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.
In the back pages:
“George Galloway’s ex-secretary faces charges over data protection”
“Aisha Ali-Khan charged with data-protection offences allegedly carried out while she was working for Respect MP last year”
“A Met police officer based in the counter-terrorism unit S015, Detective Inspector Afiz Khan, known as Alfie, was also charged with two related counts of misconduct in a public office and four counts of data-protection offences between May and September 2012.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/jul/25/george-galloway-secretary-ali-khan-data-charges
@ Hab,
You posted:-
“Scarlet Pampers’ statement that the “USA does not have a functioning criminal justice system at all either” is tosh.”
Well – just look at:-
1. US criminal justice system’s rates of incarcerations of minorities versus whites – and relative to the same offence.
2. The “buyability” of the criminal justice system in the US when one weighs nature of crime relative to quality of defence representation related to the defendant charged.’
3. Forget the laws as drafted in the US criminal justice system – and just ” stand your ground – Hab”
There has been terrible slaughter in the square at the Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque overnight. There are reports that 70 people have been killed with the army using live rounds.
The propaganda machine yesterday was putting out stuff about Morsi’s links to Hamas. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/23464016 – Jim Muir who is usually in Lebanon reporting on Syria!
Strange that. There have been the same difficulties for the Palestinians attempting to leave or enter Gaza at the Rafah gate during the period of Morsi’s presidency as there were in Mubarrak’s time.
Did anyone hear Welby on Radio 4 Today yesterday?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03775fr/live 8.10am 16mins
This archbishop came over as shallow and an apologist for capital, including the most aggressive usury. He discussed the niceties of interest rates. He even gave Wonga a pat on the back. They are very professional and keep good books. Wow!
Pay day loans are a great wart on our nation and imho utterly amoral with their massively high interest rates into 1000s of percentages. Yet he spoke using all shades of grey. He made no mention of why, ‘in our depressed areas’, people turn to loan sharks. Their employment opportunities are poor or non-existent and unlike the elite, probably their education too. The wages too are poor if there is employment and rents exorbitant.
And then there is the list of amoral Church Commissioners’ investments which include hotels who profit from pornography on the bedroom TVs (and Visa too) and gambling. ‘Very difficult, many facets.’
We have a ‘dog eats dog’ society, which the ex Big Oil rep will not impinge on at all. You could feel his lack of real concern, and John Humphrys drew it out well.
He is very obviously a Cameron ‘pick’ to use the US word. Should he even be a priest, let alone an Archbishop? He is a lightweight and cannot give any moral leadership.
John Pilger comments on our present condition and exhorts us to take action.
How We are Impoverished, Gentrified and Silenced … and What to Do About It
The Age of Regression
by JOHN PILGER
London
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/07/26/the-age-of-regression/
[..]
How long can the British watch the uprisings across the world and do little apart from mourn the long-dead Labour Party? The Edward Snowden revelations show the infrastructure of a police state emerging in Europe, especially Britain. Yet, people are more aware than ever before; and governments fear popular resistance – which is why truth-tellers are isolated, smeared and pursued.
Momentous change almost always begins with the courage of people taking back their own lives against the odds. There is no other way now. Direct action. Civil disobedience. Unerring. Read Percy Shelley – “Ye are many; they are few”. And do it.
@Flaming. 7 57am
“Should he even be a priest…?”
Of course he should. I’ll let Dave Allen explain.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-u6XXOELs_s
Today Bradley Manning will probably be sentenced to life-imprisonment by a US military court for telling the truth. That being the case we must never stop campaigning for his release. One day he will be free. He will be awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace among the other awards he has won. Even when things seem desperate we must never despair.
Success! Sometimes writing in support of a fellow-writer, coupled with other support from charities and the free press, can help liberate those illegally imprisoned. It is heartening when this happens. My article in News Junkie Post in early June may have helped. But the good news is Shaye is now free.
http://newsjunkiepost.com/2013/06/04/the-united-states-of-extra-judicial-murder-and-imprisonment/
I should have written Shaye is out of prison rather than free. He still cannot leave Yemen.
Masque of Anarchy.
Percy Shelley
Stand ye calm and resolute,
Like a forest close and mute,
With folded arms and looks which are
Weapons of unvanquished war.
And if then the tyrants dare,
Let them ride among you there,
Slash, and stab, and maim and hew,
What they like, that let them do.
With folded arms and steady eyes,
And little fear, and less surprise
Look upon them as they slay
Till their rage has died away
Then they will return with shame
To the place from which they came,
And the blood thus shed will speak
In hot blushes on their cheek.
Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number,
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you-
Ye are many — they are few
Men of England, heirs of Glory,
Heroes of unwritten story,
Nurslings of one mighty Mother,
Hopes of her, and one another;
What is Freedom? Ye can tell
That which Slavery is too well,
For its very name has grown
To an echo of your own
Let a vast assembly be,
And with great solemnity
Declare with measured words, that ye
Are, as God has made ye, free!
The old laws of England–they
Whose reverend heads with age are grey,
Children of a wiser day;
And whose solemn voice must be
Thine own echo–Liberty!
Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number,
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you-
Ye are many — they are few
Some voyeuristic thugs and bullies reside within the Notts police force.
Nottinghamshire officers disciplined after woman’s top removed
Related Stories
Misconduct case over pregnant arrest
Three police officers who stripped a “vulnerable” pregnant woman naked to the waist have been disciplined.
Lynnette Wallace was left semi-naked for 13 minutes and also put in handcuffs for 11 hours.
/..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-23472511#
I think the Masque of Anarchy, which contains the lines “I met murder on the way, he wore a masque like Castlereagh . . .”, is one of the poems which helped get Shelley sent down from Oxford. It is one of my favourite poems. Ironically the university now has a statue of Shelley (naked of course) to commemorate him having studied there, which either demonstrates an advancement in academic tolerance or extreme cynicism.
http://spenceralley.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/shelley-memorial.html
We are many – they are few. Just remember that. Let’s bring down the Bilderbergers!
Ah thanks Sofia. Dear Dave Allen. I loved his dry wit and the sketches were so imaginative and at the time, in the late 60s and early 70s, his anti-clerical and anti-establishment act was quite radical and outrageous.
I like the Bishop’s crozier in this YT. 🙂
Sadly I did not know that he died aged 68 in 2005.
He was lovely. RIP.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Allen_(comedian)
From Hidari on Medialens
“UK PM David Cameron and Claire Perry say that they plan on forcing Britain’s ISPs to have a “default-on” censorship app for every connection in the UK. But the UK Open Rights Group have been talking with whistleblowers from the ISPs that have met with the government’s censorship grandees, and they report that the censorware will come equipped to block an enormous swath of legal Internet content, and unless you untick the boxes, this will all be censored for your Internet connection:
Do you want to block
☑ pornography
☑ violent material
☑ extremist and terrorist related content
☑ anorexia and eating disorder websites
☑ suicide related websites
☑ alcohol
☑ smoking
☑ web forums
☑ esoteric material
☑ web blocking circumvention tools”
http://boingboing.net/2013/07/26/uk-censorwall-will-also-block.html
When dark shadows cloud the sky a ray of hope can break through. Manning the 2013 Peace Prize winner. Congratulations to him.
http://www.uspeacememorial.org/PEACEPRIZE.htm
@Flaming. 8 52am
Yes he was lovely. Too good to shine in his home country, controlled as it was at the time by clerics. Ironic that he was finally brought down by using one rude word.
@Jon.
Yes. Let’s!Let’s!
http://www.healthyskepticism.org/files/soapbox/peter/bigfishlittlefish.gif
Winning the Peace Memorial Prize is a great demonstration of “We are many – they are few”.
Egypt Bans Gaza Fishermen From Its Waters
NEWS / Posted by Friends of Al-Aqsa / Friday, 26th July, 2013 http://foa.org.uk/news/egypt-bans-gaza-fishermen–from-its-waters
The head of the Palestinian Syndicate of Fishermen in Gaza, Nizar Ayesh, said that his organization was not officially informed that Gaza fishermen were no longer allowed to sail in the Egyptian waters.
“Egyptian gunboats always watched the borders between Gaza and Egypt, yet never banned any Palestinian boat from sailing to Egypt before last week,” Ayesh told Al-Monitor in an interview at the seaport on July 25.
Darweesh al-Assi, 43, a fisherman for more than 35 years, said that he always fished in the Egyptian waters before he heard from his colleagues that it was no longer permitted.
[..]
Ayesh explained, “Gaza fishermen escape the Israeli violations and the restricted zone to the Egyptian open zone, but now their space is totally besieged.”
In addition to limited fishing zones, Gaza’s fishermen are also suffering from a lack of fuel after the Egyptian military demolished many smuggling tunnels stretching under the borders between the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula.
~~
UN and world bodies, Quartet Envoy, John Kerry, William Hague – silence.
The police who ‘mishandled’ Ms. Wallace have obviously no idea of the sanctity of life, what pregnant women go through, or what normal public decency would demand in such a situation.
Instead they displayed gang culture, rude bad manners, a surprising lack of humanitarian knowledge as well a predilection to overreact and use violent means on an unborn.
Those who question that a foetus feels the stress and hears the shouts of its aggrieved and sobbing mother, please consult someone about it.
I question police education and the selection process, somewhere within it, there is a moral override being implanted in these young malleable minds, anybody who does not think critically is accepted, utter loyalty is demanded regardless and ‘UEBER ALLES’, hail to the political party of the day, we will protect those who extend out franchises and licks the arse of our police federation.
Defense’s closing arguments in Bradley Manning trial
https://pressfreedomfoundation.org/sites/default/files/072613amsession_F.pdf
From the defence summary posted by Dreolin at 9.34 am.
“He wanted the information, he believed that it would have impact on entire world. And the Government says, entire world, that includes the enemy.”
The United States has difficulty in understanding that the entire world, with one or two exceptions, sees it as ‘the enemy’ although little is likely to change the sentence. These things are rarely settled in court when there is no jury.
Flaming June, these categories all fit into one,i.e. News, why the heck can we not opt out of news channels?
Is it because its filtered and purified for us, content displayed is not what’s in the tin, fortuitously prattled and smothered with their own excretions.
Can’t think why there’s no opt out for news channels. I have not looked at a BBC site, sorry those who still proffer their propaganda, for over a year now and it feels better already.
The electronic control tools are now so sophisticated and in almost every gadget form car, TV to phone, that I expect a movement away from it, something authorities would hate.
Imagine all those posting here, disbanding their cell phones after making explicit noises to go somewhere or other. If all of us not paying a TV license because we have junked our sets in disgust at their blatant bias, self centred navel gazing, and corporate/political arse licking use of OUR BBC, basically if we are ‘uncontrollable’ or traceable by electronic means, that would worry them tremendously, especially if it is an exponentially growing number of us.
Because everything they do is about control and management of news trivia and traditionalist rigmarole/mania, as we have seen during the last five days.
Control freaks can’t stand not knowing what we do.
“A race to generate Jews, courtesy of the Israeli government”
‘For the past few weeks, radio spots have been urging Israel’s non-Jewish citizens to register for an accelerated conversion process.’
“Under the influence of Habayit Hayehudi, the government has launched a race to generate Jews. MK Ayelet Shaked likes to talk about the country’s unique character as a type of armor, but what she’s really getting at is protective, human armor with a Jewish hue, which will shield her against all those who are not like her.
“All this racism is compressed into a two-minute public-service ad, which is supposedly light and positive but in truth embodies the essence of everything that’s rotten about the government’s priorities. The rot is not achievable per se, since it was already achieved long ago. Now it is also being celebrated.”
http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/magazine/1.537865
“US-Australian military exercise rehearses for war against China”
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/07/27/tali-j27.html
Hi Kempe,
I’m not sure the 20th November 2010 date you suggest for the warrant vis a vis Cablegate publication quite pans out. IIRC, the Swedish domestic warrant was put before the Stockholm District Court (without informing Assange’s Swedish defence lawyers) on 18 November, that was appealed to the SVEA Court on 24 November, failed there and the Swedish Supreme Court refused to hear a further appeal on 26 November. The international European Arrest Warrant was issued on 27 November, two days before the start of Cablegate. (This was, in fact, sent back by the British SOCA unit because it was invalid as it correctly stated Assange was sought for questioning. A second EAW with a more – how to put this? – naunced wording was issued on 6 December.
But doesn’t your whole argument fall apart by considering that the US State Department had been aware for many months – from at least the point where Adrian Lamo handed over his chatlogs with Bradley Manning in May 2010 – of exactly what Wikileaks had in their possession and were likely to publish soon?
But what about Barack Obama’s public announcement on 10 August – the day before Assange even travelled to Sweden – that Britain, Germany, Australia and other allied Western governments should open criminal investigations into Julian Assange and limit his travel?
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2010/08/10/a-western-crackdown-on-wikileaks.html
You do realise, don’t you, that Assange was under Swedish intelligence surveillance the entire six weeks or so he was in Sweden?
“What commitments has the Labor government made to US war plans?”
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/07/25/inte-j25.html
Komodo, 8.49pm yesterday
I was reminded yesterday of the case of Tarek Mehanna, the 29 yr old US pharmacist sentenced to 17 years as a terrorist for “material support” by merely providing translations of texts on jihadist websites. Glenn Greenwald published Mehanna’s sentencing statement, read to the court just after that sentence was handed down. A powerful and moving statement on what free speech means in the Land of the Free nowadays:
http://www.salon.com/2012/04/13/the_real_criminals_in_the_tarek_mehanna_case/
Hullo Craig,
May I summarise things thus?
In Russia one may not criticise Putin because Putin rules Russia.
Yes? Might we declare that inarguable? Okay then, what of the following?
In Britain one may not criticise Israel because…
Rather an easy solve I’m afraid but that’s ipso facto for you.
Ben Franklin, yesterday 4.26pm
An even more telling sign of that is the fact she’s already been given a promotion – to the same court where Manning’s appeal will be heard:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/more-than-bradley-mannings-fate-lies-with-judge-denise-lind-in-case-about-leaking-info/2013/07/24/fb546d14-f496-11e2-aa2e-4088616498b4_story_1.html
Nevermind what is the word on that unfortunate environmental protester who was injured in Norfolk?
Doug Scorgie, 11.57pm
and
You may be interested in this. It’s a speech given yesterday by Julian Assange to the Australian Splendour in the Grass festival. In it, he outlines an interesting idea for increasing the plurality of alternative voices and other forms of freedom of speech/expression, music, etc to combat the malign effects of the “media-ocracy” – namely, a Content Fund similar to an author royalties scheme based on stats of the 100,000 most-loaned titles from public lending libraries. I know nothing of how that original scheme works in Australia, so can’t comment on it, but I thought the most interesting aspect of the idea was that Assange said this Content Fund would be funded from the Defence budget. He obviously has some pretty radical ideas about how one builds “a strong and independent military” – something he’s also called for in the Australian context.
Worth a listen:
http://vimeo.com/70982502