Tag: CZECH REPUBLIC

Exposing ‘collateral murder’ and mass surveillance: Why the world should be grateful to Assange

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Julian Assange is a pioneering whistleblower in the digital-age, speaking truth to power like no one before him managed on such a significant scale. As he sits in a London jail cell, here’s why we should be grateful for his work.

By setting up the international non-profit organization WikiLeaks in Iceland in 2006, Assange irrevocably shifted the balance of power in the online era.

From humble beginnings as a master coder and hacker, caught by Australian authorities in 1995 but escaping a prison term, to the foremost publisher of sensitive, embarrassing and potentially dangerous material for the world to see, Assange’s storied career as a publisher and whistleblower has captured headlines, and the global public’s attention for years.

RT takes a look back at the key moments in Assange’s career that remind us why the world owes him such a debt of gratitude.

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The early years

In 2007, WikiLeaks published emails exposing the manuals for Camp Delta, a controversial US detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba which was the focal point for the US war on terror and the final destination for those captured as part of its extraordinary rendition campaign.

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The following year the whistleblowing site posted emails from vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s private Yahoo email account, again exposing the newfound weakness of the political class in the digital age.

‘Collateral murder’

In a move that would reverberate online and across the world for years, in April 2010 WikiLeaks published footage of US forces summarily executing 18 civilians from an Apache attack helicopter in Iraq. It was an almost unheard of revelation of the brutality of war and the low price of human life in modern conflict.

ALSO ON RT.COM‘Collateral Murder’: 10th anniversary of infamous airstrike that exposed US cover-up (VIDEO)

Diplomatic cables

2010 was a very busy year for Assange as in July WikiLeaks published more than 90,000 classified documents and diplomatic cables relating to the Afghanistan war.

Later, in October 2010, the organization published a raft of classified documents from the Iraq War. The logs were referred to as “the largest leak of classified documents in its history” by the US Department of Defense, according to the BBC. WikiLeaks followed that up in November by publishing diplomatic cables from US embassies around the world.

The Guantánamo Files and Spy Files

In April 2011, WikiLeaks published classified US military documents detailing the behavior and treatment of detainees held at Guantanamo Bay. This leak would be followed, once again, by a vast trove (250 million) of US diplomatic cables.

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Throughout this sequence of widely-praised leaks, Assange invited a global audience behind the curtain of international diplomacy and warfare to expose the hidden truths of global power dynamics in a way which would forever change the power structure and landscape, affording a platform to analysts like Chelsea Manning to expose potential war crimes and misdeeds by the US military at large.

Assange and WikiLeaks would also help fellow whistleblowers like Edward Snowden to seek refuge from predatory US authorities, providing aid and comfort to those who risked everything in the pursuit of truth, exposing some of the most egregious mass surveillance programs the world has ever known.

DNC leak

As the 2016 US presidential election loomed, WikiLeaks published nearly 20,000 emails from the Democratic National Committee, which exposed the preferential treatment shown to then-candidate for president Hillary Clinton over her competitor Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary. Assange boldly informed CNN’s Anderson Cooper that the release was indeed timed to coincide with the Democratic National Convention.

ALSO ON RT.COMAssange is a scapegoat, distraction for scandal-ridden Ecuadorian government

In October that same year, WikiLeaks began publishing emails from Clinton’s campaign manager John Podesta, which shed light on the inner workings of the Democratic nominee’s political machine.

These included excerpts from Clinton’s speeches to Wall Street, politically-motivated payments made to the Clinton Foundation, her consideration of choosing Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates or his wife as a potential running mate, her desire to covertly intervene in Syria, her intention to ring-fence China with missile defense batteries if it did not curtail North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.

Legacy

Following his arrest on the morning of April 11, 2019, Assange’s future remains unclear. He likely faces extradition to the US where it was inadvertently revealed that he has been charged under seal in a US federal court. Former Assange collaborator Chelsea Manning has been imprisoned for refusing to cooperate with the court in relation to the case.

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Assange’s legal battle is only just beginning, it seems, but the international following he has forged will undoubtedly grant him a place in the pantheon of history’s champions of truth.

He remains a true digital pioneer, paving the way for so many to follow in his footsteps and expose the untold misdeeds of the powerful, be they political figures or entire militaries. Assange has defiantly shown what a powerful tool digital technology can be and how easily the dynamics of power can be shifted in the 21st century by those brave enough. Unfortunately, he also showed the consequences of wielding such power in the face of such overwhelming international and political opposition.

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ANALYST SUES FACEBOOK FOR ‘SUBVERTING’ ELECTION WITH SELECTIVE CENSORSHIP

Analyst Sues Facebook For ‘Subverting’ Election With Selective Censorship

Tech giant deleted thousands of accounts ahead of Indian elections

RT – APRIL 11, 2019

While Facebook claims to have deleted thousands of pages to prevent meddling in the Indian elections, the American company’s selective deletions have led at least one man to ask: Who is watching the election watchers?

A little over a week ahead of the beginning of elections in India this Thursday, Facebook raised some eyebrows when it announced that it had removed a number of politically oriented pages as a part of its “election integrity” efforts.

The social media giant removed 138 pro-opposition pages that had over 200,000 followers for “coordinated inauthentic behavior.” While they only removed 15 pro-government pages, as it turned out, those pages had a far wider reach with millions of likes.

Given the apparent imbalance, it is all the more concerning that the purge was conducted with assistance from the US-based Atlantic Council, a think tank that receives millions of dollars in funding from the US State Department and NATO allies.

Indian defense analyst and security expert Abhijit Iyer-Mitra is one of the people extremely concerned with the impact the American private company could have on India’s elections. He has even filed a criminal complaint with police in New Delhi, describing Facebook’s actions as an act of war, and an attack on the country’s sovereignty.

Speaking to RT, Iyer-Mitra blasted the social network for their glaring double standards: while making extensive efforts to protect American elections from foreign actors in the wake of the alleged “Russian meddling” scandal, the company seemingly had no qualms about letting a state-department-linked think tank act in place of Indian election officials.

“The point is they are an American company, this is an Indian election,” said Iyer-Mitra. “We are not willing to cede our sovereignty to other countries like this. I think they are making a big mistake and I intend to pursue this to the end.”

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Islamists arrested after plotting to massacre kindergarten full of children in France

By Emma R.

Two Islamic extremists, both 20 years old, have been arrested by police in Paris after allegedly plotting to massacre a kindergarten full of children, Breitbart reports.

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The two men were arrested on March 25th with the Paris prosecutor charging them over plotting to kill children and police officers.
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One of the men involved is said to have been known to the General Directorate of Homeland Security (DGSI), France’s internal intelligence agency.
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The man, who investigators consider the mastermind of the plot, admitted after his arrest that he wanted to enter the kindergarten, attack the children, and then take some hostage until police arrived, at which point he would attempt to kill the police officers.
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The suspect also spoke highly of terrorist Mohamed Merah, the Islamic extremist who was behind the Toulouse and Montauban shootings that targetted French soldiers along with teachers and children at a Jewish school in 2012.
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A source close to the investigation also told broadcaster RTL that the chief suspect in the plot has “very strong psychiatric instability”, as well as signs of depression, narcissism, and suicidal tendencies.
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DGSI had been observing the man since 2015 after he had become increasingly close to the radical jihadist movement.
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Police decided to arrest him shortly after he made it known he was looking to procure weapons and adding that his plot had not reached a concrete planning stage at the time of his arrest.
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The arrest is just the latest terror plot to be foiled in France. Last October, French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said that authorities had managed to thwart five major terror attacks in 2018 alone.
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YouTube Streamer Destiny Calls For Violence Against Conservatives, Wants Them ‘Excised’

Destiny Calls for Violence Against Conservatives

The YouTube and Twitch star added that he wants conservatives “excised” from the United States.

By Tom Pappert

The popular Twitch and YouTube streamer Destiny, real name Steven Donnell, recently called for “real violence” against conservatives while streaming with a guest.

Donnell, who has grown a reputation for using crass language to describe his views, told his guest that he “hates” conservatives, and has moved on to the “real violence level” when it comes to how to deal with them.

“You really do hate conservatives, don’t you?” Asked his guest during the Twitch live stream, to which Donnell responded in the affirmative.

“Very much so,” he said. “I’ve moved full on to the political violence level, or the real violence level, when it comes to conservative people.”

This striking call for violence is far less vague than the alleged threat used by Big Tech platforms to ban Alex Jones, who was banned from Twitter after he simply encouraged his viewers to sleep “with their battle rifles ready” to prepare for defense.

Donnell, however, continued by saying he believes conservatives should be physically removed from the United States.

“Yeah, I think they need to be excised from my f*cking country. I think they are demonstrably f*cking evil people by any moral system that most people would use,” said Donnell, adding, “I just hate them because they tend to destroy the outcomes related to this country, which is what I’m concerned about, yeah, absolutely.”

This type of behavior would seem to directly contradict Twitch’s community guidelines, which state that “Hateful conduct is any content or activity that promotes, encourages, or facilitates discrimination, denigration, objectification, harassment, or violence based on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability, medical condition, physical characteristics, or veteran status, and is prohibited.”

Big League Politics and others have attempted to contact Twitch to understand why Destiny is allowed to advocate violence on its platform. We have not received a response.

Donnell grew an audience streaming popular video games including Call of Duty, League of Legends, and Starcraft. He was previously banned from Twitch for using homophobic slurs and derogatory remarks about the disabled, including use of the words “faggot” and “retard.” He was eventually allowed to rejoin the platform.

He was also banned from Twitter after threatening to bomb a Cox Communications Internet node, though he maintained it was a joke.

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Migrants started fires and attacked police at the Greek-North Macedonian border, demanding it’s reopened

By   

Hundreds or thousands of migrants that have been smuggled across the Mediterranean and are on their way up through Europe, confronted riot police at the border between Greece and North Macedonia.

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When they failed to break through the border post, grass areas were set on fire.
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Much turmoil arose when the migrants tried to force the since 2016 closed border, which they, through mass action and coordinated campaigns in social media, are trying to compel the authorities to reopen.
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The area has long been heavily strained. The migrant camp in nearby Thessaloniki is overcrowded and further pressure through a reopening of the former migrant route would, according to analysts, make the situation even more untenable.
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Thousands Of Elderly Patients Go Blind In Britain Due To Eye Surgery Rationing

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By ASHE SCHOW

Healthcare rationing is a regular part of the United Kingdom, which has nationalized healthcare in a way Democrats in America want to bring here.

But this rationing leads to consequences. Hundreds of elderly citizens go blind each year while waiting for eye surgeries. The latest report on the issue comes from the Times of London. The outlet reports that the latest survey from the Royal College of Ophthalmologists (RCO) found rationing of cataract surgery continues even after guidance was issued suggesting patients not have the surgery delayed.

“The [National Health Service] has ignored instructions to end cataract treatment rationing in defiance of official guidance two years ago, a survey by the Royal College of Ophthalmologists has found,” the Times reported.

The outlet reported that removing cataracts was one of the most common NHS procedures. More than 400,000 such surgeries are conducted each year. Two years ago, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) stated that patients requiring cataract surgery should not have to wait until they are almost blind to receive treatment, yet that appears to still be the case in 2019.

“Nothing has changed,” Mike Burdon, president of the RCO, told the Times. “We can’t have a situation where Nice is set up to make these decisions and [local health groups] simply say ‘we don’t like the answer’ and deprive the elderly population of the chance of a better quality of life. I’m bitterly disappointed.”

He called cataract surgery “probably the most life-transforming procedure the NHS does.”

Helen Lee, the policy manager for the Royal National Institute of Blind People, stressed the importance of cataract surgery in a statement to the Times:

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NHS, naturally, pushed back on concerns. Julie Wood, chief executive of NHS Clinical Commissioners, told the Times that “Nice guidance is not mandatory and clinical commissioners must have the freedom to make clinically led decisions that are in the best interests of both individual patients and their wider local populations.” She added that “The NHS does not have unlimited resources.”

This is just the latest report on the lack of access to important eye surgeries. Last June, the Telegraph reported that patients were going blind while waiting for treatment for glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration. A survey at that time found that up to 22 patients were going blind or partially blind each month waiting for treatment.

The problem was also reported in 2013. At that time, more than four in ten NHS ophthalmologists said they had patients who had gone blind waiting for treatment.

This is what will happen in America if Democrats get their way on “Medicare for all.”

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Muslims in Germany Call for “Islamophobia Czar” to Crack Down on Free Speech

by Jim Hoft April 8, 2019

Germany, a country of 80 million, received over one million migrants and unvetted “refugees” in 2015. Chancellor Angela Merkel expected another million migrants in 2016.

In 2016 Islamic extremists murdered 22 people in Germany in seven different attacks.

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A map was made of all of the rapes, homicides, assaults, terror attacks, swimming pool assaults, robberies by migrants to Germany in 2016.

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Now this…
Muslims in Germany called for an “Islamophobia Czar” to crack down on free speech.
Because fear of Allahu Akbar killers is irrational.

Die Welt reported, via Legal Insurrection:

The head of Germany’s Central Council of Muslims calls for a Federal Commissioner to combat hate against people of Islamic faith. He received support from the leader of the Left Party [successor of the East German Communist Party]. The suggestion received mixed reaction in the parliament.

The Left Party backed the demand made by the head of Central Council of Muslims, Aiman Mazyek, to appoint a Federal Commissioner to fight hostility towards Muslims. “Because Islam is part of Germany, there should be a Commissioner to counter anti-Muslim hostility,” head of the Left Party, Katja Kipping, told Die Welt. “It is an expression of our basic Liberal order, that not only people who reside here can practice their faith, but also that we protect the faithful against hate and defamation.”

Kipping was reacting to Mazyek’s demand. Talking to the Neuen Osnabrücker Zeitung, he had called the appointment of such a Commissioner “necessary than ever before” because there is a “latent anti-Muslim sentiment in Germany.” (…)

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German headmaster suggested Christian girl wear a hijab to stop bullies

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A school in Frankfurt has come under fire after its headmaster told a young girl she should wear a hijab if she doesn’t want to get bullied.

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The student’s mother told the Bild newspaper that her daughter was “beaten and verbally attacked on the way to school” by a group of Muslim girls.
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She explained that her daughter was targeted because “she has blond hair, no headscarf, has a German-Hebrew name – and we are Christians”.
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The bullying was so bad it left the fifth grader with a “massive fear of going to school”.
When she took her concerns to the schools headmaster, she was told her daughter should ‘cover up’ if she doesn’t want to get bullied.
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“Your daughter does not have to say that she is German”, the headmaster reportedly told her. “Besides, you can give her a headscarf.”
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The school in question didn’t respond to Bild’s request for comment, however, the mother confirmed that their situation is a lot better now she has removed her daughter from the school.
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There have been other recent cases of religious bullying in other schools across Germany.
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The Bild also cited one in Bavaria in which a father said his son and daughter came home one day panicked because another child had told them he would cut off their heads because they are Christians.
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In Bonn, another mother said her daughter had shared a similar experience saying, “Our daughter and several classmates of the third grade were put under pressure by a classmate. They were threatened with the words, ‘Your parents will burn in hell if they do not believe in Allah’.”
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Religious bullying has been especially prevalent in Berlin where many schools have high populations of migrant-background students.
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In 2018, a group of Berlin teachers spoke out about religious bullying saying that German students could be bullied for as little as bringing a ham sandwich for their lunch because pork is forbidden in Islam.
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The group advocated the Pro Berlin Neutrality Act which backs up existing legislation to ban religious symbols, such as the headscarf, from classrooms to combat religious bullying.
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Austria, meanwhile, has implemented a headscarf ban in kindergartens and has been considering similar bans in elementary schools as well.
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VATICAN CARDINAL WARNS: “WEST WILL DISAPPEAR” BECAUSE OF MASS MIGRATION

Vatican Cardinal Warns: "West WIll Disappear" Because of Mass Migration

“Islam will invade the world”

 | Infowars.com – APRIL 5, 2019

Vatican Cardinal Robert Sarah warns that the “west will disappear” as a result of mass migration, adding that “Islam will invade the world” and “completely change culture, anthropology, and moral vision.”

Sarah’s new book, Evening Draws Near and the Day is Nearly Over, is causing controversy in Europe because it explicitly identifies Muslim migration as a harbinger of the continent’s collapse.

“If the West continues in this fatal way, there is a great risk that, due to a lack of birth, it will disappear, invaded by foreigners, just as Rome has been invaded by barbarians,” said Sarah, adding, “My country is predominantly Muslim. I think I know what reality I’m talking about.”

The Cardinal also blamed the European Union for its “desire to globalize the world, ridding it of nations with their distinctive characteristics,” labeling the move “sheer madness”.

“The Brussels Commission thinks only about building a free market in the service of the great financial powers,” he continued. “The European Union no longer protects the peoples within it. It protects the banks.”

In a previous video interview, Sarah warned that Europe had lost its roots and was dying because of fewer European natives having children.

In recent interviews he has gone even further, noting that priests, bishops and cardinals within the Catholic Church have betrayed the teachings of Christ by pursuing political activism.

Sarah’s comments put him at odds with the Pope, who has relentlessly promoted migration from African and Middle Eastern countries into Europe.

According to the Cardinal, it is wrong to “use the word of God to promote migration,” and it is better “to help people flourish in their culture than to encourage them to come to Europe.”

Sarah slammed mass migration as a “new form of slavery” because migrants end up “without work or dignity”.

“Is that what the Church wants?” he asked.

Sarah remained hopeful of the situation being reversed, asserting, “This is not the end of the world, the Church will rise.”

 

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