No More Whitewashes!
Oxford IMC | 05.02.2004 14:35 | Anti-militarism | Iraq | Oxford
Nine members of the public decided to use Prime Minister's Question Time today to question directly Tony Blair on the important issues of the occupation of Iraq, and the real reasons that the United Kingdom went to war. Refusing to be silent on hearing the Prime Minister's evasions on these important issues, each stood up and made one simple demand: "No more whitewashes, Tony!"
The Oxford residents are all furious at Parliament's inability to hold the Government to account over its war, which resulted in the deaths of over 10,000 Iraqi civilians, and the subsequent occupation which has killed thousands more Iraqis, as well as hundreds of American and British soldiers. The protestors were keen to point out that the war on Iraq, as well as the occupation, was illegal under international law, regardless of the presence or absence of weapons of mass destruction.
The disrupted speech came several hours after demonstrators dressed as judges poured white paint over downing street's gates in a protest against the government's persistant clearing of itself of any wrong-doing.
Press Release | Report | Solidarity statement and "heckling guide"
The Oxford residents are all furious at Parliament's inability to hold the Government to account over its war, which resulted in the deaths of over 10,000 Iraqi civilians, and the subsequent occupation which has killed thousands more Iraqis, as well as hundreds of American and British soldiers. The protestors were keen to point out that the war on Iraq, as well as the occupation, was illegal under international law, regardless of the presence or absence of weapons of mass destruction.
The disrupted speech came several hours after demonstrators dressed as judges poured white paint over downing street's gates in a protest against the government's persistant clearing of itself of any wrong-doing.
Press Release | Report | Solidarity statement and "heckling guide"
Oxford IMC
Comments
Hide the following 12 comments
Is there any justice?
05.02.2004 22:31
rupert eden
e-mail: ruperteden@mac.com
Documents Link Iraq to Al Qaeda
06.02.2004 10:09
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,85256,00.html
Fox News
Wow
06.02.2004 15:56
But hey, this time it MUST be true. After all, Rupert Murdoch wouldn't want to mislead us, now, would he?
Hermes
Fox News reports on fake docs from the Telegraph...
06.02.2004 17:02
No prosecution can be brought against the US military propagandadists who passed the fake docs to the Telegraph though.
http://www.newsinsider.org/madsta/inventing_evidence.html
Don't be so bloody naive.
Mick
Justice ? - Yeah, that would be great !
06.02.2004 18:16
WE, THE PEOPLE, want JUSTICE and DEMOCRACY !
WE, THE PEOPLE, want JUSTICE and DEMOCRACY !
http://amigaphil.planetinternet.be/cgi-bin/show.cgi?nowar28
AmigaPhil
e-mail: AmigaPhil@ping.be
Homepage: http://amigaphil.planetinternet.be/usa.html
Whitewash in USA...
06.02.2004 20:22
From The Daily Mis-Lead
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1336442&l=17046
TENET EXPOSES BUSH'S MISLEADING ON WMD
In a stunning blow to the president's credibility, CIA Director George Tenet
said this morning that intelligence "analysts never said there was an
imminent threat" from Iraq before the war. His comments are consistent with
various warnings sent to the White House from the intelligence community
that specifically told the president his claims that Iraq definitely had
chemical/biological and nuclear weapons were unsubstantiated. Tenet's
comments call into question whether the Bush Administration was knowingly
ignoring intelligence and misleading the country by claiming definitively
that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and was therefore an "imminent,"
"immediate," "urgent" and "mortal" threat to the American people.
Though the White House has claimed it never said Iraq was an imminent
threat, the record proves otherwise. When White House communications
director Dan Bartlett was asked before the war whether Saddam Hussein was an
imminent threat, he responded, "Of course he is." When White House spokesman
Scott McClellan was asked why NATO (and thus the United States) should
support Turkey's request for defensive troops, he responded, "This is about
an imminent threat." When White House spokesman Ari Fleischer was asked
whether the invasion of Iraq was because Iraq was an imminent threat, he
responded, "Absolutely."
The president also used other language aimed at misleading Americans into
thinking that U.S. intelligence definitively knew Iraq had weapons of mass
destruction that threatened America - even though the intelligence community
told the president it had no such evidence. The president said before the
war that Iraq was an "urgent threat" and a "grave threat" to "any American."
In his speech informing Americans that the invasion had started, the
President said Iraq "threatens the peace with weapons of mass murder."
These comments were echoed by other top Administration officials. Secretary
of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said on September 19, 2002 that "no terrorist
state poses a greater or more immediate threat to the security of our people
and the stability of the world than the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq."
And Vice President Cheney called Iraq a "mortal threat," and said "there is
no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction...to use
against our friends, against our allies, and against us." And Secretary of
State Colin Powell, in pressing for U.N. support, said definitively that
Iraq possessed "deadly weapons programs" that "are real and present dangers
to the region and to the world."
See also:
Bush sabotages WMD commission before it starts
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/02/284923.html
==========
Reposted from Belgium IMC:
http://www.indymedia.be/news/2004/02/80499.php
Powell in 2001 on Iraq's WMD's and Powell in 2004 on WMD's
2004
"US Secretary of State Colin Powell says he doesn't know if he would've
recommended an invasion of Iraq if he'd known there were no stockpiles
of banned weapons in the country."
http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2004/s1037584.htm
2001
"On 24 February 2001, during a trip to Cairo, Egypt, Colin Powell told
the media Saddam "has not developed any significant capability with
respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project
conventional power against his neighbors."
Before "everything changed," Condi Rice admitted Saddam was no threat to
the United States. "We are able to keep arms from him," she told CNN Late
Edition With Wolf Blitzer on 29 July 2001. "His military forces have not
been rebuilt."
http://progressivetrail.org/articles/040126Nimmo.shtml
==========
"For bureaucratic reasons, we settled on one issue, weapons of mass
destruction, because it was the one reason everyone could agree on."
- Paul Wolfowitz in Vanity Fair, May 28, 2003
==========
20/20 Vision Launches On-Line Petition Calling for Truly
Independent Investigation Before November Elections
http://www.2020vision.org/peace/wmdpetition.html
(Poster note: The petition is in Flash only,
no text or html alternative provided.)
==========
WE, THE PEOPLE, want JUSTICE and DEMOCRACY !
http://amigaphil.planetinternet.be/cgi-bin/show.cgi?nowar28
AmigaPhil
e-mail: AmigaPhil@ping.be
Homepage: http://amigaphil.planetinternet.be/usa.html
'All Furious'?
06.02.2004 21:52
Mick
No it doesn't
06.02.2004 22:25
'The Oxford residents' here clearly refers to the Oxford residents who took the action,
not the hundred thousand or so people who live in Oxford, who clearly don't ALL agree
on anything. Don't be a pedant, its tedious.
Matt
Matt S
Democracy is failing us.. What next?
07.02.2004 12:47
Lets start a discussion of ways to actually influence change on this
https://publish.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/02/285014.html
Chakuwi
chakuwi
Well done from Afghanistan
07.02.2004 13:52
Great!!! Make sure he can not avoid listening to the people.
Paul
Ok I admit - I didn't read the article properly
07.02.2004 20:37
Now where did I put that white spirit.
Mick
link for info + action
13.02.2004 11:56
http://www.stopwar.org.uk
kurious