Working for Rebel Verdicts – George Blake and Luigi Mangione

Here is the connection with Luigi Mangione : Pottle and Randle stated openly they had organised the escape of George Blake and pleaded Not Guilty on the grounds that their action was justified. It remains to be seen if Luigi Mangione will mount a political and legal defence like this. It is a strategy that Luigi and his attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, should examine carefully.

John Meehan January 5 2025

A traitor to the British State escapes prison with the aid of peace activists who help smuggle him across Europe. George Blake, former MI6 intelligence officer, had been imprisoned for 42 years on charges of espionage – for the Soviet Union. His sentence was considered extraordinarily lengthy (at the time the longest sentence handed down for a non-murder charge since 1887), and it sparked uproar.

Five years into his sentence Blake escaped and ended up in Moscow (via East Germany) where he lived until his death in 2020, aged 98. The breakout – considered to be a coup for the Soviet Union, was actually organised by inmates of the prison: who believed George had been a victim of a politically motivated injustice system.

This book tells the story of the trial of Blake’s jumpers: the peace activists who helped him escape, Michael Randle and Pat Pottle.

Reviews:

“The Old Bailey trial of the two peace activists, Michael Randle and Pat Pottle, for helping free the spy George Blake back in the 1960s ended with them being acquitted on all charges. It was an astonishing and entirely unexpected result and Michael Randle has now given us a full account of what happened. He argues convincingly that the result was not, as supporters of the government at the time put it, the work of a “perverse” jury but should more correctly be seen as a rebel verdict. It was a rare example of ordinary people accepting the value of moral arguments and serves as a reminder that on issues of common justice political establishments do not always get it their own way. Rebel Verdict will be of great interest to anyone in the legal profession as well as to new generations of antiwar and environmental campaigners, especially the increasing number of people prepared to take nonviolent direct action on climate issues. Quite apart from anything else, it is also a rattling good read.”
– Paul Rogers, Emeritus Professor of Peace Studies
“It takes real courage to go against the whole political and military establishment, mainstream media, and most ordinary citizens. Michael Randle and his friends risked everything in helping George Blake to escape from prison. They challenged the law and lived many years in fear, but were proven right in a court! Like some other activists – Plowshares and climate justice protesters – they managed to convince a British jury that the law and the judge were wrong. I hope this book and its powerful story will inspire more people to follow in their footsteps; to resist injustice and stand up for the value of all human life.”
– Stellan Vinthagen
“Michael Randle helped us to smuggle literature into occupied Czechoslovakia in the early 1970s. He risked imprisonment by driving the first van across the Iron Curtain. Only about 20 years later did I discover that he had built the same secret compartments in an earlier van with which he smuggled George Blake out of the UK to East Germany. I agreed to be his character witness in the court because I admired his courage, integrity and strength of convictions. I was happy to support him even though at that time I had to defend myself against accusations that I have worked for the Communist Secret Service and any, even indirect association with a Soviet spy made my position more difficult. However, I understood Michael’s fight for peace and human rights. His credo – plague on both houses. Neither US nor Soviet missiles. Neither gulags nor Guantanamo.”
– Jan Kavan
“Rebel Verdict is a brilliant, long-awaited account of one of the most dramatic cases ever heard by an Old Bailey jury. Michael Randle’s courage and life-long commitment to the causes of peace and justice, shared by his co-defendant Pat Pottle, is reflected in this truly astonishing story. It ends, victoriously, by the jury’s unanimous acquittal even though the two defendants admitted breaking the law with which they had been charged – helping George Blake, the notorious spy, escape from prsion. The jury’s decision was described by some commentators as “perverse”. Others said the jury had simply “smelled oppression”. ”
– Richard Norton-Taylor, award-winning journalist and writer on security and defense

Why Most Americans Blame Insurers for UHC CEO’s Death

Paul Hunter December 30 2024

Murder is not to be taken lightly. It should be approached with extreme reverence and care. It means violating the sanctity of life, and it has the potential to cause severe heartache and trauma to those who have been left behind. For that reason, I will affirm that it is wrong. But I will not for one second shed a tear for United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, and I’m not alone.

Thompson was gunned down by a masked assassin while on his way to a shareholder meeting in Midtown Manhattan on December 4. A man matching his description, 26-year-old Luigi Mangione, was arrested in Pennsylvania five days later.

There can be little doubt as to how Thompson died. The murder was caught on camera. But according to a new poll from NORC at the University of Chicago, roughly 70% of Americans believe that healthcare coverage from insurance companies like UHC bears at least “a moderate amount” of responsibility for his death. It’s easy to see why.

In early 2024, a Senate subcommittee investigated coverage for Medicare Advantage plans. According to their report, three major companies, including UHC, Humana, and CVS were intentionally denying expensive treatments in order to save money and increase profits. Their treatment of the elderly was particularly barbaric. UHC denied nursing home care 3 times more often than their competitors. A detailed report by health news publication, Stat, found that they were providing subpar care to stroke victims, cutting their recommended stay in inpatient facilities by half.

UHC is now facing a class action lawsuit alleging that they used a flawed AI to handle bulk claim reviews, which under Brian Thompson’s leadership reached roughly 32%. That is twice the industry average, but it’s not the largest number by far. Studies have found that some insurance companies deny up to 80% of claims.

After Thompson’s death, gut-wrenching stories started flooding in from social media. Cancer victims, cardiac patients–people from all walks of life, suffering from every malady imaginable–have been left disfigured or dead due to having their claims denied, and these were not isolated incidents.

A KFF survey found that 1 in 5 Americans have experienced some type of claim denial. Those numbers are significantly higher, reaching 27%, for patients who receive care on a regular basis. That is almost 1 in 3.

Patients who are chronically ill, dying, or vulnerable are all being disproportionately affected by these practices, and it is completely unnecessary.

This is not just the nature of capitalism. These companies are going the extra mile. United Healthcare pulled in a total revenue of $371.6 billion in 2023, and it is well known that they push their employees to deny coverage.

Natalie Collins, who worked for UHC as a claims representative, spoke with News Nation about her experience during her time there. The main focus of her training was centered around claim denials, so much so that supervisors would stand behind them and coach them during calls. They were also instructed on ways to cut their calls short, which meant that sick patients were rushed off the phone to avoid having to provide them with care.

Many of you are familiar with the call pattern–interruptions, threats, representatives shouting over you, and they always seem to find some reason to hang up. That is all by design, and patients who need lifesaving care receive the exact same treatment.

How is Brian Thompson Responsible?

The public tends to see victims as good people, but that’s not always the case. Yes, Brian Thompson was a father, a son, and a husband, but he was also being sued for defrauding a pension fund for retired firefighters. He had marital troubles, and he was arrested for driving drunk in 2017.

He was completely aware of what was happening inside his company. The Senate report that came out this year, which reaffirmed that UHC was unnecessarily denying claims, was drawn up during Thompson’s tenure. He knew what it said–and what it said about the elderly.

During his time at the company, there was a marked increase in claim denials and profits. So in all likelihood, he personally took action to make things worse.

Unfortunately, we don’t know how many people died as a result of this system. Some estimates say tens of thousands a year while others say hundreds of thousands. But it doesn’t matter. The body count is staggering.

Many people take the blame away from Thompson because he was participating in a system. In our society, any atrocity can be justified by saying “that’s just the way things work.” But the company clearly took efforts to increase the harm they were causing, and he knew people were dying.

He might not be responsible for his fate, and he certainly did not deserve it. But he does deserve some level of blame for his company’s death toll

Written by tomasoflatharta

Jan 5, 2025 at 6:37 pm

Tomás Ó Flatharta