Bath Stop The War: News

“TROOPS IN CONTACT” Airstrikes and Civilian Deaths in Afghanistan
8.9.2008 A new Human Rights Watch report on how civilian deaths and injuries are continuing to rise in Afghanistan as US and NATO forces use airstrikes to support ground troops. This indiscriminate violence is no way to win hearts and minds!

LETTERS FROM THE ISRAELI PEACE ACTIVIST URI AVNERY REFLECTING ON SOME OF THE RECENT EVENTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST.
19.7.08 Different Planets. Never before have I experienced the tragic conflict in such a stunning immediacy as last Wednesday, the day of the prisoner swap between the State of Israel and the Hezbollah organization. The man who stood at the center of the event personifies the abyss that separates the two worlds, the Israeli and the Arab: Samir al-Kuntar. All Israeli media call him "Murderer Kuntar", as if that were his first name. For the Arab media, he is "Hero Samir al-Kuntar".

Tim Spicer, who runs the mercenary company Aegis, is trying to block the publication of Craig Murray's new book "The Road To Samarkand. Intrigue, Corruption & Dirty Diplomacy" which exposes the activities of these "Private Security Companies". 10 July 2008
These companies which are above the law, are often doing the dirty business that governments, including our own, could not do overtly. Tim Spicer has been involved in this sordid activity for many years as reported by Duncan Campbell in his article Making a Killing: Marketing the New Dogs of War July 11, 2008

UK tops world table of weapons sales. By Rob Evans & Richard Norton-Taylor 21 June 2008.
Trade minister Digby Jones greeted the news that Britain topped the table of last year's world arms export league as "outstanding" and promised: "I look forward to working with the defence sector in future". Others may find it harder to celebrate. In a country that has lost well over a million manufacturing jobs since 1997, where there were not enough trained engineers to fix the west coast mainline last Christmas, there is something galling about our remaining manufacturing excellence being concentrated in weapons, warplanes and military equipment. While Britain's deadly business continues to destroy lives in many countries, how can the government expect any respect. Robin Cooke who fought for an ethical foreign policy from the Labour party would be turning in his grave.

Ex-UK Army Chief in Iraq Confirms Peak Oil Motive for War; Praises Fraudulent Reconstruction Programmes. By Nafeez Ahmed June 17 2008.
A former senior British Army official in Iraq, James Ellery, admits the link between peak oil and the Anglo-American occupation of Iraq. Currently director of British security firm and US defence contractor, AEGIS, Ellery also whitewashes the massive corruption in Iraqi reconstruction projects.

Britain obstructs global ban on use of cluster bombs By Kim Sengupta 19 May 2008.
The British Government is accused of being the chief obstacle to the signing of a treaty to ban cluster bombs, which have maimed and killed thousands of civilians worldwide. The weapons involved are the M85 and the M73, munitions fired, respectively, by artillery and rockets. British officials claim these are "smart" weapons which minimise the risk of "collateral damage" and are essential for military operations. The M85 is meant to self destruct and not pose a lingering threat to civilians. However, according to the United Nations, 300 civilians were killed or injured in Lebanon, where Israel used the weapons in 2006.

BAE paid too little heed to ethics, says report. April 6 2008.
BAE appointed the former lord chief justice Lord Woolf to lead an "independent" committee to review it's current policies and practices. Woolf's report, released on the eve of BAE's annual general meeting, is the latest element in the company's public relations strategy to try to move on from the worldwide bribery allegations against it, despite unresolved criminal investigations and litigation.

As well as running an £800,000 advertising campaign, the company has been paying Woolf £6,000 a day to head the review committee with a brief "to ascertain whether "BAE's ethical standards are irreproachable".

Meanwhile, political moves are being floated that could extricate BAE from corruption investigations in the US, in return for a financial settlement without admission of liability. Such a deal would be highly attractive to the British government and the arms company,

South African union workers block Chinese arms shipments to Zimbabwe. April 17 2008. An example to everyone as to how the arms trade can be stopped when good people do what is right and not what their government wants. SA Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) general secretary Randall Howard said: "Satawu does not agree with the position of the South African government not to intervene with this shipment of weapons. Our members employed at Durban container terminal will not unload this cargo neither will any of our members in the truck-driving sector move this cargo by road."

NOT THE NEWS. Two articles by John Pilger.
1. The struggle against Apartheid has begun again in South Africa
2. Honouring the 'unbreakable promise'
"The threat to our societies comes not from Al Qaeda but from the terrorism of powerful states".

UK ATTACKED IRAQ FOR OIL– POLL SHOWS 10 March 2008
In a new ICM poll, commissioned by the anti-poverty group War on Want, "to gain control of Iraq’s oil" is the top motive cited for the invasion, ahead of disarming Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, removing Saddam Hussein over human rights, or to stop Iraq supporting international terrorism. The oll is published on the day people holding shares in British oil corporation BP receive a huge increase in their dividend as the company, along with Shell and other oil firms, seeks to control the development, production and depletion of Iraq's oil reserves

THREAT OF PRE-EMPTIVE NUCLEAR STRIKES BY NATO DRIVES INSECURITY. Jan 22nd 2008. The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament today reacted with alarm to a ‘manifesto for a new NATO’ by five senior military strategists which explicitly calls for the alliance to be the first to use nuclear weapons in a situation of severe international tension. The ‘first strike’ policy, along with other suggestions including deploying military force without UN security council authorisation are expected to be discussed at a NATO summit in April 2008.

"INFORMED CHOICE? ARMED FORCES AND RECRUITMENT PRACTICE IN THE UK."
Jan 2008
This new report by the Joseph Rowntree Trust claims that young British children are being groomed by the army with misleading information. One army brochure, Infantry Soldier, does not even mention the words “kill” or “risk”. Killing is obscured, using euphemisms such as “decisive strikes”, and “surprise hits on enemy weak spots”. Another brochure, called One Army, which promises to “tell it like it is”, and asks a soldier: “What’s the toughest test you’ve faced?” The answer is: “Being taught to ride a horse.”

- Largely fail to inform recruits about the risks of a forces career
- Curtail recruits’ rights to withdraw their consent from employment
- Largely depend on the socially and economically vulnerable to enlist for negative reasons
- Recruit minors without adequate safeguards.

Why is it that, all too often, the children of the poor end up fighting the wars of the rich?

CIA SECRET RENDITION FLIGHTS ORGANISED BY UK FRIM IN CRAWLEY Ian Cobain
Tuesday November 27, 2007
Crawley-based firm, Jeppesen Dataplan, a subsidiary of the Boeing Corporation, involved in organising secret rendition flights to Guantanamo. The US government is trying to block inquiry into these illegal flights. Inquiries by Ana Gomes, a Portuguese member of the European parliament, reported in The Sunday Times last week have uncovered not only more CIA flight logs but also more sensitive military flight plans, which until now have remained a closely guarded secret. Clearly we need tro know what has been authorised by our governments over these despicable flights.

CND PRESS RELEASE – 25th NOVEMBER 2007
MPs SLAM ATTEMPT TO BURY NEWS OF MISSILE DEFENCE BASE IN UK
The Commons Foreign Affairs Committee has strongly criticised the Government’s attempt to sneak out the announcement that the American-run base of RAF Menwith Hill, North Yorkshire is to form part of the US Missile Defence system.

"Why the US is targetting Russia and Iran" by Alan Mackinnon. Download this Scottish CND pamphlet from thier website. If Russia and Iran start to sell oil and gas using a currency other than the dollar this will threaten the United States superpower status which is based on the dollar being a reserve currency. How will they react to this threat? When Saddam Hussein was given permission by the UN to sell Iraq's oil in euros in 2000 it was not long before he felt the repercussions. Remember, oil can be bought from OPEC only if you have dollars. Non-oil producing countries first have to sell their goods to earn dollars with which they can purchase oil. If they cannot earn enough dollars, then they have to borrow dollars from the WB/IMF, which have to be paid back, with interest, in dollars. This creates a great demand for dollars outside the U.S. In contrast, the U.S. only has to print dollar bills in exchange for goods. A strong euro would also lead to a devaluation of the pound which might explain some of Tony Blair's reason for going to war in Iraq.

Exploding the Myth. A CND report, Trident & Employment explodes the myth that non-replacement of the UK’s current nuclear weapons system, Trident, will have a detrimental impact on employment. Written by Dr Steven Schofield and funded by the UNISON General Political Fund, the report is being launched at the TUC Congress. Follow the link above to see this report.

Two articles by Gabriele Zamparini.
Who killed the anti-war movement. On 15 February 2003 millions of people took the streets of the world to denounce their opposition to the mass murderers' plans; where the United Nations failed, the United Nations' Peoples claimed their democratic sovereignty: DON'T ATTACK IRAQ - NOT IN OUR NAME.
Four and half years later, the anti-war movement is just a shadow of itself while in Iraq the genocide of a whole People and the annihilation of the whole country is business as usual; the banality of evil in XXI Century flavour. What happened?
Afghanistan: A heroic resistance that puts us to shame. The Afghanistan's puppet Karzai offered the Taliban "high position in a government ministry as a way to end the rising insurgency" in the country. The infamous peace talks propaganda, so effective for the Western minds, is something the Afghans seem to be immune to.

"Considering a war with Iran: A discussion paper on WMD in the Middle East" A summary of the paper written by Dan Plesch and Martin Butcher from Raw Story 28th Aug 2007. Plesch and Butcher examine "what the military option might involve if it were picked up off the table and put into action" and conclude that based on open source analysis and their own assessments, the US has prepared its military for a "massive" attack against Iran, requiring little contingency planning and without a ground invasion.

Bush knew Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction. By Sidney Blumenthal 6th Sept 2007. Two former CIA officers say the president squelched top-secret intelligence, and a briefing by George Tenet, months before invading Iraq. Blair bought it." "Blair was duped," said the other CIA officer.

Need Iraq Suffer More If We Pull Out? By Johann Hari Aug 27, 2007 The Independent.
According to George Bush “The Iraqi people owe the American people a great debt of gratitude." But, US troops cannot be an agent of anything positive in Iraq, after using chemical weapons in cities, after using torture routinely, after overseeing the deaths of 650,000 Iraqis. Today, 78 per cent of Iraqis say the US presence “is doing more harm than good” and that they should leave.

UK DECLASSIFIED FILES
This may not be new news but it gives a disturbing picture of some of the UKs past exploites on the world stage. Many British government documents are declassified after thirty years; but the ‘thirty-year rule’ allows for numerous exceptions – the reality is that a huge number of documents remain classified at the whim of government departments. Censorship is routine and the ‘secret state’ is alive and well. Given this, one can only wonder at just what the censored files contain.

MILITARY ARMS EXPENDITURE
If you are not sure why students have to pay fees, hospitals are underfunded, and social housing is in crisis, see this letter which explains where some of your taxes are being spent

This is not a joke, but BAE systems have been awarded an environmental award for their use of less ecologically destructive paints on the Type 45 destroyers they are building. These ships will be capable of carrying Cruise Missiles. It would be interesting to see if their new warheads are environmentally friendly. To quote "This has resulted in significant cost savings to the business and environment."

It's thriving, but lethal. Britain's decade of arms exports puts the lie to any notion of an ethical foreign policy under Blair. May 2007

Hands Off Iraqi Oil is a UK coalition opposing any foreign exploitation of Iraq's oil reserves that rips off the Iraqi people. Members include Corporate Watch, Iraq Occupation Focus, Jubilee Iraq, Naftana, PLATFORM, Voices UK, and War on Want.

Hassan Jum'a, head of the Iraqi oilworkers' trade union, has commented that the Iraq war takes place in two phases: first, the military invasion and occupation, and second, the economic war. The first phase has brought death and destruction to Iraqis for nearly four years. But right now, the economic war is being fought, which risks leaving Iraqis with nothing, even when the violence eventually comes to an end.
Decisions are being made in late 2006 and early 2007, under heavy pressure from the US and UK, and international institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, which could hand control of Iraq's most important resource - oil - to multinational companies.
The British government has been using its position as a military occupation power to push the interests of oil corporations in Iraq, according to PLATFORM, a founding member of Hands Off Iraqi Oil. Documents it obtained through the Freedom of Information Act reveal extensive efforts since at least 2004 to push for companies such as BP and Shell to receive long-term contracts, which would give them exclusive rights to extract Iraq's huge oilfields.

The redirection. Is the Bush Administration’s new policy benefitting our enemies in the war on terrorism? By Seymour M. Hersh Feb 25, 2007
To undermine Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, the Bush Administration has decided, in effect, to reconfigure its priorities in the Middle East. In Lebanon, the Administration has coöperated with Saudi Arabia’s government, which is Sunni, in clandestine operations that are intended to weaken Hezbollah, the Shiite organization that is backed by Iran. The U.S. has also taken part in clandestine operations aimed at Iran and its ally Syria. A by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda.

Wealth gap and conflict.
The gap between the rich and the poor is widening. Greed and corruption create this inequality which inevitably leads to conflict. In these conflicts, the poor fight the wars of the rich and powerful; civilians are the main victims, while the arms trade and private “security” firms cash in. This, and the hypocrisy whereby countries which possess nuclear weapons tell others they should not develop theirs, should not exist in any society that claims to be civilised.

BAE Arms Sales Enquiry.
Although Tony Blair has personally intervened to block the Serious Fraud Office enquiry into the arms deals between BAE and Saudi Arabia, there will be a legal challenge to this decision by CAAT and The Corner House, and later this month, Whitehall officials will have to justify the Saudi decision at a hearing of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the world's leading anti-bribery watchdog. Despite this setback the role of bribery in the sale of aircraft to the South Africa is still progressing. It seems clear that South Africa paid way over the odds for these aircraft as cheaper more up-to-date aircraft were available from other manufacturers. In effect this was robbing the South African people of money which could have been spent on more deserving social programs, but BAE share holders don't appear to have much of a conscience about this.

SNP MSP Michael Matheson will begin the process of introducing a Member's Bill in the Scottish Parliament which will seek to criminalise those responsible for the preparations needed to use nuclear weapons based in Scotland, while protecting the rights of Scottish workers at the Faslane base.

Fairfordcoachaction On 13 December the House of Lords ruled that police acted unlawfully in turning the Fairford anti-war protestors away from a demonstration and detaining them on their coaches for 2½ hours without arrests, violating their right to freedom of speech and assembly and freedom from arbitrary detention.

Thought-provoking thank-you from the USA
A Bath SWC supporter has emailed us this note written by an American friend to her brother: “We celebrated Veteran's Day [11 November in the USA] by first going to the Naples Depot where USO dances were held during WWII. There was a tribute to all the Veterans followed by 40's swing music. Everyone danced and was happy. Then we went to the Naples pier to see the protest to the war: Crosses on the Beach is a protest installation: a cross in the sand for each US soldier killed in Iraq.

Ted Honderich and David Aaronovitch:
A look by Ted Honderich at his and David Aaronovitch's "Don't get me started" TV programmes, "THE REAL FRIENDS OF TERROR" and "NO EXCUSES FOR TERROR", with transcripts of the programmes. This is a thoughtful discourse on the current terrorist situation by one of our most eminant philosophers who is Grote Professor Emeritus Philosophy of Mind & Logic University College London & Visiting Professor University of Bath.

US naval war games off the Iranian coastline: A provocation which could lead to War?"
Global Research Nov 11 2006.
Tehran considers the US sponsored war games in the Persian Gulf, off the Iranian coastline as a provocation, which is intended to trigger a potential crisis and a situation of direct confrontation between US and Iranian naval forces in the Persian Gulf. Tonkin II?

Corporate Mercenaries
War on Want Oct 31 2006.
There are now as many as 48,000 mercenaries in Iraq, compared to 7,200 British soldiers. How can Tony Blair hope to restore peace and security in Iraq while allowing mercenary armies to operate completely outside the law?

These private "security" firms have been luring British soldiers with fat pay cheques, and our own government, who trained these soldiers at public expense, has had to respond by spending more taxpayers money on increasing the pay of our elite SAS in order to retain them. Similar parallels exist with the private health sector and consultants pay. Clearly these mercenaries are not protecting the Iraqi population but they are protecting the interests of greedy investors who are looting the country. It is important to realise that some of these security firms are listed on the stock market and as such are open to being taken over by whoever has the largest bankroll. These private armies should be closed down before they become a greater threat to the democratic process. Henry VII recognised this problem years ago when, during the Wars of the Roses, private armies were rented out to the family that paid the most. He responded by banning them and taxing the rich barons to limit their influence. Why can't our political leaders learn the lessons of history, or is it that they are becoming the rich barons?

"Only a little more than a century ago, the East India Company ignored the explicit orders of the British government and attacked Portuguese garrisons in India to secure its own commercial interests. Is it so hard to imagine, a few decades from now, the likes of private-army-hiring Halliburton doing the same? Phillip Bobbit, a former advisor to presidents Nixon and Reagan, warns in his book The Shield of Achilles that this is a serious security risk." Quoted from an article by Johann Hari.

Who are the War Criminals?
Global Research Nov 2006
However, trying Presidents and their governments for crimes against humanity, should be even handed in 'democracies'. Here is an inadequate list, for the land of the Gettysburg address, where on 19th November 1863, Abraham Lincoln invoked human equality and saying of those who had died in the battle for 'liberation' :''Thus choosing to die resisting, rather than live submitting, they fled only from dishonor...'

The secret Whitehall telegram that reveals truth behind controversial Saudi arms deal
Oct 28 2006
The British government has once again been embarrassed over corrupt payments that were made in Britain's biggest arms deal. The Al Yamamah deal, worth £43 billion in total, has long been the subject of allegations of secret commissions to Thatcher's son Mark, and to several members of the Saudi royal family. The latest insight into this deal was due to the placement of a telegram from the Ministry of Defence's sales unit into the National Archives. This document has now been withdrawn by officials who claimed its release had been "a mistake". However, this was only after Nicholas Gilby, a researcher from the Campaign Against the Arms Trade, discovered it. To quote "I was astonished when I saw the Chandler telegram. This information has been withheld by every single British government department, including the National Audit Office, for more than two decades."

Bush's Petro-Cartel Almost Has Iraq's Oil
Joshua Holland Oct 17 2006.
"Nobody in Washington wants to talk about it," he said. "They don't want to sound like freaks talking about blood for oil." At the same time, a recent poll asked Iraqis what they believed was the main reason for the invasion and 76 percent gave "to control Iraqi oil" as their first choice.

We all knew what the war was about and this article sums-up the whole corrupt process and the role of the International Monetary Fund in the biggest armed robbery in history. Among a number of provisions in the IMF agreement, along with privatizing state-run companies (which resulted in the layoffs of an estimated 145,000 Iraqis), slashing government pensions and phasing out the subsidies on food and fuel that many Iraqis depended on, was a commitment to develop Iraq's oil in partnership with the private sector. Then-Finance Minister Adel Abdul Mehdi said, none too happily, that the deal would be "very promising to the American investors and to American enterprise, certainly to oil companies." The Iraqi National Assembly released a statement saying, "the Paris Club has no right to make decisions and impose IMF conditions on Iraq," and called it "a new crime committed by the creditors who financed Saddam's oppression." And Zaid Al-Ali, an international lawyer who works with the NGO Jubilee Iraq, said it was "a perfect illustration of how the industrialized world has used debt as a tool to force developing nations to surrender sovereignty over their economies."

Are new weapons being tested in Gaza?
Doctors in Gaza have reported previously unseen injuries from Israeli weapons that cause severe burning and leave deep internal wounds, often resulting in amputations or death. These injuries may have been caused by "Dense Inert Metal Explosives" which have been developed by the US.

Israel admits using phosphorus bombs during war in Lebanon.
Meron Rappaport Oct 23rd 2006
Israel has acknowledged for the first time that it attacked Hezbollah targets during the second Lebanon war with phosphorus shells. White phosphorus causes very painful and often lethal chemical burns to those hit by it, and until recently Israel maintained that it only uses such bombs to mark targets or territory.

Aluminium, terrorism and war
It's historically the most bombed country on earth. An estimated half a ton of bombs for each child, woman and man were dropped on Laos during the US-waged war thirty years and more ago. That's more per every Laotian citizen than the bombs unleashed on London in early July 2005. However, many of the US bombs didn't explode. Now, Laotians are precariously trying to recover the aluminium, used as casings for the body-shredding "cluster bombs" which epitomised state-sponsored terrorism directed against "innocent people" in South East Asia. It's a savage irony that - just as this unusual form of recycling receives attention in the UK media - the Pentagon is warning that its supplies of aluminium, along with titanium and speciality steels, are being "threatened" by rising Chinese demand. What's the old proverb about reaping and sowing?

The Pope stirs up more anger in his alliance with "Emperor Bush".
Read the background to uproar over the Pope's recent inflammatory remarks and George Bush's war on "Islamofacists", as presented by Uri Avnery of the Israeli peace movement Gush Shalom (The Peace Bloc). The following is a short excerpt.

THE STORY about "spreading the faith by the sword" is an evil legend, one of the myths that grew up in Europe during the great wars against the Muslims - the reconquista of Spain by the Christians, the Crusades and the repulsion of the Turks, who almost conquered Vienna. I suspect that the German Pope, too, honestly believes in these fables. That means that the leader of the Catholic world, who is a Christian theologian in his own right, did not make the effort to study the history of other religions.

There is no escape from viewing them against the background of the new Crusade of Bush and his evangelist supporters, with his slogans of "Islamofascism" and the "Global War on Terrorism" - when "terrorism" has become a synonym for Muslims. For Bush's handlers, this is a cynical attempt to justify the domination of the world's oil resources. Not for the first time in history, a religious robe is spread to cover the nakedness of economic interests; not for the first time, a robbers' expedition becomes a Crusade.

In this sense, the quote serves exactly the requirements of the present Emperor, George Bush II. He, too, wants to unite the Christian world against the mainly Muslim "Axis of Evil". Moreover, the Turks are again knocking on the doors of Europe, this time peacefully. It is well known that the Pope supports the forces that object to the entry of Turkey into the European Union.

Bad Faith and the Destruction of Palestine by Jonathan Cook. Sept 30th 2006.
"The occupation of Gaza did not begin this year, after Hamas was elected, nor did it end with the disengagement a year ago. The occupation is four decades old and still going strong in both the West Bank and Gaza. In that time Israel has followed a consistent policy of subjugating the Palestinian population, imprisoning it inside ever-shrinking ghettos, sealing it off from contact with the outside world, and destroying its chances of ever developing an independent economy".

War on Terrorism or Fight for Social Justice? Bush and Latin America by LAURA CARLSEN. Sept 16 th 2006.
"The problem is that in many parts of the world, and notably in Latin America, the war on terrorism as defined by the Bush administration is now seen more as a cynical attempt to pack the global agenda with objectives that have been on the back burner of the U.S. right".

"The contradictions to which this can lead are striking. There is, for example, a blatant discrepancy between Bush’s proclaimed desire to bring democracy to the Muslim world and his refusal to intervene when the only working instances of fragile democracy in action in the whole Muslim world – in Palestine and Lebanon – were systematically ignored and then shattered by America’s Israeli ally. This discrepancy, and the bad faith and hypocrisy which it seems to suggest, have become a staple of editorial pages and internet blogs the world over, to America’s lasting discredit. But America’s leading liberal intellectuals have kept silent".

Israel acts with impunity in South Lebanon. Sept 20th 2006.
Israeli bulldozers started to level the soil and cut down olive trees in Yarin in the Tyre region on Monday, spoiling several cultivated fields and preventing farmers from inspecting their lands. "Israeli bulldozers have spoiled my land, cutting down the fruit trees I've planted," said farmer Shaker Afleh on Tuesday, as he and his daughter watched the bulldozers on his land from a kilometer away. The international force has done nothing but register Israel's daily violations of Lebanon's territory.

Israeli troops also set up a fence last week in a Marjayoun field, levelled soil, and created a large trench despite the presence of UNIFIL forces.

Meanwhile, an Israeli bulldozer carried out digging work on Tuesday before laying water pipes in the Wazzani River in Marjayoun in a bid to funnel water to the town of Ghajar, the National News Agency (NNA) reported this week. Five Israeli tanks were seen in Tallat Mahames inside the eastern sector in the South, the NNA added.

Yet another example of the British "Soft Touch" approach in Basra. Sept 20th 2006.
Evidence from the trial of UK soldiers on war crimes charges.

"Sometimes they were punched or kicked for no apparent reason," Mr Bevan said. "Sometimes, it seems, it was for the entertainment of others".

"One civilian, Baha Musa, died as a result, in part, from the multiple injuries he had received — there being no less than 93 injuries on his body at the post mortem stage, including fractured ribs and a broken nose," Mr Bevan told the court.

Another detainee had such serious kidney injuries that he suffered renal failure which could have killed him but for medical intervention, the prosecutor said. A third also suffered serious kidney problems which, when examined, were found to be caused by injuries consistent with being punched and kicked.

Conduct Unbecoming an Officer and a Gentlemen: Sept 19th 2006
Lieutenant Ehren Watada Charged Again for Refusing to Deploy to Iraq. Presumably real officers and gentlemen just do as they're told by their political masters, in much the same way as happened with those running concentration camps in the Second World War.

Central Asia declares nuclear free zone. Sept 8th 2006
But the US, UK and France declined to lend their weight to the treaty. There was no immediate official comment from the three Western nuclear powers but one Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Western powers supported such zones but felt it was "premature" to sign the treaty without further talks. Perhaps this type of treaty is just a bit too embarrassing for some nuclear warmongers.

The 19th century Prussian general Carl von Clausewitz described attacks on the enemy’s territory, property and citizens as total war. With the horrors of World War II, total war became associated with war crimes. The Israeli attacks on the Palestinian people and on Lebanon contain all the elements of total wars. In the war against Lebanon, the Israeli strategy of total war was also associated with war crimes. In it's report released on August 3, 2006, and entitled: Fatal Strikes: Israel’s Indiscriminate Attacks Against Civilians in Lebanon, Human Rights Watch analysed two dozen Israeli air and artillery attacks against civilian homes and vehicles and reported that "In some cases, the timing and intensity of the attack, the absence of a military target, as well as return strikes on rescuers, suggest that Israeli forces deliberately targeted civilians".

US investigative reporter Seymour Hersh also reported that the Bush administration was in fact closely involved in the planning of the Israeli war, months before Hizbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in July. "A successful Israeli Air Force bombing campaign,” Hersh wrote, “could ease Israel's security concerns and also serve as a prelude to a potential American pre-emptive attack to destroy Iran's nuclear installations," (The New Yorker, August 14, 06)

Total war against Palestine and Lebanon has failed to resolve the perennial contradiction of Israeli policy: proclaiming a desire for peace and yet, pursuing a policy of dispossession, occupation, expansionism, regional hegemony, and lawless forcible imposition of its will. Israel must choose: either peace of equality or Paxa Hebraica. When will they learn? For once give peace a chance.

Cluster bombs.
Aug 28th 2006. Human Rights Watch has published a list of The Dirty Dozen cluster munitions, who makes them, and where they have been used.

The Lancet recently took greater notice of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). A group of physicians reported that about four million people have died since the “official” outbreak of the Congolese war in 1998. However, experts working in the Congo, and Congolese survivors, count over 10 million dead since war began in 1996—not 1998—with the U.S.-backed invasion to overthrow Zaire’s President Joseph Mobutu.

War in the Congo is driven by the desire to extract raw materials, including diamonds, gold, columbium tantalite (coltan), niobium, cobalt, copper, uranium, and petroleum. Mining in the Congo by western companies proceeds at an unprecedented rate and it is reported that some $6 million in raw cobalt alone—an element of superalloys essential for nuclear, chemical, aerospace, and defense industries—exits the DRC daily. Also, heterogenite, a cobalt ore, was departing the DRC in 2004 at a rate of 6,000 tons per month at about $20 per pound or $268 million per month. Therefore, any analysis of the geopolitics in the Congo requires an understanding of the organized crime perpetrated through multinational businesses to see why the Congolese people have suffered unending war since 1996. With exports such as these why is the general population impoverished? Read the full article for more detail.

Inquiry Opened Into Israeli Use of U.S. Bombs
The US State Department is investigating whether Israel’s use of American-made cluster bombs in southern Lebanon violated secret agreements with the United States that restrict when it can employ such weapons.

Comment
The above enquiry is the latest example of hand-wringing by officials when presented with evidence that their governments are not complying with the national and international conventions they have signed up to. A similar situation arises with UN resolutions. There are many UN resolutions which have not been complied with in the Middle East. If the UN is to retain any credibility it must show an even handed approach. It can't choose to impliment new resolutions while leaving others, such as Resolution 242, to languish in the mists of time. For a detailed analysis of how the US and Israel delt with Resolution 242 read the report by former CIA analyst Kathleen Christison.

It really is about time the UN was reformed and became truely democratic. The current situation, where a handful of countries can veto proposals that are supported by the vast majority, makes a mockery of the democratic process which the "great and the good" want to export throughout the world.

US War Crimes Act Changes Would Reduce Threat Of Prosecution
The Bush administration has drafted amendments to a war crimes law that would eliminate the risk of prosecution for political appointees, CIA officers and former military personnel for humiliating or degrading war prisoners. You can imagine the outcry if Saddam Hussein had done this in Iraq.