TOKYO MASTER BANNER

MINISTRY OF TOKYO
US-ANGLO CAPITALISMEU-NATO IMPERIALISM
Illegitimate Transfer of Inalienable European Rights via Convention(s) & Supranational Bodies
Establishment of Sovereignty-Usurping Supranational Body Dictatorships
Enduring Program of DEMOGRAPHICS WAR on Europeans
Enduring Program of PSYCHOLOGICAL WAR on Europeans
Enduring Program of European Displacement, Dismemberment, Dispossession, & Dissolution
No wars or conditions abroad (& no domestic or global economic pretexts) justify government policy facilitating the invasion of ancestral European homelands, the rape of European women, the destruction of European societies, & the genocide of Europeans.
U.S. RULING OLIGARCHY WAGES HYBRID WAR TO SALVAGE HEGEMONY
[LINK | Article]

*U.S. OLIGARCHY WAGES HYBRID WAR* | U.S. Empire's Casino Unsustainable | Destabilised U.S. Monetary & Financial System | U.S. Defaults Twice A Year | Causes for Global Financial Crisis of 2008 Remain | Financial Pyramids Composed of Derivatives & National Debt Are Growing | *U.S. OLIGARCHY WAGES HYBRID WAR* | U.S. Empire's Casino Unsustainable | Destabilised U.S. Monetary & Financial System | U.S. Defaults Twice A Year | Causes for Global Financial Crisis of 2008 Remain | Financial Pyramids Composed of Derivatives & National Debt Are Growing | *U.S. OLIGARCHY WAGES HYBRID WAR*

Who's preaching world democracy, democracy, democracy? —Who wants to make free people free?
[info from Craig Murray video appearance, follows]  US-Anglo Alliance DELIBERATELY STOKING ANTI-RUSSIAN FEELING & RAMPING UP TENSION BETWEEN EASTERN EUROPE & RUSSIA.  British military/government feeding media PROPAGANDA.  Media choosing to PUBLISH government PROPAGANDA.  US naval aggression against Russia:  Baltic Sea — US naval aggression against China:  South China Sea.  Continued NATO pressure on Russia:  US missile systems moving into Eastern Europe.     [info from John Pilger interview follows]  War Hawk:  Hillary Clinton — embodiment of seamless aggressive American imperialist post-WWII system.  USA in frenzy of preparation for a conflict.  Greatest US-led build-up of forces since WWII gathered in Eastern Europe and in Baltic states.  US expansion & military preparation HAS NOT BEEN REPORTED IN THE WEST.  Since US paid for & controlled US coup, UKRAINE has become an American preserve and CIA Theme Park, on Russia's borderland, through which Germans invaded in the 1940s, costing 27 million Russian lives.  Imagine equivalent occurring on US borders in Canada or Mexico.  US military preparations against RUSSIA and against CHINA have NOT been reported by MEDIA.  US has sent guided missile ships to diputed zone in South China Sea.  DANGER OF US PRE-EMPTIVE NUCLEAR STRIKES.  China is on HIGH NUCLEAR ALERT.  US spy plane intercepted by Chinese fighter jets.  Public is primed to accept so-called 'aggressive' moves by China, when these are in fact defensive moves:  US 400 major bases encircling China; Okinawa has 32 American military installations; Japan has 130 American military bases in all.  WARNING PENTAGON MILITARY THINKING DOMINATES WASHINGTON. ⟴  

December 02, 2015

WikiLeaks - The New York Times - US Government Mediated News & Other 'Free Press' Shockers

Media
Selling Unicorns❄
Corporate-Serving Media
In Service of Aggressive Neoliberal Foreign Policy
|  Manufacturing Consent
Bias.  Compliance.  Censorship.
Disinformation.  Distraction.  Diversion. 
Suppression.  Smear.


censorship & disinformation
is denial of informed consent


Dishonourable Mentions

The New York Times

The New Yorker
The Washington Post

LINK to other Media Bad Boys | here



WikiLeaks
The New York Times

more

WikiLeaks
The New York Times 
US government mediates
its WikiLeaks redacted stories
freedom of information documents show
Source | WikiLeaks | here
USG FOI | Emails PDF |  here



other


The New York Times
published military “expert” C.J. Chivers report
purportedly based on rocket trajectories etc
& asserting gas shells could only have been fired by Syrian army positions
--> Ghouta attack
"became the pretext for a warmongering campaign by the White House and the US and European media"

--> Obama
"threatened immediate air strikes"
“Obama’s change of mind had its origins at Porton Down, the defence laboratory in Wiltshire ... sample of the sarin used in the 21 August attack and analysis demonstrated that the gas used didn’t match the batches known to exist in the Syrian army’s chemical weapons arsenal."
*** "US military leadership also knew that White House claims that there could be no other source for the sarin gas than the Syrian army were false"
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/04/07/syri-a07.html



American Media
Refusals to publish
Journalist Seymour Hersh

The New Yorker
The Washington Post
refused to publish
Seymour Hersh first report on Ghouta gas attack
US press largely silent re Hersh report
US press as at July 2014 "blacked out latest exposure"
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/04/07/syri-a07.html



The Washington Post
The New Yorker
Refused to Publish an Article on Obama Admin Syria Lies
Michael Krieger | Posted Monday Dec 9, 2013 at 11:00 am
https://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2013/12/09/how-the-washington-post-and-the-new-yorker-refused-to-publish-article-on-obama-admin-syria-lies/

LINK to other Media Bad Boys | here

December 01, 2015

Sheldon Wolin - Inverted Totalitarianism - Corporate State

Article
SOURCE
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/11/02/sheldon-wolin-and-inverted-totalitarianism
Article by Chris Hedges


Summary
Sheldon Wolin
US political theorist / academic
d. 2015
America:  'Inverted totalitarianism'
+ other


More 
Sheldon Wolin
US  political theorist
Prof. politics Princeton (1973 to 1987)
+ other posts - 40 years
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheldon_Wolin

Wolin books:
>> 'Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy & the Spectre of Inverted Totalitarianism'
>> 'Politics & Vision'

Wolin discusses:
1. Bankrupt democracy.
2. Decline US Empire.
3. Rise: corporate power  -- ie “inverted totalitarianism”

Ahead of his time:
Sheldon Wolin
/ theorising:
heavy statism forging --> neoliberalism
/ centralized govt control re economic planning &  policy

Wolin:
statism --> neoliberalism
-->  fusions of economic with political power
-->  poisoning democracy at its root

Wolin last book:
'Democracy Incorporated'
-- details American peculiar form of corporate totalitarianism.

Wolin:
“Democracy Incorporated” / US corp. totalitarianism
No USA  institutions can be accurately be described as democratic

Wolin
#USA undemocratic:
--> highly managed national institutions
--> money-saturated elections

Wolin
#USA undemocratic:
-> lobby-infested Congress
-> imperial presidency
-> class-biased judicial + penal system
-> media

Sheldon Wolin:
'Inverted totalitarianism'
-->  is different from classical forms of totalitarianism.

Sheldon Wolin:
'Inverted totalitarianism'
= within: 
 faceless anonymity of corporate state
NO demagogue or charismatic leader

Wolin:
American 'Inverted totalitarianism'
effectively seized all
mechanisms of power to render citizen impotent

1/3
Wolin:
'Inverted totalitarianism'
seized all mechanisms of power:
outward façade of:
electoral politics
Constitution

2/3
'Inverted totalitarianism'
seized mech. power:
civil liberties
freedom of press
independence of judiciary
iconography

3/3
Wolin:
'Inverted totalitarianism'
seized all mechanisms of power -->
traditions
language of US patriotism
Wolin:
'Inverted totalitarianism'
Corporates --> effectively seized all mechanisms of power
-->  to render citizen impotent

Hitler's NSDAP (Nazi) govt
-> life uncertain for wealthy + privileged
-> providing social programs for working class & poor
1/
Unlike NSDAP (Nazi),
inverted totalitarianism exploits the poor
 ... 2

2/3
Unlike NSDAP (Nazi) totalitarianism,
inverted totalitarianism
  • reduces or weakens health programs + social services

3/4
Unlike NSDAP (Nazi) totalitarianism,
inverted totalitarianism
  • regiments mass education for insecure workforce

3/4
Unlike NSDAP (Nazi) totalitarianism,
inverted totalitarianism
*threatens working class --> importation of low-wage workers

Sheldon Wolin:
'Inverted totalitarianism'
working in high-tech, volatile & globalised economy
as precarious as the Depression

Sheldon Wolin:
'Inverted totalitarianism'
projects power upwards
--> antithesis of constitutional power

Sheldon Wolin:
'Inverted totalitarianism'
projects power upwards
to create instability
citizenry off balance & passive

Sheldon Wolin:
'Inverted totalitarianism'
rational system
economy of fear / feeds uncertainty

Wolin:
'inverted totalitarianism'
--> perpetuates politics all time
endless extravagant show elections
politics w/out politics

Wolin:
'inverted totalitarianism'
'Citizen' is NOT participating in power
--> is invited to have ‘opinions’

Wolin:
'inverted totalitarianism'
'Citizen' opinions:
--> are measurable responses to questions pre-designed to elicit them.

Wolin:
'inverted totalitarianism'
political campaigns rarely re real issues
--> focus political personalities, empty rhetoric, PR

Wolin:
'inverted totalitarianism'
Money has effectively replaced the vote
--> citizen of US Empire irrelevant spectator.

Wolin:
'inverted totalitarianism'
IMPOTENT CITIZEN
--> permitted empty vote & forgotten once election carnival over.

Wolin
inverted totalitarianism
elections
serve up pliant legislators for lobbyists to shape
misrepresentative or clientry govt

Wolin:
inverted totalitarianism
elections --> produce lobbyists' puppets
= depoliticisation of citizenry
= antidemocracy system

Wolin
inverted totalitarianism:
--> public is DENIED use of state power
trivialization discourse = corp. power - UNCHALLENGED

Wolin
inverted totalitarianism:
trivialization discourse
=  tactic: fragmentation, emotions, antagonism
--> corp. unchallenged

Wolin
inverted totalitarianism:
Cultural Wars --> NOT strong political involvements
Cultural Wars = SUBSTITUTE

Wolin
inverted totalitarianism:
Cultural Wars --> POLITICS OF THE INCONSEQUENTIAL
/ substitute exploited by MEDIA & politics

Wolin
inverted totalitarianism:
Cultural Wars --> DISTRACTS ATTENTION
trivialization discourse
--> corp. unchallenged

Wolin
inverted totalitarianism:
Ruling groups --> tools to UNDERMINE PUBLIC COHESIVENESS
=  public POLITICALLY INEFFECTIVE

Wolin
classic totalitarianism: economics subordinate to politics
/ inverted totalitarianism: ECONOMICS DOMINATES POLITICS

Wolin
inverted totalitarianism:
POLITICS DOMINATED BY ECONOMICS
--> in varying forms of ruthlessness

Wolin
inverted totalitarianism:
POLITICS DOMINATED BY ECONOMICS
-> USA showcase of MANAGED democracy
(suppression not visible)

Wolin
inverted totalitarianism:
corporate state
--> legitimated by elections it controls

Wolin
inverted totalitarianism:
corporate state
Extinguishes democracy
rewriting & distorting laws (once supported democracy)

Wolin
inverted totalitarianism:
corporate state
--> basic rights REVOKED
--> by judicial & legislative fiat (sanction)
corporate state
Courts & legislative bodies, in the service of corporate power

Wolin
inverted totalitarianism:
COURTS --> interpret laws
to strengthen corporate control & abolish corporate oversight

Wolin
(Nazis negated constitution)
BUT inverted totalitarianism:
exploit porosity & legitimate power --> by law interpretation

Wolin
inverted totalitarianism
eg. EXPLOITATION law
--> HUGE contributions protected under 1st Amendment (speech)

Wolin
inverted totalitarianism
HIJACKS 1st Amendment
to treat HEAVILY FINANCED LOBBIES & CORPS.
like PERSON petition govt.

Wolin
inverted totalitarianism
harsh & violent control measures avoided
AS LONG AS:  dissent remains ineffectual

Wolin
inverted totalitarianism
elites -- especially ** intellectual class **
HAVE BEEN  BOUGHT OFF
--> various methods - list

Wolin
inverted totalitarianism / intellectual class OWNED:
*govt contracts
*foundation funds
*joint projects: uni. + corp.

Wolin
intellectual class OWNED:
joint projects w/ wealthy donors
intellectuals -->seamelessly integrated into corp. system


Wolin
inverted totalitarianism
will become as brutal and violent as past totalitarian states
if RIGHTS / privacy etc eroded

Wolin
inverted totalitarianism
'War on Terror'
- pre-emptive / released re restraint
--> PRESUMES STATE POWER CAN TURN INWARDS

Wolin
inverted totalitarianism
-- claimed power domestically
--  projected powers abroad
--> measure NOT by CONSTITUTION
Wolin
inverted totalitarianism
POWERS claimed not by measure of Constitution
but by OFFICIALLY DEFINED 'terrorism'

Wolin
inverted totalitarianism = corporate state
'legally' harass & kill citizens with impunity
--> eg police VIOLENCE / poor

Wolin
inverted totalitarianism
*militarized police
*wholesale surveillance
*extra-judicial police killings
for underclass

Wolin
inverted totalitarianism
reality for underclass
will BE reality for US ALL IF we begin to RESIST
FUNNEL OF POWER UPWARD

Wolin
inverted totalitarianism
/ We are tolerated as citizens
ONLY as we PARTICIPATE IN ILLUSION
of PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY

Wolin
Corporate State
inverted totalitarianism
--> will eventually look like classic totalitarianism

Wolin -- on African-American prison pop
criminal justice
-->strategy of political neutralisation
+ channel of instinctive racism

Wolin
Corp. monochromatic media
pundits set agenda & parameters
--> those changing context dismissed or labelled 'extremist'

Wolin
Corporate State
inverted totalitarianism
illusions disseminated  --> myth dominates decisions
-->  DISASTER ON EMPIRE

Wolin
Myth cannot govern decisions in real world:
ambiguity + stubborn facts abound
--> disconnect between actors & reality


---------------------- ꕤ ----------------------

COMMENT

Really enjoyed this article.

Sheldon Wolin sounds like he was an interesting guy (died 2015).


Off-Topic - Poltergeist & Rajma



---------------------- ----------------------

Had a freaky 'kitchen poltergeist' experience while rinsing rice.

Something dark fell into the sink and scared the #$@!! out of me.

Turned out to be my hair tie ... but my hair was firmly tied back (or I thought it was).

Hair's shedding like crazy, so it's a must.  Like maybe 2 years of shedding, or something like that.  It never stops.  I'll have to wear a headscarf if it doesn't stop soon. 
Don't fancy the bald or the scarf options,   so I saw a doctor a while back, but he didn't think there was anything to be concerned about.
So that's that.  I'll probably slowly go bald and maybe tattoo exotic flowers my head.  lol 

Guess my hair wasn't properly tied, and the tie sort of slid off onto my clothing.  Probably didn't notice because I'm really tired; been keeping insane hours again.

Yep.  I'm going with that.  lol

Prepared another bean curry.  I never tire of beans or curries.  Yum.

Rajma / Red kidney Bean Curry
Link | here

Tend to adjust things to suit me and how I want to do things.

I threw some finely diced carrots (you don't want hard bits of carrot in there) in with the onions to fry.
Did something like:
  • 2-3 tsp garam masala
  • 2.0 tsp coriander
  • 1.0 tsp chilli powder
  • 3/4 tsp tumeric
  • 1.0 tsp sugar
  • x2 garlic cloves crushed (love garlic)
  • 1.0 tsp fresh ginger (organic jar ginger tastes fine to me)
  • 1.0 onion
  • fresh coriander
  • x2 beans cans
  • x2 tomato cans
  • abt. 2  tins water (or thereabouts / go by feel)
Did the thing where you throw in the tinned tomato (once the onion, garlic & ginger (and carrots, in this case) are cooked off) and you then throw in the spice mix and let the whole thing cook down until it totally thickens, before throwing in water and the beans (+ coriander).
As it cooks down, you mush up some of the beans, with spatula or whatever you're using,  for an extra thick, creamy sauce.

Adding more water and cooking it right down works, but I couldn't be bothered waiting. 

Tastes good.   Works really well.  Very nice.

It's so quick and easy and it makes a really yummy meal, with very few ingredients and just one pot (which is a bonus).

Recipe's probably much like the last rajma I cooked.

Cooking is pretty much the same formula and pattern for given dishes, so it's mostly the same deal once you understand the formula (with little variations, as desired).

The coriander was from the other day.  I trim off what I don't want (eg unusable hydro roots), rinse the whole lot, use what I need at the time, and let rest drain before wrapping in paper towel & storing in freezer bag in refrigerator.  It helps fresh herbs keep, I find.  Don't know how long for.  Maybe 3 or 4 days so far?

That was my probably not-so-spooky kitchen adventure.


Corporate State Capture - Inverted Totalitarianism

Article
SOURCE
as marked



Years ago when Congressman Otis Pike investigated the CIA he concluded that it was an obedient arm of the executive branch.

And yes, accounts of a “rogue agency” are occasionally dusted off when the President needs plausible deniability but in general the spies in Langley do what they’re told. Pike concluded that it wasn’t just one or two bad apples in the barrel. He decided the whole barrel was bad. This no doubt explains why the government classified his report.

In a nutshell, then, the United States executive branch is being driven by corporate forces that transitively dictate the long-term strategic goals of the intelligence services

Activists like William Blum have spent their lives investigating and carefully recording this reality. For additional illumination check out the War and Peace Studies performed by the Council on Foreign Relations during World War II on behalf of the State Department. It’s a flat out recipe for neoliberal hegemony. As Canadian filmmaker Scott Noble demonstrated in his movie “Counter-Intelligence,” the United States is part of a corporate empire and the intelligence services are the Praetorian Guard of this empire.

So Glenn, does this mean that addressing mass surveillance, and the mass subversion which enables it, will entail tackling the related problem of corporate state capture? Or, as Sheldon Wolin refers to it, the specter of inverted totalitarianism?

http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/06/19/an-open-letter-to-glenn-greenwald/

Sheldon Wolin
Writer
"American political theorist and writer on contemporary politics. One of the most original and influential American political theorists of the past fifty years ..."


---------------------- ꕤ ----------------------

COMMENT


No time to check this out properly.

I just think it's cool that there's a name for usurping government:  'corporate state capture' &  'inverted totalitarianism'.

So when I'm throwing around 'totalitarianism', it's good to know I'm not crazy.  lol





Video - TURKEY'S PIVOTAL ROLE IN SYRIA INSURGENCY - Serena Shim - Killed Turkey

Video
SOURCE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ND3CWaAmaA&feature=youtu.be



Turkey's Pivotal Role in Syria's Insurgency: PressTV Report from Inside Turkey





Reporter Serena Shim
American national
Lebanese descent
Killed in Turkey 2 days
after Turkish intelligence
accused her of being a 'spy'
feared for her life
US refused to investigate

---------------------- ꕤ ----------------------


Incomplete Notes:



TURKEY'S PIVOTAL ROLE IN SYRIA INSURGENCY

'In Focus'
PressTV

Serena Shim


Turkey key player for Western powers in execution of plot against
Bashar al-Assad / Syria

Turkey opened its borders to Syria
to anti-Assad militant groups
collectively known in West
as Free Syrian Army (FSA)

Turkey
- opened borders to militants
- funded the militants
- supplied arms & equipment to militants

Syria
2011 conflict began between Syria government forces
& foreign-backed militants
(calling themselves Free Syrian Army (FSA))

Turkey
-- critically, permitted its borders to be taken over by anti Assad forces
-- thus, the only current legally controlled border by the Syrian army is **** -- Sounds like: Ledia [?] [possibly -  Latakia ??]


SYRIA-TURKEY BORDER CROSSINGS

Akçakale
Al-Darbasiyah
Kobanî

Bab al-Hawa Border Crossing

Ceylanpınar
Cilvegözü
Cizre
Çobanbey

İslahiye

Karkamış

Mürşitpınar

Nusaybin

Şenyurt

Tell Abyad

Yayladağı

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Syria%E2%80%93Turkey_border_crossings


Syria Borders - Apr. 2015

Assad government controls only borders along Lebanon

Turkey, Iraq, Jordan & occupied Golan Heights
closed or under control of militant groups:

  • Free Syrian Army
  • Daesh
  • al-Nusra Front
  • Kurdish militants

Syria-Jordan

In Jordan, al-Nusra Front
-- seize Nasib-Jaber (Deraa province, Syria)

In Jordan, al-Nusra Front
-- seize Ramtha (Derra province, Syria)
-- in control of NF & opposition forces since Oct 2013

In Iraq

Albu Kamal-al Qaem crossing
-- control of Daesh / ISIS since capture Albu Kamal, Nov 2012
-- located Deir el-Zour province, Syria

Yarbia- Rabea crossing
-- located north-eastern pal-Hasakha province, Syria
-- seized by Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces + Syrian Kurdish factions since oct 2014


In Iraq - only Assad Govt Border
Al-Tanaf/Al-Walid
-- only border crossing along Iraq border under control of Assad
-- *no movement on this crossing*
-- reason:  Daesh (ISIS) controls Iraq side of the crossing

Turkey - 900km of border with Syria - abt 13 border crossings
Turkey shut down Assad govt crossings
Turkey shut-downs incl:
-- Kasb crossing - northwestern province of Latakia
-- al-Qamishli crossing - al-Hasakah province, northern Syria
-- Tal Abyad, Raqqa province, Syria
-- Garables, Aleppo province, Syria

Crossings Western-backed Syrian opposition militant groups
control on Syrian side of Turkish border - REMAIN OPEN:

-- Bab al-Salama border crossing, Aleppo province, Syria
-- Bab al-Hawa in Idlib province, Syria

Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party
(presumably also Western backed)
control:

--  Tal Sheir crossing - Kobani, Syria
--  Raas al-Ayn, al-Hasakah province, Syria

Golan Heights - Syrian Side
controlled by al-Nusra Front
+ other Western-backed militant groups
incl. Free Syrian Army
since Aug. 2014

Lebanon - Assad, Syrian Govt Control
-- Al-Oreida
-- Jadidat Yabous
-- al-Dabbousiya
-- Josiya
-- al-Aboudiya
-- Jesr al-Qmar

http://www.worldbulletin.net/haber/157362/syria-assad-regime-losing-control-of-border-crossings





November 30, 2015

The Rape of Democracy, Liberty & Justice

Article
SOURCE

http://www.crikey.com.au/2015/11/30/the-strange-case-of-julian-assange/



The strange case of Julian Assange

Bernard Keane | Nov 30, 2015 1:10PM
It’s become clear that the Swedish and UK governments will do virtually anything to ensure the investigation of Julian Assange never proceeds.


Julian Assange faces very serious allegations, politicians like to say. That was the description from UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s office three years ago, defending the UK’s determination to extradite him to Sweden. And that was the description early this year from then-UK deputy PM Nick Clegg, too — “he should go to Sweden to face very serious allegations and charges of rape,” said Clegg, not long before leading his party to annihilation in this year’s general election. Clegg, of course, was peddling the oft-repeated lie that there are charges against Assange.

But for very serious allegations – sexual molestation, unlawful coercion, sexual assault — the UK and Swedish governments have displayed zero interest in investigating them. In fact, the history of the case against Assange is a history of increasingly bizarre efforts by authorities to avoid questioning him.

When Swedish prosecutors first examined complaints about Assange by two women in 2010, the Chief Prosecutor of Stockholm dismissed all but one of the allegations, including the accusation of sexual assault, saying “there is no suspicion of any crime whatsoever”. After speaking to prosecutors, Assange remained in Sweden for another week to be interviewed about the one remaining allegation (of molestation). However, after an appeal by former Swedish politician Claes Borgstrom, another prosecutor, Marianne Ny, reopened the whole case. Assange remained in Sweden and offered to be interviewed again, but, in the first of what would turn out to be a long litany of excuses, was told Ny was ill and unable to speak to him. Ny’s office then told Assange’s lawyer he was free to leave Sweden, but once Assange did so, an arrest warrant was issued for him. Assange then offered to return to Sweden to speak to Ny and gave her a full week of dates in which he would do so. These were all rejected.

This was all despite Swedish police having access to the texts of one of the alleged victims of Assange saying she “did not want to put any charges on JA but that the police were keen on getting a grip on him”, that she was shocked when he was arrested given she only wanted him to take an STD test, and that “it was the police who made up the charges”.

Ny’s unwillingnness to interview Assange would become the pattern for the next five years: Assange repeatedly offered to speak to Swedish authorities by phone, by videolink, or in person at the Australian embassy. The Swedes refused all opportunities to do so and demanded Assange return to Sweden, issuing a European arrest warrant for him. Eventually the EAW would be upheld by British courts under UK laws, which since then have been amended. Under current British law, a similar case to Assange’s would now be successfully appealed and the EAW rejected.

Once he had sought refuge in the Ecaudorean embassy in 2012, Assange continued to offer Swedish authorities the opportunity to speak with him, and they continued to reject them. But while they regularly rejected Assange’s offer to be interviewed, other suspects were treated very differently: during the last five years, the Swedes have on 44 occasions asked to travel to the UK to interview, or asked British police to interview, other people in Britain in relation to allegations including violent crime, fraud and even murder. Assange, however, couldn’t be treated the same way — he had to go to Sweden.

In fact, so absurd was Ny’s refusal to question Assange that in November last year, a Swedish court found she had breached her duty in failing to progress the case. With Assange’s Swedish arrest warrant in danger of being quashed due to her inaction and the expiry of three elements of the investigation looming due to Sweden’s statute of limitations, Ny then performed a sudden about-face — she said she would question Assange in the Ecuadorean embassy, as requested by Assange and Ecuador for years, and contacted UK authorities about the process for doing so.

But Ny still had a card left to play: despite her saying in March that she would do so, she never contacted the Ecuadoreans about the interview — in fact, eventually she admitted that she hadn’t bothered contacting the Ecuadorean Foreign Ministry in Quito until “a late stage” — just five days before a scheduled interview with Assange in June. When the Ecuadoreans said they wanted diplomatic staff present during the interview given the country had given him refuge, the Swedes called the interview off and blamed the Ecuadoreans for failing to co-operate. Ny had managed to avoid yet another interview opportunity.

The refusal of the Swedes to interview Assange seems to give credence to Assange’s fears the Swedes’ priority is to get him in custody not so the now one remaining allegation of sexual assault can be progressed, but so he can be extradited to the United States under the investigation into WikiLeaks’ role in the release of Chelsea Manning cables. We learnt in March that this US investigation is still on foot, despite Manning now being in the third year of her sentence.

But if that seems like a conspiracy theory, it gets better: in October, it was revealed via freedom of information laws that UK prosecutors had urged Ny not to interview Assange in the UK, even before he sought refuge with the Ecuadoreans. I suggest you interview him only on surrender to Sweden,” prosecutor Paul Close told Ny in 2011. He was concerned that the interview might suggest Assange was innocent.

So despite the serious allegations the UK government said Assange faced, its prosecutors didn’t want him interviewed by the Swedes about them.

Meantime, the Australian government had said nothing. Julie Bishop was happy to use Assange to criticise the Gillard government but since becoming Foreign Minister has barely mentioned him.

If the plan was to use a sexual assault allegation — one prosecutors refused to investigate, one described by one of alleged victims as invented by police — to nullify WikiLeaks even if Assange avoided being extradited to the United States, it’s only partly worked. This year WikiLeaks has had its best year since 2010, releasing, inter alia, repeated iterations of chapters from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a vast accumulation of diplomatic cables from the monstrous Saudi Arabian regime, emails from CIA director John Brennan’s unauthorised personal email account, more revelations about National Security Agency surveillance targets, the text of the secret Trade In Services Agreement draft and details of the NSA’s massive spying on French presidents, which infuriated the government of Francois Hollande.

Even so, Assange remains confined on the basis of very serious allegations, with the Swedish and UK governments apparently keen to ensure they are never properly investigated, while his own government would prefer that Australians forget about him entirely.
http://www.crikey.com.au/2015/11/30/the-strange-case-of-julian-assange
---------------------- ꕤ ----------------------

   

Totalitarianism, Empire & Poodles

Soviet WWII

Propaganda Cartoons

Soviet WWII

[Napoleon Tomb is funniest.]




COMMENT
The Rape of Democracy, Liberty & Justice
Governments of morally 'superior' and 'democratic' nations of the 'emancipated' and 'enlightened' West, commit abuse of state power, as if the powers wielded by publicly appointed, and therefore representative and accountable assembled governments, were derived from their very existence per se, independently of their role as representative and public servant.
Such governments behave as if they were the embodiment and representation of god, as were rulers of an age gone by, and thus entitled to  practically function as:  absolute, opaque and unaccountable authorities, without obligation to function in accordance with law, or in accordance with principles of democracy.
Governments of the deceived West transgress against democracy, law, justice and freedom, in an enlightened third millennium, while holding position as:  intended democracies, by appointment and in the service of the emancipated.
Yet a journalist performing a rightful & vital function in democracy, upon publishing evidence of war rimes committed by multiple states, has been undemocratically and unjustly entombed by those he exposed, as criminal, corrupt.
As evidenced by:
  • the political persecution of Assange (which includes a 5-year US 120-man taskforce investigation and closed-door US grand jury investigation in relation to non-US nationals, WikiLeaks and Assange, whereby:
(i) the US is seeking to redefine journalism as 'espionage'; and 
(ii) seeking to extend their national boundaries & jurisdiction across the globe, in efforts to:
1) to decommission WikiLeaks
2) and, more generally, to eliminate all checks on government conduct and power & to eliminate potential exposure of state wrongdoings
And therefore to:
ELIMINATE restrictions on state power, moving from democracy to (open) totalitarianism.
  • the 5-year detention of Assange, without charge;
  • the astounding amount of money the corrupt state has spent subverting justice and democracy the last 3 years alone, detaining journalist Julian Assange (24-hour uniformed and plain clothes police presence / now less high profile, plain clothes surveillance):
  • @ GBP £13-MILLION +
  • @ USD $19-MILLION +
  • @ AUD $27-MILLION +
  • @ EUR €18-MILLION +
  • as well as extraordinary refusal of the British authorities to abide by international law and to recognise political asylum granted to Assange by Ecuador, pursuant to  such law;
the vengeful state authorities (whose corruption Assange exposed), presently wield power that is absolutely illegitimate in functioning democracy. That state feloniously commits unlawful and undemocratic political persecution of a journalist and has exacted 5 years detention without charge, in violation of the core principles of democracy, and, otherwise, in violation of international law.
We, the divested, are rendered subjects of an authoritarian state and a (usurped) power unto itself.
We are passive, silent and complaint sleepwalkers in the face of totalitarian injustice and abuse of power  -- a corrupted power that, in fact, derives from a public that is comprised of free men who must individually and collectively challenge injustice and perversion of democracy.
The public remains misled by journalists, whose very role in a properly functioning democracy is that of guardian of liberty and democracy, and therefore voice against the abuse of state power.
But the spineless, collective of emasculated lowlifes known as Western journalists, generally prefer to kneel and otherwise prostrate themselves in the service of the banker and corporate-serving, totalitarian (usurped) state, slobbering at the feet of corrupt authority.
Not only do these contemptible cowards fail to challenge the corrupt state,  they perform the dirty work of that state by heaping smear and denigration on a politically persecuted and entombed journalist, who courageously defied corrupt authority and state might, to reveal the truth.
A courageous Australian journalist and an outstanding Australian, who embodies the spirit of the Australian nation, is entombed in London.
Nominally Australian politicians of the Antipodean colony that is Australia, shall, jointly and severally, be known by history for their role in the corruption and the rape of democracy, liberty, justice, and the betrayal of Australian journalist, Julian Assange.
Julian Assange deserves fierce and unwavering national support, yet he has been abandoned by those appointed to represent all Australians.
Politicians who remain silent and complicit in the face of abuse of power, corruption and violation of democracy that has robbed an Australian journalist of 5 years of his liberty and life, betray all Australians and make a mockery of sovereign Australian nationhood and a lie of freedom.
Australians cannot continue to stand by and let this Australian journalist go unprotected and undefended, while the light that is his life is entombed and snuffed out by the lawless and corrupt state wielding undemocratic and, therefore, illegitimate power & a state that has so far spent:
Over AUD$27-MILLION spent by Britain in 3 years
blocking Assange's lawful political asylum
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'STATE' refers to one or more of the following, individually and/or collectively:  Britain, Sweden, United States of America and Australia.
AMERICA Managed Democracy. POLITICS DOMINATED BY ECONOMICS.  'Inverted totalitarianism'. Corporate Totalitarianism / Corporate State.  Extinguishes democracy.  Courts & legislative bodies, in the service of corporate power.  American 'Inverted totalitarianism' effectively seized all mechanisms of power to render citizen impotent.  Inverted totalitarianism exploits the poor.  Antithesis of constitutional power.  Show elections. Money has effectively replaced the vote.   FUNNEL OF POWER UPWARD.  Citizen of US Empire irrelevant spectator.  IMPOTENT CITIZEN. Misrepresentative or Clientry Government.  Corporate Power UNCHALLENGED
Link | here
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Corporate State Capture
Link | here

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Julian Assange
Australian Journalist
FAQ & Support
https://justice4assange.com/
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Audio - Dead Flowers

It's just a
shot away

Gimme Shelter

Gimme Shelter
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