Where the Weapons of Mass Destruction?
Blair and Bush have constantly shifted their public reasons for invading Iraq. The US and UK troops, nearly 200,000 of them, have had longer to find the weapons of mass destruction than was given to a few dozen UN inspectors. They have had the same level of success.
Saddam said the weapons were destroyed in 1991 when the US-led international invasion force ousted his army from Kuwait. Blix has said that the inspectors made their last significant finds in 1994. Brigadier-General Ala Saeed, former head of quality control for the Iraqi arms program, insisted in a London Times interview that Iraq really did get rid of its chemical weapons in 1994. "Why should I lie?" he asked. "We are free now."
Blix's UN inspectors searched for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq from November 2002 to March 2003. Some US officials faulted the Swede for failing to produce tougher reports on Iraq's purported weapons.
Blix has strongly attacked the Bush administration's assertions that Washington needed more time to find Iraq's weapons.
"Three-and-a-half months for new inspections was a rather short time before calling it a day and especially when we now see the US government is now saying that, 'Look, you have to have a little patience, you know these things take time.' All right," Blix told his audience of foreign policy analysts, business leaders, academics and journalists. Blix retired on June 30 after heading the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission since March 2000.
The UK Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee has been examining the intelligence reports that directly led to the war. Unfortunately it has allowed Blair's spin-doctor Alasdair Campbell to divert their attention away from the reasons for the war and to whether some accusations made by a BBC commentator about "sexing up" the publicly presented document were correct.
This diversion led directly to the strange death of Dr Kelly, which I will deal with in some detail in the next Umbrella.
The key questions are around Blair's publicly stated reasons for the invasion, which centred around the claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction that they could deploy within 45 minutes. As I have carefully explained in previous Umbrellas, this means that Iraq had to have a delivery system -- either a sophisticated missile delivery system or some very fast bombers. Iraq had neither.
The US Government switched its reasons to regime change early in the campaign for the invasion. It linked Saddam's dictatorship with Bin Laden and with importing uranium from Africa. These were both lies. Blair held back from mentioning regime change until after the war. Now he goes on about the nasty bloodthirsty regime and has appointed a specialist in this kind of invective, Ann Clywd, to be his special envoy to Iraq. Again, as I have raised before, neither has the courage to root out those in the UK who armed Saddam in the first place.
Bush's Weapons of Mass Destruction
Bush is preparing for the US to resume nuclear testing. This is despite the fact that the US is a signatory to three nuclear testing treaties. The US conducted 928 nuclear tests between 1951 and 1992. However Bush supporters are talking up the possibility of using nuclear weapons in a first strike and also using them in battlefield situations. I wouldn't be around for the friendly fire.
The same US officials are talking about using nuclear weapons to vaporise chemical and biological weapons. This is despite the fact that one of the last nuclear explosions designed to test the ability of bombs to move earth, although exploded nearly 1,000m underground, resulted in columns of radioactive soil being shot hundreds of feet into the air.
Geoff Hoon, the US patsy, told the Royal United Services Institute that he intends to restructure the British armed forces. As "it is highly unlikely that the United Kingdom would be engaged in large-scale combat operations without the United States", the armed forces must now be "structured and equipped" to meet the demands of the wars fought by our ally. It is already the case that the UK cannot use any of its nuclear weapons without permission from Bush.
Where is Saddam?
One of my Umbrella themes has been the whereabouts of the now almost mythical bin Laden. Having failed to apprehend bin Laden and the leadership of the Taliban you would have thought they wouldn't make the same mistakes over Saddam and his murderous supporters. Despite some high profile bombing raids it appears that Saddam is still alive.
The main question is how rather than where. There are several explanations of how:
- Saddam has large-scale support among ordinary Iraqis who are protecting him. This would have been highly unlikely in the few weeks after the invasion given his vicious regime. However given that the US and UK troops are increasing their oppressive role more Iraqis might be rallying to him
- Saddam's repressive apparatus has survived the invasion and thus is able to protect him
- He is somewhere else such as Russia
- The previous close relationship between him and the CIA has resulted in tip-offs from them to keep one-step ahead of the hunt. This is my Yemeni Uncle's theory
The Baghdad newspaper al-Muajaha has printed the following rumours from its readers:
- He was driving a taxi in a Baghdad suburb
- He has fled to Russia
- He died years ago
- He was working at the power station ("that's why the electricity's going off and on without any reason")
- He is "working in a butcher shop in Thawra City [another part of Baghdad], because he can't kill people any more, so now he's killing animals"
Partying through the summer
The last few weeks have seen me at an almost continuous round of parties and other cultural events.
Kwala Chickens
Maggie Loughran's wonderfully successful Garden Party raised £1600 to support a chicken farm in Africa. The farm, which Maggie has visited, supports a deaf boarding school. The money will enable the school to support poorer pupils.
The highlights of the event included the opera singer Ron Sam of Opera North, who currently touring Trinidad with the Carnival Messiah, and the western swing band St Louis Zipper.
Ray French
| Owing to double booking I was unable to attend local library worker Ray French's party to celebrate the launch of his hilarious and gripping novel about childhood in cold-war Wales, All This is Mine, but my spies assure me that it was a wonderful occasion.
The book, which has garnered rave reviews in such diverse publications as the Guardian, the Big Issue, the Daily Telegraph and, er, Leeds Weekly News, is available from all good bookshops, but a friend who bought it from Borders found that the bar code (and therewith the royalty) was attributed to a little-known Danish crime novel.
|
Kevin Patterson
Kevin Patterson's legendary birthday party still remains one of the hottest tickets in town. This amiable gathering of the serious but sociable left of North Leeds enjoyed the barbecue, the beer and the sun.
Patricia Jones
The birthday party of Patricia Jones, editor of the long running Community Highlights magazine, was a little quieter but this too had its highlights including some delicious West Indian chicken.
Woof and Warp
I also found time to attend some of the events at the wonderfully named Warp: Woof conference. This was the 2003 CongressCATH 2003 on aurality/musicality/textuality. Although aimed at academics from all over the world (and some of it was truly weird) there were some moving and interesting items.
Griselda Pollock, Professor of the Social and Critical Histories of Art at the University of Leeds, gave an interesting talk on the painter Charlotte Salomon who was murdered in a German concentration camp. I remember the impact the paintings made on me at her exhibition some 20 years ago in Amsterdam.
The highlight was undoubtedly the piano concert by the legendary John Tilbury at Leeds Town Hall. It confirmed his status as the king of modern piano music. At times the music was challenging and difficult but always moving. The setting to music of a short poem by a young Palestinian girl (excellently read by Frances Andrews) made a huge impact.
Independence from America Ball
The Campaign for the Accountability for American Bases and the comedian Mark Thomas organised "The Gatecrasher's Ball at Menwith Hill" on Friday 4 July. A full report with pictures is at the CAAB website http://www.caab.org.uk/
Over 400 people came from all over the country to the sinister and secretive American spy base at Menwith Hill, calling for Independence FROM America.
The ball was blessed with wonderful weather and the attendees entered into the spirit of the occasion, with many dressed in ballgowns and tuxedos. Mark Thomas looked particularly fetching in his smart little number.
Chris Dean on behalf of the Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases and friends welcomed everyone and then invited people to join in a public reading of the Declaration of Independence FROM America (adapted by CAAB from the original).
Besides Mark Thomas, Mark Hill (Green Party), Catriona Grant (Scottish Socialist Party) and Rebecca Johnson (Greenham Common and Vice Chair Board of Atomic Scientists) addressed the crowds. Danbert (Chumbawumba) spoke later.
The organisers had met the police earlier and made detailed arrangements for the event. However the police brought in horses and behaved in a very aggressive way, arresting three people for no reason at all.
Our webcams showed there were far more people attending the 4 July demonstration than attended the 'official' spy base celebrations on the Saturday. Although one reason could be that since the 11th of September the US agents have been moving back into the base from their houses in Harrogate in case the citizens of that revolutionary town started to attack them.
The Red Pepper Garden Party
This was held in the garden of Lord Wainwright. The event brought together supporters of Red Pepper from across the North of England. The beautiful gardens were an attraction in themselves. There was large bookstall organised by Gilda Peterson and Mike McMgrath. After retiring from the British Library Mike does not appear to be able to keep away from books. I understand he will be bringing his bookstall to the Chapel Allerton Arts Festival on the 30th August.
Hilary Wainwright, Red Pepper's editor, took advantage of the face painter to transform herself into a cat.
The Garden Party
The Alliance for Green Socialism Garden Party was another highlight in the lives of the sociable socialists of Leeds. Hundreds of pounds were raised for campaigning. This year saw the erection of a large pavilion, which was filled by Victoria Jacques's brilliant Steel band. There was a fair trade stall which did good business. Many membership forms were taken for joining the Green Socialists. Ella and Maddie's Tombola stall was well patronised. John's raffle raised large sums, as did the many other activities.
A special mention must be made of Mike Davies' variation on Bash the Rat game where punters queued up to Bash Blair.
This year the Garden party had returned to Bron and Ian's wonderful garden. All thanks must go to them for hosting the event.
South Yorkshire Festival
At least eight members of the Alliance for Green Socialism were at this amazing Co-op organised event at the magnificent Wortley Hall. Their stall (and others) did a roaring trade including a number of inquiries about joining. Ken Bickerstaff gave the AGS stall a big friendly wave.
While Ann Scargill and her grandchildren negotiated with Nick Whitehead on the ASLEF stall for a pair of cuddly bears, Nick's union boss (and friend) ASLEF General Secretary Mick Rix propped up the bar at Wortley Hall, as usual, with many more union colleagues. Mick had chosen to come to the dynamic festival rather than spend time at the Socialist Campaign trade Union Conference in London. I was led to understand that Mick was quietly confident of being re-elected as general Secretary having won the overwhelming majority of branch nominations. The victory of his right-wing opponent was unexpected and is a big blow. Mick is a diligent union leader putting the interests of his members first. He has taken up some important international causes including that of the Colombian trade unionists and the Palestinian people. I am sure that he will be re-elected in the future.
Snippets
Stainbeck Lane playing fields
The Alliance for Green Socialism has had a very good response to the distribution of its press release in favour of preserving the Stainbeck Lane playing field from been built on. The next steps in this campaign are being discussed with local residents.
Potternewton Primary School reprieved.
The New Labour Executive Board of Leeds City Council has ignored recommendations from its front organisation Education Leeds by putting on hold the plans for the closure of Potternewton Primary School. The Executive Board has frozen the proposals for the closures of practically all the schools in areas where New Labour has councillors. However the decision has all the hallmarks of New Labour spin and short-termism. They have failed to challenge Education Leeds' commitment to deal with the government's surplus place argument by closing schools instead of supporting the children.
The Alliance for Green Socialism issued a challenge to the Chapel Allerton councillors during the last elections to vote against the closure of Potternewton Primary School. That challenge still stands. The Alliance for Green Socialism is committed to keeping the school open to serve the children the local community by using any legal means.
Retirement at 70
The press has been full of New Labour planning to introduce a retirement age at 70 for poorer people.
But the real age New Labour is planning for is 75. Blunkett's proposed identity card would cost £39 except for the poor and those over 75 so signalling what the real retirement age will be.
New Labour is planning to let the bosses off the hook by softening the European Union proposals on age discrimination for those over 70.
Hodge and the Liz Davieses
Margaret Hodge, the former leader of Islington Council and now the Minister for Children, must be cursing the name Liz Davies.
Hodge, when on Islington Council, campaigned with Blair to prevent Liz Davies the councillor from becoming the Labour nominee for Leeds North East Labour Party. Although stopped by this right-wing cabal Liz went on to be elected onto the National Executive of the Labour Party before moving onto better things.
The other Liz Davies was a social worker and is now a university teacher. She has catalogued a long list of occasions when Margaret Hodge failed to act on written warnings on paedophilia in Islington's children's homes. This Liz Davies too, will be bound for greater glory.
However Margaret Hodge says she made some mistakes and has now learnt her lesson. Her old ally and former neighbour Tony Blair is fully backing her. This is when the whole sordid episode turns sinister. In an attempt to distance themselves from the media publicity Blair and Hodge have delayed by three months the expected green Paper on child protection. This is because Blair's diary is allegedly full. Children will be abused during his Caribbean holiday.
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