ISIS aka CIA Proxy Freedom Fighters: The Beheading Psy-Ops

ISIS aka CIA Proxy Freedom Fighters: The Beheading Psy-Ops

Western Foreign Policy Based on Sheer Propaganda

By Vivian Lee

With a rash of “beheadings” sweeping the world, a horrified public is asked to see this depraved barbarity as The New Normal.

First we had the August “murder” on video of U.S. journalist James Foley, shown kneeling before a black-robed, masked figure brandishing a knife. Yes, even a rather small knife can do it (just as box-cutters can enable the hijacking of commercial airplanes). The perpetrator is identified as a member of the terrorist group ISIS (or IS or ISIL), which supposedly wants to install a new Islamic caliphate based in the region.

However, the video did not actually show the beheading, but faded to black at the appropriate moment. A subsequent frame purports to show Foley’s head propped up on his headless body. This video was staged, however, as proved by numerous researchers, and even admitted in the British press.[1] According to a report in The Telegraph:

…a study of the four-minute 40-second clip, carried out by an international forensic science company which has worked for police forces across Britain, suggested camera trickery and slick post-production techniques appear to have been used…no blood can be seen, even though the knife is drawn across the neck area at least six times.[2]

Nonetheless, the U.S. media continue to report this “beheading” as a real occurrence, over and over again, followed by another “beheading” of an American journalist, Steven J. Sotloff, in a video released in early September. This was supposedly a “second message to America” from ISIS: “Just as your missiles continue to strike our people, our knife will continue to strike the necks of your people.”[3] This video too is problematic, with no blood in evidence before the scene fades to black.[4]

nyp_savagesBoth Foley and Sotloff have intelligence connections, as does SITE, the media dissemination service behind the release of the videos. SITE [Search for International Terrorist Entities] is an offshoot of Intel Center, both of which have an uncanny ability to produce such material at the most opportune times in support of U.S. foreign policy.[5] A visit to the SITE website is instructive.[6]

The SITE Intelligence Group, founded in 2001 by Rita Katz, is an intelligence gathering operation that monitors jihadists online, often finding terrorist statements and videos as uploads “before they are published,” according to Katz. These are transmitted to U.S. intelligence services, which are curiously beholden to SITE for these sensitive materials, and they are then released to the U.S. media.[7]

All such information obtained by SITE and then broadcast is therefore suspect. Nonetheless, the Foley and Sotloff videos have reportedly gotten the U.S. public on board with the bombing of northern Iraq and Syria in an R-2-P operation (Responsibility To Protect), the real goal being to take out Bashar al-Assad in Syria.

As for the U.K., David Haines was shown in a third “beheading” video released by SITE in mid-September.[8] And the black-robed “killer” has a British accent, which surely indicates that British citizens have gone to Iraq-Syria to join ISIS – and that they could return to wreak havoc in the homeland.

Not to neglect France, which now has its own beheading – of Hervé Gourdel, a mountaineering guide from Nice who was kidnapped in Algeria, shown in a video released by SITE in late September.[9] And certainly Australia should have one as well, but a dastardly ISIS plot in Sydney was reportedly thwarted by the government.[10]

These western countries are instrumental to the U.S.-led coalition to protect the world against ISIS, since the coalition initially included only Middle Eastern client states such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, and Jordan. As of this writing, France, Australia, Belgium, Denmark, and England have now signed on, with Turkey lining up as well.[11]

Just to drive the point home (as it were) for any “war weary” Americans out there, we now have a home-grown beheading of an employee at isis-cia-proxy-freedom-fightersa food processing plant in Moore, Oklahoma. The perpetrator, a black man named Alton Nolen, is said to have been fired from his job at Vaughan Foods. Nolen “recently started trying to convert some of his co-workers to the Muslim religion,” according to a police spokesperson.[12]

On “a Facebook page that appears to be his,” Nolen posted the following: “This is the last days… AMERICA AND ISRAEL ARE WICKED. WAKE UP MUSLIMS!!!” The FBI is assisting with the investigation after putting out “an alert to local law enforcement officials across the country to be on the watch for so-called lone wolves who might respond violently” in the wake of U.S. bombing in Syria. Now ask yourself: is this scenario credible?[13]

Nonetheless, the “beheadings”are getting major traction in the U.S. press. Magazines feature articles and editorials, television anchors report with great gravity, and radio hosts banter with listeners about these fake events. WAKE UP AMERICANS!!! As this war propaganda multiplies, with gullible members of the public accepting these psy-ops as fact, at stake are the destruction of the Middle East, continued massive “collateral damage” in Iraq and Syria – and the degrading of our own collective mentality.[14]

Notes

[1] “Media Damage Control on James Foley Video: Experts Now Conclude Video Is Fake” (Red Pill Revolution).

[2] “Foley Murder Video ‘May Have Been Staged’.” The Telegraph, August 25, 2014.

[3] “ISIS Video Shows Beheading of American Journalist Steven Sotloff.” CNN World, September 9, 2014.

[4] “James Foley Steven Sotloff ISIS Beheading Absolutely Fake Hoax” (TeamWakeEmUP).

[5] “Staged Foley, Sotloff Beheading Videos ‘Not Evidence,’ U.S. Determined to Wage War of Fear on Its Own People.” 21st Century Wire, September 9, 2014.

[6] http://ent.siteintelgroup.com/

[7] James Tracy, “Who Is Behind the Islamic State (ISIL) Beheadings? Probing the SITE Intelligence Group.” Global Research, September 15, 2014.

[8] “ISIS Video Shows British Hostage Being Beheaded.” New York Times, September 14, 2014.

[9] “French Hostage in Algeria Is Beheaded in Video Released by Militants.” New York Times, September 25, 2014.

[10] http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/australian-leader-warns-planned-random-attack-25585654

[11] “Three More Countries Join the Coalition against ISIS.” Time.com, September 26, 2014.

[12] “Woman Is Beheaded in Attack at Oklahoma Food Plant.” New York Times, September 27, 2014.

[13] “Oklahoma Beheading Hoax Alton Nolen ISIS Lone Wolf” (TeamWakeEmUP).

[14] Michel Chossudovsky, “The Terrorists R Us: The Islamic State Big Lie.” Global Research, September 25, 2014.


 Vivian Lee PhD, is a professor at an East Coast university.

FinFisher Illegal Spyware Found On At Least Five Continents

FinFisher Illegal Spyware Found On At Least Five Continents

The FinFisher spyware made by U.K.- based Gamma Group likely has previously undisclosed global reach, with computers on at least five continents showing signs of being command centers that run the intrusion tool, according to cybersecurity experts.

FinFisher can secretly monitor computers — intercepting Skype calls, turning on Web cameras and recording every keystroke. It is marketed by Gamma for law enforcement and government use.

Bloomberg News reported July 25 that researchers believe they identified copies of FinFisher, following an examination of malware e-mailed to Bahraini activists. Their work, led by security researcher Morgan Marquis-Boire, was published the same day by the University of Toronto Munk School of Global Affairs’ Citizen Lab. Photographer: Jacob Kepler/Bloomberg

Research published last month based on e-mails obtained by Bloomberg News showed activists from the Persian Gulf kingdom of Bahrain were targeted by what looked like the software, sparking a hunt for further clues to the product’s deployment.

In new findings, a team, led by Claudio Guarnieri of Boston-based security risk-assessment company Rapid7, analyzed how the presumed FinFisher samples from Bahrain communicated with their command computer. They then compared those attributes with a global scan of computers on the Internet.

The survey has so far come up with what it reports as matches in Australia, the Czech Republic, Dubai, Ethiopia, Estonia, Indonesia, Latvia, Mongolia, Qatar and the U.S.

Guarnieri, a security researcher based in Amsterdam, said that the locations aren’t proof that the governments of any of these countries use Gamma’s FinFisher. It’s possible that Gamma clients use computers based in other nations to run their FinFisher systems, he said in an interview.

‘Active Fingerprinting’

“They are simply the results of an active fingerprinting of a unique behavior associated with what is believed to be the FinFisher infrastructure,” he wrote in his report, which Rapid7 is publishing today on its blog at https://community.rapid7.com/community/infosec/blog.

The emerging picture of the commercially available spyware’s reach shines a light on the growing, global marketplace for cyber weapons with potential consequences.

“Once any malware is used in the wild, it’s typically only a matter of time before it gets used for nefarious purposes,” Guarnieri wrote in his report. “It’s impossible to keep this kind of thing under control in the long term.”

In response to questions about Guarnieri’s findings, Gamma International GmbH managing director Martin J. Muench said a global scan by third parties would not reveal servers running the FinFisher product in question, which is called FinSpy.

“The core FinSpy servers are protected with firewalls,” he said in an Aug. 4 e-mail.

Gamma International

Muench, who is based in Munich, has said his company didn’t sell FinFisher spyware to Bahrain. He said he’s investigating whether the samples used against Bahraini activists were stolen demonstration copies or were sold via a third party.

Gamma International GmbH in Germany is part of U.K.-based Gamma Group. The group also markets FinFisher through Andover, England-based Gamma International UK Ltd. Muench leads the FinFisher product portfolio.

Muench says that Gamma complies with the export regulations of the U.K., U.S. and Germany.

It was unclear which, if any, government agencies in the countries Guarnieri identified are Gamma clients.

A U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman in Washington declined to comment.

Officials in Ethiopia’s Communications Minister, Qatar’s foreign ministry and Mongolia’s president’s office didn’t immediately return phone calls seeking comment or respond to questions. Dubai’s deputy commander of police said he has no knowledge of such programs when reached on his mobile phone.

Australia’s department of foreign affairs and trade said in an e-mailed statement it does not use FinFisher software. A spokesman at the Czech Republic’s interior ministry said he has no information of Gamma being used there, nor any knowledge of its use at other state institutions.

Violating Human Rights?

At Indonesia’s Ministry of Communications, head of public relations Gatot S. Dewa Broto said that to his knowledge the government doesn’t use that program, or ones that do similar things, because it would violate privacy and human rights in that country. The ministry got an offer to purchase a similar program about six months ago but declined, he said, unable to recall the name of the company pitching it.

The Estonian Information Systems Authority RIA has not detected any exposure to FinSpy, a spokeswoman said. Neither has Latvia’s information technologies security incident response institution, according to a technical expert there.

Bloomberg News reported July 25 that researchers believe they identified copies of FinFisher, following an examination of malware e-mailed to Bahraini activists. Their work, led by security researcher Morgan Marquis-Boire, was published the same day by the University of Toronto Munk School of Global Affairs’ Citizen Lab.

‘Hallo Steffi’

The new study builds on those findings, using the same samples of malicious software.

Guarnieri’s study found, among other things, that the Bahrain server answered anyone connecting to it with the message, “Hallo Steffi.”

The investigators then found this pattern in other computers by searching data from an Internet survey research project, Critical.IO, which has been cataloging publicly accessible computers around the world.

The researchers then developed a map that shows the location of the servers, along with their unique IP addresses on the Internet.

Gamma’s Muench said none of its server components sends out strings such as “Hallo Steffi.”

The earlier Citizen Lab research linked the malware sent to the activists to FinSpy, part of the FinFisher spyware tool kit.

The Citizen Lab research showed the malware took screen shots, intercepted voice-over-Internet calls and transmitted a record of every keystroke to a computer in Manama, the capital of Bahrain, which has been gripped by tension since a government crackdown on protests last year.

Muench said the computer found in Manama isn’t a FinFisher product. Instead, the server very likely runs custom-built software used to forward traffic between two or more other systems, he said.

SOURCE: Bloomberg.com