Skip Nav | Home | Mobile | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Security | Support Us

World

Day of protest against rendition flights at British airports

Paul O'Hanlon | 24.06.2006 23:11 | Anti-militarism | Anti-racism | Repression | London | World

This is a 630 word piece about the protest against so-called rendition flights which took place at Edinburgh airport on Saturday 24th June 2006. 14 photos are attached.
















Day of protest against rendition flights at British airports


Saturday 24th June saw a day of protest at 5 British airports (Glasgow, Prestwick, Edinburgh, Gatwick and Birmingham International) against the so-called `rendition flights`. The protests were supported by the national Stop the War and by a variety of local campaigns.

The process of what is euphemistically called `extraordinary rendition` amounts to secretly and illegally shuttling people around the world for interrogation, very often to countries where torture is practiced.

The Edinburgh protest took place between 12.30 and 2.00pm and involved about 35 people. Banner and placards read `Stop the torture flights`, `Stop the War`. `Scotland against criminalising communities` and ` Kidnap and torture called rendition flights by the media`. One activist dressed up in an orange jump suit worn by detainees in Guantanamo and was also shackled and handcuffed.

For more information about rendition flights including the recent Marty report see:
 http://www.sacc.org.uk/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=182&catid=29&Itemid=53

Here is an Indymedia piece on CIA extraordinary rendition:
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/12/329968.html

US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice has defended the practice of rendition:
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4500630.stm

The BBC seemed to accept the police version that the Edinburgh protest among others simply did not happen; from their BBC Scotland website and Ceefax page:
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/5112796.stm

As can be seen from the attached photos a demonstration most certainly did take place at Edinburgh airport and hundreds of leaflets were given out.

Afterwards there was a public meeting in St John�s church in the West end of Edinburgh at 3.00pm. The event was chaired by Rosemary Burnett of Amnesty International Scotland and featured former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray and Sunday Herald foreign editor David Pratt.

Craig Murray questioned the value of much of the intelligence used in the infamous `dodgy dossier` used to justify the attack on Iraq, saying most off it was simply bought. He described how when in Uzbekistan, he had come across evidence of `industrial scale` torture including the boiling of one man, yet he was disciplined for speaking out against it. Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleeza Rice and Colin Powell had all come to Uzbekistan and the US gave the Karimov regime $500 million of aid which is about the same as they gave to Western Africa, which has 20 times the population. Here is some more information about the West�s `cozying up` to the Uzbek dictator:
 http://www.thememoryhole.org/pol/us-and-uz.htm

David Pratt of the Sunday Herald spoke of the mindset of the US being one of `pre-emption`. When he was an embedded reporter in Iraq he described how the US military don�t go to great lengths to hide what they were doing and reporters tend to become anaesthetised to what they see.

Craig Murray spoke of the ten thousand or more prisoners of conscience in Uzbekistan and of a massacre of around 700 people in the Andijan area there in May 2005. This killing led to the imposition of EU sanctions on Uzbekistan:
 http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/10/03/uzbeki11812.htm

He went on to remind people about the Ricin plot, which was one of the many scare stories put out in the run up to war on Iraq. The truth is there was no Ricin and there was no plot. In the recent police raid on a house in Forest gate, east London all sorts of absurd stories were reported without question by the media. The whole idea of a `chemical vest` was nonsense as it should be obvious that the idea of a chemical weapon is to spray noxious substances into the atmosphere, whereas a vest would tend to trap and absorb them. This elementary point seemed to have escaped all of the media. Here is a report from the Times:
 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2208954,00.html

There was a question and answer session and the meeting broke up around 5.30pm.


14 photos are attached.









Word count 626 words

Paul O'Hanlon
- e-mail: o_hanlon@hotmail.com

Additions

The vigil at Glasgow Airport

25.06.2006 17:30

There is a bit about the vigil at Glasgow Airport here:

 http://www.indymedia.ie/article/76843

M R SCOTLAND


Comments

Display the following 4 comments

  1. Wish to make a complaint to the BBC? — Mhairi McAlpine
  2. BBC is also covered by the Ofcom Broadcasting Code — Anonymous comment
  3. Craig Murray 'disappeared' — dizzy
  4. Bizarre Twist to Glasgow vigil — Scottie

Publish

Publish your news

Do you need help with publishing?

/regional publish include --> /regional search include -->

World Topics

Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Server Appeal Radio Page Video Page Indymedia Cinema Offline Newsheet

secure Encrypted Page

You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.

If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

IMCs


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech