Anti-War Activism Works!

1. Anti-War Activism Works!
The recent leaks by the web site WikiLeaks shows that the Irish Government were worried about the public reaction to the continued use of Shannon Airport by the US Military, during the 2007 Elections. This cable, which you can read in full by following this link (http://wikileaks.ch/cable/2006/09/06DUBLIN1020.html) demonstrates that the government tried to impose more restrictions on the US Military as the election approached.

A prolonged campaign of anti-war activism by people like YOU had an affect on the Government and we can do more we can remove the US Military from Shannon for good.

During the 2007 general election campaign the Irish Anti-War Movement (IAWM), The Peace and Neutrality Alliance (PANA) and other anti war activists published a pledge, which we asked politicians to sign stating that they would not be part of a coalition that did not stop the US Military from using Shannon. The Irish-Anti War Movement intends to work with other anti-war activists again during this election campaign; more details on this will follow.

The point of campaigning in the elections is to highlight that Shannon is still an issue in an election campaign that will be dominated by the economy.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


2. What can I do Right Now to Get the US Military out of Shannon

1.Reply to this e-mail if you want to make the war an Election issue and leave your contact details so that we can work with you.
2.Attend the Shannon Vigil that is held every month see (www.shannonwatch.org) for details.
3.Read the WikiLeaks information, which is linked to in this e-mail.
4.Prepare yourself to argue against those who are in favour of the use of Shannon below are some common arguments which are often used to justify the use of Shannon.
5.Organise with other anti-war activists you know to make the war an election issue.
6.Join us on FaceBook.
7.Contact your local TD and ask them for their position on the use of Shannon Airport. (TD’s respond better to their constituents than to a bunch of activists).
8.Register to Vote to see if you are registered go to http://www.checktheregister.ie.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


3. Defeating the Arguments in favour of the US Military Presence in Shannon.

3-1. If The US Military Leave the Airport Will Close
There are people who say, "If the US Military leave then Shannon Airport will close therefore we need to put aside our dislike of what is happening and allow them to stay".

This is a horrible argument, not only is it untrue it also ignores the fact that hopefully very soon the wars in the milled-east will end. What happens then do we live in hope that another war will start!

3-2. All The US Companies will Leave
Another argument that is often used in favour of the US Military being allowed to stay is "All the US Companies will leave Ireland if we ask the US Military to leave". This is nonsense the US companies who come to Ireland do not care whether we allow Shannon airport to be used by the US Military they are here to make money nothing more. The fact that the US Military was allowed to use Shannon did not stop DELL from leaving Limerick.

3-3. There is No Evidence that prisoners have been transported through Shannon
This is one of the arguments that is used by the government. They say that there is no evidence that anyone has been rendered (kidnapped from a country without due-process) and brought through Shannon.

This is true the planes have never been searched so there would not be any evidence.

Julian Assange interviewed by David Frost

Poets for Human Rights

Words of Freedom

A message to all members of Poets for Human Rights

2010 Poets for Human Rights Annual Awards event was

held Sunday, December 12, 2010 at the Artists in Action Gallery in Clearwater, Florida



The event was hosted by Stazja McFadyen, Poets for Human Rights co-founder, who opened the program by reading the "Clearwater Human Rights Week" proclamation, presented to Poets for Human Rights and Youth for Human Rights Florida by the Mayor of Clearwater.



The 2010 Anita McAndrews Award poetry contest was introduced by Kate Sweet, one of the contest sponsors. Kate discussed the humanitarian works of Anita McAndrews, including tutoring disadvantaged youth and exposing human rights violations of patients at a mental institution in Panama. Anita was also a prolific writer, poet and fine artist.



The winning poem and two honorable mentions were presented:



2010 Anita McAndrews Award Winner – “I Ask My Granddaughter...” by Elizabeth Thomas.

Elizabeth is a widely published poet, performer, teacher and advocate of the arts. As an outstanding advocate of youth in the arts, Elizabeth Thomas is a coach and organizer with Brave New Voices: International Youth Poetry Slam and Festival. She is also the founder of UpWords Poetry, a company dedicated to promoting programs for young writers and educators, based on the belief that poetry is meant to be heard out loud and in person. She lives in Connecticut.



“When I saw the award email in my inbox, I didn’t expect my poem had won. I am thrilled to receive this award. As a poet and educator, I’ve worked with young people from around the world. I like to think the writing we do together offers a voice to many who would otherwise be silent or sad or alone.”



I Ask My Granddaughter...

And she says
"School was fun today.
I didn't worry at all."
As she rocks in my lap
black curls sweep my cheek,
subtle scent of cinnamon rises.
I wrap her close and ask,
"Honey, why would you worry?"

No stray bullets
track through her neighborhood.
She can pull a chair to the living room window
and look out
without fear,
watch birds eat from the feeder
she made at school.

There are no IEDs,
no unexploded cluster bombs
near her jungle gym,
nothing to detonate
when dug from the earth
with a plastic red shovel.

No janjaweed militia
rides horseback through the streets
to force her chubby finger
around the trigger of a gun,
no men dressed as monster
to push her to the front line.
She will not be asked
to strap explosives to her belly,
to martyr herself in a marketplace.

When she goes to school
the shelves overflow
with books,
the room with teachers.
After lunch,
she'll nap
with her favorite Dora the Explorer blanket -
while outside the window
a large black bird
pecks at the glass
trying to break in.



(Read by Stazja McFadyen)



Honorable Mention - “Dilemma” by Jack Thompson, Florida



Dilemma

(What to do with Man)



You can teach him to obey the law

and follow every sign;

You can teach him not to think

but think the thoughts that you opine.

You can even drug his senses

into catatonic sleep –



But when he dreams, he dreams of freedom.



You can train him like a monkey

and put him through his paces;

Tax and sweat and drive him

and make him run rat races.

You can work him dawn to dusk

‘til he collapses with exhaustion –



But when he dreams, he dreams of freedom.



You can cage him like a beast

and he’ll forget about ambition;

You can force obedience, at least,

or trick his willful submission.

You can carve his body slowly

‘til he begs for bliss unconscious –



But when he dreams, he dreams of freedom.



You can kill a man again, and again, and again,

but he will always come back –



And when he dreams, he dreams of freedom.

And when he dreams, he dreams of freedom.



(Read by Sioux Hart)



Honorable Mention - “A Teenager Ponders a New Kind of Knownness” by Lynn Veach Sadler, North Carolina



A Teenager Ponders a New Kind of Knownness



Social activist Nancy Pocock, a Quaker,

Refugees called her “Mama Nancy.”

She sounds a lot like Mother Teresa.

Both of them are dead now.



The refugees had her name

scrawled on little pieces of paper

they carried in their hands from

Guatemala, El Salvador, Iran, wherever.

Even draft dodgers from the USA

during The War in Vietnam.

Wonder if she ever met Jane Fonda?



Can you imagine

the kind of being knownness

Mama Nancy had?

Rad awesome!



© Lynn Veach Sadler



Winners of the 2010 Year of Youth Poetry Contests, youth category and children's category were announced.



2010 Year of Youth Poetry Contest Winner – “Questions” by Andrew David King.

Andrew is 18 years old, and attends U.C. Berkeley. This is his second contest win. He was awarded the Alex Popoff Youth Poetry Contest Award in 2009 for his poem, “Eggshells Tiananmen Square, June 5, 1989.”

Questions

The small daisy he stuck between
my helmet strap and stubbly chin
had already begun to wilt. Slowly, it returned its borrowed color
to the earth, leaving a brown stem in place of vivid green.
I kept walking on as the leaves and petals cascaded toward
the rutted street. Only I did not feel them fall—I felt a small hand
reach past my face to fasten a flower to me,
and touch something deeper.


This is what Ali did the day his father left.
If I could return to that time,
I wouldn’t ask any questions.
I wouldn’t ask Ali if his father was returning
sometime soon. His father always came back, Ali told me—
always. I wouldn’t question the low, flat horizon,
the edge of the earth waiting for me to fall off of it.
Nor would I have anything to ask of the wind and its
pressured air, spilling out from lungs
squeezed too tight by armor.


Sometimes, after a day when I have been strong
in the face of danger, I want to ask
what it is, exactly, that makes my muscles loosen
and quiver—I know it is not solely bullets or the thunder of gunfire.
But I do not ask these questions any longer—
instead, I look to the horizon in twilight
and watch how the flaxen daylight dissipates into onyx,
punctured only by the sporadic fires
of cities and hearts;
how a small boy waits by a window
for a familiar light down the road to draw nearer
night after night.



(Read by Alan Graham)



2010 Year of Youth Children’s Poetry Contest Winner – “A World of My Dreams” by Suvansh Raj Nirula.

Suvansh, aged 14, lives in New Delhi, India and is a 9th grader at Delhi Public School.



A World of My Dreams

As I tread outside smiling
The joy of freedom seems to have gone missing
The feeling of equality and security
Overtaken by the sights of torture and misery

Trust and faith lay shattered
Families divided, growing hatred
Scarcity of food, education in shambles
Is this the gift for the next generation?

Why is there no war against poverty
Why no war against illiteracy
Why no one to fight the war against hunger
And why no one to fight War on AIDS, the biggest danger

As the bullets fly and bombs explode
The howls of crying babies go loud
The scare and pain of getting orphaned
In their mind, always embedded

Few faces of evil and cruelty
Seems to be creating havoc for the majority
Why are they using their ability
To fight this WAR ON HUMANITY

In a flash, walking, I feel so lonely
Tears flowing on feeling their hunger and poverty
Hoping for a home and education for all
I pray for universal peace and health for all

I feel, not for me, but for us all here
I pray for a world where cruelty to humans, no one hears
But, I ask, “Can my prayers ever come true”?
YES !! Only if with me I also have ALL OF YOU.



(Read by Stazja McFadyen)



Other poets who read at the event:

Elyse Van Breemen - read two poems by Anita McAndrews

Malcolm Johnson

Renee Duke

Magdy Battikha

Helen Henry - sang her poem, accompanying herself on piano.



A special presentation was made by Denise McGahee, Executive Director of Youth for Human Rights Florida, who presented copies of Youth for Human Rights DVDs to audience members. Dustin McGahee, President of Youth for Human Rights Florida, sang two original human rights songs, accompanying himself on acoustic guitar.



The event closed with an audience participation reading of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.




Visit Poets for Human Rights at: http://poetsforhumanrights.ning.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network

CIA forms WikiLeaks Task Force to gauge leaks impact

By JPOST.COM STAFF

US intelligence agency scarcely mentioned in cables, but wishes to check if ability to recruit informants hurt by whistleblower.
The CIA has decided to launch a panel, entitled the WikiLeaks Task Force, in order to gauge the effect of the leaking of thousands of US diplomatic cables by the whistleblower website, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

The US intelligence agency is launching the task force despite the fact that the CIA has been relatively untouched by the leaks.

RELATED:
WikiLeaks' Assange complains he's victim of leaks
2008 WikiLeaks cable shows US envoy’s astute insight

A major issue the panel plans to address is whether the CIA's ability to recruit informants was damaged by the belief that the US government is unable to guard its secrets.



"The director asked the task force to examine whether the latest release of WikiLeaks documents might affect the agency's foreign relationships or operations," the paper quoted CIA spokesman George Little as saying.

The release of the US diplomatic cables has caused Washington and several of its allies embarrassment.

Shortly after the initial release of the cables last month, US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton said the US is taking "aggressive steps" to find those responsible for the release of documents by WikiLeaks.

She explained that every country must be able to hold private conversations on concerning issues. She added that confidential communication is fundamental in the ability to serve public interest.

Clinton expressed confidence that the partnerships and relationships built by the Obama administration will withstand the challenge posed by the WikiLeaks exposure.

Commemorating 17th anniversary of Dr. Mansoor Alkikhia abduction

Dr Manssor Alkikhia is a Libyan who was a trustee of the council of the Arab Human Rights Organizations. He was known activist of human rights and he was in contact with the Libyan opposition in exile as it is revealed by document No: 1 below. Gaddafi since long time known to prepare for the revolutionary committees of the assassination squads. This was sent to Egypt, Britain and Europe to assassin and silence his opponents in exile. Few opponents were killed in the Streets of London. As it did happen in killing British police woman Yvonne Fletcher 17 April 1984, in the process of Gadafi’s assassination squad firing on Libyan demonstrators in front of the Libyan embassy in St. James’s square Piccadilly. Dr. Mansoor Alkikhia went to Cairo to attend the conference of the Arab Human Rights Organizations in the international day of human rights 10-12-1992.
Suddenly Dr. Mansoor Alkikhia was reported missing without trail to where about and how he was missing. The ambiguity of such crime is similar to many of Gaddafi’s mystery missing persons in and outside Libya. On 22nd April, 1992, Mansoor Alkikhia signed an agreement with the Libyan National salvation front which earned him Gaddafi’s rage and anger.

Figure 1

Similar abduction of the Libyan Sheikh M. Albishti happened in the eighties and after more than 20 years in 2004 Gaddafi’s son confirmed that he was killed by the regime. In another incident in under two hours Gaddafi terminated the life of 1200 prisoners of conscience who were never been tried in Abu Salim Prison in Tripoli in 29th June 1996. The families of those killed were coming to the prison with food and clothes to the prison gates and the guards took them thinking they will be given to the prisoners of conscience. This phenomena continued to happen up to 2004 when Gaddafi openly said they were killed. More likely a similar event was the abduction of Mosa Assadr a shieht clerk founder of Amal movement who was in Libya at that time. In 1978 Gaddafi alleged that Mosa Assadr took the aeroplane to Italy while the Italian confirmed no such a person came through its airports. His family still insisting that they should know the real story. Gaddafi offered Mosa Assadr’s family blood money or compensation but they turned it down and they insisted he is alive and they want him back.
The abduction of Mansoor Alkikhia seems to be similar to that of Mosa assadr where it happened while travelling. Therefore, the offender is one in many ways. Although it is a speculation up to now whether he was abducted or killed, indeed it was his contact with the Libyan opposition in exile that made Gaddafi and his followers to abduct him.
Araya Human Rights Organization holds Gaddafi and his regime responsible for the abduction of Dr. Mansoor Alkikhia. There should be an independent international inquiry into the case involving Libya and Egypt to determine Dr. Mansoor Alkikhia fate once and for all.

Administration

JOHN PILGER'S NEW FILM: THE WAR YOU DON'T SEE on ITV

JOHN PILGER'S NEW FILM: THE WAR YOU DON'T SEE on ITV this Tuesday 10.30 - 12.00pm ...... and threats to WIKILEAKS.

This is a must watch for all anti-war activists. Pilger's latest film explores how the media beats the drums for war.

It is particularly important now given the attack on Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, who is interviewed in the film. Assange is currently under arrest in Britain on spurious charges and is now under threat of extradition to Sweden where he may then be deported to the USA. Some politicians and right-wing commentators in America are
calling for him to be jailed for decades or even executed. The Swedish Government, as Wikileaks exposed, is deeply incriminated in George Bush's 'War on Terror'.

Over the past two years Wikileaks has proved itself repeatedly to be a true servant of democracy and an enemy of lying warmongers. All anti war activists should support it and support the campaign for its founder, Julian Assange, to be granted bail which would be normal for the type of charges brought against him.

Julian Assange next appears in court on Tuesday 14 December. The British based Stop the War Coalition has called a protest at 1.00 pm outside the Westminster Magistrates Court. It has also initiated an open letter (LINK BELOW) of support for Wikileaks and Julian Assange, signed by among others, John Pilger, former UK ambassador Craig Murray, actors Miriam Margolyes and Roger Lloyd-Pack, Salma Yaqoob, writers Iain Banks and A L Kennedy, artists David Gentlemen and Katharine Hamnett and comedians Alexei Sayle and Mark Thomas.

OPEN LETTER / PETITION SUPPORTING WIKIPEDIA
Signed by John Pilger, Craig Murray, Mark Thomas, Salma Yaqoob and many more.
READ LETTER & FULL LIST OF SIGNATORIES HERE: http://bit.ly/hkUVKS

Watch Pilger's new film on ITV this Tuesday ...... and support Wikileaks and its founder Julia Assange.

* The War You Don't See: trailer: http://bit.ly/gwzqRE
* Interview with John Pilger about the film: http://bit.ly/fQ4roG
* Cinemas in Britain where the film is showing: http://bit.ly/goNuIc

The Film Interview: John Pilger
How journalists help to promote war - and what can be done to stop it.

John Pilger is a journalist, documentary maker and New Statesman columnist. His new film, "The War You Don't See", is in cinemas from 13 December and will be broadcast on ITV1 on 14 December. More details here.

Q. The War You Don't See is about the media's role in promoting and sanitising contemporary wars. Why make this film at this particular moment?

I have been writing and making films about media and war for many years. Translating this critique to film, especially the insidious power of public relations, has been something of an ambition. Peter Fincham had just taken over as director of programmes at ITV two years ago and clearly wanted to restore some of ITV's factual legacy. He was enthusiastic about the idea; he also knew the film would be critical of ITV. That's unusual.

Since I first went to Vietnam as a young reporter, I have been aware of the rituals and undercurrents and pressures within journalism that determine the news as much as the quality of the news itself. Broadcast journalism has a powerful mysticism; the BBC pretends that it is objective and impartial in the coverage of most things, especially war. The pressure to believe and maintain this pretence is almost an article of faith. For the public, the reality is very different. The University of Wales and the montoring organisation Media Tenor conducted two studies of the TV coverage in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq. Both found the BBC overwhemingly followed the government line: that its reporting of anti-war views amounted to only a few per cent. Among the major western broadcasters, only CBS in America had a worse record. The public has a right to know why.

Q. Why do you think journalists who reported on the Iraq War - a number of whom you interview in the film - are now so willing to admit they did not do their jobs properly? What prevented them from realising that at the time?

The atmosphere has changed. No one is in any doubt now that the reasons for the invasion of Iraq were fraudulent, as are the reasons for invading Afghanistan, as were the reasons for invading Vietnam. Still, the journalists who describe in my film where it all - and they - went wrong are courageous. I asked a number of others to appear, such as Andrew Marr and Jeremy Paxman, and heard nothing back. Indeed, the more famous the name, the greater an apparent unwillingness to discuss why, as Paxman told a group of students, they were "hoodwinked".

Q. Do independent online sources - Wikileaks being the most prominent example at the moment - allow the public to bypass corporate media entirely?

Yes, but remember the public's principal source of information is still television. The main BBC News programmes have enormous influence. Certainly, as Wikileaks has demonstrated, the agenda of the "mainstream" is increasingly guided by the world wide web. For me, as a journalist, the web offers the most interesting and often most reliable sources because they are shorn of the consensual bias, and a censorship by omission, that pervades broadcasting.

Q. Understandably, your focus is on war reporting. But the film also suggests that our entertainment industry plays a role in disseminating propaganda. How can that be effectively countered?

There is no propaganda machine like Hollywood. As Ken Loach pointed out recently, the great majority of movies in British cinemas are American, or British with American funding. This has led to the appropriation of both fact and fiction: of art itself. Edward Said describes the effect in his book Culture and Imperialism, pointing out that the penetration of a a corporate, imperial culture is now deeper than at any time. How do we combat it? We support independent film-makers and independent cinemas and distributors. We begin to think about journalism as a "fifth estate" in which the public plays a part and media organisations are held to account.

Q. Even when the harsh reality of war is reported truthfully and accurately, audiences can simply choose to ignore it. Are there particular techniques you pursue in your film-making to avoid this happening?

Surely, the responsibility of persuading and challenging people, of exciting their imagination, belongs to us film-makers and journalists. Blaming the public is an admission of our own inadequacy. My experience is that people will respond positively if you make the connection with their own lives, or attempt to articulate the way they worry about the world, its wars and other upheavals. If you call power to account with facts, you get the reward of support from an audience. In other words, when people realise you are their agent, not an agent of a monolith called "the media", or of other powerful interests, they give you their time and interest. That makes journalism a privilege.

END

Mohamed Eljahmi’s speech about human rights in Libya At an American Jewish Committee’s event in Newton, MA - Monday, December 6, 2010

Mohamed Eljahmi’s speech about human rights in Libya At an American Jewish Committee’s event in Newton, MA - Monday, December 6, 2010

Let me begin by thanking the American Jewish Committee and its Executive Director David Harris. On December 2, 2010, the American Jewish Committee condemned Turkey’s Prime Minister for accepting the Qadhafi’s International prize for human rights. This is significant because by condemning the Turkish Prime Minister’s acceptance, AJC stood with the Libyan people while Arab and Muslim organization remain silent. Again, thank you AJC!

With regard to this evening’s topic, let me start by saying that the UN has failed to protect human rights in countries where citizens are at their most vulnerable. It doesn’t take a great deal of wisdom to know that the Qadhafi regime is one of the world’s worst violators of human rights. Yet, in 2003 Libya was elected to chair the UN Human Rights Commission and in May 2010; Libya won election to the UN’s supposedly reformed human rights body, the UN Human Rights Council.

Libya’s record and practices demonstrate its contempt for the basics of human rights. Peaceful Assembly and organization are banned and Collective Punishment is enshrined in law.

In Libya, political parties are banned and memberships in independent labor unions or parties are crimes punishable by death. There is also the Collective Punishment law or “Honor Law”, where the State has the right to punish family, city or an entire region for the wrong doing of individual(s).

Another Libyan practice is the demand for absolute loyalty to Qadhafi:

The fulfillments of Libyan citizens’ needs are tied to their absolute and unquestioning loyalty to Mr. Qadhafi. Ordinary Libyans are accountable to a vast security apparatus. Their actions are scrutinized by Orwellian institutions. Should they fail scrutiny, they face Qadhafi’s ruthless death squads, the “Revolutionary Committees”.

Such is the structure of Libya, a country that now sits on the UNHCR and sits in judgment over democracies. Its practices are worse. Allow me to provide you with just three examples of how Libya puts its theoretical contempt for human rights into brutal practice.

The first example is the one that is the least known, the Abu Sleem prison massacre.

In June 1996, Libyan state security massacred some 1,200 political prisoners at the Abu Slim prison, south of Tripoli. To date there has never been an independent investigation into what happened or where the 1,200 bodies are buried. To this date, the families of Abu Slim victims have been unable to give traditional Islamic burial for their loved ones.

The second example is Mansour Kikhia, Libya’s former UN Ambassador. Kikhia came from the family with a long history of service to Libya. He had been a human rights activist, Libya’s foreign minister and ambassador to the UN, but grew disgusted with Qadhafi’s repressive rule. In 1980 Kikhia defected to the United States. In late 1993, he travelled to Cairo to attend an Arab human rights summit. Kikhia was US resident and married to a U.S. citizen. Yet on December 10, 1993, a day that the UN has designated as human rights day, Kikhia was kidnapped by Egyptian agents from his Cairo hotel. The Egyptians handed Kikhia over to the Libyan regime, which executed him. His body has never been recovered. Kikhia left behind a wife and two young children.

The third example is my brother Fathi Eljahmi, who dared to call for change in Libya. Fathi was a visionary, blessed with a great mind and a passion for equality and justice. Professionally, he was a civil engineer, an entrepreneur, a former governor of the Gulf province and also former chairman of the Libyan National Planning Commission.

Fathi was first imprisoned on October 22, 2002, because he presented to the Basic People’s Congress a vision for healing Libya and re-defining its relationship with the outside world. Fathi called for the creation of a constitution, a civil society, for free speech, for free enterprise, for investigation into the Abu Slim prison massacre, the war in Chad and the resolution of the Lockerbie bombing, which by the way had led to the economic blockade against Libya. He called on Qadhafi to show sincerity to his own people.

Fathi was released on March 12, 2004 thanks to the intervention of U.S. politicians, among them then Senator Joe Biden. Fathi refused to be silenced and continued his call for freedom and human rights. On March 26, 2004, Fathi was abducted by Libyan Security and held until his death on May 21, 2009.

During those five years of imprisonment, he endured intense torture, isolation and slow death. He was kept away from his family for nearly two years. He was shackled in a windowless room without sunlight and served food that was not fit for human consumption. For two years, he was deprived of medications for hypertension, advanced stage diabetes, and a heart condition.

The result of the Libyan regime’s slow medical torture and neglect was that Fathi slipped into a coma. The Libyan regime did not even allow him to die in his own country. On May 5, 2009, the Libyan regime flew my comatose brother to a hospital in Jordan where he died. He returned home in the cargo hold of a passenger jet.

By contrast, Abdelbaset Mohmed Ali al-Megrahi , the terrorist responsible for the Lockerbie bombing, was released by the Scottish authorities in August 2009 and flown home in the company of the dictator’s son and senior Libyan officials on Qadhafi’s personal plane to a hero’s welcome. Scotland released the mass murderer al-Megrahi on “compassionate grounds”—compassion being precisely what the Libyan regime has always denied its citizens.

At the UN in Geneva, I have called on the UN Human Rights Council to launch an international and independent investigation in the Abu Slim prison massacre. I have called on the UN Human Rights Council to investigate Fathi’s imprisonment and to investigate torture in Libya. I also called for an investigation into the role played by the Arab Medical Centre in Amman, Jordan, where my brother died. The Arab Medical Centre in Amman refuses to turn over Fathi’s medical report to the family.

What has happened to my calls for investigations? Thus far, nothing. The UN did nothing for human rights in Libya even when Libya was an international pariah. Today Libya sits on the UN Human Rights Council. Qaddafi gives speeches by video link to students at Columbia University and the London School of Economics.

I would like to end by thanking all those human rights activists such as Joshua Rubenstein and Felice Gaer for their efforts on behalf of the victims of the Libyan dictatorship. And may every victim of Mr. Qadhafi’s terror rest in peace. Thank you.
Al Mostakbal

Wikileaks’ Libya nuclear threat ‘not yet verified’ – government

Wikileaks’ Libya nuclear threat ‘not yet verified’ – government
Mark Micallef


Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is said to have been humiliated during a trip to New York. Photo: AFP
The Foreign Ministry yesterday brushed off the latest Wikileak revelation in which Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi is said to have risked a spill of highly enriched uranium late last year in retaliation for being “humiliated” during a trip to New York.

“The ministry cannot comment on facts that have not yet been verified,” a spokesman for the ministry said.

The leaked cables, published yesterday, claim that Libyan authorities purposely delayed delivery to Russia of a consignment of spent nuclear fuel, which was left on the tarmac of the Tajura nuclear facility, 14 km east of Tripoli, with a single armed guard for almost a month.

The highly enriched uranium, which can be developed and used in a bomb, was meant to be collected in November last year by a heavy transport aircraft, as part of an international deal under which Libya’s nuclear waste is handled and disposed of by Russia.

However, the aircraft was sent back without the cargo because Mr Gaddafi had taken offence at his treatment during his visit to New York to address the UN two months earlier, according to the author of the cable, US ambassador to Tripoli Gene Cretz.

Mr Gaddafi had felt “humiliated” after he was prevented from pitching his Bedouin tent in New York and from visiting the Ground Zero site of the September 11, 2001 attacks, Mr Cretz reports in the cable.

US and Russian diplomats scrambled to resolve the crisis since the uranium containers were only intended for transport not storage, meaning they could start leaking in as little as a month. The aircraft eventually left Libya on December 21.

However, the Maltese government yesterday was unwilling to say if it will ask Libya for more information.

Labour’s environment spokes­man, Leo Brincat, who as party foreign affairs spokesman in 2008 was not against France’s plan to sell Libya a nuclear-powered desalination plant, was also cautious. However, he said neighbour states should be given guarantees about nuclear safety.

“Whether the Maltese government had sought and obtained such guarantees remains a big mystery so far, particularly in the absence of adherence to certain established international conventions,” he said.

Mr Brincat expressed concern, especially in the wake of an accident at a nuclear reactor in the south of France in 2008, which reopened the debate on the safety of nuclearising the Mediterranean.

However, he stood by the stand taken in 2008, when he said that Libya should not be discriminated against if it wanted to develop civilian nuclear power plants, on the lines of those in Europe.

AD spokesman Arnold Cassola was not so guarded. “This is further confirmation of the irresponsibility of the Gaddafi administration which doesn’t think twice before blackmailing people,” he said, referring to last week’s warning by the Libyan leader to the EU that Libya would no longer block migration to Europe unless it was paid €5 billion a year.

“Of course, the Maltese should react extremely strongly to this. Beyond nuclear security considerations, nobody seems to realise that we extract 60 per cent of our water from the Mediterranean sea around us. If there is this irresponsibility concerning one of the most dangerous toxic substances like uranium which is left unguarded and which can be abused... then the Maltese people will have a problem with their daily survival.”

He insisted the government should take a strong stand and berated both the Nationalist and Labour parties for their consensual silence when it comes to crises with Libya.

“This silence is probably prompted by economic inte­rests but if any accident happens in this area, the economic interests will be of little help. So, one has to be polite but firm rather than pretend that nothing is happening,” he said.