Police State Canada - No Press Freedom Under Capitalist Oligarchy

ministry of tokyo Capitalist Police State Canada No Press Freedom Under Capitalist Oligarchy CAPITALIST POLICE STATE CANADA http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/montreal-police-monitored-iphone-of-la-presse-journalist-patrick-lagace http://archive.is/avRSY Montreal police monitored iPhone of La Presse journalist Patrick Lagacé Karen Seidman, Montreal Gazette Paul Cherry, Montreal Gazette    Published on: November 1, 2016 | Last Updated: November 1, 2016 11:51 AM EDT Montreal police strongly defended a highly controversial decision to spy on a La Presse columnist by tracking his cellphone calls and texts and monitoring his whereabouts as part of a necessary internal police investigation — while the journalist involved called what they did “indefensible.” “Lives were not at stake, this was not a question of national security,” La Presse columnist Patrick Lagacé said in an interview Monday. “The leaks made them look bad, that’s why they decided to go after me in the way they did.” Opposition politicians are also condemning Montreal police for spying on Lagacé, though Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre stood by police chief Philippe Pichet on Monday, noting that a mayor should not intervene in police operations, but did say he was troubled by the news. For several months this year, police were monitoring Lagacé’s iPhone to determine the identity of his sources, La Presse reported. This was confirmed to Lagacé last Thursday by Montreal police. At least 24 surveillance warrants were granted by courts in 2016, at the request of the Montreal police department’s special investigations section, which probes crime within the police force. The warrants allowed police to track the telephone numbers of incoming and outgoing calls on Lagacé’s phone, and to monitor the phone’s location, although Pichet denied at a hastily convened press conference Monday that the GPS on his phone was monitored. Lagacé said he is sure many judges around the world have been asked by police departments to grant similar warrants, but refused because it was too “vulgar” to spy on a reporter. “It was incredibly aggressive,” he said, questioning the judgment of the judge involved. Warrants obtained in relation to internal investigation The surveillance warrants were obtained as part of Project Escouade, which involved allegations that police investigators specializing in street gangs and drug trafficking fabricated evidence. Five police officers were arrested this summer, and two were charged. One of the officers targeted by Escouade was Fayçal Djelidi. By monitoring his cellphone, Montreal police detected contact between Djelidi and Lagacé, La Presse reported. Djelidi was arrested in July and is charged with nine counts, including perjury, attempting to obstruct justice, breach of trust by a public officer and obtaining sexual services for consideration. The controversial outgoing boss of internal affairs at the Montreal police department, Costa Labos, told La Presse that he gave the green light to the surveillance. On Friday it was announced that Labos has been transferred to the telecommunications department, but there is no evidence the move is related to the surveillance controversy. While Projet Montréal called on the police chief to step aside temporarily to permit an independent investigation, Pichet said Monday it was an “exceptional situation,” which warranted the action. “I’m saying in an exceptional situation we can use that type of tool,” he said in response to a reporter’s question during a 15-minute press conference at police headquarters Monday. He said the journalist was never under investigation, it was the police. “We do have a responsibility to investigate all types of crimes involving officers,” he said. He repeated several times how important freedom of the press is, but said the investigation was of a criminal nature and warranted the measures taken. “What is important for me is that all regulations were followed,” Pichet said, adding that there are no other similar surveillances to his knowledge. The police chief also said that Montreal city hall wasn’t involved in the investigation and Coderre found out about it in Monday’s La Presse.  Police met with Lagacé to explain the operation, said Pichet, but Lagacé said he is less concerned with such courtesies than with the principles involved. “I’m not an investigative journalist and they did this to me,” Lagacé said, adding that after what Pichet said at the press conference “this is now free game and not taboo anymore.” Coderre blamed for climate of “paranoia” Calling the spying “worrisome,” Quebec Public Security Minister Martin Coiteux said his department is looking into whether police followed proper procedures. He said a free press is important but noted that it’s also “important that there is independence between political power, judicial power and the power of police.” At a press conference, Coderre said he spoke to Pichet on Monday morning to tell him he was troubled by the case. He said he did not ask for details about the Lagacé surveillance or whether police are closely monitoring other reporters. “There is a process and we have to understand that right now it’s in front of the court and that there’s a judge who signed all the paperwork,” Coderre said. However, Lagacé said that while Coderre may never have been directly involved in the operation, he blamed the mayor for creating a climate that enabled it to happen — a climate of “paranoia” regarding leaks about the city and pressure on Pichet to curb such incidents. Éric Trottier, vice-president of information at La Presse, denounced the surveillance, saying it “constitutes an attack against the institution of the press and against the journalistic profession.” Sébastien Pierre-Roy, a lawyer representing La Presse, said it may be “the first time in Canada that we’ve learned that a police force has gone so far as to obtain private information from a journalist with the express purpose of identifying one of his sources relevant to that investigation.” Lagacé said late Monday afternoon that after a long day of doing interviews on the topic, he was still reeling from the whole thing. “This is uncharted territory,” he said. “I didn’t think something like this could be possible.” http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/montreal-police-monitored-iphone-of-la-presse-journalist-patrick-lagace http://archive.is/avRSY Seeing Canada is among the mass surveilling capitalist prison states whose prisoner populations are spied on, by capitalist serving prison warders in Canada, the US, UK, Australia & New Zealand, this isn't surprising. Lying, violating, hypocritical, psychopathic capitalist control respects no limits. Nothing is privileged under totalitarian capitalist rule, and what is referred to as 'press freedom' in the West is a lie. The press is there to publish capitalist serving propaganda.  That is the true press role.  The rest is lies that maintain the edifice of capitalist dictatorship. Rarely, does the capitalist-controlled press step out of line.  Mostly it stays within the confines of publishing propaganda, indoctrination and utter manure, that is in the capitalist publisher's interests, and class-interests, to publish. Of course, the corrupt capitalist-serving Canadian government will go after anyone that dares publish the truth, along with aggressively targeting whistleblowers who make known the ruling capitalist agents' violations.

Finland - Attack on Free Press - Foreigner Rape & Crime Cover-Up

FINLAND NEWS Yle Yleisradio Oy aka Rundradion aka Finnish Broadcasting Company f. 1926 Finland's national public-broadcasting company 99.98% owned by the Finnish state modelled on BBC (British Bullsh*t Channel) slogan:       Sinun tarinasi ('Your Story')                     more like:  Our Propaganda ATTACK ON FREE PRESS FINLAND COVERS UP FOREIGNER RAPES & CRIME -------------------------------------------------------- friatider http://archive.is/O65QW Ilya Janitskin detained - can be requested extradition from Spain Published October 7, 2016 at 10:11 Foreign. Ilya Janitskin, the principal behind the so-called alternative news site MV-Lehtinen, was arrested yesterday in absentia by the Helsinki District Court, writes the Finnish YLE. Janitskin accused of incitement to racial hatred, fundraising crime, gaming crimes, aggravated defamation, assault, breach of confidentiality and copyright crimes, writes Yle. The crimes were allegedly committed in 2015 and in 2016. MV-Lehtinen is a Finnish-language news site that have seen a real boost in the past year. The reason is the many immigration-related crime that engulfed the country in asylkaosets track. In November last year, was gang-raped a 14-year-old girl in Finnish Ostrobothnia. And, as in Cologne, Germany and several other European cities were large groups of immigrants to attack and sexofredade women in Helsinki during the New Year's night. Such scares, and dozens of others of a similar nature, concerned about the Finns. Therefore, many came to the MV-Lehtinen who has become a thorn in the side of politicians as well as established media companies. The authorities have tried in vain to close the site and therefore has decided to bust the people behind it. Yle has also gone out and warned other "alternative media" and also urged Finns to not read Swedish newspapers and news sites like Friatider, Nyheter Idag, Dispatch International and Avpixlat. According to the Swedish-language Hufvudstadsbladet, a news which is also strongly hostile to the MV-Lehtinen, there can be talk of a European arrest warrant against Janitskin. Ilya Janitskin, allegedly living in Spain, may in such cases be requested extradition from Spain. friatider http://archive.is/O65QW Home                 www.mvlehti.net Type                   only media languages          Finnish Designed by      Ilya Janitskin Opened                 2014 Odinin Sotilaat SOLDIERS OF ODIN More Finland's news is mainly from the United States, according to the founder Ilya Janitskin, and there is very little coverage of issues such as the Palestinian issue due to the nature of the media domination in USA. [wikipedia / Finland / translation] Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE reported Soldiers of Odin's leader Mika Ranta has links with the MV-magazine.  [wikipedia / Finland / translation] Finland Wikipedia entry is littered with the usual Wikipedia 'conspiracy theories' claims found in the English variety of this propaganda and indoctrination organ of American capitalism.

Assange - Politically Motivated Persecution of a Journalist, the Passive Press & the British Foreign Office Pantomime

Sweden’s double standards on Julian Assange posted by Peter Tatchell ... on Mon, 10/08/2015 - 11:40 Prosecutors have interviewed 44 people in UK since 2010. Why not Assange? London, UK - 10 August 2015 "The Swedish prosecutors are guilty of double standards and victimisation. They’ve interviewed 44 people in the UK since 2010. Why not Assange? They are making an exception of him. He’s being singled out and treated differently. It is wrong to deny Assange the option to be interviewed in the UK, which has been extended to others and which he has been offering for five years”, said human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell. He was commenting on a Freedom of Information request revealing that Swedish prosecutors have interviewed 44 suspects in the UK since 2010, while for five years declining Julian Assange’s offer to be interviewed at the Ecuadoran Embassy in London. They have long insisted that he must go to Sweden to be interviewed about the sex allegations against him. Mr Tatchell, Director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation, has supported Julian Assange for the last five years, on civil liberties grounds and on the grounds that he is a legitimate whistleblower. “The Swedish authorities are not applying the law about overseas interviews consistently and fairly. They are acting in an exceptional and discriminatory way towards Assange,” added Mr Tatchell. “A few weeks ago, a prosecutor from Sweden confided to me that the Assange case has been handled badly by Marianne Ny. He said she should have come to London to interview him five years ago. It is not unusual for Swedish prosecutors to interview suspects overseas, he confirmed, so it doesn’t make sense for them to not interview Assange in London. “In November last year, the Swedish Court of Appeal found Ny in breach of her duty to proceed the case at maximum speed and efficiency. It took another seven months, until June this year, for Ny to request an interview with Assange in London. She then cancelled the interview at the last minute. The Swedish prosecutor is the main roadblock in the case. She is not only denying Assange the right to swift justice, she is hindering the legal process and should be taken off the case. “Julian Assange has been in various forms of detention for five years, without ever having been charged with any offence. This amounts to pre-trial punishment and is a gross abuse of his human rights and the legal system. “The Swedish prosecutor has still not made a decision on whether Assange should be charged, which makes his treatment all the more shocking. “Assange’s case is an important civil liberties and human rights issue,” said Mr Tatchell. SOURCE http://www.petertatchellfoundation.org/civil-liberties/sweden-s-double-standards-julian-assange ---------------------- ꕤ  ----------------------  COMMENT We should all be concerned that corrupt government can (and does) act with impunity (Britain, Sweden and US), while pontificating about 'American values,' 'Western values' or 'European values', democracy, and all the rest of the fanciful garbage they trot out, every time they seek to pull the wool over the public's eyes. Sweden and the UK have got away with making an exception of Assange, dragging this out for 5 years, apparently determined to get Assange onto Swedish soil.  And they're taking the worldwide public (and the British taxpayer) for fools:  because they can.  The mainstream press that's supposed to play a key role as vital check to ensure just and democratic government, has allowed these corrupt forces to ride roughshod over journalism, justice, international law, and human rights. Instead of fighting to put an end to the persecution of a fellow journalist, the corporate press just echoes the government narrative, without question. The press should be screaming that this is taking place: Twelve million pounds (ie US$18 million) spent to date by UK, trapping Assange in the Ecuador embassy; exclusion of Assange from the 2014 change in law that was intended to prevent precisely this sort of 'pre-charge' detention situation from happening in future; 5-year-long insistence that Assange to go Sweden and Sweden's refusal to interview Assange in London - over a five year stretch; Sweden having made an exception of Assange, by refusing to interview him in London (unlike the 44 others they've interviewed in London). All of the above show just how determined these people are to deny Assange justice, in order to despatch him to the US - as was their intention all along.  That speaks for itself:  this is political persecution, without any doubt. I wonder just how much of a hand these governments have had in the 2010 developments in Sweden that brought about this suspiciously convenient de facto imprisonment of Assange? UK is shamelessly making a performance of lodging a formal objection to Ecuador for granting political asylum to Assange (which, as a sovereign nation, it is entitled to grant). UK ought rightfully be censuring Sweden for failing to resolve this matter 5 years ago and failing to interview Assange in London in all the years it has had to do so. The only one that's been denied justice is the journalist that's been detained for nearly five years on flimsy Swedish police allegations.  The same police that did not follow procedures, did not properly record (audio / video) interviews (while taking care not to apply these same lax standards to defence witnesses), the police that tampered with the police database, and the same police that did not get a sworn statement.  And that's just for starters.   Although I've been following this for a while now, it has taken until now to really see this for what it is. I say that on the basis of seeing the pantomime they're putting on now, as well as how they have conducted themselves to this point. This is clearly politically motivated persecution. Dead dictators would be proud of these conniving fascists.   This is disgusting.  And it's unbelievable that this isn't a press and public uproar, particularly in Australia.   Journalist, Assange has been targeted because he and his organisation exposed war US crimes. The same people that brought you constitutional violation, general contempt for the law, mass surveillance, surveillance of entire countries, rendition, torture, invasions on false pretexts etc, are the same lying, hypocritical, corrupt, coalition that has denied Assange liberty without charge. What they're doing - and what the press permits them to do - is absolutely disgusting. Please help support Australian journalist, Julian Assange, in any way you can: FAQ & Support Justice4Assange https://justice4assange.com/ ---------------------- ꕤ  ---------------------- 2012 - Notification to Sweden from Ecuardor:   Assange Available Sweden Refused To Interview Assange in London Sweden Lied - Claimed 'cannot' interview London Others Interviewed In London - 44 of them The various politicians and their legal puppets have absolutely no conscience. Politicians Lying Psychopaths in Suits ꕤ

Press Council Manifesto - Sounds Like A Further Clamp On Australian Press

Press Council chair vows to fight for press freedom and disclosure standards for native ads The chair of the Australian Press Council David Weisbrot has pledged to fight for press freedom and create a new model for defamation laws to help protect freedom of speech in Australia following the passage of recent terrorism Bills through Parliament. Speaking to an audience at the Melbourne Press Club today, Weisbrot, who has headed the APC since March, said “times have changed” and the APC’s role “in advancing freedom of the press” cannot be “largely restricted to its complaints-handling function”. “Freedom of speech and freedom of the press may have a strong cultural hold in Australia, but they rest on flimsy legal foundations,” Weisbrot said, in an address in which he also outlined plans for disclosure requirements around native content. “Unfortunately, the traditionally fine balance has been tipping steadily against freedom in recent times. We’ve had 40 ‘anti-terrorism’ laws passed, often with insufficient Parliamentary scrutiny of the potential effects on free speech and press freedom.” Outlining amendments to the ASIO Act – the new metadata retention laws – which Weisbrot describes as a “crushing blow to investigative journalism and freedom of the press” he said: “In these circumstances, it is not sufficient to hope that publishers will be successful in resisting these incursions, and the Press Council must take a stand in favour of free speech and press freedom liberty.” As such, Weisbrot said the APC must “actively work to diminish private or civil obstacles to investigative reporting, press freedom and free speech” thus pledging to lead a process, to culminate in May, “to develop a Model Uniform Defamation Law for Australia of which we can finally be proud”. In his speech Weisbrot also outlined the APC’s plans to develop and provide education and training programs for working journalists, cadets and others on the APC’s standards and on emerging issues such as metadata retention, secrecy laws, whistleblower laws and anti-terrorism laws. “We urgently need to move away from the system of punishing individual transgressions in our industry and feeling that such action alone maintains high standards across the entire profession,” he said. “While the need to identify and sanction poor practice will remain, there are much better strategies for achieving industry-wide improvement, and reassuring the community that this is the case.” Weisbrot also outlined draft proposals for specific standards reporting of family violence, reporting of child sexual assault, respectful reporting around LGBTI individuals and issues, respectful reporting around race and religion and labelling/disclosure requirements around sponsored or native content “so as not to mislead readers about the nature of the material”. He is also looking at drafting standards on the appropriation and publication of online photos and the “‘right to be forgotten’, with the need to balance the relevance of stale/sealed/expunged convictions versus the improper alteration or erasure of history”. The APC chair also pledged to broaden the council’s membership, looking to engage with the multicultural press. “The current leadership of the Council is strongly committed to engaging with the multicultural press in Australia and encouraging the Council’s inclusiveness, both in terms of formal membership as well as in access to Council programs and activities,” Weisbrot said. Miranda Ward http://mumbrella.com.au/press-council-chair-vows-to-fight-for-press-freedom-and-disclosure-standards-for-native-ads-310574 --------------------- David Weisbrot Emeritus Professor of Law and Honorary Professor of Medicine at University of Sydney David Weisbrot AM is an Emeritus Professor of Law and Honorary Professor of Medicine at the University of Sydney, and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law.  David was President of the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) from 1999-2009, where he led 15 major national inquiries, including the landmark inquiries into the Protection of Human Genetic Information (Essentially Yours) and Gene Patenting and Human Health (Genes and Ingenuity). [here] --------------------- COMMENT All of the above sounds like bad news to me. Forget the fluff about 'freedom of press'.  This is like those US operations that are euphemistically named the opposite of the aggressive acts they involve. Maybe the news should go underground like those blackmarket sites.  LOL

AUSTRALIA: AFP Access Journalists' Metadata / Australian Greens - STOP Data Retention

AUSTRALIA - POLICE STATE COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Source - https://twitter.com/vanbadham/status/577955499703816192 See ADAM BRANDT video:   #StopDataRetention -- Adam Bandt https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=839543312747570 Adam Brandt is deputy leader of the Australian Greens. Why is there such a zeal to monitor what people do online? Labor has joined with the Liberals to push through poorly thought out legislation that violates the principle of prevention of government intrusion (eg state/police intrude only on those suspected of having committed a crime - not intrude upon entire civilian population, as is the case with mass surveillance & retention of data).  Brandt also pointed out that: Criminals can switch to international web-based servers and won't get caught by data retention bill, but the bulk of the unsuspecting population will (so this legislation does not serve the purpose it purports to serve). EUROPEAN UNION and NETHERLANDS have opted out of the data retention step, for good reason. Opens the public up to potential CIVIL LAWSUITS if information subpoenaed  (eg media conglomerates / copyright) -- HYPOCRITE LABOR JOINS LIBERALS TO RUSH THROUGH LEGISLATION Brandt says the public is told that there will be protection for journalists in the Bill and Labor says they'll back up the Liberal government, but no amendment has been circulated in the chamber or made publicly available and the Labor Party is prepared to take the LNP government on faith; but Greens are not.  Why should parliament be required to vote on legislation without a chance to properly look through amendments:  this is complicated & giving people protections from these kinds of laws is complicated. -- COMMENT Government intent on giving journalists protections?  Got to be kidding.  The police state is already violating the liberty of journalists. I'm shocked. If journalists are subject to state violation and intimidation, what hope of freedom has the average person got?

US GOVT INJUSTICE, BARRETT BROWN & THE EVIL EMPIRE

BARRETT BROWN Journalist BARRETT BROWN #FreeBarrett  TWITTER: https://twitter.com/FreeBarrett_   SITE: http://echelon2.org   SUPPORT: http://freebarrettbrown.org My Post Cyberpunk Indentured Servitude http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/31/my-post-cyberpunk-indentured-servitude.html Journalist Barrett Brown looks back in anger at the government’s trumped up charges against him as he starts a 63 month prison sentence. Not long ago I was a mild-mannered freelance journalist, activist, and satirist, contributing to outlets like the Guardian and Vanity Fair. But last Thursday I was sentenced to 63 months in federal prison in a case that Reporters Without Borders cited as a key factor in its reduction of America’s press freedom rankings from 33 to 46. As inconvenient as this is for me, the upside is that for the first time in the two and a half years since I was arrested, I am at last able to speak freely about what has been happening to me and why—and what it means for the press and the republic as a whole. A portion of my sentence stems from an attempt I made to conceal from the government the identities of certain contacts of mine: pro-democracy activists living under Middle Eastern dictatorships such as Bahrain, with which the U.S. is known to share intelligence on such things. Another large chunk is due to an admittedly ill-conceived public threat I made—in the midst of opiate withdrawal and what court psychologists say was a manic state brought on by medication issues—to investigate and humiliate an F.B.I. agent, who had himself threatened to indict my mother in an attempt to get me to cooperate against individuals associated with the Anonymous movement (my mother was indeed charged). Though I clearly stated that my intent was not violent, the prosecution claimed that my “victim,” Dallas-based Special Agent Robert Smith, had reason to fear that I might physically harm him and even his children—in which case it is not immediately obvious why the prosecution felt the need to alter the end of the sentence in question when quoting it on the indictment. (My complete statement, (PDF) in which I make a point of noting that I was merely going to proceed along lines spelled out by the FBI-linked contractor C.E.O. Aaron Barr while he was investigating activists on behalf of his corporate clients, and that I was doing so perfunctorily, and merely in order to make a point about the F.B.I.’s traditional reluctance to investigate its allies, has been viewed on YouTube by well over 100,000 people, including the dozens of reporters who have covered the story; none of them seem to agree with the Department of Justice contention that a journalist’s threat to “look into” someone in an explicitly non-violent manner necessarily entails violence.) A separate declaration I made to the effect that I’d defend my family from any illegal armed raids by the government, while silly and bombastic, was not actually illegal under the threats statutes. To judge from similar comments made by Senator Joni Ernst, it would not even have necessarily precluded me from delivering the G.O.P.’s recent response to the State of the Union address. But the charges that prompted the most international outrage were those alleging fraud. In late 2011, I copied and pasted a link to a publicly-available file, which chat transcripts introduced in court showed that I initially believed to contain the same leaked corporate emails I’d long been in the habit of reviewing for my Guardian articles. The file turned out to contain customer data, including credit card numbers. Although the government’s own forensics showed that I never opened the file, the D.O.J. contended (PDF) that I had thereby engaged in 11 counts of aggravated identity theft, punishable by a mandatory minimum sentence of 22 years in federal prison. The feds were eventually forced to drop these precedent-setting charges, after which I agreed to plea to the spurious make-believe crimes described above, so as to avoid the perils of a Texas jury. (As the government itself warned in a 2013 public filing, (PDF) my status as an atheist would have seriously damaged my ability to get a fair trial here in Dallas—although one might wonder how a jury would know I’m an atheist unless the government made a point of bringing it up, as they did, say, in that 2013 public filing.)     I will spend the rest of my life in a strange state of post-cyberpunk indentured servitude to an amoral private intelligence firm. I also had to plea to an Accessory After the Fact charge for having contacted the corporate espionage outfit Stratfor after some Anonymous-affiliated hackers stole several million of the firm’s emails and vowed to publish them online; I offered to arrange with the hackers to redact any of those communications that could potentially have endangered any foreign contacts if made public. For this, I will not only serve additional prison time, but have also been ordered to pay the company over $800,000—which is to say that I will spend the rest of my life in a strange state of post-cyberpunk indentured servitude to an amoral private intelligence firm that’s perhaps best known for having spied on Bhopal activists on behalf of Dow Chemical. That the prosecution did not quite manage to articulate how I did any damage to this particular company did not seem to dissuade U.S. District Judge Sam A. Lindsay in this matter. Likewise, His Honor did not express any visible interest in the fact that the F.B.I. itself has acknowledged having actually overseen the hack on Stratfor via its confidential informant, Hector “Sabu” Monsegur, who recently appeared in a national television interview with Charlie Rose to discuss his role in these matters. Quite understandably, most media coverage of last week’s sentencing hearing has focused on the exciting twist ending. Despite having dropped the notorious “linking” charges, the government still managed to convince Judge Lindsay to hold me responsible for the act of copying and pasting a link—a link that was already public, and which led to a file which was already itself public, and to which other journalists had also linked without being prosecuted for it—by way of a sentencing mechanism known as “relevant conduct.” In doing so, Judge Lindsay stated that this would not actually cause any concern among journalists—an exquisitely bizarre claim insomuch as countless journalists have been expressing concern over this very matter since the charges were first brought in 2012, with Wired’s Quinn Norton even having testified at a prior hearing that she herself would have been subject to such prosecution not only in the Stratfor affair, but throughout much of her career reporting on online security. In the wake of last week’s sentencing, Norton announced she could no longer report on security breaches and advised her colleagues to refrain as well. I will leave it to Judge Lindsay to explain to the concerned members of the press that they are not actually concerned; based on the commentary that’s now coming out of outlets ranging from the U.S. News & World Report to The Intercept and the Columbia Journalism Review, His Honor has a big job ahead of him. Instead, I will merely point out the other major scandal inherent to this case, one which has so far gone largely unreported—that in addition to having lost the “right to link” journalists have also now lost the “right to quote.” In trying to make the case that I was a violent threat to Agent Smith, the prosecution attributed to me the following statement: “Dead men can’t leak stuff … illegally shoot the son of a bitch.” I will admit that this is clearly an outright call for murder, and thus would certainly seem to warrant an F.B.I. investigation. The problem is that it wasn’t I who uttered this, but rather Fox News commentator Bob Beckel, who said it on national television in the course of a no-doubt productive discussion about Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. I had merely quoted the statement on my Twitter feed—in disapproval, of course, as I happen to admire Assange, and he, himself, has put out a statement expressing astonishment that the U.S. government would attribute to me a call for his murder made by someone else on a major cable news network. Now, it would be one thing if this had simply been a misunderstanding on the part of the D.O.J., which, in all fairness, was clearly in a rush to flesh out its fabricated case against me. But when my attorneys pointed this out in a motion to dismiss the charge, the prosecutor, Candina Heath, actually stuck to her guns, arguing that, by quoting this, I had “promoted” the idea. Among many other things, this leaves open the question of why Bob Beckel has not been indicted. The answer is that, unlike me, Beckel did not spend much of 2011 investigating the full extent of the Team Themis conspiracy, in which F.B.I.-linked contracting firms prepared a covert and criminal scheme by which to launch cyber-attacks in a campaign of intimidation against activists and journalists deemed supportive of Wikileaks—a conspiracy that, as the press and even some members of Congress noted at the time that it was foiled and made public by Anonymous, had been put in motion by none other than the D.O.J. itself. The dozen or so Americans who still have faith in the essential decency of the D.O.J., despite the assorted scandals of the last 15 years, might find it hard to believe that the charges against me were actually prompted by my efforts to bring attention to the agency’s own wrong-doing. It’s a fine thing, then, that the late journalist Michael Hastings saw fit to publish a copy of the original search warrants in my case, which list Themis firms HBGary Federal and Endgame Systems as subjects to be searched among my files, along with echelon2.org, the website on which my colleagues and I posted our research on the matter. Stratfor, the firm I allegedly cost almost a million dollars via a single phone call, is left unmentioned. But what should worry Americans most is not that the various frightening aspects of this case can fill a rather wordy article. What should worry them is that this is not even that article. The great bulk of the government’s demonstrable lies, contradictions, and instances of perjury are still sealed and thus unavailable to the public. Other matters are just now coming to light, such as the revelation, two days before my sentencing, that the D.O.J. had withheld from my defense team sealed chat transcripts from the Jeremy Hammond hacking case which contradicted its key claim that I was a co-conspirator in the Stratfor hack. And there are still other aspects of all this, such as the F.B.I.’s seizure of my copy of the Declaration of Independence as evidence of my criminal activity, that I blush to even commit to print, lest I not be believed, even despite the F.B.I. itself having now confirmed it. Suffice to say that I shall produce a far more comprehensive account of this whole affair later this year, even if I have few illusions that it will make much difference; a state that had reason to fear the press would not have acted as openly as it has, for as long as it has, and to such ends as it has. If anyone needs me in the meantime, I’ll be in prison.  [ ... LOL, BB's always funny.] http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/31/my-post-cyberpunk-indentured-servitude.html COMMENT How's that for sleaze, injustice, and violation of democracy, liberties, law, and who knows what else?  And that's not some official USG enemy; that's the Evil Empire itself. People don't get a fair go or fair trials in America. Notice how they only go after those they consider a 'threat' and how arbitrary it all is? Also, that you can't get a fair hearing as an atheist in Texas is surely a joke. So is the prosecution targeting a person's lack of superstitious beliefs, to gain the upper hand in a courtroom, based on a trumped up case to further the interests of a bunch of wrongdoers and sleasebags. If that isn't evidence of absolute godlessness and a case for atheism, I don't know what his.  Another good reason for society to abolish state endorsement of religion (which is used to manipulate ignorant or misguided people politically, and in other ways, by the state, by lobby funders, by interest groups, by individuals, by preachers, by gurus and so on - the list is endless).   Look-Ups Cluster of contractors known as Team Themis Team Themis - a consortium made up of: HBGary Palantir Berico (with Endgame Systems serving as a "silent partner") source:   http://echelon2.org/wiki/Team_Themis Barrett Brown Faces 105 Years in Jail http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/barrett-brown-faces-105-years-in-jail-20130905 ROLLING STONE - EXTRACTS (some minor modification) ... origins of Team Themis date to Bank of America  alarm over Julian Assange 2010 claim to possess documents that "could take down a bank or two." Department of Justice recommended Bank of America retain the services of: DC law firm Hunton & Williams Booz Allen Hamilton (high-powered intelligence contractor) On behalf of Bank of America, Hunton & Williams turned to the large and growing world of InfoSec subcontractors to come up with a plan, settling on: > HBGary > x2 data ­intelligence shops: Berico Technologies Palantir Technologies Themis three were also preparing a proposal for Hunton & Williams on behalf of another client, the US Chamber of Commerce. The leaked HBGary documents revealed that Themis was exploring ways of discrediting and disrupting the activities of organized labor and its allies for the Chamber. potential money at stake in these contracts was considerable According to Wired, the trio proposed that the Chamber create a $2-million­a-month sort of cyber special-forces team "of the kind developed and utilized by the Joint Special Operations Command." They also suggested targeting a range of left-of-center organizations, incl.: > SEIU > watchdog groups like US Chamber Watch > Center for American Progress (The Chamber of Commerce and Bank of America have denied ever hiring Team Themis or having any knowledge of the proposals.) Pursuing Chamber and Bank of America contracts, the Themis three devised multipronged campaigns, amounting to: > a private-sector information-age COINTELPRO  (ie FBI's program to infiltrate and undermine "subversive" groups between 1956 and 1971) Among the Themis ideas presented to Hunton & Williams: 1.      Feed the fuel between the feuding groups. 2.      Disinformation. 3.      Create messages around actions to sabotage or discredit the opposing organization. 4.      Submit fake documents and then call out the error. 5.      The revelations represented a triumph for Brown and his wiki. A group of Democratic congressmen asked four Republican committee chairs to hold hearings on the "deeply troubling" question of whether "tactics developed for use against terrorists may have been unleashed illegally against American citizens." But the calls for investigation went nowhere.  Brown on lack of outrage Washington & media: "[politicians and pundits] clearly intent on killing off even this belated scrutiny into the invisible empire that so thoroughly scrutinizes us – at our own expense and to unknown ends."  SOURCE:  http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/barrett-brown-faces-105-years-in-jail-20130905

Denmark - Lars Vilks, artist Sweden, receives award for promoting free speech

LARS VILKS Free Press Society Denmark Lars Vilks, artist Sweden, receives award from Danish association promoting free speech,  Trykkefrihedsselskabet ('Press Freedom Society' - a more direct translation?) http://www.thelocal.se/20150315/cartoonist-lars-vilks-in-first-public-appearance-since-copenhagen-attacks Trykkefrihedsselskabet assoc. prior free speech awards to: >Kurt Westergaard cartoonist >editor Flemming Rose, Jyllands-Posten trykkefrihed = trykke frihed = press freedom known as:   Free Press Society f. 2004 in Denmark "Without freedom of speech, no free society." Article caught my eye, as I knew that Lars Vilks has been in hiding for years, under police protection in Sweden, which struck me as an absolutely insane way for him to have to live  ...  ... and I think he was also the target of the recent Copenhagen attack (yes, it sure looks like it - or the event was). More on Lars Vilks - here. The Wikipedia entry on Vilks discusses the Copenhagen attack in the most recent subsection, going into detail about the Copenhagen cafe event arrangements and who attended. However, while the entry (which contains an overhead link to a separate entry on the Copenhagen attack) states that gunman (who killed 'one civilian' and wounded three policemen), was subsequently killed by police, the Vilks entry has left out shocking and important details relevant to Vilks and the Copenhagen attack, by not plainly stating that the following took place: Film director Finn Noergaard, 55, was killed yesterday at a cafe. Hours later, security employee Dan Uzan, 37, was shot in the head as he stood outside a building belonging to the city's Great Synagogue. [1] The gunman, Omar El-Hussein, later shot dead a Jewish man outside a synagogue before he was killed by police. [2] Seriously, how hard is it (a) name the gunman and (b) key in the names of the two dead victims? Maybe less focus on who organised and attended a cafe event and a bit more attention paid to the people that were murdered would have made for a more sensible entry on the subject of the Vilks Copenhagen attack subsection, irrespective of the overhead link-to provision in the entry. It's not as if the relevant information wasn't available, as the citation link is to the Daily Mail article which contains names. When key points are left out of entries, I think it damages confidence in the source (Wikipedia) and makes for an inferior information repository, even if there is links to other sections.  It just looks really shifty excluding information that is key and information that has a lot of impact. More on the Vilks latest event: Israel National News: Cartoonist Makes First Public Appearance Since Copenhagen Attack http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/192608

CIA & US-Allied Intelligence - Lies, Propaganda, in-house plants & push to war

Editor of major newspaper says he planted stories for CIA By Ralph Lopez     Jan 26, 2015 in World  Becoming the first credentialed, well-known media insider to step forward and state publicly that he was secretly a "propagandist," an editor of a major German daily has said that he personally planted stories for the CIA.  Saying he believes a medical condition gives him only a few years to live, and that he is filled with remorse, Dr. Udo Ulfkotte, the editor of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, one of Germany's largest newspapers, said in an interview that he accepted news stories written and given to him by the CIA and published them under his own name. Ulfkotte said the aim of much of the deception was to drive nations toward war.  Dr. Ulfkotte says the corruption of journalists and major news outlets by the CIA is routine, accepted, and widespread in the western media, and that journalists who do not comply either cannot get jobs at any news organization, or find their careers cut short.  Dr. Ulfkotte is the author of a book currently available only in German, "Bought Journalists" (Kopp 2014.) Aged 55, he was also once an advisor to the government of German Chancellor Helmet Kohl.  The book has become a bestseller in Germany but, in a bizarre twist which Ulfkotte says characterizes the disconnect caused by CIA control of the western media, the book cannot be reported on.  Ulfkotte says: ""No German mainstream journalist is allowed to report about [my] book. Otherwise he or she will be sacked. So we have a bestseller now that no German journalist is allowed to write or talk about."" Among the stories Ulfkotte says he was ordered to plant in his newspaper over the years was a story that Libyan President Moammar Gaddafi was building poison gas factories in 2011. Ulfkotte also says he was an eyewitness to Saddam Hussein's use of poison gas against Iranians in the war between Iran and Iraq, but that the editors he worked for at the time were not interested, because Iraq was a US ally at the time.  Ulfkotte says he is better positioned to come forward than many journalists because he does not have children who could be threatened. Ulfkotte told the Russian newspaper Russian Insider (RI):  ""When I told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Ulfkotte's nwspaper) that I would publish the book, their lawyers sent me a letter threatening with all legal consequences if I would publish any names or secrets – but I don’t mind. You see, I don’t have children to take care of. And you must know I was severely injured during the gas attack I witnessed in Iran in 1988. I'm the sole German survivor from a German poison gas attack. I’m still suffering from this. I’ve had three heart attacks. I don’t expect to live for more than a few years."" Ulfkotte says that remorse of having "lied" to mass audiences over the years drove him to come forward. He told RI that he was:  ""taught to lie, to betray and not to tell the truth to the public."" Ulfkotte says:  ""I'm ashamed I was part of it. Unfortunately I cannot reverse this.""  Among the admissions that Ulfkotte makes in the interview are putting his own name to articles completely written by intelligence agencies. He said:  ""I ended up publishing articles under my own name written by agents of the CIA and other intelligence services, especially the German secret service.""  Ulfkotte detailed the pattern of cajolery and outright bribery used by the CIA and other US-allied intelligence agencies, for the purpose of advancing political agendas. Ulfkotte said:  ""once you're connected, you make friends with selected Americans. You think they are your friends and you start cooperating. They work on your ego, make you feel like you're important. And one day one of them will ask you 'Will you do me this favor'...""  Ulfkotte noted that a journalists on international press trips paid for by organizations close to the government are unlikely to submit a storyline not favorable to the sponsor.  Of the gassing of Iranians he had witnessed in the Eighties, Ulfkoppe said:  ""they asked me to hand over the photo's that I had made to the German association of chemical companies in Frankfurt, Verband der Chemischen Industrie. This poison gas that had killed so many Iranians was made in Germany.""  In an interview with Russia Today, Ulfkotte said that it was "not right" what he had done, and that his fear was that politicians were actively driving the world toward war:  ""it is not right what I have done in the past, to manipulate people, to make propaganda against Russia, and it is not right what my colleagues do, and have done in the past, because they are bribed to betray the people not only in Germany, all over Europe. … I am very fearful of a new war in Europe, and I don’t like to have this situation again, because war is never coming from itself, there is always people who push for war, and this is not only politicians, it is journalists too. … We have betrayed our readers, just to push for war. … I don’t want this anymore, I’m fed up with this propaganda. We live in a banana republic, and not in a democratic country where we have press freedom...""  In his book "The CIA and the Media," Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein quotes William B. Bader, former CIA intelligence officer, in his testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee. Baeder said:  ""There is quite an incredible spread of relationships. You don’t need to manipulate Time magazine, for example, because there are [Central Intelligence] Agency people at the management level.""  Bernstein writes:  ""The Agency’s relationship with the Times was by far its most valuable among newspapers, according to CIA officials. From 1950 to 1966, about ten CIA employees were provided Times cover under arrangements approved by the newspaper’s late publisher, Arthur Hays Sulzberger. The cover arrangements were part of a general Times policy—set by Sulzberger—to provide assistance to the CIA whenever possible.""  Ulfkotte was on the staff of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation from 1999 to 2003, according to his Wikipedia entry. He won the civic prize from the Annette Barthelt Foundation in 2003. http://www.digitaljournal.com/news/world/editor-of-major-german-newspaper-says-he-planted-stories-for-cia/article/424470 COMMENT So much for the 'free press'. The world's a corrupt cesspit ... and we're all doomed.  Look-Ups Arthur Hays Sulzberger publisher of The New York Times from 1935 to 1961 anti Zionism & anti Jewish state supporter of the American Council for Judaism, founded in June 1942 to oppose Zionism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Hays_Sulzberger Operation Mockingbird commencing 1950s, CIA campaign to influence media CIA "recruited leading American journalists into a network to help present the CIA's views, and funded some student and cultural organizations, and magazines as fronts. As it developed, it also worked to influence foreign media and political campaigns, in addition to activities by other operating units of the CIA." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mockingbird Udo Ulfkotte German journalist formerly an editor for one of Germany's main dailies, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) an advisor to the Kohl government 1986-1998 [Disclosed that]   CIA and German intelligence (BND) bribe journalists in Germany to write pro-NATO propaganda articles http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Udo_Ulfkotte Looks like Operation Mockingbird has never really ended.