Tuesday September 8, 2009, 2:04 pm
Another innocent man convicted of a crime he didn't do. Noted with anger and disgust. Thanks Eleanor.

Tuesday September 8, 2009, 2:37 pm
Thank you, Eleanor. The whole trial sounds like such a farce. The article and attitudes of people on both sides of the Atlantic fills me with disgust.

Tuesday September 8, 2009, 2:47 pm
Worse than a travesty of justice, as Pilger says. And the culprits went free just because it had to be Libya to suit the US. No wonder they don't want the truth out. Shame on the Scottish judges. Their involvement has brought shame on this nation, not the release of Megrahi.

Tuesday September 8, 2009, 3:35 pm
Who is the worse terrorist, Obama or Osama?

President Barack Obama is making the Afghan War Obama’s Afghan War. Careful analysis of UN mortality statistics reveals that 46,000 Afghans have died avoidably in the first 40 days of the Obama presidency, including 32,250 infant deaths due to US war crimes..

On 27 March 2009 Obama unveiled a new strategy for Occupied Afghanistan and robot-bombed Pakistan: "The situation is increasingly perilous. It's been more than seven years since the Taliban was removed from power, yet war rages on and insurgents control parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan… Understand that we have a clear and focused goal: to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and to prevent their return to either country in the future…That's the goal that must be achieved. That is a cause that could not be more just."

Obama, who has already ordered a surge of more than 17,000 additional U.S. soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan, promised another 4,000 “trainer” troops, taking the total to more than 55,000. Another 30,000 soldiers from various allied and NATO nations, including 2,500 from Canada and 1,000 from Australia, are also deployed in Afghanistan (see Globe & Mail, 28 March 2009)

Now PM Rudd of close US ally Australia has indicated that the Australian Government will send more troops to Afghanistan: "Australia and the United States and our allies and partners and friends need a credible, long-term strategy capable of securing the strategic mission, and the strategic mission is all about denying Afghanistan as a state for free operation for terrorists to have safe haven and training grounds to launch attacks in the future."






The Australian Government’s position must be seen in the light of Australian voter opposition to war in Afghanistan as revealed by a Newspoll reported by The Australian newspaper: “nearly two-thirds of Australian voters now oppose sending more troops to Afghanistan” (The Australian, 24 March, 2009) and testament from the commander of the British forces in Occupied Afghanistan, Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, that military victory over the Taliban is "neither feasible nor supportable", a view supported by Australian defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon.

The initial “justification” for the War on Afghanistan was refusal of the mostly Pashtun Taliban Afghan Government to hand over the US-alleged master-mind of the 9-11 atrocity, Osama bin-Laden, to the US, although the Afghan Government offered to such a hand-over to a third party, noting that the US refuses to hand over alleged US war criminals to the International Criminal Court.

War and occupation of other countries is strenuously avoided by decent people and decent societies and for good reason – post-war violent occupation of other countries is typically associated with massive numbers of violent and non-violent excess deaths (avoidable deaths, deaths that should not otherwise have happened).

War is only justified in circumstances of illegal invasion and occupation by another country.

National excess mortality (avoidable mortality, excess death, avoidable deaths, deaths that should not have happened) is defined as the difference between actual deaths in a country and the deaths expected for a peaceful, decently-run country with the same demographics. The UN Population Division provides regularly updated data enabling authoritative estimation of mortality, excess mortality and infant mortality (see my book “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950”: http://mwcnews.net/Gideon-Polya ).

1. Using UN Population Division annual mortality data one can calculate (as of March 2009) post-invasion excess mortality of 3.1 million persons for Occupied Afghanistan (using a base-line annual mortality rate of 4 deaths per 1,000 of population for a peaceful, decently-run country with the same demographics).

2. Using UN Population Division data one can estimate post-invasion under-5 infant deaths at 2.25 million of which about 90% (2.0 million) have been avoidable deaths.

3. For impoverished Third World countries, under-5 infant deaths are about 0.7 of the total excess deaths. Accordingly, one can also estimate post-invasion excess deaths as 2.25 million/0.7 = 3.2 million (see “Layperson’s guide to counting Iraq deaths”: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/5872/26/ ).

4. In Occupied Iraq post-invasion violent deaths have totalled 1.3 million as compared to post-invasion non-violent excess deaths of 1.0 million. Assuming that the violent/non-violent excess deaths ratio in Occupied Afghanistan is half that in Occupied Iraq, then the post-invasion violent deaths in Occupied Afghanistan would be 0.65 x 3.15 million = 2.0 million (see “Iraq invasion 6th anniversary. 2.3 million excess deaths”: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/29360/42/ ).

5. The latest data from UNHCR indicate about 4 million refugees from the Afghanistan War, the breakdown being 2.1 million (Pakistan), 0.9 million (Iran), 0.4 million returnees and internally displaced persons (Occupied Afghanistan) and 0.3 million (refugees from the Pakistan North West Provinces) (see UNHCR ).

6. The estimate of a current 327,000 “annual under-5 infant deaths” in Occupied Afghanistan (from UN Population Division data) is in exact agreement with the estimate of 327,000 annual under-5 infant deaths in Occupied Afghanistan from UNICEF (see UNICEF).

7. Deaths from the Afghanistan War must also include post-invasion global opiate drug-related deaths due to US Alliance restoration of the Taliban-destroyed Afghan opium industry from about 6% in 2001 to 93% in 2007 (see UNODC World Drug Report 2007). About 0.1 million people die from opiate drug-related causes each year (see Australian National Drug Research Centre) and hence about 0.85 million have died since the invasion of Afghanistan, of whom about 90%, i.e. 0.9 x 0.85 million = 0.8 million people, have died as a result of the huge expansion of the Afghan opium industry under US Alliance occupation.

8. US Alliance military deaths in Occupied Afghanistan total 1,122 (673 US and 449 from other US Alliance countries) (see: http://icasualties.org/oef/ ).

9. In 2005, of 18,347 deaths due to narcotics and psychodysleptics, 12, 262 were due to heroin (2,011) , other opioids (5,789) or methadone (4,462) (see US CDC) . Given the over 90% contribution of the US restoration of the Taliban-destroyed opium industry to world illicit heroin production, and the interconnectedness and effective indistinguishability of “Afghan-derived heroin” from the “pool” of other abusively-used opiates, one can accordingly crudely estimate 0.9 x 12,262 persons/year x 8.5 years = 93,804 US opiate drug-related deaths (0.9 x 2,011 deaths/year x 8.5 years = 15,384 heroin-related deaths) connected with the aftermath of the US invasion and occupation of Afghanistan

10. It can be estimated that there are about 426 opiate-related deaths annually in Australia (see: here) of which about 90% (383) are due to the US-responsible Occupied Afghan contribution to the world heroin market i.e. 383 x 8.5 years = 3,300 opiate-related deaths since the invasion of Afghanistan (the Australian Government has fatuously obfuscated this in detailed communication to me by saying that most of Australia’s heroin actually comes from places other than Afghanistan) .

11. The number of Western civilians killed by Muslim-origin non-state terrorists in the last 40 years totals about 7,000 (this including Israelis and ignores substantial evidence for US or US surrogate involvement in the 9-11 atrocity (see “US responsible for 9-11?”: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/22944/26/ ).

12. In shocking contrast to the numbers in #11, as of March 2009 in the Occupied Palestinian, Iraqi and Afghan Territories post-invasion non-violent excess deaths total 0.3 million, 1.0 million and 3.2 million, respectively; post-invasion violent deaths total about 10,000, 1.3 million and about 2 million, respectively (see #4 above); post-invasion under-5 infant deaths total 0.2 million, 0.6 million and 2.3 million, respectively; and refugees total 7 million, 6 million and 4 million, respectively – this constituting a Palestinian Holocaust, an Iraqi Holocaust and an Afghan Holocaust and a Palestinian Genocide, Iraqi Genocide and Afghan Genocide as defined by Article 2 of the UN Genocide Convention and egregious war crimes due in part to Occupier war criminal non-supply of life-sustaining food and medical requisites demanded unequivocally by Articles 55 and 56 of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (for detailed documentation of sources see “Iraq invasion 6th anniversary. 2.3 million excess deaths”: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/29360/42/ ).

What can we conclude from this tragic litany?

More Australians have died from opiates due to the US-restoration of the Taliban-destroyed Afghan opium industry (3,300) than the number of victims of the 9-11 atrocity (3,000). Should Australia demand that Obama hands over the responsible Americans to Australia for justice?

Vastly more global citizens (0.8 million) and US citizens (94,000) have died from opiates since the US invasion of Afghanistan and the US Alliance restoration of the Taliban-destroyed opium industry than those who died on 9-11 (3,000). Should the World demand that Obama hand over the American perpetrators for justice before the International Criminal Court?

There is universal detestation of paedophiles, but paedocides – those who kill children – elicit utter horror. From the above data one can estimate that 327,000 Occupied Afghan under-5 year old infants die each year under US Alliance occupation, 90% avoidably and due to US Alliance war crimes i.e. 0.9 x 327,000 = 294,300 avoidable Occupied Afghan infant deaths yearly, 806 deaths daily and 40 days x 806 infant deaths/day = 32,250 avoidable Afghan under-5 infant deaths so far in the first 40 days and nights of the Obama Administration.

32,500 Afghan under-5 infant deaths corresponds to 32,250/0.7 = 46,000 avoidable Afghan deaths due to Obama. With 46,000 Afghan avoidable deaths in 40 days to his credit, Obama has already vastly exceeded the US-alleged Muslim-origin non-state terrorist body count of 7,000 total Western deaths over 40 years.

Who is the worse terrorist, Obama or Osama? Obama already wins hands down as the worse terrorist by an enormous margin. With Obama backing continuing foreign occupations of Haiti, Somalia, Diego Garcia, Palestine, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, extending US bombing of Pakistan and now permitting US or Israeli bombing of Sudan, Obama is set to take over the mantle from George W. Bush for being the World’s worst terrorist.

Dr Gideon Polya, MWC News Chief political editor, published some 130 works in a 4 decade scientific career, most recently a huge pharmacological reference text "Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds" (CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, New York & London, 2003), and is currently writing a book on global mortality ---
Other articles by this author

Tuesday September 8, 2009, 3:36 pm
It's all very interesting isn't it? Much like "The Matrix"

Tuesday September 8, 2009, 3:52 pm
Thanks Eleanor. Not everything is as it would seem. This has not made it to mainstream media in Canada.

Tuesday September 8, 2009, 4:40 pm
Eleanor. As a former resident of Park Place Lockerbie where the main part of the plane came down it could be said I might have a vested interest in finding out what happened in my street...all played out in the eyes of the hungry world media circus.

What happened was a terrible tragedy for all the families bound together by the grief of loss...each year I see more and more of them have come from all round the world to write simple but heartfelt messages in the visitor's books at Thundergarth where the nosecone came down giving us the iconic picture and of course in the reading room visitor's centre at Lockerbie cemetery, near where the wall of names bears silent witness to what befell us here.

Having myself now lost a member of my family to terrorism in 7/7 I might in some circles be excused for having very strong feelings about the criminals that carry out these brutal acts of mass murder. But first and foremost I am a Human Being and I will not sit quietly by and see miscarriages of justice or any other form of abuse of human rights take place on my watch.

The fact of the arrest and conviction of Abdelbaset ali al-Megrahi by a strange court in the Netherlands where no jury sat but three Judges sifted through the murky waters of this case has never convinced me that this hapless man had anything whatever to do with the Lockerbie Bombing. Added to what we are told in this article there is growing evidence that the Samsonite case was in fact placed on the flight at Heathrow, London following a break-in to the ‘secure’ baggage area on the night of the flight. The pages of evidence that were about to be exposed in the new appeal would show that this was the case and that Megrahi was nowhere near London.

The lengths that the Uk has gone to cover up the real facts…and the US for that matter…why was the flight abandoned by so many people just prior to its departure from Frankfurt…why did it fly three quarters full just before Christmas when every other flight was packed…why was the timed bomb exploded over land rather than sea…too many awkward questions.

How convenient for all concerned that the subject developed a terminal illness that avoided us learning some shred of truth…we are never to be told the truth as it hurts too many concerns on both sides of the Atlantic.

And lastly I am still proud of my country…Scotland for standing up to idiots like that bully Clinton and instead choosing the path of compassion…We were right to do that…but then perhaps Megrahi should never have been in prison in the first place.

Tuesday September 8, 2009, 5:47 pm
Injustice indeed. Now global leaders are serving up more injustice over such a grievous incident. Thank you so much Eleanor and David G. Peace to us all.

Tuesday September 8, 2009, 8:44 pm
Thank you Eleanor.

Tuesday September 8, 2009, 11:24 pm
This most certainly puts his release
in a different light.
As David Gould has said, Mr.Megrahi was
released in the name of compassion.....
which is the best possible motivator.
Knowing he is innocent of the charges
which put him in prison in the first place
makes his release even more significant.
Eleanor & David, as I have said before,
Scotland Forever.
noted.

Wednesday September 9, 2009, 2:33 am
So who was responsible for killing all those innocent people? I don't rate Pilger as an impartial journalist.

Wednesday September 9, 2009, 5:43 am
No to sure who to believe, but if he is innocent, why was this allowed to prevail for so long...

Wednesday September 9, 2009, 12:33 pm
If all the documents relating to the case were released, we would be on our way to knowing. The UK government has obstructed Megrahi's appeal by withholding documents. It could have been heard before he became ill. It is very convenient for them that he became ill and was desperate to spend his last days with his family. However, hopefully the truth will come out eventually.

Wednesday September 9, 2009, 2:18 pm
I 'am not going to spend a lot of time or details on this case at the trail in Ho0lland there was vital eveidence held back why because they had to blame some one for it . There were four arrested in Frankfurt who had the vital eveidence what happened to them no one Knows.
Why blame Scotland for freeing the man he was wanting to go through his appeal trial and he would have been a frre man if he lives another 10 years he will die a guilty man and that is not what he wanted.
Kenny Macskill was pressured by the UK Government to free him Alex Salmond was worried that he would die before the full hearing which was going to take a few more weeks or months .
Abdelbasset Ali Mohamed Al Megrahi was not a guilty man they are still free NOW WE WILL NEVER KNOW THE TRUTH but Scotland will be blamed for it Lets have our Independance Now .
JIm W

Thursday September 10, 2009, 10:32 am
Well said, Jim! And as well as knowing the truth about who perpetrated the atrocity, it would be good to know why there were so many empty seats on that particular plane. Somebody knew something but the passengers who died had were not warned - only those who did not fly. Scotland was dragged into this mess because the plane came down on Scottish soil. Whatever the ins and outs MacAskill did the right thing. I agree about independence. I no longer want to be part of the UK - it is morally corrupt. Had a Labour administration been in control here no doubt Megrahi would have died in Greenock prison because Labour does America's bidding.

Saturday September 12, 2009, 11:39 pm
Thank you Eleanor, now we must hope that the withheld documents will be aired and the real culprits taken before a court. Although i dare say that's wishful thinking.