SSP, unlike BBC, free to call Blair a liar

BBC climbdown on SSP broadcast ban leaves STV isolated

I got this from The Hoops e-group late Saturday night. The BBC and Scottish TV both tried to ban a Scottish Socialist Party election broadcast for calling Tony Blair a liar. The BBC has now relented and the Socialists in Scotland (and beyond) are waiting for STV to follow. I have searched STV's website for reports on this sorry business by punching the word "Socialist" into their search bar but nothing doing. I mean nothing. The word "Socialist" does not register in a database search of a major news outlet in Scotland. So try "SSP" and see how you go. Ok don't even go there. Here's the result: "Factual
Scottish Passport offers viewers the chance to sample, from their armchair, all kinds of holidays in..." Go on then, highlight the sentence and go to Edit, Find and key in SSP. The cursor will go to the "ssp" in passport. STV's boycott of the SSP goes beyond election broadcasts.

Radio Free Palestine

A request live and direct from a Palestine solidarity activist in the USA. And please see the top two links to the right of here.

"I'm writing because the Independent Middle East Media Center (www.imemc.org) in Bethlehem has launched a weekly 5 minute newscast in English. This broadcast has 2 weeks available for streaming and in transcript form at http://www.imemc.org/audio/index.htm. The latest is up to date for broadcast immediately. Please take a listen and consider whether you know of radio shows, on broadcast or online, in the English speaking world that could use this show.

In solidarity

Esther"

Is buffoonery a terrorist offence?

James of Dead men left made an interesting comment on the post below this one. He suggests that Abu Hamza's outspokenness makes him an unlikely terrorist. I would agree that his controversy-courting brand of extremist buffoonery means that you wouldn't want to associate with him if you were up to some serious illegality. But this isn't the only point. Why should the UK be extraditing someone to the USA over alleged offences connected with Yemen? If his alleged offences aren't offences here then how can we extradite him? If they are offences here then why should we extradite him? Ok he is also alleged to have set up terrorist training camps in Oregon though this looks like an after thought, and how do you tell an ordinary household from a terrorist training camp in a country with a deep seated gun culture? Anyway, the other problem is the fact that America has the death penalty and has even tricked foreign defendants into receiving it. How do we know that they will honour any assurances they might offer regarding sentencing policy?

Hook, line and sinker

Abu Hamza arrested on US extradition warrant
If Britain extradites Abu Hamza to the US on terrorism charges he could face the death penalty. Are we not in deep enough with the USA without extraditing our own subjects to face possible execution?

If it wasn't Campbell whodunnit, whodunnit?

Look at this "correction" (or is it a clarification?) in The Guardian. today:

"A sentence in a comment piece (Poor Comical Ali, page 24, May 13) may have been read by some to imply that Alastair Campbell had played a role in leaking the conclusions of the Hutton report to the Sun. We did not intend to suggest that Mr Campbell played any part in this leak, and apologise if the contrary impression was conveyed."

So has Campbell been eliminated from the inquiry that I have been assured is on-going? I'm not for a moment suggesting he shouldn't be eliminated from the inquiry but if they have eliminated a suspect from the on-going. inquiry shouldn't they be closer to a result?

A premonition

Great letter in The Independent. tomorrow. I can just sense it somehow.

Arabs and Israel
Sir: Peter Janikoun (letter, 25 May) repeats one of the most enduring Zionist myths when he claims that the Arab states attacked Israel as soon as the state was declared in May 1948.

The UN's partition plan and Britain's departure from Palestine were both announced in November 1947. The Zionist militias immediately began attacking and ethnically cleansing Arab villages and seizing land beyond that allocated to the Jewish state by the UN. The British left Palestine in May 1948 and then the Arab states mobilised to prevent the ethnic cleansing.

By May 1948 there were already hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees and by the end of that war there were nearly a million.

MARK ELF
Dagenham, Essex"

So that's why he keeps digging

"When the news emerged of the US bombing of a gathering on the Syrian border last week, (that's the wedding massacre to you and me) I wanted to drop down a hole and pull it in after me," writes David Aaronovitch. There's more: "Nor have I accepted that the Abu Ghraib torture and abuse pictures represent simply an aberration." And yet he believes that around 600 dead in Fallujah was an accident and that America invaded Iraq for the good of the Iraqi people. Still he and I do agree on one thing. I want him to drop down a hole as well.

Israeli Minister just a poor misunderstood grandchild

Israeli Justice Minister Tommy Lapid claims that he was misunderstood when he compared an elderly woman searching for her medication amongst the rubble of her demolished house to his grandmother who was murdered by the Nazis. "I'm not referring to the Germans. I'm not referring to the Holocaust. When you see an old woman, you think of your grandmother," he said.

Don't mention the war crimes

Not in print anyway. Can't find anything in the print edition of The Observer. about Israel's latest round of war crimes against the Palestinians. Punch the word "Rafah" into The Observer. on-line search bar and two articles come up. One of the articles, by Mary Riddell, did appear in print but Rafah only gets a passing mention. This is all that was said in the whole of The Observer. today about Rafah, "Children are gunned down by Israeli forces in Rafah". The other article, by Sandra Jordan appears on line only. It's a very moving piece about a three year old being killed as she popped out because she was fed up with being cooped up in the house. Elsewhere in the paper David Aaronovitch gets a hammering from correspondents angry that he claims that the massacres in Fallujah were "accidental" and therefore morally superior to beheading someone deliberately and on camera. I'd give the latter a slight moral edge on the grounds of honesty. As has happened before, when he gets caught with his hand in the till, Aaronovitch goes domestic. This week he gives us the benefit of his knowledge of family law. Elsewhere in the news, well on ITV's teletext to be precise, Israeli Justice Minister, Yosef (Tommy) Lapid has compared the Israeli army in Rafah to the Nazis. I have to copy and paste the whole article because I couldn't find anything about on Google and I fear the report will disappear from the link soon:

GAZA DEMOLITIONS 'LIKE NAZIS'
An Israeli Cabinet minister has said images of the army's demolition of Palestinian homes in the Gaza Strip reminded him of scenes from Nazi rule.

Justice minister Yosef Lapid said an old Palestinian woman searching through the rubble of her home for her medicine "reminded me of my grandmother".

Mr Lapid's statement has outraged hard-line Likud Party ministers, who have called for him to retract it.

RECEIVED: 23/05/2004 18:46:26

Meron Benvenisti: An old refrain that stabs the heart

Fascinating comment by a former deputy mayor of Jerusalem which calls into question the whole Zionist project of establishing a state based on ethnic cleansing. He even mentions Emmaus.

But which half?

A letter in today's Guardian. says that The Guardian. yesterday reported 33 Palestinian demonstrators. being killed in Rafah and that half of them were armed. Search The Guardian's. articles from yesterday and find the one that refers to 33 demonstrators being killed. See if it names the sixteen and a half demonstrators who were armed. Since you will only find an article about ten demonstrators being killed, none of whom were armed you will have to give up on this exercise in futility and then wonder why The Guardian. publishes such nonsense as a letter lying about a Guardian. report.

The Jenin mantra

On the BBC news I am hearing Israeli officials chanting the "Jenin mantra" with regard to reports on Rafah. "You are committing war crimes" say the interviewers. "Ah but you said "hundreds killed in Jenin" say the Israeli spokespersons. Now follow this link. It was actually Israeli army chief of staff Shaul Mofaz who said that more than 200 Palestinians have been killed and 1,500 injured since the offensive was launched on 29 March (2002). Elswhere on the internet, a google search as follows - "Ron Kitrey" Jenin - calls up many sites, most of which quote Israeli Brigadier-General Ron Kitrey as saying that "hundreds of Palestinians" were killed in Jenin. Now why don't BBC interviewers delve into their own archives about these issues? To be continued.

Tories emerge as anti-war party

Well almost. Howard actually says that Blair should tell Bush when he disagrees with him. He doesn't get into specifics so we don't know what it is that Michael Howard disagrees with. So we can take this as pure opportunism in the run up to the polls on June 10. It might be too little too late to get the Muslim vote out for the Tories. The deafening silence on Rafah doesn't help either.

Deadline goes whooshing by

Thanks! Douglas Adams.
Well the deadline for The Guardian. "slaughter" ten pound challenge passed yesterday and there were no winners despite valiant attempts by Lenin from Ireland, Hannah from the USA and even the readers' editor of the Guardian. It would appear that Guardian. reporters do not use the word "slaughter" to describe the killings of Palestinians by the Israeli army. They have used it to describe the killing of Israelis by Palestinians. When I complained to the readers' editor he said that my complaint was "unfounded". And this is the man responsible for "Corrections and clarifications".

Geneva loophole

Apologies to Groucho Marx
Jewish peaceniks get their answer.
Israeli embassy spokeswoman suggests that if only Israel had committed war crimes in Rafah a few weeks ago a settler and her daughters would still be alive. It's far more likely that they would still be alive if they hadn't been illegally settled in occupied territory. And a Dr A Landy demonstrates his expertise in finding loopholes in the Geneva Convention thus, "Article 27 ends as follows: "However, the parties to the conflict may take such measures of control and security in regard to protected persons (ie civilians) as may be necessary as a result of the war." Article 28 continues: "The presence of a protected person may not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations.""

Meanwhile the carnage in Rafah continues.

Click here and go to Rafah

There is nothing I can add to the Rafah Kid's Rambles on Palestine right now.

Welcome intervention by Jewish Socialist Group and Jews for Justice

War crimes in the Middle East
JSG and JFJP call on the Jewish communities of the UK to condemn Israel's war crimes. The problem here is, of course, that without war crimes, Israel wouldn't exist so let's see what response there is.

Melanie Phillips joins Indymedia

Well that's how it looks to me anyway.

After an introduction from Peter Tatchell, Melanie Phillips now writes for Indymedia. According to her first report a gay group was attacked by every non-gay person and group, except me and the people I was with, at a rally for Palestine on Saturday May, 15. Normally the homophobic Phillips wouldn't worry about the fate, real or imagined, of a gay group but Melanie will do anything to help the Zionist cause and embarrass Arabs, Muslims and the left. Here's an extract from her article:

"As soon as they arrived in Trafalgar Square to join the demonstration, the gay protesters were surrounded by an angry, screaming mob of Islamic fundamentalists, Anglican clergymen, members of the Socialist Workers Party, the Stop the War Coalition, and officials from the protest organisers, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC). They variously attacked the gay activists as “racists”, “Zionists”, “CIA and MI5 agents”, “supporters of the Sharon government” and “dividing the Free Palestine movement”.

Owing to her renowned modesty she didn't actually put her name to the article but by accusing groups who never act together of, er, acting together she left her characteristic hallmark: bullshit.

Hutton owns up and only Ingrams notices

The bizarre admission by Lord Hutton that he prevented Blair from being exposed as a liar to save him from embarrassment has been picked up on by that cantankerous old git* Richard Ingrams and no-one else. This is the same Lord Hutton who The Guardian. reported to be "dismayed at accusations of whitewash" only a couple of months ago.



* git = anti-Semite and homophobe OED**

** OED = Old Elf Dictionary

Aaronovitch cleans and greens

Not only does David Aaronovitch clean up the more embarrassing of his pro-war articles, he gets the chance to recycle them as well. Two weeks ago he told us that Arab and Muslim killers, torturers etc are worse than American ones. This week he's telling us the same again.