Basque separatists start to seek forgiveness from victims after group declares end to campaign of violence The hand stretched out to Iñaki García Arrizabalaga was, at least figuratively, covered in blood. But when the 50-year-old university lecturer walked into a cold, anonymous meeting room in the Basque regional capital of Vitoria a few months ago and a member of the terrorist group that killed his father put out his hand, García decided to shake it. “I had no idea what he was going to say, whether he was going to try to justify what he had done, but I believe that people should be given a chance,” he explained. “In fact, he was more nervous than I was. We spoke for 20 minutes before he could look me in the eye.” The meeting between victim and killer was as remarkable as it was exceptional. García was meeting one of the few members of the Basque separatist group Eta prepared to express genuine repentance for the killing of 829 people over the past 43 years. The encounter came as the Basques, tired of senseless bloodshed, sensed that peace might finally come to this small, northern region of Spain. That peace came last week, when three masked Eta leaders – believed to be lawyer David Pla and two women, Iratxe Sorzáabal and Izaskun Lesaka — declared a definitive end to the bombings and shootings. They did so without achieving their aim of an independent Basque state composed of four Spanish provinces and part of south-west France. Eta was, in effect, admitting defeat. Peace will not, however, bring back García’s father, Juan Manuel – the provincial boss of state telephone company Telefónica. His killing, exactly 31 years ago on Sunday, is just part of the painful divide Eta’s campaign leaves behind – and which must now be healed. “I was 19 and I turned down my father’s offer to drive me to university that morning so that I did not have to cycle in the rain,” García recalled. “Two hours later my brother appeared in my class and said our father hadn’t reached his office. Then we heard that a body had been found on a hillside, so we went to look and there, underneath a blanket, we saw his corpse. “My father left a wife and seven children,” he explained. “My world fell apart. We asked ourselves whether we should flee and the best decision we made was to stay. My father, my mother, and all of us were born here. Why should we go? My first reaction was of hatred, of wanting his killers to suffer the same fate. But with time I realised that hate only destroys you and everything around you,” he said. “So I rebelled and told myself I would not let them ruin my life.” For many years Eta victims kept their heads down, especially in places like San Sebastián – where victims’ families had to put up with graffiti telling them to “Give us back the bullet!” That changed over time, but then García realised that many victims had themselves become haters. “I was worried about the messages I was hearing opposed to reconciliation. Then I got a call asking if I was interested in meeting Eta prisoners who had done some soul-searching and wanted to ask the victims for pardon. I said yes,” he said. He will not name the man he met, but knows – although he was not involved in García’s father’s death – that he had killed several people. “He had spent 20
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Liberation declaration will lead to elections, a new government and constitution. But resurgence of rivalries remains a concern Libya’s new leaders will put a formal end to Muammar Gaddafi’s 42-year rule on Sunday when they declare the country liberated and ready for a free and democratic future. Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, the justice minister under the old regime and now president of the western-backed National Transitional Council (NTC), is expected to make the announcement in the eastern city of Benghazi, where the most successful but by far the bloodiest of this year’s “Arab spring” uprisings erupted in February. No definitive figures are available, but about 30,000 people are estimated to have been killed and thousands more injured. Elaborate celebrations are planned three days after Gaddafi’s sensational and much photographed death in the coastal city of Sirte, the last bastion of loyalist resistance. Worryingly, plans to issue the declaration in Benghazi have attracted criticism because of echoes of historic rivalry between eastern and western Libya and fears that regional, tribal and political divisions that were kept in check in the past could now resurface. The liberation will trigger a timetable for elections within eight months for a 200-strong National Council that will draft a constitution and form an interim government. It is a daunting pace and a huge challenge for a country that has not had an election since the 1950s, when Libya was ruled by King Idris, a western-backed monarch who was overthrown in 1969 by Gaddafi and fellow nationalist army officers, who were admirers of Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser. The formation of the country’s first post-revolution political movement, the Libyan Solidarity party, headed by a previously exiled banker, was due to be announced last night. Mahmoud Jibril, the NTC prime minister, who is now expected to step down, said that the death of Gaddafi had left him feeling “relieved and reborn”. In Tripoli, there is an atmosphere of unbridled elation and optimism about the post-Gaddafi era – and profound relief that with his death the old regime has finally gone. Uncertainty remains, however, about the whereabouts of other key figures, like the dictator’s second son, Saif al-Islam, erstwhile reformer and darling of the west; and of the hated security chief Abdullah Senussi – who was reported to have been spotted in northern Niger. But no one believes in the possibility of a regime comeback. According to unconfirmed reports, Saif was captured and badly injured, but there is speculation that he may also have been summarily killed. “In Hay al-Islam, where I live [in Tripoli], most of my neighbours did support Gaddafi, but once they heard the news of his death on Thursday you could feel that change quickly,” said Mahmoud Umran, 23, an electrician. “Now there are no more green flags flying.” Khalid al-Jibouni of the Tripoli Youth Union – a volunteer organisation promoting civil society – had no doubts. “Now Gaddafi is dead, the pillars of the regime have all fallen,” he said. “Until now, some people still thought that Gaddafi could somehow come back. No one else but him matters. Now we can really breathe freely.” In Tripoli, celebrations continued, with street parties and a permanent combination of funfair and patriotic rally in Martyrs’ Square in the city centre. Mobile phone messages and television advertisements urged an end to the dangerous and deafening habit of celebratory gunfire, which has caused several deaths and scores of injuries. “The best thing is that we can now close the Gaddafi chapter and move on,” said Muhannad Alamir, a businessman. “If he had been captured or put on trial, it would have dragged on. Yes, in an ideal world he would have been brought to justice. Yes, we should be more civilised than he was. But this was poetic justice. It means closure.” Looking beyond the liberation ceremony, the NTC faces a mammoth task. Tensions have emerged between easterners, and the rebel leaders from Misrata, Tripoli and other western areas who take credit for the Nato-backed uprising that captured the capital in August, and now complain of being under-represented politically. Benghazi has special weight as the home of much of the important oil industry and the country’s main source of wealth. “We need an inclusive government,” said an official of the powerful Tripoli Military Council, which has a sometimes tense relationship with the civilian members of the NTC, and whose heavily armed fighters are far more important than the old Libyan army. “If anyone can hold things together, Abdel-Jalil can,” predicted Ahmed al-Atrash Ahmed, a political scientist at Tripoli University. “It’s true that some in Tripoli are unhappy that the declaration of liberation is being issued in Benghazi – but that’s where the revolution began after all.” The signs are that opposition from some battalions within the rebel coalition – especially the 17
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David Cameron vows to face down Eurosceptic MPs as eurozone finance ministers close in on cash deal for banks The Conservative party has descended into open warfare over Europe as David Cameron vows to face down the expanding ranks of Eurosceptic MPs demanding a referendum on the UK’s EU membership. Ahead of a Commons vote on Monday that is likely to see the biggest revolt of Cameron’s premiership so far, with up to 60 MPs defying the whip, Downing Street struck a defiant note, insisting that the prime minister would not give an inch to the rebels. “We have to have a fight on these issues some time and there is no time like the present,” said a senior official. “People have to sober up. Having a referendum on membership is not our policy.” In a high-risk move that could inflame sentiment in the party even further, the prime minister will stick by his insistence on a three-line whip, effectively ordering MPs to reject the referendum motion. Downing Street said the prime minister would take a “dim view” of those who defied him, and indicated they could say goodbye to chances of promotion. As Tory MPs voiced their disgust at the stance, former Tory leadership contender and ex-minister for Europe David Davis suggested the government was fighting shy of a referendum because it fears the British public would vote to leave the EU or drastically change the terms of membership. In a message to Cameron and his ministers, Davis said: “Do not refuse the people their right to answer the question just because you’re afraid of what the answer could be.” Another senior MP, the Tory chairman of the public administration committee, Bernard Jenkin, said that if Cameron did not lift the three-line whip, the Conservative party would become “irrelevant in the eyes of voters”, many of whom were deeply concerned about the EU and wanted a say. In a further development that will fuel the Eurosceptic fire, one of the most vocal proponents of the European single currency, Lord Turner, admits he was incorrect to propose that the UK should have joined the euro at the start of the last decade. “I got it wrong,” Turner tells the Observer in an interview . Turner, who is now chairman of the Financial Services Authority, led a vociferous campaign for the UK to join the euro while he led the employers’ body, the CBI, during the late 1990s – and in 2002, when at City firm Merrill Lynch, he co-authored a seminal paper on “Why Britain should join the euro”. Downing Street said the prime minister was very sympathetic to the wider Eurosceptic cause and would fight for powers to be repatriated if and when a new treaty was negotiated. But, with the eurozone in crisis, the UK had to play its part now in sorting out the mess, rather than being distracted by a referendum. Nick Clegg, who has been demanding that EU leaders concentrate on long-term growth and competitiveness, said talk of a referendum was a “dangerous form of displacement activity”. Clegg said: “I think we have to deal with the emergency on our doorstep, rather than tilting at windmills.” As chancellor George Osborne joined fellow finance ministers in Brussels, it emerged that the EU could tap sovereign wealth funds from Asia and the Gulf in order to boost its financial firepower to bail out countries suffering debt distress in an attempt to prevent the contagion spreading. Finance ministers from the 17 eurozone countries are discussing the option of creating a “special purpose vehicle” for the European financial stability facility (EFSF) in order to boost its current €440bn [£383bn] lending capacity. This emerged as finance ministers from all 27 EU countries approved in principle plans to recapitalise some of Europe’s most important banks with around €90bn, so that they can withstand contagion from potential debt problems in other eurozone countries. Banks are also being told they face losses, or “haircuts”, of at least 40% on their exposure to Greek debt, according to ministers. Senior EU officials have been dispatched to speed up negotiations with holders of sovereign bonds. But one source cautioned: “Nothing has been agreed until everything has been agreed.” Desperate EU leaders are trying to stitch together a “comprehensive and ambitious” deal to solve the sovereign debt crisis over the next few days, starting with an EU summit, at which David Cameron will be present, and then a eurozone summit later today. A deal is due to be sealed at a second eurozone summit on Wednesday, but rumours have swept Brussels that yet another summit, possibly extended to non-euro countries such as Britain, could also be called. The idea of creating a special purpose vehicle for the EFSF, according to sources, would be to attract further money from both official and private investors, with the sovereign wealth funds of countries such as China, Singapore or Qatar a prime target. Some of these already invest in European banks such as Barclays and UBS. Qatar has already invested in distressed Greek banks and is thought to be looking at other devalued European assets. Its premier, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, said of EU efforts to solve the crisis: “If there is nothing positive then we will find a very difficult situation, not only in Europe but in the world, that would take a decade to fix.” Downing Street officials said Cameron, who will attend a meeting of EU heads of government in Brussels today, might cut short a visit this week to New Zealand and Australia, where he is due to attend the Commonwealth heads of government conference, if a further, full EU summit of all 27 nations is called. Conservatives European Union Europe David Davis European banks Banking David Cameron Toby Helm Jill Treanor David Gow guardian.co.uk
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enlarge Um, okay, Texas. To save money you’re going to take away prisoners’ lunches on the weekends? Really? Really. Via the New York Times : Thousands of other inmates in the Texas prison system have been eating fewer meals since April after officials stopped serving lunch on the weekends in some prisons as a way to cut food-service costs. About 23,000 inmates in 36 prisons are eating two meals a day on Saturdays and Sundays instead of three. A meal the system calls brunch is usually served between 5 and 7 a.m., followed by dinner between 4 and 6:30 p.m. The meal reductions are part of an effort to trim $2.8 million in food-related expenses from the 2011 fiscal year budget of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, the state prison agency. Other cuts the agency has made to its food service include replacing carton milk with powdered milk and using sliced bread instead of hamburger and hot dog buns. Prison administrators said that the cuts were made in response to the state’s multibillion-dollar budget shortfall in 2011, and that the weekend lunches were eliminated in consultation with the agency’s health officials and dietitians. Michelle Lyons, an agency spokeswoman, said that inmates with health problems who have been prescribed a therapeutic diet continue to receive three meals per day. Prison riots can start over something as trivial as a stolen toothbrush, or yes, food. This is why most prisons have decent food and make sure inmates get three square meals a day. So I guess in Texas’ case, they’re prepared to just shoot first and ask questions later, since riots don’t appear to be on their list of concerns. Also, I’m curious to know whether these cuts were made in Texas private prisons, or the state-run prisons. It seems that the private prisons cost the state a pretty penny, and several were closed in 2011 as part of the budget process. However, others remain open for business as usual. Texas Governor Rick Perry is a favorite of the private prison industry. After they bankrolled his 2010 re-election bid in large numbers, he tried to take control of the prison decision-making process along with some Republican buddies. Mother Jones : A flurry of privatization bills were introduced by Republican lawmakers during the regular, biannual legislative session, but all of them fizzled out. And then in June, as the Legislature scrambled to put together a budget during a special session, the plan resurfaced in two different pieces of legislation. First, an amendment was attached by a GOP lawmaker to an unrelated bill that would have transferred the authority for the state’s prison health care board to Perry by giving him the power to appoint the majority of the committee members. That proposal, which was jettisoned after it came to light, would have effectively given the governor’s office the power to unilaterally make sweeping changes to the system. “There was no evidence that it could be done cheaper,” says state Rep. Jerry Madden, a Republican, who chairs the House corrections subcommittee and worked to have the language removed. A second proposal, a few days later, would have explicitly granted the corrections agency the power to solicit bids for prison health care services but not mandated it. Earlier, Perry’s office had floated another proposal that seemed designed to please the private-prison industry. It sought to eliminate the independence of the Texas Commission on Jail Standards and fold it, along with two other public-safety commissions, into a single agency. The governor’s office justified the move, which ultimately fell short, as a spending measure, a chance to eliminate bureaucratic redundancies. But critics saw a pattern. “One of the things that the commission has always wanted is to have control over the private prisons,” says Ana Yanez-Correa, executive director of the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, which monitors prison reform in the Lone Star State. “Obviously [the governor’s office] didn’t like that, so this session they tried to dilute the power of the commission by merging it with two other entities.” And, as expected, lawmakers have a retort for critics, too: State Senator John Whitmire, a Democrat and chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee whose outrage over last meals on death row led to the end of the practice last month, said the reductions were not a major concern to him. “If they don’t like the menu,” he said, “don’t come there in the first place.” I wonder how those private prison companies would feel about that?
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Hope for the first elections of the Arab spring is mingled with frustration at continuing corruption and police brutality Tunisia votes on Sunday in its first ever free elections, the first vote of the Arab spring. But the mood of optimism is tempered with deep unease that, nine months after the revolution which ousted the dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the country is still dominated by the corrupt and brutal vestiges of the old regime. Voting is to elect an assembly with one specific mission: to draw up a new constitution before parliamentary elections scheduled to take place within 12 months. The Islamist party An-Nadha, which was outlawed and brutally repressed by the Ben Ali regime, is expected to take the biggest share of the vote, and says it will defend democracy and women’s rights. But the complex proportional representation system means that, no matter how the votes are cast, no one party will have a majority or be able to dominate. On the street Tunisians, fiercely proud that their uprising launched the Arab spring, warned that the most pressing issue was safeguarding their “unfinished revolution.” Lawyers complain that police brutality and torture continues in the small north African country, which under Ben Ali was notorious as having the most pervasive secret police in the region. Human rights activists say Ben Ali’s cronies and former party sympathisers still dominate a crooked justice system, that corruption has worsened, and that notorious servants of the old regime have even been promoted since the revolution. Some describe a climate of impunity, symbolized by Ben Ali’s flight to Saudi Arabia, where he can avoid facing trail for his crimes. Meanwhile, in Tunisia, his influence continues to pervade officialdom and the workings of the state. “We are overwhelmed with cases of human rights abuses. You wouldn’t believe there had been a revolution,” said Imene Triki, a human rights activist. “Torture is the way things are done, it’s systematic. They have not changed their practices at all,” she said, warning of “countless” cases in police stations and prisons. She described: the “systematic and routine” arrests of bloggers and activists on fabricated charges, often of “burning police stations”; arrests of people labelled “Salafists” who were out of the country at the time their alleged crimes were committed; and the arrests of children. Triki described one case, of an alleged robber who was transferred to hospital from prison with a stomach complaint. While in hospital, she claims, he was brutally beaten and sexually assaulted in front of the doctors, nurses and other patients. Triki says she found him with his legs chained to the bed and severe injuries to his genitals and that in the same hospital she found another prisoner lying in the emergency ward, his body festering with worms and covered in excrement. He had, she says, been there for a month. Ahmed Rahmouni, head of the Association of Tunisian Magistrates, described a rotten justice system – still in place – in which judges were used by Ben Ali as a “tool of repression” to crack down on civil society. Although some judges were independent, he said, the overwhelming system remained in thrall to politicians and dominated by those who served Ben Ali. These judges continue to try cases. “The country’s top judges are corrupt, inefficient and an instrument of dictatorship. We need to get rid of them, and restore trust in the judiciary,” he said. Sihem Bensedrine, a human rights activist and head of Kalima radio station, has returned from exile but has still not been issued with a licence for her radio station, which broadcasts online. She said: “The revolution cut off the head, but the body is still there. Dictatorships aren’t just about security per se – they are also about the security forces controlling the media, culture, health care, universities, hospitals. You need to dismantle the whole machine. There are three elements: the secret police, the old guard of the former ruling party and the businessmen corrupted by working with the regime. These three are still powerful, they still have long arms.” After nine months of discredited and weak interim governments featuring ageing faces from Tunisia’s recent past, Tunisians insist that the old guard must be rooted out of officialdom and daily life, and that this must be coupled with quick answers to the country’s major problem, unemployment, a central cause of the revolution. Officially at 19%, unemployment has soared since January, but most believe the real figures are far higher. The jobless rate for graduate women is over 40%. In the poorer interior of the country the figures are double the national rate. Lina Ben Mhenni, a blogger who was nominated for this year’s Nobel peace prize, warned that Tunisia was being held back by the old regime and “after a few weeks of revolutionary euphoria” the country once again risked turning into a police state with the regime’s apparatus still in place. Disillusioned at the ongoing presence of the old regime, she said she wouldn’t vote. In purely political terms, Ben Ali’s ruling RCD party has been dissolved and its figureheads are forbidden from standing for election. But in a bewildering political landscape of over 110 new parties and scores of independent candidates, several small, marginal new parties have regrouped supporters from the old RCD. They aim to win over a dozen seats between them. In the offices of one new party, Al-Watan, the Nation or Homeland, its leader Mohamed Jegham said there was a prevailing current in Tunisia since the revolution “and we can’t go against the current”. But Jegham, a one-time interior minister and defence minister of Ben Ali, said he was proud of what he called the good state infrastructure left behind by the Ben Ali era and said the country “needs people who know the terrain”. He was critical of the removal of regional governors linked to the regime. Formerly minister in charge of police, he said: “The police needs to go back to being in the service of the country, of the nation, and not just in the service of the president or ministers. Not all officers can do that. There will be change – some have left, some are more reticent – the majority can do it.” He said corruption must be stopped but that it would not be easy. “We need new laws and for those to be respected.” Saida Lakrimi, of the Tunisian lawyers union, said: “We are in a transitional period, but the pace is very, very slow. Changes to institutions need to happen more quickly to cleanse the system … Popular discontent will fester if those who robbed and killed and tortured are not tried in a fair and transparent way … You can’t create the future using the tools of the past.” Journalists’ organisations complained that even the media, which was so tightly censored under Ben Ali that even the airbrushed photographs of the great man were chosen and provided by his office, was yet to be overhauled. Kamel Labiti, head of the commission for media reform, said the media landscape had not changed. Media owners still had connections in the administration, and undue influence. “We have a culture of praising the king. You can’t change that in a few months,” he said, also citing a lack of training for journalists. He said that “for decades journalists have effectively been civil servants.” Najiba Hamrouni of the journalists union said: “Since the revolution we have greater freedom in terms of what we can cover in the mainstream press, who we can interview and so on. However, the problem is that the main media organisations are controlled and run by the same Ben Ali men, and they are censoring their journalists. Managers dictate editorial policy. Some people and issues are marginalised.” New press titles have launched but many have folded through lack of funds. On the streets of central Tunis, most people were optimistic that the elections could mark the beginning of the end of the unfinished revolution. But people were vigilant. Many vowed that if they sensed anything but total transparency and fair elections, they would once again take to the street. Rhamouni said he saw a new “dynamism and plurality in Tunisian society”, which gave him hope. “Tunisian people believe they started the first revolution in the Arab world. They won’t accept the manipulation of their will. It is not just the elite who are talking about the need to cleanse the judiciary, but ordinary people. There is an unprecedented state of awareness in the country.” Tunisian elections 2011 Tunisia Middle East Arab and Middle East unrest Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali Angelique Chrisafis Katharine Viner Becky Gardiner guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Prince Sultan’s death fuels debate about who will succeed to the Saudi throne
October 22, 2011 No Comment
Ultraconservative Prince Nayef, who was behind suppression of protests in neighbouring Bahrain, becomes likely successor The death of the heir to the Saudi throne, Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul-Aziz al Saud, has led to an urgent debate over the succession in the oil-rich state. Sultan, who was in his 80s, had been undergoing treatment for colon cancer in New York, although Saudi TV, which announced the death today, only said he had died “abroad”. The younger half-brother of Saudi Arabia’s frail and ailing leader, King Abdullah, Sultan was also deputy prime minister and defence minister, in charge of one of the biggest arms budgets in the world. He leaves multiple widows and 32 children. The most likely candidate to replace him as Abdullah’s successor is Prince Nayef, a member of the most powerful of the Saudi ruling families. Nayef, 78, is the Saudi interior minister, in charge of the security forces, and is close to Islamic ultra-conservatives. He was directly involved in the decision in March to send soldiers into neighbouring Bahrain to help crush pro-reform demonstrations. Abdullah gave Nayef the position of second deputy prime minister, traditionally the post of the second in line to the throne. But for the first time the mechanism of picking the next crown prince is in doubt as the king could hand over the decision to the Allegiance Council, created as part of Saudi Arabia’s tentative reforms, and consisting of his male relatives. That would open the process up, although observers expect Nayef to be the favourite there as well. Saudi Arabia has been ruled since 1953 by the children of its founder, King Abdul-Aziz, who had more than 40 sons. But that generation is ageing and secrecy surrounds their health. It was an American diplomatic cable, reported through WikiLeaks, that revealed Sultan was incapacitated with illness. Abdullah had surgery last week, said to be on his back. The palace said that the king, with “deep sorrow” mourns “the loss of his brother”. The statement, on the official Saudi Press Agency, added that the funeral would be held in Riyadh. Prince Charles sent his condolences in a letter to the Saudi king. The foreign secretary, William Hague, said that he was saddened to hear of the death. The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, called Sultan a “good friend to the United States”. It is not known what effects any succession would have on recent reforms to allow women to vote in 2015. Saudi Arabia King Abdullah Bahrain Middle East Tracy McVeigh guardian.co.uk
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Click here to view this media Keith Olbermann points out the rank hypocrisy we’ve seen from the Republicans such as Marco Rubio, John McCain, Mitt Romney, Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann after the announcement of Muammar Qaddafi’s death. From TPM — Republicans Thank Everyone But Obama For Stopping Qaddafi : Top Republicans are starting to weigh in on Muammar Qaddafi’s death and one consistent theme is quickly emerging: Barack who? Mitt Romney, appearing on a radio program in Iowa, said it couldn’t come soon enough. “I have seen those reports and if accurate I think the response is it’s about time,” he said . “This was a tyrant who has been killing his own people and of course is responsible for the lives of American citizens lost in the Lockerbie attack….I think people across the world recognize that the world is a better place without Muammar Qaddafi.” Rick Perry hailed Qaddafi’s death, but also left out any mention of the president’s decision to attack the dictator’s forces from his comments. “The death of Muammar el-Qaddafi is good news for the people of Libya,” he said in a statement. “It should bring the end of conflict there, and help them move closer to elections and a real democracy. The United States should work closely with Libya to ensure the transition is successful, and that a stable, peaceful nation emerges. The U.S. must also take an active role in ensuring the security of any remaining stockpiles of Qaddafi’s weapons. These weapons pose a real danger to the United States and our allies, and we cannot help secure them through simple observation.” One prominent Republican went out of the way to give Europe credit instead. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) told FOX News “Today’s not a day to point fingers” when asked about America’s role in Qaddafi’s death, before saying France and England were really the ones responsible for deposing the dictator. He later issued a statement thanking “American and NATO forces” for the victory. Update : Ben Smith notes that a surprising number of Republicans aren’t even thanking US troops for the outcome. As Keith Olbermann reminded us, one of the critics today, John McCain has been all over the charts when it comes to supporting the dictator as recently posted here — After Sucking Up to Gaddafi, McCain and Lieberman Were Happy to Call for His Head . And PoliticusUSA has more on the Republican hypocrisy here — With The Death Of Gaddafi, Obama Again Makes Fools Of His GOP Critics .
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• Mail scott.murray@guardian.co.uk in the electronic fashion • Follow the rest of the day’s goals as they go in • Press F5 for the latest, or switch on the auto-refresh 37 min: Suarez slashes a shot from a tight angle on the left straight across goal. Before a red shirt can poke home, Martin hacks clear. Liverpool have stepped it up a bit again, without looking as quite dangerous as they were during the opening 20 minutes. “There are stats for everything these days,” writes Gary Naylor, “so does anyone know if there is a midfielder in the PL who gives the opposition possession more often than Steven Gerrard?” 36 min: Another corner for Liverpool, Downing winning it down the right. He takes the set piece himself, Johnson winning a header but sending it high into the Kop. 34 min: Tierney is booked for clipping Downing’s ankles, a couple of yards outside the Norwich area on the right. The free kick’s in a very dangerous position. Adam tries to pass it into the left-hand corner, but only finds the wall. He bangs the rebound as hard as he can, but only into a thicket of yellow shirts again. Eventually the ball’s swung in from the right by Downing, but it floats over the bar. 31 min: Jose Enrique tries to find Bellamy down the left. Barnett slides the ball out for a corner. Bellamy’s dead ball is met by the head of Kuyt at the near post, but easily cleared. Liverpool haven’t started playing badly, but their sparkle has disappeared. 29 min: Liverpool are showing their first signs of frustration. First an over-eager Bellamy needlessly gets himself flagged offside when presented with a pass in acres down the left, then Kuyt goes ballistic at the linesman when narrowly caught ahead of play himself. 26 min: The passes aren’t quite sticking for Liverpool now. First Kuyt puts a stop to his own player’s gallop, rolling a dreadful pass behind a flying Bellamy down the left. Then Adam hits a ball far too strongly down the right for Johnson, who had room in which to scamper. The crowd haven’t got anxious yet, but Anfield has seen sweet starts turn sour on more than one occasion this season already. Norwich will be pleased with their efforts in the last ten minutes; they’re certainly seeing more of the ball. 24 min: Up the other end, Gerrard tries to free Suarez down the inside-right channel, but just as the striker looks to control and shoot from just inside the area, Barnett slides over to clear. 23 min: Bennett rides a couple of tackles in the centre, just outside the area, and slaps a shot goalwards. Norwich are right in this game now. 21 min: Norwich ping the ball around hither and yon. They must have put nearly 20 passes together then. They slowly edge up the pitch, Bennett finally swinging a cross into the Liverpool area from the right; with Pilkington making a nuisance of himself at the far post, the Carragher is forced to concede a corner on the left. Which Morison meets, eight yards out, level with the far post, arrowing the ball towards the top right. Reina is behind it all the way to claim. That was delightful play from Norwich, who appear to be settling now. 19 min: No chance at either end for nearly 40 seconds now. 18 min: Tierney swings a ball across the edge of the Liverpool area from deep on the left; Morison can’t direct the ball goalwards. 17 min: Level with the right-hand post, Suarez turns and drags a shot across the face of goal, the ball sailing just wide right. This is breathless. 16 min: Skrtl Bcknbrs upfield and finds Downing down the right. The winger cuts inside and tries to find Suarez on the far post, but the cross is too high. Suddenly Norwich hit a long ball upfield, and Hoolahan is clear down the inside-left channel! After all that Liverpool pressure, is this a sucker punch? No: Hoolahan gets his effort on target at the near post, but Reina parries clear with his chest. What an open game this is. 14 min: Adam bustles inside from the right and feeds Suarez, who tries to chip Ruddy from 25 yards. Now now. The keeper’s behind it all the way, and the ball floats over the bar in any case. 11 min: What a goal this would have been. Adam sprays a long ball down the left for Bellamy, who takes it in his stride at full pelt, reaches the byline, and cuts a low ball back into the centre for Suarez. The striker, level with the left-hand post, opens his body and hits a first-time sidefoot at high pace towards goal. Ruddy manages to get fingertips to it, though, and diverts the ball onto the right-hand post and out. Downing picks up the ball, but panics and snatches a dismal shot miles wide right. 10 min: Pilkington looks a real handful down the left. He’s this close to diddling Johnson with a clever back heel and turn, but the full back stands firm and wins a goal kick. 8 min: Johnson skitters down the inside-right channel, into the area, and sends a low cross into the middle towards Suarez. Martin slides in to intercept. Norwich are struggling to keep hold of the ball, and Liverpool are relentless in returning it down their end of the pitch. 7 min: A long ball down the inside-left channel by Gerrard finds Suarez, who turns again on the edge of the area. Once more Barnett is all at sea, but this time he recovers well before Suarez can break clear, and gets a clearing challenge in. Liverpool have started very strongly here – but then they’ve a habit of doing this, only to fall away as the game progresses. 5 min: A throw-in for Liverpool down the left. Suarez takes up possession with his back to goal, on the corner of the box. He whips round through 180 degrees in an instant, a split-second turn, flummoxing Barnett. He’s clear on goal, albeit at an angle down the inside-left channel, but shoots wide left. A world-class turn, a dunce-class miss. Liverpool could easily be two goals up already. 2 min: The returning Glen Johnson has already seen plenty of the ball down the right. His incessant probing finds Suarez, who wins a corner. Adam sends a flat ball towards the near post, Skrtel glancing a header off the bar. Norwich clear, but only out for a corner on the other side. Suarez tries to meet the set piece, coming in from the left, but Norwich clear again. A strong start by the home side. A massive mosaic displayed on the Kop: Justice for the 96. Then the cards flip down in time for kick off. Liverpool get the ball rolling, and they’ll be kicking towards the Kop in this first half, never their preference. The teams are out! Liverpool are wearing their trademark all-red outfit, Norwich their equally distinguishing yellow shirts and green shorts. It’s a crisp, dry evening at Anfield. “Am delighted to see Bellamy start up front today (first time in the league this year, I believe),” writes David Horn. “I can’t think of two forwards more likely to annoy opponents, referees, managers, grannies, or anybody, anywhere at any time over the last 20 years, than these two. If there has been a more obnoxious strike partnership since the Premiership began, I’d like to hear of it.” OLD-SCHOOL SONGBOOK PT 2. On the Ball, City (1902): Kick off, throw in, have a little scrimmage / Keep it low, a splendid rush, bravo, win or die / On the ball, City, never mind the danger / Steady on, now’s your chance / Hurrah! We’ve scored a goal! OLD-SCHOOL SONGBOOK PT 1. Hurrah for the Reds (1907): Hurrah for the boys to play the game / Hurrah for the Reds! / Hurrah for the boys there’s none can tame / Hurrah for the Reds! / There’s Hewitt and Mac to lead the attack / With Hardy to hold the fort, boys / There’s Goddard and Cox, and Raisbeck the fox / And more of the good old sort, boys / Hurrah Hurrah Hurrah Hurrah / Hurrah for the Reds! Referee: Peter Walton (Northamptonshire) Norwich City name an unchanged side: Ruddy, Naughton, Barnett, Russell Martin, Tierney, Bennett, Fox, Johnson, Pilkington, Hoolahan, Morison. Subs: Rudd, Crofts, Holt, Jackson, Surman, Wilbraham, De Laet. Liverpool replace Martin Kelly with the returning Glen Johnson: Reina, Johnson, Carragher, Skrtel, Jose Enrique, Kuyt, Gerrard, Adam, Downing, Suarez, Bellamy. Subs: Doni, Agger, Carroll, Maxi, Henderson, Spearing, Flanagan. Kick off: 5.30pm. More pertinent, of course, is the recent form. Liverpool are unbeaten since that shellacking at Spurs a month ago, and looked promising in patches against Manchester United last time round. Norwich meanwhile have been properly impressive: a run of three wins in four, plus a defeat at Old Trafford which, had the ball bounced another way, could easily have been a victory. United, being the champions, are a fair enough litmus test: both teams will fancy their chances here. “We’ll give it a go,” says Norwich boss Paul Lambert. His opposite number Kenny Dalglish will doubtless have a similar mindset, so hopefully we’ll have a decent game on our hands here. Entertainment, please! All of that, of course, has little bearing on reality today. I don’t know why I mentioned it. City’s recent record at Anfield isn’t otherwise much to write home about. A 3-0 loss in 2004. A 4-0 defeat in 1995. A 4-1 tonking in 1992. Losses of 3-0 and 2-1 in 1991. A 3-1 FA Cup defeat in 1990. And then you’re into the Eighties, which featured whippings of 6-2, 5-0 and 4-0, a couple of goalless draws – and a 1-0 win for the Canaries in December 1988, a season which saw Liverpool lose the league on goal difference. Slim pickings, then, but when Norwich win, Liverpool certainly feel the reverberations. Norwich City haven’t won at Anfield since Jeremy Goss scored the last goal in front of the Kop at the tail end of the 1993/94 season. It was a well-deserved 1-0 victory for the Canaries: Steve Nicol hooked the ball against his own bar on 15 minutes, Jeremy Goss hammered home the only goal of the game at the Kop end on 35, Efan Ekoku missed a one-on-one with David James just before half time, and Bryan Gunn became the last keeper to shut Liverpool out in front of their famous old terrace, Rob Jones putting the ball past him only to see his shot cleared off the line. “You’re supposed to let us win,” was the Kop’s dry response, as a Liverpool team featuring Ian Rush, John Barnes, Ronnie Whelan, Robbie Fowler and, er, Julian Dicks flailed around helplessly. Premier League Liverpool Norwich City Scott Murray guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …• Mail scott.murray@guardian.co.uk in the electronic fashion • Follow the rest of the day’s goals as they go in • Press F5 for the latest, or switch on the auto-refresh 37 min: Suarez slashes a shot from a tight angle on the left straight across goal. Before a red shirt can poke home, Martin hacks clear. Liverpool have stepped it up a bit again, without looking as quite dangerous as they were during the opening 20 minutes. “There are stats for everything these days,” writes Gary Naylor, “so does anyone know if there is a midfielder in the PL who gives the opposition possession more often than Steven Gerrard?” 36 min: Another corner for Liverpool, Downing winning it down the right. He takes the set piece himself, Johnson winning a header but sending it high into the Kop. 34 min: Tierney is booked for clipping Downing’s ankles, a couple of yards outside the Norwich area on the right. The free kick’s in a very dangerous position. Adam tries to pass it into the left-hand corner, but only finds the wall. He bangs the rebound as hard as he can, but only into a thicket of yellow shirts again. Eventually the ball’s swung in from the right by Downing, but it floats over the bar. 31 min: Jose Enrique tries to find Bellamy down the left. Barnett slides the ball out for a corner. Bellamy’s dead ball is met by the head of Kuyt at the near post, but easily cleared. Liverpool haven’t started playing badly, but their sparkle has disappeared. 29 min: Liverpool are showing their first signs of frustration. First an over-eager Bellamy needlessly gets himself flagged offside when presented with a pass in acres down the left, then Kuyt goes ballistic at the linesman when narrowly caught ahead of play himself. 26 min: The passes aren’t quite sticking for Liverpool now. First Kuyt puts a stop to his own player’s gallop, rolling a dreadful pass behind a flying Bellamy down the left. Then Adam hits a ball far too strongly down the right for Johnson, who had room in which to scamper. The crowd haven’t got anxious yet, but Anfield has seen sweet starts turn sour on more than one occasion this season already. Norwich will be pleased with their efforts in the last ten minutes; they’re certainly seeing more of the ball. 24 min: Up the other end, Gerrard tries to free Suarez down the inside-right channel, but just as the striker looks to control and shoot from just inside the area, Barnett slides over to clear. 23 min: Bennett rides a couple of tackles in the centre, just outside the area, and slaps a shot goalwards. Norwich are right in this game now. 21 min: Norwich ping the ball around hither and yon. They must have put nearly 20 passes together then. They slowly edge up the pitch, Bennett finally swinging a cross into the Liverpool area from the right; with Pilkington making a nuisance of himself at the far post, the Carragher is forced to concede a corner on the left. Which Morison meets, eight yards out, level with the far post, arrowing the ball towards the top right. Reina is behind it all the way to claim. That was delightful play from Norwich, who appear to be settling now. 19 min: No chance at either end for nearly 40 seconds now. 18 min: Tierney swings a ball across the edge of the Liverpool area from deep on the left; Morison can’t direct the ball goalwards. 17 min: Level with the right-hand post, Suarez turns and drags a shot across the face of goal, the ball sailing just wide right. This is breathless. 16 min: Skrtl Bcknbrs upfield and finds Downing down the right. The winger cuts inside and tries to find Suarez on the far post, but the cross is too high. Suddenly Norwich hit a long ball upfield, and Hoolahan is clear down the inside-left channel! After all that Liverpool pressure, is this a sucker punch? No: Hoolahan gets his effort on target at the near post, but Reina parries clear with his chest. What an open game this is. 14 min: Adam bustles inside from the right and feeds Suarez, who tries to chip Ruddy from 25 yards. Now now. The keeper’s behind it all the way, and the ball floats over the bar in any case. 11 min: What a goal this would have been. Adam sprays a long ball down the left for Bellamy, who takes it in his stride at full pelt, reaches the byline, and cuts a low ball back into the centre for Suarez. The striker, level with the left-hand post, opens his body and hits a first-time sidefoot at high pace towards goal. Ruddy manages to get fingertips to it, though, and diverts the ball onto the right-hand post and out. Downing picks up the ball, but panics and snatches a dismal shot miles wide right. 10 min: Pilkington looks a real handful down the left. He’s this close to diddling Johnson with a clever back heel and turn, but the full back stands firm and wins a goal kick. 8 min: Johnson skitters down the inside-right channel, into the area, and sends a low cross into the middle towards Suarez. Martin slides in to intercept. Norwich are struggling to keep hold of the ball, and Liverpool are relentless in returning it down their end of the pitch. 7 min: A long ball down the inside-left channel by Gerrard finds Suarez, who turns again on the edge of the area. Once more Barnett is all at sea, but this time he recovers well before Suarez can break clear, and gets a clearing challenge in. Liverpool have started very strongly here – but then they’ve a habit of doing this, only to fall away as the game progresses. 5 min: A throw-in for Liverpool down the left. Suarez takes up possession with his back to goal, on the corner of the box. He whips round through 180 degrees in an instant, a split-second turn, flummoxing Barnett. He’s clear on goal, albeit at an angle down the inside-left channel, but shoots wide left. A world-class turn, a dunce-class miss. Liverpool could easily be two goals up already. 2 min: The returning Glen Johnson has already seen plenty of the ball down the right. His incessant probing finds Suarez, who wins a corner. Adam sends a flat ball towards the near post, Skrtel glancing a header off the bar. Norwich clear, but only out for a corner on the other side. Suarez tries to meet the set piece, coming in from the left, but Norwich clear again. A strong start by the home side. A massive mosaic displayed on the Kop: Justice for the 96. Then the cards flip down in time for kick off. Liverpool get the ball rolling, and they’ll be kicking towards the Kop in this first half, never their preference. The teams are out! Liverpool are wearing their trademark all-red outfit, Norwich their equally distinguishing yellow shirts and green shorts. It’s a crisp, dry evening at Anfield. “Am delighted to see Bellamy start up front today (first time in the league this year, I believe),” writes David Horn. “I can’t think of two forwards more likely to annoy opponents, referees, managers, grannies, or anybody, anywhere at any time over the last 20 years, than these two. If there has been a more obnoxious strike partnership since the Premiership began, I’d like to hear of it.” OLD-SCHOOL SONGBOOK PT 2. On the Ball, City (1902): Kick off, throw in, have a little scrimmage / Keep it low, a splendid rush, bravo, win or die / On the ball, City, never mind the danger / Steady on, now’s your chance / Hurrah! We’ve scored a goal! OLD-SCHOOL SONGBOOK PT 1. Hurrah for the Reds (1907): Hurrah for the boys to play the game / Hurrah for the Reds! / Hurrah for the boys there’s none can tame / Hurrah for the Reds! / There’s Hewitt and Mac to lead the attack / With Hardy to hold the fort, boys / There’s Goddard and Cox, and Raisbeck the fox / And more of the good old sort, boys / Hurrah Hurrah Hurrah Hurrah / Hurrah for the Reds! Referee: Peter Walton (Northamptonshire) Norwich City name an unchanged side: Ruddy, Naughton, Barnett, Russell Martin, Tierney, Bennett, Fox, Johnson, Pilkington, Hoolahan, Morison. Subs: Rudd, Crofts, Holt, Jackson, Surman, Wilbraham, De Laet. Liverpool replace Martin Kelly with the returning Glen Johnson: Reina, Johnson, Carragher, Skrtel, Jose Enrique, Kuyt, Gerrard, Adam, Downing, Suarez, Bellamy. Subs: Doni, Agger, Carroll, Maxi, Henderson, Spearing, Flanagan. Kick off: 5.30pm. More pertinent, of course, is the recent form. Liverpool are unbeaten since that shellacking at Spurs a month ago, and looked promising in patches against Manchester United last time round. Norwich meanwhile have been properly impressive: a run of three wins in four, plus a defeat at Old Trafford which, had the ball bounced another way, could easily have been a victory. United, being the champions, are a fair enough litmus test: both teams will fancy their chances here. “We’ll give it a go,” says Norwich boss Paul Lambert. His opposite number Kenny Dalglish will doubtless have a similar mindset, so hopefully we’ll have a decent game on our hands here. Entertainment, please! All of that, of course, has little bearing on reality today. I don’t know why I mentioned it. City’s recent record at Anfield isn’t otherwise much to write home about. A 3-0 loss in 2004. A 4-0 defeat in 1995. A 4-1 tonking in 1992. Losses of 3-0 and 2-1 in 1991. A 3-1 FA Cup defeat in 1990. And then you’re into the Eighties, which featured whippings of 6-2, 5-0 and 4-0, a couple of goalless draws – and a 1-0 win for the Canaries in December 1988, a season which saw Liverpool lose the league on goal difference. Slim pickings, then, but when Norwich win, Liverpool certainly feel the reverberations. Norwich City haven’t won at Anfield since Jeremy Goss scored the last goal in front of the Kop at the tail end of the 1993/94 season. It was a well-deserved 1-0 victory for the Canaries: Steve Nicol hooked the ball against his own bar on 15 minutes, Jeremy Goss hammered home the only goal of the game at the Kop end on 35, Efan Ekoku missed a one-on-one with David James just before half time, and Bryan Gunn became the last keeper to shut Liverpool out in front of their famous old terrace, Rob Jones putting the ball past him only to see his shot cleared off the line. “You’re supposed to let us win,” was the Kop’s dry response, as a Liverpool team featuring Ian Rush, John Barnes, Ronnie Whelan, Robbie Fowler and, er, Julian Dicks flailed around helplessly. Premier League Liverpool Norwich City Scott Murray guardian.co.uk
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First minister says ‘days of Westminster politicians telling Scotland what to do or what to think are over’ Alex Salmond has launched a fierce attack on the UK government, saying the future of Scotland will not be determined by Westminster. The Scottish first minister used his speech to the Scottish National party annual conference in Inverness to send the Westminster a stark message. “The days of Westminster politicians telling Scotland what to do or what to think are over,” he said. “The Scottish people will set the agenda for the future.” Salmond declared: “No politician, and certainly no London politician, will determine the future of the Scottish nation. “The prime minister should hear this loud and clear. “The people of Scotland – the sovereign people of Scotland – are now in the driving seat.” The conference is the SNP’s first since the party’s landslide victory in May’s Holyrood elections, when the nationalists became the first ever party to secure an overall majority in the Scottish parliament. Salmond said that win had given his party the “greatest ever mandate of the devolution era”. That election victory means a referendum will be held on Scottish independence. While no date for such a vote has yet been set, Nationalists have pledged it will take place in the second half of the Scottish parliament’s five-year term. The speech by Salmond marked the start of the SNP’s campaign ahead of that referendum. Ahead of the referendum, Salmond said that next month he would ask MSPs at Holyrood to endorse Scotland’s Claim of Right. The original Claim of Right dates back to 1988 and declared the “sovereign right of the Scottish people to determine the form of government best suited to their needs”. Nationalists believe that by endorsing this, MSPs will emphasise that a referendum on Scotland’s constitutional future is something for the Scottish parliament to deliver. The Scottish government has previously declared its willingness to consider having an option of Scotland gaining further short of independence on the ballot paper in the referendum. Salmond said that this “devo-max” option was a “legitimate proposal”, and that fiscal responsibility and enhanced economic powers could “allow us to control our own resources, introduce competitive business tax and fair personal taxation”. But he still described this option as being “not good enough”, adding: “Even with economic powers trident nuclear missiles would still be on the river Clyde, we could still be forced to spill blood in illegal wars like Iraq, and Scotland would still be excluded from the Councils of Europe and the world.” While Westminster has proposed further powers for the devolved Holyrood administration in its Scotland bill, Salmond said this was “unloved, uninspiring, not even understood by its own proponents”. And he claimed the coalition “hadn’t even gone through the motions of considering the views of the Scottish government” and others north of the border on the bill. After David Cameron promised to govern Scotland with respect, Salmond claimed that respect agenda now “lies dead in their throats”. He said: “This is Westminster’s agenda of disrespect – not of disrespect to the SNP but a fundamental disrespect for Scotland.” Almost 1,600 party members packed the main hall at the Eden Court theatre conference venue, and also filled five overspill rooms for Salmond’s keynote addresse. They heard the first minister launch a fresh attack on the UK government over its decision to abandon plans for the UK’s first coal-fired power plant with technology to capture and store carbon emissions at Longannet in Fife. Salmond accused Westminster of having “betrayed the future of Longannet”.He also made a renewed claim for Scotland to have control over energy and its revenues, saying that Westminster had “coined in” £300bn from North Sea oil and gas over the last 40 years. Salmond told the conference the North Sea would continue to yield oil and gas for the next four decades “at least” and added: “London has had its turn out of Scottish oil and gas. Let the next 40 years be for the people of Scotland.” Scottish National party (SNP) Scottish politics Alex Salmond Scotland guardian.co.uk
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