MENA WATCH I NTEL: United States reaches agreement with ex-NSA staff who helped Emirates hack targets

by Joseph Fitsanakis 16.9.2021 INTEL ORG

Three former employees of American spy agencies, who helped the United Arab Emirates hack targets around the world, including United States citizens, have agreed to cooperate with the investigation into their activities. The US Department of Justice said on Tuesday that it had reached a “deferred prosecution agreement” with the three Americans, Ryan Adams, Marc Baier and Daniel Gericke. At least two of them are believed to have worked for the US National Security Agency before transferring their skills to the private sector.

According to US government prosecutors, the three men initially worked for a US-owned private cyber firm, before being hired by another firm that is registered to the UAE, which offered them “significant increases in their salaries”. According to the book This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends, by New York Times reporter Nicole Perlroth, the UAE firm was behind Project RAVEN, a highly intrusive cyber-espionage campaign against domestic and international critics of the UAE monarchy.

As intelNews reported earlier this year, the existence of Project RAVEN was revealed by the Reuters news agency in 2019. Its extensive list of targets included foreign governments, officials of international bodies, as well as lawyers, human rights activists and suspected terrorists. Several of those targets were reportedly American citizens. Perlroth claims in her book that among Project RAVEN’s targets was former First Lady Michelle Obama.

The information released this week by the US Department of Justice details an agreement between the three defendants and the US government, according to which they are required to cooperate fully with the investigation into their activities. They are also required to pay a combined total of nearly $1.7 million to the US government as a form of restitution for violating military export-control standards. Moreover, they are banned from holding security clearances in the future, and are subject to a number of employment restrictions.

Several US news outlets described the agreement between the US government and the three defendants as the first of its kind. Meanwhile, a number of US government officials, including Bryan Vorndran, assistant director of the FBI’s Cyber Division, warned other former US government employees to not violate “export-controlled information for the benefit of a foreign government or a foreign commercial company”.

Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 16 September 2021

 

MENA WATCH: DEUTSCHE WIRTSCHAFT ENDLICH NACHHALTIG WEIBLICH&TRENDIG!

F.A.Z.-Ökonomenranking : Deutschlands wichtigster Ökonom

FAZ -16.09.2021 Das diesjährige F.A.Z.-Ranking der Ökonomen zeigt: Der größte Aufstieg gelingt 3 Frauen.

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MENA WATCH: Samuel Altman will gesamte Menschheit biometrisch speichern

 

15.9.2021 FAZ – Sam Altman leitet KI-Unternehmung OpenAI – Altman hat unlängst ein Unternehmen mitgegründet, das eine neue Kryptowährung als eine Art bedingungsloses Grundeinkommen an die gesamte Weltbevölkerung ausgeben und dabei jede Person mit einem Augenscanner biometrisch identifizieren will.

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MENA WATCH : »Juden werden in der AfD ihre wahren Freunde erkennen«

Kommentar von Dr. Daniel Pipes, Präsident des Middle East Forums (MEF) in der israelischen Tageszeitung Israel haYom.

So unterschiedlich die Parteien in Deutschland sind, eines haben Sie gemeinsam: Die Überzeugung, dass die frischgebackene zivilisatorische Partei „Alternative für Deutschland“ (AfD) keine Vertretung im Deutschen Bundestag haben sollte.

Das nimmt auch kaum Wunder, denn das forsche Engagement der AfD für die westliche Zivilisation, für die USA und Israel geht ihnen gehörig gegen den Strich. Je näher die Wahl rückt, desto enger schließen die anderen Parteien die Reihen, um die AfD zu diffamieren. Und da wir von Deutschland reden, ist das probateste Mittel dazu die Antisemitismuskeule. Und diese Keule lässt man am besten von Juden schwingen.

Das ist der Grund, weshalb der deutsche Zentralrat der Juden (ZdJ) einen Aufruf veröffentlicht hat, dem sich nicht weniger als 68 andere jüdische Organisationen angeschlossen haben. Unter der Überschrift „Juden gegen die AfD,” rufen sie dazu auf, bloß nicht die AfD zu wählen. Die Botschaft ist wenig subtil: „Wählen Sie am 26. September 2021 eine zweifelsfrei demokratische Partei und helfen Sie mit, die AfD aus dem Deutschen Bundestag zu verbannen!“

Der Aufruf, der am 9.9.2021 veröffentlicht wurde, bezeichnet die AfD als „eine Partei, in der Antisemiten und Rechtsextreme eine Heimat gefunden haben“,  „eine Partei, in der Antisemitismus, Rassismus und Menschenfeindlichkeit ihren Nährboden finden“ und nennt die AfD „eine radikale und religionsfeindliche Partei“.

Zu den Unterzeichnern gehören prestigeträchtige internationale Namen wie das American Jewish Committee, B’nai B’rith, die Jewish Claims Conference, das European Jewish Congress, der Jewish National Fund, Limmud, Makkabi Deutschland, die Ronald S. Lauder Stiftung, die Union Progressiver Juden, und der World Jewish Congress.

Dabei gilt es als erstes festzuhalten, dass dieser Aufruf nach deutschem und amerikanischen Recht vermutlich illegal ist. Alle gemeinnützigen Vereine, die sich derart politisch engagieren und dem Wähler sagen wollen, wie er abzustimmen hat, verstoßen offenkundig gegen das Vereinsrecht.

In der Titelzeile des Aufrufes sehen wir eine kindische Grafik, eine Umkehr des AfD-Logos, bei dem der rote Pfeil aber nach unten zeigt. Dabei vermeidet es der Zentralrat in dem Aufruf, jemals den vollständigen Namen der Alternative für Deutschland auszubuchstabieren, und verwendet stattdessen nur die Abkürzung AfD, als ob die Verwendung des ganzen Namens sie irgendwie beschmutzen würde.

Tags darauf antworteten die Juden in der AfD (JAfD) in der Zeitung Israel National News auf diesen Frontalangriff, mit der Beobachtung, dass der Zentralrat sein Jahresbudget von 13 Millionen € fast ausschließlich von der Bundesregierung bezieht, und daher kaum als neutral gelten kann. „Bezeichnenderweise haben an diesem Aufruf praktisch nur jüdische Organisationen teilgenommen, die vom Staat finanziert werden“, so die JAfD. „Unabhängige jüdische Organe wie die Monatszeitung Jüdische Rundschau und konservative jüdische Verbände wie Chabad Deutschland sind nicht vertreten.“

Doch damit nicht genug. Der Zentralrat der Juden „ist eine beispiellose Einrichtung, die es in anderen Ländern nicht gibt, und die auch im Judentum unbekannt ist. Das ist eine von der Bundesregierung finanzierte, staatliche Institution, zur Verwaltung der Juden des Landes. Das gibt es sonst nirgendwo“, so der deutsch-israelische Autor Chaim Noll. „Das ist die eigentliche Tragik der Juden in Deutschland, dass sie hier diesem Regime unterworfen sind. In anderen Ländern sind die jüdischen Gemeinden autonom.“

Was die politischen Inhalte angeht, stellen die JAfD fest, dass die AfD mit Initiativen wie das Verbot der Hisbollah, der antisemitischen BDS-Bewegung, zur Abschaffung der diskriminierenden Kennzeichnungspflicht jüdischer Produkte aus dem Westjordanland und zur Kürzung des UNRWA-Haushalts „mehr für den Schutz jüdischen Lebens getan als jede andere Partei im deutschen Bundestag.“

Ich wurde selbst Zeuge dieser Politik, als ich am 14.3.2019 den Deutschen Bundestag besuchte, als gerade über das Abstimmungsverhalten der deutschen Bundesregierung über Israel bei der UNO abgestimmt wurde. Die AfD-Abgeordneten stimmten zu 89% für eine Ende der israelfeindlichen deutschen Politik in der UNO, etwa 350 mal so viele wie die 0,25% der anderen Parteien, die es ähnlich sahen.

Der Zentralrat-Eklat ist also ein nur neuerliches Beispiel für die Irrwege der jüdischen Gemeindevertreter in Europa: Sie dienen dem Establishment, nicht ihren Gemeinden, und opfern all ihre zionistischen Überzeugungen im Namen ihres guten Rufes. (Mehr dazu in meiner laufend aktualisierten Übersicht „Europäische Juden gegen Israel”).

Sie kriechen so gerne vor der Obrigkeit zu Kreuze, dass sie sogar den israelischen Botschaften in Deutschland  Jeremy Issacharoff dazu gebracht haben, entgegen aller diplomatischen Gepflogenheiten sich in die deutsche Innenpolitik einzumischen, um die AfD anzugreifen und die anti-israelischen Altparteien zu verteidigen.

Letztendlich wird sich diese unterwürfige Führung der europäischen Juden selbst isolieren, und sich immer weiter vom jüdischen Volk und der Regierung Israels entfernen, die ihre wahren Freunde in der AfD erkennen werden.

Übersetzt von Die freie Welt

 

 

 

MENA WATCH: Bennett’s first formal meeting with Sissi fell flat in terms of substance

Sep 15, 2021 DEBKA FILES ISRAEL Prime Minister Naftali Bennett had hoped to come out of his first meeting with Egyptian President Abdel-Fatteh el-Sissi at Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday, Sept 13.9, with three gains. The atmosphere was friendly and the two leaders were photographed smiling and flanked prominently by their national flags.

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MENA WATCH: Turkish-backed Syrian forces intensify attacks on US-aligned Syrian Kurdish group

Khaled al-KhatebSeptember 14, 2021 AL MONITOR – ALEPPO — The Turkish army has intensified its attacks against the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northeast Syria over the past few weeks.Turkish airstrikes have targeted for assassination prominent field commanders, while Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) factions have launched heavy artillery and missiles at SDF-held areas.

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MENA WATCH : Secret wiretap that revealed the Turkish government’s strategy in Germany: Turkey’s Erdoğan enlisted German politicians and former bureaucrats as lobbyists in Germany

Abdullah Bozkurt/Stockholm 15.9.2021 nordic monitor

The government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan recruited former German politicians and bureaucrats as lobbyists and influencers in order to advance policy goals, a secret wiretap has revealed.

 

The wiretap, obtained with a judge’s approval as part of a corruption investigation into Erdoğan’s inner circle, provides clues to the Islamist government’s strategy and how it tried to hide its operations in Germany as disclosed by İlker Aycı, chairman of national flag carrier Turkish Airlines (THY).

Aycı, the then-president of the Investment Support and Promotion Agency of Turkey (ISPAT) who worked closely with the government, was talking to President Erdoğan’s brother Mustafa Erdoğan about finding a government position for Volkan Ardor, a German national of Turkish origin and  a relative of the Turkish president.

Aycı explained that the Erdoğan government had adopted a tactic of hiring native Germans to promote the Turkish agenda in Germany because of what he described as bias against Turks in the German government. He said the Turkish government agency ISPAT, renamed the Presidency’s Investment Office in 2018, carries out its operations on German soil through prominent German figures such as a former Hamburg mayor and a former head of government of the same state for public relations purposes and polishing the image of the Turkish government.

Even Joschka Fischer, the foreign minister and vice chancellor in Gerhard Schroeder’s cabinet from 1998 to 2005, was working for the Turkish government, he added.

Secret wiretap that revealed the Turkish government’s strategy in Germany: 

Noting that President Erdoğan’s relative may not blend in well with German politicians and former bureaucrats who lobby on behalf of the Turkish government because he’s a Turk, Aycı expressed concerns about brining him into the mix. He claimed Turkey had enlisted politicians from the Green Party and the Christian Democratic Union and added that putting Ardor on a team of high-profile Germans would create problems in Germany.

Instead Aycı offered a position for Erdoğan’s relative at THY or the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA) without attracting any attention from either the Germans or the Turkish opposition, which was raising concerns of nepotism in the Erdoğan government at the time. He also expressed concern that the German government might identify Ardor as a person who is close to Erdoğan’s family by virtue of their blood relation.

Other wiretap records show that Aycı personally met with Volkan while he was in Germany and that Volkan was apparently in consultation with President Erdoğan, then the prime minister, about his job placement. In an email he sent to Aycı, Volkan wrote: “I want to work at the agency [ISPAT] and have already talked with beyefendi [referring to Erdoğan]. My uncle [again referring to Erdoğan] told me to work, and so please give me a job as soon as possible.”

The Erdoğan government has used similar tactics in the US, where it paid more than $30.5 million to influence US policy or public opinion on behalf of Turkish interests during the Trump administration, according to a report in July 2021 by the independent NGO Open Secrets. Among those enlisted as lobbyists by Turkey was Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s former personal attorney and former New York City mayor.

 

Turkey also signed a contract with a lobbying firm Ballard Partners, whose president, Brian Ballard, was vice chair of Donald Trump’s inaugural committee and was a member of his transition team. Another lobbyist, Mercury Public Affairs, which had deep ties to Trump, also signed a contract with the Erdoğan government.

Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser who was forced to resign soon after the 2017 inauguration, also had ties to Turkey and got into trouble over them.

Ali İhsan Arslan, a close confidant of the Turkish president and a deputy from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), hired a former senior adviser to the Trump campaign, lobbyist Barry Bennett.

Many of the lobbyists who were recruited by the Erdoğan government in the US have faced investigation by the federal government on alleged violations of the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA).

Aycı was a suspect in major corruption investigation that was pursued by prosecutors in Istanbul. He was identified as a key operative who facilitated the investments and private businesses of one-time al-Qaeda financier Yasin al-Qadi, with whom Aycı had been in frequent contact.

Aycı was involved in setting up the ruling AKP’s İstanbul office and  was also a consultant to Erdoğan during the latter’s term as mayor of İstanbul between 1994 and 1998. Al-Qadi is an Egyptian-born Saudi national who was at one time flagged by the US Treasury and the UN al-Qaeda sanction committee.

Al-Qadi, Aycı and Erdoğan’s son Bilal were leading suspects in the investigation and were the subjects of detention warrants issued on December 25, 2013 by the prosecutors. However, Erdoğan stepped in, illegally preventing the execution of the warrants by ordering the police to ignore the prosecutor’s orders. After the removal of the prosecutors and police chiefs who were involved in the investigation, Erdoğan managed to whitewash the crimes of his associates.

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MENA WATCH: Ankara calls on EU to help Afghanistan’s neighbors

Turkey’s president told German President Steinmeier that the EU member states should provide swift assistance to Afghanistan’s neighbors to cope with irregular migration.Nazlan Ertan AL MONITOR – September 14, 2021

 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan renewed a call to the European Union to help Afghanistan’s neighbors cope with the Afghan refugee influx, warning against reliving the 2015 Syrian refugee wave.

Tens of thousands of displaced Syrians first crossed into neighboring countries in 2015 and then sought to get into more prosperous European countries. Ankara and Brussels then agreed on the 2016 Turkey-EU statement, a complex and fragile accord under which the EU set up the billion-euro Facility for Refugees in Turkey to help Ankara stop irregular migration to the EU. The deal also included vaguely worded promises to upgrade the Turco-EU customs union, liberalize visas for Turkish citizens and revive the accession negotiations.

In a phone call to German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier Tuesday, Erdogan repeated that Turkey does not have the capacity to deal with a new migration burden, a statement from the Presidency Communication Directorate said.

“The president pointed out that Turkey and Germany, two NATO allies, has shown exemplary cooperation and coordination during the evacuation from Afghanistan, and expressed hope that this would continue during the critical period that Afghanistan is traversing,” read the statement.

Facing anti-immigration backlash at home, Erdogan has been in contact with European leaders from German Chancellor Angela Merkel to EU Council President Charles Michel to prevent irregular migration from Afghanistan and provide help to the displaced Afghans in the “neighboring countries” of Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Iran.

Erdogan also urged Steinmeier to “take rapid action” on the unfulfilled elements of the 2016 accord, such as an update of the Turco-EU customs union, visa liberalization for Turks and revived accession talks. Given the largely ceremonial role of the German president, these last points in particular sound more like political posturing than an actual request for action.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu echoed the same line on Afghanistan at a high-level UN ministerial meeting on the Afghan humanitarian situation Monday. Underlining the need for “urgent global action” for an effective response to the security and humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, Cavusoglu pointed out that nearly half of the population is in need of urgent humanitarian aid and a third of the Afghan people face hunger.

The foreign minister told Turkey’s NTV last week that the best way to solve the Afghan migrant crisis was to solve the conflict domestically to ensure that people are not forced to leave their homes.

“It is also crucial to provide assistance to neighboring countries like Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Iran,” he said. “There is not considerable movement now [toward Turkey] but we need to be prepared” for future scenarios.

The EU “joins Turkey” in its aim to support the countries neighboring Afghanistan to provide asylum for Afghan refugees, Nikolaus Meyer-Landrut, the head of the EU Delegation to Turkey, assured Monday from Turkish-Iran border city of Van, a major human trafficking route to Europe.

“The European Union has announced that it will increase by four times its humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan by the end of 2021, bringing it to more than 200 million euros [$236 million],” Meyer-Landrut, a German diplomat who served as the chief adviser for European affairs to Chancellor Angela Merkel between 2011 and 2015, told Daily Sabah. “We share the analysis of Foreign Minister Cavusoglu that it is now critical to bring assistance to the people of Afghanistan as quickly as possible.”

Turkey, which already hosts 3.7 million Syrians, is concerned about a potential influx of refugees fleeing the Taliban. Ankara say there are 182,000 registered Afghan migrants in Turkey and up to an estimated 120,000 unregistered ones.

Read more: https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2021/09/ankara-calls-eu-help-afghanistans-neighbors#ixzz76Y1vv5wf

 

 

 

 

MENA WATCH : SISTANI VS. THE MILITIAS – THE FUTURE OF IRAQI SOVEREIGNTY

by Hamdi Malik PolicyWatch 3531September 14, 2021The international community needs to pay more attention to developments in Najaf, where Sistani-backed groups are forcefully pushing back against Iran but still face the longer-term question of who will continue his message.

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MENA WATCH EXCLUSIV: MEETING PUTIN  ASSAD

Transcript of public remarks by Putin and Assad, in English: http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/66678

 

Assad was in Moscow yesterday, met Putin. Meqdad and Shoigu also involved. https://tass.com/politics/1337399

http://sana.sy/en/?p=248535

 

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