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Donations and letters of support will be greatfully recieved at
PO Box 6, Booty, 82 Colston Street, Bristol. BS1 5BB
Contact by phone Diane a friend of the decommissioners 0117 9426904
Contact by email one of the decommisioners tom_w@boardermail.com 0r decommissioners@live.co.uk
Things to do to support Bristol’s EDO Decommisioners on remand « Prisoner Support Bristol ABC said
[...] Check out the defendants website and get in touch with the campaign. Help with publicity, fundraising, meetings, even the legal case. Whatever you [...]
Solidarity to the peacemakers where ever they may be said
Lindis Percy in Prison.
On 17th April, Lindis Percy was arrested outside Menwith Hill during a protest for an alleged bail offence; on the 21st April she was sent to prison for
45 days by the Harrogate Magistrates Court for refusing to pay outstanding fines. Lindis refuses to pay for so-called aggravated trespass at
Menwith Hill and Fylingdales. Lindis has constantly refused to pay these fines and yesterday there was a Warrant out for her arrest just after she
returned from Seoul.
If you log onto the BBC online York website you will see their version of
events. http://news. bbc.co.uk/ 2/hi/uk_news/ england/north_ yorkshire/ 7492972.stm
If you want to write to Lindis, her contact details are:
Lindis Percy, KP5753, Low Newton Women’s Prison, Brasside, Durham,DH1 5YA
Tel: 0191 3764000 Ext 4116
Statement from The Secretary of state for Foreign and Commonwealth David Miliband regarding Uk Strategic Export Controls said
Prepared: 15:42 on 21 April 2009
Written Ministerial Statements for 21 April 2009
FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH OFFICE
Israel (UK Strategic Export Controls)
The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (David Miliband): I am taking this opportunity to update Parliament, following my answers on 19 January, Official Report, column 514, on whether UK-supplied equipment may have been used by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) during the recent conflict in Gaza.
All strategically controlled exports from the UK—both military and dual-use goods—require an export licence, issued by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform on the basis of advice from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Ministry of Defence and, in relevant cases, the Department for International Development. Applications are assessed against the consolidated EU and national arms export licensing criteria and any other relevant announced policy. There are eight criteria, which set out the basis on which applications will be assessed. The most important criteria in relation to exports to Israel are as follows:
Criterion 2 (we will not issue an export licence where there is a clear risk that the export might be used for internal repression), criterion 3 (we will not issue licences for exports which would provoke or prolong armed conflicts or aggravate existing tensions or conflicts in the country of final destination), criterion 4 (preservation of regional peace, security and stability), and criterion 7 (the risk that the equipment will be diverted within the buyer country or re-exported under undesirable conditions).
Estimates suggest that Israel buys over 95 per cent. of its military requirements from the US. The EU accounts for a proportion of the remainder. The UK is estimated as accounting for less than 1 per cent. of total Israeli military exports. Of the goods licensed by the UK, a significant proportion will have been for dual use goods for non-military use, or for goods for incorporation in Israel before onward export to a third country. Of the military goods licensed from the UK, the majority have been for components rather than complete systems or sub-systems. Many of the licences we have identified covering military equipment were for components for incorporation into US-manufactured platforms which were then re-exported to Israel.
I will start by dealing with the equipment used by the IDF in relation to Operation Cast Lead which—contrary to suggestions made in the press and elsewhere—we do not believe contained components supplied under licence from the UK.
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs): UAVs were used extensively for reconnaissance and targeting. The Heron and Hermes 450 variants were positively identified. Numerous export licence applications have been received to supply equipment to Israel’s significant UAV industry. The great majority are subject to further incorporation in Israel for onward export and a small number approved for demonstration, research, testing and our own “Watchkeeper” UAV programme. We have no evidence to suggest that goods licensed by the UK were diverted within Israel for use by the IDF.
Tanks and Armoured Bulldozers: Merkava tanks were deployed in support of the ground offensive into Gaza. We have not identified any UK components on the Merkava tank. D9 Armoured Bulldozers were used to clear ground, clear routes for armoured vehicles and there are credible reports that they were used to demolish houses containing weapons caches or tunnels. None were supplied under licence from the UK, nor were any components for them.
Secondly, there is equipment which may have been involved in Operation Cast Lead and may have contained British-supplied components.
Satellites: Israel has a number of reconnaissance satellites that could have been used to provide information to the IDF, and for which the UK has supplied minor components. We assess that these might have been used to prepare the operation but would not have played a significant part in the operation itself.
Thirdly, there is IDF equipment that was used in Operation Cast Lead and which almost certainly contained British-supplied components.
Combat Aircraft: The F16 was widely used, including for the delivery of precision-guided ordnance. No licences have been granted by the Government for the export of F16 components sent direct to Israel since 2002. British made components for F16s have been exported to the United States where Israel was the ultimate end-user. These licences covered components for head-up displays, head-down displays and enhanced display units.
Helicopters: Apache attack helicopters were used in the operation as part of the initial air campaign, and later in support of ground troops. Licences have been approved for the export of components to the US for incorporation into equipment for use on Apache helicopters ultimately destined for Israel. These licences covered parts for the fire control and radar system, navigation equipment and engine assemblies.
Naval Vessels: Saar-Class Corvettes took part in the operation from the waters off Gaza. They are likely to have been used for a number of tasks, but there are credible reports that the Saar 4.5 was used in a naval fire support role (the Saar 5 does not carry a gun suitable for such a task). Applications have been approved for components direct to Israel for a 76mm gun for a Saar 4.5 class vessel. We have also licensed the supply of other types of equipment for the Israeli navy; most recent cases have been for ubiquitous cabling for the Saar-class vessels and components for radar equipment. Of the cases for radar equipment most have been for air defence purposes, but they have the technical capability to be used for fire-control against surface targets.
Armoured Personnel Carriers: Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs) were used and these included conversions of UK-supplied Centurion tanks to carry troops, for mobile headquarters and as combat engineer vehicles. The Centurions were sold to Israel in the late 1950s.
It is inherent in the consolidated criteria that judgments are in part based on past practice, so evidence from Operation Cast Lead will be used in all future applications. I can confirm that we are looking at all extant licences to see whether any of these need to be re-considered in light of recent events in Gaza. All future applications will be assessed taking into account the recent conflict. I continue to believe that UK export controls and the consolidated criteria are amongst the strongest and most effective in the world and are the best basis for putting into practice our commitments on arms exports.
wrongfull said
I admire the time and effort you put into your blog. I wish I had the same drive
EDO Decommissioners latest news and James back at Horfield prison « Prisoner Support Bristol ABC said
[...] now been out on bail, but with a tag, for about 2 weeks. You can continue to write to him, c/o the EDO Decommissioners PO Box. Many thanks to all the anti-EDO campaigners and other activists in Brighton who have supported [...]
Lies & Propaganda said
Thanks for your e-mail regarding ‘Today’ on BBC Radio 4.
I note you felt the programme’s analysis of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech on the creation of a Palestinian state was biased in favour of Israel as there was no input from a Palestinian representative.
While I appreciate your concerns, we don’t aim for a balance of opinion within one single item or programme as it’s not always possible or practical. Instead, we provide this balance over a period of time across our entire news and current affairs output.
BBC News has covered the Palestinian opinion on the speech, and the BBC Online report below is just one example:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8099948.stm
The aim of our news reports is to provide the information across our programming in order to enable viewers and listeners to make up their own minds; to show the reality of a situation and provide the forum for debate, giving full opportunity for all viewpoints to be heard. We are satisfied that this has been the case in respect of our reporting of the Middle East, including events that have taken place in Gaza recently. Nevertheless, I recognise you may continue to hold a different opinion about the BBC’s impartiality.
I’ve registered your complaint on our audience log. This is a daily report of audience feedback that’s circulated to many BBC staff, including members of the BBC Executive Board, channel controllers and other senior managers.
The audience logs are seen as important documents that can help shape decisions about future programming and content.
Thanks again for taking the time to contact us.
Regards
Andrew Hannah
BBC Complaints
__________________________________________
http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints
Notes from past struggles... said
“No government’s condemnation of terrorism is credible if it cannot show itself to be open to change by nonviolent dissent”
· Arundhati Roy
·
Individuals have international duties which transcend the national obligations of obedience imposed by the individual State”
· Nuremburg War Crimes Tribunal
·
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
· Mohandas Gandhi
·
“We recommend that people throughout the world launch nonviolent actions against US and UK corporations that directly profit from this war”
- 7th Recommendation of the World Tribunal on Iraq, June 2005; http://www.worldtribunal.org
GAZA 1.5 million people trapped in despair said
http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/htmlall/palestine-report-260609
Six months after Israel launched its three-week military operation in Gaza on 27
December 2008, Gazans still cannot rebuild their lives. Most people struggle to
make ends meet. Seriously ill patients face great difficulty obtaining the treatment
they need. Many children suffer from deep psychological problems. Civilians whose
homes and belongings were destroyed during the conflict are unable to recover.
During the 22 days of the Israeli military operation, nowhere in Gaza was safe for
civilians. Hospitals were overwhelmed with casualties, including small children,
women and elderly people. Medical personnel showed incredible courage and
determination, working around the clock to save lives in extremely difficult
circumstances. Meanwhile, daily rocket attacks launched from Gaza put thousands
of residents at risk in southern Israel. Medical workers in Israel provided care for the
traumatized population and treated and evacuated casualties.
Many people in Gaza lost a child, a parent, another relative or a friend. Israel’s military
operation left thousands of homes partly or totally destroyed. Whole neighbourhoods
were turned into rubble. Schools, kindergartens, hospitals and fire and ambulance
stations were damaged by shelling.
This small coastal strip is
cut off from the outside
world. Even before the
latest hostilities, drastic
restrictions on the
movement of people
and goods imposed by
the Israeli authorities,
particularly since
October 2007, had led
to worsening poverty,
rising unemployment
and deteriorating public
services such as health
care, water and sanitation.
Insufficient cooperation
between the Palestinian
Authority in Ramallah and
the Hamas administration
in Gaza had also hit the
provision of essential
services. As a result, the
people of Gaza were
already experiencing a
major crisis affecting all
aspects of daily life when
hostilities intensified in
late December.
Six months later, restrictions
on imports are making
it impossible for Gazans
to rebuild their lives. The
quantities of goods now entering Gaza fall well short of what is required to meet the
population’s needs. In May 2009, only 2,662 truckloads of goods entered Gaza from
Israel, a decrease of almost 80 per cent compared to the 11,392 truckloads allowed
in during April 2007, before Hamas took over the territory.
Many children witnessed violence during the military operation.
Bedwetting, insomnia and agitated behaviour are widespread.
Thousands of children and adults need counselling to deal with
emotional scars and post-traumatic stress.
Tivadar Domaniczky /ICRC
2 3
Gaza neighbourhoods particularly hard hit by the Israeli strikes will continue to look
like the epicentre of a massive earthquake unless vast quantities of cement, steel and
other building materials are allowed into the territory for reconstruction. Until that
happens, thousands of families who lost everything will be forced to live in cramped
conditions with relatives. Others will continue to live in tents, as they have nowhere
else to go.
Emergency repairs carried out after the military operation have made it possible to
restore water and sanitation services, but only to the already unsatisfactory level
prevailing before December 2008. The infrastructure is overloaded and remains
subject to breakdown. Although chlorine is used to disinfect the water, the risk of
sewage and other waste matter seeping into the water supply network represents a
major threat to public health.
Every day, 69 million litres of partially treated or completely untreated sewage –
the equivalent of 28 Olympic-size swimming pools – are pumped directly into the
Mediterranean because they cannot be treated.
NO RECONSTRUCTION ALLOWED
Thousands of homes only have access to running water on certain days. Because the
water supply network cannot be properly maintained, it is leaking, making it harder
to maintain sufficient water pressure. Even when water is available in the pipes, many
homes do not have sufficient power to pump it into rooftop storage tanks.
The taps of tens of thousands of people run dry when Gaza’s municipal water wells
break down, which frequently happens because of insufficient supplies of new water
pipes, electrical spare parts, pumps and transformers.
The ICRC has occasionally found ways of repairing infrastructure without relying
on imports. For example, it used recycled materials (including used water pipes
and concrete segments of the old Rafah border wall destroyed in January 2008) to
upgrade a wastewater treatment plant serving 175,000 people in Rafah.
However, on its own this is insufficient. Other repairs and reconstruction projects are
urgently needed to prevent the further deterioration of the water supply system, carry
out essential maintenance and stem the steady decline of the water and sanitation
system throughout the Gaza Strip. The fact that water and sanitation services could
collapse at any moment raises the spectre of a major public health crisis.
The only….to read on visit:-
http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/htmlall/palestine-report-260609
Protest against Armed Forces Day said
Protest against Armed Forces Day
anti-war | 23.06.2009 18:58 | South Coast
ANTI-WAR campaigners are calling for a protest on Saturday June 27 against an “Armed Forces Day” event in Worthing. Meet-up point is 11am at the east end of Warwick Street in the town centre, next to Steyne Gardens where the event is to be held. Some protesters will be in the guise of war victims and people are also being asked to bring banners and placards explaining why they are opposed to the state’s glorification of war.
The following public statement has been issued by campaigners:
We are protesting against the staging of an event in Worthing which shamelessly glorifies war and all the suffering, death and destruction that it involves.
Commemorating conflicts in the past, such as the Second World War, when Britain really was at risk from invasion, is one thing.
However, today’s armed services are plainly not being used to defend this country at all, but to illegally invade and occupy distant countries in the interests of American global strategy and to grab oil and gas supplies for Big Business.
We believe that the so-called “Armed Forces Day” is nothing but a propaganda exercise designed to whip up public support for a thoroughly discredited British foreign policy.
Waving the Union Jack to try and get people to march in step behind the Government is no way to run a democratic country in the 21st century – this sort of approach should have died a death with the end of the British Empire or with the last of Hitler’s Nuremberg rallies!
Two million citizens protested in Britain against the invasion of Iraq, which is now widely seen as having been based on lie after lie.
Many of us think Tony Blair and George W Bush should be facing war crime charges, while Gordon Brown’s regime is still trying to hide the truth by holding its whitewash enquiry behind closed doors!
At a time when this country is sinking into huge debt, we simply cannot afford to spend £35 billion (MoD figures for 2009/10) on helping the USA to try to control the whole world – meanwhile lining the pockets of well-connected weapons manufacturers!
If only we could invest that sort of money in healthcare, education or in developing green technologies to help us build a healthy and sustainable future for these small islands!
While young men and women join the armed forces for various reasons, we should not be encouraging them to do so. There are so many more important, and less destructive, jobs to be done in this world.
Do we really think “our boys and girls” are doing a good deed by bombing wedding parties in Afghanistan, blowing up little children with cluster bombs or causing defects in babies for generations to come by using highly toxic depleted uranium in our weapons?
And if they are killed in action can we really claim that they are “heroes” who have died for something worthwhile, or are they in fact victims – victims of a system that regards them as cannon fodder for its own insatiable greed and megalomania?
No more taxpayers’ money wasted on the military!
No public subsidy for the arms industry!
No more blood for oil!
anti-war
e-mail: worthing@eco-action.org
Homepage: http://www.eco-action.org/porkbolter
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Comments
Hide the following comment
A Soldiers Comment
28.06.2009 06:30
Hi There,
I left the British Army a few years ago… I have just read your article and much of what you say is true.. Why did I join the army? Because I could not find a job in Thatchers Britain.
The feeling amongst many ordinary soldiers is that they are being used and abused by the government and dying for no reason whatsoever..
I have 2 children and it would devastate me if any of them wanted to join up..
The turnover rate in the forces is huge, because many now see us used as like you say cannon fodder..
No matter how patriotic someone is to Britain and going fighting for it should read about the 1st World War.. Nothing has changed, just to a lesser extent perhaps..
You say that the 2nd World War was a different thing when we were really threatened and you’re right.. I agree.. If Britian was really threatened then I’m sure we would meet the challenge, but ….. I cannot get over Colin Powells briefing to the UN about weapons of mass destruction. A total lie that many soldiers are angry about to this day.. Friends and colleges who died based on this lie is hard to accept.. Many a conversation has taken place in barracks about this lie…
The ordinary soldier needs you to keep the pressure on the goverment to not use them in illegal confilcts.. Many soldiers are good people.. Luckily I never had to pull the trigger to end a life.. If I had I seriously think I would have struggled to live the rest of my life with the guilt.. Many soldiers feel like this..
Keep up the good work…
Stuart
Video on UAVs said
Seen this?
These are the latest killing machines.
a decommisioner said
This web address should of been included with the above entry. It is a short film showing the devestation armed UAVs can bring.
Amnesty details Gaza 'war crimes' said
Israel committed war crimes and carried out reckless attacks and acts of wanton destruction in its Gaza offensive, an independent human rights report says.
Hundreds of Palestinian civilians were killed using high-precision weapons, while others were shot at close range, the group Amnesty International says.
Its report also calls rocket attacks by Palestinian militants war crimes and accuses Hamas of endangering civilians.
The Israeli military says its conduct was in line with international law.
Israel has attributed some civilian deaths to “professional mistakes”, but has dismissed wider criticism that its attacks were indiscriminate and disproportionate.
Amnesty says some 1,400 Palestinians were killed in the 22-day Israeli offensive between 27 December 2008 and 17 January 2009, which agrees broadly with Palestinian figures.
GAZA REPORT
Amnesty International report on Operation ‘Cast Lead’
Download the reader here
More than 900 of these were civilians, including 300 children and 115 women, it says.
In March, Israel’s military said the overall Palestinian death toll was 1,166, of whom 295 were “uninvolved” civilians.
Pattern
The 117-page report by Amnesty International says many of the hundreds of civilian deaths in the conflict “cannot simply be dismissed as ‘collateral damage’ incidental to otherwise lawful attacks – or as mistakes”.
It says “disturbing questions” remain unanswered as to why children playing on roofs and medical staff attending the wounded were killed by “highly accurate missiles” whose operators had detailed views of their targets.
GAZA CIVILIAN DEATHS
Children: 300
Women: 115
Men over 50: 85
Civilian men under 50: 200
Non-combatant police: 240
Total: 940
Source: Amnesty International
Gaza conflict: Who is a civilian?
Gaza case studies: Weapons use
Lives were lost because Israeli forces “frequently obstructed access to medical care,” the report says. It also reiterates previous condemnations of the use of “imprecise” weapons such as white phosphorous and artillery shells.
The destruction of homes, businesses and public buildings was in many cases “wanton and deliberate” and “could not be justified on the grounds of military necessity”, the report adds.
“All of those things occurred on a scale that constitutes pattern – and constitutes war crimes,” Donatella Rovera, who headed the research, told the BBC.
The document also gives details of several cases where it says people – including women and children posing no threat to troops – were shot at close range as they were fleeing their homes in search of shelter.
Israeli officials responded saying the military targeted only areas where Palestinian militants were operating, and accused Hamas of turning civilian neighbourhoods into “war zones”.
“We tried to be as surgical as is humanly possible in a difficult combat situation,” Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev told the BBC.
Human shields
The Amnesty report says no evidence was found that Palestinian militants had forced civilians to stay in buildings being used for military purposes, contradicting Israeli claims that Hamas repeatedly used “human shields”.
However, Amnesty says Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups had endangered Palestinian civilians by firing rockets from residential neighbourhoods and storing weapons in them.
It says local residents had in one case told researchers that Hamas fighters had fired a rocket from the yard of a government school.
The Israeli military has repeatedly blamed Hamas for causing civilian casualties, saying its fighters operated from buildings like schools, medical facilities, religious institutions, residential homes and commercial premises.
In the cases it had investigated, Amnesty said civilian deaths “could not be explained as resulting from the presence of fighters shielding among civilians, as the Israeli army generally contends”.
However, Amnesty does accuse Israel of using civilians, including children, as human shields in Gaza, forcing them to remain in houses which its troops were using as military positions, and to inspect sites suspected of being booby trapped.
It also says Palestinian militants rocket fire from the Gaza Strip was “indiscriminate and hence unlawful under international law”, although it only rarely caused civilian casualties.
Hamas leader in Gaza Ismail Haniya declined to comment on the Amnesty International criticism, but said: “We believe the leaders of the occupation state must be tried for these crimes.”
Thirteen Israelis were killed, including three civilians, during the offensive, which Israel launched with the declared aim of curtailing cross-border rocket attacks.
Amnesty International: Gaza white phosphorus shells were US made said
From The Times
February 24, 2009
Amnesty International: Gaza white phosphorus shells were US made
Amnesty International: Gaza white phosphorus shells were US made said
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Flag this messagehttp://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article5792182.eceThursday, 2 July, 2009 5:25 PM
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From The Times
February 24, 2009
Amnesty International: Gaza white phosphorus shells were US made
Press Release - Campaigners to enact the Bloody History of ITT Today said
Press Release – Campaigners to enact the Bloody History of ITT Today
Chloe Marsh | 01.07.2009 08:54 | Anti-militarism | Iraq | Palestine | South Coast | World
Smash EDO Press Release
Wednesday 1sth July
Campaigners to enact the Bloody History of ITT
for more info call 07538093930 or email smashedopress@riseup.net
Demonstration at EDO MBM/ITT, Home Farm Road, 4pm
Campaigners will hold a demonstration today to remember the bloody history of EDO MBM/ITT, A multinational arms company working in Brighton. The ITT Corporation, one of the largest companies in the world, which took over EDO in December 2007, have a long history of working with fascist regimes. They worked with the Nazi regime in Germany throughout its genocide, with Franco in Spain and with Pinochet in Chile.
ITT took over EDO MBM which had been owned by the US company, EDO corporation. Prior to that the company had been owned by MBM, an arms company who have worked in Brighton since the 1940s.
Campaigners will use street theatre to depict ITT’s inglorious history outside EDO MBM/ITT on Home Farm Road Brighton.
Campaign press spokesperson Chloe Marsh said “we think it is important to remember this country’s history. ITT profited from the bombing of London and southeast England as its German subsidiary Focke-Wulfe built fighter aircraft for the Nazis. It is clear that the company has not gained any integrity since then as they continue to sell weapons to Israel for its crimes against the Palestinians”
Photos and Interviews Available
for more info call 07538093930 or email smashedopress@riseup.net
Notes for Journalists
On 20th December 2007 EDO shareholders voted to approve the takeover of EDO Corp by ITT, the estimated value of the transaction was $1.7 billion.
ITT & Hitler
The CEO of International Telephone & Telegraph(ITT), Colonel Sosthenes Behn reportedly spoke with Adolf Hitler on the phone from New York Cityevery week of World War II. Key companies that maintained the German telephone network were ITT subsidiaries at that time, and communications were
obviously of strategic importance for Nazi Germany. Their subsidiaries produced vital supplies such as switchboards, telephones, teleprinters, aircraft intercoms, submarine and ship phones, electric buoys, alarm gongs, buoys, air raid warning devices, radar equipment, radio parts and 30,000 fuses per month for artillery shells used to kill allied troops.
Numerous payments were made to Heinrich Himmler in the late 1930s and in World War II itself through I.T.T. German subsidiaries. The first
meeting between Hitler and I.T.T. was reported in August 1933, when Sosthenes Behn and I.T.T. German representative Henry Manne met with Hitler in Berchesgaden. Subsequently, Behn made contact with the Secretary of State Keppler and, through Keppler’s influence, Nazi banker Baron Kurt von Schröder became the guardian of I.T.T. interests in Germany. Schröder acted as the conduit for I.T.T. money funnelled to Heinrich Himmler’s
S.S. organization in 1944.
ITT profited from the bombing of London and southeast England as its German subsidiary Focke-Wulfe built the FW 191 heavy bombe and the FW 190D
fighter bomber. By 1943 13% of ITT’s income was generated from Nazi Germany.
At the time of the Pearl Harbour attack in 1941, ITT’s investments in Nazi Germany totalled $30 million. They continued to invest in and collaborate
with Nazi Germany after the USA entered the war, in fact striking a deal with Hitler ensuring that the Nazi government would not acquire ITT’s shares, but would be responsible for the administration of the shares. ITT literally went into partnership with the Nazi government in wartime.
ITT later sued the American government, receiving $27 million for damage that had been inß icted on their German plants by Allied bombers, despite the fact that these factories were building Nazi military equipment to attack the allies during the war. On 20th December 2007 EDO shareholders voted to approve the takeover of EDO Corp by ITT, the estimated value of the transaction was $1.7 billion. ITT have a long history of active support of fascism, recent attempts to re-brand their image have proved irrelevant in the face of their involvement in war-crimes and genocide throughout history, and which continues today.
ITT & Franco
To protect the interests of its Spanish subsidiary the Compania Telefonica Nacional de Espana (CTNE), which held a monopoly over Spain’s telephone system, ITT actively supported fascist dictator General Franco rise to power while opposition to ITT’s presence and profiteering in Spain grew, even resulting in two bombs exploding at an ITT telephone facility in Madrid.
Colonel Behn provided private phone links between the plotters at Madrid and Generals Francisco Franco and Emilio Mola in the provinces. Behn’s activities allowed the extremely effective coordination between the widely scattered rebel leaders in the early days of the uprising. CTNE technicians were also repairing damaged telephone equipment for Franco’s insurgents. The US government claimed neutrality in the Spanish civil war,but failed to prevent US companies like ITT financing and supporting Franco. It was this extra support which won Franco the war, and resulted in 36 years of fascist rule in Spain.
ITT & Pinochet
In 1970 ITT tried to get the CIA to support Salvadore Allende’s right-wing opponent for the presidencey in Chile. ITT offered to pay the CIA $1million to prevent the Chilean Congress from confirming Allende after he was elected. Allende was campaigning on a platform of expropriation of American businesses, including ITT.
In October, 1971, President Salvador Allende of Chile, the first democratically elected socialist leader, nationalized ITT’s 70% interest in the Chilean Telephone Company (Chiltelco). ITT proposed an 18-point action plan to the U.S. Government to strangle Chile’s economy, create panic among its population, and cause social disorder,so the Chilean armed forces would overthrow Allende.
Three months later President Nixon created a special inter-agency group to implement ITT’s proposal, and the National Security Council’s Committee approved a plan to overthrow Allende. ITT directors John A. McCone, former head of the CIA, and Eugene R. Black, former head of the World Bank,
were instrumental in getting the U.S. to approve ITT’s plan. Funding for the covert actions was channelled through the CIA, and the World Bank was one of the first financial institutions to cut off credit to Chile.
Allende was killed in 1973 in the resultant military coup funded by ITT, who were rewarded with the return of its holdings under new leader Augusto
Pinochet’s brutal dictatorship which saw thousands of Chileans tortured and murdered.
Later in the decade charges of perjury were brought against ITT for having denied involvement in the CIA-backed military coup to US Congress. ITT public relations officer Hal Hendrix pleaded guilty to lying under oath, but was fined under $100 as a reward for cooperation in the larger perjury case against ITT.
The perjury case against ITT was dropped in 1979 on the grounds of international security, yet documents declassified in 2000 showed ITT to be guilty of perjury regarding its involvement in Chilean politics.
Despite its attempted re-branding, only last year ITT were found guilty of breaking US arms control laws by exporting secret night vision technology to foreign military forces which led to the largest fine in history
for breach of export control law.
Chloe Marsh
e-mail: smashedopress@riseup.net
Homepage: http://www.smashedo.org.uk
Stop the killing - stop the hate said
Anti-Militarist Network Gathering, Nottingham
Notts Anti-Militarism | 03.07.2009 03:17 | Anti-militarism | Nottinghamshire
The Anti-Militarist Network will be holding its next gathering in Nottingham on the weekend of July 11th-12th.
The AMN is a non-hierarchical, UK-wide network of autonomous campaigns, groups and activists opposed to militarism and the arms industry. It is at gatherings such as this that the AMN makes its decisions.
Over the course of the weekend there will be various sessions and workshops, including planning mobilisations against the DSEi arms fair in London in September and the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Edinburgh in November. The AMN gathering is a great opportunity for activists from around the country to network and build a national anti-militarist movement.
The provisional timetable is as follows:
SATURDAY 2009-07-11
10:00 Introduction
10:30 Reports from regional groups and recent events
11:30 Break
11:45 AMN infotour and publicity
12:30 Lunch
13:30 NATO Parliamentary Assembly
15:30 Break
16:00 Direct action workshops
18:30 Dinner
19:30 Social night
SUNDAY 2009-07-12
09:30 Disarm DSEi 2009
11:30 Break
11:45 EDO Decommissioners support
12:30 Lunch
13:30 Activist Trauma Support discussion (TBC)
14:30 Conclusion
The conference will be held at the Sumac Centre, 245 Gladstone St, Nottingham NG7 6HX. For directions see http://www.veggies.org.uk/sumac/map.html . For those needing accommodation, there will be crash-space at a nearby housing co-op. Please check in at the front desk or the bar in the Sumac Centre on the Friday or Saturday evening, or contact the Sumac Centre on +441159608254. There will also be limited accommodation at the homes of local activists, which you can request by e-mailing contact nottsantimilitarism.org.uk .
Vegan meals will be provided by Veggies catering campaign and local volunteers. On the Friday and Saturday night the Sumac social club will be open, with bar and music. (Non-members must be signed in.) Delegates to the gathering will be asked for small donations to help cover costs.
If you have any enquiries, special requirements or problems, please e-mail contact nottsantimilitarism.org.uk.
Notts Anti-Militarism
Homepage: http://nottsantimilitarism.wordpress.com/
Stop the killing - stop the hate said
COME TO THE PEACE NEWS SUMMER CAMP!
23-27 July 2009, Oxfordshire
http://www.peacenewscamp.info
Join people from across the broad spectrum of the British peace movement for five days of exploration, celebration and empowerment. Bring your contribution to a hothouse of creativity, a small self-governed society run by democratic camp meetings, a viable example of the kind of world we are trying to bring about.
We will be learning from other movements, struggling with challenging
issues, creating more cohesion in a segmented peace movement and debating nonviolence. Workshops will range from theoretical discussion to practical planning for actions later in the year.
Fifty years of activist experience will be represented, along with fresh faces and new blood.
There will be over 40 sessions, including:
- ‘Local Anti-Arms Trade Campaigning’ and ‘International Perspectives on the Arms Trade’ with Smash EDO and Nottingham Against Militarism
- ‘Protest Camps’ and ‘Nuclear Weapons and Trident Replacement’ with Faslane Peace Camp
- ‘Using the System – how planning, legal and parliamentary systems can be utilised by activists’ with Juliet McBride (AWPC) and Andrew Wood (who recently successfully challenged police surveillance of activists in the courts).
- ‘Chomsky’s Politics’ with Milan Rai (Peace News)
- ‘Libertarian Education’ with David Gribble (author ‘Real Education:
Varieties of Freedom’) and Leslie Barson (The Otherwise Club)
- ‘Strategy Skills’ and ‘Consensus Decision-making’ with Seeds for Change (www.seedsforchange.org.uk)
- ‘Civil Liberties’ with the Repeal SOCPA Campaign and Jim Brann (London CND)
- ‘Worker’s control and Parecon’ with Mark Evans (Project for a
Participatory Society)
- ‘Faith-based Resistance’ with Susan Clarkson (Oxford Catholic Worker)
- ‘Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran’ with Milan Rai, Salih Ibrahim (Voices UK) and Gabriel Carlyle (Voices UK)
- ‘Nonviolence, armed self-defence and participatory democracy: lessons from the Black freedom struggle’ with Gabriel Carlyle
- ‘Activism for the long haul’ with Martin Shaw (Activist Trauma Support)
- ‘Islamaphobia and the War on Terror’ with Maya Evans (JNV) and Hugo Charlton
(Campaign against Criminalising Communities)
- ‘Countering Army Recruitment’ by David Gee (author of ‘Informed Choice? Armed forces recruitment practice in the United Kingdom’)
As well as poetry, games, play-reading, story-telling, walks, a samba workshop, debates on the invasion of Iraq (‘Why did we fail?’) and the future of the anti-war movement, and more!
Fed by local organic fruit and veg (lovingly cooked by the wonderful
Veggies of Nottingham), we’re camping in a family-friendly and
renewably-powered way from 23-27 July near Faringdon, Oxfordshire, to make the world a better place.
Entrance to the camp costs £15-£50 depending on income. For all the
details see http://www.peacenewscamp.info or contact 0845 458 2564
Ethics and partnerships: the OU and the St Athan said
Ethics and partnerships: the OU and the St Athan
Military Academy
The Open University now boasts a Centre for Ethics and includes ethical teaching in its curriculum, but it does
not yet have an ethical policy guiding its corporate partnerships. The recent link between the OU and the Metrix
consortium has led to protests in Wales and may result in far wider ramifications for the institution
Life at the OU in Wales took a new turn recently, with demonstrations
against the University’s involvement in a military training consortium
taking place outside our building.
Over the past year, the ‘Stop the St Athan Military Academy
Campaign’ has been publicizing and attacking the OU’s involvement
in the Metrix consortium, which followed its success in being
awarded a government contract to run a training agency for all of
the British armed forces at St Athan in South Glamorgan.
The OU is a member of the consortium, along with some major
arms manufacturers, including QinetiQ and Raytheon. Raytheon
manufactures Tomohawk and Patriot missiles, and missiles
capable of carrying cluster bombs; QinetiQ hit the headlines with
criticisms by the National Audit Office of the process whereby, in
the privatization of DERA, the responsible civil servants became
multi-millionaires overnight.
Thousands of training jobs from around the UK will be moved
to St Athan, just outside Cardiff, where up to 5,500 jobs will be
created. This figure is one that fluctuates and is contested, but it is
claimed that the St Athan Military Academy, costing £15 billion,
will be the largest ever public-sector project in Wales.
The project is welcomed by local MPs and Welsh Assembly
Members, by the Welsh Assembly Government and by all of the
major political parties in Wales. Nonetheless, several Plaid Cymru
members of the National Assembly for Wales have spoken against
it, and there are a small but vociferous number of people in Wales
opposed to the militarization of the economy. Anti-militarism has
been a core element of the nationalist struggle since its inception,
and is a perspective shared by many key figures in public life.
Does this new partnership fit with the mission of the OU – to
create and enhance life opportunities? There are concerns about any
institution’s associations with the arms trade. Jennie Lee, one of the
main founders of the OU, was firm in her stand against arms, in that
she was against the UK acquiring a nuclear deterrent.
Various UK universities (including St Andrews and several
Cambridge colleges) have adopted ethical investment policies.
University College London, under pressure from students and
alumni, is among those that are considering doing so. The School of
Oriental and African Studies and Goldsmiths, University of London
and Bangor University have withdrawn investment from arms
companies. The OU has still to decide on whether it needs to devise
clear and fully transparent ethical guidelines to steer its business
partnerships.
Other institutions have been more forthright. The Norwegian state
pension fund, which includes its petroleum fund, and Liverpool City
Council are among the bodies that have disinvested from Raytheon,
on the basis of its implication in war crimes and killing civilians in
Iraq and Lebanon.
Of course, military technology and the armed forces are involved
in defence as well as attack, and there are plenty of us who subscribe
to notions of ‘just wars’. But the plan is to train not just British
troops, but armed forces from around the world. The idea of training
troops for the Burmese government is more controversial than
training British troops.
Others do not share this political or moral concern, but object on
pragmatic grounds: that the OU risks tainting its brand. In a sense,
the greatest asset of the OU is its brand. The brand isn’t just a logo
but is a reputation, and the reputations of organizations increasingly
are linked to their ethical and environmental policies and practices.
We only have to look to Nike, McDonald’s, Tesco, the Body Shop
and the Co-operative Bank to see the centrality of ‘the brand’ to
business performance.
Across the economy and around the world there is a huge growth
in the ‘corporate social responsibility’ agenda. In one sense, this is
recognized by the OU, which recently launched a Level 1 course
on Ethics in Real Life and takes very seriously its commitment to
development in Africa. At the same time, it is in partnership with
the World Bank to develop a private university in Pakistan, in
collaboration with Tesco regarding using clubcard points to pay
course fees (see Society Matters No.10), and is now linked with the
Metrix consortium.
This suggests the need for an ethical, environmental and corporate
responsibility framework for the OU’s relationships with other
organizations. With its deservedly high standing, the OU brand is of
enormous benefit to us all. The good reputation of the OU is an asset
and needs to be defended actively.
In response to the University’s involvement in the Metrix
consortium, the Open University Branch of the University and
College Union (OUBUCU) has formulated a set of ethical guidelines
to be applied to the future selection of its strategic partnerships with
external organizations. The guidelines set out criteria regarding the
arms trade, ecological sustainability, animal welfare and corporate
responsibility to ‘filter’ out partnerships which may commercially
damage the University’s brand. At the time of going to press, a
paper setting out the arguments for their implementation has been
presented to the Vice-Chancellor and the Branch awaits a response
to its suggestion that a forum be established between union and
management to discuss the guidelines. The union believes the
University cannot be financially successful in the future unless it
is committed to an ethical approach to partnerships.
Slim said
UK blocks 5 arms export licences to Israel (out of 182)
* | 13.07.2009 09:23 | Anti-militarism | South Coast
5 down
177 to go
hardly an embargo
Haaretz 03:02 13/07/2009
U.K. hits Israel with partial arms embargo over Gaza war
By Barak Ravid
Britain has slapped a partial arms embargo on Israel , refusing to supply replacement parts and other equipment for Sa’ar 4.5 gunships because they participated in Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip earlier this year.
Britain’s Foreign Office informed Israel ’s embassy in London of the sanctions a few days ago. The embassy, in a classified telegram to the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem , said the decision stemmed from heavy pressure by both members of Parliament and human rights organizations.
The embargo followed a government review of all British defense exports to Israel , which was announced three months ago. In total, the telegram said, Britain reviewed 182 licenses for arms exports to Israel , including 35 for exports to the Israel Navy. But it ultimately decided to cancel only five licenses, all relating to the Sa’ar 4.5 ships. The licenses in question apparently cover spare parts for the ship’s guns.
*
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Comments
Hide the following comment
Actually vastly increased arms sales
13.07.2009 13:06
“A petition of more than 38,000 signatures calling for a ban was also posted on the Prime Minister’s website.
In a review published earlier this year, Amnesty International highlighted Britain’s role in supplying engines for the Hermes 450 drones, an aircraft widely used by the Israeli military in Gaza. A report by Human Rights Watch last week said that the weapons had killed dozens of civilians.
According to government figures, Britain has more than doubled its sale of weapons to Israel in recent years. In 2007, Britain sold £6 million of arms to Israel, while in 2008 it licensed £20 million in the first quarter alone. ”
I don’t know how the Times can call an increase from £6million a year to £20 million in 3 months ‘doubling’, it is at least a trebled and perhaps a yearly increase of more than thirteen fold.
Danny
(Note to the editor – PLEASE publish related website details)
Slim said
Well I’ll do it then.
Related website –
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6699852.ece
Jim said
Shocking suicide toll on combat veterans
Tories demand better mental health care for troops returning from front
By Nigel Morris and Kim Sengupta
Wednesday, 15 July 2009
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The cortege of hearses passes through Wootton Bassett yesterday
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Britain faces a “ticking timebomb” of mental illness and suicide among young Army veterans who return from hand-to-hand combat in Afghanistan, the Conservatives will warn today.
A lack of mental health care for veterans, combined with the stress of fighting the Taliban, will mean many survivors of the conflict pay a heavy price in psychological problems and self harm, according to David Cameron and the shadow Defence Secretary Liam Fox.
As the bodies of eight soldiers – including three teenagers – killed in a bloody 24 hours in Helmand were repatriated yesterday, mental health experts joined the politicians in warning that not enough was being done to care for returning members of the armed forces.
Related articles
Ian Birrell: False hopes and phoney democracy
Terri Judd: Mourners in their thousands weep for the returning dead
Letters: War in Afghanistan
Research suggests that veterans aged 18 to 23 are up to three times more likely to commit suicide than their civilian counterparts. Setting out plans today to boost mental health care for returning troops, Mr Fox and Mr Cameron will argue that more veterans of the Falklands campaign and the first Gulf War killed themselves after quitting the forces than died in action.
An estimated 264 Falklands veterans have committed suicide since the conflict ended, compared with 255 soldiers killed in action, according to an ex-servicemen’s organisation.
Twenty-four British soldiers died during the 1991 Gulf War, but the Ministry of Defence disclosed last year that 169 veterans of the conflict had died from “intentional self-harm” or in circumstances that led to open verdicts at inquests.
Mr Fox told The Independent: “The suicide figures for past conflicts are deeply concerning. I worry that with the intensity of current operations in Afghanistan we are building up a timebomb of mental health problems.”
David Hill, director of operations for the charity Combat Stress, said it took an average of 14 years for veterans to ask for help with post-traumatic stress disorder. Many suffered in silence – often harbouring suicidal thoughts – because they were reluctant to admit to their vulnerability.
Mr Hill said: “Servicemen and women are exposed to stresses that most people won’t be exposed to in their lives. In Afghanistan, they are exposed to them quite early in their careers. There is a general lack of understanding about how intense these stresses can be.”
A study by Manchester University this year found that ex-servicemen under 24 were between two and three times more likely to kill themselves than men of the same age from outside the forces.
Researchers suggested three possible reasons: that they were already more vulnerable to suicide before joining up; that they had trouble re-adapting to civilian life; or that they were affected by “exposure to adverse experiences”.
Professor Nav Kapur, one of the report’s authors, warned: “Young men leaving the armed forces appear to be at a higher risk. That needs to be recognised and action taken.”
Kevan Jones, the Veterans minister, said: “We have made great progress both in the treatment of mental health problems and in reducing the stigma associated with seeking help. I’m working with the NHS to make sure GPs are telling veterans about the support available, such as the six community mental health schemes we have set up specifically tailored for veterans.”
The Cabinet discussed the growing bloodshed in Afghanistan as the political controversy over the Government’s tactics intensified. Fifteen UK soldiers were killed in a 10-day spell last week, bringing the number of deaths since 2001 to 184. Downing Street insisted yesterday that the Army was “making progress” in its attacks on Taliban positions in Helmand, but acknowledged British troops were facing a “critical period”.
A spokesman for Gordon Brown said: “The clear view coming out of Cabinet was that we do have the right approach in Afghanistan.” He denied Mr Brown had chosen the cheapest option for reinforcing the British forces by sending 700 extra troops rather than the 2,000 requested by military chiefs.
The head of the British Army disclosed yesterday that the military will review strategy in the light of the recent surge in deaths. General Sir Richard Dannatt said: “We have got to think through the way we operate, the resources we have got, the numbers… to make sure we have given ourselves the absolute best chance of succeeding.”
Senior officers will analyse details from the latest combat in Helmand to ascertain what lessons can be learned. In particular they will examine how the Taliban are honing their use of roadside bombs and mines.
Stressing that withdrawal was not an option, General Dannatt said: “This mission is really important. If we were to pull out unilaterally, just come out of the mission… frankly, the consequences will be catastrophic.”
Meanwhile 140 extra troops from the 2nd Battalion Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment, currently based in Cyprus, are being deployed to Afghanistan to assist with the offensive against the Taliban in Helmand, codenamed Operation Panther’s Claw.
What are the other members of Nato doing to help us?
Q. Why have there been such levels of recrimination over British troop numbers in Afghanistan? What is the situation now?
A. The UK deployment of about 4,000 troops to Afghanistan in 2006 took place against the background of a major commitment in Iraq. Commanders were concerned about “overstretch” and fighting on two fronts. Since then, the force in Afghanistan has reached 9,100 troops. When the UK began withdrawing from southern Iraq, the US wanted some forces diverted to Afghanistan. Senior British officers wanted 2,000 to 2,500 more troops sent to Helmand. A troop shortage meant ground won from the Taliban could not be held and it was felt that with up to 22,000 US troops heading to the country’s south, including to Helmand, the British had to raise their numbers to maintain credibility. Gordon Brown opted for the lowest commitment option: a temporary deployment of 700 for the Afghan elections. The decision sparked controversy and will be reviewed after the autumn election. It is expected the 700 will become permanent and an additional force sent.
Q. What has been the British strategy in Afghanistan since 2006?
A. John Reid, the then defence secretary, said he hoped the mission would end “without a shot being fired in anger”. Since then, about six million rounds are thought to have been fired. From the start of the mission, UK policy seemed confused and drifting. The official mission statement was that troops would help bring governance to a traditionally lawless part of the country and assist in poppy eradication. But they charged off to outlying areas and set up platoon houses, in effect inviting Taliban attacks. The operation ran counter to a plan by General (now Sir) David Richards, the British commander of Nato forces, which called for secure areas to be set up around larger towns, where reconstruction could begin. Instead, swaths of Helmand turned into battlefields, and there was little development.
Q. Gordon Brown has asked for more Afghan government troops to be based in Helmand. Why? And how effective will this be?
A. Nato’s aim is for Afghans to provide their own security but it will be a while before they can. Mr Brown has said the Afghan forces should hold ground which British forces cannot, effectively acknowledging there are not enough British forces on the ground. About 11 per cent of the 85,000-strong Afghan army are in Helmand, which has seen almost half of recent fighting. But much of the Afghan force is still training. The plan is to expand the Afghan forces to 134,000. But even that number would seem unlikely to be able to meet a Taliban emergency which is recruiting international jihadists and is supported by elements in the Pakistani military and intelligence. Iraq, with a similar population, has about 600,000 in its force.
Q. What about contributions from other Nato countries?
A. No less than 42 countries contribute to the International Security Assistance Force. But many contingents, including some from Nato countries, operate under caveats which restrict what they are allowed to do, rendering them virtually ineffective in combat scenarios. The UK and US have demanded that other Western states should do more. The Canadians have the worst fatality rate, losing 126 personnel from a force of 2,800. The British have lost 185 out of 9,000 and the Americans, 723 from 60,000. The deadliest attack was on a French unit last August; 10 soldiers died in an engagement 40 miles from Kabul.
Kim Sengupta
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/shocking-suicide-toll-on-combat-veterans-1746475.html
RAE STREET said
Uranium – the deadly legacy of Britain’s Iraq inasion.
One legacy left by the British (and US) army in Iraq has barely been mentioned in the coverage of the return of the british troops from Basra.
That the contamination of the land from ‘depleted’ uranium dust left after the explosion of depleted uranium (DU) munitions which were used by the UK army in both wars on Iraq, in 1991 and 2003.
When the (badley named) DU munitions burn they produce a DU oxide dust.
The dust, which is radioactive and chemically toxic, can travel for miles and the fine particles can be inhaled or ingested by civilians.
In adition, the DU penetrators fired from aircraft did not all reach their targets and as they corroded on the land were, and are, likely to contaiminate groundwater and drinking water supplies.
Recent research suggests that the chemical toxicity of DU and its radioactivity may have a synergistic effect, bringing about health damage to humans, especially children, and pregnant women and their unborn babies.
Clearly, with such potentially dangerous material, there are hazards all along the line in the production of the munitions – from uranium mining, through manufacture, to the weapons’ testing (carried out in south-west Scotland) to the soldiers using the arms, and most importantly, to the innocent civilians living around battleground sites.
Ultimately, the only answer is an inter-national treaty to ban uranium weapons.
However, in the meantime there is the fearful legacy for Iraqi civilians.
The UK government cannot just walk away. It must acknowledge the problems and dangers and begin to look at reparation.
RAE STREET
Co-ordinator
Campaign Against Depleted
Uranium Weapons
http://www.cadu.org.uk/intro.htm
Fred said
Britain punishes Israel for Gaza naval bombardment
By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem
Tuesday, 14 July 2009
AFP/GETTY
An Israeli Saar gunship
The British Government has reacted to Israel’s bombardment and invasion of Gaza last January by barring further exports of components used in naval gunships which took part in the three-week operation.
Britain has officially told Israel’s embassy in London that it is revoking five licences for exports of equipment used in Saar 4.5 vessels because they violate UK and EU criteria precluding military sales which could be used for “internal repression”.
Israel used naval vessels to bombard Gaza targets from the Mediterranean to augment the ground and air offensive after Operation Cast Lead was launched against Hamas on 27 December last year. David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, told the Commons in April that there were “credible” reports that the Saar-class Corvette vessels had been used in “a naval fire support role”.
Related articles
Israeli soldiers reveal the brutal truth of Gaza attack
Breaking the Silence: Full report
The Saar vessels’ 76mm guns are almost certain to have used British-made components because the Government had previously granted export licences specifically for them. It had also allowed exports of cabling for Saar-class ships and also components for radar which Mr Miliband acknowledged could be used for “fire control against surface targets” as well as its primary role in air defence.
The cancellation of the five licences follows a review started by the UK Government three months ago, in the aftermath of the Israeli offensive, of the 182 licences currently in force for arms exports to Israel.
The Israeli military acknowledges killing 1,166 Palestinians during the offensive, including at least 295 civilians, 49 of them women and 89 of them children under 16. Palestinian and other human rights groups put the total killed at up to 1,417, with a much higher proportion of civilians.
The revoked licences appear to involve the only military equipment directly exported from the UK to Israel identified as having been used during Operation Cast Lead. But Mr Miliband acknowledged in April that other British-made components had also been exported to US manufacturers of military equipment that was subsequently sold on to Israel.
These included equipment for the avionics systems – specifically cockpit display units – for F16 aircraft, widely used during Operation Cast Lead for aerial bombing of targets in Gaza.
They also included parts used in the fire control systems of Apache helicopters, as well as navigation units and engine assemblies. Apaches were also regularly used in lethal air attacks during the Gaza operation.
There was a row in the British Cabinet at the peak of the Palestinian intifada during 2002 over the export of F16 avionic components. But although the then Blair government barred direct sales of F16 components to Israel, it continued to license the sale of parts to the US manufacturers on the grounds that it would disrupt Anglo-US relations not to do so.
Richard Burden, chairman of the Britain Palestine All-Party Commons Group, yesterday welcomed the decision to revoke the Saar licences and Mr Miliband’s April announcement of a review of “all extant” military export licences in the light of Operation Cast Lead.
But he added that the criteria needed to be applied to indirect exports as well. “The vast majority of arms imports to Israel come from the US and unless any new policy addresses that issue it will simply not be effective.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/britain-punishes-israel-for-gaza-naval-bombardment-1744969.html
Stan said
From:-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2008/dec/28/gaza-attacks-video
US Must Monitor Use of US Weapons in Gaza
Middle East, United States | Posted by: Edith Garwood, January 7, 2009 at 1:14 PM
Amnesty International has called on the US State Department to suspend all transfers of military weaponry and equipment to Israel until it conducts an investigation into whether US weapons were used in human rights violations. Israel has been using F16’s, Apache helicopters, gunboats and bunker buster bombs in a week-long series of devastating attacks on the Gaza Strip.
Israel Gaza Conflict Enters Twelfth Day. (c) Getty Images
Monitoring of the use of American-made weaponry is not unprecedented. The State Department monitored the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories during the second intifada after Israel dropped a 2,000 pound bomb from an F-16 on an apartment building killing not only the Hamas target Saleh Shahadeh, but also 14 civilians, including 9 of his children in 2002.
The U.S. Arms Export Act of 1976 was passed to help guarantee that US made weapons would only be used for legitimate self-defense reasons and not for violations of internationally recognized human rights. The act requires the State Department to report to Congress when there is a ‘’substantial violation” of the law.
An incident similar to the 2002 case of Saleh Shahadeh happened during the latest series of attacks on the Gaza Strip. Israeli forces dropped a one-ton bomb on the home of a well-known Hamas leader, Nizar Rayan, killing him along with over a dozen members of his family, including most of his children. Additionally, civilian residential homes and other civilian buildings, including a university, police compounds, schools and fire stations have been targeted by Israeli air strikes.
While it’s unclear whether any US weapons have been directly used by Israeli security forces for human rights violations in Gaza, given the types of weapons and attacks Israel security forces have recently used and the large amount of civilian casualties, there is a strong likelihood that US weapons could be used in such violations.
According to the US government’s most recent annual report to the US Congress on US arms sales, in 2007 alone, the US approved or delivered millions of dollars worth of arms and ammunition to Israel, including items in the category of rockets, bombs and missiles. In the past, the US has also sold Israel F-16s, attack helicopters, and cluster munitions. A Jerusalem Post article outlines the use of GBU-39 ‘bunker buster’ bombs in this latest military operation against the Gaza Strip that were just sold to Israel by the US this past September.
Although it is widely understood and accepted that Israel has the right and duty to protect its citizens, it is still obligated to do so respecting international humanitarian and human rights laws. They must use the least intrusive means available, respecting proportion, necessity and distinction (non-combatant vs. combatant). Israel has failed to do this, using extraordinarily powerful weapons against the Gaza Strip such as the one ton bomb on a home to kill one member of Hamas. The Gaza Strip is one of the most densely populated locales on earth where 1.5 million people inhabitant a strip 4-7 miles wide and 25 miles long. Air strikes with ‘smart bombs’ no matter how precise have resulted in a shockingly large number of civilian deaths; sometimes entire families at the same time.
The United States is obligated to enforce the law, regardless of who the offending party may be. We are a nation based on ‘rule of law’. If we suspect our weapons are being used in attacks that are indiscriminately killing civilians, we must act.
These concerns were raised in a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last Friday by Amnesty International. Until we can be certain that the US Arms Export Act is not being violated, we must suspend all transfers of weapons and immediately open an investigation.
Tags: arms, arms export act, gaza, israel, palestine, united states, us weapons
This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 7th, 2009 at 1:14 pm and is filed under Middle East, United States. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Gill said
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/07/434514.html
CALLOUT for Solidarity with 7 Anti-War Activists Presently at Large in the Talis
Rachael | 17.07.2009 01:46 | Anti-militarism
Seven anti-war activists entered the Shoalwater Bay military training area in central Queensland during joint US-Australian Talisman Sabre exercises
Grana 4: Yulangi Bardon, Emily Nielson, Mark Palmer, Jake Bolton
Jaegerstaetter 3: Cully Palmer, Jim Dowling, Bryan Law
CALLOUT for Solidarity with 7 Anti-War Activists Presently at Large in the Talisman Sabre 09 Exercise Area
*For photos and personal statements of the 7 activists go to this link
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/93188
*ABC Report
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/07/17/2628539.htm?site=news
*Call Talisman Sabre Hotline and demand the end of the exercise
1800 639 724
*Further background on nonviolent resistance to Talisman Sabre 09
http://talismansabre.wordpress.com/
*Further suggestions for solidarity with the 7 activists see the end of this email
MEDIA RELEASE:
7 More Activists Inside
Shoalwater Bay Military Training Area:
Call for End to War on Afghanistan
Seven anti-war activists entered the Shoalwater Bay military training area in central Queensland during joint US-Australian Talisman Sabre exercises. The seven remain in the area and are presently moving towards the ‘live fire’ areas with the intention of shutting down the exercises. They remain undetected by Australian Defence Force Security and the Qld Police guarding the area.
The activists are:
Yulangi Bardon, 21
Jake Bolton, 27
Jim Dowling, 53
Bryan Law, 55
Emily Nielson, 19
Culley Palmer, 21
Mark Palmer, 51
The group stated:
“US and Australian militaries, training at Talisman Sabre are presently involved in waging an escalated war in northern Pakistan and southern Afghanistan. Most of the victims in this eight year war have been civilians yet the concept of civilians and civilian loss seems to have been completely lost on the military. There aren’t any civilians permitted in the exercises. Civilians are eliminated here as they are eliminated in war.
“As civilians we enter this area in solidarity with all the civilian victims of the US and Australian military. We enter the exercise area with the intention of shutting down the exercises.
“We come from varied backgrounds: Christian and Humanist traditions. We come in common purpose to nonviolently resist these rehearsals for war and the escalating war on the peoples of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
“It is universally acknowledged that lies told by the Australian Parliament and the US government regarding “Weapons of Mass Destruction” [WMD] in Iraq led us to an illegal invasion and disastrous war in that country. Prime Minister Rudd’s recent assertion that Australian troops waging war in Afghanistan decreases the possibility of terrorism at home is also a lie leading us all to further disaster, death and destruction.
“We call upon all sectors of civil society in Australia to take action against such rehearsals for invasion and war as Talisman Sabre. We call upon all sectors of civil society to take action against the escalating war on the peoples of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
“We call upon Air Commodore Meier to make good on his word to the Australian Senate “that if unauthorised personnel are known to be on or near the live fire area, we stop the clock on the exercises until they are found.” [June 4th 09] Despite our attempts to communicate, Thursday’s statement by Brigadier Bob Brown, contrary to this position, exhibits a negligence in relation to human safety that echoes the Australian and US military behaviour in Afghanistan.
Call for further comment on the group’s activities: Martin Luther King House of Nonviolence, Yeppoon:-
*FURTHER SUGGESTIONS FOR SOLIDARITY
-Some of the 7 will not be co-operating with bail conditions when arre
sted. Write a letter ot postcard
to one of the 7 c/- 69 Kurumba St. Kippa-Ring Q.4021 AUSTRALIA
-Financial donations c/- “Ciaron O’Reilly” P.O. Box 6376 Fairfield Gardens Q. 4103 AUSTRALIA
*Call the following people for further comment on the group’s activities.
Ciaron O’Reilly 0411516434
Sean O’Reilly 0423749946
Margaret Pestorius 0403214422
Landline 07 4933 0356
+61 7 4933 0356 (international)
Professional photos available on request: Margaret 0403214422
Email contact fightfirewithwater09@y7mail.com
Rachael
Homepage: http://talismansabre.wordpress.com
Rae Street said
One legacy left by the British (and US) army in Iraq has barely been mentioned in the coverage of the return of the British troops from Basra.
That is the contamination of the land from “depleted” uranium dust left after the explosion of depleted uranium (DU) munitions which were used by the UK army in both wars on Iraq, in 1991 and 2003.
When the (badly named) DU munitions burn they produce a DU oxide dust.
This dust, which is radioactive and chemically toxic, can travel for miles and the fine particles can be inhaled or ingested by civilians.
In addition, the DU penetrators fired from aircraft did not all reach their targets and as they corrode on the land were, and are, likely to contaminate groundwater and drinking water supplies.
Recent research suggests that the chemical toxicity of DU and its radioactivity may have a synergistic effect, bringing about health damage to humans, especially children, and pregnant women and their unborn babies.
Clearly, with such potentially dangerous material, there are hazards all along the line in the production of the munitions – from uranium mining, through manufacture, to the weapons’ testing (carried out in south-west Scotland) to the soldiers using the arms and, most importantly, to the innocent civilians living around battleground sites.
Ultimately, the only answer is an international treaty to ban uranium weapons.
However, in the meantime there is the fearful legacy for Iraqi civilians.
The UK government cannot just walk away. It must acknowledge the problems and dangers and begin to look at reparation.
http://www.cadu.org.uk/intro.htm
Anne said
4 Remain At Large in U.S./OZ Military Exercise Area
Solidarity | 23.07.2009 09:50
PHOTOS and STATEMENTS @ http://talismansabre.wordpress.com/
Four Anti-War Activists Remain at Large in Prohibited Military Area for Over a Week
Four anti-war activists remain at large in the prohibited Shoalwater military exercise area in central Queensland. The Shoalwater area is presently hosting the $250 million Talisman Sabre exercises involving 18,000 U.S. and 6.000 Australian troops.
The four were part of a group of seven activists who covertly entered the area a week ago. Three of their number have since been detected and captured by the military and handed over to state police. U.S. and Australian military have been involved in offensive war game scenarios. Some of the soldiers encountered by the activists were playing the roles of insurgents following an amphibious assault by U.S. and Australian personnel. Today the military are involved in exercises countering civil unrest of the occupied population.
Two of the activists, Yulangi Bardon and Emily Nielsen, are pictured above on top of The Polygon spire inside the Shoalwater military area. Jim Dowling and Culley Palmer also remain at large in the area after evading helicopter and dog searches.
The group’s support spokeperson Ciaron O’Reilly stated “Since these exercises commenced a few weeks ago 30 U.S., 18 British, an Australian soldier and uncounted Afghanis have been killed in combat in Afghanistan. The Talisman Sabre exercises are dress rehearsals for more death and destruction, invasion and war”.
Ciaron O’Reilly Ph. 0411 516 434
—————————————————————————————————-
Bryan Law Captured in Shoalwater Exercise Area…..and then there were 5!
by Bryan Law
Last Sunday morning, when I’d usually be just leaving Mass with the closing words “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord” resonating in my ears, I found myself instead on a dusty road at the Shoalwater Bay Military Training Area. In front of me, stopped on the road, was an armoured column of US Marines, looking fierce with all their machine guns and cannons and carbines.
I had stopped the armoured column by the sophisticated, high technology method of waving a blue plastic tarpaulin at them from beside the road as I emerged from the bush – a peace-crazed trespasser on the giant war-games called Exercise Talisman Sabre, outside Rockhampton in central Queensland. The Marine who spotted me from the turret of an APC, hopped on the radio and said something along the lines of “Holy Jiminy Batman, there’s an intruder on our war!”, and the column ground to a halt. Goodoh! Thinks me, this is what I came to do. For the how and why of that, let’s go back a step.
On Thursday 16 July 2009 I walked into the Shoalwater Bay Military Training Area with two friends, Culley Palmer, 21 and Jim Dowling, 51. We’d formed our little band over 10 days of organising and taking symbolic actions around the Peace Convergence, and we’d been part of the Martin Luther King House of Christian Nonviolence at Yeppoon. Our mission is to save Australia and the world from the spiritual death of militarism.
Full details: http://talismansabre.wordpress.com/
Solidarity
Homepage: http://talismansabre.wordpress.com/
de-com said
Here’s a copy of a UN report dated 2nd January, 2009. If you’ve not already seen it,
note the paragraph entitled ‘Violence’.
http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_gaza_situation_report_2009_01_02_english.pdf
United Nations
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
GAZA HUMANITARIAN SITUATION REPORT
2 January 2009 as of 14:30
The humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip is significant and cannot be understated. It follows what the UN had described as an 18 month long “human dignity crisis” in the Gaza Strip, entailing a massive destruction of livelihoods and a significant deterioration of infrastructure and basic services.
Elements of the current humanitarian crisis include:
Seven days of uninterrupted bombardment on the entire Gaza Strip. Registered fatalities amount to • 327 and injuries to over 1,100, however there are estimates of additional unregistered casualties up to 421 people killed and 2,100 injured. People are living in a state of fear and panic.
80% of the population cannot support themselves and are dependant on humanitarian assistance. • This figure is increasing.
According to WFP, the population is facing a food crisis. There are food shortages of flour, rice, • sugar, dairy products, milk, canned foods and fresh meats.
The imports entering are insufficient to support the population or to service infrastructure • maintenance and repair needs.
The health system is overwhelmed, having already been weakened by the 18- month blockade. •
The utilities are barely functioning: the only electric power plant has shut down. Some 250,000 • people in central and northern Gaza do not have electricity at all due to the damage to fifteen electricity transformers during the air strikes. The water system provides running water once every 5-7 days and the sanitation system cannot treat the sewage and is dumping 40 million litres of raw sewage into the sea daily. Fuel for heating, needed due to the cold weather, and cooking gas, are no longer available in the market.
There has been significant destruction in the Gaza Strip, over 600 targets hit, including roads, • infrastructure, the Islamic university, government buildings, mosques and civil police stations.
Violence
The main feature of the Israeli Air Force (AIF) attacks in the last 24 hours was the escalation in the targeting of residential houses belonging to Hamas leaders and militants. Some 25 such houses were attacked. Most of their residents received prior phone warnings by the IDF, informing them about the intention to bomb the house and advising their evacuation. In some cases the strike occurred only 5 minutes after the call. Additional people received similar warnings that did not materialize, thus leaving families in a state of panic and uncertainty. The estimate on the total number of Hamas leaders’ houses targeted so far is 45. There has been extensive damage caused to thousands of houses all over the Gaza Strip.
Among the houses targeted yesterday was the house of Hamas leader Nizar Rayan in Jabaliya Refugee Camp, who refused to evacuate upon being warned of an imminent strike. As a result, Rayan and 13 of his family members, including 11 of his children, were killed and 12 were injured. According to the IDF the house served as an arms storage place.
Over 60 rockets and mortars were fired by Palestinian militants at Israeli towns and cities, including Ashkelon, Ashdod, Sderot and Beersheba over the last 24 hours. Two residential buildings were directly hit, however no casualties were reported.
2
Food
Yesterday, UNRWA resumed its food distribution to 2,000-3,000 families. Six out of 10 distribution centers are functional today and will keep distributing food depending on the amount of flour they will receive.
Yesterday, WFP distributed 358 metric tones of food and basic commodities to 2,300 families in Khan Younis and middle areas and is continuing today. By contrast, no distribution could be conducted in Gaza City (due to the location of the storage close to the police HQ) and in the northern area (due to damages to the storage building). In addition, WFP provides each morning 362 packs of bread (each one contains 50 pieces) to MoH hospitals.
No wheat grain entered Gaza since the beginning of the hostilities resulting in the closure of all mills. Mill owners confirmed that the Ministry of National Economy in Gaza ordered them to allocate the available wheat flour to bakeries and distribute it under its supervision (instead of them selling it on the market). As of today, fewer than 20 bakeries throughout the Gaza Strip are operational, due to lack of flour and cooking gas.
Some shop owners were reportedly hiding food items, in anticipation of further scarcity. An increased presence of blue police was observed in some areas, warning shop owners not to hide commodities or increase prices.
Health
According to various sources in the MoH and ICRC, while conditions at hospitals are extremely precarious, the situation has stabilized, following the large volume of medical supplies received and about to arrive. Overall, more than 30 truckloads with medical supplies have arrived to Gaza since Sunday. Yesterday four sophisticated generators have been brought in through Rafah crossing and distributed to Gaza MoH hospitals as an additional power backup.
The main challenge is the shortage of adequate medical equipment and spare parts, compounded by the 18 month long blockade. According to WHO, there are at least 1,000 medical machines out of order. Hospitals suffer also a severe shortage of cooking gas in hospitals, which is expected to be totally depleted in the coming days. As a result, WFP has distributed canned meat and high energy biscuits. The MoH reported a shortage of trucks to deliver medical supplies to the hospitals and of adequate storage capacity.
Fuel / Electricity
The Nahal Oz fuel pipelines remain closed since the beginning of hostilities resulting in no delivery of fuel. Fuel shortages are exacerbated by interruption in the import of fuel from Egypt through the tunnels, following the destruction of part of them and the high risk of using them.
The only power plant in Gaza is not operational due to the lack of industrial fuel. Power outages last a daily average of 16 hours. In addition, following the damages caused by the air strikes to 15 electrical transformers, as much as 250,000 people in central and northern Gaza have no electricity supply during the entire day and night. There are no transformers currently available in Gaza. Transformers which were already purchased are sitting in Israel or Tulkarem and need coordination to be brought into Gaza.
Moreover, due to localized damages following airstrikes, some electrical lines have been cut, causing some areas to suffer from power cuts lasting 24 hours or more. In addition, a 5 MW line from Egypt to Rafah was damaged yesterday, extending the power cuts also to Rafah, which has usually continuous supply. The Gaza Electricity Distribution Company (GEDCO) is facing difficulties in repairing the damages.
Petrol and cooking gas are no longer available on the open market and most of the 240 gas stations in Gaza City have closed. 3
Waterand Sanitation
Since Wednesday, the sewage and water systems in Beit Hanoun were hit at five locations, causing considerable damage to the main sewage pipeline between the city and the Beit Lahiya waste water treatment plant. This has resulted in sewage water pouring into the streets. In addition, the water network was hit at four locations and seven water wells were seriously damaged and cannot be repaired due to the bombardments. This situation has left up to 250,000 people in Gaza City and northern Gaza without water supply.
UNRWA has started today distributing diesel to Gaza’s Coastal Municipalities Water Utility (CMWU) in order to allow the functioning of water and waste water facilities. Yesterday, the CMWU received 24 tonnes of chlorine, used for water disinfection, which is sufficient for the next couple of weeks.
Shelter
Due to air strikes, some 250-300 people in Rafah spent last night at emergency shelters provided by UNRWA. Another 150 people are staying at the two other shelters in northern Gaza. UNRWA has distributed blankets and mattresses to these emergency centers. .
Crossings
The Kerem Shalom crossing is partially open today and 70 truckloads carrying mainly food and medical supplies are expected to arrive in. A total of 58 truckloads, including 30 for humanitarian aid agencies, entered yesterday through this crossing. The Karni grain conveyor belt and Nahal Oz fuel pipelines remain closed.
The Erez crossing is partially open today and two medical cases with two escorts are expected to be evacuated to Israeli hospitals. On Wednesday five chronic patients and one wounded person, together with six escorts crossed. Except for these cases, the PA MoH in Ramallah continues to refuse to authorize the referral of patients from Gaza to medical treatment in Israel as in the past, referring patients to Egyptian hospitals instead.
More than 400 foreign nationals, mainly spouses of Gazan residents and their children, are expected to leave Gaza through this crossing.
The Rafah crossing is partially open today as well for the evacuation of medical cases and the entry of few shipments of medical supplies. Yesterday, 17 wounded were evacuated to hospitals in Jordan, and 120 people stranded in Egypt were allowed entry to Gaza. In addition, six truckloads of medical supplies entered Gaza yesterday through Rafah crossing.
Priority imports needed:
Fuel and electrical transformers: Industrial fuel is needed to power the only electric plant in Gaza • which has shut down. The remaining electric supply from outside the Gaza Strip is insufficient. Replacement of the ten transformers which were completely damaged is also urgently needed to restore electricity supply to 250,000 people in central and northern Gaza. All the water, sanitation and other utilities, which provide basic services to the population, as well as hospitals and the general population are affected by the outages which are now averaging 16 hours a day. Hospitals have reverted to generators to support intensive care and operating room functions.
Wheat grain: Essential to provide flour for local bakeries and humanitarian food distribution to • hundreds of thousands of beneficiaries. There are long lines at bakeries and bread rationing has been implemented. The Karni conveyor belt is the best equipped mechanism to import the large amounts of wheat flour needed.4
Cash: UNRWA – the largest humanitarian assistance provider in the Gaza Strip – has suspended • cash payments to its 94,000 “Special Hardship” families as well as its suppliers/contractors for critical programs including school feeding. Its staff has been able to receive only 50% of their salaries due to the cash shortage.
WestBank
Israel imposed a 24 hour total closure on the West Bank, except for humanitarian cases. Access of men to prayers in Al-Aqsa was prohibited except for Israeli ID holders above 50 years of age. 12,000 police and border police are on alert. Multiple demonstrations against the Israeli military operation in Gaza took place following Friday prayers today throughout the central West Bank. Clashes erupted between the IDF and Israeli Border Police and Palestinian protestors in Jerusalem. Three Palestinian protestors were injured in Ni’lin by rubber-coated metal bullets fired by the IDF during the demonstration today.
Alan said
SchNEWS – Issue 680
COPS, LIES AND VIDEOTAPE
AS SUSSEX POLICE RAID BRIGHTON FILM MAKER
Given the amount of aggro handed out to those brave enough to document Babylon’s excesses we wondered how long it was before we started getting our collars felt. Of course they’d need a task force to batter down the steel doors of the SchNEWS bunker – let alone take us alive – so Sussex Police took a more indirect route.
At approximately 8.30am on Tuesday 2nd June, Sussex cops arrived at the home of Paul Light, now revealed as one of the SchMOVIES collective. (For anyone thinking that SchNEWS was still stuck in the Dark Ages with just a scrappy sheet of A4, we’ve moved right into the twentieth century and have our own slightly estranged film-making department.) Paul’s arrest has wide ranging implications for anyone who reports on controversial issues.
When the cops came round Paul was getting his ten-year old son ready for school. He was immediately arrested on suspicion of being involved in the ‘decommissioning’ of the EDO ITT weapons factory in January (see SchNEWS 663). The actual charge was ‘conspiracy to commit criminal damage’.
This vague charge was enough for the police to launch into a full-blown fishing expedition.“The only evidence they [Sussex police] have is that someone phoned me, asking if I wanted to film the police response,” Paul told SchNEWS, “I said I couldn’t because I had my son and his friend sleeping over that night. That was the end of it as far as I was concerned. As a film maker I frequently get phone calls about possible incidents to film – this was one shoot I couldn’t and didn’t make.”
Paul was held and questioned for eight hours and his home was raided. The police took Paul’s son to school in a police car, where he burst into tears due to the stress. His father was released on bail and is awaiting the outcome of the arrest.
Police took every item that could possibly be used for data storage as evidence, including cameras, computers, external hard drives, software, mobile phones, personal accounts, diaries and even his music collection.“Put bluntly they have concocted this arrest to see what material I have,” said Paul, who regularly films at protests and demonstrations.
Police have recently attempted to use a film credited to SchMOVIES as evidence in court. The film ‘Batons and Bombs’ documents events at last year’s Carnival Against the Arms Trade (See SchNEWS 634) and was downloaded from the web by cops. They were refused its use as evidence in court on the grounds that the film was edited and they did not possess the original footage. The Crown Prosecution Service are currently appealing that decision via judicial review. The discovery of the original footage would greatly strengthen their hand.
“The raid has effectively shut me down and I am no longer able to make films,” said Paul. “Film work is my livelihood, so effectively they have put me on the dole.” Paul makes films about many different campaigns and issues, and the arrest and raid has been a major setback in his ability to earn a living.“They have left me with nothing,” he said, “I have three commissions in production at the moment and I have had to phone people up and tell them the news – that their films will have to be postponed indefinitely!”
* See http://www.schnews.org.uk/schmovies
* SchMOVIES is not new to controversy. The release of the 2008 film “On The Verge” (www.schnews.org.uk/schmovies/index-on-the-verge.htm), a documentary about the Smash EDO campaign was met with bans across the UK by various police forces, claiming the film would need certification to be publicly viewed (See SchNEWS 626).
Ollie said
Anti Arms Co Demo, 17th October
Target Brimar | 04.08.2009 17:59 | Anti-militarism | Iraq | Palestine | Manchester
Demonstration against company making military parts used in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan
A national demonstration has been called in Manchester on Saturday 17th October against Brimar, a company which manufactures components crucial to the functioning of, amongst other things, the Apache helicopters used by the Israeli army in the West Bank and Gaza and tanks used by the American Marines in Iraq. Brimar’s specialised viewing equipment allows weapons systems to be aimed from warplanes, helicopters, tanks and armoured vehicles.
Brimar’s main facility is just outside Manchester. For more information on plans for the demonstration and about Brimar’s work for occupying armies in the Middle East, or to get more involved, please keep an eye on http://targetbrimar.org.uk/
Target Brimar
Homepage: http://targetbrimar.org.uk/
Maggie said
Significant prima facie evidence of serious rights abuses in Gaza, UN reports
Scene from Gaza, January 2008
14 August 2009 – The top United Nations human rights official has called for a “credible, independent and transparent” investigation of all alleged rights violations during Israel’s military operations in Gaza eight months ago.
“There is significant prima facie evidence of serious violations of international humanitarian law having been committed by the Israeli forces and Palestinian militants,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay says in a new report, cautioning that her office is not yet in a position to assess each and every individual instance.
Allegations include Israeli attacks on Gaza civilians and numerous civilian administrative facilities, hospitals, schools and 27,000 private homes, as well as a large number of extrajudicial executions, beatings and torture by the Palestinian group Hamas against alleged collaborators with Israel and supporters of the rival Fatah organizations during and after the military operation.
A separate report by a UN investigative team released today and to be presented to the General Assembly’s 64th session beginning next month, cites “violations of the international humanitarian law during the Operation Cast Lead (Israel’s offensive), in particular the targeting of civilian population and wanton destruction of property and religious and cultural objects.”
In her report to the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council, Ms. Pillay calls for the immediate easing of Israeli restrictions in the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT), which she hopes will lead to the complete lifting of the economy-devastating blockade on Gaza.
“The blockade of Gaza and the restrictions on the entry and exit of people and goods in the West Bank, as well as inside the West Bank, amount to collective punishment,” she says, noting that this contravenes the Geneva conventions to which Israel is a party, and also citing the alleged torture of Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons.
She calls on Israel to stop its expansion of settlements in the OPT, “which are illegal,” immediately halt evictions and demolitions of Palestinian homes, in particular in East Jerusalem, and address “as a matter of urgency” persistent impunity for settler violence.
“In particular, the High Commissioner remains gravely concerned that Israel has not yet complied with the Advisory Opinion on the Wall of the International Court of Justice (ICJ),” she writes, referring to the barrier that Israel says it is building to keep out suicide bombers and other assailants.
The ICJ stated that erecting a wall within the OPT violated international law since its planned route encloses 9.5 per cent of the West Bank area. The report, covering the period up to 10 April, is the first of a series mandated by the Human Rights Council “on the violations of human rights of the Palestinian people by the occupying Power, Israel.”
The investigative report, to be presented to the General Assembly by the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories, voices “particular concern for an increasing number of incidents of violence by Jewish settlers against Palestinian population in the West Bank in the presence of Israeli army and police.”
The Committee noted “continuous and in some cases worsening violations of economic and cultural rights, in particular the right to education and health, further restrictions of movement and attacks on and destruction of Palestinian farmlands and orchards.”
The three-member Committee, comprising Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Senegal, has just returned from a 10-day mission to Egypt, Jordan and Syria, where it recorded the testimonies of witnesses and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Since its establishment in 1968, it has repeatedly been denied cooperation by the Government of Israel or access to the OPT.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=31768&Cr=&Cr1=
hammerhead said
Regarding Court Cases.
Richard Goldstone, internationally renowned legal bod wrote a report for the UN Human Rights Council following a fact-finding mission to prob alledged war crimes committed during Israel’s 23 day bloody onslaught against a largely defenceless population.
The issues raised may result in a referral to the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor.
“The mission concluded that actions amounting to war crimes, and possibly in some respects crimes against humanity, were connited by the Israel Defence force”.
Goldstone reported that the attackj on Gaza was a very political decision made at the highest level by the likes of Ehud Olmert, Tzipi Livni, Ehud Barak and other serial criminals who have long tormented the Palestinians.
The attack approved resulted in the deaths of over 1,400 people – mainly civilians and including OVER 300 CHILDREN, the wounding of thousands more, and the targeting of the already dilapidated and besieged society.
Thousands of staved, desperate yet resilient Palestinians in Gaza continue to live in their makeshift tents, atop the rubble which was once their home, awaiting food, building msterials AND INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE.
UN Report Finds War Crimes In Operation Cast Lead
xxxxxxxxxx UN Fact Finding Mission finds strong evidence
of war crimes and crimes against humanity
committed during the Gaza conflict;
calls for end to impunity
xxxxxxxxxx
15 September 2009
NEW YORK / GENEVA – The UN Fact-Finding Mission led by Justice Richard Goldstone on Tuesday released its long-awaited report on the Gaza conflict, in which it concluded there is evidence indicating serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law were committed by Israel during the Gaza conflict, and that Israel committed actions amounting to war crimes, and possibly crimes against humanity.
The report also concludes there is also evidence that Palestinian armed groups committed war crimes, as well as possibly crimes against humanity, in their repeated launching of rockets and mortars into Southern Israel.
The four members of the Mission* were appointed by the President of the Human Rights Council in April with a mandate to “To investigate all violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law that might have been committed at any time in the context of the military operations that were conducted in Gaza during the period from 27 December 2008 and 18 January 2009, whether before, during or after.”
In compiling the 574- page report, which contains detailed analysis of 36 specific incidents in Gaza, as well as a number of others in the West Bank and Israel, the Mission conducted 188 individual interviews, reviewed more 10,000 pages of documentation, and viewed some 1,200 photographs, including satellite imagery, as well as 30 videos. The mission heard 38 testimonies during two separate public hearings held in Gaza and Geneva, which were webcast in their entirety. The decision to hear participants from Israel and the West Bank in Geneva rather than in situ was taken after Israel denied the Mission access to both locations. Israel also failed to respond to a comprehensive list of questions posed to it by the Mission. Palestinian authorities in both Gaza and the West Bank cooperated with the Mission.
The Mission found that, in the lead up to the Israeli military assault on Gaza, Israel imposed a blockade amounting to collective punishment and carried out a systematic policy of progressive isolation and deprivation of the Gaza Strip. During the Israeli military operation, code-named “Operation Cast Lead,” houses, factories, wells, schools, hospitals, police stations and other public buildings were destroyed. Families are still
living amid the rubble of their former homes long after the attacks ended, as reconstruction has been impossible due to the continuing blockade. More than 1,400 people were killed during the military operation.
Significant trauma, both immediate and long-term, has been suffered by the population of Gaza. The Report notes signs of profound depression, insomnia and effects such as bed-wetting among children. The effects on children who witnessed killings and violence, who had thought they were facing death, and who lost family members would be long lasting, the Mission found, noting in its Report that some 30 per cent of children screened at UNRWA schools suffered mental health problems.
The report concludes that the Israeli military operation was directed at the people of Gaza as a whole, in furtherance of an overall and continuing policy aimed at punishing the Gaza population, and in a deliberate policy of disproportionate force aimed at the civilian population. The destruction of food supply installations, water sanitation systems, concrete factories and residential houses was the result of a deliberate and systematic policy which has made the daily process of living, and dignified living, more difficult for the civilian population.
The Report states that Israeli acts that deprive Palestinians in the Gaza Strip of their means of subsistence, employment, housing and water, that deny their freedom of movement and their right to leave and enter their own country, that limit their rights to access a court of law and an effective remedy, could lead a competent court to find that the crime of persecution, a crime against humanity, has been committed.
The report underlines that in most of the incidents investigated by it, and described in the report, loss of life and destruction caused by Israeli forces during the military operation was a result of disrespect for the fundamental principle of “distinction” in international humanitarian law that requires military forces to distinguish between military targets and civilians and civilian objects at all times. The report states that “Taking into account the ability to plan, the means to execute plans with the most developed technology available, and statements by the Israeli military that almost no errors occurred, the Mission finds that the incidents and patterns of events considered in the report are the result of deliberate planning and policy decisions.”
For example, Chapter XI of the report describes a number of specific incidents in which Israeli forces launched “direct attacks against civilians with lethal outcome.” These are, it says, cases in which the facts indicate no justifiable military objective pursued by the attack and concludes they amount to war crimes. The incidents described include:
Attacks in the Samouni neighbourhood, in Zeitoun, south of Gaza City, including the shelling of a house where soldiers had forced Palestinian civilians to assemble;
Seven incidents concerning “the shooting of civilians while they were trying to leave their homes to walk to a safer place, waving white flags and, in some of the cases, following an injunction from the Israeli forces to do so;”
The targeting of a mosque at prayer time, resulting in the death of 15 people.
A number of other incidents the Report concludes may constitute war crimes include a direct and intentional attack on the Al Quds Hospital and an adjacent ambulance depot in Gaza City.
The Report also covers violations arising from Israeli treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank, including excessive force against Palestinian demonstrators, sometimes resulting in deaths, increased closures, restriction of movement and house demolitions. The detention of Palestinian Legislative Council members, the Report says, effectively paralyzed political life in the OPT.
The Mission found that through activities such as the interrogation of political activists and repression of criticism of its military actions, the Israeli Government contributed significantly to a political climate in which dissent was not tolerated.
The Fact-Finding Mission also found that the repeated acts of firing rockets and mortars into Southern Israel by Palestinian armed groups “constitute war crimes and may amount to crimes against humanity,” by failing to distinguish between military targets and the civilian population. “The launching of rockets and mortars which cannot be aimed with sufficient precisions at military targets breaches the fundamental principle of distinction,” the report says. “Where there is no intended military target and the rockets and mortars are launched into civilian areas, they constitute a deliberate attack against the civilian population.”
The Mission concludes that the rocket and mortars attacks “have caused terror in the affected communities of southern Israel,” as well as “loss of life and physical and mental injury to civilians and damage to private houses, religious buildings and property, thereby eroding the economic and cultural life of the affected communities and severely affecting the economic and social rights of the population.”
The Mission urges the Palestinian armed groups holding the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit to release him on humanitarian grounds, and, pending his release, give him the full rights accorded to a prisoner of war under the Geneva Conventions including visits from the International Committee of the Red Cross. The Report also notes serious human rights violations, including arbitrary arrests and extra-judicial executions of Palestinians, by the authorities in Gaza and by the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.
The prolonged situation of impunity has created a justice crisis in the Occupied Palestinian Territory that warrants action, the Report says. The Mission found the Government of Israel had not carried out any credible investigations into alleged violations. It recommended that the UN Security Council require Israel to report to it, within six months, on investigations and prosecutions it should carry out with regard to the violations identified in its Report. The Mission further recommends that the Security Council set up a body of independent experts to report to it on the progress of the Israeli investigations and prosecutions. If the experts’ reports do not indicate within six months that good faith, independent proceedings are taking place, the Security Council should refer the situation in Gaza to the ICC Prosecutor. The Mission recommends that the same independent expert body also report to the Security Council on proceedings undertaken by the relevant Gaza authorities with regard to crimes committed by the Palestinian side. As in the case of Israel, if within six months there are no good faith independent proceedings conforming to international standards in place, the Council should refer the situation to the ICC Prosecutor.
The full report can be found on the web page of the Fact Finding Mission:
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/specials…n.htm
For further media information: contact Doune Porter, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Tel: 1-917-367-3292 or +41-79-477-2576. Email: dporter@ohchr.org
* The members of the Fact Finding Mission are:
Justice Richard Goldstone, Head of Mission; former judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa; former Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
Professor Christine Chinkin, Professor of International Law at the London School of Economics and Political Science; member of the high-level fact-finding mission to Beit Hanoun (2008).
Ms. Hina Jilani, Advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan; former Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the situation of human rights defenders; member of the International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur (2004).
Colonel Desmond Travers, former Officer in Ireland’s Defence Forces; member of the Board of Directors of the Institute for International Criminal Investigations.
UN
Related Link: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/specials…n.htm
Decommissioners Solidarity demo in Bristol said
Re: Decommissioners Solidarity demo in Bristol
Word to the wise – check that The Gas are NOT playing at home….
decommisioners said
Bristol Rovers
Sat 17 15:00 Away @ Southend FL1
Ian & Ian said
Israeli minister Ehud Barak faces war crimes arrest threat during UK visitPosted by Iqbal Tamimi on September 30, 2009 at 6:45pm
View Iqbal Tamimi’s blog
By Ian Black and Ian Cobain
Israeli defence minister, Ehud Barak. Photograph: Reuters
Israel received an uncomfortable reminder of international anger over the Gaza war today when lawyers representing 16 Palestinians asked a London court to issue an arrest warrant for its defence minister, Ehud Barak, who is visiting Britain.
After a day of delays and legal wrangling the bid failed on the grounds that Barak enjoyed diplomatic immunity from prosecution. But the episode triggered a brief storm that is likely to give Israeli officials second thoughts about the risk of prosecution in foreign courts.
Barak was last night addressing a fringe meeting at the Labour party conference in Brighton, and is due to meet Gordon Brown and David Miliband, the foreign secretary‑— triggering new protests.
Furious Israeli officials insisted all day that he was protected by diplomatic immunity and could not be legally detained.
The action related to alleged war crimes and breaches of the Geneva conventions during the Gaza offensive, launched by Israel last December in response to Palestinian rocket attacks and widely criticised. The death toll is disputed, but the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem says 1,387 Palestinians died, including 773 people not taking part in hostilities.
Solicitors asked a district judge at the City of Westminster magistrates court to issue a warrant for the minister’s arrest under the 1988 Criminal Justice Act, which gives courts in England and Wales universal jurisdiction in war crimes cases.
The hearing was postponed while the court asked the Foreign Office to clarify Barak’s status in the UK. The lawyers making the application said they believed a warrant could be issued even if he was in Britain in an official capacity.
Intensive contacts were understood to have taken place throughout the day between London and Jerusalem. Barak is also deputy prime minister of Israel and leader of the country’s Labour party.
Lawyers from Irvine Thanvi Natas and Imran Khan & Partners said they believed the warrant that the international criminal court issued in May last year for the arrest of Omar al-Bashir, the president of Sudan, offered a precedent. Bashir is accused of committing war crimes in Darfur.
The issue is politically explosive. Israel’s ambassador to Britain, Ron Prosor, lambasted the move as the “continuation of the process of demonisation and the de-legitimisation of Israel,” and called the action “spiteful”.
Deputy district judge Daphne Wickham said allegations of war crimes had been well documented, but added: “I am satisfied that under customary international law Mr Barak has immunity from prosecution as he would not be able to perform his functions efficiently if he were the subject of criminal proceedings in this jurisdiction.”
The accusations were based, in part, on a UN investigation conducted by the former South African judge Richard Goldstone. It concluded this month that Israel had committed war crimes by deliberately attacking civilians and firing white phosphorus shells. Israel rejected its findings as irredeemably biased. The 575-page report also found that Hamas, the group controlling Gaza, may be guilty of committing war crimes by firing rockets at Israeli civilian targets.
Goldstone warned that unless Israel conducted investigations conforming to international standards, its officials could face action by the international criminal court or national prosecutions of the kind attempted in London.
Michel Massih QC, for the applicants, argued that the court needed to be satisfied only that Barak faced war crimes allegations, and that the question of immunity should be considered only after his arrest. Massih added that international law “places a direct responsibility not only on those who pull the trigger, but on those higher up the chain of command”.
Israeli media reported that Barak had been warned about the impending legal action and urged to leave the UK for France. But he had decided to carry on with his schedule as there was no doubt he enjoyed diplomatic immunity.
In 2005, human rights groups criticised British authorities for failing to arrest Doron Almog, an Israeli general for whom an arrest warrant for alleged war crimes had been issued, when his aircraft landed at Heathrow. Almog stayed on the plane and was allowed to return to Israel.
In June a Spanish court shelved an investigation launched into a July 2002 air strike by Israel on a Hamas target in the Gaza Strip. The suspects named included the former Israeli defence minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer and six current or former officers or security officials.
Massih said: “If the Israeli courts were themselves to investigate, there would be no need to have recourse to international tribunals.”
The Council for Arab-British Understanding condemned Brown for agreeing to meet Barak. “It is a disgrace to fete a man who is imposing one of the harshest sieges ever imposed on a civilian population, one that has deprived them even of the most basic necessities of life,” said the council’s director, Chris Doyle. “It is vital that British ministers send out a strong signal that Britain will stand up for international law and justice and refuse to meet Ehud Barak.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/29/ehud-barak-war-crimes-israel
Decommissioners Solidarity demo in Bristol said
GIVEN A BARAK-ING
Ehud Barak, Israeli defence minister and ‘genius’ behind
the 28 day aerial bombardment of Gaza’s refugee camps last
winter (See SchNEWS 661), showed his face at the Labour Party
Conference in Brighton this week. But it wasn’t just Gordon
Brown who was welcoming him to Britain; he also arrived to a team of
UK lawyers – acting on behalf of their Palestinian counterparts –
applying for an arrest warrant against him for his involvement in the
killing of 1,400 people in ‘Operation Cast Lead’.
Citing the precedent of the ICC ruling which issued an arrest warrant
for Sudan’s president for war crimes in Darfur, legal teams
applied for a warrant through the City of Westminster magistrates
court this week. But Attorney Tayab Ali confirmed on Tuesday (29th)
that the application had been denied, with the judge citing the
immunity tendered to senior foreign officials, not to the mention the
fact that he was hobnobbing with Gordy down in Brighton.
However his presence didn’t go entirely unnoticed. With little
more than 12 hours notice a national demo was called, and some 50
people turned up late Tuesday night (29th) to protest against an even
more unwelcome than usual guest at the party conference.
* See http://www.palestinecampaign.org