Posted on 02/16/2003 8:32:59 AM PST by RCW2001
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2003 08:28:35 PM ]
LONDON: Tony Blair's Labour Party has been asked to back him as the British government struggles to regain its nerve on the morning after the largest public protests in history in London, Glasgow and nearly 250 other British cities.
As controversy rages over the credentials of a pro-war Iraqi student quoted by Blair ahead of the anti-war rally, a large and committed contingent of British Indians congratulated themselves on "standing up and being counted" as part of British public life.
Said Harish Patel, who had travelled to London from Leicester, "My father says there are dharnas in India. This is the way we do things here in Britain and I'm glad I've stood up and said, the war is not in my name."
Zafar from Dewsbury, north-west England, said, "I wanted to add my voice."
On Sunday afternoon, Blair's deputy, old-style Labour bruiser John Prescott exhorted the starkly-divided governing party to back its embattled leader, in the face of worldwide protests and British opinion polls showing Blair at his most unpopular.
In the first immediate aftermath of the unprecedented anti-war protests, Precott recalled the Falklands war and said he had never agreed with it.
"War is ugly, the Labour movement has never supported it... we stand up to murderous dictators... it is controversial and never popular," Prescott said.
John Reid, Labour Party chairman, said the party was "engaged and listening."
Blair's decision to quote a pro-war letter from a 19-year-old Iraqi student at Cambridge, Rania Kashi, has also come in for criticism.
Sunday morning saw Kashi touring TV studios admitting she had never been to Iraq, was born in Kuwait of Iraqi refugee parents and had arrived in Britain at the age of three months.
Her pro-war letter to Blair, quoted by the prime minister to make a "moral case for war and removing Saddam" said, "I want to ask those who support the anti-war movement their motives and reasons behind such support... you are still blind to the bigger truths in Iraq... Saddam has murdered more than 1 m people Iraqis... Are you willing to allow him to kill another million?"
But Kashi has been attacked by, among others, veteran socialist and anti-war Labour MP Tony Benn, who said she had no credentials for advising the West to kill innocent Iraqis in war.
Meanwhile, Indian marchers at the London and Glasgow protests said the majority was made up of Gujarati Muslims, while Buddhists and third-generation immigrant students also made their first forays into the politics of protest.
The Gujarati marchers flooding the streets of London on the 3.5-mile march on Saturday, came from Leicester in the English Midlands and Batley in the north-west of England, the hometown of the three British Gujaratis who died in last year's Gujarat riots.
The huge Gujarati Muslim population in British foreign secretary Jack Straw's constituency, Blackburn in Lancashire, also took part in the protests, but in Glasgow, Scotland, where at least 30,000 marchers took to the streets.
I see, she has no credentials but the mob in the street does. Glad to have that clarified.
Another important fact neglected by the press: those who the protestors claim to be protesting for WANT us to liberate Iraq.
Iraqi-Americans to Hold "Philadelphia Freedom Rally", Feb. 15, 2003, 12:00 pm-4:00 pm in Phil. Pa.
Iraqi-American Council ^ | Thursday, February 13, 2003
Posted on 02/13/2003 9:41 PM EST by kristinn
Iraqi-Americans and supporters of democracy in a post-Saddam Iraq will hold a rally to demand the liberation of the oppressed Iraqi people from the Saddam regime.
Rally participants will demand that Saddam Hussein step down immediately to avoid imminent war.
They also will demand the United Nations Security Council enforce all UN Security resolutions guaranteeing the civil and human rights of the Iraqi people, especially Resolutions 688 and 1441; Indict Saddam Hussein and charge as a war criminal; Secure the release of Adnan Abdul Kareem, the young Iraqi turned over January 25 to Iraqi security forces by UN weapons inspectors after he sought refuge at the UN compound in Baghdad; and support free and democratic elections be held in post-Saddam Iraq under the supervision of international observers.
WHEN: Sat., Feb. 15, 2003, 12:00 pm-4:00 pm
WHERE: SE corner of Market and Fifth Streets, near KYW Building, Phila., PA, next to Independence Hall
"More than 200 years ago, on this very site, our founding fathers wrested their freedom from a brutal tyrant who deprived them of life and liberty," stated Aziz Al-Taee, chairman of the Iraqi-American Council. "Once again, on this historic site, we demand the liberation of the Iraqi people from the murderous grip of Saddam Hussein.
"If Saddam does not step down and he forces a war on the free world, it must be a war of liberation, not occupation. Only Iraqis can determine their own destiny. We will not support the Saddam regime or a military government imposed by occupying forces."
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On Sunday, Feb.16, talk show thread
C-Span caller: An Iraqi visiting in England, who called in to say if his countrymen had been allowed to march yesterday, they would have overwhelmingly outnumbered the peace marchers across the world. He said their message would have been an SOS to the world, to save them from Saddam. He says those who say this war is about oil are ignorant, that Iraq oil has already been mortgaged to Russia and France. He said the Iraqi people would never defend their oil fields, because it doesn't belong to them, it belongs to Saddam.
Well! That call makes the entire C-Span morning worthwhile!!
Blair, if anything, is right, and he knows it.
You say the US is a third world cess pool. You're as stupid and anti-american as the leftists protesting.
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