World Iraq Newswire Archive

Tomorrow morning, Sir Michael Wood, former Foreign and Commonwealth Office Legal Adviser, gives evidence to the Chilcott Inquiry. To my mind, this is the most important evidence to be given so far. Michael's then deputy, Elizabeth Wilmshurst, who resigned over the war of aggression, will give evidence in the afternoon, I believe speaking in public for the first time since her resignation.

A 1,000 word report of December 31st (Hogmanay) 2009 in Parliament Square, London. The other Parliament Square (in Edinburgh) is also featured. 20 photos are included.

I was a British Ambassador at the time of the events covered by the Iraq Inquiry. I know many of the witnesses and a great deal of the background. I can therefore see right through the smooth presentation. Jack Straw was the smoothest of all - but he told lie after lie.

Well, to begin with, they didn't "Stop the War" and there is a lot to be said for the case that in the 6-going-on-7 years since their role has been to "play mother" to the continuing dissent, dissipating the anger until it reduces to a background noise like a chained-up dog outside a kennel at the foot of the garden.

On the first anniversary of the end of the Israeli war against Gaza, Smash EDO activists in Brighton organised a demonstration against arms manufacturer EDO MBM/ITT who made some of the weapons that killed 1417 Palestinians, mainly the elderly, women and children, during the three-week assault. Pictures Copyright (C) Peter Marshall, 2010, all rights reserved

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For info call 07754135290 or email  smashedopress@riseup.net,

For three weeks in January 2009, the bombs rained down on Gaza. At the end of Israel's brutal bombing campaign and ground offensive over 1400 Palestinians had been murdered, including 314 children.

Here in Brighton EDO MBM/ITT manufacture some of the weapons components that devastated so many lives. All over the world thousands of people watched appalled at the carnage on the streets of Gaza. Thousands marched and raged at the destruction of peoples' homes and lives. On January 18th 2010, the anniversary of the final day of Operation Cast Lead, we will come together to remember the people of Gaza.

We will not allow those who supported their pain and profited from their suffering to go unchallenged. We will not let this genocide be forgotten. On the first anniversary after their deaths, we will rise up. We will take to the streets. We will remember...

www.smashedo.org.uk/remember-gaza.htm

Smash EDO Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday 14th January 2010

Contact Chloe Marsh or Andrew Beckett on 07754135290 or email
 smashedopress@riseup.net

There has been a global call for action from the international Palestine solidarity movement for December 27th - January 18th, the anniversary of the Israeli massacre in Gaza, In the run up to Smash EDO's Remember Gaza mass demonstration on the 18th Jan why not target Barclays Bank, read on to find out why...

An account of the ongoing peace camapign of Brian Haw and Barbara Tucker in London's Parliament Square with 20 photos

Nowhere it is more obvious than in Iraq that the existence of an election law, elections themselves and the constitution they are based on are not indicators of democracy or legitimacy, because these mechanisms are merely symbols of the antithesis of the mechanisms of democracy as practiced back home by the U.S. occupying power.

On the day the Iraqi Governments deadline for the forced removal of the residents of Ashraf City to an internment facility expires, Iranian pro-democracy campaigners gather in Whitehall opposite Downing Street to hold a press conference.

“Leaked memo shows regime intent on building atomic bomb”

“It looks like the smoking gun. This is smoking uranium.”

“Israel must decide within months on military strike.”


With the December 14th issue of ‘The Times’, the British media’s four-year-long propaganda campaign against Iran enters its final stage.

In fact, the tone and scope of this latest coverage is almost identical to those we were bombarded with in the months preceding the invasion of Iraq.

I tried to contact Mark Higson the other day only to learn he had died nine years ago. He was just 40, an honourable man. We met soon after he had resigned from the Foreign Office in 1991 and I asked him if the government knew that Hawk fighter-bombers sold to Indonesia were being used against civilians in East Timor.

“Everyone knows,” he said, “except parliament and the public.”

“And the media?”

“The media – the big names – have been invited to King Charles Street (the Foreign Office) and flattered and briefed with lies. They are no trouble.”

As Iraq desk officer at the Foreign Office, he had drafted letters for ministers reassuring MPs and the public that the British Government was not arming Saddam Hussein. “This was a downright lie”, he said. “I couldn’t bear it”.

Around 5 months after Iraqi security forces attack Ashraf City in Iraq killing 11 people, Iraqi authorities announce on Thursday 10th December their intention to force the pro-democracy Iranian residents of the city out of Iraq.

Well Well Well, after all the years waiting and exploring and holding out their blood stained hands filled with blood stained cash, climate crims Shell have won the rights to retrieve, store and sell oil from a massive Iraqi oil field. Makes you wonder again about the reasons for war eh?

The purpose of the Chilcot inquiry is to normalise an epic crime by providing enough of a theatre of guilt to satisfy the media so that the only issue that matters, that of prosecution, is never raised. When he appears in January, Blair will play this part to odious perfection, dutifully absorbing the hisses and boos. All “inquiries” into state crimes are neutered in this way.

Press Release

For immediate release: 9/12/2009

Photo opportunity: Infostall outside the council meeting at 4pm, Thursday 10th. For more information contact Andrew Beckett or Chloe Marsh: 07754135290.

The five veto powers and permanent members of the Security Council have corrupted the the work of the UN. Applying double-standards, and disregard for law - they have made the organization primarily serve their best interests rather than serve its mandate.

I refer to the five most dangerous Member States that together manufacture and sell some 85% of military arms, including nuclear weapons, and so called weapons of mass destruction. This is the UN of the arms dealers - the most disreputable and yet profitable business on earth.

Press Release

4th December 2009