Monday, December 17, 2012
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Phone-hacking report: what is 'wilful blindness'? (sneaky cheating lies and double-speak?)
Phone-hacking report: what is 'wilful blindness'?
--(sneaky cheating lies and double-speak?)--Steve fly
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/may/01/phone-hacking-report-wilful-blindness?newsfeed=true
--(sneaky cheating lies and double-speak?)--Steve fly
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/may/01/phone-hacking-report-wilful-blindness?newsfeed=true
Phone-hacking report: what is 'wilful blindness'?
The allegation is not a specific legal term, but experts say it is one of the most damning findings in the MPs' report
Rupert Murdoch denied 'wilful blindness'
in his evidence to the committee. He said: 'I have heard the phrase
before, and we were not ever guilty of that.' Photograph: Olivia
Harris/Reuters
The charge of "wilful blindness" and "wilful ignorance" is
referred to four times in the MPs' report into phone hacking and has
been instantly picked up by legal experts as one of the most damning
findings.
The allegation – levelled at Rupert and James Murdoch as well as the directors of News International and its parent News Corporation – does not denote a specific legal wrongdoing but strongly points towards an accusation that those at the top, and additionally those responsible for scrutinising their actions, breached their fiduciary duties.
News Corp non-executive directors include a spread of prominent business and political figures, among them the former Spanish president José María Aznar and the former British Airways boss Sir Rod Eddington.
One lawyer, who would not be named, said he thought the findings of MPs raised the prospect of News Corp shareholders launching a class action claim in the US. "If I was a disgruntled shareholder and I wanted evidence, this report gives some of that … I think it potentially opens them [News Corp] up to a class action."
The MPs found: "In failing to investigate properly, and by ignoring evidence of widespread wrongdoing, News International and its parent News Corporation exhibited wilful blindness, for which the companies' directors – including Rupert Murdoch and James Murdoch – should ultimately be prepared to take responsibility."
The phrase came up during evidence to MPs and James Murdoch was asked the direct question by the Lib Dem MP Adrian Sanders: "Are you familiar with the term 'wilful blindness'?" Sanders described the phrase as "a term that came up in the Enron scandal … a legal term. It states that if there is knowledge you could have and should have had it."
In response James Murdoch said he had not heard the term, but his father added: "I have heard the phrase before, and we were not ever guilty of that."
Niri Shan, head of media law at Taylor Wessing, said the phrase was not, in fact, a formal legal term. That said, he added: "If you are wilfully blind, from a corporate governance perspective, you have not fulfilled your fiduciary duties."
He added that some of the sting of the MPs report, in his opinion, had been removed by the fact that the committee had been split on many issues down party-political lines.
The allegation of wilful blindness – sometimes referred to in Britain as turning the Nelsonian eye – is, in a legal context, often levelled by prosecutors at defendants who acknowledge they have unwittingly played a part in a criminal act of which they had no knowledge at the time.
When it comes to the business world, however, the allegation can be more powerful as directors of companies are required by law to exercise proper responsibility on behalf of the company's shareholders. Wilful blindness was the subject of a book by the entrepreneur and author Margaret Heffernan last year. She suggests the concept can be an unspoken attitude common to a large group – the Catholic Church, the military in Afghanistan and Nazi Germany are all example she cites.
Heffernan has been a stern critic of News Corp, publishing several articles attacking the appointment of family members in key executive roles.
The allegation – levelled at Rupert and James Murdoch as well as the directors of News International and its parent News Corporation – does not denote a specific legal wrongdoing but strongly points towards an accusation that those at the top, and additionally those responsible for scrutinising their actions, breached their fiduciary duties.
News Corp non-executive directors include a spread of prominent business and political figures, among them the former Spanish president José María Aznar and the former British Airways boss Sir Rod Eddington.
One lawyer, who would not be named, said he thought the findings of MPs raised the prospect of News Corp shareholders launching a class action claim in the US. "If I was a disgruntled shareholder and I wanted evidence, this report gives some of that … I think it potentially opens them [News Corp] up to a class action."
The MPs found: "In failing to investigate properly, and by ignoring evidence of widespread wrongdoing, News International and its parent News Corporation exhibited wilful blindness, for which the companies' directors – including Rupert Murdoch and James Murdoch – should ultimately be prepared to take responsibility."
The phrase came up during evidence to MPs and James Murdoch was asked the direct question by the Lib Dem MP Adrian Sanders: "Are you familiar with the term 'wilful blindness'?" Sanders described the phrase as "a term that came up in the Enron scandal … a legal term. It states that if there is knowledge you could have and should have had it."
In response James Murdoch said he had not heard the term, but his father added: "I have heard the phrase before, and we were not ever guilty of that."
Niri Shan, head of media law at Taylor Wessing, said the phrase was not, in fact, a formal legal term. That said, he added: "If you are wilfully blind, from a corporate governance perspective, you have not fulfilled your fiduciary duties."
He added that some of the sting of the MPs report, in his opinion, had been removed by the fact that the committee had been split on many issues down party-political lines.
The allegation of wilful blindness – sometimes referred to in Britain as turning the Nelsonian eye – is, in a legal context, often levelled by prosecutors at defendants who acknowledge they have unwittingly played a part in a criminal act of which they had no knowledge at the time.
When it comes to the business world, however, the allegation can be more powerful as directors of companies are required by law to exercise proper responsibility on behalf of the company's shareholders. Wilful blindness was the subject of a book by the entrepreneur and author Margaret Heffernan last year. She suggests the concept can be an unspoken attitude common to a large group – the Catholic Church, the military in Afghanistan and Nazi Germany are all example she cites.
Heffernan has been a stern critic of News Corp, publishing several articles attacking the appointment of family members in key executive roles.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Rupert Murder of media balance.
"Given that Mr Hunt had the quasi-judicial task of ruling on a corporate takeover that would materially affect not only the company itself, but Britain's entire media landscape – with all that that implies – it is difficult to overstate the seriousness of yesterday's revelations--http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-no-amount-of-squirming-can-save-jeremy-hunt-7675922.html
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Thursday, February 23, 2012
The Greek Ministry of Justice website was targeted by the hacking group Anonymous overnight
The "hacktivist" collective replaced the Ministry of Justice home page
with a black screen bearing two Anonymous seals and an occult image of
an eyeball in a pyramid placed over the word "Illuminati" above a Guy
Fawkes mask graphic and the words "We are Anonymous".
The "hacktivist" collective replaced the Ministry of Justice home
page with a black screen bearing two Anonymous seals and an occult image
of an eyeball in a pyramid placed over the word "Illuminati" above a
Guy Fawkes mask
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Clean Water Food and Shelter for the world, fly's estimate
approximately US$10b annually for basic water and sanitation services
and an additional US$15b to US$20b annually to provide a higher level of
service and to maintain existing services.
--http://blueplanetnetwork.org/water/facts
The United Nations has estimated the cost of ending world hunger at about $195 billion a year. Twenty-two countries have pledged to donate this money by contributing 0.7% -- less than 1% -- of national income to international aid, but the goal has yet to be reached.
--http://www.squidoo.com/world-hunger
With the shelter cost of under $2 per person per day, there is now inherent affordability and dignity by the homeless themselves paying for shelter and showers. (2000 Dollars Each!)
--http://worldshelters.org/for-us-unsheltered/municipalstate-agency
--http://blueplanetnetwork.org/water/facts
The United Nations has estimated the cost of ending world hunger at about $195 billion a year. Twenty-two countries have pledged to donate this money by contributing 0.7% -- less than 1% -- of national income to international aid, but the goal has yet to be reached.
--http://www.squidoo.com/world-hunger
With the shelter cost of under $2 per person per day, there is now inherent affordability and dignity by the homeless themselves paying for shelter and showers. (2000 Dollars Each!)
--http://worldshelters.org/for-us-unsheltered/municipalstate-agency
Friday, February 3, 2012
My Reply to a TIME world article on Ezra Pound
"That is, until one remembers that Pound was
an admirer of Benito Mussolini, a defender of Adolf Hitler and, that
while living in Italy during World War II, he broadcast a series of
anti-Semitic radio addresses calling for American neutrality."
Hi, excuse me, Pound did not defend Adolf Hitler, and his admiration for Mussolini was, for the most part, based on his financial strategy. A few large American banks however helped to Bankroll the Nazi war Machine, chemicals and ammunition houses. Pound despised this, and remains one of the clearest critics of Ponzi schemes and the military industrial complex. See his epic CANTOS. Look at it, read him.
There was a lot of other information in his radio broadcasts, besides the antagonism, yes, he called for American neutrality, NO WAR. And, he prescribed we keep a very careful and watchful eye on the bankers, or Usurers as Pound would define them.
Please, do some research besides parroting the cliche' statements about Pound. The above paragraph reinforces the wrongheadedness and simple mindedness at the root of most fascist ideology.
Have you ever read any Pound yourself, Stephan?
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2105702,00.html?xid=gonewsedit
Hi, excuse me, Pound did not defend Adolf Hitler, and his admiration for Mussolini was, for the most part, based on his financial strategy. A few large American banks however helped to Bankroll the Nazi war Machine, chemicals and ammunition houses. Pound despised this, and remains one of the clearest critics of Ponzi schemes and the military industrial complex. See his epic CANTOS. Look at it, read him.
There was a lot of other information in his radio broadcasts, besides the antagonism, yes, he called for American neutrality, NO WAR. And, he prescribed we keep a very careful and watchful eye on the bankers, or Usurers as Pound would define them.
Please, do some research besides parroting the cliche' statements about Pound. The above paragraph reinforces the wrongheadedness and simple mindedness at the root of most fascist ideology.
Have you ever read any Pound yourself, Stephan?
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2105702,00.html?xid=gonewsedit
Monday, January 30, 2012
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Machiavelli Mafia Atoms and Oil (MMAO)
Bob's grand encyclopedic writings on the subject of conspiracies covered a hell of a lot of ground, in this interview with Richard Smoley for Gnosis magazine, he highlights some of the more probable conspiracy theories, that since the interview in 1998 have proved themselves to be accurate predictions, based on earlier theories of Buckminster Fuller and deployed in Wilson's species of Maybelogic.
Smoley: Of all the conspiracies you've looked at over the years, which ones are you most inclined to believe in?Wilson: I put them on a scale from zero to ten. With the ones I put above five, I'm more inclined to give then credit than to doubt theta. The ones I put above seven, that's pretty close to belief, except I try to shy away from belief, I think it's a dangerous state to get into.Bucky Fuller has a theory of the Great Pirates - the sociopathic types who have always been the dominant force in history. The Great Pirates in modern times make up a group the abbreviates "MMAO": Machiavelli, Mafia, atoms, and oil. It's the international banks, the Mafia, and the atomic and oil cartels. He doesn't claim they work together, but they more or less make a singular force. But he also says that they're so engaged in conflicts with one another that they're steering Spaceship Earth in 50 different directions, which is why we're going around and we're not getting anywhere. I tend to find that fairly credible. A simplification of it is Carl Oglesby's theory of the Yankee and Cowboy War - the war between Western and old Eastern wealth. Those seem fairly credible to me.--Robert Anton Wilson, 1998.