The disgraceful judges of Britain’s High Court – who have gone along with torture, extraordinary rendition, every single argument for mass surveillance and hiding information from the public, and even secret courts – have ruled that it was lawful for the Home Office to detain David Miranda, a journalist as information he was carrying might in some undefined way, and if communicated to them, aid “terrorists”.
Despite the entire industry, both private and governmental, devoted to whipping up fear, it is plain to pretty well everyone by now that terrorism is about the most unlikely way for you to die. A car accident is many hundreds of times more likely. Even drowning in your own bath is more likely. Where is the massive industry of suppression against baths?
I had dinner inside the Ecuadorian Embassy on Sunday with Julian Assange, who I am happy to say is as fit and well as possible in circumstances of confinement. Amongst those present was Jesselyn Radack, attorney for, among others, Edward Snowden. Last week on entering the UK she was pulled over by immigration and interrogated about her clients. The supposed “immigration officer” already knew who are Jesselyn Radack’s clients. He insisted aggressively on referring repeatedly to Chelsea Manning as a criminal, to which Jesselyn quietly replied that he was a political prisoner. But even were we to accept the “immigration officer’s” assertion, the fact that an attorney defends those facing criminal charges is neither new nor until now considered reprehensible and illegitimate.
As various states slide towards totalitarianism, a defining factor is that their populations really don’t notice. Well, I have noticed. Have you?
Ref BLiar’s advice to the goddess as reported.
It reflects several facets of his paramount psychopathy. Firstly that he believes, in spite of his legal ‘training’ at the Bar, that he can be part of a possible manipulation of a criminal trial/conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. Secondly, that he sees no impropriety in giving such advice as an ex PM to an alleged criminal thus demonstrating his lack of insight and his mountainous view of himself. Thirdly he has shown how he was intent to pervert the course of justice re David Kelly’s death. Still no inquest for the latter of course.
Throwing sand in the faces/illusion/adds complexity.
A suitable case for treatment and/or locking up.
Q. Why was this thrown in right at the end of the prosecution case Regina v Brooks, Brooks et al? What will be revealed over the next months. The case has been ongoing for four months already. Who is paying? Joe Bloggs of course.
Clarke 23.06 pm: section 44 Terrorism Act and photography. Thanks for that.
“Craig Mackey, who speaks for the Association of Chief Police Officers on stop-and-search legislation, said he does have sympathy for photographers, but said that part of the problem was that some officers were not aware how best to use the “complex” legislation. He said: “It goes back to the issue of briefing and training of staff and making sure they are clear around the legislation we are asking them to use.
There is no power under Section 44 to stop people taking photographs and we are very clear about getting that message out to forces.”
Mary, Tony Blair was being used. For a fee of course.
Afterthought:
The rot really set in when the fundamental right to silence was removed:
http://www.yourrights.org.uk/yourrights/the-rights-of-suspects/the-rights-of-suspects-in-the-police-station/curtailment-of-the-right-to-silence.html
The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, which did this, was Michaellll “Vampire” Howard’s kneejerk response to young people making a lot of noise, and has been repeatedly challenged, unsuccessfully.
Some good advice, not just for photographers, here –
http://www.urban75.org/photos/photographers-rights-on-arrest.html
‘Q. Why was this thrown in right at the end of the prosecution case Regina v Brooks, Brooks et al?’
For the media to enjoy. Linking Blair with Rebekah probably won’t do either of them much good. Like it.
Memory Lane: How Blair appointed Hutton, instantly –
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2362659/Revealed-How-Blair-fixer-picked-judge-David-Kelly-Inquiry-just-hours-weapons-inspectors-suicide.html
Can forgive the Mail a lot for this piece. Mind you, there’s a lot to forgive.
Meanwhile-
http://www.iraqinquiry.org.uk/media/54976/2013-11-04_Chilcot_Cameron.pdf
‘Maxwellisation’-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwellisation
John
Indoctrination is a form of education as the definition states.
Indoctrination is a proven method of controlling opinion with disregard to sentiment.
Do we have liberty? I thnk so but in regard to sentiment we are inclined to seek self gratification as over ruling our sentimental response to other being which I am sure we do still cling to.
Peace.
Following the toothpaste bombs to Sochi terrrrr alert, we hear of a new alert today for shoe bombs on incoming flights to the US.
US Airlines Warned Over Possible Shoe Bombs
Concerns are raised for the second time in less than three weeks over possible attempts to smuggle explosives onto planes.
http://news.sky.com/story/1214411/us-airlines-warned-over-possible-shoe-bombs
‘It is the second time in less than three weeks the US government has raised concerns over possible attempts to smuggle explosives onto commercial jetliners.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) declined to discuss specific details about the warning but said it regularly shares relevant information with domestic and international partners.
“Our security apparatus includes a number of measures, both seen and unseen, informed by the latest intelligence and as always DHS continues to adjust security measures to fit an ever evolving threat environment,” the department said in a statement.’
The current head of the Orwellian sounding Department of Homeland Security is Jeh Johnson http://www.dhs.gov/secretary-jeh-johnson
where it says that he is a member of the neocon ‘think tank’ Council on Foreign Relations – Rubin, Rubenstein, Albright, Rockefeller, Powell. Branches all over the US.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_on_Foreign_Relations
Remembering Gerald Berreman
One Who Raged Against the Machine
by DAVID H. PRICE
February 19, 2014
A few mornings ago I saw an announcement that anthropologist Gerald Berreman died this last December. Berreman was a professor of anthropology at Berkeley for decades who became an important voice of dissent in the 1960s and 70s, speaking out against anthropologists’ interactions with the CIA and other intelligence agencies, and championing openness in science. Berreman’s early ethnographic work studied caste stratification dynamics in India, and cultural ecology in India and Nepal.
I did not know Professor Berreman well. We occasionally corresponded and both contributed to an American Anthropological Association (AAA) panel on militarism a few years ago, but his writings, his work on the AAA code of ethics, and his political activism have had a significant impact on my work and on generations of anthropologists who followed him. I write this brief salute to Gerry Berreman’s ideas with the simple hope that some new generation of anthropologists and other academics might be drawn to his work (his essays like “The Social responsibility of the Anthropologists,” “Ethics Versus ‘Realism’ in Anthropology,” or his book The Politics of Truth) in this disjointed era where notions of knowledge for the public good have been outsourced to cynical opportunists of capital or state.
Berreman was the real deal, a strong early voice speaking out against anthropologists’ collusion with military and intelligence agencies, playing crucial roles in giving legitimacy to the AAA’s efforts to develop an ethics code during the late 1960s and early 1970s. This was an era when a strong belief in unmitigated science led many to view other cultures as datasets to be explored as needed, but to Berreman, the world was no longer anthropologists’ “laboratory,” but “a community in which we are coparticipants with our informants.”
/..
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/02/19/one-who-raged-against-the-machine/
There was a man who stood up for his principles and beliefs.
Apologies if already posted. From the Medialens editors.
Video: Edward Snowden tells Oxford students that Government secrets undermine democracy
Posted by The Editors on February 20, 2014, 9:42 am
Edward Snowden or, as the Independent calls him, ‘the fugitive from US justice’, recorded this video message for Oxford University students attending an award ceremony for Chelsea Manning:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/video-edward-snowden-tells-oxford-students-that-government-secrets-undermine-democracy-9139897.html
20 February 2014 Last updated at 10:12
Breaking news
Rebekah Brooks cleared of one charge
Rebekah Brooks acquitted of misconduct in public office at Old Bailey hacking trial – faces further four charges
More to follow.
??
I believe Ray McGovern is a friend of Craig’s.
Ray dared to turn his back on Shillary and look what ensued.
Former CIA Analyst Ray McGovern Sues State Dept. For Putting Him on Watch List
Lawsuit Challenges Brutal Arrest at Clinton speech
For anti-war beliefs, State Dept. instructed agents to stop and question McGovern on sight
WASHINGTON – February 18 – The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit on behalf of U.S. military veteran and former CIA analyst Ray McGovern against John Kerry, in his capacity as the Secretary of State, and against officers at George Washington University.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia three years to the date of Mr McGovern’s brutal and false arrest at GWU during a speech of then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. After the arrest, the PCJF uncovered that then 71-year-old McGovern was put on a “Be On the Look-Out” list, and agents were instructed to stop and question him on sight. The reasons cited included his “political activism, primarily anti-war” — a clearly unconstitutional order.
/..
https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2014/02/18
.
I don’t meant to boast because this is definitely not a race, or a competition, but I noticed the sea change in the late 70’s – can’t explain what it is except to say a sort of scent of slow death of humanity – and this tendency has accelerated since around 2000. Strongly reminiscent of Ionesco’s play “Rhinoceros”. It compels me to feel dreadfully alone. But in a paradoxical way, these days I begin to sense solidarity among another souls that are trapped in the same total aloneness.
I am re-linking the important Reprieve article which Fred linked earlier about drone-strike victims trying to make NATO countries accountable for complicity in US-led drone-strikes. Although the US itself is not a signatory to the ICC (presumably so it can continue its torture, slaughter and abuse) and because NATO allies are so closely tied to the dollar and serving their master it has a high likelihood of success. I hope everybody here who can afford to do so will support the charity Reprieve which would show they are concerned.
http://www.reprieve.org.uk/press/2014_02_19_complaint_international_court_drones/
Edward Snowden addresses the Oxford Union as part of the Sam Adams awards ceremony on 19th February 2014.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFll2lry9lk
Thanks Dreoilin for the Chelsea Manning: Sam Adams Award Acceptance Speech, Feb 2014
Linked four posts above John. Note how the Independent describe him. Disgusting.
Reprieve…yeah, but the link from there to the complaint gives me a 404…
Oh, dear.
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/hacker-guccifer-who-leaked-nude-george-bush-self-portraits-arrested-romania-1433396
WARNING -Disturbing imagery.
Ba’al Zevul, 12:38 pm, I just spoke to Clemency Wells in Reprieve’s Press Office on the number on the page John Goss linked to; she said she’d get the link to the complaint fixed.
You’re welcome Mark
Clark, you beat me to it. I got the 404 message too so just rang Reprieve and the man there said they would do something about it.
From Edward Snowden’s speech to the Oxford Union:
Habbabkuk (La vita è bella!
19 Feb, 2014 – 3:12 pm
“I read very recently that a Russian opposition figure who also happens to be an environmental campaigner but not a nun or monk either – has just been convicted of various offences arising out of him breaching a perimeter fence somewhere – I think it was at Sochi, actually. Some damage to the fence (obviously) but no damage to anything or anybody else. He got 8 years.”
Search as I may on the internet Habbabkuk, I can find nothing about a Russian male opposition figure, or an environmental campaigner, being arrested for damaging a fence, or any male being given 8 years for such an action, in Sochi or anywhere else in Russia recently.
We know the police in Russia arrest protesters and fit them up on false charges (a bit like our own police) so you don’t need to make stories up as in your quote above.
You could of course prove me wrong by referencing your claims.
From Chelsea Manning:
“the [American]government first refused to acknowledge the existence of the documents [regarding the practice of “targeted killing” of American citizens], but later argued that their release could harm national security and were therefore exempt from disclosure.”
Equivalently David Cameron and his coalition have refused to release information compiled by the Chilcot inquiry that documents formal dialogue between then prime minister Tony Blair and President George W Bush some two years before the start of the Iraq war.
A disclosure has been made to interested parties that proper record keeping by the British foreign office in the prelude and preparation of the Iraq war was unsubstantial and unaccountable.
This of course is utter bollocks and that announcement was made under extreme pressure from the White House and the US department of State who are delaying the release while experts in law ‘comb’ the report for anything legislative, congressional or jurisdictive that might lead to a challenge in court that the Iraq war was and is illegal and pre-World Trade Center attack preemptive.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/exclusive-us-blocks-publication-of-chilcots-report-on-how-britain-went-to-war-with-iraq-8937772.html
According to Iraq hospital records I hold and information from DoctorsforIraq (thankyou) thousands of Iraq babies including unborn, thousands of infants, toddlers and children under 16 years old were murdered in the pre-Iraq war (secret war) and the initial cruise missile/cluster bomb attacks on Iraq.
Demand the Chilcot Inquiry Report/dossier unabridged and ‘un-dodgy’ be released NOW!
Habbabkuk (La vita è bella!
19 Feb, 2014 – 3:49 pm
“Let us note firstly that although there are differences of opinion as to whether the powers contained in Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 1970 are excessive, no case has yet been made – convincingly or otherwise – that those powers are totalitarian.”
It is not the powers themselves that are the problem but how they are applied and often abused by the “authorities”.
Looks to me as if ‘the domain of government’ must inevitably ‘expand beyond the borders of its public’s knowledge’ in a complex modern state. Having full public accountability would seem to be unrealisable in practice. If the world were composed of cuddly bunnies, we could probably get rid of the OSA, for example, but it ain’t. What is attainable has to be a compromise.
many thanks for the on topic news links to Sweden’s information spring time, Arbed, finally public pressure is having some effect on those who would do anything to get listed on the NYSE. My best wishes to all those who are trying to tell the public prosecutor to act or resign.
‘Hallå Noddy Holder, gå hem till Amerika’
Thanks to someone, Dreolin and Clarke for the excellent links. Political policing has been carried out in Britain and other countries for decades.
Re: CCTV How is it possible that CCTV that should have/did record Mr. Tomlinson being stabbed/pushed with the tip of a baton, at force and it should have/did record the Mets officers shooting Mr. Menezes.
Personally I have seen a Police officer, of the rank of superintendent, turn around as a young women was indecently assaulted by a hired thug working as a security officer in Twyford Down. We were locked on to a buuldozer, and she pleaded with me not to unlock myslef and flatten the bloke, as that was exactly what the police wanted us to do, she suffered a sexual indecent assault for her principles and the secuity guard was never challenged.
Group 4 was allowed to hire anybody for their work and they did. Anybody with a previous record for GBH was welcome to work for them.
It was politicians who coined the phrase ‘ecoterrorism’ in an open attempt to denigrate and finally criminalise environmenmtal protesters under terrorism legislation.
sorry for not finishing a sentence. After Menezes it should read’ was never recovered or made public, how come that CCTV, when it suits the authorities, does not work or presents only grainy pictures.
CCTV is not to safeguard the public, but to control it, imho.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/21/world/europe/ukraine.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
“Eleven bodies were taken to a makeshift morgue at the entrance to Independence Square on Thursday morning and an undetermined number were lying elsewhere. Around 28 people, including police officers, died in clashes earlier this week. The Interior Ministry said 29 police officers had been hospitalized with gunshot wounds.
Demonstrators captured several dozen policemen, whom they marched, dazed and bloodied, toward the center of the square through a crowd of men who heckled and shoved them.
“There will be many dead today,” Anatoly Volk, 38, one of the demonstrators, said. He was watching stretchers carry dead and wounded men down a stairway slick with mud near the Hotel Ukraina.”
Civil war awaits?