Question for MSNBC’s Progressive Hosts re. The Network’s In-House Bigot: Pat Buchanan
July 27, 2011 No CommentMarkos tweets : MSNBC’s Phil Griffin loves having a white supremacist at the office. t.co/jgLvxXO What has Markos so fired up. Oh, it is about Pat Buchanan’s defense of Norway’s alleged right wing terrorist Anders Behring Breivik’s disgusting acts of violence. Yes, Buchanan went there : As for a climactic conflict between a once-Christian West and an Islamic world that is growing in numbers and advancing inexorably into Europe for the third time in 14 centuries, on this one, Breivik may be right. Jamo has a good post on MMFA pointing out how this is not the fast time Buchanan has emerged as “ the Devil’s advocate .” We just flagged MSNBC few weeks ago for their serious Buchanan problem for his appalling vitriol directed at supporter of same sex marriage . Yet as Markos observes : This stuff has a home on the fever swamps of the right. Remember, this is an ideology that despises multiculturalism, thinks torture is okay, and “empathy” is a dirty word. And if you don’t like it, well, they have lots of guns. So much so, that the country literally ran out of ammunition to sell after Obama was elected in 2008. Yet rather than be shunned from polite circles, he’s been given a permanent cot in the MSNBC green room. Apparently, MSNBC President Phil Griffin loves having a white supremacist around the office. If MSNBC bosses like Phil Griffin had any sense of moral decency Buchanan would no longer be on their payroll. The questions progressives should ask pose to other progressives who have shows on MSNBC: are they OKAY with having a white supremacist walking around in MSNBC? Are they going to going remain quiet if MSNBC does nothing to hold this individual accountable? (My twitter feed is @murshedz)
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Amid the chaos of the final weeks of her life, Amy Winehouse could still be entrancing, writes Alexandra Topping Sitting on the bar after closing time in her local in Camden, the lights dimmed and the doors locked, Amy Winehouse knew how to hold an audience, even before she became famous. After a night of drinks and laughter, she would perch her tiny frame on the bar, take up a guitar and sing. “Everybody would just stop and be entranced,” said Dougie Charles-Ridler, co-owner of the pub and long-time friend of the singer. In those days, Winehouse was a good-time girl with a big mouth and an attitude to match. “I remember when I first met her I asked what she did and she just said, ‘I’m a jazz singer,’ he said. “No one had ever given that response before.” But the picture friends paint of the woman she became is suffused with a different type of light. No longer able to chat to old friends undisturbed, or throw herself behind the bar to serve a few lucky punters, she would go into the pub on her own on a Monday or Tuesday, often in the quiet of an afternoon, stand in front of the jukebox and turn it up loud. “Recently she’d always be with two bouncers rather than two friends,” said veteran lads’ mag journalist Piers Hernu, who had known Winehouse through friends and the Camden scene for years. “People wouldn’t go up to her any more, she wouldn’t talk to people. She just became increasingly alienated from her own world.” She was alone, it seems, for the last night of her life. During his 40-minute eulogy at her funeral on Tuesday her father, Mitch, said the singer had stayed in her Camden Square townhouse. After seeing a doctor for a routine appointment at around 8.30pm, she played drums and sang into the early hours, until her bouncer told her to keep it down. He heard her footsteps overhead for a while, then it went quiet. When he went to check on her in the morning she appeared to be sleeping, and it was only after checking again at 4pm on Saturday afternoon that he realised she was dead. How she died remains unclear. A postmortem examination carried out on Monday proved inconclusive and, from the information released so far, the days leading up to her death seem relatively uneventful. On Friday she saw her boyfriend, the film director Reg Traviss, and they talked about the wedding they were going to. Winehouse was trying to decide what to wear. Her mother has said that at lunch on the same day the singer had seemed “out of it”, but they had spent an enjoyable day together and among the last things her daughter had said was: “I love you, Mum.” On Wednesday, the last time Charles-Ridler saw her, she seemed in good spirits. “She jumped into my arms – she hardly weighed anything – and wrapped her legs around my waist,” he said. Asking the singer if she was all right, he received a response that was typically Winehouse. “‘Course I am, darlin’,” she said, and walked off like Eric Morecambe. The same night she made a surprise public appearance with her godchild, the 15-year-old soul singer Dionne Bromfield, at the Roundhouse. The video if not painful, is uncomfortable viewing. Winehouse comes on stage and lifts Bromfield up with the force of her embrace. Then, dressed in skinny jeans and a black polo T-shirt she dances sporadically, turning to the drummer, laughing and turning away. When Bromfield briefly holds the microphone to Winehouse’s mouth, she does not sing. Some of Winehouse’s appearances this year held promise for those desperate to see the singer back to her Grammy-winning best. During a five-date tour of Brazil in January , some performances, such as a rendition of the Moulin Rouge song Boulevard of Broken Dreams , gave a tantalising glimpse of the talent that had been obscured for many years. Then, after another stint in rehab in early June, Winehouse played a seven-song set to a small group of family and friends at London’s 100 Club on 12 June. She was “coherent” and “back on form” according to according to one observer, while Mitch Winehouse, during his eulogy, called it a great night. “Her voice was good, her wit and timing were perfect,” he said. But then, just six days later, painfully, dramatically and very publicly Winehouse came tumbling off the wagon. On the first night of a “comeback” tour of Europe in Belgrade she appeared on stage an hour late. Visibly drunk, she seemed barely able to remember the lyrics she had written and was finally booed off stage by fans who had just wanted to hear her sing. Days later her management cancelled the 12-date tour, saying the singer would be given “as long as it takes” to sort herself out. “Everyone was absolutely gobsmacked,” a source close to the management told the Guardian. “The hotel had been told to remove all traces of alcohol, but what can you do? She is a 27-year-old woman and if an addict wants to get hold of alcohol, they will do.” Questions were asked about why Winehouse was touring, and why she had gone on stage, but those close to her had every reason to think she was “back on track” professionally, the source added. “There was no reason to expect a disaster, things had seemed on the up.” In recent days Raye Cosbert, Winehouse’s manager from the Metropolis management company, and the co-president of Island Records, Darcus Beese, have taken pains to swat down reports that the shambolic performance had created a rift between them, issuing a statement saying they had always stood “shoulder to shoulder” to give Winehouse “our total support and all the love her huge talent and wonderful human spirit deserved”. But while few doubt that everyone in Winehouse’s entourage – label, management, family – were doing their best to help her recovery, a source close to Universal, Island’s mother label, said that after seeing the Serbia performance: “Everybody was shocked she was doing anything. It was very odd to us. Obviously it didn’t help, it couldn’t have.” Mitch Winehouse said this week that his daughter had been off hard drugs for three years, and was trying to tackle the alcohol problems that were so painfully apparent in Serbia. “People focus on the drugs, but the biggest problem was Amy’s alcoholism,” said Hernu. “It had the worst effect on her little frame. It basically gave in.” Winehouse’s addictions – whether to drink, or the harder drugs that seemed to control her life for years – have been played out in the public arena. The photographic documentation of her demons appear even more ghoulish now: Winehouse with her trademark black eyeliner swoops smeared across her face , her pink ballerinas caked in blood and dirt and her then husband Blake Fielder-Civil’s face covered in scratches in 2007; barefaced, distressed and wearing only a bra and jeans the same year. And her death, like her life, has been lit by the glare of dozens of camera flashes. At the messy and makeshift shrine outside Winehouse’s home, with its vodka bottles and cigarette packets, flowers and portraits, some fans cried. Others took oddly awkward photographs of themselves outside the place where she spent her last hours. One fan, waiting to watch her coffin go past outside Golders Green crematorium on Tuesday, said the incessant coverage had pulled fans closer to her. “We saw her deterioration every day, in every picture,” said 18-year-old Amy Swan. “It was like we were on a journey with her. So many people just wanted her to get better.” But there were others who wanted her to play up to her hellraising image. Musician Liam Bailey, who became friends with Winehouse after she signed him to her own label Lioness Records, described going to a Pete Doherty gig with her last year. “I was gobsmacked by the attention,” he said. “There were people offering her drinks, saying they loved her, other people throwing stuff, saying things I don’t want to repeat. And all the time the bullying from the paparazzi was horrendous.” Propping up the bar at the Hawley Arms, not a seething den of iniquity but rather a tastefully decorated, candle-lit pub with a rock’n’roll edge, Charles-Ridler said Winehouse could find no respite from it. “She couldn’t go anywhere, it was always in her face,” he said. “And she was the most anti-fame person. She could play in front of 60,000 people and then be in here, and much happier, pulling pints the next night.” The fact that she could no longer do that added to her isolation, said Hernu. “Coming back to England, London and more specifically to Camden didn’t seem to work for her,” he said. “She couldn’t do what she loved which was bouncing around Camden talking to everyone. She was bored and she was lonely.” The analysis of what caused her eventual demise, on Saturday 23 July, aged 27, will be dissected minutely over the coming weeks. But, said Charles-Ridler, those who peered into her life should also take a moment to look at their own. “Yes she did this to herself, yes she was self-destructive, but she was a victim too,” he said. “We all have to take a bit of responsibilty, us the public, the paparazzi. She was a star, but I want people to remember that she was also just a girl.” Amy Winehouse Drugs Alcohol London Alexandra Topping guardian.co.uk
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Push to unfreeze cash assets as William Hague recognises Libyan rebels as government Britain is to open negotiations at the UN to unfreeze assets running into hundreds of millions of pounds to be funnelled to the Libyan rebel council that was recognised by the UK on Wednesday as the “sole governmental authority” in the country. As the foreign secretary, William Hague, announced the expulsion of the Libyan chargé d’affaires and the eight remaining Libyan embassy staff in London, British diplomats in New York were drawing up plans to unfreeze assets covered by UN sanctions. Britain has frozen £12bn of Libyan assets since the conflict began in February this year, the vast bulk of which will remain frozen until the regime of Muammar Gaddafi loses power. But a proportion of the assets can be released if Britain can prove that they will only be used by the Benghazi-based National Transitional Council (NTC). The push by the UK, which has temporarily closed its embassy in Tripoli, will raise questions about whether the funds will be used to buy arms. Foreign Office sources said assets would remain frozen if there is any evidence or suspicion that they were being used to pay for arms, even for the Libyan rebels. Arms sales of any description to any quarter in Libya are banned by UN sanctions. But a source close to the NTC said funds may be used to buy weapons. “We can’t,” a source close to the NTC told the Guardian when asked how it would make sure funds are not used to buy weapons. The source added: “We are militarily engaged in removing Gaddafi. Therefore it would be a bit strange to say that we are happy for you to have the no-fly zone, but rather that you didn’t buy arms. “They [the NTC] haven’t been able to meet their payroll, which is their biggest problem to keep going. They also desperately need money to buy arms, particularly in the western mountains where there is often one weapon between two fighters, who go into battle hoping to get one from the enemy or a fallen comrade.” Hague paved the way for the unfreezing of assets after expelling the last remaining diplomats loyal to Gaddafi and announcing the embassy would be taken over by the NTC, which is now formally recognised by Britain as the government of Libya. The chargé, Khaled Benshaban, was summoned to a meeting at the Foreign Office, where he was given three days to leave Britain. Other diplomats at the Libyan People’s Bureau in London – which has been under heavy police guard since the launch of the military campaign in March – have been told to leave over the course of the summer. Shortly after the meeting with the chargé, Hague invited the NTC to nominate an ambassador and other diplomats to take over the Libyan mission. In a statement crafted with the advice of Foreign Office lawyers and the attorney general, Dominic Grieve, Hague said: “The prime minister and I have decided that the United Kingdom recognises and will deal with the National Transitional Council as the sole governmental authority in Libya.” The remarks by Hague allowed the government to unfreeze £91m in UK assets belonging to the Arabian Gulf Oil Company, a Libyan oil firm under the NTC’s control, which had been on an EU sanctions list. Foreign Office sources said the assets were unfrozen after the NTC gave assurances that the funds would be used to purchase fuel, not arms. Britain will now open negotiations at the UN in New York on unfreezing assets, covered by UN sanctions, which will be sent to the NTC in Benghazi. Assets would be unfrozen in three ways: • Exemptions for basic services, such as paying for food and fuel. This can be agreed at the UN security council without a vote as long as there is a consensus. • Provision for exceptional services such as medical supplies. This would need a formal vote. • Releasing large assets. This would also need a formal vote. Britain would not apply for the release of these assets, which are inextricably linked to the Gaddafi regime, until the Libyan leader leaves power. Britain decided to recognise the council after the international Libya contact group – which includes European powers, the US and allies from the Middle East – decided at a recent meeting in Istanbul “to deal with the National Transitional Council … as the legitimate governing authority in Libya”. Hague said: “This decision reflects the National Transitional Council’s increasing legitimacy, competence and success in reaching out to Libyans across the country. Through its actions, the National Transitional Council has shown its commitment to a more open and democratic Libya, something that it is working to achieve in an inclusive political process. This is in stark contrast to Gaddafi, whose brutality against the Libyan people has stripped him of all legitimacy.” The foreign secretary said that Britainnow runs its largest diplomatic mission in north Africa after Cairo in the Libyan rebel stronghold of Benghazi. This will be designated as an embassy if the NTC requests an upgrade. The decision to recognise an opposition group is a rare step for Britain, which declined to follow the example of the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, who recognised the NTC at the start of the conflict. Britain said at the time it could not recognise the NTC because it recognises states rather than governments. A Foreign Office source said Britain would continue to abide by the convention by which it recognises states rather than governments, saying: “These are exceptional circumstances. It was an anomaly that we had these people here still representing Gaddafi … we dragged in the chargé d’affaires. He and his colleagues are now packing their bags.” The Treasury has frozen the assets in the UK of 39 individuals in Gaddafi’s government, family and army. A further 53 entities have also had their assets frozen including oil companies, airlines, property companies, banks and investment authorities based in London, the Isle of Man, the British Virgin Islands and in Libya. In February, £900m of recently printed hard Libyan currency was impounded in the north-east of England. The assets of six Libyan ports were also frozen, including the port in the oil town of Ras Lanuf in the east of the country which was claimed by rebel forces in March. Hague said Britain only decided to recognise the NTC after it was certain that Libyan students in Britain, who are funded by their embassy, would continue to be supported. He added that the appearance this week on Libyan television of the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi showed it had been a mistake by the Scottish justice minister to release him on compassionate grounds in 2009.Hague said no deadline has been set for the military campaign against the Gaddafi regime. British military chiefs have advised ministers they can continue with the bombing indefinitely. Hague, who appeared to indicate earlier this week that Britain was more relaxed about Gaddafi’s personal future , made it clear that it would be better if he left Libya. But Britain could not dictate the outcome of a political settlement to the Libyan people. “Let’s point out though, at the same time, that the view of the chairman of the NTC is that any successful political settlement does involve Gaddafi leaving Libya and that is what we continue to say is the best solution,” he said. “So don’t make any mistake about that, but we’re saying we can’t impose that or guarantee that.” Hague also said Britain was committed to ensuring Gaddafi faced justice before the international criminal court. The foreign secretary denied that discussions about Gaddafi were part of a back-channel communication with the regime, but did not deny that such a channel existed. The renewed diplomatic offensive comes as British aircraft stepped up the bombing against Gaddafi’s security and intelligence apparatus before the start of Ramadan on 1 August. Foreign policy Libya William Hague Muammar Gaddafi Arab and Middle East unrest Middle East Africa Nicholas Watt Robert Booth Simon Goodley guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Hoyer on Morning Joe Says GOP ‘Want to Shoot Every Bullet they Have at the President’
July 27, 2011 No CommentNational Review's Jim Geraghty notes today that House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer hasn't gotten the memo on the new tone in Washington. “I think we’re playing Russian roulette with the nation’s credit-worthiness, and unfortunately, all the chambers seem to be loaded on the House side. They want to shoot every bullet they have at the President” said Hoyer on Wednesday's “Morning Joe.” Not one member of the panel appeared to notice Hoyer's choice of words. The same morning program on which Newsweek's Tina Brown suggested that House Republicans were suicide bombers failed to point out the insinuations of violence being made by the second-ranking Democrat in the House. It is also noteworthy that the media made sure to call attention to Sarah Palin's use of relatively innocuous target symbols during the 2010 campaign, but did not take this opportunity to highlight a similar use of language. So much for MSNBC's hand-wringing about the need for a “new tone” in Washington.
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Joshua Davies, 16, battered Aylward to death in Aberkenfig woods with no apparent motive other than breakfast bet A teenager is expected to be detained indefinitely after he was found guilty of luring his former girlfriend into a wood and battering her to death with a rock. Joshua Davies, 16, murdered 15-year-old Rebecca Aylward and left her body lying face down on the sodden forest floor in south Wales. He attempted to cover his tracks by sending Rebecca a text saying he was worried about her and after he was arrested he tried to frame a friend. Before the murder Davies had often spoken about killing Rebecca and talked about using toxins from plants to brew a poison. Not believing he was serious, his friends had promised to buy him a breakfast at their favourite cafe if he did murder her. When the verdict was announced Rebecca’s family let out a brief cheer. Davies’s family, who sat in another part of the court, looked shocked. Outside Swansea crown court, Rebecca’s family said she had “loved and trusted” Davies. In a statement they said: “The pain and horror of losing Rebecca in such horrendous circumstances cannot be put into words. “Since that Saturday in October 2010 our lives have stopped. Rebecca was killed in a senseless and barbaric act. She died at the hands of someone she loved and trusted. We will never forget what he did to her or forgive him for destroying our family.” Davies, wearing a pale open-necked shirt and dark trousers, showed no emotion as the jury returned its majority verdict after almost 20 hours of deliberation. But he began to cry as the judge, Mr Justice Lloyd Jones, lifted an anonymity order and ruled it was in the “public interest” that he should be identified. He said: “This is a crime in a small and closely knit community and it’s right that the public should know there has been a conviction and who has been convicted.” The judge adjourned the case so that psychiatric reports could be prepared. But he told Davies he expected to set an indefinite sentence. Rebecca’s killing was a huge shock in Maesteg, her home town, and the village of Aberkenfig, where the killing took place and where Davies lived. Becca, as she was known to most friends, was a bright girl with a wide circle of friends in the Bridgend area. Davies and Rebecca had known each other for some years and dated for three months a year before she was killed. They gave different reasons for the breakup but whatever the truth of it, Davies began to talk about killing Rebecca. He told friends he would find a way of murdering her and get away with it. He spoke of making a poison out of plants such as deadly nightshade. Davies once asked his friends what they would give him if he carried out the killing. They say they did not take him seriously and promised to buy him breakfast if he did it. But on Saturday 23 October last year Davies and Rebecca arranged to meet in woods at Aberkenfig, a popular hangout for teenagers. Rebecca wore an outfit she had bought the day before, possibly believing they were going to get back together. Before he left for the woods Davies smiled at one of his friends and told him: “The time has come.” After the attack, when a friend phoned him in the woods to ask him if he was with Rebecca, Davies coolly asked him to “define” what he meant by “with”. He later boasted to his friends that he had attacked Rebecca, who was slightly built, from behind. She was screaming and the worst thing, he said, was seeing her skull give way. The rock was so heavy that in court during the trial an official struggled to pick it up with one hand. Following the murder, Davies summoned a friend to the woods. The boy described in court how he “glimpsed” Rebecca’s body lying face down, her arms splayed out. Davies was a “bit shaky” but “didn’t seem upset at what he’d done”. The alarm was raised and a search was launched after Rebecca failed to return home. Meanwhile, Davies updated his Facebook page to say he was “chilling” with friends. He had a cup of tea and watched Strictly Come Dancing and the film No Country for Old Men. During the search for Rebecca he sent a text asking her to get in touch: “We’re all worried,” he wrote. Rebecca’s body was found in the woods the next day. Davies was arrested but claimed his friend was guilty. In the aftermath of the killing some people in Bridgend expressed concern that, following a spate of suicides among teenagers, Rebecca’s death was another sign of deep problems in the area. The feeling now seems to be that this brutal killing was a shocking one-off. The motive still remains a puzzle, however. The prosecution suggested that Davies had spoken about killing Rebecca so often that he “talked himself into” carrying out what started off as an empty childish threat. After the verdict, Detective Chief Inspector John Penhale, of South Wales police, said: “This was a tragic incident which brought shock and sadness to a close-knit community. “I would personally like to thank the community for their support during the investigation and the prosecution witnesses who gave evidence at the trial.” Richard Killick, senior crown prosecutor for CPS Wales, added: “This was a planned and calculated attack on a defenceless 15-year-old girl. Only the defendant truly knows what motivated him to commit such an act – but what we do know is that Rebecca’s family and friends continue to live with the awful consequences. “We can only hope that today’s verdict will, in some way, help them as they try to move forward with their lives.” Wales Crime Steven Morris guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Joshua Davies, 16, battered Aylward to death in Aberkenfig woods with no apparent motive other than breakfast bet A teenager is expected to be detained indefinitely after he was found guilty of luring his former girlfriend into a wood and battering her to death with a rock. Joshua Davies, 16, murdered 15-year-old Rebecca Aylward and left her body lying face down on the sodden forest floor in south Wales. He attempted to cover his tracks by sending Rebecca a text saying he was worried about her and after he was arrested he tried to frame a friend. Before the murder Davies had often spoken about killing Rebecca and talked about using toxins from plants to brew a poison. Not believing he was serious, his friends had promised to buy him a breakfast at their favourite cafe if he did murder her. When the verdict was announced Rebecca’s family let out a brief cheer. Davies’s family, who sat in another part of the court, looked shocked. Outside Swansea crown court, Rebecca’s family said she had “loved and trusted” Davies. In a statement they said: “The pain and horror of losing Rebecca in such horrendous circumstances cannot be put into words. “Since that Saturday in October 2010 our lives have stopped. Rebecca was killed in a senseless and barbaric act. She died at the hands of someone she loved and trusted. We will never forget what he did to her or forgive him for destroying our family.” Davies, wearing a pale open-necked shirt and dark trousers, showed no emotion as the jury returned its majority verdict after almost 20 hours of deliberation. But he began to cry as the judge, Mr Justice Lloyd Jones, lifted an anonymity order and ruled it was in the “public interest” that he should be identified. He said: “This is a crime in a small and closely knit community and it’s right that the public should know there has been a conviction and who has been convicted.” The judge adjourned the case so that psychiatric reports could be prepared. But he told Davies he expected to set an indefinite sentence. Rebecca’s killing was a huge shock in Maesteg, her home town, and the village of Aberkenfig, where the killing took place and where Davies lived. Becca, as she was known to most friends, was a bright girl with a wide circle of friends in the Bridgend area. Davies and Rebecca had known each other for some years and dated for three months a year before she was killed. They gave different reasons for the breakup but whatever the truth of it, Davies began to talk about killing Rebecca. He told friends he would find a way of murdering her and get away with it. He spoke of making a poison out of plants such as deadly nightshade. Davies once asked his friends what they would give him if he carried out the killing. They say they did not take him seriously and promised to buy him breakfast if he did it. But on Saturday 23 October last year Davies and Rebecca arranged to meet in woods at Aberkenfig, a popular hangout for teenagers. Rebecca wore an outfit she had bought the day before, possibly believing they were going to get back together. Before he left for the woods Davies smiled at one of his friends and told him: “The time has come.” After the attack, when a friend phoned him in the woods to ask him if he was with Rebecca, Davies coolly asked him to “define” what he meant by “with”. He later boasted to his friends that he had attacked Rebecca, who was slightly built, from behind. She was screaming and the worst thing, he said, was seeing her skull give way. The rock was so heavy that in court during the trial an official struggled to pick it up with one hand. Following the murder, Davies summoned a friend to the woods. The boy described in court how he “glimpsed” Rebecca’s body lying face down, her arms splayed out. Davies was a “bit shaky” but “didn’t seem upset at what he’d done”. The alarm was raised and a search was launched after Rebecca failed to return home. Meanwhile, Davies updated his Facebook page to say he was “chilling” with friends. He had a cup of tea and watched Strictly Come Dancing and the film No Country for Old Men. During the search for Rebecca he sent a text asking her to get in touch: “We’re all worried,” he wrote. Rebecca’s body was found in the woods the next day. Davies was arrested but claimed his friend was guilty. In the aftermath of the killing some people in Bridgend expressed concern that, following a spate of suicides among teenagers, Rebecca’s death was another sign of deep problems in the area. The feeling now seems to be that this brutal killing was a shocking one-off. The motive still remains a puzzle, however. The prosecution suggested that Davies had spoken about killing Rebecca so often that he “talked himself into” carrying out what started off as an empty childish threat. After the verdict, Detective Chief Inspector John Penhale, of South Wales police, said: “This was a tragic incident which brought shock and sadness to a close-knit community. “I would personally like to thank the community for their support during the investigation and the prosecution witnesses who gave evidence at the trial.” Richard Killick, senior crown prosecutor for CPS Wales, added: “This was a planned and calculated attack on a defenceless 15-year-old girl. Only the defendant truly knows what motivated him to commit such an act – but what we do know is that Rebecca’s family and friends continue to live with the awful consequences. “We can only hope that today’s verdict will, in some way, help them as they try to move forward with their lives.” Wales Crime Steven Morris guardian.co.uk
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Police boats search fjord around Utøya island as man charged for allegedly selling chemicals used in Oslo bomb Investigators are still searching for bodies the fjord surrounding the island where Anders Behring Breivik killed 68 out of his 76 victims last week. Police have so far released the names of 13 people who died in the twin atrocities. Sharidyn Svebakk-Bohn celebrated her 14th birthday five days before she was killed at the Labour party youth convention on Utøya, and is the youngest. The teenager was well known in her town of Drammen in east Norway: aged 12 she featured in the local newspaper when she wrote a letter to the mayor demanding a children’s summer camp not be shut. Another 14-year-old is still listed as missing. Johannes Buo was a football and judo enthusiast from Mandal, a fishing town on the south coast. As investigators continued their inquiry, a Pole was charged with “crimes against public safety” for allegedly selling the chemicals which Breivik used to make the bomb he planted in Oslo’s government district, killing eight people. Police sources suggest that by Wednesday afternoon only one person remained unaccounted for, though a full list would only be released once all identities had been confirmed and their families informed. Two boats and a miniature submarine searched the water surrounding Utøya through the day. The island remained cordoned off as a search continued in the woods and along the shoreline. The police commander in charge of the operation to evacuate the island following the attack described how Breivik surrendered with his hands in the air and his guns on the ground when armed counter terrorism officers surrounded him on Friday. They had been directed towards the south side by terrified teenagers who had evaded his 90 minutes of gunfire. “When we got 350 metres away, we used our voices to call to him. The terrain was very difficult and it was hard to get clear visibility,” said Havard Gasbakk. “Suddenly the gunman was in front of us with his hands above his head.” After police apprehended Breivik “in the usual way”, Gasbakk’s task was to see if there were other gunmen on the island. “I had to see if there was anybody else shooting,” he said at a press conference. Having established Breivik was acting alone, Gasbakk co-ordinated the rescue operation, which saw hundreds of young people from Utøya brought safely to shore. Some were fished out of the water with the help of holidaymakers from the campsite opposite who used their own boats; others were coaxed out of their hiding places on the island. Many did not believe the police officers were genuine because Breivik had been wearing what appeared a police uniform. Then the first aid effort began. “The victims just came like on a conveyor belt,” said Gasbakk. The injuries were so severe that rescuers had to change their surgical gloves “very fast”, he added. Aware of the criticism levelled at police and emergency services for taking an hour and a half to reach the island, Gasbakk said he was “proud and humbled” at how his team had responded; he himself had been on his day off when the alarm came. But Sissel Hammer, chief of police of Nordre Buskerud district, where Utøya is located, said there would be an inquiry into how her officers had dealt with the incident. The prime minister, Jens Stoltenberg, announced an independent investigation into the two attacks, which would report directly to him. Called the July 22 Commission, it will examine whether more could have been done both to prevent the attacks and respond to them, he said. He also announced that the government would pay for the funerals of all victims, as well as legal bills incurred by any survivors. At a press conference at his Oslo residence, Stoltenberg underlined his commitment to openness, defending freedom of thought, even if includes extremist views such as those held by the 32-year-old who confessed to Friday’s bomb blast and to the shooting massacre. “We have to be very clear to distinguish between extreme views, opinions that are completely legal, legitimate to have, [and] what is not legitimate is to try to implement those extreme views by using violence,” he said. “I think what we have seen is that there is going to be one Norway before and one Norway after 22 July,” he said. “But I hope and also believe that the Norway we will see after will be more open, a more tolerant society than what we had before.” He said the Labour party, including survivors of the massacre, were determined to reopen Utøya as a retreat in the future. He himself had visited the island every summer since 1974, he said. Hadia Tajik, 28-year-old Muslim Labour party MP, said: “We want to reclaim the island. It is associated with sadness, but we want it to become a paradise again.” Norway Anders Behring Breivik Europe Helen Pidd guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Police boats search fjord around Utøya island as man charged for allegedly selling chemicals used in Oslo bomb Investigators are still searching for bodies the fjord surrounding the island where Anders Behring Breivik killed 68 out of his 76 victims last week. Police have so far released the names of 13 people who died in the twin atrocities. Sharidyn Svebakk-Bohn celebrated her 14th birthday five days before she was killed at the Labour party youth convention on Utøya, and is the youngest. The teenager was well known in her town of Drammen in east Norway: aged 12 she featured in the local newspaper when she wrote a letter to the mayor demanding a children’s summer camp not be shut. Another 14-year-old is still listed as missing. Johannes Buo was a football and judo enthusiast from Mandal, a fishing town on the south coast. As investigators continued their inquiry, a Pole was charged with “crimes against public safety” for allegedly selling the chemicals which Breivik used to make the bomb he planted in Oslo’s government district, killing eight people. Police sources suggest that by Wednesday afternoon only one person remained unaccounted for, though a full list would only be released once all identities had been confirmed and their families informed. Two boats and a miniature submarine searched the water surrounding Utøya through the day. The island remained cordoned off as a search continued in the woods and along the shoreline. The police commander in charge of the operation to evacuate the island following the attack described how Breivik surrendered with his hands in the air and his guns on the ground when armed counter terrorism officers surrounded him on Friday. They had been directed towards the south side by terrified teenagers who had evaded his 90 minutes of gunfire. “When we got 350 metres away, we used our voices to call to him. The terrain was very difficult and it was hard to get clear visibility,” said Havard Gasbakk. “Suddenly the gunman was in front of us with his hands above his head.” After police apprehended Breivik “in the usual way”, Gasbakk’s task was to see if there were other gunmen on the island. “I had to see if there was anybody else shooting,” he said at a press conference. Having established Breivik was acting alone, Gasbakk co-ordinated the rescue operation, which saw hundreds of young people from Utøya brought safely to shore. Some were fished out of the water with the help of holidaymakers from the campsite opposite who used their own boats; others were coaxed out of their hiding places on the island. Many did not believe the police officers were genuine because Breivik had been wearing what appeared a police uniform. Then the first aid effort began. “The victims just came like on a conveyor belt,” said Gasbakk. The injuries were so severe that rescuers had to change their surgical gloves “very fast”, he added. Aware of the criticism levelled at police and emergency services for taking an hour and a half to reach the island, Gasbakk said he was “proud and humbled” at how his team had responded; he himself had been on his day off when the alarm came. But Sissel Hammer, chief of police of Nordre Buskerud district, where Utøya is located, said there would be an inquiry into how her officers had dealt with the incident. The prime minister, Jens Stoltenberg, announced an independent investigation into the two attacks, which would report directly to him. Called the July 22 Commission, it will examine whether more could have been done both to prevent the attacks and respond to them, he said. He also announced that the government would pay for the funerals of all victims, as well as legal bills incurred by any survivors. At a press conference at his Oslo residence, Stoltenberg underlined his commitment to openness, defending freedom of thought, even if includes extremist views such as those held by the 32-year-old who confessed to Friday’s bomb blast and to the shooting massacre. “We have to be very clear to distinguish between extreme views, opinions that are completely legal, legitimate to have, [and] what is not legitimate is to try to implement those extreme views by using violence,” he said. “I think what we have seen is that there is going to be one Norway before and one Norway after 22 July,” he said. “But I hope and also believe that the Norway we will see after will be more open, a more tolerant society than what we had before.” He said the Labour party, including survivors of the massacre, were determined to reopen Utøya as a retreat in the future. He himself had visited the island every summer since 1974, he said. Hadia Tajik, 28-year-old Muslim Labour party MP, said: “We want to reclaim the island. It is associated with sadness, but we want it to become a paradise again.” Norway Anders Behring Breivik Europe Helen Pidd guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Click here to view this media Piers Morgan has been ardently defending Rupert Murdoch as the whole ugly Rupertgate scandal has unfolded, calling him the innocent victim of a witch hunt. It seems maybe there’s a reason for that : Former tabloid editor Piers Morgan accused media and bloggers of being “lying smearers” Wednesday after a 2009 interview surfaced in which he appeared to admit that hacking phones for reporting purposes was tolerated on his watch. Morgan, who edited Rupert Murdoch’s now-defunct News of the World in the mid-1990s and went on to edit rival The Daily Mirror, was asked by the BBC’s Kirsty Young how he felt about “dealing with people who rake through bins for a living, people who tap people’s phones, people who take secret photographs.” Morgan, who replaced interviewer Larry King on CNN this past January, began his answer by saying that “not a lot of that went on,” but then acknowledged that newspapers he worked for used information obtained by these methods. “A lot of it was done by third parties rather than the staff themselves. That’s not to defend it because obviously you were running the results of their work,” he said in an excerpt of the 2009 interview posted on the BBC’s website on Wednesday. “I’m quite happy to be parked in the corner of the tabloid beast and to have to sit here defending all these things I used to get up to. I make no pretense about the stuff we used to do,” he said. My, what a tangled web we weave.
Continue reading …Click here to view this media Piers Morgan has been ardently defending Rupert Murdoch as the whole ugly Rupertgate scandal has unfolded, calling him the innocent victim of a witch hunt. It seems maybe there’s a reason for that : Former tabloid editor Piers Morgan accused media and bloggers of being “lying smearers” Wednesday after a 2009 interview surfaced in which he appeared to admit that hacking phones for reporting purposes was tolerated on his watch. Morgan, who edited Rupert Murdoch’s now-defunct News of the World in the mid-1990s and went on to edit rival The Daily Mirror, was asked by the BBC’s Kirsty Young how he felt about “dealing with people who rake through bins for a living, people who tap people’s phones, people who take secret photographs.” Morgan, who replaced interviewer Larry King on CNN this past January, began his answer by saying that “not a lot of that went on,” but then acknowledged that newspapers he worked for used information obtained by these methods. “A lot of it was done by third parties rather than the staff themselves. That’s not to defend it because obviously you were running the results of their work,” he said in an excerpt of the 2009 interview posted on the BBC’s website on Wednesday. “I’m quite happy to be parked in the corner of the tabloid beast and to have to sit here defending all these things I used to get up to. I make no pretense about the stuff we used to do,” he said. My, what a tangled web we weave.
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