Now Iran turns its fury on Britain

The Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei further upped the ante at home, branding senior opposition members "enemies of God" who deserved to be executed. And in what human rights groups and diplomats described as another "ominous development", Iranian police told leading opposition members that they could no longer guarantee their safety outside their homes.
Among those to receive the warning was Mehdi Karroubi, who came fourth in June's disputed presidential election and whose car was smashed up by government supporters at the weekend. His son, Taghi, said his father was effectively under "house arrest".The office of Iran's Supreme Leader, who possesses ultimate authority in the country, said: "Those who are behind the current sedition in the country ... are mohareb [enemies of God] and the law is very clear about punishment of a mohareb." Under Iran's Islamic law the sentence for mohareb is execution. The influential parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani joined in the call for punitive action, exhorting: "Identify them, arrest them and firmly punish those who insulted religion."

Tens of thousands of supporters loyal to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rallied in the centre of Tehran yesterday, vowing to "sacrifice their lives" and "fight the enemies". In such an incendiary atmosphere, opposition figures say that the official threats from the government are tantamount to a call to violence. Mohammadreza Naqdi, the head of the Basiji militia who led the bloody post-election crackdown, has already been openly vowing retribution against "traitors".

There were reports of fresh clashes between demonstrators and security forces at a Tehran university and in the central city of Shiraz, although these could not be independently confirmed.

Meanwhile, the government continued its raids on the opposition. Security forces have already been accused of targeting family members. The nephew of the opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi, who lost the disputed poll to Mr Ahmadinejad, was among eight killed on Sunday, the bloodiest of the past 10 days of protest.

Yesterday Mr Mousavi's brother-in-law, Shapour Kazemi, was detained, and Shirin Ebadi, the human rights lawyer who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003, said that her sister had been arrested in an attempt to silence her. "This arrest is illegal because my sister is a dentist, she is not in any way active in human rights or politics ... and she didn't participate in any protests," Ms Ebadi told French radio. "She is detained for the sake of me."

It remains unclear how many people are now in custody. The opposition website Jaras estimated that more than 900 people had been arrested in marches that began following the death of the senior dissident cleric, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri on 19 December. The government puts the number between 300 and 400.

With the protests showing no sign of subsiding, the government fell back on its popular line of defence, blaming "Western hands".

"Trying to overthrow the system will reach nowhere... designers of the unrest will soon pay the cost of their insolence," the Revolutionary Guards said in a statement. "The opposition... is backed by foreign enemies."

The British ambassador to Tehran was summoned to the foreign ministry to answer charges of interfering. Iranian anger had been fuelled by Foreign Secretary David Miliband's public condemnation of the crackdown, although Washington, Berlin and Paris have been similarly critical. Iran's Foreign Minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, warned: "Britain will receive a punch on the mouth if it does not stop its nonsense."

The tension between Iran and Western powers is only likely to increase as the end-of-year deadline looms for Tehran to accept a deal to send low-enriched uranium abroad to be converted, and thus prove it is not interested in developing a nuclear weapon. Washington has said it is already considering next steps if the deal fails.

Last night, there were unconfirmed reports that Iran was trying to import 1,350 tonnes of purified uranium ore from Kazakhstan in violation of UN sanctions already in place. A summary of an intelligence report, obtained by the Associated Press, said that Tehran was willing to pay $450m for the shipment.

@'The Independent'

#CN4Iran

Apocalypse Now..Ride Of The Valkyries

Crash Ensemble at the Samuel Beckett Theatre Dublin 2007

A short video extract taken from the premiere of Donnacha Dennehy's Grá agus Bás in February 2007 at the Samuel Beckett Theatre.
Grá agus Bás by Donnacha Dennehy was commissioned by Trinity College, Dublin, and performed by Sean-Nós singer Iarla Ó Lionáird, the Crash Ensemble and conductor Alan Pierson at the Samuel Beckett Theatre on 10 February 2007.
Inspired by the moments of ecstasy (both luscious and dark) within a number of particular Sean-Nós songs, the work uses these as a collective point of departure for a journey exploring the themes of love and death in a non-narrative context. 

(My thanx to Brian for turning me onto his brother's music - I hope that yr head doesn't hurt as much as mine LOL!)

Smoking # 44

Lily Allen

Lio by Mark Tatulli

  HERE

&

HERE

Remember...

 ...that this time of the year can be a very difficult time for lots of people for a number of reasons...

Sometimes random acts of senseless kindness can make YOU feel a whole lot better too!

If things get too tough, for whatever reason you can always ring Direct Line if you are in Melbourne.

1800 888 236 (24 hours)
OR
Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800
if you are a young person.
Believe me there are people who will listen to you out there.

Stop the bullets. Kill the gun

A charmer

Simone Maynard

Simone Maynard

Simone will hopefully be having another Melbourne exhibition in the latter half of 2010.
Repeated Theme Recurring Dream 
2010 Calendar available for one more week 
HERE

119 years ago

The  Wounded Knee Massacre

U.S. had early information of a terror plot

The United States government had intelligence about a possible Al Qaeda attack around the holidays and had more information about where the suspect had been and what some of his plans were, an official said.

Some of the information at the time was partial or incomplete and it was not obvious that it was connected, the official said, but in retrospect it now appears clear that had it all been examined together it would have pointed to a pending attack involving the Nigerian suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. Mr. Abdulmutallab allegedly tried to carry out a bombing on a Detroit-bound flight Christmas Day.

The official said the administration is “increasingly confident” that Al Qaeda had a role in the planned attack, as the group’s Yemeni branch has publicly claimed.

President Obama alluded to the intelligence in a statement he issued Tuesday. “Had this critical information been shared, it could have been compiled with other intelligence and a fuller, clearer picture of the suspect would have emerged,” the president said. “The warning signs would have triggered red flags and the suspect would have never been allowed to board that plane for America.”

In his statament, Mr. Obama blamed a “systemic failure” in the nation’s security apparatus for the attempted bombing of a passenger jet on Christmas Day and vowed to identify the problems and “deal with them immediately...

@'NY Times'

Clive Stafford Smith: China has made a mockery of justice

In the wake of Akmal Shaikh's horrific execution, it is perhaps worth discussing the position taken by the Chinese in more depth. Cast aside for one moment the unassailable case that we made for his mental illness, and assume that Shaikh was truly guilty, and that the Chinese courts delivered something other than the mockery of justice that we encountered.

How would we then assess their claim – made officially through the Chinese embassy on Christmas Eve – that executing Shaikh was necessary because "150mg of heroin of high degree of purity would be lethal. The amount of heroin he carried was 4,030g, enough to cause 26,800 deaths." Is this a sensible approach to the societal scourge of drug abuse, or is it a faintly ridiculous statement that undermines China's claim to have a rational drugs policy?

The latest available figures suggest that there were 632.3 metric tonnes of heroin produced worldwide in 2004. This is no doubt a low estimate. As of 2009, heroin production is still going up according to the UN, and will not fall until demand is reduced.

But let's accept the figure: 632.3 tonnes of the stuff could, under the Chinese arithmetic, cause 4.2bn deaths each year. This would be roughly 62% of the entire world population. Given that this is more than 240 times the total number of heroin users worldwide, it is clear that the Chinese are being hyperbolic, rather than sensible.

Such exaggeration in a matter of life or death speaks unfavourably of the "cautious approach" that the Chinese claim to be taking on capital punishment, along with their "careful reforms". If a hurried and inadequate investigation by Reprieve has exposed these kinds of flaws in Shaikh's case, what of the other people executed by China without the slightest hint of public scrutiny? China was responsible for at least 1,718 executions in 2008, more than four each day. How many of them had strong claims of innocence as well?

It is hardly surprising that the Chinese wish to keep their judicial system cloaked in secrecy. The Chinese Emperor lives on, it seems, and he still wears no clothes.

Instead of killing a mentally ill man like Shaikh, the Chinese might like to follow the advice of the UN, and focus on prevention. Sadly, if predictably, the Afghan war has dramatically increased heroin supplies. Whatever else one says about the Taliban, they are credited with reducing heroin production by 94%, but by 2006 the New York Times reported that heroin production had reached record levels. So much for the Afghan war being crucial to our government's goal of protecting people on the streets of London.

So the Chinese are not the only irrational ones, but they certainly established a new nadir last night. Until governments start adopting sensible policies, they are hardly likely to solve society's problems.

@'The Guardian'

Akmal Shaikh execution draws scathing criticism from Amnesty International

Akmal Shaikh. Photograph: Reprieve/PA

Amnesty International has joined a chorus of criticism of China over the execution by lethal injection of Akmal Shaikh, a British convicted drug smuggler said by friends and family to have been mentally ill.

Amnesty said Shaikh's execution again highlighted the "injustice and inhumanity of the death penalty, particularly as it is implemented in China". Amnesty estimates China executes at least three times as many people as every other country put together.

Sam Zarifi, Amnesty's Asia programme director, said: "Much information about the death penalty is considered a state secret but Mr Shaikh's treatment seems consistent with what we know from other cases: a short, almost perfunctory trial where not all the evidence was presented and investigated, and the death penalty applied to a non-violent crime.

"Under international human rights law, as well Chinese law, a defendant's mental health can and should be taken into account, and it doesn't seem that in this case the Chinese authorities did so.

"It's simply not enough for the Chinese authorities to say 'we did the right thing, trust us'. Now there can be no reassessment of evidence, no reprieve after a man's life has been taken.

"The UK, the EU and the rest of the world should continue to press the Chinese government to increase the transparency surrounding the death penalty in China and to improve the due process offered all defendants, particularly those facing charges punishable by death."

Clive Stafford Smith, the director of the human rights group Reprieve, which supported Shaikh's family through the case, said: "Sad to say I have watched six people die in execution chambers, and it is as ghastly as it is pointless. Is the world somehow a better place today because China refused to show compassion for an obviously ill man? Of course not. China's refusal to even allow a proper medical evaluation is simply disgusting."

Sally Rowen, the legal director of the death penalty team at Reprieve, said: "The death of Akmal Shaikh is a sad indictment of today's world and particularly of China's legal system. Akmal was a gentle man who suffered from a tormenting illness; he slipped through the cracks of society and was betrayed and deliberately killed by one of the most powerful nations on earth. We at Reprieve are sickened by what we have seen during our work on this case."

Through Reprieve, Akmal's family issued a statement: "The family express their grief at the Chinese decision to refuse mercy; thank all those who tried hard to bring about a different result – including Reprieve, the FCO, those who attended the vigil, and the organisers of the Facebook group who garnered more than 5,000 members in a few short days; and ask the media and public to respect their privacy as they come to terms with what has happened to someone they loved."

Philip Alston, a UN special rapporteur, told Radio 4's Today programme that the refusal to allow doctors to assess Shaikh's mental health was "clearly in violation not only of Chinese law but also international law".

"International law points very strongly in the direction of only carrying out the death penalty for crimes which have led to deaths," he said.

He said China "has made noises and made some efforts in terms of specific measures" to improve judicial processes around the death penalty, such as requiring all such sentences to be ratified by the supreme court. But he rejected the view that China deserved credit for tackling the drugs trade.

"It's not the people who are profiting, it's the idiots who are picked on and gullible enough to engage in this sort of behaviour [who are punished]. It is time for the international community to mount a much more concerted effort to put an end to these sorts of executions, and not only to react when one individual cases arises which is particularly troubling to us."

David Cameron, the Conservative leader, backed the efforts of Gordon Brown and other ministers to secure a reprieve. "I deplore and deeply regret the fact that the Chinese authorities have executed Akmal Shaikh and did not heed the pleas for clemency made in his case by the British government, by the opposition parties, by his family and by others.

"There were serious concerns about Mr Shaikh's mental health. It is appalling that these concerns were not independently assessed during the more than two years Mr Shaikh was in custody and taken properly into account in the judicial process.

"We supported the government in the efforts they have made and I join with them in sending my sympathy to Mr Shaikh's family and friends."

Mental health campaigners condemned the execution. Robert Westhead, a spokesman for the bipolar organisation MDF, said: "How a society treats people affected by mental illness is always a good indicator of how civilised it is.

"The way the Chinese authorities have stubbornly failed to take account of this poor man's severe mental illness shows that China is still stuck in the dark ages. This execution is medieval rough justice gone badly wrong."

Marjorie Wallace, the chief executive of the mental health charity Sane, said: "The execution of Mr Shaikh is a brutal and sad day for the rights of mentally ill people everywhere. The Chinese authorities showed not only lack of compassion for a sick person but a profound ignorance about how a mental illness such as bipolar disorder can affect a person's sense of reality."

In a blogpost on the Foreign Office website, the foreign secretary, David Miliband, acknowledged there was "massive public support" in China for Shaikh's execution. "I oppose capital punishment in all circumstances. Along with every EU country it is banned in Britain. But not every country agrees. That's their prerogative … this is not about who hates drug running the most. We all do. It is about whether a man with a mental health condition has become an additional victim of the deadly trade.

"We have said many times we welcome the economic rise of China and believe its integration into the world system is one of the great opportunities of the 21st century, not just one of the challenges. Events like those of today will only fuel the argument of those who say this is an impossible dream and that the value systems are just too different.

"I don't believe that. But it is a reminder of how different can be our perspective. We need to understand China (and the massive public support for the execution). They need to understand us."

@'The Guardian'

Exile's blog of the year: Memoires of a Heroinhead

"On the 28th October 1975 my mother gave birth to a heroinhead – that was/is me. My father was a young Glaswegian junkie nicknamed Puggy. I was born with heroin in my veins. 7 years after my birth, my father was brutally murdered by infamous British serial-killer Dennis Nilsen. My mother had a breakdown and turned to alcohol... I turned to solitude, vandalism, and violence. At the age of 13 the educational system gave up on me. At 14 I started smoking weed and by 15 I was taking LSD & speed. At 17 I tried Subutex (a heroin substitute) I felt like I had found God. By 24 I was a smack & crack addict and a year later I was injecting. Today I live in Lyon, France and am still a Heroinhead. This is me & these are my memoirs..."

'Memoires of a Heroinhead' 

And you thought you had it bad?

Shane's blog is just the most amazingly well written blog out there. Someone really should offer him a book deal. The words will make you laugh and cry (often at the same time).

And from first hand experience I know that there is a life to be had away from the handcuffs of heroin addiction, but I also know that only the user themselves can choose when it is time to give it up.

I know that a lot of you out there will also be put off by the thought that you are going to be reading the inane ramblings of some 'junkie lowlife', but get past that and prepare to read some of the most eloquent & exceptional writing in the blogosphere.

On U Sound update from Adrian Sherwood's MySpace page

GREETINGS AND BEST WISHES FOR A HEALTHY 2010 Released in January (at long last) is AFRICAN HEADCHARGE ... "ViSION OF A PSYCHEDELIC AFRICA" onucd distributed via Cargo uk, available now>>> Also available Jan,2010 is IAN KING -"PANIC GRASS AND FEVER FEW". this is an ONU Production released on the Fledg'ling record label. This is a unique English folk album and we are very proud of it>>> Due for imminent release is ... "DUBSETTER" by LEE"Scratch"PERRY and ADRIAN SHERWOOD.This is a new Dub album from The Upsetter and myself and it will be on vinyl and cd (late March)... "THE MIGHTY UPSETTER" will also be made available on vinyl at the same time>>> Just completed and mastered is an album by singer/songwriter/artist JEB LOY NICHOLS -"LONG TIME TRAVELLER" this is truly wonderful and features live rhythms recorded during last summer and classic re modelled ONU/Radics/Dub Syndicate rhythms>>> DUE ( long overdue, soon come) is "THE ROYAL VARIETY SHOW" (the best of..) DUB SYNDICATE a double cd of pure gems>>> Currently in production and scheduled for release hopefully before the summer is, "DUB ... NO FRONTIERS" this is a true epic . It is a fresh and original 16 track double vinyl/cd release of all women vocalists from around the world , all singing in non English it is a labor of love and is becoming one of my proudest productions it features vocals in Chinese,German,Arabic,Eritrean,Italian,Polish,Samoan,French, Japanese,Russian and more in progress.>>> "Suck on this planet of noise" Currently in production and well underway is "LET THE ROBOTS MELT" - ONUSOUNDSYSTEM featuring Primal Scream w.Lee Perry,Dennis Bovel,Pempy,John McClure,Carl Barat,Mark Stewart,Deeder Zaman,New Age Steppers and more,a truly wonderful sheet of noise "Listen up real close now">>> Also currently in production for a 2010 release is a new NEW AGE STEPPERS album (the first for 25 years !) Recordings were done in Jamaica last year and hopefully it will be finished soon>>> also well underway is, "CRISPY HORNS MEET ROOTS RADICS AND DUB SYNDICATE" a classic new dub/horns album>>> Also work is well underway on GHETTO PRIEST - "SACRED GROUND" this is the Onu follow up to "Vulture Culture" the debut Priest album from a few seasons back.GP returns on ONU with a slamming new set ! >>> And also DEEDER ZAMAN brand new album from the original Asian Dub Foundation front man. and also SKIP "Little Axe"McDONALD a brand new authentic collision of Blues meets Dub live rhythms with Style Scott and the crew with Skip on Dobro in true Blues National style this is well underway and sounding "proper" >>> Also in our studio (and their own) LSK is working on new tracks BROTHER CULTURE has voiced new tracks and also my daughter DENISE SHERWOOD is producing herself {and sometimes with dad and other "family"} check her on her myspace >>> DECEMBER 2010 MARKS 30 YEARS SINCE THE RELEASE OF the 7' single "FADE AWAY" by NEW AGE STEPPERS cw "Learn a Language" by LONDON UNDERGROUND - However early 1981 saw ONU SOUND's first album releases, so we are planning to put on events all round the world throughout 2011 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the label. we will also issue a box set with music dvds , a book and many other goodies so hopefully after such a long wait,for those intersted there will be lots of things to buy (or copy) and lots of live shows to catch. Also a new Adrian Sherwood album will be released 2011 >>> Thanks for all the positive messages and its good to make contact with so many old and new friends
Best wishes
Adrian