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Time For UK Government To Come Clean On Ties To US Torture Program

February 16, 2022 John Kiriakou, Covert Action Magazine. , , , , ,
We Americans have had a painful and difficult national debate over the past 20 years relative to torture. Torture was official U.S. government policy from 2002 until at least 2005, and that iteration was not formally outlawed until passage of the McCain-Feinstein Amendment in 2015. (The torture program was a highly-classified secret from 2002 until I revealed it in a nationally-televised interview in December 2007.) In truth, torture has been illegal in the U.S. since at least the end of World War II. In 1946, the U.S. Government executed Japanese soldiers who had waterboarded American prisoners of war. In January 1968, the Washington Post ran a front-page photograph showing an American soldier waterboarding a North Vietnamese prisoner.

Cost Of Living Protesters Around The Country Say Enough Is Enough

February 14, 2022 The Canary. , , ,
Protests were held in several regions on Saturday 12 February to highlight the injustice of of the cost of living crisis. In Newcastle, a placard referred to “Tory tricksters”. Meanwhile another sign held next to a baby said “I can do a better job than Boris”. Laura Pidcock, national secretary of the People’s Assembly, said there’s “real anger” at what she described as a “growing crisis”. The former Labour MP added: Working people could not be working harder and yet life is getting so much more difficult.

Propagandist For Syria Terror Proxies Compromised Amnesty International

February 12, 2022 Kit Klarenberg, The Grayzone. , , ,
This December, The Grayzone exposed how a shadowy communications firm, Valent Projects, enlisted a prominent YouTube influencer to front a covert state-sponsored influence operation designed to undermine critics of London’s pandemic policies. That company was founded by Amil Khan, a veteran of long-running and lavishly funded UK Foreign Office information warfare operations in Syria.

Working Class In The UK Gears Up To Protest The Cost Of Living Crisis

February 12, 2022 People's Dispatch. , , ,
Broad sectors of the working class in the UK will take to the streets in cities across the country on February 12 against the rise in the cost of living. The protests are organized under the banner of the People’s Assembly Against Austerity and have been endorsed by organizations such as the Communist Party of Britain (CPB), Young Communist League (YCL), Unite Trade Union, Socialist Appeal, Revolutionary Socialism in the 21st Century, Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC), Fuel Poverty Action, and others. Around 30 cities are expected to mobilize on this day of action.

UK Official Secrets Act Proposals Take Cues From US Espionage Act Cases

February 11, 2022 Mohamed Elmaazi, The Dissenter. , , ,
The United Kingdom’s right-wing dominated government is on course to greatly expand its ability to prosecute and jail whistleblowers and journalists through amendments to the country's Official Secrets Acts. These potential amendments would be the first major changes to the law since 1989. They come as the U.K. and U.S. governments continue to seek the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for his role in receiving and publishing the Afghanistan and Iraq war logs, Guantanamo Bay detainee files, and U.S. diplomatic cables. Proposals would expand possible imprisonment for leakers, recipients of leaks and secondary publishers–including journalists–from the current maximum of two years to as high as 14 years in prison.

Cost Of Living Crisis Was Caused By Privatisation And Austerity

February 9, 2022 Diane Abbott, Open Democracy. , , ,
On official forecasts, the British public is facing the biggest fall in living standards since records began. This is in the headlines now because of the huge rise in energy bills, which will force more households into choosing between eating and heating. Blaming Russia for the surge in energy prices is a classic conjuror’s trick of misdirection. The US gets almost zero oil from Russia, but is currently experiencing even higher consumer price inflation. In reality, a laissez-faire approach to the energy sector is at the root of the problem in both the UK and the US. In France, where EDF is largely nationalized, energy prices are set to rise – but by just 4%. Government and especially Treasury ideology going back to Margaret Thatcher has been based on false assertions about the superiority of private enterprise.

US And UK Escalate Russia War Fever, But NATO Splits Over Ukraine Emerge

January 25, 2022 Aaron Maté, The Grayzone. , , , , ,
The US and UK are ramping up threats to Russia over Ukraine by sending more weapons, vowing more sanctions, and lodging evidence-free claims of a Russian plot to install a pro-Kremlin leader. But comments by Germany's navy chief that Russia "deserves respect" -- leading to his resignation -- underscore that not everyone is on board with Washington and London's war fever. Scholar and author Richard Sakwa discusses the latest in the Ukraine crisis.

Palestine Action Raid And Dismantle An Israeli Arms Factory

January 24, 2022 Palestine Action. , , ,
Palestine Action have raided Elbit System’s subsidiary, UAV Engines Ltd, in Shenstone, Staffordshire at 7.15 this morning. The activists have sprayed blood-red paint and begun dismantling the weapons factory, whilst occupying the roof to prevent site operations. With windows smashed and equipment dismantled, the action draws parallels with Israel’s forced demolitions of Palestinian homes​​​, sounding the alarm on the ethnic cleansing Israel is currently enacting in Sheikh Jarrah, Palestine. Elbit Systems are Israel’s largest arms manufacturer and hold a significant presence in Britain. A key subsidiary, UAV Engines Ltd has been a target of Palestine Action since the group’s launch in July 2020, when activists shut the site five times in five months and caused millions of pounds of losses.

Telling Lies On An International Scale

January 20, 2022 Craig Murray, Consortium News. , , ,
The mainstream media have been replete with stories of a new Tory “red meat” initiative of right-wing policies. “Government sources” briefed the media that Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and Home Secretary Priti Patel were in talks with their counterparts in Ghana and Rwanda about setting up internment camps to receive asylum seekers deported from the U.K. Apart from the fact it would be entirely illegal to deport Syrians or Afghans to Africa, I knew it to be simply impossible the story was true. I have had the pleasure of being friends with President Nana Akufo Addo of Ghana, and with many of his family, for 20 years. Nana would never agree to such a thing; his background is as a human rights lawyer and activist.

Patel Defeated In The Lords But The Battle To Kill The Bill Continues

January 20, 2022 Terina Hine, Counterfire. , , ,
On Monday night the House of Lords inflicted a series of bruising defeats on the government’s Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, irreversibly sinking some of its worst aspects. In defiance of the anti-protest nature of the bill, demonstrators outside made so much noise it resonated inside the chamber while the Lords voted against the government on 14 separate counts. But this is not the end of the road. Kill the Bill protesters celebrating this victory must keep piling on the pressure - this attack on civil liberties and our fundamental democratic rights needs to be defeated in its entirety. The bill, described by Amnesty International as an “enormous and unprecedented extension of policing powers” and seen by others as an attack on democracy reminiscent of “Cold War era Eastern European dictatorships” enables the authorities to effectively ban peaceful protest and criminalize freedom of speech and assembly.

2022’S First Major Nationwide Protests Were To ‘Kill The Bill’

January 17, 2022 Steve Topple, The Canary. , , ,
Home secretary Priti Patel’s authoritarian Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill (the police bill) has caused uproar. Many see it as racist against Black people and the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) community. It will also clamp down on our rights to protest, to roam, and to take strike action. Amnesty International said the bill: represents an enormous and unprecedented extension of policing powers 2021 was filled with protests over the bill. Some of these were marred by police violence. Courts have sent some protesters from Bristol to prison – possibly the shape of things to come. Since the Tories first unveiled the police bill, they’ve made several changes to it. It’s now even worse. So, on 15 January, people hit the streets once more to show their anger over the bill.

Biden’s Failure To Provide At-Home Covid Tests Looks Extra Ridiculous

January 15, 2022 Natasha Hakimi Zapata, Scheer Post. , , , ,
After two years without being able to travel home from London, England to Los Angeles, Cali. to see my family, I finally arrived in a chaotic U.S. in time for the holidays amid the Omicron wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. Although I’d been preparing for a difficult return thanks to the new variant, I had been eager to see my family now that I’m finally vaccinated against Covid-19 and that my partner, who holds a British passport, was able to visit alongside me after more than a year of travel restrictions barring Europeans. What I hadn’t been expecting, however, was to find family and friends desperately trying to procure rapid antigen tests as many of them developed Covid symptoms and wanted to protect their loved ones and community over the holidays.

Palestine Action Targets Another Israeli Arms Factory After Forcing Elbit Out Of Oldham

January 15, 2022 Palestine Action. , , , ,
Palestine Action breached security and gained entry to the heavily guarded Israeli arms factory in Shenstone. The site, used for the manufacture of engines and components for Elbit’s murderous drones, was broken into at 11:00 this morning, with the two women evading an extensive security presence. Aiming to disrupt operations at the site, the activists have covered the factory in painted slogans including ‘Shut Elbit Down’, ‘Free Palestine’, ‘First Oldham, Next Shenstone’. One activist was arrested on the site. The site has been targeted as part of an ongoing campaign of direct action against Elbit Systems, which is Israel’s largest private arms manufacturer, and which has produced 85% of the drones in Israel’s drone fleet. The UAV Engines factory is crucial for Elbit’s manufacturing of drones.

Boris’s Garden Party – A More Pressing Issue Than Yemeni Genocide

January 15, 2022 Gavin O'Reilly, Popular Resistance. , , ,
Over the past several days, the news story that has dominated British news headlines, and consequently, the news headlines of the rest of the Western world, is controversy over a leaked email confirming Boris Johnson’s attendance at a Downing Street garden party in May 2020 – a time when the Summer weather is usually at its peak in Britain, and incidentally, the same time when the entire country was under stringent lockdown measures. In spite of offering an almost immediate apology in the House of Commons on Wednesday, Johnson has faced intense calls to resign from his position from not only the opposition of Keir Starmer’s Labour, Ed Davey’s Liberal Democrats and Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP, but also from prominent members of his own Conservative Party such as Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross.

UK Accused Of Blocking Ban On ‘Killer Robots’

January 8, 2022 Cahal Milmo, I News. , , ,
Britain has been accused of blocking progress towards a global treaty banning so-called “killer robots” and leaving the door ajar for the development of hi-tech weaponry capable of taking lives without human control. Campaigners have said the UK is part of a small group of “militarized states” whose stance on autonomous weapons is now at odds with much of the rest of the world after a United Nations conference in Geneva last week failed to make a breakthrough on negotiations towards a global ban on lethal “digital dehumanization” technology.
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