SpikedHowever, to interpret the outcome of the French and Dutch referendums as having little to do with popular attitudes towards the EU is an exercise in self-delusion. How human beings vote is never a simple, straightforward matter. People do not simply respond to a script handed down from above and vote in accordance with the instructions set out by the political classes; their voting behaviour is influenced by a variety of motives and emotions. Sometimes people cast a ballot to vote positively for something they desire, and sometimes their vote represents a negative act of thwarting their political masters.
Which is why spoilt votes and abstentions should be counted. Without direct democracy, our voices do not count.
Pulse Media
31.7.05
Populism
30.7.05
Secularism
Iraq is the immediate trigger, but this is about religious delusion.I couldn't agree more on the subject of seperation of church and state.However, it seems to me to be at best misguided to think that this is a solution to terrorism. It is a political and cultural problem. Putting an end to arabo-muslim hatred of 'westerners' is the first step. To do this, there must be an end to 'western' terror and imperialism.
But never was it more important to separate the state from all faiths and relegate all religion to the private - but well-regulated - sphere.
But this is not choice. Only yesterday an angry email arrived from a parent on the south coast protesting that the only choice of primary school was a C of E, a Catholic and an oversubscribed ordinary school. Disqualified from the first two, failing to get into the third, their child is sent miles across town; three nonreligious schools would have been genuine choice.Secularism should not mean taking away religious freedom. Choice means giving people the choice between different faiths as well as secularism.
Secularism can become extremist its self. This is the case in France, where xenophobia and a post-colonialist mentality is using secularism to exclude muslim girls from schools.
29.7.05
Methods of arrest
Breathtaking, the guys who execute innocent men on nebulous suspicions, condemm those who successfully arrest an important suspect in the bombing investigation with no loss of life.
Empress Aiko-chan
Japan Times "People should discuss the question of whether the Imperial system itself should exist before they discuss if a female monarch is to be allowed," Okudaira said.
Running water
GuardianHe intended to leave it running for a year - to highlight, he insists, the way people waste water.
It would be like killing someone to highlight the horror of death...
Wages of guilt
It has been criticised for making just a passing mention of atrocities by Japanese troops in Asia, and leaving out the stories of the women sexually enslaved by members of the imperial army.Wages of guilt
"I always associated the war with Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But the nuclear bombings happened after 1940. Before that, Japan did things which were even worse. Watching the video, it seemed almost unreal. Before this, I could only think of Japan as the loser in the war, but we Japanese must know what happened before 1940. What impressed me more than anything else, seeing this video, was the scene of Japanese soldiers laughing as they watched Chinese people being killed. How could they have done that? I cannot understand the feelings of the Japanese at that time. . ."
Nationality matters
A Kiwi doctor has emerged as one of the heroes of the London bus bombing - the sole physician to clamber inside the mangled double-decker to treat trapped victims despite warnings of a second bomb.
So I suppose this means all kiwis are 'brave, moral and ethical'?
As she said:
"It was the moral and ethical thing to do."She didn't say 'it was the kiwi thing to do'!
Shot Brazilian
The Brazilian electrician mistakenly shot dead by police hunting for the London suicide bombers was in Britain illegally, the Home Office has announced.This does not explain why he was shot eight times, while subduded(according to witness).If anyone has seen or heard any reference to this point in the media or from the government/police, please let me know!
Foreign intervention
Madrassas"Any (foreigners) in the madrassas - even dual nationality holders - will leave Pakistan," Gen Musharraf said.
How about we throw out all foreigners enrolled in British faith-based schools?
28.7.05
Assassination plot
Stumbled accross this
Nearly 50 years before the war in Iraq, Britain and America sought a secretive "regime change" in another Arab country they accused of spreading terror and threatening the west's oil supplies, by planning the invasion of Syria and the assassination of leading figures.
Peace in our time?
Link The leadership of Oglaigh na hEireann has formally ordered an end to the armed campaign.
Latest on Stockwell shooting
Is this man competent?
Q: We can have a very long discussion about that - we've no time for that. One more question. Tony Blair said last week, I don't believe we had any option but to disclose the name of Dr David Kelly - that is what he said last week to Jeremy Paxman. On 22 July 2003, he said, I did not authorise the leaking of the name of David Kelly. Can you reconcile those two statements?
A: Well, yes I can because in one case he uses the first person singular and in the other case he uses the first person.
Incompetence
BBC linkA Birmingham MP has called for the chairman of the city's Central Mosque to resign after he said the government could not be trusted.
Is Blair unfit to lead?Under pressure witnesses tell police interviewers or cross-examining barristers the truth inadvertently. Being grilled by Paxman is exactly like that, did Blair let the truth slip under pressure on live TV?
BBC interview
Saudi democracy
The confirmation of harsh prison sentences against three Saudi advocates of peaceful reform will chill Saudi Arabia's reform movement, Human Rights Watch said today.
IRA release (and a little something else)
BeebA government statement said he was "released on the expectation of a forthcoming IRA statement".
Beeb again!
While Libya's donation of arms to the IRA in the 1980s has been the most public sign of where the republican movement has previously turned for support, the reality is that North America has been the most important link of all.
27.7.05
You gotta laugh...
Last night on Newsnight, the former CIA director, James Woolsey, said, in reference to China, "we've been opposed to dictatorships for a long time".
Oh yeah? Oh really? Aha...?
The 'terrorists' are winning
Less than a week ago, an innocent man was shot eight times while subdued(according to an eyewitness)and killed by police. Today, there is practically nothing in the news about this affair. If the fundamentalist terrorists want to destroy our democracy, they are winning.
And how dare Blair say some people "turned over and went back to sleep" after 9-11?! The majority of those who oppose the so-called 'war against terror' (TWAT), do so because they oppose ALL terror and violence, be it here or elsewhere. The opponents of TWAT know that western policy and terror in foreign countries breed more hate against us, and therefore more terror directed at us.
A Logic Voice
Legal immigrant
Click here
Brasília - During a joint news conference yesterday in London, Brazilian minister of Foreign Relations, Celso Amorim, declared that Jean Charles Menezes was in England with a legally valid visa.
26.7.05
US Imperial Strategy in the Middle East
George W. Bush’s team entered office in January 2001 with the firm
intention of overthrowing the regime in Baghdad. Bush had expressed this
intention himself during his presidential campaign.
...
At the risk of annoying those who react to any explanation of U.S.
foreign policy in terms of economic interests, and oil interests in particular,
with cries of “reductionism”: the oil lobby has traditionally played a key role
in formulating U.S. foreign policy, at the very least since the Second World
War.[5]
...
Some administrations are more sensitive than others to oil company
influence, however. The administration of the younger Bush, whose presidential
campaign had all the oil and gas industry’s chief companies (including of course
ExxonMobil, BP Amoco, El Paso, and Chevron) among its main donors, is certainly
one of the most sensitive. Besides his own personal and family ties to the
industry, Bush appointed people with equally close or closer ties to it to key
posts in his administration, including Vice President Dick Cheney (Halliburton)
and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice (Chevron).
...
Indeed, if estimates of future demand are reasonably correct, the
Persian Gulf must expand oil production by almost 80 percent during 2000–2020,
achievable perhaps if foreign investment is allowed to participate and if Iran
and Iraq are free of sanctions.[10]
...
For the Bush administration, as in fact for U.S. capitalism as a
whole, the need to put an end to the embargo imposed on Iraq was becoming
urgent.
...
First, Saddam Hussein had to be overthrown and replaced by a
government under U.S. control. Without this “regime change” Washington would not
contemplate moving to lift the embargo. Paris and Moscow had been calling for
some time to lift the embargo on the Ba’athist regime, precisely because it was
in their interests and contrary to Washington’s.
Baghdad had granted its two privileged partners—historically France
and Russia—major oil concessions whose implementation depended on ending the
embargo. Given the magnitude of what was at stake in Iraq—the huge market for
rebuilding the country, devastated as it was by 20 years of war and embargo, in
addition to its gigantic oil resources—it was out of the question for
Washington, backed by London for identical reasons, to hand it all on a silver
platter to Paris and Moscow.
...
We know from investigative reports and interviews that some
members of Bush’s team wanted to seize the occasion immediately to go after
Iraq, although they knew full well—whatever they claimed—that Baghdad had
nothing to do with the men who had attacked the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
...
The invasion of Afghanistan was also a chance for the Bush
administration to carry out a project it had cherished since the final collapse
of the Soviet Union. But establishing a direct U.S. military presence in the
heart of ex-Soviet Central Asia had seemed even more improbable than a U.S.
occupation of Iraq.[14]A military presence in the heart of the Eurasian
continental mass joining Russia to China—two countries tempted to ally with each
other in order to resist U.S. hegemonic pressure more effectively,[15] or even
to ally with Iran as well—had evident geostrategic value. Besides, a U.S.
military presence in Central Asia and the Caspian basin (in Uzbekistan,
Kyrgyzstan, Georgia and so on) fit into its global and Middle Eastern strategy
of taking control of sources of oil, supplemented in this particular case by
natural gas.
...
Washington has definitely decided to make a huge effort in order to
rebuild an Iraqi state that would be its loyal vassal and capable of ensuring
neocolonial order under U.S. supervision and the protection of U.S. troops. This
perspective was even the sine qua non for invading the country and overthrowing
Saddam Hussein, as we have already explained. The Bush administration’s curt
attitude toward Paris in particular expressed its determination to exclude
France from any share in the booty. Washington knew that France has some major
trump cards in its rivalry with the United States: its long experience with the
Iraqi market and its standing among Arab peoples, which contrasts sharply with
the general hostility to the U.S.-British tandem.
...
The myth that Washington wants to endow Iraq with a democratic
government that would be a model for the whole region, the myth that the United
States is replaying in Iraq the tape of Germany and Japan’s post-1945
democratization, will not stand up for long to the test of events. In the two
big countries defeated in the Second World War, sizable capitalist classes with
ideological hegemony over their societies were ready to collaborate with the
U.S. occupier and rebuild their countries under its tutelage and with its
aid—all the more willingly because they lived in terror of the “communist”
threat. While allied with the United States, they were still capable of
governing on the basis of genuine electoral majorities.
...
So what remains of the prospects for “democracy” in the Middle
East? In fact the term “democracy” has increasingly given way in official U.S.
statements to the term “freedom,” the term that was used by the way to name the
invasion of Iraq: “Iraqi Freedom.” But what kind of “freedom” is this? George W.
Bush has not delayed passing on the good news to the peoples of the Middle East:
in a speech on May 9, 2003, he proposed to them “the establishment of a
U.S.–Middle East free trade area within a decade”![24]
25.7.05
Blair 'sorry'
BBC NewsThe prime minister said the police would have been criticised for failing to act had the man turned out to be a terrorist.
What a terrible thing to say. So was he a sacrificial lamb, or merely 'collateral damage'? Can anyone imagine the TERROR this man must have gone through, and the pain his closest must now be going through?
I've said this before, but if we are at war, let it be official. Let the Queen declare war on the 'jihadists' (Mr de Villepin), and then there will no longer be any need for Mr blair to justify himself.
I feel sick.
Disobeying orders
Obedience to orders is a high military virtue, without which an army is merely a mob.102 The reliability achieved through obedience is an essential characteristic of effective military operations; however, obedience is not absolute. Orders must be based upon law and morality.Soldiers Are obligated to disobey illegal or immoral orders.
‘A plea of superior orders shall not be acknowledged if the subordinate realized
or, according to the. circumstances known to him, plainly could have realized that the action ordered was a crime.’
Backlash etc.
He added: 'Many don't want to get addicted to drink, so they look for another outlet - for them religion is always there.'
How true! Religion replaces drugs&alcohol. Are we better off?
Findings like this produce complex reactions in young British Muslims like Fatema Dossa, 24, a pharmacy graduate from Eastcote, London. 'There is no doubt that the double standards of Western foreign policy have an effect on Muslim youth. You can understand the motives of suicide bombers, but to kill people is different. It is not going to achieve anything.
I wouldn't say this is a complex reaction. It's the difference between explanation and justification. Why is it so hard for some to understand? Oy weh!
In Glasgow, a woman sharing the same surname as one of the bombers said her children had been spat on.
No need to cross the 'pond' in order to find ignorance and stupidity.
'We need to hear about people being arrested for these attacks on Muslims who are threefold victims. They are targets of terrorists, targets of the Islamophobic backlash and they will be targets of anti-terror legislation.'
24.7.05
Shot man
Let's remember that according to a witness, the police pushed him to the ground, and once on top of him, shot him five times.A man shot dead by police hunting the bombers behind Thursday's
London attacks was a Brazilian electrician unconnected to the
incidents.
So, is it wrong to have inquiries?
The Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, said: "The police acted to do
what they believed necessary to protect the lives of the public.
"This
tragedy has added another victim to the toll of deaths for which the terrorists
bear responsibility."
In a democracy, the police force is not supposed to be a militia. The police should be accountable for it's actions, and held responsible. Otherwise, we give them a licence to kill, and the government a licene to reign while we're at it. Then we are no longer in a democracy. Or we declare war on somebody, and then the country is officially at war. Is this the case?
23.7.05
22.7.05
Police shooting
Witness Mark Whitby was on the train as he saw a big man wearing a large coat and "looking absolutely petrified" lurch through the doors.
Admitting to being "totally distraught", he went on: "He half-tripped, was half-pushed to the floor.
"The policeman nearest to me had the black automatic pistol in his left hand, he held it down to the guy and unloaded five shots into him."
Unconfirmed reports suggest the man was involved in Thursday's assault on the capital; it is not known if he had a bomb when shot.
If the suspect is proved to be a suicide bomber, it would mark the fifth attempted terrorist attack on London in less than a day.
A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "We can confirm that just after 10am armed officers shot a male at Stockwell Underground station.
"A man was challenged by officers and subsequently shot. London Ambulance Service attended the scene. He was pronounced dead at the scene."
Can we expect an inquiry to find out the truth behind this shooting, or do the police(if indeed it was a police shooting) now have a licence to kill?
"There may well be reasons why the police felt it necessary to unload five shots into the man and shoot him dead, but they need to make those reasons clear," he said.
Slum clearing
A major UN report has called for an immediate end to Zimbabwe's slum clearance programme, declaring it to be in violation of international law.
21.7.05
In the face of logic
Here 'tis!
The article opens thus:
Ken Livingstone was this week accused of betraying those killed in the London bombings after appearing to offer excuses for similar attacks in Israel.
Now let's look at the evidence:
It really seems as though some people don't get the difference between 'justifying'(giving excuses) and 'explaining'. Or perhaps, they just don't want to see the difference.“Now I don’t think that justifies suicide bombing but if you have been under foreign occupation, denied the right to vote, denied the right to run your own affairs, often denied the right to work for three generations, I suspect that if that had happened here in England, we would have produced a lot of suicide bombers ourselves.”
...
The Mayor said he himself opposed suicide bombings but found Israel’s use of missiles, planes and tanks against civilians just as repellent. He subsequently insisted: “The proposal to ban anyone who sought to justify suicide bombings would equally have to apply to anyone who defends the Israeli army's actions. That would in fact mean refusing to talk to either side in the conflict.”
20.7.05
Panorama programme
Watch thisPanorama's investigation is a stark portrayal of the indignities faced by elderly people as they reach the end of their days in a major British hospital
Leaked memo
The threat assessment was particularly surprising because it stated that terrorist-related activity in Britain was a direct result of violence in Iraq.
"Events in Iraq are continuing to act as motivation and a focus of a range of terrorist related activity in the U.K.," said the report."
19.7.05
Fallacies
Do ministers really expect us to believe they don't know what a fallacy is?
"Is the report saying it was a mistake to allow Afghanistan and Iraq to exercise their democratic rights?
"These are the hard questions the report does not address."
Their argument goes like this:
"If we hadn't invaded Afghanistan and Iraq, the people of these countries wouldn't have known democracy"
Well, that's debatable. Who can assert as a fact that democracy couldn't have come from within?
"Those who oppose the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq must therefore be pro-Saddam/Taleban".
This is a 'guilt by association' fallacy. Saddam Hussein and the taleban were dictators, therefore to oppose their removal (by the US, UK and others) is to support them.
This fallacy ignores the real reasons for opposing the invasions, the first of which is to oppose illegal intervention in a sovereign state. Next is that the invasion and war exacerbates resentment towards the 'West' and attacks on the 'West'.
Leading on from this, Blair claims there can be no link between the war in Iraq and the bombings in London because there were terrorist attacks before the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Another red herring. The fact that terrorists had other reasons to attack 'western' targets does not mean that the war in Iraq is not one of them.
Of course, those responsible for the attacks are first and foremost those who perpetrated them. That Blair and Bush are also responsible through their actions in the Middle East and elsewhere, is also clear.
18.7.05
The Media
In this article, the half-sister of one of the bombers is said to have been told of his death and role in the attacks by her mother on the phone. In this video, she is said to have found out at the newsagents.
This may seem like a detail, but either she has made up a story, or at least one journalist has taken the truth a little lightly. Make your own mind up.
An alltogether more joyful post
A question worth asking
"Why did they buy return train tickets to Luton? Why did they buy pay & display tickets for cars? Why were there no usual shouts of 'Allah Akhbar'? Why were bombs in bags and not on their bodies?"
Another question:who would the claim that it was suicide be most useful to?
More on it here
12.7.05
War on teror
4. I urge you not to deny your fear.linkMethinks they doth protest too much, as the saying goes.
Fear struck our capital and my heart on Thursday, but I no longer seek to deny it. Tempting as it may be, such a denial would be a mistake.
It would be an even bigger mistake to extend this denial into a 'bring it on' message, as some have done.
I fear for my well-being and for the well-being of those around me.
I fear the hatred these attacks breed.
I fear greatly for the future of our democracy, and the welfare of people all over the world as the unspoken message continues that you can torture innocents, murder civilians, bleed countries dry, subject other human beings to slavery and behave any damn way you please as long as the majority of the population either doesn't notice or tolerates the hell out of it.
I must acknowledge these fears and I must act on them.
And the only sane action is to call the wrong-doers to account.
All of them.
10.7.05
Israeli disengagement
This is the time to deconstruct and rebuild a new understanding that will allow both the Palestinian and the Jewish people to live on one land – revering and respecting one another equally, not as two Peoples, but as one.
Click above for article and visit my source
9.7.05
Roots of terror
This is an explanation, not a justification. What is needed to prevent these attacks against 'us' is rational explanation, not emotional justification. Those who resort to emotional justification, are not interested in fighting terror. Terror breeds terror.
"Many of the people who are drawn to these movements are not people who are looking for some sort of Taliban lifestyle, they're people who are actually motivated because they support some kind of insurgency about the way the West is dealing with the Middle East, and they feel the Middle East is utterly humiliated. The Middle East people are utterly humiliated by the West and the Western policies. And this is the response they seek. It's an appalling response, but I think to understand it, you’ve got to understand it goes a lot further than simply a kind of revulsion against the Western way of life."
Rainbow Warrior
"The French media seemed to understand little about what was happening in New Zealand.
We were reading reports of anti-French hysteria, as if the tricolour was being torched from Invercargill to Auckland and expats were in fear of their lives."
8.7.05
As I have written elsewhere...
There is no moral justification for the killing of innocent civilians, whatever their nationality, place of birth or wherever they may live. If you terrorise innocent people, then you are a terrorist, whether you belong to a 'shadowy organisation' , a government or it's military. The method of terror is irrelevant.
Occupation
"Iraqis are being portrayed as a people who can't wait to kill each other once foreign troops are withdrawn, but it is the occupation that is fueling the violence"
For an interesting insight, click here"And the American military weren’t really policing the situation – they were occupying the country very cautiously. So, there were no traffic rules – everybody was setting the rules themselves. There was no department of water, no department of sewerage, no department of electricity. All of that was being taken care of by the local people. And there were no banks open either. So, you could only change money on the street. The money that was there was obviously just going around. And everything was functioning fine. There was fresh food everywhere, there was plenty of food. Most services were working. Water and electricity and telephones went off at times, but most of the time were up and running."
Koizumi-san
"Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has said he has no plans to withdraw Japanese forces from Iraq, after a series of bombings in London."
I sincerely hope it doesn't come to that, but if Japan ever is attacked, it will be interesting to see what he then says..."In another measure, Japan issued a travel warning to its citizens in London, urging them to avoid central London."
It's a bit late for that, isn't it?
7.7.05
Statement
"In the name of God, the merciful, the compassionate, may peace be upon the cheerful one and undaunted fighter, Prophet Muhammad, God's peace be upon him.
Nation of Islam and Arab nation: Rejoice for it is time to take revenge against the British Zionist Crusader government in retaliation for the massacres Britain is committing in Iraq and Afghanistan. The heroic mujahideen have carried out a blessed raid in London. Britain is now burning with fear, terror and panic in its northern, southern, eastern, and western quarters.
We have repeatedly warned the British Government and people. We have fulfilled our promise and carried out our blessed military raid in Britain after our mujahideen exerted strenuous efforts over a long period of time to ensure the success of the raid.
We continue to warn the governments of Denmark and Italy and all the Crusader governments that they will be punished in the same way if they do not withdraw their troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. He who warns is excused.
God says: "You who believe: If ye will aid (the cause of) Allah, He will aid you, and plant your feet firmly."
perspective
"Why is it that we Europeans can no longer understand our own peace and contentment and safety and our extraordinary luxury and our futuristic living standards and our God-like good fortune and our long, wonderful lives?"
Terror in the UK
It was bound to happen , but hasn't this kind of thing been happening in Irak on a regular basis over the past 2 years? I feel ashamed at my own sudden concern.
I think we can be thankful for the emergency services
London blasts
Ken Livingstone:"It was aimed at ordinary, working-class Londoners"
Oh really? So, middle- and upper-class Londoners live in some kind of a bubble, do they?
Blair:
"Those responsible have no respect for human life...an attack on civilised people everywhere...the perpetrators (...) are intent on destroying human life..."
They have a lot in common with you, Mr Blair"The Metropolitan Police at Scotland Yard say they believe the explosion on the bus was caused by a suicide bomber. If that is confirmed, it will be the first time a suicide bomber has struck in Britain. A statement says explosive material has been found at at least one location."
Blair:
"Reasonably clear that this is a terrorist attack...our determination to defend our values is greater than their determination to cause death to innocent people..."
What about the deaths of innocent people caused by YOU, Mr Blair?
"All the leaders share our determination to defeat this terrorism", said Mr Blair.
Let's hope this means they agree to stop partaking in terrorist activities in Irak, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Perhaps it means WHINSEC and Guantanamo will close.
"Multiple Bombs Rock London, Arabs Possibly Al Qaeda Blamed"
handle with care...
News to be handled with care
"London transport company sources have said that an explosion on one London bus has 'caused some fatalities', according to Sky News. "
2.7.05
School of Americas/WHINSEC
Following on from this post
According to the WHINSEC site WHINSEC has nothing to do with the illustrious Shool of the Americas:
The Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) was established by the Floyd D. Spence National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2001, signed by President Bill Clinton on October 30, 2000.This despite being located in the same town, Fort Benning, Georgia, having been founded in 2001, shortly after the closure in 2000 of the Scholl of the Americas, and having the same purpose which is to provide professional education and training to eligible personnel of Western Hemisphere nations (WHINSEC),or in order to ensure the
success of U.S. National Security Objectives in the Hemisphere (SOA).
According to the SOA site, human rights were high on it's agenda:
In all courses at the U.S. Army School of the Americas, human rights awareness is stressed and integrated into every program
For WHINSEC,
Two broad principles of the OAS, essential to the mission of the WHINSEC, are to ensure peace of the Western Hemisphere and promote human welfare through inter-American cooperation that is fully grounded in International law.According to WIKIPEDIA, the free encyclopedia,
Graduates of the SOA include men such as Hugo Banzer Suárez, Leopoldo Galtieri, Manuel Noriega, Efraín Ríos Montt, Vladimiro Montesinos, Guillermo Rodríguez, Omar Torrijos, Roberto Viola and Juan Velasco Alvarado.Comments welcome.