Saturday, April 28, 2012

Behavioral Forensics Review - 4.28.12

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via behavioral forensics - Google Blog Search by unknown on 4/27/12
For the first time in her 10 years at La Reina High School, director of forensics Liz Harlacher will be sending two of her students — Katie Gerbasi and Allegra Iezza — to the National Forensics League National Championship.

via behavioral forensics - Google Blog Search by admin on 12/19/11
Computer Forensics Technology. Information On Computer Forensics. Home · Privacy · T&C · Contact · Sitemap · Home > Uncategorized > Forensic Behavioral Services Of Virginia. Forensic Behavioral Services Of Virginia ...

via behavioral forensics - Google News on 4/25/12

Has the 'G-Spot' Been Confirmed at Last?
The Female Fan
He said he plans to perform similar forensics on the bodies of women of various ages. If Ostrzenski and others can consistently reproduce the discovery, he said, "it may absolutely change our view of how the orgasm is created; it will change the ...

and more »

via homophobia - Google Blog Search by The Huffington Post News Editors on 4/26/12
Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke responded to Fox News pundit Monica Crowley's tweet on Thursday, saying she was disturbed by the conservative commentator's "blatant homophobia."

via homophobia - Google Blog Search by Renee on 4/27/12
In short, homophobia and transphobia are devastating forces out there and any campaign to battle them (Including this day) is vital and precious and very very important (though we can have debates about the effectiveness of ...

via homophobia - Google Blog Search by Andrew Belonsky on 4/26/12
The latest edition of Academic Pediatrics reprints remarks Dr. Mark A. Schuster, head of general pediatrics at Boston Children's Hospital, made in 2010 about experiencing homophobia during medical school. One story ...

via homophobia - Google Blog Search by Joe on 4/27/12
Budweieser Warns Ultimate Fighting Championship About Homophobia. Anheuser-Busch, the primary sponsor of Ultimate Fighting Championship, is chastising the popular mixed martial arts league for anti-gay remarks made ...

via homophobia - Google Blog Search by yibo1217 on 4/27/12
In 2010, violent crimes against gay, lesbian and transgendered people were up 13 percent over the previous year. Murders increased by 23 percent, according to the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Projects. The problem can start as early ...

via homophobia - Google Blog Search by Jon Brooks on 4/25/12
Last week, A's pitcher Brandon McCarthy caused a brief flurry with a tweet deeming the display of two men kissing on a stadium kiss cam as homophobic.

via homophobia - Google Blog Search by Michael F. Bird on 4/22/12
In my next response to James Crossley's allegations of “homophobia,” I thought I would narrate two stories, two experiences with gay men and women, which have shaped my perceptions and pastoral approach to ...

via homophobia - Google Blog Search by Marc Naimark on 4/27/12
As with Ukraine for the first edition of the tournament, the event was an occasion to meet LGBT football teams from Russia and from Ukraine and to share experiences of initiatives to counter homophobia in Russia, Ukraine ...

via homophobia - Google Blog Search by The Huffington Post News Editors on 4/24/12
Zach Wahls On David Letterman: 'My Two Moms' Author Talks Homophobia, Gay Marriage And Bullying (VIDEO). Posted: 04/24/2012 1:32 pm. reddit stumble · Share on Google+ ...

via homophobia - Google Blog Search by admin on 4/27/12
Today, May 17 is recognized by over 50 countries as the International Day Against Homophobia. It is a day to stand in solidarity with the lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) communities in opposition to homophobia and ...

via homophobia - Google News on 4/27/12

Homophobic? Maybe You're Gay
New York Times
One theory is that homosexual urges, when repressed out of shame or fear, can be expressed as homophobia. Freud famously called this process a “reaction formation” — the angry battle against the outward symbol of feelings that are inwardly being ...

and more »

via homophobia - Google News on 4/26/12

Daily Beast
Sandra Fluke Says Monica Crowley Insult Was 'Blatant Homophobia'
Huffington Post
Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke responded to Fox News pundit Monica Crowley's tweet on Thursday, saying she was disturbed by the conservative commentator's "blatant homophobia." “I'm not going to let this kind of thing get to me ...
Sandra Fluke Responsds To Monica Crowley's Obvious HomophobiaLez Get Real
Sandra Fluke: Monica Crowley's Tweet 'Homophobic''TPM
Fox pundit to Sandra Fluke: Im sorrySeattle Post Intelligencer (blog)
Media Matters for America (blog) -The Stir
all 57 news articles »

via homophobia - Google News on 4/27/12

The Atlantic
Hockey's New Battle Against Homophobia
The Atlantic
He isn't known as just a scout for the Flyers or the son of revered hockey executive, Brian Burke, but rather, as one of the main figures trying to make the culture of casual homophobia within hockey, one he grew up with, a thing of the past.

via homophobia - Google News on 4/25/12

Teachers Taught to Combat Homophobia
Voice of America
April 25, 2012 Teachers Taught to Combat Homophobia Student actors are part of program to control classroom conduct Anny Celsi | Los Angeles, California In 2010, violent crimes against gay, lesbian and transgendered people were up 13 percent over the ...

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via homophobia - Google News on 4/26/12

New study suggests gender gap around homophobic bullying
Phys.Org
A new study from Educational and Psychological Measurement (published by SAGE) found that when it comes to homophobic bullying, there could be a gender gap. While male victims are more likely to be bullied by male homophobic bullies, female victims are ...

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via homophobia - Google News on 4/26/12

ESPN
With A Tweet, A's Player Unleashes Debate: Is 'Kiss Cam' Homophobic?
NPR (blog)
(by hilarity I mean offensive homophobia). Enough with this stupid trend." The tweet is from last week, but it's just now making its way across the country thanks in part to Knapp's column in which McCarthy expanded on his tweet.
A's Brandon McCarthy tweets against Kiss Cam, homophobiaSportingNews.com
A's pitcher inspires new ideas for Kiss CamESPN (blog)
Brandon McCarthy Blasts 'Kiss Cam' Comedic Routine As Anti-GayOn Top Magazine
Outsports.com (blog) -Project Q Atlanta
all 7 news articles »

via homophobia - Google News on 4/26/12

Dallas Voice
A confederacy of homophobes
Dallas Voice
The resentment and homophobia (and, probably, racism) aren't overt, but underscore the prejudice Joey endures. Still, In the Family's greatest flaw is also its chief asset: It's slow, considered storytelling. You can see places where the point has been ...

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A confederacy of homophobes

A confederacy of homophobes

A confederacy of homophobes

Posted on 26 Apr 2012 at 5:35pm
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Gay drama ‘In the Family’ defies cliches with moving, unusual tale

screen-2-01
FATHER AND SON | A 6-year-old (Sebastian Brodziak) is the subject of a custody battle with his gay dad (Patrick Wang) in the humane and heartfelt drama ‘In the Family,’ playing exclusively at AMC Grapevine Mills.
ARNOLD WAYNE JONES | Life+Style Editor
……………….
4 Stars out of 5
IN THE FAMILY
Patrick Wang, Sebastian Brodziak, Park Overall. Rated R. 170 mins.
Now playing the AMC Grapevine Mills. Director/star Patrick Wang will be in attendance following the 6:50 pm.
screening on April 28 to conduct a Q&A.
……………….
Cody (Trevor St. John) and Joey (Patrick Wang) are an unlikely pair in rural Martin, Tenn.: An interracial couple (Joey is Asian, though both are dyed-in-the-wool Southerners), they’re rearing Cody’s precious 6-year-old son, Chip (Sebastian Brodziak), from a prior marriage. They live openly and comfortably among their friends and family, as idyllic — really, as boring — as most couples are.
Still, it’s not difficult to see the direction the story of In the Family is headed: When Cody is in an accident (we never really learn the nature of it), Joey and Chip face the challenge of putting their lives back together. And this being the South, and the characters being gay … well, the conflict kind of writes itself.
Or does it?
Wang, who wrote, directed and stars as Joey, has crafted a deceptively gorgeous and affecting film, a towering emotional drama that overwhelms you not with a treacly musical underscore or wistful cinematography but with is devotion to the verisimilitude of everyday life. It succeeds precisely because it seems so realistic — you feel every moment as if it is happening to you.
Wang evinces a casual, unrushed, contemplative style as a filmmaker — lots of long, easy shots of people living their lives. And yet, there’s a foreboding to it all; it seems as if there always is when gay folks are involved.
In the Family is profoundly emotional, and captures the horror and frustration of the unfair treatment of gay couples without turning to mawkishness or melodrama. Wang doesn’t short-shrift any of the moments that make up the fine details of a tragedy. He refuses to rush through the things that many filmmakers would tire of easily. The scenes where Joey confronts the hospital staff, trying to find out the status of his partner following the accident, are ones we have seen countless times before, but you’ve probably never seen it presented with such plainspoken, realistic forthrightness. (It’s even better than that great one in Terms of Endearment.)
The centerpiece of the story is Joey’s custody fight for Chip, although unlike in many films like this, for most of the running time he isn’t treated like an object, but as a human being, on the same footing as the adults. We don’t have to imagine that Joey loves Chip like his own flesh; we see it. In that way,
In the Family harkens more to Kramer vs. Kramer with its extended, silent ballet of father and son getting used to the quiet of only them, than it does to an overblown soap opera like the Madonna-Rupert Everett fiasco The Next Best Thing.
Indeed, perhaps what’s most beautiful and heartbreaking is how surreptitiously and seemingly “normal” all the incidents conspire against Joey; a tense conversation here, a pained look there, a phone call there. The resentment and homophobia (and, probably, racism) aren’t overt, but underscore the prejudice Joey endures.
Still, In the Family’s greatest flaw is also its chief asset: It’s slow, considered storytelling. You can see places where the point has been made; not every scene needs to run on as long as they do.
But Wang presents his scenes in the full flower of their significance in our lives with purpose: The long wait in the hospital room, the slow drive home from the funeral, the seemingly endless moment when you first learn your partner has died. If you take out the dull parts from our lives, you’re not left with much. Those are the times we teach our kids patience, or share a meal with our partners, or engage in the pillow talk that differentiates strangers from lovers.
The performances, from a largely unknown cast, are case studies in underplaying. Wang — with an agreeable, placid Tennessee twang that identifies him as “one of y’all” even while his complexion and sexual orientation say the opposite — speaks as much between his lines (with a glance, or a choked-back “hello”) as anyone could. As he convinced Chip to visit Cody in the hospital, you believe their intimacy so thoroughly, you forget you are watching a film.
A lot of the responsibility for the beauty of their relationship rests on the small, hair-brushed shoulders of Brodziak. He’s natural without being cutesy. Everyone else — from Joey’s employer to his in-laws to an especially detestable lawyer — is perfect.
The craftsmanship is equally fine, though, like the acting, not flashy. Revel in the fluid, simple camerawork — long takes with only subtle movement that never suggest something static or awkward.
There’s a tendency to pigeonhole In the Family as “a gay film” or “an Asian film” or “a gay Asian film.” I truly don’t see that. It’s simply the most humane and heartfelt drama I’ve seen in ages.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition April 27, 2012.

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Norway Muslims question focus on Breivik's sanity - Forensic Psychiatry News

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via anders behring breivik - Google News on 4/28/12

MiamiHerald.com
Norway Muslims question focus on Breivik's sanity
Atlanta Journal Constitution
By JULIA GRONNEVET AP OSLO, Norway — Muslim leaders in Norway say they are concerned that the anti-Islamic ideology of Anders Behring Breivik, the far-right fanatic now on trial for killing 77 people, is being overshadowed by questions about his ...
Norway survivors of Breivik massacre tell of painChicago Tribune
Experts: Norway mass killer Anders Behring Breivik likely not insane despite ...CBS News
Experts: Mass killer Breivik likely not insaneMiamiHerald.com
Detroit Free Press
all 357 news articles »

via anders behring breivik - Google News on 4/28/12

Norway Muslims question focus on Breivik's sanity
Fremont Tribune
AP | Posted: Saturday, April 28, 2012 7:42 am | (0) Comments Anders Behring Breivik arrives in court in Oslo Friday April 27, 2012 for the continuation of his trial. Since he has admitted his actions, Breivik's mental state is the key issue for the ...
EUROPE NEWS AT 0700 GMTNECN
EUROPE NEWS AT 1900 GMTKFOX El Paso

all 16 news articles »

via anders behring breivik - Google News on 4/28/12

Salon
Europe's far right marches on
Salon
And in an Oslo courtroom, Anders Behring Breivik fights to prove he was sane last July when he systematically slaughtered 77 innocent people, mostly teenagers, at a summer camp. He was, he explains, simply trying to spark a crusade against ...

and more »

via anders behring breivik - Google News on 4/28/12

MiamiHerald.com

Norway Muslims question focus on Breivik's sanity
Kansas City Star
By JULIA GRONNEVET AP FILE- This is a April 23, 2012 file photo showing Mehtab Afsar, leader of the Islamic Council in Norway, in the courthouse in Oslo where he attended the proceedings Anders Behring Breivik. Muslim leaders in Norway say they are ...
Norway survivors of Breivik massacre tell of painChicago Tribune
Experts: Norway mass killer Anders Behring Breivik likely not insane despite ...CBS News
Experts: Mass killer Breivik likely not insaneMiamiHerald.com
Detroit Free Press
all 446 news articles »
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“Nothing is known about how potential murderers actually perceive their risk of punishment...” - The Myth of Deterrence - NYTimes.com

The Myth of Deterrence - NYTimes.com

Editorial

The Myth of Deterrence

Published: April 27, 2012
One of the most frequently made claims about the death penalty is that it deters potential murderers. That was the claim when the Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976. It is the claim today after a revival of research about the topic in the last decade.

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But a distinguished committee of scholars working for the National Research Council has now reached the striking and convincing conclusion that all of the research about deterrence and the death penalty done in the past generation, including by some first-rank scholars at the most prestigious universities, should be ignored.
The committee found that the research “is not informative about whether capital punishment increases, decreases, or has no effect on homicide rates.” No study looks at what really matters, by comparing the deterrent effects of capital punishment with other penalties, like life without parole. A lot of the research assumes that “potential murderers respond to the objective risk of execution,” but only one in six of the people sentenced to death in the last 35 years have been executed and no study properly took that diminished risk into account.
“Nothing is known about how potential murderers actually perceive their risk of punishment,” said the criminologist Daniel Nagin, chairman of the committee.
The committee was careful to say what it did not examine, including the proven risk that an innocent person could be sentenced to death and the fact that the administration of capital punishment could well be discriminatory.
On Wednesday when Connecticut’s governor, Dannel Malloy, signed the state’s new law abolishing the death penalty, these problems were on his mind. As a former supporter of capital punishment, he said that he “came to believe that doing away with the death penalty was the only way to ensure it would not be unfairly imposed.”
The 33 states that retain the death penalty should follow that lead.
A version of this editorial appeared in print on April 28, 2012, on page A18 of the New York edition with the headline: The Myth of Deterrence.
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“What passes for science in courtrooms is not always, in fact, science...” - Murder Cases Put Questionable Evidence to Test - NYTimes.com

Murder Cases Put Questionable Evidence to Test - NYTimes.com

The Texas Tribune

Murder Cases Put Questionable Evidence to Test

By BRANDI GRISSOM
Published: December 24, 2011

Undigested bits of mushrooms and tomatoes from Christine Morton’s last meal — a celebratory birthday dinner she had with her husband — were still in her stomach when the medical examiner performed his autopsy in 1986.
Enlarge This Image
Courtesy of the Fort Bend County Sheriff's Department
Dogs are walked through a scent lineup of samples from a suspect and several other people. The reliability of this kind of evidence is being questioned.
The Texas Tribune
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Those remnants, the prosecutor told the jury during Michael Morton’s trial, “scientifically proved” that Mr. Morton had beaten his wife to death.
Twenty-five years later, DNA science revealed that someone else had actually killed Mrs. Morton and that her husband’s murder conviction and more than two decades in prison were a tragic mistake. His exoneration based on DNA evidence is the 45th in Texas.
Before he dismissed the wrongful murder charges against Mr. Morton last week, Judge Sid Harle recounted the faults the case exposed in the Texas justice system. Among them: the use of so-called junk science in the courtroom.
“The courts and the sitting judges need to be ever mindful about their role as gatekeeper in regard to the admission of science,” Mr. Harle said. “Your case illustrates the best and the worst of what can happen.”
Despite scientific advancements like DNA testing, the use of unreliable scientific techniques in the criminal justice system persists. While some judges say they work to ensure only reliable scientific evidence is presented to juries, criminal justice advocates say that more must be done to root out an array of pseudoscientific practices that can have life-or-death consequences.
“What passes for science in courtrooms is not always, in fact, science,” said Kathryn Kase, interim executive director of the Texas Defender Service, which represents death row inmates.
In recent weeks, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has agreed to review cases that indicate it may also see a need to address the types of evidence that meet scientific standards.
In November, the state’s highest criminal court agreed to review the case of Megan Winfrey, who is serving a life sentence for murder. She was convicted largely on the testimony of a sheriff’s deputy who said his bloodhounds “alerted” to her scent on the murder victim’s clothing. The court has previously ruled that dog-scent evidence, used to convict Ms. Winfrey’s father for the same murder, was insufficient without corroborating evidence. The court acquitted her father on appeal.
This month, the court also agreed to review the cases of two men awaiting execution. Both men, convicted of murder, were sentenced to death after a psychologist who was an expert witness in several death penalty cases told jurors that they were mentally competent to face execution.
Lawyers for the men — Steven Butler and John Matamoros — argue they are mentally handicapped and therefore ineligible for the death penalty. In April, the Texas State Board of Examiners of Psychologists reprimanded the psychologist, Dr. George Denkowski, and he agreed to never again conduct evaluations in criminal cases.
Though Ms. Kase said the court’s willingness to review the cases is a hopeful sign, she and other criminal justice advocates said other relatively simple changes could help prevent the use of such evidence.
Judges, who ultimately decide what is allowed in court, should approve adequate money for indigent defendants to hire experts to refute scientific experts whom prosecutors present at trial, she said. It can cost thousands of dollars to hire experts, and Patrick McCann, a Houston defense lawyer, said judges worry that voters would not take kindly to such expenses.
“They act as if funding each defendant’s efforts to have a fair trial comes out of their own children’s pockets somehow,” Mr. McCann said.
In recent years, Jeff Blackburn, chief counsel at the Innocence Project of Texas, has pushed to ban evidence that does not conform to national scientific standards. He will try again in 2013 when lawmakers reconvene. “These are problems that can be fairly easily solved,” he said.
Senator Rodney Ellis, Democrat of Houston, said another key solution already exists: the Texas Forensic Science Commission. For more than two years, the commission was bogged down in a national political controversy over its investigation of arson science used to convict and execute Cameron Todd Willingham for a 1991 fire that killed his three daughters. That issue was resolved this year with a plan to review past arson cases to see whether similar faulty evidence led to questionable convictions. Now, Mr. Ellis said, he hopes the commission will address other questions of courtroom science.
“To have a justice system we can have faith convicts the guilty and protects the innocent, we need scientific evidence that’s based on real science,” Mr. Ellis said, “not some guy saying he has magic dogs that can solve crimes.”
bgrissom@texastribune.org
A version of this article appeared in print on December 25, 2011, on page A27A of the National edition with the headline: Murder Cases Put Questionable Evidence to Test.
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Monika Samaan was seven when she suffered salmonella encephalopathy -- a brain injury linked to food poisoning that also left her with a blood infection and septic shock -- in October 2005

KFC ordered to pay $8.3 mln to a girl

27/04 at 06h27 - SYDNEY (AFP)

Fast food giant Kentucky Fried Chicken has been ordered to pay Aus$8 million (US$8.3 million) to an Australian girl who suffered severe brain damage and was paralysed after eating a Twister wrap.

Monika Samaan was seven when she suffered salmonella encephalopathy -- a brain injury linked to food poisoning that also left her with a blood infection and septic shock -- in October 2005.

Several other family members also fell ill and they claimed Samaan's injuries, which include severe cognitive, motor and speech impairment and spastic quadriplegia, were caused by a chicken Twister wrap from a Sydney KFC outlet.

The New South Wales Supreme Court ruled in the family's favour a week ago and on Friday ordered KFC to pay the girl Aus$8 million in damages plus legal costs.

In a statement, the family's lawyer George Vlahakis said they were relieved the battle was over.

"Monika's severe brain damage and severe disability has already exhausted the very limited resources of the family," he said.

"Monika is now a big girl and they are finding it increasingly difficult to lift her and to look after her basic needs as well as look after Monika's younger siblings.

"The compensation ordered is very much needed. KFC have to date been determined that Monika does not receive a cent."

Last week KFC indicated it will appeal the decision but is yet to do so.

During the trial, Justice Stephen Rothman said the chicken became contaminated "because of the failure of one or more employees of KFC" to follow proper preparation rules, which he described as "negligent".
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World Videos - Yahoo! News

World Videos - Yahoo! News

KFC to pay Australian family $8m damages

23 hrs ago - Reuters 0:51 | 1,544 views
KFC has been ordered to pay $8 million Australian dollars (8.3 million USD) to a stricken Australian girl's family after she was left severely brain damaged from food poisoning after eating a ...
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Response to Dr. Kringlen

Response to Dr. Kringlen


Dr. Kringlen: “My professional experience suggests he is unlikely to have been able to act in such an adequate fashion if he is psychotic, in particular schizophrenic,” he declared, saying it is extremely unlikely Breivik has managed to mislead him in his battle to appear as sane.

 ‘Two days in court changed my opinion of Breivik’, says top psychiatrist / News / The Foreigner — Norwegian News in English.

*
Response: by Michael Novakhov, M.D.
"According to German psychiatrist, Emil Kraepelin, patients with Delusional Disorder, remain coherent, sensible and reasonable[4]. "
...
"The delusions do not interfere with general logical reasoning (although within the delusional system the logic is perverted) and there is usually no general disturbance of behavior. If disturbed behavior does occur, it is directly related to the delusional beliefs."

References and Links

Delusional disorder - Wikipedia

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Sharing Clinical Data Electronically, April 25, 2012, Adler-Milstein and Jha 307 (16): 1695 — JAMA

Sharing Clinical Data Electronically, April 25, 2012, Adler-Milstein and Jha 307 (16): 1695 — JAMA


Viewpoint
JAMA. 2012;307(16):1695-1696. doi: 10.1001/jama.2012.525

Sharing Clinical Data Electronically

A Critical Challenge for Fixing the Health Care System

  1. Ashish K. Jha, MD, MPH
[+] Author Affiliations
  1. Author Affiliations: University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (Dr Adler-Milstein); and Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard Medical School, and VA Boston Healthcare System, Boston, Massachusetts (Dr Jha).
Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.
The United States is undertaking an ambitious effort to wire the health care system. The goal is to build a nationwide information infrastructure to serve as the foundation for large and sustained improvements in performance. Widespread adoption of health information technology will support new care delivery models, such as patient-centered medical homes, alongside broader initiatives, such as performance reporting and public health surveillance. To enable the health information technology revolution, Congress allocated nearly $30 billion focused on 2 main goals: transitioning physicians and hospitals from paper-based to electronic systems and enabling these systems to interoperate, allowing clinical data to flow between health care organizations.
The vision of complete patient information available across care delivery settings is compelling and central to a high-functioning health care system. However, the vision is deceptively simple: there are enormous challenges to enabling clinical data to flow across organizations. These challenges are substantially greater than those …
[Full Text of this Article]
 
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‘Two days in court changed my opinion of Breivik’, says top psychiatrist / News / The Foreigner — Norwegian News in English.

‘Two days in court changed my opinion of Breivik’, says top psychiatrist / News / The Foreigner — Norwegian News in English.

‘Two days in court changed my opinion of Breivik’, says top psychiatrist

Published on Friday, 27th April, 2012 at 10:37 under the news category, by Michael Sandelson .
One of Norway’s top psychiatric professors has withdrawn his earlier conclusion Anders Behring Breivik is psychotic.


Informing weekly publication Dag og Tid actually seeing Breivik for two days in Oslo District Court was “useful”, Einar Kringlen continued, “it gives a completely different picture to reading the minutes in the paper and the impression I got of the man from the first [psychiatric] report.”
The professor, who has never changed his opinion about criminal sanity to such a degree, according to NRK, was in no doubt Synne Sørheim and Torgeir Husby were correct that Breivik was psychotic.
Now, he observes the accused can answer questions logically, flexibly, and in a relaxed fashion. The expert supports Terje Tørrisen’s and Agnar Aspaas’ conclusions.
“He [Breivik] is not submissive, either, but protests with some annoyance if he thinks the judge’s questions are unreasonable, Einar Kringlen told the broadcaster.
“My professional experience suggests he is unlikely to have been able to act in such an adequate fashion if he is psychotic, in particular schizophrenic,” he declared, saying it is extremely unlikely Breivik has managed to mislead him in his battle to appear as sane.
The professor concluded, “perhaps one can say he has a paranoid personality, is suspicious, but that’s where it ends.”
Today’s 10th day of the trial will see continued focus on the Oslo bombing, it’s victims and the aggrieved.
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Anders Breivik is a terrorist, so we should treat him like one | Jonathan Freedland | Comment is free | The Guardian

Anders Breivik is a terrorist, so we should treat him like one | Jonathan Freedland | Comment is free | The Guardian

Anders Breivik is a terrorist, so we should treat him like one

We comb over every word from Oslo, but disregard al-Qaida's rants. The lack of consistency speaks volumes
Central court Oslo
The central court in Oslo that has been the platform for Anders Behring Breivik's appearances during the last week. Photograph: Stian Lysberg Solum/AFP/Getty
Does Abu Qatada play World of Warcraft? Did he once, like Anders Behring Breivik, dedicate a sabbatical year to "hardcore" playing of the game? We don't know. Perhaps we will find out when Abu Qatada, often described as the spiritual leader of al-Qaida in Europe, finally faces trial. But I wouldn't bet on it.
For when alleged jihadists like Abu Qatada have been brought to trial, they don't quite get the treatment accorded to Breivik this week. If they are allowed to testify for five solid days, given an extended opportunity to expound their worldview, then the world's press do not hang on their every word, reporting in tweet-sized nuggets the nuances of their philosophy. Nor are their personal life histories, their psychology and video game habits, probed and debated.
Of course comparisons are tricky, not least because those who have staged the most lethal acts of jihadist violence – in New York, Madrid or London – have rarely lived to stand trial. But take this contrast. In Oslo, the court has been listening to a man who planted a bomb that killed eight and who went on to murder another 69 people, mostly teenagers, on the island of Utøya – a death spree Breivik described yesterday in terms that stop the heart. There has been copious discussion of Breivik's psyche and especially his views, starting with his courtroom lament that Norway had become "a dumping ground for the surplus births of the third world".
Contrast that with the airline bomb plot of 2006, in which an al-Qaida cell in Britain planned to blow seven transatlantic jets out of the sky. News reports of that trial offered a scant few lines about the conspirators' individual motives, with most of the coverage focused on operational details, the mechanics and scale, of the planned attack. My Guardian colleague Vikram Dodd, who covered that London trial, was struck when he heard a Radio 5 Live phone-in this week that was regularly interrupted by snippets from Breivik's statement. "The grammar of the coverage was as if this was the chancellor giving his budget," says Dodd.
More than one caller to that programme, while quick to insist they disagreed with Breivik's methods, did rather think the Norwegian had a point about multiculturalism run riot. "I can understand where this guy's coming from," said Tom from Dover. Several readers of a Guardian article sought to post comments in the same vein, calling for "a complete stop of immigration from Muslim countries" and suchlike. To listen to it, you'd think Breivik had simply wanted to start a debate, that he'd perhaps written a provocative pamphlet for Demos, rather than committed an act of murderous cruelty.
It was to avoid precisely this problem that the US Congress acted to relocate the prospective trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged principal architect of the 9/11 attacks, from federal court in Manhattan to a military tribunal at Guantánamo. They did not want him enjoying the platform so gleefully exploited by Breivik. Perhaps they understood what the latter wrote in his 1,801-page manifesto, posted before the Utøya killings: "Your trial offers you a stage to the world."
The comparison is not so far-fetched. Breivik has expressed his admiration for al-Qaida's willingness to "embrace" death and was keen to adopt the organisation's methods: his ultimate goal last July was to behead Norway's former prime minister and post the video online. Like al-Qaida, he believes in acts of spectacular violence as a first step to changing the world, seeks to purge his own people of those deemed weak in the face of the enemy, yearns for a pure, past golden age that never existed, and dreams of apocalypse. Above all, he wants those he regards as his people to be unsullied by contact with inferior others. In this, Breivik and al-Qaida are kindred spirits.
What, then, is the right way to bring such people to justice, whether Breivik or Khalid Sheikh Mohammed? The cost of the Norwegian approach is that, by treating Breivik like any other defendant, the courts have given him that global megaphone. That represents a perverse reward for his actions: he would never have got such a hearing had he confined himself to ranting on a blog. More alarmingly, the Oslo trial has surely supplied an incentive to any would-be Breiviks: kill as he killed and you too will get the attention of the world.
And yet, by trying Mohammed behind closed doors, the US too has handed the forces of terror a kind of victory. They have declared there are limits to the open society, that the rule of law is not strong enough to cope with every eventuality. In a small way, they have conceded ground to the terrorists' view of the world. How much more appealing is the message of the Norwegian PM last summer, who declared his country would respond to Breivik with "more democracy, more openness and greater political participation".
Whichever approach we take to such crimes, Oslo's or Washington's, one duty is surely clear: we have to be consistent. We cannot apply different standards to terrorists depending on whether they are fanatics of the white supremacist or jihadist variety.

And yet we do just that. Scott Atran, an eminent anthropologist who has briefed American officials on the nature of terrorism, explains that we adopt radically different approaches depending on whether we believe the threat is from within or without.
Outside attackers, like the 9/11 hijackers, are treated only in terms of the impact and consequences of their actions; those who come from "our side", as the Norwegians see Breivik, are examined for their intentions, what made them act the way they did. Witness the case of Robert Bales, the US soldier who murdered 16 civilians in Afghanistan. "When it all comes out, it will be a combination of stress, alcohol and domestic issues – he just snapped," said the US military spokesman. It was personal, not political. Had it been an Afghan soldier killing Americans, it would have been the other way around.
It's clear why we might do this. We can unite against an outside enemy; if the threat is from within, we want to believe it amounts to no more than a single, lone madman. "People don't want to probe," says Atran. "They want to be reassured." But this division, instinctive as it might be, is not really defensible. Terrorist murder is terrorist murder, and we need to treat it that way – even when the killer looks like us.
Twitter: @j_freedland
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Norway’s tears - FT.com

Norway’s tears - FT.com

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April 20, 2012 8:33 pm

Norway’s tears

It has been a harrowing week for Norway, which on Monday opened the trial against the country’s worst killer since the second world war. But reopening the wounds from July 22 may be a price worth paying for the lessons learnt.
The first is a reminder – one that too many countries need – of the civilising effect of a fair and open judicial process. In the courtroom, Anders Behring Breivik has been diminished. The concreteness of the proceedings and the scrutiny of prosecutors and judges have transformed an abstract horror into a mere man. There is less to fear.

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Second, it is clear with the benefit of hindsight that it was a mistake to ban the broadcasting of Mr Breivik’s testimony. It was legitimate to worry that the unrepentant political terrorist, given access to a global media stage, would use the pulpit he had bought with murder to inspire others to follow him. The Oslo district court relaxed a ban on some broadcasts but did not extend this to examination of the accused.
But seeing Mr Breivik speak links his mediocrity more strongly with his ideas. Here is not a leader of men, and the more this is exposed, the lesser will be the attraction his ideas can exert on otherwise impressionable minds.
There are also lessons to draw from the content of the proceedings. Mr Breivik, a rabid Islamophobe, has had no compunction about using al-Qaeda terrorists as “methodological role models”. That vividly underlines how extremism has the same violent logic, no matter what ideological or religious garb it dons. We ignore at our peril that political bloodshed can come from any direction.
Mr Breivik’s violence did, however, come from a particular place: the Islamophobic extreme right. It is important to separate the first premise of his “justification”, that Muslim immigration is harming Europe, from his second, that only violence can bring attention to this concern. A significant number of Europeans believe the former, and in certain cases this extends to some of Mr Breivik’s wildest ideas, such as those about Islamic “demographic warfare” against non-Muslims.
It is important to listen to these peoples’ arguments more carefully than has sometimes been the case, and painstakingly seek to demolish them, in the hope that logical engagement can sway people from extremism and violence.
Politics that insists on categorising people according to a narrow one-dimensional identity, and creating policies accordingly, has caused many problems, including aggravating the complications of Muslim immigration to Europe and creating crude stereotypes. Individuals should be treated as individuals, by the state and by one another.
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