The Friday Night Song
I just want to take this opportunity to wish all of our readers a very Merry Christmas on behalf of The Needle Team.
Our gift to you is this new video of Philip Glass’ ‘Einstein on the Beach, Knee 5’
Have a great holiday weekend!
Filed under FNS
A former North Wales Police superintendent who was jailed for sexually abusing young boys has died.
Gordon Anglesea, 79, of Old Colwyn, Conwy county, was jailed for 12 years for historical offences in November.
He abused two boys between 1982 and 1987 when they were 14 or 15, his trial at Mold Crown Court heard.
Anglesea died in hospital on Thursday, his solicitor Jonathan Wall, of Manchester-based Burton Copeland, said.
In November, the retired police officer lodged an appeal against his convictions for three indecent assaults on one boy and one indecent assault on another.
Kendall House Addendum to Main Report
Main Report can be accessed HERE
Click images below to expand, or click HERE to view PDF report.
What can I say? The report begins well and gives due credit to Teresa Cooper for the 30 years of her tireless struggle to achieve recognition for the maltreatment meted out to her and other residents.
And there it ends. One might ask, given the unprecedented access that Dr Sue Proctor had to Kendall House and Church of England records, why there is no reference to any official documents that might corroborate the testimony of the former residents that participated. One might further ask why the only reference to any official documentation in this report is to note its absence when particularly damning allegations are made by former residents – including the legally sensitive (for the Church of England) subject of organised drug experimentation on children at Kendall House.
Doesn’t that seem odd to you? No documented corroboration of witness testimony – but the noting of the absence of corroborative documentation when it suits?
If I were a conspiracy theorist I’d have a field day with this report – as I’m not, I’ll just say that this report falls far below what I’d expect from an independent report undertaken by professionals.
Filed under Abuse
But when you’re gone the truth will out because everyone in Hollywood is just waiting to tell.
100 year old Kirk Douglas
[This story] concerns one of the biggest male stars ever, and one of the most beloved female stars to ever live…
One day she was invited to meet with this movie star about an upcoming major role. This man was a legend already, and was very powerful. … Thinking [s]he herself was powerful and savvy, she accepted the invite. In his hotel room. She never saw it coming.
Without even discussing the film, this actor — drunk already — began making a pass at her. She politely declined, and excused herself. He wouldn’t have it. He literally threw her down, slapped the hell out of her, and ripped her clothes off. He shouted obscenities at her, continually punched and held her arms so tight he left scars and bruises.
He raped her repeatedly, spitting on her, and did permanent damage to her body. She was bleeding everywhere, with a battered face. She passed out. When she came to, the actor was still in the room gloating, and told her to come see him tomorrow night and he might give her the role. He laughed at her as she fell down, her legs so wobbly and weak. She gathered her torn clothes, and tried to walk out of the hotel and to her car – blood and semen running down her legs and bruises already forming on her face.
She could barely make it back home in her car. She wanted to kill herself, so ashamed of what happened. The damage to her psyche was permanent, and haunted her forever.
…Her mom said she must have made the actor mad and offended him. They called a doctor, who took her to the hospital secretly to have her treated… The studio knew, and did nothing. After all, the star actor was a money machine. … She grew into an amazing woman with a legendary career. But she never forgot, or forgave, and never got over what happened.
She never named the star actor publicly, but her friends and family knew the truth. Even after marriage and kids, if she saw this actor anywhere – she would almost convulse and cry. And worst of all, Hollywood and the world continued to honor him, pay him, and treat him like a king.
Today, he’s still alive and barely holding on. But those who know the truth are still hoping and praying he will rot in hell for eternity. That all his good deeds and donations will never mask the truth…
So when the time comes, and the now 95-year old Kirk Douglas, the superstar actor, finally dies, there will be tributes and honors about him. Just remember that he is a monster who never repented, apologized, nor showed any sorrow for destroying the lives of others. Especially the life of that young beloved actress named Natalie Wood.
16 year old Natalie Wood in ‘Rebel Without a Cause’
Filed under Abuse
‘The Investigatory Powers Act is world-leading legislation’
Amber Rudd (Home Secretary)
One might ask, what part of the world are we leading exactly:
North Korea, Cuba, China and Saudi Arabia?
Passed into UK law on 29th November 2016 with barely a whimper.
(Replaces the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act – DRIPA)
‘…it establishes a dangerous new norm, where surveillance of all citizens’ online activity is seen as the baseline for a peaceful society.
Collect evidence first, the government is saying, and find the criminals later.’
Jim Killock (Open Rights Group)
At a Glance:
Telecoms providers obligated to retain data on British Citizens web activity (ICR) for 12 months.
Legalises the surveillance and ‘Targeted Equipment Interference’ (hacking) activities undertaken over many years by GCHQ and other agencies, including the collection of metadata and hacking of individuals computers and phones. (As exposed by Edward Snowden in 2013)
Legalises the wider power of ‘Bulk Equipment Interference’ (Mass Hacking) into large groups of computers and mobile phones of citizens overseas.
Provides for access by 48 named groups to the stored data, and establishes a ‘Request Filter’ (Common Database) enabling access through a single source. (Still being defined by the Home Office)
Allows access to masses of stored personal data, even if the person under scrutiny is not suspected of any wrongdoing.
Police can request viewing journalists’ call and web records. (Seen as a potential death sentence for whistleblowing and investigative journalism).
Technology companies and service providers can be asked to remove encryption on a given user’s device or service, where ‘Practicable’.
However, unlike the Apple case in the US, it’s expected that any cases in the UK will take place in private.
‘Any warrants issued to a company to decrypt users’ data will come with a gagging order, forbidding the firm from discussing it. There wouldn’t be any public debate about it.’ Harmit Kambo (Privacy International)
Who can access our data?
Amongst the more obvious police, military, and security services are a few less obvious, including:
Food Standards Agency
Department for Work and Pensions
Department for Transport
Department of Health
Revenue and Customs
English Ambulance Trust
Scottish Ambulance Service
Welsh Ambulance Service
Health and Safety Executive
Fire and Rescue Authority
Competition and Markets Authority
Comments:
‘The UK now has a surveillance law that is more suited to a dictatorship than a democracy.’
Jim Killock (Open Rights Group)
‘We have created the tools for repression.’
Lord Strasburger
‘None of us online are now guaranteed the right to communicate privately and, most importantly, securely.’
Renate Samson (Big Brother Watch)
‘The UK … joining the likes of China and Russia in collecting everyone’s browsing habits.’
Anne Jellema, ( World Wide Web Foundation)
This snoopers charter ‘has no place in modern democracy. The bulk collection of everyone’s internet browsing data is disproportionate, creates a security nightmare for the ISPs who must store the data, and rides roughshod over our right to privacy.’
Sir Tim Berners-Lee Inventor of World Wide Web.
‘It’s sad that the Snowden revelations backfired so spectacularly here. Rather than rolling back powers, they’ve been used to legitimize these practices.’ Harmit Kambo (Privacy International)
‘The UK has just legalised the most extreme surveillance in the history of western democracy. It goes farther than many autocracies.’
Edward Snowden (NSA whistle blower)
Investigatory Powers Act 2016
Links to all 305 pages;
Click to access ukpga_20160025_en.pdf
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2016/25/contents/enacted
I wonder how many of our MPs have read, and understood, this piece of art?
Other Sources:
http://www.theverge.com/2016/11/23/13718768/uk-surveillance-laws-explained-investigatory-powers-bill
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/19/extreme-surveillance-becomes-uk-law-with-barely-a-whimper
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/governments-snoopers-charter-has-no-place-modern-democracy-says-inventor-world-wide-web-1594092
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/investigatory-powers-act-becomes-law-royal-assent_uk_583d91d8e4b072ec0d60680d
http://www.theverge.com/2016/11/23/13718768/uk-surveillance-laws-explained-investigatory-powers-bill
http://arstechnica.co.uk/tech-policy/2016/11/investigatory-powers-act-imminent-peers-clear-path-for-uk-super-snoop-law/
http://www.jomec.co.uk/blog/how-the-uk-got-a-world-leading-surveillance-law/
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/27/nsa-gchq-smartphone-app-angry-birds-personal-data
Filed under News, Politics, Privacy, Technology
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