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VOICES
NEWSLETTER # 47 (Aug / Sept 2006)
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of the newsletter
Pushing
Iraq into the abyss?
The air wars
Fallujah, June 2006
After Haditha
1
After Haditha 2
In
brief: reality check; bulldozing Ramadi; & 'authorised
and routine'
Bombing Iran
US to Iran: surrender and we'll talk
Helmand
Resistance round-up
Take action!
Resources
Housmans Special Book Offer
Pushing
Iraq into the abyss?
Though
Iraq is now teetering on the brink of total catastrophe
- with
6000 civilians killed in May and June
alone according
to the UN (AP,
18 Jul), mostly the result of sectarian killings - Washington
appears to have played a key role
in sabotaging a peace plan that may turn out to have been
the last chance to pull Iraq back from the edge of the
abyss. The reason? Probably the fact that the plan would
have required ‘a finite, UN-approved time-line for
the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Iraq.’
On 23 Jun the Times reported
that the Iraqi Government was about to announce ‘a sweeping peace plan … in
a last-ditch effort to end’ the insurgency. The draft
28-point package – which the Times claimed to have
seen – included ‘a finite, UN-approved time-line
for the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Iraq; a halt
to US operations against insurgent strongholds; an end
to human rights violations, including those by coalition
troops’ and – in the words of the Sunni Speaker
of the Iraqi Parliament ‘reading directly from the
draft package’ – “a general amnesty to
release all prisoners who were not involved in the shedding
of innocent Iraqi blood.” In return the insurgents
would have to ‘renounce violence and lay down their
arms.’
As Newsweek (24 June) – who had obtained a draft copy of the plan – observed, ‘these
sound like the demands of some of the insurgents themselves, and in fact they
are.’
'
Legitimate acts of resistance’
The amnesty offer for those who had attacked US troops
had earlier been confirmed by Adnan Ali
al-Kadhimi, a top adviser to Maliki,
who told the Washington Post: “That’s
an area where we can see a green line. There’s some sort of preliminary
understanding between us and the [US-led “multinational force”] that
there is a patriotic feeling among the Iraqi youth and the belief that those
attacks are legitimate acts of resistance and defending their homeland. These
people will be pardoned definitely, I believe” (15 Jun).
The gutted plan
However, when the proposal was finally published on 25 Jun, it
had been gutted - there were now only 24 points and these ‘simply
repackaged previous pronounce-ments’ – a decision
that ‘appeared to have been influenced by religious Shiites
who form [Mr Maliki’s base] and by the American military
command’ (New York Times, 26 Jun).
‘ [M]issing from the final draft was a call for the Government to recognise
the difference between resistance and terrorist groups and a written invitation
for resistance groups to join a national dialogue’ (Times, 26 Jun).
Also absent were the ‘demand for the Government to agree upon a timetable
for the withdrawal of foreign forces based on the readiness of Iraqi troops’ (Times,
26 Jun) and an end to large-scale US military assaults on Iraqi cities – instead
the plan ‘talks only of setting rules of engagement that require military
commanders to take special conditions into account before launching offensives – a
formula seemingly offering no change from current policy’ (Guardian, 26
Jun).
No amnesty
Shortly after the plan’s publication Maliki stated publicly ‘that
attacks on American soldiers would not be pardoned under the rules of a new Iraqi
amnesty plan… Americans, he said, came to Iraq to help make it free. “Therefore,
out of respect for their contribution to Iraq,” no pardon w[ould] be offered
to their killers’ (NYT, 28 Jun).
Earlier, reports that such an amnesty was on the cards had provoked a firestorm
of criticism in Washington. On the day that Kadhimi’s remarks on an amnesty
appeared in the Post, Senate Democrats ‘offered a resolution demanding
that President Bush repudiate the amnesty proposal regarding those who attacked
American forces’ and Maliki’s office announced that it had accepted
Kadhimi’s resignation (WP, 16 Jun).
Long-term objectives
Though the exact reasons for the original plan’s demise remain shrouded
in mystery two things should be clear: first, that the US sets a far higher value
on its long-term strategic objectives in Iraq – in pursuit of which it
has already allocated over $300bn (Reuters,15 Jun) - than it does on stopping
Iraqis from killing one another, and second, that these objectives require a
long-term physical US presence in Iraq.
Indeed, as Paul Rogers has noted, in the absence of a revolutionary change in
US foreign policy ‘we should expect the United States to be planning to
maintain a large military presence in Iraq for decades. Indeed, to do otherwise
would, from the Washington perspective, be a foreign policy disaster at least
as significant as the withdrawal from Vietnam’ (Oxford Research Group
Briefing,
May 2006). This is why the US is currently ‘spending almost $1 billion
this year for base construction in Iraq’ (AP, 13 May) and $315m on a fortified “embassy” in
Baghdad that is not expected to be completed until June 2007 (Telegraph, 7 Jun).
Just a few days after Maliki’s eviscerated plan was published 11 insurgent
groups ‘offered an immediate halt to all attacks – including those
on American troops – if the United States agree[d] to withdraw foreign
forces from Iraq in two years’ (AP, 28 Jun). However in Washington, Defence
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld explained that Bush’s “view has been and
remains that a timetable is not something that is useful … The goal is
not to trade something off for something else or to make somebody happy, the
goal is to succeed.”
The last justification
On 9 Jun Independent Middle East correspondent Patrick Cockburn noted that ‘[t]he
last justification for the US and British occupation is that it is stopping a
civil war. All too evidently this is what it is not doing’ (Counterpunch,
9 Jun). Indeed, ‘it was the added ingredient of a prolonged US and British
occupation that ensured [that the conflict between Iraq’s communities following
the overthrow of Saddam Hussein] would be so extraordinarily violent’ as ‘Iraqis
were suddenly being asked not only if they were Shia, Sunni or Kurd but if they
supported or opposed the invader.’
Significantly, according to a 2-5 Jan 06 poll conducted by PIPA 67% of Iraqis
thought ‘day-to-day security of ordinary citizens’ would increase ‘if
the US withdr[ew] in 6 months’ (http://tinyurl.com/f48rx). 73% thought
such a withdrawal would increase the ‘willingness of factions in parliament
to co-operate’, and 61% that it would lead to a decrease in inter-ethnic
violence. That, of course, was before the Feb bombing of the al-Askari shrine
in Samarra escalated the situation dramatically.
Can anything be done?
On 9 Jul the Independent reported that ‘sectarian massacres have started
to take place on an almost daily basis, leading observers to fear a level of
killing approaching that of Rwanda immediately before the genocide of 1994.’ ‘Can
anything be done to lead [Iraq] out of this savage civil war even if it is too
late to stop it?’, Patrick Cockburn - as sympathetic and knowledgeable
an Iraq-watcher as any - asks (Independent, 25 Jul). His conclusion: ‘Ending
[the occupation] is essential if this war is to be brought to an end.’
The air wars
Between early Mar and late May, in two wars largely hidden from
public gaze, the US military conducted at least 500 airstrikes
in Iraq and Afghanistan - with attacks in Afghanistan far outstripping
those in Iraq (Washington Post, 18 Jun).
Indeed, according to CENTCOM – the US military headquarters
for the Middle East – the US conducted 340 airstrikes in
Afghanistan during this period, more than twice the 160 carried
out in Iraq. In Afghanistan the strikes were carried out by aircraft ‘ranging
from large B-52 bombers to small Predator drones, and have employed
attacks including 2000-pound bombs and strafing.’
2,000 strikes?
Confusingly, on 7 Jun AP article - citing a US Air Force
Major - reported that US warplanes had ‘logged nearly 2,000
strikes in Afghanistan between March and May 2006’ with
attacks spiking at 750 in May ‘as opposed to 660 in May
2005.’ The
source of the discrepancy between the two figures remains unclear.
The British role
Information about the RAF’s role in Afghanistan is even
harder to come by, though on 23 Jun the Telegraph reported that ‘since
deploying in early May, the British-developed Apache ha[d] been
involved in 10 firefights, the majority so far in support of
American and Canadian troops, and ha[d] fired 1,200 rounds of
ammunition.’
‘About one in seven [unmanned] military Predator flights [in Iraq and Afghanistan]
is now flown by members of [a] 45-man RAF-dominated unit’ based in the
Nevada desert (Telegraph, 2 Jun). ‘British serviceman hold many of the
key roles in the two joint Predator squadrons and are lavishly praised by American
commanders.’ According to the unit commander, ‘British crews had “engaged
targets” six times and had inflicted casualties.’
"They killed my kids"
Airstrikes rarely receive media coverage in the UK. A rare exception was an attack
by US gunships on houses in the village of Azizi in western Kandahar in Afghanistan.
The US claimed to have killed up to 80 “Taliban fighters” but villagers
and the local governor said that at least 16 civilians had been killed, and a
further 15 wounded (New York Times, 22 May).
Zurmina Bibi, who was caught in the fighting with her family – and whose
eight-month-old baby was wounded in the attack – ‘said that ten people
were killed in her home’ (Times, 23 May). “There were dead people
everywhere,” she told the Times.
Meanwhile, Attah Muhammed (60) ‘his silver beard streaked with tears and
his hands … covered with blood’ told the paper: “Oh my god,
they killed my kids. God may take revenge on them. They took everyone from me.”
Fallujah, June 2006
Twenty months after the devastating
Nov 04 US/UK attack on Fallujah ‘mounds
of rubble [still] litter the city, electricity is available only
four hours a day, and an estimated 50,000 people out of a population
of 300,000 still have not returned’ (AP, 11 Jul).
Sheiks
in the city ‘often complain … of harassment,
raids or indiscriminate shooting by Iraqi forces’ (New
York Times,17 Jul) but such forces are not the only danger to
Fallujah’s citizens.
‘Early in the morning on … [18 Jun], U.S. military helicopters landed
near [a home] in the al-Jughaifi district of Fallujah,’ Dahr Jamail and
Ali Fadhil report (Inter Press Service, 11 Jul). ‘Within two minutes the
doors ... home were blasted open and “a strange looking group of people” stormed
inside, according to Said Walid Ahmed, a 40-year-old teacher who lives in the
neighborhood.
“A special force"
‘“
This force is not totally unknown to us here in Fallujah,” Ahmed, who
witnessed the incident from a nearby house told IPS. “They are a special
force of Americans that assassinates more people than it arrests.”
‘
Sinan Abdul-Ilah al-Mashadani, who was a student at al-Mustansiriya University
and the sole supporter of his mother and younger brother and sister, was killed
in the raid … “Their dogs were biting everybody, including children
and women in the neighborhood,” Um Amar, a 63-year-old woman who lives
three houses away from Sinan, told IPS. “They killed the poor boy in
cold blood and arrested his little brother.”’
After Haditha 1
‘When the Marines entered [12-year-old
Safa Younis’]
house [in Haditha] that morning, she fled with her mother into
a bathroom. A soldier followed them, shooting, she says. When
the soldiers left, Safa tried to talk to her mother, but she
was covered with blood. “Mama, Mama,” cried the girl,
until she realized that her mother was dead. So was her father,
whom she found lying near the kitchen door. And her aunt, and
her five siblings—all shot to death. “I was sorry
for staying in the bathroom. I should have died like them,” recalls
Safa, who now lives with a cousin. “The Americans are murderers,
criminals. They have no mercy”’ (Newsweek,
12 Jun).
The US massacre in Haditha last
Nov (see Voices #46) is just the tip of an iceberg of “coalition” killings
in Iraq. The anti-war movement must use the unprecedented media
coverage
of these killings to push this reality into the public consciousness.
Significantly, the unit responsible for the Haditha killings
was part of a marine battalion that took part in the Nov 04 assault
on Fallujah, where it was given ‘liberal
rules of engagement’: “If you see someone with a cell phone put a
bullet in their fucking head,” one of the commanders is reported to have
said ‘half-jokingly’ (Newsweek, 12 Jun). Hundreds of civilians – including
at least 550 women and children – were killed during that attack, which
left much of the city destroyed (IRIN, 4 Jan 05, tinyurl.com/8vrdv).
My Lai?
Though comparisons with the My Lai massacre – the Mar 68 massacre in which
US soldiers murdered over 300 Vietnamese civilians – were commonplace in
the media coverage of Haditha, few if any commentators paused to note that My
Lai was, in the words of Noam Chomsky, only ‘a minor footnote to the war
in Vietnam’ (Imperial Ambitions, p.128). Indeed, by 1967 the respected
military historian and Vietnam specialist Bernard Fall was writing that “Vietnam
as a cultural and historic entity…is threatened with extinction…[as]
the countryside literally dies under the blows of the largest military machine
ever unleashed on an area of this size.” Even My Lai itself ‘was
part of a major military operation, Operation Wheeler…directed by guys…in
ties and jackets, sitting in air conditioned offices and targeting B-52 raids
on villages…kill[ing] who knows how many people’ (Chomsky).
The point is well taken: just two weeks before the Haditha massacre the US launched
Operation Steel Curtain – the largest marine assault since the Nov 04 assault
on Fallujah - attacking the town of Husayba with ‘ferocious torrents of
automatic weapons’ fire, tank rounds and 500-pound aerial bombardments’ and
killing at least nine women and children before moving on to attack Qaim, Ubaydi
and Karabila, where it destroyed a hospital and killed scores more people (see
Voices
44). Yet, like the Aug 05 attack on Haditha – in which one resident
described the US bombs as falling ‘like heavy rain,’ claiming that
he later ‘saw the marines killing two unarmed inhabitants’ (Azzaman.com,
22 Aug) – Steel Curtain is rarely, if ever, mentioned in stories about
Haditha.
The pattern is clear: atrocities that cannot be blamed on a small group of soldiers ‘losing
it’ but are the predictable outcome of policy – the massive assaults
on Fallujah, Samarra, Tal Afar, the ongoing aerial bombardment etc… - will
not only not be reported as atrocities but will be rapidly consigned to Orwell’s “memory
hole.”
ACTION
Voices has produced a new campaign postcard, ‘US Massacre in Haditha’,
making the link between Haditha and other mass killings by US forces in Iraq
and ‘demand[ing] an immediate end to the US/UK military occupation of Iraq.’ Featuring
new artwork by artist Emily Johns, copies are available free on request from
Voices.
After Haditha 2
12 Mar: US soldiers rape 15-year-old Abeer Qasim
Hamza and then kill her, her 5-year-old sister Hadel and her mother and father
(LA
Times, 6 Jul). A relative
who found the bodies said that he found Abeer ‘naked and burned, with her
head smashed in “by a concrete block or a piece of iron.”.’
26
Apr: Hashim Ibrahim Awad (52) – a disabled Iraqi known
as Hashim the Lame – is seized from his home in Hamdania
by US soldiers, tied up, put in a hole and shot four times in
the face (AP, 27 Jun; WP, 5 Jun).
30
May: A pregnant woman, Nabiha Nisaif Jassim (35), and her
cousin Saliha Mohammed (57) are ‘shot dead by US forces
as they [rush] along a closed road’ (BBC, 1 Jun). The driver
of their car, Samir Abdullah (28), is also injured and later
declared brain dead. According to US military statistics, during
2005 ‘an average of one Iraqi every day was killed by coalition
forces in incidents at checkpoints or roadblocks or alongside
convoys’ (NYT, 22 Jun).
20
Jun: At least 13 people – including a 12-year-old boy – are
killed during US raids in farmland near Baquba (AFP, 20 Jun).
According to Iraqi police, relatives of those killed and a human
rights organisation in Baquba, ‘the victims were all poultry
workers who had been sleeping in the fields of Bushaheen village.’
21
Jul: The bodies of two men, two women and a young girl are
found in the rubble following a US airstrike
on a house in Baquba
(AP, 21 Jul). Meanwhile AP reports that ‘[f]our U.S. soldiers
accused of murdering suspected insurgents during a [9 May] raid … said
they were under orders to “kill all military age males.”
In
brief: reality check; bulldozing Ramadi; & 'authorised
and routine'
Reality check
According to a 26-28 Jun YouGov survey 58% of Britons
think it is “fair” to describe the US
as “essentially [an] imperial power, that wants
to dominate the world by one means or another” (Telegraph,
3 Jul). Asked whether Bush “genuinely wants
to create a more democratic world, or is what he
says merely a cover for pursuing American interests?” 72%
said his pronouncements were “merely a cover.”
Bulldozing Ramadi
On 5 Jul the New York Times reported that US commanders
were ‘planning to bulldoze about three blocks
in the middle of [Ramadi], part of which has been
reduced to ruins by the fighting.’
On 30 May the Washington Post reported that ‘U.S. forces ha[d] called in
repeated strikes by air and by artillery on the heart of Ramadi’ and in
June ‘[w]idespread fears of a major military sweep of [the city] led to
an exodus of residents…to outlying areas, reducing the population by about
a quarter, to 300,000 people, according to residents and US officials’ (WP,
22 Jul).
‘Authorised and routine’
‘[D]etainee abuse was an established and apparently authorized part of
the[US]
detention and interrogation processes in Iraq for much of 2003-2005,’ according
to a report by Human Rights Watch, based largely on firsthand accounts by U.S.
military personnel stationed in Iraq (www.hrw.org).
“Soldiers were told that the Geneva Conventions did not apply, and that
interrogators could use abusive techniques to get detainees to talk,” said
John Sifton, the author of the report. “These accounts rebut U.S. government
claims that torture and abuse in Iraq was unauthorized and exceptional – on
the contrary, it was condoned and commonly used.”
Bombing Iran
US plans for a massive air war against
Iran have been modified but not shelved and the recent decision
by Russia and China to
back a US-led move to refer Iran to the UN Security Council ‘could
lead to the imposition of punitive sanctions and a sharp escalation
of the crisis’ (Guardian, 13 Jul). Meanwhile,
the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict ‘is likely to boost the chances of US military
action against Iran, according to a number of regional experts
who see a broad consensus among the US political elite that the
ongoing hostilities are part of a broader offensive being waged
by Tehran against Washington across the region’ (Inter
Press Service, 20 Jul).
In late April the US military
leadership ‘achieved a major
victory when the White House dropped its insistence that the
plan for a bombing campaign [against Iran] include the possible
use of a nuclear device to destroy Iran’s uranium enrichment
plant at Natanz’ (Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour
Hersh, New Yorker, 10 Jul). One former senior intelligence official
explained: ‘the world came back [and said] “OK, the
nuclear option is politically unacceptable.”’
Nonetheless the US Air Force has produced ‘a new bombing plan using advanced
guidance systems to deliver a series of large bunker busters…on the same
target in swift succession’ and, according to one government consultant
with ties to the Pentagon, if it happens “the air war in Iran will be one
of overwhelming force.” In some cases the plan includes 1000 targets (Hersh,
DemocracyNow.org, 6 Jul).
It is not too late for the ‘world to come back’ and make such an
attack ‘politically unacceptable’ – or to force the UK Government
to deny the US the use of the critical bases in Fairford and on Diego Garcia
(see voices 45 and 46) - but the clock is ticking.
ACTION
* The Foreign Office has received “a large number” of Voices’ postcards
demanding “an explicit public commitment NOW from the UK Government that
it will not allow Fairford, Diego Garcia or any other UK-controlled facility
to be used for an attack on Iran” (letter from the FCO, 4 Jul). It has
yet to provide any meaningful response. If you sent a postcard and have not received
a reply, please complain to your MP. If you received a response and weren’t
happy with it (and you shouldn’t be!), please write again. Copies of the
card – ideal for stalls, mailing etc are available free from Voices.
*
This autumn, anti-war artist Emily Johns- who recently took
part in a Fellowship of Reconciliation trip
to Iran – will
be touring with an exhibition of her latest work: a body of images
dealing with the complex relationship between Iran, oil and Britain.
The exhibition will be available for display in galleries, halls
and anti-war meetings. Contact
0845 458 9571 or visit www.j-n-v.org for details.
US to Iran: Surrender and we'll talk
The recent apparent shift in US policy
towards Iran – ‘revers[ing]
a 27-year-old policy of isolation towards Iran and offer[ing]
to join multilateral talks’ (Guardian, 1 Jun) - looks more
like a PR exercise than a genuine attempt to resolve the current
crisis.
The US set a crucial pre-condition
for any such talks: an open-ended halt to all Iranian enrichment
activities, that could last years (Guardian, 8 Jun) and
which, as Flynt Leverett, a former National Security Council aide to the Bush
Administration explained, “amounts to the President wanting a guarantee
that they’ll surrender before he talks to them” (New Yorker, 10 Jul).
“Iran cannot accept long-term constraints on its fuel-cycle activity without
a security guarantee [from the US],” Everett explained. But, according
to the US Ambassador to the UN, such guarantees “are not on the table.
Don’t even think about it” (Telegraph, 10 Jun).
Helmand
As British troops wage an increasingly
bloody war in Afghanistan’s
southern Helmand province – “home” to about
4,000 British troops (Newsweek, 31 Jul) and the site of the largest
British military base since WWII (see voices #45) – one
of the most senior British army officers in Afghanistan has described ‘UK
public opinion’ as ‘a key strategic factor’ in
the ongoing military campaign (Observer, 2 Jul).
Meanwhile, according
to a June 06 report from the international security and development
think-tank the Senlis Council (Helmand
at War, senliscouncil.net), ‘international troops initially
seen as liberators are now increasingly regarded as the invaders
[in Helmand]; and the Taliban until recently remembered as oppressors,
are now becoming protectors.’
The reasons are not hard to discern. Afghan authorities have
recently launched
an aggressive poppy eradication programme, ‘with the strong support of
the US and the UK’, allowing insurgents to ‘pose as the protector
of alienated farming communities.’
Meanwhile, ‘[d]espite much lip service to the development of economic alternatives
[to poppy cultivation] for poverty-stricken rural communities, corruption and
foreign aid have enriched some, while failing to deliver to most of the population’ while ‘[c]asualties
among local communities have caused a great deal of bitterness and distrust towards
foreign forces.’
‘Afghans are dying’
The scale of the carnage in US-led military operations since mid-May even provoked
the Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, to tell a press conference: “It is
not acceptable for us that in all this fighting Afghans are dying. In the last
three to four weeks, 500 to 600 Afghans were killed. [Even] if they are Taliban,
they are sons of this land” (Independent, 23 Jun). Sovereign in name only,
he was powerless to stop the killing.
Indeed, according to US officials 600 “Taliban fighters” were killed
in July alone (Guardian, 26 Jul) and on 12 July British commanders ordered US
airstrikes on Nawzad in Helmand ‘destroying a school and shops and, according
to unverified reports, leaving between 25 and 200 people dead’ (Sunday
Telegraph, 16 Jul). Local people told the BBC that ‘a significant number
of civilians’ had been killed (16 Jul).
Resistance round-up
5 Jun: US Army First Lieut. Ehren
Watada announces his decision to refuse to return to Iraq - the
first
commissioned officer
to do so. Charged on 5 Jul he now faces up to eight years in
jail and a dishonourable discharge. His refusal stems from his
belief that the war there is illegal. See www.thankyoult.org.
Prompted by Watada’s refusal, the 300-member congregation
First United Methodist Church of Tacoma subsequently declared
itself a sanctuary for servicemen and servicewomen who don’t
want to go to Iraq on grounds of conscience (Seattle Post-Intelligencer,
15 Jun).
24
Jun: During a day of action against CIA “torture flights”,
actions take place at five British airports: Glasgow, Prestwick,
Edinburgh, Gatwick and Birmingham International. A Jun report
by the Council of Europe accused the UK of not only ‘allowing
the use of British airspace and airports, but of providing information
that was used during the torture of one suspect’ (Guardian,
7 Jun)
4 Jul: US peace groups Codepink and Gold Star
Families for Peace launch a hunger strike entitled “Troops
Home Fast”, ‘calling
for the U.S. government to bring [US] troops home from Iraq – FAST.’ By
Day 18 of the fast 4,117 people were engaging in solidarity fasts
around the nation and in 22 other countries. A core of long-term
fasters – including Cindy Sheehan, Dick Gregory and
Jodie Evans – will fast until September 21, International Peace Day,when
there will be a week of mass actions against the war. For more info see www.troopshomefast.org and http://declarationofpeace.org.
Take action!
Fairford disarmers to stand
trial
On 13 Mar 03, just days before the start of the invasion of Iraq,
two peace activists – Margaret Jones and Paul Milling – non-violently
disabled three tankers used for refuelling the bombers at USAF
Fairford and several trailers and loaders used to transport the
bombs (on)to the planes (Guardian, 29 Jun). The pair were subsequently
charged with over £80,000 worth of criminal damage and
face a possible ten-year prison sentence if convicted.
Their trial, which will take place before a jury at Bristol Crown Court, has
now been scheduled to start on 4 Sept. Please put this date in your diary now
and be there to support them. For more info contact nabataat@yahoo.co.uk
Pit Stop Ploughshares acquitted
The Pit Stop Ploughares – five peace activists who disabled a US Navy warplane
at Shannon airport in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq – have been found
not guilty at their third (!) trial. Among those giving evidence during the trial
were voices us’ co-founder Kathy Kelly and Iraq war veteran Jimmy Massey.
In a statement following the verdict the five said: “The conscience of
the community has spoken. The government has no popular mandate in providing
the civilian Shannon airport to service the US war machine in its illegal invasion
and occupation of Iraq.” See www.warontrial.com.
Brian Haw raided
At 2.35am on 23 May, police swooped on Brian Haw’s one-man 24-7 peace vigil
in Parliament Square, removing and destroying all but 3 metres of his anti-war
banners, placards and flags. The operation – which it later transpired
involved some 78 police officers at a cost of £27,000 (Guardian, 31 May) – was
justified on the grounds that Brian had failed to comply with conditions placed
on his protest, following the overturning of his exemption from Section 132 of
the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act on 8 May. The latter bans all “unauthorised” protests
within 1km of Parliament Square.
Nonetheless, Brian remains in the Square and on 2 Jun celebrated his vigil’s
5th anniversary. Following a legal challenge by his solicitors, Brian has also
been granted limited use of his megaphone.
Please write to the Home Secretary, John Reid, at the Home Office (2 Marsham
Street, SW1P 4DF) and demand the immediate repeal of Section 132. For more info
see www.parliament-square.org.uk
War resisters
Jeremy Hinzman and Brandon Hughey – the first two American soldiers to
apply for asylum in Canada – are still in the process of appealing an April
2006 Federal Court decision that Americans do not qualify as refugees. Theirs
is a crucial test case for hundreds of other soldiers who have already fled to – or
would like to flee to – Canada to escape the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Copies
of Voices’ postcard to the Canadian High Commissioner “call[ing]
on the Canadian Government to demonstrate its commitment to international law
and basic human decency by making provision for US war objectors to have sanctuary
in Canada” are still available FREE on request.
Kevin Benderman, a US army mechanic who developed moral and religious objections
to the war in Iraq after serving there in 03, remains in prison. Amnesty International
considers him to be a prisoner of conscience (AI, 23 May). As at 23 May he
had served 11 months of a 15 month sentence. Please write to Robert Holmes
Tuttle,
U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James’s, 24 Grosvenor Square, London,
W1A 1AE, and call for Kevin Benderman’s immediate and unconditional release.
Letters and postcards of support are also welcome and can be sent to: Kevin Benderman,
PO Box 339536, Fort Lewis Washington, 98433 9536, USA. For more info see www.bendermantimeline.com.
Finally, Malcolm Kendall-Smith – the RAF doctor sentenced
to eight months imprisonment for refusing to serve in Iraq (see Voices 46) – has
been released, tagged and placed under curfew (Independent, 5 Jul). In a video-message
Kendall-Smith
said, “Thank you so much to all of you who have shown me so much support … resistance
against tyranny is not futile …. Let us all demonstrate the humanity
which our leaders fail to exhibit.’
Resources
Books
Don’t Shoot the Clowns: Taking a Circus to the Children
of Iraq by Jo Wilding (New Internationalist, 2006) £8.99.
‘
If you wish to know the real meaning of the phrase “collateral damage”,
read this book’ - Emma Thompson
‘
[E]normous courage, a deep sense of justice, compassion and a will to
show the human face of tragedy - a much needed contribution to showing the picture
of modern barbarism’ - Hans von Sponeck, former UN Humanitarian Co-ordinator
for Iraq.
Jo Wilding – who first travelled to Iraq with voices in Aug 01, returning
in 03 and 04 and experiencing both the invasion and the April 2004 siege of Fallujah
first-hand – will be launching her new book in Oct. Whilst the book won’t
hit the shops till Oct copies can be obtained direct from the New Internationalist
- see www.jowilding.net or contact Voices.
Iraq
in Fragments: The Occupation and its Legacy by Eric Herring
and Glen Rangwala
(Hurst, 2006) -
see “Housmans special
offer” below.
“[A] first-rate study of the consequences for Iraq of the US-led invasion
and occupation … packed with detail and informed by a real understanding
of the fears and ambitions of many of the Iraqi political actors. This complex
story of idealism, greed and violence, woven through social formations and the
pale institutions of the emerging Iraqi state, produces a compelling account—the
clearest yet available of the ‘new Iraq.’”—Dr. Charles
Tripp, SOAS, author, A History of Iraq.
The product of prodigious research by two leading experts with a long history
of activism on Iraq – Eric Herring was a consultant for John Pilger’s
2000 film Paying the Price: Killing the Children of Iraq and Glen Rangwala
was heavily involved in the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq (CASI) and will
long be remembered as the person who exposed the UK government’s “dodgy
dossier” - Iraq in Fragments is a must-read for anyone wanting to understand
what’s happened in Iraq since the invasion.
7/7:
The London Bombings, Islam and the Iraq War Milan Rai (Pluto
2006) £11.99 or buy two copies for £17 (incl
p&p) – send cheques, made payable
to "Voices UK", to: Voices UK, 5 Caledonian Rd, London N1
9DX.
‘[C]lear, scholarly, analytical, powerful, persuasive—and very readable … This
is a book that everyone with a serious interest in the crisis we face must read
if they are to hope to understand it, its causes, its effects, and how we might
resolve it’ - Tony Benn
maya evans speaking tour
Maya Evans - the 25-year-old vegan chef who last Dec became the first person
to be convicted of taking part in an “unauthorised” demo within
1km of Parliament after taking part in an anti-war protest near Downing St – will
be travelling around the UK this Oct, talking about civil liberties, the war
in Iraq and the “No More Fallujahs” weekend of nonviolent resistance
on 28-29 Oct (see here) – as well as possibly selling copies of her forthcoming
book!
If you would like to invite Maya to come and speak to your group then please
contact JNV: 0845 458 9571 or info@j-n-v.org.
Postcards
Copies of Voices three campaign postcards: Don’t Attack Iran – No
Bases for Aggression (see here);
Support the Troops, Grant Them Asylum (see
here); and End the Occupation
of Iraq (featuring artwork by Emily Johns – see
here) are available free on request from the voices office. Ideal for stalls,
mailings etc…
New briefing
Corporate Carve – Up (new edition). The first comprehensive listing of
British companies’ involvement in Iraq, revealing how these firms are
playing a major part in the effort to create an Iraqi economy based on neo-liberal,
pro-corporate principles. Produced by Corporate Watch (www.corporatewatch.
org.uk). Available for £5
Web-sites
Electronic Lebanon – www.electroniclebanon.net
Housmans Special Book Offer
By special arrangement with voices Housmans radical bookshop
in Kings Cross is offering a 10% discount on the following titles
till the middle of September:
“Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on
Democracy” by Noam Chomsky (£16.99 £15.29)
“Iraq
in Fragments” (see
above) £13.50.
“Enemy Combatant: A British Muslim’s Journey to
Guantanamo and Back” by Moazzam Begg (£18.99 £17.09). ’If
those responsible read only one book about what they have tolerated
and done in our name, this must be it’ – Jon Snow
“Inventing the Axis of Evil: The Truth About North Korea
and Syria” by Bruce Cumings, Ervand Abrahamian and Moshe
Ma’oz (£8.99 £8.09). ”[A]uthoritative
and informative’ – The Nation
“Iran in Crisis: Nuclear Ambitions and the American Response” by
Roger Howard (£15.99 £14.39). ’Brilliant … there
is no better study available’ – Ahmed Rashid
“Strategic Terror: The Politics and Ethics of Aerial Bombardment” by
Beau Grosscup (£15.99 £14.39). ”[A] major and
much needed [addition] to the literature on terrorism” – Edward
Herman
“Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal” by
Anthony Arnove (£14.99 £13.49). ’A powerful and compelling
argument on behalf of withdrawal from Iraq’ - Ron Kovic
Inform yourself
while helping to support an independent, radical bookstore!
All prices
include p&p. Titles can be ordered
by sending a cheque, made payable to “Housmans Bookshop” to:
Housmans Bookshop, 5 Caledonian Road, London N1 9DX.
For more info or to order on-line see here.
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