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.
Jonathan Cook (who lives in Nazareth) on medialens on his account of his travels across the US and how he was treated by security at airports.
Jonathan Cook comments on the US security and surveillance state
Posted by The Editors on July 27, 2013, 9:21 am
Via Facebook:
The extent to which the US has become a security and surveillance state was illustrated to me that last time I travelled there, a few years back on a book tour.
I had 10 internal flights to make over the course of 2 weeks. When I was pulled out of line and taken for “extra security checks” on the first flight, I was told by the official that I was unlucky because such checks were entirely random. Except I kept being unlucky. In fact, I got extra attention on nine of my 10 flights – and I suspect that the occasion I wasn’t subjected to the extra checks was simply an oversight. I noticed that I had a large red “S” scrawled on my flight stub, as I did on the others. Presumably the security people missed it.
I am reminded of this by a story showing that the FBI has had under surveillance the website anti-war.com, a place I have published on many occasions, for more than a decade.
/..
http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/msg/1374913298.html
~~~~
Antiwar.com Under Surveillance
The FBI doesn’t suspect any crime but monitors the site anyway—and this fits a pattern of targeting journalists who probe state secrets
By Kelley Vlahos • July 25, 2013 http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/antiwar-com-under-surveillance/
Arbed at 10.30 “You do realise, don’t you, that Assange was under Swedish intelligence surveillance the entire six weeks or so he was in Sweden?”
I would be very surprised if Anna Ardin’s flat was not bugged with cameras from the day he arrived, especially with her known connections to various Swedish embassies. It has always puzzled me why she was not there to meet one of the “coolest” people in the world, and why she could not postpone a visit to her family in order to see Assange. The whole honey-trap was buzzing.
I wondered how Tristan Anderson was. He was shot in the head by an Israeli tear gas canister in 2009 whilst on a protest in Ni’lin. Alison Weir reports on the NYT piece.
Weekend Edition July 26-28, 2013
Myra Noveck & the New York Times:
Another Journalist with Children in the Israeli Military
by ALISON WEIR
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/07/26/another-journalist-with-children-in-the-israeli-military/
Jonathan Cook drew attention on his Facebook page to the above article. He also writes about Michael Hastings’ unusual death.
https://www.facebook.com/Jonathan.Cook.journalist?hc_location=timeline
Flaming June, thanks for posting the two links in your last regarding the US secret services surveillance of anti-war. It is par for the course. What governments fear most is that good journalists will expose their lies and corruption and confirms the old adage:
The pen is mightier than the sword.
John Goss says:
John do you have any links to articles on this issue? This puts an entirely different complexion on the whole stinking affair. The notion that Anna Ardin later complained could indicate that Assange did not co-operate once the trap was sprung on him, and Ardin’s complaint followed soon after.
Also I have always had a nagging doubt that Assange could be an SIS asset after his arrest for Nortel hacking. Any ideas to prove, or disprove such a notion?
@ Nevermind.
Ideal would it not be too be able to purchase radio with “news opt out”.
I for one would pleasantly have in the earshot of sympathetic minds.
Stupidity could raise many a question new’s night, vulnerbility is present all the same.
@ Jon Goss
Isn’t it funny a bear likes honey;
Buzz Buzz Buzz;
I wonder why he does.
If Bears were bees they would build there hives at the bottom of trees
And if bees were bears they wouldn’t need to climb all those stairs.
Passerby, I don’t know where Arbed gets all his information from but it is usually accurate.
Most security services set up profit-making companies. Public relations companies are a favourite because the agents within them have access to the highest level of government and the most influential people. Prime is the biggest in Stockholm.
No ideas about your ‘nagging doubt’ but seems very unlikely he was ever an SIS asset. When he hacked into Nordex he was too young to be an asset of any country.
George Quinn says:
July 24, 2013 at 17:29
lucy wangari decourcy says:
July 27, 2013 at 12:42
http://dpac.uk.net/2013/05/hardship-paymentsbudgeting-loans-and-short-term-advances/#comment-18064
My favourite picture from the International Day of Action (today) for Bradley Manning:
https://twitter.com/jaraparilla/status/360730052813537281/photo/1
John Goss says,
John my fault, for not being more specific. After Assange was arrested, charged and tried, he was given a $2100 (Australian) fine. Although judge indicated that he could have been jailed for ten years, however due to coming from a broken home background he was only fined. Later he helped the police. Although throughout he has plausible explanations, but given the extent of the duplicitous, cunning, crooked modus operandi of the SIS there could also be a case of Assange being an asset.
Passerby, please provide independent evidence that supports any hypothesis that Assange is someone’s bitch. Otherwise it’s just dreamy speculation with zero analytical value.
Those in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough needing NHS care at the end of their lives will be receiving it from the likes of Branson’s Virgin Care, Serco or Circle Health!
NHS privatisation fears deepen over £1bn deal
Biggest health contract yet – for services including end-of-life care – is condemned by Labour as ‘audacious sell-off’
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/jul/26/nhs-privatisation-fears-deepen-deal
Footnote of the article:The slice of the NHS’s £100bn a year budget going to non-NHS providers has risen from £5.6bn in 2006-07 to an estimated £8.7bn by 2011-12, according to a recent analysis by the Institute of Fiscal Studies and Nuffield Trust health think tank.
Passerby, I doubt it, although all things are virtually possible. He probably had to help the police as a kind of plea-bargain. I doubt Gary McKinnon has had a holiday since he was saved from extradition. If that makes him an asset then I guess he is. But let’s face it Assange has released documents into the public domain that would not have allowed for his freedom if he had been an asset of the secret services. I’ve noticed others have speculated about him being an agent but neither Assange nor the intelligence services have claimed he ever was an agent – unlike say, Edward Snowden. Why hide the fact. Andrea Davison doesn’t and she was once in exactly the same position Assange is in now but she has never denied working for MI5/6.
Someone says;
It is the most disgusting situation in which the banksters get their gambling debts transferred onto the nation’s balance sheet, whilst we cannot feed the desperate people who are chasing the imaginary jobs in the imaginary flourishing economy.
We are all Lucy! Only lagging behind her by a week in funds. The plutocrats’ overseers are drunk on their achievements; less in budgets for the social security, and for the NHS, they are going to start introduction of charging for the GP visits, first it was the “illegal immigrants” who had to pay because they were the cause, and now we all need to pitch in and to keep our services going!!
Passerby, 12.43pm
First, can I point out that I don’t 100% endorse John’s view that it’s a honey-trap, or at least that it was one from the very start. Although that is a distinct possibility, it’s very far from being proven. My comment was merely meant to show that the Swedish intelligence services were poised to take advantage of events pretty much immediately once they were in train.
In any case, if it was a honeytrap all along, it is far more likely to come from Sofia Wilen than from Anna Ardin. Trust me on that.
(Fun fact: Did you know that Enkoping, scene of the most serious allegation against Assange – the “half-awake” condomless sex incident – and home to Sofia Wilen, is also the home of the Swedish military’s PSYOPS headquarters? http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enköping#Milit.C3.A4rstaden – apparently, it’s about a 5-minute walk from her flat. Not many people know that, as Alfie would say…)
Fun facts aside, the most obvious evidence that Assange was under surveillance during his time in Sweden comes from a combination of what Swedish journalist Johannes Wahlstrom says in his police witness statement about events after the 14 August seminar where Assange first met Sofia Wilen and the fact that the Expressen newspaper reported the following day details of Assange’s itinerary on that afternoon which only Assange and Sofia Wilen knew (ie. not even Wahlstrom knew where Sofia Wilen worked at the time when they discussed what Assange would do next when the three of them were alone together following the after-seminar lunch). Details here:
http://rixstep.com/2/20120806,00.shtml
Johannes Wahlstrom’s statement: http://rixstep.com/1/20110201,00.shtml
So, where did Expressen get these facts they couldn’t possibly have known? Who was their source? Remember, this publication is two days before even the alleged incident, let alone it’s reporting to police three days later.
John Goss syas,
You have a point there, however as you have added; He probably had to help the police as a kind of plea-bargain there lies the niggle. further, the wikileaks saga of the document release, and Assange getting involved with famous five (Guardian, et al) to a large degree forwarded the agenda of the neo liberal hacks. As with their early day releases, which had literally nothing other than bashing the usual suspects and enemies!
Fact is as you point out, all things are possible, and given that we must remain vigilant and not to fall into the trap of personality cults. There lies the leverage for derailing any quest for the truth.
Finally, I often wonder; has anyone ever read the rest of the documents released with the famous accidental publication of the passwords?
_ – – – _
Jemand says;
I fully appreciate such an eventuality being in such an august company as yourself! Incidentally it a good habit to develop; reading the comments as they are, and not read into them!
Grant Shapps.
http://www.carlex.org.uk/tag/grant-shapps/
Arbed says;
I can subscribe to this notion, as ever when someone is down is the best time to kick them in the head, and given the spooks remit they would relish such an event.
However, due to my lack of expert knowledge on this subject (and obviously many others too) I will accept your version of events readily, up until such a time that a convincing case to the contrary was forwarded by some other source. Thanks for clarification.
.. andd thee attack on freea speeach …
And i’ll say wot i fucking like you white nigger zionizt Cunts!
I dont99‰ endorse j’$ viewz that… bla dee bblue
Wats al thought about?!
And james joyce and william blake attheir most ‘0bscure’ were too ‘$ubjective’ to be taken ‘$eriously’ – nest poos?!
Passerby, 12.43pm
When I say “trust me on that” about Sofia Wilen rather than Ardin being the true source of any possible honeytrap, I am not, of course, relying on the proximity of her home to the Enkoping PSYOPS headquarters. That would be getting into conspiracy theory territory and I’m not interested in going there.
No, what I’m talking about is the fact that Sofia Wilen at first told the police that Assange damaged a condom (similar to Ardin’s allegation, but the point is that Sofia was the first one to make this allegation, then she changed her story to the one we’ve all heard about – only wanting to ask advice about HIV testing because she “woke up” to unprotected sex). This is corroborated in three places in the evidence already in the public domain:
1. Physical evidence in the form of a fragment of condom was obtained from Sofia Wilen and submitted to the forensics lab. Tests found that it had been deliberately ripped and that it had DNA “from a man” which matched DNA on swabs taken from her. http://assangeinswedenbook.com/2013/07/01/the-lab-results/
2. A senior police investigator involved in the case from Day 1 noted the following on the forensic report:
Nobody, at 10h56, sets us this puzzle :
“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…”
________________
I’m all a-quiver with curiosity!
Because of whom /what?
Spit it out, you old tease!
Extra info on Grant Shapps/Michael Green helpfully provided by the JC’s Martin Bright who has been at the BBC World Service, Observer/Guardian, the Spectator and the New Statesman. He is now the JC’s political editor.
Conservative party chairman who is ‘a Brit who happens to be Jewish’
Martin Bright, October 4, 2012
http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/84669/conservative-party-chairman-who-a-brit-who-happens-be-jewish%E2%80%99
@ Fred (00h34) :
“Or a bit like saying for example the infant mortality rate in Palestine isn’t appalling because the infant mortality rate in Ethiopia is as bad.”
_________________
Not a good analogy, Fred, unless it was meant to demonstrate that you’re a chump.
The infant mortality rate in Palestine (16 point something) is not good The infant mortality in Ethiopia, a country nobody’s mentioned yet and where, as far as I know, the evil Zionists play no rôle (6O something) is appalling.
“The Creative Incompetence of the Benefits Agency and DWP”
http://beastrabban.wordpress.com/2013/07/27/the-creative-incompetence-of-the-benefits-agency-and-dwp/
Dear Jon,
I’d be interested if Pt’s IP address gives an indication where his/her incoherent babble hails from:
seems suspiciously like an attempt at “forum sliding”
A Gentleperson’s guide to forum spies:
http://cryptome.org/2012/07/gent-forum-spies.htm
(if you agree, please don’t remove them – I’m happy with top of page 2 for my latest comment :))
Further to Passerby’s post http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2013/07/navalny-ward-assange-snowden-and-the-attack-on-free-speech/#comment-420602
this is another person who couldn’t take any more earlier this week.
‘I’m sick of all this s**t’: Middle-aged man in despair about bedroom tax cuts his own throat in middle of benefits advice office
Dragged a blade from his ear down to his throat on each side of his neck
Gory outburst happened at Halton Direct Link in Halton Lea shopping centre
Cheshire police officers have spoken to the man about his well-being
Middle-aged man suffered minor injuries in gory outburst
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2379984/Bedroom-tax-Man-slits-throat-benefits-advice-office-protest.html
“Brighton man faces jail for calling Hove MP Mike Weatherley ‘coward'”
http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/10572994.Brighton_man_faces_jail_for_calling_Hove_MP_Mike_Weatherley__coward_/?ref=twtrec