Otto warmbier and child sex gangs
Good article about how the term ‘grooming gangs’ is meaningless race science:
https://medium.com/@Reg_Left_Media/making-a-monster-how-the-times-created-the-asian-grooming-gang-f944ad598822
And the best article about the Otto Warmbier affair I have read:
https://www.gq.com/story/otto-warmbier-north-korea-american-hostage-true-story
Didn’t know the beating stuff was bollocks. And it was seized on by Trump. Also, according to this article the poster offence was just made up wholesale by NK.
‘During the televised confession, Otto would read from a handwritten script that he had put on his “quietest boots, the best for sneaking” and attempted the theft at the prompting of a local Methodist church, a university secret society, and the American administration, “to harm the work ethic and motivation of the Korean people”’
Christ, reading the timeline made me so aware of how much stuff has happened re: North Korea in the last couple of years. May you live in interesting times
Basically says that his brain damage came about by an accident. Maybe an allergic reaction. As NK have nothing to gain from severely beating or injuring an American hostage. But what kind of accident?
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/06/could-botulism-cause-severe-brain-injury/530586/
‘The scans showed “extensive loss of brain tissue in all regions of his brain.” That means his brain was deprived of oxygen and/or blood for a long time, and tissue died everywhere—much the same process that happens to brain cells in a particular area of the brain when a person has a stroke, everywhere.
‘This MRI also makes it possible to say whether a stroke is recent or not. People in early stages of hypoxic-ischemic brain injury sometimes improve; people in remote stages do not. Warmbier’s brain injury is in a remote stage. His doctors reported that it happened more than a year ago.
‘What caused this type of diffuse cellular death throughout the entire brain?
‘This can be the result of asphyxiation, including by exposure to poisonous gas, and by cardiac arrest of innumerable possible causes. The doctors reported yesterday that the most likely caused was “cardiopulmonary arrest.” That isn’t much of a hypothesis—almost begging the question, in that it means his heart and/or lungs ceased to supply his brain with oxygen.
‘The real question would be what the doctors believe to be the cause of said cardiopulmonary arrest. They said there was no evidence of trauma, including scars or fractures, which would be evident in imaging tests even after they’ve healed. Even in the hands of forensic pathologists, the exact etiology may never be known with certainty. Though no obvious explanation involves humane treatment and attentive medical care. Even if the 22-year-old simply suffered a (very rare) cardiac arrest of some organic cause, brain injury this severe would mean that he was not resuscitated for a prolonged period.
‘The explanation that came from North Korea was that the cause was a combination of botulism and ingesting “sleeping pills.” The food-born botulism toxin would not directly account for the damage to the brain. Rather, it paralyzes the muscles of the body, and that can involve the thorax to such a degree that it will stop a person’s breathing. This is a common cause of death in people with untreated botulism. The Ohio doctors said yesterday there was “no evidence” the young man had botulism—though if this happened a year ago, the toxin would be gone from his body and no evidence may remain.
‘Overdosing on a sedative or opiate could also suppress a person’s breathing to the point that brain tissue dies. The combination of explanations is not implausible.’
We will probably never know