BRITISH RESIDENT SHAKER AAMER IS STILL DETAINED IN GUANTANAMO WITHOUT CHARGE.

All the other UK Guantanamo detainees have returned home. President Obama’s pledge to close Guantanamo by January 2010 has not been met but, gradually, detainees are being transferred to countries willing to accept them. They are detainees, cleared for release, who can not return home. Shaker Aamer’s case is different. He has a home in Battersea, wife, four young children and family members waiting for his return.

So why is Shaker Aamer still in Guantanamo? Why is he still there after more than 8 years, many of them spent in solitary confinement?

Galway Alliance Against War (GAAW) does not believe the conflict in Afghanistan is a "good war".

GAAW will hold a fundraiser for progressive women groups in Afghanistan Woodquay's Rowing Club, Galway City Friday 5th March 9pm.  Admission to ceili/disco. contact gaww1@eircom.net

Last month Malalai Joya, a female Afghani MP, addressed a Galway audience by phone from the Afghan capitol and stated that although the US asserted to have occupied her country under the banner of women's rights and democracy this was untrue: "In fact they replaced the medieval regime of the Taliban with a brutal regime of the fundamentalist warlords of the Northern Alliance, who are as criminal, ignorant, anti-women and anti-democracy as the Taliban." Ms Joya and her colleagues risk life and limb on a daily basis to offer young girls an education. It has to be done in secret, as the ruling warlords, like the Taliban, oppose schools for girls.

The private military firm Blackwater came under scrutiny Wednesday  at a congressional hearing on its operations in Afghanistan. The Senate Armed Services Committee heard testimony the military giant Raytheon asked Blackwater to come up with a different name so it could be awarded a subcontract without stirring controversy. Blackwater created the subsidiary “Paravant” as a result
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/2/25/headlines#8

February 14th 2010
RESOLUTION

[Translated by Agneta Norberg]

The district organisation of Finnish Peacefighters in Lapland has expressed its dismay in view of the fact that the political leadership in Finland, in an alarming way, takes part in the militarization of the world.

This was shown at a meeting on Valentines Day here in Kemi.

From February 8th to February 14th ,German troops together with the Finnish Army tested transport helicopters in Arctic conditions in Rovaniemi (A city in the middle of Lapland where there is an airfield, my notice - translator).

During the same week there was a program on Finnish TV about Unmanned Aerial Vehicles beeing tested in Lapland at the Kemijärvi Airfield.

This actual training area stretches to the Russian border and follows the border tens of kilometers.

Unmanned drones are used for surveillance and war missions. ROBONIC, a Finnish Corporation, producing UAVs, has its office in Tammerfors, and is hosting this activity and offers it products to the world market.

This is no ripping yarn, but a murder to fan more conflict

The media may revel in a Mossad hit, yet Britain's response to a plot that could threaten its own citizens has been craven

Seumas Milne 
The Guardian, Thursday 18 February 2010

Press Statement 20/2/10 Peace & Neutrality Alliance

For more information contact the Chair of PANA Roger Cole on tel: 087-2611597 or PRO Seamas Rathigan:086-8369793

PANA welcomes the collapse of Dutch Government over the Afghan War.

The Peace & Neutrality Alliance welcomes the decision of the Dutch Labour Party to collapse the Dutch Government  because of Prime Minister Balkenende efforts to refuse to honour a commitment to withdraw Dutch troops from the occupation forces in Afghanistan.

Roger Cole, Chair of PANA said:

Haiti Solidarity Ireland invite you to join them in calling for the removal of American and other international occupation troops from Haiti with a picket of the American embassy in Dublin on February 25 from 6-7pm.

The protest will also call for the right of ordinary Haitians to control the reconstruction of their country, against the interventions of imperial powers and the brutal repression of a colluding domestic political and business elite.

The picket is part of an international day of action which will see solidarity actions take place in over a hundred cities around the world. It has been called by a coalition of Haitian grassroots organisations and trade unions, including Fanmi Lavalas, the country’s most popular political
party, which has been illegalised and persecuted by the Haitian government.

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Haiti Solidarity Ireland is a coalition to support Haitians in their struggle against foreign intervention and for an inclusive, democratic and equitable Haiti. We are organised on the principles of international solidarity and anti-imperialism and have branches in Cork and Dublin.