World Anti-militarism Newswire Archive

In spite of laws to protect human rights, torture remains prevalent throughout the world. Men, women, children and entire communities are subject to unspeakable atrocities and the effects that live with them long after the violence ends. We invite you to come and stand up against these atrocities, and join us in solidarity with the victims.

A former director of INKERMAN Ltd – the company that tries to spy on activist groups - Kevin Halligen is now set to stand trial in the US accused of defrauding a London law firm.

PRESS RELEASE: JORDAN VALLEY SOLIDARITY

21/6/2011 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For further information and pictures contact:
 contact@jordanvalleysolidarity.org or Emma Potter 00972 (0)595510814
www.jordanvalleysolidarity.org

When I was a child, I read the Guinness Book of Records, and marvelled at the stories of the people who, in ancient times, removed themselves from everyday reality, like Saint Simeon Stylites, a Christian ascetic who lived on a tiny platform on top of a pillar in Aleppo, Syria for 37 years in the 5th century AD.

Friday Drivetime - BCfm’s weekly politics show - At five: discussing the big stories in Bristol, Britain and around the world - After six: straight talking and investigative reports with Martin Summers and Marina Morris

A brief tribute to wonderful human being and committed peace activist Brian Haw.

What is unfolding in Syria is an armed insurrection supported covertly by foreign powers including the US, Turkey and Israel.

The War in Libya: Race,"Humanitarianism" and the Media
 http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/forte200411.html

Excerpt:
Social Media Folklore:
Creating the Legend of "African Mercenaries"

One of the most fertile sites for the international production of myths of savage African mercenaries has been Twitter, among other social network sites, in ways that bring back to mind the manner in which Twitter was used to spread misinformation at the time of the June 2009 Iran election protests. The problem is not that the site is an outlet for creative imaginations, but that some of the mainstream media source Twitter for their reports, in the absence of correspondents on the ground. The Independent's Michael Mumisa observed that "foreign media outlets have had to rely mostly on unverified reports posted on social network websites and on phone calls from Libyans terrified of Gaddafi's 'savage African mercenaries who are going door-to-door raping our women and attacking our children'," and he speaks of "a Twitter user based in Saudi Arabia," who "wrote how Gaddafi is 'ordering african (sic) mercenaries to break into homes in Benghazi to RAPE (sic) Libyan women in order to detract (sic) men protesters!'" The New York Times' David Kirkpatrick, in one of the few sober pieces analyzing the Libyan opposition, noted that "like the chiefs of the Libyan state news media, the rebels feel no loyalty to the truth in shaping their propaganda, claiming nonexistent battlefield victories, asserting they were still fighting in a key city days after it fell to Qaddafi forces, and making vastly inflated claims of his barbaric behavior."

Twitter is useful, however, not as a source of incontestable information about Gaddafi's atrocities, but as a guide to how the opposition prepared the narrative cover for attacking Sub-Saharan Africans. The mass of passive repeaters (retweeters), comprising diverse individuals and some journalists, helped from early on to inseminate the fear of African terror: "Afro-mercs" landing at the nearest airport and fanning out to murder Libyans. The myth was useful to the opposition, possessing a structure that made it cohere and appeal on a very basic level: 1) all vs. one -- the Libyan people united against the dictator; 2) male vs. female -- African mercenaries specifically targeting Libyan women; and, 3) local vs. foreign -- proud nationals combating savage intruders. Some of the tweeted statements are classics of colonial racial propaganda, especially when they revolve around protecting local Libyan women, a useful trope also in both classic and contemporary imperial narratives linking the status of native women with progress and liberation.

Human rights watchdog Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has exposed a story about the abduction, detention, cruel and inhuman treatment and interrogation of human rights defender William Gomes.

26 June is UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. In spite of laws to protect them, men, women, children and entire communities all around the world have to live with the consequences of torture meted out by state authorities. Torture is illegal. Join us on this day to show solidarity with victims. Also the final day of Refugee Week 2011, it should not be forgotten that many refugees have fled torture.

British government's outrageous new "counter-terrorism" measures are receiving a public relations backlash because of their extreme, fascist overtones.

Dear Noam

I am writing to you and a number of other friends mostly in the US to alert you to the extraordinary banning of my film on war and media, 'The War You Don't See', and the abrupt cancellation of a major event at the Lannan Foundation in Santa Fe in which David Barsamian and I were to discuss free speech, US foreign policy and censorship in the media.

Guardian’s Charlie Skelton spots George Osborne at NATO’s secret Bilderberg conference in St Moritz, Switzerland,

The relentless bombardment of Tripoli over the past 48 hours represents a new stage in one of the most naked acts of imperialist aggression since the wars of conquest launched by Hitler and Mussolini in the 1930s.

What is the Bilderberg Conference all about? Politicans betraying the voting public. Links between the Bilderberg conference and the Nazis. With Oliver Hides and Tony Gosling

I have now ploughed through all 120 pages odd of the Government’s new Prevent Strategy, which manages to be even more illiberal and more turgid than the original. It claims that the last Prevent Strategy was misguided – but for all the wrong reasons. Rather amusingly, it starts with a message of endorsement from Lord Carlile – who also endorsed the last strategy which it criticises so strongly. The truth is, Carlile will endorse anything for any government which gives him status – he loves status – “It has my considered and strong support” he concludes his endorsement – you have to imagine saying it with marbles in your mouth and a degree of insufferable pomposity – “It has my considered and strong support”- wanker.

News agencies from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay and Venezuela decided to join efforts to create the Latin American Union of News Agencies (ULAN, Spanish abbreviation), aimed at facing negative campaigns undertaken by communication monopolies from the United States and Europe.

“The main element for us is the possibility of building an information reference for the whole continent, capable of looking at the reality of the Latin American and Caribbean nations with our own eyes, not with the eyes of the North or Europe,” Fernandez said.

Big Brother got even bigger under the first “Brotha” president, Barack Obama. Government also became even more secretive. “The Obama Justice Department says that only the executive branch has the power to determine what information courts ought to have” – a novel doctrine that wreaks havoc with the rights of people accused of crimes, especially whistleblowers. The death of Osama bin Laden, says Obama’s Attorney General, makes the Patriot Act even more vital to national security. “Perhaps we were better off when bin Laden was still alive.”

LANTAD, Balingasag, Misamis Oriental (MindaNews/25 May) – The people in what used to be a “liberated” zone of the communist New People’s Army (NPA) has approved today the “Lantad Manifesto” asking both the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and the umbrella organization of the armed communists, the National Democratic Front (NDF), to respect their right to self-determination and peace.

Old Steine War Memorial between 4-6pm on Friday June 3