Fight Smart' Update - 14 Feb 2002

Don't Take the Bait - Fight Smart
ANIMATED PHOTO ESSAY - CLICK HERE
Who is the enemy?

Bomber Britain and the War Against Terrorism
www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex/Documents/britainWat.htm

"The Prime Minister swept aside criticism of his globetrotting yesterday with a warning that the West could face new terrorist threats unless measures were taken to releive poverty... he said it was important not to miss the best chance in a generation to heal the scar of Africa..."
London Times, 6 February 2002

"British policy in Africa has rarely been more cynical. Taxpayers are financing one of the biggest ever sales pitches aimed at flooding Africa with weapons....Under Labour, arms exports to the continent have, according to the Campaign Against Arms Trade, risen from £52 million in 1999 to £125 million in 2000 to more than £200 million next year."
London Times, 6 February, 2002
(extracts below)

"The African continent has more internally displaced persons (IDPs) than the rest of the world put together... During the second half of 2001 the number of IDPs in Africa reached 13.5 million, an increase of more than 5 million since 1998, NRC said, more than three times Africa’s estimated refugee population at the beginning of the year.... Many of the conflicts, while internal in nature, are sustained by external factors – not least cross-border support for armed groups or rebel movements active in resource-rich areas..."
INRIN News, 13 Feb 2002

Extracts from
"You cannot heal scars by bleeding Africa dry"
Simon Jenkins, London Times, 6 February 2002

"British policy in Africa has rarely been more cynical. Taxpayers are financing one of the biggest ever sales pitches aimed at flooding Africa with weapons. Government promotion alone is worth $200 million. Under Labour, arms exports to the continent have, according to the Campaign Against Arms Trade, risen from £52 million in 1999 to £125 million in 2000 to more than £200 million next year. These exports must be paid for either by extra debt, which Western taxpayers will one day 'relieve', or by the sweated labour of Africa’s people. What this has to do with 'healing scars' is beyond me.

BAE Systems, with government support, has just hard-sold an unnecessary £28 million military air traffic system to Tanzania. Experts advised a £7 million system. It will be financed by debt at the same time as Britain is supporting World Bank debt relief for the same country, relief supposedly to pay for primary education. These deals are supported by British ministers such as Clare Short and Peter Hain, who would both win Olympic medals for moral pontification. If sovereign governments wish to buy expensive toys, that is their business. I cannot see why the rest of the world should finance, or even encourage, it.

South Africa’s Government, ensnared in arms-dealing corruption, is currently spending £4 billion of precious foreign exchange, not on urgent Aids drugs but on weapons. This includes £100 million on British Hawk jets. Local politics is in uproar over this perversion of South Africa’s public finances, in which Britain is heavily implicated. British ministers say that if Britain does not sell such weapons, someone else will. Let them. The Government’s Export Control Bill has been so weakened as to make it an offshore arms dealer’s charter. It last week roused 40 bishops, including even the Archbishop of Canterbury, to protest.

Africa has over the past 25 years received more external aid per head than any other continent on Earth. While average global living standards have risen over that period, in Africa they have fallen by 20 per cent. Africa is by far the poorest continent on Earth.

I am not overtaxed by Mr Blair’s 'conscience' over this. The West has done no better for Africa since decolonisation than it did during the age of Empire, some would say worse. But I go this far with the 'anti-globalisers'. Whenever I have visited Africa, I have returned uncertain whether foreign aid was evil in itself or evil only in its application. Some that is worthwhile goes on health and education. Most is squandered on wasteful infrastructure projects, 'know-how' consultancies and arms deals. These reward local elites and outsiders and repatriate bribes and profits to European banks....."

A Sick World

Blair, Bush nominated for Nobel Peace Prize - Times of India Report
Global IDP project - Raising Awareness of the plight of people internally displaced by conflict

AFRICA
More than 13 million displaced

'The Globalizer Who Came In From the Cold'

"Stiglitz told me about his unhappy meeting, early in his World Bank tenure, with Ethopia’s new president in the nation’s first democratic election. The World Bank and IMF had ordered Ethiopia to divert aid money to its reserve account at the US Treasury, which pays a pitiful 4% return, while the nation borrowed US dollars at 12% to feed its population.... Stiglitz greatest concern is that World Bank plans, devised in secrecy and driven by an absolutist ideology, are never open for discourse or dissent. Despite the West’s push for elections throughout the developing world, the so-called Poverty Reduction Programs 'undermine democracy.' And they don’t work. Black Africa’s productivity under the guiding hand of IMF structural 'assistance' has gone to hell in a handbag. Did any nation avoid this fate? Yes, said Stiglitz, identifying Botswana. Their trick? 'They told the IMF to go packing.'..."
Observer, London, 10 October 2001

Global Country of World Peace and the Elimination of Poverty

"Stephen Collins, star of the WB network's '7th Heaven,' spoke out strongly on national television last Monday to support Dr. John Hagelin's Proposal to Prevent Terrorism. Collins was a featured guest on 'The Rosie O'Donnell Show'... Dr. Hagelin has been in Washington, D.C., for the past two months, meeting with top-level government leaders in the White House, Congress, the National Security Council, the State and Defense Departments, and the Pentagon to present a peaceful, scientifically validated approach to preventing terrorism. The response has been very positive, with growing bipartisan support for implementation of the plan."
More - click here

Terrorist reprisals are all but certain now that the U.S. has launched its military campaign to 'eradicate' terrorism. For this reason, a proven solution to terrorism is especially urgent. Please follow the link below, read carefully, and act decisively. There is no other effective defense against terrorism.
Please click here

Additional Press Reports of Interest - 2002

Unofficial EU document shows Israel agreed to pre-'67 borders
GW Bush & Axis of Oil
Numbers Don't Lie, Bushes Do, by Al Martin
Bush family made its fortune from the Nazis
Ex-CIA Official to Head Sept. 11 Probe in Congress
Saddam, U.S. at Loggerheads Over Terror War
Can the US be defeated
The Real Undeclared War
Terror - A War We Are Not Supposed To Win
Germany joins criticism of Bush
Afghanistan Wants To Revive Full Military Ties With Russia
Sleeping With the Terrorists
CIA, Military Lines Blur in War on Afghanistan
Iraq Oil - Second Largest Reserve in the World
Musharraf, Karzai agree major oil pipeline in co-operation pact
Osama bin Laden now in Iran? (How convenient!)
Afghanistan, the Taliban and the Bush oil team

NLPWessex War on Terrorism Archives - click here

  NATURAL LAW PARTY WESSEX
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