Iraq revisited

I know this letter in The Guardian is a wee while ago from Caroline Lucas but seeing it again this week I wanted to share here....

18 March 2013

Dear Editor,

The depth of Douglas Alexander's denial over the real reasons for his government taking the UK to war in Iraq in 2003 is truly breathtaking ('Iraq war was national disgrace, say military chiefs', 18 March, Guardian).

The evidence is clear [1] that the war had nothing to do with finding non-existent Weapons of Mass Destruction, and everything to do with the fact that the then Prime Minister Tony Blair had already promised President Bush in March 2002 that he would support a war for regime change.

The legal and political distinction between finding WMD and regime change was essential for Blair to secure a majority of the parliamentary Labour party's support for war, without which he could not have gone ahead. However, the now infamous Downing St memo told Blair in 2002 that in the US "intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy".

If WMD were really the focus of the war, Blair would have granted the Weapons Inspectors' call for more time. Moreover, Blair blatantly misrepresented the evidence available. For example, in his speech to the House on the resolution to go to war, he suggested that soon after Saddam Hussein's son in law, Hussein Kamal, defected to the West in the mid 1990s, he disclosed that Iraq had an extensive WMD programme.

In fact, the transcript of the interview with UNSCOM/IAEA records Hussein Kamal's statements that Iraq's WMD programme had been destroyed and nothing remained. The details of the interview were public knowledge in February 2003, well before the vote for war.

The parliamentary failure to hold Blair to account at the time of the vote makes it all the more essential that we have a debate in parliament now. We must formally record how such a flimsy case for war was able to get through our parliamentary process.

Unwavering Tory support for the vote was obviously critical. How convenient, then, that soon after William Hague writes to his Cabinet colleagues to tell them not to mention the war, David Cameron's government has failed to find time for a Parliamentary debate, requested by myself and a cross-party group of MPs, to coincide with the 10th anniversary of that vote.

Whatever position this Government now takes on Iraq and the Chilcot Inquiry, it is crucial that the public does not see Parliament just sitting back and ignoring the 10th anniversary of these lies and distortions. We owe it to the servicemen and women and all those who have lost their lives in Iraq to carefully examine what happened, in order to learn the lessons of the most damaging foreign policy decision of recent times.

Yours sincerely,

Caroline Lucas, MP for Brighton Pavilion

Links:
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[1] http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/nov/30/iraq-inquiry-david-manning
[2] http://www.carolinelucas.com

Fairford protest update

See here Kevin's blog on the Fairford protest - it has some videos of the protest which handed out 10,000 leaflets highlighting depleted uranium use by A-10 planes which were on show at the Tattoo - and see here my previous blog on the first days' protesting.

Call for police to investigate A-10's at Fairford Tattoo

Peace pole: is this something we want in Stroud? I like the idea!

The Sponsored bike ride at Fairford Tattoo is getting lots of interest - see their Facebook site here and my previous blog here. I understand the cyclists are talking to the police to sort out the route etc. To me it is disturbing that the Fairford Air Tattoo will welcome the A-10 tank buster plane. This plane has become synonymous with depleted uranium attacks. As this blog has reported before depleted uranium is killing thousands of people, damaging the planet yet this plane is coming over for 'family entertainment'. I understand the bike ride is to raise money for the children's hospital in Fallujah. You can download a powerful new report on depleted uranium in Iraq here.


There is also now an on-line petition calling for a police investigation into the A-10s that will be on display at the Fairford Air Tattoo  - please consider signing the petition:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/fairford_air_show/

It also seems likely that DU is being used in Libya. See the YouTube below:

Shaming of UK and US

The British military has been training interrogators in techniques that include threats, sensory deprivation and enforced nakedness in an apparent breach of the Geneva conventions, the Guardian has discovered. See Guardian here. And see Robert Fisk on the wikileaks here - the shameful lies told by US military about Iraqi military torture, civilians shot at checkpoints and more. These two stories are a painful read. How can we make amends?

Photo: Kneeling cushion in Randwick Church

Ask Blair questions on war

It is right that Blair should face questions regarding taking us to war - please join me in putting pressure on the Chair of the Inquiry to make sure Blair faces a real grilling.

Photo: Pic of nightime sledgers in Randwick!

You can ask your question at: www.38degrees.org.uk/ask-blair-tough-questions

Terrorism was the justification for war, but even if this was the reason war cannot stop terrorism - war itself breeds more rage and hate. We can see it clearly. War is no substitute for getting at the roots of terrorism. My question was about why other avenues were not fully explored before resorting to war. As regular blog readers will know I have long called for Blair to be put on trial for war crimes - see for example here.

In truth the US and Britain turned to war because to deal with fundamentals rather than symptoms would require radical changes in policy. I was sent recently Tony Blair's 'good reasons' to invade that make you think about who are we talking about;
- a country has weapons of mass destruction
- has invaded another country
- has oil reserves to provide the necessary finance
- has a leader associated with 100,000 deaths
- a leader supported by a minority of his people and surrounded by a tight-knit band of cronies

Nato demo

Meanwhile on Thursday 28 January the leaders of the NATO occupation of Afghanistan are coming to Central London for a conference organised by Gordon Brown to discuss the next steps in their war effort. President Karzai, Hilary Clinton, President Sarkozy and Angela Merkel are among those expected to attend. Stop the War, of which the Green party is a signatory, are organising a protest and have issued the following statement on the conference:

The situation for the warmongers is deteriorating sharply. Last year was by far the worst since the invasion in 2001 for the invading forces, with 108 British soldiers and 319 US troops losing their lives in a war with no purpose. The number of Afghan civilians killed in 2009 also rose dramatically, with the UN giving a figure of well over 2000, which is undoubtedly an under-estimate of the total, as many deaths go unreported.

Gordon Brown claims NATO is committed to a stable and secure Afghanistan, but the war has only increased the suffering of ordinary people in the world's second poorest country. This is the environment in which the Taliban continue to grown in strength -- with even the commander of the NATO forces admitting they control much of the country. The Taliban infiltration of the Afghan army -- which according to Obama and Brown is the long term key to winning the war -- was highlighted at the end of 2009, when five British soldiers and seven CIA operatives were killed in separate incidents by Taliban supporters serving in the army.

The western backed Karzai government -- already discredited by the farcical presidential "election" -- is in utter disarray, following the rejection of Karzai's new cabinet by the Afghan parliament. This has made a mockery of Gordon Brown's slogan for the conference on 28 January: "Afghan leadership, international partnership". We are told the purpose of the ever mounting death toll is to counter the danger of terrorism. But it is clear that far from combating terrorism , the 'war on terror' has created more enemies for the west and al-Qaeda has spread across the Middle East to Somalia, Yemen and beyond. The one place it isn't, is in Afghanistan, where the US government admits there are less than 100 al-Qaeda operatives.

The leaders gathering on 28 January have only one response to the catastrophe their war has created. More war. With his latest troop surge Obama has doubled the number of troops in Afghanistan since he became president. As ever - and despite a majority of the British public calling for the troops to be withdrawn -- our government follows slavishly wherever US foreign policy takes it, and Brown has increased Britain's deployment to over 9500.

It is essential that we make clear on 28 January that these war policies are opposed by the majority of people in virtually every NATO country. Instead of discussing an escalation of the war in Afghanistan, Brown's international conference should be planning to bring all the troops home.

Obama's nobel prize

Reactions to Obama's nobel peace prize have been largely welcoming but there is also some serious criticisms - see Gary Ruskin's views below - he is Co-founder of the relatively new Green Change.

It is true Obama has appealed for reductions in nuclear arsenals and is seeking to restart peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians. I also believe there is a genuine change in the international climate but I was disappointed to hear he has just rebuffed calls for a commission to investigate alleged abuses under the Bush administration in fighting terrorism. That aside the following piece shows he has lots of work to do - no that should read we all have lots to do! It is perhaps not surprising that some commentators are saying it is about what people hope he will bring....

Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, who won the prize in 1984, said: "In a way, it's an award coming near the beginning of the first term of office of a relatively young president that anticipates an even greater contribution towards making our world a safer place for all. It is an award that speaks to the promise of President Obama's message of hope." Anyway now to that Green Change comment:

This morning, President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,” the Nobel Committee said. Why?
Did Obama bring peace to Iraq?

No. He has retained 124,000 U.S. troops there, with tens of thousands deployed perhaps indefinitely.

Did he bring peace to Afghanistan?

No. He has escalated the Afghan war, and is part responsible for the scores of civilian deaths that have occurred there. He has done this despite that most Americans believe that the war is "not worth fighting."

Thorbjoern Jagland, chairman of the Nobel committee said in an interview that “Obama has as president created a new climate in international politics.” Has Obama done anything singular to stop the worldwide crisis of climate change?

No. He has spent little or no political capital on the climate crisis, and still refuses to commit the U.S. to strong actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. And there are widespread reports that he is trying to weaken the Copenhagen global climate treaty.

Jagland said that “The Nobel Committee has in particular looked at Obama’s vision and work toward a world without atomic weapons.” But on this issue, Obama is merely implementing the ideas of the more conservative foreign policy minds of our nation, including Henry Kissinger.

Did he beat the swords of the giant U.S. defense budget into plowshares of peace?

No. In fact, he will soon sign into law the largest defense bill in our nation's history.

Has he brought home the troops scattered across the world stationed to maintain our empire?

No. We still have an estimated 1,000 military bases in foreign lands worldwide.

Has he stopped our nation's scandalous weapons trade?

No. The U.S. has expanded its weapons trade. We now supply 2/3rds of the world's foreign armaments.

Did Obama sign the cluster munitions treaty to ban cluster bombs, because 98% of cluster bomb casualties are children?

No. The U.S. has not signed the cluster munitions treaty.

Has Obama brought home the army of mercenaries we have stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan?

No. He has expanded the ranks of these mercenaries to 250,000.

There are millions of people across our world who spend their blood and sweat every day for peace -- real peace. Every one of them deserves the Nobel Peace Prize far more than Barack Obama.

'People on loan' in Gloucestershire?

The Living Library is an innovative method designed to promote dialogue, reduce prejudices and encourage understanding. I loved the idea!

In it’s initial form the Living Library is a sort of mobile library set up as a space for dialogue and interaction. Visitors to the Living Library are given the opportunity to speak informally with “people on loan”; this latter group being extremely varied in age, sex and cultural background.

The Living Library is about trying to break stereotypes by challenging the most common prejudices in a positive and humorous manner - a sort of “keep it simple”, “no-nonsense” contribution to social cohesion in multicultural societies. Some of the titles previously available at libraries include: Feminist / Muslim; Young Adult Gay Man / Survivor of a Brain Tumor; Ex Gang Member / Ex Prisoner / Ex Addict; Constable; Humanist / Altruist / Volunteer; Big and Beautiful Formerly Size 5 and Bulimic; Iraqi Refugee / Artist; Highly Sensitive Male / Father of a Gay Son / Jewish. See more at: http://living-library.org

When I asked whether Gloucestershire was doing this I learnt that the Councils Community Cohesion Group is piloting it and trying it out as part of the member induction programme, where they are arranging for 'living books' from among the clients of council services to be available for members to meet with them. Great stuff.

I do think listening to others is a very powerful way of creating change - indeed that was part of the philosophy behind the Coffee House discussions where people can meet and talk and listen - indeed we've had a huge range of topics including a chance to hear views that many don't in their everyday lives like 'freedom to wear the veil'. Next week we have all the political parties represented in the Green party-sponsored discussions on defence in The Space at 7.30pm.

Tell truth on NHS

Back to blogging - last few days been trying to catch up on emails - here's one that could do with your help....as you will know there's a fierce debate in the US about Barack Obama's proposals for public healthcare, and our British healthcare system has become a political football. This blog touches on two campaigns and then reminds us of Michael Moores film Sicko' (available in Blockbuster locally).

Cartoon: Russ

Here's what campaign group 38 degrees has to say: "Opponents, including some British conservatives, are deliberately misrepresenting the NHS for political purposes. For example at the bottom of this message we've pasted a forwarded email from right-wingers appealing for NHS "horror stories" to spread round America. The NHS may not be perfect, but it is worth standing up for. We've made it easier to tell ordinary Americans the truth about British healthcare, by teaming up with a leading American website Mother Jones. They'll reach over 2 million Americans with our message of support for the NHS. Please add your name, and share your stories our how our health service has benefited you or your family. The more people who add their name, the more likely this is to send positive ripples across the US."

Meanwhile Avaaz has also launched a campaign in the US - here is what they say: "US healthcare is run by large corporations - it's the most expensive in the world, but ranks 37th in quality, and 40 million Americans can't afford any care at all. It's an awful system for people, but corporations make enormous profits, so they're fighting to keep it. If they win and Obama fails, the Democrats could lose the Congress in elections next year. If this happens, progress on every global issue is endangered, from climate change to the war in Iraq."

Show your support for the NHS by adding your name - click here. And click here for the Avaaz campaign in the US.

38 degrees continue: "Mother Jones is a US web site and magazine which reaches over 2 million Americans every month. They want to cover our perspective on the NHS. As editor Jay Harris says: 'Right now, the media coverage about the future of my country's healthcare system is filled with distortions and lies about the NHS. Ordinary British people can help bring sanity - and facts - back into this debate by stepping up to set the record straight. Please help!'

"It's up to Americans to decide whether or not to adopt public healthcare in the USA. But currently lies about our health service are being spread by special interests backed by huge sums of money. We can help balance the debate by setting the record straight and sharing real stories of what it's like to have a healthcare system where getting decent treatment doesn't depend on the state of your finances."

See myths about the reforms here. In fact I would like to have seen more about the campaign here in the UK to "Keep Our NHS Public" - it seems that while the US are looking to the NHS we have been far too much following the US down the road to more and more privatisation. I came across an old Guardian article here that shows the massive profits being made on PFI schemes including those with the NHS.

Unlike the Thatcher privatisations of the 1980s, the whole NHS is not being put up for auction. Instead, it has been slowly parcelled up into bite-sized pieces and handed over to private control bit by bit by Labour. This is happening on such a scale and at such pace as to make it a unique phenomenon - yet it is hardly in the news....

Alex Nunns, of Keep Our NHS Public, said: "Unbeknown to the public, the NHS is paying astronomical sums of money to the private sector. When the NHS is making cuts and closures across the country, it's time to ask if this is the best use of public money." Indeed.

See also the 2005 report "In the Interests of Patients? Examining the impact of the creation of a competitive commercial market in the provision of NHS Care".
http://www.unison.org.uk/acrobat/16299.pdf

All this reminds me of 'Sicko' when Michael Moore travels to Britain, France and Cuba in his documentary diagnosis of the US's healthcare system. When it came out the Green Party highlighted how continued privatisation (by stealth) of the NHS is turning the NHS, step-by-step, into that model of ill-health - the US health care system.

'Sicko' demonstrates the dreadful state of US health care driven by private profit, which despite spending 50 per cent more per person than the UK, still leaves tens of millions without access to health care. Stuart Jeffery, Health Spokesperson for the Green Party said at the time: "Michael Moore's new film shows us exactly what kind of health care system we must avoid. It is therefore shameful that the UK is incrementally adopting the US system, with increasing privatisation of health care and support services, and an increasing reliance on the health care market to provide care. We have seen the appalling waste of money that the Independent Treatment Centres have provided across the country, the huge amount spent on private management consultants, and the disgraceful Private Finance Initiative that has mortgaged hospitals across the country and driven up costs. Yet, Labour, the Tories and the Lib Dems are all wedded to their corporate friends. We will be showing our support for the NHS demonstration on the 3rd of November. and at this Friday's UK opening of Sicko, and we thank Michael Moore for showing us clearly how a health care system should not be run."

However for those who have seen Sicko it is worth reading Allyson Pollock, author of the excellent book NHS plc, in the Guardian on 'What Sicko doesn't tell you..' - see article here.

Afghanistan: time to disengage

The latest opinion poll in The Independent carried the headline, "Voters turn against war in Afghanistan". Despite the pro war propaganda campaign it reported that 52% of the British Public want the troops home now. (See http://bit.ly/2QXiDj).

Photo: Peace vigil in High Street with soldiers also collecting for charity

The government has declared 'mission accomplished' but even it had to admit they have only 'cleared' an area the size of the Isle of Wight of 500 Taliban, deploying 9000 troops to do so, at a cost of 22 soldiers killed and hundreds more wounded. This is unacceptable - for 8 years we have been fighting Afghans, longer than both the Great War and the Second World War. The costs are huge and recently estimated at £12 billion.

At a packed Stop the War meeting in London last week, it was reported that Afghan MP Malalai Joya explained how the occupation was a disaster for the Afghan people and is driving the country backwards. "We always reject occupation and foreign domination," she said, calling for solidarity from the anti-war movement. "I know there are millions of British people who want to see an end to this conflict as soon as possible. Together we can raise our voice for peace and justice." (See http://bit.ly/2x33Fz). In fact must note some of stuff in first half of this blog is adapted from Stop the War emails.

At the same rally featuring Lance Corporal Joe Glenton became the first serving British soldier to speak out publicly against the Afghan war. Today Joe faces a court martial hearing and a possible two-year prison term after going on the run rather than return to Afghanistan. He says he gradually became aware that justifications for occupying Afghanistan were ringing hollow. "The Afghan people were attacking us, even though our politicians said we were going in to help them. It came as a real shock. That's when I became aware that there was something seriously wrong with the war." Families of military are also becoming increasingly vocal.

It was also interesting to see Simon Jenkins writing in The Guardian - see here - worth a read - here is some of it...

"The one thing you know (and the enemy knows) about a named military operation is that it ends, which is one thing counter-insurgency can never do. All talk of talking to the Taliban forgets that Americans were talking to the Taliban before 9/11. Indeed, they spent a fortune training and arming them against Russia. Britain's first Helmand offensive in 2006 concluded that the Taliban would not be beaten and was followed by talking and a "cessation of hostilities", involving a series of local deals with (good) Taliban and a joint withdrawal agreement. It was later regarded as a disaster.

"...Any dispassionate observer returning from Afghanistan reports the same message. This is not working. People do not want their hearts and minds bribed or their infrastructure rebuilt. The money just gets stolen. They want their poppy crop left in peace and they want to know which sheikh or Taliban warlord will rule their lives a year from now. After years of being bombed, bankrupted and betrayed, they wonder who can offer them security. The answer is neither the British nor the regime in Kabul.

"...Everyone knows that the British will go but the Taliban will stay. That is why the strategy of take, hold and build is mere pastiche imperialism. It relies on the palpable nonsense that the Afghan army, a drugged militia of little competence and less loyalty, will fight and defeat its Pashtun cousins. It will not. All wars end in talking, even if the conversation is usually brief and one-sided. Such will be any deal with the Taliban, good or bad. As the Canadians and most Europeans have realised, Afghanistan is essentially a war of American vendetta, and the more stupid for it. Yes, it will end in talk, but how many more must die first?"

I'm not sure I agree that it was just vendetta - a big part was also oil and control of the region. Anyway the real cost is in lives, British soldiers on the one hand and Afghan militants on the other and then the tens of thousands of civilians. Soldiers and armies have to follow orders. But as citizens we have every right and duty to question what our country gets involved in and when it sends our forces into harm's way and that includes knowing when to call time. We have pulled out of Iraq it is now more than time to start disengaging from Afghanistan. That is certainly not an easy task...

Far far too many lives lost, yet the country is no closer to peace or democracy. The idea that democracy could be restored through military assaults proved to be wrong, yet it remains a central plank of the failed US strategy. We need to help Afghanistan re-build itself, but we can only do this by investing in economic reconstruction, training programmes and good governance – not endless warfare. The UK is now seen as the enemy by too many. The United Nations – not the United States and UK - should take the lead in restoring a peaceful democracy and ending the downward spiral of violence.

To finish see Green party comment on the new Inquiry into Iraq here and letter re Afghanistan here.

Nuclear Power - no point

The Gazette has reported that investigation work is set to begin in July on land in Shepperdine at Oldbury that could become the home of a new nuclear power station. Energy giant E.ON, which owns the land, has said the work will include seismic studies to investigate the best location for the foundations of the new station. E.ON started to buy land in Shepperdine last year and has also bought land from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority next to the existing Oldbury power station to make room for a new nuclear plant.

All this is disturbing - in 2003, the nuclear industry was virtually killed off in Britain. How times have changed with the energy industry (incl the CBI) arguing it is renewables that should be killed off, or at least kept on a starvation diet.

Two foreign-owned energy giants, E.ON and EDF, have already told the government it must essentially choose between new nuclear and major renewables developments. There is only so much money available, and the nuclear advocates – scared by the growth rates of renewables – are scrabbling to ensure most of it goes to them. De Rivaz has yet to persuade his owners, the French government, that his plan to build four British reactors at well over £4bn each makes commercial sense. He has made it clear to Whitehall that he will need major subsidies.

“We are literally seeing nuclear reactor history repeat itself. The ‘Great Bandwagon Market’ that ended so badly for consumers in the 1970s and 1980s was driven by advocates who confused hope and hype with reality. It is telling that in the few short years since the so-called ‘Nuclear Renaissance’ began there has been a four-fold increase in projected costs.”
Dr. Mark Cooper, a senior fellow for economic analysis at the Institute for Energy and the Environment at Vermont Law School. 18th June 2009

Meanwhile the Green party have just issued a report: "Nuclear power? No point", says new report - it makes a powerful case that nuclear power has no rationale in terms of either economics or helping the fight against dangerous climate change.

In Nuclear Power? No Point! the Green Party's spokesperson on trade and industry, Darren Johnson AM, reviews recent developments and argues that:

• Nuclear power provides less than 4% of UK energy - which is far less than could be saved by energy-efficiency measures that would cut people's fuel bills.
• New nuclear stations will not help the fight against climate change because major CO2 reductions are needed in the next ten years. New nuclear power stations could not be built fast enough.
• Massive investment in renewables could deliver the necessary short-term CO2 cuts - but "feeding cash to the nuclear delusion" could help starve the renewables industry of some of the investment and skilled personnel it needs to grow rapidly.
• The nuclear industry's current financial problems cast serious doubt on its ability to deliver new power stations anyway.

Darren Johnson, who is currently chair of the London Assembly and Green Party candidate for Lewisham Deptford, said this week: "The industry that was going to produce electricity 'too cheap to meter' has landed us with massive costs for handling its dangerous waste. Now the nuclear industry can't even give us a reliable quote for the cost of a power station. The current projects in Finland and France are experiencing safety concerns, long delays and big overspends. There's no point expecting nuclear to solve the climate crisis, because new stations couldn't be built fast enough to help achieve the big CO2 reductions we need to make in the next ten years - which mature renewables could deliver.

"There is no point even considering nuclear power, because demand-reduction measures could easily save far more power than nuclear could generate. And the latest studies argue convincingly that green energy sources with a European smart grid could provide all the power we need."

In Nuclear Power? No Point! Mr Johnson also draws attention to nuclear power's poor jobs-per-megawatt ratio. He said: "We urgently need a Green New Deal to get us out of the recession and start building the sustainable economy of the twenty-first century. We could create hundreds of thousands of jobs in green energy in the next decade. Nuclear power can play no part in that because it takes far too long to build nuclear power stations compared with windfarms and other green measures. Wind energy sustains something like twelve times as many jobs per unit of power as nuclear does."

I have just read the latest issue of the excellent NuClear News and the figures in there reinforce that report....here is what they say:

From the first fixed price reactors in the 1960s to more recent cost projections, the claim that nuclear power is or could be cost competitive with alternative technologies has been based on hope and hype, according to Dr Mark Cooper. If the Unites States were to build 100 new reactors, as has been suggested by some policymakers, the excess cost compared to least-cost efficiency and renewables would be $19 - $44 billion per plant or $1.9 - $4.4 trillion for all hundred.

At the start of the so-called nuclear renaissance around 2001 – 2004, vendors, academics and government officials in the US were coming up with some very low cost estimates. But now Wall Street and Independent Energy Analysts are producing much higher estimates – up to four times higher than the initial projections. Cooper has analysed three dozen recent cost projections, and concludes that the likely cost of electricity from new reactors would be 12-20 cents per kilowatt hour (c/kWh) (7-12p/kWh at June 2009 exchange rates) - considerably more expensive than the average cost of energy efficiency and renewable energies.
US utilities and Wall Street agree on one thing - nuclear reactors will not be built without massive subsidies. The attitude of the Baltimore-based utility – UniStar – a joint venture between EDF and Constellation Energy, is typical. UniStar is planning four new plants (8 reactors) at a cost of up to $48bn – roughly the same as the U.S. spent on the Iraq War in 2006. The U.S. Treasury is expected to guarantee 80% of the total costs through a loan guarantee program. To cover the remainder, UniStar plans to seek loans from the French import/export bank COFACE. Under no circumstances does Constellation or EDF intend to dip into their own coffers to fund the project. UniStar CEO, George Vanderheyden, says “without the federal loan guarantees, this whole thing will come to a stop.”

Former U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission member, Peter Bradford, says it is clear new reactors can only be built if taxpayers or consumers assume the very large risks.

Urgent: call for transparent inquiry on Iraq

Tomorrow parliament is voting on whether or not the Iraq Inquiry should be public. A popular outcry against a secret inquiry is already causing Gordon Brown to waver. A good result in Wednesday's vote will help force his hand.

It's going to be close [see here], and many MPs haven't yet decided which way to vote - in the next couple of days our input can make a real difference. So there are plans by 38degrees to flood parliament with copies of petitions, asking MPs to ensure that this inquiry won't be another stitch up.

Sign here: http://38degrees.org.uk/page/s/IraqInquiry

Evidence has just emerged that Tony Blair is the main figure pushing Brown to keep the inquiry secret, to protect his own reputation. Meanwhile a vast range of experts, including former senior government and military figures, have now spoken up to say there's no justification for keeping us in the dark [see here]. Last week, Brown tried to pass the buck by telling the inquiry chairman to choose which bits to make public. We know that's not good enough - only a genuinely public inquiry will guarantee a proper process we can trust. The Prime Minister who just announced a new "era of transparency" must use his power to guarantee this.

Greens still growing

I just came across this graph that shows that web interest in the Green Party has now overtaken web interest in all other parties except ukip. Greens are apparently also the most twittered about on Sky - see here.

It was also good to see The Guardian score the Green Party's political broadcast "Think Again, Vote Green" (and see below), as the best to grab attention of floating voters. They scored us 8 out of 10 and write: "The well-crafted Think Again broadcast aims to dispel myths about the Greens – they won't nag; they care about lots of things, not just trees– with the camera flitting around like a butterfly, landing on visual depictions of policy areas. A rubber duck, for example, is shown to illustrate the party's successful campaign against toxic substances in toys. The highlight is the tossing of the blue genetically modified strawberry into the bin. It's a pity that the lingering montage of candidates' photographs didn't join it among the rubbish."

Meanwhile I see that Mark Steel, in his Independent column, writes "the Green Party has attained credibility while retaining its principles, and seems to be the home for many people who opposed the Iraq war, oppose the rule of bankers and private finance, and feel it might be worth looking at doing something about the fact the planet's about to melt. So I'm voting for them tomorrow, and if they implode in a petty row about nothing I'm obviously a jinx and I'm joining the bloody Tories."

He joins other Green supporters including Martin Bell, Craig Murray (Former British Ambassador), Aubrey Mayer, 2008 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee, John Stewart, 'Most Influential Environmental Activist in Britain', Sir Jonathon Porritt, Mark Thomas and Joanna Lumley.

Whiteshill resident elected to Baha'i council

I've just been talking to local press about Whiteshill resident, Zarin Hainsworth being elected to the national Baha'i governing council.

Zarin Hainsworth is President of UNIFEM UK and a long time advocate for the advancement of women - she has just been elected to the national governing council of the Baha'i community of the United Kingdom. She also locally, Chairperson of the Ruscombe Brook Action Group. Here is what she said to national press: “I am very honoured to be elected to serve in this way. In accordance with its belief in equality, the worldwide Baha'i community has been at the forefront of the movement to advance the rights of women for more than 160 years, so I am looking forward to contributing further in this regard in the UK.”

Since its inception in the mid-19th century, the Baha'i faith has taught the equality of the sexes. Its Prophet-Founder Baha'u'llah unequivocally stated that, until the equality between women and men is fully established, humanity's highest social development is not possible. "The only remedy is education, opportunity; for equality means equal qualification," say the Baha'i scriptures, "Until woman and man recognize and realize equality, social and political progress … will not be possible."

Bahá'í communities around the world promote development efforts for women, and work to raise the consciousness of both women and men about equality. They are committed to educational and social action initiatives that develop the capacity of children and young people of both sexes to play their part in the building of a healthy and equal society. At this stage, women compose approximately 30 percent of elected leadership in Baha'i councils at the national level, comparing favourably to national parliaments, which average around 10 percent women.

The National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the UK is elected each year in a unique process that does not allow campaigning and uses no nominations. Rather, each delegate to the Baha'i national convention - held in Llandudno, Wales - votes for the nine people whom they feel are best qualified to serve the Baha'i community for the coming twelve months. Ms Hainsworth's election comes more than sixty years after the election of her father Philip Hainsworth to the Assembly, a position he held for several decades before his death in 2001.

Further information
Zarin Hainsworth is a Trustee of Widow Rights International, a member of Gender Action for Peace and Security and active in the Associate All Party Group on Women, Peace and Security for which she is responsible for the sub groups on Iraq and Gender Training of Peace Keeping Troops. She is a Women’s Enterprise Ambassador, the co-founder and coordinator of the International Coordination for Gender Justice in Iraq and was a trustee of the National Alliance of Women’s Organisations and its chair for a number of years. She helped to establish a variety of local organisations for women in business and women of faith and was the first director of the Baha’i Office for the Advancement of Women UK. She has been President of the National Committee for UNIFEM in the UK for two years. Ms Hainsworth founded and runs her family company Serene Communications and is married with four children.

Sign petition on Afghanistan

The local press asked yesterday for a comment on Iraq - see here - however I also want to draw attention to this petition. While we can all welcome the troops leaving Iraq, the pull out is only partly in response to public opinion, it is also a product of the decision to escalate the war in Afghanistan.

Cartoon: Steve Bell taken from Stop the War website

The Stop the War Coalition, of which the Green party is a part, has just launched a petition to Gordon Brown demanding the withdrawal of all British troops from Afghanistan. In fact so new that I was the third signature. As regular blog readers will know Greens have opposed the war in Afghanistan from the start. Please consider signing online: http://www.petitiononline.com/stwc01/petition.html

Comment re troops leaving Iraq

I got asked for a response to reports today of British troops leaving Iraq - trouble is I didn't get message until late as work then in Randwick Woods with nearly 20 Woodcraft Folk aged 6 to 9 (wow are those bluebells wonderful there) then another meeting...

In haste I wrote the comments below - but I would have wanted to spend more time on it - the Green party were the only main party to wholly oppose the war in Iraq - yet we never could have imagined the nightmare it became - how we have let down so many including our own troops - the prewar planning and indeed execution have been nothing short of criminal negligence.

Let us hope this is a genuine move for peace and not as some commentators have said due to troops being needed in Afghanistan.

Here is what I sent: "I welcome the troops leaving Iraq and Obama's plans to also pull out. Many millions of us opposed this futile, costly, unjust and damaging war that contravened international law, damaged important links with the region and increased terrorist risks. It led to chaos, devastation and the deaths of up to 650,000 Iraqis. Many British, US and others have also lost their lives. Our Government failed us and our troops. If the war in Iraq has proven anything, it is the utter ineffectiveness of using military power to counter terrorism. Greens have joined others in calling for Tony Blair and Gordon Brown to be tried for war crimes at the international court in the Hague.

"Western Governments must work towards tackling the root causes of conflict and violence. The war on terror can surely only ever be won when we replace a culture of fear with one of respect, engagement, vigilance and solidarity."

Journalist Robert Fisk said of the occupation: "One hundred and seventy-nine dead soldiers. For what? 179,000 dead Iraqis? Or is the real figure closer to a million? We don't know. And we don't care. We never cared about the Iraqis. That's why we don't know the figure. That's why we left Basra."

Peter Brierley, whose son Lance Corporal Shaun Brierley was killed in Iraq said: "It was an illegal war. We were told we were going to find weapons of mass destruction but there were none. They have dragged the war out for 6 years. I have prayed for no other parent to suffer what we went though."

Meanwhile Gordon Brown declared, "Our task in Iraq is complete… it is a success story."

Incinerator campaign takes to streets of Gloucester

Yesterday I joined Green party members from across the County and Ricky Knight, the number one on the Green Party list for the European Election in the South-West, to collect signatures for the Friends of the Earth petition against a monster incinerator near Stonehouse.

Photo: Some of the campaigners in Gloucester joining Ricky in green

Ricky then spoke at a lively public meeting in the evening in the function room at The Bell in Southgate asking: ‘Are all Politicians the Same?’ Euro candidate Ricky Knight said: "It was great to come again to Gloucester and share my enthusiasm for Green party policies to deal with the threats of climate change and global recession. Now more than ever we need these policies to be translated into actions. We have a real chance here in the South West to elect a Green Euro-MP on 4th June."

Ricky Knight, who has given up his job as a teacher for the last 30 years to campaign 24/7 to get elected, said: "I've found my natural home in the Green Party. The SW can be a hub for green energy creating green jobs. The very fact that a monster incinerator for Gloucestershire's waste is even being considered shows how out of touch some politicians are with issues of sustainability. There are much better ways of dealing with our waste and we need to be investing in these for ourselves and future generations."

You can see more of the press release I sent out here with quotes from me and others. It was particularly good to meet up with Ricky again - I was forwarded an article in his local Devon paper that shows how inspiring he is - a privilege to have as our Green party candidate - and indeed one on whom future generations will need to depend on. So please think about voting for him on 4th June.

Retiring teacher set to devote time to politics

A TEACHER with a passion for languages and the environment is retiring from the classroom — so he can fight in a European election campaign. Ricky Knight, 59, from Bishops Tawton, spent his last day at Pilton Community College on Friday last week, where he planted a Rowan tree to commemorate his 24 years at the school.

After spending the past three decades devoted to teaching — and just as he was starting to teach some of the grandchildren of pupils he taught in the 1980s — he has decided to devote his energies to politics, as a Green Party candidate for the European Parliament. Mr Knight, who is a Barnstaple town councillor, was surrounded by pupils from his Year 8 tutor group, some with tears in their eyes, who told the Journal he was "funny", "brilliant" and "always had a smile on his face".

He was born in Fremington and brought up in Barnstaple, Bishops Tawton and Croyde before he graduated with a degree in European Studies from the University of East Anglia. He took a postgraduate teaching qualification in Bristol in 1979 and took his first teaching job at Braunton in 1980 before joining Pilton in 1985.

He said it had been a "privilege and pleasure" to work as a teacher for 29 years and he looked back with fondness on numerous exchange trips to Germany as well as his involvement in extra-curricular activities such as rugby and music. "I've seen many changes in education over the years," he said. "And the job doesn't get any easier, but it remains rewarding. For every kid that gives you a hard time, there are 30 who give you a wonderful time. Kids have changed over the years; they are much more self-confident and questioning and they are a lot more difficult to motivate. They expect a lot more from teachers."

He was delighted the school had won "specialist language status" and had started teaching Latin, Greek, Arabic, Japanese, Mandarin, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, and Russian. But Mr Knight, who has long been an environmental campaigner, will not be putting his feet up.

For the next few months he will based at a Green Party HQ in Bristol where he will be fighting an election campaign to become a member of the European Parliament (MEP). He is well-known to people who follow local affairs in North Devon for his vocal support for wind farms and his stance against the Iraq war, not to mention his views on many subjects related to the environment. Pilton headteacher Mark Juby said Mr Knight was an "icon" of the school, before adding: "

He has been an inspiration. He had amazing energy and knows his children really well and has really moved the school on in terms of language. He is irreplaceable."

US Army suicides - record January figures "terrifying"

If reports of suicides are confirmed, more soldiers will have taken their lives in January than died in combat. The US Army has said 24 soldiers are believed to have committed suicide in January alone - six times as many as killed themselves in January 2008.

Photo: Sky last week over towards Randwick

According to Pentagon statistics, there were 16 U.S. combat deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq in January. Now regular blog readers will know my concerns about both those wars - but there is no excuse for not having proper support for those fighting. 128 soldiers killed themselves in 2008 - this is the highest number of suicides since records began in 1980. Officials calculate the deaths at a rate of roughly 20.2 per 100,000 soldiers – which is higher than the adjusted civilian rate for the first time since the Vietnam War, officials told a Pentagon news conference. See CNN report here.

Here is a comment from a Green colleague: "I remember reading that the number of US Vietnam deaths, 58,000 was well exceeded by the number of subsequent suicides. There is a large range of claims from a surely conservative 9,000 ( http://www.vhfcn.org/stat.html ), to 50,000, a 100,000 and even 200,000 (http://www.suicidewall.com/SWStats.html ). A lot of PTSD suicides may be masked as car accidents and gun accidents. The Falklands death toll (255) also appears to be exceeded by the suicides (264 by 2002) (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1758301.stm). The people who fight against war are doing a huge favour for the people who fight in war. A shame this is lost on our present political leadership."

I remember some years ago that Russian officers requested help from their British counterparts after estimates that thousands of conscripts were taking their lives every year because of low morale, poor conditions and brutality meted out by superiors. It was also some years ago when Greens locally joined others in highlighting concerns in the British army - see here.

As Col. Kathy Platoni, chief clinical psychologist for the Army Reserve and National Guard, said in the CNN article, she sees the stigma associated with seeking treatment and the excessive use of anti-depressants as ongoing concerns for mental-health professionals who work with soldiers. Those who are seeking mental-health care often have their treatment disrupted by deployments. Deployed soldiers also have to deal with the stress of separations from families.

Stigma is indeed a real problem. As are issues of confidentiality in the military. It is high time we tackled the stigma associated with seeking any mental health treatment. It's a societal issue, but it is much more pronounced in the military. There seems to be a perception among some troops that seeking mental health support means you're weak or a coward and frankly. The military must take some blame as they dish out medals to those who charge up the hill, but don't really recognize the day-to-day heroism of soldiers who take care of themselves.

Apparently a US Defense Department study looking at combat troops returning from Iraq found that soldiers and Marines who need counseling the most are least likely to seek it. As many as 16 percent of the troops questioned admitted to symptoms of severe depression, Post Combat Stress Disorder and other problems. Of those, six out of 10 questioned felt their leaders would treat them differently and that fellow troops would lose confidence in them. As many as 65 percent said they'd "be seen as weak."

It is positive that more mental health assessments will be taking place to counter this - but there is still miles to go. Difficulty sleeping, reliving incidents in your mind, feeling emotionally detached are all kinds of reactions that are very common and really expected after combat - and indeed in many other challenging situations.

Interestingly there is a debate about calling troops who seek help 'patients' - in the long run this could help reduce the sense that problems coping with the horrors of combat are no different than bleeding from a gunshot wound. On the other hand, studies have shown that the more troops are treated as sick - rather than simply experiencing normal reactions - the more likely they are to wrestle with mental health problems over time.

Col. Thomas Burke, one of the Pentagon's top psychiatrists and the director of mental health policy for the Defense Department has said that for any program to work, troops and military leaders need to understand "mental illness is not the kind of unsolvable problem that it once was." The message he tries to ram home is that usually it's not a matter of "problem soldiers, but soldiers with problems."

Why we need the Stroud pound

Christian Gelleri, Manager of the Chiemgau Currency was in town last month talking about 'A Local Currency for Stroud?' The Chiemgauer is one of Germany's most successful local currencies. It began as a school project and was formally launched in the small Bavarian town of Chiemgau in 2003. There are over 600 participating businesses and 2,600 members who keep nearly 300,000 Chiemgauers in circulation.

So why are we in Transition Stroud looking at a currency for Stroud? Well this blog entry is a bit of a ramble as I've been interupted several times and never quite seem to finish it...but hey ho see what you think...

Well a 1.5% plummet in economic growth in the last three months of 2008 compounds the previous quarter’s 0.6% drop to make the UK recession official. The percentages may seem small but the continuing economic shrinkage will cause acute problems for some specific sectors - such as in retail where the damage is over 4% - taking proportionately much larger hits than others. The media suggest this recession will be wider and deeper than we endured in the early 1990s - and for many young adults it will be their first taste of austerity and social insecurity.

As noted before many Greens have called for an end to GDP as the accepted way of measuring economic health and instead “value what matters” for a more ecologically sustainable economy - infact a carbon lite life can be a happier life - see here. Certainly I would have hoped that a Green Government would have tried to engineer 0% growth carefully, deliberately and as painlessly as possible rather than through the calamitous events that have brought about the current situation.

Indeed we need to start thinking differently. George Monbiot last year quoted research that a 3% increase in economic growth (the aim of most countries) practically means a doubling of economic activity every 23 years. A doubling of growth between now and 2040 means humankind will consume more natural materials from the Earth than were used in the entire period from when we first stood on two legs up to present day. Indeed, continuation of 3% growth would mean consumption of mineral and other resources would further double between 2040 and 2063. That just isn't possible????

So let us hope the current crisis will mean a move to a more sustainable and responsible economy. What opportunities are there?

Dr Molly Scott Cato, economics spokesperson, Green Party of England & Wales - who lives in Stroud - writes: "These are interesting times for green economists. For 30 years we have been calling for a steady-state economy rather than economic growth. Two signs that we are in a steady state would be the absence of economic growth and zero interest rates. Since we have both of those now, can we take heart that the steady state may be approaching? Of course life is never so simple, and in reality what we are seeing at present is a chaotic struggle for the remaining credit by ‘businesses’ many of which do not produce anything. Without political management of the economy the descent from peak money - like the descent from peak oil that will shortly follow - gives no guarantee that the useful businesses and productive jobs will survive. In a recession the public sector increases in size relative to the private sector. Governments invest in the economy when private-sector ompanies cannot afford to. Sadly, at present they are investing in bankrupt banks rather than the transition to a low-carbon economy that the Green New Deal would ensure."

Interestingly I read that Casey Research, of Vermont, has analyzed the costs of the US government bailouts of the housing crisis, the credit crisis and others and has concluded that the total is $8.5 trillion, which is more than the cost of all US wars, the Louisiana Purchase, the New Deal, the Marshall Plan and the NASA Space Program combined. According to CRS, the Congressional Research Service, all major US wars (including such events as the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the Civil War, the Spanish American War, World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, the invasion of Panama, the Kosovo War and numerous other small conflicts), cost a total of $7.5 trillion in inflation-adjusted 2008 dollars.

The $700 billion spent bailing out banks in the US is enough to fund complete medical care for every man, woman and child currently alive in the US for 11 years!! And how far would $50 billion used to bail out the auto industry???

I was recently sent around one of those 'amusing' emails about trying to help us understand how much a billion really is....a billion seconds ago it was 1959, a billion minutes ago Jesus was alive, a billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age and a billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet. Yet a billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate our government is spending it....

In the UK too the Government is set, in effect, to own great swathes of our financial system - Northern Rock, RBS, Lloyds TSB, HBOS. Is this really the best use of money?? What opportunities are there?

See Monbiot article here about how we could solve the credit crunch without giving anything to the banks. He writes in support of local currencies - like the possible Stroud Pound - he notes the mayor of Curitiba in Brazil, kick-starting the economy of the city in 1971 by issuing currency in the form of bus tokens. People earned them by picking and sorting litter: thus cleaning the streets and acquiring the means to commute to work. Schemes like this helped Curitiba become one of the most prosperous cities in Brazil. But the projects which have proved even more effective were those inspired by the German economist Silvio Gesell. He proposed that communities seeking to rescue themselves from economic collapse should issue their own currency. To discourage people from hoarding it, they should impose a fee (called demurrage), which had the same effect as negative interest.

Monbiot writes: "No one is suggesting that we replace official currencies with local scrip: this is a complementary system, not an alternative. Nor does Lietaer propose this as a solution to all economic ills. But even before you consider how it could be improved through modern information technology, several features of Gesell’s system grab your attention. We need not wait for the government or the central bank to save us: we can set this system up ourselves. It costs taxpayers nothing. It bypasses the greedy banks. It recharges local economies and gives local businesses an advantage over multinationals. It can be tailored to the needs of the community. It does not require - as Eddie George, the former Governor of the Bank of England, insisted - that one part of the country be squeezed so that another can prosper.

"Perhaps most importantly, a demurrage system reverses the ecological problem of discount rates. If you have to pay to keep your money, the later you receive your income, the more valuable it will be. So it makes economic sense, under this system, to invest long-term. As resources in the ground are a better store of value than money in the bank, the system encourages their conservation."

The possibility of a Stroud Pound is exciting. The Mayor of Stroud has already pledged support and in this country there are other examples where it is starting to work - in Totnes they launched a currency in March 2007 - see good article in The Independent here. Lewes have also launched a local currency - see here.

In the US "BerkShares" were launched in the Southern Berkshire region of Massachusetts in 2006. They have been a huge success – some 1.43 million "BerkShares" worth $1.29m (£650,000) were issued in the scheme's first 17 months and there are now more than 300 businesses accepting them. BerkShares' organisers say: "The purpose of a local currency is to function on a local scale the same way that national currencies have functioned on a national scale – building the local economy by maximising circulation of trade within a defined region.
The currency distinguishes the local businesses that accept the currency from those that do not, building stronger relationships and a greater affinity between the business community and the locals. The people who choose to use the currency make a conscious commitment to buy local first. They are taking personal responsibility for the health and well-being of their community by laying the foundation of a thriving local economy."

The Stroud Pound is a similar idea ie to keep money in the area, thereby retaining wealth within the community. If you look at the places with economic problems it is because the wealth is leaking out of the neighbourhood.

The think-tank nef (the new economics foundation) in the 2003 book, the Real World Economic Outlook first predicted the scale, and consequences of the global credit bubble. Now that the bubble has burst, the think-tank has launched a set of proposals intended to both immediately stabilise the economy and lay the foundations for a phoenix-like new economy.

And, nef says this doesn’t mean starting from scratch: "Just beneath the economy’s surface is the sleeping architecture of a new, diverse and resilient local financial system. The same is true of Britain’s neglected and undermined network of small shops and local enterprises that contribute disproportionately to job creation and help create the social glue that holds communities together during hard times."

You can download their report here. It includes calls:

- to demerge banks that are ‘too big to fail’ - the discredited financial institutions that have needed so much public money to prop them up should be reduced to a size where their failure would not jeopardise the system itself.

- to introduce a moratorium on crash-related home evictions. The banks, which are at fault, have been bailed out to a previously unimaginable degree by the tax payer, yet thousands of hard-working home owners face the daily insecurity of potential eviction. Evictions could be stopped replaced by long-term plans for restructuring householders’ mortgage debts.

- to create a secure, accessible local banking system for people by growing the role of post offices and more.

- to use the Government’s new role in the banks to set new directions for investment to tackle the other great challenges we face: climate change and oil depletion.

- to launch a Green New Deal as mentioned before: with a windfall tax on the oil companies to invest in a massive environmental transformation programme that could insulate the economy from recession, create countless new jobs and allow Britain to pay its part in meeting the climate change challenge.

Our financial system has long since failed to do the basic job required of it – to underpin the productive economy and the fundamental operating systems of family, community and the environment upon which we all depend. Now that the state owns a large slice of the financial system, these are things we can do now.

As nef write about 2008: "This year has been finance-led capitalism’s 1989. It is now as broken as the old Soviet Union. It didn’t work for the real economy. It put people in rich and poor countries alike into debt for short-term profit. It was uncontrolled and grew in power until the tail was wagging the dog. Now there is a huge opportunity to develop a new model for a real economy that does work for people and the planet."

A Stroud Pound would be a small part of the fight to reclaim our local economy.

Gaza: this must stop

I got up too early this morning to go through some planning stuff and have several other things that have cropped up so not sure if I'll make vigil this morning - do hope I can - we want to make it bigger than ever - 11.30 to 12.30 in Stroud High Street.

Photo: from SNJ re last week's Vigil - can you make me out - the hat was a Christmas present and v much needed that day.

I have to say I have been shocked by the news reports like the Israeli attack on the headquarters of the UN's relief agency in Gaza City- this shows a complete disregard for international peace efforts – and for Palestinian human rights. Caroline Lucas, Green MEP said of the attack: “In attacking the building of a UN agency providing desperately needed aid to the beleaguered civilians of Gaza, Israel has shown yet again that its brutal shelling of Gaza is relentless, indiscriminate and indifferent to international condemnation... Since launching its offensive on the Gaza Strip, Israel has hampered access for aid agencies and international journalists, thus severely hindering humanitarian efforts and preventing the media from witnessing events on the ground. This attack on the UNRWA building proves that no one is safe from the determined bombardment by Israeli forces. The United States must urgently take heed of international protest against the continued violence meted out by the Israeli government, and call on Israel to halt their attacks and lift the blockade on Gaza, while Hamas must also end the rocket attacks on Israel immediately. Only then can a sustainable peace process begin. As Nelson Mandela stated, ‘Only free men can negotiate’.”

For the first 18 days the Israeli Government has justified to the world that their decision to unleash a massive military campaign against the people of Gaza was as a direct result of Hamas’ breach of the ceasefire brokered by the Egyptian Government. Hamas has always stated that between June 2008 and November 2008 they did not fire a single rocket into Israel. In a recent interview given to Channel 4 News, the Israeli Government’s official spokesman Mark Ragev finally admitted that Hamas did not break the ceasefire. So by their own admission the Israeli Government broke the terms of the ceasefire first and in doing so have killed 1100 people (350 of them children) and injured over 5500. Plus, as Stop the War note, 13 of their own people have also died (four of whom were civilians and four of whom were Israeli soldiers killed by their own army).

Here are some links sent to me over the last week - Chomsky is always worth a listen:
- An excellent piece - a one hour recording - download and hear Noam Chomsky on the present crisis in Gaza:
http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/31145
- Why Hamas is not the issue by Elaine C. Hagopian:
http://tinyurl.com/6uqron
- Seeing through the lies by Norman Finkelstein:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/79ergv

The United Nations, the Red Cross, Amnesty International and numerous human rights organisations have all indicated that Israel's actions in Gaza may constitute international war
crimes. There is a widespread call among legal authorities in this country and abroad for the case to be tried in an international court. UN representative Richard Falk says, "The tactics being used by Israel are serious violations of the UN charter, the Geneva conventions, international law and international humanitarian law." A group of prominent lawyers in this country have published a letter which says, "The blockade of humanitarian relief, the destruction of civilian infrastructure, and preventing access to basic necessities such as food and fuel are prima facie war crimes."

In Parliament Gerald Kaufman asked foreign secretary David Miliband in the House of Commons this week, "Is it not an incontrovertible fact that Olmert, Livni and Barak are mass-murderers and war criminals", Miliband replied that "Israel is rightly seen as a beacon of democracy throughout the world."

Stop the War comment: "If any other country in the world, "democracy"or not, had unleashed an onslaught of such devastating ferocity against 1.5 million defenceless people caged in the most densely populated area on earth, the British government, along with governments across the world, would be expelling its ambassador (as Venezuela has done), stopping arms sales to that country (as Greece has done) and making plans for a wider embargo if the carnage did not stop."

On the diplomatic front, the latest is that the US with Obama's agreement and Israel signed an agreement that in the event of a 'ceasefire', the US will ensure that Hamas (the elected governing party of the victims) is completely disarmed. Meanwhile the US will keep the aggressor fully equipped with fighter planes, vessels of war, tanks and no doubt parts for its nuclear weapons. This does seem odd indeed!!

I read that Chris Coverdale from Lawyers Against War, and former MI5 officer and whistleblower, Annie Machon, are touring as part of the Make War History tour with events in 12 UK cities including Bristol before widening the tour across Europe. I heard that Chris Coverdale spoke at one of these events already about the illegality of all wars in the modern era - including Iraq and Gaza. He argued that since 1928 and the Kellogg-Briand Pact making war-making has been completely illegal. He explained what war law is and what the different crimes are: genocide, crimes against humanity, etc. And also by looking at how we are - by practically supporting our government through taxes etc - are therefore also complicit by aiding and abetting how war crimes being committed. He argues we have a duty to stop any payment of taxes, fees, fines, etc, until they are shown (in court) to be of no help to government in making war. He has paid no taxes for ten years. He aims to build a campaign of complete "civil obedience" to the law, perhaps the most important laws in world history. Locally Roger Franklin is the best known witholder of war taxes - see here.

Anyway I want to write much more but have to dash - Stop the War have a petition available online for downloading. War on Want have an email letter calling on the Foreign Secretary for sanctions - see here. And click here for all posts re Gaza which include other petitions.

Stroud Vigil for Gaza

Stroud High Street saw close to a 100 people join the vigil earlier today to end the Israel-Gaza conflict. The rest of the country saw many similar protests including a march in Gloucester and in London an estimated 100,000 people turned out (see here).

Photos: Pics of the demo this morning

In Stroud the vigil was for an hour finishing in a circle with a few minutes of silence. For me such protests are crucial to highlight the failings of the EU and our Government to use their political leverage to try and stop the war - nearly 800 people killed and thousands more injured.

It was great to see so many people attend the protest and feel their strength of feeling. We must have an immediate and complete ceasefire in Gaza. There is no way to justify this continued devastating assault and granting only three hours of respite a day is simply shameful.

Martin Whiteside, the Green party's Parliamentary candidate for Stroud, who helped organise the vigil said in a news release soon to go out: "We should not forget our own government is implicated in the slaughter, since it continues to export arms to Israel-arms. Indeed last year saw a major increase in the number of arms exports it licensed. There should be an immediate end to all arms exports from the EU, but if that cannot be secured, then the Prime Minister must act alone. The UK urgently needs a truly ethical foreign policy. We all need to lobby, lobby, lobby and take any other action we can think of to end this crisis."

Martin Whiteside added: "The Green Party is also calling on the UK Government to revoke its support for any new agreements with Israel, calling on the European Parliament to refuse to endorse any extension of existing agreements and seeking that the EU uses its influence to prevent any upgrades of EU benefits to Israel until it abides by its international legal and humanitarian obligations."

I have to note my shock at the United States vetoing a UN resolution calling for a ceasefire - this surely gives a green light to Israel to keep up the bombing on civilians, keep depriving the majority of civilians of electricity, fuel and clean water, keep denying the Red Cross access to the injured and keep up the blockade to deprive the country of food and essential medicines.

The protests are a great sign of hope that such barbarism must stop - it was great to read that Norwegian Locomotive Drivers Union have shown what trade unions in Britain should be doing now: on Thursday all trains in the whole of Norway, and all trams and subways in Oslo, stood still for two minutes in protest against the Israeli invasion. The union issued the following information for passengers: "Because of the situation in the Gaza Strip, the Locomotive Drivers Union in Norway has decided to demonstrate our solidarity with the Palestinian people. This will be organised by adding two more minutes of stoppage at the station. The same action applies to all passenger trains in Norway simultaneously. We demand the immediate withdrawal of all Israeli troops from the Palestinian territory. Thank you for your understanding."

More shockingly on Friday Al Jazeera English was reporting that it believed white phosphorus is being used by the Israelis forces in Gaza. This forms clouds which can spread over large areas and cause third degree burns. Its use at Fallujah in Iraq was widely condemned and it has been used in Afghanistan. Despite its indiscriminate character, it is not illegal in international law. I hope sincerely that it has not been used.

I also read here re how the conflict in Gaza can be seen in the context of a decade of war that has forged an even closer military alliance between Washington and Tel Aviv. See here Martin Whiteside's comment piece that was in todays Citizen - there will hopefully be another news release soon but I'm having problems with my emails...indeed I've not received any for over 24 hours.