Nagasaki Day - "Jabiluka Ploughshares Disable Uranium Mining Equipment - 10 Years on!"

international | anti-war / imperialism | opinion/analysis

Saturday August 09, 2008 10:25

by Ciaron - Catholic Worker/Ploughshares

Walking through the streets of Dublin, Ireland, after the Paul Kelly's gig http://www.paulkelly.com.au/ last night, I thought I should write this reflection.

It was strange to be in a packed Dublin gig of sentimental swaying Aussies 12,000
miles from home, having been raised in a family home of Irish sentimentality in Brisbane, Australia. My father left County Offaly as a teeneager to score work in London in '46 and then on to Australia on asssisted passage in '49, intending to spend a couple of years and have a look around. He did not return to his home village Clara for 26 years, made possible by the windfall of a scucces in the Football Pools with his fellow Everton Park posties in '75. It was the first time he met his youngest sister born after his departure and now pregnant with her first child.

My dad never really integrated into mainstream Australia - bursting into song in public places, treating Brsbane as one big Irish village welcoming strangers as friends he hadn't met and getting us kids to sleep by telling us bedtime stories of his mystical faraway village. His rebel songs put us firmly on the side of the Indians while we watched Westerns on Saturday afternoon tv, made us sympathetic to the aborigines which we caught the occasional glimpse of as we trundled to school through the Fortitude Valley red light district and suspicious of cops. My father had his nose broken by the cops in the '50's ("I was talkin', when I shoulda been listenin!"), my older brother had his nose broken in the '70's (a case of mistaken identitiy as Consorting Squad Detective John Frederich Johnson who had bashed me months earlier in a previous street march thought he was in a mismatch rematch). I was relieved to get out of the '90's with my schnozel still intact. I had sensed a pattern forming!

The street and society I grew up in felt sterile and foreign to the spiritulaity and home I was fashioned in - devoid of spirituality, welcome and mysticism. The virgin bushland, part of the Ennogera Army Barracks at the end of the street, where we played was sensory overload - the reptiles, the loud strange bush noises, the heat. What was unfolding in Derry and Belfst in my teenage years was much more significant in our home than what was going down in Saigon and Long Tan where the soldier boys from over the back fence were headed. Today the soldier boys, from over the back, deploy to Iraq and Afghanistan. Years before they killed and died at Gallipoli, from where the Barracks gets its name.

What Paul Kelly does in lyric and song is to wring the spiritality and pathos from this strange land and the culturally displaced lives lived in it. Among other snippets, we hear of children pretending to be asleep so to eariwg on parents intimate conversations, long bus trips to mend broken marriages, revenge fantasies on being dumped, and Aussies who have stayed abroad too long. Kely's people came from County Clare in the 1850's renaming the place they farmed in Victoria after their abandoned County.

JABILUKA PLOUGHSHARES TEN YEARS ON!
http://www.plowsharesactions.org/webpages/JABILUKAPLOWS...S.htm

Ten years ago today, we headed up a bush track created by Energy Resources Australia (ERA) into the Jabiluka Mine lease, located in the sparsely populated Northen Territory of Austraia. to disable uranium mining equipment.
Like today, it was the anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Nagasaki. We had been partly inspired by the life and conversion of Fr. George Zabelka the Catholic chaplain to the bomb crew that had pulverised Nagasaki on Augist 9th. 1945, this the oldest Catholic centre in Aisa. The predominantly Catholic bomb crew had used the Nagasaki Catholic cathedral as thei ground zero target.
Fr. George Zabelka's slow awakening to his complicty in this historic crime, his growing awareness of its roots in the Constantine shift when the church abandoned is pacifism in the 3rd. century and his two year walk of repentance from the Trident nuclear base at Bangor, Washington, USA to Bethlehem inspired us. Our walk into Jabiluka was a contnuation of his walk in the light and the truth. It was a walk into risk responding to the cries of past, present and future victims of uranium mining.

We were careful to follow the ERA track as we had no guide to avoid trespassing on sacred aboriginal sites. It was the same track that weeks earlier, along with scores of protestors, we had blockaded the early morning shift change at the mine. That early morning blockade was high risk as some enraged miners tried to run us down with their trucks, on arrival the Northern Territory cops came in swinging and throwing blockaders off the track into the bush. The scenes are covered well in the unauthorised documentary "Minds and Energy". I remember striding furiously down the track with the windscreen wiper in hand of a miner's truck which tried to run us down. My fury is covered well in the same film as I unleash a speech about the little known (by the then movement and public) Depleted Uranium munition that had been used extensively in Iraq '91. One million rounds unleashed from U.S. A10 Warthogs and 11,000 7lb D.U. shells from U.S. tanks in those short two months. D.U. had left battlefields in Iraq poisoned for years to come, these rounds and shells continue to kill Iraqis ans U.S. military veterans to this day. Since then, D.U. has been used extensively by the U.S. military in Serbia and Afghanistan. The cutting edge of the Australian anti-uranium movement was largely ignorant of this munition at Jabiluka in '98 - 7 years after its initial use.

As primarily anti-war focussed activists, we had been a(n initially celebrated) minority at the large blockade camp 10 miles from the lease. Most of those who mustered for direct nonviolent resistance were young white environmentalists outraged that a second uranium mine in opening in a pristine wilderness World Heritage listed National Park. There were also small numbers of indigeneous people willing to confront the mine. The small Mirrar tribe had been browbeaten in the late '70's by the federal government and the Uncle Toms of the Northern Land Council to relent and let the huge open cut Ranger Mine go forward. They were taking a courageous stand against further desecration of their ancestral homeland by the new Jabiluka mine. Their elder was arrested and incarcerated in Darwin for her resistance.

Previously, the Hawke Labor Gvernment of the '80's had failed with its cynical attempt to brand Jabiluka as "North Ranger" to facilitate its opening under its Labor's "three mine policy". In '77 the Labor Party ran an election campaign on banning all uranium mining in Australia. On gaining office under the leadership of Bon Hawke in '83 they sold out immediately. Initial work on Roxby Downs/South Australia, the largest uranium deposit in the world, continued before the A.L.P. convened to change its policy. The three mine policy adopted was their attempted compromise with the huge anti-uranium movement of the late '70's and '80's.

Many courageous people put themselves on the line at Jabiluka in '98. Eco warriors had stopped trucks moving equipment into the site by locking onto their undercarriages. Others explored "black wallaby" actions breaking into the site and locking on to equipment. Many were arretsed and roughed up whille blockading and trespassing. They were hit with multiple hyped up charges - locking on became "car theft" according to the NT cops. There was a broken leg, a broken collar bone and various concussions. One black wallaby affiniity group were placed in a police van, the cops then retreated from the vehicle while the miners conducted a controlled explosion. I wonder if those folks still have Jabiluka ringing in their ears today? Others who were locked on had their hats removed and water poured out by the cops so they would slowly burn and dehydrate.

By Nagasaki Day, the blockade camp was depressed and defeated not by the cops and the state but by the NGO ureaucrats and aspiring movement politicians. With a Federal election looming, the orders came from Labor Party apparchics to deflate the blockade, sideline the issue to - they believed - increase their election chances. The direction was for the nonviolent direct actionists to stand down and make the long journey home. They had served their cannon fodder role to attract initial media attention for the hi drama/low risk taking movement bureaucrats. A deal was made between the blockade leadership and the cops, the old chestnut of white sycophancy wheeled to enforce it and paralyse the resistance.

The deal was the police would be given prior knowledge of all protests, there would be no incursions into the mine site, climaxing on the eve of that year's federal election with the police faciltating movement buraucrats entry into the Jabiru police station to order 100 people to cease noncoperation, admit they all really weren't "John Howard", give their names and accept bail. Thieir submision was much to the relief of the prison staff in Darwin where I was by then located who were anxious about this prospective influx into their system and where they were going to put them! A handful of us had already been already a moving and a shaking in the NT jails syststem drawing attention to the terrible conditions and managing a few reforms.

Anyways, the deal facilitated an easy entry for the Jabiluka Ploughshares into the mine site on the night of the Nagasaki '98 anniversary.. The security was lax, they must have felt their task subcontracted out. Convinced that the movement was policing itself and seemed to be on a long coffee break that night. We cut through the cyclone fence and made our way to a huge excavator, we lifted the lid and cut the internal cables, we spraypainted "Nagasaki", "Horoshima", "Chernobyl" and a town in Iraq that had been poisoned by uranium. We climbed on top of the huge excavotor, broke the glass of the driver's cabin reached through and hammerd away on the ignition. Uranium mining excavator disabled, we sat in prayer in this beautiful bush night.

Labor lost the election, we went to Darwin's Berrimah Jail, then to court, then to jail again, we were slandered by movement bureaucrats http://www.takver.com/history/jabiluka1998.htm. One woman spent a chunk of her PhD slamming us without bothering to interview with us - the low quality of research standards in Australian academe I guess! Time moved on for those who had gathered at Jabiluka some gave up the struggle, some continue, some folks took their lives http://sydney.indymedia.org.au/story/passing-pip-starr-...apher, others took office http://nz.youtube.com/watch?v=EfM1C168hjY&feature=related to administer today's Austrlian Labor Government's uranium mining and export policy that looks something like an internatonal car boot sale with the ethics of a smack dealer "if we don't sell it someone else wil!"

Over 30 years ago ('77), my brother and I headed down to Brisbane's Hamilton Wharves to blockade a uranium shipment. The consequences of that night, besides the short term aches and pains, were the suspension of civil liberties in the state of Queensland for several years resulting of 3,000+ arrests for exercising free speech, multiple house raids, harrasment, frameups, blacklisting and consequent immigration and a police force so corrupt they were discovered running child pornography cottage industry from their Juvenile Aid Department. This child porn/ cop connection brought them undone, it was a bridge to far. It initiated a chain of events that exposed "The Joke", launching the "Fitzgerald Inquiry into Police Corruption" which saw the Police Commisioner was sentenced to 14 years and five government ministers also jailed.

Relevant to note where that uranium shipment was bound from Brisbane wharves that '77 night. It was bound to Iran where the U.S. was supporting an aggressive nuclear energy program under their despotic Shah. Ironic that we now stand on the precipice of a nuclear strike on Iran on the basis of Iran's nuclear program we once noruished with Australi an uranium. Governments, despots, Shahs and clients don't last forever - nuclear material pretty much does! Do your best to keep it in the ground.

Don't get fooled again!
Swords into Plowshares!

As Paul Kelly and an old comrade from the Joh daze (it built character) aboiginal elder Kev Carmody remind us

"From Little Things Big Things Grow!" http://uk.search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A1f4cfN3X51I._cA...rd=r1

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Comments (9 of 9)

CORRECTION - Although D.U. deployed in Afghanistan - no compelling evidence of its use.

by Ciaron

Sun Aug 10, 2008 07:39

Hi Ciaron,

Thanks for the recap & links. One minor point - re:

> Since then, D.U. has been used extensively by the U.S. military in Serbia and Afghanistan.

There is no compelling evidence of DU use in Afghanistan by the U.S. - the Taliban had no armor, and altho DU ammo was in theatre and A-10s were deployed, the Pentagon says 'to the best of their knowledge' that DU rounds were not fired.

I've looked into the DU issue in depth, because the A-10s train out of Tucson and fly overhead nearly every day, and Raytheon in Tucson makes missiles and bombs erroneously alleged to have DU warheads.

I can go into this more if you are interested, but in short, the work of the Uranium Medical Research Center in Afghanistan has not been replicated; the lab that did the analysis has had its conclusions refuted in another DU civil case in the UK (David Nibby's); and in marked contrast to public statements by UMRC researcher Tedd Weyman, UMRC's peer-reviewed publications are quite equivocal on the claim for US uranium weapons being the source for their handful of overly contaminated forensic samples. Curiously, it is Weyman's claim that "NON-depleted uranium" is what they found, not DU. He hypothesizes (just as Chris Busby (Green Audit; llrc.org) does about enriched uranium allegedly found in a few 2006 Lebanon samples) that U.S. bomb makers deliberately mixed DU and enriched U into an isotopic ratio approximating natural U, in an effort to hide its use from critics. Frankly, I find such a proposition preposterous. See my analysis at nuclearresister.org/du-disinfo.pdf.

Peace
Jack,"Nuclear Resister" Magazine

Nuns Arrested at Petersen Air Force Base Remebering Nagasaki & Hiroshima

by 3 Nuns Arrested

Mon Aug 11, 2008 07:39

Colorada, U.S.A.

The Co Springs Gazette
Aug 9, 2008

3 peace demonstrators Detained at Peterson

http://www.gazette.com/articles/sisters_39120___article....html

Police will decide on filing trespass charges

Jabiluka Ploughshares Resistance in Darwin Jail 1998/2000

by Jabiluka Ploughshares

Tue Aug 12, 2008 08:19

Once in Darwin's Berrimah Jail, the resistance continued. O'Reilly became the first male prisoner in NT history to avoid a haircut by explaing the Nazarite vow to the warden.

In '98 the male remand section (capacity 35/ 80% indiginenous had seen 3 suicides in two months. In response, one prisoner had burnt out his cell in protest had been charged with arson and transfered over 1,000 kms to the other NT Jail in Alice Springs. O'Reilly met this long term prisoner (flown to Darwin from Alice to face the arson charges) in Darwin court cells. While being transfered to the jail the accused shooter/arsonist briefed O'Reilly on the conditions and internal politcs of Berrimah Prison.

By exploring the rarely used the monthly official visitors program, and mobilising other remand prisoners to do likewise, O'Reilly helped to gain improvements to cell ventilation, issuing of tv sets (hard to know if that counts as a victory or not!) and new bedding.

In 2000 while being held in the sentenced setion (90% indigeneous and 30 Indonesian fisherman on remand placed in one yard of that sentenced setcion), compulsrory DNA prininting was introduced to Berrimah Prison. Below is a record of O'Reilly's nonviolent direct reponse at the time.....

www.serve.com/nukeresister/nr119/nr119ciaron.html

Catholic Worker & Jesuit Arrested at Vanderberg A.F.B. (California, U.S.A.) on Nagasaki Day

by Catholic Worker

Tue Aug 12, 2008 19:17

Vanderberg A.F.B. California, U.S.A.

Guadalupe (CA) Catholic Worker Dennis Apel and
Fr. Steve Kelly, S.J. were arrested outside
the main gate of Vandenberg AFB on August 9, commemorating the 63
anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki. At our
annual Hiroshima/Nagasaki day commemoration vigil, Dennis and Fr.
Steve were arrested for violation of their "Ban and Bar" letter that
they received for the May 19, 2007 witness and arrest, which prohibits
their presence on or near the base for life.

Mike Wisniewski (LACW) also was given a warning to leave or face
arrest for violating his "Ban and Bar", but he chose to leave the
vigil area. Dennis, Fr. Steve, Mike, and Jeff Dietrich from the LACW,
face another hearing on Sept. 18 for the May 19, 2007 action.

Remembering Hiroshima/Nagasaki - at Pentagon/ White House/ Dept. of Energy and on U.S.S. Sterett

by Jonah House

Fri Aug 15, 2008 11:40

Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki: at the Pentagon, at the 1.3 billion dollar guided missile destroyer USS Sterett, the Department of Energy, and the White House.

Remembering the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and aware of the threat to use nuclear weapons to control the policies of other nations, activists from the Atlantic Life Community gathered for a Faith and Resistance retreat in Washington, DC..

On August 6, 2008, we held a silent vigil at the Pentagon, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. Five people - Liz McAlister, Clare Grady, Eve Tetaz, Peter De Mott, and Bill Streit were arrested by the Pentagon police for kneeling in sackcloth and ashes on the Pentagon sidewalk. Others held banners which read: “We repent the sin of Hiroshima and Nagasaki” and “We oppose the use and threat of nuclear weapons.” Some sat in sackcloth and ashes on the grassy area. As we walked to the Pentagon, we were led by Japanese Buddhist Nun, Sr. Ichi Kawa, who also led our walks to the DOE and White House. Her presence, drumming, chanting and prayer kept us mindful and helped make us a cohesive group.

On August 7, the activists went on a tour of the guided missile destroyer, the USS Sterett which was in the Baltimore Harbor in preparation for its commissioning on August 9. During the tour, 19 people brought out banners, handed out leaflets (not many were taken) and sang as they were escorted off the ship. Everyone was detained for an hour or so as they got off the ship, but during this whole time, the action became a vigil on the dock, watched throughout by many of the Sterett's crew. The banners were visible to all; they read: “Disarm the Sterett, Love your Enemies” and “Jesus would never join the military.” Sr. Ichi and others from the retreat and the Baltimore community walked down Key Highway to the fence surrounding the pier where the Sterett was moored and drummed and chanted throughout the 2 hour witness.

On August 8th, the Atlantic Life Community walked to the DOE. Dressed in sackcloth and ashes, the community used the same banners - “We repent of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki” and “We oppose the use and threat of all nuclear weapons.” Matt Olachek changed the sign on the lawn of the Department of Energy to the Department of Extinction. The planning group chose to witness at the DOE because the research and development of nuclear weapons is directed by the DOE, and all nuclear weapons are owned by the DOE.

Saturday, August 9, the site was the White House. Two Hibakusha - one a survivor of the Hiroshima bombing and the other a survivor of the Nagasaki bombing - had come from Japan for the anniversary. They told their moving stories from Hiroshima and Nagasaki to the activists and the hundreds of tourists and then joined the silent vigil in sack cloth and ashes.

The evening of August 9, a newly formed peace flotilla convened in the waters surrounding the USS Sterett during the commissioning. Each of the 9 boats displayed colorful banners with pointed messages, including the banners that were unfurled on the Sterett two days earlier, a floating peace sign and a helium filled weather balloon holding up a banner DISARM.

For more pictures and information go to www.jonahhouse.org.

PHOTO LINK- Nuns Busted at Peterson A.F.B.

by Nuns Busted

Fri Aug 15, 2008 20:43

Photos

http://csaction.org/080808/080808.html

The seventh annual Sisters Witness Against War vigil, at the North
Gate of Peterson Air Force Base. Sisters from the Colorado Springs
orders of Mount St. Francis and Benet Hill were joined by sisters from
other orders and 50 members of the activist community. Every year this
vigil happens the anniversaries of the dropping of the atomic bomb on
Nagasaki and Hiroshima on Aug. 6 and 9, 1945. Participating this year
are Sister Barbara Huber of Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati, Sister
Mary Ann Cunningham of the Sisters of Loretto in Denver and Esther
Kisamore of Colorado Springs.

Arguments to begin Tuesday August 19th as Activists to Appeal Convictions in Kuhl Protest.

by FingerLakesForPeace

Mon Aug 18, 2008 08:53

Ithaca, New York, U.S.A.

Danny Burns, Mark Scibilia-Carver, Ellen Grady, Todd Saddler, and
Chris Tate are scheduled to appear in Stueben County Court at 1:00 PM
this Tuesday August 19th with their attorney Ray Schlather, concerning
the appeal of last years conviction for Misdemeanor Tresspass.

(*Danny Burns was a member of the St. Patricks Four who were sentenced (in another case 4-8 months for an occupation of the military recruitment centre in their hometown of Ithaca, upsate New York. This action took place on St. Patrick's Day 03 on the eve of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Ellen Grady and ten of her family (3 of which were co-defendants along with Burns in SP4) were present in solidarity at the Pitstop Ploughshares www.peaceontrial.com first trial in Dublin March 05.
On the eve of the 05 departure to Dublin, 3 of the Grady Ithaca hoses were raided by the F.B.I. Proseceutors in their SP4 trial attempted to impose severe bail condition on these 3 defendants saying "they had recently returned from Dublin, Ireland, where they had been involved in ongoing criminal activity (by attending the Pitstop trial.....the Pitstops were cleared of being involved in any criminal activity at the conclusion of their thrird trial). While on trial the SP4 were cross examined about their relation to the Pitstops in Ireland.

(The Feds have had the hots for this family and associates since the '60's....see the PBS "Camden 28" doc (or google it!) recently screened at the West Belfast Festival that deals with the activism of family patriarch the late John Grady!)

Background:

On Monday August 6, 2007 Danny Burns, Mark Carver, Ellen Grady, Todd
Saddler and Chris Tate "occupied" the Bath, NY office of Congressman
Randy Kuhl, a Republican and ardent and unrelenting supporter of
President Bush and the "war on terror." The aforementioned quintet
delivered approximately three thousand petitions to Congressman Kuhl's
office, petitions asking him to make a public declaration that he
would not vote for any additional funding for the war in Iraq. The
activists had hoped to dialogue with the Congressman in person and
waited in his office for over five hours. At the end of the business
day Kuhl's office manager requested that the five leave the premises
but they declined citing the Constitution, International law, and a
moral obligation to stay and address this issue with the Congressman.
The Bath police were summoned and lost little time before arresting
the activists and charging them with a misdem eanor count of criminal
trespass.

The Nuremburg Tribunal defined crimes against the peace as "planning,
preparation, initiation, or waging of a war of aggression, or a war in
violation of international treaties, agreements, or assurances" and
also declared that citizens of a country which commits these crimes
can be culpable. The doctrine of preventative war was rejected at
Nuremburg. - Ellen Grady

We have to bring the troops home, provide for their physical and
mental health care, and pay reparations to the people of Iraq. -Todd
Saddler

This overly aggressive prosecution and conviction is a local
characterization of systemic problems that radiate from the very top
of our corrupted judicial system, and therefore it warrants appeal.
Randy Kuhl continues to walk lock-step with the Bush Cheney Neo-cons
who have ruined this great country. The winds of change are howling up
Buell Street all the way from D.C.. - Chris Tate

Who: Finger Lakes For Peace

What: Appeal in Steuben County Court

When: Tuesday August 19, 2008 1:00 PM

Where: Stuben County Courthouse 3 E. Pultney Square, Bath

Contact: Chris Tate 607 351-3768 or Peter De Mott 607 279-8303

www.FingerLakesForPeace.org

Pittsburgh Catholic Worker Remembers Nagasaki, Confronts U.S. Govt. with Lack of Clean Water in Iraq

by Pittsburgh CW

Tue Aug 19, 2008 07:53

Pittsburgh, Penn. U.S.A.

Water pouring at CMU's Military outlet,August 9th, Nagasaki day
symbolizing the lack of clean water in Iraq because of the wars and
santions since August 2 1990, the police threatened arrest but never
kept there promise.

article
http://pittsburgh.indymedia.org/news/2008/08/29820.php

photo
http://media.indypgh.org/uploads/2008/08/the-cleaners.jpg

mp3
A profoundly moving and haunting threnody for the victims of Hiroshima
composed by K. Penderedki
info. http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3404705037.html
mp3 location http://radio4all.net/responder.php/download/28772/33346...irene@gmail.com/722-1-nagasaki.mp3

leaflet - from Fallujah to Nagasaki

testimony a Hibakusha
three days later on August 9th, 1945 at precisely 11:02 in the morning
- a second Bomb was exploded over the city of Nagasaki. The Japanese
called it pikadon (flash-boom). There was a blinding flash of light
brighter than the sun, followed by a tremendous shock wave and a
searing blast of heat. Huge poisonous mushroom clouds ascended into
the sky and a deadly radioactive black rain fell. Those at the center
of the blasts were incinerated, leaving only their shadows behind.

testimony by a U.S. soldier
In Fallujah I saw the burnt bodies of women and children ... The
White Phosphorus explodes and forms a cloud who's in 150 meters is
dead. A whole city was seized and razed to the earth using this kind
of bombing.

Today is the 64th anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki. After a 18
year hiatus nuclear triggers are being made, this time at the birth
place of the nuclear era...Los Alamos, New Mexico. One of the cries of
the victims after the atomic bomb was a cry for a little water.
Likewise the people of Iraq have been deprived of clean water since
the first Iraq war in 1991, the water treatment centers destroyed over
and over again.

today we come here to the CMU's Software Engineering Institute not
just as a symbolic gesture to a deaf society but to act as a
non-violent counter presence to CMU's military contracting that
includes both conventional and nuclear weapons.

Iraq / water leaflet

In Iraq 70 Percent of People Lack Clean Water

Posted by Abigail Brown, Water For The Ages at 12:00 PM on May 1,
2008. / from alternet.org

The number of civilians in Iraq without water has risen from 50
percent to 70 percent during 2003 to 2007.

Less than half of Iraq's population of 29 million people have access
to clean, drinkable water. And, according to a recent report by Oxfam,
the number of civilians in Iraq without water has risen from 50
percent to 70 percent during 2003 to 2007 (the continued US
occupation).

Recent History of Water in Iraq
In the recent past, Iraq had over 140 drinking water and treatment
facilities in operation. Air attacks in 1991, during the Persian Gulf
War destroyed many of these water treatment plants.

At the same time, UN imposed sanctions disallowed trade between Iraq
and other countries. This made import of needed chemicals and supplies
for upkeep of the water treatment facilities difficult.

By 2003, Iraq's 140 major water treatment facilities were operating at
about 35 percent of their design capacity. In March 2003, the US
government launched a direct-attack on Iraq. This continued war, for
over five-years now, has rendered useless the already deteriorating
water infrastructure systems across the country.

Years of political upheaval, sanctions against Iraq, consistent mortar
attacks, and unstable-transitional governing bodies have made
maintenance of the water treatment systems almost impossible.

Over 600 workers from the Ministry of Municipalities and Public Works
have been killed attempting to repair these networks since 2005. --
UNICEF

Unsafe water is also taking its toll. Iraq saw the worst outbreak of
Cholera in recorded history in 2007.

Ex-Cop Spooks in the Jabiluka Campaign '98-2000

by ex-cop spooks

Fri Oct 17, 2008 06:51

Melbourne, Australia

" The unit also deployed undercover officers to "assess" events such as
a 1989 teddy bears picnic in the Fitzroy Gardens organised by the
Victorian Childcare Action Group and a Reclaim the Night rally in the
city in 1985, at which female officers posed as feminists. "

in the age: infiltrat. and mention of barra/memet

Ex-undercover officer spied on green groups for uranium miners -
EXCLUSIVE - THE SPYING GAME
Age, The (Melbourne, Australia) - October 17, 2008
Author: Richard Baker and Nick McKenzie, Age Investigative Unit
THE owners of Australia's biggest uranium mines paid a former
undercover Victoria Police officer to infiltrate environment and
Aboriginal groups in Melbourne.

The former police intelligence unit officer, known as Mehmet, was hired
by North Ltd - before its takeover by Rio Tinto in late 2000 - and US
nuclear and defence giant General Atomics to spy on Friends of the
Earth, Jabiluka Action Group, Nuclear Free Australia, radio station 3CR
and radical Melbourne bookstore Barricade Books.

Mehmet first infiltrated the Jabiluka Action Group and Friends of the
Earth in 1998 as part of an undercover police operation. It is not
known why police chose to infiltrate and monitor the groups, though
both were involved in anti-uranium protests.

After leaving the police in late 1999 to set up his own security
company, Universal Axiom, Mehmet retained his covert police persona as
a Kurdish migrant concerned about indigenous and mining issues.

He was able to stay inside the groups and provide information to the
mining companies about campaigns being planned against their respective
uranium mining operations until his cover was blown in mid-2001, when
Friends of the Earth received an anonymous phone call warning about
Mehmet's true identity.

Deputy Police Commissioner Simon Overland told The Age it was a breach
of the Police Regulations Act for an officer to use a covert identity
after leaving the force or to use information gathered in the course of
official duties for private gain.

"It's a criminal offence and we would take that very seriously. We have
prosecuted people in the past and we will continue to do so when they
do that," he said.

Mr Overland also acknowledged some covert operations by Victoria Police
in the late 1990s were not as accountable as they should have been.

"It is pretty much a matter of public record that there were issues
with the way activities in this area operated in the past," Mr Overland
said. "But I do make the point that it is eight years ago ... I want to
make it very clear that that is not the way we do business now."

Friends of the Earth spokesman Cam Walker said there was no
justification for police infiltration of the group in the late 1990s,
especially as it was already holding regular meetings with the police
intelligence unit at the time to discuss its campaigns.

Mr Walker said it was unethical for mining companies to pay the former
undercover officer to continue to spy on groups opposed to uranium
mining.

"It is inappropriate on so many levels. We are a membership-based
community group," Mr Walker said. "We are no risk of violence against
the police or the companies. We see this as a criminal act,
particularly as the guy came to be here in the first place as a police
officer."

Former North Ltd executives have confirmed the engagement of Mehmet's
company, Universal Axiom, as well as two other corporate intelligence
firms, British-owned Control Risks Group and a Melbourne firm headed by
another former undercover Victoria Police officer.

"We were facing a very strong, active protest outside our Melbourne
headquarters because of Jabiluka and we needed security advice to
protect our staff," a former company executive said.

"We were also facing a takeover and we had to take steps to ensure the
security of our internal information and boardroom discussions."

It is believed only a handful of North Ltd executives were aware of the
engagement of Mehmet, who was first hired to assess the quality of
information supplied by other private intelligence firms.

A spokesman for Rio Tinto, which acquired North Ltd in late 2000, said
the company was not aware of North Ltd's engagement of security
consultants.

"We hire security companies and consultants to support our operations
worldwide," the Rio Tinto spokesman said. "However, the purpose of
these contracts is solely for the protection of the group's assets and
personnel, it is completely defensive. These services are not used for
infiltration of competitors or anyone else."

US company General Atomics and its Australian subsidiary, Heathgate
Resources, declined to answer questions about Mehmet, who also provided
personal protection to visiting General Atomics executives.

A Heathgate spokeswoman said the company was privately owned and had a
policy of not responding to media questions.

Got a tip? Call the unit or email investigations@theage.com.au
Edition: First
Section: News
Page: 1
Index Terms: Politics/Civil Rights/Privacy ; Law/Police/Malpractice ;
Company/Rio Tinto ; Company/North Ltd/was North Broken Hill Peko Ltd ;
Industry/Mining/Uranium ; Exclusive
Location(s): VIC
Record Number: 20081017000030431352

MORE:

READ:
http://www.theage.com.au/national/infiltrating-communit...as-a-
long-history-20081015-51k2.html

RELATED
http://www.theage.com.au/national/the-spying-game-20081....html

" The police's intelligence group has achieved significant success in
counter-terrorism operations, with one of its operatives infiltrating a
radical Islamic cell in Melbourne." (Comment: translation they set up
the Muslim blokefesters by setting off an example bomb! )

http://www.theage.com.au/national/police-spying-on-acti...ealed
-20081015-51k0.html?page=-1

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