Tag: Pandora Papers

Gabon Opposition Leader Alleges the Ousted President’s Family Arranged the Coup to Retain Power

Ms. Cat

Gabon’s opposition leader is accusing the family of the recently ousted president of engineering his removal from power as a way of retaining their control in the oil-rich Central African nation

Gabon Opposition Leader Alleges the Ousted President’s Family Arranged the Coup to Retain Power

Video via The New Tourist

Related:

Disputed election sparks beginning of the end of 56 years of Bongo family rule

Ali Bongo’s presidency has also been marked by a distancing from France. When he first came to power in 2009, Bongo recalled Gabon’s ambassador to Paris after France’s prime minister appeared to question the legitimacy of his election.

“Ali Bongo has never stopped distancing himself from Paris,” said Glaser. “His favourite capital is London and he has very good relations with the Americans, with China and also with Muslim countries, including Morocco. In the post-colonial period, if there’s one [African] country that has truly gone global, it’s Gabon.”

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How Hunter Biden’s Interests ‘Overlapped’ With Banned Ukrainian Oligarch + More

Ms. Cat

[2021] How Hunter Biden’s Interests ‘Overlapped’ With Banned Ukrainian Oligarch (archived)

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[2022] How One Ukrainian Billionaire Funded Hunter Biden, President Volodymyr Zelensky, And The Neo-Nazi Azov Battalion (archived)

A 2012 study of Burisma Holdings done in Ukraine by the AntiCorruption Action Centre (ANTAC), an investigative nonprofit co-funded by American billionaire George Soros and the U.S. State Department, found that the true owner of Burisma Holdings was none other than Ukrainian billionaire-oligarch Ihor Kolomoysky.

US Embassy pressed Ukraine to drop probe of George Soros group during 2016 election

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Ukraine May See New ‘Maidan’

Ms. Cat

Ukraine could be looking at another Maidan

Meanwhile, Zelenskyy’s assurances don’t assuage some veteran observers of the country either. “We have not seen significant enough efforts to address corruption — although perhaps with one important exception,” said a former senior U.S. diplomat who has considerable experience in Ukraine. “I think they really are trying to prevent diversion of any of the massive Western assistance they’re receiving. I believe they do understand the risks, if there were to be a major scandal.”

But the former diplomat said that what struck him in recent meetings with opposition politicians and civil society leaders in Kyiv was how, “on the one hand, they truly appreciate Zelenskyy’s strength as a war leader,” but are “deeply worried also about corruption and his authoritarian style.”

“In their minds, there is going to be a reckoning as soon as the war ends,” he said. “And I think that’s probably going to be true.”

Seymour Hersh: Trading With The Enemy

Ms. Cat1 Comment

Amid rampant corruption in Kiev and as US troops gather at the Ukrainian border, does the Biden administration have an endgame to the conflict?

Trading With The Enemy (archived)

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Zelensky And Entourage Embezzled ‘At Least’ $400M From U.S. Aid Sent to Ukraine, Seymour Hersh Reports

Before the media decided to turn Zelensky into the world’s great leader and anoint him The Person of the Year, Zelensky was exposed by the Pandora Papers leak for having hid tens of millions of dollars in offshore bank accounts given to him from the billions of dollars corrupt Jewish-Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky had looted from Ukraine.

How Zelensky was Prevented From Making Peace in the Donbas

Ms. Cat

A true story censored by the media bubble

There are two Volodymyr Zelenskys: the one we have known since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, who has since been celebrated every day in the Western media as a hero with a spotless white (or green) vest; the other, who was less well-known prior to this significant escalation of the war, which, according to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, began in 2014. (Here are details on the actual start of this war in 2014).

How Zelensky was Prevented From Making Peace in the Donbas

To Be Updated: USAID is sponsoring YouTube channels

Ms. Cat1 Comment

How Democracy Can Win: The Right Way to Counter Autocracy

The most important step the United States can take to counter foreign influence campaigns and disinformation is to help our partners promote media and digital literacy, communicate credibly with their publics, and engage in “pre-bunking”—that is, seeking to inoculate their societies against disinformation before it can spread. In Indonesia, for example, USAID has worked with local partners to develop sophisticated online courses and games that help new social media users identify disinformation and reduce the likelihood that they will share misleading posts and articles.

The United States has also helped Ukraine in its fight against the Kremlin’s propaganda and disinformation. For decades, USAID has worked to enhance the media environment in the country, encouraging reforms that allow greater access to public information and supporting the emergence of strong local media organizations, including the public broadcaster Suspilne. After Russia’s initial invasion of Ukraine in 2014, our work expanded to help the country’s local journalists produce Russian-language programming that could reach into Kremlin-occupied territories, such as Dialogues With Donbas, a YouTube channel that featured honest conversations with Ukrainians about life behind Russian lines. We also helped support the production of the online comedy show Newspalm, which regularly racks up tens of thousands of views as it skewers Putin’s lies. And even before Moscow’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022, we worked with the government of Ukraine to stand up the Center for Strategic Communications, which uses memes [memetic warfare], well-produced digital videos, and social media and Telegram posts to poke holes in Kremlin propaganda.

I still need to look into Newspalm. I’ll update if I find anything. As I don’t know Ukrainian, or Russian, I’m using Google translate for the following information. Note, this is all speculation!

Speculation:

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U.S. Media Decries Brutal Russia Invasion of Ukraine—Yet an Intrepid Reporter Finds that the Russians Were Welcomed as Liberators in the Southern Ukrainian City of Henichesk along the Sea of Azov

Ms. Cat

[This is a report from Sonja Vandenende, a Dutch journalist who was embedded with Russian troops in southeastern Ukraine. Previously, Sonja reported on the ground in Syria for CAM. Her reporting substantiates that of Patrick Lancaster, a Russian-speaking U.S. Navy veteran whose reporting on the war in Donbass for eight years is respected by investigative journalists. CAM’s mission is to bring to your attention alternative narratives gleaned by eyewitness accounts—even if they could be misconstrued as pro-Russian.—Editors]

U.S. Media Decries Brutal Russia Invasion of Ukraine—Yet an Intrepid Reporter Finds that the Russians Were Welcomed as Liberators in the Southern Ukrainian City of Henichesk along the Sea of Azov

H/T: The Free

Was the Hacking of Ottawa Trucker Convoy Donors a US-Canadian Intelligence Operation?

Ms. Cat

Aubrey Cottle, the hacker claiming credit for stealing convoy donor info, has boasted of work with the FBI and Canadian law enforcement. The data was published by DDoSecrets, an anti-Wikileaks non-profit which has targeted states in the crosshairs of US intelligence.

Was the Hacking of Ottawa Trucker Convoy Donors a US-Canadian Intelligence Operation?

Interestingly, WikiLeaks has been accused of the same thing.