Monday, 31 January 2011
Why Norway deported its 'Norwegian of the year'
Norway has arrested and deported a young Russian woman who was crowned "Norwegian of the year" after writing a book about her life as an illegal immigrant.
Her fate prompted nationwide public protests against the asylum laws, and the centre-left coalition government has been left shaken. Maria Amelie, 25, real name Madina Salamova, captured the hearts of many Norwegians with "Illegally Norwegian", a book describing her fleeing the Russian republic of North Ossetia as a child and going underground with her parents when their asylum application was rejected.
Maria Amelie somehow managed to evade Norway's immigration authorities for eight years while learning fluent Norwegian, getting a university degree and then writing her best-selling book.
"I was born in the Caucasus but I have spent more than half of my life fleeing," she told Norwegian media when it was published last autumn.
"A large part of my life I have spent in Norway, so I feel Norwegian and my friends call me Norwegian. I feel this is where I belong."
'Tremendous boost'
Ms Salamova was detained when she reported in to police in Oslo
Maria Amelie calls herself a paperless immigrant - someone whose asylum application has been denied and consequently has no papers and no citizen rights. Her frank book and remarkable integration into Norwegian society endeared her to the Norwegian people and media.
A weekly news magazine awarded her the title "Norwegian of the year" in 2010 but the book also blew her cover.
Many of the people demonstrating against her deportation argue that paperless immigrants should be granted the right to work, pay taxes and access Norway's public health service while they appeal for their situation to be resolved.
Solomon from Ethiopia demonstrated in Oslo earlier this week. He says he has been a paperless immigrant in Norway for 10 years, and that Maria Amelie's book has helped throw light on his and many others' situations.
"It was a tremendous boost," he says.
"She's a voice for the voiceless - those who are living in hiding themselves and living in a very, very difficult situation."
Maria Amelie was 12 when her parents fled North Ossetia, after her father's business empire crumbled when he backed the losing party in the 1998 parliamentary elections.
Their lives were suddenly at risk from creditors and gangsters, they said, and it was not enough to get asylum.
Her parents are still in hiding.
Child migrant
Madina Salamova flew to Moscow
Marie Amelie's lawyer, Brynjulf Risnes, feels Norway's immigration authorities fail in their mandate to also consider human factors."The obvious human factor in this case is that she came as a child, and a child should not be responsible for what her parents have done," he told the BBC.
"Another factor is that her integration into society is obviously unique. Her opponents say we can't treat her differently because of this but this is not the correct legal argument because the law actually does want to reward this kind of argument."
Yet Norway's Prime Minister, Jens Stoltenberg, has stood firm throughout this case. Speaking on national television, he said he understood why people were demonstrating.
"But my task is to make sure we execute a fair refugee and asylum policy, so we have to treat people on an equal basis, [so] that those who are in need of protection are the ones who are allowed to stay," Mr Stoltenberg said.
His Labour Party faces a right-of-centre opposition ready to attack any sign of weakness on immigration. The government's minority partner, the Socialist Left Party, is keen to ease immigration laws, and this has led to serious tensions within the government.
But critics say the government need not have bent any rules to allow Maria Amelie to stay.
John Peder Egenaes, head of Amnesty International Norway, said: "Norway is one of the few countries that have not at any point had any kind of regularisation of these people's situations.
"I believe six million people have undergone so-called regularisation in Europe.
"It basically means their status as illegal is changed to legal. And this has never happened in Norway. We are just creating a paperless underclass right now."
Maria Amelie's supporters hope she will now be able to apply for a work permit from Russia and return as a legal Russian immigrant worker.
Meanwhile thousands of other paperless immigrants in Norway will continue their fight for more rights and what they see as a fairer hearing for their cases.
Watch Julian Assange on CBS's 60 Minutes
Artwork by Jenny Morgan (left) and Daniel Gordon (right)
CBS 60 minutes Assange interview part 1,2 and extras http://is.gd/7Ll9ZM
Julian Assange: 'How do you attack an organisation? You attack its leadership'
The American diplomats writing the cables leaked to Assange report many of the reasons for the Egyptian uprising: torture of political dissidents, even common criminals, to obtain confessions; widespread repression and fear; and – of special interest to anyone who follows WikiLeaks – the increasingly important role of internet activism, opposition blogging and communication with democratic movements within and without the country over the web.
As ever with the diplomatic memorandums published by WikiLeaks – an act of dissemination for which Assange has become public enemy number one in the US – the cables are, ironically, testimony to the professionalism and straight- talking of the US State Department. Assange concedes that the cables contain "a relative honesty and directness, and quite a lot of wannabe Hemingway".
This is exactly what WikiLeaks considers itself established to do, exactly the kind of moment in history that Assange's organisation feels it can illuminate for the world – and to which it may even have contributed, he claims, "by creating an attitude towards freedom of expression", and by being read by Egyptians themselves. This should be one of the great days in the history of his organisation: Assange and a group of his colleagues huddled over a thicket of laptop computers, downloading, following events, sharing news and occasionally whooping at it. It is one hell of an hour in WikiLand, but a weird one, too, for other things are also on Assange's mind.
Tomorrow a book he considers to be an attack on him will be published by journalists with whom he once closely collaborated at the Guardian, sister newspaper to the Observer. Neither the Guardian nor Assange now speaks of one another with affection. The front page of the International Herald Tribune on the kitchen table next door carries an article of record length by the executive editor of the New York Times, Bill Keller, charting what Keller sees as an odyssey through the dealings with a difficult man, after which a "period of intense collaboration and regular contact with our source" came to a close – and an acrimonious one at that. Keller's article appears reasoned, I say to Assange, who retorts that he finds it "grotesque".
Moreover, in eight days' time Assange must face an extradition hearing instigated by authorities in Sweden, wishing to question him over alleged sex offences, a subject that his lawyers had advised him not to speak about in this interview. The hearings in London are due for 7-8 February – and on the first night, "right in the middle of the hearings", says Assange, "BBC Panorama will broadcast a sleazy piece" about Wiki-Leaks. "It's a mad scramble to get books out that self-justify their roles in all this," claims Assange, "instead of getting on with the job of writing about the information and the cables themselves." It was not, he concedes, always this way...
Continue reading
EFF Uncovers Widespread FBI Intelligence Violations
EFF has uncovered widespread violations stemming from FBI intelligence investigations from 2001 - 2008. In a report released today, EFF documents alarming trends in the Bureau’s intelligence investigation practices, suggesting that FBI intelligence investigations have compromised the civil liberties of American citizens far more frequently, and to a greater extent, than was previously assumed.
Using documents obtained through EFF's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation, the report finds:
• Evidence of delays of 2.5 years, on average, between the occurrence of a violation and its eventual reporting to the Intelligence Oversight Board
• Reports of serious misconduct by FBI agents including lying in declarations to courts, using improper evidence to obtain grand jury subpoenas, and accessing password-protected files without a warrant
• Indications that the FBI may have committed upwards of 40,000 possible intelligence violations in the 9 years since 9/11
EFF's report stems from analysis of nearly 2,500 pages of FBI documents, consisting of reports of FBI intelligence violations made to the Intelligence Oversight Board — an independent, civilian intelligence-monitoring board that reports to the President on the legality of foreign and domestic intelligence operations. The documents constitute the most complete picture of post-9/11 FBI intelligence abuses available to the public. Our earlier analysis of the documents showed the FBI's arbitrary disclosure practices.
EFF's report underscores the need for greater transparency and oversight in the intelligence community. As part of our ongoing effort to inform the public and elected officials about abusive intelligence investigations, we are distributing copies of the report to members of Congress.
A pdf copy of the report can be downloaded here.
Mark Rumold @'EFF'
Using documents obtained through EFF's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation, the report finds:
• Evidence of delays of 2.5 years, on average, between the occurrence of a violation and its eventual reporting to the Intelligence Oversight Board
• Reports of serious misconduct by FBI agents including lying in declarations to courts, using improper evidence to obtain grand jury subpoenas, and accessing password-protected files without a warrant
• Indications that the FBI may have committed upwards of 40,000 possible intelligence violations in the 9 years since 9/11
EFF's report stems from analysis of nearly 2,500 pages of FBI documents, consisting of reports of FBI intelligence violations made to the Intelligence Oversight Board — an independent, civilian intelligence-monitoring board that reports to the President on the legality of foreign and domestic intelligence operations. The documents constitute the most complete picture of post-9/11 FBI intelligence abuses available to the public. Our earlier analysis of the documents showed the FBI's arbitrary disclosure practices.
EFF's report underscores the need for greater transparency and oversight in the intelligence community. As part of our ongoing effort to inform the public and elected officials about abusive intelligence investigations, we are distributing copies of the report to members of Congress.
A pdf copy of the report can be downloaded here.
Mark Rumold @'EFF'
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
