Monday, March 16, 2020

Email interception: Now we're finding reply emails in our spam box! It raises the question to what extent our incoming email is also being sabotaged. Our close colleagues have known for years that emailing us is not reliable (WITH UPDATE 27/05/20)

Our Church and State website has no less than 59 Nobel Laureates on it despite the never-ending assault on our email; see paragraph 2 of this blog's sidebar under "Church and State" (updated today).

Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms formulates what is the core of free speech. "Everyone has the right to freedom of expression." In an important interpretation of this article, the European Court of Human Rights in Handyside v. UK (1976) indicated that this "freedom of expression" should be construed as follows. It "is applicable not only to 'information' or 'ideas' that are favourably received, or regarded as inoffensive, or as a matter of indifference, but also to those that offend, shock or disturb the State or any sector of the population". Such are the demands of that pluralism, tolerance and broadmindedness without which there is no "democratic society" (see Cliteur, 2010).


This month an unprecedented number of my emails requesting permission to republish material are not getting through to people. Particularly targeted are my emails to authors who write about ageing. These past couple of weeks Declan has also found it extremely difficult to get through to prominent ageists by email.

On 1 March I posted Email interception: The never-ending assault on our email continues unabated. Not one of Declan's 19 emails yesterday to knighted professors has been read. Mailtrack records a 13% success rate based on the emails we sent. The post reveals the targeting of our emails to Nobel laureates and knighted professors in particular. Another excessively targeted group is recipients of the National Medal of Science, presented by the president of the United States. According to Mailtrack alerts (or the lack thereof), one unread email this month is Declan's considered reply to a question asked in a second email from a new Honorary Associate who has won several prestigious awards, including the US National Medal of Science. Over the years Declan's communication with many new associates has been quickly severed in this manner, including with no less than four Nobel laureates last year.
Re: Email Interception

Paragraph 42 of Declan's updated complaint to the United Nations under Article 19 (freedom of expression) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

42. The Applicant further complains that the extent of the interference with his emails resulted in 2011 in the shelving of his and his wife's petition in support of human embryonic stem cell research, which had by then been signed by 29 (now 31) Nobel laureates as well as hundreds of academics. In April 2010, an American professor wrote to Minister Featherstone: "I am truly appalled by the unlawful violation of the Heavey's basic right to send and receive email without interference. I would be most grateful for anything you may be able to do by way of taking measures to correct this gross abuse" (emphasis added). Minister Featherstone's subsequent letter to then Home Secretary Theresa May and the Applicant's Human Rights Act claims to the IPT and European Court have had no effect; if anything, the situation has got substantially worse. In February 2019, 68 of the Nobel laureates emailed since the previous month had not seen their email, according to Mailtrack. On 21 April 2019, the Applicant's MP Lyn Brown acknowledged by autoreply his complaint about the interception of email but hasn't responded to it. Last month (June 2019), 155 of his and his wife's emails went unread, including four reply emails to those who had just agreed to be listed as Honorary Associates of N4CM. The Applicant has also amassed evidence relating to incoming and outgoing mail delivery. For example, in May 2017, he complained to Royal Mail about the mishandling of his and his wife's incoming mail following the loss in London of their employment contracts to the United States. He repeatedly complained about mail not being put through their letter box before he received £30 in compensation and a failed assurance from the Royal Mail Chief Executive's Office that "the actions taken will prevent this happening again". On 17 July 2018, the Applicant complained to the Office that their renewed Tenancy Agreement was delivered through the bathroom window of another tenant's flat. They can still find letters for them in the front hall of the property they live in.

12 July: Threat to life: Updated complaint to the United Nations under Article 19 (freedom of expression) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Mayor of London-commissioned St Mungo's highlighted


Emails resent to Nobel laureates


03/09/19: 24 Nobelists emailed, 1 bounce, 23 unread (0 read).

On 21 February 2019, 68 of the Nobel laureates emailed since 3 January 2019 had not seen Declan's email. Then followed:

21/02/19: 25 emails resent, 21 unread (4 read)
22/02/19: 27 emails resent, 23 unread (4 read)
25/02/19: 46 emails resent, 43 unread (3 read)
26/02/19: 2 emails resent, 2 phone calls, 1 unread (1 read)
01/03/19: 5 emails resent, 5 unread (0 read)
02/03/19: 5 emails resent, 4 unread (1 read)
03/03/19: 8 emails resent, 5 unread (3 read)
04/03/19: 8 emails resent, 6 unread (2 read)
05/03/19: 11 emails resent, 10 unread (1 read)
06/03/19: 8 emails resent, 7 unread (1 read)
07/03/19: 10 emails resent, 10 unread (0 read)
08/03/19: 10 emails resent, 9 unread (1 read)
30/03/19: 22 emails resent, 19 unread (3 read)

Totals: 187 emails resent, 2 phone calls, 163 unread (24 read)

The above statistics applied to the 68 Nobel laureates recorded on 21 February 2019 as not having read Declan's email. Since 31 March 2019, Declan has been trying to email some Nobel laureates who heard from him in early 2019 as well as those who haven't heard from him at all. He has been successful in the latter category only very occasionally.

Not included in the figures above is an email to a Nobel laureate on 4 March 2019 confirming his listing as an Honorary Associate that went unread. This quick severing of communications occurred four times last year with Nobel laureates and continues to happen with new associates and publishing permissions to this day.

First posted 19/09/19
Last updated 22/05/20

Despite Facebook's unfair practices, last year we had 5.7 million hits, with about 70% from Americans. Our top five articles have 6.3 million Facebook likes/shares between them.





Update 27 May: Excessively targeted emails*


UK Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ)

22/05: 8 knighted professors. 0 read.
23/05: 24 knighted professors. 1 read.
24/05: 21 Nobel Prize laureates. 2 read.
25/05: 17 US National Medal of Science laureates. 3 read.

Our list of 278 Honorary Associates includes 16 Nobel Prize laureates, 11 US National Medal of Science laureates and 12 knighted professors notwithstanding the excessive targeting of these three categories of emails in particular.

* All read alerts from Mailtrack recorded as of 27 May.

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