Showing posts with label United States. Show all posts
Showing posts with label United States. Show all posts
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Friday, May 20, 2011
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Friday, May 6, 2011
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Osama bin Laden's Useful Death
Image via Wikipedia"My initial interpretation of the faked bin Laden death was that Obama needed closure of the Afghan war and occupation in order to deal with the US budget deficit. Subsequent statements from Obama regime officials suggest that the agenda might be to give Americans a piece of war victory in order to boost their lagging enthusiasm. The military/security complex will become richer and more powerful, and Americans will be rewarded with vicarious pleasure in victory over enemies."
OpEdNews - Article: Osama bin Laden's Useful Death
Image by gusset via Flickr
Monday, April 4, 2011
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Friday, March 25, 2011
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Amanda Knox: New hope as DNA tests on knife 'proved insufficient to convict her' | Mail Online
The examinations carried out are part of a review granted earlier this year by an appeal court judge and appear to support defence team's insistence that the original forensic evidence was badly handled.
Knox, 23, is serving 26 years for the brutal sex murder of British student Meredith Kercher, 21, who was found semi-naked with her throat cut in her bedroom in the house they shared.
Key to her conviction was a 12inch kitchen knife on which the original trial was told DNA from Knox was found on the handle and genetic material, but not blood, belonging to Meredith was found on the blade.
Earlier this year a judge in Perugia, where the murder took place, authorised an independent review by two forensic experts from Rome's La Sapienza university."Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1369503/Amanda-Knox-New-hope-DNA-tests-knife-proved-insufficient-convict-her.html#ixzz1HWUZSl3m
Amanda Knox: New hope as DNA tests on knife 'proved insufficient to convict her' | Mail Online
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Believers in Knox and Sollecito's innocence labeled "conspiracy theorists"
Image via WikipediaBut the shoe may fit the other side. . .
An interesting forum discussion on this topic from 2-3/ 2011 at the James Randi Educational Foundation. Although the "innocenti" are often called "conspiracy theorists", critical commentary and analysis would lead one to believe that it is in fact those who presume guilt who must engage in some strange mental gymnastics.
I have been reading this forum sporadically, but am here just clipping some posts here for further notes:
Below, from post #21 of the Messei/Mignini Conspiracy topic:
1. Quote: 2. Quote: 3. Quote: 4. Quote: You've got to love how they really didn't want to accept an alibi for Patrick. They drilled that professor for seven hours because they wanted so badly to break that alibi. His lawyers are lining up witnesses to his alibi and they have the receipts from the bar, and they're still playing with the time of death ten days after the murder! Like they didn't already know, but then again they had to extend it two hours after it probably happened, and one hour after it could have possibly happened to account for the smack-dealing bums rambling testimony on the stand. It would take them more than a week more to let Patrick go, and then they'd blame Amanda for not 'telling' them sooner, when she gave them the note the night she was arrested. Like they were going to release anyone on her word at that point anyway.  Let's see, what else is there: 5. The 'house of horrors' picture with the chemically treated bathroom that made it look like Amanda had said she took a shower in a blood soaked bathroom and never noticed. 6. Lying to her about testing positive for HIV so they could get her sexual history and then broadcast it to the world when it 'leaked' to the press. 7. The whole 'caught with a mop' outside the house by the postal police. What else was there? |
__________________ |
and from post #30:
However, the Massei Report contains all the classic evidences of a conspiracy theory where the rubber hits the road. It tries to take isolated things out of context without being able to combine it into a coherent whole--or provide any damned evidence any of it happened. 'Suspicious' things that aren't that 'suspicious' upon reflection, and just ludicrous reasoning to try to paper over the fact there's nothing backing it up. Mignini had to extend the time of death an hour past the last scientifically possible time of death in his closing statement because of Curatolo's rambling on the stand, reading how Massei handwaves that away with out of context quotes is entertaining.
His favorite phrase, 'It is possible, indeed probable' and then going on to say something stupid like 'they decided to wait until morning to clean up because it would be easier (after the blood dried!) and there was no chance of the body being discovered.' Or his pretending Amanda was carrying basically a butcher's knife in her handbag for days as 'protection' when Raffaele had a little knife collection and if she really wanted a knife for 'protection' she wouldn't take one that would cut up her bag or fingers reaching into it, (for which there is no evidence of cuts or tears) she'd just get one from Raffaele.
Also the whole thing starts with Mignini, who comes up with the idea three people raped and murdered poor Meredith with absolutely nothing to support it outside those few items that certainly didn't implicate Amanda as being actually involved in the crime anyway--she was supposedly cowering in the kitchen with her ears covered when she 'vaguely' and 'confusedly' has her 'repressed memories' of Patrick killing Meredith.
Note that when they get done putting her through the ringer and arrest Patrick, Raffaele and Amanda they'll get the forensics back later, and find nothing but evidence of Rudy at the site. They have a cat burglar who recently was caught breaking into a second story window who leaves relative gobs of evidence at the scene and flees to Germany, but they arrested three people who left utterly nothing and who stayed and called police.
and from post #24:
How could I forget the famed 'Bleach Receipt!' The one that brought forth a year or so later the celebrity-seeking twit, whose name I can recall this time but will probably misspell, Quintavalle. He comes forward after almost a year of prodding by a journalist, and claims he saw Amanda the day after the murder skulking around his bleach.
Except, of course, by this time the whole 'bleach receipt' strategy has been rendered impossible by forensics revealing no possibility of a bleach clean-up, and of course he's refuted by the records of the police officer who interviewed him shortly after the murder where he said no such thing, and the two who were with him at the time.
With Curatolo in the process of being discredited by the bus testimony, and the old lady by the fact they won't be able to get away with a scientifically impossible time of death again, the thrice refuted twit is their only witness, and all he said he saw was Amanda lurking about his store the next morning!
How do you put together a case with no real evidence and no witnesses? I'm starting to think those that were saying without the DNA evidence and the smack-dealing bum Hellmann might just dismiss the whole thing. What kind of case could they make?
from posts #290-91:
"Meredith Kercher 'could have grabbed murderer's hair"
"Italian police investigating the murder of Meredith Kercher are testing blood-smeared hairs found in her hand that could have come from her killer or killers, it emerged today."
So the facts as we know them are:
There's no doubt cops found something they presumed to be hair in Meredith's hand.here's an interesting Wikipedia entry: Wooly hair
Under microscopic evaluation (but no DNA tests) it was later determined to be a wool fiber.
...hair typical of those of sub-Saharan ancestry
Is it so far fetched that before the microscopic results came, cops could have had some suspicions that hair to be of an attacker of African origin?
post #302:
Oh, that's incredibly easy to explain! It was all part of a diabolically devious masterplan by Knox and Sollecito to send the police on a wild goose chase, er, before, er, the police processed the forensic evidence and found the traces of Guede that Knox/Sollecito had deliberately left in the apartment.
It's part of the same criminal masterplan whereby Knox and Sollecito deliberately left some visible blood in the bathroom so that they could, er, pretend to get concerned, so that they could, er, have a pretext to be in the cottage when the police arrived, so that they could, er, "manage the discovery" or, er, something like that. Cos just packing up and going to Gubbio for the day (as previously planned and communicated to others), or even just staying in Sollecito's apartment until someone else discovered the murder, would just be too OBVIOUS, wouldn't it....
Related articles
- Italian judges' report: Amanda Knox says she 'was there' (seattlepi.com)
- Experts in place as Knox appeal grinds forward (seattlepi.com)
- New book gives intimate portrait of convicted Knox (omg.yahoo.com)
- Amanda Knox Lawyers Try to Block Lifetime Film (omg.yahoo.com)
- Amanda Knox (church-discipline.blogspot.com)
Monday, March 21, 2011
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Monday, March 14, 2011
Review of Bruce Fisher's "Injustice in Perugia"
Review of Bruce Fisher's Injustice in Perugia: A book detailing the wrongful conviction of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito ( Amazon.com; (http://www.amazon.com/Injustice-Perugia-detailing-conviction-Sollec...). by Susan Marie Kovalinsky
Having run the gamut of stances regarding the case of Amanda Knox, from belief in guilt, to obsessive researcher, to defender of innocence, I have now had the pleasure to receive a digital copy of the nearly 350 page text from the author of Injustice in Perugia .
On finishing the manuscript, I can say that the case for "Injustice in Perugia" has been made: Fully, compellingly, and clearly.
I know that Mr. Fisher has been derided on a website of a certain popularity, and that this derision has been intense and unprovoked. I would say that the ad hominem attacks on the author are an indictment of his accusers.
Notwithstanding, Mr. Fisher has written poignantly and with full factual evidence. He has uncovered the bias inherent in Mignini's "sex game gone wrong" theory, and has exposed it as the shared delusion of Mignini and Judge Matteini. Although his critics charge him with writing a polemic, Fisher's text is a clear expository and argumentative treatise based on evidence which is meticulously laid out and thoroughly delved into.
Not an indictment of the Italian judicial system, Fisher's text is an actual cry for justice on behalf of all who have been wrongly accused and convicted - indeed, he uses these words in the book's opening dedication. We know that false accusations and convictions belong to no country and are not limited to any culture: They happen everywhere. It is the folly of specific investigators, actual media venues, and the darkness and bigotry which reside within the human heart which are at fault, and which form the impetus for the social media flames which fan out of control.
Fisher's text takes from the initial investigation, to the point at which it ought to have shifted radically: With the arrest of Mr. Guede. That it did not bespeaks how deeply-rooted was Mignini's theory; one might say he suffered from an idee fixe: and this fixed idea was able to translate itself to investigators, legal persons, and the media, until it took on a life of its own. In this sense, Mignini is a formidable man: We have seen how strong is his power to persuade, and how his paranoia about the darkness which encroaches on traditional culture transmits itself deeply. Mignini is a sympathetic character, culturally. But in the legal sense, he has spawned a judicial travesty. One of the most important aspects of Injustice in Perugia: Fisher delves into the infamous "Monster of Florence " case (and Prosecutor Giuliano Mignini's even more infamous part in it), in which author Douglas Preston became ensnared, and no less than 20 persons were unfairly indicted. Although Mignini's claims were ultimately dismissed, the damage was done, and Fisher has expertly given us to understand that Mignini has a history of being unable to retract his odd theories, once made public. That he was found to be subject to mania in his thinking on so prominent a case ought to give us stern pause. History has a way of repeating itself in persons and in events, and Mignini is not exempt from such a cycle. The possibility that all which came after was symptom, consequence, incident of an original and ill-conceived theorizing cannot be ignored. This is worrisome, in the extreme.
Fisher brings another aspect into focus involving the media circles which swirl around the Knox case: That the career ambitions of certain persons feed off the idea of Knox's guilt. This is understandable: many writers can relate here. But there comes a point at which a false theory and a biased investigation leading to the destruction of two young lives - on top of the initial life lost, that of the worthy victim, Ms. Kercher, for whom everyone must have sympathy and sorrow - must be seen for the unethical venture it is, and must be called a miscarriage of justice.
Mystery colors the personae of Knox and Sollecito, and some of it may be of their own making, inadvertently, and likely from a mix of youthful inexperience and plain quirkiness. But there is grave danger in projecting too much into their images, and Mr. Fisher admirably shines a flood light on the actuality of an investigation gone rather terribly wrong, and with profound consequences. It is not simply error upon error which infuriates, but the fact that evidence was made to fit a pre-existing theory that was spun mainly out of thin air, and Fisher makes this point relentlessly and boldly. In a black and white photo of Ms. Knox on page 171 of Fisher's book, Amanda's eyes look wistfully at the camera, the soft focus making her face appear pale and school- girlish as she smiles shyly for the camera. It is a pre-Perugia Amanda, and one is given stern pause at just what the consequences of Mignini's theorizing have been. Fisher makes it clear that Knox and Sollecito were never wavering on their alibis until after relentless interrogation. This is a point which has been too often overlooked : I know I missed it in my own initial surmising on the case.
Further, in Chapter 14 Fisher makes a strong case for the virtual contamination, by law enforcement, of key aspects and items within the crime scene. Improper procedural and collection methods, carelessness as to swab collecting, and the failure to change gloves are among numerous charges of an almost deliberate incompetence.
All in all, Bruce Fisher has shined the light of empirical analysis on the facts of the Knox case, and not only does the guilty verdict in December 2009 come up wanting, but anyone in possession of the facts can no longer believe that the conviction of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito is anything but a mistake, and a profoundly tragic one, which cries out to be rectified. Review of Bruce Fisher's "Injustice in Perugia" - WriterFace.com - The Social Network For Writers
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
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