personal note from Daniel Neun:
As you don´t know, we started this news agency at Radio Utopie in November 2010. Since then, more than a quarter of a million of news, reports, videos, etc have been posted here – manually.
No bots. No scripts. Just natural intelligence. Real work.
(2007)
5 Example: Dr. Ayman al Zawahiri
As-Sahab is the video production branch of Al Qaeda. They periodically release videos designed to remind people of Al Qaeda’s existence, issue threats, recruit members, and potentially act as a covert channel for triggering terrorist cells. Many of the videos by As-Sahab appear to have been manipulated.
On 20-Dec-2006, Dr. Ayman al Zawahiri (#2 guy in Al Qaeda) released a video. USA Today covered the video release with a headline story (Figure 25).24 USA Today’s description of the video says, “He wore a black turban and white robe … he had a rifle behind his right shoulder that was leaning against a plain brown backdrop.” While this is a valid description of the As-Sahab video, the picture used by USA Today did not show that image. Instead, USA Today used a picture from another video, dated 28-Sept-2006. This is an example of a mislabeled image.
The picture that USA Today chose to use with the story includes many other interesting features. First, it came from the IntelCenter (www.intelcenter.com) – an organization that tracks terrorist activities. The IntelCenter placed their logo in the top-right corner of the video. However, the company name is clearly cropped – likely by USA Today. A comparison with the same frame from the actual video shows many other observable differences. In particular, the IntelCenter adjusted the color and sharpness of the picture (Figure 26).
(…)
5.1 Other Al Zawahiri Videos
The video from 28-Sept-2006 was not the only manipulated video. In fact, many of the videos featuring al Zawahiri test positive for chroma-key masking. Consider the video released on 27-July-2006 (Figure 27).26 This video appears to show al Zawahiri sitting in a video studio.
When this video came out, many Americans became enraged at the US government. The main strife was generated
by a single argument: if al Zawahiri is sitting in a studio making videos, the why can’t we catch him? The answer is simple: he is not in a studio.
(…)
5.2 Back in Black
Claiming that there was a chroma-key background is not the same as actually seeing it. On 22-Jan-2007, the SITE
Institute (www.siteinstitute.org) – an organization that tracks terrorist activities – announced that they had
intercepted an Al Qaeda video before it had been publicly released; SITE released it. Three days later, As-Sahab
also released the video. ….
Nov 2, 2010
(August 5th, 2007)
At the Black Hat computer Hacker‘s conference held in Las Vegas last week, Neal Krawetz of „Hacker Factor“ showed how easily the MSM has been tricked into believing the fake images that al Qaeda has offered to further their propaganda. Krawetz specifically referred to two images, one the July 27, 2006 image of al Qaeda second in command al-Zawahiri supposedly sitting in a modern television studio. It was an image that had the tongues of the MSM and pundits alike wagging. How is it, they clucked, that al-Zawahiri could be sitting in a modern television studio yet still could not be found?
Krawetz demonstrated how the elements of the two images, however, are special effects and not real.
(October 12, 2016)
– Marc Turi ‚had plan to get arms to Libyan rebels in 2011 despite UN ban‘
– But he says Clinton stole the idea and she and CIA did it without him
– However the guns ‚then went to Al Qaeda, ISIS and Benghazi attackers‘
– They tried to scapegoat him by saying he sold the arms illegally, he says
– But he claims that he never sold anything in Libya
– The five-year, $10m case was dropped last week by prosecutors
– He says they didn‘t want to press on because it would compromise Clinton
– The trial would have started on November 8 – which is Election Day
– Turi also hinted at information on weapons that disappeared in Benghazi
Dec. 5, 2012
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration secretly gave its blessing to arms shipments to Libyan rebels from Qatar last year, but American officials later grew alarmed as evidence grew that Qatar was turning some of the weapons over to Islamic militants, according to United States officials and foreign diplomats.
No evidence has emerged linking the weapons provided by the Qataris during the uprising against Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi to the attack that killed four Americans at the United States diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, in September.
But in the months before, the Obama administration clearly was worried about the consequences of its hidden hand in helping arm Libyan militants, concerns that have not previously been reported.
(report from October 12, 2012)
1:56
1 minute, 56 seconds
so it‘s definitely something that they may have heard in advance um as as far as uh what they were wearing and thinking if they were wondering if they were Libyan or not some people were
2:04
2 minutes, 4 seconds
wearing an Afghan G that you just don‘t see in this part of the country um they weren‘t speaking the local dialect they were speaking a classical Arabic uh
2:12
2 minutes, 12 seconds
dialect which you usually get from Quran Scholars so it‘s unsure they‘re unsure where these people came from um but they belied some of them were not local and
2:20
2 minutes, 20 seconds
these guys described to you how they were afraid for their lives uh they have not they‘ve gone into hiding now and they essentially feel abandoned by the
2:29
2 minutes, 29 seconds
American government why do they feel that way I mean why do they still feel that they‘re under threat
(September 2, 2014)
The video of Steven Sotloff‘s apparent murder appears to have been found by a private US intelligence firm before it could be released by the Islamic State.
News of Mr Sotloff‘s death was broken by the SITE Intelligence group, a private company that monitors jihadist activity and has close ties to the American intelligence community.
The group‘s analysts found the video on what a spokesman described as „a file-sharing site“ and send it out to its subscriber list. SITE‘s subscribers include government officials, journalists and academics involved in analysing terrorism.
(October 9, 2007)
The al-Qaeda video aired on Sept. 7 attracted international attention as the first new video message from the group‘s leader in three years. In it, a dark-bearded bin Laden urges Americans to convert to Islam and predicts failure for the Bush administration in Iraq and Afghanistan. The video was aired on hundreds of Western news Web sites nearly a full day before its release by a distribution company linked to al-Qaeda.
Computer logs and records reviewed by The Washington Post support SITE‘s claim that it snatched the video from al-Qaeda days beforehand. Katz requested that the precise date and details of the acquisition not be made public, saying such disclosures could reveal sensitive details about the company‘s methods.
(January 23, 2007)
Das „SITE-Institut“ erklärt übrigens auf seiner website, daß Geheimagenten meistens zu doof seien, Zeitung zu lesen oder sonstirgendwas von Recherche zu verstehen.
Hmm..
Na, jedenfalls würde man ihnen die Arbeit abnehmen, mit allerlei Untersuchungen finanzieller Zusammenhänge, Identifizierungen, öffentliche Quellen anzapfen, blabla.
Warum sie es dann in all den Jahren zwar schaffen, Sawahiri-Botschaften abzufangen, aber nicht wissen, von wem die kommen und wohin die gehen, sagt dieses Institut des Vertrauens nicht.
Man stelle sich mal jemand auf einem Baseballfeld vor, der mit verbundenen Augen (fröhlich vor sich hin pfeifend) locker die Hand nach oben hält (nachdem er vorher nicht etwa wie beknackt über den Platz gesprintet ist, nein, nein, sondern einfach nur dagestanden hat, natürlich ohne was zu sehen) und dann fröhlich ruft:“ I got it!“ und einen Ball in der Hand hält.
Mal ehrlich – zu meiner Zeit hätte man ihn erstmal gefragt, wie viele er davon noch auf Tasche hat.
Die Behörde erklärte auf Anfrage des „Handelsblatts“ (Dienstagsausgabe):
„Neu ist die Warnung HAYIs, sich nunmehr nicht mehr nur auf ‚einfache‘ Angriffe zu beschränken, sondern langfristig auch gefährlichere Tatmittel einzubeziehen.“
(…)
Bei dem jüngsten Angriff am Samstag war eine Flasche mit einem Brandbeschleuniger durch das Fenster einer Synagoge in Harrow vor den Toren von London geworfen worden.
Nach Angaben der Organisation SITE Intelligence Group übernahm die bislang wenig in Erscheinung getretene Gruppe HAYI die Verantwortung für einen Teil der Angriffe. Die Organisation unterhält demnach enge Verbindungen zu Iran.
Quelle: AFP
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Monday evening that he had become „disillusioned“ with the US and Israel over the war on Iran.
„At this point I am disillusioned simply because the US and Israel claimed at the beginning that they could solve this problem within days,“ Merz said in televised remarks. „Now I must recognise: it is not solved.“
(April 24, 2026)
Voigt: Man musste in der öffentlichen Debatte zuweilen den Eindruck gewinnen, dass diese Zuschreibungen des Verfassungsschutzes unantastbar sind. Dabei sollte man wegen der Grundkonstellation besonders kritisch hinschauen: Der Verfassungsschutz schafft sich durch seine Einstufungen selbst die Grundlage für seine Beobachtungsaktivitäten.
When asked if a government could be formed “without the support of MKs Ahmad Tibi or Aida Touma-Sliman” from the Hadash-Ta’al faction, Bennett replied: “We have a large majority even without them.” This statement comes despite a series of recent polls indicating that the Zionist parties opposing Netanyahu are unlikely to secure a majority without the support of Hadash and the Arab parties. (…)
Following the unification, Gadi Eisenkot, leader of the new “Yashar” party, called this morning for a meeting of opposition leaders excluding Hadash and Islamist Ra’am, “in order to ensure victory through Zionist and statesmanlike votes without Arabs.” In his announcement, Eisenkot mentioned the leaders of the “Together” list, Bennett and Lapid, as well as Yisrael Beiteinu chairman MK Avigdor Lieberman and The Democrats leader Yair Golan.
(April 26, 2026)
Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid served as prime ministers in a rotation agreement as part of a coalition government they formed in 2021, ending 12 years of Netanyahu’s rule. Now they plan to merge their parties into single faction headed by Bennett, calling it a partnership between the center and the right.
Bennett said if elected, the new government on its first day would establish a state commission of inquiry into the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel that started the war, an issue that has dogged Netanyahu.
There have been calls in Israel for a public inquiry into the failures around the Oct. 7 attack, the deadliest on Israel in its history.
(November 30, 2023)
The document circulated widely among Israeli military and intelligence leaders, but experts determined that an attack of that scale and ambition was beyond Hamas’s capabilities, according to documents and officials. It is unclear whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or other top political leaders saw the document, as well.
(…)
Last year, shortly after the document was obtained, officials in the Israeli military’s Gaza division, which is responsible for defending the border with Gaza, said that Hamas’s intentions were unclear.
“It is not yet possible to determine whether the plan has been fully accepted and how it will be manifested,” read a military assessment reviewed by The Times.
(December 16, 2023)
Israeli leaders believed that Hamas was more interested in governing than fighting. By the time the agents discovered the ledgers in 2018, the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was encouraging the government of Qatar to deliver millions of dollars to the Gaza Strip. He gambled that the money would buy stability and peace.
Mr. Levy recalled briefing Mr. Netanyahu personally in 2015 about the Hamas portfolio.
Dazu seien öffentlich einsehbare Social-Media-Beiträge oder Reden ausgewertet worden, sagte die Leiterin der „Phänomenbereichsübergreifenden wissenschaftlichen Analysestelle Antisemitismus und Fremdenfeindlichkeit“ (PAAF), Anika Schleinzer.
„Die Untersuchung zeigt, dass Antisemitismus im Islamismus und im linksextremistischen Milieu besonders stark verbreitet ist und auch gezielt instrumentalisiert wird“, hieß es in einer Mitteilung.
Thousands of containers sit idle at Karachi port, their journey halted by ongoing instability in the Strait of Hormuz.
The “Transit of Goods through Territory of Pakistan Order 2026” took effect on April 25, formally designating six specific land corridors. These routes now allow third-country cargo destined for Iran to move securely across Pakistani soil, backed by strict customs safeguards.
(3 hours ago)
It’s an important shift in tone from the United States that they are requesting to move forward with the negotiations.
Iran says they are reviewing the request, but they’re not responding yet.
(April 27, 2026)
Sources close to these diplomatic efforts told Al Jazeera that senior intelligence officials from several countries were present at the Muscat talks.
(graphics)
(April 10, 2026)
Egypt and Panama charge fees to allow vessels to pass through Suez Canal and Panama Canal, respectively. This is because the international laws are different for straits and canals.
While straits occur naturally, canals are dug up manually. Hence, the countries controlling the canals take transit fee from vessels for allowing them to pass through.
(April 24, 2026)
“That was not in a serious context. We have never planned to collect such a tax,” Purbaya told reporters in Jakarta on Friday, putting an end to days of uncertainty.
Behind his response lies a deeper legal framework that governs the world’s oceans.
Purbaya pointed to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, or UNCLOS, a cornerstone of international maritime law that enshrines the principle of freedom of navigation.
(April 24, 2026)
Vice president of finance Víctor Vial confirmed that while certain vessels have recently paid more than $1m to secure a crossing, such sums reflect temporary spikes in demand rather than structural pricing shifts. Before the outbreak of conflict in the Middle East, average auction prices ran between $135,000 and $140,000. That figure rose some 180% to around $385,000 between March and April as demand surged.
The canal makes three to five slots available each day through its auction mechanism, aimed at vessels that have not booked in advance.
(March 5, 2025)
But while much attention was focused on Mr. Trump‘s threat to retake control of the canal, his administration trained its sights on Hutchison Ports, the Hong Kong-based consortium that manages the canal‘s key ports, at either end of the canal. As a result of BlackRock‘s deal with CK Hutchison Holding, those two key ports will be placed under American control.