Harold Pinter 1930 - 2008 RIP He fought injustice and hypocrisy
Nobel Lecture 2005 by Harold Pinter - Art, Truth & Politics
How many people do you have to kill before you qualify to be described as a mass murderer and a war criminal? One hundred thousand? More than enough, I would have thought. Therefore it is just that Bush and Blair be arraigned before the International Criminal Court of Justice. But Bush has been clever. He has not ratified the International Criminal Court of Justice. Therefore if any American soldier or for that matter politician finds himself in the dock Bush has warned that he will send in the marines. But Tony Blair has ratified the Court and is therefore available for prosecution. We can let the Court have his address if they're interested. It is Number 10, Downing Street, London....
Look at Guantanamo Bay. Hundreds of people detained without charge for over three years, with no legal representation or due process, technically detained forever. This totally illegitimate structure is maintained in defiance of the Geneva Convention. It is not only tolerated but hardly thought about by what's called the 'international community'. This criminal outrage is being committed by a country, which declares itself to be 'the leader of the free world'. Do we think about the inhabitants of Guantanamo Bay? What does the media say about them? They pop up occasionally - a small item on page six. They have been consigned to a no man's land from which indeed they may never return. At present many are on hunger strike, being force-fed, including British residents. No niceties in these force-feeding procedures. No sedative or anaesthetic. Just a tube stuck up your nose and into your throat. You vomit blood. This is torture. What has the British Foreign Secretary said about this? Nothing. What has the British Prime Minister said about this? Nothing. Why not? Because the United States has said: to criticise our conduct in Guantanamo Bay constitutes an unfriendly act. You're either with us or against us. So Blair shuts up.
3 comments:
"The death of Harold Pinter comes as a great shock. We all knew, of course, that he had endured a succession of illnesses ever since 2000. But there was a physical toughness and tenacity of will about Harold that made us all believe he would survive for a few more years yet. Sadly, it was not to be"...
http://tinyurl.com/7ck29e
We have lost a great man and brother...
http://tinyurl.com/7vas6e
"The paramount war criminal Tony Blair - For Virtue, Vibrio and God"
"Blair took over the Major government's genocidal sanctions policy for Iraq in '97. Whilst the well mannered man from Brixton sought his fortune with the Carlyle Group, the New Labour high command worked with their opposite numbers in starving a well developed country back to the Stone age. The chlorine factory near Fallujah was bombed in Gulf War 1. Parts for water and sewage pumps were barred and even penicillin too. The cholera vibrio was soon draining the life fluids from the children who were made easier targets by malnutrition. At least 500,000 children died from this very deliberate policy, many from diarrhoeal disease. Von Sponeck and Halliday resigned in protest and the latter called it genocide. The vibrio has been killing in Iraq for eighteen months. In 1991 89% of the population had clean water. A barbarian force applied the sanctions to a civilian population and followed with massive explosive force from March 22 2003. The broken sewers and foul water belong neither to Saddam Hussein nor to Mugabe but to the two good Christians Bush and Blair"...
http://tinyurl.com/8t3zzk
"pinter nobel lecture"...
http://tinyurl.com/73s4nv
"Bronski Beat & Eartha Kitt : Interview & video"...
http://tinyurl.com/9p2hay
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