My phone is not being returned to me by police as, astonishingly, I am now formally under investigation for terrorism. Whether this relates to support for Palestine or for Wikileaks has currently not been made clear.
What follows is, unspun and unvarnished, my account of my interview under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act as given to my lawyers:
I arrived from Keflavik airport, Iceland to Glasgow airport at about 10am on Monday 16 October. After passport control I was stopped by three police officers, two male and one female, who asked me to accompany them to a detention room.
They seated me in the room and told me:
I was detained under Section 7 of the Terrorism Act
I was not arrested but detained, and therefore had no right to a lawyer.
I had no right to remain silent. I had to give full and accurate information in response to questions. It was a criminal offence to withhold any relevant information.
I had to give up any passwords to my devices. It was a criminal offence not to do this.
They searched my baggage and my coat, going through my documents and taking my phone and laptop. They did not look at one document from Julian Assange’s lawyers that I told them was privileged.
They asked me about boarding cards for Brussels and Dublin they found and what I had been doing there. I replied I was at a debate at Trinity College in Dublin, while in Brussels I had attended a human rights meeting focused on the case of Julian Assange.
They asked me to identify the individuals from some visiting cards I had from the Brussels meeting (one was a German MP).
They asked me the purpose of my visit to Iceland. I told them that I was attending a coordinating meeting of the campaign to free Julian Assange. I said I had also attended a pro-Palestinian rally outside the Icelandic parliament, but that had not been a prior intention.
They asked how I earnt my living. I said from two sources: voluntary subscriptions to my blog, and my civil service pension.
They asked what organisations I am a member of. I said the Alba party. I said I worked with Wikileaks and the Don’t Extradite Assange campaign, but was not formally a “member” of either. I was a life member of the FDA union. No other organisations.
They asked if I received any money from Wikileaks, from Don’t Extradite Assange or from the Assange family (separate questions). I replied no, except occasional travel expenses from Don’t Extradite Assange. In December I had done a tour of Germany and received a fee from the Wau Holland Foundation, a German free speech charity.
They asked what other campaigns I had been involved in. I said many, from the Anti-Nazi League and Anti-Apartheid movement on. I had campaigned for Guantanamo inmates alongside Caged Prisoners.
They asked why I had attended the pro-Palestine demo in Iceland. I said one of the speakers had invited me, Ögmundur Jónasson. He was a former Icelandic Interior Minister. I said I did not know what the speeches said as they were all in Icelandic.
They asked whether I intended to attend any pro-Palestinian rallies in the UK. I said I had no plans but probably would.
They asked how I judged whether to speak alongside others on the same platform. I replied I depended on organisers I trusted, like the Palestine Solidarity Committee or Stop the War. It was impossible to know who everyone was at a big rally.
They asked if anyone else posted to my twitter or blog. I replied no, it was all me.
They asked how considered my tweets were. I replied that those which were links to my blog posts were my considered writing. Others were more ephemeral, and like everyone else I sometimes made mistakes and sometimes apologised. They asked if I deleted tweets and I said very seldom.
I volunteered that I thought I understood the tweet that worried them and agreed it could have been more nuanced. This was the limitation of twitter. It was intended to refer only to the current situation within Gaza and the Palestinian people’s right of self-defence from genocide.
That was more or less it. The interview was kept to exactly an hour and at one point one said to another “18 minutes left”. They did not tell me why. At one point they did mention protected journalistic material on my laptop but I was too dazed to take advantage of this and specify anything.
They took my bank account details and copies of all my bank cards.
ENDS
This is an enormous abuse of human rights. The abuse of process in refusing both a lawyer and the right to remain silent, the inquiry into perfectly legal campaigning which is in no way terrorism-associated, the political questioning, the financial snooping and the seizure of material related to my private life, were all based on an utterly fake claim that I am associated with terrorism.
I have to date not been arrested and not charged. Contempt of court is therefore not in play and you are free to comment on the case (although in the current atmosphere any kind of free thought is liable to vicious state action). I am safe and currently in Dublin. I intend next to travel to Switzerland to take this up with the United Nations.
My legal team have already made a submission against this outrage to the United Nations Human Rights Committee and are looking at the possibility of judicial review in the UK. We also have to prepare the defence against possible terrorism charges, ludicrous as that sounds.
I am afraid this all costs money. I am grateful for the unfailing generosity of people in what seems a continual history of persecution.
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Keir Starmer will not call for a ceasefire in Gaza, he is now well aware that horrendous war crimes are taking place on a continuing basis amounting to Genocide, Starmer is well aware of the statements from the Israeli leadership, including from the Defence Minister Youv Galant “we are fighting Human animals”, No less an authority than the president of Israel had said “there are no innocent people in Gaza” and the bombing we are seeing is proof that this belief is a cornerstone of Israeli military strategy. Starmers failure to call for a ceasefire is proof positive that he wants the slaughter to continue. Therefore complicit in the carnage.
All this is fuckkkng insane.
Black is white, war is peace etc. and I might be in jail for commenting
on notorious terrorist supporting blog.
I wish I knew how to make Bitcoin transfer!
Would my donation be perceived as supporting terrorist supporter?
I will donate exclusively for the roof leak !
Ministry of War is Ministry of Defense.
Starving and bombing people is for their own good.
Make War in the name of Peace!
Biden do not trust palestinians death toll, claim civilians die in war
Biden:“What they say to me is I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed,” the American leader said at a press conference in the White House. “I’m sure innocents have been killed, and it’s the price of waging war.”
https://swentr.site/news/585880-us-biden-gaza-death-toll/
Imagine living in Gaza now and having your son, daughter, mother, father slaughtered and then Biden claim, it did not happen.
The western leaders have sure been conditioned to dehumanize the palestinians to the fullest, likely the work of the israeli lobby.
But Biden is telling the truth about Israeli babies beeing murderd?
Strange, as I cannot see any babies among the 902 names listed by Haaretz?
https://archive.ph/m65OB
The Haaretz list is incomplete and a week out of date. Meanwhile, international agencies concur with the figures that the Gaza authorities have been issuing – which they cross check via their own sources and people on the ground. It is yet another mark of how low the Israelis will stoop in their endless lying propaganda, in denial themselves, and trying to force the rest of the world to also deny the reality. They have tried hard to cut off any outside reporting and coverage, as well as routinely bombing any official institutions which keep records. But truth will out, against this appalling, inhumane, indiscriminate, utterly sadistic war on a defenceless civil population, half of whom are children. Little wonder they lie about the consequences of their decades long policies.
The latest example of killing a journalist’s family as a deterrent to him and others is beyond the worst of punitive, murdering atrocities.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/26/can-we-trust-casualty-figures-from-the-hamas-run-gaza-health-ministry
The full list of Gazans killed by israel is here, all with ID numbers and age:
https://www.moh.gov.ps/portal/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/%D8%AA%D9%82%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%B1-%D9%86%D9%87%D8%A7%D8%A6%D9%8A-%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B3%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%A1-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B4%D9%87%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%A1-1.pdf
Any journalist can verify the authenticity of this list through UNRWA or Israel’s own population registry of Palestinians (incidentally a vital component of occupation)
And obvioualy it will continue to be updated, by thousands no doubt.
FYI It consists of 7028 Palestinians, including 2913 children
The first 88 names are from the same family.
Genocide Joe insisted he had seen pictures of “terrorists beheading children”. It has niot stopped western media treating his subsequent commentary with complete reverence.
In Israel, Babies were killed as well as there adult counterparts, the accounts I have heard all terrible. Then I change the channel: in Gaza babies being killed as well as their adult counterparts. The carnage is unspeakable. I’m asking people to switch channels for just one day. Go from BBC to Al Jazeera. The war must end, the killing must end, and a forum must be held for the people of Israel and the people of Palestine to figure out what to do: democratic state with the right to return, or a two-state solution. This should be discussed by people of the median age groups. If this not done, I see the world becoming a very depressing place with hate in its heart ❤️
Biden is lying. He lies every time he opens his filthy mouth. You should know this by now.
The whole approach of the leaders of the ‘democratic world’ is dehumanising and racist. ‘Israel has the right to defend itself’ the mantra being repeated but apparently not the Palestinians who do not even have an army to protect them. They do not even have a state of their own or freedom to leave and enter.
In rather sharp contrast, we can be absolutely certain that Biden is lying most of the time. If a man who is so dazed and bewildered can be said to lie, that is.
BREAKING*: Support for Labour amongst the UK’s Muslim voters has plunged from 71% to 5% [FIVE PER CENT!!]. That’s around a million votes by my maths, many of them in seats in northern England that Labour needs to win. SuperKeith strikes again!
https://nitter.net/LeftieStats/status/1717460968668639577
* Well, it was 10 hours ago.
Thanks for your reply Chris. Our host has yet to be charged with, let alone convicted of, any terrorism offences. Voting-wise, Muslims are generally less fickle than the overall electorate: most of them have voted Labour in every election, and the ones that haven’t tend to keep to the same party, be it the Tories, Lib Dems etc (despite the British Armed Forces’ activities in foreign fields, not that many switched to Respect in general elections). Economics-wise, there should be little difference between a Tory government, a Starmzy Labour one, or a hung parliament – unlike in the Corbyn years.
If Clegg’s job, for which he was handsomely rewarded, was to destroy the Lib Dems, then Starver’s job looks very much like it is to destroy Labour.
This is really interesting; also note that Biden has the same problem: in 2020 the vast majority of Arab-Americans voted for him; in 2024?
Biden wants both the votes from the Arab-Americans, AND the money from his (Jewish) mega-donors.
So far he has given his wealthy donors everything; he might regret that, come November 5, 2024.
I have been working on the ShofarLeaks project and for some reason people seem to run (http://ShofarLeaks.com).
However, I’m the technology guy and one of the things I proposed years ago is the idea of at least three passwords.
One is normal full access.
One is distress that gives only limited access, even when forensic tools are used.
One is self-destruct. The password is entered, and a few milliseconds later all data is gone.
This might have been helpful for you or others. However, it has been hard to find interest.
I’d be interested to know how you can delete data in milliseconds ?
A minimal secure, three pass, delete can take hours, depending on size.
I suspect if you are able to put it in a microwave it would do the trick. Some person more knowledgeable will be able to back that up or debunk
Briefly, data is in 1G chunks each with separate obfuscation, encryption, and part of the key.
Destroy the key in each chunk takes only milliseconds, and the data become unusable.
Then you can casually fill the rest of each chunk in a pseudorandom fashion for total destruction. This part does not have to complete.
If there is interest and resources to make it happen, contact me.
So.
1. you are not deleting the data, just the encryption keys.
2. You can only overwrite the existing data iff you have control of the device.
Therefore, your ‘solution’ will result in an encrypted device in the hands of the security services. Who may, or may not, be able to decrypt it. We don’t know the full capabilities of GCHQ or the CIA.
Your solution would not help Mr Murray or prevent the state from locking him up for withholding data. Sorry, but I imagine Craig already has industrial strength encryption. Your ‘solution’ adds nothing to his protection. IMO.
Stevie Boy you seem to be saying we should give up and crawl in a hole as we have no hope and should not try.
Perhaps we should consider things more fully. Step one is destroying the key in a 1G chunk. This makes the data useless. Step 2 is a more complete destruction. My objective was to give the basics. Do we have to also include things like the redundant nature of flash memory which is one of the reasons the addition destruction step would happen? I was not trying to give a dissertation, but a simple overview.
Did you read what you wrote in #2? Obviously the program has control of the device.
The idea of breaking encryption is far more sensationalism then reality, but we can’t go there can we.
The state can lock you up for mis-gendering someone, so that is a distraction, not the issue.
Some will crawl in a hole and hide. Some will stand as a man.
Sorry John. I’ve worked all my life in IT, i’m sure you have the best of intentions, but you haven’t convinced me. Good luck with your project.
You call yourself Stevie Boy, and worked all your life in IT. Is that from a baby and still as a young child? So what. Time in a field doesn’t matter, but is the case made true. I’ve been doing secure communications since 1974, just before we heard about public key cryptography. But that doesn’t matter a hill of beans. Evidence does.
I don’t think I can convince you, as your mind seems to be made up.
I still welcome anyone interested in a rational dialog on the ShofarLeaks project, and maybe we can protect some, but probably not Stevie Boy.
Seems to me that if you have your data in an non-conventional format (ie not MSDOS, NTFS etc.) – design your own filesystem, it’s not that hard – and it’s encrypted with the keys at the start of each block, it’s little more than random data even to the most sophisticated user.
Take away the second part of the key (added by the user at runtime), plus the method of using the keys, your disk is indistinguishable from an unformatted blank to anyone who takes the disk from you and examines it. Given a moment to destroy the block keys too, that data is gone forever.
The nonsense we see on films (“Down to the last 4 digits of the code now!”) – as if the encryption process gives you a thumbs-up every time you happen to hit one of the characters in the correct position in a key, so now you only have to work on the remaining characters – has given the popular impression that you can crack codes literally by working on it one character at a time. So with a device cracking away at it, you can supposedly whittle down the combinations to get the password, given a few minutes in which to do so. Which is absolute nonsense, of course.
So it is quite possible to render data meaningless without the co-operation of its rightful owner, and unobtainable even to the owner, if block keys and indexes to the blocks themselves are destroyed.
glenn_nl – Thanks for your clear and concise description. My frustration with Stevie Boy was clearly showing, and I’m sorry for that.
Indeed the objective of the 1G chunks is either directly placed on the drive or via a file system, as in a file system on a file system. Multiple formats for storing data is in place with ShofarNexus, but it seems when solutions are offered, people run. Technology I can handle. The politics is the greatest barrier.
The trick would be in Craig’s situation, not to limit access, but to limit visibility, so without the secure password, the protected date is invisible. Otherwise it will always be vulnerable to the “rubber hose” decryption method. Deleting everything would just confirm that the suspect has something to hide.
TPTB mandate that you must pass over to their thugs all passwords. You cannot hide data, it may be unreadable but it is obviously still there. So, IMO, what is suggested would only lead to Craig being charged for withholding access.
(The downloaded data is probably processed by GCHQ)
The instantaneous deletion of data is technically not viable.
Microwaving the device or, my favourite, hammer and chisel works very well. But, I imagine Craig doesn’t normally rock up to the customs desk with a portable microwave or a hammer and chisel !
You have two choices: comply or prison.
This is what our democratic elections have delivered for us. A police state.
The citizen is always wrong, and the state can do whatever it likes.
But this is a democracy, governed by laws not men.
“The instantaneous deletion of data is technically not viable.”
It doesn’t need to be instantaneous. If the hard disk shows, when read, that certain sectors, when read, are free when they actually contain data, it will be some time before a detailed enough analysis of the disk can be carried out to determine that that data actually exists, in which time it could well have been erased.
Nope. You’re dealing with people whose actual day-to-day job is dealing with these scenarios. Recall that data is NEVER erased; it can only be overwritten, and you can stop that happening by disabling the device. As I mentioned, comprehensive overwriting can take hours. The first task ‘they’ will carry out is to download a complete image of the device. They can then process this at their leisure.
Anyway. The actual point is, “is Craig withholding data?”. Deleting data implies he is, therefore ‘go to jail; do not pass Go’. Your only protection is no devices.
“As I mentioned, comprehensive overwriting can take hours. ”
That would depend on how much data there is to be erased. it is relatively simple to keep such data as text files, which take up very little space, rather than bloated html, word or PDF files. Also, if the default state of the hard disk is random data and the encrypted files appear as random data, it is difficult to see which random data is actually encrypted files to which the authorities have not yet been given a password.
The technical viability is described above. No hammer required.
Please also keep in mind the common idea of “democracy and freedom” describes opposites as the minority is not free.
“Please also keep in mind the common idea of “democracy and freedom” describes opposites as the minority is not free.”
Democracy does not depend on majority rule. It is perfectly possible to have democracy based on consensus: this is how juries worked for hundreds of years until recently.
Do you not see the twisting of words here? “democracy based on consensus” What is the definition of “consensus”? The “majority of opinion”. As in the minority is not free.
Isn’t a better solution to travel in pairs if possible, but on separate flights. You then swap phones at the airport and quite legitimately state that you do not know the password for the phone, because it is not your phone. This requires some suspicion that you are going to be stopped and may not have worked for Craig in this case, but it is difficult to see how this can be overcome.
It is interesting that individuals are being questioned as to their motives and aims.
Unfortunately this doesn’t seem to apply to politicians and the media in general.
Just what exactly is the aim of the Israeli government?
In my opinion and the Israeli leaders are extremely open about this in that they want to empty Gaza
not of Hamas but Palestinians in general and in order to do that they have to literally clear the whole place.
Call it ‘ Slash and Burn ‘ if you like but that is the aim.
Then the whole of Palestine will be sealed off.
The thing for the Israel government is that they are under the illusion that they and the US are the only countries that move the chess pieces when in actuality the Middle Eastern and Western techtonic plates are shifting rapidly.
If Iran – Lebanon and Syria and their proxies ( Hezbollah etc ) become involved and the war expands then you can be sure that Israel’s population will empty.
there are a lot of people in Israel have duel nationality.
When the war becomes a real War ( not an unequal war) then not surprisingly the populace will leave.
Also there will be pressure in the oil rich states to cut off Israel’s oil and gas under pressure from their populace.
In essence it could end up in a seige of Israel nevermind Gaza.
it depends on what Israel does in the future.
Here’s a question:
How would Hamas ‘ destroy ‘ The State of Israel?
They could not do that – it is impossible.
Converesely Israel can ‘ Destroy ‘ Palestine very easily.
As we are witnessing.
I believe that the basic premises that all Israel wants to do is clear out all non Jews from Palestine is false. That in fact would just be the first step. Having achieved that then Lebanon would be next, then Jordan and/or Syria. Then of course Iran would have to go, etc.
Sometimes when you have a rabid dog the only course of action is to destroy it.
Just following the excellent link provided by Tom Welsh. This topic is covered there much better than I can.
https://ifamericansknew.org/cur_sit/shahak.html
This is absolutely true. Just read the “Zealots for Zion”, the 1992 book by
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_I._Friedman
He interviewed Israeli settlers on the occupied West Bank, they typically said that it was their job to secure the (whole of) West Bank; adding “We’ll leave the East Bank to our sons”.
It all stems back to the “Covenant”, where Abraham was promised the land “from Euphrates to the river of Egypt”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promised_Land
There seems to be some extremely odd doublethink going on, as the ideology of Zionism and the claims to the land of “greater Israel” are based on the Jewish religious books, and make no sense in a secular context. Yet I believe that many if not most Israeli leaders are themselves agnostic or atheist! Perhaps it is simply that political leaders have to put on a show of religiosity if they wish to succeed.
After all, religious voters will usually refuse to support candidates who do not profess their religion. But atheists and agnostics are less concerned with a candidate’s religious views than with his general competence and policies. So there is much to gain by pretending to be religious, and little to lose.
After so many years I still treasure this Private Eye cover:
https://www.private-eye.co.uk/pictures/covers/full/453_big.jpg
Religion is the excuse/vehicle. The zionists don’t care about Jews, they only care about absolute power. Hegemony is the objective. Hitler was no different.
Craig’s experience, and his previous experiences, comes under the heading of ‘oppression’. Similarly the Israeli-Palestine relationship is an oppressive one, especially for the latter. As is the situation of Julian Assange. And many other people around the world. Scots bairns experience oppression as soon as they sit in a school classroom whaur thay are telt hou tae spik anither fowk’s langage. Such colonial racism may last a lifetime, and the next too. Scots even have a word for an oppressed people – ‘doun-hauden’. All we can do is try to better understand our oppression in order to seek to find the only remedy, liberation.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doun-Hauden-Socio-Political-Determinants-Scottish-Independence/dp/B086Y6MMH2/ref=sr_1_1?crid=26M8E8AO88M2A&keywords=doun+hauden&qid=1698225594&sprefix=doun%2Caps%2C134&sr=8-1
Thanks for the tip Mr Baird, I will look forward to reading this book.
Once I spoke with a person who attended school in the 1960s in Aberdeen and had a very clear memory of the process of the denigration of their own tongue, as you say “telt hou tae spik anither fowk’s langage”. Being told what was spoken by their parents at home was unimportant and base, the old way of doing things, and if “We” were to make progress, “We” would make it speaking English not Scots. It was a moving experience for me, but the storyteller, who had never vocalised their thoughts previously, a working class person with a low education level, made several profound political statements about the morality and mechanics of what had been done to them. I was amazed. Truly, “language dwells at the heart of being”.
Yesterday afternoon about 1.40 (Wednesday) I just happened to go onto Sky News and there was a guy being interviewed and giving his views about the ‘war’ (as I related in a post in the thread before this one), and one of the things he said was that Hamas, being Hamas, are ‘massively inflating’ the number of Palestinians being killed in Gaza (and said something about them receiving more money – i.e. the more people killed the more money Hamas receive, but didn’t say from who). So, anyway, about 30 minutes ago now (make that over an hour ago as of posting) I went on Al Jazeera’s website, and one of the articles I came across was this one, posted at 1.51 this morning:
‘Biden says he has ‘no confidence’ in Palestinian death count’
U.S. President Joe Biden said on Wednesday he has “no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using” for the death toll in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, where the health ministry says over 6,500 have been killed in Israeli attacks.
Biden was asked at a White House press conference whether the death count, which the ministry says includes some 2,700 children, meant Israel was ignoring U.S. appeals to reduce civilian deaths in its bombardment of the coastal enclave.
“What they say to me is I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed. I’m sure innocents have been killed, and it’s the price of waging a war,” Biden said……
“But I have no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using.”
Biden did not say why he was skeptical of the Palestinian figures.
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/biden-says-he-has-no-confidence-palestinian-death-count-2023-10-26/
I’d never come across the guy on Sky News before and had no idea who he was, so I did a search, and a number of results came up, and this is what it said in one of them:
Philip Ingram MBE BSc MA GCLI is a widely published journalist, specialising in the security and intelligence arenas, who has built on a long and senior career in British Military Intelligence, with years of experience in all aspects of intelligence and security as well as strategic planning.
Philip is frequently asked to comment for BBC TV News and Radio, CNN, ABC, CBC, Euronews, Turkish TRT World TV, Russian RT.com, and has given content in the past to BBC Mundo, Japanese NTV and many many more. He has presented INTERPOL World TV in Singapore in 2015, 2017 and again in 2019. He has taken part in BBC Inside Out documentaries on online terrorist grooming, the expose of criminal activities on Craigslist and the murder of Jill Dando for ITV as well as several current affairs programmes on subjects such as the influence of drill music on street crime, the Novichok attack in Salisbury and other security and intelligence related subjects.
Philip now runs his own media company, Grey Hare Media, that specialises in delivering informed content.
Just coincidence that as the number of Palestinians being killed in Gaza is rapidly increasing, Biden and Philip Ingram should just happen to say the same thing on the same day? I think not!
And Ingram was back on about an hour later saying exactly the same thing, and repeating everything else he said, including:
That the (thousands of) people being killed in Gaza are being caught in the crossfire
And that the 7th October was part of a much bigger plan….. and mentioned Iran
And the constantly repeated one that Hamas use civilians as human shields
PS When I started typing this it was yesterday and, as such, it was early YESTERDAY morning that Al Jazeera posted the article, and the day before yesterday that I posted my comment in the thread before this one!
Germany again, sigh:
The Intercept reports about the firing of an apprentice who dared question Springer´s position on the Israel/Gaza situation.
” Axel Springer Fires Lebanese Employee Who Questioned Pro-Israel Stance – The firing by the German media giant follows a smear campaign against Arab and Palestinian journalists in Germany in recent years. ”
https://theintercept.com/2023/10/26/axel-springer-fires-employee-israel/
excerpt:
“Kasem Raad, a 20-year-old apprentice at the company, was summarily fired last week after questioning the company’s Israel policy through internal channels and posting a video online disputing parts of the Israeli military’s narrative of the brutal Hamas attack on October 7.
“It is one of my rights to ask questions. I wanted to stay at Axel Springer,” said Raad, who was fired just a few weeks into a three-year position at the company. “Unfortunately, I was taken in for questioning by senior management, who told me, ‘We are Germans and we need to do this,’” he added, describing his manager’s explanation for the company’s Israel policy.
Raad’s account of being fired is supported by a termination letter and screenshots of his posts on the company’s internal message board that were reviewed by The Intercept.
Adib Sisani, Axel Springer’s head of corporate communications, declined to comment on Raad’s specific claims. “As a matter of principle, we never comment on individual personnel matters,””
(…)
Raad sought clarification on the company’s stance by sending a private message to an employee who runs the company’s internal message board on October 11 asking “why does Axel Springer support Israel?” Having received no reply, the next day, Raad posted the same question under the Israel article on the message board, according to screenshots viewed by The Intercept. “I posted a comment asking about why we have a company policy supporting this country,” he said in an interview. “Immediately my question got flooded with angry comments and I was called in for an interrogation.”
Screenshots reviewed by The Intercept show other Axel Springer employees replying “what kind of question is that??!!!!,” asking whether Raad had read his contract before joining Axel Springer, and wondering how he could ask such a question given “the current, terrible atrocities.”
p.s. Obviously the young gentleman did not grow up here being from Lebanon originally. Any informed German kid truly into politics knows the ugly truth about Springer (at least WE did) but may be I am too old. “Springer Presse” has always been known as a derogatory Geman term just like “Murdoch press” I guess. So if you are serious with politics and ethics as a young person you do not join Springer. But Raad has surely learned his lesson and being 20 he still has time to start somewhere else.
Yes speaking on Germany I just came by this, really terrible
Germany to strip Palestinian refugee’s status over his activism
https://www.972mag.com/abdulnasser-samidoun-germany-palestinian-refugees/
Also that Germany have banned Nakba demonstrations, completely absurd!
Berlin Bans Nakba Day Demonstrations
https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/05/20/berlin-bans-nakba-day-demonstrations
Is there any pro-palestinian voices in the german society, media, politics at all?
It’s said Germany will never forgive the Palestinians for what Germany did to the Jews. More likely I fear is that genocidal racism is just part of German DNA.
The Daily Mail comments sections seems to be a complete setup for the sockpuppets and milbots screaming for untold pain and suffering on all Palestinians. When I politely pointed out this was hate speech and brains not brawn was required I was the one whose comments were no longer accepted there.
Nauseating double standards.
Frankly I have long stopped trying to interact on that level. It simply doesn´t work. I mean it doesn´t even work out in person. What´d you expect then from exchange from behind safe walls of anonymity.
This is actually the evidence that organizing of people on any meaningful level only works via in person presence. Internet will take you only so far. And then its over. Especially with topics like these.
So much for the online political revolution called out in the late 1990s. Ha-Ha-Ha.
Cynical amusement apart, the only reason I can imagine for reading the “Daily Mail” is that given by Oscar Wilde.
“There is much to be said in favour of modern journalism. By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, it keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community”.
It dawned on me several years ago that the Mail isn’t just READ by fascists and bigots, but ‘transforms’ people into fascists and bigots as well (as with the Sun and the Express to some degree or other). I’ve seen it happen to people that I could never have imagined it happening to. Buying such newspapers is like inviting Wormtongue into your home every day.
What do you expect from the paper that supported the Nazis?
it does have Monty Pythonian scale of stupidity and arrogance (think the French in “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”)
Times of Israel reporting:
“Surveillance soldiers warned of Hamas activity on Gaza border for months before Oct. 7
Survivors of massacre on IDF base say they passed information up the chain of command on digging, mapping, training near the fence long before mass onslaught, but were ignored”:
https://www.timesofisrael.com/surveillance-soldiers-warned-of-hamas-activity-on-gaza-border-for-months-before-oct-7/
“At least three months prior to the attack, surveillance soldiers serving on a base in Nahal Oz reported signs that something unusual was underway at the already-tumultuous Gaza border, situated a kilometer from them.
The activity reported by the soldiers included information on Hamas operatives conducting training sessions multiple times a day, digging holes and placing explosives along the border. According to the accounts of the soldiers, no action was taken by those who received the reports.”
The night before last (Wednesday) I just happened to put on BBC News at Ten at around 10.15, and literally caught the last twenty seconds or so of a segment about people on social media denying that Hamas had killed any children (or so I assumed from the little I caught), and a woman saying just prior to the segment finishing;
“I just want the world to remember and to know what happened. To deal with their death is hard enough, and all these comments make it even worse.
“How can I respond to that? I need to prove they died? Why did five graves need to be filled with their beautiful bodies?”
Anyway, I just had a look on BBC News website, and I found an article with the exact same quote in it, so I assume the segment was based on the article, or vice-versa:
‘Omer and Omar: How two 4-year-olds were killed and social media denied it’
By Marianna Spring
BBC disinformation and social media correspondent
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-67206277
“By Marianna Spring
BBC disinformation and social media correspondent”
Obviously a title made up by someone unaware of how English can be parsed. I always thought that the BBC would have a correspondent in charge of spreading disinformation, but I didn’t expect them to acknowledge it. In any case, it’s babies, not 4-year-olds that were supposed to have been killed and weren’t.
Marianna Spring?
Reliable narrator?
https://thegrayzone.com/2023/06/01/bbc-specialist-disinformation/
https://thegrayzone.com/2023/09/09/bbc-disinformation-disinfo-bio/
Marianna Spring: Professional liar
Hmm, and I came across the following when I was on their website, posted eleven hours ago:
‘Gaza hospital blast: What does new analysis tell us?’
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-67216929
What was it that Israeli guy said initially, and then shortly afterwards deleted his post?!
Our news today draws attention to an article in Foreign Affairs.
What Israel Can Learn From America’s Counterterrorism Missteps. The Strategic Case for Adhering to the Laws of War
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/israel/what-israel-can-learn-americas-counterterrorism-missteps
Truly interesting. The Russian article makes an excursion into history:
‘… the founder of the laws of war in modern international law is Russia. And personally Tsar Nikolay II.
At the first Hague Conference in 1899, the Convention on the Laws and Customs of War on Land was adopted. In 1907 at the second Hague Conference it was greatly specified – it included a distinction between combatants and non-combatants, the right of the population to wage guerrilla warfare, prohibited the use of weapons and substances that cause unnecessary suffering. They outlawed the destruction and seizure of enemy property without military necessity, and the killing of prisoners of war. Robbery and confiscation of private property was prohibited, and all possible measures were ordered to be taken to protect and preserve cultural monuments and medical institutions. It was then that the concept of a war crime arose – a violation of the very rules of war.
The Hague is the foundation of international law on this topic, and subsequent conventions or decisions of the Nuremberg Tribunal came from precisely that primary source.’
Next, the Russian author returns to the article in Foreign Affairs and says:
‘The article with which we started the conversation is actually about how the Americans fight. It’s the opposite of acceptable methods of warfare or operations against terrorists. It turns out that the Americans can do this – Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria: bombing Mosul and Raqqa, destroying houses, water supply systems and other infrastructure.
… one amazing fact – the author of the article is Sarah Yager, an American woman who recently joined Human Rights Watch.
Before HRW, she worked at the Pentagon as a human rights adviser. The result of this work was the adoption last year, in the event of war, of an action plan “to mitigate damage” for civilians. And this year, it’s a document allowing the State Department to block the transfer of weapons to countries that cause harm to civilians during hostilities.
And now Sarah says that Israel is the very case when these documents should be applied.’
The source in case you wish to read the whole article
Have you forgotten about the laws of war? This will remind you
by Dmitry Kosyrev
https://ria.ru/20231027/izrail-1905511366.html
And also this, which is interesting for a number of reasons (the article continues quite a long way down the page…. you’ll know when it finally comes to an end):
‘Irish woman sacked for Israel ‘terrorist state’ post’
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-67216929
Allan, here is the same story reported in the Irish Times on Oct 24. It was an Israeli company, Wix, who sacked her stating that she had upset the “team spirit” amongst the Israeli employees.
You can read it for yourself here:
https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2023/10/23/dublin-woman-fired-by-israeli-company-over-anti-israel-social-media-posts/
I suspect she won’t find it difficult to find another job in Ireland and what she posted to social media would be in her favour.
Yes, I know, it says so in the article I linked to.
Your link posted above is to a different story. (At least for me it is).
BBC article is:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c88e2ewg37go
Yes, I clicked on it shortly after I posted my reply! God knows how I managed to do that!! Anyway, I read the article you linked to, and it has details in it that aren’t in the article I linked to (or thought I’d linked to!), and vice-versa, what with the BBC article being posted a couple of days later, and other people defending her right to voice her opinion, and the response by ‘Israel’, so both articles are well worth reading.
Hi, Craig, I tried to fill out the donor form about 5 times, and as fast as I filled it out, the boxes emptied again. Has it been hacked? I’ll try again tomorrow.
So Syria is attacked by the same party that claim they do not want the war to “expand”, this is an act of war against Syria and Iran. But of course media do not frame it like that, note also how US desperately try to frame this as unrelated to the Israel massacre going on in Gaza, of course it is connected, of course US now joined the war actively on the israeli side fighting arabs, muslims.
Meanwhile Israel have almost killed another 500 people past 24 hours
Over 480 killed in Israeli air raids in past 24 hours: Gaza officials
At least 481 people have been killed from Israeli air raids in the last 24 hours, according to Gaza’s health authority.
In the days before, the number was sometimes significantly higher.
In total 7,028 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the latest conflict, 66 percent of them women and children, according to the authority.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2023/10/27/israel-hamas-war-live-israel-bombs-gaza-overnight-more-than-7000-dead
As previously mentioned. The USA buildup in the Med is nothing to do with Gaza, it’s about using the chaos as an excuse to attack Syria and proxy attacks on Iran. Israel is the mad dog to enable that agenda.
The Americans are in Syria, illegally, to steal their oil and grain. It’s that simple.
‘An early version of the phrase Whom the gods would destroy… appears in verses 620–623 of Sophocles’ play Antigone: τὸ κακὸν δοκεῖν ποτ᾽ ἐσθλὸν τῷδ᾽ ἔμμεν’ ὅτῳ φρένας θεὸς ἄγει πρὸς ἄταν; translated “Evil appears as good in the minds of those whom god leads to destruction”‘.
Both those who control the Israeli government and those who supposedly lead the USA seem thus afflicted. The US national debt is well north (or south if you prefer) of $33 trillion and growing like Jack’s beanstalk. https://www.usdebtclock.org/. More than $100,000 per citizen; and over $259,000 per taxpayer – a contrast that tells its own dismal story. That’s over 124% of official US GDP, which of course is vastly exaggerated.
“The US can’t grow its way out of its $33 trillion debt mountain, research group says”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/us-cant-grow-way-33-021833651.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall
“How does US debt rank compared with the rest of the world?”
https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2023/5/31/infographic-how-does-us-debt-rank-compared-world
Between June and September 2023 – in three months – the debt grew by another $1 trillion. https://www.crfb.org/press-releases/national-debt-reaches-33-trillion-adds-1-trillion-debt-3-months
The USA, in short, is cooked. Sooner or later it will be bankrupt. Its government could take measures to slow down the collapse, but instead it is doing everything in its power to accelerate it.
Wiser heads, many of them in Asia, are fully aware that “the hegemon” is going down; and they understand that the safest course is to stand well back and do or say nothing that would give the foaming morons in Washington and London any excuse to attack them and drag them down.
When losing at chess, a common tactic is to plunge into unfathomable complications. The interesting question is how far the warmongers are prepared to go in their hopeless attempts to confuse matters.
Whilst Craig is persecuted and depends on subscriptions from readers, Tony Parsons is probably on about £250k a year from the Sun for writing and composing articles like this one, from September 2017 (which came up in the list of results when I did a search on the Sun’s website re Hamas (allegedly) inflating the number of people being killed):
‘Labour is nasty, spiteful and thick… and yet the party supposedly ‘offers hope’ to young voters’
DON’T be a Jew in the Labour Party. And don’t be a woman. And don’t be a member of the working class.
For a party that promotes itself as the font of human compassion, Labour seethes with an abundance of wild-eyed, mouth-foaming hatreds.
The tumour of anti-Semitism that grows in the rancid guts of Labour moved centre stage at this year’s party conference in Brighton.
Jeremy Corbyn snubbed a reception of the Labour Friends of Israel while comrades openly debated if they should be allowed to question if the Holocaust really happened at all or if those six million dead are just a filthy lie dreamt up by a conspiracy of international Zionists.
Clearly, a loopy left Labour government would be catastrophic for this country.
Beyond the economic misery, there would be the sickening prospect of seeing our country run by a gaggle of politicians who feel no love, affection or respect for the UK — all those hatchet-faced groupies of the IRA, Hamas and Hezbollah who hate all violence unless it is directed against the west……
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/4583476/tony-parsons-column-labour/
NB I couldn’t find anything regards what he is paid by the Sun, but I came across a Guardian article from 2013 entitled ‘Tony Parsons: I quit the Mirror before I got the boot’, in which it says he was being paid £250g a year by the Mirror prior to leaving and starting with the Sun:
However, the columnist and Man and Boy author has hit out angrily at revelations, made to the Guardian, that he got a £50,000 pay rise when he was on the Mirror at a time when other staff were being made redundant. It is understood this took his fee to around £250,000 a year.
Parsons’ Wikipedia entry says that the “Mirror” dispensed with his services because of budget constraints. Certainly £250K/year would take a largeish bite out of any budget. He seems to be an expensive luxury.
Still, you must give him credit for having been married to Julie Burchill for five years.
Parsons writes what he’s told to,same as most of them these days
“‘Labour is nasty, spiteful and thick… and yet the party supposedly ‘offers hope’ to young voters’”
Well, he’s not wrong there, nor is he wrong here:
“For a party that promotes itself as the font of human compassion, Labour seethes with an abundance of wild-eyed, mouth-foaming hatreds.”
But the hatred is for Socialists, not Semites.
“Vote Conservative and get yourself a better class of plundering Tory” seems to be his message.
And here’s another article I came across earlier when I went on the BBC News website (there were about seven or eight articles that I ended up saving to read later), and this one is about Tim Davie getting slammed for the BBC’s coverage of the conflict, and specifically for not referring to Hamas as a terrorist organisation and terrorists (which, as I’m sure everyone knows, they have been vilified and condemned for over and over again):
Many Tory MPs and Israeli President Isaac Herzog have been angered by the corporation not describing Hamas as “terrorists”.
Mr Davie said the word was far from banned but the corporation took care to say who was describing someone as a terrorist. BBC reports regularly refer to Hamas as being a proscribed terrorist organisation by the UK government.
A spokesman added later: “We are impartial… it’s not about being neutral, it’s about being able to report in the UK, in Gaza, in the Middle East, whereas if the BBC is seen to be an arm of the UK government, that makes our journalism very difficult and it impacts the way it’s perceived and trusted.”
Now if only that had been the case in the BBC’s coverage of the Russia/Ukraine conflict! And Jeremy Corbyn……….
‘BBC chief grilled by Conservative MPs over Israel-Gaza coverage’
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-67219556
Israel’s military received orders to shell Israeli homes and even their own bases as they were overwhelmed by Hamas on October 7.
Max Blumenthal asks, how many Israeli noncombatants said to have been “burned alive” were actually killed by friendly fire?
https://thegrayzone.com/2023/10/27/israels-military-shelled-burning-tanks-helicopters/
The BBC has conducted an interview with Hamas spokesman Ghazi Hamad, he said that there had been no command by Hamas to kill civilians as they stormed Israel on Oct 7. Their focus was on Israeli military bases.
Hamad told the BBC: “I can tell you we didn’t have any intention or decision to kill the civilians.”
He later stormed out, as the interviewer persisted with the same line of questioning.
Even pro-Israel commentators like Andrew Neil were initially mentioning two important facts, facts missing in recent reports. The first, is that when the fence was broken down, many ordinary Palestinian youths, with no connection to Hamas stormed through. Possibly for the first time in their lives they were free from behind the fence. Many of these people were later killed by the IDF, but what crimes did they commit during that brief time? And the second, is the fact the Israeli response, when it came, was brutal. You see some Israeli homes destroyed, but it’s hard to believe people armed with AK-47’s were responsible for such property destruction.
May be interesting, rather factual in tone looks a bit into slow loss of Western grip without omitting complexities:
Italian reporter Paola Caridi for Responsible Statecraft, originally fom +972 magazine, which is new to me :
1) “Does the US really know the Arab world at all? – The role of Washington is in danger of being tested at a critical moment when the Middle East will no longer be what it was.”
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/arab-world-israel-gaza/
2) another piece from “+972” about crackdown in Israel after Israelis posted on social media against blockade:
“‘This is political persecution’: Israel cracks down on internal critics of its Gaza war
Palestinians, as well as some left-wing Jews, are being suspended from studies, fired from jobs, or arrested at night — all because of social media posts”
By Ghousoon Bisharat, Oren Ziv and Baker Zoubi October 17, 2023
https://www.972mag.com/israel-gaza-war-political-persecution/
3) Above mentioned Paola Caridi published a book this year: “Hamas: From Resistance to Regime”
Dont know it yet.
https://www.amazon.com/Hamas-Paola-Caridi-ebook/dp/B097XJ9PR9
But Italians usual make more sense than others on our beloved continent.
From amazon´s blessed review page on Caridi´s book:
” “Historical survey rather than a polemical view of the problematic Islamist movement that has both sounded the Palestinians’ needs and plagued Israel since the group’s founding in 1987.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Truly a great book of reportage and keen analysis.” —Le Monde
When the radical Islamist group Hamas was elected to lead Palestine in 2006, the Western world was shocked. How had the majority of Palestinians come to support an extremist organization and how would the group’s new political power affect the larger Israel/Palestine conflict?
Italian journalist and historian Paola Caridi offers a clear-eyed account of how the conditions in this war-torn region led to the rise of Hamas and an unbiased look at the complex feelings that Palestinians have toward getting behind a government that supports violent resistance. By breaking from the sensationalist journalism surrounding the elections, Caridi is able to tell the story of a movement caught between the desire to resist its oppressor and the need to provide support for a refugee people. Caridi, informed by years of on-the-ground research and interviews with residents of Gaza and leaders of Hamas, covers the history of Gaza from its golden age as a port city to the formal birth and slow militarization of Hamas. This English-language translation brings the reader to present-day Palestine by offering a never-before-seen chapter on Operation Cast Lead, the shocking WikiLeaks disclosures, and the Cairo Revolution.
Hamas paints a picture, with intelligence, dexterity, and heart, of a people trapped in the most historic of political battles and reveals the strange complexities behind the controversy by explaining one of the key players in the search for peace and justice that runs through the central crisis of the Middle East today.”
Interesting, yes. It seems the breakout has been mischaracterized to try and justify a Final Solution to the Gaza problem (as zionists regard it).
It is beyond belief how systematically cruel, sadistic and vindictive human beings can be, but here are eye witness accounts of Israel’s demonstration of such depravity.
https://mondoweiss.net/2023/10/they-let-humanitarian-aid-in-then-they-bombed-it-so-that-gaza-would-starve/
“They aren’t only targeting people and homes. They’re letting in aid, and then they destroy it before it reaches the people who need it. It’s calculated and deliberate. It’s meant to exterminate the civilian population.”
Accounts also of the new bombs the Israelis must be so proud of, which shred people and leave buildings standing:
“People have started congregating at barber shops and hair salons to charge their cell phones because most of those salons use solar energy to charge the batteries that provide those shops with electricity, so now those shops are also being targeted by these kinds of “killing” missiles. The Israeli army bombed two of the salons, one in Khan Younis and one in Nuseirat refugee camp. They hit the salons only, not the areas near them. It wasn’t collateral damage; it was a deliberate strike on civilians.
These missiles exploded inside the salon and killed everyone inside, but the building was left standing. This is how these missiles operate. Those who don’t die are ripped into pieces, their wounds critical in almost every case. A person can lose half their body. ”
“When people stand in line for bread, they’re terrified. When they move in the streets, they’re terrified. The missiles target the markets, places where there are a lot of people, and they are all killed. We never hear that a Hamas operative was killed in these strikes. It’s always women, children, random people walking through the market. People aren’t leaving their homes anymore for any reason. In the house where I’m staying, not one of us is prepared to go stand in line at a bakery because we know that, at any moment, the bakery might be targeted. It doesn’t matter if you’re a civilian or not”
This is inhuman savagery on a scale hitherto unimaginable. No wonder they try to prevent any of this from being disseminated in the media. There is no ‘right’ to do this, but Biden and Starmer remain mute and unmoved. How can you not believe that this is deliberate destruction of a people and their meagre resources, and how can you not despair that the world watches while Israel commits genocide in front of our eyes?
Brazil president Lula da Silva: Israel is committing genocide
“What is happening is not a war. It is a genocide that led to the killing of nearly 2,000 children who had nothing to do with this war. They are the victims of this war,” Da Silva said in a meeting held at the presidential palace in the capital, Brasilia on Wednesday.
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2023/10/27/713508/What-is-happening-in-Gaza-is-not-war-it-is-genocide-Brazilian-President-says
Yes!? it is genocide and therefore do something! Cut ties, start a movement for other nations to follow!
Despite the Hebrew name, Netanyahu is originally from Polish stock. His father was Benzion Mileikowsky, from Warsaw.
You’d think the parallels with the Nazi’s “liquidation of the ghettos” after the Warsaw ghetto uprising,1943, would give his son pause for thought.
Israel now intensify the bombardment once again and have cut off communication lines in Gaza, thus the people in Gaza cannot call ambulances etc
Apparently an invasion is planned perhaps as soon as coming hours, completely unhinged! Meanwhile UN convene “trying” to stop the war.
There is truly no end to the evilness of Israel, totally inhumane. So all communication and electricity cut for some 2 million people and on top of that Israel have intensified the bombardment with 150 fighter jet raids during the night and in turn top of that, they have invaded Gaza
In the cover of this electricity black out, they can commit any crime and cover it up in any way they want.
How can this be? After 3 weeks the only thing UN can do is to call for a… truce? Truce? Like this is 2 equal actors battling it out, this is a grandscale massacre, but no one dare to call out Israel.
UN General Assembly overwhelmingly calls for ‘immediate truce’ in Gaza
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2023/10/27/713528/Palestine-Israel-Gaza-war-United-Nations-General-Assembly-resolution-truce
The muted, passive response by the arab states makes one wonder if they have been part of the actual planning of this mayhem by Israel, past months years there have been “normalization” process in many arab states and Israel. What kind of collaboration and agreements have been made? That the arab states would turn a blind eye to israeli plots in Gaza? A collab to rid Hamas of Gaza?
There is also Egypt that warned, or rather snitched, Israel that something was about to happen.
Egypt intelligence official says Israel ignored repeated warnings of ‘something big’
https://www.timesofisrael.com/egypt-intelligence-official-says-israel-ignored-repeated-warnings-of-something-big/
Just slipped you a few quid. Don’t always agree with your statements and beliefs, but this trancends personal opinion by a long chalk. Good luck
The UK is a police state.
Thank you Craig, for continuing to raise the voice of concern against injustices, which by so doing risks drawing the attention of those very entities and their proxies to act against you. Much admiration and I hope we meet in the field again.