Scoundrel days

Reading Gordon Brown's sickening twaddle about Afghanistan today I was reminded of Samuel Johnson's famous quote:

Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.

Brown's statement had me filling with rage that he had the shameless gall to say it:

This is a patriotic duty. Of course people want to know if the action we are taking is the right action. It comes back to terrorism on the streets of Britain. If we were to allow the Taliban to be back in power in Afghanistan and al-Qaeda then to have the freedom of manoeuvre it had before 2001, then we would be less safe as a country.

There is a line of terror - what you might call a chain of terror - that links what's happening in Afghanistan and Pakistan to the streets of Britain.

A patriotic duty. Isn't that what desperate politicians demand of others?

That 'line of terror' hasn't been followed to it's source. It's not Afghanistan or Pakistan; they are just recruiting and training proxies for a much bigger and influential player.

There's a memorable line in the movie All the President's Men: follow the money. The line of terror money can be followed to Saudi Arabia. The Saudis supplied the money and the hardline Wahabi fundamentalism through sham Islamic charities to replace the indigenous Islam in Afghanistan and Pakistan. This has spread to some of Britain's mosques and helped breed the so called 'homegrown' Islamic terrorists. The July 7th bombers may have been British, but their radicalisation was born in Saudi Arabia.

But the Saudis are untouchable. Tony Blair stepping in to stop an investigation into bribery in the Al Yamamah deal, and Saudi billionaires using our anti free speech libel laws to shut down criticism - all examples of a culture of protection anyone for importance within the Saudi power structure. With Al Yamamah, we are unlikely to know where that slush money went.

We are in grip with Saudi Arabia - they supply oil, we supply weapons. Saudi buys US currency to keep it's value, the USA uses it's military might against anyone who might threaten OPEC's fragile status quo.

Gordon Brown conjures up patriotism to justify British deaths on foreign soil, fighting a proxy war against a proxy enemy. If Brown wants to be really patriotic and not the scumbag scoundrel we know he is, he should be cutting the mutually parasitic relationship we have with Saudi Arabia.

WOT a copout

South Shields MP David Miliband says that it was rather bad show to use the old 'War on Terror' brand. Anyone reading this blog in August 2007 will know that the brand was dumped some time ago.

Few Tories will be in a position to criticise Miliband's about-turn without a severe bout of hypocrititis. Most Tory MPs voted for the war in Iraq and even Conservative Home still uses the 'War on Terror' tag, so they've clearly bought in to the whole paradigm.

Yet the relentless erosion of our liberties with so-called anti-terror laws continues, with police officers down to litter enforcement officers given powers to harass ordinary folk whose only crime is going about their lawful business. Peaceful demonstrators, photographers and even an OAP at a Labour conference have all felt the cold hand of Labour's anti liberty laws.

But it's not just the brand that needs dropping, but the real harm caused by attaching our nation to this morally corrupt philosophy: the rendition flights, the torture, the killing of innocents, the anti-terror legislation, the breeding of hate.

But most of all, will Miliband call for a real reckoning for the architects of the War on Terror, Bush and Blair in front of a war crimes court?

Justice? That's too much for Labour.

Legal rendition

Of all the stupid and pointless screwing over our government has taken from the USA over the War On Terror TM, the tale of computer hacker Gary McKinnon would be funny if he wasn't facing imprisonment by a government which loves to torture and kill people.

The US government, and by poodle extension ours, considers Gary a terrorist and evil genius who cleverly outwitted the mighty US Department of Defense and NASA by accessing their computers in the "the greatest military hack in history". He was trying to find out information on UFOs. When he successfully accessed the computers he left messages saying 'your security is crap'. Hardly public enemy number one.

There's no doubt he's been a very naughty boy and justice must be done. But why not here in the UK, where we don't execute or torture people?

Some MPs want a guarantee from the US that McKinnon will be allowed to serve any sentence imposed in Britain in special consideration that he has been diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome. Requiring guarantees from a government which executes people with mental problems seems a little optimistic.

But this is our government. They meekly excuse the human rights abuses of the US.

If only McKinnon had been a Chilean dictator responsible for the death and torture of thousands, instead of a UFO saddo, he would have been laughing.

I've complained in the past about Labour members having lost a sense of principle after their party's warmongering and steady walk towards a police state. However, some of them still have the moral courage to stand by their principles.

Brown's desperate attempt to bolster his leadership, embodied in raising the pre-charge detention limit for terrorism suspects to 42 days, rallied most of the pliant troops who put party politics before the protection of our civil liberties. But not without some last minute horse-trading.

I've never often had an occasion to agree with Diane Abbott, but she rightly accused the government of:

"trading ancient civil liberties in a grubby bazaar"

Every concession Brown gave the wavering backbenchers was bought with another scrap of our freedom.

Kudos to Jim Cousins (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) and Chris Mullin (Sunderland South), the only Tyne/Wear Labour MPs with the cojones to stand up against Brown. Respect to all who voted against this disgusting charade.

PS - the Unionists where whores under the Tories. They're still on their back - but taking Brown's shilling.

Tee shirts in disguise

Terrorists must be pissing themselves with laughter at how scared we are of our own shadows. And tee shirts. Perhaps the stoopids at Heathrow would be better spending their time looking for real guns?

Fortunately El Reg was on the spot to get a photo of the incident.

Terror Vision

If anything illustrates how badly thought out the concept and operation of the National DNA Database, it's this article from El Reg. David Mery was arrested on the Tube in London in July 2005 for "suspicious behaviour and public nuisance". His crime, carrying a rucksack and wearing a big jacket. Considering the de Menezes killing, at least Mr Mery lived to tell the tale. After he was released without charge, he has fought to have his DNA details removed from the database. His fight has highlighted the complete lack of controls in the NDNAD, which inevitably means that instead of an objectively managed system we have a mechanism that is in the hands of a subjective powerful few, without adequate or open checks and balances.

His website gives a Kafkaesque account of his arrest and subsequent treatment under the much abused anti-terror laws, and the casual contempt the police have towards citizens and their rights. One man's story, one of many, illustrating our slow slide into a police state - all in the name of the War Against Terror.

Freedom fries

Simon Jenkins' comment piece in The Guardian, reflecting upon the abandonment of our freedoms pretty much echoes my thoughts. It's disappointing that so many of our politicians are happy to see our liberty dismembered, some of them even cynically trading on the emotive 'remember 9/11', apparently unaware that each freedom lost in the name of security is a small victory for the terrorists.