Bush Puppet Dinner Spoilt

Last night hundreds protested against US and British backed imperialism humiliating Colin Powell, despite poor media coverage of the demonstration. Powell was speaking at the Jewish National Fund dinner at the Hilton in Glasgow.

The JNF were the subject of a petition in the Scottish Parliament in 2004 complaining about the charitable status the organisation enjoys despite it having “political goals” of ensuring a Jewish majority by appropriating Palestinian land for Israelis. The protest has been fuelled by the dismissive comments of Cecile Shea, Principal Officer at the US Consulate-General in Edinburgh, who argued that people had no right to question US torture flights landing in Scotland (see previous)

The JNF is a quasi-official organisation of the Israeli state; one of the principle purposes of which is raising funds for the acquisition and development of land in Palestine for the exclusive use of Jewish people. The JNF owns approximately 13% of the land in Israel, and is prohibited by its own constitution from selling or leasing this land to non-Jews, thus excluding all Palestinians and Arabs. The JNF also uses occupied Palestinian land to build illegal settlements; described on its web-site as reclaimed land.

Also...this from Blairwatch: "BBC Newsnight are reporting a new Freedom of Information Request concerning the memo detailing the plan to bomb al-Jazeera.

This request is being filed by al-Jazeera on behalf of two British Citizens living in Doha, based on the fact that they could have been killed had the attack taken place. The point behind this, according to Newsnight, is that under British Law, "the duty to disclose any possible crime would override any duty of confidence to an ally." They also discuss the previous FOIA request, and make the point that the denial of that request officially confirms the existence and subject of the al-Jazeera memo. Something the mainstream media and deadwood press have resolutely ignored to date..."

More detail, including an audio grab of the newsnight segment and a transcript can be found here.

Details of the first FOIA request and it's implications are here.