NUJ - Mincoffs Flying Circus - Presentation
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London Freelance Branch/National Union of Journalists
Presented with Detail for Debate and Definitions for consideration by London Freelance Branch/National Union of Journalists at the LFB/NUJ Branch Meeting 08 Sep 08.
You will find a motion on your chair that should concern all members of London Freelance Branch, and ultimately all freelance journalists. Motion item #2 now reads after the words amicus curiae: ”to act as a catalyst and organize legal work as outlined in the position statement”. Please amend your printed sheet.
I will confine myself to the issues presented in the motion and answer questions when I finish. As I have been repeatedly misquoted, I will read from my notes then give them to the scribe to minute.
For transparency, I will start by saying that the Chair and Vice Chair have tried to intimidate or manipulate me to prevent me moving this motion. I hope members will take that into consideration when they vote. If anyone wants to read that correspondence, then they can email me for a copy.
The issues involve complex civil and criminal matters that I will not discuss here; however, I have outlined them in the position paper which is circulating. Terms that I use may be new to some members so I have appended definitions.
I have been a member of printing, publishing, journalism, and teaching trade unions for 60 years and NUJ since late 1950s. I have held an international press card for 40 years. For 64 years, I have published without a single valid challenge to the authenticity of content. Print media licence my web articles on trade union terms.
I investigate and report abuse and homicide of elderly people and publish the results on a large web site. Another web site deals with university corruption. The combined sites have an asset value of several million pounds.
I will give a little history so that new members will understand the context in which the motion is framed.
During 2000, I wrote a web article entitled Tall Structure Terror [801-05-00] which I uploaded from London to a server in Holland. The article alleged criminal activity by a self-styled terrorist sympathizer in a thirteen-storey block of flats in Seattle, Washington. Two years before 911, the owners employed a budding Moslem terrorist as a security guard in a building which housed primarily Jewish tenants and several holocaust survivors. An Irish-American, who wore Moslem garb and claimed that he wanted to fight for the mujahadeen, immediately attracted my attention.
He had master keys to the building and all the flats and allowed members of a local shop-front mosque to enter the building at night where they downloaded seditious and hate articles onto the building’s computers. I informed the management and their lawyer; however, they ignored me. I then published the article and simultaneously advised Federal Bureau of Investigation of a possible threat.
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That action offended the president of the board of directors administering the flats who was married to a superior court judge. They arranged for me to be sent to jail because it was “not nice” to offend wealthy landlords of flats even though the block could have been blown up.
During 2002, the directors used a straw judge who refused me due process of law and jailed me without trial or legal counsel. They railroaded me for an indeterminate period, with 25 days among murderers and rapists and 23-hour look-down, where I was consistently tortured. I languished there for 111 days before release under a writ similar to habeas corpus. Seattle British consul colluded with the straw judge and UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office has since destroyed all the evidence to cover up that collusion.
The judge ruled that freelance journalists had no protection unless employed by a publication. He also declared that NUJ and IFJ press cards were worthless and claimed international jurisdiction. He then stonewalled an appeal of his finding for two years.
Two years after I published the article, both Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer scooped me by publishing a follow up which verified my facts. They reported that FBI had arrested suspected terrorists from the mosque that I named at a terrorist training camp in Oregon.
In 2004, London Freelance Branch, International Federation of Journalists, and American Civil Liberties Union with two other organizations brought separate but parallel actions to claim that the trial judge had created a legal precedent which prejudiced all journalists. Three more straw judges denied the appeal.
In 2006, nine supreme court judges ruled unanimously for journalists by reversing all the previous findings. That left three years to file intentional tort actions for illegal imprisonment and unlawful prior restraint. The supreme court effectively found that the trial judge committed judicial misconduct by forcing a journalist to take down web sites on European servers which contained protected speech.
Determined to prevent publication, the landlords and their lawyers started to launch denial-of-service attacks which eventually destroyed the web sites. During the first half of 2008 they have caused £500,000.00 damage to web sites, computers, programs, mailing applications, and databases - assets that would eventually have become available to LFB members and other journalists, photographers, and graphic designers.
Solicitor Roy Martin Mincoff, whom NUJ appointed as its legal officer during August 2005, deliberately subverted procedures by manufacturing false and misleading documents that prevent the case from proceeding under LFB auspices. Moreover, he neglected to file criminal cease and desist orders with both Metropolitan Police (Interpol) and Federal Bureau of Investigation. That neglect to report crime has encouraged the vandals to increase their activity with impunity. London Metropolitan Police has since launched an investigation into the Internet vandalism at my instigation.
The supreme court action cost LFB and NUJ nothing except the cost of a first edition of the collected works of George Orwell given to Professor Brown in appreciation. No legal services have been requested from NUJ and this motion effectively requests nothing but continuing solidarity. The proposed intentional tort actions serve to dissuade the vandals from causing more damage. Lawyers are paid on a contingent fee basis at no cost to LFB or NUJ.
I was advised by LFB Freelance Organizer and the Vice Chair, despite damage to systems occurring at more than £2,000.00/day, to wait two months then appeal the Mincoff brief to NUJ Finance Committee. However, Mincoff insinuated himself into an agenda item tacitly approved by both John Toner and Jeremy Dear then turned the committee meeting into a kangaroo court.
Mincoff should have recused himself; instead, he published another false and misleading legal brief. He implied that the criticism of his first legal brief had no foundation. He then effectively found himself not guilty. Mincoff has turned a simple call for solidarity and ratification of procedures that follow up the supreme court finding into a circus. He has since stonewalled an appeal to National Executive Council.
As a solicitor employed by NUJ, Mincoff must behave in accord with Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) mandates and Jeremy Dear, who has confirmed all Mincoff’s findings, could become liable under Trades Union Congress rules. By indifference, stonewalling, and disingenuous behavior, they have allowed the vandals to continue their Internet denial-of-service attacks which prevent publication of newsletters and new web pages - a direct violation of the right to write and to publish.
During 35 years (on and off) employed by National Union of Teachers, Mincoff has had a checkered employment history. His three-year employment with NUJ has allegedly included confrontations with members whom he has threatened. This alone provides probable cause for indictment or at least complaints to SRA.
There have been death threats and five physical attacks upon me. Three days before the last LFB meeting, two men driving a white van who knew my name and address tried to abduct me about two miles from my home. Only three people knew my whereabouts at that time, my landlady, LFB Freelance Organizer, and LFB Vice Chair. I am not suggesting for a moment that they set me up for abduction; however, they may have leaked information to third parties. Scotland Yard is presently investigating. I temporarily relocated to another part of the UK for my own safety.
Mincoff and Dear have published the month that I leave UK to meet with US lawyers. This has given notice to Seattle mafia when I will be in town. I ask LFB members to be discrete about my attendance at this meeting and with other information on my whereabouts. In the US, a pattern of abduction and assault upon freelance journalists exists evidenced by the mace and tear gas attacks also arbitrary jailing last week in Minneapolis. Most investigative reporters believe that violence comes with the territory; however, there is no need to acquiesce to it.
If the motion passes as presented, or with amendments with which I agree, then I will meet with the Freelance Organizer in an attempt to mitigate damage. I will spell out the options the General Secretary has to resolve the problems by executive action; otherwise, NUJ could be liable for considerable fines and compensation.
Any monetary damages from intentional tort actions will accrue to Contra Cabal Foundation, London which owns the web site publication rights. The Foundation will publish Contra Cabal in perpetuity and Foundation trustees and directors (professional people, lawyers, and academicians in UK and US connected directly and indirectly with the International Federation of Journalists) will supervise editorial and design functions using investigative reporters and graphic designers who wish to further their education in journalism. They will receive trade union freelance rates of payment for their work.
I reserve my rights to respond to any amendments to the motion and, in view of previous intimidation by officers, to ask for a paper ballot if I consider it necessary.
Any Questions?
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© Copyright 2009 by Paul Trummel |
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