Ray McGovern always advises me not to accentuate the negatives in becoming a whistleblower. I always talk of the inevitable unemployment – no employer, not even those you might think of as moral, will ever employ a whistleblower as the quality an employer values in an employee above all others is loyalty to their employer. I also talk of the persecution and harassment. Those are very real indeed, and I think of Bradley Manning constantly.
Ray’s excellent point is that we need more whistleblowers not less, so I should accentuate the positive and talk of how great I feel, how I can sleep at night, how I am recognized all round the world, etc. – all of which is true.
On top of which, I am at the Cannes Film Festival with my incredibly beautiful and talented Nadira.
It’s been a bit hectic getting here straight after Istanbul, so will post on the Mavi Marmara tomorrow.
My comment too yesterday Komodo –
On this day of mourning, the 65th anniversary of al Nakba, these pieces of news are heartening.
Yesterday, the ICC prosecutor announced that she would pursue the complaint filed by Comoros Island.
http://www.freegaza.org/en/home/56-news/1415-icc-prosecutor-receives-referral-from-comoros-regarding-mavi-marmara.html
And Gaza’s Ark announced they had purchased the boat to sail OUT of Gaza.
http://www.gazaark.org/
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/05/14/303523/palestinians-mark-nakba-day-in-w-bank/
“Every year on May 15, Palestinians all over the world hold demonstrations to commemorate Nakba Day, which marks the anniversary of the forcible eviction of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homeland by Israelis and the creation of Israel in 1948.”
Oddie. Well found.
The Levy brothers have two other establishments, the Runnymede Hotel and the Athenaeum.
http://www.catererandhotelkeeper.co.uk/articles/4/9/2003/49956/secrets-of-the-grove.htm
I am not sure if this Daniel Levy is the same as the Daniel Levy above. There is a discrepancy of one year in the date of birth on Wikipedia and on company records. Chairman of Spurs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Levy_(businessman)
The United Jewish Israel Appeal has Lord Levy (B.Liar’s tennis partner) as President. Income £10.3 million. Spending £13m
http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/Showcharity/RegisterOfCharities/CharityWithPartB.aspx?RegisteredCharityNumber=1060078&SubsidiaryNumber=0
Their website opens with a silhouette of two men carrying work tools going to work in 1956 at Ma’alot.
THEY BUILT THE STATE. WE’RE BUILDING ITS FUTURE.
Ma’alot The city was established in 1963 through a municipal merger of the Arab town of Tarshiha and the Jewish town of Ma’alot … Ma’alot was established as a development town for Jewish immigrants from Romania, Iran, Lebanon and Morocco, in 1957. The first homes were built on Har HaRakafot (Cyclamen Hill), known in Arabic as Bab Al-Hauwa (“Gate of the Winds”).[12]
Whistle-blowers by their honesty set themselves up in the fairground shooting gallery for those with the weapons (physical or metaphorical) to use as target practice. Sadly it is not just whistle-blowers but journalists, and people with political views which worry the establishment, Communists for example. I had the privilege of working with a Scottish toolmaker in Lancashire, who had to keep his head low because of his former activities as convenor of Dalmuir Royal Ordnance Factory. He could not afford to make a mistake and, although still very politically active, he had to keep a low profile to stay in work. Although I have never been a Communist Eddie Nesbit got me to read “The Ragged-trousered Philanthropists” by Robert Tressell. It was an awakening for me.
‘Reds under the bed’ McCarthyism and perpetual denigration from the press made Communism into a dirty word. At university another Communist ex-Convenor, Derek Robinson, gave a talk and I learnt how vilification from the media had destroyed another man and an industry. Those of my generation will remember how he was dubbed ‘Red Robbo’ all over all the dailies for his efforts to save the jobs of Rover workers. And what happened to the massive Longbridge plant? It closed leaving thousands of skilled and semi-skilled workers without a job.
Good people can have their lives destroyed by the media. Look to who owns it and the answer to the problem lies there.
“Meanwhile, Comoros ( Craig knows where it is, I certainly don’t) …”
Teeny, tiny, north west of Madagascar. I had to look up Google maps. Presumably the teeny tiny is irrelevant as long as they’re party to the ICC.
“Grande Comore is the youngest of the islands, and has a massive active volcano on it, which scientists predict is likely to erupt in the near future.”
😉
Yes, then I googled it too, Dreoilin. Exports ylang-ylang and vanilla, currently a democracy in more than name. Half the population earn less than $1.25 a day. Tourism has not yet blighted it. Scots please note – referendum massively supported devolution to individual islands.
Thank-you April Showers for digging into ‘The Grove’ ownership – We have been told the nearby Rugby ground c/w Internet/telephones/interview rooms/cafeteria etc is thought to have been booked as a ‘holding area’ for protesters who breach public order or who trespass onto the hotel grounds.
We have heard from a police informer that surveillance drones will be used to monitor surrounding Heath woods and access to the estate from Merlin’s wood across Grove Mill Lane.
Mobile phone coverage in the area may be interrupted to discourage live streaming from citizen journalists – another ‘tip’ from the same police whistle-blower.
surveillance drones
Peg |__________________O Helium balloon
Thin fishing line
Barrage balloons. In quantity.
Excellent idea Komodo – hat tip!
They treat us like kids – fight back with kids’ toys. Adds an essential air of ridiculousness to the whole project.
Whether they work or not.
Warning: even discharging a spud gun in a public place is technically illegal, and I am sure our honest guardians of the law will swoop* as one plod on persons suspected to be in possession of a potato in such an event.
* not really the right word. “Clump”, perhaps?
Warning – Mrs May will be along with her water cannon if you misbehave!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/poll/2013/may/13/water-cannon-civil-unrest
Luton May 2013.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/armed-police-patrol-luton-shocking-1892030
It doesn’t affect me like the community charge, so I will sit on my butt and do nothing…
Bedroom Tax suicide: Stephanie Bottrill’s grieving son Steven hits out at David Cameron.
http://blacktrianglecampaign.org/2013/05/15/bedroom-tax-suicide-stephanie-bottrills-grieving-son-steven-hits-out-at-david-cameron/
I think retaliation in kind may still be legal.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2006/jul/25/terrorism.world1
As long as your water pistol doesn’t look like a real gun. Question is, if a table leg looks like a real gun (remember? then even this might get you shot –
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2x-LARGE-Soaker-Pump-Action-Water-Pistol-Gun-Water-Spray-Toy-Gun-Kids-461-1-/400309515804
Don’t load it with Sarin, though, no matter how tempted you might be. The wind might change.
I’ll do a coblined post:
@ Komodo : you ignore the Greeks at your peril! (take that as you like… 🙂 )
@ various : one of the islands of the Comoros – Mayotte – didn’t want independence from France and has stayed French to this day. A very wise move – it gets French money and priviledges and has avoided the poverty and the past political turmoil of the other islands. I wonder why exactly the Comoros (which are Muslim)initiated the ICC action – what’s their angle/interest/incentive?
@ April Showers : water cannon would be an excellent idea, they would have been useful during the London riots. Much less dangerous than rubber bullets, tear gas, etc (see experience on the Co,ntinent and in Northern Ireland)
@ John Goss : come on, man! Longbridge wasn’t destroyed by the press and media, it destroyed itself.
All for now, I have to lunch and then toddle off to my regular thé dansant. Pip pip!
what’s their angle/interest/incentive?
They’re antisemitic holocaust denying jihadis who want to wipe Israel off the map and set up a world caliphate, obviously. You’re Melanie Phillips, aren’t you? Mavi Marmara ( see next blog post) was reregistered in Comoros (see next blog post), apparently because Turkey knew what was coming (see next blog post) Just hinting –
@ Komodo
Why should I be Mad Mel? You’ve lost me, I’m afraid.
And I hadn’t read the next thread when I asked my question, so there’s no point being snappy! 🙂
SinceFed Up, Hababkuk et al. have completely derailed the thread, I still would like to know what happened to whistleblowers like Dr. David Kelly,Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh, GCHQ/MI6 agent Gareth Williams, his associate Gudrun Loftus, Dr. Steven Rawlings, Jorg Haidar Pim Fortuyn, etc., ad nauseam.
And here are many others, like Theo van Gogh, Viktor Gunnarsson, and Mrs. Miller.
Just keep babbling on while the spooks keep killing the troublemakers!
I was once a whistle blower when I worked for the US Army on my own shite multinational when I found my boss rifling through my clients papers looking for new business.
The US army actually looked after me a lot as I helped soldiers a lot. My multinational was a joke.
@ Trowbridge :
you forgot Uncle Tom Cobbley and the Grand Old Duke of York
What happens in the USA soon comes to Britain.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8ARwO7VqNQ
Doug Scorgie; 12 states, so far, have recognized the fiscal responsibility to avoid lawsuits from cop rioting.
Ca, Conn, Fl, Ill, Md, Mi, Ma, Mt, Ne, NH, Pa, and Wa are the states where both party consent is necessary to record legally.
I live in CA, and I have been cultivating my anonymity for decades. This law was meant to be broken.
Komodo
16 May, 2013 – 11:26 am
“Warning: even discharging a spud gun in a public place is technically illegal, and I am sure our honest guardians of the law will swoop as one plod on persons suspected to be in possession of a potato in such an event.”
You don’t need a spud gun to get arrested; simply a bag of potatoes – going equipped to commit crime it is called.
Also it could be construed that being in possession of a bag of potatoes justifies an arrest for possessing an item useful to terrorists.
Retired 4 star Admiral Blows Whistle on Benghazi – new Evidence
http://www.politisite.com/2013/01/17/retired-4-star-admiral-blows-whistle-on-benghazi-new-evidence/#.UZVsRK17PNH
April Showers –
did consider Spurs’ Daniel Levy, but not convinced on that one yet, tho the Hotel does have some football links:
The Grove, Watford
this hotel has played many roles…(includes) secret military headquarters…
…this hotel hosts the England soccer team before every Wembley match.
http://www.travelandleisure.com/travel-guide/watford/hotels/grove-watford
Manchester City’s deserved loss to Wigan signals the end of Roberto Mancini’s reign
Khaldoon visited Mancini at the Grove hotel in Watford on Friday night, chatting to the manager and his players…
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/manchester-city/10051708/Henry-Winter-Manchester-Citys-deserved-loss-to-Wigan-signals-the-end-of-Roberto-Mancinis-reign.html
Doug: Precisely. Unless the potatoes are in the form of Smash. In which case expect a drug check.
Question: Would the mass carrying of potatoes (but no spud gun) in their various varieties and styles, with the intention of inducing the police to examine/confiscate them, constitute “wasting police time”?
GEAB N°75
http://www.leap2020.eu/GEAB-N-75-is-available-Systemic-crisis-2013-with-record-stock-exchange-highs-the-planet-s-imminent-plunge-into_a14093.html
“Sharp increase in US jobless benefit claims”
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/05/17/econ-m17.html
“The AP spying scandal and the crisis of American democracy”
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/05/17/pers-m17.html
Sorry, Habbabkuk, but the killing of those 29 military intelligence and police officers on that Chinook helicopter at the Mull of Kintyre on June 2, 1994 are much more to the point. These whistleblowers were going way too soft on the Provisionals for the Crown during the Good Friday peace talks.
I’d have thought it would have been easier just to ask these servants of the Crown to harden up, than find a suicidal Chinook crew, write off a new Chinook, and lose everyone’s services for good. But hey, that’s me.
April Showers
15 May, 2013 – 8:54 pm
April, I can’t find anything on the internet about the original Actual Bodily Harm case against Jimmy Mubenga.
I believe he pleaded not guilty but was convicted. Do you have any info?