The CIA > Black Ops to Kill Julian Assange, Glen Greenwald and Other Disapproved Journalists

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CIA was ready to wage gun battle in London streets against Russian

operatives to kill or snatch Assange, bombshell report claims

26 Sep, 2021 14:43

(L) Mike Pompeo © Andrew Harnik/Pool via REUTERS; (R) Julian Assange © REUTERS/Peter Nicholls

Under Obama, the CIA wanted to define Julian Assange and other journalists as “information brokers” in order to ramp up their spying on them. And during the Trump era, it prepared plans to abduct or kill the WikiLeaks founder.

The claims about the extraordinary lengths to which the CIA under Director Mike Pompeo were prepared to go to get Assange were made on Sunday in a Yahoo News report based on interviews with more than 30 former US officials. The report offers an insight into how the US national security apparatus was escalating its war with WikiLeaks under two consecutive US administrations.

At the peak of preparations for hostilities in 2017, the CIA was allegedly expecting Russian agents to help Assange flee the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. In such a contingency, the Americans, together with the British, were planning to engage in street battles against the Russians, potentially starting a firefight, ramming a Russian diplomatic vehicle, or shooting at the tires of a Russian plane to prevent it from lifting off, the story said. The attempt to spring Assange was reportedly expected on Christmas Eve.

“It was beyond comical,” a former senior official told the outlet regarding the situation in the vicinity of the embassy at the time. “It got to the point where every human being in a three-block radius was working for one of the intelligence services – whether they were street sweepers or police officers or security guards.”

The CIA was also deliberating plans to kill Assange and other members of WikiLeaks, the report said. Alternatively, the agency was considering snatching him from the embassy and bringing him to the US, or handing him over to the British authorities. At the time, the UK wanted Assange for skipping bail in an extradition trial on a request from Sweden – a case that has since been dropped.

It's been dropped but he's still in prison! Go figure!

The possibility of carrying out a successful rendition or assassination were described as “ridiculous” by one intelligence official, because of the location. “This isn’t Pakistan or Egypt – we’re talking about London,” the source was quoted as saying. There was also resistance in the Trump administration because such an operation might be deemed illegal under US law. A source said using CIA powers meant only for spy-versus-spy activities would be “the same kind of crap we pulled in the War on Terror.”

As far as the CIA was concerned, WikiLeaks prompted these extreme measures after the so-called ‘Vault 7’ publications, which exposed a cyber-offensive toolkit used by US agents. The leak of those tools was a major humiliation for US intelligence, so “Pompeo and [then-Deputy CIA Director Gina] Haspel wanted vengeance on Assange,” Yahoo was told.

Pompeo had to do some legal maneuvering so the agency could go more aggressively after Assange and WikiLeaks without having then-president Donald Trump sign off such operations. When, shortly after taking office, he infamously called WikiLeaks a “non-state hostile intelligence service” during a public speech, it was more than just rhetoric, according to the report. Designating in that way allowed the CIA to file its snooping under “offensive counterintelligence” activities, which it’s allowed to conduct on its own volition.

“I don’t think people realize how much [the] CIA can do under offensive [counterintelligence] and how there is minimal oversight of it,” a former official said.

While Pompeo’s CIA ramped up its “war on WikiLeaks” to 11, even under then-president Barack Obama the agency was likewise angling for ways to target the transparency group. It lobbied the White House to redesignate WikiLeaks and a number of high-profile journalists, including Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras as “information brokers,” allowing more surveillance powers to be deployed against them, the report says.

“Is WikiLeaks a journalistic outlet? Are Laura Poitras and Glenn Greenwald truly journalists?” a source speculated in an interview with Yahoo News. “We tried to change the definition of them, and I preached this to the White House, and got rejected.”

Ultimately, Assange was dragged out of the Ecuadorian Embassy and currently remains in custody in a high-security British prison. The US has appealed a court decision to deny its request to extradite him on charges related to hacking. Proceedings are expected to resume next month.

Concerns about jeopardizing the US case against Assange were among the factors that prevented the CIA’s plants from going further, according to Yahoo News. Assange’s defense team hopes this proves true.

“My hope and expectation is that the UK courts will consider this information and it will further bolster its decision not to extradite him to the US,” his lawyer, Barry Pollack, told the outlet when asked about the alleged CIA plans targeting his client.

Resentment towards Assange is a bipartisan endeavor in the US establishment. Hillary Clinton, Trump’s opponent in the 2016 election, reportedly joked about “droning” the Australian citizen back in 2010, but later said she didn’t remember having said that.

The presidential election and WikiLeaks’ publication of Democratic emails was a pivotal moment for the CIA’s campaign against Assange, according to Yahoo News, since it was able to claim the leak was carried out in collaboration with Russian intelligence. WikiLeaks denied it and Moscow insists the accusation of election interference was baseless and was part of the Democrats’ attempt to downplay Clinton’s defeat.

The Freedom of the Press Foundation issued a statement calling the CIA “a disgrace,” adding, “The fact that it contemplated and engaged in so many illegal acts against WikiLeaks, its associates, and even other award-winning journalists is an outright scandal that should be investigated by Congress and the Justice Department.”

The foundation also called on President Joe Biden and his administration to immediately drop all charges against Assange, describing the CIA’s alleged plans as “beyond the pale.”

The Media is the Message > Reactions to US Social Media Censoring - from Disturbed to Nuclear; Belarus Threatens Prison for Journos

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Fresh from censoring select voices before and after US election,

Twitter howls ‘HUMAN RIGHTS’ as Uganda shuts down social media

12 Jan 2021 23:15

A supporter of Uganda President Yoweri Museveni is shown taking a selfie in front of a campaign poster for his re-election.

© Reuters / Abubaker Lubowa

After banning the US president and other voices challenging Joe Biden’s election victory, Twitter is aghast that Uganda has shut down the social media conversation two days before voters there go to the polls.

“We’re hearing reports that internet service providers are being ordered to block social media and messaging apps,” Twitter said on Tuesday. “We strongly condemn internet shutdowns. They are hugely harmful [and] violate basic human rights and the principles of the open internet.”

With tens of thousands of conservative voices, including President Donald Trump, being banned by Twitter and other Big Tech platforms in recent days, the irony of the company’s statement was not lost on critics. “Shutting down voices online is a violation of human rights in Uganda but necessary to protect democracy in America,” Blaze TV host Lauren Chen tweeted.

Media critic Mark Dice said, “Maybe they don’t want Twitter interfering in their election like you’ve done in the US.”

In fact, Uganda’s government ordered a national social-media blackout essentially to level the playing field after Facebook and Twitter took down accounts supporting President Yoweri Museveni and Uganda’s ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party.

“This is unfortunate, but it’s unavoidable,” Museveni said on Tuesday in a nationwide address. “There’s no way anybody can come and play around with our country... We cannot tolerate this arrogance of anybody coming to decide for us who is good and who is bad.”

Twitter acknowledged that it suspended an undisclosed number of Ugandan accounts targeting the country’s January 14 election earlier this week, “in close coordination with our peers.” Facebook shut down allegedly duplicate accounts linked to Uganda’s Ministry of Information after saying they were used to comment on content, impersonate users and make posts appear more popular.

The 76-year-old Museveni, who has ruled Uganda since 1986, said that if a social media platform is going to operate in Uganda, “it should be used equitably by everybody who wants to use it” – a sentiment that millions of Americans would like to see applied in the US. “If you want to take sides against the NRM, then that group will not operate in Uganda,” he added. “Uganda is ours. It’s not anybody’s.”

How is the internet to be used equitably when the government has a department whose purpose is to flood the internet with pro-Gov't propaganda?

Twitter blasted the timing of the shutdown, saying, “Access to information and freedom of expression, including the public conversation on Twitter, is never more important than during democratic processes, particularly elections.”

Observers suggested the company may be lacking in self-awareness. Author Anuraag Saxena quipped: “What kind of monsters would block the right to free speech? Oh wait.” Social media editor Jessica O’Donnell said, “Are there no mirrors at Twitter?”

A spokesman for Museveni told the AP that Facebook was interfering in Uganda’s electoral process, and the unilateral shutdown of accounts was evidence of “outside support.”

The US State Department has called on Uganda to ensure a “free, fair, credible and peaceful” election and has accused Museveni’s administration of using excessive force against opposition protesters. “Security officials responsible for the excessive force must be held to account, and candidates must be afforded freedom of movement and access to media,” US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement last month. He added that “we are paying close attention to the actions of individuals who interfere in the democratic process and will not hesitate to consider serious consequences for those responsible for election-related violence and oppression.”

Dozens of protesters have reportedly been killed during crackdowns on rallies for opposition candidate Bobi Wine.

Museveni apologized for the inconvenience caused by Uganda’s social media shutdown, but said that after Facebook failed to give a proper explanation of its account suspensions, the government was forced to take action.

Poland slams social media deplatforming of Trump as government readies

anti-censorship law

14 Jan 2021 16:03

FILE PHOTO. © Getty Images / Westend61

The Polish government has decried social media platforms’ (mis)handling of US President Donald Trump’s accounts as Warsaw prepares to pass its own legislation to stop ideological censorship.

Facebook’s decision to remove Trump’s account was politically motivated, hypocritical, and “amounts to censorship,” Deputy Justice Minister Sebastian Kaleta told local media. 

Under the country’s new anti-censorship law, “removing lawful content would directly violate the law, and this will have to be respected by the platforms that operate in Poland,” he explained to Polish outlet Rzeczpospolita. 

PM Mateusz Morawiecki made similar comments earlier this week, though he did not mention the US president by name. “Algorithms or the owners of corporate giants should not decide which views are right and which are not,” he wrote on Facebook. 

There can be no consent to censorship.

“Censorship of free speech, which is the domain of totalitarian and authoritarian regimes, is now returning in the form of a new, commercial mechanism to combat those who think differently,” Morawiecki continued.

The new anti-censorship law, first unveiled last month, will allow users whose content is taken down by the Big Tech companies to petition a special court if they believe the content did not violate Polish law and should be restored. The user may first file a complaint to the platform, which has 24 hours to restore the ‘offending’ content if they agree it does not violate Polish law. 

If the platform refuses, however, the user has 48 hours to petition a court newly created for this purpose. Should the court find in favor of the censored user over a seven-day consideration period, the censoring platform can be fined up to €1.8 million.

Polish government figures, especially those on the right wing of the political spectrum, have had their own struggles with Facebook censorship in the past. The platform kicked Konfederacja party MP Janusz Korwin-Mikke off the site in November despite some 780,000 followers, alleging he had repeatedly violated “community standards.”

Poland is out of step with the mostly, far-left EU

Morawiecki has called for the EU to adopt similar rules for governing social media, though the multinational group’s current trajectory seems to lean toward punishing platforms for not removing ‘offensive’ content quickly enough. 

France, is finding less and less in common with EU values

However, individual countries such as France are starting to push back against the dominance of Big Tech. French finance minister Bruno Le Maire recently referred to the tech titans as a “digital oligarchy” and “one of the threats” to democracy. 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel called it “problematic” while Thierry Breton, the EU Commission’s internal market commissioner, went as far as to compare it to 9/11 in the sense that it led to a “paradigm shift” in perception of global security when it comes to the “threat” unregulated tech companies can pose to democracies.

Belarusian authorities seek to give journalists 3-year jail term for alleged role

in protests against embattled leader Lukashenko

14 Jan 2021 18:05

People, including pensioners, take part in an opposition rally to demand the resignation of Belarusian President

Alexander Lukashenko and to protest against police violence in Minsk, Belarus November 30, 2020.

© REUTERS / Stringer; (inset) Daria Chultsova © вконтакте24.рф

Two young journalists could be handed prison sentences over accusations that they participated in opposition rallies in Belarus, despite their insistence that they were covering events as reporters for a Western-backed news site.

Nadzeya Antonik, an officer of the Frunzenski Court in Minsk, announced on Facebook earlier this week that a criminal case had been filed against Daria Chultsova, a camerawoman from Belsat TV, and Ekaterina Andreeva, one of the network’s presenters. They stand accused of “organizing and preparing actions that grossly violate public order,” charges which carry up to three years incarceration.

According to the Warsaw-based channel, which is bankrolled by Poland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the pair were arrested after live-streaming a demonstration on Minsk’s so-called ‘Square of Changes’. The protests followed an outcry after a resident of the capital, Roman Bondarenko, was allegedly beaten to death after being picked up by police outside his home on the plaza.

According to Andreeva’s husband, Igor Ilyash, who also works for Belsat, the charges have been commonly used against those reporting on events in the country since the beginning of the unrest last summer. “It’s a completely absurd situation,” he said. “She practically spent the entire protest in that apartment [where they had been filming], she didn’t leave there, she couldn’t take part or coordinate. The very fact that she ran a live broadcast is proof.”

Opposition figurehead Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who stood against veteran leader Alexander Lukashenko in the country’s presidential elections last year, has since weighed in on the case from Lithuania, where she fled in the days following the vote. The one-time candidate, who has declared herself the rightful president of Belarus, urged her followers to send cards and letters to Chultsova, who she describes as a “political prisoner.” 

While many foreign journalists, who are required to register with authorities in Minsk, had their credentials revoked last year, a number of native Belarusians have maintained a flow of information out of the country. However, several of the outlets that employ them are based outside the country or funded from overseas. Some are Russian, while others are Western-funded, such as NEXTA and Belsat.tv, which are based across the border in Poland. Lukashenko’s government bans media organizations that take funds from “foreign legal entities,” and does not distinguish between their journalists and protesters.

Belarus has been rocked by mass demonstrations and strikes since August, when Lukashenko claimed victory in his sixth presidential election since first taking office in 1994. However, the opposition and many international observers claim that the vote was rigged in his favor, and hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets to demand a new poll. Lukashenko has said that those forming the crowds are Western-backed “puppets.”

Russian Politics - If Nothing Else, It's At Least Entertaining

Crimean official quits, changes her mind, then quits again after bizarre ‘bread and fur coats’ scandal

Maya Khuzhina hands out loaves to Leningrad Seige survivors © Kerch City Council

By Jonny Tickle

"Fur-coat gate" has gripped Crimea after a local official resigned, then re-instated herself, before – somewhat unbelievably – later resigning again. All in the space of a couple of days.

The controversy started when Maya Khuzhina was pictured handing out pieces of bread to elderly veterans of the Second World War Leningrad blockade while wearing an expensive animal skin. The siege of the city – now Saint Petersburg – by Nazi Germany and its Finnish and Italian allies, lasted 872 days and resulted in over a million deaths, a great many of them from starvation.

In her role as chair of the city council of Kerch, an ancient settlement on the Black Sea coast, Khuzhina handed out bread and medals to eleven survivors of what many consider a genocide. She then posted photos on Facebook, and that's where the trouble started.

The images quickly gained notoriety, and in less than 24 hours there were more than 500 comments, most of which complained about how out-of-touch the politicians pictured seemed to be. The outrage was caused by the contrast between the seemingly cheap loaves of bread and the expensive fur coats of Khuzhina and the accompanying council members making up her entourage.

Later, the politicians explained to reporters that the bread was actually a meat pie, while the fur coats were “imitation,” and they stressed that the gifts were purely “symbolic.”

Following a considerable amount of interest in the national media, the head of Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov, stated that Khuzhina’s actions looked “like mockery, like humiliation,” and ordered an investigation into the event. Aksyonov wrote that the head of the City Council and all deputies should be fired and expelled from the ruling party, United Russia.

Maya Khuzhina © Kerch City Council

Despite the outcry, Khuzhina refused to show any remorse, saying:

“I don’t think I’m guilty, I think I did everything right. I received comments from those blockade women who came to me today with their children... and said that ‘we are very grateful to you; you are the only person who remembered us.’”

The story quickly took a strange turn. Despite seemingly not feeling any guilt, just three days after the scandal broke, Maya Khuzhina and her deputy Larisa Shcherbula wrote letters of resignation. However, the resignation didn't last long, as Khuzhina rescinded her decision less than one day later. "I withdraw my statement, it was a moment of weakness," she said. Unbelievably, just a couple of hours later, she resigned for a second time.

It seems she has more weak moments than strong ones.

Khuzhina's resignation letter will be considered at an extraordinary session of the City Council, according to First Vice-Speaker of the Crimean Parliament Yefim Fiks.

Fiks told RIA Novosti: "Khuzhina wrote a statement and will comply with any order of the head of the Republic of Crimea. An extraordinary session is scheduled for Monday to consider her statement... she apparently said something emotionally, but then explained that she would obey any decision of the head of Crimea."

Khuzhina was born in Kerch, Crimea, and has been an elected official since September 2019.

Head of Chuvashia expelled from Russia’s ruling party after humiliating local firefighter & threatening journalists

©  Global Look Press / Komsomolskaya Pravda

By Jonny Tickle, RT

Russia’s largest political party has expelled the long-time leader of the Chuvash Republic following a series of gaffes which caused national outrage.

Mikhail Ignatiev had run Chuvashia, in the Volga region, for almost a decade before a video of him taunting a local firefighter went viral across the country.

It followed earlier comments in which he suggested that journalists who criticize the authorities be “wiped out.”

The party’s General Council secretary, Andrey Turchak, announced the decision after a meeting of its Presidium.

On January 23, Ignatiev conducted a ceremonial review of firefighting equipment in the republic’s capital, Cheboksary. As part of the inspection, he was tasked with handing out keys for brand new fire engines to firefighters, during which Ignatiev held a set of keys above the head of an officer, forcing the worker to jump to reach them.

Chuvashia’s most senior official is considerably taller than the firefighter in question.

The video of the incident quickly spread on social media and anger fomented over a politician publicly humiliating a city employee.

Bryan MacDonald✔

@27khv

The Governor of Chuvashia, Mikhail Ignatiev, has just been expelled from the ruling "United Russia" party. Last week, he forced a firefighter to jump for keys to a new fire-engine. A few days earlier, he suggested “wiping out” unfriendly journalists. 

video 0:05

The governor’s spokesperson told RIA Novosti that he has been friends with the firefighter for a long time, and it was just a “joke.” However, Russian Minister of Emergency Situations Evgeny Zinichev didn’t see it this way and noted that it’s “unacceptable” for a high-ranking official to act in such a manner.

It wasn’t the first incident for which Ignatiev caused upset in January. Earlier in the month, he was forced to apologize for suggesting that journalists who criticize the authorities be “wiped out.” Ignatiev was invoking a famous phrase used by President Putin in 2000 when he suggested “wiping out” Chechen terrorists.

Sounds like a 'wannabe oligarch'!

A statement from the Chuvash regional administration insisted that he was misunderstood, and he only meant to criticize journalists who peddle fake news. He also apologized to those “good souls” who were offended by his words.

Ignatiev has been the leader of the Chuvash Republic since 2010, having previously served as the local minister of agriculture. Russian media has speculated Ignatiev could also leave this post. Responding to questions about this, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov replied: “I can only say that there is no decree at the moment.”

Chuvasia, Russia

Big Tech ‘Indenture Entire Populations into Servitude’ to Corporations & Govts – Snowden

Tech giants such as Google or Facebook store vast amounts of personal data for their own gain but they are also “happy to hand over” this data to governments, making people vulnerable to persecution, Edward Snowden warned.

Any person can pretty much be sure that “everything you've done, everything you've typed into their search box, everything you have clicked on, everything you've liked” is duly recorded and stored in the enormous databanks of the big tech corporations, the NSA whistleblower said addressing the UK Open Rights Group Conference (ORGCON19) in London via a video link from Moscow.

“Your communications, as they happen largely today, don't actually take place between you and the person that you are talking to. They happen between you and Facebook, who then provides a copy of it to the person you are talking to, or you and Gmail, who then gives a copy of it to the person that you are talking to and every time these transactions occur through these service providers, they keep a record of it.”

The corporations do that primarily to advance their own financial and economic interests, yet they seek to not only “better their class” but also to “better their state” and are, thus, more than happy to share the data they obtained with governments, which, in turn, make a use of it in its mass surveillance programs, Snowden warned.

“We see that governments increasingly care less and less about compliance, and care more and more about power,” he said, adding that the governmental security structures, which were supposedly created to protect the people against the threat of terrorism, are in fact used against pretty much anyone from critically-minded journalists and dissidents to immigrants and minorities.

The corporations, which now virtually control the most part of internet communications, have been long abusing their position of power, forcing people into relations one would never “meaningfully consent to” while staying largely unaccountable.

The law simply has not caught up to the fact that a technological corporation now can indenture entire populations into servitude to the corporate good, rather than to individual or public good.

His warnings came soon after Facebook agreed to give French authorities data on hate speech suspects. Earlier, the tech giant’s lawyer openly stated that the social network’s users do not actually have any privacy at all when it comes to their personal data.

Yet, the whistleblower added a portion of optimism to his otherwise grim speech by saying that the people are waking up to this situation and “that things are going to get better” because of the efforts of people who are not indifferent to this issue.

Snowden has been living in a self-imposed exile in Russia ever since he exposed the NSA’s vast surveillance network back in 2013, bringing to light information about the US security agency’s mass surveillance activities targeting millions of Americans as well as foreign leaders. He has been charged with espionage by Washington and faces arrest if he were to return home.

Elon Musk's ‘Pravda’ to Rate Credibility of Journalists & Publications

I have been waiting a long time for the brilliant inventor/entrepreneur to do something that might actually benefit society in a way other than involving transportation. He has the ability to put this program together in a way that is more than just theatre or a stage for fools. At least, I hope he has that ability, and I wonder what algorithms will be employed for social and political honesty.  

Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk appears to have declared war on the media, tweeting that he was launching a site that would let the public rate the credibility of journalists, editors and publications - which he will call “Pravda.”

Annoyed by the recent media coverage of him and his companies, Musk fired off a series of tweets on Wednesday, culminating with the proposal for the new site. The public would be able to rate the “core truth of any article” and track the “credibility score over time” for each reporter, editor and publication, he said.

Pravda, the word for “truth” in most Slavic languages, was also the name of the official newspaper of the Russian (later Soviet) Communist Party for much of the 20th century.

In a follow-up tweet, Musk explained the reasoning behind creating such a site. Even if the public doesn’t care, he said, “the journalists, editors & publications will. It is how they define themselves.”

I have to take issue with that statement. In the last couple years it seems most MSM journalists define themselves by their partiality to specific issues. They are governed by their feelings rather than common sense and logic. They constantly take sides on issues with no attempt to see the other side. They fail miserably to tell the honest and whole truth.

To the warnings that bots and trolls could game the system, and that the public doesn’t care about the truth, the Tesla and SpaceX mogul replied, “I have faith in the people.” But not journalists!

He also had a testy exchange with a reporter from the Verge, who accused him of acting like US President Donald Trump.

“Anytime anyone criticizes the media, the media shrieks ‘You’re just like Trump!’” Musk replied. “Why do you think he got elected in the first place? Because no ones believes you any more.”

The tech mogul is hardly the first to propose fact-checking and rating journalists for credibility. A cottage industry of “fact-checkers” has mushroomed following the 2016 US presidential election. Social network giant Facebook recently announced it would rank news sites based on “community trust” and partnered up with a controversial think-tank to “protect elections” from misinformation.

Last year, an attempt by Hillary Clinton supporters to create a fact-checking media platform was met with ridicule. That project, called Verrit, has only consisted of a logo on the homepage since February.

The replies to Musk’s proposals have ranged from calling him a “Typical white rich a**hole” and accusing him of “swerving into Kanye territory” to asking if he’s taking applications and suggestions that he just buy out Twitter or PornHub (“Trust me. Everyone already goes there.”)

In case you haven't noticed, this article was taken from RT. I suspect everyone in Russia goes to PornHub, at least that's what RT would have you believe, but there are many people who actually rise above the lowest levels of man's humanity; you just might have a hard time finding one in post-Communist Russia, at least, according to RT.

A poll that Musk posted on Twitter suggests a lot of the users on the platform agree with him. So far, 87 percent of nearly 200,000 voters favor the new project, with only 13 percent choosing “No, media are awesome” as their preferred option.

The 13% were probably all journalists.

Musk’s mounting frustration with the media comes amid recent bad press Tesla’s Model 3 sedan has received over braking problems. Bloomberg reported in April that Tesla was losing $6,500 a minute and it could fail before the end of the year. There has even been a proposal to oust him as chairman of Tesla’s board.

Critics have long accused the South African-born billionaire of scoring generous government subsidies for projects such as electric cars, solar roofs or high-speed mass transit. While Tesla, SolarCity and Hyperloop haven’t quite lived up to hype, Musk’s SpaceX has been very successful at launching payloads into orbit and reusing the launchers.

It appears Musk already incorporated Pravda Corp. in California last October, according to documents dug up by one reporter.

Musk has a history of picking symbolic or funny names for his endeavors. Tesla is named after a Serbian-American inventor of alternate current (AC), while the enterprise drilling tunnels for Hyperloop is called The Boring Company.

Is Government Interfering with Investigation into Iguala Massacre?

Report: Spyware targeted experts investigating

Mexico's missing students

By Andrew V. Pestano  

UPI -- Canada's Citizen Lab Internet watchdog said government-exclusive spyware targeted international experts investigating the abduction and murder of 43 college students in Mexico.

Citizen Lab said the Pegasus spyware product sold exclusively to governments was created by the NSO Group Israeli company, which is majority owned by the Francisco Partners U.S. private equity firm. Pegasus was designed to track criminals and terrorists.

Mexican journalists, human rights activists and opposition politicians have previously made allegations that Mexican authorities spied on them using Pegasus. Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto's government has denied using Pegasus to spy on opponents.

Citizen Lab said it collaborated with Mexican organizations to determine that the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which investigated the disappearance of the missing students, was targeted by Pegasus.

"The international investigation into the 2014 Iguala mass disappearance was targeted with infection attempts using spyware developed by the NSO group, an Israeli 'cyber warfare' company," Citizen Lab said in a statement. "A phone belonging to the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts, a group of investigators from several countries, was sent text messages with links to NSO's exploit infrastructure. The infection attempts took place in early March of 2016, shortly after the GIEI had criticized the Mexican government for interference in their investigation, and as they were preparing their final report."

In September 2014, 43 students from Ayotzinapa traveled to the town of Iguala in Mexico's Guerrero state and clashed with police, who opened fire, investigations revealed. Police then handed the students over to drug gangs. Soldiers were at the scene of the clash and relatives of the missing students believe the soldiers played a role in the disappearances by failing to act.

The students were declared dead and most bodies have not yet been recovered or identified. The investigation into the kidnapping by Mexico's government generated mass criticism as allegations of a coverup permeated.

Citizen Lab said it does not conclusively attribute the infection attempts to the Mexican government but added that "each new case contributes to the already-strong circumstantial evidence that entities within the Mexican government are the responsible party."

"Our published investigations have now confirmed at least 19 individuals targeted with NSO in Mexico, including lawyers, politicians, journalists, anti-corruption activists, scientists, public health campaigners, government officials, and their family members," Citizen Lab added.

Nikolai Andrushchenko Russian Anti-Corruption Journalist Dies After Beating

Nikolay Andrushchenko, a Russian journalist and civil rights activist known for his controversial corruption accusations, has died in the hospital six weeks after he was beaten by unidentified attackers in St. Petersburg. Police are investigating the case.

The 73-year old Andrushchenko passed away without coming out of a medically-induced coma after the suspected attack. The circumstances and suspects in the incident have not been revealed so far.

The journalist, who was the founder and a long-time editor of privately-owned Novy Peterburg newspaper, as well as a former city lawmaker and physicist with a higher doctorate degree, was found lying unconscious on the street on March 9 and transferred to the hospital in an ambulance.

According to Novy Peterburg chief editor Denis Usov, the incident took place after Andrushchenko allegedly received threats.

“[They] demanded he provide some documents. And then, he was found with his head banged near his house,” Usov said, as cited by RBK. He did not elaborate on what the documents were.

Usov added that they were told it was not clear if the journalist received the head injury as a result of the beating or from a fall. He speculated that the attack might have been connected to articles published in Novy Peterburg, some of which focused on the "theatrical fight against corruption," as well as allegations of past mafia links relating to the city authorities.

Andrushchenko was heading to a business meeting when the incident happened, said Novy Peterburg director Alevtina Avgeeva, adding that an investigation into the attack has been launched by the St. Petersburg police.

Andrushchenko was known as a harsh critic of the Russian government, and in particular of the judicial and law enforcement system of St. Petersburg, accusing the latter of links to southern Russian criminal groups in the 1990s. In 2008, he made headlines after penning a letter addressed to a list of human rights organizations and world leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, then US President Bush, Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former UK PM Gordon Brown, in which he publicly renounced Russian citizenship and accused Moscow of political repressions and encroachment on freedom of speech.

While technically Russian law does not permit the renunciation of citizenship when the individual does not have citizenship of another country or “guarantees that he will obtain it,” and it is unclear what legal steps Andrushchenko actually attempted in this regard, he was also in the middle of a legal case with charges of libel and incitement leveled against him.

In 2007, Andrushchenko was detained and charged with incitement to carry out extremist activity, insulting a representative of authority and libel against state prosecution officials after a series of controversial articles for his newspaper. Those included Andrushchenko writing an editorial for his publication for people to take part in a mass unauthorized opposition rally, which was eventually not published.

In June 2009, the court found Andrushchenko guilty of inciting social discord against prosecution officials and insulting them, for which he received a suspended sentence of one year and was ordered to pay a fine of 20,000 rubles ($350). Andrushchenko neither had to serve his jail nor pay the fine, as by the time the verdict arrived, the statute of limitations in his case had already expired.

Andrushchenko flatly denied all the charges against him and also included in the 2008 letter lengthy allegations of “torture” and mistreatment in detention by police, which he said had a severe effect on his health. He also claimed that a year prior to his arrest he unsuccessfully attempted to get police to detain a migrant worker who had allegedly beaten him with nunchucks and had attempted an arson attack on his flat, which led him to believe the attack was “organized” by the Prosecutor’s Office.

The Novy Peterburg newspaper, which was shut down by a separate court decision in 2007 after “signs of extremist materials” were found in its articles amid the legal proceedings in Andrushchenko’s case, resumed publication in 2009 after the ruling was appealed. While the paper had been known to be a highly controversial outlet in the journalistic community of St. Petersburg, the situation also sparked concerns and accusations of censorship.

Islamic Insanity Spreads to Europe Just in Time for Christmas

Twas a week before Christmas and all through the world

Assassinations galore as madness unfurled

December 19th, 2016:

Turkey - Russian ambassador shot and killed

A Turkish riot policeman shot and killed the Russian ambassador to Turkey. Ambassador Andrey Karlov was gunned down on Monday evening as he was delivering a speech at an Ankara art gallery. The assassin was killed in a shoot-out with security forces.

The attacker was identified as Mevlut Mert Altintas, a 22-year-old officer with the Turkish riot police. He yelled "Allahu Akbar" and began screaming about Russian involvement in Aleppo and elsewhere. 




SWITZERLAND - Shooting at Islamic Centre leaves 3 injured 

Three people were injured in a shooting at an Islamic center in downtown Zurich on Monday.
A male suspect entered the center’s prayer room, often used as a mosque, at around 5:30pm local time and opened fire. Three men aged 30, 35 and 56 were injured in the attack, according to police.

The suspect fled the scene near the main train station in Switzerland’s financial capital and remains on the run. Police have sealed off the surrounding area as they conduct a “major search” for the assailant.

The suspect was described by police as a man of "about 30 years" who was wearing dark clothing and a dark wool cap. 

A short time after the attack a man’s body was found in Gessnerallee, an area "close" to the scene.

Zurich police say they are investigating if the body has any connection to the mosque attack. 




Germany - 12 Dead, 48 injured as terrorist ran down people in Christmas market

Germany is reeling after a truck plowed into a Christmas market in western Berlin, killing 12 people and injuring dozens more in a suspected terrorist attack.

The incident took place at 8:00pm on the pedestrianized Breitscheidplatz, home to one of Berlin’s largest Christmas markets. It is beside the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church and also close to the city’s key shopping mile, Kurfuerstendamm.


At least 12 people have died and 48 others were injured in the Christmas market truck incident, Berlin's police said.

It is believed the truck was driven by a Polish man, brother to the owner. There is some suspicion that the truck and driver were hijacked. The incident may have been inspired by the Bastille Day massacre in Nice, last summer, when 86 were killed and more than 400 injured.

Top 6 countries, at least, where reporters are killed are Islamic countries. Yet, Europe insists on bringing this violence into their midst. Is it any wonder there is terror in the streets?

107 reporters killed in Syria since conflict began

People carry belongings as they walk on the rubble of damaged buildings in the government controlled area of Aleppo, Syria December 17, 2016. © Omar Sanadiki / Reuters

Syria was the deadliest country for journalists in 2016, according to a report. At least 14 journalists were killed there in the line of duty this year alone, bringing the total number of war reporters who have died since the conflict broke out to at least 107.

According to the report by international press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), deaths in combat or crossfire reached their highest number since 2013, as conflicts in the Middle East showed no sign of ending.

Journalists sent into the thick of the action appear to be at high risk of not only losing their lives, but of being kidnapped and executed by Islamic State and other terrorist groups.

“Islamic State is responsible for the disappearance of at least 11 journalists since 2013. They are feared dead, but do not appear in CPJ’s data on killed journalists because their fate cannot be confirmed,” the report said. It added that the two professions that proved to be the most dangerous in 2016 were those of photographer and cameraman.

Twenty percent of the journalists killed in 2016 were freelancers.

In April, Syrian journalist Zaher al-Shurqat was shot in the head by a masked man in the southern Turkish town of Gaziantep. IS claimed responsibility for the murder, making al-Shurqat the fourth Syrian journalist the group claimed to have killed in Turkey since October 2015, according to CPJ.

Global reporter's assassins leaders

At least 48 journalists were killed in relation to their work between January 1 and December 15, 2016, the international press freedom group said.

“More than half of the journalists killed in the year died in combat or crossfire, for the first time since CPJ began keeping records. The conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, Afghanistan, and Somalia claimed the lives of 26 journalists who died covering the fighting,” the New York-based group said.

Among those killed by the fighting in Syria this year was 20-year-old photographer and video journalist Osama Jumaa, who died in June while reporting from Aleppo for the international photo agency Images Live.

Iraq proved to be among the “top three most deadly countries for the fourth year in a row,” with six journalists killed in 2016, according to the report.

In Yemen, the number of journalists who lost their lives in the line of duty has also been on the rise as fighting escalated. Six journalists were killed this year, bringing the total to 12 since 2014, CPJ said.

According to CPJ’s detailed records since 1992, about two-thirds of journalists killed are specifically singled out for murder in retaliation for their work. This year, some 18 journalists were targeted directly for murder, the lowest number since 2002.

“The reason for the decline is unclear, and could be a combination of factors including less risk-taking by the media, more efforts to bring global attention to the challenge of combatting impunity, and the use of other means to silence critical journalists,” the report said.


A number of journalists have been risking their lives covering political unrest. At least three reporters died this year covering dangerous assignments, two of them in Pakistan. Mehmood Khan – a cameraman for DawnNews – and Shehzad Ahmed – a cameraman for Aaj TV – were at a hospital in Quetta where a crowd had gathered to grieve the murder of the president of the Baluchistan Bar Association when a powerful bomb killed over 70 people.

There is no tolerance in Islam for journalists who tell the truth. They report what Islamists want them to report or they are murdered. And many such deaths are hardly even investigated especially in Islamic countries and in countries run by drug lords or other oligarchs. Apparently, there is little difference.

13 countries where journalists have been killed with impunity

'Everyone is Being Framed', Journalist Deported from Turkey Tells of Govt Media Takeover

There are two reasons why autocratic states take over their media: 

1. They are doing, or planning something either illegal or immoral, ie invading Crimea

2. They are completely paranoid. The KGB and its forerunner kept Stalin terrified that someone was always trying to overthrow him. They knew it wasn't true but that's empire building at its finest.

But it doesn't have to be an either / or situation. It could well be that Erdogan is completely paranoid; and it is certain that he is assisting ISIS and attempting to destroy the Kurds.

Riot police use tear gas to disperse protesting employees and supporters of Zaman newspaper at the courtyard of the newspaper's office in Istanbul, Turkey March 5, 2016. © Osman Orsal / Reuters

The latest government takeover of the Zaman media outlet in Istanbul is "not a surprise at all," a journalist who had been working in the country told RT, adding that "the press has never been free in Turkey."

"Everybody who opposes them [the government], every journalist who is against the government is being framed. I was framed as a terrorist supporter and Zaman is linked to the Gulen movement – which is a movement of a religious Turkish leader [Sunni cleric Fethullah Gulen] who is based in the US, and they say he is trying to stage a coup against the government. So now Zaman journalists and people who read Zaman are being framed as coup supporters, that's how the government is doing it," Frederike Geerdink, Dutch freelance journalist who was deported from Turkey last year, told RT.

On Friday, the Istanbul-based Turkish-language Zaman newspaper, which has been sharply critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was ordered into administration by a court decision. Following the order, which the outlet journalists proclaimed an "unlawful takeover," the paper's editor-in-chief Abdulhamit Bilici was fired by trustees, while police put barbed wire around the headquarters.

"All content management systems at Zaman" have also been blocked by the new administration, Zaman's sister publication in English, Today's Zaman, said, with its journalists covering the situation via social media and posting updates on Twitter.

"All internet connection is cut off at the seized Zaman building by police raid," they posted, adding that after the takeover of the headquarters in Istanbul, Ankara office has also "lost access to company internal servers."

Government affiliates have also taken under control and blocked access to the outlet's Cihan news agency, Today's Zaman reported, adding that it is "the only news agency that was monitoring elections besides state-run Anadolu."

"It's not a surprise at all. Several of the government newspapers have in the last couple of weeks hinted at this [takeover] already, and other media who are linked to the Gulen movement have come under the same procedure with trustees," Frederike Geerdink, who has herself been prosecuted in Turkey "for making propaganda for a terrorist organization," said.

The journalist told RT that she has been in contact with one of Zaman's employees, who told her weeks ago that they had been "having a difficult time" because of government pressure. Zaman was losing advertisers and readers, "because if you work for the state you cannot be seen with Zaman under your arm, as it can lead to losing your job," the Dutch journalist was told by her Turkish colleague.

"Zaman was being attacked for months," she said, but added that the current situation with the media in the country "is not something new."

Two years ago, one of Today's Zaman journalists, Azerbaijan national Mahir Zeynalov, was deported from Turkey after having worked at the Turkish newspaper for years. The reporter was facing prosecution related to a tweet, his employers said, adding that a complaint against Zeynalov was filed by then PM Erdogan, accusing the journalist of "defamation and inciting public to hatred."

"People now think that Erdogan invented the lack of press freedom in Turkey - which is totally not true. He takes it to extreme heights – that's definitely true, but the press has never been free in Turkey," Geerdink told RT. "For example, 20 years ago nobody could go to the southeast to report on the realities there. At the time it was the army that was censoring the press, and now Erdogan is using the same mechanisms to silence opponents," she said.

Not only government-owned media outlets are being biased in Turkey, the Dutch journalist said. Some are under indirect, economic pressure.

"Most of the big papers and big channels, also the ones we call 'mainstream' which are not necessarily total mouthpieces of the government, have economic ties to the government, because they are part of big companies, and have to report in line with general government policy. [Otherwise] these companies lose contracts in the telecom market," Geerdink said, adding that CNN Turk – which hasn't been covering the Zaman protests, is one example.

"CNN Turk cancelled two rather popular talk shows of people who are not really in line with the government - and that is another problem in Turkey," she said.

Erdogan Following Putin in Strangling Free Speech and Hiding Truth

Turkey: Newspaper Under Threat Over Syria Arms Story

Cumhuriyet newspaper front page headline “Yanındayız,” meaning
“We stand beside you” - an expression of solidarity by intellectuals
protesting against the government assault on the newspaper. 

Cumhuriyet and Can Dündar should not be facing a criminal investigation for doing their job of researching and reporting the news

Emma Sinclair-Webb, Turkey researcher
Human Rights Watch

(Istanbul) – A criminal investigation has been opened against a Turkish newspaper and its editor for reporting on a matter of public interest, Human Rights Watch said today. It is the latest assault on media that challenge the government, days before Turkey’s June 7, 2015 general election. The investigation should be dropped immediately.

The Istanbul prosecutor opened the investigation on May 29, the day the national daily Cumhuriyet published a front-page news story by its editor, Can Dündar, including photographs and a link to an online video, purporting to reveal large quantities of mortar shells, grenade launchers, and ammunition hidden in a Turkish truck bound for Syria in January 2014. In publishing the images, the newspaper challenged Turkish government claims over more than a year that the trucks had been part of an operation run by Turkey’s National Intelligence Agency (MİT) to transport humanitarian assistance to Syria.

“Cumhuriyet and Can Dündar should not be facing a criminal investigation for doing their job of researching and reporting the news,” said Emma Sinclair-Webb, Turkey researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The criminal investigation should be dropped and Turkey’s political leaders should stop threatening journalists.”

The government has not sought parliamentary authorization to supply weapons to Syrian opposition groups. The incident has raised serious questions about the murky dimensions of Turkey’s suspected involvement with the conflict in Syria and the Turkish government’s effort to prevent any legal or journalistic scrutiny of Turkish intelligence operations.

The Istanbul public prosecutor initiated the investigation “on suspicion of obtaining information concerning state security, political and military espionage, revealing information that should be kept secret, and propaganda for a terrorist organization.” An Istanbul court imposed a media blackout on the story the same day.

Both Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan have accused the newspaper and its editor of spying. Erdoğan in a May 31, 2015 television interview stated that “The person who wrote this news shall pay a heavy price for it, I won’t just let it go.” On June 2, the president lodged a separate complaint with the Ankara prosecutor against Dündar, accusing him of publishing “fake images and information” and of crimes including “attempting to overthrow the government, or partial or total prevention of government duties,” a crime for which the penalty is life imprisonment.

or any media, apparently

There has been controversy over allegations that trucks have transferred weapons through Turkey to Syria since January 2014, when public prosecutors in Turkey’s southern city of Adana attempted to investigate the allegations. Prosecutors twice acted on tip-offs and sought to examine the contents of trucks despite the Justice Ministry informing them that they had no authority to do so, contending that they were part of an intelligence agency operation to carry humanitarian assistance to Syria.

On May 8, 2015, four prosecutors and a gendarmerie officer involved in investigating the trucks were jailed pending investigation on suspicion of “obtaining and revealing information pertaining to state security” and “attempting to overthrow the government, or partial or total prevention of government duties.”

“Threatening Cumhuriyet newspaper and its editor with charges like spying for reporting on alleged arms transfers comes just weeks after four prosecutors were jailed for investigating the incident,” Sinclair-Webb said. “The criminal investigation and threats against the newspaper are part of an alarming pattern of the government clamping down on any scrutiny of its conduct.”

Of course turkey was supplying arms to Syrian rebels. Anything to stop the Iranian expansion is a good cause. Turkey is not doing anything differently from any other arms producing country - clandestinely providing arms to one side or another of a conflict; or, as is often the case, providing arms to both sides.

Turkey's problem is that it was caught doing so and instead of admitting the truth, they are trying to hide it, to bury it, as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, such draconian measures of control over the media do not ever reverse themselves, but continue to accumulate until the media is completely subservient to the regime in power.

Pat Condell Unloads on European Journalists for Their Cowardly Attitude Toward Islam

Pat Condell is a YouTube commentator who speaks on a variety of subjects. He is one of the most clear thinking and articulate people in the world, and always worth listening to.

Here he talks about the Islamification of Europe being the root cause of the dramatically increased antisemitism there, and the cowardice of the press for refusing to admit it.

Watch video here.