Government, Power, Expansion & Keeping the Rabble in Line

Weekend Edition April 3-5, 2015 The Government's Intelligent Design When the Government Views Its Own Population as the Enemy by CHRIS WRIGHT The public debate over government surveillance that was, if not inaugurated, at least intensified by the publication of documents provided by Edward Snowden has been, in some respects, surreal and deluded. One side claims that the NSA’s mass surveillance is necessary to protect the public from terrorism, that in fact it has thwarted many “potential terrorist events.” The other side claims, with much more justification, that bulk data collection does little or nothing to protect ordinary civilians. But few commentators draw another, more subversive conclusion: government has no interest in protecting its citizens (as such) in the first place. In fact, its interest is precisely the opposite: to expose its citizens–with privileged exceptions–to harm. Sounds absurd, of course. But consider, first, the recent historical record, which certainly does not support the idea that the U.S. government cares about protecting Americans. Exhibit 1 is the attacks of 9/11. It became a commonplace long ago for leftists and liberals to cite the White House memo of August 6, 2001 that bore the heading “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.,” which was apparently ignored at the time by the Bush administration. Perhaps more damning is Lawrence Wright’s 2006 book The Looming Tower, which made it abundantly clear that the CIA and the FBI had not prioritized the fight against terrorism even after the 1993 Twin Tower bombing and the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. If one were malicious enough, one might attribute competence to government institutions rather than mere criminal bungling: perhaps the ridiculously counterproductive–from the perspective of thwarting terrorism–organization and efforts of the CIA and FBI before 9/11 were, by some twisted institutional logic, designed to make possible precisely what happened, a major terrorist event. Another commonplace is the observation that George W. Bush’s Iraq war, far from mitigating terrorism, increased it substantially, perhaps sevenfold. This was predictable and predicted in 2003, a fact that, by elementary logic, means that the Bush administration at the very least was perfectly happy to expose American (and of course foreign) civilians to greater threats. The same logic applies to Obama’s global drone war, which apparently has killed 50 civilians for every 1 terrorist. Not surprisingly, it has fueled terrorism, and thus increased threats to Americans. (In fact, the drone campaign itself is terrorism, but here I am confining myself to the conventional American understanding of the word, as applying only to people that the U.S. government doesn’t like.) One could go on listing such facts indefinitely. For instance, the sordid lesson to draw from the Hurricane Katrina debacle in 2005 is that protecting Americans from a natural disaster was not a priority of government at any level, at least not of the governments involved. The wrightworkersdeplorable actions of police in the hurricane’s aftermath confirm this conclusion. The victims were treated as criminals, not people who needed and deserved protection. In addition to ample historical evidence, one can also consider simple logic. Returning to the NSA’s mass surveillance, it shouldn’t be hard for government officials to comprehend that the more time and resources they devote to monitoring ordinary civilians, the less time and resources they are devoting to monitoring plausible terrorist threats. In fact, almost every major terrorist attack in the West during the past fifteen years has been committed by people who were already known to law enforcement. Such was the case, for instance, with regard to one of the brothers accused of the 2013 Boston marathon bombings. But the government, obligingly, was too busy spying on ordinary Americans to pay much attention to him, so he was able to carry out his attack unhindered. But why, you ask, would it be in the interest of government to expose the public to harm? This question cannot be answered except in the context of specific historical circumstances, in this case the circumstances of neoliberal capitalism. In a society that is experiencing stratospheric income inequality, high unemployment and long-term economic stagnation, retrenchment of social welfare programs, the reality and threat of environmental collapse, and, in short, ever-greater social discontent and instability, institutional power-centers will want to increase their control over the population. As a proud plutocrat put it in a warning to his wealthy brethren, “the pitchforks are coming.” And the plutocrats, together with their government representatives, want to be prepared for that. The question is how to justify the expansion of government’s surveillance and police powers that is necessary to keep the rabble in line. Clearly, pretexts are needed. And pretexts are provided whenever a terrorist attack occurs, especially if it occurs on American soil. This may be a virtual truism, but rarely is the implication articulated: in this respect, it is in the interest of government and the top “1%” in income/wealth for civilians periodically to be victims of terrorism. If the terrorist threat disappears, so does the useful pretext. The “pretext” phenomenon has other dimensions. Naomi Klein discusses one of them in her famous book The Shock Doctrine, where she argues that in the last forty years, in the wake of catastrophes of whatever sort–natural, military, terrorist, economic–elites have taken advantage of popular disorientation and disorganization to force regimes of privatization upon the population. “Neoliberalism-by-blitzkrieg,” one might call it. A prime example is what happened to New Orleans after Katrina: with the public’s capacity to resist weakened, nearly all public schools were privatized. Under the pretext of education reform, “corporate profiteers and politicians have zeroed in on black communities, leaving behind devastation and destabilization,” says a spokesperson of a New Orleans community group. So, for the neoliberal state-corporate nexus, the devastation of a particular society, including a domestic region, can be eminently useful not only in smashing popular resistance to power but also in giving elites an opportunity to ram through programs they could not have otherwise. Convenient pretexts can always be thought of. On a more general level, the relevant principle has been stated concisely by Noam Chomsky: the primary enemy of any government is (the majority of) its own population. For the population always wants more power and economic security than it has, and it is willing to fight for it (as the history of the labor movement shows)–which entails, however, the relative diminution of the power of the rich and their political minions. This corollary explains, of course, the U.S. government’s continually savage treatment, through centuries, of workers, the lower classes, left-wing activists, African-Americans, protesters and dissidents and “ordinary people” of all kinds. They must be humiliated, harmed, killed, beaten down, made examples of if they step out of line, kept in a state of constant fear and obedience (however impossible it may be to fulfill that goal). Power exists but to maintain and expand itself; that is its raison d’être, and that is the key to understanding its every move (at the institutional, not the personal, level). For example, if government is not always blatantly aggressive in harming its own population, that is not because it’s too moral to do so; it is because that might threaten its power, by stirring up more dissent. Concessions have to be made to the masses if in the long run they are to tolerate subordination. The appearance, and to some small extent even the reality, of protecting the population has to be maintained in order to appease the meddlesome outsiders. None of this means that policymakers or bureaucrats or members of the “ruling class” necessarily have these intentions in mind when crafting policies or cracking down on dissent. Doubtless few are clear-headed enough. But the logic of the institutions in which they are embedded–the bureaucratic-expansionist, capitalistic, totalitarian, Panopticon-esque logic–manipulates their minds and, by some mysterious alchemy, is sublimated into rationalizations and pretexts that are usually sincerely believed in. It isn’t hard to come up with pretexts to do what is in one’s institutional self-interest. Humans are born to deceive themselves. So, why not throw off all vestiges of sentimentalism about our rulers? Why not state the truth unequivocally: when a terrorist attack occurs, this is not a failure of government. It is a success; for now power-centers have another excuse to expand themselves, and to fear-monger, and to demonize the Other, and to make more profits from selling military and surveillance technology, and to clamp down ever more on the domestic population. And when the police blindly brutalize innocent civilians or protesters, this is not a failure for government to correct. It is what the police are supposed to do, what they were designed to do and the main reason they exist in the first place. It is government acting intelligently, in its own interests and in the interests of its puppet-masters. The population has to protect itself and stand up for itself, and fight for its freedom and power and security. Because the government certainly won’t. Chris Wright is a doctoral candidate in U.S. labor history, and the author of Worker Cooperatives and Revolution: History and Possibilities in the United States. His website iswww.wrightswriting.com.”  SOUCE http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/04/03/when-the-government-views-its-own-population-as-the-enemy/ Parts of this article were interesting to me. Police brutalising civilians not being a government failure, and government acting in its own interests and the interests of its puppet masters, stood out as probably accurate. The parts about government seeking to expand control made sense. But the bit about people being willing to fight for more power and economic security didn't seem likely to me.  People tend to take whatever is dished out, probably because there is no means to resist.

Google v. War Photography & Alternative Media

Don’t See Evil: Google’s Boycott Campaign Against War Photography and Alternative Media Dan Sanchez, March 29, 2015  Google Vs. Antiwar.com This may be what Google is doing right now to Antiwar.com, a long-running and popular daily news and commentary site that is strongly critical of US foreign policy. On the morning of March 18, Eric Garris, founder and webmaster of the site, received a form email from Google AdSense informing him that all of Antiwar.com’s Google ads had been disabled. The reason given was that one of the site’s pages with ads on it displayed images that violated AdSense’s policy against “violent or disturbing content, including sites with gory text or images.” Of course the images in question were not “snuff,” or anything intended for titillation whatsoever. They were the famous images of detainee abuse at the Abu Ghraib US military prison in Iraq. Those images are important public information, especially for Americans. They are the previously secret documentation of horrific state violence inflicted in our name and funded by our tax dollars. They are also eminently newsworthy because they show the government wantonly generating insecurity for the American public. Such abuse fuels anti-American and anti-western rage that can culminate in acts of terrorism. For example, it did just that in the case of Chérif Kouachi, who took part in one of the Paris terror attacks of early this year after becoming radicalized by learning about the Abu Ghraib abuses. Indeed many apologists for such abuse fully acknowledge this blowback effect, since they expressly cite it as the main reason for blocking the release of abuse photos. Of course they ignore the fact that this danger they acknowledge is an excellent reason not to commit such abuses in the first place. And they are naïve if they really think word wouldn’t get out about such abuses among Iraqis and Muslims in general even without the photos. The dissemination of such photos chiefly serves to ultimately make terrorist attacks less likely by driving a disgusted American public to demand an end to such terrorism-inducing abuses. The newsworthy nature of the photos made no difference to Google; or it made altogether the wrong kind of difference. Either way, they were considered non-compliant, and so Antiwar.com’s AdSense account, along with its revenue, were suspended immediately. EXTRACT ONLY - FULL ARTICLE AT SOURCE http://antiwar.com/blog/2015/03/29/dont-see-evil/

CANADA's Recipe for Oversight & Transparency: Cowboy Spy Agencies, Useless Overseer & Ineffectual FOI

The Guy Who Oversees Canada’s Cyberspy Agency Is Cash-Strapped and Worried April 2, 2015 Justin Ling By Justin Ling A meeting room at CSE's new office. Is this where they read our emails? Who can say? Photo via Government of Canada This post originally appeared on VICE Canada. The Honorable Jean-Pierre Plouffe is worried he won't have the resources to keep tabs on Canada's rapidly growing spy behemoth. Plouffe is the overseer for the Communications Security Establishment (CSE), a secretive agency that runs Canada's signal intelligence work. As an integral part of the Five Eyes—the intelligence-sharing consortium involving Canada, America, New Zealand, Australia, and the United Kingdom—CSE is basically a sidekick to the American NSA. Financial reports released on Tuesday show the commissioner is going to have to cut back his review processes due to lack of funds, even though CSE's budget is larger than ever. (Motherboard has reported thoroughly on CSE's extensive powers, with help from leaks released by Edward Snowden.) Plouffe, as the CSE Commissioner, is responsible for making sure that the agency does not go outside its mandate. Currently, the agency is forbidden from intentionally collecting Canadians' data, unless it is doing so under the authority of another Canadian agency. However, Snowden's documents as well as Plouffe's own investigations show that CSE does end up with files on Canadians. When that happens, CSE is supposed to delete them. They don't always do so in a timely manner. Yet documents also show that CSE was scooping up Canadians' data as they logged onto a WIFI hotspot in some airport in Canada. Plouffe ultimately cleared the spy agency of wrongdoing in that operation. Concerns remain, however, that CSE is going well outside its mandate. But, as VICE reported in February, the Harper government isn't worried. "The CSE Commissioner's report indicates that they have been operating inside the law," Justice Minister Peter MacKay told VICE. The commissioner, however, doesn't have the power to compel information from CSE. "The office has no authority to enforce specific actions by CSE," reads the commissioner's financial reports from this year. "Cooperation, collaboration, and professional respect between the office and CSE is essential to my office for the conduct of rigorous review and for the formulation of meaningful recommendations for change, where needed, and essential to CSE for the timely and appropriate implementation of corrective action." But even the commissioner's power—which is largely based on the honor system—might be further at risk. In a financial report tabled on Tuesday, Plouffe warned that "Without this positive relationship being in place, the review process will flounder and opportunities for positive change will be lost."  [Think his position might be pointless, so where's the problem?] He said the review process was already at risk, thanks to a lack of funds in his office. "Cost sharing related to central agency initiatives and fiscal restraint measures are reducing the flexibility of the office's available funding. CSE, however, is growing and its activities are changing in response to its changing environment," Plouffe's office wrote. The commissioner begged the federal government for more money. He's not the only one. As VICE reported on Tuesday, Canada's Access to Information Commissioner is also cash-starved, and she says it will hobble her ability to pry documents from resistant government departments. And as Toronto Star reporter Alex Boutillier reported in Wednesday's paper, the review body for Canada's other spy agency, CSIS, has already been impacted by a lack of resources. The commissioner's office has a budget of just over $2 million, which has been pretty much flat for years. CSE's budget, meanwhile, tops out around $829 million. The commissioner's office has a full-time staff of 11, in addition to Plouffe, who works part-time. The lack of money means that CSE needs to cut back on its review process and "focus review resources on CSE activities that pose the greatest risks to non-compliance and/or privacy." As Plouffe may be considering bake sales and silent auctions to keep the lights on, the Conservatives have spent months boasting of Canada's world-renowned intelligence oversight agencies as they defend their controversial anti-terror bill, C-51. That legislation would vastly expand CSE's ability to receive information on Canadians, and to share it among allies. Speaking before a committee on Monday, Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney said Canada's intelligence review bodies were "the envy of the world." VICE got a chance to ask Associate Defence Minister Julian Fantino about the recent revelations about CSE—he is, after all, now responsible for the organization—and he was unconcerned. "First and foremost, we don't talk about operational matters and certainly I'm not going to do that," Fantino began. "Having said that, I can say that CSE operates within the parameters of the law, well established and well supervised. Accountability is there." [Oh, sure.] VICE asked about documents showing that CSE is using its capabilities to attack foreign networks. Fantino wouldn't comment. [LMAO!] "If you won't comment, how can Canadians have faith in what CSE is doing?" VICE asked. "You weren't listening. I just did," Fantino said before he walked away. http://www.vice.com/read/the-guy-who-oversees-canadas-bulk-data-collection-agency-is-cash-strapped-and-worried-785 Canada's intel agency sounds like the world's shonkiest cowboy op ... with a budget of $829 million! The overseer's office is a joke.  An honours system?  Cannot compel?  Understaffed.  The point of not putting funds into this and into freedom of information is to allow politicians and intelligence agencies to do whatever they want ... which they already seem to do in free hand Canada. Creepy.  Supercharged their powers as well - see C51. Terrorizing Canada With Stephen Harper. The Odious C51 “Secret Police Act” http://www.globalresearch.ca/terrorizing-canada-with-stephen-harper-the-odious-c51-secret-police-act/5438134 Might have to come back to read the Global Research article ... too tried now.

Sweden's Competing Political Agendas

GATESTONE INSTITUTE Sweden's Christmas Present: New Laws Curbing Free Speech by Timon Dias December 22, 2014 at 4:00 am http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4972/sweden-free-speech     The problem is that within the extremely politically correct culture of Sweden, questions, insults and criticism are often viewed as one and the same.     "Swedes who disagree... risk being labeled racist, fascist, even Nazi." — Mikael Jalving, Author of Absolute Sweden.     One might well ask how Swedes would react if other countries decided to determine their borders.     Furthermore, no one seems to have asked what kind of place this new state of Palestine might be: a free, democratic and transparent society like Sweden, or another rogue state, or eventually even another Islamist state.     Apart from South Africa, Sweden now has the highest number of rapes (that are reported); based on unofficial accounts from policemen and social workers, about 75% of them are committed by Muslims. Sweden, during its September 2014 parliamentary election, voted in a new government. But whom exactly did the people of Sweden elect to run their new government? In a recent (albeit un-sourced) blog, Ilya Meyer, the deputy chair of the Sweden-Israel Friendship Association, shed some light on the backgrounds and motivations of some of Sweden's new cabinet ministers. A few individuals stand out. The Minister for Housing and Urban Development is the Turkish Swede Mehmet Kaplan, who was aboard the Turkish vessel Mavi Marmara, of the Turkish extremist Humanitarian Relief Foundation, when it tried to break through the legal Israeli naval blockade of the Gaza coastline. Israel had established the naval blockade in 2007 in response to the smuggling of weapons into Gaza to arm the terrorist group Hamas, which is outspokenly dedicated to exterminating Israel. Kaplan has also stated that young European Muslims who are joining the "Islamic State" [IS] in Syria and Iraq are nothing to worry about, and are just similar to Swedish fighters who joined the Finns in WW2 to fight the Soviet Union. He has also claimed at the same time that the main reason young European Muslims are joining the Islamic State is "Western Islamophobia." Sweden's Minister of Education, Gustav Fridolin, was arrested in Israel in 2003 for allegedly blocking the construction of Israel's security barrier in the West Bank, where he has engaged in protests alongside the International Solidarity Movement – an organization that "recognizes armed struggle as the right of Palestinian Arabs." Sweden's Minister of Interior, Ardalan Shekarabi, who is also responsible for Domestic Law and Order, is a former illegal immigrant from Iran who defied a Swedish deportation order in 1989 by going into hiding. Shekarabi is also known for embezzling state funds for an integration project to aid in his reelection as leader of the Social-Democratic Youth Party. Sweden's Minister for Culture and Democracy, Alice Bah Kuhnke is a hard-line feminist known for threatening to cut off funds to organizations that oppose honor killings if any of those funds went to men working against honor killings. As a feminist, it seems as if she wants only women to receive these funds. These are not merely parliamentarians, these are ministers. Not surprisingly, one of the first actions of this new government was the recognition of the Palestinian State, a move considered as illegal as it was odd: the Palestinians do not yet meet the requirements for statehood, and seem not even to have agreed on even what the borders of their state should be. Furthermore, no one seems to have asked what kind of place this new state would be: a free, democratic and transparent society like Sweden, or one that might, in fact, be another rogue state, or eventually even another Islamist state. Nonetheless, Swedish MP Hillevi Larsson, as opposed to the Palestinians themselves, seems to have no doubt about what the borders of "Palestine" should be. One might well ask how Swedes would react if other countries decided to determine their borders. In just two months, this government fell — new elections take place this March — but not before bestowing on the people of Sweden a second measure, far less publicized, and that will come into effect this Christmas. The new measure is designed to make it easier to prosecute those who offend immigrants, immigration policies, LGBT people and politicians online. As Swedish MP Andreas Norlén, initiator and driving force behind the law, stated: "I do not think it takes very many prosecutions before a signal is transmitted in the community that the Internet is not a lawless country — the sheriff is back in town." A multitude of online sources reported on this new law as one that "criminalizes online criticism of immigrants," and as such, the news went viral on European immigration critical websites. But is this a correct assessment of this new law? According to the Swedish parliament, the new law will effectively abolish existing barriers that prevented people from pressing charges if their alleged defamation occurred online instead of in real life. It will facilitate and improve Sweden's ability to participate in international legal cooperation on matters covered by the Freedom of the Press and Freedom of Speech, and it enables people to avoid having to pay for the other party's legal costs. On paper, this might sound reasonable, and there is a chance the practical results will remain reasonable as well. The problem is that within the extremely politically correct culture of Sweden, questions, insults and criticism are often viewed as one and the same. Mikael Jalving, the Danish journalist and author of the book "Absolute Sweden" stated: "Sweden's leftist establishment and media believe a cornerstone of their perfect society is multiculturalism — large-scale immigration from some of the poorest, most backward nations on Earth — and Swedes who disagree with that plan risk being labeled racist, fascist, even Nazi." Even the immigrants themselves do not seem to be allowed to challenge immigration policy or immigrant culture. Last year, a Somali-born female journalist, critical of immigrant culture, was intimidated to such an extent by the Swedish journalistic establishment that she decided Mogadishu was a safer place for her than Sweden. The ambivalence of Swedish courts toward free speech already became apparent when in 2002 a district court sentenced the white native Swedish neo-Nazi Fredrik Sandberg to six months in prison for publishing a Nazi pamphlet, "The Jewish Question." Four years later, however, the same official who initiated the case against Sandberg — Chancellor of Justice Göran Lambertz — chose to discontinue an investigation into the Stockholm Central Mosque, after it distributed audiotapes that encouraged Muslims to kill Jews, described in them as "brothers of apes and pigs." He justified the discrepancy by saying that the distribution of the tapes should be judged in a geo-political context. Swedish society seems to be increasingly known for its bias in wanting to criminalize supposed racism by native Swedes against immigrants, while wanting to rationalize Muslim racism against native Swedes, and Jews in particular. Sweden's third largest newspaper, Expressen, has used hackers affiliated with the left-wing extremist Anti-Fascist-Action group to obtain the addresses of individuals commenting on websites critical of mass immigration. The newspaper then visited their homes and in some instances, published their pictures and addresses. The Swedish TV station TV3 announced that the TV-show "troll-hunters," would visit online commentators in their homes — in a sort of 21st century televised witch-hunt. The Swedish newspaper Expressen hacked databases of website commenters, targeted critics of immigration, and confronted them at home. The above screenshot is taken from a video on the Expressen website, published under the headline "Jim Olsson writes on hate sites." This new law has the potential to carry that witch-hunt to the next level. Not only is the political-journalistic establishment intimidating critics of online immigration by knocking on their front doors and shaming them, but under this new law, they could even charge a perceived critic with committing a crime. Economist Dr. Jan Tullburg published a book in which he states that annually, immigration costs Sweden 7% of its GDP. Sweden is also home to sizeable Muslim enclaves that have become off-limits to Swedish police. The multitude of violent riots that erupt in these enclaves not only cost millions of Krona but are undermining the fabric of Swedish society. Sweden apparently enjoys tolerating the intolerable. In the meantime, apart from South Africa, Sweden now has the highest number of rapes (that are reported) in the world per capita (see UN "Statistics on Crime, Sexual Violence"). However, this number should be nuanced, as the term "rape" in Sweden is defined broadly and includes more than just forced, non-consensual intercourse. There are, however, rapes that are not being reported to the police at all. A significant percentage of these "rapes" are apparently committed by immigrants from a Muslim background. The Swedish government has refused to keep track of these numbers, which by definition cannot be exact, but multiple reports, based on unofficial accounts from policemen and social workers, put the percentage at around 75%. It must be emphasized that these numbers come from unofficial sources and cannot be verified since there aren't any official Swedish numbers on what percentage of rapes are committed by Muslim immigrants. But, Mohammed, for example, a 27-year-old illegal immigrant from Syria, who arrived in Sweden in September, has thus far sexually molested 21 girls and women between the ages of 4 and 69. According to a police report in neighboring Norway, a country politically similar to Sweden, 100% of all rapes in Oslo over the last five years were committed by Muslim immigrants. [Oslo figure seems improbable, but the figure is said to come from a 'police report', so it is presumably correct?] It will be illuminating to see what impact this new law has on Sweden's citizenry and their free speech once it goes into effect this Christmas. http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4972/sweden-free-speech#.VSEc1TuZWUE.twitter ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Article grabbed my attention because of the reference to Expressen newspaper being involved in hacking databases of commenters, which is rather an unusual activity for a news outlet (I think?). By my estimation, from other material I'd looked at, Gatestone Institute is a pro Israel NGO.  So that's worthwhile bearing in mind when looking at the article.  On the other hand, it's all relative, I guess.  For the pro Israel supporters, the arrest for blocking construction of a security barrier in Israel would not be seen in a positive light.  For Palestinian supporters, this would be seen as a positive form of protest.   However, facts are facts and presumably Expressen was involved in hacking databases, or Gatestone would have been compelled not to disseminate this information. There's a number of hot issues and conflicting political forces in Sweden. Generalising from the contents of this article and from what I've read so far elsewhere:  there's a totalitarian quality to Sweden's liberalism, it would seem:  incursions into freedom of speech and media-led witch-hunts against those with opposing views; labelling of those with opposing views as extremists of one kind or another:  'nazi' or 'fascist'; a politically correct approach to crimes statistics gathering and, it would seem, a parallel justice system; physical no-go areas to police (which I found astounding); violence; and from what I've previously read, issues regarding cultural integration. Find this stuff fascinating, but I haven't read enough to get a handle on what's really going on.  Looks to be very interesting competing political interests in Sweden. Maybe I'm strange, but the most shocking thing for me was Expressen involved in hacking of databases.  I'm still spun out by that. Thought the bit about 'free', 'democratic' and 'transparent' Sweden was quite a giggle. But I guess even freedom etc is relative?  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ PS  Forgot to do a look-up regarding the Somali-born female journalist that was 'run out of town'.  Sounds an interesting story to check out, given this has occurred in 'feminist Sweden'. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Players mentioned by Gatestone currently in the following posts: Mehmet Kaplan (Green Party) Housing urban development and IT Minister. Sweden. Gustav Fridolin (Green Party) Minister for Education Ardalan Shekarabi (Swedish Social Democratic Party) Minister for Public Administration (resides Belfast, Ireland) Alice Bah Kuhnke (Green Party) Minister of Culture and Democracy Hillevi Larsson (Swedish Social Democratic Party) Riksdag member  since 2004, Pro Palestinian Andreas Norlén (Moderate Party) Riksdag member  since 2006,  * Norlén Initiator of online dissent silencing laws * Göran Lambertz Chancellor of Justice (Swedish: justitiekansler) Sweden 2001-2009 currently serving as a judge on the Supreme Court of Sweden TV3 (Sweden) owned by:  Viasat Broadcasts from:  London Markets:  Nordic and Baltic Countries Visat owned by:  Modern Times Group publicly traded Industry              Media Founded             1997 Headquarters     Stockholm, Sweden Key people                 David Chance (Chairman)                 Jorgen Madsen (President & CEO)                 Mathias Hermansson (CFO) Sweden is "one of the most capital-centralized countries in Europe" [Wikipedia]  Look-ups = Wikipedia

UKRAINE - US Intel Implanted into Formerly Ukraine Intel Service (SBU) - Repressive Political Police

Ukraine Security Chief Holds up Holocaust Abettors as Example to Follow The chief of Ukraine secret police (SBU) has stated wants to build on the traditions and methods of the WWII-era OUN-UPA, which is historically complicit in the Holocaust and responsible for a campaign of mass murder against West Ukraine's Poles (Colonel Cassad) Along Poles 1943-44 UPA murdered Ukrainians who tried to hide them Note: In 1941 OUN offered to collaborate with the German occupiers of Ukraine. The offer was refused by the Germans, but OUN leadership still directed its members to join the German Auxillary Police, which they did en masse and as part of it helped perpetrate the Holocaust. In 1943-44 UPA - OUN's military wing - carried out a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Poles of Western Ukraine as part of which 50,000-100,000 Poles were murdered and hundreds of thousands were forced to flee. 'Colonel Cassad' is a Russian blog (reportedly from the pen of Boris Rozhin of Sevastopol, Crimea) that does not attempt to hide its anti-Maidan orientation, thus references to Kiev government as "junta" and "fascist regime". However, in this instance he could not be more right just how scandalous it is (should be) for a state official to hold up the murderous, ultra-violent OUN-UPA as something to emulate. This article originally appeared at Colonel Cassad. It was translated at Colonel Cassad in English The Chairman of the Ukrainian Security Service Valentin Nalivaichenko believes that the SBU should be reformed by using the security service of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists—Ukrainian Insurgent Army as an example. “There is no need to come up with anything unnecessary—it’s important to use as foundation the traditions of and methods used by the OUN-UPA Security Service between 1930 and 1950. It operated against the aggressor under conditions of temporary territorial occupation, it had patriotic upbringing, combat counter-intelligence, and it relied on the peaceful Ukrainian population, whose unprecedented support it enjoyed,” Nalivaichenko said. According to the SBU chairman, when reforming the agency we should reject not only “KGB designations, but also organizational structures of a security service that is alien to us.” “For example, instead of directorates and departments, we should have districts and task forces. Task forces, unlike departments, would have broader functions, including both information war against the enemy, but also community relations,” Nalivaichenko remarked. Nalivaichenko believes that task forces ought to operate more decisively, and “counteract any signs of separatism or aiding the aggressor in business or in any other aspect of civic life.” http://www.unian.net/politics/1062460-reformirovat-sbu-nado-po-obraztsu-slujbyi-bezopasnosti-oun-upa-schitaet-nalivaychenko.html (in Russian) - link Considering that OUN-UPA carried out mass killings of Ukrainians, Russians, Poles, and Jews, using it as a point of reference for the Kiev junta repressive apparatus is noteworthy. It is perfectly normal within the fascist regime in Ukraine for the president to wear the label “Cynical Banderite,” and for the SBU head to openly say that one should rely on the experience of Nazi-collaborating organizations which were party to war crimes and crimes against humanity. We have noted earlier that the Junta leadership plans include reformatting the SBU to increase its powers and to transform it into a pure political police, while ridding it of “unnecessary” functions that will be transferred to other agencies. Keeping in mind the tasks facing SBU and the US intelligence infrastructure implanted into the formerly Ukrainian intelligence service, the SBU’s transformation into political police is unavoidable, since in the event of the conflict becoming prolonged the repressive apparatus will play an even greater role due to the population’s disappointment in government policies, not to mention separatist and pro-Russian sentiments which the reformed SBU will suppress to the best of its abilities. http://russia-insider.com/en/ukraine-security-chiefs-holds-holocaust-abettors-example-follow/5319 Article's self explanatory.  Ukraine's become like some South American victim of  US leaches, post CIA coup.

SWEDEN: "Swedish prosecutors and lawyers in big trouble" {Translate} - Article

GOOGLE TRANSLATION Swedish prosecutors and lawyers in big trouble Published 2015-04-04 14:14 Brawl in right at the big goals The two major goals - cocaine goal and Södertälje [Sweden city] goal - the mood has been very hateful. The supporters accused the prosecutors to present evidence that is not held, while the material that pointed in another direction was withheld law. The cocaine goal acquitted the accused chief, who first sentenced to 18 years in prison. According to authorities, the bad atmosphere in the big goals a trend. Operational Council inquiry conducted by a prosecutor and a police officer. A large number of representatives from the investigating authorities - prosecutors, police, customs officials, SAPO Staff - are interviewed, as well as some lawyers. A report will later this spring. Further reading    Courts interpret the grounds for asylum various 2015-03-15     The government appoints media political investigation 2015-03-05     Police forgot bombardment 2015-02-19     "Investigation betraying public opinion for strengthening social insurance" 2015-03-02     JK Anna Skarhed: Legal doctrine was no cold 2015-02-06 Lawyers have become more difficult and question more often prosecutors, says the agency group to combat serious organized crime. Now studies are in progress to gain access to the growing problem. Leading lawyers call the inquiry unpleasant and deeply disturbing - and argues that the alleged trend is mainly about two trials. The atmosphere in the courtroom deteriorate. Defenders try to increasingly shift the focus of the case to trial or peripheral issues. They question the police's working methods and interrupts the prosecutors, who are constantly responding to questions. That is how the authorities work together against serious organized crime trends in the major goals in a report to the government. Now studies are in progress to access problems, appointed by the Operative Council, where executives from the cooperating authorities collected. - It's about the process does not concentrate on what you normally concentrates on issues of law and assessment of the evidence but rather on matters not at all to do with it. There may be discussion of the preliminary investigation formalities or how a particular statements of evidence gathered in, says chief prosecutor Björn Blomqvist, leading the investigation from the prosecutor. The efficiency decreases and confidence in the legal process can be damaged, according to the prosecutor. - In the courtroom, a question of law settled, it should not be a circus performance, says Björn Blomqvist. The purpose of the investigation is not to blame lawyers, according Blomqvist, but rather to find better ways of working for the investigating authorities. - They can begin to follow the law, says lawyer Thomas Martinson defenders in the so-called cocaine goal, one of the major goals where lawyers fallen sharply at odds with the prosecutors. Operational Council investigation he calls "pure nonsense". - How can it be wrong to use the rules of the law dictated? Should we have a försvararkår not critical, a bowing and bending C thread? Thomas Olsson, defenders of the great Sodertalje goal, call the Council's inquiry "unpleasant" and says that prosecutors are responsible for the bitter trials. - You start the trial before the investigation is complete and then overwhelms defense with lots of new material. At the same time withholds man investigative material is crucial. Bar Association's Secretary General Anne Ramberg objects to the authorities allegations of a larger trend. - Sets any irrelevant questions will judge curb the behavior, but I have not received indications that the judges experienced an increase. On The Contrary. Brawl in the law occurred mainly in cocaine case and Södertälje The goal, she says. - It is the lawyer's duty to defend his client's interests. To criticize lawyers to them under the Code of Procedure allows procedural objections are deeply worrying, says Ramberg. Carl V Andersson / TT http://www.dn.se/nyheter/sverige/svenska-aklagare-och-advokater-i-storbrak/ Article looks very interesting ... but it's a bad translation, so it's hard to work out exactly what's going on.  Some kind of inquiry concerning the legal / law enforcement sector. Allegations of interest: Prosecutors presenting evidence not held. Prosecutors overwhelming defence with new material. Prosecutors withholding exculpatory evidence.  Legal system sounds terrible. Södertäljeis a Swedish city, 30km south-west of Stockholm.  Population:  39% from foreign backgrounds - largest group Assyrian.  Looks like mainly Christian Syriac refugees from Iraq war.  City has taken more Iraqi refugees than Canada and the US combined.  Syriac-Aramaic and Arabic largest non-Swedish languages.  Second largest port in Sweden.  Industry:  ScaniaAB (trucks); pharmaceutical AstraZeneca and Volkswagen group. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Sweden Södertäljeis Anne Ramberg - Bar Assoc Sec Gen Bjorn Blomqvist - Chief Prosecutor Thomas Martinson Thomas Olsson

Foreign Service Updates

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