Military - New material (62)
01 January 2008
EU - Policy Department External policies, The Battle Groups: Catalyst for a European Defence Policy, 2.10.07 (briefing paper on request of the EP´s Subcommittee on Security and Defence).
European Defence Agency, Framework for Joint European Strategy in Defence R&T, 19.11.07 (adopted by EU defence ministers at the EDA Steering Board)
Committee seeks an inclusive UK-US treaty. Jane´s Defence Weekly 19.12.07 (Keri Smith). A restricted UK "approved community" of defence companies on both sides of the Atlantic could seriously undermine both the existing UK-US defence trade treaty and bar European owned companies, according to a House of Commons Defence Committee report released on 10 December.
Shocking evidence of British abuse in Iraq, Phil Shiner. Socialist Worker 3.11.07. This is a text of a talk given by Phil Shiner, the lawyer who represented Iraqi civilian Baha Musa who was beaten to death by British soldiers while detained in custody in Iraq, at the Stop the War annual conference. Shiner draws attention to the extensive coverage given to US abuse of prisoners and the British government's cover up of evidence - because it has something to hide: "Think of everything the Americans did - the iconic pictures of Abu Ghraib. We [the UK] did everything, absolutely everything the Americans did, and worse." Socialist Worker, PO Box 42184, London SW8 2WD
UK land operations in Iraq 2007. House of Commons Defence Committee (HC 110) (House of Commons, UK) 29.11.07, pp 44 + Evidence (53 pp). Perhaps the most salient observation in this influential report is that British forces in Basra have - unsurprisingly - not only failed to create an environment for political and economic reconstruction and but have abandoned the area to warlords and criminal gangs "undermining the development of civil society", (Recommendation 5). The Committee asks what is the point of leaving troops there when it is impossible to carry out any useful function (Points 14-16). The report also expresses concern at the imprisonment of Iraqis without trial (Rec 13, Redress Trust's submission). http;//www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmselect/cmdfence/110/110.pdf