UK is officially nuts

Kevin Rawlinson, The London Independent:

Police have been ordered to arrest WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange “under all circumstances” if he leaves the Ecuadorean embassy, where he has been holed-up for more than two months while claiming asylum.

A briefing note handed to officers orders them to make the arrest if he attempts to leave in a diplomatic bag or vehicle.

The sanctity of the diplomatic bag is arguable. But, Treaty of Vienna:

22: 3.The premises of the mission, their furnishings and other property thereon and the means of transport of the mission shall be immune from search, requisition, attachment or execution.

Car: wheelchair: airplane. All can constitute transport such that the feet of Julian Assange need not touch British soil, which is looking pretty mucky anyway.

Must Read: To Die in Mexico by John Gibler

There are few books that explain why US policy remains as consistently perverse as it is in the so-called wars on drugs and on terrorism, become permanent wars, with all the loss of freedom and national vitality that constant violence implies. John Gibler’s To Die in Mexico provides insight into not only what is going on in Mexico, but how it connects to US policy. It also shows how the citizenry, fragmented by ethnic and class divides, frenetically ignores the violence that it pretends it cannot stop. Some excerpts:

The bare facts are so terrifying they pass beyond the edge of anything credible. Who would believe, for example, that the warden of a state prison would let convicted killers out at night and loan them official vehicles, automatic rifles, and bulletproof vests, so that they could gun down scores of innocent people in a neighboring state and then quickly hop back over the state line and into prison, behind bars, a perfect alibi? Who would believe that a paramilitary drug-trafficking organization formed by ex-Special Forces of the Mexican Army would kidnap a local cop, torture him into confessing all of the above details about the prisoners’ death squad, videotape the confession, execute the cop on camera with a shot to the heart, and then post the video on YouTube?

The government, you see, sometimes acts as terrorist, and the drug traffickers sometimes as truthtellers.

THIS IS WHAT THEY DO NOT WANT YOU TO SAY: The Mexican army and federal police have administered drug trafficking for decades. Drug money fills the vaults of Mexico’s banks, enters the national economy at every level, and, with traffickers’ annual profits estimated at between $30 billion and $60 billion a year, rivals oil as the largest single source of cash revenue in the country…..the most wanted narcos […include] generals in the Mexican army and commanders of the federal police. The federal police forces are the main recruitment centers for the enforcers, the paramilitary units in charge of assassinations, and the armed protection of drugs and mid- and high-level operators.

The corruption runs to the top of the civilian government.

Click for more

Friday Cat Blogging

Alexander was very sick last week, eventually diagnosed with pancreatitis. I’m happy to report that he seems to be fully recovered. He’s very relieved that I’m done squirting medicine down his throat.