Clearly censorship of this kind if unacceptable and I hope the only reason it is slipping by without a large contingent of the student body in protest is because we are entering an extremely stressful phase of the year, with examinations and all. To compare this to our competitor, Oxford, they rely on the student societies to regulate themselves in terms of controversial speakers - why does Imperial see the necessity to nanny us?

"he also highlighted how impersonal war and become, with the "rich countries" able to attack indiscriminately from a distance, whereas previously standing armies would have faced each other, similarly armed, across a battlefield."

Like in Iraq and Afghanistan?

What would he call Sept 11th if not an indiscriminate attack from a distance?

You've chosen to infer what you want from the story, he never claimed that 9/11 was not an indiscriminate attack. Whether it is or not is a separate question.

Are you implying that one justifies the other, or using that statement to try and excuse something horrific.

its not really an attack from a distance, but more frightengly (i cant believe i don't know how to spell that) close up. but thats not important,

in truth his speech upheld honorable ideals of peace, yes he did describe 9/11 as self-defence but it is important to understand that this view is not controversial amongst most muslims.

this does not mean that muslims support the 9/11 bombings, but rather that muslims are the quickest to look at it in terms of the causes of terrorism, and looking at 9/11 in terms of the motivations of the hijackers doesn't mean that your a terrorist, simply that you are more critical of the u.s. than the citizens of texas

what was attendance like in the end?

Congratulations to the person who provided the voice recording. It was easy to listen to and all voices were distinguishable. I was very interested in the speech and in the Q&A session.

George Bush and his allies should be put to trail in the ICJ in the Hague against humanity! Where are the WMD he claimed in Iraq, Where are the AlQaedas he says waging war on America in Iraq? Why must the Talebans be removed from power in Afghanistan, and the US-installed Karzai be better? The war against terror waged by Bush, Blair, etc. (read LIARS) are actually the neo-colonialism by the imperialists all in the name of human peace and morality. These leaders are actaulyy MURDERERS!

So let me get this straight - at the event about "criminalising war" the main speaker didn't stick to the topic of "criminalising war" choosing to spend at least some time on other topics.

Kind of makes a mockery of PPS's justification for inviting this man to speak. After all, we were told, he will be speaking about "criminalising war" so his views on other topics aren't relevant.

I don't think the PPS committee is biased but they certainly seem to have little or no idea about politics managing to invite speakers without having a clue on their politics and apparently thinking that they will stick completely to the topic PPS chose for them.

Post 7 was moderated?

Do we really have to listen to Muslim extremist views on here? Freedom of speech and all but it's getting a bit lame and tiresome with poorly educated losers spewing variants of Al Qaeda propaganda, riddled with spelling and grammatical errors.

As with most politics, apathy is the way forward. No-one outside of PPS and Muslim Malaysian communities cares about this has-been PM.

So he rants at the US - wow. He's nothing, a nobody. If a leader of a major power - say a Euro or large Asian country spoke out as he did, that may be worth listening to.

Post 7 was moderated. It is not illegal, and other posters are free to argue the case against it. Deleting posts just because the views are a little extreme would make us as bad as College.

i was at the lecture.

he did stick to the topic 'criminalising war'

if you had been there you would know that

He was a leader of major power, the nobody is you. His views are very interesting, even if I don't agree with them. I think you need to open your mind a little to other's views. As do many of IC students!

I have written a comment piece in Felix this week detailing my feelings on what we need to do to move froward. Please read it if you get the chance...