Thursday, July 28, 2005

On Conspiracy Part 2

Q. When is a conspiracy a conspiracy?

A. When the Establishment says it is.



'Conspiracy to commit (you name it) with persons unknown', has been the charge of preference by the Establishment when perceiving threats to the interests of the status quo because a) conspiracy does not require an actual crime - its a 'thought crime', b) hearsay evidence is admissible, c) the intimidatory nature of the unlimited penalty.

In 1972 there were a series of successful strikes across Britain. The miners won a national strike for increased wages for the first time in their history by using 'flying pickets'. The London dock workers successfully won the release from prison of 5 of their shop stewards with help from 250,000 non-dock workers coming out in support throughout Britain.

During the summer of 1972 building workers came out on a national strike for a 'builders charter'. The demands of the TGWU and UCATT unions included a minimum wage, a pension scheme and a 35hr week. In September 1972 the strikers demands for wage increases were met. In October 1973 two of the building workers responsible for organising flying pickets during the strike, Des Warren and Ricky Tomlinson were charged with conspiracy after the Tory Government was lobbied by the National Federation of Building Trades Employers. The Shrewsbury Two were found guilty. Des Warren was sentenced to three years and Ricky Tomlinson to two years.

Also during the 1970's, the Provisional IRA and the British Establishment were at war. The Parachute Regiment killed 13 unarmed boys and men in Derry in 1972 and the Provos were conducting a bombing campaign in England.

In Birmingham on the 21st November 1974 two pubs were bombed, killing 21 and maiming many more. On the 22nd November 1974 six Irish people resident in Birmingham for many years were arrested - 5 while visiting Belfast. Hugh Callaghan, Paddy Joe Hill, Gerry Hunter, Richard McIlkenny, Billy Power and Johnny Walker were charged with murder and "conspiracy to cause explosions" after 'confessions' were extracted from them under torture. They were convicted and sentenced to life in 1975. Following three appeals the Birmingham Six were finally released and exonerated in 1991. The prosecution had lied and concocted 'evidence'.

In Guildford on the 5th October 1974 two pubs were bombed, killing 5 and maiming many more. In Woolwich on the 7th November 1974 a pub was bombed, killing 2 and maiming many more. Four Irish people were arrested. Patrick Armstrong, Gerry Conlon, Paul Hill and Carole Richardson were charged with murder and "conspiracy" after 'confessions' were extracted from them under torture. They were convicted and sentenced to "not less than 30 years" in 1975. In 1989 the Guildford Four's sentences were quashed and they were exonerated. The prosecution had lied and concocted 'evidence'.

The Establishment will go to any lengths to secure convictions in trials, including perjury by police.

During 2002 and early 2003 the British Government concocted stories to support an illegal invasion and war against Iraq. By 2005 terrorist atrocities had a global reach.

In January 2003 police raid houses in London, Bournmouth and Manchester and announce the break up of a 'ricin plot'. 9 people are charged with "conspiracy to commit murder" and "conspiracy to commit a public nuisance" by poisoning people with ricin. Two trials are scheduled. At the first, started in September 2004, 4 defendants (Mouloud Sihali, David Aissa Khalef, Sidali Feddag, Mustapha Taleb) are acquitted by a jury of conspiracy charges - in April 2005. One, Kamal Bourgass was found guilty of 'conspiracy to commit a public nuisance' having been found guilty of murder at a previous trial 'in camera'. He stabbed to death DC Oake during the house raid in Manchester. The second trial of the 4 other defendants in the case (Samir Asli, Khalid Alwerfeli, Mouloud Bouhrama, Kamel Merzoug) was dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service and the 4 defendants were cleared.

The following is from an article by Katherine Baldwin at Alertnet on 14th July 2005.

Britain's police chief Ian Blair told reporters on Thursday: "We are trying to shoehorn 21st century terrorism into 19th century legislation." He said police wanted a new law to convict people for acts that could lead to terrorism, saying experience showed courts did not like the current conspiracy law. (my emphasis)

On the 22nd July 2005 at Stockwell Underground Station, Jean Charles de Menezes was executed by police or special forces because they believed he was involved in a suicide bombing conspiracy.

In each of the cases above, all but one of the defendants were innocent and either framed, found not guilty or executed instead of arrested. The commonality between them is that they were working poor.

If the Establishment cannot find the people who are committing terrorist atrocities they will frame somebody, or execute someone then say sorry when the executed are innocent. All the while demanding more laws that degrade everybody's liberties but the affluent.

Conspiracy is only committed when it is by any group of people who are organising - no matter how openly, democratically and non-violently - against the Establishment and the status quo.

This was also the case during Stalin's show trials in the 1930's. Then, a party whose organisational principle was democratic centralism dominated politics in the Soviet Union. Any faction amongst the Bolshevik's was considered a 'conspiracy' against the revolution. Confessions extracted under torture were used to convict and execute or send to the Gulag, millions who questioned the new 'Establishment'.

Conspiracy is a tool of the paranoid State.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home