miércoles, 29 de julio de 2020
domingo, 26 de julio de 2020
WikiLeaks - CIA espionage orders for the 2012 French presidential election
WikiLeaks - CIA espionage orders for the 2012 French presidential election:
Press Release (English)
16 February, 2017
CIA espionage orders for the last French presidential election
All major French political parties were targeted for infiltration by
the CIA's human ("HUMINT") and electronic ("SIGINT") spies in the seven
months leading up to France's 2012 presidential election. The
revelations are contained within three CIA tasking orders published
today by WikiLeaks as context for its forth coming CIA Vault 7 series.
Named specifically as targets are the
French Socialist Party (PS), the National Front (FN) and Union for a
Popular Movement (UMP) together with current President Francois
Hollande, then President Nicolas Sarkozy, current round one presidential
front runner Marine Le Pen, and former presidential candidates Martine
Aubry and Dominique Strauss-Khan.
The CIA assessed that President Sarkozy's party was not assured
re-election. Specific tasking concerning his party included obtaining
the "Strategic Election Plans" of the Union for a Popular Movement
(UMP); schisms or alliances developing in the UMP elite; private UMP
reactions to Sarkozy's campaign stratagies; discussions within the UMP
on any "perceived vulnerabilities to maintaining power" after the
election; efforts to change the party's ideological mission; and
discussions about Sarkozy's support for the UMP and "the value he places
on the continuation of the party's dominance". Specific instructions
tasked CIA officers to discover Sarkozy's private deliberations "on the
other candidates" as well as how he interacted with his advisors.
Sarkozy's earlier self-identification as "Sarkozy the American" did not
protect him from US espionage in the 2012 election or during his
presidency.
The espionage order for "Non Ruling Political Parties
and Candidates Strategic Election Plans" which targeted Francois
Holland, Marine Le Pen and other opposition figures requires obtaining
opposition parties' strategies for the election; information on internal
party dynamics and rising leaders; efforts to influence and implement
political decisions; support from local government officials, government
elites or business elites; views of the United States; efforts to reach
out to other countries, including Germany, U.K., Libya, Israel,
Palestine, Syria & Cote d'Ivoire; as well as information about party
and candidate funding.
<<< https://wikileaks.org/cia-france-elections-2012/ <<
miércoles, 22 de julio de 2020
SPAIN AGAINST THE CATOLONIA NATION -- Parlamentarianism sits in the dock (Carme Forcadell Lluís)
Parlamentarianism sits in the dock (Carme Forcadell Lluís)
SPAIN AGAINST THE CATOLONIA NATION
CARME FORCADELL LLUÍS
Former Speaker of the Catalan Parliament
Parlamentarianism sits in the dock
We have seen how some courts are looking to turn the Parliamentary Board into a censoring body and we can’t allow that
" On Tuesday this week another case that should have never made it this far will actually go to court. The MPs who served with me on the Board of the Catalan Parliament [in 2017] will be tried in a court of law. The Board —the body tasked with preserving the sovereignty of the chamber, upholding the right of MPs to table initiatives, protecting the free exercise of political thought and the freedom of expression— will sit in the dock with them. It will be an unfair trial that will expose, once again, how basic rights, such as free speech and the right to political representation, are trampled on in Spain. We have seen judges decide what may and may not be debated and what the Catalan Parliament may and may not vote on. We have even seen them decide who gets to take up a seat in parliament and who doesn’t. We have seen how some courts are looking to turn the Parliamentary Board into a censoring body and we can’t allow that. As democratic citizens, we cannot allow censorship to enter the Catalan Parliament. [ ... ] "
lunes, 20 de julio de 2020
SPAIN -- Former Spanish king rules out dropping title as tension grows over corruption scandal
Former Spanish king rules out dropping title as tension grows over corruption scandal
CATALONIA
We have lost any expectations about changing this corrupt kingdom whose Head of State was imposed by Franco. #WeWantDemocracy and we'll build the Republic of Catalonia.
-------
Former Spanish king rules out dropping title as tension grows over corruption scandal
Spain;s former monarch has been embroiled in scandal over his finances
Juan Carlos will not give up his title of King Emeritus in order to salvage the royal family's reputation, according to sources close to the disgraced former king of Spain.
King Felipe VI of Spain is facing growing calls from within the
government to distance his father from the monarchy after a mounting
scandal about Juan Carlos' financial affairs.
The sources say he is willing to make a gesture of goodwill, but wants to retain his title.
In 2018 a Swiss prosecutor opened an investigation into Juan Carlos’s
ex-lover and the former king’s lawyer and financial advisor, both based
in Geneva. [...]
miércoles, 15 de julio de 2020
SPAIN AGAINST THE CATALONIA NATION -- Source: Spain is Customer of NSO Group
Source: Spain is Customer of NSO Group
SPAIN AGAINST THE CATALONIA NATION
Source: Spain is Customer of NSO Group
The Guardian and El Pais reported NSO Group's malware was used to target prominent politicians in Spain. Now a former employee says that Spain has been an NSO Group customer.
" On Monday, the media outlets revealed that someone tried to hack the cellphone of Roger Torrent, the President of the Parliament of Catalonia, using a flaw in WhatsApp, which was discovered last year. Torrent is the president of the Parliament of Catalonia, which governs Barcelona and the surrounding region that has recently attempted to become independent from Spain.
Carles Puigdemont, a member of the European Parliament and the former president of Catalonia, condemned the hacking attempt, and implied that the Spanish government targeted Torrenthim. If that's the case, this would be the first known case of a European government using this type of technology against politicians inside Europe. "
SPAIN AGAINST THE CATALONIA NATION -- Phone of Catalan parliament speaker allegedly targeted by state-level spyware
Phone of Catalan parliament speaker allegedly targeted by state-level spyware
The phones of Catalan parliament speaker Roger Torrent and
two other pro-independence activists were targeted using spyware that
experts say is only sold to governments to track criminals and
terrorists, as revealed by The Guardian and El País.
According to the joint investigation, the spyware
exploited a vulnerability in Whatsapp software that would give potential
access to everything on the targeted mobile phone, from emails and text
messages to the camera and recorder—thus opening the possibility of
turning the phone into a spying device.
A member of the left-wing Esquerra (ERC) party and
one of the most senior politicians in Catalonia, Torrent believes Spain
is behind the attack and says he will take "legal and political action"
to make sure this case serves to put an end to the "dirty war against
the independence movement".
CBC: WhatsApp Attributes Hack of 1,400 Users to NSO Group Technology
Citizen Lab senior researcher John Scott-Railton discusses why WhatsApp is suing NSO Group after discovering their spyware was used to target 1,400 users—100 of whom were members of civil society—and why this is a significant bellwether.
martes, 14 de julio de 2020
SPAIN AGAINST THE CATALONIA NATION --- Phone of top Catalan politician 'targeted by government-grade spyware' | World news | The Guardian
Phone of top Catalan politician 'targeted by government-grade spyware' | World news | The Guardian
SPAIN AGAINST THE CATALONIA NATION
Phone of top Catalan politician 'targeted by government-grade spyware'
Exclusive: Guardian and El País find regional speaker was targeted in ‘possible domestic political espionage’
One of Catalonia’s most senior politicians has been warned his mobile phone was targeted using spyware its makers say is only sold to governments to track criminals and terrorists.
A joint investigation by the Guardian and El País has revealed that the speaker of the Catalan regional parliament, Roger Torrent and at least two other pro-independence supporters were told they were targeted last year in what experts said was a “possible case of domestic political espionage” in Europe.
According to a US lawsuit, the spyware exploited a previous vulnerability in WhatsApp software that would have given the operator potential access to everything on the target’s mobile phone – including emails, text messages and photographs. It could also have turned on the phone’s recorder and camera, turning it into a listening device.
Torrent, who was warned about the targeting by researchers working with WhatsApp, said it seemed clear the “Spanish state” was behind the alleged attack on his phone, and that he believed it had most likely occurred without any judicial authority.
Roger Torrent said ‘any democrat should feel very uncomfortable’ over the alleged attack.
Photograph: Quique García/EPA
miércoles, 8 de julio de 2020
CATALONIA -- Il caso catalano: la deriva "ungherese" della Spagna - Strisciarossa
Il caso catalano: la deriva "ungherese" della Spagna - Strisciarossa
The Catalan case:
the "Hungarian" drift of Spain
July 5, 2020| By Robert Doinel
Jose Lluis Trapero is the leader of the Mossos d'Esquadra, the Catalan police, the oldest in Europe. Hero
after the attack on the Ramblas in Barcelona, but accused of sedition
for not having used violence against those who celebrated the
Referendum of 1 October 2017 for independence. He faces 15 years in prison. Perez de los Cobos is a colonel in the Guardia Civil, accused of torture and beatings. For these crimes he received the pardon. The first of October was he who gave the order to his men to use violence against demonstrators. In these two figures there are the two faces of today's Spain.
On
the one hand Trapero, who is inspired by the Chief of Police of Paris
Maurice Grimaud who, in the hot days of the French May, decided to stop
the police violence against the students because "... With the excess in
the use of force ... maybe we will win the battle in the streets, but
we will lose something much more precious: our reputation ... "thus
saving France from a bloodbath, after 72 hours of wild manhunt in the
streets of Paris.
On the other, Perez de los Cobos, a man suspected of involvement in Tejero's attempted coup ,
which at a crucial moment in Spanish history, orders to attack unarmed
citizens in line to vote in the improvised but functioning Catalan
seats. A gesture that dramatized the already difficult situation of the Iberian country.
Political prisoners
Today in Catalonia there are 11 people
in prison accused of sedition and embezzlement (embezzlement for having
carried out the Referendum ...), with penalties ranging between 9 and
13 years. Among them two
leaders of civil society, imprisoned for organizing non-violent
demonstrations (attended by one million people), the president of the
Catalan Parliament Carme Forcadell, for having convened the plenary of the parliament on the referendum and Oriol Junqueras,
vice president of the Catalan government , elected to the European
Parliament but where, due to a legal artifice of the Spanish Courts that
made him fall and above all because he is detained, he has never been
able to exercise his function. Together with them other men and women who peacefully participated in the demonstrations and the Referendum.
It is worth dwelling for a moment on the crime of sedition . For example in Italy there is the crime of "seditious gathering" foreseen by article 655 of the Penal Code. It
has recently been applied to neo-fascist militants who in the
Casalbruciato neighborhood in Rome staged a protest against the nomads
with violent acts and attacks. Penalties envisaged: from the fine to one year in prison. That
is, the penalties (infinitely less than those provided for by Spanish
legislation), apply when sedition is associated with the use of
violence. And so it is in almost all of Europe. So much so that, so far, no EU country has applied the international arrest warrant issued by Spain for Catalan exiles. There was no violence in Catalonia by the referendum organizers and by the citizens. The only violence was that of the Guardia Civil.
That's why for years Amnesty International has denounced the presence of political prisoners in Spain, referring to the Catalans. They
denounce the disproportion of the penalties and the non-existence of
legally correct reasons for keeping the "Catalanist" leaders and
citizens in prison. And that's why even the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has asked Spain for the release of Catalan political prisoners
and their compensation for the time spent in pre-trial detention
having: "exercised their fundamental right to protest peacefully with
the means of civil disobedience ".
The
Emeritus Judge of the Spanish Supreme Tribunal, José Antonio Martin
Pallin wrote in La Vanguardia: “I have read and seen on TV a lot of news
about civil wars and rebel groups armed like real armies. I
have never seen news of criminal charges against a President of
Parliament or against members of a government accused of performing
their political function. "
Continuity with Francoism
Spain that comes out exhausted from Covid has not yet solved its problem with the management of a rule of law. The Catalan affair is the latest example. A story that could be closed by Rajoy
(the then popular Prime Minister, the number one head of the
precipitate of events) with a simple annulment of the referendum and
with the political will to bring all the actors to a negotiating table , has been transformed in a prison and persecution drama.
In Italy we have told this story with a good dose of laziness, with very few exceptions. The 'Catalan independence movement made us reminded Bossi's secessionist and pre-Salvini League. The
Italian Left has shown a certain laziness of thought and has not
understood that the Catalan Movement was exactly at the antipodes of the
Bossi League, for its roots on the left, for its transversal ability to
parties and social classes, for the history that bring back. So
within the Catalan drive there is no aspiration for a rich region that
wants to detach itself from the rest of the nation to "finally do it
yourself". But the aspiration to a more complete democracy that is intertwined with the legitimate request for defense of one's republican identity and language.
In
addition, Catalonia has never questioned interregional solidarity and
has always fulfilled its tax obligations towards Spain without ever
batting an eyelid, enjoying less privileges even compared to other
autonomous regions such as the Basque Country. Not to mention Madrid, which enjoys a special tax regime which makes it a sort of "Holland" in the Spanish state.
At
the basis of this civil and non-violent rebellion there is a people,
disappointed by the long democratic transition, who wants to
definitively overcome the continuity with the old Franco regime and who can not stand a country that experiences its diversity as a problem and not as a wealth for all.
There
are certainly historical reasons for this perverse continuity between
Francoism and democracy: in Italy Benito Mussolini was executed by the
partisans. Francisco Franco died in his bed. It is no small difference. But there were also conveniences: it was convenient for the parties that had just emerged from illegality to accept the compromise with the oligarchies,
nestled in the state and in the company, to overcome the fear of a
return to the dictatorship of the fragile emerging democracy. In this way, however, there was no justice. Nobody paid
for the crimes of the Civil War, nobody paid for the tens of thousands
of innocent people imprisoned, tortured, shot or "garroted" by Franco. And today the bitter fruits are paid for.
A European issue
And that's why Catalonia becomes a European issue . Because Europe was born precisely from the break with fascism, Nazism and war. And
Europe which today tries to review the light by imagining a
reconstruction on a basis other than the neoliberal dictate, cannot
afford or allow the existence of an à la carte rule of law. The Spain like Hungary or Poland? You have to have the courage to say: yes.
Spain risks becoming like the two eastern countries. But there are at least two conditions that can prevent this drift. The first already exists and is called European law . On
December 19, 2019, the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg ended
the obtuse claim of the Supreme Tribunal to prevent the regularly
elected Catalan deputies from being proclaimed to European
parliamentarians. And the
European Court does so by affirming a simple but powerful principle:
sovereignty belongs to the people, no other institutional or legal body
can prevent the expression of the popular will.
That
same day, the European Parliament, with exemplary rapidity and beating
the resistance of some Parliamentary Groups over time, accepted the
judgment of the Court of Luxembourg and opened the doors to Puidgemont,
Comin and Ponsai, legitimate representatives of the Catalan people in
Strasbourg. The second condition is, above all, a hope. He resides in the current government led by Pedro Sanchez, in coalition with Pablo Iglesias and with the autonomist parties, including the Catalans. If Sanchez and Iglesias have the courage to seek a democratic way out of the Catalan affair, they must demonstrate it concretely, starting with an amnesty for political prisoners, going through a reform of the judicial system and reopening dialogue with Barcelona.
Only
in this way will we find ourselves facing a democratic turn of
substance in Spanish society, capable of finally showing itself capable
of being able to resolve internal conflicts with politics and no longer
with repression. Will they be capable of it? We all ask and hope for it. But
a more attentive, less distracted, European public opinion that will
become a real "European democratic escort" to this process will also be
needed. If this is not the case, there will be trouble for Spain and Europe.
CATALONIA -- Spanien: Ist der Kopf islamistischer Terrorzelle wirklich in die Luft geflogen? | Telepolis
Spanien: Ist der Kopf islamistischer Terrorzelle wirklich in die Luft geflogen? | Telepolis
Spain: Did the head of an Islamist terrorist cell really blow up?
Ever
stranger circumstances come to light, statements have been hidden, the
imam was an agent of the secret service, the surviving terrorists were
not charged with murder
It is no longer a secret that the head of the terrorist attacks in the summer three years ago in Barcelona and Cambrils was an agent of the Spanish secret service .
The
Público newspaper revealed a year ago that the intelligence agency and
other Spanish security forces had been in contact with the Imam
Abdelbaki Es Satty until the attacks in August 2017, which Telepolis
reported in detail ( Spanish intelligence agency controlled terror cell .
Público has now added and published
that a key statement on Es Satty’s work for Spanish intelligence in the
mountain of investigation files has been hidden by 100,000 pages and
has been ignored by the Public Prosecutor and the Civil Guard. The
newspaper does not consider it to be a coincidence, after all, it was a
main witness, the questioning of which was expressly requested by the
Belgian authorities from Spain.
Público
rather assumes that the statement should remain hidden. It is therefore
not mentioned in a summary of the investigation as part of a request
for legal assistance and it does not appear in the table of contents of a
CD on which it is stored. Neither the judge nor the lawyers knew about
the existence of the statement. And no translation of the statement was
sent to the judge responsible.
It
is the five-page testimony of Soliman Akaychouh, the director of a
mosque in Diegem near Brussels, where Es Satty wanted to preach.
Akaychouh was questioned just three days after the attacks and in the
statement published by Público stated that Es Satty said she was in
contact with the Spanish secret service over the phone. "He told me that
he spoke to the Spanish secret service, who among other things wanted
to know where he was," said the head of the mosque.
The
imam was suspicious of the head of the mosque because of his radicalism
and extremism. That is why he contacted the Belgian police. She then
started an inquiry to the Catalan police. However, this did not result
in anything, since the Mossos d'Esquadra, as is known, had not been
informed by the Spanish colleagues about the activities of the
well-known radical Islamist and former drug dealer. As reported by Telepolis ,
the Mossos were also dependent on access to key data and resources at
the Center for Combating Terrorism and Organized Crime (CITCO).
Behind this was an incredible process in which Spanish national police officers warned radical Islamists in 2015 of the investigation by the Catalan police . The
troop was raised with the "Operación Caronte" and wanted to carry out
attacks on Jewish institutions in Barcelona and the Parliament. The Islamists were also in contact with a neo-Nazi, friend of the chief of the troops , to get weapons and explosives. And surprisingly, he was not accused of "supporting terrorism".
The major parties prevent the imam from being involved with the security forces
These
events are part of a series of curiosities about Islamist activities in
Catalonia and Es Satty. Because since 2003 he was known to Spanish
security forces as a radical Islamist. He was in contact with radical Islamists and was friends with one of those who caused the 2004 massacre in Madrid with 191 deaths
. Strangely enough, Es Satty was released early from jail, where he was
sitting for drug trafficking. And his deportation to Morocco, which had
been expressly stated in the sentence after the sentence, was also not implemented because he did not assume any "danger" .
There are still many oddities. There
is the fact that all major parties in the Spanish parliament also
refuse to investigate the imam's involvement with the security forces. Then there is the fact that the surviving members of the terrorist cell are not charged with murder even though they killed 17 people - including a German woman - and were planning huge attacks. They were prevented because part of the force blew up in the bombing the night before.
"We doubt that Ripoll's Imám is dead"
The
newest and most interesting oddity, however, is that now there are
serious questions as to whether Es Satty, the intelligence agent,
actually blew up when bombing Alcanar, which has always been assumed.
Lawyer Jaume Cuevillas said on Catalan television: "We doubt that the Imám of Ripoll is dead." Cuevillas represents the family of the young Xavier Martínez, who was also murdered during the terrorist voyage on the Ramblas.
He
found no evidence in the investigation files, such as DNA evidence that
could prove that Es Satty was actually in the house at the time of the
explosion. According to the investigators, four to five terrorists are
said to have been there. However, only remains of two people were found
in the pile of rubble, of whom only one could have been identified.
Witnesses also testified that the imam's car left shortly after the
explosion, which was later found in a neighboring village.
The cell phone of Es Satty was also not found in the pile of rubble. The lawyer reports from the investigation files that the phone was still called four days after the explosion. The
email address that the terror chief used to have contact with the
secret service, as Público had uncovered, was also used after the
explosion. It is also
striking for Cuevillas that no one claimed the body of the imam, but the
imam's niece bought two plane tickets the night after the explosion and
hours before the attack in Barcelona. Because of all of this, the lawyer expressed "justified doubts" that Es Satty is dead.
( Ralf Streck )
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