"JFL" has emailed us with some more details about this worrying Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) section 49 case - see the article on The Register by Chris Williams - see UK jails schizophrenic for refusal to decrypt files)
Having been contacted by "JFL", Spy Blog asked a few Questions - here are some edited and annotated quotations, omitting, for now, the names of the people mentioned by "JFL" , apart from the Judge, who is named in The Register article.
I served my nine months imprisoned and am now basically free, within the UK and on probation.>
> Did you have access to a lawyer when you plead guilty ?
>An extremely incompetent solicitor. Even _after_ sentencing he told me that I'd be eligible for HDC tag, which would have meant release in a fortnight.
HDC tag = Home Detention Curfew - enforced by private sector subcontractors with electronic ankle tags
Had I stood mute, taken as Not Guilty (Innocent) then I would have definitely been returned to HMP Winch for another three months+ awaiting trial, for RIPA. He also promised me 'as long as I needed' on 02 Jun to consult with my barrister yet on the day arranged *_none_*. My barrister, Mr [name 1], predicted a high end sentence of 12mns.
> Did the police take any reference samples from each other when they tested you for
> explosives, to eliminate cross contamination ?
>Ms. [name 2] at the DSTL tested:
Controls,
The cell at Paddington Green: walls, bench, floor, frame (?!),
St. Pancras interview room: table top, chair, floor by chair.They did not test the officers, the _hand_cuffs, the initial detention area inc seat, strip search room, water cup, urine bottle, tape recorder machine that I helped fix while waiting, Eurostar train, dirty cash used etc..
i.e. plenty of scope for cross contamination at the levels of a few nanograms i.e. a few billionths of a gram (10-12 Kilograms)
DSTL= Defence Science and Technology Laboratory the bit of the UK Government Defence Research Agency labs not sold off to Qinetiq.
> Do your bail conditions permit or forbid you from using encryption ?
>The UK dis-possessed me of TBs of US business data, but no ban on computing longer than 6.5mns (not while in prison).
TB = TeraByte - one thousand GigaBytes of data.
[...]
I am a computer scientist with a small business in [name of a famous town in Silicon Valley] (with Download.com Editors Reviews).
"JFL" now provides some more details:
My story is at its best since this started, it isn't a tragedy and pity is wasted. The tragedy, the pity and the shame (big word) is that this is the state of the UK today; this reflects badly on the human species as the UK is one of the five core members of the UN Security Council not just a fallen imperial force on a small, wet island. A scoop for you is that my sentence was ten concurrent doses of nine months for the RIPA s53, and simultaneously nine months for the fictitious CJA 1925 s36 (IPS) crimes and also *one year* for the second count of this offence (see The Offence starring Sean Connery), plus one month for the missed appointment.
CJA 125 s36 = Criminal Justice Act 1925 section 36 Forgery of a passport - remember that "JFL" did not "forge" a passport, he only applied for another one in his own name.
The Offence is a 1972 film directed by Sidney Lumet : "It stars Sean Connery as a frustrated, obsessively aggressive police detective who snaps and kills a suspect (Ian Bannen) for personal reasons which are explored over the course of the film yet not fully revealed until the end."
The RIPA pt III is very much a terrible piece of legislation for our macro culture. Yet it's CTC's position in our culture that is the danger in this Emperor's New Clothes War on Terrorism, (note to Jack Herer's book on the earlier? War on Drugs with its Russian tzar reference).
The Emperor Wears No Clothes: The Authoritative Historical Record of Cannabis and the Conspiracy Against Marijuana by Jack Herer
CTC framed me, they set me up all because I believe in one's right to be silent. DC [name 3] told me, in company, that I'd
never get my passport back because it was invalid, claiming this was due to my change of name via deedpoll in 2007 (and with no receipt until near the Crown Court date I'd no evidence that they ever had possession of it. I hadn't used it since Paris). I informed him then that I'd therefore be applying for a replacement. He did absolutely nothing to deter me from this, unknowingly to me, criminal course. CTC then waited until they could then charged me with these additional offences.The CT Division of the CPS believed all the lies of CTC. The Judge believed the lies and simply fell for the _evil_spirit_ of CTC. They managed to convince him without any evidence that I had manufactured the *legal* RDX. The misbelieved actions may "have been entirely innocent experimentation, it may not have been, but you must now pay the consequences [for your crimes]...," Judge Hetherington said. CTC's investigation was named Operation Fontine and run by DI [name 4], promoted during this time. My case has been uptaken by DI [name 5] of the PSD.
Regards, JFL.
CPS = Crown Prosecution Service/ - whose lawyers seem to be easily bamboozled by weak scientific evidence when presented by the Police or intelligence agencies - remember the fictitious "Red Mercury" / New of the World "fake sheikh" sting prosecution fiasco ?
CT = Counter Terrorism
CTC = Counter Terrorism Command - which has now subsumed Special Branch and the Anti-Terrorist Branch, of the Metropolitan Police Service. Sometimes they seem to act nationally, not just in London. They have also been involved in non-terrorist related controversies such as the arrest and searching of Members of Parliament and / or their offices and homes. Hundreds of these officers have been investigated for abusing their corporate American Express credit cards, and several of these are facing prosecution.
RDX = chemical name Cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine is a military military / commercial high explosive, not the sort of thing which can be made at home. Modern equipment can detect minute traces of this and other common explosives and illegal drugs, but, at very low concentrations i.e. at nanogram levels, there is a huge problem of cross contamination from other suspects or reference samples etc.
DI = Detective Inspector
PSD = Professional Standards Division which supposedly investigates complaints against the police internally within a particular Police force.
This is not the same as a complaint to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC)
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