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UK government says payouts for Iraq abuse claims ‘too many to count’

First paragraph:

The UK government has received so many complaints from Iraqis who were unlawfully detained and allegedly mistreated by British troops that its defence ministry says it is unable to say how many millions of pounds have been paid to settle the claims.

UK and US forces ran secret desert prisons in Iraq after 2003 invasion

First paragraph

The US and British military ran at least two secret prisons in Iraq during the months following the 2003 invasion, concealing prisoners from Red Cross inspectors, Middle East Eye has learned.

War crimes scandal: Army ‘covered up torture and child murder’ in the Middle East

Note this article seems to be anonymous, which is unusual for Times articles.

Second paragraph:

Evidence implicating British soldiers in the murder of children and the torture of civilians was covered up by military commanders, according to leaked documents that had been kept secret by the government.

EXCLUSIVE: British army permitted shooting of civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan

Middle East Eye interviewed former soldiers.

Break-in Attempted at Assange’s Residence in Ecuador Embassy

An attempt was made on Oct. 29 to break into the Ecuadorian embassy, where security has been removed and apparently new surveillance devices installed, reports Joe Lauria.

US to loosen nuclear weapons constraints and develop more 'usable' warheads

First paragraph

The Trump administration plans to loosen constraints on the use of nuclear weapons and develop a new low-yield nuclear warhead for US Trident missiles, according to a former official who has seen the most recent draft of a policy review.

Syrian government forces seize massive quantity of weapons from Isis arms depot in Deir ez-Zor

First paragraph:

The Isis arsenal comprised the latest weapons made in Nato countries, including a UK-made 155 mm howitzer manufactured in 2011.

Latest NATO Arms From US Found in Daesh Depot in Al Mayadin - Syrian General

First paragraph:

The largest Daesh storehouse captured by the Syrian armed forces in the city of Al Mayadin, in the east of Syria, contained the latest examples of NATO weapons from the United States, Belgium and the United Kingdom, Brigadier General of the Syrian Arab Army Hasan Suheil told reporters.

As ISIS Flees, Syrian Troops Find Arms Cache From US, NATO

First two paragraphs:

The Syrian Armed Forces have discovered a large cache of military arsenal from Western countries, particularly from the United States, left behind by the Islamic State group as its forces fled the city of al-Mayadin in the east of the country, according to Sputnik.

“We have encountered a huge arsenal of advanced U.S., British and Belgian weaponry,” said Hasan Suhel, the Syrian general who led the military operation to liberate al-Mayadin.

US Special Forces Collaborating with ISIS – Russia

First paragraph:

The Ministry of Defense of Russia has published an aerial survey of the areas of deployment of terrorist group Daish (also called ISIS or Islamic State) in Syria, where we can see a large number of American armoured cars such as Hummer, which is in service with US special forces.

Distrustful U.S. allies force spy agency to back down in encryption fight

First paragraph

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - An international group of cryptography experts has forced the U.S. National Security Agency to back down over two data encryption techniques it wanted set as global industry standards, reflecting deep mistrust among close U.S. allies.

paragraph 6:

The presence of the NSA officials and former NSA contractor Edward Snowden’s revelations about the agency’s penetration of global electronic systems have made a number of delegates suspicious of the U.S. delegation’s motives, according to interviews with a dozen current and former delegates.

This refugee squat represents the best and worst of humanity

The derelict City Plaza hotel in Athens was taken over by activists in 2016. Since then, it has housed refugees without a cent of government funding

GETTING JULIAN ASSANGE: THE UNTOLD STORY

First paragraph:

Julian Assange has been vindicated because the Swedish case against him was corrupt. The prosecutor, Marianne Ny, obstructed justice and should be prosecuted. Her obsession with Assange not only embarrassed her colleagues and the judiciary but exposed the Swedish state's collusion with the United States in its crimes of war and "rendition".

Australian anti-war activist 'among victims of alleged UK police hacking'

First paragraph:

An Australian anti-war activist was among the victims of alleged illegal email hacking by UK police, according to whistleblower claims being investigated by the British police watchdog.

‘Price is right’ for Cambridgeshire mayor says Labour leader Corbyn

Article reports that at Water Lane, Cambridge 4 March 2017 Jeremy Corbyn, Labour leader, said:

“It was fantastic to see this state-of-the-art housing development delivered by the Labour-run council in Cambridge.”

How Video Finally Proved That Cops Lie

BuzzFeed News reviewed 62 incidents of video footage contradicting an officer's statement in a police report or testimony. From traffic stops to fatal force, these cases reveal how cops are incentivized to lie — and why they get away with it.

Anti-war activist Ciaron O’Reilly: conventional protests are 'a dead end'

Giving practical support to conscientious objectors – as well as to Julian Assange and Edward Snowden – has led to an unexpected recent phase in the life of an activist who cheerfully volunteers that he still looks like “the hippie from central casting”.

...

“Most resistance in both the Gulf war and the recent invasion [of Iraq in 2003] came out of the US and also the British military.”

Veterans throw away their war medals in disgust at British air strikes in Syria

First paragraph:

British war veterans have thrown away their medals outside Downing Street in protest against the Government's decision to bomb Syria and to bust the “mythology” of heroism connected to the military.

Last man standing

First paragraph:

A DEFIANT tenant in a row of council houses controversially marked for demolition is staying put - as the authority prepares to evict him.

Hora Chilena: Chilean refugees in Cambridge in a Britain at ease with itself

On Wednesday December 11, the entire Chilean community of Cambridge plus about a hundred of their friends gathered at the city’s Arts Picturehouse to watch the premiere of Hora Chilena, a documentary made by Camila Iturra, Lautaro Vargas and Kip Loades. The film is about two once unconnected groups, brought together by one of the great tragedies of the late twentieth century which still remains an emblematic and searing moment in the political memory of my generation.

Green light to demolish and rebuild homes

First paragraph:

CONSTRUCTION of more than 90 homes on three sites across Cambridge has been approved as part of a huge council house redevelopment programme.

Uncovering Britain's secret role in protecting Chile's 1973 coup

Forty years on, declassified documents reveal an outpouring of concern from the British public over Pinochet's coup – and the Foreign Office's attempt to undermine the solidarity campaign

Council homes facing the bulldozer for second time

First paragraph:

DEMOLITION of council houses has been approved for the second time, despite opposition from tenants.

Council homes set for bulldozer

Second paragraph:

There were hopes further work would lead to the residents being allowed to stay, but a report to the council's community services committee, which meets tomorrow, recommends the schemes are approved again.

Move driven by finance alone

Housing demolitions in Water Lane Cambridge: a letter in the local paper from Clare Blair in reply to a letter from city councillor Tim Blick 16 days earlier.

“Had these tenants not had the misfortune to be sited round a peaceful central green space of the kind developers love to build on, they would be left in peace.”

Tenants hope review will be lifeline to staying put

Water Lane evictions and house demolitions in The Cambridge News. The first paragraph is:

COUNCIL house tenants facing eviction under a Cambridge-wide redevelopment programme are hoping a review could signal a U-turn.

Tenants ‘led up the garden path’

Water Lane council house demolitions - A letter in a local paper by Cambridge City Council leader Tim Bick.

Widow begs: Don't bulldoze my home

Evictions and house demolitions in Water Lane is the topic of this report from The Cambridge News. The first paragraph is:

A WIDOW who is facing eviction under council plans to bulldoze and rebuild her home fears she won't survive the upheaval.

Homes to be bulldozed despite residents' plea

Second paragraph:

Demolition of 24 properties in Water Lane, East Chesterton, and 24 maisonettes in Aylesborough Close, King's Hedges, was approved by Cambridge City Council yesterday.

Confessions of a drug cartel hitman on the run

Third paragraph:

“ For six days, in room 164 of an anonymous motel, he told us of his life as a professional assassin for the Juárez drugs organisation, a cartel that controlled one of the main drug trafficking routes from Mexico across the border into the lucrative American market. ”

Secret memos expose link between oil firms and invasion of Iraq

First paragraph:

Plans to exploit Iraq's oil reserves were discussed by government ministers and the world's largest oil companies the year before Britain took a leading role in invading Iraq, government documents show.

The sicario A Juárez hit man speaks

Journalist Charles Bowden interviews a former contract killer for the Mexican drug cartels who says he was trained in the USA and that he kidnapped, tortured and murdered while he was a commander in the Mexican police. This man subsequently was the subject of the film El Sicario, Room 164 by Gianfranco Rosi.

“In his many transports of human beings to bondage, torture, and death, he is never interfered with by the authorities. He is part of the government, the state policeman with eight men under his command. But his key employer is the organization, which he assumes is the Juárez cartel, but he never asks since questions can be fatal. They give him a salary, a house, a car. And standing. He estimates that 85 percent of the police worked for the organization.”

Not guilty verdict in third trial of anti-war activists

First paragraph:

There were jubilant scenes inside and outside a Dublin courtroom yesterday when five anti-war protesters were found not guilty of criminally damaging a US navy aircraft at Shannon airport.

Guardian Editor Rusbridger, Tessa Jowell and Alan Mills in Private Eye

Private Eye reports British military training for Uzbekistan

First paragraph:

WHILE foreign secretary Jack Straw rushed to condemn Uzbekistan's army for shooting dead civilians in Andijan, no one bothered to suspend the British army's training programme for the very same Uzbek soldiers.

Our military won't find itself guilty

Comment by Phil Shiner, a Birmingham lawyer. Amongst other things he outlines his attempt in February 2005 to bring "compelling and highly relevant" evidence before a British court martial taking place in Osnabruck, Germany. The court martial concerned events at British "Camp Breadbasket" in Iraq.

'FREE MY JAILED ARMY HUSBAND'

A Birmingham newspaper reports that Abdullah William Webster, a former US Army sergeant, who is the husband of local woman Sue Webster, was sentenced by court martial in June 2004 to 14 months in prison after refusing to fight in Iraq. The article includes interview with his wife, photographs of them and their child, comments from Amnesty International which has adopted him as a prisoner of conscience, and details of how to write in support.

OPEC ON THE MARCH: Why Iraq Still Sells Its Oil à la Cartel

The following paragraph is quoted from the website of Palast, not from Harper's magazine:

Within weeks of the first inaugural, prominent Iraqi expatriates - many with ties to U.S. industry - were invited to secret discussions directed by Pamela Quanrud, an NSC economics expert now employed at State. "It quickly became an oil group," one participant, Falah Aljibury, told me. Aljibury, an adviser to Amerada Hess's oil trading arm and to investment banking giant Goldman Sachs, who once served as a back channel between the United States and Iraq during

...

Full article on www.gregpalast.com

An updated version "By special arrangement with Harper's magazine": OPEC and The Economic Conquest of Iraq, Greg Palast, Monday, 24 October, 2005 (PDF) on gregpalast.com

Secret US plans for Iraq's oil

First paragraph:

The Bush administration made plans for war and for Iraq's oil before the 9/11 attacks, sparking a policy battle between neo-cons and Big Oil, BBC's Newsnight has revealed.

See also : Secret U.S. Plans For Iraq’s Oil, Thursday 17 March 2005, Greg Palast on www.gregpalast.com

Video, transcript and interview of reporter Greg Palast by Amy Goodman on democracynow.org

Troops could face trial after human rights ruling

The Guardian reports a "landmark" High Court judgement delivered yesterday by Lord Justice Rix and Mr Justice Forbes. They said that British troops were "in effective control" of the prison in Iraq where Baha Mousa died, which meant that the Human Rights Act applied. They found, however, that it did not apply to the deaths of five others whose families were parties to the action. Both sides were granted leave to appeal. The court criticised the army's investigation. This article also has some quotes in reaction to this judgement.

We can hold our military to account

Phil Shiner writes on the victory for his clients that the High Court judgement delivered yesterday represents and explains what it means. He recaps the case of Baha Mousa who, according to a witness, was systematically beaten and tortured to death in captivity by British soldiers over a period of three days. He also notes: "Over the 19 months since the first death in the 40 cases of killings and torture in which I act, not one soldier has been charged."

High court judgement of 14 December 2004

Second paragraph of summary

This judgment is only concerned with two preliminary issues: (1) whether the deaths took place within the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom so as to fall within the scope of (a) the Convention and (b) the Act; and (2) whether, if so, there has been a breach of the requirements under articles 2 and 3 of the Convention regarding an adequate enquiry into those deaths.

Now (2017) the whole website has disappeared and this High Court judgement does not seem to be avaiable on any .gov.uk website (according to the search engines).

Judgment on redress.org (PDF)

A glimpse on web.archive.org of the old page on .gov.uk before it disappeared into the Orwellian memory hole.

The world's first multinational

This essay suggests that there are lessons relevant today in the history of the British East India Company. Robins quotes Jawaharlal Nehru in The Discovery of India, 1944 on the "The corruption, venality, nepotism, violence and greed of money of these early generations of British rule in India," and says that in Wealth of Nations, 1776, Adam Smith used the company as a case-study of the undermining of liberty and justice. Robins describes the looting of Bengal's gold and silver in 1757 after Robert Clive won the Battle of Palashi, opium trafficking, Edmund Burke's attempt to impeach Warren Hastings in 1788, and many more things besides. Finally Robins mentions one case where the company did not escape with legal impunity. In 1774 a group of merchants led by Gregore Cojamaul and Johannes Padre Rafael won a civil case against Harry Verelst, former governor-general of Bengal. He was found guilty of "oppression, false imprisonment and singular depredations" for what he had done in Bengal and had to pay 9,000 pounds damages and full costs.

Soldiers arrested after Iraqi beaten and drowned

Dodd reports that at least two soldiers have been arrested by the Royal Military police investigating the death of Ahmed Jabbar Kareem, 17, who allegedly died after being beaten by British soldiers and ordered to swim across the Zubair river in Basra, Southern Iraq, where he drowned. This report then quotes the words of Jabbar Kareem Ali, the victim's father, from a mysterious "statement seen by the Guardian". According to these quotations, army investigators have interviewed him, exhumed his son's corpse, taken a key witness - Ayad Salim Hannon - to British Army Headquarters for ten hours, and an officer has told him that they have arrested four men. (Dodd does not then say how The Guardian then arrived at the figure of "at least two".) There is a quotation from Phil Shiner, the father's solicitor, and quotations from MoD, which refused to provide any useful information at all. The article also mentions that four soldiers from Royal Regiment of Fusiliers are to be court-martialled and that Scotland Yard is investigating a death.

UK troops 'beat Iraqi to death'

Description of a case in the High Court, with a picture of witness Kifah Al-Mutari, a survivor of imprisonment at a British military base called Darul Dhyafa. The court has to decide whether the Human Rights Act 1998 applied to troops in South Eastern occupied Iraq and whether there should be an independent inquiry to investigate deaths of Iraqis at the hands of British troops. There are six test cases, but this report describes only that of Baha Mousa. It mentions the Queen's Lancashire Regiment and the Kings Regiment. The report quotes Rabinder Singh QC, appearing for the victims, reading from a witness statement of Kifah Al-Mutari and in parts is ambiguous as to whether it is quoting Kifah Al-Mutari in court, or quoting his witness statement. The report also has extracts from the witness statement of the dead man's father, Daoud Mousa, on the state of his son's body after he had been killed.

Iraqis' battle for justice begins in high court today

Third paragraph:

The judicial review by the high court of six test cases of Iraqis allegedly killed by servicemen in the British-controlled sector of southern Iraq after the war ended has been sought in an attempt to overturn the government's refusal to order an independent inquiry into the death of Iraqi civilians.

Full article on www.guardian.co.uk

Army may lose right to stop charges

This report covers a mixture of topics. It mentions that Phil Shiner was on BBC Radio 4 yesterday and quotes some of the things he said. It says that last month "MPs" were misinformed about the number of cases being investigated by the "service police" in Iraq. The figure given by Adam Ingram and confirmed by the Prime Minister was 33 while the correct figure was 61 and it has since risen to 75. The Telegraph does not give any reason for the misinformation. It also mentions a case where after investigation of possible unlawful killing in Iraq, the soldier's commanding officer dismissed the case. However the Army Prosecuting Authority referred the case to the Attorney General and last month Lord Goldsmith announced that after further investigations by Scotland Yard, the Crown Prosecution Service will decide whether to prosecute.

End this lawlessness

Phil Shiner, a solicitor acting in the cases of 20 Iraqis killed or injured by British troops, outlines the case of Baha Mousa, mentions a few other cases and explains the significance of the forthcoming High Court case scheduled for 28-30 July 2004.

Bereaved Iraqi families seeking 'justice'

Includes some quotations of statements made by solicitor Phil Shiner after lodging an application for judicial review at the High Court yesterday. This report also gives very brief details of a few of the people involved in the action. It also mentions some investigations in Basra by Shiner's colleague, Mazin Younis.

Full article on archive.org from www.telegraph.co.uk

Payout claim for civilians shot in Basra

Phil Shiner of Public Interest Lawyers is bringing a case to the High Court and it is expected to be heard next month. The exact details of the case are completely opaque in this article, but it is something to do with compensation for Mazin Jumah Gatteh whose brother Hasim was gunned down in the street by British troops as was another man Abed Abdul-Kareem Hassan, in the Majidiya district of Basra in August 2003. This article includes extracts of a witness statement from Gatteh and of an apologetic letter from Lieutenant-Colonel Ciaran Griffin, commander of the 1st Battalion, the King's Regiment, written to the Beni Skein tribe. It also reports some details of money that Griffin said he had "donated" to the families of the victims.

Troops accused on Iraq killings

The Guardian reports that the MoD is facing the "threat" of (unspecified) legal action over the deaths of at least 18 Iraqis allegedly killed by British soldiers. It reports some names of victims with a few details: Waleed Fayayi Muzban, Raid Hadi Al Musawi, Hanan Shmailawi, Muhammad Abdul Ridha Salim, Jaafer Hashim Majeed. There is a quote from Phil Shiner, acting in these and other cases (he says the 18 are the "tip of the iceberg") and a quote from Adam Price, MP, who has asked parliamentary questions.

Inquiry launched into death of PoW

A strange article, recycling a report from the Sun about a prisoner who died in British custody. The (few) details sound remarkably similar to the case of Baha Mousa, except that the name given is Al-Maliki. The Independent provides no explanation for presenting second-hand information from the tabloid press without any reference to its own reports published more than a month earlier. Clennell does report that a MoD spokeswoman confirms that a "prisoner of war" has died in British custody. This article is not to be found on the Independent's web site.

Soldiers may be charged over Iraqi death in custody

This article reports that military police have been investigating 6 deaths of civilian prisoners held by the British in Basra. One case has been referred to the Army Prosecuting Authority. Following parliamentary questions from Harry Cohen and Adam Price the MoD has named "the other" (and it is not clear in the article what that means) dead: Ahmed Jabber Kareem, Said Shabrahm and Hassan Abbad Said. No further action is to be taken in the case of Radhi Natna. Other victims mentioned are Abd al-Jabbar Mousa and Baha Mousa. The article concludes by saying that at Christmas the British opened their own prison in Basra and previously their prisoners had been taken to the American Camp Bucca at Um Qasr. (This synopsis was made from the printed newspaper.)

What happened after the war on Afghanistan?

A short summary based on published evidence, of what the effect of the American attack and invasion of 2001 has been, with 35 links to cited references.

This was at http://www.dpmms.cam.ac.uk/~npg20/afghanistan.html but now (2017) seems to be only on archive.org

MoD investigates nine more deaths of Iraqi civilians

This article reports that the in addition to the case of Baha Mousa the Special Investigations Branch of the Royal Military Police is investigating 9 other cases of deaths of civilians. Adam Ingram, the armed forces minister, said that 17 cases of deaths caused by British troops had been referred to the Royal Military Police. This was in response to questions asked last week by Adam Price, MP. The article mentions two victims: Radi Nu'ma and Abd al-Jabbar Mossa. It contains some indirect quotations of Price. (This synopsis was made from the printed newspaper.)

British soldiers 'kicked Iraqi prisoner to death'

First paragraph: "Exclusive by Robert Fisk in Basra Eight young Iraqis arrested in Basra were kicked and assaulted by British soldiers, one of them so badly that he died in British custody, according to military and medical records seen by The Independent on Sunday."

Fisk reports that British military authorities offered the relatives of the man who was killed $8,000 in compensation and that the Special Investigation Branch of the army opened an investigation. The Independent on Sunday has copies of both a death certificate for Baha Mousa - which says that he died of "asphyxia" - and a document from a British hospital that says fellow prisoner Kifah Taha suffered injuries from a severe beating. The article includes a picture of the top part of the letter offering compensation. Some more documents appear on the full report on page 16. (Note this synopsis was made from the printed newspaper.)

This report was at http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/story.jsp?story=477915 By 2017 it appears to have been moved to a long url on www.independent.co.uk

First paragraph on archive.org archived from news.independent.co.uk

'The British said my son would be free soon. Three days later I had his body'

Subheading: "Robert Fisk reports from Basra on the 'death in custody' of the son of an Iraqi police colonel and evidence that he was savagely and deliberately beaten to death by British soldiers" Expanding on the report on page 1, this long report includes facsimiles of 4 documents: a letter of condolence from Brigadier William Moore, commander of the British Forces, a death certificate, a "wound assessment and evaluation form" of Frimley Park Hospital NHS Trust, a letter on British Army letter heading from Major James Ralph to another doctor. There are also photographs of Baha Mousa and his family, including his two small children, now orphaned. Fisk reports that an inquiry (case number 64695/03) was opened on 18 September 2003 by 61 section of the 3rd Regiment, Royal Military Police's Special Investigation Branch for which Staff Sergeant Jay was named as chief investigating officer by Captain G Nugent. (Note this synopsis was made from the printed newspaper.)

This report was at http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/story.jsp?story=477908 By 2017 it appears to have been moved to a long url on www.independent.co.uk

MI6 chief heads for Cambridge

Sir Richard Dearlove, the head of MI6 who was embroiled in the controversy over the government's Iraqi weapons dossier, has been appointed head of a Cambridge University college, it was announced last night.

Schwarzenegger Accused of Involvement in $9B California Swindle with Enron's Ken Lay

Investigative reporter Greg Palast reveals how Republican gubernatorial candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger is part of a larger scheme to help Enron and other power companies avoid paying back $9 billion in illicit profits by replacing Gov. Gray Davis. [Includes transcript]

Arnold's Enron Secret

Now, 34 pages of internal Enron memoranda have just come through this reporter's fax machine that tell all about the tryst between Maria's husband and the corporate con men. It turns out that Schwarzenegger knowingly joined the hush-hush encounter as part of a campaign to sabotage a Davis-Bustamante plan to make Enron and other power pirates then ravaging California pay back the $9 billion in illicit profits they carried off.

Schwarzenegger: Total Amnesia?

Santa Monica, CA --Internal Enron e-mails confirm that Arnold Schwarzenegger was among a small group of executives who met with Lay at the posh Peninsula Beverly Hills hotel in May of 2001, in the midst of California's energy crisis. View the e-mails. The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, which obtained the e-mails, is calling on Schwarzenegger to acknowledge the meetings and disclose the information that was presented and discussed. The meeting with Enron occurred ten days after rolling blackouts darkened California for two consecutive days; Schwarzenegger has previously said that he does not remember such a meeting.

By 2017 this has disappeared from http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/utilities/pr/pr003708.php3

Full article on archive.org

Refusenik Israeli pilots under fire

"The pilots' rebellion is an earthquake with a potential for disaster, whose magnitude is difficult to assess at present," he told Yediot Aharonot. "If this storm does not go way quickly, it could drag with it other parts of the army and not only the air force."

Mysterious deaths

A report on the sudden mysterious deaths, with lung haemorrhages, of 3 people living about 3km apart, in Dunedin, New Zealand.

Street of Shame

Second paragraph:

But here's the difference: no heads rolled. And, it now transpires, the readers don't even get an apology. On 24 July the following brief announcement was buried in the Standard: "A number of readers have expressed concern that our front page picture on 9 April, showing Iraqis celebrating the liberation of Baghdad, had been enhanced to depict a larger crowd than actually existed. As it was taken from TV footage, extra people were added to the image to fill the space left by the removal of logos from the picture. In our opinion this did not alter the clarity or truth of the picture's message but we are happy to make this clear."

Full article

Torture testimony 'acceptable'

Carefully hidden by the Guardian under an irrelevant headline on page 2 is an official USA admission of murder of prisoners held by the CIA in Bagram:

A US military coroner, Elizabeth Rowse, ruled that two men from Afghanistan held at a secret CIA interrogation centre at Bagram air base had been killed under interrogation. She confirmed that the official cause of death of the two men was "homicide".

The Galloway saga has eerie echoes of the Scargill affair of 1990

A former editor of Daily Mirror now admits that he printed false allegations against Arthur Scargill in 1990. While claiming that he himself was misled, he mentions a secret service plot and MI5 and points out similarities to the present campaign against George Galloway. (For more information about the deceitful campaign against Arthur Scargill, including more on the role of Roy Greenslade, see also "The Enemy Within MI5, Maxwell and the Scargill Affair", Seumas Milne, Verso 1994)

Tracing the missile

It seems that the US and UK government are still claiming that the 28 March bombing of Shu'ala marketplace, which is being reported as having killed 62 peope, could have been the result of malfunctioning Iraqi air defence equipment.

Tens of thousands rally in Boston for peace

Tens of thousands of people from across New England and beyond converged on a damp, windswept Boston Common for a massive antiwar rally yesterday, then marched through the city, saying they hoped to show the world that not all Americans support President Bush and the war in Iraq.

This was at http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/089/metro/Tens_of_thousands_rally_in_Boston_for_peace+.shtml but by 2017 has gone.

Full article on archive.org

Australian pilot gives thumbs down to US bombing order

CANBERRA - An Australian FA/18 Hornet pilot has refused an American command to bomb a target in Iraq in the first conflict between the different rules governing the way the two allies make war.

By 2017 this has disappeared from http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3251554&thesection=news&thesubsection=world

Full article is one of those in this email on casi.org archive

Robin Cook's resignation speech

I have chosen to address the House first on why I cannot support a war without international agreement or domestic support.

Speech transcript on bbc.co.uk

US CLAIMS OF VX NERVE AGENT FALL APART

One of the central claims of the US administration about the threat of Iraq's weapons - that of 1.5 tonnes of VX nerve agent that are unaccounted for - has fallen apart over the past week.

Thirty B52 Support Vehicles Disabled at RAF Fairford

Last night at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire two Trident Ploughshares activists disabled no less than thirty vehicles which provide essential support to the US B52 bombers stationed there.

By 2017 this article has gone from its location at http://www.tridentploughshares.org/prel/prel03/r030314a.html

Full article on archive.org archived from tridentploughshares.org

Ulla Roder Confirms Leuchars Tornado "Out of Action"

Today Trident Ploughshares activist Ulla Roder confirmed that the Tornado jet which she damaged yesterday at Leuchars airbase is unlikely to fly again.

Full article archived from www.tridentploughshares.org on archive.org

See also Ulla Roder – Tornado Disarmament Action At Leuchars Airport

Minister is greeted by protesters

Adam Ingram, Minister of State for the Armed Forces, faced a hostile reception inside and outside party headquarters in Norfolk Street.

ITALY: Civil disobedience targets US military

Third paragraph:

The "Stop that train; disobey global war" campaign has attempted to block 27 special trains en route to Livorno laden with US troops, tanks, rocket launchers, jeeps and bulldozers. Members of the railworkers' union are providing activists with detailed information on rail movements and, in a rerun of events in 1969 during the Vietnam War, dock workers are refusing to load military cargo in Livorno.

Full article from greenleft.org.au archived on archive.org

Hundreds skip lessons for anti-war demo

About 400 pupils from Hills Road and Long Road Sixth Form Colleges in Cambridge marched into the city centre to protest against a possible war with Iraq.

Appellate Court Rules Media Can Legally Lie

On February 14, a Florida Appeals court ruled there is absolutely nothing illegal about lying, concealing or distorting information by a major press organization. The court reversed the $425,000 jury verdict in favor of journalist Jane Akre who charged she was pressured by Fox Television management and lawyers to air what she knew and documented to be false information. The ruling basically declares it is technically not against any law, rule, or regulation to deliberately lie or distort the news on a television broadcast.

IF WAR BREAKS OUT

On the day war breaks out, the Stop the War Coalition is calling on everyone to make your protest felt immediately - occupy your city or town centre, organise mass meetings or walkouts at work, sit in at your college or university.

Academic humiliates copy-cat government

This week national governments were blushing and the headlines of the world's media were screaming after a Cambridge fellow revealed that the British Government's latest dossier on Iraq was little more than a poor copy of out of date and uncredited academic articles.

Grannies gather in attempt to avert 'immoral' conflict in Iraq

"We volunteered for an indefinite period. If war breaks out, I will stay here and be in solidarity with the Iraqi people," said Elaine Martinez, 72, from Chicago.

Campaigners hand in petition for peace

PEACE campaigners opposed to the UK going to war in Iraq have presented a petition of more than 1,200 signatures to Ipswich MP Chris Mole.

NATO Chief warns on Saddam war

NATO's Euroean Commander-in- Chief has defended a possible war in Iraq but warned that if it occurs the West may be dragged into a drawn out and damaging conflict.

Lock-On War Protest at RAF Lakenheath

Anti war protesters were in action again last week and experienced mixed success in their action at RAF Lakenheath. The party of

NO 82% are against Iraq war

MORE than 1,000 readers took part in the News poll to find out how the region feels about war with Iraq.

IT'S A NO TO WAR

* MPs say their constiuents are not yet convinced Britain should invade Iraq

Region's MPs say constituents overwhelmingly against conflict

Little belief in need for war

THE people of Mid-Anglia are not ready for a war in Iraq, according to the region's MPs.

This article was also at http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/search/dispstory.asp?id=469502

Hundreds march against war

HUNDREDS of protesters gathered In Cambridge city centre on Saturday to march against the impending war on Iraq.

Peace protesters arrested after air base demo

SIX peace protesters, four of them from Cambridge, were arrested during a demonstration outside the Lakenheath USAF base yesterday.

Full article

This article was also published at the following link but is no longer (in 2017) http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/search/dispstory.asp?id=467838

Hundreds protest over Iraq war plan

HUNDREDS of protesters gathered in Cambridge city centre on Saturday to march against the impending war on Iraq.

Letters Extra Special on Iraq
War would be disastrous

This is a representative sample of letters we have received on a possible war with Iraq. So far, not one correspondent has been in favour of war.

Petition highlights anti-war message

A WOMAN has set about giving a voice to growing anger over a possible war in Iraq by starting a petition which she hopes will go to every village in the region.

(This article was also published on the following link, which no longer works in 2017 http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/search/dispstory.asp?id=l5077 )

Seventy arrests at anti-war blockade

Cambridge students were among the 70 protestors arrested on Sunday at a peaceful protest outside Britain's Military Headquarters. They were members of the four hundred anti-war protestors who rallied outside RAF Northwood,

Cambridge Student to be human shield in Iraq

Tomorrow morning Shane Mulligan will set out on a journey to Iraq. When he arrives there in just under two weeks time he will go to a place that he sees as being worth protecting - maybe a power station, a water works or a hospital - and stay there.

Iraq Faces Massive U.S. Missile Barrage

"There will not be a safe place in Baghdad," said one Pentagon official who has been briefed on the plan.

Candlelight in the shadow of war

As people around the world joined in peaceful protest against the possibly imminent war on Iraq, over 100 Cambridge locals and students converged on Petty Cury on Saturday night.

Student Heading to Iraq

A Cambridge student is heading to Iraq this week to act as a "human shield", in the face of the increasing threat of military strikes on the troubled Gulf state. Shane Mulligan,

Troops in Gulf to use depleted uranium shells

The Ministry of Defence announced last year it was to buy a tungsten-tipped, armour-piercing round amid concern over the side-effects of the DU shells, although it continues to deny that the ammunition is the source of cancers contracted by servicemen in areas where it was used in battle since its introduction in 1991.

Full article archived on archive.org from www.theherald.co.uk

Discounted Casualties

The human cost of depleted uranium

As I traveled through the US, UK, and Iraq to cover this story, I was confronted at every turn by the sad and frightening spectre of "discounted casualties,"- people exposed to depleted uranium and other toxic substances, and now tormented by leukemia and a whole array of chronic disorders.

The dishonest case for war on Iraq

There is no case for a war on Iraq. It has not threatened to attack the US or Europe. It is not connected to al-Qa'ida. There is no evidence that it has new weapons of mass destruction, or that it possesses the means of delivering them.

Arms moved by road after rail boycott

Ministry of Defence officials instead shifted the munitions by road, saying they had thought the train had faced technical problems.

The two drivers have been described as "conscientious objectors" by a supporter, and it is understood that a total of 15 drivers are threatening some form of anti-war action.

An extract from "The Great Deception" on USA, CFR in creation of EU

This extract is mainly about promotion of the idea of European integration by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) "generously funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and other industrial corporations".

Children of the Gulf War Photo Exhibition U.S. Tour

As citizens concerned with the social justice and the situation in Iraq, we have conceived a program that we hope will draw attention to the devastation of war and economic sanction in Iraq, and moral bankruptcy of U.S. foreign policy regarding people in Iraq, especially children.

Item on archive.org archived from www.savewarchildren.org

British academic publisher boycotts Bar-Ilan University

The British academic publisher St. Jerome Publishing has informed Bar-Ilan University that it will no longer sell books and periodicials to the school due to Israel's activities in the territories.

This article was at the following url but at August 2017 is no longer. Also it does not appear to be archived on archive.org

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=223357&contrassID=2&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y

A Grad Student Mimicked Saddam Over the Airwaves

Broadcast Ruse

Word got around the department that I was a good Arabic translator who did a great Saddam imitation," recalls the Harvard grad student. "Eventually, someone phoned me asking if I wanted to help change the course of Iraq policy." So twice a week, for $3000 a month, the Iraqi student tells the Voice on condition of anonymity, he took a taxi from his campus apartment to a Boston-area recording studio rented by the Rendon Group, a D.C.-based public relations firm with close ties to the U.S. government. His job: Translate and dub spoofed Saddam Hussein speeches and tongue-in-cheek newscasts for broadcast throughout Iraq.

MI6 'halted bid to arrest bin Laden'

British intelligence paid large sums of money to an al-Qaeda cell in Libya in a doomed attempt to assassinate Colonel Gadaffi in 1996 and thwarted early attempts to bring Osama bin Laden to justice.

Into the Dark The Pentagon Plan to Provoke Terrorist Attacks

This astonishing admission was buried deep in a story which was itself submerged by mounds of gray newsprint and glossy underwear ads in last Sunday's Los Angeles Times. There--in an article by military analyst William Arkin, detailing the vast expansion of the secret armies being massed by the former Nixon bureaucrat now lording it over the Pentagon--came the revelation of Rumsfeld's plan to create "a super-Intelligence Support Activity" that will "bring together CIA and military covert action, information warfare, intelligence, and cover and deception."

Full article

(Between 2002 and now in 2017 this article moved from www.counterpunch.org/floyd1101.html without any redirect being left at the old location.)

Meet the new Zionists

You might think these Christian activists represent the furthest shores of American politico-religious wackiness. The politicians don't think so. This conference began with a videotaped benediction straight from the Oval office. Some of the most influential republicans in Congress addressed the gathering including - not once, but twice - Tom DeLay, who is hot favourite to take over as majority leader of the House of Representatives after the midterm elections on November 5, thus becoming arguably the most powerful man on Capitol Hill.

Area residents are preparing for the Washington antiwar protest. Organizers promise a large and diverse affair.

"I thought Sept. 11 was a chance for us to do the right thing," said McIlvaine, 57, who lives in Oreland, Montgomery County. "What Bush wants to do is morally wrong, wrong under all international law. I'll say that for as long as I have to."

Full article archived from www.philly.com on archive.org

Parents of dying Iraqi children vent fury at Bush

International medical surveys have reported a dramatic jump in cancer cases, genetic deformities and abnormalities in children born after 1991, especially in the south where depleted uranium munitions were fired by U.S. and British troops as they drove Iraqi forces out of Kuwait.

Robert Fisk: What the US President wants us to forget

Secondly, because the envoy was sent to Iraq to arrange the re-opening of the US embassy - in order to secure better trade and economic relations with the Butcher of Baghdad. Thirdly, because the envoy was - wait for it - Donald Rumsfeld. Now you might think it strange that Mr Rumsfeld, in the course of one of his folksy press conferences, hasn't chatted to us about this interesting tit-bit. You might think he would have wished to enlighten us about the evil nature of the criminal with whom he so warmly shook hands. But no.

Prosecute Sharon for war crimes, Israeli women say

The women's letter, which was sent via the United States, has amazed the Lebanese lawyer representing the survivors of the massacre, for which Mr Sharon was held "personally responsible" by an Israeli inquiry. "It is a wonderful gesture," Chibli Mallat said yesterday. "It is a wonderful message to receive in these very dangerous and violent times."

IDF kills 9-year-old in El Bireh

Nine-year-old Abdel Salam Sumerin was killed yesterday when Israel Defense Forces troops used live fire to disperse a crowd of school children challenging the army's attempt to impose a curfew on the El Amari refugee camp, in El Bireh.

In August 2017 this article seems to have disappeared into the Orwellian memory hole. It was was at the following url.

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=210531&contrassID=2&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y

Cause of gulf illness is still unknown

The 1148th didn't fight on the front lines, but it hauled fuel into war zones. On the way, members of the unit often passed burned-out Iraqi vehicles and tanks destroyed by U.S. artillery.

In any future conflict in the Persian Gulf, vaccines given to troops in the field would be electronically archived, and the Defense Department would compile data on units' locations and any symptoms reported by soldiers before, during and after deployment, according to Michael Kilpatrick, deputy director of the Deployment Health Support Directorate.

President Bush wants war, not justice - and he'll soon find another excuse for it

Major Scott Ritter, Iraq's nemesis-turned-saviour, was indeed - as an inspector - regularly travelling to Tel Aviv to consult Israeli intelligence. Then Saddam accused the UN inspectors of working for the CIA. And he was right. The United States, it emerged, was using the UN's Baghdad offices to bug Iraq's government communications. And once the inspectors were withdrawn in 1998 and the US and Britain launched "Operation Desert Fox", it turned out that virtually every one of the bombing targets had been visited by UN inspectors over the previous six months. Far from being an inspectorate, the UN lads - though they didn't all know it - had been acting as forward air controllers, drawing up an American hit list rather than monitoring compliance with UN resolutions.

Ten Reasons Why Many Gulf War Veterans Oppose Re-Invading Iraq

10. The Department of Veterans Affairs will not be able to care for additional casualties because VA can't even take care of current VA patients. Most veterans now wait six months to see a VA doctor, and most veterans wait more than six months to receive a decision on a VA disability claim. Many of those waiting in line are Gulf War veterans, many with unusual illnesses. According to VA, of the nearly 700,000 veterans who served in Desert Shield and Desert Storm, more than 300,000 have sought VA healthcare, and more than 200,000 have filed VA disability claims. Two weeks ago, President Bush slashed $275 million from the healthcare budget of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Schröder says Germany will not join Gulf military assault even with a mandate

One opinion poll released yesterday by German television showed only 4 per cent of voters backed German troops being used in a war with Iraq under any circumstances while 41 per cent said they were in favour if it was backed by a UN mandate. Fifty-three per cent were opposed to any involvement by German armed forces. Another poll yesterday by the Forsa group found 85 per cent of Germans supported their government's position on Iraq.

Air strikes on Iraq rise sharply

Brigadier General John Rosa, the deputy operations director for the joint chiefs of staff, said that "12 airplanes dropped 25 weapons" on the target.

"We've done that for the last 10 or 11 years and we'll continue to do that," he added.

Blair willing to pay 'blood price'

Robin Cook, the Leader of the House, suggested that MPs should be allowed to vote on whether Britain would take military action. But Mr Blair is determined to avoid a formal vote after being warned by government whips that 100 Labour MPs could mount the biggest backbench rebellion since the party came to power in 1997. Such opposition would force him to rely on the support of Tory MPs.

In war, some facts less factual

Citing top-secret satellite images, Pentagon officials estimated in mid-September that up to 250,000 Iraqi troops and 1,500 tanks stood on the border, threatening the key US oil supplier.

But when the St. Petersburg Times in Florida acquired two commercial Soviet satellite images of the same area, taken at the same time, no Iraqi troops were visible near the Saudi border - just empty desert.

The heavy metal logic bomb

Attacks on buried targets are likely to be a feature of the next Gulf War. Key Iraqi assets are concealed under layers of concrete. The US aims to take out these targets with bunker-busting bombs, and the concern is that massive amounts of depleted uranium (DU) will be used in the process.

Iraq war would be a mistake, says city MP

CAMBRIDGE MP Anne Campbell has warned Prime Minister Tony Blair that war against Iraq would be a "mistake".

As the likelihood of military action against Saddam Hussein increased dramatically, she said worried constituents were contacting her on a daily basis.

Playing skittles with Saddam

The gameplan among Washington's hawks has long been to reshape the Middle East along US-Israeli lines, writes Brian Whitaker

With several of the "Clean Break" paper's authors now holding key positions in Washington, the plan for Israel to "transcend" its foes by reshaping the Middle East looks a good deal more achievable today than it did in 1996. Americans may even be persuaded to give up their lives to achieve it.

The Men From JINSA and CSP

On no issue is the JINSA/CSP hard line more evident than in its relentless campaign for war--not just with Iraq, but "total war," as Michael Ledeen, one of the most influential JINSAns in Washington, put it last year. For this crew, "regime change" by any means necessary in Iraq, Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian Authority is an urgent imperative. Anyone who dissents--be it Colin Powell's State Department, the CIA or career military officers--is committing heresy against articles of faith that effectively hold there is no difference between US and Israeli national security interests, and that the only way to assure continued safety and prosperity for both countries is through hegemony in the Middle East--a hegemony achieved with the traditional cold war recipe of feints, force, clientism and covert action.

ALTERNATIVE MEDIA CENSORSHIP: SPONSORED BY CIA's FORD FOUNDATION?

The multi-billion dollar Ford Foundation's historic relationship to the Central Intelligence Agency [CIA] is rarely mentioned on Pacifica's DEMOCRACY NOW / Deep Dish TV show, on FAIR's COUNTERSPIN show, on the WORKING ASSETS RADIO show, on The Nation Institute's RADIO NATION show, on David Barsamian's ALTERNATIVE RADIO show or in the pages of PROGRESSIVE, MOTHER JONES and Z magazine. One reason may be because the Ford Foundation and other Establishment foundations subsidize the Establishment Left's alternative media gatekeepers / censors.

Israeli dart shells kill family of Palestinians

Salah al-Hajeen was one of at least six people blown up by a shell packed with some 3,000 inch-long arrows fired by an Israeli tank into a fruit-pickers' encampment in the orchards of Gaza.

The Death Convoy of Afghanistan

The close involvement of American soldiers with General Dostum can only make an investigation all the more sensitive. "The issue nobody wants to discuss is the involvement of U.S. forces," says Jennifer Leaning, professor at the Harvard School of Public Health and one of the pair of Physicians for Human Rights investigators who pushed their way into Sheberghan. "U.S. forces were in the area at the time. What did the U.S. know, and when and -where-and what did they do about it?"

This article was at http://www.msnbc.com/news/795153.asp?cp1=1

In August 2017 there is no obvious sign of it at original url or in archive.org

US thinktanks give lessons in foreign policy

In real life too, Mr Perle is not fighting his battle single-handed. Around him there is a cosy and cleverly-constructed network of Middle East "experts" who share his neo-conservative outlook and who pop up as talking heads on US television, in newspapers, books, testimonies to congressional committees, and at lunchtime gatherings in Washington.

The network centres on research institutes - thinktanks that attempt to influence government policy and are funded by tax-deductible gifts from unidentified donors.

Anthrax killer 'is US defence insider'

"My two suspects both appear to have CIA connections. These two agencies, the CIA and the FBI, are sometimes seen as rivals.

"My anxiety is that the FBI agents assigned to this case are not getting full and complete co-operation from the US military, CIA and witnesses who might have information about this case."

Veterans warn of Gulf War syndrome risk

The chairman of the steering committee of the Australian Gulf War Veterans Association, David Watts, told The Sunday Age he did not want to see other young service personnel suffer.

"I think it's very irresponsible of the government to start talking about sending people over for another go when they haven't really looked after the people who went in the first place," Mr Watts said.

Robert Fisk: Be very afraid - Bush Productions is preparing to go into action

They are setting up the Arab world. We are being prepared for an epic supported by Hollywood and a plot of lies

It's not difficult to see what's going on. It's not just al-Qa'ida who are the "enemy". It's Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Saudi Arabia. Bush Productions are setting up the Arab world. We are being prepared for a wide-screen epic, a spectacle supported by Hollywood fiction and a plot of lies.

While media spotlights one anthrax suspect, another is too hot to touch

Did the US media merely lose interest after the government failed to find an Iraqi or Al-Qaeda connection, and therefore could not link the postal terrorism to Sept. 11? Or was the press warned off the sensitive subject? After months of silence, in August the subject of the anthrax attacks once again hit the newspapers and network TV stations. The scientist in the spotlight, however, may be little more than a hapless "fall guy".

Robert Fisk: Afghanistan is on the brink of another disaster

Things have since changed. The American forces in Afghanistan, it seems, now leave the beatings to their Afghan allies, especially members of the so-called Afghan Special Forces, a Washington-supported group of thugs who are based in the former Khad secret police torture centre in Kabul. "It's the Afghan Special Forces who beat the Pashtun prisoners for information now - not the Americans," the Western military man told me. "But the CIA are there during the beatings, so the Americans are culpable, they let it happen."

Selective Memri

Brian Whitaker investigates whether the 'independent' media institute that translates the Arabic newspapers is quite what it seems

The reason for Memri's air of secrecy becomes clearer when we look at the people behind it. The co-founder and president of Memri, and the registered owner of its website, is an Israeli called Yigal Carmon.

Mr - or rather, Colonel - Carmon spent 22 years in Israeli military intelligence and later served as counter-terrorism adviser to two Israeli prime ministers, Yitzhak Shamir and Yitzhak Rabin.

Gulf veteran babies 'risk deformities'

Children of British soldiers who fought in wars in which depleted uranium ammunition was used are at greater risk of suffering genetic diseases passed on by their fathers, new research reveals.

Return to Afghanistan: Explosives that US knew would kill innocents continue to take their toll

Her son's killer was a small, round, yellow cylinder buried beneath the ground - a small fragment of an American cluster bomb - which was infinitely more sophisticated and more efficiently made than anything in this ramshackle home. Tamim worked for the Halo Trust, the mine-clearing operation to which Diana, Princess of Wales, gave so much publicity, and he was an experienced man, 25 years old, with four years of de-mining to his name.

Return to Afghanistan: Ladies and gentlemen, let's have a big hand for Gul Agha - the UN's warlord of the year

A few dozen metres further, I came to a courtyard in which the prisoners had piled their bedding: rotten, stained mattresses and plastic sheeting and soiled clothes. These, no doubt, were the real furnishings of the tiny brick cells. So who owned the red and golden carpets?

Return to Afghanistan: Families of the disappeared demand answers

Where, Mrs Abdul Qadir asked Ahsan Akhtar, the director of human rights, was her husband? The Independent has now learnt exactly where he is - he is a prisoner in a cage on the huge American air base at Bagram in Afghanistan. He was kidnapped - there appears to be no other word for it - by the Americans and simply flown over the international frontier from Pakistan. His "crime" is unknown. He has no lawyers to defend him. In the vacuum of the US "war on terror", Mr Abdul Qadir has become a non-person.

Allies move towards air assault as disquiet over Iraq grows

The disquiet over Tony Blair's backing for George Bush on Iraq was in evidence again yesterday when church figures, including the Archbishop of Canterbury-designate, Dr Rowan Williams, presented a 3,000-name petition to Downing Street questioning the moral and legal validity of a war.

Doubts mount over Iraq role

Former MoD chief Sir Michael Quinlan said the justness of any action would be "deeply questionable" and warned it could lead to huge public division.

Writing in the Financial Times, he urged Prime Minister Tony Blair to withhold British support for a "unnecessary and precarious" gamble.

The return to Afghanistan: For the forgotten Afghans, the UN offers a fresh hell

In Afghanistan, it is possible to go from hell to hell. The first circle of hell is the Waiting Area, the faeces-encrusted dustbowl in which 60,000 Afghans rot along their frontier with Pakistan at Chaman - a bone-dry, sand-blasted place of patched bedouin tents, skinny camels, infested blankets and skin disease.

The return to Afghanistan: Collateral damage

Hakim, one of the animal herders, saw the men from the helicopters chase the old man into the mosque and heard a burst of gunfire. "When our people found him, he had been killed with a bullet, in the head," he says, pointing downwards. There is a single bullet hole in the concrete floor of the mosque and a dried bloodstain beside it. "We found bits of his brain on the wall."

War on Iraq: a blunder and a crime

Saddam Hussein is a malign tyrant with a history of aggression against his neighbours. He almost certainly has chemical and biological weapons and would like to get nuclear ones, in breach of United Nations Security Council edict. We can place no trust in his denials or his current manoeuvring. The world would be better without him. But starting a war is an immensely grave step and we must still ask whether it would be wise, and right, to take it.

Sir Michael Quinlan was permanent under-secretary at the Ministry of Defence, 1988-92, and is a visiting professor at the Centre for Defence Studies at King's College, London

U.S. Dirty Bombs Radioactive Gene Busting Munitions Spiked with Plutonium

"Plutonium is a fuel that is toxic beyond human experience. It is demonstrably carcinogenic to animals in microgram quantities [one millionth of a gram]. The lung cancer risk is unknown to orders of magnitude. Present plutonium standards are certainly irrelevant." - Dr. Donald P. Geesaman, health physicist, formerly of Lawrence Livermore Lab

Radioactive Recycling

If the Department of Energy has its way, the nation's nuclear garbage could end up in everyday items like bicycles, frying pans, and baby strollers.

A Coup in The Hague

"I was being expected to take orders from the US delegation, and to customize the implementation of the convention to the US demands," says Bustani from his home in The Hague. "I was expected to consult Washington on every single issue, which I refused to do."

Ruppert/Chossudovsky Draw Crowd of 1,200

After the lecture, as he was hurrying to the airport, Ruppert was questioned by the local press who photographed his passport as evidence of the Canadian government's desire to censor coverage and public access to the conference.

(This article was at the following url, where it remained, I think until June 2017 http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/g6b_calgary.html )

AFGHANISTAN: Concerns over effects of depleted uranium

The United States campaign on terrorism in Afghanistan may have created a terror of its own. Thousands of people, as well as future generations, may have been exposed to high levels of radiation from depleted uranium, believed to be the so called 'mystery heavy metal' used in US guided missiles, bunker busters and other weaponry in Afghanistan.

Transcript from abc.net.au archived on archive.org

In 2017 apparently the same transcript without audio on www.radioaustralia.net.au

In August 2017 the old url http://abc.net.au/ra/asiapac/programs/s593117.htm redirects to http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/radio/program/asia-pacific

Fighting for his day in court

In an unusual move, First Lieutenant (Res.) David Zonsheine was released from custody on Monday - at least temporarily. Zonsheine, a 29-year-old software engineer and reserve officer in an elite paratroopers unit, refused to serve in the territories during Operation Defensive Shield.

This article was once at the follwing url but is no more (Aug 2017) and does not seem to be on archive.org http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=180174&contrassID =2&subContrassID=5&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y&itemNo=180174

Who is putting Scotland on the global radioactive scrapheap?

TONNES of dangerous radioactive scrap metal is being imported into Scotland every year by dealers who have been duped by international fraudsters.

Anti-U.S. militants showing up all over

Afghanistan, billed only last fall as a triumph for America and President Bush, is now looking less and less like a victory and more each day like the beginning of a long, bloody struggle that could and should have been avoided.

UK selling arms to India

The government approved arms sales to India and Pakistan throughout the Kashmir crisis, at a time when ministers were warning about the dispute spreading beyond the region and telling British citizens to leave the area immediately.

War on terror: FBI "guilty of cover-up" over anthrax suspect

AMERICAN investigators know the identity of the killer who paralysed the US by sending anthrax in the post but will not arrest the culprit, according to leading US scientists.

US artists damn 'war without limit'

A group of leading American writers, actors and academics have signed a statement strongly criticising their government's policies since September 11. It is an indication of a growing feeling that the administration is promoting its own agenda on the back of the attacks.

DU: A BURNING ISSUE

LAST month's crash of a China Air Boeing 747 is a timely reminder of the presence of depleted uranium (DU) on board big jets. TriStars, DCIOs and all jumbos made before 1993 carry built-in bars of DU as counterweights in the tail of the aircraft.

Official TWA 800 Findings Challenged

The TWA Flight 800 Independent Researchers Organization, FIRO, has taken the unusual step of filing a petition with the National Transportation Safety Board, NTSB, asking for reconsideration of the findings on the probable cause of the crash of TWA Flight 800. Such petitions are entertained only if new evidence has been found or a showing that the NTSB findings were erroneous. FIRO claims that some evidence that the NTSB kept secret and which has now become available for public scrutiny is new evidence that shows that the official findings were erroneous.

Revealed: How a British firm sells planes to India and trains fighter pilots for Pakistan

BAe Systems is hoping to sell military jet trainers worth £1bn to India, in addition to the fighter bombers it has already provided to the country.

And while BAe has been negotiating with India for the sale of more jets, it has been training elite Pakistani pilots and fighter operations controllers at a specialist training college in Wales.

A Scotland on Sunday investigation has also revealed that AMS has clinched an £8.5m deal to provide the Pakistani Navy with a battlefield radar system.

"I made them a stadium in the middle of the camp"

"For three days, I just destroyed and destroyed. The whole area. Any house that they fired from came down. And to knock it down, I tore down some more. They were warned by loudspeaker to get out of the house before I come, but I gave no one a chance. I didn't wait. I didn't give one blow, and wait for them to come out. I would just ram the house with full power, to bring it down as fast as possible. I wanted to get to the other houses. To get as many as possible. Others may have restrained themselves, or so they say. Who are they kidding? Anyone who was there, and saw our soldiers in the houses, would understand they were in a death trap. I thought about saving them. I didn't give a damn about the Palestinians, but I didn't just ruin with no reason. It was all under orders.

Washington is pushing India and Pakistan to the brink of war

India and Pakistan are currently at the brink of war.

Presented by the media as a conflict regarding the status of Kashmir, the role of US foreign policy in feeding this conflict is invariably overlooked. Since the end of the Cold War, Washington has deliberately contributed --through covert intelligence operations-- to fuelling the Indo-Pakistan conflict. In the wake of September 11, amidst new terrorist attacks and ethnic riots in India, conditions have developed which favour the outbreak of war between the two countries.

Riddle of the spores

Why has the FBI investigation into the anthrax attacks stalled? The evidence points one way

Yet, while it trawled the empty waters, the bureau failed to cast its hook into the only ponds in which the perpetrator could have been lurking. In February, the Wall Street Journal revealed that the FBI had yet to subpoena the personnel records of the labs which had been working with the Ames strain. Four months after the investigation began, in other words, it had not bothered to find out who had been working in the places from which the anthrax must have come. It was not until March, after Barbara Hatch Rosenberg had released her findings, that the bureau started asking laboratories for samples of their anthrax and the records relating to them.

Forgotten victims

His uncle watched him die. Soon after the United States started bombing Afghanistan last autumn the small boy, just under two years old, fled his home on the back of a donkey with his parents and other family members.

Statement of Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney on Terrorist Warnings

Several weeks ago, I called for a congressional investigation into what warnings the Bush Administration received before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. I was derided by the White House, right wing talk radio, and spokespersons for the military-industrial complex as a conspiracy theorist. Even my patriotism was questioned because I dared to suggest that Congress should conduct a full and complete investigation into the most disastrous intelligence failure in American history. Georgia Senator Zell Miller even went so far as to characterize my call for hearings as "dangerous, loony and irresponsible."

Today's revelations that the administration, and President Bush, were given months of notice that a terrorist attack was a distinct possibility points out the critical need for a full and complete congressional investigation.

AT MIT, THEY CAN PUT WORDS IN OUR MOUTHS

CAMBRIDGE - Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have created the first realistic videos of people saying things they never said - a scientific leap that raises unsettling questions about falsifying the moving image.

In one demonstration, the researchers taped a woman speaking into a camera, and then reprocessed the footage into a new video that showed her speaking entirely new sentences, and even mouthing words to a song in Japanese, a language she does not speak. The Click for complete article (1089 words)

The above abstract was taken from the Boston Globe archive website in 2003, starting at http://www.boston.com and searching "video MIT mouths".

In 2017 a different, longer abstract is available starting the search from https://secure.pqarchiver.com/boston/advancedsearch.html

The Boston Globe will charge for the full article.

The full article says several additional interesting things which are summarised here. The head of the team at MIT is Tony F. Ezzat who is a graduate student. Also in the team is Tomaso Poggio, described as a "neuro scientist" at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research and the head of the lab where the work is being done. According to "the researchers" (presumably Ezzat and Poggio), volunteers in a laboratory test were unable to distinguish real and fake video clips. Currently the technique only works well on a video of someone facing the camera and not moving much, but according to Poggio it will not be difficult to make it work on a moving head at any angle. It is also not convincing for more than a few sentences because the speaker seems to lack emotion. Ezzat says he would like to work on adding emotion. In July 2002 they will present a paper on it at Siggraph, a computer graphics conference. According to Ezzat they are already testing it on videos of Ted Koppel, a television presenter on a US television station called "ABC", with the aim of making him appear to be talking Spanish.

The fake persuaders

While, in the past, companies have created fake citizens' groups to campaign in favour of trashing forests or polluting rivers, now they create fake citizens. Messages purporting to come from disinterested punters are planted on listservers at critical moments, disseminating misleading information in the hope of recruiting real people to the cause. Detective work by the campaigner Jonathan Matthews and the freelance journalist Andy Rowell shows how a PR firm contracted to the biotech company Monsanto appears to have played a crucial but invisible role in shaping scientific discourse.

Anthrax attack bug "identical" to army strain

The DNA sequence of the anthrax sent through the US mail in 2001 has been revealed and confirms suspicions that the bacteria originally came from a US military laboratory.

BAe Systems mentioned in Private Eye

International development secretary Clare Short's suggestion that BAE Systems' £28m sale of a military air traffic system to Tanzania might be corrupt has put her even more at odds with her cabinet colleagues.

Just one measure of the esteem in which Tony Blair's government holds Labour party donor BAE Systems is the latest new year's honours list. The company's government affairs director Peter McLoughlin and regional marketing director Brian Tucker were both presented with OBE's - a timely reward for their firm's success in striking the Tanzanian deal.

Private Eye website: http://www.private-eye.co.uk/

WWIII is coming, 'I'm sure,' high-level Sharon aide says

Abstract from http://www.azstarnet.com/ (you can find it for example by searching for "Gissin" in the archive) :

[Ra'anan Gissin], 53, is in Tucson this weekend as part of a 12-day tour of the United States to promote the purchase of Israel Bonds. The bonds are part of a program that began in 1951 in which securities are sold to individuals and corporations to finance economic growth in Israel.

Mohyeddin Abdulaziz, 54, a Tucson resident and Palestinian who grew up ...

Full article on archive.org, archived from rense.com

[YeshGvul] 5 conscripts jailed for refusal

The imprisonment of these five is most significant ! They are not the first young (18-20) conscripts to refuse duties in the campaign of repression. Others have done so in the past. But their 3-year service places them under much stricter discipline than reservists called in for a few weeks, and few have the maturity and self-confidence to face up to the ordeal they can expect from their superiors until their discharge. The spread of the refusal movement to the conscript units marks a notable breakthrough.

UN Chemical Arms Chief Ousted in U.S.-Led Vote

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - The head of a global chemical weapons control body was ousted on Monday by a United States-sponsored vote provoked by a rift over his diplomatic overtures to secure Iraq's compliance on arms inspection.

US ousts director of chemical arms body

The head of the world's chemical weapons regulatory body, Jose Bustani, was dismissed yesterday by a United States-led vote.

America used Islamists to arm the Bosnian Muslims

The Srebrenica report reveals the Pentagon's role in a dirty war

His findings are set out in "Intelligence and the war in Bosnia, 1992-1995". It includes remarkable material on covert operations, signals interception, human agents and double-crossing by dozens of agencies in one of dirtiest wars of the new world disorder. Now we have the full story of the secret alliance between the Pentagon and radical Islamist groups from the Middle East designed to assist the Bosnian Muslims - some of the same groups that the Pentagon is now fighting in "the war against terrorism". Pentagon operations in Bosnia have delivered their own "blowback".

Robert Fisk: Fear and learning in America

And for the first time in more than a decade of lecturing in the United States, I was shocked. Not by the passivity of Americans - the all-accepting, patriotic notion that the President knows best - nor by the dangerous self-absorption of the United States since 11 September and the constant, all-consuming fear of criticising Israel. What shocked me was the extraordinary new American refusal to go along with the official line, the growing, angry awareness among Americans that they were being lied to and deceived.

US, other countries seek end to violence along Israel's border with Lebanon

(Updated at 1120 PST)
WASHINGTON: President George W. Bush's administration is taking part in a diplomatic effort to prevent Israel's border with Lebanon from becoming a second front in the Middle East conflict, said sources on Thursday.

State Department officials highlighted the US concern as Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon staged one of the biggest attacks in two years, firing rockets and mortars into Israeli territory.

Such attacks have been frequent since Israel began attacks against Palestinian militias.

Angry streets

Hundreds of thousands of Arabs have protested daily on the streets since Israeli troops attacked Palestinian towns and laid siege to President Yasser Arafat's Ramallah compound on 29 March.

Daily demonstrations have erupted in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. Large turnouts were reported in Libya and Iraq. But the largest were in Morocco and Sudan where marching crowds swelled to a million each. Marches, a rare occurrence in the conservative Gulf states, were also reported in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait. Arab officials joined in more than one demonstration in solidarity with the Palestinians.

Students in Middle East protest

Two members of CamSAW - Cambridge Students Against the War - are trapped in the besieged town of Bethlehem, where they are acting as a human shield trying to protect a Palestinian refugee camp.

World Bank to West Bank

Since the army's offensive in the West Bank began, hundreds of Israeli peace campaigners and foreign activists have been seeking to put themselves in its way.At great personal risk, members of the International Solidarity Movement have sought to protect civilians by making hostages of themselves. It is a display of extraordinary courage and self-sacrifice.

Pipeline Brigade

President Bush is arming troops to protect Occidental Petroleum in Colombia. What next?

April 8 issue _ Is George W. Bush using war as an extension of his oil policy? It looked that way in February, when Washington announced a $700 million aid package for the Andean region, largely to fight the twin threats of guerrilla war and drugrunning that threaten the area. As is usual, half the money will go to Colombia, but with a new twist: $98 million for training and equipping a Colombian brigade of around 2,000 soldiers to protect the 772-kilometer Cano Limon pipeline.

Thinking the Unthinkable

Now that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has officially put the anthrax investigation on a back burner, it is time for Americans to think the unthinkable: that the FBI has never been keen to identify the perpetrator because that perpetrator may, in fact, be the U.S. Government itself. Evidence is mounting that the source of the anthrax was a top secret U.S. Army laboratory in Maryland and that the perpetrators involve high-level officials in the U.S. military and intelligence infrastructure.

Shattered Afghan Families Demand U.S. Compensation

KABUL, Afghanistan, April 7 -- Victims of the bombing in Afghanistan handed in petitions from 400 families to the American Embassy here today, part of a growing movement to demand compensation from the United States for the loss of their families and homes.

The article includes interviews with some of the surviving victims outside the embassy. and reports that they got nothing but a short meeting in the street with Michael Metrinko, the head of the embassy's political and consular sections. Metrinko is reported as saying that the embassy has been recieving petitions since January and has asked Washington what answer to give but has not received a reply either from the 'State Department' or the 'Defense Department'.

Full article on nytimes.com and Full article

Cairo acts

The level of diplomatic "channels" that Cairo will leave open with Tel Aviv was left unclear, raising questions about the possibility of downgrading Israel's diplomatic mission in Cairo. The decision does imply, however, that Egypt's economic, agricultural and tourism ties with Israel will be frozen -- a step that meets part of the demands voiced by demonstrators across the country, who want Israel's embassy in Cairo shut down.

[YeshGvul] Seder, 3 refuseniks, tear gas

Defying unseasonable rain, hundreds of Israeli peace supporters, reinforced by a strong delegation of internationals, clambered a hill overlooking Military Prison 6 at Athlit, to hold a Freedom Seder in honour of the jailed refuseniks (there were 18 when we started, up to 21 when the ceremony ended !) Above all, we were there to celebrate the fact that there are now OVER A THOUSAND REFUSENIKS !

Don't always trust what they tell you in the war on terror

Downing Street said al-Qa'ida was using chemical weapons: it was wrong. The Pentagon said Saddam Hussein was to blame for the anthrax attacks on the US: it was wrong.

Full article from news.independent.co.uk archived on archive.org

Fallout, Cancer and Politics

You've probably heard less about a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, completed in August 2001, but only published in dribs and drabs over the past few weeks. Mandated by Congress, the study is the first ever to estimate what effect radioactive fallout from nuclear testing has had on the lower forty-eight American states.

The CDC finds such fallout has likely killed 11,000 Americans since the 1950s. They died from all manner of cancers, from melanoma to breast cancer to leukemia. Fallout has also caused about 22,000 nonlethal cases of cancer. For those keeping score, that's 33,000 cases of cancer among Americans, courtesy of global nuclear testing.

Full article from www.thenation.com archived archive.org

[YeshGvul] 2 naval refuseniks + 1

Two reserve officers of the Israeli navy have been jailed for refusing service in the occupied territories.

Capt. (res.) Shahar Tzur (30), formerly of the missile boat section, was jailed for 28 days. Tzur is married, a resident of Haifa and a student of architecture at the Technion. He is a signatory of the "Courage to Refuse" declaration.

Democracy for sale

This page is an edited transcript of a talk given by Greg Palast at the Think Twice Conference in Cambridge, on 23 March 2002.

[Clarion: recommended reading. It includes information additional to that in his book of the same name. The topics are: The Florida list, Barrick and Bush, The Bin Laden connection, The Necessity Test, Argentina and The World Bank, The World Bank's biggest loan, Step 3½ the IMF riot]

A spectacular miscarriage

Arab legal experts in Camp Zeist were incensed by the verdict. Whilst Libyan lawyers spoke of a trial that is politically motivated, Saber Ammar of the Arab Lawyers' Union criticised "the influence of politicians and the press on the judges." Chairman Bechir Essid of the Tunisian Bar Association said he was disillusioned with the Western judicial system. "How can you sentence someone without any proof? This is abuse of justice.,' he said.'

The United Nations' observer, Hans Kchler, an Austrian professor of Jurisprudence, was alarmed by the decision. He described the appeal as "a rather spectacular miscarriage of justice." He was lost as to how a unanimous decision was reached "in the light of some of the analysis presented and questions asked by the judges."

Iraqi MDs blame U.S. for deformities

Doctors link cancer and abnormalities found in children living in the south to depleted uranium contained in bombs that were used in Persian Gulf war, TIMOTHY APPLEBY says

By TIMOTHY APPLEBY

Wednesday, March 13, 2002
Print Edition, Page A4

BASRA, IRAQ -- When a baby is born in southern Iraq these days, the mother's first question is not whether the child is male or female. "What she wants to know is whether her baby is normal," says Janan Ghalib, head of the cancer unit at Basra's Maternity and Children Hospital. The doctor needs only to flip open a photo album filled with horrors to explain why. There are pictures of babies without eyes, and some with too many eyes. There are

Local copy of full article iraq.deformities.html

http://www.globeandmail.com : "News stories that were published on this Web site more than a week ago are not retained on the site. To find such stories, or other newspaper material that does not appear on the Web site, please check the options listed below"...

Uranium weapons health warning

Gulf war veteran Brian Tooze was rushed into hospital with suspected meningitis four years after he returned from the conflict.

But instead of the brain disease, doctors found there was evidence of DU in his urine.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that now he suffers from skin cancer, kidney trouble, irritable bowel syndrome, constant headaches, tinnitus and problems with balance.

The soldiers who refuse to fight

Earlier this year, a group of some 50 enlisted men and officers signed a petition proclaiming their refusal to serve in the occupied territories, saying they were given orders that served no security purpose, and boldly stating that "we shall not continue to fight beyond the 1967 borders in order to dominate, expel, starve and humiliate an entire people".

I Was There When The Americans Bombed

The night before the Americans bombed was, for me and so many others in the coastal Libyan capital city, a night like so many others, at least to start of with.I was the younger child of an Indian couple, who were both physicians, both employed in Libya for over a decade.

DEPLETED URANIUM IN BUNKER BOMBS

America's big dirty secret

"The immediate concern for medical professionals and employees of aid organisations remains the threat of extensive depleted uranium (DU) contamination in Afghanistan." This is one of the conclusions of a 130-page report, Mystery Metal Nightmare in Afghanistan? (1), by Dai Williams, an independent researcher and occupational psychologist. It is the result of more than a year of research into DU and its effects on those exposed to it.

An Antiwar Movement Grows in Israel

A few months after the 1967 war, Yeshayahu Leibowitz, a professor at Hebrew University and a leading Israeli intellectual--who was also an observant Jew--stated that Israel must immediately withdraw from the occupied territories. He argued that the occupation was unjust and would inevitably lead to the oppression and subjugation of the Palestinians, and to the corruption if not destruction of Israeli society. Until his death in the mid-1990s, he continued to criticize the occupation, using piercing, prophetic language to condemn the immorality of Israeli policies. For years, Leibowitz also averred that if 500 reservist soldiers would simultaneously refuse to serve in the territories, the occupation would end.

DU ammunition and the dying doctor

Prof. Gunther tried to examine one of these strange bullets and got it to Germany. He found the bullet highly toxic and radioactive. The projectile was subsequently seized by a large contingent of the police who had a special squad to carry the ammunition in a thick lead container and was then disposed off in a desolate place. Some weeks later Prof. Gunther was arrested and in prison maltreated. After 3 1/2 weeks of a hunger strike he was released - ill and in bad condition.

For more than a year he was under police surveillance and had to report to the police station twice a week. He was then summoned to a regional court where he was told that he could be forced to enter a psychiatric institution. A scientist and a doctor who had helped so many dying children in Iraq and other countries and the allied soldiers, was being told that if he did not mend his ways he will be thrown into solitary confinement. His pension was slashed and he could not afford to buy food for his children.

This article was at http://www.yellowtimes.org/article.php?sid=133

In August 2017 the site no longer exists and archive.org says "Sorry. This URL has been excluded from the Wayback Machine."

See also 'YellowTimes.org Shut Down! Stifling the Voice of Reason' Firas Al-Atraqchi, Dissident Voice 10 February 2003

How one of the two brains behind the Iran-Contra scandal this week became one of America's most powerful men

He and Oliver North were found to be up to their necks in the Iran-Contra (guns for hostages) scam, which blew up in 1986. Poindexter was charged and found guilty of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and the destruction of evidence in 1990; this was overturned on appeal the following year.

POLICE INVESTIGATE NEW ISRAELI DEFENCE MINISTER OVER WAR CRIMES

Lieutenant-General Shaul Mofaz, named as Israeli Defence Minister by the Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, is under investigation by British police for alleged war crimes in the occupied territories.

Sharon puts hardliner in defence post

Gen Mofaz was in Britain this week on a speaking tour but cut short his visit on Wednesday as the Israeli government collapsed and the director of public prosecutions asked Scotland Yard to investigate war crimes allegations.

Friends of terrorism

Reich used this role to pursue his own agenda to such an extent that in 1987 the Comptroller-General of the US, a Republican appointee, found that some of the efforts of his office were "prohibited, covert propaganda activities ... beyond the range of acceptable agency public information activities". A letter of September 30 1987 concluded that Reich's office had violated "a restriction on the state department's annual appropriations prohibiting the use of federal funds for publicity or propaganda purposes not authorised by Congress".

Contrary Mary

An article about Mary Archer, wife of the convicted perjurer Jeffrey Archer.

Eyewitness

Everyone I spoke at the camp said they had come to escape the bombing. Many had stories of relatives being killed.

Why we have to stop the war on Afghanistan now

Unless the bombing of Afghanistan stops immediately, the UK government will share responsibility for an atrocity which will dwarf the toll of September 11. The war has also -

• directly killed innocent people,
• smashed the rule of law,
• advanced the aims of some of the most dangerous people on the planet,
• increased the threat of terrorism to the people of the United States and to ourselves.

Full article.

Letter from Israel

Take the bombing of American targets. Our chaps bombed the US cultural centres in Cairo and Alexandria as early as 1954, planning to let Abdul Nasser's new Egyptian government take the blame. Unfortunately the scam went wrong and our defence minister Pinhas Lavon had to resign, though the director-general of his ministry, Shimon Peres, managed to hang on. Today he is Ariel Sharon's foreign minister.

Legacy of civilian casualties in ruins of shattered town

First paragraph

We were picking our way through the bombed-out ruins of Khanabad when we heard the explosion. When we got there, struggling through the collapsed remains of houses, an old man sat in his blood blinking and shaking his head in bewilderment. Beside him, a 15-year-old boy lay bleeding and unconscious.

Depleted Uranium Munitions Suspension and Study Act of 2001 (Introduced in House)

To require the suspension of the use, sale, development, production, testing, and export of depleted uranium munitions pending the outcome of certain studies of the health effects of such munitions, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES October 17, 2001 Ms. MCKINNEY (for herself, Mr. ACEVEDO-VILA, Ms. BALDWIN, Mr. MCDERMOTT, Mr. KUCINICH, and Ms. LEE) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Armed Services, and in addition to the Committees on Energy and Commerce, and International Relations, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

The disinformation campaign

In the Senate debate whether to approve military action to force Saddam out of Kuwait, seven senators specifically mentioned the incubator babies atrocity and the final margin in favour of war was just five votes. John R Macarthur's study of propaganda in the war says that the babies atrocity was a definitive moment in the campaign to prepare the American public for the need to go to war.

It was not until nearly two years later that the truth emerged. The story was a fabrication and a myth, and Nayirah, the teenage Kuwaiti girl, coached and rehearsed by Hill & Knowlton for her appearance before the Congressional Committee, was in fact the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador to the United States. By the time Macarthur revealed this, the war was won and over and it did not matter any more.

PUBLIC SERPENT

Iran-contra villain Elliot Abrams is back in action

Calling George W. Bush and Jesse Helms "public servants" is like calling Iran-contra criminal Elliott Abrams an "outstanding diplomat"--which is precisely what White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer did when he announced Abrams' appointment as senior director of the National Security Council's Office for Democracy, Human Rights and International Operations.

Bush's Contra Buddies

John Negroponte's nomination to be US ambassador to the United Nations is a case in point. Bush has named him to represent the United States at an institution built on principles that include nonintervention, international law and human rights. Qualifications for the job: Negroponte was a central player in a bloody paramilitary war that flagrantly violated those principles and was repeatedly denounced by the institution in which he would now serve.

A letter from Alan Sked about UKIP published in The Daily Telegraph

A letter from Dr Alan Sked, who writes as "founder of the UKIP" (United Kingdom Independence Party), and concludes with: "Michael Ancram is wise to have nothing to do with the current leadership of the UKIP, and I sympathise with all those principled activists in it who will feel tarnished by their leadership's lack of honour."

NOBODY'S HERO

When questioned by an investigator, Powell repeatedly pleaded faulty memory. At one point he replied: "To my recollection, I don't have a recollection." He testified that he only found out about the shipment of missiles to Iran on January 17, 1986, the day Reagan formally authorized the transfers. Circumstantial evidence refutes this claim. So does Oliver North, who testified that in his 1985 efforts to get U.S. missiles sent to Iran, "my original point of contact was General Colin Powell, who was going directly to his immediate superior, Secretary Weinberger."

Depleted uranium: The next generation

Mr Purbrick remains healthy. But his son was born last year with no fingers on his left hand, and a joint missing from his thumb.

Going to the Wars

A glimpse of bombing of civilians in Vietnam, from a book by an experienced war reporter who is also a former editor of The Daily Telegraph.

Euro-federalists financed by US spy chiefs

First paragraph:

DECLASSIFIED American government documents show that the US intelligence community ran a campaign in the Fifties and Sixties to build momentum for a united Europe. It funded and directed the European federalist movement.

Cluster bombs: the hidden toll

First paragraph

The number of civilians prey to unexploded cluster bombs is significantly higher than admitted by governments, including the British, which have consistently suppressed evidence about the weapon's military effectiveness, according to a devastating report published today.

US ‘supported anti-left terror in Italy’

First paragraph:

The United States was accused of playing a large part in the campaign of anti-communist terrorism in Italy during the cold war in a report released yesterday by the Left Democrat party.

A soldier's experience

Dr Doug Rokke is assistant professor of environmental science at Jacksonville State University, Alabama. He is also a major in the US Army Reserve, and in 1991 he served in the Gulf.

Dr Rokke thinks he knows why neither the USA nor the UK, the two Nato members which used DU munitions in the Gulf, is providing medical care routinely to all veterans who may have been exposed.

"They don't want to acknowledge the health effects, because they don't want to be accountable for the illnesses of the troops, or of the civilians in Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia."

Zinoviev letter was dirty trick by MI6

First paragraph:

The Zinoviev letter - one of the greatest British political scandals of this century - was forged by a MI6 agent's source and almost certainly leaked by MI6 or MI5 officers to the Conservative Party, according to an official report published today.

The hidden hand

Subheading:

The Zinoviev letter has been shrouded in mystery for three-quarters of a century. Now the archives have been opened to public scrutiny.

Wheeler tells how he fought the good fight

As the headline implies - with its missing quotation marks around "good" - this interview with Charles Wheeler is a rather uncritical one. Wheeler gives his account of his relationship to IRD and related activities when he worked for the BBC in Berlin.

MI6 fed Cold War propaganda to BBC

As so often, the newspaper headline is misleading, not least because the article also describes information flowing from the BBC to MI6, including the betrayal of confidential letters written to BBC correspondents. The sinister IRD is also mentioned. The article consists of information regurgitated from a book War of the Black Heavens, Michael Nelson, which Evans says was to be published in November 1997 by Brassey's. (In a separate article on the same page of the Times, Evans interviews Charles Wheeler, who features prominently in this article.)

Dodi's girl-crazy double caused half the trouble

First paragraph:

IF romancing Diana, Princess of Wales, and fending off his former girlfriend Kelly Fisher were not difficult enough, Dodi Fayed faces double trouble. An impostor has been seducing beautiful women and running up huge debts while pretending to be the Harrods heir.

How MI6 pushed Britain to join Europe

First sentence:

A secretly-funded Foreign Office unit used public money to mount a covert propaganda operation aimed at ensuring Britain joined the European Community.

The night the innocents died

This article contains interviews with survivors of the British and American terrorist bombing of Dresden in 1945. It also includes an interview with one of the bombers of other parts of Germany. Of particular interest is the glimpse he gives of the murderous hand of so-called "intelligence", directing the bombing to target refugees, while, as one of the survivors recalls, factories and railway lines remained intact.

Iraq 'used US biotoxins in Gulf war'

First paragraph:

The United States government licensed the export to Iraq of anthrax and other highly toxic biological agents which were subsequently used by President Saddam Hussein against allied servicemen during the Gulf war, according to a US senate investigation.

Journalists accuse BBC of censorship

Second paragraph:

Staff said scripts had been censored and rewritten and they had been unable to refer to the circumstances in which Mr Milligan's body was discovered at his west London home.

US admits years of atomic radiation tests on people

The reported "tests" include injecting victims with plutonium, deliberately releasing radioactive materials in populated areas, feeding pregnant women radoiactive material and exploding nuclear bombs in the atmosphere over the USA. Full article

Britain secretly helped to arm Saddam Hussein's Iraq

There has never before been such authentic and detailed material available about the operations of the British secret services and their influence on Whitehall - right down to verbatim copies of their own agents' reports and their internal memoranda.

A CIA Gladio-style "stay-behind" network in Iraq?

"In the early 1950s the CIA had been visibly the poor relation in Iraq to British intelligence, which effectively ran much of the Baghdad Pact, the alliance of countries in the region close to the Soviet border. Donald Wilber, a CIA officer who had assisted in the Iran operation in 1953, recalled his experiences in Baghdad"... "The CIA was keen to develop a GLADIO-type network in Iraq and to 'plant communications and demolitions to be used by stay-behind agents' in case the Russians made an advance into the area."... "The hidden hand Britain, America and cold war secret intelligence", Richard J. Aldrich, John Murray, 2001, page 582-3

GLADIO Europe's best kept secret

More snippets of information about Gladio, with the usual apologist gloss. One snippet, that is not in other articles so far indexed on this page, is the refusal of Britain to extradite back to Italy one Roberto Fiore, wanted for questioning about the terrorist bombings on Italian railways, and the British government's response on this matter to Harry and Shirley Mitchell of Bath, whose daughter was one of the 86 people murdered with a bomb at Bologna railway station in 1980.

Birds of Death

A documentary about british royal air force bombing and shooting of civilians both in Iraq and Waziristan (near modern Pakistan/Afghanistan border) during the 1920s and 1930s. It includes interviews with some of the perpetrators and some of their surviving victims. David Omissi appears in the credits as a consultant.

UK trained secret Swiss force

First paragraph:

British secret services collaborated closely with an armed, undercover Swiss organisation which formed part of a west European network of "resistance" groups, it was officially disclosed yesterday.

Baghdad and British bombers

This "police bombing" was too much for some air force officers to stomach. In 1924, a distinguished Air Commodore, Lionel Charlton, resigned his post as a staff officer in Iraq after he visited a hospital and saw the victims of British bombing recovering from their injuries. The air force recalled him to England, promising not to otherwise damage his career provided he took his protests no further; but they went back on their word and placed him on the retired list in 1928.

Council poll is upheld despite bogus leaflets

First paragraph:

AN ELECTION court yesterday rejected an attempt by the Labour Party to have Liberal Democrat councillors in Tower Hamlets, east London, disqualified, despite a deliberate attempt to deceive voters.

Reporter Simon O'Dwyer-Russell's obituary in Sunday Telegraph, 16 December 1990

An obituary for reporter Simon O'Dwyer-Russell from the newspaper where he worked. The obituary includes ...“All this, plus a wide range of friends in military circles, gave him unrivalled access to both the Armed Forces and the security services at all levels and enabled him to write stories which produced apoplexy at the Ministry of Defence.”

In the year he died, aged 29, he had been working with reporter John Pilger, who later wrote “For most of 1990 David Munro and I - together with Simon O'Dwyer-Russell of the Sunday Telegraph - pursued an investigation into Western support for the Khmer Rouge in Europe, the US and South-East Asia.”...“O'Dwyer-Russell interviewed two SAS trainers whose military background he knew well. They described in detail how they had taught Khmer Rouge troops mine-laying and mines technology.”

Journalist dies

Obituary of Simon O'Dwyer-Russell.

Secret agents, freemasons, fascists... and a top-level campaign of political ‘destabilisation’

First paragraph:

'I CAN say that the head of the secret services has repeatedly and unequivocally excluded the existence of a hidden organisation of any type or size," the Italian Minister of Defence, Giulio Andreotti, told a judicial inquiry in 1974 into the alleged existence of a secret state army.

The Gladio File: did fear of communism throw West into the arms of terrorists?

First paragraph:

A CHANCE discovery by an assiduous Italian magistrate investigating a neo-fascist terrorist attack has unearthed a secret paramilitary network run by units of the armed forces and intelligence services throughout western Europe.

How MI6 and SAS joined in

"David Pallister on 'stay behind' strategy"

Gladio is still opening wounds

First two sentences:

OPERATION GLADIO has been dismantled. General Paolo Inzerilli, chief of staff of the Italian security service Sismi, told the parliamentary commission on terrorism that the Prime Minister issued the order on Wednesday.

Secret Italian unit ‘trained in Britain’

Third paragraph:

General Gerardo Serravalle, who said the Italians trained at a military base in Britain, was giving evidence yesterday in Rome to a parliamentary committee of inquiry into allegations that Gladio was linked to a series of rightwing terrorist attacks in Italy between 1969 and the early 1980s.

Nato's secret network ‘also operated in France’

First paragraph:

A BRANCH of the Nato-linked European anti-communist resistance network, which Italian investigators fear may have been involved in neo-fascist atrocities in Italy, also operated in France, the former defence minister, Jean-Pierre Chevènement, has disclosed.

Dead journalist sex smear 'foul'

First paragraph:

British officials in Chile are claiming that the dead defence journalist Jonathan Moyle was a sexual deviant who hanged himself while attempting to obtain pleasure. It is understood that members of MI5 have made the same assertion in London.

Security service ‘blocked Kincora inquiry’

First paragraph

A high level police inquiry into allegations of homosexual abuse at the Kincora boys' home in east Belfast was blocked by MI5, the security service, according to evidence disclosed last night.

Waldegrave makes tacit admission of SAS link to Khmer Rouge

Second paragraph:

William Waldegrave, Minister of State at the Foreign Office, provoked uproar on the Labour benches when he sidestepped a direct Opposition challenge to say whether the SAS had been training troops in Cambodia. "You know I will give no answer," he told Gerald Kaufman, the Opposition's foreign affairs spokesman.

Uranium toxicity in The Merck Index, Eleventh Edition

Caution: Uranium and its salts are highly toxic. Dermatitis, renal damage, acute necrotic arterial lesions, death may occur. Radiation hazard from inhalation of fine particles of approx 1µ. Insol particles in lung may be long-term carcinogenic hazard. See L.T. Fairhall, Industrial Toxicology (Hafner, New York, 2nd ed., 1969) pp 129-131.

World pressure to see Israeli soldiers tried

FOUR Israeli soldiers who were filmed systematically beating up two young Palestinians in the West Bank town of Nablus are facing courts-martial and possible prison terms of up to six years. The incident has provoked horror and outrage in countries where it has been shown on television, although yesterday Israeli government ministers and officials were trying to minimise its impact.

An extract from "Spycatcher" on the death of Hugh Gaitskell

An extract from "Spycatcher" on the death of Hugh Gaitskell

Liquidating Sukarno

Second sentence: "In a book to be published this autumn, The CIA A Forgotten History (Zed Books) the American author William Blum reproduces part of a sensational 1962 CIA report which suggests Supermac and JFK talked about "liquidating" the troublesome President Sukarno of Indonesia."

Revealed: How MI5 vets BBC staff

THE OBSERVER has obtained concrete evidence for the first time of the way the security service, MI5, secretly controls the hiring and firing of BBC staff.

THE BLACKLIST IN ROOM 105

Expanding on the story from page 1, the Observer gives detailed specific examples of how MI5 has secretly interfered in the appointment and retention of BBC staff.

Another exposure -by Tass

Pick reports on a report from TASS about the IRD. Pick implies that the TASS report is a "selective summary" of the Guardian report of 27 January 1978. Her report does not refer to the work of Richard Fletcher, George Brock, Phil Kelly, Paul Lashmar, Tony Smart and Richard Oliver published two days before in the Observer.

How the FO waged secret propaganda war in Britain

A SECRET Foreign Office department set up after World War Two to distribute anti-Communist propaganda abroad also covertly planted material in Britain.

David Leigh recounts the 30-year history of the Foreign Office's covert propaganda operation

Other journalists were informally blacklisted as politically undesirable or had assistance withdrawn if they became politically embarrassing.

Princess executed for eloping

The Observer reports that a Saudi Arabian prince had his granddaughter shot dead in front of her husband who was then beheaded, after she married someone her family did not want her to marry.

Also interesting are the the final five paragraphs of apologetics on behalf of the rulers of Saudi Arabia that the Observer appended to what otherwise appears to be a factual report.

'HONOURED KILLERS' REBUKE

BRITAIN has rebuked the Israeli Government over its honouring of the two gunmen who murdered Lord Moyne, British Resident Minister in the Middle East, in 1944.

Fury over honoured killers

WHILE Israelis are honouring the Stern Gang killers (Eliahu Hakim and Eliahu Bet-Zuri) at least one man, Maj. Andrew Hughes Onslow, is angered - particularly by the tribute paid by a UN Guard of Honour when the killers' remains were handed over by the Egyptians on Tuesday.

Speaking Out I'm glad the CIA is 'immoral'

Braden says he was assistant to Allen W. Dulles in 1950. He mentions CIA interference in trade unions in West Germany, France, Italy, India, "Baltic ports", CIA payments for "strong-arm squads in Mediterranean ports", CIA financing of the magazine "Encounter" and a CIA agent as an editor, CIA involvement in an "organization of intellectuals called the Congress for Cultural Freedom".

A Short Account of International Student Politics & the Cold War with Particular Reference to the NSA,CIA,Etc.

This report exposed the CIA's “15-year infiltration of the NSA” - the NSA was the American National Students Association - and the related money-laundering by the CIA through tax-exempt foundations. The article was inserted into the USA Congressional Record (House) of 9 March 1967 by a Mr. Taylor, while introducing two bills, one to amend the Central Intelligence Agency Act of 1949 and one requiring tax-exempt organisations to publicly disclose their sources of income. A few months later the Saturday Evening Post published Speaking Out I'm glad the CIA is 'immoral' with the byline of Thomas Braden of the CIA.

The Children of Vietnam

The caption on one photograph reads:

After superficial emergency treatment, a child - face and eyes torn by American shrapnel - awaits surgery at Da Nang. A lack of suction equipment - which would have kept him from inhaling the contents of his own stomach - killed him.

The Night Hamburg Died

Photographs from the book.

Theobald's Pearl Harbor Challenge Called 'Service' by Fellow Admiral

The book "The final secret of Pearl Harbor, The Washington contribution to the Japanese attack", Robert A Theobald, The Devin-Adair Company, New York, 1954, is reviewed by by VICE ADMIRAL W. A. KITTS 3rd, USN, Ret

LORD CURZON ON THE "LOAN" PLOT.

A speech made by Lord Curzon at Leicester on 25 October 1924 about the Russian government, Zinoviev and a letter.

APOLOGISE TO RUSSIA

First paragraph:

A meeting of Communists on the plinth of Nelson's Monument in Trafalgar Square on Saturday passed a resolution declaring that "this massed meeting of British workers" called on Mr. MacDonald and the Government to stigmatise the Red plot letter as an impudent forgery and to withdraw the Foreign Office protest to the Bolshevik Government with apologies and to dismiss with ignominy the official responsible for it.