Force Feeding Guantanamo

...More than 260 doctors from seven countries have signed a joint letter which is published in this week's edition of the medical journal The Lancet... ..It is claimed prisoners who refuse to eat are put into restraint chairs and feeding tubes are inserted at the US military base near Cuba, and the doctors say those chairs are also banned... ...The World Medical Association specifically prohibits force-feeding in the Declarations of Tokyo and Malta, to which the American Medical Association is a signatory. Amnesty International's UK director Kate Allen said: "This letter must be acted on. "Reports of cruel force-feeding methods at Guantanamo Bay are deeply troubling and only underline the need for independent medical examinations of the prisoners. "Rather than trying to break the hunger strike by forcibly feeding the detainees, the US should respect their human rights by putting an end to arbitrary detention and ensuring access to justice. "Meanwhile, the camp, which has already become a byword for abuse and an indictment of the US government's failure to uphold human rights, should be closed immediately."

The Road to Guantanamo

Second day with no dope and I'm away with the fairys all day. Been wandering without a clue. I've been smiling at strangers again though which is a good sign. I did an hours meditation this morning- almost. I can feel the crysalis of my emotions really close. These are the feelings I stop smoking dope for. I did this once in Delhi and I had the Police bust my hotel room because I was smiling so much. They didn't find anything cos I didn't have anything. I've been banned from the hotel ever since. Shithole anyway.

Anyway, Road to Guantanamo- a FUCK of a film, well worth waiting for. Very hard to watch the faces of the guys from Tipton interspersed with docudrama. Their treatment is horrific, but if you were a US marine a couple of months after 9/11 and had two Asians sitting in front of you, how could you tell if one secretly wanted to kill you?

Its all so horrific and pathetic, I don't think anyone could watch this and not think so. It made me feel like such an idiot in the way I approached filming Abdullah, Hamza and co. Ha ha I'm such a funny dope head aren't I? What a twat.

Winterbottom etc obviously take themselves seriously as film makers, asked respectfully and got a hell of a story. I've been so concerned that Police or worse might pick me up for pursuing this that I've gone Gonzo up my own ass and wasted everyone's time and my own.

Anyway, I'm going to crysalis for a while and see what comes out. I can see how I got in this mess. Its hard to face myself straight, the mess I have been in without running to all sorts of intoxicants. To keep repeating the same spiral. There is something really important that I have to clear this time. I want to look in the mirror and se me again, and just wanting to is having a healing effect. And Mr. Scrutinators prayers of course.

I would encourage anyone of any political persuasion to watch this film. the shots of Pakistan are beautiful. the interaction of the Tipton 3 is hilarious, especially when one of them is trying to teach a fellow Gitmo inmate how to rap. The one nice guard who killed a tarantula for the kid and asked him to rap for him. All this heavy metal, flashing lights and being chained to floors. Watch the faces of the Tipton 3 as they explain it. Get back to me. I'd be interested to hear what people make of it all.

Also do check out Jocks post on the subject.

I've a friend who just came back from Phucket.

She went, anticipating to see a complete wasteland. Amazingly enough, the place is thriving - new hotels going up on the beach, throngs of people everywhere, great nightlife.

Appears that the erotic-tourism industry is so hot that it was able to rebuild the area in weeks..... Huh? Imagine that. Horney forieners from Europe, Australia and the US pumping the economy to a full head of steam. Blue Balls are a force greater than nature.

There's a lesson to be learned there. Disaster recovery in New Orleans and Mississippi should start with the legalization of prostitution.

More Snow and a bit of Pax

In the heart of Shia Islam
=============================

We are in the holy city of Qom an amazing place that feels a bit like
the Vatican and quite a lot like many other places of religious faith
even Jerusalem, if it's not sacrilegious to say so (I don't think it is
because it's a precious place to Christians, Muslims and Jews alike.)

Qom is the capital of Shia Islam. Mullahs wrestle over doctrine in
little cubby holes of small dusty side streets. Glittering mosaics festoon
the shrine of the sister of the 8th Imam, the gold leaf of the dome
above glistening in the night sky.

This is the centre of Iran's theocratic state, this is where decisions
are taken about temporal matters like the nuclear issue.

Tonight we're trying to find out how they do that. How does Shia Islam
decide what fits with their interpretation of their faith?

Julian Rush has gone one further he's been to labs here where Iranian
scientists are in the vanguard of stem cell research and amazingly he's
found the mullahs here backing it enthusiastically.

An intriguing contrast with America where George Bush has struggled to
contain stem cell research, Qom is actively supporting experiments to
revive the spinal nervous system of rats.

They believe they will produce a cloned sheep within three months, the
mother is pregnant already and they may be on the edge of other
breakthroughs...

By the way the Americans have confirmed that they have asked Iran to
help them in Iraq - our story from last night. We're continuing to work
on this matter, not least because it stands at such strange variance
from all the rest that is going on.

snowmails

and Pax:

Today we celebrate a new holiday in Iraq. It’s Democracy day. On this day last year we voted for the first time after the war.
Now give me a moment to do my Happy Dance to celebrate the fact that we have a couple of religious extremists sitting in parliament and deciding what my future will look like.

also:

The war was sold as something that can be done on the cheap because Iraq was basically supposed to pay for its own reconstruction with its big oil reserves. Then-Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz (now the president of the World Bank) made it clear that Iraq's oil was going to save American taxpayers a lot of money.

Wolfowitz told Congress on March 27, 2003, that the U.S. was "dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon." He added that Iraq's oil revenues could "bring between $50 billion and $100 billion over the course of the next two or three years."

In fact the Department of State's reports say that oil revenue over the last 3 years has been approximately $45.5 billion but this money seems be going down a black hole. The money is not paying for reconstruction and Iraqis are not enjoying any energy riches.

If you are in the know do fill in Gian's ecstacy survey here though I am not overly impressed with the questions...

JESUS (The carpenter guy)

OK I've done a day without smoking dope.

Thanks for everyone's kind words and prayers. I've got long term spiritual pain but I'm OK really. I've never really got over loosing my christian faith. I've tried to put faith in other things like drugs, sex, love and parties.

"Just enjoy yourself..." seems empty, but in the same way not enjoying yourself is like a crime too.

I couldn't make sense of going back to christianity. Who really practices it?

Ah well. Some people are really suffering aren't they?

A diary is a cathartic tool in itself sometimes innit.

I'm not very eloquent and cant put this into the right words but its something about Blair, Bush, Rightwingsparkle, Dave in Texas and Jesus. You work it out.

Explosive Situtations

At least 15 people have been killed and 60 wounded by three suspected terrorist explosions in the Indian Hindu pilgrimage city of Varanasi.

Navneet Sikera, senior superintendent of police for Varanasi said: "Fifteen people have died and about 60 are injured.

"The blasts were pretty big, and I do not rule out a terrorist hand behind it."

No one needs telling that this could have serious repercusions in India. I love Varanassi and miss it terribly.

err.. got it! SNOWPOD

Do check out Jon Snows podcast telling the behind the scenes story of his Channel 4 News live interview with Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani yesterday.

also from todays Snowmail:

Iran's Iraqi assistance?
======================

I am in my normal posture in Iraq stuck in traffic slumped in a taxi
after a briefing with a senior Iranian in Iraq.

His perspective is amazing and I emerged from two hours with him pretty
convinced that if anyone is ever going to sort everything out in Iraq,
they are going to need all the assistance Iran can give them.

To that end, he says he has been contacted by the US ambassador in
Baghdad and asked to come and talk. Of course, the Americans want this to
appear in complete secrecy. Meanwhile the Iranians, if they agree to it,
and they have been asked repeatedly for six months, will want all the
publicity they are capable of mustering.

It seems like a rather urgent request, especially considering the US is
in full tirade against Iran on the nuclear issue as well as having its
hands tied in Iraq. He showed me enough material to convince me that
this is true - although it's hard to know what to do with it beyond
sharing a view in a discreet column to my global snowmail audience...

Islam vs Secularism

Anyone who has read this blog will know that among the Finsbury faithful a guy called Jamal was the only one who really had any idea what I was about, or what I was trying to do. As I've said, I've given up now for reasons of mental health, but I've put up a document Jamal wrote a while back. I tried to correct gramatical errors but it's too long. As you can see Jamal doesn't hold with the established view that the Protocols of Zion are fake.

This is a fair representation of the beliefs I encountered in Finsbury park focusing around the secret "Zionist" control of world affairs.

Islam vs Secularism.pdf

It is obviously written for an Islamic reader. I passed it on to a few Republican bloggers a while back who didn't return any comment. What do you think?

Fishbone

Here is a badly recorded Fishbone gig. I never realised they were still about. Fishbone are probably the band I have seen the most often live. They started off like a faster version of the Chilli Peppers but slowed, ska-ed, blue-sed and sort of Screamin' J. Hawkin's-ed over the years.

Hemp

later this year California and Vermont could become the eighth and ninth states to pass hemp farming legislation. Last month the California Assembly passed AB 1147 which has now been sent on to the state Senate. Later this year Vermont legislators will also consider H 455 which would define hemp and allow licensed farmers to grow the crop.

Currently seven states (Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Montana, North Dakota and West Virginia) have passed pro-hemp farming laws.

Sales of hemp foods in 2004/2005 grew by 50% over the previous 12-month period. U.S. retail sales of hemp products are estimated to now be $250 to $300 million per year. There are more than 2.5 million cars on U.S. roads that contain hemp composites. Hemp cultivation in Canada exceeds 24,000 acres per year, while European farmers now grow more than 40,000 acres

also:

One of Australia’s first hemp crops grown to test it’s ability to soak up effluent from a sewerage treatment works has just been harvested. The crop could provide an ecologically-preferable alternative to dumping sewerage in rivers and the ocean nationwide.

The one-hectare industrial hemp crop was grown at a sewerage plant near Byron Bay on the NSW north coast between November and early February, by Dr Keith Bolton from Southern Cross University (SCU), in collaboration with Ecofibre Industries Ltd (EIL), and Byron Shire Council.

Brisbane-based EIL, who provided the industrial hemp seed and agronomic support, have been involved in breeding hemp for Australian conditions, and successfully lobbying for legislative changes at a state level to allow commercial hemp crops.

More Guantanamo

Mr Abbasi claimed in written evidence that a guard tried to feed him pork. He also claimed two guards had sex in front of him, that a male guard groped the breasts of a female colleague in front of him, and that he was tricked into praying towards America rather than towards Mecca. He also says he was drugged with a mind-altering chemical. The US military says it captured him on the battlefield in Afghanistan, and also claims he was recruited to fight for al-Qaida after attending the Finsbury Park mosque in north London where Abu Hamza preached.

An Ethiopian student who lived in London claims that he was brutally tortured with the involvement of British and US intelligence agencies.

Binyam Mohammed, 27, says he spent nearly three years in the CIA's network of 'black sites'. In Morocco he claims he underwent the strappado torture of being hung for hours from his wrists, and scalpel cuts to his chest and penis and that a CIA officer was a regular interrogator.

After his capture in Pakistan, Mohammed says British officials warned him that he would be sent to a country where torture was used. Moroccans also asked him detailed questions about his seven years in London, which his lawyers believe came from British sources.

BALAGAN

I hadn't been to what I would call a proper party in ages so its been quite a roller coaster going to two in two weekends. A lot of the time I was filming at the mosque I just couldn't get my head round having a decent stab at trying to understand Islam on a friday afternoon and then being out of my face for the rest of the weekend and when I did I felt incredibly alienated so I gave up for a long while.

I tried the more organised and some would say more positivley focused Synergy events but within the restrictions of a night club venue, what the Israelis in Goa used to call the "balagan" was ironed out of existance, not that I didn't meet some incredibly nice people, just that I was missing parties which had some... how would you call it...

FUCKING BOLLLLOOOCCKS!!!!! if you know what I mean.

Last week I found myself with maybe 800 other enthusiastic party goers in a proper squatted venue where none of the hypocritical rules enforced by facist bouncers applied. Under the influence of psychedelics my rustiness and lack of confidence amplified and I spent the first few hours dancing with my head down, my brain raging with a fear of those around me. Later I found some MDMA which smashed this fear like a golden brick and brought me face to face with a girl who I thought was the most beautiful girl in the place who turned out to be Israeli.

I told her she was beautiful, she told me I was beautiful but carrying on talking to her, I didn't know what to say. Even with MDMA papering over the cracks in my confidence I was still a mess. Breaking off and dancing alone for a minute I realised my problem.

I didn't believe I was a nice or worthwhile person. There was no getting away from it. I stumbled over a few more words with this apparition of beauty, then as another crystal of MDMA hit me I found myself propelled toward another girl who was a lot taller with very strong looking sexy legs and big boots who I found myself following upstairs right in front of the first girl.

We had a bit of a guessing game as to where she came from. When she said Israel I answered

"Not another one!" which thankfully she didn't pursue.

She was a lot nicer and much more interesting to talk to but it turned out she didn't want me. Being shitfaced I actually was crazy enough to go back and look for the other one, who not suprisingly didn't want to know anymore. I cursed myself for my behaviour but was happy that at least I had tried and despite my rusty state I obviously wasn't ugly. I got the number of the second girl but she made sure I knew she wasn't interested in a relationship of any kind.

When I first started partying twelve years ago, in much the same depressed state I am in now it still didn't matter what transpired with girls I met. If I made a good connection I followed it, content to gain a new friend if not a new sexual partner. The way she talked to me made me feel as if I was dirty. I had only stroked her arm.

In the week I tried to meditate a lot to find out where the hell I am.

This weekend I went to a totally diferent sort of party organised by some old friends I used to squat with. It was pretty shit turn out wise but the music was excellent and it was really good to be dancing with people I had a long history with as powders enforced their strange happiness upon me again. Paula played a fantastic drum and bass set. There was a wierd vibe with the venue as we left and Police swooped on a lot of people looking for drugs, an uncommon occurance in London. Finnishing this time with psychedelics my confidence blew apart again and I found myself wandering through the city unable to find the bus home, or anywhere to piss.

By the time I got home I was a wreck. Talking to myself saying

"Come on. Come on. Come on." over and over or "Stop it. Stop it. Stop it."

I looked in my mirror and saw myself as a bent over, Gollum like creature and I couldn't even cry. I got up and wandered around the garden hoping someone would rescue me from myself.
Someone came out and started gardening and handed me a spliff. I watched two of them gardening, the simplicity of a normal act soothed my conciousness.

"I'm going to the off licence. Do you want anything?" the same guy asked after a while.

We went halves on a bottle of Jamesons, I found some left over mushrooms and we brewed up. I ended up having a beautiful night shouting and singing by a fire. Another depressive friend came out of hiding. Both of us found solace in the balm of good company.

I'm back in my normal mess again now but I've had good friends pop by all day. Back into meditation tomorow. I've been pretty sure for a long while now that my depression and low self esteem circles around ganja, so I'm going to try and cut it out for a bit and see what happens. When I started this blog it was about trying to film Mr. Hamza and friends. Now if I can tidy my room up a bit it's an achievement.

Im gonna teach you a lesson...

Angry Jill the "liberal hater" who should be on Southpark pointed this one out on Rightwingsparkles blog

from Mickey Malkin.
The guy got sacked for it apparently.

AM I DOING SOMETHING WRONG?

What is with this shit? Someone types "terrorist" into Alta Vista video search and my All Brothers movie comes up. This was downloaded 300 times in a couple of weeks while the Hamza trial was on and these guys have got nothing to do with Hamza or Finsbury park. They were just two cheerful chaps I bumped into on a demo who were great on camera.

Should I rename my Finsbury park movies so they come up on these video searches? somebody help me here.

This is blog number 700 by the way. I should celebrate. I'll have a think about it for 701.

THIS LOOKS GOOD

Road To Guantanamo is a feature-length factual drama based on first hand interviews with the Tipton Three, the three male British prisoners released last spring from Guantanamo Bay. The drama will be directed by multi-award winning director, Michael Winterbottom, produced by renowned and long-term collaborator Andrew Eaton and co-produced by Melissa Parmenter at Revolution Films.

The Road To Guantanamo will tell the story of four friends who set off from Tipton, their West Midlands home town, in September 2001 for a wedding and a holiday in Pakistan. Two and a half years later three of them returned home.

SNOW TALIBAN?

from snowmails

Exclusive: The Taliban war
========================

The Taliban are alive and well and still oppressing people in
Afghanistan no matter what the British or Afghan governments might claim and
tonight we'll show you the proof in the form of one incident caught on
camera.

It all takes place in wilds of Helmand province - where thousands of
British troops are being deployed to try to bring order and tackle the
poppy fields. The Taliban in Helmand have been waging a campaign against
education - burning schools, attacking teachers, terrorising all
concerned.

An independent team working for Channel 4 News in Helmand got a tip off
that such an attack was underway and went to film it in progress as a
group of Taliban set fire to a school. Incidentally it is worth
mentioning the Taliban were clearly Afghans and not foreigners from Pakistan as
is often claimed by President Karzai.

While our team were filming the Taliban attack a group of Afghan armed
police arrived to defend the school. Chaos ensued in which most of the
Taliban got away, our team got beaten up and the school got burned. And
this is the chaos our soldiers are walking into.

Watch the report. Fucking tops stuff from Channel 4 as usual.

Now this is active-ism.

No. Seriously, FUCK EVERYBODY. OK?

I really enjoyed Jo's state of the nation address on the creative forum last night:

Personally I think such an attitude is totally fucking pathetic.

If they stop selling Carlsberg beer, Twinnings tea and Tesco milk then maybe I'd take them a bit more seriously.

And maybe if they stopped living in such self-righteous denial and took 5 minutes to examine how many other large unethical corporates they (like most of us) are totally dependent on...Who do they bank with? Where does their heating and electric come from? etc

And what about creating a "public space for all"?!?

I was under the impression that "all" meant everyone?

Did I miss something?

I really disheartens me how ignorant and judgemental people are.

Loads of people work their arses off trying to eek out an sustainable livihood for themselves and their familes by setting-up and running co-operatives and other social enterprises etc only to be told they are evil capitalists by a bunch corporate beer swigging students.

Pathetic.

If we explain Kerry's story and the plans for her centre we could no doubt convince people of their merits, but whatever happened to trust or respect for diversity of tactics?

Man, things are fucked up. We need some massive radical changes. Not just within the systems that oppress us all, but also within the whole social justice movement. Too many of us have become stuck in our own littlet activist rat race, struggling to keep our head above water and actually acheiving very little indeed.

Sorry, think I've got state of the world blues today...

I don't bother with this sort of thing as I would be writing like this all the time, but I'm glad someone does. I couldn't even say the word "activist" without spitting.

Chechenya

Yahoo has an interesting piece about Chechen Journalism students taking classes in the rubble of their college.

"It was such a shock when the war first started, but I got tired of being scared and it turned into complete indifference," says psychology major Zina Dunoeva. "Even the death didn't scare me anymore. I didn't like to sit in the cellar during the bombing because I couldn't breathe. It was damp and full of mosquitoes. I was going to keep a diary and write down everything that was happening to me, but I finally decided not to because the war was so dirty. I decided to close that book and not look back anymore, and only look ahead."

also this interesting article about an Artists life in the Ruins of Grozny