A Friday round-up of what happened and what’s been written in the world of war and military/security affairs this week. It’s a mix of news reports, policy briefs, blog posts and longform journalism.

The Recorder
‘There is no such thing as a political crime: it is either a crime or not a crime.’

Prisoner
‘I am aware that that has been argued in the Courts, but custom has now proved that that is wrong. For instance, there are the cases of O’Brien, Cobbett, and Dr. Jameson… Technically, of course, I suppose I must be judged to be guilty, but morally I am not guilty; morally it is you before whom I stand who are guilty; you, the private citizens of this country and the Government that you choose to represent you, who keep women out of their just rights as citizens, and in so doing absolutely prevent your country having the right to be called a democratic country; that is, a country where the rights of the people hold good; and so long as you exclude women from these rights, upon you lies the blame of any act that they may have to commit in order to procure those rights.’

Emily Wilding Davison speaking at the Old Bailey during her trial for arson, 1912. She was sentenced to 6 months. ‘During her suffrage activism, she was subjected to force-feeding and sustained serious injuries while in prison.’ She continued to protest publicly and was trampled to death by a horse a year later. In explaining the motivation for her actions, as noted by mswryy in this brilliant post at Magpie’s Nest, she made a point of stating that she was protesting the different punishment meted out to the aristocratic suffragette Lady Constance Lytton, as opposed to the ‘vindictive sentence and treatment’ of the working class Mary Lee.

(via montecristos)

newsflick:

Police spray Ugandan opposition party leaders with coloured water during demonstrations in the capital Kampala, May 10, 2011. President Yoweri Museveni has vowed to crush the protests and blamed rising food and fuel costs on drought and global increases in oil prices. (James Akena)

(via shortformblog)