"How can the American and British governments claim they want to keep civilian deaths to a minimum when they use cluster bombs?

They call it military utility - I think its more like carnage. Most cluster bombs contain around 200 bomblets many of which fail to explode leaving a deadly legacy for decades to come. Once the war is over people forget the long term impact of war on civilians and meanwhile explosive remnants remain on the ground for decades to come.

In the two years after desert storm ended in 1991, unexploded cluster bomblets killed 1600 Iraqi civilians and injured 1000s more. The military put the failure rate of those cluster bombs at 5% or less but during the last gulf war it is estimated that in some cases up to 40% were left on the ground live!"

"George Bush and Tony Blair have talked about a road map for the Palestinian people. Let me tell you something about that roadmap. It has 3 phases.

The first phase talks about the end to terror and violence. We have an answer to that, there is a simple way to end the terror and violence - let the israeli army withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza today!

There is a second phase to this so called roadmap where they talk about the "option" of an independent Palestinian state. Let us say to them clearly, there is no "option" for a Palestinian state - it is a right for the Palestinian people.

The third phase of this so called road map talks about effective Palestinian security performance. What does that mean? It means that Ariel Sharon will have a veto on any progress towards discussions for peace because the Israelis, as they have in the past, are quiet capable of creating provocation's and then turning around and blaming the Palestinians. There is no exceptions of an Israeli veto on the rights for the Palestinians for self-determination.

Yesterday at precisely this time two young Palestinian girls were making their way to their home in Raffah in Gaza. When they were walking home an Israeli soldier fired bullets which ricochet of the walls behind them. A young man went to rescue them, in broad daylight wearing a bright orange florescent vest. For a moment, a second, he turned his back on that soldier to protect those two young girls and he was shot in the head and killed. Thomas Hurndall , 20 years old from Manchester was one of a group of courageous members of the International Solidarity Movement who have been giving support to the Palestinian people. That courage should be replicated time and time again. The Palestinians must not be allowed to stand alone! "

A British peace activist going only by the name Alice
cries for help as she holds her hand over the headwound
of British peace activist Thomas Hurndall, who had been
shot in the head moments earlier, at the start of a protest,
in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Friday, April 11, 2003.
Hurndall, age 21, from Machester, England, had been
standing between Israeli troops and Palestinian children
when Israeli soldiers opened fire, according to a fellow
activist from the International Solidarity Movement who
witnessed the scene. Hurndall was declared brain dead
after arrival at a Gaza hospital. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Reconstruction contracts given to companies
with close ties to White House

Even before the war had began, deals were being made in Washington to carve up the profits from post-war reconstruction.

Only American companies were allowed to tender for the contracts and among them only those with close ties to the White House were short listed.

The contract for the management of Iraqi oil fires and oilfield reconstruction was awarded to Halliburton, the Texas oil services company where Vice President Dick Cheney was chief executive from 1995 to 2000. Halliburton was promised as much as $7bn worth of work, although the figure is now likely to be less given that the Iraqis ensured the oilfields were left relatively undamaged. Mr Cheney is reported to be receiving anywhere from $160,000 to $1m a year from Halliburton for services rendered.

Bechtel was offered a contract worth up to $680m to restore Iraq's water and electricity supply and build roads, schools, sewers and hospitals. Bechtel has made $1.3m in political donations over the past four years,most of it to Republicans, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington campaign watchdog. Its board of directors includes George Shultz, who was secretary of state during the Reagan administration. Its chairman and chief executive, Riley Bechtel, was recently appointed to George Bush's export council.

Bechtel has a long history of working with Saddam and is one of 24 US companies named as helping Saddam acquire weapons of mass destruction. A leaked story in Berlin's Die Tageszeitung newspaper (17/12/02) revealed that Bechtel appears in the original 12,000-page report Iraq submitted to the UN Security Council as helping Iraq acquire chemical weapons technology. In an unprecedented operation, which allegedly included blackmailing Colombia whose ambassador Alfonso Valdivieso who was the sitting Security Council president, the report was hijacked by US officials for censorship - deleting sensitive information on US-Saddam ties including US company names before copies being handed to the five permanent Security Council members. After further censoring a summary version trickled down to the remaining 10 members of the Security Council in December 2002.

Many predict that the initial reconstruction contracts are just the start and will lead to further lucrative work in Iraq, as the country rebuilds from decades of international sanctions and war.

Sources: articles in The Independent by Andrew Gumbel (19/4/03) and Tony Paterson (18/12/02), San Francisco Chronicle by David R. Baker (18/4/03), Die Tageszeitung (Berlin Daily) (17/12/02)

© www.inminds.co.uk 2003

"We said this war would produce fabricated evidence, and today Hans Blix of the United Nations weapons inspectors is saying the same, you see they are sending people, not the United Nations weapons inspectors, but the United States weapons inspectors to Iraq! And if they cant find anything they'll plant it!

This war has been a wake up call for people across the world, its a wake up call because we know its not all over, we know that the neo-conservatives in the American administration have a view of this century, its called the American century. And its going to be a century of permanent war unless we stop them. And when people turn around to you and say why did you go and demonstrate after Baghdad fell, I think you can say you came out because you wanted to stop the next war!

Before I go I want to request one thing. Many people have spoken out against the war, but two members of parliament in particular - George Galloway and Tam Dalyell. Both members of parliament are being threatened with disciplinary action by the prime minister for speaking out. Send the Prime Minister a letter - tell him what you think!"

Tony Benn

 

Tony Benn, veteran politician and activist:

"There are three things we have to do...

The first is to understand precisely what has happened. America has invaded Iraq. America has conquered Iraq. America has turned Iraq in to an American colony and the new Iraq is totally undemocratic. The new Iraq is occupied by a country with weapons of mass destruction. The new Iraq is a threat to its neighbours Syria and Iran and maybe other countries. And the most serious case of looting that is going on in Iraq at the moment is the looting of Iraqi oil by the American military.

And remember this, imperialism is not a new phenomenon and all imperial powers always present themselves as humanitarians. When Napoleon conquered Egypt he said he came as a liberator. We were told when we had a British empire that we were performing Gods Will all over the world. And do not believe for one moment that the people that are enslaved can be liberated by a foreign enemy that comes and steals their country from them. That is the first thing we have to understand.

The second thing to understand is that if we are to succeed we must build on the fantastic organisation that has been started by the stop the war movement. I know in my life time and I'm an old man, seen movements of this size or this character operating and what we have done is to build friendships between many peoples whom we are now told are our enemies. I hope the Muslims in Britain recognise they have millions and millions of friends in Britain and we value your presence here. And there are millions of Americans who support what we do and the American people are suffering from the war in their way, because Bush is cutting social security, he's even cutting the benefits for the Vietnam war veterans in order to make tax cuts and win the war. We have got to keep this movement intact.

... all imperial powers always present themselves
as humanitarians

Now the third thing we have to do is to act. I think its worth while reminding the British people that just as Iraq is an American colony, Britain is an American colony! And I want to liberate the people of Britain from the domination of our society by the United States of America and I want to see all the American bases in Britain closed. I do not want to see American bombers going from Fairford and bombing Syrians and Iranians the way they have bombed the Iraqis. And I want to see us make real in our generation the hopes of the United Nations. Now the United Nations is not perfect, but its what my generation built up at the end of the war. Now we must make it democratic, we must see that the great powers including America are bound to obey the laws of the United Nations. And if we are going to do that then we have to keep this movement alive in Britain, in America, in France, Germany, in China, all over the Arab world, all over Africa and Asia. Because the only power able to control the new empire is the people of the world and we must unite!