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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"
size=1><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><FONT color=#ff0000
size=6><STRONG>UNCONDITIONAL CEASEFIRE NOW </STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV>
<P><FONT color=#ff0000 size=6><STRONG>STOP ISRAEL'S ATTACKS ON LEBANON &
GAZA</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Verdana>1990 Trust supporters are urged to support the
demonstration this Saturday calling for an end to the attacks on Lebanon and
Gaza </FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4><STRONG></STRONG></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT size=4><STRONG>SATURDAY 5 AUGUST, <BR>12 NOON ASSEMBLE HYDE PARK,
SPEAKERS CORNER , Rally in Trafalgar Square</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P>Israel's attacks on civilian areas in both Lebanon and Palestine have been
sickening and shocking. The lack of response by the UK Government has amounted
to an endorsement of Israeli war-crimes. </P>
<P>Initial reports suggest that the demonstration on Saturday is going to be
huge. <FONT color=#ff0000><STRONG>It needs to be</STRONG></FONT>. Blair needs to
be sent a clear message from the people of Britain that once again this is not
in our name. </P>
<H5>Bring Children's Shoes </H5>
<P>Almost half of those killed in Lebanon have been children. Bring children's
shoes on Saturday. They will be left outside Tony Blair's doorstep to symbolise
our horror at his complicity in the carnage. </P>
<P>For further information on the demonstration, see <A
href="http://www.stopwar.org.uk" target=blank>www.stopwar.org.uk</A> </P>
<H5>Sign the letter to Tony Blair </H5>
<P>Also, please sign the <A href="http://www.stopwar.org.uk/lebanon/sign.php"
target=blank>letter to Tony Blair </A>calling for an unconditional ceasefire
which will be delivered to Number 10 on the day of the protest.<BR></P>
<DIV class=nsverdanablk16 align=left><A
href="http://www.newstatesman.com/200608070017"></A> </DIV>
<DIV class=nsverdanablk16 align=left><B><FONT
size=7>...........................................................................</FONT></B></DIV>
<DIV class=nsverdanablk16 align=left><B></B> </DIV>
<DIV class=nsverdanablk16 align=left><B><FONT size=4>Blood on his
hands</FONT></B> <BR><SPAN class=nsverdanagry12><FONT size=2>Cover story<BR>John
Kampfner<BR>Monday 7th August 2006 </FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV class=nsverdanablk16 align=left><SPAN class=nsverdanagry12><FONT
color=#999999></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV class=nsverdanablk16 align=left><SPAN class=nsverdanagry12><A
href="http://www.newstatesman.com/200608070017"><STRONG>http://www.newstatesman.com/200608070017</STRONG></A></SPAN></DIV></FONT></FONT></FONT>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=1><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>Blair knew the attack on Lebanon was
coming but he didn't try to stop it, because he didn't want to. He has made this
country an accomplice, destroying what remained of our influence abroad while
putting us all at greater risk of attack. By <B>John
Kampfner</B></FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=1><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>At a Downing Street reception not
long ago, a guest had the temerity to ask Tony Blair: "How do you sleep at
night, knowing that you've been responsible for the deaths of 100,000 Iraqis?"
The Prime Minister is said to have retorted: "I think you'll find it's closer to
50,000." <BR><BR>No British leader since Winston Churchill has dealt in war with
such alacrity as the present one. Back then, it was in the cause of saving the
nation from Nazism. Now, it is in the cause of putting into practice the foreign
policy of the simpleton. During his nine years in power, Blair - and in this
government it is he, and he alone - has managed to ensure that the UK has become
both reviled and stripped of influence across vast stretches of the world. In so
doing, he has increased the danger of terrorism to Britain itself.
<BR><BR>Israel's assault on Lebanon is, in many respects, as disastrous as the
war in Iraq. But at least then the pre-war hubris and deceit were played out in
parliament and at the UN. This latest act of folly took place suddenly, with
only the barest of attempts to justify it to global public opinion. And it stems
from the core Middle East problem: the decades-old conflict between the Israelis
and Palestinians. <BR><BR>I am told that the Israelis informed George W Bush in
advance of their plans to "destroy" Hezbollah by bombing villages in southern
Lebanon. The Americans duly informed the British. So Blair knew. This exposes as
a fraud the debate of the past week about calling for a ceasefire. Indeed, one
of the reasons why negotiations failed in Rome was British obduracy. This has
been a case not of turning a blind eye and failing to halt the onslaught, but of
providing active support. <BR><BR>Blair, like Bush, had no intention of urging
the Israelis to slow down their bombardment, believing somehow that this
struggle was winnable. Israel has a right to self-defence, but it could have
responded to the seizure of its soldiers, and to the rocket attacks, by the
diplomatic route. That would have ensured greater sympathy. Now, growing numbers
in Israel itself realise that military action will bring no long-term solution.
<BR><BR>Even if the guns fall silent for a while, the damage has been done. This
is the score sheet so far: roughly 800 deaths; shocking images of the slaughter
of children in Qana; no clear Israeli military advance. And the transformation
of Hezbollah from an organisation on the periphery of Lebanese politics into an
object of admiration across the Arab world. But it is even worse than that. Is
the assumption that civilians are legitimate targets if they do not flee certain
areas any different from the principles that underlay the US war in Vietnam?
Blair and Bush have given their blessing to the forced displacement of a large
population, in violation of the guiding principles of the UN Commission on Human
Rights. <BR><BR>Lebanon will now provide a rich source of inspiration to radical
Islamists in their distorted quest for martyrdom. Senior Whitehall sources
involved in the fight against terrorism are gravely concerned about the
consequences of the Prime Minister's failure to condemn Israel's actions. The
intelligence services say it is too early to tell whether Lebanon has already
contributed to radicalisation in the UK; they work from the assumption that it
will, like Iraq and Afghan istan. This is not in any way to justify or suggest
equivalence, but it is surely the duty of a leader to produce a risk assessment
of his actions. If Blair is prepared to put Britain in greater danger, he has to
persuade its citizens that he is doing so for good reason. <BR><BR>Blair, at his
rhetorical best in front of friends in California, appears in no mood for
self-doubt. "I have many opponents on the subject," he told Rupert Murdoch's
elite gathering at Pebble Beach on 30 July. "But I have complete inner
confidence in the analysis of the struggle we face." Either he is delusional, or
he has no choice but to say what he says. One close aide recalls that when the
Prime Minister was preparing a foreign-policy speech in his Sedgefield
constituency in 2004, a year after the invasion of Iraq, he considered a <I>mea
culpa</I> of sorts, but changed his mind, asking his team: "Do we want headlines
of 'Blair: I was wrong' or 'Blair: I was right'?" <BR><BR>Whatever he may think
alone at night, the Prime Minister is locked in a spiral of self-justification
for his actions in Iraq, his broader Middle East policy and his unstinting
support of Bush. His speech in Los Angeles on 1 August was spun as a rethink. If
so, it is too little, too late. Historians reflecting on the Blair-Bush "war on
terror" that followed the attacks of 11 September 2001 would be right to see it
as a joint venture. Ultimately, his US policy <I>is</I> his foreign policy. It
has, by his own admission, underpinned his every action. <BR><BR>But one part of
the jigsaw that Blair claimed to be vital was never put in place. The "road
map", drawn up in 2002 by the quartet of the US, EU, United Nations and Russia,
has remained the best hope for peace between Israelis and Palestinians, yet it
was never implemented, because Bush didn't really believe in it. If Blair felt
so passionately about it, and if his public silence did win him the influence
inside the White House that he claims to have, he could and should have stood up
and been counted on that issue, if on no other. Instead, he meekly accepted
American inaction. The horrific events of the past three weeks can be traced in
large part to that failure. Blair's exhortations to his American audience at
least to consider the Palestinian issue were lamentable. <BR><BR>Before taking
office in 1997, Blair travelled light on foreign policy. Saddam Hussein's
chemical gassing of 5,000 Kurds at Halabja in 1988 passed him by: unlike dozens
of other MPs, he didn't bother to sign a motion condemning it. Once in power,
and frustrated at the pace of reform in domestic politics, Blair seized upon the
theory of "humanitarian interventionism" that grew out of anger over inaction,
first in Bosnia and then Rwanda. His decision to back military action in Kosovo
reflected that thinking, and led to tension with Bill Clinton over America's
reluctance to commit ground forces. <BR><BR><B>Banalities of "good and evil"
<BR><BR></B>Having spent a month in Rwanda in 1994, seeing attacks take place, I
need no persuading that inaction can be as hideous as action. Sometimes it is
right to fight, but - as Blair should know from his Chicago speech of 1999, in
which he set out the principles of humanitarian intervention - the outcome is
what matters. When I began work on my book <I>Blair's Wars</I>, I tried to give
the Prime Minister the benefit of the doubt, until I realised, on speaking to
many people who worked closely with him, how simplistic and impressionable he
was. <BR><BR>Now, as Blair hides behind banalities about "good and evil" and the
familiar, crude definitions of "terrorism", his ministers look on helplessly.
They talk openly to journalists - in the "you can print it, but just don't name
me" deal that is the coward's life at Westminster - of Blair's "Bush problem".
Shortly before MPs left for their summer break, one senior member of the cabinet
accosted me in the corridors of the Commons, and asked: "How much further up
their arses do you think we can go?" I suggested that this was more up to him
than to me. <BR><BR>At least over Iraq someone resigned. This time, ministers do
nothing. Their private complaints have no moral or political value, because they
will not stop Blair. Under cabinet rules of collective responsibility, they are
endorsing the Israeli assault. <BR><BR>Blair's survival in power is no longer a
game of cat-and-mouse with Gordon Brown; it is no longer a question of Labour's
ability to stave off the Conservatives. It is far more serious than that.
<BR></FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=1><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><STRONG>A record of conflict: the
death toll from wars Britain has fought under three prime ministers</STRONG>
<BR><BR><B>Tony Blair<BR>71,617 deaths</B><BR><B>9</B> years in power
<BR><BR><B>Iraq war</B> (2003-) <BR><BR><B>115</B> UK troop deaths <B>30,000</B>
Iraqi troop deaths (estimate by Gen Tommy Franks in Oct 2003)
<B>39,460-43,927</B> civilian deaths (Iraq Body Count)
<BR><BR><B>Afghanistan</B> (2001-) <BR><BR><B>16</B> UK troop deaths (as of 1
August 2006) <BR><BR><B>1,300-8,000</B> direct civilian deaths (<I>Guardian</I>
estimate). Unknown Taliban deaths <BR><BR><B>Sierra Leone</B> (2000-2002)
<BR><BR><B>1</B> UK troop death <B>25</B> foreign troop deaths (at least)
<BR><BR><B>Nato bombing of Serbia</B> (1999) <BR><BR>No UK troop deaths. Unknown
Serbian troop deaths <B>500-1,500</B> civilian deaths (according to Human Rights
Watch/Nato estimates) <BR><BR><B>Operation Desert Fox</B> (1998)
<BR><BR><B>200-300</B> Iraqi deaths (based on UN estimate) <BR><BR><B>John
Major<BR>22,316 deaths</B><BR><B>7</B> years in power <BR><BR><B>Gulf war</B>
(1991) <BR><BR><B>16</B> UK troop deaths <B>20,000-22,000</B> Iraqi troop deaths
<B>2,300</B> civilian deaths (according to the Iraqi government)
<BR><BR><B>Margaret Thatcher<BR>1,013 deaths</B><BR><B>11</B> years in power
<BR><BR><B>US bombing of Libya from UK bases</B> (1986) <BR><BR><B>100</B>
Libyan deaths <BR><BR><B>Falklands war</B> (1982) <BR><BR><B>255</B> UK troop
deaths <B>655</B> Argentinian troop deaths <B>3</B> Civilian deaths
<BR><BR><BR><BR>The figures do not take into account the estimated 350,000
Iraqis who died as a result of sanctions between 1991 and 2003 - under John
Major and Tony Blair. <BR><BR>Blair's body count is probably underestimated here
because there are no figures for Taliban and Serbian military deaths.
<BR><BR>Estimates for Iraqi deaths range between 30,000 and 300,000. The
official Bush estimate is 30,000 deaths. Iraq Body Count estimates between
39,460 and 43,927, although it admits this is far below the real total, as the
database counts only reported deaths. A Lancet report in 2004 estimated 100,000
deaths, although one of the authors says the total could be 300,000.
</P></FONT></FONT></FONT>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"
size=7><STRONG>..........................................................................</STRONG></FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"
size=4><STRONG> Human Rights Watch: Israel Guilty of War
Crimes</STRONG></FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=1><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"
size=2><STRONG></STRONG><BR> By Juan
Cole<BR> Informed Comment (Global American
Institute)</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P> <A
href="http://www.juancole.com/">http://www.juancole.com/</A></P>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=1><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2> Thursday 03
August 2006</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=1><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2> Human Rights
Watch, after extensive investigation, has concluded that the Israeli military is
guilty of war crimes. HRW says:</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=1><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>Israeli forces have systematically
failed to distinguish between combatants and civilians in their military
campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon, Human Rights Watch said in report
released today. The pattern of attacks in more than 20 cases investigated by
Human Rights Watch researchers in Lebanon indicates that the failures cannot
be dismissed as mere accidents and cannot be blamed on wrongful Hezbollah
practices. In some cases, these attacks constitute war crimes.<BR><BR>The
50-page report, "Fatal Strikes: Israel's Indiscriminate Attacks Against
Civilians in Lebanon," analyzes almost two dozen cases of Israeli air and
artillery attacks on civilian homes and vehicles. Of the 153 dead civilians
named in the report, 63 are children. More than 500 people have been killed in
Lebanon by Israeli fire since fighting began on July 12, most of them
civilians.<BR><BR>"The pattern of attacks shows the Israeli military's
disturbing disregard for the lives of Lebanese civilians," said Kenneth Roth,
executive director of Human Rights Watch. "Our research shows that Israel's
claim that Hezbollah fighters are hiding among civilians does not explain, let
alone justify, Israel's indiscriminate
warfare."</FONT></FONT></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=1><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2> HRW's
investigations do not bear out the excuse that the high civilian casualty rate
is because of Hizbullah hiding among civilians:</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=1><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2>Human Rights Watch researchers
found numerous cases in which the IDF launched artillery and air attacks with
limited or dubious military objectives but excessive civilian cost. In many
cases, Israeli forces struck an area with no apparent military target. In some
instances, Israeli forces appear to have deliberately targeted
civilians.<BR><BR>In one case, an Israeli air strike on July 13 destroyed the
home of a cleric known to have sympathy for Hezbollah but who was not known to
have taken any active part in the hostilities. Even if the IDF considered him
a legitimate target (and Human Rights Watch has no evidence that he was), the
strike killed him, his wife, their 10 children and the family's Sri Lankan
maid.<BR><BR>On July 16, an Israeli aircraft fired on a civilian home in the
village of Aitaroun, killing 11 members of the al-Akhrass family, among them
seven Canadian-Lebanese dual nationals who were vacationing in the village
when the war began. Human Rights Watch independently interviewed three
villagers who vigorously denied that the family had any connection to
Hezbollah. Among the victims were children aged one, three, five and
seven.<BR><BR>The Israeli government has blamed Hezbollah for the high
civilian casualty toll in Lebanon, insisting that Hezbollah fighters have
hidden themselves and their weapons among the civilian population. However, in
none of the cases of civilian deaths documented in the report is there
evidence to suggest that Hezbollah was operating in or around the area during
or prior to the attack.</FONT></FONT></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=1><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2> Just from
observing eyewitness news accounts from Lebanon, I had come to the same
conclusion.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=1><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2> </FONT></FONT></FONT><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=1><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"
size=2> <STRONG> <EM>Download Human Rights Watch report: <A
href="http://hrw.org/reports/2006/lebanon0806/"
target=_blank>http://hrw.org/reports/2006/lebanon0806/</A></EM></STRONG><A
href="http://hrw.org/reports/2006/lebanon0806/"
target=_blank><STRONG>.</STRONG></A><STRONG>
</STRONG></FONT></FONT></FONT></P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>