Sunday 13 November 2016

Post Pop Depression

Phew. Been a while since I did one of these. But here it goes:


Post Pop Depression

Ok, I know this album came out on March 18th and we’re approaching its 8 month anniversary so that is how I’m framing this blog! It’s a celebration of its 8 month birthday! What spurred me to write this was the release of the Post Pop Depression Live at Albert Hall. But the album itself is an album worth celebrating. With the loss thus far this year of such magical storytellers such as Bowie and Cohen and musicians in the last twelve months like Prince and Lemmy, Pop is a remaining legend in the storytellers grouping and deserves wordly recognition. Honestly, I never listened to him much prior to this album. I knew his ‘hits’, I knew of his band with the stooges, but I never paid attention to his work or words. He is 50 years in the music industry. That is incredible. His longevity is incredible in an industry known for its artist’s excesses, the cut-throat nature of the industry itself.

For those who are unaware, the album is a collaboration between Queens Of The Stone Age’s Josh Homme, Arctic Monkeys drummer Matt Helders and LA multi-instrumentalist Dean Fertita (also currently QotSA). It is Joshua Homme that brought this album to my attention as I follow his work as closely as I can. Anything he touches musically is so so awesome thanks to his ability to evolve his sounds and output. He is smoothness personified in my opinion, his music is like silk to my ears. Even …Like Clockwork, the Queens last output, it dealt with themes of life and death. It was dark. It was heavy. It was supreme. But Homme still makes it 100% listenable. Pop is the essence of 70’s punk: Brash, outlandish, a voice filled with life and experience. But this album is him at his most thoughtful. As NME succinctly put it, this album is a coming together of these two musical deities and their skills: “Brilliantly, that’s what ‘Post Pop Depression’ actually sounds like. Iggy’s vocals and lyrics are astounding – he’s like an angry young man all over again, and is far more gnarly and potent than any of his contemporaries”

Ok. Let’s break down the songs.
1.     Break Into Your Heart
Pop doesn’t need to slowly break you into his style. He just goes for it. The moment I heard the first 0:22 seconds are just so memorable. Iggy with a haunting sounding guitar behind his painfully somber lyrics [emphasis is mine]:

“I’m gonna break into YOUR heart,
I’m gonna crawl under YOUR skin,
I’m gonna break into YOUR heart,
And follow. Till I see where you begin. “

They’re hauntingly beautiful, matching the guitar. Then we get the first taste of the collaboration. Matt’s drums throughout are tight. Dean’s bass is heavy, thumping, rhythmic, mesmerizing. The song as a whole just grips you and pulls you in.

2.     Gardenia
This is my favourite song on the album. I just find the music so uplifting after the emotional journey that was Break Into Your Heart. Wonderfully melodic chords, a perfect balance of clear music and Iggy’s voice. Josh’s backing lyrics add to the songs balance. Iggy’s ‘matter-of-fact story telling come to the fore massively here.
“America’s greatest living poet / was ogling you all night / you SHOULD BE WEARING THE FINEST GOWN.”
The subject is admonished for not looking her best for her ‘oogler’. It’s musical narration at its finest.

3.     American Valhalla
Again, the drums and bass to bring us into this song are excellent. Then, just listen to Pop and Homme speak about this song, from the horses mouths so to speak!

My main takes from it are Josh pointing out that “If I have outlived my use, please take what’s left of me” is wonderfully emotive.

And I love Iggy’s coarse gravelly tones nakedly uttering “I’ve nothing, but my name” are haunting and desolate. The writer is at the end, realising that at the exact moment before death, we carry nothing but our name.

Lyrically, it’s sinister, dark. . .  impending

4.     In The Lobby
The different tones running through this song are interesting. Musically, the sounds are a little erratic, high pitched solos alongside an increasing fragility of the writers mind on each of the “And I hope I’m not losing my life tonight”
From near spoken, to a slightly upwardly lilting to full on panic.
The messages of mortality are ones that run through a lot of the songs, if not all songs on this album.

5.     Sunday
A lovely funky riff and drums open this song. Iggy’s lyrics are masterful and storyful. He is part of a musical artistic collective whose words are more than mere letters. They’re descriptive art pieces.
“this street is as cold as a corporate lawsuit.”
Incredible imagery.
Tying into the notion that in our corporate world, Sunday is just another day for them. For us it’s a day where we can say “fuck off! Don’t you know it’s Sunday?!” Iggy eloquently reminds us of this in the live album!

6.     Vulture
In an album dealing with a lot of questions around mortality, it seems fitting there’d be a song about the bird that feasts on the only thing we leave behind: our bodies. Again, wonderfully evocative lyrics provide a masterful imagery to us listeners:
“Vulture waiting
For a life to end
Proving the prophet
He's nobody's friend
If he gets near
Your bones he'll clear
He'll jump your bandwagon
'Til it's your corpse he's draggin'”

7.     German Days
In this song Iggy is reminiscing about Berlin when he was with his good friend Bowie. It’s again a song laced with mortality due to the subject written about.

8.     Chocolate Drops
The lyrics are dramatic, the backing vocals haunting. His words again resonate on many levels:

When is painful to express the things you feel (inside)
When it hurts to share because they're bare and real (so real)
So when everyday is judgement day, I won't pray (don't pray)
When there's none to share that empty chair, well okay (okay)”

He’s fighting to hang on, but understands that if there’s no one to share your burden with, it’s understandable how you might go in search of your own Valhalla. But he qualifies his understanding with a possible double entendre:

“There is nothing in the stars if You fail to move
There is nothing in the dark, it's just some old excuse
Hanging on, let it go”

He could mean ‘let the burden go. Untangle yourself. Be free.’
Or he could understand your letting go of just hanging on. Either way. It’s fascinatingly morbid.

9.     Paraguay

At 6:25, it is the longest song on the album. It is also an angry, I want to say diatribe, but it’s almost an oration of anger. It’s a fascinating trip from the writer attempting to lay the blame on his own feet for wanting to “pack [his] soul and scram”, to full on anger at the “they”; the realisation that “Out of the way I'll get away / Won't have to hear the things they say”, that fear is what drives people to feel this way. His anger builds monstrously thanks to his realisation that it’s ‘their’ fault:

“There's nothing awesome here
Not a damn thing
There's nothing "wow!"
Just a bunch of people, scared
Everybody's fuckin' scared
Fear eating all the souls at once
I'm tired of it
And I dreamed about gettin' away
To a new life
Where there's not so much fucking knowledge
I don't want any of this "information"
I don't want "you"
No, not anymore
I've had enough of "you"
Yeah I'm talking to "you"
I wanna go to Paraguay
Live in a compound under the trees
With servants and bodyguards who love me
Free of criticism
Free of manners and bores [?]
I wanna be your basic Clyde [?]
Who made good
And went away while he could
To somewhere where people are still human beings
Where they have spirit
You take mother-fucking laptop
Just shove it into your goddamn foul mouth
Down your shit-eating gizzard
You fuckin' phony two-faced, three-timing piece of turd
And I hope you shit it out with all the words in it
And I hope the security services read those words
And pick you up and flay you
For all your evil and poisonous intentions
Cause I'm sick and it's your fault
And I'm gonna go heal myself now.”

That last line is almost cathartic – he has mentally dealt with the shit in this mortal world. He’s cleansed of the crap. He’s ready for whatever is next on this life journey. On his terms.
It’s wonderfully poetic.



In conclusion, it’s an album where Iggy’s dangerousness and raw sexuality [are] meshing with Homme’s hypnotic guitar rock.
It’s poetic, it’s a trip through a thought process of what our mortality is and means to this fantastic mind.
Listen to it. Enjoy it. Breathe in his new lust for life.

Friday 17 May 2013

Keep A Space for Sagna


It’s my first Arsenal blog in a while today but I was in the writing mood so I’ll compose a few thoughts on one of our most consistent players of the past few seasons: Mr Bacary Sagna.
 
I read that he was the last to depart the pitch on Tuesday night and his waves appeared to be lingering ones. I would fully agree with @LittleDutchVA on his Arseblog column when he said that he’d like to see Jenkinson phased into the team with Sagna there to help the transition. Gunnerblog made a very good observation on Tuesday night when he noticed how Gibbs was “coached through the game by Steve Bould who regularly passed on advice to Gibbs from the touch-line.” I think we can all agree with him that it worked and McManaman was fairly subdued in the game. Gunnerblog went on to say that “Gibb’s positional play and anticipation were as good as I’ve seen him produce.” Remembering how good Sagna was against Sunderland when he was moved into the centre due to injuries, I can only imagine his experience at centre back being a positive were we to keep him for the final year of his contract. I know Merty and Kos are the preferred centre back pairing but if we could persuade him to see out the final year of his deal to help mould Jenks into the brilliant right-back we know he will be that could only be a good thing. He could be that on field coach for the young Jenkinson knowing exactly what's needed having bombed up and down that right flank for his career. I do think our squad now has the right balance of youth and experience and getting one more year from Sagna would be fantastic. The criticism he has received at times this season has been un-warranted. Yes he has made a few mistakes this season but it’s only after 5 years of sterling service. It’s only now I realised he’s only human. But seriously, with abs like the ones in the picture above you can be forgiven for thinking he wasn’t human! Super ability coupled with such impressive determination meant that no cause was lost if it was on Sagna’s radar. I remember this goal saving clearance like it was yesterday! Supreme determination! 

One leg break, let alone two, are difficult injuries to return from. But return he did and he’s rarely if never given less than 100% for the team. His recent error against Man United led to a double error such was his determination to make up for the first error. That’s determination to right a wrong. We all know over determination can lead to two wrongs but I forgive when there’s 100% dedication and commitment to the cause by the player. My belief in his ability to shift from right to centre back is one that comes from watching Thuram make a similar move from right back to centre back while playing for Juventus. Like Sagna, Thuram was a top quality right back, quick in the tackle, strong and his reading of the game was fantastic. All the skills which are necessary to make the move to centre back. 
Keeping this attitude and player in the squad can only be a positive for Arsenal for next season. This season has been a very tough one and we’ve no one to blame for its toughness as it was caused solely by ourselves during the early part of the season. But look at our form since January. If we can continue with this newly found grit and determination into next season, coupled with a few offensive additions I believe we are looking at an Arsenal side capable of challenging for the title. In my view, Sagna could be a big part of this. No Arsenal fan can forgot thee defining gritty and determined goal of the last couple of seasons!






BOOMPH! What a header! What's that? From another angle you say? No problem!


Shiver me timbers! That was a goal



 Obviously it is all dependent on what the man himself wants but he's been a fantastic player for us since 2007 and I'd show the same determination to keep him as he has shown on his right wing since he first sprinted up it



My Tribute to the Commander


I meant to post this a few days ago and it slipped my mind so apologies for the late and brief tribute Commander!
So the legend that is Commander Hadfield has left the International Space Station. The man who brought us into orbit with him and shared so many wonderful glimpses of our beautiful Earth has returned to terra firma and he should be returning to a lot of gratitude from all of us. I personally was lucky enough to have my home county featured on one of his flyovers. Even more amazingly he got us without cloud. Something that led me to believe he photoshopped his image! This website is amazing.  Kudos to the people who mapped out his pictures into lovely drop down options. From what I can tell, via Dara O’Briain, it was this guy that mapped it out so a big thank you to him!
The Commander is one lucky man however. Even in this day and age he has bosses that evidently don’t have a clue about social media. Their employee was up in space tweeting, playing space sounds on Soundcloud and ‘Youtube-ing’ to his heart’s content! Did the man get any actual work done up there I wonder?! How many billions in working hours did he cost his employers? Actually, now that I think of it, I’m glad the Commander is back. Hopefully the next Commander of the International Space Station actually does some work up there and gets off the Twitterer and Facebuk or whatever they’re called. IT’S NOT A HOLIDAY CAMP SPACE PEOPLE.
On a more serious note, in the last number of years, we have seen the United States decimate its funding of NASA while its military budget is ever increasing: both are to the detriment of humanity. Not only is NASA’s core budget cut for sending shuttles to space, its outreach program is also being destroyed. Commander Hadfield should act as an inspiration to governments around the globe to quit both cuts to education and austerity measures and pump money into science and education. It should be noted the interest this man garnered from the Earth’s populace. Imagine a new age of cooperation among nations and a space race that was not about one country winning, but everyone. Just imagine the technologies that could be invented due to massive investment in new research and people. Look at the jump humanity took when NASA was receiving a mere 4% of the US’ Federal budget in the 1960’s. Sadly since then, NASA’s budget has continuously shrunk. It didn’t even receive half a percent of total Federal funds this year. That is criminal. I mean compare it to the funds the Energy Corporations receive. Massive, profit making, tax avoiding, Earth polluting, energy companies. The figures are terrible.
Upon landing (and at the time of writing) he had amassed 969,338 Twitter followers. Imagine if we could get more people in such wonderfully privileged positions to engage so wonderfully with the general populace. Give people proper role models in life with proper aspirational goals. You would hope that stories like this are true and that he does inspire more and more people to dream about space. That can only have a knock on effect in terms of funding and humanities evolution as a species.
Of course there can’t be many people who didn’t see or at least know about his amazing penultimate departure day serenade! David Bowie’s Space Oddity never looked so good and with over six million views – the world agrees! Can you imagine having written that song, how awesome it must have been to have it performed so fantastically by an actual astronaut?! Actual space footage to go with your words? It sent chills through me watching that video and listening to the words! The Commander has inspired us and governments should ride this wave of inspiration and drive ourselves on for a new scientific age.
I mean when you glimpse at a selection of his best photos it is truly awe inspiring to think of the possibilities for better understanding our planet and its wonders.
So for reminding me of just how amazing our home, Earth, is and just how lucky I am to have a chance at living on this planet, I humbly thank thee.

Saturday 11 May 2013

Musical Mutterings: Encore un Fois


This week I’ve been utilising my Spotify to hear some splendidly eclectic music.  Public Service Broadcasting possibly stood out for me. They’re a London based duo according to Last.fm who remix up old TV sound bites and for good measure, they mish mash banjo, guitar, drums and electronic into the mix. Really unique sound I have to say. I like a bit of the old spoken word, Gil-Scott Heron being one of those that tickles my fancy, but this was something uniquely different. Lit Up commences with a lovely melodic intro which leads into the following broadcast: “Once again we’re taking you on board HMS Nelson for a description of the scene at Spider Head [I couldn’t pick up the exact name] tonight by Lieutenant Commander Thomas Woodrum…….. At the present moment the whole fleet is lit up…."

The crackling of the broadcast, the voices of the past, the music of the present lends to a really nice ambiance of sound, if that makes any sense! They’re playing in Cork on May 30th and if anyone is reading this from Cork, I’d highly recommend going to Cypress Avenue to check them out. Ironically I’ll be in where their base is, London, on that night. Quite annoyed at that. In the Guardian’s G2 magazine on May 3rd, they described how Public Service Broadcasting perform before a bank of old TV sets showing manipulated footage from the films they get their sound bytes from. Reminds me of both British Sea Power and God Is An Astronaut. Should make for an interesting gig.

I listened to their Spotify sampler and the six tracks available on it were all impressive. I liked Everest a lot. It was a fast paced, lively song. I think it’s at the top of my shopping list when I get a bit of money again. Check them out anyway.

This week I also listened to and was glad I found a wonderful band called Haiku Salut. Their album Tricoloure is a lovely light, floatsy glide along album. Their use of accordions, ukeleles, glockenspiels, pianos, loopery and laptopery (last.fm’s description) makes for a splendidly different album. You honestly don’t know what to expect from one song to the next. You listen to a rock album, you expect rock. You listen to this, you honestly don’t know where it’s bringing you but you trustingly go along for the journey and it does not disappoint you. Beautifully uplifting, there’s a zest to the album that I haven’t heard in a debut album before. Sounds Like There’s a Pacman Crunching Away at Your Heart typifies the album. It sounds like it could be a sad, crushing song of despair, of lost love, but it’s a beauty of a song. I urge a listen. Leaf Stricken is just something totally different following on. It’s the laptopery, loopy stuff described before but strangely it just fits right in. Not expecting or anticipating any particular journey when listening to this album is a major plus. The different sounds they fit in add to the incredible musical journey Haiku Salut offer. Again – definitely worth a few minutes of your time.

Otherwise I spent a bit of time making up a 20 track, fast rock playlist. Check it out and let me know what you think!



Thursday 7 February 2013

My Response to Mr. Hopper

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My apologies this response is a bit late but better to destroy non-factual and ridiculous arguments later than never!

So in a response to Ruth Dudley Edwards absurd blog there arrived this supporting beauty posted on January 28th. I honestly didn’t think anything could beat Richard Humphries article in the Irish Independent but Mr. Hopper’s does.

To defeat his argument entirely and to save you from absolute boredom, I (and you dear reader) need not go past the title. [I did venture past the title and decided nothing in it was worth responding to as it did not make Ireland any more or less unique than any other country in the world. I let the facts speak for themselves in a few lines time] For Mr. Hopper to begin as he did with such an inaccurate statement in the title - “ancient hatreds” – was ridiculous. What ancient hatreds sir? There was a so-called ‘pogrom’ in Limerick in 1904 and from the research I conducted I found nothing of serious note. A boycott against Jewish business organised by a young Redemptionist Catholic priest [crazy warning number 1] by the name of John Creagh  which unfortunately forced the Jewish population from their homes in Limerick where many fled to Cork and they were welcomed into peoples own homes. That in itself was a blessing. Have you been to Limerick?* It was a embarrassing and disgusting period in Catholic Limerick history, not Irish history. Irish Protestants in Limerick supported the Jewish people in Limerick, Corkonians welcomed them into their homes when the Jewish people decided they (understandably) had to leave Limerick.

To quote from a letter sent to the Jerusalem Post by a retired History teacher, Leonard Hurley, I give you a small timeline of Irish Jewish relations:

“Daniel O’Connell, the “Liberator,” was responsible for the Catholic emancipation in 1829, but Honig failed to mention that he rejected anti-Semitism and in 1846, in the House of Commons, helped repeal the law, De Judaismo, which discriminated against Jews. O’Connell stated: “Ireland has claims on your ancient race, it is the only country that I know of unsullied by any one act of persecution against the Jews.”

Our [Mr. Hurley’s] church is called the Daniel O’Connell Memorial Church, and buried on the grounds is Msgr. Hugh O’Flaherty. O’Flaherty was given the title Righteous Among the Nations by the Israeli government for the work he did in saving many Jews in Rome during the war.

Many other Irish historical figures, including Michael Davitt and John Redmond, rejected anti-Semitism. Redmond stated: “Race hatred is at best an unreasoning passion.”

Both Dublin and Cork have had Jewish lord mayors, and all political parties, including the present government, have Jews in senior positions.

Of course, you will find anti- Semitism in Ireland, but you will also find anti-Irish sentiment if you look for it in other countries.

But the claim that Ireland has a history of anti-Semitism is based on one disgraceful episode and therefore is factually incorrect.

I suggest that Honig visit the subject again and this time focus on the positive.”

Lastly I will add one more point: You’ll notice Mr Hurley said definitively that what happened in Limerick was a pogrom. I personally said ‘so-called’ pogrom in my paragraph above because in 2010 “the new Israeli ambassador, Boaz Modai, speaking at the Jewish cemetery in Castletroy said: "I think it [the ‘pogrom’] is a bit over-portrayed, meaning that, usually if you look up the word pogrom it is used in relation to slaughter and being killed. This is what happened in many other places in Europe, but this is not what happened here. There was a kind of a boycott against Jewish merchandise for a while, but that's not a pogrom. That's something that is, unfortunately, a bad mark for the history of this city, but I don't think it is something anyone should pay more attention to than it deserves."

So Mr. Hopper, Ms. Dudley Edwards, Mr. Humphries and anyone thinking they made any argument of sense, desist from your attempts to stir shit due to some silly, silly peoples unfounded garbling and ill informed writing. I am all for reasoned debate about proper issues in regard to Israel and Ireland and actual anti-Semitism but your articles about my country and its people were totally inaccurate and your smears laughable.










*Limerick people reading this – I jest! Don’t do anything mad now


Tuesday 22 January 2013

My open letter to a person of influence regarding Julian Assange


To:

Taoiseach Enda Kenny TD,
Department of the Taoiseach,
Government Buildings,
Upper Merrion Street,
Dublin 2

Dear Mr. Kenny,

                        I write to you today as one of the “engaged citizens” [1] that José Manuel Barroso lauded Ireland for having in his speech launching the European Year of Citizens and I write to you today as a student of History, Politics and Criminology regarding an issue which concerns all subjects.

I also write to you today on behalf of issues such as transparency in politics, trust between politicians and the people and I write to you on behalf of a mother who has urged people who care about this case to write to people in a position of power who can help influence the current situation her innocent son finds himself in.

I will present to you today, a case that needs urgent investigation and I believe that as Taoiseach in Ireland’s current role as President of the European Council, you are placed precisely in a role to investigate this matter.

In this the European Year of the Citizen we have in our midst a man who is being kept illegally in the Ecuadorian embassy by the United Kingdom and Sweden. He has had to stay there since August after the UK denied him safe passage to Ecuador after being granted political asylum. In the case I present to you today, I will present the evidence as to why you must investigate and act as a matter of urgency on this man’s behalf. The evidence will clearly demonstrate why you must question both the UK and Sweden on their ulterior motives in regard to Mr. Julian Assange.

Why Should We Be So Concerned?

Without going into every little background detail on Wikileaks, Julian Assange and the countries involved, I will bring to your attention the most concerning issues regarding the situation and talk about why, using available evidence, this issue needs addressing now.

Sweden:

Sweden today says that it can’t extradite people to the US because of European Law. That has not stopped the following instances of extraordinary renditions involving Sweden, foreign nationals and its own citizens:
In 2001, Sweden allowed the CIA to extraordinarily rendition two Egyptian’s who were deemed to be terrorists to Mubarek’s Egypt. They did this even though extraditing people to countries known to be engaged in torture is against international law.[2]

The Swedish government also kept the CIA's role in the case a secret for more than three years. Then, in 2004, following unofficial reports of the rendition, it released documents showing that a U.S.-registered plane had been used to transport the Egyptians to Cairo but said the details were classified. It wasn't until March, when the parliamentary investigator released his findings that the CIA's direct involvement was publicly confirmed. [3]

In 2012, Sweden allowed the US to detain two of its citizens, of Somali descent, in Somalia. Despite Swedish diplomats being allowed to visit the men, there was absolutely no protest or objection by Sweden to the illegal rendering of their citizens. Indeed the Washington Post quoted them as saying “authorities in Sweden and Britain had monitored the three men for years as they travelled back and forth to Somalia, but neither country assembled enough evidence to press criminal charges.”
The Washington Post wrote that “U.S. agents accused the men — two of them Swedes, the other a longtime resident of Britain — of supporting al-Shabab, an Islamist militia in Somalia that Washington considers a terrorist group. Two months after their arrest, the prisoners were secretly indicted by a federal grand jury in New York, then clandestinely taken into custody by the FBI and flown to the United States to face trial.”[4]

Did you notice the mention of those two European countries again in the Washington Post’s article – Britain and Sweden? Well here is what Asim Qureshi, a spokesman for human rights charity Cageprisoners, had to say regarding the British resident: 'We believe that because of the problems that the UK Government has had with deportations and extraditions, it has been easier for them to remove the citizenship of individuals, thus allowing them to be victims of rendition by third-party countries.'[5] On January 18th it emerged that a British court will hear Mr. Hashi's case to restore his British passport.

Regarding Swedish political interference in Julian Assange’s case, please look at the series of statements made by members of the Swedish Executive and government officials on the Assange case cited[6] from a letter written by Australian Green Party Senator Scott Ludlam to Senator Bob Carr, Australia’s Foreign Minister.

Such executive commentary in Sweden, or indeed any European country, compromises the democratic principle of separation of the executive from judicial processes and is prejudicial and therefore jeopardises the potential for a fair trial.

For these reasons I respectfully request that representations be made to the Swedish government noting and regretting the potential damaging nature of these statements made about an Australian citizen, requesting their retraction or at the very least cessation.

11 February 2011 – The Swedish Prime Minister, Fredrik Reinfeldt mistakenly stated that Assange had been charged. The statement was never officially retracted.[7]

25 January 2012 – Swedish Prime Minister, Fredrik Reinfeldt, criticised Assange on Swedish national radio one week before Assange’s Supreme Court case was heard in the UK. Reinfeldt stated that Julian Assange’s criticisms of abuses by the Swedish system in his case were not legitimate and were a strategy to avoid extradition. The full interview is available at the cited link.[8]

February 2012 – Foreign Minister Carl Bildt makes statements on Assange via Twitter[9] [10]

8 February 2012 – In a parliamentary address the Prime Minister Reinfeldt said that “we do not accept sexual abuse or rape” and said that Assange and his lawyers had little regard for women’s rights. Mr Assange’s barrister, Geoffrey Robertson QC, said Mr Reinfeldt had also “accused Mr Assange of claiming women’s rights are worthless”.

15 August 2012 – Swedish Minister of Social Affairs Göran Hägglund issued a series of tweets: ”Sick. A coward who does not dare to have his case tried by the court. If the accusations against him are true, he is a lowlife.” None of these statements have been retracted.[11] Please see the citation for a longer version of the entire Twitter conversation.[12]

In a statement given to Expressen later that week, The Minister called Assange a “coward” and a “pitiful wretch” for taking refuge at the Ecuadorian Embassy. “Assange is a very cowardly person who does not dare confront the charges against him.”[13]

18 August 2012 – the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a tweet, presumably arguing why Assange cannot be questioned in London: “You do not dictate the terms if you are a suspect. Get it?”[14]

While the comments of journalists, particularly those writing for Dagens Nyheter, Svenska Dagbladet, Expressen and Aftonbladet are beyond the control of the government, statements made by senior officials have contributed to providing a permissive environment for blatantly offensive aggression towards Assange in the Swedish press, a few examples of which are also provided below.

22 February 2012 – Expressen publishes a story – entirely false as it turns out – that Wikileaks threatens to publish an internal memo that will reveal Carl Bildt as an informant for the US. This causes Bildt to make hostile public statements on his blog. Wikileaks spokesperson Kristinn Hrafnsson puts the matter to rest but not before a great deal of destructive and malicious commentary is made in the Swedish press.[15] [16] [17] [18]

29 February 2012 – Sweden’s largest daily, Dagens Nyheter, called Assange “paranoid”, and a “querulant”. [19]

14 March 2012 – Aftonbladet’s prominent journalist Martin Aagård called Assange an, “Australian pig”. ”There are many good reasons to criticize Assange. One of them is that he’s a repugnant swine.”[20]

24 April 2011 – Jan Guillou stated in Aftonbladet that regardless of, “whether Assange is guilty or not – he’s still an unprincipled disgusting little creep”, adding ”and now I’m holding back”.[21]

16 August 2012 – Aftonbladet columnist Oisín Cantwell characterised Assange as a ”coward”, a ”creep”, a ”white-haired crackpot” and an ”asshole” because he would rather request asylum from Ecuador than face extradition to Sweden.[22]

18 August 2012 – TV journalist Jenny Strömstedt stated in Expressen that Assange should be put on display in a glass cage at Ecuador’s London embassy for the next fifteen years ”so that anyone willing to pay entrance can watch his aging struggles”.[23]

Rhetoric like the above is hardly conducive to constructive discourse or any sort of fair hearing Taoiseach.

The United States:

With regard to the United States, this is a country that previously openly said[24]  
that they were not after Mr. Assange. Why then in 2010 did Vice President Joe Biden describe Julian Assange as a “high tech terrorist”?[25]  And why when asked by David Gregory if the United States was doing anything to stop Wikileaks and Mr. Assange did Vice President Biden say “we’re looking at that right now”.[26]  Why Taoiseach, has there been a secret grand jury actively investigating Wikileaks for 857 days at the time of writing?

Karl Rove said that he feels Julian Assange is “a criminal who ought to be hunted down, grabbed and put on trial.”[27]  Karl Rove was from 2009 until 2011 at least, an advisor to the Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt[28] who as you read above, has no problem openly stating his opinions regarding Mr. Assange.

Mitch McConnell who is the US Senate Minority leader said (also in 2010) on Meet the Press that Mr. Assange “needs to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and if that becomes a problem, we need to …. to change the law”[29] and that was not mere rhetoric. In December 2010 the so-called Securing Human Intelligence and Enforcing Lawful Dissemination (Shield) Bill was thus introduced by Congressman Peter King and Senator Joe Lieberman to prosecute Mr. Assange.[30]

Here I have what is a link to the bill.[31]

Lastly, why do leaked emails from the US intelligence firm Stratfor clearly confirm that the US has a sealed indictment on Julian? Were you aware that this Indictment cannot be served until Julian Assange is in prison? Say for example, in Sweden?

Taoiseach, since WikiLeaks began publishing leaked US diplomatic cables in 2010, the US government has made clear its intention to prosecute Mr. Assange:

On 29 November 2010, US Attorney-General, Eric Holder, announced “an active, ongoing criminal investigation’ into Mr. Assange and WikiLeaks.
US officials told the Australian Embassy in Washington that the investigation is   “unprecedented in both its scale and nature”.
The existence of a secret grand jury convened in West Virginia for the purpose of indicting Mr. Assange has been confirmed by the publication of subpoenas compelling witnesses to testify before it.

A transcribed record of courtroom proceedings for alleged whistle-blower, Private Bradley Manning, reveals that the FBI currently has a file on WikiLeaks that is “42,135 pages or 3,475 documents”, excluding grand jury testimony.

Now tell me that the US is not interested in prosecuting Mr. Assange.

The journalist Glenn Greenwald wrote that “over the last decade, the US government - under both parties - has repeatedly accused people of being Terrorists and punished them as Terrorists who were nothing of the sort. Whether due to gross error or more corrupt motives, the Executive Branch and its various intelligence and military agencies have proven beyond any reasonable doubt that their mere accusation that someone is a Terrorist - unproven with evidence and untested by any independent tribunal - is definitively unreliable.”[32]

Why are we still trusting their words? As you’ve seen previously with the two Somali’s – if the US deems you to be any type of terrorist they believe they can rendition and prosecute you.

As you can see from the US’ political responses, the charges against Mr. Assange are of a most serious political nature. Why else after Marianne Ny allowed him to leave Sweden in 2010 would all these issues arise? Mr. Assange himself has the answer: “I stayed five weeks in Sweden, was given permission to leave. I published Cablegate & got an INTERPOL warrant.”


The United Kingdom:

Finally regarding the UK, the Foreign Office has said that "on the case of Mr. Julian Assange, the foreign secretary told [the Ecuadorian] Minister Patino that the UK was under an obligation to extradite Mr Assange to Sweden.[33]

Isn’t it funny how in 2000, Jack Straw, then the UK’s Home Secretary took his decision not to extradite General Pinochet to Spain under a section of the 1989 Extradition act which requires him not to extradite an alleged offender if he believes it would be "unjust or oppressive" to do so.

Indeed it is well known that this decision was taken on medical grounds, although it may be done on others, such as that the offence was trivial or the accusations were not made in good faith, or because of the passage of time since the alleged offences.
The home secretary's discretion not to surrender someone after the magistrate has committed them for extradition is wide. He is required to consider the personal circumstances of the alleged offender and any new evidence since the committal.[34] I agree absolutely with President Correa when he says that Britain's failure to extradite former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet more than a decade ago means it has no right to lecture others over the fate of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. He continued “Pinochet was not extradited for humanitarian reasons, when there were dozens of Europeans and thousands of Latin Americans who were murdered, and tens of thousands of people were tortured during the Pinochet dictatorship,” he told reporters in Quito.
Pinochet was arrested by British police at a hospital in London in 1998 after Spain demanded his extradition for alleged torture and murder, including of Spanish citizens, during his 1973-1990 rule.
The British government decided in 2000 that the frail Pinochet was unfit to stand trial and free to fly home.[35]

So are we to understand that it is to be one rule for an innocent, award winning, transparency seeking citizen of the world, another for a US installed, murderous dictator?

To reiterate the FACT: The UK Government can and has previously overruled court decided Extraditions.

We are at a point now Taoiseach where Sweden has refused to question Mr. Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy. Julian has not refused to answer any allegations that he has been accused of. What he has refused to do, is travel without any guarantees for his safety and without any guarantee that Sweden will not hand him over to the US. Why have they not been able to offer this simple guarantee Taoiseach? Can Ireland in its role as President of the European Council get an answer for all of us who seek answers to this extreme injustice?


Why are Julian Assange and WikiLeaks different?

I’m now going to list some of the awards that Wikileaks and Julian Assange have won in their role as journalists:

Julian won The Economist magazine’s Freedom of Expression Award in 2008.

Julian won the Amnesty UK Media Award in 2009 for the “Cry of Blood” report into extrajudicial killings and disappearances in Kenya

In 2010, Julian was awarded the Sam Adams Award for Integrity in Intelligence (regarding the Iraq War Logs) On the panel that day? Retired senior US Military and Intelligence Officers no less.

In 2011 Julian Assange won a Wakely Award for Most Outstanding Contribution to Journalism.

Also in 2011, Assange won the Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism. The awarders of the prize noted that “He is brave, determined and independent and a true agent of people not power… [WikiLeaks'] goal of justice through transparency is in the oldest and finest tradition of journalism.”

And finally in 2011, Mr. Assange was awarded[36] the Sydney Peace Foundation's gold medal for "exceptional courage in pursuit of human rights". The Sydney Peace Foundation has only awarded 4 Gold Medals in 16 years, with Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama being 2 of the other 3 recipients.

On February 3rd this year, Julian will receive (in absentia) the Yoko Ono Lennon Courage Award in New York; The Centre for Constitutional Reform's Michael Ratner and Judge Garzon will accept this on his behalf.

And may I point out that Wikileaks has a perfect record regarding information reliability. No Government has denied the authenticity of any documents.[37]

The only ‘crime’ Wikileaks and Julian Assange could be accused of is releasing ‘treasonous truths’. Well let me say that the truth should never be considered treasonous. In an age where politics is at a low ebb and José Manuel Barroso has admitted that politicians need “to earn [the peoples] trust more than ever”[38] – this is your chance to earn peoples trust and admiration the world over.

Now Taoiseach, you might ask “well why doesn’t Mr. Assange face justice for his alleged crimes in Sweden? Why if he is innocent, does he not return to Sweden to face his accusers?” Well you have previously read the beliefs and attitudes of the Swedish executive and as one of my heroes in life, Arsene Wenger, said in a speech to sports journalist students “We have moved to a ‘media' society, from a rational to an emotional society, opinions spread quickly.”[39]

He could have made that comment to any school of journalists. The opinions of the Swedish executive were put out in the public sphere concerning Mr. Assange after his release of US Government files showing the illegal actions of the US government. Please, let me offer you some facts on the case Taoiseach so you may see for yourself why a return to Sweden is not currently possible:

Firstly, If extradited to Sweden, Julian Assange will be immediately placed in solitary confinement, incommunicado, despite the fact that he has yet to be charged[40] with a crime. This treatment can be seen in the recent case[41] of Pirate Bay co-founder Gottfrid Svartholm.

You may also be asking ‘Is Julian Assange avoiding questioning by the Swedish prosecution’?

Julian Assange has offered to be questioned in London for over two years, and continues to offer[42] such to this day. Questioning someone in another country is a standard EU legal procedure,[43] which Sweden used just last year for an alleged murderer.[44]

The Swedish prosecutor offers no reason[45] as to why she will not question Mr Assange in London.

The Swedish case is very strange Taoiseach. The case was initially closed, then reopened by another prosecutor.[46]

The interview of one complainant was not recorded,[47] despite the fact that interviews with all other persons were recorded. A condom submitted as evidence by the other complainant contained no DNA[48] from Mr Assange.

So to reiterate a FACT: The only conditions Sweden will accept to interview Julian is if he is first in indefinite detention in Sweden. Why Taoiseach?

These are just a few examples of the peculiar conduct of the investigation.

You might also question the changing relationship of the mainstream media and how they’ve turned against Wikileaks and Mr Assange. I urge you to look at the slowly changing attitudes of the New York Times[49] and the LA Times.[50]

The reason? During a recent court hearing in Bradley Manning’s trial, the journalist Kevin Gosztola recorded the following line of questioning that happened:

Judge: if we substituted the New York Times for WikiLeaks, would you still charge Bradley Manning in the way that you have?
Without hesitation the Government answered “yes.”[51]

This is the frightening direction we are heading towards. Thankfully this answer has slowly started awakening some people in the media in the US as to the dangers we all face to freedom of information.

European Arrest Warrant

Lastly in regard to Mr. Assange and WikiLeaks, I wish to draw your attention to the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) that has been issued by Sweden for Mr. Assange as this is in regard to our European Law.

From the European Unions own website, Europa.eu,[52] it says that a EAW applies in the following cases:

   where a final sentence of imprisonment or a detention order has been imposed for a period of at least four months;
   for offences punishable by imprisonment or a detention order for a maximum period of at least one year.

Neither of these issues apply to Julian Assange.

Europa.eu also says[53] that the framework decision defines "European arrest warrant" as any judicial decision issued by a Member State with a view to the arrest or surrender by another Member State of a requested person, for the purposes of:
   conducting a criminal prosecution;
   executing a custodial sentence;
   executing a detention order.

Again, not one of these points relates to Mr. Assange’s case. Sweden has consistently stated he is wanted for questioning. I find it hard to fathom why a EAW was issued when the Chief Prosecutor of Stockholm, Eva Finne dismissed the rape allegation in 2010 as "having no basis". Also after refusing Julian’s requests for an interview, Prosecutor Marianne Ny gave Julian permission to leave Sweden on 15/9/10. Please read the actual court documents[54] Taoiseach. Point 13 states Mr. Assange was given permission to leave.
It is also a fact that Julian offered to fly back to Sweden for an interview, Oct 9-10 2010, but the Swedish Prosecutor refused because it was a weekend. And lastly, it is also a fact that Sweden has refused ALL Julian’s requests to be interviewed via Mutual Legal Assistance - the normal protocol.[55]

As the great Carl Sagen once said, “I don’t want to believe, I want to know.” Well I don’t want to believe that you will look into this Taoiseach, I want to know you will. It is an issue of utmost importance. As Jonathan Turley, an American lawyer, legal scholar, writer, commentator, and legal analyst in broadcast and print journalism commented, “the material released by WikiLeaks ticked off the US government, primarily because it showed that the government had been routinely lying to the American people. That produced tremendous anger from government officials who are not used to being exposed in this way, including members of Congress. These are people who tightly control what the public knows and what information is allowed out of the government.”[56]

We the citizens need to know what are the rights of people to expose the truth? Where are our protections?  How far are you, our government prepared to go to protect us from this unstable attitude the US currently has towards freedom of information in regard to crimes committed by said government?

Readers of Shoutout UK voted[57] The European Union the 5th most influential organisation in 2012. Can you use this influence to help protect the 2nd most influential organisation[58] Taoiseach?


So Where Do We Currently Stand?

At the time of writing, here is where we stand:

WikiLeaks has been financially blockaded without process for 780 days.
Julian Assange has been detained without charge for 777  days. 
 - 215 days at the Ecuadorian Embassy.
Bradley Manning has been in prison without trial for 972 days.  
Jeremy Hammond has been in prison without trial for 323 days. 
A secret Grand Jury on WikiLeaks has been active for 857 days. [59]

This is neither a legal, moral or decent place to find ourselves in Taoiseach. Ireland must act in its current role as President of the European Council and also with our seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Today, Barack Obama had his inauguration on Dr. Martin Luther King day. Let me leave you with two quotes from Dr. King that resonate as strongly today as they did when he said them:

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
The US’ tentacles of ‘justice’ are stretching far from its own shores. By not having anyone question their illegalities of the last decade we find ourselves under threat of injustice in Europe because of Obama’s repressive and secretive war on information and European governments are seemingly happy to ignore this injustice.

“There comes a time when silence is betrayal."
As I demonstrated earlier, the silence has been deafening in regard to the injustice being bestowed upon WikiLeaks and Julian Assange. Politicians silence is betraying us the citizenry. We need you to be our voice on issues that affect our freedoms this deeply. Please Mr. Kenny, use your position of influence to bring this case to the attention of those who can affect change. The world awaits your action. Please don’t betray Mr. Assange or we the people with silence any longer.


I thank you most sincerely for taking the time to read this.

Yours sincerely,

__________________

Me





[27] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuQW0US2sJw
[51] http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2013/01/09/how-the-government-hopes-to-argue-bradley-mannings-alleged-leaks-aided-terrorism/