Frequent Elections in Sri Lanka do Not Mean Better Democracy

It is necessary to remember the fact that frequent elections do not mean better democracy and should not be misinterpreted to say that people have been given more voice in the affairs of the nation.

by N.S.Venkataraman

( June 27, 2015, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) Many would have been surprised that the seventh parliament of Sri Lanka which is yet to complete its term has now been dissolved with immediate effect. The fact that the parliament has been dissolved ten months ahead of completion of the term only highlight the fact that the President can take a whimsical decision to dissolve the parliament ahead of its term, without offering any explanation or justification for his decision.

A similar decision was taken by Mr. Rajapaksa earlier when he advanced the Presidential election and paid big price. It remains to be seen whether President Sirisena’s decision would boomerang on him too.

The decision to dissolve the parliament ahead of it’s term without valid reasons is wrong and objectionable and amount to misuse of power by the President. Obviously, President Sirisena has taken this unfair decision due to political considerations and keeping his self-interest as a priority factor. This is a case of arbitrary exercise of power , giving slap on the face of the Sri Lankan citizens who have elected the parliament for a certain term. The citizens have not demanded that the parliament should be dissolved and reelection ordered and many were actually surprised and shocked that this has been done.

In India too, such dissolving of parliament and assemblies based on the convenience of the leadership of the political party in power take place frequently. Repeated criticisms have been voiced in India about such practice and as usual the politicians in India do not care. It appears that the scenario in Sri Lanka is no different.

It is necessary to remember the fact that frequent elections do not mean better democracy and should not be misinterpreted to say that people have been given more voice in the affairs of the nation.

As a matter of fact, many citizens think that there are not much differences between the calibre and commitment of the politicians in various political parties and it is hard to select any one of them to repose faith and entrust the country’s governance to them. A view is also developing that frequent elections make no difference to the quality of governance. On the other hand, when elections are ordered before hand, it results in sort of paralysis in administration with governance coming to a standstill and with no meaningful decisions being initiated. Elections have become a costly affair and the people have to bear such expenses ,whose tax money are used. Further, during the election period , the entire country become polluted with the vituperative language used by the politicians accusing each other , horse trading of seats and bickerings and even violence.

Now that President Sirisena has taken this decision, he need to be transparent and he should explain to the people in a convincing way the reasons for his decision to dissolve parliament ahead of it’s term. He has failed to do so , so far. On the other hand, there is suspicion and unhealthy rumour that President Sirisena may even be reaching a compromise with his earlier boss Mr. Rajapaksa against whom he rebelled and trounced him in the Presidential poll.

A few weeks back, there have been talk about electoral reforms in Sri Lanka and a notification on the electoral reform was issued by the government seeking comments and objections of the public. If President Sirisena were to take a decision now to dissolve parliament, why did he announce his intention for electoral reforms a few weeks back ? Now, any measures towards much needed electoral reforms will remain suspended and may not be revived in the foreseeable future.

When Mr. Sirisena was elected trouncing Mr. Rajapaksa, it was hailed as a triumph for democracy in Sri Lanka. President Sirisena was praised as hero and man of the day. All these perspectives have been now wiped out , as he appears to have dissolved parliament without rhyme or reason and without any transparent explanation.

Today, Sri Lanka is at the cross roads. It has come out of a protracted and counterproductive civil war and peace has returned to the island. There is still large segment of Sri Lankans who are in deprived conditions and who need industrial and economic growth to sustain their future. The Tamils living in northern province also expect the government to initiate rehabilitation measures with utmost speed.

What is now needed in Sri Lanka is more governance and less politicking. Mr. Sirisena appears to think the other way.

The Parliament Has Left The Building; Let’s Elect Some Fools

By Yudhanjaya Wijeratne –June 27, 2015

Yudhanjaya Wijeratne

Yesterday was historic. The US Supreme Court legalized gay marriage, the Dutch sued their government and ordered it to cut down on carbon emissions, and President Maithripala Sirisena dissolved the 14th Sri Lankan Parliament.

And I, with great personal strength, managed to say no to a piece of chocolate cake.

Those are three amazing things. The first two have world-changing implications; the third is something we Sri Lankans have been waiting for. The fourth is between me and my stomach.

The 14th Parliament – the one that just left the building – was a mess. It was assembled in 2010; a war had just been won, securing a landslide victory for Mahinda Rajapaksa and the United People’s Freedom Alliance. The UPFA won 144 seats; the UNP fell to 60 seats; the Tamil National Alliance was left with 14, and the other 7 went to the Democratic National Alliance. Rajapaksa (and his brothers in politics) were left firmly in control, flexing their political muscle and finding out just how much power they had.

Historically, our Parliament hasn’t been very effective. After all, it’s 225 dissenters trying to govern a country the size of Greater Delhi. Sri Lanka’s history has always been one of headstrong Presidents. But it is pointless laying the blame at the feet of crooks; after all, we elected those crooks.  Read More

Dela Bandara misleads Mahanayake Theras; appointed on acting capacity

Saturday, 27 June 2015

Pradeepa Nilanga Dela Bandara’s term of office as Diyawadana Nilame of Dalada Maligawa in Kandy will be completed at the end of this month. Accordingly, a qualified person will be appointed to the position on an acting capacity until such time an election is held to appoint a new Diyawadana Nilame. That will be done by the Buddhist affairs commissioner on recommendation by the Mahanayake Theras of the Malwatte and Asgiriya Chapters.

According to reports reaching Lanka News Web, Dela Bandara is planning unethically and illegally to continue as the Diyawadana Nilame on an acting capacity once his tenure ends. He has asked the two Mahanayake Theras to recommend him to the acting position, misled them and got their signatures to the letters of recommendation. Dela Bandara well knows the advantages of the office of Diyawadana Nilame. He is hoping to contest at the upcoming election too. Therefore, he is not ready to give up the position even for a couple of weeks. That is why he is trying to mislead the Mahanayake Theras in an attempt to seal his position.

He stands accused over the accounts of Dalada Maligawa and over the misuse of his position for his personal businesses, which are being investigated by the FCID.  According to reports, no audit has taken place on the financial records of Dalada Maligawa. Dela Bandara says there is no need to conduct an audit, which he claims is not compulsory. He has cunningly obtained signatures of the Mahanayake Theras for the financial documents prepared under his advice, and got them implicated, in order to save himself if any problem arises. That is why Mahanayake Theras are doing his bidding. He is now saying everywhere that if he has go to prison, Mahanayake Theras too, will be in trouble.

Defeated dejected MaRa lies about his security to win public sympathy - even president or P.M. haven’t such massive security

(Lanka-e-News- 26.June.2015, 3.30PM)  While the deposed president Mahinda Rajapakse is griping and grumbling that his security detail is inadequate, prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on the other hand revealed  in parliament yesterday (25) the security contingent provided to Mahinda is well in excess of those provided to the incumbent president and the prime minister (P.M.)

The P.M. made this comment in response to the statement made by opposition M.P. Dinesh Gunawardena that the security detail made available to ex president is unsatisfactory.

The P.M. pointed out , a security detail comprising 105 police officers and 104 members of the three forces has been lavished upon the ex president !  In addition ,the P.M. making a special statement  disclosed , the  defeated president who is on pension is provided with the following :
3 motor bicycles of the armed forces
A cab vehicle
3 Land Rovers
3 Double cabs
2 large buses
2 Benz cars
BMW heavy security jeep

Besides , 750 liters of fuel for the BMW jeep , and a further  1200 liters fuel for the two buses are also supplied .

3 ASPs , 7 police inspectors  and 8 sub inspectors with appropriate  powers are among his  police security personnel , while among  the security personnel which comprises the  forces, there are 14 members of the Navy , army and air force with appropriate powers , P.M. further elaborated. 

The P.M. explaining further said , an ambulance is also provided to him , and among the special security accoutrements  there are ambulances, bomb disposal devices, explosive device equipments and  claymore mine detectors , and they  are of the most modern kind.

While this huge  security detail with the latest security equipments are provided to the deposed president which massive security even the president or the P.M. of the country do not have  , the security contingent of Kumaran Pathmanathan alias K.P. of the  former LLTE cadre who joined with Rajapakse has also not been curtailed in any way , the P.M. highlighted.

The P.M. questioned while all this massive security detail has been supplied to the defeated president , is it the futile  hope  of the opposition to win over the sympathy of the public by making false allegations that Mahinda Rajapakse’s security had been whittled down?

By T. Jayakumar
Translated by Jeff 

---------------------------
by     (2015-06-26 10:18:54)

‘Ava’ gang busted in Jaffna 

June 27, 2015, 7:32 am

Manipay OIC CI Rohan Mahesh (third from left) with some of those personnel responsible for the arrestss (pic courtesy police)

By Madura Ranwala

The Manipay police in the Jaffna peninsula have rounded-up a gang allegedly responsible for terrorising the area.

The police acted in the wake of growing public protests against members of what was called ‘Ava’ group. A series of raids early this week led to the arrest of 18 suspects as well as the recovery of stolen items.

Officer-in-Charge of Manipay police CI Rohan Mahesh said: "The Mallakam Magistrate remanded the suspects till June 29 when they were produced before him on Thursday (June 25). Some of them were wanted in connection with an attack on Jaffna University undergraduate on April 25. They severed the victim’s hand following a fight." The undergraduate has been receiving treatment at the National Hospital, where his arm was surgically reattached.

The police recovered Rs. 692,000 and 17 stolen items including mobile phones, dongles, jewellery, digital cameras and iPads.

Responding to a query by The Island, the police said that in addition to the victim whose arm had been cut off, three other university students had received injuries in a brawl with ‘Ava’ group members.

Several swords, knives and motorcycles had been seized, the police said.

The police are hunting for three more ‘Ava’ group members.

Ministry bans Spray Cola

 

Saturday, 27 June 2015

The Health and Indigenous Medicine Ministry has banned the imported soft drink Spray Cola.

Food Advisory Committee officials are conducting raids on shops with Police assistance to check if the drink is sold in shops, Health Services Director General Dr. Palitha Mahipala said.

He said if there are any containers in the harbour with the drink, they will be sealed.

Dr. Mahipala said the drink contains a special chemical which intoxicates persons consuming it He said the drink was sold at shops near schools.

Dr. Mahipala said the ministry has given three samples of drink to the Government Analyst and Industrial Technology Institute to identify the chemical substances in the drink and the effect of those substances on a person.

He said steps will be taken to find out the importers of this drink.

Courtesy -  See more at: http://www.dailynews.lk/

ASIA: A boot stamping on a human face - forever

by JaveriaYounes-June 27, 2015

“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever.”

Perhaps the author of these words, George Orwell, could not have expected his prophesy would materialize quite as it has today. Torture has become a hard-hitting reality of our time; it is no longer an issue of prisonersof war or alien combatants. It has now seeped into the very core of our society and the criminal justice system.

Barbaric Criminal Justice Systems Foster Torture

ASIA a Boot Stamping on a Human Face - Forever by Thavam Ratna

Africa Must Leave The ICC

Published:Friday | June 26, 2015David Hoile

It has taken Africa just over a decade to conclude that the International Criminal Court (ICC), established in 2002 by the Rome Statute, is simply unfit for the purpose. That certainly is the conclusion of the South African government following the recent African Union summit in Johannesburg.

The institution African countries signed up for post 1998, a court that promised to pursue injustice without fear or favour, is not the one they see before them today. They were sold a false bill of goods. The ICC's claims to international jurisdiction and judicial independence are institutionally flawed and the court's reputation has been irretrievably damaged by its racism, blatant double standards, hypocrisy, corruption and serious judicial irregularities.

While the ICC presents itself as the world's court, this is simply not the case. Its members represent just over one quarter of the world's population: China, Russia, the United States, India, Pakistan and Indonesia are just some of the many countries that have remained outside of the court's jurisdiction.

A court is also only as credible as its independence. Far from being an independent and impartial court, the ICC's own statute grants special "prosecutorial" rights of referral and deferral to the Security Council - by default, its five permanent members (three of which are not even ICC members). Political interference in the legal process was thus made part of the Court's founding terms of reference.

Court Tied To The EU

The court is also inextricably tied to the European Union, which provides more than 60 per cent of its funding. The expression, "he who pays the piper calls the tune", could not be more appropriate. The fact that the big five ICC funders are Africa's former colonial masters also sits uneasily with a continent suspicious of recolonisation by questionable legal diktat. The EU is additionally guilty of blatant political and economic blackmail in tying aid for developing countries to ICC membership.

Africa is also correct when it points out that the ICC is self-evidently a racist court, in that it treats one race of people differently to all others. Instead of impartially enforcing the Rome Statute, the Europeans have chosen to focus the court exclusively on Africa.

Despite having received almost 9,000 formal complaints about alleged war crimes in at least 139 countries, the ICC has chosen to indict 36 black Africans in eight African countries. In so doing, the ICC has ignored all European or Western human-rights abuses in conflicts such as those in Afghanistan and Iraq or by Western client states. While the ICC's key first two cases were African 'self-referrals', it is now clear that the African governments were made "an offer they could not refuse": refer yourself and we will only indict your rebels - if not we will indict both government and rebels.

ICC European-Funded

The ICC has emerged very much as a European-funded and directed instrument of European foreign policy. Broader Western hypocrisy is all too evident. The United States has forcefully pointed out that the ICC is a kangaroo court, a travesty of justice open to political influence and that no American citizen will ever come before it. Washington is, nonetheless, very happy for its own political reasons, to demand that black Africans appear before it.

Double standards and politics aside, the ICC has shown itself to be irretrievably dysfunctional. The court's proceedings thus far have often been questionable where not simply farcical. Its judges - some of whom have never been lawyers, let alone judges - are the result of grubbily corrupt vote-trading among member states. Far from securing the best legal minds in the world, this produces mediocrity. At least one elected judge had neither law degree nor legal experience, but her country had contributed handsomely to the ICC budget.

The Court has produced witnesses who recanted their testimony the moment they got into the witness box, admitting that they were coached by non-governmental organisations as to what false statements to make. Dozens of other 'witnesses' have similarly disavowed their 'evidence'. Most recently, the ICC prosecutor had to admit that one of its own star witnesses in its case against Kenyan Vice-President Ruto was "a thoroughly unreliable and incredible" witness.

The reality is that the ICC is an inept, corrupt, political court that does not have Africa's welfare at heart, only the furtherance of Western, and especially European, foreign policy and its own bureaucratic imperative. Three cheers for South Africa pointing out that the Emperor is naked.

- Dr David Hoile is the author of 'Justice Denied: The Reality of the International Criminal Court', a 610-page study of the International Criminal Court published by the Africa Research Centre. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com andafricaresearchcentre@gmail.com.

Saudi & Qatar’s Wahabi Monarchies , Stabbing in the Back of Muslim World By Bridging relations with Zionist Regime of Israel

JNN 16 June 2015 Doha : The Race is ON , and Both the Wahabi Ruled States Qatar and Saudi Arabia are wasting no time in improving their ties with the Zionist regime of Israeli, a move tantamount to an act of treason against the Muslim World and especially the Palestinian issue, which the two countries have expressed verbal support for. Yet, it seems actions speak louder than words.

by Jafria -June 23, 2015

For Saudi Arabia, the prospective alliance would serve a common interest and that is to sabotage a potential deal between Iran and the p5+1 over Tehran’s peaceful nuclear program. Zionist Lobby of Washington in the region are teaming up as both the Saudi monarchy and the Israeli regime have made threats against such an agreement that they fear could give rise to Iran as an economic power, under the false pretext that it would give way for building nuclear weapon.

Earlier this month, it was revealed that the incoming Israeli Foreign Ministry Director-General Dore Gold and former Saudi government adviser Anwar Eshki held a series of meetings in the US. However, this is not the first or last time that the two sides have convened on Meetings.

Riyadh’s rival, Doha, could not stand by watching Saudi-Israeli ties unravel without resorting to similar connections. Like Saudi Arabia, Qatar has shared regional interests with the Israelis such as removing President Bashar Assad from power, a doomed-to-fail goal aimed at destabilizing the axis of resistance.

Al-Manar, a Lebanese news channel, made public a visit by a top security Qatari delegation to Tel Aviv to discuss regional issues with Israeli officials, including joint support for Syrian opposition and terrorist groups.  The source also disclosed that ties between the two sides have witnessed significant improvement.

Qatar has time and time again expressed its support to the Palestinians, particularly following the Israeli wars against Gaza. At the same time, its so-called dedication to the Palestinian cause has not impeded its hosting of Israeli business offices or secretly seeking political alliance behind the Palestinians back.

When the 2014 Israeli offensive against the Gaza Strip ended, Qatar promised millions of dollars in aid to help reconstruct the destroyed enclave. The Qataris failed to keep their promises on time and instead submitted to Israeli pressure in another example of their disloyalty. Only now are the construction efforts beginning to see the light.

The Arab world declared Israeli regime as its arch enemy since the 1948 occupation and that’s why these countries are hesitant to publically sell out the Palestinians. Yet at a time when Arab support for the Palestinians is lip service, wealthy kingdoms like Saudi Arabia and Qatar are seeking to maintain their security through help from the Israeli regime, the kind of security that Gaza and the West Bank have never known.

It may seem typical for the Israelis to ally themselves with the enemies of their enemies but it stands to reason that for the Arab states in the Persian Gulf  to do the same at the expense of their “friends” means they have committed an act of political treachery.

Concentration of power dangerous 

By Kuldip Nayar-June 25, 2015

R.K. Dhawan, Mrs Indira Gandhi’s confidante, has disclosed that Sonia Gandhi had no qualms about the emergency. This is contrary to what I had heard when the emergency was imposed. It was reported that both her husband Rajiv Gandhi and she were thinking about returning to Italy to bring up their children in a "free atmosphere."

Dhawan’s observation about Sonia Gandhi makes it all the more obligatory for her to explain her stand on the emergency. Even after 40 years, the dynasty is not coming out clear on switching off the lights of democracy. The dynasty alone is responsible for what happened. Mrs Indira Gandhi was indicted by the Allahabad High Court in a poll petition and unseated for misusing official machinery.

The Supreme Court gave a reprieve. Dhawan’s remarks show that there was no regret in the dynasty. However, Mr Manmohan Singh tried to make up for the dynasty’s deliberate silence. It is but fair that the sooner the Gandhis apologise to the nation, the better it would be for them and the country.

Dhawan has, however, come a long way from the deposition before the Shah Commission that was appointed by the Janata government to go into the excesses of the emergency. He had deposed before the commission that he was not willing to say anything against the dynasty and put the entire blame on Siddharth Shankar Ray, then West Bengal chief minister.

In the light of Dhawan’s revelations, the case should be reopened. More than that, there needs to be a probe on how institutions were diluted and the power got concentrated in Indira Gandhi. BJP’s senior leader L.K. Advani’s warning that the emergency can return becomes significant. He has not named anybody but the obvious reference is to Prime Minister Narendra Modi who has made all other institutions irrelevant and reposes all power in the PMO. In other words, the PMO has become the real power centre.

I do not think that the emergency will be re-imposed because the amendments effected in the Constitution by the Janata government make it impossible. Yet, conditions can be created to bring in an emergency-like situation without legal sanction.

The rule of Modi becomes ominous in the sense that no cabinet minister counts in the BJP government and the joint consultation by the Cabinet is only on paper. All political parties should put their heads together to stall any emergency-like rule before it actually comes to exist.

If there was one-person rule of Indira Gandhi a few decades ago, today it is that of Narendra Modi. Most newspapers and television channels have adapted themselves to his way of working, if not thinking, as they had done during Mrs Gandhi’s period.

Against this background, the murder of a journalist in Madhya Pradesh, which is one of the better administered states in the country, does not surprise me. The reason was familiar. The journalist, Sandeep Kothari, dared to cross the line which those who represent the establishment have drawn. Beyond that the freedom of expression is not tolerated because it challenges the interest of entrenched elements.

The 44-year-old Kothari disclosed how the sand mafia was operating with the assistance of the police. That is the reason why they have said that Kothari’s death was not connected with journalism. The reading is, however, more harrowing than what has come to light. It is apparent that the police was in league with the sand mafia’s illegal doings.

Some activists had raised their voice many months ago. But the authorities took no action. The sand mafia went on increasing the area from where they filled trucks with sand throughout the day. They were once operating at night. But as they were able to ‘buy’ more and more functionaries they shed fear or hesitation.

Kothari had gone missing from his home in Katangi town of Balaghat district in Madhya Pradesh on a Friday, a couple of weeks ago. His family members had lodged a missing person’s complaint the next day, Saturday. However, reports said that three youths, who were closely linked to the sand mafia, had kidnapped and killed Kothari over his refusal to withdraw a court case. The report added that Kothari was out on bail for the last two months in a rape case.

During investigation, the police rounded up the three youths from Katangi on Sunday and they confessed they had killed Kothari, set him on fire and buried him in the forests in Nagpur district. The police are yet to establish whether Kothari was murdered and then burned or if he was burned alive and buried.

Since all the facts about the case have not come to light, it is difficult to apportion the blame. But there is no denying Kothari’s killing or his journalistic credentials. That the corporate sector has become more influential and more demanding than before is not something which can be denied. It is intelligent enough not to vitiate the fundamental rights like freedom of expression. They now have roughnecks at their command to fix journalists.

Kothari was a victim. Burning him alive shows how the establishment on the one hand and the mafias on the other are indulging in more heinous cruelty to instill awe. This is what the political parties are accepting. Because of petty rivalries, they are allowing the democratic polity to be mutilated. That India has compromised with anti-democratic ways and the demands of one-person rule has had an impact on the establishments in Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The two countries cite the example of India to suppress critics. This process has become more effective in Bangladesh where the once liberal Sheikh Hasina has now turned into an autocrat and has gone to the extent of creating conditions where there are no fair elections.

Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) boycotted the last general election because it felt that the conditions obtaining in the country did not allow a free and fair election to take place.

Turkey's Erdogan says will "never allow" Kurdish state - media

Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan greets parliamentarians as he arrives at the Turkish parliament to watch a swearing-in ceremony in Ankara, Turkey, June 23, 2015

 Sat Jun 27, 2015

President Tayyip Erdogan was quoted on Saturday as saying Turkey would never allow the formation of a Kurdish state embracing its south-east and parts of northern Syria, comments likely to anger Kurds as a peace process with Ankara stalls. 

Turkey has has looked askance as Syrian Kurds have made military advances against Islamic State militants in neighbouring Syria, fearing that could lead to the creation of an automous Kurdish state there and further embolden Turkey's own 14 million-strong Kurdish minority.

"We will never allow the establishment of a state in Syria's north and our south. We will continue our fight in this regard no matter what it costs," local media quoted Erdogan as saying during a dinner late on Friday.

"They want to complete the operation to change the demographic structure of the region. We will not turn a blind eye to this."

 

Turkish officials have accused Syrian Kurds of driving Arabs out of villages and towns they have occupied. The Kurds deny any suggestion of 'ethnic cleansing'.

The fate of Turkey's Kurdish minority is one of the country's most vexing political questions. Erdogan took a huge gamble in 2012 when he opened up peace talks with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to end a three-decade insurrection for greater Kurdish autonomy that has killed 40,000.

But peace talks have since stalled and Kurds accuse Erdogan of backtracking.

The backlash against Erdogan culminated with a stunning success for the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) in parliamentary elections this month, when it crossed - for the first time - the 10 percent threshold required to enter parliament.

Its victory helped deprive the governing AK Party founded by Erdogan of a single party majority for the first time since it swept to power more than a decade ago. The AKP is now looking for a junior partner to form a coalition.

Syrian Kurdish fighters said on Saturday they had fully secured the town of Kobani near the Turkish border and killed more than 60 Islamic State militants, after two days of fighting that saw Islamic State kill around 200 civilians.

The HDP said this week the Kobani attack was the direct result of years of Turkish state support for Islamic militants, something Erdogan angrily denied.

He accused the HDP, in turn, of a "slanderous defamation campaign".

(Reporting by David Dolan; editing by Ralph Boulton)

Edward Snowden: publishing the position of the government?

Edward Snowden: publishing the position of the government?

Last Sunday, a broadcaster led its news bulletins with the shocking news that British agents had had to be moved from their posts. This was because in a dramatic act of symmetry, both Russia and China had cracked the encryption codes of the documents taken by Edward Snowden.

Tuesday 16 Jun 2015

It was a bold claim attributed to the Sunday Times. The only tangible evidence appeared to reside in the writers of the article, including the Sunday Times reporter Tom Harper – of whom more in a moment.

There was a sense of inevitability about the whole story. First Congress rejects America’s own surveillance law; then within days Britain’s Independent Reviewer of Terrorism, David Anderson QC, follows suit. What could be worse? Suddenly Snowden was back on track for “saviour of the world” status.  The fightback could not be far behind.

And there, alone, fuelled by un-named persons in the “Home Office” and “Downing Street”, rides the Sunday Times to recast Snowden as the most dangerous man on the planet. And there the story might have sat had it not been for a a very weak account of their accounts that the unfortunate Mr Harper gave to CNN in which the phrase “we don’t know” appeared to be the stated answer to almost every one of the network’s reasonable questions about the Sunday Times’s claims.

The Washington Post, no less, castigated the reporter, his paper, and his hapless interview with this immortal headline: ‘Sunday Times reporter on Snowden story – We don’t have a clue’.

It would be funny if it weren’t so serious. Not only was one of the rare “facts” in the Sunday Times article so wrong that it has been excised from the online edition of the paper, but the claims the report made were quite simply without any independent verification or substantiation. Yet to claim, as the paper did, that both Russian and Chinese intelligence had cracked the encryption of Snowden’s files, without a scintilla of evidence and a subsequent series of “we don’t knows”, is going some.

It was credited not to the CIA or any US source but to un-named sources in the Home Office and Downing Street with absolutely no proof whatever. Subsequent efforts to get the government in any form to corroborate the story failed. “We just publish what we believe to be the position of the British government at the moment,” was the line from the aforesaid CNN/Harper interview that said it all.

Whose interest the Sunday Times was serving, heaven knows. Indeed the rival broadcaster doesn’t emerge from the matter well either. They ran the story on all their radio bulletins on Sunday morning, only adding that no one had been harmed. There must be those who beg to differ in journalism. Once you’ve watched Mr Harper’s efforts on CNN to defend his story, you may feel that a wholesale apology for the article itself is also due.

Perhaps I am best to leave the final word with the Sunday Times: “This story was responsible journalism and another example of the Sunday Times setting the news agenda.”

Follow @jonsnowC4 on Twitter

Obama’s ancestral homeland in Kenya had lots of hope, but got little change

Barack Obama Okoth, a student at Senator Barack Obama Primary School in Kogelo, Kenya, takes notes on June 17. President Obama is visiting Kenya next month, and many wonder whether he will return to his father's village. (Kevin Sieff/The Washington Post)

By Kevin Sieff June 21

KOGELO, Kenya — Barack Obama Okoth was tugging at his Mickey Mouse sweatshirt, trying to remember everything he could about the man he was named after.

“He lives in America, and he’s a king,” the 7-year-old said after a long pause. It’s easy to understand why the young Barack would think so. He attends Senator Barack Obama Primary School, a stop on the Barack Obama Safari Tour, near a hotel that offers a Barack Obama Suite.

Obama’s ancestral homeland in Kenya had lots of hope, but got little change.odt by Thavam Ratna