Fugitive Indian Billionaire Could Soon End Up in Mumbai Jail… If UK Finds Cell Good Enough

Corruption is Everywhere - Certainly in India

Wealthy people have a completely different justice system from the rest of us. Like Jeffrey Epstein, who trafficked dozens, if not hundreds of underage girls to wealthy and famous people, and was sentenced to spend a few months sleeping in a luxury jail cell while being able to leave and go to his luxury office all day. 

FILE PHOTO: Nirav Modi is driven away from Westminster Magistrates Court in London © AFP / Tolga Akmen

The UK court has extended the custody of notorious diamond dealer Nirav Modi as it seeks to ensure that he will be held in acceptable prison conditions before it rules on the extradition of the fugitive billionaire back to India.

“There is no reason why it [India’s jail plans for Nirav] should not be answered within 14 days,” Judge Emma Arbuthnot said, adding that Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai would be the “obvious candidate.”

Last year, Arbuthnot issued a similar request to Indian authorities before approving the extradition request of another fugitive – liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya, who had complained of inhumane prison conditions back home. In his case, India provided a video of the exact cell in which the former member of the Upper House of the Parliament was to be held. Mallya, who left India in March 2016 with debts of more than $1 billion, continues to fight the extradition order. The next hearing to decide his fate will be held on July 31.

Modi and Mallya might soon become prison mates if the judge Arbuthnot approves billionaire jeweler's extradition on July 29. For now, she has extended Modi's custody until June 27. Modi, who fled India last year and was only detained in London in March, is wanted over an alleged scam against Punjab National Bank (PNB), in which the diamond billionaire used fraudulent paperwork to obtain buyer’s credit for £2bn ($2.6bn).

If extradited, both men are in for a royal treatment at Mumbai's largest and oldest prison built in 1926. To house celebrity inmates and other high-profile prisoners, Arthur Road Jail has constructed a special cell block, consisting of individual 15x10 feet units. The cells have long French windows closer to the ceiling to ensure plenty of daylight and fresh air. They also come with other ‘luxuries’ previously unheard of.

“Exhaust and ceiling fans have been fitted to keep the rooms cool,” director general of prisons SN Pandey noted last month. “The other facilities include a commode, wash basin with 24x7 water supply as well as pure drinking water.”

'Now we are fully ready to accommodate the high-profile fugitive offenders while complying with global prison standards.'

Russian Tycoon Khodorkovsky got Oil Giant Yukos with a Bribe & Robbed Western Shareholders

Corruption is Everywhere - And Most Definitely in Russia

FILE PHOTO: Mikhail Khodorkovsky. ©  Reuters / Axel Schmidt

A TV report, citing an ongoing probe, claims Russian oligarch-turned-opposition figure Mikhail Khodorkovsky took control over the oil giant Yukos by bribing its managers and then siphoned off billions of dollars from shareholders.

Having spent a decade in prison in Russia after being found guilty of tax evasion and embezzlement, Khodorkovsky, once Russia’s richest man, may now face more charges. A new probe into his activities, launched by the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office, has revealed that the businessman laid his hands on the now-defunct oil giant as a result of a shady deal, the report by the Russia’s NTV Channel says.

It reveals that, in the mid-1990s, Khodorkovsky managed to win the right for his companies to buy almost 80 percent of Yukos’s shares by bribing the company’s management. The businessman allegedly promised the then-Yukos director Sergey Muravlenko and three more top managers to pay them an equivalent of 15 percent of the oil giant’s shares – or some $2 billion – Salavat Karimov, an adviser to Russia’s Prosecutor General, told NTV.

“He indeed transferred hundreds of millions [of dollars] to the offshore accounts opened in the names of these four Yukos top managers,” Karimov said.

While he did not name the exact sum of the bribe money, NTV reported that it amounted to $250 million. The top managers then lobbied for Yukos shares to be mostly handed over to the “effective investor” Khodorkovsky, which his company eventually purchased for a giveaway price of just $9 million. It also obtained a right to buy additional 45 percent of shares as a result of a “special clause.”

While Khodorkovsky has already faced charges of tax evasion and embezzlement, a major revelation seems to be that he fooled Yukos’s minor shareholders big-time, with a whopping $51 billion siphoned off to offshore accounts, according to the probe. 

The businessman employed “dozens” of criminal schemes to rob his business partners, which reportedly included JP Morgan, Barclays, Raiffeisen Bank, UBS, Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse. In particular, he bought oil from Yukos affiliates at dumping prices, presenting it as “borehole liquid,” and then sold it on at full price.

The money went to offshore accounts in the British territories – the Cayman Islands, Gibraltar and the Guernsey islands. They were then laundered through a specially created company Quadrum, which purchased real estate in the UK and the US. According to Karimov, some $10 billion was also transferred to the Netherlands.

Khodorkovsky, who is currently based in London and enjoys the limelight of accorded to a top Vladimir Putin critic in the west, has dismissed the information published by NTV, saying he “could not care less” about what he called a “sham investigation.”

The former oil tycoon was sentenced to nine years in prison in 2005 following a lengthy legal battle, which was increased to 11 years after the second trial ended in late 2010. He was pardoned by President Putin in 2013 and left Russia for Germany, Switzerland and then the UK.

In 2015, Russian prosecutors accused Khodorkovsky of ordering the murder of the mayor of Siberian city Nefteyugansk, Vladimir Petukhov, and an attempted assassination of businessman Evgeny Rybin. He was then placed on an international wanted list.

Corruption is Everywhere - Yes, Even in Canada, eh!

CRA signs secret settlement with wealthy KPMG clients involved in offshore tax scheme

Watchdog group accuses the Liberals of covering up the KPMG affair

Harvey Cashore · CBC News 

The Canada Revenue Agency has made an out-of-court settlement with wealthy KPMG clients caught using an offshore tax scheme that it previously said was 'intended to deceive' tax authorities. (Peter Scobie/CBC)

The Canada Revenue Agency has once again made a secret out-of-court settlement with wealthy KPMG clients caught using what the CRA itself had alleged was a "grossly negligent" offshore "sham" set up to avoid detection by tax authorities, CBC's The Fifth Estate and Radio-Canada's Enquête have learned.

This, despite the Liberal government's vow to crack down on high-net-worth taxpayers who used the now-infamous Isle of Man scheme. The scheme orchestrated by accounting giant KPMG enabled clients to dodge tens of millions of dollars in taxes in Canada by making it look as if multimillionaires had given away their fortunes to anonymous overseas shell companies and get their investment income back as tax-free gifts.

KPMG is a global network of accounting and auditing firms headquartered out of the Netherlands and is one of the top firms in Canada.

"Tax cheats can no longer hide," National Revenue Minister Diane Lebouthillier promised in 2017.

Now, tax court documents obtained by CBC News/Radio-Canada show two members of the Cooper family in Victoria, as well as the estate of the late patriarch Peter Cooper, reached an out-of-court settlement on May 24 over their involvement in the scheme.

Details of the settlement and even minutes of the meetings discussing it are under wraps. A CBC News/Radio-Canada reporter who showed up to one such meeting this spring left after realizing it was closed to the public.

Journalists discovered references to the final settlement agreement in tax court documents only by chance.

CRA cites privacy in keeping settlement details secret

The Canada Revenue Agency says strict privacy provisions of Canadian tax law make it difficult to disclose minutes describing individual taxpayer information.

The Isle of Man tax dodge had been active as far back as 1999 and, according to documents filed in court by the CRA in 2015, had "intended to deceive" federal regulators.

Still, significant details of the scheme remain a mystery, including the role played by the KPMG's senior executives. With no public trial, those details may continue to remain secret.

Toby Sanger, executive director of the advocacy group Canadians for Tax Fairness, says the CRA should never have agreed to settle the case. 

"I think it's outrageous," he said. "We've had a lot of tough talk and promises from this minister about how they will crack down on tax evasion by the wealthy and corporations, but unfortunately we've seen no evidence of this so far."

National Revenue Minister Diane Lebouthillier called out tax cheats in 2017 and stated her intention to clamp down on the KPMG scheme. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

Revenue Minister Diane Lebouthlier said in an email statement to The Fifth Estate/Enquête that while she cannot comment on specific cases, she finds the lack of transparency about settlements brokered by her agency "problematic."

"I have instructed the CRA to review its processes to allow for more transparency with respect to the reasons for which a settlement is reached," she said.

KPMG took 15% cut of taxes dodged

One member of the Cooper family, Marshall Cooper, previously told The Fifth Estate that he was unaware of Canadian tax laws when he emigrated from South Africa in the mid-1990s and that it was KPMG that came up with the offshore tax plan.

Documents show KPMG planned to take a 15 per cent cut of the taxes dodged, including $300,000 from the Cooper family. Internal records show the scheme was marketed across the country, with successful KPMG sales agents and accountants referred to as product "champions." 

In all, more than 20 wealthy families participated in the offshore scheme.

Two years ago, Lebouthillier issued a news release on her intention to clamp down on the KPMG scheme, publicly stating that those involved could even face criminal charges over possible "tax fraud."

"The case of KPMG is before the courts right now, and we continue to pursue action against KPMG," Lebouthillier said in 2017. We will see this to the end as Canadians have asked us to do."

She said at the time that her government took the matter "very seriously." "Those who choose to participate in these schemes must face the consequences of their actions," she said.

Yet more than two years after that pledge, participants in the KPMG scheme, namely, members of the Cooper family, were offered a secret out-of-court settlement.

In her statement to The Fifth Estate/Enquête this week, Lebouthillier said the decision to settle was not hers to make and that she had instructed the CRA to review its settlements to "allow for more transparency."

'We will continue to make systemic changes': minister

To "ensure integrity of our tax system," Lebouthillier said, out-of-court settlements are made by the CRA and the Department of Justice "at arm's length" from the minister and the minister's office.

"Canadians deserve a fair and equitable tax system, and we will continue to make systemic changes within the CRA to make sure that this is the case," she said in her statement.

CBC News/Radio-Canada first revealed four years ago that KPMG, one of the largest accounting firms in Canada, with tens of millions in federal contracts, had for years been running a massive offshore tax dodge for wealthy clients it had kept hidden from federal investigators.

The Trudeau government's previous tough talk on the so-called KPMG sham had come after a document leaked to The Fifth Estate/Enquête showed the CRA itself had offered a secret "no penalties" amnesty in May 2015 to many of the other KPMG clients involved in the scheme.

The CRA offered to have them simply pay the back taxes owed — but with the condition they not tell the public about the offer.

The Isle of Man, pictured, is at the centre of a tax-dodging scheme that, according to documents filed in court

by the CRA in 2015, was "intended to deceive" federal regulators. (CBC)

Stung by those revelations, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in 2017 that the government had learned a lesson from the KPMG affair and promised to do a "better job of getting tax avoiders and tax frauders."

Since then, the Liberal government vowed to make sure those kinds of offshore tax dodges were in the past.

In fact, it was concerns over future KPMG court cases that prompted the Liberal-dominated Commons finance committee to shut down its own investigation into the embattled accounting firm back in 2016.

Documents had already begun to emerge detailing the extent to which KPMG was helping clients not only dodge taxes but also hide money from potential creditors, including circumventing the Canadian Divorce Act by "protecting" assets from ex-spouses.

Lawyers for KPMG had argued that the ongoing finance committee investigation could prejudice cases before the court.

Several KPMG executives had been named to testify in the spring of 2016, but Liberal MPs voted to shut down the inquiry, arguing that any more testimony and documents should be produced in court and not in Parliament.

Now, it appears that those future court cases cited as a reason for shutting down the investigation might never materialize.

The Fifth Estate and Enquête also later revealed that in June 2016, around the same time the Liberal MPs shut down their investigation into the accounting giant, a former senior KPMG executive was appointed to the Liberal Party's national board of directors.

"There is no reason why the finance committee shouldn't restart their hearings," Canadians for Tax Fairness's Sanger said.

Settlements offer 'substantial savings to the public'

Sanger said it all seems like a Liberal "coverup" to close down the KPMG investigation.

Canadians still do not know who were the key people at KPMG involved in running the investigation, for example, how high up it went within the organization, or all the names of the wealthy clients who participated.

Tax court documents obtained by CBC News/Radio-Canada show members of the Cooper family in Victoria reached an out-of-court settlement with CRA. Marshall Cooper, pictured, previously told The Fifth Estate that he was unaware of Canadian tax laws when he emigrated from South Africa in the mid-1990s. (Facebook)

Max Weder, the lawyer for the wealthy Cooper family, said he "can't comment on the settlement."

Documents show the family paid virtually no tax over a span of eight years — and even obtained federal and provincial tax credits — despite receiving nearly $6 million from an offshore company worth $26 million that KPMG helped set up.

KPMG has always maintained the scheme was legal. The firm's lawyers claimed any money the Coopers received were gifts and therefore non-taxable. Nevertheless, KPMG now says it would not set up this type of offshore structure anymore.

For its part, the CRA said that the settlement was made in accordance with the law and is "supported by the facts of this particular case." The agency also said it "maximized revenue" by making a decision to settle out of court, instead of facing an uncertain ruling in tax court.

"There is generally substantial savings to the public and a benefit to the justice system when cases are resolved through a settlement," a CRA spokesperson said in a statement.

Several French Journalists Summoned by Macron’s Security Services, ‘Warned’ About Prison Sentences

Macron - Trying to get Control of the Media?

Getting control of the media is one of the first acts of an autocratic government,

or a government that wishes it was autocratic.

© Global Look / Elyxandro Cegarra

A Le Monde journalist, the latest who was questioned by French security services, has refused to reveal her sources over stories she wrote exposing alleged corruption and cronyism in President Emmanuel Macron’s inner circle.

“They asked me many questions on the manner in which I checked my information, which was an indirect way of asking me about my sources,” Ariane Chemin told AFP, adding that she declined to answer the implied question: “I explained that I only did my job as a journalist.”

Chemin was questioned by the General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI) for 45 minutes on Wednesday in the presence of her lawyer, a week after she became the fifth journalist summoned to appear before the agency over stories they have covered, in what has become a disturbing new pattern of journalistic intimidation by Macron’s government.

Her reporting on the “Benalla affair,” a scandal that erupted after one of Macron’s bodyguards was filmed beating a protester while dressed as a policeman, contributed to the resignation of several government officials. The DGSI were most interested in articles concerning former air force officer Chokri Wakrim, whose wife ran security for the prime minister’s office; she was forced to resign after Le Monde exposed that the couple had welcomed the disgraced Benalla into their home.

“Everything is done to make it intimidating,” Le Monde managing director Louis Dreyfus wrote in an editorial describing his own DGSI interrogation on Wednesday. “I explained that I never read the articles before they were published, and that I was not meant to do so. And they kept telling me that the offense was punishable by five years in prison and a fine of €75,000.” He was summoned the same day as Chemin.

Earlier this month, the DGSI interrogated four journalists from investigative news website Disclose, threatening them with a five-year prison sentence under a 2009 law prohibiting “attacks on national defense secrets” after they published a story based on a classified document that suggested the French government was knowingly violating a 2014 arms treaty by selling offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for the purposes of waging war in Yemen.

Macron has cracked down hard on journalists critical of his administration and policies. In February, police raided the offices of Mediapart, another outlet which reported on the Benalla affair, without a warrant. Last year, a law was passed to allow the government to shut down any news agency four months before an election, so long as it could be deemed “under foreign influence.”

'Under foreign influence' is the excuse paranoid communists have been using for the better part of a century to shut down any criticism (read: truth) of the government.

Where weapons manufacturing and/or sales are involved, there is Deep State. They usually have better control over the media, as in Britain and USA, but, apparently, not some French outlets.

Warning: A Most Uncivil Law Is Coming - The War on Christianity - USA

Now that Democrats have the majority in Congress, assaults on the pillars of Christianity should be expected by a godless horde

CRAIG PARSHALL/NRB

(Photo by Christian Sterk on Unsplash)

A vote in the House of Representatives could come as early as this Thursday on H.R. 5, the contentious bill that would place nearly all Christian ministries, religious organizations and faith-based companies in the crosshairs of discrimination lawsuits. The bill looks almost certain to pass in the House. Although passage in the Senate may be doubtful, the sheer audacity of this legislation should be taken as a cautionary tale.

The law adds sexual orientation and transgender identity as protected categories and then wildly expands the list of activities and organizations impacted by the civil rights law to include any public "gathering," "exhibition," "display" or anything involving the provision of goods or "any service or program." During one House subcommittee hearing, employment law expert Lawrence Lorber flatly acknowledged that the bill would apply to "churches" and "houses of worship."

The vast scope of H.R. 5 is best illustrated by the fact that, unlike prior civil rights laws that were limited to activities at physical locations, this legislation extends to cyberspace. It would apply to any group that offers retail sales or services "online." Any Christian organization, ministry or business with a website could be at risk.

Most startling of all, H.R. 5 expressly targets for extinction the religious liberties of faith-based organizations. The bill blatantly states that the protections of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA)—the law guarding rights of religious conscience that was upheld by the Supreme Court in the Hobby Lobby case—will not apply to these new civil rights laws.

In the past, when controversial issues of gay rights-versus-religious freedom arose in Congress, the question of accommodating religious liberty customarily had a place at the table. As general counsel for NRB, I had the privilege of testifying several times in the Senate and in the House on the need for religious protections. But that was then. Today, the hostility against orthodox belief seems almost palpable. 

Austrian Chancellor Kurz Ousted in No-Confidence Vote After Video Scandal

The left fights back as politics in Europe get uglier

By Ed Adamczyk

Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, seen here in the White House on February 20, was driven from office on Monday after a no-confidence vote by Austria's parliament. File photo by Chris Kleponis/UPI | License Photo

May 27 (UPI) -- Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz was ousted Monday by a no-confidence vote amid a corruption scandal engulfing a coalition partner.

In parliamentary debate, delegates of the far-right Freedom Party, a coalition partner of Kurz' Austrian People's Party, were critical of Kurz and unwilling to gamble their party's future on Kurz in the wake of a scandal.

Kurz, 32, became chancellor in December 2017. His party had received 31 percent of the vote in parliamentary elections and a coalition was formed.

German publications circulated a video a week ago in which vice chancellor and Freedom Party leader Heinz-Christian Strache, and party parliamentary leader Johann Gudenus, talked with an unidentified woman at a luxury resort on the Spanish island of Ibiza. She purported to be the niece of a Russian oligarch, seeking to invest in Austria, and during their six-hour meeting Strache told her that he could help her gain access to artificially-inflated state contracts.

The video included footage of Strache drinking heavily. He called the sting operation "a honey trap stage-managed by intelligence agencies," mentioning Jan Bohmermann, an Israeli with links to Austria's center-left Social Democratic Party. Strache resigned from the vice chancellorship last week. To tamp down the effects of the scandal, Kurz called for snap elections in Austria in September.

Kurz' dismissal came Monday, after the Freedom Party ignored its coalition with Kurz' leading party and voted with center and left parties in the no-confidence vote. Before the parliamentary action, Kurz's party won a decisive victory in the weekend's European Parliament elections.

It is the first time since the reconstituted Austrian government was formed after World War II that its leader was driven from office. A caretaker government will be formed to lead the country until the September elections.

Driven from office for not tolerating corruption? I hope he runs as party leader in the September elections and gets a majority. 

The World: What is Really Happening - Craig Murray

Craig Murray
See bio at bottom

If you want to understand what is really happening in the world today, a mid-ranking official named Ian Henderson is vastly more important to you than Theresa May. You will not, however, find anything about Henderson in the vast majority of corporate and state media outlets.

You may recall that, one month after the Skripal incident, there was allegedly a “chemical weapons attack” in the jihadist enclave of Douma, which led to air strikes against the Syrian government in support of the jihadist forces by US, British and French bombers and missiles. At the time, I argued that the Douma jihadist enclave was on the brink of falling (as indeed it proved) and there was no military advantage – and a massive international downside – for the Syrian Army in using chemical weapons. Such evidence for the attack that existed came from the jihadist allied and NATO funded White Helmets and related sources; and the veteran and extremely respected journalist Robert Fisk, first westerner to arrive on the scene, reported that no chemical attack had taken place.

UK Reporter Astounded By What He Found in Douma

The “Douma chemical weapon attack” was linked to the “Skripal chemical weapon attack” by the western media as evidence of Russian evil. Robert Fisk was subjected to massive media abuse and I was demonised by countless mainstream media journalists on social media.

In both the Skripal and the Douma case, it fell to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to provide the technical analysis. The OPCW is a multilateral body established by treaty, and has 193 member states. The only major chemical weapons owning powers which are not members and refuse the inspections regime are the pariah rogue states Israel and North Korea.

An OPCW fact finding mission visited Douma on April 21 and 25 2018 and was able to visit the sites, collect samples and interview witnesses. No weaponised chemicals were detected but traces of chlorine were found. Chlorine is not an uncommon chemical, so molecular traces of chlorine at a bombing site are not improbable. The interim report of the OPCW following the Fact Finding Mission was markedly sober and non-committal:

The results show that no organophosphorous nerve agents or their degradation products were detected in the environmental samples or in the plasma samples taken from alleged casualties. Along with explosive residues, various chlorinated organic chemicals were found in samples from two sites, for which there is full chain of custody.

The fact finding mission then returned to OPCW HQ, at which time the heavily politicised process took over within the secretariat and influenced by national delegations. 9 months later the final report was expressed in language of greater certainty, yet backed by no better objective evidence:

Regarding the alleged use of toxic chemicals as a weapon on 7 April 2018 in Douma, the Syrian Arab Republic, the evaluation and analysis of all the information gathered by the FFM—witnesses’ testimonies, environmental and biomedical samples analysis results, toxicological and ballistic analyses from experts, additional digital information from witnesses—provide reasonable grounds that the use of a toxic chemical as a weapon took place. This toxic chemical contained reactive chlorine. The toxic chemical was likely molecular chlorine.

However the report noted it was unable to determine who had used the chlorine as a weapon. Attempts to spin this as a consequence of OPCW’s remit are nonsense – the OPCW exists precisely to police chemical weapons violations, and has never operated on the basis of violator anonymity.

Needless to say, NATO funded propaganda site Bellingcat had been from the start in the lead in proclaiming to the world the “evidence” that this was a chemical weapons attack by the Assad government, dropping simple chlorine cylinders as bombs. The original longer video footage of one of the videos on the Bellingcat site gives a fuller idea of the remarkable lack of damage to one gas cylinder which had smashed through the reinforced concrete roof and landed gently on the bed.

[I am sorry that I do not know how to extract that longer video from its tweet. You need to click on the above link then click on the link in the first tweet that warns you it is sensitive material – in fact there is nothing sensitive there, so don’t worry.]

Now we come to the essential Mr Ian Henderson. Mr Henderson was in charge of the engineering sub-group of the OPCW Fact Finding Mission. The engineers assessed that the story of the cylinders being dropped from the sky was improbable, and it was much more probable that they had simply been placed there manually. There are two major reasons they came to this conclusion.

At least one of the crater holes showed damage that indicated it had been caused by an explosive, not by the alleged blunt impact. The cylinders simply did not show enough damage to have come through the reinforced concrete slabs and particularly the damage which would have been caused by the rebar. Rebar is actually thicker steel than a gas cylinder and would have caused major deformation.

Yet – and this is why Ian Henderson is more important to your understanding of the world than Theresa May – the OPCW Fact Finding Mission reflected in their final report none of the findings of their own sub-group of university based engineers from two European universities, but instead produced something that is very close to the amateur propaganda “analysis” put out by Bellingcat. The implications of this fraud are mind-blowing.

The genuine experts’ findings were completely suppressed until they were leaked last week. And still then, this leak – which has the most profound ramifications – has in itself been almost completely suppressed by the mainstream media, except for those marginalised outliers who still manage to get a platform, Robert Fisk and Peter Hitchens (a tiny platform in the case of Fisk).

Consider what this tells us. A fake chemical attack incident was used to justify military aggression against Syria by the USA, UK and France. The entire western mainstream media promoted the anti-Syrian and anti-Russian narrative to justify that attack. The supposedly neutral international watchdog, the OPCW, was manipulated by the NATO powers to produce a highly biased report that omits the findings of its own engineers. Which can only call into doubt the neutrality and reliability of the OPCW in its findings on the Skripals too.

There has been virtually no media reporting of the scandalous cover-up. This really does tell you a very great deal more about how the Western world works than the vicissitudes of the ludicrously over-promoted Theresa May and her tears of self pity.

Still more revealing is the reaction from the OPCW – which rather than acknowledge there is a major problem with the conclusions of its Douma report, has started a witch hunt for the whistleblower who leaked the Henderson report.

The Russian government claimed to have intelligence that indicated it was MI6 behind the faking of the Douma chemical attack. I have no means of knowing the truth of that, and am always sceptical of claims by all governments on intelligence matters, after a career observing government disinformation techniques from the inside. But the MI6 claim is consistent with the involvement of the MI6 originated White Helmets in this scam. and MI6 can always depend on their house journal The Guardian to push their narrative, as Guardian Middle East editor Brian Whitaker does here in an article “justifying” the omission of the Henderson report by the OPCW. Whitaker argues that Henderson’s engineers had a minority view. Interestingly Whitaker’s article is not from the Guardian itself, which prefers to keep all news of the Henderson report from the public.

But Whitaker’s thesis cannot stand. On one level, of course we know that Henderson’s expert opinion did not prevail at the OPCW. Henderson and the truth lost out in the politicking. But at the very least, it would be essential for the OPCW report to reflect and note the strong contrary view among its experts, and the suppression of this essential information cannot possibly be justified. Whitaker’s attempt to do so is a disgrace.

Which leads me on to the Skripals.

I have noted before the news management technique of the security services, leaking out key facts in a managed way over long periods so as not to shock what public belief there is in the official Skripal story. Thus nine months passed before it was admitted that the first person who “coincidentally” came across the ill Skripals on the park bench, just happened to be the Chief Nurse of the British Army.

The inquest into the unfortunate Dawn Sturgess has now been postponed four times. The security services have now admitted – once again through the Guardian – that even if “Boshirov and Petrov” poisoned the Skripals, they cannot have been also responsible for the poisoning of Dawn Sturgess. This because the charity bin in which the perfume bottle was allegedly found is emptied regularly so the bottle could not have lain there for 16 weeks undiscovered, and because the package was sealed so could not have been used on the Skripals’ doorknob.

This Guardian article is bylined by the security services’ pet outlet, Luke Harding, and one other. The admissions are packaged in a bombastic sandwich about Russian GRU agents.

Every single one of these points – that “Boshirov and Petrov” have never been charged with the manslaughter of Sturgess, that the bottle was sealed so could not have been used at the Skripals’ house, and that it cannot have been in the charity bin that long – are points that I have repeatedly made, and for which I have suffered massive abuse, including – indeed primarily – from dozens of mainstream media journalists. Making precisely these points has seen me labelled as a mentally ill conspiracy theorist or paid Russian agent. Just like the Douma fabrication, it turns out there was indeed every reason to doubt, and now, beneath a veneer of anti-Russian nonsense, these facts are quietly admitted by anonymous “sources” to Harding. No wonder poor Dawn Sturgess keeps not getting an inquest.

Doublespeak

Which brings us back full circle to the OPCW. In neither its report on the Salisbury poisoning nor its report on the Amesbury poisoning did the OPCW ever use the word Novichok. As an FCO source explained to me, the expert scientists in OPCW were desperate to signal that the Salisbury sample had not been for days on a doorknob collecting atmospheric dust, rain and material from hands and gloves, but all the politics of the OPCW leadership would allow them to slip in was the phrase “almost complete absence of impurities” as a clue – which the British government then spun as meaning “military grade” when it actually meant “not from a doorknob”.

Now we have seen irrefutable evidence of poor Ian Henderson in exactly the same position with the OPCW of having the actual scientific analysis blocked out of the official findings. That is extremely strong added evidence that my source was indeed telling the truth about the earlier suppression of the scientific evidence in the Skripal case.

Even the biased OPCW could not give any evidence of the Amesbury and Salisbury poisons being linked, concluding:

“Due to the unknown storage conditions of the small bottle found in the house of Mr Rowley and the fact that the environmental samples analysed in relation to the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal and Mr Nicholas Bailey were exposed to the environment and moisture, the impurity profiles of the samples available to the OPCW do not make it possible to draw conclusions as to whether the samples are from the same synthesis batch”

Which is strange, as the first sample had an “almost complete absence of impurities” and the second was straight out of the bottle. In fact beneath the doublespeak the OPCW are saying there is no evidence the two attacks were from the same source. Full stop.

I suppose I should now have reached the stage where nothing will shock me, but as a textbook example of the big lie technique, this BBC article is the BBC’s take on the report I just quoted – which remember does not even use the word Novichok.

When it comes to government narrative and the mainstream media, mass purveyor of fake news, scepticism is your friend. Remembering that is much more important to your life than the question of which Tory frontman is in No. 10.

For an analysis of the Henderson Report fiasco written to the highest academic standards, where you can find all the important links to original source material, read this superb work by the Working Group on Syria, Propaganda and Media.

————————–

Finally two housekeeping points. Even among regular readers of this blog, well less than 1% make a voluntary subscription and among all readers the number is even smaller. Money is an unfortunate necessity to keep the blog going, and all help is gratefully received – though I do not wish anyone to contribute who has any difficulty to afford it.

Secondly the blog has used the same photo of me since 2005, and it is high time to change it. I have found a photo in which I look at least 80, so hopefully it might keep us going a few years. I hope my kind technical team will get that done today.

——————————————

Unlike our adversaries including the Integrity Initiative, the 77th Brigade, Bellingcat, the Atlantic Council and hundreds of other warmongering propaganda operations, this blog has no source of state, corporate or institutional finance whatsoever. It runs entirely on voluntary subscriptions from its readers – many of whom do not necessarily agree with the every article, but welcome the alternative voice, insider information and debate.

Subscriptions to keep this blog going are gratefully received.

Craig John Murray (born 17 October 1958) is a British former diplomat turned political activist, human rights campaigner, blogger and whistleblower.

Between 2002 and 2004, he was the British ambassador to Uzbekistan during which he exposed the human rights violations of the Karimov administration. This led to conflict with his superiors in the Foreign Office until finally he was removed from the post. Specifically, Murray complained to the Foreign Office repeatedly that intelligence received by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from the Uzbek government was unreliable because it had been obtained through torture, a fact later confirmed by European investigators.

Subsequently he became a political activist, campaigning for human rights and for transparency in global politics as well as for the independence of Scotland. In 2007–2010 he was the elected Rector of the University of Dundee.

His books include Sikunder Burnes: Master of the Great Game (2016), The Catholic Orangemen of Togo (2009), and a memoir Murder in Samarkand (2006).

Urgent Prayer: Pastor, 16 Church Members Kidnapped in Nigeria

by Lindy Lowry in Africa, Stories of Persecution

Our field has just alerted us that 17 Christians in Nigeria have been kidnapped from a church. The group of church members, which includes a pastor, his daughter at least and at least nine other women, had gathered in the church for a choir practice.

Police confirmed that on Saturday, May 18, around midnight an estimated 20 unidentified gunmen entered Unguwar Kuli village, a border community between Sabuwa Local Government Area of Katsina State and Birnin Gwari LGA of Kaduna State.

“The gunmen started shooting sporadically, went and intercepted some church members while closing from service,” according to the report.

Reportedly, the attackers surrounded the church where the choir practice was taking place and “just started shooting,” a witness in Dankade village told Nigerian newspaper The Cable.

“It was at about 12:30 midnight,” the witness said. “We had a combined choir practice in the church with other neighboring communities. Everybody was terrified but there was no how we could run because they had already surrounded the church.”

The Christian Association of Nigeria reports that the kidnappers are demanding N30 million ($83,100) in ransom.

This attack and recent others indicate ever-increasing insecurity in Nigeria, which is preparing for its presidential inauguration. Please be in prayer with us. One of our field workers in the country shared: “This has brought fear to the believers around the area and also tears to the families. Please, they need the prayers of the believers.”

This part of Nigeria is likely to be infested with radical Fulani Herdsmen, rather than Boko Haram. But these are not the only Muslim terrorist groups operating in Nigeria, though some may be just criminal gangs.

Katsina State, Nigeria

Three French Citizens Sentenced to Death by Iraqi Court for Joining ISIS

File photo © Reuters / Stringer

A court in Iraq has sentenced three men to death after finding them guilty of joining Islamic State, officials confirmed on Sunday.

A court official, who spoke to the press on condition of anonymity, said the trio were sentenced “after it was proven that they were members of the terrorist Islamic State organization.”

The men have 30 days to appeal their conviction.

The three were reportedly captured in Syria by US-backed forces before being brought to Iraq for trial.

While hundreds of foreign fighters have been tried in Iraq for IS membership and activities, none have yet been executed. These are the first French members to be sentenced to death by an Iraqi court.

According to French government figures, up to 1,700 French citizens are believed to have traveled to Iraq and Syria in the four years up to 2018 to fight with IS. It’s not clear how many of the survivors would be repatriated to France, but in April the government said it would not move ahead with earlier plans to bring former fighters and their families back and instead will consider the return of children on a case-by-case basis.

Earlier this year French Secretary of State Laurent Nunez said that any jihadists returning to France will face prosecution, telling BFMTV “they will all be put on trial and incarcerated.”

And then what? They spend a few years in prison with their lunatic, radicalized friends, and then they are released into society? If radicalized Muslims don't have a 'Syria' to go to, they will fight at home. Radicalized Muslims should never be allowed to roam free in society.

France has had relative peace from its many Muslim enclaves over the past few years because so many of its radicalized young men have gone to Syria. As they return, if they return, and as the next generation of Islamic radicals reaches their late teens and 20s, France will become much more unstable than it already is.

Radicalized Muslims need to be designated as clinically insane and permanently separated from society before they commit acts of terrorism.

Man Accused of Edmonton Jewelry Store Heist to Fund ISIS Fighters is Facing Extradition to the U.S. on Terror-Related Charges

Andrea Huncar · CBC News 

An Alberta man facing extradition to the U.S. is accused of robbing a jewelry store in Edmonton to finance the terrorist activities of relatives and a friend who fought overseas with ISIS.

Abdullahi Ahmed Abdullahi faces an extradition to the U.S for allegedly providing material support to ISIS recruits. (U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of California)

Abdullahi Ahmed Abdullahi, 33, is charged with providing material support to terrorists, according to a U.S. indictment.

The indictment also sheds new light on a case first uncovered by CBC of three cousins from Edmonton who joined the ISIS ranks and died on the battlefield in Syria.

Mahad Hirsi and brothers Hamsa and Hersi Kariye, along with a fourth man from Minnesota, Hanad Mohallim, died in November 2014.

Mahad Hirsi and Hamsa Kariye are two of three Edmonton men believed killed in November 2014 while fighting for ISIS. They are cousins of Abdullahi Ahmed Abdullahi, facing extradition to the U.S.

The young men are cousins of Abdullahi, who is also accused of planning to join their ranks overseas.

"Inshallah (we'll) be all together on the front lines just like I been dreaming about lately," Abdullahi allegedly wrote to Mohallim in March 2014, according to the indictment document.

The U.S. government says it was the efforts of Abdullahi and his circle that allowed the four cousins, plus another childhood friend, to travel from North America to Syria to become foreign fighters.

Inshallah  (we'll) be all together on the front lines

just like I been dreaming about lately

-  text allegedly written by Abdullahi  Ahmed Abdullahi

RCMP arrested Abdullahi in Fort McMurray on Sept. 15, 2017, after U.S. authorities filed an extradition request. He has been in custody since then, and is scheduled to appear before a judge in Edmonton Court of Queen's Bench for an extradition hearing on May 31.

"Abdullahi committed an armed robbery of a jewelry store for the purpose of financing the travel and efforts of co-conspirators in supporting and joining terrorist fighters engaged in terrorist activity in Syria, including the killing, kidnapping and maiming of persons," states the U.S. indictment, filed on March 10, 2017, in a California court.

Abdullahi is accused of wiring money through Western Union to San Diego to help pay for the flights to Turkey for a friend and cousin who left the U.S. in March 2014.

Information was sealed

The charges and documents were sealed until Jan. 12, when a 10-year prison sentence was handed down to Marchello McCain, a friend of the Edmonton cousins, in San Diego. McCain pleaded guilty to possession of firearms and lying to U.S. authorities investigating his brother's terrorist activities.

McCain's brother is Douglas McCain, who gained notoriety as the first American known to die fighting for the Islamic State.

Douglas McAuthur McCain, American militant, killed in Syria, U.S. says

Douglas grew up in Minnesota, where he became friends with the Kariye family, who immigrated from Somalia with ties to Minneapolis, San Diego and Edmonton, court documents say.

U.S. authorities allege ISIS fighter Douglas McCain received money in a wire transfer from Abdullahi Ahmed Abdullahi to pay for his ticket. (Hennepin County, Minn. Sheriff's Office/The Associated Press)

It's not clear how the close-knit group was first radicalized. But the indictment reveals extensive planning and fundraising efforts. 

Between August 2013 and November 2014, Abdullahi, who was living in Alberta at the time, allegedly conspired with Douglas and others to provide personnel and money for terrorist activities.

ISIS suspects known as 'high-risk travellers,' Edmonton police say

U.S. authorities say Abdullahi was among those who encouraged others to steal from the "infidels" to pay for airline tickets but didn't stop there.

On Jan. 9, 2014, Abdullahi and two accomplices robbed a jewelry store in Edmonton, but struggled to pawn the loot, the indictment says. Abdullahi is scheduled to appear in Edmonton provincial court Aug. 9  on a charge of armed robbery.

Abdullahi, and others he enlisted, wired a total of about $3,100 to Douglas, says the document. A portion of the money was used to pay for Douglas and Mohallim to fly to Turkey in March 2014, where they met up with the cousins from Edmonton.  

Abdullahi also allegedly wired money to intermediaries in Gaziantep, Turkey, 64 kilometres from the Syrian border.

The case laid out by the U.S. government also offers new insight into how their network apparently recruited family and friends and operated covertly to avoid detection by law enforcement.

Coded language in emails 

After Douglas arrived in Syria, the group communicated through draft emails in a shared account using coded language and sports terminology, documents say.

Abdullahi went by the moniker "Phish." The Canadian cousins were referred to as "Sleepy," "Farmer" and "Zubayr."

The term "three point shot" was used to praise firearms marksmanship. "Sub us out" described being killed in battle while "B's" referred to bodies.

"I heard yall got b's under yall belt," Abdullahi allegedly wrote in an email near the end of 2013 before commending one of the Kariye brothers. "I heard (his) three point shot is no joke."

In another message, one of the Kariye brothers allegedly urged Abdullahi to come to Syria before they were killed in battle.

"It's an important time to catch the caravan," says an email cited in the court documents. "The playoffs is getting more intense and the manz over here (tried) to sub us out the other week."

HRW Urges Brunei to Repeal Sharia Law

The Wonderful World of Islam

By Darryl Coote

Human Rights Watch is urging Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei to not only repeal his country's newly enacted Sharia law penal code but to ratify international human rights accords it has already signed. Photo by Drew Angerer/UPI/Drew Angerer | License Photo

(UPI) -- An international human rights organization called on the sultan of Brunei to repeal his country's newly enacted Sharia penal code as it violates a range of internationally recognized human rights.

Enacted April 3, the Syariah Penal Code imposes death by stoning for extramarital and anal sex, limb amputation for theft and 40 whip lashes for lesbian sex, among other restrictions critics say target women and sexual and gender minorities.

"The provisions contained in the penal code pave the way for multiple violations of human rights, including the right to life, freedom from torture and other ill-treatment, freedom of expression, privacy and religion," four directors of Human Rights Watch said in a letter dated Wednesday to Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, who is also the prime minister of Brunei.

A detailed report of the new penal code attached to the letter states that the code violates Brunei's obligations to international human rights conventions the country has signed, including the Convention on Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women as well as others it has signed but not yet ratified.

Again I mention that Islam tends toward radicalism and Sharia. This is another example.

"As a member state of the United Nations, Brunei has pledged to respect the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, whose provisions are considered reflective of customary international law," the report said.

Human Rights Watch Deputy Asia Director Phil Robertson said the new penal code is a "multifaceted assault on fundamental human rights."

"The sultan holds absolute power in Brunei, so responsibility for this abhorrent penal code falls squarely on his shoulders," Robertson said in a statement. "Brunei's repeated commitments to respect human rights amount to little so long as the Syariah Penal Code is in force."

The rollout of the new penal code was met with opposition from both celebrities, such as actor George Clooney and comedian Ellen DeGeneres who encouraged boycotts of Brunei-linked hotel brands, and countries such as the United States, Britain, France and Germany who protested the country's use of Sharia law.

Sharia law is full of Allah's mercy and blessings

In response, the sultan on May 5 said there are many "misperceptions" about the code that may cause "apprehension." He said despite the implementation of the penal code, Brunei will continue to uphold its de facto moratorium on the death penalty.

"There should not be any concern on the Sharia law as it is full of Allah's mercy and blessings," he said.

Islam must have a radically different interpretation of the meaning of 'mercy' and 'blessings'! 

However, Human Rights Watch rejected this explanation Wednesday, stating the moratorium "is subject to political whim and could be lifted at any time, while leaving in place dozens of other rights-offending provisions." The death penalty is also only one of many issues with the penal code, the directors said in their letter.

Human Rights Watch then urged the sultan to immediately repeal the penal code, ensure the new one is aligned with international human rights law and ratify conventions and treaties Brunei has previously signed.

"The sultan should revoke this law and fulfil his promise to respect human rights," Robertson said.

Ramadan Police: Malaysian Officials Disguise as Waiters to Catch Muslims Who Skip Fasting

The Wonderful World of Islam

What Europe has to look forward to

(FILE PHOTO) ©  Reuters/Stringer

If you are a non-fasting Muslim in Malaysia - be warned, a local official in disguise might serve your next meal having already snapped a photo of you and sent it to the local religious affairs department.

Thirty two enforcement officers in the Malaysian district of Segamat are dressing up as cooks and waiters to catch Muslims eating during the holy month of Ramadan, the New Straits Times newspaper reported on Thursday.

The best tea-brewers and noodle chefs were selected from the ranks of the department’s officers to carry out the task, which will be conducted at 185 food premises. Another prerequisite for the job was skin color as many restaurant staff are migrants workers.

“We have specially selected enforcement officers who are dark skinned for the undercover job,” Segamat Municipal Council president Mohamad Masni Wakiman told the paper.

“They sound convincing when they speak in Indonesian and Pakistani lingo, so that customers will believe they are really hired to cook and serve meals and take menu orders.”

Islam’s holy month of Ramadan runs from May 5 until June 4 this year. During this time observing Muslims are obliged to fast from dawn until dusk unless they have a special health condition.

In certain parts of Malaysia Muslims are subject to Islamic laws. If a Muslim is caught breaking the fast by one of the officers, he or she might face a fine of up to $329 or up to six month detention or both.

The large Muslim population of the multi-ethnic Malaysia has traditionally followed a tolerant form of Islam. In recent years the spread of increasingly conservative interpretations have been a source of worry in the country. A human-rights group advocating for Muslim women in Malaysia, Sisters of Islam, has lambasted the restaurant initiative calling it a “disgraceful act of spying”.

As I have been saying for some time, Islam tends toward becoming more and more extreme. The most radical and violent leaders rise to the top eventually. Are you ready for this, Europe?