Bob Ainsworth, the Defence Secretary will tell MPs that the independent investigation will seek to establish whether the Army committed war crimes after the gunfight in 2004. Families of the Iraqis claim that some of men survived the exchange of fire only to be tortured and killed afterwards at Camp Abu Naji, a British base.

The Ministry of Defence denies the allegations, but earlier this year Mr Ainsworth accepted the need for a new inquiry after High Court judges said they did not have enough information to assess the Iraqis’ claims. In a 20-day hearing, lawyers for the Iraqis presented evidence that they said supported their contentions that captives were taken to base, where they were killed and their bodies mutilated.

Five of the six applicants say they were themselves mistreated by British forces after being caught up in the fire fight and detained. They say they were punched, threatened with violence, thrown violently against a wall, hit by guards if they fell asleep, denied water and subjected to other forms of mistreatment.

Independent?

PS. Plus, no shit Sherlock…

Tony Blair, the former prime minister, misled MPs and the public throughout 2002 when he claimed that Britain’s objective was “disarmament, not regime change” and that there had been no planning for military action. In fact, British military planning for a full invasion and regime change began in February 2002.

The need to conceal this from Parliament and all but “very small numbers” of officials “constrained” the planning process. The result was a “rushed”operation “lacking in coherence and resources” which caused “significant risk” to troops and “critical failure” in the post-war period. (ht2 Bloggerheads on Twitter)

Thanks to Proper Tidy for this report from comments:-

Fantastic day. Several hundred attended the communities festival throughout the day – atmosphere was positive, peaceful and fun all day long! Andy H, the young drummers from Flintshire, and Chris from Sinnermen/The Mayors did us proud, along with all the speakers from Socialist Party, SWP, Plaid Cymru, Labour, Youth Fight for Jobs and various faith & community groups. Thanks to Peter, who MC’d throughout the day, and Pol Wong for his excellent martial arts exhibition. Kids enjoyed the carousel, but it was a very wet day!

Around 40 EDL (mostly Bolton hooligans) stayed in Wetherspoons for most of the day – and when they came out on to the street they were opposed by 150+ working people (not anti-fascist campaigners but ordinary Wrexham folk) who made it clear that they did not welcome the EDL – in the words of one lady: “These are my streets”. The EDL responded by unfurling a St George’s Cross and chanting racist slogans but were heavily outnumbered by Wrexham people outraged at the EDL.

The community festival in Queens Square was entirely peaceful and was such a positive place to be, with people from all walks of life, some excellent music, some rousing speeches, and people dancing in the streets! A 100% success today – the only thing that went wrong today was the weather! We demonstrated the true face of Wrexham; a peaceful, proud, tolerant and diverse working-class town; and we did it the right way – by having a good time together. Proud of everybody involved and proud of Wrexham.

From Proper Tidy:- Saturday Queens Square Wrexham 11am – 4pm Wrexham Communities Festival – Let’s show the EDL they are not welcome in Wales. Lots of music, dancing, food vans, kids fun-fair, percussion workshop, martial arts exhibition.

You want 8 free tracks off Tom Waits new album Glitter and Doom Live? Then Mr. Waits can help you.

Tony Blair will not seek another big international job after being rejected for the new post of “President of Europe”, his allies said yesterday. Close friends of the former prime minister said he was “entirely happy” with his current roles – lucrative public speaking engagements, working as the international Middle East peace envoy, bringing democracy to Africa, tackling climate change, and heading an inter-faith foundation and sports charity.

A video posted to an extremist website included this personal message from Anthony Blair-

“Yeah well I never wanted your stupid job anyway, EU, E-Poo more like. Hey look, you just made yourself owe me 13 grand, that’s how much my totally brilliant words are worth and I had to say 13 of them to tell you how rubbish you are and how much I like never even wanted your shitty job, did I mention I didn’t want it and it was shitty? Oh look someone important is on the phone, actually it’s a party line, it’s the Pope, Margaret Thatcher, Dick Cheney, Binyamin Netanyahu and Sarah Palin, Presidents Obama, Bush (like fucking both!) and Clinton, and they want me to come to a party that, oh dear, Europe isn’t invited to! L-O-S-E-R-S! Oh what’s that, they want me to be Emperor of Earth and impose Peace ‘n’ Democracy™ on all warring nations by nuking them, and all the World’s religious leaders have disavowed their religions and instead are going to worship me as a living God. Well ok but it’ll be 1 million an hour plus expenses and if you want me to save the planet I’ll want that in intergalactic dollars…no reason. That’s like the tenth phone call just this morning asking that, like I’d have time to be King or whatever it was of EU-Land! I’ve already forgotten, it’s soooo unimportant.
Please like me.”

A different reading of this song…a highly sensitised microphone, hooked up to a massive amp & speaker. It can pick up the slightest noise, even from far away and every signal can cause catastrophic feedback that destroys the entire system. So to survive it must be wrapped in protective, dampening insulation, making it not much use for its intended purpose but it means it can function to a limited degree. Or it can be switched off.

In other words, there are conditions under which we can be more altruistic, more generous, and more aware. But those conditions are killed by the act of purchase, of engaging with the world and its problems as if those problems were commodities, rather than political challenges that will be solved not by shopping, but by civic engagement.

Can be seen on YouTube here.

PS. Guardian on it (& Lorna Fitzsimons from a while back).

Via Otto @ IKN, Council on Hemispheric Affairs:- Unsettling Revelations Regarding U.S. Lease of Colombian Military Bases

It emphasizes the “opportunity for conducting full spectrum operations throughout South America” against threats not only from drug trafficking and guerrilla movements, but also from “anti-U.S. governments” in the region.

…Palanquero is already Colombia’s largest military base and one of the most advanced in Latin America. Leasing this Colombian facility would provide the U.S. Air Force with “access to the entire continent.” According to the budget justification, the planned structural and operational improvements are intended to “leverage existing infrastructure to the maximum extent possible, improve the U.S. ability to respond rapidly to crisis, and assure regional access and presence at minimum cost.” The upgrade is also intended to “increase [the U.S. Air Force’s] capability to conduct Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR).” Within this budget justification, stated interests in counternarcotic and counterinsurgency operations within Colombia are sidelined in favor of promoting strategic military and security throughout the hemisphere.

The Change and Hope of the Empire is to reverse the Bush regimes lacklustre attention deficit on Latin America and a return to…well let’s just say senior Democrats are probably making sure torture equipment is fully represented in their stock portfolios, after all the Attorney General when a highly paid corporate lawyer chose to represent Chiquita to reduce its exposure to punishment from guilt for involvement with terrorism is now overseeing the trial Inquisition of a man water boarded 183 times. And that’s domestically so once out of the glare of domestic media and voters, SOA/WHINSEC graduates will ensure Uribe clings on to power and offers other lucky countries the chance to also enjoy a return to death squads and torture dungeons or as Wall Street will term it- investment opportunities!

Congratulations to The Unapologetic Mexican (scroll down to donate to his scholarship fund) for his selection to the Narco News School of Authentic Journalism, just looking at the roster of recipients shows a magnificent challenge to the dominant white-male-corporate-media.

They work or hail from 24 countries across the five major continents. They investigate and write news reports, create documentary films and viral videos, and among them are up-and-coming pioneers of Internet journalism. Many of them do that through multiple forms of media. They hush the imposed silences from above and make the voices from below heard. They are aged 18 to 65, from diverse economic, social, political and demographic backgrounds. And each one’s experiences are compelling and unique.

Maybe the massive opposition to the Afghan occupation is getting through-

Gordon Brown tonight raised the prospect of agreeing a timetable for international withdrawal from Afghanistan, in a speech in which he claimed that almost half of al-Qaida’s leadership had now been killed. Brown said he hoped a UN- sponsored London conference in the new year would set a timetable for a transition to Afghan security forces taking charge of their own country.

Delivering the traditional prime minister’s foreign policy speech at the Lord Mayor’s banquet in the City of London, Brown said the damage already inflicted on al-Qaida gave international forces the chance to set a timetable for pulling out.

But we are used to his talk by now, what of actions-

President Barack Obama on Sunday told Myanmar’s junta to free pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi during an unusual face-to-face interaction with a top leader of the ruling military. Obama delivered the strong message during his summit with leaders of 10 Southeast Asian nations, which included Myanmar Prime Minister Gen. Thein Sein. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters that Obama called on Myanmar to free his fellow Nobel Peace laureate Suu Kyi and other political prisoners, and end oppression of minorities.

“Obama brought that up directly with that government,” Gibbs said, indicating that the president addressed Thein Sein. For decades, Western governments have avoided direct contacts with leaders of Myanmar because of the regime’s poor human rights record and suppression of democracy. A joint statement issued after the summit — the first ever between a U.S. president and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations — devoted a paragraph on Myanmar, a major irritant in relations between the two sides. But the statement did not call for the release of political prisoners, including Suu Kyi, who has spent 14 of the last 20 years under detention by the military regime. It only urged Myanmar to ensure that the elections it intends to hold in 2010 are “conducted in a free, fair, inclusive and transparent manner.”

However, a direct appeal from Obama carries more weight as he is the most powerful leader to have conveyed the message directly to a top Myanmar official. Thein Sein did not address leaders’ concerns about Suu Kyi, said Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak. “We expected a bit more but it was not forthcoming. We hope (democracy) … in Myanmar will become a reality sooner than later,” he told reporters. He said a reference to Suu Kyi was not included in the statement because there was no consensus. White House aides said ASEAN was unlikely to include an explicitly critical statement on one of its members, since it would amount to Myanmar criticizing itself. That’s why Obama raised the issue directly in his remarks to the group, said the aides.

Director and star fired from his own movie by producer who revels in commerce’s superiority over creativity-

“That’s why they call it show business and not show art.”

So what sort of person should regulate commercial media? Would your answer include any of these-

*Enthusiastic & highly active member of the Conservative party who in her debut PCC speech makes clear her allegiances to Cameron’s tribe, so press regulation under a tory government, hmm do you suppose it might favour the ruling party while allowing attacks on opponents?

*A Baroness, oh what a democratic meritocracy we have…

*A former Chief Executive of the Advertising Association of who fought to make the media more useful to advertisers (and more hostile to those without a profit motive, y’know, health & welfare of human beings and the planet kinda thing) working with another tory who also worked for News International-

Vigorous campaigns by highly organised pressure groups such as Sustain have questioned the way young people are targeted by advertisers. Then there are Ofcom’s new TV advertising rules on promoting HFSS (high in fat, salt and sugar) foods to children. These already apply to under-nines. Next year this will extend to under-16s.

The advertising of toys to children is widely believed to be the next target for campaigners and the rise of the environmental lobby means car ads are coming under scrutiny too.

So the £16bn industry is hitting back, and the AA is leading the charge. In addition to Buscombe, the AA has brought in Jonathan Collett, a veteran of both the Tory party and News International, to fill a newly created comms and strategy adviser role.

Buscombe says: ‘Political correctness makes us a diminished people: we shy away from what needs to be said. There’s a “PC creep” that has come in. We’re frightened of being misunderstood. This means private prejudices could be entrenched – the classic one is immigration.’ A pause. ‘But we’re getting off advertising.’

Ooh, she’ll be oh so effective when the tabloids stir up race hatred with migrant bashing, won’t she? Collett is being brought in by Buscombe to the PCC-

Jonathan Collett takes up his position -Director of Communications- on 23 November, having worked as head of comms at the Advertising Association for two years.Collett was formerly public affairs manager at News International. He has also been press spokesman for Michael Howard, when he was leader of the Conservative Party.

So that’s pretty well much a takeover of the PCC by advertising, Conservatives… & Murdoch? (also makes the theory that Cameron has agreed a shopping list of Murdoch wants to implement when in power in return for support from Murdoch’s media seem not so far fetched) But really, conflict of interest much? She was a partisan for -right wing- business interests and now sits in judgement on the media.

*Wealthy, this ones sort of goes without comment most of the time, in a country with a Royal Family going on about class or money is such bad manners, but status subtly informs its own biases, wealthy people by and large do not empathise with poor, sick or unemployed people. So the press coverage that attacks them will similarly continue to go unchallenged in any official capacity, added to that she has an ideological enmity for marginalised groups, it’s a perfect storm of corporate business as usual.

So the largely ineffectual PCC will be even more ineffectual under Baroness Peta Jane Buscombe, giving us less redress against bad reporting and corporate bias while at the same protecting the Conservative party, probably as it gives Murdoch most of what he wants. In fact she’s so unsuitable there are already calls for her to resign-

A lawyer who gave evidence to the parliamentary committee investigating press behaviour, today called on Baroness Buscombe, the chair of the Press Complaints Commission, to resign. He claimed she had published what were termed “extremely serious” false allegations against him.

Solicitor Mark Lewis earlier this year, in testimony to the House of Commons culture, media and sport select committee, gave an account of a conversation he had with police, alleging that “thousands” of people were targeted by phone hacking.

Buscombe claimed at the weekend that police had been misquoted in oral evidence to the committee. She said: “Any suggestion that a parliamentary inquiry has been misled is of course an extremely serious matter.”

In a letter to Buscombe and to the chairman of the parliamentary committee, Lewis said today: “You have betrayed any semblance of impartiality and regrettably ought to find yourself in a position where the honourable action would be for you to resign.”

He said the discussion he had with Det Sgt Mark Maberley, from the team investigating the tabloid’s behaviour, had been witnessed by two others, including a barrister who was acting for his client at the time, one of the paper’s victims. Maberley told him there were 6,000 instances of phone hacking, although only one case had been prosecuted, involving the royal reporter Clive Goodman, who subsequently went to jail.

“I am deeply concerned that you have thought it proper to criticise my evidence to the select committee without either having the courtesy or the propriety to put the allegations to me first,” said Lewis. “I regret that your failure to act properly has compromised any veneer of impartiality that you sought to create.”

Lewis added: “My evidence was clear. DS Maberly had told me the 6,000 figure.”

Buscombe said she received a letter from Metropolitan police lawyers, which she did not publish or quote directly. She claimed that it said Maberley, who has not testified either to the PCC or to the parliamentary inquiry, was “wrongly quoted”.

She delivered her allegations while seeking to defend the Press Complaints Commission, which she chairs, at a weekend speech to the Society of Editors. The allegations were held back from a previously circulated text of her speech, and then issued as a public statement at short notice last night.

The PCC has been facing accusations of a whitewash, since it refused to accept new evidence supplied to the parliamentary committee by the Guardian and others, which alleged the News of the World was involved in more instances of phone hacking than merely the Goodman case. In a recent statement, the PCC denied that it had been “materially misled” by accepting previous assurances from the News of the World that Goodman had “acted alone”.

Begins to get a bit more sinister when you factor in she covers up for massive spying by corporations that has yet to be properly investigated (of course surveillance creates its own insurance, when you get the dirt on powerful people they are less likely to have you exposed and banged up). Murdoch, Cameron, Buscombe. The lies about Iraq will seem like the golden days of press truth at this rate.

Update: Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger resigns from PCC code committee I think like the government’s Advisory Council for the Misuse of Drugs the PCC is now a very lame duck. It’s a good sign, that some are not quite at the point where we give up all semblance of an informed democracy in order to venerate power and demagoguery.