North Korea Erases Executed Official From the Internet 276
itwbennett writes "The North Korean state propaganda machine has edited and deleted hundreds of news articles that mention Jang Song Thaek, the former top government and party official and uncle to leader Kim Jong Un, who was executed Thursday. Earlier this week, Jang was arrested in front of hundreds of senior members of the ruling Worker's Party of Korea and denounced for numerous alleged acts against the state and Kim Jong Un. From arrest to trial to death took only four days and the unprecedented fall from grace is widely being interpreted as an attempt by Kim Jong Un to keep officials loyal and scared."
History repeating itself? (Score:5, Informative)
"is widely being interpreted as an attempt by Kim Jong Un to keep officials loyal and scared."
Sounds like Stalin all over again....
"The purge was motivated by the desire to remove dissenters from the Communist Party and to consolidate the authority of Joseph Stalin. " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Purge [wikipedia.org]
Slashdot isn't the Internet? (Score:1, Informative)
Uh... Slashdot is on the Internet last time I checked, and this article RIGHT HERE mentions Jang Song Thaek, so I'm pretty sure he was not "erased from the Internet".
Re:Arrest To Death in 4 Days for J.S. Thaek (Score:5, Informative)
The moment guilt is obvious, what's the point of spending 15 years on death row and cost millions in tax dollars?
I won't comment on North Korea, but in the USA there have been at least 311 cases [innocenceproject.org] where "guilt was obvious" but in fact the person had not committed the crime they were convicted of.
If you're willing to accept that your proposal would cause the state-sponsored killing of hundreds of innocent people, okay, but you should say so explicitly.
Re:Word unlocked. (Score:5, Informative)
In a book on the life of Shostakovich, there was an anecdote about Stalin giving a speech at a farm collective. After he finished, there was a thunderous applause that continued on and on for over half an hour. No one wanted to be known as the first one to stop clapping.
Re:Word unlocked. (Score:5, Informative)
Funny thing is, the language in this case isn't so much "inflammatory", as much as it is descriptive. See also The Memory Hole [wikipedia.org].
(I wonder if NoKo actually calls the folks tasked with this job the Korean equivalent of "Ministry of Truth" as well...)
Re:Word unlocked. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Word unlocked. (Score:2, Informative)
He murdered his uncle for political reasons and doesn't want everyone to know about it, that kind of behaviour predates 1984 by several millennia.
I think photoshopping the guy out of pictures, deleting all references to him is what makes it 1984 worthy.
How do you even know he was murdered, given the above?! This is not simply "hiding a murder"...
Re:Word unlocked. (Score:3, Informative)
Um, no. Hitler did not win any election.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_presidential_election,_1932
How does that work? (Score:5, Informative)
"Remember what happened to Jang Song Thaek before you think about crossing me!"
"Who? I don't remember him at all."
"Exactly!"
Sounds a bit more like bad comedy than a real threat.
Re:Word unlocked. (Score:4, Informative)
As soon as all the corrections which happened to be necessary in any particular number of The Times had been assembled and collated, that number would be reprinted, the original copy destroyed, and the corrected copy placed on the files in its stead. This process of continuous alteration was applied not only to newspapers, but to books, periodicals, pamphlets, posters, leaflets, films, sound-tracks, cartoons, photographs -- to every kind of literature or documentation which might conceivably hold any political or ideological significance. Day by day and almost minute by minute the past was brought up to date. In this way every prediction made by the Party could be shown by documentary evidence to have been correct, nor was any item of news, or any expression of opinion, which conflicted with the needs of the moment, ever allowed to remain on record. All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary. In no case would it have been possible, once the deed was done, to prove that any falsification had taken place.
George Orwell, 1984
Re:Word unlocked. (Score:4, Informative)
I guess it depends on your definitions of both "long" and "excessively", but the 20th century had a pretty good number. Stalin might be the best example, in power for around 30 years. And Francisco Franco was in power for nearly 40 years.
Re:Word unlocked. (Score:3, Informative)
False. Hitler did not win election, he lost in 1932. He was made Chancellor in 1933 by then President Hindenburg as a concession to the Nazi Party which did win some elections to the Reichstag. When Hindenburg died, Hitler was unchallenged and then took complete power.
Re:Obummer's exit plan (Score:4, Informative)
> And? Check the official vote rolls [senate.gov]. He didn't vote for it. His name isn't even in the list. Want to try again?
Please try to get the facts correct.
The FISA Amendments Act of 2008 (also called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 Amendments Act of 2008, H.R. 6304
The roll call is here:
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=2&vote=00168 [senate.gov] (vote 168 not 236 which you linked to)
His name is on that list from 2008. You linked to the extension vote in 2012...of course his name isn't on it as a voting SENATOR.
Obama's the PRESIDENT at that time.
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Word unlocked. (Score:4, Informative)