The Mask of Anarchy Has Moved!

Dear readers, The Mask has re-activated and is now at WordPress, rejoice!

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Guido Fawkes - A Policeman's Best Friend

Good to see that fuckhead bloggers have a keen idea about what is important. Just a week ago we were confronted with the brutality of our police force. A police force that has been encouraged to brutally suppress legitimate, peaceful protest. A police force that thinks that a fair investigation into the death of an innocent man during the G20 protests should be conducted by themselves.

A week after these revelations, and where are we? Are 'serious bloggers' taking the police to task, further investigating their behaviour and exposing the brutality that the government has encouraged?? Are they exposing the very real danger to our liberties that is posed by a brutal police force empowered by anti-terror legislation?? No, they are writing about a smear campaign conducted by an advisor. Drawing attention from the far scarier story that has been emerging over the past week. Kind of puts Mr Tomlinson's death at the hands of the police into perspective doesn't it. Guido Fawkes? Cupid Stunt more like.

Filthy Fuzz

How odd that the main story this morning was this:

Ian Tomlinson, the man who died at last week's G20 protests in London, was attacked from behind and thrown to the ground by a baton-wielding police officer in riot gear, dramatic footage obtained by the ­Guardian shows.


And by the afternoon we had this:

Counter-terrorist police arrested 10 young men across the north-west tonight in an operation hastily brought forward following an embarrassing security leak by a senior Scotland Yard commander.

Hmmm.

G20 Protest, London

You can follow the events at the G20 protest via Twitter either through their live search or you can subscribe to the G20 feed.

Saakashvili - A Dictator in the Making?

One wonders......

TBILISI (AFP) — A top US diplomat on Thursday said Washington has urged both Georgian authorities and opposition forces to avoid violence as fears of unrest grow ahead of anti-government protests next month.

US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza held unexpected talks with officials and opposition leaders here late Wednesday, returning to Tbilisi for the second time in less than two weeks.

His visit came after 10 opposition supporters were arrested on weapons charges this week and police released video recordings they say show plans to use violence during the protests.

The arrests and a grenade attack on a police car this month have raised fears that the protests, due to start on April 9, could spark civil unrest similar to the violence and civil war that wracked Georgia in the 1990s.

Burjanadze, who has accused the government of launching a smear campaign to discredit her, told Rustavi-2 television that she had informed Bryza of the recent developments involving her supporters.

"I want the reality of everything that is happening to be clear," she said.

Alasania said he had told Bryza that while the opposition welcomed US efforts to support democracy in Georgia, Washington should not be directly involved in resolving domestic political conflicts.

"Of course serious American support for the development of democracy in Georgia is necessary, but I explained that it is up to Georgians, through dialogue between the opposition and the government, to find a way out of this," he told Rustavi-2.

In a separate report, Burjanadze..

....accuses police of planting weapons at supporters' homes.

On Wednesday, officials released more recordings of alleged coup plans by opposition members. One recording purportedly shows a member of Burdzhanadze's party, Roina Bukhrashvili, as saying that a civil war would be in the party's interests.

Burdzhanadze said that "if it's confirmed that members of the party obtained weapons, they should be harshly punished. However, if this is a provocation by authorities, then the authorities should not go unpunished."

If only the media had explored this side of his charcter when the trouble in South Ossetia blew up last year. Too much to ask I guess.

The Chavez Deceit

Once more, large sections of the media are representing the referendum in Venezuela in a very dubious light. The Observer's headline says much about the angle that they are taking:

Anti-Chávez lobby dares to hope for a last-ditch victory

The opening paragraph really underlines the standard Western view of Venezuela:

A ragtag coalition of university students, traditional elites and disillusioned "chavistas" will today try to end Hugo Chávez's dream of ruling Venezuela for life.

'Dream of ruling Venezuela for life'? That couches it in particularly disturbing terms. Do we talk of Gordon Brown or David Camerin dreaming of 'ruling for life'? Of course not. And yet there is little, if any, difference between the system being proposed in Venezuela and the system in the UK. Apart from one fundamental difference. The Venezuelan people are having a say in a change in the constitution. Can you imagine that happening in the UK? The idea would fill the political classes with dread.

One thing that characterises these reports about the situation in Venezuela, is the failure to put the opposition to Chavez into context. Quite often they are represented as respectable statesmen who are fighting to wrestle power away from an all too powerful President. What they fail to report is that many members of the opposition were deeply involved in the failed coup in 2002 that was backed by the Bu$h White House. These are not all democrats and respectable statesmen. Many of them are plotters and proxies for the interests of the United States. And yet, the opening quote in the Observer piece is from one of these fronts for the American government.

However, one of the most important quotes has been conveniently ignored:

"This is important for me as a human being and as a soldier in this fight.

"We'll recognize the result, whatever it is, once it is announced by the National Electoral Council."

Chavez swore last time that he would respect the result, and he did. What makes anyone think that this time it is any different?

Terrorist Sympathiser Set to Become Israeli Prime Minister?

Remember those images of people celebrating when the two towers collapsed on 11th September? Despicable wasn't it? And yet Israel appears to be on the verge of voting in one of those flag waving terrorist supporters. Yep Binyamin Netanyahu is one of those people. Not only a terrorist sympathiser, but a sympathiser of a terrorist attack on the UK:

The rightwingers, including Binyamin Netanyahu, the former Prime Minister, are commemorating the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, the headquarters of British rule, that killed 92 people and helped to drive the British from Palestine.

They have erected a plaque outside the restored building, and are holding a two-day seminar with speeches and a tour of the hotel by one of the Jewish resistance fighters involved in the attack.

Simon McDonald, the British Ambassador in Tel Aviv, and John Jenkins, the Consul-General in Jerusalem, have written to the municipality, stating: “We do not think that it is right for an act of terrorism, which led to the loss of many lives, to be commemorated.”

In particular they demanded the removal of the plaque that pays tribute to the Irgun, the Jewish resistance branch headed by Menachem Begin, the future Prime Minister, which carried out the attack on July 22, 1946.

Smith To Be Questioned on Torture Collusion

I'm guessing this won't go any further:

Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, is to be questioned over allegations that British security services colluded in the torture of terrorism suspects and operated under a "James Bond-style get-out clause".

The allegations, first reported in the Guardian last year, relate to a number of suspects arrested in Pakistan at the request of British authorities between 2003 and 2007. The men say they were repeatedly tortured by agents of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Agency (ISI) before being questioned by MI5.

Yesterday members of the joint committee on human rights (JCHR) heard that British officials put pressure on the Pakistani authorities to get information and "knew very well" they were using torture during their investigations.

We live in hope.

Obama - Same old shit

Thought Obama was the saviour? Don't be a fool. He is no different to all other post-war Presidents:

Barack Obama's government was accused of "blackmail" after it emerged that America had threatened to withdraw co-operation in terrorist cases if a UK court ordered the disclosure of secret torture evidence.

In the first real test of the "special relationship" between Britain and the US since Mr Obama's inauguration, MPs and human rights groups called for an inquiry into the case that concerns the treatment of a British resident, Binyam Mohamed, still being held at Guantanamo Bay.

Secret CIA documents held by the Foreign Office detail the interrogation and treatment of Mr Mohamed, who claims he was brutally tortured after being flown by US agents to a secret prison in Morocco before his detention at the US naval base in Cuba.

Good work Messiah.