Monday, December 23, 2013

Liberate your lumpiness

The absence of the Letters to the Editor section in the quarterly, The Walkley Magazine, makes it seem like my union may not want to know what my response is to their commentary pieces (op-eds). So after observing this over several consecutive quarters, I will write some feedback here. Who knows, they may even be so fabulously enthused by my considerations that they make space for a Letters section in the March edition...okay, maybe not...

At the moment the union is running a campaign about surveillance over-reach - a very worthy (and long overdue) cause. Interestingly, most news outlets' buildings feature CCTV prominently, both inside and outside of their workplaces, and it's pretty much everywhere their reporters report from. That has been the case for many years without these veritable bloodhound news presenters questioning where all that data goes/went. Previously, a non-issue, more appropriately relegated-to their minds, to the geek in the corner cubicle wearing the tin hat who writes the IT section. It seems now, geek is chic. Incidentally, eavesdropping from inside the news pack (unavoidable at times), I can tell you that very few of their conversations between takes are worth repeating (and presumably, not worth surveilling) - 'how does my hair look', 'where are we getting lunch', 'how long till we finish', 'I can't recall if I fed my pet rock today' (etc etc ad naus)...

(this image has featured everywhere, don't know who did the drawing, if you do, email me)

In this issue there are several, lengthy op-eds on the topic of surveillance over-reach from excellent writers, and interestingly evident were the politics of their positions within their own authoritarian institutions (that their media organizations represent). No disclosures about that or self-examination of the bits they left out. Masters has written a whole book about bits being left out, so that seems reasonable enough especially for an op-ed. However, leaving in the "lumpy bits" provides a safeguard from authoritarian hype or self-censorship that usurps the independence, and individual brilliance of a journalist.

My favourites in that mag are always the cartoonists, (btw I dearly miss The Daily Flute) and am in awe of these artists' ability to say so much, often wielding NO words at all.

Though I really enjoyed all of those comment pieces, I was flabbergasted at John Safran's Lumpy Thruthiness (The Walkley Magazine, Issue 78, p.9) - like he reached into my life and my computer and grabbed onto all the lumpy bits - plenty of them. It was a piece about his deviation into true-crime or non-fiction writing for his latest book. Safran admits an early career game changer after he felt an inner conflict when a producer dubbed into a doco on an abattoir, extra mooing noises to make it sound more dramatic. I'm sure it must have sent him spiralling into comedic rather than 'serious'journalism documentary production. His case study in this article is a journo who gets exposed for similar dubious editing practices, called Dais(e)y...hmmn... I'm sensing a theme...

In the process of researching and writing Murder in Mississippi, "I spent ages trying to omit these inconvenient bits and still make the story work..." (that's the lumpy truths he's talking about there).

In my genre of writing, nothing is cool - almost invariably human rights doesn't get mainstream commissions, and by and large it doesn't get commissioned in the said quarterly either - it's all lumpy truth. Anything that doesn't fit the stereotypical good guys-bad guys pop-media news formula, or slickly-spun, glossy and twaddle-ish authoritarian hype = lumpy truth. As a freelancer, I've been contending with my own industry-determined lumpiness for several years.

Safran mentions being stiffed over a statement by the (local) Attorney General - released (gifted more likely) to a local journo a couple days after he'd made his media enquiry to the office. If Safran had have been writing news (if he were a freelancer), this practice would have caused him to be "gazumped". This means that because someone beat him to the story he would have lost his (story) run, and it would have rendered the story virtually unsaleable to any other news outlets - a very nasty strategy that has in the past been aided and abetted by unethical (and perhaps unlawful) police/govt surveillance of journalists.

The surreptitious, usually unmentionable favourites game played by most Attorney Generals' flak catchers, which undermines independent reporting? It's just more lumpy truthiness. This is one of the pearls from the PR game bag of tricks levelled by govt spinners towards freelance journos very frequently in Australia.

This dirty flak tactic was actually exposed about a decade ago in these two pieces by Phil Dickie - whose indignant, angry and fiercely independent news reporting helped prompt and inform the Fitzgerald Inquiry into police corruption in Qld. Lumpy truth in that one, for sure - other reporters were exposed before, during and after for complicity in covering up police and govt corruption. It had become a pervasive culture of self-censorship and probably flak fatigue. Fitzgerald, along with a few other govt corruption  inquiries since, recommended greater controls over govt spin doctors' activities and budgets.

Amid swelling redundancies in the MSM in Australia, a word of advice for any new-ish freelancers who find themselves in this situation and who haven't bumped up against these mercenary PR constraints before - don't be deterred, "lumpy truth" has its own organic appeal for readers who like the whole truth. Essentially, this is the reason that people are turning away from the old media institutions, and in doing so, democratizing news, by seeking out more independent media outlets.

The clip below is from Rashamon (1950), a movie that studies the multiplicity or subjectivity of truth. The whole movie is available on You Tube but the clip below is just a few minutes.

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Copyright warning

This is a brief reminder that all of the work and ideas contained on this blog are subject to strict copyright.

They are the intellectual property of the writer of the blog and, as such, any re-publication of them requires the permission of the author, who is a freelance journalist. 

On one occasion, work was taken from here and republished in a MSM publication - a tabloid, no less, without my permission and that thief was paid for my hard work, which he shamelessly put his name to without any attribution. The perpetrator in question - related to a former police commissioner, then omitted balancing details to skew the copy in favour of corrupt and inept police. Such actions will not be tolerated to any extent.

The current state of the media industry in Australia also means that because there is no legal requirement for people to be qualified or registered to work as journalists, sometimes inexperienced or pressured media workers can subsequently make the mistake of appropriating work that belongs to others (particularly where is it published for free in the Blogosphere or on the Wiki) without realizing that their actions constitute stealing.

Please feel free to enjoy the work here - for free - but understand that if you wish to republish any words or copyrighted images you MUST ask for my permission. 

If you wish to quote or refer to a case study that I have examined, you must give appropriate attribution

I am aware of MSM journalists who avoid attribution, for a variety of reasons - you shouldn't feel tempted to do this with Daily Magnet material because I will name and shame you, repeatedly and relentlessly, AND, in contrast, I will quote your work and give your theft full attribution.

Please also be aware that if you are found to be using material that is my intellectual property without my express permission, swift legal action will be taken against you & your publisher or agency.


Kissy, kissy, Magnet.

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Part 3 - Gitmo, the 't' word and domestic detention conditions (one cuppa's worth)

In the last five years there has been an increase in deaths in custody in Australia, and, as stated in previous posts, little transparency exists in coronial inquests regarding detainees and prisoners, or the related departmental 'investigation' process. Also well documented, is the reticence of Australia's government agencies to comply with coronial recommendations pursuant to those inquests. These measures would normally fine tune detention conditions to lessen the incidence of custodial deaths and torture (yep, I used the 't' word straight out, no apology - I can feel those spin doctors wriggling in their seats now). UN calls for independent monitors are routinely dismissed or sidestepped by Australian authorities. Realistically, prison officers ‘investigating’ prison officers, is even more far-fetched than police policing police, which has always drawn widespread criticism from social justice's frontline. In Australia only one independent prison monitor (with statutory powers) exists, in WA, although community faith in its independence appears to be waning, going by community feedback this year.

The minister for Corrective Services in WA last week announced a push for greater power to dismiss wayward staff, purportedly with a view to being able to sack corrections staff that are found to be involved in misconduct. The WA Prison Officers Union wields (and always has)  an enormous amount of power and subsequently, most policy moves by the department since the riot at Banksia Hill Juvenile Detention Centre, have revolved around equalizing the power balance between these two secretive and unaccountable authoritarian interests.

Victorian prisoner, Craig Minogue(PhD), documented a shortfall in human rights safeguards in Australian prisons. These are run by state-based authorities, however, human rights monitors here are Federally-based (national laws) giving them authority only to act on issues relating to Federal prisoners.  Even in this, Federal prisoners, such as alleged people smugglers, are only able to be accommodated in state-run prisons. So, the related authority over even Federal detainees' and prisoners' human rights and detention conditions, in the first instance, is relegated to the state that houses them, which is, usually, a law unto itself under the present system of scrutiny (or overall lack thereof).  This presented a particularly worrying problem where Indonesian minors were detained with convicted adult sex offenders in Australian adult male prisons over the last few years. Inept 'wrist-bone scans' that the Australian government used to evaluate the age of these non-English speaking suspects, were wielded against these disadvantaged children by government workers well after they were known to be inherently flawed. Complaints were levelled against the state prison authorities and Federal government only after these children were repatriated to their towns and villages, and any damage already done.

The gap in investigating and policing human rights abuses and conditions in Australian detention/custody, is a problem that people dealing with rights abuses in custody will be well aware of, but few others know about it. This means that there is no pressure from society on the government to lift its game. Clearly, independent monitors are very needed and this has been a long-standing recommendation to Australia and its states from UN human rights agencies repeatedly over the last two decades, drawing virtually no response from the government(s) (both states and Commonwealth), or compunction to comply or explain inaction. Only one Attorney General placed any pressure on the reckless state-based systems to conform to the Convention against Torture. Unceremoniously, Robert McClelland was shanghaied by former PM, Julia Gillard, to rid her cabinet of ministers who might be sympathetic to her rival, Kevin Rudd. In 2008, McClelland, who implemented or commenced several human rights reforms, signed the treaty, but full ratification of the treaty was thwarted by serious stalling tactics from the states and his shortened term in office. Some of his successors went on to introduce off-shore processing; pre-emptive detention that treated Australians unequally before the law via pre-judgments of individuals and minority groups made in view of sub-culture and social status; and, several other legislative initiatives that contradicted fundamental democratic values and usurped the separation of powers.

Last month Western Australia’s Deaths in Custody Watch Committee put forward a motion in Parliament with the help of Noongar MP, Ben Wyatt, calling for the WA government to apologize to the Pat family for wrongdoing in the death in police custody of 16 year-old Roebourne boy, John.  It was unanimously accepted. This young man's death was examined at the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and central to the Royal Commission being called. 
[According to one prominent  journo (though it isn't spoken about publicly, anymore - industrial action - out of sight out of mind, maybe) - the death of the young man also caused a stop-work strike on the roof of the old ABC when Four Corners covered the story but management tried to suppress it (presumably after  the typically heavy handed flak levelled against independent journalism from the WA government). That would have been something to see - I wonder if any of you out there still have photos of those journalists striking? If so, email me and let's put up a piece about it - legendary! Now, I could stage roof top protests here when I experience dubious editorial decisions, but as I work from home it may not affect any significant changes - except perhaps falling off.]
In October, two Watch Committee representatives reported that they were refused entry by WA prison authorities to check on the welfare of a detainee at Casuarina Maximum Security Prison. This has occurred to WA prison advocates before. During the wrist-bone scan debacle an advocate who spoke to the media was banned from welfare checks on a minor who was alleged to be working alongside paedophiles in Hakea Prison, and the Watch Committee had access revoked after their submission to the UN of the WA Prison Torture Report (Cox, 2000).

In late September, a new Commissioner of Corrective Services was appointed - with an impressive background in the elite special forces (SASR), in business and, in peacekeeping forces,  James McMahon would have been a shoe-in pretty much anywhere he expressed an interest.  I gather advocates await positive changes to the quite troubled prison system, which has been ignored in the state for some years. It would appear, at least in the 24/7 news brief cycle (hungry for press releases), that there is some reform being planned, which is a lot more than has happened for quite a long time. That total ignore of detention conditions was reminiscent of the era that spawned the Fremantle Prison Riot, the RCIADIC and later, the WA Prison Torture Report (Cox, 2000).
Military training influences in DCS WA's past during those problematic eras, to expert analysts, equated to the militarization of corrections (without any balancing expenditure in other essential areas - such as infrastructure, i.e. basics like toilets, air-con and electricity in Fremantle Prison's cells). An honest and moving account of Fremantle Prison conditions, probably the only personal record in existence, was written by another SASR member. Veteran, Ray Mickelberg, along with his brothers, was wrongfully convicted of the Perth Mint Swindle by two corrupt Perth detectives and spent several years fighting the oppression and corruption within those walls. (I will try to get his prison diary hosted here in the sidebar in the near future, but will need to seek permission from the author who published it.) There have been several local SASR members who have similar service backgrounds who went on to achieve infamy and incarceration in WA prisons for reasons that won't be touched on in this post, but hopefully may be explored in the future. 

At the moment, many societies are seeing the militarization of almost everything from shopping mall security and other private security, to policing, intelligence collection and corrections. In the post-9/11 period the Australian PM (Howard) tried to emulate the ethos behind the nationalism and military indoctrination of the USA, despite Australia's unique background as a penal colony (i.e. a giant prison for political prisoners and slaves) and its resultant, long history of anti-authoritarianism. Irreverent and non-conformist foundations are deeply rooted in Australian mainstream culture, values and humour - flag waving (US style) is a relatively recent development. Like the accent, the mindset can be hard for outsiders to grasp, initially. PM Howard went as far as to make primary school funding conditional on the mandatory placement of Australian flags at primary schools and pro-military posters in classrooms (Some schools already hosted an Australian flag, but this was not so common among minority and community schools). His approach to the intelligence prompting Australia's involvement in Iraq & Afghanistan was soon followed by the 'NTER' (a police & military taskforce occupation of Aboriginal NT communities for which, he repealed the Racial Discrimination Act). Really sadly, Australia's military was hyped to the max in a govt-compliant pop-media during this period, thus rendering anything military, now, more or less synonymous with the obfuscation of unsatisfactory standards of government accountability. Nationalistic fervour has also created racial divisions where previously all refugees, immigrants, ancestors of political prisoners and ATSI people were united (not always harmoniously, but generally) under that one umbrella of anti-authoritarianism, as 'battlers' with a typically and distinctive, irreverent sense of humour.

In 2004 the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Van Boven, warned about the pseudo militarization of domestic govt security roles, such as policing and corrections. He perceived a risk that methods utilized in those roles, or adopted by departments headhunting (or even exploiting) ex-special forces personnel, may not be specific to domestic roles, but rather, mirror controversial military methods and treatment of detainees, which now form a notorious part of the post-9/11 era. More recently, even the govt use of Australian special forces personnel in training and supporting Densus 88 is controversial, and possibly opportunistic,  due to the allegations of and convictions for human rights abuses by Indonesian special forces personnel in that anti-terror taskforce. Are Australian special forces personnel the marketing point for unsatisfactory foreign policy?

The past methods of the MSU, the “paramilitary” unit of DCS WA were heavily criticized and were the focus of repeated attempted prosecutions relating to prisoner abuse, widely tolerated and condoned by govt in previous eras. McGivern, who investigated the Fremantle Riot (Inquiry report - into the Fremantle Prison Riot, 1988, pp. 35-36), suggested:
"The increasing para-military role of the MSU may encourage or foster a belief that preventative measures are no longer necessary."
  
McGivern also had this to say about the role of the military-style training in corrections at that time:
 
"Providing continuous training in preparation for 'trouble' may in fact foster conditions for such events to occur, There is an argument to de-emphasise the aggressive para-military role of the prison officer and instead encourage positive custody with an emphasis on man management and non aggressive solutions to problems."
 
The recruitment and staffing of that said 'paramilitary' unit, now named the Emergency Support Group (ESG), has only just been ordered to be partly reformed subsequent to the Spratt Taser Inquiry (CCC, 2011). One inquiry recommendation required a time limit on membership of the ESG. Several ESG staff had been there since MSU days and resigned during the course of the very protracted inquiry. ESG reforms have been limited to this, despite repeated recommendations stretching back decades, particularly in relation to notorious  cell ‘extraction’ methods. Sometime after the use of that 'cell extraction' method, and Mr Spratt’s subsequent transfer between the Perth Watch House and Casuarina, he suffered a punctured lung, fractured ribs, dislocated shoulder and other injuries.  However, these injuries were not sustained during those 'notorious' moments captured on Police Watch House CCTV that went viral around the world showing WA’s police and prison officers tasering the mentally-ill, homeless Aboriginal man.
 
It really wasn't until Shadow Attorney General John Quigley revealed Mr Spratt's intubation scars at a protest, that CCC Commissioner Len Roberts Smith stepped in and called an immediate stop to the stuffing around over the various 'internal investigations'.  

Shadow Attorney General shows Kevin Spratt's scars at the Rally for Humaneness in Nov 2011 - image copyright
In all Mr Spratt ended up being tasered as many as 41 times in a single week, by police and prison officers. Ultimately, no govt personnel were charged besides two police officers observed tasering Spratt on CCTV footage that were visually identifiable.  The CCTV of ESG treatment was eventually publicly released by the Crime and Corruption Commission during their related inquiry, but still those vital moments of how the detainee got those life-threatening injuries were never recorded - CCC's report stated that in those areas at the Watch House and in the prison vans recording was not an option. The CCC hearing evidence from one ESG officer who rode in the ESG prison transport van, whose identity was protected (as all ESG officers' identities, were), cannot be repeated here due to the salacious nature of what he intimated regarding how the Indigenous man's injuries were incurred in the back of the ESG transfer van. Needless to say, the allegations, which may have been intended to publicly shame the prisoner, defied the simple principles of physics of what a person can do with handcuffs on, and the issue was not explored at the inquiry beyond the officer's assertions.

How many  serious detainee injuries go untreated? How many other Mr Spratts are there? In an interview with him in 2011 he said he had other non-indigenous friends who had experienced prisoner abuse. Former prisoners came forward to testify to such, both during the 2003 Kennedy Royal Commission into Police Misconduct and, during the CCC Inquiry into the treatment of Kevin Spratt in police and prison custody. To no avail. Inaction. Definitely, never used the 't' word.
 
The WA Prison Torture Report (Cox, 2000) cited the former DPP’s concerns about fatal shortfalls in evidence DCS WA was required to provide to the DPP, for prosecutions relating to prisoner abuse to progress without impediment. They didn’t.  No prosecutions resulted,  although the unprecedented DICWC(WA) WA Prison Torture Report (Cox, 2000) was delivered to the UN Committee Against Torture, which then in turn brought about a half dozen recommendations regarding protection of rights violation complainants, independent investigators and the use and abuse of restraint mechanisms by the government. {I have posted those UN CAT recommendations on a separate page in the sidebar.}
There is seemingly a huge contrast in standards and treatment exhibited previously by serving military personnel, and ex-service personnel who have taken up  domestic roles. The Guantanamo Effect offers some examples of exemplary military standards for the treatment of detainees (ones that defined the world's respect for universal treatment of those captured in war and the treatment of military prisoners) that were discarded pursuant to the advent of Guantanamo Bay and Camp XRay:

Fletcher & Stover, 2009, The Guantanamo Effect, Foreword, p. xiii

ATSI people from regional and remote areas are arrested, interrogated, tried and incarcerated by non-indigenous justice mechanisms that have not ever supplied enough adequate, appropriate legal representation or interpreters to competently facilitate what is universally considered to comprise a fair trial. Many suspects and detainees are hearing impaired and suffer from ear disease, and use ‘hand talk’ (sign language) dialects. Almost all ATSI people detained in NT are hearing impaired &/or chronically ill - 95%.  These rates were detected by Corrective Services well after inmates had undergone court and police interrogation. The 2010 Senate Hearing Inquiry recommended such inmates - Australia-wide, should have their convictions independently reviewed. 
{The publication of these results was called for by the Senate Committee for Community Affairs during the 2010 Senate Hearing Inquiry. The inquiry also heard that around 20% of Australians are hearing impaired - figures commonly published estimate that rate at 10%.}

Fletcher & Stover, 2009, The Guantanamo Effect, Foreword, p. xiii
{Incredibly, one criminal lawyer, who was not Indigenous, not from the region and a real rookie (that's the technical term), pursuant to the discovery of this massively, massively, massively, incomprehensibly widespread, maladministration of justice, asserted in an official interview that: 'deaf people are simply more criminally inclined' . "Believe it or not...” very glad he isn’t representing me…}
 
Stover and Fletcher noted that in government agency assessments of Guantanamo detainees as early as 2002 and in reports thereafter,
  • The CIA considered probably only 30% of detainees had connections to terror-related activities
  • GTMO's own commander estimated half of his detention centre population were innocent
  • The FBI said only 50 of about 600 detainees were worth keeping at Guantanamo Bay
  • However, in contrast, a military review panel (CSRT's later judged by the Supreme Court to be making unlawful determinations) evaluated that only 38 detainees were not of interest to their enquiries. This too points to the politicization of military involvement in detention.
770 detainees were held at Gitmo between 2001-2009 and over 65% were released. The average length of confinement was three years (Stover & Fletcher, 2009, pp. 83-88), although some hunger striking Yemeni detainees - already cleared of any wrongdoing (and in some cases cleared many years ago) have now been held at Guantanamo for over a decade.
 
This may ring warning bells with some of the local community here, as we recall the plight of mentally-ill Aboriginal man, Marlon Noble, detained for ten years without trial in Greenough Prison; and, another mentally-ill man, Andrew Mallard, bricked up for murder and who spent 11 years wrongfully detained at Casuarina Prison.
 
 

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Gitmo, the 't' word & domestic detention - Part 2


The removal of ATSI people still appears to form the basis for the Australian legal system, well beyond the eras of (openly discussed) racist assimilation policies such as those that prompted declarations of 'terra nullius', the Stolen Generations, Forgotten Australians and the unpalatable likes of the 'White Australia Policy' - shocking white supremacist ideals evident, but not openly discussed in those clear and plain universal terms.

I wonder if it is really possible for our post-colonial society to discuss these racial issues honestly in the same un-spun terms that are used in open dialogue in the US and UK, and other countries? Really, how often does racial vilification get examined in the mainstream news - as often as it occurs in society? Probably not, and this spin-generated, linguistic forcefield can smother such unpalatable racist policy in deceptive terms, and conceal socially unacceptable consequences from the consciences of broader society's media consumers.
 
In view of Indigenous imprisonment rates that are unchecked and rising - consider:
  • the predominantly non-indigenous operations of all justice mechanisms, despite the prevalence of other cultures in prison musters  
  • the discrimination & racism evident in the resulting manner in which most (not all) of those mechanisms function
  • that the government promotes and condones, reactive and ever more punitive mandatory sentencing, regardless of statistical realities i.e. fear of crime sells news and buys votes
  • there are disproportionately heavier sentences for Indigenous youth,
  • that there are insufficient -independent- legal resources and translators available to ATSI people and that results in people 'pleading it out' when they haven't actually committed a crime.
Of course, these listed concerns are just a tiny number of those issues at play behind rocketing Indigenous imprisonment rates. I'm merely a journo, just a witness to what I see my news sources go through - but often they end up unable to explain these underlying problems to society via the media because such topics, like social justice, don't make mainstream news - they don't run. Australia’s pop media generally has no interest in publishing  news stories about human rights. This shortfall is simply another reason that deaths in custody and ‘mistreatment’ are recurrent and increasingly prevalent. 

Such Fourth Estate-based stories that focus on real issues, are the unwanted elephant in the Australian news room, which focuses predominantly on whether popstars, royals, actors, etc etc are wearing revealing clothing, having babies, and getting divorced, i.e. censorship by trivia. Keep the population dumb, dumb them down  some more, and then their opinions don’t pose any political dilemma – no disagreements, no dissent. 

This was the basis for Bernays’ public relations theories, that if the public had a single brain cell they’d be a danger not only to themselves, but to the whole public and to the function and power of the government (Propaganda, 1928, pp.9-12). Ironically, Bernays’ theory formed the basis for all PR to follow, and at least 3 wars, two massive campaigns of genocide (that's even if you exclude his marketing cigarettes to women) – so evidence would suggest that Bernays' theories were  seen as appealing to the corrupt, and to extremists. Woodrow Wilson took him on as an adviser & the tragic irony in that, is that Bernays was also employed by that "small group of dominant men" (see link) to ensure that 'the people' (the democratic, voting, public) didn't have power, or knowledge, or independent thought. In this insidious facet of government spin it is possible to perceive the inherent dangers of overly secretive government cultures. Disclosure and public right to know were democratic values, effectively, taught to disempowered publics through the incidence of increasingly monumental whistleblowing, of the grandest proportions - incomprehensible before Wikileaks & Snowden hit the news.

The Guantanamo Effect” (Stover & Fletcher, 2009) tweets I have made this year have been re-tweeted so many times over, it leads me to believe that I may not be alone in considering the text to be an exemplary and unmatched assessment of detainee human rights, with relevance to the management of most places of custody. I am also encouraged by the fact that Van Boven raised concerns of this nature in his 2004 report (hosted in full in the pages in the side bar).

I'll run some very brief passages of the Preface and Foreword of “The Guantanamo Effect” in the following posts, for the readers to view, and am hoping that they will be considered within permissible copyright limits for the purposes of education…(fingers crossed - email me if not). I plan to also look at issues raised as far back as The McGivern Report into the riot at Fremantle Prison(1988), and I'll touch on the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Theo van Boven's 4th Report (2004), and the DICWC(WA) WA Prison Torture Report submitted to the UN (Cox, 2000) which has been ferretted away by the National Library of Australia, where no man can bury it.

Tuesday, November 05, 2013

Gitmo, the 't' word and domestic detention conditions - part 1


So, I have considered this post for a while now - it is an irreconcilably large issue and it can't really be skimmed over or it will lose it's relevance, so I have decided to handle it in a few sections. I apologize in advance for my cynical sense of humour creeping in here and there (it will become apparent, all too soon). To be clear - I certainly don't seek to make light of the suffering of any of the victims of crime, or, people who have been unlawfully extradited and tortured. Commenting on disparity and maladministration of 'justice' is really my intent. Mostly the people who suffer injustices are those least capable of defending or expressing themselves to the public. This means that at times the commentary here will play the devil's advocate to provoke MSM news consumers to think beyond the limitations of mainstream news. Sometimes when public servants/spin doctors try to obscure very poor individual or dept actions to save face, or to suit a political agenda, they can look pretty silly. Incidentally, after the release of the most recent torture study mentioned here, Obama has today recommitted to closing Guantanamo Bay - but how many times have we heard that before and how many US detention centres mirror the values and conditions demonstrated there?

Guantanamo is very topical in the news at the moment. There are some prominent trials being prepared at present and lawyers are contending that the media (lol!- transparency via Fox News!) dialogue about the detention camp has tainted the potential for a fair trial.  The US media reports that one of those remandees claims he was water-boarded 183 times in a month, and, that any confession obtained was skewed by related psychological duress.

There have also been complaints that the classification of suspects' testimony circumvents a fair trial. There's been criticism about the military trial system and a big red ambulance-type light in court that flashes when a suspect mentions anything classified. A former staff member said she became suspicious about a smoke alarm used at the facility and, that after Googling the manufacturer, she found the company only made listening devices - not much good if there's a fire, I'd say.

The prolonged hunger strikes, the force feeding regimes, and the much publicized plight of the Yemeni men declared innocent by the US Govt but who still, years on (over a decade in some cases), await extradition back to their homeland, have all been widely discussed in the media. The impetus for public discourse is further fuelled by Gitmo's own former prosecutors' loss of faith, pursuant to compromising treatment, which they said constituted cruel and unusual treatment of detainees.

The US news media, primarily motivated by pervasive social media campaigns, has maintained political pressure for the US government to conform to reasonable human rights standards in the treatment of Guantanamo detainees. It’s a shame they don’t look at domestic detention issues more often because there is much about the treatment of those detained in a correctional setting that could parallel those conditions, according to UN & HRW. The same is true for Australia – probably more so, with the rate of Aboriginal incarceration rising so rapidly, and higher than the US, in the face of no news media interest in Aboriginal human rights. Media interest is largely attributed as necessary to prompt political pressure for social reform - this function played by the news media is called the Fourth Estate, as in, the fourth arm of democracy. This is why the right to a free press is enshrined into the US constitution. Australia, which gave birth to News Ltd, does not have this constitutional right.
This series of posts will draw on the text from the University of California Human Rights Center, by Laurel Fletcher and Eric Stover – “The Guantanamo Effect”. 

This recent study, further, explored complicity in torture and cruel and unusual punishment by US medical staff, including US army psychologist-trainers in torture resistant behaviours. Some of the earlier medical human rights breaches carried out are detailed in the Stover/Fletcher study and I will try to touch on those old established claims in subsequent posts.

In looking at Gitmo's now very notorious treatment of its detainees, parallels to Australia’s 'mistreatment' of its detainees and prisoners become clear. Australia's system of government and our legislation is so young compared to the US and UK and most of Europe's. Our constitution lacks really important provisions to ensure and safeguard democracy. Our federation of states is only just slightly over 100 years old, and in view of these states' positions on the First Nation People at that point in time - do the rising and ignored ATSI imprisonment rates really reflect that colonial aim for "Terra Nullius"?

Friday, November 01, 2013

Housekeeping

Some of you might prefer lo-res downloads of the posts and pages here. (This smaller download makes the posts much quicker to load if you are reading on your mobile phone, or logging on from a public computer.) I will try to post only lo-res images & documents to ease that download process from now on. You might also wish to subscribe to the posts/pages by email, and you will then receive the first edition of each run.

If there are any significant documents hosted in the pages on the sidebar, or, any links in the posts that any of you would like a lo-res (low resolution) copy of, just email me. I really value all my readers here and I'd like to try to make reading this blog as easy, inclusive and accessible as possible for everyone, regardless of where you live, or how you access the web.

Monday, October 21, 2013

Bushfires in NSW - appeal for Kessing

Hi - just a quick note...
There's probably very few of you who do not know about the NSW bushfires - the media cover is pretty pervasive/invasive. My thoughts are with those who are on standby for evacuation - like blogger, Weezil. Thoughts are also with Customs whistleblower, Alan Kessing. Not only has Mr Kessing been cleaned out defending himself from government reprisals, but now, he has had his newly-built, uninsured home burnt to the ground :{
He very bravely and selflessly mused that there were victims of the bush fires far worse off than him. Blogger - freedom of information lawyer Peter Timmins is taking the hat around for Mr Kessing, who is living in his shed, which, ironically was left standing & untouched by the fire front. If you'd like to donate something that this poor bloke might be needing - perhaps food, clothes, dollars or anything else that you think could be helpful, you can find the details on Open & Shut.
Please keep the firees & the community in your thoughts/prayers.
Respect, Mags.



Sorry, I hope I didn't leave you guys in the dark. I probably should have just left last week's updates here so that anyone reading at a later date would know how things worked out - so, on the Tuesday night after I posted this, a big storm came along - some areas in the Blue Mountains got only a little rain while others, got a lot. It was hot & windy the next day - just as if the storm hadn't arrived and the bushfires kept burning, but they were not as catastrophic as estimated. I have got this link, which has a bit of a summary of the situation as it stands. And, I want to say a big thanks for the prayers/thoughts/wishes and support from my readers for those suffering as a result of these fires. Bush fires are a part of Australian existence and every year they cause a lot of grief and loss. The firees did a great job.

What post?

So this is another filling-in-type, makeshift post. Ben Hur (aka, the giant, significant post that hasn't yet arrived) has not trimmed himself down yet and it would seem it is up to me. Nonetheless, there's a need to post, and I am a bit over fb-ing & tweeting. It's so anecdotal. When you're busy it's helpful but those mediums have their limitations. Do people you mean to read those fb posts read them, or just the people no one wants? How can you ever tell? - no traffic widget.  Things have been heavy in the news lately - big issues to talk about (such as, the erosion of the separation of powers [a basic democratic legal tenet] in social control order laws [pre-emptive rather than by trial] passed in Qld last week) but, just for a moment, please excuse some fleeting levity.

They say that the truth is stranger than fiction. Crypto-history (oft misunderstood and maligned), or 'pseudohistory', just kills me - slays me in the aisle. Funny, weird and occasionally, challenging. One of my favourites - one of the funniest crypto-history inspired vlog series that I have seen, is The Stuff They Don't Want You To Know. Hell-arious!!!! I often watch their podcasts when I am working out & my riotous giggling does attract some unusual visual evaluations from those nearby.

I especially love the part where the guy with the funny voice (Ben) says..."and here's where it gets ker-razee..." It's almost snort-worthy, because in reality a lot of the stuff they cover is pretty crazy from the outset. Even covering it in the first place is pretty "ker-razee" but it sure beats censorship, it's funny (as previously stated) AND, just every now and then, they raise something that is really quite substantial, but not in the best interests of the general pop-media or mainstream media to examine. For example, the segment about banning lobbying (only quite recently outlawed in little sleepy-old backwoods Queensland - one house of parliament - need I say more), and those about dodgy old PR-the hand is faster than the ball-trickster, Bernays, were so excellently researched.

I was watching this podcast on General Smedley Butler yesterday (below) and I thought for crypto-history it was pretty well argued - not particularly hilarious and on the Guffaw Suggestibility Scale I might give it, say, only a one. This one about the remote viewing program that inspired the movie Men Who Stare At Goats, should have been a 3, but fell a bit short on ludicrousness; and, more generally, the ones about aliens, illuminati, sasquatches  and time travel usually rate fairly highly with me, and, if the writers can combine all of those into one program (e.g.-a segment on aliens infiltrating the illuminati who have time travelled with a sasquatch and got voted in as PM) all the better - almost Dr Who-like - the key is definitely in the delivery of the spooky voice.

This clip's pretty self-explanatory, but basically it equates to a 1930s plot by a group of servicemen to overthrow Roosevelt, one of those implicated was the grandfather of George Bush (senior). Turn back n-o-w...



Sunday, October 13, 2013

Pace-setters or compliants - will that be a seat in the thinking or non-thinking section?

So, I am busy with uni again - (d'oh, sorry!) and I have a blog post I have been working on that is rapidly becoming bigger than Ben Hur & as such, it will require a little tweaking. So, I thought in the meantime I'd post this little post/analysis that was published elsewhere by my fabulously clever friend, Lila*. (L - I don't want you getting blog stalked so I am not giving you full attribution - tell me off when you see me :}}) whose birthday it is today...
Happy birthday!
 
This is a sad topic, but I think *Lila makes a very good point that is important to remember here, in Australia, where so many of us live in comfort, while others are suffering in our society because of past bigoted assimilation government policies that have been acknowledged through the national apology - but can never be redressed. The government propaganda that accompanied that assimilation era, set up a pattern of racial bias in our news media that still perpetuates unfair treatment for Indigenous and CALD sources and circumvents adequate political pressure for appropriate and equitable social reform. Because of a pre-conditioned and existing culture of tolerance for racist drivel, this negative approach to news reporting also spreads to affect any minority and also to class-based bigotry, as well. So, I think the message below to me, anyway, says to resist unpalatable racist conditioning that occurs in repetitive negative representations of certain ethnicities in the mainstream media and news, and to consume your media consciously - don't just tune in and absorb unhealthy nonsense. And, also, to encourage others to question the Australian news and other pop media material that you consume and that the kids watch. (turn it off & read a book!)
 
From Lila -
*not her real name...
 
 
"In a detailed and comprehensive study titled The Altruistic Personality: Rescuers of Jews in Nazi Europe, sociologists Samuel and Perl Oliner interviewed over 400 individuals who had placed their own and their family's live at risk in order to hide and rescue Jews. These rescuers were compared to a group of non-rescuers, who disagreed with the persecution of Jews but took no action to protect th...em. Both groups were asked an exhaustive battery of questions about a wide range of personal attributes, their personal and family backgrounds. ...

[T]he Oliners found that there were no significant differences between rescuers and non-rescuers in almost any of the categories of attributes. The two groups were not dissimilar in economic status, in exposure to opportunities for rescuing, in religious faith, or in risks involved. Rescuers and non-rescuers were equally likely to live among Jews and know them as friends or acquaintances. Members of both groups were asked for help by Jews with the same frequency. So why if both groups were equal in their circumstances, was one group's care and conviction strong enough to motivate life-risking action? The only distinguishing feature that set apart the rescuers from the non-rescuers, was the way they were reared as children. ...

Rescuers reported that their parents had placed much less emphasis on 'obedience'. They tended to describe their relationship with their parents as closer and warmer. Both groups reported being 'disciplined' by their parents with equal frequency, but the parents of rescuers had used non-violent methods of 'discipline'. Rescuers reported having been beaten a lot less as children, and certainly not with objects such as rods, wooden spoons or birches.

There is probably no clearer evidence that childhood shapes society. There is no more compelling and convincing imperative to abandon violent and punitive child-rearing methods. The willingness to take altruistic action, even when this poses a risk, and the willingness to defy dishonourable authority, these are signs of emotional maturity - the product of non-violent and respectful child rearing. If more Europeans had been raised in this way around the turn of the 20th century, there would not have been a Holocaust."

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Did the handling of this investigation hinge on race?

You've all been very patient while I've been busy with study & work & life - thanks for sticking around. I know there will be some of you who will be pleased the last post is moving into the background - controversial for a few people, I'm figuring...but, quite necessary to point out a few of the elephants in the room, at the same time. The Aussie mainstream media, as an authoritarian interest all of its own these days, needs to be held to account just as much as the justice system and it is important that they convey and question all the facts, not just the ones that fit a particular political agenda. It was also important to put back into the discourse a presumption of innocence (the death was pre-trial), and, to restore some of the ethical observations that were rudely, albeit legally, abandoned by the tabloids' less conscientious reporters. 

A little bit of crabby (that translates as 'grumpy' for all you US readers) business to take care of:
 
I have been flat out with study, influenza - twice (!), and I currently have glue ear, which is steadily driving me A-r-o-u-n-d tha bend. Don't ask me about it, coz I won't hear ya.
It's come to my attention someone's been obsessively rifling my early posts to dig up bio info - just email me, ask me what you want to know & get it over and done with. Far out... I have also been copping it - urgh! grrr! :{{  There have been certain parties who have tried to implement their own agenda on my writing recently - making rash judgments, using flak to shut me up, saying nasty things and harassing me and that has often been unlawful, and regularly, just really unkind. But, if that doesn't stop, that's next week's post. You have read the About me page haven't you? For all you speculators out there, rather than wingin' it and improvising & spreading gossip - just ask me - I am a lot more boring than you think. There aint no angle, no juicy story, just build a bridge and get over it. I am aiming to be the first female doctor in my family, much to my old mum's chagrin and, it is a labour of love, not of financial gain, that's for sure...sigh...

On that note, I have noticed that some of the work here has been re-posted on other big news websites (that rake in lots of $$ & can afford to pay me for that content as per the award) with other journo's names on those pieces :{{ that's stealing, unless you ask me first and give me full attribution. Don't do it - or I will name you and shame you.  "Being a freelancer doesn't mean that you work for free..." If you are short on a story, get out of your little fibro cubicles and go outside in the sun and talk to real people instead of just government spin doctors and get your own stories

Moving right along...

At the end of this post, is an interview facilitated by Shilo, an Australian human rights advocate. I am re-posting her interview and post, here, on the topic of the death of Mr Stack. She & the BSG have been consistently supportive of the family since the death of young Mr Stack. I have abbreviated some spots in her post in the interests of impartiality.

There are a variety of issues that are troubling about the DPP & WA Police Service's handling of the investigation and prosecution regarding the death of Mr Stack. Mr Stack's family said he was employed on the mines (quite a lucrative job, in Australia), when he was stabbed in an alley in Northbridge by a man who was later convicted of more than two dozen counts of theft-related offences. However, the non-indigenous man who stabbed Mr Stack - a Noongar, did not face court for the theft charges until after he was tried for manslaughter. His principle defence was that the deceased was robbing him.

And so, in a spirit of informed consent, let us proceed:

The following is a story I wrote about young Mr Stack, who tragically passed away in unusual circumstances. There was a surprising lack of transparency surrounding some of the decisions within that justice process and few answers after the fact. Needless to say, Mr Stack's large, close-knit family were extremely distressed by his sudden death and the strange priorities of the prosecutors. Issues of race were raised and I am not in a position to speculate, but I will put the facts here and allow you to draw your own conclusions.

I was the only journo to follow the case of the theft charges against the man who stabbed Mr Stack, and it was astounding to me that the mainstream editors were disinterested in what should be considered a pivotal case of tremendous public interest - why weren't the theft charges heard until 2-3 years later, and just one month after the manslaughter trial, given that the issue of theft was central in the manslaughter defence? Perhaps the case is only of public interest in a town that is not trying to play down race problems?

Mr Stack's family are seeking a review of the case.




 
Bereaved father Rodney Cox, supporting Noongar Elder Uncle Ben Taylor at the 2011 CHOGM Rally in Perth - image copyright

 I wrote this story on 4 Jan 2012 and all the work that appears here is strictly copyrighted: 

The grieving family of a young man killed in Perth's nightclub district in August 2009, are pitching a battle against the state's justice system.

Rodney Cox said advocates are preparing a submission to the Corruption and Crime Commission of Western Australia, after several puzzling issues emerged about the death of his 23 year-old son, Mr Stack.

In June 2010 Christopher Lee Brenchley (26) was found not guilty of the manslaughter of Mr Stack by a Supreme Court jury, which deliberated for four hours.

Brenchley said he was being robbed by the Aboriginal mines worker, when he stabbed him to death to protect himself.

He said he had turned the weapon back on Mr Stack, stabbing him once through the heart.

However, the DNA found on the handle of the screwdriver tendered as the alleged weapon, "belonged to my son," said Mr Cox and "the pathologist said 'it could have got on there when he pulled it out of his(own) chest.'"

Originally, Brenchley told police he had used a knife and even drew it for them, but he later changed his statement.

One month later - in July 2010, he pleaded guilty to 29 fraud charges related to over $15,000 of DVDS, CDs and games fraudulently sold to pawnbrokers between 2008 and 2009 and were, his lawyer said, "hot."

Police seized hundreds of DVDs, CDs and games and conducted raids on Brenchley's home, discovering empty security cases in his loungeroom, and in the boot of his car.

On the police video recording, Brenchley said he had a condition that made him steal, the police prosecutor said.

His lawyer said Brenchley told police several different stories about where he got the discs, but eventually pleaded guilty.

He said the offences occurred when Brenchley was unemployed and unable to pay his rent.

Brenchley had other convictions for stealing food and petrol in "drive-offs," and in 2010 was fined $500 for stealing DVDs from Target, the court heard.

The jury at the manslaughter trial was not privy to his past convictions, or the 29 theft-related charges.

In August a spokesperson said the Director of Public Prosecutions had not played the jury a Triple 000 phone recording in which Brenchley's wife could be heard screaming at him to "stab the f*****g c**t."

The senior prosecutors "did not think it was probative."

Rodney Cox said several other troubling issues prevented the family getting closure over Mr Stack's death and left them feeling "stunned," and wanting a re-trial.

He said there were no Indigenous jurors, crucial evidence was not tendered, and there had been no consultation between the family and the DPP until after the trial.

Mr Cox said only very limited CCTV footage was used in evidence, though Northbridge is visibly, highly monitored by CCTV.

He said they asked why Brenchley had not already faced trial over the 2008 stolen goods-related charges, but "they didn't have an answer."

The family met with the Attorney General's staff, but reached no resolution about the matter.

###



From Shilo: August 10
"LONG BUT PLEASE READ AND SHARE
I ran into Rodney Cox today while doing food shopping. He is such a lovely man who has been dealt such an awful blow, but still he pushes on. He asked me to make it known, so please share anywhere and everywhere, that they are currently waiting for the DPP and Alistair Hope to rule whether the death of Mr Cox's son will go to an inquiry. 

On 15th August it will be 3 years...The man who committed the act had a previous record, Mr Cox's son had none, the man who committed the act also had bought a weapon the morning of the attack...The man, who was accompanied by his wife presented several conflicting accounts while on the stand, one of the most sickening aspects of this abhorent act is that in the emergency 000 call you can hear his wife urging him to 'stab the black ****'. 

This attack was horrific and those... individuals are still free! Mr Cox has asked to have this horrid tragedy circulated and raised in the public arena, and several mainstream media outlets are already in the mix. He needs pressure to be put on the DPP. I will be getting in touch with my media contacts, please if you have any do the same, or even just share with your mates. Please watch and share the following interview."

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

The news about the death of the unnamed prisoner - Z"L (with respect - sensitive content)

I stalled writing about this subject for a few months. I was reluctant about it for a number of reasons – such as, not wanting to add to the media’s re-traumatization of the bereaved family. Plus, MSM news can sometimes have the effect of encouraging readers to “look over there,” circumventing adequate examination of domestic issues. However, public interest in discussing the occurrence of deaths in custody and in ventilating domestic shortfalls, strengthens the need to look at the issues involved, albeit from a slightly different perspective from the MSM.
 
An Australian citizen, born and raised in Melbourne, but who had dual citizenship, was remanded in custody while living overseas and authorities suppressed his identity. About six months later, but before he went to trial, he was found deceased in his isolation cell. Though he potentially faced a lengthy sentence, a representative of his legal team said that he had seemed rational the day before his death. He had also planned to submit a plea bargain to the court.


The accusations against him – even after death – are still suppressed – and have been terribly skewed by heavy, pervasive speculation.  Alleged intelligence experts, who freely admit no knowledge of the matter whatsoever, are still being interviewed as if they do, by a mainstream pop-media hungry for a big story. We have seen in Australia in the last decade, that a lot of intelligence and surveillance by ‘experts’ relies on loose interpretations and speculation that don’t hold up before a court of law – but the news is not a court, and comment on a dead man, or sentenced prisoners, cannot be defamatory under current Australian law.
 
The man was not repatriated back to Australia until he was dead. An inquest returned a finding of self-harm - the coroner found he had killed himself whilst held in that country’s highest security cell, which had 24/7 CCTV monitoring, with 3 cameras.
The court heard that at the time of his death:
  • guards were not watching the monitors, and,
  • not in the monitoring room, and additionally, 
  • the deceased was found in a place within the cell that was out of the range of the CCTV cameras, and 
  • he was seen 57 times over 6 months by a staff counsellor, who said the prisoner was depressed
{In contrast to the camera evidence presented at the inquest, in Australia, highest security supermax cells have CCTV cameras that monitor the activities around the toilet, and even the contents of the toilet bowl. It was alleged that the CCTV camera configuration in the state-of-the-art cell, left that area unmonitored - which, along with the apparent hanging point in that vulnerable area of the cell, seems unusually un-state-of-the-art in view of all the hype about how stringent the conditions of the remandee's detention were}.

Australia’s former and present foreign ministers categorically deny all knowledge of the conditions of the man’s detention, leading up to him being found dead in his prison cell.
 

The reader could be forgiven in speculating that this death might have happened at Guantanamo Bay, or perhaps he was held in a third-world banana republic, or interrogated at a UN-condemned secret prison, or maybe he was a drug trafficker apprehended in a country with terminal drugs laws, but, you’d be wrong.
 
Read the rest in the pages, on the right...this page includes findings and FOI docs from the Australian Embassy (via Antony Loewenstein).

###19 September 2013 - This is bad news for the bereaved Zygier family - media organizations have called out an open-market contract on 'exclusives' with them and their friends. Lets hope all the freelancers out there will stop well short of the grubby tactics that the MSM staffers have been resorting to regarding the custodial death of this remandee. Just remember the AJA Code - do not feel compelled to intrude and respect those who are grieving.