drugs to Desensitise male soldiers to the sounds of women being raped

Warriors out of their minds: Drugs of choice for super soldiers
By Peacedream
US military training also includes a component to desensitize male soldiers to the sounds of women being raped, so the enemy cannot use the cries of their fellow soldiers to leverage information. I think it not unreasonable to connect ...
Circle of 13 - http://circleof13.blogspot.com/

Hands off Iraq Oil Event Cardiff 23 Feb

HANDS OFF IRAQI OIL

Day of Action - Saturday 23 February

Called by Hands off Iraqi Oil

Supported by Stop the War Coaliton
www.HandsOffIraqiOil.org

Assemble 2 pm at Total Garage on Cathedral Road, Cardiff

(or meet 1.30 Nye Bevan Statue, Queen Street to walk there!)

BRING PLACARDS, BANNERS, DRUMS ETC!

STAND IN SOLIDARITY WITH THE IRAQI PEOPLE
For the Iraqi people, the ongoing war and occupation have led to hundreds of thousands of deaths, relentless insecurity and crippling poverty. But for foreign oil companies, the desperate situation in Iraq is an opportunity to make massive profits at the expense of the Iraqi people.

WHY NOW?
In February 2007 the Iraqi cabinet approved an oil law which, if passed into law, would allow the likes of Shell, BP, Total and Exxon to take over control of most of Iraq's oil reserves, depriving ordinary Iraqis of scores of billions of dollars. Shell and BP, with the help of the UK Government have been actively pushing for this law and these contracts since 2003.

One year on, despite five US administration- and IMF- imposed deadlines, the law is still being contested at every level of Iraqi society. However, a 18th February deadline for international oil companies to register to compete for tenders to help develop Iraq's oil represents a first official foot in the door.

We need to keep the pressure up here in the UK and support the Iraqi people in their ongoing fight.

IT'S NOT TOO LATE TO STOP THEM
The Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions is at the forefront of grassroots campaigning against the privatisation of Iraq’s oil industry and has threatened strike action should the law go ahead. Oil experts, lawyers, academics, trade unionists, and students are rejecting the occupation-imposed oil law and the economic occupation it serves.

Who should decide the future of Iraq’s economy and resources? The people of Iraq, or oil companies like Shell, ESSO, Total and BP?

HASSAN JUMA'A, LEADER OF THE IRAQI FEDERATION OF OIL UNIONS WILL BE VISITING CARDIFF AND WILL BE THE HEADLINE SPEAKER AT THE CARDIFF WORLD AGAINST WAR CONFERENCE:

MONDAY 3RD MARCH at 7.30 PM, LAW BUILDING, CARDIFF UNIVERSITY, PARK PLACE ALONGSIDE SPEAKERS FROM THE INTERNATIONAL ANTI-WAR MOVEME

Abuse in Iraq

Troops accused of "off-the-scale" Iraq abuse
01 FEB 2008 16:08 GMT

LONDON (Reuters) - A lawyer representing nine Iraqi civilians accused British troops on Friday of "off the scale" torture and abuse in Iraq, and the Ministry of Defence said it was re-investigating the case. Full Article

Iraq conflict has killed a million

War news...Death and destruction

Iraq conflict has killed a million, says survey 30 Jan 2008 More than one million Iraqis have died as a result of the conflict in their country since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, according to research conducted by one of Britain's leading polling groups. The survey, conducted by Opinion Research Business (ORB) with 2,414 adults in face-to-face interviews, found that 20 percent of people had had at least one death in their household as a result of the conflict, rather than natural causes.

US airstrikes on Iraq rise 500 percent --Though Bush claims the 'surge' brings peace in 2007, warplanes made 1,447 bombing runs By Saleh Mamon 29 Jan 2008 The US has unleashed a ferocious bombing campaign on Iraq and Afghanistan, with devastating effects on the population. This surge in the "air war" is largely hidden behind talk of "recent successes" for the occupation. According to figures released by the US military – known as "airpower summary of close air support missions" – in 2006 there were 229 US bombing missions. But last year this rose to 1,447 – more than a 500 percent increase.

Soldiers smuggled guns add to uk crime

We have a huge rised in gun related crime and there seems to be a clear link between service people at war and the number of smuggled guns.

Firearms offence soldier escapes prison sentence
A “WAR HERO” escaped being sent to prison today for illegally possessing two firearms and ammunition.more
BBC NEWS | UK | Warning over criminals in forces

Overseas postings, particularly in places where guns and drugs were readily available made servicemen and women an "attractive target". ... news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/5378756.stm - 40k -

Soldiers jailed for selling smuggled Iraq weapons | Special ...

Soldiers jailed for selling smuggled Iraq weapons. Martin Wainwright Saturday November 24, 2007 The Guardian. Two soldiers who smuggled stolen guns out of ... www.guardian.co.uk/military/story/0,,2216253,00.html - 43k -[PDF] Gun crime: the market in and use of illegal firearms File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat which collectively more than half of recorded gun crime in England and ...... “A lot of them are coming [via Ireland] from places like Iraq and Kosovo… ... www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs06/hors298.pdf - Similar pages - Note this

174 dead British ....

So, what did we achieve? After four years and 174 dead, Britain's ...
Independent - London He was the 174th British soldier to die in Iraq since the invasion. And, though the British force has not suffered a death from "hostile activity" since ...

Basra handed back to Iraqis
Aljazeera.net, Qatar - 5 hours ago
Britain has formally transferred the control of security in the province of Basra over to the Iraqi army. British Major-General Graham Binns and Mohammed ...

Christmas in Fallujah

"Christmas in Fallujah": An Anti-War Song by Billy Joel and Cass Dillon [VIDEO] By Paddy, Brave New Films "Christmas in Fallujah" went on sale last Tuesday on Apple Inc.'s iTunes. Net proceeds will be donated to Homes for Our Troops, which builds homes for severely wounded veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. Read more »

mercenaries not counted in Iraq death toll

Names of ex-soldiers not in Iraq death toll
The Herald - Glasgow,Scotland,UK
While 133 British soldiers and airmen have died as the result of hostile action since 2003, at least 44 British private security employees have also been ...

A catalogue of abuse - UK forces systematic policy led to execution of Iraqis in detention

Political leaders as much as military bosses need to face up to our brutal detention policy in Iraq Phil Shiner Friday October 19, 2007 The Guardian

What will it take for our government to face the awful facts of British detention policy in Iraq? Evidence now publicly available proves that UK forces had a systematic policy that led to the execution of scores of Iraqis in detention, and the torture of countless more. But most people remain blissfully unaware of the truth, while the government chooses to ignore it. It seems that it is too painful for the nation to recognise that what we did in Iraq is no more than what we have always done in times of conflict, and that an arrogant, brutal racism that harks back to colonial times requires urgent exorcism.

The starting point in understanding what we have to confront is the repeated accusation from the most senior military figures that Britain failed to plan for the occupation. It was assumed that the United Nations would be responsible because the security council would authorise military invasion and occupation in early 2003. When it refused, the US and UK invaded illegally and found themselves with no plan for occupation. Britain made up policy on the hoof - with deadly consequences. To make matters worse, our detention policy reflected our partnership with the US, who ran detention facilities with us. When Lieutenant Colonel Nicholas Mercer, the army's senior legal adviser at the start of the occupation, complained to senior civil servants and others about hooding, stressing and the use of noise (all authorised techniques amounting to torture), he failed to get the policy changed partly because the US considered our interrogation techniques too soft.

Our current detention policy includes the reintroduction of the five techniques banned by the Heath government in 1972: hooding, stressing, sleep and food deprivation, and noise. These techniques are a direct breach of the Geneva conventions and the UN convention against torture. Nobody in the chain of command, including at the highest level politically and within the civil service, attempted to bring our policy into line with basic legal standards even when they were told what was happening, by the Red Cross among others. And there were no command structures in place to inhibit the average soldier, who was expected to operate all the functions of central and local government in temperatures of up to 60C, without any training whatsoever in prisoner treatment.

It is no wonder that senior military figures seek to place the blame for the horrors of our detention policy on those in political command. While individual criminal culpability for these atrocities cannot be escaped, it is easy to see why the military felt so let down.
The public are not meant to know too much, as evidenced by the desperate, but ultimately unsuccessful, attempt to block my team's access to the documentation from the court martial into the case of Baha Mousa, who died with 93 separate injuries while in British custody in September 2003. However, what is already in the public domain should be more than enough to cause outrage. We now have to confront the Amara incident in May 2004, as reported in yesterday's Guardian. It appears that 22 Iraqis were taken into detention alive, only to be returned in body bags 20 hours later.

But worse still, the evidence suggests a catalogue of abuse: first, that soldiers had earlier executed Iraqis in front of a number of witnesses; second, some of them were executed by shooting at close range or strangulation; third, many of the bodies show clear evidence of torture; fourth, bodies had been mutilated with eyes gouged out, and multiple stab wounds and body parts severed (including a penis); and fifth, trained Iraqi medical operatives attest that many of the wounds were fresh and that deaths had occurred just before the bodies were returned. A survivor's statement gives shocking evidence of hearing the screams of Iraqis being tortured, and hearing one of my client's relatives executed by shooting.
The government's response is pathetic. It asserts that a military investigation (held, of course, in secret) concluded in May 2005 that there was no evidence of criminal wrongdoing and that all the deceased died of injuries sustained before detention. This is consistent with the decision of the present foreign and defence secretaries to shut their eyes to this evidence of systematic abuse and worse. My offers to show the foreign secretary this new evidence were ignored. The defence secretary ignores correspondence from various Christian churches and their leaders to open these matters up to public scrutiny.

Both prefer to rely on the advice of civil servants, despite it being obvious that it is the senior civil service that has most to lose. What makes this response so utterly depressing is that they have deluded themselves into believing that their response is justified. Ultimately, whether those responsible, including those who inhabit the shadowy corridors of power, are held accountable seems to depend on the response of the public to this evidence.
· Phil Shiner is a solicitor at Public Interest Lawyers which acts for all the victims mentioned above
phil_shiner@publicinterestlawyers.co.uk

Stop the school for slaughter!

Stop the School for Slaughter : seren
By parabiodox But how will this military academy contribute to the Assembly's proud goal of achieving sustainable development? What exactly is Wales committing itself to when it signs up for the St Athan deal? oA future based on militarism ...UK Politics - Can't Get Enough - - http://recycledart.org

Private military companies ..BLACKWATER

Will Blackwater Be Kicked Out of Iraq After Recent Bloodbath?By Jeremy Scahill, The NationSo far Blackwater has only received a slap on the wrist after killing innocent civilians. Are the U.S. and Iraqi governments finally ready to send them packing? Read more »

Even if the firm loses its contracts its gurads will probably find work with other PRIVATE MILITARY COMPANIES....with British outfits like Aegis and Armor Group in Iraq.

These people will be present at St Athan??? providing or receiving training?

See also Flush with Profits from the Iraq War, Military Contractors See a World of Business OpportunitiesJeremy Scahill, Indypendent. August 13, 2007.Since launching the "global war on terror," the administration has funneled billions of public dollars to "private contractors" and more than doubled the size of the occupation with these hired guns.

Labor Dept: 1,001 Civilian Workers Have Died in IraqDavid Ivanovich, Houston Chronicle. August 8, 2007.Contractors represent part of the hidden death-toll in Iraq.

Outsourcing Intelligence: How Bush Gets His National Intelligence from Private CompaniesR.J. Hillhouse, The Nation. July 31, 2007.Private corporations are now a major staple of national intelligence and are heavily involved in producing the most important and most sensitive national security document -- the President's Daily Brief.

UK Troops death toll rises

The total number of UK troops killed in operations in Iraq has risen to 170, after a British soldier died on 21 September following a vehicle accident in southern Iraq.

Iraq violence, in figures British military fatalities in Afghanistan