Mexico > Police protection cannot save an honest man from murder in Narco State Mexico

 

Gunmen kill Mexican crime reporter

despite his police protection

By Allen Cone

Aug. 5 (UPI) -- Gunmen in Mexico shot and killed a crime reporter in the central state of Guanajuato on Sunday.

Alejandro Martínez Noguez died in Celaya after suffering the attack while in his car. He survived a similar attack on his life in 2022, the BBC reported.

At the time of his slaying, he was under police protection by two officers who ineffectively returned fire at the assailants.

Martinez went by the nickname "El Hijo del Llanero Solitito," which is "The Son of the Lone Ranger" in English.

He died in a hospital from his bullet wounds.

The journalist, who was in his 50s, ran a popular news outlet on Facebook, which has about 344,000 followers.

Lukashenko critic, who's plane was forced down, is pardoned in Belarus

..

Belarus pardons opposition journalist Roman Protasevich

By Simon Druker

 

Belarusian journalist Roman Protasevich had his 8-year prison sentence for opposing the country's leadership regime pardoned, the country’s state-run media reported Monday. File Photo by Stringer/EPA-EFE

May 22 (UPI) -- Imprisoned Belarusian journalist Roman Protasevich said Monday that his 8-year prison sentence was pardoned, the country's state-run media reported Monday.

Protasevich, editor of the opposition media channel Nexta on Telegram, said he "signed all the relevant documents" and was pardoned of his conviction for Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko's authoritarian government, the state-run BELTA news agency reported.

"This, of course, is just great news," he said.

Protasevich thanked Lukashenko for the pardon and said he planned to go to "a quiet place in the countryside for a couple of days ... in order to take a breather and start to move forward."

He was convicted last month for organizing mass riots, advocating sanctions against Belarus, leading an extremist group, and conspiring to seize power.

State media did not mention Protasevich's girlfriend Sofia Sapega, who was sentenced last May to six years in prison.

The two were on a commercial flight in May of 2021 from Greece to Lithuania when Belarusian authorities warned the pilots of the Ryanair plane about an alleged bomb threat. That caused the plane to enter Belarusian airspace. A military jet then forced the aircraft into diverting to Minsk where Protasevich and Sapega were hauled off the plane and jailed, in what became an international incident.

At the time, the U.N. Human Rights Commission said the plane was "hijacked" by Lukashenko's regime to "abduct" the journalist.

Russia was providing consular services to Sapega. I wonder if they did some arm-twisting here?

Middleman Gives Details to Malta Court of Plot to Kill Reporter

Corruption is Everywhere - in Malta's Government and Business

Anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia

was killed by car bomb in 2017

Thomson Reuters 

A person holds a hand on a picture of Daphne Caruana Galizia during a demonstration to demand justice

over the killing of the journalist in Valletta, Malta. (Yara Nardi/Reuters)

The self-confessed middleman in the murder of a journalist tells a court that a wealthy Maltese businessman was the brains behind the killing, but says people tied to the government might also be implicated.

Melvin Theuma received immunity from prosecution last week in return for information that would lead to the conviction of the alleged plot ring leader, multi-millionaire entrepreneur Yorgen Fenech.

Fenech has been charged with complicity over the 2017 murder of anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia by a car bomb. He has denied the accusations and blamed former government chief of staff Keith Schembri and other top officials.

Schembri was arrested last month but later released. He has denied involvement in the killing which has shone a spotlight on allegations of rampant corruption in Malta's overlapping worlds of politics and business. Schembri later resigned.

Theuma gave a detailed account of how the 38-year-old Fenech had contacted him in 2017 to organize the hit, providing €150,000 (about $226,500 Cdn at the time) for the contract.

The plot was put on hold before national elections in June 2017 but reactivated the night the ruling Labour party was returned to power, Theuma told a packed courtroom.

"I can assure you, Yorgen Fenech was the only mastermind. Only he spoke to me," said Theuma, a taxi driver with links to the criminal underworld.

Maltese businessman Yorgen Fenech has denied being complicit in the killing of the journalist. (The Associated Press)

Fenech wanted Caruana Galizia dead, because he thought she was going to publish an incriminating story about his uncle, Theuma said.

His uncle, huh? Certainly, there were people in Malta's business sector and in the government, including the Prime Minister, who were implicated for tax dodging in the Panama Papers.

He said he was called to government headquarters after agreeing to arrange the killing and that Schembri himself gave him a tour of the building, which includes Prime Minister Joseph Muscat's offices. The pair had their photograph taken.

Muscat has denied wrongdoing but acknowledged he could have handled the aftermath better and said he will step down next month.

Theuma was subsequently told he had been put on the government payroll and received a paycheque for three or four months. "If you asked me, I wouldn't know what my job was at the ministry, as I never went," he said.

He said he paid three local men to carry out the killing. The trio were later arrested and are awaiting trial, having pleaded not guilty. They sat in court stony-faced.

Theuma recounted his panic after the alleged triggermen were arrested and news emerged that one was cooperating with police.

He said he was then contacted again by an employee from in the government headquarters whom he named as Kenneth. In an apparent attempt to buy their silence, Kenneth said the three suspects would be released on bail and given €1 million, though the bail and did not arrive.

Made secret recordings

Theuma said he asked Fenech whether Schembri had sent Kenneth to him, but got no answer. Scared for his own safety, he started making secret recordings of his conversations with the businessman, which he has given police.

"I started to think they would either lock me up or kill me," Theuma said. He also acknowledged writing a note where he said both Schembri and Fenech ordered the hit. In court, he distanced himself from the accusation, making clear he had no evidence.

With Malta under scrutiny, the new head of the EU executive, Ursula von der Leyen, urged a thorough investigation without political interference. "It is crucial that all those responsible are put to justice as soon as possible," she said.

A European parliament delegation, which has spent two days in Malta to review rule of law within the EU's smallest member, recommended that Muscat go immediately.

"There has to be absolute confidence in the [investigation] and I think when he is in office, that confidence is not there," said Sophie In't Veld, a Dutch member of parliament who led the mission.

German member Birgit Sippel told reporters that even with Muscat gone, it would take time to rebuild Malta's reputation and suggested the entire government should go.

Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat to Depart in January After Corruption/Murder Scandal

By Allen Cone

(UPI) -- Joseph Muscat announced Sunday he will leave as Malta's prime minister and Labour Party chief in January amid an investigation of a murdered journalist investigating corruption.

Muscat, who has been in power since March 11, 2013, said on national television in the central Mediterranean nation he will ask the ruling party to choose his successor on Jan. 12. His second term was to end in 2021.

"Malta needs to start a new chapter and only I can give that signal," Muscat said during the address, which included a recitation of the government's achievements over the past 6 1/2 years.

He had met for four hours with Labour's parliamentary group during which they gave "unanimous support to all decisions which the prime minister will be taking."

In the capital, Valletta, protesters gathered to demand Muscat's immediate resignation.

Demands for his departure grew after businessman Yorgen Fenech was charged Saturday with complicity in the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. Fenech denies the allegations. In 2017, Galiza was killed by a car bomb as she investigated corruption among Malta's business and political elite.

Fenech was identified in 2016 as the owner of Dubai-registered 17 Black in the Panama Papers, a collection of leaked confidential documents showing how wealthy and powerful companies around the world use tax havens to get around the law.

Muscat's chief of staff Keith Schembri and acting tourism minister Konrad Mizzi resigned Tuesday. They have denied any wrongdoing though they had been accused of corruption by the journalist.

Brothers Alfred and George Degiorgio and their friend Vincent Muscat have been charged with triggering the bomb. They have pleaded not guilty in pre-trial proceedings.

Members of her family have said the prime minister should resign because he had failed to take action to clean up politics in Malta.

Muscat said investigations were ongoing and insisted "no one is above the law."

"It is not right that a person, with her good and bad, who contributed to democracy had to be killed this way... The anger and disappointment are understandable and it is never justified to somehow justify the murder. But neither can disorder and violence be justified under the guise of protest," Muscat said.

Veteran Reporter Quits NBC with Biting Critique of Corporate Newsroom

If there was ever any doubt in your mind about the complicity of Mainstream Media (MSM) and Deep State, this ought to remove that doubt. 

© AFP / Drew Angerer

NBC News has given endless war and ‘destructive’ intelligence agencies a free pass, all while fixating on around-the-clock Trump hysteria, a veteran national security reporter wrote in a biting farewell message to his colleagues.

William M. Arkin had a number of pointed words to share with his fellow reporters before his last day of work at NBC on Friday – 2,228 words, to be exact. In his farewell memo – which reads more like a manifesto than a goodbye –the veteran muckraker accused NBC of peddling “ho-hum reporting” that “essentially condones” endless American military presence in the Middle East and North Africa. He also took the network to task for not reporting “the failures of the generals and national security leaders,” essentially becoming “a defender of the government against Trump” and a “cheerleader for open and subtle threat mongering.”

Glenn Greenwald✔

@ggreenwald

 Long-time reporter @warkin leaves NBC & MSNBC, emails statement saying these outlets are captive to the national security state & devoted to Endless War: "defenders of the government against Trump, cheerleader for open and subtle threat mongering"- reflexively pro-war

Arkin expressed concern that NBC’s infatuation with the “Trump circus” has distracted journalists from pressing stories that need to be told.

“I’m more worried about how much we are missing. Hence my desire to take a step back and think why so little changes with regard to America’s wars,” he wrote.

He continued by questioning the media’s fanatical opposition to Trump’s desire to improve relations with Russia, denuclearize North Korea, and withdraw from Syria.

“I’m alarmed at how quick NBC is to mechanically argue the contrary, to be in favor of policies that just spell more conflict and more war. Really? We shouldn’t get out Syria? We shouldn’t go for the bold move of denuclearizing the Korean peninsula? Even on Russia, though we should be concerned about the brittleness of our democracy that it is so vulnerable to manipulation, do we really yearn for the Cold War? And don’t even get me started with the FBI: What? We now lionize this historically destructive institution?” he quipped.

Being against peace because Trump is for it, is poor excuse for MSM to tote NATO policy. NATO is totally run by Deep State and is devoted to making kazillions of dollars by wars and rumours of wars. Their only concern is moving military inventory, and they couldn't possibly care less how many soldiers or civilians are killed, raped, displaced, or wounded in their enterprise. MSM shares some considerable responsibility in those atrocities.

If anyone is qualified to critique NBC’s military and national security reporting, it would be Arkin. The veteran journalist has worked for the network intermittently for the last 30 years, and co-authored a seminal Washington Post investigation revealing the dangerous rise of America’s security state.

William M. Arkin

@warkin  · Dec 21, 2018

 Even if one hates @realDonaldTrump Mattis’ resignation letter and the tsk tsking of near everyone is bad news for democracy. Mattis shouldn’t have taken the job, was never the savior, and did nothing but continue long standing go nowhere policies.

William M. Arkin

@warkin

My guess is Mattis 2020. On Syria and Afghanistan (and North Korea) Trump has the right instincts. And on national security stagnation, both in warfare and in thought. Again, he has no ability to implement or even learn but the enemies of Trump shouldn’t become the war party.

Arkin has also been a vocal critic of America’s wars in the Middle East, and distinguished himself as one of the few mainstream journalists to question the fictitious WMD rolled out to justify war with Iraq.

Many on social media expressed their gratitude to Arkin for shining a light on the media’s complacency – and complicity – as America’s military and national security apparatus operate with near impunity both at home and abroad.

“Very useful to have all our well known suspicions confirmed from inside. there’s a reason revolutions make a priority to take over the tv stations,” one Twitter user noted. Geopolitical analyst Emma Ashford noted that Arkin's letter was "a very fair criticism of most mainstream news networks."

tim russo

@TimRussoCLE

Replying to @ggreenwald @warkin

very useful to have all our well known suspicions confirmed from inside. there's a reason revolutions make a priority to take over the tv stations

Emma Ashford✔

@EmmaMAshford

 There are journalists out there doing great work on these issues, but this strikes me as a very fair criticism of most mainstream news networks. 

Too much attention to the "Trump circus," not enough to covering or challenging American wars abroad. https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/02/media/william-arkin-departs-nbc-news/index.html …

Arkin finished his farewell roast by detailing some of his writing projects currently in the works, including an “extended essay about national security and why we never seem to end our now perpetual state of war.”

“There is lots of media critique out there, tons of analysis of leadership and the Presidency. But on the state of our national security? Not so much. Hopefully I will find myself thinking beyond the current fire and fury and actually suggest a viable alternative. Wish me luck.”

18 Year Old Sex Assault Allegation Paints Justin Trudeau into His Own Corner

Trudeau has boxed himself in with his own zero-tolerance policy on sexual misconduct: Robyn Urback

An 18-year-old allegation against Trudeau, originally printed in a community paper,

resurfaced this month

Robyn Urback · CBC News 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has made clear, over and over again, that there is no time limit on defending women's rights or for standing up for what is right. (Justin Tang/Canadian Press)

If the climate in Canada were different, an 18-year-old allegation of sexual misconduct against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau would be swiftly addressed, then probably dismissed.

The allegation originally appeared in an August 2000 edition of the Creston Valley Advance, a small community newspaper in B.C. The editorial, which resurfaced earlier this month, claimed that the then-28-year-old Trudeau "groped" a young reporter at a music festival, noting that he only apologized when he learned that she worked for a newspaper.

If there was no merit to the allegation, in this hypothetical alternative climate, the Prime Minister's Office could simply say so.

If there was merit to the allegation — again, theoretically speaking — Trudeau could concede that he had indeed behaved unacceptably, and remind us that he has since devoted his life to defending the integrity of all Canadians, but especially women.

Again, only if the climate in Canada were different.

In reality, neither of these options is available to Trudeau.

Cannot recall 'negative interactions'

If the allegation is false (CBC News continues to investigate the claim) Trudeau doesn't really have the option, from a political perspective, to say so.

In the current climate, denying the claim is akin to saying, "She's lying," which is a taboo phrase for the leader of a government that has made believing women central to its approach to sexual misconduct allegations.

If the allegation is true, on the other hand, Trudeau can't simply explain, apologize and attempt to move on. It would look like he afforded himself leniency that he'd denied to members of his caucus who were accused of misconduct.

So the prime minister is stuck: he can't confirm or deny. As a result, his office opted for the most unsatisfactory of all possible responses, telling the National Post that Trudeau does not recall any "negative interactions" in Creston during that time. In other words, Canada's highest-profile women's rights advocate has been stricken by a convenient bout of amnesia. 

There is room to distinguish this allegation from some of the others that have plagued Ottawa over the past couple of years. The claim is from nearly two decades ago, long before Trudeau entered politics, and without the power imbalance we sometimes see in cases where prominent men abuse their authority. For those reasons, some will surely argue that Trudeau is being unfairly railroaded by a movement that lacks necessary nuance.

And indeed, there would be ample sympathy for this notion, had Trudeau not helped to create the very climate to which he is now vulnerable. 

In 2014, he suspended two MPs from the Liberal caucus after allegations surfaced about sexual misconduct. Trudeau publicly named the two — Scott Andrews and Massimo Pacetti — before actually informing them of the allegations against them. A subsequent independent investigation concluded there was merit to the complaints, though they were of two decidedly different natures: Andrews was accused of harassing behaviour, unwelcome groping and grinding, while Pacetti was accused of sex without "explicit" consent. 

There are different contexts, implications and considerations when it comes to what these different claims mean, but the Liberal machine nevertheless lumped them together, forcing the pair to share headlines, a hired investigator, and an announcement of their expulsion. Andrews eventually accepted the findings of the review, saying he's since learned how his "jovial Newfoundland friendliness can be perceived," but Pacetti has always maintained his innocence. That important distinction is often overlooked. 

Alberta MP Kent Hehr is out of the federal cabinet permanently following an investigation into his conduct with women.

(Fred Chartrand/Canadian Press)

More recently, Kent Hehr, once the minister for sports and persons with disabilities, stepped down from cabinet, initially temporarily, in response to allegations that he made sexually suggestive and other unwelcome comments to a woman in an elevator, and touched a woman inappropriately at an event. Though the subsequent independent investigation found the touch was involuntary (Hehr is a quadriplegic and has limited feeling in and control of his limbs), Hehr conceded that his comments were inappropriate, even though he says he cannot remember the interaction. In any case, Hehr will not return to cabinet.

Interestingly, Hehr managed to maintain his cabinet position up to that point, despite reportedly telling thalidomide survivors that "everyone in Canada has a sob story," and dismissing a Calgary mother's "loaded question" about why the government was denying maternity benefits to sick mothers, saying it was akin to "the old question … 'When did you stop beating your wife?'" 

Perhaps it was simply the weight of all of the allegations that made keeping Hehr in cabinet untenable by the time the sexual misconduct claims landed, but the implication is that while there is some tolerance for cabinet members in terms of disparaging the disabled community, there is zero tolerance for harassing women.

Trudeau: Misconduct standards apply to me, too   03:44   

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the zero-tolerance standards on misconduct toward women applies to him, too, in an exclusive interview with CBC News. Trudeau says women who come forward with allegations of misconduct and sexual harassment should be supported 3:44

Trudeau has said as much in various interviews about his approach to tackling sexual harassment. "We have no tolerance for this — we will not brush things under the rug, but we will take action on it immediately," he told The Canadian Press earlier this year. In a CBC Radio interview around the same time, the prime minister said he should be held to high standards of conduct, adding: "I've been very, very careful all my life to be thoughtful, to be respectful of people's space and people's headspace as well."

In his many interviews on the topic, he has not included an appeal for allowances for youthfulness or genuine remorse, or simply the acknowledgement that people sometimes do bad things. This is not to suggest that any combination of these factors should necessarily exonerate the aforementioned men. I only mean to point out that the excuses that some have already used to defend the prime minister against this one accusation (This was almost 20 years ago!) haven't actually crossed his lips.

Trudeau has essentially boxed himself in with his own zero-tolerance policy. He has made clear, over and over again, that there is no time limit on defending women's rights or for standing up for what is right. This is the climate that Trudeau helped create. He can't forget that now.

It's interesting that opposition parties are being pretty quiet about this so far. Is it a case of, 'Let him who is without sin cast the first stone'? Are opposition leaders afraid of being caught in the same net?

English Newspaper ‘Tipped off’ 25mins Before JFK Assassination, Documents Show

Last night I watched a smug reporter scoff at all conspiracy theorists as though all conspiracies are lunacy. Many conspiracies are lunacy but some are definitely not, and the assassination of John F. Kennedy is one of those which is not.  

That reporter didn't know the investigative journalist whom I knew in 1980. He spent years researching the conspiracy angle to the JFK assassination before abruptly ending his career and moving to Canada. Turns out he followed very many solid trails that lead to dead-ends, and I mean 'dead' ends.

JFK - The Assassination Conspiracy
Lyndon B. Johnson Arranged John F. Kennedy's Assassination - Roger Stone

John F. Kennedy in a convertible on November 19, 1963, just days before his assassination.

© Tampa Bay Times / Global Look Press

A reporter for the Cambridge Evening News received a call telling him to ring the US embassy for “big news” just 25 minutes before John F. Kennedy was shot dead. The revelation emerged in fresh documents released by the US government on Thursday night.

According to the memo, police reported the call to the British intelligence service. Britain’s domestic intelligence agency MI5 then is understood to have pledged to support “in every way possible” any investigation in the UK relating to Kennedy’s murder.

The memo, signed by CIA deputy director James Angleton, reads: “The caller said only that the Cambridge News reporter should call the American Embassy in London for some big news, and then hung up.

“After the word of the President’s death was received the reporter informed the Cambridge police of the anonymous call and the police informed MI5.

“The important point is that the call was made, according to MI5 calculations, about 25 minutes before the President was shot.

“The Cambridge reporter had never received a call of this kind before, and MI5 state that he is known to them as a sound and loyal person with no security record.”

The memo said it was not the first time in the past year that people in the UK had received similar anonymous calls which were “strangely coincidental in nature.” They seemed to have been particularly linked to the “case of Dr. Ward” – potentially a reference to ‘Dr.’ Stephen Ward, one of the central figures in the Profumo affair, a spy/sex scandal which had rocked the British establishment earlier that year.

The US government released 2,800 classified files on the assassination of JFK on Thursday night.

President Donald Trump said the public deserves to be “fully informed” of what happened, given the event has been the subject of various conspiracy theories. Some documents, however, were withheld at the request of government agencies over national security concerns.

Kennedy was shot dead on November 22, 1963, in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas, while riding in his presidential motorcade. Former US Marine Lee Harvey Oswald was charged with his murder. Oswald himself was shot dead two days later by nightclub owner Jack Ruby before he could stand trial.