Save The Planet, Stop Wars.

       At the moment environment destruction is now moving to the headlines. People are becoming more aware of the need to sort out our energy supplies away from fossil fuels to renewable energy. They are taking to the streets, "extinction rebellion", and the dedicated kids having a one day strike a week, all points to this awareness. Then there is the drive to get companies to vastly reduce their use of plastics. Then of course the blame game, it is up to you to just boil enough water for one cup of tea, turn your central heating down a degree, take a shorter shower, take a shallower bath. All well and good, after all, each little helps.

     Meantime, airline companies are doing their best to increase passenger numbers, Travel agents are trying hard to ship more and more people to further and further "exotic" holidays. Cruise liners are pushing hell for leather to increase the numbers that float around the oceans, merrily polluting, CEO and other billionaire buy ever larger and more luxurious yachts and private jets. 

       Sort out that lot and you would make a big impact on environmental pollution. Then of course there is war, probably the most devastating polluter on the planet. Wars and the backup companies that are necessary for developing, manufacturing and delivering the implements of wars, plus the logistics of carrying out these endless wars, out strip most other polluters on the planet.

     But so often, wars don't appear on the environmentalist's list, and governments all make pleasurable sounds about cutting greenhouse gases, but doing next to nothing, and the same time arming themselves to the teeth and supporting these endless wars.

      Then there is the pentagon, without a doubt, the world's worst polluter.

This extract from Liberation, 

(newspaper of the Party for Socialism and Liberation): 

Navajo land contaminated with uranium

        Large swaths of Native lands have been contaminated by the military. U.S.-funded mining companies blasted 4 million tons of uranium for atomic weapons out of more than 500 mines on Navajo land between 1944 and 1986. The mines are now abandoned, leaving the Navajo nation with poisonous waste from the mines, and radioactive drinking water. Many Navajo people have died of kidney failure and cancer, conditions linked to uranium contamination. And new research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show uranium in babies born now. And then there’s the contamination that waging war brings. Iraq is littered with high levels of nuclear and dioxin contamination, the Guardian notes. Additionally, after the bombing by the U.S. in its first war against Iraq in 1991:

 “Sewage flowed into the streets and rivers. Refineries and pipelines leaked oil into the soil. The economic sanctions imposed on Iraq meant little was repaired and land and cities have been poisoned. One observer in Basra in 2008 said people “live amid mud and faeces. … Childhood cancer rates in Basra are the highest in Iraq. The city’s salty tap water makes people ill. And there is more garbage on the streets than municipal collectors can make a dent in.”

       U.S. use of toxic and radioactive depleted uranium weapons in Iraq have lead to an unprecedented number of birth defects there. These same U.S. weapons that poison people and the earth were used in Bosnia, Serbia, Kosovo, Lebanon, Gaza, Iraq in both Gulf Wars, Afghanistan, North Pakistan, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, and Libya.

War-makers reject science, plan more polluting

      But the U.S. Department of Defense is not done polluting. In November 2016, the U.S. Navy announced its plan to release 20,000 tons of environmental “stressors,” including heavy metals and explosives, into the coastal waters of the U.S. Pacific Northwest. It also plans to release every year some 4.7 to 14 tons of “metals with potential toxicity” into inland waters along the Puget Sound in Washington state.
     In response to public concerns, a Navy spokeswoman said that heavy metals and depleted uranium are no more dangerous than any other metal, a statement that represents a clear rejection of scientific facts.

Read the full article HERE: 
 
       If we really wish to save the planet and the species that live on it, then we have to take a holistic view of the situation and environmentalists have to put war at the top of their list.

Visit ann rky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

US Police Kill 234 Black People In 6 Months.

          An appeal from Color Of Change, an an organisation fighting police racism and brutality in the US. The figures speak for themselves, 234 Black individuals kill by the police in six months. What country can tolerate such blatant racial brutality, no way can a country be called civilizied that tolerates such racial brutality.

    My name is Scott Roberts, and this is my third day as Criminal Justice Director at ColorOfChange. For months, I have admired the hard work of ColorOfChange members like you and I am honored to be joining this critical community of people committed to achieving Black liberation — especially at a time like this.
   In the past 6 months, police have killed at least 234 Black people nationwide — an average of more than 1 person a day. 1

It’s a painfully familiar story:
        Police — driven by explicit or implicit anti-Black racism — brutalize or kill a Black person who is doing nothing more than shopping at the grocery store, driving home from work, playing in the park or reaching out for help;2,3,4,5 Law enforcement and police associations then criminalize the victim, often lying, filing false police reports or planting evidence to cover up the truth.6 The media jumps on board, but within just a few days or weeks journalists stop covering the story; the community and family are left broken hearted, fighting a near impossible fight for justice, which is almost always denied.7
      We must stop this vicious cycle. As we know from past experiences, police cannot police themselves. Prosecutors rely greatly on police for help with their cases, which makes it far less likely they will risk the political fallout that comes with holding abusive and discriminatory officers accountable. If we want justice, we need to be ready to take matters into our own hands.
       Will you donate $5 a month to our Rapid Response Private Investigator Fund? If enough people contribute, we can put independent investigators on the ground following police violence targeting Black people to help expose the truth and build momentum for justice.
     Following Sandra Bland’s tragic death in Waller County, TX you and more than 3,000 ColorOfChange members donated to hire a private investigator. It was clear from day one that Waller County District Attorney Elton Mathis and Sheriff Glenn Smith would likely fail to properly investigate Sandra's death. If her family hadn't raised their voices, the public would've never seen the video of Texas State Trooper Brian Encinia racially profiling and violently arresting Sandra — DA Mathis was ready to wash his hands and rule Sandra's death a suicide, no questions asked.
      Part 1 of our investigation was released last week, and the results are deeply disturbing. Attorney Paul Looney, who was appointed by the Sheriff to lead an investigation into the Sheriff Department, has confirmed that the investigation is a sham: "We're not trying to do an exposé...[Sheriff Glenn Smith] can read it or not read it...if he wants to throw the whole thing in the trash can, he can.’"8
      This is exactly the type of information we need to help secure justice for Sandra. Following cases of police violence, local officials often wait for the media attention to fade away before denying justice to Black families suffering one of the worst injustices this world has to offer. But we can't let that happen. A Rapid Response Private Investigator Fund will allow us to uncover the truth, keep the media attention alive and expose the different forms of anti-Black racism in an area in order to plan campaigns for systemic change.
     Tragically, police will kill hundreds more Black people in the coming months and we must be ready to act quickly. This fall marks 10 years that ColorOfChange members have taken action to strengthen and amplify Black political power in America. In the coming days, you will receive a number of different fundraisers asking you to support the critical work of our community in the years ahead. We depend on you. Your donations — the hard-earned dollars you give because you believe in justice — are what sustain our work.
      Private investigators cost on average $5,000. If just 3,000 ColorOfChange members gave $5 a month for at least 6 months we could afford to hire at least 15 private investigators. Click here to donate.

Onward,
— Scott, Rashad, Arisha, Lyla and the rest of the ColorOfChange.org team
September 30th, 2015
References
1. "National Police Violence Map," We the Protesters, updated 9/21/2015
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/5370?t=4&akid=4859.2196388.7p1tH2

2. "No Charges in Ohio Police Killing of John Crawford as Wal-Mart Video Contradicts 911 Caller Account," Democracy Now! 9-25-2015
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/4477?t=6&akid=4859.2196388.7p1tH2

3. "‘I will light you up!': Texas officer threatened Sandra Bland with Taser during traffic stop," Washington Post 7-22-2015
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/5045?t=8&akid=4859.2196388.7p1tH2

4. "As investigation enters fifth month, Tamir Rice’s mother has moved into a homeless shelter," Washington Post 05-04-2015
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/5371?t=10&akid=4859.2196388.7p1tH2

5. "'Black women unnamed': how Tanisha Anderson's bad day turned into her last," The Guardian 06-05-2015
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/5372?t=12&akid=4859.2196388.7p1tH2

6. "Walter Scott, Michael Slager, Taser planted?" Slate 04-07-2015
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/5373?t=14&akid=4859.2196388.7p1tH2

7. "Thousands dead, few prosecuted," Washington Post 04-11-2015
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/4861?t=16&akid=4859.2196388.7p1tH2

8. "The Sandra Bland Investigation Is In Trouble," Huffington Post 9-24-2015
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/5349?t=18&akid=4859.2196388.7p1tH2

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Privatisied War

Published on Jun 30, 2014

"WASHINGTON — Just weeks before Blackwater guards fatally shot 17 civilians at Baghdad's Nisour Square in 2007, the State Department began investigating the security contractor's operations in Iraq. But the inquiry was abandoned after Blackwater's top manager there issued a threat: "that he could kill" the government's chief investigator and "no one could or would do anything about it as we were in Iraq," according to department reports.

       American Embassy officials in Baghdad sided with Blackwater rather than the State Department investigators as a dispute over the probe escalated in August 2007, the previously undisclosed documents show. The officials told the investigators that they had disrupted the embassy's relationship with the security contractor and ordered them to leave the country, according to the reports."* The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur breaks it down.

*Read more here from James Risen / NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/30/us/...

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

The State Always Tries To Crush Resistance.

Solidarity doesn't recognise borders, resistance knows no frontiers.

An Appeal from US Palestinian Community Network:

ALL OUT FOR DETROIT
To Defend Rasmea Odeh

         Rasmea Odeh, Palestinian community leader and icon, begins her trial on June 10th. Despite months of Rasmea Defense Committee organizing in Chicago and across the nation, the U.S. government refuses to drop its case against Rasmea, who they are alleging lied on an immigration application she filled out 20 years ago.

       If found guilty, she could face up to ten years in federal prison, an immediate revocation of her citizenship, and then deportation from the United States.

NOT UNDER OUR WATCH!

        The charge against Rasmea is nothing but another political attack by the U.S. government, meant to defame and criminalize another Palestinian, Arab and Muslim leader who has dedicated her life to the empowerment of her people, as well as to intimidate and repress entire communities that are organizing for justice and liberation.

         We know Rasmea never lied about any part of her life. She was brutally tortured into a confession by the Israelis 45 years ago, and now the U.S. is trying to brutalize her once again. After giving so much of her life to others, Rasmea now needs our support. We have already received statements of support from over 100 organizations and more than 3,000 people have signed the online petition for Rasmea. Now, we have to show our presence in the court rom.

That is why we are putting out the call: All Out for Detroit!

        Join us on June 10th in Detroit, Michigan, for the beginning of Rasmea's trial. We will pack the courtroom and rally outside every day of the trial to show the broad support Rasmea has across all communities.

Locations and times are still to be announced, but regularly updated information will be found at:

www.stopfbi.net
www.uspcn.org

You can also reach the Rasmea Defense Committee directly at cppr@aaan.org.

I SUPPORT RASMEA ACTION PLAN:

1) Sign the petition to drop the charges:
http://www.iacenter.org/rasmeaodehpetition/

2) Send statements of support and solidarity to cppr@aaan.org

3) Like Drop the Charges Against Rasmea on Facebook and Tweet using #justice4rasmea.

4) Send us your pictures holding up the following message: "I am _____ and I SUPPORT RASMEA." (Fill in the blank with a self-identifier - your name, occupation , or any other description. Examples: "I am a youth organizer and I support Rasmea!" or "I am a supporter of Palestinian Human Rights and I support Rasmea!" Hold the sign up, snap a selfie, and send it to cppr@aaan.org. Then make it your Facebook/Twitter/Google profile picture! Remember, we may use your image in publications or informational pamphlets either online or in distributed hard copies.)

DONATE: To help support Rasmea's defense fund, go to http://stopfbi.net/donate. You must also send an email to cppr@aaan.org, noting the amount and its designation to Rasmea in order for the funds to be allocated correctly.

If you want your donation to be tax deductible, the donation must be in the amount of $100 or more and you must pay by check to "NLG Foundation" with "Rasmea defense fund" on the memo line.

Please mail these checks to:
Arab American Action Network
ATTN: Rasmea Defense Fund
3148 W. 63rd Street, 2nd Floor
Chicago, IL 60629

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Shades Of 1914!!

       The Ukraine, two empires squabbling over territory, each wants it in their sphere of interest, each prepared to slaughter the people in their quest for control, shades of 1914!! If you are in or near London this week, a date for your diary.

This from Stop The War Coalition

6.30pm, Tuesday 15 April

· The Wesley Hotel, Euston Street, London NW1 2EZ

       The crisis in the Ukraine continues, with tensions between the big powers growing day by day. There are several factors militating against war in the immediate future, including Russia’s nuclear arsenal and trade links with EU countries. But as the establishment think-tank Stratfor has argued, it would be naive to rule out a conflagration.

• Join us for a discussion about the forces behind the Ukraine conflict
• Speakers include: Jonathan Steele, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Carol Turner and John Rees
• Share the event with your Facebook contacts

        Already NATO air drills are taking place over the Baltics, and the UK and US are sending extra jets to patrol the skies. Poland has requested 10,000 NATO troops to be stationed on its territory and MPs in Kiev have voted to hold joint military exercises with NATO. In the medium to long term, NATO is looking at establishing permanent military bases in Ukraine.

• Read Stop the War's statement on the crisis in Ukraine

And for today----

A NEW DAWN,

Today we live in a peace

midst a thousand pygmy wars;

a humanity bankrupt by its past

dragged wearily through darkness and despair

yearns for a day that's cast

long, warm and fair,

a dawn that sees humankind discard

its class, its nation and prepare

to grind outworn creeds to dust,

so mankind naked is revealed,

then moving with common cause,

share

what such a dawn may yield. 

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

The Silencing Of The People.

        This matters, this is the squeezing out of you and I, the silencing of the little people. It has to be resisted, or our voices will disappear. This appeal from Avaaz:

      The richest 1% could now control what we all see on the Internet forever. It’s the apocalypse of the Internet as we know it, and will erase the democratic promise of an information highway for everyone the founders of the world wide web imagined.
       Together, our community has built on that vision, using the web to fight corruption, save lives, and bring people-powered aid to countries in crisis. But the US and the EU are on the verge of giving the richest corporations the right to show content fast, while paywalling or slowing down everything else. Avaaz’s ability to show the world citizen journalist footage from Syria, or run campaigns to save our planet is under threat!
        Decisions on both sides of the Atlantic are being made now. But tech innovators, free speech advocates and the best web companies are fighting back. If millions of us join them now we can create the largest call for a democratic and free Internet ever. Sign up now and tell everyone:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/internet_apocalypse_pa_eu/?bwqhjab&v=34958
        Until now, any improvements in the speed and functioning of the Internet benefited all of us — if Rupert Murdoch’s ultra-conservative Fox News got a faster way to stream videos, it also benefitted independent media showing reality on the ground in Ukraine, Syria, or Palestine. Politicians called this “net neutrality” and laws protecting it used to exist in the United States until a court just struck them down. Now, the EU Parliament is threatening to pass regulation that give ISPs the right to carve up the web and control w hat we see, by slowing down or charging for sites that don't pay.
      But we can stop this. First, we will show up with massive global numbers into this week’s public meeting in the United States to decide whether to reinstate Internet protections. Then we will unleash a high powered lobby team to target the EU Parliament to ensure its committees listen to the public. This will be the big first step we need to win these important battles over the next few months.
Web providers like Verizon and Vodafone are lobbying hard for an Internet for the rich. And without a massive response from citizens, they could win, and put our whole community’s work at risk. Most of our Internet is located in the US and the EU so this affects us all. We don’t have any time to lose. Click below to join now:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/internet_apocalypse_pa_eu/?bwqhjab&v=34958
       When our community was less than half of the size it is now, we rallied and helped kill the ACTA treaty and stopped massive Internet censorship laws SOPA/PIPA. Today, we are more powerful than ever. Let’s now join together and ensure that what connects us all stays open.
With hope,
Pascal, Emma, Dalia, Luis, Emilie, Luca, Sayeeda and the whole Avaaz team
    PS - Many Avaaz campaigns are started by members of our community. It's easy to get started - click to start yours now and win on any issue - local, national or global: http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/start_a_petition/?bgMYedb&v=23917

SOURCES:
On dangers of non-Network Neutrality (ABC news):
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/major-ways-internet-change-net-neutrality/story?id=21541399
Save the Internet
http://savetheinternet.eu/en/
EU telecoms market reforms threaten net neutrality and privacy (Wire d)
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-11/19/eu-telecoms-reform-concerns

Federal court strikes down FCC net neutrality rules (The Verge)
http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/14/5307650/federal-court-strikes-down-net-neutrality-rules

Summary of BEREC positions on net neutrality (BEREC)
http://berec.europa.eu/files/document_register_store/2012/12/BoR_(12)_146_Summary_of_BEREC_positions_on_net_neutrality2.pdf

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Austerity My Arse.

 

       Austerity is the cry from governments across the world, but that only applies to the social side of society. Every budget gets trimmed, benefits get cut, wages get frozen, social services get decimated and their costs go up. However this all looks ridiculous when it comes the that side of the state apparatus called “military”. The case of the super-duper, F-35 “do-everything” fighter, makes you scratch your head and wonder, why do we tolerate such idiots running our affairs. This power monger's toy is estimated to cost the US almost $400 billion and rising. It was to be operational in 2012 but is now thought to be 2015/18, what a wonderful money spinner for the arms industry, no austerity there. It will be available to their NATO buddies and some other “friendly” nations, who will chip-in to the development fund, some of their taxpayers money for the privilege of being able to buy a few of these toys. Once you buy this money eater, you are lumbered with astronomical costs just to keep the thing running. Norwegian Rear Admiral Arne Roksund estimated the his country's 52, F-35's, will cost $769 million EACH, over their operational lifetime. When the state apparatus talks to us about “austerity”, they are really just laughing at us, and taking us for a bunch of idiots. And we are if we tolerate this unbelievable waste of time, energy and resources to be spent on the toys of empire, while millions live in poverty, millions starve and others die from preventable diseases. What will the people of the world gain from this multi-billion dollar state status symbol?

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

The State And Human Sacrifice.

        State officials sit in marble halls and decide a human being must die, this is justified by adhering to some man made code, they call it justice. In ancient times they took a human life to appease their chosen God, and we call it human sacrifice, what's the difference? The sad and abhorrent aspect of this cruel, brutal and barbaric act is that it is advocated and carried out by human beings, people with names and addresses, families and friends, and they walk among us without any display of blood on their hands and a justification that they are only doing their duty. To advocate the killing of a human being in a cold blooded frame of so called rationalism is nothing more or less than savage barbarism.

The following is an appeal from Amnesty International. 

 

	Amnesty International UK
	Warren Hill is scheduled to be executed on Monday 15th July. Please act now.

The US State of Georgia is set to put Warren to death by lethal injection on Monday at 7pm (midnight UK time), despite the fact seven doctors have unanimously agreed that he is intellectually disabled - so executing him would be unconstitutional.

What’s more, the family of the man he was convicted of murdering and several jurors at his trial have said they don’t want him to be executed. We desperately need your support to ensure the US Supreme Court intervenes to stop this injustice.

-->

      If Warren’s execution goes ahead, the Georgia authorities would be ignoring the wishes of the victim, Joseph Handspike’s, family. They would be ignoring several jurors at his 1991 trial who said they would have sentenced Warren to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole had it been an option, which it was not. They would be going against the medical opinion of seven doctors who examined Warren and unanimously agreed that he has intellectual disabilities.

And they would be going against the US Constitution. In 2002, the US Supreme Court ruled that executing people with intellectual disabilities was a cruel and unusual punishment and therefore banned under the 8th amendment.

        Act now to stop the execution of Warren Hill on Monday 15 July

     It’s down to the individual state to prove who is intellectually disabled, and Georgia requires proof ‘beyond reasonable doubt’, higher than any other US state. Warren was not found to meet this standard, but since then three doctors who gave evidence have changed their minds, and are now among the seven who believe he is intellectually disabled. Warren has already come within hours of death at the hands of the state. Eighteen people have been executed in the US so far this year. Please take action today to ensure that he is not the nineteenth.

      Act now to stop the execution of Warren Hill on Monday 15 July

     The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. One day we’ll get the whole world to abolish it, but until then we need your support to fight it, one injustice at a time.

Thank you for your continued support. Please forward this email on - we need as many people as possible to speak out today.

Kim Manning-Cooper,
Death Penalty Campaigner

ann arky's home.

Which is Safest, a Bank or a Box Under the Bed.

      I keep pumping out the message that what is happening in Greece, is on its way here via Spain, Portugal, Italy and Ireland, and now we can add Cyprus. Remember that first directive from the financial Mafia, that savings in Cyprus would be cut by up to 10%. It was thrown out by all the local politicians, so they could go back to Brussels supposedly to "discuss" the matter again, giving them and there millionaire circle of parasites time to get there money out before they came back and accepted the second and same demand, by the financial Mafia. Only this time it was rumoured that it would be 40% of savings stolen. Now the figure is going to 80% snatched from your account. Everybody is saying that is a one and only savings plunder of this type by the financial Mafia. How wrong could you be, it seems that this type of theft has been discussed by all the players in the financial Mafia club, from the US, to UK and even sunny New Zealand. It will, I have no doubt, be rolled out across all those countries that are summoned to the altar of the Trioka and told to seek a bailout. Then perhaps it could be used to supplement the "austerity" measures to encourage those mythical "green shoots of recovery". All for our benefit of course!!

      In this type of "democracy" these big decisions that can shatter the lives of millions are made in secret, by faceless suits, in sumptuous rooms in marble halls, all done and dusted away from prying eyes. Make no mistake about it, the economy in Cyprus is finished, all small and medium business will go bust, poverty and deprivation will be the norm for the unfortunate ordinary people of the sunny Mediterranean island. It will be decades of poverty and suffering for all the ordinary people, of course they can take comfort in the fact that their misery and deprivation is saving the country. Can somebody explain to me what the "country" is, if it is not its people? In true and honest language, the ordinary people are being sacrificed to save the billionaires from taking a hit on their gambling losses. We are dealing with desperate conmen, gangsters, thugs.

    This from Seeking Alpha:

     Confiscating the customer deposits in Cyprus banks, it seems, was not a one-off, desperate idea of a few eurozone "troika" officials scrambling to salvage their balance sheets. A joint paper by the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Bank of England dated Dec. 10, 2012, shows that these plans have been long in the making; that they originated with the G20 Financial Stability Board in Basel, Switzerland (discussed earlier here); and that the result will be to deliver clear title to the banks of depositor funds.

New Zealand has a similar directive, discussed in my last article here, indicating that this isn't just an emergency measure for troubled eurozone countries. New Zealand's Voxy reported on March 19:

The National Government [is] pushing a Cyprus-style solution to bank failure in New Zealand, which will see small depositors lose some of their savings to fund big bank bailouts...
Open Bank Resolution (OBR) is Finance Minister Bill English's favored option dealing with a major bank failure. If a bank fails under OBR, all depositors will have their savings reduced overnight to fund the bank's bailout.

Read the full article HERE:

      Well now you know what they discuss at those G20 parasite get-togethers.

ann arky's home.

Those Office Killer Soldiers.

    Drones are hyped as the smart clinical method of dealing with the "really bad guys" of this world, but the truth is that they are weapons of terror. They create terror when ever they are sighted over an area and result in all sort of psychological problems for those who live in or near the area where they are used. This is over and above the sudden and brutal carnage caused by their devastating fire-power. These weapons of terror are used by Britain and the US to kill in other sovereign states without any declaration of war, illegal under international law. There is a feeling of helplessness, fear and hyper anxiety in men women and children when these killers fly overhead, for good reason. These are not surgical weapons, they can wipe-out a small village in one fell swoop and the perpetrators  will call it a success if among the many killed and maimed their appointed target lies dead.

      We are under the illusion that this is a solely America crime, but the UK is up to its armpits in this illegal, soldierless program of terror and assassination. It is no more than we should expect from any state. States will always use whatever means is at their disposal to maintain their power, no matter how fiendish, vile, brutal or how dubious its legality they may be, just as long as they can get away with it covertly or overtly. It is all part and parcel of their game of empire.

 

This from The Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

    Legal proceedings were begun in London recently against British Foreign Secretary William Hague, over possible British complicity in CIA drone strikes.
     Britain’s GCHQ – its secret monitoring and surveillance agency – is reported to have provided ‘locational evidence’ to US authorities for use in drone strikes, a move which is reportedly illegal in the United Kingdom.

Also this:

    One psychiatrist told researchers that many of his patients experience ‘anticipatory anxiety,’ a constant fear that they might come under attack. The report goes on to note that:

"Interviewees described emotional breakdowns, running indoors or hiding when drones appear above, fainting, nightmares and other intrusive thoughts, hyper startled reactions to loud noises, outbursts of anger or irritability, and loss of appetite and other physical symptoms. Interviewees also reported suffering from insomnia and other sleep disturbances, which medical health professionals in Pakistan stated were prevalent.’---"

ann arky's home.

We Are Half Way There!!

       I keep mouthing off about the financial Mafia driving us back to the deprivation of the Victorian era in their attempt at creating a European sweatshop economy, well we are half way there. The figures from a newly published study from the High Pay Centre makes for some interesting reading. Its conclusions are that the UK has returned to the pay inequalities that have not been seen since the 1930's. While we, the ordinary people have seen our incomes shrivel, the top 1% have seen their share of the national income more than double since 1979, they now claim 14.5% of the national income. The national average wage in the UK sits at £20,500, while the 26,000 top earning parasites of this country receive more than that in a month after tax, taking home a tidy sum of at least £21,500 a month. Of course average earnings can be misleading, we have approximately 6.75 million people in the UK earning less than £800 a month. Think of the difference in your standard of living, £800 a month or £21,500 a month, how do you justify that disparity?

     At least one rich retired business man doesn't seem to like this. The Independent on Sunday reported that a certain Sir Mike Darrington, retired CEO of Greggs, has written to the remuneration boards of all the FTSE 100 companies begging them to show restraint on executive pay, no this is not a joke. Strange that he should write this letter AFTER he retired and not before. However I wouldn't hold my breath on a positive response from his FTSE 100 colleagues.

     Of course it is not just in Europe that this great divide is ever widening, in the US they have the same pattern, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. In that land of the free and opportunity, for the year 2009, a mere 311 Americans shared between them a staggering $54 trillion, while 80% of the American population share just 7% of the national wealth. As for the bottom 40%, well they get by with barely any wealth at all. Ah well, that's capitalism for you.

      If we want to change this, and what ordinary sane person wouldn't, we will have to take a very different approach from our Sir Mike Darrington, It is no use appealing to the charity of a bunch of greedy parasites, we have to get rid of them. Would the chickens ask the fox to help them?

ann arky's home.

Torture and the Scotish Census.

Support Barbara Dowling - on trial over the census on 19 February

Glasgow Sheriff Court.

Assemble outside the court from 9.30pm

Trial from 10am.

     Barbara Dowling's long delayed trial for allegedly refusing to fully complete her census form will be held on 19 February, in Glasgow Sheriff Court. Even if you can't come along for the whole of the trial, please show your support by joining us outside the court from 9.30am.

       A US-based defence contractor involved in human rights abuses at Abu Ghraib Prison helped to run the census. The contractor - CACI International - has tried for years to claim immunity from lawsuits relating to its involvement in torture and abuse. But people in Scotland who refused, as a matter of conscience, to participate fully in the census are being pursued as criminals through the Scottish courts.

See:             http://www.ethicalcensus.org.uk/

More info:     contact@ethicalcensus.org.uk

or phone:       07936432519 or 07786630764

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Imperialist Office Warriors.

      President Obama's inaugural speech last month was the voice of hypocrisy, The Prince of Peace stated, and stated without a hint of embarrassment, that “A decade of war is now ending,” --”We, the people, still believe that enduring and lasting peace do not require perpetual war.” What that translates into is, “We will not be sending so many of you overseas to kill and maim, you will be able to do this from a comfortable office in Nevada and Saudi Arabia.

     We are now seeing foreign invading troops preparing to leave Afghanistan without having achieved their object, since nobody seems to be able to say what was the object. That doesn't mean the end of the military campaign, the war will continue from computer screens in the form of drones. According to a report from the area of North Waziristan, from 2008 to 1012, there have been around 147 drone strikes, killing 894 people with 211 injured. This year has seen an escalation in the number of drone attacks in Pakistan and Yemen.

      The face of imperialist wars is changing, weapon laden armour plated boots will still be called on to do some of the dirty work, but this will be their cleaning up operations. The real slaughter will be done by young smooth faced office workers, sitting at their desks marking up scores on hits, just like any other computer game. Only this time it is for real, real bodies being blown to bits, real children dying, real homes being demolished. No need to be a battle hardened trained killer, you can make you way up the military ladder by having the highest score of hits in the office.

       Just to encourage those 9 to 5 office work killers and make them feel part of the “hero” brigade, they are considering creating a medal for the cyber-killers. Defence Secretary Leon Panetta recently announced that the Pentagon is creating a medal that can be awarded to troops who have a direct impact on combat operations, but do it well away from any combat zone.

     To those on the receiving end of drone warfare, the result is just as bloody, destructive and terrifying as any other type of warfare. There is no such thing as clean humane warfare. Drones of course sanitise it for the perpetrators of that destructive violence. You can kill from 9 to 5 and then go home to your family and have a night out. This is the new imperialist warfare. In an interview Secretary of Defence Leon Panetta. Asked by journalist Martha Raddatz whether the 2014 pullout of U.S. troops from Afghanistan would mean an increased reliance on drones, Panetta said: “ I think that's reality. We've done that in Pakistan. We're doing it in Yemen and elsewhere. And I think the reality is it's going to be a continuing tool of national defense in the future.”

     There is a ready trained army of computer literate kids, experts at computer games all well able to spend a few hours a day playing their game and getting paid and walking away as if it were “just a game”. It is a frightening thought, but it is our future, unless we do something to change the system.

 

 

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STRANGE HAPPENINGS.

       The strange happenings in a police car. A 17 year old student is searched, handcuffed with his hands behind his back and put in the back of a police car, then shoots himself??

US.NEWS:

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GOVERNMENTS JUST KEEP DRONING ON!!

          There is a quiet revolution taking place in the developed world and there isn't much coverage in our babbling brook of bullshit, the media. It is considered illegal to send armed assassins into another country and blow somebody's head off. However America does this almost on a daily basis, the reason they seem to get away with it is that they have managed to do this without sending in armed humans. They send their armed drones across borders and and pull the trigger from some air conditioned office in the US. The difference with this method and an assassin, is that a human assassin may succeed with a simple bullet to the head, the drone on the other hand will blow up a building, a car or a truck and tough luck if you happen to be an innocent by-stander. Ten years ago in America's war against the world, less than 5% of its military aircraft were unmanned, now it is approximately 40% unmanned.

          This type of technology is far to good an opportunity for the authorities to ignore, millions of pounds of public money are being poured into the development of drones of all sizes. BAE leads a consortium of defence companies that have been handed almost £31 million in regional funding to come up with a way of making drones capable of sharing our skies with other air users. At the cost of £17 million an old military site in Aberporth in Wales has been turned into the first and largest centre in Europe specifically for flying and testing civilian drones. US congress as asked the Air Space Regulator, The FAA, to free up American airspace for drone use by 2015, the UK is expected to follow suit latter. The FAA also stated that it expected about 10,000 unmanned commercial drones flying in America's airspace by 2017.

       Though they talk of civilian drones, it is the surveillance aspect that authorities are more concerned about. Five police forces in England have tested the use of drones and Staffordshire police still use them. Kent police have teamed up with their partners in UK, France and the Netherlands to try to come up with a policy for using unmanned drones in the English Channel.

The US Homeland Security use unarmed predator drones to police the Mexican border. Big Brother has truly arrived.

        In about 3 years I would expect to see unmanned drones hovering over demonstrations, parades, marches and football grounds, and while you're enjoying that rock concert, have a wee look skywards. There appears to be no limit to which these drones can be put, from the very small, photographing everything the authorities want to keep an eye on, to the larger armed ready to direct force to where the authorities think it is necessary. Control, that's what it is all about, control of you and me.

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WHY AFGHANISTAN?

          The war in Afghanistan has been a costly, bloody and brutal affair, it has been 11years of savage conflict where the NATO countries have poured in money and young lives. The total NATO deaths has passed the 3,000 mark, of those more than 2,000 were American forces and over 400 were from UK forces. On top of that there has been tens of thousands of physically injured and mentally scarred young people from the NATO forces. Then of course there is the figures that get very little coverage in that babbling brook of bullshit, Western media, Afghan civilians killed. The figures are horrendous, according the UN figures almost 13,000 have been killed in the last six years, 2,332 in 2011 alone, a 10% increase on the previous year. Then it being a capitalist war we have to look at the financial side. The estimated cost to the US tax payer, calculated up to September this year, will be a staggering $487.6 billion, and to the UK tax payer it will be £20billion. How much is that in social services?

        Why have the Western nations poured so much in suffering and money into this poor country? To catch/kill, Osama bib Laden? To bring democracy to the Afghans? Well they have succeed the first mentioned, at what cost? They have of course failed miserably in the latter.

       However could the reason for this costly savage slaughter be clarified by this extract from a BBC article:

 

      Afghanistan is known to have vast reserves of oil, gas, copper, cobalt, gold and lithium. In late 2011, a consortium of Indian companies inked a deal to begin mining some of the country's large stores of iron. But the country is known to have a wider array of mineral resources; in 2010, the Afghan ministry of mines claimed a value of its reserves of nearly a trillion dollars, then carrying out tours to promote investment in them.

Continue READING:

       Of course a Western compliant puppet government in Afghanistan would see them control those assets as the have done in Libya and Iraq, with Syria and Iran in their radar.

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