Fox News may be driving skepticism about the Mueller investigation by Philip Bump Monday March 18th, 2019 at 4:38 PM
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Fox News may be driving skepticism about the Mueller investigation by Philip Bump
"Ви менэ не уважаити? И ми вас тоже. Менэ оти вас тош-ш-шнит!
И наси от васи тоже!"
M.N.
3.18.19
И наси от васи тоже!"
M.N.
3.18.19
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday signed controversial laws that allow courts to fine and briefly jail people for showing disrespect towards authorities, and block media for publishing “fake news.”
Putin signed off on the legislation against the advice of human rights activists, who warned the laws amounted to censorship and would be abused to further crackdown on freedom of speech.
The law on disrespecting authorities backs punishment for “offending state symbols” and stipulates hefty fines and jail terms of 15 days for repeat offenders.
Another piece of legislation allows authorities to decide what amounts to “fake news” and gives a media watchdog the power to demand an outlet delete the information.
Websites that fail to comply would be blocked.
New Level of Repression
Fines could reach 1.5 million rubles (over $22,700) if the infraction leads to grave consequences like death or rioting.
Rights activists say that since first becoming president in 2000, Putin has gradually crushed freedoms in Russia, muzzling critics and bringing television under control.
The new legislation takes the crackdown on civil society to a whole new level, they say.
Critics say the legislation is vaguely worded and would have large scope for abuse, further complicating the difficult and sometimes deadly work of rights activists and opposition journalists in Russia.
The Kremlin is stepping up media control to counter a fall in Putin’s approval rating amid mounting economic trouble, according to activists.
“These new prohibitions and punishments are not just a continuation of the repressive legislative and practical measures that began in 2012,” Yuri Dzhibladze, president of the Center for the Development of Democracy and Human Rights, told AFP.
“This is a completely new level which almost literally repeats the Soviet-era law about ‘activities undermining the Soviet system’ and ‘anti-Soviet campaigning and propaganda.'”
The authorities unleashed a major crackdown on dissenters after Putin returned to the Kremlin in 2012 in the face of mass protests.
“From now it will be police that will decide what fake news is and what’s not,” said Alexander Cherkasov of Memorial, a top rights group.
“This will lead to a violation of civil rights and freedoms.”
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· · · · ·
A poll shows how strong opinions are among the network's viewers.
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· · ·
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· ·
A man has been arrested following a shooting on a tram in the Dutch city of Utrecht which left three people dead, police say.
Five others were injured in the incident, and authorities say the attacker's motive remains unclear.
Gokmen Tanis, a 37-year-old Turkish man, was detained several hours after the attack. It is not yet clear where he was arrested.
The incident sparked a city-wide manhunt and the closure of schools.
What happened on Monday?
At about 10:45 local time (09:45 GMT), police were called to reports of a shooting on board one of the city's trams at the 24 Oktoberplein junction.
One witness told local media that "a man started shooting wildly".
Several of the injured are in a critical condition.
Another witness told Dutch public broadcaster NOS that he had helped an injured woman when the tram came to an emergency stop.
"I looked behind me and saw someone lying there behind the tram," he said. "People got out of their cars... and they started to lift her up.
"I helped to pull her out and then I saw a gunman run towards us, with his gun raised," he said. "I heard people yell 'Shooter! Shooter!' and I started to run."
The gunman then fled the scene, leading to the manhunt which lasted for much of Monday.
Schools were closed and security was increased at airports and mosques while counter-terrorism police worked to locate the suspect.
A photograph of him was posted on social media by police, who warned people against approaching him.
A number of raids were reportedly carried out and counter-terrorism officers were pictured surrounding a building and patrolling the streets near to where the attack happened.
What do we know about the suspect?
Police said the shooting appeared to be a terrorist incident but, at a press conference on Monday evening, a prosecutor said it could have been motivated by "family reasons".
Mr Tanis was known to Dutch police, the prosecutor added.
A local businessman told BBC Turkish that Gokmen Tanis had previously fought in Russia's republic of Chechnya.
Jihadist groups, including those aligned with the Islamic State (IS) group, have long operated in the region.
"He was arrested because of his connections with [IS] but released later," the businessman told the BBC.
What's the reaction been?
Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the country had been "jolted by an attack", which he described as "deeply disturbing".
"There are many questions and rumours," he said. "It is unclear what the motives are behind this attack."
Leaders from around the world, including French President Emmanuel Macron and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, offered their condolences.
Meanwhile, the threat level in Utrecht has been reduced following the arrest. It was earlier raised to its highest point and paramilitary police were posted to airports and mosques.
Utrecht University closed all its buildings and trains were not allowed to run into the city's central station. Some public transport services have now reopened.
Utrecht, the Netherlands' fourth largest city, has a population of about 340,000.
Crime levels are low and gun killings are rare, which is the case for much of the country.
Read the whole story
· · ·
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday signed controversial laws that allow courts to fine and briefly jail people for showing disrespect towards authorities, and block media for publishing “fake news.”
Putin signed off on the legislation against the advice of human rights activists, who warned the laws amounted to censorship and would be abused to further crackdown on freedom of speech.
The law on disrespecting authorities backs punishment for “offending state symbols” and stipulates hefty fines and jail terms of 15 days for repeat offenders.
Another piece of legislation allows authorities to decide what amounts to “fake news” and gives a media watchdog the power to demand an outlet delete the information.
Websites that fail to comply would be blocked.
New Level of Repression
Fines could reach 1.5 million rubles (over $22,700) if the infraction leads to grave consequences like death or rioting.
Rights activists say that since first becoming president in 2000, Putin has gradually crushed freedoms in Russia, muzzling critics and bringing television under control.
The new legislation takes the crackdown on civil society to a whole new level, they say.
Critics say the legislation is vaguely worded and would have large scope for abuse, further complicating the difficult and sometimes deadly work of rights activists and opposition journalists in Russia.
The Kremlin is stepping up media control to counter a fall in Putin’s approval rating amid mounting economic trouble, according to activists.
“These new prohibitions and punishments are not just a continuation of the repressive legislative and practical measures that began in 2012,” Yuri Dzhibladze, president of the Center for the Development of Democracy and Human Rights, told AFP.
“This is a completely new level which almost literally repeats the Soviet-era law about ‘activities undermining the Soviet system’ and ‘anti-Soviet campaigning and propaganda.'”
The authorities unleashed a major crackdown on dissenters after Putin returned to the Kremlin in 2012 in the face of mass protests.
“From now it will be police that will decide what fake news is and what’s not,” said Alexander Cherkasov of Memorial, a top rights group.
“This will lead to a violation of civil rights and freedoms.”
‘Hating in Silence’
Moscow on Monday marked the fifth anniversary of Crimea’s annexation from Ukraine, a move condemned by the West but celebrated by most Russians.
Mikhail Fedotov, the chairman of the Kremlin’s human rights’ council, told AFP that the legislation had “numerous flaws” and his group had asked the president to reject it.
Even the usually pliant media criticized the new laws.
“Authorities want people to hate in silence,” mass-circulation tabloid Moskovsky Komsomolets wrote ahead of the signing last week.
“The authorities’ desire to gag their subjects is a very old, shameful and meaningless desire.”
In 2018, Putin was elected to a historic fourth term in office with a record vote share amid increasing international isolation.
But the 66-year-old Russian president’s popularity ratings have taken a beating due to a controversial pension age hike and falling living standards as a result of tough Western sanctions over Ukraine and other crises.
Last month Russian lawmakers backed a bill that could cut off the country’s internet traffic from servers abroad, which critics say is a possible step towards an isolated network like in North Korea.
More on the Subject
Russian lawmakers in February backed a bill that could cut off the country’s internet traffic from servers abroad which critics say is a step towards censorship and possibly an isolated network like in North Korea.
The bill passed its first reading by 334 votes to 47 after an unusually heated debate in the State Duma, where many lawmakers from minority parties criticized it as too costly and argued that it was not written by experts.
Authors of the initiative say Russia must ensure the security of its networks after U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled America’s new cybersecurity strategy last year.
Read the whole story
· · · ·
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Rick Gates, a former senior official in Donald Trump’s 2016 US presidential campaign, is answering questions as part of the Mueller investigation into the alleged involvement of an Israeli firm in attempts to manipulate the results of the election, The Daily Beast reported Wednesday.
According to the report, Gates has been specifically questioned on the activities of Psy-Group, a company alleged to have used social media manipulation on Trump’s behalf.
US Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team has asked Gates about his relationship with the owner of Psy-Group, Joel Zamel, as well as any interactions with Lebanese-American George Nader, sources told the outlet.
Sources familiar with the investigation said that Mueller asked Gates whether he approached Psy-Group, either directly or through an intermediary, or if the Israeli firm reached out to the Trump campaign.
Employees of the Israeli company said they have been interviewed by the FBI, which asked about two Republicans other than Gates who are thought to have been in contact with Psy-Group. One of those was GOP operative George Birnbaum, who has close ties to some Israeli politicians.
Former employees of Psy-Group told The Daily Beast that they only interacted with Birnbaum and did not have a direct relationship with Gates. They said Zamel told staff that he had used materials collected by Psy-Group in his interactions with associates of Trump.
“Joel is a very secretive guy, he holds all his cards very close to the chest,” a former employee said. “It’s very possible he was running some sort of side operation that used Psy resources but didn’t include the staff.”
Psy-Group created several secretive proposals for the Trump campaign at the behest of Gates, who has since pleaded guilty and offered to cooperate with the FBI probe into foreign meddling in the US election, The New York Times reported last year.
According to the report, Psy-Group, which employed former Israeli intelligence officers before undergoing liquidation, offered to engineer campaigns in support of Trump using social media manipulation against Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton as well as Republican Senator Ted Cruz, whom the campaign feared could attempt to push an insurgent nomination effort at the Republican Convention in Cleveland.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump addresses a campaign rally at the National Western Complex in Denver, Colorado on November 5, 2016. (AFP/ MANDEL NGAN)
One campaign would have collected information about delegates to the convention and used fake online profiles to bombard them with messaging that described Cruz’s “ulterior motives or hidden plans,” or appeared to come from Cruz supporters, in an effort to discredit him and persuade them to support Trump’s nomination.
Another campaign would use the same tactic to target female minorities in the suburbia in swing states to push them toward Trump and away from Clinton.
The company also proposed collecting opposition research on Clinton and 10 of her associates using open source methods and “complementary intelligence activities.”
The proposals were kept secret, with code words “Lion,” “Forest” and “Bear” used to signify Trump, Clinton and Cruz respectively.
Gates first heard about Psy-Group from Birnbaum a few days after joining the Trump campaign, according to the New York Times report.
The Trump campaign apparently did not express interest in the proposals, and it is unclear whether the activities would have fallen afoul of US laws prohibiting foreign interference in elections, the report said.
According to a New York Times report in May, the company was told by an American law firm that its activities would be illegal if non-Americans were involved.
While Gates ultimately rejected the proposals, according to the report, Psy-Group head Zamel apparently outlined the idea to Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. at a August 3, 2016 meeting at Trump Tower in Manhattan.
The eldest son of US President Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., arrives for a meeting with journalists in Kolkata, India, Feb. 21, 2018 (AP Photo/Bikas Das)
Nader, a longtime close adviser to Crown Prince Mohammed of Abu Dhabi who was also at that meeting, paid Zamel $2 million after the election, according to the reports. Nader and Zamel have provided differing accounts for the reason behind the payment.
The Psy-Group proposals would have cost over $3.4 million, according to the documents obtained by The Times.
The August 3 Trump Tower meeting is a focus of the ongoing investigation by Mueller, the special counsel, who was tasked last year with examining possible cooperation and coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia in the lead-up to the election.
Zamel has been questioned by investigators for the special counsel, according to the reports, and FBI agents have traveled to Israel to interview employees about the proposal and have asked Israeli police to seize computers from Psy-Group’s Petah Tikva offices.
A lawyer for Zamel denied to the Times that he had discussed the proposal with anyone from the Trump campaign.
“Mr. Zamel never pitched, or otherwise discussed, any of Psy-Group’s proposals relating to the US elections with anyone related to the Trump campaign, including not with Donald Trump Jr., except for outlining the capabilities of some of his companies in general terms,” said the lawyer, Marc Mukasey.
A lawyer for Trump Jr., Alan Futerfas, told the The Times in May that “prior to the 2016 election, Donald Trump Jr. recalls a meeting with Erik Prince, George Nader, and another individual who may be Joel Zamel. They pitched Mr. Trump Jr. on a social media platform or marketing strategy. He was not interested and that was the end of it.”
Read the whole story
· · · · · ·
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Wikistrat, a company based in Washington, DC that offers geopolitical analysis, was established in 2010 by Joel Zamel and Daniel Green.
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· ·
The news that special counsel Robert Mueller dispatched FBI agents to the Middle East to interview witnesses and worked with the Israel Police to seize computers affiliated with a company that specializes in "social media manipulation," hit Israel like a bombshell.
The name thrust into the spotlight by Saturday’s New York Times report is that of Joel Zamel, described as an “Israeli social media expert.” His company, Psy-Group, the article said, developed “an online manipulation campaign that involved usage of thousands of fake social media accounts to help Trump get elected.”
Zamel, the Times reported, met Donald Trump, Jr. together with George Nader, a special adviser to the leadership of the United Arab Emirates three months before the 2016 election and allegedly pitched his company expertise to help Trump defeat Hillary Clinton and discussed ways to help the Republican candidate’s campaign through social media manipulation.
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