Washington Denied Use of British Bases For Aggressions Toward Iran

Sometimes people say "why bother?" when I go on anti war demos, "what difference will it make" they ask? 

I have lost count of how many demos I've done since my first anti-Vietnam war demo in 1968 when I was a young member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) shocking the neighbourhood with my highly prized 'make love not war' badge.  

So now after many years of marching and campaigning with CND comrades it gives me great pleasure to congratulate them, and the Public Interest Lawyers (PIL) and the wider UK anti-war movement in general.... and dammit for the second time in a couple of weeks.... even to congratulate the British government on their reported decision to refuse Washington's request to use British based military facilities in pursuit of an illegal war against Iran. 

The recent decision not to allow the extradition of Gary McKinnon to the United States is I think interestingly contextualised by the release of this information reported in the Guardian yesterday and tweeted by CND this afternoon.

According to the press release from UK leading civil rights lawyer Phil Shiner's PIL website

 

"On Friday 18 May 2012, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) sent a letter to the Prime Minister, David Cameron, setting out their concerns at recent rhetoric emanating from Israel and the USA about the possibility of pre-emptive military action being taken against Iran. In anticipation of talks with Iranian officials due to take place in Baghdad from 23 May, the letter warns the UK against engaging in, or supporting, illegal military action."

 http://www.publicinterestlawyers.co.uk/

Not wanting to do a Blair the UK government sought legal advice on whether or not any such request from the United States government to use British (and Irish) airbases and other facilities as part of an offensive against Iran was legal in accordance with international law.  The advice they received was that it would not be legal to render such aid to the US or its collaborators under those circumstances. 

It was reported in The Guardian on 25 October that:-

" Britain has rebuffed US pleas to use military bases in the UK to support the build-up of forces in the Gulf, citing secret legal advice which states that any pre-emptive strike on Iran could be in breach of international law.

The Guardian has been told that US diplomats have also lobbied for the use of British bases in Cyprus, and for permission to fly from US bases on Ascension Island in the Atlantic and Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, both of which are British territories.

The US approaches are part of contingency planning over the nuclear standoff with Tehran, but British ministers have so far reacted coolly. They have pointed US officials to legal advice drafted by the attorney general's office which has been circulated to Downing Street, the Foreign Office and the Ministry of Defence."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/25/uk-reject-us-request-bases-iran 

The submission to the UK government by the attorney general concludes that 

 

(1) In present circumstances, and in the absence of any UN Security Council resolution authorising the use of force against Iran, it would clearly be contrary to international law for the US to attack Iran and for the UK or Ireland knowingly to assist that attack, for example by permitting the use of an airbase by US aircraft on bombing missions.
(2) It is reasonably arguable that, in English public law, it would be unlawful for the UK Government to give such assistance.

So, not to put too finer point on it, the current president of the United States who is presently campaigning for re-election apparently heads an administration that was and probably still is considering committing an act of flagrant war in complete defiance of international law and who seemingly expected the British government to have rubber stamped this insane adventure in a similar way they have other war crimes in the recent past and for that matter, in the rather more distant past too. 

The very fact that it was CND and PIL that initiated this legal review of the lawfulness in Britain (or Ireland) participating in a pre-emptive strike against yet another sovereign state (only now without any UN mandate, largely due thankfully to the opposition of Russia and China in the Security Council) it has served to limit the ambitions of the potentially illegal aggressors howling for more blood to the west and to the southeast of us.

This story also computes actually in terms of recent attempts by PNAC to have their asset in charge of policing in Lincolnshire, which is the county that hisorically was home to US airbases and may have been thought of as freindly toward the US military.

Well bad luck PNAC you were rumbled and chased out of town with your candidate in tow. Funnily enough the investigative journalists took an interest because Mervyn Barratt's campaign to become Police Commissioner in the pay of a foreign world domination cult was unusually slick and 'professional' by local standards...in other words it looked out of place in England's electoral environment, it had an odd smell about it and that musk was the psychopathic testosterone of PNAC. It is a lesson for the opinion formers in America that it was the very Americanism of this PNAC brainchild that created all the suspicion and hostility in the first place, that drove their road show out of town before they barely had chance to fire up their laptops.... what on earth did they think toffs are for? ...does PNAC stand for Psychotic North American Chumps?.....if the cap fits and all that.
 

But you can see what was going through the warped minds of these global domination fantasists can't you?  They simply don't understand the way things work around here, because if they did they would not have bothered in the first place. Outside central London they just don't blend in, we don't do extravaganza politics.... no politician here has got the credibility to pull it off.

Anyway.... as much as it hurts me to say it, - for the timebeing at least, well done to the Cameron/Clegg Con Dems who have made the insanity that is apparently seething across the water somewhat less doable it seems .... and it is undoubtedly a good thing for us all that the government have been compelled to listen to the voice of reason, and they have on this occasion so-far obeyed the laws of civilised conduct in this matter. Today number 10 flatly refused to be drawn on the reports that the Government had rebuffed a plea by the US for its forces to be allowed to use not only these bases in Britain, but also in Cyprus and on Ascension Island in the Atlantic and Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean to support the military build-up in the Gulf.

So when somebody says to me "why bother ?" ....I answer 'because it may just stop the world from being plunged back into the pre-cambrian mud by an unholy alliance between war criminals, adverising geeks and cavemen/woman destroying the planet just to keep the Zionists and the Wahabis sweet. Really.....I don't think so Mr Kristol.

The Guardian reports the last word on the British position on the threat of illegal war against Iran as it stood yesterday:-

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "As we continue to make clear, the government does not believe military action against Iran is the right course of action at this time, although no option is off the table. We believe that the twin-track approach of pressure through sanctions, which are having an impact, and engagement with Iran is the best way to resolve the nuclear issue. We are not going to speculate about scenarios in which military action would be legal. That would depend on the circumstances at the time."

The Foreign Office said it would not disclose whether the attorney general's advice has been sought on any specific issue.

A US state department official said: "The US and the UK co-ordinate on all kinds of subjects all the time, on a huge range of issues. We never speak on the record about these types of conversations."

  http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/25/uk-reject-us-request-bases-iran

Long may that forebearing be the case, there is no appetite here for more war and now it feels like Obama's regime are a busted flush, nobody cares what they think any more here or outside of Democrat heartlands in America.... pretty much anywhere else it seems.

No Pasaran! ......

 

My special congratulations to all at CND, very good work indeed, well done comrades!  http://www.cnduk.org/