On 10 April 2009, Pakistan’s second-largest English-language newspaper (circulation 140,000), the News International, cited figures on US drone attacks “compiled by the Pakistani authorities”. According to these figures, of the 60 cross-border Predator drone strikes into Pakistan between 14 January 2006 and 8 April 2009, only 10 hit their actual targets, killing 14 wanted al-Qaeda leaders. These 60 strikes also killed a reported 687 Pakistani civilians.
Of the 14 drone attacks…
While newspapers and politicians fulminate against the terrorist threat to Britain that supposedly emanates from Pakistan, few British commentators have even noticed the large-scale state terrorism being practised in Pakistan by the US and Britain – and the Pakistani government (under pressure from Washington).
When referred to at all – usually in passing – Pakistani government actions in the border Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) are usually referred to, euphemistically…
Ian Tomlinson, 47, was a newspaper seller on his way home from work on 1 April.
6pm: Eyewitness Ross Hardy sees four riot police drag Mr Tomlinson to the pavement after he does not move out of the way of a police van, standing in the road.
7.15pm: Photographer Anna Branthwaite sees Mr Tomlinson pushed to the ground by a policeman near Threadneedle Street: “he did actually roll…. [he] bounced because of the force of the impact…. The officer hit him twice with a baton when…
American Indian activist and former professor Ward Churchill won a wrongful-termination case against University of Colorado on 2 April, convincing the jury that he was fired for controversial remarks about 11 September victims rather than for alleged research misconduct.
Churchill attracted attention in 2005 with his 2001 essay “On the Justice of Roosting Chickens”, in which he compared the involvement in US policies of finance workers killed on 9/11 to the bureaucratic nazism of…
Following the inaugaral gathering last November , a second, smaller, Anti-Militarist gathering was hosted in Edinburgh on 1 March. By and large, we wanted to make sure that anti-militarist activists in Scotland were doing all they could to build up to NATO Parliamentary Assembly taking place in Edinburgh in November and the Brighton Anti-Militarist Gathering in May.
The main decision was that the network would issue a call-out for a UK “Day of Action” against the NATO summit in…
More news on the disruption of the Israeli Jerusalem Quartet’s concert at the 2008 Edinburgh Festival (see PN 2502).
Campaigners from Scottish Palestine Solidarity (SPS) stopped the string quartet from playing several times during a concert in August 2008. They were protesting against Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and in support of a cultural boycott of Israel. Four were arrested and charged with “breach of the peace”. This charge was dropped, in favour of the more serious…
Part of a delegation from the European Parliament sent to report on the humanitarian situation in Gaza following 22 days of Israeli bombing, I prepared myself for the worst but the reality still shocked me. In parts of Gaza City whole streets had been reduced to rubble and survivors lived in tents on the sites of their former homes.
In the Al Hajaj house in Zeitoun, a young man told how his father and baby sister had been killed before his eyes when a bomb came through the roof. He…
On Saturday 14 March, I woke early and was up and about with an uncharacteristic spring in my step. I can hardly remember such a joyful start to a day.
Okay, the sun was shining and a chaffinch trilled in the garden, and I’m sure that had something to do with my mood. But the real reason I was so enthused – and activists may need to take a seat – was because I was going to a meeting!
A reinvigorated Cynefin-Y-Werin (Common Ground) network met at the Morlan in Aberystwyth…
On every demonstration we are subject to being photographed by the police – presumably to add to the vast database the government holds on us – on a level constituting harassment. But as of 16 February, we may risk 10 years inside if we dare to photograph them!
That was the day when section 76 of the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008 came into effect, under which eliciting, publishing or communicating information on members of the armed forces, intelligence services and police officers…
US president Barack Obama came to power promising both to talk to his enemies and to “finish the job” in Afghanistan (a phrase he used while visiting Kabul in July 2008). We are now seeing how these contradictory pledges are shaping US policy: “talking to enemies” has been revealed to be little more than propaganda; “finishing off the enemy” – through military escalation – is the core policy. The escalation is not only in Afghanistan, but across the border into Pakistan, and not only in the…
Last month, a Qatari ex-Guantanamo prisoner, a Palestinian human rights leader, a Lebanese newspaper editor and a British MP were all prevented from entering other countries.
Jarullah al-Marri, who was released from Guantanamo last year after seven years’ imprisonment, was detained at Heathrow, ostensibly because he failed to notify the government of his time in Guantanamo.
Al-Marri, who was planning to attend a reunion of ex-Guantanamo prisoners, was instead extradited to…
The Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at then-US president George W. Bush in December was sentenced to three years in prison on 12 March.
Muntazer al-Zaidi pleaded “not guilty” to the charges and could have received up to 15 years in prison. He said his reaction represented the attitude of the Iraqi people at the time.
Bush was holding a good-bye trip in Iraq when al-Zaidi shouted the president was “a dog” and flung his shoes at the president, saying they were a “…
When the owners of Prisme Packaging in Dundee decided to shut up shop, they were hoping that their employees would go quietly. They certainly weren’t expecting them to refuse to leave and to occupy their former place of work!
But that’s exactly what 12 workers did in response to management’s shock announcement on 4 March that the firm was closing down with immediate effect and without redundancy pay.
The fact that this was a non-unionised workplace may have something to do with…
Following Climate Camp Cymru in mid-August, Wales set up a neighbourhood at the Climate Camp in London. The first of the Wales crew arrived with our enormous marquee squeezed into a small camper van. After a battle with the elements we got the marquee pegged down and could set up to boil the kettle for a much-needed brew.
Other Wales Campers arrived once the site had been taken in a swoop. “Is this the right station?” we wondered, exiting Blackheath station. Surprised by the…
Plaid Cymru environmental and justice campaigner Jill Evans was re-elected to Brussels, while Labour slumped in the vote, losing their second seat to UKIP. It was a good night for the Tories in Wales too, topping the poll for the first time since 1859, a time before universal suffrage for men or a secret ballot.
Labour’s vote in Wales is fragmenting, doubtlessly aided by courting free-market policies that alienated the traditional “working class” vote – as evidenced in…
On 7 March, I was at Newbury Magistrates' Court, Berkshire, putting Trident nuclear weapons on trial. I was charged with “obstruction of the highway'' for a peaceful sitdown protest outside the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston last July, during the 86-day, 900-mile Footprints for Peace walk from Dublin to London which I completed.
The court heard how I joined three walkers from the US - Liana and Aleta Johannaber from Georgia, and Bernie Meyer (aka “the American Gandhi”)…
Between 8-11 September the ExCeL Centre in London’s Docklands hosted the Defence Services Equipment International exhibition (DSEi), the world’s largest arms fair.
The day before the arms fair proper began, a connected “UK Defence Conference” was held at the QEII conference centre in Westminster. Before this started, Christian peace activist Chris Cole sprayed “Build Peace, not War Machines” across the doors and “arms trade = death” on the steps. Chris, director of the Fellowship…
The Drax 29, who in June had obstructed a train carrying 1,000 tonnes of coal to be burnt at Europe’s largest coal-fired power station, were sentenced on 4 September. Five activists who had previous convictions were given 60 hours’ community service each, and three were ordered to pay £1,000 in court costs. However, the remainder were all given conditional discharges.
Beth Stratford said she was “really relieved” at the verdict, “but Drax costs £3m [in damage to environment and…
Joe Glenton – the British lance corporal who refuses to return to Afghanistan on grounds of conscience (see PN 2513) – has had two charges of disobeying a lawful command dropped. Glenton, who handed himself in after two years absent without official leave, still faces one charge of desertion, and will face a court martial on 2 November.
US resisters
At least three US soldiers are currently in jail for war resistance.
Cliff Cornell travelled to Canada in 2005 to resist…
On 12 February, after a surprisingly brief trial (the judge cut the presentation of complex evidence down to one day), peace activist and former Nottingham University student Hicham Yezza came closer to being deported from Britain after a jury found him guilty of lying to immigration officials about the expiry of his visa – “securing avoidance of enforcement action by deceptive means”.
Sentencing is due on 6 March, at which point the government is likely to resume its campaign to…
