Since George W came to Belfast last time (03) over one million Iraqis, mostly women and children (Lancet Report) have been slain. Most of the U.S. troops doing the slaying have passed through Shannon Airport, Ireland, to get to their victims.. 4,000 of their number have returned in body bags, 20,000 with serious injuries (amputations, loss of sanity etc) they will never recover from and another 20,000 evacuated with injuries they should recover from. Thousands of veterans have suicided on return..

Related Links: Whats going on in Shannon IAWM mobilisation Bush Not Welcome mobilisation

The six anti-war activists who occupied arms manufacturer Raytheon's offices in Derry and destroyed its computers have been acquitted by a jury in Belfast.

Derry Anti War Coalition calls on the office of the Attorney General and the Crown Prosecution Service, in light of the jury's verdict of 'not guilty' to criminal damage charges, to institute an investigation into the activities of Raytheon at its various plants across the UK, with a view to determining whether Raytheon is a criminal enterprise.

Related Links: www.raytheon9.org | Indy.ie coverage | Raytheon 9 Pamphlet

The Raytheon 9 are an inspiration. I just got a phone call from my friend Les who's trying to get a plane ticket to get to Belfast for the Raytheon 9 trial. Les hasn't been to Northern Ireland since he did three tours with the British military. He says is it is so exciting that socialists and republicans are experimenting with nonviolent direct action and he wants to be there to support them at the trial. He says that this would be a great way for him to return to Northern Ireland - confront his past and celebrate a future with a community in resistance to war.

Related Links: www.raytheon9.org Indy.ie coverage Raytheon 9 Pamphlet

As reports come in from Lebanon, an indy.ie correspondent is sending in on the ground, first hand reports

The General Strike started on May 7th when unions called for a strike to increase the minimum wage from 300,000 Lebanese pounds to 960,000 due to inflation in food and fuel prices. That's an increase from $200 per month to just over $600 per month, the Government offered a mere $100 of an increase. It was then revealed that Hizbollah had their own telecommunications network and the government demanded that they shut it down. There was to be a big demonstartion for the 7th but there were rumours that pro government militia snipers were goung to attack the demonstration and protests at the airport road so the unions backed down. However the strike went ahead and the usually intensely manic streets were empty of traffic.

Related Links:
BBC and some of Al Jazeera coverage is good
BBC: Gunmen take over West Beirut , BBC: In pictures: Lebanon crisis , Nakba 60th Anniversary
Left Wing Blogosphere marxist from Lebanon, Angry Arab News Service: Sursock, Farfahine

Seán Ryan reports on a frank and open discussion with the Mainstream Media with regard to how they report the war. Organised by Miriam Cotton and David Manning of MediaBite, and hosted by DIT, the discussion featured both working journalists and anti-war activists.

Panel:
Pepe Escobar - Asia Times / Real News Network
Dahr Jamail - Independent Journalist
Patrick Smyth - Irish Times Foreign Editor
Joe Zefran - RTE.ie News Editor
Harry Browne - DIT lecturer and journalist
Ciaron O'Reilly - Anti-war Activist
Fergal Keane - RTE Journalist

Related Links:
View the debate streamed at RTÉ.ie
Download the MP3 at archive.org

Fergal Keane 0.05 Mb Patrick Smyth 0.05 Mb Joe Zefran 0.05 Mb Audio of the debate - 2 hours approx. 16.86 Mb