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Putin, “NO Regime Change in Syria”: US Ready to Destroy Another Nation

4thAnon — Sat, 19 Sep 2015 14:12:58 +0000

The post-Incirlik period looks like it could produce an entirely different outcome due to the fact that the US will be able to deploy its drones and warplanes from a Turkish airbase (Incirlik) that’s just 15 minutes flying-time from Syria.

That will boost the number of sorties the USAF can able to carry out while increasing the effectiveness of its jihadi forces on the ground which will conduct their operations under the protection of US air cover. This will greatly improve their chances for success.

The New York Times calls the Incirlik deal a “game-changer” which is an understatement. By allowing US F-16s to patrol the skies over Syria, Washington will impose a de facto no-fly zone over the country severely limiting Assad’s ability to battle the US-backed militias that have seized large swaths of the countryside and are now descending on Damascus.

And while the war cannot be won by airpower alone, this new tactical reality tilts the playing field in favor the jihadis. In other words, the Incirlik agreement changes everything.

The Obama administration now believes that regime change is within its reach. Yes, they know it will require some back-up from US Special Forces and Turkish combat troops, but it’s all doable. This is why Obama has shrugged off Russia’s plan for a transitional government or for forming a coalition to defeat ISIS.

The US doesn’t have to compromise on these matters because, after all, it has a strategically-located airbase from which it can protect its proxy-army, bomb cross-border targets, and control the skies over Syria.

All Obama needs to do is intensify the war effort, put a little more pressure on Assad, and wait for the regime to collapse. This is why we should expect a dramatic escalation as we begin Phase 2 of the conflict.

Russian President Vladimir Putin knows this, which is why he’s sending more weapons, supplies and advisors to Syria. He’s signaling to Washington that he knows what they’re up to and that he’ll respond if they carry things too far.

In an interview with Russia’s state Channel 1, Putin said, “We have our ideas about what we will do and how we will do it in case the situation develops toward the use of force or otherwise. We have our plans.”

The administration is very nervous about Putin’s plans which is why they keep probing to see if they can figure out what he has up his sleeve. Just days ago, Secretary of State John Kerry phoned his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov to express his concerns about “an imminent enhanced Russian military buildup” in Syria.

The call was a clumsy attempt to trick Lavrov into volunteering information that might shed light on what Moscow intends to do if Washington goes ahead with its regime change strategy. But Russia’s foreign minister didn’t take the bait. He stuck to his script and didn’t tell Kerry anything he didn’t already know.

But the fact is, Putin is not going to allow Assad to be removed by force. It’s that simple. Obama and his advisors suspect this, but they are not 100 percent certain so they keep looking for confirmation one way or the other.

But Putin is not going to provide a clear answer because he doesn’t want to tip his hand or appear confrontational. But that doesn’t mean he’s not resolute. He is, and Washington knows it. In effect, Putin has drawn a line in the sand and told the US that if they cross that line, there’s going to [be a] trouble.

So it’s up to Obama really. He can either seek a peaceful solution along the lines that Moscow has recommended or push for regime change and risk a confrontation with Russia. Those are the two choices.

Unfortunately, Washington doesn’t have an “off” switch anymore, so changing policy is really not in the cards. Instead, the US war machine will continue to lumber ahead erratically until it hits an impasse and sputters to a halt.

Once again, the immovable object will prevail over the unstoppable force (as it did in Ukraine), albeit at great cost to the battered people of Syria, their nation and the entire region.

Keep in mind, that the imperial plan for Syria is subtler than many people realize. As the Brookings Institute’s Michael E. O’Hanlon states in his piece titled “Deconstructing Syria: A new strategy for America’s most hopeless war”:

“The plan… would not explicitly seek to overthrow him (Assad), so much as deny him control of territory that he might still aspire to govern again. The autonomous zones would be liberated with the clear understanding that there was no going back to rule by Assad or a successor. In any case, Assad would not be a military target under this concept, but areas he currently controls… would be. And if Assad delayed too long in accepting a deal for exile, he could inevitably face direct dangers to his rule and even his person.” (“Deconstructing Syria: A new strategy for America’s most hopeless war”, Michael E. O’Hanlon, Brookings Institute)

This is the basic plan: To seize major cities and large parts of the countryside, disrupt supply-lines and destroy vital civilian infrastructure, and to progressively undermine Assad’s ability to govern the country.

The ultimate goal is to break the state into a million disconnected enclaves ruled by armed mercenaries, al Qaida-linked affiliates, and local warlords. This is Washington’s diabolical plan for Syria.

It is strikingly similar to the Zionist plan to “effect the division of the whole area into small states by the dissolution of all existing Arab states.” (“The Zionist Plan for the Middle East”, Israel Shahak) In fact, it is virtually identical.

It’s clear that Obama is emboldened by the Incirlik deal and believes that, with Turkey’s help, he can achieve US imperial ambitions in Syria. But it’s not going to happen. Russia, Iran and Hezbollah are prepared to defend their ally Assad and stop Washington dead-in-its-tracks.

Obama will have succeeded in destroying another sovereign nation and scattering its people across the Middle East and Europe. But the US mission will fall short of its original objectives. There will be no regime change in Syria. Putin, Nasrallah and Khamenei will make sure of it.

MIKE WHITNEY lives in Washington state. He is a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion (AK Press). Hopeless is also available in a Kindle edition. He can be reached at fergiewhitney@msn.com.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/09/17/putins-line-in-the-sand-no-regime-change-in-syria/

Secret Ecuador Docs Reveal Assange’s Embassy Life: Fight w/ Security Guard, Health Concerns, Escape Plans & More

LeakSource — Thu, 03 Sep 2015 08:00:17 +0000

09/01/2015

James Ball/Paul Hamilos/BuzzFeed:

Staff and security guards at the Ecuadorian embassy are keeping minute-by-minute records and filing daily official reports on the activities of their long-term guest Julian Assange. The documents, marked “secret”, reveal the occasionally fraught relationship between the WikiLeaks chief and his hosts, laying out details of clashes with embassy staff, concerns over Assange’s psychological health, and potential escape plans.

The details are contained in a series of internal documents of the Ecuadorian government seen by BuzzFeed News and initially reported on by the journalist Fernando Villavicencio. BuzzFeed News has independently corroborated several details from within the documents.

Assange has been unable to leave the embassy, a small flat in Kensington, since seeking asylum there in June 2012. The WikiLeaks editor-in-chief faced extradition to Sweden for questioning over allegations of rape and sexual assault, although he cited potential U.S. prosecution over the publication of leaked documents from Chelsea Manning as his reason for flight.

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The documents seen by BuzzFeed News detail two particular flare-ups in the embassy’s tight confines. The first (PDF) took place in September 2012, just three months after Assange first took up residency.

A security guard was on duty at around 8:30pm on 6 September, when Assange was in the embassy with two associates. Around this time, the guard discovered that Assange had made his way into the embassy’s secure control room – a room strictly off-limits to him – and started tampering with the security equipment. This led to a scuffle between Assange and the guard that caused damage to the embassy’s equipment.

The report then details conflicting accounts of what happened. According to the security guard’s account, Assange was asked to stop messing with the embassy’s systems and to leave the secure room, which he initially refused to do.

The guard alleges that Assange then punched over a computer monitor before grabbing him by the shirt. This led, according to the guard, to an altercation for a number of minutes that spilled out into the corridor.

Assange’s account lays the blame on the security guard, who he claimed had accosted him.

A filmmaker who was present for the incident, the report notes, told embassy staff he did not see the beginning of the scuffle, but that Assange was “out of control” and very upset, and clearly wanted to be verbally offensive and to provoke a reaction.

Embassy staff, including the ambassador and two security officials described only as “Mr White” and “Mr Blue”, had a meeting to discuss the incident the following day. In sections of the report marked as analysis and recommendations, the author notes that Assange — described as “Mr Guest” — knows “what the limits of his movements are inside the embassy”.

The section continues by noting that “we cannot allow these incidents to be repeated, nor any further attacks against personnel who work for the embassy”. The report acknowledges the stress Assange was under, due to both his confinement and the presence of “more than 20 British agents posted outside the building”, and recommends further psychological support.

However, just a few months later a separate report (PDF) notes a similar incident of seemingly erratic behaviour from the WikiLeaks chief shortly before dawn on 4 January 2013.

The report painstakingly notes Assange’s movements from minute to minute – further evidence of how closely the Ecuadorians monitored “Mr Guest” – reporting that he seemed to wake at 6:05 that morning. Then, just five minutes later, the security guard heard a loud crash from Assange’s room.

Assange came to the door, assuring the on-duty guard that everything was fine, but (according to the guard’s account) seeming to try to block his view of the room’s interior. A few minutes later, Assange left the room carrying his laptop into a nearby room designated as his bathroom, where he remained for a period of hours.

During this time, the memo continues, the guard was able to see inside Assange’s bedroom, where a large, smashed bookshelf was strewn across the room. The guard took photographs of the room’s condition.

The room visible in the photos from the secret Ecuadorian report clearly matches the one in an August 2013 Juice Rap News video featuring Assange during his bid to run for the Australian senate (Assange’s embassy room is visible in the video between 3:42 and 4:16).

Additonal photo of room:

Assange later told embassy staff that the bookshelf had fallen over of its own accord, according to the same memo, but this seemingly did little to assuage their concerns about the wellbeing of Assange or those around him. As before, the incident was passed up the embassy’s chain of command – reference is made to a daily report on his activities – including, once again, “Mr White” and “Mr Blue”.

The report notes with concern a regular comment in “internal daily reports” on Assange recording his tendency to “shout and talk incoherently” at night, attributed to night terrors.

It then goes on to note: “This episode is nothing more than the result of the stress that Mr Assange could be feeling as a result of his isolation.

“If it’s clear that his situation could result in psychological harm because of the circumstances in which he finds himself, it’s equally clear that there is no protocol that might help avoid or minimise this.”

The report continues in quite a critical manner as to Assange’s intrinsic “nature”, independent of his stressful situation, stating that his “evident anger” and “feelings of superiority” could cause stress to those around him — “especially the personnel who work in the embassy, mainly women”.

It adds that the stress on those personnel also stems from media pressure, police, and “most worryingly, the hard core of people who are either for or against Mr Assange’s cause”, risking the embassy’s capacity to function as usual.

The report contains multiple recommendations to improve the situation, including a proposal from “Mr Blue” for regular assessments of Assange’s physical and mental health, regular meetings with Assange’s confidantes to assess his demeanour and state of mind, and efforts to prevent Assange becoming isolated.

The report also notes a need to “control access to alcohol”.

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Other documents set out the external security challenges faced by the Ecuadorians through the activities of the Metropolitan police, who at one point had up to 50 officers in and around the building containing the embassy.

UK's national security siege against #Assange has now hit £12.1 million http://t.co/8b8Pyk3tZS pic.twitter.com/wcgh5xYX6k

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) September 1, 2015

A 2012 presentation shows handwritten instructions to officers at the scene – embarrassingly caught by a photographer’s long lens and made public – instructing them on what to do if Assange emerged from the embassy.

“Action required – Assange to be arrested under all circumstances,” it states. “He comes out with dip[lomatic] immunity, as dip bag, in dip bag (risk to life) in dip vehicle. ARRESTED.”

Asked whether the Metropolitan police would violate diplomatic immunity to arrest Assange, a Met spokesperson said: “Our objective is to arrest Julian Assange for breach of bail. Under no circumstances would an arrest be made in breach of diplomatic immunity.”

In the Ecuadorian slides, the police orders are translated into Spanish and given a short analysis before a later slide sets out a series of options of ways to get Assange out of the UK.

The first option considered was to obtain diplomatic immunity for Assange by making him Ecuador’s representative to the UN. While there was a risk that the UN General Assembly could revoke this status, the report notes that this would take some time, which could be exploited to get Assange on to Ecuadorian territory.

A second consideration was to attempt to smuggle Assange out in an inviolable diplomatic car. However, the officials concluded that this would probably be impossible as Scotland Yard had even placed officers inside the embassy building, which was shared with other tenants.

“Police are located in the hall, on the stairs, and the exits of the lifts,” it states. “The British police can be found in all the routes that would allow Assange to take a diplomatic car.”

Elsewhere the document notes that officers had come still closer: “Last night (28/08/2012), security at the Ecuadorian embassy had to remove a policeman who entered without permission, in the department above the embassy.”

A spokesperson for the Metropolitan police declined to respond to a query on the incident.

Another option for exfiltrating Assange considered by embassy staff was to put him in a diplomatic bag, considered inviolable by treaty, but only if they solely contain documents relating to the normal practice of an embassy.

Officials dismissed this plan as they knew police outside the embassy had “advanced technology that can detect body heat”. Elsewhere, embassy staff had noted a police van across the road from the embassy was “bombarding” the building with microwaves, and was capable in the view of staff of collecting most if not all signals from within.

The final plan contemplated on the slide was that of a “discreet exit”.

“Assange could leave in fancy dress,” the document suggests, “or try to escape across the rooftops towards a nearby helipad, or get lost among the people in Harrods.”

In the event, it seems none of the plans were followed through. Three years later, Assange remains in the embassy.

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Operation Hotel & SENAIN

Fernando Villavicencio/FocusEcuador (Translation via WikiLeaksForum):

Operation Hotel (PDF) was designed in three phases by the Ecuadorian intelligence agency (SENAIN) with three specific objectives: to generate adequate living conditions for the “guest”, to resume full activities at the Embassy to avoid possible information leakage and to optimise the security processes in the diplomatic home quarters.

Phase I sought to guarantee the conditions under which Assange was staying at the Embassy and prepare a plan for a possible attack which could force the “guest” and his security team to evacuate in case of a deliberate fire and the ensuing smoke ; it even prepared for a situation in which the opposing force could use hidden chemical agents obliging the “guest” to go outside for lack of oxygen.

At this stage the technical adjustments to the site, such as installing a shower in the bathroom, carpentry and painting services in areas that would be available to Assange were also made. In addition, a meticulous record of all the people working in every area of the Embassy was kept, especially of those who were close to him.

“We understand that Mr. Guest is used to interact with the Embassy staff, especially those with whom he has a lot of contacts and a friendly relationship”, stated the SENAIN report. There was so much control around him that part of the Operation Hotel strategy was to limit the contacts he had with the embassy employees. It was even determined that it was very important that those who provided security inside the embassy should speak Spanish, to ensure they would be able to communicate without any problems and thus ensuring a basic communication only with the “guest.”

In some instances, the “guest” requested that he be able to chose his own Security Service inside the embassy, suggesting the use of Russians. For the SENAIN agents, such choice would have meant, among other problems, the loss of control of the Embassy itself leaving the “guest” free access to control and manage the flow of information. The report even asserts that it would have been the equivalent of “a coup in the embassy.”

During Phase II of this surveillance operation, the aim would be to strengthen measures, protocols and security systems designed to match the level of sensitivity of the situation in which the Embassy and its occupants found themselves, and also to visually and technically improve the safety measures as well as the screening of the staff and the detection of leaks.

The report stresses that “From a tactical point of view , the use of viewing and listening devices, as well as monitoring and surveillance tools created a containment situation with the opposing forces”

In Phase II, not only recording video and audio systems would be implemented but also the freedom of the guest’s movements would be restricted, especially the way he used to come in and out as well as his nocturnal activities in the offices and annexes, such as the ambassador’s and consul’s offices, because the risks meant a serious lack of security concerning the possibility of leaks of confidential or proprietary information to which Assange could have access to and which should be restricted.

These measures, which were as part of Operation Hotel, are an indication of the level of distrust that the regime of Rafael Correa had for Julian Assange. The following is an excerpt from the report: “Mr. Guest is a host at the Embassy, he is not a member of the staff and should not participate or interfere in the activities of the Embassy, so he must be kept away from activities that are the exclusive responsibility of the management of the diplomatic mission of Ecuador in London. ”

Some of the public activities around the presence of Assange in the Embassy of Ecuador in London were entrusted to the American/Venezuelan lawyer and journalist Eva Golinger, through a contract of service signed with the Ministry.

The Embassy staff had been really worried about the activities of the refugee, because in one of the paragraphs it is mentioned a need “to regain control and manage the necessary protocols to create the state of security needed to allow and redirect the actions in a positive and correct fashion. ”

Inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London there is an hostile environment and concern, together with the fact that the day to day activities are constantly interrupted. The report also reveals that the personality of Julian constantly clashes with the security agents who have to execute the orders and implement the processes.

The report shows that the monitoring levels applied to the “guest”‘s circle of people were very high, this was also the case for one of the painters who worked on the conversion of the apartments during Phase I of this operation. Rafael Paez had previously worked on the carpentry, masonry and other fixtures for Phase II of Operation Hotel.

The bizarre thing is that there was a second person with the same job. The following is an excerpt from the report that reveals the painstaking surveillance process concerning Assange. “The other person is an acquaintance of Silvia Almeida’s, the accountant, (they attend the same church, apparently he is quite religious. The Seguridad Diplomática guards believe he is a bit fanatical and spends all day singing religious songs and talking about God). The peculiar thing is that he said that he once belonged to the guerrillas in El Salvador and had lost three children to the war. It is worth finding out a bit more about Silvia Almeida’s religious connections. ”

Another person mentioned in this report is José María Guijarro (Txema), Under-Secretary for Africa, Asia and Oceania, who has commented that the “guest “had problems with his vision because his field of vision was limited to the dimensions of his room or his computer screen. It was recommended to let him go to the ambassador’s office at night so he could look out the window to alleviate his vision problem.

The report describes in detail that the cameras and systems used for the development of Phase II were exceptional first-generation equipment for the “control and supervision” of this diplomatic mission.

One of the paragraphs in the report directly refers to Julian Assange’s surveillance within the Ecuadorian Embassy. “If the Government of Ecuador finally decided the realization of such actions (obtaining information directly, espionage) they should be part of other operational parameters to avoid potential repercussions towards the Embassy once it was realised that such actions were taking place from inside the embassy itself. ”

Both the WikiLeaks team and the people trusted by Assange were subjected to the restriction of movements and controlled by the staff. According to this document, the intelligence inside the Embassy identified one Benjamin Griffin, British, former British Army soldier and a member of the SAS Special Forces as Assange’s personal trainer. The SENAIN assumed that “he is a potential threat in terms of the information he could have access to and/or provide to third parties because we do not have complete assurance that he does not have any more links to the British military establishment. ”

Given all these constraints, the “guest” had requested that the security installations be audited; the said auditor would have been part of Assange’s team, and at this stage, SENAIN voiced their disagreement on the grounds that such action would involve the transfer of all the keys as well as the systems’ configurations. “This would be another serious violation of the security protocol because neither Mr Guest nor his team can guarantee that the information obtained would not end up in the hands of third parties or used against the interests of Ecuador” says SENAIN.

“This audit requested by Mr Guest would represent a high operational risk, as well as a risk for the ambassador, since the agency in Salamanca would not be able to monitor and control the video surveillance and recording systems, in as much as it would enable the uncontrolled distribution of images which could potentially be counter-productive in regards of Ecuador’s political actions (although initially they could advance Mr. Guest’s cause) ” the report said.

As an example of the recommendations made by Assange, there is one which is particularly striking. He asked for his personal boxing trainer Ben Grifin to take part in supervising the installation of the security system.

It is estimated that at the beginning, Assange’s fame and the global impact of the asylum request itself created a special preferential context for the “guest”, a situation which changed when certain excesses were curtailed and a code of internal living standards was implemented. ”

“We understand that Mr. Guest is used to interact with the Embassy staff, especially those with whom he gets on well.

Understandably, he is also looking to establish similar relationships with the security agents, but this falls outside of the mission’s parameters which are set to maintain a strict protocol of interaction with all the people from outside the Embassy (mainly him and his guests), and up to then everybody enjoyed full freedom of movements inside (without any restrictions) but in some instances, non standard behaviour was witnessed in the building (consumption of alcoholic beverages in the lobby of the Embassy during working hours, walking barefoot through the Embassy during business hours, festive gatherings, inappropriate dress code, etc) and these actions could have had dire consequences in terms of the image of the Diplomatic Delegation and its mission in London and the same could be said of Mr Guest and his cause, ” it reads.

In August 2012, former ambassador Ana Alban implemented a special protocol to regulate the “Guest”‘s activities:

Visiting hours will be between 08H00 and 19H00.
Visitors need to show the diplomatic security agents some kind of photo ID.
The Red Permit visitors will have to go though all the Diplomatic Security electronic systems for the duration of their visit at the Embassy.
The “Guest”‘s visitors are his responsibility and his team’s and they must ensure that the visitors comply with the Embassy rules and regulations at all times.
The consumption of alcoholic beverages is prohibited inside the Embassy. It is allowed with moderation in the “Guest’s room” as long as no one leaves the room carrying a drink and as long as their behaviour is professional and suitable for an Embassy environment.
Recordings within the Embassy are prohibited without the Ambassador’s or the National Secretary of Communications’ prior permission.
Under no circumstances should anyone be allowed inside the control room of the Embassy apart from the Ambassador and the diplomatic security team, this room is where privileged information, the secret files of the Embassy and the security systems, are kept.
Visitors will have to stay inside the Guest’s quarters, they can only go out if they need the bathroom or leave the Embassy premises.

And obviously, there was also the distrust of the Ecuadorian government with respect to the specific interests of Assange and WikiLeaks; “We take note that Ecuador’s and Mr Guest’s agendas and interests maybe be aligned, but sometimes they may not converge and they may also be inconsistent with the policy of Ecuador,” said one of the documents.

There is very little information regarding Phase III apart from the fact that “it will be implemented taking into account other solutions, to strengthen the security of the site and its users’.”

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An anecdote in the reports dated early September 4th 2012, records the moment when the Scotland Yard guards were changing shifts, they were in the alley facing the guest’s window where two police vans used to transport the guards are parked.

During the change over, the officers were in a festive mood and joking amongst themselves about the “guest”‘s situation when suddenly one of them reached into his pocket, took a coin and threw it at the guest’s window, hitting one of the panes. According to the report, this incident upset the guest, who wanted to use the pictures and publish them on the net to illustrate Scotland Yard’s aggression. The lawyer recommended that the Embassy should not complain, as it could be used against the Embassy by highlighting the use of special cameras and video equipment to monitor the London police.

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The documents published here are part of a comprehensive report in the possession of Ecuadorian National Assembly member Cynthia Viteri, regarding surveillance activities carried out by SENAIN at the Embassy in London.

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The Ecuadorian embassy did not respond to requests for comment or clarification on any aspect of the documents, although the spokesperson for Scotland Yard said the embassy had been in contact with them about the enquiry. WikiLeaks did not respond to a request for comment.

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AAP:

Assange responded to the media reports in a brief one-line statement on Wednesday, saying: “Yet another predictably false attack in the media during the run-up to the launch next week of our new book on the US-UK relationship The WikiLeaks Files.”

Assange "escape" claim made from Aug 2012 media. Proof: 1) https://t.co/ADrh9vqoK4 2) https://t.co/KkYkFvvJBE 3) http://t.co/EC4KB38sr9

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) September 2, 2015

Fascinating to see crypto-sexism trying to make Assange seem weaker through the use of feminising language & imagery. http://t.co/X5oEDVIIQ6

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) September 1, 2015

.@a_greenberg @BuzzFeed other source: @wikileaks_forum's #Siggi jailed last wk for child abuse icelandreview.com/news/2015/08/2… http://t.co/QVC2GClfAz
—
Bella Magnani (@BellaMagnani) September 01, 2015

Fernando Villavicencio, who initially reported on Assange’s embassy stay in Spanish for Ecuador Focus, has recently submitted allegations of persecution against him by Ecuador’s government to the UN.

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Double rainbow in London this afternoon over Assange embassy siege http://t.co/8b8Pyk3tZS @RicardoPatinoEC #ecuador pic.twitter.com/BQrDaiLl42

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) September 1, 2015

Video Shows Moment El Chapo Escapes Mexico “Maximum Security” Prison Cell (+ Tunnel Footage)

LeakSource — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 19:05:47 +0000

07/15/2015

VICE:

As the government’s story goes, on Jan 19, 2001, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman snuck out of a maximum-security prison in Mexico the first time around by hiding in a laundry cart. It was a cartoonishly sounding escape for a drug cartel leader considered one of the most dangerous men in the world.

But what most likely happened, experts on the subject say, is that Guzman’s first major prison break occurred through the front, dressed as a police officer. It happened with the total backing of the prison itself, from the warden on down.

On Tuesday night, Mexico released video footage of the moment that Chapo made his second implausible escape. In it, a man dressed in sweatpants and a sweatshirt is seen pacing in a cell, then putting on shoes, then ducking below a waist-high barrier of the shower stall in his cell. The time stamp on the video reads 8:52. After that, the man is not seen again.

Although Guzman is well-know for his cartel’s use tunnels to traffic drugs across the US-Mexico border, questions and doubts about the tunnel escape have bubbled up since almost the moment the jailbreak became news.

Some people are still saying they don’t entirely believe the government’s story: “El Chapo” had workers build a secret tunnel more than 30 feet deep and rode a motorcycle on a one-mile track while smashing lightbulbs in his wake to blind any chasers.

The tunnel may have been under construction from the time that Chapo was jailed at Altiplano, but it would have been impossible not to notice the approximately 3.2 tons of dirt and rock required to dig out without being noticed, engineers who made the calculation told newspapers here.

Plus, the escape house sits between the Altiplano prison and a Mexican army base — both of which have security towers — and near a State of Mexico police academy. At the time, a constant additional security perimeter composed of federal police and soldiers should have also noticed Guzman fleeing.

Still others noted that Chapo is shown with his head shaved in an undated headshot the government released of him, while the closed-circuit footage shows the man escaping with a full head of hair.

Three days since the jailbreak, authorities have admitted that Chapo and his allies probably bought off guards and prison officials at Altiplano. But Mexicans swapping rumors and theories on social media say they believe the corruption rooted in Guzman’s vast drug empire of influence must have reached higher levels in Mexico’s government.

In that sense, “El Chapo” — although he was captured again in February 2014, taken in handcuffs, and put behind bars — “was never in really in custody,” investigative reporter Anabel Hernandez declared on Radio Formula in Mexico on Tuesday.

Given how it really went down in 2001, others argue, the Guzman tunnel story could be all just a charade.

According to Hernandez’s book Narcoland, Guzman’s body inside a laundry cart would have triggered heat sensors at the security checkpoints inside the Puente Grande prison in Jalisco. He escaped through the gates dressed as a police agent, she writes, after gathering testimony and examining Guzman’s case file.

“This prison has sensors everywhere, and automatic doors. It wasn’t possible,” Hernandez told VICE in a 2013 interview.

This time, the public shouldn’t discount the possibility that Guzman escaped “through the front” and that “one person or more helped him,” journalist and author Jesus Lemus told VICE News.

Lemus is a reporter who served time in Puente Grande between 2008 and 2011 on false charges of criminal association, but got released after authorities realized they had the wrong suspect. During his time behind bars, Lemus interviewed prisoners and guards about Chapo’s first escape, years earlier.

“He escaped through the front door, he left disguised as a federal policeman. The prisoners that stayed behind identified him for his eyes and height, and also because he had paid them some favors,” Lemus told VICE News.

“El Chapo is a person that bought loyalties and who knows how to create them. I don’t believe that he escaped through a tunnel. It would be like disregarding his criminal capacity, and he likes to innovate,” the author said. “I’ve been in those prisons and they have at least two meters of reinforced concrete underneath.”

Authorities on Tuesday permitted news photographers to enter the house where the prison tunnel ended and film just above the opening to a deep shaft where authorities say Guzman used a motorcycle to ride the one mile from the Altiplano prison.

News cameras also filmed inside cell 20. Along with the release of the footage inside Guzman’s cell, Mexican authorities are attempting to silence any further uproar over Chapo’s escape.

Interior Minister Miguel Osorio Chong defended the government’s handling of the case so far on Monday night, saying that Mexico’s federal penitentiaries have equal security standards to those of the United States.

“The prison has perimeter barriers, pedestrian and vehicle checkpoints, internal and external security towers, in addition to 26 security filters,” Osorio Chong said. “For more than a year a half, there has been an additional surveillance operation by the federal police and the army at the exterior of this prison.”

Three prison officials including the warden have been fired. At least 53 others have been questioned in connection to the Chapo jailbreak, including prison employees, inmates, and two of Guzman’s lawyers.

Osorio Chong said any government employees who are proven to have aided Chapo’s escape were “disloyal” and committed “betrayal” against the security forces that captured Guzman in Mazatlan last year, “risking their lives.”

But Mexico got a warning. United States anti-drug agents reportedly told Mexican officials that they had gathered murmurs of Chapo seeking an escape from Altiplano as soon as one month after his arrest. Drug Enforcement Administration agents in Los Angeles and Houston said a prison break was probably in the works, an AP report said. Osorio Chong denied the Mexican government had any such knowledge.

“My colleagues at the DEA received a report in which various plans for an escape were detailed, but that was months ago, and we thought that they were doing something about it,” an ex-DEA agent, Gilberto Gonzalez, told VICE News in an interview this week. “But now we see they didn’t.”

“It’s very disappointing for my colleagues who participated in his arrest, because they feel they risked their lives for nothing,” Gonzalez added.

Jose Luis Montenegro, author of a recent book on Chapo’s sons called “Narcojuniors,” pointed out that attorneys have filed appeals to prevent any extradition of Chapo to the US from going forward. While on the inside, Guzman and other inmates complained of prison conditions to the national human rights commission, sparking an investigation that turned up nothing.

All of this may have worked to stall for time so that Chapo’s tunnel could be built — for actual use or not, Montenegro told VICE News.

“This looks more like complicity than a government omission,” he said. “Just like in 2001, you co-opt the authorities, through bribes and threats, and then use your own people, like now.”

Montenegro monitors social-media accounts linked to several of Chapo’s sons and associates. Those accounts are not unverified. They’ve also remained largely silent since Chapo escaped.

The author said geo-localization and links between the accounts themselves give him confidence it was Ivan Archivaldo Guzman Salazar, one of three sons from Chapo’s first marriage, who tweeted on July 6: “Everything comes to those who know how to wait.”

Five days later, his father broke free from prison.

Leaked Video Shows Making of Islamic State “Execution” in Studio — via CyberBerkut Hack of Sen. McCain Staffer

LeakSource — Sun, 12 Jul 2015 19:56:15 +0000

07/11/2015

CyberBerkut (Google Translation):

We CyberBerkut received at the disposal of the file whose value can not be overstated!

Dear Senator McCain! We recommend you next time in foreign travel, and especially on the territory of Ukraine, not to take confidential documents.

On one of the devices of your colleagues, we found a lot of interesting things. Something we decided to put: this video should become the property of the international community!

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The 3 ½ minute silent video appears to show infamous Islamic State executioner Jihadi John (aka Mohammed Emwazi) in front of a giant green screen, standing beside a kneeling hostage wearing an orange jumpsuit and a green screen hood. They are inside a lit studio with a production crew and can be seen rehearsing an “execution”. The desert scene of the set, complete with wind machine, are similar to that shown in the beheading videos of James Foley, Steven Sotloff, David Haines, and Alan Henning.

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Here is an example someone put together showing the similarities between the leaked studio video and the Foley beheading video. This is not implying the person in the leaked video is Foley, it may be anyone. Though they are not identical, it gives a good comparison:

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British forensic experts concluded that the James Foley video was likely staged using “camera trickery and slick post-production techniques.”

Terrorism research expert Veryan Khan said the video of Japanese hostages Kenji Goto and Haruna Yukawa looks like it was completed in an indoor studio with a false backdrop, pointing to the light source on the men that appears to be coming from two different directions — as opposed to one bright sun.

Hollywood horror film director Mary Lambert said of the Islamic State video showing the killing of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians on a Libyan beach, that “in the opening shot all the figures might be animated. They never had more than six men on the beach … The close-ups of jihadists on the beach are most likely green screen … The sea turning red is obviously FX.”

Journalist Thomas Wictor has claimed that the Islamic State video showing Jordanian pilot Mu’ath al-Kaseasbeh burned alive was actually fake, pointing to evidence of CGI flames and video glitches.

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LeakSource cannot confirm the video’s authenticity. If it’s a hoax, it’s a pretty elaborate and expensive one. Is it legit? If so, was it done by an Islamic State production crew (unlikely with a female PA on set) , or someone else (ie. intelligence agency). And why was it found on a device of Senator John McCain’s staffer?

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Steve Watson/PrisonPlanet (05/25/2010) & Mikael Thalen/Infowars (09/03/2014):

A 2010 Washington Post article authored by former Army Intelligence Officer Jeff Stein features a detailed account of how the CIA admittedly filmed a fake Bin Laden video during the run up to the 2003 Iraq war.

The article, which includes comments from multiple sources within the CIA’s Iraq Operations Group, explains how the agency had planned to “flood Iraq with the videos” depicting several controversial scenarios.

“The agency actually did make a video purporting to show Osama bin Laden and his cronies sitting around a campfire swigging bottles of liquor and savoring their conquests with boys, one of the former CIA officers recalled, chuckling at the memory,” the article states. “The actors were drawn from ‘some of us darker-skinned employees.’”

Other CIA officials admitted to planning several fake videos featuring former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, one of which would depict the leader engaged in sexual acts with a teenage boy.

“It would look like it was taken by a hidden camera,” said one of the former officials. “Very grainy, like it was a secret videotaping of a sex session.”

Another idea was to interrupt Iraqi television programming with a fake special news bulletin. An actor playing Hussein would announce that he was stepping down in favor of his (much-reviled) son Uday.

“I’m sure you will throw your support behind His Excellency Uday,” the fake Hussein would intone.

According to one official, the video ideas were eventually scrapped due to the CIA officers, who spent their careers in Latin America and East Asia, not understanding “the cultural nuances of the region.”

The former officials told Stein that the project was taken over by the military after it ground to a halt:

The reality, the former officials said, was that the agency really didn’t have enough money and expertise to carry out the projects.

“The military took them over,” said one. “They had assets in psy-war down at Ft. Bragg,” at the army’s special warfare center.

This latest revelation bolsters evidence that the intelligence agencies, and perhaps more significantly, the military have been engaged in creating fake Bin Laden videos in the past.

As we have exhaustively documented, Intelcenter, the U.S. monitoring group that routinely releases Bin Laden video and audio, much of which have been proven to be either rehashed old footage or outright fakes, is an offshoot of IDEFENSE, a web security company that monitors intelligence from the middle east.

IDEFENSE is heavily populated by long serving ex military intelligence officials, such as senior military psy-op intelligence officer Jim Melnick, who served 16 years in the US army and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) in psychological operations. Melnick has also worked directly for former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Intelcenter notoriously released the “laughing hijackers” tape and claimed it was an Al-Qaeda video, despite the fact that the footage was obtained by a “security agency” at a 2000 Bin Laden speech.

IntelCenter was also caught adding its logo to a tape at the same time as Al-Qaeda’s so-called media arm As-Sahab added its logo, proving the two organizations were one and the same.

Could the CIA group of “dark skinned actors” have been behind the infamous December 2001 “Fat nosed” Bin Laden video, that was magically found in a house in Jalalabad after anti-Taliban forces moved in?

The tape featured a fat Osama laughing and joking about how he’d carried out 9/11. The video was also mistranslated in order to manipulate viewer opinion and featured “Bin Laden” praising two of the hijackers, only he got their names wrong. This Osama also used the wrong hand to write with and wore gold rings, a practice totally in opposition to the Muslim faith.

Despite the fact that the man in the video looks nothing like Bin Laden, the CIA stood by it and declared it to be the official “9/11 confession video”.

The latest revelations also shed light on another past Bin Laden release – a tape in which he ludicrously declared himself in league with Saddam Hussein in the weeks before the invasion of Iraq.

The notion that the CIA project was taken over and drastically improved by the Pentagon at some point after 2003 jives with the improvement in quality of Bin Laden videos in later years. Most notably the video that was released immediately ahead of the 2004 election, and it’s digitally manipulated duplicate from 2007, in which Bin Laden appeared to have a dyed beard.

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John McCain’s last visit to Ukraine was June 19th, 2015. If this is when the hack occurred is unclear. He was also accompanied by Senators Tom Cotton and John Barrasso. They were welcomed by U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt, and met with senior Ukrainian officials, including President Petro Poroshenko, after visiting troops and volunteers working on the front line. Since McCain is referenced by CyberBerkut, it is most likely that one of his staffers was hacked and not the other senators. Someone needs to FOIA which staffers accompanied McCain on his trip and if any have lost their jobs unceremoniously.

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1st they doctored pics to say I met w/ #ISIS. Now #Russian Internet trolls say I staged ISIS executions. Proud to be their #1 adversary!

— John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) July 13, 2015

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*LeakSource has requested a comment directly from CyberBerkut to confirm the hack and provide more information. This post will be updated with their response when it becomes available along with any other details as they emerge.

Hacking Team Hacked: 400GB Data Dump of Internal Documents/Emails/Source Code from Notorious Spyware Dealer

LeakSource — Tue, 07 Jul 2015 14:07:14 +0000

07/05-09/2015

The controversial Italian surveillance company Hacking Team, which sells spyware to governments all around the world, including agencies in Ethiopia, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates, as well as the US Drug Enforcement Administration, has been seriously hacked.

Hackers have made 400GB of client files, contracts, financial documents, and internal emails, some as recent as 2015, publicly available for download.

What’s more, the unknown hackers announced their feat through Hacking Team’s own Twitter account.

Torrent Links:
https://mega.nz/#!Xx1lhChT!rbB-LQQyRypxd5bcQnqu-IMZN20ygW_lWfdHdqpKH3E
http://infotomb.com/eyyxo.torrent
Mirror:
https://ht.transparencytoolkit.org/
Source Codes:
https://github.com/hackedteam?tab=repositories

RELEASE: Over one million searchable emails from spyware contractor #HackingTeam https://t.co/qMYMnmh0ZM pic.twitter.com/XkiFsOZPVQ

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) July 9, 2015

Last year, a hacker who only went by the name “PhineasFisher” hacked the controversial surveillance tech company Gamma International, a British-German surveillance company that sells the spyware software FinFisher. He then went on to leak more than 40GB of internal data from the company, which has been long criticized for selling to repressive governments.

That same hacker has now claimed responsibility for the breach of Hacking Team, that sells a similar product called Remote Control System Galileo.

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai/Motherboard:

On Sunday night, I reached out to the hacker while he was in control of Hacking Team’s Twitter account via a direct message to @hackingteam. Initially, PhineasFisher responded with sarcasm, saying he was willing to chat because “we got such good publicity from your last story!” referring to a recent story I wrote about the company’s CEO claiming to be able to crack the dark web.

Afterwards, however, he also claimed that he was PhineasFisher. To prove it, he told me he would use the parody account he used last year to promote the FinFisher hack to claim responsibility.

“I am the same person behind that hack,” he told me before coming out publicly.

gamma and HT down, a few more to go :)

— Phineas Fisher (@GammaGroupPR) July 6, 2015

The hacker, however, declined to answer to any further questions.

The leak of 400GB of internal files contains “everything,” according to a person close to the company, who only spoke on condition of anonymity. The files contain internal emails between employees; a list of customers, including some, such as the FBI, that were previously unknown; and allegedly even the source code of Hacking Team’s software, its crown jewels.

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HIGHLIGHTS:

A few weeks ago Hacking Team's co-founder joked in emails about how bad a leak would be for his company. Oh dear… http://t.co/AIdOJK3ArG—
Ryan Gallagher (@rj_gallagher) July 06, 2015

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Download Spreadsheet

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#HackingTeam planning major moves into the United States, pursuing contracts with ATF, DOJ, Navy, RCMP, local police. pic.twitter.com/owBOLoLfpx

— Collin Anderson (@CDA) July 6, 2015

Download Spreadsheet

So turns out the FBI has spent $775,000 on #HackingTeam tools since 2011. My dig in @WIRED http://t.co/DURVelF4fk pic.twitter.com/1L1lUS9KBY

— Joseph Cox (@josephfcox) July 6, 2015

Hacking team provided FBI with zero-day exploits. https://t.co/KLlyCNybf5 pic.twitter.com/IEecyXDeln

— Christopher Soghoian (@csoghoian) July 9, 2015

Details on US agencies buying Hacking Teams software: https://t.co/e8HeHpwUHk Code names for FBI and DEA are "Phoebe" and "Katie"

— Cora Currier (@coracurrier) July 6, 2015

Very interesting Hacking Team email on US DEA using spy tech "that will receive all the traffic for Columbian ISPs": pic.twitter.com/HBJG70Ymaj

— Ryan Gallagher (@rj_gallagher) July 6, 2015

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Hacking Team, surveillance vendor to FBI, DEA, and U.S. Army (http://t.co/SuT0z3uzZb) made a secret recording of ME pic.twitter.com/cIlcZodHiU

— Morgan Marquis-Boire (@headhntr) July 7, 2015

Screenshot shows an email dated 2014 from Hacking Team’s founder and CEO David Vincenzetti to another employee. In the email, titled “Yet another Citizen Lab attack,” Vincenzetti links to a report from the online digital rights research center Citizen Lab, at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs, which has exposed numerous cases of abuse from Hacking Team’s clients.

Hacking Team has never revealed a list of its clients, and has always and repeatedly denied selling to sketchy governments, arguing that it has an internal procedure to address human rights concerns about prospective customers.

The email about Citizen Lab is filed in a folder called “Anti HT activists.”

The activist groups on Hacking Team's enemies list: pic.twitter.com/AEJnQcA7rM

— Ryan Gallagher (@rj_gallagher) July 7, 2015

Hacking team employee jokes about assassinating ACLU technologist @csoghoian https://t.co/dCmA0U6GKz

— Micah Lee (@micahflee) July 10, 2015

Hacking Team CEO on learning WikiLeaks was tracking his mobile phones all over the world: https://t.co/k7QiDTMD2T pic.twitter.com/QNchvJ2KGM

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) July 9, 2015

I almost feel like this should be my new twitter bio: "this asinine activist looks like a very smart man" https://t.co/JFiM53HhKw

— Jacob Appelbaum (@ioerror) July 9, 2015

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My piece on the @hackingteam emails – exposing proposed 'death squad' deal, secret UK sales push, & much more: https://t.co/shCObgce5L

— Ryan Gallagher (@rj_gallagher) July 8, 2015

"Hacking Team" partnered w/prominent defense contractor to sell UAE spyware used to target activists http://t.co/UikaoigwJ0

— Lee Fang (@lhfang) July 7, 2015

#HackingTeam sold spy software to blacklisted #Sudan and 'stonewalled #UN investigation' http://t.co/WmM6hU6vxq

— Gianluca Mezzofiore (@GianlucaMezzo) July 6, 2015

#HackingTeam brainstorming how to reassure Sudan after our @citizenlab report in March 2014 https://t.co/x513uPrXrE

— Claudio (@botherder) July 13, 2015

creepy surveillance company may have violated EU sanctions by selling tech to russia… me+@maxseddon team up at last http://t.co/GEROUskJQq

— Joe Bernstein (@Bernstein) July 6, 2015

Congrats to the government of Chile, which in 2014 signed the largest @hackingteam contract to date: 2.85 mil USD. pic.twitter.com/MuRc6DVecl

— Christopher Soghoian (@csoghoian) July 6, 2015

Who says selling surveillance tech to govs that spy on journalists doesn't pay well? $1 mil from Ethiopia. pic.twitter.com/I3HCxdl3Gl

— Christopher Soghoian (@csoghoian) July 6, 2015

After @citizenlab and @hrw outed #HackingTeam's Ethiopia campaign, their provider took down control infrastructure. pic.twitter.com/bH07Ywe2f0

— Collin Anderson (@CDA) July 7, 2015

Hacking Team's snoopware 'spied on anti-communist activists in Vietnam' http://t.co/1BqVt5thkm

— The Register (@TheRegister) July 13, 2015

Want to sell surveillance software to Azerbaijan? Best to sell through a shadowy front company in Nevada. pic.twitter.com/uItb2HoSYn

— Christopher Soghoian (@csoghoian) July 6, 2015

Selling an exploit portal to Egypt in 2012? Seems legit. pic.twitter.com/XuoqpfeiJC

— Christopher Soghoian (@csoghoian) July 6, 2015

#HackingTeam's CEO seems to spend hours each week writing emails to their customer list encouraging bombing of Iran. pic.twitter.com/XF5FrF54jr

— Collin Anderson (@CDA) July 7, 2015

"Not our responsibility to vet clients" says Hacking Team US sales consultant. pic.twitter.com/8u4hLG1dri

— Eric King (@e3i5) July 6, 2015

For Arab human rights defenders #hackingteam files confirm suspicions of state surveillance http://t.co/opHaeuiD5d My latest for @Advox

— Abir Ghattas (@AbirGhattas) July 8, 2015

A detailed look at Hacking Team's emails about clients with dubious human rights records http://t.co/Hl5LskfMnZ by @coracurrier @headhntr

— Morgan Marquis-Boire (@headhntr) July 7, 2015

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SCOOP: Hacking Team demoed its spy software for Calgary, Vancouver Police and Ottawa RCMP: http://t.co/8liQ3nyPNI @motherboard

— matthew braga (@mattbraga) July 7, 2015

Exclusive: German company bought #spyware from #HackingTeam. Who are their clients? @welt http://t.co/Sdzhk3aenX pic.twitter.com/P7DRHOOneG

— Florian Flade (@FlorianFlade) July 9, 2015

The Mayor of Quito was one of Hacking Team's Ecuador targets http://t.co/RZeL0d4HT9 #HackingTeamTransparencyReport

— Bethany Horne (@bbhorne) July 9, 2015

Ecuadorian Websites Report on #HackingTeam, Get Taken Down http://t.co/20mZZIJSqt by @RebecaMorla #Ecuador pic.twitter.com/yfFDtBwyuQ

— PanAm Post (@PanAmPost) July 13, 2015

EXCLUSIVE: Irish Defence Forces involved with hacked security company "Hacker Team" #HackingTeam https://t.co/qXsU0kE3Jh

— BeYourOwnReason (@beyourownreason) July 6, 2015

Intelligence Service chief steps down http://t.co/6FyYwFu5uI

— The Cyprus Weekly (@TheCyprusWeekly) July 11, 2015

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From the #HackingTeam files: big banks worked with the controversial surveillance company http://t.co/McvUwFCSJo pic.twitter.com/OwW19tHqIU

— Joseph Cox (@josephfcox) July 6, 2015

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Hacking Team: Our exploit portal always has at least 3 zero-day exploits, but please try to use non-zero days first. https://t.co/flJpIR8hkc

— Christopher Soghoian (@csoghoian) July 6, 2015

Hacking Team: Having trouble getting onto a sophisticated target's device? We offer consultancy services too. http://t.co/oaahc24wET

— Christopher Soghoian (@csoghoian) July 6, 2015

Three 0day brokers accused of dealing with #HackingTeam deny any wrongdoing http://t.co/tccKSLGjz5 pic.twitter.com/L0Pbvux26w

— Joseph Cox (@josephfcox) July 13, 2015

Microsoft Internet Exploitable https://t.co/Gi0dzGRqES

— Matthew Keys (@MatthewKeysLive) July 9, 2015

Hacking Team leak releases potent Flash 0day into the wild http://t.co/TcQmgzguTz

— Dan Goodin (@dangoodin001) July 7, 2015

How a Russian hacker made $45,000 selling a zero-day Flash exploit to #HackingTeam http://t.co/OTjLxhQmpE cc @lorenzoFB @csoghoian @doctorow

— Cyrus Farivar (@cfarivar) July 10, 2015

Third Hacking Team Flash Zero-Day Found http://t.co/kCnds2PDW0

— KrebsSecurity (@KrebsSecurity) July 13, 2015

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Pro-tip: Don't want @HackingTeam's clients to spy on you? Don't jailbreak your iPhone. https://t.co/fJHgICpXPl pic.twitter.com/HhrgmDxhI3

— Christopher Soghoian (@csoghoian) July 6, 2015

Hacking Team's inability to develop iOS malware for non-jailbroken iPhones likely explains why FBI director Comey is foaming at the mouth.

— Christopher Soghoian (@csoghoian) July 6, 2015

via Thomas Fox-Brewster/Forbes:

In-depth notes on the level of exploitation across a number of Android devices, from the likes of Samsung, HTC and Huawei. It appears the exploits weren’t always successful in accessing voice or texts on phones.

Hacking Team operations manager Daniele Milan’s email from January indicated some imminent features in Hacking Team’s tools included “physical infection of BitLocker protected disks”, thereby bypassing the much-used Microsoft disk encryption technology, as well as “extraction of information from pictures posted on Facebook and Twitter”. It will also soon be able to “capture of documents edited using Google Docs or Office 365”, the roadmap suggested.

Another email from Milan, dated 15 May, indicated the security-focused messaging application Wickr was on the target list too, thanks to a request from the US government. “I had a call this morning with an agent from Homeland Security Investigations [a body within the Department of Homeland Security], and he told me he got some requests to intercept suspects using this application, Wickr… we may want to keep an eye on it and eventually evaluate to add support.”

Hacking Team's $175,000 Apple Store And Google Play Surveillance Apps Flirt With Illegality @Forbes http://t.co/ZRVzUcUtvA

— Thomas Fox-Brewster (@iblametom) July 8, 2015

Post-Hacking Team breach, Google says it's improved its app scanning processes for Play (see update at bottom): http://t.co/9VuNU1I19B

— Thomas Fox-Brewster (@iblametom) July 13, 2015

@thegrugq @_ejvm seems that #hackingteam software is also capable of stealing bitcoins accounts…. #unacceptable pic.twitter.com/OQ1ecJkAYh

— Aaron Mizrachi (@unmanarc) July 6, 2015

via Dan Goodin/ArsTechnica:

Another document boasts of Hacking Team’s ability to bypass certificate pinning and the HTTP strict transport security mechanisms that are designed to make HTTPS website encryption more reliable and secure. “Our solution is the only way to intercept TOR traffic at the moment,” the undated PowerPoint presentation went on to say.

Elsewhere, the document stated: “HTTPS Everywhere enforces https and could send rogue certificates to the EFF SSL Observatory.” HTTPS Everywhere is a browser extension developed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation that ensures end users use HTTPS when connecting to a preset list of websites. The statement appears to be a warning that any fraudulent certificates Galileo relies on could become public if used against HTTPS Everywhere users when they have selected an option to send anonymous copies of HTTPS certificates to EFF’s SSL Observatory database.

#HackingTeam's "Project X" is a work-in-progress method for getting around Tor http://t.co/lF3DV3ubJq pic.twitter.com/9joQREy8oe

— Joseph Cox (@josephfcox) July 13, 2015

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Renowned cryptographer Bruce Schneier: “The Hacking Team CEO, David Vincenzetti, doesn’t like me:”

In another [e-mail], the Hacking Team CEO on 15 May claimed renowned cryptographer Bruce Schneier was “exploiting the Big Brother is Watching You FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) phenomenon in order to sell his books, write quite self-promoting essays, give interviews, do consulting etc. and earn his hefty money.”

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New Analysis Shows Hacking Team Used Spammer Tricks to Resurrect Wayward Spy Network http://t.co/GAPffQ92WA

— briankrebs (@briankrebs) July 13, 2015

Hacking Team orchestrated brazen BGP hack to hijack IPs it didn’t own http://t.co/krO8cyRIEE

— Dan Goodin (@dangoodin001) July 12, 2015

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Ex-Hacking Team employee developed counter surveillance software thatcould detect HT. HT not very happy. https://t.co/ou2eLnrZe6

— Christopher Soghoian (@csoghoian) July 6, 2015

trying to stop me from leaving HT, the CEO asked the help of Italian Gov to harass and threaten me https://t.co/s2cbuGoE1D

— Guido Landi (@k_sOSe) July 9, 2015

I worked at #HackingTeam, my email were leaked to @wikileaks, and I'm OK with that https://t.co/HXug57QrCg

— Claudio Agosti (@sniffjoke) July 13, 2015

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wow. the attackers were in hackingteams infrastructure since january 2015. https://t.co/8HhoWdrdpv Lots of youtube/games during working hrs

— Dan Tentler (@Viss) July 6, 2015

Holee crap. This appears to be intercepted audio from #hackingteam targets. https://t.co/cITQAYFo8j

— Paul D (@Paulmd199) July 6, 2015

Not just audio. But also some smartphone videos. https://t.co/cITQAYFo8j

— Paul D (@Paulmd199) July 6, 2015

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ALL HIS PASSWORDS ARE PASSWORD. This is *DEFINITELY* "good enough for government work". Hooooly craaaaap pic.twitter.com/eshIurqky2

— Dan Tentler (@Viss) July 6, 2015

Here's the TLS secret key for http://t.co/O96KnDR2o0 #hackingteam pic.twitter.com/8BhNiKG3Ub

— Micah Lee (@micahflee) July 6, 2015

We all got access to C. Pozzi's GPG key! https://t.co/OUitG4eaJ2 #hackedteam

— Jurre van Bergen (@DrWhax) July 6, 2015

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Some say that infosec credentials are worthless. Not always. Photoshop in your name and become a Hacking Team expert. pic.twitter.com/f3xYtFp4zk

— Christopher Soghoian (@csoghoian) July 6, 2015

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Making millions selling surveillance software, but still pirating security research tools? Classy. (h/t @sb101sb) pic.twitter.com/Cl8GeBpJD9

— Christopher Soghoian (@csoghoian) July 6, 2015

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Despite #HackingTeam's poor opsec, CEO came from early days of PGP http://t.co/FiL7zhEx0x cc @csoghoian @onthemedia @lorenzoFB

— Cyrus Farivar (@cfarivar) July 8, 2015

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Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai/Motherboard:

After suffering a massive hack, the controversial surveillance tech company Hacking Team is scrambling to limit the damage as well as trying to figure out exactly how the attackers hacked their systems.

But the hack hasn’t just ruined the day for Hacking Team’s employees. The company has told all its customers to shut down all operations and suspend all use of the company’s spyware, Motherboard has learned.

“They’re in full on emergency mode,” a source who has inside knowledge of Hacking Team’s operations told Motherboard.

Hacking Team notified all its customers on Monday morning with a “blast email,” requesting them to shut down all deployments of its Remote Control System software, also known as Galileo, according to multiple sources. The company also doesn’t have access to its email system as of Monday afternoon, a source said.

A source told Motherboard that the hackers appears to have gotten “everything,” likely more than what the hacker has posted online, perhaps more than one terabyte of data.

It’s unclear how the hackers got their hands on the stash, but judging from the leaked files, they broke into the computers of Hacking Team’s two systems administrators, Christian Pozzi and Mauro Romeo, who had access to all the company’s files, according to the source.

In a series of tweets on Monday morning, which have been since deleted, Pozzi said that Hacking Team was working closely with the police, and warned everyone who was downloading the files and commenting on them.

“Be warned that the torrent file the attackers claim is clean has a virus,” he wrote. “Stop seeding and spreading false info.”

Accurate. pic.twitter.com/NgntYctdcV

— Matthew Green (@matthew_d_green) July 6, 2015

@0xabad1dea @matthew_d_green but, epic lulz happened first: pic.twitter.com/SFrDCKpexZ

— Andreⓐ (@puellavulnerata) July 6, 2015

The future of the company, at this point, it’s uncertain.

Employees fear this might be the beginning of the end, according to sources. One current employee, for example, started working on his resume, a source told Motherboard.

It’s also unclear how customers will react to this, but a source said that it’s likely that customers from countries such as the US will pull the plug on their contracts.

Hacking Team asked its customers to shut down operations, but according to one of the leaked files, as part of Hacking Team’s “crisis procedure,” it could have killed their operations remotely.

Well, @hackingteam can start following its "crisis procedure" any minute now. Perhaps when they wake up. pic.twitter.com/HPVSEG8vex

— Eva (@evacide) July 6, 2015

The company, in fact, has “a backdoor” into every customer’s software, giving it ability to suspend it or shut it down—something that even customers aren’t told about.

To make matters worse, every copy of Hacking Team’s Galileo software is watermarked, according to the source, which means Hacking Team, and now everyone with access to this data dump, can find out who operates it and who they’re targeting with it.

Hacking Team did not answer to repeated requests for comment, both to its US spokesperson Eric Rabe as well as directly to its office in Milan, Italy.

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Hacking Team: “Data leak shows we have broken no laws and acted completely ethically” http://t.co/EPQhS73Vlf cc @YourAnonNews @csoghoian

— David Gilbert (@daithaigilbert) July 7, 2015

When asked about the identity of the person or group who carried out the attack, Rabe indicated that he believed the attack was the work of a nation state or a criminal gang, and not the work of an activist as many have speculated:

“Doing our own forensics here, we think this was a very sophisticated attack, and certainly not the work of an amateur. The press seems to take the view that this was some sort of human rights activist but I think that is far from certain and it could easily have been criminal activity or some government activity,” adding that “this is almost certainly an international crime”.

When it was pointed out that if a government or criminal group was behind the attack then posting all the information online seems a strange move, Rabe said: “I am not sure why anybody would do that, but part of the effort here was to disrupt our operations as much as possible so I think that would be a motive for many different people.”

When asked if this could be the work of one of Hacking Team’s competitors such as UK-based Gamma International or Israeli NSO Group, Rabe said: “I think that is unlikely” though he admitted that just like everyone else he was speculating.

While some media reports have suggested the company is working with the Italian police to investigate the attack, Rabe says that all he will say is that the company is “working with law enforcement” reiterating that this was an international attack.

Days after #HackingTeam breach, nobody fired, no customers lost http://t.co/xFaWipaNUG cc @doctorow @ioerror @csoghoian @onthemedia

— Cyrus Farivar (@cfarivar) July 8, 2015

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It has been a busy few days! But we are posting updates on this feed and at http://t.co/wmgPz9IX8R

— HackingTeam (@hackingteam) July 8, 2015

Hacking Team says "terrorists" can now use its leaked spyware, but experts are skeptical of the company's claims. http://t.co/KZbL5plQyZ

— Lorenzo Franceschi B (@lorenzoFB) July 8, 2015

I asked Hacking Team’s spokesperson if they were working with companies to patch 0days. Here’s what he said – http://t.co/hsNFbxABt8

— Matthew Keys (@MatthewKeysLive) July 9, 2015

#HackingTeam touts new spyware suite, calls leaks now “obsolete” http://t.co/59fUy9oIj5

— Cyrus Farivar (@cfarivar) July 13, 2015

So #HackingTeam tells the press that the leak of the source code is a danger to everybody, but tells the opposite to its customers?

— Claudio (@botherder) July 13, 2015

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I'll writeup how hacking team got hacked once they've had some time to fail at figuring out what happened and go out of business

— Phineas Fisher (@GammaGroupPR) July 7, 2015

@lorenzofb I wonder did @GammaGroupPR use the same approach? Cant wait to see the write up. http://t.co/1SNygZO7N1

— Richard Tynan (@richietynan) July 6, 2015

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Italy Should Investigate #HackingTeam, European Parliament Member Says http://t.co/IS2gQXizho

— Marietje Schaake (@MarietjeSchaake) July 7, 2015

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#HackingTeam CEO links to LeakSource post on NSA hacking tools catalog in #HackedTeam emails. https://t.co/p9515j44Xo pic.twitter.com/qcN0ALjA6I

— LeakSource (@LeakSourceInfo) July 9, 2015

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Correction: they might not be a client, I don't see them in the documents. Might just be some pro-Hacking Team people.

— Mustafa Al-Bassam (@musalbas) July 6, 2015

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Mozilla security promises bug bounty to the first person to file bugs for any vulnerabilities from #HackingTeam: https://t.co/z3Xw9EMGfZ

— Runa A. Sandvik (@runasand) July 6, 2015

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unless i missed it, @nytimes hasn't independently addressed #HackingTeam hack. major story on surveillance industry. why no coverage?

— David Kaye (@davidakaye) July 8, 2015

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*This post will be continuously updated as there is much more new information emerging. Post anything you find in the comments below and I will add them to the article. LAST UPDATE: 07/13/2015 @ 8PM EST

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Related Links:

WikiLeaks SpyFiles on HackingTeam

To Protect and Infect: The Militarization of the Internet – Claudio Guarnieri, Morgan Marquis-Boire, Jacob Appelbaum @ 30c3

Secret Manuals Show the Spyware Sold to Despots and Cops Worldwide

Leaked Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) Documents; Largest “Trade Deal” in History – WikiLeaks

LeakSource — Sun, 05 Jul 2015 16:35:51 +0000

DOWNLOAD ALL TRADE IN SERVICES AGREEMENT (TISA) DOCUMENTS PUBLISHED BY WIKILEAKS HERE
UPDATED 07/02/2015 (44 PDFs & 1 PNG/RAR/16MB)
CONTENTS:

WikiLeaks Press Releases:

06/19/2014

Today, WikiLeaks released the secret draft text for the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) Financial Services Annex, which covers 50 countries and 68.2%¹ of world trade in services. The US and the EU are the main proponents of the agreement, and the authors of most joint changes, which also covers cross-border data flow. In a significant anti-transparency manoeuvre by the parties, the draft has been classified to keep it secret not just during the negotiations but for five years after the TiSA enters into force.

Despite the failures in financial regulation evident during the 2007-2008 Global Financial Crisis and calls for improvement of relevant regulatory structures², proponents of TiSA aim to further deregulate global financial services markets. The draft Financial Services Annex sets rules which would assist the expansion of financial multi-nationals – mainly headquartered in New York, London, Paris and Frankfurt – into other nations by preventing regulatory barriers. The leaked draft also shows that the US is particularly keen on boosting cross-border data flow, which would allow uninhibited exchange of personal and financial data.

TiSA negotiations are currently taking place outside of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) framework. However, the Agreement is being crafted to be compatible with GATS so that a critical mass of participants will be able to pressure remaining WTO members to sign on in the future. Conspicuously absent from the 50 countries covered by the negotiations are the BRICS countries of Brazil, Russia, India and China. The exclusive nature of TiSA will weaken their position in future services negotiations.

The draft text comes from the April 2014 negotiation round – the sixth round since the first held in April 2013. The next round of negotiations will take place on 23-27 June in Geneva, Switzerland.

Current WTO parties negotiating TISA are: Australia, Canada, Chile, Chinese Taipei (Taiwan), Colombia, Costa Rica, Hong Kong, Iceland, Israel, Japan, Liechtenstein, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, South Korea, Switzerland, Turkey, the United States, and the European Union, which includes its 28 member states Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

China and Uruguay have expressed interest in joining the negotiations but so far are not included.

[1] Swiss National Center for Competence in Research: A Plurilateral Agenda for Services?: Assessing the Case for a Trade in Services Agreement, Working Paper No. 2013/29, May 2013, p. 10.

[2] For example, in June 2012 Ecuador tabled a discussion on re-thinking regulation and GATS rules; in September 2009 the Commission of Experts on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System, convened by the President of the United Nations and chaired by Joseph Stiglitz, released its final report, stating that “All trade agreements need to be reviewed to ensure that they are consistent with the need for an inclusive and comprehensive international regulatory framework which is conducive to crisis prevention and management, counter-cyclical and prudential safeguards, development, and inclusive finance.”

Read the Secret Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) – Financial Services Annex

Read the Analysis Article – Secret Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) – Financial Services Annex

Jihad vs Jihad: Islamic State & Syrian Rebel Group Army of Islam Release Videos Executing Each Other’s Fighters

LeakSource — Wed, 01 Jul 2015 11:29:41 +0000

06/25/2015

Islamic State in Syria has released a video showing the brutal beheading 12 men accused of fighting for the terrorist group’s Al Qaeda and Army of Islam (Jaysh al-Islam) rivals. The video – titled ‘Repent Before We Apprehend You’, was released by the lesser known Damascus branch of IS. Filmed close to Syrian capital and regime stronghold Damascus, the footage shows the terrified men being interviewed and paraded in front of the camera before their execution. After ‘confessing’ to the crime of opposing Islamic State and failing to declare allegiance to the terrorist group’s leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the men are led out into a desert clearing where they are forced to their knees and each man executed by a different masked member of the IS.

Hollywood-style graphics begin the clip and show the 12 victims hunched over as they are dragged through a remote stretch of desert to the site where they will be murdered. The men walk uncomfortably due to the way their arms are bound, each forced to wear bright orange jumpsuits, and led by heavily armed men wearing full battle fatigues but with their faces exposed. The victims are then handed over to executioners, who cover their faces.

The footage momentarily rewinds and fades into a montage of Al Qaeda and Army of Islam fighters battling Islamic State, a reminder that the three jihadi groups remain fierce rivals despite having a common enemy in Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

Over the next few segments, the 12 prisoners are interviewed about the so-called crimes and are forced to confess that they wish they had joined Islamic State before it was too late. The overall theme of the video is along the same lines, and sends a clear signal to other rebel groups fighting in Syria that they must declare allegiance to IS ‘before being overcome’.

While speaking directly into the camera, the men appear clean-shaven – a rarity for jihadis and something likely to have been intended to humiliate the men before they are killed. Seconds later the clip cuts back to the victims wearing orange jumpsuits being led to their deaths.

After being marched to the execution site, the armed jihadis take a step back and another group – all of them masked and a wearing different style of combat gear – step forward to carry out the beheadings.

One fighter whose face is slightly more exposed than the others speaks in Arabic and issues another warning that other jihadi groups must accept Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as their leader or otherwise face certain death.

Over the following three minutes, the video follows the same format as other Islamic State murder videos released over the past year. Once the lead executioner finishes speaking, the militants begin to execute the victims, pushing their fingers into the men’s eyes while cutting their throats with small knives. The men wince in agony before dying, at which point the camera cuts to the altogether too familiar site of the victims’ heads being placed on their backs as a final act of humiliation.

07/01/2015

A terrorist group battling Islamic State in Syria has turned the tables on its enemies by capturing and slaughtering 18 IS soldiers on camera. Dressed in orange jumpsuits – attire usually worn by Islamic State’s victims – Army of Islam (Jaysh al-Islam) soldiers lead the shackled jihadis to their deaths. Islamic State’s captured soldiers are forced to kneel as a commander announces: ‘Allah did not make a disease without appointing a remedy to it.’ The jihadis – dressed entirely in black – are then given something to drink before each of their faces are clearly shown in the 19 minute-long video. They are then shot in the back of the head at point blank range with shotguns.

Before the Islamic State fighters are killed, an Army of Islam militant says: ‘The most serious calamity for our jihad today is a group of people who grow at a time of division among Muslims. This group claimed to be the mother state and made Takfir [accused of apostasy] on other Muslims, shed their blood and looted their properties and dignities. They worsened… the ordeal of Muslims by corrupting their religion and livelihood and killing the jihadi leaders who did their best to help our stricken nation. They wreaked havoc on our people in liberated areas and cut the supply route of jihadis. They left… Tehran intact and instead they attacked our mosques. This is the penalty for what they have committed. We also call on their fellows to repent.’

Also in the video, Army of Islam claims that through investigation and confessions, they have allegedly uncovered collaboration between senior Islamic State commanders and high-ranking officers of Syrian intelligence in Damascus, regarding destroying rebel factions in Eastern Ghouta and the government ceding the area to IS to establish an emirate there. Bear in mind that this is coming from Islamic State prisoners under duress, and from Army of Islam, who’s goal is to overthrow Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. So this information, though newsworthy, should be met with skepticism.

Led by Zahran Alloush, Army of Islam reportedly commands as many as 25,000 fighters. It was created in 2011 when Saudi Arabia allegedly engineered the merger of over 50 rebel factions after growing alarmed at the rise of al-Qaeda and Islamic State in Syria. Saudi Arabia has reportedly sent millions of dollars to arm and train their fighters, who operate in the war-ravaged Syrian city of Damascus, in their ongoing battle against President Bashar al-Assad. In April this year, the group released a striking video showing off 1,700 troops, a fleet of armoured tanks and special forces soldiers in an impressive military parade.

h/t DailyMail (1) (2)

WikiLeaks NSA Docs: Surveillance of France Presidents & Economic Espionage; Investigation Underway for New Whistleblower

LeakSource — Tue, 30 Jun 2015 08:17:06 +0000

06/23/2015

WikiLeaks:

Today, 23 June 2015, WikiLeaks began publishing “Espionnage Élysée“, a collection of TOP SECRET intelligence reports and technical documents from the US National Security Agency (NSA) concerning targeting and signals intelligence intercepts of the communications of high-level officials from successive French governments over the last ten years.

The top secret documents derive from directly targeted NSA surveillance of the communications of French Presidents Francois Hollande (2012–present), Nicolas Sarkozy (2007–2012), and Jacques Chirac (1995–2007), as well as French cabinet ministers and the French Ambassador to the United States. (Related: Snowden Document Reveals NSA Programs Used to Spy on France Embassies in US)

The documents also contain the “selectors” from the target list, detailing the cell phone numbers of numerous officials in the Elysee up to and including the direct cell phone of the President.

Prominent within the top secret cache of documents are intelligence summaries of conversations between French government officials concerning some of the most pressing issues facing France and the international community, including the global financial crisis, the Greek debt crisis, the leadership and future of the European Union, the relationship between the Hollande administration and the German government of Angela Merkel, French efforts to determine the make-up of the executive staff of the United Nations, French involvement in the conflict in Palestine and a dispute between the French and US governments over US spying on France.

A founding member state of the European Union and one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, France is formally a close ally of the United States, and plays a key role in a number of US-associated international institutions, including the Group of 7 (G7), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the World Trade Organization (WTO).

The revelation of the extent of US spying against French leaders and diplomats echoes a previous disclosure in the German press concerning US spying on the communications of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other German officials. That disclosure provoked a political scandal in Germany, eventuating in an official inquiry into German intelligence co-operation with the United States, which is still ongoing.

While the German disclosures focused on the isolated fact that senior officials were targeted by US intelligence, WikiLeaks’ publication today provides much greater insight into US spying on its allies, including the actual content of intelligence products deriving from the intercepts, showing how the US spies on the phone calls of French leaders and ministers for political, economic and diplomatic intelligence.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said: “The French people have a right to know that their elected government is subject to hostile surveillance from a supposed ally. We are proud of our work with leading French publishers Liberation and Mediapart to bring this story to light. French readers can expect more timely and important revelations in the near future.”

Documents Released 06/23/2015:

View this document on Scribd

PDF

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06/24/2015

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06/24/2015

RT (1) (2):

French President Francois Hollande has described reports from WikiLeaks that Washington spied on three French presidents as “unacceptable.” The French Foreign Ministry is summoning the US ambassador to shed light on the allegations.

Hollande released the statement following an emergency meeting with key heads of intelligence and ministers at the Elysee Palace in the French capital.

“France will not tolerate actions that threaten its security and the protection of its interests,” the president’s office said, adding that allegations of spying on French interests had been made in the past.

“Commitments were made by the US authorities. They need to be recalled and strictly respected,” Reuters reported.

A French government spokesman said Paris will send a senior intelligence official to the US to discuss the spying reports.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius has also summoned the US ambassador to France, Jane Hartley, to explain reports from WikiLeaks.

Before the hastily scheduled conference, Stephane Le Foll, a politician with the Socialist Party, lashed out at Washington.

“It is difficult to accept that between allies… there can be this kind of activity, particularly related to wiretapping linked to the president of the Republic,” Le Foll told iTele.

“When we are fighting terrorism, one has trouble imagining or understanding what would motivate an ally to spy on his allies,” he added. “There are enough dangerous crises in the world today.”

US President Barack Obama has assured his French counterpart Francois Hollande that Washington was not tapping his communications, the White House says.

In the phone call, Obama“reiterated that we have abided by the commitment we made to our French counterparts in late 2013 that we are not targeting and will not target the communications of the French president,” the White House said in a statement.

Nothing was said about the period beween 2006 and 2012, wwhich was mentioned by Wikileaks, though.

The statement released by Hollande’s office after the conversation, said in turn that “President Obama reiterated unequivocally his firm commitment … to end the practices that may have happened in the past and that are considered unacceptable among allies.”

Despite the surveillance scandal, the statement then said that French intelligence officials will soon go to Washington to “strengthen cooperation.”

US media cited a statement from the NSA saying it was not targeting and would not target Hollande’s communications. The statement did not deny spying had taken place in the past.

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06/24/2015

Mark Hosenball/Reuters:

U.S. and European security authorities are investigating whether a previously unknown leaker provided sensitive intelligence documents to WikiLeaks about alleged U.S. spying on French politicians, according to sources familiar with the matter.

U.S. and European security sources said the United States and allied governments were actively considering the possibility that someone other than former NSA contractor Edward Snowden provided the latest documents to WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange.

Two people familiar with documentation which Snowden acquired when he worked as an NSA contractor and later supplied to media outlets said that they do not recall seeing these kind of reports among those materials.

But some sources familiar with the investigations said it was still possible that these documents originated with Snowden.

The U.S. and European sources cautioned that they did not know for sure that Assange had developed a source other than Snowden inside U.S. intelligence. Assange has been in contact with associates of Snowden and helped arrange for him to flee from Hong Kong to Russia, where he was later granted asylum.

But until now, Assange, who three years ago took refuge in Ecuador’s Embassy in London, has published few if any documents directly attributed to either Snowden’s leaks or to the NSA.

Associates of Snowden have said that they believe he deliberately avoided giving sensitive U.S. documents to Assange.

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French editorial: We should give Snowden asylum, US "contempt" for allies has gone too far: https://t.co/aSt9MpXj0x by me

— Jenna McLaughlin (@JennaMC_Laugh) June 25, 2015

An update on my first story today: French Justice minister wouldn’t be surprised if France gave Snowden asylum: https://t.co/Fb0sM8ACYV

— Jenna McLaughlin (@JennaMC_Laugh) June 25, 2015

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US a surveillance superpower spying on foes & allies alike – Assange http://t.co/HfigHhpuUV pic.twitter.com/GbnGyJ0cnq

— RT (@RT_com) June 28, 2015

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06/29/2015

WikiLeaks:

Today, 29 June 2015, WikiLeaks continues “Espionnage Élysée”, our ongoing publication of a collection of TOP SECRET documents from United States surveillance operations against France.

Today’s publication comprises seven top secret documents detailing how the US has had a decade- long policy of economic espionage against France, including the interception of all French corporate contracts and negotiations valued at more than $200 million. The documents demonstrate that the US National Security Agency, far from being a rogue organisation, is carrying out an economic espionage policy created by the US Director of National Intelligence. The documents detail the intelligence process, from the tasking of the NSA with collection of desired economic information to the production of developed intelligence reports, which are sent to “Supported Elements” of the US government, including the US Department of Commerce, the US Trade Represenative, the US Treasury and the Central Intelligence Agency.

Central within the cache of documents are two long-term spying orders (“collection requirements”) which define the kinds of intelligence the NSA is tasked with collecting in its surveillance operations against France.

The documents make clear that the NSA has been tasked with obtaining intelligence on all aspects of the French economy, from government policy, diplomacy, banking and participation in international bodies to infrastructural development, business practices and trade activities. The documents establish that the US economic intelligence operations against France have run for more than a decade and started as early as 2002.

Some of the documents are authorised for sharing with the “Five Eyes” partners – the group of Anglophone countries in close intelligence co-operation with the United States: Canada, New Zealand, Australia and France’s fellow member state of the European Union, the United Kingdom, strongly suggesting that the United Kingdom has also benefited from the United States’ economic espionage activities against France.

The cache also includes five TOP SECRET intelligence summaries from US spying on the conversations and communications of French officials. The documents show US spying on the French Finance Minister, a French Senator, officials within the Treasury and Economic Policy Directorate, the French ambassador to the United States, and officials with direct responsibility for EU trade policy. The intercepts reveal internal French deliberation and policy on the World Trade Organization, the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, the G7 and the G20, the 2013 French budget, the decline of the automotive industry in France, and the involvement of French companies in the Oil for Food programme in Iraq during the 1990s.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said: “The United States has been conducting economic espionage against France for more than a decade. Not only has it spied on the French Finance Minister, it has ordered the interception of every French company contract or negotiation valued at more than $200 million. That covers not only all of France’s major companies, from BNP Paribas, AXA and Credit Agricole to Peugeot and Renault, Total and Orange, but it also affects the major French farming associations. $200 million is roughly 3,000 French jobs. Hundreds of such contracts are signed every year. The United States not only uses the results of this spying itself, but swaps these intercepts with the United Kingdom. Do French citizens deserve to know that their country is being taken to the cleaners by the spies of supposedly allied countries? Mais oui!”

Documents Released 06/29/2015:

View this document on Scribd

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NSA Document: 2012 “Flame” Cyberattack on France Presidential Computer Network; US Denies Involvement, Israel May Be Culprit

AQIM Video Shows South African/Swedish Hostages in Mali, Unveils Al-Qaeda’s Own “Jihadi John” with British Accent

LeakSource — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 03:32:44 +0000

06/23/2015

Caleb Weiss/LongWarJournal/Elias Groll/ForeignPolicy:

There’s the British-accented jihadi defiantly addressing the camera, the attempts at slick cuts between desert scenes, and the Western hostages in chains. But this isn’t an Islamic State video; it’s a dispatch from the Sahara branch of al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the group’s Mali affiliate. It’s the latest example of how radical Islamist groups are appropriating the visual language of the Islamic State and attempting to imitate its strikingly successful propaganda efforts.

AQIM’s new video shows the last two Western hostages held in Mali, Swede Johan Gustofsson and South African Stephen McGowan, pleading to their respective governments in the video produced by the Saharan branch of AQIM’s media wing, Al Andalus.

The video opens with a man addressing the camera and speaking in tones made famous by “Jihadi John,” the fighter who gained infamy for beheading Western hostages on tape. “Welcome to the world’s largest prison, a prison that has no boundaries, a prison that has no walls, no cells, no bars. A prison with a fear, where prison break is nonexistent,” the masked AQIM fighter says. “This is the mujahideen’s prison — the Sahara.” The jihadist then points out that the area is part of the “new territory controlled by the mujahideen.” It is unclear what area the captor is referring to, although it may be in central Mali.

The video was likely recorded in late 2014, as the jihadist in the video explains that the two were captured “three years ago.”

The two hostages are then seen having their handcuffs removed (above) before being taken to a wooded area where questioning commences between them and the jihadists. A narrator explains to the viewer that the two have been held for over 1000 days after being captured in Timbuktu in 2011 by a “special unit” of AQIM.

The two hostages are then seen asking a series of questions about the status of negotiations for their release. Their captor tells them that “The French government is impeding the negotiations.” The figure says that the French and Malian governments are trying to buy time so that they “do not have to submit to the demands of the mujahideen.”

“They are making it very difficult for your governments and the mujahideen to come to an agreement,” he continues. The jihadist then shows the two a video of former French hostage Serge Lazarevic being released. Lazarevic was seized in 2011 in Mali by AQIM forces there. He was kidnapped along with another French national, Philippe Verdon, who was killed in 2013 by AQIM in Mali. Lazarevic was released late last year in exchange for four AQIM militants. However, the jihadist in the video says that seven AQIM fighters were released, including two that were involved in the kidnapping of Lazarevic.

After expressing shock that they were not included in those negotiations, McGowan speaks directly to the camera. In a statement directed at the South African government, he says that he hopes it “continues to assist” in his release. “I hope something can be done,” he continues, “I hope a negotiation can be brokered.”

McGowan then speaks to his family saying that he loves them and that he is thankful for their support. To his wife, he says he hopes they can still pursue the plans they had before his capture. Gustofsson then makes a statement expressing his sadness for putting his family through the difficulties of his captivity.

Gustofsson then pleads to the Swedish government to “help in giving information and support to my family.” To his family, he also expresses his love and tells them to continue to live their lives. “I don’t know how this is going to end,” he says, “but our time together till now has been wonderful.” He then speaks to the French government saying that “France has a big responsibility” to help in their release.

McGowan and Gustofsson were kidnapped in Timbuktu in 2011, along with Dutch citizen Sjaak Rijke. A German national was also with them, but he died in the assault. Rijke appeared in an AQIM video released in November alongside Serge Lazarevic, in which both spoke to their respective governments for their release. Rijke was freed in April after a French raid on AQIM militants in northern Mali. According to the BBC, his presence caught the French special operators by surprise; it was only after the fighting was over when they realized the militants were holding the Dutch hostage. (For more information, see LWJ reports, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb video features French, Dutch hostages and French forces free Dutch hostage in Mali.)

AQIM has a history of taking Western hostages. In 2010, Michel Germaneau, a French hostage held by AQIM, died while in captivity. And in 2013, four French hostages were released by AQIM after being held for three years; it is speculated that a ransom of 20 million Euros was paid to free them.

Before that, AQIM was responsible for the kidnapping of Spanish nationals in Mauritania and an Italian and French national in Mali in 2009, as well as many more abductions throughout North Africa. The al Qaeda branch’s prolific kidnappings have even led senior al Qaeda leaders to tighten their control over the hostage-taking operations.

In November 2010, AQIM emir Abdelmalek Droukdel made a surprising claim in a video that was aired on Al Jazeera. Droukdel said that France would have to negotiate with Osama bin Laden himself to secure the release of several French hostages. [See LWJ report, Analysis: Al Qaeda central tightened control over hostage operations.]

As a statement, the video is more an homage to the style of the Islamic State than a replication of their efforts. The captives aren’t seen wearing orange jumpsuits, and no threats are issued against the hostages’ lives. The AQIM video isn’t nearly as slick as those produced by the Islamic State. The audio quality is lower. The lighting is worse. It includes several cartoonish, melodramatic moments, in which fighters try to impress the viewer and come across looking somewhat buffoonish. But in comparison to their previous video showcasing Western hostages, the latest AQIM video marks a step-up in production quality.

The attempt to imitate the Islamic State comes amid a reported split within AQIM as to whether it should pledge allegiance to the group that has established what it calls a caliphate in parts of Syria and Iraq. In December, AQIM’s judicial authority said that the Islamic State had not met the requirements in Islamic law to establish a caliphate. Then in March, two AQIM divisions reportedly pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.

Monday’s hostage video contains no reference to the Islamic State and AQIM’s relationship to it. But within the context of the sophisticated public relations campaigns waged by AQIM and similar groups, it’s difficult not to interpret this visual homage to its brutal Syrian cousin as a slight tacking toward that group.

MI5 and MI6 are believed to be investigating the video and the apparent Briton, according to the Telegraph. A senior Whitehall source agreed that al-Qaeda was trying to mimic the Jihadi John persona and style of video.

Islamic State Death Cult Finds Gruesome New Ways to Murder “Spies”: RPG’d in Car, Drowned in Cage, Explosive Collars

LeakSource — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 03:06:52 +0000

*Disclaimer: LeakSource in no way supports the actions of Islamic State. We are a news site dedicated to covering things that the mainstream media should but won’t. We believe that on top of using terrorism fears to restrict free speech, censoring of these videos only helps the process of radicalization. People need to see the barbarity of this group and realize it is nothing but a death cult, and does not represent the majority of peaceful Muslims in the world.

06/23/2015

WSJ:

Islamic State militants on Tuesday released a video purporting to show 15 Iraqi men accused of espionage being blown up or drowned. The video, titled “But If You Return, We Shall Return,” was released by the Sunni extremist group’s affiliate in Iraq’s northern Nineveh province.

The video shows the accused men, who each confesses to the camera that he committed espionage against Islamic State. The video shows one man confessing that an officer called “Lieutenant Bassem,” from Iraq’s police commando unit had asked them to form a battalion to kill Islamic State leaders. In another recorded confession, an accused spy named Ahmed Othman addresses the Lieutenant Bassam directly. “All that you are doing is useless, and all that you are doing is hurting innocent people,” he says. “Islamic State is fighting against 60 countries, now you want to fight Islamic State alone.”

The men are then shown executed in three groups. In the first, three men sit together in a car that is blown up by a rocket-propelled grenade fired by a masked militant. In the next sequence, five men are placed in large a cage that is then lowered into a pool of water. In the final execution, seven men are made to kneel and then shown tied together with an explosive cord around each of their necks. The cord is then detonated, severing their heads. After each set of killings, the camera slowly pans over the corpses.

An unidentified narrator says the deaths are the result of airstrikes carried out by the U.S.-led coalition on Mosul, Islamic State’s stronghold in Iraq. He says a child was among the injured victims of the airstrikes. The narrator says the men shown being executed in the video had given the pilots the coordinates at which to strike.

The video is among the most graphic released by Islamic State, which has cultivated a reputation for staging gruesome execution videos as part of propaganda aimed at discouraging espionage against the group and recruiting impressionable potential fighters. Tuesday’s video is unique for its use of multiple executions. A previous video released last month showed a suspected spy crucified on a cross and dismembered by a sword-wielding militant. Another video released early this year showed a captured Jordanian pilot being burned alive in a cage.

New Islamic State video and CIA torture … photos of actions and outcomes look rather similar… https://t.co/CPw5XlUxgm #ISIS #CIA

— Carol Anne Grayson (@Quickieleaks) June 23, 2015