Iraqi hotel worker Baha Mousa died after violent and cowardly abuse by British soldiers, a public inquiry in Britain has found.
Inquiry chairperson William Gage published his report on September 8. He described the treatment of Mousa and his fellow detainees in the Iraqi city of Basra in 2003 as "an appalling episode of serious, gratuitous violence on civilians which resulted in the death of one man and injuries to others".
Mousa was detained along with a number of others by members of the 1st Battalion Queen's Lancashire Regiment after a raid on the Ibn al-Haitham hotel in Basra.
Britain
The聽wave of riots in numerous English cities this August did not lead to widespread disruption anywhere in Wales.
Despite this, several people in Wales have been arrested for riot related offences, some of whom have been denied bail and handed highly disproportionate聽sentences.
These arrests are not a result of the limited disorder that happened in Cardiff on August 9, which briefly led the BBC to drop the term 鈥淓ngland Riots鈥 in favour of 鈥淯K Riots鈥.
How ironic that The Clash should be on the cover of the British music magazine NME in the week that London was burning, that their faces should be staring out from the shelves as newsagents were ransacked and robbed by looters intent on anarchy in Britain.
The problem, apparently, is red tape.
It's stifling business and preventing growth, because red tape is evil, and you can no more argue in favour of red tape than say: "I don't wish to contribute to the fight against cancer as I think we should have more of it."
For example, Conservative Party Member of the European Parliament Julie Girling wrote on August 30 that red tape is preventing businesses from making agency staff work more than 48 hours a week, which 鈥渃osts companies 拢2 billion [$3 billion] a year鈥.
On a warm spring day, strolling in south London, I heard demanding voices behind me. A police van disgorged a posse of six or more, who waved me aside.
People who love to scream about stern discipline are having a fantastic time in post-riot Britain.
My favourite was a man on a Radio 5 phone-in, who ended his rant by yelling: 鈥淚 TELL you how little discipline there is. My son gets homework and he鈥檚 allowed to do it ON HIS COMPUTER.
鈥淲e need to GET BACK to PENCIL and PAPER!鈥
And you felt that if you suggested 鈥淲hat about pen and paper?鈥, he鈥檇 shriek 鈥淣O! NOT PEN, YOU BLOODY LIBERAL. PENCIL! They have to SHARPEN pencils, it teaches them DISCIPLINE!鈥
Living in north London, I often travel via the interchange in Tottenham. Walking between stations I found myself on Ferry Lane Bridge on the evening of August 14, the spot where Mark Duggan was shot by police on August 4.
The family of Mark Duggan, shot dead by police in Tottenham on August 4 have called for a second postmortem to be carried out into the cause of his death.
Mark Duggan was shot dead by armed police in Ferry Lane, Tottenham Hale, on the evening of August 4 after the minicab in which he was travelling was stopped in a pre-planned operation.
The first postmortem suggested he had been shot twice, once in the arm and once in the chest.
鈥淢ob rule鈥. 鈥淲anton destruction鈥. 鈥淢indless thuggery鈥. 鈥淪heer criminality鈥. Media, politicians and police always say the same thing about urban riots. Riots can spin out of control and engulf ordinary people. But that does not alter the fact that they are rooted in social oppression.
Why is it that the same areas always erupt first, whatever the cause? Pure accident? Might it have something to do with race and class and institutionalised poverty and the sheer grimness of everyday life?
You've probably heard it said a dozen times today: "It's like 28 Days Later out there." Every thirty seconds, there's a new riot zone. I've rarely known the capital to be this wound up.
How do YOU聽suggest we cut Britain's deficit then? You'll be asked this if you ever oppose a cost-cutting scheme, such as merging the sewerage system with the library service or something.
So here's one answer, we could pay a bit less to ATOS, a private company that receives 锟100 million a year from the British government for assessing who should be cut off from disability benefit.
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