Harry’s Place

Absolutely. Britain’s Libel Laws are archaic and skewed far too much in favour of the plaintiff. We also have to stop this sort of chequebook censorship.

This libel tourism seems to be that you only have to find the country with the softest libel laws and you can sue any journalist or his paper for blowing a whistle. It’s to be hoped that British judges see through scam and impose the customary 1p damages.

I agree that this is very welcome.

The worst aspect of our libel law, is the way it is held to apply to any published item which may be read, heard, or watched by residents of the UK. It just gives the courts carte blanche to indulge in extra-territorial censorship. Which is, of course, what they are doing.

It is totalitarian in the extreme. But what is worse, is the legal codification of the Robert Maxwell effect, in which those who speak truth to money, get scalped, with the acquiescence of learned counsel.

test

Bush bidding his last goodbyes in occupied Baghdad. Bush the president of the United Asses reaping the fruits of his labor and that of his American people from my Beloved.

Bush congratulated his stooges, the extra-large Zionist/Kurdish buffoon Talabani and the other Kurdish pimp Barazani. The puppet Tareq Al-Hashemi who was all smiles, and guess whom Bush kissed on the cheeks ? None other than the son of a bitch from Iran, A.Al-Hakeem, head of the Supreme Iranian Butt Council and head of the Badr death squads, whose hands are inundated with the blood of innocent Arab Iraqis.

The criminal psychopath, Bush last stop, was at a press conference with his other puppet, the sectarian dictator, from Iran, PM Nuri Al-Maliki.

And whilst Bush was pontificating from his ass, Muntather Al-Zaidi, a 28 years old journalist, a leftist, from the independent anti-occupation, anti-sectarian TV, Al-Baghdadia, stood up and threw not one shoe but TWO pair of shoes at Bush, calling him at the top of his voice YA KALB - YOU DOG.

Al Jazeera’s excellent news anchor the IRAQI Layla Al-Sheikhly was the only one to report the slur and insult to the President of the United Asses. His last visit indeed and a souvenir from a patriotic Iraqi. Subsequent news censored the insult - YA KALB-YOU DOG.

Let me tell you more about Muntather Al-Zaidi. Muntather was kidnapped, tortured and humiliated and when released he resumed his work as a journalist at the Baghdadia TV. He graduated from Baghdad University in Journalism and was active pre-2003 in the Iraqi Federation /Student Union and was/is known to be a vehement opposer to the dual occupation of my Beloved.

One of his colleagues confirmed that Muntather came to the press conference late, and his other colleagues from the same TV station had preceded him way before. This other colleague also confirmed that they had to stand for hours for stringent security checks before being allowed to enter the press hall.

Muntather as a dignified Iraqi, used the only weapon available to him - HIS SHOES.

He threw the first one with such dexterity, Bush ducked and within seconds he threw the second one and aimed right above that bastard’s head and landed smash into the American flag. I think that Muntather was hoping to aim the other shoe at Maliki, the puppet.

Needless to say about 5 men or more, dressed in civil clothes and some of them were American dogs, threw themselves on this HERO Muntather. Amidst the stupor and shouts, I could hear his screams while he was being kicked, his hair pulled, and his face scratched…

We all watched it and Mom and I burst into tears, tears of happiness and tears of grief.

Happiness because Muntather filled us with hope, hope that there are still brave heroes left in Iraq. Mom even called him the Salah El-Deen Al Ayubi /the new Saladin.

A historical moment in the Iraqi tragedy indeed and during Bush’s last visit !
A historical moment that will be recorded as the ultimate humiliation to any American president and to the “American Empire” hahahahahahaha.

We were also filled with grief and recited the Fateeha, because we knew that Muntather Al-Zaidi signed his own death warrant. This guy is finished.

Mom added that he will be tortured first, most probably with shoes before his execution.

Muntather Al-Zaidi was aware that the consequences of such an act will bring the wrath of the sectarian Shiites and zionists Kurdish puppets and that of the Americans on his head. But he risked it anyway…like a TRUE IRAQI HERO giving his occupier the ultimate humiliation next to the military defeat of America - because America has been DEFEATED in Iraq.

Yes, you dirty motherfuckers, NO VICTORY for you in IRAQ. No victory as long as people like Muntather exist…

I therefore urge all people of conscience, in particular Journalists without Borders, any syndicate or union of journalists anywhere in the world, to mobilize themselves for the release of Muntather before he gets executed.

I will leave you with an Iraqi song by Bassem Al-Ali singing for the Iraqis, all of the TRUE Iraqis, saying : You, Iraqi don’t bow your head down and don’t kneel. All the others will be defeated.

Hmmm. I wonder why this cockweasel could be so interested in libel laws?

He’s most definitely a xenophobe.

Good luck to any organisation endeavouring to change the absurd libel laws. The law is not only outrageous but almost criminal in its results.

“Been Banned Before”, is not very well informed, to say the least.

Leaving aside all the other stuff, if you think Maliki is a puppet, you need to get out more. The US is abolutely aghast at what has transpired in Iraq: a Shia-dominated democracy in the heart of the Middle East is not what this war was fought to create. “Saddamism without Saddam” was the goal - but things wet, well, awry. If you can read between the lines, Ali Allawi’s book “The Occupation of Iraq” spells this out. The pro-war Left thought they were backing a war for liberation and democracy. That was the result but certainly not the goal sought by Bush and Cheney. Who did these freedom lovers seek out to advise them on foreign policy? None other than, yes, Henry Kissinger, that legendary figure in the world of human rights and democracy promotion. Funny world.

Maliki is a nationalist and democrat - and that’s considered more dangerous than Baathism or Wahabbism. That’s it. He’s not a pawn of Iran and not a puppet of the US. Hence the heart attacks and strokes within the US foreign establishment. Bush is considered the biggest disaster ever to befall US interests in the Middle East.

Had it not been for the cataclysm that engulfed Iraq (a million dead if we use the same statistical techniques that tell us a genocide is being propogated in Darfur), all anti-imperialists would toast every night Bush’s health and would mourn his departure.

Tawfiq

Interesting post, for which I thank you. I appreciate you are responding cogently to a mentally ill person’s ramblings.

However, can others stick to the topic in hand

I agree with you on the libel laws.

Apologies for sniping at the swollen hypocrital carbuncle that is Dennis Mcshane.

Tawfiq. Have you ever heard of the Shi’ah Crescent? Bi tawfiq insha’allah!

I appreciate that libel laws in the UK are a joke, and are all too often misused to cow critical debate, and in this matter I fully support Mr Macshane’s ‘crusade’. However, given that he fully endorsed the ridiculous Racial and Religious Hatred Act, he’s a bigger phony than David Davis.

As hesitant as I am to post on anything other than the libel laws, as was cordially asked, I can’t let this continued trite garbage go without some response.

The Shia Crescent? Is this another take on the so-called Shia arc of instability? In due course, no doubt, it will become a Shia rhombus? And then a Shia globe, if we’re not careful?

It seems that any Shia majority are considered a great threat just because they want to be represented: Iran, Iraq, Bahrain, for example. And where they’re not in a majority but a large minority - Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, etc - then they’re a dangerous “fifth column”. What complete nonsense.

For pity’s sake, this is said about every religious minority by those with an agenda - and a not very well hidden one at that.

As disagreeable as I find Shia theocratic politics, they are religious nationalists, not global jihadis: they have a local agenda, and it’s a damn lot better than our “friends”, the psychopathic Wahhabi Saudi Mafia. Get over it. Facts are important. The so-called Shia crescent is no more inherently dangerous than anywhere else.

“. And like the NotW, it features columnists like Mr Massive, who are as stupid and bigoted as the other typical red-top hacks.”

So its kind of a black version of HP then?