On Tuesday the High Court ordered the connections of LM magazine to pay ITN and two of its journalists a total of £375,000 in libel damages. On Wednesday we received a letter from ITN's lawyers, Biddle, demanding to know when we are going to send them the money. Umm, can I owe you until I get paid at the end of the month?
Forget about the big bill for legal costs, those damages are more than enough to bankrupt the cash-strapped defendants: myself as Editor, LM's co-publisher Helene Guldberg, and the publishing company. As I said on the steps of the court, what this case has proved "beyond reasonable doubt" is that English libel law is a disgrace to democracy and a menace to a free press. The use of that law by a large news organisation against a magazine with a circulation of 10,000 could have far-reaching implications for independent and investigative journalism.

Under the libel law, we were assumed to be guilty unless we could prove our innocence - the reverse of natural justice. Little wonder that only one in ten libel defendants wins in court.

At the pre-trial review, Mr Justice Morland ruled that none of our expert witnesses - including John Simpson of the BBC, the writer Phillip Knightley and a leading QC - could give evidence. So when the case came to trial, there were 18 ITN witnesses versus me and Thomas Deichmann, the German author of the article in question, published in LM three years ago. Presumably that is what the law means by "a level playing field". Even when our barrister, Gavin Millar, scored heavily in cross-examination, it did not seem to make any difference to the court. As the BBC's Nick Higham reported on the evening of the verdict: "Summing up, Mr Justice Morland told the jury that LM's facts might have been right, but he asked, did that matter?"

That summing up was so one-sided that it made ITN's barrister redundant. It reached its nadir when, having quoted extensively from ITN witnesses, the judge told the jury that he was not going to mention anything that I or Mr Deichmann had said, because we were not at Trnopolje camp in northern Bosnia on August 5, 1992. But if eyewitness accounts cannot be challenged after the event, where does that leave critical journalism?

Advising the jury on damages, the judge said that somebody who lost both arms in an accident might receive compensation of £100,000, so awarding the ITN journalists more than £150,000 each for their hurt feelings would be "excessive". He also said that damages would be aggravated if the defence had strenuously cross-examined the claimants. The more robustly we defended ourselves, the higher price we would have to pay.

As a champion of the jury system, I do not blame the jurors who voted against us after four hours of deliberation. We could not win because the law demanded that we prove the unprovable - what was going on in the ITN journalists' minds eight years ago. We have apologised for nothing but we are not going to appeal. Life is too short to waste any more time in the bizarre world of the libel courts. The dust-and-wood-polish atmosphere of Court 14 is no place for journalists to debate important issues. As I said in the witness box, I believe that people should have the right to judge the truth for themselves in the court of public opinion.

The future of our magazine is on the line. Those who know LM will appreciate that we do not intend to go quietly into the night. Whatever happens, the attempt to set a new agenda for discussion will carry on.

The LM-initiated events planned for the summer - the month-long Institute of Ideas and the debates at the Edinburgh festivals - will go ahead. There is life after a libel trial.

In the meantime, if anybody needs a hard-working editor or has some money to invest in a magazine that stands up for free speech ...


Mick Hume is the Editor of LM magazine and a Times columnist.

Kim ,

Out of fear that Lmenexe could become the 'administrator' (whatever that means lol) of this page and do something really horrible to me, let me be serious for just a second. Although judging by his mental capacity to assimilate it's hard to believe he would be in the running for anything other than into a "Brick Wall" let alone "responsibility". LOL.

So, the effects of the Chernobyl disaster has spread all the way to the Scottish Highlands in essence deeming their sheep unfit for human consumption? So what in the world are they doing with all those sheep?

Now since Scotland is probably the farthest spot in Europe from were the disaster occurred leads me to my next question Kim - What about the English sheep, and the Dutch sheep and the German sheep and Polish sheep and all the other poor sheep in between the Highlands and Chernobyl. Are they too all unfit for human consumption?

Take care Tony, that man has blood on his hands

Evidence shows secret police were behind 'terrorist' bomb

John Sweeney
Sunday March 12, 2000

The photograph below of a detonator pre-set to explode a bomb calls into question Russian leader Vladimir Putin's line - endorsed by Tony Blair during his visit to Russia yesterday - that Chechen 'terrorists' were responsible for the
explosions that killed more than 200 Russians last year.

Two bombs went off in Moscow, but a third bomb planted in Ryazan, 100 miles south, was defused by bomb squad officer Yuri Tkachenko who said: 'It was a live bomb.'

It was made of the same explosive, Hexagen, and planted in a similar target - a working-class block of flats.

The third bomb did not go off because the bombers were caught red-handed. They were Russian, not Chechen, and when they were arrested by local police they flashed identity cards from the FSB - the new styling for the KGB, the secret police
Putin headed before he became Russia's acting President. Two days later the FSB announced that the third bomb had only been 'a training exercise'.

The Kremlin's evidence that Chechen 'terrorists' bombed Moscow is extremely thin. After the bomb outrages, secret police in the FSB handed out Photofit pictures of unnamed Chechens. No suspects were arrested and no convincing explanation was given to the public.

The third bomb was found in the basement of the flats on the night of 22 September at around 9pm. Tkachenko said: 'It was a live bomb. I was in a
combat situation.' He tested the three sugar sacks in the basement with his MO-2 portable gas analyser, and got a positive reading for Hexagen, the explosive used in the Moscow bombs.

The timer of the detonator was set for 5.30am, which would have killed many of the 250 tenants of the 13-storey block of flats. The sacks were taken out of the basement at around 1.30 am and driven
away by the FSB. But the secret police forgot to take away the detonator, which was left in the hands of the bomb squad. They photographed it the next day.

The bombers were discovered by the people they meant to kill. Vladimir Vasiliev, an engineer com ing home for the night, noticed three strangers acting suspiciously by the basement of his block
of flats at 14/16 Novosyolov Street, literally New Settlers Street.

Vasiliev noticed that the number plate at the front of the car had been covered up with a piece of paper, on it '62', the Ryazan regional code. At the back of the car the plate had the Moscow regional code.

Vasiliev, puzzled, decided to call the police. 'As we were waiting for the lift, one of the young guys got out of the car and the girl asked: "Have you done everything?" '

Vasiliev observed the three in the car:
'They were Russian, absolutely, not Asiatic. The girl was a blonde.'

The local police arrested two men that night, according to Boris Kagarlitsky, a member of the Russian Institute of Comparative Politics. 'FSB officers were caught red-handed while planting the
bomb. They were arrested by the police and they tried to save themselves by showing FSB identity cards.'
Then, when the headquarters of the FSB in Moscow intervened, the two men were quietly let go.
Police Inspector Andrei Chernyshev was the first to enter the basement. He said: 'It was about 10 in the evening. There were some strangers who were seen leaving the basement. We were told about the
men who came out from the basement and left with the car with a licence number which was covered with paper. I went down to the basement.

'This block of flats had a very deep basement which was completely covered with water. We could see sacks of sugar and in them some electronic device, a few wires and a clock. We were shocked.

'We ran out of the basement and I stayed on watch by the entrance and my officers went to evacuate the people.'

The following day, on 24 September, the FSB in Moscow announced that there had never been a bomb, only a training exercise. Vasiliev said: 'I heard the official version on the radio, when the press
secretary of the FSB announced it was a training exercise. It felt extremely unpleasant.'

Monday, March 20, 2000

Putin's Electoral Show Trial

With bitter fighting still raging through the Chechen mountains, Russia's victory fanfares are starting to ring hollow.

By Sergei Khodorovsky in Moscow (CRS No. 23, 17-Mar-00)

With the presidential elections just days away, the Kremlin is resorting to cheap publicity stunts. Like Caesar parading the defeated Gallic chieftain Vercingetorix through the streets of Rome, presidential candidate Vladimir Putin wasted no time in flashing pictures of humbled Chechen warlord Salman Raduev across the nation's TV screens.

Nothing appeals to the popular imagination more than the hangdog face of defeat. But this comparison hardly bears close inspection. The rebellious Gaul surrendered to the Roman legions after stubbornly defending the fortress of Alesia for more than a year. Raduev was reportedly betrayed by his own bodyguards whilst negotiating a cash deal with Russian secret agents. Vercingetorix remains a national hero to this day. "Bloody Salman" was a national embarrassment.

Now Russian TV audiences can look forward to a noisy show trial - stage-managed to satisfy a growing lust for vengeance. Raduev, 32, stands accused of murder, hostage-taking and terrorism. He faces up to 50 years in jail.

But the TV viewers are likely to be disappointed. Raduev is a cowed, pathetic figure - a pale shadow of the blustering rebel general who took 3,000 hostages in Kizlyar, then fought his way out of Pervomaiskoe, in January 1996.

His trademark dark glasses and Fidel Castro beard have been removed to reveal the scars of five assassination attempts. Raduev has one glass eye, partial sight in the other, a plastic nose and a titanium plate in his skull (hence his nickname "Titanic"). Even Moscow's attorney general, Vladimir Ustinov, was forced to admit, "After all the wounds he's suffered, Raduev appears to have bats in his belfry."

But whatever Raduev's mental state, Russian prosecutors will be eager to implicate him in the September 1999 apartment bombings which claimed 300 lives in Moscow and Volgodonsk. Investigators with the FSB, Russia's security service, have reported that a search of Raduev's Kavkaz sabotage centre, near Urus-Martan, unearthed similar explosives to those used in the terrorist attacks.

And they may well get their confession. One source said that Raduev was "admitting to any crime that comes into his head, including an assassination attempt on Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze."

Last week, a government psychiatrist visited the Chechen warlord in his Lefortovo cell and declared him fit for trial. The captured general was promptly assigned a defence lawyer, the elderly Pavel Nechiporenko - but, if recent TV appearances are anything to go by, Nechiporenko's undoubted qualities do not include a gift for rhetoric.

"I feel sure that I can save him from the death penalty," the lawyer muttered at a recent press conference. He failed to mention that Russia has put a moratorium on capital punishment, following its acceptance into the Council of Europe.

The circumstances of Raduev's capture also undermine any claims that the rebel general
is a credible military prize. He was seized in a bloodless "special operation" staged by the FSB near Novogroznensky, on the border with Dagestan. The warlord had previously offered to hand over top field commander Shamil Basaev in exchange for $1 million. It is thought he was lured to Novogroznensky with promises of a cash payout, then was promptly betrayed by his squad of 100 bodyguards, known as the Wolves.

Certainly, Raduev had no shortage of enemies. Many Chechens see him as a maverick nationalist who soured relations with neighbouring Dagestan after his 1996 hostage raids, then appropriated vast sums of government money in order to buy weapons.

He became a vociferous opponent of the Maskhadov regime, which he considered too conciliatory and, in 1997 and 1998, made two attacks on Grozny's television centre - crimes for which he was sentenced to four years' imprisonment by an Islamic shariat court. He has almost certainly taken no active part in the second Chechen conflict - despite holding a number of riotous press conferences during which he declared a nuclear holy war on Russia.

Meanwhile, separatist leaders have been quick to deflate Moscow's triumph, claiming that the man in Russian captivity is not Raduev and, in any case, extensive plastic surgery makes a positive identification impossible.

But the publicity stunt, however empty, has served to deflect public attention away from two military disasters in Chechnya itself. On March 2, up to 30 interior ministry policemen were killed during a surprise attack in Grozny. Days later, a company of the 104th Pskov Airborne Brigade was almost totally annihilated near the mountain village of Ulus-Kert.

Here too, the Kremlin spin-doctors rose to the challenge and the subsequent media treatment of the Ulus-Kert massacre was masterful. While Putin himself attended a memorial service for the 89 dead paratroopers in the Pokrov cathedral of Moscow's Novo-Spassky monastery, the "Six That Got Away" were being interviewed on national TV.

The battle-shocked soldiers recounted their heroic last stand in the Chechen mountain mists after being surrounded by a vastly superior rebel force. They described the ultimate moment of self-sacrifice as Colonel Mark Yevtukhin, both legs blown off by a mine, called down artillery fire on his own positions. Then they added, without any obvious prompting, that they were eager to return to Chechnya and avenge their fallen comrades.

Meanwhile, the Russian press dwelt on the gory details - the dozens of dead paratroopers who could not be identified because the Chechens had cut off their heads or mutilated their faces. Soon, the ever impressionable TV audiences were baying for blood.

Once again, the rabble-rousing eulogies diverted attention from the bloody fighting around Komsomolskoye, which by then had reached a humiliating impasse.

Federal aircraft and artillery pummelled the settlement for the best part of two weeks in a bid to flush out rebel forces under Ruslan Gelaev. By March 14, the Russian generals were admitting that, several days earlier, the feared field commander had escaped their "impenetrable ring" with most of his entourage. The village that the Russians eventually occupied was an empty shell.

Gelaev, of course, would have made a real Vercingetorix. The second most senior Chechen commander after Basaev, he continues to enjoy the unquestioning respect of the rebel rank and file. But Gelaev still has two eyes, two arms and two legs. Moscow prefers to hound the cripples.

Sergei Khodorovsky is a political and military analyst with the AVN news agency.

Igor wrote:
The site is open again. Shows hostages being tortured.

If the FSB can bomb apartments in order to implicate Chechens and start the war, surely they are capable of getting their own Chechen stooges (criminals out of gaol) to stage torture and worse, all for to get public sympathy? These are professional spin-doctors and mind-manipulators who have been working at this for a long, long time, after all.

Spin/Igor,

Who knows who was behind these tapes...but they looked real!

Some sick sh!t.

AllAmerican,

I guess you've been asleep for the past ten
years. The Radio- activity was carried onto the Scottish Highlands by the weather patterns at the time. It missed most of Britain and the Netherlands.
Your arguement does not take this into account.
Re the sheep- Check out the MAFF(ministry for AG.,Farming and fisheries)-website if you don't believe me.

Igor,

"Under the libel law, we were assumed to be guilty unless we could prove our innocence - the reverse of natural justice. Little wonder that only one in ten libel defendants wins in court."

This from a magazine that destroyed another journalist's credibility, and then couldn't substanciate it's claims.
LM- have tried to turn the debate into one of
libel law and freedom of speech. In court all that mattered was that they had accused someone of lying- therefore the burden of proof lay with them to prove this- they couldn't.

"Mr Justice Morland ruled that none of our expert witnesses - including John Simpson
of the BBC, the writer Phillip Knightley and a leading QC - could give evidence."

"our expert witnesses" were supoened(sp)-this means that they were not giving evidence because they supported LM, but because they were required to by law.- Their evidence was ruled as hearsay
- ie they were not there and not eyewitnesses.
LM claim that they did not have the money to
bring witnesses over from Bosnia- you would have thought that they would have earmarked some of the
£70 000 they raised for that.

To all posts-pasters!

You can add to "Putin's Electoral Show Trial" ---

1. Liberation of high ranking Russian commander Zhukov who was captured in October 1999.

2. Death of Chechen field commander Mukhabekov.

3. Capture of Chechen field commander Salautdin Emirbulatov who killed Russian conscripts in 1996 ... and filmed it.

4. There's still another week ... be afraid.

Igor & Kim Arx ... more details please.

Petya from SF, your post is too stupid to reply to.
Sorry for getting your hopes up earlier.

The ITN crew moved on to the refugee center at Trnopolje. They set up their camera equipment inside a small barbed wire enclosure. The barbed wire was old, falling apart in places. It surrounded a storage shed, a wheelbarrow and other construction equipment. Outside the enclosure, refugees milled about, curious.

Filming from inside the barbed wire, Marshall asked if anyone spoke English. One man replied, Yes. Marshall spoke to him. Are you a prisoner? No, said the man; we're refugees. Marshall was clearly impatient. She pressed the man to criticize the Serbian officials. The man insisted: the Serbs treat us well; they give us food; the only problem is the weather is too hot. Much too hot.

Then Marshall spotted a tall, emaciated man. What is wrong with that man, she asked. The Bosnian refugee shrugged, said something about it being personal. (In fact the emaciated man's appearance resulted from having had Tuberculosis as a child.)

Editing to make a statement

None of this conversation was used by ITN. Why not? Was it because it showed the Bosnian Serbs in a humane light?

Instead, ITN produced film clips and stills that made it look like the emaciated man and the other refugees were being held behind barbed wire - inside an enclosure. These pictures were sent around the world. Many newspapers ran them in montage with old Nazi concentration camp photos, using captions like:"Serb Death Camps!"

Millions were fooled. They believed they had been shown pictorial evidence of a new Nazism in Europe. This helped swing Western public opinion behind Alija Izetbegovic, the Bosnian Islamist extremist whose model of tolerance was the Iran of Ayatollah Khomeini

PICTURE THAT FOOLED THE WORLD

Ah, read about their trick, but never heard of "LM magazine". What did it do/print?

Just because magazine did not win lawsuit (lack of funds etc) does not mean they were wrong.The law is for the rich.

Igor,

In Russia maybe, in Britain they could now appy
for Legal Aid.
Kim