The targets are journalists, activists, opposition party leaders, human rights lawyers, 11 unnamed U.S. officials in Uganda, Palestinian activists. The Israeli-made Pegasus spyware, sold by the cyberoffense firm NSO to state intelligence agencies around the world, has become infamous in recent years. Exploiting unknown loopholes in WhatsApp, iMessage and Android has allowed the group’s clients to potentially infect any smartphone and gain full access to it – in some cases without the owner even clicking or opening a file. Digital forensics groups such as Amnesty International and the...
Amnesty
Salafis Throwing Bombs: How American and British Planners Partnered With Al-Qaeda Affiliated Groups At the Start of the Syrian Civil War
Introduction In the mainstream view, al-Qaeda did not play a role in the Syria conflict until Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi dispatched his deputy, Abu Muhammad al-Jolani, to Syria in August 2011 to establish a wing of the group there, called Jabhat al-Nusra, or the Nusra Front. Additionally, al-Qaeda allegedly did not carry out any military operations until December 2011 and did not announce its establishment until January 2012. However, there is evidence that al-Qaeda affiliated militants were involved in the Syrian conflict much earlier. Saudi intelligence...
News Roundup 10/19/17
Patrick Cockburn explains how the US could lose by Trump decertifying the Iran nuclear agreement. [Link] Catalonia's president said Catalonia will secede from Spain if Spain removes Catalan autonomy. [Link] Amnesty International says the Myanmar forces killed hundreds of Rohingya civilians and estimate the number of dead is likely much higher. The Rohingya were targeted by the Myanmar forces and driven from their homes. [Link] Malta journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed in a car bomb assassination. Galizia was involved in the release of the Panama Papers. [Link] Iraqi Kurdish...
NYT’s Syria ‘Crematory’ Story Based on Flawed Report
The New York Times ran a story on Monday entitled “Syrian Crematory is Hiding Mass Killings of Prisoners, U.S. Says,” alleging the Syrian regime is killing large numbers of its prisoners and burning their bodies in a Nazi-style crematorium, but that claim largely relies on prior reporting from human rights group Amnesty International which does not hold up to scrutiny. The Times report cites newly declassified satellite photographs of the Sednaya Prison complex taken over the last four years, paraphrasing acting assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, Stuart Jones, who said...
2/15/17 Rick Sterling discusses Amnesty International’s sordid history using false accusations to stoke wars – this time in Syria
Rick Sterling, an investigative journalist based in the San Francisco Bay Area, discusses the many flaws in Amnesty International's report accusing the Syrian government of executing thousands of political prisoners in mass hangings. This is AI's contribution to the West's propaganda machine that is trying to escalate the war in Syria and push for Assad's ouster. AI has previously backed up false accusations (the infamous incubator babies) against Iraq in the lead up to the Gulf War and against Libya in 2011 as the US-backed regime change operation...
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