Plant Pron and Pussycats

Monday, September 24, 2007

224 ...251 and counting

Kudos to Chicken Yoghurt who is keeping the following list up to date.

Curious Hamster, Pickled Politics, Harry’s Place, Tim Worstall, Dizzy, Iain Dale, Ten Percent, Blairwatch, Davide Simonetti, Earthquake Cove, Turbulent Cleric (who suggests dropping a line to the FA about Mr Usmanov), Mike Power, Jailhouse Lawyer, Suesam, Devil’s Kitchen, The Cartoonist, Falco, Casualty Monitor, Forever Expat, Arseblog, Drink-soaked Trots (and another), Pitch Invasion, Wonko’s World, Roll A Monkey, Caroline Hunt, Westminster Wisdom, Chris K, Anorak, Mediawatchwatch, Norfolk Blogger, Chris Paul, Indymedia (with a list of Craig Murray’s articles that are currently unavailable), Obsolete, Tom Watson, Cynical Chatter, Reactionary Snob, Mr Eugenides, Matthew Sinclair, The Select Society, Liberal England, Davblog, Peter Gasston Pitch Perfect, Adelaide Green Porridge Cafe, Lunartalks, Tygerland, The Crossed Pond, Our Kingdom, Big Daddy Merk, Daily Mail Watch, Graeme’s, Random Thoughts, Nosemonkey, Matt Wardman, Politics in the Zeros, Love and Garbage, The Huntsman, Conservative Party Reptile, Ellee Seymour, Sabretache, Not A Sheep, Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion, The People’s Republic Of Newport, Life, the Universe & Everything, Arsenal Transfer Rumour Mill, The Green Ribbon, Blood & Treasure, The Last Ditch, Areopagitica, Football in Finland, An Englishman’s Castle, Freeborn John, Eursoc, The Back Four, Rebellion Suck!, Ministry of Truth, ModernityBlog, Beau Bo D’Or, Scots and Independent, The Splund, Bill Cameron, Podnosh, Dodgeblogium, Moving Target, Serious Golmal, Goonerholic, The Spine, Zero Point Nine, Lenin’s Tomb, The Durruti Column, The Bristol Blogger, ArseNews, David Lindsay, Quaequam Blog!, On A Quiet Day…, Kathz’s Blog, England Expects, Theo Spark, Duncan Borrowman, Senn’s Blog, Katykins, Jewcy, Kevin Maguire, Stumbling and Mumbling, Famous for 15 megapixels, Ordovicius, Tom Morris, AOL Fanhouse, Doctor Vee, The Curmudgeonly, The Poor Mouth, 1820, Hangbitch, Crooked Timber, ArseNole, Identity Unknown, Liberty Alone, Amused Cynicism, Clairwil, The Lone Voice, Tampon Teabag, Unoriginalname38, Special/Blown It, The Remittance Man, 18 Doughty Street, Laban Tall, Martin Bright, Spy Blog The Exile, poons, Jangliss, Who Knows Where Thoughts Come From?, Imagined Community, A Pint of Unionist Lite, Poldraw, Disillusioned And Bored, Error Gorilla, Indigo Jo, Swiss Metablog, Kate Garnwen Truemors, Asn14, D-Notice, The Judge, Political Penguin, Miserable Old Fart, Jottings, fridgemagnet, Blah Blah Flowers, J. Arthur MacNumpty, Tony Hatfield, Grendel, Charlie Whitaker, Matt Buck, The Waendel Journal, Marginalized Action Dinosaur, SoccerLens, Toblog, John Brissenden East Lower, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Peter Black AM, Boing Boing, BLTP, Gunnerblog, LFB UK, Liberal Revolution, Wombles, Focus on Sodbury…, Follow The Money, Freedom and Whisky, Melting Man, PoliticalHackUK, Simon Says…, Daily EM, From The Barrel of a Gun, The Fourth Place, The Armchair News Blog, Journalist und Optimist, Bristol Indymedia, Dave Weeden, Up North John, Gizmonaut, Spin and Spinners, Marginalia, Arnique, Heather Yaxley, The Whiskey Priest, On The Beat, Paul Canning, Martin Stabe, Mat Bowles, Pigdogfucker, Rachel North, B3TA board, Naqniq, Yorkshire Ranter, The Home Of Football, UFO Breakfast Recipients, Moninski , Kerching, e-clectig, Mediocracy, Sicily Scene, Samizdata, I blog, they blog, weblog, Colcam, Some Random Thoughts, Bel is thinking, Vino S, Simply Jews, Atlantic Free Press, Registan, Filasteen, Britblog Roundup #136, Scientific Misconduct Blog, Adam Bowie, Duncan at Abcol, Camera Anguish, A Very British Dude, Whatever, Central News, Green Gathering, Leighton Cooke (224), , Skuds’ Sister’s Brother, Contrast News, Poliblog Perspective, Parish Pump, El Gales, Noodle, Curly’s Corner Shop, Freunde der offenen Gesellschaft, otromundoesposible, Richard Stacy, Looking For A Voice, News Dissector, Kateshomeblog, Writes Like She Talks, Extra! Extra!, Committee To Protect Bloggers, Liberty’s Requiem, American Samizdat, The Thunder Dragon, Cybersoc, Achievable Life, Paperholic, Creative-i, Raedwald, Nobody’s Friend, Lobster Blogster, Panchromatica (251).

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Bloggers united aginst Usmanov the Oligarch

Cross posted from the Poor Mouth

It's amazing what the crass bully boy tactics of a corpulent Uzbek oligarch and his team of legal vultures (my sincere apologies to the birds of the genus Gyps) can do. At the moment nearly 200 bloggers from all across the political spectrum have expressed their outrage at Usmanov's antics.

Kudos to Chicken Yoghurt who is keeping the following list up to date.

Curious Hamster, Pickled Politics, Harry’s Place, Tim Worstall, Dizzy, Iain Dale, Ten Percent, Blairwatch, Davide Simonetti, Earthquake Cove, Turbulent Cleric (who suggests dropping a line to the FA about Mr Usmanov), Mike Power, Jailhouse Lawyer, Suesam, Devil’s Kitchen, The Cartoonist, Falco, Casualty Monitor, Forever Expat, Arseblog, Drink-soaked Trots (and another), Pitch Invasion, Wonko’s World, Roll A Monkey, Caroline Hunt, Westminster Wisdom, Chris K, Anorak, Mediawatchwatch, Norfolk Blogger, Chris Paul, Indymedia (with a list of Craig Murray’s articles that are currently unavailable), Obsolete, Tom Watson, Cynical Chatter, Reactionary Snob, Mr Eugenides, Matthew Sinclair, The Select Society, Liberal England, Davblog, Peter Gasston Pitch Perfect, Adelaide Green Porridge Cafe, Lunartalks, Tygerland, The Crossed Pond, Our Kingdom, Big Daddy Merk, Daily Mail Watch, Graeme’s, Random Thoughts, Nosemonkey, Matt Wardman, Politics in the Zeros, Love and Garbage, The Huntsman, Conservative Party Reptile, Ellee Seymour, Sabretache, Not A Sheep, Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion, The People’s Republic Of Newport, Life, the Universe & Everything, Arsenal Transfer Rumour Mill, The Green Ribbon, Blood & Treasure, The Last Ditch, Areopagitica, Football in Finland, An Englishman’s Castle, Freeborn John, Eursoc, The Back Four, Rebellion Suck!, Ministry of Truth, ModernityBlog, Beau Bo D’Or, Scots and Independent, The Splund, Bill Cameron, Podnosh, Dodgeblogium, Moving Target, Serious Golmal, Goonerholic, The Spine, Zero Point Nine, Lenin’s Tomb, The Durruti Column, The Bristol Blogger, ArseNews, David Lindsay, Quaequam Blog!, On A Quiet Day…, Kathz’s Blog, England Expects, Theo Spark, Duncan Borrowman, Senn’s Blog, Katykins, Jewcy, Kevin Maguire, Stumbling and Mumbling, Famous for 15 megapixels, Ordovicius, Tom Morris, AOL Fanhouse, Doctor Vee, The Curmudgeonly, The Poor Mouth, 1820, Hangbitch, Crooked Timber, ArseNole, Identity Unknown, Liberty Alone, Amused Cynicism, Clairwil, The Lone Voice, Tampon Teabag, Unoriginalname38, Special/Blown It, The Remittance Man, 18 Doughty Street, Laban Tall, Martin Bright, Spy Blog The Exile, poons, Jangliss, Who Knows Where Thoughts Come From?, Imagined Community, A Pint of Unionist Lite, Poldraw, Disillusioned And Bored, Error Gorilla, Indigo Jo, Swiss Metablog, Kate Garnwen Truemors, Asn14, D-Notice, The Judge, Political Penguin, Miserable Old Fart, Jottings, fridgemagnet, Blah Blah Flowers, J. Arthur MacNumpty, Tony Hatfield, Grendel, Charlie Whitaker, Matt Buck, The Waendel Journal, Marginalized Action Dinosaur, SoccerLens, Toblog, John Brissenden East Lower, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Peter Black AM, Boing Boing, BLTP, Gunnerblog, LFB UK, Liberal Revolution, Wombles, Focus on Sodbury…, Follow The Money, Freedom and Whisky, Melting Man, PoliticalHackUK, Simon Says…, Daily EM, From The Barrel of a Gun, The Fourth Place, The Armchair News Blog, Journalist und Optimist, Bristol Indymedia, Dave Weeden, Up North John, Gizmonaut, Spin and Spinners, Marginalia, Arnique, Heather Yaxley, The Whiskey Priest, On The Beat, Paul Canning, Martin Stabe, Mat Bowles, Pigdogfucker, Rachel North (193).

I daresay the list will continue to grow.

Cross posted from the Poor Mouth

I wasn't until I paid a visit to Tygerland, (one of my favourite bloggers) that I found out that a number of websites are currently unavailable (those belonging to Craig Murray, Bob Piper, Boris Johnson and Tim Ireland). The reason for the outage is muzzling action in response to allegations made by Craig Murray (the former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan turned gadfly) about Russian/Uzbek billionaire Alisher Usmanov who has recently purchased a substantial stake in Arsenal FC.

Before going on I would strongly recommend these excellent posts at Chicken Yoghurt and Mr Eugenides

So what is this all about? On 2 September Craig Murray wrote a damning piece about Usmanov on his website (the article is still available on other sites. Do a simple search). The basic thrust of the post is that Usmanov is, allegedly, a “crook and a criminal”.

Craig Murray took apart a press release which claimed that Usmanov did not have a criminal record. Although he had been “imprisoned for various offences under the old Soviet regime” he had been pardoned after “Mikhail Gorbachev took office”. All references to his convictions had been “expunged from police records” Essentially the release indicates that Usmanov is a fine fellow with no skeletons in his closet.

According to Murray, Usmanov served six years in prison and hat he was pardoned by Islom Karimov, the then president of the Uzbek SSR, subsequently the first (and only) president (read dictator) of Uzbekistan. While his pardon did indeed take place after Gorbachev took office it is utterly disingenuous to intimate that he had any part in the pardon. Murray claims that the pardon was ordered because of Karimov’s alliance with Usmanov’s mentor, Gafur Rakhimov, a mafia boss and drug trafficker. The allegations about Rakhimov’s criminal activities appear to be widespread. Interestingly, he was barred from entering Australia for the Sydney Olympics despite being an official of the Uzbek national team.

The allegations continue and if they are even partially true, Usmanov is not a fit person even to run a bath. If they can be substantiated then he should be barred from the UK forthwith.

At present Usmanov does not seem to have commenced libel proceedings against Craig Murray. On 8 September the Times reported that Usmanov’s lawyers were “forced to write” to the internet service provider which hosts Murray’s website demanding that it take down the. In a letter Murray was described as having “an axe to grind” and that he had made “a number of grossly defamatory and completely unsubstantiated allegations about our client in his book Murder in Samarkand and on his website.” It goes on to say that they had “been forced to issue a takedown notice against Murray’s ISP”

In response Murray said that he had not been approached by the lawyers but that he rather hoped. “Usmanov’s hyperactive and expensive lawyers will sue me for libel"

On 12 September the Guardian reported that his lawyers Shills, sorry Shysters, Hang I’ve got it – Schillings (the amount they would sell their grannies down the river for I suppose) had been in touch with several independent Arsenal supporters' websites and blogs warning them to remove postings referring to allegations made against him by Murray. From a quick trawl of sites earlier it seems that Schillings’ approach had been unsuccessful.

Yesterday, Murray’s ISP took down his site. Actually they seem to have taken down the whole server which is why the other sites have vanished too. The likes of Bob Piper and Boris Johnson are suffering from “collateral damage”. While no lover of Bullingdon Boris the shut down cannot come at a worse time for him given that he is a front runner in the race to become the Tory candidate in next year’s London mayoral race. The ISP’s approach is spineless and I hope the victims of this "collateral damage" have a case for legal action against them.

If Usmanov thought that muzzling Murray would put an end to this story he is most definitely wrong. All it seems to have done is fan the flames: quite a lot of people have already posted pieces on this ridiculous event and it is likely that more and more will do so. Iain Dale, who has no cause to love Tim Ireland, has spoken out in his defence .I hope that the story will make it into the press, causing Usmanov and his legal lackeys substantial embarrassment. Meanwhile, Labour MP Tom Watson has stated that he will be raising the matter of Usmanov’s Arsenal bid with colleagues.

Usmanov chose not to take Murray to court even though our libel laws are ridiculously biased in favour of the plaintiff. He has taken no action against his book Murder in Samarkand which is still freely available despite claiming that it containing “defamatory” statements about him. It is high time the UK came kicking and screaming into the 19^th century by having our own version of the American First Amendment. While this will protect some unsavoury characters it would guarantee our freedom of speech and provide at least some protection against (allegedly) criminal oligarchs.

What is the Streisand Effect? This comes from a post on this tawdry tale by sports writer David Warner (I can thank Mr Eugenides for the link to his post). It relates to Streisand's ridiculous 2003 lawsuit against a photographer who had taken an aerial picture of her Malibu home. The photo was taken as part of a publicly funded coastline erosion study and her home was not labelled. Within days the photos of her house were all over the web! With any luck Usmanov and his amoral shysters will get a taste of the same medicine.

Sinclairs Musings (Hat tip to Tyger for the link) has an excellent post which starts "We are all bloggerheads now". When he says that "it's a big issue that can only be addressed by a collective refusal to be cowed" I agree wholeheartedly. Perhaps we all should stand up and say Ich bin ein bloggerhead...

On Friday Evening, It was good to see that Channel 4 News had picked up on Usmanov’s stupid antics and the response across the blogosphere.

Going by the title “Blogosphere mugging for Usmanov” Channel 4 News notes the revolt across the blogosphere noting that over 100 high profile bloggers (plus the Poor Mouth) have posted on this outrage. Interestingly Channel 4 News noted that Usmanov's prison sentence was for corruption although he claims that this was “politically motivated" (why is my bullshit detector going off?)

Sunny Hundal of Pickled Politics appeared on More 4 News earlier this evening to discuss the case His interview can be seen at Mike Power’s Not a Blog. It is well worth watching (thanks to Tyger for the tip)

In addition both the Guardian and the Times are carrying the story with an emphasis on the closure of Boris Johnson's website. Johnson is unsurprisingly angry calling the closure of his website, calling it "a serious erosion of free speech". "This is London, not Uzbekistan., "It is unbelievable that a website can be wiped out on the say-so of some tycoon. We live in a world where internet communication is increasingly vital, and this is a serious erosion of free speech." He said. Bob Piper whose blog was also shut down (neither had anything to do with the case whatsoever) describes the shut-down of his site as “outrageous”