CONGO Patience is Key to Ensuring Legitimate DRC Polls

   Patience is Key to Ensuring Legitimate DRC Polls
 
https://theglobalobservatory.org/2016/07/drc-congo-kabilia-katumbi-ceni/

June’s sentencing of opposition leader Moise Katumbi to three years in prison is the latest indication of suspected political influence over judiciary decision-making in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Former Haut-Katanga Governor Katumbi was prosecuted in absentia for allegedly selling his familial home despite not owning its title deed—a verdict his legal team intends to appeal.

 The ruling comes amid another judicial process targeting Katumbi for hiring foreign nationals in his personal security detail, which his lawyers deem permissible under the DRC’s laws.


These charges also follow a May edict by the DRC’s Constitutional Court that President Joseph Kabila would be legally allowed to extend his presidency beyond its expiration on December 20 this year if a scheduled election were delayed past that point. 

There is good reason to consider these legal decisions as related, with sustained political instability seen as the key to delaying a vote and to Kabila maintaining his grip on power.

In recent months, Kabila has repeatedly sought a way to render himself eligible for reelection despite being barred from serving more than two terms. His attempts to amend the constitutional clause regulating term limits incited widespread protests in August 2015 and January 2016, which spread from the riverside capital of Kinshasa to outlying cities such as Bukavu, Goma, and Kisangani. Any further moves by Kabila to seek a third term are likely to elicit similar unrest.


Under the circumstances, postponing the ballot pending a definitive rejection of Kabila’s tactics is probably the safest and most effective means of maintaining the tenuous political status quo. While delays would undoubtedly serves the president’s interests, forging ahead with the November poll could ultimately be more destabilizing without some larger resolution.

With its efforts to extend Kabila’s presidency ongoing, the DRC government has shown itself woefully unprepared, perhaps deliberately so, to organize an election that could be deemed legitimate by the opposition and independent observers. A resulting government would subsequently suffer from this same lack of legitimacy, including internationally.

By association, the DRC’s Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) remains equally unprepared for November. In a  leaked 2015 communiqué its officials noted that the organization had received a mere 17% of funding required to organize the ballot. The letter was alleged to have been drafted in response to government spokesman Lambert Mende’s claim that CENI had been provided sufficient funding for the purpose. 

In response, Mende said the $1 billion estimated cost of the elections was excessive in a country with a national budget of just $8 billion.

Time is also a crucial factor. CENI noted in January 2016 that it would need at least 18 months to ready the country’s electoral roll before any legitimate voting process could be held. 

This would mean elections being held mid-2017 at the very earliest. While questions have been raised as to why this timeframe is nearly triple the average of preparatory phases preceding both the 2006 and 2011 elections, little has been done to update the country’s voter roll—an undertaking deemed by DRC analyst Christophe Vogel as the sine qua non to holding credible elections. 

Even if an earnest attempt at updating the voter registry was to commence soon, in a country the size of Western Europe, yet far less accessible, the most optimistic of timeframes would still voting taking place in 2017.

Finally, there is the issue of security. For an inclusive, free, and fair ballot to be held, the government would need to guarantee the safety of the electorate. The task seems almost insurmountable at present, with myriad armed actors operating in the country’s insurgent-embattled northeastern provinces, where violence has displaced an estimated 2.2 million people since 2012.

 In addition to placing the lives both of voters and electoral organizers at risk, holding elections in such a climate could lead to further insecurity. This was exemplified following the DRC’s 2011 elections, when accusations of malfeasance against Kabila was among the self-proclaimed motivations for the formation of the so-called March 23 Movement, which posed one of the most significant threats to the incumbent’s tenure, up until its disbanding in November 2013.

The key to maintain security in the DRC will be ensuring a perception of legitimacy of state institutions among the public throughout the current political crisis. Questions regarding the fairness of Katumbi’s trial have already seen his supporters partake in violent and disruptive protests in the city of Lubumbashi. Whether these protests will translate into wider instability will be dependent on perception of the judiciary’s legitimacy in issuing its rulings.

Similarly, the DRC’s level of overall political stability will be dependent on the manner in which the upcoming elections are perceived to be taking place. While much attention has focused on the instability that could be wrought by Kabila’s illegitimate possible third-term bid, the fallout of an illegitimate electoral process in which he doesn’t ultimately participate could also be massive.

TRY Understanding Russia ( While the United States of America leading NATO)

Opinion:
Some links to better understand what the hell is going on and how the isolation of the BEAR ( Russia) by NATO countries is NOT a good Idea ...

The onslaught of anti Russia propaganda since NATO expansion began encircling Russia years ago, has biases the western population's public opinion to the MAX . and the scene is quite distorted...

NATO and the EU moving into Ukraine was the last straw that broke the camels back..

RUSSIA has NO choice but to fight (the BEAR is back to the Wall) or face to be totally surrounded and economically destroyed

WARNING: War become imminent...Détente  is not an option for NATO, WAR is becoming the path of choice to settle the Trillions of deficits in the USA and in the EU

The oncoming war is precipitated by the USA and the EU Financial  Mismanagement and the ideology of Domination Power over what they do not yet control..

Canada and the WORLD is disparately in need of a GONZENKO II  and the revelation of the Names of Canadians and Americans that were divulged by  Igor Gouzenko 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igor_Gouzenko in the mid and late 40s...the list was put in TOP SECRET for 50 years by Joe Clark 1979-80 under the directive of Pierre Trudeau days before the transfer of power JUNE 4th 1979   ((16th Prime Minister of Canada, from June 4, 1979, to March 3, 1980    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Clark ))

On June 4, 1979, Trudeau resigned as Prime Minister.

An INTERESTING BOOK spy novel if you want>>  HISTORICAL DICTIONARIES OF INTELLIGENCE AND COUNTER INTELLIGENCE    www.lander.odessa.ua/doc/Nigel-West-Historical-Dictionary-of-International-Intelligence.pdf


NATO PICKS A NEW FIGHT WITH RUSSIAN   https://consortiumnews.com/2015/12/03/nato-picks-a-new-fight-with-russia/          

WARSAW PACT  www.ansible.wikia.com/wiki/Second_Warsaw_Pact
Warsaw Pact   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Pact



WARSAW PACT ON YOUTUBE             https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=warsaw+pact   








MORE LINKS AND QUESTIONS
   The Warsaw Pact is dead, so why is NATO still alive?       https://www.rt.com/op-edge/324840-warsaw-pact-nato-us/                 

 Warsaw Treaty Organization    www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Warsaw_Treaty_Organization.aspx

Hillary emails confirm US and NATO destroyed Libya over gold-backed currency

is this true...
Hillary emails confirm US and NATO destroyed Libya over gold-backed currency      

 www.hangthebankers.com/hillary-emails-us-nato-libya-gold-backed-currency/   

Newly disclosed emails show that Libya’s plan to create a gold-backed currency to compete with the euro and dollar was a motive for NATO’s intervention.

The New Year’s Eve release of over 3,000 new Hillary Clinton emails from the State Department has CNN abuzz over gossipy text messages, the “who gets to ride with Hillary” selection process set up by her staff, and how a “cute” Hillary photo fared on Facebook.

But historians of the 2011 NATO war in Libya will be sure to notice a few of the truly explosive confirmations contained in the new emails: admissions of rebel war crimes, special ops trainers inside Libya from nearly the start of protests, Al Qaeda embedded in the U.S. backed opposition, Western nations jockeying for access to Libyan oil, the nefarious origins of the absurd Viagra mass rape claim, and concern over Gaddafi’s gold and silver reserves threatening European currency.

Gaddafi addressing the United Nations

Hillary’s Death Squads

A March 27, 2011, intelligence brief on Libya, sent by long time close adviser to the Clintons and Hillary’s unofficial intelligence gatherer, Sidney Blumenthal, contains clear evidence of war crimes on the  part of NATO-backed rebels. Citing a rebel commander source “speaking in strict confidence” Blumenthal reports to Hillary [emphasis mine]:

Under attack from allied Air and Naval forces, the Libyan Army troops have begun to desert to the rebel side in increasing numbers. The rebels are making an effort to greet these troops as fellow Libyans, in an effort to encourage additional defections.

(Source Comment: Speaking in strict confidence, one rebel commander stated that his troops continue to summarily execute all foreign mercenaries captured in the fighting…).

While the illegality of extra-judicial killings is easy to recognize (groups engaged in such are conventionally termed “death squads”), the sinister reality behind the “foreign mercenaries” reference might not be as immediately evident to most.

While over the decades Gaddafi was known to make use of European and other international security and infrastructural contractors, there is no evidence to suggest that these were targeted by the Libyan rebels.

There is, however, ample documentation by journalists, academics, and human rights groups demonstrating that black Libyan civilians and sub-Saharan contract workers, a population favored by Gaddafi in his pro-African Union policies, were targets of “racial cleansing” by rebels who saw black Libyans as tied closely with the regime.[1]

Black Libyans were commonly branded as “foreign mercenaries” by the rebel opposition for their perceived general loyalty to Gaddafi as a community and subjected to torture, executions, and their towns “liberated” by ethnic cleansing. This is demonstrated in the most well-documented example of Tawergha, an entire town of 30,000 black and “dark-skinned” Libyans which vanished by August 2011 after its takeover by NATO-backed NTC Misratan brigades.

These attacks were well-known as late as 2012 and often filmed, as this report from The Telegraph confirms:

After Muammar Gaddafi was killed, hundreds of migrant workers from neighboring states were imprisoned by fighters allied to the new interim authorities. They accuse the black Africans of having been mercenaries for the late ruler. Thousands of sub-Saharan Africans have been rounded up since Gaddafi fell in August.

It appears that Clinton was getting personally briefed on the battlefield crimes of her beloved anti-Gaddafi fighters long before some of the worst of these genocidal crimes took place.

Al-Qaeda and Western Special Forces Inside Libya

The same intelligence email from Sydney Blumenthal also confirms what has become a well-known theme of Western supported insurgencies in the Middle East: the contradiction of special forces training militias that are simultaneously suspected of links to Al Qaeda.

Blumenthal relates that “an extremely sensitive source” confirmed that British, French, and Egyptian special operations units were training Libyan militants along the Egyptian-Libyan border, as well as in Benghazi suburbs.

While analysts have long speculated as to the “when and where” of Western ground troop presence in the Libyan War, this email serves as definitive proof that special forces were on the ground only within a month of the earliest protests which broke out in the middle to end of February 2011 in Benghazi.

By March 27 of what was commonly assumed a simple “popular uprising” external special operatives were already “overseeing the transfer of weapons and supplies to the rebels” including “a seemingly endless supply of AK47 assault rifles and ammunition.”

Yet only a few paragraphs after this admission, caution is voiced about the very militias these Western special forces were training because of concern that, “radical/terrorist groups such as the Libyan Fighting Groups and Al Qa’ida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) are infiltrating the NLC and its military command.”

The Threat of Libya’s Oil and Gold to French Interests

Though the French-proposed U.N. Security Council Resolution 1973 claimed the no-fly zone implemented over Libya was to protect civilians, an April 2011 email sent to Hillary with the subject line “France’s client and Qaddafi’s gold” tells of less noble ambitions.

The email identifies French President Nicholas Sarkozy as leading the attack on Libya with five specific purposes in mind: to obtain Libyan oil, ensure French influence in the region, increase Sarkozy’s reputation domestically, assert French military power, and to prevent Gaddafi’s influence in what is considered “Francophone Africa.”

Most astounding is the lengthy section delineating the huge threat that Gaddafi’s gold and silver reserves, estimated at “143 tons of gold, and a similar amount in silver,” posed to the French franc (CFA) circulating as a prime African currency. In place of the noble sounding “Responsibility to Protect” (R2P) doctrine fed to the public, there is this “confidential” explanation of what was really driving the war [emphasis mine]:

This gold was accumulated prior to the current rebellion and was intended to be used to establish a pan-African currency based on the Libyan golden Dinar. This plan was designed to provide the Francophone African Countries with an alternative to the French franc (CFA).

(Source Comment: According to knowledgeable individuals this quantity of gold and silver is valued at more than $7 billion. French intelligence officers discovered this plan shortly after the current rebellion began, and this was one of the factors that influenced President Nicolas Sarkozy’s decision to commit France to the attack on Libya.)

Though this internal email aims to summarize the motivating factors driving France’s (and by implication NATO’s) intervention in Libya, it is interesting to note that saving civilian lives is conspicuously absent from the briefing.

Instead, the great fear reported is that Libya might lead North Africa into a high degree of economic independence with a new pan-African currency.

French intelligence “discovered” a Libyan initiative to freely compete with European currency through a local alternative, and this had to be subverted through military aggression.

The Ease of Floating Crude Propaganda

Early in the Libyan conflict Secretary of State Clinton formally accused Gaddafi and his army of using mass rape as a tool of war. Though numerous international organizations, like Amnesty International, quickly debunked these claims, the charges were uncritically echoed by Western politicians and major media.

It seemed no matter how bizarre the conspiracy theory, as long as it painted Gaddafi and his supporters as monsters, and so long as it served the cause of prolonged military action in Libya, it was deemed credible by network news.

Two foremost examples are referenced in the latest batch of emails: the sensational claim that Gaddafi issued Viagra to his troops for mass rape, and the claim that bodies were “staged” by the Libyan government at NATO bombing sites to give the appearance of the Western coalition bombing civilians.

NATO bombing Libya

In a late March 2011 email, Blumenthal confesses to Hillary that,

I communicated more than a week ago on this story—Qaddafi placing bodies to create PR stunts about supposed civilian casualties as a result of Allied bombing—though underlining it was a rumor. But now, as you know, Robert gates gives credence to it. (See story below.)

Sources now say, again rumor (that is, this information comes from the rebel side and is unconfirmed independently by Western intelligence), that Qaddafi has adopted a rape policy and has even distributed Viagra to troops. The incident at the Tripoli press conference involving a woman claiming to be raped is likely to be part of a much larger outrage. Will seek further confirmation.

Not only did Defense Secretary Robert Gates promote his bizarre “staged bodies” theory on CBS News’ “Face The Nation,” but the even stranger Viagra rape fiction made international headlines as U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice made a formal charge against Libya in front of the UN Security Council.

What this new email confirms is that not only was the State Department aware of the spurious nature of what Blumenthal calls “rumors” originating solely with the rebels, but did nothing to stop false information from rising to top officials who then gave them “credence.”

It appears, furthermore, that the Viagra mass rape hoax likely originated with Sidney Blumenthal himself.

[1] The most comprehensive and well-documented study of the plight of black Libyans is contained in Slouching Towards Sirte: NATO’s War on Libya and Africa (publ. 2012, Baraka Books) by Maximilian Forte, Professor Anthropology and Sociology at Concordia University in Montréal, Québec.

SEE ALSO: 
– 10 things about Gaddafi they don’t want you to know
– The truth about Gaddafi and Libya (watch and learn)

SOURCE

NASA Lies About The Hubble Telescope: Its Really on a Boeing 747 - Exposed

Pokémon Go Is Collecting From Your Phone

Here’s All The Data Pokémon Go Is Collecting From Your Phone

The company behind the game is collecting players’ data. And it’s most definitely catching them all. 

https://www.buzzfeed.com/josephbernstein/heres-all-the-data-pokemon-go-is-collecting-from-your-phone?utm_term=.miVWoqzwp#.ovVZ7RLXp

In the five frenzied days since its American release, Pokémon Go has become an economic and cultural sensation. Downloaded by millions, the game has boosted Nintendo’s market value by $9 billion (and counting), made a major case for augmented reality as the gaming format of the future, and led to a plethora of strange, scary, and serendipitous real-life encounters.

And as millions of users wander the country collecting Pikachus and Jigglypuffs, the Alphabet spin-off Niantic, Inc. that developed the game is collecting information about the collectors. And it’s most definitely catching them all.

Like most apps that work with the GPS in your smartphone, Pokémon Go can tell a lot of things about you based on your movement as you play: where you go, when you went there, how you got there, how long you stayed, and who else was there. And, like many developers who build those apps, Niantic keeps that information.

According to the Pokémon Go privacy policy, Niantic may collect — among other things — your email address, IP address, the web page you were using before logging into Pokémon Go, your username, and your location. And if you use your Google account for sign-in and use an iOS device, unless you specifically revoke it, Niantic has access to your entire Google account. 

That means Niantic has read and write access to your email, Google Drive docs, and more. (It also means that if the Niantic servers are hacked, whoever hacked the servers would potentially have access to your entire Google account. And you can bet the game’s extreme popularity has made it a target for hackers. Given the number of children playing the game, that’s a scary thought.) 

You can check what kind of access Niantic has to your Google account here.

It also may share this information with other parties, including the Pokémon Company that co-developed the game, “third-party service providers,” and “third parties” to conduct “research and analysis, demographic profiling, and other similar purposes.” 


It also, per the policy, may share any information it collects with law enforcement in response to a legal claim, to protect its own interests, or stop “illegal, unethical, or legally actionable activity.”
Now, none of these privacy provisions are of themselves unique. Location-based apps from Foursquare to Tinder can and do similar things. But Pokémon Go’s incredibly granular, block-by-block map data, combined with its surging popularity, may soon make it one of, if not the most, detailed location-based social graphs ever compiled.

And it’s all, or mostly, in the hands of Niantic, a small augmented reality development company with serious Silicon Valley roots. The company’s origins trace back to the geospatial data visualization startup Keyhole, Inc., which Google acquired in 2004; it played a crucial role in the development of Google Earth and Google Maps.

 And though Niantic spun off from Alphabet late last year, Google’s parent company is still one of its a major investors, as is Nintendo, which owns a majority stake in The Pokémon Company. Indeed, Google still owned Niantic when the developer released its first game, Ingress, which is what Niantic used to pick the locations for Pokémon Go’s ubiquitous Pokéstops and gyms.

Citing CEO John Hanke’s travel plans, a representative from Niantic was not able to clarify to BuzzFeed News if the company will share location data with Alphabet or Nintendo. A Google representative forwarded BuzzFeed News’ request for comment to Niantic.

Given the fact that Pokémon Go already has millions of users and that it has already attracted the attention of law enforcement, it seems likely that at some point police will try to get Niantic to hand over user information. And if Google’s track record is any indication — a report earlier this year showed that the company complied with 78% of law enforcement requests for user data — they are probably prepared to cooperate.

Joe Bernstein is a senior technology reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in New York. Bernstein reports on and writes about the gaming industry and web culture. 

 

Contact Joseph Bernstein at joe.bernstein@buzzfeed.com.

Islamic radicalism in the Balkans

http://www.iss.europa.eu/uploads/media/Alert_24_Balkan_radicalism.pdf

click the link above for the whole report

Balkan countries are among Europe’s top exporters of volunteers fighting for radical Islamic organisations such as Daesh and Jabhat al-Nusra.

 

The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) estimates that over 300 fighters from Kosovo have travelled to warzones in Iraq and Syria, while 330 fighters have come from Bosnia and Herzegovina, 110 from Albania, 100 from Macedonia, 50 from Serbia and 13 from Montenegro.

 

This places Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina as the top two European countries by percentage of population who have joined terrorist organisations, while Albania is ranked in fourth place just behind Belgium.

These figures are all the more sobering once the fact that Islamic traditions in the Balkans have never had extremist tendencies is taken into account.

This then raises the question, why are radical Islamist movements now proving so popular?

From imported to local Islamic extremism

  

Radical interpretations of Islam are somewhat alien to Muslim communities in the Balkans, which are traditionally oriented towards the Hanafi school of thought of Sunni Islam. Furthermore, 50 years of communist rule in the region instilled a sense of secularism in Balkan Muslim communities, and gave rise to an Islamic tradition that is markedly different in its interpretations and practices to its more conservative counterparts in the

Arabian Peninsula.   click the link above for the whole report

NATO Integrated, Agile Intelligence Key To Combatting Dynamic Threats

Integrated, Agile Intelligence Key To Combatting Dynamic Threats

Thursday, July 07, 2016

https://www.dni.gov/index.php/newsroom/ic-in-the-news/220-ic-n-the-news-2016/1394-integrated,-agile-intelligence-key-to-combatting-dynamic-threats

July 7, 2016

By James Clapper and Marcel Lettre
The Cipher Brief

The NATO Alliance faces an increasingly complex, diffuse threat environment.  Consequently, we are always striving toward more integrated intelligence to stay a step ahead.  NATO is positioned to take an important, integrative step in establishing the new Assistant Secretary General for Intelligence and Security.  We fully endorse this, having firsthand experience in undertaking similar modernization efforts within the U.S. Intelligence Community.

The intelligence business is about collection and analysis, not clairvoyance.  We cannot anticipate every attack before it occurs. Our effectiveness is rooted in our ability to remove institutional barriers, to cultivate the responsible exchange of information.  After the September 11th attacks, the United States realized the need to reform its national intelligence enterprise to address these issues.

Today, NATO faces this same challenge to improve its decision-making and support to military forces.  The NATO Alliance has changed since the Cold War and for good reason. We have expanded with new members who share a common vision and bring diverse insight to understanding global challenges. Our Alliance remains strong and ever relevant, and we are working together with our NATO allies to anticipate and address future threats to our nations.

Last November, in support of NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg’s Long Term Adaptation initiative, the United States developed a proposal to establish a new intelligence post – the Assistant Secretary General for Intelligence and Security (ASG-I&S) – at NATO Headquarters. 

 We envision the ASG-I&S as a strong, empowered, strategic-minded leader who will better enable the Alliance’s intelligence enterprise to anticipate and respond to myriad complex intelligence and security challenges.  In addition to designing the new ASG-I&S, the NATO intelligence community over the past six months developed a new intelligence doctrine known as the Overarching Intelligence Policy (OIP).  

We are very pleased that at a meeting of the North Atlantic Council last week, all 28 nations approved the ASG-I&S and the OIP. Their approval now paves the way for heads of state and government to announce these two complementary intelligence reform efforts at the upcoming NATO Warsaw Summit.

As leaders of the United States Intelligence Community, we are acutely aware of the numerous global challenges that face NATO member nations and the need to posture ourselves to address them.  Our challenges span counterterrorism to mass migration as well as deterring Russian aggression and managing global military operations.  And those are merely our challenges today.  The world continues to evolve and so must the Alliance. A failure to adapt endangers us all. 

Necessary intelligence reform begins with leadership. We believe that empowering an ASG-I&S is an important step in bringing to fruition NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg’s call for “greater coherence, improved agility and flexibility, higher readiness, and enhanced cooperation and engagement” across the Alliance.  

An ASG-I&S will provide both daily management of NATO’s intelligence enterprise and expert, professional advice on intelligence matters to NATO’s civilian and military leaders.  Further, an ASG-I&S will shape NATO’s future intelligence architecture and workforce by advocating for 21st century best practices in intelligence and exploiting cutting edge information management technologies.  For example, an ASG-I&S will best lead the Alliance to fully exploit the potential of its new intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platform – Alliance Ground Surveillance—which will achieve initial operational capacity in 2018.

Beyond Warsaw, our objective is clear:  for NATO to select the new ASG-I&S and have her or him in place by November.  Thereafter, the ASG-I&S will immediately enact reforms to NATO intelligence as outlined in the OIP, facilitated by the upcoming move to NATO’s new headquarters beginning in early 2017.  Again, we are very pleased to share in this momentous achievement of NATO intelligence reform. 

 The consensus built among Allies since November 2015 has been remarkable.  We look forward to the selection of the ASG-I&S this fall and to a more capable, agile, and robust NATO intelligence enterprise under this new leader.
Via The Cipher Brief