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WhatsApp accuses Israeli spyware firm of targeting journalists, civil society members

RT | January 31, 2025

Meta’s popular messaging platform WhatsApp has alerted nearly 100 journalists and civil society members to potential device breaches involving spyware from Israeli firm Paragon Solutions, a company official told Reuters on Friday.

These individuals have likely been compromised through a zero-click attack, possibly initiated via a malicious PDF sent in group chats, according to WhatsApp.

The identity of the attackers remains unknown, though Paragon’s software is typically used by government clients. After detecting and disrupting the hacking effort, WhatsApp issued a cease-and-desist letter to Paragon. The incident has been reported to law enforcement and Citizen Lab, a Canadian internet watchdog.

Paragon declined to comment on the accusations, according to Reuters.

Citizen Lab researcher John Scott-Railton told the outlet that the incident “is a reminder that mercenary spyware continues to proliferate and as it does, so we continue to see familiar patterns of problematic use.”

Paragon’s website advertises “ethically based tools, teams, and insights to disrupt intractable threats,” and claims to only sell to governments in stable democratic countries. The company’s products include Graphite, spyware that allows total phone access.

Despite Paragon’s claims of ethical practices, WhatsApp’s findings suggest otherwise, Natalia Krapiva, senior tech-legal counsel at Access Now, told Reuters. She emphasized that such abuses are not isolated incidents, saying, “This is not just a question of some bad apples – these types of abuses (are) a feature of the commercial spyware industry.”

This incident follows a series of legal challenges against Israeli spyware firms. In December 2024, a US judge ruled that NSO Group, the maker of Pegasus spyware, was liable for hacking the phones of 1,400 individuals through WhatsApp in May 2019, violating US state and federal hacking laws, and WhatsApp’s terms of service. A separate trial in March will determine what damages NSO Group owes WhatsApp.

Legal documents from ongoing US litigation between NSO Group and WhatsApp have revealed that it is the Israeli cyberweapons maker NSO Group, not its government clients, that installs and extracts information using its spyware. This disclosure contradicts NSO’s prior claim that only clients operate the system without NSO’s direct involvement.

January 31, 2025 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Deception, Full Spectrum Dominance | , , | Leave a comment

FBI Acted Like Modern-Day Gestapo

Sputnik – 31.01.2025

US President Donald Trump’s purge of the FBI’s leadership comes as no surprise – the agency has been acting more like a political enforcer than a law enforcement body.

Here are just a few examples of its (mis)conduct:

  • August 2022 – The FBI stormed Trump’s Mar-a-Lago to seize classified documents while Biden faced zero consequences for doing the same.
  • 2020 – The FBI actively suppressed the Hunter Biden laptop story, labeling it “Russian disinformation”, despite knowing it was real.
  • August 2024 – FBI agents raided the homes of ex-UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter and journalist Dimitri Simes without announcing charges. Their crime? Challenging the official US narrative.
  • 2024 – The House Judiciary Committee exposed the FBI for spying on Americans’ private transactions, targeting conservatives rather than criminals.
  • 2022 – Congressmen Jim Jordan and Mike Johnson revealed the FBI has been investigating parents critical of their local school boards, using threat tag employed by the agency’s counterterrorism division.
  • 2016 – The FBI used the debunked Steele dossier as a pretext to spy on Trump’s election campaign, despite knowing the allegations of Trump-Russia collusion were false.

Trump’s crackdown on the agency was inevitable – the real question is how deep the rot goes.

January 31, 2025 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance, Russophobia | , | Leave a comment

A Republic of Spies

By Andrew P. Napolitano | Ron Paul Institute | January 30, 2025

In 2021, to his credit, President Joe Biden warned the American public against the dangers of zero-click spyware manufactured by an Israeli corporation. Zero-click is unwanted software that can expose the entire contents of one’s mobile or desktop device to prying eyes without tricking one into clicking on to a link. Biden banned its importation and use in the United States.

Last week, as an inducement to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept the Israel/Hamas ceasefire agreement, President Donald Trump secretly agreed to lift the embargo on zero-click.

Here is the backstory.

Though America has employed spies since the Revolutionary War, until the modern era, spying was largely limited to wartime. That changed when America became a surveillance state in 1947 with the public establishment of the Central Intelligence Agency and the secret creation of its counterparts.

The CIA’s stated public task at its inception was to spy on the Soviet Union and its satellite countries so that American officials could prepare for any adverse actions by them. This was the time of the Red Scare, in which both Republicans and Democrats fostered the Orwellian belief that America needed a foreign adversary.

We had just helped the Russians defeat Germany in World War II, and our Russian ally — which was bankrupt and had just lost 27 million troops and civilians — suddenly became so strong it needed to be kept in check. The opening salvo in this absurd argument was fired by President Harry Truman in August 1945 when he used nuclear bombs intentionally to target civilians of an already defeated Japan. One of his targets was a Roman Catholic cathedral.

But his real target — so to speak — was his new friend, Joe Stalin.

When Truman signed the National Security Act into law in 1947, he also had Stalin in mind. That statute, which established the CIA, expressly stated that it shall have no internal intelligence or law enforcement functions and all its collections of intelligence shall come from sources outside the United States.

These limiting clauses were vital to passage of the statute, as members of Congress who crafted it feared the U.S. was creating the type of internal surveillance monster that we had just confronted in Germany.

Of course, no senior official in presidential administrations from Truman to Trump has taken these limitations seriously. As recently as the Obama administration, the CIA boasted that it had the capability of receiving data from all computer chips in the homes of Americans — such as in your microwave or dishwasher.

As well as its presence in your kitchen, the CIA is physically present in all 50 state houses in America. What is it doing there?

The feds admit to funding and empowering 18 domestic intelligence agencies — spies next door. The most notorious of these is the National Security Agency, which, when it last reported, employs 60,000+ persons, mostly civilians, with military leadership.

What do they do? They spy on Americans. We know this thanks to the personal courage of Edward Snowden and others who chose to honor their oaths to uphold the Constitution. NSA spying has produced so much data that the NSA built the second-largest building in the U.S. — after the Pentagon — for use as a storage facility of the data it has collected, and it is running out of room.

What has it collected? Quite simply, everything it can get its hands on. These domestic spies have access to every keystroke and all data on every digital device everywhere in the United States, without a warrant. This is computer hacking, a federal crime; but the feds don’t prosecute the spies they have hired to spy on us.

It also represents an egregious violation of the Fourth Amendment, which guarantees the right to privacy of all persons. The operative language is “the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated.”

The law defines all searches and seizures conducted without a warrant as unreasonable and thus violative of not only this amendment but also the uniquely American value it was enacted to protect — the right to be left alone. Surely the computer chip in every desktop, mobile device, dishwasher and microwave is an “effect” protected by the Constitution.

The spies and, sadly, the presidents for whom they have worked don’t see it that way. They have claimed in federal courts and elsewhere that the Fourth Amendment does not pertain to them because they are not law enforcement and because they work directly for the president, who, when he is operating as the commander in chief, is free to employ government assets as he wishes, without constitutional constraints.

This argument has been used to justify the CIA’s violent killings of Americans and others in foreign lands using drones and its agents dressed as military. It has justified the brutal torture of foreign nationals, even those whom the CIA deemed were being truthful during their interrogations. And, of course, it has justified ignoring the Constitution and the rights it protects and the values that underlie it.

This argument was also used to justify foreign and federal spying on Trump. Now he wants to make it easier for America’s spies to spy on the rest of us.

Spying belies the very purpose of the Constitution — to keep the government off the people’s backs. Of course, when the late Justice William O. Douglas coined that phrase, there were no computer chips, the CIA was thought to be law-abiding and the NSA didn’t exist.

So, we can see how desirous of secrecy the Trump administration was last week when it agreed to lift the zero-click embargo.

We can try to avoid commercial spyware, but how can we avoid a totalitarian government that spies on everyone?

According to the Declaration of Independence, we can do so by altering or abolishing it.

To learn more about Judge Andrew Napolitano, visit https://JudgeNap.com.
COPYRIGHT 2025 ANDREW P. NAPOLITANO
DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM

January 31, 2025 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Deception, Full Spectrum Dominance | , , , , | Leave a comment

New York’s Speech Crackdown Shields ISRAEL From Public Criticism

21st Century Wire | January 29, 2025

Recently, under intense pressure from the Israel Lobby, Harvard University capitulated to Zionist billionaires and media pressure by dramatically expanding its “guidance” for applying so-called Non-Discrimination and Anti-Bullying Policies and Procedures – specifying protections for Zionists and alleged victims of so-called “antisemitic” speech. This has already caused chilling effect on political speech and political protests on university campuses across the United States. These are some of the most draconian and arbitrary bylaws ever seen, and will almost certainly fall foul of the U.S. First Amendment once a challenge makes it to the high court.

In addition, the New York State legislature has also succumb to pressure from the Israel Lobby and pushed through a new law designed to shield Israel and Zionism exclusively – from public criticism or acts of protest.

American journalist and media critic Glenn Greenwald breaks down this fundamental problem now facing America and Europe. Watch: 

January 30, 2025 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Full Spectrum Dominance, Video | , , , , | Leave a comment

Swiss official who jailed journalist Ali Abunimah is fanatical pro-Israel activist

By Wyatt Reed · The Grayzone · January 28, 2025

The Swiss official who ordered the arrest of renowned Palestinian-American journalist Ali Abunimah justified doing so on the false and defamatory basis that Abunimah is “an Islamist Jew-hater.” Mario Fehr, the head of Zurich’s Department of Security, made the bogus accusation in a recent comment to the Swiss publication NZZ, which also falsely characterized Abunimah as an “Islamist” and an “extremist.”

Swiss authorities detained Abunimah on Jan. 25, after they initially allowed him entry into Switzerland following an hour-long interrogation. Abunimah was deported on Jan. 27 after two nights, during which Swiss officials refused to tell him whether he was being charged with a crime. According to the Swiss newspaper NZZ, officers in Zurich successfully petitioned federal police for an arrest warrant after realizing Abunimah had travelled to the country in order to deliver a speech at an event organized by the Zurich Palestine Committee. Fehr explained the arrest by stating, in reference to self-described “non-religious person” Ali Abunimah: “We do not want an Islamist Jew-hater who calls for violence in Switzerland.”

It’s unclear how Fehr came to adopt this patently false claim, but the article in NZZ gives a hint. In painting the secular Abunimah as a jihadist, the story’s authors relied on a leader of a little-known group called “Never Again Is Now,” (NAIN) which characterizes itself as “the only non-profit organization in Switzerland dedicated exclusively to combating antisemitism,” says it “demands the uncompromising enforcement of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism,” and claims: “we… defend Israel against anti-Zionist agendas.”

NZZ quoted one of the group’s board members, Thomas Patzko, as stating “Abunimah and his platform are a mouthpiece for Hamas.” The outlet cited NAIN while insisting that Abunimah “delegitimizes the victims of the terrorist attack on October 7, specifically women and children” – a reference to Abunimah’s factual statement that “there is no credible evidence of a single rape on October 7.”

It’s not yet apparent whether these false accusations by Swiss media or the Zionist group led directly to Abunimah’s deportation. But at some point prior to Abunimah’s scheduled address, “the Zurich [regional] police had become aware of Abunimah’s planned appearance,” NZZ reported. “They had submitted a request to Fedpol for an entry ban,” the outlet wrote, adding “this request was granted” by “the responsible government councilor and security director Mario Fehr.”

What is clear, however, is the Zurich security chief’s allegiance to the Zionist narrative. At a “Rally in solidarity with Israel” on Oct. 10, 2023, Fehr openly stated that “the fate of Israel and its inhabitants is close to my heart” before rattling off a comprehensive list of pro-Israel talking points, ranting about Iran and quoting notoriously racist Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, while demanding the Swiss government cease funding any development projects in Palestine.

“Hamas and its main sponsor Iran have always called for the destruction of Israel and the Jews. The fact that official Swiss foreign policy believed in the illusion that it could seriously negotiate with these terrorists is naive and shameful. – Anyone who rapes women, kills old people, kidnaps children, dehumanizes the dead, takes countless peaceful people hostage is not a negotiating partner – he is a rapist, a murderer, a terrorist. Golda Meir was right: ‘You cannot negotiate peace with somebody who has come to kill you.’ Peace will not be possible with Hamas and its accomplices!”

Minutes later, Fehr launched into a tirade about those who “somehow try to explain that Israel is actually to blame,” complaining: “These relativists should simply spend their next trip to the Middle East in Gaza.” Though he conceded that “many Palestinian civilians are also suffering and are affected,” Fehr insisted that “the responsibility for this lies solely with the Hamas terrorists,” stating flatly: “Israel is not to blame for this escalation.”

Ultimately, Fehr insisted the Swiss “Federal Council must suspend development cooperation with Palestine (like the EU) until it is clear who the money is really going to benefit” because “there is currently no negotiating partner on the Palestinian side.”

“Anyone who sees it differently is allowing money to flow to terrorists,” he claimed.

In an interview with NZZ one month after the Oct. 7, 2023 attack, Fehr claimed that “the rampant anti-Semitism” had become “unbearable” in Switzerland, a trend he said was borne out by pro-Palestinian protests, and which he attributed to the presence of Arabs:

“We see from Palestine demonstrations that anti-Semitism is more widespread in certain cultural circles. Particularly in parts of the Arab world, children learn to hate Jews and Israel from an early age. We have to be careful that we don’t give this hatred any room here.”

Fehr criticized authorities in Switzerland for allowing pro-Palestinian protests to take place and said he had demanded they ban such events in areas under his jurisdiction, asserting that “anti-Israel demonstrations that are increasingly being hijacked by extremists.”

“Their goal is the annihilation of Israel and all Jews. The danger that Islamists from Germany or other countries will now move to Switzerland and spread their hatred is real. A large Palestine demonstration took place in Bern last Saturday, and the next one has been planned and approved for this weekend in the city of Zurich. I think that is negligent.”

“I have emphatically insisted to the head of municipal security to not authorize any more Palestine demonstrations in the current dangerous situation,” he stated.

Asked whether regional police under his command would “continue to support the Zurich city authorities, even though the city allows such demonstrations,” Fehr replied simply: “We will protect Jewish institutions as before – with all the means at our disposal.”

January 30, 2025 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance | , , | Leave a comment

Ukraine ‘an invented state’ – Romanian election frontrunner

RT | January 30, 2025

Calin Georgescu, the politician whose first-round victory in the Romanian presidential election was overturned by the Constitutional Court, has argued that the borders claimed by Ukraine were artificially drawn and are subject to inevitable change.

The staunch critic of Western policies made the remarks on Wednesday in an interview with political analyst Ion Cristoiu on YouTube. He was discussing the adjustments of European borders after World War II, which resulted in a transfer of territories to Soviet Ukraine. Georgescu said he expects Ukraine to be fragmented as part of a peace deal with Russia, along historical lines.

”This will happen 100%. The path to an outcome like that is inevitable,” he asserted. “Ukraine is an invented state.”

Parts of the historic areas of Bukovina and Bessarabia, which were ceded from Romania to Ukraine during the post-war settlement, are “of interest” to Bucharest, Georgescu said, adding that Hungary and Poland could also claim their historic lands in a hypothetical breakup of Ukraine.

Georgescu made headlines in November when he unexpectedly garnered 23% of the vote in the first round of the presidential election in Romania, a NATO member. However, the Constitutional Court annulled the results shortly before the second round, citing intelligence documents alleging ‘irregularities’ in the campaign.

Subsequent media reports revealed that Georgescu’s candidacy was boosted by a firm closely linked with the pro-Western National Liberal Party (PNL), seemingly to undermine another candidate. The Romanian government has claimed that Russia was behind the interference scheme. Georgescu leads in opinion polls and is projected to get 38% of the vote in the upcoming election re-run in May.

Russian President Vladimir Putin previously warned about the threat of potential separatism in Western Ukraine, driven by ethnic minorities’ wish “to return to their historic homeland,” with potential support from foreign governments.

”In that sense, only Russia could serve as a guarantor of Ukrainian territorial integrity,” he claimed in late 2023. “If [Ukrainians] don’t want that, so be it. History will set things straight. We will not stand in the way, but neither will we relinquish what is rightfully ours.”

January 30, 2025 Posted by | Civil Liberties | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

CIA, Israel and conspiracy theories: What to expect from the JFK files

RT | January 28, 2025

US President Donald Trump has ordered the declassification of all remaining withheld records pertaining to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Almost 5,000 documents are still veiled in secrecy.

Kennedy was killed in November 1963, while visiting Dallas, Texas. A congressional commission chaired by Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren concluded in 1964 that “lone gunman” Lee Harvey Oswald was to blame. The CIA coined the pejorative term “conspiracy theory” to describe alternate scenarios regarding JFK’s death, which has not stopped many Americans from doubting the Warren Commission’s conclusions.

Trump’s order also applies to the remaining classified records about the 1968 assassinations of Senator Robert F. Kennedy and civil rights campaigner Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.

How many documents are there?

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) says it has declassified 99% of some 320,000 documents related to the JFK assassination, as required by a law passed by Congress in 1992. The final deadline for declassification was October 2017, but the US intelligence community claimed it needed more time to review and redact the records.

According to multiple estimates, 2,140 documents remain fully or partially redacted, while another 2,500 records have been kept secret for other reasons, such as court orders or donor restrictions.

What is in the secret files?

One item of particular interest is a June 1961 memorandum written by White House adviser Arthur Schlesinger, outlining how JFK could accomplish his goal of “splintering the Agency [CIA] into a thousand pieces and scattering it to the winds.” One page is redacted in full, while two more have partial redactions. Kennedy was frustrated with the CIA after the botched invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs in April that year.

Another partially redacted record is the transcript of the testimony that CIA Counterintelligence Chief James Jesus Angleton gave to the Church Committee in January 1976. Some scholars believe Angleton, who ran the CIA’s Israel desk for years and was a friend of Soviet spy Kim Philby, had lied to Congress about Israel obtaining nuclear weapons in the 1960s – something the Jewish State has neither confirmed nor denied.

Other potentially revealing records relate to CIA surveillance activities in Mexico in the early 1960s, when Oswald visited the country, and the work of a CIA officer with Cuban exiles in Miami that intersected with Oswald.

What can be expected of the revelations?

Historians and researchers that have spoken to major US outlets seem to agree that there will be no “smoking gun” in the remaining documents.

“There will be some puzzle pieces that will be put back in that will tell a more robust and rich story,” Tom Samoluk, a board member of the JFK Library Foundation, has told CNN.

Journalist Gerald Posner has warned that “anybody waiting for a smoking gun that’s going to turn this case upside down will be sorely disappointed.”

Kennedy’s nephew Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has lauded the declassification as a step against the “60-year strategy of lies and secrecy, disinformation, censorship, and defamation” used by the intelligence agencies to suppress “troubling facts” about the JFK assassination. He claimed that this “provided the playbook for a series of subsequent crises – the MLK and RFK assassinations, Vietnam, 9/11, the Iraq war and COVID – that have each accelerated the subversion of our exemplary democracy by the Military/Medical Industrial Complex.”

RFK Jr. has said that he believes there is “overwhelming evidence” tying the CIA to the assassination of both his uncle and his father.

When can we expect the release?

Trump’s executive order gave the US Director of National Intelligence and the Attorney General 45 days to review the records and “present a plan” for their full and complete release. Both offices are currently held by acting officials, as the Senate still needs to confirm Pam Bondi as the attorney general and Tulsi Gabbard as the DNI.

“We’re hoping this is going to be a mechanical plan,” Larry Schnapf, a New York-based attorney who has sued the government to compel the release of JFK files, told ABC News. If the government opts for a “substantive” review, going document-by-document, “it’s going to be a while,” he added.

January 29, 2025 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Deception | , , , | Leave a comment

Klaus Schwab Labels “Misinformation” a “Critical Challenge,” Urges Elites to Develop Solutions

By Didi Rankovic | Reclaim The Net | January 27, 2025

WEF Founder and Chairman of the Board of Trustees Klaus Schwab has spoken at this year’s event in Davos to reiterate the globalist group’s recently revealed priority targets.

A report published ahead of the gathering elevated “misinformation and disinformation” among the world’s top critical challenges and risks (others being armed conflicts, and climate-related issues).

Now, Schwab made sure to repeat that point in front of an audience of powerful elite members from around the world.

At the same time, he urged them to be the ones that will come up with “practical steps” that would deal with what the WEF has decided are “critical real-world challenges.”

Schwab opened with a warning that tech innovations, including AI, are ushering in what the WEF dubs “the intelligent age,” then swiftly went from praising that for economic and other potentials to warnings about the developments representing “unprecedented risks for humanity.”

Schwab’s intent here seems to be to drum up support for the “keyword” of this year’s event – “collaboration.” Namely, for tackling those “critical challenges” in a way that will always promote a globalist approach.

To this point, the WEF founder remarked that he was addressing 3,000 people from the world of politics, media, business, civil society, etc., whom he referred to as decision-makers – and whom he reminded that “commitment and engagement of all stakeholders of global society” are needed to, essentially, keep the goings-on in the upcoming “intelligent age” under control.

The rhetoric Schwab chose at times comes across as extraordinarily outlandish – such as suggesting that those gathered in Davos are there to come together around their “common mission” that should result in no less than “improving the state of the world.”

And Schwab doesn’t want those in his audience to “simply” deal with the challenges he presented, which he blames for “erosion of hope and confidence” – but also act proactively, so as to be the ones in control of how the world develops, and do this “in strategic, innovative, and constructive ways.”

Schwab’s opening address, other than appearing to attempt to create a sense of urgency and encourage the elites that everyone’s future is still in their hands, did not go into the specifics of how to deal with “the foremost risks” – like “misinformation.”

But there’s little doubt this will resurface during WEF’s many panels.

January 28, 2025 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance | | Leave a comment

WEF 2025: Calls for Tighter Social Media Censorship to Combat Antisemitism

By Cindy Harper | Reclaim The Net | January 27, 2025

At the 2025 World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting, a session titled “Confronting Antisemitism Amid Polarization” featured prominent speakers who advocated for stronger measures to compel social media platforms to censor content they consider harmful. Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO and National Director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL); Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT); and Jennifer Schenker, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Innovator, expressed concerns about the influence of platforms like TikTok, X (formerly Twitter), and Facebook on public discourse and the spread of antisemitism.

Jennifer Schenker set the tone for the discussion by claiming, “The flames of antisemitism are being fanned every second by TikTok and social media,” and lamenting that “the Jewish community has not been able to effectively combat that online.”

Jonathan Greenblatt labeled social media platforms “a super spreader of antisemitism and hate” and criticized their impact on younger audiences, stating, “Young people… get their news from TikTok, which is fairly terrifying, or from X or from Instagram.” He also called Meta “a gigantic problem,” highlighting the challenges posed by the platforms’ size, business models, and governance structures.

Greenblatt further criticized Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA), describing it as “a loophole… which exempts [social media companies] from liability.” He called for regulatory and reputational pressure to compel these companies to act, suggesting that social pressure could deter top engineers from working for platforms perceived as unethical: “If their engineers feel like going to these companies and participating in something, you know, an evil enterprise, if you will, they don’t wanna do that.”

Randi Weingarten shared examples of how the AFT has used its influence to pressure social media platforms. “We have used the economic power sometimes against a place like Facebook or others to say, actually, you have to stand with what is moral and what is legal,” she said, acknowledging the union’s role in leveraging pension funds and other economic tools to advocate for what they consider the fight against hate.

Weingarten also expressed concerns over the influence of social media on young people’s perceptions of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Recounting interactions with high school students in Boston, she noted that “every question [they asked] because of what they see and what they’re on” focused on the actions of the IDF, implying that platforms like TikTok and X should be more active in censoring such content.

Greenblatt emphasized the need for a broader coalition to address antisemitism, stating, “The Jewish community needs to recognize we can’t do it alone. We need institutions like government… and individuals, non-Jews, to realize antisemitism isn’t just a Jewish problem, it’s everyone’s problem.”

Weingarten echoed this sentiment, advocating for grassroots efforts to build understanding and combat hate: “There has to be a way that good people of the world end up fighting against hate.”

January 27, 2025 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Full Spectrum Dominance | , , , | Leave a comment

Donald Trump Is Protecting Free Speech

By Norman Singleton | The Libertarian Institute | January 27, 2025

Donald Trump wasted no time implementing his agenda by issuing a series of executive orders just hours after being sworn in as the 47th president. The orders covered subjects ranging from immigration, to energy production, to a freeze on both new federal regulations and hiring federal employees. One order that has not gotten nearly as much attention as it deserves is the one Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship. This order states that it is federal policy to “ensure that no Federal Government officer, employee, or agent engages in or facilitates any conduct that would unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen.” It also requires the government to “ensure that no taxpayer resources” are used to “violate the First Amendment rights of American citizens.”

In order to carry out these pro-free speech policies, the order states that “no federal department, agency, entity, officer, employee, or agent may act or use any Federal resources” to violate the First Amendment rights of any American citizen. It also directs the Attorney General to work with “the heads of other executive agencies and departments” to investigate “the activities of the Federal Government over the last 4 years that are inconsistent” with the First Amendment. The Attorney General must then prepare a report for President Trump and his Chief of Policy that contains recommendations for “remedial actions for any violations of the First Amendment taken by the prior Administration.”

The explicit prohibition on federal officials violating the First Amendment may seem redundant since federal employees already take an oath to uphold the Constitution; thus they swore not to violate American citizens’ constitutionally protected rights. However, Biden administration officials, including the big guy, routinely violated the free speech rights of American citizens. As federal Judge Terry A. Doughty wrote in a July 4, 2023 preliminary injunction forbidding government officials from having any contact with social media companies, “the present case arguably involves the most massive attack against free speech in United States history.”

Leaked emails between officials and employees of social media companies back up Judge Doughty’s statement. The communications went beyond mere suggestions, constitutng threats of retribution if the social media companies did not comply with the administration’s “requests” that they censor their customers. For example, then-Surgeon General Vivek Murthy suggested that the administration may have to take “appropriate legal and regulatory” measures to stop the spread of COVID “misinformation.” Facebook creator and CEO of Meta (parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and Whats App) Mark Zuckerberg, while appearing on the popular Joe Rogan Show described how Biden officials “would call up our team and, like, scream at them and curse.” Zuckerberg also told Joe Rogan that Biden administration officials brought up the possibility that the White House would support imposing new regulations on social media platforms, including modifying Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act.

This is the section of federal law that protects those who run online platforms like Facebook and Twitter/X from being held liable for the posts their users make. Section 230 has been instrumental in the growth of social media. Repealing or weakening Section 230 would hurt the big companies but the main victims would be small and start up companies who would find it more difficult to attract investors if there were the possibility the company could be held liable for posts by the site’s users. Government employees threatening private companies and treating them like subordinates should be unacceptable in a free society—and should be criminalized if done to coerce the companies to violate their customers’ constitutionally protected rights.

Fortunately, at least one cabinet member, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, has pledged to cooperate in an investigation into the Biden administration’s assault on free speech. When government officials pressure private social media companies to take down or suspend posts they violate the First Amendment just as much as if they had directly blocked the posts. Therefore, all who value free speech should be grateful to President Trump for his executive order stopping government officials from violating the First Amendment and trying to discover the full truth about the Biden administration’s efforts to silence those using social media to post “unapproved” news and opinions. Hopefully, Congress will ensure no future administration can reverse President Trump’s executive order by passing legislation forbidding federal employees from “suggesting” that social media companies censor American citizens.

January 27, 2025 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance | , , | Leave a comment

Germany: Berlin needs emergency loans after migrants blow €500 million hole in city’s budget

Refugees have cost Berlin billions and that is only one German city

Remix News | January 27, 2025

Despite claims that migrants are going to fund the entire West and save pensions with all the tax funds they generate, reality is once again encroaching. Now, the Berlin Senate is preparing emergency loans to cover refugee costs at a time when Berlin is cutting services, including for schools, due to increasingly dire budget shortfalls.

Notably, a Christian Democrat (CDU), Kai Wegner, is the mayor of Berlin, but under his leadership, not much has changed from the previous left-wing government. Berlin’s Finance Senator Stafan Evers, also of the CDU, is reportedly preparing efforts to provide an emergency loan to cover the cost of refugees.

One of the problems is that Berlin has a debt brake that keeps the city from taking on further debt, but the government says it has the legal ability to make an exception.

In 2025, Berlin indicates it will cost €500 million to accommodate migrants. Remix News has reported on the soaring costs of housing migrants in Berlin in recent years. In 2023, it cost Berlin nearly €500 million a year to house migrants, which equals €1.5 million a day. Recently, there has been a push to convert massive buildings into refugee housing, which would cost Berlin hundreds of millions over the next decade just for one building.

Notably, Berlin already froze school budgets in 2024, but these budget cuts are not enough. The figure of €500 million also does not factor in other costs, such as education, integration efforts, and policing.

The report from the CDU, prepared in conjunction with its coalition partners, the Social Democrats (SPD), has not been yet made public, according to Tagesspiegel.

Berlin took in 21,000 fewer refugees last year than in 2022, when 32,752 refugees arrived, mostly due to an extreme shortage of housing. Currently, 41,000 people live in accommodations run by the State Office for Refugee Affairs.

In all likelihood, the solution will be more debt and more spending, with Berlin ready to declare an emergency to make up for the shortfalls.

On the federal level, the situation may be even more dire, with nearly €50 billion spent on migrants in 2023. Across Germany and much of the Western world, immigration is not only fueling a debt crisis, but it is also a major factor in skyrocketing housing prices.

On top of the millions of poor newcomers who need housing is also the role of foreign investors, who are buying up property across the West. The issue has gotten so dire that even those on opposite sides of the political spectrum, such as Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez and former Czech PM Andrej Babiš are proposing massive taxes on foreign buyers of property in their countries.

January 27, 2025 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Economics | | Leave a comment

Christian church to change name in bid to fight off EU state’s crackdown

RT | January 26, 2025

The Estonian Orthodox Church (EOC) will change its name in response to the pressure from the authorities to sever its historical ties with Russia.

The announcement comes after the Estonian government approved draft legislation requiring religious organizations to cut ties with foreign leaders and entities whose actions could be deemed a threat to national security. “There should be no connection to entities that support military aggression,” Interior Minister Lauri Laanemets said on Thursday.

The EOC is a self-governing church that has maintained canonical ties to the Russian Orthodox Church. In a statement on Friday, EOC said that it will change its name to the Estonian Christian Orthodox Church.

“The government-approved bill violates the freedom of religion and is directed against our church,” Bishop Daniel of Tartu said, adding that, if made into law, the legislation could “significantly restrict the activities of our church.”

He argued that the new name would “further highlight the church’s local identity and demonstrate that we are acting in accordance with the law and, at the same time, we are respecting the church canons.”

Most Estonians are not religious. Around 16% of the population are Orthodox Christians, and 8% are Lutherans, according to the government statistics. Estonia was part of the Soviet Union from 1940 to 1991. Around 27% of the country’s population are Russian-speakers.

Earlier this week, Laanemets branded EOC “the most important instrument of influence for Russia and the Kremlin in Estonia.”

Last year, the minister threatened to shut down monasteries that refuse to cut ties with the Moscow Patriarchate and even threatened to classify the Russian Orthodox Church as a terrorist organization.

Moscow Patriarchate spokesman Vladimir Legoyda has slammed Laanemets’ comments as a “witch hunt,” suggesting that the Estonian government was using the crackdown on the church to distract the taxpayers from “real issues.”

In August 2024, the EOC revised its charter and removed the mention of the Moscow Patriarchate from its official name, although Laanemets has insisted that the measure was insufficient.

EU officials have criticized the Russian Orthodox Church for its support of the Russian troops in Ukraine. In 2022, the UK imposed sanctions on the church’s head, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow.

January 26, 2025 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance | , , | Leave a comment

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