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| Newsletter | October 2001 |
A year ago Concorde crashed in France. CAA having rescinded the airworthiness certificate has now, following alterations to the fuel tanks, issued a new one.
At the time of the crash Air France immediately grounded its Concorde fleet. BA did not, commercial considerations overrode safety. It was not until three weeks later when CAA acted that the BA Concorde fleet was grounded.
Before the Concorde crash Concorde was considered 'safe', an aircraft with an unblemished safety record. During that period Concorde had more than 50 tyre bursts, with at least half a dozen resulting in engine damage or ruptured fuel tanks.
At the time of its inaugural flights in the 1970s, Concorde was seen as a lame duck that no one wanted, Air France and BA took Concordes because they were given no choice by their respective governments. The man responsible in the UK was Michael Heseltine, the same man who gave us another expensive lame duck, The Millennium Dome.
A skateboard park has been proposed for part of the grassy area on the edge of the town centre. It will take a significant portion of this grassy area and destroy several trees. At lunch time, office workers use this grassy area to sit and relax. What is currently a quiet area will be destroyed by the secondary use of the skateboard park, bands and DJs. The remainder of the grassy area, and especially the pond, is likely to fill with coke cans and fast food detritus. A more sensible site would be the little used car park in Napier Gardens, North Camp (well hidden on the wrong side of the main road). The local police have objected as they don't want the kids hanging around near the police station.
Several people and organisations have objected to the loss of highway and public open space leading off Queensmead between the old Post Office site and the Pizza Hut. The developers have been told by GOSE to meet with the objectors and reached a compromise. The objectors are quite happy to see a compromise reached, the developers to go back to the drawing board and retain their development within the footprint of the old Post Office site. If a compromise cannot be reached the matter will have to be resolved by a Public Inquiry. [BVEJ newsletters passim]
Local people living on the main Farnborough Road who objected to the cinema/bar complex are now finding they cannot sell their homes. Interested parties do a search then pull out. The developers are likely to be sued for planning blight and loss of house value. [BVEJ newsletters passim]
The Arabs are pulling out. This leaves Key Properties in a very dodgy financial position as their main source of funding will have pulled the plug. They are now on the brink of bankruptcy. All town centre development has been put on hold until further notice.
Wilkinson are rumoured to be pulling out as their store is losing money hand over fist. The only new store coming in is B'Wise, a bottom of the market cheap and cheerful. The centre manager told retailers this was the best Key Properties could do, which is a huge vote of confidence in the town. Work on the retail unit was put on hold due to breaches in health and safety.
Fatty Arbuckle (aka Pat Devereux) and her Tory cronies have put out an In Touch leaflet (Out of Touch would be a better description) telling everyone what marvels have been planned for the town centre and how there is no alternative. Maybe they should have tried talking to a few people to discover that what has been planned is not wanted. Retailers have customers every day telling them that they do not like what is been done to their town. But even with the lack of consultation, they have received enough objections, had enough people tell them they do not want what is being forced on the town. Have the garlic ready as these ghouls are threatening to visit every one as autumn draws in.
It wasn't April the First, all Fools Day, but the scribblers at the Farnborough News were well and truly duped by a story that appeared on the front page of the Farnborough News. Serves them right for being bone idle and not checking their stories, the same sloppiness is shown when reporting news from TAG and their camp followers. According to Key Properties, town centre development was beginning in the next 3 months, could be as soon as this month, the go-ahead had been given to build on the highway, new retailers were coming in and the town would be fully occupied before Christmas. Had the scribblers checked their own News archives they would have found they have been running such stories for the last three years, and not a brick has been laid, meanwhile the town has been emptied of shoppers and retailers. Retailers have been told that development has been put on indefinite hold due to unforeseen circumstances. If new retailers are coming in why are Key Properties so reluctant to name them? The highway is likely to go to a public inquiry if agreement with objectors cannot be reached. To date the objectors have not even been contacted. The development towards Princess Mead is earmarked for land that belongs to Princess Mead and although the retailers have been told by Key Properties (who aren't even their landlords) that they want them out, the retailers have said they have no intention of moving. Councillors claimed the local community were angry because the development has yet to start. Yes the local community are angry, but for different reasons, they are angry at seeing their town destroyed and councillors colluding in that destruction. The only success of Key Properties has been to destroy a town centre, to drive out retailers and shoppers and alienate the remaining retailers. Were the scribblers to walk through the town and talk to a few retailers they'd see the state of the town for themselves. Red faces all round at the Farnborough News, well at least they have given us all a good laugh. [Farnborough News Friday 21 September 2001]
ASDA may be pulling out of Farnborough, or at least out of the town centre. Unlike other retailers who are suffering from town centre mismanagement ASDA are doing too well (in one week they pulled in œ1 million) and are seeking bigger premises. They have been engaged in secret talks with Rushmoor to buy the car park for expansion but Rushmoor has said no. ASDA are now considering Slough Estates, which is to be a mix of business, retail and leisure. Debenhams are expressing an interest in the ASDA site if vacated by ASDA.
Following on from the limited success of Jubilee 2000 (it got debt onto the political agenda but little more), the Trade Justice Movement has been formed to campaign against the inequalities in world trade.
WTO will be meting in Qatar in November. At the Seattle meeting an attempt to open up a new trade round failed. EU is now trying to force a new trade round, GATS is being forced through.
Write to trade secretary Patricia Hewitt saying no to GATS, no new trade round, and no to WTO. To make it even easier, WDM have produced nice little postcards to send off.
Whilst you are writing, tell Patricia Hewitt that you do not want PFI. Big business is not a charity, far from investing in public services big business is bleeding the public sector dry.
To coincide with the opening of the WTO talks in Qatar a Trade Justice Carnival will take place in London. Assemble at Geraldine Harmsworth Park, Imperial War Museum, Lambeth Park Road, London (Lambeth North tube stn) at 12-30 Sat 3 November 2001. Procession will include a Samba Band, speakers include Naomi Klein.
Wye is a pleasant little village of three thousand souls not far from Canterbury, nearby is the village of Chilham and good walking country. A village of a thousand households Wye has a recycling scheme with 90% participation and manages to achieve 75% waste reduction.
Villagers are encouraged to separate for collection by frequent collections, non participation leads to less frequent collections. Local restaurants are encouraged to separate out their waste. The advantage is a saving on waste collection costs.
Garden waste is composted, bagged, and sold back to local gardeners. Kitchen waste, after it has rotted down, goes to land reclamation schemes and tree planting. The disadvantage of such a scheme is recognised in that it discourages home composting and to combat this a small charge has been introduced to encourage home composting, but that aside, the furthest the compost travels is two miles.
In Wye, unwanted household items are not thrown away when they still have a useful life, instead they are taken to swap days. Take what you don't want and feel free to pick up anything you fancy. Heavy items are collected.
A twice a month farmers market of around twenty stalls has been established to further reduce waste. It is not only the small farmers who participate. One farm of 750 acres is a very enthusiastic supporter, and now not only is visiting other farmers markets in the area but has also diversified from apples and fruit to growing a wider range to supply the markets. When the food travels a short distance there is no need for plastic shrink-wrapping or chemicals, just a brown paper bag on the stall.
WyeCycle is also supporting local food production and distribution through encouraging organic growing and free home delivery services. A veg box scheme has proved to be very popular.
Local food production and distribution cuts down on the need for treating fruit and vegetables with preservatives to prolong shelf life, reduces packaging, and cuts down on transport costs (both financial and environmental). If supermarkets were forced to pay the real transport costs and the costs of disposing of their excessive packaging they would not be able to operate at a competitive advantage. Much of the packaging is to enable easy transport, not necessary at a local market. Often packaging is to provide somewhere to stick a bar code!
A further innovation is the establishment of a one-stop shop called SuperFarmer, which will combine meeting shoppers' needs all under one roof with providing outlets for local food producers. WyeCycle are envisaging renting out three-quarters of the shelves (some refrigerated) to local farmers, with the remainder of the shop offering all the other basics expected by consumers who are used to supermarket shopping. Although still at the planning stage, WyeCycle are hoping they can pioneer SuperFarmer in Wye and then promote it as a model more widely. The downside is that WyeCycle will be using the NFU to promote the idea across the country rather than the various farmers bodies that actually act for small and family farms.
WyeCycle Ltd
14 Scotton Street
Wye
Kent TN25 5BZ
01233 813298
info@wyecycle.org
www.wyecycle.org
Recycling Consortium
The Create Centre
Smeaton Road
Bristol BS1 6XN
0117 930 4355 (tel)
0117 929 7283 (fax)
mail@recyclingconsortium.org.uk
www.recyclingconsortium.org.uk
Inhabitants of the Steward Community Woodland have unfortunately lost their planning appeal against a decision by the Planning Inspectorate to refuse them permission to live on the woodland that they own, and are managing as a permaculture garden and low intervention wildlife zone. The group are considering an appeal against the decision in the High Court. They desperately need help to cover their legal costs.
Steward Community Woodland Morehampstead Newton Abbot Devon TQ13 8SD 07050 674464
It is OK to build an airport, destroy a town centre with unwanted development, but build a low impact sustainable community, no way.
[BVEJ newsletters passim, BVEJ newsletter #0004 September 2000, BVEJ newsletter #0008 January 2001, #0013 June 2001]
The Future of Aviation at Farnborough: A Tale of Fiction by TAG, would have made an excellent title for the presentation made by TAG to the Royal Aeronautical Society at the BAE Systems centre in Farnborough. If the Royal Aeronautical Society believe this fiction, on the other hand when a fellow of the society writes to the local paper claiming the area surrounding the airport is unpopulated ...
A three person presentation by three TAG directors: Sir Donald Spiers, Ann Bartaby and Graham Wood.
Spiers was introduced as a very important person, commander of aircraft when in the government, a past president of the Royal Aeronautical Society Society. It is easy to see why he is on the board, to impress gullible fools.
The 1985 White Paper was referred to as the justification for an airport at Farnborough. A paper that even the government has referred to as dated. From this, and even then only a couple of paragraphs, we have regional policy, Hampshire Structure Plan, and the Rushmoor Local Plan.
[In a letter to LibDem MP Michael Moore then aviation minister Bob Ainsworth wrote that the decision to grant a business airport at Farnborough was a local planning issue, not government policy.]
Graham Wood, TAG Operations Director, showed flights paths extending out to Church Crookham, an exact projection of the runway centre line. A slightly jazzed up slide of what was shown two years ago at Church Crookham. The reality is that as soon as the aircraft are airborne they vector off for their chosen destination. Wood said they had almost reached the target for tree clearance for Farnborough but admitted they would need all obstacles cleared for CAA licensing. A hint that we must safeguard the remaining trees at all cost. Wood admitted that the heathland destruction was for CAA safety clearance, carried out by MoD to meet the TAG runway requirements. He claimed English Nature was delighted with the work and referred to it as heathland restoration. EN actually wrote to complain at the lack of consultation and the lack of a management plan or any biodiversity monitoring. Wood was quite proud of the fact that they had moved every single amphibian. To be moved were reptiles (snakes and lizards) not amphibians. Wood started his spiel by admitting only the insane would attempt to fit an airport into Farnborough as it was an unsuitable location!
Ann Bartaby claimed TAG were meeting all Rushmoor planning requirements. Earlier Spiers had admitted all the work, or most of the work, was taking place at night, which conflicts with the outline planning granted last year of no night time working. She referred to the site as poorly drained and prone to flooding. Works was being carried out to improve the drainage, to which she added run-off from paved areas, all of which flows into Cove Brook. She showed a lovely landscaped tree-lined Cove Brook meandering around the TAG buildings. She also mentioned reed beds to catch the pollutants. The planning application before Rushmoor for realignment of Cove Brook, does not show the landscaping, nor does it mention reed beds (recommended in the TAG Environmental Impact Assessment). Ann Bartaby made no mention of the ten pages of trees to be destroyed. Commercial aircraft had an inch of paint so could be left out in the rain, but business aircraft only have a thin coat of paint thus are more delicate and have to be kept in hangers as their owners like to know they are kept warm and cosy for the night. Mention was made of all the help that had been given at planning meetings with Rushmoor.
[Realignment of Cove Brook, TAG planning application 01/00560/REM. An expert in Switzerland on the use of reed beds is adamant that they will not work in the winter as the reeds are dormant. Absorption of pollutants only occurs when the reeds are growing. De-icer is used in the winter!]
TAG claim planning permission to carry out business aviation maintenance, not quite the same as maintenance for the maintenance of their business flights.
Donald Spiers finished the presentation by thanking Rushmoor for all the help and support that had been given to TAG!!!!
In response to questions from the floor Ann Bartaby did not deny that TAG were causing siltation of Fleet Pond. She admitted that the DETR projected growth for flights was unsustainable but for inexplicable reasons flights from Farnborough did not count and in any case they contributed to the regional and national economy.
The propagated myth is that the heathland devastation to the west of Farnborough Airport was heathland restoration, the reality can be seen in TAG's Environmental Impact Assessment and has been admitted by TAG on several occasions, the most recent in their presentation to the Royal Aeronautical Society, the work was for height clearance to obtain a CAA licence for Farnborough Airport.
The work took place last winter and during the spring. Officially the work was to restore to heathland. The area already was heathland, so we have to assume what was meant was conversion to an expanse of heather.
An examination of the area before the work took place would have shown what to expect. An area in Long Valley cleared of trees a couple of years ago is just starting to recover, mainly lichen covered sand and gravel and sparse pine trees a metre or so high. Areas cleared a longer time period ago are now thick thicket. Some areas are bare sand or lichen covered sand. The only areas where there are patches of heather to be found lie in open spaces in open mature pine woodland.
The areas where the hills have been levelled is now covered in a thick mat of grass (previously seeded) which has helped to stabilise the areas. No heather.
The once wooded area of Norris Hill Copse was by early September starting to recover. It no longer looked like the backdrop for the Battle of the Somme. The area was grassed over, trees were starting to grow back, no sign of heather. For reasons not known, maybe it was the sign of living matter, the whole are is being destroyed again and once again looking like a battlefield.
The once wooded area of Brock's Hill has not fared so well. Parts are bracken covered but the slopes are mainly bare and suffering erosion. No sign of heather.
Gelvert Stream drains the deforested area, then runs into Fleet Pond. Historically there has been a problem of siltation of Fleet Pond as the area contains easily erodible sands and soils. The work during the winter and spring with no mitigation measures in place has worsened the siltation of Fleet Pond. Just as the area was starting to recover it is being devastated again, just in time for the winter rains to wash silt down to Fleet Pond. [BVEJ newsletter #0016 September 2001]
Fleet Pond Chairman Colin Gray has raised in the Surrey-Hants Star the problem of siltation of Fleet Pond, but strangely failed to mention the culprits, ie TAG Aviation, and expects the Lottery to foot the bill.
Colin Gray (chair) 01252 616183 Barbara Martin (sec) 01252 684828
At the TAG Royal Aeronautical Society presentation, TAG planning director Ann Bartaby claimed a ten year management programme was in place. There is no sign of this, unless bloody-minded vandalism on a massive scale is her idea of management.
Heathland is a mosaic of heather, open grassland, open woodlands and bog, determined by soil types, drainage, exposure and grazing.
In the Third World we blame peasants eking out a living for the destruction of rainforests, pushed to the margins by globalisation. Here on the edge of Farnborough it is greed and corruption that is driving the destruction.
[BVEJ newsletters passim]
TAG have managed to destroy most of the trees in Farnborough that lie in the flight path but not all. TAG need to destroy all the trees for safeguarding to obtain a CAA licence, therefore it is important that we safeguard those that remain.
TAG has no powers to destroy the trees, but neither has MoD. MoD can only destroy the trees under the Land Powers Act if the following conditions apply:
The Secretary of State has to serve an Order. No Order has been served.
For the planning meeting that was to consider the TAG runway proposals deception was practised on many levels.
Officials 'doctored' the independent reports to councillors before the reports were placed before councillors. Embarrassing material was removed in order to engineer the correct decision.
Officials led councillors to believe the reports said the runway configurations met strict CAA safety criteria. The reports said strict CAA criteria not met and to gain a CAA licence the conditions would have to be relaxed.
Officials said this was the safest possible runway configurations. If CAA criteria not met cannot be the safest possible configurations.
Councillors were led to believe they were discussing safety of those on the ground. They were in fact being presented with a report on CAA safety, ie of the aircraft and its occupants.
Councillors were told the runway configuration had already been agreed. The runway configuration had not been agreed, otherwise what was the purpose of the application? The outline planning granted to TAG last year included weight and number of movements but not runway configurations. Following the drawing up of a legal agreement between TAG and Rushmoor (clause 18 specifies details to be agreed) Rushmoor circulated a leaflet to residents specifying what had been agreed and what remained to be agreed, the latter included runway configurations including take-off and landing thresholds.
[BVEJ newsletter #0016 September 2001]
Last year everyone was assured that a cast iron watertight legal agreement would be drawn up between TAG and Rushmoor to protect the interests of local residents. The agreement is crap, not worth the paper it is written on, even worse is the lack of will at Rushmoor to enforce.
During the discussion for the outline planning last year, some of the discussion focused on hours of working for airfield construction. This is now tied down in the legal agreement. Weekdays finish at 1800, Saturdays 1300, and no working on Sundays or Bank Holidays.
Easy enough to monitor, easy to enforce.
TAG have been working at night to minimise airfield downtime, indeed TAG director Sir Donald Spiers bragged at their presentation to the Royal Aeronautical Society that only two days of flying had been lost as the work was taking place at night.
No enforcement action has been taken. With the connivance of Rushmoor, TAG have once again stuck two fingers up at the local community.
There should be no surprise. The current licence for Farnborough Airport places a limit of 35 tonnes, a limit that is flouted daily. No planning consent exists for the current flying at Farnborough. No enforcement action has ever been taken.
With the lack of security, no customs, no immigration or passport control Farnborough Airport is a terrorist attack waiting to happen. Why bother to even hijack a plane, charter an aircraft and TAG will help to carry all your baggage to your plane.
Middle East types regularly fly in and out of Farnborough. Do we know where the money comes from to finance Farnborough, hidden as it is behind offshore accounts? What do we know of the owners other than they are Saudis travelling on French passports, with a background of Middle East 'financing' and arms deals.
A fully-fuelled Boeing Business Jet would not have to fly far to crash on London.
The events in New York and Washington have graphically illustrated what to expect if a fully-fuelled Boeing Business Jet were to crash on the college. A fully-fuelled Boeing Business Jet (a modified Boeing 737) carries as much fuel as a Boeing 747. We can expect to see several hundred dead, killed in the fireball. There are not enough burns beds in the country to cater for the injured.
Complaints have been made to HSE re the working at the end of the runway whilst flying is taking place. Main contractors appear to be BOVIS. HSE alerted the site a visit was to take place and were shown model working practices. Reversion to form followed a few days later. Deaths on construction sites are up ten fold on a few year ago, prosecutions are rare. Small wonder if this is a sample of how HSE conduct an investigation.
HSE 01256 404007
Rushmoor is trying to force closure of the Knellwood bowling green polling station and force voters to go to the college to cast their vote. Say NO to a death trap for a polling station. Use of the college would be contrary to PSZ policy as it encourages a congregation of people within the PSZ. Use of the college as a polling station is a back door way to funnel money to the college to thank them for letting their trees be destroyed.
FARA are fundraising for possible legal action against Rushmoor. The case looks good. FARA need a good sized fund if we want to shut down TAG. Once a case gets into court there is going to be a lot of exposure of the dirty deals that have been taking place. Ultimately we want to see councillors and officials facing criminal charges. Send cheques to FARA, marked 'Legal Fund'. FARA chairman Martin Townshend has resigned.
The martyr is the essence of history. -- Ayatollah Khomeini
Freedom is not freely given but it is to be won through the exertions of of souls and blood. -- Hezbollah, The Party of God
Lo the Party of God, for surely they are they that shall triumph. -- Sura al Mai'idah 55, Koran
What is the alternative? More bombs? More security? More cameras in the streets? More phone taps? More subsidy to the arms industry? Is that where we're going? On a race to the bottom trapped between G W Bush and the CIA-created Osama Bin Laden? Because it seems that's what is wanted. -- Adam Porter, Year Zero magazine
It's given me a vivid sense of what people around the world live with daily. -- Archbishop of Wales on a visit to New York
No one can support the appalling tragedy that took place in New York when two hijacked Boeing planes crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Centre. Had the towers been fully occupied it would have been equivalent to taking out a small town the size of Guildford. What has yet to be mentioned is that many Boeings carry depleted uranium as tail counterweights.
Terrorism usually has an underlying social cause, at least in the eyes of the terrorists. Religious fundamentalism is different, it is driven by zealots and hatred. Muslim nutters are urged on by clerics in the Mosques, usually drawing on some social grievance. Social conditions allow the mullahs to fester and provide a pool of discontent from which to draw new recruits. The West incorrectly refers to suicide bombers. The Koran forbids suicide. What we have are martyrs carrying out a mission on behalf of Islam with the blessing of a Mullah or Imam. The martyr is promised the keys to paradise.
During the Iran-Iraq War, 14-15 year old kids were used by Iran to clear the minefields. Originally donkeys were used but they ran away. Gullible kids were found to be far more reliable. They marched into the minefields to their deaths with the promise of entry to paradise. Around their necks they wore the keys to paradise, mass produced in Hong Kong.
This is not to tar all Muslims as fanatics, they are not, but a significant minority are and the majority by their silence supports them.
In Turkey it is the Islamist parties, which are regularly banned, who work to support the poor, who have the support of the poor. The West is seen as supporting their oppressors, thus festering anti-Western hatred. It is the West who are arming the oppressors, who are turning a blind eye to to genocide against the Kurds.
The Number One terrorist state is the US. It actively supports terrorists all over the world. It trains the Central and Latin American Death squads. It was the US who helped the repressive regime in Indonesia into power and kept it there for over 30 years, who supplied the list of people to be killed.
It is the CIA who created, trained and funded Osama bin Laden, and his fellow fanatics for the war against the Soviet Union. The Taliban supporters, the Pakistani Interservices Intelligence Agency, is a CIA creation. The CIA helped establish the opium trade in Afghanistan, as they did in Indo-China during the Vietnam War. Afghanistan is now the major opium poppy growing area. For poor peasants it is their only cash crop. Opium passes through Pakistan as morphine base, then onwards to Iran for shipment through to Turkey. In Turkey it is processed into high quality heroin. Turkey is to Europe for heroin, as Colombia is to the US for cocaine. The US turns a blind eye as two client states, Pakistan and Turkey, are involved and it was the US that established the trade in Afghanistan. The proceeds help purchase weapons for the Jihad.
Globalisation is oppressing the poor all over the world, destroying the world environment. More people are killed than in the attacks in the US but they die unseen, out of the TV eye. American culture, in the name of the today's crusade free trade and neo-liberalism, is being rammed down the world's throat whether people want it or not. To devout Muslims American culture is an anathema.
Gore Vidal summed up the situation when he said the US over the last 50 years had made enemies all over the world, that some very fat chickens were flapping their wings and coming home to roost.
Robert McNamara who bombed Vietnam into the stone age then became president of the World Bank has said bombing Afghanistan, or whatever other country is chosen, will not work.
George Galloway MP, who was banned from the BBC Question Time broadcast two days after the World Trade Centre destruction, has warned that for every Muslim we kill, we generate a thousand brothers and sisters wanting to take their place. Tam Dalyell MP has said we should question what drives the fanatics in the first place, what drives them to kill and hate.
[The BBC apologised for Question Time and any offence that may have been caused by criticising US policy abroad, that the programme should not have been broadcast so soon and not live and the offending passages edited out, which only goes to show what the BBC usually does!]
Adam Porter, editor of Year Zero magazine, explained the tragedy most succinctly in a recent article:
The loss of innocent lives is more disgusting than words can express. The office workers, the cleaners, the lift repair men, the people who jumped to their deaths perhaps hoping against hope that they would somehow survive ... those incinerated in the building by thousands of gallons of aircraft fuel ... ordinary US citizens ... just like ordinary people in Paris, Amsterdam, Bangkok, Tripoli and Baghdad. But look, and look hard, this is what men of violence do to cities, what British and American planes did to Basra in Iraq, what British and American planes did to parts of Belgrade. When I spout on about missiles slamming into the side of escaping Kosovan women, children and pensioners packed into a train I mean it. They died terrible, flesh-ripping deaths. When you fire cruise missiles into packed shelters full of women and kids in Baghdad they too died terrible deaths. When you kill 5.8 million Vietnamese, carpet bombing their rudimentary homes whilst leaving the centre of Hanoi and Saigon clear so you had somewhere nice to stay when you invaded they too died terrible deaths. When you rounded up every socialist and liberal in Indonesia and had them killed and tortured they too died terrible deaths. We can add Panama, Honduras, Guatemala, Colombia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Laos, Cambodia, Israel ...
Year Zero has the original article and a discussion area:
Islamic terrorists are operating out of Saudi Arabia, but we do not hear of bombing Saudi. Extremist cleric Sheikh Omar Bakhri Mohammed issues death threats whilst he is in London claiming asylum. Why is he not kicked out?
Terrorism needs money. It earns it from drugs and donations from wealthy Arabs and like minded states. The money is laundered through foundations, charities, front companies with the help of the international banking system and lax company laws in places like the Cayman Islands, Channel Islands, Isle of Man, Luxembourg, Panama, Cyprus, Switzerland and the City of London. The same network used by drug dealers and arms merchants.
The US appears not to have learnt any lessons. Having deposed liberal democratic governments across the world it is now considering deposing the Taliban and imposing its own government on Afghanistan.
Following the forced Russian withdrawal, Afghanistan was in a state of anarchy. The Taliban have imposed some sort of order, albeit at a terrible price. The Taliban are a bunch of evil bastards who deserve to be toppled, but it is for the Afghan people to decide.
There is a lack of understanding of how Osama bin Laden operates, even assuming he is the perpetrator. There is a terrible suspicion that the enemy was chosen beforehand and is now being made to fit the bill. Osama bin Laden fits our media image of an evil mastermind organising all events, a role previously filled by Saddam Hussein and too often we are told some evil genius is orchestrating all the anti-globalisation demos. Osama bin Laden is the nominal head of a large number of Islamic terror groups. These are held together by a zealous adherence to Islam and a hatred of the West, in the same way that all the anti-globalisation groups are loosely held together by a common cause. Osama bin Laden is a figure-head.
Bombs dropped on the Muslim world will have a made in the US or UK sticker. They will also have a recruiting form for more Islamic terrorists to sign up to the Holy War against the West.
The mass media is orchestrating war fever. The BBC, at least on radio, has tried to show the causes - globalisation, American foreign policy - but it is a rare exception. Times Square in New Year has become a shrine to the dead, it is also the focus for anti-war demos with several friends and relatives of the dead participating. One wouldn't know this from the American mass media, where is the footage on CNN, ABC or NBC?
Governments around the world will use this crisis as an excuse to clamp down on civil liberties, more monitoring of democratic groups, more internet monitoring, more CCTV, bans on demos. The UK government is already slobbering at the jaws at the thought of bringing in more draconian legislation - compulsory ID cards, stronger police powers, more intrusion and monitoring, yet more anti-terrorism legislation. Blair is talking of emergency legislation to ram these measures home, all in the name of defending democracy. The Human Rights Act may be annulled.
Some good may arise. If there is a world wide clamp-down on terrorism, the US will be forced to clean up its act. It is being driven home to the US, though whether they will get the message is a another matter, that they are hated the world over, that exploitative US foreign policies are not acceptable to the rest of the world.
The alternative is that we may be at the beginning of a 30 year war the West v Islam. The West may for a change not launch long range strikes that minimise casualties in the West at the expense of civilian collateral in the target area. Islamic extremists will have no such scruples. They will launch attacks that maximise civilian casualties, as we saw with the attack on New York. Islamic extremists will already be queuing up for pilot training.
We may stamp out the roots of Islamic terrorism, if we fail the sparks will inflame the Muslim world and create a Holy War.
To really piss off the Taliban beam into the country Billy Graham and bomb the country with Bibles!
William Blum, Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower, Common Courage Press, 2000
Noam Chomsky, Deterring Democracy, Verso, 1991
Noam Chomsky, Rogue States: The Rule of Force in World Affairs, Pluto Press, 2000
Mark Curtis, The Ambiguities of Power: British Foreign Policy Since 1945, Zed Books, 1995
Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, School of Assassins, Orbis Books, 1997
Coincidentally the demos were on Tuesday 11 September, the day the Pentagon and World Trade Centre were attacked. The protesters were hemmed in, overhead helicopters, in the Thames fast patrol boats. These were not Muslim terrorists on the rampage, but peaceful demonstrators protesting against the export of arms to unsavoury regimes, the very regimes with unsavoury human rights records that support terrorism.
In August Jack Straw was naming terror states as justification for Star Wars II - China, India, Syria and Pakistan. But business is business. For DSEi China and India were honoured guests at taxpayers expense with military flunkeys to show them the hot spots. Syria and Pakistan were guests (with MoD approval) of the arms fair organisers. Other states wined and dined by MoD included Bahrain, Brunei, Jordan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Oman, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. All these states were encouraged to stock up on the latest high-tech weapons, including tanks, guns, helicopters, jets, warships and electronic gizmos, at Europe's largest arms bazaar.
DSEi was not closed out of respect for those killed in America.
The year before the terrorist attacks in the US shares in BAE Systems were down in value by œ2 billion, days after the attack they were up œ1.2 billion.
[BVEJ news #0016 September 2001, CAAT News Oct-Nov 2001]
Post the terrorist attacks in America the aviation industry has been in meltdown. What they have been doing is bringing forward job losses and route cuts that has been on the cards for months.
The industry has been using the attacks as an opportunity for more state handouts. The industry already benefits from tax exemptions and subsidies not enjoyed by other industries, it is this that has stimulated the artificially high growth rate. There is no reason why further subsidies should be received.
It was the industry that allowed the hijacks to take place. The industry thwarted on grounds of cost plans to bring in tighter security. If they are now suffering due to lax security they have no one to blame but themselves.
One advantage of the meltdown is that it has cut the number of aircraft polluting our skies. We must ensure it remains that way.
Bush has shut down all business flights in the US. Why not Farnborough?
The downturn means there is no longer a requirement for Heathrow Terminal 5. T5 already has problems with the flood plain and river diversion. The inspector's report is not now expected until November at the earliest and the inquiry may have to be reopened.
A one off Farmers Market was held in Farnborough at the end of September. It was a bloody disaster.
No attempt was made to publicise the market, no prior consultation with the local community. The times were all wrong. People turned up in the afternoon to find the market had already closed down.
Closing the market at 2pm was a big mistake. On the stroke of two a convoy of belching cars, pickups and vans poured into a Queensmead into the pedestrian area. It was sheer luck that no one was injured.
A one off market, especially one that has no publicity or support, is of no use to producers and farmers. They need a regular series of markets held at a regular place and time to establish their reputation. What is the point of establishing a reputation when you are not going to be there again?
Retailers asked the Arabs to put out promotion. They would not even discuss the matter.
There is to be (doubtful after this disaster) a market a couple of days before Christmas. Seen by everyone as a dumb timing for a farmers market.
There are plenty of good markets in the area, Farnborough alas is not destined to be one of them.
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