Patapoe serieus, je maintiendrai presents:
Coming thursday, razende reporter over Amerikaans geweld op Roeterseiland
Los Angeles mat 6th, journalists detained
Historisch bewuastzijn
The Ukranian question occupied an important place in the politics of prince Adam Czartoryski, the uncrownded king of the Polish emigration. Franciszek Duchinski, a nobleman from Kyiv who was close to Czartoryski in Paris, wrote in an appeal to the peoples of Europe: “To the Dnipro! To the Dnipro! To Kyiev! Oh, Peoples of Europe! There is your unity, for there it is that the little Russians are fighting against Moscow in defence of of their Europoean civilisation.”
Monitoring CRA Coquelles
Racist comments from judges and prosecutors, lawyers refusing to defend detainees, interpreters distorting translations, cops leaving visitors waiting for several hours, broken telephone booths… In Coquelles like in other administrative detention centers (CRA), violence, mistreatment and other rights violations are daily occurrences. Faced with this, let’s no longer remain isolated!
This form allows you to anonymously report any element that you think would be useful to keep a record of about the Coquelles-Calais administrative detention center (CRA). The data collected could enable to monitor repressive practices at the CRA in a more systematic manner. They may perhaps be used to help appeals by detainees or by support collectives: demonstrate procedural flaws during court hearings, contact the fundamental rights authorities (Contrôle Général des Lieux de Privation de Liberté, Défenseur Des Droits…), support the testimonies of detainees… Any fact reported, even trivial, can be useful to archive! Whatever the final use of this data, the anonymity of detainees and witnesses will always be protected.
The link of the form : https://framaforms.org/monitoring-cra-coquelles-1710703353
Police surveillance: protect yourself from your phone and Whatsapp!
Aussi disponible en français. هذا النص متوفر أيضا باللغة العربية At the French-British border, as elsewhere, there are numerous indications that the French police are remotely monitoring the content of the Whatsapp communications of many people, particularly those they suspect of wanting to cross the border clandestinely. Numerous investigations are underway at the French-British border […]
At the French-British border, as elsewhere, there are numerous indications that the French police are remotely monitoring the content of the Whatsapp communications of many people, particularly those they suspect of wanting to cross the border clandestinely.
Numerous investigations are underway at the French-British border to arrest “smugglers”. The authorities’ definition of the word “smuggler” is highly controversial : it is illegal to help someone cross the border clandestinely, even for free, and the police arrest many people for this. Because of this, some people are sent to prison and sometimes deported from France afterwards.
During a police investigation in France, it’s easy for the police to monitor telephone conversations just by knowing the telephone number they want to monitor. They do not need to physically access someone’s phone. The phone can be monitored for several months by the police without the person being monitored knowing it. If the police are monitoring you, they can listen to your telephone conversations and read your text messages.
Even if you are not being monitored, certain information is still kept for at least 2 years by your operator and the police could consult it later : the geolocation of your phone even if the GPS option was off, with which numbers you exchanged text messages and calls, how long the calls lasted, as well as details of the exact days and times of each text message, call and geolocation. Your phone’s geolocation can be used by the police to find you in real time so they can arrest you, or in court to prove that you were somewhere at a particular time. The history of your text messages and calls, even if the police do not have access to the content, can be used to find out who you are in contact with and when.
The police have plenty of ways of finding out your phone number :
By asking the phone or credit shop.
If they arrest you with your phone.
If they find your phone number in someone else’s phone after an arrest or surveillance.
By searching all the phones that were in a specific place at a specific time. For example, to identify people trying to cross the sea illegally : all phones detected at 2 AM on a french beach near England.
By installing an interception device. For example, a plain-clothes policeman could hide a small antenna in his backpack and walk past you; he would then be able to see your number if your phone was switched on. It can also work at a distance of several dozen metres with a larger device, which police officers can hide in a vehicle.
As practical as they are, our phones are true spies for the police!
To prevent your phone from being geolocated, the only solution is to put it in airplane mode, or ideally to switch it off and remove the battery. As soon as the phone is switched on, even if the GPS is off, it bounds on the network, which records its location. To make it harder to monitor your messages and calls, it’s best to use internet messaging systems with end-to-end encryption, so that the communication is only visible to you and the people you’re talking to.
Whatsapp is an online messaging app owned by the US company Meta, which also owns Facebook, Messenger and Instagram. The company claims to use end-to-end encryption for its messaging, so no one can intercept a call or message apart from the person sending it and the person receiving it. But Whatsapp’s security protocol is kept secret because the company refuses to reveal it. So it’s not possible to know whether there are any loopholes in Whatsapp’s security that the police can use to monitor users. There are many indications that in some investigations, the police are able to listen to Whatsapp messages and calls. On its website, Whatsapp state that they working with the authorities to monitor its users.
An alternative way of protecting yourself is to use the Signal app. It’s easy to use and very similar to Whatsapp. But Signal’s security protocol is open-source : it is accessible to everyone and anyone can check that there are no loopholes that would allow the police or other malicious people to intercept communications. Thousands of computer scientists around the world monitor and improve Signal’s security every day, in complete transparency. This is not to say that Signal is infallible, but there are more reasons to trust it than Whatsapp. What’s more, Signal is a not-for-profit company, whereas Whatsapp makes money by collecting and reselling its users’ data, which is one more reason to choose Signal over Whatsapp !
Installing Signal is simple: just download “Signal Private Messenger” onto your smartphone:
On Android devices, in the GooglePlay application.
On iPhone or iPad, in the AppStore application.
Once the application is installed, all you have to do is create an account with a validation code sent by text message. Security tip: when you create your profile, use a pseudonym rather than your real name. Once your account is created, you’ll be able to communicate with all your contacts who also use Signal : text messages, voice messages, photos, videos, calls, group conversations, etc. It only works with people who also have Signal installed on their phone, so invite your friends and family to install it too so you can communicate together more securely.
Just be careful! If one day the police stop you with your phone, it is possible that they will open it and read your Signal messages, even if you have set a code. If they arrest someone you’re in contact with, they can read the messages you’ve sent them in the same way. So remember to delete your messages regularly. In the Signal settings, you can set the “disappearing messages” option to automatically delete messages after a certain period of time.
Let’s fight against surveillance! Privacy is a human right!
FEBRUARY 19, 2024 Jury convicts Ibrahima Bah: statement from Captain Support UK
Portrait of Ibrahima Bah, drawn by A., his friend, in court.
Statement by Captain Support
Following a three-week trial, Ibrahima Bah, a teenager from Senegal, has been convicted by an all-white jury at Canterbury Crown Court. The jury unanimously found him guilty of facilitating illegal entry to the UK, and by a 10-2 majority of manslaughter by gross negligence. This conviction followed a previous trial in July 2023 in which the jury could not reach a verdict.
Ibrahima’s prosecution and conviction is a violent escalation in the persecution of migrants to ‘Stop the Boats’. Observing the trial has also made it clear to us how anti-black racism pervades the criminal ‘justice’ system in this country. The verdict rested on the jury’s interpretation of generic words with shifting meanings such as ‘reasonable’, ‘significant’, and ‘minimal’. Such vagueness invites subjective prejudice, in this case anti-black racist profiling. Ibrahima, a teenage survivor, was perceived in the eyes of many jurors to be older, more mature, more responsible, more threatening, with more agency, and thus as more ‘guilty’.
Why Ibrahima was charged
Ibrahima was arrested in December 2022 after the dinghy he was driving across the Channel broke apart next to the fishing vessel Arcturus. Four men are known to have drowned, and up to five are still missing at sea. The court heard the names of three of them: Allaji Ibrahima Ba, 18 years old from Guinea who had travelled with Ibrahima from Libya and who Ibrahima described as his brother; Hajratullah Ahmadi, from Afghanistan; and Moussa Conate, a 15 year old from Guinea.
The jury, judge, defense, and prosecution agreed the shipwreck and resultant deaths had multiple factors. These included the poor construction of the boat, water ingress after a time at sea, and later everyone standing up to be rescued causing the floor of the dinghy ripping apart. A report by Alarm Phone and LIMINAL points to other contributing factors, including the lack of aerial surveillance, the failure of the French to launch a search and rescue operation when first informed of the dinghy’s distress, and the skipper of Arcturus’ delay in informing Dover Coastguard of the seriousness of the wreck. Nonetheless, the Kent jury has decided to exclusively punish a black teenaged survivor.
What the jury heard
Many of the other survivors, all of whom claimed asylum upon reaching the UK, testified that Ibrahima saved their lives. At the moment the dinghy got into danger, Ibrahima steered it towards the fishing vessel which rescued them. He was also shown holding a rope to keep the collapsed dinghy alongside the fishing vessel while others climbed onboard. One survivor told the court that Ibrahima “was an angel”.
The story told by witnesses not on the dinghy contrasted greatly to that of the asylum seekers who survived. Ray Strachan, the captain of the shipping vessel Arcturus offered testimony which appeared particularly prejudiced. He described Ibrahima using racist tropes – “mouthy”, not grateful enough following rescue, and as behaving very unusually. He complained about the tone in which Ibrahima asked the crew to rescue his drowning friend Allaji, who Strachan could only describe as being “dark brown. What can you say nowadays? He wasn’t white.” Strachan also has spoken out in a GB News interview against what he considers to be the “migrant taxi service” in the Channel, and volunteered to the jury, “It wasn’t my decision to take them to Dover. I wanted to take them back to France.” This begs the question of whether Strachan’s clearly anti-migrant political opinions influenced his testimony in a way which he felt would help secure Ibrahima’s conviction. It also raises the question if jury members identified more with Strachan’s retelling than the Afghans who testified through interpreters, and to what extent they shared some of his convictions.
When Ibrahima took the stand to testify in his defense he explained that he refused to drive the rubber inflatable after he was taken to the beach and saw its size compared to the number of people expecting to travel on it. He told how smugglers, who had organised the boat and had knives and a gun, then assaulted him and forced him to drive the dinghy. The other survivors corroborated his testimony and described the boat’s driver being beaten and forced onboard.
The prosecutor, however, sought to discredit Ibrahima, cross-examining him for one-and-a-half days. He demonised Ibrahima and insisted that he was personally responsible for the deaths because he was driving. Ibrahima’s actions, which survivors testified saved their lives, were twisted into dangerous decisions. His experiences of being forced to drive the boat under threat of death, and following assault, were disbelieved. The witness stand became the scene of another interrogation, with the prosecutor picking over the details of Ibrahima’s previous statements for hours.
Ibrahima’s account never waivered. Yes he drove the dinghy, he didn’t want to, he was forced to, and when they got into trouble he did everything in his power to save everybody on board.
Free Ibrahima!
We have been supporting, and will continue to support, Ibrahima as he faces his imprisonment at the hands of the racist and unjust UK border regime.
This is a truly shocking decision.
We call for everybody who shares our anger to protest the unjust conviction of Ibrahima Bah and to stand in solidarity with all those incarcerated and criminalised for seeking freedom of movement