Author: CorruptionLedger

As reported by Times of Israel and X, Ukranian President Zelensky said that “Uman was brutally bombed where hundreds of thousands of Jews come every year to pray,” referring to the Hasidic pilgrimage site in central Ukraine. “Then Babyn Yar, where hundreds of thousands of Jews were executed.” And despite reports, the rocket that damaged the Kyiv TV tower did not in fact harm the Babyn Yar memorial, located in an adjacent area, according to a veteran Israeli journalist, Ron Ben…

According to Russian state media, RT, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Western sanctions against his country have dealt a large blow to public trust in th4e U.S. Dollar and the Euro. Putin argued that the penalties showed it “makes no sense anymore” to sell Russian goods in the US and the EU while receiving payment in dollars or euros. He said that the ruble will be used for the sale of Russian natural gas to, what Moscow considers to…

The U.S. government accused Russian forces in Ukraine of committing war crimes, an action that will formalize continuing investigations into alleged atrocities. (WSJ) In a statement on Wednesday, Blinken said there have been numerous credible reports of “indiscriminate attacks and attacks deliberately targeting civilians” in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began late last month. “Today, I can announce that, based on information currently available, the US government assesses that members of Russia’s forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine,” he said….

U.S. President Joe Biden warned Chinese President Xi Jinping in a video conference on Friday of “implications and consequences” should China support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Xi told Biden that his country does not want the war. The brief White House statement described the conversation as “focused” on Ukraine. But much lengthier summaries released by the China side portrayed a more wide-ranging discussion, including “the situation in Ukraine,” and said that the U.S. had requested the call. Biden pointed out…

79 entries have been amended on the consolidated list and remain subject to an asset freeze. On 18 March 2022 the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office updated the UK Sanctions List on GOV.UK. The following provides details of those designated under regulations made under the Sanctions Act. Amendments have been made to entries under the following financial sanctions regimes: Belarus; Chemical Weapons; Cyber, Russia and Zimbabwe. The relevant notices can be found on the respective regime pages. Further, 2 duplicate entries have also been removed from the Russia financial…

A number of states and international actors have unveiled further sanctions measures on Russia in relation to its activities in or in relation to Ukraine. In a previous post, we outlined the initial measures imposed by the US and UK on Russia in relation to its recognition of Donetsk and Luhansk. We consider below the further actions taken by the US, EU, UK, and Australia in this regard. US On 22 February 2022, the US issued the following additional sanctions…

Why are governments not requiring this safety precaution, which is easy to implement and has been shown in peer reviewed studies to defend against life-threatening repercussions? The precaution is known as ‘aspiration’ and consists in drawing back on the plunger once the needle has been inserted to see if any blood returns into the syringe, also clearly explained here by Dr. Campbell. If there is blood, do not inject. See Dr. Campbell’s peer reviewed links in the video description, some…

The CIA is still carrying out its own bulk surveillance program in the United States despite a legal ban on the agency carrying out domestic operations.

The human rights lawyer, who was arrested on 8 September, was a member of the Hong Kong Alliance, an advocacy group which organized an annual candlelight vigil marking the 1989 protests in Tiananmen Square.

Several other activists have been similarly arrested and charged under the National Security Law.

The law came into force at the end of June last year, giving Chinese central authorities greater power and control over all aspects of life in Hong Kong.

“Terrorism and sedition charges are being improperly used to stifle the exercise of fundamental rights, which are protected under international law, including freedom of expression and opinion, freedom of peaceful assembly and the right to participate in public affairs”, the Special Rapporteurs said, urging authorities to refrain from the using the National Security Law and to reconsider its application.

Named: Tom Barrack, Paul Manafort, George Papadopoulos, Rick Gates, Michael Flynn, Michael Cohen, Steve Bannon, Roger Stone, Donald Trump

The ACLU published thousands of pages of previously unreleased records showing that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are sidestepping the constitutional right against unreasonable government search and seizure.  DHS has been buying access to and using large volumes of cell phone location information that has been “quietly extracted from smartphone apps” of U.S. citizens and others — using their own tax dollars. In 2018, the Supreme Court ruled in Carpenter v. United States that the government needs a warrant…

Today, the Department of Justice announced a global resolution of its criminal and civil investigations into the opioid manufacturer Purdue Pharma LP (Purdue), and a civil resolution of its civil investigation into individual shareholders from the Sackler family.  The resolutions with Purdue are subject to the approval of the bankruptcy court. “The abuse and diversion of prescription opioids has contributed to a national tragedy of addiction and deaths, in addition to those caused by illicit street opioids,” said Deputy Attorney…

On Monday, the Intercept published a classified internal NSA document noting that Russian military intelligence mounted an operation to hack at least one US voting software supplier—which provided software related to voter registration files—in the months prior to last year’s presidential contest. It has previously been reported that Russia attempted to hack into voter registration systems, but this NSA document provides details of how one such operation occurred.

According to the Intercept:

The top-secret National Security Agency document, which was provided anonymously to The Intercept and independently authenticated, analyzes intelligence very recently acquired by the agency about a months-long Russian intelligence cyber effort against elements of the US election and voting infrastructure. The report, dated May 5, 2017, is the most detailed US government account of Russian interference in the election that has yet come to light.

While the document provides a rare window into the NSA’s understanding of the mechanics of Russian hacking, it does not show the underlying “raw” intelligence on which the analysis is based. A US intelligence officer who declined to be identified cautioned against drawing too big a conclusion from the document because a single analysis is not necessarily definitive.

The report indicates that Russian hacking may have penetrated further into US voting systems than was previously understood. It states unequivocally in its summary statement that it was Russian military intelligence, specifically the Russian General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate, or GRU, that conducted the cyber attacks described in the document:

Russian General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate actors … executed cyber espionage operations against a named U.S. company in August 2016, evidently to obtain information on elections-related software and hardware solutions. … The actors likely used data obtained from that operation to … launch a voter registration-themed spear-phishing campaign targeting U.S. local government organizations.

Go read the whole thing.