After Assange’s Espionage Act Indictment, Police Move Against More Journalists for Publishing Classified Material

RP from QRes#8559

Less than two months after the arrest of journalist Julian Assange, and two weeks after his indictment under the Espionage Act, emboldened governments have sent the police after journalists who’ve challenged the state. Joe Lauria reports.

By Joe Lauria

in Sydney, Australia

Special to Consortium News

Following the arrest and Espionage Act indictment of Julian Assange a number of police actions against journalists for publishing classified information and other journalistic activity has heightened fears among mainstream journalists that they could be next.

Police in Sydney, Australia on Wednesday raided the offices of the taxpayer-funded Australian Broadcasting Corporation, copying thousands of files related to a 2017 ABC broadcast that revealed allegations of war crimes by Australian special forces in Afghanistan.

Three Australian Federal Police officers and three police technicians entered ABC’s Sydney headquarters with a search warrant that named two ABC investigative journalists and the network’s news director. The police demanded to look through the journalists’ emails, ABC reported.

David Anderson, the ABC managing director, said it was “highly unusual for the national broadcaster to be raided in this way”.

“This is a serious development and raises legitimate concerns over freedom of the press and proper public scrutiny of national security and Defence matters,” he said. “The ABC stands by its journalists, will protect its sources and continue to report without fear or favour on national security and intelligence issues when there is a clear public interest.” John Lyons, ABC’s executive editor and head of investigative journalism, tweeted:

Lyons said the federal police were going through dozens of emails with the authority to delete or even change their content. Protagonist Winston Smith’s job in Orwell’s 1984 was to rewrite news archives.

“I recall writing ages ago about Australian legislation giving the Australian govt power to ‘add, alter or delete’ targeted material,” Australian psychologist and social critic Lissa Johnson told Consortium News.“The msm barely batted an eyelid at the time. Now that power is being wielded against the ABC.”

Gaven Morris, ABC’s news director, said: “Journalism is not a crime.”

“Our journalists do a really difficult job, I’m proud of what they do, they do it in the public’s interest,” he said. “I’d say to all the journalists at the ABC and all the journalists across Australia, don’t be afraid of the job you do.”….

https://consortiumnews.com/2019/06/05/after-assanges-espionage-act-indictment-police-move-against-more-journalists-for-publishing-classified-material/

Another Papa D Tweet

RP from QRes#8564

"Mid April 2016 Australian wanna be honeypot, Erica Thompson, starts to make contact and tries to seduce me (too ugly). Late April CIA asset, Joseph Mifsud, drops the fake Russia info in my lap. May 10, Alexander Downer and wannabe honeypot spy and record my conversation. Declass!"

https://twitter.com/GeorgePapa19/status/1137133534043230208

Australian police seize 1.6 tons of Meth

RP from QRes#8567

@SputnikInt

Australian police seize 1.6 tons of #meth in largest ever bust https://sptnkne.ws/mBqU #Australia

3:20 PM - 7 Jun 2019

https://twitter.com/SputnikInt/status/1137122059551744000

Good news

Resignations in the region

RP from QRes#8568

Councillor to resign as divisions rage in Southland

https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/southland/councillor-resign-divisions-rage-southland

Invercargill City councillor to resign over council actions at meeting

https://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/113278234/invercargill-city-councillor-to-resign-over-council-actions-at-meeting

Antony Kidman links

RP from QRes#8569

https://pedophilesdownunder.com/Kidman-connections-the-cia-secret-societies-ritual-abuse/

https://illuminatiwatcher.com/nicole-Kidmans-father-satanic-pedo-ring/

http://themillenniumreport.com/2017/01/why-was-antony-Kidman-at-the-middle-of-an-australian-pedophile-ring/

https://independentaustralia.net/life/life-display/antony-Kidman-dies-amidst-child-abuse-allegations,6918

https://steemit.com/pizzagate/@thevoiceofreason/shocking-link-between-nicole-Kidman-s-dad-and-pizzagate

http://www.conspirazzi.com/nicole-Kidmans-father-silenced-by-ninth-circle-satanic-cult/

Australian newspaper running a hit-piece on DJT re Central Park 5.

RP from QRes#8570

Donald Trump’s role in the tragedy of the Central Park Five case -

It was a sickening case that became infamous. And now a director refuses to let President Trump forget his role in the wrongful conviction of the Central Park Five.

–

TRUMP CALLS FOR DEATH

Donald Trump, then a real estate tycoon who had recently shot to prominence in the city due to his ghostwritten book The Art Of The Deal, paid $85,000 to run full-page ads in New York’s four daily papers: The New York Times, The Daily News, The New York Post, and New York Newsday. The same inflammatory 600-word diatribe, running May 1, 1989, across all four papers, was titled ‘Bring Back The Death Penalty. Bring Back Our Police’ and while it didn’t refer to the incident specifically, it referred to “roving bands of wild criminals” and called for the “criminals of every age” to be put to death. “I want to hate these muggers and murderers,’’ Trump wrote. “They should be forced to suffer and, when they kill, they should be executed for their crimes.’’

Rallying against a largely misunderstood quote from Mayor Koch that “hate and rancour should be removed from our hearts”, Trump called for zero policy sentencing.

“How can our great society tolerate the continued brutalisation of its citizens by crazed misfits?” the letter asks. “Criminals must be told that their CIVIL LIBERTIES END WHEN AN ATTACK ON OUR SAFETY BEGINS!”

–

Since then, he (Trump) has repeatedly reiterated the guilty verdict of the men, even though their convictions were vacated. Just this week, he alluded to the case again.

“Anyone associated with the 1994 Crime Bill will not have a chance of being elected,” he tweeted. “In particular, African-Americans will not be able to vote for you. I, on the other hand, was responsible for Criminal Justice Reform, which had tremendous support, & helped fix the bad 1994 Bill!”

The film’s director, Ava DuVernay, was quick to fire back: “The story people know is the lie that you told them. Your violent rhetoric fed tensions that led to the bill you pretend to distant yourself from. But you can’t hide from what you did to The Central Park Five. They were innocent. And they will have the last word.”

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/news-life/donald-trumps-role-in-the-tragedy-of-the-central-park-five-case/news-story/5f47f120519602627f6538cf3e3d9f0f

https://twitter.com/ava/status/1133193883460939776

Not sure if already posted, but a good read to share. Jeff does good work and links sources. Just posting first few paragraphs. He updated the article yesterday.

5 Discrepancies Call the Accuracy of Mueller’s Report Into Question

RP from QRes#8573

The Mueller report appears to have been carefully worded by the lawyers working under former special counsel Robert Mueller, and perhaps Mueller himself, in a manner designed to inflict political damage on President Donald Trump.

Additionally, we now know that sections of the report were also selectively edited to provide damaging portrayals. Examples include the representation of the transcript of a phone call between the president’s attorney, John Dowd, and the attorney for former national security adviser Michael Flynn, a letter from the attorney of an individual referenced in the Mueller report, and a sequence of dates concerning the meeting between Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos and Australian diplomat Alexander Downer.

Lastly, there are troubling and disturbing details surrounding a heavily used witness in the Mueller report, George Nader.

What makes these examples particularly notable is that access to the underlying material used in the Mueller report is extremely limited. In each of the instances where information is publicly available—documents released in the ongoing Flynn case, a rebuttal letter from lawyers for the individual mentioned in the Mueller report, and details surrounding the Papadopoulos case—they highlight inconsistencies, thereby raising concerns that Mueller’s report may be hiding many more such problems.

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) highlighted the Dowd transcript in a May 31 tweet, saying, “This is why we need all backup and source documentation for the #muellerdossier released publicly. It’s all a fraud…”

https://m.theepochtimes.com/5-discrepancies-call-the-accuracy-of-muellers-report-into-question_2951924.html

Chinese warships collect baby formula in Australia

Chinese warships that docked unexpectedly at an Australian port departed with a cargo of baby formula, local media discovered.

The arrival of a trio of Chinese ships, including an amphibious assault vessel, set off alarm bells on Monday morning among Australian citizens who did not have advance notice of the visit and analysts who regarded it as a show of force. But the trip also highlighted China’s vulnerabilities, as Chinese sailors were photographed loading baby formula onto the ships before they departed.

“What some Chinese colleagues were saying about ‘realistic socialism’ as true state of affairs in their country, and best epitomized here: advanced warships that project the State's might while sailors cope with tainted food products back home,” Collin Koh, a research fellow at the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies in Singapore, commented in a Friday night tweet.

China was rocked by a scandal involving tainted baby formula in 2008, when testing showed that a toxic chemical was being used in milk powder that resulted in the death of six children and illness for 300,000 more, including more than 50,000 babies who required hospitalization.

“On Thursday, on the eve of the ships’ departure for China, People’s Liberation Army personnel were seen loading dozens of boxes full of A2 platinum and Aptamil formula on board,” the Weekend Australian, which photographed the sailors, explained. “Baby formula made in Australia, the US and Europe has been highly sought in China for the past decade.”

The arrival of the three ships stirred a controversy in Australia, in part because Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s government did not warn local officials to expect the warships. Their trip was billed as a routine visit while returning from the Middle East.

“Chinese naval visits to Australia have more typically been a lone frigate, not a task group with an amphibious assault ship and 700 personnel,” Rory Medcalf, the head of Australian National University’s National Security College, said this week. “Sydney is hardly a convenient stopover on their way home from the Gulf of Aden.”

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/chinese-warships-collect-baby-formula-in-australia

Another PapaD Tweet

RP from QRes#8575

Australia/UK/Italy/Ukraine were willfully sabotaging the democratic process in this country by spying on us. Italy has already flipped and are getting the best deal out of their mistakes in 2016. The UK is dragging its feet, Australia is aloof and Ukraine is terrified.

https://twitter.com/GeorgePapa19/status/1137425368036413440

Anons comments on Streets pedo-like logo

RP from QRes#8578

I'm so sick of the sheer audacity of these Satanic companies that openly advertise their participation in the global child-trafficking death cult.

You see this company's branding EVERYWHERE in Australia, even though this "heart swirl" was one of the earliest leaks of pedo symbols. It will be much easier to take down the criminals behind these companies when they so proudly telegraph their crimes for all to see.

The people of Australia are still very asleep. But not for much longer. There will be hell to pay. Soon.

Anons Twitter find on George Pell/Catholic Church

RP from QRes#8583

Found on twatter

Rod Dreher

@roddreher

https://twitter.com/roddreher/status/1137775790626615301

Just heard from a clerical source I trust that 3 yrs ago, #CardinalPell was describing how much hidden money he'd found investigating Vatican Bank. Someone present said, “Your Eminence, don’t you fear for your life?” Pell responded, “No, they will destroy my reputation.”

———————–

Cardinal Pell & The Mafia

By ROD DREHER • June 6, 2019

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/cardinal-pell-the-mafia/

In 2014, Pell was given by Pope Francis responsibility for cleaning up the infamously corrupt Vatican Bank. When that news broke, I thought, “They’ll find some way to take him out. They won’t let him do it.” When the child abuse charges were brought against Pell in 2017, I thought, “So that’s how they did it.” But I didn’t go further, because how would I prove that Pell was set up? It was just a hunch.

When I was in Australia last month, I found myself in a conversation one evening with someone about all this. (I had a lot of Pell conversations, as you might imagine.) I shared with my interlocutor my suspicion that Pell was set up to take him off the Vatican Bank case. The man across the table said, “That’s interesting. You may not know it, but the ‘Ndrangheta is quite well established in Australia, especially in Victoria. That’s where the cardinal was charged.”

The ‘Ndrangheta is the Calabrian mafia, and yes, they are well established in Australia. They control organized crime on Australia’s East Coast, and are said to have infiltrated every part of the Australian establishment. With that in mind, here’s an interesting bit of news, from the Irish Times, Nov. 16, 2013:

Senior Calabrian Mafia investigator Nicola Gratteri, whose investigative zeal has forced him to live with police protection since 1989, has said the pope’s plans to reform Vatican structures, including the Vatican bank, the IOR, could prove a problem for the ’Ndrangheta, Italy’s most powerful Mafia.

He said that while Pope John Paul II called on the “military” mafiosi to “repent” in 1993, Pope Francis has gone further, perhaps hitting the ’Ndrangheta where it hurts.

“He has named his G8 [council of cardinals] to overhaul the entire structure of the Vatican, including a review of the Vatican’s economic affairs and in particular, the IOR,” Gratteri says.

“For those with real economic power it is obvious this could be a huge disadvantage . . . Given that in the past we’ve had collusion at the highest level between church and Mafia, this exposes the pope.”

Months after this report, Cardinal George Pell was named by Francis to reform the IOR. In 2014, Pell said his team found nearly two billion euros hidden away in various Vatican accounts, off the balance sheets. In November 2015, with the Pope’s approval, Pell issued new guidelines for running all Vatican offices, to bring them up to international standards for financial transparency.

In April 2016, without consulting Pell, the Vatican Secretary of State suspends an external audit of Vatican finances. The National Catholic Register quotes an unnamed source as saying that officials are afraid of what the audit will find, and want to get rid of Pell. A year later, Pell was charged in Melbourne with sexual abuse. And that was the end of the Pell threat to the Vatican Bank insiders.

This mafia thing, it could all be a coincidence, and in any case, there are other factors in play in the persecution of George Pell, who was widely hated by Australian anti-clericalists. But it’s curious all the same. George Pell was the No. 1 enemy of the ‘Ndrangheta in the Vatican, and he showed early on in his tenure, when he uncovered all the hidden euros, that he meant business. Now George Pell sits in solitary confinement in a prison cell in Melbourne, convicted on pathetically shabby charges. The old guard in the Vatican won. The world is as it always was.

UPDATE: I have been told by someone very much in a position to know that the current head of the Vatican Bank is from Calabria. For what it’s worth…

Articles about recycling system abuse

RP from QRes#8585

Exposing Australia’s recycling lie | 60 Minutes Australia

There is no doubt Australia is one of the most wasteful nations in the world, so the practice of recycling helps to lessen our guilt. As we drag our bins out for collection each week, we feel like we’re helping the environment. But the reality is that we’re all being conned. Right now, Australia is stuck in an unsightly and worsening recycling crisis. What is being done with plastic waste, the material most people think would be easy to salvage and re-use, is of the greatest concern. As Liam Bartlett discovers, most of it ends up either being buried or worse – exported to countries like Malaysia, a place we are now treating like a garbage bin.

https://youtu.be/lqrlEsPoyJk

Canada's "garbage ship": The dirty truth Trudeau won't tell | Jessica Swietoniowski & Keean Bexte

Jessica Swietoniowski and Keean Bexte of The Rebel with the shocking saga of the rotten garbage Canada shipped to the Philippines — and that the Philippines is finally sending back. Trudeau's Environment Minister insists that this garbage will be used "to power homes" in British Columbia. Really…?

https://youtu.be/VD53gf96Bfo

Catherine McKenna welcomes rotting garbage back to Canada

On the latest episode of The Ezra Levant Show, we focused in on Catherine McKenna's banner week from her drunk rant in St. John's to her excited tweet welcoming the shipment of dozens of containers of old, rotting garbage from the Philippines.

https://youtu.be/9MvmylBweQQ

“If you repeat it, if you say it louder, if that’s your talking point, people will totally believe it!” says McKenna.

https://twitter.com/TrueNorthCentre/status/1133058030407475202/video/1

https://www.spencerfernando.com/2019/05/27/video-catherine-mckenna-explains-how-she-lies-to-canadians/

Why Mexico is the new China

RP from QRes#8590

The trade war represents a perfect opportunity for Australia to move away from its dependence on China and start thinking more globally, according to a former economic adviser to US president George W. Bush.

Pippa Malmgren believes Australia should start looking to areas such as Latin America as China begins to price itself out of the market.

"Mexico is the new China," she told The Australian Financial Review last week.

"Mexico's wages are 20 to 40 per cent cheaper but their quality control is American-standard. Australia has always linked itself to China, and China alone, but the whole rest of the world is building and making stuff now – why isn't Australia doing more business in Mexico?

"It made sense [to invest in China] when they were achieving this extraordinary competitiveness, but that ended a while ago."

Dr Malmgren, who was in Australia as part of AMP's Amplify festival, now heads commercial drone business H Robotics.

She said China's rapid growth had seen it become less competitive in the global landscape.

"I'm a manufacturer and I can make electronics in the UK as cheaply as in China but with much better quality control," she said.

"They have so lost their competitive edge, their quality control isn't good enough and their costs have gone through the roof."

"China's threatened to restrict the flow of refined rare earths metals and there's loads of rare earths all over the world but they're useless unless they're refined and we moved all the refining to China because it was so environmentally toxic we didn't want it in the west," she said.

"So suddenly, within weeks of this announcement, you see Lynas building the first rare earths refinery in the US in decades in Texas. So I suspect what we'll see is the rebuilding of the supply chains in the West now, and it's happening at a moment in history when China has priced itself out of the market and they're not very competitive anyway."

https://www.afr.com/news/economy/why-mexico-is-the-new-china-20190605-p51us3

In-Q-Tel opens Sydney office.

RP from QRes#8598

A technology investment fund bankrolled by America's foreign spy agency, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), is stalking Australian companies for future investment opportunities.

The company, In-Q-Tel, headed in Australia by former US Marine Mike Ferrari, opened its Sydney office late last year. Its stated goal is "to reach startups and the venture capital community outside the United States and to better contribute to the national security of the US and its allies".

https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/the-cia-s-investment-fund-is-stalking-australian-tech-startups-and-has-opened-a-local-office-20190610-p51w3r.html

US submits formal extradition request for WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange – reports

RP from QRes#8599

The US Justice Department has formally submitted its extradition request for Julian Assange to the United Kingdom, American media report, citing government sources. The notice, which by law had to be provided to British authorities within 60 days following Assange’s arrest on April 11, was sent on Thursday, the Washington Post reports.

The whistleblower is set to appear in court on June 12, where his fate could be decided. In the US, the WikiLeaks co-founder is wanted on 18 counts, including charges under the Espionage Act for receiving and publishing top secret information obtained by former military intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning. If proven guilty, the Australian-born publisher could face up to 175 years in prison.

Assange continues to maintain his innocence while incarcerated in HM Prison Belmarsh following the suspension of his seven-year-long political asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London and his subsequent arrest two months ago.

https://www.rt.com/newsline/461561-formal-extradition-request-assange/

To reduce reliance on China, US will team up with Canada and Australia to boost output of key minerals

RP from QRes#8607

The United States will team up with Canada and Australia to help countries around the world develop their reserves of minerals like lithium, copper and cobalt, the US State Department said on Tuesday, part of a multipronged strategy to reduce global reliance on China for materials crucial to hi-tech industries.

Washington grew more concerned recently about its dependence on mineral imports, especially the so-called rare earth minerals, after Beijing suggested using them as leverage in the trade war between the world’s largest economic powers. This would interrupt the manufacture of a wide range of consumer, industrial and military goods, including mobile phones, electric vehicles, batteries and fighter planes.

“Over 80 per cent of the global supply chain of rare earth elements … is controlled by one country,” the State Department said in a fact sheet outlining the effort, which it has dubbed the Energy Resource Governance Initiative.

“Reliance on any one source increases the risk of supply disruptions.”

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3014111/reduce-reliance-china-us-will-team-canada-and-australia-boost-output-key

Sara Carter: FBI Outsourced Spying on Trump Campaign to UK, Italy and Australia (VIDEO)

RP from QRes#8607

On Tuesday night Judicial Watch and Tom Fitton broke the news that the Obama State Department was working hand in with the Clinton spy Christopher Steele.

Fitton and Judicial Watch have documents that the State Department were working with Steele.

Coup Update: Harassment of @RealDonaldTrump continues with abusive fake "contempt" moves by Pelosi House PLUS @JudicalWatch new docs show Obama State Dept worked hand in glove with Clinton spy Christopher Steele. This and more with @SeanHannity tonight at 9pm, @FoxNews pic.twitter.com/co0HhCMn4n

— Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) June 11, 2019

Also on Hannity investigative journalist Sara Carter discussed how the Obama FBI outsourced spying on Trump campaign officials to the UK, Australia and Italy.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/06/sara-carter-fbi-outsourced-spying-on-trump-campaign-to-uk-italy-and-australia-video/

Matriarch of alleged incest family Betty Colt bailed ahead of perjury trial

RP from QRes#8610

The matriarch of a family alleged to have engaged in incest over four generations has been released on bail by order of the Supreme Court ahead of her trial for allegedly trying to conceal the paternity of her children.

Supreme Court Justice Desmond Fagan ordered the release of the 52-year-old mother of 13, known by the pseudonym Betty Colt, saying that so far she has spent 14 months on remand and he could not “justify holding her in prison for what is likely to be longer than her ultimate penalty.”

“It is alleged that on a particular rural property where a large number of members of the family resided various adults engaged in encouraging children who were related to each other to engage in sexual acts.”

The eight Colt family members were arrested in simultaneous raids across NSW, Western Australia and South Australia in April 2018.

It was five years after their alleged incest was first uncovered when 12 children were removed from the Colt’s remote property near Yass in the NSW Southern Tablelands by police and welfare workers concerned the minors were being neglected.

Authorities found 38 Colt family members living “off-the-grid” in squalid conditions in a collection of tents, caravans and sheds.

The children were allegedly showing signs of neglect and sexualised behaviour. Some of them had never used a toothbrush or toilet paper and spoke in unintelligible speech.

More (Paywall hit - Subscription required):

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/matriarch-of-alleged-incest-family-betty-colt-bailed-ahead-of-perjury-trial/news-story/3c192189853a85fffce6d37a4056df00?utm_campaign=EditorialSF&utm_source=CourierMail&utm_content=SocialFlow&utm_medium=Twitter