Tag: 21st Century Wire

What the Press Hides From You About Venezuela

— A Case of News-Suppression

Eric Zuesse

INTRODUCTION

This news-report is being submitted to all U.S. and allied news-media, and is being published by all honest ones, in order to inform you of crucial facts that the others — the dishonest ones, who hide such crucial facts — are hiding about Venezuela. These are facts that have received coverage only in one single British newspaper: the Independent, which published a summary account of them on January 26th. That newspaper’s account will be excerpted here at the end, but first will be highlights from its topic, the official report to the U.N. General Assembly in August of last year, which has been covered-up ever since. This is why that report’s author has now gone to the Independent, desperate to get the story out, finally, to the public:

THE COVERED-UP DOCUMENT

On 3 August 2018, the U.N.’s General Assembly received the report from the U.N.s Independent Expert on the Promotion of a Democratic and Equitable International Order, concerning his mission to Venezuela and Ecuador. His recent travel though both countries focused on “how best to enhance the enjoyment of all human rights by the populations of both countries.” He “noted the eradication of illiteracy, free education from primary school to university, and programmes to reduce extreme poverty, provide housing to the homeless and vulnerable, phase out privilege and discrimination, and extend medical care to everyone.” He noted “that the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, and Ecuador, both devote around 70 per cent of their national budgets to social services.” However (and here, key paragraphs from the report are now quoted):

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22. Observers have identified errors committed by the Chávez and Maduro Governments, noting that there are too many ideologues and too few technocrats in public administration, resulting in government policies that lack coherence and professional management and discourage domestic investment, already crippled by inefficiency and corruption, which extend to government officials, transnational corporations and entrepreneurs. Critics warn about the undue influence of the military on government and on the running of enterprises like Petróleos de Venezuela. The lack of regular, publicly available data on nutrition, epidemiology and inflation are said to complicate efforts to provide humanitarian support.

23. Meanwhile, the Attorney General, Tarek Saab, has launched a vigorous anticorruption campaign, investigating the links between Venezuelan enterprises and tax havens, contracting scams, and deals by public officials with Odebrecht. It is estimated that corruption in the oil industry has cost the Government US$ 4.8 billion. The Attorney General’s Office informed the Independent Expert of pending investigations for embezzlement and extortion against 79 officials of Petróleos de Venezuela, including 22 senior managers. The Office also pointed to the arrest of two high-level oil executives, accused of money-laundering in Andorra. The Ministry of Justice estimates corruption losses at some US$ 15 billion. Other stakeholders, in contrast, assert that anti-corruption programmes are selective and have not sufficiently targeted State institutions, including the military. …

29. … Over the past sixty years, non-conventional economic wars have been waged against Cuba, Chile, Nicaragua, the Syrian Arab Republic and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in order to make their economies fail, facilitate regime change and impose a neo-liberal socioeconomic model. In order to discredit selected governments, failures in the field of human rights are maximized so as to make violent overthrow more palatable. Human rights are being “weaponized” against rivals. Yet, human rights are the heritage of every human being and should never be instrumentalized as weapons of demonization. …

30. The principles of non-intervention and non-interference in the internal affairs of sovereign States belong to customary international law and have been reaffirmed in General Assembly resolutions, notably [a list is supplied]. …

31. In its judgment of 27 June 1986 concerning Nicaragua v. United States, the International Court of Justice quoted from [U.N.] resolution 2625 (XXV): “no State shall organize, assist, foment, finance, incite or tolerate subversive, terrorist or armed activities directed towards the violent overthrow of the regime of another State, or interfere in civil strife in another State”. …

36. The effects of sanctions imposed by Presidents Obama and Trump and unilateral measures by Canada and the European Union have directly and indirectly aggravated the shortages in medicines such as insulin and anti-retroviral drugs. To the extent that economic sanctions have caused delays in distribution and thus contributed to many deaths, sanctions contravene the human rights obligations of the countries imposing them.Moreover, sanctions can amount to crimes against humanity under Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. An investigation by that Court would be appropriate, but the geopolitical submissiveness of the Court may prevent this.

37. Modern-day economic sanctions and blockades are comparable with medieval sieges of towns with the intention of forcing them to surrender. Twenty-first century sanctions attempt to bring not just a town, but sovereign countries to their knees. A difference, perhaps, is that twenty-first century sanctions are accompanied by the manipulation of public opinion through “fake news”, aggressive public relations and a pseudo-human rights rhetoric so as to give the impression that a human rights “end” justifies the criminal means. …

39. Economic asphyxiation policies are comparable to those already practised in Chile, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Nicaragua and the Syrian Arab Republic. In January 2018, Middle East correspondent of The Financial Times and The Independent, Patrick Cockburn, wrote on the sanctions affecting Syria: There is usually a pretence that foodstuffs and medical equipment are being allowed through freely and no mention is made of the financial and other regulatory obstacles making it impossible to deliver them. An example of this is the draconian sanctions imposed on Syria by the US and EU which were meant to target President Bashar al-Assad and help remove him from power. They have wholly failed to do this, but a UN internal report leaked in 2016 shows all too convincingly the effect of the embargo in stopping the delivery of aid by international aid agencies. They cannot import the aid despite waivers because banks and commercial companies dare not risk being penalised for having anything to do with Syria. The report quotes a European doctor working in Syria as saying that “the indirect effect of sanctions … makes the import of the medical instruments and other medical supplies immensely difficult, near impossible”. In short: economic sanctions kill. …

41. Bearing in mind that Venezuelan society is polarized, what is most needed is dialogue between the Government and the opposition, and it would be a noble task on the part of the Secretary-General of the United Nations to offer his good offices for such a dialogue. Yet, opposition leaders Antonio Ledezma and Julio Borges, during a trip through Europe to denounce the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, called for further sanctions as well as a military “humanitarian intervention”. …

44. Although the situation in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has not yet reached the humanitarian crisis threshold, there is hunger, malnutrition, anxiety, anguish and emigration. What is crucial is to study the causes of the crisis, including neglected factors of sanctions, sabotage, hoarding, black market activities, induced inflation and contraband in food and medicines.

45. The “crisis” in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is an economic crisis, which cannot be compared with the humanitarian crises in Gaza, Yemen, Libya, the Syrian Arab Republic, Iraq, Haiti, Mali, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, Somalia, or Myanmar, among others. It is significant that when, in 2017, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela requested medical aid from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the plea was rejected, because it ”is still a high-income country … and as such is not eligible”. …

46. It is pertinent to recall the situation in the years prior to the election of Hugo Chávez. 118 Corruption was ubiquitous and in 1993, President Carlos Pérez was removed because of embezzlement. The Chávez election in 1998 reflected despair with the corruption and neo-liberal policies of the 1980s and 1990s, and rejection of the gulf between the super-rich and the abject poor.

47. Participatory democracy in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, called “protagónica”, is anchored in the Constitution of 1999 and relies on frequent elections and referendums. During the mission, the Independent Expert exchanged views with the Electoral Commission and learned that in the 19 years since Chávez, 25 elections and referendums had been conducted, 4 of them observed by the Carter Center. The Independent Expert met with the representative of the Carter Center in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, who recalled Carter’s positive assessment of the electoral system. They also discussed the constitutional objections raised by the opposition to the referendum held on 30 July 2017, resulting in the creation of a Constitutional Assembly. Over 8 million Venezuelans voted in the referendum, which was accompanied by international observers, including from the Council of Electoral Specialists of Latin America.

48. An atmosphere of intimidation accompanied the mission, attempting to pressure the Independent Expert into a predetermined matrix. He received letters from NGOs asking him not to proceed because he was not the “relevant” rapporteur, and almost dictating what should be in the report. Weeks before his arrival, some called the mission a “fake investigation”. Social media insults bordered on “hate speech” and “incitement”. Mobbing before, during and after the mission bore a resemblance to the experience of two American journalists who visited the country in July 2017. Utilizing platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, critics questioned the Independent Expert’s integrity and accused him of bias, demonstrating a culture of intransigence and refusal to accept the duty of an independent expert to be neutral, objective, dispassionate and to apply his expertise free of external pressures. …

67. The Independent Expert recommends that the General Assembly: (g) Invoke article 96 of the Charter of the United Nations and refer the following questions to the International Court of Justice: Can unilateral coercive measures be compatible with international law? Can unilateral coercive measures amount to crimes against humanity when a large number of persons perish because of scarcity of food and medicines? What reparations are due to the victims of sanctions? Do sanctions and currency manipulations constitute geopolitical crimes? (h) Adopt a resolution along the lines of the resolutions on the United States embargo against Cuba, declaring the sanctions against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela contrary to international law and human rights law. …

70. The Independent Expert recommends that the International Criminal Court investigate the problem of unilateral coercive measures that cause death from malnutrition, lack of medicines and medical equipment. …

72. The Independent Expert recommends that, until the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court address the lethal outcomes of economic wars and sanctions regimes, the Permanent Peoples Tribunal, the Russell Tribunal and the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission undertake the task so as to facilitate future judicial pronouncements.

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On January 26th, Britain’s Independent headlined “Venezuela crisis: Former UN rapporteur says US sanctions are killing citizens”, and Michael Selby-Green reported that:

The first UN rapporteur to visit Venezuela for 21 years has told The Independent the US sanctions on the country are illegal and could amount to “crimes against humanity” under international law.

Former special rapporteur Alfred de Zayas, who finished his term at the UN in March, has criticized the US for engaging in “economic warfare” against Venezuela which he said is hurting the economy and killing Venezuelans.

The comments come amid worsening tensions in the country after the US and UK have backed Juan Guaido, who appointed himself “interim president” of Venezuela as hundreds of thousands marched to support him. …

The US Treasury has not responded to a request for comment on Mr de Zayas’s allegations of the effects of the sanctions programme.

US sanctions prohibit dealing in currencies issued by the Venezuelan government. They also target individuals, and stop US-based companies or people from buying and selling new debt issued by PDVSA or the government.

The US has previously defended its sanctions on Venezuela, with a senior US official saying in 2018: “The fact is that the greatest sanction on Venezuelan oil and oil production is called Nicolas Maduro, and PDVSA’s inefficiencies,” referring to the state-run oil body, Petroleos de Venezuela, SA.

Mr De Zayas’s findings are based on his late-2017 mission to the country and interviews with 12 Venezuelan government minsters, opposition politicians, 35 NGOs working in the country, academics, church officials, activists, chambers of commerce and regional UN agencies.

The US imposed new sanctions against Venezuela on 9 March 2015, when President Barack Obama issued executive order 13692, declaring the country a threat to national security.

The sanctions have since intensified under Donald Trump, who has also threatened military invasion and discussed a coup. …

Despite being the first UN official to visit and report from Venezuela in 21 years, Mr de Zayas said his research into the causes of the country’s economic crisis has so far largely been ignored by the UN and the media, and caused little debate within the Human Rights Council.

He believes his report has been ignored because it goes against the popular narrative that Venezuela needs regime change. …

The then UN high commissioner, Zeid Raad Al Hussein, reportedly refused to meet Mr de Zayas after the visit, and the Venezuela desk of the UN Human Rights Council also declined to help with his work after his return despite being obliged to do so, Mr de Zayas claimed. …

Ivan Briscoe, Latin America and Caribbean programme director for Crisis Group, an international NGO, told The Independent that Venezuela is a polarising subject. … Briscoe is critical of Mr de Zayas’s report because it highlights US economic warfare but in his view neglects to mention the impact of a difficult business environment in the country. … Briscoe acknowledged rising tensions and the likely presence of US personnel operating covertly in the country. …

Eugenia Russian, president of FUNDALATIN, one of the oldest human rights NGOs in Venezuela, founded in 1978 before the Chavez and Maduro governments and with special consultative status at the UN, spoke to The Independent on the significance of the sanctions.

“In contact with the popular communities, we consider that one of the fundamental causes of the economic crisis in the country is the effect that the unilateral coercive sanctions that are applied in the economy, especially by the government of the United States,” Ms Russian said.

She said there may also be causes from internal errors, but said probably few countries in the world have suffered an “economic siege” like the one Venezuelans are living under. …

In his report, Mr de Zayas expressed concern that those calling the situation a “humanitarian crisis” are trying to justify regime change and that human rights are being “weaponised” to discredit the government and make violent overthrow more “palatable”….

Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world and an abundance of other natural resources including gold, bauxite and coltan. But under the Maduro government they’re not easily accessible to US and transnational corporations.

US oil companies had large investments in Venezuela in the early 20th century but were locked out after Venezuelans voted to nationalise the industry in 1973.

Other than readers of that single newspaper, where has the public been able to find these facts? If the public can have these facts hidden from them, then how much trust should the public reasonably have in the government, and in the news-media?

(NOTE: Zeid Raad Al Hussein, who “reportedly refused to meet Mr de Zayas after the visit,” is Prince Zeid Raad Al Hussein, a Jordanian Prince. Jordan is a vassal-state in the U.S. empire. But Prince Hussein is a Jordanian diplomat who served as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2014 to 2018 — hardly an unbiased or independent person in such a supposedly nonpartisan role.)

(NOTE: Here is the garbage that a reader comes to, who is trying to find online Mr. de Zayas’s report on this matter: https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G18/239/29/PDF/G1823929.pdf. As intended, the document remains effectively hidden to the present day. Perhaps the U.N. needs to be replaced and located in Venezuela, Iran, or some other country that’s targeted for take-over by the people who effectively own the United States Government and control the U.N.’s bureaucracy. The hiding of this document was done not only by the press but by the U.N. itself.)

(NOTE: On January 23rd, Germany’s Die Zeit headlined  “Christoph Flügge: ‘I am deeply disturbed’: The U.N. International Criminal Court Judge Christoph Flügge Accuses Western Nations of Threatening the Independence of the Judges”. Flügge especially cited U.S. President Trump’s agent, John Bolton. That same day, the Democratic Party and Labour Party organ, Britain’s Guardian, bannered “International criminal court: UN court judge quits The Hague citing political interference”. This news-report said that, “A senior judge has resigned from one of the UN’s international courts in The Hague citing ‘shocking’ political interference from the White House and Turkey.” The judge especially criticised Bolton: “The American security adviser held his speech at a time when The Hague was planning preliminary investigations into American soldiers who had been accused of torturing people in Afghanistan. The American threats against international judges clearly show the new political climate. It is shocking. I had never heard such a threat.” Flügge said that the judges on the court had been “stunned” that “the US would roll out such heavy artillery”. Flügge told the Guardian: “It is consistent with the new American line: ‘We are No 1 and we stand above the law’.”)

(NOTE: On February 6th, a former UK Ambassador to Syria vented at an alt-news site, 21st Century Wire (since he couldn’t get any of the major-media sites to publish it), “A Guide to Decoding the Doublespeak on Syria”, and he brazenly exposed there the Doublespeak-Newspeak that the U.S. Government and press (what he called America’s “frothing neocons and their liberal interventionist fellow travellers”) apply in order to report the ‘news’ about Syria. So: how can the public, in a country such as the U.S., democratically control the Government, if the government and its press are lying to them, like that, all the time, and so routinely?)

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Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of  They’re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of  CHRIST’S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity.

Alternative Media Future And Risk

*originally published on January 27, 2015*

The seemingly futile plight of Western Civilization can best be explained that the inhabitants of European heritage are vastly unaware of their own history and have adopted an apathetic attitude to their own survival self-interest. The horrors of the last century go unnoticed as the offspring’s of the baby boom generation continue to experience life in a virtual world. The inadequacy of a government school education is evident, when the MTV culture is stripped away and the core foundations of deficient understanding are exposed. The rapid spread of a global police state relies upon the suppression of truth and factual reality.

In this electronic age, when reading a book is considered a sentence of torture, the hash tag in a tweet is held out as grand sophistication. If surveyed, how many working age adults have ever read an Encyclopedia Britannica in a hardback edition? The point is that perception in images and sound bites is no substitute for thought, reflection and discernment.

The political messages and agenda for acceptable discourse are provided through filtered lenses presented as establishment news. The main stream media, print, broadcast, televised, electronic and cultural all have in common a coordinated “Political Correctness” in content. The claims of diversity appear in every color, language and customs, while pushing the same reign of terror over the minds of critical thinking individuals.

The term alternative media is a pejorative slur to the power elites and screams out as an independent source of honest reporting to intrepid truth seekers. That often suspect source, Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia states: “Proponents of alternative media argue that the mainstream media often perpetuate traditional hegemonic power relations via their selection of content and their rhetorical and structural framing of news and information.”

As a reader of social and political commentary on BREAKING ALL THE RULES, it should be self-evident that the choice of that name has significance and purpose. The following list is a sample of sites that have supported our efforts and published BATR articles. If you are an avid and aware political observer, most of these publications should be regular sources of trusted information.

21st Century Wire Centre for Research on Globalization David Icke 321 Gold
Activist Post Intellihub Infowars Dollar Collapse
American Nationalist Union Jeff Rense Prison Planet The Market Oracle
Blacklisted News Rumor Mill News Steve Quayle Safe Haven
From the Trenches The Sleuth Journal What Really Happened Silver Doctors

For economic insights, most subscribers to business news want predictions on stocks and portfolio performance. Placing emphasis on the political implications that affect business is often snubbed for latest trends in charts and money supply. This unfortunate disconnect that investment publications routinely ignore is seldom seen in the alternative business media. Primary importance of covering the forces and factions that stir political struggles is stressed in the economic reporting from non establishment media. There is no disconnection between money and politics. Independent news, investigative journalism and social commentary for it to be honest and reliable must be willing to confront and speak truth to power.

It is because this standard poses an existential and pragmatic threat to any established order, governments and institutions both fear and hate efforts to a wake public awareness and stamp out any sign of any populist outrage.

Since the internet has developed into a prime source of news for those who are electronically tuned in; the monopoly that the network TV, corporate radio news and conglomerate print gatekeepers once enjoyed has been breaking apart with a considerable loss of influence.

Before your elation that unorthodox and provocative reporting is becoming the new normal, the power elite strikes back. The virtual downright control over the legislative process, the Corporatist/State axis has the ability to pass laws that limit free speech. Add to this dilemma the power of the bureaucracy to regulate and executive orders to restrict effective political discourse and candid debate have a most formable obstacle to overcome.

Not all activists are endowed with unbridled courage. Computerworld reports that 75% of writers in free countries self-censor due to fears of mass surveillance.

“The situation is getting worse, not better according to the recent PEN America report “Global Chilling: The Impact of Mass Surveillance on International Writers” (pdf ). After 772 writers from 50 countries completed an online survey, PEN found that the results demonstrate “the damaging impact of surveillance by the United States and other governments on free expression and creative freedom around the world.”

Now look at the account from ZDNet article, White House just endorsed CISPA measures, two years after veto threat.

“Given that the White House rightly criticized CISPA in 2013 for potentially facilitating the unnecessary transfer of personal information to the government or other private sector entities when sending cybersecurity threat data, we’re concerned that the Administration proposal will unintentionally legitimize the approach taken by these dangerous bills,” the Electronic Frontier Foundation said in a statement.

“CISPA 2015 would provide for an even cozier relationship between Silicon Valley and the US government at the detriment of civil liberties and privacy for everyone else,” writer Rachael Tackett said on Tuesday.

A similarly-named bill Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) made it through one of the Senate’s committees, adding yet another legislative voice to the mix. Critics of the bill, however, called it an “even more toxic bill” than CISPA.”

Both tech publications would not normally be considered part of the alternative media. Yet, from a perspective of imposing a climate of intimidation and implementing a data sucking collection system, the prospects of protecting a free exchange of ideas and news that is often critical of abusive authority is facing a real and present danger.

The future of an open and uncensored internet is very much in doubt. The reemergence of the printing press may well become the refuge of political incorrectness.

If the richest 1% may own half of global wealth by 2016, surely the even smaller 1% of that ominous 1% controls electoral politics, filters acceptable content in the mainstream media, enforces government decrees and maintains governance over society’s institutions. The secular culture has no room for a counter voice of traditional values.

Allowing independent inquiry or social criticism to flourish online, risks the dominance of the establishment. However, the probability of public dissent to hit critical mass is far off. What now passes for critical thinking in universities is a shell of Aristotelian logic.

Since the average bottom feeder is so wrapped up in scrapping out a meager existence, most have no time or inclination to ponder the social and political issues of the day. This fact is well known by the elites who own, edit and present the daily chapter of contrived history that sadly passes as broadcast network news.

No matter what ideological bent one has, gathering your news from MSNBC, CNN or Fox News, just means your source of viewpoints cater to a political value that actually has no authentic values. Truth is seldom discovered within the mass media or from government propagandists.

US Media Executive Includes Russia Today (RT) in the same “Challenge List” as ISIS and Boko Haram, is an example of official state absurdity.

“Newly-appointed chief of US Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), Andrew Lack, has named RT one of the agency’s main challenges alongside extremist groups like the Islamic State and Boko Haram. 

Lack, the first chief executive of the BBG, mentioned RT in an interview with The New York Times.

“We are facing a number of challenges from entities like Russia Today which is out there pushing a point of view, the Islamic State in the Middle East and groups like Boko Haram,” he said. “But I firmly believe that this agency has a role to play in facing those challenges.”

This kind of assault on a foreign news network that frequently counters NATO strategy and the U.S. Empire is hard to believe that any stable person would accept such nonsense. So when the response in the account, Ex-BBG member: News outlets should never be compared to terrorists, it should be obvious that power politics surely outweighs open expression.

“Comparing news outlets to terror organizations is jeopardizing the very foundations of freedom of speech in the US, Blanquita Cullum, ex-Broadcasting Board of Governors member, said after BBG’s new boss placed RT on par with ISIS and Boko Haram.”

RT is not part of the online alternative media per se but it certainly is outside the regurgitation of DC government press release reporting. Now if a major news network can be placed in the cross hairs for censoring, what chance do independent anti-establishment internet sites have to remain online long term?

Even when a sincere and concerned citizen wants to become educated and discovers a sage of wisdom and veracity that provides accurate information, most people prefer their dazed existence.

So the quandary is inescapable. The more successful alternative media becomes the more it will undergo the microscope of government tyrants. And achieving bigger victories for arousing the righteous anger of oppressed Americans, the more intense establishment attacks will become.

Will the sheeple grow up before the hammer hits the IP delete button?

Independent Journalists, Activists Politically Targeted in Criminal Hacking Campaign

by Jason Robinson
posted from 21st Century Wire

Now criminal hacking activity has drifted into the grass-roots political arena…

The digital realm has never been more politicized as it is today. Never has the discourse in news and information been so diverse and expansive. Readers are happy, content consumers are happy. Many see this as progress for society as a whole, but unfortunately, others do not – and they are even prepared to go to extreme criminal lengths in an attempt to shutdown freedom of speech and expression online.

There’s high-brow hacking – like when Anonymous takes down a transnational corporation’s website, or a government department (most of the time to a cheering public). Then there’s low-brow hacking: criminal malware, phishing scams and malicious hacking – mainly confined to privacy invasions, and perhaps more serious felony crimes like identity theft, and credit card theft. All these have become part and parcel of life on the internet.

Well, there is now an even lower, type of gutter-brow category, where hackers are being deployed to attack… political dissenters, free speech advocates and independent journalists.

In the last six months, a string of criminal hacking scams has been exposed, ones that are targeting individuals (watch their videos below) from highly successful alternative media outlets, including Stuart Rhodes founder of the organization Oath Keepers, Dan Johnson of PANDA (People Against the NDAA), Luke Rudkowski of WeAreChange.org, and most recently, Aaron Dykes and Melissa Melton of TruthStream Media – to name only a few who have been targeted so far.

In each instance, hackers used fake email with various file attachments, most likely in an attempt to plant illicit pornographic material onto activist and journalists’ hard drives. Once infected, hackers would be expected to break into the infected computer, take screen shots of the planted material along with other ID documents, and then post these online – in an attempt to frame their ‘target’ in the court of internet opinion.

A similar such attack was also exposed recently, where hackers unsuccessfully attempted to frame one prominent internet talk radio host as being “an FBI informant” by hacking his eFAX account and sending a forged FAX to an FBI office in California, then posting it online, alongside his social security card, marriage certificate, phone library contacts and personal family photos.

Watch these three videos below, explaining the politically targeted, malicious hacking scam:

Alinsky Tactics?

This latest string of attacks is sophisticated and organized, but aside from obvious malicious attempts to slander activists and journalists, there is likely a larger, political intent at play here: to disrupt, and destroy organizations and alternative media coalitions from within. Students of ‘Saul Alinsky Techniques’ will quickly see how such targeted campaigns are straight out of the “Rules for Radicals” playbook. Sabotage, scare, intimidate – all techniques proven in the field of radicalism.

It’s sophisticated Cointel Pro, and not dissimilar to the types of operations carried out overseas when intelligence agencies work to increase divisions in tribes, labor unions, communities, before softening them up and preparing a region for an election, regime change, or even a foreign invasion.

Even if hackers perpetrating these crimes may be working autonomously, you cannot rule out the possibility that they are being managed in some way by a third party, be it gov’t or corporate. This is evident by the overt political nature of these related attacks.

In addition to alternative media attacks, similar malicious attacks have also been used to target activist campaigns. According to McAfee Mobile Security, hackers attempted to disrupt and derail the Oct26 Driving campaign in Saudi Arabia which aimed at winning the right for women to drive in that country. McAfee explains:

“After numerous attempts to sabotage the Oct26 Driving Campaign online, by repeated hacking of sites/accounts as well as defacing of websites which included the official website for the campaign hxxp://www.Oct26driving.com twice in a span of a few days. Additional attempts to derail the movement are now coming to light. Hacker(s) not deterred by just the act of defacing sites have also created and released malware to spread their message.”

Are they working alone?

These are just a few examples of organized criminal hacking activities that are clearly targeting political, or ideological opponents who oppose state policies, and mainstream media failures. It’s difficult to physically prove whether or not these attacks have been sanctioned, or are being managed government agencies, or corporate intelligence departments, but there should be no room for doubt that they are all operations carried out with the ultimate goal of shutting down political discourse.

Lawlessness and double standards are fast becoming the order of the day. In the post-Snowden world the public have also been privy to the lengths that governments, particularly those in North America and Europe, are prepared to go in terms of spying and collecting data on their own citizens. It’s a disturbing trend for sure, but more than anything, it signals a kind of vacuum of ethics at the government level, as mandarins attempt to rewrite what passes for legal in the digital age. The fundamental problem here is that if the public lose faith in the state’s own ability to conduct its affairs in a moral fashion at the government level, then history tells us that what tends to follow is a complete breakdown of morals and ethics down the social chain.

The war for free speech
It’s no longer a secret that government bodies and certain corporations have a burning desire to regulate, control, and eventually shut-down the free internet as we know it today. Elite social engineers and media monopolists are scared of how successful and well-organized alternative media has become, not to mention the incredible stories which online, independent outlets are breaking to the public on a daily basis. Does that mean dirty tricks campaigns will be unleashed? It depends how desperate they are shut up dissenting voices.

Ultimately, a ‘divide and rule’ scenario would be needed before any sweeping regulations could be successfully implemented.

Sound familiar? Look at your history books.

21st Century Wire

 

 

Note from Moderator:

A former alternative media activist named Brian D. Hill of USWGO Alternative News has been framed with child porn and railroaded by his public defender/pretender into a criminal conviction and is currently serving as a Sex Offender. He has filed more and more evidence with the Court proving he is not guilty and that the evidence may be fraudulent. He plans to take it back to a New Jury Trial or Habeas Corpus proceeding. So more are being targeted by the criminal hacking groups with child porn set ups as well as corrupt law enforcement officers and corrupt judicial officials.

 

False Flag Syria: We Are Change East Bay News (Episode 60)

Do not start war in Syria. The world is watching.

We Are Change East Bay News (Episode 60): Fukushima 900 days later, Continuation of Bush’s wars, Syria & Al-Qaeda, Alternative energy sources, John Kerry and the same war drums as Iraq, False Flags, Government proof of allegations, Corporate wealth, Banker wars, Sex sells Lies not Truth, the true enemy.

21st Century Wire article:
Skull & Bones John Kerry ‘fails’ to provide key evidence in Syria

John Kerry: “I’m not asking you to take my word for it.”

21st Century Wire says…

US Secretary of State John Kerry continues to defend the claims that Syrian President Bashar Al Assad is responsible for the August 21st chemical attacks near Damascus, Syria, despite not having conclusive evidence…

This coming after PM David Cameron’s crushing defeat in the House Of Commons, ending the UK’s bid to provide military support in Syria. This is historic: the last time a PM was defeated in parliament over a military intervention was in 1782.

Kerry, a former presidential candidate and known member of the famed Skull & Bones Society from Yale University, has had long sordid history of supporting unwarranted conflict in the Middle East, most notably, his 2002 vote for the eventual 2003 invasion in Iraq. This of course , came after he voted against the first Gulf War in 1991, stating:

“It is a vote about war because whether or not the president exercises his power, we will have no further say after this vote.”

Kerry has contradicted himself several times over the years when questioned about US President George W Bush’s decision to go to war in 2003, stating within months of each other:

“I believe it was the right authority for a president to have.”

Then sometime later that year, he explained:

“I don’t believe the president took us to war as he should have.”

Kerry’s political career has been plagued with this kind of back-tracking and flip-flopping, rendering his latest “undeniable” support for war in Syria more than a little suspect, especially since there has been zero evidence to directly link Assad to these recent attacks.

Today there was a report from AP journalist Dale Gavlak, claiming rebel fighters within Ghouta near the capital of Syria, have taken the blame for the recent chemical explosion, citing that, some of the militants had mishandled chemical material, supposedly provided by Saudi Arabia.

If this is true, this would tie into the recent report by UK Column, which describes Syrian police discovering a rebel hideout complete with crude mortar bombs, electrical supplies and bags of toxic agents that were made in Saudi Arabia. This certainly gives pause to the established narrative that only Assad’s army would have the means to produce such warfare.

John Kerry is just one character in this globalist plot for blood and oil…

read more.

Cameron’s War with Syria Defeated in House Vote Tonight

original article from 21st Century Wire

UK Column Live Aug 28th: How British MPs Are Being Manipulated into War

21st Century Wire says…

LONDON – David Cameron’s march to war in the Middle East hit a wall tonight, as British MPs have voted against ‘possible military action against Syria’ regarding retaliation for last week’s alleged chemical weapons attack in Damascus.

The government motion was defeated 285 to 272, a majority of 13 votes. MP’s were shouting ‘resign, resign’ in the House of Commons.

Cameron lamented, “The British parliament does not want to see military action. I get that and the government will act accordingly.”

Tory MPs and ministers were noticeably irritated and upset during today’s Commons debate over Labour leader Ed Miliband’s last minute move that blocked Cameron’s fast track to war. Later in the day, Downing Street accused the Labour opposition of giving ‘succour to Assad’.

Ian Dunt, political correspondent from Politics.co.uk, described the tension during this previous afternoon’s debate best:

“David Cameron couldn’t even bring himself to look at the Labour leader today. As soon as Ed Miliband stood up, the prime minister started flicking through his notes. He did this for minutes on end, until the Labour leader gave way for someone else to speak. Then Cameron would lean his head back on the bench and listen. The body language between the two has never been so poisonous.

Immediately afterwards, Downing Street issued a furious briefing against the Labour leader, calling him “incoherent” and accusing him of “flipping and flopping”.

It was by all accounts, a humiliating defeat, not only for Cameron, but for the Tory coalition government as a whole.

Dunt added this evening, “The only possible comparison of a party leader not being able to command the support of his own side in a matter of foreign policy is Neville Chamberlain in the Norway debate of 1940.

Iranian Uranium Export Scheme Another ‘Manufactered’ Bust?

21st Century Wire says…

Another carefully orchestrated sting operation, this time by Homeland Security…

On Wednesday afternoon, 33 year-old Patrick Campbell was arrested inside a terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport for reportedly traveling with uranium samples hidden inside his luggage.

Campbell is also being charged with a violation of the Emergency Economic Powers Act, an act which has enabled sanctions against Iran. Apparently, Campbell was closing a deal for the Sierra Leone mining firm called Horizon limited, which deals in chromite, gold, diamonds, as well as uranium. Investigators suggest that Campbell was in the process of negotiating a high stakes uranium sale on behalf of Iran.

Manufacturing the Deal
By Shawn Helton
(August 23, 2013)

The alleged plot we’re told involved the future sale of a 1000 tons of “yellowcake” uranium, due for shipment to Iran. A Homeland Security investigator posted an advert seeking the purchase of uranium 308, otherwise known as yellowcake, on a Chinese hosted site called Alibaba.

Historically, many law enforcement agencies have knowingly helped facilitate terror plots, only to later put a stop to events they helped create.

Is this the case with Patrick Campbell?

Let’s examine some of the most recent plots that were aided and abetted by the FBI.

In April of 2012, a New York Times article titled “Terrorist Plots, Hatched by FBI” outlined the recent history of plots created and foiled by the agency themselves:

“THE United States has been narrowly saved from lethal terrorist plots in recent years — or so it has seemed. A would-be suicide bomber was intercepted on his way to the Capitol; a scheme to bomb synagogues and shoot Stinger missiles at military aircraft was developed by men in Newburgh, N.Y.; and a fanciful idea to fly explosive-laden model planes into the Pentagon and the Capitol was hatched in Massachusetts.”

Continuing, the article names federal agencies as the true culprit:

“But all these dramas were facilitated by the F.B.I., whose undercover agents and informers posed as terrorists offering a dummy missile, fake C-4 explosives, a disarmed suicide vest and rudimentary training. Suspects naïvely played their parts until they were arrested.”

There are many factors to consider to determine if an event is a staged plot.

Who stands to benefit?

Read the full article here.

‘Chemical Weapons’ media propaganda in US, UK is designed to hide the truth in Syria

(Original article from 21st Century Wire)

“Google US ‘backed plan to launch chemical weapon attack on Syria, blame it on Assad govt.'” – Chuck Norris

Patrick Henningsen on Russia Today

21st Century Wire
Special Report
(August 22, 2013)

Yesterday’s report of an alleged ‘chemical weapon’ attack near Damascus has prompted the US and UK media machines to spin into overdrive in the push for a military intervention and regime change in Syria.

Washington’s official response is predictable by now: “The White House is ‘deeply concerned’ about reports that chemical weapons were used by Syria’s government against civilians”.

In the UK, the mainstream media has put on a full-court press, clearly delivering a guilty verdict even before any claims can be independently verified, a coordinated trial-by-media which looks to be designed to coax a majority public support for either a direct supply of arms to the confab of ‘rebel’ insurgencies in Syria.

Pre-Iraq War talking points have been dusted off by the UK press and others, as the PR war begins for the hearts and minds of voters begins. It is alleged that hundreds have been killed by this latest ‘gas attack’ which is being compared by the UK media to Iraq where thousands of Kurds were gassed by Saddam Hussein in Halabja in 1988.

The focus of the UK and US government-media-complex led efforts to win public support for a “humanitarian intervention” similar that which was perpetrated in Libya in 2011, is now centred around the main victims of the conflict being portrayed as that of children.

No one within the government media complex is asking the most fundamentally important question here: were real military-grade chemical weapons actually used at all? The reason no one is asking this is because the answer to this question so far is a resounding ’no’, which means that despite all the media hype neither the UK nor the US governments have a case against the Assad regime regarding the use of chemical weapons during this conflict.

Read the full article here.

Ian Crane Interview: ‘Fracking Nightmare in the UK’

“21st Century Wire says…Fracking…What is it? Who’s doing it? Who’s trying to stop it?

All of the above are very important questions, and UK researcher and public speaker, Ian Crane, is hot on the case and travelling around Britain in an attempt to warn the public about what he believes is the most risky, half-baked geological energy scheme of the 21st century, and he has the facts to back it up.

Fracking’s cast of characters includes the likes of Haliburton, Cuadrilla, Centrica and British Gas, to name only a few. Profits are the objective, and at any cost.

If you don’t know about it, here is your chance to catch up…”

UK Column:

Journalist Patrick Henningsen interviewed Ian Crane about the drive by vested interests to develop shale gas extraction using hydraulic fracturing in the UK. He speaks about the implications for the environment and the resistance which is building…

We Are Change TV.US