Military - New Material (49)
01 March 2004
EU - Zivil- onder Militärmacht? [EU civil or military power]. wissenschaft und Frieden 2/2004 pp 6-46
Fighting Proliferation - European Perspectives. Institute for Security Studies (ISS) Chaillot Paper 66 December 2003
Crisis management in sub-Saharan Africa - the role of the European Union. ISS Occasional Paper 51, April 2004
The confessions of Soldier C, Tom Newton Dunn, Stephen Moyles & Aidan McGuerran. Daily Mirror 7.5.04, pp1, 4-6. Interview with Soldier C, who says that he witnessed British soldiers from the Queen's Lancashire regiment in Iraq torturing Iraqi prisoners. He says: "I witnessed four beatings when people were punched and kicked. One corporal went up to a suspect who had a sandbag over his face and poked his fingers in the guy's eyeballs until he was screaming in pain." Elsewhere in the article Soldier C describes how "the Iraqis were bagged, zip-tied and had ten kinds of crap beaten out of them."
Europäische Verteidigungsagentur [European Defence Agency], Wolfgang Hermann. Wehrtechnik I/2004 pp. 56-59
One year on the human rights situation remains dire. Amnesty International AI Index: MDE 14/006/2004. This report, published a year after US-led forces launched their war on Iraq, considers the "promise of improved human rights for Iraqis", concluding that: "Most Iraqis still feel unsafe in a country ravaged by violence." While the US-led invasion is estimated to have been responsible for more than 10,000 civilian casualties the occupying forces have deemed these to be non-people, not even worthy of recording as statistics. The report notes some positive developments in the fields of freedom of expression, association and assembly, but the overall picture is as bleak as opponents of the war predicted before the invasion. As Amnesty notes: "Every day Iraqis face threats to their lives and security. Violence is endemic, whether in the form of attacks by armed groups, abuses by the occupying forces, or violence against women. Millions of people have suffered the consequences of destroyed or looted infrastructure, mass unemployment and uncertainty about their future. And there is little or no confidence that those responsible for past and present human rights abuses will be brought to justice." Available on: http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/
ENGMDE140062004.
Moving Targets, Seymour Hersh. The New Yorker 8.12.03. Although perhaps in some areas a little out of date, this article offers a comprehensive report on US military operations in Iraq and its changing approach in response to a worsening guerrilla war undertaken by Baathist insurgents. Of particular note are his profiles of two of Donald Rumsfeld's favoured personnel involved in US military policy and operation: Stephen Cambone (Under-Secretary of Defence for Intelligence) and General William Boykin (Special Forces).
The past Porton Down can't hide, Rob Evans. Guardian Life 6.5.04, pp4-5. Article on Porton Down's "voluntary" experiments in which human guinea pigs were duped into taking part in experiments that may have damaged their long-term health. The article was prompted by the opening of the inquest into the death of Robert Madison, n young airman who died after liquid nerve gas was applied to his arm in May 1953. Evans concludes: "...the conduct and ethical standards of tests in the past will be under unprecedented scrutiny in the inquest over the coming weeks."