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UK Anti-militarism Newswire Archive

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The Failure to Stand Up to Evil Leads to Insanity

26-03-2011 12:41

When people fail to stand up to the heinous acts of a bad person, they are empowering that person's cover up, the very core of their propensity to do further bad acts in the future.

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Guantánamo / Abu Ghraib interrogation firms and the UK Census

25-03-2011 11:30

Campaigners decry involvement of Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib interrogation firms in UK Census

Friday, 25 March 2011

The London Guantánamo Campaign [1] is concerned about the involvement in the upcoming UK-wide Census of two private companies that were contracted to carry out coercive prisoner interrogations at the notorious US military detention facilities at Guantánamo Bay and Abu Ghraib, Iraq. [2]

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Obama’s imperial twist: “Humanitarian” regime change in Libya

24-03-2011 21:54

President Obama demanded regime change in Libya more than three weeks ago, but now acts as if that’s not his policy. He will use the assault on Muamar Khadafi’s forces to introduce so-called “humanitarian intervention” as an anchor of the Obama Doctrine. Regime change will remain a basic tool, while the “humanitarian” ruse expands imperial options. Obama may well opt to turn Libya into a kind of protectorate, as Haiti has become. Meanwhile, France interprets the UN mandate in Libya as allowing the Euro-Americans to act as air support for the rebel armed forces, as the French did at Benghazi.

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Obama’s War in Libya

23-03-2011 21:30

The continuity between the Bush and Obama administration’s is now complete. Almost exactly eight years after Bush invaded Iraq, Obama’s Euro-American military alliance swooped down on Libya to enforce a western world order. “Obama definitely took a page out of the Bush administration recipe book,” including “peddling scary stories of poison gas stockpiled at a remote desert location.” All this may serve Obama well in domestic opinion polls, since “American blood lust is always just below the surface.”

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End the US-led Armed Intervention in Libya

23-03-2011 12:34

Akbayan (Citizens Action Party) supports the democratic opposition in Libya that seeks to end the 43-year-old dictatorship of Muammar Ghadafie. It cannot, however, support the massive armed intervention launched by the United States, France, and Britain on Sunday, March 20.

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Lies, damn lies, and humanitarian intervention

23-03-2011 02:54

The Independent, 10 March 2011
Masquerading as "humanitarian intervention," Washington launched full-force barbarism on six million Libyans, all endangered by America's latest intervention.

Beginning March 19, it was visible. However, months of planning preceded it, including US and UK special forces and intelligence operatives on the ground enlisting, inciting, funding, arming and supporting violent insurrection to oust Gaddafi and replace him with a Washington-controlled puppet like in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

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Disarm Now Plowshares London solidarity vigil - 28 March

22-03-2011 20:57

Support vigil outside the US embassy, Grosvenor Square in solidarity with the five Disarm Now Plowshares activists about to face sentencing in the US for their major nuclear disarmament action in November 2009.

WHEN? Monday 28 March, 2011, 12noon-6pm
WHERE? US Embassy, 24 Grosvenor Square, London W1A 2LQ
(Bond Street / Marble Arch tube)
MAP:  http://london.usembassy.gov/embassy_location.html

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Libya: Yet More Blood For Oil

22-03-2011 16:22

Destroyer the USS Barry fires a Tomahawk missile, to protect people. But who?
On the eighth anniversary of the 'shock and awe' intro to the Iraq invasion, western forces launched yet another imperial 'intervention' in the Middle East. While Obama and Cameron want to distance themselves from Bush and Blair's bloodsoaked legacy, they are once again fighting a war in defence of oil profits.

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What Imperialism looks like.

22-03-2011 15:41

The group of rogue US soldiers referred to themselves as a "kill team." Members of the group killed innocent civilians in Afghanistan and then posed for photographs with their victims. The US Army has now apologized for the incident after SPIEGEL published several images from the "kill team" in its new issue on Monday.

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Support Middle Eastern democracy struggles! No Intervention!

22-03-2011 11:02

No to imperialist intervention in the Libya! Saudi, UAE troops out of Bahrain!
Support Middle Eastern democracy struggles! End imperialist wars in Iraq, Afghanistan!

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Disarm the Census

21-03-2011 16:22

A report on London CAAT's protest about Lockheed Martin's role in the UK census

As part of Count Me Out's weekend of action against Lockheed Martin's deplorable involvement in the census, Saturday saw London CAAT members carry out a protest at Victoria station.

The protesters engaged with the public for nigh-on two hours and found a lot of sympathy for our cause (one passerby even said we were saving the world but I wouldn't go that far!). We handed out 400 leaflets as well as a number of stock letters that people could send to their MPs. The Guantanamo Bay-style costume attracted a lot of attention (Lockheed contracts out interrogation at Guantanamo Bay) and enabled us to inform the public why we were there.

£150m of taxpayers money has been given to the biggest arms company in the world (according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute's latest list of top arms-producing companies) to help run the census. Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor for Britain's Trident nuclear weapons and also produces Joint Strike Fighters and F-16 fighters.

Another issue stems from the fact that they are an American company - under the US Patriot Act any personal data held by companies with systems in the US has to be made available to government intelligence, thus meaning our details could end up in the hands of the US government. Finally, our government does not have a good record of storing data securely.

For more information, visit the Count Me Out website at http://www.countmeout.me.uk. Here you can find a number of actions you can take regarding the census, from boycotting it entirely to spoiling your census paper as well as writing protest letters to your MP and the Office of National Statistics.

Also, the Peace News log has a piece on how to fill in your census form without Lockheed Martin profiting - http://www.peacenewslog.info/2011/03/how-to-fill-in-your-census-form-without-lockheed-martin-profiting-short-version/. And finally Indymedia has a supplementary page you can enclose with your form - http://www.indymedia.org.uk/media/2011/03//475485.pdf.

 

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The wars on Iraq and Libya: Front pages from 2003 and 2011

21-03-2011 14:04

Los Angeles Times, 20 March 2003 and 20 March 2011
Here is a compilation of newspaper front pages announcing the launch of the war on Iraq (2003) and the war on Libya (2011).

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Reasons to oppose the attack on Libya

21-03-2011 12:45

This is the text of a leaflet suggesting some reasons for opposition to the attack on Libya.

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Vigil in Wrexham for Bradley Manning, for Japan, Iraq and Libya

21-03-2011 12:37

free bradley manning
Ten people held a vigil in Queens Square Wrexham yesterday, Sunday 20 March, observing 20 minutes of silence before being joined by other supporters and passers by over the following hour.

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Census by Arms Manufacturer Lockheed Martin

21-03-2011 10:07

In case you're not aware, the upcoming UK census is being run by a big US arms and surveillance company, Lockheed Martin.

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"Libyan Combat Flight Simulator"

20-03-2011 17:46

(The Most Intensive No Fly Zone You'll Experience...)
If you enjoy intensive, high-adrenaline air combats, you'll LOVE this game.

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Obama to Qaddafi: Comply with UN resolution or face military action

19-03-2011 21:24

The Guardian, 18 March 2011
"U.S. and coalition vessels and aircrafts attacked Libya’s air defense systems in the opening phase of “Odyssey Dawn” the international operation to establish a no-fly zone, military officials said today.

A coalition of as many as 25 U.S., Canadian, and Italian vessels, including the USS Mount Whitney command vessel, led an attack that included U.S. Tomahawk cruise missiles and aerial jamming, according to a Pentagon official"

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Lockheed Martin and the 2011 UK census

19-03-2011 16:22

Demonstration against Lockheed Martin and 2011 UK census processing

 

A small demonstration was held outside Victoria station to raise awareness of the fact that the government has paid Lockheed Martin £150m of public money to help run the 2011 census. London, UK, 19/03/2011.

According to information compiled by 'Count me Out', (a collective taking action against the 2011 census as a result of the ties with Lockheed Martin UK) the government awarded the World's second biggest arms company a £150m contract to help run the data processing for the 2011 UK census.

Count me out take the view that "Our government shouldn't be paying an arms company, which fuels conflict and war, huge amounts of money to help run the census."

The company used to have offices in Victoria but they were recently moved to an unknown location.

Perhaps best know in the UK for producing Britain's Trident nuclear weapons, they have also sold weapons to Bahrain which have been used recently against anti-government protesters in line with sweeping protests across the Middle-East.

The census is undertaken by the government every 10 years and is a method of counting people and households in the UK. Under UK law, every household is obliged to fill in the relevant information which can be done online, by post or collected by census agents.

Census day for this year is March 27th.



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Lockheed Martin revealed as UK Census Sponsors: Protests Planned

19-03-2011 11:58

The world's second largest defence company are helping to run this year's census: will you participate?