[Imc-uk-features] hiddens/CAAT feature proposal

[Roy Bard]

Hamish

There are massive concerns about the article - expressed by several people -
and a major one was confirmed by Mike Lewis, who acknowledged that:

"I think you're right that I probably should have made more effort to get
disarm to contribute directly to the article (but again, I'm very keen for
this not to be a 'disarm has a problem' thing - the fact is that the
anti-arms trade movement has a problem, and one organisation shouldn't bear
the brunt of it). After disarm's name was raised on this list yesterday, I
contacted them and asked them to contribute. If anyone else would like to do
so - particularly organisations who may have had recent contact with Martin,
please do so, either to me or on this list. "

The thing read like a press release for CAAT - and it is not, imho a good
idea for IMC to be seen to posting up CAATs version of events unchalleged
when both CAAT and Disarm are part of the social movement that IMC
represents - neither should the features be used for internecine struggels
between campaigns -  if this "story" is to be published - it needs to be
balanced by a response from Disarm and the other campaigns that CAAT claims
might be affected - in addition Martin himslef should be appraoched for a
response.

If someone is willing to take on writing a proposal for a feature that is
balanced, then that seems fair enough - but we should avoid a situation
where we activley contribute to destroying the camapigns against DSEi being
run by CAAT and disarm.

Before I hid that article, I did consult in IRC - we have no idea who "Alan
Petersen" is, and he proivides no eveidence that Martin may have passed
information to BAE or the Security Services in the "last few weeks" - nor
does he substantiate his claim that Martin works with Disarm.

The issue is already live on the newswire:
https://publish.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/07/319686.html and I am certain
that it is being widely discussed by anti-arms campaigners

This is therefore an objection within 24 hours.

ftp
-----Original Message-----
From: hamish [mailto:mishd at fastmail.fm]
Sent: 29 July 2005 13:23
To: Roy Bard
Cc: press at caat.org.uk; imc-uk-features at lists.indymedia.org
Subject: Re: [Imc-uk-features] hiddens/CAAT feature proposal


On Fri, 2005-07-29 at 11:52, Roy Bard wrote:
> 319950 - inaccurate - claim that Martin Hogbin may have passed information
> to BAE/Security Services in the last few weeks did not come from CAAT -
> alleged links with Disarm DSEi not substantiated - concern about veracity
of
> post by "L" as this contradicts decisions taken at Disarms meeting last
> night

I'm uncomfortable just hiding this.  There are issues that need to be
addressed, and it would be better to get it out in the open.

I think the original feature proposal should be added to the newswire
asap.

Then any inaccurate posts could be hidden (if we are sure they are
inaccurate) and have a comment added to link to the accurate newswire
post.  We may have to put some time into hiding trolling comments on
that post.

24 hours to object?

Hamish