October 2005
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Statewatch News Online, 27 October 2005 (37/05)
27 October 2005 — Statewatch Full contents see: www.statewatch.org/news “ESSAYS ON CIVIL LIBERTIES AND DEMOCRACY IN EUROPE” A collection of sixteen Essays were specially written for the launch of the “European Civil Liberties Network” (ECLN) on 19 October: www.ecln.org Continue reading
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Syria: Old whine, new bottle By William Bowles
The UN ‘report’ on the assassination of Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese PM, bears all the hallmarks of yet another set-up, no doubt ‘inspired’ by US pressure as part of the build-up to yet another Middle Eastern ‘adventure’. Even less remarkable is the uncritical, indeed blind acceptance by the Western media of the Report’s conclusions… Continue reading
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Media Lens: Thought Control and ‘Professional’ Journalism – Part 1
25 October 2005 — Media Lens Early last century, industrial technology allowed business interests to produce mass media at a cost that outclassed the capacity of non-corporate media to compete. As a result, radical publishers were marginalised and media diversity rapidly narrowed. To counter claims that society was being, in effect, brainwashed by this media Continue reading
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Kiss your ‘democracy’ goodbye (But did you ever have one?) By William Bowles
21 October 2005 There are … potentially desirable limits to the indefinite extension of political democracy … A government which lacks authority … will have little ability, short of cataclysmic crisis, to impose on its people the sacrifices which may be necessary. – 1975 Trilateral Commission Report on the Governability of Democracies Just how pervasive Continue reading
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Media Lens: Real Men Go To Tehran
20 October 2005 — Media Lens The Roman historian Tacitus observed: “Crime once exposed has no refuge but in audacity.” What better example than Tony Blair’s declaration at an October 7 press conference: “There is no justification for Iran or any other country interfering in Iraq.”? (Adrian Blomfield and Anton La Guardia, ‘Stop meddling in Continue reading
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Media Lens: Killing with Impunity – Nine-Second Coverage For Dozens of Dead Iraqi Women and Children
Last night’s BBC Newsnight programme reported the deaths of 70 “Iraqi militants” in US air raids on the western Iraqi city of Ramadi. The item lasted just nine seconds. This included three seconds of scepticism from an Iraqi doctor who reported that in fact civilians were amongst the dead. Viewers’ attention was then rapidly diverted… Continue reading
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Sleepwalking into Slavery? By William Bowles
The great British public, apparently don’t think that home secretary’s Clarke’s proposed additions to the anti-terror legislation including the 90-day detention without trial, apply to them, at least as far as we know, as nobody has actually asked them. Perhaps they need to be reminded that almost identical laws were passed by the Apartheid regime… Continue reading
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Statewatch News Online, 12 October 2005 (35/05)
12 October 2005 — Statewatch Full contents see: www.statewatch.org/news 1. EU: Data retention: Council to back down over legal basis, but asks EP to rush through 2. EU: European Ombudsman finds Council has given no valid reasons for continuing to legislate behind 3. EU: Justice and Home Affairs Council, 12 October 2005, Luxembourg 4. Italy: Continue reading
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Media Lens: The Independent – Power, Privilege, And The Projection Of Establishment Values
11 October 2005 — Media Lens A Special Kind of Independence “I am a maximalist. I want more of everything.” (Sir Anthony O’Reilly, chief executive, Independent News & Media Plc) “More than a million species could die out as a result of global warming. And it is not an asteroid that will have caused this, Continue reading
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Information Clearing House Archive Part 2 6-10 September 2005
10 September 2005 — Information Clearing House [I’ve been archiving ICH digests since early 2003. Unfortunately, an unknown number of the links are now dead, so I can’t guarantee that the link will take you where you want to go. WB] Information Clearing House Digest 6-10 September 2005 Date: Sat, 10 Sep 2005 Charge Him or Continue reading
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Awakening the Slumbering Giant By William Bowles
Back around 1991 I was in London for a short visit and I hung out with a South African comrade then living in exile in London. Over (at least) two bottles of wine in a bar on Islington High Street, we commiserated on the demise of the Left, which following the end of the Soviet… Continue reading
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Information Clearing House Archive Part 1 October 1-5 2005
5 September 2005 — Information Clearing House [I’ve been archiving ICH digests since early 2003. Unfortunately, an unknown number of the links are now dead, so I can’t guarantee that the link will take you where you want to go. WB] Information Clearing House Digest Date: Wed, 5 Oct 2005 Charge Him or Release Him Jose Continue reading
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Mantra politics By William Bowles
Once the state acquires such draconian powers it is unlikely to give them up voluntarily. We need only look at countries that have adopted comparable laws whether it be Mussolini’s Fascist Italy, Franco’s Spain, through to the various Latin American dictatorships and how they were removed, not that removing them necessarily guarantees removal of the… Continue reading
The New Dark Age 