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The Iraqi people go to the polls this weekend in the country’s first “free and fair” election in decades.

Much has been made of the fact that most candidates standing in the election have not been able to campaign through fear of assassination and intimidation. Most Iraqi voters have no idea who they are voting for.

Which follows that, on Monday morning, the Iraqi people will have no idea who is forming their elected government. Quite clearly these people aren’t going to pop up first thing next week and introduced themselves as the duly elected member for Baghdad East. The insurgents are just going to say, “fair enough,you’ve survived this long so we’ll give you a fair shake”.

Which begs the question: Won’t these people in effect be a government in exile? Not able to show their faces on the streets or advertise the fact that they are members of the new administration, how will the Iraqi people be able to hold them directly to account? By sheer necessity the new government is going to have to operate behind closed door which has worrying implications for transparency and accountability.

Hang on, what am I talking about? Iyad Allawi, running a transparent and accountable government, with his reputation? What am I talking about?

Rochenko returns after a sabbatical to bring us more Smokewriting.

Kneel before him, puny mortal.

Unlimited? “They will cause death and destruction on an unlimited scale”? Unlimited?

What? Have they got a fucking Death Star or something?

BBC News: Blair defends ‘grave’ terror plan

“They will cause death and destruction on an unlimited scale and they will and are trying to organise such terrorist activity in our own country. I just hope people get this in perspective.”

Got that? We’re all going to die. Terrorists are coming to kill us all. Horribly. They will not might cause death and destruction on an unlimited scale.

Now stop causing a fuss about civil liberties. Get things in perspective before you embarrass yourself and terrorists kill us. And we all die.

No, no, that’s alright. Don’t worry about it. Don’t be frightened.

You’re going to die.

It’ll be interesting to see the likes of Roy Hattersley bending themselves double now to justify Charles Clarke’s latest abomination and tell us how we should all still vote New Labour at the next election.

Like a lot of people who find themselves in abusive relationships, no doubt Hattersley and Aaronovitch and all the other useful idiots will soon be bleating, “Don’t leave, please don’t leave. They can change, they can change. Please, just one more chance.”

And then after the election there’ll be flowers and chocolates, apologies and humility. But soon enough there’ll be the loving slap, the affectionate punch: “I love you but…”. And more people will find themselves going slowly insane in Belmarsh and more bodies of brown children in far off countries will be thrown on to the pile uncounted, unlamented.

Between the present Government and Michael Howard the general election is going to come down to who has the shiniest jackboots.

In his introduction to the collection of his excellent, and seemingly never out of fashion, V For Vendetta, Alan Moore had this to say:

It’s 1988 now. Margaret Thatcher is entering her third term of office and talking confidently of an unbroken Conservative leadership well into the next century. My youngest daughter is seven and the tabloid press are circulating the idea of concentration camps for persons with AIDS. The new riot police wear black visors, as do their horses, and their vans have rotating cameras mounted on top. The government has expressed a desire to eradicate homosexuality, even as an abstract concept, and one can only speculate as to which minority will be the next legislated against. I’m thinking of taking my family and getting out of this country soon, sometime over the next couple of years. It’s cold and it’s mean spirited and I don’t like it here anymore.

Moore’s words were very prescient of the future and not just his, then, present. Only the names, it seems, have changed and little else. We still have a Thatcherite government with its claw on the rudder. Yesterday, today and tomorrow belongs to them.

If you want a picture of the future, imagine Charles Clarke stamping on a human face – forever

The Guardian: Iran nears nuclear ‘point of no return’

The Israeli defence minister, Shaul Mofaz, warned yesterday that Iran will reach “the point of no return” within the next 12 months in its covert attempt to secure a nuclear weapons capability.

BBC News: Blogging ‘a paedophile’s dream’
Online journals and camera phones are a “paedophiles’ dream” which have increased the risk to children, the Scottish Parliament has been warned.

They are, of course, talking Nonce Sense.

The Guardian: Minister, how far you’ve come

Freedom of information is now beginning to reveal the raw mechanics of government. And one of the latest batch of released papers tells a story of brazen political corruption by big business, with which Patricia Hewitt seems to have felt forced to collude. One can only feel for her.

Those guys were in hog heaven out there, do you understand, man? They had the big weapons catalogue opened up. “What’s G12 do, Tommy?” “Well, it says here it destroys everything but the fillings in their teeth, helps us pay for the war effort, well shit, pull that one up. Pull up G12 please.” (missile explosion noise). “Cool, what’s G13 do?”
Bill Hicks

BBC News: US plans ‘robot troops’ for Iraq
The US military is planning to deploy robots armed with machine-guns to wage war against insurgents in Iraq.

The wars of the future will not be fought on the battlefield or at sea. They will be fought in space, or possibly on top of a very tall mountain. In either case, most of the actual fighting will be done by small robots. And as you go forth today remember always your duty is clear: To build and maintain those robots. Thank you.
The Commandant, Rommelwood Military Academy, The Secret War of Lisa Simpson

BBC News: Bush hails anti-abortion ‘gains’

The US is “making progress” towards more reductions in abortions, President George W Bush has told pro-life campaigners rallying in Washington.

…

On Monday, Mr Bush said, in what was described as a passionate speech, that “the strong have a duty to protect the weak”.

Children’s Defense Fund: 2003 Facts on Child Poverty in America

12.9 million American children younger than 18 live below the poverty line.
More children live in poverty today than 30 or 35 years ago. The number of poor children reached a recent peak of 15.7 million in 1993, fell for eight years, but has risen for three consecutive years since.

“If you’re pre-born, you’re fine. If you’re preschool, you’re fucked!” – George Carlin

BBC News: World ‘must learn from Holocaust’

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has urged the world to make sure evils such as those perpetrated in the Holocaust are never repeated.

Sudan Emancipation & Preservation Network: DARFUR MORTALITY UPDATE

The international news cycle continues to be dominated by attention to the apparently inexorable rise in tsunami casualties toward a figure of 200,000 throughout Southeast Asia. And yet at the same time, evidence strongly suggests that total mortality in the Darfur region of western Sudan now exceeds 400,000 human beings since the outbreak of sustained conflict in February 2003. In other words, human destruction is more than twice that of the recent tsunami—and has now surpassed the half-way mark for the most commonly cited total for deaths in Rwanda during the genocide of 1994 (800,000)…

October 11 2001: BBC News – Straw denies split with US over Iraq

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has denied there is any split between the US and the UK on whether military action should be extended to countries outside Afghanistan.

January 25 2005: The Guardian – Straw emollient on Iran rift after US talks

The foreign secretary, Jack Straw, played down a rift with the US about possible military action to prevent Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon after talks yesterday with the incoming secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice.

2001: “There is no such action on the agenda at present,” he told a news conference in central London.

2005: “I think it was indicative that in the discussions I had, the issue was not raised once by either side. It was not on the table,” Mr Straw said.

BBC News: Iraqi forces ‘committing abuse’

Iraqi security forces systematically abuse prisoners, a leading US-based human rights group reports.

Read the Human Rights Watch report here.

New Statesman: Rule of the Death Squads

He had a strong suspicion about who was behind most of these killings, he said. “You can look no further than the Governing Council. There are political parties in this city who are systematically killing people. They are politicians that are backed by the Americans and who arrived to Iraq from exile with a list of their enemies. I’ve seen these lists. They are killing people one by one.”

John Negroponte: US Pro-consul in Iraq.

Independent: Outcry over creation of GM smallpox virus

Senior scientific advisers to the World Health Organisation (WHO) have recommended the creation of a genetically modified version of the smallpox virus to counter any threat of a bioterrorist attack.

As if we haven’t got enough stuff that could potentially kill us all. Aren’t global warming, global dimming, George Bush, megatsunamis, supervolcanoes, the decline of male fertility and all enough that we have to create another genie that could slip its bottle? Oh, look:

Four years ago, scientists in Australia genetically modified a mousepox virus and inadvertently created a highly virulent strain that could not be stopped by vaccination.

Shouldn’t we be trying to cure the old diseases before we start creating new ones? It’s not as if medical science hasn’t got some real challenges already. Did some scientists get together and say, “Cancer? AIDS? Bollocks. Let’s create a real show-stopper”?

For those of us with nowhere else to go – just remember how deep the trap is.

The Telegraph: Labour back-pedals on reform of the Lords

Labour has abandoned a firm commitment to announce its final plan for House of Lords reform before the general election because of deep divisions on the issue, a Cabinet minister has revealed.

So just who was Michael Howard trying to appeal to with his odious blackshirtery this afternoon?

One statistic that’s been bandied about in the last few days (as recently as the PM show on Radio 4 this evening) is that one in three people (read: bigots) are concerned/worried about the issue of asylum.

So generously taking this statistic at face value, that’s a third of the electorate getting steamed up about foreigners. That’s leaves two thirds who just don’t care or know the facts and aren’t worried.

In the News of the World survey on January 16, the support for the Tories in the UK’s 120 most marginal seats is 32%. Which fits quite neatly with the one in three concerned about asylum – Howard’s preaching to the converted. He’s shoring up his core vote.

Those people who read the facts about asylum seekers and immigration aren’t worried about these twin bogeymen. Daily Mail readers, Tory voters (and let’s face it, quite a few johnny-come-lately New Labour voters) and other ignoramuses who would rather be told how to think are worried about a mythical tide of filthy foreigners who want to bleed the welfare system dry and give us all AIDS.

There is also the chance that this rancid little piece of button-pushing might well backfire. It may have the unintended consequence of galvanising the lacklustre Labour vote that the New Labour high command are reportedly so worried might stay at home on polling day. Disillusioned Labour voters might drag themselves out, hold their noses and vote to keep Howard and his morally bankrupt little crew out of power.

It’s not much of a choice and a worse reason to vote Labour – because they’re slightly less evil than the Tories – I have yet to hear. Labour might spoil it all when they announce their own asylum policy but after Howard’s display today I might just have to change my plans and get out of bed on polling day after all.

In other news, this discouraging little nugget from the Financial Times:

Tony Blair has drafted in a US-based polling strategist who helped masterminded Bill Clinton’s re-election as president in 1996, Labour confirmed. Mark Penn, 50, who urged Mr Clinton to send out strong messages on crime and the economy, is helping the party’s general election team and visited its campaign headquarters in London last week.

From Nick Cohen’s Pretty Straight Guys

Clinton’s “reality therapy” begain in 1980 when he was governor of Arkansas, a state in the old Confederacy. Cuban refugees being held in an Arkansas lock-up rioted, and the pictures of a racial struggle between white policemen and brown-skinned aliens helped lose Clinton the governorship. Bill and Hillary plotted what was to be a successful return to power and resolved “never to be out-negatived again”. Christopher Hitchens, Clinton’s best and least sympathetic biographer, says that the origins of the “out-negatived” phrase were familiar to everyone who knew the politics of the South. When George Wallace lost the state of Alabama to a more nakedly racist opponent he swore in public that he would “never be outniggered again”.

And so, with weary inevitability, New Labour meet Michael Howard’s pronouncement on immigration not with charges of stirring up racism, or declaring such spewings hypocritical coming from a man whose father fled Romania in 1939 to escape the rising tide of anti-Semitism. No, never knowingly out-flanked on the right (to paraphrase George Wallace), Labour rebutted Howard’s advertisement in the Telegraph by attacking him over how he would pay for his plans. Not that the plans are racist or they might prevent genuine asylum seekers reaching the UK. Or for that matter, seeing as immigrants provide a net gain to the British economy, that immigrants should be welcomed.

No, New Labour refuted the advert because they say the plans aren’t costed properly.

Welcome to grey, dismal, unwelcoming Little England.

I built a little empire out of some crazy garbage
Called the blood of the exploited working class
But they’ve overcome their shyness
Now they’re calling me your highness
And a world screams, kiss me, son of god

I destroyed a bond of friendship and respect
Between the only people left who’d even look me in the eye
Now I laugh and make a fortune
Off the same ones that I tortured
And a world screams, kiss me, son of god

I look like Jesus, so they say
But Mr. Jesus is very far away
Now you’re the only one here who can tell me if it’s true
That you love me and I love me

I built a little empire out of some crazy garbage
Called the blood of the exploited working class
But they’ve overcome their shyness
Now they’re calling me your highness
And a world screams, kiss me, son of god

Kiss Me Son Of God, They Might Be Giants

Empty rhetoric

(via Bloggerheads)

Sydney Morning Herald: US official confirms Allawi shot six dead

A former Jordanian government minister has told The New Yorker that an American official confirmed to him that the Iraqi interim Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi, executed six suspected insurgents at a Baghdad police station last year.

I remember this story being dismissed at the time, most notably by Tony Blair at a press conference. Let’s see how widely this gets reported.

Jack Straw’s off to China this week. No doubt trade will be on the agenda. Particularly as some countries want to lift the EU arms embargo with China which was put in place after the Tiananmen Square massacre.

Can you guess at any country that is particularly gung-ho about lifting the embargo? Go on take a guess. Nice country, the people like drinking tea, sells lots of weapons.

Still, what’s a trip abroad if you can use it as an opportunity to shill arms to a country at loggerheads with its neighbours.?

And while Straw’s pressing the flesh with those lovely chaps in Beijing, you might recall the Dalai Lama’s visit to the UK last year. Tony Blair didn’t meet him. “Diary pressures” apparently. Plus, why waste your time with a man of peace when there’s no money in it?

The US are against the lifting of the embargo apparently. Jack Straw said this would create a “presentational problem“.

He really is an irritating little tick, isn’t he?

BBC News: GM beet ‘can benefit environment’

Some genetically-modified crops can be managed in a way that is beneficial to wildlife, a UK research team believes.

But wait there’s more…

The study, Management Of GM Herbicide-tolerant Sugar Beet For Spring And Autumn Environmental Benefit, was funded in 2001 and 2002 by a consortium of GM industry interests, the Association of Biotechnology Companies (ABC).

But the researchers say they accepted the support on condition that they could publish their work with no restrictions or reference to the ABC.

Fair enough. The research is being carried out by Broom’s Barn Research Station which is part of Rothamsted Research.

Let’s have a look at some of Rothamsted Research’s senior management:

Dr David Evans
“He joined ICI Agrochemicals in 1989 as Research General Manager and after demerger became Director of Research and Development of Zeneca (later AstraZeneca) Agrochemicals. Following merger with Novartis in 2000, he was appointed Head of Research & Technology and member of the Executive Committee of Syngenta International AG, based in Basel, Switzerland.”

and…

Professor Sarah Gurr
Her collaborations with industry and research stations include Aventis, Dow Agrosciences, Syngenta, Stiefel, Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research and Rothamsted Research.

The research may be above board and the researchers claim no allegiance with the ABC. But Rothamsted Research has some close links to industry.

BBC News: Bangladesh ‘endorses’ GM rice

The Bangladesh Agriculture Ministry says it hopes to release a type of genetically modified rice to farmers if on-going research is successful.

Apparently, this is a new wonder rice:

He said beta carotene – which the body develops into Vitamin A – had been taken from daffodils and added to the rice. This made it useful in fighting conditions such as poor sight and blindness.

I wonder if this is the same “golden rice” that Anuradha Mittal wrote about on the Alternet website a couple of years back:

Alternet: ‘Golden’ Rice Is Tarnished

This altered rice was given the honorific “golden” because a daffodil gene was inserted, giving it an orange color. This gene produces beta-carotene in the rice, a nutrient humans can convert into vitamin A. Because vitamin A deficiency contributes to blindness and infectious diseases among the poor in developing countries, golden rice was aggressively advertised as a miracle grain to end suffering for millions around the world. More importantly, golden rice was the first of several foods the biotech industry said would make it possible to eradicate world hunger.

…

Developers of this grain have been vague on how much golden rice a person must eat to get enough beta-carotene for the recommended daily vitamin A needs. But an analysis of industry data shows that in order for those most vulnerable to blindness — infants — to get enough vitamin A from breast milk, their mothers would have to consume almost 40 pounds of cooked rice per day.

Let’s hope the formula’s been concentrated a little more since that article was written in July 2003.

As in all these things, you have to ask in whose interest would this rice be introduced and why.

Research into the new crop is being carried out by the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute. Back in 2003, the BRRI worked with Syngenta Bangladesh Limited to develop a method of protecting Bangladesh’s rice crop from the yellow stem borer. A venture funded, interestingly, by the Crop Protection Programme of the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID).

There’s a mention of Syngenta on the BRRI’s links page

Syngenta Bangladesh Limited is a subsidiary of Syngenta, the “world-leading agribusiness committed to sustainable agriculture through innovative research and technology”.

Syngenta, also owns AstraZeneca, formerly (before a merger), Zeneca which owns the exclusive commercial rights to “golden rice”.

So, a connection between the institute evaluating the viability of the new strain and the company who owns the commercial rights to “golden rice”. The research’s findings will make interesting reading.