1 Feb, 2023 14:03

Is the FBI secretly running dark web terrorist recruitment?

US law enforcement is known for entrapment tactics, and the secrecy around a recent terrorism case is suspicious

By Felix Livshitz =1 of 2==

A high-level conspiracy of silence surrounding a US terrorism prosecution raises serious questions over whether theFBI possesses technological means to bypass dark web user anonymity, or alternatively manages extremist group recruitment sites in secret, in order to entrap unsuspecting visitors.

US citizen Muhammed Momtaz Al-Azhari was charged in May 2020 with attempting to provide material support to ISIS. He came to the attention of the FBI due to a series of visits he made to a dark web site, which hosts “unofficial propaganda and photographs related to ISIS” in May 2019.

The Bureau pinpointed specific pages of the site Al-Azhari perused including sections on making donations, ISIS media assets, photos and videos, and stories of military operations allegedly conducted by ISIS fighters in Iraq, Syria, and Nigeria. These actions were linked to him directly by uncovering his IP address, and therefore his identity and location.

Al-Azhari accessed the site via the TOR browser, which theoretically provides anonymity to users, and makes it difficult if not impossible for a site’s owner or external prying eyes to track visitor IPs. A recent court filing by Al-Azhari’s lawyers reveals that’s precisely what the FBI did though and exactly how they achieved this is being withheld by government decree.

“[Using TOR] onion-like layers of additional IP addresses prevent the true IP address of the user from being visible like it would typically be on a clear-web site,” the filing states. “However, as the government’s complaint affidavit indicates, the government was able to bypass TOR’s protections to identify the IP address of the visitor to the ISIS website. In discovery, the government has declined to provide any information related to its TOR operation.”

Al-Azhari’s legal team attempted to compel the US government to disclose the method by which the FBI unearthed his IP address, but authorities without explanation requested the prosecuting Court treat their formal request as a “highly sensitive document.” This is a file containing “sensitive or confidential information that may be of interest to the intelligence service of a hostile foreign government and whose use or disclosure by a hostile foreign government would likely cause significant harm.”

While the filing records that “few documents” filed in US courts ever qualify as “highly sensitive,” the government’s request was granted, again without any explanation. However, the filing hints at a possible explanation chanced upon by Al-Azhari’s lawyers.

In researching how to legally compel the government to release details of their client’s identification, they discovered “at least two federal cases” in which authorities blocked disclosure of similar information on the grounds “network investigative techniques” - a euphemism for hacking- were used by investigators.

The filing suggests these techniques might have been one of the ways in which the FBI “may have bypassed TOR’s protections in the operation,” and determined Al-Azhari’s IP address. The FBI’s use of “network investigative techniques” is well-known and openly admitted. Yet, the “highly sensitive document” designation is, the lawyers acknowledge, only employed “when necessary to protect highly classified or highly confidential information.”

The filing suggests this means the FBI is attempting to classify publicly-available information as “top secret”, but another interpretation is theFBI could be actively running the website Al-Azharivisited for the purposes of entrapment. How the FBI uses “network investigative techniques” was revealed in a 2016 affidavit, related to an extraordinary Bureau operation that ensnared the users of Playpen, then one of the largest child porn sites on the dark web.

https://www.rt.com/news/570371-fbi-dark-web-terrorist/

>>18266221

Is the FBI secretly running dark web terrorist recruitment?

2 of 2

A year earlier, the FBI seized Playpen’s servers, and indicted its founder and owner,but kept the site operating from government servers rather than closing it, installing tracking viruses on the computer of each and every visitor. Then, with just one search warrant, they were able to hand over the locations of Playpen’s users across the US, leading to their mass arrest.

While it only remained open for two weeks after the FBI’s takeover, it’s estimatedthe Bureau distributed over one million images of child abuse during this time, and the affidavit indicates Playpen was just one of 23 child porn sites where it had the ability to identify users. Cybersecurity researchers believe it to be “a pretty reasonable assumption” that this figure meant the FBI was running around half of the dark web’s child porn sites at the time.

This led University of Kansas law scholar Corey Rayburn Yung to argue theFBI had “actively participated in the revictimization of those depicted in child pornography,”and the operation was “immoral and inexcusable,” particularly given that there was no control over whether the material was then sold and/or shared again once downloaded. While no one at the Bureau was ever penalized, let alone prosecuted, for the ruse, it created a large number of prosecutorial issues in other ways for the Department of Justice.

While the FBI accumulated 1,300 separate IP addresses through its management of Playpen, less than 100 cases actually made it to court. Judges in several US states ruled the operation was absolutely illegal, and the evidence gathered on suspects was inadmissible. In one successful trial, despite the defendant being convicted of grave crimes, the presiding justice condemned the Bureau’s “outrageous” tactic of using “child victims as bait.”

To say the least, the FBI would have every interest in concealing its deployment of the same highly controversial and likely criminal strategy from the public, its targets, and their legal teams to catch terror suspects.

Alternatively, it could be the case that the Bureau has developed an entirely new technology for deanonymizing dark web users it does not want the world to know about.

In June 2021, the FBI achieved perhaps the biggest, most elaborate and successful sting in its history, which resulted in over 500 arrests all over the globe. The Bureau pulled off this coup bysetting up a front company, ANOM, which sold encrypted devices that were marketed to criminals as unbreakable by any law enforcement entity or security or intelligence agency.

Over 12,000 ANOM devices were sold to over 300 criminal syndicates operating in over 100 countries. Little did the users know that every message they sent and received was stored, making a very simple matter of tracking the movements and activities of, and building cases against, major drug traffickers and mafia clans.

This is particularly relevant given that

European and North American sanctions on Russia have forced millions of people all over the world to turn to the dark web to use the internet as normal, and many of the tools being promoted to people to circumvent these measures in the mainstream, such as Psiphon VPN, are quietly funded by the US intelligence community, and only provide users privacy from their own governments.

https://www.rt.com/news/570371-fbi-dark-web-terrorist/

>>18266259

OK since they are finding 10's of 1000s of secret, top secret, etc. government documents by Bidan stealing them and probably selling them, why doesn't anyone believe him and Hunter has been stealing money around the world? and why doesn't anyone state categorically he's a Manchurian candidate and why don't they arrest him?

>>18266259

Are you freakin kidding me, the attorneys worked for the last three weeks removing all of them….there's no way they found nothing there.

1 Feb, 2023 20:51

Ukrainian official alleges Twitter conspiracy

An aide to President Vladimir Zelensky has claimed that Elon Musk is suppressing the Kiev government’s accounts on the platform

(Conspiracy Theory, worst one ever, Musk probably removed the millions bots armies, they had following it.)

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mikhail Podoliak hasblasted Twitter owner Elon Musk as a sympathizer for Russian propagandists, accusing the billionaire entrepreneur of “forcibly reducing” the reach of the Kiev government’s accounts on the social media platform.

“Maybe you should stop pessimizing Ukrainian official accounts and forcibly reducing their reach,” Podoliak told Musk on Wednesday in a Twitter post. “It’s too obvious.”

He went on to suggest that Musk has tried to help “talentless” purveyors of Russian propaganda. “It won’t help them, and Twitter’s reputation is dying,” Podoliak claimed. “Maybe a regulator is needed to explain competition rules to the owner.”

It’s not clear which regulatory agency Podoliak wants to unleash on Musk or which antitrust law he has supposedly violated. Many Twitter users have complained in recent days of declining reach and engagement of their posts.

The company’s engineers are reportedly working to resolve a glitch that apparently arose when the platform tweaked some of its features last month.

.@elonmusk, maybe you should stop pessimizing 🇺🇦 official accounts & forcibly reducing their reach? It's too obvious. Don’t help talentless ru-propaganda. It won't help them and @Twitter's reputation is dying. Maybe a regulator is needed to explain competition rules to the owner?

— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) February 1, 2023

Musk provided Ukraine free use of his Starlink satellite communication service after Russia launched its military offensive against Kiev last year.

Media outlets, including the Economist, have credited Musk’s satellites with having “saved Ukraine and changed warfare.” However, Zelensky’s regime has clashed with the Tesla CEO, such as when Musk suggested last October that the conflict could be ended by offering such concessions as allowing UN-monitored secession elections in separatist regions.

“Fk off is my very diplomatic reply to you,” Ukraine’s then-ambassador to Germany, Andrey Melnik, told Musk in response. “The only outcome is that now no Ukrainian will ever buy your fking Tesla crap.”

Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in October, vowing to make it a bastion for free speech. But he has also made enemies on the Russian side of the conflict. Vladimir Solovyov, a prominent Russian television host, recently denounced the Twitter owner as a “war criminal” for his support of Ukraine’s military.

Podoliak has a history of making unsupported allegations, such as his claim last week that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) took bribes from Russia to “promote genocide.” He made the accusation after the IOC floated the idea of allowing Russian athletes to return to competitions. In December, he accused Twitter of hiding trends related to the Ukraine crisis, apparently dismissing the possibility that public interest in the conflict had declined.

https://www.rt.com/news/570832-ukraine-official-claims-musk-suppressing-tweets/

It's true, Ukraine is always outraged, now they are biting the hand that fed them Starlink for free! It's never enough for these assholes.

1 Feb, 2023 19:22

China-Russia relationship a threat – NATO

Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has claimed that the Western bloc needs more friends in Asia amid Beijing’s rise

China and Russia are leading an “authoritarian pushback” against the “international rules-based order,” and their expanding ties pose a security threat that Western powers and their Asian allies must address together, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has claimed.

“The fact that Russia and China are coming closer and the significant investments by China and new advanced military capabilities just underlines that China poses a threat, poses a challenge also to NATO allies,” Stoltenberg said on Tuesday in a speech in Tokyo. “Security is not regional but global. NATO needs to make sure we have friends. It is important to work more closely with our partners in the Indo-Pacific,” added the NATO chief.

Stoltenberg made his comments a day after meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to discuss deepening ties between Tokyo and the Western military alliance. Japan plans to open an independent delegation office at NATO headquarters in Brussels and send a representative to the bloc’s council and defense chief meetings.

While claiming that NATO doesn’t consider China an adversary,

Stoltenberg said Beijing’s “growing assertiveness” and “coercive policies” are troubling. He accused China of bullying its neighbors in the South China Sea, threatening Taiwan, spreading “disinformation” about the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and expanding its nuclear and conventional military forces “without any transparency.” China’s deepening relationship with Russia only adds to those worries.

“Moscow and Beijing are deepening their strategic partnership,” Stoltenberg said. “The two countries train and operate more together militarily, conducting joint naval and air patrols also in the vicinity of Japan. Their economic cooperation is increasing, and China has not condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”

The NATO chief claimed that if Russia wins its conflict with Ukraine, it will “send a message that authoritarian regimes can achieve their goals through brute force. This is dangerous. Beijing is watching closely and learning lessons that may influence its future decisions. What is happening in Europe today, could happen in East Asia tomorrow.”

Chinese officials have blasted NATO for “trying to launch a new Cold War.”

After Stoltenberg spoke last summer of the threat allegedly posed by Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said NATO should “stop trying to mess up Asia and the world after messing up Europe.”

Stoltenberg said it is “essential to have friends” in a “more dangerous and competitive world.” He vowed that amid such instability, “Japan can count on NATO to stand with you.”

(NATO must always stir things up and make new enemies, feeding the NATO death beast & MIC is not easy)

https://www.rt.com/news/570830-nato-says-china-russia-ties-a-threat/

Feb, 2023 20:24

EU country draws the line at fighter jets to Ukraine

Despite supporting the gift of Leopard tanks to Kiev, Germany’s vice chancellor thinks planes are a step too far

German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck has warned against supplying fighter jets to Ukraine, arguing the step would “probably” be crossing a line and risk drawing Berlin into direct conflict with Moscow.

“There is a difference between battle tanks and fighter jets,” he told a TV host on Tuesday.

Habeck was a strong proponent of sending German-made Leopard 2 tanks to Kiev, and saw his wishes prevail over those of former Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht, who was replaced with Habeck’s own pick, Boris Pistorius. Germany last week announced it will provide 14 Leopard 2 tanks to Kiev. Poland will supply another 14, Spain will offer between four and six, and Norway will contribute up to eight and some parts.

However, even including anAmerican pledge of 31 M1 Abrams tanks, current allocations barely meet a third of Ukraine’s demands for 300 new tanks, and the machines are not expected to be delivered until the autumn. The Russian ambassador to Germany, Sergey Nechaev, condemned Berlin’s gift of the Leopards as “highly dangerous” and warned it “takes the conflict to a new level of confrontation.”

Despite Berlin’s hesitance to supply Kiev with fighter jets, an adviser to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky claimed on Wednesday that talks were already underway to provide their military with “attack aircraft.”Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has urged his erstwhile colleagues to fork over their fighter planes “as fast as possible,” even as the current British leadership joined Habeck and US President Joe Biden in saying no to their ally’s latest demand.

(Whatever dirt Ukraine has on Boris Johnson must be extra disgusting and despicable)

https://www.rt.com/news/570831-habeck-fighter-jets-tanks-ukraine/

1 Feb, 2023 19:12

EU sanctions blocked Nord Stream repairs – company

Equinor said the Norwegian government prevented it from providing requested aid

Norway’s Equinor on Wednesday revealed that itwas the government in Oslo and EU sanctions that blocked itfrom responding to a request for assistance in dealing with the damage to Nord Stream pipelines. The Baltic Sea pipelines delivering Russian natural gas to Germany were damaged by sabotage in September, which Moscow blamed on the West.

“The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has stated that work on the pipelines would be in breach of the Norwegian sanction regulations – and by extension the EU sanction regulations,” Equinor said a statement emailed to Reuters.

Equinor is the Norwegian oil company that administers the Pipeline Repair and Subsea Intervention (PRSI) Pool, established by Oslo to deal with leaks and ruptures. TheSwiss-based operatorsfor Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 are among the 72 members of PRSI, and sent requests for assistance in October, shortly after both pipelines were damaged by undersea explosions.

Because PRSI “adheres to current legislation related to sanctions,” it “notified NS1 and NS2 (operators) that we were not able to do work as requested,” Equinor said in the statement.

Nord Stream 2 AG told Reuters that it had filed a request for support to inspect the damage, “as a full member of the PRSI Pool,” but was turned down. Its sister company, which operates the original Nord Stream, said in early October that the survey vessel it attempted to charter was waiting for permission from the Norwegian government.

The original Nord Stream was inaugurated in 2011, and supplied Russian natural gas to Germany and the rest of the EU while bypassing Ukraine and Poland. The second pipeline, which would have doubled the volume of gas deliveries, was finished in 2021 but Berlin refused to certify it for operations even before the conflict in Ukraine escalated. The US had sought to block the second pipeline’s construction with sanctions and vowed it would prevent it from becoming operational.

On September 26, 2022 both strings of NS1 and one string of NS2 were damaged in a series of powerful undersea explosions. As NS1 was pressurized at the time, a large quantity of gas was released into the Baltic Sea.

Washington insinuated that Moscow was behind the blasts, while Russia pointed the finger at the West for the “act of terrorism.” Sweden, Denmark and Germany launched an investigation into the explosion, but refused to share the results with Russia. Anonymous EU officials have since leaked to the US media that there was “no evidence” to suggest Moscow was behind the sabotage. Russia’s energy company Gazprom was allowed access to the site only once, in late October.

While the German gas company Uniper has estimated it would take 6-12 months to repair the pipelines, it is unclear whether Berlin even wants to do so.

(I hope all the freezing and starving citizens in the EU countries get judgement on their leaders one day.)

https://www.rt.com/news/570828-norway-equinor-nordstream-sanctions/

1 Feb, 2023 21:37

Russia issues warning to IsraelPM Netanyahu told CNN he was “looking into” sending the Iron Dome to Kiev, prompting a reaction from Moscow

Anyone so much as speculating about sending weapons to Ukraine is escalating the conflict, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in response to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In an interview to CNN on Tuesday, Netanyahu said he did not rule out the possibility of sending Iron Dome missile defense systems to Kiev – something his predecessor rejected outright.

“All countries that supply weapons [to Ukraine] should understand that we will consider these [weapons] to be legitimate targets for Russian armed forces,” Zakharova told reporters in Moscow.

“Any attempts – implemented or even unrealized but announced, for the supply of additional, new or some other weapons – have led and will lead to an escalation of this crisis. And everyone should be aware of this,” she added.

Zakharova was responding to claims by multiple media outlets that Netanyahu was “certainly looking into” the possibility of dispatching Iron Dome systems to Ukraine. The quote does not appear in CNN’s writeup of the interview, or the two video segments posted online, however.

Netanyahu, who recently returned as prime minister after 18 months out of power, sat down for an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper. The network did quote him on the possibility of mediating the conflict between Moscow and Kiev, and the cryptic answer about the recent drone attack on Iranian military industry.

“I never talk about specific operations … and every time some explosion takes place in the Middle East, Israel is blamed or given responsibility – sometimes we are, sometimes we’re not,” Netanyahu told Tapper.

Tehran has unofficially blamed Tel Aviv – and Kiev – for the attack on Isfahan over the weekend. While the top aide to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky cheered the attack, the foreign ministry in Kiev claimed ignorance of it.

Iron Dome is a short-range system Israel has used against rockets launched by Hezbollah and Hamas. The previous government rejected Ukraine’s demand to send them over last October. Defense Minister Benny Gantz explained in November that Israel doesn’t have “a large enough production base” to satisfy Ukraine’s needs, while a senior military adviser said the country was loath to antagonize Russia, which has a large military presence in neighboring Syria.

Israel’s hypothetical change of course might have something to do with the US, which funds the Iron Dome to the tune of $1 billion a year. Washington recently announcedit would raid the stockpile of artillery ammunition intended for Israel in order to supply Ukraine instead, which Netanyahu told CNN he was perfectly fine with.

https://www.rt.com/news/570829-russia-israel-iron-dome-ukraine/

1 Feb, 2023 09:54

Russia sanctions may jeopardize US gasoline supply – Bloomberg

The looming EU ban on Russian petroleum products could lead to fuel shortages on the East Coast, the news outlet reports

America’s Eastern states may face gasoline shortages this summer due to the EU’s ban on petroleum products from Russia, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.

According to the report, US seasonal gasoline storages are currently at their lowest levels in a decade. At the same time, the need for more careful maintenance of oil refineries in winter months is likely to further deplete reserves.

Although the US is a net exporter of gasoline, most of the supply excess is on its Gulf Coast. Transporting the fuel to the East Coast is hard due to insufficient pipeline capacity and the high cost of shipping. The region, therefore, traditionally relies on deliveries from Europe, especially during the summer.

The EU ban on Russian oil products, which comes into force on February 5,may limit Europe’s ability to provide itself with the fuel and send it on to the US, Bloomberg notes. This could lead to a fresh spike in gasoline prices, with consumers still reeling from last year’s $5-a-gallon fuel costs at the pump.

According to the news outlet, US companies will inevitably have to look for new fuel sources to avoid shortages. One option would be to redirect fuel from the Gulf of Mexico to the Caribbean, and then to the US. Alternatively, the US could try to increase supplies from Asia and the Middle East, but the logistical difficulties associated with such a decision may be too great to make a significant change.

The US has been stepping up fuel purchasesfrom Indiato replace the diminished shipments from Europe. According to data from Kpler analysts, about 89,000 barrels of Indian gasoline and diesel reached New York this month, which was the highest shipment volume from this particular destination in about four years.

Last year,India became one of the main buyers of Russian oil, banned by the US and EU, and plans to further increase import volumes. It will likely have enough fuel to step up exports to the US if the need arises. (so the US is buying Russian oil, via India, that is marked up 20-25% or more)

However, according to Bloomberg, increased dependence on imports from distant India may still pose a risk of supply disruptions in the US as delivery times exceed one month, which is nearly three times longer than for imports from Europe. Also, the US may need to sidestep its own sanctions, purchasing fuel from a country that buys it from Russia.

https://www.rt.com/business/570795-russia-sanctions-us-gasoline-supply/

The only thing I have to say is Fuck Joe Bidan and all his evil demons