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Dozens of pickets protesting the pending execution of the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg file past the White House February 14, 1953 after Inaugural stands were removed.
A 24-hour vigil had earlier been restricted to East Executive Drive until the stands were removed.
Some of the picket signs read, “Mr. President The Rosenbergs Maintain Their Innocence!” “Afro-American says there are Grave Doubts in this Case!” “Mr. President 3000 Ministers Appealed to your Conscience! Reconsider Clemency for the Rosenbergs!” and “The electric chair can’t kill the doubts in the Rosenberg case.”
The vigil and picketers were seeking clemency for the Rosenbergs who were convicted of passing atomic secrets to the then wartime ally Soviet Union during 1943-44.
The signs read: “Millions All Over the World Plead: Spare the Rosenbergs,” “Wire-write to President Truman today: clemency for the Rosenbergs,” “While doubt of guilt remains commute the Rosenbergs’ death sentence” and “Justice in the United States must not be more vindictive than in other countries.”
The protest was sponsored by the Committee to Secure Justice for the Rosenbergs that vowed to organize 24-hour vigils until Truman granted clemency. Picket lines in and around the White House were in fact continuous until the Rosenberg’s execution.
The Rosenbergs and a third man, Morton Sobell, were tried together for passing classified information to the Soviet Union related to an atomic bomb.
Part of the prosecution strategy was to emphasize their ties to the Communist Party at a time when hysteria over communists in the U.S. was at an all-time high during the Cold War and with U.S. troops battling in Korea against forces aided by both the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China.
The Rosenbergs were convicted, sentenced to death and then executed June 19, 1953 despite an international outcry for clemency. Sobell served 17 ½ years of a 30-year sentence.
The Rosenbergs were the only people executed by the U.S. for espionage during the Cold War and the only U.S. citizen civilians in modern times executed by the U.S. for their role in passing secrets to another country.
The debate over their sentences continues today, with President Barack Obama refusing to grant posthumous clemency to Ethel Rosenberg while he was in office.
The political climate in the U.S. at the time of their arrest and conviction was one of fear--the onset of the Cold War with the Soviet Union following confrontation in Europe and the Soviet Union’s test of an atomic bomb in 1949.
Leadership at many levels of the Communist Party USA were being sentenced to jail for their beliefs while the rank and file members were blacklisted from employment and persecuted during the second red scare.
At the same time, U.S. forces were fighting in Korea against the communist-led regime centered in North Korea and aided by the People’s Republic of China and the Soviet Union.
While the U.S. and the Soviet Union were allies in World War II, the U.S. did not share information on the atom bomb project.
The Rosenbergs joined the Young Communist League in the late 1930s. According to his former Soviet handler Alexander Feklisov, Julius began passing classified documents to the Soviet Union while at the Army Signal Corps Engineering Laboratories at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey in 1940.
The prosecution saw Julius’ potential cooperation as a chance to break a larger Soviet intelligence group in the U.S. and believed the only way to break Julius was to expose his wife Ethel to the death penalty. The ploy didn’t work.
In imposing the death penalty, Judge Irving Kaufman noted that he held them responsible not only for espionage but also for the deaths of the Korean War:
“I consider your crime worse than murder... I believe your conduct in putting into the hands of the Russians the A-Bomb years before our best scientists predicted Russia would perfect the bomb has already caused, in my opinion, the Communist aggression in Korea, with the resultant casualties exceeding 50,000 and who knows but that millions more of innocent people may pay the price of your treason. Indeed, by your betrayal you undoubtedly have altered the course of history to the disadvantage of our country. No one can say that we do not live in a constant state of tension. We have evidence of your treachery all around us every day for the civilian defense activities throughout the nation are aimed at preparing us for an atom bomb attack.”
Commenting on the sentence given to them, Julius Rosenberg claimed the case was a political frame-up.
“This death sentence is not surprising. It had to be. There had to be a Rosenberg case, because there had to be an intensification of the hysteria in America to make the Korean War acceptable to the American people. There had to be hysteria and a fear sent through America in order to get increased war budgets. And there had to be a dagger thrust in the heart of the left to tell them that you are no longer gonna get five years for a Smith Act prosecution or one year for contempt of court, but we're gonna kill ya!”
An article by Norman Markowitz for Political Affairs in 2008 sums up another point of view.
“These were people who, for ill or for good, admired both Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and President Franklin Roosevelt as advancing the struggle for working-class liberation against fascism. They saw them as helping to bring about more than a “better world,” but a world with a socialist system that fostered equality, peace and social justice. If patriotism in its most simple definition means love of country, this was the America that communists defended and loved, rather than the America of Standard Oil, Herbert and J. Edgar Hoover, the corporate leadership ready and willing to do business with Hitler, Mussolini and the Japanese militarists both to make money and fight socialist revolutions.”
This point of view also holds that providing the Soviets with intelligence on the atomic bomb helped ensure that the U.S. would not launch nuclear weapons again after the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima in 1945.
The question of the Rosenberg’s guilt has been debated since their arrest. Evidence uncovered in more recent years that convincingly indicates that Julius was involved in espionage. The evidence against Ethel is less convincing and more circumstantial.
Those charged or implicated with the Rosenbergs include:
Julius Rosenberg: executed June 19, 1953
Ethel Rosenberg: executed June 19, 1953
David Greenglass: served 9 and half years of a 15-year sentence
Ruth Greenglass: not charged, granted immunity
Morton Sobell: served 17 years, nine months of a 30-year sentence
Harry Gold: served 14 years of a 30-year sentence
Klaus Fuchs: served 9 years of a 14-year sentence in Great Britain
For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHskkQha2c
Photo by Ranny Routt. The image is courtesy of the D.C. Public Library Washington Star Collection © Washington Post.
Description: View of the beheading of King Charles I outside the Banqueting House at Whitehall, Westminster, with a large crowd watching the execution and a key to the main figures in the bottom margin. The building was designed by Inigo Jones and completed in 1622, it is the only remaining part of the old Whitehall Palace above ground.
Date of Execution: 1649
Medium: engraving
Collage No: 29446
Collection: Main Print Collection
Find more images of King Charles I on our image library.
day 85 – Saddam’s execution has haunted me all day.
My TV is set to wake me in the morning; it is a more gentle way to wake up than the insipid beeping of an alarm clock which, as well as waking you, induces a coronary heart attack.
This morning I woke gently to the news that a man had been executed. At 6am Iraq time Saddam Hussein was hanged. I couldn't quite believe it had happened. I sat up and watched the continuous report on BBC news and all I could think of was that one more person had lost a life.
Saddam, from what little I know, was not a nice man. He was directly and indirectly responsible for literally millions of lost lives. His regime tortured and brutalised a nation and his legacy continues to infect what was once the centre of civilisation.
This presents me with a moral problem. I just can not condone capital punishment. It is a brutal way to carry out justice and no one, and I mean no one, deserves to die in that manner. But in taking that stance I am asking for mercy and compassion for a man that showed none to his victims. I have to admit I briefly thought that his death was a good thing but I quickly retracted that thought. In a modern society we should not execute people. Let’s face it, there is no punishment that befits genocide and mass murder and another death does little to help.
The other disturbing thing about this event is the display of the execution on TV. I remember the uproar when terrorists executed Kenneth Bigley by beheading him. They then distributed the video over the Internet. The world was outraged. Are we any different presenting Saddam’s execution? We need to take a step back and think about what we are looking at. I heard someone say “Oh the hanging is on the Internet, Can I look?” I said “Why?” The reply was slightly chilling “Oh I don’t know. It might be interesting, might be fun.” I was taken aback at the thought that someone I know well could actually see the death of another human as entertaining.
I wonder if we will ever learn.
Dublin Bus (Summerhill Depot) Leyland Olympian RH31 parks up on Kildare Street operating the Dublin Bus Ghost Tour, March 2014.
Although AV63 has been completed for the tour more problems mean RH 31 will probably last a little longer on the ghost tour than previously thought.
Douggy Carpool: hey how r u doin
Kaycee Nightfire: ok
Douggy Carpool: wat u doin out there
Kaycee Nightfire: shooting a bear
Guess I'm not going to Disney World anytime soon .....
Original model (1962) of the parish and pilgrimage church of St-Rita (1963-1966)
Julius Sabbestraat, corner of Hippodroomstraat,
8530 Zandberg (Harelbeke),
in the province of West-Flanders
BELGIUM
designed by arch. Léon Stynen (BEL, ° 15 JULY 1899, Antwerp - † 13 MAY 1990, Antwerp)
and arch. Paul De Meyer (BEL, ° 5 NOV 1922, Lier – † 2012, Antwerp)
Local execution architect André Vlieghe (BEL, ° 17 JUNE 1906 – † )
Structural engineer Prof. ir. André Paduart (BEL, ° 14 DEC 1914,
Dover, UK – † 27 FEB 1985, Oudergem (Brussels)), SETESCO
Listed building since 2016:
inventaris.onroerenderfgoed.be/erfgoedobjecten/201410
Ref : BEHEERSPLAN ONROEREND ERFGOED (2018)
author:
DEMEYERE J & A BVBA, Arch. Alex Demeyere
Veldstraat 71, B-8500 Kortrijk
Drawings:
plannen.onroerenderfgoed.be/plannen/767
© picture by A. De Belder
this painting is part of a series I am working on exploring what it means to be a Catholic in the North of Ireland.
Exécution sans jugement sous les rois Maures de Grenade (Execution without judgement under the Moorish Kings of Grenada)
1870
By Henri Regnault (1843 - 1871)
Oil on canvas, H. 3.02 ; L. 1.46 m
musée d'Orsay, Paris, France
Regnault’s grand canvas still unsettles many visitors to the Musée d’Orsay. Whereas other nearby paintings in the museum have long since lost their avant-garde capacity to disturb viewers’ expectations, Regnault’s canvas has retained its shock value. One major reason for this response is not so much the bloody scene in the foreground as the viewer’s position vis-à-vis this macabre subject. As Linda Nochlin has pointed out, when the canvas is hung at the correct height, the decapitated corpse rests at the viewer’s own eye level.
The Rebels Return Wood Sculptures. Wat Tyler Park, Basildon, Essex.
Full size high quality images available on request.
The Postcard
A postally unused carte postale that was published by A. Leconte of 38, Rue Ste.-Croix-de-la-Bretonnerie, Paris. The photography was by Guy, and the card has a divided back.
La Place de la Concorde
The Place de la Concorde is one of the major public squares in Paris. Measuring 7.6 ha (19 acres) in area, it is the largest square in the French capital. It is located in the city's eighth arrondissement, at the eastern end of the Champs-Élysées.
It was the site of many notable public executions, including those of King Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette and Maximilien Robespierre in the course of the French Revolution, during which the square was temporarily renamed Place de la Révolution.
History of the Place de la Concorde
The Place was originally designed to be the site of an equestrian statue of King Louis XV, commissioned in 1748 by the merchants of Paris, to celebrate the recovery of King Louis XV from a serious illness.
The site chosen for the statue was the large esplanade or space between the revolving gate the Tuileries Gardens and the Cour-de-la-Reine, a popular lane for horseback riding at the edge of the city.
At the time the Concorde bridge and the Rue de Rivoli did not exist, and the Rue Royale was a muddy lane that descended down to a marsh beside the Seine.
The architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel made a plan for the site, and the square was finished by 1772. It was in the form of an octagon, bordered by a moat twenty meters wide, crossed by stone bridges, and surrounded by a stone balustrade.
At the eight corners Gabriel placed stone stairways to descend into the Place, which was divided into flowerbeds. In the center of the gardens was the pedestal on which the statue stood.
The statue, by Bouchardon, depicted the King on horseback as the victor of the Battle of Fontenoy, dressed as a Roman general, with a laurel wreath on his head.
The four corners of the pedestal were designed with bronze statues by Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, depicting the virtues of great monarchs; Force, Justice, Prudence, and Peace.
The statue was dedicated on the 20th. June 1763, but by this time the King had lost much of his popularity. A few days after its dedication, someone hung a placard on the statue, proclaiming:
"Oh, the beautiful statue! Oh, the
fine pedestal!
The Virtues are under the feet,
and Vice is in the saddle!"
On the north side of the square, between 1760 and 1775, Gabriel built two palatial buildings with identical façades. The classical façades were inspired by those created by Charles Perrault, the royal architect, for the facade of the Louvre.
They were originally intended to be occupied by embassies, but in the end the east building became a depot for the Royal furnishings, before becoming the headquarters of the French Navy, the Hôtel de la Marine. The west building was divided into individual properties for the nobility.
The French Revolution
Beginning in 1789, the Place was a central stage for the events of the French Revolution. On the 13th. July 1789, a mob came to the Hotel de la Marine and seized a store of weapons, including two old cannon, gifts from the King of Siam, which fired the first shots during the storming of the Bastille on the 14th. July 1789.
On the 11th. August 1792, the statue of Louis XV was pulled down and taken to a foundry, where it was melted down. A few months later, a new statue, "Liberty", by the sculptor François-Frédéric Lemot, took its place; it was figure wearing a red liberty cap and holding a lance. The Place Louis XV became the Place de la Revolution.
The first executions by guillotine in the square, those of the two thieves who had stolen the royal crown diamonds from the Hotel de la Marine, took place there in October 1792. On the 21st. January 1793, the guillotine was used to execute King Louis XVI. The guillotine was nicknamed 'The National Razor'.
As the Reign of Terror commenced, it was set up again on the 11th. May 1793, midway between the Statue of Liberty and the turning bridge at the entrance to the Tuileries Gardens, and remained there for thirteen months.
Of the 2,498 persons executed by the guillotine in Paris during the Revolution, 1,119 were executed in the Place de la Concorde, 73 in the Place Bastille and 1,306 in the Place de la Nation.
Beside Louis XVI, others executed there included Marie-Antoinette, Charlotte Corday, Madame du Barry, and Antoine Lavoisier.
In the later days of the Terror, after the 27th. July 1794, the revolutionaries Georges Danton, Maximilien Robespierre and Louis de Saint-Just were guillotined. The last executions, those of the Prairial riot participants, were carried out in the Place de la Concorde in May 1795.
In 1790, early in the French Revolution, the Concorde bridge was constructed, and, at the suggestion of Jacques-Louis David, the statues of the "Horses of Marly" by G. Cousteau, were placed on the north side, at the entrance to the Champs-Élysées.
In 1795, under the Directory, the square was renamed Place de la Concorde as a gesture of reconciliation after the turmoil of the revolution.
The Place de la Concorde in the 19th. Century
In 1806, Napoleon Bonaparte began to construct the Rue de Rivoli along the edge of the square.
After the Bourbon Restoration of 1814, the name of the square was changed back to Place Louis XV, and in 1826 it was renamed Place Louis XVI. After the July Revolution of 1830 the name was returned to Place de la Concorde.
Under King Louis-Philippe, and his prefect of the Seine, Rambuteau, the square was remade. IN 1832, Jacques Ignace Hittorff was named chief architect of the project.
In October 1835 Hittorff installed the new centrepiece of the square, the Luxor Obelisk, a gift to the King from the vice-pasha of Egypt, Mehemet Ali. It was hoisted into place, before a huge crowd, on the 25th. October 1836.
Hittorff commissioned celebrated sculptors, including James Pradier and Jean-Pierre Cortot to make eight statues representing the major cities of France, which were placed in 1838 on columns which had earlier been put in place around the square. A ring of twenty columns with lanterns was put in place at the same time.
Between 1836 and 1840, Hittorff erected two monumental fountains, the Fontaine Maritime on the side of the Seine, and the Fontaine Fluviale on the side of the Rue Royale. The design, with two fountains each nine meters high, was modelled after that of the fountains of Saint-Peter's Square in Rome.
In 1853, under Napoleon III, the deep moats around the square, which had turned into rendezvous-points for prostitutes, were filled in.
Events in the Place de la Concorde
The Place was the entry point for two major international expositions:
-- The Paris Universal Exposition of 1900, which
left behind the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais.
-- The 1925 International Exhibition of Modern
Decorative and Industrial Arts, which gave its
name to Art Deco.
The square was also the site of great national celebrations, including the victory celebrations of the end of the Great War.
Crowds celebrating the August 1944 Liberation of Paris in the Second World War had to scatter from German sniper fire.
The square has experienced violent confrontations, including a demonstration against parliamentary corruption in 1934 which turned violent, with eleven deaths and two hundred injured.
The Luxor Obelisk
The centrepiece of the Place de la Concorde is an ancient Egyptian obelisk decorated with hieroglyphics. In the 1800's François Chabas produced a full translation of these. They exalt the reign of Ramesses II, and also praise Amun-Ra and Horus.
The obelisk is a monolith carved from a single block of red granite. It is one of two which the Egyptian government gave to the French in the 19th. century. The other, slightly larger one, stayed in Egypt, too difficult and heavy to move to France with the technology available at that time.
On the 26th. September 1981, President François Mitterrand formally returned the title of the second obelisk to Egypt.
The obelisk once marked the entrance to the Luxor Temple. The Khedive of Egypt, or royal constitutional monarch, Muhammad Ali Pasha, offered the 3,300-year-old Luxor Obelisk as a diplomatic gift to France in November 1829.
This was in spite of the fact that the obelisks had previously been given to the British, and the fact that the French diplomat arranging the acquisition, Baron Taylor, had been authorized to do so by Charles X, who had been overthrown in July.
The obelisk was taken down and transported to France by a ship custom-built for the transport, the Luxor.
In reciprocation for the gift, France gave a mechanical clock in the 1840's, today known as the Cairo Citadel Clock. The clock has rarely worked since its arrival in Cairo, but in 2021 the Supreme Council of Antiquities announced that:
"Egypt is seeking to repair the citadel
clock, one of the oldest of its type in
the world, so that it will work again."
The obelisk arrived in Paris on the 21st. December 1833.
Three years later, it was hoisted into place, on top of the pedestal which originally supported the statue of Louis XVI, destroyed during the July Revolution 1830. In 1839, diagrams explaining the complex machinery that was used for the transportation were added to the pedestal.
The original Egyptian pedestals involved sculptures of baboons with prominent male genitalia, raising their hands to the sun. A fragment of this original pedestal from the rear of the remaining obelisk was brought to Paris at the same time as the obelisk, intended to be displayed with it. Deemed too obscene for public exhibition, it was sent to the Egyptian section of the Louvre.
The raising of the column was a major feat of engineering, depicted by illustrations on the base of the monument. King Louis Philippe dedicated the obelisk on the 25th. October 1836.
The obelisk is 23 metres (75 ft) high, including the base, and weighs over 250 tonnes. Given the technical limitations of the day, transporting it was no easy feat.
The Paris obelisk has a fissure in the original stone that had been tended to in antiquity.
The eastern and western faces of both obelisks are slightly convex, the only two ancient obelisks with this feature, and the reason for this is not understood.
The government of France added a gold-leafed pyramidal cap to the top of the obelisk in 1998, replacing the missing original, believed to have been stolen in the 6th. century BC.
More Recent Events Associated With the Obelisk
Modern events include the following:
-- On the 1st. December 1993, demonstrators from Act Up Paris. an organization dedicated to fighting AIDS, covered the Parisian obelisk with a giant pink condom to mark World AIDS Day.
-- In 1998 Alain "Spiderman" Robert, the French urban climber, illegally scaled the Parisian obelisk without the use of any ropes or other climbing equipment or safety devices.
-- In 1999 as part of Paris's millennium celebration activities, 300 brass disks and nearly 1,000 feet of yellow thermosensitive strips were placed around the obelisk in order to use it as the gnomon of a functioning sundial. They remained until the end of the year 2000.
-- In 2015 Milène Guermont's monumental interactive sculpture PHARES was displayed next to the obelisk for several months, where it was designed to illuminate the obelisk.
The Lone Ranger
So what else happened on the day that Percy posted the card?
Well, on the 3rd. September 1954, the last episode of The Lone Ranger radio programme was broadcast, after 2,956 episodes over a period of 21 years.
Re-runs of old episodes continue to be transmitted to this day.
Imagine the sight: a huge wooden triangle with up to 24 bodies swinging from its beams by nooses, gasping their last breaths. From the middle of Queen Elizabeth I’s reign, this was the spectacle that attracted thousands of spectators every week to London’s notorious Tyburn Tree.
Executions took place at Tyburn for almost 600 years, with the first recorded as William Longbeard in 1196 and the last as John Austen in 1783. In between, tens of thousands of highwaymen, robbers, forgers, murderers, traitors and other convicted men and women met their end at Tyburn. From the Reformation period onwards, this included many Catholics who would not abandon their faith.
The original Tyburn trees used for hangings were a row of elms alongside an underground stream called Tyburn Brook. But it was the huge triangular Tyburn Tree, erected in 1571 and made of thick wooden crossbeams 3m (9ft) long on 5.5m (18ft) legs, that is associated with the mass executions during the Tudor era and afterwards.
The site of the Tyburn Tree is said to be at what is now Marble Arch, at the north-east corner of Hyde Park. Some historians give a more precise location as slightly to the north-west at Connaught Square. In fact, many bodies were found there when the square was being built in the 1820s, so it’s possible that some Tyburn victims were buried right where they died.
Mass executions took place on Mondays, when prisoners were transported from Newgate Prison to Tyburn in an open wagon, often in their finest clothes. The procession, which was watched by a large and enthusiastic crowd, wound down Snow Hill, across Holborn Bridge into Holborn, down Broad St Giles into Oxford Street and on to Tyburn.
Once at Tyburn, those due to die were put onto a specially built horse-drawn carriage that was moved under the Tyburn Tree. Nooses were placed around their necks and then the carriage driven away, leaving the condemned suspended until they died. Reports tell of friends and relatives “tugging at hanging men’s feet so that they should die quicker, and not suffer”.
Hangings were witnessed by thousands of spectators who would pay to sit in open galleries erected especially for the occasion, as well as in rented upper-storey rooms in houses and pubs. After the corpses were cut down from the gallows, there was a rush to grab the bodies, as some believed their hair and body parts were effective in healing diseases. They were also sought after by surgeons for dissection.
In 1783, public executions were moved to Newgate Prison, as the crowds by the route to Tyburn started to disturb the increasingly fashionable areas close to Oxford Street.
The mass hangings at Tyburn are commemorated by a stone plaque in the ground on one of the Marble Arch traffic islands. Also close to the site, at 8 Hyde Park Place, is the Tyburn Convent. Founded at the beginning of the 20th century, it contains a Shrine of the Martyrs in remembrance of more than 350 Catholics who died at Tyburn during the Reformation.
Descubre un modelo integral de gestión para conectar la excelencia en la ejecución de las operaciones con las prioridades estratégicas, e impulsa los resultados de tu organización como siempre lo soñaste.
Looking at three fists in memorial park "Bubanj" built to commemorate the execution of the citizens of Nis and South Serbia in World War II
This Glacial erratic in Jordbro has an interesting history. For centuries it was used as a place of execution. It has seen many decapitations and hangings. The last person to die here was Anders Gustav Pettersson, who murdered his boss, Fredrik Jaedren, the brutal owner of the old estate Näringsberg. I recently read a book about about the murder story.
I shot this with The Nifty Fifty. It is three photos stitched together.
Lt. Gen. Rick Lynch, commander of the U.S. Army Installation Management Command and Assistant Chief of Staff for Installation Management, recognized nine Army Civilians for exemplary leadership and performance April 20.
The U.S. Army Installation Management Command Stalwart Awards recognize individuals who distinguish themselves among their peers and supervisors as outstanding IMCOM Soldiers and Civilians.
"You all are the future of IMCOM," said Lynch. "You have been recognized by IMCOM leaders as the best of the best."
Lynch, Katherine Hammack, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and the Environment, and IMCOM Command Sgt. Maj. Neil Ciotola awarded each Stalwart a medallion during a midday general session at the U.S. Army Installation Management Symposium in San Antonio.
Wanda Stover received the Stalwart Award for the IMCOM Europe Region. Stover, supervisor of the alcohol and drug abuse control program for U.S. Army Garrison Grafenwoehr, Germany, was cited for exceeding expectations and striving to improve the quality of life for Soldiers and their Families.
Other nominees from IMCOM-Europe were Ron Joseph, director of human resources, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany, and Jan Meert, director, Army Community Service, Family, Morale, Welfare and Recreation, Wiesbaden, Germany.
Dawn Jones, administrative officer for the Camp Humphreys Department of Public Works, received the Stalwart Award for the IMCOM Korea Region. The award cited Jones' high standards and commitment to Soldiers, Civilians and Families.
Also nominated from IMCOM-Korea was James North, supervisor and strategic planning specialist in the USAG Yongsan Plans, Analysis and Integration Office.
Martin Venturo, acting Deputy to the Garrison Commander and director of the Resource Management and Plans, Analysis and Integration offices for Fort Monmouth, N.J., took the Stalwart Award for the IMCOM Northeast Region. Venturo received recognition for his ability and leadership while taking on many additional responsibilities.
Also nominated from IMCOM-Northeast was Carrie Mead, chief of the Plans, Analysis and Integration Office for Detroit Arsenal, Mich. Douglas Farrington, fire inspector for Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., received a posthumous nomination.
Dennis Drake, supervisory public affairs specialist for Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, won the Stalwart Award for the IMCOM Pacific Region. Leadership, resourcefullness, skills and attitude made significant contributions to the garrison's public affairs mission, according to the award citation.
Also nominated from IMCOM-Pacific were Brenda Braswell, supervisor and equal opportunity specialist for USAG Japan, and Michael Meeks, director of public works for Fort Wainwright, Alaska.
Leo Stolfi, supervisory emergency services manger for Fort Polk, La., was named Stalwart Award winner for the IMCOM Southeast Region. Stolfi was cited for dedication, perseverance, performance and serving as a role model for others.
Other IMCOM-Southeast nominees were Melinda Jo Berry, budget analyst for the Resource Management Office at Fort Gordon, Ga., and William Leyh, director of plans, training, mobilization and security for Fort Rucker, Ga. Ted Freeman, Army Substance Abuse Program manager for Fort Riley, Kansas, received the Stalwart Award for the IMCOM West Region. Through Freeman's persistence, Fort Riley was the first Army installation to develop a "Save a Soldiers Life" program by installing a computerized DUI simulator. Fort Riley is the only installation to develop a battalion-level breath-testing program.
Also nominated from IMCOM-West were Daniel Dougherty, motor transport officer at Fort Hood, Texas, and Gregory Harrell, supervisor and air traffic control specialist at Fort Huachuca, Ariz.
Shaunya Murrill, chief of the Outreach and Strategic Integration Division, Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation Command, Alexandria, Va, won the FMWRC Stalwart Award. Murrill made it possible to extend standardized programs and services to Soldiers and Families of the Total Army, both in the communities where they live and to the geographically dispersed.
Pratya Siriwat, operations officer in the U.S. Army Environmental Command Mission Integration Cell won the USAEC Stalwart Award. Siriwat's leadership enabled the successful relocation of the USAEC Headquarters and more than 60 percent of the command's staff from Aberdeen to San Antonio.
Kathy Aydt, chief of strategic communications for IMCOM, received the Stalwart Award for headquarters and region staff. Aydt initiated, spearheaded, and implemented an enterprise-wide campaign that resulted in the creation of a new installation management logo. She works to ensure strategic communications staff members embed imcom values in every message transmitted to internal and external customers, key stakeholders, congress, and the army family.
Also nominated were Jerry Bennett, operations specialist in the Northeast Region Operations Division, Jonathan Hunter, chief of the Southeast Region Installation Support Team at Fort McPherson, Ga., Gordon Hurd, chief of the Budget Execution and Integration Branch for Europe Region, Primasita Seery, supervisory logistics management specialist for the Pacific Region, Jerry Vesey, general engineer for IMCOM West Region.
ABOUT the U.S. Army Installation Management Community:
IMCOM handles the day-to-day operations of U.S. Army installations around the globe - We are the Army's Home. Army installations are communities that provide many of the same types of services expected from any small city. Fire, police, public works, housing, and child-care are just some of the things IMCOM does in Army communities every day. We endeavor to provide a quality of life for Soldiers, Civilians and Families commensurate with their service. Our professional workforce strives to deliver on the commitments of the Army Family Covenant, honor the sacrifices of military Families, and enable the Army Force Generation cycle. Our Mission: Our mission is to provide Soldiers, Civilians and their Families with a quality of life commensurate with the quality of their service. Our Vision: Army installations are the Department of Defense standard for infrastructure quality and are the provider of consistent, quality services that are a force multiplier in supported organizations' mission accomplishment, and materially enhance Soldier, Civilian and Family well-being and readiness.
To learn more about IMCOM:
Homepage: www.army.mil/imcom
www.facebook.com/InstallationManagementCommunity
www.youtube.com/installationmgt
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Commander's log, date 05.03.2735:
My execution came and went. I had been 'cuffed again, and a hood had been put over my head. I was ready to die. I figured I could at least die with the satisfactory knowledge that I hadn't given away any DDF secrets. But then I heard some screams. They were the screams of the guards, as Jim was decapitating them. He rescued me, and I was quite astounded to see him. After all, I had believed him to be dead. But he explained the situation to me. He had actually come across a DM underwater patrol in the pond. It was the DM underwater patrol's blood I had seen, not Jim's. But he had gotten caught on a rock down there, so it was a while before he surfaced. He found a lone DM soldier and killed him to get weapons. Then he gathered intel and found me. And what a relief that was! Now, Jim and I shall return to base to resume our normal activities.
Jeremy Croup, Commander of the DDF, signing out.
AD 1-100
The Roman governor Gaius Suetonius Paulinus was campaigning in Wales when local discontent finally erupted into rebellion. Boudica attacked Camulodunum (Colchester), defeating the Ninth Legion when it attempted to rescue the town.
This decorated cavalry helmet was possibly war booty ritually deposited in a marsh by a Briton. Alternatively, it may represent a votive offering made by a Roman soldier adopting practices similar to those of the native population.
[British Museum]
Nero: the Man Behind the Myth
(May - Oct 2021)
Nero is known as one of Rome's most infamous rulers, notorious for his cruelty, debauchery and madness.
The last male descendant of the emperor Augustus, Nero succeeded to the throne in AD 54 aged just 16 and died a violent death at 30. His turbulent rule saw momentous events including the Great Fire of Rome, Boudicca's rebellion in Britain, the execution of his own mother and first wife, grand projects and extravagant excesses.
Drawing on the latest research, this major exhibition questions the traditional narrative of the ruthless tyrant and eccentric performer, revealing a different Nero, a populist leader at a time of great change in Roman society.
Through some 200 spectacular objects, from the imperial palace in Rome to the streets of Pompeii, follow the young emperor’s rise and fall and make up your own mind about Nero. Was he a young, inexperienced ruler trying his best in a divided society, or the merciless, matricidal megalomaniac history has painted him to be?
Nero was the 5th emperor of Rome and the last of Rome’s first dynasty, the Julio-Claudians, founded by Augustus (the adopted son of Julius Caesar). Nero is known as one of Rome’s most infamous rulers, notorious for his cruelty and debauchery. He ascended to power in AD 54 aged just 16 and died at 30. He ruled at a time of great social and political change, overseeing momentous events such as the Great Fire of Rome and Boudica’s rebellion in Britain. He allegedly killed his mother and two of his wives, only cared about his art and had very little interest in ruling the empire.
Most of what we know about Nero comes from the surviving works of three historians – Tacitus, Suetonius and Cassius Dio. All written decades after Nero’s death, their accounts have long shaped our understanding of this emperor’s rule. However, far from being impartial narrators presenting objective accounts of past events, these authors and their sources wrote with a very clear agenda in mind. Nero’s demise brought forward a period of chaos and civil war – one that ended only when a new dynasty seized power, the Flavians. Authors writing under the Flavians all had an interest in legitimising the new ruling family by portraying the last of the Julio-Claudians in the worst possible light, turning history into propaganda. These accounts became the ‘historical’ sources used by later historians, therefore perpetuating a fabricated image of Nero, which has survived all the way to the present.
Nero was born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus on 15 December AD 37.
He was the son of Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus and Agrippina the Younger. Both Gnaeus and Agrippina were the grandchildren of Augustus, making Nero Augustus’ great, great grandson with a strong claim to power.
Nero was only two years old when his mother was exiled and three when his father died. His inheritance was taken from him and he was sent to live with his aunt. However, Nero’s fate changed again when Claudius became emperor, restoring the boy’s property and recalling his mother Agrippina from exile.
In AD 49 the emperor Claudius married Agrippina, and adopted Nero the following year. It is at this point that Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus changed his name to Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus. In Roman times it was normal to change your name when adopted, abandoning your family name in favour of your adoptive father’s. Nero was a common name among members of the Claudian family, especially in Claudius’ branch.
Nero and Agrippina offered Claudius a politically useful link back to Augustus, strengthening his position.
Claudius appeared to favour Nero over his natural son, Britannicus, marking Nero as the designated heir.
When Claudius died in AD 54, Nero became emperor just two months before turning 17.
As he was supported by both the army and the senate, his rise to power was smooth. His mother Agrippina exerted a significant influence, especially at the beginning of his rule.
The Roman historians Tacitus, Suetonius and Cassius Dio all claim that Nero, fed up with Agrippina’s interference, decided to kill her.
Given the lack of eyewitnesses, there is no way of knowing if or how this happened. However, this did not stop historians from fabricating dramatic stories of Agrippina’s murder, asserting that Nero tried (and failed) to kill her with a boat engineered to sink, before sending his men to do the job.
Agrippina allegedly told them to stab her in the womb that bore Nero, her last words clearly borrowed from stage plays.
It is entirely possible, as claimed by Nero himself, that Agrippina chose (or was more likely forced) to take her own life after her plot against her son was discovered.
Early in his rule, Nero had to contend with a rebellion in the newly conquered province of Britain.
In AD 60–61, Queen Boudica of the Iceni tribe led a revolt against the Romans, attacking and laying waste to important Roman settlements. The possible causes of the rebellion were numerous – the greed of the Romans exploiting the newly conquered territories, the recalling of loans made to local leaders, ongoing conflict in Wales and, above all, violence against the family of Prasutagus, Boudica’s husband and king of the Iceni.
Boudica and the rebels destroyed Colchester, London and St Albans before being heavily defeated by Roman troops. After the uprising, the governor of Britain Suetonius Paulinus introduced harsher laws against the Britons, until Nero replaced him with the more conciliatory governor Publius Petronius Turpilianus.
The marriage between Nero and Octavia, aged 15 and 13/14 at the time, was arranged by their parents in order to further legitimise Nero’s claim to the throne. Octavia was the daughter of the emperor Claudius from a previous marriage, so when Claudius married Agrippina and adopted her son Nero, Nero and Octavia became brother and sister. In order to arrange their marriage, Octavia had to be adopted into another family.
Their marriage was not a happy one. According to ancient writers, Nero had various affairs until his lover Poppaea Sabina convinced him to divorce his wife. Octavia was first exiled then executed in AD 62 on adultery charges. According to ancient writers, her banishment and death caused great unrest among the public, who sympathised with the dutiful Octavia.
No further motives were offered for Octavia’s death other than Nero’s passion for Poppaea, and we will probably never know what transpired at court. The fact that Octavia couldn’t produce an heir while Poppaea was pregnant with Nero’s daughter likely played an important role in deciding Octavia’s fate.
On 19 July AD 64, a fire started close to the Circus Maximus. The flames soon encompassed the entire city of Rome and the fire raged for nine days. Only four of the 14 districts of the capital were spared, while three were completely destroyed.
Rome had already been razed by flames – and would be again in its long history – but this event was so severe it came to be known as the Great Fire of Rome.
Later historians blamed Nero for the event, claiming that he set the capital ablaze in order to clear land for the construction of a vast new palace. According to Suetonius and Cassius Dio, Nero took in the view of the burning city from the imperial residence while playing the lyre and singing about the fall of Troy. This story, however, is fictional.
Tacitus, the only historian who was actually alive at the time of the Great Fire of Rome (although only 8 years old), wrote that Nero was not even in Rome when the fire started, but returned to the capital and led the relief efforts.
Tacitus, Suetonius and Cassius Dio all describe Nero as being blinded by passion for his wife Poppaea, yet they accuse him of killing her, allegedly by kicking her in an outburst of rage while she was pregnant.
Interestingly, pregnant women being kicked to death by enraged husbands is a recurring theme in ancient literature, used to explore the (self) destructive tendencies of autocrats. The Greek writer Herodotus tells the story of how the Persian king Cambyses kicked his pregnant wife in the stomach, causing her death. A similar episode is told of Periander, tyrant of Corinth. Nero is just one of many allegedly ‘mad’ tyrants for which this literary convention was used.
Poppaea probably died from complications connected with her pregnancy and not at Nero’s hands. She was given a lavish funeral and was deified.
Centred on greater Iran, the Parthian empire was a major political and cultural power and a long-standing enemy of Rome. The two powers had long been contending for control over the buffer state of Armenia and open conflict sparked again during Nero’s rule. The Parthian War started in AD 58 and, after initial victories and following set-backs, ended in AD 63 when a diplomatic solution was reached between Nero and the Parthian king Vologases I.
According to this settlement Tiridates, brother of the Parthian king, would rule over Armenia, but only after having travelled all the way to Rome to be crowned by Nero.
The journey lasted 9 months, Tiridates’ retinue included 3,000 Parthian horsemen and many Roman soldiers. The coronation ceremony took place in the summer of AD 66 and the day was celebrated with much pomp: all the people of Rome saw the new king of Armenia kneeling in front of Nero. This was the Golden Day of Nero’s rule
In AD 68, Vindex, the governor of Gaul (France), rebelled against Nero and declared his support for Galba, the governor of Spain. Vindex was defeated in battle by troops loyal to Nero, yet Galba started gaining more military support.
It was at this point that Nero lost the support of Rome’s people due to a grain shortage, caused by a rebellious commander who cut the crucial food supply from Egypt to the capital. Abandoned by the people and declared an enemy of the state by the senate, Nero tried to flee Rome and eventually committed suicide.
Following his death, Nero’s memory was condemned (a practice called damnatio memoriae) and the images of the emperor were destroyed, removed or reworked. However, Nero was still given an expensive funeral and for a long time people decorated his tomb with flowers, some even believing he was still alive.
After Nero’s death, civil war ensued. At the end of the so-called ‘Year of the Four Emperors’ (AD 69), Vespasian became emperor and started a new dynasty: the Flavians.
[Francesca Bologna, curator, for British Museum]
Taken in the British Museum
Execution Rocks Lighthouse is an active lighthouse, located in the Long Island Sound, protecting mariners traveling those waters.
Image © 2013 Clarence Holmes / Clarence Holmes Photography, All Rights Reserved. The image is protected by U.S. and International copyright laws, and is not to be downloaded or reproduced in any way without written permission.
If you would like to use this image for any purpose, please see the available licensing and/or print options for this image on my website or contact me with any questions that you may have.
George's final glimpse of the world before he is thrust mercilessly into the Chamber of the Whirling Blades!
Kurdish emigres protest Paris murders at Turkish & French embassies : London 11.01.2013
On 11.01.2013 Kurdish emigres in London protested at the Turkish embassy and then marched to the nearby French embassy to protest about the shocking mass murder on 09.01.2013 in Paris of three female Kurdish political activists including PKK co-founder Sakine Cansiz in what French police believe to be an execution a targeted assassination. The bodies of the three women - Brussels-based Kurdistan National Congress’ (KNK) Paris representative Fidan Doan, political activist Leyla Söylemez and Kurdish Worker's Party (PKK) co-founder and Women's Movement organiser Sakine Cansız - were discovered behind several combination-locked doors in the Information Center of Kurdistan in Paris on Wednesday by friends who had been trying since the previous evening to contact the women and who had broken into the centre after discovering bloodstains on the outer doors.
Very shortly after French police were called to the scene (and with what many claim to be suspicious haste), Huseyin Celik, the deputy chairman of Turkey’s ruling party claimed that the murders were the result of “an internal feud” within the PKK. Celik did not offer any evidence to substantiate his assertion, yet also went on to suggest that the slayings were an attempt to derail the peace talks which have been taking place in the notorious high security prison on mralı Island between PKK founder Abdullah Öcalan - sentenced to death for treason against the Turkish state in 1999 but whose sentence was commuted to life imprisonment when Turkey was forced to abolish the death sentence as part of it's application to join the EU - and the Turkish government.
The PKK have waged an often violent war against the Turkish government for the last 34 years as part of their campaign to establish an autonomous Kurdish enclave in South-East Turkey. Kurds make up almost 20% of the Turkish population, yet are forbidden by law to even speak their own language and have suffered greatly under Turkish suppression. Since the insurrection began in 1978 it is estimated that over 40,000 people on both sides have lost their lives in violent actions perpetrated in this conflict, and even though the PKK has been proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the USA, the EU, NATO, Syria and others, the cause of Kurdish nationalism enjoys a huge level of support in the region. Turkish authorities have been concerned about PKK fighters entering Turkey from the autonomous Kurdish enclave in Northern Syria.
Kurdish populations are present in Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran, and have experienced many decades of suppression by their respective states as the Kurds attempt to loosely re-establish their traditional Kurdistan, eradicated during the Ottoman reign, and it is against this long background of armed struggle that has seen large numbers of ethnic Kurds fleeing to Europe to find sanctuary. The Kurdish people I spoke to in Haringey last night said that they no longer feel safe anywhere in Europe after this execution which they lay firmly at the door of what they describe as the "dark, ultra-nationalistic shadow government" operating behind the scenes in Turkey who are violently opposed to any form of settlement or discussion with the Kurds.
Huddled around tables in the large hall adorned with photographs of fallen comrades and a large centrepiece display of their political figurehead, Abdullah Öcalan, the Kurds were subdued and in a measured, reflective mood. During the day it had been established by French police that the women had all been shot in the head through the throat using weapons with suppressors (silncers), and it is initially thought that there was possibly more than one gunman. There was no sign of forced entry to the building, so it seems that they were known to at least one of the women - two of whom were slaughtered as they were organising suitcases for their journeys back to Belgium and Germany.
All photos © 2013 Pete Riches
Do not reproduce, alter, re-transmit or blog my images without my written permission. I remain at all times the copyright owner of this image.
Hi-Res, un-watermarked versions of these files are available on application solely at my discretion
If you want to license an image, please Email me directly.
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Yesterday I was a bit under the weather; today, you see how I feel like, by the look of my new creation. Congestion, soar throat.....
This is a grim reminder of our past. Located in a glass case inside the church of St Sepulchre Without, is the Newgate Prison execution bell. The handbell would be rung outside the cell of the condemned prisioner, by the church clerk, at midnight on the eve of his execution. The great bell of the church would be rung when an execution was in progress. The former Newgate prison Gallows were nearby to the church. The main church bells are also one of those featured in the children's rhyme 'Oranges and Lemons' as they are the Bells of Old Bailey.
IT was an ancient practice, on the night preceding the execution of condemned criminals, for the bellman of the parish of St Sepulchre to go under Newgate and, ringing his bell, to repeat the following, as a piece of friendly advice to the unhappy wretches under sentence of death:--
"You prisoners that are within, who for wickedness and sin, after many mercies shown you, are now appointed to die tomorrow in the forenoon, give ear and understand that in the morning the greatest bell of St Sepulchre’s shall toll for you in form and manner of a passing bell, to the end that all godly people, hearing that bell and knowing that it is for your going to your deaths, may be stirred up heartily to pray to God to bestow His grace upon you while you live. I beseech you for Jesus Christ’s sake to keep this night in watching and prayer for the salvation of your own souls, while there is yet time for mercy, as knowing tomorrow you must appear before the judgement seat of your Creator, there to give an account of all things done in this life and to suffer eternal torments for your sins committed against Him, unless upon your hearty and unfeigned repentance you find mercy through the merits, death and passion of your only Mediator and Advocate, Jesus Christ, who now sits at the right hand of God to make intercession for as many of you as penitently return to Him."
The following extract from Stowe’s Survey of London, p. 125 of the quarto edition printed in 1618, will prove that the above verses ought to have been repeated by a clergyman instead of a bellman:--
"Robert Dow, Citizen and Merchant Taylor, of London, gave to the parish church of St Sepulchre's, the sum of 50L. That after the several sessions of London, when the prisoners remain in the gaol, as condemned men to death, expecting execution on the morning following; the clerk (that is, the parson) of the church should come in the night time, and likewise early in the morning, to the window of the prison where they lie, and there ringing certain tolls with a hand-bell, appointed for the purpose, he doth afterwards (in most Christian manner) put them in mind of their present condition, and ensuing execution, desiring them to be prepared therefor as they ought to be. When they are in the cart, and brought before the wall of the church, there he standeth ready with the same bell, and after certain tolls rehearseth an appointed prayer, desiring all the people there present to pray for them. The beadle also of Merchant Taylors Hall hath an honest stipend allowed to see that this is duly done."
Extract from the Preston Guardian, Saturday, November 21, 1846.
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More about the Battle of Preston Here
My entry for the Vignette 2012 Contest Historic theme. This vignette displays the execution of Murdock. Murdock has stolen food from a towns food reserves that it needed to help bring the folk through the winter. This is a serious crime and is punished by "The Hunger Chain". The thief is chained so that he can almost reach the food and water in front of him. Almost. He will die a slow and terrible death. The Guard ensures that nobody tries to free or kill him. This will teach people not to steal from the food reserves!
f.y.i.: this is a rebuild of an earlier version.
Approximately one and a half hours after the Oslo explosion,[76] Breivik, dressed in a police uniform and presenting himself as "Martin Nilsen" from the Oslo Police Department,[77][78] boarded the ferry MS Thorbjørn at Utøykaia in Tyrifjorden, a lake some 40 kilometres (25 mi) northwest of Oslo, to the island of Utøya,[79] the location of the Norwegian Labour Party's AUF youth camp, which is organised there every summer[80] and was attended by approximately 600 teenagers.[81]
When Breivik arrived on the island, he presented himself as a police officer who had come over for a routine check following the bombing in Oslo. He was met by Monica Bøsei, the camp leader and island hostess. Bøsei probably became suspicious and contacted Trond Berntsen, the security officer on the island, before Breivik killed them both.[82] He then signalled and asked people to gather around him[83] before pulling weapons and ammunition from a bag and indiscriminately firing his weapons,[84][85][86] killing and wounding numerous people. He first shot people on the island and later started shooting at people who were trying to escape by swimming across the lake.[87] Survivors on the island described a scene of terror.[84] In one example, 21-year-old survivor Dana Barzingi described how several victims wounded by Breivik pretended to be dead to survive, but he later came back and shot them again.[84] He did relent in his executions on some occasions: first, when an 11-year-old boy who had just lost his father (Trond Berntsen) during the shooting, stood up against him and said he was too young to die; and later, when a 22-year-old male begged for his life.[88]
Some witnesses on the island were reported to have hidden in the undergrowth, and in lavatories, communicating by text message to avoid giving their positions away to the gunman.[89] The mass shooting reportedly lasted for around an hour and a half, ending when a police special task force arrived and the gunman surrendered, despite having ammunition left, at 18:35.[90] It is also reported that the shooter used hollow-point[91] or frangible bullets[92] which increase tissue damage.[92] Breivik repeatedly shouted "You are going to die today, Marxists!"[77]
The island's manager, Monica Bøsei, was one of the victims.[93] Her husband and one of her two daughters were also present, but escaped with their lives.[94] The youngest victim, Sharidyn Svebakk-Bøhn of Drammen, was 14 years old.
16-year-old Andrine Bakkene Espeland of Sarpsborg was the last victim, nearly one hour after the shooting began.[95]
Local residents in a flotilla of motorboats and fishing dinghies sailed out to rescue the survivors who were pulled out shivering and bleeding from the water and picked up from hiding places in the bushes and behind rocks around the island's shoreline. Some survived by pretending to be dead.[96] Several campers, especially those who knew the island well, swam to the island's rocky west side and hid in the caves which are only accessible from the water. Others were able to hide away on the secluded Kjærlighetsstien ("love path").[97] Forty-seven of the campers sought refuge in Skolestua ("the School House") together with personnel from the Norwegian People's Aid. Although Breivik shot two bullets through the door, he did not get through the locked door, and the people inside this building survived.[98][99]
Two ethnic Chechen teenagers Movsar Dzhamayev, 17, and Rustam Daudov, 16, who were at the island said later that they were reminded of the war in their native Chechnya. "I have seen people being shot before in my country when I was small and had flashbacks," Dzhamayev said. But after speaking to his father by cell phone, he pulled himself together. "My dad said, 'Attack the perpetrator and do it properly,'" he said. With a third unidentified friend, the teens armed themselves with stones and returned to the scene only to witness Breivik killing another teenager. "We stood three meters from him and wanted to beat him, but then he shot one of our friends in the head. So we just threw the stones and ran for our lives," Daudov said.
The teenagers said that they had decided that it was too difficult to stop the gunman. They discovered a cave-like opening in a rock where they managed to hide 23 children from Breivik. Dzhamayev, who kept guard outside, also dragged three youngsters from the lake who were close to drowning.[100]
Former prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, whom Breivik said he hated and, in a pun on the (more or less ironic) epithet Landsmoderen ("mother of the nation"), referred to in his writings as landsmorderen ("murderer of the nation"),[101] had been on the island earlier in the day to give a speech to the camp. After the attack Breivik stated that he originally wanted to target her specifically; but because of delays related to the renovation of Oslo Central railway station, she was already gone when the shooting started.[102][103]
Kurdish emigres protest Paris murders at Turkish & French embassies : London 11.01.2013
On 11.01.2013 Kurdish emigres in London protested at the Turkish embassy and then marched to the nearby French embassy to protest about the shocking mass murder on 09.01.2013 in Paris of three female Kurdish political activists including PKK co-founder Sakine Cansiz in what French police believe to be an execution a targeted assassination. The bodies of the three women - Brussels-based Kurdistan National Congress’ (KNK) Paris representative Fidan Doan, political activist Leyla Söylemez and Kurdish Worker's Party (PKK) co-founder and Women's Movement organiser Sakine Cansız - were discovered behind several combination-locked doors in the Information Center of Kurdistan in Paris on Wednesday by friends who had been trying since the previous evening to contact the women and who had broken into the centre after discovering bloodstains on the outer doors.
Very shortly after French police were called to the scene (and with what many claim to be suspicious haste), Huseyin Celik, the deputy chairman of Turkey’s ruling party claimed that the murders were the result of “an internal feud” within the PKK. Celik did not offer any evidence to substantiate his assertion, yet also went on to suggest that the slayings were an attempt to derail the peace talks which have been taking place in the notorious high security prison on mralı Island between PKK founder Abdullah Öcalan - sentenced to death for treason against the Turkish state in 1999 but whose sentence was commuted to life imprisonment when Turkey was forced to abolish the death sentence as part of it's application to join the EU - and the Turkish government.
The PKK have waged an often violent war against the Turkish government for the last 34 years as part of their campaign to establish an autonomous Kurdish enclave in South-East Turkey. Kurds make up almost 20% of the Turkish population, yet are forbidden by law to even speak their own language and have suffered greatly under Turkish suppression. Since the insurrection began in 1978 it is estimated that over 40,000 people on both sides have lost their lives in violent actions perpetrated in this conflict, and even though the PKK has been proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the USA, the EU, NATO, Syria and others, the cause of Kurdish nationalism enjoys a huge level of support in the region. Turkish authorities have been concerned about PKK fighters entering Turkey from the autonomous Kurdish enclave in Northern Syria.
Kurdish populations are present in Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran, and have experienced many decades of suppression by their respective states as the Kurds attempt to loosely re-establish their traditional Kurdistan, eradicated during the Ottoman reign, and it is against this long background of armed struggle that has seen large numbers of ethnic Kurds fleeing to Europe to find sanctuary. The Kurdish people I spoke to in Haringey last night said that they no longer feel safe anywhere in Europe after this execution which they lay firmly at the door of what they describe as the "dark, ultra-nationalistic shadow government" operating behind the scenes in Turkey who are violently opposed to any form of settlement or discussion with the Kurds.
Huddled around tables in the large hall adorned with photographs of fallen comrades and a large centrepiece display of their political figurehead, Abdullah Öcalan, the Kurds were subdued and in a measured, reflective mood. During the day it had been established by French police that the women had all been shot in the head through the throat using weapons with suppressors (silncers), and it is initially thought that there was possibly more than one gunman. There was no sign of forced entry to the building, so it seems that they were known to at least one of the women - two of whom were slaughtered as they were organising suitcases for their journeys back to Belgium and Germany.
All photos © 2013 Pete Riches
Do not reproduce, alter, re-transmit or blog my images without my written permission. I remain at all times the copyright owner of this image.
Hi-Res, un-watermarked versions of these files are available on application solely at my discretion
If you want to license an image, please Email me directly.
Standard industry rates apply.
English Civil War Society
By kind permission of the Royal Parks Department, the King’s Army Annual March and Parade will again follow the route taken by Charles I from St James Palace on the Mall to the place of his untimely death at the Banqueting House in Whitehall, London. This event is an established part of the London calendar and has followed a similar format now for forty years. The parade assembles from 11am outside St James Palace on The Mall and marches to form up on Horse Guards Parade, a considerable privilege for an organisation such as ourselves, from where a wreath is carried across Whitehall and placed at the execution site. A short service follows and awards and commissions are conferred on deserving members of the King’s Army.