Q2N- War Tour

Bush is coming here to the UK, expected 15th June. A farewell tour by a President at the end of his term is not unusual but Bush is not much of a traveller and recent history has shown that what are billed as ‘visits’ and ‘peace conferences’ often precede violent aggression by the US and/or allies. War departments are called defence departments and our media is too discreet to call conferences what the often really are, war planning meetings. We know that Bush and Blair plotted the Iraq war at various meet ups going back over a year before the invasion, now Bush is doing his farewell thing but it is also at the time the US is leading the effort to get enough consensus to attack Iran. Just today Rice (sometimes thought as a more pragmatic voice in conflict with Cheney’s pro-attack stance, ha!) was playing to the audience at AIPAC-

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday there’s no point in talking to Iran unless the clerical regime changes its behavior and gives up its suspected nuclear weapons ambitions. Rice said true diplomacy “is not a synonym for talking,” but must be combined with pressure tactics.

Speaking to the pro-Israel group AIPAC, Rice made it clear she doesn’t believe Iran has quit pursuing a nuclear bomb. There may be a time to engage the Iranians, but “not while they continue to inch closer to a nuclear weapon under the cover of talk,” Rice said.

Familiar rhetoric except please note how they have all been coached not to use the WMD acronym so this campaign does not immediately raise memories of the propaganda push to enable the Iraq war. Yet that is just what they are doing. Last week the IAEA report was misrepresented by corporate US media to further fuel the paranoia of Iranian nuclear weapons. Compounding on the previous introduction of the ‘laptop of death’ which supplied so much last minute information (from where?) to the IAEA at Washington’s behest that it set up the situation where accusations of not answering questions could be ‘leaked’ to the media by the US, while both the IAEA and the Iranians had no time to read all the material and ascertain its validity. Just an excerpt-

The NY Times implies that Iran was caught doing something secret by the IAEA.

Aha, but that’s not what the IAEA report says. In paragraph 11 of the report, the IAEA states that the Iran should have informed the IAEA of the centrifuge installation IF the “Subsidiary Arrangements” (which sets a 60-day notice period) was in force — and paragraph 10 specifically says that this subsidiary arrangement is not in force with respect to Iran. So, Iran did inform the IAEA of the installation of the centrifuges, but just not within the full 60-day notice period specified in the Subsidiary Arrangements.

The NY Times claims that Iran has “refused to provide documentation and access to its scientists to support its claims” that documents about “alleged studies” into nuclear weaponization were forgeries, and then the NY Times selectively quotes the report’s conclusion that the outstanding matters “remain a matter of serious concern” in order to imply that Iran has failed to address these issues.

Actually, nowhere in the IAEA report does it say that Iran “refused” to provide documentation regarding the alleged studies. Quite the opposite, the IAEA report states that the Iranians have agreed to respond to the allegations and have provided detailed answers “which are being assessed by the Agency.” (paragraph 15)

So here we are again in the planning period for a possible attack to further US and allies hegemony in the Middle East and the idiot boy king is visiting here. Some opportunity is afforded to show how much we disapprove of this war criminal and his attempts to launch more conflict, this demonstration of public anger could also perhaps make Brown aware of the disruption that going along with an attack could cause. It might, help to push the odds against an attack. Stop the War are working on plans for demonstrations and Tim Ireland @Bloggerheads has also instituted a project called Operation Manticore that promises to add an agile, technically sophisticated way to track and protest the War Criminals presence. Bush & Brown are area of how unpopular this visit will be, so Bush will skulk around behind huge protection and few places and dates will be public knowledge so Manticore could prove a vital element in the game of hide and seek with accountability this mass murderer plays. And then there is this news-

A legal brief has been sent to the International Criminal Court (ICC) alleging former prime minister John Howard committed a war crime by sending troops to Iraq. A loose alliance of peace activists, lawyers, academics and politicians is behind the brief, organised by the ICC Action group in Melbourne.

Organiser Glen Floyd says Mr Howard should be held accountable for sending troops to a war not sanctioned by the United Nations. “We have produced a 52-page brief of evidence which states to the chief prosecutor of the criminal court that we allege John Howard’s actions are war crimes under article 8 of the Rome Statute,” he said.

Democrats Senator Lyn Allison says the legal brief sent to the ICC is justified. Senator Allison, who is one of several eminent people supporting the move, says accountability is important. “This action has been taken to hold those accountable for their action, so it’s essentially our prime minister – he was the one at the time [who] was the executive of government, made the decision,” she said. ‘It wasn’t put to the Parliament and as we all know, it turned out to be unjustified.”

A similar brief has been sent by a group from the United Kingdom regarding former prime minister Tony Blair. The United States is not a signatory to the court.

While the secret service who are heavily armed (up to and including a mini gun?) will prevent a citizen’s arrest the retarded tyrant needs to understand he is not fucking welcome here.