Cooperate Or Die: In Private Meeting, Top Facebook Exec Threatened News Outlets

Authored by Jake Johnson via Common Dreams,

During a closed-door and off-the-record meeting last week, top Facebook executive Campbell Brown reportedly warned news publishers that refusal to cooperate with the tech behemoth's efforts to "revitalize journalism" will leave media outlets dying "like in a hospice."

Reported first by The Australian under a headline which read "Work With Facebook or Die: Zuckerberg," the social media giant has insisted the comments were taken out of context, even as five individuals who attended the four-hour meeting corroborated what Brown had stated.

"Mark doesn't care about publishers but is giving me a lot of leeway and concessions to make these changes," Brown reportedly said, referring to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. "We will help you revitalize journalism… in a few years the reverse looks like I'll be holding hands with your dying business like in a hospice."

As The Guardian reported on Monday, Facebook is "vehemently" denying the veracity of the comments as reported by The Australian, referring to its own transcript of the meeting. However, Facebook is refusing to release its transcript and tape of the gathering.

Brown's warning about the dire prospects for news outlets that don't get on board with a future in which corporate giants like Facebook are the arbiters of what is and isn't trustworthy news comes as progressives are raising alarm that Facebook's entrance into the world of journalism poses a major threat to non-corporate and left-wing news outlets.

As Common Dreams reported in July, progressives' fears were partly confirmed after Facebook unveiled its first slate of news "segments" as part of its Facebook Watch initiative.

While Facebook claims its initiative is part of an effort to combat "misinformation," its first series of segments were dominated by such corporate outlets as Fox News and CNN.

Reacting to Brown's reported assertion that Zuckerberg "doesn't care about publishers," Judd Legum, who writes the Popular Information newsletter, argued, "Anyone who does care about news needs to understand Facebook as a fundamental threat."

"In addition to disputed quote, there are also Facebook's actions, which are fully consistent with the quote," Legum added.

"We desperately need to develop alternative delivery mechanisms to Facebook."

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-08-14/cooperate-or-die-private-meeting-top-facebook-exec-threatened-news-outlets

FBI warns of imminent hack attack on ATM machines worldwide

Bank ATMs around the world are at risk of an "imminent" cyber attack with millions of dollars expected to disappear from accounts, according to a confidential alert by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The warning issued by the FBI to international banks on Friday revealed that cyber criminals are planning a massive malware attack on ATMs across the globe in the next few days.

The FBI has obtained unspecified reporting indicating cyber criminals are planning to conduct a global Automated Teller Machine (ATM) cash-out scheme in the coming days, likely associated with an unknown card issuer breach and commonly referred to as an 'unlimited operation',” the report obtained by cyber-security expert Brian Krebs reads.

The analyst warned global lenders of a highly choreographed, global fraud scheme known as an “ATM cash-out.” The criminals are reportedly planning to hack a bank or payment card processor and use cloned cards at cash machines around the world to withdraw millions of dollars in few hours. The similar fraud operation was carried out in 2009, when around $9 million was cleaned out from cash machines worldwide.

According to the report, small-to-mid sized banks that haven't upgraded their equipment and software to the latest security standards are at higher risk.

“Historic compromises have included small-to-medium size financial institutions, likely due to less robust implementation of cyber security controls, budgets, or third-party vendor vulnerabilities,” the statement reads.

“The FBI expects the ubiquity of this activity to continue or possibly increase in the near future.”

https://www.rt.com/business/435897-atm-mass-hacked-attack-fbi/

Chile authorities raid Episcopal Conference in abuse probe

by Associated Press August 14 at 10:49 AM

SANTIAGO, Chile — Chilean authorities say they are raiding the headquarters of the Catholic Church’s Episcopal Conference as part of a widespread investigation into clerical sex abuse in the South American country.

Prosecutors say the surprise raids on Tuesday are occurring at the most important building of the Chilean church in the capital of Santiago.

Chilean prosecutors also recently summoned the archbishop of Santiago, Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati, to appear in court and testify about the alleged cover-up of years of abuse.

Vatican | Aug. 13, 2018

Vatican: Francis Continues to Watch Abuse Response in Chile

Pope Francis held a meeting on the abuse scandal in Chile on Friday.

Hannah Brockhaus/CNA/EWTN News

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis held a meeting on the abuse scandal in Chile and will continue to follow the actions of the country’s bishops’ conference in response to the crisis, the Vatican Press Office said Friday.

According to press office vice director Paloma Garcia, Francis is following “with interest” the response of the Chilean bishops and “has expressed his desire to continue to clarify all the questions in order to give a just answer to everyone.”

The Pope met with Bishop Juan Ignacio González of San Bernardo and Ana María Celis Brunet, president of the Chilean National Council for the Prevention of Abuse, in the Vatican’s Santa Marta House Aug. 10.

An attorney, Celis was appointed to the position in early August by the Chilean bishops, during a weeklong meeting to consider the roots of the crisis of sexual abuse in the Church in their country and to define guidelines to implement in their dioceses.

The Vatican statement on their meeting said the aim was “to get information and exchange views on the steps being taken in Chile to deal with cases of abuse and to prevent them from happening again.”

The conversation also referenced the suffering of victims and the need to provide “consolation and reparation.”

Friday’s meeting follows similar encounters the Pope conducted over the last few months with victims of abuses which occurred at Father Fernando Karadima’s Sacred Heart parish in Santiago.

Father Karadima, a Chilean priest who committed sexual abuse and abuse of power and conscience, was convicted by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 2011 of abusing minors and sentenced to a life of prayer and penance. He has not been sentenced by civil courts because of Chile’s statute of limitations.

A sacerdotal association that Father Karadima had led, the Priestly Union of the Sacred Heart, was suppressed within a year of his conviction.

Last week Pope Francis wrote to the Chilean bishops’ conference to express his approval of their newly adopted plan to prevent future instances of sex abuse within the Church.

“I was impressed by the work of reflection, discernment and decisions that you have made,” the Pope wrote in his Aug. 5 letter to Bishop Santiago Jaime Silva Retamales of Chile’s military diocese, who is president of the Chilean bishops’ conference.

Francis was responding to the Aug. 3 statement issued at the conclusion of the weeklong meeting of the Chilean bishops to address the sex-abuse crisis.

The bishops acknowledged they had failed in their duty as pastors in the face of the cases of sexual abuse committed by priests and presented some short- and medium-term measures in order to determine the truth and to secure justice and reparation for the victims.

In addition, police seized documents and equipment from the office of the bishop of Chile's military diocese Thursday as part of an investigation into accusations that Church officials in the country covered up clerical sexual abuse.

Cont. here:

https://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/vatican-francis-continues-to-watch-abuse-response-in-chile

Australian ex-archbishop Philip Wilson avoids jail for child abuse cover up

Former Australian archbishop Philip Wilson was met by outraged victims as he left the courthouse with no jail time. Wilson's conviction was a landmark ruling in Australia that could affect other cases around the country.

An Australian court on Tuesday ruled Australian Archbishop Philip Wilson, the most senior Catholic official to be convicted of covering up child sex abuse, will serve his one-year prison sentence in home detention.

Newcastle Magistrate Robert Stone ordered Wilson to be detained at his sister's house with a non-parole period of at least six months.

He will be under strict supervision, and will be required to wear a tracking device that will alert authorities if he leaves the house.

The magistrate's decision was met with outrage by victims who were waiting outside the courthouse.

In May, the court found Wilson guilty of failing to alert police to the repeated abuse of two altar boys by pedophile priest James Fletcher in the state of New South Wales in the 1970s. Wilson was an assistant priest at the time.

Stone found Wilson had shown no remorse or contrition for his actions, and that his primary motive had been to protect the Catholic Church.

Sentence a deterrent

Stone found that Wilson was unlikely to reoffend ,but that a period of detention was necessary to deter others.

He said home detention was an adequate sentence given Wilson's age and mental and physical condition, and that he had previously been of good character.

Wilson's lawyer, Ian Temby, said Wilson planned to appeal his conviction, but would not be applying for bail.

Wilson resigned as archbishop of Adelaide last month, soon after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called on the Vatican to fire him. He remains an ordained bishop, but has no official role.

He has repeatedly denied the charges, and initially ignored calls to quit pending an appeal against his conviction.

Australia opened a royal commission into institutional responses to child sex abuse in 2012, following years of pressure to investigate widespread allegations of institutional pedophilia.

https://www.dw.com/en/australian-ex-archbishop-philip-wilson-avoids-jail-for-child-abuse-cover-up/a-45071355

Abuse in Ireland: Pressure mounts for pope to address scandal

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis is traveling to Ireland specifically for the World Meeting of Families, but the sex abuse crisis is dominating headlines before his Aug. 25-26 trip.

While coverage of clerical abuse in the United States, Chile and Australia continues, Irish news media have been filled with articles about how a top Vatican official allegedly tried to get Irish government officials to support deals that would protect church records of abuse allegations and limit the financial liability of the church.

Former Irish President Mary McAleese said Cardinal Angelo Sodano, then the Vatican secretary of state, approached her in November 2003 about an agreement or concordat to protect church records, and Dermot Ahern, Ireland’s former foreign minister, said Cardinal Sodano asked him in November 2004 about the Irish government indemnifying the church against court-ordered compensation for victims. Many of the institutions where the abuse took place were supported by the state or subject to state inspection.

Cardinal Sodano, the now 90-year-old dean of the College of Cardinals, has not responded to the claims, nor has the Vatican press office.

Writing Aug. 7 in the Irish Times, Marie Collins, who had been one of the abuse survivors Pope Francis named to the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, said that in Dublin the pope “should admit the responsibility the Vatican and church leadership hold for past events in Ireland and set out how he is going to deal with the abuses happening today in other parts of the Catholic world.”

“He needs to do more than make promises,” Collins wrote. “He must commit to action.”

U.S. Dominican Father Thomas Doyle, who has spent decades working with survivors of clerical sexual abuse, told the Irish radio RTE Aug. 13 he hoped Pope Francis would have the courage to admit publicly that the Vatican itself was involved in covering up abuse crimes.

“I believe that kind of a statement coming from him is absolutely necessary because the day is long gone when people will tolerate them saying, ‘Well, we’re sorry for the pain you suffered, for the mistakes that were made.’ No,” he said, “it wasn’t mistakes. It was an intentional program, an intentional, systemic program” to protect the church above all else.

Officials chose to “sacrifice the thousands of victims for the image and the welfare and the power of the institution,” Father Doyle said. “The apology has to come from the top.”

Cont.:

https://cnstopstories.com/2018/08/14/abuse-in-ireland-pressure-mounts-for-pope-to-address-scandal/

>>2595777

Huber

Attorney General Jeff Sessions told Republican lawmakers in a letter on Thursday that there is no need—at this time—to appoint a special counsel to investigate the FBI’s handling of high-profile investigations.

Sessions said he has appointed U.S. Attorney John Huber of Utah to conduct an inquiry and make recommendations on whether there is a need for additional resources or the appointment of a special counsel. The Washington Post, CNN and Politico have stories.

Sessions said Huber is conducting his work in cooperation with the Justice Department’s inspector general, who has been investigating Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state.

The inspector general has also announced review of the process used to obtain surveillance warrants with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Republicans have complained that the FBI and the Justice Department improperly relied on a dossier partly financed by the Clinton campaign to obtain a surveillance warrant from the court for Carter Page, a former campaign adviser to Donald Trump.

Sessions said he appointed Huber after a request for further investigation by the Republican lawmakers. The attorney general addressed his letter to Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa; House Judiciary Committee chairman Robert Goodlatte, R-Va.; and House Oversight Committee chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C.

Goodlatte has called for a second special counsel to address topics that include: Clinton’s handling of classified information in emails on her private server; the FBI’s handling of the email investigation; leaks of nonpublic information, including those by former FBI director James Comey; connections between the Clinton Foundation and Russia; and whether Clinton Foundation donations influenced the Obama administration’s approval of the sale of a Canadian uranium company to Russia’s nuclear agency.

Huber was appointed in 2015 by President Barack Obama, and reappointed last year by President Donald Trump.

“I am confident that Mr. Huber’s review will include a full, complete and objective evaluation of these matters in a manner that is consistent with the law and the facts,” Sessions said in the letter.

https://www.abajournal.com/news/article/sessions_says_us_attorney_is_reviewing_fbi_conduct_special_counsel_isnt_nee