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Hillsborough families pledge to challenge CPS’ dropping charges against Sir Norman Bettison — RT...

Criminal charges have been dropped against Sir Norman Bettison in relation to his conduct as...

Hillsborough football match commander to face trial, accused of 95 counts of manslaughter —...

The football match commander who oversaw the Hillsborough football tragedy that saw 96 Liverpool fans...
video

Video: The Stan Collymore Show: The lessons of Hillsborough, and safe standing in the...

Follow The Stan Collymore Show on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StanCollymoreShow/ Stan sits down with Louise Brooke who lost her brother Andrew in the Hillsborough disaster, and...

6 face charges over death of 95 football fans in 1989 Hillsborough disaster –...

Six individuals will face criminal charges following an inquiry into the Hillsborough disaster of 1989. Former Match Commander for South Yorkshire Police...

UKIP chairmen resign over leader’s ‘insensitive’ approach to Hillsborough

Two of UKIP’s local party chairmen have resigned over what they call leader Paul Nuttall’s...

UKIP leader admits he did not lose a ‘close personal friend’ in Hillsborough disaster

UKIP leader Paul Nuttall has admitted claims he made about losing a “personal” friend during...
video

Video: Richie Allen “The Deep State Is Still Covering Up What Happened At Hillsborough...

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_0HlrNRWnA&w=580&h=385] Please Support The Show – http://richieallen.co.uk/ https://www.facebook.com/therichieallenshow http://www.youtube.com/RichieAllenShowMedia Tune in at ... Via Youtube

Outrage as Murdoch’s British papers accused of sidelining Hillsborough verdict

Rupert Murdoch’s Sun and Times newspapers faced a backlash for not featuring the Hillsborough disaster...

Collusion between Westminster, police & media sustained Hillsborough cover-up – Shadow Home Sec

Collusion between political elites, the media and police bolstered the Hillsborough cover-up, which was dutifully...

Freemasonry linked to ‘police cover-up’ of Hillsborough disaster that left 96 dead

Freemasonry has been linked to allegations of a police cover-up concerning the Hillsborough disaster, as...

Jury rules police responsible for Hillsborough tragedy, Liverpool fans not at fault

The 96 supporters of Liverpool Football Club who died in Britain's worst sporting disaster, were...

Hillsborough cop says he didn’t cover victim with bin bag

Fresh inquests resumed last week into the deaths of 96 Liverpool fans who died as a result of the Hillsborough disaster. The inquests have heard...

Hillsborough victim said it was ‘murder’

(RINF) - The inquest into the Hillsborough disaster heard today how one victim, Peter Burkett, 24,  told a friend that it was 'murder' on the terraces. After trying to...
Memorial to those who died at Hillsborough

Top cop Bettison ‘tried to concoct a story of drunken fans’ at Hillsborough

Sadie Robinson (SW) - Memorial to those who died at Hillsborough (Picture: Edmund N Gall) A former chief inspector was part of an internal police...

Cold-blooded Hillsborough police plotted to blame fans for 96 deaths

Sadie Robinson Senior police officers met two days after the Hillsborough disaster and drew up a plan to blame Liverpool fans for the crush, an...

‘More could have lived’ at Hillsborough

Ambulance staff said lives could have been saved if they had done things differently during the Hillsborough football disaster. Some 96 Liverpool football fans died...

CCTV footage ‘disappeared’ after the Hillsborough football disaster

Sadie Robinson CCTV footage from the Hillsborough disaster disappeared from the stadium, a jury has heard. Some 96 Liverpool football fans died as a result of...

Police ‘sanitised’ Hillsborough disaster evidence, says former detective inspector

A detective inspector on duty during the Hillsborough football disaster has agreed that South Yorkshire Police solicitors directed police to “sanitise” evidence. John James Charles...

Hillsborough: Police lied about Liverpool fans stealing

Sadie Robinson Police lied about Liverpool football fans in the wake of the Hillsborough football disaster, an inquest has heard. Former officers gave evidence to inquests...

Hillsborough cop says fans ‘weren’t aggressive to me or other people’

Police pushed fans trying to escape a deadly crush at the Hillsborough football stadium in April 1989 back into the pens, an inquest has...

UK: Hillsborough disaster inquest reveals safety violations by stadium operator

Barry Mason In April 1989, 96 men women and children died as a result of a stampede at the Hillsborough football stadium in Sheffield, South...

Inquest hears Hillsborough capacity was miscalculated

Sadie Robinson There was serious overcrowding at Sheffield’s Hillsborough football stadium seven months after a disaster that led to the deaths of 96 Liverpool football...

Top Police Removed Criticism from Hillsborough Statements

Senior officers and lawyers at South Yorkshire Police amended police accounts of the Hillsborough disaster to remove comments criticising police leadership or abusive remarks...

Police Continue Hillsborough Cover-up

Significant numbers of police are refusing to co-operate with investigations into the alleged Hillsborough disaster cover-up, MPs heard yesterday. Former Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer told...

Did cops fake Hillsborough statements?

Sadie Robinson RINF Alternative News More survivors of the Hillsborough football disaster have said police versions of their evidence are inaccurate. Some 96 Liverpool football fans...

Police Chief Attempts Cover-up Over Hillsborough Email

David Crompton, the former deputy chief constable of West Yorkshire Police has apologised for an “inappropriate and insensitive” he sent about the Hillsborough disaster, calling families of the victims liars.

IPCC Chief Makes Pledge To Hillsborough Families

The head of the police watchdog has written to Hillsborough survivors and relatives to reassure them it well get to the bottom of allegations of a cover up.

It follows a scathing report by the Home Affairs Select Committee, which described the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) as  "woefully under-equipped and hamstrung", and lacking the public's confidence.

The IPCC is investigating claims there was a coordinated cover up by South Yorkshire police to blame the Liverpool supporters for the tragedy in 1989, which left 96 people dead.

The IPCC has described the probe as its biggest test, yet questions are already being asked about whether it is up to the job.

The report by MPs found the body does not have the power or resources to get to the truth, has a backlog of appeals and often fails to take immediate control of a potential crime scene during the crucial "golden hours" of an investigation.

The MPs also found it may not be independent enough as it has so many former police officers working for it.

IPCC chair Dame Anne Owers admits it is stretched. "We do not have the resources and the powers to do all the things that the public expect of us, and and in some cases that the public needs us to be able to do. And I think this report reinforces that," she said.

One family that feels let down by the IPCC is that of Olaseni Lewis, 23.

The post-graduate student returned home to Croydon from a night out feeling agitated and unwell in August 2010.

His parents persuaded him to go to A and E to get checked out. Within hours he was on life support having been restrained by up to 11 police officers, but the circumstances are still unclear.

His father, Conrad Lewis, says the memory haunts him: "You wake up in the morning, it hits you, you read the news item about another kid or you talk to somebody.

"You wonder where did you go wrong, what did I do wrong, shouldn't I have taken him to the hospital? You know, you beat up yourself."

The IPCC admitted "confusion" and "oversights" in its initial investigation, which it is now reviewing. It has meant the inquest into his death has been delayed, which distresses Olaseni's mother, Ajibola.

"He was a gentle giant. He stood up for people. He hated injustice. He didn't like bullies, and I don't know.. we just don't know until we have the inquest the exact facts, so we're just waiting," she said.

For the relatives of the Hillsborough victims, and the survivors, there is also an anxious wait. Ms Owers has emailed them to tell them extra funding has been promised by the Home Office for its inquiry.

Lord Falconer, who is acting as an adviser to the Hillsborough Families Support Group, says it is crucial the IPCC gets the investigation right.

"To see a state body mess up again would be absolutely appalling," he said. "And to entrust an investigation of this difficulty and this intenstiy to an organisation that has performed so badly in the past seems to us to be a big mistake."

Police forced Hillsborough survivors to alter evidence

Mick Meaney, rinf.com | Fresh allegations of a police conspiracy have come to the surface providing more evidence for a cover-up surrounding the horrific events at Hillsborough, with survivors claiming...

Over 1400 officers face Hillsborough probe

Press TV | The names of 1,444 former and serving British police officers have been passed to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) over Hillsborough...

Calls for new powers to probe Hillsborough cover-up

Labour will call for powers to compel police officers to give evidence to an inquiry into the alleged Hillsborough cover-up. Amid fears that the Independent...

Police chief to be quizzed over Hillsborough

Matt Scott, Goal | The chief constable of South Yorkshire Police, David Crompton, will appear in front of the Home Affairs Select Committee to answer...

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“They’ve Been Doing This Massive, Anti-Democratic Model of Education Reform”

Bill Gates standing at the Elysee Palace on April 16, 2018, in Paris, France.John van Hasselt / Corbis via Getty ImagesJanine Jackson interviewed Wayne...

‘They’ve Been Doing This Massive, Anti-Democratic Model of Education Reform’

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Freemasons in British police ‘obstacle’ to reform – ex-chief — RT UK News

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Edward Snowden: Power, Privacy and the Public Good

Colin Todhunter RINF Alternative News For many years in Britain, the Queen's Christmas Day message has been broadcast on TV and watched by millions across the...

Edward Snowden: Power, Privacy and the Public Good

For many years in Britain, the Queen's Christmas Day message has been broadcast on TV and watched by millions across the world. This year,...

Edward Snowden: Power, Privacy And The Public Good

Global Research 26/12/2013 and Countercurrents 27/12/2013

For many years in Britain, the Queen’s Christmas Day message has been broadcast on TV and watched by millions across the world. This year, the monarch discussed the birth of a new royal, the 60th anniversary of her being on the throne and took time to reflect on next year’s Commonwealth Games in Scotland. While her anodyne annual Christmas message is eagerly watched by many Brits and is regarded as part and parcel of modern-day Christmas ‘tradition’, there are others who purposively avoid such pap.



Since 1993, Channel 4 in Britainhas broadcast an ‘alternative’ Christmas message, sometimes humorous, at other times serious. Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejadwas given the opportunity to convey his message in 2008. This year, it was the turn of National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden.



While a fossilized remnant of Empire delivered her message by a Christmas tree in Buckingham Palace’s Blue Drawing Room, Snowden’s setting was sober and devoid of the trappings of privilege or connotations of a violent colonial past. His message concerned the USand British governments’ mass surveillance and the erosion of personal privacy. He stated that a child born today will grow up with no conception of privacy at all, and they will never know what it means to have a private moment to themselves - an unrecorded, unanalyzed thought. This is because, according to Snowden, a system of worldwide mass surveillance has been created.



Snowden referred to George Orwell. He stated that Orwell warned us about the dangers of microphones, video cameras and TVs that watch us, but concluded that these are nothing compared to what is used to infringe our personal privacy today. Edward Snowden feels that privacy is what allows us to determine who we are and who we want to be.



Snowden finished his message by arguing that the conversation occurring today about mass surveillance will determine the amount of trust we can place both in the technology that surrounds us and the government that regulates it.



Back in June, British Foreign Secretary William Hague tried to dismiss Snowden and the concerns he was raising about mass surveillance by saying that if you are a law abiding citizen, going about your business and your personal life, you have nothing to fear. The message was clear: trust us, the government.

But why should we?



Stephen Lawrence was a young black man who was lawfully ‘going about his business’ in London during April 1993. White racists murdered him while he was waiting for a bus. Four London Metropolitan police officers were deployed to spy on the Lawrence family and Stephen’s friends.

The 
Lawrence family were just ‘law-abiding citizens going about their business’. Undercover police were used to smear the Lawrence family’s fight for justice. Also in Britain, there are the numerous publicized cases of the police and/or intelligence agencies infiltrating legitimate campaign and protest groups and ‘investigating’ political parties or prominent figures in order to subvert or discredit them. Let us not forget too the massive police cover ups, perhaps none more bigger than the ‘Hillsborough case’, where the police lied for two decades in an attempt to blame totally innocent football supporters for 96 deaths in order to hide their own incompetence, negligence and guilt.



Notwithstanding the lies, disinformation and misinformation used to elicit the public’s support for illegal military campaigns in the likes of Iraq, Afghanistan or Libya, only the foolish (or the ignorant) would eagerly place their trust in officialdom and believe that we have ‘nothing to fear’ from it.



Much of the illegal surveillance exposed by Snowden is spuriously justified by the likes of William Hague on the basis of the bogus ‘war on terror’ in a futile attempt to stop any discussion on surveillance in its tracks. However, ordinary people need to turn the tables by holding the powerful to account. It should not be the case of them stripping away our privacy. We need to strip away their secrecy and privacy, not to blithely acquiesce to their needs as Hague advocates.



We need to do this to help guarantee our safety, our privacy, our freedoms and threats to democracy. We need greater transparency within government to ensure decisions are properly scrutinized and genuinely open to pubic debate. In the absence of this, we have free trade deals being hammered out behind closed doors and the revolving door between government and big business, which makes a complete mockery of the term ‘democracy’.



In the absence of genuine democracy, we have food safety/regulation authorities being hijacked by corporate interests. We have armaments companies using politicians as their sales lackeys.

We have police and intelligence agencies infiltrating and harassing legitimate groups that have every right to protest. And we have a wide range of powerful players that buy political influence, manipulate markets, impose ‘austerity’ and salt away their stolen wealth in tax havens.



The reality is that ‘public servants’ fool us into thinking they serve us, while all the time bowing down to elite interests. We are told that the ‘fourth estate’ mainstream media, the self-proclaimed protector of democracy, is credible even though it largely serves a corporate agenda.

A media that too often has little to say about exposing the privacy surrounding the back room stitch ups which take place in banks, boardrooms and the corridors of power - because it involves ‘sensitive’ information; but a media that is readily on hand to support policies that result in the curtailment of the privacy and freedoms of ordinary folk – because its for our own good.



If Edward Snowden and Julian Assange have shown us anything, it is that the official line can never and should never be taken at face value. It is for that reason that Assange remains incarcerated in the Ecuadorian embassy in London and Snowden remains exiled in Moscow.




Snowden says that privacy is what allows us to determine who we are and who we want to be. Ultimately, as the Lawrence family and many others already know, it affords us the autonomy to hold power to account.

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The 4th Media, Countercurrents and Global Research 28/6/2013
“If you are a law-abiding citizen of this country, going about your business and your personal life, you have nothing to fear.” British Foreign Secretary William Hague, responding to the revelations of mass surveillance in the US and the UK (BBC’s The Andrew Marr Show on 9 June). 
What does William Hague take the British public for? This bureaucrat politician stands in front of the cameras time and again setting out to mislead with his self righteous platitudes. He did it over Libya and tens of thousands lost their lives. His is doing it over Syria with similar results. And he is doing it over mass surveillance by the state.

Do not believe we have nothing to fear. We have much to fear. Take the case of Stephen Lawrence, for example, who was lawfully ‘going about his business’ in April 1993, when white racists murdered him while he was waiting for a bus. It has now emerged that, after the murder, four London Metropolitan police officers were deployed to spy on the Lawrence family and Stephen’s friends.

The Lawrences were just ‘law-abiding citizens going about their business’. But undercover police were used to smear the Lawrence family’s fight for justice (1). One of those the spies says he job was to hunt for disinformation and dirt in order to stop the Lawrence’s justice campaign in its tracks. Nothing to fear from the state Mr Hague?

And then there are the numerous well-documented cases of the police and/or intelligence agencies infiltrating legitimate campaign and protest groups (2) and ‘investigating’ political parties or prominent figures (3)(4) in order to subvert or discredit them. Let us not forget too (how could we?) the massive police cover ups, none more prominent than the Hillsborough case (5). Still nothing to fear Mr Hague?

But let’s not be too harsh on Hague. The same ‘terror threat/nothing to fear’ script is being read out to the public in the US. Politicians elsewhere are using ‘terror’ as an excuse for spying on the public at large as well. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is convinced that Germany has to protect itself against potential terrorist attacks by using mass surveillance:

“We are dependent on being able to act and not being entirely at the mercy of the terrorists. And today, it’s on the Internet that communication takes place.” (6)
Alexander Dix, data protection commissioner for the city of Berlin, is a lot more sceptical. He calls for more restraint in the collection of data:

“You don’t have to follow conspiracy theories in order to suspect that data collected for fighting terrorism will also be used in other areas.” (6)
It’s all very convenient for politicians to pull out the magic phrase ‘war on terror’ in a futile attempt to stop any discussion on surveillance in its tracks. If the US-led alliance really wanted to stop or drastically reduce terrorism, it should listen to journalist Nir Rosen’s advice: stop committing it (7).


We need more monitoring and surveillance


The likes of Obama, Kerry, Hague or Cameron have become experts in churning out their fear-mongering platitudes by using some abstract notion of ‘we’ to imply ‘the nation’ or the ‘national interest’. But ‘we’ – the ordinary folk – need to hold power to account, to question its legitimacy and to challenge it when it is illegitimate.

We need to do this to help guarantee our safety, our common interests, our freedoms and threats to democracy. How about more but bottom-up monitoring and surveillance in terms of transparency within government and accountability to ensure decisions are properly scrutinized and genuinely open to pubic debate. In the absence of this, we have corruption, profiteering and the revolving door between government and big business, which all ensure that the powerful and wealthy get away with murder, quite literally when it comes to their illegal wars and mass killing.


In the absence of real democracy, we have food safety/regulation authorities being hijacked by corporate interests in order to feather their own nests. We have armaments companies using politicians as their sales lackeys.

We have police and intelligence agencies infiltrating, harassing or subverting legitimate groups that have every right to protest, dissent and oppose. We have a wide range of powerful corporate players that lobby, threaten or buy their way towards casting the world in their own self-serving nuclear, retail, biotech, petro-chemical or pharmaceutical image. And we have banks, industries and whole economies that are undemocratically owned and controlled.

We also have ‘stuff’ being sprayed onto us without our consent (or very often knowledge) and have no power to stop ‘stuff’ from being sprayed onto us (8).

But we are told all this top-down surveillance and all of the increasing unfreedoms are for our own good. We are told that public servants serve us by bowing down to elite interests. We are told that an incredible mass media is credible even though it serves a corporate agenda.


Based on his research for the book Who Killed Diana?, the late journalist Simon Regan stated that it is (paraphrased):


Whitehall that really runs the country with a close-knit Mafia-like clique… made up of a handful of powerful, but low-key, City brokers and financiers; the top brains at the Foreign Office, the Treasury, the Ministry of Defence and the Trade Department. Key figures in the security forces… and…at least one key member of the prime minister’s secretariat… the police and judiciary… through the Home Office… can certainly be manipulated. The Super-Establishment’s power is based upon its ability to manipulate the level below it – the individuals that most people believe are governing our country. The elected government is almost irrelevant… The world in which the Super-Establishment exists is a grey and murky world in which sensitive matters of state are planned and executed in gentlemen’s clubs. It is where manipulation plots are hatched, whether it is manipulation of a certain minister towards a certain viewpoint, or the wholesale orchestration of a Foreign Office ploy to bring down a foreign government… It is almost the divine "mission of the secret services to protect the status quo, and hitherto it has been their full intention to thwart anyone who tried to disrupt it. The actual existence of the Super-Establishment is not a flight of fancy. It is entirely manipulative and exercises a great deal of power behind the scenes. (9)


The elite, the oligarchs, the ruling class, the one percent – call it how you will. Yet it is we, the people, who are spied on and monitored by them for their good, to serve their interests and to feather their highly privileged and secretive world, a world built on the stolen wealth of both past and present deeds.


But don’t worry about any of this. There is no need. If that nice Mr Hague says we’ve nothing to fear, he must be right.


Notes



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Liberties and freedoms enshrined in Magna Carta more than 800 years ago are under threat from the British government’s plans to deliver a bill...

Police used Robson testimony to frame Liverpool fans

Adrian Pearson and Mark Summers, Sunday Sun | HILLSBOROUGH cops appear to have tried to use a match-day testimony by Bobby Robson to slur Liverpool...

The compulsive liars in blue

IT'S NOT the violence of the police that gives away their nature--it's the systematic compulsive Bart Simpson-style lying. They could be caught on film battering...

How powerful is the mass media?

Socialist Worker | Our rulers can’t fool all of the people all of the time, argues Sadie Robinson. The idea that the mass media...

Current financial crisis was topic of Bilderberg 2006

The current financial crisis that has happened due to the Sub prime mortgage crisis was a main topic at Bilderberg 2006 in Ottowa. The green...