China proposes making “dissemination of false information” a crime in UN treaty

A new international convention on cybercrime is being negotiated at the United Nations (UN) meeting in Vienna, Austria, and China has proposed the criminalization of the “dissemination of false information.”

The proposal seems like an attempt by China to legitimize its internet controls and is likely going to be contested by Western countries, even though many of them have been copying parts of China’s playbook in recent times.

There is already an existing international convention on cybercrime that was signed in 2001. However, it was not a UN treaty and it has not been signed by Russia, China, Brazil, and India, which are some of the largest countries in the world.

In the ongoing negotiations on the new treaty, the proposals that have been suggested have been put into two categories; those with wide support and those that are contested. Proposals on controlling online content have generally fallen into the contested category and have not been part of immediate discussions.

Keep reading

Failed New Mexico GOP candidate arrested for allegedly paying gunmen to fire shots at several Democrats’ homes

An unsuccessful Republican candidate was arrested in connection to several gunshot incidents at Democrats’ homes in New Mexico.

Solomon Peña was arrested on Monday by Albuquerque police at his residence after a SWAT standoff.

The 39-year-old is accused of paying four other men to shoot at the homes of two county commissioners and two state legislators, all Democrats. The shootings were made between Dec. 4 and Jan. 5. In one incident from Dec. 11, twelve bullets were fired at the North Valley home of County Commissioner Debbie O’Malley.

“This type of radicalism is a threat to our nation, and it has made its way to our doorstep right here in Albuquerque, New Mexico,” said Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller, a Democrat, in a media briefing.

Peña ran for a seat in the New Mexico House of Representatives as a Republican despite having been previously convicted in 2008 of smash and grab robberies and having served five years in prison. He lost in 2022 by a large margin, but on Twitter, he claimed that election fraud had stolen the contest from him.

Keep reading

Ex-FBI Agent Says Idaho Murders Suspect Bryan Kohberger Had an ‘Incel Complex’ That Drove Him to Kill

University of Idaho murder suspect Bryan Kohberger may have been driven to kill by his history of social issues and a possible “incel complex,” a former FBI investigator told The Post.

“The murders may have been… an effort to assert some type of dominance,” former FBI agent and security expert Pete Yachmetz explained to The Post this week.

Kohberger, 28, was arrested late last month for the Nov. 13 stabbing deaths of Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20, at an off-campus residence in Moscow, Idaho. Yachmetz believes the brutality of the crime and Kohberger’s history of social challenges may offer some hints to his possible motive.

“I believe a continued stabbing of a victim indicates…an uncontrollable rage and extreme anger,” Yachmetz said, noting that Kohberger has been described as “socially awkward with a long history of interpersonal problems.”

“I think he may have developed a sort of incel complex,” he surmised.

Keep reading

Panic grips Special Forces community amid investigation into drugs, human trafficking

Panic and fear spread throughout the special operations community at Fort Bragg and Fayetteville, North Carolina as CID and FBI agents investigated members of 3rd Special Forces Group and Delta Force who allegedly were involved in drug and in one instance human trafficking, according to nearly a dozen current and former military sources.

The arrests began Thursday, Jan. 5 and culminated with a 100% recall and accountability formation for 1st Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group yesterday.

It is unknown when the investigation into drug and human trafficking in the Fort Bragg area began, but it is known that the FBI became involved in investigating the deaths of Timothy Dumas and Delta Force operator Billy Lavigne in 2020 when both were found shot to death at a training site on Bragg.

Last week’s arrests began with investigators receiving more evidence after an undercover law enforcement officer posing as an underage girl helped arrest a member of 1st Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group back in December. That individual was known to moonlight as a bouncer at a bar in Southern Pines frequented by the Special Forces community, a military source close to the situation explained to Connecting Vets. The Green Beret is alleged to have been pimping underaged girls to the Special Forces community at drug-fueled parties in Southern Pines.

“This is what happens when there is no war, no direction, and an 18-month red cycle with no mission,” a Special Forces soldier said. “So dudes are fucking around with young kids and the craziest drugs. All these lives ruined because people are just bored.”

Whether the individual rolled on his accomplices or law enforcement ripped the data from his cell phone, it quickly led to the arrest of another Green Beret involved in drug trafficking in 1st Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group.

With the information of additional suspects in hand, CID and military police set up shop at one of the main bottlenecks to entering or exiting Fort Bragg: the Longstreet gate between the post and Southern Pines.

Keep reading

The dark web’s criminal minds see Internet of Things as next big hacking prize

John Hultquist, vice president of intelligence analysis at Google-owned cybersecurity firm Mandiant, likens his job to studying criminal minds through a soda straw. He monitors cyberthreat groups in real time on the dark web, watching what amounts to a free market of criminal innovation ebb and flow.

Groups buy and sell services, and one hot idea — a business model for a crime — can take off quickly when people realize that it works to do damage or to get people to pay. Last year, it was ransomware, as criminal hacking groups figured out how to shut down servers through what’s called directed denial of service attacks. But 2022, say experts, may have marked an inflection point due to the rapid proliferation of IoT (Internet of Things) devices.

Attacks are evolving from those that shut down computers or stole data, to include those that could more directly wreak havoc on everyday life. IoT devices can be the entry points for attacks on parts of countries’ critical infrastructure, like electrical grids or pipelines, or they can be the specific targets of criminals, as in the case of cars or medical devices that contain software.

“What I wish is that the vulnerabilities of cybersecurity could never negatively affect human life and infrastructure,” says Meredith Schnur, cyber brokerage leader for US & Canada at Marsh & McLennan, which insures large companies against cyberattacks. “Everything else is just business.”

Keep reading

Satanic child abuse ring shut victims in oven, forced them to kill animals and filmed themselves gang raping them, court hears

A satanic child abuse ring tortured children by putting them in an oven, forcing them to kill animals and gang raping them, a court has heard.

Seven men and four women are accused of abusing three young children over the course of 10 years in Glasgow which saw them attempt to ‘call on spirits and demons’. 

Two girls – one of whom was allegedly shut in a microwave, fridge, oven and freezer in an attempted to kill her – and one boy were forced to kill animals as well as being sexually abused by the group, it is claimed.

Members of the group have been charged with 43 offences with among the most serious being attempted murder and rape of young children.

Iain Owens, 44, Elaine Lannery, 38, Lesley Williams, 41, Paul Brannan, 40, Marianne Gallagher, 38, Scott Forbes, 49, Barry Watson, 46, Mark Carr, 49, Richard Gachagan, 45, Leona Laing, 50, and John Clark, 46, all deny the offences.

Four other people alleged to have been involved in the ring –  Maureen Goudie, Steven McHendrie, Robert Brown, James McLean and Douglas Gachagan – have since died, according to court papers.

The High Court in Glasgow was told on Friday that the offences took place between January 2010 and March 2020 at a number of addresses in the city.

The group are alleged to have run a wheelchair over the legs of one of the girls, as well as putting a plastic bag over her head.

It’s claimed she was made to eat cat food, as well as take drugs and alcohol, with the other girl also made to eat pet food.

The second girl was allegedly chased by an adult wearing a devil mask and hung by her jumper from a nail on the wall. 

This culminated with her being pushed into and trapped inside a microwave, an oven, a fridge freezer and various cupboards, the court heard.

It is claimed one of the girls was threatened with being sent to Turkey with a male stranger, while the boy was put in a bath which they said was filled with blood. 

The boy and older girl are alleged to have been made to take part in ‘seances (and) use a Ouija board…to call on spirits and demons’.

The children were also involved in ‘witchcraft’ leading them to believe that they themselves had ‘metamorphosed into animals’.

The 11 are further said to have worn cloaks and devil horns as well making the young boy stab a budgie to death.

The group are also accused of killing a number of dogs including getting the children to attack the animals.

It is claimed that all three children were raped and sexually assaulted by members of the ring, with some cheering and clapping while recording the offences.

Prosecutors allege that some members of the group paid for ‘sexual services’ from three of the children.

The court heard that when the older girl called the police she was threatened by members of the group and had her call disconnected. 

Keep reading

The way you walk is apparently as unique as your fingerprint and the UAE wants to use it to track criminals

According to reports out of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), biometrics are gaining an ever more prominent place in local law enforcement’s activities, and the type of technology involved is also getting ever more fine-grained.

Accuracy aside – but apparently, the way you walk – as interpreted by mass surveillance technology – can now be used as an incriminating piece of evidence against you in this country.

As always with these stories, one wonders how in the world the police ever managed to do their job for centuries (as they have done) without relying on invasive and controversial technologies like this – but that is not the question most media outlets are willing to “bother” with just now.

Instead, we’re hearing from one of the Emirates, Dubai, that the thing with biometric surveillance of the population – handily justified as something positive, when there’s a criminal case that can be attached to the practice – has now gone well beyond fingerprinting, facial recognition, and such.

Keep reading

Pfizer has a shockingly long history of engaging in illegal activities and human experimentation

Big Pharma company Pfizer has repeatedly engaged in inhumane and illegal activities in its history, including acts of fraud, corruption and even human experimentation disguised as vaccine trials.

An investigative journalist writing about censored subjects under the pseudonym “Kanekoa the Great” noted on his Substack blog that one of the greatest cultural transformations to occur in the past nearly three years is the complete rehabilitation of the image of Big Pharma companies and their newfound glorification for supposedly being responsible for saving humanity from the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

“An industry plagued by decades of fraud, corruption and criminality managed to quickly rebrand itself as the savior of humanity during the COVID-19 crisis. But nothing inherently changed. Big Pharma still values shareholders’ profits more than people’s lives,” Kanekoa the Great wrote. (Related: Pfizer’s business model is to create the sickness and sell the “cure.”)

For evidence of Pfizer’s history of engaging in illegal activity that leads to the deaths of hundreds, Kanekoa the Great said to look no further than Nigeria.

In the northern Nigerian city of Kano, Pfizer in 1996 administered an experimental drug to 200 children whose parents never knew that their kids were subjected to a clinical trial. Pfizer did not obtain consent or inform any of the children or their parents that they were the subjects of an experiment. The pharma company did not even inform the recipients that the drug has not been approved for wider use.

Eleven of the children died. Dozens more of the children suffered severe adverse effects, including brain damage and organ failure.

As a result of criminal and civil suits, Pfizer agreed to pay $75 million to the families harmed. Now, Kano’s residents are reasonably hesitant of any vaccinations.

Keep reading

Former assistant FBI director says he believes Idaho killer suspect has killed before

Former assistant FBI Director Chris Swecker said Tuesday the man charged with murdering four Idaho college students has probably killed before.

“I hate to say this because it sounds so grim, but I don’t think this is the first time he’s ever killed,” Swecker said about accused killer Bryan Kohberger on the John Solomon Reports podcast. “I think the FBI is probably scouring the area around Pennsylvania where he spent a lot of time.”

The 28-year-old Kohberger was arrested at his parents’ house in eastern Pennsylvania and charged with first-degree murder in connection with the Nov. 13 deaths of four University of Idaho students: Kaylee Goncalves, Maddie Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin. 

He was at the time of the killings pursing a doctorate degree in criminology and forensics at Washington State University. 

Kohberger’s family released a statement this weekend asking for the legal process to play out. 

“We have fully cooperated with law enforcement agencies in an attempt to seek the truth and promote his presumption of innocence rather than judge unknown facts and make erroneous assumptions,” the statement read. 

Keep reading

Millionaire pharma exec Gigi Jordan — who killed 8-year-old son — found dead inside NYC home in possible suicide

Gigi Jordan, the millionaire pharmaceutical executive convicted of manslaughter in the death of her 8-year-old son, was found dead inside her Brooklyn home in what cops are investigating as a possible suicide, The Post has learned.

Her body was found around 12:30 a.m. Friday at her apartment in in Stuyvesant Heights, according to sources — just hours after US Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued an order that was expected to send Jordan, 62, back to prison.

The cause of death has yet to be determined, but sources said a note was found at the scene.

It marks what may be the final chapter in a long tale full of bizarre twists and turns.

Jordan was accused of force-feeding her autistic son, Jude Mirra, a lethal dose of pills in February 2010 inside a luxury

suite at the Peninsula Hotel.

During a strange six-week trial, Jordan’s defense lawyers argued she killed the boy while in a state of extreme emotional disturbance, fearing he was about to be murdered by her ex-husband.

A Manhattan jury acquitted her of the top murder count, but found Jordan guilty of manslaughter in 2014.

Keep reading