Daily archives: December 8, 2006

When to leak?

 in UK Policy by | View Comments

Back in March TomPaine.com published an article by Katherine Gun which still makes interesting reading.

Katharine Gun was a translator at the Britain’s communications spy agency, General Communications Headquarters. In 2002, she leaked a top-secret memo to a British newspaper, revealing the U.S. was spying on U.N. Security Council members before their vote on the Iraq war.

Where are the whistleblowers about Iran?

It is exactly three years since the United States and Great Britain invaded Iraq, and a little over three years since Martin Bright and his colleagues at the London Observer quietly tested the veracity of an e-mail passed to them anonymously, whilst I nervously waited to see if the e-mail I leaked would appear in a newspaper. All this for the purpose of slowing down, if not derailing, a war that many felt was being rushed into by gung-ho politicians Bush and Blair…

Go here for the full article

View with comments

EDM 335: Immediate Withdrawal From Iraq

 in War in Iraq by | View Comments

From Stop The War

Close to 4000 Iraqis were killed in October, the highest figure since the 2003 invasion. November is going to record an even higher figure. The United Nations says 3000 Iraqis flee the country every day. Another 9,000 flee their homes every week to become internal refugees. US troops are being killed at a rate of close to three a day, with many more seriously injured. Six British soldiers have been killed this month, the second highest monthly figure since the beginning of the war.

Against this backdrop, the clamour to find an “exit strategy” dominates discussion of the war. Except, that is, in the British parliament. This week a cross-party attempt by over 100 MPs to give parliament the opportunity to discuss how Britain can extricate itself from the Iraq catastrophe was blocked by the Speaker of the House of Commons.

Two anti-war MPs, Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell, have now tabled a parliamentary motion calling for the immediate withdrawal of all British troops. Stop the War is calling on all its supporters to lobby their local MP by letter, email or at MP’s weekly surgeries to urge them to add their name to the following motion:

Early Day Motion EDM 335

That this House notes with alarm the conclusion of the October 2006 Lancet report that coalition forces in Iraq have been directly responsible for the deaths of at least 186,000 Iraqis since the start of the 2003 invasion; recognises that according to a September 2006 Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) poll, 78 per cent. of Iraqis believe that the US military presence in Iraq is provoking more conflict than it is preventing; recalls the conclusion of the April 2006 US National Intelligence Estimate on global terrorism that the Iraq conflict has become the cause celebre for jihadists, breeding a deep resentment of US involvement in the Muslim world and cultivating supporters for the global jihadist movement; further notes the recent statement by the Head of the British Army, General Sir Richard Dannatt, that British forces should be withdrawn from Iraq soon because their presence exacerbates the security problems; further notes that there have been over 118 British military deaths in Iraq since the 2003 invasion; and calls on the Government to withdraw all British forces from Iraq immediately.

LOBBY YOUR MP TO GET THEIR SIGNATURE ON PARLIAMENTARY MOTION EDM 335: IMMEDIATE WITHDRAWAL FROM IRAQ. Writing by post is the best way to get a response but you can also contact them through the web-site http://www.writetothem.com/ or by visiting them at their weekly surgery and raising the issue face to face.

View with comments