Pixelated Semantics

A schizotypical inventory

Pop music for dissident ears

There are the faintest signs today of the illegal Irak war unravelling further (although there is plenty of precedent to indicate that such stories are often a pressure valve that provides relief without substance).

In the US some two-dozen House Democrats have held a hearing on a British government memo that said that by July 2002 US intelligence was being 'fixed' around a policy that would inevitably lead to war with Iraq - which did happen a few months later:

"If these disclosures are true ... they establish a prima facie case of going to war under false pretences"

according to the "ranking Democrat" on the House Judiciary Committee, who led the hearing.

And some reports go even further by revealling

"[...] Blair's advisers warned in 2002 that Blair would have to find a way to make the war look legal under international law. The briefing paper said "that since regime change was illegal it was 'necessary to create the conditions' that would make it legal"

Some American coverage of the memo(s) takes a different tack to defend Bush by portraying the British as the ones manipulating the Americans into war.

Adding further weight to a memo that virtually admits guilt is the separate opinion of an international lawyer who warns Prime Minister Howard could face criminal prosecution overseas for Australia's role in the Iraq war. The director of the Centre for International Courts and Tribunals at University College London, says Man of Steel along with Tony Blair could face charges amid claims the Iraq war was illegal:

"Under international law an illegal war amounts to the crime of aggression and in some countries around the world a crime of aggression is one in which they exercise jurisdiction... So the possibility really can't be excluded that if messrs Blair and Howard at some point in the future travel after they've left office to a country which, for example, has an extradition agreement with another country where you have an independent prosecutor."

While the Professor tries to be strenuously neutral over the assertion, there is perhaps just the merest hint of suggestion in his subsequent statement that it would be "easier for foreign countries angered by the Iraq war to chase after Mr Howard given Australia has less political clout in the world than the US or Britain". Perhaps I am looking too hard, and perhaps also "Friends" might be looking to throw a scapegoat to the wolves (coincident news timing and matched empasis on illegality, with redirected blame, are probable indicators) - either way, its dangerous music for dissident ears even if it is the informational equivalent of Top 40 pop music.

Item posted by AutoEditor at 3:50 pm ::