Olympic missile siting legal challenge refused

10/07/2012

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The London 2012 Olympics is due to start in less than three weeks. Preparations are almost complete and the huge cost of the Olympics has yet to be revealed. In the 21st Century one extreme cost will be the price of security. However it seems that for London 2012 there could be a human and personal cost too.

Residents in a tower block of flats in London learned that the UK military were planning to site surface to air missiles on top of the flats for the duration of the Olympics. Imagine. A letter drops through your door to tell that you are going to be a sitting target during the Olympics. Perhaps some tenants of the Fred Wigg council flats found out at the last minute. Who knows?

There will be six locations used by the miltary during the Olympics. Notably none are on the roofs of homes of politicians, Parliament or the aristocracy. Who would believe we were living in the 21st Century? In so many ways the UK is beginning to go backward.

Obviously the tenants were far from happy at the news that they and their homes had no value. Pretty it up however you like but that is the fact plain and simple. Yesterday it was revealed that they were to try and launch a judicial review.

Today July 10, 2012, the latest news is that has been refused. What a surprise, we don't think.

The MoD claim that positioning the missiles on the 17 storey flats would be appropriate and proportionate. The residents insist they would make the flats a potential terrorist target.

Justice Haddon-Cave took the side of the MoD. He said the tenants did not have a reason for a legal challenge and that they were under a misapprehension as to the sort of missiles to be used. 

There has been talk that perhaps the flats will be a decoy with missiles stationed elsewhere or just a ploy with no missiles used. In any case the tenants could be under threat. Perhaps Justice Haddon-Cave would like to move into the Tower block for the duration of the Olympics in order to put his money where his mouth is. Philip Hammond, UK Defence Secretary, and MoD officials could join him.

The location of the six sites is public knowledge as the image below shows. The Judge congratulated the MoD on the way it had behaved when consulting the tenants of Fred Wigg House. Ah where but the UK?

According to the BBC, the decision was signed off by the prime minister, deputy prime minister, home secretary and defence secretary in "defence of the realm". The tenants maintain that siting the missiles on their homes, breaches Article 8 and Article 1 of Protocol 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Of course in the Uk the authorities only seem able to uphold the rights of foreign nationals and not its own UK citizens.

Suggestion: Perhaps the missiles are needed. So let the government draw up a contract with those involved. One that pays for other accommodation for them during the Olympics. One that pays an additional sum of money for the inconvenience of leaving their home. One that guarantees to pay for any damage or loss of goods and home should an attack happen.

Then, and only then should they ask the residents if they will agree. The UK a free country? Is it?

Tags: where but the UK, London 2012, siting of Olympic  missiles, UK free country, Fred Wigg House, London council tenants, Judge Haddon-Cave
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Scaremongering re North Korea

13/04/2012

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The West has continued to develop nuclear weapons, it has researched other deadly alternatives, it has built and used deadly unmanned drones, it has plunged rockets into space causing unknown damage and it is continuing to play the hypocrite.

North Korea has this week attempted to launch what they claim was an rocket. The West believes it was something more sinister. It is thought by some that it was a potential weapon. The media especially that in the US and UK has today continued to scare monger. 

The launch was unsuccessful and unusually for North Korea that was soon announced to the World. I am surprised that sceptics did not claim this one was a cover up to the real launch. All countries play such dastardly deeds at times.

The news of the launch caused widespread condemnation from the West amidst claims that it broke UN requirements.The US was quick to suspend food aid it had pledged to North Korea. That is understandable. If the country does not have the money to feed its people should it be spending huge sums of money of missile or rocket launches and development? The suspension of the food aid will of course only hit the people hard and not those in power. Foreign food aid to a country like North Korea during such austere times in the West does sound foolish though.

According to CBS news, "This failure makes it even more likely that the North will now attempt a nuclear test in the not-too-distant future," American analyst Ralph Cossa, the president of Pacific Forum CSIS, said. "The rocket launch was supposed to demonstrate the regime's power and technical prowess. A nuclear test may now be seen as even more necessary, not just to further perfect their weapons capability, but also to save face." 

Hypocrisy again. The assumption could be true but until we clean up our own back yards who are we to judge. The UK, France, the US and more have a huge arsenal of destruction available, at the powers that be finger tips. It is only a matter of time before an accident, terror attack or War result in a leak or launch, or for that matter a lunatic pushes the button. The odds are if any happen it will be in the West. After all we are the ones with far more nuclear capabilities than is sensible.

Tags: Missile launch, rocket launch, failed launch, North Korean power, UN, the West, hypocrisy
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