Corruption is Everywhere - And All Around Ex-King Juan Carlos of Spain

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Ex-Spanish King Juan Carlos pays back multi-million euro tax bill

amid corruption scandal

26 Feb, 2021 14:40

Spain’s former King Juan Carlos I has paid back his second tax bill after fleeing to the United Arab Emirates following his 2014 abdication in favor of his son Felipe VI amid fear of prosecution over a corruption scandal.

The payment of €4.4 million ($4.9 million) was confirmed by the former king’s lawyer on Friday, marking the second time in recent months that Juan Carlos has handed over money as part of a voluntary settlement to authorities. The latest figure was related to travel costs and expenses that were covered by a foundation of which he was a beneficiary.

Back in December, Juan Carlos agreed to make a payment of more than €678,000 to tax officials over allegations of illegal credit card transactions to avoid a criminal investigation being opened into his actions and potentially allowing him to return to Spain without concerns about being arrested. 

Juan Carlos has been living in the United Arab Emirates following his decision to flee Spain in August 2020 after authorities linked him to an investigation into allegations of corruption during his reign. Although, he has claimed he would be willing to cooperate with prosecutors if asked.  

The investigation has focused on the awarding of a high-speed rail contract in Saudi Arabia, which saw Spanish companies secure a €6.7 billion ($8.12 billion) deal. Anti-corruption investigators have suggested that they believe Carlos might have kept some funds hidden in Switzerland from the agreement.

Spain’s Deputy Prime Minister Carmen Calvo said that the government was not able to speak about any specific cases related to citizens. However, he stated that “no one is allowed to break the law,” in remarks that were seen as targeted at the former monarch. 

Juan Carlos has refused to comment on the allegations of corruption, as well as agreements with tax authorities, choosing only to confirm the settlements that have been paid through his lawyer. 

King Felipe VI, who replaced his father in 2014, has also declined to comment on the ongoing reports of investigation and the recent developments related to Juan Carlos.

Islam - Current Day - Italian Diplomat Killed in DRC; Salafist Preacher Gets 10 Years in Germany; 850 Officers in German Raids on Salafists

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Italian ambassador killed in attack on UN peacekeepers in DR Congo

22 Feb, 2021 11:49

Soldiers from a UN peacekeeping mission patrol the road in Djungu, Democratic Republic of Congo, March 2020.

© Samir Tounsi / AFP

An Italian diplomat and a police officer were killed while traveling as part of a UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Monday.

The Italian Foreign Ministry confirmed that Ambassador Luca Attanasio and a member of the country’s Carabinieri police were killed during an attack on a UN convoy in the city of Goma in eastern Congo, near the border with Rwanda. 

According to Rai News, the head of the EU delegation in Congo’s capital Kinshasa was also traveling with the convoy that was part of a UN peacekeeping mission.

A spokesperson for the Virunga National Park told Reuters the ambush on the convoy was carried out as part of a kidnapping attempt.

Several armed groups are known to operate in the area where the attack occurred.

‘Preacher without a face’: ISIS’ ‘chief recruiter’ in Germany sentenced to over 10yrs in prison following years-long trial

24 Feb, 2021 16:27

FILE PHOTO. ©  Reuters / Fabian Bimmer

An Iraqi man identified as Ahmad Abdulaziz Abdullah A., also known as Abu Walaa, has been sentenced to 10 and a half years in prison by a regional court in the German town of Celle. He was found guilty of membership in a terrorist organization, lending support to terrorist activities and financing terrorism.

Walaa stood trial together with three other suspects, who were also sentenced to between four and eight years in prison. According to the court, the Salafist preacher led a network in Germany that radicalized young people and sent them to join IS terrorists in Syria and Iraq.

At least 20 people travelled to IS-held areas and joined the extremists after being recruited by Walaa’s network, German media reported, adding that two of his recruits carried out suicide bombings in Iraq that led to massive casualties.

One of the jihadists believed to be radicalized by Walaa and his accomplices also sought to commit a terrorist attack in Germany. Known as Safia S., this young woman attacked a German police officer with a knife in 2016 in Hannover and was sentenced to six years in prison.

Walaa arrived in Germany from Iraq as a refugee in the early 2000s, but soon gained prominence as a preacher and became one of the most influential figures in the German Salafist scene. He also led the ‘Deutsche Islamkreis Hildesheim’ – one of the most active Salafist groups – which ran a mosque in the town of Hildesheim near Hanover. The group’s members, however, operated in other cities as well.

The man is also reported to have some links to Berlin terrorist attacker Anis Amri, who deliberately rammed a heavy truck into an overcrowded Christmas market at Breitscheidplatz public square in 2016, killing 12. Amri reportedly visited Walaa’s mosque in Hildesheim, but it is unclear whether the Salafist preacher influenced his attack plans in any way.

Walaa has been in the crosshairs of the German security services for quite some time, particularly in the wake of Amri’s attack. His mosque was closed and the organization he led was banned in 2017. Before that, he was also active online. The preacher had his own YouTube channel where some of his videos received over 40,000 views. He also boasted around 25,000 followers on Facebook, where he called himself ‘Sheikh Abu Walaa’, while offering “admonitions, hadiths, recitations and information on lessons.”

He was even known as the ‘preacher without a face’ throughout the internet, as he never showed his face in his YouTube videos. He was arrested in 2017, but his trial took more than three years – partly due to the numerous testimonies the court had to hear, including those from the former jihadists he recruited, who later decided to cooperate with the authorities.

One of the witnesses was Yusuf T., who received a seven-year sentence over an attack on a Sikh temple in the German city of Essen in 2016, and who confessed to being recruited by the ‘preacher without a face’.

Walaa himself repeatedly denied any links to Islamic State, while his defense lawyers insisted the witnesses’ testimonies were untrustworthy and demanded his acquittal. The prosecutors demanded he be sentenced to 11 and a half years in prison. 

Despite the sentencing of IS’ “chief recruiter” in Germany, the “danger from Islamist terrorism remains unchanged,” the head of the domestic security service (BfV), Thomas Haldenwang, told the German media.

“We still witness significant manpower resources and intensive internet propaganda,” he said. The German police still classify around 600 radicals in Germany and beyond as acute threats, adding that they might carry out attacks. The list includes those who returned from Syria and Iraq, as well as those who have already served sentences in Germany and have since been set free, but still pose “a particularly high risk.”

In October 2020, one such radical attacked two tourists in Dresden and fatally injured one of them. The attacker was released from prison just few days earlier. Two weeks ago, 14 suspects were also arrested in Germany and Denmark, who are believed to have sought to procure chemicals to make explosives. It is unclear, however, if they had any specific plans for an attack.

Major police raids carried out around German capital after Islamist group,

which called for death of Jews, outlawed by authorities

25 Feb, 2021 13:33

(FILE PHOTO) © REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch

More than 800 officers were on duty as police in Berlin and Brandenburg carried out 26 raids across the region to enforce a ban on a Salafist group which was advocating terrorist attacks and the killing of Jews.

Berlin Interior Senator Andreas Geisel told a news conference on Thursday that 19 members of the Jama’atu Berlin were targeted during the raids and that the group had been under surveillance for two years.

Geisel could not confirm whether any arrests had been made but said 850 officers were involved in the raids and that half of those targeted in the operation were German citizens.

In a tweet in the early hours of Thursday morning, Berlin’s interior ministry said it had outlawed Jama’atu Berlin, “a young and very radical jihad Salafist” association, also known as Tauhid Berlin.

“Today’s ban is another building block in the resolute fight against violent extremism,” Geisel added during his press conference. 

The group saw themselves as the successor to the banned Fussilet 33 association and reportedly glorified the fight of the terrorist militia “Islamic State,” especially on the internet, and called for the killing of Jews, according to the Berlin daily newspaper Der Tagesspiegel. The organization also welcomed the murder of French teacher Samuel Paty in October by a radicalized student.

“(In the group), there are severe anti-Semites who are calling for the death of Jews,” Berlin Interior Secretary Torsten Akmann said in a statement.

Members of the group reportedly met regularly to pray and plot, also distributing flyers in public spaces and spreading their dangerous ideology online. Several members had been linked to an outlawed Islamist group in 2017 which had been in contact with Anis Amri, a failed Tunisian asylum seeker who drove a truck into the Berlin Christmas market, killing 12.

In its annual report, the German intelligence agency said that there were three times as many Salafists in the country in 2019 as there were in 2011, numbering 12,150 in 2019.

Islam in History - Horror Stories of Turkish Invasions of Cyprus - 1570 & 1974

The 1570 Ottoman Invasion

The Turkish presence in Cyprus dates to the sixteenth century

In an article entitled "The Battle of Lepanto: When Turks Skinned Christians Alive for Refusing Islam," historian Raymond Ibrahim describes how "Muslim Turks — in the guise of the Ottoman Empire — invaded the island of Cyprus in 1570 and captured Famagusta:"

"After promising the defenders safe passage if they surrendered, Ottoman commander Ali Pasha — known as Müezzinzade ('son of a muezzin') due to his pious background — had reneged and launched a wholesale slaughter. He ordered the nose and ears of Marco Antonio Bragadin, the fort commander, hacked off. Ali then invited the mutilated infidel to Islam and life: 'I am a Christian and thus I want to live and die,' Bragadin responded. 'My body is yours. Torture it as you will.'

"So he was tied to a chair, repeatedly hoisted up the mast of a galley, and dropped into the sea, to taunts: 'Look if you can see your fleet, great Christian, if you can see succor coming to Famagusta!' The mutilated and half-drowned man was then carried near to St. Nicholas Church — by now a mosque — and tied to a column, where he was slowly flayed alive. The skin was afterward stuffed with straw, sown back into a macabre effigy of the dead commander, and paraded in mockery before the jeering Muslims."

The Ottoman Turks converted many historic churches into mosques, such as St. Nicholas Cathedral, the most majestic structure in Famagusta. "In 1570 the Ottoman invasion which took Nicosia, then Famagusta, in hideous and bloody sieges, marked the end of the natural life of the edifice as a place of Christian worship," according to Michael Walsh, a professor of art and archaeology. St. Nicholas Cathedral, still used as a mosque in Turkish-occupied Famagusta, is now named "Lala Mustafa Pasha Mosque" after the commander of the 1570 Ottoman invasion.

Author Helen Starkweather notes:

"In 1570, Ottoman Turks sent cannon balls ripping through the walls in a siege that lasted for nearly a year. Outnumbered and starving, the Venetians surrendered in 1571. The Ottomans took over Cyprus and closed Famagusta to Christians. They built fountains throughout the city to modernize the water supply, and they converted most of the churches to mosques. A minaret was placed above the gothic buttresses of the former Cathedral of St. Nicholas, where Jerusalem's kings had once been coronated. Churches that weren't converted—as well as other buildings damaged by the siege—were left to ruin. By the 19th century only a handful of residents remained, most living in shacks attached to deteriorating churches. In 1878, when the British occupied Cyprus, Scottish photographer John Thomson called Famagusta 'a city of the dead.'"

Despite successive invasions and occupations throughout the centuries, including the Ottoman occupation from 1571 until 1878, the population of Cyprus remained predominantly Greek Christian. The Turkish-speaking Cypriot minority was scattered all across the island, never a majority in any district or major town. The atrocities of Turkey in 1974 drove out the Greek Cypriots from the northern area, turning it into a Turkish colony and putting an end to a recorded non-stop Greek presence predating the birth of Christ.

The 1974 Turkish Invasion

In 1878, Britain assumed administration of Cyprus, and annexed it following Turkey's defeat in the First World War. Cyprus declared its independence from British rule in 1960. The Treaty of Guarantee said that it "recognized and guaranteed the independence, territorial integrity and security of the Republic of Cyprus." It was signed by Britain, Greece, Turkey and Cyprus.

Fourteen years later, however, Turkey violated the treaty and invaded Cyprus twice: on July 20 and on August 18, 1974. What followed was ethnic cleansing through forcible displacement. Like the Ottoman occupation in 1570, the 1974 Turkish invasion was bloody and brutal.

Many well-documented atrocities were committed by occupation forces during that time. Civilians, including children between six months and eleven years, were murdered. Many were arbitrarily detained by the Turkish military authorities and placed in concentration camps. The detainees were tortured or exposed to other types of inhumane treatment, including performing forced labor. Greek Cypriot women and children between the ages of 12-71 were raped. Houses and business premises of those who had to leave were looted, seized, and appropriated.

Professor Van Coufoudakis notes in his 2008 report "Human Rights Violations in Cyprus by Turkey":

"Evidence of the gross and continuing violations of human rights by Turkey in Cyprus come from, among others:

Eyewitness accounts

NGO investigations

Various international organizations

The European Commission of Human Rights

The European Court of Human Rights

Reports by international media"

Since 1974, Turkey has forcibly occupied 36% of the sovereign territory and 57% of the coastline of the Republic of Cyprus. The ethnic cleansing of northern Cyprus by Turkey has resulted in the displacement of more than 170,000 Greek Cypriots, or roughly one-third of the island's population. In addition to Greek Cypriots, Armenian, Maronite, and other non-Muslim Cypriots were also forcibly displaced. The result was that Turkey effectively crushed the Christian population.

In 1983, the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus" ("TRNC") was established by a unilateral declaration that was condemned by the international community. To this day, Turkey remains the only country that has recognized the entity. The "TRNC" does not exist as a state but rather as a de-facto administrator of the Turkish occupation.

Turkey has, in addition, caused the obliteration of much of the island's cultural heritage. A 2012 report entitled, "The Loss of a Civilization: Destruction of cultural heritage in occupied Cyprus," documents the devastation by Turkish forces of monasteries, churches, Christian and Jewish cemeteries, among other religious and cultural artifacts. According to the report:

"Turkey has been committing two major international crimes against Cyprus. It has invaded and divided a small, weak but modern and independent European state (since 1 May 2004 the Republic of Cyprus has been a member of the EU); Turkey has also changed the demographic character of the island and has devoted itself to the systematic destruction and obliteration of the cultural heritage of the areas under its military control."

On November 15, 2020, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited a part of Famagusta, Cyprus, after joining the ceremony celebrating the 37th anniversary of the unilateral declaration of the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus", the illegally-occupied northern part of Cyprus that is not recognized under international law. Since 1974, it has been under Turkish occupation, which has looted and ethnically cleansed its indigenous population. Pictured: Erdogan (second from right) in Varosha, Famagusta on November 15, 2020. (Photo by Alexis Mitas/Getty Images)

Famagusta since 1974

Famagusta, a district on the east coast of Cyprus, has a long history and deep significance for its cultural heritage.

During the second phase of the Turkish invasion on August 14, 1974, Famagusta was bombed by the Turkish Air Force. As a result, dozens of civilians died, including tourists. Famagusta is thus a crime scene and the current activities of Turkey are destroying evidence of these war crimes.

In the 1980s, the Turkish military completed re-zoning the empty, looted part of Famagusta, which was then fenced off and became accessible only by the Turkish military. With its abandoned shops, hotels and homes untouched since 1974, Famagusta has remained a ghost town ever since.

The current status of Famagusta is the same as the rest of the occupied area. Most of Famagusta is under Turkish military occupation, under the control of Turkey – not because the Greek locals got bored and abandoned the town, but because they were terrorized by Turkish troops and fled.

In a 2009 article at Smithsonian Magazine, author Helen Starkweather warned the world about the situation of Famagusta, by calling it an "endangered site." She noted:

"'All ships and all wares,' a 14th-century German traveler wrote, 'must needs come first to Famagusta.' The port city on the northeastern coast of Cyprus was once on a bustling shipping lane, carrying merchants from Europe and the Near East and armies of Christian knights and Ottoman Turks. Famagusta rose to prominence between the 12th and 15th centuries, most notably as the city where the Crusader kings of Jerusalem were crowned.

"Now ancient Famagusta, tucked into a modern city of 35,000 people, also called Famagusta, is largely forgotten, except, perhaps, as the setting for Shakespeare's Othello. Some 200 buildings—reflecting Byzantine, French Gothic and Italian Renaissance architectural styles—are in a state of disrepair. Weeds and wildflowers press against sandstone walls eroded by rain and earthquakes."

Meanwhile, the Turkish government has begun the second phase of the ethnic cleansing of the region: changing the street names in the ghost town to Turkish. On November 22, the 57th anniversary of the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy, Turkey and the regime in occupied northern Cyprus renamed Kennedy Street in Famagusta after Semih Sancar, the chief of the general staff of Turkey who orchestrated the 1974 invasions.

Turkey used two main pretexts for invading Cyprus. The first was the July 15, 1974 coup engineered by the Greek military, which attempted to topple the democratically-elected Cypriot president, Archbishop Makarios III. Five days later, on July 20, 1974, the Turkish Armed Forces launched a full-scale invasion of Cyprus, using the coup as a pretext even though Makarios had escaped, and the United Kingdom, the third guarantor power of Cyprus, had refused to take joint action. Just days after the Turkish invasion, the Greek junta collapsed and democratic rule was reestablished in Greece. The path was now clear for Makarios's return to Cyprus. Turkey, however, had other plans. Less than a month later, on August 14, Turkey launched a second and even more devastating invasion of the island.

This pretext becomes even more irrational when one considers Turkey's own history of military coups: mainly, the coups in 1960 and 1971. Six years after Turkey invaded Cyprus, another military coup d'état in 1980 in Turkey would destroy whatever crumbs of freedoms remained. According to US secret diplomatic documents, at least 650,000 people were detained. Many were tortured and hundreds died in custody. A state such as Turkey -- whose history has been largely shaped by military coups -- does not have a right to "interfere" in the internal affairs of other nations by using one extremely short-lived coup there as an excuse to invade and occupy the place.

A second excuse was that Turkey "aimed at protecting Turkish Cypriots" from Greek Cypriot violence. But the falsehood of this excuse has been repeatedly exposed, most notably by Turkish General Sabri Yirmibeşoğlu. He said in 2010 that Turkey had burned a ‎mosque in Cyprus in the 1950s "in order to foster resistance" against Greek Cypriots.

"If you want the people somewhere to be alarmed [agitated] and engage in a resistance movement, and if you demonstrate that your esteemed values are degraded by the enemy or the other side, you will provoke the people. There is a rule in the [Turkish] Special Warfare: To increase the strength of the people, some of their values must be sabotaged as if [the sabotage were conducted] by the enemy. [For example], a mosque can be burned. We burned a mosque in Cyprus."

Even prior to the 1974 invasions, Turkey militarily provoked intra-ethnic tensions in Cyprus by sending weapons and fighters there, starting at least in the 1950s. Yirmibeşoğlu noted that the "Tactical Mobilisation Group" (Turkish: Seferberlik Tetkik Kurulu) was established in 1953 in Turkey and sent weapons to Cyprus to be used against Greek Cypriots:

"The Committee had three officers in Ankara. It was a new organization [established] to send weapons against the EOKA [National Organization of Cypriot Fighters]."

The main reason for Turkey's colonization of northern Cyprus, however, was announced by former Turkish deputy prime minister Tuğrul Türkeş in 2017. "There is misinformation that Turkey is interested in Cyprus because there is a Turkish society there," Türkeş said. "Even if no Turks lived in Cyprus, Turkey would still have a Cyprus issue and it is impossible for Turkey to give up on that." Turkey is occupying northern Cyprus for geopolitical reasons. The occupation enables Turkey to dominate the eastern Mediterranean.

Today Turkey still calls the atrocities it committed in 1974 "a peace operation."

No matter what the Turkish government claims, the photos and documents concerning Famagusta and the rest of the occupied area in Cyprus tell their own story. The invading Turkish army killed, tortured and raped.

Those who were forcibly displaced by Turkey are still not allowed to return unless the Republic of Cyprus -- the Greek-run area in the south -- agrees to the blackmail of relinquishing the sovereignty of the entire occupied northern area, and transferring it to the Turkish Cypriot minority -- in effect to Turkey itself -- thus legitimizing in Cyprus a pure Muslim zone for the first time ever.

Uzay Bulut, a Turkish journalist, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute.

The Media is the Message > UK Interference in Russian State? 3 of 4 Murderers of Journalist Jailed; CNN, MSNBC Ignored Lincoln Project Pervert

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This is a report from RT and so should be read with some caution.

However, it seems to be well-documented, and the premise of the UK and allies

demonizing Russia has been obvious for many years now.

Leaked papers allege massive UK govt effort to co-opt Russian-language anti-Kremlin media & influencers to ‘weaken Russian state’

18 Feb, 2021 18:32

©  Andrew Aitchison / Getty Images

By Kit Klarenberg, an investigative journalist exploring the role of intelligence services in shaping politics and perceptions.

For all its alarmism about Russian ‘propaganda’ and ‘misinformation’, the UK government appears to be behind a multi-million-pound push to boost negative coverage of the Russian state, both in Russia and neighbouring countries.

At a European Union summit in November 2017, then-UK prime minister Theresa May announced plans to designate Russia a “hostile” state, and pledged to spend in excess of £100 million over the next five years on tackling the alleged threat of Kremlin “disinformation” internationally. 

Now, hacktivist collective Anonymous has released what appear to be internal UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) files that shed significant light on the true purpose, and ominous dimensions, of these vast efforts.

According to the papers, Whitehall has sought contractors to covertly infiltrate media and civil society at multiple levels – all under the aegis of schemes to, among other things, improve literacy, promote cultural activities, ensure “balance and plurality” in media reporting, and counteract propaganda.

Supporting anti-Kremlin media

One of these contractors, Zinc Network (more on them later) explained in its pitch documents that it was in the process of “delivering audience segmentation and targeting support for two of Russia’s leading independent media outlets – Meduza and MediaZona”.

The former is a Russian-language online newspaper and news aggregator based in Riga, Latvia. The latter is an investigative platform focused on Russia’s judicial, law enforcement and penal system, founded by two members of controversial punk rock band Pussy Riot.

As the pair “[lacked] the expertise and tools” to “promote content effectively to new audiences”, Zinc was working diligently to ensure their output reached as many eyes and ears as possible. In the process, the contractor conducted “weekly mentoring sessions with specialists from the outlets”, “adjusting their editorial and commercial strategy accordingly” and creating “common framings of issues.”

Prior to the release of these documents, any suggestions that Meduza and MediaZona – which both consistently publish content highly critical of the Russian state – were not only privately coordinating to ensure a consistent editorial line, but receiving assistance from the UK government to do so, would surely have been dismissed as Russian propaganda, conspiracy theory, fake news, or worse. 

It seems likely Meduza’s relationship with Whitehall, direct or indirect, conscious or unconscious, extends far further than this collaboration. Several contractors reference the outlet in the leaked files, in relation to numerous other FCDO-funded and directed projects. 

For instance, in pitch documents submitted by another contractor, Albany, Meduza is mentioned alongside ETV+, which is the Russian-language service of the Estonian broadcaster; Latvia’s LTV, Lithuania’s LRT Re:Baltica – the website of the Baltic Centre for Investigative Journalism – and other Russian-language platforms as a potential “long-term partner”, for which “new programming” could be funded and developed.

That this programming was to be explicitly anti-Moscow in character is starkly underlined by a section on “creating narrative games which encourage participation through social media and mobile platforms.”

“Meduza is a leading proponent of these games which, for the most part, embrace political themes (e.g. Putin Bingo, ‘help Putin get to his meeting with the Pope on time’ and ‘help the Orthodox priest get to his church without succumbing to earthly pleasures’),” Albany notes. 

These “satirical games” would make the “valid point” that “the offer of a fairer, respectful and caring society is better than that of an arrogant, nationalistic regime.” Proposed themes include helping “the whimsical Russian exile preserve his cultural identity in the face of British political correctness”, and “the oligarch’s son conceal his unseemly wealth on his first day at university”. 

Such surreal proposal excerpts would be laughable, were it not for the fact they amply underline the extraordinary lengths London is determined to go to in service of demonizing, destabilizing and isolating Russia nationally and internationally. 

The contractors

The contractors involved – including the aforementioned Zinc and Albany – all boast staff possessed of such clearances, individuals who previously served at the highest levels of government, the military and security services. They furthermore have extensive experience in conducting information warfare operations on London’s behalf the world over. For instance, several shadowy companies named in the leaked papers feature prominently in leaked documents related to Whitehall’s far-reaching propaganda blitz in Syria.

As such, the companies clearly wouldn’t be at all obvious candidates to lead programs genuinely concerned with strengthening civil society, improving journalistic standards, or combating disinformation – but of course, the programs aren’t.

Zinc Network (previously known as Breakthrough Media) is a seasoned veteran of clandestine Whitehall-funded information warfare campaigns at home and abroad. It has a long, deplorable history of cynically co-opting genuine civil society voices to covertly further Whitehall’s interests, without their knowledge or consent, and often with serious real-world consequences.

One programme Zinc bid for is Support for Independent Media in the Baltic States. The leaked papers include the FCO’s statement of requirement for the project, as well as the details that were spelled out to contractors at a meeting convened June 2018 by FCDO Counter Disinformation & Media Development (CDMD) chief Andy Pryce, along with a parallel operation in Eastern Partnership countries.

Stating openly the endeavor – set to cost up to £6 million in 2018-2021 – is ultimately concerned with “weakening the Russian state”, Pryce warned attendees against “unauthorised disclosures of activity”, and noted that “for security reasons”, some suppliers “will not wish to be linked to the FCDO.” 

He went on to list numerous ways in which journalists and media organizations in target countries could not only be co-opted via funding, but outright “acquisition” of content. Sponsoring public broadcasters was said to provide “easy wins” given “light touch governance” locally, a euphemism for corruption and lack of regulation.

He professed to be “audience agnostic” when asked whether there were issues targeting people under-18, and said there was “scope for gender sensitivity in programming” – “Girls on HBO is the type of thing but in Ukraine.” 

It’s a bizarre suggestion which amuses at first glance, until one considers at least five television serials in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were produced by Zinc Network (more on them later) under the auspices of the program, including the region’s first Russian-language kids show.

It’s troubling in the extreme that millions of people – among them many children – may have watched this programming, without any idea it was created to surreptitiously extol anti-Russian, pro-Western propaganda, let alone that the UK government bankrolled its production as part of a dedicated psyops effort.

Such disquiet is amplified by Albany specifically seeking to exploit “young Russian speakers” in the Baltics “as agents of change”, to “influence their parents’ and grandparents’ generations and amplify a distinct ‘Euro-Baltic’ identity” in a separate project.

Co-opting social media influencers

Other leaked documents reveal Zinc’s activities in the region were already sizable by the time it submitted proposals for the project, to the extent of maintaining “an in-house team of Russian speaking producers, digital researchers and digital growth strategists.”

Zinc maintained a secret network of Russian-speaking social media influencers, to promote “media integrity and democratic values” – curiously, its relationship with these individuals is said to have involved “daily management”. 

Recruited via YouTube, Facebook, VK and Instagram, the company “[helped] them build their brands and improve their content in order to grow their audience share,” and “[established] a co-owned channel on YouTube to host their content, help them access one another’s audiences, co-creating content that tackled complex social issues.”

Moreover though, one file indicates Zinc taught these influencers how to “make and receive international payments without being registered as external sources of funding” and “develop editorial strategies to deliver key messages”, while minimizing their “risk of prosecution” and managing “project communications” to ensure the network’s existence, and indeed the UK government’s central role in creating it, were kept “confidential”. 

In other words, they operated, and may continue to, as effective paid agents of the British state, Zinc “assisting” them in crafting slick propaganda furtively propounding Whitehall-approved “key messages”, which was then broadcast globally under the guise of citizen journalism.

The identities of the influencers, and their cognisance of the insidious role they were playing by collaborating with the company, is presently unknown. Although, unlike viewers, the influencers would’ve at least known their “independent” content was in fact scripted, produced and edited in the firm’s London offices.

ENGAGE, ENHANCE, ENABLE, EXPOSE

There are hundreds of papers in Anonymous’ leak, and the above is just scratching the surface. The FCDO’s wide-ranging, secret campaign apparently consists of four pillars, or ‘strands’ – ENGAGE, ENHANCE, ENABLE, EXPOSE. One document circulated to contractors pitching for the assorted, lucrative programmes therein – dubbed “Theory of Change” – sets out the activities, output, outcome, and impact of the respective strands, both in isolation and in tandem with one another. 

EXPOSE’s activities are defined as “real-time debunking, support to investigative journalism, capacity building, networking between NGOs” – yet its output, outcomes, and impact are redacted, hidden in an already classified document, indicating its operations and objectives are extremely sensitive indeed, and one requires a senior security clearance to know them. 

For all the mainstream media’s alarmist chatter of the threat of Kremlin “disinformation”, not a single example of anything even remotely comparable to the full-spectrum, multi-channel, on- and offline, global assault on perceptions outlined in this article has ever been attributed to Moscow, or any other “hostile” state. 

It’s truly staggering that for all the documents’ references in the documents to transparency, truth and democracy, these mammoth, multi-million-pound initiatives have been conducted in total secrecy for years without any public oversight, or even awareness among British citizens – let alone target audiences overseas – of their operation.

The message of the media, when accompanied by great character and courage, sometimes has to be shut down by lesser people to protect their dishonest interests and send a message to other reporters who might want to clean up the slime.

Suspect pleads guilty to assassination of Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in 2017, sentenced to 15 years

23 Feb, 2021 14:59

A protester holds a picture of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia during a demonstration to demand justice over her murder, outside the Office of the Prime Minister at Auberge de Castle, in Valletta, Malta, (FILE PHOTO) © REUTERS/Yara Nardi

One of three men on trial in Malta for the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia has been sentenced, after admitting to his part in the assassination of the journalist and activist in a car bombing near her home in October 2017.

On Tuesday, Vincent Muscat pleaded guilty to the murder of the Maltese anti-corruption journalist. Muscat along with two others, George Degiorgio and his brother Alfred Degiorgio, are accused of planning and carrying out the assassination of Caruana Galizia.

A fourth man, multimillionaire businessman Yorgen Fenech, has been charged with being an accomplice to the killing, but denies any involvement.

Following his guilty plea, Muscat has been sentenced to 15 years in prison and will have to pay €42,000 in court expenses following an agreement with prosecutors over him providing more information about Caruana Galizia’s murder.

Muscat’s confession was noted by presiding Judge Edwina Grima, who emphasized the gravity of the charges he was admitting to. The accused said he did not need to have the charges read back to him.

On Monday, Muscat was granted a presidential pardon over the 2015 murder of lawyer Carmel Chircop, who was shot dead in a garage, according to the Times of Malta.

The pardon was granted after he offered up information about the case, and he will not be prosecuted for his alleged role in that murder.

Caruana Galizia was killed on October 16, 2017 when a car bomb went off inside her vehicle. Her death drew widespread local and international condemnation.

The journalist was well-regarded for her reporting on government corruption, nepotism and allegations of money laundering, as well as links between Malta’s online gambling industry and organized crime. 

In 2016 and 2017, Caruana Galizia investigated and reported a number of stories relating to the Panama Papers scandal which revealed compromising information about many prominent people in Malta, including high-level politicians. She had been arrested twice and was facing numerous defamation suits at the time of her murder.

Anti-Trump Lincoln Project received $32mn in free media coverage since sexual harassment scandal broke – report

24 Feb, 2021 16:17

The statue of Abraham Lincoln by artist Daniel Chester French is seen at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC

© Mandel Ngan / AFP

Since the Lincoln Project’s co-founder John Weaver was accused of sexually harassing multiple young men, the controversial anti-Trump group has received tens of millions in free media coverage, according to a new analysis.

Weaver’s alleged misconduct broke in a story on January 11 in a report from the American Conservative, but Lincoln Project members have still been aplenty on both CNN and MSNBC – two networks that have heavily promoted the organization, run by anti-Trump Republicans, since its inception.

According to the new analysis from the conservative Washington Free Beacon, media coverage between January 11 and February 11 for the group is worth a whopping $32 million, based on advertising value estimated by media monitoring service Critical Mention. In that time, there were 40 appearances by founders and advisers – 10 on CNN and 30 on MSNBC.

Earlier this month, Weaver resigned from the group he co-founded after being accused of making unwanted sexual advances on numerous young men, often offering professional advances in exchange for sexual favors. He apologized for sending “inappropriate” messages, but reports since have indicated his behavior was known about by others, including co-founder Steve Schmidt, who has denied such knowledge. 

Only hours after Weaver’s departure, Schmidt appeared on ‘Real Time with Bill Maher’, where he faced no questions about his fellow co-founder but was grilled about the group’s tens of millions in funding and where it goes. That subject has become yet another controversy for the group, as it has been revealed much of the money was funneled into separate organizations involved with the founders.

The lack of questioning about Weaver was a regular occurrence, according to the Beacon’s report. In fact, members of the group made 23 appearances on network news channels before one of them, George Conway, was asked directly about it. 

As Weaver’s conduct has been more widely covered and subsequent reports have indicated possible knowledge of his actions within the super PAC, Lincoln Project media darlings have slowly seen their relationships with mainstream media deteriorate. MSNBC ended its relationship with contributor Schmidt, for example, and Daily Beast “paused” appearances from co-founder Rick Wilson on its podcast ‘The New Abnormal’. 

While the Lincoln Project’s future has been questioned, with former members like Kurt Bardella even calling for its end, the group appears to have no plans to retire their anti-Trump platform. They recently hired the law firm Paul Hastings to conduct a “comprehensive review” of the group’s “operations and culture,” though that relationship has led to an entirely new controversy as it was revealed that employees of the firm have donated to Lincoln Project in the past – though they claim no donors will be part of the review.

This is how the media works these days. Little or no judgement for perverts or paedophiles as long as their message is in line with the acceptable narrative.

============================================================================================

Deep State - Making Junk and Getting Richer - The F-35 Trillion Dollar Disaster

..

What about student loans, water or the homeless? Outrage follows report

$1.7 trillion F-35 program is now considered a failure

24 Feb, 2021 23:51

A F-35 Lightning II performs at an air show in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, November 22, 2020.

©  US Air Force/Capt. Kip Sumner

A tacit admission by the US Air Force that the F-35 has failed its main mission has triggered an outpouring of outrage from Americans who think the stealth fighter’s gargantuan budget could have been better spent on other things.

Frustration with Lockheed Martin’s fifth-generation stealth jet flooded Twitter on Wednesday, after Forbes magazine published a story about how USAF commissioning a study into a new, cheaper and lighter fighter amounts to “a tacit admission that the F-35 has failed.”

“We could have used this cash to cancel student loans for every person in America,” lamented the liberal watchdog Public Citizen, pointing to the F-35 program’s estimated $1.7 trillion lifetime cost.

For that kind of money, “we could have completely replaced America's water infrastructure,” said environmentalist advocate Erin Brockovich.

“That's enough to house all homeless people in the United States 28 times over,” tweeted Robert Reich, Labor secretary in the Clinton administration.

Democrat activist Charlotte Clymer used the F-35 issue to argue that President Joe Biden’s proposed $1.9 trillion coronavirus “relief package” would be money better spent. 

Others, like Daily Beast reporter Spencer Ackerman, joked that the plane isn’t really a failure since “It very successfully transfers hundreds of billions of dollars of your money to defense contractors.” 

Of course! A complete success for Deep State.

Congress approved the purchase of 93 of the fighters, at $100 million or so on average, in the 2021 Pentagon funding bill.

Wednesday’s outrage was triggered by the Forbes story published the evening before. Author David Axe referred to an article from Air Force Magazine from last week that had gone largely unnoticed until now. It announced a tactical aviation study ordered by USAF Chief of Staff General Charles Q. Brown Jr, looking for a “clean sheet design” of something he called a  “fourth-and-a half/fifth-gen minus” aircraft. 

Brown compared the F-35 to a “high end” sports car, a Ferrari one drives on Sundays only. The plane’s engines are apparently “failing a little faster in certain areas” due to heavy use, so he wants to “moderate how much we’re using those aircraft.”

“We don’t want to burn up capability now and wish we had it later,” he said. Admitting that the solutions he is proposing won’t be popular, he said it was the only way to “accelerate change” in the Air Force. 

“I have a degree in engineering; it’s all about numbers and facts,” Brown is quoted by the Air Force Magazine, which added that he told the staff tasked with the study, “don’t give me emotion, bring me the facts.”

What he wants is “something new and different” that has the capabilities of the aging F-16 “but gets there faster, using our digital approach,” Brown is quoted as saying.

The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter was supposed to be that “something” all along. Lockheed Martin originally promised a single platform that could replace all other aircraft in US service, with shared parts making production cheaper and maintenance easier. Instead, the F-35 ended up split into three distinct variants, all of which are experiencing chronic performance issues – and a price tag to make even the Pentagon blush.

Year after year, US military inspectors assembled never-ending lists of F-35’s flaws and problems, but the program had facilities across so many states, with so many jobs at stake, that lawmakers were loath to cancel it. Failure was not an option – at least until Brown came along.

When was it? 5 years ago that the TV show Madam Secretary stated this exact situation, that the F-35 was a disaster, and that because the parts were made in so many states, it was impossible to cancel. Funny, in the day of Cancel Culture, we cannot get rid of a spectacular waste of money.

#Ozzone 4-4 >Are you ready for another test? Can you praise and worship God when He and His blessings seem to disappear – The dark night of the soul!

 

Islam - Current Day > Migrant Murders a Frenchman; Mogadishu Gun Fights; UN Seeks Info on Dubai Princess; Negotiating with Kidnappers; Women in Military in SA

French refugee center manager stabbed to death

by asylum seeker – police

19 Feb, 2021 15:42

(FILE PHOTO) © REUTERS/Charles Platiau

The manager of a refugee center in the French city of Pau has died of his injuries, after allegedly being stabbed multiple times by a Sudanese asylum seeker, police said on Friday.

The suspect, a 38-year-old man from Sudan, was arrested following the attack. He was reportedly known to the authorities for acts of violence and has already been in prison, according to French media.

The knife attack took place at around 11am local time in Pau, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques. The suspect’s motives for the attack remain unknown, although police sources told local media he had just been refused refugee status by OFPRA, the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons. The public broadcaster France Télévisions reported that the man had been in France since 2015. 

The victim, the 46-year-old refugee center manager, died at the scene. 

“It’s a terrible tragedy,” said Pau Mayor François Bayrou. He described the attack as “all the more appalling as the victim has been involved all his professional life in the defense of migrants and those who applied for asylum.”  

French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin tweeted his condolences to the family of the victim, and said he would be visiting Pau on Friday to meet the center staff and local elected officials. 

The suspect remains in custody, and Pau prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into the fatal attack. 

Gun battles raging, explosions heard across Mogadishu

as Somali govt forces seal off streets 

19 Feb, 2021 09:25

© REUTERS/Feisal Omar

Terrified civilians have been sheltering in place as government troops engaged opposition forces in prolonged gun battles across the Somali capital Mogadishu. There have been no reports of casualties as the fighting is ongoing.

Intermittent heavy machine-gun fire and a series of explosions were heard throughout the night ahead of a formal, but illegal, anti-government demonstration on Friday. 

“Many forces heavily attacked us, I am now on my chest in an alley. This is a massacre,” protester Farah Omar said.

Eyewitness footage from Mogadishu purports to show the severity of the fighting overnight, with protesters taking to the streets Friday morning regardless of the apparent danger and a government ban on demonstrations.

Somali lawmakers were due to select a new president on February 8, but the decision process was postponed amid a slew of accusations of election-rigging.

Further fracturing of Somalia's already fragile government will play into the hands of the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab insurgency which is ongoing for years, threatening the lives of civilians throughout the wider east African region. 

Somalia’s former president, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, accused government forces of attacking a hotel where he was staying ahead of Friday's planned demonstration. 

Armored vehicles were seen patrolling the streets as civilians sheltered in place on Friday morning.

Meanwhile, Somalia’s Minister of Security Hassan Hundubey Jimale claimed that “Armed militia attacked government forces. We repulsed and overpowered the militias.”

At least three people were killed and several more were injured in a car-bomb attack near the presidential palace last Saturday morning. 

The country has been embroiled in a bitter civil war since 1991, with the situation likely to deteriorate amid this latest surge of violence.

U.N. seeks 'proof of life' of Dubai Princess Sheikha Latifa

By Danielle Haynes

Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed Al Maktoum, the daughter of Dubai's ruler, said she is being held hostage in a villa converted into a prison following a 2018 escape attempt. 

Feb. 19 (UPI) -- The United Nations on Friday asked for proof that the daughter of the Dubai ruler is alive and safe, less than a week after she posted video messages saying she was being held hostage by her family.

A spokeswoman for U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said her office reached out to the family seeking "proof of life" of Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed Al Maktoum.

"We raised our concerns about the situation in light of the disturbing video evidence that emerged this week," spokeswoman Elizabeth Throssell told reporters during a briefing in Geneva, Switzerland. "We requested more information and clarification about Sheika Latifa's current situation."

The UAE Embassy in London released a statement Friday saying that Sheikha Latifa was under the care of her family and medical professionals at her home.

"In response to media reports regarding Sheikha Latifa, we want to thank those who have expressed concern for her wellbeing, despite the coverage which certainly is not reflective of the actual position," the family statement said.

"She continues to improve and we are hopeful she will return to public life at the appropriate time."

Sheikha Latifa is the daughter of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai and prime minister and vice president of the United Arab Emirates.

On Tuesday, the BBC released videos taken by Sheikha Latifa who said she was imprisoned after attempting to flee the country.

"I'm a hostage. This villa has been converted into jail. All the windows are barred shut, I can't open any window ... I've been by myself, solitary confinement. No access to medical help, no trial, no charge, nothing," she said.

Latifa's friend, Tiina Jauhiainen, told the BBC that she helped sneak Latifa the phone that the videos were recorded on but the messages have recently stopped and she is deeply concerned for her friend.

"She is so pale, she hasn't seen sunlight for months. She can basically move just from her room to the kitchen and back," she said.

Latifa, 35, traveled to international waters to board a boat owned by French businessman Herve Jaubert in February 2018, before the boat was boarded by commandos off the coast of India and she was returned to Dubai.

The videos were recorded over a series of several months about a year after she was returned to Dubai, the BBC reported.

In the videos, Latifa said she fought back against the soldiers who attempted to take her off of the boat and was ultimately tranquilized and placed onto a private jet where she did not awaken until landing in Dubai.

Nigerian authorities negotiate with school kidnappers

By Clyde Hughes

A signpost of the Government Science College where gunmen kidnapped students and staff in Kagara, Niger State, Nigeria Wednesday. Nigerian officials said negotiations were underway Friday to return those kidnapped. Photo by STR/EPA-EFE

Feb. 19 (UPI) -- Negotiations were underway Friday between Nigerian authorities and kidnappers who took 42 staffers and students Wednesday (3rd story on link).

The armed attack on a boarding school Government Science College in Kagara in north-central Nigeria led to the death of one person. A similar attack in Kanakar in December led to 300 schoolboys being kidnapped before they were rescued.

Niger State Gov. Abubakar Sani-Bello said his government is at the final stage of negotiating to get those who were kidnapped released.

"At the moment, there is no additional information apart from the one we have at hand," Sani-Bello said. "Our priority is to make sure we bring back the students safe, things are speculated or rumored, but we cannot work with these in situations like this."

The kidnappers had demanded a ransom but the government initially refused to pay. Authorities said the attackers would only use the money to buy more weapons and increase their attacks.

During the investigation, Niger Police arrested Samaki Azozo, 15, a student at the Government Science School Izoma, in Gurara Local Government Area, on a charge he attempted to kidnap students.

Authorities said Azozo was suspected of posting a letter on the school's notice board about an intention for kidnapping at the school. State Police Commissioner Adamu Usman said the boy claimed the letter was a ploy in hopes they would close the school for the day.

"We don't want to be taken unawares; hence, the need for us to adopt a proactive security measure against any security threat," Usman said. He said that the boy's letter would be fully investigated.

Terrorists don't issue letters of warning! Only Israel does that!

Niger State, Nigeria

Saudi Arabia allows women to join military, but not as officers

Saudi women can be recruited as soldiers, lance corporals, corporals,

sergeants and staff sergeants

Published:  February 21, 2021 16:34

Tawfiq Nasrallah, Senior News Editor, Gulf News

  

Riyadh Saudi Arabia King Fahd National Library

Dubai: Saudi women will now be able to join the Saudi Arabian Army, Royal Saudi Air Defence, Royal Saudi Navy, Royal Saudi Strategic Missile Force, and Armed Forces Medical Services, Al Arabiya reported.

The Saudi Ministry of Defence announced that men and women in the Kingdom can now apply for positions in the military through their unified admission portal. Women can be recruited as soldiers, lance corporals, corporals, sergeants, and staff sergeants, according to the ministry.

These are all enlisted ranks as opposed to commissioned officers. I wonder how this will work if a woman ever makes it to sergeant or staff-sergeant and tries to order a male corporal around. It will require a bit of a cultural shift for it to work.

The move comes under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030 initiative, introducing reforms that allow Saudi women to advance in various fields.

To join the armed forces, a woman must be between the age of 21 and 40, be 155 centimetres tall or above, and cannot be a government employee.

She must also pass admission procedures, have a clean record, and be medically fit for service.

A Saudi  woman must also hold an independent national identity card, have at least a high school education, and cannot be married to a non-Saudi.

For male citizens wanting to join the armed forces, they must be between the ages of 17 and 40 and be a minimum of 160 centimetres tall.

They must also pass admission procedures, have a clean criminal record, and prove that they are medically fit for service.