Monday, April 18, 2005

lies sin too

the other day i ranted about the appalling 'ricin' case - there's more from the awesome Independent - go read the whole thing, but here are some highlights:

"despite more than 100 arrests and months of investigation which took detectives to 16 countries, no al-Qa'ida plot ever materialised...

A terrorism trial which was spun from start to finish, abetted by many senior elements of the security establishment and much hysterical coverage in the media, is still being manipulated, regardless of the evidence in court...

Although Britain refuses to return detainees, including Bourgass, to Algeria because of its use of torture and the death penalty, British politicians and prosecutors were happy to use evidence from there...

Professor Alistair Hay, one of Britain's foremost authorities on toxins, was scathing about Meguerba's allegations that ricin would be smeared on door handles. Ricin, he said, had to be injected straight into a victim to be a reliable weapon. Swallowing ricin could kill, but was a thousand times less effective. Simply touching crudely made ricin was even less likely to kill.
His expert report was so damning that the prosecution dropped Meguerba's claims. Instead, they focused on three identical toothbrushes found in Bourgass's flat and suggested he planned to smear ricin on the brushes, and put them back on a shop's shelves - an attempt to kill someone at random.

As for Meguerba, the trial threw up equally disturbing questions. There was no signed or recorded confession, just a memo or briefing drafted by Algerian security police which was given to the British. The prosecution would give defence lawyers only extracts from that memo. "

the astonishing thing is the toothbrush story, and the fact that even this was hidden in the media till now. i read a bunch of articles on this case, and saw lots of tv about it, and this is the first ive heard about the toothbrushes (teethbrushes?). seriously. last week i said "its very difficult to unwind the propaganda in this story" - no shit! according to the article, the teethbrush thing was exactly what he was charged with. astonishing. he had 3 identical toothbrushes. fucking hell. 17 years!

the entire media process was completely manipulated - the first stories (last week) told about the conviction and the plot to kill thousands, then it was downgraded to some stupid plan to smear nicotine on door handles, and now, days later, some even stupider plan to infect a toothbrush or two. i.e. all the stories we were told last week were complete bollox. Alastair Campbell must be very proud of the machine...

the media should be ashamed (i know, i know...). i can understand the tabloids and the murdoch properties and such getting it wrong - but the beeb? the guardian? the independent?

i hope they appeal the sentence (if not the conviction) - altho the guy is gonna be in jail so long on other charges, maybe they wont :-( - it would totally suck if this stands as a precedent.

and we also learn that there were 100 arrests, not just the other 8 (who i think all spent 2 years in jail)

if i wasnt so busy, id go back and look at all the articles i wrote about these cases in the last 2 years pointing out how disgusting the whole affair has been...

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