Why is Tony Blair So Unpopular in the UK? (Jan 2010)
This is a question often asked by our readers in the US and Canada. Here are five of the main reasons:
1) Knowing he would get a no-vote in any referendum on surrendering British sovereignty to the EU, Blair went back on his word and took it upon himself to sign up to the EU constitution on 29th Oct 2004, an act of treason by definition.
2) Due to US sycophancy, Blair deliberately mislead the UK and parliament into an illegal war with Iraq that has cost over a million Iraqi lives and hundreds of British personnel, and made the world a lot less safe. And he is unapologetic about his war crimes, defiantly saying he would do them again.
3) Not only did Blair support an illegal US-backed war that was clearly not in British interests and which spilt so much blood, he now profits from his actions in America and Israel where his popularity due to his unconditional support of the US foreign policy has earned him over 30 million dollars to date. He has also represented a South Korean oil firm interested in Iraqi oil, and his support for the EU almost saw him elected as EU President.) And he uses his ex-prime minister status to hide his business empire (some off-shore) and is thought to have rejected a peerage as lords have to divulge their financial interests.
4) Blair has told the British people so many lies over his years in office with silver-tongued eloquence that he is hated across the whole political spectrum, and the "a" and the "i" in his name are often reversed in protest placards.
5) Blair seems to have always acted entirely in his own interests without any regard for those of the British people or his country. He ignored the biggest anti-war protests ever held in the UK, despite himself starting out as a pacifist, he has destroyed British sovereignty with his fixation on EU central control, and is notoriously easily intoxicated by political power and money — a man without a shred of morality or conscience (despite grandstanding as a devout Christian, human rights advocate and peace envoy).

Downsize to Thrive - www.downsizetothrive.com
A practical advice-packed website that shows the reader how to find balance in life and with the environment so that we can survive the 21st Century. From inner growth to managing your money, from learning to embrace simplicity to being satisfied with less, this site is a treasure-trove of wisdom that is becoming increasingly non-optional as we teeter towards the possibility of societal and ecological collapse. Check out the Survival Bible section which offers a one-page solution to the global crisis. (Thanks Shaleia:-)

The Rise of the Forth Reich (The European Union)

The Red House Report was the Nazi's "Plan B" written in November 1944 when they realized that the war was lost. It described a secret meeting that took place at the Maison Rouge Hotel in Strasbourg on August 10th in which it was decided that, although the military-driven Third Reich had failed, a commercially-driven Forth Reich could rise from its ashes. This would be achieved by having the German industrial network (much of it secret) rebuild Germany as quickly as possible, a plan economically helped by the Allied Forces who wanted stability in the region. Then, when the time was right, German industry would take over the whole of Europe through supranational organisations, giving the control necessary for a successful resurrection of the Nazi party – the Forth Reich.

Today, we can see that this plan has been followed to the letter, and what started as the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) developed into the Economic European Community (EEC) and finally into the political-economic superstate known today as the European Union (EU). And the dictatorial control that the EU imposes on its member countries and their respective citizens is reflective of its Nazi roots and ultimate Nazi/Fascist agenda of centralized political and corporate control. For more information, click here.

Britain has turned into an Orwellian Surveillance State (Feb 2009)
This isn't just the view of civil liberty campaigners but also the conclusion of the Lords constitution committee. The peers warned that the level of British CCTV surveillance, the highest per capita in the world, has reached a point where it is threatening to undermine democracy. Not only that, but the UK also has the largest DNA database in the world, containing profiles of 7% of the population (as opposed to 0.5% in the US), showing that the government's "nothing to hide, nothing to fear" justification for Orwellian Britain is deeply flawed. [BBC]

Crashing the Party: Scott Ritter's Speech
At the 2008 Crashing the Party convention, former UN Weapons Inspector, Scott Ritter, made a remarkable speech: even though he is a patriotic American, he confessed that the majority of his own people were "sick" because they believe that the US has a right to not only unilaterally dictate terms to the rest of the world, but also to help itself to other country's resources, in violation to international law, to maintain their addiction to rampant consumerism. In the US now, thanks to a virtual media monopoly that has dumbed-down its citizens so that they are now some of the most ignorant and ill-informed people on the face of the Earth, war has become entertainment, a chance for Americans to feel good about themselves as their armed forces mete out "shock and awe" on millions of foreign and frightened citizens. World peace actually hangs in the balance because of the actions of one country — America (two countries if you count Israel). If you are an American, you are urged to listed to Ritter's speech and understand that you are not being "unpatriotic" if you choose to support the vision of your Founding Fathers rather than the nightmare of your current political leaders. To view Ritter's talk, click here. At the same convention, former CIA analyst, Ray McGovern, also gave a talk.

Political Ponerology by Andrzej Lobaczewski
Every now and then a book comes along that shatters our political paradigm. Political Ponerology is about how our current social and political systems are literally being run by psychopaths, because the ruthless lack of conscience that is characteristic of psychopaths is the very quality that guarantees that their rise to the top. This is why we have so many wars and social problems. You can find an interview with friends of the author (Laura Knight-Jadczyk and Henry See) which you can find at www.sott.net. (Thanks M for link:-)

Democracy's Last Stand in the European Union (Jun 2008)
When Ireland voted against the EU Lisbon treaty this month, throwing a spanner in the works of the ever increasing centralization of EU power, it showed the danger of allowing EU citizens the luxury of referendums. If truth be told, given a democratic choice, citizens of the EU would not vote for the totalitarian European superstate we are fast approaching. Brussels and pro-European governments know this: ALL of them, except Ireland which has to by its own constitutional laws, withheld giving their people a democratic choice in the matter, which meant that Non-Irish Europeans have had ratification of this treaty imposed upon them. Not that the Irish vote will ultimately make any difference — as Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, the architect of the EU Constitution said: "Future referendums will be ignored whether they are held in Ireland or elsewhere." The UK government continues to avoid a referendum that it once promised its electorate, preferring to play down the erosion of democracy by focusing on potential economic benefits of a superstate. When MEPs (Members of the European Parliament) are unelected and referendums are avoided or ignored, when our rights as free citizens get eroded by faceless bureaucrats in Brussels, when potential economic benefit takes precedence over considerations of personal freedom and hard-won democracy, we know that Hitler's dream of a "united" Europe has finally been realized, this time by political means.

2,000,000 Organisations Oppose Globalization (Jul 2007)
A new book by Paul Hawken claims that there are about two million organisations around the world opposed to globalization and the whole process of turning us into slaves to a corporate system. However, if you are one of those who do not like what is going on, you have to act with your wallet, not just with your sentiments. For example, if you oppose the scourge of drug medicine (that kills an estimated 100,000 people annually in the US alone), then you have a responsibility to start weaning yourself off the non-essential drugs you habitually take and start pursuing natural and alternative routes. And if you oppose genetic modification or the poverty induced by supermarkets from which you buy your sterilized food packages, you have a responsibility to start buying fresh organic food from local suppliers. We cannot ideologically oppose globalisation and go about our lives 'normally' because we forget that we — little you and little me — are actually the ones bankrolling big business and their globalisation agenda with our basic consumer choices.

Freedom to Fascism — The New World Order (May 2007)
Film-maker Aaron Russo has released a film called AMERICA: From Freedom to Fascism, a must-see documentary. What is happening in the US is similar to what is happening in the EU: we are all headed for a totalitarian world-government which will bear out, with no exaggeration, the horrors of Orwell's 1984. If you want this to happen, do nothing — sit back, enjoy your TV, and trust your politicians. If, however, you don't want to be a slave to a world government, then visit www.freedomtofascism.com and see this powerful documentary. The choice is yours. (And if you want to see a film that exposes similar abuses of power and the rise of totalitarianism in the EU, watch The Real Face of the EU.)

Joe Bageant's new book is now published (July 2007)
Bageant has been a regular contributor to this magazine for a few years now so it is with great pleasure that we can announce that his new book, Deer Hunting With Jesus, has finally been published. You can buy Bageant's book from his website at www.joebageant.com. There is also a good podcast interview with Bageant out on the net at www.electricpolitics.com.

New European justice system for the United Kingdom
Known as Corpus Juras (body of law), this is the Norman legal system that will shortly override quaint Anglo-Saxon law of "innocent until proven guilty" and trial by jury:
• Trial by Jury will be replaced by trial by the decision of a state appointed judge
• Habeas Corpus will be scrapped, replaced by arrest without charge and detention for up to 9 months without any evidence
• "Innocent until proven guilty" will be dropped so that citizens must prove their innocence to the State
• Double jeopardy, the right not to be tried for the same offence twice, will go out the window.
Watch the following film to understand some of what is going on in the corrupt dictatorship of Europe — The Real Face of the EU.

Bush's War on Terrorism Increases Terrorism (April 2007)
A study by the NYU School of Law shows that the invasion of Iraq has made the world a much more dangerous place, serving only to spread the deadly virus of Al-Qaeda ideology. This study used data from the MIPT-RAND Terrorism database, considered to be the most accurate publicly available record of terrorist acts. This study has revealed that, due in large part to Middle Eastern reactions to the Iraq war, there has been a global 607% rise in the average yearly incidents of terrorism. A large part of this has occurred within Iraq, but even excluding this country, jihadist attacks have risen by 265% and fatalities by 58%.

US Gets a New Peaceful Government — Unofficially
It may seem way-out to some, but it is an idea with huge merit at a time when the US seems out of control with a government bent on militarization and world-conquest. The US Peace Government was set up a few years ago, in its own words, "to promote harmony in America and peace in the world." Its president, Dr. John Hagelin, a renowned quantum physicist and follower of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (the Indian holy man who brought Transcendental Meditation or TM to the world) believes that world peace can only be achieved by cultivating peace and harmony inwardly through meditation, which cuts out the roots of violence and disharmony in our minds rather than trying to deal with the outer political systems and disharmonies which sprout from those roots. A crazy idea? Well it certainly cannot be crazier than bombing the hell out of defenseless countries and mass-murdering their citizens in the name of "democracy" and "freedom". Their site is at www.uspeacegovernment.org and you can watch their a 2 hour presentation here.

Bush Commits 20,000 more troops to Iraq (Jan 2007)
It is a double or nothing gamble placed by the US government to try to stop the chaos and bloodshed in Iraq spiraling out of control. And it is bound to fail because the US Army's own counter-insurgency field manual states that "at minimum, 20 combat troops for every 1,000 people in the population" are needed to stamp out insurgency. Therefore, Baghdad alone would require 120,000 troops whereas the US presence in the whole of Iraq is currently only 70,000. But there is another fatal flaw in Bush's policy in that it assumes that there are a fixed number of Iraqi insurgents that need to be destroyed before the country will be at peace. But insurgents are mostly ordinary Iraqi young men who, from their perspective, are waging a legitimate terrorist campaign against infidel invaders, invaders who are politically linked with their arch-enemy, Israel. As a result, the more America commits to Iraq and the longer its occupation, the greater the insurgency it will face. Like with Vietnam, this is a no-win situation and the only viable solution is to withdraw despite the consequences. To do otherwise may save lives in the short-term, but from a long-term perspective such actions will only make matters worse.

Sadam Guilty And Sentenced To Death (5 Nov 2006)
The farcical trial of Saddam Hussein has finally come to a climax, with Saddam found guilty of mass-murder and sentenced to death. Without the capture of Osama bin Laden, Saddam has become the face of international terrorism for most ignorant people in the West, thanks to lies of the Bush administration and despite irrefutable evidence that he had no involvement in 9-11. Although the judges in both his trials were replaced for being too lenient (hardly an indictment of a fair trial) there is little doubt that Saddam was a brutal dictator who murdered many thousands of people. But let us not forget that he was supported in his climb to that murderous position by the West. And let us also not forget that that support did not waiver despite Saddam's genocide of the Kurds, using chemical weapons and armaments supplied by the West. We support many a brutal dictator around the world because international politics is nothing to do with justice or democracy: it is to do with money and power. The irony is that whilst Saddam's crimes have at least been recognized, Bush and Blair who are also mass-murderers, but on a scale that dwarfs Saddam, remain "respectable" world leaders. Let us not forget that we are all involved in this farce as most of us benefit in some way from the murderous arms trade that gives psychotic men the teeth to repress their people, with of course the blessing of our "moral" leaders. And will one more murder really help matters, or does it just spill more blood on the long road to resolution?

Bush in denial over US intelligence report (27 Sept 2006)
leaked US intelligence report has admitted that the Iraq war has only served to inflame Islamic terrorists worldwide, becoming a "cause celebre" and great recruitment tool for the "supporters for the global jihadist movement." It states that Islamic militants, although small in number, are now multiplying and dispersing geographically, and that the conflict has bred "a deep resentment of US involvement in the Muslim world." It also considers that Europe is now seriously endangered because it is an easier Western target (thanks George and Tony) and that the loss of al-Qaeda leaders will probably only serve to fracture the terrorist group, without decreasing its threat. Predictably, Bush is in complete denial over his own intelligence and stated that it is a mistake to believe that "going on the offence against people who want to do harm to the American people makes us less safe." Of course he failed to mention that Iraq was never a terrorist hot-bed and posed absolutely no threat to the US at all — a fact that even he must have known before he invaded Iraq.

Israel & Hezbollah terrorize Lebanon (July 2006)
Once again the Middle East has erupted in violence as Israel pummel Lebanon in an entirely disproportionate response to the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers by the terrorist organization Hezbollah. And as usual, the main victims of war have been ordinary citizens, with Israeli strikes in Lebanon responsible for the murder of many hundreds of civilians, despite their transparent media propaganda about attacking only Hezbollah positions. It is time the rest of the world, and especially the US, stop taking sides in these conflicts and acknowledges that BOTH parties are acting as terrorists and therefore BOTH need to be sanctioned by the international community. The problem in this region is America's knee-jerk support for Israel, support which discourages diplomacy: after all, if you are under the protection of the playground bully (the US invariably vetoes UN censorship of Israeli terrorism), you don't bother with diplomacy. Instead, you act aggressively and with impunity. And whilst Hezbollah is a terrorist organisation, although one with political legitimacy, Israel is supposed to be a responsible democratic nation — part of an international community — and so it should know better. But instead, it is waging a war on unarmed Lebanese civilians, cutting the country to pieces with US-supplied bombs.
Update: Washington's continued opposition to an immediate ceasefire in a conflict killing hundreds of civilians, many of them children, can only imply complicity in the killing.

US Spys On Own Citizens (12 May 2006): At the behest of the Bush administration, the NSA, America's National Security Agency, has been spying on tens of millions of its own citizens under the guise of fighting terrorism. According to a report in USA Today, the country's three biggest phone companies — AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth — have been handing over the landline and mobile phone recordings of tens of millions of ordinary citizens since 2001 so that that the NSA can compile a call database. All parties involved in this spying campaign — the government, the security agency and the phone companies — have unreasuringly defended themselves by stating that "no laws were broken". From their point of view, putting together phone conversations into a large computer database does not constitute "wiretapping" in the original sense of the word. However, experts disagreed with this play on definitions: Prof Greenberger of the University of Maryland school of law said, "I'm quite confident that if it's true it's illegal."

Physicists Warn Bush Against Nuclear War (Apr 2006)
Thirteen of the most prominent physicists in the US have written a letter to President Bush describing his government's consideration to use nuclear weapons against Iran as "gravely irresponsible", warning that such action would have "disastrous consequences for the security of the United States and the world." The letter was put together by Jorge Hirsch, a physics professor at the University of California, and was signed by a collection of eminent scientists including five Nobel laureates. It was sent to the President along with a petition signed by more than 1,800 physicists against the use of such weapons in preemptive strikes. Hirsch writes, "We are members of the profession that brought nuclear weapons into existence, and we feel strongly that it is our professional duty to contribute our efforts to prevent their misuse. Physicists know best about the devastating effects of the weapons they created, and these eminent physicists speak for thousands of our colleagues." He goes on to say that, "Once the U.S. uses a nuclear weapon again, it will heighten the probability that others will too. In a world with many more nuclear nations and no longer a 'taboo' against the use of nuclear weapons, there will be a greatly enhanced risk that regional conflicts could expand into global nuclear war, with the potential to destroy our civilization." more

Nuclear Threat Increasing (Apr 2006): Ahmadinejad's defiance of the international community by making Iran a nuclear power nation is a serious threat to world peace and regional stability because it gives Bush the excuse he needs to continue empire building into Iran. As Paul Krugman said in the New York Times: "Given the combination of recklessness and dishonesty Bush displayed in launching the Iraq war, why should we assume that he wouldn't do it again?" And as Bush's ratings are at an all time low, such action would boost his support. Iran's defiant stance, although deplorable given the potential consequences, does not actually breach the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty that it has signed. Countries are permitted to develop nuclear power, and that is what Iran has ostensibly done. The four main countries that have not signed the NPT treaty are India, Israel, Pakistan and North Korea, all of which have surreptitiously developed nuclear weapons. However, the only signatory to seriously breach the NPT treaty terms is the US, as it continues to develop new nuclear weapons, shares them with NATO countries and has even offered to trade nuclear technology with non-NPT member India. This flagrant disregard for international law sets a dangerous example for other nations.

Un Report on Guantanamo Bay (16 Feb 2006): The UN released its report today demanding the immediate closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison around further allegations of torture and inhuman treatment, including pictures and video evidence. The white House response? To call the report "a discredit to the UN." [The only thing discrediting to the UN is the fact that this report has taken so long to be released.] White House's response to these crime against humanity is to ravage the UN, in a way that shows complete disrespect for any form of political limits or international community. The US will do what it likes in "defending" its citizens even if, in the process, it incites a growing backlash that will be far more harmful in the long-run. Any moral high-ground assumed [falsely in this case] in "liberating" Iraq has been completely eroded by the use of such inhuman ways of dealing with prisoners. Just because these men are dangerous, does not give licence for inhuman treatment, for in torture the US destroys its own humanity and that of every other nation that supports these actions. And most seriously, and there is no question about this, such actions erode international human rights. There isn't one humanity for us and one humanity for them; torture and brutal treatment have no absolutely no place in any democratic modern society.

Shock and Awe In Iraq: It is the responsibility of our media to show us the consequences of our choices, both in our own countries and abroad, so that we can steer our democratic systems in a direction that respects life. Otherwise, we can end up unwittingly making choices that are not in our interest because they destroy life. For when we destroy life, we destroy ourselves: we destroy the living spirit that can only survive if we have honoured, to the best of our ability, other human beings, animals and the eco-system of this planet. The corporate media in the US is partly responsible for war-crimes and the moral decay of our societies because it continues to deliberately hide from us the consequences of our actions and political support. And by hiding it, it perpetuates those ignorant choices, and in so doing it colludes with the consequences of those choices. The choice to support the foreign policies of Bush and Blair is an evil one. "Evil" is a harsh word, something that we associate with blind religion, but evil is the word that best describes the deliberate policy of smashing people to pieces — physically, mentally and spiritually — for the sake of political and economic ambition. It is our responsibility, therefore, to make sure that we are not ignorant of the consequences of the choices we make. So let us see for ourselves the blood running in the streets in far-off places, and then let us try to preach our right-wing "bring 'em on" ideology that was only ever supported by what Pinter describes as "a veil of lies", ideology which, if it survives the onslaught of a cold reality-check, only betrays psychopathic tendency. Please visit www.marchforjustice.com.

"What no one seemed to notice… was the ever widening gap… between the government and the people… And it became always wider… The whole process of its coming into being, was, above all, diverting. It proved an excuse not to think for the people who did not want to think anyway… [It] kept us so busy with continuous changes and "crises"and so fascinated… by the machinations of the "national enemies", without and within, that we had no time to think about these dreadful things that were growing, little by little, all around us… Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, "regretted", that unless one understood what the whole thing was in principle, what all these "little measures"… must some day lead to, one no more saw it developing from day to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing… Each act… is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next. You wait for one great shocking occasion, thinking that others , when such a shock comes, will join you in resisting somehow. You don't want to act, or even talk, alone… You don't want to "go out of your way to make trouble"… But the one great shocking occasion, when tens of hundreds or thousands will join with you, never comes. That's the difficulty. The forms are all there, all untouched, all reassuring, the houses, the shops, the jobs, the mealtimes, the visits, the concerts, the cinema, the holidays. But the spirit, which you never noticed because you made the lifelong mistake of identifying if with the forms, is changed. Now you live in a world of hate and fear, and the people who hate and fear do not even know it themselves. When everyone is transformed, no one is transformed… You have accepted things you would not have accepted five years ago, a year ago, things your father… could never have imagined."

They Thought They Were Free: the Germans, 1938-1945
by Milton Mayer (Quoted from The Ecologist, July/Aug 2005)

"While the rulers of the world cloister themselves behind the fences of Seattle or Genoa, or ascent into the inaccessible eyries of Doha or Kananaskis [or Gleneagles]… they leave the rest of the world shut out of their deliberations. We are left to shout abuse… They reduce us, in other words, to the mob, and then revile the thing they have created… They, the tiniest and most unrepresentative of the world's minorities, assert a popular mandate they do not possess, then accuse us of illegitimacy. Their rule, unauthorised and untested, is sovereign."

George Monbiot, The Age of Consent, (quoted from Arguments Against G8 by Hubbard and Miller)

G8's Hypocrisy over African Debt Relief (2005)
So you think that G8 is pulling out all the stops to try to help African debt? That they are doing everything they can to prevent climate change? G8 is actually an octopus of imperialism that thinks nothing of environmental destruction, impoverishing developing nations and starting wars to maintain the elite status of the eight member states. The escalation of African debt, for example, was a deliberate policy to enslave a resource-rich continent. G8 is the problem, not the solution.

Highlight of Galloway's Testimony to Senate (17 May 2005)

"Now, Senator, I gave my heart and soul to oppose the policy that you promoted. I gave my political life's blood to try to stop the mass killing of Iraqis by the sanctions on Iraq which killed one million Iraqis, most of them children, most of them died before they even knew that they were Iraqis, but they died for no other reason other than that they were Iraqis with the misfortune to born at that time. I gave my heart and soul to stop you committing the disaster that you did commit in invading Iraq. And I told the world that your case for the war was a pack of lies.

"I told the world that Iraq, contrary to your claims, did not have weapons of mass destruction. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to al-Qaeda. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to the atrocity on 9/11 2001. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that the Iraqi people would resist a British and American invasion of their country and that the fall of Baghdad would not be the beginning of the end, but merely the end of the beginning.

"Senator, in everything I said about Iraq, I turned out to be right and you turned out to be wrong, and 100,000 people paid with their lives; 1600 of them American soldiers sent to their deaths on a pack of lies; 15,000 of them wounded, many of them disabled forever, on a pack of lies.

"If the world had listened to Kofi Annan, whose dismissal you demanded, if the world had listened to President Chirac, who you want to paint as some kind of corrupt traitor, if the world had listened to me and the anti-war movement in Britain, we would not be in the disaster that we are in today. Senator, this is the mother of all smokescreens: you are trying to divert attention from the crimes that you supported, from the theft of billions of dollars of Iraq's wealth.

"Have a look at the real Oil-for-Food scandal. Have a look at the 14 months you were in charge of Baghdad, the first 14 months when $8.8 billion of Iraq's wealth went missing on your watch. Have a look at Halliburton and other American corporations that stole not only Iraq's money, but the money of the American taxpayer.

"Have a look at the oil that you didn't even meter, that you were shipping out of the country and selling, the proceeds of which went who knows where? Have a look at the $800 million you gave to American military commanders to hand out around the country, without even counting it or weighing it.

"Have a look at the real scandal breaking in the newspapers today, revealed in the earlier testimony in this committee: that the biggest sanctions busters were not me or Russian politicians or French politicians. The real sanctions busters were your own companies with the connivance of your own Government."

(You can view the entire confrontation on the BBC website.)

Comment: US & UK Descent into Fascism (10 Mar 2005)
Over the last few years, the US and UK governments seem to have jumped wholeheartedly onto the terrorism bandwagon and are enthusiastically pushing through so called "anti-terror laws" that increase their control over the people who elected them, and that undoubtedly erode democracy and government accountability in the process. Many believe that that is a fair swap — security for freedom — although many more realize that any surrender of civil liberty can actually place us in an even more precarious situation as a society looking for security can so easily descend into fascism, and we know what a fascist society is capable of from the unspeakably evil activities of the Nazis in Hitler's Germany. But even if you do believe that during times of threat liberty needs to be surrendered, you cannot deny that for any democratic society to make such an important decision (which is their right) they need to have an accurate assessment of the threat in question. The illegal invasion of the sovereign state of Iraq, and the exposed lies and spin trumped up by the UK and US to try to justify an action clearly described at the Nuremberg trials as the gravest of war crimes, must make any thinking person feel the need to reassess any perceived threat from global terrorism if that perception has been disseminated by government and government-friendly sources. That is why sites like this one and their regular visitors criticize government anti-terrorist laws. It is not that we are communists or anti-American or anarchists or stupid; it is that we recognize the value of liberty and democracy, and our perception of government is always as the servant of the people. And although we would love to trust our governments, we know from past that this is one of the most foolish things any democratic society can do. Herman Goering warned us at the Nuremberg Trials: "The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country." And that, I am afraid, includes the "Land of the Free" and "Great Britannia".

"People had no hair because their hair was burned, and at a glance you couldn't tell whether you were looking at them from front or back, and their skin — not only on their hands, but on their faces and bodies, too — hung down. If there had been only one or two such people… perhaps I would not have had such a strong impression. But wherever I walked I met these people… Many of them died along the road. I can still picture them in my mind — like walking ghosts." A survivor of Hiroshima, 1945

An alternative perspective on the US Constitution:
"Why should we feel bound today by a document produced more than two centuries ago by a group of fifty-five mortal men, actually signed by only thirty-nine, a fair number of whom were slaveholders, and adopted in only thirteen states by the votes of fewer than two thousand men, all of whom are long since dead and mainly forgotten?" Robert A. Dahl