Never Cry Wolf (just throw strychnine)

February 6, 2012 — Sabina Becker

This…is unbefuckinglievable. This is the sort of shit that would have been done 50 years ago. It’s also the sort of shit Canada isn’t supposed to be doing anymore. And yet, this is happening right now, and for the worst of all conceivable reasons:

Late last week, internal documents went public showing Canada is fretting over its sullied reputation for unfettered fossil fuel development, while resorting to poisoning wolves rather than fixing the problem. NWF released a paper today showing tar sands, oil and gas development in Canada is contributing to the decline in caribou herds. Rather than improve environmental practices to protect and restore caribou habitat, Canadian wildlife officials are poisoning wolves with strychnine-laced bait. The news comes as Alberta and Canadian officials scramble to address environmental monitoring failures that are wreaking havoc up north.

The highly controversial Keystone XL pipeline proposal would move this Canadian dirty oil through the heartland of the U.S. to export, making the U.S. complicit in causing excruciating wildlife culling.

Strychnine progresses painfully from muscle spasms to convulsions to suffocation over a period of hours. The NWF paper says the poison will also put at risk animals like raptors, wolverines and cougars that eat the poisoned bait or scavenge on the carcasses of poisoned wildlife.

Great. So we’re now just poisoning all carnivores and scavengers indiscriminately. And this is for what? So that tar-sands development can go ahead unimpeded. And so a bunch of Harpo’s cronies down in Texas can get their damn dirty oil.

But what bugs me most is the stinking hypocrisy of it all. It’s not like the Harper Government™ seriously gives a rat’s ass for caribou. Unless, of course, that rat’s ass is loaded with nasty poison that does nasty things, and is actually banned in its liquid form for that very reason:

Strychnine is an extremely toxic alkoloid that results in muscular convulsions and eventually leads to death through asphyxia or exhaustion.

Strychnine was banned by the Canadian Federal Government in 1993 due to the devastating effects it had on non-target animals. Gophers were not the only animals to ingest the substance; birds, waterfowl, foxes, rabbits, and even dogs and cats suffered the horrible fate of being poisoned by Strychnine. Gophers that were killed by the poison were often consumed by predators such as raptors, coyotes, and foxes, poisoning them as well.

Of course, it’s easier in the short term to strychnine a bunch of critters (be it ground squirrels, wolves or what have you) than it is to develop long-term strategies for safe, successful coexistence. And those in charge of the tar sands aren’t thinking in the long term at all, except maybe how to maximize their profits until the dirty oil runs out, while maintaining that squeaky-clean image they don’t deserve. Meaning, the animals are the ones that will bear the brunt of their short-sightedness, and their selfishness.

We’re always blaming the wolf. It’s an easy scapegoat, thanks to its fearsome nature, which we like to forget is the genetic basis for every domestic dog that ever lived. So of course, to blame it for the decline of the caribou — a decline for which we humans are in fact the real culprit — is nothing new. We went through all this 50 years ago!

I can only imagine what Farley Mowat would say.

Posted in Barreling Right Along, Canadian Counterpunch, Environmentally Ill, If You REALLY Care, Isn't It Ironic?, Isn't That Illegal?, The United States of Amnesia. 1 Comment »

I don’t think this will cure my cold.

February 4, 2012 — Sabina Becker

Yes, kiddies, your auntie Bina is still under the weather. But since laughter is supposed to be the best medicine, let’s take the Rick Mercer cure, shall we?

Oof. Just made myself cough. Guess I’m not cured after all! But it does make me feel better to know that Peter Fucking Kent and Ezra Fucking Levant are getting what’s coming to them. And there’s no better man than Rick to give it to ‘em…GOOD.

(Video, h/t The Regina Mom.)

Posted in Barreling Right Along, Canadian Counterpunch, Crapaganda Whores, Environmentally Ill, Karma 1, Dogma 0, She Blinded Me With Science. Comments Off »

No more fucking Pink Things

February 1, 2012 — Sabina Becker

I am the daughter of a breast cancer survivor. And I have just sworn never again to buy another “Pink for the Cure” (or whatever they call it) thing.

Not that I don’t love my pink long-sleeved Columbia t-shirt, or my pink lipsticks (all 11 of ‘em), but this whole damn pink thing has got to end. Starting with that most odiously merchandise-heavy of Pink Things, the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

Yes, that’s right, you heard me. No more Komen Krap. No more of those lovely but insanely overpriced Lilly Pulitzer silk scarves. (Shameful confession: yes, I have one. And it cost me a bundle to get it shipped to Canada.) No more nothin’ from Susan G. Komen. Why?

Because the Komen Foundation doesn’t support women.

Yes, you read that right.

The Komen Foundation decided to withdraw funding from Planned Parenthood, just because the latter happens to provide abortions. Shocker — Planned Parenthood actually fully encompasses just what their name says! Oh noes! It lets women decide when and whether they want to be pregnant! Horrors!

And, for many women in the US who can’t afford anything else, Planned Parenthood actually happens to be their go-to place for not only birth control and abortions, but also cancer testing. Breast and cervical cancer, among others. You can get mammograms and Pap smears there. Shocker!

So when I heard that the incredibly rich, elitist, Republican-connected Komen Foundation had suddenly decided not to go on supporting PP, that was when I saw red. And said to hell with all that pink. After all, what good was the pink shit really doing? Was it raising awareness of breast cancer?

Kinda sorta…the Komen Foundation has been very diligent about getting the message out to buy, buy, buy “for the Cure”. They sure do talk a lot about breast cancer, yup. But not so much on ways to prevent it. The Komen Foundation has been suspiciously mum about Bisphenol A, for instance — a compound found in many plastics, and which has been proven to cause cancers, including those of the breast. Maybe that’s because a lot of their corporate “partners” happen to manufacture products laced with that same carcinogenic compound. Same goes for parabens, which are found in a lot of “For the Cure” pink cosmetics.

And then there’s the way the Komen Foundation has hijacked the whole notion of a search for cancer cures. They even sue smaller cancer charities who hold fundraisers “for the Cure”, leading to the impression that they have somehow wrested ownership of those common English words all to themselves. They actually waste their donors’ lovingly given monies on this.

In fact, I have to ask myself if they really care about finding a cure at all. Or if they’re not just about using us women, our boundless good intentions, our ardent desire to see an end to cancer, our love of our female friends and family members, even our fondness for all things pink, to move product. What a repulsive notion that is, eh? But it’s true: Pink-for-the-Cure has become a highly profitable industry unto itself, and there’s no rule that all proceeds have to go to cancer research, prevention or awareness. Just slap that ol’ pink ribbon on your stuff, and watch it fly off the store shelves, snapped up by bravely smiling women with heart-wrenching stories of loved ones who have survived breast cancer.

Or not.

No, there’s no cure for breast cancer yet, as I found out the hard way from talking with my mom. They talk about five- and ten-year survival rates, and remissions, but not cures. Unless you die from something else after a suitably long time, you can never really be pronounced Cured of Cancer.

And that’s what kills me. All this pink junk For the Cure, and where is the fucking Cure? I don’t see one, do you?

In fact, I don’t even see more than a half-hearted commitment on the part of Komen’s corporate partners to get rid of SOME of the carcinogens in their pink cancer merchandise. Not all. Just SOME.

SOME isn’t good enough.

But that’s just the way it is with rich organizations run by right-wingers, isn’t it? At the end of the day, it’s less about doing good than it is about selling “feel-good”. A woman may be dying painfully of breast cancer that’s metastasized to her lungs, her bones, her brain, but hey! Let’s all buy a pink teddybear, or silk scarf, or rhinestoned ribbon pin, or some other pink gimcrack-for-the-Cure, and that will make it all better!

Or we can be honest with ourselves and vow to stop buying those oh-so-guilt-trippy Pink Things, and focus instead on the search for real answers. And donate to organizations that don’t withdraw funding just to slut-shame women for making “wrong” choices. And do what we can by way of prevention. Avoid Bisphenol A. Avoid weedkillers that are known to cause cancer. (Yes, ladies, that Round-Up you sprayed on your dandelions last summer could be quietly killing you. Did it come with a pink ribbon on the label, I wonder?)

In short, we could just exercise our consumer clout in new and imaginative ways. We can boycott the Komen Foundation and its partners. We can and must clean up our environment, and demand better of the personal-care and household products we use. And we can and must hold cancer charities’ feet to the fire when it comes to how our money is spent.

After all, that Pink Shit won’t cure us of anything, except maybe a feeling of fullness about the wallet.

No more fucking Pink Things from now on.

Posted in Confessions of a Bad German, Environmentally Ill, Fetus Fetishists, If You REALLY Care, Isn't It Ironic?, Law-Law Land, She Blinded Me With Science, Uppity Wimmin. 4 Comments »

FUX Snooze gets pwned by Muppets

January 31, 2012 — Sabina Becker

And as usual, Miss Piggy gets the best lines.

Posted in Crapaganda Whores, Environmentally Ill, Filthy Stinking Rich, Isn't It Ironic?, Karma 1, Dogma 0, Schadenfreude. Comments Off »

Fortuna Silver = Nasty Ass Honey Badger

January 26, 2012 — Sabina Becker

Yes, it’s true. Don’t believe me? Watch this…

And then read this, and tell me if you don’t think so. Here, I’ll even excerpt a few key passages for you…

Vancouver-based mining company Fortuna Silver says it has nothing to do with the shooting death of a protester in a town near the company’s mine site in Mexico.

Police have arrested the alleged shooter implicated in the death of Bernardo Mendez Vazquez, who was shot last week during a protest that news reports have linked to opposition to the gold and silver mine.

The shooting took place in the town of San Jose del Progreso, where the mine is the chief employer.

The town and mine in the southwestern state of Oaxaca have been the sites of past conflicts involving groups who say the mine is an environmental threat to the arid region’s scarce water supply.

But Fortuna Silver president Jorge Ganoza said “misinformation” is behind media reports tying his company to the violence, which also left another protester with a leg wound.

“We, as a company, and our team in Oaxaca are saddened by these senseless and continued acts of violence in the town of San Jose, related to a long-standing political struggle for local power,” Ganoza said.

“It is not the first incident of this nature in the last few years. It is in no way related to our activities or involves company personnel, and we really hope that the people of San Jose, with the assistance of the state authorities, will find a long-term solution to this senseless violence.”

Isn’t that clever? They’ve even got local stooges working for ‘em, pretending it’s not the fault of their own greedy fucks. No, it’s the fault of the local natives, for getting in the way of some hired thug’s gun. Who, of course, is not “company personnel”. Duh, he’s a hired goon. Undoubtedly paid under the table, the way foreign companies all do it in these Latin American countries that they don’t give a fuck about.

And of course, this being in our lovely National Pest (yes, that’s sarcasm), the mining company’s viewpoint is front and centre, and the other side is handily dismissed:

Some Spanish-language media reports suggested the clash was related to protests over a project that was viewed as an attempt by the company to access the town’s water supply.

“This sad incident is related to an infrastructure project that was being handled by the municipality of San Jose and it’s related to the inter-connection of sewage and drinking water in the town of San Jose, and it has nothing to do” with the mine, Ganoza said.

He said rival groups, one linked to the municipal government and one connected to the opposition, have clashed around other projects such as road construction.

“There is constant misinformation because I believe there are groups interested in linking us to these issues,” he said.

“It always makes better news to have a foreign company involved in some of this, and some local groups can be more visible if this is linked to an international company.”

Notice that the other side are not even named here. Nameless opposition is so much easier for the Nasty Ass Honey Badger to eat up like a snake. A loose skin of vague rhetoric also makes it easy to shrug off just about anything.

But look, here comes a bird:

A spokeswoman for the Canadian group MiningWatch criticized the company’s position.

“There has been conflict over this project and worries over potential impacts on local water supplies for several years,” said Jen Moore.

“Instead of trying to deny any responsibility, the company should work to help diminish tensions.”

And that’s it for the bird. Three short paragraphs, whoopee! Thanks a lot, stupid!

Of course, the company would argue that it IS “working to diminish tensions”…by sending in hired guns to scare the townsfolk into handing over the precious water supply, and sending out the spokesdroid to say this isn’t the company’s fault, and the gringos from El Gran Norte (that’s CANADA, people) are all honest caballeros, and a whole lot of other mierda that makes no sense whatsoever.

But Honey Badger don’t care. Honey Badger don’t give a shit.

Fortuna Silver, a junior mining firm which also has a silver mine in Peru, announced in September that it began production at the $55-million mine in Mexico. It was expected to produce 1.7 million ounces of silver and 15,000 ounces of gold in 2012.

Because there’s silver and gold in them thar hills, and it ain’t gonna dig itself.

And besides, they’ve got an image as a major local job provider to uphold. 450 local workers, probably all quite underpaid to work in who knows how dangerous of conditions. Who cares if the town they come from has no clean water left to drink, wash with, or irrigate crops? Let ‘em eat gold and silver, eh Nasty Ass Honey Badger?

Fuck, I hate my so-called government (which is, remember, the Harper Government™, not the Government of Canada — Canada doesn’t exist anymore). I hate it for being complicit in this shit. I hate it for rolling back regulation holding Canadian corporations accountable no matter where they operate. I hate it for making us look like shit abroad. I hate it because it steals from the poor and gives only to its rich cronies.

And, also like the Nasty Ass Honey Badger, it just doesn’t give a snake’s ass. We can bite it, and bite it, and it still refuses to die. It just rolls over and starts to snore whenever its prey fights back.

Look at that sleepy fuck.

Posted in Canadian Counterpunch, Environmentally Ill, Fascism Without Swastikas, Isn't That Illegal?, Mexican Standoffs. Comments Off »

Cops Behaving Badly: Doubleplusungood

January 21, 2012 — Sabina Becker

Today’s entry in the annals of rotten cop behavior is a two-fer. First, from Florida, a disturbing case of racist elder abuse, caught on dashcam (despite the cop’s efforts to switch the camera off):

Details from Raw Story:

Technicians in Florida have recovered dashcam video of a Melbourne police officer beating a 66-year-old man who suffers from dementia even though the officer deliberately tried to disable the recording.

An attorney for beating victim Albert Flowers told Florida Today that his client was prepared to sue the city of Melbourne.

“He should be fired,” attorney Paul Bross said of Officer Derek Middendorf. “Anyone who’s being pulled over by this officer should be terrified.”

“It’s clear (Officer Middendorf) tried to destroy all the video in this case. He thought he had turned off the camera, and that’s why he acted the way he did.”

The video clearly shows Flowers calmly walking towards the police cruiser before Middendorf suddenly delivers a kick to his midsection. Before Flowers is able to get up, the white cop drops to his knees and pounds his fists into the African-American man’s face.

Flowers spent a month in the hospital after the encounter.

There is a good chance that the city of Melbourne will be paying for Mr. Flowers’ medical care, and I’d say they owe him. They’d also be fools not to fire that abusive cop.

Next, from Merry Old England, a far-from-merry tale of just how far cops will go to spy on, infiltrate and try to break up environmentalist groups. How about fathering out-of-wedlock children and then fucking off out of their lives, leaving not one but two or more bewildered victims in their wake?

Last month eight women who say they were duped into forming long-term intimate relationships of up to nine years with five undercover policemen started unprecedented legal action. They say they have suffered immense emotional trauma and pain over the relationships, which spanned the period from 1987 to 2010.

Until now it was not known that police had secretly fathered children while living undercover. One of them is [Bob] Lambert, who adopted a fake persona to infiltrate animal rights and environmental groups in the 1980s.

After he was unmasked in October, he admitted that as “Bob Robinson” he had conned an innocent woman into having an 18-month relationship with him, apparently so that he could convince activists he was a real person. She is one of the women taking the legal action against police chiefs.

Now the Guardian can reveal that in the mid-1980s, just a year into his deployment, Lambert fathered a boy with another woman, who was one of the activists he had been sent to spy on.

The son lived with his mother during the early years of his life as his parents’ relationship did not last long. During that time, Lambert was in regular contact with the infant, fitting visits to him around his clandestine duties.

After two years, the mother married another man and both of them took responsibility for raising the child. Lambert says the woman was keen that he give up his legal right to maintaining contact with his son and cut him out of her new life. He says the agreement was reached amicably and he has not seen or heard of the mother or their son since then.

Lambert did not tell her or the child that he was a police spy as he needed to conceal his real identity from the political activists he was spying on. The Guardian is not naming the woman or the child to protect their privacy.

Lambert was married during his secret mission, which continued until 1988.

Nice, eh? No word on what his wife thought of the whole affair, though. Probably something unprintable, if anyone has even thought to ask her at all…

And he’s not the only one who messed around on the job, ON ORDERS.

The second case involves an undercover policeman who was sent to spy on activists some years ago. He had a short-lived relationship with a political activist which produced a child.

He concealed his real identity from the activist and child as he was under strict orders to keep secret his undercover work from her and the other activists in the group he infiltrated. He then disappeared, apparently after his superiors ended his deployment. Afterwards, she remained under surveillance as she continued to be politically active, while he carried on with his police career.

The Guardian understands that as he had access to the official monitoring reports, he regularly read details of her life with a close interest. He watched as she grew older and brought up their child as a single parent, according to an individual who is aware of the details of the case.

The policeman has been “haunted” by the experience of having no contact with the child, whom he thought about regularly, according to the individual.

Sounds like this unnamed officer was himself a victim of the trap he was ordered to set. Just another occupational hazard, I suppose.

And let’s not forget the infamous Mark Kennedy case, either, in which activist women were basically defamed as sluts, and their entire organizations slammed, baselessly, for “promiscuity”. The fact that the police ordered their own officers to be promiscuous (supposedly, in order to blend in with those slutty, slutty hippies) is an irony that will, of course, go utterly unremarked. Right along with the less sexy, but more disturbing, irony that the police also ordered these same undercover officers to give false testimonies in court to further “protect” their fake identities. And, most disturbingly of all, if we look at Mark Kennedy in particular, is how emotionally ruinous it all turned out to be. At which point we have to ask: Is anything these people do real? And is all this fuckery actually worth it? Has it led to anything at all productive, like, you know, the arrest of an actual terrorist?

I have a pretty good guess as to what the answers will be. How about you?

Posted in Cops Behaving Badly, Environmentally Ill, Fascism Without Swastikas, Isn't It Ironic?, Isn't That Illegal?, The United States of Amnesia. Comments Off »

Chairman Mao rolls in his grave

January 11, 2012 — Sabina Becker

150 computer factory workers had to be talked down from a “suicide jump” in protest of lousy working conditions at the infamous Foxconn. This would not have made the news when Mao Zedong was in charge of China…

The workers were eventually coaxed down after two days on top of their three-floor plant in Wuhan by Foxconn managers and local Chinese Communist party officials.

Foxconn, which manufactures gadgets for the likes of Apple, Sony, Nintendo and HP, among many others, has had a grim history of suicides at its factories. A suicide cluster in 2010 saw 18 workers throw themselves from the tops of the company’s buildings, with 14 deaths.

In the aftermath of the suicides, Foxconn installed safety nets in some of its factories and hired counsellors to help its workers.

The latest protest began on January 2 after managers decided to move around 600 workers to a new production line, making computer cases for Acer, a Taiwanese computer company.

“We were put to work without any training, and paid piecemeal,” said one of the protesting workers, who asked not to be named. “The assembly line ran very fast and after just one morning we all had blisters and the skin on our hand was black. The factory was also really choked with dust and no one could bear it,” he said.

Several reports from inside Foxconn factories have suggested that while the company is more advanced than many of its competitors, it is run in a “military” fashion that many workers cannot cope with. At Foxconn’s flagship plant in Longhua, five per cent of its workers, or 24,000 people, quit every month.

“Because we could not cope, we went on strike,” said the worker. “It was not about the money but because we felt we had no options. At first, the managers said anyone who wanted to quit could have one month’s pay as compensation, but then they withdrew that offer. So we went to the roof and threatened a mass suicide”.

The worker said that Foxconn initially refused to negotiate, but that the workers were treated reasonably by the local police and fire service.

Isn’t that an outrageous bit of news to have escape the so-called People’s Republic?

And no, it’s not unthinkable because of freedom-hating communism and its evil press censorship. China’s not communist anymore, except maybe in name only. Foxconn is as capitalist a factory as you’ll find anywhere in the world. Or should I say, as capitalist a SWEATSHOP?

Most significantly, look who refused to negotiate — Foxconn. And who talked the strikers down? Perhaps the last real bastion of socialism in China: the police and fire department.

Foxconn is certainly no worker-run commune, and by the sounds of things, the government of China seems to have decided to look the other way on its bosses and their blatant abuses. Little wonder: It’s lucrative as all hell, serving several major foreign computer companies. Whatever happened to regulation?

If Mao’s not rolling in his grave over this, he damn well should be.

PS: My friend John has more here, plus a picture showing just how large this protest was.

Posted in All the Tea in China, Economics for Dummies, Environmentally Ill, Fascism Without Swastikas, Filthy Stinking Rich, Isn't It Ironic?. 2 Comments »

Keystone XL: Dirty oil barons threaten Obama

January 9, 2012 — Sabina Becker

The clearest, most concise explanation yet of why the Keystone XL pipeline project, which would ferry dirty tar-sands oil from Alberta to Texas, must not proceed. Yes, all this talk of “ending our dependence on foreign oil” is a LIE. Shocking? Wait, it gets worse. The pipeline would also threaten a geologically unstable area that happens to sit over the US’s biggest aquifer (also one of the largest in the world), and make the water undrinkable for about 23 million US citizens. AND, on top of everything else, it’s a job killer…and would make gasoline more expensive, not less so, for those still unfortunate enough to be driving locally made gas-guzzlers. Because the US is still a net petroleum IMPORTER, and most of that imported oil comes From Canada and the Middle East. And because the oil from that pipeline, from Canada, would not be going to serve US needs, but would be converted into gasoline for the lucrative export market. (I had to laugh at the part about shipping it to South America. They have more than enough of their own in Ecuador, Venezuela, Argentina, Chile…and now, Brazil. All South American countries would be more than adequately served from South American oil, refined and supplied by state-run industries! What would they need Texas-shipped gasoline for? Even Mexico and Cuba have plenty for their own needs, and won’t have to rely on the US for that. And Cuba will have help from Venezuela in developing and refining its own offshore oil, so US corporations will be out in the cold there.)

Yes, folks, this is the “ethical” oil that Ezra Fucking Levant is shilling his putzy ass off for. Seems so very ethical now, doesn’t it?

Wait, it gets worse. Let’s go back to the oil-baron threat again. You think it’s nothing serious? It got one previous US president assassinated for daring to oppose the barons. And his vice-president and successor, who happened to be from Texas, and very much in the pockets of the oil barons himself, was a key suspect in his murder:

Pay special attention to the part about Clint Murchison Sr., the oil king with connections to LBJ, J. Edgar Hoover, and other shadowy figures of the Kennedy assassination. He was so intimate with them that they partied, and plotted JFK’s demise, at his Texas mansion. Was this where the order went out to kill Kennedy? Quite likely. Between them, the CIA, the Mafia, and the anti-Castro ex-Cubans, it was a perfect storm of colluding, and corrupting, interests!

And let’s not forget, Obama’s predecessor is a Connecticut Yankee from Texas. And yes, Dubya is himself deep in Big Oil’s pockets…STILL. As a wannabe oil baron himself, he was a bust, but as their patsy, he made out like a bandit both as governor and later, as a two-term unelected president.

Anyone who thinks Big Oil has clean hands, and isn’t above assassinating non-compliant leaders, really should watch The Men Who Killed Kennedy in its nine-episode entirety…and bear in mind that very little has changed in US politics since then. It will certainly put the enormous pressures on Obama in a powerful new light. And it will make clear why it is imperative for common citizens to oppose Big Oil and its inordinate influence on the politics of all North America. It is not an exaggeration to say that our entire democratic system is in grave danger from it.

Posted in Barreling Right Along, Brazil is the Bomb!, Canadian Counterpunch, Chile Sin Queso, Cuba, Libre (de los Yanquis), Don't Cry For Argentina, Ecuadorable As Can Be, Environmentally Ill, Fascism Without Swastikas, Filthy Stinking Rich, Huguito Chavecito, Isn't It Ironic?, Isn't That Illegal?, Obamarama!, The United States of Amnesia. Comments Off »

Cops Behaving Badly: Fuck the Police (Before They Fuck You)

January 3, 2012 — Sabina Becker

(Logo from the infamous Dave Rabbit sweatshirt, a limited-edition Vietnam War pirate radio joke product.)

Pardon my Anglo-Saxon and the explicit artwork, but given what shit is hitting the fan in Britain, it was only fittin’…

Undercover police officers routinely adopted a tactic of “promiscuity” with the blessing of senior commanders, according to a former agent who worked in a secretive unit of the Metropolitan police for four years.

The former undercover policeman claims that sexual relationships with activists were sanctioned for both men and women officers infiltrating anarchist, leftwing and environmental groups.

Sex was a tool to help officers blend in, the officer claimed, and was widely used as a technique to glean intelligence. His comments contradict claims last week from the Association of Chief Police Officers that operatives were absolutely forbidden to sleep with activists.

The one stipulation, according to the officer from the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS), a secret unit formed to prevent violent disorder on the streets of London, was that falling in love was considered highly unprofessional because it might compromise an investigation. He said undercover officers, particularly those infiltrating environmental and leftwing groups, viewed having sex with a large number of partners “as part of the job”.

“Everybody knew it was a very promiscuous lifestyle,” said the former officer, who first revealed his life as an undercover agent to the Observer last year. “You cannot not be promiscuous in those groups. Otherwise you’ll stand out straightaway.”

The claims follow the unmasking of undercover PC Mark Kennedy, who had sexual relationships with several women during the seven years he spent infiltrating a ring of environmental activists. Another two covert officers have been named in the past fortnight who also had sex with the protesters they were sent to spy on, fuelling allegations that senior officers had authorised sleeping around as a legitimate means of gathering intelligence.

However Jon Murphy, Acpo’s spokesman on serious and organised crime, said last week that undercover officers were not permitted “under any circumstances” to sleep with protesters.

Heh. Sounds like the police have quite the bit of cognitive dissonance going. One officer says he was required to screw around with activists, literally, as part of his undercover spy work, while the brass indignantly insists otherwise.

This all begs the question: Why would police feel the need to have sex with activists they were spying on, anyway?

The answer, as you might have guessed, is fucking ludicrous:

The former SDS officer claims a lack of guidelines meant sex was an ideal way to maintain cover. He admitted sleeping with at least two of his female targets as a way of obtaining intelligence.

“When you are on an undercover unit you were not given a set of instructions saying you could or couldn’t do the following. They didn’t say to you that you couldn’t go out and drink because technically you’re a police officer, that you shouldn’t go out and get involved in violent confrontations, you shouldn’t take recreational drugs.

“As regards being with women in very, very, very promiscuous groups such as the eco-wing, environmental movement, leftwing, or the Animal Liberation Front – it’s an extremely promiscuous lifestyle and you cannot not be promiscuous in there.

“Among fellow undercover officers, there is not really any kudos in the fact that you are shagging other people while deployed. Basically it’s just regarded as part of the job. It’d be highly unlikely that you were not [having sex].

“When you are using the tool of sex to maintain your cover or maybe to glean more intelligence – because they certainly talk a lot more, pillow talk – you would be ready to move on if you felt an attachment growing.

“The best way of stopping any liaison getting too heavy was to shag somebody else. It’s amazing how women don’t like you going to bed with someone else,” said the officer, whose undercover deployment infiltrating anti-racist groups lasted from 1993 to 1997. Two years later the SDS became the National Public Order Intelligence Unit, the secretive organisation that employed Kennedy and whose activities are the subject of three investigations.

The officer added that undercover police were strictly encouraged not to form a bond with women they were sleeping with and said that he knew Jim Boyling, the undercover officer who married an activist he was supposed to be spying upon.

See? Ludicrous.

I don’t know of any environmentalist group where promiscuity is actually de rigueur, as the cop-spook claims it was in these so-called “terrorist” cells. In fact, since environmentalists are apt to be politically progressive all around, compulsory promiscuous sex would be considered a flagrant ethical violation, and likely to undermine the solidarity of the group as well, rather than bolster it (much less help members to sniff out infiltrators in their midst). It would be mutually destructive and counterproductive, particularly when that old boogerbear known as Human Nature rears its jealous, possessive head. There has never yet been a commune or cult where a compulsory-promiscuous lifestyle hasn’t ultimately devolved into either a sexualized dictatorship, or else led to the dissolution of the group.

So, as you may have guessed, I’m calling shenanigans on the insistence that promiscuity was just a way for the undercover cops to blend in. Instead, I’m going to just come right out and label it for what it was: Police brutality, sexual assault, and agent provocateurism.

It is police brutality because it involves officers taking advantage of their official status to commit violence upon citizens who have done nothing wrong.

It is sexual assault because it involves officers taking advantage of their official status to secure sexual favors under false pretenses.

And it is agent provocateurism because it is all being done to covertly undermine the group, to riddle it with schisms and ultimately, to get it to dissolve.

And there is really nothing left to say on the subject except FUCK THAT SHIT.

Posted in Cops Behaving Badly, Environmentally Ill, Fascism Without Swastikas, Isn't That Illegal?, Merry Old England, Morticia! You Spoke French!, Spooks. 2 Comments »

“Did you call him a piece of shit?”

December 15, 2011 — Sabina Becker

Justin Trudeau, Liberal MP for Papineau, explains why he lost his shit at so-called environment minister Peter Fucking Kent yesterday in the House of Commons. He apologizes for his intemperate language but, take note, NOT for the sentiments expressed therein. I think the only thing he should have apologized for is insulting fecal matter. But hey, at least he’s not saying “fuddle-duddle”.

PS: Don’t miss this HuffPo op-ed. Seems I’m not the only one who thinks Justin had nothing to apologize for, as he is articulating the outrage that we all feel with a so-called environment minister who doesn’t give a shit for the environment.

Posted in Canadian Counterpunch, Environmentally Ill. Comments Off »
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