The Russians call it Kompromat – the use by the state of sexual accusations to destroy a public figure. When I was attacked in this way by the government I worked for, Uzbek dissidents smiled at me, shook their heads and said “Kompromat“. They were used to it from the Soviet and Uzbek governments. They found it rather amusing to find that Western governments did it too.
Well, Julian Assange has been getting the bog standard Kompromat. I had imagined he would get something rather more spectacular, like being framed for murder and found hanging with an orange in his mouth. He deserves a better class of kompromat. If I am a whistleblower, then Julian is a veritable mighty pipe organ. Yet we just have the normal sex stuff, and very weak.
Bizarrely the offence for which Julian is wanted for questioning in Sweden was dropped from rape to sexual harassment, and then from sexual harassment to just harassment. The precise law in Swedish, as translated for me and other Sam Adams alumni by our colleague Major Frank Grevil, reads:
“He who lays hands on or by means of shooting from a firearm, throwing of stones, noise or in any other way harasses another person will be sentenced for harassment to fines or imprisonment for up to one year.”
So from rape to non-sexual something. Actually I rather like that law – if we had it here, I could have had Jack Straw locked up for a year.
Julian tells us that the first woman accuser and prime mover had worked in the Swedish Embassy in Washington DC and had been expelled from Cuba for anti-Cuban government activity, as well as the rather different persona of being a feminist lesbian who owns lesbian night clubs.
Scott Ritter and I are well known whistleblowers subsequently accused of sexual offences. A less well known whistleblower is James Cameron, another FCO employee. Almost simultaneous with my case, a number of the sexual allegations the FCO made against Cameron were identical even in wording to those the FCO initially threw at me.
Another fascinating point about kompromat is that being cleared of the allegations – as happens in virtually every case – doesn’t help, as the blackening of reputation has taken effect. In my own case I was formerly cleared of all allegations of both misconduct and gross misconduct, except for the Kafkaesque charge of having told defence witnesses of the existence of the allegations. The allegations were officially a state secret, even though it was the government who leaked them to the tabloids.
Yet, even to this day, the FCO has refused to acknowledge in public that I was in fact cleared of all charges. This is even true of the new government. A letter I wrote for my MP to pass to William Hague, complaining that the FCO was obscuring the fact that I was cleared on all charges, received a reply from a junior Conservative minister stating that the allegations were serious and had needed to be properly investigated – but still failing to acknowledge the result of the process. Nor has there been any official revelation of who originated these “serious allegations”.
Governments operate in the blackest of ways, especially when it comes to big war money and big oil money. I can see what they are doing to Julian Assange, I know what they did to me and others (another recent example – Brigadier Janis Karpinski was framed for shoplifting). In a very real sense, it makes little difference if they murdered David Kelly or terrified him into doing it himself. Telling the truth is hazardous in today’s Western political system.
Why are the cops reportedly being blocked from doing their job?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1306842/Gareth-WIllams-Riddle-murder-spys-money-trail.html?ITO=1490
Kompromat ? No, it’s the shop, just off in a side-street not far away. Or maybe a handy booth at the entrance to the supermarket.
Put your coins in the slot, the flash goes off, and hey presto ! a strip of photos of you doing embarrassing things with people you could swear you never met.
Whereas Kompromol, of course, is a fizzy analgesic and gets rid of 99.9% of all hangover headaches and is recommended by 97.3% of white-teethed dentists. Kompromol: Good for the morning after.
(I need a ‘Remember the ‘Remember me” button).
And then we wander right into Phil Dick territory with Nokompromol, the ultimate morning-after pill; makes the things you did last night never have happened. “Safe if used as directed”.
But in that case, of course, the dentist wasn’t really a dentist. “What white teeth you have, Granny”.
The other day, upon the stair
I saw a dentist, smiling fair.
His teeth were there again today,
I think they’re from the CIA.
Oh dear. More coffee, I think …
CIA doesnt have anything to do with this.Thats DoD trying to do something,and that something is illegal.
Richard, I like it! Is that one of your tunes? You could turn it into a chant – sounds a bit like Country Joe and the Fish.
Is it a bird?
Is it a plane?
No, it’s my President
LBJ
Suhayl,
You have gotten very cynical bless you – let us know more on the sis guy links etc – the whole thing has made me bit nervous – remember I have an sis contact – just a mere comms/electronics guy – but still a source.
from Saudi Arabia i say thanks to Mr.Craig Murray and Julian Assange , both are true heros, peaple like you both are the light of this dark world
the vanguard of goodness
i wish we have the freedom to do what you do
god bless you all
The death of the poor guy in the sports holdall is being investigated by the CIA too, as he had dealings with them. So I read, but I can’t give you the source as I can’t find it! (I use three browsers … and when the laptop slows down, I do a big clean-up operation which clears out all sorts.)
How can they announce so confidently that he was stabbed, and now say that he was neither stabbed nor shot, and that he “may have died innocently”? Innocently? And his body stuffed into a sports holdall? Why and by whom?
http://tinyurl.com/362ogel
And they wonder why we get suspicious.
I use three browsers dreoilin, ie8 in case something doesn’t work (jscript) firefox 4.0 beta 2 in ‘secure mode'(no history/cookies) and google chrome because I like the thumbnails – yes, good idea clear out history because I once noticed a ‘secure’ connection was trying to access my history in Mozilla firefox.
Suhayl and Qark,
Suhayl: Here is a link to the last incident when I was pushed in the ocean, by the beach, and held down as a warning – reported in The Times (http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/32458,news-comment,news-politics,charles-laurence-lifts-the-lid-on-the-shady-politics-of-a-british-owned-sunshine-isle-in-the-caribbean) I am the lawyer referred to, but not actually named.
It is just that I have taken on public interest cases, and sometimes the intelligence services and others are not pleased with the work I do.
Qark: “”If the disclosed documents are accurate and would not otherwise be within public domain, it is better to have an informed – rather than an uninformed public.”
But you make the error of assuming that the public will be informed by the documents. Why should we believe that? ”
Clearly when governments release documents that is always done selectively. Surely, if this man is releasing additional information, the be it for the general public, academics, researchers, journalists etc, then surely more information is better than less to decide upon the rights and wrongs of public issues.
CB
“Gone are the days when agents were recruited after a discreet word from their Oxbridge tutor. In the 21st century, spooks are recruited like anyone else. Posts are publicly advertised, and hopefuls must first sit the kind of psychometric test – devised to reveal their powers of analysis and observation – that many blue chip companies now employ.”
“http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1306233/Did-killer-MI6-spy-Gareth-Williams-steal-state-secrets.html”
Wrong – the emphasis at the initial interview is how good you are at talking yourself OUT of a situation which may have compromised your mission and how good your knowledge is of the technical requirements for the post.
Courtenay,
Is globaljusticeonline.com your own website – I note it is registered to American Association of Amateur Astronomers.
Most of the discussion here is BS rambling by the Craig Murray groupies. Five consecutive posts by Saadi attempting to enforce Craig Murray’s ridiculous thesis that because he has been accused of molestation and rape, the former charge still standing, Assange must be an honest man intent on informing the public.
But Courtenay Barnett, at least, addresses a real issue:
“So, is it better to have more information that one can grapple with – or less?”
If the more information has been carefully filtered to mislead, then it is better that the public, distracted by media nonsense and misinterpretation, have less.
The great majority of the public will not take the trouble, if they had the capacity, to analyze what the Sun or the Timesey tells them.
There are many other questions that need to be addressed. Who selected the documents for release, and what was their purpose? Did they intend to inform the public or deceive them? Unless we know who the whistle blower is, we are unlikely to answer that question. To think that Assange is the whistle blower is to fall for a major deception. Assange is merely serving as a conduit for information that the whistle blower could easily have transmitted to the NY Times and the Guardian without an intermediary. Why, one wonders, did they not do it that way?
And if their intention was to inform, what was the competence of the whistle blower to assess the documents to which they had access? Were they really competent to achieve their purpose, or are they some low level person without access to much of the most relevant material?
Comparisons are being made between the release of the Afghanistan Papers and the release by Daniel Ellsberg of the Pentagon Papers. But there is almost certainly no valid comparison. Ellsberg was directly involved in Operation Phoenix, a CIA program of mass murder, which Ellsberg enthusiastically supported. When he released information on this program, he knew what he was talking about, although what his intention in talking about it may have been remains unclear to this day.
http://www.counterpunch.org/valentine03082003.html
The MI6 ‘safe flat’ in Alderney Street according to land Registry documents reveal that the block at number 36 is owned by a private company, New Rodina, whose details are hidden because it is registered in the British Virgin Islands and is not listed with Companies House.
The owner is a Russian company (note the ruskies are trying to get a valid signature of our SSBN’s)
http://once-upon-a-time-in-the-west.blogspot.com/
To: Courtenay Barnett “It is just that I have taken on public interest cases, and sometimes the intelligence services and others are not pleased with the work I do.”
If you do take on these cases, good on you. You are a rarity. It takes courage to take on such cases; and few lawyers are up to it. It’s been my experience that lawyers will not take on any cases where they feel they might go against the intelligence services or the establishment. And if they did, the judges would slap them down anyway (I read your earlier comment on Denning with interest ?” “he was very much a willing sheep on the Bench”).
Take a look at Abe Rene’s comment (August 23, 2010 1:04 PM ) on Craig’s blog of August 19th on Gita Sahgal ?” “Human rights lawyers appear to be reluctant to help her”. From this it seems that even Amnesty International is a powerful enough establishment in the Human Rights field to ensure that their opponents are without legal help. People with real human rights cases against the intelligence services or the establishment can forget about the law; they only have one remedy ?” publicity.
Courtney, the truth I am sorry to tell you is this ?” lawyers and Judges will not help with cases where the establishment or intelligence community are opposed. If you are different, you are indeed a rarity. As for your T & C case. Good luck. Alleged corruption of this magnitude at top government level in a Crown Colony would in my opinion have required some Westminster protection; since our government has changed with different Ministers in office, it may just be that the truth will indeed be allowed to surface now
Wikileaks latest – CIA perception control:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1008/S00181/wikileaks-red-cell-cia-release-say-what.htm
“Richard, I like it! Is that one of your tunes?”
Not yet … it might fit a polka ?
It’s not really mine, just my own mangling of a things that’s been knocking around on the ‘net for ages :-
The other day upon the stair
I met a man who wasn’t there.
He wasn’t there again today,
I think he’s from the CIA.
I’ve no idea who was originally responsble for it.
And, yes, that was the LP with Feel Like I’m Fixing to Die, wasn’t it ? Some things never go away, dammit.
Gaah. That was me at 8:45, sorry.
It would not be a suprise if someone tried to snare JA. However, this is normal procedure in sweden. If you are a male and have sex you will face the risk not only to be accused for rape but maybe even sentenced. Virtually no hard evidence is requiered in those cases. It is really great that this “incident” now is known to the world because that also explains why Sweden have 3-8 times as many rape charges as the neighburing countries and actually is second in the world. JA was saved by his status, in sweden a lot of males are accussed for rape (that also has a very wide definition compared to other countries) and many are sentenced with no hard evidence at all.
@ Roderick et. al.
As regards my web site the registration relates to the fact that the web master is a member of the “American Association of Amateur Astronomers”. I pay for it, it is my web site.
So far as the question of which cases lawyers are willing to accept, you are correct Roderick. The majority do not necessarily seek to go out of their way to do that which is right, if wrong necessitates conveniently siding with the corrupt Judge or establishment.
With TCI do not look for justice any time soon. The chief prosecutor is the same lady ( Helen Garlick) who did the BAE prosecution. Recall that when the truth started to emerege in that case, and things were being revealed too far up the establishment ladder, the case was stopped “in the national interest”. Consider who funded the Conservative party and who has major investments in the TCI. Why has it taken this long to prosecute by actually instituting criminal proceedings? So, don’t be surprised if the result is ultimately similar to the BAE case. Sometimes it is not that easy to separate the local corrupt baby from dirty British bathwater.
Dreoilin,
“laptop slows down” – try Ubuntu Linux! You don’t even have to install it; you can boot up from its CD-ROM without affecting your Windows installation at all.
Really, folks; if you knew what some of the Windows Malware was being used for, you’d ditch Windows immediately. From WikiLeaks (CP = Child Pornography):
“the installed Trojans are sometimes used as a SOCKS proxy to upload CP. The Russians have even worked out a schema to use infected computer as a network combing these infected computers (each computer would be part of a huge, redundant cluster) as a kind of huge, distributed and remote servers can be (a kind of Freenet Project, however, by using infected computers as the nodes). I want to make one thing clear: if you have an email address, there is a possibility that there is child pornography on your computer because you have received CP advertising. And if your computer is not 100% safe against Trojans, viruses and rootkits, there is the possibility that your computer is part of the vast child pornography network”.
Roderick,
Tell me this. How can the corrupt investitgate or effectively prosecute the corrupt?Surely, the legal issue narrows to the UK’s Article 73 obligation under the United Charter. But who really gives a hoot about the Rule of Law and abiding by any legal obligation? Guess we need to read Article 2 of the UN Charter and ask Tony Blair about the Iraq invasion. READ on, and see just how the corrupt game is being played out in the colony. From The Independent 31st May, 2010:-
UK faces revolt in Caribbean as islanders demand bailout
By Stephen Foley in Providenciales
Monday, 31 May 2010
Charges of corruption have been levelled in the British colonial outpost of Turks and Caicos Islands
Britain is facing a revolt against its rule of a group of Caribbean islands, amidst a gathering political and economic crisis in the country.
The Foreign Office suspended parliamentary democracy in the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) last August after a group of visiting MPs uncovered evidence of widespread corruption in the territory, one of 14 colonial outposts for which the UK still has responsibility.
But an investigation by The Independent has found that the economic situation in the country has deteriorated sharply since then, and islanders are demanding a financial bailout of tens of millions of dollars.
Related articles
@ Roderick,
If you really understood the situation in the TCI, you may then begin to understand that it is quite the opposite of what you posted:-
“… since our government has changed with different Ministers in office, it may just be that the truth will indeed be allowed to surface now”
Actually, it is quite the reverse of what you think.
How can the Conservatives delve into their point man and main funder – you tell me. It’s a non-starter, but have you even begun to understand the depths of the corruption from Britain to the colony?
PS. I accept your observation and criticism of lawyers, but how does that compare with international corruption and global arms trading? One big dirty mess.
@Roderick,
Just ask yourself a few questions on this one.
Why would Her Majesty’s Government want to finance the Turks and Caicos Islands with a US$85m loan from First Carribean Bank, when the TCI as a dependent territory of the UK will be subject to, higher interest payments and the UK msut underwrite the loan with contingent obligations for any soverign debt it negotiates? Surely, by not making a direct loan/grant from the UK, the interest factor ultimatrely must be a greater burden on the UK government? What earthly advantage is there in mounting the colony’s debt burden, when the UK has a primary duty to address the colony’s financial problems ( see: Article 73 UN Charter)- but the UK instead leap-frogs to lend to independent countries or bribe the Saudi and in the Middle East to procure contracts, while ignoring its direct responsiblity. Who the hell really is corrupt?
Something rotten in the state of Denmark, or elsewhere – I guess.
READ: THE LOAN DOCUMENT – YOU DECIDE – http://file.wikileaks.org/file/turks-loan.pdf
@ Craig ( off topic but interesting),
I came across this from the Jerusalem Post.
I make the point that, if the Muslims have their fundamentalists ?” then ?” surely too do the Jews:-
‘Sinner’ singer given 39 lashes by rabbis
By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
08/27/2010 02:45
Punishment for performance in front of “mixed audience.”
A singer who performed in front of a “mixed audience” of men and women was lashed 39 times to make him “repent,” after a ruling by a self-described rabbinic court on Wednesday.
Rabbi Amnon Yitzhak, founder of the Shofar organization aimed at bringing Jews “back to religion” (hazara betshuva), has made it his recent mission to fight against musical performances for both men and women.
His “judicial panel,” with Rabbi Ben Zion Mutsafi and another member, sentenced Erez Yechiel to 39 lashes in order to “rid him of his sins.”
In a video clip of the court posted on the Shofar Web site, Ben Zion said that those who make others sin (mahtiei rabim), such as artists who make men and women attend performances or dance together, have no place in the world to come.
He displayed a leather strip he said was made by his father from ass and bull skin, with which Yechiel was to have been whipped.
Yechiel, who said, “I accept upon myself the lashing for my sins,” was ordered to stand by a wooden poll with his head facing north (“from whence the evil inclination comes”), his hands tied with a azure-colored rope (“a symbol of mercy”), and served his “sentence.”
TURKS & CAICOS
Courteney ?” Strikes me that the UK government just wants to refinance (and repay) existing bank loans ?” perhaps the security on the old loans was not sufficient to have stopped a total default. This new loan is very secure with telecom revenues, etc. hypothecated. It’s a hammer. The TCI citizens will have to service it since the loan agreement seems to give the right to just step in and grab the taxes. Didn’t something similar happen in China in the 1920s when customs revenues were hypothecated?
I know the development and hospitality industry in the Caribbean and other parts of the world, though not TCI. These problems initially lie with corrupt and greedy politicians / bureaucrats who seem to think that being elected to office is a license to plunder their own countries. But TCI is a Crown Colony and this could not have happened without the knowledge and involvement of Westminster.
Yes, Courtenay, as you say, something is wrong in the State of Denmark. Worldwide, there seems to have been a huge decline in ethical standards over the last 25 years. Proportionately the financial problem this gives TCI is far less than the problem government has given the UK taxpayer in bailing out our bankers during the recent financial fiasco; but the numbers on the UK bank bailout are so big that people can’t relate to them. I don’t envy you your task and suspect it is a little like an iceberg ?” you will only have seen the tip of it so far, but when you delve into it, may find corruption piled on corruption. Nowadays politicians seem to see election to office not as an opportunity to give public service, but simply as an opportunity to get ones snout in the trough.
I can now see the error of my ways. I fully acknowledge that I have been behaving like a fool and am handing in my resignation to the Agency with immediate effect. I don’t care what they say any more. A few weeks on here they told me to begin with and it just never ends. I have had a few too many drinks tonight and admittedly shouldn’t have, but I have had enough of this. Goodbye.
More on Dr Kelly RIP. If only the dead could talk.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1306898/David-Kelly-A-textbook-suicide-Intriguing-file-tells-different-story.html
Elsewhere in the press, it’s arise Sir Tony from the Pope to Bliar!
He is off to Ireland next week on a book flogging execise. He seems to be occupying his own bit of the stratosphere.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0827/1224277687863.html
Mark, all good wishes and be safe and well and good on you for your courage.
Courtney, likewise, the account you’ve related – something which I and I’m sure many others really do appreciate – is both intriguing and terrifying and attests to the power and corruption of those who rule us all. I salute you, man.
TM, as I’ve written on this and the previous threads (if you’d read back, you’d have seen that), I’m not at all sure of the truth in relation to the Wikileaks dynamic. I’m engaging in discourse, which means I try to argue in a constructive manner with other bloggers about subjects, but I freely admit that I haven’t always attained a state of absolute certainty about everything – indeed, about anything.
It’s very difficult for people like me, who (thankfully) do not have access to the more direct experience and knowledge of those such as Roderick Russell, Craig Murray, Courtney Barnett and Mark Golding, for example, to really get a handle on what’s going on. There is SO much information out there with claims and counter-claims, dissidents and those who claim some or all dissidents (unless they’re dead; mortality confers beatification, it seems) are really tools of the state, gatekeepers, etc., etc., it becomes very difficult to know anything at all. This is probably one of the aims of those in power and is also a product of our modern technological world. It was much simpler – though not easier – in the days of the Inquisition!
The “five consecutive posts” were made because I had little time (re. Assange) and later was “behind the curve” (as I’d said) on the GCHQ man’s murder and so posted when I was able, and when I had surfed the appropriate info., rather than writing a single, longer, post, which is what I would have done normally. Please be reassured that there is nothing suspicious in it!
Thanks for the Counterpunch link; it’s a fascinating article. I know one or two of the people who’ve had material published in Counterpunch.
Of course, I’ve also read stuff that casts aspersions at those who run Counterpunch itself, much as the piece in Counterpunch is doing with Ellsberg.
So what, then, is one supposed to believe?
A hall of mirrors, every one of which leads ultimately to the Devil – and possibly to pessimism, despair and inaction.
So perhaps one ought to accept that there will be those who present mis- and dis-information and part of the picture but that by attempting to appraise the bigger picture and working against oppression in whatever way one can cuts through the fog and says, ‘I do not accept that society should be run on the basis of lies, corruption and war’. In other words, a return to the quality of naivety (in its artistic, rather than its colloquial sense) and to first principles.
And so, if Ellsberg present evidence of one thing and Counterpunch now present evidence of other things, good, now we know about both aspects of the evil the US state was committing – let’s use the (mis, dis, real) information against those in power whichever way we can! Let’s turn the mirrors – all of them , at once, into their faces so that like the Cyclopean monster, they are blinded!
Does ‘TM’ stand for ‘Transcendental Meditation’, btw?! (joke)
Richard, yes, I think it was either ‘Electric Music for the Mind and Body’ or else ‘I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ To Die’. Did you know that the lead guitarist in the band, Barry Melton, later became a lawyer?
Existence is circular, indeed. And there is a man on the stairs – the THE Man.