Pro-censorship NGO working with White House to ‘kill Musk’s Twitter’ – report
RT | October 22, 2024
The Center for Countering Digital Hate, a UK-based nonprofit tied to the Labour Party, aims to “kill” Elon Musk’s X platform with help from top Democrats in Washington, according to internal documents leaked by a whistleblower. Musk has declared “war” on the organization in response.
In several monthly planners distributed to staffers this year, the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) lists “Kill Musk’s Twitter” as its top annual priority, according to files leaked to journalists Matt Taibbi and Paul Thacker and published on Tuesday. In furtherance of this goal, CCDH staffers are told that they will “focus” on advertising, “trigger EU and UK regulatory action,” and “progress towards change in USA and support for STAR.”
An acronym for ‘Safety, Transparency, Accountability and Responsibility’, STAR is a proposed censorship bill that would create an “independent digital regulator” in the US who could “impose consequences for harmful content.”
In its efforts to build support for these goals, the CCDH contacted Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) in May, and organized an invitation-only conference in Washington the following month, which whistleblowers claimed was attended by a senior adviser at the White House, a Democratic Party staffer in the office of Representative Adam Schiff (D-California), US State Department officials, and the vice president of Media Matters for America, a Democrat-aligned ‘watchdog’ group.
Musk sued Media Matters earlier this year after the organization released a report claiming that advertisements could be seen alongside pro-Nazi posts on X. Musk called the report “manufactured,” and his lawsuit alleges that its sole purpose was to “drive advertisers from the platform and destroy X Corp.”
Musk purchased Twitter for $44 billion in 2022, rebranding the platform as X and rolling back most of its censorship policies. Within days of Musk’s purchase, the White House announced the creation of the now-defunct ‘Disinformation Governance Board,’ ridiculed by conservatives and free speech advocates as an Orwellian “Ministry of Truth.” A week later, the CCDH joined two dozen other liberal NGOs in calling for an advertiser boycott of X.
The CCDH was founded by Morgan McSweeney, chief of staff to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and former director of Labour Together, a think tank closely associated with Starmer’s Labour Party. Labour Together has been advising US Vice President Kamala Harris’ election campaign, and more than 100 Labour Party activists are currently campaigning for Harris in the US.
CCDH CEO Imran Ahmed, who worked with McSweeney at Labour Together, aided Starmer’s rise to power by leading advertiser boycotts against his left-wing opponents. Among these opponents was ‘The Canary’, a leftist news site driven out of business over accusations of anti-Semitism from the CCDH and its subsidiary, ‘Stop Funding Fake News’.
In the US, the CCDH has lobbied the White House to censor Covid-19-related “disinformation,” unsuccessfully tried to get similar content banned from Substack, and led multiple campaigns against Musk.
According to internal documents, Ahmed is aware that the CCDH’s activities risk crossing a line between advocacy and lobbying, which is illegal for nonprofits. Before scheduling meetings with lawmakers earlier this year, someone in the organization advised staff to “understand our limitations” as a nonprofit organization, but still to “inch towards our goal of regulatory action.”
In a series of posts on X on Tuesday, Musk pronounced the CCDH “a criminal organization,” and declared that “this is war.”
About 51,000 Ukrainians Have Deserted Armed Forces This Year
By Kyle Anzalone | The Libertarian Institute | October 21, 2024
The Ukrainian prosecutor’s office has opened 51,000 cases of desertion through the first nine months of 2024. The number of soldiers abandoning their posts is likely to double last year’s total.
The Times of London reported data from the Ukrainian government showing that “51,000 criminal cases were initiated for desertion and abandonment of a military unit between January and September of this year.” El Pais previously noted that 45,000 Ukrainians were being prosecuted for desertion from the start of the year through August. Al-Jazeera says the number is at least 30,000 desertions.
At the start of the year, Kiev was estimated to have between 500,000 and 800,000 active-duty soldiers and an additional 300,000 reservists. The Ukrainians have also sustained casualties fighting to defend from Russian advances and amid Kiev’s Kursk invasion.
Kiev has struggled to fill its ranks with fresh soldiers, leading Ukraine to drop its conscription age from 27 to 25. As Kiev is still facing manpower shortages, American politicians are pushing Ukraine to drop draft age to 18. Ukraine has also resorted to allowing prisoners to leave jail if they join the military
One Ukrainian who deserted told the Times that prison was a better option than the military because “at least in prison, you know when you will be able to leave.”
The number of Ukrainians that Kiev is prosecuting for desertion has significantly increased throughout the war. In 2022, the number was 9,000, and it had more than doubled to 24,000 last year.
Everyone who opposes genocide is bad
But journalists who oppose genocide are the worst
Laura and Normal Island News | October 18, 2024
It has been brought to my attention that British counter-terrorism police visited the home of a man under suspicion of practising journalism. Disgustingly, the man had been raising awareness of Israel’s genocide, and therefore had to be dealt with. The man, who I am reluctant to name out of fear of making him a martyr, is called Asa Winstanley. He is one of the most prominent figures in the worrying wave of radicals who believe genocide is wrong, even when Israel does it.
Thankfully, counter-terrorism police found an excuse to harass Winstanley, even though they had no evidence of terrorism. The thing about counter-terrorism police is they’re supposed to go after terrorists, and no one thinks Winstanley is a terrorist.
Police therefore told Winstanley he is not under arrest, but they’re confiscating his devices on the off-chance they can find evidence. This would be like regular police saying we have no evidence you’re a paedo, but we’re snooping through your hard drive anyway!
Would you feel comfortable being accused of a horrible crime without evidence? If you’ve done nothing wrong, you should be perfectly happy with this grotesque violation of your privacy!
Natural justice is when police harass people they don’t like until they find an excuse to jail them. I’m just praying police find something incriminating on Winstanley’s hard drive, such as the image of a Palestinian flag. If they find one of those, they should bloody well throw the book at him.
Sadly, there is every chance police don’t find anything on the innocent man, but they will probably keep his devices anyway. If they do, he will be out of pocket when he replaces them, and in the meantime, he won’t be able to work. The scumbag won’t be able to raise awareness of the plight of the Palestinians who are being mangled by the weapons we’re supplying.
It’s hoped this sort of intimidation will make others think twice about doing the right thing. If the public fully understood the role our rulers are playing in genocide, they would demand their prosecutions. Therefore, the only thing we can do is prosecute those who attempt to tell the truth. I’m sure you will agree this is sensible. However, if you disagree because you too object to genocide, it’s not too late to change your mind.
Simply copy and paste the following words to social media and the judge is likely to give you a reduced sentence:
I would like to apologise for my attempts to stop Israel’s genocide over the past year. I realise now that I was wrong. I only hope my words have not caused distress to the people who are committing genocide or the people who are supporting genocide. I would like to apologise unreservedly to those people and to anyone whose minds I may have polluted with dangerous ideas like “human rights” and “international law”. I only hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me. Now that my thoughts have been corrected, I would kindly ask that police go gentle on me and the courts show lenience. I will never attempt to do journalism again.
Can I just be the first to say fuck journalism? I don’t mean the brilliant corporate journalism that I do, I’m talking about real journalism. Real journalism can go and fuck itself! Anyways, copy and paste the above words and police are likely to cut your beating by thirty minutes and the judge should reduce your sentence to five years. Let’s be honest you deserve so much worse, you fucking do-gooder.
Religious Leaders Push Back Against Australia’s Controversial Speech Bill
By Didi Rankovic | Reclaim The Net | October 21, 2024
Australia’s “misinformation and disinformation” bill is being criticized by several Christian and Muslim leaders, concerned about the way its provisions might negatively influence religious discourse.
The Communications Legislation Amendment (Combating Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2024 is designed to give the government’s communications and media regulator ACMA new powers regarding enforcement of rules that concern online content.
Some reports describe those powers as “broad” and the language of the proposed law also comes across as vague – the word “reasonably verifiable” is there to describe when content can be branded as misleading, false, deceptive, or is “reasonably likely” to cause serious harm.
That the bill excludes “content shared for religious purposes” was not enough to put Australia’s religious leaders’ minds at ease.
For one, platforms must use a number of tests related to “reasonableness” (of content being false, misleading, harmful, etc.), and the process could undermine the exception as these companies can be “reasonably” expected to censor more than necessary, in order to avoid paying fines.
In addition, online religious content will be subject to stricter rules than that which is offline, the signatories of a submission believe, and see the standard of “reasonableness” falling “far below Australia’s obligations under international human rights instruments.”
“We have significant concerns about the overall effect of the Bill on the free dissemination of ideas in the public sphere—in particular, religious speech and debate,” reads the document signed by the Sydney Diocese of the Anglican Church of Australia, the Shia Muslim Council of Australia, Australian Baptist Ministries, Presbyterian Church of Australia, Seventh Day Adventist Church of Australia, Hillsong Australia.
The submission was joined by the New South Wales (NSW) Council of Churches, and the Christian Schools Association.
The signatories state that the bill “places significant constraints on digital communications platform providers and incentivizes them to over-censor content on the possibility that it might be ‘harmful’.”
And despite “religious purposes content” being excluded, Australia’s religious leaders fear that the way the future law defines “misinformation” and “disinformation” is broad enough to allow ACMA to go after what they call “legitimate, good faith expression of religious, moral, and political opinions.”
Another submission against the bill came from Christ the Good Shepherd Church, which was in April the site of a stabbing attack when a priest was wounded. The authorities then used this incident to beat the “online disinformation” drum even harder and press for more censorship.
But this Church opposes such an approach, calling it out for exploiting tragic events for “political gain.”
“The attempt to manipulate public discourse by using this incident is deeply troubling on the state of politics in Australia,” Father Daniel wrote on behalf of the Church.
But, the bill also has its supporters – one being the Uniting Church in Australia Synod of Victoria and Tasmania.
Moldovan election observer tells RT she was ‘openly threatened’ at polling station in EU nation
RT | October 21, 2024
An observer at a Moldovan presidential election polling station in the central Italian city of Perugia has told RT she faced threats from the local election committee.
On Sunday, Moldovans at home and abroad voted for their new leader in an election that also involved a referendum on whether to include the nation’s EU aspirations in its constitution.
The observer, Larisa Brunescu, told RT by phone that election officials had allowed her into the polling station, but wanted to force her out once she tried to film what was going on inside.
“They told me I should not send any videos, [record] conversations, [send] figures, nothing,” Brunescu, who represents the Renaissance Party of former Prime Minister Vasile Tarlev, said.
According to Brunescu, at one point, she was told that the documents allowing her to be an observer were “not OK” and that she should leave.
The committee claimed her documents were not “filled out properly,” Brunescu said, which she denied. Election officials “were openly threatening” her, she added.
According to Brunescu, the committee also tried to prevent her from taking photos, and insisted that she could only report figures which they would provide. The officials looked at her “like dogs,” she added.
The actions of the committee members “speak of some serious irregularities,” Brunescu believes. She claimed that she counted fewer than 1,000 voters at the polling station, though the committee had “4,000 ballots.”
“They can rig the ballots,” she added, while acknowledging that she did not see the committee actually doing so.
Earlier on Sunday, Moldova’s opposition Victory alliance accused the authorities of allowing massive violations at the polling stations, claiming that hundreds of irregularities were reported during the first half of the day. The political bloc also stated that observers were outright banned from accessing some polling stations both at home and abroad “without any valid reasons.” Victory also accused the authorities of suppressing votes that it deemed undesirable.
Moldovan President Maia Sandu was seeking a second term, running against Alexandr Stoianoglo, a former prosecutor general, and Renato Usatii, a former mayor of Moldova’s second largest city, Balti, with seven other candidates also running.
Five out of ten candidates criticized the referendum, arguing that it was held only to ensure Sandu’s reelection. On Sunday evening, it was reported that most voters rejected the pro-EU constitutional changes.
Moldova has been actively pushing for EU and NATO membership since 2020, when Sandu, a critic of Russia and supporter of EU integration, came to power. The opposition has criticized the president for failing to resolve the economic and energy crisis in the country, which is among the poorest in Europe.
Moldova reports dramatic late turnaround in referendum on EU
RT | October 21, 2024
A knife-edge majority of Moldovans have approved incumbent pro-Western President Maia Sandu’s EU accession plans, election officials said on Monday, following an almost complete count of a ballot on the issue.
According to Moldova’s Central Electoral Commission, with 99.5% of the ballots counted, 50.4% of voters backed Sandu’s plan to enshrine integration with the EU in the former Soviet country’s constitution, while 49.6% voted against the step.
The tally came as something of a surprise, given that preliminary results issued late on Sunday had indicated that a slight majority of voters were against the move. According to media reports, the ‘yes’ camp received a last-minute push from ballots cast by Moldovans living abroad, which were counted towards the end.
The ‘yes’ vote means Moldova’s constitution will be supplemented with two new paragraphs. One will state that the identity of the Moldovans will be changed to ‘Europeans’, while the second will name integration into the EU as a strategic goal of the country.
A total of over 1.5 million people, or more than 51% of the electorate, cast their votes in Sunday’s referendum, well above the one-third required for the ballot to be considered valid.
While the referendum has revealed a nearly 50-50 split among Moldovans over EU integration, it is expected that Sandu, who is seeking a second term in office, will press ahead with the plan if reelected.
In a simultaneous presidential election held on Sunday, the incumbent leader failed to secure an absolute majority of 50% plus one vote. Sandu is now set to face off with former prosecutor general Alexandr Stoianoglo, leader of the Party of Socialists (PSRM), in a runoff scheduled for November 3. The two garnered 41.9% and 26.3% of the vote respectively in the first round.
Earlier on Monday, Sandu challenged Stoianoglo to a debate, saying that the two should present their ideas on the country’s future to the public and let Moldovans decide which path to take. Stoianoglo has accepted the challenge, but suggested the debate be held on a “neutral platform,” not those of “government-dependent media.” Sandu has been repeatedly criticized for the reported closure of news outlets that are not pro-Western, as well as for allegedly targeting opposition figures and those who do not support her EU drive.
Lights out for the city on the hill

By Stephen Karganovic | Strategic Culture Foundation | October 20, 2024
Throughout the decades of the Cold War, whilst the blocs were competing, two major attractions worked powerfully to the advantage of the West. Firstly, the comfort and prosperity that it was able to provide to its citizens, which its Eastern rivals could hardly match. The second feature that in the eyes of the world gave the West a huge competitive edge was the comparatively better performance of its institutions with regard to individual liberties.
The twin advantages of prosperity and the impression that the West valued freedom successfully neutralised much of the theoretical critique of the capitalist social and economic model. In particular, the West’s ostensible commitment to personal liberties acted as a powerful magnet. As a political weapon it served its purpose effectively. It is indisputable that so long as scrupulous adherence to the rule of law and respect for individual rights were seen as the distinguishing characteristic of Western societies they were widely perceived as a desirable alternative to the competing systems, which often disregarded strict legality and did little to diminish arbitrariness.
This is the state of affairs that prevailed until roughly the 1990s, when the Western bloc finally reached the pinnacle of its global might and was widely perceived as triumphant over its adversaries. But ever since the social gains which had made the lives of common people relatively comfortable and safe, and society cohesive across class lines, are being dismantled throughout the Western world. The sense of legal security that for decades citizens of Western countries unquestionably enjoyed proved equally evanescent. The phenomena of lawless abuse and vulnerability to the powers that be, normal elsewhere but long extirpated from the practice of Western societies and largely faded from the memory of their citizens, have reappeared with a vengeance. On both the domestic and international levels, the “rule of law” rapidly morphed into its unrecognisable caricature. That metamorphosis ultimately became jokingly known as the “rules based order.”
With scant internal opposition or even much public awareness, the core countries of the collective West became infected with the contagion of arbitrariness in the interpretation of inherent human rights and application of legal principles erected to protect them. The transformation, which in historical terms took place with lightning speed, was spearheaded by a ruthless and duplicitous political cabal and was implemented with the connivance of a judiciary which was utterly corrupt and shamefully impotent.
The breakdown of legality is generally a precursor of worse things to come, which almost invariably takes the form of increasingly egregious abuse of power. The point can be illustrated with disturbing but by no means isolated examples of the emerging state of affairs in the countries of the collective West that used to be envied for their freedom. Readers will recall the famous line, “they hate us for our freedom.” The utterance in 2001 of that false assertion whilst doing nothing to advance the cause of freedom did introduce an orgy of destruction and mass slaughter.
The most striking representation of the breakdown of the legal order can be cited today is the illegal kidnapping and incarceration by the German judicial system of German-American lawyer Dr. Reiner Fuellmich, under fabricated embezzlement charges. There are many solid reasons for deep state cabal’s virulent hatred of Dr. Fuellmich. He was the spoiler who in 2020 had the temerity to found the Covid pandemic research committee, just as the social control experiment was gaining momentum. The committee’s outstanding work in uncovering the sordid motives and homicidal objectives of the orchestrators of the bogus medical emergency was a major blow to them, especially because it was delivered successfully under conditions of nearly total informational blockade. Dr. Fuellmich’s ultimate, and perhaps overambitious and naively conceived goal of a medical Nurenberg to bring the culprits to justice was never achieved but the very thought of it must have caused nightmares to those he intended to be prosecuted.
“This agenda has been long planned,” Dr. Fuellmich summarised his Committee’s findings. “It’s ultimately unsuccessful precursor was the swine flu some 12 years ago, and it is cooked up by a group of super-rich psychopathic and sociopathic people who hate and fear people at the same time, have no empathy, and are driven by the desire to gain full control over all of us, the people of the world.”
The time came for the psychopaths to seek their sweet revenge, and the operation was not exceedingly difficult because they happen to control the mechanisms of power. Eleven months ago Dr. Fuellmich was imprisoned in Germany on the false allegation of a colleague who had been infiltrated into the Covid Committee that he misused the organisation’s assets for personal benefit. A charge that under German law is a misdemeanour and for which there is no precedent of lengthy pre-trial imprisonment resulted in incarceration that has now lasted for over 400 days under Abu Ghraib conditions, except that it is in Germany and not in Iraq. For a shocking portrayal of those detention conditions, see here. And see here for the disgraceful procedural deficiencies of the trial itself, which is currently in progress, stained by practices incompatible with the image of Rechtsstaat, that Germany along with the collective West regimes associated with it are misleadingly cultivating.
The lawless persecution of Dr. Fuellmich for the “offence” of performing a remarkable public service by uncovering and documenting the fraudulent nature and sinister background of the Covid “pandemic” is, however, but the tip of the iceberg in the collapse of the rule of law in the societies that portray themselves as its champions. Additional examples illustrate the breakdown and flesh out the picture of the legal disarray which undercuts the elementary freedoms of citizens and renders them defenceless before the demands of unaccountable Power.
In Ireland, the entire Burke family of Christian believers who refuse to bend their knee to the dictates of gender ideology is being targeted for vindictive persecution. One of the sons, Enoch, who is a school teacher, has so far spent over 400 days in solitary confinement, like Dr. Fuellmich in Germany. His “offence” is that in formerly Christian and Catholic Ireland he refuses to use the pronoun preferred by one of his students who claims other than his biological gender, because Burke holds that acquiescence to the gender identity charade would be a violation of his religious principles. Enoch Burke is being punished for refusing to debase himself as a professional educator and as a free human being by falsely confessing under the duress of his persecutors that 2 + 2 = 5. Nothing short of such a recantation of his conscientiously held beliefs would satisfy his country’s legal and educational overseers, who have gone berserk. He therefore remains in an Irish prison, despite being assured of instant release if only he manifested submission to their lunatic demand. For an insight into the broad official scope of that lunacy, see here.
Enoch’s brother Simeon, who has completed his law studies with honours, is being excluded from admission to the Irish Bar for reasons that have not yet been revealed with full clarity but which appear to also be related to his firmly held religious world-view, identical to his brother’s, which in contemporary Ireland apparently disqualifies one from working in a professional setting. For good measure, Enoch and Simeon’s father, Enoch Burke Sr., has been punished for objecting to LGBT symbols on Irish postal vehicles. For his temerity, taxpayer Burke was informed that henceforth he may come to the local post office to pick up his mail, but that it will no longer be delivered to him.
As in the Fuellmich case, the collective and exemplary punishment meted out to the Burke family is being kept out of the public eye as much as possible. Political and even religious figures refuse to take a stand or comment on it, and the controlled media studiously avoid discussing the subject.
Not to round off this complex picture of civilizational decline but merely to supplement it with another unsettling detail, the institution of thought crime portrayed in George Orwell’s novel, once considered no more than literary fiction, appears now to be enshrined in British law. For the present it appears to be a pilot programme, perhaps a precursor of even more frightening things to come. It operates as a prohibition of prayer within a designated exclusion perimeter around abortion “clinics” in Great Britain. The incriminating prayer would presumably be for the souls of children that departed this world due to the medical attention that they received in those establishments. The private performance of such unauthorised religious offices is now prohibited as it may cause “harassment and distress” to the employees of the “clinics” and their clients. And ominously, according to the Home Office, “anyone found guilty of breaking the law will face an unlimited fine.” One wonders if the European Court of Human Rights would have anything to say about such open-ended punishment schemes. Was anything of the sort ever before recorded in the annals of civilised jurisprudence?
Interaction between the thought police, who of course are merely “following orders,” and citizens suspected of mentally violating the “law” may be watched here by all who cherish their liberty and human integrity.
Wretched British jurisprudence (sceptics should also see here) now boasts its first successful prosecution of a thought crime violator. British Army veteran Adam Smith-Connor was recently found guilty of silently praying for his aborted son inside an abortion “clinic” buffer zone, was sentenced conditionally to two years in prison, and fined £9000 in costs for His Majesty’s court’s expense and trouble in prosecuting him. The courts still are not imposing “unlimited fines,” as the Home Office recommends, but for a retired person who must support a family arguably even that is a considerable sum.
Smith-Connor, be it noted, is far from the only victim of abortion-related thought crime harassment in the United Kingdom.
And also for the record, the theme here is not one’s personal position on Covid, transgenderism, or abortion. The central issue in every one of the cited instances, and others of a similar nature too numerous to mention, is the evident crumbling in the collective West of the legal order. That now makes it possible to impose on peaceful citizens draconian punishments wholly disproportionate to the alleged conduct they are being accused of. To what limits will the severity of punishment extend, or is it potentially as “unlimited” as the threat of monetary assessment the British Home Office is prepared to impose on those undertaking to silently pray in public for unborn babies?
The famed “City on the Hill” that many had been tricked into believing was illuminating mankind from on high is now forlorn and largely deserted. Its lights are getting progressively dimmer, life in it increasingly intolerable. Its deceived inhabitants and ardent admirers are dispersing in every direction. Word is out that a new City of great luminosity and magnetic attraction is being erected elsewhere, and that its architects will soon meet, in Kazan.
Fired for Free Speech: Alison Morrow’s Battle Against Government Censorship
By Dan Frieth | Reclaim The Net | October 19, 2024
Alison Morrow (formally Westover), an accomplished journalist, found herself in the throes of a legal battle over her right to free speech. Represented by the Silent Majority Foundation, Morrow has filed a lawsuit against the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and its top officials, citing wrongful termination after she was dismissed for airing an interview on her YouTube channel. The channel, a personal project crafted during her tenure as an environmental reporter at KING 5 in Seattle, became the subject of controversy following her post featuring a highly censored doctor, Dr. Aaron Kheriaty, and his views on COVID-19.
We obtained a copy of the lawsuit for you here.
Morrow’s career at KING 5, which spanned from 2013 to 2019, was marked by significant accolades, including two Emmy awards. Recognized for her independent journalism, DNR was fully aware of her YouTube activities when they recruited her as a communications specialist. Initially, her independent media pursuits were supported by DNR, but the tide turned with her decision to feature Dr. Kheriaty. DNR’s leadership warned Morrow that her continued interviews could lead to termination, a threat she met with a staunch refusal to abandon her First Amendment protections.
Determined to uphold her freedoms of speech, press, and association, Morrow chose to defy DNR’s directive to adhere to approved narratives. This act of resistance ultimately led to her dismissal, prompting her to seek legal assistance from the Silent Majority Foundation, which took up her case to safeguard these fundamental rights.
“The 1st Amendment is one of the most sacred rights of Americans. It is what differentiates our country from most others, that we have the freedom to question our government. It is also central to a free press. I was willing to lose my job – and all that it provided for our family – in order to stand up against the encroaching erosion of this right that I was witnessing at the time, not just in my case but in thousands of others across the country during the pandemic,” Morrow stated. “There was no way to do science or journalism, in the culture of censorship that was driven by our government at the time. That meant millions of people made decisions without informed consent. Given my commitment to seeking truth wherever it leads, I was unwilling to acquiesce to a demand that I remain silent.”
US, Canada and European countries suppressing Pro-Palestine protests: UN rapporteur

Palestinian Information Center – October 19, 2024
NEW YORK – The UN special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression has accused the United States, Canada, France, Germany, and Belgium of suppressing the right to protest in support of the Palestinian cause. She also condemned Israeli authorities for carrying out dangerous attacks on media personnel in Palestinian territories, criticizing the assassination of journalists.
In a report submitted to the UN General Assembly and the press on Friday, the special rapporteur, Irene Khan—an “independent” expert with the UN since 2020—accused several European countries of imposing measures to restrict freedom of expression and suppress protests against the massacre in Gaza, as well as banning pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
Khan, a Bangladeshi lawyer working in human rights, referred to “demonstrations at universities in the United States that were violently suppressed,” mentioning the intervention of riot police in New York at the end of April to disperse dozens of pro-Palestinian activists occupying part of Columbia University.
Regarding European countries, Khan specifically mentioned “Germany, which has imposed a complete ban on pro-Palestinian demonstrations since October of last year, along with restrictions on such protests in various regions of Germany since then.” She added that these restrictions have never been imposed on demonstrations in support of Israel, but always on those supporting Palestinians.
She continued that “France attempted to take similar measures, but the courts rejected them, and evaluations are now made on a case-by-case basis,” noting that “Belgium and Canada have adopted similar stances.”
At the beginning of the Israeli extermination war on Gaza over a year ago, the French Interior Ministry called for a ban on pro-Palestinian demonstrations for fear of public disorder. However, the Council of State, the highest administrative court, urged the French government to make decisions on a case-by-case basis.
Khan also criticized Israel for “assaults on media in the occupied Palestinian territories—Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem—targeted assassinations of journalists, arbitrary arrests, and numerous cases of destruction of infrastructure and journalistic equipment in Gaza, as well as refusing to allow international press access.”
The independent rapporteur concluded that “the tightening of censorship in Israel and the occupied territories indicates that Israeli authorities have a strategy to silence critical journalism.”
Since October 7, 2023, the Israeli occupation, with unlimited American support, has been waging an extermination war on Gaza, resulting in over 142,000 dead and injured, the majority of whom are women and children, 10,000 missing, massive destruction of infrastructure, and a deadly famine.
Will A Potemkin Election Follow Biden’s Potemkin Presidency?
By James Bovard | Real Clear Policy | October 18, 2024
President Biden has been derided for being a Potemkin president, a figurehead in a vast charade portraying him actually running the government. Biden was forced to withdraw from the presidential race after his disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump in June. But is a Potemkin presidency being followed by a Potemkin election?
Biden’s expulsion from the presidential race did not herald the arrival of truth. Most of the media still tolerates pervasive secrecy on prime issues of the 2024 campaign.
In bygone times, elections were about self-government. Nowadays, voters merely have a cameo role to sanctify the nearly boundless power of officialdom. Every year, the federal government slaps a “secret” label on trillions of pages of information – enough to fill 20 million filing cabinets. And since the government is automatically benevolent (if a Democrat is president), there is no need to trouble citizens with the grisly details of how they are being served.
At the same time Special Counsel Jack Smith is racing to fling all possible dirt at Trump before Election Day, each week we learn of new cover-ups designed to deceive Americans about how badly they have been misgoverned:
- Biden administration has mostly succeeded in covering up the crime wave by illegal aliens ushered into the nation since 2021. Former Border Patrol Sector Chief Aaron Heitke testified to Congress last month that the Biden administration hid the adverse impact from deluging U.S. cities with illegal aliens, including those with terror ties.
- The National Archives announced on Wednesday that it would delay until after the election the release of potentially damning records on Vice President Joe Biden’s dealings with his son and foreign wheelers-dealers – records that have been sought for more than a year by conservative lawyers and activists.
- Biden’s Justice Department sought to bury all the tax charges against Hunter Biden but were thwarted thanks to courageous IRS whistleblowers. Hunter’s guilty plea last month to the tax charges confirms that the Justice Department’s offer a wrist-slap plea bargain to Hunter last year was a shameless obstruction of justice.
- Biden’s FBI last year created “a new category of extremists that it seeks to track and counter: Donald Trump’s army of MAGA followers,” Newsweek reported. FBI whistleblowers have exposed the politicization of an agency that even secretly targeted traditional Catholics who prefer to hear mass in Latin. But the vast majority of FBI surveillance and entrapment abuses remain shrouded.
- Team Biden is covering up both Trump assassination attempts. Biden appointees have stonewalled bipartisan congressional investigations into the abysmal Secret Service failures at Butler, Pennsylvania. The Justice Department has indefinitely delayed hearings for Ryan Routh, the 58-year-old guy caught waiting to shoot Trump on his Florida golf course. Delaying proceedings against Routh assures that Americans will not learn before the election whether the would-be assassin had ties to the CIA, Pentagon, State Department or other agencies that assisted Routh with his massively-publicized campaign to recruit foreign soldiers to fight for Ukraine.
- The Biden administration continues covering up almost everything regarding its support for Ukraine’s fight against Russia. The best info Americans have received was thanks to a young military computer technician who leaked revelations that the Ukrainian military was in far worse shape than Team Biden claimed. Americans have been forced to pay hundreds of billions of dollars but are left in the dark regarding Biden administration machinations that risk pulling this nation into World War Three.
- The House Oversight Committee this week subpoenaed DHS for its records on Tim Walz’s possible ties to the CCP after being contacted by a whistleblower. There is zero chance that the Biden administration will release any of those records before Election Day.
- Political convenience is practically the sole determinant of what Americans are permitted to learn nowadays. After Biden dropped his re-election bid, the administration disclosed records showing that his son Hunter sought U.S. government handouts for Burisma when Joe Biden was Vice President. That scandal was buried until Joe Biden was no longer politically relevant.
Is censorship the biggest X factor for this election? Four years ago, the presidential election may have been swung by the coverup of the damning revelations in Hunter Biden’s laptop. The FBI and the CIA hustled to censor and defuse that story with false rebuttals in October 2020. According to multiple federal court rulings, federal agencies tampered with the 2020 election by censoring millions of comments by Americans who raised doubts about the trustworthiness of mail-in ballots and other election procedures. Federal judge Terry Doughty noted that “virtually all of the free speech suppressed was ‘conservative’ free speech.” A federal appeals court issued an injunction prohibiting federal officials from acting “to coerce or significantly encourage social-media companies to remove, delete, suppress, or reduce . . . posted social-media content containing protected free speech.”
But the Supreme Court refused to recognize that the censorship victims had any legal standing and canceled the injunction. Americans will likely have no idea how many muzzles and blindfolds were secretly attached by federal agencies and federal contractors before Election Day.
Don’t expect journalists to suddenly get hot to thwart those Biden cover-ups. When the media shrouded Biden’s mental debility, it directly endorsed de facto secret rule. How much effort has the New York Times or Washington Post or National Public Radio exerted to reveal who is actually exercising the supreme power nowadays? Exposing that issue could derail Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign so it is ignored. But Biden is as oblivious as ever. When asked by a reporter on Thursday about the situation in the Hurricane Helene storm zone, Biden replied that those states “are getting everything they need. They are very happy across the board.”
Earth to Uncle Joe?!?
But as long as Donald Trump is not elected next month, most of the Washington media doesn’t care who is in control. If the Wizard of Oz was a contemporary political campaign story, the media would overwhelmingly side with the guy behind the curtain. As long as the Wizard recited “Orange Man Bad,” the media would cover up all his abuses.
But “informed consent” is a mirage if the feds blindfold voters. As long as Team Biden keeps a lid on its worst outrages until Election Day, Democrats can snare four more year to abuse the Constitution, the law, and the American people. Unfortunately, self-government is not retroactive.
James Bovard is a contributing editor for The American Conservative. He is the author of ten books, including Public Policy Hooligan, Attention Deficit Democracy, The Bush Betrayal, and Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty. His latest is Last Rights: The Death of American Liberty.
New Zealand’s “Disinformation Project” Shuts Down Amid Accusations of Silencing Opposition
By Didi Rankovic | Reclaim The Net | October 18, 2024
The Disinformation Project, launched in early 2020 in New Zealand as a “disinformation research” group, but slammed by critics as seeking to usher in ideological censorship, is no more.
The project is the product of the Covid era, initially focused on what was at the time considered “disinformation” but then branching out to things like vaccine skepticism in general, climate change – and, apparently, even local politics.
The group, which coordinated with the New Zealand government, described its activities as research and analyses of all manner of “extreme conspiratorial beliefs” as well as their compatriots’ “descent” into those.
Critics, however, point out that silencing the opposition, including by supporting “hate speech” laws, was among the activities of the now-shut-down endeavor that was led by Kate Hannah.
These critics accuse the Disinformation Project of moving from being a handy tool for the New Zealand government to spread its narratives promoting COVID-19 measures (some of the most restrictive in the world), to becoming a political weapon promoting a certain agenda.
Back in April, some commentators were concerned about where the Disinformation Project’s shift from the “abandoned pandemic” to political influencing might lead.
We now know that it has led to the group’s demise – but it is only one of the many similar efforts that appeared during the Covid era around the world.
A specific accusation against this one comes from New Zealand-based journalist Chris Lynch, who claims that Hannah, along with Sanjana Hattotuwa, attempted to effectively manipulate the 2023 election in the country by influencing the media via “secretive briefings.”
This didn’t succeed in this instance because they got “called out” – but over the past four years, the Disinformation Project has been accused of getting increasingly desperate to stay relevant, and finding ways to do that, with the policies it pushed accepted without critical examination by the legacy media.
Lynch is optimistic that the demise of this project and the rise of some that challenge the established media-political narratives means that New Zealand has turned the corner when it comes to censorship disguised as concern for democracy and the fight against “disinformation.”
However, it’s equally possible that where one such outfit exits the scene, another, under a different name and leadership but with the same purpose, might take its place.
Pentagon Plans to Use AI to Create Deepfakes – Reports
Sputnik – 18.10.2024
The US Special Operations Command is allegedly looking for contractors to create deepfake internet users that neither humans nor computers could detect, media reported.
In particular, the command is interested in solving the problem of verifying users on social networks, so it is looking for technology that can create selfies and official documentation to bypass these checks, the report read. Special operations troops “will use this capability to gather information from public online forums,” the media reported on Thursday, citing the command’s plan.
“Special Operations Forces (SOF) are interested in technologies that can generate convincing online personas for use on social media platforms, social networking sites, and other online content … [users must] appear to be a unique individual that is recognizable as human but does not exist in the real world,” the report added.
However, these plans ran counter to the official position of the US government, since the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the National Security Agency have previously called deepfakes a threat.
