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I guess we all feel a severe onset of head pain from time to time, the result of perpetually bashing our literary brows against the rock solid insanity of political arrogance and moral ineptitude. While it’s probably unnecessary to seek professional help at these times, the equivalent of a dose of Tylenol is prescribed in the form of a break, away from the seemingly endless cycle of violence and bloodshed heaped upon us by those egocentric politicians with their petty wars and constantly regurgitating international squabbles.

Hence the absence of Sparrow Chat articles over the last week. It’s been a time of relaxation, physical exercise, enjoyment of the more positive virtues, and the planning of ten days away across the ocean among the hills and mountains of my beloved Wales; a trip not destined to occur until June, and marred only by the fact my lovely wife will not be accompanying me on this occasion. Spending a week of that time hill walking with a lifelong friend will be some measure of compensation.

Since my last posting on March 16th, the news has varied little from the routine that has dominated our lives these past four years. Iraq, four years on, is the centerpiece of a week long series on BBC World, so far illustrating the utter worthlessness of the joint US/UK invasion as a means of freeing the Iraqi people from tyranny and providing them with the joys of a democratic capitalist society. The vast majority of those Iraqis still remaining in their country, with the exception of the Kurds in the north, are utterly pessimistic of any improvement over the next twelve months. Even the Vice President, Tareq al-Hashemi, has hinted that talks to bring all sides around a negotiating table are unlikely to succeed while the American occupation continues. For Iraqis trying to get out of the country – over two million are already thought to have fled – trying to get hold of a valid passport is both highly dangerous and next to impossible.

Summing up Iraq four years on, John Simpson, the BBC’s World Affairs Editor and Iraq expert, says:

“The most common sight, apart from police and army roadblocks, are the black banners on walls and fences announcing people’s deaths. And the most common feeling you come across is a kind of slow-burning, gloomy anger. These things represent a major failure of the hopes and expectations which many Iraqis entertained four years ago…….”

The rest of his article, from Monday 19th March, can be read HERE.

Probably the most pessimistic news out of the Middle East this week has been the refusal of both the US and the EU to recognize the new unity government of Palestine. It was no mean achievement to reconcile the various factions, and Palestinian leaders should be given some measure of reward for their efforts. As should the Palestinian people, who have been forced into even more suffering and hardship for daring to exercise their democratic right and elect a government of their choosing. They desperately need the finances so harshly withdrawn when Hamas came to power. Israel is, of course, refusing to acknowledge the unity government and still holds millions of dollars in taxes – the property of Palestinians – until Hamas renounces violence and recognizes Israel’s right to exist.

Condoleeza Rice’s refusal to release funding and work with the Palestinian government comes as no surprise whatever. The US continues to link arms with Israel in demanding the Palestinians dance to their tune. The European Union’s acquiescence to American demands is sickening in the extreme and leaves one wondering how long this body will continue pandering to the whims of US arrogance and aggression.

Two days ago the Norwegian deputy foreign minister, Raymond Johansen, pledged his country’s support for the new government in a meeting with the Palestinian prime minister, Ismail Haniya. Mister Johansen said afterwards:

“We hope that all the European countries, and even other countries, will support this unity government………We hope that this unity government will work hard in order to fulfill the expectations from the international community.”

Mister Johansen was immediately snubbed by Israel, who refuse to have anything to do with the new Palestinian government. Norway is not, of course, a member of the European Community.

On a final note, I am not flying American Airways to the UK in June. I have chosen my usual carrier, British Midland. The case of James Yates from Ohio makes me glad I did. Yates was one of three pilots on an American Airways flight from Manchester, England to Chicago in February 2006, when he was stopped at the security gate for being drunk after a night “on the town”. This week a British jury found Yates “not guilty” of “carrying out an activity ancillary to an aviation function while over the drink limit” after they were told he only went to the airport to tell his captain he was unfit for work and would not be joining the crew. It may have been easier to use a telephone, but the jury obviously accepted his explanation, and so might I – had I not read THIS BBC ARTICLE from June 2006 stating that in an earlier court hearing Yates denied being “unfit for duty”.

British justice, it seems, has a very short memory.

Filed under: More bad news

There is not one iota of doubt that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is a ruthless and extremely dangerous individual. Sufficient evidence exists of his involvement in various terrorist acts around the world over two decades, to put him away for the rest of his life. Of course, dependent on where he is brought to justice, the rest of his life may not be very long.

The catalogue of crimes and potential crimes he purports to have been involved with is so long as to be almost incredulous. He was held for at least three years in secret CIA prisons and subjected to interrogation techniques that the President of the United States described as definitely “not torture” (this ABC News account from November 2005 will allow you to judge the truth of that). It will likely never be known just how deeply involved Khalid Sheikh Mohammed really was in the plots he confessed to, and how much was due to “interrogation techniques”, or merely the result of an over-imaginative ego.

The brutal and underhand manner in which the “allies” have conducted their so-called “war on terror” has left those of us still grimly clinging to the few ethics we have left, unable to believe anything we are told by the leaders entrusted with our welfare. Both in America and Britain, the nations’ top politicians have betrayed the people with their lies and “spin”.

George Bush told Americans the interrogation techniques used by the CIA were “necessary”. He said, “America does not torture.”

He was wrong. Waterboarding cannot be classified as anything other than torture, and was so described by America in the Tokyo War Crimes Trials immediately following the end of WW2.

Writer Robin Rowland, researching his latest book, “A River Kwai Story: F Force and the Sonkrai Tribunal” certainly agrees with that conclusion. As someone who has thoroughly researched Japanese forms of torture for his book, he presents a view difficult to counter.

There seems to be an effort within this American administration to justify their actions as a means to an end, as though they can accurately define the fine line between coercion and torture. Websters defines “torture” as “anguish of body or mind”. Not necessarily physical pain, then, but “anguish of mind”.

According to the ABC News report (link above) tough CIA operatives who were voluntarily subjected to waterboarding lasted an average of 14 seconds. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was “admired” for lasting upto two and a half minutes “before begging to confess”. Little wonder then he has admitted to over thirty terrorist plots and involvements.

As John Sifton of Human Rights Watch states in the ABC report, “The person believes they are being killed, and as such, it really amounts to a mock execution, which is illegal under international law.”

We will probably never learn the true facts about Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Either his confessions were accurate, or he is lying to protect others who may consequently remain at large to commit further terrorist acts. US and British politicians may well pat themselves on the back, once Sheikh Mohammed has gone through the secret military tribunals, been found guilty and suitably punished, but likely it will be a short-lived celebration. The methods they have used, despised by all decent human beings, leave no basis for trusting the accuracy of their results. In factual terms, we know no more about Khalid Sheikh Mohammed than we did before his capture.

Torture elicits only the confessions the torturers wish to hear. Use of such barbarous techniques by those sworn to uphold justice and human rights for all is not only a living perjury of the oath, but will almost certainly have created an even more dangerous world for us to live in.

Filed under: War criminals

“The next war … may well bury Western civilization forever.” ~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn June 8, 1978.

Following his death, Baha Mousa, a twenty-six year old Iraqi hotel receptionist was found to have 93 separate injuries on his body. He and a number of other men were arrested by British soldiers following a raid on a hotel in Basra. They were taken to the Darul Dhyafa military base for interrogation after weapons and “suspected” bomb-making equipment was found at the hotel.

After six months of courts martial hearings, six soldiers were acquitted of all charges. One soldier had already pleaded guilty to inhumanely treating Baha Mousa. No-one was found guilty of Baha Mousa’s death. Yet there was no doubt he died of his injuries in British custody.

According to a BBC report today:

“Col David Black, of the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment’s Regimental Council, said that British servicemen needed to operate without being “inhibited by the fear of such actions by over zealous and remote officialdom”.

While it is obvious that the prosecution’s case was ill thought-out; the evidence they presented was weak in the extreme, one salient fact that cannot be overlooked is that a man is dead. He died as a result of ninety-three separate injuries.

This was no quick shot at an escaping prisoner, or the result of a scuffle while being restrained. Ninety-three separate injuries, sufficient to kill a man, take time to inflict.

Other men taken in the raid showed evidence of being beaten, but no-one has been punished for the death of Baha Mousa.

Much has been written, both on this blog and elsewhere, criticizing American forces in Iraq for their often brutal treatment of prisoners. Colonel Black’s remark that his men should be able to operate with impunity, uninhibited by fear of lawful redress whilst interrogating prisoners, is disgraceful and totally outside the legal framework of the Geneva Conventions.

Tony Blair and his British government may not have been so openly and vocally derisory of those Conventions as the present American administration, but this “relaxation” of the British military’s code of ethics when interrogating enemy suspects is surely proof the British government has fallen squarely behind its American counterpart in the de-humanizing of enemy combatants.

There was a time, before the advent of modern weapons of mass destruction, that man took pride in the honor and glory of war. However misplaced such feelings, this Iraq war has finally laid them to rest. There is no honor or glory in the actions of Britain and America in Iraq. Civilizations are dependent on some degree of moral code, and between them George Bush and Tony Blair have sacrificed our morality for their success.

The prophecy of Solzhenitsyn is being realized.

Filed under: Fallen standards