruments from 2007/08 onwards will be presented in
future volumes.

Only offences involving firearms are actually recorded by the national police statistics, the only available information is via the British Crime Survey. So what about the actual statistics regarding violent crime? Well, that is rather interesting.

According to the figures:

Violent crime as measured by the BCS has fallen by 41 per cent since a peak in 1995,
representing over half a million fewer victims.

A decline of 41%. A pretty amazing decline, particularly given the public perception. Furthermore:

The number of violent crimes experienced by adults showed no statistically significant
change between 2005/06 and 2006/07 BCS interviews. Police recorded violence against
the person fell by one per cent between 2005/06 and 2006/07, the first fall in eight years.

So, depending upon what figures you believe, violent crime has either remained static or shown a slight decline. It has most definitely not shown a marked increase. So what of the actual figure? Well, according to the latest figures, there were 2,471,000 violent incidents against adults
in England and Wales in the period 2006/7. The graph below shows the trend over the past 26 years (you may need to click the image to see it clearer):

Furthermore, whilst assaults without injury have increased, assaults with injury or with wounding have either remained static or declined as the following graph demonstrates:

So what about the statistics regarding knife crime? Well, according to the BCS, weapons were used in 24% of 'violent incidents'. Given that violent incidents stand at around 2,471,000, that means that 593,040 involved the use of a weapon. In terms of knives, 7% of 'violent incidents' involved the use of a knife. That means that there were approximately 172,970 'violent incidents' involving knives during 2006/7. What is also interesting, however, is that 'violent incidents' involving a so-called 'hitting implement' (which includes sticks, clubs and 'other hitting implements') was around 6% and incidents involving 'glass/bottles' was around 5%. Strangely, we don't hear many politicians speaking out about the rise in bottle/glass crime, perhaps it's not as catchy. The stats break down as follows (again you may need to click on the image):

It would appear that knives aren't as much of a problem as we are lead to believe. Statistically speaking, you have a 0.2% chance of being involved in a knife crime and, given that 2% of knife incidents lead to minor injuries, an even smaller chance of being injured by someone wielding a knife. Compare the risk of falling victim to knife crime to the risk of having a car crash. In 2006, the police reported 189,000 car accidents that resulted in an injury. The driving population is around 33 million. Statistically speaking, you have a 0.57% chance of being involved in a car accident and suffering an injury. Therefore, you are nearly THREE times as likely to receive an injury in a car crash as you are to be the victim of knife crime. And yet, knife crime is at the top of the news agenda and car accidents barely register. The risk is, quite clearly, exaggerated.

Going back to the earlier paragraph, another aspect of the story becomes clear. The Times reports that 29% of murders involve a knife or 'sharp instrument'. When you think about it logically, this makes perfect sense and is not even slightly disturbing. Guns and knives seem to be the most obvious method of committing murder so clearly the percentage would be higher. When you consider the instances of domestic violence and, in some cases, murder, it is obvious that a knife or sharp implement would be high up the list. What implement do most people have lying around at home? Besides, as the stats show, 236 murders were as a result of the use of a knife. The risk of being murdered by knife is tiny. In fact, it is approximately 0.00039%, a risk so low as to be negligible.

But it's not just The Times that plays with the stats, the BBC mis-represents the figures somewhat as well. Below are two graphs from today's website:

What is interesting about these figures is what they seem to suggest. In the top graph, we can see that murders involving 'sharp implements' has risen by what appears to be a huge amount (around 9-10% apparently). However, when you look at recorded homicides, there has been a slight decrease and this is where it is interesting. The first graph uses a % figure and the second uses an actual total. This has some problems. For example, it could be the case that the total number of homicides has declined (which appears to be the case), and yet the total number of homicides due to 'sharp implements' may have remained static. However, if the number of homicides involving sharp implements had remained static when the overall homicide figure had gone down, there would obviously be an increased % of homicides due to 'sharp implements'. A better indication of the reality would be if a total was provided instead of a percentage, but given that there is a chance that the use of knives has remained static, or possibly increased slightly, this would point out the absurdity of the current media frenzy.

None of this, of course, intends to undermine the hurt and pain that victims and their families feel about knife crime. However, it is sensible to put this in proportion. You are less likely to be involved in an incident with a knife than to be involved in a car accident that results in your injury. Violent crime has declined dramatically over the past ten years. And, if you are involved in a violent incident, you are less likely to receive an injury than you were ten years ago. So, don't be scared, and keep the hype in perspective.

The crime stats referred to above are taken from the official statistics available here.

Right Message Wrong Messenger

2008-06-04T19:00:00.004+01:00

There is a lot to be said about the promotion of Islam's tolerant side. After all, Islam is no more violent in origin than other religions and there are a great many Muslims that live in peace with their neighbours. However, isn't the idea of this message of tolerance coming from the Saudi Arabian monarch slightly ironic? After all, Saudi Arabia is probably the most vicious human rights abuser in the region, if not the world. The BBC reports:

Saudi Arabia's monarch has urged Muslims to speak with one voice in preparation for interfaith dialogue with the Jewish and Christian worlds.

King Abdullah was speaking at a three-day conference in Mecca, attended by hundreds of Muslim delegates.

The king, whose country is mainly Sunni Muslim, said extremists were exploiting the tolerant nature of Islam.

Correspondents say the message was that the Sunni kingdom was now in agreement with moderate Shia Muslims such as Mr Rafsanjani, a former Iranian president.

"You have gathered today to tell the whole world that... we are a voice of justice and values and humanity, that we are a voice of coexistence and a just and rational dialogue," King Abdullah told the delegates.

Extremism was a challenge to Islam that targeted the "magnanimity, fairness and lofty aims" of the religion, he said.

"That's why this invitation was extended - to face the challenges of isolation, ignorance and narrow horizons, so that the world can absorb the good message of Islam."

Now, as I say, there is a lot to be said for the message, there has been far too much singling out of Islam as an intolerant religion, but Saudi Arabia? The fact that many of the extremists origins are in Saudi Arabia tells you all you need to know about this brutal regime. Of course, the Bush regime is happy to overlook this and focus on more 'threatening' forces in the region, but Saudi is ok. How a Saudi monarch can talk about emphasising the moderate aspects of Islam when the country has placed heavy emphasis on more radical teachings, and keep a straight face, is beyond me.

Death Penalty For Knife Crime - Part II

2008-06-04T18:10:00.003+01:00

Below is a copy of the email I sent to the Tory MP who gave his support for the death penalty regarding knife crime along with his reply (you may need to click the image to see it a touch clearer). Good to see that the Tories haven't changed in the slightest.

Death Penalty For Knife Crime

2008-06-03T22:24:00.003+01:00

That's what one Tory MP proposes:

Kent MP has called for a return to the death penalty in order to deal with knife crime.

Roger Gale, the Tory MP for North Thanet, said that bringing back capital punishment for murder was the only way to deter people from carrying knives, short of banning all tools and kitchen utensils that could cause harm.

Mr Gale said: “Either ban hammers and screwdrivers and other carpenters’ tools or bring back capital punishment as the maximum available sentence for murder

“Are we seriously suggesting that Sabatier chef's knives should be banned?

“At home I have an oyster knife with a blade scarcely more than an inch long. It is potentially lethal. My wife Suzy and I also have a full range of kitchen cutlery and most of the knives have sharp points. Are we seriously suggesting that the fundamental implements of Western culinary art should be banned?

“Because if so then a panoply of carpenters and plumbers ‘weapons’ , for example, such as hammers and screwdrivers, will have to be taken out of circulation.

“I would suggest that the much more basic but practical response to the growth in armed crime is the re-introduction of capital punishment for murder.”

Ah the New Tories, same as the old Tories.

Israeli Terrorist Escapes Justice.....For Now....

2008-06-03T22:17:00.003+01:00

And what would have happened if the man in question was a Muslim one wonders?

A notorious Israeli mercenary has successfully appealed to the European court of human rights to postpone his extradition from Russia to Colombia, where he faces an 11-year jail sentence for training rightwing paramilitaries and a private army for the drug barons of the Medellín cartel.

Yair Klein, 64, a reserve lieutenant colonel in the Israel defence forces (IDF)and a veteran of the six-day and Yom Kippur wars, has done business with armed groups in Latin America and Africa for 25 years. He has spent nine months in a Moscow prison but last week the Russian supreme court ordered that the extradition go ahead. Klein's Russian lawyer turned to the human rights court for a temporary stay on the grounds that he could suffer ill-treatment if sent to Bogotá. There were also concerns about the fairness of the 2001 trial, which sentenced him in absentia. During the hearing he said: "Extradition to Colombia would mean a death sentence."

While the court deliberates - which could take months - Klein's supporters in Israel, who consider him a war hero, will continue to campaign for his return. His Israeli lawyer, Mordechai Tsivin, said: "In Israel his arrival would be great joy."

Yet another example of the Israeli government's support for terrorism. Perhaps their activities are not surprising when considering that their biggest backer is the world's biggest terrorist state.

The Role of The West in the Establishment of Hamas

2008-06-02T22:36:00.005+01:00

Despite dominating the world media for many years, many aspects of the Israel/Palestine conflict remain hidden from view. Quite often, contemporary events are not placed in context. No background is given, no explanation is outlined. Large chunks of the history of the conflict are ignored or cast aside as irrelevant. As is the case in reporting of many events across the world, what is left out is nearly always as interesting as what is left in.

Take the rise of Hamas, for example. Hamas is frequently referred to as a terrorist organisation that has a destabilising influence across the Middle East. Western critics often refer to the organisation as an impediment to peace rather than an aid. However, the history of Hamas is clouded in mystery and obscured from any discussion relating to progress in the region. It is, of course, obscured for very good reason - it underlines the duplicity of Western foreign policy within the region. A duplicity that goes some way to explaining why the conflict is so complex and remains some distance from resolution.

Arab nationalism was seen as a threat to Western hegemony throughout the region in the 1950s and 60s. Suddenly Arab leaders were gaining confidence and seeking to reclaim their resources. Underpinned with a nationalist, secular ideology, these leaders declared their refusal to bow to Western demands. The rise of Gamal Abdal Nasser in Egypt and the nationalisation of the Suez Canal, gave many Arabs hope that they were about to witness a new era of dignity and freedom. This, of course, scared the West. A populist movement that sought to reclaim its natural resources? They could see that the emergence of Arab nationalism would have a massive impact on oil supplies and thus a situation could emerge whereby the Arab nationalists would hold all the cards, rather than the West. Alongside his nationalist agenda, Nasser also played an important role in the establishment of the PLO, a secular organisation reflecting Nasser’s own particular brand of Arab nationalism. If the PLO were to be successful in negotiating a deal with the Israelis, it would have been a massive victory for Arab nationalism and would have represented a serious threat to Western hegemony. Being the Palestinians sole representative on the world stage, it also united the Palestinian people, at least until the establishment of Hamas in 1987.

However, Nasser was not without his enemies within his own country. Despite initially supporting Nasser’s coup, The Muslim Brotherhood became disillusioned with Nasser’s secularist brand of politics and, in 1954, an attempt was made on his life. After the failed assassination attempt, the Islamists who were not rounded up and arrested subsequently left to settle in Saudi Arabia where they were welcomed as an important bulwark to the rise of ‘godless Communism’. The Saudi regime was particularly disturbed by the rise of Nasser as it threatened their fundamentalist form of government and consequently threatened their influence in the region. If an alternative form of government were to gain momentum, the Saudi regime would surely fall. Consequently, during this period, the Saudi government (alongside its ally the US) continued to provide financial backing to the Muslim Brotherhood. The Muslim Brotherhood continued to agitate in Egypt and engaged in ‘radical activity’ led by one Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. Under Yassin’s leadership, longtime Muslim Brotherhood activists were simply redirected from promoting Islamic observance to engaging in violent anti-Israel activities. Yassin had, by this stage, established his violent anti-Israeli credentials and was clearly pursuing a more radical Islamic course compared to the more secular PLO. However, this did not prevent the Western powers from pursuing a course of engagement with Yassin and his colleagues in the Brotherhood.

During the 1980s, Yassin focused on developing a ‘charitable organisation’ within Gaza that developed a network of social-welfare organizations, mosques, and schools. It was also at this time that the US and Israel provided financial support to Yassin and his organisation, despite Yassin’s previous anti-Israeli agitation in Egypt. Ostensibly, his organisation was supported as a counter-balance to the PLO and its secular Arab nationalism, which was seen as a massive threat to Western hegemony in the region (due to the loss of control of natural resources). According to Tony Cordesman, Middle East analyst for the Center for Strategic Studies, Israel:

"...aided Hamas directly -- the Israelis wanted to use it as a counterbalance to the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization)."

A resurgence of Arab nationalism in the region was of deep concern to the United States and the growth of a radical Islamic organisation would be a useful counter-weight to the rise of nationalist secularism. This was further demonstrated by the support of radical Islamists in Afghanistan (including Osama Bin Laden) during the conflict with the Soviet Union. With a radical alternative to Arab nationalism, the Arab people would remain divided and consequently allow the US to maintain influence in the region. As one former CIA official put it, Israel's support for Hamas :

"...was a direct attempt to divide and dilute support for a strong, secular PLO by using a competing religious alternative."

Furthermore, according to US officials:

....funds for the movement came from the oil-producing states and directly and indirectly from Israel. The PLO was secular and leftist and promoted Palestinian nationalism. Hamas wanted to set up a transnational state under the rule of Islam, much like Khomeini's Iran.

Consequently, whether it was intentioned or not, it would appear that the growth of Hamas as a power bloc within the region was directly attributable to the United State and her allies. Concerned by the growth of Arab nationalism and the problems that would cause for the West in the region, the US threw in its lot with radical Islamists who would prove to be a useful barrier to the rise of Soviet supported, secular regimes within the region. Despite the background of Yassin in Egypt, both Israel and the US had no problem with supplying funds and offering their support to Yassin’s ‘charitable organisation’. Thus the combination of Israel and the US managed to ensure that the Palestinian people were divided between a secular organisation prepared to do business with Israel (the PLO recognised Israel in 1993 as part of the Declaration of Principles), and a radical Islamic organisation that took a less compromising position regarding peace in the region. And yet, the covert support by the US government for radical Islamic groups over the years has remained firmly outside of the scope of the mainstream media’s assessment of the situation in the Middle East. Yet how can we understand the situation in the Middle East if we do not understand how it was created? The rise of Islamic fundamentalism is tied to the West’s attempts to assert hegemony throughout the region and ensure it remains the dominant force on the global stage. Ironic that the forces they utilised to ensure their dominance are now the very forces that threaten to demolish it.

Gordon Brown talks utter shit because...

2008-06-02T01:39:00.001+01:00

yes. it's an anus.

have a nice day
:)

"Electrolytes Smell Like Semen"

2008-05-30T20:04:00.002+01:00

More substantial posting will return here soon. In the meantime, here's a cracking blast from the past:

McClellan Sticks The Knife In

2008-05-28T21:06:00.001+01:00

I guess he probably would do, but let's enjoy the moment shall we?

The White House reacted negatively today to scathing criticisms of President Bush and members of his inner circle that appear in a new memoir written by Scott McClellan, the former White House press secretary who was forced out in 2006 after three tumultuous years.

In excerpts from the book, set to be published next week, Mr. McClellan writes that President Bush “convinces himself to believe what suits his needs at the moment,” and has engaged in “self-deception” to justify his political ends. He calls the decision to invade Iraq a “serious strategic blunder,” and says that the biggest mistake the Bush White House made was “a decision to turn away from candor and honesty when those qualities were most needed.”

But Dana Perino, the current White House press secretary, had harsh words for Mr. McClellan, calling the situation “sad” and suggesting that he mischaracterized his years in the West Wing to sell books.

“Scott, we now know, is disgruntled about his experience at the White House,” she said. “For those of us who fully supported him, before, during and after he was press secretary, we are puzzled. It is sad. This is not the Scott we knew.”

She said that President Bush was told of some of the excerpts but would not be commenting on them because “he has more pressing matters than to spend time commenting on books by former staffers.” But Karl Rove, a principal target of many of Mr. McClellan’s charges and the former deputy chief of staff for President Bush, reacted immediately on Tuesday night. Speaking on Fox News, where he is now a commentator, Mr. Rove said Mr. McClellan was not even present at many of the meetings he describes and suggested that he was not writing truthfully.

"First of all, this doesn’t sound like Scott. It really doesn’t,” he said. “Not the Scott McClellan I’ve known for a long time. Second of all, it sounds like somebody else. It sounds like a left-wing blogger."

Chevron Shareholders Put Profits Before Human Rights

2008-05-28T20:53:00.003+01:00

From the International Herald Tribune:

SAN RAMON, California: Activists are taking advantage of Chevron's annual shareholders meeting to blast the oil giant for alleged environmental and human rights abuses overseas.

At its corporate headquarters in San Ramon, California, on Wednesday, Chevron Corp. Chief Executive David O'Reilly faced intense criticism at the meeting for its past and present operations in Ecuador, Nigeria and Myanmar.

And outside, dozens of demonstrators waving "Clean Up Chevron" signs protested at the gates of its suburban campus.

But despite increasingly vocal complaints, Chevron shareholders voted against six proposals aimed at improving its human rights and environmental record abroad.

O'Reilly also told shareholders that he expects gas prices to fall over the next couple years as supply rises to meet increasing global demand.

Cluster Bombs To Be Banned?

2008-05-28T20:42:00.003+01:00

So rare to find anything to rejoice about with this government, but here is a rare opportunity:

Britain is to take cluster bombs out of service, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said.

The announcement came shortly before diplomats from 109 countries reached an agreement on an international ban on the use of the controversial weapons.

Mr Brown called it a "big step forward to make the world a safer place" and said he hoped more states would follow.

But some of the world's main producers and stockpilers - including the US, Russia and China - oppose the move.

The final draft of the new convention banning cluster bombs went before delegates in Dublin on Wednesday afternoon and the deal was reached much earlier than expected.

No real shocks about those who are opposed to such a move, but at least there is a glimmer of hope. The use of these weapons in Lebanon was a reminder of their indescriminate brutality. However, as RickB at Ten Percent points out, it's not all good news:

Gordon Brown has said the UK needs to increase its nuclear power capacity - raising the prospect of plants being built in new locations.

The prime minister said that with oil prices soaring, it was time to be "more ambitious" for nuclear plans.

No 10 sources said it was "open" as to whether new sites might be needed.

Ministers announced in January they backed new plants, but the focus was on replacing existing nuclear capacity as plants reached the end of their life.

And a review of possible sites published at the same time focused on 14 locations where there have been nuclear power plants before.

Of course, the fact that Gordon Brown's brother is Head of Media for EDF won't have any sway on awarding contracts, will it?

Pinochet Allies Arrests Ordered

2008-05-27T00:11:00.002+01:00

Good news from Chile:

A Chilean judge has ordered the arrest of nearly 100 former secret police and soldiers over rights abuses committed under General Augusto Pinochet.

The round-up is one of the biggest of its kind since the military leader's rule ended 18 years ago.

The 98 detentions are part of an probe into Operation Colombo, a 1975 plot to murder left-wing opponents of Pinochet.

More than 3,000 people were killed or "disappeared" during military rule in Chile between 1973 and 1990.

One question, why do the BBC not refer to Pinochet as a right-wing dictator?

Italy Turning More Fascist By The Day

2008-05-26T23:53:00.002+01:00

Does this sound familiar:

Fears of rising intolerance towards migrants in Italy grew after a masked group armed with sticks went on the rampage in a multi-ethnic Rome neighbourhood, smashing shop windows while hurling abuse.

In the 10-minute blitz on Saturday, the group of between 10 and 20 men attacked a food shop owned by an Indian migrant and two stores operated by Bangladeshis, disappearing before police arrived.

The assault comes as Silvio Berlusconi's administration launches a crackdown on illegal immigration, and days after a mob firebombed Gypsy camps in Naples. Last month crowds at Rome's town hall welcomed newly-elected mayor Gianni Alemanno with fascist salutes.

Weird thing is, I thought fascism was a 'left-wing' ideology.

Colombia Probes Links With FARC

2008-05-23T20:57:00.001+01:00

Colombian prosecutors have asked the Supreme Court to investigate three opposition legislators for alleged links to the leftist Farc rebels.

The investigations were prompted by analysis of laptop computers seized in a cross-border raid into Ecuador, said chief prosecutor Mario Iguaran.

Under suspicion is Senator Piedad Cordoba. She has helped mediate the release of six Farc-held hostages.

She said her links with Farc were only to help free the hostages.

Mr Iguaran said five other Colombians and four foreigners were suspected of Farc links, including an Ecuadorean politician and a Venezuelan regional legislator and a US academic.

The other two Colombian legislators under investigation are Senator Gloria Ines Ramirez and Wilson Borja, a member of the lower house of the congress.

You'd think that maybe they would focus more on their government's links to terrorism, wouldn't you?

McCain and Hagee - The Right Still Hate the Jews

2008-05-23T20:39:00.003+01:00

And you thought Obama had problems with a preacher, that's nothing on John McCain.

US presidential hopeful John McCain has rejected the backing of a Church leader who said Hitler was carrying out "God's will" in chasing the Jews from Europe.

It comes after the comments by evangelical preacher Rev John Hagee, which were made in the 1990s, re-emerged on a US news website.

In a sermon, Rev Hagee said the Nazi leader was carrying out a divine plan to gather Jews into the Holy Land.

The Republican candidate described the comments as "crazy and unacceptable".

Senator McCain had been criticised for seeking the endorsement of the controversial minister.

Rev Hagee has also described the Roman Catholic Church as "the great whore" and a "false cult system", as well as suggesting that Hurricane Katrina was God's retribution for homosexual sin.

But while Senator McCain condemned those comments, he had not rejected Rev Hagee's endorsement until Thursday, when an audio recording of the preacher saying that God sent Hitler to help Jews reach the promised land was published on the Huffington Post website.

Which, given these comments were made in the 1990s, makes you kinda wonder why McCain solicited his support.

Immigration and The Daily Mail - Hypocrisy in Action

2008-05-20T23:27:00.005+01:00

Lots of 'scary' headlines about the latest immigration figures in the national press. The Times took a suitably alarmist stance:

A record number of foreigners were granted British citizenship last year, according to Home Office figures published today.

Just over 164,600 people were given citizenship —- the highest number of applications granted in any year.

The seven per cent increase in persons given citizenship followed a fall in the previous year.

Since 1997 when Labour came to power almost 2 million people have been awarded citizenship, the figures show.

An estimated 591,000 people entered the country, ten per cent up on the previous year, meaning net migration into the country was about 190,000. The overwhelming majority —- 86 per cent —- of immigrants were non British citizens.

“This continued the trend of high immigration to the UK experienced since 1998,” said the Office for National Statistics which published the International Migration figures.

Mmm, scared yet? How about this (watch out for the meaningless statistic):

The number of migrants granted UK citizenship reached an all-time record last year as separate figures revealed more than 200,000 Britons moving abroad.

A raft of statistics released by Whitehall revealed 164,635 foreign nationals were granted UK passports in 2007 - the equivalent of one every three minutes.

The figure is up seven per cent on the previous year and takes the total since Labour came to power to almost 1.2m.

Did you spot it? Incidentally, that last extract is repeated in the Daily Mail. And the good old Express? Why, they are suggesting the figures aren't reliable and are actually much higher:

MINISTERS have no idea how many immigrants are coming to Britain, according to a damning report by MPs.

The official statistics are “totally inadequate” for grasping the scale of population changes, the Parlia-mentary investigation has concluded.

As a result, public services are in danger of collapsing because the lack of reliable data means the Government is incapable of planning ahead.

None of these papers really touch on why there is a rise in immigration (the Daily Mail doesn't even mention where they are from). After all, that would mean treating readers like intelligent individuals instead of mindless zombies. According to the National Statistics website the majority of asylum seekers come from: Afghanistan, Iraq, Zimbabwe, Iran and Eritrea. Notice any connection there? Two countries have been devastated as a result of our military adventures. These two countries have become increasingly dangerous as a result of our interference. Consequently, it seems quite right and proper that as we fucked their countries, they should come here to enjoy the freedom and democracy we have failed to deliver over there. If we bomb the shit out of their utilities and make their daily lives almost impossible, who can blame them for coming here?

As for the others, presumably the mainstream media are suggesting we send back asylum seekers from Zimbabwe? Despite the fact that the very same media outlets have been exposing how dangerous life is in Zimbabwe. So what is it to be, eh? Help the people of Zimbabwe, or turn our backs on them? It wasn't so long ago that the Daily Mail ran a headline screaming:

Don't Zimbabweans have human rights?

Make up your minds chaps. Either you want the people of Zimbabwe to have asylum here, or you do not. Which is it going to be? Just how deep is your concern for the people of Zimbabwe? Is it simply political opportunism? Fear-mongering? Or a genuine desire to protect their human rights? I think we know the answer.

MOD To Keep Cluster Bombs

2008-05-19T23:54:00.003+01:00

Remember the good old days of an 'ethical foreign policy'??? No? Neither do I. And here's a further reminder of this country's failure to operate ethically on the global stage:

The British government is deeply divided over its policy on cluster bombs on the eve of international negotiations about a ban, the Guardian has learned.

The split sets the Ministry of Defence, which wants to retain two types of cluster munitions in the British armoury, against Downing Street and the Foreign Office, which want to honour Gordon Brown's pledge last year "to work internationally for a ban" on those weapons that cause unacceptable harm to civilians.

An international conference on cluster munitions - shells or rockets which contain several smaller bombs - begins on Monday in Dublin. Officials said it was unlikely British divisions would be resolved by then. Instead, they hope the position taken by European allies could throw up a workable compromise.

Why not write to Des Browne and tell him what you think of this policy (in a polite way of course)? Here's his email address:

browned@parliament.uk

Now get cracking.

Same Old Tories Propose Cuts in Service

2008-05-19T22:24:00.003+01:00

Get ready for tax cuts and cuts in funding:

David Cameron today issued his clearest signal that a Conservative government would aim to cut taxes when he declared that Britain had reached the "limits of acceptable taxation" and revived landmark declarations by Margaret Thatcher.

In a major speech on the economy in Birmingham, the Tory leader pledged to "create the space for cutting tax" as he harked back to the early years of Thatcher's premiership.

Cameron, who started working for the Conservative party in the last two years of Thatcher's period in Downing Street, echoed two of her most famous statements when he said: "After a decade of reckless spending under Labour, Britain needs good housekeeping from the Conservatives. We need to start living within our means."

The first part of Cameron's remarks is drawn from one of Thatcher's defining statements in 1979, the year she was first elected as prime minister. "Any woman who understands the problems of running a home will be able to understand the problems of running a country," she told the Observer in May 1979, the month she moved into No 10.

Of course, the reality is that the tax burden isn't really that high when compared with other EU states. According to the latest report, total tax revenue as a percentage of GDP in the UK for 2005 was 37%. The average across the EU (and bear in mind that the accession countries have very law taxation - Romania's is only 28%) is actually 37.6%. In fact, if you were only to include the so-called 'EU-15', the average is actually 40.4% (all figures taken from hyper-linked report), meaning that the the UK's tax burden is actually 3.4% lower than the average. In other words, compared to other member nations, the tax burden in the UK is actually relatively low.

Perhaps it is unsurprising that during a period where people are being told that they will have less money in their pocket, the opposition are making claims about the tax burden. If people start to feel that they are facing financial pressure, they will be more susceptible to this kind of propaganda. And who can blame them? When money is tight and corners need to be cut, one begins to question the amount that is being paid out in taxation. The Tories will, of course, play the tax card heavily over the coming weeks and months, the truth is, as always, very different to what they portray.

Berlusconi, Civil Liberties and the Hypocrisy of the Right

2008-05-17T19:45:00.013+01:00

One of the most 'interesting' developments in recent years had been the attempts by the right to wash their hands of their involvement with fascism during the 1930s. So embarrassed are they by their craven worship of the 'virtues' of fascism during this period, they have even branded Hitler's nationalist ideology as somehow socialist (the argument normally so simplistic as to point to the fact that they were the National Socialists - of course this ignores Hitler's purge of the 'left' in his party and his links with big business amongst others). This argument has now moved on to what they call 'Islamofascism'. A doctrine that suggests that an Islamic based dictatorship is on the horizon. In their urge to make up for the mistakes of the past, they are eager to claim that any group perceived as a threat is part of some wider 'fascist' movement.

So detached from reality these people have become, and so determined to present themselves as the defenders of a culture under attack, they even attempt to present themselves as defenders of civil liberties in the face of a new aggression. This is an extension of their belief that all dictators are 'left-wing' whereas all right-wing societies support liberal values and are, in essence, the opposite of the 'left-wing' dictatorships in every way. The argument maintains that intrusive governments are the preserve of the left, whilst the right is concerned with free societies that preserve the rights of the individual. Thus it becomes the case that civil liberties and libertarianism becomes the sole preserve of the right. This is, of course, entirely false.

Such a misguided belief is false on many grounds. Encounter any political commentator who claims the above as wholly accurate and their argument soon flounders when you introduce the concept of libertarian socialism. Of course, another term for libertarian socialism would be anarchism. Although there are many strands of anarchism, essentially most of it's adherents believe in the destruction of the state, private ownership and the means of production to be in the hands of the worker. This would then free the populace from their slavery to the capitalist economy and ensure true freedom and liberty. Clearly, all these elements can be closely identified with the left, after all, they underpin much of left-wing ideology (certainly the non-totalitarian elements of the left). Despite the obvious contradiction with right-wing ideology, there are still those on the right that insist this is compatible with right-wing thinking (even taking into account the abolition of private ownership - the very foundation of right-wing ideology). Take, for example, the following commentator over at the right-wing conspiracy site Biased BBC:

Nearly Oxfordian:

"Anarchism is not a right-wing ideology by any stretch" -
err, actually it is. Since it believes in (extreme) personal freedom, it cannot by any stretch of the imagination be called anything but. It is diametrically opposed to lef-wingism, which requires the state to intervene in order to right (real or imagined) inequalities.

Nearly Oxfordian 13.05.08 - 7:24 pm

Such comments come from (allegedly) educated individuals I hasten to add. The fact that the two ideologies are diametrically opposed hardly seems relevant.

In terms of the civil liberties argument, perhaps there are more obvious examples of the right's negation of basic civil liberties. Take, for example, Guantanamo Bay. Here is a prime example of the destruction of one of the most basic civil liberties. Not only is it a massive affront to civil liberties, it is also indicative of a large overbearing state that views the populace with suspicion. Despite this rather obvious fact, there are many of those on the right who continue to defend the practice, even when it contradicts their loudly stated 'beliefs'. How can anyone opposed to a large state and a supporter of civil liberties claim that Guantanamo is anything but a monstrosity? So bizarre is their argument in this case, that it seeks to defend the altruistic nature of the one arm of the state that is most likely to undermine civil liberties. Take, for example, the argument of one right-winger who claims to oppose the power of the state, yet supports civil liberties:

Do I belive that governments have the right to conduct surveillance on certain members of the populace that they have cause to belive are a threat to society and act in such a way that prevents those individuals from carrying out an act that endangers said society? Youbetcha. Indeed, protecting society and enforcing rule of law and security is one of the few roles that right wing thinkers approve of handing over to the state (with appropritate checks abnd balances). I draw the line at such left wing institutions as Stasi and gulags though.

As I said above, it is rather odd that, despite 'opposing' a large state apparatus and distrusting the state as a whole, the one area that they feel they can trust it (indeed, they approve of 'handing over to the state') is the one arm of the state that can do the most amount of damage to the civil liberties of society as a whole. Why is this such an exception? Is it only an exception when both the commentator and the state share a common enemy? If this were a right-wing commentator in a left-wing society, would the same still apply? I very much doubt it. The right have made a habit over the years of seeing things through a typical double standard. Which brings me to the picture at the top of the post ("At last!" I hear you cry!)

As I have mentioned above, much talk has been made of the 'link' between fascism and the left over the years. Despite the evidence of the Spanish Civil War, the left has been painted as appeasers and supporters of the rise of fascism in 1930's Europe. Given that this has been the case, recent events in Italy have provided a stark reminder of where fascism truly draws it's support. Berlusconi has been the darling of the right in Europe for many years, a man beyond reproach. However, his fascistic tendencies have been rising to the surface of late and, like the growth of fascism in the 1930s, the right has been noticeable by it's silence. Although it would be fair to say that Italy isn't a fascist state at this moment in time, it is displaying signs of a sudden lurch to the disturbing politics of the past. Take, for example, Berlusconi's words soon after retuning to power:

"We are the new Falange."

The Falange being the fascist party in Spain during the Civil War era. Then there was the election of the new mayor in Rome (a supporter of Berlusconi) who was greeted with cries of "Duce". Following these disturbing developments, a new echo from 1930's Europe has emerged.

According to reports during the week, the new government and it's supporters have turned their attention to immigration and the gypsy population. As part of efforts to 'get tough' on illegal immigration, the Italian government has rounded up 400 'illegal' immigrants in preparation for their removal. In tandem with this policy, there has also been a crack down on gypsy camps, particularly around Naples. However, this policy has been 'pre-empted' by the local population who have taken the law into their own hands. The following is taken from The Times:

But in Naples local people have anticipated the new policy, taking the law into their own hands.

This week’s assaults on Roma shanty towns by scores of youths on scooters and motorbikes wielding iron bars and throwing Molotov cocktails were sparked off by the capture of a 17-year-old Roma girl who last weekend entered a flat in Ponticelli and tried to steal a 6-year-old girl. Chased by the mother and neighbours, she had to be rescued by police from being lynched.

The city erupted in fury, with local women leading the marches on the Roma camps to the chant of “Fuori, fuori [Out, out]”. Night after night young men — allegedly acting on the orders of powerful local clans of the Camorra, the Naples Mafia — have set the sites ablaze, blocking attempts by the fire brigade to put out the fires, with exploding gas canisters completing the destruction. The women jeered at the firemen, shouting, "You put these fires out, we start them again”.

Plumes of smoke were still rising yesterday from the smouldering, blackened ruins of a Roma gypsy camp attacked and burnt to the ground by local vigilantes in Ponticelli, a rundown industrial suburb in the east of Naples in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius.

The charred remains of the makeshift wooden shacks at the site on Via Malibran crunch underfoot. The only sign of life is dogs scavenging through the neighbouring mountain of uncollected, rotting rubbish.

There are similar scenes of devastation at camps nearby, including one in the incongruously named Via Virginia Woolf. At one squalid “nomad camp” beneath a motorway flyover, intact but deserted, a policeman guarding the site said that the inhabitants had fled during the night to avoid being attacked.

The signs of hasty panic were everywhere, with doors to the shacks left open and the ground strewn with clothing, shoes, bicycles, plastic bottles, pots and pans and children’s toys.

Hundreds of Roma families have fled for their lives with their belongings piled on to small pick-up trucks or handcarts. Some have been taken under police protection to a former school used to house illegal immigrants in a northern Naples suburb. Others have found refuge at Roma camps elsewhere in the Campania region, while a few have been taken in by Naples residents shocked at this outbreak of “xenophobia”.

Sound familiar? An ethnic group being blamed for society's ills? A community forced to flee for fear of their own lives? Property destroyed? Has an eerie ring to it does it not? According to some sources, over 500,000 gypsies were exterminated in Nazi Germany. Only the Jewish community suffered greater losses. So here we have a political leader echoing the sentiments of the fascist leaders of the past, an ethnic group persecuted for bringing 'urban degradation' upon the community, an ethnic community fleeing their dwellings for fear of being murdered and where are the voices of the right? Where are the voices of those who claim to support civil liberties? Where are the voices of those that claim fascism is a left-wing ideology? Why are they prepared to repeat the mistakes of the past? Surely if they believe what they espouse they would condemn Berlusconi at all costs. That they do not suggests that their concern for civil liberties is only skin deep. Scratch the surface, and they bleed the blood of fascists.

Bush Attacks Obama - Making Political Capital from Holocaust

2008-05-16T12:24:00.003+01:00

What better way to make political capital out of the death of millions of Jews at the hands of the Nazis, than to make the following remark (in Israel no less) on Obama's foreign policy:

"Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before."

"As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: "Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided." We have an obligation to call this what it is -- the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."

Nothing like a good genocide to utilise a bit of cheap point scoring, eh? Although having said that, it is a bit of a cheek come from a member of a family that gave a fair amount of assistance to the Nazis. Somewhere, 11 million Jews weep.

Besides which, appeasement is very different to talking to your enemies. Appeasement implies giving in to demands. Talking most certainly does not.

Boris Johnson - Shirley Porter Part Deux

2008-05-14T20:24:00.006+01:00

Ah, Boris Johnson. Funny chap isn't he? He's exactly what we need in London. A personality. You know where you stand with good old Boris.

Yes, sadly there were many Londoners who were happy to vote for this elitist Tory who is completely out of touch with the working man. And good old Boris is certainly off to a flyer. One of his first appointments was one Simon Milton as adviser on planning and housing. Milton was previously leader of Westminster Council and has a rather interesting background.

Milton was a member of Shirley Porter's housing committee. Shirley Porter was, you may remember, embroild in the infamous 'homes for votes' scandal when houses were sold to potential Tory voters in marginal wards. However, Milton was at the heart of an even bigger scandal. A scandal that reveals just how much Boris Johnson hates the working classes. A scandal that shows not only how much Boris hates Londoners, but also the Evening Standard.

During his time as a member of Porter's housing committee, Milton voted for homeless people being placed in asbestos-ridden accommodation. Yes, asbestos-ridden. The council moved homeless families into 200 homes that had been intended for emptying and asbestos removal. Even though the policy was reversed, 100 families still passed through these flats. This policy was subsequently described by one former chief executive of Westminster as 'simply criminal' [Private Eye, Issue 1210, pg14]. Clearly Boris Johnson has no major concerns about the welfare of the most vulnerable within London, or else why would he appoint someone with such a record? As one councillor put it on receiving the news of the appointment:

"With Johnson's obvious lack of experience of running anything, Milton could well be the one pulling the strings. But if Milton wanted to run London why didn't he put himself forward for election when he had the chance?

"Is Simon Milton really the best qualified person that Boris Johnson can find to advise him on planning and how to build more affordable homes in London?"

"Simon Milton learned everything he knows about flogging off council housing when he was one of the Shirley Porter gang involved in the 'Homes for Votes' scandal, including housing the homeless in asbestos ridden flats."

"Westminster residents are still £30 million out of pocket thanks to Milton agreeing to accept only a quarter of the £42 million surcharge owed by Porter."

Proof, if it were needed, that Boris Johnson couldn't give a toss about the average Londoner. It also goes to underline that Boris is no joke. He is not a lovable personality. He doesn't bring something different to London. He brings the same old mix of corruption, jobs for the boys and good old fashioned class hatred. I'm guessing that soon the laughter will stop and the anger will start. The marker has been drawn, it's time for Londoners to wake-up.

A Meeting of Minds?

2008-05-14T20:12:00.002+01:00

So what do war criminals eat at a birthday party?

Inquiry Into Death of Baha Mousa

2008-05-14T20:09:00.002+01:00

Good news for the family of Baha Mousa, but one wonders whether the outcome will be entirely just:

Lawyers for the family of an Iraqi civilian who died in the custody of British troops claimed a victory after the Government announced a public inquiry into his death.

Four-and-a-half years after Baha Mousa, a 26-year-old hotel receptionist, died while detained by soldiers from the 1st Battalion The Queen's Lancashire Regiment, Defence Secretary Des Browne said holding an inquiry was "the right thing to do".

The head of the Army, General Sir Richard Dannatt, said the inquiry - to be headed by a senior judge - needed to establish whether his death was the result of the "misguided" actions of a few individuals or a wider "systemic" failure.

However ministers indicated they would resist demands by lawyers for the family that it should also look at other cases involving alleged mistreatment by British soldiers.

Whose money is on it being down to 'a few individuals'??

Clinton details how campaign will end....

2008-05-13T17:33:00.001+01:00

... and it's as overdue as decent satire from SNL.

ps Jimmy Fallon blows goats.

The BBC - A Left-Wing Organisation? Part II

2008-05-11T23:44:00.001+01:00

Of course, how could it not be??

New London mayor Boris Johnson has hired ex-BBC political correspondent Guto Harri as his director of communications.

Mr Harri, 41, left the BBC earlier this year to work as a consultant for PR company Fleishman Hillard.

But he has now resigned his post to take up his new role at City Hall.

Mr Harri, who was at Oxford University with Mr Johnson, had previously been linked with a job as a spokesman for Tory leader David Cameron.

Mr Harri was at Mr Johnson's side earlier as he held talks with New York mayor Michael Bloomberg at City Hall.

Err.....

Humanitarian Aid for Burma

2008-05-11T23:15:00.002+01:00

As a consequence of my failure to blog for a week, I haven't been posting on the situation in Burma. If you want to make a difference in this oppressed country, visit Ten Percent and see what you can do.

David Cameron 'Psychologically Damaged'?

2008-05-11T22:47:00.003+01:00

Apologies for the lack of posts in the past week. I have had family staying over and my spare room/study had been given over as living space for the duration of the whole week. This meant that posting was virtually impossible. However, the study is now mine, so posts can once more commence.........

Still struggling with the notion that the people of London have seen fit to vote in a man who is completely out of touch with the average man, I was interested to see a neat little juxtaposition in today's Observer. Firstly, on page 17, there was a two page spread on the rise of the 'new' Conservatives. A rise that was given a hefty nudge by the election of one Boris Johnson. The headline gives an indication as to the tone of the piece:

Is Team Cameron ready to storm Number 10?

The Tories are on a roll after their triumph in the local elections. A survey for today's Observer reveals that voters would overwhelmingly choose David Cameron over Gordon Brown as Prime Minister. Jo Revill examines the Conservative leader's preparations for power and a party starting to believe it might be electable again.

It goes on:

David Cameron is now in charge of a shadow cabinet that increasingly appears to look like a government-in-waiting. Amid economic gloom and uncertainty, and a thunderstorm of bad headlines for Gordon Brown's attempts to regain the upper hand, the latest polls show that the Tories are surging ahead.

Truly a scary prospect, I'm sure you will agree. The thought of a bunch of Eton schooled toffs, who have got no idea what it is to struggle in modern Britain, running the country fills me full of utter dread. In fact, page 19 of The Observer should give everyone cause for concern:

A powerful committee of MPs is to investigate the 'possible dangers' of children going to boarding school amid fears that they could be psychologically damaged. The select committee for children, schools and families will look at the social and emotional impact of separating youngsters from their parents.

Yes, boarding school may 'psychologically' damage children who attend them. That means that David Cameron, Boris Johnson, Oliver Letwin et al, may be 'psychologically' damaged individuals as a result of their time at boarding school. Do we really want to have people leading the country who are 'psychologically damaged'?? I would hope not, but if something isn't done soon, we could have a Prime Minister who is even more mentally unstable than Tony Blair (or even Gordon Brown).

It's Time....For The Good Shit

2008-05-02T22:30:00.003+01:00

Right, I'm fuckin' angry so let's crank it up to 11. Picture quality is shit, but a fuckin' amazing song to trash the place to while I try to get over the horror of Boris 'fucking' Johnson.

Chevron Post Record Profits

2008-05-02T22:16:00.002+01:00

The company accused of destroying the environment in Ecuador and who also employs the man who green lit the human rights abuses in Iraq and Guantanamo, has posted has reported a first-quarter net income increase of 10%. From MarketWatch:

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Rounding out an impressive set of results from the major oil producers, Chevron Corp. on Friday said first-quarter net income climbed 10% as revenue jumped on higher prices for crude oil, natural gas and refined products.

The San Ramon, Calif. integrated oil and gas giant said earnings for the three months ended March 31 increased to $5.17 billion, or $2.48 a share, from $4.72 billion, or $2.18 a share in the year-ago period, which included a one-time $700 million gain.

Revenue rose to $65 billion from $46 billion, as the company's oil and gas production business grew, even as its refining and marketing results were essentially break-even for the period.

They will, of course, need all the revenue they can muster should the Ecuadorean case go against them. Fingers crossed.

Boris Johnson London Mayor? You Total Bunch of Cunts

2008-05-02T22:13:00.003+01:00

Yes I'm talking to those of you in London who allowed this to happen. May you all pay a heavy price for your utter stupidity.

World's Leading Terrorist State Accuses Venezuela

2008-05-01T21:16:00.002+01:00

Perhaps this week's 'it would be funny if it wasn't for the fact that the US is run by loonies' moment comes from a CNN report regarding the latest US terror report. According to CNN:

Venezuela's associations with terror states, Iran's meddling in Iraq and the resurgence of al Qaeda in Afghanistan top the concerns in a new State Department report on terrorism threats in countries around the world.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is not cooperating with U.S. anti-terror efforts and has "deepened Venezuelan relationships with state sponsors of terrorism Iran and Cuba," the annual report says.

The report notes Chavez's "ideological sympathy" for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and the Colombian-based National Liberation Army, which "regularly crossed into Venezuelan territory to rest and regroup."

While the report says it "remained unclear to what extent the Venezuelan government provided support to Colombian terrorist organizations," it notes that Venezuelan weapons stocks have turned up in the hands of Colombian terrorist organizations.

It's the last paragraph that is particularly interesting. American weapons are often found in the hands of terrorists in Colombia which, by their own reckoning, means that the American government is 'providing support to Colombian terrorist organisations'. Worse still, US backed terrorists are responsible for far more murders than other 'terrorist organisations' in Colombia. So I guess, from an impartial perspective, one could argue that the US is a greater terrorist threat than Venezuela. Which is hardly in any doubt when one sees the terror that the US government brings to the world.

'We're not celebrating Israel's anniversary'

2008-04-30T19:52:00.002+01:00

The following is a letter published in today's Guardian regarding the upcoming 60th anniversary of the creation of Israel.

In May, Jewish organisations will be celebrating the 60th anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel. This is understandable in the context of centuries of persecution culminating in the Holocaust. Nevertheless, we are Jews who will not be celebrating. Surely it is now time to acknowledge the narrative of the other, the price paid by another people for European anti-semitism and Hitler's genocidal policies. As Edward Said emphasised, what the Holocaust is to the Jews, the Naqba is to the Palestinians.

In April 1948, the same month as the infamous massacre at Deir Yassin and the mortar attack on Palestinian civilians in Haifa's market square, Plan Dalet was put into operation. This authorised the destruction of Palestinian villages and the expulsion of the indigenous population outside the borders of the state. We will not be celebrating.

In July 1948, 70,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes in Lydda and Ramleh in the heat of the summer with no food or water. Hundreds died. It was known as the Death March. We will not be celebrating.

In all, 750,000 Palestinians became refugees. Some 400 villages were wiped off the map. That did not end the ethnic cleansing. Thousands of Palestinians (Israeli citizens) were expelled from the Galilee in 1956. Many thousands more when Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza. Under international law and sanctioned by UN resolution 194, refugees from war have a right to return or compensation. Israel has never accepted that right. We will not be celebrating.

We cannot celebrate the birthday of a state founded on terrorism, massacres and the dispossession of another people from their land. We cannot celebrate the birthday of a state that even now engages in ethnic cleansing, that violates international law, that is inflicting a monstrous collective punishment on the civilian population of Gaza and that continues to deny to Palestinians their human rights and national aspirations.

We will celebrate when Arab and Jew live as equals in a peaceful Middle East.

Seymour Alexander
Ruth Appleton
Steve Arloff
Rica Bird
Jo Bird
Cllr Jonathan Bloch
Ilse Boas
Prof. Haim Bresheeth
Tanya Bronstein
Sheila Colman
Ruth Clark
Sylvia Cohen
Judith Cravitz
Mike Cushman
Angela Dale
Ivor Dembina
Dr. Linda Edmondson
Nancy Elan
Liz Elkind
Pia Feig
Colin Fine
Deborah Fink
Sylvia Finzi
Brian Fisher MBE
Frank Fisher
Bella Freud
Catherine Fried
Uri Fruchtmann
Stephen Fry
David Garfinkel
Carolyn Gelenter
Claire Glasman
Tony Greenstein
Heinz Grunewald
Michael Halpern
Abe Hayeem
Rosamine Hayeem
Anna Hellman
Amy Hordes
Joan Horrocks
Deborah Hyams
Selma James
Riva Joffe
Yael Oren Kahn
Michael Kalmanovitz
Paul Kaufman
Prof. Adah Kay
Yehudit Keshet
Prof. Eleonore Kofman
Rene Krayer
Stevie Krayer
Berry Kreel
Leah Levane
Les Levidow
Peter Levin
Louis Levy
Ros Levy
Prof. Yosefa Loshitzky
Catherine Lyons
Deborah Maccoby
Daniel Machover
Prof. Emeritus Moshe Machover
Miriam Margolyes OBE
Mike Marqusee
Laura Miller
Simon Natas
Hilda Meers
Martine Miel
Laura Miller
Arthur Neslen
Diana Neslen
Orna Neumann
Harold Pinter
Roland Rance
Frances Rivkin
Sheila Robin
Dr. Brian Robinson
Neil Rogall
Prof. Steven Rose
Mike Rosen
Prof. Jonathan Rosenhead
Leon Rosselson
Michael Sackin
Sabby Sagall
Ian Saville
Alexei Sayle
Anna Schuman
Sidney Schuman
Monika Schwartz
Amanda Sebestyen
Sam Semoff
Linda Shampan
Sybil Shine
Prof. Frances Stewart
Inbar Tamari
Ruth Tenne
Martin Toch
Tirza Waisel
Stanley Walinets
Martin White
Ruth Williams
Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi
Devra Wiseman
Gerry Wolff
Sherry Yanowitz

Berlusconi's Return to Power

2008-04-30T19:03:00.002+01:00

There is much to concern all right thinking people about the return of Berlusconi to the head of Italian government. Chief amongst these concerns is his relationship with the fascist Northern Alliance. In fact, Berlusconi has hardly hidden his true beliefs, recently declaring:

"We are the new Falange."

A not so subtle reference to the Falange party in Spain that played an important part in Franco's rise to power. Fascism certainly appears to have been embraced by the man who controls a hefty chunk of the Italian media. And it appears the sudden shift to fascism in Italy is not an isolated occurrence, as the recent mayoral election in Rome has shown.

Gianni Alemanno won the mayoral election with 54% of the vote and his supporters made clear their own views on the rise of fascism:

On Monday night, the area around Rome's city hall rang to chants of "Duce! Duce!", the term adopted by Italy's dictator, Benito Mussolini, equivalent to the German "Führer". Supporters of the new mayor gave the fascist Roman straight-arm salutes.

Although this trend is disturbing, it has one benefit. Berlusconi has always been a man of the right. Beloved by conservatives across the globe. Many of these conservative voices have been attempting to paint the fascist movement in the 1930s as some kind of left-wing ideal. That the facts point to the opposite conclusion hardly matters. With Berlusconi now echoing the rhetoric of the fascists, this should flush out some of the bullshit that has come from elements of the right in recent years. Will those who decry fascism as a left-wing ideology now come out and criticise him?? I think not. Which leads to another interesting problem for the right.

For many years, opposition to the actions of Israel has been equated to anti-Semitism. Many on the right have sought the moral high ground in response to their complicity in the rise of fascism. This complicity has helped to paint them as friends of the Jewish people and Israel's critics as their enemies. This is, of course, patently absurd and will surely now be exposed in Italy. During the mayoral campaign in Rome, Jewish citizens protested against Alemmano within the old Jewish ghetto due to his dubious record. Given that this is the case and that the right, as they claim, are now friends of Jewish people across the globe, will we see the right come out and condemn Alemmano and Berlusconi?? I find it hard to believe. The right will, as always, discard their principles on the basis of political expediency. I for one will not be expecting any condemnations of the rise of fascism or anti-Semitism in Italy from anyone on the right.

Waterboarding

2008-04-29T22:21:00.000+01:00

Burma - Another Reason to Hate Chevron

2008-04-29T22:13:00.002+01:00

As if the situation in Ecuador wasn't enough. This from The Guardian:

A human rights watchdog group on Tuesday accused Chevron Corp of complicity in human rights abuses along a natural gas pipeline in Myanmar in which it holds a stake and said Chevron could be sued.

EarthRights International claimed in a report issued on Tuesday that Myanmar's army has in recent years committed serious abuses including rape and murder while providing security for the pipeline that moves gas from the Yadana gas field, located offshore in the Andaman Sea.

The group also said the army has forced Burmese citizens to build sentry posts, perform security duties along the pipeline and maintain roads.

"The people of Burma are making the pipeline go through their own physical energy, their blood, their sweat and their tears," Katie Redford, U.S. office director of EarthRights, said in an interview.

"That's what 'Human Energy' means in Burma," Redford said, referring to Chevron's current advertising campaign, which aims to improve the company's image on environmental and social issues.

Mmm, another human rights abuse for William Haynes to get his teeth into. Still, he has plenty of experience, doesn't he?

You can read more about the report on the Yadana pipeline here.

Tesco - Attacking Free Speech

2008-04-29T21:56:00.002+01:00

A group of authors have signed a letter to The Times calling on Tesco to 'exercise restraint' over their ongoing libel action in Thailand. The protest has been organised by English PEN, a campaign group for freedom of expression. The full letter to the newspaper reads as follows:

Sir, We are writing to urge Tesco to exercise restraint over libel actions that we understand to have been recently launched by its subsidiary Tesco Lotus in Thailand. The claims have been brought against three critics of Tesco Lotus. One of these critics, Jit Siratranont, faces two years in jail accused of criminal defamation, and a civil damages claim of 1.1 billion baht (£16.6 million). While we accept the need for Tesco and other corporations to protect their reputation, we are concerned by this disproportionate response.

The offence of criminal defamation is considered by most international watchdogs to be incompatible with the fundamental right to freedom of expression. Its deployment now by a subsidiary of a UK-based company, which prides itself on “upholding basic human rights” and which “supports in full the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights”, sends an unsettling message around the world.

As writers we greatly value the tradition of free speech in Britain, and we would like to think that a leading international business such as Tesco would be concerned with exporting these values along with its groceries. We urge Tesco to impress its critics with the force of argument, not the threat of imprisonment.

Lisa Appignanesi

President, English PEN

Mark Haddon

Jonathan Heawood

Director, English PEN

Nick Hornby

Anthony Lester, QC

Marina Lewycka

Deborah Moggach

The supermarket is currently engaged in a libel battle with two Thai journalists for making critical comments about the retail giant. A libel battle that, according to one human rights expert, would be 'unable to succeed' if the action was taken in the UK.

Judging by some of the comments in The Times piece, many people are turning off Tesco altogether. Perhaps this is the start of a wider ranging boycott of the retailer. This case could, if it proceeds, be their McLibel. I for one will not shed a tear.

Kim Howells And Colombia

2008-04-28T21:52:00.004+01:00

A little while back, Kim Howells made some rather misleading comments about Justice for Colombia. During an interview with the Western Mail, Howells claimed that the organisation is closely affiliated with the FARC, a disgraceful smear. Appalled by his language, and the fact that his words put many union members' lives in jeopardy, I wrote to the MP to express my disappointment with his attack on an important organisation in Colombia. After much hand wringing (it took a month to elicit a reply, during which time I was told they were 'working' on a response), I finally received a letter from Howells' office which you can read below:

One wonders about the content of the letter to the TUC and just how serious this government is about trade union members in Colombia (perhaps a FoI request is in order). One also wonders how this letter would go down with those who lost family members and work colleagues as a direct result of Mr Howells smearing an organisation fighting for the rights of trade union members.