Hail to the Thief (and Murderer)
So the Chimp has landed in Yurp to start his disgraceful state visit to Britain. Well, fuck Bush, and the 700 “friends” he brought with him.
I’ve been in bed for the last few days with food poisoning, but luckily I’m feeling well enough to get out for the big anti-Bush demo tomorrow. Just hope I don’t get shot by some trigger-happy US Secret Service Agent with a mini-gun. The figure being bandied about is 100,000 protesters, but god only knows how many people will be there… the organisers will say “over 150,000″, the police will say “around 20,000″, and the media will inevitably just echo the police. Anyway, I’ll be protesting on the main march, which starts at 2pm, for a number of reasons, including climate change, the illegal invasion of Iraq, and the US human rights abuses at Guantanamo. Last Saturday’s Independent provided a timely reminder, as if one were needed, of why Bush & Blair must not get away with this:
Moazzam Begg, a teacher, had one ambition. He wanted to teach poor children in an underdeveloped country. He chose Afghanistan. Born in Britain, with a UK passport, he left this country with his wife and three small children in the spring of 2001. While waiting for permission to begin teaching from the Taliban authorities he joined a programme sinking tube wells for local villagers. Then came 9/11.
On the night of 2 February 2002 Moazzam was dragged from his bed by two Pakistani security service agents and two CIA officers and bundled into the boot of their car. He was abducted to the vast sprawling prison at Bagram near Kabul where he spent the next year in detention, half starved, with all his fingernails extracted, hardly seeing the light of day. In the spring of this year he was transferred by plane, blindfolded and shackled, to Guantanamo.
Moazzam is one of the 650 detainees whom their captors call “illegal combatants”, a definition unknown in international law. By law, of course, their status ought to be determined, and Geneva Convention III.5 lays down such a procedure. The US has incorporated the procedure in its army regulations: “All persons taken into custody by US forces will be provided with the protections of the 1949 Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War until some legal status is determined by a competent authority.”
These provisions were drafted so as to prevent what has happened to Moazzam and hundreds of others, innocent civilians caught up in the chaos of war and dragged into captivity. In an investigation by Newsweek the reporters say that of the Kuwaiti detainees whose cases they were able to follow, most were “little more than volunteers for their society’s version of faith-based charities, who wanted to help Afghans suffering from drought and famine and then from the war, but discovered, once the conflict began, that they could not get out”.
Of course, it’s also important to protest against Bush’s state visit because it’s really no more than a photo-op for his forthcoming election campaign (er, sorry, I’m being too cynical, it’s because of Britain and America’s “Special Relationship” and because Bush really values Rev. Bliar’s input). From The Spectator:
Factored into the election plan has been what is known in the White House as the ‘British boost´. It is important for US image-makers to foster as best they can, for domestic consumption at least, the notion of a cosmopolitan, well-travelled president. Practically the only international figure known to the insular US electorate — leaving aside the Pope, Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein — is the Queen of England.
and amusingly:
At a latish stage, Downing Street suggested that a visit to Myrobella, the Blair´s four-bedroom Sedgefield home, would get the President out of London. The White House immediately conjured up images of a Blair country estate comparable to the formidable Bush ranch in Crawford, Texas. The security official who spoke to John Burton, the Sedgefield constituency agent, asked ‘how many acres´ the Prime Minister owned, to be told ‘well, he has a backyard.´
There are quite a few protests against Bush taking place on Thursday and Friday — you’ll find a list of events at resistbush.org. And if you’re really quick-witted, you won’t let freedom-loving Dubya’s goons herd you into a Free Speech Zone.
President Bush has never been an advocate of the First Amendment. Even when he was governor of Texas, he prohibited demonstrations on the walkways in front of the governor’s mansion, an area which had traditionally been used for peaceful protests.
As president, Bush has widened his restrictions on demonstrations against his policies. Anti-Bush protesters are now relegated to what are euphemistically called Free Speech Zones. These areas are cordoned off as far as a mile away from the president and the main thoroughfares, so that Bush cannot see the demonstrators, or their signs of protest, nor hear their chants.
The free speech enclosures are only for those who disagree with the administration’s current policies. Those citizens who carry pro-Bush signs are allowed to line the street where the president’s motorcade passes.
Members of the Secret Service or local law enforcement officers under orders of the Secret Service demand protesters move into a free speech area.
Fuck Bush, and fuck Bliar.
Can’t be there in person, but I’ll be with you all the way in spirit.