Military - new material (75)
01 October 2011
The Report of the Baha Mousa Inquiry. The Rt. Hon. Sir William Gage, Chair The Stationery Office, London, £155, 8.9.11, 3 Volumes. This is the official report into the torture and eventual killing by British soldiers of Iraqi civilian, Baha Moussa, in Basra in a case that has been described by Phil Shiner of Public Interest Lawyers as the “tip of an iceberg” of civilian abuse and murder by the British Army. The Iraqi hotel receptionist, and eight of his colleagues, were hooded and beaten for nearly 24 hours before Moussa died at the hands of the 1st Battalion the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment. The post-mortem into Mousa’s death found that he suffered more than 90 injuries, including broken ribs, a fractured nose and smashed wrists among many others. He had been subjected to sleep deprivation and had been used in kickboxing “games,” where soldiers competed to see how far detainees could be kicked. Although a large number of soldiers were involved in kicking Moussa to death only one, Corporal Donald Payne, was found guilty of involvement in the violence, and that was only because he pleaded guilty before the hearing. Instead the army has suspended 14 soldiers from duty and said that there may be disciplinary action taken. see: http://www.bahamousainquiry.org/report/index.htm and Public Interest Lawyers website: http://www.publicinterestlawyers.co.uk/
We mustn’t ignore the fact that British drones kill too, Chris Cole. The Guardian 13.5.11. This article, by the founder of Drone Wars UK, is a response to an earlier article by Ken Macdonald (“The Predator Paradox” in The Guardian 6.5.11, see Statewatch Volume 21 no. 3) that acknowledges that veracity of questioning the “morality and legality of US drone strikes in Pakistan”, but points to the “wall of silence” surrounding Britain’s use of unarmed aerial vehicles. Cole reports that “between June 2008 and December 2010, more than 124 people were killed by British drones. We know this not because of any ministerial statement, parliamentary question, or Freedom of Information (FoI) request, but because of a boastful, off-the-cuff remark to journalists by the prime minister during his last visit to Afghanistan.” Cole argues that “without accountability and scrutiny, without proper information about the circumstances of these strikes, we cannot pretend to be legally or ethically superior to the US in this matter”. He calls for the Defence secretary to issue “a full statement to the House of Commons, giving as much detail as possible about Britain’s drone strikes. In particular we need to know whether those killed in the strikes were directly participating in hostilities at the time; whether the UK has or would use drones for assassinations of so-called high-value targets; and whether any civilians are known to have been killed or injured by UK drones.”
Ground the Drones. Drone Campaign Network, 2011, pp. The Drones Campaign Network (DCN) is a UK-based network of organisations, academics and individuals working together in collective action in relation to military drones. This pamphlet documents “the increasing use of unmanned aerial vehicles, commonly known as drones, to undertake armed attacks around the globe. Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Yemen and Somalia have all been subject to drone strikes by US or British drones controlled from many thousands of miles away. Palestine is also subjected to drone strikes from Israel.” The DCN website: http://www.dronecampaignnetwork.org.uk/
X-ray vision now a possibility for soldiers. FT Weekend Magazine, 29.10.11. Researchers at MIT have developed a prototype of a radar system that can see through walls – “which could give soldiers in urban warfare the equivalent of x-ray vision”. Although currently very limited in its scope (the system can detect people moving behind eight inches of concrete from 20 feet away), “researchers expect soon to have a more user-friendly display that will show recognisable images”. The leader of the university’s project is quoted as saying that the technology has been developed “primarily with military applications in mind”.