"Ви менэ не уважаити? И ми вас тоже. Менэ оти вас тош-ш-шнит! | И наси от васи тоже!" M.N. 3.18.19
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"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.”
‘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.”
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Inside Wikistrat, the Mysterious Intelligence Firm Now in Mueller's Sights
Daily Beast-Jun 4, 2018
Wikistrat bills itself as a “crowdsourced” geopolitical analysis firm based in Washington, D.C. But interviews with current and former employees ...
Who Is Joel Zamel, the Australian-Israeli Linked to Mueller's Trump ...
Haaretz-May 21, 2018
In an article about the event in The Jerusalem Post, Zamel and his Wikistrat co-founder Daniel Greenare described as “Australian expats” in ...
Mueller investigates consulting firm tied to UAE
The Hill-Apr 3, 2018
Mueller's team has begun asking questions about the private consulting firm Wikistrat and its founders, Joel Zamel and Daniel Green.
Mueller investigation probes consulting firm linked to UAE
<a href="http://Aljazeera.com" rel="nofollow">Aljazeera.com</a>-Apr 3, 2018
Wikistrat, a company based in Washington, DC that offers geopolitical analysis, was established in 2010 by Joel Zamel and Daniel Green.
Read the whole story
· ·
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.
It wasn’t the first time Zamel’s name has arisen in connection with the Mueller probe, which is looking into alleged foreign meddling in the 2016 elections. On April 3, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Mueller team was examining the nine-year-old company owned by Zamel and his business partner Daniel Green, then a consulting firm called Wikistrat.
The Journal said that Wikistrat was contracted by the UAE beginning in 2015 to conduct war game scenarios on Islamist political movements in Yemen and had developed close relationships with the Emirate’s security establishment and business community. According to the newspaper, the work included Wikistrat putting together a war game concerning the political situation in Yemen for the UAE and then briefed top Emirati national security officials on the results.
That job, it said, had “morphed into what one person close to the company referred to as ‘intelligence lite’—using local on-the-ground sources to anticipate threats.”
Zamel’s two companies appear to be radically different.
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PsyGroup has a minimal footprint - a one-page website that gives a Cyprus address and a slogan “Shape Reality.” A Hebrew language job recruiting site lists it as being a small “media, marketing and advertising company” and says it has between 11 to 50 employees.
A more detailed picture of PsyGroup was painted in a Wall Street Journal story published the same day as the Times report. The Journal described the company as engaging in “private intelligence gathering work.” It said “one of its main rivals was Black Cube—another Israeli firm which achieved notoriety after it was used by Harvey Weinstein to counter probes into his alleged sexual abuse of actresses. Several people linked to the firm are veteran Israeli intelligence officials, with experience in areas that include psychological operations. According to the firm’s marketing materials reviewed by the Journal, Psy-Group offered clients an array of services—including “honey traps,” a term used by spy agencies for an intelligence-gathering tactic using romantic or sexual relationships to extract information.
The article included a link to a Psy-Group company brochure online showing the services they advertise - including honey traps - as well as “deep web and Darknet capabilities.”
By contrast, Wikistrat is a large, established company with a much higher and extremely public profile. It was founded in Israel in 2010 and is now based in Washington, D. C. It bills itself as “the world’s first crowdsourced consultancy. We leverage a worldwide community of several hundred strategic thinkers to run simulations of likely international events and unfolding global trends, wargame future conflict or crisis scenarios, and conduct strategic planning exercises.”
Wikistrat’s list of clients on its website includes numerous U.S. government and intelligence agencies. Its advisory council includes many former U.S. intelligence officials, as well as familiar names like Dennis Ross, former Middle East peace negotiator, Elliot Abrams, former Deputy Director of the National Security Council and John P. Hannah, former National Security Advisor to then U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney. While his name doesn’t appear on the company website, a Bloomberg online biography lists Zamel as Wikistrat’s founding director and chief executive officer, relating that he “developed the strategic planning methodology of Collaborative Competition, on which Wikistrat’s flagship system is based. He has a Bachelor of Mining Engineering from the University of New South Wales and a Masters Degree in Government, Diplomacy and Strategy from the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, specializing in Counter-Terrorism and Homeland Security.”
In 2011, the company courted publicity by sponsoring a “Grand Strategy Competition” that it said would provide participants with a “Wikipedia meets Facebook collaborative space for generating content” aimed at “bringing together leading analysts of the future, who will be challenged to come up with long-term national strategies for selected countries based on five issues: global energy security, global economic “rebalancing,” Jihadist terrorism, the Sino-American relationship and nuclear proliferation in the Middle East.”
In an article about the event in The Jerusalem Post, Zamel and his Wikistrat co-founder Daniel Green are described as “Australian expats” in Israel.
A third company, with an even lower profile than Psy-Group was mentioned in the Times article, which said that in December 2016, Nader utilized another company “linked” to Zamel, one called WhiteKnight and based in the Philippines. He reportedly bought from them “a presentation demonstrating the impact of social media campaigns on Mr. Trump’s electoral victory.”
The Times said that when asked about the purchase, “a representative of WhiteKnight said: “WhiteKnight delivers premium research and high-end business development services for prestigious clients around the world. WhiteKnight does not talk about any of its clients.”
Speaking for Zamel and Wikistrat in April, attorney Marc L. Mukasey, chairman of white collar defense at the law firm Greenberg Traurig, said in April to The Wall Street Journal that the company has said they possess “only a tenuous connection to the special counsel’s investigation and are cooperating fully.”
Regarding the more recent revelations regarding Psy-Group, Mukasey said that Zamel “offered nothing to the Trump campaign, received nothing from the Trump campaign, delivered nothing to the Trump campaign and was not solicited by, or asked to do anything for, the Trump campaign.” He said reports that Zamel had engaged in “social media manipulation” were incorrect and that his client’s companies “harvest publicly available information for lawful use.”
Much has been made across social media regarding the fact that among Zamel’s company’s clients include Russian oligarchs implicated in other parts of the Mueller probe. The Times reported that one of Zamel’s firms “had previously worked for oligarchs linked to Mr. Putin, including Oleg V. Deripaska and Dmitry Rybolovlev, who hired the firm for online campaigns against their business rivals. Mr. Deripaska, an aluminum magnate, was once in business with the former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who has pleaded not guilty in the special counsel investigation to charges of financial crimes and failing to disclose the lobbying work he did on behalf of a former president of Ukraine, an ally of Mr. Putin. Mr. Rybolovlev once purchased a Florida mansion from Mr. Trump.”
In the political blog, Talking Points Memo, Josh Marshall pointed out the interconnectedness when it came to legal representation in the Trump probe.
“Zamel is represented by a man named Marc L. Mukasey,” Marshall wrote. “You may recognize the name because he’s the son of the former Attorney General Michael Mukasey. For our present purposes what is important is that Mukasey has been the deputy and the law partner of Rudy Giuliani for years.”
For over a decade, Mukasey and Giuliani worked together at the law firm of Bracewell and Patterson. In January 2016, Giuliani moved to Greenberg Traurig.
In June 2017, Giuliani travelled to Israel to attend a cybersecurity conference in his role as as a Senior Advisor to Greenberg Traurig’s Executive Chairman and as Chair of Cybersecurity, Privacy and Crisis Management Practice. During that visit, he said one of the reasons he chose the firm was because it was the “only international law firm with an office in Tel Aviv” and praised Israel’s “capitalist free market economy” saying it was “one of the most innovative countries in the world” with “cutting edge technology in cybersecurity.”
“Zamel is represented by a man named Marc L. Mukasey,” Marshall wrote. “You may recognize the name because he’s the son of the former Attorney General Michael Mukasey. For our present purposes what is important is that Mukasey has been the deputy and the law partner of Rudy Giuliani for years.”
For over a decade, Mukasey and Giuliani worked together at the law firm of Bracewell and Patterson. In January 2016, Giuliani moved to Greenberg Traurig.
In June 2017, Giuliani travelled to Israel to attend a cybersecurity conference in his role as as a Senior Advisor to Greenberg Traurig’s Executive Chairman and as Chair of Cybersecurity, Privacy and Crisis Management Practice. During that visit, he said one of the reasons he chose the firm was because it was the “only international law firm with an office in Tel Aviv” and praised Israel’s “capitalist free market economy” saying it was “one of the most innovative countries in the world” with “cutting edge technology in cybersecurity.”
Read the whole story
· · · · · ·
Hillary Clinton 2016 fainting at 9/11 ceremony AND Israeli private "behavior modification" spy firms: IS THERE A CONNECTION?!
Is this what Joel Zamel got paid $2M for, among the other services?
Were the effects of this hypothetical operation assessed statistically, with regard to Hillary's poll numbers at that time? No, they were not. And they should be. This occurrence might have the same significance as the October 28, 2016 Letter and the NYTimes article about no evidence of Trump-Russia collusion about 1 week prior to the Election Day.
FBI, are you going to investigate this? Or are you going just to disregard this, as always?
Michael Novakhov
3.18.19
See Also:
portable high precision microwave weapon - GS
directed-energy weapons - GS
-
Is this what Joel Zamel got paid $2M for, among the other services?
Were the effects of this hypothetical operation assessed statistically, with regard to Hillary's poll numbers at that time? No, they were not. And they should be. This occurrence might have the same significance as the October 28, 2016 Letter and the NYTimes article about no evidence of Trump-Russia collusion about 1 week prior to the Election Day.
FBI, are you going to investigate this? Or are you going just to disregard this, as always?
Michael Novakhov
3.18.19
See Also:
portable high precision microwave weapon - GS
directed-energy weapons - GS
-
M.N. People do not pay $2 ML for the "elaborate presentation about ...
globalsecuritynews.org/2019/03/12/mn-people-do-not-pay-2-ml-for-elaborate-html/
6 days ago - “After Mr. Trump was elected, Mr. Nader paid Mr. Zamel a large sum of money, ... Michael_Novakhov shared this story from “Joel Zamel” – Google News. ..... lecturing and working for an organization that helps locate missing people. ... It's time to change the headlines Arutz Sheva Anti-Semitism that became ...
Russia may have preferred Trump to Hillary Clinton. .... M.N. People do not pay $2 ML for the “elaborate presentation about the significance of social ... “After Mr. Trump was elected, Mr. Nader paidMr. Zamel a large sum of money, described by one ... Michael_Novakhov shared this story from “Joel Zamel” – Google News.
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