Category Archives: CIA

Fake News vs Media Freedom and Alternative Truths

Media freedom houses the implied agreement to freedom of speech not only enshrined in Constitutions, but as a birthright.  Below I have provided a range of links to articles to awaken awareness to the reasons why freedom of speech underlined by truth is critical for humanity’s development.  The last article is the Freedom of the Press Foundation’s critique of Donald Trump.  I have just checkout out their board, and I am confident, they are bonifide journalists.  So I take on board their critique but remain open to questions in respect of Trump’s critiques.  

https://freedom.press/about/board/

The key is to keep an open mind and trust yourself, as you have inner guidance that will show you what is true and what is not. If you are still enough you will recognise a lie spun sprouting great principles as often the wolf comes in sheep’s clothing offering a good but underneath that is another agenda. So stay discerning of information but do not become cynical as the world is full of good intentions and negative and it is the yin/yang of life. It creates the clash of ideas, religions, civilisations and ideologies. This clash shakes up truth, as is its job.  In the future there will be inquiries into mass deception and mind control.

This blog is in the public interest.  

As you independently research you come to realise how much is not told in the so-called free press.  On the other hand there are shining lights in the media who risk life and limb to bring the story to the public’s attention.  However, media freedom can be caught up in the propaganda to justify restricting freedom of speech.  On the other hand the media have to be accountable for not revealing important information in the public interest. Compounding this issue is the online reality that is being forced on every person on the planet due to the ambitions of Silicon Valley partnering with equity financiers, like the Rothschilds, who have a vested interest in power and control given their lineage. Is this in the public interest to have an IT industry empowered by financiers to maximise profits of world business and at the same time remove privacy given influence in governments? There are also major questions around radiation and biological impacts (e.g. cancer, DNA), depopulation, targeting individuals, restricting information (them and us, type of information), rule by algorithms (filtering news and educational content), mind control (repeated messages), access to iPhones (private conversations), 5G mm waves and health impacts and the loss of felt humanity? 

What I have found is when money is NOT involved we have a chance at finding some light in the darkness of vested interest, politics, egoic defence and brand image risk management protection.  Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely is a truism. Money is power in our world (so it is believed) and people will obey when money talks. Yet the real power in this world is love of truth and each other.  Community bonds are powerful as well but minimised. Truth is the real gold in our world and it is the real liberator from falsehood and deception. Truth, when accurate, empowers people to make their own decisions. The real leadership is within every person when they decide for themselves. That is what life gave them from birth, the power of self determination. This is inherent within human rights or what I tend to say, the right to be human.

I personally found the Guardian here in Australia a good source and investigative journalists from the ABC. However, the ABC is likely to be sold off by the Liberal Party as a leak revealed at their national conference. I noted that Nine Entertainment now owns The Age.  Peter Costello, former Liberal Treasurer is the Chairman of the Board.  If that is not a conflict of interest, I don’t know what is!  We have Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation and subsidiaries owning the majority of the media in key markets across the world. It is evident it has a right wing leaning. As a US citizen he is supportive of US interests not the Australian people. Yet he is the unannounced king maker to whom many make pilgrimages to in order to be validated for power.  Where is the media critique and community action around this clear bias. 

No-one should have any concentration in the media. They definitely should not have political affiliations or biases as a group.  Media must be absolutely clear of bias and constructed in the format of peace journalism, where both sides are shown and questions asked, so the community learns to think for themselves.  A profile of Rupert’s empire is as follows:

Links: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Murdoch

Peter Costello is the Chairman of Nine Entertainment. The question for the public is, should ex-political figures still aligned with politics be able to have control over media given vested interests?

https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/media/unbelievably-sad-fears-for-fairfax-legacy-as-183yearold-firm-bought-by-nine-entertainment/news-story/fe7db7b5f5d1ef1940e2cd10ac93cf93

This story below I just found which features Tim Costello, brother of Peter Costello. Tim and Peter were often at logger heads as he is a priest and Peter, a former Treasurer.  One speaking morals the other speaking money. This article talks to the corruption of Crown Casino. I note a little media item where the current Victorian government are looking into this. 

I’ve had inspiration around Crown Casino.  I note the word ‘Crown’ these days and the shields, symbols that reflect power, I feel the links to established power and endorsement. Interestingly, I interviewed Edward de Bono (famous Lateral Thinking expert) at the hotel at Crown. He was quick to say to me he wasn’t at the Casino, just staying at the hotel. Back then I had no idea, I am slowly waking up now.  

This article highlights why media freedom is essential and the importance of reporting on corruption as the public outcry does have power and is heard, alone we are ignored. The public has to find the truth if they want to be empowered to create change in its image not other’s with vested interests. This grows more important as our ecology collapses reminding us of our own imbalance.  It is true that knowledge with wisdom empowers.   Here is the article on the Crown Casino: https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/the-troubled-birth-of-crown-casino-we-were-warned-20190808-p52fa1.html

The links below will definitely not appear in the mainstream media. This provides insights into the different styles of reporting. Independent reporting is revealing what has been hidden by information control in the mainstream media. However, the internet freedom (whilst we still have it) is essential to being out the truth so that people can make balanced decisions, given their money is spent in ways they have no idea about. Those in positions of power must be held to account and those orchestrating false information must be tried.  Deception, PR spin, falsifying media items (video, written) in order to influence public opinion undermines democratic principles and freedoms (real freedom). The purpose of democracy is underlined by the implied ‘We the People’ and it is to represent not enslave the world community. I recall giving my poem ‘We the People’ to Kristine Keneally (shadow Minister Home Affairs). Later that day I recall her saying there would never be a Charter of Rights for the people. That is etched into my mind.  MP Andrew Wilkie tried to pass a Bill of Rights for Australians on 24 March 2020.  This was not passed. Questions should be asked.  Rights arise when values decline this is why democracy (in its true sense) is under threat with increasing secrecy, non disclosure, changes to discrimination laws, weakening of regulators, costly legal action and most notably media ownership – buying up the press by those seeking to ‘shape’ views rather than respecting diversity and allowing the publics differences to shape the future on the basis of debate, informed discussion, critiques and real needs in order to understand what is true and what is not and what is needed and what is not. As public money is channeled in the direction of influence not the greatest need. Critical thinking is essential if people are to be led out of the infotainment, electronic addictions, distractors and mainlining cultivated information to fulfil the needs of specific economic and financial interests.  

It is real freedom from fear that enables discernment. I turn off the television, I don’t listen much to radio and I inform myself using instinct, intuition, intellect, feeling and the love of truth to guide my words and actions.  My only interest is peace as harmony. I dreamed I was teaching peace and this changed my life from a market analyst to peace maker.  I was a community journalist in public radio for a few years. I was seeking to find my voice and allow other voices to be heard. Surveillance happened after I aired Scott Ritter (senior weapons inspector, Iraq) and Major Douglas Rokke (depleted uranium expert, Pentagon). I had no knowledge of the murky, smoke and dagger world of intelligence. Today I have become wiser. 

Peace will only arise from inner peace which resolves inner conflict (untruth) as realisation (ah ha) informs as the real shape changer.  This is how personal growth happens, you awaken bit by bit to the truth of what is really going on. You cannot go back to the uninformed unconscious life that just believes what it hears, reads and sees.  I no longer believe in most of it.  I am disillusioned but in a good way. I refer to my life similar to the ‘philosophers stone’ where questions open pathways to truth, intent is important. As I reach for truth I find myself changing as I grow in awareness.   I am open to being wrong, but ultimately I have felt the awakening and I come into a feeling of  ‘knowing’. This knowing is ‘I know I don’t know’ which opens my mind. It is the real wisdom, which is no about knowing it all but awakening to the illusion of it.  Below is further links I found by following a gentle search for truth.

This excerpt is from an article I believe is in the public interest and is the basis of control in our world. I remember Fiona Barnett saying once paedophilia is solved and those involved brought to justice much of the evils of our world will disappear. I felt truth in that. However, having said that by all means you critique the article and find your own truth, as I believe we all have to work it out ourselves. This article provides an insight as a contrast to the mainstream media. You would never find this article on the front page of a popular newspaper. I present it with a noteworthy quote which awakens to the underbelly of power:

“The ‘mass hysteria’ and ‘false memory’ bromides disseminated by the establishment press obscure federal and academic connections to the mind control cults, which are defended largely by organized pedophiles, cultists and hired guns of psychiatry.”

Refer: https://constantinereport.com/mass-media-concealment-of-the-nazi-style-mind-control-atrocities/

I suspect this is the main driver of misinformation embedded in the intelligence community.  I have concerns about Home Affairs or Homeland Security, the latter called ‘shadow government’ by former CIA Kevin Shipp. When intelligence is blended with an internal intelligence capability it raises real concerns about false flag operations, fake stunts to cause terror, holographic imagery and the very real concern of cults in positions of power. The Bush Administration is a case in point and the links to the Skull and Bones, KKK and CIA Whistleblower assertions of 911 as a CIA operation It further raises questions about COVID-19.

There has to be critical thinking. I don’t necessarily subscribe to the Trump narrative but I do think there is truth in what he is saying. It is not for the media to get defensive at the critiques but investigate as intelligence merges with the media as part of information control (counter=terrorism techniques).

Whistleblowers are coming out and revealing what the mainstream media is not revealing. For example ex CIA whistleblower:

Montgomery maintains that the data on the hard drives prove the existence of THE HAMMER and prove that Brennan and Clapper engaged in illegal domestic surveillance, despite the existence of safeguards that were already in place.

MONTGOMERY, ‘THE HAMMER’ SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM WHISTLEBLOWER, BECAME THE DEEP STATE’S ENEMY NUMBER ONE AFTER EXPOSING THE TRUTH

 

The last article is from Freedom of the Press Foundation online.  It is a critique of Trump. However, I see some truth in his tweets. He is definitely taking on the established media and those infiltrated by vested interests. Yes he is crass, yes a misogynist, yes a deal maker, ball breaker, but interestingly, he is taking on the power elites.  Why? he is not in the club. He doesn’t give a toss what anyone thinks, he plays by his own rules. He is a leader as he makes his own decisions. Yet there would still be room for critique with him in that he hasn’t revealed the whole truth, yet he is leaking out questions, particularly about COVID-19.  The question is are people giving thought to what is the truth of COVID-19?

https://freedom.press/news/trump-crisis-mode-tweets-his-2000th-attack-press/

Freedom of the Press Foundation

 

Trump, in crisis mode, tweets his 2000th attack on the press

Stephanie_Sugars_Headshot

Reporter, U.S Press Freedom Tracker

KM

Managing Editor, US Press Freedom Tracker

PFT_2kTweets_Blog.jpg
 

Illustration/Kelsey Borch

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to upend daily life, President Donald Trump accelerated smearing the press on Twitter, reaching 2,000 negative tweets about the media in a string of insults and accusations on April 11, 2020.

According to our analysis of more than 19,400 of Trump’s tweets, 2,000 means that he has, on average, tweeted negatively about the press more than once a day for the past 4 ½ years. While the president’s rate of tweeting about the media has varied over those years, a noticeable uptick occurred as the severity of the new coronavirus progressed throughout the United States, and his administration’s handling of the global health crisis came under increased criticism.

The 2,000th tweet came on a Saturday, as part of a series of posted and deleted tweets, criticizing the coverage of no fewer than five outlets and accusing most of bias, if not outright corruption. The 2,000th tweet:

2000 Tweet PFT_2000

The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker maintains a searchable database tracking Twitter posts in which Trump mentions media, individual journalists or news outlets in a negative tone since he declared his candidacy in June 2015.

In January, we wrote that Trump’s anti-press tweeting had begun ramping up last year around his official reelection campaign launch, and that he was following the same “playbook” of attacking the press on Twitter that he used during his first campaign. Those Twitter mentions, however, dropped dramatically after the impeachment inquiry began in September 2019 and stayed relatively low through the end of the year.

As concerns about the new coronavirus took hold in the U.S. in early 2020, Trump’s negative media tweet rate began accelerating to a pace not seen in the previous 5 months. It rose from 5.6% of his overall tweets in January to 11.2% in March. During the week of March 23 — when the U.S. began to lead the world in confirmed cases — Trump criticized the news media in nearly one in every five tweets.

2000 Tweet PFT_Graph1

The Nation’s First Virus Death, and an ‘Enemy of the People’ Tweet

On March 1, Trump referred to a sweeping number of print and broadcast news outlets as “The Enemy of the People,” a term he first used shortly after taking office but which had seen less use in the previous six months.

The tweet came one day after the U.S. recorded its first coronavirus death, that of a Washington state man in his 50s.

The Times, The Washington Post, MSNBC, ABC, CBS News and more, he tweeted, “headed” the “Fake News Media” and were a source of national disgust and embarrassment.

2000 Tweet PFT_EoP

A week later, on March 8, he used the term again, singling out only the Times. A few days later, on March 11, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, or global epidemic. On March 13, Trump declared a national emergency.

Over the course of the month, Trump tweeted a total of 447 times. Of those, 50 tweets used a negative tone about the press — nearly the same amount as in January and February combined.

Trump’s anti-press tweets predominantly focused on the media’s coverage of the pandemic and his administration’s response. Trump repeatedly condemned the use of unnamed sources, alleged that the media was deliberately dramatizing the outbreak to hurt the economy and his reelection chances, and asserted that outlets should unite with him in the face of the crisis, rather than continue covering the outbreak and response critically.

Of the 50 tweets, half targeted the media as a whole, with terms like “Enemy of the People” and “LameStream Media,” and descriptions of the media as “corrupt,” “dishonest” and “hopeless.”

2000 Tweet PFT_LameStream

Twenty tweets targeted specific news outlets, with MSNBC and the Times attacked the most often, and used demeaning “nicknames” like “MSDNC” and “DeFace the Nation.” Five individual journalists — representing four outlets — were also targeted by name.

Rachel Maddow and Joe Scarborough of MSNBC, Chuck Todd of NBC, Maggie Haberman of the Times and Chris Cuomo of CNN, all familiar targets of the president on Twitter, were each singled out. Cuomo announced he tested positive for the coronavirus on March 31.

2000 Tweet PFT_Fredo

During his fourth year in office, 14.2% of Trump’s negative tweets about the media have targeted individuals, questioning their legitimacy, ethics and objectivity, as well as insulting their physical appearance or demeanor and assigning them demeaning nicknames.

By comparison, he targeted individual journalists in only 7.5% of tweets in his first year in office and 8.6% of tweets in his second year.

2000 Tweet PFT_Graph2

Press Briefings Return: In-Person Insults Mirror Those on Twitter

On Feb. 26, the same day White House press briefings resumed after a more than year-long hiatus, the president tweeted, “Low Ratings Fake News MSDNC (Comcast) & CNN are doing everything possible to make the Caronavirus [sic] look as bad as possible, including panicking markets, if possible.”

Trump tweeted multiple assertions that the media was continuing in its “war” against him in spite of the virus, and that the press briefings — this time with Trump leading them instead of a press secretary — were “reaching millions of people that are not being told the truth.”

2000 Tweet PFT_Press Conferences

The president targeted ABC via tweet four times in 2020 — all in March and April — including calling the outlet an “Enemy of the People” and “Fake News.”

In the briefing room, the attacks on journalists were personal. When ABC’s Chief White House Correspondent, Jonathan Karl, asked during an April 6 briefing about a report from the Department of Health and Human Services inspector general, Trump quipped, “You’re a third-rate reporter.” Karl is also the president of the White House Correspondents Association.

Trump had used the same insult in a tweet targeting the Times’ Maggie Haberman on March 27, as well as in reference to Vanity Fair’s Gabriel Sherman on March 11, though the president didn’t name him.

When PBS NewsHour reporter Yamiche Alcindor asked during a March 29 COVID-19 briefing about the president refuting governors’ needs for equipment, he replied that her question was “snarky” and her approach always “getcha, getcha, getcha.”

On April 5, Trump targeted Alcindor on Twitter, writing that she was “a very biased journalist.”

PFT_2k_live briefing.jpg

President Donald Trump takes questions during an April 6 coronavirus task force briefing at the White House with Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Vice President Mike Pence. In this briefing, Trump responded to a question by ABC’s Jonathan Karl, in the second row of seats on the far right, by calling him a ‘third-rate reporter,’ an insult he also uses on Twitter.

REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

The 2000th Tweet: A Milestone of Attacking the Press

Through early April, Trump and the Coronavirus Task Force held press briefings almost every day, and by April 11, Trump had insulted or denigrated the press in nearly one in six of his tweets.

On Twitter, Trump referred to CNN as “a JOKE!,” the Wall Street Journal as “Fake News!” and singled out the Post and the Times, asserting that advertising is “WAY down” either because they are “Fake News” or because “the Virus is just plain beating them up.”

2000 Tweet PFT_Advertising

On April 11, as Trump posted his 2,000th negative tweet about the media, the U.S. led the world in confirmed COVID-19 deaths, surpassing 20,000.

Trump posted a burst of eight tweets that day, a single-day amount not reached since September 2019.

All but one of the tweets targeted specific outlets. The president repeated his refrains about “MSDNC,” the “failing” Times and the “Amazon” Post, and criticized the Journal’s Editorial Board. Trump also disparaged Fox News, tweeting that watching it on weekend afternoons is “a total waste of time.” The tweet followed a report about equipment shortages at the Department of Veterans Affairs and coronavirus-related veteran deaths.

2000 Tweet PFT_Fox

Three of the tweets targeting the Times were nearly identical, with the first two posted and deleted within minutes of each other. The third, which was the milestone-reaching tweet, was posted two hours later. In it, the president called the Times “Fake News,” “Failing,” and questioned its use of anonymous sources in an article linking New York coronavirus cases to Europe, not China.

The day’s string of tweets struck on multiple recent themes, with the president criticizing coverage of the pandemic and implying corruption in the newsroom.

Trump also delegitimized the standard news practice of granting sources anonymity, asserting on Twitter that anonymous sources are fabricated in order to hurt his administration. Nearly one in four of his anti-press tweets in early April — and one in ten in March — denigrated the media’s use of unnamed sources.

Undermining Coverage in a Time of Crisis

Language eroding public trust in the news media, while a hallmark of the president’s administration, has increased on Twitter in tandem with the spread of the coronavirus in the U.S. and criticism of the government’s handling of it.

Trump complained about media bias in a majority of his 2,000 negative tweets, accusing the media of conspiring against him and refuting the accuracy of their reports.

From the first confirmed U.S. coronavirus case on Jan. 20, through reaching the milestone tweet on April 11, Trump tweeted negatively about the media 113 times. In those 83 days, at a time when the public increasingly sought news from established outlets, Trump intensified his criticism of individual reporters and the media’s coverage.


Explore the database

As the president continues to communicate through Twitter, The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker continues to track the rhetoric using this live database.

Read more about Coronavirus

Here’s how to share sensitive leaks with the press

Thinking about securely leaking information to news organizations? This guide will show you how.

How journalists can work from home securely

Both the newsroom and individual journalists must make some changes to work from home securely.

Government transparency cannot be a coronavirus casualty

Government agencies from the local to federal level are failing to live up to their legal transparency obligations even as the stakes for access to relevant information are at an all-time high.

Julian Assange Awakens Secrecy as Repugnant to Freedom

This is an article from the Australian ABC regarding Julian Assange, lawyers, breach of privacy and surveillance.  The article focuses on the recording of Geoffrey Robertson QC a famous Australian barrister, well known by those of us over 40 for the ABC program ‘Hypothetical’.  Geoffrey Robertson demonstrated justice as he challenged influential Australians to respond to controversial issues, scenarios indicating how they would handle a difficult problem. He demonstrated Justice and Inquiry. 

He is a human rights lawyer and his lawyer-client privilege was breached due to powerful interests not driven by Justice but power. 

I felt inspired to give J F Kennedy a voice in this blog which drives to the heart of this problem.  

Transcript: https://www.jfklibrary.org/archives/other-resources/john-f-kennedy-speeches/american-newspaper-publishers-association-19610427

The keystone message of Kennedy is as follows:

I not only could not stifle controversy among your readers–I welcome it. This Administration intends to be candid about its errors; for as a wise man once said: “An error does not become a mistake until you refuse to correct it.” We intend to accept full responsibility for our errors; and we expect you to point them out when we miss them.

Without debate, without criticism, no Administration and no country can succeed–and no republic can survive. That is why the Athenian lawmaker Solon decreed it a crime for any citizen to shrink from controversy. And that is why our press was protected by the First Amendment– the only business in America specifically protected by the Constitution- -not primarily to amuse and entertain, not to emphasize the trivial and the sentimental, not to simply “give the public what it wants”–but to inform, to arouse, to reflect, to state our dangers and our opportunities, to indicate our crises and our choices, to lead, mold, educate and sometimes even anger public opinion.

The important question for US lawmakers and politicians is – Can you face high crimes and misdemeanours and correct mistakes rather than criminalise the messenger?   Wikipedia provides insight into the meaning:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_crimes_and_misdemeanors

When you deeply contemplate the journey of Julian Assange you realise he is a light on the hill as he reminds the US of its true purpose as they have lost their way.  He is a beacon who not only revealed US secrets but awakened the world to what is called the ‘dark side’ of surveillance and political corruption. Justice is not a business deal it is about the truth that sets all free.

Recently I wondered about him. I sent light and protection to him and that he is safe as the US seek to jail him for revealing what is on ‘a need to know basis’

When you have experienced inequality before the law, illegal surveillance, privacy breaches and corruption your Cinderella world view dissolves as you become dis-illusioned.  That is, the illusion falls from your eyes and you see clearly.

2020 (vision) is about clear seeing.

Until you walk in Julian’s shoes you cannot know the sacrifice he made in the public interest, albeit global interest. We are learning about how power operates as distinct to Justice. The lengths people will go to, to win and pervert the course of  justice. The lack of ethics, integrity and use of manipulation of the rule of law is under the spotlight. 

It is noteworthy that those persons exposed crimes and/or breaches to the Constitution are not arrested but the whistle-blowers are pursued as if criminals and rights to Justice undermined.

The Brave New World is a teacher, we are being given glimpses into this possible future and every person is choosing. This is the real universal vote. Complacency (compliance) or democracy?

The surveillance state is increasingly being privatised as contractors are paid by national intelligence agencies accessing secrets themselves.  Secrets (security) are leverage.  Imagine how wide spread is espionage as intelligence becomes private security (business) becomes intelligence in the revolving door of greed where there is always a back door to breach privacy and make money from vulnerability.  Greed is the key issue arising out of a desire to live like the US, yet, must we rob Peter to pay Paul. Debt is another leverage point.

Some key quotes from the ABC article below are worthy of contemplation.

“It’s important that clients can speak frankly and freely in a confidential space with their lawyers in order to be able to protect themselves and ensure that they have the best possible legal strategy and that the other side does not have advance notice of it,” Robinson said.

Referring to a Spanish allegation that the US Government had advance notice of legal conversations in the embassy, she said: “That is … a huge and a serious breach of [Assange’s] right to a defence and a serious breach of his fair trial rights”.

“I wasn’t surprised at all. It’s an occupational hazard for human rights lawyers. You’re bugged, you’re followed by secret police, you’re spied upon,” said Robertson, one of Australia and the UK’s most respected human rights barristers for almost 50 years.

The extradition hearing comes amid a flurry of activity related to Assange: on Friday his legal team also confirmed they will try to seek asylum for the WikiLeaks boss in France, and on Thursday an English court heard that Assange was offered a US presidential pardon if he agreed to say that Russia was not involved in a 2016 leak of Democratic Party emails.

When the ABC asked questions of the US embassy in Canberra, it referred questions to the US justice department, which did not respond by deadline.

The ABC also sent questions to the CIA and the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Neither responded by deadline.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/julian-assange-and-his-australian-lawyers-were-secretly-recorded-in-ecuadors-london-embassy/ar-BB10hrG3?ocid=spartandhp

Julian Assange and his Australian lawyers were secretly recorded in Ecuador’s London embassy

Dylan Welch, Suzanne Dredge and Clare Blumer 2 hrs ago

WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange leaves Westminster Magistrates Court in London, Britain January 13, 2020.

© REUTERS/Henry Nicholls WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange leaves Westminster Magistrates Court in London, Britain January 13, 2020. Barrister Geoffrey Robertson’s shuffles into the entrance to Ecuador’s embassy in London, a camera recording the sound of his shoes echoing on the hard tiles.

It’s just after 7:00pm on January 12, 2018.

The camera rolls as Robertson stops at the front door, unbuttons his overcoat and removes his cap.

Once inside the embassy, other cameras follow him as he’s ushered into a meeting room, where the storied Queen’s Counsel is offered a cup of tea.

After a few minutes, he is greeted by the embassy’s most famous resident, Julian Assange.

The camera continues to roll, recording every word of the confidential legal conversation which follows.

While this may be typical surveillance at a secure diplomatic property, what Robertson did not know was he and a handful of other lawyers, were allegedly being targeted in a remarkable and deeply illegal surveillance operation possibly run at the request of the US Government.

Pictures: The case of Julian Assange (Showbizz Daily)

And recordings such as Robertson’s visit are at the heart of concerns about the surveillance: privileged legal conversations between lawyer and client in a diplomatic residence were recorded and, later, accessed from IP addresses in the United States and Ecuador.

Robertson was only one of at least three Australian lawyers and more than two dozen other legal advisers from around the world that were caught up in the surveillance operation.

Long-time WikiLeaks adviser Jennifer Robinson was one of the other Australian lawyers caught in the spying operation.

“It’s important that clients can speak frankly and freely in a confidential space with their lawyers in order to be able to protect themselves and ensure that they have the best possible legal strategy and that the other side does not have advance notice of it,” Robinson said.

Referring to a Spanish allegation that the US Government had advance notice of legal conversations in the embassy, she said: “That is … a huge and a serious breach of [Assange’s] right to a defence and a serious breach of his fair trial rights”.

On Monday evening (Sydney time), Assange will face an extradition hearing relating to US criminal charges against him for his role in the WikiLeaks releases of classified US Government material.

The extradition hearing comes amid a flurry of activity related to Assange: on Friday his legal team also confirmed they will try to seek asylum for the WikiLeaks boss in France, and on Thursday an English court heard that Assange was offered a US presidential pardon if he agreed to say that Russia was not involved in a 2016 leak of Democratic Party emails.

The offer of a pardon was allegedly made by the US congressman Dana Rohrabacher when he visited Assange in the embassy in August 2017. Rohrabacher has denied he was making the offer on behalf of Donald Trump.

‘It’s an occupational hazard for human rights lawyers’

The surveillance was uncovered via a very public investigation into the Spanish company contracted by the Ecuadorian Government to provide security at the embassy, UC Global.

WikiLeaks Spanish lawyer, Aitor Martinez, told the ABC the surveillance came to light after Assange was arrested, when former UC Global employees provided a large file of material.

“This consisted of recordings from cameras installed in the embassy and hidden microphones; recordings made with secret microphones placed inside the embassy; hundreds of secret copies of the passports of Mr Assange’s visitors; multiple emails exchanged between the company owner and the employees,” Martinez said.

The recording of lawyers and legal conversations was not accidental, according to the Spanish criminal case, which is now investigating UC Global and its owner, former Spanish Navy marine David Morales.

“David Morales was justifying himself by saying that he had been expressly asked for this information, sometimes referring to ‘the Americans’,” a UC Global employee turned prosecution witness said.

“He sent on several occasions — via email, by phone and verbally — some lists of targets in which we had to pay special attention … they were mainly Mr Assange’s lawyers.”

“I wasn’t surprised at all. It’s an occupational hazard for human rights lawyers. You’re bugged, you’re followed by secret police, you’re spied upon,” said Robertson, one of Australia and the UK’s most respected human rights barristers for almost 50 years.

Robinson — also an Australian citizen — was spied on while providing confidential legal advice to Assange.

“It is incredibly troubling that our secret and privileged legal conversations with Julian Assange were recorded and apparently handed to US authorities,” she told the ABC.

“It is one of the most fundamental principles of protecting attorney-client relationships that we are able to have confidential and private meetings, to discuss legal strategy.”

The concerns about illegal monitoring of confidential legal discussions may become part of his defence, with his lawyers expected to argue that the espionage has denied Assange his basic legal rights.

Foreign Minister Marise Payne did not respond to ABC questions about the Spanish case. The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFAT) also declined to discuss it, only noting that it had previously sought assurances that Assange would be treated appropriately under UK law.

“The Australian Government cannot intervene in any extradition request for Mr Assange, which is a matter for the UK authorities,” a DFAT spokeswoman said.

Robinson said that she believed Canberra had not done enough to protect Assange, an Australian citizen.

“This is a case in which an Australian citizen is facing 175 years in prison in the United States for the same publication for which he won a Sydney Peace Prize and the Walkley award for the most outstanding contribution to journalism,” she said, referring to WikiLeaks’ publication in 2010 and 2011 of confidential US documents that revealed, among other things, war crimes and illegal spying on world leaders.

“His Australian lawyers — all of us Australian citizens — have [also] had our rights as lawyers and our ability to give him a proper defence superseded by the US and potentially the UK Government.

“This is something that the Australian Government ought to be taking very seriously and ought to be raising both with the UK and with the United States. It is time the Australian Government stands up for this Australian citizen and stops his extradition.”

The file

The ABC has obtained hundreds of internal UC Global documents, videos, audio files and photos tendered in the Spanish case, which commenced in April last year days after Spanish newspaper El Pais published videos and audio of Assange and guests being spied on in the embassy.

The files reveal the remarkable and expanding secret surveillance targeting the WikiLeaks boss and his guests.

In an email from September 2017, Morales ordered UC Global staff to find out what the walls around Assange’s bedroom were made of, and to photograph the embassy’s rooms and its furniture.

Then in December, UC Global updated the embassy’s camera system, installing audio-capable cameras.

A month later, and under instructions from Morales, they installed a listening device in the false base of the meeting room’s fire extinguisher.

They also installed a microphone in the women’s bathroom — a place where Assange would regularly hold sensitive legal meetings.

The case is being investigated by Spain’s federal court, the Audencia Nacional, which is examining whether Morales and UC Global are guilty of breaching both Assange’s privacy and lawyer-client privilege, as well as crimes relating to misappropriation of funds, bribery, and money laundering.

“From 2015 to mid-2018, when UC Global lost the embassy’s security contract, a battery of illegal espionage measures was deployed, with massive interference in the privacy of [Assange], in his communications with his [legal] team, in meetings with his doctors, and in general against everyone close to him,” a criminal complaint filed by Assange’s Spanish lawyers stated.

“In those years the defendants created a sort of ‘Big Brother’ in which all the movements of Mr Assange and the people close to him were monitored.”

The case commenced after a group of Spanish citizens contacted senior WikiLeaks employees and demanded a significant sum of money in return for what they said was voluminous proof of the espionage.

A former UC Global employee — who cannot be identified for legal reasons — also separately approached WikiLeaks, wanting to reveal what they saw as the illegal behaviour of their former company.

WikiLeaks referred the case to Spanish courts, who launched an investigation and arrested Morales. He was later released on bail.

“This spying did not only affect Mr Assange’s lawyers, it also affected all of his visitors, including journalists,” Martinez said.

“It got to the point where, during a visit to Mr Assange, the head of Ecuador’s intelligence service [Rommy Vallejo, on December 21, 2017] was also spied on,” Martinez added.

“In the meeting between Mr Vallejo and Mr Assange the possible release [from the embassy] of Mr Assange in a few days later was discussed.”

Within hours of that secret meeting, which was known to only a few people, the US Ambassador to Ecuador complained to Ecuadorian authorities, and the next day the US issued an international arrest warrant for Assange, Martinez said.

“That leads us to believe that the conversation was urgently sent to the US authorities and that they urgently issued the international arrest warrant the next day,” he said.

Martinez was himself spied on while having legal meetings with Assange at the embassy.

“Mr Assange began to suspect that he was being spied upon … so he asked us to hold the most sensitive meetings in the women’s toilet at the back of the building,” Martinez recalled.

“We honestly thought it was an exaggerated step to hold our legal meetings in the women’s toilet, where he would even open the water tap to avoid anyone listening.

“It was interesting to find out that Mr Assange was, in fact, correct: the material before the court proves that UC Global knew the meetings were held inside the women’s toilet, as they proceeded to install an additional microphone [there].”

‘It goes to the heart of client-lawyer privilege’

While the case made headlines in Europe and the UK, there has been little to no discussion here about what it means for the Australian citizens and lawyers caught up in the alleged espionage operation.

The Law Council of Australia told the ABC the alleged surveillance operation was “deeply disturbing”.

“The allegations that Julian Assange’s conversations with his lawyer were being recorded are really serious,” the council’s president, Pauline Wright said.

“If you can’t have that full, frank discussion without fear that that’s being recorded and potentially released to the authorities … it erodes trust in the whole system.

“It goes to the heart of the client lawyer privilege.”

The file also reveals that Morales’ surveillance project — dubbed Operation Hotel — did not just observe Assange and his guests. Internal UC Global documents reveal staff also stole or illicitly photographed visitors’ belongings.

The file includes photos of passports, mobile phones, computers and other electronic devices owned by dozens of activists, journalists, lawyers and public figures that visited Assange.

The file also reveals a growing desire, on Morales’ part, for ubiquitous surveillance of Assange and his visitors.

Morales directed UC Global to scrutinise particular people visiting Assange, whom he refers to as “el huesped” (the guest).

“We must … create or improve the following profiles (personal data, relationship with the guest, phones, emails, number of visits, et cetera) of these regular visitors or collaborators of the guest,” he said.

He lists nine people, one of whom is Robinson.

“We must do everything to know their data … I want a person completely dedicated to this work, so if you have to hire someone for it, tell me,” Morales said.

“All this must be considered top secret.”

UC Global staff sometimes resisted their boss’s more intrusive requests. In December 2017, Morales allegedly directed an employee to steal the used nappy of a baby who sometimes accompanied his mother when she visited Assange.

The theft was necessary, Morales said, to DNA test faecal matter to establish if the child was Assange’s son.

“I decided to talk to the mother of the child,” the employee said in his statement to the court.

“When we were outside of the embassy, I told her that she must not take the child to the embassy anymore because they planned to steal her baby’s diapers to prove whether he was the son of Julian Assange.”

‘Amigos americanos’

The Spanish criminal complaint states the turbo-charged surveillance operation began after Morales travelled to Las Vegas in 2015 for a security fair. There, he signed a contract with Las Vegas Sands, a company owned by billionaire Trump donor Sheldon Adelson, according to the complaint.

Ostensibly, the contract was to provide security services to Adelson on his mega yacht, the Queen Miri.

But, when Morales returned to Spain, he told UC Global staff they were now “playing in first division”, according to two witness statements tendered in the case.

“[Morales] said he’d gone to the ‘dark side’, referring to himself as a casual collaborator with US authorities, and he said that as a result of this collaboration, ‘The Americans will get us contracts all over the world’,” one witness said in his statement.

Throughout the operation, the employees were repeatedly told by Morales that the surveillance operation was being directed by people he referred to as “amigos Americanos” (American friends).

Concerned about the increasingly illegal behaviour, the UC Global associate pressed Morales on the euphemistic references to “Americans”, demanding to know exactly who they were working for.

According to the statement, Morales replied: “la inteligencia de Estados Unidos” (United States intelligence).

“However, when I asked him who was the particular intelligence person he was meeting to provide them information, Mr Morales ended the conversation and told me that this topic was handled exclusively by him outside the company,” the UC Global associate told prosecutors.

The associate told the court he had repeated and heated discussions with Morales about the operation and who was behind it.

Once such conversation ended with Morales making the gesture of opening his shirt and saying: “I’m a mercenary!”

US action

At first, Morales collected the surveillance footage and delivered it by hand to unknown people in the US.

Later, he asked staff to create a file server and then a secret website to stream the embassy cameras.

A UC Global employee responsible for running the secret website told the Spanish court he noted at least one visitor to the site with an American IP address.

In a Spanish interview, Morales said neither he nor UC Global staff installed any listening devices in the embassy and suggested WikiLeaks had placed the microphones around the embassy.

When the ABC asked questions of the US embassy in Canberra, it referred questions to the US justice department, which did not respond by deadline.

The ABC also sent questions to the CIA and the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Neither responded by deadline.

FBI, CIA and Kennedy Assassination

In the public interest.

In both cases below FBI agents emotional respond to the Kennedy Assassination and seeking the truth. It is stated that it was a CIA and those involved in organised crime.

The truth sets all free.

FBI Agent recalls the Kennedy assassination.

 
Retired FBI agent discusses investigation of Kennedy assassination.
 

Intelligence Agencies Undermining Democracy in Australia

In the public interest.

Australia was a progressive country, far more advanced than the United States. Today we are taking on the US system which is very concerning given privatisation, insurance, de-unionisation, deregulation and the loss of rights.

The removal of Whitlam was a coup de tat and a watershed for democracy in Australia.  Some cite it was not different to the Kennedy assassination.  

When does our world move beyond the politics of fear?

Some questions I have pondered as an Australian citizen reflecting on politics that is supposed to represent the Australian people.

What is the nature of the US/Australian alliance? 
In whose interests does it serve?
For those American and UK intelligence analysts reading this, how would you feel if this happened to your country? Stand in Australian shoes.  We are an ally.  A friend. Does that mean anything or is it only about US and UK interests? 
The question is – who are those interests?
Who are the individuals orchestrating a coup de tat or undermining a sitting government?
Is security really ensured through secrecy (deception) or it is about democracy (openness) to ensure transparency and oversight?  What do you want to experience?  
What you do to others returns to the self!
What of drugs?
What of mass surveillance?
What of specific surveillance of peace activists, persons of interest and others?
What of illegal activities?
What of false allegations?
What of undermining a legitimate government?
What of the intended closing down of a US base Pine Gap in Australia?
What of the a national emergency being called by the Governor General?
Are national emergencies used to gain control?
Why did Justice not occur?
Is this happening today?

CIA and Gough Whitlam’s Labor Party of the 1970’s

 

The CIA and Rupert Murdoch: An Australian Coup