Those suddenly concerned about the European Arrest Warrant in Westminster last night were notably silent when it was used against Julian Assange, with a case that had more holes in it than a condom torn by Anna Ardin, the noted CIA agent.
Not only was the evidence against Assange not tested, the Supreme Court accepted that a Swedish prosecutor with a screaming political agenda was a “judicial authority”, despite her being neither a judge nor a court. That extraordinary ruling was itself dependent on two even more extraordinary false premises, directly stated in Lord Phillip’s judgement.
1) That the French term “autorites judiciaires” has a “wider meaning” than the English term “judicial authorities”. That is simply untrue.
2) That the French language version of the treaty is “authentic and original” and to be preferred to the English version. That is absolutely untrue – the different language versions are explicitly equal. That is a fundamental rule of EU (and UN)treaties, both of which I have personal experience of negotiating.
The bottom line being, if the Establishment wants to get you, it will, irrespective of the letter of the law.
Under the Napoleonic system prosecutors are judges, and have judicial independence. From the French point of view it is highly dangerous that in England the police decide themselves how to proceed with an investigation without judicial control.
Traditionally the local public prosecutor is one of the most important figures in any French regional capital, and (despite a few recent scandals) pretty much a law unto him or her self. The Justice Ministry pay the wages but have no more control than any other Judge.
If the Swedish prosecutor in this case has compromised her independence that would be fatal to the case and her career much more than translational casuistry.
“Defending the agent who bared all to ensnare a good man.”
Where?
I think Spiral is available with English subtitles if you want a fictionalised view of how M. Le juge operates in practice
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has imposed fines totalling £1,114,918,000 on five banks for failing to control business practices in their G10 spot foreign exchange (FX) trading operations:
Citibank N.A. £225,575,000
HSBC Bank Plc £216,363,000
JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A. £222,166,000
Royal Bank of Scotland Plc £217,000,000
UBS AG £233,814,000
http://www.fca.org.uk/news/fca-fines-five-banks-for-fx-failings
The proceeds will go to ‘good causes’ eg military charities.
How about feeding the families of the poor and homeless?
Also will these banks still be paying annual bonuses? A. Yes in all probability.
There are also similar fines in the US.
The west, Mrs Thatcher and her useless political spawn, ate all our money in the banks with their useless political system. Some of us are not pro-Putin, but do need an alternative to the incumbent uselessness of western capitalist thinking. It doesn’t work, whichever party runs it except by ever more borrowing.
It’s extremely lazy of us to project our ideals onto Putin and extremely lazy of Craig to describe our ideals as Putinistas. Let’s have an end to lazy thinking. We need an alternative system for the world’s economy and parliamentary style name-calling is not going to give us that solution.
I’m mildly surprised the media continue to fall for Tony Blair. But it’s always easier to publish an adulatory press release from the Office of Tony Blair than to do investigative journalism, so, only mildly.
The latest PR stunt, visiting Sierra Leone and appropriating some of the kudos more appropriately given to the many international workers risking their lives hourly on the ground, comes from Blair’s Africa Governance Initiative, in conjunction with Tony Blair’s Faith Foundation, and has the usual history.
Here’s a paper which doesn’t quite buy the image, though:
http://www.thesierraleonetelegraph.com/?p=3168
Saliently:
Oil has been found in Sierra Leone, and Mr. Blair it seems, is here to stay.
Today’s Sierra Leone Telegraph reports –
http://www.thesierraleonetelegraph.com/
A prominent journalist was arrested, apparently for criticising President Koroma’s policies on-air, possibly tortured, and then released *coincidentally* with Tony Blair’s arrival in the country. Koroma has quite a lot in common with other Friends of Tony…Karimov, Aliyev…effectively an arbitrary dictator whose personal wealth takes precedence over the wellbeing of his subjects.
“As for you not being able to express support for Solidarity and other free trade unions in the Soviet bloc – I asked the question a number of times and you failed to respond.”
Where?
““Defending the agent who bared all to ensnare a good man.”
Where?”
In opposing my criticism of the fact that Anna Ardin wrote a thesis, funded by CIA assets, questioning anti-Castro groups in Cuba. She did not ask the obvious question. Instead of saying no she did not you set about comparing Castro’s failures in Cuba to Guantanamo, a total distraction. In using this old trolling trick you defending her thesis. So do you or do you not, for the third time of asking, think she should have asked the obvious questions?
@Ba’al: I dare say the media do as they are told…
They don’t need to be told anything, Peacewisher. Old-fashioned journalism is largely dead, all the journos go to journo school and learn that they exist to sell copy and reduce costs – doesn’t matter what the copy is, and researching original copy costs too much. There are honourable exceptions, even on the Daily Mail, but subservience to the beancounters is the rule. As it is everywhere else. The brand is more important than the product.
Aaaaargh.
Tim, 7.34am
Well, one would hope so but unfortunately Sweden system of disciplinary action against officials’ misconduct is truly broken. Here’s Kjell-Olof Feldt, an ex-minister no less, complaining specifically that prosecutors can safely ignore Sweden’s laws regarding their “duty of objectivity” and no one is ever reprimanded, let alone disciplined or fired:
http://mobil.svd.se/opinion/hur-rattssaker-ar-den-svenska-rattsstaten_svd-4085627 [use Google translate]
Sweden’s SVEA Court of Appeal is due to rule on whether the arrest warrant for Assange should be dropped by the end of next week, so I’m wondering about the timing of this SvD article. SvD is as mainstream as it gets in Sweden and Kjell-Olof Feldt is a real heavyweight to write it. Perhaps it’s a sign that Marianne Ny is being ‘prepped’ to be the scapegoat for Sweden’s get-out of the whole mess.
However, Wright added, even if the jury found the officers had lied, they would not be able to blame them for the death. “Many people tell lies for a variety of reasons … [including] to mitigate the impact of what might be a … tragic mistake,” he said.
Incredible, isn’t it? So it is fine to shoot a completely innocent man repeatedly in the head, and lie about it in Court, because you are only trying to “mitigate the impact”.
What?
Read it again.
However, Wright added, even if the jury found the officers had lied, they would not be able to blame them for the death. “Many people tell lies for a variety of reasons … [including] to mitigate the impact of what might be a … tragic mistake,” he said.
I still can’t believe the disgraceful old bastard said it.
sans pareil! Craig Murray – World Class luminary.
A google search for ‘Sir Michael Wright’ produces this link as No 1.
About 2,890,000 results (0.53 seconds) Search Results
The Disgraceful Sir Michael Wright, A Grovelling Tool of the …
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2008/…/the_disgraceful/
Craig Murray
Dec 3, 2008 – Sir Michael Wright, coroner in the Jean Charles de Menezes inquiry, who has told the jury they are not permitted to return a verdict of unlawful …
Excellent.
whereas for Milord Hutton of the David Kelly Inquiry infamy, a link to the Wikipedia page is at the top.
There is nothing critical of him in the first 10 links.
Let them eat cake whilst they shiver in their unheated room.
Million elderly Brits malnourished as third of councils cut ‘meals on wheels’ service
November 11, 2014
http://rt.com/uk/204455-councils-cut-meals-wheels/
I am only a ‘lawyer’ of the barrack-room variety, but I’ll make the point that in the legal field of warfare you have to know when to drop a point, even if you were right and the other side and the judge are brazenly stitching you up. All judges speak with forked tongues and don’t want to upset the applecart, the public-school secret police, the club.
I suggest that rather than arguing over the meaning of the word “judicial”, Julian Assange’s team should concentrate on unusual appointments. If Marianne Ny has elected to be both chief investigator and prosecutor and that’s unusual, well why did it come about? What was going on between Anna Ardin and Sofia Wilen? What was Hans Blix’s involvement and what relations has he had with the CIA and the US embassy or any other US state body?
How about arguing that on the basis of known evidence (including, in Ardin’s case, her spooky activity in Cuba), there are strong grounds for requiring that these individuals (Ny, Wilen, Blix, Ardin) answer a list of defence questions and that without their doing so it is going to be difficult or impossible for an English court (ahem!) to form a proper view of the defence case?
Publish those questions. (Why not? It’s our side that wants it all to hang out, right?) Get the publicity campaign and the legal campaign running in synergy.
Keep going on about the CIA. They won’t like that in Stockholm. They won’t like it in Whitehall-Vauxhall. And they won’t like it in DC-Langley. Heard of zero-sum? Keep going on about who JA has upset and why they are out to get him.
Be a real big fat nuisance. Make the other side fear that so much will unravel – and they’re not even holding JA in captivity yet, as they are Bradley ‘Chelsea’ Manning – that it’s in their interests to allow JA safe passage out of the country to Ecuador.
Remember that the reason the Brits didn’t raid the Ecuadorean embassy may have been precisely because they did, on that occasion, decide that doing what the US state told them to do would have been more trouble than saying no.
If public-interest immunity certificates start getting issued, well, all’s well and good. If the defence can’t put its case properly as a result, stand on the presumption of innocence.
Yes you are up against US state gangsters who possess a lot of tentacles – in Whitehall, in Vauxhall, in the Temple – but even they can be taught what’s good for them.
Look at how Bobby Fischer defeated the US state which, as in the Julian Assange case, was looking for a quick international grab on trumped-up charges followed by an in effect permanent stay in a very high-security prison.
One point which Julian Assange’s team should grip with their teeth, shake, and not let go of until they tear big strips off the opposition, is the ample evidence for showing that Anna Ardin works for the CIA and that the Swedish authorities are also helping out that same US organisation by abusing process right left and centre. There is no prima facie case for thinking JA is guilty of rape or any other crime whatsoever.
Cause international incidents. Cause embarrassment. Make the defence lawyers raise their game, and if they’re good they’ll appreciate the opportunity.
Whoops, I meant Carl Bildt not Hans Blix!
Assange to Ecuador? Could get tricky –
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/21/us-petroecuador-tenders-idUSBREA4K0VW20140521
Wouldn’t want to rock the commercial boat, would we? Then again, TB might be invoked, for money, to smooth JA’s passage to freedom. He’s well into BP.
Koroma
Relations with UK
The British government has continued to provide large scale aid and advice, with former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Tony Blair continuing to work closely with the Sierra Leone government and speak out for investment in Sierra Leone. At Koroma’s request, Blair created a nine person board to advise the government on foreign investment.[51] The UK continues to be the largest donor to Sierra Leone, giving more money per person than to any other nation, and promising to raise aid by a further 50 million pounds sterling in 2010…[52]
In a 2009 BBC report by Humphrey Hawksley, some British diplomats and aid workers raised concerns about the slow pace of development in the country stressing on the problem of corruption, and asking whether almost a decade after the war – British military and post-war aid assistance has gone in vain as the country still struggle with poverty and massive unemployment.[53]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Bai_Koroma
~~
Big jump in revenues from Sierra Leone’s extractives sector
https://eiti.org/news/big-jump-revenues-sierra-leone-extractives-sector
Cameron’s nemesis Junckers might soon be gone as tax havens and their sordid deals are expected to be opened up.
His replacement might, if we are lucky, be a clever Franziska Keller, although Ms. Thyssen will most likely get the EU establishment vote.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/juncker-faces-uncertain-future-amid-tax-loophole-investigations-a-1002062.html
Thanks for the additional background on Sierra Leone, Mary. Once again, the mechanism is clear: we give the aid, Tony takes a cut and as much personal credit as his PRs at AGI can spin for him. The aid goes to facilitate multinationals ripping the country off and to increase Koroma’s personal fortune. Sierra Leone remains the arsehole of the universe. Situation normal.
The impact of AGI on the ground is minimal, both as to last week’s news (malaria, improvement of conditions) and this week’s sensation (ebola). Other, dedicated and specifically skilled agencies are doing far more. Tony doesn’t even contemplate visiting until long after the UK’s pols have been there, and, significantly, not until Tony’s enormous fee for lobbying China on behalf of a Saudi royal chancer becomes public. AGI has no clinical involvement or skills on the ground as far as can be seen. Yet all media have been quoting AGI in preference to anyone else. But that’s PR for you.
Cameron’s nemesis Junckers might soon be gone as tax havens and their sordid deals are expected to be opened up.
We might usefully take a look at Gibraltar, now Luxembourg’s being scrutinised. But I fear the globalisers will knock that on the head. Free trade across everyone’s borders is the new utopia, but they still need to be able to hide their money somewhere no-one else can make claims on it.
Resident Dissident
11 Nov, 2014 – 10:47 pm
[For all Castro’s faults is not Guantanamo Bay the biggest crime on the island?]
“No, not even by the most febrile stretch of the imagination”
……………
The Wikipedia article you link to about Cuba ResDis, bears little relation to reality and was probably written by one of the numerous Miami based, CIA supported, anti-Castro groups.
You trying to suggest that human rights abuse in Cuba is far worse than US human rights abuse at Guantanamo Bay is laughable.
I have been to Cuba a number of times and seen that the main problem there is economic – a problem which can be directly attributed to the US blockade of almost 55 years.
Doug Scorgie, thanks for trying to inject a modicum of reality into the fantasy world created for himself by Resident Dissident.
Apologies for chasing hypocrisy down a different alley from that indicated by the thread, and leaving Assange to his fans. This report was not written by Tony Blair’s Africa Governance Initiative lets-globalise-everyone scam.
http://www.christianaid.org.uk/images/Sierra-Leone-Report-tax-incentives-080414.pdf
There has been a massive rise in revenue losses
since 2009 – the result of tax incentives granted
to the mining sector in relation to the major
investments that took place during 2010-2012.
However, the government is set to lose further
revenues by providing significant corporate
income tax incentives to mining companies. We
estimate that the government will lose revenues
of US$131m in the three years from 2014-16 alone
from corporate income tax incentives granted to
five mining companies – an average of US$43.7m
a year. Nearly all of these losses are the result of
the agreements with African Minerals and
London Mining
The report also complains of insufficient transparency between the extractive industries, the SL parliament, and the public. High pork rat alert!
The “Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative” (EITI) was first launched in September 2002 by UK Prime Minister Tony Blair at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg (Wikipedia)
Ah, but. But. Sierra Leone is listed as compliant with EITI, and reading more deeply, the initiative is designed only to persuade governments to reveal revenues. No change of tax policy, and perish the thought, no attention to sweetened deals is implied. The extractive industries love it. Hell, they helped write it.
Kjell-Olof Feldt was one of Olof Palme’s cadre.
His involvement can only be positive in causa Assange I would think.
Update: African Minerals, mentioned above, announced its acquisition of the liquidated London Mining earlier this month. AM, although originally British, now has at least one Chinese company representative as a non-exec. It’s not doing very well, despite concessions on high-grade iron ore, tax incentives and cheap labour. Ebola isn’t helping, but the problem is fundamental. Koroma came to power seven years ago announcing he would run Sierra Leone ‘like a business’. Giving tax breaks to exploitative but unsuccessful companies while accepting international aid….some business.
Resident Dissident
12 Nov, 2014 – 7:25 am
“This is just your typical Stalinist if you are not with us you are against us game.”
……………
Stalinist!? I can’t find any quote from Stalin saying that but:
Hillary Clinton said on September 13, 2001: “Every nation has to either be with us, or against us.”
And:
President George W. Bush, in an address to a joint session of Congress on September 20, 2001: “Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.”
You are one of the more dishonest posters on here.
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