United Kingdom Politics

[Leadership] Penultimate week, Albert Jack Stanley, a former chief executive officer of Kellogg Brown & Root Incorporated, an engineering subsidiary of Halliburton Company, was sentenced to 30 months in prison by a Texas, USA court. The previous day, it was the turn of Wojciech Chodan, a 74-year-old retired sales executive from Somerset, United Kingdom, who got jailed for two years. Their crime was paying bribes to Nigerian politicians and government officials to secure construction contracts worth $6 billion for t

The Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica , in collaboration with the Government, through Jamaica Trade and Invest , will roll out several events in the United Kingdom to promote 'Brand Jamaica' in the lead-up to the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London.

The Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ), in collaboration with the Government, through Jamaica Trade and Invest (JAMPRO), will roll out several events in the United Kingdom (UK) to promote ...

The Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ), in collaboration with the Government, through Jamaica Trade and Invest (JAMPRO), will roll out several events in the United Kingdom (UK) to promote ...

The Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ), in collaboration with the Government, through Jamaica Trade and Invest (JAMPRO), will roll out several events in the United Kingdom (UK) to promote ...

London: In Britain the government official who is the senior has been kept the maid of India as the slave and also fed the scraps for the four years and also this information was given by the media reporters.

Buenos Aires, Feb 14 (Prensa Latina) The Argentinean government has accepted the United Nations proposal for seeking a peaceful solution through dialogue to the dispute with the United Kingdom over ...

Buenos Aires, Feb 14 (Prensa Latina) The Argentinean government has accepted the United Nations proposal for seeking a peaceful solution through dialogue to the dispute with the United Kingdom over ...

PETITION More than 300 well-known personalities have signed a petition calling on the government to reverse its stance toward the European Union fiscal responsibility treaty, which only the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom refused to sign last month, daily LidovA© noviny reported Feb.

[ACNS] London, 8 February (ENInews) British Anglicans have called upon the United Kingdom government to support those in Nigeria seeking to protect religious minorities of all faiths and enable them to practice their religion without fear.

[The Herald] GOVERNMENT is mulling the establishment of a Financial Times Stock Exchange with a view to reinvigorate activity in capital markets. An FTSE is an independent company, which originated as a joint venture between The Financial Times newspaper and the London Stock Exchange in the United Kingdom.

By Richard Lightbown

The British media was full of sound bites last weekend from politicians expressing outrage against Russia and China for blocking a UN Security Council resolution based on an Arab League proposal for the Syrian crisis. This is the same Arab League that called for the no-fly zone in Libya which precipitated events leading to a death toll five times higher than the current total in Syria. It is supported by the same United States administration which has ordered drone assassinations in Yemen and Pakistan, along with widespread human rights abuses around the world. Along with the same United Kingdom government whose shadowy spooks in MI6 helped to provoke the Libyan uprising, and train Palestinian security forces in the black arts of torture. It is the same French government which armed and trained Libyan rebels; acts which, in the opinion of the chair of the Security Council's Sanctions Committee, were in breach of UNSC resolutions 1970 and 1973.
 
NATO was not mandated to train or arm the Libyan rebels, or employ any forces on the ground, or bomb hospitals, schools and infrastructure; it was mandated to protect civilian life. With the death toll at more than 30,000 and counting, this cannot be considered a successful operation that fulfilled its mandated task.
 
After the recent Security Council result US Ambassador Susan Rice had the temerity to declare "The US is disgusted". So why was it not disgusted over Fallujah, or Kosovo, or direct US involvement in Afghanistan which began with the widespread use of cluster bombs? Because the United States if the world's greatest rogue state, the world's greatest perpetrator of war crimes and crimes against humanity, and the world's greatest hypocrite.
 
Western media however is loathe the admit this. On Saturday, 4 February ITN was implying that Russia vetoed the proposal simply because Syria is a major buyer of Russian arms and provides the Russian Navy with a friendly port on the Mediterranean. The BBC was still leading with the story of Western outrage over the vetoes the following night. In the Independent on Sunday, Joan Smith called for the support, training and organization of the Syrian opposition along the lines of the deployment of NATO Special Forces in Libya. She should keep herself up to date. NATO already has training camps in Turkey for opponents of the Assad regime. According to Italian sources used by Pravda NATO snipers have been transferred from Libya to Syria; while MI6, probably in conjunction with the CIA, already has forces there.
 
Despite the involvement of Western military, David Hearst in the Guardian and Dr Alan George in the Independent on Sunday both asserted that military intervention is not on the agenda. Neither justified their assertion, which did not concur with the UN’s own report on the session which specifically mentioned Russian fears of such an event. Reuters reported that a vote was forced on the Council while Russian diplomats were still seeking alterations to the Anglo-French draft, while both Russian and Chinese representatives spoke of the need to seek peace between opposing factions. This important point was totally ignored in statements by American, British and French leaders who were more interested in apportioning blame than in seeking consensus.
 
The real reason for the Russian and Chinese vetoes is that they were duped by NATO’s involvement in Libya. What should have been the enforcement of a no-fly zone and a total embargo on military goods for the protection of civilian life was distorted beyond recognition by the alliance. Without Security Council authorization, rebels were armed and trained, a stable prosperous society was bombed into poverty and insecurity, atrocities were committed, much of the infrastructure was damaged or destroyed, the regime was overthrown and armed bands were left on the streets to fight among themselves and to kill and loot with impunity.
 
Having been fooled once, Russia and China cannot, and will not allow any authorization which could serve as an excuse for a US-led colonial project in Syria. In reality the Western politicians expressing outrage and crying crocodile tears for Syrians are intent on overthrowing the Assad regime in Damascus in total disregard to any suffering or harm that might cause. With a population more than tenfold that of Libya, a death toll in excess of 100,000 could result.
 
Those promoting a NATO intervention should look at the track record of American-led interventions: through Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya; the story is always the same. High-tech super weaponry is used to destroy, kill, maim and pollute the local people and their environment, with minimum losses to the assailants. There is no positive aspect to this story for the victims. Following in the wake of NATO forces there is only destruction and death: devastation far in excess of the violence used to justify the attack.
 
Those who propose a NATO ‘solution’ in Syria should be able to justify their case by answering two questions.
 
One: If Russia and China had vetoed UNSC resolution 1973 (and assuming NATO had respected this result), what damage and death toll do they think might have resulted?

[It should be remembered here that no evidence has been produced to support the original allegations of “genocide” by loyalist forces which provoked the call for intervention.]
 
Two: If NATO gets sufficient excuse to attack Syria and carry out a regime change what damage and death toll might result (and how will this compare with current estimates of 6000 dead)?
 
The fact that nobody from the US administration has so far provided data which might answer these simple questions suggests that the answers might be inconvenient and embarrassing to those proposing yet another war under the guise of a humanitarian intervention.
 
- Richard Lightbown is a writer and researcher. He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com.

By William A. Cook

'Men use thought only to justify their injustices, and speech only to conceal their thoughts.' --Voltaire: Dialogue XIV, Le Chapon et la Poularde

Voltaire's wit often illuminates truth. Consider this revealing 'thought' as expressed recently in Alert, the voice of AIPAC to its membership: “Some Americans believe if the Israelis strike Iran, the U.S. will pay the political costs anyway, so it would be better for the Americans to do the job and do it properly. Their clock is a bit different from the one the Israelis hear. Because of their vastly superior firepower, the Americans could strike Iran later, more devastatingly and more sustainably.” How just is it for AIPAC’s mouthpiece to declare that America should “devastate” Iran because it has “vastly more firepower” than Israel and could “do a better job” and “do it properly,” as though this were a clean-up “job” of a waste dump and not an illegal invasion of a member country of the United Nations that has done nothing under international law to threaten the U.S. much less attack it, while the Israeli government and its IDF look on happily content that it is American boys and girls suffering the consequences of the unwarranted attacks and not Jewish boys and girls? Has it come to this, that unnamed Israeli spokespeople, voicing AIPAC’s policies, determine what nation the U.S. should invade without consultation with the representatives of the American people?  

Not that this sentiment has not been expressed before. Netanyahu told Piers Morgan the same thing in an interview last year, as I have quoted in previous articles, noting Israel’s Zionist government’s desire to use America’s military as their own claiming that what is good for Israel is good for America. That protestation completes the wit contained in Voltaire’s quote: because Israel is America’s only friend in the mid-east, and the only Democracy, and the only nation in that part of the world aligned with the west, it alone deserves America’s “unquestionable” and “unbreakable” support.

Speech that conceals fails to mention that being Israel’s “only friend” has made the U.S. a pariah among nations in the world and made its touted “Democratic freedoms” a laughing stock as the other nations in the UN watch America “support” the Zionists’ agenda to attack Iraq and Lebanon and Gaza, abort international law as it, like Israel, commits extrajudicial executions in foreign states, equips Israel when it invades its neighbors to the north and attacks peace activists aboard vessels from peaceful nations including Turkey, and, ironically sits silently by as Israel dismantles what little of a democracy existed in that nation by creating new laws that deny full citizenship to anyone not a Jew. Thus have we become a nation supportive of a militaristic Theocracy while we continue to mouth the principle of separation of church and state, a principle founded on tolerance, concealing the truth that there are more than 20 great religions with well over a billion people who accept no religion (Adherents.com) all of whom deserve recognition and, as necessary, support from America.

Clearly Israel’s needs are not America’s needs if we mean by that more war in the mid-east.  Have we pulled our troops from Iraq just to move them into Iran? Does any sensible person believe that the Iranians have a “need” or desire to attack the people of the United States? Our forces completely surround Iran. We are the nation with atomic weaponry, not Iran. What possible good would Iran achieve by having a nuclear weapon? Hasn’t Iran signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Agreement while Israel, who damns Iran for its nuclear “ambitions,” has an arsenal of nuclear bombs and has refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Agreement. Which of these nations is to be feared? Iran has never attacked a neighbor; Israel attacks and occupies its neighbors at will.

Have the Iranians reason to fear control of the U.S. military by Israeli operatives using this nation as its power because Israel wants to devastate Iran the way Iraq has been devastated? Yes. Israel’s ultimate goal is control of the mid-east by surgically cutting it into small indefensible sections that can be dominated by Israeli money and American forces. It would appear, however, that Israel fears America does not desire to follow Israel’s advice to “take out” Iran the way they convinced the Bush administration to “take out” Saddam Hussein. Hence the constant barrage that characterizes Iran as a warlike state set on wiping Israel off the map and becoming the dominant power in the mid-east.

It’s time, I believe, for the U.S. and the UN to consider how to avoid yet more devastation in the mid-east, not by expanding military operations there but by seeking peace through negotiations and cooperative support for the people of the mid-east. Both Israel and the United States must confront the reality on the ground today that they no longer have control over the people of the mid-east, and recognize the colonial drives that Zionism had designed for Israel are no longer tenable.

While Israeli control of America in the form of Las Vegas billionaires buying the presidency continues in the United States, and Republican candidates crawl to the altar of Mammon to remove Obama, who has already sold his soul to the forces of Evil, the people of the world look on in disbelief, having witnessed for sixty years the dominance of Zionist deceit, treachery, and manipulation of America as it savaged the mid-east in the name of friendship, democracy and shared values. But now, they have moved to take control of their own lives as they watch Israel corrode from within as it metamorphoses into a tribalistic, superstitious people further isolating themselves from the community of nations.

Can they not see that the people in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Syria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and, arguably, in Yemen and Saudi Arabia have had enough of dictators imposed by the U.S. and Israel to control their governments; can they not see that Turkey broke with the Zionist forces that demanded compliance with their rule regardless of international law and due respect for neighboring nations; are they blind to the  Jordanian efforts to take seriously their role as a Palestinian neighbor; do they not see that the people of Egypt have made possible the opening of Israel’s illegal siege of Gaza, that the people of the world have given notice that they will not cease to break that siege with boats entering Gaza through international waters, that the Iraqi people have made clear that they will not cave in to America’s continued control of their country by proxy power, that the peoples of Britain, the United States, Canada, and Australia have openly condemned Israel’s injustices to the Palestinian people regardless of their governments paid presidents and prime ministers that claim otherwise; have they stood by blind to the French Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee issuing its recent report condemning Israel’s apartheid practices against Palestinians in the West Bank, blind to Secretary Ban’s clear call to Israel that it must withdraw from the occupied territories, blind to the European Union as it issued its recent report critical of the Israeli government’s on-going occupation and settlement of Palestinian land, blind as well as Russia, China, Iran and numerous other mid-east nations put into practice what they have agreed upon by resorting to other currencies than the dollar to be the international means of finance; unable to see that once the people of the world have had an opportunity to view the critically acclaimed, dramatically powerful, passionately presented film, The Promise, by director Peter Kosminsky of the United Kingdom, where the inhumane policies of the Zionist criminals erupts in all its unguarded ferocity, the veil of respectability will be removed from Israelis’ atrocities for all, and blind, totally blind to the United Nations as it acts upon a resolution to recognize the rights of the Palestinian people to a state of their own, must they not see, both Israel and its people, as well as all Americans, that they must accept the reality that no single nation can force its will on all other nations with impunity; that time is over.

Clearly Israel’s militaristic approach to neighborliness does not work. Israel fears “delegitimization,” it fears boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS), and it fears total isolation from the world’s communities. Should the U.S. become financially incapacitated through the devaluing of its currency, should it not be able to create adequate jobs for its citizens, should its investment in Israel estimated at $8.2 million per day for a population that is approximately 7 million impair its stability, should the people of America awaken to the control AIPAC has over their President and representatives and the total disregard of America’s security as a result, then Israel could lose both the American veto that has protected it from world condemnation of its policies and America’s military support for its aggressiveness against its neighbors. That would leave Israel isolated, wrapped in fear, and psychologically unstable. Israel’s alternative can only be constant instability, never ending terror and war, hatred by their neighbors, innate, simmering self-hate, and mental anguish resulting from exclusionism that leaves open wounds of distrust and self-questioning, a state terribly close to insanity.

Is it not time for Israel to seek peace with its neighbors? Since no sensible person in the mid-east believes that the U.S. can act credibly as a broker for peace, Israel must seek other partners from the UN who can serve that purpose. It must be willing to accept as a premise for peace, justice as defined by the UN’s International Courts and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It must understand that the occupied territories must be returned to their native inhabitants, that the Partition Plan of November 1947 must be a basis for negotiations if only to provide a foundation for equitable land for both peoples. Modification of land distribution could follow as well as a means of providing for the rights of those displaced in the Nakba. The world peace body could serve to protect both peoples as generations come and go until a free movement of all is possible. Then perhaps we could say, men use thoughts to find justice and speech to communicate it. 

-William A. Cook is a Professor of English at the University of La Verne in southern California. His works include Psalms for the 21st Century, Mellon Poetry Press, Tracking Deception: Bush Mid-East Policy, The Rape of Palestine, The Chronicles of Nefaria, and most recently in 2010, The Plight of the Palestinians. He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com. Contact him at: wcook@laverne.edu or visit: www.drwilliamacook.com.

VISITING United Kingdom Foreign Secretary William Hague yesterday affirmed his government's support towards helping restore peace in the Horn of Africa. Earlier, on Wednesday Hague visited ...

[Nairobi Star] VISITING United Kingdom Foreign Secretary William Hague yesterday affirmed his government's support towards helping restore peace in the Horn of Africa.

[GoSS] Juba - The ambassador of the United Kingdom to South Sudan, Dr Alastair McPhail said the government of South Sudan handled the oil crisis in safe and responsible manner.

The government has secured funds worth 70 billion shillings from United Kingdom and European Union to strengthen Uganda's national road construction industry and improve on the efficiency of the government's spending on roads.

The Sundance Film Festival prepared to come to a close for 2012 tonight as the festival held its some of its last screenings and mounted an awards ceremony to celebrate the best films of this year's festival. The biggest jury prizes went to Beasts of the Southern Wild (reviewed here [1]) and Eugene Jarecki's war on drugs documentary The House I Live In. The Surrogate (reviewed here [2]) took an Audience Award, as did the doc Searching for Sugar Man (reviewed here [3]) and the film Valley of Saints. The full list of awards is below. The 2012 Sundance Film Festival Awards presented this evening were: The Grand Jury Prize: Documentary was presented by Charles Ferguson to: The House I Live In / U.S.A. (Director: Eugene Jarecki) — For over 40 years, the War on Drugs has accounted for 45 million arrests, made America the world's largest jailer and damaged poor communities at home and abroad. Yet, drugs are cheaper, purer and more available today than ever. Where did we go wrong and what is the path toward healing? The Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic was presented by Justin Lin to: Beasts of the Southern Wild / U.S.A. (Director: Benh Zeitlin, Screenwriters: Benh Zeitlin, Lucy Alibar) — Waters gonna rise up, wild animals gonna rerun from the grave, and everything south of the levee is goin’ under, in this tale of a six year old named Hushpuppy, who lives with her daddy at the edge of the world. Cast: Quvenzhané Wallis, Dwight Henry. The World Cinema Jury Prize: Documentary was presented by Nick Fraser to: The Law in These Parts / Israel (Director: Ra'anan Alexandrowicz) — Israel's 43-year military legal system in the Occupied Palestinian Territories unfolds through provocative interviews with the system’s architects and historical footage showing the enactment of these laws upon the Palestinian population. The World Cinema Jury Prize: Dramatic was presented by Julia Ormond to: Violeta Went to Heaven (Violeta se Fue a Los Cielos) / Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Spain (Director: Andrés Wood, Screenwriters: Eliseo Altunaga, Rodrigo Bazaes, Guillermo Calderón, Andrés Wood) — A portrait of famed Chilean singer and folklorist Violeta Parra filled with her musical work, her memories, her loves and her hopes. Cast: Francisca Gavilán, Thomas Durand, Luis Machín, Gabriela Aguilera, Roberto Farías. The Audience Award: U.S. Documentary, Presented by Acura, was presented by Mike Birbiglia to: The Invisible War / U.S.A. (Director: Kirby Dick) — An investigative and powerfully emotional examination of the epidemic of rape of soldiers within the U.S. military, the institutions that cover up its existence and the profound personal and social consequences that arise from it. The Audience Award: U.S. Dramatic, Presented by Acura, was presented by Mike Birbiglia to: The Surrogate / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Ben Lewin) — Mark O'Brien, a 36-year-old poet and journalist in an iron lung, decides he no longer wishes to be a virgin. With the help of his therapist and the guidance of his priest, he contacts a professional sex surrogate to take him on a journey to manhood. Cast: John Hawkes, Helen Hunt, William H. Macy. The World Cinema Audience Award: Documentary was presented by Edward James Olmos to: SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN / Sweden, United Kingdom (Director: Malik Bendjelloul) — Rodriguez was the greatest ‘70s US rock icon who never was. Hailed as the greatest recording artist of his generation he disappeared into oblivion – rising again from the ashes in a completely different context many miles away. The World Cinema Audience Award: Dramatic was presented by Edward James Olmos to: Valley of Saints / India, U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Musa Syeed) — Gulzar plans to run away from the war and poverty surrounding his village in Kashmir with his best friend, but a beautiful young woman researching the dying lake leads him to contemplate a different future Cast: Gulzar Ahmad Bhat, Mohammed Afzal Sofi, Neelofar Hamid. The Best of NEXT Audience Award, Presented by Adobe Systems Incorporated, was presented by Tim Heidecker to: Sleepwalk With Me / U.S.A. (Director: Mike Birbiglia, Screenwriters: Mike Birbiglia, Ira Glass, Joe Birbiglia, Seth Barrish) — Reluctant to confront his fears of love, honesty, and growing up, a budding standup comedian has both a hilarious and intense struggle with sleepwalking. Cast: Mike Birbiglia, Lauren Ambrose, Carol Kane, James Rebhorn, Cristin Milioti. The U.S. Directing Award: Documentary was presented by Fenton Bailey to: The Queen of Versailles / U.S.A. (Director: Lauren Greenfield) — Jackie and David were triumphantly constructing the biggest house in America – a sprawling, 90,000-square-foot palace inspired by Versailles – when their timeshare empire falters due to the economic crisis. Their story reveals the innate virtues and flaws of the American Dream. The U.S. Directing Award: Dramatic was presented by Lynn Shelton to: Middle Of Nowhere / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Ava DuVernay) — When her husband is incarcerated, an African-American woman struggles to maintain her marriage and her identity. Cast: Emayatzy Corinealdi, David Oyelowo, Omari Hardwick, Lorraine Touissaint, Edwina Findley. The World Cinema Directing Award: Documentary was presented by Jean-Marie Teno to: 5 Broken Cameras / Palestine, Israel, France (Directors: Emad Burnat, Guy Davidi) — A Palestinian journalist chronicles his village’s resistance to a separation barrier being erected on their land and in the process captures his young son’s lens on the world. The World Cinema Directing Award: Dramatic was presented by Alexei Popogrebsky to: Teddy Bear / Denmark (Director: Mads Matthiesen, Screenwriters: Mads Matthiesen, Martin Pieter Zandvliet) — Dennis, a painfully shy 38-year-old bodybuilder who lives with his mother, sets off to Thailand in search of love. Cast: Kim Kold, Elsebeth Steentoft, Lamaiporn Sangmanee Hougaard, David Winters, Allan Mogensen. The Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award was presented by Anthony Mackie to: Safety Not Guaranteed / U.S.A. (Director: Colin Trevorrow, Screenwriter: Derek Connolly) — A trio of magazine employees investigate a classified ad seeking a partner for time travel. One employee develops feelings for the paranoid but compelling loner and seeks to discover what he’s really up to. Cast: Aubrey Plaza, Mark Duplass, Jake Johnson, Karan Soni. The World Cinema Screenwriting Award was presented by Richard Pena to: Young & Wild / Chile (Director: Marialy Rivas, Screenwriters: Marialy Rivas, Camila Gutiérrez, Pedro Peirano, Sebastián Sepúlveda) — 17-year-old Daniela, raised in the bosom of a strict Evangelical family and recently unmasked as a fornicator by her shocked parents, struggles to find her own path to spiritual harmony. Cast: Alicia Rodríguez, Aline Kuppenheim, María Gracia Omegna, Felipe Pinto. The U.S. Documentary Editing Award was presented by Kim Roberts to: DETROPIA / U.S.A. (Directors: Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady) — The woes of Detroit are emblematic of the collapse of the U.S. manufacturing base. This is the dramatic story of a city and its people who refuse to leave the building, even as the flames are rising. The World Cinema Documentary Editing Award was presented by Clara Kim to: Indie Game: The Movie / Canada (Directors: Lisanne Pajot, James Swirsky) — Follow the dramatic journeys of indie game developers as they create games and release those works, and themselves, to the world. The Excellence in Cinematography Award: U.S. Documentary was presented by Tia Lessin to: Chasing Ice / U.S.A. (Director: Jeff Orlowski) — Science, spectacle and human passion mix in this stunningly cinematic portrait as National Geographic photographer James Balog captures time-lapse photography of glaciers over several years providing tangible visual evidence of climate change. The Excellence in Cinematography Award: U.S. Dramatic was presented by Amy Vincent to: Beasts of the Southern Wild / U.S.A. (Director: Benh Zeitlin, Screenwriters: Benh Zeitlin, Lucy Alibar) — Waters gonna rise up, wild animals gonna rerun from the grave, and everything south of the levee is goin’ under, in this tale of a six year old named Hushpuppy, who lives with her daddy at the edge of the world. Cast: Quvenzhané Wallis, Dwight Henry. The World Cinema Cinematography Award: Documentary was presented by Jean-Marie Teno to: Putin's Kiss / Denmark (Director: Lise Birk Pedersen) — 19-year-old Marsha is a model spokesperson in a strongly nationalistic Russian youth movement that aims to protect the country from its enemies. When she starts recognizing the organization’s flaws, she must take a stand for or against it. The World Cinema Cinematography Award: Dramatic was presented by Alexei Popogrebsky to: My Brother the Devil / United Kingdom (Director and screenwriter: Sally El Hosaini) — A pair of British Arab brothers trying to get by in gangland London learn the extraordinary courage it takes to be yourself. Cast: James Floyd, Saïd Taghmaoui, Fady Elsayed. A U.S. Documentary Special Jury Prize for an Agent of Change was presented by Heather Croall to: Love Free or Die / U.S.A. (Director: Macky Alston) — One man whose two defining passions are in conflict: An openly gay bishop refuses to leave the Church or the man he loves. A U.S. Documentary Special Jury Prize for Spirit of Defiance was presented by Heather Croall to: Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry / U.S.A., China (Director: Alison Klayman) — Renowned Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei has garnered international attention as much for his ambitious artwork as his political provocations and increasingly public clashes with the Chinese government. A U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Prize for Excellence in Independent Film Producing was presented by Cliff Martinez to: Andrea Sperling and Jonathan Schwartz for Smashed and Nobody Walks Smashed / U.S.A. (Director: James Ponsoldt, Screenwriters: Susan Burke, James Ponsoldt) — Kate and Charlie are a young married couple whose bond is built on a mutual love of music, laughter and... drinking. When Kate decides to get sober, her new lifestyle brings troubling issues to the surface and calls into question her relationship with Charlie. Cast: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Aaron Paul, Octavia Spencer, Nick Offerman, Megan Mullally. Nobody Walks / U.S.A. (Director: Ry Russo-Young, Screenwriters: Lena Dunham, Ry Russo-Young) — Martine, a young artist from New York, is invited into the home of a hip, liberal LA family for a week. Her presence unravels the family’s carefully maintained status quo, and a mess of sexual and emotional entanglements ensues. Cast: John Krasinski, Olivia Thirlby, Rosemarie DeWitt, India Ennenga, Justin Kirk. A U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Prize for Ensemble Acting was presented by Cliff Martinez to: The Surrogate / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Ben Lewin) — Mark O'Brien, a 36-year-old poet and journalist in an iron lung, decides he no longer wishes to be a virgin. With the help of his therapist and the guidance of his priest, he contacts a professional sex surrogate to take him on a journey to manhood. Cast: John Hawkes, Helen Hunt, William H. Macy. A World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Prize for Artistic Vision was presented by Clara Kim to: Can / Turkey (Director and screenwriter: Rasit Celikezer) — A young married couple live happily in Istanbul, but their decision to illegally procure a child threatens their future together. Cast: Selen Uçer, Serdar Orçin, Berkan Demirbag, Erkan Avci. A World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Prize for its Celebration of the Artistic Spirit was presented by Richard Pena to: SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN / Sweden, United Kingdom (Director: Malik Bendjelloul) — Rodriguez was the greatest ‘70s US rock icon who never was. Hailed as the greatest recording artist of his generation he disappeared into oblivion – rising again from the ashes in a completely different context many miles away. The inaugural Short Film Audience Award, Presented by Yahoo!, based on online voting for nine short films that premiered at the Festival and are currently featured on Yahoo! Screen [4], was presented to: The Debutante Hunters (Director: Maria White) — In the Lowcountry of South Carolina a group of true Southern belles reveal their more rugged side, providing a glimpse into what drives them to hunt in the wild. The following awards were presented at separate ceremonies at the Festival: The Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking was awarded to: FISHING WITHOUT NETS / U.S.A. (Director: Cutter Hodierne, Screenwriters: Cutter Hodierne, John Hibey). The Jury Prize in Short Film, U.S. Fiction was presented to: The Black Balloon / U.S.A. (Directors: Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie). The Jury Prize in Short Film, International Fiction was presented to: The Return (Kthimi) / Kosovo (Director: Blerta Zeqiri, Screenwriter: Shefqet Gjocaj). The Jury Prize in Short Film, Non-Fiction was presented to: The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom / U.S.A. (Director: Lucy Walker). The Jury Prize in Animated Short Film was presented to: A Morning Stroll / United Kingdom (Director: Grant Orchard). A Special Jury Award for Comedic Storytelling was presented to: The Arm / U.S.A. (Directors and screenwriters: Brie Larson, Sarah Ramos, Jessie Ennis). A Special Jury Award for Animation Direction was presented to: Robots of Brixton / United Kingdom (Director: Kibwe Tavares). The winning directors and projects of the Sundance Institute | Mahindra Global Filmmaking Award, in recognition and support of emerging independent filmmakers from around the world, are: Etienne Kallos / Vrystaat (Free State) (South Africa); Ariel Kleiman / Partisan (Australia); Dominga Sotomayor / Tarde Para Morir Joven (Late To Die Young) (Chile); and Shonali Bose / Margarita. With a Straw (India). The Sundance/NHK International Filmmaker Award, honoring and supporting emerging filmmakers, was presented to Jens Assur, director of the upcoming film Close Far Away. The inaugural Hilton Worldwide LightStay Sustainability Award for a completed feature film was presented to The Island President, directed by Jon Shenk. The in-process feature film award was presented to Solar Mamas, directed by Jehane Noujaim and Mona Eldaief. Each project received $25,000. The inaugural Sundance Institute Indian Paintbrush Producer’s Award and $10,000 grant was presented to Dan Janvey and Josh Penn for Beasts of the Southern Wild. The Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prizes, presented to outstanding feature films focusing on science or technology as a theme, or depicting a scientist, engineer, or mathematician as a major character, were presented to Robot & Frank, directed by Jake Schreier and written by Christopher Ford, and Valley of Saints, directed and written by Musa Syeed. The two films will split the $20,000 cash award by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. [1] http://www.slashfilm.com/beasts-southern-wild-sundances-buzzed-movie-creates-world-sundance-2012-video-blog/ [2] http://www.slashfilm.com/the-surrogate-2013-oscar-contender-john-hawkes-helen-hunt-william-macy-sundance-2012/ [3] http://www.slashfilm.com/searching-sugar-man-documentary-feels-musical-harry-potter-story-sundance-2012/ [4] https://uinta.sundance.org/emailmarketer/link.php?M%205909&N%201&LI5&F=H

It’s Burns Night, and the Scottish bard’s poems are being declaimed all over the world. Scottish first minister Alex Salmond naturally chose this date to launch his government’s “consultation” on a 2014 referendum on Scottish independence from the United Kingdom, quoting from Burns’ great “hymn to equality,” “A Man’s a Man for a’ That.” Burns was also quoted by many of the Scottish MPs who spoke following Salmond’s announcement, and while they were talking in Edinburgh, MP Eleanor Laing and Prime Minister David Cameron traded their own Burns quotations in the English Parliament in London, during Prime Minister’s questions:

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Vanguard (Lagos)-A United Kingdom-based firm has offered to become the Federal Government's partner in the execution of the performance contract policy jointly adopted by the Federal Civil Service Commission, FCSC, and Office of Head of Civil Service of the Federation, HOCSF.

The Office of the Attorney General has blocked De La Rue plc of the United Kingdom from concluding a controversial joint venture deal in which the Kenya government is to purchase a 40 per cent share ...

Daily Trust (Abuja)-The Nigerian Muslims' Forum, United Kingdom, yesterday faulted what it described as slow response by the Federal Government to Friday's attacks on Kano.

East African (Nairobi)-The Office of the Attorney General has blocked De La Rue plc of the United Kingdom from concluding a controversial joint venture deal in which the Kenya government is to purchase a 40 per cent share in the British company’s local subsidiary in exchange for a 10-year exclusive currency printing contract with the Central Bank of Kenya.

GoSS (Juba)-The government of the United Kingdom is committed to support the declared humanitarian disaster area of South Sudan, the ambassador of the United Kingdom to South Sudan, Dr Alastair Mcphail said yesterday after meeting the minister for Information and Broadcasting Hon Dr Barnaba Marial Benjamin.

BlueCat Networks provides advice to the UK Government on IP Address Management (IPAM) and IPv6-Ready DNSSEC

BlueCat Networks, the IPAM Intelligence™ company, today announced that it has collaborated with the UK Cabinet Office on a best practice approach for deploying a resilient, IPv6-ready DNS service for the Public Sector Network (PSN). The PSN is a CIO Council initiative designed to create the effect of a single network across government.

"The security of business and network services accessible to users over the PSN is of paramount importance," said John Stubley, Public Sector Network — Program Director. "Over the past year, we have worked productively with BlueCat Networks to identify the technical issues to ensure our DNS core services are authoritative, resilient, scalable and easy to manage. BlueCat Networks has been extremely responsive in answering our requests and has provided expertise to the PSN Programme for this area of work."

"The PSN is a key component of the UK's ICT strategy, and will allow public sector users in the UK to more easily share information and access open standard-based services," said Matthew Pearson, UK and Ireland Sales Director, BlueCat Networks. "We are pleased to have the opportunity to work with the Cabinet Office and the PSN in a technical advisory role. BlueCat Networks contributed to the architecture and configuration for a centralised, authoritative DNSSEC and IP Address Management (IPAM) solution for .gov.uk domains. The approach had to be easy to manage, resilient, geographically-dispersed and scalable to support the network backbone for the whole of the United Kingdom. It also had to be future-ready with support for IPv6. Our recommendations were based on our experience in helping US government agencies successfully deploy DNSSEC and IPAM across their large, distributed networks."

BlueCat Networks' appliance-based software solutions provide a purpose-built platform for IP Address Management (IPAM) and DNS/DHCP core network services. Deployed at some of the most demanding and secure organizations in the world, BlueCat Networks' physical and virtual appliances help public and private sector organizations improve security, lower costs and increase IT efficiency. BlueCat Networks' solutions also allow organizations to securely manage change and growth with unsurpassed scalability and future-ready support for IPv6 and DNSSEC.

For a free trial of BlueCat Networks' DNS, DHCP and IPAM solutions, visit http://pages.bluecatnetworks.com/FreeTrial.

By Dr. Ismail Salami - Tehran

'I saw a motorcycle. They were wearing ski masks - black ski masks. They were two people. I saw the motorcycle speed by. I saw them. It seemed as if they had something in their hands,' this is how a female witness described the scene of the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan.

As the blade of blame is being directed against the CIA and Mossad for orchestrating the brutal assassination of the 32-year-old Iranian scientist in broad daylight in Tehran on Wednesday morning, the duo have preferred to feign ignorance as to the identity of the main perpetrator of the crime.

"I want to categorically deny any United States involvement in any kind of act of violence inside Iran," US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told reporters on Thursday.

Also, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the US had nothing to do with the assassination.

"We were not involved in any way -- in any way -- with regards to the assassination that took place [in Iran]," he said. "I'm not sure of who was involved...But I can tell you one thing: the United States was not involved in that kind of effort. That's not what the United States does."

The US is not the only party which has chosen to be in denial.

Israeli President Shimon Peres also denied on Thursday that Israel was involved in the assassination of the Iranian nuclear scientist. In an interview with CNN, Peres was asked if Israel was involved in the nuclear assassination, to which he answered: "Not to the best of my knowledge."

"I know that it is fashionable that whatever wrong happens in Iran, it is the United States and Israel. There is nothing new in this approach," said Peres.

What kind of answer would the viewers expect from Peres to such a question? The question is indeed as unwise in substance as the answer given by Peres.

In order to find out who really killed the Iranian scientist, one needs to put together the factual pieces.

Just two days after Iran sentenced to death  a convicted CIA operative of Iranian descent Amir Mirzaei Hekmati, two unidentified men on a motorcycle attached a magnetic bomb onto the car of Iranian nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, a senior official at Iran's Natanz nuclear facility, and detonated it on Wednesday, killing the young scientist and his driver.

It does not seem unreasonable to say that there was a link between the two incidents.

And in comes a third party: Britain.  British Middle East minister Alistair Burt has recently visited Israel and demanded all nations intensify pressure on Tehran to stall its nuclear program. Proudly he announced that "a few weeks ago the British government imposed tough new financial restrictions against Iran. These new sanctions make it illegal for any financial institution in the United Kingdom to have any dealings with any institution in Iran. They are the toughest of their kind. And we will build on them, getting others to follow suit."

A close friend of Israel, Mr. Burt described the Iranian nuclear program as “the major issue at the top of our shared agenda," saying that Israel can serve as a partner in a common cause against a regime dangerously loose.”

Lavishing pearls of British wisdom on the audience while speaking at Bar-Ilan University's Feldman International Conference Center, Mr. Burt said Iran “does not just threaten Israel,” and described Israel as the “bastion for stability in the region.”

Also contributing to the shared agenda of Israel and Britain in nuclear assassinations and sabotage activities in Iran is the remark of the Israel Defense Forces' Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz who said on Tuesday in an address to a closed Knesset committee that Iran should expect more "unnatural" events in 2012.

While the hawks in Washington have already declared a nuclear war on Iran in a metaphoric sense i.e. the assassination of the Iranian nuclear scientists, some of them avail themselves of a kind of literature in their reference to the nuclear assassinations which indicates the abyss of human degeneration. An impetuous example of this was reflected in a video circulated on the internet in which Rick Santorum, a politically bankrupt White House aspirant, has unfeelingly described the assassination of Iranian scientists as “wonderful.”

"On occasion, scientists working on the nuclear program in Iran turn up dead. I think that's a wonderful thing, candidly," said Rick Santorum addressing an election campaign in Greenville, South Carolina.

He added that, "I think we should send a very clear message that if you are a scientist from Russia, North Korea, or from Iran and you are going to work on a nuclear program to develop a bomb for Iran, you are not safe.”

All these facts aside, examples for the animosity of the UK, US and Israel towards the Islamic Republic are legion. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg of the myriad crimes orchestrated, funded and carried out by the trio.

There is no doubt that the recent assassination has caused a lot of intellectual anguish, emotional pain and political wrath in Iran.

In a stern warning, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, lashed out at the United States and Israel for orchestrating the assassination of Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan. In a message of condolence to his family, Ayatollah Khamenei said the assassination was carried out under the unholy auspices of the CIA and Mossad.

“This act of cowardice, whose perpetrators and architects will never dare to confess to their foul and appalling crime or assume responsibility for it, has been engineered and funded by the CIA and Mossad [spy] services,” he said, adding, “The assassination shows that the global arrogance spearheaded by the US and Zionism has arrived at an impasse in their encounter with the determined, devout, and progressive nation of Islamic Iran.”

Central to the circle of the prime suspects in the nuclear assassinations is the IAEA itself. About two weeks ago, Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan had reportedly met the agency inspectors.

Isn't it strange that the nuclear scientist was killed only two weeks after his meeting with the IAEA inspectors?

Another point which actually strengthens the speculation is that the names and identities of Iranian nuclear scientists who have so far been assassinated have been published in the list of sanctions issued by the IAEA.

Israel Defense Forces' Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz has said, Iran should be expecting more "unnatural" events in 2012.

Iran is certainly prepared for the worst but its enemies too should for their part expect similar consequences if they wish to persevere in their path of mischief.

- Dr. Ismail Salami is an Iranian writer, Middle East expert, Iranologist and lexicographer. He writes extensively on the US and Middle East issues and his articles have been translated into a number of languages. He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com.

This is Africa (London)-When Andrew Mitchell took up his current post as the United Kingdom's secretary of state for international development he had spent five years shadowing his Labour counterparts in government. It was a time that he used to develop a vision for the country's Department for International Development that could significantly reshape its activities in sub-Saharan Africa.

The British government discussed proposals today to give Scotland the legal powers to hold a referendum on independence, which could happen within the next 18 months. Prime Minister David Cameron said a referendum should be held soon because the uncertainty about the issue was damaging Scotland's economy, although he remains strongly opposed to the break-up of the United Kingdom. Scotland's deputy first minister Nicola Sturgeon, of the pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP), accused Cameron of "a blatant attempt to interfere" in an issue that should be decided by Scotland and its people. In elections in May, the SNP led by Alex Salmond won the first overall majority in the Edinburgh parliament since it opened in 1999, and promised to hold a referendum on independence. Cameron's move is being seen as a ploy to force a referendum before the SNP wants it, in the belief that Salmond does not yet have enough support for independence. The prime minister said ahead of a cabinet meeting at which the issue was discussed that the uncertainty about the independence issue could have economic consequences. "This is very...

This Day (Lagos)-Nigerians resident in the United Kingdom yesterday protested against the decision of the federal government to remove fuel subsidy on January 1, 2012.

In the United States, the cost paid for statins (drugs to lower cholesterol) in people under the age of 65 who have private insurance is approximately 400 percent higher than comparable costs paid by the government in the United Kingdom (U.K.). These findings, from the Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) Boston Collaborative Drug Surveillance Program, are the first results of a comprehensive comparison of prescription drug costs between the U.S. and U.K. The study appears on-line in the journal Pharmacotherapy.

By Ludwig Watzal

The Russell Tribunal on Palestine (RToP) was launched in Brussels on 4 March 2009. It's a people's tribunal in the spirit of the Tribunal on the Vietnam war that was set up by Lord Bertrand Russell in 1966 to protest the inconceivable war crimes and the crimes against humanity that were inflicted on the Vietnamese people by the United States. The first tribunal comprised people such as Jean-Paul Sartre, James Baldwin, Simone de Beauvoir, Isaac Deutscher to name a few. So far, there has been a second Russell Tribunal on Latin America from 1974 to 1976 dealing with crimes committed by Latin American military juntas.
 
Sartre said about the tribunal on Vietnam: “The legality of the Russell Tribunal comes from both its absolute powerlessness and its universality.” The RToP has also no legal status, and draws its strength from the will of people who wish to put an end to the impunity that Israel enjoys while denying the Palestinians their basic human rights and the mere existence in their ancient homeland.

The RToP is an International People’s Tribunal created by a large group of citizens involved in the promotion of peace and justice in the Middle East. The aim of the Tribunal is to reach opinions carrying the weight of authority; opinions that can then be used to legitimize campaigns waged in support of the struggle of the Palestinian people for justice. Supporters of the RToP include several Nobel Prize laureates, a former United Nations Secretary-General, a former United Nations Under-Secretary-General, two former heads of state, other persons who held high political offices and many representatives of civil society, writers, journalists, poets, actors, film directors, scientists, professors, lawyers and judges. Public international law constitutes the legal framework of the RToP.

The jury comprised public figures like the author and poet Alice Walker, USA,  John Dugard, Professor of International Law, Former Special rapporteur for both the UN Commission on Human Rights and the International Law Commission, Cynthia McKinney, former member of the US Congress and 2008 presidential candidate, Green Party, USA, Michael Mansfield, barrister, President of the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers, United Kingdom, José Antonio Martin Pallin, emeritus judge, Chamber II, Supreme Court, Spain,  Gisèle Halimi, lawyer, former Ambassador to the UNESCO, France, Lord Anthony Gifford, British hereditary peer and senior barrister and others.

So far, there have been three sessions of the RToP. The first meeting took place in Barcelona on the weekend of 1-3 March 2010. It was hosted and supported by the Barcelona National Support Committee and the Office of the Mayor of Barcelona, under the honorary presidency of Steìphane Hessel, former Ambassador of France and one of the authors of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This session’s objective was to consider the complicities and omissions of the European Union and its member states in the ongoing occupation of Palestinian territories by Israel and the perpetuation of the violations of international law committed by Israel, in total impunity. Testimonies were given to the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people, the closure of the Gaza Strip and operation “Cast Lead”, the illegal settlements and the plundering of natural resources, the annexation of East-Jerusalem, the Wall built on occupied Palestinian territory and the EU-Israel Association Agreement and military cooperation.

The Tribunal finds that Israel has violated international law and has committed, and continues to commit, grave breaches of international law against the Palestinian people. Furthermore, the testimonies show that the European Union (EU) and her member states do not respond to these violations, although they are obliged to do so. The EU treats Israel like a member state by granting it preferential treatment, albeit it isn´t. Israel’s violations of international law are frequently violations of “peremptory norms” of international law (jus cogens): targeted killings that violate the right to life, deprivation of the liberty of Palestinians in conditions that violate the prohibition of torture, violation of the right of peoples to self-determination, living conditions imposed on a people that are beyond the pale. Despite all of these and much more human rights violations by Israel, the EU keeps mum. How deep the EU’s involvement in Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories is, is shown by David Cronin in his book “Europe’s Alliance with Israel. Aiding the Occupation”.

The second international session of the RToP took place in London, on 20, 21 and 22 November 2010. It examined International corporate complicity in Israel’s violations of International Human Rights Law, International Humanitarian Law, and War Crimes. The tribunal addressed the complicity of international corporations in Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land which has now endured for almost forty-five years. Results of this session were published by Pluto Press in the book “Corporate Complicity in Israel’s Occupation” that was edited by Asa Winstanley and Frank Barat with a foreword by US-author and poet Alice Walker who is a member of the jury.

In their introductory remarks the editors wrote the following on Israel’s guilt: “The tribunal’s aim is emphatically not to examine the question of Israel’s guilt – in terms of illegal occupation of Palestinian and other Arab territories, war crimes and other violations of international law. Israel has already been proven guilty several times over by international rulings, famously including the International Court of Justice’s 2004 advisory option against the Israeli apartheid wall in Palestine.” For the members of RToP, Israel’s guilt was a foregone conclusion.

The companies concerned were “put on trial” before a people’s jury at the session in London. High profile witnesses gave evidence against the companies, serving to highlight different aspects of the occupation. In its concluding statement, the Tribunal stated that there is “compelling evidence of corporate complicity in Israeli violations of international law, relating to: the supply of arms; the construction and maintenance of the illegal separation Wall; and in establishing, maintaining and providing services, especially financial, to illegal settlements, all of which have occurred in the context of an illegal occupation of Palestinian territory”.

The third international session of the RToP took place in the South African city of Cape Town, on 5, 6 and 7 November 2011. The tribunal asked a very sensitive question: “Are Israel practices against the Palestinian People in breach of the prohibition on apartheid under International Law?” Many Israeli and Palestinian human rights lawyers and activists participated in that meeting, among them Lea Tsemel, Jeff Halper, Emily Schaeffer, Haneen Zoabi, Raji Sourani, Shawqi Issa, Mohammed Katib and Ingrid Jaradat. Although the Israeli government was invited to present her case, the government didn’t even respond.

Apartheid is the Afrikaans word for “separateness” or “separate development” that was used to designate the official state policy of racial discrimination implemented in South Africa between 1948 and 1994. Apartheid was prohibited by international law because of the experience of apartheid in southern Africa. However, the legal definition of apartheid applies to any situation anywhere in the world where the following three core elements exist: Firstly that two distinct racial groups can be identified; secondly that “inhuman acts” are committed against the subordinate group; and thirdly that such acts are committed systematically in the context of an institutionalized regime of domination by one group over the other. Before the tribunal could come to a conclusion whether Israeli policies towards the Palestinians constitute a form of “Apartheid”, it delved deeply into the bases and content of the legal definition that are given in the various international declarations, conventions, treaties et cetera.

The tribunal came to the conclusion that some policies of the Israeli government in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) constitute a form of “Apartheid”. John Dugard, the South African professor of international law and former Special Rapporteur to the Human Rights Council on Human Rights in Palestine, said in his statement: “Israel's practices in the OPT do resemble those of apartheid. Although there are differences, these differences are outweighed by the similarities.” The tribunal reminds states and international organizations of their responsibilities. “The conclusion that Israel’s discriminatory and segregationist policies in the occupied territories as well as in Israel collectively amount to a regime of apartheid has serious consequences for states and international organizations under international law. Apartheid and persecution, as defined in the foregoing, are internationally wrongful acts and international law crimes which trigger specific responsibilities. Third states have a duty to cooperate to bring Israel’s apartheid acts and policies of persecution to an end, including by not rendering aid or assistance to Israel and not recognizing the illegal situation arising from its acts. They must bring to an end Israel’s infringements on international criminal law through the prosecution of international crimes, including the crimes of apartheid and persecution.”

In its recommendations the tribunal calls on Israel “to immediately dismantle its system of apartheid over the Palestinian people, to rescind all discriminatory laws and practices, not to pass any further discriminatory legislation, and to cease forthwith acts of persecution against Palestinians”. The sessions of the tribunal were characterized by great seriousness. Neither was Israel vilified nor treated unjustly. The experts just gave testimony of the reality on the ground which is very burdensome.

The last session of the RToP will take place in New York, USA, towards the end of 2012. It should deal with the relationship between the U. S. Empire and the State of Israel and their cooperation in the occupation of Palestine and hegemony over the entire Middle East. Thereafter, the tribunal’s final verdict should be delivered at its closing session. 

(Photo credit: www.russelltribunalonpalestine.com)

- Dr. Ludwig Watzal works as an editor and journalist in Bonn Germany. He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com. Visit: www.watzal.com.

Revelations have surfaced about the presence of British spies in Syria as the UK government draws secret plans for a NATO-backed no-fly zone over the country. A British security official has revealed that Britain's Ministry of Defence has been drawing up secret plots to secure a NATO-sponsored no-fly zone over Syria as intelligence agents from MI6 and the CIA are examining the situation on the ground in the country, reported the Daily Star. “MI6 and the CIA are in Syria to infiltrate,” (...) - 04. News in Brief / Syria , United Kingdom

Since British Prime Minister David Cameron vetoed a new European treaty, the British government is having to face an increasingly pressing issue: should Britain stay in the European Union at all? In the midst of the eurozone debt crisis, the British are becoming increasingly eurosceptic, with a growing number demanding a referendum on the issue. Our correspondents Alix Bayle and Yong Chim report from the heart of England.

Muslim groups across the country and in United Kingdom have called on the Federal Government and all security agencies to address the menace of the Boko Haram sect and bring an end to the incessant bombings across the country.

Sokoto State Government has approved the release of N172 million for disbursement to 34 medical students in the United Kingdom for the 2011/2012 academic session as tuition, registration and maintenance funds.

By William A. Cook

'Remember there was no Palestine as a state. It was part of the Ottoman Empire. And I think that we've had an invented Palestinian people, who are in fact Arabs, and were historically part of the Arab community…' -- (Newt Gingrich, Fox News. December 10, 2011)

Many “Newts” produce toxins, the rough skinned Taricha, for example, produces enough to kill an adult human, and while all “Newts” go through a metamorphosis from tadpole to lizard, few expected that metamorphosis to reach human form in the person of the front running Republican candidate for President, Newt Gingrich. This Newt avoided the Vietnam War draft while studying for his degrees, then accepted a position as an historian and geographer at West Georgia College, a position he lost when his colleagues denied him tenure. A resourceful man, Newt ran for a congressional seat numerous times before capturing the 6th Georgia district seat in 1979, when the incumbent retired. He resigned his position in 1998 following disciplinary action by his colleagues for 84 ethics violations, having served as House Speaker from 1995 to 1999. Today he’s back, metamorphosed into a presidential candidate willing to spread lies about a people who have lived for 63 years under the brutal occupation of the Israeli military.

Consider his statement to the people of Israel on Jewish Television this past week quoted above. “Remember there was no Palestine as a state.” Omitted was the second part of that statement if the first was to have relevance: “Remember there was no Jewish state.” What existed was a Mandate Government under the control of the United Kingdom that governed this area beginning in 1922 through the authority of the League of Nations following the demise of the Ottoman Empire and later under the continued authority of the United Nations. During the Mandate period, from 1922 to May 15, 1948, the British government attempted to meet its obligations as enunciated in the Balfour Declaration to help in the “establishment of a national home for the Jewish people.” The Command Paper 1922, from the Avalon Project at Yale Law School, underlines this intent: “His Majesty’s Government therefore now declare(s) unequivocally that it is no part of their policy that Palestine should become a Jewish State.” It must be noted here that the Command Paper specifically marks the existence of a Palestine area to which the Jews were immigrating.

“I think we have an invented Palestinian people,” Gingrich continues, forgetting to mention that Dr. Shlomo Sand in his recent book The Invention of the Jewish People, according to Leon Hadar in his review, concludes by,

“Countering official Zionist historiography, Sand questions whether the Jewish People ever existed as a national group with a common origin in the Land of Israel/Palestine. He concludes that the Jews should be seen as a religious community comprising a mishmash of individuals and groups that had converted to the ancient monotheistic religion but do not have any historical right to establish an independent Jewish state in the Holy Land. In short, the Jewish People, according to Sand, are not really a “people” in the sense of having a common ethnic origin and national heritage. They certainly do not have a political claim over the territory that today constitutes Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, including Jerusalem.”

In an even more recent book, just published by Pluto Books, Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh in an historical review of the ancient lands of Palestine noted that “The kingdom of Judah lasted 341 years (927-586 BCE) while Israel lasted even a shorter 205 years (927 - 722 BCE).” In short, between the two recent studies, Gingrich could have found the truth; but truth is not what Gingrich needed for his interview: he needed a fabrication that would endear him to his audience both in Israel and in the United States as he groveled for monetary support for his campaign at the expense of the Palestinian people.

Consider the reality of the past two thousand years, when this area “between the Jordan and the Mediterranean,” which “has had a history of 6000 years of civilization,” known for a large portion of its history, as the Southern part of the Land of Canaan, has been called, for all these 2000 years,  Palestine. As Qumsiyeh reviews this period he concludes, “These people (known to the world as Palestinians) absorbed the religions and various philosophies and changed their allegiances to survive in an ever amorphous world.  This world, sometimes violent, sometimes symbiotic was always there.”

“Known to the world as Palestinians”; known to Newt Gingrich as “invented.” So how is it, this historian and geographer, could determine that the people of Palestine did not exist, that they could have removed themselves to “other” Arab lands and left all of Palestine to the Jews? In an unfortunate comment meant to deflect criticism about his reinvention of history, Gingrich made this comment: "Somebody ought to have the courage to tell the truth. These people are terrorists," he said. "It's fundamentally time for somebody to have the guts to stand up and say, 'Enough lying about the Middle East." In four words, he turns all Palestinians into “terrorists.” And he justifies this slanderous and invidious judgment by assuming the chauvinistic persona of the brave man who condemns those who lie about the Middle East even as he omits the decision of the Mandate Government to hand over the resolution of the immigrant problem in Palestine to the UN, a decision that resulted in the Partition Plan (1947) dividing that land into two areas, one for Jews the other for the Palestinians who lived there, who had a 71% to 29% majority in the whole of Palestine. Since the Resolution created, numbered 181, divided the land into two, recognizing two peoples contending for the area of Palestine, it recognized as well Palestinians inhabiting the land with heritage going back two thousand years to the Roman era. At the same time, as immigration for Jews materialized through the 1940s, the contrast between indigenous inhabitants and newly arrived immigrants from foreign lands makes ludicrous Gingrich’s comments.

Even more ludicrous and perhaps more frightening, is this man’s willingness to undermine US policy since WWII, a policy that recognized the Palestinian people and their rightful claim to their own state. His convoluted logic would have the United States President negotiate peace with a people he has determined to be terrorists, all of them. He claims that what has been going on is a “delusional peace process”; true enough, but not because the Palestinians haven’t been willing to arrive at peace, but because Israel has had no intentions of recognizing a Palestinian state as the Likud Party Platform declares openly even now, “no state of Palestine west of the Jordan River.” But this fact, neither Gingrich nor the American press nor the Israeli government will acknowledge; it is rather the unwillingness of the Palestine Authority and Hamas to recognize Israel and cease their violence against Israel that prevents peace. But once again, had Gingrich taken the time to read yet another book on the subject, released in the summer of 2010, The Plight of the Palestinians, published by Palgrave MacMillan, he could have read about Israeli intransigence in negotiating peace, “The Problem with Israel,” by Dr. Jeff Halper, an article that recounts 19 different proposals rejected by Israel.

In that same volume, Gingrich could read about the Zionist stated reality that they had no plans to abide by the UN Partition Plan, but rather eradicate all Arabs from the land of Palestine, and that in Jewish documents from the Mandate period. “The challenge of Zionism was to create a Jewish state in a land already inhabited by natives who mostly practiced Islam and Christianity.  Early Zionist understood the challenge and contrary to their public pronouncements about "a land without a people for a people without a land" came to see that the natives posed an obstacle to their visions” (Qumsiyeh).

There are 32 chapters in that book that detail Israel’s ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people, all written in the first decade of this century, a veritable catalog of ethnic cleansing to complement Dr. Ilan Pappe’s volume on the same subject, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine.

Let me close this recounting of Gingrich’s vitriolic commentary by remembering the Palestinians who suffered at the hands of real terrorists during the Nakba, an historical event he must immerse himself in if he is to understand how toxic his offhand commentary is to those who lived through these years awaiting justice. Here are the words of the Zionist’s general:

“Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you because Geography books no longer exist, not only do the books not exist, the Arab villages are not there either … There is not one single place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population.” (Moshe Dayan, Address to the Technion, Haifa, as quoted in Haaretz, 4-4-1969) 

“Thus began in November of 1947 what is euphemistically called the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by the combined forces of the Jewish armies, the Haganah, the Stern, and the Irgun as they drove more than 700,000 Palestinian Arabs from their homes leaving them destitute, homeless and abandoned without a country in what is now the largest refugee Diaspora in the world.

More truthfully, the plight of the Palestinians that began so ruthlessly in 1947, and is now called the Nakba, was an intentional, calculated campaign to force the Palestinian Arabs out of Palestine, a systematic genocide of a people as defined by the United Nations in its adoption of Genocide Convention, Article II” (The Plight of the Palestinians). Now that Gingrich knows what to read, will he?

- William A. Cook is a Professor of English at the University of La Verne in southern California. His works include Psalms for the 21st Century, Mellon Poetry Press, Tracking Deception: Bush Mid-East Policy, The Rape of Palestine, The Chronicles of Nefaria, and most recently in 2010, The Plight of the Palestinians. He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com. Contact him at: wcook@laverne.edu or visit: www.drwilliamacook.com.

The United Kingdom has been surprisingly silent about Nigeria's harsh new laws targeting homosexuals. This would be the perfect situation for the British government to launch its much-heralded policy of cutting aid money to countries that discriminate against homosexuals, but so far British money to Nigeria keeps flowing, and British officials remain silent. There's a reason for this but it's not good enough.

The development of renewable energy in South Africa is to receive a boost after government joined forces with the United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, Norway and the European Investment Bank (EIB).

The Federal Government said the country reserves the right to make laws without apologies to any other country. Information Minister Labaran Maku stated this yesterday while speaking out against the United States of America's and the United Kingdom's opposition to an anti-gay bill just passed by the Senate.

(This post is by Christine McCann)

Here’s the latest of our news bulletins from the ongoing crisis at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

State of Nuclear Politics in Japan

A Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) memo has revealed a 2002 secret meeting between METI officials and Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO)’s Chairman, President, and Vice President, in which participants discussed abandoning the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant in Aomori Prefecture. METI was concerned about several problems with the plant, including major budget issues. Costs for the project were originally estimated at 760 billion yen, but estimates bloomed to more than two trillion yen (25 billion USD), plus another trillion in demolition costs. A follow up meeting was scheduled but never took place, because TEPCO’s president and chairman resigned over a cover up regarding damaged equipment. The Rokkasho project - combined with similarly crippled Monju fast breeder reactor - played a central part in Japan’s nuclear fuel plan, and these revelations may influence the Japan Atomic Energy Commission as it establishes new nuclear policies this summer.

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda announced last week that Japan will continue to export nuclear equipment and technology to those countries that want it, in spite of a lack of popular support for the idea in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Japan’s Diet is set to approve nuclear accords next week with Jordan, Russia, South Korea, and Vietnam. The country is also in discussions with Turkey, India, and Brazil.

TEPCO

TEPCO has released an interim report on the ongoing nuclear crisis at its Fukushima Daiichi plant. The report claims that TEPCO employees made no errors in the handling of the disaster and attributes the cause of the meltdowns to the tsunami, not the magnitude 9.0 earthquake. The utility said that such a large tsunami could not have been anticipated, in spite of the fact that it ignored its own research from 2008 showing that a tsunami exceeding 10 meters was possible.

However, experts are criticizing the report and the company’s lack of transparency. They say the report fails to address questions about why workers shut down a cooling system that could have prevented meltdowns at the reactors, as well as why the utility has been unable to discover the source of continuing water leaks at the plant. Moreover, TEPCO was not able to explain the large spike in radiation levels on March 15, nor does it know why hydrogen explosions occurred at the plant. Tetsuo Sewada, an assistant professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, said, “TEPCO should not have had a system that doesn’t work in an actual emergency.”

Significantly, a majority of members of a government panel investigating the nuclear crisis doubt TEPCO’s claims that the tsunami caused the disaster, instead believing that the 9.0 magnitude earthquake contributed to the problems at the Fukushima plant, including damaging the piping responsible for cooling the reactors. This could have crucial impact on the decision to restart other reactors around the country, most of which are currently idled.

Japan’s central government and TEPCO could jointly announce that the utility has achieved cold shutdown status at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant as early as 16 December. Some experts have questioned the validity of that assessment, when the internal condition of the reactors is still unknown and the company is struggling to keep the situation at the plant under control. The plant has suffered numerous issues in the past month, including a large leak of radioactive water.

Reactor Status

TEPCO revealed this week that at least 45 tons of radioactive water have leaked from the Fukushima Daiichi plant, and may have flowed into the ocean, which is only 500-600 meters from the site of the incident. It took workers 21 hours to identify the issue, which occurred after water flooded a purification device and then poured through a cracked wall. The water was used to cool the plant’s reactors. TEPCO officials estimate that the contaminated water contained one million times the legal limit of strontium (100 million becquerels per liter) and 300 times the legal limit of cesium (45,000 becquerels per liter). Both substances can be absorbed by humans and are cancer causing.

The new admission means that up to 220 tons of contaminated water have reached the sea since March. The fisheries cooperative association in Fukushima Prefecture has filed a complaint against TEPCO, citing concerns about the effect on sea life and demanded details on which areas of the ocean were affected. Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) has ordered TEPCO to determine the cause of the leak and outline how it will prevent it from recurring. In the meantime, the utility insists that the incident will not affect efforts to establish cold-shutdown status at the plant. 

TEPCO said that it will replace part of the water decontamination system at the Fukushima plant this week, a move that it hopes will improve decontamination efforts and reduce waste generated by the process. US based Kurion built the current system; previously, it was used in conjunction with a system made by Areva. However, the Areva system has been plagued with problems and is no longer working.

Contamination (Includes Human Exposure)

The Japan Chemical Analysis Center said that the Fukushima nuclear disaster resulted in a release of xenon-133 that exceeded normal levels in Chiba Prefecture by 400,000 times. However, researchers said that the excessive measurements—which took three months to return to normal—did not pose a risk to humans. The Center revealed the new data at a meeting sponsored by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT).

Japan plans to establish three zones around the Fukushima Daiichi plant, signifying different contamination levels. In the zone with the highest radiation readings, the government may purchase land from evacuees. In other areas, decontamination and reconstruction plans will be implemented.

Rice Crisis

New bans were placed on rice shipments from Fukushima’s Watari District, 60 km from the Fukushima Daiichi plant, after officials discovered rice containing 590 Bq/kg of cesium. Japan’s legal limit is 500 Bq/kg. The move follows bans on rice shipments from the Onami District and Date City, and will affect 406 farms. Previously, Fukushima prefectural officials had said that all rice from the prefecture was safe to consume.

Decontamination Efforts and Waste Disposal

A scientist from Osaka University and a former professor at the Tokyo University of Science are calling for radioactive soil, contaminated as a result of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear crisis, to be dumped into the sea. The researchers, who were speaking at a study meeting at Osaka University, said they would submit a proposal to do so to the central government. Experts say that the proposal would violate the London Convention, which prohibits dumping of waste into the ocean. In addition, the move is expected to spark criticism from the international community.

Fukushima Prefectural officials have unveiled a white paper outlining decontamination plans for farms and forests in the prefecture. Officials plan to spray decontamination agents; remove topsoil, tree bark, and leaves; and employ water jet cleaners, in order to reduce contamination levels within two years. The prefecture will also assist local municipalities in drawing up contamination plans.

Compensation

TEPCO’s compensation office in Tokyo began accepting applications this week for a second round of compensation, covering September through November. The center, which employs 5,000 workers, receives approximately 700 applications each day, but already has a daily backlog of about 100 applications. Takashi Nakamura, who heads the center, apologized for the delay and said that TEPCO did not expect to receive so many applications. In addition, he said, the company is not accustomed to such work.

Other Nuclear News

The United Kingdom is planning to become the first county to bury plutonium stores in Cumbria, in an effort to reduce terrorist threats and reduce maintenance costs. Officials said they will encase the plutonium in concrete and bury it hundreds of meters underground. Disposal is scheduled to begin in 2040. By that time, the country expects to have over 130 tons of plutonium--enough to construct over 10,000 nuclear weapons should it reach the wrong hands. Each weapon requires only 8 kg of high-grade plutonium.

By Deepak Tripathi

Perils of brinkmanship with Iran are now on open display. As Libyans struggle after the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi, and the rebellion against the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria continues, the campaign of sanctions against Iran has triggered events which echo the 1980s crisis between post-revolution Iran and the West. The recent International Atomic Energy Agency report, a controversial document censoring Iran, Britain’s decision to severe links with Iran’s central banking system and further sanctions by France, Canada and the United States were all too much.

The Iranian parliament retaliated by downgrading relations with the United Kingdom and told the new British ambassador to leave. Soon after, angry protesters stormed two British embassy compounds in Tehran. Property was damaged and documents were reported to have been taken away. What secrets they may contain is a matter of speculation. They are likely to fuel the Iranians’ anger and may cause embarrassment to the British government if revealed.

Aware of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the Iranian foreign ministry expressed regret and promised to protect the British diplomatic staff. But Ali Larijani, speaker of Iran’s parliament, said that the student protesters’ action reflected the anti-British sentiment in Iran. Other Iranian MPs expressed similar views. The British government had little choice but to withdraw its staff and order the closure of the Iranian embassy in London within 48 hours.

Britain’s announcement falls short of a complete break, but relations between the two countries have surely sunk to the lowest point in more than three decades. The British Foreign Secretary William Hague says that he wants to remain engaged with Tehran on the nuclear issue and on human rights, an astonishingly hypocritical statement to make.

Iran is no longer the same country as it was just after the overthrow of Shah Reza Pahlavi, America’s close ally and widely detested by his own countrymen. There is not the same religious fervor in Iranian society. The structure that now rules Iran has evolved over three decades. No doubt there are factions and power struggles, but the hierarchy of clerics led by Ayatollah Khamenei and an elected president, parliament and the judiciary, brings some stability in the country.

Violence during and after Iran’s disputed presidential election in 2009 showed that the regime can use considerable force when faced with a serious challenge. Accusations of Western powers backing opposition forces appear to unite the country’s ruling structure. At the same time, Iran has emerged as a major power in a predominantly Sunni region which is led by Saudi Arabia.

Pressures over centuries have made the Iranians rather like the Chinese. They can wait for a long time before giving a typically Persian response. Last month’s IAEA report accusing Tehran of operating a nuclear weapons program began the latest escalation. The timing of the report looked expedient, coming immediately after the overthrow of Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi and at a time when the conflict in Syria was intensifying.

More punitive sanctions followed, triggering an ominous chain of events. The French president Nicolas Sarkozy, not to be outdone, called on European governments to stop buying Iranian oil, a self-destructive proposition. Britain, too, pushed for an oil embargo on Iran, but the idea failed to gain wide agreement within the European Union. There were wiser heads than those of Sarkozy and Hague.

As the Middle East threatens to explode and the crisis between Iran and the West escalates, one question which policy makers in London and Washington do not seem to ask themselves is: What lies behind Iran’s deep suspicion of the West? Writing in the Independent, Robert Fisk reminds us of the essential answer. A country humiliated and pushed again and again is a country radicalized and distrustful. 

Iranians have been repeatedly humiliated, their resources stolen and they blame the West. In 1941, the British and Soviet armies invaded the country for oil and a supply line to the Allied forces in the Second World War. Then a plot by the British intelligence agency MI6 and the American CIA overthrew Iran’s elected government of Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddeq in 1953.

For more than a quarter century thereafter, the West enabled Shah Reza Pahlavi to rule the country with an iron fist. He was finally deposed in the 1979 Islamic revolution. The West then helped Iraq’s Saddam Hussain, who invaded Iran, in a war in which as many as a million Iranians died or were wounded and chemical weapons were used by the Iraqi army on Iranian troops.

More than two decades on, we know where the recent sanctions are coming from. Killings of scientists and academics and mysterious explosions in different parts of Iran are much more difficult to explain. In Britain, the regulators have threatened Iran’s Press TV broadcasts with closure whereas the Chinese and Russian channels operate freely. Iran’s national character has been shaped by many traumatic experiences for which the country holds the West responsible.

Explosive drivers in international relations such as these have a high price tag. Many diplomats seem to know it, politicians do not. The world after the Cold War is driven by crises largely because skilled diplomacy has been sidelined by rough politics. We live in a world where leaders are many, but leadership is scarce. Having spent their moral and material capital, war is an increasingly desperate option for declining powers.

History of savage conflicts follows an all too familiar pattern. Leaders who do not heed what happened before is to guarantee childish decision making.

- Deepak Tripathi is the author of “Breeding Ground: Afghanistan and the Origins of Islamist Terrorism” (Potomac Books, Inc., Washington, D.C., 2011) and “Overcoming the Bush Legacy in Iraq and Afghanistan” (Potomac, 2010). He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com.

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Foreign minister William Hague said Britain took the storming of its embassy in Tehran on Tuesday "extremely seriously" and warned there would be "further and serious consequences" for Iran. Hague said the assault on the embassy and another diplomatic compound in Tehran by young men chanting "Death to Britain" was a "grave breach" of the Vienna Convention which requires host countries to protect diplomats. "The United Kingdom takes this irresponsible action extremely seriously," he said. "We hold the Iranian government responsible for its failure to take adequate measures to protect our embassy, as it is required to do. "I spoke to the Iranian foreign minister this afternoon, to protest in the strongest terms about these events and to demand immediate steps to ensure the safety of our staff and of both embassy compounds." Hague said in a statement that although the Iranian foreign minister had apologised, "this remains a very serious failure by the Iranian government". "Clearly there will be other, further, and serious consequences," Hague said, adding that he would make a statement to the British parliament on...

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