Human Rights

Female protesters brutally beaten with metal poles as vicious soldiers drag girls through streets by their hair in day of shame

December 19, 2011 by Aaron Jackson Leave a Comment

By Inderdeep Bains on December 18, 2011

After being viciously beaten by a 10-strong mob of Egyptian male soldiers, this woman lies helplessly on the ground as her shirt is ripped from her body and a man kicks her with full force in her exposed chest.

Moments earlier she had been struck countless times in the head and body with metal batons, not content with the brutal beating delivered by his fellow soldier, one man stamped on her head repeatedly.

She feebly tried to shield her head from the relentless blows with her hands.

Brutal: This shocking image shows Egyptian army soldiers dragging this helpless woman on the ground and kicking her hard in the chest after ripping her clothes from her body.

Outnumbered: This woman screams in pain as she is surrounded by five male soldiers during protests in the Egyptian capital and beaten with poles.

But she was knocked unconscious in the shameful attack and left lying motionless as the military men mindlessly continued to beat her limp and half-naked body.

Before she was set upon by the guards, three men appeared to carry her as they tried to flee the approaching military.

But they were too slow and the soldiers caught up with them, capturing the women and knocking one of the men to the ground.

The two other men were forced to abandoned their fellow protestors and continued running, looking helplessly back at the two they left behind being relentlessly attacked as they lay on the ground.

This is just one of the hundreds of shameful injustices seen in Cairo’s Tahrir Square where Egypt’s military took a dramatically heavy hand on Saturday to crush protests against its rule.

Aya Emad told the AP that troops dragged her by her headscarf and hair into the Cabinet headquarters. The 24-year-old said soldiers kicked her on the ground, an officer shocked her with an electrical prod and another slapped her on the face, leaving her nose broken and her arm in a sling.

Mona Seif, an activist who was briefly detained Friday, said she saw an officer repeatedly slapping a detained old woman in the face.

‘It was a humiliating scene,’ Seif told the private TV network Al-Nahar. ‘I have never seen this in my life.’

Brutally injured: This woman is left barely conscious and splattered in blood after being beaten the military in violent clashes between rock-throwing protesters and military police

Shameless: Egyptian army soldiers use brutal force to arrest this female protester and drag her by her hair during clashes with military police near Cairo’s Tahrir Square

Violent: The heavy handed Egyptian army soldiers drag the arrested a woman protester off by her hair

In Bahrain a similar pictured was emerging with a video clip showing a female human rights activist being hit by a policewoman during clashes between police and anti-government protestors.

Police fired teargas to break up a demonstration by several hundred people on the outskirts of the capital, Manama where several women staged a sit-in protest trying to block a main road.

After nearly 48 hours of continuous fighting in Egypt’s capital more than 300 were left injured and nine dead, many of them shot dead.The most sustained crackdown yet is likely a sign that the generals who took power after the February ouster of Hosni Mubarak are confident that the Egyptian public is on its side after two rounds of widely acclaimed parliament elections, that Islamist parties winning the vote will stay out of the fight while pro-democracy protesters become more isolated.Still, the generals risk turning more Egyptians against them, especially from outrage over the abuse of women.

‘Do they think this is manly?’ Toqa Nosseir, a 19-year old student, said of the attacks on women. ‘Where is the dignity?’

Man-handled: Egyptian soldiers clash with this female protester and two male protestors near Cairo’s Tahrir Square

Protection: A female and two male Egyptian protester use a metal sheet as a shield as they throw rocks at military police, unseen, behind the gates and inside the Parliament building near Cairo’s Tahrir Square

Brave: Two women join protesters as they shout anti-military council slogans near the cabinet in Cairo

Nosseir joined the protest over her parents’ objections because she couldn’t tolerate the clashes she had seen.’No one can approve or accept what is happening here,’ she said.’The military council wants to silence all criticism. They want to hold on power … I will not accept this humiliation just for the sake of stability.’Nearby in Tahrir, protesters held up newspapers with the image of the half-stripped woman on the front page to passing cars, shouting sarcastically, ‘This is the army that is protecting us!”No one can approve or accept what is happening here,’ she said.’The military council wants to silence all criticism. They want to hold on power … I will not accept this humiliation just for the sake of stability.’Nearby in Tahrir, protesters held up newspapers with the image of the half-stripped woman on the front page to passing cars, shouting sarcastically, ‘This is the army that is protecting us!’

Grief: A woman mourns slain Egyptian protesters who were killed during the latest clashes with Egyptian soldiers, while they wait to receive their bodies in front of the morgue in Cairo

Under-fire: Pro-reform female protesters run for cover as heavy-handed police try to disperse them with tear-gas, in Abu Seba village, north of Manama, Bahrain

‘Are you not ashamed?’ leading reform figure and Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei posted on Twitter in an address to the ruling military council.

Egypt’s new, military-appointed interim prime minister defended the military, denying it shot protesters. He said gunshot deaths were caused by other attackers he didn’t identify.

He accused the protesters of being ‘anti-revolution.’

The main street between Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the anti-Mubarak protests, and the parliament and Cabinet buildings where the clashes began early the previous morning looked like a war zone on Saturday.

Military police on rooftops pelting protesters below with stones and firebombs and launched truncheon-swinging assaults to drive the crowds back.

Young activists put helmets or buckets on their heads or grabbed sheets of concrete and even satellite dishes as protection against the stones hailing down from the roofs.

The streets were strewn with chunks of concrete, stones ,broken glass, burned furniture and peddlers’ carts as clashes continued to rage after nightfall Saturday.

Detained: Activist Zainab al-Khawaja (Right) screams while being arrested during a protest in Abu Seba village, north of Manama

Heavy-handed: A Bahraini policewoman drags activist Zainab al-Khawaja across the floor after arresting her fo taking part in sit-in protest

The clashes began early on Friday with a military assault on a 3-week-old sit-in outside the Cabinet building by protesters demanding the military hand over power immediately to civilians.

More than a week of heavy fighting erupted in November, leaving more than 40 dead – but that was largely between police and protesters, with the military keeping a low profile.

In the afternoon, military police charged into Tahrir, swinging truncheons and long sticks, briefly chasing out protesters and setting fire to their tents.

They trashed a field hospital set up by protesters, swept into buildings where television crews were filming and briefly detained journalists. They tossed the camera and equipment of an Al-Jazeera TV crew off the balcony of a building.

A journalist who was briefly detained told The Associated Press that he was beaten up with sticks and fists while being led to into the parliament building. Inside, he saw a group of detained young men and one woman.

Each was surrounded by six or seven soldiers beating him or her with sticks or steel bars or giving electrical shocks with prods.

‘Blood covered the floor, and an officer was telling the soldiers to wipe the blood,’ said the journalist

Defiant: A brave woman shouts anti-government slogans as she stands amidst tear gas fired by riot police to disperse a sit-in at a roundabout on Budaiya Highway, west of Manama

As night fell in Tahrir, clashes continued around a concrete wall that the military erected to block the avenue from Tahrir to parliament.

In Bahrain, Zainab al-Khawaja, 27, was arrested and dragged across the floor by her handcuffs after police fired teargas to break up a demonstration by several hundred people on the outskirts of the capital, Manama.

Ms al-Khawaja and several other women staged a sit-in protest trying to block a main road. The other women fled the scene but Ms al-Khawaja refused.

Riot police fired tear-gas at the women, with dozens requiring hospital treatment after the incident.

A report by a panel of human rights experts in November found that Bahraini security forces had used excessive forces and carried out the systematic abuse of prisoners, including torture, when the regime sent in troops to crush the uprising in March.

Watch Video here: WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT

Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2075683/The-brave-women-Middle-East-Female-protesters-brutally-beaten-metal-poles-vicious-soldiers-drag-girls-streets-hair-day-shame.html

Filed Under: Featured, Human Rights, Martial Law, Protests

The Israel-Palestine Conflict: A Matter of Peace or War?

December 18, 2011 by Lauren Zak Leave a Comment

“Let us, on this International Day, reaffirm our commitment to translating ‎solidarity into positive action. The international community must help steer the situation ‎towards a historic peace agreement.‎” That is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message for the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, 29 November 2011.

Mr. Ban called on the Israeli and Palestinian leadership to show courage and determination to seek an agreement for a two-State solution that can open up a brighter future for Palestinian and Israeli children.

There have been many Middle East peace proposals and many negotiations including an Arab state, with or without a significant Jewish population, a Jewish state, with or without a significant Arab population, a single bi-national state, with or without some degree of cantonization, two states, one bi-national and one Arab, with or without some form of federation, and two states, one Jewish and one Arab, with or without some form of federation.

During the 19th Century some Jews banded together to form a political ideology called Zionism, based on the idea of a “Jewish homeland.” In the USA the Zionist movement developed a powerful political lobby to promote its aims, while its military groups pursued a violent terrorist campaign in Palestine against the Arabs and Britain to force acceptance of its demands.

On 29 November 1947 the United Nations adopted a partition resolution dividing the land of Palestine into two independent states- one Arab and one Jewish, while Jerusalem was put under international protection. This was accepted by most of the Jewish settlers, who comprised 13% of the population and rejected by the majority Arab population, the original inhabitants who demanded self–determination. The British said the decision would be a failure and refused to apply it. When British forces withdrew in May 1948, and Israel declared independence fighting broke out between Arabs and Jews.

One of the first plans for settling the Arab-Israel war of 1948 was made by the UN emissary, Count Folke Bernadotte. Count Folke Bernadotte was a Swedish noble and diplomat, nephew of the Swedish king, fluent in six languages; he was an outstanding humanitarian and very well respected for his integrity. He gained international recognition through his work as head of the Swedish Red Cross during World War Two, organizing exchanges of disabled prisoners. Bernadotte also used his position to negotiate with Heinrich Himmler, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party, and save the lives of about 30,000 Jews, Allied prisoners of war and other people from the concentration camps, just before the end of the war.

On 20th May, 1948, the United Nations Security Council appointed Bernadotte as mediator in the Arab-Jewish conflict in Palestine. After meeting Arab and Jewish leaders he succeeded in obtaining a 30-day truce that began on 11th June. In then developed his first plan for peace.

First Proposal

Bernadotte’s first plan called for the Jewish State to relinquish the Negev and Jerusalem to Transjordan and to receive the western Galilee. Bernadotte advocated a total demilitarization of Jerusalem and blamed the Jewish forces for “aggressive” behavior in the city.

The Arab world rejected the Bernadotte plan on the grounds that, as Syrian officer Muhammad Nimr al-Khatib said, “Most of these mediators are spies for the Jews anyway.” The Israeli government, hating the idea of giving up Jerusalem and bent on military victory, quickly followed suit. Fighting resumed on July 8 and the Israeli army gained strength and succeeded in pushing back the Arabs until a second UN cease-fire was declared on July 18, this time with no time limit and a threat of economic sanctions against any country that broke it.

After the unsuccessful first proposal, Bernadotte continued with a more complex proposal that abandoned the idea of a Union and proposed two independent states. Having witnessed the expulsion of the Palestinians from their home, he called for the unqualified return of all Palestinian refugees expelled as a result of the conflict. He declared:

“The right of innocent people, uprooted from their homes by the present terror and ravages of war, to return to their homes, should be affirmed and made effective, with assurance of adequate compensation for the property of those who may choose not to return…. [N]o settlement can be just and complete if recognition is not accorded to the right of the Arab refugee to return to the home from which he has been dislodged. It will be an offence against the principles of elemental justice if these innocent victims of the conflict were denied the right of return to their homes while Jewish immigrants flow into Palestine…”

Second Proposal

This proposal was completed on September 16, 1948 and it contained what he described as “seven basic premises” regarding the situation in Palestine:

Peace must return to Palestine and every feasible measure should be taken to ensure that hostilities will not be resumed and that harmonious relations between Arab and Jew will ultimately be restored.
A Jewish State called Israel exists in Palestine and there are no sound reasons for assuming that it will not continue to do so.
The boundaries of this new State must finally be fixed either by formal agreement between the parties concerned or failing that, by the United Nations.
Adherence to the principle of geographical homogeneity and integration, which should be the major objective of the boundary arrangements, should apply equally to Arab and Jewish territories, whose frontiers should not therefore, be rigidly controlled by the territorial arrangements envisaged in the resolution of 29 November.
The right of innocent people, uprooted from their homes by the present terror and ravages of war, to return to their homes, should be affirmed and made effective, with assurance of adequate compensation for the property of those who may choose not to return.
The City of Jerusalem, because of its religious and international significance and the complexity of interests involved, should be accorded special and separate treatment.
International responsibility should be expressed where desirable and necessary in the form of international guarantees, as a means of allaying existing fears, and particularly with regard to boundaries and human rights.

On 17 September 1948, the day after he submitted his progress report to the UN, a four-man team of the Jewish nationalist Zionist group Lehi (commonly known as the Stern Gang or Stern Group) ambushed Bernadotte’s motorcade in Jerusalem’s Katamon neighborhood.

The four hit men were, in fact, Stern Gang members consisting of three gunmen and a driver. The three gunmen were Yitzhak Ben-Moshe, “Gingi” Zinger, and Yehoshua Cohen. Cohen was the shooter who murdered Bernadotte. The fourth member of the hit team, the jeep driver, was Meshulam Makover.

Of the three Stern Gang leaders who dispatched the killers, Israel Eldad, Natan Yalin-Mor and Yitzhak Shamir, only Yalon-Mor was brought to trial along with one gang member, Mattiyahu Shmulovitz. They were not charged with Bernadotte’s murder but with membership in a terrorist organization. Following their conviction Yalon-Mor and Shmulovitz were pardoned under a general amnesty ordered by Ben-Gurion after serving only two weeks in jail.

Based upon events in Israel following Bernadotte’s assassination it is apparent that being a member of the Stern Gang was not blight on one’s good name but a career-enhancing credential. For example, Natan Yalin-Mor was elected to a seat in the First Knesset, the Israeli parliament. The shooter, Yehoshua Cohen, became Ben-Gurion’s personal bodyguard. In 1983, Yitzhak Shamir succeeded Menachem Begin as Prime Minister.

From 1948 through to the present day, the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is ongoing. After all these years, the only unanswerable question is the one that was asked by Bertrand Russell in his message to the International Conference of Parliamentarians held in February 1970:

The tragedy of the people of Palestine is that their country was ‘given’ by a foreign power to another people for the creation of a new state. The result was that many hundreds of thousands of innocent people were made permanently homeless. With every new conflict their numbers increased.

How much longer is the world willing to endure this spectacle of wanton cruelty?

It is abundantly clear that the refugees have every right to the homeland from which they were driven, and the denial of this right is at the heart of the continuing conflict.

Sources:

https://www.1948.org.uk/right-of-return/

https://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/un/solidarity-day-palestinian-people

https://www.soschildrensvillages.ca/News/News/child-charity-news/Pages/International-Solidarity-Palestinian-749.aspx

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proposals_for_a_Palestinian_state

https://www.zionism-israel.com/dic/Bernadotte_Plan.htm

https://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/COLDbernadotte.htm

https://usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/49384

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/folke.html

https://suspiciousdeaths.blogspot.com/2010/06/count-folke-bernadotte.html

Filed Under: Featured, Genocide, Human Rights, Israel, Palestine, Politics, War Tagged With: Folke Bernadotte, Israel, Middle East, Palestine, Peace, Politics, UN, War

A Story of Death Threats and Casual Insults: Racism in Germany

November 26, 2011 by Aaron Jackson Leave a Comment

Germany was shocked to learn the extent of the crimes committed by a recently uncovered right-wing extremist group. But racism is hardly an anomaly in Germany. One family’s experience shows just how widespread prejudice and hate really is.

Four weeks. Even the timing itself seemed calculated for maximum intimidation.

Four weeks are long enough to begin forgetting, to regain a certain amount of calm. To begin thinking that maybe it was just a bad joke. But four weeks is too short to completely overcome the fear.

Four weeks was the amount of time that passed between the two death threats the Krause family (eds. note: not their real name) found in their mailbox. The first letter came in August 2011. The sender had cut letters out of a newspaper to form a message warning that Mr. Krause and his family would be killed if they didn’t leave Germany.

Why? Because Mrs. Krause and the couple’s two children have dark skin. Because Mrs. Krause comes from East Africa.

The second letter came in September, and the sender spent far less time on it. He simply drew four crosses on a sheet of white paper — one for each member of the family. For the son, for the daughter, for Mr. Krause and for Mrs. Krause.

Mr. Krause, a middle-aged professor, had long promised himself not to take occasional incidents of hostility too seriously. He wanted to avoid overreacting, to prevent those who would sow fear from feeling the satisfaction of success.

The second threat letter, however, made stoicism impossible. And since news broke of the neo-Nazi group that apparently killed nine immigrants over the course of several years, his composure has completely evaporated. The perpetrators of the killing spree purposefully chose victims who did not originally come from Germany.

“I am afraid,” says Krause. “I feel the presence of an unpredictable threat.”

Concerned about Consequences

Krause is not the kind of person who would normally shy away from openly speaking out. He embraces his civic responsibility. “I won’t accept insults,” he says. But now, Krause is extremely wary of seeing his name in print — and doesn’t even want it known where he is from. He is afraid for the lives of his wife and children, and for his own.

German authorities asked him to keep his story as quiet as possible and to only share it with his closest friends. They were concerned, they said, about the consequences should news of the threats become widespread. The letters are now in the hands of law-enforcement officials.

They have, however, refused to actively pursue the case, says Krause. No guards or police have been posted in front of his house. Krause claims the authorities made it clear to him that he simply wasn’t prominent enough for such measures. Instead, he is to follow a few simple rules: Only go to places that are well-lighted and where there is plenty of human activity. And to always monitor his rear-view mirror when driving. They also assured him that threats such as the ones he received aren’t particularly rare and that it was probably just some crank.

But Anders Behring Breivik, the man who killed almost 80 people in Norway in July, was also a crank. “The fact that someone is crazy doesn’t exclude the possibility that they are violent,” says Krause. He doesn’t believe that the neo-Nazi terror cell from Zwickau is an isolated case. “And it is wrong to think that they are just idiots,” he says. “They may be immoral, but they are intelligent.”

Krause is an economist, and he lives with his wife and children in a house located in a well-off district of a large German city. His wife, a doctor from a country in East Africa, moved to Germany to join her husband. At the time, she was pregnant with their second child. Even Krause’s manner of explaining how he met his wife in 2004 makes it clear just how often he has been confronted with prejudice. No, she wasn’t a prostitute that he met in a hotel, nor was she seeking to marry a rich German. She herself comes from a prosperous family. In reality, he explains, he met her at the university on the way to class one day.

Insulted on Account of Her Skin Color

Krause was happy to be able to bring his wife to Germany. It is safer here, the job market is better, medical care is superior — and he likes his homeland. “Germany is a great country, and it offers the opportunity to live in peace and harmony,” he says. Still, he didn’t want to be naïve. He told his wife that she might be insulted in Germany on account of her skin color.

But the reality has turned out to be much worse than he had imagined. And the death threats are only the tip of the iceberg.

The Krause family has experienced things that white-skinned Germans could never imagine. But everyone in the country who looks “foreign” has plenty of stories to tell - about not being served at the deli counter, of parents at the playground telling their children not to play with the dark-skinned child, of the Israeli’s neighbor who calls over from the neighboring balcony: “You Jews always have money.” Or even stories about open attacks, like the Asian woman who was spat on while walking on the sidewalk.

Krause has kept careful notes on many of the incidents he and his family have experienced, and he has notified the authorities. “It’s the sum total of the relatively small things,” he says. “At some point, you ask yourself if you are being overly sensitive. But the opposite of sensitive is insensitive, and that’s not how I want to be.”

His daughter, the oldest child, goes to kindergarten. “They are all very nice there, the parents and the teachers,” Krause says. But once another child told his daughter, “you are black, dirty and bad.” Where does such a thing come from? “Such a thing doesn’t kill anybody, but it is an indication of an attitude that would seem to be widespread,” Krause says.

No Public Interest

In a department store, according to Krause, one of the saleswomen said “poor Germany” when she saw his dark-skinned wife.

In a pharmacy parking lot, a car refused to stop for Krause’s wife and child, coming dangerously close to them. When Krause rushed to stand between his family and the car, the driver stepped out and called the family “monkey asses.”

Authorities rejected Mrs. Krause’s official complaint. “The accused denies having called you and your husband ‘monkey asses’,” reads the official reply. “Independently of that, such an utterance would not fulfill the legal definition of incitement. The mere incident of someone insulting a person who belongs to a particular ethnic group is not enough if the insult has no connection to that ethnic group.”

The letter also said that there was no public interest to be served in prosecuting the accused for the alleged insult.

Kind Gesture

His wife also tells the story of seeing a neighbour — a former teacher who lost his job because of right-wing extremist statements — give the Hitler salute to an acquaintance. “But maybe my wife just misinterpreted it,” Krause says.

After all, he is concerned that he has become obsessed. And he also tries to emphasize the positive situations he has encountered — like the older woman in the supermarket who gave each of his children a stuffed animal. “She simply wanted to say that we are extra-welcome here,” he says, adding that the gesture of kindness almost made him cry.

And yet, he still can’t sleep anymore. Every night between two and three in the morning, he finds himself standing at the window. Once, he saw a police car parked in front of his house for half an hour. But he doesn’t know what that might mean.

Source: https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,799987,00.html

Filed Under: European Union, Extremism, Racism, Violence Tagged With: Racism

UK: Met Police Using Surveillance System To Monitor Mobile Phones

November 1, 2011 by Aaron Jackson Leave a Comment

Civil liberties group raises concerns over Met police purchase of technology to track public handsets over a targeted area.

A woman on her mobile next to a police cordon during protests in London in 2010. The Metropolitan police have purchased technology to track all handsets in a targeted area.

Britain’s largest police force is operating covert surveillance technology that can masquerade as a mobile phone network, transmitting a signal that allows authorities to shut off phones remotely, intercept communications and gather data about thousands of users in a targeted area.

The surveillance system has been procured by the Metropolitan police from Leeds-based company Datong plc, which counts the US Secret Service, the Ministry of Defence and regimes in the Middle East among its customers. Strictly classified under government protocol as “Listed X”, it can emit a signal over an area of up to an estimated 10 sq km, forcing hundreds of mobile phones per minute to release their unique IMSI and IMEI identity codes, which can be used to track a person’s movements in real time.

The disclosure has caused concern among lawyers and privacy groups that large numbers of innocent people could be unwittingly implicated in covert intelligence gathering. The Met has refused to confirm whether the system is used in public order situations, such as during large protests or demonstrations.

Nick Pickles, director of privacy and civil liberties campaign group Big Brother Watch, warned the technology could give police the ability to conduct “blanket and indiscriminate” monitoring: “It raises a number of serious civil liberties concerns and clarification is urgently needed on when and where this technology has been deployed, and what data has been gathered,” he said. “Such invasive surveillance must be tightly regulated, authorised at the highest level and only used in the most serious of investigations. It should be absolutely clear that only data directly relating to targets of investigations is monitored or stored,” he said.

Datong’s website says its products are designed to provide law enforcement, military, security agencies and special forces with the means to “gather early intelligence in order to identify and anticipate threat and illegal activity before it can be deployed”.

The company’s systems, showcased at the DSEi arms fair in east London last month, allow authorities to intercept SMS messages and phone calls by secretly duping mobile phones within range into operating on a false network, where they can be subjected to “intelligent denial of service”. This function is designed to cut off a phone used as a trigger for an explosive device.

A transceiver around the size of a suitcase can be placed in a vehicle or at another static location and operated remotely by officers wirelessly. Datong also offers clandestine portable transceivers with “covered antennae options available”. Datong sells its products to nearly 40 countries around the world, including in Eastern Europe, South America, the Middle East and Asia Pacific. In 2009 it was refused an export licence to ship technology worth £0.8m to an unnamed Asia Pacific country, after the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills judged it could be used to commit human rights abuses.

A document seen by the Guardian shows the Metropolitan police paid £143,455 to Datong for “ICT hardware” in 2008/09. In 2010 the 37-year-old company, which has been publicly listed since October 2005, reported its pro forma revenue in the UK was £3.9m, and noted that “a good position is being established with new law enforcement customer groups”. In February 2011 it was paid £8,373 by Hertfordshire Constabulary according to a transaction report released under freedom of information.

Between 2004 and 2009 Datong won over $1.6 (£1.03m) in contracts with US government agencies, including the Secret Service, Special Operations Command and the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In February 2010 the company won a £750,000 order to supply tracking and location technology to the US defence sector. Official records also show Datong entered into contracts worth more than £500,000 with the Ministry of Defence in 2009.

All covert surveillance is currently regulated under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa), which states that to intercept communications a warrant must be personally authorised by the home secretary and be both necessary and proportionate. The terms of Ripa allow phone calls and SMS messages to be intercepted in the interests of national security, to prevent and detect serious crime, or to safeguard the UK’s economic wellbeing.

Latest figures produced by the government-appointed interception of communications commissioner, Sir Paul Kennedy, show there were 1,682 interception warrants approved by the home secretary in 2010. Public authorities can request other communications data – such as the date, time and location a phone call was made – without the authority of the home secretary. In 2010, 552,550 such requests were made, averaging around 1,500 per day.

Barrister Jonathan Lennon, who specialises in cases involving covert intelligence and Ripa, said the Met’s use of the Datong surveillance system raised significant legislative questions about proportionality and intrusion into privacy.

“How can a device which invades any number of people’s privacy be proportionate?” he said. “There needs to be clarification on whether interception of multiple people’s communications – when you can’t even necessarily identify who the people are – is complaint with the act. It may be another case of the technology racing ahead of the legislation. Because if this technology now allows multiple tracking and intercept to take place at the same time, I would have thought that was not what parliament had in mind when it drafted Ripa.”

Former detective superintendent Bob Helm, who had the authority to sign off Ripa requests for covert surveillance during 31 years of service with Lancashire Constabulary, said: “It’s all very well placed in terms of legislation … when you can and can’t do it. It’s got to be legal and obviously proportionate and justified. If you can’t do that, and the collateral implications far outweigh the evidence you’re going to get, well then you just don’t contemplate it.”

In May the Guardian revealed the Met had purchased software used to map suspects’ digital movements using data gathered from social networking sites, satnav equipment, mobile phones, financial transactions and IP network logs. The force said the software was being tested using “dummy data” to explore how it could be used to examine “police vehicle movements, crime patterns and telephone investigations.”

The Met would not comment on its use of Datong technology or give details of where or when it had been used.

A spokesman said: “The MPS [Metropolitan police service] may employ surveillance technology as part of our continuing efforts to ensure the safety of Londoners and detect criminality. It can be a vital and highly effective investigative tool.

“Although we do not discuss specific technology or tactics, we can re-assure those who live and work in London that any activity we undertake is in compliance with legislation and codes of practice.”

A spokesman for the Home Office said covert surveillance was kept under “constant review” by the chief surveillance commissioner, Sir Christopher Rose, who monitors the conduct of authorities and ensures they are complying with the appropriate legislation.

He added: “Law enforcement agencies are required to act in accordance with the law and with the appropriate levels of authorisation for their activity.”

Datong declined to comment.

Source: https://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/oct/30/metropolitan-police-mobile-phone-surveillance

Filed Under: Campaigning, Privacy, Protests, Surveillance, Technology, United Kingdom

Has Capitalism Ever Existed in America?

October 29, 2011 by Aaron Jackson Leave a Comment

Recently there has been a lot of discussion about capitalism in the news and among activists. Many people are taking stances on either one side of the issue or the other, but very few are stopping to consider the fact that capitalism may have never even existed. This concept may come as a surprise to some, but it shouldn’t. If you examine most of the words used to describe our society such as democracy, freedom, representative or capitalism, you will find that these words are simply abstract euphemisms which are used to disguise the true nature of authoritarian civilization.

We are supposed to believe that we are represented by people who don’t represent us, that we are somehow “free” in a situation where we are constantly being exploited and ordered around. Much in the same way that we are told we are “free” in our personal lives, we are also told that we are “free” in our financial lives. The word “democracy” is used to make our oppressive political system seem more benevolent and legitimate, while the term “capitalism” is used to give the impression that we operate under a “free market” economy. Obviously, neither are true.

Capitalism itself has been defined many different ways, but the rights to private property, as well as private production of goods and a free market economy, cross over between all of these definitions. Currently none of the above rights are being fully respected in the United States and most Western countries that claim to be capitalist. Sure, at face value it may seem like these ideas are prevalent in Western culture, but when you take a look at property taxes, government subsidies for big corporations and the mountain of red tape faced by entrepreneurs it should become painfully obvious that capitalism has probably never existed in this country; perhaps it has never even existed in this world.

The system that we have in place today could more accurately be called fascism, mercantilism or cartelism. These words describe a system where the elite use their power in government to control the rest of society, as well as prop up their businesses by eliminating competition through the political system. The monolithic corporations that now exist would have never been able to grow into what they are today without the help of government intervention and protection. Without government intervention, the infamous lobbyists in Washington would become obsolete because there would no longer be any ability to manipulate the marketplace through bribes or coercion. Government intervention and protection is the primary means by which the world’s biggest corporations have devastated their competition and developed massive monopolies.

In a system of true free market capitalism there would be absolutely no need for a government, because any “service” that is apparently provided by the government can actually be better handled by entrepreneurs. In today’s system we don’t have independent businesses working on a level playing field, instead we are left with a few massive corporations and cartels that use their power in government to maintain their monopolies and stomp out their competition. This is the very definition of fascism — the merger of state and corporate power — this is the dominant economic system in the world, and has been for centuries, in various different forms.

In fascist countries there is really no line between government and big corporations; both types of organizations use legislative power to establish and maintain monopolies. When it comes down to it, both of these organizations rely on violence and threats of violence as a means of getting their way in the marketplace. Essentially, the government is an organization that is used to justify violence, from the military to the tax collectors to the police. This constant use of force is said to be keeping us safe, but in reality it just instigates further conflict and makes our lives more chaotic and violent.

For any authoritarian government to stay in power they must convince their subjects that they are providing them with safety and security. This is the typical public relations scheme of every oppressive government; the idea that they are providing worthwhile services. This is sadly a myth. The government doesn’t provide services; they monopolize services. In other words, they make sure that they are the only organization that can provide schools, hospitals, roads and other utilities to the public because this creates a situation where the people are completely dependent upon the state for survival. This doesn’t mean that a government is the only type of organization that is capable of providing these services. In fact, community groups and entrepreneurs would most likely do a far better job at providing these services because they would actually be judged by the integrity of their work, unlike politicians and corporations.

Oftentimes when the government is providing a service they are actually doing a very poor job, but no one can really tell the difference because there is no competition to judge it by. If you look at the goals that government organizations apparently set out to achieve, you will see they always fail miserably. Therefore, if the government is claiming to provide maximum safety and security, it would be safe to assume that this goal will not be achieved. In the most authoritarian countries where the “leaders” claim to have established an extreme level of security, things are actually very unsafe and citizens in these kinds of countries live in constant fear. Just because there is a very high level of control does not mean that there will be adequate safety or order within a society. The most controlling type of government in today’s world is without a doubt a fascist one.

Fascism is defined as an authoritarian system of government that has strong nationalist and corporatist values. Fascist governments often have strong military cultures and use force to establish themselves as authority figures, both at home and abroad. A Fascist government never refers to themselves as such; to do so would be to admit that they run unjust and oppressive regimes. Fascism exists in many economic systems that claim to be capitalist or communist and can develop even in countries that call themselves democratic.

In fact, most fascist “leaders” tell their people that they live in a free and democratic society so the public takes their grievances to the polls, instead of taking them into the streets where they could actually make an impact. Currently one of the most fascist nations on Earth is called the “Democratic Republic of North Korea”. Likewise, the government in America and the European Union are some of the most fascist regimes in history, yet they still claim to operate under systems of “capitalism” or “democratic socialism”. Like anything else in politics and economics, it’s a word game that’s designed to disguise the truth.

Personally I believe that the economic system of the future that will finally bring us peace, freedom and opportunity has yet to be discovered. However, there are some basics of capitalism and voluntarism that should be considered necessary if we are going to establish a new economic system that is designed to empower the people. The rights to private property, the freedom for people to open businesses and trade freely amongst themselves are elements of capitalism that will ensure freedom in a future economic system. The idea that all interactions in society should be voluntary and free from threats, coercion and violence will ensure peace. These are some good places to start our discussion, but to establish a system that will actually work in our best interest, we, the 99% need to hit the books and put our heads together.

Today, almost every economy in the world is totally dictated by the ideas of two long-dead aristocrats. Karl Marx on one end representing communism, and Adam Smith on the other end representing capitalism. Our whole way of doing business on this planet has changed very little since the time that these two characters were alive, and that right there is the root of our problem. Imagine if a few people in every city across the world wrote their own economic manifestos and got together to respectfully discuss their ideas. We refuse to accept yesterday’s television shows, IPods and PlayStations but without thinking we have accepted ways of living that are centuries old. It’s time for us to work together in creating strategies where everyone can meet their needs without violating the rights of others.

Source: https://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/279-82/8093-wall-street-isnt-winning-its-cheating

Filed Under: Capitalism, Democracy, Equality, Occupy, Revolution

Plans To Shut Down California Medical Marijuana Shops In Progress

October 8, 2011 by Aaron Jackson 3 Comments

The US Justice Department has announced plans to crackdown on the medical marijuana industry in California, despite a 1996 voter-approved initiative to legalize it. Federal officials said they are cracking down on the state’s medical-marijuana dispensaries, threatening to confiscate marijuana - an medical industry that, by state estimates, generates more than $1 billion in annual sales and employs thousands.

Advocates in California, the first state to pass a law legalizing marijuana use for patients with doctors’ recommendations, have scheduled a joint news conference to “outline actions targeting the sale, distribution and cultivation of marijuana.”

Their offices refused to provide details in advance of what moves the officials are taking or how many of the state’s hundreds of store-front marijuana shops would be affected.

Proposition 215, or the Compassionate Use Act, which allows the use of medical marijuana, passed with 56% of the votes in 1996.

Initial stories indicated that all medical-marijuana dispensaries in California had been ordered to shut down, but the actual target remains unclear.

At least 16 marijuana shops or their landlords received letters this week warning they would face criminal charges and confiscation of their property if the dispensaries do not shut down in 45 days.

The letters state that federal law “takes precedence over state law and applies regardless of the particular uses for which a dispensary is selling and distributing marijuana.”

Dale Gieringer, the director of California NORML, which backs legalizing marijuana, said “the crackdown apparently will be tailored to fit the regional differences in the state.” He adds “They want to do a clean sweep in San Diego, whereas in Northern California they can’t possibly do a clean sweep.”

Federal prosecutors announced an aggressive crackdown against California marijuana dispensaries Friday, vowing to shut down dozens of operations and saying that the worst offenders are using the cover of medical marijuana to act as store-front drug dealers.

Many of the drug trafficking ventures are using California’s 15-year-old medical marijuana law to operate in plain sight, said U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag, the top federal law enforcement officer for the San Francisco Bay area. “I understand there are people in California who believe marijuana stores should be allowed to exist, but I think we can all agree we don’t need marijuana stores across the street from schools and Little League fields,” she said.

Not all of the thousands of store-front marijuana dispensaries thought to be operating in the state are being targeted in the crackdown, which also involves new indictments and arrests of marijuana growers throughout the state over the past two weeks, said U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wager, who represents the state’s Central Valley.

Instead, federal officials are initially going after marijuana shops located close to schools, parks, sports fields and other places where there are a lot of children and what Wagner termed “significant commercial operations.” He said that includes farmland where marijuana is being grown. “California’s marijuana industry supplies the nation,” he said. “And huge amounts of money are flowing back in the other direction.”

The strategies they are using vary somewhat, with warning letters issued by the U.S. attorney in San Diego giving recipients 45 days to comply and 38 property owners in Los Angeles and the Central Coast given just two weeks to evict marijuana dispensaries or growers.

The letters come just days after the IRS ruled that the largest dispensary on the West Coast, Harborside Health Center, owes millions in back taxes. The IRS said it won’t allow dispensaries to deduct normal business expenses such as payroll and rent, a potentially devastating financial blow to the industry.

U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag said the move is not designed to clamp down on patients who grow their own marijuana for medical use. But dispensaries that were not part of the initial wave of warning letters “shouldn’t take any comfort,” she said. “They are illegal under federal law.”

The move comes a little more than two months after the Obama administration toughened its stand on medical marijuana. Two years before that, federal officials had indicated they would not move aggressively against dispensaries in compliance with laws in the 16 states where marijuana is legal for people with doctors’ recommendations.

The stepped-up enforcement escalates the Obama administration’s efforts to rein in the spread of marijuana stores, which accelerated after the attorney general announced in 2009 that federal prosecutors would not target people using medical marijuana in states that allow it.

Bill Panzer, a criminal defense lawyer who represents dispensaries said “It looks like there is a concerted effort for an offensive against the dispensaries in California,” and added “The Obama administration, for all the talk that he gave during the campaign, the reality is his policies haven’t been that different from Bush’s.”

“They’re cherry-picking,” Panzer said. “They want to look good in the press, so better to go after one that’s near a school.”

According to Panzer, the Justice Department four dispensaries because they are within 1,000 feet of schools or parks where children play. There is no state law against having a dispensary within 1,000 feet of a school, but under federal law, selling drugs near a school can carry a higher sentence.

The Department of Justice issued a policy memo to federal prosecutors in late June stating that marijuana dispensaries and licensed growers in states with medical marijuana laws could face prosecution for violating federal drug and money-laundering laws. The effort to shut California dispensaries appeared to be the most far-reaching effort so far to put that guidance into action.

Sources:

https://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2011/10/feds-order-all-calif-medical-marijuana-outlets-to-close/1

https://blogs.sacbee.com/crime/archives/2011/10/us-attorneys-marijuana-dispensaries-in-california-arent-legal.html

https://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/10/federal-officials-begin-major-crackdown-marijuana-operations.html

https://www.baycitizen.org/marijuana/story/feds-eviction-4-marijuana-dispensaries/

https://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-10-07/feds-target-1-billion-california-medical-marijuana-industry.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_215_(1996)

https://www.baycitizen.org/marijuana/story/irs-oaklands-largest-pot-dispensary-owes/

Filed Under: Featured, Health, Human Rights, Marijuana, Politics

Occupy: Who Owns The Movement?

October 6, 2011 by Aaron Jackson 3 Comments

Answer: Whoever wants it bad enough.

Don Hank caught a lot of flack from his conservative readers over his article suggesting that left and right should come together on the issue of the banking oligarchy. He pointed out that the only president to break the power of the banking elites in America was Andrew Jackson, a democrat, and that ironically, the Tea Party – the antithesis of Democrat ideology – now sounded more like Jackson than any prominent Democrat politicians or writers.

But the elephant in the room was the Occupy Wall Street movement’s apparent link to ACORN, and hence to our far left administration.

Don knew about the ACORN link when he wrote the article. In fact, it seems Obama’s favorite Maoist Van Jones also may well be linked to the movement.

All of this is very bad indeed, and there has never been a leftist-organized movement that has been successfully used to the advantage of the right or of constitutionally minded Americans before.

The Obama camp may be in for a surprise.

You see, there are two separate and opposite narratives going on in this same movement.

The narrative of the group that thought it was in charge is figuring prominently in New York City, blaming Wall Street and capitalism in general, never mind that Big Business is no longer governed by free market capitalist rules but by a series of machinations based on a government-business alliance, known as corporatism (or as fascism by the less charitable). A perfect example was Apple, headed by the recently deceased Steve Jobs. Around the last elections, about 91% of Jobs’ political donations went to the Democrats, who openly oppose the free market, while the other 9% went to the GOP, which at least pays lip service to the free market. So what does that tell you?

A free market ideology is virtually absent from Big Business today, as though the captains of industry were in a hurry to see their own demise. It is nothing short of surreal.

However, the narrative of the group that is rapidly assuming control of the Occupy Wall Street movement, for example, in Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and elsewhere does indeed support free market principles. Many of these people seem to be coming from Ron Paul’s vast network, and they can be described as independents and libertarians, who, as you know, draw their intellectual sustenance from the free market enthusiasts of the Austrian School, and from Milton Friedman, Ayn Rand and the like, and for whatever faults they may have, they loathe leftist Statism as much as Obama and fellow travellers love it.

According to Asia Times, far from calling for more government intervention to tax the rich, the new (and growing) narrative is a call “to end the banking cartel’s hold on Washington.”

This is a narrative not supported by either party. The GOP likes the corporatism behind the banking oligarchy’s power, which it is desperately trying to continue passing off as “capitalism” and “free market principles.” Likewise, the Democrats like corporatism because it brings money into their private and public coffers with generous donations from corporate fat cats who know that staying on the good side of the Democrats will pay big dividends for them, and likewise, that failing to fawn all over these socialists will bring down a torrent of regulator interventions as it did on Gibson Guitar Corp., threatening to drive them out of business.

Probably the last best representatives of free market capitalism are to be found under H in the phone book: Handymen. These men are part of what used to be called the black market in the Soviet Union.

They pay little or no taxes, they hire no one and they are all but invisible to government.

We can only hope that our free market is soon restored to the point that the little guy, including the handyman, can at least dream of working his way into business ownership again, through hard work, creativity, intelligence and a benevolent, laissez-faire government that has no plans either to entangle him in an unholy alliance with it or to squash him like a bug simply for being independent and giving Americans – not Chinese or Mexicans or anyone else — jobs.

There’s a movement out there that started out for the purpose of further destroying sound American economic principles. But in the right hands, this same movement, with a narrative change, could very well bring us back to the free market, over the protests of the hapless left.

It’s ours for the taking.

Sources:

https://laiglesforum.com/who-owns-the-movement/2743.htm

https://www.fedupusa.org/2011/10/occupy-who-owns-the-movement/

Filed Under: Featured, Human Rights, Occupy, Politics

David Cameron: I Will Replace The Human Rights Act

October 3, 2011 by Aaron Jackson 6 Comments

The Human Rights Act will be axed, David Cameron vowed yesterday.

David Cameron said: “I do agree that it would be good to replace the Human Rights Act with a British Bill of Rights. That was the Conservative policy at the last election. It is, I think, the right thing to do.”

He spoke out after Home Secretary Theresa May also declared yesterday the Act must go — two weeks after Deputy PM Nick Clegg insisted it was “here to stay”.

Ms May said human rights laws were stopping the Home Office from deporting foreign terror suspects and criminals and the PM lost little time in backing her.

But Cameron admitted the Coalition partnership with the Lib Dems would delay his plans. He told BBC1′s Andrew Marr Show: “Obviously it will go more slowly than Theresa or I want. Now are we going to just sit back and say, ‘Tough, nothing we can do?’ No, not a bit of it.”

He said he wanted to change the “chilling culture” created by the Act. He cited the case, exposed by The Sun, of a prison van being driven 100 miles to a jail to transport a prisoner 200 yards to court — sparing him the shame of a short walk in public.

He also hopes to reform the way the European Court on Human Rights and the European Court of Justice work. He said: “We are looking at creating our own British Bill of Rights. We are going to
fight in Europe for changes to the way the European Court works and we will fight to ensure people understand the real scope of these rights and do not use them as cover for rules or excuses that fly in the face of common sense.”

He said “a clear and codified” bill would allow the European Court of Human Rights to apply a “margin of appreciation” in its rulings - where judges are obliged to take into account the cultural, historic and philosophical differences between Strasbourg and the nation in question.

Cameron also added “I want National Citizen Service to be available to every teenager after GCSEs. I want them to learn that they can make a difference in their communities and that real fulfilment comes not from trashing things or being selfish but by building things and working with others. Above all, I want them to learn that Britain is a great country they should feel proud to belong to.”

Last night Shadow Justice Secretary Sadiq Khan condemned the plans, saying: “The Human Rights Act is the most significant defence for people against state power ever passed. Scrapping it is a lazy and incoherent position to hold.”

Sources:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/politics/3849624/PM-I-will-rip-up-Human-Rights-Act.html

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12482442

https://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/266219

https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/5114102.stm

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12277538

https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8690572.stm

Images:
https://www.moneymad.org/David_Cameron_posters.htm

https://www.lgcm.org.uk/2011/11/do-we-need-a-uk-bill-of-rights-lgcm-says-no

Filed Under: Featured, Human Rights, Politics

Protests Over New EU Motorbike Regulations

October 1, 2011 by Aaron Jackson 1 Comment

Hundreds of bikers took part in a protest on Monday against a raft of new EU regulations on motorbike safety, which they claim will push up costs for motorcyclists.

Over 1,000 motorbikes blocked Kildare Street in Dublin.

As part of the proposals, the Road Safety Authority is to make hi-visibility clothing compulsory for all motorcyclists from 2014.

Any motorbike over seven years old would not be allowed on the road in an urban area.

New regulations on safety and vehicle maintenance are also included, this may stop people from being allowed to fix or modify their own bikes, regardless of the safety.

All new bikes are to get so-called on-board diagnostic (OBD) systems, which could detect non-standard parts and trigger a warning light until the ‘fault’ is rectified by a dealer. The systems could report routine faults in code only decipherable by dealers, preventing home servicing.

One aim is to prevent modifications to the ‘power-train’ which it’s feared could include anything from the throttle to rear tyre.

The regulations for ‘L-Category’ vehicles, including two- or three-wheeled motorcycles, mopeds and quads were proposed last October.

The European Commission estimates that there are over 30 million L-vehicles in the EU.

Rallies were held in various parts of Ireland including Dublin, Cork and Galway, where some bikers joined in ‘slow rides’ along motorways and dual carriageways. There were also rallies in Waterford, Wexford, Westmeath, Monaghan and Donegal.

About 100 bikers protested on the M1 in Nottinghamshire, England, maintaining a speed of 40mph, which lasted about half an hour.

Protest rallies are also taking place across Europe, amid claims that the new regulations will have a detrimental effect on motorcyclists.

Tory MPs Mike Weatherley and Steve Baker have joined protests in their areas.

Trinity Savage, president of the Streetfighters Owners Club, took part in the action. She said “We’re here to show that we’re absolutely disgusted that someone in Brussels can tell us what we can and can’t do to our motorcycles.” “This is our life - it’s not just a hobby. A lot of these guys don’t drive cars, they just have motorcycles and a lot of them don’t want to turn up at a bike meet with one style of bike that’s the same as everyone else’s. “This is our individuality - it’s like saying you’re not allowed to have tattoos.”

Motorbike Action Group are leading many of the protests across the EU.

For more information on future protests as well as information on the main protests on the 25th of September follow this link: https://www.mag-uk.org/en/index/a6296

Sources:
https://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0925/motorcyles.html#article

https://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0925/motorcyles.html#video

https://www.motorcyclenews.com/MCN/News/newsresults/General-news/2011/September/sep2311-mps-to-join-day-of-protest/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-15054139

https://www.mag-uk.org/en/index/a6296

Filed Under: Human Rights, Protests

More Than Just Facebook Activists Threatened

September 25, 2011 by Aaron Jackson Leave a Comment

Facebook managers have decided to upgrade the “Groups” feature, not to be confused with Pages or Profiles. However not all groups will be upgraded to the new design.

Facebook are not providing much information about which groups will be able to upgrade, however they have stated that groups with enough recent activity will gain priority over inactive or less active groups. Groups that do not receive the upgrade have their members archived/deleted, then the groups are upgraded regardless, the only difference being that you get to keep all group members if you receive an upgrade key.

Some activists fear that this is a result of political bias in favour of the US Democratic party, many Democratic-allied groups were among the first to be given the option to upgrade. Some progressive, liberal, environmental, gay and Islamist groups have not had the option to upgrade regardless of the number of members and the groups’ activity levels.

Andrew Noyes, the company’s manager for public policy communications said in a statement “Some groups will be given the opportunity to upgrade into the new design while others will need to re-create their groups”, He also said “We determined what groups to archive based on a number of factors, including the amount of recent activity [and] we’re currently working on ways to refine our systems so as to not accidentally archive or move groups that were incorrectly characterized and we appreciate user feedback as we do so”.

Facebook employees donated heavily to the Obama campaign in 2008, as did the employees of Microsoft and Google. Facebook founder Chris Hughes works as head of the online-organising campaign for the Obama campaign, while CEO Mark Zuckerberg has declared himself to be an Obama supporter. Google’s YouTube demoted ads run by GOP candidate John McCain in 2008 even when Obama’s online-ads dominated YouTube.

Cass Sunstein, Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Obama administration, co-authored a paper in 2008 with Adrian Vermeule titled “Conspiracy Theories”, about the risks and possible government responses to conspiracy theories such as theories about the attacks on September 11th. The paper refers, several times to groups that promote the view that the US government was responsible or complicit with the attacks as “extremist groups”. Together they propose that “the best response consists in cognitive infiltration of extremist groups” where they suggest, among other tactics, “Government agents (and their allies) might enter chat rooms, online social networks, or even real-space groups and attempt to undermine percolating conspiracy theories by raising doubts about their factual premises, causal logic or implications for political action”.

Cass Sunstein argued the U.S. government should ban “conspiracy theorizing.” Sunstein also recommended the government send agents to infiltrate “extremists who supply conspiracy theories”.

Sunstein recommends the banning of many conspiracy theories such as:

“The theory of global warming is a deliberate fraud.”
“The view that the Central Intelligence Agency was responsible for the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.”
“The 1996 crash of TWA flight 800 was caused by a U.S. military missile.”
“The Trilateral Commission is responsible for important movements of the international economy.”
“That Martin Luther King Jr. was killed by federal agents.”
“The moon landing was staged and never actually occurred.”

The Canadian Government are to monitor chat rooms, forums and social networking websites to correct “misinformation” about political issues, the move started recently with a pilot project on the East Coast seal hunt. A Toronto-based company called Social Media Group has been hired to help counter some information put forward by the anti-sealing movement. The Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade has paid the firm $75,000 “to monitor social activity and help identify … areas where misinformation is being presented and repeated as fact,” Simone MacAndrew, a department spokesperson, said in an email to CTV News.

British officials and representatives of Twitter, Facebook and BlackBerry met Thursday, August 25th to discuss voluntary ways to limit or restrict the use of social media to combat crime and periods of civil unrest.

The government’s home minister, Theresa May, according to one account of the meeting, said that the aim was not to “discuss restricting Internet services,” but to instead “crack down on the networks being used for criminal behaviour.” A spokeswoman for Ms. May said the government “would not be seeking any additional powers.”

The officials and the executives met in private in government offices. The companies declined, beyond carefully written statements, to say what specific new measures they would be taking in cooperation with the British police and government.

Research In Motion has already agreed to provide the British police information from the BlackBerry Messenger network.

Randi Zuckerberg, sister of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook’s marketing director wants to put an end to online anonymity, she wants to force people to use their real names at all times on the internet and that the use of real names online could help curb bullying and harassment on the web. Facebook is now rolling out safety resources and tools for reporting issues in conjunction with a White House summit for preventing bullying.

Anonymous have announced plans to “destroy” Facebook on the 5th of November, Guy Fawkes Night, over privacy concerns.

The Exposing The Truth Facebook Page very frequently has it’s users posts and comments hidden from all other users, posts are hidden when they are marked as spam, posts and comments can be marked as spam automatically by facebook, or by facebook users, some facebook users may just be trolling the website to hide posts and comments, the majority of posts are hidden as soon as they are posted which suggests it is an automatic process that could be based on key words, websites or the users themselves. To see examples of the posts and comments that are hidden see the Facebook Censorship photo album.

When posts are hidden the original poster is still able to see the post as if it were not hidden, and they are not made aware that their post has been hidden either, these posts are also accessible to page administrators in a Hidden posts section that only administrators can see, and both posts and comments are viewable by a persons profile if you post directly to their wall whilst hidden from everyone else that may look at that wall. Our facebook administrators un-hide as many posts and comments as possible, as shown in the Facebook Censorship photo album. Comments are sometimes hidden too, these comments show up with a greyed out background.

Not only does this hide posts from the public but once a user has posts or comments marked as spam then duplicate or similar comments and posts are automatically marked as spam, and so are also hidden automatically. If a user posts or comments multiple times and their posts are hidden then the user can receive a temporary ban from posting, often this ban only stops the user from posting on Facebook Pages, but these users can still post in Facebook groups.

Already several Exposing The Truth administrators have received 14 day bans from posting on Facebook Pages.

Roxy Lopez of CHEMTRAILS KILL has also reported that the administrators of that group have limited access to the groups administrative features.

Update: Randi Zuckerberg has left facebook.

Sources:
https://dailycaller.com/2011/05/24/facebook-upgrade-spurs-fears-of-political-bias

https://hotair.com/archives/2011/05/24/online-political-activists-fret-about-facebook-bias/

https://www.wnd.com/?pageId=121884

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/26/world/europe/26social.html

https://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/QPeriod/20100523/government-online-forums-100523/

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1084585

https://www.thedrum.co.uk/news/2011/08/03/24431-no-more-anonymous-on-internet-says-the-sister-of-facebook-ceo-/

https://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-08/10/anonymous-facebook

Filed Under: Privacy