Deletion of files on the NAC website

We are having more problems with our website. Now it seems that files I have posted to the site are being deleted. I have already discovered that our most important page “NAC Petition to the United Nations in Support of SCNT Signed by 24 Nobel Prize Winners” – from which the entire site has been derived - is missing. When I click on the “SCNT” icon I created for the site and my Facebook page, I get the standard error page, stating: “404 - Not Found. The page you are trying to access does not exist.” It was in fact an email we received yesterday from the US which brought the deletion to our attention.

Declan launched his petition to the United Nations from the street on 22 October 2007, calling for the establishment of a reasonable timetable for a UN declaration that would draw a distinction between reproductive cloning and somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), sometimes referred to as “therapeutic cloning”, while specifically leaving it to UN member states to decide for themselves on SCNT within a regulation framework. To date, and despite that Declan’s personalised emails inviting scientists and academics to sign this petition were branded as spam by SpamCop on 6 March 2008 (see blog of 14 March “SpamCop reports Declan as a spammer”), the petition has been signed by 591 scientists and academics, who include recognised authorities from the world’s leading universities and research institutes, as well as 24 Nobel Laureates.

As I have stated in previous blogs, I believe there is a link between the SpamCop report and an email Declan received the day previous, on 5 March 2008, from the Home Office advising in response to several emails he addressed to Home Secretary Jacqueline Smith that no warrant to intercept his communications had been issued (see blog of 9 March “Home Office denies warrant to intercept communications”).

New NAC website doesn't display uploaded pages

This morning we received an email from an honorary associate of NAC informing us that one of two lead items on the homepage of the new NAC website that I am building in support of embryonic stem cell research and therapeutic cloning at http://network.obxhost.net/index.html “does not exist”. Yesterday, Declan was unable to access the site for a whole hour from our local council’s Idea Store Whitechapel (see previous blog), from where last Thursday we could access neither the site nor the web host for the entire day (see blog of 23 January “Letter to the Leader of Tower Hamlets Council”). Also yesterday, I couldn’t upload an article for two hours on the first human trial using embryonic stem cells as a medical treatment - the web host obxhost.net kept informing me that “permission was denied”. According to their website, this web host is a leading free web site hosting provider whose service is highly reliable:



Although the new NAC website was blocklisted only on Tuesday (see blog “New NAC website blocklisted”), I think it is pointless at this stage to change web host. On 8 March 2008, the original NAC website was suspended due to what turned out to be spam as reported via SpamCop on 6 March (see blog of 14 March “SpamCop reports Declan as a spammer”). As I have stated in two blogs now, I believe there is link between SpamCop’s report to our web host branding us as spammers and an email Declan received the day previous, on 5 March, from the Home Office advising in response to several emails he addressed to Home Secretary Jacqueline Smith that no warrant to intercept his communications had been issued (see blog of 9 March “Home Office denies warrant to intercept communications”) - since 22 October 2007, I have been emailing scientists and academics inviting them to sign Declan’s petition to the UN on therapeutic cloning; to date, the petition has been signed by 589 scientists and academics, who include recognised authorities from the world’s leading universities and research institutes, as well as 24 Nobel Laureates.

We received our first donation on Monday, which I believe may be influencing things. Since then, we have been blocklisted, I have been unable to upload pages, we have been unable to access the site from our local library, and the website hasn’t displayed uploaded pages. All we can do is keep going, so today I have uploaded our third homepage lead item, namely a piece from the Center for Inquiry, New York on the Vatican’s recent condemnation of human embryonic stem cell research and IVF in its most authoritative declaration on bioethics for more than 20 years. According to the CFI, the Vatican’s position has no justification other than religious doctrine, and may have a serious adverse effect on scientific research and the development of medical therapies.

Still problems with the new NAC website

It seems our difficulties with the new NAC website I am building in support of embryonic stem cell research and therapeutic cloning at http://network.obxhost.net/index.html (launched the Monday before last) are well from over. Declan was once again unable to access the site from our local council’s Idea Store Whitechapel; we frequently run into trouble in this library, especially with internet access and computer bookings (see, for example, last Friday’s blog “Letter to the Leader of Tower Hamlets Council”).

I had no luck either. After working on a piece for our homepage - relating the FDAs announcement last Friday that it had cleared the way for the world’s first clinical trial of a therapy derived from human embryonic stem cells - I couldn’t upload for well over two hours; the web host obxhost.net kept informing me that “permission was denied”. Not even two trips to the local internet café resolved the matter, and in fact it is only a few minutes ago that I was allowed to upload the piece, citing “a new era in medicine”. According to their website, OBXHost.net is “a leading Free Web Site Hosting Provider” whose “service is highly reliable”. They add that they only use “quality high end servers”.

As I said in the previous blog following the blocklisting of our new site only the day before yesterday, perhaps I am just unfortunate with the websites I build. On 8 March 2008, the original NAC website was suspended due to what turned out to be spam as reported via SpamCop on 6 March (see blog of 14 March “SpamCop reports Declan as a spammer”). I believe there is link between SpamCop’s report to our web host branding us as spammers and an email Declan received the day previous, on 5 March, from the Home Office advising in response to several emails he addressed to Home Secretary Jacqueline Smith that no warrant to intercept his communications had been issued (see blog of 9 March Home Office denies warrant to intercept communications - since 22 October 2007, I have been emailing scientists and academics inviting them to sign Declan’s petition to the UN on therapeutic cloning; to date, the petition has been signed by 589 scientists and academics, who include recognised authorities from the world’s leading universities and research institutes, as well as 24 Nobel Laureates.

This is the email Declan sent this evening to the acting Idea Store Whitechapel manager:

Dear Ms Randall

With reference to my recent email to the Leader of Tower Hamlets Council, I am in receipt of an email from the Council stating: “Ms Lisa Randall, the acting Idea Store Whitechapel Manager, is available and willing to discuss the detailed matters you have raised with regard to the service [at Idea Store Whitechapel].”

I wish to confirm that this afternoon at Idea Store Whitechapel, between 1.10pm and 2.10pm, I was unable to access my website at http://network.obxhost.net/index.html; MIMEsweeper stating: “DNS look-up failed for ‘network.obxhost.net’”. I subsequently experienced no such difficulty on the same computer between 2.10pm and 7.10pm.

I would be obliged if any discourse between us on this matter would be confined to writing in order to avoid any misunderstanding that may occur.

Please would you acknowledge receipt.

Yours sincerely
Declan Heavey
Card no. D000355837

No access to new NAC website

With respect to the new NAC website in support of embryonic stem cell research and therapeutic cloning (see blog of 19 January “NAC website launched”), I was hoping to upload more New York State documents today, minus a “Take action” on payment for egg donation which the ethics committee of the Empire State Stem Cell Board is currently discussing. Alas, after spending an hour putting the finishing touches to a new banner, I found out that I couldn’t access the site at http://network.obxhost.net/index.html from our local council’s Idea Store Whitechapel. In fact, I can’t even access the web host OBXHost.net to upload the work.



According to their website, OBXHost.net is “a leading Free Web Site Hosting Provider” whose “service is highly reliable”. They add that they only use “quality high end servers that are constantly monitored 24 hours a day to ensure your site is always online”. I find it a bit difficult to believe that OBXHost.net has been down for over five hours now.

Perhaps I am just unlucky with the websites I build. On 8 March 2008, the original NAC website was suspended due to what turned out to be spam as reported via SpamCop on 6 March (see blog of 14 March “SpamCop reports Declan as a spammer”); only the day before SpamCop’s report to our web host branding us as spammers, the Home Office emailed Declan on behalf of Home Secretary Jacqueline Smith to confirm that no warrant to intercept his communications had been issued - since 22 October 2007, I have been contacting scientists and academics to invite them to sign Declan’s petition to the UN on therapeutic cloning; to date this petition has been signed by 588 scientists and academics, who - despite excessive spamming (see, for example, blog of 5 December “On red alert”) - include recognised authorities from the world’s leading universities and research institutes, as well as 24 Nobel Laureates.

This is the new NAC banner:



With no access to the new NAC website to upload more NYS documents, tomorrow I will turn to a “Take action” in respect of payment for egg donation which will make the case that donors should not be paid for their eggs, but rather they should be compensated for the burdens of egg retrieval (reference: Steinbock B. Payment for egg donation and surrogacy. Mt Sinai J Med 2004;71:255-265). This take action - for the NYS subsection entitled “Empire State Stem Cell Board” - will be uploaded here as some previous NYS documents have been.

On red alert

As I said in yesterday’s blog “Charis Thompson: Why we should, in fact, pay for egg donation”, on Wednesday morning we learnt that the place where Declan gets his breakfast every weekday and I get my food for the day, the Catholic Sisters of Mercy Dellow Centre, is closed next week Monday to Wednesday, a first in over two years; and that I am pretty much on red alert: for example, two days after the date on a letter from the European Court of Human Rights advising that Declan’s case would be dealt with “as soon as practicable”, our main bag, containing all our money and documents, was robbed in the centre (see blog of 20 June “Letter from the European Court of Human Rights”). My eyes have been particularly on our sleeping pitch – since 7 September we have been sleeping tucked away, about twenty paces from the side entrance of a building, down some twelve steps; prior to that we slept for almost two years in a porch.

I’m afraid I am spot-on: in addition to being told on Wednesday night to stay away until 1.00am due to there being a “function”, last night we were told exactly the same and the guy so effectively communicated how funny it is that we get up at 4.20am (6.20am on weekends) that I am convinced this is going to be a nightly occurrence. On 10 September, after we bedded down elsewhere, I was arrested for refusing to move on as a result of having nowhere else to sleep (see blog of 11 September “I am arrested for breach of the peace”).

I believe there is a link between us getting a maximum of three hours sleep for the past two nights and the work I have being doing this week on therapeutic cloning, also known as somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). As I wrote in Tuesday’s blog “Egg shortage hits race to clone human stem cells”, I am Googling leading bioethicist, Insoo Hyun of Case Western Reserve University, Ohio – in a Nature commentary titled “Fair payment or undue inducement?” he calls for women to be paid to donate eggs for stem cell research on the same basis that research participants are compensated for taking part in other medical research; unfortunately you need to make a payment to read the commentary.

Because we are getting so little sleep, I am cutting my losses and concentrating exclusively on SCNT: I am putting together all the content that will be on my website in support of nuclear transfer – the blog of 1 November “Can a cell have a soul?” describes what this website will contain, including with respect to human embryonic stem (hES) cell research. Among the resources on SCNT that I am assembling is a 2007 report by the ethics committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, stating: “Financial compensation of women donating eggs for infertility therapy or for research is justified on ethical grounds.” Also the testimony of scientists before legislators in Massachusetts (2005) and California (2006) will be high on my list of experts calling for a relaxation of rules restricting the compensation of egg donors to boost the supply of human eggs needed for nuclear transfer (Kaplan, Los Angeles Times, 13/9/06).

On our other SCNT front, Declan’s email inviting scientists and academics to sign his petition to the UN is still very much in the firing line. The issue of spam was dealt with in the blog of 18 November, including that on 29 February Declan emailed the Home Secretary, Jacqueline Smith; and that the NAC website was suspended on 8 March, three days after the Home Office denied there was a warrant to intercept his communications. Including the 70 emails I sent yesterday to the Department of Cell & Tissue Biology at University of California San Francisco (which yielded zero out-of-office autoreplies), this week from a total of 318 emails there has been one signature – last week, it was two signatures from 661 emails; three weeks ago, two signatures from 640 emails; and five weeks ago, one signature from 1,072 emails. All the more reason to concentrate on the contents of our SCNT campaign.

Threatened with arrest

Last night when Declan and I arrived at our sleeping pitch – since 7 September we have been sleeping tucked away, about twenty paces from the side entrance of a building, down some twelve steps; prior to that we slept for almost two years in a porch – we were told that we couldn’t bed down due to there being a “function” and had to stay out until 1.00am. This was a first, and had it happened on a weekday we would have got less than three hours sleep – we get up at 4.20am; weekends at 6.20am. On Monday the week before last we arrived at the pitch to find it had just been hosed down with water (see blog of 18 November “Our sleeping pitch is soaked”), and the Friday previous dim bulbs in the spotlights above us were replaced with very powerful ones (see blog of 15 November “Our sleeping pitch is targeted”). Anyway, we knew of no other place to bed down so we just knocked about in the cold, mist and rain for four hours – on 10 September, after we bedded down elsewhere, I was arrested for refusing to move on as a result of having nowhere else to sleep (see blog of 11 September “I am arrested for breach of the peace”).

Nonetheless, we are staying put. We have little appetite for spending another nine hours looking for an alternative place to sleep. And I most certainly do not have to be reminded of the eventful two years in the porch, despite it being located in London’s financial district (I slept on the outside, Declan on the inside with our well-tied bags): for example, within two weeks somebody sat on the right hand side of my face (see blog of 18 November 2006); I was dragged out of the two-step porch by the ankles while I was in my sleeping bag, then a few hours later I was kicked in the back (see blog of 5 May 2007); a guy repeatedly kicked me in the chest and shoulders as his mates stood by (see blog of 22 September 2007); and I was urinated on (see blog of 2 August). Declan was also jumped on, feet first, as he slept in the porch, and was especially fortunate not to have bones broken (see blog of 14 June). Since we have no option but to be in the street (see blog of 21 October “European Court of Human Rights declares application inadmissible”), we prefer to be at the back of a building, off the streets; though it seems not everyone shares this preference with us.

The “function” came at the end of a week in which Declan’s email inviting scientists and academics to sign his petition to the UN on therapeutic cloning, also known as somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), has been severely spammed. The issue of spam was recently dealt with in the blog of 18 November, including that on 29 February Declan emailed the Home Secretary, Jacqueline Smith; and that the NAC website was suspended on 8 March, three days after the Home Office denied there was a warrant to intercept his communications. Including the 239 emails I sent yesterday to the University of Glasgow, University of Newcastle and University of California San Diego, and the 109 emails I sent on Thursday, this week from a total of 661 emails the petition has had one signature - a week ago, it was one signature from 419 emails; two weeks ago, two signatures from 640 emails; and four weeks ago, one signature from 1,072 emails. It really has no credibility that only so few would sign Declan’s petition.

Take Newcastle University. Some very renowned scientists have signed it, including Alison Murdoch, Professor of Reproductive Medicine, Consultant Gynaecologist and Head of Department of Newcastle Fertility Centre at Life. Murdoch is past Chair of the British Fertility Society, the national society which represents all those involved in the provision of care for the infertile patient. According to a press release from the University, she has held a licence for embryo based research for 15 years and holds the only active nuclear transfer licence in the UK.

Murdoch co-wrote (with Sir John Gurdon, Emeritus Professor of the Department of Zoology at Cambridge University and Professor of the Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute; and another signatory of Declan’s petition) a paper in Cell Stem Cell titled “Nuclear Transfer and iPS May Work Best Together”, published 7 February, stating: “The major constraint in the development of NT [nuclear transfer] is the supply of human eggs. Not surprisingly, therefore, opponents of NT have targeted the donation process and used this as an indirect tool to stop research.” As stated in the previous blog, a chief objective of our campaign in support of SCNT is to propagate the call of leading experts for a relaxation of rules restricting the compensation of egg donors to boost the supply of human eggs needed for nuclear transfer.

Our sleeping pitch is soaked

As I reported in the previous blog, yesterday The Big Issue
Head Office – The Big Issue is a magazine sold by homeless people throughout the UK on registered street pitches – confirmed that our pitches have been terminated, after two years of us surviving on the streets of London by selling the magazine from the same registered pitches and despite Declan’s email letter of complaint to the chair of The Big Issue Foundation (see blog of 11 November “Letter of complaint to the chair of The Big Issue Foundation Charity”). This is an extremely serious situation for me in particular, in that I am facing possible prosecution for begging.

Then last night we arrived at the place we sleep at night – since 7 September we have been sleeping tucked away, about twenty paces from the side entrance of a building, down some twelve steps; prior to that we slept for almost two years in a porch – to find it had been hosed down with water (this is a first for us in over two years of sleeping rough). It has only been a few days since we found out that dim bulbs in the spotlights above us had been replaced with very powerful ones (see blog of 15 November “Our sleeping pitch is targeted”), and two weeks since we were at the other end of a cleaner with a hose as we were about to leave at 5.00am (see blog of 3 November “State Stem Cell Policies Deserve National Attention”). Anyway, equipped with a scrubbing brush and a shower curtain, we stayed put because the night we decided to sleep elsewhere, on 10 September, I was arrested for refusing to move on as a result of having nowhere else to sleep (see blog of 11 September “I am arrested for breach of the peace”).

A matter of particular concern to us is how many of the emails I send to scientists and academics inviting them to sign Declan’s petition to the UN on research cloning of embryos and stem cells are actually getting through: we are under no illusion that the vast majority are being dumped to spam boxes (or to cyberspace, see blog of 4 September “Obama: Yes to stem cells, funding”). Yesterday, I only received seven out-of-office autoreplies from 226 emails. Hardly surprising we only got one signature (last week it was two signatories from 640 emails; three weeks ago, one signatory from 1,072 emails). Back in February I expressed concern that my emails were not getting through (see blog of 16 February “Declan’s petition to the UN is being brought to a halt”). In fact, on 29 February Declan emailed the Home Secretary, Jacqueline Smith, regarding interception of communications; the Home Office replied on 5 March denying that any such warrant was issued; and on 8 March the NAC website was suspended due to spam as reported via SpamCop (see blog of 14 March “SpamCop reports Declan as a spammer”).

Although the NAC website will not be uploaded again – as I announced in August, we are trying to raise the £450 we need to buy a laptop to build a website for an international campaign in support of human embryonic stem (hES) cell research and therapeutic cloning – this is a snag of what the “Recent News” page looked like before it was suspended (the NAC website was built long ago, around the beginning of 2005, and what was then termed “liberal reforms strongly rejected by the Vatican and the Christian Right” has become “the scientific perspective on public policy issues”):

SpamCop reports Declan as a spammer

On Wednesday Declan received an email from Bravenet, the web host of our website Network of those Abused by Church, replying to his email of 8 March in respect of their suspension of the NAC website earlier that morning (see previous blog). They state: "We apologize for the delay. Unfortunately this suspension is due to spam as reported via SpamCop. As per our Terms of Service Rules and Regulations (http://www.bravenet.com/global/terms.php), we do not allow any unsolicited email in association with our site or services. Please cease all such activity and reply here indicating that you have done so and understand these terms for your account to be reviewed for restoration."

It turns out that on 6 March, the day after Declan received an email from the Home Office denying that a warrant to intercept his communications exists, SpamCop received a complaint from a scientist to the effect that Declan’s email to him was a spam. SpamCop promptly drew up a report (http://www.spamcop.net/w3m?i=z2902444514z2f7c18eb545d54a637fa97c4ff4bb206z) and sent it not only to Bravenet (which suspended NAC) but to GoPetition (which hosts Declan's petition to the UN) and Google (which hosts this blog and Declan’s mail account).

A click to "Learn more about what to report and what not to report to SpamCop" yields the following information:

Spam is bulk email. If someone writes to an individual personally, one-on-one, to ask a question or inquire about a post made to a newsgroup or website, then that is not spam, even if it contains commercial or marketing content. However, email containing the recipient's name is not always legitimate. For example, if someone writes a personalized message, but fails to address any subject which is specific or relevant to the recipient ("Kelly, get the lowest prices on prescription drugs!" is an example), it is safe to assume the message is spam. (Emphasis added)

Since a complainant must provide SpamCop with a copy of the offending email, it should have been pretty straightforward to determine that an email with the subject "NAC: Petition to the UN on hESC research", addressed to a particular scientist and inviting him/her to sign a petition to the United Nations in support of human cloning for therapeutic purposes, was not spam; especially if it is evident from the email that the petition itself is being signed by distinguished scientists and academics from around the world. Nonetheless, this morning Declan received the following from SpamCop: "It appears that the issue is that some of the people you're sending mail to don't believe that it's solicited by them, and they don't wish to receive it, so they have reported it as spam." I wonder if the “Academic Freedom Petition, an initiative of the Discovery Institute to urge the adoption of policies by the US's academic institutions “to ensure teacher and student academic freedom to discuss the scientific strengths and weaknesses of Darwinian evolution”, has to surmount similar obstacles. It seems that SpamCop intends to neither review their report nor have it withdrawn.

Last night we reckoned that we could well have been 24 hours away from losing everything (despite that “GoPetition - Petitions FAQ” states: “You should email as many relevant people as you can”) and had to go to an internet café – the Tower Hamlets Council's Idea Store Whitechapel, where we do all our emailing, imposed a 3-hour limit on free computer use on both our membership cards on 29 January – and email SpamCop (see below), Bravenet, Google Legal and GoPetition Legal with a letter earlier in the day to Home Secretary Jacqueline Smith. (Declan also thought it would be wiser if I didn't beg in the train station this morning: I am under threat of arrest, and the last time I was issued with a ticket, on 26 February, PC 9191 called me "a piece of shit" before his partner informed me I would be arrested if I came back.)

We have decided that when we get off the streets, the NAC website will not be uploaded again. Instead, NAC will concentrate exclusively on Declan’s petition to the UN. I intend to create a new website with a campaign to support this petition and have my eyes on “Make Trade Fair” by Oxfam and the video page of “Stop Heathrow Expansion” by Greenpeace UK.

As we had to spend all our money in the internet café last night and I didn’t beg this morning, I am afraid Declan is going to be pretty hungry this weekend. As usual, on Thursday and Friday I kept the grated cheese sandwich that the nuns at the Dellow Centre of the Sisters of Mercy Providence Row Charity give the homeless "for later" – although since Tuesday the grated cheese has been removed.

Grated cheese is just the latest to be withdrawn though: the voluntary hairdresser who used to attend on Wednesdays hasn’t turned up for months (Declan and I wear a cap permanently now); the hair clipper that the homeless had been using to do their own hair (and which Declan was not very happy using because it never came with disinfectant spray) has also disappeared; on Tuesday I was told by the nun in charge of clothes that she didn’t have any men’s jeans (Declan’s jeans are immensely big for him and are in a bit of a state) or runners for me (mine have holes), and to get two pairs of socks Declan had to show her that the heels of his socks had holes; toiletries that used to be put out, especially for the women, are nowhere to been seen; and a shower in the women’s washroom has now to be pretty quick to avoid a shock - it doesn’t matter if you are the first in line or not.

As I reported in my blog of 23 February “Police threaten to evict us from the porch”, a look at Providence Row's annual report of 2006/07 doesn’t provide any clues, but contains three pages of supporters: charities, societies, churches, companies, livery companies, religious organisations, trusts, statutory funders (London Borough of Tower Hamlets, London Councils and The Corporation of London) and the Duke of Norfolk (to whom Declan reported the withdrawal of his use of a landline phone) as Patron.

This is Declan's (ineffective) email last night to SpamCop:

Subject: SpamCop report

Dear Sir/Madam

I refer to your spam report regarding my website http://www.nac1.bravehost.com.

Please find below a copy of my email of today's date to the British Home Secretary, Ms Jacqueline Smith, regarding interception of communications. Since 22 October 2007, I have been contacting through personalised email distinguished scientists and academics to invite them to sign my petition to the United Nations entitled "Consideration at the United Nations of a Declaration on Human Cloning for Therapeutic Reasons" at [withheld].

I would be much obliged if you would please review this matter as soon as possible, as http://www.nac1.bravehost.com is associated with the aforementioned petition, which to date has been signed by 478 scientists, including 22 Nobel prizewinners.

Please would you acknowledge receipt.

Yours sincerely
Declan Heavey

dheavey@gmail.com
http://www.nac1.bravehost.com
http://network-of-those-abused-by-church.blogspot.com

-----------------------------------------

Subject: Interception of communications

Dear Ms Smith

I refer further to my email to you of 29 February in your capacity as Home Secretary whose personal approval is required for an interception of communications warrant in the interests of national security, preventing or detecting serious crime, or safeguarding the economic well-being of the United Kingdom.

As I explained in my email of 29 February, since 22 October 2007 I have been contacting through Google Mail distinguished scientists and academics to invite them to sign my petition to the United Nations entitled "Consideration at the United Nations of a Declaration on Human Cloning for Therapeutic Reasons", calling for the establishment of a reasonable timetable for a UN declaration that would draw a distinction between reproductive and therapeutic cloning while specifically leaving it to UN member states to decide for themselves on therapeutic cloning within a regulation framework. To date, this petition has been signed by 478 scientists, including 22 Nobel prizewinners.

On 6 March I drew to your attention the following: (1) in the last week of December, two emails from scientists, asking me to add their name to the aforementioned petition, were filtered to my Spam mailbox; (2) on 6 February, I was informed by a signatory that an email I had sent him had not been received, despite Google Mail's record of it having been successfully transmitted; (3) on 8 February, I received two Out of Office AutoReplys with "[SUSPECT SPAM]" in the subject; (4) on 27 February, I was informed by a signatory that my email to him earlier that afternoon had been "filtered to a Spam mailbox"; (5) from 28 to 29 February inclusive, over 30 automatically generated delivery status notifications (confirming failure or delay to transmit) were filtered to my Spam mailbox; and (6) on 28 February, I received an email from a scientist, in response to my latest invitation to him to sign the petition, informing me that he was "sure" he said he was happy to have his name added to the list of signatories. (The first email I sent from my Google Mail account is dated 9 April 2005.)

I reconfirm receipt of your email of reply of 5 March, reference T4721/8, signed by AS Cooper of the Office of Security and Counter Terrorism, stating in respect of an interception of communications warrant: "I do not think that the pattern of your e-mail problems means that you are being intercepted". As I previously mentioned in my email of 8 March, my website Network of those Abused by Church is hosted with Bravenet, which suspended the site on 8 March, replying to me on 12 March as follows:

We apologize for the delay. Unfortunately this suspension is due to spam as reported via SpamCop. As per our Terms of Service Rules and Regulations, we do not allow any unsolicited email in association with our site or services. Please cease all such activity and reply here indicating that you have done so and understand these terms for your account to be reviewed for restoration.

Please find attached a copy of the email from Bravenet of 12 March containing headers of the email received by SpamCop on 6 March, the day after the aforementioned email of reply from you. I also attach a snapshot of my Spam mailbox containing 95 automatically generated delivery status notifications from 6 to 12 March inclusive. (Since 2 March, 223 automatically generated delivery status notifications have been filtered to my Spam mailbox.)

I should again point out that on 26 January, while I had no access to a computer, all emails sent to me after 12 August 2007 were moved to the Trash and 300 draft documents, which included the names and email addresses of over 2,500 scientists, were deleted for good.

Please would you acknowledge receipt.

Yours sincerely
Declan Heavey

Interception of communications

Yesterday afternoon Declan emailed the Home Secretary Jacqueline Smith regarding interception of communications (a type of surveillance where a communication is intercepted before it reaches its destination). A few days ago I found a petition by the European Life Scientist Organization (ELSO) on European research funding containing almost 90 pages of the names and email addresses of scientists, and over two days I emailed more than two hundred of them. Of course, when over 30 automatically generated delivery status notifications (confirming failure or delay to transmit) are filtered to Declan’s Spam mailbox, there is not one single Out of Office AutoReply and only one scientist signs Declan’s petition to the UN on hESC research, you know you have to do something (the letter is presented below).

Yesterday also saw us yet again being visited by the City of London Police at the porch we sleep in at night – as I reported in my last blog, two police officers visited us the previous Friday, telling us that they had an order to evict us from the porch. This wasn't my only brush with the law though. Last Tuesday I was stopped by another two police officers at 7.20am as I walked the local train station asking people for some spare change: the previous Thursday I was stopped from selling The Big Issue (a magazine sold by homeless people on registered street pitches) after my pitch was unceremoniously taken over by a street distributor of a free magazine.

PC 9191 – he issued me my first ticket for begging on 13 November as his partner proceeded to call me "the scum of the earth", and a third on 18 January as he told me I would be arrested the next time – is on top form. “You don’t know Maria?” he asks his new partner. “Maria is always begging around here. Maria, how are you?” Not much later, as his partner is writing out my forth ticket, he says that they “should put this piece of shit [me] away”. At the end I am ordered to leave the station immediately, his partner adding that if I return I will be arrested on the spot. I am even told what direction to take so I can’t get lost in the crowd.

It hit us quite hard because the Sisters of Mercy-run Dellow Centre was closed on a one-off the following day – after more than a week in which their food was particularly scarce – and I was under pressure to get some money. Of course, we could avail of the basic breakfast for 60p that the Methodist Church-run Whitechapel Mission provides, including on weekends, except that the minister’s wife barred us back in June due to concerns about our safety.

Anyway, I haven’t been arrested yet, probably because I am leaving the station as soon as I put together the few pounds I need to get Declan by for the day. This weekend is the toughest yet. After putting away £2 – Declan has to travel to the Big Issue head office on Monday to ensure the proper registration of our pitches after repeated “administrative errors” in respect of same – and the admittance fee to wash in the public toilets of the train station, we have, well, less than £2. I have kept the bit of grated cheese and the two white sandwich bread that the nuns from the Dellow Centre give the homeless "for later" (plus some fruit that was given to pedestrians yesterday on some promotion), and so Declan needs to spend no money on me.

Needless to say, I am back begging in the train station on Monday, and probably again all week because I can’t see how I am going to be able to put aside the £1.40 we need to buy a couple of Big Issues – the Big Issue has refused to sell us magazines in quantities of one.

Maybe we are two belligerent people but I think we are just extremely lucky to be part of one of these “causes greater than self”, like therapeutic cloning and the use of stem cells for research and the treatment of disease. This is Declan’s letter to the Home Secretary:

Subject: Interception of communications

Dear Ms Smith

I am writing to you in your capacity as Home Secretary whose personal approval is required for an interception of communications warrant in the interests of national security, preventing or detecting serious crime, or safeguarding the UK's economic well-being. My name is Declan Heavey. I am the director of Network of those Abused by Church (NAC). My wife and I are of no fixed abode, and have been sleeping rough on the streets of London since 3 November 2006. I have lodged my case against the UK with the European Court of Human Rights by application of 8 September 2007 with an urgent request for expedition.

Since 22 October 2007, I have been contacting through Google Mail distinguished scientists and academics to invite them to sign my petition to the United Nations entitled "Consideration at the United Nations of a Declaration on Human Cloning for Therapeutic Reasons", which supports work on therapeutic cloning and the use of stem cells for research and the treatment of disease. To date, this petition has been signed by 415 scientists, including 22 Nobel prizewinners.

I wish to draw to your attention the following: (1) in the last week of December two emails from scientists, asking me to add their name to the aforementioned petition, were filtered to my Spam mailbox; (2) on 6 February I was informed by a signatory that an email I had sent him had not been received, despite Google Mail's record of it having been successfully transmitted; (3) on 8 February I received two Out of Office AutoReplys with "[SUSPECT SPAM]" in the subject; (4) on 27 February I was informed by a signatory that my email to him earlier that afternoon had been "filtered to a Spam mailbox"; (5) in the last two days over 30 automatically generated delivery status notifications (confirming failure or delay to transmit) have been filtered to my Spam mailbox; and (6) yesterday I received an email from a scientist, in response to my latest invitation to him to sign the petition, informing me that he was "sure" he said he was happy to have his name added to the list of signatories.

I should point out that on 26 January, while I had no access to a computer, all emails sent to me after 12 August 2007 were moved to the Trash and over 300 draft documents, which included the names and email addresses of approximately 2,500 scientists, were deleted for good.

I understand that in the UK my civil rights concerning surveillance are protected by: Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000; Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which states that everyone has the right to respect for his or her private and family life, home and correspondence; Data Protection Act 1998; Covert Surveillance Code of Practice; and Interception of Communications Code of Practice.

Please would you acknowledge receipt.

Yours sincerely
Declan Heavey