Tag: police state

He publishes books on satanism and torture to inspire neo-Nazis. The FBI has paid him $140,000

For years, Joshua Caleb Sutter, an avowed white supremacist from South Carolina, has published and sold books glorifying torture, child abuse, rape, terrorism, mass murder and more – all in the name of his racist and satanic beliefs.

His self-published books have become go-to texts for some of the most extreme and violent white supremacists across the world. They have become required reading in a sinister satanist cult that has spread to several countries and has already inspired several known terrorists and would-be mass killers.

The ideas Sutter pushes are so vile they have proven too much even for some of the country’s most dangerous and violent neo-Nazis. In 2018 several people left the white supremacist domestic terrorism group Atomwaffen Division, citing Sutter’s books – and his growing influence in the organization – as too radical even for them.

Since 2004, while his publishing business and his influence over radical white supremacists have swelled, Sutter has had another benefactor: the American taxpayer. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has paid him at least $140,000 over the past 18 years to provide information about the extremist groups he associates with, according to court records.

How useful that information has been in fighting extremism is impossible to tell. The FBI won’t talk about Sutter and has yet to provide USA TODAY with any documents about the payments to him, or the intelligence he provided, in response to requests under the Freedom of Information Act.

But the relationship between the federal government and one of the chief propagandists of the most radical wing of white supremacy, experts say, raises profound concerns, including whether the agency actually directs public money to help fund the very same extremist movements and hateful propaganda it is supposed to be clamping down on.

“He’s in a win-win situation,” said Ariel Koch, a research fellow at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism at Israel’s Reichman University who studies extremist movements. “He gets money from the government and he can continue doing what he likes to do, which is to publish literature that is distributed by neo-Nazis.”

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Blogger claims she is being probed in Germany over Donbass coverage

A blogger with tens of thousands of subscribers has said she is being probed in Germany over her coverage of the Ukraine conflict. German media confirmed the activist is the subject of an investigation by a local prosecutor’s office.

In an interview aired on Friday on Russia’s Channel One, Alina Lipp said she was being “persecuted” in particular for a post from February 24, the day when Russia launched its offensive against Ukraine. Back then she wrote that “denazification” had started, while also accusing Ukraine of killing civilians for years.

“Secondly, I am being prosecuted for the fact that on March 12 I published a video on my Telegram channel where I said that Ukraine is carrying out genocide in the Donbass,” Lipp revealed.

According to the German news website t-online, law enforcement suspects Lipp of “constantly showing her solidarity with Russia’s war against Ukraine,” of fomenting a split in German society and of spreading hatred through “distorted, partially false” reporting.

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Uvalde Hires Private Law Firm to Argue It Doesn’t Have to Release School Shooting Public Records

The City of Uvalde and its police department are working with a private law firm to prevent the release of nearly any record related to the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in which 19 children and two teachers died, according to a letter obtained by Motherboard in response to a series of public information requests we made. The public records Uvalde is trying to suppress include body camera footage, photos, 911 calls, emails, text messages, criminal records, and more.

“The City has not voluntarily released any information to a member of the public,” the city’s lawyer, Cynthia Trevino, who works for the private law firm Denton Navarro Rocha Bernal & Zech, wrote in a letter to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. The city wrote the letter asking Paxton for a determination about what information it is required to release to the public, which is standard practice in Texas. Paxton’s office will eventually rule which of the city’s arguments have merit and will determine which, if any, public records it is required to release.

The letter makes clear, however, that the city and its police department want to be exempted from releasing a wide variety of records in part because it is being sued, in part because some of the records could include “highly embarrassing information,” in part because some of the information is “not of legitimate concern to the public,” in part because the information could reveal “methods, techniques, and strategies for preventing and predicting crime,” in part because some of the information may cause or may “regard … emotional/mental distress,” and in part because its response to the shooting is being investigated by the Texas Rangers, the FBI, and the Uvalde County District Attorney. 

The letter explains that Uvalde has at least one in-house attorney (whose communications it is trying to prevent from public release), and yet, it is using outside private counsel to deal with a matter of extreme  importance and public interest. Uvalde’s city government and its police department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Motherboard.

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Japan passes bill making ‘online insults’ punishable by one year in jail

In an attempt to quell public concern about cyberbullying, Japan has passed legislation making “online insults” punishable by imprisonment.

The bill, passed by the Japanese government on Monday, has amended the country’s penal code and will take effect this summer.

According to the Japan Times, the amendment comes as a response to the death of professional wrestler and Netflix’s Terrance House reality star Hana Kimura.

Kimura, 22, died by suicide in 2020. News of her death was spread nationwide, with many Japanese citizens pointing to the ample online abuse and harassment Kimura received in the months before her death.

Offenders who post “online insults” can now be punished under the law with up to one year of jailtime, or fined ¥300,000 (approximately $2,870).

Prior to this legislation, insults were still illegal, though the punishment was lesser, with offenders earning fewer than 30 days detention and a fine of ¥10,000 (approximately $95).

According to CNN, under Japan’s penal code, insults “are defined as publicly demeaning someone’s social standing without referring to specific facts about them or a specific action.”

Insults differ from defamation in Japan, the distinguishing factor being that defamation must include specific facts when publicly demeaning another person. Defamation is also punishable under Japanese law.

The degree to which an insult will be punished under the new law has yet to be determined.

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Congress Finds Even More Reasons To Disregard The Bill of Rights

With news that Congress is on its way to passing new gun control laws that will make it easier for bureaucrats to disarm law-abiding Americans, the United States is once again repeating the egregious mistake of responding to a perceived “emergency” by crippling constitutional protections for Americans’ unalienable rights.

First we had the post-9/11 passage of the Patriot Act and its creation of a national security surveillance state that tracks and records Americans’ digital communications despite the absence of probable cause, legal warrants, or explicit consent. Then we had the Department of Homeland Security’s recent flirtation with a “disinformation board” meant to regulate speech and censor points of view at odds with the government’s officially sanctioned “narratives.”

Now we have a renewed push for “red flag” laws intended to deprive Americans of their weapons without proper due process or criminal conviction. Over the last 20 years, America’s First, Second, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments have been under sustained attack, and, amazingly, it has been elected officials sworn by oath to “support and defend” those same amendments who have led much of the charge.

There’s nothing so dangerous as a politician who undermines the Bill of Rights during a moment of tragedy or crisis. Those rights, set forth as the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution as a redundancy to make explicitly clear what is beyond the scope of the federal government’s enumerated powers, are not wishy-washy suggestions meant to be ignored during times of “emergency.” On the contrary, it is during such times when their safeguards become most critical.

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Florida Woman Under FBI Investigation For Selling Ashley Biden’s Diary in Which Joe’s Daughter Recalls ‘Showers w/my Dad’

A Florida woman is under FBI investigation for selling Ashley Biden’s diary.

The diary is authentic and the FBI previously raided Project Veritas for possible ‘theft’ of the journal belonging to Biden’s daughter.

Aimee Harris, 39, found Ashley Biden’s diary at a halfway house in Palm Beach in 2020 and sold it to Project Veritas for $40,000.

According to the Daily Mail, Ashely Biden, Joe Biden’s youngest daughter, left her diary under a mattress at the Palm Beach rehab home.

In a January 2019 entry, Ashley Biden recalled how she used to shower with her father, Joe Biden, and suggested it may have contributed to a sex addiction.

“I have always been boy crazy,’ Ashley wrote. ‘Hyper-sexualized @ a young age … I remember somewhat being sexualized with [a family member]; I remember having sex with friends @ a young age; showers w/ my dad (probably not appropriate).’ she wrote in a January 2019 entry, according to the Daily Mail.

Ashley Biden, now 41, has battled drug and alcohol addiction since she was very young.

According to her journal entries, Ashley Biden was still using drugs while campaigning for her father Joe Biden in 2019.

In fact, Joe Biden cried before one of his Democrat debates after Ashley Biden called him to let him know her drug use led her to financial ruin.

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How the Federal Government Buys Our Cell Phone Location Data

Over the past few years, data brokers and federal military, intelligence, and law enforcement agencies have formed a vast, secretive partnership to surveil the movements of millions of people. Many of the mobile apps on our cell phones track our movements with great precision and frequency. Data brokers harvest our location data from the app developers, and then sell it to these agencies. Once in government hands, the data is used by the military to spy on people overseas, by ICE to monitor people in and around the U.S., and by criminal investigators like the FBI and Secret Service. This post will draw on recent research and reporting to explain how this surveillance partnership works, why is it alarming, and what can we do about it.

Where does the data come from?

Weather apps, navigation apps, coupon apps, and “family safety” apps often request location access in order to enable key features. But once an app has location access, it typically has free rein to share that access with just about anyone.

That’s where the location data broker industry comes in. Data brokers entice app developers with cash-for-data deals, often paying per user for direct access to their device. Developers can add bits of code called “software development kits,” or SDKs, from location brokers into their apps. Once installed, a broker’s SDK is able to gather data whenever the app itself has access to it: sometimes, that means access to location data whenever the app is open. In other cases, it means “background” access to data whenever the phone is on, even if the app is closed.

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Everything We Know About the 31 Patriot Front Members Arrested in a U-Haul

For years, many members of the white nationalist group Patriot Front have mostly managed to keep their identities under wraps. 

But now, the mask is off. Thirty-one members of the notoriously secretive, optics-obsessed group, including their leader, were arrested in Idaho over the weekend. And mugshots and names of all 31 arrestees were released by the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office. 

The group was traveling in the back of a U-Haul on Saturday, apparently headed to downtown Coeur d’Alene where an annual LGBTQ Pride event (and a far-right counter-event) was underway, when they were intercepted by local law enforcement. 

Coeur d’Alene police said that a “concerned citizen” called the cops when they noticed a group who resembled “a little like an army” clambering into the back of a U-Haul with shields. 

Video footage showed police rolling up the rear door to reveal men packed like sardines into the back of the truck. All the men were in Patriot Front uniform—khakis, navy jackets, sunglasses, caps, gloves, and white balaclavas covering their faces. 

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Met Police Invokes “National Security” about Epstein Meeting with US Senators in the UK 

In connection with Whitney Webb’s upcoming book on the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, One Nation Under Blackmail, Unlimited Hangout filed a Freedom of Information request asking UK law enforcement and the Ministry of Defence the identity of two sitting US senators who were present at Foxcote House in North Warwickshire, UK on September 1, 2002. UH contributor Johnny Vedmore had previously obtained information from eyewitnesses of that meeting that, not only were two US Senators present at that location that day, but that Metropolitan Police officers had supplied security for the meeting. The FOI request was filed to Metropolitan Police, the UK Ministry of Defence and North Warwickshire Police and only a response from the Metropolitan Police was received.

The motive for UH’s FOI request is as follows. It is known that Jeffrey Epstein, as attested to by Epstein’s flight logs, was present in this part of the UK during this same period (from August 31, 2002 to September 2, 2002) and eyewitnesses saw him attend this specific meeting at this location with two attractive and glamorously dressed women on each arm. One of these women was Nicole Junkermann, a former model and apparent intelligence asset as revealed in Vedmore’s previous investigative work. The other woman was described by eyewitnesses as a tall brunette. Per those eyewitness accounts, Epstein personally escorted the two women into the room where the two senators were waiting.

Notably the house where this meeting took place, Foxcote House, has been owned by the family of Leslie Wexner, specifically his wife Abigail Wexner, since 1999. Wexner’s role in financing much of Jeffrey Epstein’s activities, legal and illegal, is a major focus of Webb’s upcoming book and Wexner has encountered considerable difficulty in explaining away his relationship with Epstein, despite the largely servile posture of mainstream media in this regard.

Given the circumstances, it seems highly likely that this meeting was a high-profile instance of Jeffrey Epstein engaging in the sexual blackmail of sitting American politicians. However, due to the well-known scandal around Jeffrey Epstein, his name was not used in our FOI request in order to avoid potentially “spiking” the response.

Despite the omission of Epstein’s name, Metropolitan Police responded to the request stating that they can “neither confirm nor deny whether it holds” the requested information. Their response goes on to state that confirming or denying “whether any United States of America (USA) senators were afforded protection could undermine the safeguarding of national security.” It also notes that it blocked providing the requested information on four other grounds aside from “national security” (five in total), including “international relations”, “law enforcement”, “health and safety”, and “personal information.” It also states that providing the requested information could place “those who are afforded protection, protection officers and members of the public at risk.”

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