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168 thoughts on “Murray vs Aaronovitch on Assange

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  • Anon

    [Possible Broken version in mod queue – delete that one]

    The tvcatchup lot are a bit strange. Although I use it a lot out of convenience (there’s an Android client as well as a mobile web interface in addition to the standard desktop version) they do have some strange politics. Although they carry every other “Free To Air” channel on Freeview they refuse to carry RT News on the grounds that it is a “Russian propaganda channel”

    Much to the annoyance of some broadcasters their live stream service has been held to be legal by the courts.

    You could just watch at http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/tv/bbc_two_england/watchlive

  • resident dissident

    Although they carry every other “Free To Air” channel on Freeview they refuse to carry RT News on the grounds that it is a “Russian propaganda channel”

    Well they may be right!

    [Mod/Jon: posted as Anon, but same IP as “resident dissident”]

  • John Goss

    Anon, we have Russia Today on Freeview. But on our main TV from Virgin they don’t include it. Not with the basic package we have anyway.

  • Anon

    And luckily there are no other channels in their line-up carrying state propaganda for them to object to. Oh wait a minute…

    Anyway hope all goes well tonight Craig.

  • resident dissident

    “Can you imagine anything more vile than the trio of Aaronovitch, Melanie Phillips, and John Rentoul”

    Assange, Galloway and Murray the founder members of the sexually immoral against America? I know who I would prefer my teenage daughters to associate with. Well at least we have Ecuador that beacon of free speech. Cue the usual buckets of bile.

    [Mod/Jon: posted as Anon, but same IP as “resident dissident”]

  • Anon

    John Goss

    No Virgin don’t include it either and I have Virgin. I Do get it on FreeView though. However Livestation is what I usually use to watch when mobile. Livestation also carries Press TV Iran along with the more “normal” stations.

    RT Moscow is frequently requested on the tvcatchup forum but they seem to be determined not to carry it.

  • Fedup

    The former Marine Brandon Raub who was detained by the federal government over Facebook posts critical of the government is being held in a psychiatric ward, Peter Bacqué of the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports.

    Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/former-marine-brandon-raub-is-being-held-in-a-psychiatric-ward-over-facebook-posts-about-911-2012-8#ixzz247EtIdA1

    US no longer is a country of rules and laws, no one can assume to be safe. As the above story shows, the land of the free, so long as you suck up to the gobiment and keep on being a good “citizen”, otherwise as is the case with Raub get beat-up and arrested by the FBI and Secret Services in handcuffs.

  • Jon

    Alaric/Anon, interesting – not heard of that service before. Seems like you do need a license in the UK to use it (source: Wikipedia) but they don’t really have much way of checking. Interestingly they used to have a KnowledgeBase article on this topic, but it appears to have been deleted.

    I was intrigued to find a source for their refusing RT on the grounds of propaganda, but couldn’t find anything. Got a link? They’re right in a sense, but of course if they don’t find the Beeb slightly propagandistic, then, erm…

  • resident dissident

    “I heard Aaronovitch speaking yesterday and his argument was basically that the Swedish system is a stainless, exemplary judicial system,”

    May be not – but like the US and the UK it does have a better reputation than that of Syria, Iran, Iraq under Saddam, Russia, North Korea, Soviet Union, China, Libya under Ghadaffi, Serbia under Milosevic and all those other regimes that have received support here from time to time. Don’t believe me go and read some Amnesty reports

  • Jon

    Anon (blue) and Anon (black) – please would you consider using better screen-names?

    Hi @Resident Dissident, please stick to one handle. And if you could avoid “Anon” (same to you other “Anon”) that would be great – saves on confusion!

  • Jon

    Clark, don’t know. But to be fair, Craig speaks well off the cuff, so not critical imo.

  • Anon (blue)

    Jon.

    Here is a quote from the tvcatchup admin from their forum (you need to be registered to read it so I won’t post a link)

    ” BBC News channels is the top one on here on TVCatchup with Al Jazeera and Sky almost equal second.
    Russia Today is a not bad News Service but they are subjected to extreme political pressure and are not really objective in their reporting. As was seen in the Georgian Conflict a few years ago when the reporter said, “look at the Georgian helicopters shooting the poor villagers”, then the camera panned to the right and there was a group of Russian solders cheering them on – then suddenly the screen went blank and cut to a smiling presenter. Opps!

    …I totally agree with you about Sky News as it is trashy somewhat like the Sun of the IPTV world, but RT is no better as it is full of misleading propaganda and I know this for a fact.

    Mind you if enough people want it then we will consider it

    Despite it being regularly asked for they have not reconsidered.

  • nevermind

    He’ll most likely has a laptop on him with a dongle, or can use his blackberry to access info, so he’ll be able to get info right up to 10.20pm, he’ll be in the studio well before 10.30, for sound checks, etc.

    Keep trying, the more ammo the better.

  • N_

    @Craig – if neocon team member Aaronovitch paints Sweden as stainless blah blah, I’m sure you will mention how they have helped the CIA break the Geneva Convention (I don’t use the word ‘rendition’). But another point you can make is that he can’t be serious, given that, as all Swedes know, Sweden is owned by one family, the Wallenbergs.

    If you weren’t previously aware of that fact, and are sceptical, I suggest checking it with Swedes of your acquaintance.

    Do any of us really believe that another power, with its embassy not in Knightsbridge but in Mayfair, on Grosvenor Square, isn’t involved in this obscene centralised effort in the British media?

    Party differences, and supposed political differences between newspapers, seem to have disappeared.

  • Jon

    @N_ – I’m not aware of the Wallenbergs, but I’d say that even if it’s verifiable, it sounds too evil-lair-theory and is easily painted as mad/paranoid. Craig would be best sticking to what we do know: the refusal of the Swedish prosecutors to come to London, their refusal to explain their refusal, Assange’s previous willingness to be questioned whilst he was in Sweden, and his ongoing willingness to answer questions in London. Also, there is substantial evidence that the US is preparing a case against him.

    @all: by the way, if the US is planning to extradite Assange, on what basis would they do so? He has presumably broken an American law, but he has been living in UK/Sweden and is an Australian citizen. Of course, the pat answer is “they will make it up as they go along” (and well they might) but I’d hope they’d present a better legal basis than that!

  • John Goss

    So they have N_ they claim it is due to a copyright challenge from Journeyman Pictures, but it might be more sinister than that.

  • N_

    @Jon – it’s not either-or; the points you mention are good too. But if Aaronowitch ladles it on really thick about how Sweden is all goodness and light and fairness, which he probably will do, it might be worth mentioning. If a scandal ensues, I was thinking enough people would check it out by asking Swedes they know, rather than waiting for the next talking head. Just to explain where I’m coming from. There’s a limit to how far you can fight the MSM using MSM means.

  • Jonangus Mackay

    Just thought of an exception: Heather Brooke, who was saying privately, before the Swedish allegations, that Assange had made a pass at her.

  • Mark Golding - Children of Iraq Association

    Karl Rove is a deluded man, his vision of a world with America at the helm is I believe a childhood dream, a fantasy that propels his obsessed, mono-perspective mind. His book ‘Courage and Consequence’ reflects an extraordinary intelligence constrained by a limited mental range.

    Norwegian blooded Rove has been advising Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt for the past two years and I believe his fingerprints are all over the Julian Assange case.

    Rove knows the inside track on rendition, look it up, he has studied enhanced interrogation techniques to deny them. Yet he failed to turn up before the House Judiciary Committee on ‘extraordinary rendition’ but that is not his way, this man works his nefarious web from behind the scenes.

    And from behind the stage curtain he ensured the case against Julian Assange was reopened by urging Reinfeldt to bring in a legal heavyweight to push the rape charge. The ideal man would be Thomas Bodstrom, once a Justice minister whose claim to fame is that he delivered two hapless Swedish-resident Arabs to a CIA rendition plane so that they could be tortured in one of Mubarak’s jails. Rove also knew Anna Ardin could easily be subverted.

    Rove is propelled, he knows he must protect the Bush legacy at all costs, it is a culmination of his life’s work – from bringing down the Twin Towers to the destruction of Iran, the blueprint must remain within his grasp; it was that myopic mind that told him as he stood weeping after a call from federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, his plans remain intact.

    Of course Rove had just been told that there would be no charges for leaking Valerie Plame’s name to the media, a vindictive exposal, a dishonest leak that endangered the lives of at least forty operatives in Britain and Iraq.

    http://theweek.com/article/index/210569/is-karl-rove-helping-persecute-julian-assange

  • deepgreenpuddock

    As to the quality of Sweden’s legal and judicial system, it is certainly true that it is likely of a high standard in the great majority of cases but the Assange case is now so politically and media charged that the behaviour of people within the legal system is not the same as might be expected in more sedate circumstances. Many people are under a great deal of pressure and their moves are scrutinised.Not easy conditions for anyone.

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