Amr Moussa, who played central role in securing Arab support for Nato strikes, calls for ceasefire and ‘political solution’ The outgoing head of the Arab League and a frontrunner to become president of a democratic Egypt has voiced reservations about Nato’s bombing campaign in Libya, calling for a ceasefire and talks on a political settlement while Muammar Gaddafi remains in power. Amr Moussa, the veteran Egyptian diplomat who played a central role in securing Arab support for the Nato air campaign against Gaddafi, told the Guardian he now had second thoughts about a bombing mission that may not be working. “When I see children being killed, I must have misgivings. That’s why I warned about the risk of civilian casualties,” he said. Arab support, in the form of an endorsement from the Arab League, was essential to the Anglo-French-led bombing campaign launched in March following a UN security council resolution mandating the use of force to protect Libyan civilians. But senior European officials say that the Arab world is again turning against the west because of the Libya campaign. “The Arab League is telling us that we’re losing the support of the Arab world,” said one senior source involved in negotiations over Libya. In an interview with the Guardian in Brussels, Moussa made clear he thought the military campaign would not produce a breakthrough. “You can’t have a decisive ending. Now is the time to do whatever we can to reach a political solution,” he said. “That has to start with a genuine ceasefire under international supervision, a ceasefire that is implemented rigorously. Until the ceasefire Gaddafi would remain in office and the ceasefire would be accepted by both sides. Then there would be a move to a transitional period … to reach an understanding about the future of Libya.” Asked whether that meant a halt to the Nato air strikes, he said: “A ceasefire is a ceasefire.” According to senior diplomats and officials in Brussels dealing with the Libyan crisis, there are absolutely no signs of Gaddafi giving up. They also say that the opposition leadership in Benghazi will have no truck with Gaddafi and is making his removal a precondition for a negotiated settlement of the war. Repeated offers of a ceasefire from Gaddafi have been dismissed as meaningless by the Nato leadership and western governments. “There are different political channels going on to persuade the Gaddafi regime it has to go,” said the senior EU official. UN envoys, the Russian government, and the South Africans had been talking quietly either directly with Gaddafi or with his entourage. All reported no progress. “The Russians have just tried mediating and came back from Tripoli saying Gaddafi is not moving one bit,” said the official. Moussa headed the Arab League for a decade until three weeks ago and remains its caretaker chief until his successor takes over in September. He indicated that inquiries were being made to see if any countries, possibly in Africa or the Middle East, would be willing to offer Gaddafi a safe haven and even raised the possibility that Gaddafi could stand down but remain in Libya. While voicing misgivings about the course of the air campaign, Moussa said the Arab League supported it initially because of Gaddafi’s attacks on Libyan civilians. The League’s response, however, to the Syrian regime’s killing of an estimated 1,400 civilians was different. “There was unanimity on Libya, but [on Syria] there are some hesitations because of strategic, political considerations,” he said. Arab leaders were worried about the impact of the Syrian crisis in Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, and on the Kurdish issue. Nonetheless, he added, “we are outraged by all that has happened in Tunisia, in Syria, in Libya, in Yemen … We are really worried about the situation. The vast majority [in the Arab League] is not comfortable with what is going on in Syria.” The Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, faced a dilemma and could be losing the initiative, Moussa said. “[His] chance is eroding. It is a race. You have to change as fast as you can. It is a race between reform or revolution.” The dramatic upheavals of the past six months across north Africa and the Middle East meant that no Arab society would remain untouched. “I don’t think there will be exceptions.” At the age of 74, Moussa is an unlikely figurehead for an Egyptian revolution that was driven by the country’s youth camping out on Tahrir Square. But he appears to be popular and trusted by the younger leaders who helped topple the Mubarak regime in February, despite the fact that he served that regime for a long time as a senior diplomat, ambassador, and foreign minister. He is running for president in an election that he says should not be held until the end of the year at the earliest. If he won, he would only want to serve one term because of his age, Moussa maintained. “Egypt is going to be a democratic republic with a constitution, a president, a council of ministers, a parliament,” he declared. While the Egyptian army remains in charge in the post-Mubarak turmoil, it is not entirely clear, however, how the declared passage to democracy is to be structured, sequenced, and organised. Moussa argued passionately for presidential elections to be held before a parliamentary ballot despite the momentum towards a parliamentary vote within a few months. “I disapprove of parliamentary elections in September because the landscape is not ready.” If priority was to be given to drafting a new constitution, then parliamentary elections should be shelved and instead a constituent assembly should be elected to write the new charter. Moussa appeared worried that the attempt to entrench a new democratic system could backfire, resulting in an ascendancy of the Muslim Brotherhood plunging Egypt into chaos. “I can’t blame the Muslim Brotherhood for being disciplined and organised. The others are not organised,” he said. Moussa predicted that the Brotherhood could take up to 35% of the vote in a September parliamentary poll and that this would suffice for it to construct a coalition, dominate the new assembly, and take over the running of the country. “Then there would be chaos,” he warned. “There would be no new constitution. I prefer to work for a presidential system because the political landscape in Egypt is not yet mature. Not because of the Muslim Brotherhood per se, but because the situation is not fully ready.” Libya Arab and Middle East unrest Egypt Nato Middle East Africa Ian Traynor guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Over the weekend I was re-reading the infamous Powell Memo , written by written in 1971 by former Supreme Court justice Lewis Powell, who at the time was working as a corporate attorney. The memo is in essence a letter to the Chamber of Commerce in which Powell urges the American business community to begin investing more money trying to capture the hearts and minds of Ma and Pa America. You see, back in the early ’70s a handsome young buck named Ralph Nader was making life miserable for the American business establishment, particularly the automobile industry . While Nader today is considered a crank by most of the country, at the time he was quite effective, a sort of anti-corporate Andrew Breitbart who loved to stir the pot, make trouble and collect scalps. At any rate, Powell’s memo basically encouraged the business community to take more of an active role in political life. And I don’t just mean donating to campaigns — I mean getting involved in academia and the media to begin influencing public opinion. While it’s true that this memo is not the Rosetta Stone of corporate influence that it’s made out to be, it is reflective of a general feeling among business elites that they were tired of being pushed around by liberals and leftists and that they were going to start hitting back. This passage is particularly amusing in light of how much corporate power dominates our political landscape today: [A]s every business executive knows, few elements of American society today have as little influence in government as the American businessman, the corporation, or even the millions of corporate stockholders. If one doubts this, let him undertake the role of “lobbyist” for the business point of view before Congressional committees. The same situation obtains in the legislative halls of most states and major cities. One does not exaggerate to say that, in terms of political influence with respect to the course of legislation and government action, the American business executive is truly the “forgotten man.” Powell is certainly exaggerating the plight of the poor beleaguered business man here, as the business lobby always had a seat at the table even during liberalism’s heyday in the 1960s. The difference was, unlike today, the business lobby didn’t own the damn table. One of my favorite scene’s in Oliver Stone’s “Nixon” film comes when a group of cigar-chomping right-wing businessmen give Tricky Dick and earful about “federal price controls on my oil” and about the fact that “your EPA environmental agency has got its thumb so far up my ass that it’s scratching my ear.” And while this is a work of fiction (and an Oliver Stone work of fiction at that), it’s still somewhat thrilling to see Nixon stick up for the EPA in the face of corporate pressure. Where have you gone, Tricky Dick, our nation turns its lonely eyes to you! The point here is that in the early 1970s, the public at large still thought the putting limits on how much pollution a private firm could emit was actually a good thing. That same decade was when Corporate America began investing more cash into think tanks like Heritage and Cato in order to scrub these inconvenient little ideas out of peoples’ heads and convince them that air pollution was just one of the free market’s many wonders, along with lead poisoning and E. coli. But back to the Powell Memo. Toward the end of the memo, Powell provides a list of several principles that Corporate America should be defending as part of its propaganda campaign. Some of what you would expect, but others are still surprising: We in America already have moved very far indeed toward some aspects of state socialism, as the needs and complexities of a vast urban society require types of regulation and control that were quite unnecessary in earlier times. In some areas, such regulation and control already have seriously impaired the freedom of both business and labor, and indeed of the public generally. But most of the essential freedoms remain: private ownership, private profit, labor unions, collective bargaining, consumer choice, and a market economy in which competition largely determines price, quality and variety of the goods and services provided the consumer. Labor unions??!! Collective bargaining?!!?!!?!!?! This dude would be considered a Communist by the Tea Party’s standards! Powell then closes with a flourish and recites the most insidious meme embedded within corporate propaganda — that your right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is directly tied to the right of rich and powerful corporations to do whatever the hell they want: But whatever the causes of diminishing economic freedom may be, the truth is that freedom as a concept is indivisible. As the experience of the socialist and totalitarian states demonstrates, the contraction and denial of economic freedom is followed inevitably by governmental restrictions on other cherished rights. It is this message, above all others, that must be carried home to the American people. And tragically for our country, this campaign to influence hearts and minds has been stunningly successful. We no longer protect blue-collar jobs, union membership as a percentage of the workforce is the lowest it’s been in decades, and average wages have stalled even as corporate profits have soared. And still, our corporatist ideologues demand more. They want to voucherize Medicare in order to pay for tax cuts for corporations and wealthy individuals. They want to privatize Social Security and shift risk even more toward individuals. They want to end collective bargaining rights for public-sector workers all together. For our democracy to survive at all, we’re going to need a movement that challenges the role of corporate power. Russ Feingold’s campaign to overturn the truly horrible Citizens United decision is a good place to start.
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Printing errors in GCSE maths papers force apology from AQA while further mistakes are under investigation by exams watchdog One of England’s biggest exam boards has been forced to apologise after GCSE students were set a paper containing questions from an old exam, the latest in a series of mistakes to affect pupils this summer. Due to a printing error the maths paper, set by the AQA exam board, included questions originally answered by pupils taking the same exam in March. Over 31,000 pupils at 567 schools and colleges took the paper on Tuesday morning. Two other new errors in exam papers have also been discovered, in a GCSE Latin paper and a physics A-level exam, both set by the OCR exam board. The Latin GCSE paper, taken by up to 8,000 students at 540 schools and colleges, contained incorrect names of writers and characters. The physics A-level paper contained a measurement given in both centimetres and metres, when it should have been in metres only. Almost 8,000 students at 661 schools and colleges sat the exam. An OCR spokesman said: “We deeply regret these errors. We are extremely angry, because this is not fair on students, parents and teachers.” He added: “It is not acceptable, and if we find that someone has not done their job, they will lose their job.” AQA, which sets 49% of GCSE exams, said some schools received the correct maths paper, while others received the “problem” paper, which had new questions at the beginning and end, but old ones in the middle. Some schools were sent a combination of correct and flawed exam papers. The exams regulator, Ofqual, has confirmed it is already investigating six errors – five in AS-level papers and one in a GCSE. AQA said it was very sorry that its maths paper “caused some students distress” . “We have told schools that students should attempt the paper as it is and we will consider the most appropriate action to protect students’ interests, when we have a full understanding of the extent of the problem,” an AQA spokeswoman said. “The batches of papers that we checked as part of our quality assurance process are all fine and we are in the process of investigating with our printers how this problem has arisen.” In one of the previous exam board blunders, all the answers to a multiple-choice question in a biology AS-level paper set by Edexcel were wrong. The question was worth one mark out of a possible 425. The board has promised that markers will adjust scores to ensure no candidate is disadvantaged. A business studies AS-level paper set by AQA left out crucial information, meaning one question, worth three marks, could not be answered. It asked students to calculate the profits a fictional chocolate company was making, but failed to include all the information required. The OCR board included an “impossible” question in a maths AS exam. Students were asked to solve an equation but were not given the information needed to do so. In a statement issued last week, Ofqual’s chief executive, Glenys Stacey, said exam boards had carried out additional checks on their papers. She said: “Students who have sat one of the question papers that included a mistake can be assured that the awarding organisations have procedures in place to make sure that so far as possible, no candidate is disadvantaged. “The measures taken will depend on the exact circumstances. Ofqual has asked the awarding organisations for detailed information on the actions they have taken already and will be taking during the awarding process.” Ofqual warns against comparisons with previous years, as it says changes in reporting arrangements may mean mistakes made in the past were not recorded by the regulator. But there appears to be a spike in exam-related problems this year. No incidents of errors in setting exams were reported last year, or in the 2009 season. In 2008 there were three incidents – two in GCSE papers and one in A-levels – according to figures kept by Ofqual. One flawed A-level paper was reported in 2007 and one GCSE paper with a mistake in 2006. The NUS has called for an inquiry into this year’s exam season and said affected students should be given the option of resits. There are around 5,000 exam papers scheduled this summer for GCSE, AS and A-level candidates in England. GCSEs AS-levels A-levels Schools Mathematics Physics Jeevan Vasagar guardian.co.uk
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Chancellor’s taciturnity follows comments by Danny Alexander that intervention would reach ‘hundreds of millions’ of pounds George Osborne has refused to be drawn on the cost of the Libyan intervention, following comments at the weekend by Danny Alexander that it would reach “hundreds of millions” of pounds. The chancellor and his chief secretary to the Treasury, both present in the Commons, were pressed to confirm the figure by the shadow chancellor, Ed Balls, during Treasury questions. Balls said that in March the government had said the operation would cost “tens of millions not hundreds of millions”. Instead it was announced there will be a Ministry of Defence statement next week. On Sunday Alexander told Sky News: “The campaign is costing tens of millions, potentially into the hundreds of millions as it goes on, but that money is coming from the reserve that we have set aside, precisely for contingencies such as this.” When the military campaign started, the chancellor said the cost would be “in the order of tens of millions of pounds, not hundreds of millions”. Since then, defence economists have warned that it could reach £1bn if the campaign stretches on into the autumn. The news came as a minister in Libya’s opposition force, the National Transition Council (NTC), wrote an open letter challenging the decision by the UK attorney general, Dominic Grieve, not to release funds to the rebels. Dr Ali Tarhuni, minister for finance and oil in the NTC, said the body would run out of funds in less than a week, according to journalists in Benghazi. Grieve has said Britain can not release the 1.4bn dinars (approximately £700m) printed by De La Rue – Britain’s banknote printer – which have been impounded in the UK as the revolution has unfolded. De La Rue printed Libya’s currency during Gaddafi’s rule, and in an attempt to cripple his regime, the UK impounded the near $1.5bn-worth of dinars. Now Libya’s opposition forces believe they should be allowed the money impounded in the UK or risk being unable to fund continuing operations. Last month the Grieve said he was not legally able to release the funds. Tarhuni wrote: “Here in Benghazi we cannot sufficiently express our gratitude for the support the UK has extended to Libyans during our struggle against the tyrannical regime of Muammar Gaddafi. Together with her international partners, the UK has played a leading role in this defining battle for a free Libya. No one will ever forget this act of generosity and support for a democratic state. “[But] at present we face a liquidity crisis which threatens the stability of liberated Libya. With every day that passes we approach financial collapse. Funding pledges from international donors have yet to materialise. Our monthly salary bill, meanwhile, is in the region of 340m dinars. At present our money supply is almost finished. “The neatest short-term solution to this crisis is for the UK government to release the 1.4bn dinars printed by De La Rue and currently sitting in Britain. “We are deeply grateful that London has impounded this money, which was originally intended for the Tripoli regime. We would now ask the UK to exert every effort to take the next step and transfer this physical cash to the NTC to enable us to keep our economy afloat and pay our people. “Although there are inevitably serious legal issues that must be dealt with relating to the release of the De La Rue dinars, we sincerely hope the UK can give this burning issue the urgent attention it deserves. The future of a stable Libya after Gaddafi is too important to let this issue fester.” George Osborne Libya Middle East Africa Danny Alexander Allegra Stratton guardian.co.uk
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Jon Huntsman, Obama’s former ambassador to China, declares Republican 2012 candidacy with deliberate nods to Reagan era President Barack Obama’s former ambassador to China, Jon Huntsman, has entered the Republican party’s 2012 presidential race, pledging to make the “hard decisions” he says are required to deal with America’s debt. “I’m a candidate for the office of president of the United States of America,” Huntsman told supporters at Liberty State Park in New Jersey, with the Statue of Liberty in the background. President Ronald Reagan launched his bid for the White House at the site in 1980. “For the first time in our history, we are passing down to the next generation a country that is less powerful, less compassionate, less competitive and less confident than the one we got,” Huntsman said. “This, ladies and gentlemen, is totally unacceptable and totally un-American.” Huntsman called for “broad and bold” changes to US tax laws and regulations and said America should seek energy independence and boost job creation, but gave no specifics on his plans. “We must make hard decisions that are necessary to avert disaster,” the former Utah governor said, painting a bleak picture of what it would mean for the country if it does not reduce its debt. Democrats have said they see Huntsman, who was a popular governor known for some moderate policies, as a potentially formidable candidate against Obama, although he currently lacks national name recognition and many polls put his support at less than 2%. Huntsman was Obama’s ambassador to China from 2009 until April, when he resigned to return to the United States and lay the groundwork for his presidential bid. Conservatives have attacked Huntsman for his work with Obama, which Huntsman has described as service to the country. Democrats have attacked Huntsman as changing his former moderate positions in order to appeal to the most conservative Republican base. Republican presidential nomination 2012 US elections 2012 Republicans US politics Obama administration Ronald Reagan United States guardian.co.uk
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Worker is second to be given death sentence this month as government cracks down on coal industry in Inner Mongolia A court in China’s vast northern region of Inner Mongolia has sentenced a coalminer to death for killing a resident who had complained about pollution, according to state media. The sentence was the second in a matter of weeks involving Inner Mongolia’s crucial coal sector, as the government tries to get tough with an industry that has ignited public anger with its pollution but fuels the economy. In the latest case, Sun Shuning was convicted of murdering Yan Wenlong after “a dispute over pollution caused by a coalmine” where Sun worked, the official Xinhua news agency said. Sun killed Wen with his forklift, the report added. “The act was utterly cruel, the crime very serious, and the consequences extremely bad,” it cited the court in Xilinhot as saying. Earlier this month, a court in the same part of Inner Mongolia ordered the execution of a man for murdering an ethnic Mongolian herder who had also protested against coalmine pollution. The death of the herder sparked demonstrations by ethnic minority Mongolians demanding better protection of their rights and traditions. Beijing, ever worried by threats to stability, is now trying to address some of the protesters’ concerns about the damage done by coalmining to traditional grazing lands. The authorities have since launched a month-long overhaul of the lucrative coalmining industry, vowing to clean up or close polluters. Inner Mongolia is China’s biggest coal producing region and the protests against the industry have come as severe power shortages loom ahead of the summer’s peak energy season. China Coal Pollution guardian.co.uk
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Click here to view this media Republican presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul told NBC’s Matt Lauer Monday that he has a mainstream candidacy. “You know, congressman, your name comes up an awful lot when I talk politics with friends and one of the things I hear about you over and over again is that people say ‘I like some of his ideas but I’m nervous about the total package,’” Lauer noted. “Because you’re a guy who’s called for legalizing all drugs including cocaine and heroin, legalizing prostitution. You want to eliminate about half of the federal agencies including Energy, Education, Health and Human services, the Department of Homeland Security. So how do you convince people that you are not just an interesting fringe candidate?” “To not portray it like you have just done,” Paul said. “I want to legalize freedom. What’s so bad about that? What’s wrong with legalizing choices about your life and your liberty and religious values? What’s wrong with legalizing the Constitution? I can defend everything I do by the Constitution. So why can you turn that around and say everything he’s doing is nuts and crazy?” “I think a growing number of people are starting to realize what I’m talking about is pretty sound,” Paul added. “It’s very American. It produces prosperity and peace and I’m always bewildered why anyone would reject it.”
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A whole range of weather will be on display at this year’s Glastonbury festival, from bursts of sunshine to wind and rain This year’s Glastonbury festival will see rain, cool breezes and temperatures as high as 23°C, according to the Met Office. Met Office spokeswoman Helen Chivers told the Guardian that low temperatures and sporadic showers will mark the beginning of the festival on Thursday 23 June, but will improve to finish on a mostly dry, warm Sunday. “Wednesday and Thursday will see a mixture of sunny spells and short, sharp showers. There’s already mud at Glastonbury because it has rained in the run-up to the festival. It will also feel a little cooler than normal for this time of year because there will be a breeze,” Chivers said. “But after that things really don’t look that bad,” she continued. “Friday should be mostly dry with sunny spells. There will be rain overnight, and on and off through Saturday. But the rain won’t be heavy – it will be a humid, damp and cloudy day.” Temperatures will steadily climb over the weekend, with night-time temperatures on Thursday at around 8 or 9°C. By Sunday, the rain is expected to clear and the sun will hopefully come out. “Sunday looks like the best day of the week,” said Chivers. “It is likely to be dry and hot, as high as 23°C. Sunny spells are expected throughout Sunday.” Glastonbury 2011 Glastonbury festival Pop and rock Festivals Weather Rosie Swash guardian.co.uk
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enlarge Credit: AARP As an American citizen, voting in elections is a right and the key to our democracy even if the overall turnout isn’t always what we’d hope for. I’ve said that if at least 75% of the population came out to vote, corporations would have a much harder time getting away with bribing politicians and littering the airwaves with political ads that try to influence your vote. The scam that the media never talks about is the purging of voting rolls to make it harder–not easier as they claim–for Americans to vote in elections. I covered the Indiana Voter ID scam that the Supreme Court upheld on back in 2008 quite extensively. Voter suppression has been a big weapon used by Republicans for decades. In the 2000 election, voter suppression in Florida gave America eight years of Bush. EJ Dione tackles the subject in his latest article, How states are rigging the 2012 election : An attack on the right to vote is underway across the country through laws designed to make it more difficult to cast a ballot. If this were happening in an emerging democracy, we’d condemn it as election-rigging. But it’s happening here, so there’s barely a whimper. The laws are being passed in the name of preventing “voter fraud.” But study after study has shown that fraud by voters is not a major problem — and is less of a problem than how hard many states make it for people to vote in the first place. Some of the new laws, notably those limiting the number of days for early voting, have little plausible connection to battling fraud. These statutes are not neutral. Their greatest impact will be to reduce turnout among African Americans, Latinos and the young. It is no accident that these groups were key to Barack Obama’s victory in 2008 — or that the laws in question are being enacted in states where Republicans control state governments. Again, think of what this would look like to a dispassionate observer. A party wins an election, as the GOP did in 2010. Then it changes the election laws in ways that benefit itself. In a democracy, the electorate is supposed to pick the politicians. With these laws, politicians are shaping their electorates. GOP leadership in more and more states will do everything they can to disenfranchise voters and that should be highlighted by our media as unconscionable, but they are AWOL on this issue, as usual. Washington Monthly: A party comfortable with the notion of limits probably wouldn’t even attempt such an audacious scheme . Under the auspices of rooting out non-existent “voter fraud,” Republicans are passing voter-ID measures, approving new laws restricting voter-registration drives, and closing early-voting windows. It’s not subtle, but it is disgraceful. The GOP fears losing in a fair fight, so the party is trying to rig the game. Dionne added, “In part because of a surge of voters who had not cast ballots before, the United States elected its first African American president in 2008. Are we now going to witness a subtle return of Jim Crow voting laws?” Pretty much. The point of the GOP scheme is surprisingly similar to Jim Crow-era measures — identifying those the right doesn’t want to vote and passing laws that put barriers between them and the ballot box. That this might actually affect the outcome of the 2012 election should be a national scandal. That this is occurring with minimal media coverage is a national embarrassment.
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Two guards suspended for offensive comments posted on page belonging to man under investigation for alleged manslaughter A guard under investigation for the alleged manslaughter of Angolan detainee Jimmy Mubenga has used his Facebook page to post a mocking photograph of two other men, assumed to be other detainees, on an aircraft. Terence Hughes, from Portsmouth, who was arrested over Mubenga’s death last year and remains on bail, placed the image of two south Asian men on the social networking site last month. The Guardian can reveal Hughes has permitted a number of friends to post a string of racist and offensive comments below the image. Some of the posters are other guards accredited by the Home Office to escort detainees. The comments include offensive remarks about the men’s appearances, suggestions they should be on the “London to Bradford Express” and a joke that the men should have been in handcuffs shouting “kill me now”. Two serving guards have been suspended as a result of the Guardian’s investigation into the Facebook postings. Jonathan Sedgwick, acting chief executive of UK Border Agency, expressed his “deep concern” and said the Home Office had requested an immediate investigation. Sedgwick said: “None of the staff involved will work for the UK Border Agency while these claims are investigated. The prisons and probation ombudsman will begin an investigation into these allegations, at our request.” Mubenga, 46, a father of five, died on a British Airways aircraft preparing to depart from Heathrow airport for Angola in October. Passengers on BA flight 77 later said guards forcibly restrained Mubenga, who had been complaining he could not breath. One of the witnesses said Mubenga, who was in handcuffs, could be heard pleading for help and screaming: “They are going to kill me.” Hughes and the other two guards on the flight were arrested days later and suspended by their-then employer, the private security contractor G4S. Detectives from the Metropolitan police’s homicide unit are still investigating Mubenga’s death and considering whether to charge the guards with manslaughter. Police are liaising with the Crown Prosecution Service and may alternatively bring a corporate manslaughter charge against G4S, which recently lost its contract with the Home Office to deport foreign nationals. European employment regulations resulted in Hughes and other G4S staff being transferred to rival security firm Reliance when it won the contract for removals. Although their employer has changed, all three guards investigated over Mubenga’s death remain suspended. Two other serving guards employed by Reliance were suspended on Monday after it emerged they were among a list of Facebook friends of Hughes who left offensive comments beneath the photograph. “We are conducting a comprehensive investigation into these allegations and, should these be proven, we will take further steps which may result in the dismissal of those concerned or involved,” the company said. It was not known who the men pictured in the Facebook photograph are, or even whether they were detainees. Sources with detailed knowledge of immigration removals say guards sometimes take “trophy” photographs of detainees in their custody but the image may also have been sourced from the internet. Hughes posted the image on 8 May, along with the comment: ‘come on then….. whats up with this pic!’. His Facebook friends appear to have assumed the photograph to show two detainees, one of whom had mistakenly placed his aircraft seatbelt across his shoulder. The first comment was by a Facebook friend who gave his name as Matt McGrath and joked that one of the men had “Botox on his lips”. Another Facebook friend, Darren Parker, stated that he, too, had escorted a “depo” who had placed his seatbelt on incorrectly. Contacted this week, Parker denied his comment was offensive and expressed doubt over whether the picture was of detainees, adding: “It’s a funny picture regardless who they are”. The comments thread contains a number of references to handcuffs, seating arrangements and codes for notorious flights used to deport foreign nationals, an indication that some of those posting work in immigration removals. Another Facebook friend, Darren Barrow, wrote: “He hasn’t got two hairy arsed escorts either side of him. No cuffs and not shouting “Kill me now, I’m not a hanimal” lol [laugh out loud].” Contacted this week, he also suggested the image was sourced from the internet but gave no explanation for his Facebook posting. Another Facebook friend to post a comment beneath the photograph, Hardy Kohar, wrote: “Such a dumb fuck this bloke, first time on a plane & No Engrish lol.” Facebook has a user-friendly facility for deleting any messages that are offensive, but Hughes, who had Facebook privacy settings that allowed members of the public to see his page, made no attempt to remove the remarks. He has also made a number of other offensive postings on his Facebook page in recent months, including an apparent joke in January about a “smelly Arab”. Jimmy Mubenga Immigration and asylum Race issues Facebook Internet Social networking Paul Lewis Matthew Taylor guardian.co.uk
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