#Extradition Experts Witness

[wokealqaeda]

Sylvestre Matuschka (born 1892, date of death unknown since he disappeared in 1945) (in Hungarian publications: Szilveszter Matuska), a former officer in the Austro-Hungarian army, was arrested in October 1931 and charged with arranging the derailment of several trains. It is conjectured that he caused the crashes in order to obtain sexual gratification.

Matuska made at least two failed attempts to derail trains in Austria in December 1930 and January 1931.

Matuska's first successful crime was the derailment of the Berlin-Basel express train south of Berlin on 8 August 1931. More than 100 people were injured, several of them seriously, but there were no deaths. Because of the discovery of a defaced Nazi newspaper at the scene of the crime, among other things, the attack was believed to have been politically motivated. A bounty of 100,000 reichsmark was put on the perpetrator.

Matuska's second and more notorious successful crime was the derailment of the Vienna Express headed towards Vienna as it was crossing the Biatorbágy bridge near Budapest at 12:20 am on 13 September 1931. Twenty-two people died and 120 others were injured, 17 of them severely.

Matuska carried out this crime by placing numerous sticks of dynamite in a brown fibre suitcase, which detonated at a viaduct due to the weight of the train, causing the engine and nine of the eleven coaches to plunge into a ravine 30 metres deep. Matuska was discovered at the scene of the crime but, passing himself off as a surviving passenger, he was released. Investigators in the three countries were on his trail, however, and he was arrested in Vienna one month later, on 10 October 1931, whereupon he soon confessed.

Matuska was tried and convicted in Austria for the two unsuccessful attempts. He was later extradited to Hungary on condition that he not be executed. He was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death, but the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment as agreed with Austria.

Matuska reportedly escaped from jail in Vác in 1945. According to some reports, he served as an explosives expert during the latter stages of World War II; he was "borrowed" from the prison for 17 days, then returned. When Soviet troops were nearing Vác, the Germans released the prisoners, but Matuska and some other prisoners decided to wait for the Soviets. Allegedly he stayed on because he hoped that his Serbian language skills would enable him to communicate with the Russians. He posed as a surgeon, worked for a time with the Russian war hospital, and then moved on with the troops in January 1945. Later he apparently returned to Čantavir, his birthplace.

Fragments of testimony from various witnesses have been pieced together to form what is now known of Matuska's fate. On a Sunday he gave a "nationalist-flavoured sermon" to a crowd coming out of church. The next day he was captured by partisans and taken to Novi Sad. According to his uncle, he was buried in a mass grave in Subotica. Rumours have circulated that he appeared on the communist side in the Korean War, but there is no evidence to support this.

Matuska's motives remain unclear. His first attack was initially thought to have been politically motivated. At his trial, Matuska claimed to have been ordered to derail the express by God. Matuska has also been quoted as explaining his crimes by saying: "I wrecked trains because I like to see people die. I like to hear them scream." It was reported that he achieved orgasm while watching the trains he had sabotaged crash (a forensic examination of the trousers he had worn on the night of the fatal crash discovered evidence of semen stains).

[mariacallous]

The kids are all grown up. In the face of international law enforcement pressure, dozens of prosecutions, and worldwide disrepute, the network of young sadists, misanthropes, child predators, and extortionists known as Com and 764 has not shrunk away into obscurity.

Rather, its members have progressed from online extortion and crimes related to child sexual abuse material, to real-world violence, a trajectory that alarms extremism researchers and government officials alike. Knifings, killings, firebombings, drive-by shootings, school shootings, and murder-for-hire plots in North America and Europe have all been connected to a splinter group called “No Lives Matter” that, per the group’s own manifesto, “idolizes death” and “seeks the purification of all mankind through endless attacks.” The group has released at least two “kill guides” that have been connected to violent attacks and plots in Europe and the United States.

The US Department of Justice classifies Com and 764 as a “Tier One” terrorism threat, the highest priority afforded to an extremist group, ideology, or tendency in American law enforcement’s internal rubric. Intelligence documents reviewed by WIRED show a stream of concern from analysts about the group’s harm to juvenile exploitation victims and the growing exhortations to physical violence that embody the No Lives Matter ethos.

However, the phenomenon has proved incredibly hard to combat due to a lack of coherent structure or ideology. Along with the insidious neo-Nazi propaganda group the Terrorgram Collective, over the past four years, Com/764 has morphed into a twisted amalgam of the Columbine Effect and older domestic terror groups like the Atomwaffen Division: Young extortionists and assailants egg each other on to progressively more lurid and debased acts of violence for the sake of internet notoriety and status.

In response, Western governments have employed terrorism charges against young people accused of conspiring to kill homeless people or phoning in bomb threats to schools and religious institutions beyond their own borders. In the United Kingdom, the Crown Prosecution Service recently secured a six-year prison term for 19-year-old Cameron Finnegan, who went by the handle “Acid,” for a raft of 764-related offenses, including possessing CSAM, urging young people to kill themselves, and possessing a “kill manual” authored by No Lives Matter adherents, replete with viable instructions for carrying out lethal attacks with knives, firearms, and vehicles.

"We want to make the public aware of [Com/764]," Detective Chief Superintendent Claire Finlay, the head of Counter Terrorism Policing Southeast, told the BBC following Finnegan’s guilty plea in January. "The threat that they pose, not just within the United Kingdom but globally, is immense."

According to senior DOJ officials who were granted anonymity to speak about internal law enforcement matters, the feds have come across related cases in every field office in the US. US authorities are so hell-bent on pursuing this trend that they are trying to extradite a 17-year-old Romanian boy who prosecutors at the Southern District of New York claim took part in exploiting minors and soliciting and distributing CSAM. The teenager also faces US terrorism charges for allegedly phoning in several hundred bomb threats to dozens of schools and institutions in the US as part of 764 and its splinter groups, according to information obtained by this reporter.

"We’ve seen a lot of hybrid movements and ideologies, new trends that we can’t categorize under the traditional categories,” says Bàrbara Molas, a senior analyst at RAND Europe who specializes in far-right extremism and who testified as an expert witness for the prosecution in Finnegan’s recent Com/764-related case.

For Molas, Com/764 represents that type of hybridity, where participants in the network will pick and choose elements from a series of discrete ideologies—neo-Nazism; the satanist group Order of Nine Angles, which has become prevalent throughout the most transgressive spheres of the transnational far right; Ted-Kaczynski-inspired neo-Luddism—and assemble their own belief pantheon.

“When 764 was only about CSAM, their targets tended to be women—but specifically women from diminished social groups, who were seen as the weak party of society,” Molas says. “That ideal of imposing violence on this part of society has carried on and become more violent.” When members of the network commit violence in the name of the group, Molas says, it “helps them rise within the group and advance the larger cause, which is to change society through violence and chaos.”

The lodestar for this transition towards wanton violence is a German teenager named Nino Luciano, who went by the handle “Tobbz” within 764. Sent to live in a foster home in Romania because his mental illnesses overwhelmed the capacity of institutions in his home country, Tobbz was drawn into 764 during the Covid-19 pandemic and quickly became enthralled with the group, daubing its name on a wall in his room and tattooing himself with “764” and a septagram from the Order of Nine Angles. In March 2022, he committed and livestreamed a series of knife attacks, stabbing an elderly woman to death and severely wounding an old man. He was convicted in August 2023 and is serving 14 years in prison.

Tobbz’s behavior inspired other young extremists in the Com/764 network, who have since either tried to emulate his livestreamed attacks or commit similar acts of violence to boost their notoriety and status within their extremist peer group. No Lives Matter’s exhortations to commit mass casualty events and distribution of detailed guides to violence are patterned off Tobbz’s example, according to experts who’ve studied the network.

Baron Martin, a resident of Tucson, Arizona, was charged in federal court with cyberstalking and sexual exploitation of a child that included the production of CSAM. According to court records, the government also accused Martin of soliciting the murder of the grandmother of one of his victims under the handle “Convict.” He allegedly sent the following message to a Discord server, court records show: “know anyone in [state] thats willing to do kidnappings or shootings...i need someone to tobbz a grandma. Somebody wanted to dox one of my egirls. now I’m getting their grandma merked.” The use of “Tobbz” as a synonym for murder was not casual: Martin allegedly offered to pay another user to carry out the hit, which was never realized.

According to court documents, Martin, through his handle, was connected to authoring a detailed guide widely distributed in 764’s channels on how to groom victims for extortion, which the FBI claims Martin bragged online was “the catalyst for thousands of extortions.” (Martin has pleaded not guilty.)

Molas, of RAND Europe, says Martin’s alleged path from extortion to soliciting a homicide traces a familiar path of transgressive behavior often seen in Com/764’s online world. “They’ll start with little acts of sin—shoplifting, then robberies, abuse of minors, weapons violations, then all the way up to kidnapping and murder,” Molas says.

In mid-February, Jairo Tinajero, a 25-year-old Arkansas man who took part in the 764 splinter group 8884, pleaded guilty to CSAM and conspiracy charges for extorting an underage girl in Louisville, Kentucky. According to his plea agreement, Tinajero confessed to plotting to kill the girl once she stopped complying with him, posting her address and personal information about her and her family family in 764’s servers, unsuccessfully trying to buy an assault rifle, and talking through a murder plot with other 764 members.

Tinajero also admitted taking part in 764 online chats where prior mass casualty attacks were discussed along with “future attacks on heavily populated areas such as malls or other large gatherings, LGBTQ+ events and gatherings, schools, public places, government buildings and police stations” with the intent to “destabilize society and cause the collapse of governments and rule of law.”

Most recently, neo-Nazi Aidan Harding’s inspiration from 764 was brought up during a mid-February federal court hearing for CSAM possession charges. In addition to participating in public actions with a number of Pittsburgh-area extremist groups, prosecutors claimed that Harding and another man were deeply interested in the Columbine massacre, visiting the memorial in Littleton, Colorado, and posing for a photo in front of a swastika flag while dressed as Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris. “Eric and Dylan were kickstarting a revolution,” Harding wrote in a message, which prosecutors showed in court. Harding and the other man, who hasn’t been charged, also discussed carrying out mass shootings through Instagram direct messages, which were presented in court. “The only thing holding me back is a partner … I don’t want to do it alone or die alone,” Harding wrote.

According to two researchers who attended Harding’s three-and-a-half-hour court appearance related to probable cause on February 12, an FBI agent claimed during questioning that investigators found reams of videos depicting children being raped, ultraviolent videos of executions, and the extremist mass shootings in Buffalo, Nashville, and Columbine, along with a photo on Harding’s phone of a phrase daubed in blood: “I sold my soul to 764,” above a swastika and a Lviathan cross often used by 764. Another photo, handed up to the judge and not shown in court, depicted the naked chest of a young girl wearing a cross, with the words “No Lives Matter” carved into her body with a sharp instrument.” Harding has pleaded not guilty.

The crimes described in court cases this year follow a months-long surge in No Lives Matter–related violence. In October, authorities claim, a 14-year-old Swede committed eight attacks on unsuspecting passersby in Stockholm. The attacker, per national broadcaster SVT, took part in 764 and went by the handle “Slain” in the group. Documents circulated by 764 participants on Telegram and elsewhere claim “Slain764” as one of their own, and identify Sweden, the UK, and Bulgaria as countries where their group has a presence.

In mid-February, Italian police arrested a 15-year-old boy on suspicion of planning to murder a homeless man and livestream the act. Police said the teenager was reportedly involved in 764 and faces charges for explosives possession and possession of CSAM material. Italian authorities claim he planned his actions as part of a “week of terror” along with unspecified colleagues.

There is also evidence of 764’s praxis and imagery merging with that of the Terrorgram Collective, a neo-Nazi propaganda network that aims to radicalize young people and inspire solo acts of sabotage and mass murder.

Solomon Henderson, a Tennessee teenager whom police said shot up his high school last month, posted a sprawling manifesto that referenced both mass shooters inspired by Terrorgram as well as homicidal 764 members, including Tobbz. Henderson’s social media accounts also show extensive imagery from 764’s channels as well as the Order of Nine Angles “The influence I see most heavily in that agenda is the Order of Nine Angles,” Molas says.

That confluence of extremist inspirations is highly unpredictable, and may prove influential: There is reportedly evidence that social media accounts connected to Henderson may have communicated with accounts linked to Natalie “Samantha” Rupnow, a young Wisconsin woman who killed two and wounded classmates in a mid-December shooting at her school before dying by suicide. Earlier in December, a high school student in Guadalajara, Mexico, livestreamed an axe attack on his classmates before they were able to subdue him. The young man’s social media posts were rife with O9A influence, including photos of himself with butchered animals and another with a blood pact, a common O9A practice.

[vague-humanoid]

Palestinian Organizing, Repression, & Political Prisoners in Italy with Giovani Palestinesi d’Italia

Our guests for this discussion will be spokespeople from Giovani Palestinesi d’Italia (GPI) which translates roughly to Young Palestinians from Italy. They are an organization headed by Palestinian and Arab diaspora in Italy, committed to the liberation of Palestine and engaged in anti-imperialist organizing throughout Italy.

We will talk to them about their organizing, and specifically about the campaign to halt the state repression against Palestinians and Pro-Palestinian voices in Italy.

Below is more information on the case we will discuss:

"On January 29, 2024, Italian authorities arrested Palestinian activist Anan Yaeesh in L’Aquila following an extradition request from Israeli authorities. Anan, who has a long history of political activism and resistance—including enduring imprisonment and harsh repression��now faces further danger as the Italian state moves to extradite him.

In a deeply troubling development, on April 2, 2025, a preliminary hearing was held at the Court of Assise in L’Aquila for the trial of Anan Yaeesh along with Ali Irar and Mansour Doghmosh. They are being charged with “terrorist association” under Article 270 bis of the Italian Penal Code—a charge that directly attacks their right to participate in armed resistance against an oppressive occupation, a right upheld by international law.

What makes this trial particularly alarming is not only the use of evidence extracted through torture—the court admitted 15 of 22 interrogation transcripts produced by the Shin Bet and Israeli police—but also the systematic rejection of the defense’s voices. Out of 47 witnesses proposed by the defense, only 3 were accepted by the preliminary judge. This stark dismissal of testimony from human rights organizations and independent experts underscores an attempt to silence dissent and discredit the legitimacy of resistance.

This is not just a trial against three young men—it is a calculated political maneuver to criminalize the fight for self-determination. As organizations like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Addameer have long warned, the use of torture-derived evidence, such as the testimonies extracted in Shin Bet, and the erosion of legal protections are part of a broader repressive strategy targeting the voices of the oppressed.

We call on everyone who believes in justice, human rights, and the right to resist oppression to stand together. On April 12, we will take to the streets in Milan for a national demonstration demanding:

• Freedom for Anan Yaeesh

• Freedom for Ali Irar and Mansour Doghmosh

• An end to the criminalization of resistance and the suppression of independent testimony

Your voice is vital. By joining this campaign, you help expose the injustice of using torture-derived evidence and support the fundamental right of oppressed peoples to resist and reclaim their dignity.

Share this call with your friends, networks, and communities. Let’s show that resistance cannot be stopped, and that the struggle for justice grows stronger when we stand together.

[raghavbinwal]

ShadowsOfJustice

This tale unravels in the midst of India, where Girish, a man entangled in a mesh of suspicion, finds himself falsely associated with a militant group. Concerned for his son's safety, Girish's father engineers his escape to London. However, Girish becomes ensnared in a shadowy world of crime amidst the bustling streets of the city. Just when hope seems distant, a catastrophic explosion in Mumbai shatters the very foundation of his existence. Upon his return to his hometown, Girish is thrust into a nightmarish ordeal as authorities label him a terrorist. Extradited to England, Girish, accompanied by his steadfast friend Pavan and two others, endures relentless interrogation. Despite vehemently asserting his innocence, Girish succumbs to coercion and confesses to crimes he did not commit, all to shield his loved ones. As Girish languishes in incarceration, a glimmer of hope emerges when a fellow inmate confesses to the very crime Girish is accused of. Yet, justice remains elusive as authorities choose to ignore the revelation. Amidst the chaos, tragedy strikes with the untimely demise of Girish's father, igniting a fierce determination within Girish to seek truth and redemption. In the midst of Girish's nightmarish ordeal, his only beacon of hope is Mithun, his father's resolute lawyer. Mithun, a seasoned legal expert known for his unwavering commitment to justice, takes on Girish's case with utmost determination and resolve. As the trial progresses, Mithun encounters numerous obstacles and challenges in his quest to save Girish from wrongful conviction. The prosecution, backed by powerful interests, presents a compelling case against Girish, relying on circumstantial evidence and fabricated testimonies to frame him for the terrorist attack in Mumbai. However, Mithun is undeterred by the daunting odds stacked against him. Armed with his sharp legal acumen and unwavering belief in Girish's innocence, he meticulously scrutinizes every piece of evidence presented by the prosecution, uncovering inconsistencies and loopholes that cast doubt on their narrative. Mithun also leverages his extensive network of contacts within the legal community to unearth crucial witnesses and evidence that could exonerate Girish. He delves deep into the shadowy world of crime and corruption, following leads and pursuing avenues of investigation that others dare not tread. As the trial reaches its climax, Mithun unveils a series of dramatic revelations in the courtroom, presenting irrefutable evidence that not only disproves the prosecution's case but also exposes the true perpetrators behind the terrorist attack. His impassioned defense and masterful cross-examinations leave the prosecution scrambling to salvage their crumbling case. In a pivotal moment of the trial, Mithun confronts a key witness whose testimony forms the linchpin of the prosecution's case. Through a series of incisive questions and relentless pressure, he manages to elicit a confession from the witness, revealing the intricate web of lies and deceit orchestrated by those seeking to scapegoat Girish for their own nefarious purposes. As the truth comes to light, the courtroom erupts in disbelief and astonishment. Girish, overcome with emotion, watches as Mithun's unwavering determination and brilliance turn the tide of the trial in his favor. In the end, justice prevails, and Girish is vindicated of all charges, his name cleared of the stigma of terrorism that had threatened to destroy his life. Mithun's heroics in saving Girish serve as a testament to the power of perseverance, integrity, and unwavering belief in the pursuit of truth. His relentless pursuit of justice against all odds not only saves Girish from wrongful conviction but also exposes the flaws and injustices inherent in the legal system, inspiring hope for a better, more just society.

#story

[tranquilnemesisunicorn]

Importance of professional legal representation in drug-related cases

The strict enforcement of laws and new international regulations make it vital to find sharp legal assistance for drug-related cases. Those accused of crimes related to narcotics, controlled substances, or trafficking must deal with rules from numerous jurisdictions around the world. Everyone charged with crimes in the areas of narcotics, controlled substances, or trafficking must deal with many different laws from various countries. By choosing the best drug law firms in Abu Dhabi, clients have access to lawyers who know the laws in the country and understand important drug treaties worldwide. Just as experienced solicitors support defendants through trial preparation, putting together defence strategies, and engaging with prosecutors to plan the case proceedings. This article breaks down some important points that highlight why hiring a lawyer is necessary in situations involving drugs.

1. The importance of having detailed legal expertise

Drug legislation is well-known for being very detailed, and it often changes with new public health policies and international treaties. Most general lawyers, despite their abilities, may not have the specific skill set needed to understand every aspect of narcotics laws. The most effective controlled substance lawyers in Abu Dhabi concentrate their practice on drug-related matters. They follow changes in regulations and court decisions, so they can spot technical defences and problems with procedures that a person without their training might miss. Thanks to their understanding of Federal Decree-Law 14 and the most recent international documents on narcotics, clients can count on advice adapted to the latest changes in the law. 

2. Following both local and international rules related to drugs

Emirati regulations on drugs use strict rules that may lead to prison terms and large fines. Often, cases that affect local laws also involve international activities or proof, and this encourages cooperation between countries. The top drug case solicitors have the necessary skills to obtain assistance from countries, handle extraditions, and consult with authorities overseas when needed. You can expect them to guide clients on how to reduce the risk of being held liable in several jurisdictions, thanks to their knowledge of the United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances. When these solicitors observe all rules and regulations, they help defendants avoid details or errors that could weaken their case or cause unplanned issues in the trial.

3. Fighting for what is right for clients with my experience 

Accused people in drug investigations can be at high risk of their rights being violated in the arrest and questioning process. Advocates from leading drug law firms in Abu Dhabi are instructed to act promptly so that law enforcement maintains proper procedure. During any detention or interview, their active involvement ensures clients are not violating their rights by law. During the trial, defence lawyers challenge witnesses, question the presented evidence, and speak on their client’s behalf. Having both fieldwork and court support is needed to reduce injustice and support fairness in court outcomes. 

4. Handling complex legal issues in an effective way

Often, a drug prosecution requires various hearings, tests by experts, and careful handling of evidence. Effective management of cases helps prevent situations where those who are charged must stay in jail for longer or end up paying higher costs. They can manage cooperative work with toxicologists, save crucial samples, and get expert advice quickly. They complete routine chores like motions, conferences, and bail planning more efficiently, which makes life easier for clients. Their abilities in managing cases help solve problems faster and ensure every option in the proceedings, such as motions to suppress facts or plea bargains, is rightly used. 

5. Taking steps to limit risks and cut penalties

A strong defence may help reduce the penalties, even when there is a clear case linking a person to drugs. Professionals at the leading drug law firms in Abu Dhabi carefully study every step in the prosecution’s case to discover any errors, whether in handling the evidence or testing it. Often, they question each issue in court, which helps secure lighter penalties or programs to help the accused improve. These methods aim to protect clients from jail and high fines, as well as preserve their ratings, continue their careers, and prevent the major consequences of being found guilty.

6. Planning defence strategies by applying smart methods

A strong defence for drug cases depends on using a strategy that matches the details of the case. The most effective drug case solicitors share their knowledge with clients to ensure the themes used during the trial are effective with all involved. They consider evidence that helps the client, such as their past, health issues, or teamwork with authorities, and include this into understandable narratives. Advanced planning may include setting up diversion programs at the same time or communicating with probation officers to help secure good interventions before trial. Being farsighted in strategy places the best solicitors above others and increases the chance of a good outcome. 

7. Demonstrating authority in court by being an established expert

Abu Dhabi’s judicial officials and prosecutors tend to appreciate law firms with proven success in drug-related cases. Using top drug law firms in Abu Dhabi sends a message of seriousness and gives weight to the discussions and verdicts in a case. Prosecutors are more willing to talk about a meaningful plea when they believe the accused’s counsel recognizes the complexities of narcotics law and will work hard to defend against wrongful actions. Judges might be flexible with the sentencing if the case involves defendants who have lawyers with powerful arguments based on their professional abilities. 

8. Helping people connect with support and informational resources 

Representation is important in areas besides the courtroom. Effective leaders connect people with rehabilitation programs, counselling, and social organizations. Many of the best drug case solicitors relate to certified treatment centres and monitoring agencies so that their clients who are offered diversion or alternative sentencing can more easily access recovery-focused programs. As a result, the focus is on solving the root issues related to substance-related crimes, supporting those who need rehabilitation, and helping everyone, including the community.

Conclusion It is very important to have qualified legal support when facing charges related to drugs. With their special knowledge, the best firms and solicitors in Abu Dhabi provide expertise in keeping procedural rights, understanding many regulations, organizing strategic defences, and arranging needed rehabilitation for clients. Being involved helps them secure a better deal in court and creates outcomes that benefit both the client and the community. In cases that carry significant legal dangers, working with a lawyer is the best way to avoid the heavy penalties that may follow drug offences. The best drugs case solicitors help guide the accused with personal advice and ensure justice is upheld.

[misfitwashere]

For the first time in 15 years, Leonard Peltier will be afforded a full parole hearing on Monday, June 10 at the United States Penitentiary at Coleman, Fla.

Peltier (Turtle Mountain Ojibwe) has been incarcerated for 48 years for the killing of two FBI agents at Oglala on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in June 1975. For five decades, Peltier has maintained his innocence and hoped for the chance to clear his name.

Monday’s hearing may well be his last chance at vindication.

The incident that led to Peltier’s imprisonment happened some 49 years ago, when two FBI agents — Jack Coler and Ronald Williams — arrived at a residence on the reservation to pursue a suspect who had taken a pair of shoes in a robbery. The two FBI agents, who were white, arrived in an unmarked car in plain clothes.

Tensions were already running high between law enforcement and Native Americans in South Dakota in the aftermath of the 71-day siege of Wounded Knee by the American Indian Movement (AIM) in early 1973. The incident occurred during a time known on Pine Ridge as a “reign of terror,”' characterized by deadly ambushes on highway checkpoints and extended gunfights. During this span, some 64 Native Americans were murdered and over 300 were physically assaulted.

On June 26, 1975, the situation escalated when Coler and Williams were killed during a shootout as they attempted to apprehend a young AIM member accused of theft and assault. The gunfight involved numerous individuals, and there has never been a denial that Peltier was present during the shooting, but he has said repeatedly he did not kill the agents.

It didn’t matter. He was accused of shooting the two FBI agents. He fled to Canada, only to be extradited back to the United States in 1976 to stand trial for the agents' murders.

Following a controversial trial marred by allegations of prosecutorial conduct, falsified testimony, and fabricated evidence, Peltier was convicted of aiding and abetting murder and has been imprisoned since 1977.

Notable legal experts, including former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, say Peltier was not given a fair trial by the U.S. government.

“I think I can explain beyond serious doubt that Leonard Peltier has committed no crime whatsoever. But if he had been guilty of firing a gun that killed an FBI Agent, it was in defense of not just his people but the integrity of humanity from domination and exploitation,” Clark said. “You have to remember no witness really said they saw Leonard take aim at anybody. No witness said they heard him shoot at the time he could have killed an agent. There was no evidence that he did it, except fabricated, circumstantial evidence, overwhelmingly misused, concealed and perverted.”

Even federal Judge Gerald Heaney, who presided over an appeal hearing, has said the FBI utilized improper tactics to convict Peltier. He suggests the FBI was equally responsible for the shoot-out.

In 2017, former U.S. Attorney James Reynolds wrote a letter to President Obama to support clemency for Peltier. Reynolds was the federal prosecutor involved in the legal proceedings against Peltier, playing a significant role in the case.

In his later years, Reynolds has publicly expressed doubts about the fairness of Peltier's trial and has joined calls for his clemency, acknowledging issues with the case and the conduct of the prosecution. Reynolds urged Obama to grant Peltier’s clemency petition “as being in the best interests of justice considering the totality of all matters involved.”

Through the years, the FBI has adamantly opposed the release of Peltier. While the deaths of their two agents at Oglala were tragic by all human standards, the deaths of hundreds of innocent Native Americans who died during the 1970s’ Reign of Terror were equally tragic.

To many Native Americans, Peltier is a symbol of an oppressive federal system that relegates Native people to apartheid and neglect. He is a political prisoner that we may only think about if we happen to see a bumper sticker on the back of a vehicle that reads “FREE Leonard Peltier.”

Beyond his Native American supporters, many people and human rights organizations — including Amnesty International, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, National Congress of American Indians, the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and others — have stated their beliefs that Peltier is a political prisoner who should be immediately released.

Now 79 years old, Peltier suffers from multiple health issues and has to use a walker to maneuver the maximum-security prison. He also suffers from diabetes, blindness in one eye, and an aortic aneurysm. As with other elders, his advanced age has rendered him frail.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Peltier’s age and comorbidities unequivocally made him eligible for home release under Department of Justice guidelines. The Department of Justice ignored the pleas to have Peliter released then.

In a recent episode of Native Bidaské, I asked attorney Kevin Sharp, who will represent Peltier at the parole hearing on Monday, how he thought the parole commission would react to the fact Peltier has maintained his innocence through the years. Typically, parole boards want convicted prisoners to admit guilt and express remorse.

“It's difficult because Leonard didn't commit the crime, and there's no evidence that he did. He shouldn't lie about something he didn't do. Leonard has expressed remorse for the tragic events of that day and the overall situation,” Sharp responded.

Peltier’s spiritual advisor of 40 years, Lenny Foster (Diné), spoke with me Saturday morning about his hopes for his longtime friend.

“We are hoping and praying that the parole commission will grant Leonard parole so that he can go back to his people on the Turtle Mountain Reservation to be with his loved ones to serve out his remaining years to be with his grandchildren and great-grandchildren,” Foster told me. “He is a revered elder among the Indian community.”

Nearly 80, Peltier is a Native American elder who poses no threat to society. He’s old and broken. He has paid a price for an injustice to him, his family, and to all Native Americans. It is past time to free Leonard Peltier.

[daveofclansmiffy]

“Free the Truth”

The Belmarsh Tribunal on Julian Assange & Defending Press Freedom

In a New Year’s Day special broadcast, we air highlights from the Belmarsh Tribunal held last month in Washington, D.C., where journalists, lawyers, activists and other expert witnesses made the case to free Julian Assange from prison in the United Kingdom. The WikiLeaks founder has been jailed at London’s Belmarsh prison since 2019, awaiting possible extradition to the United States on espionage charges for publishing documents that revealed U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. Rights groups say the charges threaten freedom of the press and put a chilling effect on the work of investigative journalists who expose government secrets.

The Belmarsh Tribunal, inspired by the Russell-Sartre Tribunals of the Vietnam War, has been convened several times in the U.S., Europe and beyond to press for Assange’s release. The December proceedings were co-chaired by Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman and The Intercept’s Ryan Grim.

Members of the tribunal included:

Ewen MacAskill, journalist and intelligence correspondent (formerly with The Guardian)

*John Kiriakou, former intelligence officer for the CIA

Lina Attalah, co-founder and chief editor of Mada Masr

Abby Martin, journalist and host of The Empire Files

Mark Feldstein, veteran investigative reporter and journalism historian at the University of Maryland

Ben Wizner, lawyer and civil liberties advocate with the ACLU

Trevor Timm, journalist and co-founder of Freedom of the Press Foundation

Rebecca Vincent, director of campaigns, Reporters Without Borders

[sataniccapitalist]

Free the Truth": The Belmarsh Tribunal on Julian Assange & Defending Press Freedom

In a New Year's Day special broadcast, we air highlights from the Belmarsh Tribunal held last month in Washington, D.C., where journalists, lawyers, activists and other expert witnesses made the case to free Julian Assange from prison in the United Kingdom. The WikiLeaks founder has been jailed at London's Belmarsh Prison since 2019 awaiting possible extradition to the United States on espionage charges for publishing documents that revealed U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. Rights groups say the charges threaten freedom of the press and put a chilling effect on the work of investigative journalists who expose government secrets.

The Belmarsh Tribunal — inspired by the Russell-Sartre Tribunals of the Vietnam War — has been convened several times in the U.S., Europe and beyond to press for Assange's release. The December proceedings were co-chaired by Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman and The Intercept's Ryan Grim.

[ailtrahq]

The former CEO of defunct crypto exchange FTX Sam Bankman-Fried’s (SBF) trial is set to begin in October, barring any postponement. Ahead of the trial, here are some key details to note as SBF faces up to 100 years imprisonment if found guilty by the jury.  Charges Leveled Against FTX’s Founder The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has charged SBF with seven counts of fraud-related crimes, namely: Wire fraud of FTX customers, conspiracy to commit wire fraud on FTX customers, wire fraud on lenders to Alameda Research, conspiracy to commit wire fraud on lenders to Alameda Research, conspiracy to commit securities fraud on FTX investors, conspiracy to commit commodities fraud on FTX customers, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.  Sam Bankman-Fried was initially charged with 13 counts in an earlier indictment. However, the prosecution decided to drop six of them, including the ‘violation of campaign finance rules’ charge, as those charges didn’t form part of the US government’s extradition agreement with the Bahamas government.  Additionally, the FTX founder had allegedly spent $100 million to fund several politicians’ campaigns in a bid to gain political favors. He went as far as using straw donors, violating several campaign laws in the process. Nevertheless, SBF has maintained his innocence and has not pled guilty to these charges. With this in mind, the prosecution must prove its case to the jury beyond a reasonable doubt. The jury is expected to consider all charges leveled against SBF separately and decide whether or not the prosecution has provided sufficient evidence to prove all counts leveled against him. Judge Lewis Kaplan, the judge in charge of SBF’s case, had stated that he and his lawyers could request a postponement if they felt they needed more time to prepare their defense. However, going by Judge Kaplan’s latest order, SBF’s lawyers chose not to file any motion for a postponement, meaning that the trial will begin on October 3 as stipulated. If a postponement were to occur, SBF’s trial date would likely be pushed to next year, as Judge Kaplan had stated during a virtual hearing on August 30. The judge had suggested that the date would be March 11, 2024, subject to the approval of the Bahamas government.  Sam Bankman-Fried: The Prosecution And Defense’s Case The DOJ will rely on the witness testimonies of several co-founders and senior executives from FTX and its sister company, Alameda Research. This is because some of these top executives were reportedly aware and part of SBF’s illicit activities.  These top employees turned on Bankman-Fried by agreeing to a plea deal with the prosecutors and were instrumental to the DOJ building up its case against the former FTX CEO. The executives include former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison, co-CEO Ryan Salame, and FTX’s executive Nishad Singh. Meanwhile, Sam Bankman-Fried plans to enlist the services of seven expert witnesses in a bid to create holes in the prosecution’s case. These witnesses are expected to give evidence of various issues, including campaign finance laws, the finances of FTX and its sister company, Alameda Research, and the crypto exchange’s software infrastructure. FTT Token bucks bears by staying above $1 | Source: FTTBUSD on Tradingview.com Source

[davidhaighuk]

Human Rights Lawyer - Why Is It Important For Every Individual In Dubai

With every year people visiting Dubai, the law and injustice cases among individuals grows. Thus, the need to make survival easier in Dubai has become more important than before.

If you are looking for the right step which you must choose for fighting injustice, then you must start with the Human Rights Lawyer. It is important to understand that there are various options in the filed through which you can save your victims. But choosing the right Human Rights Lawyer play an important role since they can make you get the right justice in the right time.

When you wish to handle legal cases in Football, then you must be thinking about the sports lawyer. This is because sports lawyer are basically from that filed only and who can fight Homophobia In Football better than David Haigh.

Hiring Human Rights Lawyer is the best way through which one can fight injustice effectively. You would face many challenges in this process, but you don’t need to worry about it since you can very frequently contact Human Rights Lawyer since they will help in reducing the risks in spending extra fees for their services.

Just think about hiring David Haigh, pursuing his career as a fearless Human Rights Lawyer who takes a stand to defend human rights followed by his services as a leading crisis manager, well renowned LGBT activist, recognized television and radio commentator, an influential and inspiring writer and football chairman who protects Homophobia In Football.

[haighjusticeuk]

Traveling foreign country is everyone's dream. But do keep in mind, if you are traveling some foreign country and understand the life of prisoners abroad.

[cleverwordsandotherstuffilike]

200 Most Common Redundacies

A

(absolutely) essential

(absolutely) necessary

(actual) facts

advance (forward)

(advance) planning

(advance) preview

(advance) reservations

(advance) warning

add (an additional)

add (up)

(added) bonus

(affirmative) yes

(aid and) abet

(all-time) record

alternative (choice)

A.M. (in the morning)

(and) etc.

(anonymous) stranger

(annual) anniversary

(armed) gunman

(artificial) prosthesis

ascend (up)

ask (the question)

assemble (together)

attach (together)

ATM (machine)

autobiography (of his or her own life)

B

bald(-headed)

balsa (wood)

(basic) fundamentals

(basic) necessities

best (ever)

biography (of his–or her–life)

blend (together)

(boat) marina

bouquet (of flowers)

brief (in duration)

(brief) moment

(brief) summary

(burning) embers

C

cacophony (of sound)

cameo (appearance)

cancel (out)

(careful) scrutiny

cash (money)

cease (and desist)

circle (around)

circulate (around)

classify (into groups)

(close) proximity

(closed) fist

collaborate (together)

combine (together)

commute (back and forth)

compete (with each other)

(completely) annihilate

(completely) destroyed

(completely) eliminate

(completely) engulfed

(completely) filled

(completely) surround

(component) parts

confer (together)

connect (together)

connect (up)

confused (state)

consensus (of opinion)

(constantly) maintained

cooperate (together)

could (possibly)

crisis (situation)

curative (process)

(current) incumbent

(current) trend

D

depreciate (in value)

descend (down)

(desirable) benefits

(different) kinds

disappear (from sight)

drop (down)

during (the course of)

dwindle (down)

E

each (and every)

earlier (in time)

eliminate (altogether)

emergency (situation)

(empty) hole

empty (out)

(empty) space

enclosed (herein)

(end) result

enter (in)

(entirely) eliminate

equal (to one another)

eradicate (completely)

estimated at (about)

evolve (over time)

(exact) same

(exposed) opening

extradite (back)

F

(face) mask

fall (down)

(favorable) approval

(fellow) classmates

(fellow) colleague

few (in number)

filled (to capacity)

(final) conclusion

(final) end

(final) outcome

(final) ultimatum

(first and) foremost

(first) conceived

first (of all)

fly (through the air)

follow (after)

(foreign) imports

(former) graduate

(former) veteran

(free) gift

(from) whence

(frozen) ice

(frozen) tundra

full (to capacity)

(full) satisfaction

fuse (together)

(future) plans

(future) recurrence

G

gather (together)

(general) public

GOP (party)

GRE (exam)

green [or blue or whatever] (in colour)

grow (in size)

H

had done (previously)

(harmful) injuries

(head) honcho

heat (up)

HIV (virus)

hoist (up)

(hollow) tube

hurry (up)

I

(illustrated) drawing

incredible (to believe)

indicted (on a charge)

input (into)

integrate (together)

integrate (with each other)

interdependent (on each other)

introduced (a new)

introduced (for the first time)

(ir)regardless

ISBN (number)

J

join (together)

(joint) collaboration

K

kneel (down)

(knowledgeable) experts

L

lag (behind)

later (time)

LCD (display)

lift (up)

(little) baby

(live) studio audience

(live) witness

(local) residents

look (ahead) to the future

look back (in retrospect)

M

made (out) of

(major) breakthrough

(major) feat

manually (by hand)

may (possibly)

meet (together)

meet (with each other)

(mental) telepathy

merge (together)

might (possibly)

minestrone (soup)

mix (together)

modern ______ (of today)

(mutual) cooperation

(mutually) interdependent

mutual respect (for each other)

(number-one) leader in ________

N

nape (of her neck)

(native) habitat

(natural) instinct

never (before)

(new) beginning

(new) construction

(new) innovation

(new) invention

(new) recruit

none (at all)

nostalgia (for the past)

(now) pending

O

off (of)

(old) adage

(old) cliche

(old) custom

(old) proverb

(open) trench

open (up)

(oral) conversation

(originally) created

output (out of)

(outside) in the yard

outside (of)

(over) exaggerate

over (with)

(overused) cliche

P

(pair of) twins

palm (of the hand)

(passing) fad

(past) experience

(past) history

(past) memories

(past) records

penetrate (into)

period (of time)

(personal) friend

(personal) opinion

pick (and choose)

PIN (number)

pizza (pie)

plan (ahead)

plan (in advance)

(Please) RSVP

plunge (down)

(polar) opposites

(positive) identification

postpone (until later)

pouring (down) rain

(pre)board (as an airplane)

(pre)heat

(pre)record

(private) industry

(present) incumbent

present (time)

previously listed (above)

proceed (ahead)

(proposed) plan

protest (against)

pursue (after)

R

raise (up)

RAM (memory)

reason is (because)

reason (why)

recur (again)

re-elect (for another term)

refer (back)

reflect (back)

(regular) routine

repeat (again)

reply (back)

retreat (back)

revert (back)

rise (up)

round (in shape)

S

(safe) haven

(safe) sanctuary

same (exact)

(sand) dune

scrutinize (in detail)

self-______ (yourself)

separated (apart from each other)

(serious) danger

share (together)

(sharp) point

shiny (in appearance)

shut (down)

(single) unit

skipped (over)

slow (speed)

small (size)

(small) speck

soft (in texture) [or (to the touch)]

sole (of the foot)

spell out (in detail)

spliced (together)

start (off) or (out)

(still) persists

(still) remains

(sudden) impulse

(sum) total

surrounded (on all sides)

T

tall (in height)

tall (in stature)

(temper) tantrum

ten (in number)

three a.m. (in the morning)

(three-way) love triangle

time (period)

(tiny) bit

(total) destruction

(true) facts

(truly) sincere

tuna (fish)

(twelve) noon or midnight

(two equal) halves

U

(ultimate) goal

undergraduate (student)

(underground) subway

(unexpected) emergency

(unexpected) surprise

(unintentional) mistake

(universal) panacea

(unnamed) anonymous

UPC (code)

(usual) custom

V

vacillate (back and forth)

(veiled) ambush

(very) pregnant

(very) unique

visible (to the eye)

W

(wall) mural

warn (in advance)

weather (conditions)

weather (situation)

whether (or not)

(white) snow

write (down)

[mariacallous]

For more than a year, the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation has been hunting the person whom experts say is one of the most prolific swatters in American history. Law enforcement now believes they have finally arrested the person responsible.

A 17-year-old from California is allegedly the swatter known as Torswats, according to sources familiar with the investigation. The teenager is currently in custody and awaiting extradition from California to Seminole County, Florida. The Florida State Attorney’s Office tells WIRED that he faces four felony counts.

Seminole County, located in central Florida, had two high-profile swatting incidents within the last 12 months, including one targeting a mosque and another targeting a courthouse. Todd Brown, a spokesperson for Florida’s Office of the State Attorney in the 18th Circuit, confirmed the charges against the teen and his extradition. Brown says he will be prosecuted as an adult under Florida law. WIRED is withholding the 17-year-old’s name because he is a minor.

The teenager’s arrest comes in the midst of a nationwide swatting surge. Swatting attacks typically involve someone calling in fake attacks to 911 in an attempt to solicit an overwhelming police response. Since Christmas, swatters have targeted the homes of prominent politicians from both parties, judges handling cases involving former US president Donald Trump, and the director of the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

Prior to these high-profile swats, a relentless campaign from different, potentially foreign, swatting groups targeted hundreds of schools and universities around the US over the past year and a half. Last May, an officer in Danvers, Massachusetts, accidentally fired his service weapon while responding to a school swat. In February, an officer in Saginaw Township, Michigan, rammed his vehicle through the school’s locked door to get inside the building following a swatting call.

According to the Florida State Attorney’s Office, the charges against the California teenager include making false reports concerning the planting of a bomb or the use of firearms, causing a law enforcement response. All charges are described as related to acts of terrorism and showing prejudice based on race, color, ancestry, ethnicity, or religion.

In private Telegram chats witnessed by WIRED over the past year, a person operating the Torswats handle claimed responsibility for hundreds of false reports of bomb threats and active shootings called into schools, politicians’ homes, courthouses, and religious institutions around the US.

Brad “Cafrozed” Dennis, a private investigator who works for high-profile Twitch streamers who've been swatted, has been hunting Torswats for nearly two years and actively helping the FBI’s investigation. “It’s a beautiful day,” Dennis says. “I am very relieved Tor will no longer be able to conduct his reign of terror on our schools and public officials just doing their jobs.”

According to records shared with WIRED, Dennis engaged someone using the Torswats handle on a peer-to-peer chatting service called Tox under the guise of ordering a swat in December 2022. By recording his network traffic, the investigator surreptitiously captured the swatter’s IP address along with a username that at the time was unknown to law enforcement. According to Dennis, in January 2023, he handed the evidence to the FBI special agents in charge of Torswats’ case. In emails shared with WIRED, the FBI told Dennis this information was used in subpoenas sent to YouTube and Discord. Court records related to the case against the California teen have not yet been made public.

Other messages Dennis shared with WIRED suggest that the FBI has known the identity of Torswats, whose swatting activities were first revealed by Motherboard last April, since at least July 2023, when the agency executed a search warrant and seized Torswats’ devices. The FBI’s Seattle field office, which oversaw the investigation into Torswats, declined WIRED’s request to comment.

"Hello, I am going to commit a mass shooting in the name of Satan," a voice with a fake Southern accent drawled to a police dispatcher in Seminole County, Florida, on May 12, 2023. The caller spoke slowly and deliberately when he told the dispatcher that he was armed with pipe bombs and an AR-15 rifle, walking into a mosque to kill everyone he saw. The call ends with the sound of gunshots likely sourced from a video game.

That day, the same voice-over-IP phone number called threats into at least two other mosques in Florida, according to police records obtained by WIRED. That week, in a private Telegram chat, an individual operating the Torswats Telegram channel took responsibility for sending police officers scrambling to as many as 20 schools in Washington state and four historically Black colleges and universities in Texas. Audio from 911 calls reviewed by WIRED and interviews with local law enforcement confirm that many if not all of the Washington state calls were made by someone sounding like an individual associated with the Torswats account. Some used a similar script, referencing an AR-15 rifle and pipe bombs.

The individual’s calls to Washington schools in May affected at least 18,116 students and cost taxpayers $271,173 in lost instructional time, estimates Don Beeler, CEO of TDR Technology Solutions, a company that builds school surveillance tools and tracks and analyzes the costs of school threats.

In private Telegram chats seen by WIRED, an individual behind the Torswats account described their method for carrying out school swattings. After proxying their network traffic through a commercial VPN, the individual would look up the school in every county they targeted using the Public School Review website to find each address. They then would Google the phone number for the nearest police department and use Google Voice to place calls. While most of this appeared to be done on an Android device, they would occasionally use a digital sound board on their PC to introduce gunshot sounds that appeared to be recorded from the video game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

“State and local law enforcement often feel like a swatter is doing something sophisticated, and that’s just often not the case,” Keven Hendricks, a cybercrime expert and swatting investigator, tells WIRED. In November, Torswats claimed to have swatted Hendricks and his family. Hendricks declined to comment about the swatting.

During a hoax call allegedly placed by Torswats and obtained by WIRED that targeted La Plata High School in Charles County, Maryland, last year, the school resource officer informed the caller that he was under an active investigation. “I am never going to be caught,” the caller laughed. “I am invincible.”

In Florida, where the California teenager is facing state charges, swatting is a felony. Late last year, two 14-year-old boys, allegedly part of a national swatting group called LulzSEC, were accused of calling in a mass shooting at Baker School in Okaloosa County in November. The charges for one of the teens included making an electronic threat of a mass shooting, making a false report of firearms being used in a violent manner, use of a two-way communication device to facilitate a felony, and interference with school functions. In a press conference at the time, Okaloosa County sheriff Eric Aden said the investigation into LulzSEC—which shares the name of an early-aughts hacktivist group—is ongoing.

Last May, the FBI initiated an effort to track swatting nationwide. The National Common Operation Picture – Virtual Command Center, or NCOP-VCC, is a collaborative effort between local law enforcement and the FBI to track swatting activity in real time. According to the FBI, there have been over 550 swatting incidents reported to the FBI’s NCOP-VCC since its launch. Because reporting is voluntary, the true number of swattings across the US is likely much higher.

US senator Rick Scott of Florida introduced a bill earlier this month to expand federal charges related to hoaxes to include swatting. The proposed legislation could potentially result in a maximum penalty of up to 20 years in prison for individuals convicted of the activity.

Scott says he was swatted at his home in December. According to the incident report, obtained by The Washington Post, the caller claimed that he had shot his wife with an AR-15 and would blow up the house with a pipe bomb.

In a statement announcing the legislation, Scott said, “We must send a message to the cowards behind these calls—this isn’t a joke, it’s a crime.”

It is unclear whether a single person operated under the Torswats name. On January 20, two days after Dennis, the private investigator, said that Torswats had been arrested, a person using the Torswats’ Telegram handle who had knowledge of previous conversations with WIRED reached out.

“I am pretty sure I’ll never be arrested,” the individual wrote in a direct message on Telegram. “Seems ridiculous that a few bucks a month can allow someone to do crazy shit and never go to jail.”

[scotianostra]

On May 25th 1909 Oscar Slater was found guilty of murdering Marion Gilchrist in Glasgow.

Another long post, previously I have only written smaller accounts of this case, I think it deserves something with more detail, so have lifted this from an article in The National.

The case of  Oscar Slater is one of the most infamous miscarriages of justice in Scottish history. He served almost 19 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. 

Here are the known facts about the Oscar Slater case. He was born Oscar Leschziner in Upper Silesia in Germany on January 8th, 1872. He moved to London in 1893, ostensibly to avoid being called up for military service, and began life as a gambler and bookmaker. He was twice acquitted of charges of violence.

He moved to Edinburgh in 1899 using the name Smiz and then to Glasgow in 1901 where he professed to be a dentist and a jewellery dealer, though the evidence is that he was a pimp and someone who dealt in stolen goods. He certainly took part in gambling at clubs in the city.

On December 21st, 1908, 83-year-old spinster Marion Gilchrist was savagely beaten to death in her own home in West Princes Street in Glasgow. A neighbour, Arthur Adams, disturbed the intruder who fled, and though Gilchrist had a fortune in jewellery in her wardrobe, the only item missing was a brooch.

The brutal murder shocked Glasgow, and the city’s police force came under great pressure from the press and public to find the murderer.

Within days, suspicion fell upon Slater. He had “fled” to America five days after the murder and had previously pawned a brooch which no-one could prove belonged to Gilchrist. Not that such details mattered to Glasgow police, who communicated to their counterparts in New York that a murder suspect was arriving – he was arrested before he even set foot on American soil.

Slater’s extradition was applied for and that was when the case took the first of many sensational turns. For Slater went before a court in New York state and demanded to be sent home.

Crime reporter William Roughead later gave this account of the proceedings: “Mr Miller, for the defence, said the defendant’s counsel felt that the British government  had not established under the Treaty the case of identity which was necessary; that the defendant was innocent, and his counsel believed him innocent: but rather than have any misapprehension about his connection with Glasgow, the defendant had determined to go back and face any charge that might be made against him.

“He only asked that the evidence of the witnesses, who testified to his character in New York, should be admitted in the Scottish Court. The Commissioner said that a transcript of the proceedings would be certified as correct for production in Scotland.

Those full transcripts were never seen at Slater’s trial, during which the Crown carried out many tactics that would now be illegal – the Lord Advocate, Alexander Ure, later the Lord President Baron Strathclyde, shamefully rejected whole swathes of evidence that might have cleared Slater. He concealed the American transcripts, invented “facts” and went along with the police conspiracy to frame Slater that included a ludicrous identification parade featuring the medium-height and stocky Slater among a line-up of nine veritable giants – off duty Glasgow policemen.

Under police pressure, two witnesses, Gilchrist’s maid Helen Lambie and 14-year-old neighbour Mary Barrowman, perjured themselves by saying they had identified Slater at the scene – they had earlier told the detectives they could not completely identify the person they saw. One also said he was clean shaven.

Samuel Reid, Slater’s friend, testified that he had dined with Slater on the previous night.

Roughead reported: “On the night in question Slater’s moustache was growing, and was very noticeable, his hair being very black. No-one could have mistaken him for a clean-shaven man.” And the moustache was still there when Slater left for the US.

The experts could not agree on the murder weapon, supposedly found in Slater’s cases with a bloodstained waterproof. Gilchrist having been struck 40 to 50 times – one of her eyes was forced inside her head – the assailant would have been covered in blood from head to toe.

Roughead recounted: “The condition of the hammer and waterproof was of vital importance to the Crown case, for these were the only links between Slater and the murder. Apart from them, nothing incriminating was found in his possession.”

Not any of the clothing he was supposed to have been wearing was found, and the expert scientists disagreed as to whether the bloodstains were blood or other matter, and the hammer was said to have been too light to have killed her. The brooch Slater pawned? It belonged to his girlfriend and looked nothing like Gilchrist’s brooch.

Roughead again: “No proof was offered that he had any knowledge of the existence of Miss Gilchrist or of her jewels; none of the deceased’s property was traced to him, and nothing proved to be his was found in her house. With the exception of the disputable stains on the waterproof, no article of clothing belonging to him was bloodstained.”

Despite  several witnesses providing him with an alibi, and proof that he had announced his trip to America long before the murder and was not “fleeing”, the “eyewitness” evidence was enough to convict Slater and he was sentenced to death, the execution set to take place before the end of May, 1909. It is said that Slater even heard the gallows beginning to be erected.

The public had been following the trial daily in the press and could see a stitch-up. More than 20,000 people signed a petition and Slater’s death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in Peterhead jail.

Roughead was convinced that Slater had been set up and wrote his account of the biased trial and the evidence that had not been presented. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle became interested, and in 1912 published The Case Of Oscar Slater, effectively demolishing the Crown case in best Sherlock Holmes style.

The Secretary of State for Scotland, Thomas MacKinnon Wood, ordered a private inquiry, but it found no evidence of any conspiracy, despite a Glasgow detective, John Thomson Trench, providing evidence of just such a frame-up.

This is what he wrote: “Instead of finding anything or any one to corroborate Barrowman that she was at or near the close when the murderer left the close, everything goes to prove that her story of having seen the man was a cock-and-bull story of a young girl who was somewhat late in getting home and who wished to take the edge off by a little sensationalism.

“Slater on arriving in Glasgow (from New York) had with him nine packages: a number of these were trunks, and had not been opened. They were sealed by the American police.

“I was present when the packages were opened. Every package and trunk was carefully and systematically packed. A very considerable amount of time must have been spent in the packing. The linen and fine underwear were folded with camphor interposing between the layers. In no sense did the trunks reveal a hurried departure.

“From a trunk I lifted the hammer upon which the Crown built their theory of the commission of the crime. Alongside of the hammer were other tools which go to make up the card bought by Slater. The hammer weighed one-half pound. I saw nothing on the shaft to indicate to me that it had been either scraped or cleaned.

“For what it may be worth I look upon the hammer as a most unlikely instrument to have caused the injuries. Like Dr Adams, who was not used as a witness although the first medical man on the scene, I lean to the view that Miss Gilchrist was done to death by a chair.”

Trench paid for his truth with his career. He was even prosecuted on trumped-up charges and died a broken man in 1919. He has subsequently been proven correct on almost everything he wrote, yet his family have never had an apology and his name has not been restored to the Glasgow Police roll.

Conan Doyle was infuriated. He wrote: “How the verdict could be that there was no fresh cause for reversing the conviction is incomprehensible. The whole case will, in my opinion, remain immortal in the classics of crime as the supreme example of official incompetence and obstinacy.”

In 1927, Glasgow journalist William Park wrote The Truth About Oscar Slater, hinting that the real killer was Gilchrist’s nephew, Wingate Birell, a known criminal, though suspicion has long been cast on another relative, Francis Charteris, whose family were friendly with Lord Advocate Ure.

The book included more statements about the police coaching witnesses. Helen Lambie and Mary Barrowman retracted much of what they had testified and behind the scenes, the then Leader of the Opposition Ramsay MacDonald and Conan Doyle together brought the case back to the then Scottish Secretary Sir John Gilmour.

It was then that Scots law was altered – the recently created Scottish Court of Criminal Appeal, a long overdue institution, was allowed to hear cases from before 1926 for the first time, and they duly heard the case of Oscar Slater. In July 1928, he was freed, though not declared innocent, on a technicality – the judge had misdirected the jury about Slater’s character.

Oscar Slater received £6000 in compensation for nearly 19 years in jail. He was interned as an enemy alien at the start of World War II and died in Ayrshire in 1948, aged 78, never having been properly pardoned.

The identity of the real murderer is still disputed.

https://www.thenational.scot/news/15585823.the-oscar-slater-frame-up-how-a-murder-trial-changed-scots-law/

[zorilleerrant]

Harley Quinn, on trial in the Netherlands because she’s been hacking people’s phones and posting pictures of their pets to twitter, defending that this is perfectly legal under the laws that protect whistleblowing cybercrime: No, no, I have another expert witness!

Judge: Dr. Quinzel, please, we have already heard from seventeen witnesses that you think -

Harley: It’s an ethical necessity that I share your pets’ photos.

Judge: Dr. Quinzel, if you could refrain from interrupting? I would hate to have to put you in jail.

Harley: So this trial is going well.

Judge: Please, can we just get on with it?

Harley: Do y’all have murder clowns in your jails? I can deal with a couple, but just. How full should I expect them to be?

Judge: Do we have - where would you even get enough murder clowns to fill an entire jail?

Harley: Gotham.

Judge: I -

Harley: Personally, I don’t identify as a murder clown. I mean, I identify as a clown, and I have murdered people, and probably will again, but I don’t, as a rule, do murders. Just so you know.

Judge: Dr. Quinzel, are you confessing to a crime?

Harley: Oh, I haven’t done any murders here! Or recently. Why, is just talking about it a crime? I really don’t know anything about your laws.

Judge: Wait, what? Why is the trial taking place here?

Harley: The internet isn’t a real place and you can declare your arbitration takes place wherever you want if you have a good enough lawyer. I’m from the Good Ol’ U S of A, though.

Judge: You just extradited yourself here??

Harley: I mean, it’s just a plane. I flew first class. I figured while I was here, I could get some chocolate. You do have chocolate?

Judge: I...yes, we have excellent chocolate.

Harley: That’s what I heard! Although if you’re going to put me in jail, I don’t suppose I can get any chocolate, though.

Judge, confused: Why couldn’t you have chocolate in jail?

Harley: Oh, for real? Oh, I’m moving here. Hell, I’m going to be Mayor of here, or, um, do you guys have mayors or what?

Judge: Yes...?

Harley: I’m going to be Mayor of the Netherlands!

Judge: No. Amsterdam, maybe.

Harley: Isn’t that the place with all the weed?

Judge: ...yes.

Harley: Can I call for a recess or do you have to do that?

[96thdayofrage]

ASSANGE EXTRADITION: Why the Crumbling Computer Conspiracy Case Is So Vital to the US

Since the U.S. is on shaky constitutional ground with the espionage indictment, the computer intrusion charge has served as a hook to try to get Assange, by portraying him not as a journalist, but as a hacker, writes Cathy Vogan.

While most of the talk about the Julian Assange case is about the espionage charges, which are political in nature, the U.S. case hangs by a thread for the second time on the non-political charge: conspiracy to commit computer intrusion.

There is a reason why the computer charge is so vital to the U.S. case. Charging a journalist with espionage for unauthorized possession and dissemination of defense information has been possible since 1917, but it runs the risk of violating the First Amendment.

The tradition has been instead to charge leakers and hackers for breach of an oath, contract or firewall. The legal and public perception of hacking is that it is much like burglary; something generally feared and whose punishment by the state is not subject to political debate or opposing laws; but rather welcomed. The intrusion charge shifts public and legal perception.

Since the U.S. is on shaky constitutional ground with the espionage indictment, the computer intrusion charge has served as a hook to try to get Assange, by portraying him not as a journalist, but as a hacker. Underscoring the difference between the two is fundamental to the U.S. case.

That’s why the U.S. prosecutor, James Lewis QC, on the opening day of Assange’s extradition hearing in February 2020 turned to the press in the courtroom and told them journalism was not the target of the U.S. prosecution. He said Assange was not a journalist and instead had participated in the theft of government documents. In other words: he’s not a journalist like you, but a hacker.

This distinction was spelled out by none other than the current president of the United States when he was vice president in December 2010. He told television interviewer David Gregory:

“If he conspired to get these classified documents, with a member of the U.S. military, that’s fundamentally different than if someone drops on your lap [reaches out to news anchor and slaps table], Here David, you’re a press person. Here is classified material.”

https://youtu.be/nF8WRFw5sHQ

Declined to Indict

Unable to come up with that proof, the Obama-Biden administration declined to indict Assange in 2011. The New York Times had published many of the same WikiLeaks documents that Assange had, so logically, the Times would be just as guilty of violating the Espionage Act.

Indicting Assange and the Times would be a clear conflict with the First Amendment. But if it could be proven he was a hacker, and not just a journalist, that would have opened the way to indicting Assange, Joe Biden said.

Faced with this same dilemma, the U.S. bolstered its Espionage Act indictment of Assange with seperate charges for conspiracy to commit computer intrusion. The indictment was marked SEALED but then “Filed in Open Court” on March, 8, 2018, almost a full year before Assange was arrested, April 11, 2019. On that day the computer intrustion indictment was unveiled to the public.

We have known since 2012 of a grand jury investigation into “conspiracy to communicate or transmit national defense information”. A former lawyer for Assange, the late Michael Ratner, explained the middle section of a code (11-3/ 10GJ3793/ 11-937) marked on a subpoena related to the investigation: “10 is the year it began; GJ is grand jury; 3 is the conspiracy statute in the US and 793 is the espionage statute.” The grand jury was investigating conspiracy in 2010, as Biden had suggested that December, in an effort to portray the Australian journalist as a non-passive recipient of the classified information he published.

https://youtu.be/Yd7qxWma9CQ

The “hacking” indictment that was issued on the day of his arrest argues in strained language that Assange had conspired with his source, Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, to illegally obtain defense information. The indictment, however, admits Manning had security clearances to legally access the material.

The charge of conspiracy with Manning hangs solely on evidence that appeared at Manning’s court marshal, a chat log between Nobody [Manning] and someone with the moniker Nathaniel Frank. That Manning was seeking help with a password hash from Frank has been held up as the evidence of conspiracy.

In the computer intrusion indictment of Assange, the U.S. claims:

“Cracking the password would have allowed Manning to log onto the computers under a usemame [sic] that did not belong to her. Such a measure would have made it more difficult for investigators to identify Manning as the source of disclosures of classified information.”

This argument was seriously undermined on Day 14 of the September extradition hearing when forensic examiner Patrick Eller offered his expert testimony for the defense on the Manning conspiracy theory.

Eller said the U.S. couldn’t prove, nor was he asked to prove, that the moniker Manning was conversing with was Assange. And Manning’s top secret access was only permitted on her login, for which she had the password. Logging in as another “usemame”, meant she would have been locked out.

Nor would logging in as another user have given Manning anonymity, as the government alleges, since the physical IP address of the terminal was recorded, regardless of who was logged in. From the Manning court-marshal, it emerged that the government knew who was on shift at the time. In light of Eller’s testimony, the U.S. scenario of Assange’s conspiracy with Manning was shown to be unfeasible.

The U.S. had heard earlier from the defense in February 2020 that Manning’s purpose was probably to install video games, films and music videos on the lads’ computers, which were forbidden to those on active duty. Eller testified to the same.

According to what Biden said in 2011, it was imperative for the U.S. to keep alive this apparently ‘minor’ computer charge that carries a maximum of five years in prison, compared to 170 years under the espionage charges. But it isn’t minor. It is the hook that enables the charges of espionage, it smears Assange and it drives a wedge between him and support from an increasingly nervous mainstream media.

The Second Superseding Indictment

In June 2020, the Trump Department of Justice, apparently unsure that the computer intrusion charge in relation to Manning was strong enough to portray Assange as a hacker, issued a second superseding indictment that relied on the testimony of a WikiLeaks volunteer and later FBI informant, who said Assange had directed him to conduct hacking operations.

This evidence was apparently obtained by the FBI in 2011 when the witness was one of its informants. But it was not revisited until the Trump DOJ offered the witness immunity sometime in 2019, likely after the April 2019 issuing of the first computer indictment, which did not contain his testimony. It appeared first in the second superseding indictment of June 2020.

That the evidence did not appear in the first indictment might indicate its unreliability, because the key witness has now recanted the testimony in an interview last month with the Icelandic publication Stundin.

Sigurdur Thordarson’s testimony was mentioned 22 times without question in the Magistrate’s Jan. 4 ruling against extraditing Assange, which the U.S. is now appealing. The UK court was not made aware of the identity and criminal history of the witness referred to as ‘Teenager’ in the second superseding indictment.

Thordarson’s chat logs not only negate those points of fact; they accord with what the Minister of the Interior of Iceland, Ögmundur Jónasson said, and recently told Consortium News:

“[The FBI] were in Iceland, to try to frame WikiLeaks and Julian Assange in particular. Now these are serious allegations, but I choose my words very, very carefully. Because I knew this from first-hand; from within the Icelandic administration. They were told that the idea was to use Sigurdur Thordarson, an Icelandic citizen, as an entrapment to contact Julian Assange and involve him in a criminal case, to be used later in the United States. This I know for certain, and I have stated this time and again, in February 2014, before 2013. I said before the Icelandic Foreign Affairs Committee and the Icelandic parliament, where this was discussed, and this in fact is not disputed. This is what happened.”

https://youtu.be/0auN8LnQDjQ

The FBI had resorted to working with Thordarson, a diagnosed sociopath and convicted fraudster, thief and pedophile. Stundin pointed out that his chat logs also revealed FBI grooming and conspiracy in the fabrication of false testimony.

Back to Biden

During Assange’s hearing last September, after numerous defense witnesses piled on evidence that indeed Assange was engaging in journalistic activity, prosecutor Lewis changed course and ultimately admitted to the court, that yes, he may have been practicing journalism, but the Espionage Act doesn’t make a distinction for journalists. Assange had unauthorized possession and disseminated defense information, and that was that.

With the recanting of Thordarson’s testimony, and the weakness of the conspiracy allegation with Manning, the U.S. is back to what Biden said when was vice president: that Assange is a journalist who was merely doing his job by receiving state secrets, pretty much in his lap.

If Assange is extradited to stand trial in the U.S., what would happen if the computer intrusion charge collapses? It would leave the U.S. with only the political charges and Assange in the same legal state as other publishers of the same material, protected by the First Amendment.