Dear Forrest,

I don't know if this will help - but there is a
petition that is available that posters can sign
if after finding out the details of the Brian and
Kerry Howes case they want to do something to
assist:

petition.co.uk/stop_the_extradition_of_brian_and_kerry_howes_who_have_broken_no_laws

Thanks for that Foxy. Just in case you are not aware, with respect to links, if you want them to appear in an OLO post as clickable, you have to type in the 'http://' prefix or the OLO software will not recognise it as a link. Thus:

http://petition.co.uk/stop_the_extradition_of_brian_and_kerry_howes_who_have_broken_no_laws

Thanks again for your posting of Kevin Gilbert's 'The Pen is Mightier than the Sword'. Do you know when it was written? And can you post here the details of the anthology from which you drew it? I have a follower on Twitter who may well enjoy it if I re-post it here. Its currently very apposite to the real subject of this thread, in my opinion.

Isn't it sad to see the extent to which Britain has sunk with respect to freedom of the press, when one receives a Tweet like this:

"Oh by the way that story I just sent you about the police and oink.cd is under sec11 reporting restrictions without explanation [in the UK]."

Its from a Twitter Direct Message (DM) from Brian Howes, and is made in reference to a news story about a police force in the UK being allegedly used to effectively force a crackdown on music piracy on behalf of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).

It seems Brian Howes real 'crime' is that he may have revealed improprieties as to the manner in which police may have been doing this. If anyone is interested they can read about it here:

http://extradition.org.uk/2008/09/26/those-oinking-cleveland-piracy-cops/

It is my understanding that 'extradition.org.uk' is effectively Brian Howes' self-hosted blog. Describing himself he says: " I really am a simple computer engineer."

The whole saga is starting to look more and more like that of Hew Griffiths, the computer hacker extradited from Australia by the Howard government in 2007, even though he could, and should, have been tried here.

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/opinion/editorial/general/hew-who-how-an-unsung-aussie-ended-up-in-us-jail/134134.aspx?storypage=0

http://www.smartcompany.com.au/legal/20091001-australian-inventor-loses-445-million-microsoft-battle.html

Dear Forrest,

The Anthology out of which I gave you the Kevin
Gilbert poem, "The Pen is Mightier Than The Sword,"
I got out of one that I had compiled while at uni
on Anti-Nuclear Australian Poetry.

I used a wide variety of sources at the time,
especially Anthologies of Aboriginal Poetry -
selecting poems that I thought
suited my topic. Unfortunately, I can't give you
the precise titles of what I used as I've discarded
much of the paperwork. It was quite a few years ago.
I kept that particular poem - because I loved it so much.
However, you should be able to trace Gilbert's poem
in an anthology of Aboriginal poetry. I vaguely recall
one called "Inside Black Australia."

Not sure if this helps though.

I post this here in hope that viewers will particularly take and hold the first four lines. All other imagery is theirs as they read on.

"The Pen is Mightier Than The Sword"
by Kevin Gilbert.(1933 - 1993)

" The pen is mightier than the sword
but only when
it sows the seeds of thought
in minds of men
to kindle love and grow
through the burnt page
destroyed by huns and vandals in their rage

The sword in russet hues lies mouldering
its sharp and shiny edge now dulled by peace
and blood-lust sated between customers
like some old time worn harried whore
well past her prime
awaiting some brute hand to wield her hate

The bugler sounds, the drummer sounds his beat
bright swords refurbished tilt to marching feet
gay ribands, uniforms and epaulets
entrap the eye, the soul till madness sway
them to the dance of death the piper plays

The pens in great tragedienne lines extol
the meritorious lie, the grand excuse
justification for this carnivore
called man who can't evolve in his estate
clothed and fed, his universities
and halls of learning yet avail him nought
the jungle beasts enact the same stage plays
one kind, one king, one death the same
differing nought for death wears the same cloak
regardless of technology or sport."

Dear Forrest,

Dorothy Green wrote in, "Imagining The Real":

"No one has the right to exhort writers to write
on certain subjects or take up particular moral
stances. But if they love their art, we can expect
them to be on the side of life rather than death,
on the side of being, rather than non-being,
to prefer the beauty of this planet to its
desecration, and to use fiction to reveal truths.

We need above all to fall in love with this planet,
which, as far as we know, is the only one carefully
balanced to sustain human life without assistance
from somewhere else.

In the most destructive age in history, the word
"creative" is more mindlessly bandied about than ever
before; a fact we need to ponder as writers. The truth
is that human beings came into a world prepared for
them. If we blow it up, we cannot hope to put it
together again.

We cannot "create" something out of nothing: even the
greatest artist did not invent colour, nor the greatest
musician sound, nor the greatest writer speech.

All we can do is discover, imitate, rearrange-or-destroy.
Our worst illusion is that we might return to the state of
primitive man. But he did not have polluted soil,
poisoned streams, irradiated game and vegetable foods."

There are still those who cannot understand why a
US President who encourages peaceful solutions, seeks
reductions in nuclear arsenals and has made "extraordinary
efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation
between peoples," why, he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.

Foxy,

Perhaps the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Barack Obama at this juncture is more an expression of an earnest desire to see him act effectively as a catalyst for creative change in the way the US does business, than recognition of anything as yet achieved by him. Could it be that those who hope for so much from his presidency have acted thus to imbue him with this status, in order that he may have more clout with those at home who are seen as needing to change their direction and methods of dealing with the rest of the world?

So far as strengthening international diplomacy goes, a very good start to that could be made by having the US Justice administration show more respect for the established legal processes of mature and stable democracies of the like of Switzerland, the UK, Australia, and France. Obama has an enormous task ahead of him in arresting the momentum that various US agencies like the DEA have built up in recent years, a momentum that has seen them cutting right across provisions of the US constitution as much as disrespecting the established jurisprudence of its staunchest allies.

The Howes' extradition from the UK, a major focus of this thread, is a case in point. So is that of the uncontested 2007 extradition of Hew Griffiths from Australia.

The sheer one-sidedness of the Extradition Act 2003 (UK) is an utter disgrace.

The pressures of the extra-Constitutional demands of US justice administration have undoubtedly significantly contributed to that profound legislative betrayal of its own citizenry by the UK Parliament. Obama needs to rein-in the overwheening expectation that with respect to extraditions that are all really ultimately to do with sustaining vested interests in IT intellectual property, what the US (justice administration) wants, the US gets.

Clearly, the poem 'Ode to McCrae', seeming attempts at the suppression of the background to which provided the reason for starting this thread, have cut close to the bone in making this point. As may have 'En Suisse du Jour' with President Sarkozy.

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/film/story/2009/10/17/sarkozy-polanski.html#socialcomments

http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=3093#73927