View allAll Photos Tagged DISARMAMENT
IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano met the UN Disarmament Fellows from 25 different countries during their official visit to the IAEA Headquarters in Vienna, Austria. 14 September 2017.
Photo Credit: Dean Calma / IAEA
15 August 2012. El Fasher: (right) Hamid Ibrahim Abderrahman makes cement for the construction of a community center in Althoura Shemal in El Fasher, North Darfur, as part of a Community Based-Labour Intensive Project (CLIP) sponsored by UNAMID DDR (Disarmament Demobilization Reintegration).
During three months, UNAMID provides training to 80 young people (60 men and 20 women) to construct this building.
Photo by Albert González Farran - UNAMID
Ambassador Angell-Hansen providing comments during a roundtable organized by the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation (VCDNP)
25 November 2012. El Fasher: Huda Abdala Mohammed is pictured at the community center that she participated to build in Althoura Shemal in El Fasher, North Darfur, as part of a Community Based-Labour Intensive Project (CLIP) sponsored by UNAMID DDR (Disarmament Demobilization Reintegration).
During the last five months, UNAMID provided training to 80 young people (60 men and 20 women) to construct this building.
Photo by Albert González Farran - UNAMID
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton addresses the Conference on Disarmament at the United Nations Office at Geneva, Switzerland, on February 28, 2011. [Eric Bridiers photo/ State Department/ Public Domain]
Stop the War Coalition "Stop Bombing Libya" protest at Parliament, 28.06.2011
Activists representing Stop the War Coalition, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and Libyans opposed to the targeted destruction of their country's vital infrastructure and the continued slaughter of large numbers of civilians - cold-bloodedly referred to as "Collateral Damage" by the Warmongers directing the massive attacks - by NATO forces, protested in Old Palace Yard opposite Parliament calling for an end to the brutal, massive aerial bombing campaign being waged against them by the USA and NATO, who lied to the World by claiming their involvement was only ever going to be a short campaign to establish a no-fly zone in the rebel-held East of Libya, and only to "protect innocent civilians".
To this end on February 15th 2011 the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1973 which authorized an internationally organised no-fly zone. Next thing we know, on March 18th, Barack Obama announces that NATO has taken over the operation from the United Nations, and gradually (as predicted) it is now admitted freely by the USA, NATO and our own William Hague that the mission is actually to kill Colonel Gaddafi. Without a shadow of a doubt this war against Libya flagrantly disregards International Law. It is yet another illegal war launched by the USA against another (coincidentally) oil-rich sovereign state which was posing no threat to the USA whatsoever. The UK government has the same blood on its hands as does the USA.
It is a good indicator of the degree to which we have been lied to as a nation by David Cameron, his ministers and "special advisers" in the concentrated media propaganda storm of distortions, myths and blatant lies neccessary to convince the British Public that this illegal war has some kind of moral justification. We were initially told this operation would be over in weeks and would be a bargain at "tens of millions of pounds". Over four months later the government has admitted that the cost so far has been "About a quarter of a billion pounds", from which we can safely assume we're probably looking at closer to half a billion pounds at least, with no end in sight.
It is estimated that the first day of operations in Liby cost the USA alone $1 billion.
Meanwhile back in the UK the Disabled are having their paltry benefits slashed or even cut completely, libraries, community centres, day care centres for the elderly and many other vital public amenities are being closed by Cameron's Caring Conservatives because (apparently) the coffers are empty. Public Sector workers are under sustained government propaganda attacks, and have just been told that their pensions are now not going to be enough to live on when they retire, they have to contribute much more into them, and they all have to work several years longer to even get it.
Just so you know, a Sidewinder missile costs at least £85,000, and a much sexier AmRam missile rolls out at over £500,000 of British taxpayer's money. It has been almost impossible to force the Ministry of Defence to give a reliable figure for the quantities of high-tech ordnance that has been dropped on Libya, nor how much of that ordnance contained Depleted Uranium. The only thing we can be sure of is that the government will tell us lie after lie after lie.
I attended a public meeting this evening in the House of Commons where we were told by anti-war MP Paul Flynn that the government is trying to prevent the reading out of dead military personnel's names in Parliament because it makes so many MPs uncomfortable to hear them, and to have to face the fact that real human beings with voting-aged families and friends are dying because of their vicious belligerence. Similarly the Ministry of Defence is about to stop military funeral corteges from driving through the Wiltshire town of Wooton Basset which has become a very public focus for the great number of dead soldiers passing through its main road. They are planning a different route for the coffins from RAF Brize Norton where they are brought back home to be buried by their families and loved ones, so the public soon forgets all about the cost of these Oil Wars. Out of sight, out of mind. George Bush would be proud of us. How psychopathically stone-hearted is that?
Our brave William Hague announced this week that "The UK is in Libya for the long haul".
Gaddafi is without doubt a brutal dictator, and the insurgents from the Eastern tribes who took their cues from the Arab Spring victories to launch a civil war to try and free themselves from Gaddafi's cruelty and brutality against them are understandably anxious to be free of him and his equally violent sons, though Amnesty international and Human Rights Watch have reported many atrocities and war crimes being carried out by the rebel fighters too, and no-one seems to be asking what unimaginable violence will be expedited against the Western Libyans once the Eastern rebels - now supported by overwhelming Western military might - without whose intervention their civil war would undoubtedly have been short and violent - overwhelm Tripoli. Let's not kid ourselves that it's going to be a clean transition, because it's not. There will be a bloodbath of huge proportions as revenge is taken against all those women, children and their parents. NATO will, of course, help to sweep all that under the carpet whilst the oil companies help themselves to Libya's most desirable asset.
I hope that what comes next will haunt William Hague's tormented nightmares for the rest of his life...
All photos © 2011 Pete Riches
Do not reproduce, alter or reblog my images without my permission.
Hi-Res versions of these files are available on application
A marcher searches for his gear in a town hall tent, where gear was sometimes stored to keep from the bad weather. 9/22/86.
Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament, 1986
Former Al-Shabaab combatants attend their graduation ceremony at the Disarmament Demobilization and Reintegration Center in Baidoa on August 09, 2016. UN Photo / Abdikarim Mohamed
Rafael Mariano Grossi, IAEA Director General, met with the UN Disarmament Fellows, during their two day official visit at the Agency headquarters in Vienna, Austria. 4 October 2021.
Photo Credit: Dean Calma / IAEA
On this day in 1987, The New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act was enacted, which established the New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone. The legislation capped off a long chain of events. There were two key issues. The first was the breakdown of the ANZUS alliance resulting from a disagreement between New Zealand and the US on allowing nuclear-powered ships into New Zealand waters. Secondly, in July 1985, Greenpeace's ship the Rainbow Warrior was bombed in Auckland Harbour, an act of espionage by the French government in response to Greenpeace's intentions to interfere in a nuclear test in the Pacific. Anti-nuclear sentiment in New Zealand ran high in the 1980s, and New Zealand's nuclear-free zone as enacted in 1987 is still intact today.
The public had the chance to make submission to the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee to state whether or not they were in favour of the bill. Over 1,200 submissions were received with many in favour of the Bill. Two examples of submissions are shown here, one from The Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand and the other from the Nuclear Free Zone Committee. Both of these submissions were in favour of the Bill being passed.
All 1,200 plus submissions can be seen in our Wellington Reading Room.
Archives Reference: ABGX W4536 Box 15 part 2 & 3
collections.archives.govt.nz/web/arena/search#/?q=R2255136
collections.archives.govt.nz/web/arena/search#/?q=R2255137
For updates on our On This Day series and news from Archives New Zealand, follow us on Twitter twitter.com/ArchivesNZ
Material from Archives New Zealand
Moscow-July 4, 1987. Decorations at the first-ever joint rock concert in the USSR, marking the conclusion of the American-Soviet Walk for peace and nuclear disarmament.
Stop the War Coalition "Stop Bombing Libya" protest at Parliament, 28.06.2011
Activists representing Stop the War Coalition, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and Libyans opposed to the targeted destruction of their country's vital infrastructure and the continued slaughter of large numbers of civilians - cold-bloodedly referred to as "Collateral Damage" by the Warmongers directing the massive attacks - by NATO forces, protested in Old Palace Yard opposite Parliament calling for an end to the brutal, massive aerial bombing campaign being waged against them by the USA and NATO, who lied to the World by claiming their involvement was only ever going to be a short campaign to establish a no-fly zone in the rebel-held East of Libya, and only to "protect innocent civilians".
To this end on February 15th 2011 the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1973 which authorized an internationally organised no-fly zone. Next thing we know, on March 18th, Barack Obama announces that NATO has taken over the operation from the United Nations, and gradually (as predicted) it is now admitted freely by the USA, NATO and our own William Hague that the mission is actually to kill Colonel Gaddafi. Without a shadow of a doubt this war against Libya flagrantly disregards International Law. It is yet another illegal war launched by the USA against another (coincidentally) oil-rich sovereign state which was posing no threat to the USA whatsoever. The UK government has the same blood on its hands as does the USA.
It is a good indicator of the degree to which we have been lied to as a nation by David Cameron, his ministers and "special advisers" in the concentrated media propaganda storm of distortions, myths and blatant lies neccessary to convince the British Public that this illegal war has some kind of moral justification. We were initially told this operation would be over in weeks and would be a bargain at "tens of millions of pounds". Over four months later the government has admitted that the cost so far has been "About a quarter of a billion pounds", from which we can safely assume we're probably looking at closer to half a billion pounds at least, with no end in sight.
It is estimated that the first day of operations in Liby cost the USA alone $1 billion.
Meanwhile back in the UK the Disabled are having their paltry benefits slashed or even cut completely, libraries, community centres, day care centres for the elderly and many other vital public amenities are being closed by Cameron's Caring Conservatives because (apparently) the coffers are empty. Public Sector workers are under sustained government propaganda attacks, and have just been told that their pensions are now not going to be enough to live on when they retire, they have to contribute much more into them, and they all have to work several years longer to even get it.
Just so you know, a Sidewinder missile costs at least £85,000, and a much sexier AmRam missile rolls out at over £500,000 of British taxpayer's money. It has been almost impossible to force the Ministry of Defence to give a reliable figure for the quantities of high-tech ordnance that has been dropped on Libya, nor how much of that ordnance contained Depleted Uranium. The only thing we can be sure of is that the government will tell us lie after lie after lie.
I attended a public meeting this evening in the House of Commons where we were told by anti-war MP Paul Flynn that the government is trying to prevent the reading out of dead military personnel's names in Parliament because it makes so many MPs uncomfortable to hear them, and to have to face the fact that real human beings with voting-aged families and friends are dying because of their vicious belligerence. Similarly the Ministry of Defence is about to stop military funeral corteges from driving through the Wiltshire town of Wooton Basset which has become a very public focus for the great number of dead soldiers passing through its main road. They are planning a different route for the coffins from RAF Brize Norton where they are brought back home to be buried by their families and loved ones, so the public soon forgets all about the cost of these Oil Wars. Out of sight, out of mind. George Bush would be proud of us. How psychopathically stone-hearted is that?
Our brave William Hague announced this week that "The UK is in Libya for the long haul".
Gaddafi is without doubt a brutal dictator, and the insurgents from the Eastern tribes who took their cues from the Arab Spring victories to launch a civil war to try and free themselves from Gaddafi's cruelty and brutality against them are understandably anxious to be free of him and his equally violent sons, though Amnesty international and Human Rights Watch have reported many atrocities and war crimes being carried out by the rebel fighters too, and no-one seems to be asking what unimaginable violence will be expedited against the Western Libyans once the Eastern rebels - now supported by overwhelming Western military might - without whose intervention their civil war would undoubtedly have been short and violent - overwhelm Tripoli. Let's not kid ourselves that it's going to be a clean transition, because it's not. There will be a bloodbath of huge proportions as revenge is taken against all those women, children and their parents. NATO will, of course, help to sweep all that under the carpet whilst the oil companies help themselves to Libya's most desirable asset.
I hope that what comes next will haunt William Hague's tormented nightmares for the rest of his life...
All photos © 2011 Pete Riches
Do not reproduce, alter or reblog my images without my permission.
Hi-Res versions of these files are available on application
Jacek Bylica, IAEA Chief of Cabinet, delivers his welcome address at the UN Disarmament Fellows, IAEA visit Programme held at the Agency headquarters in Vienna, Austria. 4 October 2021.
Photo Credit: Dean Calma / IAEA
Stop the War Coalition "Stop Bombing Libya" protest at Parliament, 28.06.2011
Activists representing Stop the War Coalition, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and Libyans opposed to the targeted destruction of their country's vital infrastructure and the continued slaughter of large numbers of civilians - cold-bloodedly referred to as "Collateral Damage" by the Warmongers directing the massive attacks - by NATO forces, protested in Old Palace Yard opposite Parliament calling for an end to the brutal, massive aerial bombing campaign being waged against them by the USA and NATO, who lied to the World by claiming their involvement was only ever going to be a short campaign to establish a no-fly zone in the rebel-held East of Libya, and only to "protect innocent civilians".
To this end on February 15th 2011 the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1973 which authorized an internationally organised no-fly zone. Next thing we know, on March 18th, Barack Obama announces that NATO has taken over the operation from the United Nations, and gradually (as predicted) it is now admitted freely by the USA, NATO and our own William Hague that the mission is actually to kill Colonel Gaddafi. Without a shadow of a doubt this war against Libya flagrantly disregards International Law. It is yet another illegal war launched by the USA against another (coincidentally) oil-rich sovereign state which was posing no threat to the USA whatsoever. The UK government has the same blood on its hands as does the USA.
It is a good indicator of the degree to which we have been lied to as a nation by David Cameron, his ministers and "special advisers" in the concentrated media propaganda storm of distortions, myths and blatant lies neccessary to convince the British Public that this illegal war has some kind of moral justification. We were initially told this operation would be over in weeks and would be a bargain at "tens of millions of pounds". Over four months later the government has admitted that the cost so far has been "About a quarter of a billion pounds", from which we can safely assume we're probably looking at closer to half a billion pounds at least, with no end in sight.
It is estimated that the first day of operations in Liby cost the USA alone $1 billion.
Meanwhile back in the UK the Disabled are having their paltry benefits slashed or even cut completely, libraries, community centres, day care centres for the elderly and many other vital public amenities are being closed by Cameron's Caring Conservatives because (apparently) the coffers are empty. Public Sector workers are under sustained government propaganda attacks, and have just been told that their pensions are now not going to be enough to live on when they retire, they have to contribute much more into them, and they all have to work several years longer to even get it.
Just so you know, a Sidewinder missile costs at least £85,000, and a much sexier AmRam missile rolls out at over £500,000 of British taxpayer's money. It has been almost impossible to force the Ministry of Defence to give a reliable figure for the quantities of high-tech ordnance that has been dropped on Libya, nor how much of that ordnance contained Depleted Uranium. The only thing we can be sure of is that the government will tell us lie after lie after lie.
I attended a public meeting this evening in the House of Commons where we were told by anti-war MP Paul Flynn that the government is trying to prevent the reading out of dead military personnel's names in Parliament because it makes so many MPs uncomfortable to hear them, and to have to face the fact that real human beings with voting-aged families and friends are dying because of their vicious belligerence. Similarly the Ministry of Defence is about to stop military funeral corteges from driving through the Wiltshire town of Wooton Basset which has become a very public focus for the great number of dead soldiers passing through its main road. They are planning a different route for the coffins from RAF Brize Norton where they are brought back home to be buried by their families and loved ones, so the public soon forgets all about the cost of these Oil Wars. Out of sight, out of mind. George Bush would be proud of us. How psychopathically stone-hearted is that?
Our brave William Hague announced this week that "The UK is in Libya for the long haul".
Gaddafi is without doubt a brutal dictator, and the insurgents from the Eastern tribes who took their cues from the Arab Spring victories to launch a civil war to try and free themselves from Gaddafi's cruelty and brutality against them are understandably anxious to be free of him and his equally violent sons, though Amnesty international and Human Rights Watch have reported many atrocities and war crimes being carried out by the rebel fighters too, and no-one seems to be asking what unimaginable violence will be expedited against the Western Libyans once the Eastern rebels - now supported by overwhelming Western military might - without whose intervention their civil war would undoubtedly have been short and violent - overwhelm Tripoli. Let's not kid ourselves that it's going to be a clean transition, because it's not. There will be a bloodbath of huge proportions as revenge is taken against all those women, children and their parents. NATO will, of course, help to sweep all that under the carpet whilst the oil companies help themselves to Libya's most desirable asset.
I hope that what comes next will haunt William Hague's tormented nightmares for the rest of his life...
All photos © 2011 Pete Riches
Do not reproduce, alter or reblog my images without my permission.
Hi-Res versions of these files are available on application
Rafael Mariano Grossi, IAEA Director-General, met with Marjolijn van Deelen, Special Envoy for Non-proliferation and Disarmament, European External Action Service (EEAS), during her official visit at the Agency headquarters in Vienna, Austria. 14 March 2022.
Photo Credit: Dean Calma / IAEA
EEAS Delegation:
Marjolijn van Deelen, Special Envoy for Non-proliferation and Disarmament, European External Action Service (EEAS)
Anne Kemppainen, Head of UN Section of the EU Delegation to the International Organizations in Vienna
IAEA:
Rafael Mariano Grossi, IAEA Director General
Jacek Bylica, IAEA Chief of Cabinet
Ewelina Hilger, IAEA Special Advisor to the Director General
Laura Johnson (CO), DMAC, leads the last mile to Washington DC 11/15/86
Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament, 1986
IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi met with Prof. Paolo Cotta Ramusimo, Secretary General of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs and Sergey Batsanov, Director of the Geneva Office of Pugwash Conferences, Former Ambassador to the Conference on Disarmament during their official visit at the Agency headquarters in Vienna, Austria. 22 June 2020
Photo Credit: Dean Calma / IAEA
Pugwash seeks a world free of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction. Through its long-standing tradition of “dialogue across divides” that also earned the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995. Pugwash aims to develop and support the use of scientific, evidence-based policymaking, focusing on areas where nuclear and WMD risks are present.
22 June 2022: Press Briefing by the United Nations Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu on the First Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).
Photo: UNIS Vienna
Stop the War Coalition "Stop Bombing Libya" protest at Parliament, 28.06.2011
Activists representing Stop the War Coalition, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and Libyans opposed to the targeted destruction of their country's vital infrastructure and the continued slaughter of large numbers of civilians - cold-bloodedly referred to as "Collateral Damage" by the Warmongers directing the massive attacks - by NATO forces, protested in Old Palace Yard opposite Parliament calling for an end to the brutal, massive aerial bombing campaign being waged against them by the USA and NATO, who lied to the World by claiming their involvement was only ever going to be a short campaign to establish a no-fly zone in the rebel-held East of Libya, and only to "protect innocent civilians".
To this end on February 15th 2011 the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1973 which authorized an internationally organised no-fly zone. Next thing we know, on March 18th, Barack Obama announces that NATO has taken over the operation from the United Nations, and gradually (as predicted) it is now admitted freely by the USA, NATO and our own William Hague that the mission is actually to kill Colonel Gaddafi. Without a shadow of a doubt this war against Libya flagrantly disregards International Law. It is yet another illegal war launched by the USA against another (coincidentally) oil-rich sovereign state which was posing no threat to the USA whatsoever. The UK government has the same blood on its hands as does the USA.
It is a good indicator of the degree to which we have been lied to as a nation by David Cameron, his ministers and "special advisers" in the concentrated media propaganda storm of distortions, myths and blatant lies neccessary to convince the British Public that this illegal war has some kind of moral justification. We were initially told this operation would be over in weeks and would be a bargain at "tens of millions of pounds". Over four months later the government has admitted that the cost so far has been "About a quarter of a billion pounds", from which we can safely assume we're probably looking at closer to half a billion pounds at least, with no end in sight.
It is estimated that the first day of operations in Liby cost the USA alone $1 billion.
Meanwhile back in the UK the Disabled are having their paltry benefits slashed or even cut completely, libraries, community centres, day care centres for the elderly and many other vital public amenities are being closed by Cameron's Caring Conservatives because (apparently) the coffers are empty. Public Sector workers are under sustained government propaganda attacks, and have just been told that their pensions are now not going to be enough to live on when they retire, they have to contribute much more into them, and they all have to work several years longer to even get it.
Just so you know, a Sidewinder missile costs at least £85,000, and a much sexier AmRam missile rolls out at over £500,000 of British taxpayer's money. It has been almost impossible to force the Ministry of Defence to give a reliable figure for the quantities of high-tech ordnance that has been dropped on Libya, nor how much of that ordnance contained Depleted Uranium. The only thing we can be sure of is that the government will tell us lie after lie after lie.
I attended a public meeting this evening in the House of Commons where we were told by anti-war MP Paul Flynn that the government is trying to prevent the reading out of dead military personnel's names in Parliament because it makes so many MPs uncomfortable to hear them, and to have to face the fact that real human beings with voting-aged families and friends are dying because of their vicious belligerence. Similarly the Ministry of Defence is about to stop military funeral corteges from driving through the Wiltshire town of Wooton Basset which has become a very public focus for the great number of dead soldiers passing through its main road. They are planning a different route for the coffins from RAF Brize Norton where they are brought back home to be buried by their families and loved ones, so the public soon forgets all about the cost of these Oil Wars. Out of sight, out of mind. George Bush would be proud of us. How psychopathically stone-hearted is that?
Our brave William Hague announced this week that "The UK is in Libya for the long haul".
Gaddafi is without doubt a brutal dictator, and the insurgents from the Eastern tribes who took their cues from the Arab Spring victories to launch a civil war to try and free themselves from Gaddafi's cruelty and brutality against them are understandably anxious to be free of him and his equally violent sons, though Amnesty international and Human Rights Watch have reported many atrocities and war crimes being carried out by the rebel fighters too, and no-one seems to be asking what unimaginable violence will be expedited against the Western Libyans once the Eastern rebels - now supported by overwhelming Western military might - without whose intervention their civil war would undoubtedly have been short and violent - overwhelm Tripoli. Let's not kid ourselves that it's going to be a clean transition, because it's not. There will be a bloodbath of huge proportions as revenge is taken against all those women, children and their parents. NATO will, of course, help to sweep all that under the carpet whilst the oil companies help themselves to Libya's most desirable asset.
I hope that what comes next will haunt William Hague's tormented nightmares for the rest of his life...
All photos © 2011 Pete Riches
Do not reproduce, alter or reblog my images without my permission.
Hi-Res versions of these files are available on application
Stop the War Coalition "Stop Bombing Libya" protest at Parliament, 28.06.2011
Activists representing Stop the War Coalition, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and Libyans opposed to the targeted destruction of their country's vital infrastructure and the continued slaughter of large numbers of civilians - cold-bloodedly referred to as "Collateral Damage" by the Warmongers directing the massive attacks - by NATO forces, protested in Old Palace Yard opposite Parliament calling for an end to the brutal, massive aerial bombing campaign being waged against them by the USA and NATO, who lied to the World by claiming their involvement was only ever going to be a short campaign to establish a no-fly zone in the rebel-held East of Libya, and only to "protect innocent civilians".
To this end on February 15th 2011 the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1973 which authorized an internationally organised no-fly zone. Next thing we know, on March 18th, Barack Obama announces that NATO has taken over the operation from the United Nations, and gradually (as predicted) it is now admitted freely by the USA, NATO and our own William Hague that the mission is actually to kill Colonel Gaddafi. Without a shadow of a doubt this war against Libya flagrantly disregards International Law. It is yet another illegal war launched by the USA against another (coincidentally) oil-rich sovereign state which was posing no threat to the USA whatsoever. The UK government has the same blood on its hands as does the USA.
It is a good indicator of the degree to which we have been lied to as a nation by David Cameron, his ministers and "special advisers" in the concentrated media propaganda storm of distortions, myths and blatant lies neccessary to convince the British Public that this illegal war has some kind of moral justification. We were initially told this operation would be over in weeks and would be a bargain at "tens of millions of pounds". Over four months later the government has admitted that the cost so far has been "About a quarter of a billion pounds", from which we can safely assume we're probably looking at closer to half a billion pounds at least, with no end in sight.
It is estimated that the first day of operations in Liby cost the USA alone $1 billion.
Meanwhile back in the UK the Disabled are having their paltry benefits slashed or even cut completely, libraries, community centres, day care centres for the elderly and many other vital public amenities are being closed by Cameron's Caring Conservatives because (apparently) the coffers are empty. Public Sector workers are under sustained government propaganda attacks, and have just been told that their pensions are now not going to be enough to live on when they retire, they have to contribute much more into them, and they all have to work several years longer to even get it.
Just so you know, a Sidewinder missile costs at least £85,000, and a much sexier AmRam missile rolls out at over £500,000 of British taxpayer's money. It has been almost impossible to force the Ministry of Defence to give a reliable figure for the quantities of high-tech ordnance that has been dropped on Libya, nor how much of that ordnance contained Depleted Uranium. The only thing we can be sure of is that the government will tell us lie after lie after lie.
I attended a public meeting this evening in the House of Commons where we were told by anti-war MP Paul Flynn that the government is trying to prevent the reading out of dead military personnel's names in Parliament because it makes so many MPs uncomfortable to hear them, and to have to face the fact that real human beings with voting-aged families and friends are dying because of their vicious belligerence. Similarly the Ministry of Defence is about to stop military funeral corteges from driving through the Wiltshire town of Wooton Basset which has become a very public focus for the great number of dead soldiers passing through its main road. They are planning a different route for the coffins from RAF Brize Norton where they are brought back home to be buried by their families and loved ones, so the public soon forgets all about the cost of these Oil Wars. Out of sight, out of mind. George Bush would be proud of us. How psychopathically stone-hearted is that?
Our brave William Hague announced this week that "The UK is in Libya for the long haul".
Gaddafi is without doubt a brutal dictator, and the insurgents from the Eastern tribes who took their cues from the Arab Spring victories to launch a civil war to try and free themselves from Gaddafi's cruelty and brutality against them are understandably anxious to be free of him and his equally violent sons, though Amnesty international and Human Rights Watch have reported many atrocities and war crimes being carried out by the rebel fighters too, and no-one seems to be asking what unimaginable violence will be expedited against the Western Libyans once the Eastern rebels - now supported by overwhelming Western military might - without whose intervention their civil war would undoubtedly have been short and violent - overwhelm Tripoli. Let's not kid ourselves that it's going to be a clean transition, because it's not. There will be a bloodbath of huge proportions as revenge is taken against all those women, children and their parents. NATO will, of course, help to sweep all that under the carpet whilst the oil companies help themselves to Libya's most desirable asset.
I hope that what comes next will haunt William Hague's tormented nightmares for the rest of his life...
All photos © 2011 Pete Riches
Do not reproduce, alter or reblog my images without my permission.
Hi-Res versions of these files are available on application
Dr Kathleen Sullivan and students during the closing session of the UN Global Forum on Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Education in Nagasaki in August 2012.
Credit: Tim Wright/ICAN
IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi at the International Gender Champions Vienna held at the Vienna International Centre in Vienna, Austria. 5 March 2020.
From left to right: HE Mr. David Hall, Resident Representative of the United Kingdom to the IAEA, HE Maria Cleofe Rayos Natividad, Resident Representative of the Philippines to the IAEA, HE Ms Barbara Žvokelj, Resident Representative of Slovenia to the IAEA, HE Ms. Kjersti Ertresvaag Andersen, Resident Representative of Norway to the IAEA, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi, Elena K. Sokova, Executive Director, Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation (VCDNP), HE Mr Alejandro Solano Ortiz, Resident Representative of Costa Rica to the IAEA, HE Ms Pirkko Hämäläinen, Resident Representative of Finland to the IAEA, Li Yong, Director General UNIDO, HE Ms. Khojesta Fana Ebrahimkhel, Resident Representative of Afghanistan to the IAEA, HE Mr. Richard Travers Sadleir, Resident Representative of Australia to the IAEA, HE Ms. Alicia Buenrostro Massieu, Resident Representative of Mexico to the IAEA and HE Ms Elena Rafti, Resident Representative of Cyprus to the IAEA
Photo Credit: Dean Calma / IAEA
The Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation (VCDNP) organized a panel discussion entitled "Building Bridges and Facilitating Consensus for a Successful ICONS 2020," held at the Conference Room of the Permanent Mission of Japan on 15 January 2020. Vienna, Austria.
Photo Credit: Dean Calma / IAEA
Opening Remarks:
H.E. Ambassador Rafael M. Grossi, Director General of the IAEA
Panelists:
H.E. Ambassador Cristian Istrate, Permanent Resident Representative of Romania to the IAEA, Co-chair of ICONS 2020
H.E. Ambassador Omer Amer Youssef, Permanent Resident Representative of Egypt to the IAEA, Co-chair of the Programme Committee of ICONS2020
H.E. Ambassador (ret.) Laura Holgate, Vice President, Nuclear Threat Initiative
VCDNP Executive Director Elena K. Sokova, Moderator
Stop the War Coalition "Stop Bombing Libya" protest at Parliament, 28.06.2011
Activists representing Stop the War Coalition, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and Libyans opposed to the targeted destruction of their country's vital infrastructure and the continued slaughter of large numbers of civilians - cold-bloodedly referred to as "Collateral Damage" by the Warmongers directing the massive attacks - by NATO forces, protested in Old Palace Yard opposite Parliament calling for an end to the brutal, massive aerial bombing campaign being waged against them by the USA and NATO, who lied to the World by claiming their involvement was only ever going to be a short campaign to establish a no-fly zone in the rebel-held East of Libya, and only to "protect innocent civilians".
To this end on February 15th 2011 the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1973 which authorized an internationally organised no-fly zone. Next thing we know, on March 18th, Barack Obama announces that NATO has taken over the operation from the United Nations, and gradually (as predicted) it is now admitted freely by the USA, NATO and our own William Hague that the mission is actually to kill Colonel Gaddafi. Without a shadow of a doubt this war against Libya flagrantly disregards International Law. It is yet another illegal war launched by the USA against another (coincidentally) oil-rich sovereign state which was posing no threat to the USA whatsoever. The UK government has the same blood on its hands as does the USA.
It is a good indicator of the degree to which we have been lied to as a nation by David Cameron, his ministers and "special advisers" in the concentrated media propaganda storm of distortions, myths and blatant lies neccessary to convince the British Public that this illegal war has some kind of moral justification. We were initially told this operation would be over in weeks and would be a bargain at "tens of millions of pounds". Over four months later the government has admitted that the cost so far has been "About a quarter of a billion pounds", from which we can safely assume we're probably looking at closer to half a billion pounds at least, with no end in sight.
It is estimated that the first day of operations in Liby cost the USA alone $1 billion.
Meanwhile back in the UK the Disabled are having their paltry benefits slashed or even cut completely, libraries, community centres, day care centres for the elderly and many other vital public amenities are being closed by Cameron's Caring Conservatives because (apparently) the coffers are empty. Public Sector workers are under sustained government propaganda attacks, and have just been told that their pensions are now not going to be enough to live on when they retire, they have to contribute much more into them, and they all have to work several years longer to even get it.
Just so you know, a Sidewinder missile costs at least £85,000, and a much sexier AmRam missile rolls out at over £500,000 of British taxpayer's money. It has been almost impossible to force the Ministry of Defence to give a reliable figure for the quantities of high-tech ordnance that has been dropped on Libya, nor how much of that ordnance contained Depleted Uranium. The only thing we can be sure of is that the government will tell us lie after lie after lie.
I attended a public meeting this evening in the House of Commons where we were told by anti-war MP Paul Flynn that the government is trying to prevent the reading out of dead military personnel's names in Parliament because it makes so many MPs uncomfortable to hear them, and to have to face the fact that real human beings with voting-aged families and friends are dying because of their vicious belligerence. Similarly the Ministry of Defence is about to stop military funeral corteges from driving through the Wiltshire town of Wooton Basset which has become a very public focus for the great number of dead soldiers passing through its main road. They are planning a different route for the coffins from RAF Brize Norton where they are brought back home to be buried by their families and loved ones, so the public soon forgets all about the cost of these Oil Wars. Out of sight, out of mind. George Bush would be proud of us. How psychopathically stone-hearted is that?
Our brave William Hague announced this week that "The UK is in Libya for the long haul".
Gaddafi is without doubt a brutal dictator, and the insurgents from the Eastern tribes who took their cues from the Arab Spring victories to launch a civil war to try and free themselves from Gaddafi's cruelty and brutality against them are understandably anxious to be free of him and his equally violent sons, though Amnesty international and Human Rights Watch have reported many atrocities and war crimes being carried out by the rebel fighters too, and no-one seems to be asking what unimaginable violence will be expedited against the Western Libyans once the Eastern rebels - now supported by overwhelming Western military might - without whose intervention their civil war would undoubtedly have been short and violent - overwhelm Tripoli. Let's not kid ourselves that it's going to be a clean transition, because it's not. There will be a bloodbath of huge proportions as revenge is taken against all those women, children and their parents. NATO will, of course, help to sweep all that under the carpet whilst the oil companies help themselves to Libya's most desirable asset.
I hope that what comes next will haunt William Hague's tormented nightmares for the rest of his life...
All photos © 2011 Pete Riches
Do not reproduce, alter or reblog my images without my permission.
Hi-Res versions of these files are available on application
Stop the War Coalition "Stop Bombing Libya" protest at Parliament, 28.06.2011
Activists representing Stop the War Coalition, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and Libyans opposed to the targeted destruction of their country's vital infrastructure and the continued slaughter of large numbers of civilians - cold-bloodedly referred to as "Collateral Damage" by the Warmongers directing the massive attacks - by NATO forces, protested in Old Palace Yard opposite Parliament calling for an end to the brutal, massive aerial bombing campaign being waged against them by the USA and NATO, who lied to the World by claiming their involvement was only ever going to be a short campaign to establish a no-fly zone in the rebel-held East of Libya, and only to "protect innocent civilians".
To this end on February 15th 2011 the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1973 which authorized an internationally organised no-fly zone. Next thing we know, on March 18th, Barack Obama announces that NATO has taken over the operation from the United Nations, and gradually (as predicted) it is now admitted freely by the USA, NATO and our own William Hague that the mission is actually to kill Colonel Gaddafi. Without a shadow of a doubt this war against Libya flagrantly disregards International Law. It is yet another illegal war launched by the USA against another (coincidentally) oil-rich sovereign state which was posing no threat to the USA whatsoever. The UK government has the same blood on its hands as does the USA.
It is a good indicator of the degree to which we have been lied to as a nation by David Cameron, his ministers and "special advisers" in the concentrated media propaganda storm of distortions, myths and blatant lies neccessary to convince the British Public that this illegal war has some kind of moral justification. We were initially told this operation would be over in weeks and would be a bargain at "tens of millions of pounds". Over four months later the government has admitted that the cost so far has been "About a quarter of a billion pounds", from which we can safely assume we're probably looking at closer to half a billion pounds at least, with no end in sight.
It is estimated that the first day of operations in Liby cost the USA alone $1 billion.
Meanwhile back in the UK the Disabled are having their paltry benefits slashed or even cut completely, libraries, community centres, day care centres for the elderly and many other vital public amenities are being closed by Cameron's Caring Conservatives because (apparently) the coffers are empty. Public Sector workers are under sustained government propaganda attacks, and have just been told that their pensions are now not going to be enough to live on when they retire, they have to contribute much more into them, and they all have to work several years longer to even get it.
Just so you know, a Sidewinder missile costs at least £85,000, and a much sexier AmRam missile rolls out at over £500,000 of British taxpayer's money. It has been almost impossible to force the Ministry of Defence to give a reliable figure for the quantities of high-tech ordnance that has been dropped on Libya, nor how much of that ordnance contained Depleted Uranium. The only thing we can be sure of is that the government will tell us lie after lie after lie.
I attended a public meeting this evening in the House of Commons where we were told by anti-war MP Paul Flynn that the government is trying to prevent the reading out of dead military personnel's names in Parliament because it makes so many MPs uncomfortable to hear them, and to have to face the fact that real human beings with voting-aged families and friends are dying because of their vicious belligerence. Similarly the Ministry of Defence is about to stop military funeral corteges from driving through the Wiltshire town of Wooton Basset which has become a very public focus for the great number of dead soldiers passing through its main road. They are planning a different route for the coffins from RAF Brize Norton where they are brought back home to be buried by their families and loved ones, so the public soon forgets all about the cost of these Oil Wars. Out of sight, out of mind. George Bush would be proud of us. How psychopathically stone-hearted is that?
Our brave William Hague announced this week that "The UK is in Libya for the long haul".
Gaddafi is without doubt a brutal dictator, and the insurgents from the Eastern tribes who took their cues from the Arab Spring victories to launch a civil war to try and free themselves from Gaddafi's cruelty and brutality against them are understandably anxious to be free of him and his equally violent sons, though Amnesty international and Human Rights Watch have reported many atrocities and war crimes being carried out by the rebel fighters too, and no-one seems to be asking what unimaginable violence will be expedited against the Western Libyans once the Eastern rebels - now supported by overwhelming Western military might - without whose intervention their civil war would undoubtedly have been short and violent - overwhelm Tripoli. Let's not kid ourselves that it's going to be a clean transition, because it's not. There will be a bloodbath of huge proportions as revenge is taken against all those women, children and their parents. NATO will, of course, help to sweep all that under the carpet whilst the oil companies help themselves to Libya's most desirable asset.
I hope that what comes next will haunt William Hague's tormented nightmares for the rest of his life...
All photos © 2011 Pete Riches
Do not reproduce, alter or reblog my images without my permission.
Hi-Res versions of these files are available on application
IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi delivers his opening remarks at the 2020 Online Latin American and Caribbean Nonproliferation and Disarmament meeting. IAEA Vienna, Austria. 6 July 2020
Photo Credit: Dean Calma / IAEA
Stop the War Coalition "Stop Bombing Libya" protest at Parliament, 28.06.2011
Activists representing Stop the War Coalition, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and Libyans opposed to the targeted destruction of their country's vital infrastructure and the continued slaughter of large numbers of civilians - cold-bloodedly referred to as "Collateral Damage" by the Warmongers directing the massive attacks - by NATO forces, protested in Old Palace Yard opposite Parliament calling for an end to the brutal, massive aerial bombing campaign being waged against them by the USA and NATO, who lied to the World by claiming their involvement was only ever going to be a short campaign to establish a no-fly zone in the rebel-held East of Libya, and only to "protect innocent civilians".
To this end on February 15th 2011 the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1973 which authorized an internationally organised no-fly zone. Next thing we know, on March 18th, Barack Obama announces that NATO has taken over the operation from the United Nations, and gradually (as predicted) it is now admitted freely by the USA, NATO and our own William Hague that the mission is actually to kill Colonel Gaddafi. Without a shadow of a doubt this war against Libya flagrantly disregards International Law. It is yet another illegal war launched by the USA against another (coincidentally) oil-rich sovereign state which was posing no threat to the USA whatsoever. The UK government has the same blood on its hands as does the USA.
It is a good indicator of the degree to which we have been lied to as a nation by David Cameron, his ministers and "special advisers" in the concentrated media propaganda storm of distortions, myths and blatant lies neccessary to convince the British Public that this illegal war has some kind of moral justification. We were initially told this operation would be over in weeks and would be a bargain at "tens of millions of pounds". Over four months later the government has admitted that the cost so far has been "About a quarter of a billion pounds", from which we can safely assume we're probably looking at closer to half a billion pounds at least, with no end in sight.
It is estimated that the first day of operations in Liby cost the USA alone $1 billion.
Meanwhile back in the UK the Disabled are having their paltry benefits slashed or even cut completely, libraries, community centres, day care centres for the elderly and many other vital public amenities are being closed by Cameron's Caring Conservatives because (apparently) the coffers are empty. Public Sector workers are under sustained government propaganda attacks, and have just been told that their pensions are now not going to be enough to live on when they retire, they have to contribute much more into them, and they all have to work several years longer to even get it.
Just so you know, a Sidewinder missile costs at least £85,000, and a much sexier AmRam missile rolls out at over £500,000 of British taxpayer's money. It has been almost impossible to force the Ministry of Defence to give a reliable figure for the quantities of high-tech ordnance that has been dropped on Libya, nor how much of that ordnance contained Depleted Uranium. The only thing we can be sure of is that the government will tell us lie after lie after lie.
I attended a public meeting this evening in the House of Commons where we were told by anti-war MP Paul Flynn that the government is trying to prevent the reading out of dead military personnel's names in Parliament because it makes so many MPs uncomfortable to hear them, and to have to face the fact that real human beings with voting-aged families and friends are dying because of their vicious belligerence. Similarly the Ministry of Defence is about to stop military funeral corteges from driving through the Wiltshire town of Wooton Basset which has become a very public focus for the great number of dead soldiers passing through its main road. They are planning a different route for the coffins from RAF Brize Norton where they are brought back home to be buried by their families and loved ones, so the public soon forgets all about the cost of these Oil Wars. Out of sight, out of mind. George Bush would be proud of us. How psychopathically stone-hearted is that?
Our brave William Hague announced this week that "The UK is in Libya for the long haul".
Gaddafi is without doubt a brutal dictator, and the insurgents from the Eastern tribes who took their cues from the Arab Spring victories to launch a civil war to try and free themselves from Gaddafi's cruelty and brutality against them are understandably anxious to be free of him and his equally violent sons, though Amnesty international and Human Rights Watch have reported many atrocities and war crimes being carried out by the rebel fighters too, and no-one seems to be asking what unimaginable violence will be expedited against the Western Libyans once the Eastern rebels - now supported by overwhelming Western military might - without whose intervention their civil war would undoubtedly have been short and violent - overwhelm Tripoli. Let's not kid ourselves that it's going to be a clean transition, because it's not. There will be a bloodbath of huge proportions as revenge is taken against all those women, children and their parents. NATO will, of course, help to sweep all that under the carpet whilst the oil companies help themselves to Libya's most desirable asset.
I hope that what comes next will haunt William Hague's tormented nightmares for the rest of his life...
All photos © 2011 Pete Riches
Do not reproduce, alter or reblog my images without my permission.
Hi-Res versions of these files are available on application
Stop the War Coalition "Stop Bombing Libya" protest at Parliament, 28.06.2011
Activists representing Stop the War Coalition, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and Libyans opposed to the targeted destruction of their country's vital infrastructure and the continued slaughter of large numbers of civilians - cold-bloodedly referred to as "Collateral Damage" by the Warmongers directing the massive attacks - by NATO forces, protested in Old Palace Yard opposite Parliament calling for an end to the brutal, massive aerial bombing campaign being waged against them by the USA and NATO, who lied to the World by claiming their involvement was only ever going to be a short campaign to establish a no-fly zone in the rebel-held East of Libya, and only to "protect innocent civilians".
To this end on February 15th 2011 the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1973 which authorized an internationally organised no-fly zone. Next thing we know, on March 18th, Barack Obama announces that NATO has taken over the operation from the United Nations, and gradually (as predicted) it is now admitted freely by the USA, NATO and our own William Hague that the mission is actually to kill Colonel Gaddafi. Without a shadow of a doubt this war against Libya flagrantly disregards International Law. It is yet another illegal war launched by the USA against another (coincidentally) oil-rich sovereign state which was posing no threat to the USA whatsoever. The UK government has the same blood on its hands as does the USA.
It is a good indicator of the degree to which we have been lied to as a nation by David Cameron, his ministers and "special advisers" in the concentrated media propaganda storm of distortions, myths and blatant lies neccessary to convince the British Public that this illegal war has some kind of moral justification. We were initially told this operation would be over in weeks and would be a bargain at "tens of millions of pounds". Over four months later the government has admitted that the cost so far has been "About a quarter of a billion pounds", from which we can safely assume we're probably looking at closer to half a billion pounds at least, with no end in sight.
It is estimated that the first day of operations in Liby cost the USA alone $1 billion.
Meanwhile back in the UK the Disabled are having their paltry benefits slashed or even cut completely, libraries, community centres, day care centres for the elderly and many other vital public amenities are being closed by Cameron's Caring Conservatives because (apparently) the coffers are empty. Public Sector workers are under sustained government propaganda attacks, and have just been told that their pensions are now not going to be enough to live on when they retire, they have to contribute much more into them, and they all have to work several years longer to even get it.
Just so you know, a Sidewinder missile costs at least £85,000, and a much sexier AmRam missile rolls out at over £500,000 of British taxpayer's money. It has been almost impossible to force the Ministry of Defence to give a reliable figure for the quantities of high-tech ordnance that has been dropped on Libya, nor how much of that ordnance contained Depleted Uranium. The only thing we can be sure of is that the government will tell us lie after lie after lie.
I attended a public meeting this evening in the House of Commons where we were told by anti-war MP Paul Flynn that the government is trying to prevent the reading out of dead military personnel's names in Parliament because it makes so many MPs uncomfortable to hear them, and to have to face the fact that real human beings with voting-aged families and friends are dying because of their vicious belligerence. Similarly the Ministry of Defence is about to stop military funeral corteges from driving through the Wiltshire town of Wooton Basset which has become a very public focus for the great number of dead soldiers passing through its main road. They are planning a different route for the coffins from RAF Brize Norton where they are brought back home to be buried by their families and loved ones, so the public soon forgets all about the cost of these Oil Wars. Out of sight, out of mind. George Bush would be proud of us. How psychopathically stone-hearted is that?
Our brave William Hague announced this week that "The UK is in Libya for the long haul".
Gaddafi is without doubt a brutal dictator, and the insurgents from the Eastern tribes who took their cues from the Arab Spring victories to launch a civil war to try and free themselves from Gaddafi's cruelty and brutality against them are understandably anxious to be free of him and his equally violent sons, though Amnesty international and Human Rights Watch have reported many atrocities and war crimes being carried out by the rebel fighters too, and no-one seems to be asking what unimaginable violence will be expedited against the Western Libyans once the Eastern rebels - now supported by overwhelming Western military might - without whose intervention their civil war would undoubtedly have been short and violent - overwhelm Tripoli. Let's not kid ourselves that it's going to be a clean transition, because it's not. There will be a bloodbath of huge proportions as revenge is taken against all those women, children and their parents. NATO will, of course, help to sweep all that under the carpet whilst the oil companies help themselves to Libya's most desirable asset.
I hope that what comes next will haunt William Hague's tormented nightmares for the rest of his life...
All photos © 2011 Pete Riches
Do not reproduce, alter or reblog my images without my permission.
Hi-Res versions of these files are available on application
The Conference on Disarmament held the opening Plenary of its 2013 Session on January 22. “We begin the New Year with renewed commitment to the goal of a world without nuclear weapons – a goal which my President has made a hallmark of his international security agenda,” Ambassador Laura E. Kennedy, U.S. Permanent Representative to the CD told the body.
“Despite the challenges facing this body, the goals which this Conference was designed to tackle are worth fighting for,” she added, strongly reiterating U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon’s call for an end to the stalemate at the CD.
Full text of Ambassador Kennedy’s Statement
geneva.usmission.gov/2013/01/22/ambassador-kennedys-state...
U.S. Mission Photo by Eric Bridiers
A United Nations peacekeeper from the Indian battalion of the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) examines AK-47 magazines stored in a warehouse in Beni, where all weapons and ammunition are stored after they have been collected in the demobilization process in Matembo, North Kivu, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
9/Nov/2006. Beni, Democratic Republic of the Congo. UN Photo/Martine Perret. www.un.org/av/photo/
Stop the War Coalition "Stop Bombing Libya" protest at Parliament, 28.06.2011
Activists representing Stop the War Coalition, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and Libyans opposed to the targeted destruction of their country's vital infrastructure and the continued slaughter of large numbers of civilians - cold-bloodedly referred to as "Collateral Damage" by the Warmongers directing the massive attacks - by NATO forces, protested in Old Palace Yard opposite Parliament calling for an end to the brutal, massive aerial bombing campaign being waged against them by the USA and NATO, who lied to the World by claiming their involvement was only ever going to be a short campaign to establish a no-fly zone in the rebel-held East of Libya, and only to "protect innocent civilians".
To this end on February 15th 2011 the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1973 which authorized an internationally organised no-fly zone. Next thing we know, on March 18th, Barack Obama announces that NATO has taken over the operation from the United Nations, and gradually (as predicted) it is now admitted freely by the USA, NATO and our own William Hague that the mission is actually to kill Colonel Gaddafi. Without a shadow of a doubt this war against Libya flagrantly disregards International Law. It is yet another illegal war launched by the USA against another (coincidentally) oil-rich sovereign state which was posing no threat to the USA whatsoever. The UK government has the same blood on its hands as does the USA.
It is a good indicator of the degree to which we have been lied to as a nation by David Cameron, his ministers and "special advisers" in the concentrated media propaganda storm of distortions, myths and blatant lies neccessary to convince the British Public that this illegal war has some kind of moral justification. We were initially told this operation would be over in weeks and would be a bargain at "tens of millions of pounds". Over four months later the government has admitted that the cost so far has been "About a quarter of a billion pounds", from which we can safely assume we're probably looking at closer to half a billion pounds at least, with no end in sight.
It is estimated that the first day of operations in Liby cost the USA alone $1 billion.
Meanwhile back in the UK the Disabled are having their paltry benefits slashed or even cut completely, libraries, community centres, day care centres for the elderly and many other vital public amenities are being closed by Cameron's Caring Conservatives because (apparently) the coffers are empty. Public Sector workers are under sustained government propaganda attacks, and have just been told that their pensions are now not going to be enough to live on when they retire, they have to contribute much more into them, and they all have to work several years longer to even get it.
Just so you know, a Sidewinder missile costs at least £85,000, and a much sexier AmRam missile rolls out at over £500,000 of British taxpayer's money. It has been almost impossible to force the Ministry of Defence to give a reliable figure for the quantities of high-tech ordnance that has been dropped on Libya, nor how much of that ordnance contained Depleted Uranium. The only thing we can be sure of is that the government will tell us lie after lie after lie.
I attended a public meeting this evening in the House of Commons where we were told by anti-war MP Paul Flynn that the government is trying to prevent the reading out of dead military personnel's names in Parliament because it makes so many MPs uncomfortable to hear them, and to have to face the fact that real human beings with voting-aged families and friends are dying because of their vicious belligerence. Similarly the Ministry of Defence is about to stop military funeral corteges from driving through the Wiltshire town of Wooton Basset which has become a very public focus for the great number of dead soldiers passing through its main road. They are planning a different route for the coffins from RAF Brize Norton where they are brought back home to be buried by their families and loved ones, so the public soon forgets all about the cost of these Oil Wars. Out of sight, out of mind. George Bush would be proud of us. How psychopathically stone-hearted is that?
Our brave William Hague announced this week that "The UK is in Libya for the long haul".
Gaddafi is without doubt a brutal dictator, and the insurgents from the Eastern tribes who took their cues from the Arab Spring victories to launch a civil war to try and free themselves from Gaddafi's cruelty and brutality against them are understandably anxious to be free of him and his equally violent sons, though Amnesty international and Human Rights Watch have reported many atrocities and war crimes being carried out by the rebel fighters too, and no-one seems to be asking what unimaginable violence will be expedited against the Western Libyans once the Eastern rebels - now supported by overwhelming Western military might - without whose intervention their civil war would undoubtedly have been short and violent - overwhelm Tripoli. Let's not kid ourselves that it's going to be a clean transition, because it's not. There will be a bloodbath of huge proportions as revenge is taken against all those women, children and their parents. NATO will, of course, help to sweep all that under the carpet whilst the oil companies help themselves to Libya's most desirable asset.
I hope that what comes next will haunt William Hague's tormented nightmares for the rest of his life...
All photos © 2011 Pete Riches
Do not reproduce, alter or reblog my images without my permission.
Hi-Res versions of these files are available on application
Stop the War Coalition "Stop Bombing Libya" protest at Parliament, 28.06.2011
Activists representing Stop the War Coalition, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and Libyans opposed to the targeted destruction of their country's vital infrastructure and the continued slaughter of large numbers of civilians - cold-bloodedly referred to as "Collateral Damage" by the Warmongers directing the massive attacks - by NATO forces, protested in Old Palace Yard opposite Parliament calling for an end to the brutal, massive aerial bombing campaign being waged against them by the USA and NATO, who lied to the World by claiming their involvement was only ever going to be a short campaign to establish a no-fly zone in the rebel-held East of Libya, and only to "protect innocent civilians".
To this end on February 15th 2011 the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1973 which authorized an internationally organised no-fly zone. Next thing we know, on March 18th, Barack Obama announces that NATO has taken over the operation from the United Nations, and gradually (as predicted) it is now admitted freely by the USA, NATO and our own William Hague that the mission is actually to kill Colonel Gaddafi. Without a shadow of a doubt this war against Libya flagrantly disregards International Law. It is yet another illegal war launched by the USA against another (coincidentally) oil-rich sovereign state which was posing no threat to the USA whatsoever. The UK government has the same blood on its hands as does the USA.
It is a good indicator of the degree to which we have been lied to as a nation by David Cameron, his ministers and "special advisers" in the concentrated media propaganda storm of distortions, myths and blatant lies neccessary to convince the British Public that this illegal war has some kind of moral justification. We were initially told this operation would be over in weeks and would be a bargain at "tens of millions of pounds". Over four months later the government has admitted that the cost so far has been "About a quarter of a billion pounds", from which we can safely assume we're probably looking at closer to half a billion pounds at least, with no end in sight.
It is estimated that the first day of operations in Liby cost the USA alone $1 billion.
Meanwhile back in the UK the Disabled are having their paltry benefits slashed or even cut completely, libraries, community centres, day care centres for the elderly and many other vital public amenities are being closed by Cameron's Caring Conservatives because (apparently) the coffers are empty. Public Sector workers are under sustained government propaganda attacks, and have just been told that their pensions are now not going to be enough to live on when they retire, they have to contribute much more into them, and they all have to work several years longer to even get it.
Just so you know, a Sidewinder missile costs at least £85,000, and a much sexier AmRam missile rolls out at over £500,000 of British taxpayer's money. It has been almost impossible to force the Ministry of Defence to give a reliable figure for the quantities of high-tech ordnance that has been dropped on Libya, nor how much of that ordnance contained Depleted Uranium. The only thing we can be sure of is that the government will tell us lie after lie after lie.
I attended a public meeting this evening in the House of Commons where we were told by anti-war MP Paul Flynn that the government is trying to prevent the reading out of dead military personnel's names in Parliament because it makes so many MPs uncomfortable to hear them, and to have to face the fact that real human beings with voting-aged families and friends are dying because of their vicious belligerence. Similarly the Ministry of Defence is about to stop military funeral corteges from driving through the Wiltshire town of Wooton Basset which has become a very public focus for the great number of dead soldiers passing through its main road. They are planning a different route for the coffins from RAF Brize Norton where they are brought back home to be buried by their families and loved ones, so the public soon forgets all about the cost of these Oil Wars. Out of sight, out of mind. George Bush would be proud of us. How psychopathically stone-hearted is that?
Our brave William Hague announced this week that "The UK is in Libya for the long haul".
Gaddafi is without doubt a brutal dictator, and the insurgents from the Eastern tribes who took their cues from the Arab Spring victories to launch a civil war to try and free themselves from Gaddafi's cruelty and brutality against them are understandably anxious to be free of him and his equally violent sons, though Amnesty international and Human Rights Watch have reported many atrocities and war crimes being carried out by the rebel fighters too, and no-one seems to be asking what unimaginable violence will be expedited against the Western Libyans once the Eastern rebels - now supported by overwhelming Western military might - without whose intervention their civil war would undoubtedly have been short and violent - overwhelm Tripoli. Let's not kid ourselves that it's going to be a clean transition, because it's not. There will be a bloodbath of huge proportions as revenge is taken against all those women, children and their parents. NATO will, of course, help to sweep all that under the carpet whilst the oil companies help themselves to Libya's most desirable asset.
I hope that what comes next will haunt William Hague's tormented nightmares for the rest of his life...
All photos © 2011 Pete Riches
Do not reproduce, alter or reblog my images without my permission.
Hi-Res versions of these files are available on application
Remarks by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the 17th Annual NATO Conference on, Arms Control, Disarmament and Weapons of Mass Destruction Non-Proliferation
Stop the War Coalition "Stop Bombing Libya" protest at Parliament, 28.06.2011
Activists representing Stop the War Coalition, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and Libyans opposed to the targeted destruction of their country's vital infrastructure and the continued slaughter of large numbers of civilians - cold-bloodedly referred to as "Collateral Damage" by the Warmongers directing the massive attacks - by NATO forces, protested in Old Palace Yard opposite Parliament calling for an end to the brutal, massive aerial bombing campaign being waged against them by the USA and NATO, who lied to the World by claiming their involvement was only ever going to be a short campaign to establish a no-fly zone in the rebel-held East of Libya, and only to "protect innocent civilians".
To this end on February 15th 2011 the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1973 which authorized an internationally organised no-fly zone. Next thing we know, on March 18th, Barack Obama announces that NATO has taken over the operation from the United Nations, and gradually (as predicted) it is now admitted freely by the USA, NATO and our own William Hague that the mission is actually to kill Colonel Gaddafi. Without a shadow of a doubt this war against Libya flagrantly disregards International Law. It is yet another illegal war launched by the USA against another (coincidentally) oil-rich sovereign state which was posing no threat to the USA whatsoever. The UK government has the same blood on its hands as does the USA.
It is a good indicator of the degree to which we have been lied to as a nation by David Cameron, his ministers and "special advisers" in the concentrated media propaganda storm of distortions, myths and blatant lies neccessary to convince the British Public that this illegal war has some kind of moral justification. We were initially told this operation would be over in weeks and would be a bargain at "tens of millions of pounds". Over four months later the government has admitted that the cost so far has been "About a quarter of a billion pounds", from which we can safely assume we're probably looking at closer to half a billion pounds at least, with no end in sight.
It is estimated that the first day of operations in Liby cost the USA alone $1 billion.
Meanwhile back in the UK the Disabled are having their paltry benefits slashed or even cut completely, libraries, community centres, day care centres for the elderly and many other vital public amenities are being closed by Cameron's Caring Conservatives because (apparently) the coffers are empty. Public Sector workers are under sustained government propaganda attacks, and have just been told that their pensions are now not going to be enough to live on when they retire, they have to contribute much more into them, and they all have to work several years longer to even get it.
Just so you know, a Sidewinder missile costs at least £85,000, and a much sexier AmRam missile rolls out at over £500,000 of British taxpayer's money. It has been almost impossible to force the Ministry of Defence to give a reliable figure for the quantities of high-tech ordnance that has been dropped on Libya, nor how much of that ordnance contained Depleted Uranium. The only thing we can be sure of is that the government will tell us lie after lie after lie.
I attended a public meeting this evening in the House of Commons where we were told by anti-war MP Paul Flynn that the government is trying to prevent the reading out of dead military personnel's names in Parliament because it makes so many MPs uncomfortable to hear them, and to have to face the fact that real human beings with voting-aged families and friends are dying because of their vicious belligerence. Similarly the Ministry of Defence is about to stop military funeral corteges from driving through the Wiltshire town of Wooton Basset which has become a very public focus for the great number of dead soldiers passing through its main road. They are planning a different route for the coffins from RAF Brize Norton where they are brought back home to be buried by their families and loved ones, so the public soon forgets all about the cost of these Oil Wars. Out of sight, out of mind. George Bush would be proud of us. How psychopathically stone-hearted is that?
Our brave William Hague announced this week that "The UK is in Libya for the long haul".
Gaddafi is without doubt a brutal dictator, and the insurgents from the Eastern tribes who took their cues from the Arab Spring victories to launch a civil war to try and free themselves from Gaddafi's cruelty and brutality against them are understandably anxious to be free of him and his equally violent sons, though Amnesty international and Human Rights Watch have reported many atrocities and war crimes being carried out by the rebel fighters too, and no-one seems to be asking what unimaginable violence will be expedited against the Western Libyans once the Eastern rebels - now supported by overwhelming Western military might - without whose intervention their civil war would undoubtedly have been short and violent - overwhelm Tripoli. Let's not kid ourselves that it's going to be a clean transition, because it's not. There will be a bloodbath of huge proportions as revenge is taken against all those women, children and their parents. NATO will, of course, help to sweep all that under the carpet whilst the oil companies help themselves to Libya's most desirable asset.
I hope that what comes next will haunt William Hague's tormented nightmares for the rest of his life...
All photos © 2011 Pete Riches
Do not reproduce, alter or reblog my images without my permission.
Hi-Res versions of these files are available on application
Commemorative coin (4), USSR 1 ruble, Disarmament Ruble / Dollar; Minted: 1988; Commemorates the signing of history's first Nuclear Arms Reduction Treaty (INF 1987) specifying the actual dismantling of nuclear weapons. Minted from dismantled nuclear missiles; "Accepted as a Token of Friendship, Soviet Peace Committee"; Silver, each in plastic coin caseImage of an object in the SDASM Curatorial Collection--Please tag these photos so information can be recorded.---Note: This material may be protected by Copyright Law (Title 17 U.S.C.)--Repository: San Diego Air and Space Museum
Vivian Okeke, Director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Liaison Office in New York, delivers a keynote address to the General Assembly meeting on general and complete disarmament to commemorate and promote the International Day against Nuclear Tests. The high-level plenary meeting raises awareness "about the effects of nuclear weapon test explosions or any other nuclear explosions and the need for their cessation as one of the means of achieving the goal of a nuclear-weapon-free".
UN Photo/Loey Felipe
8 September 2021
New York, United States of America
Photo # UN7908724
Bilateral meeting between Jacek Bylica, Principal Adviser and Special Envoy for Non-proliferation
and Disarmament (European Union External Action Service) and Cornel Feruta, IAEA Acting Director General at the IAEA 63rd General Conference. IAEA, Vienna, Austria. 19 September 2019.
Photo Credit: Dean Calma / IAEA
Stop the War Coalition "Stop Bombing Libya" protest at Parliament, 28.06.2011
Activists representing Stop the War Coalition, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and Libyans opposed to the targeted destruction of their country's vital infrastructure and the continued slaughter of large numbers of civilians - cold-bloodedly referred to as "Collateral Damage" by the Warmongers directing the massive attacks - by NATO forces, protested in Old Palace Yard opposite Parliament calling for an end to the brutal, massive aerial bombing campaign being waged against them by the USA and NATO, who lied to the World by claiming their involvement was only ever going to be a short campaign to establish a no-fly zone in the rebel-held East of Libya, and only to "protect innocent civilians".
To this end on February 15th 2011 the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1973 which authorized an internationally organised no-fly zone. Next thing we know, on March 18th, Barack Obama announces that NATO has taken over the operation from the United Nations, and gradually (as predicted) it is now admitted freely by the USA, NATO and our own William Hague that the mission is actually to kill Colonel Gaddafi. Without a shadow of a doubt this war against Libya flagrantly disregards International Law. It is yet another illegal war launched by the USA against another (coincidentally) oil-rich sovereign state which was posing no threat to the USA whatsoever. The UK government has the same blood on its hands as does the USA.
It is a good indicator of the degree to which we have been lied to as a nation by David Cameron, his ministers and "special advisers" in the concentrated media propaganda storm of distortions, myths and blatant lies neccessary to convince the British Public that this illegal war has some kind of moral justification. We were initially told this operation would be over in weeks and would be a bargain at "tens of millions of pounds". Over four months later the government has admitted that the cost so far has been "About a quarter of a billion pounds", from which we can safely assume we're probably looking at closer to half a billion pounds at least, with no end in sight.
It is estimated that the first day of operations in Liby cost the USA alone $1 billion.
Meanwhile back in the UK the Disabled are having their paltry benefits slashed or even cut completely, libraries, community centres, day care centres for the elderly and many other vital public amenities are being closed by Cameron's Caring Conservatives because (apparently) the coffers are empty. Public Sector workers are under sustained government propaganda attacks, and have just been told that their pensions are now not going to be enough to live on when they retire, they have to contribute much more into them, and they all have to work several years longer to even get it.
Just so you know, a Sidewinder missile costs at least £85,000, and a much sexier AmRam missile rolls out at over £500,000 of British taxpayer's money. It has been almost impossible to force the Ministry of Defence to give a reliable figure for the quantities of high-tech ordnance that has been dropped on Libya, nor how much of that ordnance contained Depleted Uranium. The only thing we can be sure of is that the government will tell us lie after lie after lie.
I attended a public meeting this evening in the House of Commons where we were told by anti-war MP Paul Flynn that the government is trying to prevent the reading out of dead military personnel's names in Parliament because it makes so many MPs uncomfortable to hear them, and to have to face the fact that real human beings with voting-aged families and friends are dying because of their vicious belligerence. Similarly the Ministry of Defence is about to stop military funeral corteges from driving through the Wiltshire town of Wooton Basset which has become a very public focus for the great number of dead soldiers passing through its main road. They are planning a different route for the coffins from RAF Brize Norton where they are brought back home to be buried by their families and loved ones, so the public soon forgets all about the cost of these Oil Wars. Out of sight, out of mind. George Bush would be proud of us. How psychopathically stone-hearted is that?
Our brave William Hague announced this week that "The UK is in Libya for the long haul".
Gaddafi is without doubt a brutal dictator, and the insurgents from the Eastern tribes who took their cues from the Arab Spring victories to launch a civil war to try and free themselves from Gaddafi's cruelty and brutality against them are understandably anxious to be free of him and his equally violent sons, though Amnesty international and Human Rights Watch have reported many atrocities and war crimes being carried out by the rebel fighters too, and no-one seems to be asking what unimaginable violence will be expedited against the Western Libyans once the Eastern rebels - now supported by overwhelming Western military might - without whose intervention their civil war would undoubtedly have been short and violent - overwhelm Tripoli. Let's not kid ourselves that it's going to be a clean transition, because it's not. There will be a bloodbath of huge proportions as revenge is taken against all those women, children and their parents. NATO will, of course, help to sweep all that under the carpet whilst the oil companies help themselves to Libya's most desirable asset.
I hope that what comes next will haunt William Hague's tormented nightmares for the rest of his life...
All photos © 2011 Pete Riches
Do not reproduce, alter or reblog my images without my permission.
Hi-Res versions of these files are available on application
Stop the War Coalition "Stop Bombing Libya" protest at Parliament, 28.06.2011
Activists representing Stop the War Coalition, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and Libyans opposed to the targeted destruction of their country's vital infrastructure and the continued slaughter of large numbers of civilians - cold-bloodedly referred to as "Collateral Damage" by the Warmongers directing the massive attacks - by NATO forces, protested in Old Palace Yard opposite Parliament calling for an end to the brutal, massive aerial bombing campaign being waged against them by the USA and NATO, who lied to the World by claiming their involvement was only ever going to be a short campaign to establish a no-fly zone in the rebel-held East of Libya, and only to "protect innocent civilians".
To this end on February 15th 2011 the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1973 which authorized an internationally organised no-fly zone. Next thing we know, on March 18th, Barack Obama announces that NATO has taken over the operation from the United Nations, and gradually (as predicted) it is now admitted freely by the USA, NATO and our own William Hague that the mission is actually to kill Colonel Gaddafi. Without a shadow of a doubt this war against Libya flagrantly disregards International Law. It is yet another illegal war launched by the USA against another (coincidentally) oil-rich sovereign state which was posing no threat to the USA whatsoever. The UK government has the same blood on its hands as does the USA.
It is a good indicator of the degree to which we have been lied to as a nation by David Cameron, his ministers and "special advisers" in the concentrated media propaganda storm of distortions, myths and blatant lies neccessary to convince the British Public that this illegal war has some kind of moral justification. We were initially told this operation would be over in weeks and would be a bargain at "tens of millions of pounds". Over four months later the government has admitted that the cost so far has been "About a quarter of a billion pounds", from which we can safely assume we're probably looking at closer to half a billion pounds at least, with no end in sight.
It is estimated that the first day of operations in Liby cost the USA alone $1 billion.
Meanwhile back in the UK the Disabled are having their paltry benefits slashed or even cut completely, libraries, community centres, day care centres for the elderly and many other vital public amenities are being closed by Cameron's Caring Conservatives because (apparently) the coffers are empty. Public Sector workers are under sustained government propaganda attacks, and have just been told that their pensions are now not going to be enough to live on when they retire, they have to contribute much more into them, and they all have to work several years longer to even get it.
Just so you know, a Sidewinder missile costs at least £85,000, and a much sexier AmRam missile rolls out at over £500,000 of British taxpayer's money. It has been almost impossible to force the Ministry of Defence to give a reliable figure for the quantities of high-tech ordnance that has been dropped on Libya, nor how much of that ordnance contained Depleted Uranium. The only thing we can be sure of is that the government will tell us lie after lie after lie.
I attended a public meeting this evening in the House of Commons where we were told by anti-war MP Paul Flynn that the government is trying to prevent the reading out of dead military personnel's names in Parliament because it makes so many MPs uncomfortable to hear them, and to have to face the fact that real human beings with voting-aged families and friends are dying because of their vicious belligerence. Similarly the Ministry of Defence is about to stop military funeral corteges from driving through the Wiltshire town of Wooton Basset which has become a very public focus for the great number of dead soldiers passing through its main road. They are planning a different route for the coffins from RAF Brize Norton where they are brought back home to be buried by their families and loved ones, so the public soon forgets all about the cost of these Oil Wars. Out of sight, out of mind. George Bush would be proud of us. How psychopathically stone-hearted is that?
Our brave William Hague announced this week that "The UK is in Libya for the long haul".
Gaddafi is without doubt a brutal dictator, and the insurgents from the Eastern tribes who took their cues from the Arab Spring victories to launch a civil war to try and free themselves from Gaddafi's cruelty and brutality against them are understandably anxious to be free of him and his equally violent sons, though Amnesty international and Human Rights Watch have reported many atrocities and war crimes being carried out by the rebel fighters too, and no-one seems to be asking what unimaginable violence will be expedited against the Western Libyans once the Eastern rebels - now supported by overwhelming Western military might - without whose intervention their civil war would undoubtedly have been short and violent - overwhelm Tripoli. Let's not kid ourselves that it's going to be a clean transition, because it's not. There will be a bloodbath of huge proportions as revenge is taken against all those women, children and their parents. NATO will, of course, help to sweep all that under the carpet whilst the oil companies help themselves to Libya's most desirable asset.
I hope that what comes next will haunt William Hague's tormented nightmares for the rest of his life...
All photos © 2011 Pete Riches
Do not reproduce, alter or reblog my images without my permission.
Hi-Res versions of these files are available on application
Deputy Secretary Sherman delivers opening remarks and responds to questions from the press at the 18th Annual NATO Conference on Weapons of Mass Destruction, Arms Control, Disarmament, and Non-Proliferation, at the Department of State. [State Department photo by Freddie Everett/ Public Domain]
Stop the War Coalition "Stop Bombing Libya" protest at Parliament, 28.06.2011
Activists representing Stop the War Coalition, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and Libyans opposed to the targeted destruction of their country's vital infrastructure and the continued slaughter of large numbers of civilians - cold-bloodedly referred to as "Collateral Damage" by the Warmongers directing the massive attacks - by NATO forces, protested in Old Palace Yard opposite Parliament calling for an end to the brutal, massive aerial bombing campaign being waged against them by the USA and NATO, who lied to the World by claiming their involvement was only ever going to be a short campaign to establish a no-fly zone in the rebel-held East of Libya, and only to "protect innocent civilians".
To this end on February 15th 2011 the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1973 which authorized an internationally organised no-fly zone. Next thing we know, on March 18th, Barack Obama announces that NATO has taken over the operation from the United Nations, and gradually (as predicted) it is now admitted freely by the USA, NATO and our own William Hague that the mission is actually to kill Colonel Gaddafi. Without a shadow of a doubt this war against Libya flagrantly disregards International Law. It is yet another illegal war launched by the USA against another (coincidentally) oil-rich sovereign state which was posing no threat to the USA whatsoever. The UK government has the same blood on its hands as does the USA.
It is a good indicator of the degree to which we have been lied to as a nation by David Cameron, his ministers and "special advisers" in the concentrated media propaganda storm of distortions, myths and blatant lies neccessary to convince the British Public that this illegal war has some kind of moral justification. We were initially told this operation would be over in weeks and would be a bargain at "tens of millions of pounds". Over four months later the government has admitted that the cost so far has been "About a quarter of a billion pounds", from which we can safely assume we're probably looking at closer to half a billion pounds at least, with no end in sight.
It is estimated that the first day of operations in Liby cost the USA alone $1 billion.
Meanwhile back in the UK the Disabled are having their paltry benefits slashed or even cut completely, libraries, community centres, day care centres for the elderly and many other vital public amenities are being closed by Cameron's Caring Conservatives because (apparently) the coffers are empty. Public Sector workers are under sustained government propaganda attacks, and have just been told that their pensions are now not going to be enough to live on when they retire, they have to contribute much more into them, and they all have to work several years longer to even get it.
Just so you know, a Sidewinder missile costs at least £85,000, and a much sexier AmRam missile rolls out at over £500,000 of British taxpayer's money. It has been almost impossible to force the Ministry of Defence to give a reliable figure for the quantities of high-tech ordnance that has been dropped on Libya, nor how much of that ordnance contained Depleted Uranium. The only thing we can be sure of is that the government will tell us lie after lie after lie.
I attended a public meeting this evening in the House of Commons where we were told by anti-war MP Paul Flynn that the government is trying to prevent the reading out of dead military personnel's names in Parliament because it makes so many MPs uncomfortable to hear them, and to have to face the fact that real human beings with voting-aged families and friends are dying because of their vicious belligerence. Similarly the Ministry of Defence is about to stop military funeral corteges from driving through the Wiltshire town of Wooton Basset which has become a very public focus for the great number of dead soldiers passing through its main road. They are planning a different route for the coffins from RAF Brize Norton where they are brought back home to be buried by their families and loved ones, so the public soon forgets all about the cost of these Oil Wars. Out of sight, out of mind. George Bush would be proud of us. How psychopathically stone-hearted is that?
Our brave William Hague announced this week that "The UK is in Libya for the long haul".
Gaddafi is without doubt a brutal dictator, and the insurgents from the Eastern tribes who took their cues from the Arab Spring victories to launch a civil war to try and free themselves from Gaddafi's cruelty and brutality against them are understandably anxious to be free of him and his equally violent sons, though Amnesty international and Human Rights Watch have reported many atrocities and war crimes being carried out by the rebel fighters too, and no-one seems to be asking what unimaginable violence will be expedited against the Western Libyans once the Eastern rebels - now supported by overwhelming Western military might - without whose intervention their civil war would undoubtedly have been short and violent - overwhelm Tripoli. Let's not kid ourselves that it's going to be a clean transition, because it's not. There will be a bloodbath of huge proportions as revenge is taken against all those women, children and their parents. NATO will, of course, help to sweep all that under the carpet whilst the oil companies help themselves to Libya's most desirable asset.
I hope that what comes next will haunt William Hague's tormented nightmares for the rest of his life...
All photos © 2011 Pete Riches
Do not reproduce, alter or reblog my images without my permission.
Hi-Res versions of these files are available on application
Stop the War Coalition "Stop Bombing Libya" protest at Parliament, 28.06.2011
Activists representing Stop the War Coalition, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and Libyans opposed to the targeted destruction of their country's vital infrastructure and the continued slaughter of large numbers of civilians - cold-bloodedly referred to as "Collateral Damage" by the Warmongers directing the massive attacks - by NATO forces, protested in Old Palace Yard opposite Parliament calling for an end to the brutal, massive aerial bombing campaign being waged against them by the USA and NATO, who lied to the World by claiming their involvement was only ever going to be a short campaign to establish a no-fly zone in the rebel-held East of Libya, and only to "protect innocent civilians".
To this end on February 15th 2011 the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1973 which authorized an internationally organised no-fly zone. Next thing we know, on March 18th, Barack Obama announces that NATO has taken over the operation from the United Nations, and gradually (as predicted) it is now admitted freely by the USA, NATO and our own William Hague that the mission is actually to kill Colonel Gaddafi. Without a shadow of a doubt this war against Libya flagrantly disregards International Law. It is yet another illegal war launched by the USA against another (coincidentally) oil-rich sovereign state which was posing no threat to the USA whatsoever. The UK government has the same blood on its hands as does the USA.
It is a good indicator of the degree to which we have been lied to as a nation by David Cameron, his ministers and "special advisers" in the concentrated media propaganda storm of distortions, myths and blatant lies neccessary to convince the British Public that this illegal war has some kind of moral justification. We were initially told this operation would be over in weeks and would be a bargain at "tens of millions of pounds". Over four months later the government has admitted that the cost so far has been "About a quarter of a billion pounds", from which we can safely assume we're probably looking at closer to half a billion pounds at least, with no end in sight.
It is estimated that the first day of operations in Liby cost the USA alone $1 billion.
Meanwhile back in the UK the Disabled are having their paltry benefits slashed or even cut completely, libraries, community centres, day care centres for the elderly and many other vital public amenities are being closed by Cameron's Caring Conservatives because (apparently) the coffers are empty. Public Sector workers are under sustained government propaganda attacks, and have just been told that their pensions are now not going to be enough to live on when they retire, they have to contribute much more into them, and they all have to work several years longer to even get it.
Just so you know, a Sidewinder missile costs at least £85,000, and a much sexier AmRam missile rolls out at over £500,000 of British taxpayer's money. It has been almost impossible to force the Ministry of Defence to give a reliable figure for the quantities of high-tech ordnance that has been dropped on Libya, nor how much of that ordnance contained Depleted Uranium. The only thing we can be sure of is that the government will tell us lie after lie after lie.
I attended a public meeting this evening in the House of Commons where we were told by anti-war MP Paul Flynn that the government is trying to prevent the reading out of dead military personnel's names in Parliament because it makes so many MPs uncomfortable to hear them, and to have to face the fact that real human beings with voting-aged families and friends are dying because of their vicious belligerence. Similarly the Ministry of Defence is about to stop military funeral corteges from driving through the Wiltshire town of Wooton Basset which has become a very public focus for the great number of dead soldiers passing through its main road. They are planning a different route for the coffins from RAF Brize Norton where they are brought back home to be buried by their families and loved ones, so the public soon forgets all about the cost of these Oil Wars. Out of sight, out of mind. George Bush would be proud of us. How psychopathically stone-hearted is that?
Our brave William Hague announced this week that "The UK is in Libya for the long haul".
Gaddafi is without doubt a brutal dictator, and the insurgents from the Eastern tribes who took their cues from the Arab Spring victories to launch a civil war to try and free themselves from Gaddafi's cruelty and brutality against them are understandably anxious to be free of him and his equally violent sons, though Amnesty international and Human Rights Watch have reported many atrocities and war crimes being carried out by the rebel fighters too, and no-one seems to be asking what unimaginable violence will be expedited against the Western Libyans once the Eastern rebels - now supported by overwhelming Western military might - without whose intervention their civil war would undoubtedly have been short and violent - overwhelm Tripoli. Let's not kid ourselves that it's going to be a clean transition, because it's not. There will be a bloodbath of huge proportions as revenge is taken against all those women, children and their parents. NATO will, of course, help to sweep all that under the carpet whilst the oil companies help themselves to Libya's most desirable asset.
I hope that what comes next will haunt William Hague's tormented nightmares for the rest of his life...
All photos © 2011 Pete Riches
Do not reproduce, alter or reblog my images without my permission.
Hi-Res versions of these files are available on application
Stop the War Coalition "Stop Bombing Libya" protest at Parliament, 28.06.2011
Activists representing Stop the War Coalition, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and Libyans opposed to the targeted destruction of their country's vital infrastructure and the continued slaughter of large numbers of civilians - cold-bloodedly referred to as "Collateral Damage" by the Warmongers directing the massive attacks - by NATO forces, protested in Old Palace Yard opposite Parliament calling for an end to the brutal, massive aerial bombing campaign being waged against them by the USA and NATO, who lied to the World by claiming their involvement was only ever going to be a short campaign to establish a no-fly zone in the rebel-held East of Libya, and only to "protect innocent civilians".
To this end on February 15th 2011 the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1973 which authorized an internationally organised no-fly zone. Next thing we know, on March 18th, Barack Obama announces that NATO has taken over the operation from the United Nations, and gradually (as predicted) it is now admitted freely by the USA, NATO and our own William Hague that the mission is actually to kill Colonel Gaddafi. Without a shadow of a doubt this war against Libya flagrantly disregards International Law. It is yet another illegal war launched by the USA against another (coincidentally) oil-rich sovereign state which was posing no threat to the USA whatsoever. The UK government has the same blood on its hands as does the USA.
It is a good indicator of the degree to which we have been lied to as a nation by David Cameron, his ministers and "special advisers" in the concentrated media propaganda storm of distortions, myths and blatant lies neccessary to convince the British Public that this illegal war has some kind of moral justification. We were initially told this operation would be over in weeks and would be a bargain at "tens of millions of pounds". Over four months later the government has admitted that the cost so far has been "About a quarter of a billion pounds", from which we can safely assume we're probably looking at closer to half a billion pounds at least, with no end in sight.
It is estimated that the first day of operations in Liby cost the USA alone $1 billion.
Meanwhile back in the UK the Disabled are having their paltry benefits slashed or even cut completely, libraries, community centres, day care centres for the elderly and many other vital public amenities are being closed by Cameron's Caring Conservatives because (apparently) the coffers are empty. Public Sector workers are under sustained government propaganda attacks, and have just been told that their pensions are now not going to be enough to live on when they retire, they have to contribute much more into them, and they all have to work several years longer to even get it.
Just so you know, a Sidewinder missile costs at least £85,000, and a much sexier AmRam missile rolls out at over £500,000 of British taxpayer's money. It has been almost impossible to force the Ministry of Defence to give a reliable figure for the quantities of high-tech ordnance that has been dropped on Libya, nor how much of that ordnance contained Depleted Uranium. The only thing we can be sure of is that the government will tell us lie after lie after lie.
I attended a public meeting this evening in the House of Commons where we were told by anti-war MP Paul Flynn that the government is trying to prevent the reading out of dead military personnel's names in Parliament because it makes so many MPs uncomfortable to hear them, and to have to face the fact that real human beings with voting-aged families and friends are dying because of their vicious belligerence. Similarly the Ministry of Defence is about to stop military funeral corteges from driving through the Wiltshire town of Wooton Basset which has become a very public focus for the great number of dead soldiers passing through its main road. They are planning a different route for the coffins from RAF Brize Norton where they are brought back home to be buried by their families and loved ones, so the public soon forgets all about the cost of these Oil Wars. Out of sight, out of mind. George Bush would be proud of us. How psychopathically stone-hearted is that?
Our brave William Hague announced this week that "The UK is in Libya for the long haul".
Gaddafi is without doubt a brutal dictator, and the insurgents from the Eastern tribes who took their cues from the Arab Spring victories to launch a civil war to try and free themselves from Gaddafi's cruelty and brutality against them are understandably anxious to be free of him and his equally violent sons, though Amnesty international and Human Rights Watch have reported many atrocities and war crimes being carried out by the rebel fighters too, and no-one seems to be asking what unimaginable violence will be expedited against the Western Libyans once the Eastern rebels - now supported by overwhelming Western military might - without whose intervention their civil war would undoubtedly have been short and violent - overwhelm Tripoli. Let's not kid ourselves that it's going to be a clean transition, because it's not. There will be a bloodbath of huge proportions as revenge is taken against all those women, children and their parents. NATO will, of course, help to sweep all that under the carpet whilst the oil companies help themselves to Libya's most desirable asset.
I hope that what comes next will haunt William Hague's tormented nightmares for the rest of his life...
All photos © 2011 Pete Riches
Do not reproduce, alter or reblog my images without my permission.
Hi-Res versions of these files are available on application
Deputy Secretary Sherman delivers opening remarks and responds to questions from the press at the 18th Annual NATO Conference on Weapons of Mass Destruction, Arms Control, Disarmament, and Non-Proliferation, at the Department of State. [State Department photo by Freddie Everett/ Public Domain]
Rafael Mariano Grossi, IAEA Director General, spoke with Hon Phil Twyford, Minister for Disarmament and Arms Control of New Zealand, during a virtual meeting with the minister at the Agency headquarters in Vienna, Austria. 16 March 2021. The Director General is joined by Jacek Bylica, IAEA Chief of Cabinet and Edgard Perez Alvan, Senior Advisor to the Director General.
Photo Credit: Dean Calma / IAEA
25 July 2011. Kodiel: Distribution of 40,000 liters of water among the local community in El Srief (North Darfur), that includes Shiero, Metwier, Eata Ibrahim, Ahmed, Ali and Kodiel villages. The nearest water point is 15 kilometers away and the women have to spend 6 hours a day to collect the water for their families. Due to the drought, the community leaders report that the lack of water is severe in the area and it specially affects children and sick people.
This water distribution was part of a DDR (Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration) outreach activity, organized by UNAMID, with the support of UNDP, UNICEF, North Sudan DDR Commission and the local NGO Friends of Peace and Development Organization (FPDO). The DDR activity promoted messages of disarmament and security arm control among the population, historically controlled by SLA / Free Will faction and currently with few individual armed actions. Photo by Albert Gonzalez Farran - UNAMID.