Just on LinkTV: Stealing A Nation-A Special Report by John Pilger

[babylonsister]

I only caught the tail end of this, but it looked worthwhile; catch it if you can!

http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/steal.html

Stealing a Nation
A Special Report by John Pilger

Award-winning reporter John Pilger exposes how the British Government expelled the population of a group of islands, including Diego Garcia, so the US could build a military base.

STEALING A NATION is an extraordinary film about the plight of people of the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean - secretly and brutally expelled from their homeland by British governments in the late 1960s and early 1970s, to make way for an American military base. The base, on the main island of Diego Garcia, was a launch pad for the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

A remarkable dossier of evidence has been put together by Pilger and producer Chris Martin, all from official files, charting one of the most shocking conspiracies of modern times, which continues today.

Diego Garcia is America's largest military base in the world, outside the US. There are more than 4,000 troops, two bomber runways, thirty warships and a satellite spy station. The Pentagon calls it an "indispensable platform" for policing the world.

Before the Americans came, more than 2,000 people lived on the islands, many with roots back to the late 18th century. There were thriving villages, a school, a hospital, a church, a railway and an undisturbed way of life. The islands were, and still are, a British crown colony. In the 1960s, the government of Harold Wilson struck a secret deal with the United States to hand over Diego Garcia. The Americans demanded that the islands be "swept" and "sanitized". Unknown to Parliament and to the US Congress, the British government plotted with Washington to expel the entire population - in secrecy and in breach of the United Nations Charter.

[drduffy]

1. Support of tyranny....

All these years.... I hardly knew. I have been supporting corporatist/military-industrial tyranny. Caught up in the world of school and work. Not noticing. Until five years ago.

Now what do we do other than revolution? I lay odds that the elections will either not happen or make no diff. So what will YOU do?

[QuestionAll...]

2. makes you cry, doesn't it?

kinda like finding out your dad, whom you adore, had been raping your neigbors kids when they were at your age.

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

3. Here's a link to download it

It's in Real format (Real Alternative is the best way to play this - just google it & you'll find a download link) and a little low-res, but perfectly watchable despite only being 40 megs:

http://www.indybay.org/uploads/stealing_a_nation.rm

I can't remember when it was made as there have been several developments in the last couple of years - most recently a fantastic court victory:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4760879.stm

although the Government has decided to appeal against the decision so on it goes. Here's a good site for current news:

http://www.chagossupport.org.uk/

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While I'm at it, here's some more Pilger documentaries online:
http://video.google.co.uk/videosearch?q=pilger+

& as a general FYI, there's a boxset of several Pilger films coming out in the UK on DVD around September:

Includes: The Quiet Mutiny, Do You Remember Vietnam, Death of a Nation - The Timor Conspiracy & Year Zero - The Silent Death of Cambodia. Chronicling the shameful injustices of the Asia-Pacific region from the battle fields of Vietnam to the killing fields of Cambodia and the bloody Indonesian invasion of East Timor.

The listing says the total running time is 650 minutes