STOP THE WAR COALITION NEWSLETTER
No. 2006/42
14
November 2006
IN THIS NEWSLETTER:
1) WHY STOP THE WAR DEFENDS
THE MUSLIM infoMUNITY
2) PLACES FILLING FAST FOR PEOPLE'S ASSEMBLY
3) WHO KILLED JAMIE HANCOCK?
4) MILITARY FAMILIES AGAINST THE WAR:
AN INSPIRATION TO US ALL
5) ROBERT FISK: HERE infoE THE ODIOUS EXCUSES
56 NIGHTMARE IN BEIT HANOUN:
HOW GAZA OFFENDS US ALL
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1) WHY
STOP THE WAR DEFENDS THE MUSLIM infoMUNITY
The timing of the publication
in today's Guardian (14 November) of Stop the War's open letter
opposing attacks on the Muslim infomunity could not have been more
appropriate. Just as timely is our People's Assembly in London this
Saturday 18 November to discuss "Islamophobia And The War On Terror", for
which bookings are pouring in from across the country (see below).
The last week has shown only
too clearly that the attacks on Muslims by Tony Blair and government
ministers will be intensified, as those who took us into what The
Independent newspaper calls "this futile and wretched war" desperately
seek to divert attention from their war crimes by scapegoating a whole
infomunity.
Even the head of Britain's
secret services, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, weighed in with her claim
that there are at present 30 terror plots being planned in Britain by
1,600 potential terrorists (why no arrests?) and her statement that "young
teenagers are being groomed to be suicide bombers" (SEE
http://tinyurl.info/y9ens5).
No mention here of course of the "young teenagers being groomed" to wage
war in Iraq, like Jamie Hancock, the 19 year old British soldier who was
killed just too weeks after being sent to Basra to fight what his father
calls a "pointless" war.
Manningham-Buller was echoed
last Friday (November 3) by Tony Blair, who said, "It's a very long and
deep struggle but we have to stand up and be counted for what we believe
in and take the fight to those people who want to entice young people into
something wicked and violent but utterly futile."
Unsurprisingly, no mention by
Blair of the "something wicked and violent but utterly futile" instigated
by war criminals like himself and George Bush, which has slaughtered
hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and turned Iraq into what writer Robert
Fisk calls a "hell-disaster".
Not wanting to be left out of
the Muslim baiting, UK foreign secretary Margaret Becket said last week
that British Muslims have a "special ability" to "stand up and be counted"
against a "cult that sells such a vision to impressionable young men and
women and that it encourages a young man to blow himself up on a tube
train." (SEE
http://tinyurl.info/shdvn)
No mention here of the
Bush/Blair "cult" which "sells" a "vision" that has caused unimaginable
levels of carnage in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is the real root of
atrocities like last year's London bombings, as admitted by leaked
government documents (SEE
http://tinyurl.info/ykpuw4).
In the words of our open
letter: "The current attacks on Muslims are rooted in the disastrous 'war
on terror', of which this government has been such a prominent supporter.
This war has made Britain more vulnerable, not less, to terrorist
attack…If the government is concerned about improving the cohesion of our
infomunities, let it first abandon its support for the foreign policy of
the US administration, including the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan."
(SEE
http://tinyurl.info/uvaav)
Dozens of public figures and
celebrities have signed the letter (SEE
http://tinyurl.info/yaez32), a number of whom will be speaking at
Saturday's People's Assembly in London, which will discuss the issues
raised by the letter (see below).
We are asking all our
supporters to add their name to this letter before we deliver it to Tony
Blair at Downing street in the near future. PLEASE SIGN THE OPEN LETTER
"DEFEND THE MUSLIM infoMUNITY" HERE:
http://tinyurl.info/y52e73
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2) PLACES FILLING FAST FOR
PEOPLE'S ASSEMBLY:
ISLAMOPHOBIA AND THE WAR ON
TERROR
SATURDAY 18 NOVEMBER 10AM – 5.30PM
CAMDEN CENTRE, LONDON, WC1H
Registrations are pouring in
from all over the country for Stop the War's People's Assembly on Saturday
18 November, which will discuss "ISLAMOPHOBIA AND THE WAR ON TERROR.
Places are still available but immediate registration is advisable
(telephone 020 7278 6694).
Speakers include Tony Benn,
Adam Price MP, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Rose Gentle (Military Families Against
the War), Lindsey German (Stop the War), Anas al Tikriti, Moazzam Begg,
Jean Lambert MEP, Cllr Salma Yaqoob, John McDonnell MP, Kate Hudson (CND),
Sami Ramadani, playwright David Edgar, Labour NEC member Walter Wolfgang ,
Ismael Patel, Yvonne Ridley (Islam Channel) and the two brothers who were
victims of the infopletely unfounded police raid in Forest Gate this
Summer.
The assembly agenda will
include sessions on:
* The war on Terror and its
Consequences
* Resisting War and Islamophobia
* Organising to Stop the Backlash
The assembly is open to all,
whether delegates representing organisations or individuals attending as
observers. Delegates and observers will have equal speaking rights in all
sessions but only delegates will be
entitled to vote on the assembly's closing declaration.
FOR FULL DETAILS OF THE
ASSEMBLY, GO TO
http://tinyurl.info/ydydf5
TO REGISTER NOW, TELEPHONE 020 7278 6694
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3) WHO KILLED JAMIE HANCOCK?
In his latest article, John
Pilger asks, "Why aren't Blair and Bush being charged with 'the paramount
war crime', that is, unprovoked aggression against a defenceless
country?". Pilger gives a roll call of all those -- alongside
criminals-in-chief Bush and Blair -- who should be indicted for this crime
(see
http://tinyurl.info/ym3uqu).
That roll call answers the
question, Who killed Jamie Hancock?, the 19 year old British soldier, who
died a week ago in Basra. But there is an even more direct answer. Jamie
Hancock died just four days before George Bush's Republican party suffered
massive electoral defeats, due largely to his war policies. As The Sunday
Times reported, "The reason British troops remained in such numbers was
that Blair was reluctant to embarrass Bush with any withdrawals before
last week’s elections." In other words, Jamie Hancock was deployed to Iraq
just two weeks before the election, even though Blair knew his presence
was utterly pointless and that the British troops are only in Iraq to
bolster George Bush's collapsing ratings. (SEE
http://tinyurl.info/ymv5ot)
And who is responsible for
all the other deaths caused by the Bush/Blair wars? John Pilger's roll
call of war criminals, answers the same question for:
* The 124 other British
soldiers that have lost their lives in Iraq (SEE
http://tinyurl.info/yl2kme)
* The close to 3000 US
soldiers who have died (SEE
http://tinyurl.info/5um2d)
* The hundreds of Iraq
civilians dying violent deaths every day (SEE
http://tinyurl.info/yz3rhe )
* The hundred of thousands
killed in Iraq since March 2003 (SEE
http://tinyurl.info/lu4jl )
* The ever increasing death
toll in Afghanistan (SEE
http://tinyurl.info/y827mo).
****************************************
4) MILITARY FAMILIES AGAINST
THE WAR: AN INSPIRATION TO US ALL
When the Military Families
Against the War held their heartbreaking ceremony at The Cenotaph on
Remembrance Saturday 11 November to infomemorate their loved ones and the
hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Afghans, who have all died so
needlessly in the Bush/Blair wars, they highlighted their determination
that all those responsible will one day be made accountable for the crimes
which killed their relatives. The courage and dignity of the military
families in their adversity is an inspiration to all of us in the anti-war
movement. For a major Guardian feature on Military Families Against the
War SEE:
http://tinyurl.info/yj8tpu
FOR REPORTS, VIDEO ETC OF THE
REMEMBRANCE DAY CEREMONY AND MILITAR
FAMILIES AGAINST THE WAR UPDATES, GO TO:
http://www.mfaw.org.uk/
****************************************
5} ROBERT FISK: HERE infoE THE
ODIOUS EXCUSES
Bush, Blair and the other
architects of the Iraq catastrophe are desperately thrashing around trying
to find an "exit strategy". Already, they are parading their odious
get-out excuses, which blame the Iraqis themselves for all the carnage and
destruction inflicted on them. In the words of Robert Fisk,
"It's not the shamefulness of
all this - do none of these men have any shame? - but the racist
assumption that the hecatomb in Iraq is all the fault of the Iraqis, that
their intrinsic backwardness, their viciousness, their failure to
appreciate the fruits of our civilisation make them unworthy of our
further attention. At no point does anyone question whether the fact that
America is "the greatest power on earth" might not be part of the problem.
Nor that Iraqis who endured among their worst years of dictatorship when
Saddam was supported by the United States, who were sanctioned by the UN
at a cost of a half a million children's lives and who were then brutally
invaded by our armies, might not actually be terribly keen on all the good
things we wished to offer them. Many Arabs, as I've written before, would
like some of our democracy, but they would also like another kind of
freedom - freedom from us. But you get the point. We are preparing our
get-out excuses.
The Iraqis don't deserve us."
(TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE, GO TO:
http://tinyurl.info/u35zo)
Excuses or not, getting out
of Iraq -- as we know from the "getting out" of Vietnam -- can involve
years of mass slaughter. The task of the anti-war movement is as pressing
as ever: To maximise the widest possible
active opposition to the Bush/Blair wars and force them to withdraw all
foreign troops from Iraq and Afghanistan without delay.
****************************************
6) NIGHTMARE IN BEIT HANOUN:
HOW GAZA OFFENDS US ALL
Jennifer Loewenstein
writes:
"40 years after 1967 and 58
years after 1948, why is the occupation not yet over? Because Israel does
not want it to end. Because Israel wants the land and the resources
without the people. Because you have to eviscerate a culture in order to
maintain total control over it. Because the United States says that's just
fine with us, you serve our purpose well. You help make the war on terror
convenient. You help fit Iraq into the scheme. You'll help us with Iran as
well. Who the hell cares about a million and a half poverty-stricken
Gazans and their dust, their sand, their stinking, crumbling heap of a
disaster area homeland?
What a terrible shame it is
that Gazans have not yet attained the status of Human in the eyes of the
Western powers, for the resistance there will continue to be an enigma
until this changes. For now, however, the slaughter will continue
unabated.
LOBBY OF PARLIAMENT:
WEDNESDAY 29 NOVEMBER
* Stop starving the
Palestinians
* Stop arming Israel
* Restore aid to the Palestinian Authority
* Release Palestinian parliamentarians
* Respect Palestinian democracy
CALLED BY PALESTINE
SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN AND CAABU. FOR DETAILS, SEE
http://tinyurl.info/yybeps
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