TVO Search Engine Show : Interview by Jessie Brown with Jesse Hirsch on the Byron Sonne case.
Sonne's trial begins January 26, 2011.
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Merry ChristMyth And A Happy Monkey To All!
And Happy Nickmas, Punjabi-style :-)
All joking aside ...
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!
I'm an atheist but this lovely Christmas Story touched me.
It was written and sent to me by a christian whom I like and respect, Kevin Annett.
I write christian and not Christian because his Christianity is non-denominational.
Kevin was a Reverend for the United Church in Canada and defrocked by the Church for exposing it's abuse of Aboriginal children in Residential Schools in Canada. After defrocking Kevin, the United Church went on a life long persecution campaign against him ensuring that he was unable to work and earn a living, organizing a personal smear campaign against him amongst other things.
Kevin describes himself as not being religious but still "walking with Christ".
This story is a bit long but I hope you'll take the time to read it.
The last Christmas we were all together hangs over memory like the fog did that year in the Alberni valley. It was a time of gathering, two years and more of labor summoning so many together where once there were but a few. And it was a time of ending.
The church stewards had warned me to expect an overflow crowd at the Christmas eve service, and like overgrown elves they had busied themselves around the building, stringing wires and sound systems in the cold auditorium kept that way to save money. The snows had come early, and our food bank was already depleted.
With my eldest daughter who was but five, I had walked to the church one morning in the week before yule, pondering the cold and the sermon, when I met the one who would pierce the fog that year for us. She stood patiently at the locked door, her brown eyes relaxing as we approached. Her bare hand gestured at me.
“You’re that minister, ain’t you?” she mumbled to me, as daughter Clare fell back and grabbed my hand.
Before I could answer, the stranger smiled and nodded, and uttered with noticeable pleasure at her double entendre,
“They say you give it out seven days a week!”.
I smiled too, gripping Clare’s hand reassuringly and replying,
“If you mean food, we’re a bit short, but you’re welcome to whatever’s left.”
She nodded again, and waited while I unlocked the door and picked up Clare, who was clinging to me by then.
The basement was even more frigid than the outside, but the woman doffed her torn overcoat and sighed loudly as we approached the food bank locker.
“For all the good it’ll do …” she said, as I unlocked the pantry and surveyed the few cans and bags lying there.
I turned and really looked at her for the first time. She was younger than she had sounded, but a dark, cancerous growth marred her upper lip, and a deep scar ran down her face and neck. Her eyes were kindness, and in that way, very aboriginal.
“I’m sorry there’s not more …” I began, since back then I still saw things in terms of giving. But she shook her head, and instead of saying anything, she looked at Clare, and the two of them exchanged a smile for the first time.
I stared, confused, at the cupboard so bare, and heard her finally utter,
“Them people in church, you know what they need?”
I set Clare down and shook my head.
“They need Him. They sing about Him, and pretend they know Him, but hell, they wouldn’t spot Him even if He came and bit ‘em on their ass.”
I smiled at that one, and even dared a mild chuckle.
“You doin’ a Christmas play for the kids?” she continued.
“Yeah”.
“I bet it’s the usual bullshit with angels and shepherds, right?”
I nodded.
“That don’t mean nuthin’ to those people. Why don’t you do a story about … well, like, if He came to Port Alberni to be born, right now.”
I finally laughed, feeling very happy. She smiled too, walked over to the cupboard and picked up a small bag of rice. Donning her coat, she nodded her thanks, and said,
“My bet is Him and Mary and Joseph, they’d end up in the Petrocan garage, down River road. The owner there lets us sleep in the back sometimes.”
And then she was gone.
I didn’t try explaining the stranger to anyone, ever, or what her words had done to me. All I did was lock the food cupboard and lead Clare up to my office, where I cranked up the heat and set her to drawing. And then I sat at my desk and I wrote for the rest of the day.
The kids in church were no problem at all. They got it, immediately. The Indians who dared to mingle in the pews that night with all the ponderous white people also took to the amateur performance like they had composed it themselves, and laughed with familiarity as the holy family was turned away first by the local cops, and then hotel owners, and finally by church after church after church.
It was mostly the official Christians who were shocked into open-mouthed incredulity at the coming to life of something they thought they knew all about. As the children spoke their lines, I swear I saw parishioners jump and writhe like there were tacks scattered on the pews.
“Joe, I’m getting ready to have this kid. You’d better find us a place real friggin' quick …”
I’m trying, Mary, but Jehovah! Nobody will answer their door! I guess it’s ‘cause we’re low lifes.”
Look! There’s a church up ahead. I bet they’ll help us!”
If you believe the Bible, whoever He was loved to poke fun at his listeners and shock them out of their fog, and our play would have made him proud. As the eight year old girl who played Mary pleaded fruitlessly for help from a kid adorned in oversized clerical garb, and was covered in scorn by the young “priest”, I heard a sad moan rise from the congregation.
But things took a turn when Mary and Joe came upon an Indian, played by one of the aboriginal kids.
Sir, will you help us? My wife’s going to have a baby …”
Sure!” replied the native kid with gusto. “I got a spot in a shed behind the gas station down the road. The owner lets us all sleep in there!”
And in a contrived scene of boxes and cans scattered where our communion table normally stood, Mary had her baby, as erstwhile homeless men with fake beards and a stray rez dog looked on, and one of the witnesses urged Mary to keep her newborn quiet lest the Mounties hear his cries and bust everyone for vagrancy.
Voices were subdued that night in the church hall over coffee, cookies and Christmas punch, and the normally dull gazes and banalities about the time of year were oddly absent. The Indians kept nodding and smiling at me, saying little, and not having to; and the kids were happy too, still in costume and playing with the local stray who had posed as the rez dog in the performance that would always be talked about. It was the white congregants who seemed most pregnant that night, but they couldn’t speak of it.
It was one of my last services with them, and somehow they all knew it, since we had all entered the story by then. For a churchly Herod had already heard a rumor, and dispatched assassins to stop a birth, and me, even though it was already too late.
My daughter Clare was not running and rolling with the other kids, but in her manner joined me quietly with her younger sister Elinor in tow. Our trio stood there, amidst the thoughtful looks and unspoken love, and person after person came to us and grasped our hands, or embraced us with glistening eyes. An aging Dutch woman named Omma van Beek struggled towards me in her walker and pressed her trembling lips on my cheek, and said something to me in her native tongue as the tears fell unashamedly from both of us.
Later, when we were scattered and lost, I would remember that moment like no other, as if something in Omma’s tears washed away all the filth and loss that were to follow. And perhaps that looming nightfall touched my heart just then, for I gave a shudder as I looked at my children, almost glimpsing the coming divorce, and I held my daughters close as if that would keep them safe and near to me forever.
The snow was falling again as we left the darkened building, kissing us gently like it had done years before when as a baby, Clare had struggled with me on a toboggan through the deep drifts of my first charge in Pierson, Manitoba, on another Christmas eve. The quiet flakes blessed us with memory, and settled in love on the whole of creation, even on the unmarked graves of children up at the old Indian residential school.
The old Byzantine icon depicts Jesus as a baby, hugging his worried mother while she stares ahead into his bloody future: her eyes turned in grief to the viewer, yet his loving eyes seeking her, past the moment, past even his own death.
The image may still hang in the basement of my church, where I left it.
It was written and sent to me by a christian whom I like and respect, Kevin Annett.
I write christian and not Christian because his Christianity is non-denominational.
Kevin was a Reverend for the United Church in Canada and defrocked by the Church for exposing it's abuse of Aboriginal children in Residential Schools in Canada. After defrocking Kevin, the United Church went on a life long persecution campaign against him ensuring that he was unable to work and earn a living, organizing a personal smear campaign against him amongst other things.
Kevin describes himself as not being religious but still "walking with Christ".
This story is a bit long but I hope you'll take the time to read it.
Nativity
By Kevin D. Annett
The last Christmas we were all together hangs over memory like the fog did that year in the Alberni valley. It was a time of gathering, two years and more of labor summoning so many together where once there were but a few. And it was a time of ending.
The church stewards had warned me to expect an overflow crowd at the Christmas eve service, and like overgrown elves they had busied themselves around the building, stringing wires and sound systems in the cold auditorium kept that way to save money. The snows had come early, and our food bank was already depleted.
With my eldest daughter who was but five, I had walked to the church one morning in the week before yule, pondering the cold and the sermon, when I met the one who would pierce the fog that year for us. She stood patiently at the locked door, her brown eyes relaxing as we approached. Her bare hand gestured at me.
“You’re that minister, ain’t you?” she mumbled to me, as daughter Clare fell back and grabbed my hand.
Before I could answer, the stranger smiled and nodded, and uttered with noticeable pleasure at her double entendre,
“They say you give it out seven days a week!”.
I smiled too, gripping Clare’s hand reassuringly and replying,
“If you mean food, we’re a bit short, but you’re welcome to whatever’s left.”
She nodded again, and waited while I unlocked the door and picked up Clare, who was clinging to me by then.
The basement was even more frigid than the outside, but the woman doffed her torn overcoat and sighed loudly as we approached the food bank locker.
“For all the good it’ll do …” she said, as I unlocked the pantry and surveyed the few cans and bags lying there.
I turned and really looked at her for the first time. She was younger than she had sounded, but a dark, cancerous growth marred her upper lip, and a deep scar ran down her face and neck. Her eyes were kindness, and in that way, very aboriginal.
“I’m sorry there’s not more …” I began, since back then I still saw things in terms of giving. But she shook her head, and instead of saying anything, she looked at Clare, and the two of them exchanged a smile for the first time.
I stared, confused, at the cupboard so bare, and heard her finally utter,
“Them people in church, you know what they need?”
I set Clare down and shook my head.
“They need Him. They sing about Him, and pretend they know Him, but hell, they wouldn’t spot Him even if He came and bit ‘em on their ass.”
I smiled at that one, and even dared a mild chuckle.
“You doin’ a Christmas play for the kids?” she continued.
“Yeah”.
“I bet it’s the usual bullshit with angels and shepherds, right?”
I nodded.
“That don’t mean nuthin’ to those people. Why don’t you do a story about … well, like, if He came to Port Alberni to be born, right now.”
I finally laughed, feeling very happy. She smiled too, walked over to the cupboard and picked up a small bag of rice. Donning her coat, she nodded her thanks, and said,
“My bet is Him and Mary and Joseph, they’d end up in the Petrocan garage, down River road. The owner there lets us sleep in the back sometimes.”
And then she was gone.
I didn’t try explaining the stranger to anyone, ever, or what her words had done to me. All I did was lock the food cupboard and lead Clare up to my office, where I cranked up the heat and set her to drawing. And then I sat at my desk and I wrote for the rest of the day.
The kids in church were no problem at all. They got it, immediately. The Indians who dared to mingle in the pews that night with all the ponderous white people also took to the amateur performance like they had composed it themselves, and laughed with familiarity as the holy family was turned away first by the local cops, and then hotel owners, and finally by church after church after church.
It was mostly the official Christians who were shocked into open-mouthed incredulity at the coming to life of something they thought they knew all about. As the children spoke their lines, I swear I saw parishioners jump and writhe like there were tacks scattered on the pews.
“Joe, I’m getting ready to have this kid. You’d better find us a place real friggin' quick …”
I’m trying, Mary, but Jehovah! Nobody will answer their door! I guess it’s ‘cause we’re low lifes.”
Look! There’s a church up ahead. I bet they’ll help us!”
If you believe the Bible, whoever He was loved to poke fun at his listeners and shock them out of their fog, and our play would have made him proud. As the eight year old girl who played Mary pleaded fruitlessly for help from a kid adorned in oversized clerical garb, and was covered in scorn by the young “priest”, I heard a sad moan rise from the congregation.
But things took a turn when Mary and Joe came upon an Indian, played by one of the aboriginal kids.
Sir, will you help us? My wife’s going to have a baby …”
Sure!” replied the native kid with gusto. “I got a spot in a shed behind the gas station down the road. The owner lets us all sleep in there!”
And in a contrived scene of boxes and cans scattered where our communion table normally stood, Mary had her baby, as erstwhile homeless men with fake beards and a stray rez dog looked on, and one of the witnesses urged Mary to keep her newborn quiet lest the Mounties hear his cries and bust everyone for vagrancy.
Voices were subdued that night in the church hall over coffee, cookies and Christmas punch, and the normally dull gazes and banalities about the time of year were oddly absent. The Indians kept nodding and smiling at me, saying little, and not having to; and the kids were happy too, still in costume and playing with the local stray who had posed as the rez dog in the performance that would always be talked about. It was the white congregants who seemed most pregnant that night, but they couldn’t speak of it.
It was one of my last services with them, and somehow they all knew it, since we had all entered the story by then. For a churchly Herod had already heard a rumor, and dispatched assassins to stop a birth, and me, even though it was already too late.
My daughter Clare was not running and rolling with the other kids, but in her manner joined me quietly with her younger sister Elinor in tow. Our trio stood there, amidst the thoughtful looks and unspoken love, and person after person came to us and grasped our hands, or embraced us with glistening eyes. An aging Dutch woman named Omma van Beek struggled towards me in her walker and pressed her trembling lips on my cheek, and said something to me in her native tongue as the tears fell unashamedly from both of us.
Later, when we were scattered and lost, I would remember that moment like no other, as if something in Omma’s tears washed away all the filth and loss that were to follow. And perhaps that looming nightfall touched my heart just then, for I gave a shudder as I looked at my children, almost glimpsing the coming divorce, and I held my daughters close as if that would keep them safe and near to me forever.
The snow was falling again as we left the darkened building, kissing us gently like it had done years before when as a baby, Clare had struggled with me on a toboggan through the deep drifts of my first charge in Pierson, Manitoba, on another Christmas eve. The quiet flakes blessed us with memory, and settled in love on the whole of creation, even on the unmarked graves of children up at the old Indian residential school.
The old Byzantine icon depicts Jesus as a baby, hugging his worried mother while she stares ahead into his bloody future: her eyes turned in grief to the viewer, yet his loving eyes seeking her, past the moment, past even his own death.
The image may still hang in the basement of my church, where I left it.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Shooting The Messenger: The Persecution of Julian Assange
"We support a cause that is no more radical a proposition than the citizenry has a right to scrutinize the state." --Julian Assange
The traditions of Western Journalism run deep and strong in Wikileaks despite the attempts of some to divert, dodge and evade the real issues that Wikileaks actions have brought to light.
What are those real issues?
1. Some Governments engage in corrupt, illegal, immoral and/or unethical acts.
2. Some Governments would prefer to create scapegoats to take the blame, rather than take responsibility for their own failures.
Let's look at Issue 1.
The citizenry of most democratic countries elect their representatives. In order for us to elect them responsibly transparency in government is required.
Too much secrecy takes away from that transparency and enables those who are corrupt. It enables those who wish to abuse their power by committing illegal acts against those they don't like or misappropriating government funds or any of the many other crimes that corrupt people in positions of power tend to commit.
As much transparency as possible is necessary to prevent this.
That's not to say there isn't such a thing as legitimate secrets. However, these should be few and far between and it's the Government's responsibility to protect them. No-one else.
Frankly, looking at some of the Wikileaks documents marked Secret I can only conclude that many governments go way too far when it comes to identifying and defining what they think the population shouldn't know or see.
Frankly, looking at some of the Wikileaks documents marked Secret I can only conclude that many governments go way too far when it comes to identifying and defining what they think the population shouldn't know or see.
That said, let's look at Issue 2.
According to many Government Officials and Elected Representatives around the world Julian Assange is a criminal, a terrorist, a spy, has committed treason, should be assassinated (yes someone actually said that and it was a Canadian government official), etc.
And yet, what crime has Julian Assange actually committed? None.
The only crime that was committed, was committed by the person who actually took the documents and gave them to Wikileaks.
Julian Assange and Wikileaks are doing nothing more than acting in the tradition of Western Journalism, creating a news feed of material they receive and releasing that material to other Journalists and the Traditional Media much like AP (Associated Press) does.
Do Journalists have any obligation or responsibility to keep Secret material obtained secret? No they don't. If they did, Watergate would never have happened and corrupt government officials would never have been held accountable for their crimes.
Do Journalists have any obligation or responsibility to protect their sources? Yes they do. If they didn't no-one would ever come forward to expose corruption, abuse of power, fraud, etc. from high places. We need them to be able to do that in order to protect, maintain and keep our democratic system strong.
Do Journalists have any obligation or responsibility to protect their sources? Yes they do. If they didn't no-one would ever come forward to expose corruption, abuse of power, fraud, etc. from high places. We need them to be able to do that in order to protect, maintain and keep our democratic system strong.
This feature of traditional Western Journalism needs to be protected if we want to protect our democratic system. They work hand-in-hand.
For that reason, our democratic system has a duty and obligation to protect any Journalist who is acting in that tradition from persecution and abuse. Not doing so weakens our democracy and enables corruption.
For that reason, our democratic system has a duty and obligation to protect any Journalist who is acting in that tradition from persecution and abuse. Not doing so weakens our democracy and enables corruption.
And sadly, it's that very tradition that's been lost in the modern traditional Media. We can no longer count on that Media to do their job.
So, along comes Wikileaks to fill in that gap and perform the Public Service that the modern traditional Media abandoned.
And Governments around the world want to suppress them, scapegoat them, kill them. Corporations they do business with are withdrawing services they have legitimately paid and contracted for.
And Assange has been personally victimized with specious charges of "sexual assault", the timing of which make them appear to be more about discrediting and smearing him, than any actual criminal act on his part.
Why is all of this happening? Because Assange and Wikileaks are doing their job!
The end result of which is the potential embarrassment and exposure of abuse of power, corruption, immorality and unethical behavior at the highest levels of the government and corporate world.
And Governments around the world want to suppress them, scapegoat them, kill them. Corporations they do business with are withdrawing services they have legitimately paid and contracted for.
And Assange has been personally victimized with specious charges of "sexual assault", the timing of which make them appear to be more about discrediting and smearing him, than any actual criminal act on his part.
Why is all of this happening? Because Assange and Wikileaks are doing their job!
The end result of which is the potential embarrassment and exposure of abuse of power, corruption, immorality and unethical behavior at the highest levels of the government and corporate world.
In other words, this is what these Governments really consider a crime and "treasonous":
Free Speech and an Independent Media that acts as a Watch Dog over Government and Corporate corruption and crime.
In my opinion, the only real crimes here are Government incompetence at maintaining their own security and their shooting of the messenger by persecuting and scapegoating Julian Assange.
If you want to help Wikileaks and have a Unix box, mirror their site to ensure the material remains available.
Let's protect Free Speech and an Independent Media that acts as a Watch Dog over Government and Corporate corruption and crime!
If you want to help Wikileaks and have a Unix box, mirror their site to ensure the material remains available.
Let's protect Free Speech and an Independent Media that acts as a Watch Dog over Government and Corporate corruption and crime!
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
WikiLeaks : The Truth Shall Set You Free
Wikileaks has done it again and this time amidst threats from various governments as well as massive DDOS attacks.
Why is the truth so controversial?
We live in a world where our governments insist on secrecy under various rationales and justifications.
So, when we are faced with the truths of our governments actions, we are hungry for it. This is actually quite sad in democratic societies which bill themselves on their transparency and a media which claims to support the traditions of great journalists like Edward R. Murrows.
This illusion of democracy and an ethical media that we live under gets exposed when organizations like Wikileaks present us with the unvarnished truth.
And yet, how are we, the citizens supposed to shoulder our responsibility of ensuring that the state remain ethical and works in our best interests when we don't have the truth at our disposal?
This is the service that Wikileaks is providing to each and every one us and frankly, I don't see a downside to it.
Not for the citizen anyway.
I'm sure that those governments which may have engaged in unethical or illegal activities may have a problem with it. One usually does when one has something to hide.
Perhaps it's time that governments learned to trust the citizenry instead of treating us like a potential enemy?
We, are the people, after all.
The ones that government is supposed to be acting in the service of. Not the other way around.
In my opinion, Wikileaks has adopted the best traditions of American journalism. Traditions that the modern media pay lip service to but in reality, abandoned a long time ago.
In this era of corruption at high levels, it's just what the Doctor ordered.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
What Does Julian Fantino Have To Hide?
I'm guessing he has a lot to hide and cudos go to Liberal Leader Ignatieff for raising the question and demanding answers.
Apparently the only G20 budget details now unaccounted for is the 100 million dollars spent by the OPP under Fantino's leadership as OPP Commissioner.
Since Fantino is running under the Conservative banner and has been endorsed personally by Harper, Ignatieff's concern that the Conservatives are supporting a cover up in order to ensure Fantino gets elected in the Vaughn Federal By-Election on November 29 is quite legitimate.
Why is Fantino so reluctant to have that information made public at this time if he has nothing to hide?
Why is the Conservative Party willing to risk their reputation to cover up for Fantino if he does have something to hide?
Wouldn't it be better for the Conservatives to drop their support for Fantino before it causes them potentially major problems down the line?
This is the type of thing that could ensure that they lose the next Federal Election to the Liberals so they shouldn't make the mistake of assuming that this will blow over.
Ignatieff is a smart man and he's not going to stop flogging this useful and timely horse. It's a gift horse for the Liberal Party.
And frankly, shouldn't the voters in Vaughn be aware of any possible corruption where taxpayers money is concerned before they elect Fantino to represent their community? Don't they have that right?
Toronto Police Services Chief Bill Blair, openly and honestly, handed over his budget and his was probably the only police service involved that came in under budget.
He, apparently, didn't have anything to hide but then he's a police officer who is known for his integrity and honesty.
In addition to Fantino being required to hand over the details of the G20 OPP expenditures immediately, I would like the answers to the following questions:
Given the fact that the OPP under Julian Fantino's leadership infiltrated the Southern Ontario Anarchists:
1. Why was this most violent protest where vandalism was concerned, in the history of G20 protests around the world?
2. How did these plans get past the OPP undercover officers or did they?
3. Did Fantino authorize agent provocateurs to incite Black Bloqists?
4. Did the undercover officers become Black Bloqists?
5. Where were the police when this vandalism was occurring?
Note that the old Red Squad style Dirty Tricks are now illegal in Canada.
If the OPP, under Fantino's leadership, did engage in this style of Dirty Tricks, then those who made these decisions as well as those who implemented these decisions, should be held accountable and charges laid.
And if this was done, don't the good people of Vaughn have the right to make an informed vote and not one based on a potentially serious deception?
Perhaps Fantino is afraid the budget might expose these types of expenditures?
Now I'm not a supporter or advocate of Anarchism. Frankly I don't understand it or care enough to try to understand it.
I am a defender of civil rights and am both shocked and outraged that such draconian abuses of power and violations of citizen rights could occur in my city in 2010.
I want those responsible held accountable, no matter who they are.
People like Fantino should not be above the law and should not be protected out of political expedience.
Not to mention the fact that if something serious is being hidden here it's going to come back to bite the Conservatives really hard.
So my question to the Conservative Party and Prime Minister Harper is:
Is Julian Fantino worth losing the next election over?
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Lest We Forget
Terry Kelly - A Pittance of Time
In Flanders Fields
by John McCrae, May 1915
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
by John McCrae, May 1915
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Atheists In Foxholes (United States)
Atheists in Foxholes
Atheists in foxholes, some say they are myths,
Creations of the mind who just don't exist.
Yet, they answered the call to defend, with great pride.
With reason their watchword, they bled and they died.
They took Saratoga from the British crown,
Secured America's freedom at the Battle of Yorktown.
From Sumter to Appomattox, fields flowed with their blood.
When the cannons grew silent, the flag proudly stood.
From the Marne to the Argonne, in trenches and tanks,
They defeated the Germans -- the whole world gave thanks.
They were bombed at Pearl Harbor, fought on to Berlin.
Many freethinking women served along with the men.
Still war keeps erupting -- Iraq, Bosnia, and Kosovo.
Where is the peace that eludes people so?
It is broken by tyrants who bear crosses and creeds,
That overshadow reason with hate and cruel deeds.
So atheists prevail until your work is complete.
Mothers mourn, children cry, and bigots plan your defeat.
By air, land, and sea, you answer freedom's call.
Without god or faith, you seek liberty for all.
AustraliaAtheists in Foxholes
Atheists in foxholes, some say they are myths,
Creations of the mind who just don't exist.
Yet, they answered the call to defend, with great pride.
With reason their watchword, they bled and they died.
They took Saratoga from the British crown,
Secured America's freedom at the Battle of Yorktown.
From Sumter to Appomattox, fields flowed with their blood.
When the cannons grew silent, the flag proudly stood.
From the Marne to the Argonne, in trenches and tanks,
They defeated the Germans -- the whole world gave thanks.
They were bombed at Pearl Harbor, fought on to Berlin.
Many freethinking women served along with the men.
Still war keeps erupting -- Iraq, Bosnia, and Kosovo.
Where is the peace that eludes people so?
It is broken by tyrants who bear crosses and creeds,
That overshadow reason with hate and cruel deeds.
So atheists prevail until your work is complete.
Mothers mourn, children cry, and bigots plan your defeat.
By air, land, and sea, you answer freedom's call.
Without god or faith, you seek liberty for all.
Sunday, November 07, 2010
CBCs The Confession : Russell Williams
View The Confession online, A Fifth Estate program.
Before I comment on this particular show, let me just say, that Fifth Estate has exceeded themselves this season.
I haven't missed an episode. While I've enjoyed the show for years, I haven't watched more than three episodes a season in the past. Of course, we all have different levels of interest in different topics so I suppose it could simply mean that this season so far has covered topics I happen to be interested in and past seasons haven't. Or, it could be the fact that I have registered for their email notifications and am now more aware of the show topics. Or, it could just be that this is a particularly good season.
Whichever it is, I've been riveted, so thanks, Fifth Estate.
The Confession was a fascinating look at the Police Interrogation process as well as a very revealing, albeit brief, glimpse into the mind of Russell Williams. A mind which I believe is quite psychopathic.
It presented a one hour collage of the original 8 hour (I think) interrogation, avoiding sensationalism, and focusing the attention on both the Interrogation technique and Williams avoidance strategies.
Now, I'm not a psychologist or a psychiatrist, but I have had the rather unpleasant experience of having to deal with psychopaths in my personal life.
Some were relatives and one has been a life long stalker who continues to stalk me to this day.
I believe that direct personal experience, plus my own self-education, provides me with some unique qualifications and enough personal insight to talk about this topic in an informed way.
Key character traits of the psychopath are that they are pathological liars and narcissists. They have to be pathological liars. It's the only way that they can fly under the radar and maintain their mask of sanity. This mask of sanity is maintained in the same way that all narcissists do it. Through conscious and deliberate image building and image marketing. (While all psychopaths are narcissists, not all narcissists are psychopaths).
Since they are incapable of feeling empathy which is the foundation of most of our positive emotions like love, compassion, etc. they learn from a very young age to imitate those who can.
So, it was quite interesting when during the interview, the following occurred:
1. The interrogator asked Williams how he wanted to be seen and then casually dropped the phrase cold-blooded psychopath.
If you watch the show, look for this and watch Williams expression. It's priceless.
2. Later on in the interview, Williams starts expressing concern for his wife and her feelings and in his letter to her deliberately presents an affectionate portrayal of his fondness for his cat.
Note that the McDonald Triad (childhood animal torture, pyromania, and bedwetting) for Serial Killers is now common knowledge as is the likely physiological characteristic of psychopathy, the inability to feel empathy.
Since psychopaths are narcissists who work on image building, then it would matter more to them to carefully craft their image as a poor, misunderstood killer than be tagged with the image of a cold-blooded psychopath. This is assuming, of course, that they can't lie their way out of having committed the crime in the first place or successfully point the finger at someone else.
According to Martha Stout, in her book, The Sociopath Next Door, they need and want pity nor matter how evil their crimes.
So, Williams response of demonstrating concern for his wife's feelings and affection for his cat, to the Interrogators casual insertion of the phrase, cold-blooded psychopath, was, therefore, a classic and predictable psychopathic response.
That is, it was nothing more than a typically narcissistic attempt to correct his image from that of cold-blooded psychopath to that of a poor, misunderstood serial killer. In other words, he does terrible things, he doesn't understand why does them, and needs help, sympathy and compassion. He will say or do anything to keep his mask firmly in place including the copious shedding of crocodile tears for his poor victims.
That is, it was nothing more than a typically narcissistic attempt to correct his image from that of cold-blooded psychopath to that of a poor, misunderstood serial killer. In other words, he does terrible things, he doesn't understand why does them, and needs help, sympathy and compassion. He will say or do anything to keep his mask firmly in place including the copious shedding of crocodile tears for his poor victims.
There was, of course, a lot more in that interview which leads one to the conclusion that Williams is a psychopath, but this was such an obvious example of his psychopathy that it was, in my opinion, worth extracting and pointing out.
Psychopaths in high, privileged positions, like both Williams and the one stalking me, pose a serious danger to our society.
Psychopaths in high, privileged positions who are also entrusted with Canada's Defense and Intelligence, like both Williams and the one stalking me, pose a much more serious danger to our National Security.
This is a serious problem which needs to be addressed by society.
Dr. Robert Hare, Professor Emeritus at UBC, is Canada's internationally renown and foremost expert in the field of Psychopathy and has written numerous books on this topic as well as created the PCL scale which can be used to determine psychopathy in individuals.
According to Dr. Hare, in his book, The Disturbing World of the Psychopath:
"If crime is the job description, the psychopath is the perfect applicant."
Psychopaths are found in every segment of society, and there is a good chance that eventually you will have a painful or humiliating encounter with one. Your best defense is to understand the nature of these human predators."
"Psychopaths are social predators who charm, manipulate, and ruthlessly plow their way through life, leaving a broad trail of broken hearts, shattered expectations, and empty wallets. Completely lacking in conscience and in feelings for others, they selfishly take what they want and do as they please, violating social norms and expectations without the slightest sense of guilt or regret.
. . . psychopaths are generally well satisfied with themselves and with their inner landscape, bleak as it may seem to outside observers. They see nothing wrong with themselves, experience little personal distress, and find their behavior rational, rewarding, and satisfying; they never look back with regret or forward with concern. They perceive themselves as superior beings in a hostile, dog-eat-dog world in which others are competitors for power and resources. Psychopaths feel it is legitimate to manipulate and deceive others in order to obtain their “rights,” and their social interactions are planned to outmaneuver the malevolence they see in others."Psychopaths Among Us / Suffering Souls
Saturday, November 06, 2010
CBCs Above Suspicion : Colonel Russell Williams
Colonel David Russell Williams was finally arrested on February 7, 2010.
On February 8, 2010, he was formally charged with two counts of first degree murder, forcible confinement and sexual assault of Marie France Comeau and Jessica Lloyd.
Up until that time he had also committed numerous break-ins and thefts of underwear and other personal items like photographs including those of a young 15 year old girl.
But, unfortunately for Larry Jones, not before his reputation and life were turned upside down by Williams' apparent and rather successful attempts to frame him.
Had it not been for one sole witness who just happened to be driving by Jessica Lloyd's home (the second murder/rape victim) with his cousin, just happened to spot an SUV sitting in the middle of a field near the house, and decided to report the observation to the police, Larry Jones would likely have been the one arrested.
All of Russ Williams friends were in shock including the Commanding Officer that promoted him.
There was absolutely no indication to anyone who knew him that he was even capable of such things. As a result he was entrusted with the command of the top secret base Camp Mirage in Dubai and later with the command of one of Canada's main military bases in Trenton, Ontario, CFB Trenton. He was also given the responsibility of flying the PM, the Queen, the Governor General and other top dignitaries around Canada and overseas.
In my personal opinion (I'm not a psychologist or psychiatrist) Mr. Williams displays all of the characteristics of a Psychopath.
Without an understanding of the psychopathic mind, without any knowledge of psychopaths and how they operate, Mr. Williams' Commanding Officer and friends would have had no way of knowing what they were dealing with.
Without an understanding of the psychopathic mind, without any knowledge of psychopaths and how they operate, Mr. Williams' Commanding Officer and friends would have had no way of knowing what they were dealing with.
Psychopaths are experts at maintaining their masks of sanity and normalcy. They are also expert manipulators and pathological liars. While there may be some benefit to ruthlessness in certain security and intelligence fields, the risk of having a psychopath in these positions outweighs any potential benefit because their personal obsessions reign supreme and they are incapable of real loyalty or allegiance.
Now, imagine the story if Mr. Russell Williams was a multimillionaire with high level political, social, police, defence and intelligence connections.
Imagine Mr. Russell Williams as a member of Canada's wealthy elite.
One who socialized with the Queen, the PM, the Governor General and other dignitaries.
One with the financial resources to:
And was satisfied with gaining his thrills vicariously rather than directly.
The National security and social security implications of such a person existing are mind-boggling as is the potential risk.
One who socialized with the Queen, the PM, the Governor General and other dignitaries.
One with the financial resources to:
- bribe people to maintain their silence,
- hire people and unethical private investigation firms privately to perform the riskier criminal acts of break-ins, thefts, frame-ups, kidnapping, fraud, etc.,
- influence-peddle the wealthy as well as influence-peddle (and buy) politicians, judges, lawyers and other professionals,
- had the connections to misappropriate government funds,
- manipulate the media,
- ruin anyone who got in his way,
And was satisfied with gaining his thrills vicariously rather than directly.
The National security and social security implications of such a person existing are mind-boggling as is the potential risk.
Will he get caught? Or will he continue to be Above Suspicion?
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Kevin Annett and The United Church of Canada
Dear United Church of Canada,
Please note that it has not escaped my attention that you access my blog every time I write about Kevin Annett. You should also know that I have made him aware of this fact.
So, since I fully expect you to show up like a bad penny when I post this, I would like to take this opportunity to have a chat with you.
Don't you think it's time that you put your big boy pants on and behaved like mature adults instead of recalcitrant children having a temper tantrum and refusing to take responsibility for your rather shameless history and despicable treatment of Kevin Annett?
What would your Christ have to say about your treatment of the aboriginal children in the Residential Schools in Canada?
"Whatever you have done unto the least you have done to me!"
What would your Christ have to say about your treatment of Kevin Annett over the past 30 or so years?
"First, take the log out of your own eye, then you will see clearly to take the little speck out of someone else's eye."
What would your Christ say about Kevin Annett?
A man who has done nothing more than take your Christ's words to heart and try to give those children a voice. The children who are now adult survivors of your abuse and those who died brutally at your hands.
"It's better for someone to have a heavy stone tied around his neck and thrown into the sea than for that person to offend one of these little children."
We all know the truth of what happened in those Residential Schools and we all know that those adult survivors of abuse at your hands are telling the truth. So I'm not going to quibble with you or anyone else over the facts nor am I interested in hearing any rationalizations or spin on those facts.
Facts:
1. Aboriginal Canadian children were kidnapped from their homes.
2. Aboriginal Canadian parents were forced to give up their children, often at gunpoint or through other threats.
3. Aboriginal Canadian children were forced to attend Church-run Residential Schools, both Protestant and Catholic.
4. In all of these Residential Schools, including those run by the United Church, children were routinely:
a. brutally physically abused amounting to torture
b. sexually abused both by staff and by being handed over to pedophile rings
c. prohibited from speaking their own languages
d. prohibited from practicing their cultures
e. murdered
f. had proper medical care withheld
g. were likely subjected to involuntary human experimentation
amongst other things.
I think that your refusal to:
1. publicly acknowledge your history by acknowledging that the victims story are true
2. compensate the victims as an act of atonement so that they can forgive you
Is a crime, never mind a sin against your God.
"Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled."
And your life long malicious persecution of Kevin Annett can be best described as the despicable act of cowards.
"A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control."
How can you expect forgiveness and reconciliation without atonement?
Please:
1. end the persecution, abuse and smear campaign against Kevin Annett
2. atone for your abuse of Kevin by compensating him
And please:
1. publicly acknowledge the truth of the stories as related by the adult survivors of Residential School abuse including the ones about the children murdered
2. atone for your abuse of these children by compensating them
3. give the murdered children justice by acknowledging the burial sites and supporting any investigation into the burial sites
"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives."
These acts can open the door to truth and reconciliation.
"Physician, heal thyself"
Assuming that's what you really want and not just a means to sweep the whole mess under the carpet.
"Do unto others as you would have others do unto you."
Dear United Church of Canada, this post was written by an ethical atheist who apparently has far higher moral standards than you do. One who would never join any religion for any reason, particularly given the sheer hypocrisy and despicable behavior of many (not all) religions followers and organized religious structures like yours.
It's churches like yours and followers like you who turn more people away from your God and your Christ than any mythological Satan or Anti-Christ, although that's a convenient excuse.
It's churches like yours and followers like you who turn more people away from your God and your Christ than any mythological Satan or Anti-Christ, although that's a convenient excuse.
Please feel free to continue to visit my blog when I write about Kevin's activities, your malicious persecution of him, and the despicable history of your church. You might learn something.
"Love Thy Neighbor"
Sincerely,
Kitty Hundal
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Kevin Annett : Resurrection - On Internet Radio
Resurrection: Kevin Annett is back on the air on www.blogtalkradio.com
This Saturday, October 23, 2010 at 1 pm PST, 4 pm EST, 9 pm GMT London
Call-in Number: (347) 857-3524
www.blogtalkradio.com- type "Kevin Annett" under Search in upper right cornerKevin Annett resumes his weekly radio program "Hidden from History" with a report of the inquiry into missing women on Canada's west coast, and the Human Rights Tribunal that will try the Pope next April.
Please spread the word and call in!
Monday, September 06, 2010
Organized Stalking Must Stop
Interesting article on the topic and worth the read.
According to a 2009 Department of Justice survey of stalking victims, 6.5 percent responded that the number of offenders is unknown (while 13.1 percent responded that the number is three or more). The stalking of one individual by a multitude of people (too large to identify) is called organized stalking, cause-stalking or gang-stalking.
Private investigator David Lawson, licensed in the U.S. and Canada, investigated organized stalking cases for 20 years by identifying and "joining" perpetrators' groups and wrote a booklet, "Cause Stalking." According to this book, hundreds of people are taught that the stalking target is the reason for their problems. Those who can spy on and/or assault the target are told maliciously false gossip about the target and bribed with cash or illegal drugs into carrying out the mission. The perpetrators are ordinary people, including janitors in apartments who have keys to get into locked doors and taxi drivers who can "patrol" the road while they are on the job.
Derrick Robinson, the president of Freedom from Covert Harassment and Surveillance, has interacted with over 1,000 targeted individuals in the last five years. He says the attacks are often engineered to make the target's experience resemble the diagnosis of the persecutory delusional disorder or paranoid schizophrenia. This way, real delusional reports make real organized stalking cases less credible. A grand legal loophole is thus created.
Robinson and Lawson say a similar course of conduct is directed at most targets, which includes organized perjury (many people file false allegations of a kind of a crime that is hard to prove against one target), electromagnetic assault, repeated break-ins, phone and computer inception, stolen airmails, repeated nonlethal poisoning and toxic gassing (of the target's residence). According to Lawson, criminal organizations and hate groups are often hired to coordinate organized stalking by those who attempt to undermine the psychiatric reliability of the target (because the target filed a police report against them, is a threat or scapegoat to them, and so forth).
Certain provisions in the state penal code (including stalking, soliciting a crime and assault) can punish the courses of conduct of organized stalking. Yet the deeds are committed in a premeditated manner, leaving no visible evidence (this is why a loner without any co-witnessing family members nearby is often targeted, according to Lawson).
Consequently, according to Robinson, law enforcement personnel (and psychiatrists) assume that the target imagines victimization, and decide not to intervene, resulting in the victim's severe and unnecessary (yet invisible) injuries. Lawson says the victim cannot escape even if he or she moves to another continent, because the local gangs of the new place will be hired to continue the mission. Understandably, 11 percent of the victims reported being stalked for five years or more, according to the Justice Department's survey.
Tomo Shibata, Ph.D. is founding and presiding in a nonprofit organization, Ending Organized Stalking, in Ithaca, and can be contacted at ts24@cornell.edu.
Private investigator David Lawson, licensed in the U.S. and Canada, investigated organized stalking cases for 20 years by identifying and "joining" perpetrators' groups and wrote a booklet, "Cause Stalking." According to this book, hundreds of people are taught that the stalking target is the reason for their problems. Those who can spy on and/or assault the target are told maliciously false gossip about the target and bribed with cash or illegal drugs into carrying out the mission. The perpetrators are ordinary people, including janitors in apartments who have keys to get into locked doors and taxi drivers who can "patrol" the road while they are on the job.
Derrick Robinson, the president of Freedom from Covert Harassment and Surveillance, has interacted with over 1,000 targeted individuals in the last five years. He says the attacks are often engineered to make the target's experience resemble the diagnosis of the persecutory delusional disorder or paranoid schizophrenia. This way, real delusional reports make real organized stalking cases less credible. A grand legal loophole is thus created.
Robinson and Lawson say a similar course of conduct is directed at most targets, which includes organized perjury (many people file false allegations of a kind of a crime that is hard to prove against one target), electromagnetic assault, repeated break-ins, phone and computer inception, stolen airmails, repeated nonlethal poisoning and toxic gassing (of the target's residence). According to Lawson, criminal organizations and hate groups are often hired to coordinate organized stalking by those who attempt to undermine the psychiatric reliability of the target (because the target filed a police report against them, is a threat or scapegoat to them, and so forth).
Certain provisions in the state penal code (including stalking, soliciting a crime and assault) can punish the courses of conduct of organized stalking. Yet the deeds are committed in a premeditated manner, leaving no visible evidence (this is why a loner without any co-witnessing family members nearby is often targeted, according to Lawson).
Consequently, according to Robinson, law enforcement personnel (and psychiatrists) assume that the target imagines victimization, and decide not to intervene, resulting in the victim's severe and unnecessary (yet invisible) injuries. Lawson says the victim cannot escape even if he or she moves to another continent, because the local gangs of the new place will be hired to continue the mission. Understandably, 11 percent of the victims reported being stalked for five years or more, according to the Justice Department's survey.
Tomo Shibata, Ph.D. is founding and presiding in a nonprofit organization, Ending Organized Stalking, in Ithaca, and can be contacted at ts24@cornell.edu.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Sunday, August 08, 2010
Hacking and IT Culture
IT Culture has come into the limelight in recent weeks due to Byron Sonne's arrest just prior to the G20 Summit in Toronto.
Byron Sonne is part of the IT Hacker community in Toronto and a Security professional although the claim of professionalism has been challenged by at least one blogger on BelchSpeak.
So, perhaps this is a good time to enlighten the public on IT Culture, what it is and what constitutes standard practice.
Hacking (exposing vulnerabilities in computer hardware and software systems) is part of our IT culture and not an uncommon practice.
Is it illegal? Technically speaking, yes it is and always has been.
However, in it's defense and in my personal opinion, the problems with hacking isn't so much that it's done but what the motivation is. This motivation can be determined by observing what occurs as a result of it's being done.
For example, if a person hacks a system in order to set it up to:
- participate in a DNS attack,
- load a virus or other maliciously destructive software,
- violate the privacy of an individual, group, corporation, etc. they've targeted,
- steal and/or tamper with data or software code,
amongst many other things....
They've committed an illegal act and should be held accountable including prison time.
They've committed an illegal act and should be held accountable including prison time.
The criminal act, in my opinion, was what occurred when the person accessed the system, not the access to the system.
On the other hand, if someone is Black Box Testing a system in order to expose vulnerabilities, but does no harm to the system and/or reports the vulnerabilities to the target so that they can improve their security, I (and I would argue that most IT people) don't see this as a problem, never mind a criminal act.
Historically, this has been the role of the White Hat Hacker and one that many corporations have appreciated and benefited from.
Why has this become part of IT Culture?
In order to protect systems and keep them secure, we need to know how to break them first and this gives us the information we need to secure them.
As a Web and Software Developer, if I don't understand how SQL Injection or Cross-site posting works I can't develop software which blocks these kinds of attacks.
This is one of the key purposes behind Black Box Testing. It gives the IT professional the information they need to either write secure code or implement configuration changes to hardware for the purpose of securing the system against malicious hacking.
Black Box Testing is an IT methodology where the tester doesn't know the internal workings of a software or hardware system but will poke it, both see if they can bypass it's security and expose any vulnerabilities in the system.
It's generally a constructive activity which contributes to ensuring that IT hardware and software systems and therefore the privacy and security of those who use these systems is protected.
A key principle behind this type of hacking is that no harm must be done to the system being probed or with information garnered.
As soon as harm is done, it crosses the line from White Hat Hacking into malicious hacking also known as Black Hat Hacking.
So, what then constitutes harm?
In my opinion, just noting that one was able to access private information, particularly if this access is then reported to the appropriate parties, does not constitute doing harm.
Why?
Because no negative act occurred as a result of this violation, and if it was reported, the violation is offset by the reporting which will result in a more secure system.
Accessing private information and then using it for blackmail purposes would constitute doing harm, would be malicious hacking and of course the person who committed such an act belongs in jail.
The IT Community, particularly the IT Security Community, which consists of numerous White Hat Hackers, should be commended and not demonized, for their constructive contributions to the IT Security field and industry.
Background information:
Hacking Wiki
Originally published July 24 (8:54AM). Republished August 8 with revisions.
Irrespective of whether Byron Sonne turns out to be a White Hat, Black Hat, or possibly a Grey Hat Hacker.
Something which remains to be seen.
I don't know him, but what little information I've been able to pick up on his activities through Internet searches gives me serious cause for concern, despite the confidence displayed by his friends.
Friends who, while I'm sure they're nice and for the most part honest, sincere and caring people, obviously have an emotional stake in this cause and are unlikely to be able to see this situation as objectively as an outsider would.
That said, there is a concept held by some hackers, called Full Disclosure which could have an impact and which I'll be discussing in another blog.
One of the difficulties in the Byron Sonne situation is that the Bail Hearing was held under a publication ban at Sonne's lawyers request.
So it's currently impossible to make a rational decision based on actual facts, regarding whether or not Sonne's actions were reasonable in the context of IT culture and based on the facts that I do have I can't in good conscience defend his actions.
Something which remains to be seen.
I don't know him, but what little information I've been able to pick up on his activities through Internet searches gives me serious cause for concern, despite the confidence displayed by his friends.
Friends who, while I'm sure they're nice and for the most part honest, sincere and caring people, obviously have an emotional stake in this cause and are unlikely to be able to see this situation as objectively as an outsider would.
That said, there is a concept held by some hackers, called Full Disclosure which could have an impact and which I'll be discussing in another blog.
One of the difficulties in the Byron Sonne situation is that the Bail Hearing was held under a publication ban at Sonne's lawyers request.
So it's currently impossible to make a rational decision based on actual facts, regarding whether or not Sonne's actions were reasonable in the context of IT culture and based on the facts that I do have I can't in good conscience defend his actions.
Background information:
Hacking Wiki
Originally published July 24 (8:54AM). Republished August 8 with revisions.
Monday, August 02, 2010
In Defense Of Richard Silverstein And Free Speech
The following was posted on a blog called Medawar's Cornflakes. I am reproducing it here for the same reasons that Medawar indicated that he posted it.
While I may or may not agree with everything Mr Silverstein says, he has the right to say it without being harassed and being the victim of malicious DOS attacks attempting to bring down his site and by doing so, suppress his Right To Free Speech.
Medawar's Cornflakes
The following is reproduced from Richard Silverstein's blog, "Tikun Olam" simply because it would appear to be the trigger for a sustained denial of service attack against his site. Reproduction shouldn't be taken as an endorsement of all of Mr Silverstein's views and actions (Lord knows: he might have done all sorts of bad stuff that Medawar doesn't know about.) But DOS attacks, particularly when it seems as if Israeli police computers may have been hacked or infected in order to launch it, are as threatening to modern society as piracy on the High Seas and Cash in Transit Robberies. Medawar hasn't reproduced any of the comments that were on the blog, because it is impossible to assume the commentator's permission and some of them were obscene.
The article was headed by a picture of an alleged Israeli torturer, which was obtained by Mr Silverstein in the pixellated condition you see below. A lot of the embedded links below seem to work now: presumably the URL information got copied across with them? Medawar is a bit surprised, but not complaining!
The article was headed by a picture of an alleged Israeli torturer, which was obtained by Mr Silverstein in the pixellated condition you see below. A lot of the embedded links below seem to work now: presumably the URL information got copied across with them? Medawar is a bit surprised, but not complaining!
Identity of Former IDF Torturer Exposed, ‘Captain George’ is Doron Zahavi
Alleged Arab torturer Doron Zahavi aka 'Captain George' (Haaretz)
Yesterday, I reported here on a Haaretz story about the notorious “Captain George,” an IDF military intelligence interrogator accused in 2004 of sodomizing a Lebanese kidnap victim in order to secure information about the location of IDF officer, Ron Arad. Among the things I wrote was my complaint that Haaretz was protecting the real identity of George even though he no longer served in military intelligence.
With the help of a diligent Israeli researcher, I can now expose George’s real identity. He is Doron Zahavi, currently the Arab affairs liaison for the Jerusalem police. His job, as I noted yesterday, is to direct community relations and liaison efforts between the police and Jerusalem’s Arab residents.
In discussing the parameters of Zahavi’s job, a police spokesperson told Haaretz:
“The adviser must be an accepted and welcome figure in the Arab community, with excellent interpersonal skills – someone they feel they can trust, otherwise he cannot succeed in the job,” a senior police officer said.
ACRI complaint identifies Doron Zahavi by name
Apparently, Zahavi has performed his job so well he’s garnering rave reviews right and left from his Arab interlocutors. One, Jouad Siam, complained that in a February, 2010 interrogation, Zahavi threatened to destroy his home (Hebrew source) unless he disbanded a Silwan information center Siam had founded to counter the building efforts of settlers in his neigborhood. Here is how the ex-torturer now conducts himself. I’ll let you be the judge whether the leopard has changed his spots:
He [Zahavi] told us we were making problems and we had to close the center. I told him: “I thought we are in a democracy.” This raised the ire of ‘George,’ who said: “We Jews are fools. We treat you too well. I thought you would behave yourself.” ’George’ threatened that he would draw up a demolition order for his home if he refused to close the center.
According to Siam, “The entire conversation was conducted in shouts. He didn’t let me speak. He would ask and answer his own questions [without allowing Siam to respond]. At the end of the discussion, he told me to go home and behave myself.
Last February, the Association for Civil Right in Israel registered a formal complaint against Zahavi for his outburst. Among the claims listed was that Zahavi called Siam a “criminal” and said that the latter would be held responsible for everything that happened in Silwan. The interrogator asked about the source of Siam’s income and told him he would intervene with his boss. At the end of the meeting, Zahavi attempted to enlist Siam as an informant.
The police replied formally to the complaint claiming laughably that Zahavi had merely invited Siam to a “get to know you” meeting in which the police advisor sought to discover what issues particularly troubled the local Arab population. In the course of the meeting, Zahavi felt it necessary to inform his Arab interlocutor about activities in which he was engaged that violated the law. No mention in the police reply how founding an information center was a violation of law.
The publicly available ACRI complaint lists Zahavi’s real name. In that case, why would Haaretz not be able to use it? The whole situation baffles me. At any rate, thank God we’re not bound by any such nonsense and we offer the real Doron Zahavi to the world in all his glory. If a reader has a picture of Zahavi, please let me know.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Curiosities, the G20 and a Full Provincial Public Inquiry
Why did the most violent acts in the history of any G20/G8 Summit occur in Ottawa/Toronto, purportedly by anarchists, at a time that OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino had the Southern Ontario Anarchists infiltrated (by his own admission)?
Exactly how much was spent on additional services provided by additional private Security firms as a result of this increased "terrorist" threat, incited by the Ottawa goon squad, and which Security firms benefited that wouldn't have benefited without this increased "terrorist" threat?
How did the Black Bloc goon squads know exactly where there would be little or no police activity and where they could vandalize unfettered?
Why was there so much "confusion" amongst the lawyers regarding the interpretation of the Liberal governments law covering identification and detention of protestors, to the point where Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair was directly misinformed regarding what specific police powers the TPS had?
Why was a Press Release regarding these extraordinary police powers granted by the Liberal government approximately one month before the Summit not issued by the ISU to the Media ahead of time?
Why were the Protesters not informed of these extraordinary police powers and their extent ahead of time during information sessions held between the ISU, community and protest groups?
Why was a Press Release regarding these extraordinary police powers granted by the Liberal government approximately one month before the Summit not issued by the ISU to the Media ahead of time?
Why were the Protesters not informed of these extraordinary police powers and their extent ahead of time during information sessions held between the ISU, community and protest groups?
Why did the ISU (Integrated Services Unit - RCMP, OPP, TPS, CF and Peel Regional Police) place the TPS (Toronto Police Services) in charge of defending the fence instead of protecting the city? Wouldn't defense of the fence more appropriately belong to the RCMP or CF (Canadian Forces)?
Why was a CTV Producer and a CTV Cameraman, both of whom properly identified themselves, arrested and detained?
Why were 900 peaceful protesters arrested when the Black Bloc goon squad consisted of fewer than 50 people, if that, or 100 if one wants to be generous/exaggerate?
What exactly was this law passed by the Liberal Government, that is, exactly what extraordinary police powers were granted and what was the extent of those powers?
And given these and other relevant questions ....
Why would Liberal Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty think that a Public Inquiry into the largest Mass Arrest and the most draconian violation of Civil Rights in the history of Canada, is somehow not required?
Or does he just have way too much to cover up?
Maybe it's time for a Provincial election ... It's definitely time for a full Provincial level Public Inquiry whether McGuinty thinks we need one or not.
Monday, July 05, 2010
Byron Sonne and G20 Security
Byron Sonne's bail hearing was finished today and a decision will be made on Bail on July 20.
Sonne, a CyberSecurity expert and licensed Private Investigator claims that he was simply testing the G20 security.
However, thanks to a publication ban invoked by his own lawyer, we still have no idea:
- What the specific test was
- What it was intended to demonstrate and to whom
- Why he felt it necessary to perform
- What the final goal of the test was.
We only know that according to friends, he was trying to find weaknesses in the G20 security and was publicizing those weaknesses online (Twitter, YouTube, and possibly other places).
There are indications from these same friends that he objected to the high cost and wanted to show that it was unjustified or some such thing.
However, the reality is that the methodology he employed would have ultimately undermined the security precautions taken, had he succeeded.
Was that his intent? What did he hope to gain by doing that? Was he trying to demonstrate that it could be undermined easily and the billion dollars was a waste of money?
The billion dollars was a waste of money but not because the security could be undermined (and it seems that it couldn't be - congrats go to the Toronto Police Service for that one).
It was a waste of money because it was based on, what I believe was a false "terrorist" threat (Ottawa RBC Firebombing) intended to incite fear, create an overreaction, and motivate a large amount of spending on security to the benefit of certain unethical private security companies.
A process, Byron Sonne, a CyberSecurity expert and licensed private investigator, would also have contributed to, had he been successful.
Here's another possible motivation, did his company attempt to get one of the very lucrative G20 private security contracts and fail?
And another possibility that I'm sure the Police are considering because if they weren't he'd have been released a long time ago.
Maybe he really did want to commit a terrorist act and his goal was to probe the security in order to find an opening which would allow him to do it.
The point that I'm making is that there are very good reasons to perform black box tests on security measures but there are also very insidious reasons including revenge and political extremism.
Perhaps I'm missing something, and I admit I don't have much in the way of facts, mainly because Byron Sonne's own lawyer had a publication ban placed on the Bail Hearing proceedings.
It just seems to me that the way that Sonne went about his testing would appear to indicate bad intent and not good intent. I suppose he could argue that he wanted it to appear that way and perhaps he did too good a job of it. On the other hand, so did the TPS when they caught him.
Depending on what he was purportedly testing and that still isn't clear, we really have no way of knowing whether this test was even a success or a failure.
If his only intention was to demonstrate the weaknesses in G20 Security through black box testing, all he had to do was hand the information over to the ISU instead of publicizing it.
If part of his testing was to see if he could get away with publicizing this type of information without getting caught he could have posted false but true-sounding information.
There were lots of ways of performing this type of black box testing without doing any harm to the G20 security apparatus.
Instead, he was revealing actual security information on Twitter and YouTube.
It also seems rather odd to me that a CyberSecurity expert and licensed Private Investigator would be naive enough to think that after spending a billion dollars on Security, the ISU wouldn't at the very least pick up on the basics.
Again, perhaps I'm missing something that more brilliant minds than mine can see but I'm also quite curious about what "Intimidating a Justice System Participant" has to do with testing G20 Security? That's a charge which involves threatening a Judge, Prosecutor or Juror.
If the test was to demonstrate that one could get away with making extremist and threatening statements, exposing sensitive security information and committing terrorist acts as long as one was seen as a nice guy and popular in ones circles with lots of people to come forward and speak well of one, then it remains to be seen whether that test has failed or succeeded in his case.
Although, I would agree that such a test has a strong potential of succeeding. I've seen it happen, often to my detriment. However, it usually also requires substantial amounts of cash and/or the connections to grant lucrative favors to back up that nice guy image. If one wants to stay out of jail, that is. It is also quite dependent on how much natural charisma a person has.
How many people thought Colonel Russell Williams was a great guy? I suspect many would have come forward to speak well of him and deny any claims that he could possibly be a serial killer and rapist. One doesn't become a Colonel by being unpopular.
Those claims would likely never have been believed if the police hadn't come up with solid evidence to support them.
Just a thought ....
Monday, June 28, 2010
GuantanaToronto
A modified Twitter Tweet:
Dear G20
Next time you decide to have a Summit, could you please hold it on Skype or on a Military Base?
XO
Love GuantanaToronto
Dear G20
Next time you decide to have a Summit, could you please hold it on Skype or on a Military Base?
XO
Love GuantanaToronto
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Black Bloc Tactics
What do Black Bloc tactics accomplish for the characters in the G8/G20 drama in Toronto?
For the Protestors?
They obscure, if not obliterate their message as well as result in many innocent people getting arrested for absolutely no reason.
Of course, the roaming goon squads that vandalized the city should be, and many were, arrested.
However, I seriously doubt that the majority of people arrested were participants in those sprees or any other illegal/terrorist activity. Not based on the reports I've heard through the traditional, alternative and social media.
Reports indicate that the goon squad members totaled between 50 and 100 out of thousands of Protesters. Based on the damage that occurred I'd say it was at the low end. A small number of determined people can do a lot of damage in a very short time when they're doing it unfettered.
At last count, on writing this blog and according to CBC News, well over 500 have been arrested, making this the largest mass arrest of people in Canada's history. Exceeding the previous record of 465 arrests which occurred during the War Measures Act in 1972 (FLQ Crisis).
UPDATE: As of 8:00PM EST, the number of arrests now exceeds 600 as per CBC TV News.
UPDATE: As of June 28, 2010 AM, the number of G20-related arrests made since June 18, 2010 totals over 900 as per the Toronto Star.
Note that the War Measures Act (1972) was in place for a period of one month, Canada-wide and resulted in 465 arrests.
No, I didn't participate, wasn't downtown and didn't observe anything first hand so any criticism of my statements based on those grounds is fair comment.
For the Provincial Government?
They justify the draconian and extraordinary measures taken by the Liberal Government which amounts to a full suspension of Civil Rights similar to but far less extensive (regionally) than that which occurred during the War Measures Act.
The War Measures Act was invoked Canada-wide for a period of one month. This legislation was invoked for Toronto only, although the parameters and specifics are rather unclear to everyone including, apparently, the traditional Media.
The fact that this regional limitation exists and a much shorter time period is involved, and this number of people was arrested, makes this far worse than the gross violation of Civil Rights that occurred in Canada in 1972 with the invocation of the War Measures Act.
The War Measures Act was invoked Canada-wide for a period of one month. This legislation was invoked for Toronto only, although the parameters and specifics are rather unclear to everyone including, apparently, the traditional Media.
The fact that this regional limitation exists and a much shorter time period is involved, and this number of people was arrested, makes this far worse than the gross violation of Civil Rights that occurred in Canada in 1972 with the invocation of the War Measures Act.
For the few unethical elements in the Private Security industry?
They justify the obscene additional expenditures which allowed them to rake in the profits.
Note that the Private Security industry provides private security guards as well as services like security passes, background clearances, equipment, etc. both to private companies in the area as well as to the G8/G20 security machine.
An atmosphere of fear helps them enormously when it comes to selling their services, particularly when it causes the public policing services to become overwhelmed..
An atmosphere of fear helps them enormously when it comes to selling their services, particularly when it causes the public policing services to become overwhelmed..
So, the only ones who don't benefit in any way from using Black Bloc tactics are the Protesters.
Go figure ....
There will probably be a lot more to say on this issue as the dust settles.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Toronto, the G20/G8 Summits and "Terrorism"
I'm not a Conspiracy Theorist and consider that the venue of the k00ks. One that they can keep as they hunt for monsters under each and every bed.
However, frankly, as a realist, there are conspiracy theories and there are conspiracy theories.
COINTELPRO, the RCMP Red Squad, and MKULTRA were also conspiracy theories when the rumors about them started.
The difference between those conspiracy theories and others is that witnesses came forward with personal testimony and/or certain acts occurred which didn't fit the explanations.
Having grown up during the era that exposed much of the truths behind these stories I had the opportunity to see this unfold.
The recent "terrorist" attacks in Ottawa and the recent arrest in Toronto of a "terrorist" smacks of a conspiracy theory in the process of exposure.
My original theory about the RBC Fire-bombings holds as far as I'm concerned.
In my opinion, this was nothing more than a deliberate attempt by unethical private security companies to create a panic in order to raise the terrorist threat level and to push the government into taking extraordinary security measures, while they sat back and raked in the profits.
This one just reeks of a scam.
Let's look at who is being arrested.
The RBC Fire-bombings were done by:
1. 32 year old man with a history of protest activity
He is the only person that fits the profile of what one would expect if this were a genuine terrorist attack by people who oppose the G20/G8 summits. He was most likely brought in to give credibility to the lie that young anarchists were involved. Not to mention that he will now make a convenient scapegoat.
He is the only person that fits the profile of what one would expect if this were a genuine terrorist attack by people who oppose the G20/G8 summits. He was most likely brought in to give credibility to the lie that young anarchists were involved. Not to mention that he will now make a convenient scapegoat.
Everyone else:
2. 58 year old retired civil servant who worked for CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency)
3. 50 year old Engineer
No tell my why an Engineer would fire-bomb a building when he has the skills to build something more sophisticated. And if he was concerned about people getting injured, could have created a more controlled type of explosion.
I'd also like to know why a 58 year old retired CIDA civil servant and 50 year old Engineer would vandalize buildings with stones and hammers when they could have made a far clearer statement with something more sophisticated.
Perhaps they did things this way because they were deliberately trying to give the impression that this attack was done by young anarchists in order to deflect suspicion from who they were and what they were really trying to accomplish?
And who was the person arrested in Toronto yesterday?
A millionaire CyberSecurity expert who contracts out his services in Toronto, lives in Forest Hills, and according to friends was purportedly testing G20 security.
He also just happens to be a licensed private investigator.
Sorry but this last arrest just fits my scenario like a proverbial glove.
If I were in the Integrated Security Unit, I'd be trying to figure out who paid the CyberSecurity expert, the Engineer, and the retired CIDA civil servant to do this and how much they were being paid for this particular service.
And I wouldn't be looking for a paper trail of cash. I'd be looking for cash purchases of property as well as home renovations, etc.
Let's face it, the private security firms were the one's that gained the most by these "terrorist" attacks as did their Investors. And if they financed these attacks they are as responsible as those who committed them.
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