[rerevisionist]

Apologies for this rather long piece. The organisation in question, ORG, is a British Quango, or at least a quango based in Britain. It publishes material both on supposed nuclear weapons and on supposed nuclear power. Many of you will be aware that corrupt funded 'think tanks' underpin a great deal of the fraud and lying which is now endemic. After a bit of burrowing.....

Oxford Research Group - oxfordresearchgroup.org.uk

This appears to be a British Charity (No. 299436) and also a Company Limited by Guarantee (No. 02260840). Charities are I'm pretty sure exempt from Freedom of Information enquiries, and of course many are set up for this reason.

I'm interested in this outfit because I suspect it's a solidly hypocritical Jewish front. The only issue appearing prominently is the Middle East, usually something of an indicator! It claims to have been founded in 1982, by people living in the Oxford area; it became a charity only in 1988. It now has London offices. It states it's funded by the EU and NATO among other sources; there's a non-exhaustive list on their website, including Rowntree, 'Network for Social Change', something called the Lifkind-Levy Trust, something else called the United States Institute of Peace; and plenty more. (Sums of money are not listed).

9/11: their typical statements include 'In an ORG report published in 2003 to mark the second anniversary of the 9/11 atrocities, Professor Paul Rogers compiles a detailed listing of the terrorist attacks, both thwarted and successful, over those two years.' They blame al-Qaida etc. Obviously ORG is not interested in the truth about 9/11!

I heard Frank Barnaby, who is, or is described as, a 'nuclear physicist' address a meeting in the House of Commons, on May 13th, 1996. Looking back, I think this may have been part of the process of promoting Vanunu - pretending Vanunu was a noble peace-loving guy.

Their main interest at the moment is 'Recording Casualties'; I'm unsure why this should be their main priority, rather than preventing them. Possibly it's to reduce charges of Jewish mass killings.

Their 'team' is: Dr Refqa Abu-Remaileh Project Manager for ORG's Human Security in the Middle East Programme. She works primarily with the Palestinian Strategy Group and Israeli

Jacob Beswick is project manager on the Recording Casualties of Armed Conflict programme’s International Practitioner Network project. He recently completed an MSc at the London School of Economics where he studied Comparative Politics with a focus in Nationalism and Ethnicity....

Susan Breau is Legal consultant to ORG's Recording Casualties in Armed Conflict Programme. She is Professor of International Law at Flinders University, Australia from July 2010. Her research interests are concentrated in public international law and the international protection of human rights, particularly those issues relating to the use of force.

Hannah Brock joined ORG as part of the Quaker Peace and Social Witness Peaceworker Scheme, which funds one-year placements with peace-making charities. She works as Project Officer for the ‘Sustainable Security and the Global South' project, ensuring that perspectives from ORG’s network in the global South continue to influence the programme's work.

Hamit Dardagan became ORG’s Consultant on Civilian Casualties in War in 2007. With John Sloboda he now co-directs ORG's Recording Casualties programme. He is co-founder and principal researcher at Iraq Body Count (IBC), where he has taken the lead on the development of IBC's analytic tools and outputs.

Vera Evertz is ORG's Head of Communications and Administration

Dr Khaled Hroub teaches Modern Middle Eastern: Politics and Identity at Cambridge University where he directs Cambridge Arab Media Project; author of Hamas: Political Thought and Practice (2000) and Hamas: A Beginner's Guide (2006). He publishes a weekly article on current affairs that appears in major six dailies in the Arab world. His forthcoming books is Political Islam:

Rachel Joyce is the legal consultant and researcher on the Recording Casualties of Armed Conflict programme. Rachel graduated with distinction from King's College, London, with an MA in Criminology and Criminal Justice. She received the ICPR Prize for Best Dissertation 2008/2009. She is concurrently undertaking PhD studies in King's College on the subject of dehumanisation ...

Chris Langdon is Oxford Research Group's Managing Director. From 1997-2008 he was a Programme Director at the Wilton Park conference centre where he ran their South East Europe programme. He is currently directing the "Communicating Europe project for the independent think-tank, the European Stability Initiative. It brings policy-makers and TV editors from the Western...

Elizabeth Minor is the Recording Casualties of Armed Conflict programme’s Researcher. She first joined Oxford Research Group as an intern in 2009 during which time she oversaw the inauguration of the practitioner network. She has since worked as a Researcher for Iraq Body Count. She holds an MSc in Comparative Politics, Conflict Studies from the London School of Economics and Political...

Professor Oliver Ramsbotham has been Chair of the Board since April 2007. He moved to the Department of Peace Studies at the University of Bradford in 1991, having worked several years previously as a consultant and writer with Oxford Research Group. At the Department of Peace Studies he was Professor of Peace Studies and Head of Department between 1999-2002. ...

Gabrielle Rifkind is Oxford Research Group Director of the Human Security in the Middle East programme. She is a group analyst and specialist in conflict resolution and is convener and founder of the Middle East Policy Initiative Forum (MEPIF). She has initiated and facilitated a number of Track II roundtables and hosts the media 'Liddite' Conversations with ORG. ...

Paul Rogers is Professor of Peace Studies at the University of Bradford, and Global Security Consultant to Oxford Research Group. Professor Rogers has worked in the field of international security, arms control and political violence for over 30 years. He lectures at universities and defence colleges in several countries and has written or edited 26 books,...

Salman Shaikh works on conflict resolution and mediation issues in the Middle East and South Asia regions. As a Nonresident Fellow at the Brookings Doha Center, his current focus is on the involvement of radical Islamic parties and movements in peace-making and state-building efforts... is also a Special Representative to the Muslim West Facts Initiative in Europe. In the past, he has held... Read less

John Sloboda is Co-Director of Oxford Research Group's Recording Casualties in Armed Conflict programme. From 2004 to 2009 he was Executive Director of ORG. Some concluding remarks on his six years in this role may be downloaded here. He is also Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the University of Keele, and an Honorary Professor in the Department of Economics at...

Michael Spagat is ORG's consultant on casualty recording and estimation. He is a Professor of Economics at Royal Holloway College, University of London. He gained his Ph.D. at Harvard University and has held faculty posts at Brown University and the University of Illinois. His papers on armed conflict have been published in Nature, New England Journal...

Ben Zala is the Manager of the Sustainable Security Programme at ORG. He is also a PhD candidate in International Relations at the University of Birmingham and Editorial Assistant for the academic journal Civil Wars (published by Routledge). He holds a Bachelor of International Relations with first class honours from La Trobe University, Melbourne. He has previously worked at Chatham House ...

None of these people appear to have the slightest expertise in nuclear physics. The same applies to their 'advisors', a motley bunch, who, again, all seem without any knowledge of nuclear physics. Their 'selection' of ten publications all assume that e.g. there is conflict in Afghanistan, Egypt, Libya, as in acts of God, with, no doubt, Iran to come - the Guardian and the BBC are quoted with reverence.

About a year ago I emailed Barnaby, pointing out defects in filmed nuclear tests, something he might just about be able to grasp. [b]I also emailed half a dozen or so people working there - degrees in things like town planning - John Sloboda, Paul Rogers, Hamit Dardagan, Chris Abbott, Fiona Harrison, Andy Roberts, Thomas Phipps, Rosie Holdsworth - but had no replies; their website now seems to have been rejigged so as not to mention them; or maybe they left, of course. Their publications include some on nuclear energy, nuclear power, the threat of nuclear Iran, and so on - all depressingly predictable. There was an interesting comment, however, to the effect that nuclear energy worldwide is only about 15% of the total (depending on how it's measured). I'd say this is consistent with the dumpload hypothesis.[/b]

[anordinaryamerican]

This is a bit of a coincidence. Are you looking for info on The Oxford Research Group?

AOA

[rerevisionist]

Well, if you have anything to say, go ahead! I've said how it is I've heard of them, and given my low opinion of them. Feel free to add material. (By the way, for some reason this thread was in 'Nuclear Power..' despite dealing with supposed international nuclear weaponry - I'll try to get it moved to 'General Discussion')