12-09-08 Dispatch de Barcelona: Freedom of Assembly, Bacelona, Jerusalem, Los Angeles

Freedom of Assembly in public spaces is quintessential for the formation and maintenance of Civil Society.  Barcelona leads the list, with Jerusalem and Los Angeles, in that order, very distant second and third.

Catalonian National Day demonstration. The blue/red stars on the flags represent the right/left wings of the Catalonian Independence movement.They appeared in harmony in the demonstration.

At the same time that the demonstration was taking place in Placa de Catalunya, a bachelorette party was filming a video in a corner of the giant square, where the bride to be was dressed as a ripe tomato.

Hanging out in Placa de la Universitat at night.
 
Hanging out in Placa de Reial at night;  Placa de Reial at day - one of the most beautiful public spaces I have ever seen

Barcelona:
The public spaces are full of People after dark and at night, when it cools down outdoors, and before it cools down indoors. Air-conditioning is expensive, and largely avoided. The summer dress code is accordily airy or even skimpy...
People, young and old, sit (mostly in Placa de Catalunya) on the square floor, on benches, stand talking.  Youth in particular hang out in the squares and nearby streets, sometimes in groups of a dozen or two, since bars and clubs are too expensive. Freedom of Public Assembly in public spaces is quintessential for Civil Society and formative at youth.
Any evidence of undercover police and affiliates presence, surveillance, or provocation is yet to be discovered.  One of my local network of undercover informers promised to provide me a media report evidencing undercover police activity in Barcelona.  I am waiting for the email with the links.
People drink in public in the squares, mostly beer, and marijuana is sold semi-openly.
Any case of violence is yet to be recorded by this observer in any public space, day or night, in Barcelona.
September 8 - Demonstration for independence on Catalonia National Day
On Saturday night (the real National Day is on September 11), a large crowd of People assembled in Placa de Catalonia, to demonstrate for independence of Catalonia, now an Autonomous Zone, from Spain and to celebrate the Catalonian  National Day.
An estimate of 1,000-2,000 People assembled for the demonstration, where a giant flag of Catalonia was created from candles in plastic cups, which were lit by volunteers on the floor of the square.  People were dressed or waved Catalonian flags.  The are two variant of the Catalonian flag, with red or blue star, reflecting the left and right wing of the independence movement, respectively.  However, they seemed in perfect harmony in the demonstration.  Pro independence slogans were chanted, national songs were sung.
The People in the fluorescent jackets in the pictures are not police, but the organizers of the demonstration.  No uniformed police presence was seen at all.  I asked one of the organizers if he thought that the demonstration was infiltrated by undercover police. He said it was possible.  But there was no evidence, such as typically seen in other places, of videotaping of organizers by the plain clothed types, except for legitimate TV crews, who were welcomed by the demonstrators.
As is the case in Quebec, it appears that the current financial crisis/swindle will intensify the call for independence.
Jerusalem:
In Jerusalem,  a Palestinian demonstration for independent Palestine, waving flags and singing national songs is inconceivable.
The main public space in the center of the new city is Zion Square.  Youth hang out there, particularly on weekend nights.
Irrational drug policy prohibits pot in Jerusalem, compared to Tel Aviv, where the same is more relaxed.  Undercover police and affiliates in Jerusalem were shown to be involved in the distribution of drugs, and in Israel a senior combat officer was recently prosecuted for controlling drug imports from Gaza into Israel.  Criminology experts agree - the highest social cost of failed drug policies is the thorough corruption of law enforcement. 
The same irrational policies favor the drinking of vodka over beer.  The outcome, combined with constant present of undercover police and affiliates, engaged in surveillance and provocations, is routine violence, mainly Jews on Arabs. 
Undercover police infiltration of demonstrations is routine.  In one extreme in Tel Aviv a few weeks ago, a social protest demonstration was infiltrated by police dressed in t-shirts of a particular reform party, and eventually provoked violence by the true demonstrations.

Los Angeles:
Happen to be in the wrong street in the wrong time, even during the day? You may be brutalized or killed by police.  The LADP continues a tradition of terrorizing the citizenry.

The Occupy social protest movement has been infiltrated by undercover police and affiliates from the start.  That case, referring specifically to conditions in Los Angeles, was noted by a prominent US constitutional scholar as a serious violation of the First Amendment.
I would like to believe that Americans from the Tea Partiers to the Occupiers, disdain criminality of government, and support the rule of law and the People's sovereignty.  However, in contrast with the Catalonian Independence movement, Americans feel the need to indulge in their sectarian differences, to the point that it is unclear reestablishing the rule of law and sovereignty of the People is any longer possible.
The main historic public space in downtown Los Angeles is MacArthur Park. In May 2007, armed LAPD stormed and brutalized peaceful protestors, picnickers, and TV crews.  In creativity that puts to shame Hollywood copywriters, the LAPD calls the case the MacArthur Park Melee (investigative committee was forms, civil, but no criminal cases in the courts - business as usual)
Public spaces downtown are mostly deserted after dark.  The flight to the suburbs eliminated public life in the downtown areas of many cities.  In many of the suburbs no real public spaces were designed or felt necessary. Youth often assemble in schools, religious groups, malls, all subject to various stipulations of the owners.  But none of these are of the nature of public assembly in a true public space.  This process may be reversed now, given the cost of gasoline and falling economic ability of the People.

12-09-08 Hello World!

Recent:

viernes, 07 de septiembre de @ 23:47 : Blue Springs, Missouri, US

viernes, 07 de septiembre de @ 23:25 : Los Angeles, California, US

viernes, 07 de septiembre de @ 22:48 : Sofia, BG

viernes, 07 de septiembre de @ 22:08 : Draveil, FR

viernes, 07 de septiembre de @ 21:11 : Chicago, Illinois, US

12-09-07 The ongoing US-Israeli love affair, b) Landmark events in unannounced regime change in Israel 1984-2002

The Bus 300 Affair (1984), the Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin (1995), and the death of the Supreme Court’s Chief Clerk Shmaryahu Cohen (2002), show the hallmarks of unannounced regime change in the State of Israel. Was the United States, or United States interests involved? At least in the third event.
    
Former top IDF Commander Yitzhaq Mordechai; late Prime Minitster Yitzhaq Rabin; late Chief Clerk of the Supreme Court Shmaryahu Cohen (שמריהו כהן)

In the ongoing love affair, there were benefits and damages to both sides.  Which side suffered the greater damage, is yet to be determined.  The claim underlying the list of landmarks events below, is that the State of Israel went through an unannounced regime change between 1984 and 2002, similar to the one experienced earlier in the United States.  The effects in both nations are similar – widespread corruption of the courts and the legal profession, impoverishment of the many, enrichment of the few, and undermining of Human Rights and the Rule of Law.

1.    The Bus 300 Affair (1984)
The case came in the aftermath of Israeli Supreme Court decisions, which prohibited torture and unlawful killing of prisoners. 
Wikipedia:
The Bus 300 affair, also known as Kav 300 affair, was a 1984 incident in which Shin Bet members executed two Arab bus hijackers, immediately after the hostage crises incident ended and the two terrorists were captured.
After the incident the Shin Bet members gave a false testimony on their involvement in the affair. The Israeli military censor blacked out coverage of the hijacking originally, nevertheless, the publication of information regarding the affair in foreign press, and eventually in the Israeli media, led a public uproar which led many in the Israeli public to demand that the circumstances surrounding the deaths of terrorists would be investigated. In 1985 a senior Israeli army general Yitzhak Mordechai was acquitted of charges related to the deaths of the captured terrorists. Later, it emerged that members of the Shin Bet, Israel's internal security service, had implicated the general, while concealing who gave the direct order that the prisoners be killed. In 1986 the Attorney General of Israel, Yitzhak Zamir, was forced to resign after he refused to call off an investigation into the Shin Bet's role in the affair.  Shortly afterwards Avraham Shalom, head of the Shin Bet resigned and was given a full Presidential pardon for unspecified crimes, while pardons were granted to many involved before charges were laid. Following the scandal, the Landau Commission was set up to investigate Shin Bet procedures.
Some conspiracy theorists claim that the case established the superiority of the Secret Service over the rule of law.
There is no evidence of US involvement in the case.

2.    The Assassination of Yitzhaq Rabin
Wikipedia:
The assassination of Yitzhaq Rabin took place on November 4, 1995  at 21:30, at the end of a rally in support of the Oslo Accords at the Kings of Israel Square in Tel Aviv. The assassin, a religious Zionist named Yigal Amir, strenuously opposed Rabin's peace initiative and particularly the signing of the Oslo Accords.
Prior to the assassination, current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu engaged in a campaign of denigration of then Prime Minister Rabin. Conduct of the former was denounced even then as incitement.
The Israeli Secret Service is responsible for the security of the Prime Minister, and also reports directly to him. Israeli media and court proceedings show that the Security Service implanted in a fringe group a provocateur, named Avishai Raviv, who  radicalized the group.  However, when the group got ready to assassinate Rabin, the implant failed to inform his superiors.  Raviv was prosecuted for Misprision of Felonies, but was found by the Israeli court “not guilty”.
In the face of ongoing conspiracy theories, an extreme right wing senior politician was quoted to have said that if there was a conspiracy by the Security Service, Rabin himself was to blame for his own assassination, since the Security Service was under his direct authority.
There is no evidence of US involvement in the case, although the US has been involved in similar operations in other client states.  There is no doubt that the US trained, current prime minister, Netanyahu, is closer to at least some part of the US leadership more than Rabin ever was.

3.    The death of the Supreme Court’s Chief Clerk Shmaryahu Cohen (2002)
Even the Hebrew Wikipedia does not have an entry for Shmaryahu Cohen.
From the Methods section of a paper by this author in Data Analytics 2012:
Subsequently, a cursory survey was conducted of the pattern of judges’ signatures and clerk’s certification of records over the past two decades. The significance of events around 2001-2003 was identified.
Accordingly, a more detailed survey was conducted of records of that period, including data mining relative to changes in distribution of specific word combinations, related to certification over time (e.g., “Chief Clerk”, “Registrar”, “Shmaryahu Cohen” (the late Chief Clerk of the Supreme Court), “Boaz Okon” (former Registrar of the Supreme Court), True Copy). 
Subsequently, court records that were identified as outliers in such distributions (e.g. Decision records bearing the name of the late Chief Clerk Shmaryahu Cohen, issued later than the date of his death) were individually examined. Such data mining procedures enabled the discovery of hundreds of fraudulent decision records.
Once the death of the late Chief Clerk of the Supreme Court on March 7, 2002, was identified as a key event in this context, Google searches were conducted to further elucidate the event.  It turned out that he reportedly died of “sudden cardiac arrest”, after toasting a retiring staff member in an office party.  Additionally, Google searches discovered a complaint, filed with the Israel Police by a family member/friend two weeks after the event, alleging murder.  However, the complaint failed to present any reasonable motive for such murder.  Regardless, web pages were discovered with various conspiracy theories in this regard.
Based on the findings from such data mining efforts, requests were filed on the Ministry of Justice and the Administration of Courts, pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, for records that would provide the legal foundation for the profound changes in certification patterns between 2001-3,  the appointment records of the current chief clerks of the courts, the appointment records of the Registrars of Certifying Authorities, pursuant to the Electronic Signature Act (2001), secondary legislation that might have authorized the changes, etc.
Additionally, outside sources were reviewed for information regarding the history of the development and implementation of the electronic records systems of the courts: media reports, and in particular the 2010 State Ombudsman’s Report 60b.
From the Results section of the same paper:
The 2010 State Ombudsman’s Report 60b reviewed the development and implementation of Net Ha-Mishpat. The report describes a system that was developed with no written specification and with no core supervision by State employees, the issuance of contracts to outside corporations with no bidding, and acceptance of the system with no independent testing of its performance by State employees.  Most alarming, the Ombudsman’s Report indicated that unknown number of individuals had been issued double Smart ID cards.  The Ombudsman pointed out that the development and implementation of the system was conducted in violation of State law. However, the report failed to evaluate the validity of the system as a whole.
From the Discussion section of the same paper:
It appears that updates in the electronic records systems and the passage of the Electronic Signature Act made it necessary to decide between the development of systems, based on valid, lawful specifications and lawful digital signatures, or systems based on no specifications and no digital signatures at all.
The results show that effectively, decision was made around 2002 in favor of the latter option.  The most obvious trait of the systems now in place, is that among thousands of electronic public legal records, which were examined as part of the current study, not a single digitally signed record was discovered.
Furthermore, the findings suggest that such decision required the neutralization of the main watchdogs, relative to integrity of legal records: the chief clerks of the Supreme Court and the district courts, and the Registrar of Certifying Authorities. 
Additionally, data mining results show that following the passage of the Electronic Signature Act (2001), a small private corporation, ComSign, LTD, controlled by veterans of the IDF Intelligence Unit 8200 (cyberwar), were unlawfully established as the sole certifying authority for the legal records of the State of Israel.
The Recommendations of the 2012 Human Rights Alert (NGO) submission to the United Nations Human Rights Council included:
2.    A Truth and Reconciliation Commission should be established to examine the conduct of members of the judiciary and the legal profession, who were involved in undermining the integrity of the electronic record systems; 
It is doubted that such examination could avoid the death of Shmaryahu Cohen, and the conduct of his successor, Sarah Lifschitz, who is completing now her 10th year in office with no lawful appointment record for the office of Chief Clerk of the Supreme Court.
Two US-based corporations, IBM and EDS, are the ones referred to in the Ombudsman’s report relative to the unlawful development and implementation of the electronic record systems of the courts. The Ombudsman’s Report also notes that the servers of the courts of the State of Israel (effectively – the entire body of the records of the courts) was removed from the custody of the State, and the servers are now under the custody of an unnamed corporation.
Conduct surrounding the implementation of the electronic records of the Israeli courts and the unlawful holding of offices by the clerks of the Israeli courts over the past decade closely resemble events that took place in the United State 10-20 years earlier.

In conclusion:
There is no doubt that in parallel to the increasingly tight relationship with the United States, events took place in the State of Israel, which redefined the political power map, irrespective of written law of the land.  What the direct or indirect role of US interests was in this process remains largely unknown. 

12-09-07 NextTech2012 Debate: Large-scale Fraud in the Electronic Records of the Courts – A call for action by computing experts

Below is the outline for the debate panel in the upcoming NextTech2012 conference in Barcelona, Catalonia. The short introductory slide presentation in also linked below.
LINKS:
[1]12-09-07 NextTech2012 Debate: Large-scale Fraud in the Electronic Records of the Courts – A call for action by computing experts By Joseph Zernik, PhD - short opening presentation
http://www.scribd.com/doc/105211070/
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1. Large-scale Fraud in the Electronic Records of the Courts – A call for action by computing experts
Joseph Zernik, PhD
Human Rights Alert(NGO)

 • Specializing in data-mining of electronic government records: courts, prisons, banks
• The recent implementation of fraudulent electronic records systems in the courts converted them into rackets and undermined Human Rights and banking regulation.
Caution: Expect harsh retaliation.
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2. Supreme Court – United States

Richard Fine v Sheriff Lee Baca

The 70-year old, former US prosecutor Richard Fine exposed, publicized, and rebuked the
large-scale bribing of the judges of the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles -the largest county court in the United States:
• Fine’s actions led to the signing of “retroactive immunities” (simulated pardons) for all judges of the California courts by the California Governor –in fact an admission of widespread criminality of the judiciary.
• Two weeks later, Richard Fine was arrested. He was falsely imprisoned for 18 months in
solitary confinement (considered by the United Nations torture). His electronic booking record listed him arrested and booked on location and by authority of the “Municipal Court of San Pedro”, which did not and does not exist.
• Richard Fine’s Habeas Corpus petitions were subjected to simulated review in the US District Court, Central District of California, the US Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit, and the US Supreme Court.
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3. District Court, SDNY –United States


Securities and Exchange Commission v Bank of America in the US District Court, SDNY,
was touted as enforcement of banking regulation by a tough US judge, after the unlawful taking of USD 5.8 billion by banking executives was discovered:
• SEC, BAC, and the US District Court colluded in fraud on the People through conduct of simulated litigation, in the outcome of which no individual was held accountable,
and the funds were never returned to the shareholders.
• Due to the unprecedented corruption of the US courts, today there is no way to institute effective banking regulation in the United States.
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4. Supreme Court -State of Israel

Undermining of the Supreme Court's certification of records in 2002

Former Chief Justice Aharon Barak was touted as the leader of a “Constitutional Revolution”:
• Data-mining shows that he presided over unprecedented corruption of the Supreme Court - hundreds of falsified decision records were discovered.
• Since 2003, none of the electronic decision records are certified, and none shows any reference to the Office of the Clerk. The Chief Clerk refuses to certify the Court’s records.
• The Administration of Courts refuses to disclose the legal foundation for such profound change in the records of the Supreme Court in 2001-2003, or to produce the appointment records of the Chief Clerks of the courts (including the Supreme Court).
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5. Tel Aviv District Court –State of Israel

Silman’s case, where he asked for his social security benefits was subjected to fraud by Judge Hagai Brenner

Initial review of the case of the July 2012, self-immolated social protest activist Moshe Silman shows:
• The complaint and initial decision were filed under a case number that never existed -index fraud.
• None of the records were signed, instead ¨Post-it Decisions” were issued -simulated, fraudulent judicial records.
• Judge Hagai Brenner denied an appeal from his own decision - judicial misconduct.
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6. Detainees Courts –State of Israel

Lack of correlation between dates of issuance and Detainee Numbers, and discontinuity in Detainee Numbers 

The records of the Detainees Courts should raise concern that “black hole” prisons and makeshift “field courts” have been established in the State of Israel
• Only a selection of the Detainees Courts records is published online, as insecure Word files, most of which were created a long time after the fact (at times – years). 
• The Ministry of Justice refuses to disclose, how many Detainees Courts are operating in the State of Israel today, their names and locations, and the names of the Chief Clerks, if any exist.