The most important piece of information to come out of Carole Cadwalladr’s current libel trial is perhaps the least reported – that she received material alleging links between Arron Banks, Vote Leave and Russia from “a contractor to the UK security services”. The information came to light because under discovery rules she had to disclose a great deal of relevant material to Banks.
This term, Neo Hindus, is a very recent phenomenon, perhaps in the last twenty-five years or so. It was always sort of hanging around amongst us; like an optical illusion, lurking like a thief who is unable to make that final reach to grab the handbag, (so near; yet so far). It may have been about around 1990 or so, once the IIT Brahmins finally got past United States Immigration and then found an objective in life in the “Home of The Brave, The Land of The Free” with the VHP Agenda; after having of course collected their brand new US Passports in 2000s and done the customary “Europe Tour” with the children.
The media’s watchdog role is an illusion. The latest scandal reveals just how dependent journalists are on government
Middle East Eye – 21 January 2022
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s head is on the chopping block. Each day, the media digs up more embarrassing details of parties hosted at his No 10 residence or other government buildings, in flagrant violation of strict lockdown rules enforced on the rest of the country.
Priti Patel, the UK Home secretary
This week, a beleaguered Boris Johnson administration reacted to calls for his resignation by announcing it will defund Britain’s public broadcaster and further militarise the Franco-British border. With many speculating it is a matter of when, not if, Johnson falls, it is important to recognise that such populist policies, launched to placate the right-wing media and others, are consistent with a pattern of entrenched impunity by this government: in the policing of borders, the police, the judiciary, equalities, and human rights. To help understand the sheer proliferation of government measures and proposals put forward over the past year, this week IRR News published a five-part resource, Impunity Entrenched, compiled by IRR vice chair Frances Webber. These measures, informed by an ideology of punishment and exclusion, will destroy the right to asylum, fill prisons, further divide society and exacerbate racial tensions and hatred, while entrenching the powerful by blocking routes to political, legal and public accountability. What they all share is a retreat from values of fairness, equality and basic human decency, in favour of strong-arm policing of minorities and dissent at home, abroad and on the borders, within a punitive, crude, nationalistic political culture.
There has been much gnashing of ‘liberal’ teeth and pulling out of ‘centrist’ hair following the Tory government’s announcement that the BBC licence fee will be abolished in 2027.
Big Brother Watch Team
Responding to the launch of a new anti-encryption campaign from the Home Office, Mark Johnson, Legal and Policy Officer at Big Brother Watch said:
“The Home Office’s bizarre attack on end-to-end encryption is an attack on a technology that Government ministers use for communication every day. It’s disturbing to see such a cynical campaign launched in attempt to justify yet wider and deeper state surveillance of everyday, private conversations.
Our intelligence agencies and law enforcement already have extensive powers to gain total access to criminals’ phones and communications. But end-to-end encryption is crucial for protecting the safety and privacy of our chats en masse.
The ability to have a private conversation is a freedom we cherish in liberal democracies and it is vital that we safeguard it online as well as offline.”
ENDS.
NOTES:
More information regarding the launch of the Home Office’s campaign is available here.
Spokespeople are available for interviews. Contact Big Brother Watch’s 24h media line on 07730439257 or email info@bigbrotherwatch.org.uk
See also: https://www.rt.com/news/546385-home-office-media-blitz-encryption-chat/
Awards and honours bestowed by States or private committees, republican or monarchical, are bound to be corrupted by considerations of hypocrisy, racketeering and general, chummy disposition. From the Nobel Peace Prize to the range of eccentric and esoteric orders bestowed each year in Britain by Her Majesty, diddling and manipulating is never far behind. You are bestowed such things as a reminder of your worth to the establishment rather than your unique contribution to the good quotient of humanity. Flip many a peace prize over and you are bound to find the smouldering remains of a war criminal’s legacy.
In a recent interview for the The Telegraph Damian Hinds, the British Minister of State for Security and Borders, named the most threatening states with which British politicians and secret service agents must contend. According to him, clear dangers are posed by Russia, China, and Iran.
As the world waits for news on yet another round of legal battles over Julian Assange’s extradition, we have reached a somber milestone. Today is the 1,000th day Julian has spent in London’s notorious Belmarsh Prison.
In June 2021, Skyborg took control of an MQ-20 Avenger drone during a military exercise in California.The influential State of AI Report 2021, published in October, makes the alarming observation that the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) for military purposes is now moving from research into the production phase. The report highlights three indicators which it argues shows this development, one of which is the progress that the US Air Force Research Laboratory is making in testing its autonomous ‘Skyborg’ system to control military drones.
By Crofton Black: Need to verify your identity on a phone? Reset a password? Log in to a sensitive site or account? You’ll probably get a text message to check who you are. But it won’t come directly from your account provider. Instead, it will come via one or more middlemen: little-known bulk messaging companies that use the access they’ve brokered to hundreds of phone networks to send millions of messages cheaply and quickly around the world.
PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY (Scheerpost) — Nils Melzer, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture, is one of the very few establishment figures to denounce the judicial lynching of Julian Assange. Melzer’s integrity and courage, for which he has been mercilessly attacked, stand in stark contrast to the widespread complicity of many human rights and press organizations, including PEN America, which has become a de facto subsidiary of the Democratic National Committee.
We’ve just started a legal challenge against Boris Johnson’s mandatory Covid passport scheme for England.
Johnson’s draconian, discriminatory and pointless Covid IDs breach privacy rights and equality law, and must be stopped, now.
I know we just sent out an update yesterday, but we wanted to alert you to some breaking news. Just hours ago, Julian Assange filed an appeal in his extradition case. We’ve included the official statement from Stella Moris and the UK’s Don’t Extradite Assange campaign.
Written by Dr. Binoy Kampmark
With Julian Assange now fighting the next stage of efforts to extradite him to the United States to face 18 charges, 17 of which are based on the brutal, archaic Espionage Act, some Australian politicians have found their voice. It might be said that a few have even found their conscience.
By TruePublica Editor: Boris Johnson, largely regarded as the worst post-war Prime Minster Britain has had to endure, is now the hapless hostage of the right-wing factions within the imploding Tory party. We are a country that is effectively leaderless.
Over the last two years, our Prime Minister has lied: about illegal parties in lockdowns, the Downing Street renovations, to the Queeen, about care home testing, the economy, poverty, climate change, dodgy donors, Covid contracts and more.
The hard work of press freedom activists is paying off! Mainstream outlets are increasingly speaking out against the prosecution of Julian Assange, with The New York Times editorial board the latest to join in.
The New Dark Age 