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in on over 300 radio and television

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stations around the country Pacifica and

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NPR stations Public Access TV and PBS

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stations and on both T satellite TV

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networks Dish Network channel 9415 Free

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Speech TV 9410 link TV and on Direct TV

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as well Channel 375 we're also

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broadcasting uh video and audio

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streaming at democracynow.org um the

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elections in Iraq have been held as a

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resounding success both by President

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Bush and British Prime Minister Tony

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Blair in a brief statement from 10

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Downing Street Blair said quote

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democracy in Iraq is not just good for

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Iraq itself it's also a blow right to

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the heart of the global terrorism that

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threatens destruction not just in Iraq

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but in Britain and virtually every major

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country in the world not all British

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government officials feel the same way

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Scottish MP George Galloway has been one

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of the most vocal critics of the Iraq

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War he was expelled by his own ruling

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party uh the labor party in October 200

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three after he was accused of

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encouraging British troops to disobey

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what he called illegal orders well

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yesterday I was in England in Ireland as

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part of the international exception to

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the rulers book tour with my colleague

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democ now producer Elizabeth press uh

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yesterday in London we bumped into

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George Galloway outside of BBC Studios

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and asked him about his thoughts on the

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Iraqi elections they're a farce they're

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rigged an election held under foreign

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military occupation is always by

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definition uh utterly flawed but one

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which is held in the kind of conditions

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in which this one is being held uh is

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flawed Beyond Redemption the facts are

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that it is simply impossible to hold an

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election when there's a full scale war

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going on between the occupying armies

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and the resistance forces the Sunni

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Muslim population which if you add the

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Sunni Kurds and the Sunni Arabs together

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some 40% of the population are deeply uh

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anxious about the way in which the

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occupying forces are deliberately trying

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to divide the country along uh

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confessional lines the Sunni Arab

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population has boycotted the election

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almost in their uh entirety the Iraqis

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living outside for whom security was not

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an issue three quarters of them have

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voted with their feet and boycotted the

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election less than a quarter of the

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eligible voters have registered to vote

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and fewer still have cast their votes so

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this is uh a festival uh a farce that's

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been held to validate the American

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British Invasion and occupation of Iraq

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uh but it will not validate it neither

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in the eyes of the world opinion uh nor

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more importantly in the eyes of those

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Iraqis who are resisting the foreign

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occupation and the war will go on I'm

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sorry to say so what do you see is going

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to happen and what are you calling for

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well there's a very great danger of what

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I call the Yugoslav isation of Iraq uh

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the petrifying of the population on

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ethnic and confessional lines uh and the

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country beginning a process of breaking

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up into three

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irqs which is pregant with many uh real

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dangers for the surrounding countries uh

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not just Arab countries but turkey and

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Iran uh and uh which could very well

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lead to fighting over oil resources and

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a spreading of the configuration which

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already exists there we have a very

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simple demand we say that the two uh

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leaders who caused this disaster cannot

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possibly be a part of its solution Bush

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and Blair and their forces will have to

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go from Iraq that's an absolute

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precondition for any resolution of this

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conflict and they must talk with the

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resistance about how they're going to do

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that over what period of time it' have

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to be a short period of time uh but I'm

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sure it could be organized by agreement

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with the resistance forces that sounds

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far today but it will one day have to be

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agreed just like the American uh forces

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had to withdraw from Vietnam so the

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American and British forces will have to

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withdraw from

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Iraq and what about the population in

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Britain now and what about today here we

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are at the BBC hearing all day the

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voices of people talking about going to

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vote and how exhilarated they are well

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uh we would like all the people of the

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Arab world to be able to go and vote in

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Democratic elections

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that's why if we'd been alive uh we

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would have opposed the British and

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French and other European colonization

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of Arab countries where incidentally

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there was never a single election held

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that could remotely be described as a

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free and fair election and it's why

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we're against all the dictatorships in

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the Arab world who rule the Arab world

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almost without exception from the

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Atlantic to the gulf mostly with the

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full support of Britain and the United

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States and we want Democratic elections

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in Iraq too but these are not Democratic

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elections and these elections will solve

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nothing and may even add to the problems

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but in Britain now uh 29% of the

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population support the Iraq War uh down

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from something like 68% at the height of

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the fighting and the fall of the regime

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in Baghdad that's a pretty spectacular

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fall and it will fall further still

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finally was at the times of London which

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newspaper settled with you and

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apologized well how long have you got

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all of them have settled and apologized

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um the Del Telegraph is the one I think

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you refer to which was my biggest

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Victory they had to pay me £50,000 in

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Damages and 1.6 million in Damages why

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uh because they falsely claimed that I

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was in the pay of the Saddam Hussein

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dictatorship the same kind of smear uh

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utterly baseless gigantic smear that

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they leveled at so many sections of the

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anti-war movement what they can't take

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you see is that we were right and they

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were wrong they were the bugle blowers

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for one of the most disastrous foreign

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polc policy decisions ever taken by

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Britain or America uh and I was amongst

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those who was telling them uh that this

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is going to end precisely in the way

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that it has ended and they don't uh they

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don't like that your comment on the

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latest uh we know about the abug gra

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prison scandal from US soldiers um you

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have your own scandal with British

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soldiers and then the Guantanamo Refuge

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the Guantanamo prisoners returning home

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here to Britain

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well you see the Ironclad consensus of

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the mainstream political parties the

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front benches and the BBC and the other

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mainstream media Outlets uh like to uh

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reassure each other that this is conduct

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unrepresentative of British occupation

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forces but I'm sorry to tell you it's

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entirely representative when Britain

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suppressed the Mau Freedom struggle in

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Kenya they killed a 100,000 Kenyans

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almost exactly the same number of Iraqis

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have been killed in the war and

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occupation they used to cut off the

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limbs of kikuyu tribes people and pin

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them to the wall and take photographs of

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them uh they used to pay British

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soldiers £5 per body for kikuyu that

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they brought in uh in Malay Mala when we

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crushed the Malayan Revolt for Freedom

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we killed 10,000 Mala I've seen pictures

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of British soldiers holding the severed

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heads of Malay uh people uh for the camp

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ceras this is how all occupations end

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these things don't happen because the

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soldiers in question are American or

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British anymore than uh General shon's

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Army behaves as it does because it's

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Israeli still less because it's Jewish

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they behave like that because they're

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occup occupying armies and all

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occupations end this way they end in the

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demonization the

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subhuman of the occupied people a belief

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in the inherent superiority of the

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occupying forces otherwise why should we

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be there reorganizing their societies

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and that inevitably leads when you're

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dealing with 17 19 21y old young men

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with uh Weaponry against helpless

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civilian populations it always ends in

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an abug grab British MP George Galloway

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we were speaking yesterday in London

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this is democracy Now