Cardinal Pell: 'Clear headed' women will help 'sentimental males' clean up Vatican finances

Hannah Brockhaus - Jan 14, 2021

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Cardinal George Pell welcomed Thursday Pope Francis’ inclusion of lay women on the Vatican’s economy council, saying he hopes “clear headed” women will help “sentimental males” do the right thing concerning Church finances.

In August 2020, Pope Francis named 13 new members, including six cardinals, six lay women, and one lay man, to the Council for the Economy, which oversees Vatican finances and the work of the Secretariat for the Economy.

Speaking during a Jan. 14 webinar about financial transparency in the Catholic Church, Pell praised the appointees as “highly competent women with great professional backgrounds.”

“So I’m hopeful they will be very clear headed on the basic issues and insist that we sentimental males get our act together and do the right thing,” he said.

“Financially I’m not sure the Vatican can continue losing money the way we’re losing money,” the Australian cardinal continued. Pell, who was prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy from 2014 to 2019, pointed out that “on top of that, there are very real pressures … from the pension fund.”

“Grace won’t exempt us from these things,” the cardinal stated.

Pell, who was acquitted this year after becoming the highest-ranking Catholic cleric to be convicted of sexual abuse, was the guest speaker at a webinar entitled “Creating a Transparent Culture in the Catholic Church,” hosted by the Global Institute of Church Management (GICM).

He addressed the question of how to have financial transparency in both the Vatican and in Catholic dioceses and religious congregations.

He described financial transparency as letting “the light in on these things,” adding, “if there’s a mess, it’s good to know about it.”

A lack of transparency about missteps just makes the Catholic laity disconcerted and worried, he warned. They say they need to know about things “and that’s got to be respected and their basic questions answered.”

The cardinal said he is strongly in favor of regular external audits for dioceses and religious congregations: “I do think some form of audit is possible in nearly every situation. And whether we call it accountability or whether we call it transparency, there are different levels of interest and education among the lay people about wanting to know about the money.”

Pell also posited that many of the Vatican’s present financial troubles, especially the controversial purchase of a London property, might have been prevented, or “would have been recognized earlier,” if an external audit by Pricewaterhouse Cooper had not been canceled in April 2016.

About recent changes to finances at the Vatican, such as the transfer of management of investments from the Secretariat of State to APSA, the cardinal noted that when he was at the Vatican, he said it was less important who was controlling certain sections of the money, than that it was being managed well, and that the Vatican was seeing a good return on investments.

The transfer to APSA needs to be done well and competently, he stated, and the Secretariat of Economy needs to have the power to be able to stop things if they need to be stopped.

“The pope’s plan to set up a board of experts to manage the investments, coming out of Covid, coming out of the financial pressures we are presently experiencing, that will be absolutely vital,” he added.

(continued)

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According to Pell, the pope’s charitable fund, called Peter’s Pence, “faces a gigantic challenge.” The fund is intended for the charitable activities of the pope and to defray some of the costs of running the Roman Curia.

The fund should never have been used for investments, he stated, noting that he has “fought for years for the principle that if donors give money for a specific purpose, it should be used for that specific purpose.”

As financial reform continues to be enacted at the Vatican, the cardinal emphasized the importance of having the right personnel.

He said having competent people in charge of financial affairs is an essential first step toward changing the culture to one of more accountability and transparency.

“There’s a close connection between incompetency and being robbed,” Pell commented. “If you have competent people in place who know what they’re doing, it’s much harder to be robbed.”

In a diocese, one important aspect is having a finance council made up of experienced people who “understand money,” who meet often, whom the bishop consults, and whose advice the bishop follows.

“One hazard of course is if your finance council doesn’t understand that you’re a Church and not a business.” The first priority is not financial profit, but care of the poor, the unfortunate, the sick, and social assistance, he said.

The cardinal praised the contribution of lay people, saying, “at every level, from diocese, to archdiocese, to Rome I’ve been impressed at the large number of competent people who are willing to give their time to the Church for nothing.”

“We need lay leaders there, Church leaders there, who do know the basics of management of money who can ask the right questions and find the right answers.”

He also encouraged dioceses to not wait for the Vatican always to lead the way on enacting financial reform, even if it should.

“We’ve made some progress in the Vatican and I agree the Vatican should be taking the lead – Pope Francis knows that and is trying to do that. But just like any organization, you can’t always make everything happen as quickly as you want,” he opined.

Pell warned that money can be “a tainting thing,” and fascinates many clerics. “I had been a priest for decades when someone pointed out to me the dangers of money being about hypocrisy,” he said. “It’s not the most important thing we’re doing.”

“For the Church, money is not of first importance or of every importance.”

Pell was initially convicted in Australia in 2018 of multiple counts of sexual abuse. On April 7, 2020, Australia’s High Court overturned his six-year prison sentence. The High Court ruled that he should not have been found guilty of the charges and that the prosecution had not proven their case beyond a reasonable doubt.

Pell spent 13 months in solitary confinement, during which time he was not permitted to celebrate Mass.

The cardinal still faces a canonical investigation at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome, though after his conviction was overturned, several canonical experts said it was unlikely he would face a Church trial.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/cardinal-pell-clear-headed-women-will-help-sentimental-males-clean-up-vatican-finances-28128

>>12142216

Austrac’s reputation harmed by $2bn Vatican discrepancy, Concetta Fierravanti-Wells says

DENNIS SHANAHAN - JANUARY 14, 2021

Australia’s international financial watchdog has been warned the $2bn discrepancy on its reporting of Vatican money transfers has “reflected badly” on its inter­national reputation and raised further questions about alle­gations of money laundering and corruption.

NSW Liberal senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells has asked Austrac to “ensure full disclosure and transparency” of bank transfers from the Vatican City to Australia for the past six years that it had overestimated by more than $2bn.

Austrac told the Senate legal and constitutional committee before Christmas that $2.3bn had been transferred to Australia from the Vatican City in answer to questions about money laundering and allegations that funds were transferred to adversely affect the trial of Cardinal George Pell. It was calculated that $2.3bn was transferred in more than 40,000 transactions between 2014 and 2020, with a peak of $581m in 2017.

After weeks of working with the Holy See’s Financial Intelligence Unit, Austrac confirmed there were only 362 transfers from the Vatican to Australia during that time, with a total value of $9.5m. The peak year was still 2017 with $2.6m transferred.

“Austrac’s ‘discrepancy’ regarding the reporting of the transfer of Vatican funds reflects badly on its international reputation,” Senator Fierravanti-Wells told The Australian on Thursday. “The revised information provided to the Senate committee bring more clarity to the main issue: where did the ­Vatican funds go, and for what purpose?”

“Serious allegations relating to alleged use of funds in the Pell matter remain extant and all relevant law enforcement authorities need to expedite full investigations of the matter,” she said.

The original Austrac figures also showed $117.4m was sent from Australia to the Vatican, likely part of an annual fund for charities, during the same period. The revised figures show that between 2014 and 2020, there were only 237 transfers from Australia to the Vatican totalling $26.6m.

“Austrac has worked with the Holy See and Vatican City State Financial Intelligence Unit as part of the process,” the agency said in a statement on Tuesday.

A computer coding error is blamed for the miscalculation, with many financial transfers to Italy being included in transfers to the Vatican City State.

Austrac confirmed to The Australian that investigations were continuing into specific suspicious transfers from the Vatican to Australia.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/austracs-reputation-harmed-by-2bn-vatican-discrepancy-concetta-fierravantiwells-says/news-story/75620e74578b0049629763971b225690

US Capitol rioter Jacob Chansley asks for presidential pardon, saying he was 'answering the call' of Donald Trump

Wires/ABC - 15 January 2021

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The lawyer for the US Capitol siege rioter known as the "QAnon shaman" has asked for a presidential pardon for his client, as another member of the mob who stormed the building faces court for allegedly planning to take hostages using zip-tie handcuffs.

The FBI has identified more than 200 suspects and more than 100 people have been arrested in relation to the Capitol riot, with charges ranging from curfew violations to serious federal felonies related to theft and weapons possession.

The violence, which left five dead including a Capitol Police officer, led to the impeachment of President Donald Trump by the House of Representatives on a charge of inciting an insurrection.

Jacob Chansley — who is known as the "QAnon shaman" for following the QAnon conspiracy theory and being photographed wearing a fur hat, face paint and holding a spear — has been charged with unlawful and violent entry of the Capitol building, as well as "active participation in an insurrection" to overthrow the US Government.

But his lawyer Albert Watkins told CNN Mr Chansley was not a violent person and should be pardoned as he felt "he was answering the call" of Mr Trump by entering the building.

"My client did not break into the Capitol, my client had the doors of the Capitol held for him by Capitol police," Mr Watkins said, adding Mr Trump invited him to enter the Capitol during his speech prior to the riot.

Mr Watkins said Mr Trump "needs to be accountable" for encouraging the rioters, "and the only honourable thing for him to do for those who were peace-loving, for those who did go there with peace in mind, who weren't going there to be violent" was to "own" those protesters and pardon them.

Mr Chansley was in the military and had no criminal history, Mr Watkins said, adding that his client was a "genuine shaman".

"The guy is wearing a fur, he has horns on, he's a shaman, he practices yoga, meditates all day long, he couldn't be a more gentle, soft-spoken human being," Mr Watkins said of Mr Chansley, who is also known as Jake Angeli.

But a court filing from the US Justice Department claimed Mr Chansley left a threatening note for US Vice-President Mike Pence, warning "it's only a matter of time, justice is coming".

"Strong evidence, including Chansley's own words and actions at the Capitol, supports that the intent of the Capitol rioters was to capture and assassinate elected officials in the United States Government," prosecutors wrote.

They also suggested he suffers from drug abuse and mental illness, and told a judge he poses a serious flight risk.

"Chansley has spoken openly about his belief that he is an alien, a higher being, and he is here on Earth to ascend to another reality," they wrote, asking for Mr Chansley to be detained.

(continued)

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Air Force officer accused of planning to take hostages

The FBI has been investigating whether some of the rioters had planned to kidnap members of Congress and hold them hostage.

In a Texas court, a prosecutor alleged a retired Air Force officer who was part of the mob that stormed the Capitol carried plastic zip-tie handcuffs because he intended "to take hostages".

"He means to take hostages. He means to kidnap, restrain, perhaps try, perhaps execute members of the US Government," Assistant US Attorney Jay Weimer said of retired Lieutenant Colonel Larry Rendall Brock Jr, without providing specifics.

The prosecutor had argued that Lieutenant Colonel Brock should be detained, but Magistrate Judge Jeffrey L Cureton said he would release him to home confinement.

Judge Cureton ordered Lieutenant Colonel Brock to surrender any firearms and said he could have only limited internet access as conditions of that release.

"I need to put you on a very short rope," Cureton said.

"These are strange times for our country and the concerns raised by the government do not fall on deaf ears."

Before his arrest, Lieutenant Colonel Brock told The New Yorker magazine that he found the zip-tie cuffs on the floor and that he had planned to give them to a police officer.

"I wish I had not picked those up," he said.

Retired firefighter accused of hurling fire extinguisher at police

The Justice Department has brought more than 80 criminal cases so far since the Capitol riot on January 6, which attempted to prevent Congress from certifying Joe Biden as the winner of the US presidential election.

The acting US Attorney for the District of Columbia said that while many of the initial charges may seem minor, he expects much more serious charges to be filed as the Justice Department continues its investigation.

A federal judge ordered a retired firefighter in Pennsylvania to be detained pending trial, after prosecutors filed charges alleging he hurled a fire extinguisher at police during the attack.

In sworn statements, investigators said the object ricocheted multiple times and struck three officers, one of whom was not wearing a helmet.

Prosecutors said in court that a search warrant executed at 55-year-old Robert Sanford's Pennsylvania home uncovered paraphernalia referencing the far-right Proud Boys group.

Mr Sanford's lawyer told the judge his client is not a member of any extremist group and has no criminal history.

FBI using videos and images to identify riot participants

Many of the people arrested so far were captured on social media bragging about taking part in the assault, and the FBI has been combing through more than 100,000 videos and photographs.

Prosecutors say a Delaware man photographed carrying a Confederate battle flag during the riot has been arrested after authorities used the image to help identify him.

Both Kevin Seefried and his son Hunter Seefried entered the Senate building through a broken window, according to prosecutors.

They were charged with unlawfully entering a restricted building, violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds and degradation of government property.

Court documents say the men were identified after the FBI was told by a co-worker of Hunter Seefried's that he had bragged about being in the Capitol with his father.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-01-15/qanon-shaman-asks-for-presidential-pardon-for-us-capitol-raid/13061998

Operation Arkstone update: Sydney man arrested in large-scale investigation into an online network of child sex offenders

A large-scale Australian Federal Police (AFP)-led investigation into an online network of alleged child sex offenders has led to the arrest of 17th man under Operation Arkstone, with a 26-year-old NSW man due to face Hornsby Local Court today (15 January 2021).

The Lane Cove man was arrested in his home by the AFP yesterday (14 January 2021) and is facing child abuse material offences, a bestiality offence with one animal removed from harm and one charge of allegedly committing an act of indecency.

The nationwide investigation, known as Operation Arkstone, began in February 2020 and has now led to the arrest of 11 men in NSW.

The 26-year-old arrested yesterday has become the 17th man charged in Australia as part of Operation Arkstone.

The investigation was initially announced in June 2020, and late last year, the AFP revealed Operation Arkstone had resulted in 828 charges laid and 46 child victims identified to date as of November 2020.

AFP investigators from Eastern Command Child Protection Operations arrested the first man in February 2020, following a report to the AFP-led Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE) from the US National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).

Evidence analysed from the arrest in February 2020 revealed an online network of alleged child sex offenders producing and sharing child abuse material with their peers on social media forums.

Since the first arrest, AFP investigators and forensic specialists have been examining the evidence from each arrest and identifying more alleged offenders linked to this network of online child sex offenders.

Through this evidence, a 26-year-old Lane Cove man was identified and subject to further investigation.

AFP officers executed a search warrant at the man's residence in Lane Cove yesterday, seizing and examining a mobile phone allegedly containing child abuse material.

He was subsequently arrested and charged with:

• Three counts of possessing or controlling child abuse material obtained or accessed using a carriage service contrary to section 474.22A of the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth);

• Two counts of using a carriage service to transmit child abuse material contrary to section 474.22 of the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth);

• One count of bestiality contrary to section 79 of the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW); and

• One count of wilful and obscene exposure in a public place contrary to section 5 of the Summary Offences Act 1988 (NSW).

The maximum penalty for these offences is 15 years' imprisonment. AFP Detective Superintendent Ben McQuillan said the horrific acts committed in the child abuse material shared amongst this network of alleged child sex offenders is something no child should ever be subjected to.

"Our investigators have been combing through every image, video and communication since Operation Arkstone began, to find and bring to justice those who carelessly abuse and forever traumatise our children," D/Supt. McQuillan said.

"We are continuing to examine the evidence seized throughout the investigation and have not ruled out the possibility of further arrests."

The 26-year-old Lane Cove man was bail refused and remanded in custody to appear in Hornsby Local Court today.

Members of the public who have any information about this network or people involved in child abuse and exploitation are urged to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

You can also make a report online by alerting the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation via the Report Abuse button - https://www.accce.gov.au/report

Note to Media:

Use of term 'CHILD ABUSE' MATERIAL NOT 'CHILD PORNOGRAPHY' The correct legal term is Child Abuse Material – the move to this wording was among amendments to Commonwealth legislation in 2019 to more accurately reflect the gravity of the crimes and the harm inflicted on victims. Use of the phrase "child pornography" is inaccurate and benefits child sex abusers because it:

• indicates legitimacy and compliance on the part of the victim and therefore legality on the part of the abuser; and

• conjures images of children posing in 'provocative' positions, rather than suffering horrific abuse.

Every photograph or video captures an actual situation where a child has been abused.

Editors note: Vision of arrest available via Hightail - https://spaces.hightail.com/receive/BPkGzdmLVM

https://www.afp.gov.au/news-media/media-releases/operation-arkstone-update-sydney-man-arrested-large-scale-investigation

Generations will discuss Trump’s descent into madness

Schoolchildren, decades from now, will ask their teacher: What went wrong with him at the end?

CAMERON STEWART - January 14, 2021

The impeachment of Donald Trump for the second time is the climax of an astonishing post-election meltdown which will be discussed by presidential historians for generations.

Trump’s trajectory from election night on 3 November, where he seemed the likely winner in early counting to the ignominy of his current predicament is a riches to rags tale.

Trump’s impeachment is the direct result of an appallingly misjudged speech that will haunt him for the rest of his life.

But that speech and the crowd’s violent response to it at the Capitol building was also the culmination of months of bad behaviour by Trump which has bordered on loopy and deranged.

There will be so many questions that historians will try to answer as they seek to piece together why it was that Trump behaved as he did during these few months, all but squandering his legacy during the lame duck period of his presidency.

Did he really believe in his heart that the election was rigged? Did he really not understand how mail ballots would impact on the result? Did he really think that it was all the co-ordinated work of crooked Democrats? Did he really expect that Republican officials in Georgia would overturn that state’s result for him? Did he really believe that Americans would accept Vice President Mike Pence unilaterally overturning the election vote to install Trump for a second term? Did he really believe that the US Supreme Court would help overturn the election result to repay him for appointing three conservative judges to it? Or was all of this an elaborate cover to hide a bruised ego and to project the image of a wronged martyr to his supporters?

What can be said for certain is that losing the election caused Trump to lose his judgment and common sense in a way that we hadn’t seen before despite his volatile presidency.

It makes you wonder whether the advisers surrounding him also failed him badly. After all, they were the B-Team, having been the replacements for a longline of predecessors who Trump sacked. Were they also yes-men and women who told him the delusions that he wanted to hear? His decision to keep conspiracist Rudy Giuliani to spearhead his election fraud fight and, for awhile, the truly loopy lawyer Sidney Powell, suggests Trump was living in a parallel universe on the issue of election fraud.

Trump’s misjudgements on the fateful day of the Capitol siege went far beyond his fiery speech in which he urged people to march on the Capitol and fight for America.

Even when the mob stormed the building, Trump is said to have just stared at the TV screen in ‘borderline excitement’ refusing all requests to call for peace or to call in the national guard.

Where were Trump’s advisers at that critical moment – were they forcefully warning him of the gravity of the situation? Or did they try and he ignored them?

There is so much that historians will want to learn about the mystery of Trump’s mind in these past few months. How did a president, for all his faults, suddenly turn into King Lear?

The looming Senate trial may uncover a little more about what Trump was really thinking as he descended into these few months of madness.

When the history of the Trump era is written, the great mystery will be the final chapter. Schoolchildren, decades from now, will ask their teacher the simple question: What went wrong with him at the end?

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/generations-will-discuss-donald-trumps-descent-into-madness-and-impeachment/news-story/d05440b3a1efcb1cce7021ebb5849e18

George Papadopoulos Tweets

Breaking: the President will have all declassified Obamagate files released to the American public as early as tomorrow

https://twitter.com/GeorgePapa19/status/1349883993580335112

—

I have been contacted by media of 7 different countries for comment on the impending declassification, and the msm. It’s clear the rush to impeach was to try and distract from the avalanche of documents being released today that will shock the conscious of a nation

https://twitter.com/GeorgePapa19/status/1350142355949694976

>>12539059

Graham releases Russia probe docs, slams original investigation as 'incompetent, corrupt'

EXCLUSIVE: Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham on Friday released a slew of additional documents and transcripts related to his panel’s investigation into the origins and aftermath of the Trump-Russia probe, calling the original probe "one of the most incompetent and corrupt investigations in the history of the FBI and DOJ."

The first investigation – which looked into whether members of President Trump’s 2016 campaign colluded with the Russians to influence the election – was called "Crossfire Hurricane" Graham, the senior Republican senator from South Carolina, released transcripts of interviews with FBI and Justice Department officials conducted by the committee, between March 3, 2020 and October 29, 2020.

"I consider the Crossfire Hurricane investigation a massive system failure by senior leadership, but not representative of the dedicated, hardworking patriots who protect our nation every day at Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Justice," Graham said in a statement Friday, saying his committee has released "as much material as possible," but noted that "some classified material has still been withheld."

Calling the "Crossfire Hurricane" operation "one of the most incompetent and corrupt investigations in the history of the FBI and DOJ," Graham also said he "appreciates all those who participated in the depositions and their candor. "They have charted a path to allow us to reform the system."

"The FISA court was lied to. Exculpatory information was withheld on those being investigated. The investigators, with some notable exceptions, were incredibly biased and used the powers of law enforcement for political purposes," Graham said. "The subjects of the investigation had their lives turned upside down. It is my hope that counterintelligence investigations will be reined in and this never happens again in America."

Graham slammed the leadership of the FBI under former Director James Comey and former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, saying it was "either grossly incompetent" or said "they knowingly allowed tremendous misdeeds."

"There was a blind eye turned toward any explanation other than the Trump campaign was colluding with foreign powers," he continued. "At every turn the FBI and DOJ ran stop signs that were in abundance regarding exculpatory information."

Also receiving the ire of the four-term senator was the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which issued warrants against former Trump campaign aide Carter Page. Graham called that acting "a travesty" and noted that former DOJ officials who signed those warrants, such former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates, "have acknowledged that if they knew then what they know now, they would not have signed it."

Ultimately Graham said of Crossfire Hurricane, "There was no ‘there’ there," and contends that the "investigation was pushed when it should have been stopped and the only logical explanation is that the investigators wanted an outcome because of their bias."

Graham said he would continue to pursue reforms of counterintelligence investigations and warrant applications, and said he hopes his "Democratic and Republican colleagues can find common ground on these matters," while also urging FBI Director Wray to "continue the reforms he has started."

"It is hard to believe that something like Crossfire Hurricane could have happened in America," Graham said. "The bottom line is that going forward we must have more checks and balances when it comes to political investigations. We must have more meaningful sign-offs on warrant applications, and we need to restore the trust to the American people in this system."

Meanwhile, former Attorney General Bill Barr tapped U.S. Attorney from Connecticut John Durham as special counsel to ensure he could continue his investigation into the origins of the Russia probe through the Biden administration.

Durham was appointed by Barr last year to investigate the origins of the FBI’s Russia probe, shortly after special counsel Robert Mueller completed his yearlong investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians to influence the 2016 presidential election.

Mueller’s investigation yielded no evidence of criminal conspiracy or coordination between the Trump campaign and Russian officials during the 2016 election.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/graham-to-release-russia-probe-docs-slams-probe-as-one-of-the-most-incompetent-corrupt-in-fbi-doj-history

>>12540178

Judiciary Committee Releases Transcripts of Interviews Conducted During Oversight of Crossfire Hurricane Investigation

JANUARY 15, 2021

WASHINGTON – The Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), today released transcripts of interviews conducted during its inquiry into the origins and aftermath of the Crossfire Hurricane Investigation.

“I consider the Crossfire Hurricane investigation a massive system failure by senior leadership, but not representative of the dedicated, hardworking patriots who protect our nation every day at Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Justice.

“As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I have decided to release all transcripts of depositions involving the committee’s oversight of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation. We have released as much material as possible, but some classified material has still been withheld.

“I appreciate all those who participated in the depositions and their candor. They have charted a path to allow us to reform the system.

“I believe that Crossfire Hurricane was one of the most incompetent and corrupt investigations in the history of the FBI and DOJ.

“The FISA court was lied to. Exculpatory information was withheld on those being investigated. The investigators, with some notable exceptions, were incredibly biased and used the powers of law enforcement for political purposes. The subjects of the investigation had their lives turned upside down. It is my hope that counterintelligence investigations will be reined in and this never happens again in America.

“The leadership of the FBI under Comey and McCabe was either grossly incompetent or they knowingly allowed tremendous misdeeds. There was a blind eye turned toward any explanation other than the Trump campaign was colluding with foreign powers. At every turn the FBI and DOJ ran stop signs that were in abundance regarding exculpatory information.

“The FISA warrant applications against Carter Page were a travesty, and those who signed them have acknowledged that if they knew then what they know now, they would not have signed it.

“It is hard to believe that the senior officials at the FBI did not know that the Steele Dossier had been disavowed by the Russian subsource. It is equally hard to believe that the warnings from the CIA and other agencies about the reliability of Christopher Steele and the dossier were not known to senior leadership. It is my hope that the Durham report will hold those accountable for the travesty called Crossfire Hurricane.

“There was no ‘there’ there. The investigation was pushed when it should have been stopped and the only logical explanation is that the investigators wanted an outcome because of their bias.

“Former FBI Director Comey and his deputy Mr. McCabe, through their incompetence and bias, have done a great disservice to the FBI and DOJ, and the senior DOJ leadership who signed off on the work product called the Crossfire Hurricane investigation have created a stain on the department’s reputation that can only be erased by true reform.

“I hope that the media will look closely at what happened and examine these documents, but I am not holding my breath.

“I appreciate the hard work of Inspector General Horowitz who uncovered the massive abuses of Crossfire Hurricane. His team should be proud of the work they did, as it will be used over time to reform the DOJ and FBI.

“I’m proud of the Judiciary staff and the work product produced by the Senate Judiciary Committee. I am disappointed that Democrats did not take it more seriously, but I do believe what the committee did will pave the way for much-needed reforms regarding future investigations.

“I will be pursuing reforms of counterintelligence investigations and warrant applications, and hope that my Democratic and Republican colleagues can find common ground on these matters. I also hope and expect that FBI Director Wray will continue the reforms he has started. It is hard to believe that something like Crossfire Hurricane could have happened in America.

“The bottom line is that going forward we must have more checks and balances when it comes to political investigations. We must have more meaningful sign-offs on warrant applications, and we need to restore the trust to the American people in this system.”

The committee released 11 transcripts of bipartisan staff interviews conducted from Tuesday, March 3, 2020 to Thursday, October 29, 2020.

https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/fisa-investigation

https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/press/rep/releases/judiciary-committee-releases-transcripts-of-interviews-conducted-during-oversight-of-crossfire-hurricane-investigation

>>12540206

FISA Abuse Investigation

January 15, 2021

Chairman Graham released 11 transcripts of interviews conducted during the Senate Judiciary Committee's inquiry into the origins and aftermath of the Crossfire Hurricane Investigation.

Handling Agent 1: Interviewed on Tuesday, March 3, 2020 (Transcript)

https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Handling%20Agent%201%20Redacted%20FINAL.pdf

Michael B. Steinbach: Interviewed on Friday, June 12, 2020 (Transcript)

https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Michael%20Steinbach%20Redacted%20FINAL.pdf

Stephen C. Laycock: Interviewed on Monday, June 15, 2020 (Transcript)

https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Stephen%20Laycock%20Redacted%20FINAL.pdf

Dana J. Boente: Interviewed on Monday, June 22, 2020 (Transcript)

https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Dana%20Boente%20Redacted%20FINAL.pdf

Bruce Ohr: Interviewed on Tuesday, June 30, 2020 (Transcript)

https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Bruce%20Ohr%20Redacted%20FINAL.pdf

Stuart Evans: Interviewed on Friday, July 31, 2020 (Transcript)

https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Stuart%20Evans%20Redacted%20FINAL.pdf

Supervisory Special Agent 1: Thursday, August 27, 2020 (Transcript)

https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Supervisory%20Special%20Agent%201%20Redacted%20FINAL.pdf

Jonathan Moffa: Interviewed on Wednesday, September 9, 2020 (Transcript)

https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Jonathan%20Moffa%20Redacted%20FINAL.pdf

Deputy Chief, Counterintelligence and Export Control Section, Justice Department: Interviewed on Friday, September 18, 2020 (Transcript)

https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Deputy%20Section%20Chief%20CES%20Redacted%20FINAL.pdf

Case Agent 1: Interviewed on Friday, September 25, 2020 (Transcript)

https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Case%20Agent%201%20redacted%20transcript%20FINAL.pdf

Supervisory Intelligence Analyst: Interviewed on Thursday, October 29, 2020 (Transcript)

https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Supervisory%20Intelligence%20Analyst%20Redacted%20Transcript%20FINAL.pdf

https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/fisa-investigation

Wexner, L Brands Board Sued for Epstein Ties, Harassment Culture

Leslie H. Wexner and other longtime senior leaders at L Brands Inc. were hit with a shareholder lawsuit in Delaware over the Victoria’s Secret parent’s “entrenched culture of misogyny, bullying and harassment, as well as ties to Jeffrey Epstein and other egregious mismanagement.”

The board “did nothing” to address decades of sexual harassment by top L Brands executives, while the underqualified Epstein inexplicably managed Wexner’s fortune—and while the billionaire sex offender apparently used Wexner’s home “for liaisons with victims,” the suit says.

Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre has also “claimed that he directed her to have sex with Mr. Wexner,” and another victim has accused Wexner’s wife, Abigail, “of acquiescence while Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell sexually assaulted her” at the couple’s home, according to the complaint filed Tuesday.

L Brands didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday or provide contact information for Wexner, who stepped down as CEO and chairman in May.

The derivative suit, filed in Delaware Chancery Court, largely concerns accounts that longtime former L Brands marketing chief Edward Razek—who’s also named as a defendant—spent years harassing women throughout the company, including both fashion models and senior executives.

When the misconduct was reported to Wexner and the board, they quietly settled with the alleged victims and had them sign nondisclosure agreements, according to the complaint.

“Notwithstanding the numerous complaints” to human resources, neither “Wexner nor any member of the board (including the purportedly ‘independent’ directors) took action to protect the company’s employees” or seek damages from Razek, the suit says.

It cites reports of an extramarital affair between an employee and longtime chief financial officer Stuart Burgdoerfer that “spread through the company,” damaging morale. Former top executive Charles McGuigan had a relationship with an employee while he was head of human resources, according to the complaint.

The suit also accuses the Wexners of giving Epstein “access to the company’s facilities, assets, and personnel.”

“Mr. Wexner knew or should have known that Epstein was using his relationship with the Wexners” to “recruit aspiring models,” the complaint says.

It also links the misconduct allegations to the collapse of a transaction that would have seen private equity firm Sycamore Partners buy a majority stake in Victoria’s Secret for $525 million.

After the sale broke down over the Covid-19 pandemic, the parties sued each other in Delaware—Sycamore seeking to exit the deal, L Brands trying to close it by court order—but ultimately agreed to simply walk away from the agreement.

L Brands may have opted not to seek a breakup fee from Sycamore, despite having the stronger litigation position, because the private equity firm used the misconduct allegations “as leverage,” the suit says.

Its claims echo a records inspection lawsuit that a different shareholder filed against L Brands in June and dropped in November.

https://www.bloomberglaw.com/public/desktop/document/NancyALambrechtCoTrusteeoftheAmandaGreenfield2012IrrevocableTrust?1610755079

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/esg/wexner-l-brands-board-sued-for-epstien-ties-harassment-culture

Wikileaks asks reporters for help in desperate bid to score Julian Assange last-minute pardon

Oliver Darcy - January 15, 2021

New York (CNN)In a last-minute bid to persuade President Donald Trump to pardon Julian Assange, Wikileaks has reached out to several high-profile reporters asking for help in its efforts to rescue its founder from potential life in prison.

The messages sent to reporters over Twitter direct message said that Assange's partner, Stella Moris, had directed Wikileaks to reach out for possible assistance.

"She was hoping that you may have ideas or contacts that could help convince Trump to pardon Assange," said one version of the message sent to multiple reporters.

Another version of the message characterized Assange as someone who faces prison "for journalistic activities."

"He is a free speech hero," the message added.

The messages were sent to reporters, including this one, at some of the nation's top news organizations.

Wikileaks did not respond to a request for comment, but Moris confirmed to CNN that she did ask the organization to "reach out to some of its most influential followers."

Moris said that some journalists, who she did not name, have responded by asking for interviews with Assange. She argued that Assange's case has "major Constitutional implications" and it could essentially "turn investigative reporting into a criminal enterprise."

Moris added that she hopes to make contact with someone in the White House about Assange's case, but so far has not been in contact with anyone.

"I am not in touch with anyone in the White House, hence the effort to ask people who might have contacts to speak to them themselves, and make the principled case for a pardon," Moris said.

Assange was arrested in April 2019 when British authorities entered the Ecuadorian Embassy, where he had been holed up for seven years, and took him into custody on a US extradition warrant.

The Wikileaks founder has been charged under the Espionage Act for his role in publishing classified military and diplomatic cables. He faces up to 175 years in prison.

A British judge last week denied Assange bail, saying that "there are substantial grounds for believing that if Mr. Assange is released today he would fail to surrender to court and face the appeal proceedings."

The judge in the case, however, has denied a request to extradite Assange to the US.

Trump has issued a number of controversial pardons as his days in office dwindle. In December, he pardoned longtime ally Roger Stone and former campaign manager Paul Manafort. He also pardoned four Blackwater guards convicted in an Iraq massacre.

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/15/media/wikileaks-julian-assange/index.html

>>12421546

Australian companies warned about doing business in China's Xinjiang

Foreign Minister Marise Payne has left the door open to following the United Kingdom and Canada and introducing penalties for Australia companies that source products created using forced labour in Xinjiang in China.

Beijing is facing fresh pressure over its treatment of the Uighur Muslim ethnic minority in the western Chinese region, with Australia's fellow Five Eyes members – the UK, the US and Canada – all outlining separate crackdowns on Xinjiang's labour camps and the goods produced there.

A bipartisan US congressional commission on Thursday (Friday AEDT) accused Chinese authorities of committing crimes against humanity, including possibly genocide. The incoming Biden administration will have to declare whether China, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, committed genocide.

The US also said it would ban all cotton and tomato products made in Xinjiang, while Ottawa told Canadian companies they risked losing export-financing support if they were caught knowingly using supply chains that used forced labour in Xinjiang.

The UK government warned it would freeze out companies from its economy if they relied on forced Uighur labour in their supply chains, through a combination of fines, bans on public sector contracts and a review of export controls.

Australia passed its Modern Slavery Act in 2018 but this does not contain penalties that can be levied against Australian companies doing business in Xinjiang.

Instead companies such as retailers that have exposure to countries where there is a high risk of modern slavery have to prepare annual statements outlining the steps they are taking to ensure their supply chains are clean. The statements are published, in effective creating a "name and shame" regime.

Asked whether Australia would follow the UK and Canada by introducing penalties, Senator Payne said the Modern Slavery Act would be reviewed next year.

"Australia shares the serious concerns of international partners, such as the UK, about human rights abuses in Xinjiang, including in relation to forced labour and arbitrary detention," she told AFR Weekend.

"The Australian government is taking a global leadership role in combating modern slavery. There is no place for modern slavery in the Australian community, nor in the global supply chains of Australian goods and services.

"The government urges any Australian company sourcing products from Xinjiang to undertake due diligence into their supply chains and suppliers."

But independent Senator Rex Patrick, who has introduced a private member's bill that would ban imports of goods produced in Xinjiang, said the Coalition government needed to shift gears and take a tougher line of forced labour.

"The only real solution to the repression taking place in Xinjiang is multilateral pressure," he said. "The US and UK have acted. We are talking the talk but not walking the walk."

China's Foreign Ministry has lashed out at London, Washington and Ottawa, saying "'Forced labour' is the biggest lie of the century made by persons and agencies in some Western countries … with an aim to restrict and suppress the relevant Chinese authorities and companies and contain China's development".

The fresh focus on Xinjiang coincides with World Health Organisation inspectors arriving in Wuhan for an on-the-ground probe into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.

Senator Payne, whose early call for an investigation triggered a furious reaction from Beijing including trade strikes against Australian exporters, said the focus of the team was transparency and independence.

"We will watch carefully how that transpires and work closely with our international counterparts, as you would expect us to do," the minister said.

https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/australian-companies-warned-about-doing-business-in-china-s-xinjiang-20210115-p56ubs

Cardinal Pell: Vatican financial reform making progress

JUNNO AROCHO ESTEVES - January 15, 2021

ROME - While questions remain about dubious financial dealings in the past and about future uncertainties due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Vatican's steady move toward financial transparency is on the right track, said Cardinal George Pell, former prefect of the Vatican Secretariat for the Economy.

During a Jan. 15 webinar on transparency in the Catholic Church, Cardinal Pell said that Pope Francis' efforts to reform the Vatican's finances, including a recent measure that removed financial assets from the control of the Vatican Secretariat of State, would hopefully bring much-needed accountability.

"There's no doubt that if implemented appropriately and well, it represents massive, massive progress," Cardinal Pell said at the webinar sponsored by the Global Institute of Church Management and the church management program at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome.

In the new law, published Dec. 28, the pope ordered the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See, also known as APSA, to manage all bank accounts and financial investments belonging to the Vatican Secretariat of State.

The pope also decreed that the Secretariat for the Economy would monitor the administration of the funds made by APSA, which handles the Vatican's investment portfolio and real estate holdings.

Among the questionable investments made by the Secretariat of State was a majority stake purchase in a property in London's Chelsea district that incurred significant debt, which Cardinal Pell said could have been avoided.

"A good deal of the present troubles, especially the London troubles, they might even have been prevented," he said. "They certainly would have been recognized earlier."

During his time as prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, he added, who was "controlling sections of the money" was a "secondary issue," because what truly mattered "was that it was managed well, that the money wasn't wasted, (and) that we were getting a good return on our investments."

Cardinal Pell said the financial losses on the London property alone were "very, very significant."

"The Vatican is not a big operation by world standards," so the success of "this centralization with APSA depends how faithfully and competently it's done, that it's directly under the supervision and ultimately control" of the Secretariat for the Economy, he said; "the Secretariat for the Economy has got to have the effective power to stop things when they need to be stopped."

He also highlighted the importance of the pope's plan to "set up a single board of highly competent and expert people to manage the investments," emphasizing that after the financial pressures caused by the current pandemic, it "will be absolutely vital."

The Australian cardinal commented on the recent news that the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) overestimated by the equivalent of more than US$1.5 billion the amount of money transferred from the Vatican to Australia between 2014 and 2020.

In December, AUSTRAC had reported that $2.3 billion Australian dollars (US$1.8 billion) in Vatican funds had been transferred in more than 40,000 transactions to Australia from the Vatican.

However, after it was discovered that the number was miscalculated due to a computer coding error, AUSTRAC amended its report and said there were only 362 transfers from the Vatican to Australia during that time, with a total value of AU$9.5 million.

Calling the error made by Australia's financial watchdog "a spectacular error," Cardinal Pell said Vatican authorities "were quite rightfully resistant and rather displeased by the accusation that AU$2 billion went through in that time" and that AUSTRAC's clarification "is good news for the Vatican."

"It looked as though Australia, and to some extent possibly New Zealand, has been a little bit wobbly and weak in their vigilance over money laundering but that's for them to ascertain to what extent that is true. But all is not well there," Cardinal Pell said.

"I must say, I wickedly took a little bit of consolation as a Vatican employee when I was to learn that AU$2 billion wasn't money laundered" during the time he served as prefect of the secretariat, he said. "And also 'schadenfreude' - rejoicing in the misfortune of others - which is not recommended for us Christians."

https://www.catholicregister.org/faith/item/32608-cardinal-pell-vatican-financial-reform-making-progress

Trump and his legacy 'diminished' among Australian conservatives

David Crowe - January 16, 2021

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Donald Trump has always had his supporters on the conservative side of Australian politics, but he is a disgraced and diminished figure after the insurrection at the United States Capitol.

Many Australians who could agree with Trump on some things – tax cuts, most of all – see him very differently after he falsely claimed electoral fraud and incited a violent mob to march on the Congress.

“Trump and his legacy have been severely diminished,” NSW Liberal senator and retired army major general Jim Molan says.

Another Liberal, Andrew Bragg, is especially damning of the US President in the light of the physical damage to democratic institutions in Washington, DC.

“Most mainstream liberals and conservatives would be shocked by the scenes in Washington,” Bragg, also a NSW Liberal senator, says.

“This violence was shocking and very unpopular amongst our supporters. As a movement of ‘institutionalists’ the riots have diminished the President in the eyes of many of our supporters.”

These verdicts show a reassessment of Trump and his populist movement at a time when Prime Minister Scott Morrison reserves public judgement.

Asked if Trump bore responsibility for the riot, Morrison condemned the violence, side-stepped the question and avoided any personal criticism of the President.

Rather than criticise Trump for inciting violence, acting Prime Minister Michael McCormack this week condemned Twitter for suspending Trump’s account.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese has rebuked them both for failing to call out behaviour that threatened American democracy. Labor believes Morrison and McCormack are afraid of offending their own conservative base.

Yet the base is shifting. Liberals say support for Trump among conservative Australians has always been a minority view and has shrunk since the November election.

There is no conservative consensus on Trump, of course. There never has been. John Roskam, a Liberal Party member and executive director of the Institute of Public Affairs in Melbourne, believes Trump still has Australian followers in the wake of the Capitol riots.

“No-one would condone what Trump said and did last week, but what occurred is unlikely to have changed either existing favourable or unfavourable opinions of the President,” he says.

Roskam believes Liberals draw a distinction between Trump's policies and personal behaviour. Another Liberal, who declined to be named, believes the crisis has cemented opinion on either side of the argument, leaving a core group of Trump supporters in party branches in Australia.

(continued)

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Even so, the size of that group should not be exaggerated. The theory that most Liberals and Nationals love Trump has never held up to scrutiny. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg dismissed him as a “dropkick” five years ago and repeated that verdict a few weeks before Trump won the 2016 election.

Like others, Frydenberg held his tongue once Trump took power. Morrison famously stood alongside Trump at a factory opening in Wapakoneta, Ohio, that had the look and feel of a campaign rally. Yet there was always a scepticism or wariness about Trump and his policies in the Morrison office, just as there was in the office of the previous prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull.

Victorian Liberal senator Sarah Ferguson tweeted her condemnation of the riots last week and called for a peaceful transition of power to President-elect Joe Biden, who takes office on Tuesday.

Her fellow Victorian Liberal senator, David Van, admired some of Trump's policies, such as his support for Israel, but rejects the way he refused to accept the election result and obstructed the transfer of power.

“I don’t think any of his claims were held up by any court,” Van says. “You have to respect the system and you have to respect the democracy.”

These comments on Trump come at a time when some Liberals and Nationals are speaking up on other fronts. Some are fed up with one of their colleagues, Liberal MP Craig Kelly, for publicising COVID-19 treatments that have not been shown to work.

“We have a duty to our nation to follow the evidence and facts,” says Fiona Martin, the Liberal MP for Reid in Sydney’s west and a child psychologist before she entered Parliament.

So why won't Morrison criticise Trump?

Liberal MP Dave Sharma, the member for Wentworth in eastern Sydney and a former ambassador to Israel, says a national leader should avoid public criticism of another country's head unless their nations are in conflict.

Criticise a country's policies, says Sharma, but not its leader.

Julian Leeser, the Liberal MP for Berowra in northern Sydney, says Morrison made the right assessment of the Washington violence.

“I don’t think he needed to go any further – these are the internal matters of another country,” says Leeser.

“The key thing for us is maintaining the alliance and I think we have done that extremely well.”

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/trump-and-his-legacy-diminished-among-australian-conservatives-20210115-p56ufg.html

>>12500560

What is a darknet store and why are people who run them so hard to catch?

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An Australian man has been arrested in Germany, accused of operating the biggest illegal marketplace on the darknet.

Prosecutors allege the 34-year-old sold drugs, forged money, stolen or forged credit cards, anonymous mobile phone SIM cards and malware on the site, known as DarkMarket.

So what is a dark web store and why are people who run them so hard to catch? Professor of digital forensics at Edith Cowan University, Craig Valli, explains.

What do we mean when we say 'the darknet'? What is it?

You've got your internet, which allows us to all connect with each other, and the darknet is a space you can use with what we call a gateway service to connect to what is essentially another network. That network is not apparent to the internet.

The analogy you can draw here is people working from home and using a VPN to connect to work. You can use similar technologies to set up darknets as a protected network for people to set up shop, in this case, or share information

But what enables a darknet to be subversive, apart from offering privacy, is the sorts of things that are traded. We are talking about the usual suspects: drugs, child exploitation material, assassins for hire. Really dark stuff.

Darknet means that you cannot see it; it doesn't mean that dark things happen there. Unfortunately, though, dark things do happen. And that means a whole pile of higher level implications for governments and law enforcement.

How does it work?

Darknet users have to install specialised software that uses countermeasures such as cryptography so it makes it hard for people to trace them.

The IP numbers of people on the darknet don't make sense and you don't even know they're connected. In the darknet, nothing is recorded on the PC; there are no log files written of any chat.

Depending on how paranoid users are, and what they decide to modify further, within that darknet they'll have to use another VPN to connect to the person that they want to transact with.

It's sort of like going down the rabbit hole. You've got layers of obfuscation of someone's IP address, masking who they are and then protecting them as they go.

You'd be stupid not to protect yourself. You're going somewhere that is a known "bad".

What was special about the DarkMarket?

Let's think about it from a cybercrime perspective. Imagine we planned to hatch a plot to take down an Australian politician and we want to buy some cybercrime tools.

We can do the silly way, which is to go on the internet and post on public boards and say, "Hey, we want to buy some malware, can you help us out?" People in the conventional security and intelligence will have eyes on that and catch you.

However, if we go into the darknet, we'll be able to find those same items with very little risk of someone finding out.

Don't think for a second that the intelligence community and security agencies are not operating in those areas, but on the darknet you can choose anonymity.

It makes it easier for people to do really bad stuff. There are high levels of criminality, high levels of harm.

(continued)

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What kind of people get involved in these platforms?

They would fit the typical criminal profile for any crime anywhere else on the planet.

And the darknet is an equal opportunity employer. It employees poor people, young people, old people, smart people. What makes you successful? Knowledge, motivation and opportunity. You don't need a lot of knowledge to set up some of these things, but you need the motivation to make money.

The proliferation of cloud services means everyone's becoming more comfortable with virtual private servers. So the info infrastructure is also helping people to be able to do these things.

The other enabler, of course, is the maturation of info-space that allows these marketplaces not to exist in a physical place.

It can exist in multiple places at once. Virtuality helps as well, in terms of the obfuscation.

You can have a piece of software that sits in Perth for the next 30 seconds while a deal is underway: it goes across the network to Melbourne or it goes to Rajisthan or Uzbekistan, all over the place.

In a standard network there is a router on the organisation. That's where you can track and trace.

Technology used on a darknet is designed to just leave remnants, or no remnants at all, so the piece of software may run on a device for the length of the transaction and then not be found again. It destroys and just disappears.

But there must be infrastructure somewhere. How is it hidden?

In the same way that a drug lab may be set up by conventional criminals in disused space, you need to think about a darknet operation in terms of the hard, physical gear required in the same way you would a meth lab. These darknet guys are looking for space to base their operations.

The DarkMarket is said to have set up in a disused NATO bunker in the south of Germany. The reason they use these spaces is that no one goes there and they typically had good power connections.

A lot of them, being ex-military use, aren't that far from large internet connections, or "points of presence", as they are called.

In the same way that traditional dope growers steal electricity from the grid, the same same sort of modus operandi occurs with this.

But there are also going to be darknets flourishing on servers where a particular nation state doesn't really care about what's there. They may think, "Yeah, we'll keep the platform running for you. We don't care what's on it."

In some countries you can't be prosecuted for hosting an illegal website unless it can be proven that you know that it's supporting illegal activity.

A similar example is this: after Cyclone Katrina in Florida, spam on the internet dropped markedly, by 60 or 70 per cent. Why? Because all of the servers were in the US state of Florida, which has amendments to the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations (RICO) Act, allowing civil forfeiture proceeding for tangible and intangible property.

That's why there's a stereotype of mobsters and dealers living in Florida, with Picassos hanging on their walls. If they eventually get caught there's nothing stopping their partner taking the art off the wall, selling it and walking away with the money.

What's life like if you're constantly avoiding police?

A darknet boss would likely hide in plain sight. He would go to the football, have a few drinks. But he would probably not spend a lot of money (so as not to draw attention to himself and not leave traces). Some criminals are motivated by having lots of money, and by the power or the thrill.

But these people are equally likely to be super paranoid, have different ethical frameworks and decide something we might fight morally reprehensible is perfectly fine.

(continued)

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If they're so good at hiding, how do they get caught?

This sort of stuff is a significant disrupter of criminal systems and the way crims do business. Law enforcement and intelligence are disrupting their patterns.

There's a whole retraining that's occurring in the police force and intelligence that's just started to get a handle on that.

But the other thing to question is why we place a mystery status on the darknet.

It's just an alternate use of existing technologies to produce an incredibly private, paranoid place for people to cohabit and do whatever they do. And to bring those people down we've got to be among them.

Following the money trail

Governments and law enforcement are getting better at doing "track-and-chase". In theory it's the same way they got Al Capone: tracking the money.

We've seen a tightening of regulation around transferring large sums of money or money laundering and the Government has mechanisms to control traditional money stuff in traditional currencies. But where it all goes to hell in a handbasket is with the use of cryptocurrency.

One of the favourite ones, of course, is Bitcoin, and also Monero.

But there are hundreds of bitcoins out there. There's one that's actually designed to be completely anonymous, called darkcoin. It's basically used so that you can't trace the transaction. With Bitcoin you can trace some of the transactions, so depending on which currencies are used it's hard to do track and trace to find out where the money's gone.

Bitcoin is rapidly becoming an alternate currency. It means the banks feel like they're missing out, so they're starting to offer Bitcoin trading services.

But again, because of Bitcoin's popularity in Australia, it still hits the $10,000 buffer on how much can be traded. But some of the lesser known cryptocurrencies are further off the radar.

The rise of Silk Road was synonymous with the rise in value of Bitcoin. And we're seeing increases in cryptocurrency values so that's starting to drive these sorts of things.

Exchanging of non-digitised goods like drugs must offer a weak link?

To maintain anonymity when money or hard goods are exchanged, intermediaries can be found and then hired via the dark web. The transferring of the money is a problem. As soon as you do so, you start to leave breadcrumbs. It becomes suspicious.

So they set up all the architecture that we have in our commercial systems inside the darknet.

But anything that's digitised is dynamite. That includes malicious software for sale or cyber criminals to penetrate a network and exfiltrate information, or to generate malicious code that someone might put on your phone to track you, for instance. So lot of that stuff goes down, particularly in marriage bust-ups and stalkers.

Anything you can think of that is unadulterated evil, it will be in a darknet somewhere for a price.

How does a darknet boss trust their customers?

For an operator on the darknet, an important question is how to validate a person that's totally anonymous to them.

With criminal gangs, there are always points in a relationship where people "prove" themselves. With paedophiles, that may be the exchange of child exploitation material.

So that remains one of the big risks for someone operating a darknet: how do they know that the person who's in there, who's observing, is not a "force for good" service? At some point they have to take a risk.

If they get caught they can shut down their site, use technology to make it disappear completely, and set up again somewhere else.

The size of the internet now is vast. The Australian boss of DarkMarket was possibly unlucky.

The problem for law enforcement is that there are still plenty more criminals operating on the darknet and still plenty of places to hide.

Craig Valli is Professor of Digital Forensics at Edith Cowan University.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-01-16/life-on-dark-web-plenty-of-criminals-places-to-hide/13057560

New specialist unit to tackle online child abuse after pandemic

A specialist unit to infiltrate gaming chat rooms to stop kids being groomed online has been launched in Victoria amid a spike in abuse material.

Australia’s first anti-child exploitation unit aimed at gaming has been launched to stop a rise in paedophiles grooming kids online.

The specialist unit uses covert police to infiltrate online gaming chat rooms to hunt and take down offenders who prey on children.

It comes as a shocking explosion in the trafficking and production of child abuse material during the pandemic can be revealed.

Figures released by the Victoria Police show 8.4 million files of child abuse material were circulating on peer-to-peer networks in December 2020, which police said they believe significantly underestimates the level of offending.

Detective Superintendent Jane Welsh, head of the Victorian Joint Anti Child Exploitation Team (JACET), said online groomers are operating like never before.

“Children are particularly vulnerable on gaming platforms because they are interacting with strangers, which allows perpetrators to manipulate young people,” she said.

“We have seen an increase recently of children posting explicit images of themselves online as a result of online manipulation. There is a lot of grooming and we have seen adult males contacting kids online encouraging them to meet for sexual activity.”

The Gaming and Peer to Peer Team was established by JACET in Melbourne last year to combat the rise of child groomers operating on video game platforms such as Fortnite and Minecraft.

The team uses cutting-edge technology and undercover operatives to identify and arrest paedophiles.

Figures released by JACET show the number of child abuse images and videos traded online in Victoria almost doubled in the year to August.

There was also a 30 per cent rise in the number of IP addresses seen sharing child abuse material online.

Superintendent Welsh said the pandemic created the “perfect storm for this type of offending” as people, including children, were forced to use the internet to stay connected.

Superintendent Welsh said technological opportunities for groomers to target children were “changing at lightning speed” and that police were quickly adapting but that parents must also keep across their child’s online safety.

Online child abuse can be reported to Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

https://crimestoppers.com.au

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/truecrimeaustralia/police-courts/new-specialist-unit-to-tackle-online-child-abuse-after-pandemic/news-story/b74076511a9974a70e1ea21b9fe83017

New president Joe Biden will be a true-blue mate in the White House

ADAM CREIGHTON - JANUARY 16, 2021

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Former foreign minister Julie Bishop has met Joe Biden probably more than any other Australian.

“That may well be right,” says Bishop, who first met then vice-president Biden at his official residence in Washington DC in 2012, as shadow foreign minister.

“It happened to be my birthday and he arranged a cake and for the military band to play Happy Birthday,” she recalls fondly. “And almost exactly four years later, when he visited in Australia — in July — he arranged another little cake for me,” she adds, anticipating the same “thoughtful” tone to infuse his presidency.

Everyone I spoke to has nothing but high hopes for, and fond memories of, Biden, set to replace Donald Trump as US president next week.

“Without doubt it’s positive for us: a more orthodox and predictable administration, which is already appointing warm friends to the highest levels,” Bishop, now chancellor of the Australian National University, says.

Jeffrey Bleich, former US ambassador to Australia under president Barack Obama, says Biden “loved going to Australia”.

“And he’d always quiz me about it whenever I visited the White House. He’s predictable, reliable and trusts experts,” he tells Inquirer, in a none too subtle swipe at the incumbent.

“Bruce Reed, who will be Biden’s deputy chief of staff, will be one of the president’s closest advisers and he’s a long-time advocate of US-Australia relations in prior administrations,” Bleich adds, referring to just one of a slew of recent high-level appointments by Biden, including Kurt Campbell as “Asia Tsar”, that should prove favourable to Australia.

Yet for all the histrionics leading up to Trump’s narrow defeat in November, and the despair of his last few ignoble weeks in office, Biden’s impact on Australian policy will be tone and style more than substance.

“The US and Australia have this extraordinary deep and integrated relationship, there’s no single issue that is ever going to divide them,” says Bleich, who was in Canberra until 2013.

Australia and the US will remain entwined militarily, politically, economically, and no doubt socially, as the world continues to shrink.

“The end of the Trump presidency is not necessarily an inflection point in the Australia-US relationship the way it will be for France and Germany because Trump hasn’t presented the same level of irritation to us as to its traditional allies,” says one senior Liberal with foreign policy experience.

On balance, a Biden presidency will mean faster economic growth for Australia, in the near term at least, and the opportunity to wield more influence over US foreign policy.

Kim Beazley, former Australian ambassador in Washington, says the return of Obama-era officials signalled a fuller, more deliberative administration. “The Trump government was always a truncated entity. Trump was his own policymaker, not surrounded by people on a consistent basis of enormous ability,” he says. “Biden is coming in a sense with a traditional post-World War II American agenda, including dedication to liberal-democratic principles, positions which Australia has never abandoned. Biden is not a high-energy bloke on national security and military matters, he places enormous emphasis on coalition-building and international relationships. It’s a challenge for us because the US will be looking for ideas again; we’ll have to sharpen our intellectual tools,” says Beazley, a former Labor Party leader and now governor of Western Australia.

It’s a challenge that should suit the current Australian ambassador, Arthur Sinodinos, known for his keen interest in policy.

(continued)

>>12545789

2/3

The biggest immediate effect of Biden’s administration will be the massive experiment in Keynesian pump priming about to unfold, which will, by helping buoy the world economy, take some pressure off other governments.

“The US economy is still the single most important influence on Australia’s,” says Stephen Kirchner, an economist at the US Studies Centre in Sydney. “US monetary policy (and) capital markets have huge effects that put the country ahead of China in its influence on us.”

On Friday, Biden revealed a $US1.9 trillion stimulus plan for the early days of his administration, including $US1400 payments to US households, which will bring the total payment to $2000 following the stimulus plan passed in December.

Michael Thawley, Australia’s Howard-era ambassador in Washington DC, expects a “huge focus on climate change; any infrastructure package will be heavily orientated to spending on subsidies for renewables and electric cars”. “They see it as job creator,” he says.

The first round of Biden-era stimulus, which will follow more than $US2 trillion of federal stimulus under Trump last March, will test the US government’s ability to borrow seemingly without limit.

In 2020 the US federal government alone posted a deficit of $US3.3 trillion, equal to the sum of taxes collected. The stock of debt is well above $US20 trillion and on track to exceed 100 per cent of US GDP.

If any country can run large deficits without implications for credit ratings or interest rates, it’s the US.

So far, all this borrowing — or, for the more cynical, creating money — appears to attract little penalty, interest rates on US debt are barely 1 per cent and inflation, as in Australia, remains dormant.

More left-wing Democrats will push for spending, and more radical economic policy. After all, avowed socialist Bernie Sanders, who just missed out on the Democrat nomination for president, is chairman of the powerful Senate budget committee.

Thawley, now vice-chairman of US fund management giant Capital Group, reckons any policy revolution is very unlikely, however, even in the wake of the Democrats’ surprise victory in the Georgia Senate race run offs on January 5.

“It’s true it’s 50-50 now in the Senate and Kamala Harris will have the casting vote, but moderate Democrats in formerly Trump-held states will be very careful about being seen to be radical, and rebel senators might decide to become independents, which has often happened,” he tells Inquirer from Washington.

“And more Democrats are up for re-election in the Senate in the 2022 mid-terms, which the party of the president typically loses,” adds Thawley, who was Tony Abbott’s secretary of Prime Minister and Cabinet in 2014.

Even the US tax system is on track to revert to Obama norms. Because Trump wasn’t able to secure a 60 vote “super majority” in the Senate to pass his signature 2017 tax reform package, the tax cuts will expire in 2024.

The US relationship with China, Australia’s biggest trading partner, is unlikely to change significantly from the tougher line taken by Trump, although the approach is likely to be more sophisticated. Trump’s obsession with the trade deficit, which didn’t change much despite ratcheting up tariffs on Chinese imports, will give way to a more sophisticated crackdown on technology theft and pressure on China to play by the rules of the multilateral trading system.

“Obama was constantly describing China as a competitor, whereas now it is more often described as potential enemy,” says Beazley. “Biden was point man when I was there when the US was dealing with Xi Jinping, they were both vice-presidents … the Americans perceived Xi as the coming man and they wanted to get quite close to him. The man to do that was Biden.”

(continued)

>>12545797

3/3

Beazley, defence minister in the Hawke-Keating government, remained confident about Australian security in a region increasingly cowed by a more assertive China. “We are easy to defend; getting American commitment to defend Australia is easy, mainly because we can do most of it ourselves, but also because we don’t impose on the US any of the sorts of costs of defending, Japan, say,” he explains.

On trade, little is expected to change too. Trump scotched any US involvement in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which Australia signed with 11 other countries in 2016, soon after he was elected. “Talk of the US joining TPP is all pie in the sky, the US is always hard-nosed on trade, it’s not going to change,” Thawley says. In any case, Biden’s authority to negotiate trade deals depends on congress extending the president’s right to negotiate — known as Trade Promotion Authority — beyond June.

The one area where a Biden administration might shift domestic policy, or at least the rhetoric surrounding it, is climate change. Trump withdrew the US from the Paris climate change agreement, a decision Biden will reverse.

Australia is the only developed country that hasn’t promised net-zero emissions by 2050. Bleich doesn’t see Australia being isolated by a Biden administration on climate change. “If there are differences about carbon reductions they will be worked out, as they always have been,” he says.

Bishop says she doesn’t expect “massive policy changes” here flowing from a Biden administration. Australia’s prospects should be at least as bright under a Biden presidency as under Trump, whose mercurial style at the very least made the outlook less predictable. At 78, Biden’s age has been a source of constant criticism about his fitness for office.

“People said the same thing about Ronald Reagan, and about Eisenhower in his second term; Woodrow Wilson had a serious stroke. A president doesn’t have to be a micromanager as long as they set broad directions,” says one senior Australian diplomat.

In other words, as long as he’s still capable of baking a cake.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/inquirer/new-president-joe-biden-will-be-a-trueblue-mate-in-the-white-house/news-story/fa58b0e021c8e4f3c6bc21f359f770e0

>>12098003

Trump deserves ‘maximum constitutional condemnation’ as the republic’s future is at stake

TROY BRAMSTON - JANUARY 16, 2021

1/2

Donald Trump’s disastrous, degenerate and dangerous presidency will come to an end in around 100 hours, at midday on January 20. It could not come soon enough. It is fitting that Trump’s presidency ends in disgrace and dishonour, and shame and humiliation for those who supported him, with a justified second impeachment.

Since Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election on November 3 – winning seven million more votes and a decisive 306 to 232 electoral college margin – Trump has refused to accept the result and tried to overturn it. No previous US president has ever sought to deny voters their democratic right to decide who governs.

This is autocracy not democracy. Votes were cast, counted, audited, recounted and certified. Trump’s claims of widespread electoral fraud were not substantiated. His multiple legal challenges failed. His attempt to intimidate state officials into changing results failed. The electoral college confirmed Biden’s victory.

But Trump failed to concede the election or facilitate a transfer of power for weeks after the election. He continued to claim the election was “rigged” and said he would fight to overturn it. This was a serial undermining of democracy. It was quite evidently a coup – defined as an unlawful seizure of government – that was plain for all to see. It is much worse than Watergate.

Trump’s treason moved into a higher gear ahead of the Congress meeting to certify the electoral college vote. He invited supporters to rally in Washington DC. “Be there, will be wild,” he tweeted. In Trump’s speech outside the White House, he said the election was “stolen” and urged the crowd to “never give up”, “fight like hell” and “take back our country”. He told them to go to the Capitol. When Vice President Mike Pence made it clear he would not, and could not, overturn the election result, Trump said he “lacked courage”.

This is why Trump is responsible for the attack on the Capitol: he encouraged it. While it was happening, Trump was gripped to the television. He refused to condemn the violence and resisted pleas to take decisive action to stop it. Instead, he called the rioters “patriots” and said “we love you”.

Trump’s mob had an objective: overturn the election. They stormed the Capitol with military-grade armour, explosives, zip-tie handcuffs, metal poles and baseball bats, gas masks, flash bangs, pepper spray and mace. They hunted Pence and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, banging on doors and calling their names. Gallows were erected outside. Imagine what horrors would have unfolded if they had captured Pence or Pelosi.

It is the first time the Capitol has been invaded since the British set it on fire in 1814. Rebel troops never made it to Washington DC during the Civil War but last week the Confederate battle flag was paraded through the corridors of the Capitol. The rioters wore Trump hats and T-shirts, and waved flags with his name on it. This was an uprising in Trump’s name.

(continued)

>>12546017

2/2

The Trump presidency has been an unmitigated disaster. His biggest public policy failure has been his handling of coronavirus. But Trump’s usurping of democracy, in the long run, will be regarded as the most reprehensible aspect of his presidency. The founding generation of true American patriots would be disgusted by Trump.

Some of us have long regarded Trump as the worst president in US history. More commentators should have spoken out these past four years. John F. Kennedy, paraphrasing Dante, once said: “The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who in time of moral crisis preserve their neutrality.”

Days before Biden’s inauguration as the 46th president, Washington D.C. is in lockdown and the Capitol is ringed by fences. It is the first time that troops have been garrisoned at the Capitol since the Civil War. There are more US troops in Washington D.C. than there are in Afghanistan and Iraq. This is all because of Trump and the danger he still represents.

Four years ago, Republicans held the presidency and had majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate. After four years of Trump, the Democrats hold the presidency and control Congress. This is the price Republicans have paid for Trump.

It is indisputable that none of the notable Republican presidents – Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Teddy Roosevelt, William Taft, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush or George W. Bush – ever acted so traitorously against their own government. They would be appalled by Trump. The 43rd president has said as much.

What is at stake is not just the future of the Grand Old Party. What is at stake is the future of the republic itself. It was necessary that Trump be impeached – only the fourth such impeachment and his second – to make it clear that his attempted coup was repudiated. This is humiliating for Trump. But it is not enough.

Trump committed sedition. He sought to overturn an election. His actions are the antithesis of democracy. Yet Trump is defiant, this week saying his speech prior to the Capitol insurrection was “totally appropriate”. He shows no remorse. It would be comical if it were not so brazen and tragic.

That is why Trump deserves to be convicted by the Senate, even when out of office, because his behaviour deserves maximum constitutional condemnation. It cannot be tolerated. It is absurd to argue that an impeachment trial would be divisive; Trump’s entire presidency has been divisive.

Moreover, there is no doubt that Trump violated the 14th Amendment to the Constitution which says no president “shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion … or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.” Congress can ensure Trump is prohibited from running for president again by enforcing the 14th Amendment “by appropriate legislation”, as provided for under the Constitution.

It would be a fitting requiem for a truly despicable and utterly disgraceful president. And it is essential to upholding the values of the great American republic.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/trump-deserves-maximum-constitutional-condemnation-as-the-republics-future-is-at-stake/news-story/2cd208ed72020b0fe5b893a0c94d07cc

—

Q Post #22

Oct 31 2017 23:57:15 (EST)

Who controls the NG?

Why was the NG recently activated in select cities within the US?

Can the NG work in coordination w/ the marines?

Do conditions need to be satisfied to authorize?

What former President used the military to save the republic and what occurred exactly?

Biggest drop to ever be provided on Pol. Study and prepare. The masses tend to panic in such situations. No war. No civil unrest. Clean and swift.

https://qanon.pub/#22

>>12143488

Pete Evans: Neo-Nazis plotted to move in on the celebrity chef

It was the neo-Nazi cartoon that cost celebrity chef Pete Evans millions in lost endorsements, but it appears neo-Nazis targeted him to politicise their agenda.

Jane Hansen - January 16, 2021

Pete Evans was targeted by neo-Nazi groups as a person they could ‘red pill’ or politicise for their cause months before the celebrity chef posted his now infamous neo Nazi cartoon.

Dr Kaz Ross — who researches alt right, neo-Nazi and QAnon groups — said she had been leaked screen shots of neo Nazi’s discussing Pete Evans as a person they could swing to their cause in online chat groups.

“They had already identified him as someone they could turn and they were working on that months and months before he posted that cartoon,” Dr Ross said.

The symbol was co-opted by Nazi Germany and remains popular with neo-Nazis. It was used on the cover of the manifesto by the 2019 Christchurch mosque shooter Breton Tarrant who killed 51 people.

When it was pointed out to Evans that the symbol was the black sun, he replied: “I was waiting for someone to see that.”

Pete Evans is also a QAnon follower, the conspiracy group that believes the world is run by elites and paedophiles who eat children and Donald Trump is their saviour.

Many high profile QAnon followers stormed the Capitol building in Washington on January 6.

The term ‘red pill’ refers to the movie the Matrix where if you take the red pill you see the truth. The term has been adopted by QAnon followers but it is also a neo-Nazi term.

“If you take the red pill you see the truth, of the alt right and neo-Nazi, they talk about red pilling the QAnon people, meaning getting them more political, rather than just following a crackpot conspiracy they talk about red pilling the QAnon people which means turning them onto politics which in the case of the neo-Nazis means the Jews are behind everything,” Dr Ross said.

“They are always looking out for opportunities. Way, way back they were saying they saw Pete Evans as someone they could work on and low and behold he delivered.”

Evans denied he knew of the cartoon’s meaning.

“Just when you thought 2020 couldn’t get any more bizarre, the mainstream media have just come out and labelled me a racist and neo-Nazi. The fact that I had to actually Google what neo-Nazi meant is pretty telling,” he said in a post.

Dr Ross said the pandemic had brought together a rag tag coalition of conspiracy groups like QAnon, anti-vaxxers, anti-lockdown and alt right, but neo-Nazis are actively recruiting on new platforms like Telegram which Pete Evans has now moved to. After QAnon groups were removed by Facebook, most are now active on Telegram.

The “QAnon shaman” Jake Angeli, who was part of the pro-Trump mob who rioted at Washington’s Capitol building on January 6, also sports the valknut tattoo above his heart which is pagan symbol adopted by white supremacists.

“There is a big overlap with QAnon and anti-vaxxers, there is the same belief structure, there is a new world order of elites and they are lying to you and using the media to do it, it’s the same narrative structure of anti-vaxxers, neo-Nazis and in their case they say the new world order are Jews, but all of them have the same narrative which is a bunch of powerful, secret, evil people are in control and they are lying to you to exploit you or in the case of the neo-Nazis to eradicate you and using the media to do it,” Dr Ross said.

“The minute the QAnon moved to Telegram, the Nazis have moved in and have been posted anti-Jewish stuff and trying to red pill them and Nazis actually use the term black pill them, to politicise them.”

Mr Evans was contacted for comment.

Jane Hansen - Multi award winning journalist across both broadcast and print platforms. Special interest in vaccination and lead journalist on No Jab No Play/Pay campaign.

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/pete-evans-neonazis-plotted-to-move-in-on-the-celebrity-chef/news-story/6ba43844a64ec35eda2869a0dcf3e538

>>12530158

US Capitol rioter Jacob Chansley detained pending trial as prosecutors back away from 'kill-capture' plot claim

Reuters/ABC - 16 January 2021

A US federal judge has ordered the US Capitol siege rioter known as the "QAnon shaman", who allegedly left an ominous note for Vice-President Mike Pence, to be detained pending trial, saying he participated in a "violent insurrection".

At the US District Court in Phoenix, Arizona, Judge Deborah Fine ruled that Jacob Chansley, who was photographed inside the US Senate Chamber wearing horns during the Capitol riots, should not be released from custody.

The Navy veteran and QAnon follower allegedly left a note for Mr Pence warning: "It's only a matter of time, justice is coming."

QAnon is a conspiracy theory that casts US President Donald Trump as a saviour figure and elite Democrats as a cabal of Satanist paedophiles and cannibals.

Judge Fine called Mr Chansley "an active participant in a violent insurrection that attempted to overthrow the United States Government" and said she feared he was a danger to the community and a flight risk.

As she made her ruling on Friday local time, Mr Chansley interjected and tried to speak, but the judge cut him off, saying he should avoid making statements.

Prosecutors have no 'direct evidence' of assassination plot

Her ruling came shortly after prosecutors in Arizona walked back sweeping statements they made just a day earlier, claiming the Government had "strong evidence" that the "intent of the Capitol rioters was to capture and assassinate elected officials in the United States Government".

The top federal prosecutor overseeing the sweeping probe of the riots at the Capitol told reporters that at this stage, they had no "direct evidence" that rioters who stormed the US Capitol had formed "kill-capture teams".

The criminal case against Mr Chansley is just one of a growing number, as investigators in Washington DC scour more than 140,000 videos and photos from the Capitol siege.

As of Friday morning, Michael Sherwin, acting US attorney for the District of Columbia, said his office had brought 98 criminal prosecutions so far and opened investigations into more than 275 people in connection with the Capitol riots, in which Mr Trump's supporters stormed the building, ransacked offices and in some cases, attacked police.

Court filings in the cases suggested some of the rioters came prepared with weapons, gas masks, ballistic vests and zip ties.

The people charged included a retired firefighter who reportedly hurled a fire extinguisher at police, a man accused of attacking police with a flag pole and another suspect who officials said was caught with explosives and firearms in his truck near the Capitol building.

The FBI is also looking for suspects in connection with the death of Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick.

Steven D'Antuono, assistant director in charge of the FBI's Washington Field Office, urged suspects to turn themselves in.

"To those of you who took part in the violence, here's something you should know: Every FBI field office in the country is looking for you," he said.

"As a matter of fact, even your friends and family are tipping us off."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-01-16/us-capitol-rioter-jacob-chansley-detained-ahead-of-trial/13063844

Trump followers who stormed Capitol could have had a mass psychosis

They stormed en masse and caused chaos but there’s a very strange reason behind why thousands of people acted the way they did.

Jamie Seidel - JANUARY 17, 2021

1/4

Sticks and stones may break your bones … but words can incite you to use them.

The events at the US Capitol were shocking. But not unexpected. Especially to those who have been studying the psychology behind US President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement.

Leading a force of 100 militia to the US Capitol on January 6 was a serving US army psychological warfare officer.

Captain Emily Rainey is part of the 4th Psychological Operations Group based at strife-ridden Fort Bragg in North Carolina.

She has a specific job: “(To) use the power of influence to shape the global security environment and achieve United States national security goals.

She has a distinct skills set: “Specialise in unconventional capabilities, cultural expertise, language proficiency, military deception and advanced communications techniques encompassing all forms of media.”

Rainey says she was acting as an independent citizen during off-duty hours. But the weapons she wields were in full effect around her.

It was an unlikely convergence of dissimilar extremists sharing a common goal.

Nazis. Orthodox Jews. Evangelical Christians. Followers of the prophet QAnon. Republican MAGA enthusiasts.

All had been convinced – against all evidence – that massive voter fraud had denied Mr Trump a second term in office. All had been incited to impose their delusions on their elected representatives in US Congress.

What resulted was an insurrection: “An organised attempt by a group of people to defeat their government and take control of their country, usually by violence.”

How did it come to this?

AMERICA, WHAT’S GOTTEN INTO YOU?

“Should lawmakers ever again be tempted to argue that social media platforms ought to be no-holds-barred free-speech zones, they would do well to recall the fear and the heartbreak of January 6: The day the internet came for them,” writes Wilson Centre disinformation expert Nina Jankowicz. “The effect of disinformation, conspiracy theories and extremism was on display for the entire world to see.”

It was a colourful sight.

Costumed followers of the internet “prophet” QAnon. Christian crusaders under a blood-red cross. Then there was the Nazi swastikas and white-supremacist symbology.

All proudly paraded on the steps of the US Capitol.

It’s easy to dismiss those we disagree with as being ignorant fools.

Idiots. Jerks. Stupid. Crazy. Clowns. Buffoons.

However, such simplistic dismissive terms can conceal a raging “mind war” playing out in society around us. And such words can be applied to hide an insurrection in plain sight.

It’s a form of psychological warfare.

It’s about offering up an enticing way to make sense of the world. This sense can shape perceptions. It can induce behaviours. The trick is generating a sense that suits a strategic goal.

It can be economic marketing. It can be political motivation. It can be religious fervour. It can be propagandist manipulation.

Or it can be all of the above.

(continued)

>>12559331

2/4

DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE

“I think it goes back to the basic way that our brain processes information. We can’t even look at clouds and pieces of toast without trying to connect the dots and see faces or elephants or pictures,” says University of Texas psychologist Professor Mary McNaughton-Cassill.

Brains also like stories. It gives context to details – thus reinforcing memory.

It’s why conspiracy myths are so enticing.

“Research shows that if you tell someone a story and you leave out a key component, like you don’t mention how they got across the river, later, people will fill in (their own) details,” the professor adds. “We’re looking for ways to try to make sense, and our brain will connect all sorts of things.”

But emotion also has a decisive role to play in delusion.

“Yes, there is great injury, anger and redirectable energy for hatred, which Trump harnessed and stoked for his manipulation and use,” says forensic psychiatrist Dr Bandy Lee. “The emotional bonds he has created facilitate shared psychosis at a massive scale.”

She told Scientific American that the appeal of militias and myths is a sign of deep turmoil within the United States.

Societal change. Income inequality. Disempowerment. This, she says, has produced an environment ripe for “narcissistic symbiosis”.

“The leader, hungry for adulation to compensate for an inner lack of self-worth, projects grandiose omnipotence – while the followers, rendered needy by societal stress or developmental injury, yearn for a parental figure,” says Dr Lee.

And Trump’s inner turmoil is contagious, she says.

“When a highly symptomatic individual is placed in an influential position, the person’s symptoms can spread through the population through emotional bonds, heightening existing pathologies and inducing delusions, paranoia and propensity for violence – even in previously healthy individuals.”

Such human frailties have been identified by marketers, lobbyists, political campaigners, propagandists – and psychological warfare officers – as useful tools. And social media has given them the means – for the first time – to manipulate masses in real-time.

MASS RADICALISATON

It was a tactic exploited by Islamic State (probably with a little covert help from Russia): To manipulate vulnerable, disaffected followers worldwide and incite them to violence.

It was called radicalisation.

Now, that same process is playing out across all levels of society.

“The conspiracy information ecosystem is highly international, and here in Australia conspiracy groups are often dominated by narratives and content emerging from the US,” warns Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) analyst Elise Thomas. “Ripples are already reaching Australia – and are likely to have implications for our own elections in 2022.”

The dividing lines between mainstream and fringe are shifting dramatically – even vanishing.

And there’s growing unanimity among analysts that profit-seeking social media algorithms are behind the deep penetration of distorted truth.

“Breaking through that echo chamber is critical or else we’ll see more violence,” warns former Department of Homeland Security extremist expert Elizabeth Neumann.

She says the threat of online extreme right-wing “rabbit holes of disinformation” keeps her up at night.

“How do I help people that have, unbeknown to them, become radicalised in their thought?” she asks. “They hold views they didn’t hold 10 years ago because all they listen to is that infotainment. Unless we help them break the deception, we cannot operate with 30 per cent of the country holding the extreme views that they do.”

(continued)

>>12559355

3/4

THE SPIDER’S WEB

“The Capitol is our goal. Everything else is a distraction. Every corrupt member of Congress locked in one room and surrounded by real Americans is an opportunity that will never present itself again,” read a message posted to thedonald.win message board. “The final solution is the only solution.”

It was one social media post of millions.

Like the rest, its significance was overlooked – or ignored.

“Social media created this perfect storm,” Ms Jankowicz says. “Recommendation algorithms on platforms such as Facebook and YouTube prioritise engagement over truth, meaning that a search for natural health remedies, for instance, could lead users in only a few clicks to far more dangerous content.”

This, she says, explains how Capitol Hill’s “QAnon shaman” – adorned in furs, horns and Nordic tattoos – can be so obsessed with organic food.

“I monitored an ‘alternative health’ group on Facebook. Soon after I browsed through the group, Facebook suggested I join groups related to white supremacy,” Ms Jankowicz says.

Critics highlight how obscure recommendation algorithm systems (the AI selecting what posts or videos you see) will push viewers toward increasingly extreme content in a quest for clicks.

This presents an opportunity for search engine optimisation experts to “engineer attitudes”.

“The government and social media platforms have for too long refused to take seriously – or worse, embraced – this underbelly of the internet,” Ms Jankowicz says.

“Social media platforms aided and abetted their growth by driving vulnerable audiences to their content. And Republican officials, including Representative Paul Gosar of Arizona and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, legitimised the theories rather than condemned them.”

MIND WARS

“We don’t trust the government. We don’t trust the Congress. We don’t trust the Supreme Court. We don’t trust science. We don’t trust medicine. We don’t trust the media for sure. So, who do we trust? Well, we trust our tribe. We trust conspiracy theories that tell us what we want to hear,” University of Maryland Professor Arie Kruglanski says.

Making matters worse is that people don’t like to change their minds.

Even less admit to themselves they were wrong.

It’s a fundamental problem for those combating radicalisation – be it political or religious, or both.

“People who harbour delusional narratives tend to bulldoze over reality in their attempt to deny that their own narrative is false,” Dr Lee says.

And that denial runs deep.

“Cult members and victims of abuse are often emotionally bonded to the relationship, unable to see the harm that is being done to them,” she says. “After a while, the magnitude of the deception conspires with their own psychological protections against pain and disappointment. This causes them to avoid seeing the truth.”

“Leadership matters,” says Kori Schake, a former senior adviser in the State Department, Defense Department and the National Security Council. “It really matters that the President of the United States is an arsonist of radicalisation. And it will really help when that is no longer the case.”

Dr Lee agrees. To a point.

“When the mind is hijacked for the benefit of the abuser, it becomes no longer a matter of presenting facts or appealing to logic,” she says. “Removing Trump from power and influence will be healing in itself.”

But it’s no magic bullet.

“The danger is that another pathological figure will come around and entice them with a false ‘solution’ that is really a harnessing of this resistance.”

(continued)

>>12559372

4/4

COUNTER-ATTACK

“The events at the Capitol are still a loud wake-up call,” Ms Jankowicz says. “The United States has finally been shocked into understanding that the information people consume online has real-world consequences for public health, public safety and democracy.”

Exposure, Dr Lee says, is the key.

Confrontation isn’t helpful “for it will only rouse resistance,” she says.

“The problem with condemning conspiracy theories is that it plays into the conspiracy theorist’s mind,” adds Viren Swami, a social psychology professor at Anglia Ruskin University in the UK.

Persuasion won’t likely work either.

“The problem with conspiracy theories is if your basic premise is that everything you’re being told is false and there is a big secret event happening behind the scenes, then no matter what you’re told, you just assume that that’s propaganda,” Professor McNaughton-Cassill says.

The alternative is to enable believers to discover inherent contradictions for themselves.

Denied outside reinforcement, Dr Lee warns conspiracy adherents will suffer disillusionment, trauma – and anger.

“And this is all right – they are healthy reactions to an abnormal situation. We must provide emotional support for healing, and this includes societal support, such as sources of belonging and dignity.”

But the best defence says ASPI’s Elise Thomas is early – and honest – inoculation.

“It means speaking out swiftly, strongly and publicly against purveyors of conspiracy theories and disinformation about elections – regardless of who they are, or which party they belong to.”

IT’S NOT OVER YET

Fired chief of US cybersecurity Chris Krebs warns it will take years to undo the disinformation surrounding the Trump presidency.

“Over the next couple [of] years, we have to continue chipping away at the disinformation and the propaganda and the lies that have been spread over the last several years to generate and motivate and incite these actors,” he told US media this week. “The narrative’s been set; it’s been ingrained. I’m sure the President will continue to claim that the election was stolen, whether for fundraising opportunities or just to shield his ego.”

“We should consider the President, his followers and the nation as an ecology, not in isolation. Hence, what he does after this presidency depends a great deal on us,” Dr Lee says.

The worst possible outcome is for Trump to establish a “shadow” presidency.

“He will have no limit,” she says.

And new conspiracies are already being manipulated to divisive ends warns Ms Thomas.

“We should probably anticipate that the growing nexus between the fringe right-wing and fringe anti-Chinese Communist Party actors … will lead to particular individuals or groups being falsely accused of being agents of Chinese influence or somehow under the sway of the CCP, or that the election has been ‘hacked by China’,” she warns.

The consequences of such lies are real, including distracting security agencies from actual interference operations.

“You’d hope Australian politicians from all parties would not be so profoundly negligent, or prove to have such a weak commitment to democratic values and processes. However, there are some worrying signs,” Ms Thomas says.

Jamie Seidel is a freelance writer | @JamieSeidel

https://www.news.com.au/world/north-america/us-politics/trump-followers-who-stormed-capitol-could-have-had-a-mass-psychosis/news-story/94c8dc3a7bd16e93478558f05f0dc37e

‘Peddlers of hate’: Australia’s growing legion of far-right extremists hail US Capitol invaders

Cait Kelly - Jan 17, 2021

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Right-wing extremists in Australia have celebrated last week’s riots at Capitol Hill, and experts warn the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the threat of far-right white supremacist terrorism here.

Australian-based users on social media sites including Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and right-wing extremist-friendly Gab have spent the past week peddling conspiracy theories and celebrating the riots that killed five people.

One prominent white supremacist wrote: “King hit these f-rs. Knock them out, drag them away. Keep doing this over and over, until all the shills shut the f-k up while the Men smash the enemy.”

The celebrations came as experts warn the far-right movement has become more visible and grown in membership since the pandemic started.

Human Rights Watch warned this week the scenes at Capitol Hill should come as a “wake up call” for the Australian government to counter the escalating right-wing terrorism threat.

Research has shown that extreme right-wing groups have grown in membership over the past year, with online spaces exploding with Australians looking to connect over their belief that white people are superior.

Dr Julian Droogan is an expert on violent extremism from Macquarie University who has spent countless hours observing these groups.

“It is a very diverse community, and online it is much bigger than the formal groups that exist,” Dr Droogan said.

The groups vary in beliefs and values – some concentrate their hate on Islam, Jews or feminists, while others home in on the LGBTI community or immigrants.

What binds them is a belief that the white race is under threat of extinction and an authoritarian leader is needed to save it.

"They all come back to the idea that white identity is under threat and one of the ways it can be saved is through rolling back of democracy and the leadership of an authoritarian, preferably a white man," Dr Droogan said.

Many believe that Donald Trump is the man for the job, he said.

The extremist movement presents two types of threats to Australia, Dr Droogan explained.

One is that the groups normalise these beliefs and encourage violence to the point where “a man with a manifesto” becomes a terrorist actor, he said, referring to the Australian terrorist who perpetrated the Christchurch massacre after being radicalised online.

The second is that the groups’ extreme beliefs infiltrate mainstream discussions and decisions.

"The much more insidious threat is a non-violent move into condoning racist anti-liberal beliefs in normal society,” Dr Droogan said.

“So the political discussion is moved to the proto-fascist right.”

Proto-fascism describes the ideas and cultural movements that lead to fascist governments.

“Fascists governments have never come to power purely through violent revolution. Before [violent actions] there are long periods where people agitated and moved their far-right beliefs into the mainstream,” Dr Droogan explained.

Australia’s domestic intelligence agency, ASIO, has already sounded the alarm, warning there is a “real and growing” threat posed by the far-right in Australia to the point that they now make up 40 per cent of ASIO investigations.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has faced pressure to discipline government MPs George Christensen and Craig Kelly for peddling right-wing conspiracy theories about the Capitol Hill riot.

Just hours after rioters breached the Capitol building on Wednesday, Mr Kelly promoted via Facebook the conspiracy theory that anti-fascists – not Trump supporters, as was the reality – were behind the riots.

This conspiracy has also been taken up within parts of right-wing groups in Australia.

Dr Droogan said the government refusing to reprimand the two backbenchers was “dangerous”.

“In countries like America and Australia, you have political figures who try to flirt with these ideas, who try to appeal to the movement,” he said.

“But they hate all politicians. It’s not so much that they want conservatives or liberals elected, they distrust and hate elites altogether.

“So it is a dangerous thing to do because of the revolutionary nature of the movement.”

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On Wednesday the Australian director at Human Rights Watch, Elaine Pearson, called for Australian authorities “to be vigilant” to the growing threat.

“The Australian government should speak plainly and consistently in condemning the actions of those who undermine democracy, even when it is the president of the United States,” she said.

PhD candidate at ANU Simon Copland is researching Australian extremism. He said the groups operating had already encouraged violence – but not in the way we might think.

“The Christchurch shooter, he wrote in his manifesto one of the reasons he did it was he was frustrated at the lack of progress in the movement here,” he said.

Mr Copland said shutting down social media spaces wasn’t always the answer as it could move groups into more unregulated parts of the internet, where views become more extreme.

“It means law enforcement needs to be more targeted in extremist spaces, identifying participants within them and intervening beforehand.”

100,000 strong

Dr Debra Smith, a Victoria University researcher focusing on violent political extremism, said there had been significant growth in right-wing extremism since 2015 when far-right groups protested the Bendigo Mosque project.

Dr Smith describes the movement as a “leaderless resistance”.

“They operate more like a network than a group,” she said.

"It’s a balancing act, they need to be visible enough to attract members, but not so visible they attract security.”

Although no one can say how big the movement is, Dr Smith came across 100,000 unique users in Australian groups she studied.

Many of those would not be at risk of becoming violent, but the online spaces they frequent encourage it, she said.

“It enables it. It encourages it, and celebrates people committing acts of violence,” Dr Smith said.

A federal government committee has commenced an inquiry into the nature, magnitude, and the threat posed by extremism in Australia and how it has evolved during COVID-19.

But part of the answer has to be changing the political discussion to be intolerant of bigotry, Dr Smith said.

“Our political rhetoric needs to change,” she said.

"We need to stop mainstreaming far-right views and making those people look like they just have another opinion.

“We need to see them for what they are which is peddlers of hate.”

Cait Kelly has worked in newsrooms across print and online, in the UK and in Australia. She worked as a reporter for the Scottish Daily Mail and Daily Mail Australia before joining The New Daily in 2019. You can find her tweeting here: @cait__kelly

https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2021/01/17/far-right-extremists-australia/

Go-to platform for neo-Nazis and QAnon attracts new users after Twitter, Parler purge

Queensland MP George Christensen is facing scrutiny after revelations he is using Gab, a self-proclaimed free speech social media network.

Ellen Whinnett - January 17, 2021

Queensland MP George Christensen is using the alt-right social media network Gab, the go-to social media platform for neo-Nazis, QAnon conspiracy theorists and right-wing extremists.

Mr Christensen, the LNP member for Dawson in far north Queensland, appears to have been a member of Gab since 2016 but only began posting this week, highlighting complaints about Big Tech censorship including the de-platforming of US President Donald Trump.

The spotlight has turned on Gab, a self-proclaimed free speech platform developed in 2016 by young conservative Christian tech entrepreneur Andrew Torba, since mainstream sites including Twitter and Facebook purged tens of thousands of accounts, including Mr Trump’s, following last week’s attack on the Capitol building.

Users of another right-wing site, Parler, which was effectively shut down last week, were also heading to Gab.

The site, which has featured a cartoon character strikingly similar to Pepe the frog – co-opted by neo-Nazis as a mascot – as its corporate logo, and still sells merchandise featuring “Gabby the frog,’’ has claimed it was getting 10,000 new users signing up every hour.

Mr Christensen does not mention his LNP affiliation on his Gab profile and instead calls himself a conservative, with links to his podcast.

“Gab has established itself as a free speech social media platform that adequately moderates unlawful content, and for these reasons I am happy to support it as a Member of Parliament,” he told News Corp.

Other Australians using the site include far-Right figure Blair Cottrell. There is an inactive account under the name of the former One Nation Senator Fraser Anning.

QAnon conspiracy theorist Tim Stewart, prominent for his years-long friendship with Prime Minister Scott Morrison, is also on Gab after being booted off Twitter.

Senior politics lecturer at the University of Sydney, Peter Chen, said while there was much talk of “mass migration’’ to sites such as Gab, it remained to be seen if the new users would stay around.

Dr Chen said Gab had fewer than one million accounts and it was not yet clear how many were active.

By comparison, Twitter has more than 340 million accounts and more than 186 million daily active users.

Dr Chen said claims by Gab that it was signing up 10,000 people an hour were “totally unverifiable.’’

“The question is how many will stay around,’’ he said.

“Gab is far more unashamedly aligned with the far Right – the neo-Nazis, white supremacists.

“There are common threads, at the moment QAnon is the major theme.

“Once Trump fades from the public eye with the loss of his position … how long will people be attracted to the Q thing when Trump is out of office?’’

Dr Chen said he thought Gab would be less popular in Australia than in the US, where it appealed strongly to those involved in the US militia culture.

Efforts were made in 2018 to shut down Gab after a man posted his thoughts there before murdering 11 people at a synagogue in Pittsburgh.

Mr Torba, who was just 27 when he founded Gab, posted on Friday that the site had “zero tolerance for threats of violence or illegal activity on our platform.

“The soaring demand of our service is not from extremists joining the platform, but rather from everyday people joining who are tired of the Silicon Valley tyrants controlling speech on the internet,’’ he wrote.

Ellen Whinnett is News Corp Network's investigations editor. A Walkley-award winning journalist, she is a former foreign correspondent and political editor who has been reporting for more than 30 years. She has a particular focus on national security, terrorism, politics and crime. - @ellenwhinnett

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/national/goto-platform-for-neonazis-and-qanon-attracts-new-users-after-twitter-parler-purge/news-story/9bd1c65ebe22a369a9b92976ea0c03bc

Trump's Twitter ban 'won't necessarily last forever'

Sky News Australia

16 Jan 2021

Image Matrix tech editor Djuro Sen says Donald Trump’s ban from Twitter is a serious precedent considering there a people probably saying a lot worse.

Twitter made the decision to ban President Trump saying he breached the platform’s rules.

“I don’t think that will necessarily last forever,” Mr Sen told Sky News.

“In terms of banning, I can understand why it happened but I do feel a little ill at ease that someone who is a president of a country is banned from a platform that has encouraged open and free debate."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EvZtJOiDms

>Look to Twitter:

>Exactly this: "My fellow Americans, the Storm is upon us……."

>God bless.

Is Morrison ready for a Biden administration?

Anthony Galloway - January 16, 2021

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At the height of the United States presidential election in 2016, then-Foreign Minister Julie Bishop instructed her mandarins to prepare two briefs: one for a Clinton win and one for a Trump win.

There was pushback from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, with even its traditionally thorough and uber-cautious officials seemingly of the view that Clinton would easily prevail.

That was not the message Bishop had been receiving on her trips to the US that year, and she insisted the briefs be prepared “equally”.

While things looked rushed from the outside – with Canberra’s then-ambassador to the US, Joe Hockey, famously needing to request a phone number for Donald Trump from Australian golfer Greg Norman on the night of the election – the preparation had been going on for months.

The move allowed Bishop, Hockey and other senior diplomats to begin reaching out to key figures in the Trump camp immediately after his win on November 8, 2016.

"That, I think, was a wise move because when Trump was elected president we were very well prepared in terms of the likely appointees and the people who would take roles," Bishop says.

For a number of reasons, Bishop’s successor, Marise Payne, and Prime Minister Scott Morrison have not been able, and have not needed, to move as fast in touching base with the incoming administration. According to DFAT sources with knowledge of the transition, Payne has not been in contact with any senior figures in President-elect Joe Biden’s camp since November’s election.

Four years after the Trump transition team came under scrutiny for its dealings with Russian officials, the Biden transition team has been keen to keep its distance from foreign governments until the inauguration.

But with many of Biden’s top national security appointees former members of the Obama administration, Australian government officials don’t feel as though they're starting from scratch this time.

“The Morrison government is dealing with a different scenario. They have a sitting president but also a president-elect who is very well known to the Australian government through the Obama administration,” Bishop says. “We were dealing with a different scenario from the outset because the election was between two potential candidates, not a sitting president and a former vice-president as candidate."

But after years of navigating the Trump relationship, the government now needs to move on from the most divisive US president in history.

Australia wants to convince the incoming Democratic administration to stay engaged in the Indo-Pacific region and keep a check on a rising China.

While Biden will continue with much of the Trump administration’s agenda for the region, Australia is alive to the risk that the US could – down the track – trade off its geo-strategic goals for other priorities, such as more ambitious action on climate change.

What’s at stake?

For a number of years, Australia and its allies – particularly Japan and more recently India – have been pursuing an Indo-Pacific strategy to deal with a more assertive Beijing.

China’s militarisation of the South China Sea, economic coercion of neighbours to reinforce its dominance, fusion of mass surveillance and artificial intelligence, and repression in Hong Kong and Xinjiang all represent an existential threat to the region and the world.

With the relative strength of the US declining and its ability to maintain its regional supremacy not assured, Australia and its allies want to accommodate Beijing but counterbalance it by building a broad alliance of countries in the region with the help of the US.

The release of the Trump administration’s Indo-Pacific strategy this week revealed how much Australia, Japan and India played a part in informing the US’s shift in foreign policy over the past four years.

While the Asia “pivot” and conception of the “Indo-Pacific” started under the Obama administration, this strategy properly recognised that the US and its allies were in competition with China. The declassified document, dated February 2018, called for deeper multilateral and bilateral engagement in the region – something Trump often ignored.

Bishop believes there will be a strong degree of continuity between the Trump and Biden administrations on Indo-Pacific strategy.

“Although it is a different administration, I don't expect major or immediate changes to policy in relation to the Indo-Pacific. There will certainly be a change in tone and nuance," she says.

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Moving on from Trump

Aside from Morrison's appearance with Trump at what was in effect a campaign rally in Ohio, even the Prime Minister's harshest critics have struggled to credibly find fault with how he or his predecessor, Malcolm Turnbull, managed the relationship.

Canberra avoided the worst of Trump’s bullying of allies, escaped trade tariffs on imported steel and aluminium, and convinced him to honour a refugee deal struck with Obama. Staying close to Trump, it can be argued, served the national interest.

But the Morrison government has created a perception over recent weeks it is being slow to move on from the Trump era.

While Morrison joined other world leaders in condemning the storming of the US Capitol, he stopped short of following British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in directly criticising Trump for inciting the violence. “It is not for me to offer commentary on world leaders,” he said.

Morrison also refused to criticise Coalition MPs such as George Christensen for alleging US voter fraud. A week later, while Morrison was on holidays, acting Prime Minister Michael McCormack repeatedly equated the riots at the Capitol to last year’s Black Lives Matter protests, a comparison Amnesty International labelled “deeply offensive”.

This masthead has also been told by well-placed sources that some senior Democrats who will be serving in the Biden administration believe Morrison at times went too far in cosying up to Trump.

But Dennis Richardson, one of the most distinguished public servants in Australia’s history and a former ambassador to the US, says Morrison’s closeness to Trump would not worry key appointees such as Biden’s pick for secretary of state, Tony Blinken.

“People like Blinken who have been around, they would think it was a good thing that a country like Australia maintained a sensible relationship with the US during the Trump administration,” Richardson says.

“Any suggestion that McCormack’s comments, whatever you think of them, would negatively affect our capacity to work with the Biden administration [is wrong]."

Former prime minister Kevin Rudd says the Morrison government’s relationship with the incoming Democrat administration “is thin to say the least”.

“It’s no secret that the Morrison government privately wanted Trump to continue as president, given the extraordinary statements made by people like Hockey and [former British high commissioner Alexander] Downer in the lead-up to the presidential election,” he says.

“Similarly with Europe, this government has always been underdone in its relationship with Brussels as well as the individual EU capitals. These countries will be critical in terms of the success or failure of any multilateral pushback against China over trade.”

Labor’s foreign affairs spokeswoman, Penny Wong, says since November’s election, Morrison has “corroded the alliance by prioritising his affinity with Donald Trump and pandering to extremists in his own base”.

“These actions will not go unnoticed in Washington,” she says.

But the Federal Opposition has created its own issues in appearing to want to link Morrison and Trump. A joint press release by Wong and Labor leader Anthony Albanese days after the election calling on Morrison to “urge President Trump to respect the process” left some senior party figures feeling uncomfortable.

Canberra’s links with Biden camp

Regardless, the Australian government is familiar with Biden and most of his key national security appointments.

When she was defence minister, Payne dealt with Blinken, incoming national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Ely Ratner, who is expected to be appointed to a senior Asia-related post.

Canberra was particularly pleased with the appointment last week of Kurt Campbell, one of the most influential minds on Asia in Washington and a friend of Australia, as Biden’s “Indo-­Pacific co-ordinator”.

Senior officials in the Australian government, including Payne’s chief of staff, Justin Bassi, and Office of National Intelligence director-general Andrew Shearer, are also known to be close to some of these figures.

In his congratulatory call with Biden in November, Morrison invited the President-elect to Australia in 2021 to mark the 70th anniversary of the ANZUS treaty. Biden is likely to accept the invitation, with preliminary talks already under way, according to senior Australian government sources.

For all his talk of visiting Australia, Trump never came in his four years in office.

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Richardson says it is difficult for the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister to reach out to Biden's team during the transition period.

“Unless you knew Tony Blinken personally and had personal dealings with him over a long period of time … you would not be able to just ring him up and start chatting,” he says.

“He wouldn’t do it because officials of incoming administrations who are subject to Senate confirmation are very sensitive to anything that could be seen by the Senate as taking the confirmation process for granted.

“You can’t look back to Hockey and the Trump administration because the Trump administration was unconventional in its approach to the 2016 election.”

Labor senator Kimberley Kitching, co-chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Australia-United States of America, says Australia should be first in the door with any incoming US administration “because of the alliance, and indeed, our friendship”.

“Our neighbours in the Indo-Pacific region need Australia and the United States to be trusted allies, not only on issues of national security, but also non-state security threats, including health challenges such as the response to coronavirus, and climate change,” she says.

United States Studies Centre chief executive Simon Jackman says there is already a significant amount of dialogue between the Biden camp and Australian officials, as well as the think tank community.

He says a big test for how much the Biden administration values the Australia relationship will be how quickly it moves to appoint a new ambassador in Canberra.

“On the big-picture stuff, there is so much alignment on the strategic priorities in the region and the roles of the respective countries,” Jackman says.

“Having the ambassador here helps with keeping that prominent in the American government. A well-placed political appointee as ambassador is really important at this time.”

Where there could be conflict

Trump was close to a few world leaders – particularly Morrison, Johnson, India's Narendra Modi and former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe – but his alliances in Europe and NATO were left in tatters.

Morrison will be competing with all the leaders of Europe to get the ear of the new president, who has always been a staunch transatlanticist.

Climate change could also be an area where Australia is isolated, with Morrison last month left off the speakers list of a United Nations summit on climate change organised by Johnson.

Biden has highlighted climate action as one of his four top priorities, naming former secretary of state John Kerry as a special presidential envoy.

Jackman says Biden now has the opportunity to pass a significant policy on climate change after the Democrats won both houses of Congress.

“Before it became apparent that the Democrats had the Senate, there was a sense that some of the issues that might be awkward for the Australian government – particularly on climate change – would not come to pass. That’s less the case now,” he says.

Trade-offs with China?

There is always a fear within Canberra that the US could trade off measures to rein in China in return for a grand climate change agreement.

But this is less of a risk under Biden and his key national security appointees than it was with Obama.

In a seminal essay for Foreign Affairs magazine in 2019, Campbell and Sullivan discarded the more optimistic assumptions that underpinned the four-decade-long strategy of diplomatic and economic engagement with China, accepting the US was now in competition with Beijing.

The two key Biden appointees also ruled out the prospect of any kind of "grand bargain" with China, saying it would require "stark and permanent US concessions" including the abrogation of American alliances "or even of the right to operate in the western Pacific, for speculative promises".

They embraced a policy of “competition and co-operation” with China and said the US “needs to get back to seeing alliances as assets to be invested in rather than costs to be cut”.

This sounds like something a lot closer to Australia's foreign policy than Trump’s approach.

Australia just needs to convince the US to stay the course.

https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/politics/federal/is-morrison-ready-for-a-biden-administration-20210115-p56uee.html

Former Army officer suicides at ADF headquarters in Canberra

A former Army officer working in the Australian Defence Force intelligence unit in Canberra suicided in the car park of the Army headquarters.

An ex-army officer who works in the Australian Defence Force intelligence unit was found dead in his car by colleagues in the Army headquarters car park.

Sources say the man who died on December 21 was an intelligence officer with ASIS and had military experience. It’s the third defence-related suicide in less than a month.

A leading seaman from HMAS Stirling in Western Australia took his own life and an Army member attached to 1st Armoured in South Australia died by suicide on New Year’s Eve.

News of the death of the intelligence officer in the ADF’s Russell precinct in Canberra spread quickly in military circles and on social media defence groups, but in the following days information dried up, prompting veterans advocates to call for better transparency on suicides within the military.

Veterans advocate John Simmons said suicides and attempted suicides were often covered up by the ADF hierarchy.

He said the government’s new independent commissioner should be replaced by a Royal Commission. A Defence spokesman said he was aware of an incident in the Russell precinct on Monday, December 21.

“As the matter is being investigated by ACT Policing, it would be inappropriate for defence to comment, and any inquiries should be directed to ACT Policing,” the spokesman said.

ACT Police confirmed they attended the incident in Russell on December 21 and there were no suspicious circumstances. A report was sent to the ACT Coroners Court.

Mr Simmons, who runs Jesse Bird Welfare Centre in Adelaide, said “sadly too many vets are being told to use services on offer by ­defence and only them”.

“The ADF breeds a culture of physical, mental and emotional abuse. This abuse is often investigated and hidden from the surviving family and the public. We have been pleading for change and asking the greater community to stand behind those who took an oath to serve. We owe it to all those who have the lost the fight at home to have there story heard.”

A soldier from the 1st Armoured Unit in Edinburgh, South Australia, reached out to Mr Simmons in September last year. Christian Larson, 35, was struggling emotionally but told Mr Simmons he had been warned against seeking help from him.

“He contacted me twice last year, which to me indicates a fairly significant problem. He said if the unit found out he talked to me he would be in a whole lot of trouble.

“That shits me to tears because look how it turned out. They would prefer they go to the RSL, their own support services, that way they can keep under control what they say.”

Another advocate who runs the Pineapple Express Facebook page for veterans said the three suicides are the tip of the iceberg.

“This is just one of the many Defence members that has passed away by their own hands since NYE,” he wrote.

“We haven’t been able to post about them purely ­because we haven’t gained permission from family.”

Last Sunday Leading Seaman Liam Gould, 24, died and his post on Pineapple Express said: “I understand mental health in the ADF is problematic and it needs work.”

Senator Jacqui Lambie said veterans were killing themselves in record numbers and nobody knows why.

“But instead of calling a genuinely independent Royal Commission into this, the Government is letting Defence create its own investigation into itself … being led by someone who was a part of Defence until she resigned two days before she took the job,” Senator Lambie said.

A defence spokesman said mental health and suicide are issues that affect everyone in the community and there is often no single cause.

“It is a national tragedy that more than 3000 Australians take their own lives each year,” the spokesman said.

“When it comes to ADF and veteran suicide, the only acceptable number is zero and the only acceptable number for the Australian people is zero.

“Addressing the tragedy of suicide is a national priority and Defence is committed to ensuring serving and ex-serving ADF members have access to support, especially those who are vulnerable or at risk.”

Veterans’ Affairs and Defence Personnel Minister Darren Chester said the government is committed to putting our veterans, Australian Defence Force personnel and their families first “and continues to invest significantly in mental health”.

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/former-army-officer-suicides-at-adf-headquarters-in-canberra/news-story/4dd2b6929968c65e6bf8f0187ecce338

Prince Andrew asked online troll to help discredit his sex accuser: Duke of York's adviser and Sarah Ferguson's aide made a 'desperate' approach to ex-model who claimed damning Virginia Roberts picture was faked… but she then informed FBI

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The Duke and Duchess of York's closest advisers sought help from an online troll in an attempt to discredit the Duke's sex accuser, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

The aides hoped that Molly Skye Brown – who attacked Virginia Roberts on Twitter for months – possessed information that might prove the infamous photograph of Andrew with his arm around Ms Roberts, then 17, was manipulated.

Ms Roberts, one of the victims of billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, claims she was forced to have sex with the Duke, now 60, on three occasions, allegations he vehemently denies along with any other wrongdoing.

In a bizarre conversation, one of the Duke's team is alleged to have discussed with Ms Brown the possibility of setting up a fake Twitter account to ensnare a woman they suspected of doctoring the photo.

Ms Roberts maintains the picture was taken on the night she claims she had sex with Andrew in 2001.

For months Ms Brown, 42, a former teen beauty queen from Florida, has subjected Ms Roberts to vile abuse on Twitter.

Yet Sarah Ferguson's trusted lieutenant Antonia Marshall – having seen a tweet from Ms Brown stating that the photo was a fake – sent her an email on December 14 asking for a chat and thanking her for her 'online support'.

When they spoke, Ms Brown claims Ms Marshall suggested a meeting with the Duchess as an apparent sweetener and said she could pass on a greeting to the Queen 'as we are all one big family and see each other all the time'.

At one stage, Mark Gallagher, the Duke's PR expert and crisis management specialist, was also drafted in to help woo Ms Brown.

Ms Brown says she provided what she claims was 'some evidence the photo was doctored' but declined to help further. She then passed the email and text exchanges to the FBI.

In response to the outcry over Ms Roberts's claims, the Queen's second son was forced to give up Royal duties and step down from his charitable patronages. With the US authorities still hopeful of interviewing him about the Epstein scandal, his team of advisers is working behind the scenes to try to restore his reputation.

What made Ms Brown turn against Ms Roberts, who is married and called Virginia Giuffre, is unclear.

Ms Brown claims Ghislaine Maxwell tried to recruit her as a masseuse when she was 14 and exercising at a children's gym in Palm Beach, Florida, close to Epstein's mansion.

Ms Maxwell, 58, is on remand in the US after being charged with the sex trafficking of underage girls and the enticement of minors. She has denied any wrongdoing.

(continued)

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Ms Brown's story emerged last October. Since then she has campaigned to bring paedophiles to justice but claims Ms Roberts was an 'enabler' for the sex abuser.

Ms Roberts has publicly denied Ms Brown's allegations and said she 'blocked her [on Twitter] because of her widespread lies'.

The extraordinary overtures to Ms Brown from the Duke's team began with an email from Ms Marshall saying; 'Hi Molly, I work for the Duchess of York and I wondered if you had time at some point for a quick chat re your tweet about the photo of the Duke being edited/doctored. Thank you so much for your online support!'

The pair exchanged WhatsApp messages and emails before having a lengthy conversation, in which Ms Brown relayed her claims about the photo.

Her doubts do not have the support of experts. Hany Farid, professor of digital forensics and image analysis at University of California, Berkeley, has said: 'I don't see any obvious signs of manipulation.'

Even Ms Brown, who maintains the image was 'Photoshopped', believes the advisers' attempts to court her were 'desperate'.

Indeed, the conversation reportedly took an even more desperate turn, with Ms Marshall discussing the possibility of setting up a 'spy' Twitter account to extract information from Epstein's victims.

Ms Brown said: 'Then she [Marshall] said "How are you getting all this information?". And I said "Oh, I made a spy account." She thought that was brilliant and said 'Do you think we should get a spy account?'

It is understood Ms Marshall does not have the same 'recollection' of the conversation with Ms Brown.

Afterwards, Ms Marshall sent a message saying: 'One of the York family advisers called Mark Gallagher would love to speak to you.'

Within hours, he had messaged her on WhatsApp. Ms Brown asked the Prince's aide to brief her on 'what exactly we will be focusing on for our chat,' adding: 'As you know this is much bigger and darker than just a photo scandal. Agreed?'

Mr Gallagher replied: 'Entirely agreed, Molly. I'd like to talk to you in the round about the important distinction you have drawn between survivors and – in effect – enablers. That gets to the heart of this.'

The Mail on Sunday yesterday put a series of questions to the Duke's representatives about their conduct in approaching Ms Brown but they declined to comment.

A source close to the Prince said: 'The exchange with Molly Skye Brown was not out of the ordinary. It would be very easy to over interpret the subsequent conversations.

'The plain fact of the matter is none of this went further than an initial discussion.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9155109/Prince-Andrew-asked-online-troll-help-discredit-sex-accuser.html

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Questions over the Vatican’s $1.1 million cash transfer to Australia remain unsolved

A stalemate in tracking the money has hindered a probe into whether George Pell’s trial was corrupted.

Anthony Dowsley and Mark Buttler - January 17, 2021

A Vatican money transfer of $1.1m to Australia is destined to remain unresolved.

A stalemate in tracking the money trail has left the probe into whether Cardinal George Pell’s trial was corrupted at a dead end, with no investigative body prepared to delve into the mystery cash movement.

The Vatican’s financial transfers occurred the same year Cardinal Pell was charged with historical sex crimes.

Federal financial crime watchdog AUSTRAC, which identified the transfer late last year following media reports in Italy, shared its intelligence with three large investigative bodies — the Australian Federal Police, Victoria Police and anti-corruption body IBAC.

But none of these bodies has exposed what the money was for or where it ended up.

More recent reports have revealed Vatican transfers of $9.5m to Australia since 2014.

Questions raised with AUSTRAC, Victoria Police and IBAC about the use of the funds have gone unanswered.

The lack of transparency has raised concerns within the Pell camp, which continues to call for a proper investigation into whether funds were funnelled to pay the Cardinal’s accuser, known as Witness J.

Witness J testified that Cardinal Pell sexually assaulted him in 1996 and 1997 at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne.

Victoria Police in October played down the significance of the transfer without giving reason, other than to state AUSTRAC had not advised it of any “suspicious activity related to these transactions’’.

While confirming the payments had been wired from the Vatican over a ‘’period of time’’, Victoria Police was not prepared to investigate further without other evidence or intelligence.

The case was also referred to IBAC, Victoria’s underfunded anti-corruption body, which was stifled by its own charter. It dismissed the probe in November last year, stating that the investigative “threshold’’ had not been met.

IBAC told the Herald Sun it would not take the investigation further.

AUSTRAC has also walked away from the probe.

Cardinal Pell protested privately before his trial that he believed he had been set up by his enemies within the Vatican, whom he was investigating over financial corruption.

True or not, there has been little transparency in the money transfer.

Liberal MP Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, who has been pursuing the issue in the Senate, said answers needed to be found. “Allegations about transfers of Vatican funds to Australia, including any connection to the Pell matter, are complicated issues involving activities in Australia and the Vatican,” she said.

“Legitimate questions remain unanswered both in Australia and at the Vatican, including from AUSTRAC, the AFP, DFAT and most particularly from Victoria Police, IBAC and judicial authorities.”

Ms Fierravanti-Wells said the allegations were serious and would have significant consequences if true.

The High Court of Australia acquitted Cardinal Pell in April 2020, overturning his 2018 conviction of committing sexual crimes against the two teenagers.

Cardinal Pell has always maintained his innocence.

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/questions-over-the-vaticans-11-million-cash-transfer-to-australia-remain-unsolved/news-story/9bab91b9ef236b5a03e4dbb6a1bd228b

Trump 'not mortally wounded' from election defeat

Sky News Australia

17 Jan 2021

Curtin University’s Professor Joe Siracusa says Donald Trump is not mortally wounded following his defeat which he will use as fuel to go to the next level.

Joe Biden will be sworn in as president on January 20 in a heavily guarded Washington DC.

“He (Trump) still calls the shots, and I’d be paying attention to him,” Professor Siracusa told Sky News.

“When he goes to Mar-a-Lago he’s going to go as the aggrieved, disgraced president. He’s been disgraced a number of times in his life – he seems to use this as fuel to work on his brand and go up to the next level.

“Donald Trump is able to turn these grievances into a sort of fuel for his party. He’s going to be very dangerous going ahead.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATWy1fW_4W8

Joe Biden's inauguration explained : What time it will be on in Australia and how to watch

Stuart Marsh - Jan 18, 2021

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It's been arguably the most tumultuous political landscape America has faced since 1968, with many hoping for calm once President-Elect Joe Biden officially takes office.

Biden's inauguration will mark the official start of his four-year term, and due to COVID-19 and security concerns, will go ahead without much of the pomp and fanfare that is usually carried with such occasions.

If you're interested in following along in Australia, here's what we know about Mr Biden's inauguration:

What day and time will Joe Biden's inauguration be?

As part of US presidential tradition, the presidential inauguration is held at noon Eastern Time Zone on January 20. It has occurred this way since 1937.

Here in Australia, that means it will be held on January 21, at 4am AEDT for the east coast states (Sydney and Melbourne). Due to not recognising daylight savings it will be around 3am in Brisbane.

There are standard pre-inauguration activities, which you can expect to start happening from around 1.30am AEDT.

Curiously, since 1937 there have been three occasions where the inauguration has not occurred on January 20: these were because the dates fell on a Sunday.

On those occasions, the ceremony was held privately before public activities the next day on January 21.

Where can I watch the inauguration in Australia?

You can watch the full livestream at 9News.com.au and follow along on the 9News app.

There will also be a live blog covering the latest events, and explaining the meaning behind traditional ceremonies and activities.

Where is it, and what does it involve?

The inauguration will be held at the Western front of the US Capitol building – the very building that was infamously the scene of the riots almost two weeks ago.

It's the façade of the building that faces the National Mall.

The ceremony itself is quite traditional, although in light of recent events we can expect to see some – or multiple – changes.

Traditionally the ceremony involves Mr Biden taking the oath of office. Most presidents place their hand on a bible when being sworn in, however there is no requirement this be done in the US constitution.

Mr Biden has confirmed he will be sworn in on a family bible that has been passed down since 1893.

Following that, a marine band will play a few tunes while a 21-gun salute is performed.

After this, Mr Biden will likely give his inaugural address, the speech in which a new president lays out their vision for America, and hopes for the future.

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Will Donald Trump be there?

No.

Traditionally the outgoing President – and any surviving former presidents – will be in attendance. But Donald Trump has already confirmed in a tweet he will not be attending.

Vice President Mike Pence will be there, as will former presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and George W Bush.

Are they expecting riots and protests?

Yes.

The threat of extremist groups rioting during Mr Biden's inauguration is high, and parts of the Capitol have already been fenced off and boarded up.

There will be massive security coverage, including the National Guard.

The FBI has already performed an extensive risk assessment, with the primary worry being action from domestic terrorists.

What changes will there be for Joe Biden's inauguration?

There are so many factors why Mr Biden's inauguration will look different.

Firstly, there is the recent US Capitol riots by Trump supporters who stormed the very building Mr Biden is to be sworn in at.

Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, is the ever-present COVID-19 threat.

Mr Biden won presidency on a platform of taking the virus seriously, and as such there will not be the heaving mass of crowds that are traditionally there.

Instead, the live audience for the event has been restricted to members of Congress and one guest each. Everyone present will need to wear a mask.

This will limit total guests to around 3000 people. Normally there can be up to 200,000.

https://www.9news.com.au/world/joe-biden-inauguration-explainer-date-what-to-expect-how-to-watch-everything-to-know/ef3a5c33-a7a7-4e2b-9d77-1471daa33e2a

Australian man flees child sexual abuse charges in Thailand, denies guilt

Fergus Hunter - January 18, 2021

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An Australian man on the run in Thailand is denying accusations he exploited impoverished children at his home under the guise of providing education and care, claiming the charges are a set-up.

Adam James Fox, 44, was charged by the Royal Thai Police in early 2020 but received bail and did not attend his trial in December. He is being prosecuted in Mae Sot, a city on the border with Myanmar that has a reputation for human trafficking and exploitation.

The case has also raised concerns about corruption among the authorities in the local Tak Province, with accusations he has bribed high-ranking officials to avoid investigation, manipulate charges and receive bail after he was first arrested.

An arrest warrant for Mr Fox, seen by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, was issued at the start of December after he failed to attend court. The warrant specified that Mr Fox was facing charges for sexual offences and not having a valid visa.

Mr Fox is accused of assaulting or violating at least three Myanmar boys aged under 15 at his home, purportedly there to be supported by him and protected from the extreme poverty prevalent in the area.

A business consultant previously based in Melbourne, Mr Fox denies the charges and says he is being set up by locals who are out to get him.

According to an investigator from New Zealand who has been in Thailand working on human trafficking matters, concerns were first raised about Mr Fox by a local school principal because some of the boys had been absent. Up to seven children were drawn into the subsequent investigation.

"All children were interviewed by local social workers from a multidisciplinary team. I can confirm serious sexual abuse was reported, including ongoing sexual violation and indecencies. Boys also report being photographed nude and having access to drugs," the investigator, Daniel Isherwood, found.

The Herald and Age obtained records of messages sent by Mr Fox to an associate on November 23 in which he described, in graphic detail, sexual activities with children.

"And I love it … And no one can do anything about it," he wrote.

In one message, he said he administered methylamphetamine and heroin to one of the boys during a session of abuse.

"Anyway I filmed it and posted it on the dark web," the message said.

The messages, sent over the messaging app Line, were accessed and verified by Mr Isherwood. Mr Fox acknowledged they were authentic but said he didn't mean what he wrote and he had sent them at a time of acute stress and anger.

"All right, I was an idiot to say that but, man, there's plenty of other things I said. I threatened to blow up the court building. I have been flipping out," he told the Herald and Age.

Since October, Mr Fox has been mounting an online campaign designed to combat the allegations, publishing videos and posts claiming he is the subject of false and malicious rumours.

In one video, Mr Fox acknowledged the existence of footage showing a boy masturbating in his presence but said his back was turned and the incident was recorded by someone else as a set-up or prank. A local child welfare organisation reported the video actually shows Mr Fox participating.

In a statement made to local authorities, one of the boys reported that his mother was receiving 4500 Thai baht ($A190) per month to allow Mr Fox ongoing access.

Asked about the payments, Mr Fox said he had paid the kids and families to support their education and wellbeing.

"So of course I'm paying them. I'm not going to go into detailed descriptions of what I paid for and when," he said.

After he was first arrested in March 2020, he was then granted bail and allowed ongoing access with the alleged victims.

Following a press conference about the case by Thai authorities in May, a network of local non-government organisations, the Mae Sot Child Protection Network, released a public statement expressing concern Mr Fox had ongoing access to the children.

The network said authorities should be "immediately separating child victims from the [alleged] perpetrator and bringing them to the government shelter for care and protection". They also said Mr Fox's bail should be revoked given the evidence against him.

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In a video posted online, Mr Fox said he had bribed people, including for inside information from government workers and other purposes.

"Corruption in Thailand is at all levels and with enough money you can get people to give you whatever you want, whatever you need," he said.

Mr Isherwood alleges Mr Fox has paid to avoid investigation and charges and shift authorities' attention to others.

"He has only been able to do this by bribing officials and other contacts within Mae Sot," Mr Isherwood said. "This level of corruption appears specific to the Tak province and is not reflective of Thailand as a whole."

There is evidence Mr Fox conspired to bribe officials within the local judiciary to drop drug charges against him and implicate a man called Kyaw Moe Aung, who worked for Mr Fox last year but fell out with him amid the abuse allegations. The man has been imprisoned on a series of charges.

Asked about the bribery allegations, Mr Fox initially denied he had used bribes to influence officials in Mae Sot, saying he received bail "fairly and squarely", but then suggested he had made payments because he couldn't trust a corrupt system.

"Do you think that I'm going to bribe people and then I'm going to talk about it on the public stage? That's suicide. I'm not going to implicate powerful people, who I still need to deal with because there's still a case going on," he said in an email.

Mr Fox said he is in Bangkok and in hiding because he does not believe he will be fairly treated by the court. One boy, who is said to be Mr Fox's "favourite", may still be with him.

"I'm running from a hostile Thai government where a fair trial is no longer possible and the human rights abuses have extended to a point that I have no control over anything any more," he said in a video posted online.

Mr Isherwood, who has been investigating the case on the ground in Mae Sot, said Mr Fox was skilled at muddying the waters with subterfuge in the community and online but the allegations were very clear.

"This case highlights what can occur when [alleged] Western offenders are able to use financial means to both influence the justice system, allegedly abuse boys and manipulate their families," Mr Isherwood said.

The Australian citizen was a foster carer in Melbourne before going to Thailand and holds an active Victorian working with children check.

He is the owner of a company called Eat Your Veggies, which Mr Fox describes as a boutique consultancy. Mr Fox says his business success has allowed him to go into semi-retirement, travel and do charity work.

According to his website, the company has been involved in the development of a school finance app called My School Connect and an online babysitter service called Little Ones.

Sources familiar with Mr Fox's case said the Australian Federal Police, which has officers stationed in Thailand, has been monitoring developments but not actively participating in the investigation, which is being conducted by the Royal Thai Police.

Australians who engage in child abuse and exploitation overseas can be charged under Commonwealth criminal laws. The offences carry penalties of up to 25 years in prison.

In an online video, Mr Fox acknowledged that Mae Sot is viewed by many people as a "paedophile hotspot" but rejected the claims about him.

"Even if all the paedophiles that are caught in Mae Sot are white, foreign men, that doesn't mean that all white, foreign men caught in Mae Sot are paedophiles," he said.

The Royal Thai Police did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

If this article has raised concerns for you, support is available by phoning Lifeline at 13 11 14.

https://www.lifeline.org.au

https://www.smh.com.au/national/australian-man-flees-child-sexual-abuse-charges-in-thailand-denies-guilt-20210105-p56rtz.html