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GUARDIAN Tue, 20 Jul 2010 20:27:48 GMT
Lady Eliza Manningham-Buller tells Chilcot that invasion increased terrorist threat and radicalised young British Muslims
The former head of MI5 delivered a devastating critique of the invasion of Iraq today, saying it substantially increased the threat of terrorist attacks in Britain and was a significant factor behind the radicalisation of young Muslims in the UK.
Lady Eliza Manningham-Buller told the Chilcot inquiry into the UK's role in Iraq: "Our involvement in Iraq radicalised, for want of a better word, a whole generation of young people – not a whole generation, a few among a generation – who saw our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan as being an attack upon Islam."
Asked by Sir Roderic Lyne, a member of the inquiry, to what extent the conflict exacerbated the threat from international terrorism facing Britain, she replied: "Substantially."
She was not surprised, she said, that UK citizens were behind the 7/7 attacks in London nor that increasing number of Britons......
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DAWN Mon, 14 Jun 2010 10:33:23 PKT
Afghanistan could be holding $1 trillion of untapped mineral deposits including critical industrial metals such as lithium, the New York Times reported, quoting US government officials.
The previously unknown deposits of iron, copper, cobalt and gold are so huge that it could transform the impoverished nation into one of the world's important mining centres, the report on the newspaper's website said.
The mineral wealth, discovered by a team of Pentagon officials and US geologists, is scattered throughout the country including in the south and east along the border with Pakistan, where the Taliban-led insurgency is the most intense.
“There is stunning potential here,” the newspaper quoted General David Petraeus, commander of the US Central Command, as saying in an interview at the weekend.
“There are lots of ifs, of course, but I think potentially it is hugely significant.”
An internal Pentagon memo said Afghanistan could become the “Saudi Arabia of........
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GUARDIAN Wed, 10 Feb 2010 09:44:59 GMT
High court ruling compels British government to disclose what MI5 and MI6 knew of refugee's treatment in Guantánamo Bay
Three of Britain's most senior judges have ordered the government to reveal evidence of MI5 and MI6 complicity in the torture of British resident Binyam Mohamed – unanimously dismissing objections by David Miliband, the foreign secretary.
In a ruling that will cause deep anxiety among the security and intelligence agencies, they rejected Miliband's claims, backed by the US government, that disclosure of a seven paragraph summary of classified CIA information showing what British agents knew of Mohamed's torture would threaten intelligence sharing between London and Washington and therefore endanger Britain's national security.
The judges – Igor Judge, the lord chief justice; Lord Neuberger, the master of the rolls; and Sir Anthony May, president of the Queen's Bench - shattered the convention that the courts should not question claims by the executive relating to national security.
In damning references to claims made by Miliband and his lawyers, and stressing the importance of the media in supporting the principle of open justice, they said the case raised issues of "fundamental importance", of "democratic accountability and ultimately the rule of law itself".
Publication of the material Miliband wanted to suppress was "compelling", Judge said, since they concerned the involvement of wrongdoing by agents of the state in the "abhorrent practice of torture". The material helped to "vindicate Mr Mohamed's assertion that UK authorities had been involved in and facilitated the ill treatment and torture to which he was subjected while under the control of USA authorities".
Key to the appeal court's ruling was a recent case in a US court where the judge noted that Mohamed's "trauma lasted for two long years. During that time he was physically and psychologically tortured. His genitals were mutilated ... All the while he was forced to inculpate himself and others in various plots to imperil Americans."
The US court, which was hearing a case relating to another detainee at Guantánamo Bay, noted that Mohamed was told "that the British government knew of his situation and sanctioned his detention".
An MI5 officer known only as Witness B is being investigated by the Metropolitan police over his alleged role in questioning Mohamed incommunicado in a Pakistan jail.
The whole basis of Miliband's case had "fallen away" because of the US court case, said Neuberger, who added: "It is a case which is now logically incoherent and therefore irrational and is not based on any convincing evidence."
In his ruling , May said: "In principle a real risk of serious damage to national security, of whatever degree, should not automatically trump a public interest in open justice which may concern a degree of facilitation by UK officials of interrogation using unlawful techniques which may amount to torture or cruel, inhuman or degradng treatment."
In a stinging reference to claims by Jonathan Sumption QC, Miliband's counsel, that high court judges in earlier rulings were "irresponsible" in saying that CIA intelligence relating to ill treatment and torture and Britain's knowledge of it should be disclosed, the lord chief justice said: "No advantage is achieved by bandying deprecatory epithets."
Mohamed was detained in 2002 in Pakistan, where he was questioned incommunicado by an MI5 officer. The US flew him to Morocco, Afghanistan, and Guantánamo Bay, where he says he was tortured with the knowledge of British agencies.
In the high court last year, Lord Justice Thomas and Mr Justice Lloyd Jones ruled that it was clear from the evidence "that the relationship of the United Kingdom government to the United States authorities in connection with Binyam Mohamed was far beyond that of a bystander or witness to the alleged wrongdoing".
Binyam Mohamed
Torture
MI5
MI6
Guantánamo Bay
Terrorism policy
UK security and........
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GUARDIAN Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:22:39 GMT
Legal principle established in 1637 banned secret talks between lawyers and courts. It was broken by the government
When the master of the rolls, Lord Neuberger, decided to retract paragraph 168 from his draft judgment in the case of Binyam Mohamed, he relied on almost 400 years of jurisprudence to assume that the parties in the case had agreed to its removal.
The case of Ship Money, brought by Oliver Cromwell's cousin John Hampden in 1637, established the principle that there should be no secret communication between lawyers and the courts in legal proceedings.
Representations from one side – in this case, the foreign secretary's barrister, Jonathan Sumption QC – should be copied to all other parties in the case, so that they have the opportunity to respond.
On that basis, when Neuberger received a letter from Sumption requesting removal of the paragraph from the court of appeal draft judgment, lawyers say he must have thought he was acting with the agreement of all parties.
Neuberger removed the paragraph from the final judgment, watering down the court's condemnation of the security services, described by Sumption as containing "exceptionally damaging criticism".
"The master of the rolls' observations … will be read as statements by the court that the security service does not in fact operate a culture that respects human rights or abjures participation in coercive interrogation techniques," says Sumption's letter, now published in full on the Guardian's website.
But other parties in the case were not consulted and are furious.
"In all the years – I was first a government lawyer and then a liberty lawyer – I have never known the draft judgment process abused in this way," said Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, the human rights organisation which was a party to the case. "The purpose of using drafts is for typographical and factual corrections – minor matters such as names and dates.
"It is not to allow one party to re-run substantive arguments and tempt a court to tone down or change its judgments."
She added: "I can't believe that the Foreign Office thought they could get away with this. It shows the kind of contempt for the law that this case has always been about."
"This is anti-constitutional behaviour of the most disquieting kind," said Mark Stephens,
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GUARDIAN Wed, 27 Jan 2010 09:44:51 GMT
Human rights report indicates clear evidence of UK role in secret detention of British Muslims
United Nations human rights investigators have concluded that the British government has been complicit in the mistreatment and possible torture of several of its own citizens during the "war on terror".
In a report published today that will make difficult reading for ministers who repeatedly denied the UK's involvement in torture, UN officials have indicated that there is clear evidence of the UK's role in the secret detention overseas of several British Muslims.
The officials say that such secret imprisonment – or "proxy detentions" – not only facilitates torture, but may amount to torture in its own right. In one starkly worded passage, they warn that if a state's use of proxy detention had been systematic or widespread it would amount to a "crime against humanity".
There was no immediate comment from the British government.
The 226-page UN report follows the publication two months of ago a dossier entitled Cruel Britannia, from the New York-based NGO Human Rights Watch, whose researchers interviewed several Pakistani intelligence agents who alleged that they had tortured British terrorism suspects on behalf of their UK counterparts. It also follows a series of disclosures in the Guardian about the role played by officers of MI5, MI6 and Greater Manchester police in the detention and questioning under torture of terrorism suspects held in Pakistan and elsewhere.
The UN investigation into torture and rendition across the globe since 9/11 lasted several years and was led by Martin Scheinin, UN special rapporteur on terrorism and human rights, and Manfred Nowak, special rapporteur on torture. In a move that will do little to ease the discomfort of western governments that were the focus of the investigation, the two men and their aides were assisted by members of a UN working party on secret detentions that was first set up in 1979 to investigate the fate of people who were "disappeared" by the Pinochet regime in Chile.
Their report concludes that secret detention "amounts to a case of enforced disappearance" and that it is "a manifold human rights violation that cannot be justified under any circumstances, including during states of emergency".
Listing those cases in which they conclude that a state has been complicit in a secret detention, the authors highlight "the United Kingdom in the cases of several individuals, including Binyam Mohamed, Salahuddin Amin, Zeeshan Siddiqui, Rangzieb Ahmed and Rashid Rauf".
Ahmed, 34, from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, was detained in Pakistan in 2006. MPs have heard that after evidence of his terrorist offences had been gathered he was allowed to fly from Manchester to Islamabad, and that MI6 then suggested to a notorious Pakistani intelligence agency that its officers should detain him as he was a dangerous terrorist.
After MI5 and Greater Manchester police drew up a list of questions to be put to Ahmed, the Pakistani agents who were questioning him ripped out a number of his fingernails. Ahmed alleges he was also beaten, whipped and deprived of sleep. He was later deported to the UK, tried and convicted of terrorism offences and is now serving a life sentence at Full Sutton prison near York.
Salahuddin Amin, 35, from Luton, Bedfordshire, was deported to the UK in February 2005 after spending 10 months in the custody of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI). The UK courts have heard that he was questioned 11 times by MI5 officers, and Amin says he was tortured before each session. Human Rights Watch says it has spoken to Pakistani intelligence officers who broadly corroborate his account. Amin was also tried and convicted and is serving a life sentence at Whitemoor prison in Cambridgeshire.
The British government is attempting to block the disclosure of classified US documents about Binyam Mohamed, leading to speculation that they contain evidence...
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GUARDIAN Sun, 24 Jan 2010 11:58:39 GMT
Danger of attack still 'very real' says foreign secretary after al-Qaida leader appears to claim responsibility for Christmas Day bombing attempt
The foreign secretary today warned that the danger of a terrorist attack remained "very real" hours after an audio tape was released in which Osama bin Laden appeared to claim responsibility for the attempted bombing of an airliner over Detroit.
David Miliband said the Christmas Day bomb scare demonstrated that links could exist between different terrorist groups, but urged caution about the al-Qaida leader's latest message, aired on Al-Jazeera television.
"Let's wait to see what he actually says; we know that the al-Qaida senior leadership are in the badlands of the Afghan-Pakistan border, probably on the Pakistan side," he told BBC One's Andrew Marr Show. "We know too that the Detroit attack was the first time that al-Qaida of the Arabian Peninsula, which is a sub-group of the al-Qaida franchise, it's the first time the Detroit attack that represents an attack on the west rather than an attack within the Middle East."
On the tape broadcast on al-Jazeera, a voice said to be Bin Laden addressed words directly to Barack Obama, the US president.
"The message I want to convey to you through the plane of the hero Omar Farouk [Abdulmutallab], reaffirms a previous message that the heroes of 9/11 conveyed to you," the tape said. "America will never dream of living in peace unless we live it in Palestine. It is unfair that you enjoy a safe life while our brothers in Gaza suffer greatly."
It added: "God willing, our raids on you will continue as long as your support to the Israelis will continue."
Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian national, has been charged with attempting to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight as it approached Detroit Metro airport on Christmas Day. But the bomb hidden in his underwear failed to explode. Abdulmutallab told US investigators afterward that he had been trained by al-Qaida operatives in Yemen.
Yemen has launched a series of air strikes targeting al-Qaida leaders since the Detroit incident and has declared that some top leaders, including Qasim al-Raymi and Ayed al-Shabwani, have been killed – claims that al-Qaida has denied. The US has been supplying military equipment, intelligence and training to Yemen to destroy suspected al-Qaida hideouts.
Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula originally took credit for the Detroit incident, but in the latest tape, it is Bin Laden who claims primary responsibility. There was no way of confirming the authenticity of the tape, but it resembled previous recordings attributed to Bin Laden, who is believed to be somewhere in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region.
An Israeli foreign ministry spokesman, Andy David, dismissed Bin Laden's attempt to link Israel with attacks on the US.
"This is nothing new; he has said this before. Terrorists always look for absurd excuses for their despicable deeds," he said.
The last public message from Bin Laden appears to have been on September 26, when he demanded that European countries pull their troops out of Afghanistan. That audio tape also warned of "retaliation" against countries allied with the US in the war.
The Home Office said a raised terror threat level would not cause "any discernible difference" for the British public. The home secretary, Alan Johnson, increased the threat level from "substantial" to "severe" on Friday night – meaning he considers an attack "highly likely".
According to the Sunday Telegraph, his move came amid fears that al-Qaida terrorist cells had trained women, who may not be of Arabic appearance, to carry out suicide attacks. The Home Office said it was unable to comment on whether the two were linked, but insisted the threat level was raised only in consideration of an "entire body" of information.
Richard Clarke, a former chief White House counter-terrorism adviser, told the paper: "They (al-Qaida) have trained women.
"There are others who are still..
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GUARDIAN Sun, 03 Jan 2010 21:00:01 GMT
The ease with which the plane bomber could operate exposes the vacuity and recklessness at the heart of the US response to 9/11
So there was no ticking time bomb. No urgent need ever arose to torture anybody who was withholding crucial details, so that civilisation as we know it could be saved in the nick of time. No wires had to be tapped, special prisons erected or international accords violated. No innocent people had to be grabbed off the street in their home country, transported across the globe and waterboarded. Drones, daisy-cutters, invasions, occupations were, it has transpired, not necessary.
Indeed, when it actually came down to it, to forestall a near-calamitous terrorist atrocity in the US the authorities didn't even have to go in search of information or informants. The alleged terrorist's father came to the US embassy in Nigeria of his own free will and warned them that his son, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, had disappeared and could be in the company of Yemeni terrorists.
Meanwhile the National Security Agency had heard that al-Qaida in Yemen was planning to use an unnamed Nigerian in an attack on the US. If that were not enough, then came Abdulmutallab himself, a 23-year-old Nigerian bound for Detroit who bought his ticket in cash, checked in no bags and left no contact information. For seven years the American state manipulated the public with its multicoloured terror alerts. But when all the warning lights were flashing red, it did nothing.
To brand this near miss a "systemic failure", as Barack Obama has done, is both true and inadequate. It reduces the moral vacuity, political malevolence and enduring strategic recklessness that has been the enduring response to the 9/11 attacks to a question of managerial competence.
"Terror is first of all the terror of the next attack," explains Arjun Appadurai in Fear of Small Numbers. During the Bush years that terror was routinely leveraged for the purposes of social control, military mobilisation and electoral advantage. Meanwhile, the administrative processes that might prevent the next attack were tragically lacking. In short, Bush's anti-terror strategy was not about protecting people but about scaring them.
To galvanise the nation for war abroad and sedate it for repression at home, the previous administration constructed a terror threat that was ubiquitous in character, apocalyptic in scale and imminent in nature. Only then could they counterpose human rights against security as though they were not only contradictory but mutually exclusive.
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GUARDIAN Wed, 30 Dec 2009 09:25:15 GMT
Two cousins break family ranks to claim China's economic power meant only token diplomatic effort was made
Relatives of Akmal Shaikh have made their first public criticism of the British government's failed efforts to prevent his execution by China yesterday.
They protested that his execution by China demonstrated Britain's "powerlessness in the world" and criticised the approach employed by ministers, the media and campaigners.
In a letter to the Guardian, Amina Shaikh and Ridwan Shaikh, who are among Akmal's cousins, said Britain had failed to take action against the Beijing government because "China is a powerful country economically". They were "deeply angered and disgusted" by Akmal's death.
Shaikh, 53, from Kentish Town, north London, was executed by lethal injection in Urumqi province. His family insist he had clear and demonstrable mental problems and had been duped into carrying 4kg of heroin into China by men promising to help him launch a singing career.
Yesterday two other cousins, Soohail and Nasir Shaikh, who visited Akmal briefly in the days before he was executed, issued a statement on behalf of the family praising the efforts of Gordon Brown, ministers and the human rights group Reprieve for their efforts. But today's letter shows that opinion within the Shaikh family is divided.
In their letter, Amina and Ridwan Shaikh:
• Accuse most of the media of ignoring Akmal's case until it was too late. "We were shocked that apart from Sky News, his case received only sporadic media attention during his two years in prison. Only when news was released of his imminent execution did it get the coverage it deserved. Wouldn't more media attention at an earlier stage have applied more pressure to the Chinese authorities? Wasn't this lack of coverage an injustice in itself?"
• Say that while they are "indebted to Reprieve and others for efforts they made on our cousin's behalf ... we were not comfortable with the strategy pursued". They say: "We didn't say anything as we respected the wishes of those concerned. We understand the strategy was based on expert advice that, as the Chinese regime is a brutal one, the best approach is to not criticise it as this may make things worse." They cite the high-profile campaign by Moazzam Begg's family to secure his release from Guantánamo Bay.
• Accuse the government of hypocrisy in its dealings with China. "One of the justifications we are told for invading countries like Afghanistan is 'human rights violations'. If it is accepted by all that there are gross violations taking place in China, why aren't they too invaded? This is purely to do with the fact that China is a powerful country economically. Britain's economic dependence far outweighs these 'individual cases'."
• Condemn the government's approach to the Chinese. "Did the British government pull out its diplomats in protest? Did it have a hard-hitting strategy to persuade the Chinese authorities to change their decision?"
The British government has made clear there will be no formal diplomatic retaliation beyond criticism. The cousins say in the letter: "This is an example of Britain's powerlessness in the world. Their strategy of being shoulder to shoulder with the US in the 'war on terror' has not given them the status they so desperately desire.
"We are not mourning simply for our cousin as a lot of other people, including Muslims in China, have experienced and will continue to experience the same fate, without any real justification; our hearts pour out to them too."
The Foreign Office minister Ivan Lewis has said that as well as official representations, ministers made 27 separate appeals on Shaikh's behalf in the two years after his arrest. Brown, Lewis and David Miliband, the foreign secretary, all delivered critical statements yesterday. Brown said he condemned the execution "in the strongest terms" and was "appalled and disappointed that our persistent requests for clemency have not been........
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GUARDIAN Mon, 21 Dec 2009 11:51:48 GMT
Move comes on 21st anniversary of destruction of Pan Am 103 and reports of worsening health of bomber
A body that investigates alleged miscarriages of justice has been given permission to release details of the case of the Lockerbie bomber, it was announced today.
But it will be for the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) to decide what – if anything – to release, said the Scottish government.
The move came on the 21st anniversary of the Lockerbie bombing outrage, and at a time when the Libyan convicted of it, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, is reported to be in worsening health.
A £1.1m investigation by the SCCRC led to a finding in June 2007 of six grounds – some put forward by the defence, others as a result of its own investigations – where it believed a miscarriage of justice may have occurred.
This decision opened the door to Megrahi's second appeal against his conviction. He dropped this appeal shortly before Scotland's justice secretary, Kenny MacAskill, granted an application for his release from jail on compassionate grounds on 20 August this year.
The commission said that Scottish ministers had made an order that would come into effect on 10 February, entitling it to disclose "to any members of the public" information obtained during its investigations.
George Sinclair, the commission's chief executive, said the order allowed disclosure only with the consent of those who had provided the information.
He added: "In considering whether it is entitled to disclose information, the commission will also have to have regard to other relevant matters, including ECHR [the European convention on human rights] and data protection legislation and all other relevant law."
MacAskill said: "The Scottish government has always been clear that as much information as possible in this case is published where relevant and, where appropriate, consents are given.
"The order laid today allows the SCCRC to disclose information it holds and it is now for them to decide what, if anything, they release."
The anniversary of the atrocity that claimed the lives of 270 people when Pan Am flight 103 exploded over the Scottish town comes as reports from Tripoli yesterday said Megrahi's prostate cancer had spread and the health of the 57-year-old was worsening.
Jim Swire, the father of one of the British victims, said he understood Megrahi may have a "few weeks" left to live.
A report issued by the Tripoli Medical Centre yesterday is said to have detailed the bomber's ailing health.
Swire, who lost his daughter Flora in the bombing, said: "I've been talking to people who know about his medical condition and the message I get is he's likely to only have a few weeks left.
"I think it's another occasion where we should be grateful for Kenny MacAskill's bold decision to allow him to go home."
Megrahi was found guilty of mass murder following a trial at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands in 2001.
He abandoned the second appeal against the conviction ahead of his release, and many of the victims' families are still fighting for further light to be shed on the circumstances surrounding the bombing.
Another Lockerbie relative, Pamela Dix, told how the reports of Megrahi's worsening condition added to the continuing ordeal of relatives still seeking answers.
Dix, whose brother Peter was among the dead, said: "It really builds the extreme sense of frustration that this whole year has brought.
"The lack of resolution around the criminal aspect of Lockerbie is almost now complete."
She told BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland: "With Megrahi's death we will never know whether if he is truly innocent as he protests and as the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Board considered he might be, or guilty as a Scottish court convicted him."
And she said: "I just find it immensely frustrating to have to sit here in the middle and not know."
Scottish politics
Lockerbie plane bombing
Abdelbaset al-Megrahi
Scotland
Scottish National Party.......
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GUARDIAN Mon, 14 Dec 2009 07:29:55 GMT
£150m package to tackle threat of roadside bombs as Brown become first postwar PM to stay overnight in war zone
Big defence cuts are to be announced this week by the Ministry of Defence as part of an attempt to shift resources to the frontline in Afghanistan.
Ministers will today announce a £150m package to tackle the threat of roadside bombs in Afghanistan, including the establishment of new specialist training facilities in the UK, a senior government official said last night.
However, the money will come from a "reprioritisation" of existing MoD spending plans, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
News of the measures came as Gordon Brown left Afghanistan after becoming the first British prime minister to stay overnight in a war zone since the second world war.
Brown slept in simple quarters at the Kandahar air base, the headquarters of Nato troops in the south of the country, before meeting President Hamid Karzai.
It has become traditional for the British prime minister to visit UK troops in either Afghanistan or Iraq before Christmas. Brown's talks with Karzai included discussions for a wide-ranging international conference on the future of Afghanistan in London on 28 January.
The defence cuts are expected to include closure of some bases, cuts in civilian staff, and a commitment to improve procurement in line with a report commissioned by the government from Bernard Grey, a defence specialist. It had been intended the cuts would have been announced in the pre-budget report last week, but talks were not completed in time.
The cuts are designed to release extra cash for the troops in Afghanistan, including possibly helicopter equipment.
The war in Afghanistan is normally funded by the Treasury from the contingency reserve. But it is understood that the defence secretary, Bob Ainsworth, needs to find savings due to cost overruns simply to retain the MoD's £38.7bn. A previous attempt to find savings in the territorial army training foundered.
Ainsworth said: "I'm being asked to live within my budget and there will be tough decisions that will have to be taken in that regard. I get additional money from the reserve in order to pay for the direct costs of operations, but I want to make shifts within the budget and there is cost growth within the budget. I want to move money towards the Afghan operation, to see what more we can do to support our troops and that means that there may well be tough decisions to be taken elsewhere."
The pre-budget report last week disclosed that an extra £2.5bn would be given to the Ministry of Defence for 2010-11 to cover the cost of the war in Afghanistan. It also revealed that Ainsworth is seeking to cut another 5,000 civilian staff by 2011, taking total numbers down to 81,000, a fall of 51,000 since 1997. A total of £14bn in the contingency reserve funding has been spent so far on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, including £5.2bn on equipment.
In a joint press conference with Karzai, the prime minister acknowledged that casualty numbers had been high and he paid tribute to soldiers' "bravery, professionalism and dedication".
Brown said he felt more confident about the conflict following decisions by the US and Britain to send in more troops. He insisted Afghanistan's border regions "are the location of choice for al-Qaida" and "the epicentre of global terrorism". Both leaders denied suggestions of a rift between them, even though Karzai last week attacked Brown for suggesting Kabul was a byword for corruption.
Karzai offered to send 10,000 extra Afghan troops to be trained in Helmand and Kandahar, where most UK forces were based. There would be 10,000 more Afghan police in Helmand and Kandahar, he said.
Afghanistan
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Gordon Brown
Patrick Wintour
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PRESSTV Thu, 10 Dec 2009 07:11:44 GMT
Renowned American sociopolitical analyst Noam Chomsky says Israel functions as Washington's main weapons storage base in the Middle East.
"Israel is essentially a US military base, the US positions weapons there, that's a very close military and intelligence tie,"
During his address at Boston University, the recognized professor also warned of the threat that the US and Israel posed to the world and said people may have more to fear from the two than those that Washington tries to associate with terrorism.
"[The US and Israel] consistently and regularly… resort to force and the threat of force… carry out aggression regularly and repeatedly… invade other countries, occupy other countries, [and] invoke terror and violence," he said.
Chomsky also pointed out that the US government and its media had spread exaggerated reports about Iran's nuclear program.
"There has been a massive propaganda campaign that demonizes Iran, that portrays it as a major threat to world peace that has been going on for the past three years," he said.
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GUARDIAN Sun, 06 Dec 2009 00:09:26 GMT
£100,000 deal with Somali pirates falls through as UK government says it will not allow payments to hostage-takers
A British couple kidnapped by Somali pirates six weeks ago were on the verge of being freed for a £100,000 ransom when the government blocked the deal, the Observer can reveal.
The money to release Paul and Rachel Chandler, taken hostage from their yacht on 23 October, had been agreed by a British negotiator two weeks ago. Foreign Office officials rejected the breakthrough, saying that they would not allow payments to hostage-takers.
The disclosure will increase the anguish for relatives of the Chandlers, from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, after concern that Britain's policy of not talking to kidnappers will endanger their lives.
Nick Davis, who negotiated the deal, yesterday accused the Foreign Office of playing "stupid games" after revealing how the Chandlers' captors had agreed to an offer that would have released the couple at a fraction of the £4.3m ransom previously demanded.
Davis, chairman of the industry anti-piracy organisation, the Merchant Maritime Warfare Centre (MMWC), accused the government of pursuing a flawed diplomatic strategy that could imperil the couple. The centre was set up last year to educate the shipping trade in anti-piracy measures and is funded by industry groups and insurers.
Davis said: "We could have had the Chandlers out weeks ago. The money was available, the pirates were keen to let them go, it was just a case of pushing the button. It was all ready to go. The pirates don't want to keep the Chandlers any longer. It's not good for them either.
"A figure of £100,000 had been agreed and put in place. It's still ready the second that I get given the nod. Then I can get them out and we can release the funds and get it to [the pirates]."
The Chandlers have been held captive for 45 days in Somalia. They were sailing from the Seychelles to Tanzania as part of a round-the-world tour when their 38ft yacht, Lynn Rival, was boarded by gunmen while they slept.
Davis said he had decided to go public because of his frustration at the negotiations and because of contacts from Somalia suggesting that Rachel Chandler, who is 55 and a retired economist, was becoming extremely frail. Her health was under pressure, he said, from constant shuttling between safe houses around the Somalian port town of Haradheere, to prevent the pair being caught by armed Islamist cells. "She can't cope with this. She's very weak and deteriorating; she's in a bad way and we need to get her home," he said.
The deal was agreed on 21-22 November but, according to Davis, fell through because the Foreign Office would not deviate from its policy of not paying hijackers nor would it communicate the breakthrough to relatives of the Chandlers in the UK. "The fact that professionals can affect their release should be clearly articulated to the family of the Chandlers so they can decide whether to support it," he said.
Davis, who has visited pirate contacts in Haradheere four times in the past two years, said concern was mounting over the government's policy of negotiating the Chandlers' release through middlemen, and that the "third-party" individuals involved seemed incapable of delivering a settlement.
A Foreign Office source said it had had little contact with the couple since they appeared on a video link two weeks ago.
Davis said: "We're in a situation where the people that can effect a release are being effectively blocked by diplomatic efforts because they [the British government] are just playing another game, that's the problem. There are secret games, just stupid games going on with the government diplomatically that does not work in the families' favour."
His exasperation corroborates the frustration of experienced Scotland Yard hostage negotiators from SCD7 command, who are also involved in the Chandler negotiations. Met sources have indicated frustration at lack of progress, with one source saying that...
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GUARDIAN Thu, 03 Dec 2009 11:03:11 GMT
Prime minister adopts diplomatic tone just days after saying Islamabad government was not doing enough to find Bin Laden
Gordon Brown today praised Pakistan's "impressive" record on fighting terrorism – just days after criticising the Islamabad government for not doing enough to find Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaida leaders.
At a joint press conference with his Pakistani counterpart, Yousaf Raza Gilani, the prime minister paid tribute to the "huge sacrifices" made by the country, refusing to re-visit his previous negative comments when questioned by Pakistani journalists.
On Sunday Brown said the Pakistan authorities had to "join us in the major effort" to break al-Qaida and that "we should have been able to do more" to tackle the extremist group.
But, with the Pakistani prime minister standing alongside him, he adopted a more diplomatic tone today. "This is your fight but it is also Britain's fight," he said.
He added: "I know that with the support of Britain together we can deliver security not just for every Pakistani but for every Briton and every individual around the world threatened by terrorism."
When challenged by a number of Pakistani journalists about his recent critical comments about the country's government, Brown responded by praising Pakistan's military operations against extremists in the Swat valley and Waziristan.
"We can all step up our efforts to deal with the terrorist threat," he said.
On Sunday, the prime minister told Sky News: "We will want to see more evidence of Pakistan action not just troops in south Waziristan but the whole of the government machine taking action."
Brown pledged £60m in aid for Pakistan, which will include funds for education and clean drinking water for children, to be delivered before the end of the financial year.
Challenged by British journalists, Gilani rejected any suggestion that Pakistan was to blame for the failure to find Bin Laden, saying that no intelligence had been provided to pinpoint his whereabouts.
"I don't think Osama bin Laden is in Pakistan," he said.
In his speech announcing a surge of US troops to be deployed in Afghanistan on Tuesday, US president Barack Obama identified the tribal belt between Pakistan and Afghanistan as the "epicentre of the violent extremism practised by al-Qaida".
Pakistan
Osama bin Laden
Al-Qaida
Global terrorism
UK security and terrorism
Gordon Brown
Haroon Siddique
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GUARDIAN Sun, 22 Nov 2009 12:27:44 GMT
Policing board member Alex Attwood says two attempts to murder police officers this weekend shows dissidents are 'broadening scale'
Republican dissidents are widening their terror attacks across Northern Ireland, a member of the province's policing board warned today after two separate attempts to murder police officers at the weekend.
Two men were arrested following a gun attack on officers in Co Fermanagh last night. Shot were fired at a police patrol in the border village of Garrison and PSNI officers returned fire. There were no reports of any injuries.
Dissident republicans were also blamed for a car bomb attack at the headquarters of the policing board. A car exploded outside the offices in Clarendon Dock yesterday evening. The vehicle had earlier been driven through a barrier by two men who then ran off. It is understood no one was injured in the incident. Both Garrison and the area around Clarendon Dock were cordoned off this morning.
SDLP policing board member Alex Attwood said the scale of dissident attack appears to be widening and organised after simultaneous incidents in Fermanagh and Belfast over the weekend.
The West Belfast assembly member said: "The incidents at Clarendon Dock and in Fermanagh are very grave concerns. It appears that the dissidents are broadening the scale of their attacks on democracy. The community must now broaden the scale of its response to the attacks and help the police with all information that may assist the prosecution of those responsible.
"The police, policing board and DPPs have been the most resilient institutions over the last decade. They have been tested time and time again. They have, and will, remain strong in their actions and resolve in the face of these latest developments."
There has been a marked upsurge in republican dissident terror attacks this year. On 7 March, the Real IRA killed sappers Mark Quinsey, 23, and Patrick Azimkar, 21, at Massereene Army base in Antrim.
Two days later the Continuity IRA shot PSNI Constable Stephen Paul Carroll in Craigavon, County Armagh.
Since the three murders the International Monitoring Commission has said there have been 11 attempts to kill members of the PSNI across Northern Ireland. The IMC – the body set up to monitor the activities of paramilitary groups – has also warned that the three main dissident groups, the Continuity IRA, the Real IRA and Oghlaigh na hEireann, are now working more closely together than in previous years.
Northern Ireland
UK security and terrorism
Ireland
Police
Henry McDonald
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GUARDIAN Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:28:00 GMT
All party parliamentary group recommends criminalising the use of British facilities for extraordinary rendition flights
New criminal offences to outlaw the practice of extraordinary rendition – secretly transporting terror suspects to places where they are likely to be tortured – have been drawn up by a cross-party parliamentary committee.
They will close the gap in English law that has allowed the use of UK territory for the purposes of extraordinary rendition in the past, Andrew Tyrie, Conservative MP for Chichester, said today.
The all party parliamentary group (APPG) on extraordinary rendition, recommends criminalising various acts, including the use of British facilities for extraordinary rendition flights and the failure to prevent extraordinary rendition flights using those facilities. The proposal will also ban so-called "circuit flights" – using UK airports for flights passing through the UK to enable a rendition but without a detainee on board at the time.
The proposals have been drawn up with the help of the law firm, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringe.
Cases currently going through the courts, including that involving Binyam Mohamed, will determine whether existing law deals adequately with the involvement of British officials in interrogating suspects who have been rendered or tortured. This is not covered by the existing proposals.
Tyrie said: "English law has been insufficient to prevent UK involvement in extraordinary rendition. These proposals will buttress existing law. If implemented they will give the public greater confidence that Britain is not complicit in extraordinary rendition."
Paul Lomas, partner at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, added: "Involvement in rendition breaches the UK's international obligations. A focused law will make prosecutions easier, deter the activity and show the UK as setting high standards internationally in this area."
Clive Stafford Smith, director of the legal charity, Reprieve, said: "Recent events have shown that our law is not effective to prohibit the evils of rendition. If the government is serious about its criticisms of this lawless activity it should consider the APPG proposals immediately."
The UK has been implicated in the CIA's extraordinary rendition programme, which has been widely condemned by human rights groups, the Council of Europe and UN investigators.
The APPG on rendition said that in February 2008 the foreign secretary confirmed that, despite repeated and express US assurances to the contrary, two rendition flights with detainees on board refuelled at the British island of Diego Garcia.
In August 2008, the high court ruled that the UK had "facilitated" the incommunicado interrogation of British resident Binyam Mohamed, and that its involvement "was far beyond that of a bystander or witness to the alleged wrongdoing". In February 2009 the defence secretary confirmed that, contrary to previous assurances, two detainees captured by UK forces in Iraq and transferred to US forces had been rendered to Afghanistan.
Law
Binyam Mohamed
UK security and terrorism
Global terrorism
Terrorism policy
Richard Norton-Taylor
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GUARDIAN Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:25:07 GMT
Government rewrites laws to stop local authorities monitoring people for dog fouling or putting bin out on wrong day
The "surveillance state" powers of local authorities to snoop on the public are to be curbed under reforms announced by the home secretary, Alan Johnson.
Junior council officials are to lose the authority to order surveillance operations including secret filming and eavesdropping for "trivial reasons" such as catching people putting out their rubbish on the wrong day or letting their dogs foul the street.
In future only council chief executives and directors will have the power to order covert surveillance operations and a new code of practice will ban their use for minor matters.
MPs are to be given assurances that their communications with constituents are confidential and any eavesdropping by police will need high level authorisation.
Elected councillors are to be given a role in overseeing the way their local authorities carry out surveillance operations.
The changes will be made to the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa), which was introduced in 2000 to regulate the use of covert surveillance by the police and welfare benefit fraud teams. The powers have been used nearly 50,000 times since 2002 by local councils and health teams.
The Home Office insists that the use of such powers for trivial reasons is not widespread, but in one notorious case a family wrongly suspected of cheating over school catchment area rules were spied on for two weeks by Poole council in Dorset to make sure they lived at a particular address.
Other councils have used Ripa powers to investigate dog fouling, check on staff who claim to be off work sick, and even monitor the use of disabled parking badges.
The powers were originally publicised as being necessary to tackle terrorism and serious and organised crime. The Home Office says there are other legitimate uses in stopping rogue traders and fly tippers who dump rubbish on an industrial scale.
The minister for policing, David Hanson, said: "There is no doubt that a wide range of public authorities need to be able to authorise surveillance under Ripa in order to protect us from those who would do us harm. But it is equally clear that public authorities must respect our right to privacy and only use techniques under Ripa when it is necessary and proportionate to do so."
The changes stop short of those requested by the Local Government Association, which wanted elected councillors given the power to authorise surveillance operations.
Surveillance
Privacy
Local government
Local politics
Alan Travis
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GUARDIAN Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:20:34 GMT
Report by International Monitoring Commission published hours after two men injured in paramilitary 'punishment shootings'
The dissident terrorist threat in Northern Ireland is at its highest for nearly six years, the body overseeing the paramilitary ceasefires said today.
The International Monitoring Commission's latest report on terror groups in Northern Ireland was published hours after two men were shot in the legs in separate so-called paramilitary punishment shootings in Derry and Belfast last night.
Both shootings were linked to republican dissident terror groups trying to build support in Catholic areas by offering the community "summary justice."
A 23-year-old man was shot five times in the legs after being dragged into a bedroom at his home in Derry while his child and other family members were present.
Five masked men, some carrying baseball bats and others guns, were involved in the attack, which happened on the Creggan estate.
A 24-year-old man was shot in the legs at his home in west Belfast.
The shootings brings the number of men shot in nationalist areas in paramilitary-linked assaults over the last year to 16.
The IMC report covers the period from 1 March until the end of August, when dissident republicans murdered three members of the security forces.
On 7 March, the Real IRA shot dead army engineers Mark Quinsey, 23, and 21-year-old Patrick Azimkar at the Massereene army base in Antrim.
Two days later, the Continuity IRA shot PSNI Constable Stephen Paul Carroll in Craigavon, County Armagh. There have since been 11 attempts to kill other PSNI officers.
The IMC's previous report, published in May ,said that although dissident republicans remained highly dangerous, they were not able to mount a substantial terrorist campaign.
Although that document concentrated on paramilitary activity in the six months prior to the killings, it commented on the political impact of the murders.
The Independent Monitoring Commission was set up by the British and Irish governments in January 2004.
Its latest report will give an assessment of progress by loyalist paramilitaries in decommissioning their weapons.
Northern Ireland
UK security and terrorism
Northern Irish politics
Henry McDonald
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GUARDIAN Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:01:08 GMT
Former minister Kim Howells calls for pullout from Afghanistan and more domestic spying
A major fissure has opened up in Labour's support for the Afghan war with a call from the former Foreign Office minister Kim Howells for the phased withdrawal of British troops from Helmand.
Howells, who is now Gordon Brown's intelligence and security watchdog, said the billions of pounds saved should be redirected to defending the UK from terrorist attacks by al-Qaida.
Writing in the Guardian, Howells, who had ministerial responsibility for Afghanistan until 2008, said: "It would be better to bring home the great majority of our fighting men and women and concentrate, instead, on using the money saved to secure our own borders, gather intelligence on terrorist activities inside Britain."
Controversially, he accepts that such an approach would result in "more intrusive surveillance in certain communities" – a tacit acknowledgment that Britain's Muslims would be subject to greater scrutiny by police and intelligence services.
He also calls for an expansion of UK intelligence operations abroad, greater co-operation with foreign intelligence services, and more spending on propaganda designed to counter those who encourage terrorism.
Howells's comments came as the Ministry of Defence announced the death of five soldiers when a "rogue" Afghan policeman turned his gun on allied and Afghan troops at a checkpoint in Helmand province. Several soldiers were also injured, some seriously. The deaths make this the bloodiest year for the armed forces since the Falklands war. The number of dead stands at 94 for this year, bringing the total number of fatalities since the Afghan conflict began in 2001 to 229.
Afghanistan's politicians do not want to see a cut in foreign troops. Abdullah Abdullah, President Hamid Karzai's closest challenger in the disputed presidential election, today called for more, not fewer, foreign troops as the only way to support the regime.
Howells's call for a "Fortress Britain" security strategy will have added force because he was a strong supporter of the war during his time as foreign affairs minister between 2005 and 2008. Until now, backbench Labour opposition has been largely confined to the left of the party.
His remarks may also provide political cover for one of the two main opposition parties, probably the Liberal Democrats, to go into the general election calling for the withdrawal of British troops.
Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem leader, has so far stopped short of calling for withdrawal, but said on Monday that British troops were "being asked to prop up a government in which no one believes".
Howells stresses that his call for a UK troop withdrawal is personal, but it is thought to reflect growing doubts inside the intelligence services as to the wisdom of devoting so many counter-terrorism resources to denying al-Qaida a training base in Afghanistan. His intervention comes after Karzai was reappointed president of Afghanistan following the decision of Abdullah, not to compete in an election runoff, arguing that Karzai planned to steal the election through fraud.
Deeply embarrassed western governments have been forced to seek assurances that Karzai will finally end corruption and establish a government of national unity.
Howells accuses the Kabul government of "largely squandering the opportunity offered to it by the UN-led occupation".
He argues: "Sooner rather than later a properly planned phased withdrawal of our forces from Helmand province has to be announced. If it is an answer that serves, also, to focus the minds of those in the Kabul government who have shown such a poverty of leadership over the past seven years, then so much the better.
"Seven years of military involvement and civilian aid in Afghanistan has succeeded in subduing al-Qaida's activities in that country but it hasn't destroyed the organisation or its leader, Osama bin Laden. Nor has it succeeded in eliminating al-Qaida's........
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GLOBALRESEARCH Wed, 29 Apr 2009
About a month before Barack Obama announced his candidacy for the presidency of the United States, former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski appeared on PBS's Charlie Rose Show and was asked whether he thought Obama would be a good choice for president. Brzezinski paused for a minute, peered at Rose out of the corner of his eye, and answered, "Just think of the symbolism." As soon as he said that, Brzezinski and Rose broke out into laughter as though they were sharing a private joke.
Brzezinski was right, of course. Obama was the perfect choice for president. Not because of his experience. He had none. He was a two year senator with a resume' small enough to fit on the back of a matchbox. Still Obama had what Brzezinski and Co. were looking for, symbolism; the kind of symbolism that connected him to people around the world and made them feel like one of their own had finally clawed their way to the top. Even better, Obama was a charismatic populist who could fill stadiums with adoring fans and put a benign face on America's interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq. What more could Brzezinski hope for? After 8 years of dragging "Brand America" through the mud, the country would finally get the emergency facelift it needed and begin to restore its battered image as the world's indispensable nation.
For leftists, Obama has been a total bust. He's escalated the war in Afghanistan, increased the cross-border bombings of Pakistan, hemmed and hawed about prosecuting war crimes, refused to actively lobby House members to make it easier for workers to organize (EFCA), and surrounded himself with bank industry reps who've committed $12.8 trillion to sinking financial institutions with no assurance that the money would be repaid. Apart from a trifling bill on stem cells, Obama has done absolutely zero to confirm his bone fides as a liberal. The truth is, Obama is neither liberal nor conservative; he's simply an inspiring orator and a skillful politician who has no strong convictions about anything. If he achieves greatness, it will be because he was thrust into a crisis he couldn't avoid and reluctantly acted in the best interests of the American people. That possibility still exists, although it seems more unlikely by the day.
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WORLDPRESSNETWORK Tuesday 28 April 2009
ORIGINAL DOWNING ST SMEARS VICTIM
RETURNS TO HAUNT NEW LABOUR
Thatcher Room
Portcullis House
Tuesday 28 April 1.45pm
Formal Evidence Session on UK Complicity in Torture
Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights
Witness: Craig Murray, former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan
(currently Rector of the University of Dundee).
In 2004, Craig Murray told us that:
• The British Government was complicit in the most vicious forms of torture
• He had been the victim of a lurid smear campaign initiated by New Labour
• The government was lying about all this
In 2004, much of the public and media was not willing to accept that the government would cooperate with torture or with false allegations against an innocent man. Many still had trust in the basic honesty and decency of government.
The evidence that Craig Murray was telling the truth about torture has now become overwhelming, including from the case of Binyam Mohammed. The UK “benefited” continually from intelligence passed on from the CIA waterboarding programme and from torture in countries including Uzbekistan, Pakistan and Egypt.
Craig Murray suffered the most high profile sacking of any British Ambassador for a century. But in 2005 the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee refused to hear him in evidence, despite allowing Jack Straw to appear and attack him.
Astonishingly, this is the first time Craig Murray will ever have been allowed to give formal evidence in the UK on his grave allegations, and be questioned on the truth of his testimony.
As the Scotland Yard investigation proceeds into MI5 and MI6 collusion in 16 cases of torture, Craig Murray will argue that it is not the security service operatives, but the Ministers who set the policy – and specifically Jack Straw – who should be facing criminal charges.
Contact: Craig Murray on 07979 691085 or craigmurray@mail.ruTranscript of Craig Murray's formal evidence statement is at http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/ ... in_my.html
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BBC Wed, 18 Mar 2009 12:24:53 GMT
The Metropolitan Police has agreed to pay £60,000 damages to a man it arrested during an anti-terror raid.
The High Court heard that Babar Ahmad was subjected to "serious gratuitous prolonged unjustified violence" and "religious abuse" after his arrest.
Mr Ahmad, a 34-year-old IT support analyst, was never charged following the dawn raid at his home in Tooting, south west London, in December 2003.
He is now in jail awaiting extradition to the US on separate charges.
Mr Justice Holroyde heard that one of the unnamed officers allegedly involved will face criminal proceedings.
Phillippa Kaufmann, counsel for Mr Ahmad, told the High Court that he had been dragged by handcuffs and held by the neck.
She added his treatment at the hands of Territorial Support Group officers was intended to humiliate and debase him and make him fear for his life.
Previously, the force had denied that Mr Ahmad had been punched, stamped on and repeatedly struck with the knee in the police van.
Mr Ahmad was in court to hear lawyers for Met Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson agree to the pay-out.
Previously, he had followed proceedings by videolink from Long Lartin prison, Worcestershire.
He had been due to give evidence on Wednesday.
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PRESSTV Mon, 16 Mar 2009 09:10:36 GMT
At least 30 Jundullah militants were killed during recent clashes with Iranian forces in the country's southeast, according to new reports.
The clashes came almost two years after one of Jundullah's deadliest attacks, known as the Tasouki incident.
On March 25, 2006, armed militants shut down the Bam-Kerman highway in southeast Iran and opened fire on passing cars, killing 22 civilians and wounding six.
Jundullah claimed responsibility for the attack, providing Arab TV channels with a video footage of the brutal killing, which some channels broadcast.
Militants of the Jundullah ring regularly cross over into Iran from their hideouts in neighboring Pakistan to harass, kidnap or attack civilians and police officers.
In 2007, ABC News reported that the Jundullah militant group, which is responsible "for the deaths and kidnappings of Iranian soldiers and officials… has been secretly encouraged and advised by American officials."
Reports published the following year also revealed that in 2007, the US Congress passed a undisclosed bill requested by President George W. Bush that allocated a $400-million fund for covert operations in Iran.
The legislation gave the US government the go ahead to provide financial assistance to recognized terrorist groups such as Jundullah and the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO).
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BBC Thu, 26 Feb 2009
Ministers have said they handed over two terror suspects to US authorities in Afghanistan, sparking claims of collusion in extraordinary rendition.
Defence secretary John Hutton said the two, detained by UK forces in Iraq in 2004, were transferred to US custody in Afghanistan where they remain.
Mr Hutton apologised for past incorrect answers given to MPs about the issue.
He said UK officials were aware that the two men, understood to be Pakistani nationals, had been transferred to the US in 2004.
Extraordinary rendition is the term used for sending terror suspects for interrogation in countries were torture is not illegal.
The UK has always denied being involved in the practice despite frequent allegations to the contrary.
They are still being held in Afghanistan, where they are classified as "unlawful enemy combatants".
Mr Hutton said "brief references" to the case had been included in papers sent to the Foreign and Home Secretaries in 2006 but its significance had not been highlighted at the time.
The Conservatives called for an inquiry into the case, saying it raised questions about the practice of extraordinary rendition.
Former home secretary David Davis said the case was the "latest in a series of issues where the government has been less than straightforward" with regard to allegations of torture.
The government admitted last year that two US flights carrying terror suspects for interrogation landed on UK territory in 2002.
The revelation comes days after Binyam Mohamed, the former Guantanamo detainee who claims UK intelligence agencies colluded in his torture, returned to the UK.
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GUARDIAN Thu, 19 Feb 2009
I never imagined I would say this, but Stella Rimington is right. The former head of MI5 who made her career running the security service's dirtiest operations in the 1980s, against the miners' union and the IRA, has warned that the government has given terrorists the chance to find "greater justification" by making people feel they "live in fear and under a police state". Naturally, ministers described her remarks as nonsense and accused her of playing "into the hands of our enemies". But the damage is done. To have the woman once hailed as Britain's Queen of Spies accusing the government of recklessly counter-productive authoritarianism carries a special weight - and incidentally turns the traditional relationship between Labour and the secret state on its head. Rimington went further, denouncing the US for Guantánamo and torture, but reverted to type by insisting MI5 "doesn't do that". No, as we now know, it contracts out that job to others, while its officers stand by promising to arrange "more lenient treatment" if the victim co-operates. In case after case, British collaboration in the hidden crimes of the war on terror has now been laid bare. But none more so than in the seven-year ordeal of Binyam Mohamed, the last British resident in Guantánamo, the details of whose CIA kidnapping and US-orchestrated torture across four countries the foreign secretary, David Miliband, has twisted and turned to prevent being made public. As it now turns out, the US letter warning that intelligence-sharing with Britain would be damaged if the torture evidence was published - used to strong-arm the high court into suppressing it - was in fact issued at the request of the Foreign Office itself. Perhaps that's hardly surprising, when the court has already heard that MI5 officers questioned the freshly tortured Mohamed in illegal Pakistani detention under government guidelines and fed questions to CIA interrogators as he was secretly "rendered" from Pakistan to Afghanistan to Morocco. Mohamed was hung from leather straps and beaten in Pakistan, and had his genitals slashed in Morocco, while other British terror suspects questioned by MI5 had their fingernails ripped out. Mohamed ended up confessing under torture to a fantasy "dirty bomb" plot, though all charges have been dropped and he is finally due to be returned to Britain any day now. But New Labour's sins in the war on terror are catching up with it. And it's not only officials, but politicians, up to and including Tony Blair, who could be in the legal frame as a result of British collusion with torture, "extraordinary rendition" - illegal abductions to third countries - and "ghost" prisons.
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BBC Thu, 19 Feb 2009 10:15:45 GMT
Radical preacher Abu Qatada is awarded £2,500 by the European Court of Human Rights after being held in the UK without trial.
Judges ruled that his detention without trial in the UK under anti-terrorism powers breached his human rights.
Abu Qatada has been held both in Belmarsh high security prison and under 22-hour home curfew. His lawyers have already submitted an application to the European Court appealing against his deportation.
The European Court also awarded pay-outs of between £1,500 and £3,400 to 10 other people who were detained in Britain following 9/11 on suspicion of providing support for extremists linked to al-Qaeda.
Judges said the British government had breached three articles of the European Convention on Human Rights, including the right to liberty, the right for lawfulness of detention to be decided by a court and the right to compensation for unlawful detention.
Their decision is final and the government has no right to appeal.
Where a person is arrested on the basis of "an allegedly reasonable suspicion of unlawful behaviour", they must have the opportunity to challenge those claims, they added.
Corinna Ferguson, from human rights group Liberty, said: "Liberty is a fundamental right and it's not something that can be compromised in the face of a terrorist threat."
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GUARDIAN Fri, 13 Feb 2009 00:01:00 GMT
The Iraq war was just the first of this century's "resource wars", in which powerful countries use force to secure valuable commodities, according to the UK government's former chief scientific adviser. Sir David King predicts that with population growth, natural resources dwindling, and seas rising due to climate change, the squeeze on the planet will lead to more conflict.
"Future historians might look back on our particular recent past and see the Iraq war as the first of the conflicts of this kind - the first of the resource wars," he told an audience of 400 in London as he delivered the British Humanist Association's Darwin Day lecture.
Implicitly rejecting the US and British governments' claim they went to war to remove Saddam Hussein and search for weapons of mass destruction, he said the US had in reality been very concerned about energy security and supply, because of its reliance on foreign oil from unstable states. "Casting its eye around the world - there was Iraq," he said.
This strategy could also be used to find and keep supplies of other essentials, such as minerals, water and fertile land, he added. "Unless we get to grips with this problem globally, we potentially are going to lead ourselves into a situation where large, powerful nations will secure resources for their own people at the expense of others."
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CAIR Wed, 17 Dec 2008
(NEW YORK, NY, 12/12/08) - The New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-NY) today called on leaders of the Jewish community in that state to repudiate a columnist for a Jewish newspaper who called for the killing of “innocent” Muslims.
In a commentary in the December 12 issue of the 5 Towns Jewish Times, titled, “The Appropriate Response to Islamic Terror,” Lawrence Kulak wrote:
“Moreover, the only way to deal with Islamic terrorists is the same way in which they deal with their victims. Muslims believe in the literal interpretation of the Biblical doctrine of an eye for an eye, and they do not have respect for anything perceived as a lesser standard of justice. They killed our innocents, and unless we kill theirs, they will go on killing ours.”
SEE: The Appropriate Response to Islamic Terror (Pages 59-61)
“Such inflammatory comments have no place in reasoned public discourse,” said CAIR-NY Community Affairs Director Faiza N. Ali. “Calls for violence against innocent civilians of any faith should face universal rejection and repudiation by religious leaders.”
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BALTIMORESUN Wed, 17 Dec 2008
Vice President Dick Cheney said yesterday that he was directly involved in approving severe interrogation methods used by the CIA and that the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, should remain open indefinitely.
Cheney's remarks on Guantanamo appear to put him at odds with President George W. Bush, who has expressed a desire to close the prison, though the decision is expected to be left to the administration of President-elect Barack Obama.
Cheney's comments also mark the first time that he has acknowledged playing a central role in clearing the CIA's use of an array of controversial interrogation tactics, including a simulated drowning method known as "waterboarding."
"I was aware of the program, certainly, and involved in helping get the process cleared," Cheney said in an interview on ABC News.
Asked whether he still believes it was appropriate to use the waterboarding method on suspected terrorists, Cheney said: "I do."
His comments come on the heels of disclosures by a Senate committee showing that high-level officials in the Bush administration were intimately involved in reviewing and approving interrogation methods that later were outlawed and that have been condemned internationally as torture.
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SPIDEREDNEWS Wed, 10 Dec 2008
By cartoonist Leon Kuhn whose work can also be seen on his own website http://www.leonkuhn.org.uk where postcards of some of his cartoons can be ordered.
See Leon Kuhn's page on "SpideredNews | Politics" at http://www.spiderednews.com/LeonKuhn.htm
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SPIDEREDNEWS 2 December 2008
By cartoonist Leon Kuhn whose work can also be seen on his own website http://www.leonkuhn.org.uk where postcards of some of his cartoons can be ordered.
See Leon Kuhn's page on "SpideredNews | Politics" at http://www.spiderednews.com/LeonKuhn.htm
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PRESSTV Mon, 24 Nov 2008 22:14:29 GMT
Former Cuban president Fidel Castro says al-Qaeda terrorists have been engineered in order to advance the Bush administration's agenda.
In an essay published on Sunday, Castro said the terrorist group "was born from the empire's own entrails", using the term "empire" to refer to the United States.
After the Sept. 11 attacks, the Bush administration vowed to capture al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who has reportedly taken responsibility for the deadly attacks on US soils.
"[Al-Qaeda] is a typical example of an enemy that the hegemonic power dangles in a place of its choosing where it needs to justify its actions, as it has done throughout its history, fabricating enemies and attacks destined to strengthen its plans of domination," the former Cuban leader argued.
According to Castro, the American public has been mislead by the US government about the real extent of the terrorist attacks in 2001. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has also suggested that Washington could have been somehow involved in the planning of the attacks.
In the aftermath of the attacks, the White House launched the 'War on Terror' in a bid to disband al-Qaeda. While many civilians have been killed since the 2001 invasions of Afghanistan, followed by the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the US has failed to achieve its objectives in the region.
A Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) program called "Operation Cyclone" is reportedly responsible for the creation of the terrorist group, when the CIA funded native Afghan militants in the conflict with the Soviet Union.
The al-Qaeda leader is reportedly planning a new terror attack against the US as President-elect Barack Obama takes office from the incumbent president, George W. Bush.
Earlier this month, a source close to the group claimed that Bin Laden is supervising preparations for another attack which will be far greater than those of 9/11.
US Vice President-elect Joe Biden had warned in October that Obama would face an international crisis early in his presidency.
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URUKNET Sun, 19 Oct 2008
Something strange has been showing up inside the Sunday newspapers of millions of Americans the past few weeks. The material being included alongside comics, coupons, and advertisement for local stores is a controversial DVD called "Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West." Some 28 million copies of this DVD have been distributed for free so far in this fashion. In some ways the scale of this campaign, and its ideological venom, are unprecedented: many newspapers state that they had never previously distributed free DVDs as inserts, certainly nothing with such a charged content. The copies were distributed not randomly across the country, but in the "swing states" (Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Colorado, etc.) that are seen as a toss-up in the November Presidential elections between McCain and Obama. Obviously, someone is trying to influence the American electorate by playing on fear-mongering and hate-mongering themes. But who? Who is behind this massive, multi-million dollar campaign?
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PRESSTV Sun, 19 Oct 2008
Former British spy Chief Dame Stella Rimington has criticized the response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US as overreaction.
“The response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US was huge overreaction,” the former British security service (MI5) chief told the Guardian in an interview.
She describes al Qaeda's attack on the US as a “terrorist incident” but not qualitatively different from any others.
“That's not how it struck me. I suppose I'd lived with terrorist events for a good part of my working life and this was as far as I was concerned another one," she says.
In common with Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, who retired as MI5's director general last year, Rimington, who left 12 years ago, has already made it clear she abhorred "war on terror" rhetoric and the government's abandoned plans to hold terrorism suspects for 42 days without charge.
Today, she goes further by criticizing politicians, including Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, for trying to outbid each other in their opposition to terrorism and making national security a partisan issue.
Turning to Iraq, Rimington states that the invasion of the oil rich country in March 2003 influenced young men in Britain to turn to terrorism.
She challenged claims, notably made by Tony Blair, that the war in Iraq was not related to the radicalization of Muslim youth in Britain.
Rimington mentioned Guantanamo Bay, the practice of extraordinary rendition, and the invasion of Iraq-three issues which the majority in Britain's security and intelligence establishment opposed privately at the time.
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WORDPRESS Mon, 20 Oct 2008
A public meeting entitled ‘Pakistan in Crisis’, held by Respect at the Birmingham Central Mosque in the Highgate area of the city on Saturday (18th Oct), was attended by over 250 people.
Salma Yaqoob, city councillor for Sparkbrook, set the tone for the meeting by condemning the recent US military operations in Pakistan which have created numerous civilian casualties; and spoke of the hypocrisy of the British media for failing to report these attacks “on a sovereign nation”.
....
George Galloway, Respect’s MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, spoke at length on the recent history of Pakistan and Kashmir, and received a rousing reception upon declaring the “people of Kashmir have every right and dignity to fight for the freedom of their land.”
He briefly focused on “The Hangman” Zia-Ul-Haq (a reference to General Zia’s execution of former PM Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1979), highlighting how Zia became America’s favourite in a line of ‘dictators’. Galloway went on to challenge the corrupt nature of General Pervez Musharraf and how his craven support for US policy in the region had not protected the Pakistani people but exploited them for financial gain.
The outspoken Member of Parliament told a diverse audience that recent bombings in the south Asian state were a direct result of the unstable war in Afghanistan. He also claimed the ‘War on Terror’, which has recently spilled into the country with US bombing strikes frequently targeting South Waziristan, was being allowed due to the complacency of British Pakistani MPs.
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RINF Sat, 18 Oct 2008
These words are from the 1945 Labour manifesto Let Us Face The Future which brilliantly identified the very same crisis which is now described as a “credit crunch” as if it were a mere hiccup in an otherwise wonderful neo-liberal globalised world which could be corrected with a vast subsidy from the taxpayers to put the Wall Street casino and its partners worldwide back into profit. It reminded me of the fact that when slavery was abolished it was the slave owners, and not the slaves, who received compensation from the government of the day.
Perhaps more important – and never mentioned in the media – is that all the news we get every day and every hour is all about the bankers while presidents, prime ministers and other elected leaders of the world have been reduced to the role of mere commentators who are expected to supply taxpayers’ money whenever it is needed to bail out the wealthy.
Indeed, what we are watching is nothing less than the steady transfer of real political power from the polling station to the market and from the ballot to the wallet – reversing the democratic gains we have made over the last century when we were able, increasingly, to use our votes to shape our economic future.
Our 1945 manifesto made that clear in the very next passage following the quote above. This is what it said: “The nation wants food, work and homes. It wants more than that. It wants good food in plenty, useful work for all and comfortable labour-saving homes that take full advantage of the resources of modern science and productive industry.”
That was the policy that swept Labour MPs into power in 1945 and gave this country the National Health Service, the welfare state and a massive house building programme, made possible by elected local authorities who had the resources made available to them by the Treasury.
Now, 63 years later, we are back facing a similar situation and we need to understand why it has happened if we are to see our way forward.
... In 1945, the nation realised that the problems of peace required the same intensity of commitment as the problems of war.
And with the disastrous experience of Iraq and Afghanistan that argument, too, is beginning to register again and people are asking why we waste so much money on those illegal, brutal and unwinnable wars and on new nuclear weapons when people are losing their jobs and facing repossession of their homes.
The case for peace and socialism is intensely practical and, put like that, will command wide public and electoral support as it did then, in 1945, and could again do now.
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PRESSTV Sat, 04 Oct 2008 18:43:56 GMT
Pakistan rejects a US offer to conduct a free of cost geological survey in the country due to security concerns to its strategic assets.
Petroleum Ministry sources said that the US has been insisting ‘time and again’ on being allowed to conduct the survey, which could help expose the unexploited natural resources of the country, Pakistani newspaper Daily Times website reported Saturday.
US authorities will also scan the areas being surveyed using satellite equipment that could expose the security assets of Pakistan, the paper quoted the sources as saying." This is the reason Pakistan did not allow the US government to conduct a geological survey,” it added.
The US offer had been previously rejected by the former government citing the same concerns, but US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte had again made the offer to the coalition government during his visit to Pakistan.
Negroponte had also asked the former petroleum minister Khwaja Asif to allow the survey but he declined the offer.
The offer comes amid US incursions into the country's territories irrespective of Pakistani officials' warnings. The attacks have strained relations between the two states.
Pakistani leaders have lashed out at the US over violation of Pakistan's air and ground space and killing of innocent civilians.
The recent rejection underscore significant tensions and mistrust between the so-called "war on terror" allies. Meanwhile, Petroleum Ministry sources say Pakistan is rich in gas, oil, copper, gold and coal reserves, and needs the geological survey to explore these resources.
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NAOMIKLEIN Wed, 24 Sep 2008
I wrote The Shock Doctrine in the hopes that it would make us all better prepared for the next big shock. Well, that shock has certainly arrived, along with gloves-off attempts to use it to push through radical pro-corporate policies (which of course will further enrich the very players who created the market crisis in the first place...).
What Gingrich's wish list tells us is that the dumping of private debt into the public coffers is only stage one of the current shock. The second comes when the debt crisis currently being created by this bailout becomes the excuse to privatize social security, lower corporate taxes and cut spending on the poor. A President McCain would embrace these policies willingly. A President Obama would come under huge pressure from the think tanks and the corporate media to abandon his campaign promises and embrace austerity and "free-market stimulus."
We have seen this many times before, in this country and around the world. But here's the thing: these opportunistic tactics can only work if we let them. They work when we respond to crisis by regressing, wanting to believe in "strong leaders" - even if they are the same strong leaders who used the September 11 attacks to push through the Patriot Act and launch the illegal war in Iraq.
So let's be absolutely clear: there are no saviors who are going to look out for us in this crisis. Certainly not Henry Paulson, former CEO of Goldman Sachs, one of the companies that will benefit most from his proposed bailout (which is actually a stick up). The only hope of preventing another dose of shock politics is loud, organized grassroots pressure on all political parties: they have to know right now that after seven years of Bush, Americans are becoming shock resistant.
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WORLDPRESSNETWORK Mon, 15 Sep 2008
As far as I know, nobody has focused upon the real roots of the war on terror, which are also the solution to it - American-sponsored terrorism. Paid military extremist types, trained by us to carry-out attack missions upon civilians are terrorists, our terrorists. They attack civilians, often women and children, as an indirect method of warfare, to topple governments who oppose American expansion. Has anybody questioned what military challenge the world would face today, if the US suddenly stopped all of these covert programs that perpetrate most of the world’s “terrorism”?
If the CIA/Mossad simply stopped training, arming, financing and transporting the (mostly Islamic) fighters/mercenaries all over the world (as it has been deeply in the business of doing for the past thirty or more years), would world peace then break-out? If our government was not in the business of killing the people whose relatives then make war against American and allied forces, would our soldiers be fighting anywhere in the world?
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COMMONDREAMS
George Orwell, in his novel “1984,” described Oceania, a society in which the prime motivating force for controlling the populace was fear, both fear of its own government and its enemies. He wrote of continual war, of enemies so horrendous that the public was constrained to rigid compliance with its rulers in order to demonstrate its patriotism. Much of Orwell’s description is found again in the teachings of University of Chicago Professor Leo Strauss, who died in 1973.
Strauss’s political philosophy contains many subtle and not-so-subtle effects evident in the Bush administration’s activities since Sept. 11. And remarkably, taken as a whole, they resemble the fictional world of Oceania. For instance, there’s the perpetual political deception between rulers and ruled, a necessity according to Strauss. There’s the obsession with secrecy and the Machiavellian conviction that stability among the populace requires an external threat, that if no such threat exists one must be manufactured. John Foster Dulles fully understood this when he recommended that, “In order to bring a nation to support the burdens of great military establishments, it is necessary to create an emotional state akin to psychology. There must be the portrayal of external menace. This involves the development of a nation-hero, nation-villain ideology and the arousing of the population to a sense of sacrifice.”
Strauss and today’s neocons believe that our nation must maintain the appearance of continuous war. As Vice President Dick Cheney said, “This war may last for the rest of our lives.” The government can thus sustain a continued state of war hysteria to keep the population motivated. Through this creation and control of mass paranoia they can maintain an intense nationalism with complete loyalty and total subservience to the “national interest.”
Orwell described a “labyrinthine world of doublethink …” for instance, “to believe that democracy was impossible, and that the party was the guardian of democracy.”
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WORLDPRESSNETWORK Thu, 7 Aug 2008
Lessig also revealed that he had learned, during a dinner with former government Counter Terrorism Czar Richard Clarke, that there is already in existence a cyber equivalent of the Patriot Act, an “i-Patriot Act” if you will, and that the Justice Department is waiting for a cyber terrorism event in order to implement its provisions.
In addition, as we reported yesterday, major transportation hubs like St. Pancras International, as well as libraries, big businesses, hospitals and other public outlets that offer wi-fi Internet, are blacklisting alternative news websites and making them completely inaccessible to their users.
These precedents are merely the first indication of what is planned for the Internet over the next 5-10 years, with the traditional web becoming little more than a vast spy database that catalogues people’s every activity and bombards them with commercials, while those who comply with centralized control and regulation of content will be free to enjoy the new super-fast Internet 2.
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RENSE Wed, 30 Jul 2008
This article will explain to you why the Totally Screwed-Up US Strategic Plan for the Caspian Basin has backfired and created a "megatrend" against America that may well be the doom of our nation.
Any country willing to spend 30 years lying, conniving and scheming - and blow over $3 trillion (reported) on nothing - is pretty damned stupid or desperate. In the case of American policy, I submit, both apply...and we can, with no effort, add in DELUSIONAL.
There is nothing that George W Bush, McCain or Obama can do to change the tide now...for it has turned into a tsunami against America. The Grand Chessboard game is over, finished, and the US has lost in a rout. Our nation has blown through trillions of dollars (of new debt) with little to nothing accomplished to pursue a bogus, contrived war that was designed to take over in excess of $15 trillion in Caspian Basin oil and natural gas. The sheer cost of the failed 'war' and scheme to take over the Caspian Basin has ruined the value of the dollar, buried the US in debt and a myriad of ancillary problems, skyrocketed the cost of oil, utilities, food, and shredded the reputation of the United States around the world. By any measure, it is a catastrophe.
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CAMPAIGNFORLIBERTY Fri, 04 Jul 2008
The following statement is written by Congressman Paul about the pending financial disaster.
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Though the world has long suffered from the senselessness of wars that should have been avoided, my greatest fear is that the course on which we find ourselves will bring even greater conflict and economic suffering to the innocent people of the world—unless we quickly change our ways.
The notion that a country can afford “guns and butter” with no significant penalty existed even before the 1960s when it became a popular slogan. It was then, though, we were told the Vietnam War and a massive expansion of the welfare state were not problems. The seventies proved that assumption wrong.
If modern technology had been used to promote the ideas of liberty, free markets, sound money and trade, it would have ushered in a new golden age—a globalism we could accept.
Instead, the wealth and freedom we now enjoy are shrinking and rest upon a fragile philosophic infrastructure. It is not unlike the levies and bridges in our own country that our system of war and welfare has caused us to ignore.
I’m fearful that my concerns have been legitimate and may even be worse than I first thought. They are now at our doorstep. Time is short for making a course correction before this grand experiment in liberty goes into deep hibernation.
There are reasons to believe this coming crisis is different and bigger than the world has ever experienced. Instead of using globalism in a positive fashion, it’s been used to globalize all of the mistakes of the politicians, bureaucrats and central bankers.
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INFOWARS Fri, 27 Jun 08
Anti-war MP George Galloway has accused London Metropolitan Police of engaging in "a deliberate conspiracy to bring about scenes of violent disorder" during President George W. Bush's visit to the UK last week.
In addition to this information, other demonstrators have described similar incidents with strange looking protesters.
It has been common practice at previous demonstrations for authorities to employ police or special forces to intentionally infiltrate peaceful protests and cause violence.
Last year peaceful protestors at the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) summit in Montebello captured sensational video of hired agent provocateurs attempting to incite rioting and turn the protest violent, only to encounter brave resistance from real protest leaders.
Quebec provincial police later admitted that their officers disguised themselves as demonstrators during the protest at the North American leaders summit in Montebello, Que.
In Seattle in 1999 at the World Trade Organisation meeting, the authorities declared a state of emergency, imposed curfews and resorted to nothing short of police state tactics in response to a small minority of hostile black bloc hooligans. In his film Police State 2, Alex Jones covered the fact that the police allowed the black bloc to run riot in downtown Seattle while they concentrated on preventing the movement of peaceful protestors. The film presents evidence that the left-wing anarchist groups are actually controlled by the state and used to demonize peaceful protesters.
At WTO protests in Genoa 2001 a protestor was killed after being shot in the head and run over twice by a police vehicle. The Italian Carabinere also later beat on peaceful protestors as they slept, and even tortured some, at the Diaz School. It later emerged that the police fabricated evidence against the protesters, claiming they were anarchist rioters, to justify their actions. Some Carabiniere officials have since come forward to say they knew of infiltration of the black bloc anarchists, that fellow officers acted as agent provocateurs.
At the Free Trade Area of Americas protests in Miami in late November 2003, more provocateuring was evident. The United Steelworkers of America, calling for a congressional investigation, stated that the police intentionally caused violence and arrested and charged hundreds of peaceful protestors. The USWA suggested that billions of dollars supposedly slated for Iraq reconstruction funds are actually being used to subsidize ‘homeland repression’ in America.
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INSIDETHEGAMES Fri, 27 Jun 08
RESPECT MP George Galloway (pictured) has held a meeting with Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell on the impact that the 2012 Games will have on London's East End, particularly security.
Galloway, who represents Bethnal Green and Bow, which are located in the Host Borough of Tower Hamlets said: "This was a useful first step.
"We were able to raise a number of points, which the minister certainly listened to.
"She and I identified areas in which progress might genuinely be made.
"There is widespread community concern about the impact of security arrangements around the site on the people of East London.
"There is already great alienation in large swathes of our communities due to the use of stop and search, and other so-called 'anti-terrorism' measures.
"On the evidence of today, there may be scope for community-led initiatives which ensure that the security arrangements for the Olympics don’t end up deepening the alienation out of which threats to security might come.
"We have in the City of London and Canary Wharf, two huge examples of shining temples of glass and steel within which there are very few local people working, especially black and ethnic minority people working – at least in white collar and good jobs. We strongly raised today that the people of East London will feel deeply aggrieved if the same were to happen over the Olympic development.
"Other issues touched on included the issue which has come to dominate sport internationally, corporate sponsorship and the exclusion of small, local businesses.
"The overarching concern we raised was whether the people of East London, London as a whole and, indeed, Britain will truly feel any benefit from the games legacy – which was the great promise on which the Olympic bid was sold – or whether we will end up with deep resentment at the cost and outcome.
"Time will tell how much progress will be made on all these issues.
"But I and Respect are already in there raising them, before London becomes the host city on 24 August."
Councillor Abjol Miah, leader of the Respect group on Tower Hamlets Council and a party spokesperson on the Olympics, said: "This meeting sounds encouraging.
"The International Olympic Committee and the other authorities involved in 2012 need to know that the communities in East London will not be idle spectators to what is happening.
"Through a variety of means, we will get our voices heard.
"What East London needs is a People's Games.
"That’s what I'll be campaigning for.
"We'll be monitoring whether developments meet those aspirations.
"It’s only by doing to that the Games will appear as something we in East London are fully a part of, rather than, as has happened in so many other Olympic cities, the Games being seen as something that is done to us."
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OPEDNEWS Thu, 26 Jun 2008
Another thought that led to the title of this piece was that what restrictions do we NOT know about for every one of us?
Some would immediately jump to the conclusion that the Homeland Security Establishment, The FBI and the other 15 intelligence agencies, (count ‘em) with all their minions are busily monitoring all of us and putting our names on various ‘no-fly’ lists, for when the Halliburton/KBR detention centers need a few thousand dissenters/radicals/inmates. That may be true to some degree, after all Bush’s illegal wire tapping, reading all those emails, poking about in our bank accounts for suspicious payments to Islamic charities/call girls have been going on for some time.
So it seems to me that shutting it down would deprive them of all that lovely data, for mining with their computer ‘wizz kids’ programmes and keeps lots of ‘government beurocrats’ burning the midnight oil, (not from the Middle East) trying to put two and two together to make nine.
They are past masters at ‘national security’, state secrets, foreign policy think tanks and ‘gagging orders’. They already have the lame stream propaganda machine in their pockets and even if they look askance at the Internet and all that potential ‘subversion’ they find it more useful to let it be, albeit with some control through ‘Google’ and monitor the hell out of us all, for future reference and possible ‘actionable intelligence’, ala Obama with Pakistan.
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DAILYMAIL Wed, 25 Jun 2008
Looming over us ominously was a heavy security presence: riot police, armed officers, even snipers on rooftops.
These days it appears permissible to wave a gun at Britons exercising their democratic rights.
As a throng of protesters built up by the barriers, an extremely animated demonstrator in a white T-shirt caught my eye.
He was near the front screaming abuse at the police and trying to get a friend further back to join him. The second man sheepishly refused his encouragements to edge forward.
The man in the T-shirt was tall, well-built and handsome, smiling but with a hint of menace. He pushed aside children and elderly people.
He continued to shout slogans such as: 'Pigs Out.'
On his back was a black rucksack and he carried a professional-looking camera with a large telephoto lens. Hardly the sort of kit for a few snaps of his day out.
My friends and I, standing a few rows back, asked him a couple of times to calm down, but he ignored us.
I wondered why I was drawn to him. Was it his dark good looks or was I worried for the safety of my 70-year-old friend and children nearby?
Then it dawned on me. I had met this man at a party. I tapped him gently on the shoulder and said: 'Have we met before?'
Instantly he recognised me. 'Hi, how are you? It's really nice to see you here.'
My puzzlement grew. This chap wasn't really the sort you'd expect to see shouting abuse at police officers at an anti-war demo. He was, after all, a policeman himself - and a high-ranking one at that.
I'd met the police inspector at a party around last Christmas. The local mayor was there, along with councillors from other parties and journalists. I'd been asked along by a friend.
He had a bolshie charm, was cocky and a little manipulative. He was also highly entertaining, bragging about his work in the police and how important he was.
I remained bemused about his presence at the demo. I asked if he would send me copies of his demo photos. He replied: 'No, they're to put on my bedroom wall.'
I then casually asked why he was shouting anti-police slogans.
'Funny you chanting that,' I said, 'when you're a policeman.'
They don't have my sort in the police, love,' he said camply, so I would assume he was referring to being gay. A few seconds later, he melted into the crowd.
I wondered whether he was at the demo undercover, deliberately whipping up trouble that he could capture on camera. That would then be used to malign anti-war protesters as dangerous and violent subversives.
Equally, he could have been legitimately monitoring the crowds, but again he surely would have been quieter.
I realise there are times when the police need to work undercover if they suspect a crime is being committed. But that is quite different to going into a crowd as an agitator to create disruption.
I went home from the demo feeling furious and did a little research into him. It turns out that he is on more than nodding terms with controversy.
I also found out that he is no mere rank-and-file officer.
Stop The War has organised about 20 marches in the past, all of which have been peaceful. This is the first where there has been violence.
I cannot say this man was responsible for the trouble, but I saw him try his best to urge the crowd forward.
It is hard not to despair at the remarks of the Metropolitan Police's Deputy Assistant Commissioner Chris Allison
But however you look at it, the thuggish behaviour of the man I saw is hardly what you expect of someone employed to protect the public.
Our civil liberties are being eroded daily. The likes of this man are playing a part in destroying the few we have left.
If our security relies on idiots like him creating their own evidence to reinforce fear, who can we trust?
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RESPECTRENEWAL **Flashback Sat, 21 Jun 2008**
Following George Galloway's letter to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair complaining about the policing of last Sunday's Stop the War demonstration in Whitehall, the Respect MP will now be meeting, early next week, a senior Met officer who has been charged with investigating the complaint.
"I and the anti-war movement intend to pursue this," says Galloway. "I'm pleased to have secured this meeting, but it is far from the end of the matter."
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BBC Tue, 17 Jun 2008 14:11:41 GMT
The radical Islamist preacher Abu Qatada is to be released on bail within 24 hours, officials say.
A senior judge has signed papers authorising the release of Qatada, previously described as Osama Bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe
The government is currently appealing against a court decision to block his deportation to Jordan.
Last month the Court of Appeal blocked his deportation to Jordan, where Qatada has been convicted in his absence of involvement in terror attacks.
Appeal Court judges feared evidence gained from torture could be used against Qatada in a future trial.
On Tuesday he was granted bail, with strict conditions, by Mr Justice Mitting of the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC).
As well as the wearing of an electronic tag, the restrictions include a ban on attending a mosque and leading prayers or religious instruction.
Qatada must stay in his West London home for at least 22 hours a day, and cannot attend any kind of meeting. He is also forbidden from using mobile phones, computers or the internet.
Police have special permission to enter and search his home while Qatada is banned from having guests other than family and solicitors.
Among the people he is banned from meeting in London is Osama bin Laden.
Others include bin Laden's deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri and Rachid Ramda, who has been convicted in France of masterminding a series of bombings in 1995.
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LONDONIST Monday, 16 June 2008
Amid the soap opera of the US Presidential Elections, and with all eyes focused on who will be next in the White House, it has become all too easy to forget that George W Bush is still officially the man in power across the pond. Having been something of a forgotten figure in the British press of late, Bush arrived in the UK today to fulfil the demanding task of sipping tea with the Queen.
As this was going on, supporters of the Stop the War Coalition started gathering in Parliament Square to protest Bush’s presence in the capital. “George Bush, terrorist!” went the chant from inside the square. Lucky for Bush, then, that these protestors were unable to enact the same detainment laws for terror suspects as the Government.
Among those at the rally were anti-war figureheads Tony Benn, Bianca Jagger, George Galloway and the ever mind-bogglingly dedicated Brian Haw. Each gave rousing speeches to a crowd of more than 2,000, who cheered passionately every time a speaker called for the withdrawal of troops from the Middle East and George W Bush from his dinner with Gordon Brown.
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BLOGSPOT Monday, 16 June 2008
Today's demonstration was planned to coincide with Bush coming to 10 Downing Street to have dinner with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Unfortunately, we were banned from having the demonstration outside 10 Downing street itself, and had to have it initially in Parliament Square (opposite the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben). Even at 5:00pm on the dot, the square was packed with people from all walks of life, from the Catholic monk to the anarchists and socialists, university students, the hijab-clad Muslims to the ordinary Englishman/woman - As well as a lot of Somalis, protesting against US bombs dropped on Somalia and its complicity with Ethiopia in invading their country (It's reassuring thats it's not just me getting angry in front of my computer when surfing the news websites) - It seems that the US will extend its war on terror wherever its interests are threatened or they a see an opportunity to extend them further
Speeches from old stalwarts like Tony Benn (a supremely principled left-wing former MP and government minister) and George Galloway, as well as the organisers of the event were all inspiring. Then came Brian Haw - This guy has been maintaining a 24-hr vigil in Parliament Square protesting against the war on terror in all its locations over the world, at least until the UK police came and took away all his placards on some ridiculous pretext (Parliament actually passed some law to this effect - obviously their priorities are straight) - A devout Christian (not like bastards like Bush and Blair) whose hat is covered with many badges, including one which reads "keep my Muslim neighbour SAFE".
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THISISLONDON Monday, 16 June 2008
Police and protesters clashed violently last night at a rally against George Bush's farewell visit to Britain.
Two hundred yards from Downing Street, where Mr Bush was dining with Gordon Brown, riot police confronted hundreds of protesters as they threw missiles and pushed against security barriers.
Three arrests were made and there were several injuries during the stand-off which began when more than 2,500 marchers converged outside the Houses of Parliament.
A row of barriers had been erected across Whitehall - which runs past Downing Street.
That was backed up by two rows of policemen, two lines of police vans packed tightly across the road, and then a line of mounted police officers in front of another row of sturdy barriers.
There was a sea of placards with slogans denouncing the U.S. leader as demonstrators chanted 'George Bush: terrorist' to the beating of drums.
Protesters who broke through the first line of barriers were seized by police officers, handcuffed and led away.
Others wandered back from the front of the barriers, dazed and bloody.
Protester Mary Robin, 61, said: 'There is never trouble at these things, but there were so many police officers it was like a war zone on our streets.'
Members of the Stop War Coalition, CND and the British Muslim Initiative organised the rally which began with speeches from Tony Benn, Bianca Jagger and George Galloway.
The Metropolitan Police deployed 1,200 officers to protect the president.
Many protesters were angry they had not been allowed to march past Downing Street but a police spokesman said Whitehall had been closed for two wreath laying ceremonies and 'security reasons'.
The events on the streets deepened the shadow of war which hung over Mr Bush's visit yesterday.
In Afghanistan, the bodies of Lance Corporal James Bateman and Privates Jeff Sean Doherty, Nathan Cuthbertson, Charles David Murray and Daniel Gamble were put aboard an RAF plane and will arrive home today.
The five paratroopers were killed in two Taliban attacks within seven days - the regiment's worst week of losses since the Falklands conflict a quarter of a century ago.
In London, Downing Street was quick to deny a split with the U.S. after the president appeared to warn against British attempts to accelerate troop withdrawal from Iraq.
Then, at last night's dinner, it looked as though the Prime Minister might be offering Mr Bush a history lesson with three academics - Simon Schama, Sir Martin Gilbert and David Cannadine - as guests.
Professor Schama, presenter of the BBC's History of Britain series, has described Mr Bush as 'an absolute ******* catastrophe'.
He has said the American people felt a 'sense of moral nausea at the evils done in their name' in Iraq.
Mr Brown has been looking to speed up the withdrawal of British forces from Iraq, but has faced White House pressure to stay on.
Britain still has 4,200 troops there.
In an interview yesterday, Mr Bush opposed a timetable for withdrawal. 'Our answer is: there should be no definitive timetable.'
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BLOGSPOT Fri, 13 Jun 2008
The Supreme Court ruled today that suspected foreign terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay have rights under the Constitution to challenge their detention in U.S. civilian courts and to confront their accusers. The Court also slammed Congress for passing the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which set up the show trial military tribunals now in progress. The Court held that even in times of war, and even with suspected terrorists, the Constitution controls. Scalia and the other pro-torture judges whined in dissent that the ruling would make "the war on terror" tougher for the U.S., totally ignoring the ideas of the Founding Fathers that the Constitution should apply in wartime as well as peacetime and ignoring the fact that the world's leading experts on torture say that torture produces inaccurate and useless information. Given that the Constitution has been getting mugged for many years now, this is an important decision which might shift the momentum away from fascism and towards justice and the rule of law.
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WORLDPRESSNETWORK Sat, 07 Jun 2008 20:41:02 GMT
According to our State Dept. there are approximately a dozen separate anti-Semitic beliefs, the worst of which is the claim that wealthy Jewish-Americans economically control the government, the media, international business or finance. The other most serious intolerable anti-Semitic claim is that the brutal Israeli repression of the Palestinians is comparable to the fascist tactics that were employed by the Nazis against another Semitic people in Europe. If anti-Semitism is the spreading of lies about Semitic peoples, and both of these “canards” are proven to be true, then it is the government that is spreading the lies about its ally Israel.
If there is no truth to the charge that Israel is driving America to war against Iran (just as it drove our power-mad leaders to destroy Iraq), then why is it that the craziest American ideas for committing acts of war against Iran (embargoes, blockades and denying Iran the use of its own airspace) all originate in Israel? If most Americans are overwhelmingly against expanding the current limited wars into a regional conflagration, then what explains the bi-partisanship in Congress for these small-scale military steps which are clearly intended to cause a major escalation with Iran?
The American majority knows that opening a new war front in Iran would be a major defeat for American forces, having three intolerable consequences – forcing a return of the draft, the destruction of the American economy and the use of nuclear weapons against civilian populations. The Israeli majority knows this as well, and they are perfectly willing to force their American ally into paying this price for them. Some ally!
If American politicians are not subservient to Israeli interests through the lobby group AIPAC and the financial largesse which they dispense, then how do you explain Congressional pursuit of a global war that is desired only by the small vocal Jewish-American minority and their Christian-Zionist supporters (which cannot benefit any nation other than Israel), even though world war is the direct opposite of the clearly expressed will of the majority?
Why have these same politicians supported every Israeli effort to deny the most basic human rights to Palestinians and many other Arabs? Why has Congress supported the suppression of testimony about these victims of Israeli aggression and the violation of countless international laws against the ethnic cleansing committed by Israeli troops while colonizing Palestinian land? Why is there bi-partisan support for empowering Israel’s attempts to act as vigilante enforcer of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, even though Israel continues to spurn international inspections of its Dimona facility, where Mordechai Vanunu took his infamous secret photos which proved that Israel has illegally violated every international atomic treaty in secretly building hundreds of nuclear weapons?
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PRESSTV Sat, 07 Jun 2008 10:02:37 GMT
The US intellectual Noam Chomsky believes Israel's appetite for war on Iran and the Gazans will eventually lead to self-destruction.
"I wrote decades ago that those who call themselves 'supporters of Israel' are in reality supporters of its moral degeneration and probable ultimate destruction," the prominent linguist told CounterPunch.com in an interview.
"I have also believed for many years that Israel's very clear choice of expansion over security, ever since it turned down [Egypt's President Muhammad Anwar] Sadat's offer of a full peace treaty in 1971, may well lead to that consequence," said the respected academician.
Chomsky made the remarks when asked by CounterPunch, 'During the last few months, Israel has accentuated its attacks on Gaza and is talking of an imminent ground invasion. There is also a strong possibility that it is involved in the killing of the Hezbollah leader Mughniyeh and it is pushing for stronger sanctions (including military) on Iran. Do you believe that Israel's appetite for war could eventually lead to its self-destruction?'
Replying to the same question, the historian Ilan Pappé, known for his anti-Zionist opinions and his analysis of Zionism in the colonial context, predicted that the Israeli regime would head to destruction, especially once the US withdrew its support.
"Yes, I think that the aggressiveness is increasing and Israel antagonizes not only the Palestinian world, but also the Arab and Islamic ones. The military balance of power, at present, is in Israel's favor, but this can change at any given moment, especially once the US withdrew its support," he opined.
The remarks come as Israeli deputy prime minister Shaoul Mofaz claimed on Friday that the Israeli regime would attack Iran should the country continue with its nuclear program.
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 George Galloway thanks supporters at end of historic ban-breaking 11-city 2010 tour of Canada
YOUTUBE November 28, 2010
George Galloway thanks supporters at end of historic ban-breaking 11-city, 12-day 2010 tour of Canada. From coast to coast to coast, it was a terrific success with packed crowds in every...
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Civil Liberties in UK ? Video by cveitch
YOUTUBE 11 Jan 2010
Very funny, yet sickening view of societies "ills", and loss of liberty. Sadly the UK is a little worse off, than here in the U.S....So far.
I urge you to go to his page: His...
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George Galloway on the talkSPORT radio show Friday 6 November 2009 "The Mother of All Talk Shows"
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George Galloway's very popular and award winning radio show - the fastest growing radio show on the air waves. Today's radio show covers current affairs, especially Afghanistan - a futile...
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MSNBC: Countdown With Keith Olbermann - Worst Person in the World: 7/7/2009
YOUTUBE 7 July 2009
Countdown's Keith Olbermann names former CIA bin Laden analyst Mark Scheur Worst Person in the World for saying, "The only change we have as a country right now is for Osama bin Laden to...
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Prominent Zionist group attempted COLLABORATION with Nazis
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George Galloway 2009-03-22 CBC [couchtripper]
YOUTUBE 22 March 2009
George Galloway being interviewed about the outrageous ban on him entering Canada.
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"War on Terror" (TM) The First Month HD
WORLDPRESSNETWORK 7 Dec 2008
The rush to judgement and the branding of the "WAR ON TERROR" is atonishing when looking back on it. It also reminds us that the Taliban only wanted EVIDENCE that Bin Laden was involved in...
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AP : More Than 160 US, NATO Vehicles Burn in Pakistan
YOUTUBE 07 December 2008
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Mumbai Terror attacks: False Flag to target Pakistan?
WORLDPRESSNETWORK
With the reports in a frenzy about Terrorists targetting US and UK Nationals, WHERE are the casualties? over 150 dead yet only one British dead! This seems like a False Flag op again comming...
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Neocons: Long live the New Cold War
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The War on Terror is coming to its natural laughable end. The Powers that be realise that the Public are finding it increasingly implausible so they are switching their plans to an Old Enemy...
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Terrorist's Daughter is new Israeli Prime Minister!
YOUTUBE Thu, 18 Sep 2008
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Both her...
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First month of the War on Terror - HEADLINES
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The rush to judge and yet we still await the evidence promised. Lots of fake video and audio but still no definite claim to who committed the atrocities on 911
Thanks to
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Neocons: Long live the New Cold War
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The War on Terror is coming to its natural laughable end. The Powers that be realise that the Public are finding it increasingly implausible so they are switching their plans to an Old Enemy...
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Olbermann: Republicans have hijacked 9/11
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This is supposed to be a day of remembrance. Remembrance of the attack, remembrance of the national unity which followed it.
Most important of all, remembrance of the dead.
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McCain and Obama need a SPADE to find Bin Laden!
WORLDPRESSNETWORK Wed, 8 Oct 2008
Repeated invoking of a dead nemesis makes the candidates look ridiculous, Benazir Bhutto announced to the world that Bin Laden had been killed and that his SON Hamza had been charged with...
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BBC documentary : Daylight Robbery: fleecing Iraq and the USA 1/6
**WATCH THIS BEFORE IT IS PULLED**
YOUTUBE First Broadcast 10 June 2008
The film that ALL Americans should see, how their leaders profited on the Dead servicemen they sent to die for their lies and a nation of Iraq destroyed for their Share profits.
To...
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Carlin: 'We Can Bomb the Shit Outta Your Country' ["especially if your country is full of brown people"]
YOUTUBE 30-June-2008
George Carlin gives us his take on the Persian Gulf War. We should honor him forever.
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BBC Censors Nelson Mandela's Mugabe comments
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Got the REAL footage of Mandela's criticism of Mugabe. Interesting what they left out
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Prof. Norman Finkelstein on the use of the Holocaust to justify wars of aggression
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Anas Tikriti hosts Prof. Norman Finkelstein in Al Hiwar's weekly English show "Jousor" translated as Bridges. Part 7 of 7.
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Ron Paul publicly names neoconservatives
LIVELEAK 14 May 2008
This is a speech given by Ron Paul on the House floor in which he names the neocons and the views they adhere to.
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Texan Neocon rings George Galloway
YOUTUBE
Extract from the 2nd February 2008 show.
Pretty heated exchange between George Galloway and a caller from Texas. I decided to post this not for the value of Galloway's arguments...
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How the Neo Cons use the Myth of religion in politics
YOUTUBE
This is part of a "Power of Nightmares", an INCREDIBLE BBC documentary shedding light on the Myth of Religion, Terrorism, and the other elements the neo cons have created to help create a...
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David Icke - Big Brother, the Big Picture
EDGEMEDIATV July 6th 2008
David Icke speaks to the constituents of Haltemprice and Howden about the 'Big Brother'
election, forced by the resignation of David Davis, and the move towards the global
Big Brother...
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Galloway speech to Parliament on the new anti-terror bill
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George Galloways speech to the UK Parliament condemning the governments proposals to allow police to detain people for 42 days without charge
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Arundhati Roy: Come September (2002)
BRIGHTCOVE
Arundhati Roy's acclaimed Lannan Foundation lecture in which she speaks on the US government's 'War on Terror', globalisation, and the misuses of nationalism. She also contextualises the...
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Robert Fisk Talks Middle East Geopolitics
HUMYO
MIT April 9, 2006 - Robert Fisk Talks Middle East Geopolitics, with introduction by Noam Chomsky.
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George Galloway 2009-03-22 CBC [couchtripper]
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George Galloway being interviewed about the outrageous ban on him entering Canada.
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David Icke on BBC radio being interviewed by Russell Brand
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James Whale interviewing David Icke about his new book "Guide to the Global Conspiracy (And How to End It)" on talkSPORT radio station
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ZEITGEIST, The Movie - Official Release - Full Film
GOOGLE
ZEITGEIST, The Movie - Official Release - Full Production (including the 'Overture')
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Dont watch this video (if you're happy living a lie)
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Are these distractions stopping you from questioning why politicians lied,... sacrificing innocent lives, ... to make you safe?
FOOL ME TWICE (Bali bombings)
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Rockefeller Admitted Elite Goal Of Microchipped Population. Alex Jones interviews Aaron Russo who died on August 24, 2007
GOOGLE
Hollywood director and documentary film maker Aaron Russo has gone in-depth on the astounding admissions of Nick Rockefeller, who personally told him that the elite's ultimate goal was to...
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Oil, Smoke & Mirrors. This film argues that the 9/11 attacks and "war on terror" can be more credibly understood in the wider context of a divergence between available global oil supply and demand.
GOOGLE
"Oil Smoke & Mirrors" offers us a sobering critique of our perceived recent history, of our present global circumstances, and of our shared future in light of imminent, under-reported...
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TerrorStorm Final Cut (Alex Jones)
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New and Updated. Has Additional 17 minutes of new footage and interviews. Watch and pass along.
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The Great Conspiracy
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The 9/11 News Special You Never Saw
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MICHAEL SCHEUER - Former head of CIA's Bin Laden Unit : WE SHOULDN'T BE THE SOLE SUPPORTER OF ISRAEL
YOUTUBE
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Arundhati Roy - Bombing for Feminism
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Arundhati Roy speaking about the US decreed "War Against Terror"
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Hannity (FOX News) Compares Democrats To Osama Bin Laden, Pt 1
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"Great American" Sean Hannity said that Osama bin Laden sounds like Democrats - twice. From the 9/7/07 Hannity & Colmes, Part 1 of 2.
Comment at...
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Hannity (FOX News) Compares Democrats To Osama Bin Laden, Pt 2
YOUTUBE
"Great American" Sean Hannity said that Osama bin Laden sounds like Democrats - twice. From the 9/7/07 Hannity & Colmes, Part 2 of 2.
Comment at...
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Keith Olbermann & Larry Johnson
YOUTUBE 29 June 2007
Keith Olbermann talks with ex-CIA operative Larry Johnson about the London bomb scare.
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EXCELLENT : Robert Fisk on Osama bin Laden at 50, Iraqi Death Squads and Why the Middle East is More Dangerous Now Than in Past 30 Years
DEMOCRACYNOW
Interview with Democracy Now!
http://democracynow.org/
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Stop the Clash of Civilizations
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Keith Olbermann SAVAGES Dick Cheney on continued interference
WORLDPRESSNETWORK 8 Feb 2009
Dick Cheney You have sat too long for any good you have been doing lately ... Depart, I say; and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!
Keith Olbermann looks back at what...
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NEWS SUMMARY
Universities should refuse to spy on their Muslim students
Tony Blair knew immediately that 9/11 terror attacks 'changed everything'
Forensic Science Service closure could leave trail of damage
Taking risks was part and parcel of my childhood, and I'm grateful for it | Peter White
Paul Wilkinson obituary
Letters: Our police will listen to ideas but not lectures
From top to bottom we need a new ethic of responsibility | Observer editorial
