Mohammad Awan

David Cameron last night defied mounting criticism over his arms mission to the Middle East – declaring that Britain has ‘nothing to be ashamed of’ for selling weapons to Arab leaders.

The Prime Minister accused his critics of being ‘at odds with reality’ after he was condemned for taking eight arms manufacturers on his tour of the Gulf.

They were invited to join his trip despite concerns that British-made equipment had been used by the Gaddafi regime to suppress unrest in Libya.

Nothing to be ashamed of: David Cameron meets the Emir of Kuwaiti in Kuwait City on day two of his visit to the Middle East

But yesterday an angry Mr Cameron said he could not understand why anyone would oppose his attempts to boost British defence sales in such a volatile region.

In a speech to the Kuwaiti parliament, he admitted that past British governments had miscalculated in their policy of propping up brutal dictators in the region.

The picture above is the first evidence that military equipment made in Britain is being used by Colonel Gaddafi against protesters in Libya.

The image is from footage captured by an amateur cameraman and smuggled out of Libya in recent days and shows an armoured personnel carrier speeding past demonstrators.

The vehicle has been identified as British-made and critics say the picture dramatically exposes the hypocrisy at the heart of Britain’s foreign policy: Our ministers offer vocal support to protest movements in the Arab world, but at the same time they are arming their despotic oppressors.

Across the region yesterday, in the emirate of Abu Dhabi, UK arms companies were busy peddling their wares.

Among the equipment being promoted at the Idex 2011, the Middle East’s biggest arms fair, were CS gas shotgun cartridges and stun grenades – precisely the type of weapons used by security forces to try to quell crowds of pro-democracy protesters.

According to ADS, the body that represents UK companies, an estimated £7.2billion worth of British defence exports are sold every year – half of which go to Middle Eastern countries.

Official figures show the UK Government approved at least 75 arms export licences to Libya since 2008, worth between £75million and £100million.
Since the election, British firms have sold crowd sniper rifles, tear gas and ammunition to Gaddafi regime.
Military export licences from Britain over the first nine months of last year totalled £64.3million to Saudi Arabia, £4million to Egypt, £270million to Algeria and £15.9million to the United Arab Emirates.

We sell combat helicopters, bomb-making parts, missiles, body armour, elements for unmanned drones, military software and heavy machine guns.

Of course Britain is not alone. According to data collected by Forbes magazine, from 2007 to 2010 the Pentagon persuaded Congress to approve $180billion worth of arms sales to the Middle East region with $100billion signed off since President Obama took office.

Marking the 20th anniversary of Kuwait’s liberation from Saddam Hussein’s forces, Mr Cameron said: ‘A properly regulated trade in defence is nothing we should be ashamed of.

‘The fact that there are British defence companies on this visit – BAe, Thales and others – is perfectly right in this regard.’

The Foreign Office has already revoked a series of export licences for Libya and Bahrain in the wake of the crackdowns on protesters in those countries. But Mr Cameron said it was right to do business with allies such as Kuwait.

‘The idea that Kuwait should not be able to have its own armed forces able to defend its own country, I find an extraordinary argument to make when we helped liberate the country,’ he said.

‘We have probably the toughest set of export rules probably anywhere in the world. It is obviously difficult to get it right on every occasion.’

An angry Mr Cameron told a journalist: ‘I simply don’t understand how you can’t understand that democracies have a right to defend themselves.

‘Are we honestly saying that for all time, countries like Kuwait have to manufacture and maintain every single part of their own defences?

‘There are very few people who would even consider that argument for any length of time and give it any consideration at all.’

But Yasmin Khan, senior campaigns officer at the charity War On Want, said: ‘As people in the Middle East risk their lives opposing authoritarian regimes, it is deplorable that David Cameron is seeking to exploit the crisis by promoting sales of weapons and torture equipment to the region.

‘Cameron should cancel this tour immediately and ban all UK companies from weapons deals with regimes that deny human rights to their people.’

Defence Secretary Liam Fox declared that Britain should retain a ‘healthy slice’ of the weapons industry. Speaking at the Civitas think tank in London, Dr Fox said: ‘We have to recognise that countries have a right of self-defence and not all of them have a defence industry so they will always buy externally.’

In his speech to the Kuwaiti parliament, Mr Cameron said that successive British governments have been guilty of ‘racism’ by propping up repressive regimes because of a belief that Arabs could not ‘do democracy’.

The Prime Minister said some of his predecessors’ policies had also helped foment instability in the Middle East by their failure to promote democracy.

The law firm that employs Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg’s wife has come under fire for lobbying on behalf of the Libyan regime.

DLA Piper reportedly advised the Libyans on how to get compensation from the EU for agreeing to stop the migration of Africans from Libya to Europe, although Miriam Gonzalez Durantez, Mr Clegg’s wife and a senior partner in the firm, is understood to have had nothing to do with the Libyan work.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1359712/David-Cameron-Its-wrong-sell-arms-Middle-East.html?printingPage=true

A former soldier brutally beat his girlfriend’s eight-year-old son into a coma because he accidentally deleted a game on his Xbox.

Rocky Donadio, a father-of-two, stomped on the boy’s stomach so hard he permanently damaged his internal organs. The boy will have to be fed through a tube for the rest of his life.

A jury in Comanche County, Oklahoma, took just 30 minutes to find Donadio, 32, guilty of child abuse by injury. He now faces 75 years in jail.

The conviction comes despite an online ‘Donadio is Innocent’ campaign by his sister and former platoon sergeant.

They describe him as a keen angler, who is ‘patient, affectionate, and nurturing to his children as well as to the children to whom he has been a father figure for the past year.’

The boy spent five months in a coma after Donadio punched him and stomped on his stomach because he accidentally deleted his profile on Grand Theft Auto, an ultra-violent video game.

Doctors had to remove part of his pancreas and intestines, and he will probably have to be fed through a tube for the rest of his life, the Seattle Weekly reports.

Donadio and the boy’s mother originally claimed he had fallen off his bed after the attack in August 2009, but detectives began to investigate when hospital officials told them the boy’s injuries were too serious for a minor accident.

Guilty: A jury in Comanche County, Oklahoma, took just 30 minutes to convict Rocky Donadio of child abuse by injury. He faces 75 years in jail

Online campaign: A picture of Rocky Donadio from the blog his sister used to protest his innocence

They then changed their story, claiming he had been wrestling with his brothers and sisters, and then that one of them had jumped off the bed onto his stomach.

But when the boy woke up from his coma, he told police Donadio had repeatedly stomped on him and beaten him as punishment for his mistake.

Captain Will Hines, of the Lawton Police Department, said at the time: ‘The problem we had is the victim in this case was incoherent for the longest time. Detectives could not interview him to ask him what had happened, the other siblings were obviously scared, didn’t know what to do.’

The jury set a 75-year jail term on Thursday, but Donadio will be formally sentenced on April 14.

DailyMail

A schoolboy trying to save his youth club was hauled from class after his plan to protest outside David Cameron’s constituency office was spotted – by anti-terror police.

In an astonishing over-reaction, 12-year-old Nicky Wishart was warned he faced ARREST.

“I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “The policeman asked me lots of questions about why we were having a protest and who would be there.

“I said it was simply because we didn’t want our youth centre to close – it’s a fantastic place to go and there isn’t much else for us to do round here.”

The full-scale security operation swung into effect days after Nicky made an innocent request on Facebook to “save our youth centre”.

The surprised boy was told police were now monitoring his Facebook posts – which are mainly gossip and banter from school about lessons and friends’ haircuts.

He was told he would be responsible for any “trouble” at the well-mannered picket on Friday night.

Public-spirited Nicky, one of the PM’s constituents in the Oxfordshire seat of Witney, said: “All this is because Mr Cameron is our local MP and it’s a bit embarrassing for him.”

He said the police arrived during an English lesson on Tu e s d a y afternoon.

“I was taken out of class – and the policeman said, ‘Are you aware that the anti-ter-rorist squad are looking at your Facebook account?’ He said that if anything got out of hand, they would arrest people.

“Then he said that I could get arrested for organising it. I was frightened and wished my mum was with me.”

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Nicky, who describes himself as a “maths geek, not a rebel or rioter”, said: “Then the policeman asked, ‘Does your mum know about this?’ I said, ‘Yes, of course, she supports it.’ “But the policeman carried on, ‘Are you sure your mum wants you out protesting at night?’ He was trying to scare me off – but there was no way I wasn’t going to go.”

In opposition, Mr Cameron often spoke of the need to keep youth clubs open to give youngsters a constructive way to spend their time.

He said in 2007: “Before people break the law, we need strong families, we need youth clubs, we need things to divert people from crime.”

But, as part of the Con-Dem cuts, Tory-run Oxfordshire County Council is axing £4million of funding for 20 clubs – including the one in Nicky’s home village, Eynsham. The council claims volunteers might take over as part of Mr Cameron’s “Big Society”.

But Nicky says that if funding for the five staff at the centre is removed, it will be forced to close in March. The wellused centre, catering for children aged 10 to 18 has a music room, pool table, table-tennis and coffee bar.

Nicky set up a Facebook group called Save All UK Youth Centres, which now has 649 members.At Friday’s hour-long demo, he, his sister Beth,14, and a dozen friends waved home-made placards outside the PM’s office in Witney accompanied by two youth workers.

The picket was watched by four police officers on the other side of the street. Two more officers were nearby.

Liz Brighouse, leader of the council’s Labour group, said: “For anti-terror police to get involved is complete madness. This is a community-spirited 12-year-old we are talking about.”

Nicky’s mother Virginia, 41, said: “The school phoned on Monday to say the anti-terror police had been looking at his Facebook. I said it was OK for police to speak to him, but assumed I’d be there and I was appalled they interviewed him without me. Nicky has done nothing wrong. He’s been brought up to be respectful and I support what he’s doing.”

Thames Valley police said an officer interviewed Nicky, with his head of year sitting in.

A spokesman said: “This was not to dissuade his protest but to obtain information to ensure his and others’ safety.”

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/12/12/boy-of-12-hauled-out-of-class-by-police-over-david-cameron-facebook-protest-115875-22778944/