Joan Humble: Blackpool Gazette censors all comment on MP's expenses

After The Blackpool Gazette published an article which exposed the expense claims for the second homes of Fylde Coast MPs, numerous critical comments were made by readers which were quickly removed with the note, 'Comment Reported Unsuitable By User':

Blackpool Gazette: MPs' second homes cost taxpayers £80k

Though not all comments were read before they were removed, many were, and the only apparent reason that they were deleted seems to be that they were outraged at the ongoing expenses scandal as they were neither offensive or inappropriate.

So, who is responsible for the systematic censorship of public opinion?

Either The Blackpool Gazette has taken the initiative to sanitise the article or there is a New Labour Party apparatchik who has been given free reign to stifle dissent by the newspaper's website editor.

This is not, by far, the first instance of The Blackpool Gazette allowing or perpetrating the mass censorship of comments which are critical of local MPs which suggests that the paper has an ulterior motive.

Any officer of the law who obstructs an opponent of war spits in the face of God - Simone Sangloch

The brutal beatings of peace protesters has always been an atrocity.

In Rochester, New York, yesterday, the police - no doubt acting to maintain the peace - attacked a peaceful demonstration against the US led war in Afghanistan.

The next day, Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Video:

Police Attack Anti-war Protesters

Al-Megrahi Releases Lockerbie Appeal Dossier on the Internet

Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the Libyan convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, has published documents on the internet that he claims will prove his innocence.

Hundreds of pages relating to the appeal by Megrahi were put into the public domain on a new website.

www.megrahimystory.net


Megrahi, who has terminal prostate cancer, was freed early on compassionate grounds last month from the life term he was serving at Greenock prison for the bombing.

Before his release, he dropped his second appeal against conviction.

His Scottish lawyers, Taylor & Kelly, said the documents published on www.megrahimystory.net related to that appeal.

Megrahi said in a statement: ''I have returned to Tripoli with my unjust conviction still in place.

''As a result of the abandonment of my appeal, I have been deprived of the opportunity to clear my name through the formal appeal process.

''I have vowed to continue my attempts to clear my name.''

Megrahi's statement went on: "I will do everything in my power to persuade the public, and in particular the Scottish public, of my innocence.

"Through my website I have published the material which featured in the first full hearing of my appeal."

These included documents on the grounds of his appeal, and the "legal sufficiency and reasonableness" of court findings.

"I hope that this can assist in the understanding of my case, especially for those who have been most profoundly affected by it," said Megrahi.

"As can be seen from the documents released today, some of the challenges mounted before the court are supported by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission."

Argument had been heard on the challenges but the appeal court had not been able to give its opinion by the time he dropped his appeal, he said.

A spokesman for the law firm said: "Mr Megrahi hopes to continue to publish details of his appeal challenge in the course of the forthcoming weeks."

Megrahi was serving a life sentence with a minimum term of 27 years after being convicted in 2001 of bombing Pan Am flight 103 in 1988, killing 270 people.

His release by Scotland's Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill triggered an international controversy, sparking outrage among the relatives of US victims.

But there has been a long-running campaign, supported by some British relatives of victims, to have his conviction overturned.

Megrahi was convicted of the bombing in January 2001 by a three-judge Scottish court convened in the Netherlands.

He appealed unsuccessfully the following year.

In 2007 the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, which investigates possible miscarriages of justice, sent his case for a second appeal.

That process got under way earlier this year, but has now been left in legal limbo by Megrahi's decision to drop the appeal.

The documents published today relate to the grounds of appeal which were argued at the appeal court in Edinburgh between April 28 and May 19.

The website said Megrahi would publish other documents at a later date.

These related to arguments which would have been made in court from November.

The appeal was lodged on several grounds.

The first two grounds, which have already been argued in court, were that Megrahi's conviction was unreasonable and based on insufficient evidence.

A third set of grounds gave some of the reasons why the SCCRC referred the case to the Appeal Court, along with additional arguments.

These include the way in which identification evidence was obtained from a Maltese shopkeeper, Tony Gauci.

They also include what the defence documents describe as "significant failures" by the Crown to disclose information about the identification evidence and about Mr Gauci.

Mr Gauci picked out Megrahi as the man who bought clothes which were later found in the suitcase that contained the bomb.

The third set of appeal grounds also relate - according to today's documents - to undisclosed information for which the UK Government had sought public interest immunity from disclosure.

"The SCCRC considered that failure to disclose this information, of itself, may have resulted in a miscarriage of justice and this was one of the reasons for referring the case back to the Appeal Court," said the documents.

Megrahi had sought disclosure of that information since October 2007, but the issue had not been resolved by the time he dropped his appeal.

"Without that information, the appellant argues that he could not advance his right of appeal and was denied a fair hearing of his appeal in breach of statute and Article 6 of the European Convention of Human Rights," said the document.

Other grounds of appeal related to "concerns" about forensic evidence and "defective" representation.

Scottish Labour justice spokesman Richard Baker said: "Megrahi was tried and convicted.

"His appeal failed and he was released by Kenny MacAskill before his second appeal was heard.

"He remains in the eyes of Scottish justice the murderer of 270 people. The release of these files does not change that fact."

Okulo News

Gordon Brown was 'Guest' of CIA within a Year of Becoming an MP

According to a story uncovered by a Private Eye blogger who is researching the satirical magazine's 50 year history, Gordon Brown went on a 'a three-week CIA freebie trip to the USA' in June 1984, just 12 months after being elected for the first time as MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath:


Dr Gordon Brown

The new Labour member for Dunfermline East, Dr Gordon Brown, is typical of the brand of mediocre, middle-class careerists who make up an increasing proportion of the undistinguished lobby-fodder and whom Labour habitually returns from Scotland, though he has greater academic pretensions than most.

Brown shot to provincial fame on being elected as Edinburgh University’s first student Rector in the late 1960s and ever since his ambition has outstripped his ability. Although, in a tribute, his old history tutor Dr Paul Addison has stated that Brown was “always more than a swot”, it appears that he lacked certain essential social graces. He never fully recovered from his rejection as suitor by the lovely Princess Marguerita of Romania (who works as a computer programmer in the University’s Computer Department) and ever since has devoted himself obsessively to his political career.

Before becoming Labour’s Scottish Chairman (a meaningless appointment made on the “Buggins’ Turn” principle) Brown worked on a series of current affairs documentaries for Scottish TV which were so excruciatingly dull that he was mercifully taken off the air (he has two brothers in the Scots media).

Once again he has been exceeding his limitations in his new role as a Scots lackey in the outer limits of Kinnock’s kitchen cabinet. A recent Sunday Times article which he had ghosted for the new labour leader had to be withdrawn as “hopeless” by Kinnock’s press officer, Patricia “Harpie” Hewitt.

In June, Brown will enjoy a three-week CIA freebie trip to the USA (he will get $60 a day pocket money while out there.) Kinnock felt obliged to approve this unfashionable hostage to fortune because he himself had been on a similar trip some years ago.

Okulo News
Private Eye

The Maltese Double Cross - Lockerbie

For all the Americans who are vitriolic with rage over the release of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi:

Lockerbie - the Maltese Double Cross

This documentary from 1994 discusses evidence and witnesses that would eventually figure at the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial in 2000.

This is the best version of this video available online.



Produced, written, and directed by Allan Francovich and financed by Tiny Rowland, the film was released by Hemar Enterprises in November 1994:

The documentary disputes the conclusion reached by the official investigation into the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, instead advancing the theory that the bomb was introduced onto the aircraft by an unwitting drug mule, Khaled Jafaar, in what the filmmaker claims is a CIA-protected suitcase. Abolhassan Bani-Sadr, former prime minister of Iran, discusses the idea that Iran took revenge for the shootdown by the USS Vincennes of Iran Air Flight 655 in July 1988.

The film covers:

• the Mebo MST - 13 timer fragment, which Thomas Thurman of the FBI's forensic laboratory said that he identified on June 15, 1990.

• Mebo's Swiss owner, Edwin Bollier, is interviewed at length.

• forensic scientist, Dr Michael Scott, describes DERA's 'forensic expert', Alan Feraday, as a technician without any formal qualifications as a scientist.

• solicitor, Alastair Logan, criticises DERA's Dr Thomas Hayes for the forensic evidence that was used to convict the Maguire Seven.

• former CIA operative, Oswald LeWinter says the appointment of 'Libyan dirty tricks expert', Vincent Cannistraro, to head the CIA's team investigating Lockerbie 'would be funny, if it were not an obscenity.

• Department of Defense Whistle Blower Lester Coleman linked the bomb to a terrorist cell trained by CIA operative, Edwin P. Wilson.

• best-selling author, David Yallop, reviews the available evidence and looks at who might have been responsible for the Lockerbie bombing.

Lockerbie release exposes ethical polarity

The most significant aspect of the anticipation of the release of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, the Libyan man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, was the gulf which was apparent between those who believed that he should have been released and those who thought he should die in prison. Those who sought justice and those who sought vengeance. Those who believed he was innocent and those who believed he was guilty. Those who wanted a full and open inquiry and those who did not. Those who were Scottish and those who were American.*

Anybody who has paid the slightest attention to the Lockerbie incident cannot have failed to smell the bullshit. Outside the show trial in Camp Zeist in 2000 the case has been examined ad nauseam with the consistent conclusion that al-Megrahi is innocent. His conviction was heavily based on his identification by a Maltese shopkeeper, Tony Gauci, who allegedly sold al-Megrahi the clothes in which the bomb was wrapped. Apart from failing to point the finger at al-Megrahi during his many contradictory interviews with the police did, however, identify him after having seen the suspect's photo. He was rewarded for his information to the sum of $2m and now lives in Australia.

The circumstances in which the circuit board evidence was discovered are, to say the least, suspicious. The forensic evidence was flawed by exposure that the scientist was unqualified and had been involved in the wrongful conviction of IRA suspects. The circuit board manufacturer was unable to account for the destination of their products.

Investigations by many journalists, including the late Paul Foot and David Yallop uncovered a scandal of fake evidence, controlled delivery of drugs under the supervision of the CIA and DEA and the manufacture for a pretext for aggression against Libya. Several 'VIP' passengers were apparently warned not to take that flight and during one of the busiest travel periods, the days leading to Christmas, an aircraft takes off half empty. Evidence strongly suggests that the attacks were in all likelihood a contracted act of revenge against the US whose ship, the USS Vincennes, shot down an Iranian A300 Airbus in July of 1988 killing some 290 passengers, mistaking it for an Iranian F14 fighter. It has also been suggested that the US was embarrassed by this blunder and went so far as to permit the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in order to clear the ledger.

Only those with something to hide would stand in the way of a transparent public inquiry. Only those who are blinded by vengeance would fail to see that the conviction of al-Megrahi was based on fabrication and mendacity. Only those who are ignorant would reach conclusions without consideration of the facts.

In their 2002 book, Ziauddin Sardar and Merryl Wyn Davies asked, 'Why Do People Hate America?' Perhaps one answer is that it is very difficult to like people who are so blinded by prejudice that they can't recognise the truth when it is dangling in front of their eyes.

The documentary, The Maltese Double Cross which outlines many of the controversies surrounding this clear miscarriage of justice has been almost buried. There are only two versions in circulation (links below). The version on Google Video is poor quality and barely watchable. A version which is available via BitTorrent is somewhat better but is less accessible. I have cleaned this version up slightly and uploaded it to the Internet Archive (archive.org).

embedded at flamesong.com:
www.flamesong.com/lockerbie/maltesedoublecross.html

Information page:
archive.org/details/The-Maltese-Double-Cross

Direct Download:
archive.org/download/The-Maltese-Double-Cross/The-Maltese-Double-Cross.avi

If it becomes unavailable at archive.org, it will still be available here:

Google Video:
video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=7160854996287567609

BitTorrent (The Pirate Bay):
thepiratebay.org/torrent/3544542


*With notable exceptions

Climate Change Puppeteers Reveal Their Heavy Hands

I've tried to remain objective about the issue of climate change/global warming. There have been some pretty compelling arguments from both sides but the cast of players which has been revealed as the sponsors of 'the biggest single report' on the subject says a great deal about its patronage. Being agnostic has not been easy - the result is often to be shot from both sides. As with other topics of such grave nature, fanatics cannot abide reasoning.

On the whole, though, like many I used to think that it might be wiser to err on the side of caution. And it may be that depending on many people with that safeguard mentality was an intrinsic part of a pretty huge deception.

According to The Independent, the report is 'backed by a diverse range of leading organisations such as Unesco, the World Bank, the US army and the Rockefeller Foundation'. Anybody who has been paying attention to the higher agenda over the past few decades will immediately have a discrete alarm going off in their heads. Even to innocent eyes, these are not organisations renowned for their hands off approach to world affairs. But to those who see through the global Punch and Judy show, it is like the final moments of an episode of Scooby-Doo.

And the revelation that Al Gore, the patron saint of Global Warming and official saviour of the world (prior to the second coming) established a company trading in carbon credits two years before the release of his panic-inducing flick, 'An Inconvenient Truth' is a very inconvenient fact which throws a very inconvenient light on the whole issue. City folk who play tricks like this are called 'insider traders' and 'rampers'.

To global capitalists, there is only one goal. To further this goal, they will exploit every human weakness - the greatest of which is fear. Refuse to be afraid.