
I believe that despite the enormous odds which exist, unflinching, unswerving, fierce intellectual determination, as citizens, to define the real truth of our lives and our societies is a crucial obligation which devolves upon us all. It is in fact mandatory.
If such a determination is not embodied in our political vision, we have no hope of restoring what is so nearly lost to us: the dignity of man."
- 'Art, Truth and Politics' by Harold Pinter
The invasion of Iraq was a bandit act, an act of blatant state terrorism, demonstrating absolute contempt for the concept of international law. We have brought torture, cluster bombs, depleted uranium, innumerable acts of random murder, misery, degradation and death to the Iraqi people and call it "bringing freedom and democracy to the Middle East."
How many people do you have to kill before you qualify to be described as a mass murderer and a war criminal? 100,000? More than enough, I would have thought. Therefore, it is just that Bush and Blair be arraigned before the International Criminal Court of Justice...
- Harold Pinter, in his speech for Noble Prize for Literature in 2005
Democracy Now in their broadcast of 30th and 31st December played a remarkable speech of Harold Pinter. The last part of his speech is nothing short of the most telling truth about the hypocrisy of world powers and tremendous injustice. Harold Pinter gave the speech in December of 2005.
How many people do you have to kill before you qualify to be described as a mass murderer and a war criminal? 100,000? More than enough, I would have thought. Therefore, it is just that Bush and Blair be arraigned before the International Criminal Court of Justice...
- Harold Pinter, in his speech for Noble Prize for Literature in 2005
Democracy Now in their broadcast of 30th and 31st December played a remarkable speech of Harold Pinter. The last part of his speech is nothing short of the most telling truth about the hypocrisy of world powers and tremendous injustice. Harold Pinter gave the speech in December of 2005.
[>] Watch and Listen to this extra-ordinary speech here.
Source: Full transcript (and other media format) from Democracy Now December 31st archive

Born in 1930 into a Jewish family in London that had fled persecution in Poland and Odessa, Pinter began his career as a stage actor and wrote his first play, The Room, in 1957. Pinter was also well known as a vociferous critic of British and American foreign policy and an activist against nuclear proliferation, political repression and censorship. As early as 1948, Harold Pinter resisted joining the British military national service and registered as a conscientious objector.
Harold Pinter won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2005. In his Nobel acceptance speech, titled “Art, Truth, and Politics,” he strongly denounced the United States, its actions in Iraq and its policy of backing groups like the Contras in Nicaragua.
. 1st part of his speech can be watched and listened here.
. Transcript of his speech, video and audio: part 1, part 2
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