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Hizballah Boosted by Anti-War Westerners, Meeting Told
CSN News ^ | February 29, 2008 | Kevin McCandless

Posted on 02/29/2008 2:51:47 AM PST by forkinsocket

London (CNSNews.com) - Hundreds of anti-war activists attending a meeting here on Thursday night were told that their activism was appreciated by the Lebanese Shi'ite group Hizballah.

With the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq fast approaching, the British Stop the War Coalition is preparing for a massive demonstration in London on March 15.

As part of the run-up, the coalition sponsored an evening with various speakers, including Ibrahim Moussawi, the editor of Al Intiqad, a Lebanese newspaper linked to Hizballah.

In a short speech occasionally interrupted by applause and cheers, Moussawi told his audience that it was the support of the anti-war movement that kept Hizballah going during its brief war against Israel in 2006.

"They appreciate everything you did and say you are partners in victory," he said.

Politicians from the opposition Conservative Party complained this week about Moussawi being allowed into Britain. Moussawi said it is simply part of a propaganda campaign against Hizballah.

Hizballah was not a terrorist organization, he said, but an organization exercising the right to defend itself against Israel, which it views as an imperialist occupying power.

"It's not that I want to see people killed, no matter what nationality they have," Moussawi said. "It's that I want justice to take place."

Moussawi, who will speak elsewhere in Britain over the next few days, was recently banned from speaking in Ireland.

Earlier in the evening, Ben Griffin, a former soldier with British special forces, accused his country's military of routinely handing over detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan to the American army.

Based on what his officers in Iraq and his fellow soldiers had told him, he said, hundreds of these detainees were later sent to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba or to other holding centers under the process known as extraordinary rendition.

Griffin said the British government was violating the Geneva convention and other instruments of international law.

Griffin, who first made his allegations publicly earlier this week, told Thursday night's audience that the British government was seeking a gag order against him.

Another speaker, Hassan Juma'a, head of the Iraqi Oil Workers Federation, said the war had brought nothing but death and destruction to his country.

Speaking through a translator, the union leader charged that U.S. forces were as brutally repressive as the regime of the ousted dictator Saddam Hussein.

A controversial bill now stalled in the Iraqi parliament aims to open up the country's oil industry to outside investment. Juma'a said this would only lead to exploitation by the West.

Lindsey German, one of the chief organizers of the coalition, defended her group's decision to bring Moussawi to Britain, saying it supported anyone who stood against American "imperialism."

She said the Stop the War Coalition has kept the war in the public eye and that the government was trying to retaliate by silencing people like Griffin and Moussawi.

"They're trying to silence them because we have been incredibly effective," she said. "We have made this a major political issue and we will not go away."


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Israel; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: alintiqad; antiwar; britain; hassanjumaa; hezbollah; hizballah; hizbullah; ibrahimmoussawi; jumaa; lebanon; lindseygerman; london; moussawi; uk; wot
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1 posted on 02/29/2008 2:51:48 AM PST by forkinsocket
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To: forkinsocket
It's funny, years ago anti-war folks would FREAK if you accused them of being anti-American.

Now, they consider it a medal of honor--they're above all that "nationality" stuff, they are Citizens of the World! Heil Hi--I mean, uh, Praise Gaia!

2 posted on 02/29/2008 3:03:32 AM PST by Darkwolf377 (Republican "Suicide Voters" need to repeat: SCOTUS...SCOTUS...SCOTUS...)
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To: Darkwolf377
Excellent point as far as it goes.

As I'm sure you know, Nazism is/was a subset of Communism. "The Internationale unites the human race".

3 posted on 02/29/2008 3:19:13 AM PST by RushLake (Democrats/MSM have never met a terrorist they didn't like.)
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To: forkinsocket

Proof that it is “aid and comfort to the enemy”.


4 posted on 02/29/2008 3:26:42 AM PST by Thrownatbirth (.....Iraq Invasion fan since '91.)
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To: RushLake

Nazism was Communism with German characteristics.


5 posted on 02/29/2008 3:46:50 AM PST by samtheman
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To: forkinsocket

No kidding. The anti-war Left has always encouraged our enemies. Hell, even Giap admitted that the North Vietnamese could never defeat the US militarily, and thus it considered its true battlefields to be the streets of America where the anti-war Left carried their water and did their bidding. Giap said the North won the war in Vietnam because it won the war on the streets of America. The Left (i.e., the Democrat Party) is traitorous.


6 posted on 02/29/2008 3:47:34 AM PST by ought-six
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To: ought-six
What I don't get is why these communist vermin are still characterized as anti-war. They are not anti-war. They are overtly pro-war when it comes to the Islamists versus Israel and the West. They just want us to fight for the other side. This was also true in the sixties. The virulent anti-war left was not anti-war, they were in fact actively working for a military victory by the Communists and they got it.
7 posted on 02/29/2008 4:24:31 AM PST by trek
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To: forkinsocket

Why do these idiots want to surrender to the animals who follow Islam?

I almost wish Europe and England would fall to muslim subjegation just so we could watch and laugh, but alas then we would have a much stronger enemy to destroy.

Liberalism is truly a mental disorder.


8 posted on 02/29/2008 4:25:50 AM PST by Shirerwasright (Liberalism continues to erode the foundations of America)
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To: dennisw; Cachelot; Nix 2; veronica; Catspaw; knighthawk; Alouette; Optimist; weikel; Lent; GregB; ..
If you'd like to be on this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

High Volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel. or WOT [War on Terror]

----------------------------

9 posted on 02/29/2008 4:56:58 AM PST by SJackson (If 45 million children had lived, they'd be defending America, filling jobs, paying SS-Z. Miller)
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To: samtheman

If you haven’t already seen it, you might enjoy “A Half Century’s Slander” subtitle “It isn’t conservatives who must answer for fascism” by Jonah Goldberg in the hard copy National Review, January 28, 2008.


10 posted on 03/01/2008 2:41:36 AM PST by RushLake (Democrats/MSM have never met a terrorist they didn't like.)
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