Geo-strategically the Al Qa’ida leadership (Azzam, bin Laden, Zawahiri) are products of the Cold War, specifically the Afghan Mujahidin war against the USSR. Rather like their American neo-con previous employers, Al Qa’ida view the end of the Cold War as a victory over the USSR by their own side. The Al Qa’ida perspective is that, having “defeated” one superpower, the global jihad now needs to turn its offensive against the remaining superpower.  Al Qa’ida worry that the Zarqawists of ISIS may be restricting the struggle to a parochial Mesopotamian sectarian struggle that could fail to engage Muslim jihadists around the world, outside the MENA region, say in West Africa or Indonesia and the Philippines  where the US is a more credible #1 enemy than Iran.

The following exploration of the policing of the anti-war demonstrations will be in two parts: the first will look at the change in policing through the eyes of a participant, a new activist, while the second will make a more thorough examination of the forces at work which lead to such a massive escalation in the policing of anti-war protest, particularly at Shannon, both on the side of the protesters and that of the gardaí.

While in Florida, Andrew Flood of the WSM attended a local 'Winter Soldier' hearing. These are public meetings where United States ex-soldiers of the Iraq testify against the war.

When it became clear to the Bush administration that weapons of mass destruction would not be found a tactical decision was made. The new focus of the invasion and occupation would be the "liberation of Iraq" and the creation of a "democratic state" as a model for the middle east. Unless "democratic state" means technocratic oligarichy willing to ally themselves with US interests in exchange for power, then one must thouroughly reject the veracity of this new focus.

The number of soldiers absconding from the British Army has trebled since the invasion of Iraq. The high profile case of RAF officer Malcolm Kendall-Smith, who has been jailed for refusing to return to Iraq to fight what he regarded as an illegal war, is an indication of the discontent within the armed forces.

Five peace activists have been acquitted of all charges in relation to their disarming of a US navy plane at Shannon airport in February 2003. The five, calling themselves the Pitstop Ploughshares, used axes and lump hammers to inflict over $2.5m worth of damage in what they described as a “non-violent ploughshares action”. In June they received a unanimous acquittal by using Section 6 of the Criminal Damage Act 1991 which allows for a “lawful excuse” where the damage is caused “in order to protect another or property belonging to another.” They say they were acting in defence of civilian life in Iraq, the local infrastructure, the lives of US soldiers and of Irish people who may become targets of a terrorist attack as a result of Irish complicity in the war.

The Workers Solidarity Movement supports the actions of the anti-war protestors who occupied and sabotaged American arms manufacturer Raytheon's Derry offices. Protesters occupied the plant for eight hours.

The peaceful and carnival atmosphere at yesterday evenings (Saturday 12 August) FEIC's monthly vigil in front of Raytheon was shattered when 2 landrovers full of riot gear clad PSNI de-bussed and began filming and corralling protesters.