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Post by neilmcgowan on Jun 23, 2013 14:31:20 GMT -5
The whereabouts of a young American, in Moscow for just 24 hours, are a closely-guarded secret at present. But a group of protestors has gathered - across the 8-lane highway - outside the American Embassy. Few people can look as professionally hopeless as the widely-hated American Ambassador, Michael McFool. McFool has no diplomatic training or background - he is mainly a loudmouth and bar-room lawyer who has been a hanger-on, 'consultant' and general American lackey in Moscow for the past decade. He made an unsuccessful attempt to become editor of the Moscow Times. Eventually Mr Barracks O'Bomber made him Ambassador. McFool is allegedly 'frantic' to locate Snowden, who has arrived in Moscow under his nose - reinforcing the general impression that McFool is a hopeless klutz who couldn't find his own way out of a paper bag, with a map printed on the inside. We wish Mr Snowden well. We wish Mr McFool ill. The Moscow authorities remain tight-lipped on the Snowden case - since the thugs who maintain the 'security' of the US Embassy might feasibly attempt to "render" him. Yet it appears so far that Moscow is just a safe transit spot for a day or so, until his eventual destination becomes clear. Yet one thing is quite clear - one cannot simply "turn up" in Moscow as an American, because one needs a visa. Mr Snowden clearly has one, and he must have obtained it in Hong Kong at the Russian Consulate. He has left the airport, so he is not 'in transit' as reported. Which all suggests that he is the most willing guest of the Russian Federation, who have arranged his visa and admitted him to the country knowing full well who he is.
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Post by Gerard on Jun 23, 2013 20:18:31 GMT -5
I found particularly striking the statement issued by the Hong Kong government (and reproduced by the Guardian). It - particularly the final paragraph - shows what a giant crack is in the process of opening up right now. How Downing Street's feathers will be ruffled!
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Post by Deleted on Jun 24, 2013 2:34:21 GMT -5
Good morning to you all! To all those who survived the weekend, what a weekend it turned out to be! Much ado about nothing? Congratulations to all! ' The Guardian' leads this week with some editorial comment on civil liberties: guarding the guards. Both the revelations of undercover police spy Peter Francis and NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden speak directly to the issue of trust between citizen and state."The people in our house were all black," said Doreen Lawrence. "The people who killed my son were white. Why should the police be so interested in who was in the house?" Now we have a possible explanation. Even as they grieved for their son Stephen, the Lawrence family may have been victims of covert surveillance. For them, it would be another personal low. It would also mark a new low in the history of undercover police operations. The apparent excuse: that frustration with the police inquiry among the family's friends and supporters might have spilled over into public disorder. This is the kind of thing that happens when, without adequate legal restraint, fears for security are allowed to take priority over privacy. This sort of undercover policing has been going on for 45 years. And it's still going on. According to the Metropolitan police – in response to questions from the Guardian journalists Paul Lewis and Rob Evans – one day a generation of officers will have to account for their actions. But not yet. So this secret band of officers, as we have reported over the past two years, can carry on creating fake identities to make friends among ordinary people involved in legal activism and protest, and then spy on them. These victims are the kind of people described by one judge as acting from the highest intentions, "decent men and women with a genuine concern for others". It is a grotesque betrayal of love and friendship which would amount – in the words of another judge – to the "gravest interference with their fundamental rights". 'The Guardian' defends thus: I propose some toast: to trust! Three cheers from kleines c and the gang (Monday morning breakfast coffee)!
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