Navalny, Ward, Assange, Snowden and the Attack on Free Speech 670

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Russia does not have a functioning criminal justice system at all, in the sense of a trial mechanism aimed at determining innocence or guilt.  Exactly as in Uzbekistan, the conviction rate in criminal trials is over 99%.  If the prosecutors, who are inextricably an arm of the executive government, want to send you to jail, there is absolutely no judicial system to protect you.  The judges are purely there for show.

When critics of Putin like Alexei Navalny are convicted, therefore, we have absolutely no reassurance that the motivation behind the prosecution or the assessment of guilt was genuine.  Which is not to say that Navalny is innocent; I am in no position to judge. People are complex.   I sacrificed my own pretty decent career to the cause of human rights, but in my personal and family life I was by no means the most moral of individuals.  I see no reason for it to be impossible that all of Navalny’s excellent political work did not co-exist with a fatal weakness.  But his criticisms of Putin made him a marked man, who the state was out to get, and the most probable explanation – especially as prosecutors had looked at the allegations before and decided not to proceed – is that he is suffering for his criticisms of the President rather than a genuine offence.

It fascinates me that the Western media view the previous decision by the prosecutors not to proceed as evidence the case is politically motivated against Navalny; but fail to draw the same conclusion from precisely the same circumstance in the Assange case.

David Ward MP has not been sent to jail.  He has however had the Lib Dem whip removed, which under Clegg’s leadership perhaps he ought to consider an honour.  It is rather a commonplace sentiment that it is a terribly sad thing, that their community having suffered dreadfully in the Holocaust, the European Jews involved in founding the state of Israel went on themselves to inflict terrible pain and devastation on the Palestinians in the Nakba.   Both the Holocaust and the Nakba were horrific events of human suffering.  For this not startling observation, David Ward is removed from the Liberal Democrats.  He also stated that, with its ever increasing number of racially specific laws, its walls and racially restricted roads, Israel is becoming an apartheid state.  That is so commonplace even Sky News’ security correspondent Sam Kiley said it a few months ago, without repercussion.  In Russia you cannot say Putin is corrupt; in the UK you cannot say Israeli state policy is malign.  Neither national state can claim to uphold freedom of speech.  Meanwhile, of course, David Cameron announces plans to place filters on the internet access of all UK households.

In the United States, the House of Representatives failed by just 12 votes to make illegal the mass snooping by the NSA which was not widely publicised until Edward Snowden’s revelations.  What Snowden said was so important that almost half the country’s legislators wished to act on his information.  Yet the executive wish to pursue him and remove all his freedom for the rest of his life, as they are doing to Bradley Manning for Manning’s exposure of war crimes and extreme duplicity.

Around this complex of issues and the persons of Manning, Navalny, Snowden and Assange there is a kind of new ideological competition between the governments of Russia, the US and UK as to which is truly promoting the values of human freedom.  The answer is none of them are.  All these states are, largely in reaction to the liberating possibilities of the internet, promoting a concerted attack on freedom of speech and liberty of thought.

States are the enemy.  We are the people.

 

 

 

 

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670 thoughts on “Navalny, Ward, Assange, Snowden and the Attack on Free Speech”

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  • Sofia Kibo Noh

    @Doug and Flaming

    Do you detect the sound of barrels being scraped in far-off Haifa?

    Would you like to help restore Team Hasbarakuk’s “skill and strategies for public diplomacy”?

    Yes? Then wish no more. Just click http://shagririm.haifa.ac.il/ and get started on a wonderful new career.

  • Anon

    Doug Scorgie at 9:44 pm:

    “Habbabkuk, if you want to start a discussion about political, social or human rights abuses in ANY country please do so. Perhaps there could meaningful intercourse on the subject.”

    There would be little point in that, Doug. What would inevitably happen would be that a Murrayista would find some instance of Western support for that country’s regime in the past, or blame the situation on colonialism, and the finger of blame would be pointed straight back at the West!

  • Flaming June

    Bradley Manning’s ‘trial’ contd.

    Hanging judge, kangaroo court, etc etc.

    “The Government has pushed this case beyond the bounds of legal propriety. If the Government meant ‘information’, it should have charged information,” explains defense attorney David Coombs in legal filings last week.

    Two years ago, Army PFC Bradley Manning was charged with five counts of stealing government property, in violation of federal statute 18 U.S.C. 641. He faces 21 total charges for providing WikiLeaks with classified information at the court martial entering its final stage. After the Government rested its case against PFC Manning, defense lawyer David Coombs detailed how the evidence presented did not support those five 18 U.S.C. 641 charges. He appealed to military judge Col. Denise Lind to dismiss them outright; however, she let them stand. Shockingly, she then stepped away from her role as the “finder of fact,” and into a clearly partisan role by allowing the Government to significantly alter its charges on July 24, 2013–long after all legal arguments had been made.

    /..
    http://www.bradleymanning.org/featured/manning-judge-alters-charges-to-assist-govt-ahead-of-verdict

    Transcripts here https://pressfreedomfoundation.org/bradley-manning-transcripts

  • Sofia Kibo Noh

    @Anon. 8 11am

    Thanks.

    You got it in a nutshell.

    “…the finger of blame would be pointed straight back at the West!”

    Now that you are, at last, getting the the hang of explaining how the New World Disorder works I’m off to enjoy the outdoors, secure in the knowledge that you can explain to Dad the futility of genuine debate.

  • Komodo

    One of H’s recurrent questions, replayed above:

    I was just wondering why the Eminences are so vocal about human rights in the US and the west in general (and human rights abuses perpetrated by these countries elsewhere) but remain rather silent when it comes to human rights abuses perpetrated by other countries.

    Have you any idea why this should be so?

    1. Because these are our countries and their allies, and the abuses are conducted in our name. We object.
    2. Because, by and large we are better informed on these countries, being residents of them, and have no desire to expose our ignorance of others.
    3. Because we are actively interested in specific countries or regions. Our choice, not yours.

    Any permutation or combination of the above.

    And do feel free to post your informed thoughts on Eritrea/Somalia/Azerbaijan/wherever. With references or other salient evidence. How do you view Mugabe’s forthcoming inevitable election? What is the price of wheat in Belorus? And, if you can bring yourself to so much as consider the matter, do you think it even possible that the imminent talks between the Israeli Palestinians and the Israeli Zionists in New York will end in something other than complete failure, and why?

    So many questions. But we Eminences note that you excrescences don’t even try to do answers. Let alone justify them.

    Pissant.

  • John Goss

    Flaming June, And they changed their own laws to hold Bradley Manning in prison longer than was legal. The United States has no sense of what is legal any more. I feel sorry for its people.

  • John Goss

    Komodo, thanks. I echo that view. Last night Phil @ 7.54 pm asked me what figures I had to justify my conclusion that famous people were much more likely to die in crashes than ordinary individuals. I put together some figures that showed that famous people were 26 times more likely to die in plane crashes than what would be expected. Nobody commented probably because they do not want to bring attention to the fact that my conclusion was right and that is one of the reasons why we should stop going off at a tangent to feed the trolls.

  • Sofia Kibo Noh

    John Goss
    28 Jul, 2013 – 10:33 pm

    Re famous People are 26 times more likely to die in plane accidents.

    Thanks for doing the research.

    The trolls won’t answer because they can’t, but I’ve glad they sent you off on that productive tangent. Your effort wasn’t wasted.

    Now I’m definitely off out for the day.

  • Komodo

    Thanks for the link to Shagirim, Sophia. I note that one of the Ambassadors is a Mr. Stuart Palmer, who is also involved in the Coalition of Hasbara Volunteers …(you’d really think that ‘Hasbara’ is getting to be such a dirty word, they’d think of a new euphemism, but no)

    My enthusiasm for defending the destruction of Palestinian crops, the construction of new settlements for Americans and Europeans ‘returning’ to the land G-d and Lloyd George so generously gave them, for live trials of new weaponry on a nearby ghetto new homeland for non-Jews, and all the other wonderful things Israel does, led me further:

    http://www.esra-magazine.com/blog/post/battle-hearts-mind

    He even likes Melanie Phillips. And pro-Israel propaganda (sic). Er. Stuart, we don’t actually call it that, do we? Or have we suddenly discovered honesty?

    If you would like to become involved in pro-Israel propaganda contact Stuart Palmer, Director Blog (redacted) Tel (redacted) , Mobile (redacted) Email:(redacted)

    Redactions by me -K

  • Komodo

    Useful point, Dreoilin. And one which had escaped me.

    UNRWA is a United Nations agency established by the General Assembly in 1949 and is mandated to provide assistance and protection to a population of some 5 million registered Palestine refugees. Its mission is to help Palestine refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, West Bank and the Gaza Strip to achieve their full potential in human development, pending a just solution to their plight. UNRWA’s services encompass education, health care, relief and social services, camp infrastructure and improvement, and microfinance.

    Financial support to UNRWA has not kept pace with an increased demand for services caused by growing numbers of registered refugees, expanding need, and deepening poverty. As a result, the Agency’s General Fund (GF), supporting UNRWA’s core activities and 97 per cent reliant on voluntary contributions, has begun each year with a large projected deficit. Currently the deficit stands at US$ 58.5 million.

    http://www.unrwa.org/etemplate.php?id=1830

  • Flaming June

    2hrs 50mins in on http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b037gxx1

    On the same topic and later in the programme.

    Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are to resume stalled peace talks in Washington on Monday, the US State Department has announced. Bronwen Maddox, a British-based Anglo-American journalist, and Simon Tisdall, an assistant editor at the Guardian, discuss how effective the talks will be.

  • Passerby

    Komodo says:

    Because these are our countries and their allies, and the abuses are conducted in our name. We object.

    An excellent observation. Throughout this thread and others too, the hasbara vermin constantly point out the same feeble, weak, inane propositions; why don’t you talk about this abuse, instead of that?

    Further, these foreign interests pedler brigade, constantly refer to the West as an extension of their own property, as manifested by the disdain that is apportioned to anyone of us who wish to put our own house in order!

    These pissant foreign support elements verily believe we are tenets in our own lands in the West,. Hence, in a fashion after their treatment of the Palestinians, these hasbara vermin decry our attempts making our lands a better place to live in . It is high time that these elements were reminded, that our gracious tolerance in allowing these foreign interest pedlers to comment on matters concerning our own affairs, somehow does not imply ownership of the West and matters thereof to these neo settlers.

    You nave raised very good points, and these points should be elaborated further, and more comprehensively in a rebuttal to the constant of torrent of the evident disdain at directed at those who are intent on making the West a better place. Further, it should be explained that the simple assumption of these hasbara vermin being; anyone who criticises them must be a “Muslim”, “Arab”, …. etc. is the basis for these neo settlers to dream of owning the West!

  • Dreoilin

    Was posting this when my “internet service provider” chopped me off suddenly. Maybe something to do with the thunder, lightning and heavy rain!

    “Thousands of birds in UK zoos are victims of ‘pinioning’, a practice where the end of one wing is permanently amputated. Pinioned goosePinioning is carried out on baby birds at only a few days old, usually without any pain relief. Why? To prevent them from escaping from captivity and so zoo visitors can get close to them. These birds will be disabled for life and will never fly.

    “Add your name to the petition below to demand an end to this cruel practice and to tell the zoo industry and the government: Mutilating any animal to keep them in captivity is never acceptable!”

    http://www.captiveanimals.org/bird-petition

  • Flaming June

    The witch is dead!

    BREAKING NEWS:Lady Thatcher’s funeral cost taxpayers £1.2 million, according to figures released by the government

    I would have dig a hole here for a fiver and she could have laid alongside the remains of two dear cats and two dear dogs.

  • Komodo

    http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/28/us-palestinians-israel-indyk-idUSBRE96R0FN20130728

    Indyk. Who he? Oh, yes…

    http://mondoweiss.net/2013/07/how-fair-is-martin-indyk-who-says-he-was-motivated-by-my-connection-to-israel.html

    After the spectacular failure of Camp David negotiations that he helped conduct in 2000, Indyk was characterized by former Palestinian negotiator Mohammed Dahlan as having a pro-Israel bias and “advanced negative attitudes toward Palestinians.”

    While former Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath said that Indyk was “partial, biased, pro-Israel” and defended Israeli settlements more than Israelis did.

    Just the man.

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