Just back from the Labour Party conference protest in Manchester. I’ve uploaded a few of the best photos but not had time for any fancy post-production. Consider these released into the public domain.
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Labour Party Conference Protest, Manchester
September 23rd, 2006Tags: afghanistan, iraq, labour, labour party, manchester, protest, stopthewar, war -
RAF doctor Iraq court martial
April 11th, 2006Tags: bbc, court martial, international law, iraq, nuremberg, orders, warThe BBC has done a pitiful job of covering the court martial of RAF doctor Flt Lt Malcolm Kendall-Smith who defied orders to return to Iraq citing the illegality of the war.
The prosecution said “it was not Dr Kendall-Smith’s responsibility to question the legality of orders given to him”.
Well, actually, it is. In fact, by law, not only is he to question the legality, he is to question to morality of orders too. As was established before the Nuremberg trials, a soldier cannot use “just following orders” as a defense against criminal prosecution. The London Nuremberg Charter explicitly stated that. The US Uniform Code of Military Justice was ammended after World War II to reflect it. This was all part of the reformation of International law.
I didn’t happen to notice any of this relevant information in the BBC article. I guess they had diverted journalistic resources to covering the all-important Da Vinci Code trial.
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Iran is dangerous nuclear threat
February 9th, 2006Tags: bbc, guardian, iran, iraq, media, nuclear, warMedia Lens Alert: Iran - The media fall into line
The “liberal” “left-wing” media are, once again, falling into line to support another war to enforce the status-quo (along with all the “right-wing” media too, but that’s rather a given). Iran is 10 years away from creating even one nuclear weapon (assuming that’s what it’s trying to do) yet the mainstream media are telling us they are a major threat.
This is how it always works. When the powers that be announce a new threat (Iran) the mainstream media fall over themselves to support it without question.
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Criminal Robin Cook dead
August 23rd, 2005Tags: foreignpolicy, humanrights, iraq, labour, newlabour, robincook, uk, warThroughout his politcal career Robin Cook repeatedly attacked the opposition for their inhumane foreign policy, yet perpertrated the same crimes the moment his party took power. He has an about turn at the last minute, resigning over the illegal war in Iraq, then dies and suddenly he’s remembered as an angel of integrity. The guy was no better than the rest of them: catering to power and profit at the expense of human rights and lives.
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we are paying to be lied to
June 28th, 2005Tags: iraq, saddam hussein, tony blair, UNMarch 2002
Downing Street memos: “I said [to Condoleezza Rice] you [Blair] would not budge in your support for regime change but you had to manage a press, a Parliament and a public opinion that was very different than anything in the States.”
“On Iraq I opened by sticking very closely to the script that you used with Condi Rice last week. We backed regime change, but the plan had to be clever and failure was not an option.”
November 2002
Tony Blair, in a public interview: “So far as our objective, it is disarmament, not regime change - that is our objective.”
February 2003
Tony Blair, in the House of Commons: “we are offering Saddam the prospect of voluntary disarmament through the UN. I detest his regime - I hope most people do - but even now, he could save it by complying with the UN’s demand. Even now, we are prepared to go the extra step to achieve disarmament peacefully.”
Poor old Mr. Blair having to “manage” the press, Parliment and a public opinion. Manage: (Verb) “achieve something by means of trickery or devious methods”.
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BBC ignored weapons claims
April 18th, 2005Tags: bbc, bias, iraq, media, wmdThe BBC has been accused of failing to investigate claims that the US used banned weapons in Iraq. Is it ignoring the story or has it done its best to seek out the truth?
Well, they’ve:
- not mentioned that the US have already admitted to using modified napalm
- stated (falsely) that Human Rights Watch investigated these claims and found nothing (something HRW deny, as they do not have the freedom to conduct investigations in Fallujah)
- Ignored multiple media reports (rebroadcast on the BBCs very own worldwide monitoring service) stating that “the occupation forces used poisonous gas”
- Ignored investigations and reports made by Iraqi medical staff and officials at Iraq’s health ministry
- Stated, falsely, that their reporters had full access to all military documents and briefings and heard nothing of banned weapons
And it’s clear that they’ve only published this Newswatch article because they’ve been repeatedly pressed by Medialens.
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Leeds film festival: About Baghdad
November 8th, 2004Tags: baghdad, documentary, film festival, iraq, leeds, saddamAbout Baghdad is a video collage of interviews and scenes from the streets of Baghdad shorted after the 2003 war (after? is it over?). Sinan Antoon, an Iraqi writer and poet who fleed to the US during Saddam’s regime, revisits his home and talks to other Iraqi people about their views. This was really interesting. What wasn’t suprising was that a majority of the views of Iraqi people are very different from how the mainstream press report them. They are of course very happy that Saddam is gone, and largely thankful to America for this but they basically feel that they need to be running things themselves now, and if this doesn’t happen soon there will be rebellion. Remember these are interviews from a year ago. Also remember all the violence going on currently and how it’s portrayed as a small number of “insurgents” who are going against the wishes of the real Iraqi people.
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John Leach is a human being living in Leeds, UK.