Guantánamo Bay protest on Friday with Green MEP

On the sixth anniversary of the opening of Guantánamo Bay
Join Jean Lambert in Parliament Square 6-8 PM.

PLEASE ATTEND IF YOU CAN and BRING GREEN PARTY BANNERS OR FLAGS
the London Guantánamo Campaign, in conjunction with Cageprisoners, invites you to
join us on* Friday 11 January 2008 at 6-8pm in Parliament Square
(nearest tube: Westminster)* to call for an end to the injustice and
illegality that is the American military detention camp in Guantánamo
Bay. *Speakers include Moazzam Begg, Gareth Peirce, Yvonne Ridley,
Victoria Brittain, Jean Lambert MEP and others. *

We invite you to join us to call on the British government to take
action to close Guantánamo Bay down once and for all and to help
repatriate detainees who do not have anywhere to go on release. The
British government must also seek the release and return to the UK of
Binyam Mohammed and Ahmed Belbacha. *Please join us in the evening and
call on the British government to take action. This is an _authorised
_event.*

* *

This demonstration comes at the end of a day of action organised by the
London Guantánamo Campaign and Cage prisoners, including a letter being
handed in to Downing Street by former Guantánamo detainees calling for
the detention facility to be closed and a "statues" action all over
London, visiting key sites in the capital.

**No more torture! No more detention without charge or trial! No more anniversaries!**

For more details, contact the London Guantánamo Campaign:
london_gitmo@yahoo.co.uk or
Cageprisoners: contact@cageprisoners.com


the pic is of Green Party Euro candidate and hyper activist Shahrar Ali protest against Guantánamo

Have a look at his website here

Plinth at Hyde Park Corner, No Trident march, 24 Feb 2007. Shahrar peforms mock interrogation between detainee and Agent Bauer: “Geneva convention? Does not apply. Rules of the Wild West, mister! Ha!” Photo: John Robinson.

More on eco Islam

Islam, like Christianity and Judaism, proclaims the importance of humanity's stewardship over nature. The threat of climate change is of particular concern to Muslim activists today, for both practical and theological reasons. I am not a believer in any shape of deity, but I have to recognise the strength of the Koran where it states that "But waste not by excess, for Allah loveth not the wasters." (Quran: 7:31).

The Sufi writer Hossein Nasr, in a series of important books, has been advocating Islamic environmentalism since the 1970s. The Quran states without ambiguity that humanity is to act as "caliph" to the rest of nature, ie not dominating, but rather working to preserve and maintain global ecology - humanity should make gardens instead of working to satisfy greed.

If you a recent convert to another green world, click here for more on eco Islam from me.


I had this from the London Islamic Network for the Environment which includes a critical look at carbon trading:

Salam, Peace to you,

We have recently launched an audiovisual page on our website, which we invite you to explore http://lineonweb.org.uk/Resources/audiovisuals.htm. Currently we have uploaded these two talks:

1) 'Offsetting' Carbon Emissions: Does it Help, or Does it Hurt? This informative and timely talk was given by Larry Lohmann, from the thinktank, the Corner House, at a LINE monthly forum last summer.

2) A talk by Usama Hasan which concisely covers basic concepts on Islam & the Environment i.e.tawhid, mizan, fasad, fitra & khilafah. This formed part of our training day last June, which we organised in partnership with Friends of the Earth and Tawhid Mosque.

LINE would also like to congratulate Usama Hasan for recently gaining the post of Director of the City Circle. We have enjoyed and benefited from working with Usama on a number of projects and would like to wish him the best.

Muzammal Hussain
LINE

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Brown goes radioactive

Nuclear power, ID cards, war, $25 billion to bail out Northern Rock...told you that Brown would be worse than Blair. Graphic from the cartoonist Leon Kuhn who has an exhibition of similar cartoons on at the Imperial War Museum at present.

The following is from Scientists for Global Responsibility.

With the government due to make an announcement on the future of nuclear power in the UK, Scientists for Global Responsibility (SGR) reiterates its opposition to the building of new nuclear power stations.

Below are links to a selection of SGR's recent resources on this issue, laying out our case.

Nuclear power: the security dimension Powerpoint presentation (October 2007)

The future of nuclear power SGR response to government's consultation document (October 2007)

Nuclear power: yes or no? Powerpoint presentation (September 2007)

Not enough skilled workers to build new UK nuclear power stations? Comment article (July 2006)

Open Letter to Prime Minister regarding opposition to a new generation of nuclear power stations in the UK from 40 climate and energy experts (April 2006)

For more information, see http://www.sgr.org.uk/

A not so gay bishop

The Dalai Lama is apparently still attacking same sex unions with a load of frankly nonsense arguments that suggest that some one picked up the wrong baby and the real Dalai Lama is a bus driver in Camden or or a physics Professor in Cairo (with a deeper understanding of real compassion).

I must admit with general over work my Zen practice has been a bit sparse but this kind of thing really annoys me. I don't think God cares which gender we fuck, not that I or other Buddhists believe in God! In the non God 'religion' or 'practice' known as Buddhism, there is no supernatural authority figure. The Buddha, himself, famously noted 'Doubt Everything!' and praised reason. The Buddha's words are what is left of them after the washing of the tide of 1,000s years of history are to be treated rationally.

And did he condemn homosexuality. The answer is no.

Also why don't we get a women Dalai Lama?


I watched a television interview with the Dalai Lama in Vancouver last night when asked if he supported homosexuality he clearly stated I am a Buddhist we are like the Christians we do not support same sex unions. There were no apologizes for the statement it simply was what it was. I should add he also stated he had no problem with people who were not Buddhist being homosexual.

So where did that leave me a gay woman who leaned heavily towards the Buddhist teachings should I now throw all that out the window because I didn’t fit anymore?

Is that what has happened with Gay Catholics or Christians?

I have enormous respect for the Dalai Lama he is a very wise man and I respect his faith. I get the man and woman put on the earth to make babies argument. The Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve. And I won’t throw away the teachings within the Buddhist faith that have helped me shape my life. From here

I must admit some of this looks a bit flaky to me 'The Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve', is rather homophobic and does not seem to make sense, unless you are against all non procreative sex...wait a minute the Dalai Lama is against all sex, straight or gay, that does not produce babies.

the Dalai Lama explicitly condemns homosexuality, as well as all oral and anal sex. His stand is close to that of Pope John Paul II, something his Western followers find embarrassing and prefer to ignore. His American publisher even asked him to remove the injunctions against homosexuality from his book, ''Ethics for the New Millennium,'' for fear they would offend American readers, and the Dalai Lama acquiesced. from

No fire without smoke

Joe Otten has a point when he says that the main environmental ill effect of war in Iraq is death, rather like complaining about the smoke when heretics were burnt, he gently chides me.

I guess this kind of report, akin to medieval fraudsters getting paid for fire wood to burn Cathars that didn't exist, is even less important in Joe's eyes. I disagree...tracking both the damage to the environment and fraud involved in war is worth blogging about so here goes:

This was mailed to me (and I guess 10,000 other people) by US Corporate Watch who found it in an American newspaper....Corporate Watch in Oxford are also excellent.

The U.S. military paid a Florida company nearly $32 million to build barracks and offices for Iraqi army units even though nothing was ever built, Pentagon investigators reported.

The project had to be abandoned because the Iraqi Defense Ministry couldn't obtain rights to the land where the headquarters were to be built, according to a report released this month by the Defense Department's Office of Inspector General. Contracting records show the buildings would have housed one brigade and three battalions of the Iraqi military in Ramadi, a hotbed of the Sunni Muslim insurgency and capital of Anbar province.

Still, the Air Force agency overseeing the project paid contractor Ellis Environmental Group $31.9 million of the $34.2 million obligated for the project, the report said.

An Air Force spokesman, Michael Hawkins, said in an e-mail that Air Force auditors are reviewing the contract. Although the inspector general's report says the Air Force was considering suing the contractor, Hawkins said any talk of a lawsuit was premature until the Air Force audit is complete.

Ellis Environmental Group spokesman Steve Brownstein said the work was reassigned to Ellis World Alliance Corp., a related company. Bob Smith, of Ellis World Alliance headquarters in Gainesville, Fla., said contracting rules barred any official comment.

The Ramadi construction contract is one of many problems Pentagon investigators cited in this month's report on the military's oversight of $5.2 billion Congress approved in 2005 to help train and equip the Iraqi military and police.

Atzmon meeting will not take place in Brighton

Criticism of Israel is one thing, anti-semitism is quite another.

So I am glad to see that Gilad Atzmon who seems to have anti-semitic views is not going to be airing them in Brighton.

This is from the Brighton Argus:

In the same essay, Atzmon explained that "we must begin to take the accusation that Zionists are trying to control the world very seriously."

The Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion was a forgery concocted by the pre-revolutionary Czarist secret police in Russia but was treated by the Nazi Party as a foundation stone of their beliefs. Hitler knew it to be a forgery, but ignored this because he considered true the basic allegation that Jews were attempting to control the world.

Distressingly, Atzmon seems to agree.

He points to the number of Jewish people in the Bush and Clinton administrations and asks: "Is the suggestion of conspiracy really an empty accusation?" He adds: "American Jewry makes any debate on whether the Protocols of the elder of Zion are an authentic document or rather a forgery irrelevant.

I saw this on the Socialist Unity blog which is often worth a look:

A man accused of anti-semitism has been forced to cancel a speech at a church over fears it could whip up religious hatred. Event organiser Dr Francis Clark-Lowes cancelled his booking at the Brighthelm Centre, in North Road, Brighton, for the talk by Gilad Atzmon.

Tony Greenstein, of the Brighton and Hove Unemployed Workers Centre, said Atzmon would have faced a major protest outside the building had he tried to enter.

Mr Greenstein said: “Despite his abhorrent views, we did not call for the meeting to be cancelled. We wanted him to face as large a picket as possible in order that he should understand the depth of opposition.
Nonetheless we welcome the fact that Brighthelm has cancelled this meeting as church premises are probably the least appropriate venue for a meeting of this kind.”

Like lots of people I don't agree with everything Tony does, I would much rather he was a socialist in the Green Party than someone who stood against the Green Party in Brighton on the Alliance for Green Socialism ticket at the last General Election, but he does some good work.

To my mind he is a solid active anti-racist, he opposes anti-semitism and supports the Palestian people. Although of course his work as a socialist covers a whole spectrum of activities.

So interesting to see he had been accused of anti-semitism and apologised to:
I was very pleased and amused to see that stauch upholder of political “decency”, David Aaronovitch has been forced along with Times newspapers to apologise to the Palestinian solidarity campaigner Tony Greenstein.

As Aaronovitch now grovels:

At the beginning of July, an item was posted on my weblog which stated that Tony Greenstein had been “intimidating” or “harassing Jews’ at NUS conferences for 30 years. Tony Greenstein believed that this accused him of committing an offence of incitement to racial hatred under s.3A of the Race Relations Act 1976 and that it also implied that he is anti-Semitic.

While Tony Greenstein and I have had our differences, notably at NUS conferences, neither I nor The Times meant to suggest that he has been breaking the law for thirty years or that he is anti-Semitic. Our apologies for any embarrassment caused

There is an interesting article by Tony here

Let me make a confession. I was brought up as a Zionist in an orthodox Jewish household. I also grew up in the shadow of the Holocaust. I concluded from an early age that if anti-Semitism was wrong, then all forms of racism were equally wrong.

Unfortunately the Zionist movement drew the opposite conclusion. Indeed it accepted the arguments of anti-Semitism that Jews did not belong in the lands where they were born and grew up. They were strangers living in exile (Galut). They should ‘return’ to Palestine. Unfortunately they took with them the ideological framework of European racism. In essence, the anti-Semites said ‘you do not belong’ and the Zionists said ‘we agree’.

Today the Zionist movement regularly accuses its opponents of ‘anti-Semitism’. In what is a new phenomenon, there has grown up a small group of people, based around a certain Israel Shamir, who have said ‘yes’ ‘if you call us anti-Semites, then there must be nothing wrong with anti-Semitism’. The phenomenon of a section of the oppressed adopting the ideological framework of the oppressor is nothing new. It is a characteristic of separatist movements, e.g. Louis Farrakhan. What is strange is when ‘supporters’ of the oppressed adopt the ideas of the oppressor.

Indy media now claims the meeting is going ahead/has gone ahead! with some to my mind fairly barking criticism of Tony for opposing it
It is evident that recently Greenstein has acted as a divisive and disruptive individual by shifting the emphasis on Palestine solidarity onto his obsessive crusade against "anti-semitism". Greenstein is today closer to the infamous Engage crowd than to anything that purports to be solidarity with the Palestinians. Gilad Atzmon is an important intellectual and artist whose actions in solidarity with the Palestinians have done more in the past few years than the grand sum of Greenstein's actions ever achieved. Greenstein's tantrums are certainly harmful to focus the Palestine solidarity actions, and if a pipsqueak like Greenstein insists on carrying on his vendetta against Atzmon, then the best would be for him to do so openly and in a civil manner. If he doesn't pursue this course, then the best thing is to relegate Greenstein to the shadows where he more rightfully belongs

I never think describing someone as a 'pipsquek' is a winning argument for a start....this one sadly will run and run

Iraq: Ecosystems burn

Well they say if Iraq had grown carrots the US would never have invaded and therefore this is an oil war full stop. However in 1954 the US backed the coup in Guatamala because the social democrat government upset United Fruit who grew bananas.

Saddam was not a good thing for the environment, famously draining the marshes in the south to assault his Shia enemies in the marshes.

The war though has and continues to have a devasting effect on the environment.



Among other things, the war itself is producing enormous amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Because U.S. forces in Iraq are so reliant on combat planes, helicopters, and armored vehicles to conduct basic operations, they are using, on average, 16 gallons of oil per soldier per day – four times as much as soldiers in Operation Desert Storm and 16 times as much as those of World War II. Add up all the U.S. soldiers and sailors in Iraq and neighboring countries and aboard U.S. ships in the Gulf, and this works out to about 3 million gallons per day – equivalent to daily consumption by the entire population of Bangladesh. To this must be added the carbon dioxide released by pipeline and refinery explosions, the aircraft used to ferry U.S. troops in and out of Iraq, and other war-related activities.

The war’s biggest impact, however, will probably lie in all the money spent on fighting the war that will never be available to address the climate change dilemma. According to the most recent calculation by the National Priorities Project, the United States has already spent $475 billion on the war, with another $155 billion in supplemental funding pending before Congress. But even these prodigious sums do not include the hundreds of billions that must be added for the care of wounded and traumatized veterans of the war, interest on the Iraqi war debt, and the replacement of damaged or destroyed weapons and military hardware – expenses which will surely push the combined total well over $2 trillion (as Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes have estimated), and probably much higher.

Counterpunch notes:


The future indeed looks bleak for the ecosystems and biodiversity of Iraq, but the consequences of the U.S. military invasion will not only be confined to the war stricken country. The Gulf shores, according to BirdLife's Mike Evans, is "one of the top five sites in the world for wader birds, and a key refueling area for hundreds of thousands of migrating water birds." The U.N. Environment Program claims that 33 wetland areas in Iraq are of vital importance to the survival of various bird species. These wetlands, the U.N. claims, are also particularly vulnerable to pollution from munitions fallout as well as oil wells that have been sabotaged.