"spiritual pollution"
17.6.04
oh dear
The head of one of the world's biggest oil companies has admitted that the threat of climate change makes him "really very worried for the planet".
luckily man has plan:
In an interview in today's Guardian Life section, Ron Oxburgh, chairman of Shell, says we urgently need to capture emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, which scientists think contribute to global warming, and store them underground - a technique called carbon sequestration.
[...]
According to a 3,000m (about 10,000ft) ice core from Antarctica revealing the Earth's climate history, carbon dioxide levels are the highest for at least 440,000 years.
The head of one of the world's biggest oil companies has admitted that the threat of climate change makes him "really very worried for the planet".
luckily man has plan:
In an interview in today's Guardian Life section, Ron Oxburgh, chairman of Shell, says we urgently need to capture emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, which scientists think contribute to global warming, and store them underground - a technique called carbon sequestration.
[...]
According to a 3,000m (about 10,000ft) ice core from Antarctica revealing the Earth's climate history, carbon dioxide levels are the highest for at least 440,000 years.
homepage dot com of swiss imperialist operator.
ästhetische barbarei hier besonders ausgeprägt. mit adorno's negativer dialektik gesprochen, ist die identifikation mit feudalem symbolismus hier als ausdruck der negierenden allgemeinbestimmung des selbst zu verstehen, die natürlich in unaufhebbarer spannung zum nicht-identischen, der inneren triebstruktur steht.
(can't really express this in english, but the aesthetic barbarism is incredibly pronounced here. identification with feudal symbolism points to negating aspects of external representation via universals, in stark opposition to the particular internal drive. probably impotent, which means as much as "bad taste".)
as you can imagine, activity of knowledge production in education complex is reflected herein.
ästhetische barbarei hier besonders ausgeprägt. mit adorno's negativer dialektik gesprochen, ist die identifikation mit feudalem symbolismus hier als ausdruck der negierenden allgemeinbestimmung des selbst zu verstehen, die natürlich in unaufhebbarer spannung zum nicht-identischen, der inneren triebstruktur steht.
(can't really express this in english, but the aesthetic barbarism is incredibly pronounced here. identification with feudal symbolism points to negating aspects of external representation via universals, in stark opposition to the particular internal drive. probably impotent, which means as much as "bad taste".)
as you can imagine, activity of knowledge production in education complex is reflected herein.
16.6.04
Wilsongate
Hey all. Another article I've written - not deep in analysis, but it should reveal a few facts about the scandals in Washington that haven't been popularly linked yet...
Hey all. Another article I've written - not deep in analysis, but it should reveal a few facts about the scandals in Washington that haven't been popularly linked yet...
13.6.04
Wickel wacker nackedei
Machen wir doch gleich ein Tänzchen
Hin und her und rauf und rein
Kleines Schwänzchen, bist du müde?
Komm, ich geb' dir einen Kuß
Unser Tänzchen ist doch Freude
Ist kein leistungshartes Muß
Kleines Schwänzchen, sich' mein Kätzchen
Schnurrt und ruft so sehr nach dir
Meine Höhle friert alleine
Gib ihn her, von dir zu mir
Kleines Schwänzchen, ist das möglich
Du bist ja ein großer Schwanz
Voller Freude, voller Feuer,
tanzt er seinen Liebestanz
Langsam, langsam wilder Großer
Meine Rose geht entzwei
Meine vollen Lippenblätter
lieben zarte Tänzerei
Was! Du willst mich wie ein Cello geigen
Voller Kraft und Schwung
Ahh du Schwanz, mein Wundervoller
Ich bin wieder maienjung.
Helga Goetze, 1973
12.6.04
Ich frage mich, wie ich eine Kommune organisieren kann, wo die Leute eine solche Alternative wirklich leben können, ohne die Angst vor dem Alleinsein, und frei von den Neurosen, die die familiäre Lebensstruktur in uns züchtet.
Commercial porno films are made to exploit the misery of the deprived and the perverted at minimal cost, badly shot, worse played by the unhappy actors blackmailed by force or lack of money, dingy, murky, spotty, choppy films, sex without dialogue or soul or body. The effect of such films is a calculated turnoff, throwing the viewer back into himself, isolating us all from each other. Removal of restraints in Denmark produced glossier porn, better lit, better shot, but the flesh was still meaty, lit up all pink like a butcher's shop, and the plots were vestigial, the characters depersonalized. But at least the commercial porno films were aimed at a sexual response, however desolate and specific. The underground films were not even genital: either they celebrated sex in narcissistic and “artistic” ways or they offered a sort of commentary on decadent social mores. The hypocrisy of getting kicks out of the depiction of depraved sex while retaining the right to disapprove of it or satirize it was the worst turnoff of all.
Confrontation is political awareness. What we discovered at the Wet Dream Festival is that we will have to generate enough energy in ourselves to create a pornography which will eradicate the traditional porn by sheer erotic power... We must commission films, make films, write, act, cooperate for life's sake. The battle against sadism and impotence is more desperate than we ever believed. We must begin the struggle within ourselves, carry it into our relationships and beyond that into the political sphere. It is mere hypocrisy to suppose that we are more liberated than others, and sheer Puritanism to feel guilty that we are not...
Greer 1973
post-death "B-rate actor bozo-lookin' fuck" idolation v telling but nonetheless sickening!
antidotes:
Reagan's duty was to smile, to read from the teleprompter in a pleasant voice, tell a few jokes, and keep the audience properly bemused.
NC 1
As far back as Herodotus we can read how people who had struggled to gain their freedom "became once more subject to autocratic government" through the acts of able and ambitious leaders who "introduced for the first time the ceremonial of royalty," distancing the leader from the public while creating a legend that "he was a being of a different order from mere men" who must be shrouded in mystery, and leaving the secrets of government, which are not the affair of the vulgar, to those entitled to manage them.
NC 2
"In fact, in the United States people have drilled into their heads that they are all middle class. My daughter teaches in a state college, where people come from what we would call working class or less, many of them are just transients... people are underclass. But, the first day of class she always asks people "What class do you belong to?" and everybody says middle class and then she starts bringing out what their aspirations are. "What you go to college for?", "What is your father doing?" and so on. It turns out, you know, my father is a janitor, when he has a job and I'm hoping to be a nurse, but they're middle class. Everybody is middle class."
oldenburg nc interview
antidotes:
Reagan's duty was to smile, to read from the teleprompter in a pleasant voice, tell a few jokes, and keep the audience properly bemused.
NC 1
As far back as Herodotus we can read how people who had struggled to gain their freedom "became once more subject to autocratic government" through the acts of able and ambitious leaders who "introduced for the first time the ceremonial of royalty," distancing the leader from the public while creating a legend that "he was a being of a different order from mere men" who must be shrouded in mystery, and leaving the secrets of government, which are not the affair of the vulgar, to those entitled to manage them.
NC 2
"In fact, in the United States people have drilled into their heads that they are all middle class. My daughter teaches in a state college, where people come from what we would call working class or less, many of them are just transients... people are underclass. But, the first day of class she always asks people "What class do you belong to?" and everybody says middle class and then she starts bringing out what their aspirations are. "What you go to college for?", "What is your father doing?" and so on. It turns out, you know, my father is a janitor, when he has a job and I'm hoping to be a nurse, but they're middle class. Everybody is middle class."
oldenburg nc interview
11.6.04
Lisbon police confirmed yesterday that England fans will not be arrested for puffing on joints on the streets of the Portuguese capital, following a recommendation from the Dutch authorities responsible for policing the English during Euro 2000.
Four years ago England's match in Eindhoven, ironically against Portugal, passed off peacefully as many supporters took advantage of the Netherlands' liberal drugs laws. By contrast the game against Germany in the Belgian town of Charleroi was marred by violence, much of it fuelled by alcohol.
[...]
"We won't be hiding behind doors waiting for someone to smoke a joint. We have to use common sense. If people are smoking but not kicking each other, not beating each other, and not making a problem, why on earth would an officer go and ask 'Is that cannabis?'
never gotten into a fight when stoned because it's fucking impossible. "Hey, buddy!" "Hey..." "hey.."
10.6.04
8.6.04
CIA got 'legal guidance' for torture"
"The US Justice Department offered justification for the use of torture against al-Qaida detainees in an August 2002 memo to the White House, The Washington Post has reported."
"The US Justice Department offered justification for the use of torture against al-Qaida detainees in an August 2002 memo to the White House, The Washington Post has reported."
7.6.04
"Blameless, shameless. The more desperate the eroticism, the more hopelessly women show off their heavy breasts, opening their mouths and screaming out, the greater the attraction. In contrast, a promise of light awaits at the limits of the mystical outlook. I find this unbearable and soon returned to insolence and erotic vomit - which doesn't respect anybody or anything. How sweet to enter filthy night and proudly wrap myself in it. The whore I went with was as uncomplicated as a child and she hardly talked. There was another one, who came crashing down from a tabletop - sweet, shy, heartbreakingly tender, as I watched her with drunken, unfeeling eyes."
His worst writings are a kind of wannabe [de] Sade, texts whose apparent inspiration lay less in their subject matter than in their subject matter's anticipated ability to shock and appall. On the other hand, his best writings are intellectual tours de force that are to philosophy what fisting is to a virgin anus. If Sade was a more original prose writer than philosopher, Bataille was the opposite: a radical thinker whose prose skills sometimes failed to present his ideas with that Cartesian clarity the French pride themselves on. While this was probably not deliberate on Bataille's part, it did evince a certain irony: if his project was to embrace the waste products of society, why write in a manner condoned by tradition?
"He [Bataille] emphazied the irrational in opposition to the rational, the erotic as opposed to bourgeois morality, celebration of excesses as opposed to capitalist restraint, transgression as opposed to conformity.”
guardian review of biography
His worst writings are a kind of wannabe [de] Sade, texts whose apparent inspiration lay less in their subject matter than in their subject matter's anticipated ability to shock and appall. On the other hand, his best writings are intellectual tours de force that are to philosophy what fisting is to a virgin anus. If Sade was a more original prose writer than philosopher, Bataille was the opposite: a radical thinker whose prose skills sometimes failed to present his ideas with that Cartesian clarity the French pride themselves on. While this was probably not deliberate on Bataille's part, it did evince a certain irony: if his project was to embrace the waste products of society, why write in a manner condoned by tradition?
"He [Bataille] emphazied the irrational in opposition to the rational, the erotic as opposed to bourgeois morality, celebration of excesses as opposed to capitalist restraint, transgression as opposed to conformity.”
guardian review of biography
Scraping the bottom of the Barrel
10 days ago in Saudi Arabia, the oil city of Khobar was attacked by 'Al-Qaida'. Fears that this is the start of a concerted campaign to disrupt oil supplies and damage the US economy had an immediate impact on the price of the barrel which reached a record high in the States.
The British chancellor, Gordon Brown says that it is crucial that OPEC act now to keep oil prices down and the world economy stable. Loyola de Palacio, EU Commissioner also called on OPEC to increase production, dubiously claiming that her thoughts are with poor countries that will suffer as a result of the high prices. While Western governments put pressure on OPEC to pump out more and more oil, OPEC point out that they are producing as much as they ever were and in some cases countries are producing well above their national quotas. The high prices, they say, are due to speculation on the futures markets in Europe. Big companies and countries buy up oil, anticipating further price rises due to the turbulent situation in the Middle East. The effect of this is to push prices through the roof. So to summarise the story, we invaded the Middle East causing massive destruction and resentment, the price of oil rose, but we still need more oil and buy loads in case the price goes up more, the price does go up a lot more due to the increasing demand and we blame the Middle East.
Meanwhile, fuel protestors are again threatening to take to the streets (or drive around in their cars shaking their fists) and again the issue of climate change hardly gets a mention. As climate change campaigning group Rising Tide point out the problem is not that we will run out of oil, it is that oil is causing massive climate change. As Friends of The Earth put it “Fears about rising oil prices demonstrate the need for a massive investment in energy efficiency and alternatives to oil, such as bio fuels. Burning oil is a major contributor to global climate change”.
*On June 16 a street party is organised against BP sponsoring the National Portrait Gallery in London. Meet 4 pm at St James Square in London. 07969 786770.
*15-21 June ‘An Exhibition of Resistance to BP and Big Oil’. 07969 786770.
London rising tide site
‘Can renewable energy systems give us what we need or do we face a serious energy shortage over the next fifty years?’ Saturday 19th June.11am-4pm. Canterbury Room 4, Lampeter University 01558 685353. Organised by Earth Cymru Network
*There’s a Cambridge Forum on Climate change on June 15th @ CB1 Cafe, 32 Mill Rd, Cambridge 8-10pm. Speakers include Dr David Vaughan of British Antarctic Survey who witnessed first-hand the break-up of the Larsen B ice shelf and Dr Johnathan Koehler, of the Applied Economics department who will talk about renewable energy. There will be time for questions and discussion - plus plenty of suggestions for practical and effective action.
*From 19th-21st November, the Centre for Alternative Technology will be running a brand new course “Make your own Bio-diesel”. The course will enable you to produce your own cheap bio-diesel, without the need for alterations to your engine. 01654 705957
Oil Be Rich
The World Bank’s commitment to “the vision of poverty reduction” has become even more of joke than it already is. A new report by the Sustainable Energy and Economy Network shows that the World Bank investment in oil projects has done nothing to alleviate poverty and has actually pumped more money into Halliburton, one of the world’s largest providers to the oil and gas industries.
Last December the Bank’s very own Extractative Industries Review recommended that its investment in oil projects be phased out by 2008. “82% of all oil projects the bank has invested in (since 1992) are primarily designed for the export of oil back to the USA, Western Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.” And guess what, it’s Halliburton who heads the list of corporate beneficiaries!
The report found that Halliburton and friends (who including Shell, Chevron Texaco & BP) would lose out if the Bank stopped investing in oil: “The World Bank was unable to produce a single example where its support for oil had alleviated poverty”.
more on this
10 days ago in Saudi Arabia, the oil city of Khobar was attacked by 'Al-Qaida'. Fears that this is the start of a concerted campaign to disrupt oil supplies and damage the US economy had an immediate impact on the price of the barrel which reached a record high in the States.
The British chancellor, Gordon Brown says that it is crucial that OPEC act now to keep oil prices down and the world economy stable. Loyola de Palacio, EU Commissioner also called on OPEC to increase production, dubiously claiming that her thoughts are with poor countries that will suffer as a result of the high prices. While Western governments put pressure on OPEC to pump out more and more oil, OPEC point out that they are producing as much as they ever were and in some cases countries are producing well above their national quotas. The high prices, they say, are due to speculation on the futures markets in Europe. Big companies and countries buy up oil, anticipating further price rises due to the turbulent situation in the Middle East. The effect of this is to push prices through the roof. So to summarise the story, we invaded the Middle East causing massive destruction and resentment, the price of oil rose, but we still need more oil and buy loads in case the price goes up more, the price does go up a lot more due to the increasing demand and we blame the Middle East.
Meanwhile, fuel protestors are again threatening to take to the streets (or drive around in their cars shaking their fists) and again the issue of climate change hardly gets a mention. As climate change campaigning group Rising Tide point out the problem is not that we will run out of oil, it is that oil is causing massive climate change. As Friends of The Earth put it “Fears about rising oil prices demonstrate the need for a massive investment in energy efficiency and alternatives to oil, such as bio fuels. Burning oil is a major contributor to global climate change”.
*On June 16 a street party is organised against BP sponsoring the National Portrait Gallery in London. Meet 4 pm at St James Square in London. 07969 786770.
*15-21 June ‘An Exhibition of Resistance to BP and Big Oil’. 07969 786770.
London rising tide site
‘Can renewable energy systems give us what we need or do we face a serious energy shortage over the next fifty years?’ Saturday 19th June.11am-4pm. Canterbury Room 4, Lampeter University 01558 685353. Organised by Earth Cymru Network
*There’s a Cambridge Forum on Climate change on June 15th @ CB1 Cafe, 32 Mill Rd, Cambridge 8-10pm. Speakers include Dr David Vaughan of British Antarctic Survey who witnessed first-hand the break-up of the Larsen B ice shelf and Dr Johnathan Koehler, of the Applied Economics department who will talk about renewable energy. There will be time for questions and discussion - plus plenty of suggestions for practical and effective action.
*From 19th-21st November, the Centre for Alternative Technology will be running a brand new course “Make your own Bio-diesel”. The course will enable you to produce your own cheap bio-diesel, without the need for alterations to your engine. 01654 705957
Oil Be Rich
The World Bank’s commitment to “the vision of poverty reduction” has become even more of joke than it already is. A new report by the Sustainable Energy and Economy Network shows that the World Bank investment in oil projects has done nothing to alleviate poverty and has actually pumped more money into Halliburton, one of the world’s largest providers to the oil and gas industries.
Last December the Bank’s very own Extractative Industries Review recommended that its investment in oil projects be phased out by 2008. “82% of all oil projects the bank has invested in (since 1992) are primarily designed for the export of oil back to the USA, Western Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.” And guess what, it’s Halliburton who heads the list of corporate beneficiaries!
The report found that Halliburton and friends (who including Shell, Chevron Texaco & BP) would lose out if the Bank stopped investing in oil: “The World Bank was unable to produce a single example where its support for oil had alleviated poverty”.
"Somewhere in central Los Angeles, about 20 miles from LAX airport, there is a nondescript building housing a detention facility for foreigners who have violated US immigration and customs laws. I was driven there around 11pm on May 3, my hands painfully handcuffed behind my back as I sat crammed in one of several small, locked cages inside a security van. I saw glimpses of night-time urban LA through the metal bars as we drove, and shadowy figures of armed security officers when we arrived, two of whom took me inside. The handcuffs came off just before I was locked in a cell behind a thick glass wall and a heavy door. No bed, no chair, only two steel benches about a foot wide. There was a toilet in full view of anyone passing by, and of the video camera watching my every move. No pillow or blanket. A permanent fluorescent light and a television in one corner of the ceiling. It stayed on all night, tuned into a shopping channel.
After 10 minutes in the hot, barely breathable air, I panicked. I don't suffer from claustrophobia, but this enclosure triggered it. There was no guard in sight and no way of calling for help. I banged on the door and the glass wall. A male security officer finally approached and gave the newly arrived detainee a disinterested look. Our shouting voices were barely audible through the thick door. "What do you want?" he yelled. I said I didn't feel well. He walked away. I forced myself to calm down. I forced myself to use that toilet. I figured out a way of sleeping on the bench, on my side, for five minutes at a time, until the pain became unbearable, then resting in a sitting position and sleeping for another five minutes. I told myself it was for only one night.
As it turned out, I was to spend 26 hours in detention. My crime: I had flown in earlier that day to research an innocuous freelance assignment for the Guardian, but did not have a journalist's visa."
After 10 minutes in the hot, barely breathable air, I panicked. I don't suffer from claustrophobia, but this enclosure triggered it. There was no guard in sight and no way of calling for help. I banged on the door and the glass wall. A male security officer finally approached and gave the newly arrived detainee a disinterested look. Our shouting voices were barely audible through the thick door. "What do you want?" he yelled. I said I didn't feel well. He walked away. I forced myself to calm down. I forced myself to use that toilet. I figured out a way of sleeping on the bench, on my side, for five minutes at a time, until the pain became unbearable, then resting in a sitting position and sleeping for another five minutes. I told myself it was for only one night.
As it turned out, I was to spend 26 hours in detention. My crime: I had flown in earlier that day to research an innocuous freelance assignment for the Guardian, but did not have a journalist's visa."
5.6.04
The latest edition of the journal "zabalaza" ("struggle") is now available online
Zabalaza - A Journal of Southern African Revolutionary Anarchism #5 May 2004
"From each according to ability, to each according to need!"
10 Years of`Freedom' and `Democracy'? ...Where?
Slavery can Change its form and its name - its basis remains the same. This basis is expressed by the words:
being a slave is being forced to work for other people - as being a master is to live on the labour of other people. In ancient times ... slaves were simply called slaves. In the Middle Ages, they took the name of "serfs", today they are called "wage-earners". - BAKUNIN
Zabalaza - A Journal of Southern African Revolutionary Anarchism #5 May 2004
"From each according to ability, to each according to need!"
10 Years of`Freedom' and `Democracy'? ...Where?
Slavery can Change its form and its name - its basis remains the same. This basis is expressed by the words:
being a slave is being forced to work for other people - as being a master is to live on the labour of other people. In ancient times ... slaves were simply called slaves. In the Middle Ages, they took the name of "serfs", today they are called "wage-earners". - BAKUNIN
4.6.04
pope gets special yank award
Mr Bush looked on with respect but impassively as the Pope delivered his speech. He replied with the presentation of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the US's highest civilian honour, for the Pope's defence of "the unique integrity of every life and all life" and his role in the toppling of totalitarian communism in eastern Europe.
But outside the atmosphere was less harmonious. Thousands of armed police patrolled Rome in anticipation of large numbers of protesters gathering from across Italy to demonstrate against the Iraq war and the Italian government's support for Mr Bush.
Mr Berlusconi said he was "worried about the possible violence" and the US embassy warned Americans to avoid the crowds massed for the protests.
reactionary oligarchy with supposedly secular yet strongly militant ideology paying respect where respect is due..
It is not money but quantity that counts. Happiest are those who have sex more than four times a week. They are about 6 per cent of the population. Unhappiest are the 22 per cent of people in the study of 16,000 Americans who didn't have sex at all in the previous year. hence, hence, hence!
3.6.04
Some years ago, while studying the ferment of near- revolutionary discontent that swept across industrial Britain in the 1840s - Marx and Engels were convinced that this was where the revolution would begin - I came across, in an official report, a suggestion from one government inspector that the dangerous, stroppy, newly urbanised working classes be taught cricket. A game with rules, played under a captain, taking place in a tightly defined space, channelling aggression. Sport as social control.
2.6.04
Jeff Luers is serving an unbelievable 22 years for setting fire to 3 SUV vehicles in a car yard in Eugene, USA, to make a statement about global warming. This sentence is unbelievably harsh, seeing as his co-defendant got three years - a more average time for eco-inspired arson. There will be a global day of action on June 12th in his support - to find out what’s going on your area to mark this day see free free now
Write to Jeff Luers, #13797671, OSP, 2605 State Street Salem, OR 97310 USA.
* The Earth Liberation Support prisoner list has more than doubled in recent months. To get names and address’s of prisoners you can write to see spirit of freedom
Write to Jeff Luers, #13797671, OSP, 2605 State Street Salem, OR 97310 USA.
* The Earth Liberation Support prisoner list has more than doubled in recent months. To get names and address’s of prisoners you can write to see spirit of freedom
TERRORISM LEGISLATION
Between 11th September 2001 and 2nd April 2004, 548 people were arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000. Only 98 were eventually charged with offences under the act. Some were released without charge and some were arrested on separate non-terrorist charges. The majority of the terror charges relate to two specific elements of the act.
59 were arrested for “possessing an article in circumstances which give rise to a reasonable suspicion that his possession is for a purpose connected with the commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism.” A further 12 were arrested for “collecting or making a record of information of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism. Or for possessing a document or record containing information of that kind” Basically most of the people arrested under the terrorism act are arrested on quite shaky grounds… of ‘reasonable suspicion’, rather than ‘beyond reasonable doubt’. Some of those arrested could have been plane-spotters like the ones arrested in Greece a few years ago.
As of April 2004, these arrests have led to a total of six convictions.
In the early 1990s, there was an average of about six people a year "excluded" from the country. But under the current Anti-Terrorism Crime and Security Act, foreign nationals who cannot be deported can be detained indefinitely without charges being brought against them. At present there are 13 people held under these regulations, eight of whom have been detained without charge since December 2001. The most recent detention under these powers was in October 2003. This is a clear violation of human rights of almost Guantanamo like proportions.
KILROYGATE
The majority (if not all) of those arrested have been Muslims.
"There is clear evidence of disquiet in the Muslim community and a belief that they're being disproportionately targeted," says Barry Hugill from Liberty.
Sadiq Khan from Liberty called the use of anti-terror legislation a “handbook on how to alienate Muslim communities.” He asks; has the “Anti-terrorism” legislation led to a safer Britain? Based on the low number of people charged and the tiny number of people convicted the answer must be no. They have, undoubtedly, led to a further erosion of civil liberties and more fear and distrust of the authorities by Muslim communities. This fear and mistrust is a sad repetition of the oppression of Irish communities during the years of the Prevention of Terrorism Acts, and by the black communities during the operation of the ‘sus’ Laws.
Lawyers and groups representing the Islamic community have been receiving more and more complaints from people who have never been in trouble with the police before, but who report being stopped in the street or in their cars, or having their homes searched. Some have been pulled over for questioning at airports or ferry terminals, and all say they have been picked on for no apparent reason other than that they are Muslim.
Massoud Shadjareh, chairman of the Islamic Human Rights Commission, said police activity directed against Muslims had risen sharply since September 11 2001. He pointed to Home Office figures which showed that in 2002-03 there were 32,100 searches overall under the Terrorism Act, 30,000 more than in 1999-2000. He claimed Muslims were the subject of a hugely disproportionate number of these.
Muslims from have come to view being stopped by the police as part of normal life. No real reasons are given, though anti-terrorist legislation is frequently cited. Often it is for wearing traditional clothes or if they have Muslim-style beards.
Leroy Logan of the Black Police Officers Association said: "What we are hearing gives us a worrying sense that section 44 [of the anti-terrorist legislation] is being used by police disproportionately."
The twisted anti terror strategy of 'disruption' is designed to unsettle terror cells working within immigrant communities in Britain by carrying out sweeps of arrests which are not necessarily designed to lead to charges. It’s a self fulfilling prophesy where you pick on Muslims until they get really pissed off and react aggressively, and then you can claim you were right all along.
Well, simultaneously, racist vigilante thugs have got the message from their superiors in government, and the number of race hate crimes received by prosecutors from the police jumped 12% to nearly 4,200 in 2003-2004, according to figures from the Crown Prosecution Service. 18 cases of religiously aggravated crimes were also prosecuted in England and Wales. Surprisingly enough, Islam was the "actual or perceived" religion of the victim in 10 out of the 18 cases.
Home office stats
Too many arrests too few charges
terrorism act statistics from statewatch
How to alienate Muslim communities, by the chairman of Liberty
UK criminal justice site
Rise in race hate against Muslims
Muslims – new victims of stop and search
Between 11th September 2001 and 2nd April 2004, 548 people were arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000. Only 98 were eventually charged with offences under the act. Some were released without charge and some were arrested on separate non-terrorist charges. The majority of the terror charges relate to two specific elements of the act.
59 were arrested for “possessing an article in circumstances which give rise to a reasonable suspicion that his possession is for a purpose connected with the commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism.” A further 12 were arrested for “collecting or making a record of information of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism. Or for possessing a document or record containing information of that kind” Basically most of the people arrested under the terrorism act are arrested on quite shaky grounds… of ‘reasonable suspicion’, rather than ‘beyond reasonable doubt’. Some of those arrested could have been plane-spotters like the ones arrested in Greece a few years ago.
As of April 2004, these arrests have led to a total of six convictions.
In the early 1990s, there was an average of about six people a year "excluded" from the country. But under the current Anti-Terrorism Crime and Security Act, foreign nationals who cannot be deported can be detained indefinitely without charges being brought against them. At present there are 13 people held under these regulations, eight of whom have been detained without charge since December 2001. The most recent detention under these powers was in October 2003. This is a clear violation of human rights of almost Guantanamo like proportions.
KILROYGATE
The majority (if not all) of those arrested have been Muslims.
"There is clear evidence of disquiet in the Muslim community and a belief that they're being disproportionately targeted," says Barry Hugill from Liberty.
Sadiq Khan from Liberty called the use of anti-terror legislation a “handbook on how to alienate Muslim communities.” He asks; has the “Anti-terrorism” legislation led to a safer Britain? Based on the low number of people charged and the tiny number of people convicted the answer must be no. They have, undoubtedly, led to a further erosion of civil liberties and more fear and distrust of the authorities by Muslim communities. This fear and mistrust is a sad repetition of the oppression of Irish communities during the years of the Prevention of Terrorism Acts, and by the black communities during the operation of the ‘sus’ Laws.
Lawyers and groups representing the Islamic community have been receiving more and more complaints from people who have never been in trouble with the police before, but who report being stopped in the street or in their cars, or having their homes searched. Some have been pulled over for questioning at airports or ferry terminals, and all say they have been picked on for no apparent reason other than that they are Muslim.
Massoud Shadjareh, chairman of the Islamic Human Rights Commission, said police activity directed against Muslims had risen sharply since September 11 2001. He pointed to Home Office figures which showed that in 2002-03 there were 32,100 searches overall under the Terrorism Act, 30,000 more than in 1999-2000. He claimed Muslims were the subject of a hugely disproportionate number of these.
Muslims from have come to view being stopped by the police as part of normal life. No real reasons are given, though anti-terrorist legislation is frequently cited. Often it is for wearing traditional clothes or if they have Muslim-style beards.
Leroy Logan of the Black Police Officers Association said: "What we are hearing gives us a worrying sense that section 44 [of the anti-terrorist legislation] is being used by police disproportionately."
The twisted anti terror strategy of 'disruption' is designed to unsettle terror cells working within immigrant communities in Britain by carrying out sweeps of arrests which are not necessarily designed to lead to charges. It’s a self fulfilling prophesy where you pick on Muslims until they get really pissed off and react aggressively, and then you can claim you were right all along.
Well, simultaneously, racist vigilante thugs have got the message from their superiors in government, and the number of race hate crimes received by prosecutors from the police jumped 12% to nearly 4,200 in 2003-2004, according to figures from the Crown Prosecution Service. 18 cases of religiously aggravated crimes were also prosecuted in England and Wales. Surprisingly enough, Islam was the "actual or perceived" religion of the victim in 10 out of the 18 cases.
Home office stats
Too many arrests too few charges
terrorism act statistics from statewatch
How to alienate Muslim communities, by the chairman of Liberty
UK criminal justice site
Rise in race hate against Muslims
Muslims – new victims of stop and search
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