Russia does not have a functioning criminal justice system at all, in the sense of a trial mechanism aimed at determining innocence or guilt. Exactly as in Uzbekistan, the conviction rate in criminal trials is over 99%. If the prosecutors, who are inextricably an arm of the executive government, want to send you to jail, there is absolutely no judicial system to protect you. The judges are purely there for show.
When critics of Putin like Alexei Navalny are convicted, therefore, we have absolutely no reassurance that the motivation behind the prosecution or the assessment of guilt was genuine. Which is not to say that Navalny is innocent; I am in no position to judge. People are complex. I sacrificed my own pretty decent career to the cause of human rights, but in my personal and family life I was by no means the most moral of individuals. I see no reason for it to be impossible that all of Navalny’s excellent political work did not co-exist with a fatal weakness. But his criticisms of Putin made him a marked man, who the state was out to get, and the most probable explanation – especially as prosecutors had looked at the allegations before and decided not to proceed – is that he is suffering for his criticisms of the President rather than a genuine offence.
It fascinates me that the Western media view the previous decision by the prosecutors not to proceed as evidence the case is politically motivated against Navalny; but fail to draw the same conclusion from precisely the same circumstance in the Assange case.
David Ward MP has not been sent to jail. He has however had the Lib Dem whip removed, which under Clegg’s leadership perhaps he ought to consider an honour. It is rather a commonplace sentiment that it is a terribly sad thing, that their community having suffered dreadfully in the Holocaust, the European Jews involved in founding the state of Israel went on themselves to inflict terrible pain and devastation on the Palestinians in the Nakba. Both the Holocaust and the Nakba were horrific events of human suffering. For this not startling observation, David Ward is removed from the Liberal Democrats. He also stated that, with its ever increasing number of racially specific laws, its walls and racially restricted roads, Israel is becoming an apartheid state. That is so commonplace even Sky News’ security correspondent Sam Kiley said it a few months ago, without repercussion. In Russia you cannot say Putin is corrupt; in the UK you cannot say Israeli state policy is malign. Neither national state can claim to uphold freedom of speech. Meanwhile, of course, David Cameron announces plans to place filters on the internet access of all UK households.
In the United States, the House of Representatives failed by just 12 votes to make illegal the mass snooping by the NSA which was not widely publicised until Edward Snowden’s revelations. What Snowden said was so important that almost half the country’s legislators wished to act on his information. Yet the executive wish to pursue him and remove all his freedom for the rest of his life, as they are doing to Bradley Manning for Manning’s exposure of war crimes and extreme duplicity.
Around this complex of issues and the persons of Manning, Navalny, Snowden and Assange there is a kind of new ideological competition between the governments of Russia, the US and UK as to which is truly promoting the values of human freedom. The answer is none of them are. All these states are, largely in reaction to the liberating possibilities of the internet, promoting a concerted attack on freedom of speech and liberty of thought.
States are the enemy. We are the people.
@ Flaming June
£10 million claimed, £1,2 million actual cost.
How did your hat taste? 🙂
Habbabkuk (La vita è bella!) 29 Jul, 2013 – 8:21 pm
“How did your hat taste? :)”
Habbabkuk (La vita è bella!) 22 Jul, 2013 – 8:52 pm
“I think [the dark glasses] give me that rather natty look. If I could add a trilby, I would!”
Sorry. I never wear hats unlike the royal hangers-on who spends £thousands and thousands on millinery.
Plus Plus Plus… we will never know the true cost.
Margaret Thatcher’s funeral cost taxpayers more than £3m
Cabinet Office confirms policing and security costs for former prime minister’s funeral in April
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/jul/29/margaret-thatcher-funeral-cost-taxpayers
Nota Bene Never, ever, believe anything this ‘government tells you.
The Manning verdict to be read Tuesday 1 pm EST.
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/07/29-1
Is that a grey hat, A Node? I’d have thought it were black or white.
You read this here first! (bet your butt you will not read about anywhere else)
Saudi forces have laid siege, surrounding al Awamia district in Qatif in the eastern provinces, and have been shooting at the residents. The fires started by the fire fight have destroyed many houses, many people are injured and many more dead.
Habbabkuk (La vita è bella!)
29 Jul, 2013 – 8:00 am
“Free speech operates within the confines of law in all countries.”
Habbabkuk, some laws are so broadly defined that it gives the police and like-minded magistrates the opportunity to abuse people who they view as being from a different class or have a different political persuasion to that of the state.
I agree that freedom of speech should have legal constraints but those constraints must be tightly defined and not open to misinterpretation and abuse by the authorities.
“Saudi Arabia’s Specialized Criminal Court sentenced a prominent human rights activist to five years in prison on June 17, 2013, based on his writings and exposure of human rights abuses. Mikhlif al-Shammari was convicted of “sowing discord” and other offenses and barred from travelling for 10 years.”
http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/06/22/saudi-arabia-5-year-sentence-rights-defender
He was charged with actions that are illegal in Saudi Arabia so he is, from what you said above (“Free speech operates within the confines of law in all countries.”) guilty as charged.
As to Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986 there are many detractors:
“The Public Order Act prohibits such actions if they are deemed likely to cause “harassment, alarm or distress”.
“A student was reportedly arrested for calling a police officer’s horse “gay”.
“Senior CONSERVATIVE David Davis said the law – which the government is looking at changing – could have a “chilling effect on democracy”.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-18084081
And I’m sure you know this phrase:
“Liberty, if it means anything, is the right to tell people what they don’t want to hear.”
thx fedup
http://english.irib.ir/radioislam/news/islam-in-asia/item/87650-saudi-regime-burn-cars-houses-during-operation-to-arrest-rights-activist
Human rights on the march. Power is not relinquished easily. It must be won
Mohandas
“The cry for peace will be a cry in the wilderness, so long as the spirit of nonviolence does not dominate millions of men and women.
An armed conflict between nations horrifies us. But the economic war is no better than an armed conflict. This is like a surgical operation. An economic war is prolonged torture. And its ravages are no less terrible than those depicted in the literature on war properly so called. We think nothing of the other because we are used to its deadly effects. …
The movement against war is sound. I pray for its success. But I cannot help the gnawing fear that the movement will fail if it does not touch the root of all evil — man’s greed.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/28/jfk-second-shooter-documentary_n_3667317.html
“Addressing the crowd, McLaren claimed that Hickey and other Secret Service agents were out partying the night before Kennedy’s fatal motorcade drive through Dallas. Based on his painstaking investigation, McLaren said, evidence suggests Hickey was not qualified to use the weapon he was holding the morning of the shooting.
“It was his first time in the follow car, his first time holding the assault weapon he was using,” McLaren said. Producers said the film’s theory is that shots rang out, and Hickey grabbed his weapon to return fire. When his car stopped suddenly, Hickey accidentally discharged his weapon — making him the second shooter, the film’s investigators and producers alleged.”
Gawd. They keep trying. The problem is, the guy was in the follow car. This is one of the linchpins of the multiple shooter scenario. Zap’s film clearly shows Kennedy was shot from the front, as the physics of impact would force the head forward, not back if the 2nd shot hit from the ‘follow’ car. Try again. I’m sure they will.
‘Is This The Most Embarrassing Interview Fox News Has Ever Done?’
“Reza Aslan, a religious scholar with a Ph.D. in the sociology of religions from the University of California and author of the new book, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, went on FoxNews.com’s online show Spirited Debate to promote his book, only to be prodded about why a Muslim would write a historical book about Jesus.”
http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/is-this-the-most-embarrassing-interview-fox-news-has-ever-do
“Is that a grey hat, A Node? I’d have thought it were black or white.”
I got it from the mad hatter, Ben, extra large size.
29 July 2013
Car key immobiliser hack revelations blocked by UK court
Megamos Crypto transponders are built into car keys to disable the vehicles’ engine immobilisers
Related Stories
Car hackers ‘drive’ car with laptop
Car control systems ‘vulnerable’
A High Court judge has blocked three security researchers from publishing details of how to crack a car immobilisation system.
German car maker Volkswagen and French defence group Thales obtained the interim ruling after arguing that the information could be used by criminals.
The technology is used by several car manufacturers.
The academics had planned to present the information at a conference in August.
The three researchers are Flavio Garcia, a computer science lecturer at the University of Birmingham, and Baris Ege and Roel Verdult, security researchers at Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands.
/..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23487928
Pam Geller, as usual is taking the lead on this Dreoilin.
Jesus was a prophet according to the Quran. Not to mention Moses and the other Patriarchs.
Islam was a direct descendant of Judaism through Abraham’s concubine Hagar. He was growing impatient with YHWH’s promise of providing the seed leading to the Lamb. He had relations with Hagar and a son was born. Ishmael and Hagar were banished when Sara (Abes wife) finally conceived and birthed Isaac in her 90’s. It’s perfectly appropriate for a muslim to write of the history of Jesus. They have a history.
Phil, 4.31pm
Interesting link. Seems to cover exactly the same ground, though, that the NSA has been working on since 1997 – perfecting automatic machine-transcription of voice recordings. Uses exactly the same terms – “word salad” etc – they did back then.
NSA Transcribing Voice 17 Years Ago
http://rixstep.com/1/20130614,00.shtml
On US Patent 5,937,422 & ‘Semantic Forests’
http://rixstep.com/2/20130614,00.shtml
fedup, ben, dreoilin: thanks for links. also suhayl on counterrevolution thread.
Flaming June
29 Jul, 2013 – 1:20 pm
The witch is dead!
“BREAKING NEWS:Lady Thatcher’s funeral cost taxpayers £1.2 million, according to figures released by the government”
Not according to the Guardian Mary:
“The overall cost of Lady Thatcher’s funeral to the taxpayer was around £3.2m, the Cabinet Office said on Monday.”
“In a written ministerial statement, Lord Wallace of Saltaire, a government whip, said the direct policing and security costs were £943,833 and the costs of the funeral itself were £261,976.”
BUT:
“The Cabinet Office also confirmed the “opportunity cost” of the policing – the cost of having 4,000 officers guarding the funeral and hence not available for duties elsewhere – was estimated at £2m.”
AND:
“More than 700 members of the armed forces were also involved in the event in April, but the Cabinet Office said it did not have an “opportunity cost” for their deployment because this was much harder to calculate than for the police.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/jul/29/margaret-thatcher-funeral-cost-taxpayers
I wonder if they took the cost of the funeral rehearsal into account as well.
I am looking forward to the internet being restricted.
To be fair the only real use it will serve is an on line shop.
Won’t it then be so simple?
Ps Who likes shopping?
Komodo: Fine points. I recall being challenged about why I wasn’t demonstrating in front of the Iranian embassy, because I didn’t like our own country attacking an unarmed country (Iraq) which had done nothing to us. Neat, eh? If you’re not willing to protest one country for its human rights record, you have no business criticising your own country’s war crimes.
This highly useful ploy only has a couple of problems. For one, an Iranian might ask why I’m not complaining about my own country. The question itself fails to consider that I might already (for instance, through Amnesty) be calling on Iran to respect human rights.
But surely, Iran is doing nothing in my name, and is not being run by my supposed representatives. And there are so many countries with bad records from which to choose, not all of them Official Enemies. A lot of the nastier governments are Official Friends, or at least, have no effective official attention paid to them at all.
As the old saying goes, charity begins at home (and usually stays there). One shouldn’t expect too much else when it comes to protests either, that hardly represents a moral failing.
*
Jon: I replied to your message to me on censorship in these forums, btw.
“It’s perfectly appropriate for a muslim to write of the history of Jesus. They have a history.”
But of course, Ben. Just as a Christian with a PhD in the history of religions would feel perfectly entitled to write about Muhammad.
The Fox woman just came across as ignorant. What has Pamela Geller got to say? More ignorance and bias?
Why dose it take some folk so long to Pipe up
Anyway 17 MEPs have written a letter calling on U.S. President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to free WikiLeaks whistle-blower Army Pfc. Bradley Manning. The MEPs laud Manning for exposing “evidence of human rights abuses and apparent war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan” in accordance with international law.
“Bradley Manning’s courageous action, for which he has three times been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, was an inspiration to others, including Edward Snowden, who recently revealed massive U.S. government surveillance in the U.S. and also against European governments and citizens.
We are concerned that the U.S. administration’s war on whistleblowers such as Edward Snowden and Bradley Manning is a deterrent to the process of democracy in both the United States and Europe.
We hereby urge you to end the persecution of Bradley Manning, a young gay man who has been imprisoned for over three years, including ten months in solitary confinement, under conditions that the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan Mendez deemed “cruel and abusive.” Bradley Manning has already suffered too much, and he should be freed as soon as humanly possible”
http://www.bradleymanning.org/featured/european-parliamentarians-call-on-president-obama-to-free-bradley-manning
John @ 8;01pm.
Only 200 signatures needed – Most exelent
“That most charming of couples: Nationalism and hypocrisy”
William Blum’s Anti-Empire Report
http://williamblum.org/aer/read/119
You may need some eye/brain bleach, Dreoilin. Fair warning…
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2013/07/reza-aslan-is-academias-anwar-awlaki.html
Fedup @ 8;49 Chilling news indeed.
i reckon you are spot on when you say we would be unlikely to hear of this anywhere else
A quick Google search produced only 2 pages of….absoultely NOTHING of this news
Arbed at 9.55 pm. These are really good links. Those of us who have been under the monitor for decades, that is everyone who studied Russian during in the Soviet government, everyone who belonged to animal rights (and human rights) movements and left-wing organisations all fell under the umbrella.
Bob Cryer MP was doing the same thing as Julian Assange nearly a decade earlier. He died in a car-incident. I keep mentioning Bob, not just because I knew him, but because since his death nobody has questioned why we have Menwith Hill and (now) other US communications’ interception stations. He was singular in his day. I believe he was targeted.
Although the US holds information on all UK citizens and their histories nobody wants to sign an Epetition to try and bring this to an end. You might as well be honest and say yes I do not want my information to be garnered by US intelligence because they already know who you are.
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/52312
I have written to my MP, Steve McCabe, about why we have an American base intercepting our communications. He normally responds. Not with this one. They are all scared shitless.
“I long for a modern version of the Army-McCarthy hearings of 1954 at which Carney – or much better, Barack Obama himself – is spewing one lie and one sickening defense of his imperialist destruction after another. And the committee counsel (in the famous words of Joseph Welch) is finally moved to declare: “Sir, you’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?” The Congressional gallery burst into applause and this incident is widely marked as the ‘
I remember that archetypal moment as it was the turning point for McCarthy/Kennedy and the shameless witch-hunts, Dreoilin.
I think things are getting to that point in Congress and with the American Public. But Nationalism is not just an American problem.
Thanks Ben. I’ll read Geller and head off to bed.
“But Nationalism is not just an American problem.”
No, for sure it’s not.
G’night
Brian, signed and commented.
Habbabkuk (La vita è bella!)
29 Jul, 2013 – 7:08 pm
“Komodo says:
“Because these are our countries and their allies, and the abuses are conducted in our name. We object.”
Habbabkuk says:
“Anyway : nobody here is asking you or the other Eminences to talk about “this abuse” rather than “that abuse” – we just wonder why you don’t talk about both.”
We do Habbabkuk; we talk about all human rights abuses on this blog (Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Milton Keynes).
Habbabkuk then says:
“The only reason you don’t that occurs to me is that you think human rights are divisible – omportant [sic] for the West to maintain, not important for others.”
Human rights should not be divisible Mr Habbabkuk but they are. In the United States blacks have less human rights (in practice) then good old American white boys. Guantanamo Bay needs no further comment.
Arab-Israeli’s do not have the same rights as Jews. Israel operates an Apartheid system not only in the occupied territories but in Israel itself.
“Former U.S. general: Settlements liable to turn Israel into an apartheid state”
“Mattis discussed the dangers to Israel’s future and mentioned the settlements as an example. “If I’m in Jerusalem and I put 500 Jewish settlers out here to the east and there’s 10,000 Arab settlers in here, if we draw the border to include them, either it ceases to be a Jewish state or you say the Arabs don’t get to vote – apartheid.”
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.537867#Scene_1
“A former South African ambassador to Israel has invited the fury of the Israeli government by describing its treatment of the country’s Palestinian Bedouin community as akin to apartheid.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/10130337/Ex-South-African-Israel-ambassador-likens-Bedouin-treatment-to-apartheid.html
“More than two-thirds of Israeli Jews say that 2.5 million Palestinians living in the West Bank should be denied the right to vote if the area was annexed by Israel, in effect endorsing an apartheid state, according to an opinion poll reported in Haaretz.”
“Three out of four are in favour of segregated roads for Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank, and 58% believe Israel already practises apartheid against Palestinians, the poll found.”
“A third want Arab citizens within Israel to be banned from voting in elections to the country’s parliament. Almost six out of 10 say Jews should be given preference to Arabs in government jobs, 49% say Jewish citizens should be treated better than Arabs, 42% would not want to live in the same building as Arabs and the same number do not want their children going to school with Arabs.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/23/israeli-poll-majority-apartheid-policies
If you want to justify Zionism Habbabkuk (et al) then engage in an intelligent discussion on the points above.
If you want to talk about Pakistan; Russia; India; China; Cuba etc fair enough but the subject at the moment is human rights abuses by the west mostly the US and Israel.
Let’s deal with that first.
Actually, this sounds analogous to certain attitudes common throughout Northern Ireland not so long ago. The exclusions and protests reflected a deep schism of cultural mistrust and suspicion. While there are still pockets of ingrained bigotry, the situation has vastly improved. Progress has been made by working together and building some degree of trust – quite the opposite of the kind of resolute demonizing still dominating the Israeli/Palestinian relations and associated commentaries.
Revolting, and indefensible
So in this country they arrest you for calling MP’s cowards, which most are, in the usa they raid your home and lock you up for facebook babblings
Oh, and don’t get into a Quarrel with one of “ours”
Lawsuit: SWAT Officers Dragged 10-Year-Old from Bathtub, Made Him Stand Naked Next to 4-Year-Old Sister, Terrorized Family
14 police officers with helmets and facemasks and assault rifles stormed in, family says.
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/lawsuit-swat-officers-dragged-10-year-old-bathtub-made-him-stand-naked-next-4-year
WHY ARE THESE PEOPLE NOT BEING ARRESTED IN ISREAL
This is only a small selection of the representative and typical comments posted under the picture of the three boys in the tent. All of these comments were in Hebrew and have been translated:
“Disgusting. Burn the tent” – Oriel Diller
“Eliminate” – Zevika Gvirz
“Artillery training ‘mistake’ ” – Igor Gonopolskiy
“Burn them” – Yaron Gringauz
“May you die garbage Arabs, amen!” – Shahar Dayan
“Run them over and shoot them. It’s not complicated!” – Elad Sender
“Take the tent with the people in it, put it on a trailer and dump them back where they came from” – Sharon Carmi
“A hand grenade inside the tent!” – Dvir Dagan
“Put a couple of bullets in their heads and we’re done” – Adi Maman
“Set them on fire” – Yosef Porotzky
“Fuck them” – Aria Yehudai
http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/castrate-them-burn-them-bullet-head-facebook-israelis-react-photo-palestinian
John great work on the Famous in Planes stats