More torture photos
The photographs which have appeared in the media today showing torture by British soldiers of alleged looters in Iraq are really sickening. Is this the way they expect to get people to vote in the election? Is it some new kind of canvassing: standing on top of prisoners and asking them if they want to vote for Allawi?

And what kind of dipstick takes photos like that in the first place and then takes them to the chemist to be developed?

My youngest son was arrested protesting against the war and we all held a vigil at our local war memorial. I will never vote Labour again (well I suppose one should never say never, they might bring back Clause Four, expel Blair, put him on trial and apologise for the war ... but how likely is that?)

The Exception to the Rulers
Now Playing: goldfrapp
The Exception to the Rulers

By Amy and David Goodman
ISBN 1-4013-0131-2
Published by Hyperion

When you think of a journalist do you think of a sleazy individual only interested in pop stars, royalty and sex scandals? Amy Goodman can make you think again.

Amy Goodman is the reporter who faced the Indonesian military in East Timor in 1991 armed only with a microphone. She placed herself in harm's way hoping to help the brave civilians who were marching against the military and to tell their story to the world. The Indonesian military had a reputation for killing Australian journalists. Almost the first question they asked when they attacked her was "Australian?" "They had stripped us of our possessions, but I still had my passport. I threw it at them. When I regained my breath I said again 'We're from America! America!'

"Finally the soldiers lowered their guns from our heads. We think it was because we were from the same country their weapons were from. They would have to pay a price for killing us that they never had to pay for killing Timorese." Her coverage of repression across the globe has been a dangerous battle to bring the truth to the public, hindered rather than helped by the corporate media. Imagine for example putting her coverage of Chevron's blatant support for vicious repression in Nigeria alongside adverts for Chevron!

Amy Goodman and her brother have pioneered independent media in the United States. The hour-long TV program produced in New York and available over the internet at http://democracynow.org is a daily indictment of the war and the attack on civil liberties in the US and worldwide. It is surprising to watch as it has the format of a news program like any other but deliberately includes all the voices which the corporate media excludes.

That includes voices like that of Rita Lasar who lost her brother in the terrorist attack on the twin towers, a few blocks from the studios where Democracy Now! is broadcast. Rita's brother stayed in the building because he would not leave his quadraplegic friend behind. On September 14th Bush used his name and his story in his speech at the National Cathedral in Washington. "Rita quickly understood how her brother's gentle heroism was being used. She wrote a letter that appeared in the New York Times on September 18th 2001. "It is in my brother's name and mine that I pray that we, this country that has been so deeply hurt, do not do something which will unleash forces we will not have the power to call back." and of the fireman who lost four of his squad "As a rescue worker I can't say: we lost so let's kill six thousand more."

It is no accident that when the Democrat witch-hunt against Nader was at its height, when Michael Moore and Naomi Klein had crossed the picket line and supported Kerry, Democracy Now! Interviewed Nader and enabled him to expose the dirty tricks and the lies being used against his campaign.

Her book "The Exception to the Rulers" is a withering and closely argued indictment of "Oily Politicians, War Profiteers and the Media that loves them." If you want chapter and verse on the links between Big Business and the Bush administration; between the corporations and corrupt totalitarian regimes around the world and all of them with the media in the US: this is the book to read.

One example of the power of independent media among the many in the book is the battle of Seattle in 1999 - "My colleagues and I from Democracy Now! Spent long hours in the streets with journalists from the independent media centre, being gassed and harassed by police dressed in black futuristic body armour as we attempted to report what was happening to the world. "While the networks were quoting the police saying that they were not using rubber bullets, independent media reporters were uploading minute-by-minute images as we all picked up the bullets off the street by the handful."

In advocating independent media, Amy Goodman does not ask to be admired. She asks to be emulated.

You can get your local library to get a copy. It is very useful work of reference for socialists and for students of the media.

New torture charges
As I write this, British soldiers Fusilier Gary Bartlam, Lance Corporal Mark Cooley, Corporal Daniel Kenyon and Lance Corporal Darren Larkin are standing trial for involvement in torture. So far the only person to be punished has been Piers Morgan of the Daily Mirror who did not torture anybody but published some pictures which turned out to be fakes.

The fake photos were suspiciously useful both to distract attention from the very real photos being circulated of torture by the US and the photos which they must have known about which are being used as evidence in the trial of four British soldiers.

The real snaps were found on a roll of film handed in at a developers in Tamworth, Staffordshire, by 19-year-old Fusilier Bartlam. Shop assistant Kelly Tilford alerted police.

In one photograph, an Iraqi captive is tightly bound and gagged and clinging to a forklift truck, before being cut loose and falling to the ground.

Photos show what appears to be a soldier aiming a kick at the head of an Iraqi and a soldier standing on top of a man in what looks like a pool of blood.

It is alleged two Iraqis were forced to strip and pose in sexual positions.

Gonzales would not regard any of this as torture as only "trauma similar to the loss of an organ or death" is torture in his book. In the Senate hearing he both agreed and disagreed with this view in the same breath.

ALBERTO GONZALES: If i may, sir, let me try to give you a quick answer, but I'd like to put a little bit of context. There obviously we were interpreting a statute that had never been reviewed in the courts, a statute drafted by Congress. We were trying to interppret the standard set by Congress. There was discussion between the White House and Department of Justice as well as other agencies about what does this statute mean? It was a very, very difficult -- I don't recall today whether or not I was in agreement with all of the analysis, but I don't have a disagreement with the conclusions then reached by the department. Ultimately, it is the responsibility of the department to tell us what the law means, Senator.

SEN. PATRICK LEAHY: And do you agree today that for an act to violate the torture statute, it must be equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function or even death?

ALBERTO GONZALES: I do not, sir, that does not represent the position of the executive branch, as you know..

A new hope
My pupils have rallied around and taken an interest in finding out about the tsunami and how they can help now and what ought to be done in the future. This disaster has reaffirmed my faith: I believe that it is one world and we have to work together.

All over the world the generosity of the people has shamed the world leaders. Of course Bush and Blair will probably renege on their so-called "pledges" as they always have in the past.

What is the use of a God who couldn't have prevented this disaster?
What is the use of a God who could have prevented this disaster but didn't?

Science has limitations. Human intervention has limitations. I think we could all use a God. The trouble is there just doesn't seem to be one. We will have to overcome those limitations for ourselves.

Whack O!
There is a debate on the TES website about bringing back the cane. This reflects a genuine concern over discipline in schools and about the increasing alienation of pupils. Nevertheless most of the posters oppose the cane.
There is a simple moral argument. Can you teach me violence is wrong by caning me?

There are also some practical objections.

1) Would you cane girls as well as boys?
2) Would you cane the children whose parents objected to caning? Worse would you let them get away without caning and only punish those whose parents liked the idea of you hitting their children?
3) How do you deal with the children for whom getting caned is a badge of courage?
4) How would you deal with those for whom caning is a turn-on? Would it really be a punishment for them?

Nobody in their right mind has ever called me a liberal do-gooder and if you think I don't believe in discipline ask my class before you make any such unfortunate assumptions :)


I was caned once for drawing a cartoon. It was an all boys school and the rather short deputy head used to enthusiastically administer the canings. My experience was that the hard cases at our school who used to bully other boys used to get the cane regularly and saw it as a badge of courage.

They were all Crystal Palace supporters - mark you I draw no conclusions!

Tsunami government fraud
My class are instinctively handing over their pocket money to help the victims of the tsunami. Their hearts are in the right place.

However, it transpires that the money which the government is "pledging" to relieve the suffering of the tsunami is not new money at all - they are robbing Peter to pay Paul.

On top of which, Newsnight last night also detailed how previous "pledges" of disaster relief have never actually turned into money. They are as much use as any other politician's "promise".

People all over are dying
Politicians keep on lying
They spend 4200 dollars on war
Then give one dollar to the poor!

Diego Garcia
According to reports in the world's press, admitted by the US government,
the US military base on Diego Garcia had forewarning of the tsunami whilst
the countries in the greater danger had no warning because the greatest
military power on the planet lacked the resources to put through a phone
call!

This will come as no surprise to those who remember the 2000 Chagossians
that were illegally removed from their homes in the 1960's to make way for
UK-US airbase on Diego Garcia. They have no right to return to their homes.
Even their dogs were rounded up and gassed, all the animals were killed and
the islands left empty and uninhabited to make way for the American base.
Even though the UK courts have found their removal to be illegal they are
not permitted to return to their islands as there is "a need to uphold the
island's secure status." Or to protect America's ability to wage war within
the region.

Thatcher went to war for the sacred rights of the Falkland islanders - the
British government meekly allowed the people on Diego Garcia to be kicked
out of their homes by US imperialism.

To conclude America and Britain removed poor people from their homes in
order to set up a base from which to bomb and harm even more poor people!

The American military machine has some odd weaknesses. They can deliver
bombs and missiles to any region however remote, yet they lack the ability
to get food and medicine to remote areas. The public have raised millions to help the survivors of the tsunami.

Interestingly the New Your Times reports that
CIA detention facilities have been located "on Britain's Diego Garcia island in the Indian Ocean." This means that prisoners can be held indefinitely without legal counsel and without trial. American military personnel have written recently to the Guardian about what a paradise the island was for them....they didn't include any snaps of prisoners being tortured.

A new hope
(Apologies to everyone who is finding the adverts a pain - I am more or less unaware of them because I use Mozilla)
I think the phrase "Things can only get better" is one which tempts providence. They can get worse. I appreciate that is a superstitious view. The two greatest disasters of last year were the election of Bush and the tsunami. Of the two Bush has probably cost more lives.

I certainly believe that things can get better. We cannot see into the future enough to make rash promises. Marxists have had plenty of practice in swimming against the stream anyway.

I remember in bible class the tale of the widow's mite. The rich made efforts to draw attention to the amount of money they were giving to the poor. Jesus drew attention to a widow who gave two of the smallest coin of the realm and instructed his disciples to note that her sacrifice was the greater.

If anybody is impressed by American imperialism's contribution to the tsunami relief they might like to remember that for every dollar they spend in tsunami relief they are spending 4200 dollars in their brutal war in Iraq. Although the public in the west are promising two billion, Sri Lanka alone pays seven billion a year to the bankers, the flow of "aid" is in the other direction.

This tsunami was an act of God. I can only say that I am glad I no longer believe.

A BBC reporter mentioned that a majority of the population in Sri Lanka were Buddhists and therefore believe that life is full of suffering. So their faith is not disturbed by these events.


In the past year I discovered three websites which are very useful:
http://democracynow.org
which is a beacon of light in a world of darkness.
http://www.tes.co.uk/staffroom
is a discussion forum for teachers and
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php
is a better one.

Refugees of Fallujah
"A delegation of military family members whose sons died while fighting in the Iraq war have traveled to Jordan to deliver $600,000 worth of humanitarian supplies for refugees from the U.S. attack on Falluja.

"The November attack, which virtually leveled the city and left some 2,000 Iraqis and 71 U.S. soldiers dead, also created thousands of refugees, who are living without adequate food, water, electricity and healthcare. Most of these refugees are children.
In an Internet appeal, the military family members, in collaboration with U.S. peace groups, physicians' organizations, and September 11 families, quickly raised $100,000 in donations. And humanitarian groups such as the Middle East Children"s Alliance and Operation USA contributed $500,000 worth of medical supplies.

Quoted on www.democracynow.org two of those involved said:
"MEDEA BENJAMIN: We're here to bring humanitarian supplies to the refugees from Fallujah. We were very upset when we saw the U.S. military destroy the entire city of Fallujah. We know that there are thousands of women and children who are living without electricity, water, medicines, so we're here to bring supplies to them to show that there are American people who care about their lives, and to say that it's time to stop the killing, and help the Iraqi people.

ADELE WELTY: I lost my son on September 11 at the World Trade Center. He was a firefighter, and he - he went to the World Trade Center to help rescue those who were caught in the towers. And he was trapped when they collapsed. And I don't want his name used to kill innocent civilians.

Refugees of Fallujah
"A delegation of military family members whose sons died while fighting in the Iraq war have traveled to Jordan to deliver $600,000 worth of humanitarian supplies for refugees from the U.S. attack on Falluja.

"The November attack, which virtually leveled the city and left some 2,000 Iraqis and 71 U.S. soldiers dead, also created thousands of refugees, who are living without adequate food, water, electricity and healthcare. Most of these refugees are children.
In an Internet appeal, the military family members, in collaboration with U.S. peace groups, physicians' organizations, and September 11 families, quickly raised $100,000 in donations. And humanitarian groups such as the Middle East Children"s Alliance and Operation USA contributed $500,000 worth of medical supplies.

Quoted on www.democracynow.org two of those involved said:
"MEDEA BENJAMIN: We're here to bring humanitarian supplies to the refugees from Fallujah. We were very upset when we saw the U.S. military destroy the entire city of Fallujah. We know that there are thousands of women and children who are living without electricity, water, medicines, so we're here to bring supplies to them to show that there are American people who care about their lives, and to say that it's time to stop the killing, and help the Iraqi people.

ADELE WELTY: I lost my son on September 11 at the World Trade Center. He was a firefighter, and he - he went to the World Trade Center to help rescue those who were -- who were caught in the - in the towers. And he was trapped when it -- when they collapsed. And I don't want his name used to kill innocent civilians.