Category: zerohedge

The British doctoral student accused by United Arab Emirates authorities of being a spy has been pardoned after an Abu Dhabi court said he confessed to working for MI6, for which he had been given a life sentence. 31-year old Matthew Hedges has spent the last six months in confinement in a UAE prison for allegedly spying in the country — much of that including solitary confinement — in a case which was slow to draw international media attention. 

He was arrested last May while attempting to leave the country at Dubai’s international airport after what he said was a research trip related to his studies in Middle East politics and history. Both his family and the UK government have consistently decried the accusation as false and trumped-up, while British diplomats have consistently pressured Dubai to release Hedges. 

The announcement of Hedges’ unexpected pardon came after authorities held a press conference the UAE capital of Abu Dhabi in which journalists were shown a video of Hedges purportedly saying he was a captain in British intelligence. Reporters were not allowed recording devices nor has the video been made public. 

On Nov. 22 he’d been found guilty of “spying for or on behalf of the UK government:” based on a confession he was forced to sign in Arabic – a language his family said he doesn’t speak. Hedges’ wife said he was repeatedly interrogated without a lawyer or consular access during his first months of confinement, during which time he signed the Arabic document. 

The fascinating and bizarre twist concerns the fact that supposed “video proof” of his being a spy was offered on the very day of his pardon. British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt had in the past weeks pressuring Abu Dhabi for Hedges’ release amid calls from parliament to reevaluate UK weapons sales to the GCC country should the UAE actually implement the life sentence. 

BREAKING: Emirati officials show video of British national convicted for spying saying he is a captain in MI-6.

— The Associated Press (@AP) November 26, 2018

According to an AP/Reuters account of the video “confession” the Emirates showed to the press conference, the video left open a lot of questions:

In the video, Mr Hedges, a 31-year-old doctorate student in Middle Eastern studies at Durham University, is seen describing himself as a captain in MI6 during what appears to be a court hearing in the Gulf Arab country.

The video was sometimes inaudible and shown with subtitles that could not be independently verified, but Hedges did appear to say he approached sources as a doctoral student.

Another clip appears to show Mr Hedges speaking to someone in an office and saying: “It helps the research to go in in an easy way.”

Then, Mr Hedges is seen snapping his fingers and adds: “Then it becomes MI6.”

Emirati officials hosting the media conference declined to take any questions from journalists. Both the UK government and Hedges’ wife and family have consistently maintained the charges are false and preposterous. 

Hedges’ family had previously expressed concern for his mental health after lengthy stints and solitary confinement and being fed a “cocktail of medication” by guards while imprisoned. International reports suggested his mental state had rapidly deteriorated due to poor treatment and the shock of the charges against him. 

Foreign Secretary Hunt issued a statement following the announcement of pardon, saying, “Fantastic news about Matthew Hedges. Although we didn’t agree with charges we are grateful to UAE govt for resolving issue speedily.”

UAE President Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan had formally issued the clemency on Sunday along with hundreds of others – though Hedges was reportedly still in custody on Monday while undergoing “processing” procedures. 

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Authored by Constantin Gurdgiev via True Economics blog,

Russia and Turkey have announced that the two countries have reached significant progress in reviving the November 2014-shut down South Stream gas pipeline intended to land Russian gas across the Black Sea. The project is the part of the already secured open tender contracts for purchases of gas signed between Gazprom, Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Slovakia and Austria.

Source: Kommersant

The new Black Sea gas pipeline Turkish Stream will run under sea from Krasnodar to a landing hub just west of Istanbul. On November 19, presidents Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan met in Istanbul to announce the completion of pipeline’s off-shore section.

Pipeline capacity is for 30 bullion cubic meters, bcm, although initial phase capacity will be closer to 17bcm (the first pipe). Currently, Gazprom supplies the above volume (30bcm) to Turkey (ca 16bcm), Bulgaria, Serbia, Slovakia, Hungary and Austria. Turkish market has been supplied via Blue Stream pipeline, and the other countries are supplied via Ukraine.

Based on reports from Russia’s Kommersant (https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/3806415), Gazprom has managed to achieve two feats:

1. Gazprom has completed laying two (not one) pipes for Turkish Stream, one intended to supply Turkey and another, to supply Southern Europe, 

2. Gazprom secured tenders for purchases of gas from all EU states to be connected to the South Stream project (Bulgaria’s open tender closes in December 2018, but all other countries have already signed onto supply agreements).

Significantly, the tenders were secured in compliance with the EU Energy Directives. This means that Gazprom latest venture has addressed the main cause of the EU’s original objections to the same pipeline prior to 2014. In the case of open tenders process, Gazprom used exactly the same scheme to secure capacity orders for its Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Germany, Czech Republic and Slovakia back in 2017. According to the experts cited by Kommersant, this makes in impossible for the EU to shut down the project.

Of course, history reminder due, South Stream was primarily killed off not by the EU, but by the U.S. keen on protecting Ukraine’s near monopoly on Russian gas transit. The Obama Administration exerted massive pressure on Bulgaria and other South Stream-receiving countries to prevent landing Russian gas in Southern Europe. So far, there has been little indication what Washington’s position on the latest iteration of the South Stream might be, but I doubt it will be welcoming.

Kommersant-quoted stats on South Stream are impressive: according to the paper sources, Gazprom signed delivery tenders with Slovakia for seven years from October 2022 for 4.3bcm, of which Austria will get 3.8bcm, 4.7bcm will go to Hungary, 2bcm to Serbia, and 4.8bcm to Bulgaria. So, comes October 2022,  the South Stream (or Turkey Stream, or whatever you want to call this) will be pumping into Southern Europe the equivalent of the current transit through Ukraine.

Between two new pipelines, Gazprom can easily deliver its current supply contracts to Europe by-passing Ukraine, although, if European demand continues to expand at the current rates, it is likely that Gazprom will need to retain some Ukrainian transit capacity into the future. Even in 2021, before South Stream comes fully on stream, Russian gas transit via Ukraine can fall to below 10bcm per annum.

These developments are undoubtedly a major concern for Ukraine – the country already raised criticism of the South Stream on November 19 – as transit of Russian gas via Ukraine is a major revenue earner for Kyiv. Based on the European Council on Foreign Relations data, between 1991 and 2000, Ukraine accounted for 93 percent of Russian gas transit to Europe; by January 2014, this amounted to 49 percent. Naftogaz, Ukrainian State gas company, tried repeatedly to extract monopoly-level revenues from Gazprom. Back in 2008, Naftogaz tried to charge Gazprom $9 per tcm/100km in transit fees – triple the price charged for transit by Slovakia and Poland, and more than double the fee charged by the majority of the Western European states. This pricing came on top of Ukrainian authorities expecting Gazprom to supply gas to Ukraine for domestic consumption at severely subsidised prices. It is, of course, worth noting that Gazprom itself is a monopoly and has, in the past, used its dominant market positions to exercise market power. There are no innocents (other than European buyers of gas) in the long-running disputes between Naftogaz-Ukraine and Gazprom-Russia.

Nonetheless, the situation is asymmetric. Russia currently continues to rely on Ukraine for transit of its main traded commodity, while Ukraine continues to rely on Russia for a large share of its economic activity. In a recent note, Bruegel (http://bruegel.org/2018/01/the-clock-is-ticking-ukraines-last-chance-to-prevent-nord-stream-2/) estimated that Nord Stream 2 coming on line can cost Ukrainian economy ca 2-3 percent of GDP in foregone Russian gas transit earnings. South Stream is likely to add another 1.5 percent.  In the longer run, overall cost to Ukraine of losing Russian gas transit routes can cost as much as 5-6 percent of GDP.

Note: the latest developments in the Sea of Azov can put significant political pressure on the South Stream project, if the EU and the U.S. choose to significantly escalate their pressure on Russia in the wake of the Russian blockade of trade routes through Kerch Straits and in response to the naval incidents reported today.

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Speaking at an event in Rio de Janiero last month, WTO Director General Roberto Azevêdo delivered an ominous prediction: As optimistic reports suggested that the two sides would soon restart substantive talks, Azevedo told his audience that the trade war between the US and China was far from over.

“To be honest, I don’t think it’s over. They have lots of ammunition and it can expand to other areas beyond just tariffs…and trade,” he said.

And now, the WTO’s forward-looking indicator is showing a similar conclusion. According to an update released on Thursday, the WTO’s World Trade Outlook Indicator shows that trade is slowing again in Q4 for the second straight quarter.

The indicator showed declines in all seven of the drivers of trade that it tracks, with an overall reading of 98.6, the lowest since October 2016, and lower than the 100.3 reading from he previous quarter. Any reading below 100 is indicative of below trend growth. The biggest driver of the index’s drop was a decline in export orders, which sunk to 96.6, it lowest reading since the depths of the eurozone crisis in 2012.

World trade volume already slowed dramatically in Q3 with September’s 1.2% drop in world trade the biggest drop since April 2017.

Readings for car production and sales (96.9), electronic components (93.9), and agricultural raw materials (97.2) all moved from on-trend to below trend, while international air freight (100.0) and container port throughput (101.2) dipped but remained on trend.

The WTO’s gauge has historically been a reliable indicator.

The latest results are consistent with the WTO’s downgraded outlook for global trade, which it issued back in September as trade tensions between the US and China flared and before the US, Canada and Mexico agreed to the final framework for Nafta 2.0. The WTO expects trade growth to slow to 3.9% in 2018, and 3.7% in 2019, from 4.7% in 2017.

While Trump’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping later this week holds some hope of progress, most Wall Street analysts agree that an accord is unlikely: The best we can hope for is that the two leaders create a “pathway” to further talks. Until that happens, the outlook for trade growth will likely remain dim.

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Authored by Alex Gorka via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

Those who have been saying that the West has turned Russia into a scapegoat to be blamed for each and every thing that goes wrong have been proved right. We have witnessed concocted stories invented to denigrate Moscow that have gone viral as directed by the secret services. The UK, the country that is spearheading the anti-Russian information campaign, offers a good example that illustrates how this is being done.

An online group of hackers known as Anonymous has just revealed covert UK activities in the EU. According to the documents released by that group, London is in the midst of a major program to interfere in the internal affairs of EU members, the US, and Canada. Anonymous threatens to release more information on the clandestine operations of the UK government, unless it agrees to remove the shroud of secrecy protecting those information-warfare efforts. On Nov. 24 Twitter deleted RT comments on the issue. The UK knows it has friends it can rely on in a crunch.

The Integrity Initiative is a London-based organization set up and funded by the government-friendly Institute for Statecraft, in cooperation with the Free University of Brussels (VUB) to wage information-warfare operations against Russia. Anonymous calls it a “large-scale information secret service.” It aims to “change attitudes in Russia itself” as well as the influence of Russian natives living abroad. The Integrity Initiative’s budget for the fiscal year ending on March 31, 2019 is estimated at £1.96 million ($2.51 million). The network has received grants from NATO, the US State Department, and Facebook.

The Initiative’s operations have been kept under wraps. Its activities are conducted by “clusters” of local politicians, journalists, military personnel, scientists, and academics involved in anti-Russian propaganda efforts. The list includes William Browder, a US-British businessman convicted in absentia in Russia for tax evasion.

The Integrity Initiative network has offices from which to conduct its covert operations in France, Germany, Italy, Greece, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Norway, Serbia, Spain, and Montenegro. Its plans to expand to the US, Canada, Eastern Europe, and the MENA region are already underway.

The Anonymous hackers mention Operation Moncloa that was launched in June in Spain to prevent Pedro Baños, a colonel known for his Russia-friendly views, from being appointed the new head of Spain’s influential national security agency.

It’s all part of a broader picture. In March, Prime Minister Theresa May promised to “defeat” Russia with a new cyber-warfare initiative titled the Fusion Doctrine. Back then, Ms. May told British intelligence services to use social media “to prevent the spread of misinformation.” In other words, she has pulled the military into this anti-Russian propaganda effort. Security sources have floated the idea that that the UK must harness “soft power” and “counter-propaganda” on social media networks. Is it possible to imagine any media remaining independent in a country where they’re part of a “soft power strategy” implemented by the government under the rallying cry of protecting national security?

This is the origin of so many fantasies about Russia and the imaginary threat it poses. The plan included an enhanced role for the BBC World Service to promote British “values” abroad, ensuring that the Ofcom shuts down media organizations that fail to meet “high British standards.” Only gullible people can believe that such “values” and “standards” exist. Russia has been used as a bogeyman to justify measures aimed at killing off the freedom of the media. Any story about Russia’s nefarious deeds spread by British news outlets should be taken with a grain of salt.

The UK government is facing some hard times. The Brexit deal with the EU is headed to parliament for approval. It’s impossible to predict whether the MPs will vote yes or no. Both outcomes threaten the very existence of the United Kingdom. The use of the “Russian threat” is seen as one way to keep the nation united and the media under control.

Keeping its activities out of the public eye, the government is doing exactly what it has so indignantly accused Russia of. The pot is calling the kettle black. As the freedom of the press is being suppressed and the media networks are following the government’s instructions about what information they should offer their readers, UK officials continue to brazenly deliver their pompous speeches about the need to protect those very values to which the government itself poses the greatest challenge. Anonymous is right — any responsible government must explain the intentions behind the Integrity Initiative, how exactly it is funded, and why its activities should be shielded from public view.

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In a report that leaves us thinking that we are all a big step closer to Skynet coming online, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (who else?) has announced it’s breaking new ground in the area of “highly autonomous” and “deeply interconnected drones, jets, ships” which can coordinate strikes and recalibrate changing mission parameters independent of real-time or constant human input.

What could go wrong? But apparently the only problem that a Defense One report sees with the DARPA/Pentagon-funded project is that the system which includes “swarming UAV’s” could be hacked by the enemy.

According to the report:

But this massive, coordinated strike across air, land, sea and cyberspace is sure to run headfirst into electronic warfare defenses designed to disrupt the networks that make it possible.

DARPA announced that it successfully tested both live and virtual drones capable of “high degrees of autonomy” while under heavy electronic attack to see if they were capable of conducting coordinated missions. The series of simulations was conducted at Arizona’s Yuma Proving Ground last week, according to a DARPA statement .

The DARPA announcement reads: “The [unmanned aerial systems] efficiently shared information, cooperatively planned and allocated mission objectives, made coordinated tactical decisions, and collaboratively reacted to a dynamic, high-threat environment with minimal communication.”

The DoD has long funded experimental programs — the most significant ones through DARPA — involving the implementation artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning on the battlefield. But the Achilles’ heel of such experimental AI related communications technology has been the possibility that electronic countermeasures would disrupt the systems. 

The DARPA “CODE” program involves swarming UAV’s that could use AI to communicate and coordinate even when sophisticated electronic countermeasures are deployed by the enemy.

The Yuma tests represent that for the first time the military successfully demonstrated that AI could find “small areas of spectrum to allow for short bursts of essential communications between military assets—little windows where just enough data can get through to allow for all the components to work together,” according to Defense One.

Scott Wierzbanowski, the program manager overseeing tests known as the Collaborative Operations in Denied Environment, or CODE, program, said, “The demonstrated behaviors are the building blocks for an autonomous team that can collaborate and adjust to mission requirements and a changing environment.”

Specifically the test utilized six live drones alongside 24 virtual or simulated drones which collaborated with each other amidst electronic countermeasure attacks and the disabling of their GPS systems. The drones were able to adjust and successfully hit designated targets even with changing battlefield variables, according to the report. 

The report concludes that the tests ultimately show that “the U.S. military is well on its way to delegating a lot more decisions to smart weapons on the battlefield” and that this “will have pros and cons, some more foreseeable than others.”

Indeed it’s precisely the unforeseeable consequences that could prove disastrously more costly than what the report cares to explore. 

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Authored by James Kirkpatrick via VDare.com,

There is no lie more dangerous than believing America is a free country. Those who act as if it is swiftly learn otherwise, as Gavin McInnes and the Proud Boyscan testify. And it’s increasingly hard to take pundits and journalists’ condemnations of “authoritarianism” seriously when Americans are already living under an authoritarian system – albeit one more Kafkaesque and absurd than anything existing in Russia or China.

Accompanied by the cheers of journalists, McInnes recently declared he is disassociating from the Proud Boys under legal pressure, apparently to help those members currently caught up in legal proceedings for the “crime” of defending themselves from antifa. [Gavin McInnes, Proud Boys founder, claims complete disassociation from far-right group, by Andrew Blake, Washington Times, November 23, 2018] It’s worth noting that despite McInnes’s repeated condemnations of the Alt Right, even the “conservative” Washington Timeslabelsthe Proud Boys a “far right” group, showing the same kind of conformist mentality the paper displayed when it fired columnist Sam Francis back in 1995. Milo Yiannopoulos similarly disassociated from the Proud Boys, citing legal advice and blaming journalists for “defaming the group to death” and promoting “moral panic about a ‘white supremacy’ outbreak that simply doesn’t exist.” Yiannopoulos also slammed politicians like Gov. Andrew Cuomo for lynching the Proud Boys on behalf of Antifa, “the beloved violent terrorists of the establishment Left”. [I, Too, Must Bid Adieu To The Proud Boys, A Spunky Pro-Western Men’s Club Defamed To Death, Dangerous, November 21, 2018]

To be sure, many VDARE.com readers will find these disassociations far too defensive, particularly the frequent boasts about the numbers of non-whites and homosexuals in the group. The type of journalists who write articles like Why Young Men of Color Are Joining White-Supremacist Groups [by Arun Gupta, The Daily Beast,September 4, 2018] aren’t going to pay attention anyway. As American civic nationalism is magically transformed into “white nationalism” by the Main Stream Media, even a multiracial fraternity that leans right is transformed by journalists into grim-faced monochromatic storm troopers, all protests and photographic evidence notwithstanding.

Of course, given that the Left is now mutating into a loose confederation of tribes united only by their hatred of American whites, it’s unclear why white people protecting their own interest is considered uniquely evil. [The White Nationalist Manifesto, by Gregory Hood, American Renaissance, November 15, 2018]

Yet even those who might quibble with the Proud Boys or Milo Yiannopoulos for ideological reasons should be troubled by what is happening. This is from the same playbook as the federal prosecution of the Rise Above Movement, which prosecutors themselves essentially admitted was launched at the behest of Antifa journalists. [FBI arrests white ‘serial rioters,’ by Gregory Hood, American Renaissance, October 8, 2018] The united efforts of the MSM and law enforcement to target dissident groups is a dangerous indication that the “rule of law” so often invoked by the Beltway Right has become as irrelevant to American government as the Constitution.

Contrast the hysteria over the Proud Boys to the latest attacks by Antifa. According to the police, Marine Reservists were attacked by a group in Philadelphia accusing them of being “Nazis” and “white supremacists” . [Marines were attacked, robbed near “We the People” rally in Philly, by Victor Fiorillo, Philadelphia Magazine, November 20, 2018] The attack took place after a conservative “We The People” rally in Philadelphia that was protested by Antifa. The organizer of said rally was also doxed by antifa and reportedly had his home vandalized. [We The People Rally Organizer’s Home Vandalized After Antifa Doxxed Him, by Tom Pappert, Big League Politics, November 20, 2018]

Needless to say, if the attackers are indeed part of a local antifa network, there will be no full court press against them by local or national media. After all, many of these journalists serve as propogandists for these attackers and their comrades. And, despite their constant invocations of “our troops,” Conservatism Inc. outlets and Republican politicians are also indifferent. After all, Antifa serve a useful role for the Beltway Right, making sure that the grassroots sticks to the script and never makes the connection between the mostly white conservative base and the policies that would serve its interests.

All this is taking place when the MSM finally seems to be noticing the kind of system that is being created in China. Yale Professor Nicholas Christakis recently condemned the “Social Credit” system emerging there, in which the government links certain privileges (such as travel rights) to behavior, such as violating traffic laws [Beijing to judge every resident based on behavior by end of 2020, Bloomberg, November 21, 2018]

So dystopian and authoritarian as to defy belief: China will judge each of its 1.3 billion people based on their social behavior & adopt a lifelong points program that assigns personalized ratings by 2021. Via ⁦@business⁩ ⁦@clayroutledge⁩ https://t.co/GwArUtwOk0

— Nicholas A. Christakis (@NAChristakis) November 23, 2018

Yet Professor Christakis himself suffered career consequences in 2015 after his wife questioned whether minority students at Yale were overreacting to Halloween costumes. He ultimately had to step down from his role as master of one of Yale’s residential colleges [The Perils of writing a provocative email at Yale, by Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic, May 26, 2016]. Even the title “master” was abolished.

Yet Professor Christakis, probably to protect whatever status he had left, quickly conformed to the proper Narrative and began declaring that “the most serious threat to free expression in our society today is coming from the right” and making maudlin tributes to “our free and open society.”

Yet what “free and open society?” We are already well past the point where laws are enforced in anything close to an objective way. America is now witnessing the rise of an ideological system that ruthlessly enforces a certain narrative throughout all of society. Dissenters are punished economically, socially, and sometimes physically. It functions very much like China’s “Social Credit” system, with dissenters denied access to online platforms, fundraising services, and even banking services.

Even worse is climate of never ending media hysteria. Consider how strange it is that MSM publications regularly feature family members denouncing each other for various forms of thoughtcrime. [Nation of Little Swine, by Gregory Hood, American Renaissance, August 21, 2018] This includes pieces from self-described libertarians. [Let’s go spelunking through years of my cousin’s crazy right-wing emails, by Bonnie Kristian, The Week, November 22, 2018]

Consider that a flyer or a leaflet placed by a politically incorrect correct group inspires more outrage and fear than an actual crime.

Consider how strange it is that “fake hate crimes” are so prevalent and that entirely new identities are created because people are so desperate to identify as part of an ostensibly oppressed class.

Most importantly, consider how journalists, working in partnership with technology companies and self-appointed “watchdog” groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center, regularly police dissident outlets and urge deplatforming and financial sanctions for unapproved opinions. “Democracy” becomes meaningless if media outlets and social networking only allow one narrative to be expressed.

John Robb of Global Guerrillas refers to the emerging world as the “Long Night.”

This danger is an all-encompassing online orthodoxy. A sameness of thought and approach enforced by hundreds of millions of socially internetworked adherents. A global orthodoxy that ruthless narrows public thought down to a single, barren, ideological framework. A ruling network that prevents dissent and locks us into stagnation and inevitable failure as it runs afoul of reality and human nature.

[The Long Night Ahead, September 22, 2017]

The system in China is not so terribly different from that being created in America, except American-style persecution is largely conducted through quasi-private corporate entities rather than the government. What’s more, it’s countries like China or Russia likely have more free speech than America or Western Europe to discuss issues that actually matter, like human bio-diversity, while the post-West descends into Cultural Marxist hysteria over trivialities like offensive Halloween costumes.

The American Conservative Movement could have stopped much of this, at least when the Republican party controlled both chambers of Congress. Unfortunately, Conservatism Inc. is less a political movement than a glorified corporate lobbying enterprise. (Note that Google was a “Presenting Sponsor” of the 2018 Conservative Political Action Conference.”) Regulating tech companies to ensure free speech, enforcing laws objectively (including against antifa), and pushing back against MSM smear campaigns is evidently beyond the capabilities of the Beltway Right—and thus far at least, the Trump Administration.

The Historic American Nation is under occupation. The major question facing patriots in the coming years is not how to “Make America Great Again,” but how to survive, build communities, and reclaim some semblance of free speech and freedom of association under a hostile system.

The patriotic movement needs to adjust to this reality and start defending the rights and interests of its base. Otherwise, the Proud Boys will not be the last victims of Cultural Marxist Totalitarianism – and even the most “respectable” conservative will not be spared when his turn arrives.

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Weeks ago NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden was the first to reveal that Saudi Arabia used Israeli spyware to target murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, accusing a Tel Aviv-based compmany called NSO Group of “selling a digital burglary tool,” adding it “is not just being used for catching criminals and stopping terrorist attacks, not just for saving lives, but for making money… such a level of recklessness… actually starts costing lives.” 

This has now been confirmed in detail by a new bombshell investigative report in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, which outlines how NSO Group representatives met with Saudi intelligence officials in Vienna in 2017 in order to demonstrate the powerful and easy hacking capability of its advanced Pagasus 3 system, which using a mere SIM card number can turn a person’s phone into an all-purpose spying device sweeping up the user’s voice conversations, camera, messages, and social media usage. 

Among the first requests the Saudi delegation made of NSO while negotiating a $55 million deal to procure the technology was that the company help Riyadh uncover the true identities behind dissident Saudi Twitter accounts. The June 2017 deal for the hacking tool came just months before crown prince Mohammed bin Salman’s infamous purge which would see multiple dozens of princes and top officials rounded up and imprisoned in the Riyadh Ritz-Carlton hotel the following November, which also involved the days-long detention of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri.

These latest revelations originated in a complaint to Israeli police now under investigation involving at least one company-linked whistleblower who thinks the Saudis used NSO’s hacking tool to track down and ultimately murder dissidents. 

Haaretz confirmed the secret deal with Saudi intelligence “based on testimony and photos, as well as travel and legal documents”. This comes at a sensitive moment when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has become increasingly vocal over his desire to deepen ties with Gulf states, especially by supplying advanced Israeli technology. 

One among a series of meetings documented included a who’s who of top Saudi intelligence officials. According to Haaretz: 

Arriving at the hotel were Abdullah al-Malihi, a close associate of Prince Turki al-Faisal – a former head of Saudi Arabia’s intelligence services – and another senior Saudi official, Nasser al-Qahtani, who presented himself as the deputy of the current intelligence chief. Their interlocutors were two Israeli businessmen, representatives of NSO, who presented to the Saudis highly advanced technology.

Apparently the Saudi delegation was awed by the ease of use hacking tool after a successful demonstration which involved the following: 

During the June 2017 meeting, NSO officials showed a PowerPoint presentation of the system’s capabilities. To demonstrate it, they asked Qahtani to go to a nearby mall, buy an iPhone and give them its number. During that meeting they showed how this was enough to hack into the new phone and record and photograph the participants in the meeting.

NSO, which Edward Snowden has dubbed “the worst of the worst” in terms of aiding and abetting human rights violations, is now under fire especially as evidence proves the company knew full well the technology would be used by Saudi authorities not for disrupting terror attacks or criminal activities, but for purging political dissent. 

Haaretz confirms reports by @Citizenlab showing Saudi Arabia’s purge of regime opponents was fueled by the #NSO group, an out of control Israeli hacking company. Before Khashoggi’s murder, three of his contacts were targeted by SA using NSO’s burglary kit. https://t.co/PkUcAsuGUu

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) November 25, 2018

The purchase of Pegasus 3 also appears part of a broader regime blitz to acquire pervasive and powerful spying technology at a time when MbS was preparing to consolidate his power after next in line Muhammad bin Nayef was deposed by King Salman. 

The Haaretz report reveals how far the Saudis were willing to go:

In the Vienna meeting of April 2017, the Saudis presented a list of 23 systems they sought to acquire. Their main interest was cybersystems. For a few dozens of millions of dollars, they would be able to hack into the phones of regime opponents in Saudi Arabia and around the world and collect classified information about them.

According to the European businessman, the Saudis, already at the first meeting, passed along to the representatives of one of the companies details of a Twitter account of a person who had tweeted against the regime. They wanted to know who was behind the account, but the Israeli company refused to say.

Currently, NSO has denied the Haaretz report as well as Edward Snowden’s accusations, calling its contents full of “partial rumors and gossip” and also claiming to be in conformity with “all matters relating to export policies and licenses,” according to a statement. 

Pegasus’ use worldwide, according to Citizen Lab:

Meanwhile, Snowden has subsequently pointed out: “Journalists working this story should note that none of NSO Group’s many, many statements made after the Khashoggi murder deny selling their digital weaponry to Saudi Arabia,” and added, “Every country in which this company has operated should be pressured to open criminal investigations.”

Given that we do know that Saudi Arabia and Israel have grown increasingly close in a historically unprecedented covert intelligence sharing partnership over the past at least one year, it’s likely that the Pegasus 3 spyware revelations are merely the tip of the iceberg in terms of what defense technology has already been shared.

We expect to see many more such stories come to light as international media continues its rare scrutiny of MbS and the Saudi regime. 

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Via The Saker blog,

About the latest Ukronazi provocation in the Kerch strait

First, here is a pretty good summary of what has taken place (including videos) posted by RT:

• https://www.rt.com/news/444853-russia-ukraine-ships-conflict/
• https://www.rt.com/news/444857-russia-ukraine-kerch-strait-standoff/

I will just add that at the time of writing (07:38 UTC) the cargo ship blocking the passage under the bridge has been removed, traffic has resumed and the situation has returned to normal.

Second, let me give you the single most important element to understand what is (and what is not) taking place: the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea are, in military terms, “Russian lakes”.  That means that Russia has the means to destroy any and all ships (or aircraft) over these two seas: on the Black Sea the life expectancy of any intruder would be measured in minutes, on the Sea of Azov in seconds.  Let me repeat here that any and all ships deployed in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov are detected and tracked by Russia and they can all easily be destroyed.  The Russians know that, the Ukrainians know that and, of course, the Empire knows that.  Again, keep that in mind when trying to make sense of what happened.

Third, whether the waters in which the incident happened belong to Russia or not is entirely irrelevant.  Everybody knows that Russia considers these waters are belonging to her and those disagreeing with this have plenty of options to express their disagreement and challenge the legality of the Russian position.  Trying to break through waters Russia considers her own with several armed military vessels is simply irresponsible and, frankly, plain stupid (especially considering point #2 above).  That is simply not how civilized nations behave (and there are plenty of contested waters on our planet).

Fourth, one should not be too quick in dismissing Poroshenko’s latest plan to introduce martial law for the next 60 days.  Albeit Poroshenko himself declared that this mobilization does not mean that the Ukronazi regime wants war with Russia, the fact is that the first-line reserves will be mobilized.  This is important because the situation resulting from the introduction to martial law could be used to covertly increase the number of soldiers available for an attack on Novorussia or, God forbid, Russia herself.  In fact, Poroshenko also officially appealed to the veterans of the war against Novorussia to be ready for deployment.

Fifth, while there are all sorts of caveats offered by the Ukronazi regime about the introduction of the martial law, including that it will not mean war or infringe on the right of the people, the truth is very different.  Here is what a memo by the Unian agency says about what martial law means in legal terms: (emphasis added)

Martial law is a special legal regime that is introduced in Ukraine or its individual areas in the event of armed aggression or threat of attack, a threat to Ukraine’s state independence, its territorial integrity, and gives authorities, the military command and local self-government the powers that are necessary to prevent threats and ensure national security. It also foresees temporary threat-related limitations on constitutional rights and freedoms of a person and a citizen and the rights and legal interests of legal entities, indicating the duration of such restrictions (Article 1 of the Law on the Legal Regime of Martial Law).

Considering the current single-digit popularity rating of Poroshenko and the fact that he has no chance in hell to be re-elected (at least not in minimally credible elections) it is pretty darn obvious of why the Ukronazi regime in Kiev decided to trigger yet another crisis and then blame Russia for it.  The very last thing Russia needs is yet another crisis, especially not before a possible Putin-Trump meeting at the G20 Buenos Aires summit later this month.  In fact, Ukrainian bloggers immediately saw this latest provocation as an attempt to scrap upcoming elections.

So what’s next?

Well, the most likely options is just one more Ukie bawling about the “Russian aggression” with the hope that this will a) raise the value of the Poroshenko regime in the eyes of the Empire and b) disrupt the planned Trump-Putin meeting.

I am not so sure that Poroshenko will be given the option to simply cancel the elections.  Yes, he cannot win, but the Empire can replace him.  Not only that, but outright canceling the elections would be a PR disaster (but one which is sometimes chosen by the Empire’s “sons of bitches” like, say, Mahmoud Abbas).  Still there is also a very good chance that the Ukronazis regime feeling that it has nothing to lose would take such an unprecedented step.

Some kind of limited Ukronazi military operations against Russia, Novorussia, Crimea or the Kerch bridge would be militarily suicidal but political very profitable as it would allow Poroshenko to a) blame Russia for all the Ukrainian problems and b) demand even more aid to “resist against the Russian aggression”.  The problem with that option is that there are good signs that a lot of the Ukrainian military personnel does not have the courage to actually fight the Russians (for ex: look how ALL the Ukie soldiers folded in Crimea; also, the blog of “Colonel Cassad” reports that of the three ships which tried to breach the Russian border, at least one had a captain who voluntarily surrendered his ship to the Russians; finally, one Ukrainian sailor has apparently been shot for refusing to open fire against the Russians).  It is worth mentioning that on Sunday the Urkonazis sent a few more ships obviously to aid the ships intercepted by the Russians, but as soon as the Russians closed the passage and Russian Su-25s and Ka-52 appeared in the skies, they quickly stopped and eventually left the scene.  Did they do that under order or because they did not want to die?  We will never find out I suppose.

Additionally, there is the very real possibility of a full-scale war against Russia.  Yes, the Ukronazis would last just a couple of days, but keep in mind that their goal will not be to win, but to force Russia into an overt military operation which the entire “collective West” will have to condemn like what happened with the Georgian attack in 08.08.08. (you know, in the name of “solidarity” like during the Skripal false flag).  As for the leaders of the Anglo-Zionist Empire, they will gladly fight Russia down to the very last Ukrainian solider, we all understand that.

Finally, let me address those who might think that Russia somehow over-reacted or should not have used force.  First, let me remind you that we are talking about armed and military vessels, not fishing boats.  Second, the Ukronazis have been daydreaming about bringing this bridge down even before it was built.  So how where the Russians to know that these ships were not packed with explosives?  Third, let me remind you that a few months ago the Ukronazis did send a few tiny military vessels under the bridge.  That first time, they did ask for permission and even had a Russian pilot on board helping them to cross the narrow passage.  Yet the regime in Kiev presented that a major “victory” against the Moskal’s.  This time around tried to sneak by without asking.  If the Russians had left them pass, what do you think they would have done the next time?

The truth is that the Ukronazi regime has been claiming for years now that it is at war against Russia, that Russia has invaded the Ukraine, that all those who oppose the regime or speak even the basic truth are “agents of the Kremlin/FSB.  The funny thing is not just that this is the first time in Russian history that Russia is accused of waging a war which shes does not even participate in – it is even more hilarious that the Ukronazis claim to be at war with Russia but have a hissy fit when three of their (tiny) ships are arrested for violating the Russian border.  Is there a war going on or not?!  What the hell were they thinking when they tried to force their way through?!

[Sidebar: there is even a joke about this going around: Ukrainian military personnel are asked why they are fighting in the Donbass.  They reply “because the Russians are there”.  Then they are asked why they are *not* fighting in Crimea and they reply “because the Russians are truly there!!”.  Bottom line: everybody knows full well that this is bull and that there are no Russian forces in Novorussia]

How do you prove that the other guy is an “aggressor state”?  Simple – by forcing him to attack you.  Considering the “selective blindness” of the collective West, the fact that you hit the other guy first makes absolutely no difference whatsoever (again, see 08.08.08).

It is obvious that the Nazi regime in Kiev is in a tailspin and that short of some dramatic action Poroshenko is a goner.  Most of the gang around him won’t fare much better, especially not if Timoshenko ever gets the presidency (which might happen if the Empire decides to ditch Poroshenko).  For them the options are either to leave the Ukraine or face some serious jail time (sort of the same situation as Saakashvili had to face).

We are entering a very dangerous time period, one in which a totally corrupt Nazi regime will fight with every trick imaginable to save itself.  Whether this will result in a major war against Novorussia or Russia is impossible to predict, but we have to recognize that this is a distinct possibility.

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A new “secret” police study has found that Chinese crime networks could have laundered over $1B through Vancouver homes in 2016 alone, and that a surge in the city’s home prices are simultaneously tied to a surge in opioid deaths. 

The report examined over 1,200 luxury real estate purchases in British Columbia’s Lower Mainland during that year, and concluded that over 10% were tied to buyers with criminal records. Crucially 95% of those transactions could be definitively traced by police intelligence back to Chinese crime networks.

While the study only looked at property purchases in 2016, an analysis by Global News suggests the same extended crime network may have laundered about $5-billion in Vancouver-area homes since 2012. — Fentanyl: Making a Killing

Since 2016 we’ve chronicled the “dark side” behind the Vancouver real estate bubble, which it turns out has long been a bubbling melange of criminal Chinese oligarch “hot money”, desperate to get parked offshore in any piece of real estate, but mostly in British Columbia regardless of price. 

A number of investigations have since uncovered extensive links – including money laundering and underground banking – between China’s criminal underworld and British Columbia drug and casino cash and VIPs, as well as their connections to China, Macau and the notorious triads. These investigations have found much of the B.C. real estate bubble can be explained as nothing more than the “layering” and “integration” aspect of a giant money laundering scheme involving billions of dollars of Chinese hot money and the criminals behind it.

On Monday the new bombshell study revealed just how extensive and growing this Chinese underworld racket remains and how it continues to impact average citizens and regular home buyers, as well as fueling the continuing opioid crisis across the US and Canada, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives across North America, including nearly 4,000 Canadians in 2017 alone. The figures are so stunning that what is “known” years after the story first came to light could merely be the tip of the iceberg. 

The study published by Canada’s Global News begins by painting a disturbing scenario that suggests some of Vancouver’s priciest homes are nothing more than a new “Swiss bank account” of sorts providing the promise of an anonymous store of value and retaining the cash equivalent value of the original capital outflow from initial criminal transactions overseen for Chinese crime syndicates — all the while fueling Metro Vancouver’s housing affordability crisis.

The ultimate end result of the sophisticated and massive money laundering scheme is that middle-class families have been priced out of the city, per the report:

The stately $17-million mansion owned by a suspected fentanyl importer is at the end of a gated driveway on one of the priciest streets in Shaughnessy, Vancouver’s most exclusive neighbourhood.

A block away is a $22-million gabled manor that police have linked to a high-stakes gambler and property developer with suspected ties to the Chinese police services.

Both mansions appear on a list of more than $1-billion worth of Vancouver-area property transactions in 2016 that a confidential police intelligence study has linked to Chinese organized crime.

Previous investigations had quoted concerned residents describing that: “Vancouver seems to be evolving from a residential city into almost like a lockbox for money… but I have to live among the empty houses. I’m a resident, not just an investor.”

The snapshot that the new police study provides is based on analysis of a sample of about 1,200 high-end sales in 2016. Investigators cross-referenced databases of criminal records and confidential police intelligence with those high-end property records, which revealed the shocking 10% organized crime ties figure. 

But the implications for prior years going all the way back to the early 2000’s and even into the 1990’s, when Canadian police believe the current kingpins of fentanyl — which is the powerful and extremely addictive narcotic added to heroin to increase its potency (said to be 100 times more potent than morphine) — began to dominate Canada’s heroin markets, are equally as startling.

For starters, the report finds, fentanyl-related money laundering which funnels illicit funds through the luxury housing market has been so pervasive that researchers “didn’t have the time or resources to study the over 20,000 transactions”. During the course of these some 20,000 transactions home prices in Vancouver have tripled since 2005. 

From the new “Fentanyl: Making a Killing” extensive report

And further illustrating just how extensive the whole scheme remains, there is this bombshell section from the report:

While the study only looked at property purchases in 2016, an analysis by Global News suggests the same extended crime network may have laundered about $5-billion in Vancouver-area homes since 2012.

At the centre of the money laundering ring is a powerful China-based gang called the Big Circle Boys. Its top level “kingpins” are the international drug traffickers who are profiting most from Canada’s deadly fentanyl crisis.

The crime network, according to police intelligence sources, is a fluid coalition of hundreds of wealthy criminals in Metro Vancouver, including gangsters, industrialists, financial fugitives and corrupt officials from China.

The report is so full of specific examples of multi-tens of million dollar homes that are actually money laundering conduits for fentanyl drug kingpins that it puts President Trump’s recent accusations against China for fueling the opioid crisis into fresh perspective. 

At that time Trump attempted to lay out the case that Chinese suppliers had been fueling America’s opioid crisis, saying in part “It is outrageous that Poisonous Synthetic Heroin Fentanyl comes pouring into the U.S. Postal System from China.”

However judging by breadth and depth of figures merely from one major North American city (some American cities have been named in other investigations), it appears that Trump’s words actually understated the role of China and Chinese organized crime, of which it appears Beijing authorities have long been only too happy to look the other way while it takes deep roots on the American continent. 

After all we can’t imagine China’s all-pervasive advanced surveillance systems and powerful domestic intelligence apparatus could miss this: “Police say that almost every drug seizure they now make in Vancouver turns up some form of synthetic opioid produced at factories in China,” according to the report. 

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Authored by Jacob Hornberger via The Future of Freedom Foundation,

If economic ignorance among leftists (i.e., liberals and progressives) had no adverse impacts, we could consign it to the ranks of the humorous. Unfortunately, however, such ignorance has very serious adverse consequences, especially on poor people.

The classic example of this phenomenon is the minimum wage. This week a liberal website named In These Times published an article about the minimum wage by a liberal named Marc Daalder. The title of the article is ”Why Every Democrat in Congress Should Support Bernie Sanders’ $15 Minimum Wage Bill.” In his article, Daalder sets forth the standard progressive justification for the minimum wage — to help the poor, needy, and disadvantaged.

There’s one big problem, however, with that justification: It’s false and faulty. In fact, if Daalder and Sanders succeed in getting the minimum wage increased, their success will only make things worse for those at the bottom of the economic ladder.

The question that should be posed to Daalder and Sanders is this:

Why settle for $15 an hour? Why not make the minimum wage equal to what Sanders receives for being a member of Congress? When broken down to an hourly basis, Sanders receives about $60 an hour. Isn’t it a bit selfish for a liberal to be receiving $60 an hour and, at the same time, arguing that workers should receive only $15 an hour? What’s up with that?

But just think:

If we raised the minimum wage to $100 an hour, every worker in America would suddenly have the chance to become very rich, very quickly. So, why settle for $15 or even $60? Why not go all the way to $100 an hour?

In fact, think about this:

The people in every nation on earth could suddenly become wealthy by just having their respective government establish or raise their nation’s minimum wage to $100 an hour.

I think I’m going to rush down to the patent department of the federal government and get my idea patented. I think I should get royalties for coming up with an idea that will finally end poverty around the world.

I think most everyone, including even liberals, can understand why a $100-an-hour minimum wage would be bad for people. The reason is this: The labor of many, if not most, workers is not valued by employers at $100 an hour. The payment of that wage would cause most businesses to start losing money and ultimately force them out of business.

The lesson? Employers are not going to hire anyone whose labor is valued at less than the artificially government-established minimum wage of $100 an hour. If employers value someone’s labor at $90, $80, $50, $15, or $5 an hour, that worker isn’t going to get hired under a system that has a $100-per-hour minimum wage.

Okay, I think most progressives would get that. For some reason, however, their reasoning ability abandons them and turns to mush when they think of a minimum wage that is set at a much lower rate, say $15. They are unable to see that the same principle applies. Every worker whose labor is valued at less than $15 an hour is not going to get hired. The minimum wage consigns those workers to permanent unemployment.

That’s why there has been a chronic unemployment rate of 30-40 percent among African-American teenagers for years. Employers subjectively value their labor at less than the minimum wage. So, black teenagers go unemployed, prevented from competing on the basis of a lower wage rate. In the process, they never get their foot on the first rung of the economic ladder. They’re told they can go welfare. More likely, they go into the drug trade and end up in a penitentiary.

When it comes to economic principles, good intentions don’t matter. All that matters is the actual consequences of governmental programs. While progressives, leftists, liberals, and socialists (whatever label one chooses to use) think they are helping the poor with their minimum wage, they are actually attacking them.

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