2021 Strategic and Political Analysis-1

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ramana
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Re: 2021 Strategic and Political Analysis-1

Post by ramana »

Turns out UPA had tapped 9000 phones
Second what was done recently is fully legal.
Third Pegasus is suing The Wire.
Let's see if court allows the law suit.
KL Dubey
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Re: 2021 Strategic and Political Analysis-1

Post by KL Dubey »

^^Yes, turned out to be just the "version 2" of Pegasus leaks. I am sure it must be a real "KLPD" to many Congis like Karti Chidambaram who were hoping for something "explosive" to try and rattle the sarkar. These media clowns are clutching at any straw available.
ramana
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Re: 2021 Strategic and Political Analysis-1

Post by ramana »

I think biggest loser was SuSwa who was salivating at prospects of twisting knife.
vijayk
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Re: 2021 Strategic and Political Analysis-1

Post by vijayk »

ramana wrote:I think biggest loser was SuSwa who was salivating at prospects of twisting knife.
Facepalm for this ego maniac
Prem Kumar
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Re: 2021 Strategic and Political Analysis-1

Post by Prem Kumar »

We can expect the following:

1) Media narrative: Modi spying on Indians, including his own people (trying to cause bheda within the Govt)
2) Frivolous PILs - expect the SC to encourage it, considering that this case has media coverage and milords must be salivating the prospect of appearing in the news every day
3) Clubbing of this case with sedition law = civil-liberty NGOs dream job for next year
4) Monsoon walkouts and accusing Modi of pushing laws without consultations

Overall, the Govt will take the hits and let this run out of steam on its own. The Aam-aadmi doesn't give a crap. He has more existential issues to worry about (which Modi is laser-focused on)
chetak
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Re: 2021 Strategic and Political Analysis-1

Post by chetak »

If you do the crime, then, also do the time

better than handing out "sewing machines" and employing them in dhabas in faraway states


Image
chetak
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Re: 2021 Strategic and Political Analysis-1

Post by chetak »

and India's unique democracy..........


Image via@ssingapuri
Kaivalya
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Re: 2021 Strategic and Political Analysis-1

Post by Kaivalya »

The pegasus story redux seems to he the biggest dud :

The database only includes potential targets – a wish list of sorts from NSO’s clients – and not verified targets

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/tec ... 1.10012729

They are trying to make a story for a while where there is none...And oh it includes pappu and im dim
chetak
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Re: 2021 Strategic and Political Analysis-1

Post by chetak »

Kaivalya wrote:The pegasus story redux seems to he the biggest dud :

The database only includes potential targets – a wish list of sorts from NSO’s clients – and not verified targets

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/tec ... 1.10012729

They are trying to make a story for a while where there is none...And oh it includes pappu and im dim



yes, but others have already made a story and siddharth varadarajan's name and contrived narrative have been force fitted in to the article to give the story an Indian context as well as an Indian political conspiracy flavor and a plausible hook and opportunity for other BIF presstitutes in India to drag in the Indian govt.

vardarajan is just a two bit, bottom feeding, naxal scum masquerading as a "journalist". He has never had anything of importance to say and to suggest that anyone would waste the resources of a horrendously expensive military grade spyware like pegasus on an innuendo publishing loser like him is ridiculously laughable. The "assistants and friends" of such clowns can easily be bought off, if anyone so desired.


This particular "investigation" is from our dear well wishers, the renowned wapo, the bottom feeders of yellow journalism


The Pegasus ProjectA global investigation

Private Israeli spyware used to hack cellphones of journalists, activists worldwide

NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware, licensed to governments around the globe, can infect phones without a click

Dana Priest, Craig Timberg and Souad Mekhennet
July 18, 2021



Military-grade spyware licensed by an Israeli firm to governments for tracking terrorists and criminals was used in attempted and successful hacks of 37 smartphones belonging to journalists, human rights activists, business executives and two women close to murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, according to an investigation by The Washington Post and 16 media partners.

The phones appeared on a list of more than 50,000 numbers that are concentrated in countries known to engage in surveillance of their citizens and also known to have been clients of the Israeli firm, NSO Group, a worldwide leader in the growing and largely unregulated private spyware industry, the investigation found.

The list does not identify who put the numbers on it, or why, and it is unknown how many of the phones were targeted or surveilled. But forensic analysis of the 37 smartphones shows that many display a tight correlation between time stamps associated with a number on the list and the initiation of surveillance, in some cases as brief as a few seconds.

Forbidden Stories, a Paris-based journalism nonprofit, and Amnesty International, a human rights group, had access to the list and shared it with the news organizations, which did further research and analysis. Amnesty’s Security Lab did the forensic analyses on the smartphones.

The numbers on the list are unattributed, but reporters were able to identify more than 1,000 people spanning more than 50 countries through research and interviews on four continents: several Arab royal family members, at least 65 business executives, 85 human rights activists, 189 journalists, and more than 600 politicians and government officials — including cabinet ministers, diplomats, and military and security officers. The numbers of several heads of state and prime ministers also appeared on the list.

Among the journalists whose numbers appear on the list, which dates to 2016, are reporters working overseas for several leading news organizations, including a small number from CNN, the Associated Press, Voice of America, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News, Le Monde in France, the Financial Times in London and Al Jazeera in Qatar.

The targeting of the 37 smartphones would appear to conflict with the stated purpose of NSO’s licensing of the Pegasus spyware, which the company says is intended only for use in surveilling terrorists and major criminals. The evidence extracted from these smartphones, revealed here for the first time, calls into question pledges by the Israeli company to police its clients for human rights abuses.

The media consortium, titled the Pegasus Project, analyzed the list through interviews and forensic analysis of the phones, and by comparing details with previously reported information about NSO. Amnesty’s Security Lab examined 67 smartphones where attacks were suspected. Of those, 23 were successfully infected and 14 showed signs of attempted penetration.

For the remaining 30, the tests were inconclusive, in several cases because the phones had been replaced. Fifteen of the phones were Android devices, none of which showed evidence of successful infection. However, unlike iPhones, Androids do not log the kinds of information required for Amnesty’s detective work. Three Android phones showed signs of targeting, such as Pegasus-linked SMS messages.

Amnesty shared backup copies of data on four iPhones with Citizen Lab, which confirmed that they showed signs of Pegasus infection. Citizen Lab, a research group at the University of Toronto that specializes in studying Pegasus, also conducted a peer review of Amnesty’s forensic methods and found them to be sound.

In lengthy responses before publication, NSO called the investigation’s findings exaggerated and baseless. It also said it does not operate the spyware licensed to its clients and “has no insight” into their specific intelligence activities.

After publication, NSO chief executive Shalev Hulio expressed concern in a phone interview with The Post about some of the details he had read in Pegasus Project stories Sunday, while continuing to dispute that the list of more than 50,000 phone numbers had anything to do with NSO or Pegasus.

“The company cares about journalists and activists and civil society in general,” Hulio said. “We understand that in some circumstances our customers might misuse the system and, in some cases like we reported in [NSO’s] Transparency and Responsibility Report, we have shut down systems for customers who have misused the system.”

He said that in the past 12 months NSO had terminated two contracts over allegations of human rights abuses, but he declined to name the countries involved.

“Every allegation about misuse of the system is concerning me,” he said. “It violates the trust that we give customers. We are investigating every allegation.”

NSO describes its customers as 60 intelligence, military and law enforcement agencies in 40 countries, although it will not confirm the identities of any of them, citing client confidentiality obligations. The consortium found many of the phone numbers in at least 10 country clusters, which were subjected to deeper analysis: Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Hungary, India, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Morocco, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Citizen Lab also has found evidence that all 10 have been clients of NSO, according to Bill Marczak, a senior research fellow.

Forbidden Stories organized the media consortium’s investigation, and Amnesty provided analysis and technical support but had no editorial input. Amnesty has openly criticized NSO’s spyware business and supported an unsuccessful lawsuit against the company in an Israeli court seeking to have its export license revoked. After the investigation began, several reporters in the consortium learned that they or their family members had been successfully attacked with Pegasus spyware.

Beyond the personal intrusions made possible by smartphone surveillance, the widespread use of spyware has emerged as a leading threat to democracies worldwide, critics say. Journalists under surveillance cannot safely gather sensitive news without endangering themselves and their sources. Opposition politicians cannot plot their campaign strategies without those in power anticipating their moves. Human rights workers cannot work with vulnerable people — some of whom are victims of their own governments — without exposing them to renewed abuse.

For example, Amnesty’s forensics found evidence that Pegasus was targeted at the two women closest to Saudi columnist Khashoggi, who wrote for The Post’s Opinions section. The phone of his fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, was successfully infected during the days after his murder in Turkey on Oct. 2, 2018, according to a forensic analysis by Amnesty’s Security Lab. Also on the list were the numbers of two Turkish officials involved in investigating his dismemberment by a Saudi hit team. Khashoggi also had a wife, Hanan Elatr, whose phone was targeted by someone using Pegasus in the months before his killing. Amnesty was unable to determine whether the hack was successful.

“This is nasty software — like eloquently nasty,” said Timothy Summers, a former cybersecurity engineer at a U.S. intelligence agency and now director of IT at Arizona State University. With it “one could spy on almost the entire world population. … There’s not anything wrong with building technologies that allows you to collect data; it’s necessary sometimes. But humanity is not in a place where we can have that much power just accessible to anybody.”

In response to detailed questions from the consortium before publication, NSO said in a statement that it did not operate the spyware it licensed to clients and did not have regular access to the data they gather. The company also said its technologies have helped prevent attacks and bombings and broken up rings that trafficked in drugs, sex and children. “Simply put, NSO Group is on a life-saving mission, and the company will faithfully execute this mission undeterred, despite any and all continued attempts to discredit it on false grounds,” NSO said. “Your sources have supplied you with information that has no factual basis, as evidenced by the lack of supporting documentation for many of the claims.”

The company denied that its technology was used against Khashoggi, or his relatives or associates.

“As NSO has previously stated, our technology was not associated in any way with the heinous murder of Jamal Khashoggi. This includes listening, monitoring, tracking, or collecting information. We previously investigated this claim, immediately after the heinous murder, which again, is being made without validation.”

Thomas Clare, a libel attorney hired by NSO, said that the consortium had “apparently misinterpreted and mischaracterized crucial source data on which it relied” and that its reporting contained flawed assumptions and factual errors.

“NSO Group has good reason to believe that this list of ‘thousands of phone numbers’ is not a list of numbers targeted by governments using Pegasus, but instead, may be part of a larger list of numbers that might have been used by NSO Group customers for other purposes,” Clare wrote.

In response to follow-up questions, NSO called the 50,000 number “exaggerated” and said it was far too large to represent numbers targeted by its clients. Based on the questions it was being asked, NSO said, it had reason to believe that the consortium was basing its findings “on misleading interpretation of leaked data from accessible and overt basic information, such as HLR Lookup services, which have no bearing on the list of the customers targets of Pegasus or any other NSO products … we still do not see any correlation of these lists to anything related to use of NSO Group technologies.”

The term HLR, or Home Location Register, refers to a database that is essential to operating cellular phone networks. Such registers keep records on the networks of cellphone users and their general locations, along with other identifying information that is used routinely in routing calls and texts. HLR lookup services operate on the SS7 system that cellular carriers use to communicate with each other. The services can be used as a step toward spying on targets.

Telecommunications security expert Karsten Nohl, chief scientist for Security Research Labs in Berlin, said that he does not have direct knowledge of NSO’s systems but that HLR lookups and other SS7 queries are widely and inexpensively used by the surveillance industry — often for just tens of thousands of dollars a year.

“It’s not difficult to get that access. Given the resources of NSO, it’d be crazy to assume that they don’t have SS7 access from at least a dozen countries,” Nohl said. “From a dozen countries, you can spy on the rest of the world.”

Pegasus was engineered a decade ago by Israeli ex-cyberspies with government-honed skills. The Israeli Defense Ministry must approve any license to a government that wants to buy it, according to previous NSO statements.

“As a matter of policy, the State of Israel approves the export of cyber products exclusively to governmental entities, for lawful use, and only for the purpose of preventing and investigating crime and counterterrorism, under end-use/end user certificates provided by the acquiring government,” a spokesperson for the Israeli defense establishment said Sunday. “In cases where exported items are used in violation of export licenses or end-use certificates, appropriate measures are taken.”

The numbers of about a dozen Americans working overseas were discovered on the list, in all but one case while using phones registered to foreign cellular networks. The consortium could not perform forensic analysis on most of these phones. NSO has said for years that its product cannot be used to surveil American phones. The consortium did not find evidence of successful spyware penetration on phones with the U.S. country code.

“We also stand by our previous statements that our products, sold to vetted foreign governments, cannot be used to conduct cybersurveillance within the United States, and no customer has ever been granted technology that would enable them to access phones with U.S. numbers,” the company said in its statement. “It is technologically impossible and reaffirms the fact your sources’ claims have no merit.”

How Pegasus works
Target: Someone sends what’s known as a trap link to a smartphone that persuades the victim to tap and activate — or activates itself without any input, as in the most sophisticated “zero-click” hacks.

Infect: The spyware captures and copies the phone’s most basic functions, NSO marketing materials show, recording from the cameras and microphone and collecting location data, call logs and contacts.

Track: The implant secretly reports that information to an operative who can use it to map out sensitive details of the victim’s life.

Read more about why it’s hard to protect yourself from hacks.

Apple and other smartphone manufacturers are years into a cat-and-mouse game with NSO and other spyware makers.

“Apple unequivocally condemns cyberattacks against journalists, human rights activists and others seeking to make the world a better place,” said Ivan Krstić, head of Apple Security Engineering and Architecture. “For over a decade, Apple has led the industry in security innovation and, as a result, security researchers agree iPhone is the safest, most secure consumer mobile device on the market. Attacks like the ones described are highly sophisticated, cost millions of dollars to develop, often have a short shelf life and are used to target specific individuals. While that means they are not a threat to the overwhelming majority of our users, we continue to work tirelessly to defend all our customers, and we are constantly adding new protections for their devices and data.”

Some Pegasus intrusion techniques detailed in a 2016 report were changed in a matter of hours after they were made public, underscoring NSO’s ability to adapt to countermeasures.

Pegasus is engineered to evade defenses on iPhones and Android devices and to leave few traces of its attack. Familiar privacy measures like strong passwords and encryption offer little help against Pegasus, which can attack phones without any warning to users. It can read anything on a device that a user can, while also stealing photos, recordings, location records, communications, passwords, call logs and social media posts. Spyware also can activate cameras and microphones for real-time surveillance.

“There is just nothing from an encryption standpoint to protect against this,” said Claudio Guarnieri, a.k.a. “Nex,” the Amnesty Security Lab’s 33-year-old Italian researcher who developed and performed the digital forensics on 37 smartphones that showed evidence of Pegasus attacks.

That sense of helplessness makes Guarnieri, who often dresses head-to-toe in black, feel as useless as a 14th-century doctor confronting the Black Plague without any useful medication. “Primarily I’m here just to keep the death count,” he said.

The attack can begin in different ways. It can come from a malicious link in an SMS text message or an iMessage. In some cases, a user must click on the link to start the infection. In recent years, spyware companies have developed what they call “zero-click” attacks, which deliver spyware simply by sending a message to a user’s phone that produces no notification. Users do not even need to touch their phones for infections to begin.

Many countries have laws pertaining to traditional wiretapping and interception of communications, but few have effective safeguards against deeper intrusions made possible by hacking into smartphones. “This is more devious in a sense because it really is no longer about intercepting communications and overhearing conversation. … This covers all of them and goes way beyond that,” Guarnieri said. “It has raised a lot of questions from not only human rights, but even national constitutional laws as to is this even legal?”

Clare, NSO’s attorney, attacked the forensic examinations as “a compilation of speculative and baseless assumptions” built on assumptions based on earlier reports. He also said, “NSO does not have insight into the specific intelligence activities of its customers.”

The Pegasus Project’s findings are similar to previous discoveries by Amnesty, Citizen Lab and news organizations worldwide, but the new reporting offers a detailed view of the personal consequences and scale of surveillance and its abuses.

The consortium analyzed the list and found clusters of numbers with similar country codes and geographical focus that align with previous reporting and additional research about NSO clients overseas. For example, Mexico has been previously identified in published reports and documents as an NSO client, and entries on the list are clustered by Mexican country code, area code and geography. In several cases, clusters also contained numbers from other countries.

In response to questions from reporters, spokespeople for the countries with clusters either denied Pegasus was used or denied that their country had abused their powers of surveillance.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s office said any surveillance carried out by that nation is done in accordance with the law.

“In Hungary, state bodies authorized to use covert instruments are regularly monitored by governmental and non-governmental institutions,” the office said. “Have you asked the same questions of the governments of the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Germany or France?”

Moroccan authorities responded: “It should be recalled that the unfounded allegations previously published by Amnesty International and conveyed by Forbidden Stories have already been the subject of an official response from the Moroccan authorities, who have categorically rejected these allegations.”

Vincent Biruta, Rwanda’s foreign affairs minister, also denied the use of Pegasus.

“Rwanda does not use this software system, as previously confirmed in November 2019, and does not possess this technical capability in any form,” Biruta said. “These false accusations are part of an ongoing campaign to cause tensions between Rwanda and other countries, and to sow disinformation about Rwanda domestically and internationally.”

‘What a question!’
Carmen Aristegui, one of the most prominent investigative journalists in Mexico, is routinely threatened for exposing the corruption of the nation's politicians and cartels. She was previously revealed as a Pegasus target in several media reports. (Bernardo Montoya/AFP/Getty Images)
Carmen Aristegui, one of the most prominent investigative journalists in Mexico, is routinely threatened for exposing the corruption of the nation's politicians and cartels. She was previously revealed as a Pegasus target in several media reports. (Bernardo Montoya/AFP/Getty Images)
Some expressed outrage even at the suggestion of spying on journalists.

A reporter for the French daily Le Monde working on the Pegasus Project recently posed such a question to Hungarian Justice Minister Judit Varga during an interview about the legal requirements for eavesdropping:

“If someone asked you to tape a journalist or an opponent, you wouldn’t accept this?”

“What a question!” Varga responded. “This is a provocation in itself!” A day later, her office requested that this question and her answer to it “be erased” from the interview.

In the past, NSO has blamed its client countries for any alleged abuses. NSO released its first “Transparency and Responsibility Report” last month, arguing that its services are essential to law enforcement and intelligence agencies trying to keep up with the 21st century.

“Terror organizations, drug cartels, human traffickers, pedophile rings and other criminal syndicates today exploit off-the-shelf encryption capabilities offered by mobile messaging and communications applications.

“These technologies provide criminals and their networks a safe haven, allowing them to ‘go dark’ and avoid detection, communicating through impenetrable mobile messaging systems. Law enforcement and counterterrorism state agencies around the world have struggled to keep up.”

NSO also said it conducts rigorous reviews of potential customers’ human rights records before contracting with them and investigates reports of abuses, although it did not cite any specific cases. It asserted that it has discontinued contracts with five clients for documented violations and that the company’s due diligence has cost it $100 million in lost revenue. A person familiar with NSO operations who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal company matters noted that in the last year alone NSO had terminated contracts with Saudi Arabia and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates over human rights concerns.

“Pegasus is very useful for fighting organized crime,” said Guillermo Valdes Castellanos, head of Mexico’s domestic intelligence agency CISEN from 2006 to 2011. “But the total lack of checks and balances [in Mexican agencies] means it easily ends up in private hands and is used for political and personal gain.”

Mexico was NSO’s first overseas client in 2011, less than a year after the firm was founded in Israel’s Silicon Valley, in northern Tel Aviv.

In 2016 and 2017, more than 15,000 Mexicans appeared on the list examined by the media consortium, among them at least 25 reporters working for the country’s major media outlets, according to the records and interviews.

One of them was Carmen Aristegui, one of the most prominent investigative journalists in the country and a regular contributor to CNN. Aristegui, who is routinely threatened for exposing the corruption of Mexican politicians and cartels, was previously revealed as a Pegasus target in several media reports. At the time, she said in a recent interview, her producer was also targeted. The new records and forensics show that Pegasus links were detected on the phone of her personal assistant.

“Pegasus is something that comes to your office, your home, your bed, every corner of your existence,” Aristegui said. “It is a tool that destroys the essential codes of civilization.”

Unlike Aristegui, freelance reporter Cecilio Pineda was unknown outside his violence-wracked southern state of Guerrero. His number appears twice on the list of 50,000. A month after the second listing, he was gunned down while lying in a hammock at a carwash while waiting for his car. It is unclear what role, if any, Pegasus’s ability to geolocate its targets in real time contributed to his murder. Mexico is among the deadliest countries for journalists; 11 were killed in 2017, according to Reporters Without Borders.

“Even if Forbidden Stories were correct that an NSO Group client in Mexico targeted the journalist’s phone number in February 2017, that does not mean that the NSO Group client or data collected by NSO Group software were in any way connected to the journalist’s murder the following month,” Clare, NSO’s lawyer, wrote in his letter to Forbidden Stories. “Correlation does not equal causation, and the gunmen who murdered the journalist could have learned of his location at a public carwash through any number of means not related to NSO Group, its technologies, or its clients.”

Mexico’s Public Security Ministry acknowledged last year that the domestic intelligence agency, CISEN, and the attorney general’s office acquired Pegasus in 2014 and discontinued its use in 2017 when the license expired. Mexican media have also reported that the Defense Ministry used the spyware.

Snowden’s legacy
Edward Snowden’s 2013 disclosure of highly classified National Security Agency documents revealed the agency’s ability to tap the electronic communications of almost anyone and triggered an international boom in spyware development and deployment. (The Guardian/Getty Images)
Edward Snowden’s 2013 disclosure of highly classified National Security Agency documents revealed the agency’s ability to tap the electronic communications of almost anyone and triggered an international boom in spyware development and deployment. (The Guardian/Getty Images)
Today’s thriving international spyware industry dates back decades but got a boost after the unprecedented 2013 disclosure of highly classified National Security Agency documents by contractor Edward Snowden. They revealed that the NSA could obtain the electronic communications of almost anyone because it had secret access to the transnational cables carrying Internet traffic worldwide and data from Internet companies such as Google and giant telecommunications companies such as AT&T.

Even U.S. allies in Europe were shocked by the comprehensive scale of the American digital spying, and many national intelligence agencies set out to improve their own surveillance abilities. For-profit firms staffed with midcareer retirees from intelligence agencies saw a lucrative market-in-waiting free from the government regulations and oversight imposed on other industries.

The dramatic expansion of end-to-end encryption by Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Apple and other major technology firms also prompted law enforcement and intelligence officials to complain they had lost access to the communications of legitimate criminal targets. That in turn sparked more investment in technologies, such as Pegasus, that worked by targeting individual devices.

“When you build a building, you want to make sure the building holds up, so we follow certain protocols,” said Ido Sivan-Sevilla, an expert on cyber governance at the University of Maryland. By promoting the sale of unregulated private surveillance tools, “we encourage building buildings that can be broken into. We are building a monster. We need an international norms treaty that says certain things are not okay.”

Without international standards and rules, there are secret deals between companies like NSO and the countries they service.

The unfettered use of a military-grade spyware such as Pegasus can help governments to suppress civic activism at a time when authoritarianism is on the rise worldwide. It also gives countries without the technical sophistication of such leading nations as the United States, Israel and China the ability to conduct far deeper digital cyberespionage than ever before.

‘Your body stops functioning’
The regime in Azerbaijan has worked for a decade to silence investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova. Forensics by Security Lab determined that Pegasus attacked and penetrated her smartphone numerous times from March 2019 to as late as May of this year. (Aziz Karimov/Pacific Press/LightRocket/Getty Images)
The regime in Azerbaijan has worked for a decade to silence investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova. Forensics by Security Lab determined that Pegasus attacked and penetrated her smartphone numerous times from March 2019 to as late as May of this year. (Aziz Karimov/Pacific Press/LightRocket/Getty Images)
Azerbaijan, a longtime ally of Israel, has been identified as an NSO client by Citizen Lab and others. The country is a family-run kleptocracy with no free elections, no impartial court system and no independent news media. The former Soviet territory has been ruled since the Soviet Union collapsed 30 years ago by the Aliyev family, whose theft of the country’s wealth and money-laundering schemes abroad have resulted in foreign embargoes, international sanctions and criminal indictments.

Despite the difficulties, roughly three dozen Azerbaijani reporters continue to document the family’s corruption. Some are hiding inside the country, but most were forced into exile where they are not so easy to capture. Some work for the Prague-based, U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which was kicked out of the country in 2015 for its reporting. The others work for an investigative reporting nonprofit called the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, which is based in Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital, and is one of the partners in the Pegasus Project.

The foremost investigative reporter in the region is Khadija Ismayilova, whom the regime has worked for a decade to silence: It planted a secret camera in her apartment wall, took videos of her having sex with her boyfriend and then posted them on the Internet in 2012; she was arrested in 2014, tried and convicted on trumped-up tax-evasion and other charges, and held in prison cells with hardened criminals. After global outrage and the high-profile intervention of human rights attorney Amal Clooney, she was released in 2016 and put under a travel ban.

“It is important that people see examples of journalists who do not stop because they were threatened,” Ismayilova said in a recent interview. “It’s like a war. You leave your trench, then the attacker comes in. … You have to keep your position, otherwise it will be taken and then you will have less space, less space, the space will be shrinking and then you will find it hard to breathe.”

Last month, her health failing, she was allowed to leave the country. Colleagues arranged to test her smartphone immediately. Forensics by Security Lab determined that Pegasus had attacked and penetrated her device numerous times from March 2019 to as late as May of this year.

She had assumed some kind of surveillance, Ismayilova said, but was still surprised at the number of attacks. “When you think maybe there’s a camera in the toilet, your body stops functioning,” she said. “I went through this, and for eight or nine days I could not use the toilet, anywhere, not even in public places. My body stopped functioning.”

She stopped communicating with people because whoever she spoke with ended up harassed by security services. “You don’t trust anyone, and then you try not to have any long-term plans with your own life because you don’t want any person to have problems because of you.”

Confirmation of the Pegasus penetration galled her. “My family members are also victimized. The sources are victimized. People I’ve been working with, people who told me their private secrets are victimized,” she said. “It’s despicable. … I don’t know who else has been exposed because of me, who else is in danger because of me.”

Is the minister paranoid or sensible?
When Siddharth Varadarajan, co-founder of India’s independent online news outlet the Wire, learned his phone had been penetrated by Pegasus, his mind immediately ran through his sensitive sources. (Raj K Raj/Hindustan Times/Getty Images)
When Siddharth Varadarajan, co-founder of India’s independent online news outlet the Wire, learned his phone had been penetrated by Pegasus, his mind immediately ran through his sensitive sources. (Raj K Raj/Hindustan Times/Getty Images)
The fear of widespread surveillance impedes the already difficult mechanics of civic activism.

“Sometimes, that fear is the point,” said John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at Citizen Lab, who has researched Pegasus extensively. “The psychological hardship and the self-censorship it causes are key tools of modern-day dictators and authoritarians.”

When Siddharth Varadarajan, co-founder of the Wire, an independent online outlet in India, learned that Security Lab’s analysis showed that his phone had been targeted and penetrated by Pegasus, his mind immediately ran through his sensitive sources. He thought about a minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government who had displayed an unusual concern about surveillance when they met.

The minister first moved the meeting from one location to another at the last moment, then switched off his phone and told Varadarajan to do the same.

Then “the two phones were put in a room and music was put on in that room … and I thought: ‘Boy, this guy is really paranoid. But maybe he was being sensible,'" Varadarajan said in a recent interview.

When forensics showed his phone had been penetrated, he knew the feeling himself. “You feel violated, there’s no doubt about it,” he said. “This is an incredible intrusion, and journalists should not have to deal with this. Nobody should have to deal with this.”

About this project
Priest reported from Ankara, Istanbul and Washington, Timberg from Washington and Mekhennet from Berlin. Michael Birnbaum in Budapest, Mary Beth Sheridan in Mexico City, Joanna Slater in New Delhi, Drew Harwell and Julie Tate in Washington, and Miranda Patrucic from the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project in Sarajevo contributed to this report.

Forbidden Stories, a Paris-based journalism nonprofit, and Amnesty International had access to a list of phone numbers concentrated in countries known to surveil their citizens and also known to have been clients of NSO Group. The two nonprofits shared the information with The Washington Post and 15 other news organizations worldwide that have worked collaboratively to conduct further analysis and reporting over several months. Forbidden Stories oversaw the Pegasus Project, and Amnesty International provided forensic analysis but had no editorial input.

More than 80 journalists from Forbidden Stories, The Washington Post, Le Monde, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Die Zeit, the Guardian, Daraj, Direkt36, Le Soir, Knack, Radio France, the Wire, Proceso, Aristegui Noticias, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, Haaretz and PBS Frontline joined the effort.
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Re: 2021 Strategic and Political Analysis-1

Post by Kaivalya »

^^^

Thank you chetakji...looks like the international chorus singing has started. I think the earlier post on sequence of events holds...so many words wasted on this article with very little meaningful content :( It looks like fodder to stop work at both houses and deflect attention
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Re: 2021 Strategic and Political Analysis-1

Post by Ambar »

Brown sepoys activated, the well oiled synchronized wheels of global BIF ecosystem begins turning. Huff Post, BBC, WaPo, WSJ, Guardian along with their gungadins in India rNDTV, India Today, The Wire, The Print etc splash stories about this "biggest scandal of this century"!. What they don't realize is that the aam janta cannot even spell Pegasus let alone care about some Israeli snooping company hacking into the phones of Raga or some Gates foundation coolie in Delhi. In India elections are won and lost based on economics, development, defense and religion, after the anti-CAA, anti-370 abolishment and anti-farm bill failures, this is a new coordinated campaign launched exactly on the day of the monsoon parliamentary session.

Look at US in summer of 2020, Peru last month and Brazil this month, this is a coordinated, well rehearsed, synchronized plan of the leftist-globalists who have their set their targets to take down nationalist, conservative governments everywhere, pretty much color revolution 2.0. Prepare for many such shenanigans in the coming months.
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Re: 2021 Strategic and Political Analysis-1

Post by sudarshan »

They are working with what they know - Watergate.
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Re: 2021 Strategic and Political Analysis-1

Post by Ambar »

Its like the entire gallery of scoundrels came together to concoct this "scandal" -Forbidden Society, Amnesty International, Freedom Voices Network, Reporters Without Borders , so basically the usual culprits of the international regime change politics all aided and abetted by the US administration, Soros Foundation, Gates Foundation and Omidyar Network. Their orchestration of this news was through the radical left media outlets including the french LeMonde which was once known to be the preferred media outlet for KGB propaganda .
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Re: 2021 Strategic and Political Analysis-1

Post by sudarshan »

^ Think of it this way. If it blows over, then they are out of a lot of ammunition and political capital for a little while (I'd like to say - long while, but I know better than that).
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Re: 2021 Strategic and Political Analysis-1

Post by nachiket »

arshyam wrote:The more I read about his statements, I can't help but wonder what minimal legal qualification is expected of our judges? I ask this since unlike our elected representatives, we the people have neither oversight nor insight into judicial appointments, and many of them seem to be second or even third generation judges.
In Chandrachud's case his position as a judge of the SC and clear path to being CJI has more than a little to do with the fact that his father Y.V. Chandrachud was himself CJI in his time and a rather famous one at that. He was the CJI at the time of the Shah Bano judgement and the Minerva Mills case when the basic structure doctrine was invoked to rule that parliament's power to amend the constitution is limited by the constitution. He also sent Sanjay Gandhi to jail in 1978.

The supposedly unbiased system of selection of judges that they fought so hard to protect also has the stink of nepotism to it.
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Re: 2021 Strategic and Political Analysis-1

Post by chetak »

The blowback had already started in january and the non woke part of the babooze family has again pitched in. There is now consternation in the woke camps and the rates that the BIF is paying for these traitorous wokes to target the govt is surely going to drop.

Hopefully, the embers from this little and most unexpected anti woke wildfire will soon spread to the serving cadres too who will take sides because of caste, creed, religion and ideological mentors will pressurize them to. That should make them easy for the govt to pick off and sideline them as prejudiced public functionaries.



Over 150 ex-civil servants slam ‘handful of highly prejudiced and habitually complaining elements in the fraternity’ for targeting Yogi Govt



Over 150 ex-civil servants slam ‘handful of highly prejudiced and habitually complaining elements in the fraternity’ for targeting Yogi Govt

The Forum of Concerned Citizens urged the "handful of politically motivated, highly prejudiced and habitually complaining elements in our fraternity" to refrain from damning the serving civil servants.

19 July, 2021
OpIndia Staff

In a major development, a group of over 150 eminent citizens, mostly retired government servants including ones from Judiciary, Civil and Police services, Armed Forces, Academia, Professionals and other intellectuals have issued an open letter accusing a group of fellow retired civil servants of selectively targeting the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh.

Backing a few of the major decisions taken by the state government over the last few months like the ones on zero-tolerance policy against crime and criminals, love jihad, cow vigilantism, the handling of Covid19 pandemic in Uttar Pradesh, etc., the Forum of Concerned Citizens, in its open letter slammed a particular section of retired civic servants, overtly posing as ‘non-political’, “for selectively choosing their political targets while following a covert political agenda, indulging in propaganda on the basis of inadequate or concocted facts, and a highly prejudiced mindset”.

Ex-civil servants had accused the Yogi government of eliminating members of the minority communities through police encounters

The trigger appeared to be the recent statement by the group of former civil servants of the All India and Central Services who accused the Yogi Adityanath government of eliminating members of the minority communities through police encounters. Alleging a “complete breakdown of governance” and “blatant violation of rule of law” in Uttar Pradesh, this set of 74 signatories had written to the CM to convey their “deep anguish at what we see happening in UP”.

Hitting out at these “handful of politically motivated, highly prejudiced and habitually complaining elements in the fraternity”, the 150 retired civil servants, including eminent names like Sanjeev Tripathi, former RAW chief, Nageswar Rao, the former director of CBI, Virendra Singh, the former commissioner of Income Tax, amongst others, called the allegations against the UP govt “serious, irresponsible and wholly misconceived”.

The Forum of Concerned Citizens presented its own statistics on such encounters to refute the claims made by the other set of retired civil servants.

The group said that a total of 8,367 police encounters took place in Uttar Pradesh between March 2017 (when Yogi Adityanath became the chief minister) and July 2021. In those encounters, a total of 18,025 criminals suffered injuries, out of which 3,246 were arrested and 140 lost their lives.

They further said that 115 out of 140 ‘petty criminals’ were carrying rewards and only 51 of them were from minority communities. The forum said that between March 1 and April 15, 2012, as many as 699 cases of murder, 263 rape cases and 249 incidents of loot have taken place in the state, asking those who have put forward the allegations if they are advocating status quo of such an anarchical situation.

Image
Excerpt from the open letter written by the Forum of Concerned Citizens

Image
Excerpt from the open letter written by the Forum of Concerned Citizens

Cow slaughter and vigilantism

Hitting out at this set of uninformed former public servants, the Forum of Concerned Citizens said that enough checks and balances are in place, from magisterial enquiry to NHRC, and the PUCL guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court. They also said that linking the National Security Act (NSA) exclusively to cow slaughter by giving wrong statistics of the year 2020 is highly prejudiced.

Crackdown on CAA and NRC agitators

Regarding the allegation of crushing dissent by suppressing ‘democratic protests’ during the CAA, NRC agitation by registering cases against ‘peaceful’ protestors, arrests and recoveries from people under the Recovery of Damages To Public and Private Property Ordinance 2020, the group of these 150 ex-civil servants said that it has been reiterated time and against that protester cannot be called ‘peaceful’ and ‘innocent’ if found indulging in ransacking and destruction of public property. Violators of laws do have to face the consequences, opined the members of the Forum of Concerned Citizens.

Yogi Government’s fight against Covid-19 undermined

They then urged the “highly prejudiced” group of former civil servants to refrain from damning the serving ones, who are fighting tooth and nail 24×7 to fight Covid-19, besides selectively denigrating the democratically elected state governments.

Reminding these “mindless” ex-civil servants of how the Yogi Government single-handedly sent “40 lakh migrant workers to their place of original residence in an unprecedented wave of reverse migration” and how it was able to bring the 2nd wave of COVID under control with the active Covid-19 caseload dipping to 1,554 on July 13, 2021, with only 96 fresh cases and 112 patients recovering in 24 hours. Test Positivity Rate has fallen to 0.9 % and Recovery Rate has increased up to 98.6%, said the Forum of Concerned Citizens.

Image
Excerpt from the open letter written by the Forum of Concerned Citizens


It added: “Scoring Brownie Points flashing some random pictures of dead bodies floating in River Ganga is aimed at damning the hardworking and fearless Corona warriors on the field, who need to be motivated and encouraged to work harder. Instead of such building a disproportionately negative narrative, these whining former civil servants should have rather opted to work as very experienced volunteers in the crisis areas for supplementing manpower resources”.

It urged the “handful of politically motivated, highly prejudiced and habitually complaining elements in our fraternity” to refrain from damning the serving civil servants. It also warned them against selectively denigrating the democratically elected State Governments.

It said that in order to retain respect in civil society they should be viewed as people of intellectual integrity, grace and dignity rather than being identified as people pursuing a covert agenda through false narratives.

224 former IAS officers support anti-conversion law in UP

Pertinently, in the month of January this year too, about 224 former IAS officers have written to the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, extending their support to the recently enacted anti-conversion law in the State. The letter comes days after 104 ‘motivated’ ex-IAS officers demanded the withdrawal of the law, meant to contain the epidemic of grooming jihad.
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Re: 2021 Strategic and Political Analysis-1

Post by Lisa »

kit wrote:
In the first exception, Justice AN Ray was appointed as CJI in 1973 despite being fourth in seniority after Justices JM Shelat, KL Hegde and AN Grover. The reason cited was the involvement of three judges in the landmark Kesavananda Bharati case of 1973, which had held that Parliament cannot make amendments to the Constitution that would alter its `basic structure’.

https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/trend ... 38741.html


I asking for assistance to understand the above. How can a nation that is as old as time have a constitution that is to say the least, 'recent' be treated as it were the word of Gods? How is it possible that elected officials in the 40's could have an opinion so substantive that it is immune to change? What then is the difference between dogma and the law if it unrepelable by an elected body and for that matter what are the people to do if they have voted for a change and the courts say that their opinion does not matter?
Last edited by Lisa on 19 Jul 2021 23:16, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: 2021 Strategic and Political Analysis-1

Post by vijayk »



Could be a ploy by Chinese aligned CON LEFT media to divert focus on China
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Re: 2021 Strategic and Political Analysis-1

Post by vijayk »

https://www.opindia.com/2021/07/project ... overnment/
Pegasus ‘snoopgate’ explainer: Loopholes, conjectures, outright lies with links to the US establishment, Canada govt, George Soros and more
The Pegasus story may be a damp squib, but it has the marking of a story that is carefully crafted to affect "regime change".
5. It is not of interest that most of the agencies involved in this operation are connected to foreign governments? For example, Forbidden Stories is connected to the US establishment and George Soros, Citizens Lab gets funded by the Canadian government, The Wire gets funds from dubious sources including the US establishment and much more?

6. Where is the proof?

7. Is the Left establishment ever going to get their stories right, leaving some space for honest discourse that makes the country better, instead of shoddy attempts to push it into anarchy?

The Pegasus story may be a damp squib, but it has the marking of a story that is carefully crafted to affect “regime change”. It is not secret that governments and establishments in countries like the United States of America, Canada etc have been actively interfering in the internal affairs of India and this could, possibly be another attempt to do just that – cast aspersions against the Modi government even when the facts don’t add up because all it takes to push a country into anarchy is more often than not, a carefully crafted lie.
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Re: 2021 Strategic and Political Analysis-1

Post by chetak »

vijayk wrote:https://www.opindia.com/2021/07/project ... overnment/
Pegasus ‘snoopgate’ explainer: Loopholes, conjectures, outright lies with links to the US establishment, Canada govt, George Soros and more
The Pegasus story may be a damp squib, but it has the marking of a story that is carefully crafted to affect "regime change".
trial runs and gaming scenarios are being tried out to set up the narrative for the next elections. regime change is definitely the name of the game.

expect more of the same while they fine tune their systems

I believe that the hans got rid of a huge thorn in their side by removing trump.

Whom they paid off is the burning question and what was the quid pro quo needs to be answered.

shaheenbagh and the khalistani led and funded "farmer's" agitation was just the beginning. the changes in the punjab congress setup by bringing in sidhu who was pushed into power by the mafia famiglia is another step in the same chronology.
Last edited by chetak on 20 Jul 2021 00:14, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: 2021 Strategic and Political Analysis-1

Post by vijayk »

chetak wrote:
vijayk wrote:https://www.opindia.com/2021/07/project ... overnment/
Pegasus ‘snoopgate’ explainer: Loopholes, conjectures, outright lies with links to the US establishment, Canada govt, George Soros and more
The Pegasus story may be a damp squib, but it has the marking of a story that is carefully crafted to affect "regime change".
trial runs and gaming scenarios are being tried out to set up the narrative for the next elections. regime change is definitely the name of the game.

expect more of the same while they fine tune their systems

I believe that the hans got rid of a huge thorn in their side by removing trump.

Whom they paid off is the burning question and what was the quid pro quo needs to be answered.
Well ... the whole media/corporates/Dems were in the cahoots with them.

Look at how they killed Wuhan lab leak again after making little noise.

First lie and spread sensation ... then slowly reveal truth on low-profile and no one will notice. The lies stick in the larger narrative
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Re: 2021 Strategic and Political Analysis-1

Post by chetak »

vijayk wrote:
chetak wrote:
trial runs and gaming scenarios are being tried out to set up the narrative for the next elections. regime change is definitely the name of the game.

expect more of the same while they fine tune their systems

I believe that the hans got rid of a huge thorn in their side by removing trump.

Whom they paid off is the burning question and what was the quid pro quo needs to be answered.
Well ... the whole media/corporates/Dems were in the cahoots with them.

Look at how they killed Wuhan lab leak again after making little noise.

First lie and spread sensation ... then slowly reveal truth on low-profile and no one will notice. The lies stick in the larger narrative
here is the Indian anti modi narrative that is being pushed by the BIF despite virtually every channel, and media outlet in the country praising Modi's farm laws.

In this specific case, it is as though the word "suo moto" does not exist for some people
shaheenbagh and the khalistani led and funded "farmer's" agitation was just the beginning.

The hugely increased minority activism in the electronic media as well as social media is an indication of things to come and all things sharia being tied onto the same narrative

something very big is brewing and the BIF led minorities are bent on keeping the communal cauldron boiling. That is how djinnah got his motheaten pukistan and also how east Timor was "liberated"

The recent changes in the punjab congress setup, done by bringing in sidhu who was pushed into power by the mafia famiglia is another step in the same chronology.
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Re: 2021 Strategic and Political Analysis-1

Post by vijayk »

https://www.opindia.com/2021/07/pegasus ... -official/
NSO Group, which owns spyware Pegasus, paid firms founded by Biden adviser and former CIA official, says journalist
It is pertinent to note that the payment to SKDK occurred before Joe Biden became the President of the United States.
Kenneth P. Vogel @kenvogel

The Israeli firm NSO GROUP was behind the spyware used to hack journalists & human rights activists, a
@WashingtonPost investigation reveals.

Not included in the story:

NSO GROUP paid @SKDK (BIDEN adviser ANITA DUNN's firm) for advice until late 2019.
Kenneth P. Vogel @kenvogel

NSO GROUP also paid BEACON GLOBAL STRATEGIES (a firm started by JEREMY BASH, an MSNBC analyst who served as CIA & Pentagon chief of staff
under OBAMA) until early 2020, @NSOGroup told me last yr.

It said @SKDK & Beacon Global "provided communications & business strategy advice"
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Re: 2021 Strategic and Political Analysis-1

Post by vijayk »

So...
1. @washingtonpost itself says no one knows who generated 50,000 numbers list. It could as well be an out of work stand up comedian.

2. Of the 50,000, they can only say 37 MAY have been penetrated. Not sure of even the 37.

3. Rest of the 49,963 are pure baloney. 2/3
Look at how they are playing with words

Image


Image
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Re: 2021 Strategic and Political Analysis-1

Post by vijayk »

Meanwhile real news


Image
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Re: 2021 Strategic and Political Analysis-1

Post by chetak »

Here is the congi gameplan for pegasus.

Opening moves in LS and RS shampoo boy is demanding a JPC


@ANI·6h
PM & HM are involved in snooping on Opposition leaders including Rahul Gandhi, journalists & even Union ministers. Before a probe, Amit Shah sahab should resign & an inquiry should be conducted against Modi sahab: LoP in Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge on Pegasus report
via@ANI·6h


PM Modi says he promotes Digital India but today we're seeing it is surveillance India. NSO is saying that its products are used exclusively by govt to fight crime & terror. But they're using Pegasus against people who speak against Modi: Leader of Congress in LS AR Chowdhury
via@ANI·6h
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Re: 2021 Strategic and Political Analysis-1

Post by Ambar »

Its not like we needed reminding but it goes to show what Modi & Co are up against. We constantly needle the government and the PM saying they have forgotten that they have 303 seats, but those 303 seats by itself is not sufficient to take on and defeat the 'break India forces' easily. The govt is fighting a battle against a extremely well funded, well connected adversary that has 2/3rds of the global media at its disposal to set any narrative it chooses.
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Re: 2021 Strategic and Political Analysis-1

Post by chetak »

Motabhai on pegasus


Image
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Re: 2021 Strategic and Political Analysis-1

Post by Ambar »

chetak wrote: shaheenbagh and the khalistani led and funded "farmer's" agitation was just the beginning. the changes in the punjab congress setup by bringing in sidhu who was pushed into power by the mafia famiglia is another step in the same chronology.
I am curious to see how this ends. The INC in Punjab has always been an independent entity and has kept the gandhi family and the INC puppetmasters in Delhi at an arms length away for obvious reasons. With the Gandhis forcefully trying to insert Navjot Sidhu, a rabble rousing, openly pro-pakistani retired cricketer with no political base as the CM contender from INC for the next elections, it is anybody's guess how the PJ INC will look like in future. There are already rumors that Capt Amrinder and his son may float a new party in the state if the INC high command insists on pushing Sidhu as the CM face.

If they do succeed in sidelining Capt Amrinder Singh, the only one to benefit other than Sidhu will be AAP which is many a fold more dangerous than Sidhu as the CM of PJ. AAP must not be allowed to grow anywhere outside of Delhi especially in sensitive border states like PJ.
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Re: 2021 Strategic and Political Analysis-1

Post by shravanp »

Ambar wrote:Its not like we needed reminding but it goes to show what Modi & Co are up against. We constantly needle the government and the PM saying they have forgotten that they have 303 seats, but those 303 seats by itself is not sufficient to take on and defeat the 'break India forces' easily. The govt is fighting a battle against a extremely well funded, well connected adversary that has 2/3rds of the global media at its disposal to set any narrative it chooses.
I think the false propaganda that media is spouting, should be qualified in future, as 'Internal disturbances'. Make it a function for NIA. This should bring in a purview of IPC framework on media narratives. No more fakery.
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Re: 2021 Strategic and Political Analysis-1

Post by chetak »

Ambar wrote:
chetak wrote: shaheenbagh and the khalistani led and funded "farmer's" agitation was just the beginning. the changes in the punjab congress setup by bringing in sidhu who was pushed into power by the mafia famiglia is another step in the same chronology.
I am curious to see how this ends. The INC in Punjab has always been an independent entity and has kept the gandhi family and the INC puppetmasters in Delhi at an arms length away for obvious reasons. With the Gandhis forcefully trying to insert Navjot Sidhu, a rabble rousing, openly pro-pakistani retired cricketer with no political base as the CM contender from INC for the next elections, it is anybody's guess how the PJ INC will look like in future. There are already rumors that Capt Amrinder and his son may float a new party in the state if the INC high command insists on pushing Sidhu as the CM face.

If they do succeed in sidelining Capt Amrinder Singh, the only one to benefit other than Sidhu will be AAP which is many a fold more dangerous than Sidhu as the CM of PJ. AAP must not be allowed to grow anywhere outside of Delhi especially in sensitive border states like PJ.
I think that money for elections may be behind all these hectic maneuverings. amarinder is holding back, just in case he is forced to quit and start his own party before the elections.

the congi party funds have depleted substantially and amarinder may be stifling party collections even further to build his own war chest.

the mafia famiglia need siddhu in a powerful position to keep an eye on amarinder otherwise proper feedback on the ground situation may become an issue, especially on the funds front and also the early warning on amarinder's plans if he makes any move to form a new party. He will need MLAs to support him and move with him and someone is sure to blab in exchange money and a choice minister's post.

the farmers "agitation" has eaten away much of the arthiya funds, furthermore, the incomings from the APMC looting has dwindled to a slow trickle all over the country.

the vasooli aghadi in MAH has sidelined the congis and the cream is being taken away by the other two, especially after the bengal elections where the chances of the congis leading the alternate front to take on the BJP has become almost nonexistent.

So, they may all be trying their best to throttle the congis whose earlier unparalleled access to money was at the root of their power and influence.

Fadnavis will become CM, sooner rather than later and he will go after the heads of the MVA snakes by cutting off their access to funds and raking up corruption cases against them.

onion merchants are becoming very nervous as their vansh, legacy, and future are all in serious jeopardy.

The president, VP and PM positions are all in their sights, and desperately hoping that at least one of the three will fall to them.

UP will be the first big test and unfortunately for them, YA has left all the others in his dust and is striding the political landscape like the colossus like he is.

The BJP's bench strength is quite stunning, with AS, YA, Hemantha, Fadnavis, et al in the front row and is still building spectacularly with more in the pipeline.

khujliwal has looted dilli for long and has a big war chest and more to come, if needed, from the BIF including from the people across the border.

almost every step that the BJP has taken so far has deep political repercussions for the opposition. Too bad that they misfired in bengal but still they have managed to garner a very respectable number of seats in their kitty.
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Re: 2021 Strategic and Political Analysis-1

Post by vijayk »

On UP, I think Pappini, UP ka ladka and Mayawati are doing jugalbandi along with Owaisi.

Mayawati is playing brahmin card.
Mullah yam dynasty playing Paki/ISI card
Pappini is doing her Indira brahmin card

But in the end, they will all put the best candidate and consolidate all votes like WB against BJP


'
Last edited by vijayk on 20 Jul 2021 03:11, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: 2021 Strategic and Political Analysis-1

Post by ManSingh »

Ambar wrote:
chetak wrote: shaheenbagh and the khalistani led and funded "farmer's" agitation was just the beginning. the changes in the punjab congress setup by bringing in sidhu who was pushed into power by the mafia famiglia is another step in the same chronology.
I am curious to see how this ends. The INC in Punjab has always been an independent entity and has kept the gandhi family and the INC puppetmasters in Delhi at an arms length away for obvious reasons. With the Gandhis forcefully trying to insert Navjot Sidhu, a rabble rousing, openly pro-pakistani retired cricketer with no political base as the CM contender from INC for the next elections, it is anybody's guess how the PJ INC will look like in future. There are already rumors that Capt Amrinder and his son may float a new party in the state if the INC high command insists on pushing Sidhu as the CM face.

If they do succeed in sidelining Capt Amrinder Singh, the only one to benefit other than Sidhu will be AAP which is many a fold more dangerous than Sidhu as the CM of PJ. AAP must not be allowed to grow anywhere outside of Delhi especially in sensitive border states like PJ.
The gain at the expense of Congress will be for the Akali's and not AAP. AAP's votebank is limited to a specific region due to Bhagwant Mann.

Sidhu would have had decent chances at becoming a CM if he had Capt's backing. Not sure he can become CM riding roughshod over the capt. Using Rahul Gandhi's ( an outsider ) intervention to play tough against a native candidate will lower his stock.

Sidhu is a tough nut to crack as well. If central brass thinks they can use Sidhu as a remote control or fund raiser in PB, they are in for a tough surprise.
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Re: 2021 Strategic and Political Analysis-1

Post by chetak »

vijayk wrote:On UP, I think Pappini, UP ka ladka and Mayawati are doing jugalbandi along with Owaisi.

Mayawati is playing brahmin card.
Mullah yam dynasty playing Paki/ISI card
Pappini is doing her Indira brahmin card

But in the end, they will all put best candidate and consolidate all votes like WB for the best candidate against BJP
'
they badly misread the situation in bengal.

UP under YA is a bird of a very different feather. The fuel prices will be cut just before if not earlier declining to the optimum level on its own. The OPEC is going to start producing more per some new agreement of theirs and that should cool prices in the short to medium term.

but still, the opposition has learned a lot and it will pay to be wary and cautious because the outcome of UP elections will play a large part in the next general election and the BJP will not want to mess up this one It is Modi's home state too.
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Re: 2021 Strategic and Political Analysis-1

Post by chetak »

ManSingh wrote:
Ambar wrote:
I am curious to see how this ends. The INC in Punjab has always been an independent entity and has kept the gandhi family and the INC puppetmasters in Delhi at an arms length away for obvious reasons. With the Gandhis forcefully trying to insert Navjot Sidhu, a rabble rousing, openly pro-pakistani retired cricketer with no political base as the CM contender from INC for the next elections, it is anybody's guess how the PJ INC will look like in future. There are already rumors that Capt Amrinder and his son may float a new party in the state if the INC high command insists on pushing Sidhu as the CM face.

If they do succeed in sidelining Capt Amrinder Singh, the only one to benefit other than Sidhu will be AAP which is many a fold more dangerous than Sidhu as the CM of PJ. AAP must not be allowed to grow anywhere outside of Delhi especially in sensitive border states like PJ.
The gain at the expense of Congress will be for the Akali's and not AAP. AAP's votebank is limited to a specific region due to Bhagwant Mann.

Sidhu would have had decent chances at becoming a CM if he had Capt's backing. Not sure he can become CM riding roughshod over the capt. Using Rahul Gandhi's ( an outsider ) intervention to play tough against a native candidate will lower his stock.

Sidhu is a tough nut to crack as well. If central brass thinks they can use Sidhu as a remote control or fund raiser in PB, they are in for a tough surprise.
I know that the BJP is not a big player in punjab but certainly they are not going to just roll over and play dead.

There is a considerable hindu as also the dalit vote there and the BJP do have some turbanned jat warriors in their kitty too. They might choose to field some of the dalit candidates to shore up the numbers and maybe wind up kingmakers in the bargain

they will have no coalition partners to defer to this time and so they will have a free hand if they so desire.

I am still depending on siddhu to mess up things right royally for the congis in his vain bid to become CM, by hook or by crook.
Ambar
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Re: 2021 Strategic and Political Analysis-1

Post by Ambar »

vijayk wrote:On UP, I think Pappini, UP ka ladka and Mayawati are doing jugalbandi along with Owaisi.

Mayawati is playing brahmin card.
Mullah yam dynasty playing Paki/ISI card
Pappini is doing her Indira brahmin card

But in the end, they will all put the best candidate and consolidate all votes like WB against BJP


'
UP is not WB, in WB Momata is strong enough on her own without needing any external help to win elections, her 800 crores to PK was a waste of money as she could have had the same results without him. The "mahagathbhandan" experiment has been tried before, there are generational mistrust between the communities to see any cross voting between jatavs, yadavs and brahmins. While neither a BJP victory nor a BJP defeat is a foregone conclusion in UP (and i hope anyone posting numbers quoting imaginary psephologists like Dr PP will get a perma ban) , the political landscape in UP is entirely different compared to WB. INC is a spent force in UP as they are in many states except PJ, KAR, RJ, MP and to some extent GJ.
ManSingh
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Re: 2021 Strategic and Political Analysis-1

Post by ManSingh »

chetak wrote:
ManSingh wrote:
The gain at the expense of Congress will be for the Akali's and not AAP. AAP's votebank is limited to a specific region due to Bhagwant Mann.

Sidhu would have had decent chances at becoming a CM if he had Capt's backing. Not sure he can become CM riding roughshod over the capt. Using Rahul Gandhi's ( an outsider ) intervention to play tough against a native candidate will lower his stock.

Sidhu is a tough nut to crack as well. If central brass thinks they can use Sidhu as a remote control or fund raiser in PB, they are in for a tough surprise.
I know that the BJP is not a big player in punjab but certainly they are not going to just roll over and play dead.

There is a considerable hindu as also the dalit vote there and the BJP do have some turbanned jat warriors in their kitty too. They might choose to field some of the dalit candidates to shore up the numbers and maybe wind up kingmakers in the bargain

they will have no coalition partners to defer to this time and so they will have a free hand if they so desire.

I am still depending on siddhu to mess up things right royally for the congis in his vain bid to become CM, by hook or by crook.
Of course, every party tries its best to win including the BJP.

For the population groups you mentioned:

Hindu-urban: Maybe they will vote BJP. Traditionally, they have voted congress. New Delhi has a Hindu vote too, but that did not automatically translate to BJP votes. Still this is the most achievable set of votes for BJP.

Hindu-rural: Generally traders (small shops), Arhtiyas etc. They have been hit by likes of Amazon, flipkart and dare I say, possibly farm bills as well. Anyway too small a vote bank to matter for any party.

Dalit: Personally I have seen them mostly vote Congress or Akali. Both these parties have and have traditionally had very strong dalit candidates. Urban dalits vote congress, rural dalits vote Akali. BSP is a bit player.

I don't think the Jatt Sikh ( Jat is for Haryanvi jats ) BJP candidates have a chance. The tide for BJP was turning in the past and it still may once this farm bills thing blows over. As of now, the chance would be next to NIL in this group.

I am not sure BJP will not have an alliance(declared/undeclared) in PB.
chetak
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Re: 2021 Strategic and Political Analysis-1

Post by chetak »

Another incident that shows CPM’s financial mishandling of #cooperativesectors, a 100 crore rupee fraud has been found in a #Cooperativebank controlled by #communists. The fraud happened at #KaruvannurServiceCooperativebank from a period of 2014 to 2020.
via@eOrganiser.22h
chetak
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Re: 2021 Strategic and Political Analysis-1

Post by chetak »

Danish siddique funeral..... Mismanaged covid protocols by - u know whom....

Ssshhhh secularism...
via@Indumakalktchi




[img]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E6qivHOUUAs ... 00x900[img]


Thanks, Tanaji saar.

this is an image from Chittagong, Bangladesh, in 2019 where devotees took part in a religious procession.

my bad.
Last edited by chetak on 20 Jul 2021 18:00, edited 1 time in total.
chetak
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Re: 2021 Strategic and Political Analysis-1

Post by chetak »

old news but it had to be said

Navjot Singh Sidhu appointed Punjab Congress Chief


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