(February 8, 2025)
Medhursts Mutter und Vater hatten 1988 als Teil eines UN-Kontingents symbolisch den Friedensnobelpreis für die Blauhelme bekommen. Jetzt der brisante Verdacht gegen ihn nach Paragraf 278b: Mitgliedschaft in einer terroristischen Vereinigung! Dafür drohen bis zu zehn Jahre Haft.
(February 7, 2025)
“I categorically deny all of these accusations by the Austrian and British governments, I’m a journalist, not a terrorist, and they bloody-well know it,” Medhurst said in his video. He added that he was a Christian being accused of belonging to Hamas, an Islamist organization resisting Israel’s occupation of Gaza.
Medhurst said the allegations by both countries were similar, but there has now been a “massive escalation” to accuse him of being a “member of a proscribed organization.” The British only accuse him of supporting the proscribed organization, Hamas, through his journalism.
“This is insanity,” he said. “This is an attack on the entire profession, on freedom of speech, on democracy itself.”
Medhurst said he could face up to 14 years of prison in Britain, plus 2-5 years if he doesn’t give them the passwords to his devices and perhaps 10 years in Austria.
04 Dec 2024
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
JAL
GBR 15/2024
– terrorism
– freedom of opinion and expression
– freedom of peaceful assembly and of association
– privacy
Information received concerning the potentially inappropriate use of provisions of the Terrorism Act 2000, the Terrorism Act 2006, and the Anti-Terrorism and Border Security Act 2019. These provisions appear to have been employed to investigate, detain, collect data, and prosecute political activists and journalists, raising concerns about potential infringements of their fundamental
rights.
Alleged victims: 6
(…)
According to the information received:
Powers under counter-terrorism legislation have been used on multiple occasions to examine, detain, and arrest journalists and activists, particularly at the UK border. It is alleged that journalists and activists who are critical of Western foreign policy in the context of the conflict in the Middle East and the Russia-Ukraine war are especially affected by the reported misuse of these powers. In particular, schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000, and schedule 3 of the Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Act 2019, have been used to examine and obtain data from journalists and activists, including Johanna Ross (Ganyukova), John Laughland, Kit Klarenberg, Craig Murray and Richard Medhurst in circumstances where they appear to have no credible connection to “terrorist” or “hostile” activity. Furthermore, section 12 of the Terrorism Act 2000 has been used to charge journalists and activists, including Richard Barnard and Richard Medhurst, for allegedly expressing support for a “proscribed organisation” in the course of activism and media reporting.
Without having knowledge of the material that may have substantiated the investigations or charges, we raise concern about an alleged pattern of overuse, or other misuse, of counter-terrorism legislation to target legitimate freedom of expression and opinion, including public interest media reporting, and related freedoms of peaceful assembly and association, and political
dissent or activism.
(…)
Ben Saul
Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism
Irene Khan
Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression
Gina Romero
Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association
Ana Brian Nougrères
Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy
(February 6, 2025)
Four UN Special Rapporteurs have written jointly to the UK government demanding explanation of its inappropriate persecution of journalists and political activists under the Terrorism Act. They state that those persecuted:
appear to have no credible connection to “terrorist” or “hostile” activity
The cases taken up by the United Nations are those of Johanna Ross (Ganyukova), John Laughland, Kit Klarenberg, Craig Murray (yes, me), Richard Barnard and Richard Medhurst.
The following can be attributed to CCIA President & CEO Matt Schruers:
“As the recent Salt Typhoon breach makes clear, end-to-end encryption may be the only safeguard standing between Americans’ sensitive personal and business data and foreign adversaries.
“Reports that Apple has been secretly ordered by the UK Government to weaken its encryption, including in the United States, are a troubling development, if accurate. Decisions about Americans’ privacy and security should be made in America, in an open and transparent fashion, not through secret orders from abroad requiring keys be left under doormats.”
So, why is this worse than you think. In my view — and no one can officially comment, so “views” will be all we can share — any such government action would not stop with Apple. Not to over-simplify matters, but a bad actor would simply run Google’s helpful switch to Android software. If the U.K is going after Apple, it’s also going after Google and Meta and others. Why would they not? But Soviet-style, none of these other parties can comment or answer questions or confirm or deny.
(February 7, 2025)
The law, known by critics as the Snoopers’ Charter, makes it a criminal offense to reveal that the government has even made such a demand. An Apple spokesman declined to comment.
Apple can appeal the U.K. capability notice to a secret technical panel, which would consider arguments about the expense of the requirement, and to a judge who would weigh whether the request was in proportion to the government’s needs. But the law does not permit Apple to delay complying during an appeal.
Apple’s iCloud backups aren’t encrypted by default, but the Advanced Data Protection option was added in 2022, and must be enabled manually. It uses end-to-end encryption so that not even Apple can access encrypted files. In response to the order, Apple is expected to simply stop offering Advanced Data Protection in the UK. This wouldn’t meet the UK’s demand for access to files shared by global users, however.
(today)
Hintertüren, wie die von den Briten geforderte, sind von Natur aus gefährlich. Beim Hack der US-Kommunikationssysteme im Jahr 2024, der angeblich von chinesischen Akteuren durchgeführt wurde, wurde eine Hintertür verwendet, die die USA und andere Regierungen gefordert hatten:
„Dies ist nicht das erste Mal, dass Hacker die von CALEA vorgeschriebenen Abhör-Backdoors ausnutzen. Wie der Computersicherheitsexperte Nicholas Weaver 2015 gegenüber Lawfare betonte, „muss jede in den USA verkaufte Telefonanlage die Möglichkeit bieten, eine große Anzahl von Anrufen effizient abzuhören. Und da die USA einen so großen Markt darstellen, bedeutet dies, dass praktisch jede weltweit verkaufte Telefonanlage die Funktion ‚Lawful Intercept‘ enthält.“
Vor zwei Jahrzehnten wurde diese obligatorische Abhörfunktion von Hackern, die es auf Vodafone Griechenland abgesehen hatten, unterwandert. Sie fingen Telefongespräche des Premierministers des Landes und hochrangiger politischer, polizeilicher und militärischer Beamter ab.“
(November 6, 2015)
Earlier this week, we wrote about the UK’s release of its new Snooper’s Charter bill, where we noted that the government spin on it was fairly dizzying. I noted at the time that while the government kept insisting that it wasn’t adding a requirement to backdoor encryption, that was misleading because the text of the bill indicated the government believed such a mandate already existed. And that’s only the least of it. The bill and the discussion around it simply confirmed that the UK government engaged in mass surveillance for many, many years, and until now only a “tiny handful” of government ministers even knew about it.
That’s kind of astounding.
And, amazingly, the government is using this fact to argue that the new bill is a good thing because it actually “limits and restricts” activity that it secretly engaged in for years and years.
(May 28, 2015)
The old joke goes “George Orwell’s 1984 was a warning, not a ‘how to’ manual.” But that joke is increasingly less funny as the UK really seems to be doing everything it can to put in place Orwell’s fictitious vision — just a few decades later.
(…)
That first sentence is about the extremism orders, but the second part may be even more troubling. It’s the Queen making it clear that the Snooper’s Charter is returning — but even worse than before.
The British public should realise that Muslim scapegoats today, much like the Jewish, Irish or Black scapegoats used by demagogues yesterday, are not their enemies
In an earlier statement, Gove‘s Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said the definition had been updated to respond to an “increased extremist threat since October 7 terror attacks in Israel”, citing an increase in reported antisemitic and anti-Muslim hate crimes.
It said the new definition would be used by government departments and officials to help them decide which groups they should engage with and fund, and to identify “extremist organisations, individuals and behaviours”.
But it said: “This definition is not statutory and has no effect on the existing criminal law – it applies to the operations of Government itself.”
WhatsApp is the most popular mobile messenger app in the world, with more than 2 billion users, including around 40 million in the UK.
(10.12.2022)
WhatsApp is threatened with a shut down in Britain as ministers press ahead with plans to require easier access to messages for police and MI5, the messaging app has warned.
Will Cathcart, head of WhatsApp at Meta, which also owns Facebook and Instagram, told The Telegraph he was prepared to see the app blocked for British smartphone users rather than weaken its security.
– Rishi Sunak, who launched his bid yesterday morning, has received public backing of more than 150 Tory MPs
– As of last night, 155 MPs said they are backing Mr Sunak, while 25 had spoken out in support of Ms Mordaunt
– A further 54 who were hoping Mr Johnson would return are yet to publicly reveal to whom they will now back
– Mr Johnson earlier said he had in fact reached the ‚very high hurdle of 102 nominations‘ as he bowed out
– Ms Mordaunt‘s team, though, believe his decision to pull himself from the race will ‚propel her over the line‘
The Security Service has admitted during the course of legal hearings that it stored the public’s data when it had no legal right to do so, and that it failed to disclose the problems either to the Home Office or to oversight bodies.
According to submissions presented to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, MI5 broke key legal safeguards by unlawfully retaining and using individual’s private data gathered through covert surveillance.
Second, the government would also remove the burdens of GDPR, creating in its place the most dynamic data protection regime in the world.
The EU’s Byzantine rules are preventing British tech companies from innovating and public services from sharing data to prevent crime. As any internet user can see, GDPR – with all its bureaucratic box-ticking – is clearly not working and needs to be replaced.
(14th February 2018)
Just as the infiltration of protest groups shows the counter-democratic remit of the spycops, so their infiltration of justice campaigns over a period of 26 years proves a key part of their purpose was to take an active role in obstructing justice.
The resources that should have established the truth and brought the guilty to justice were instead spent on undermining the grieving loved ones.
(24.03.2021)
(June 5, 2020)
The public deserves answers about the UK’s new opposition leader and his relationship with the British national security establishment, including the MI5 and the Times newspaper, his former role in the Julian Assange case and his membership in the intelligence-linked Trilateral Commission.
UCPI Evidence Hearings: Tranche 1 (Phase 1) | Day 11 (Mon 16 Nov):
10:00 AM: HN 336
2:00 PM: HN 340
4:55 PM: Summary of evidence of HN 333
UCPI Evidence Hearings: Tranche 1 (Phase 1) | Day 12 (Tues 17 Nov):
Non-sitting day
UCPI Evidence Hearings: Tranche 1 (Phase 1) | Day 13 (Wed 18 Nov):
12:00 Noon: Summary of evidence of HN 45
2:00 PM: HN 348
4:50 PM: Summary of evidence of HN 339
4:55 PM: Summary of evidence of HN 349
UCPI Evidence Hearings: Tranche 1 (Phase 1) | Day 14 (Thurs 19 Nov):
11:30 AM: HN 345
2:00 PM: HN 345
3:25 PM: Summary of evidence of HN 343
(12.11.2020)
The UCPI was established in early 2015 in response to a series of allegations that May said amounted to evidence of “historical failings” by undercover policing units. Among these allegations were that the parents of murdered black teenager Stephen Lawrence had been spied on while campaigning for justice – claims that the police admitted were true.
After finally getting under way in London last week, the jury-led inquiry is looking at how at least “139 undercover officers spied on more than 1,000 political groups” over a period spanning back to 1968, writes investigative reporter Rob Evans, author of Undercover: The True Story of Britain’s Secret Police.
The collaboration marked the start of a secret police operation that escalated over more than 40 years, involving at least 139 undercover officers spying on more than 1,000 political groups.
The top-secret collaboration between M15 and Scotland Yard was disclosed on the opening day of public evidence sessions that are being held by a judge-led public inquiry into the undercover policing scandal.
(02.11.2020)
‚It has emerged that for decades undercover police officers infiltrated a significant number of political and other activist groups, in deployments which typically lasted for years.
‚The information reported by these undercover police officers was extensive. It covered the activities of the groups in question, and their members. It also extended to the groups and individuals with whom they came into contact, including elected representatives.
(10.11.2020)
A damning report published on Tuesday said the Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Bill should not be introduced in its current form.
Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights said the proposed law “raises the abhorrent possibility of serious crimes such as rape, murder or torture being carried out under an authorisation”.
In den letzten Tagen und Wochen gab es weitere beunruhigende politische Entwicklungen im Vereinigten Königreich. Dazu gehört ein wegen Corona ausgesetztes Demonstrationsrecht, zwei durch das Unterhaus gewunkene Gesetzesentwürfe, die den Geheimdiensten und der Polizei erlauben, Gesetze zu brechen, und Verbrechen von britischen Soldaten im Ausland nach 5 Jahren verjähren lässt. Außerdem wurde eine neue Art des Covid-Testens getestet. Eine Zusammenfassung von Moritz Müller.
(June 5, 2020)
The public deserves answers about the UK’s new opposition leader and his relationship with the British national security establishment, including the MI5 and the Times newspaper, his former role in the Julian Assange case and his membership in the intelligence-linked Trilateral Commission.
Pikant ist auch, dass der vorliegende Entwurf es zukünftigen Regierungen ermöglichen soll, die europäische Menschenrechtskonvention zu ignorieren, sollte Großbritannien in »signifikante militärische Operationen im Ausland« verwickelt sein. Zusätzlich wurde am Donnerstag ein Gesetzentwurf im Unterhaus zur ersten Lesung eingebracht, der Angehörigen des britischen Auslandsgeheimdienstes MI5 ausdrücklich das Begehen von Straftaten erlauben soll.
The government is preparing to push ahead with a new counter-espionage legislation, the newspaper reported, adding that the new laws could introduce a “register of foreign agents” modelled on the approach in the United States and Australia.
He said: ‘The thing was built with French help, so don’t think that there aren’t some monitoring devices in there. I think what you are going to find out is that these guys were doing experiments which they weren’t fully authorised [for] or knew what they were doing and that somehow, either through an inadvertent mistake, or on a lab technician, one of these things got out.
‘It’s not that hard for these viruses to get out. That is why these labs are so dangerous.
‘You essentially had a biological Chernobyl in Wuhan, but the centre of gravity, the Ground Zero, was round the Wuhan lab, in terms of the casualty rates. And like Chernobyl, you also had the cover-up – the state apparatus reports to itself and just protects itself.’
(June 5, 2020)
The public deserves answers about the UK’s new opposition leader and his relationship with the British national security establishment, including the MI5 and the Times newspaper, his former role in the Julian Assange case and his membership in the intelligence-linked Trilateral Commission.
Questions remain over whether Saadallah should have been at large at the time of Saturday evening‘s attack in a park in the Berkshire town after being released early from prison this month for minor, non-terrorist offences.
It has also emerged that Saadallah (pictured below), who it is understood had serious mental health problems, had come to the UK as an illegal immigrant in 2012 but was granted asylum in 2018.
12:22AM Counter-terrorism officers at the scene
Counter-terrorism police are at the scene in Reading, while The Guardian is reporting that the security service, MI5, are also assisting the investigation.
The public deserves answers about the UK’s new opposition leader and his relationship with the British national security establishment, including the MI5 and the Times newspaper, his former role in the Julian Assange case and his membership in the intelligence-linked Trilateral Commission.
Currently deputy director general, he has worked there for nearly 25 years, a statement said. He succeeds Sir Andrew Parker, who retires in April after seven years.
He was released on licence in December 2018 and was still wearing a monitoring tag at the time of yesterday‘s attack. The Parole Board was supposed to rule when Khan was safe to be released but claims it had no involvement and he ‚appears to have been released automatically‘.
Iran-backed terrorist cells could be deployed to launch attacks in the UK if the crisis between London and Tehran deepens, intelligence sources have warned.
(04.06.2019)
Retired CIA operative and CNN counterterrorism analyst Phil Mudd talks about British national Christopher Steele, author of the infamous Steele dossier, deciding to talk with U.S. officials about his part in the Trump-Russia investigation.
Mudd predicts things are going to get „ugly“ when Attorney General Bill Barr concludes how the probe was initiated which will give the Trump White House „ammo.“
Agency has been obtaining surveillance warrants based on false information, high court told
Let me restate that: William Barr is opposed to certain, very narrow subsets of domestic surveillance. Specifically, Barr doesn‘t think the government should have spied on Trump and his campaign staff, if that‘s what actually happened, which Barr doesn‘t actually seem to know.
But if you‘re literally anyone else, domestic surveillance is just another name for national security, whether you‘re a random Verizon customer or one of the world‘s most useful websites.
The Wikimedia Foundation sued the federal government over domestic surveillance back in 2015. The suit lives on four years later …
A source close to Steele told The Times he will meet with investigators in London in the coming weeks. Republicans have long alleged it was Steele’s dossier that improperly led to an FBI inquiry, which ultimately morphed into special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible coordination between the Trump and campaign and Russia during the 2016 election.
– The former British intelligence officer authored what became known as the golden showers dossier
– Congressional investigators sought to interview him without success
– He will meet with unidentified U.S. investigators, a source close to him told the Times of London
– Attorney General Bill Barr ordered a new investigation of the origins of the Russia probe
– The Mueller report did not confirm salacious claims from the dossier
– The report did include a footnote about a Georgian businessman who told Michael Cohen he had ‚stopped flow‘ of ‚some tapes‘
„This approach threatens national security by subverting longstanding rules and practices that obligate you and other heads of [intelligence community] agencies to safeguard sources and methods and prevent the politicization of intelligence and law enforcement,“ Schiff wrote in the letter to Coats, which was also sent to the heads of the CIA, NSA and FBI.
Attorney General William Barr said he’s not satisfied so far with official accounts justifying the counterintelligence investigation into whether Donald Trump’s presidential campaign was involved in Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.
“These counterintelligence activities that were directed at the Trump campaign, were not done in the normal course and not through the normal procedures as a far as I can tell,” Barr told “CBS This Morning” in an interview broadcast Friday.
Last month, Barr announced he had assembled a team to review the FBI’s original Russia probe which was opened in the summer of 2016. Barr appointed U.S. Attorney from Connecticut John Durham to lead the investigation which will focus on the use of FBI informants as well as alleged improper issuance of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants.
But Barr, in an interview with CBS News that aired Friday, said he has more questions than answers at this point in the probe.
Key allies who share intelligence with the United States could soon be dragged into the middle of Attorney General Bill Barr‘s politically-charged Justice Department review of how the Russia investigation began.
President Donald Trump has said he wants Barr to look into the role key intelligence partners, including the United Kingdom and Australia, played in the origins of Russia probe.
The move marked an escalation in Trump‘s efforts to „investigate the investigators,“ as he continues to try to undermine the findings of special counsel Robert Mueller‘s probe amid mounting Democratic calls to bring impeachment proceedings against Trump.
President Trump has granted Attorney General William P. Barr “full and complete authority” to declassify government secrets, issuing a memorandum late Thursday that orders U.S. intelligence agencies to cooperate promptly with Barr’s audit of the investigation into Russia’s election interference in 2016.
The declassification of documents applies to the Department of State, Treasury, Defense, Energy, Homeland Security, CIA and the Director of National Intelligence.
Mr Steele first approached British intelligence at the £1.7million home of Sir Charles Farr, the chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, in Wimbledon, south-west London.
Mr Farr, who died in February at 59, was one of Mrs May‘s top counter-terrorism advisors at the Home Office.
After leading MI6‘s Russia desk, Mr Steele set up a private firm, and was hired by Fusion GPS, a US research company being paid by Hillary Clinton‘s campaign.
Theresa May’s spy chiefs were secretly briefed on an explosive dossier of claims about Donald Trump’s ties to Russia before the US president was made aware of its existence, The Telegraph can reveal.
The heads of MI5 and MI6 and one of Mrs May’s most trusted security advisers were told about former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele’s memos on the Trump campaign in the weeks after his November 2016 election victory.
(today)
Mr Parker said that his staff were doing “extraordinary things” to keep the country safe in the face of such dangers, thwarting plots and saving lives. But he cautioned that the increasingly “vast amounts” of material on smartphones and the scale of social media output meant that more data than ever was being created at the same time as encryption was making it harder for MI5 to access it.
(28. Aug 1998) The documents, found by a truth commission researcher investigating an apparently unrelated matter, implicate then CIA chief Allen Dulles in Operation Celeste. They also claim that the explosives used for the bomb that downed the aircraft were supplied by a Belgian mining conglomerate, Union Miniere. The company had extensive interests in copper-rich Katanga, and is known to have backed to Tshombe‘s use of mercenaries, including the group led by South Africa‘s Colonel „Mad Mike“ Hoare.
The most damning report refers to a meeting between MI5, Special Operations Executive, the CIA and the SAIMR at which it was recorded that Dulles „agrees … Dag is becoming troublesome and … should be removed“.