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Light Saber

Snowden rips WaPo for 'embarrassingly weak' reaction to NSO spyware scandal: "It's untrue Pegasus can't target US phones"


RT
Wed, 21 Jul 2021 17:09 UTC
snowden washington post wapo
© AP/Getty/Joe Raedle/Photo montage by SalonEdward Snowden
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has berated the Washington Post for not taking a more forceful stance on the Pegasus spyware scandal, and said it was untrue to claim the now-infamous malware can't infect US phones.

The former US intelligence contractor expressed dismay over a WaPo editorial in response to reports that NSO Group, an Israeli surveillance firm, sold its Pegasus spyware to government clients who then used the powerful hacking tool to spy on journalists, NGOs workers and even heads of state. The explosive allegations, based on a leaked list of purported Pegasus targets and subsequent forensic analyses, have personal significance for the Post's staff: A phone belonging to the fiancee of Jamal Khashoggi, a contributing columnist at the paper, was reportedly hacked by Saudi authorities using Pegasus. Khashoggi was murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, in October 2018. His killing was carried out by Saudi agents, purportedly on the orders of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The Washington Post noted Riyadh was still granted access to Pegasus even after Khashoggi's grisly assassination, despite NSO's insistence that its clients undergo a thorough vetting process.

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Bad Guys

Democrat senators propose rewrite of National Defense Authorization Act to require women to register for military draft

Burgess Everett and Connor O'Brien
Politico
Mon, 19 Jul 2021 17:00 UTC
senator jack reed women military draft
© Graeme Jennings - Pool/Getty ImagesSenate Armed Services Chair Jack Reed looks on during a hearing on Capitol Hill, April 29, 2021 in Washington, D.C.
Senate Democrats are proposing a sweeping rewrite of the military draft laws aimed at requiring women to register for the Selective Service System, according to a draft authored by Senate Armed Services Chair Jack Reed and obtained by POLITICO.

The changes to Selective Service could be attached to the National Defense Authorization Act, a defense policy bill that's one of the few pieces of legislation considered a "must-pass" by Congress. The move would reignite a contentious debate over whether women should be required to register for the draft, a move the House and Senate have each considered in recent years, though the change has never become law.

Comment: Diversity, equity, and inclusion! The only way the Empire can keep its war machine running.

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Newspaper

More than a thousand Russian & Uzbek troops sent to border with Afghanistan as Taliban gains ground following American withdrawal


RT
Tue, 20 Jul 2021 00:00 UTC
Uzbek soldiers
© Reuters / Alexander Demianchuk ASUzbek soldiers guard the road next to the Uzbek-Afghan border.
Forces from Uzbekistan will stage major drills later this month on their country's border with troubled Afghanistan, with Russia sending a contingent of peacekeepers to assist and accompany troops from the Central Asian nation.

The Russian Central Military Command told journalists on Tuesday that its soldiers would be joining colleagues from Uzbekistan for military exercises on the frontier, starting on July 30 and running until August 10. Around 200 Russian units of military hardware, including air support, as well as peacekeeping personnel, will take part in the drills, designed to ensure the country's territorial integrity.

"The practical actions of the exercise will take place at the Termez training ground in the area bordering Afghanistan," military chiefs said. In recent weeks, the security situation in the neighboring nation has rapidly deteriorated, with the Taliban - considered a terrorist group and prohibited in Russia - gaining ground in the wake of American troops' planned withdrawal. US President Joe Biden has ordered all of his country's forces out of Afghanistan by the 20th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks later this year.

Comment: See also:

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Star of David

Ex-Mossad head Cohen suspected of sharing classified Info with flight attendant - Report

Kirill Kurevlev
Sputnik news
Mon, 19 Jul 2021 00:00 UTC
Yossi Cohen
© AFP 2021 / HEIDI LEVINE
Earlier, Cohen was chastised for a revelatory interview in which the recently retired intelligence chief revealed details about Israel's past operations to undermine Iran's nuclear program and hinted at the country's responsibility for the explosion at the nuclear facility in Natanz.

Yossi Cohen, the former director of the Mossad intelligence service, is accused of sharing confidential data with a flight attendant with whom he has been in close personal contact for the past two years, Israeli Channel 13 reported on Monday.

According to the report, a complaint has been made with the Justice Ministry, which is being investigated by the country's Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit.
Cohen himself reportedly told the channel that he denies any wrongdoing, adding that "there is no flight attendant, there is no close relationship, the attorney general has not contacted me."

Comment: See also:

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Piggy Bank

Bank of International Settlements chief talks "absolute control"

Clint Siegner
Money Metals
Mon, 12 Jul 2021 00:00 UTC
Augustin Carstens
The General Manager for the Bank of International Settlements - the central bank of central bankers - is planning for "absolute control" of the money we all spend.

Augustin Carstens recently gave a talk entitled "Cross Border Payment: A Vision for the Future" in which he outlined the problem as central planners see it, as well as their solution.
"We don't know who's using a $100 bill today and we don't know who's using a 1,000 peso bill today. The key difference with the CBDC is the central bank will have absolute control on the rules and regulations that will determine the use of that expression of central bank liability, and also we will have the technology to enforce that."
Carstens views CBDC, Central Bank Digital Currency, as a tool for eliminating privacy and for central bankers to force citizens to use currency exactly when, where, and how they are told.

Dozens of central banks around the world are working on CBDCs, including the Federal Reserve. The effort represents a major escalation in the War on Cash.
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Eye 1

Best of the Web: Shocking leaked files once again expose BBC as insidious UK foreign policy tool

Kit Klarenberg
RT
Tue, 20 Jul 2021 09:00 UTC
BBC sign logo
© ReutersBBC Broadcasting House offices and recording studios seen in London
A newly released raft of government papers has revealed the British Broadcasting Corporation's extensive involvement in spreading pro-London, pro-EU, and pro-NATO messaging across the Balkans.

In February, classified documents revealed that BBC Media Action (BBCMA), the 'charitable arm' of the British state broadcaster, was embroiled in a number of clandestine operations to "weaken the Russian state's influence," funded by the UK Foreign Office.

The exposure raised serious questions about the BBC's international reputation as a 'neutral', 'objective' purveyor of news, and what implications its murky relationship with Whitehall has for its output more widely. A further tranche of leaked files, related to covert UK actions in the Balkans, amply reinforces that the organization serves as a cloak-and-dagger device for achieving London's foreign policy goals.


Comment: It's only really nations in the West that wrongly believe the BBC is 'objective', but, increasingly, even British citizens are denouncing it as the propaganda arm of the government.


Comment: See also:

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Bad Guys

Telegraphing deep state plans? U.S. announces new cybersecurity requirements for critical pipeline owners

Doina Chiacu
Yahoo! Finance
Tue, 20 Jul 2021 19:54 UTC
Department of Homeland Security
© The Hill
The Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday required owners and operators of critical pipelines that transport hazardous liquids and natural gas to implement "urgently needed protections against cyber intrusions."

It was the second security directive issued by the department's Transportation Security Administration since May, after a hack of the Colonial Pipeline disrupted fuel supplies in the southeastern United States for days.

The department said the action was in response to "the ongoing cybersecurity threat to pipeline systems."
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Attention

"This is worrying me quite a bit": mRNA vaccine inventor shares viral thread showing COVID surge in most-vaxxed countries

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Sat, 17 Jul 2021 06:00 UTC
Dr. Malone
© UnknownDr. Robert Malone
Dr. Robert Malone, a pioneer in the field of mRNA vaccines, shared a viral Twitter thread on Friday which lays out a disturbing trend; the most-vaccinated countries in the world are experiencing a surge in COVID-19 cases, while the least-vaccinated countries are not. "This is worrying me quite a bit," tweeted Malone, embedding the lengthy thread authored by Twitter user @holmenkollin (Corona Realism) via the 'thread reader' app.

Here's what has Malone worried:

Comment: As 'the flaw' gains mass awareness...what then?

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Footprints

Biden walks back criticism: 'Facebook isn't killing people'

Brett Samuels
The Hill
Mon, 19 Jul 2021 12:34 UTC
Biden Facebook
© Reuters/Mike Blake/Facebook/KJNUS President Joe Biden
President Biden on Monday softened his criticism that platforms like Facebook are "killing people" with misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic, saying he wishes the company would do more to stop the spread of inaccurate information.
"Facebook isn't killing people, these 12 people are out there giving misinformation. Anyone listening to it is getting hurt by it. It's killing people. It's bad information."
Biden told reporters after giving remarks about the economy, referencing a study that showed a dozen accounts on Facebook are responsible for the majority of misinformation about the coronavirus vaccine seen on the platform.
"My hope is that Facebook, instead of taking it personally, that somehow I'm saying Facebook is killing people, that they would do something about the misinformation, the outrageous misinformation about the vaccine. That's what I meant."

Comment: Why the push? Only when 100% of the population 'chooses' vaccination will the government be off the hook for all outcomes - hence the relentless, heavy-handed mandate for full compliance.

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Cell Phone

France opens probe into spyware as global scandal over Israeli program grows


RFE/RL
Tue, 20 Jul 2021 10:36 UTC
cellphone
© pixabay.com/Creative Commons
French prosecutors have opened an investigation into allegations that journalists of a local investigative news website had been spied on using an Israeli program at the center of an international scandal.

The French probe will examine 10 different charges, including whether there was a breach of personal privacy, fraudulent access to personal electronic devices, and criminal association, the Paris prosecutor's office said on July 20.

The announcement comes a day after website Mediapart filed a legal complaint, accusing Morocco's secret services of having used the Israel-based NSO Group's Pegasus spyware to spy on the mobile phones of two of its reporters.

Rabat rejected what it called "unfounded and false allegations."

Comment: Even the president of Mexico is opening an investigation into NSO and its spyware, claiming victimization:
The president of Mexico has vowed to open an investigation into reports that members of the previous government had bought Israeli spying software and had used it to spy on the country's current socialist leader, among others.

In a speech on Tuesday, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador labeled allegations that the previous administration of President Enrique Peña Nieto spied on him and his associates as "shameful."

"They had sophisticated equipment to listen to all phone calls, not only from the person who was the target, but from everyone around them," he claimed, adding that it wasn't just him they allegedly spied on, but his wife, children, doctor and dozens more.

The Guardian reported that as many as 50 of Lopez Obrador's closest allies were targeted by the previous administration, which was the first purchaser of the Pegasus software.

The news outlet said that the data it received showed the phone numbers of priests, victims of state-sponsored crimes and the children of high-profile figures among those targeted by the spyware, challenging NSO's claims that the technology was only used to fight serious crime and terrorism.
Amazon has cut ties with NSO group:
Amazon has pulled the plug on infrastructure and other services that it offered to Israeli surveillance firm NSO Group.The tech and retail giant announced on Monday that it had deactivated cloud computing accounts linked to NSO Group. The Israeli company reportedly used Amazon Web Services (AWS) to operate the spyware programs that it marketed to governments around the world.

It's believed that the digital surveillance software - which is reportedly capable of accessing and recording texts, videos, photos and web activity, and can even log passwords used on the device - may have been used by foreign governments to target as many as 50,000 people, including business executives, religious figures, academics, NGO workers, presidents and prime ministers.

"When we learned of this activity, we acted quickly to shut down the relevant infrastructure and accounts," an AWS spokesperson said.

NSO Group disputed that AWS had shut down its accounts, prompting Amazon to double down.

"We shut down the infrastructure referenced in this report that was confirmed to be supporting the reported hacking activity, in accordance with our terms of use," a spokesperson for the company reiterated.

Amnesty's analysis of 67 smartphones allegedly targeted by Pegasus found evidence of successful infection on 23 devices and signs of attempted infiltration on 14 others. The NGO also claimed that NSO's malware sent information "to a service fronted by Amazon CloudFront, suggesting NSO Group has switched to using AWS services in recent months."

Citizen Lab, a group at Toronto University that has been tracking Pegasus for years, said in a peer review of Amnesty's finding that it had "independently observed NSO Group begin to make extensive use of Amazon services including CloudFront in 2021." CloudFront is an Amazon service that allows clients to securely deliver data using high transfer speeds.

Amazon was less proactive when media reports revealed in May 2020 that the Israeli firm may have used Amazon infrastructure to deliver malware to unsuspecting victims.
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