04:25 p.m., Friday, October 19, 2001
That's it for this week peeps. Don't forget to go join my updates list. Have a nice weekend.
[by Beth]

02:56 p.m., Friday, October 19, 2001
In favour of euthanasia.
[by Beth]

02:46 p.m., Friday, October 19, 2001
Bin Laden is trying to build a nuclear bomb. And there has been a 'credible threat' against Three Mile Island.

Isn't anyone else SCARED SHITLESS round about now?
[by Beth]

02:37 p.m., Friday, October 19, 2001
Various Labour backbench MPs are starting a campaign against the present military action against Afghanistan. The pressure for them not to is immense, but they're doing it. And I am so glad that some people are sticking up for what they believe.
[by Beth]

02:24 p.m., Friday, October 19, 2001
The European Court of Human Rights has agreed to hear a case against NATO countries for bombing a Belgrade TV station during the conflict with Kosovo.

The story of an Afghan boy who fled his country for the UK.

The fear of biological terrorism could be more likely to make people ill than bioterrorism itself.

It's about time that someone pointed this out.

Psychiatrists are becoming less racially biased in their diagnoses.
[by Beth]

11:45 a.m., Friday, October 19, 2001
I now have an updates list for my site. Get over there to join it, or go to my livejournal for some information on what it's for. In fact, go there anyway if you've not been this week. Quite a few posts there.
[by Beth]

04:50 p.m., Thursday, October 18, 2001
At first, I thought that helping the Northern Alliance to seize power from the Taleban would be a good thing. But since then I've heard tell of what they're like. Of what they did to Afghanistan when they were in charge. Of how they repress women.

But it looks like Bush wants the Northern Alliance to storm in and do his dirty work for him. And that scares me. It proves what I was saying a few days ago, that all the US wants is the head of Osama bin Laden on a plate, that they don't care about the fate of Afghanistan as long as they get their revenge.

Well, fuck revenge. I want justice. I want trials. And I want proof.

I want to know if we're really going after the right people, or if some group out there is sniggering at us, planning another attack next year or the year after. If next time it's going to involve someone I love.

I don't want to fuck up someone else's country and leave it in ruins on the grounds that the person who planned these attacks is sitting in the desert, waiting for winter.

I want to do what is right. And that is why I keep posting these stories, why I won't move on. It was never really personal for me, not the way the IRA bombing my home town was. I don't want people to keep crying for those who died. I want them to concentrate on what we are doing now, to hold our countries responsible and to stand up and say NO, I don't agree with this. To make our voices heard.

That's why I keep reading, keep snatching these minutes to post. And that's why you should read too, even if you don't read this ever again. You should still read and watch the news and remember that this is your country. You have the power to change it.
[by Beth]

04:21 p.m., Thursday, October 18, 2001
We [the West]'re fucking up, bombing the wrong places, and we won't even stop for a day or two to let aid through? What kind of a fucked up world is this?
[by Beth]

04:16 p.m., Thursday, October 18, 2001
This article about anthrax is the most reassuring one I've seen so far.
This, however, is far freakier. Take your pick.
[by Beth]

04:07 p.m., Thursday, October 18, 2001
Just a couple of general human rights items before the main things for today:

Cyprus may not be accepted into the EU if it does not improve its record on rights for gays.
Diane Pretty has lost her case to let her husband help her commit suicide as she suffers from motor neurone disease, a degenerative disease and is virtually paralysed so she cannot do it herself.
[by Beth]

04:06 p.m., Thursday, October 18, 2001
Sorry about my lack of updates yesterday. Partly this was to keep the last post from the day before at the top; partly it was that I had too much work to mess around posting; but mainly I was just drained and didn't have the energy.

No real commentary, but here are the links I wanted to post:

- The US bombed an International Red Cross warehouse.
- I wish the Israelis and Palestinians would accept that the only way for the killings to stop is for them to stop killing each other.
- If the US military really wants British help, the least it could do is treat it with respect.
- Seems like the links between bin Laden's network and the Taleban are falling apart.
- This is very sad. Hearing what was said by the pilots and air traffic controllers on the morning the planes were hijacked.

[by Beth]

03:04 p.m., Tuesday, October 16, 2001
Please read this.

'They drew the line too soon and too simply. I see the temptation: there is a dramatic kind of comfort in making everyone choose which side of the barricade to stand, as if the Last Trump were sounding. “You’re either with us, or against us” said President Bush. Tony Blair was just as simple. Faced with merciless terrorism we have “just a choice. Defeat it or be defeated by it. And defeat it we must.”

'Only a few bravely disaffected voices muttered about the rather more pragmatic approach our PM takes with the equally merciless bombers of Northern Ireland. His vision of a great global cleansing was seductive; but as with any seduction, burning ardour and tumbling words made us forget the morning after.'

Yes. Northern Ireland. The terrorists over there are no better than Osama bin Laden. Just less convinced that their methods will take them straight to heaven. They plant bombs in well-populated public places, killed two children in Warrington where I used to live. And we harbour them, don't we? We let them live here.

And in the absence of proof that the Taleban were connected to the attacks, we're attacking a country just to get to one man. We're going to bring down a repressive government to get to one man that they may or may not have sheltered (he may, to all intents and purposes, be controlling *them*), but we're not going to help build up the country again. We're just going to destroy it, seize our man and get out again.

'The war may work. I hope it works. The best we can dream of is that the bombing stops, the special forces move in efficiently and corner bin Laden; that the evidence against him and his lieutenants satisfies an international court, while the Afghan people are helped towards decent self-government and a moral miracle in Israel suddenly enables a Palestinian settlement.

'But that is an awful lot to hope. And with global 24-hour media, even that would need to happen pretty quickly in order to arrest the onset of cynicism and despair.'

Sometimes I love what Libby Purves, the journalist who wrote this, writes. Sometimes I hate her views. But I think I agree with every word of this article.

'Day by day, the muttering grows louder to the effect that while the money is never there for enough teachers or operations or care for the elderly or a publicly owned reform of ghastly transport systems, it is mysteriously available to assist in a distant military campaign whose main effect so far is to make us a more obvious target for terrorism.'
[by Beth]

02:58 p.m., Tuesday, October 16, 2001
The British Government wants to be able to operate outside the European Convention on Human Rights.

'Mr Blunkett told the Commons that he would be seeking a specific derogation from the European convention on human rights to protect the most basic right of all - the right to live in safety, free from fear of attack. But his decision to seek a limited suspension from the human rights convention so that suspected terrorists who cannot be deported can be detained indefinitely raised fears that he is about to introduce a new form of internment.'

Yes. Everyone has the right to live in safety, free from attack. But that does not give anyone the right to detain someone indefinitely and without charge. And I'm starting to fail to recognise the country I lived in six weeks ago.
[by Beth]

02:45 p.m., Tuesday, October 16, 2001
Thank God that the media in this country seem to be able to exercise their common sense instead of bowing to government pressure.
[by Beth]

01:51 p.m., Tuesday, October 16, 2001
I have my reservations about the way we're going about this (expecting accountants, estate agents and lawyers to report suspicious things? imposing penalties on third countries who are uncooperative in fighting money laundering - what kind of penalties, and why are they being uncooperative - is it anything to do with human rights?) but it's the way I want to fight. I don't agree with some of the methods used, but I want us to cut off their money and communications, to kill off the terrorist groups that way.

On the news this morning, someone mentioned that the Western world's purpose in these attacks isn't to topple the Taleban, it's to get to Osama bin Laden, but that if the only way to do that is to topple the Taleban they'll do it. And that's what's been getting to me, that's why I believe bombing is wrong. America doesn't seem to be interested in anything but what it sees as justice. Killing the Taleban's leader so that the regime crumbles, bin Laden has nowhere left to hide, the Northern Alliance can come storming in to save the day and drag Afghanistan into an even worse state. Noone is interested in preventing the oppresion of the Afghan people, in ensuring that women are not oppressed, in helping the everyday people there to create their own government that represents them all.
[by Beth]

04:37 p.m., Monday, October 15, 2001
This is good, but this is better.

'We cannot be trusted to hear Mr bin Laden's opinions in full in case we misinterpret them. We are the Government; we understand. You are the people; you are stupid.'
[by Beth]

04:34 p.m., Monday, October 15, 2001
It's about time the victims had a voice in all this. I just wish more of them were women's voices. They've been suffering for far longer.
[by Beth]

04:31 p.m., Monday, October 15, 2001
The CIA had the opportunity to kill the leader of the Taleban, Mullah Mohammed Omar. But he left before they got authorisation.

I don't want him killed. I want him to face trial. I want him to have to stand up in court and try and justify his actions. I don't want him martyred while fleeing American attacks.

I want him to languish in jail for a very long time to consider what he's done to Afghanistan.
[by Beth]

04:24 p.m., Monday, October 15, 2001
You remember I posted a while ago about a couple who want to pick and choose an embryo to help save their child, who suffers from a genetic disorder? This couple have travelled to the US for the treatment.

I still think it's wrong to create a life just to try and save the life of an existing child. What issues are these poor children going to have, just seeing themselves as grown as spare parts, not really wanted by their parents? Especially if the older children die - what are they then, some kind of replacement?
[by Beth]

04:12 p.m., Monday, October 15, 2001
I hope that this is nothing, but in the present climate, I'm scared that the anthrax attacks on America are being extended to the UK.
[by Beth]

03:42 p.m., Monday, October 15, 2001
Have you heard of Reporters sans Frontieres? They have written to Colin Powell, the US secretary of state, expressing their concern about the current situation.

'Robert Menard, the general secretary of the organisation, said the US was "joining the many authoritarian regimes in the Middle East who have little respect for freedom of the press, in their criticism of this channel".

'M Menard added that "information pluralism must be respected in all circumstances".

'RSF has denounced as "censorship" the White House's request that media outlets stop broadcasting the speeches of Osama Bin Laden.

'In a column written for MediaGuardian.co.uk by the chair of the British branch of the organisation, Veronica Forwood, RSF warns that "censorship of news in wartime is still censorship".'

This on the same day that the UK Government announces its plans for new anti-terrorist legislation.

'The bill will aim to put into law measures first set out in the home secretary's speech to the Labour party conference two weeks ago. These include a new offence of incitement to religious hatred and powers to prevent suspected or convicted terrorists from claiming asylum in Britain.

'The police will also be given the right to demand passenger lists from transport companies. Financial institutions will also be compelled to report details of dealings that they suspect have terrorist connections.'

Scary stuff, doncha think? Censorship in war is censorship, and civil liberties are as important in war as any other time. I posted this in my livejournal last week and it's very relevant.
[by Beth]

03:38 p.m., Monday, October 15, 2001
Tony Blair has backed the creation of a Palestinian state.
[by Beth]