The Lowest of the Low
by Gilad Atzmon
Millions
of ballot papers have been sent out yesterday to those eligible to vote
in the Labour leadership election. Symbolically enough, this happened
the day Tony Blair, the British PM who launched the criminal war in
Iraq, published his controversial memoirs.
I am not holding my breath for the Labour party to make the right
decision. Clearly, the same party failed to curtail Blair’s militant
enthusiasm, even when it was plainly clear that the argument for the
Iraq war was grounded in a dodgy dossier.
Considering the scale of the atrocities we are all complicit in
thanks to the Labour government, it is my duty to remind the Labour
party members who their leading candidate is, what he stands for and
what interests he may serve.
Labour Party members should consider the role allegedly played by its
leaders and leading candidate David Miliband in what has come to be
known as "extraordinary rendition": knowingly allowing terror suspects
to be transferred through British airspace, in order for them to be
tortured in third countries and to allow British agents to gather
information from suspects treated in this way. Miliband also attempted
to block public disclosure of intelligence information related to torture allegations in the case of former Guantanamo detainee Binyam Mohamed.
Interestingly enough, the same David Miliband has been preaching to us on ethics recently, here is what he told the Independent on Sunday.
"The alternative to an ethical foreign policy is an unethical foreign
policy, and I don't believe in an unethical foreign policy.”
I guess that Labour members better ask themselves what is so ‘ethical’ about concealing Britain's involvement in torture.
The Labour party members also should remember that their leading
candidate David Miliband announced his intention to change the law on
‘universal jurisdiction’. According to the Jewish Chronicle he
was “pushing hard within Whitehall” for such a cause. In case someone
has managed to forget, Miliband put much effort into the subject so that
Israeli suspected war criminals could avoid justice once landing in
this kingdom.
Ironically in the Independent Miliband claimed to know what
‘British values’ are, yet his actions against universal jurisdiction
proves the opposite. However, is apparent that David Miliband certainly
knows what Israeli interests are. He has been promoting these interests
in our midst for quite a while.
David Miliband was, until recently, listd on an Israeli Propaganda
site as an ‘Israeli Hasbara (Propaganda) Author’ (what ever that means).
Interestingly enough, The Israeli Hasbara site that listed him
disappeared on the 5th of May 2010, a day before the British
election, when it was clear that Gordon Brown’s political career was
cast to history. From then on it was obvious that David Miliband would
offer himself as a candidate for the Labour leadership. Is it a
coincidence? I honestly do not know the answer and I also do not have
the means to check.
Miliband might have been happy to discover that the Israeli
Propaganda site ceased to exist. However, he may not be as happy to find
out that some of us have saved a PDF image of the site content. I
believe that every Labour party member should look at the list of
Israeli Propaganda Authors and find their party’s favorite candidate.
Every Labour party member should wonder what a Labour leadership
candidate is doing on such a list.
To upload the PDF file that David Milband would probably prefer you don't see, cick here.
I urge Labour party members to circulate this document.
Like Tony Blair, David Miliband supports moral interventionism, as if
killing 1.5 million Iraqis in the name of democracy is not enough. In 2008 Miliband maintained that spreading democracy should be a “...great progressive project; (and) the means need to combine both soft and hard power.”
I wonder what is so ‘progressive’ about pushing tribal and
reactionary interests in Whitehall? What is so advanced in concealing
torture? Is torture ‘soft’ or ‘hard’ power? What is so ethical in
attempting to amend Britain Universal Jurisdiction? What is Moral about
killing in the name of democracy? One may wonder how much torture can
David Miliband take before he gives up on torturing others? Unlike Shaker Aamer, the Brit who is still incarcerated in Guantánamo Bay, Milliband tells us that the Labour party ‘has been punished enough.’
I hope that the Labour party rids itself of David Miliband and the
kind of ideology he promotes. This party is already liable for enough
death and carnage. This party made us all complicit in a colossal war
crime. The Labour party better depart quickly from its moral
interventionism and remind itself what labour ideology is all about.