Julian Assange and WikiLeaks: Allegations of association with Russian intelligence and the Russian government

Posted on March 4, 2023 by weehingthong

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Allegations of association with Russian government

According to the Associated Press, leaked documents from WikiLeaks include an unsigned letter from Julian Assange authorising Israel Shamir to seek a Russian visa on his behalf in 2010. WikiLeaks said Assange never applied for the visa or wrote the letter.[475]

In 2012, as WikiLeaks was under a financial blockade, Assange began to host World Tomorrow, a television show that was distributed by Journeyman Pictures and aired on RT.[476][477]

In 2013, the Russian national newspaper Izvestia reported that Russian intelligence officers had coordinated with WikiLeaks to get Edward Snowden‘s flight from Hong Kong to Moscow had been co-ordinated with Russian authorities and intelligence services. Snowden was accompanied by Wikileaks employee Sarah Harrison. Izvestia reported that Snowden and Harrison intended to stay in Moscow for a short time before taking an Aeroflot flight to Cuba, and from there travel to Venezuela.[478][479][480] In 2015, Assange told reporters that he had told Snowden to take asylum in Russia instead of Ecuador because Russia was one of the few places in the world where the CIA’s influence did not reach. The Guardian wrote that this was at odds with WikiLeaks’ statement at the time that Snowden became stranded in Russia after his US passport was revoked.[481][482][483]

In 2015, it was reported by Fernando Villavicencio [es] that Assange requested he be allowed to “choose his own Security Service inside the embassy, suggesting the use of Russians”. The article said the then Ecuadorian intelligence service SENAIN said “would have been the equivalent of ‘a coup in the embassy’.”[484][485][486][487]

In April 2016, WikiLeaks tweeted criticism of the Panama Papers, which had among other things revealed Russian businesses and individuals linked with offshore ties. Assange said that journalists had “cherry-picked” documents to maximise “Putin bashing, North Korea bashing, sanctions bashing, etc.” while avoiding mention of Western figures.[468] The WikiLeaks Twitter account tweeted, “#PanamaPapers Putin attack was produced by OCCRP which targets Russia & former USSR and was funded by USAID and [George] Soros“.[488] Putin later dismissed the Panama Papers by citing WikiLeaks: “WikiLeaks has showed us that official people and official organs of the U.S. are behind this.”[488] According to The New York Times “there is no evidence suggesting that the United States government had a role in releasing the Panama Papers”.[489]

In August 2016, after WikiLeaks published thousands of DNC emails, DNC officials and a number of cybersecurity experts and cybersecurity firms claimed that Russian intelligence had hacked the e-mails and leaked them to WikiLeaks.[490][491] Assange said that Russia was not the source of the documents and that the Clinton campaign was stoking “a neo-McCarthy hysteria“.[492] In October 2016, the US intelligence community said that it was “confident that the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of e-mails from U.S. persons and institutions, including from U.S. political organizations”.[493] The US intelligence agencies said that the hacks were consistent with the methods of Russian-directed efforts, and that people high up within the Kremlin were likely involved.[493] On 14 October 2016, CNN stated that “there is mounting evidence that the Russian government is supplying WikiLeaks with hacked emails pertaining to the U.S. presidential election.”[494]

WikiLeaks said it had no connection with Russia.[494] When asked about Guccifer 2.0’s leaks, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said “These look very much like they’re from the Russians. But in some ways, they look very amateur, and almost look too much like the Russians.”[495][496] President Putin stated that there was no Russian involvement in the election.[370][371] In August 2016, a New York Times story asked whether WikiLeaks had “become a laundering machine for compromising material gathered by Russian spies”. It wrote that US officials believed it was unlikely there were direct ties between Wikileaks and Russian intelligence agencies.[476] A report by the Central Intelligence Agency shared with senators in 2016 concluded that Russia intelligence operatives provided materials to WikiLeaks in an effort to help Donald Trump’s election bid.[497][498]

In September 2016, the Daily Dot wrote that according to leaked court documents and a chatlog, a WikiLeaks release excluded evidence of a €2 billion transaction between the Syrian government and a government-owned Russian bank.[499] Responding to the Daily Dot, WikiLeaks said that all the Syria files they had obtained had been published. Their spokesperson also stated, in reference to the Daily Dot’s reporting of the story: “Go right ahead, but you can be sure we will return the favour one day.”[499][500]

In December 2016, Julian Assange said that WikiLeaks wasn’t necessary in Russia because there are “competitors to WikiLeaks” and the “many vibrant publications, online blogs, and Kremlin critics” like “Novaya Gazeta, in which different parts of society in Moscow are permitted to critique each other.” Assange also cited WikiLeaks not havin staff that spoke Russian and being focused on English-speaking cultures. Salon, the Guardian and others criticised Assange for being “dishonest” about Russia.[501][502][503][504] In 2010, WikiLeaks had announced a partnership with Novaya Gazeta to begin releasing information on Russian government corruption.[505]

In March 2017, The Moscow Times wrote that a former WikiLeaks collaborator said that “in recent years, WikiLeaks and the Russian state have effectively joined forces.” The article reported that, since submissions to the Wikileaks portal are anonymous and encrypted, it was very difficult for Wikileaks to trace their source. Mark Galeotti, a researcher at the Institute of International Relations Prague and an expert on the Russian security services, said he had suspicions “that things are sometimes fed in, and [WikiLeaks does] know where they came from.” Galeotti said Assange would have to be “extraordinarily stupid and naive” not to conclude the DNC leaks came from Russia.[506] According to the Mueller indictment, WikiLeaks knew the source was the Russian Guccifer 2.0 persona.[507]

In April 2017, CIA Director Mike Pompeo stated: “It is time to call out WikiLeaks for what it really is – a non-state hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia.” Pompeo said that the US Intelligence Community had concluded that Russia’s “primary propaganda outlet,” RT had “actively collaborated” with WikiLeaks.[508]

In August 2017, Foreign Policy wrote that WikiLeaks had in the summer of 2016 turned down a large cache of documents containing information damaging to the Russian government.[468][509] WikiLeaks stated that, “As far as we recall these are already public … WikiLeaks rejects all information that it cannot verify.[468] WikiLeaks rejects submissions that have already been published elsewhere”.[468] News outlets had reported on contents of the leaks in 2014, amounting to less than half of the data that was allegedly made available to WikiLeaks in the summer of 2016.[468]

In September 2018, The Guardian reported that Russian diplomats had secret talks with people close to Julian Assange in 2017 with plans to help him flee the UK Several possible destinations were suggested, including Russia. The Russian embassy denied the report.[510] It was also reported that Ecuador attempted to give Assange a diplomatic posting in Russia, but Britain refused to give him diplomatic immunity to leave the embassy.[511] In October 2018, this was confirmed by documents released by Ecuador.[512]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WikiLeaks#Allegations_of_association_with_Russian_government

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Julian Assange and WikiLeaks: Pro Trump, and anti Hillary Clinton and anti Democratic Party?

Posted on March 4, 2023 by weehingthong

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WikiLeaks is an NGO owned by Icelandic company Sunshine Press Productions ehf that runs a website that has published news leaks and classified media provided by anonymous sources. Wikipedia

Founders: Julian Assange, John Young

Founded: October 4, 2006, Iceland

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Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton

WikiLeaks popularised conspiracy theories about the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton, such as tweeting articles which suggested Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta engaged in satanic rituals,[33][433][434] implying that the Democratic Party had Seth Rich killed,[34] claiming that Hillary Clinton wanted to drone strike Assange,[435] suggesting that Clinton wore earpieces to debates and interviews,[436] promoting thinly sourced theories about Clinton’s health and according to Bloomberg creating “anti-Clinton theories out of whole cloth”,[35][437][438] and promoting a conspiracy theory from a Donald Trump-related Internet community tying the Clinton campaign to child kidnapper Laura Silsby.[439]

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2016 U.S. presidential election

Allegations of anti-Clinton and pro-Trump bias

Assange wrote on WikiLeaks in February 2016: “I have had years of experience in dealing with Hillary Clinton and have read thousands of her cables. Hillary lacks judgement and will push the United States into endless, stupid wars which spread terrorism. …  she certainly should not become president of the United States.”[463] In a 2017 interview by Amy Goodman, Julian Assange said that choosing between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump is like choosing between cholera or gonorrhea. “Personally, I would prefer neither.”[464] WikiLeaks editor Sarah Harrison stated that the site was not choosing which damaging publications to release, rather releasing information available to them.[465] In conversations that were leaked in February 2018, Assange expressed a preference for a Republican victory in the 2016 election, saying that “Dems+Media+liberals would [sic] then form a block to reign [sic] in their worst qualities. With Hillary in charge, GOP will be pushing for her worst qualities, dems+media+neoliberals will be mute.”[466] In further leaked correspondence with the Trump campaign on election day (8 November 2016), WikiLeaks encouraged the Trump campaign to contest the election results as being “rigged” should they lose.[467]

Having released information that exposed the inner workings of a broad range of organisations and politicians, WikiLeaks started by 2016 to focus almost exclusively on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.[468] In the 2016 U.S. presidential election, WikiLeaks only exposed material damaging to the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton. WikiLeaks even rejected the opportunity to publish unrelated leaks, because it dedicated all its resources to Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party. According to The New York Times, WikiLeaks timed one of its large leaks so that it would happen on the eve of the Democratic Convention.[469] The Washington Post noted that the leaks came at an important sensitive moment in the Clinton campaign, as she was preparing to announce her vice-presidential pick and unite the party behind her.[470] The Sunlight Foundation, an organisation that advocates for open government, said that such actions meant that WikiLeaks was no longer striving to be transparent but rather sought to achieve political goals.[471]

WikiLeaks explained its actions in a 2017 statement to Foreign Policy: “WikiLeaks schedules publications to maximize readership and reader engagement. During distracting media events such as the Olympics or a high profile election, unrelated publications are sometimes delayed until the distraction passes but never are rejected for this reason.”[468] On 7 October 2016, an hour after the media had begun to dedicate wall-to-wall coverage of the revelation that Trump had bragged on video about sexually harassing women, WikiLeaks began to release emails hacked from the personal account of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta.[472][473] Podesta suggested that the emails were timed to deflect attention from the Trump tapes.[473]

Secret correspondence between WikiLeaks and Donald Trump Jr.

In November 2017, it was revealed that the WikiLeaks Twitter account secretly corresponded with Donald Trump Jr. during the 2016 presidential election.[467][167] The correspondence shows how WikiLeaks actively solicited the co-operation of Trump Jr., a campaign surrogate and advisor in the campaign of his father. WikiLeaks urged the Trump campaign to reject the results of the 2016 presidential election at a time when it looked as if the Trump campaign would lose.[467] WikiLeaks suggested the Trump campaign leak Trump’s taxes to them.[467][167][168] WikiLeaks asked Trump Jr. to share a WikiLeaks tweet with the quote “Can’t we just drone this guy?” which True Pundit alleged Hillary Clinton made about Assange.[467] WikiLeaks also shared a link to a site that would help people to search through WikiLeaks documents.[467] Trump Jr. shared both. After the election, WikiLeaks also requested that the president-elect push Australia to appoint Assange as ambassador to the US. Trump Jr. provided this correspondence to congressional investigators looking into Russian interference in the 2016 election.[467]

The secretive exchanges led to criticism of WikiLeaks by some former supporters. Assange had asserted the Clinton campaign was “constantly slandering” WikiLeaks of being a ‘pro-Trump’ ‘pro-Russia’ source. Journalist Barrett Brown, a long-time defender of WikiLeaks, was exasperated that Assange was “complaining about ‘slander’ of being pro-Trump IN THE ACTUAL COURSE OF COLLABORATING WITH TRUMP”. He also wrote: “Was “Wikileaks staff” lying on Nov 10 2016 when they claimed “The allegations that we have colluded with Trump, or any other candidate for that matter, or with Russia, are just groundless and false”, or did Assange lie to them?”[474]

Brown said Assange had acted “as a covert political operative”, thus betraying WikiLeaks’ focus on exposing “corporate and government wrongdoing”. He considered the latter to be “an appropriate thing to do”, but that “working with an authoritarian would-be leader to deceive the public is indefensible and disgusting”.[474]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WikiLeaks#Reception

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Reposting a thread by Neil Abrams @neil_abrams on Jeffrey Sachs and his interview with Isaac Chotiner

Posted on March 4, 2023 by weehingthong

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Neil A Abrams
University of California, Berkeley | UCB · Charles and Louise Travers Department of Political Science
PhD

Neil A Abrams does research in International Relations, Comparative Politics and Political Economy. His most recent publication is ‘Policies first, institutions second: Lessons from Estonia’s economic reforms.’

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Neil-Abrams

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Jeffrey David Sachs is an American economist, academic, public policy analyst, and former director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University, where he holds the title of University Professor. He is known for his work on sustainable development, economic development, and the fight to end poverty. Wikipedia

Isaac Chotiner is a staff writer at The New Yorker, where he is the principal contributor to Q. & A., a series of interviews with public figures in politics, media, books, business, technology, and more. Before joining The New Yorker, Chotiner was a staff writer at Slate and the host of the podcast “I Have to Ask.” He has written for The New Yorker, the Times, The Atlantic, the Times Literary Supplement, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal. After graduating from the University of California, Davis, Chotiner worked at The Washington Monthly before joining The New Republic, in 2006, as a reporter-researcher. He went on to run the magazine’s online books section and later became a senior editor.

https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/isaac-chotiner

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It’s really been something to watch Jeffrey Sachs, a once-reputable albeit controversial economist, descend into the establishment equivalent of a Grayzone-addled reply-guy. So let’s pick apart his embarrassing interview with Isaac Chotiner.

For those unfamiliar with Sachs, Chotiner summarizes his bio here:

Sachs begins by treading through the standard litany of how the West supposedly forced Russia’s hand into launching its 2022 invasion: Kosovo, NATO expansion, NATO’s 2008 pledge to eventually admit Ukraine, etc., etc.

The view that NATO provoked Russia to invade is one I’ve addressed before. Its lazy vacuity is revealed by the fact that its proponents never grapple with the very obvious counterargument—that the war is primarily motivated by Russian imperialism.

The “NATO-provocation” argument might carry water had Russian forces not already been occupying chunks of Ukraine’s Donbas region since 2014. Why? Because as long as this situation persisted, NATO could not admit Ukraine without triggering WWIII. Putin well understood that.

Also, NATO’s 2022 decision to admit Sweden and Finland, set to expand its Russian border by 800 miles, elicited nary a peep from the Kremlin. Yet we’re supposed to believe the practically-impossible prospect of *Ukraine’s* accession warranted a full-scale invasion? Come on.

Are we also to believe that, absent NATO expansion, Russia would have accepted the humiliation of the Soviet collapse and its attendant loss of territory and population by suddenly becoming, for the first time in its history, a normal, non-imperialist nation-state?

Yet the most glaring problem with Sachs’s NATO-provocation thesis is that Russia’s state media, its entire political establishment, and Putin himself KEEP TELLING US the war is actually about Russia’s glorious reconquest of lost imperial lands. Receipts:

Asked to respond to Putin’s frequent and inconvenient reveals about Russia’s imperialist motives, Sachs has this to say: “I don’t like when he says these things.” Yeah, no kidding. It kind of undermines the idea that it was all NATO’s fault, doesn’t it?

Putin: BY THE POWER OF GRAYSKULL, I WILL SACK UKRAINE AND AVENGE PETER THE GREAT!!! Sachs: Please don’t say these things. I don’t like when you say these things.

Sachs’s codependent relationship with Putin isn’t the only notable feature of the interview. For we also get to see his penchant for haughtily invoking his high-ranking diplomatic contacts and grandiose sense of self-importance. Let’s take a look.

Chotiner: Are you really blaming the U.S. for Russia’s indiscriminate aerial bombings of Syrian civilians? Sachs: With years of focused study, my son, you too may one day come to know the things I know.

Chotiner: Aren’t you absolving Russia of any agency in these horrible things it has done? Sachs: I know so many famous, important people that if you really knew how famous and important they were it would make you shudder in reverence for me.

Chotiner: Whoa, whoa, whoa. You mean Assad was ready to make peace but the U.S. wouldn’t let him? How do you know that? Sachs: Trust me, bro.

Chotiner: But hasn’t Assad committed atrocities against his people? Sachs: I’m sorry, what part of “trust me, bro” don’t you understand?

In a different context, with saner answers to the same questions, someone—someone who is not me, but someone nonetheless—might be tempted to defer to Sachs’s imperious appeals to his exclusive access. After all, he does hobnob with some Very Important People.

But Sachs’s insistence that everyone defer to his unique insight falls flat when he tries to summarize recent Ukrainian history and completely shits the bed. In brief, whoever these “high-level sources” are, I’d like a word.

Sachs, while lecturing his imaginary understudy, Chotiner, rehashes the widely-debunked myth that the popular revolution which ousted kleptocratic dictator Viktor Yanukovych in 2014 was a “coup” by the U.S. This is a claim I tackled in an earlier thread:

As you probably know, Russia apologists love to paint the Euromaidan as a U.S.-Backed Coup. Even though I’ve debunked it elsewhere, it’s worth reviewing the various strands of this argument.

To begin with, Sachs’s statement below is wrong; Yanukovych was negotiating a trade deal. The Sevastopol agreement was concluded in 2010.

Sachs also tries to argue that the N.E.D. somehow manufactured the Euromaidan. But survey data reveals a full 20% of Ukraine’s population—8.5 million people—took part in the protests to remove Yanukovych. Sorry, that ain’t a coup. It’s a revolution. https://dif.org.ua/article/richni

I don’t care how much crank Victoria Nuland laced into those cookies; there’s no way anyone can *make* eight million people rise up and overthrow a president unless they genuinely want to do so.

Speaking of Nuland, Russia apologists also point to a leaked conversation between the U.S. ambassador and herself which supposedly shows them plotting a coup against Yanukovych. The transcript plainly shows otherwise.

Nuland and Pyatt are not talking about replacing Yanukovych. They’re discussing a 1/25/14 proposal for a power-sharing deal, one which *Yanukovych himself* advanced, whereby he’d remain president alongside a new prime minister chosen from the opposition. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/ukraine-president-says-hell-name-rival-as-prime-minister-but-opposition-demands-more/2014/01/25/571f5e9c-860a-11e3-8742-668814928ae4_story.html

Yanukovych would eventually sign a similar agreement brokered by the E.U. But he promptly fled to Russia because he was scared of the protesters—this despite being safely ensconced in his luxurious, heavily-fortified mansion miles outside of town. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-29761799

After Yanukovych fled, Ukraine’s parliament voted to formally remove him. The vote? 328-0. Now, Russia apologists complain—as would Sachs himself, if he were even aware of it—that the 328 votes amounted to only 73% of deputies, not the full 75% the constitution requires.

“Illegal coup!” shriek the tankies, upon learning the vote to remove Yanukovych fell short by a whopping 2%. In a functioning democracy, they’d have a point. But Ukraine was no longer a functioning democracy. And the blame for that lay squarely with Yanukovych.

Though duly elected in 2010, Yanukovych, once in office, moved to unlawfully consolidate power in his hands. First, he packed the Constitutional Court. He then had his loyalists on the Court rubber-stamp into force a new constitution granting more powers to the president.

Yanukovych also imprisoned and tried on trumped-up charges his main opponent from the 2010 election.

Then, during the Euromaidan, Yanukovych further eviscerated his legitimacy by bloodying up the protesters and imposing new laws granting himself dictatorial powers. Yes, the protesters turned violent too, but mostly in response to Yanukovych’s repression.


Sorry, but complaints about Ukraine’s parliament failing to religiously follow constitutional procedure when it removed Yanukovych ring hollow when one considers Yanukovych’s far more egregious violations of the same constitution.

Legitimacy isn’t about popularity but adherence to constitutional rules. Break the rules, lose your legitimacy. What exactly are these people trying to say? That everyone else had a duty to adhere to the constitution even after Yanukovych had torn it to shreds?

Please.

Nor is that all. Despite his super-special high-level access, Sachs also appears to be unfamiliar with basic details about the events that followed the Euromaidan—namely, Russia’s invasion of the Donbas.

Perhaps I’m wrong, but I get the distinct impression that Sachs is unaware of what the Donbas war was. It wasn’t a localized conflict over language rights. It was a bona fide invasion—you know, by the ACTUAL RUSSIAN ARMY.

After Yanukovych fled, the Kremlin tried to spark a popular rebellion in the Donbas. That failed. It then tried to manufacture a fake one. That also failed. Finally, Putin said “fuck it, send in the troops.” Thus began the Donbas war. Receipts

In sum, Sachs pompously asserts his superior inside knowledge of Russia’s 2022 invasion and the Syrian civil war. But it’s a little hard to take him seriously considering his obliviousness about other subjects like the Euromaidan and Russia’s 2014 invasion of the Donbas.

Moreover, when one examines the rest of Sachs’s interview, what might have remained some isolated warning signs about his credibility become a full-on bat-signal blaring forth his dishonesty and unwarranted hubris.

At one point, Sachs denies Assad’s well-documented responsibility for atrocities. Worse, when Chotiner challenges him on it, he tries to pull rank. Sorry, this is not a serious person.

Next, Chotiner asks Sachs to explain why he’d meet with Viktor Orbán, the Hungarian autocrat with a proclivity for conspiratorial attacks on Jews and the LGTBQ+ community. Instead of answering the question, Sachs threatens to end the interview.

When Chotiner inquires about Sachs’s dubious past statements about China’s crackdown in Xinjiang, he dismisses the question and—again—threatens to end the interview.

Finally, in response to Chotiner’s query about his apparent endorsement of noted wack-job JFK Jr. and his anti-vax conspiracy theories, Sachs again refuses to explain himself—because, let’s face it, he can’t.

Some might find my tone impolite. I do not care. Why? Because of shit like this . Either Sachs is unaware of the inevitable atrocities that will follow a “territorial division” or he is not. Either way, he’s got no business talking about Ukraine.

In sum, Sachs, despite his eminent reputation, has become a crank. But unlike most cranks, his prominent position lends him unwarranted authority to speak on any issue he pleases. With this interview, he is telling us not to take him seriously. I say we heed his advice. /end

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Sputnik V Creator, Andrey Botikov, strangled to death with a belt in his apartment. Motive unknown

Posted on March 4, 2023 by weehingthong

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Singapore could grant PR status to foreign nurses in efforts to ramp up recruitment

Posted on March 4, 2023 by weehingthong

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BREAKING NEWS: Explosion and massive fire at Pertamina Depot at Plumpang in Jakarta Utara

Posted on March 4, 2023 by weehingthong

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https://twitter.com/nanakardus/status/1631658215065919490?t=BC9wuIq2uIwrq7YXOQk4NA&s=19
https://twitter.com/nanakardus/status/1631671319891951617?t=GzDk_jJOtMwj1zXqm53JEQ&s=19

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Is it true that Apple is saying ‘goodbye’ to its production facilities in China? Not totally

Posted on March 4, 2023 by weehingthong

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Apple plans for production facilities in India that would supply 25% of its outout.

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Consequences of The Federal Court’s ruling that the MACC probe against judge Nazlan did not follow protocol

Posted on March 4, 2023 by weehingthong

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Apex court rules MACC probe against judge Nazlan did not follow protocol

https://weehingthong.org/2023/02/24/the-federal-court-rules-that-the-macc-probe-against-judge-nazlan-did-not-follow-protocol/

Mohd Nazlan was the trial judge in the High Court who convicted former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak of embezzling RM42 million belonging to SRC International Sdn Bhd, a former unit of sovereign investment firm 1MDB.

Mohd Nazlan has since been elevated to the Court of Appeal.

https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2023/02/24/federal-court-rules-that-macc-didnt-follow-protocol-in-investigating-src-trial-judge-mohd-nazlan/56523

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MACC probe against Nazlan hangs in balance after CJ ruling: legal experts   

Lawyers opine failure to adhere to protocols might impact report’s credibility

Updated 5 hours ago · Published on 04 Mar 2023 10:00AM

by Qistina Nadia Dzulqarnain

KUALA LUMPUR – The Federal Court’s ruling on the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) probes into judge Datuk Mohd Nazlan Ghazali as failing to adhere to protocols has put the status of investigations into question.   

Speaking to The Vibes, several lawyers opined that the anti-graft body’s failure to adhere to certain protocols, including seeking leave from Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat to initiate probes and keeping investigations confidential, might impact the credibility of its final report.   

According to former Malaysian Bar president Salim Bashir Bhaskaran, any probes against serving judges must satisfy the highest standards of investigations and transparency “to safeguard the sacrosanct principles of judiciary independence.”   

“The MACC probe (into Nazlan) stands independently of its own – but in light of what was spelt out by the Federal Court in its decision, the non-observance of certain protocols during investigations may cast aspersions to (the probe’s) due process,” he said.   

“Any form of collateral action to bring judiciary powers into disrepute and frustrate a fair proceeding by way of obnoxious means must be condemned.”   

Echoing similar sentiments, lawyer Lim Wei Jiet said that based on his understanding of the Federal Court’s judgement on the suit brought by three lawyers to challenge MACC’s probe, the commission has violated the law. 

“From my reading of the grounds of judgement, it appears that MACC’s probe (against Nazlan) is against the law.   

“MACC will have to recommence their investigations based on established protocols set out by the Federal Court in paragraph 81 of their judgement,” he said.   

The paragraph of the judgement document Lim cited outlines a set of protocols which must be followed when a judge is investigated.   
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As such, senior law lecturer Daniel Abishegam asserted that the protocols are not a way of giving a judge “special privilege or immunity”, but are instead meant to ensure judicial independence as a whole.   

“Judges must never feel fear to rule in any particular way because of the potential repercussions that may happen against them.   

“The high court’s ruling (against MACC) is effectively a reprimand and also sets a precedent for future probes on sitting members of the judiciary,” he said, stressing that the ruling does not mean that judges “have immunity and can commit whatever crimes they want”.

He added that while such protocols are not “written law”, the Federal Court’s decision aligns with the principle of judicial independence being sacrosanct.    

“These protocols are appropriate and reasonable given the important constitutional idea that is being protected.   

“If MACC wants to continue the probe, they can. It’s just that investigations must be done in consultation with the chief justice,” said Daniel, the academic director of Advance Tertiary College.  

https://www.thevibes.com/articles/news/86716/macc-probe-into-nazlan-hangs-in-balance-after-cj-ruling-legal-experts?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

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Foreign Accent Syndrome: The medical mystery leaving analysts stumped | 60 Minutes Australia

Posted on March 4, 2023 by weehingthong

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Lim Haifeng, 51, “longevity expert”, a ‘master of natural therapy’ and an ‘Amway celebrity’ advocating ‘fasting, detoxification and maintenance’, died of food poisoning

Posted on March 4, 2023 by weehingthong

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Sihai Network

The death of the master of natural therapy and the swindler have done great harm to people

en.4hw.com.cn

The death of the master of natural therapy and the swindler have done great harm to people

Interface news learned from multiple channels that Lin Haifeng, a ‘master of natural therapy’ and an ‘Amway celebrity’ advocating ‘fasting, detoxification and maintenance’, died unexpectedly in Lijiang, Yunnan Province on November 11, 2019 at the age of 51.

Lin Haifeng is certified by Sina Weibo as chairman of China Nutrition and health network, chairman of sunshine Forest Biotechnology Co., Ltd. and headline author. In the public information, his many false and real titles also include director of the medical and Health Research Association of China Health Science and technology society, health professional member of China Health Food Association, nutrition expert of China longevity expert group, etc.

Lin Haifeng grew up in Amway’s direct selling industry in his early years. He is the first batch of Amway practitioners to enter China and has always been a senior marketing director. At present, Lin Haifeng’s speech video is still circulating on the Internet and has great influence among Amway practitioners. Around 2000, while operating Amway, Lin Haifeng, with the help of television and other media, declared his own “overall natural therapy” and advocated “fasting and detoxification”. He has many followers, but also caused a lot of controversy.

He called rice “a poison in the diet of modern Chinese people” and “the key to all kinds of modern diseases”. To eliminate toxins, the core is not to eat any solid food and only drink 8 cups of fruit and vegetable juice squeezed from celery, carrots and cucumbers every day. Lin Haifeng said that after drinking for 5-7 days, some chronic diseases can be cured, ‘it’s not easy to regenerate diseases in this life’.

On Lin Haifeng’s Sina Weibo, most of them are photos of him traveling around the world or attending banquets. The latest update stays on the day of his death. In this last Weibo, he sent 9 scenic photos of Lijiang, with the postscript “take flowers as the theme, construct the day.” Microblog landmarks are displayed in Lijiang, Yunnan.

A friend of Lin Haifeng told the interface news that a few days before the accident, Lin Haifeng sent a message in the wechat circle of friends, saying he ate a bag of expired red dates and was’ stiff ‘, but he didn’t go to the hospital. After vomiting the food, his body returned to normal. Subsequently, he deleted this circle of friends.

A few days later, Lin Haifeng and some friends went to Lijiang to play. After dinner that day, his friends just bought the order. Lin Haifeng suddenly fell to the ground. After being sent to the hospital, there was no sign of life. Everyone suspected that ‘food poisoning’ led to the tragedy. ” He does natural medicine himself. He may think he can get rid of it, so he doesn’t go to the hospital. ” This person feels sorry.

https://en.4hw.com.cn/644/174285.html

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Excerpts from:

iNews

Health expert Lin Haifeng passed away at the age of 51, the doctor confessed: 3 ways to maintain health

2023-03-02 10:00 HKT

Chairman of China Nutrition and Health Network, Chairman of Sunshine Forest Biotechnology Co., Ltd., Director of Medical and Health Research Association of China Health Science and Technology Association, Member of Health Professionals of China Health Food Association, Nutrition Expert of China Longevity Expert Group, and health expert Lin Haifeng…

However, people remember Lin Haifeng because of his staggering remarks. For example, Lin Haifeng said: “Rice is the poison in modern people’s diet. Eating rice is equivalent to taking poison!”

In addition to opposing the consumption of whole grains, Lin Haifeng also believes that to eliminate toxins, the core is not to eat any solid foods and only drink 8 cups of squeezed fruit and vegetable juices such as celery, carrots, and cucumbers every day. After drinking fruit and vegetable juice for 5-7 days, some chronic diseases can be cured completely, and “it’s not easy to get sick again in this life”.
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It’s a bit funny that this health care expert was only 51 years old when he died. It is said that Lin Haifeng ate a pack of expired red dates a few days before his death, and then felt stiff all over his body. After vomiting, his symptoms improved. After dinner, he suddenly fell to the ground after dinner, and then there was no sign of life.


https://inf.news/en/health/dff2fb00f82924eb49b25037d88c67a4.html

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LaiTimes

Chinese longevity expert Lin Haifeng died at the age of 51, after reading deep thoughts

author：A promising youth2021-10-26 21:39:13

Comrade Lin Haifeng passed away – “Chairman of China Nutrition and Health Network, Chairman of Sunshine Forest Biotechnology Co., Ltd., Director of the Medical and Health Research Association of the Chinese Society of Health Science and Technology, Health Professional Committee Member of the China Health Food Association, Nutrition Expert of the China Longevity Expert Group”, Comrade Lin Haifeng unfortunately passed away on November 11, 2019 (Double Eleven) at the age of 51.

Comrade Lin Haifeng has repeatedly publicized that grains such as rice are “poisons in the diet of modern Chinese” and “the key to the production of various modern diseases.” To eliminate toxins, the core is not to eat any solid food, drink only 8 cups of celery, carrots, cucumbers and other squeezed fruit and vegetable juices a day. Comrade Lin Haifeng firmly believes that even after drinking fruit and vegetable juice for 5-7 days, some chronic diseases can be cured completely, and “it is not easy to get sick again in this life.”

Comrade Lin Haifeng told us from his personal experience that it is a very dangerous thing to brag blindly.

On November 11, 2019, Lin Haifeng, a “master of natural remedies” and advocating “fasting and detoxification”, died unexpectedly in Lijiang, Yunnan Province, at the age of 51. People sighed, “What an accident! He’s so young! ”

Lin Haifeng’s friend told reporters that a few days before the accident, Lin Haifeng sent a message in the WeChat circle of friends, saying that he ate a pack of expired dates and was “stiff all over”, but he did not go to the hospital, and after spitting out the food through vomiting, his body returned to normal.

Subsequently, he deleted this circle of friends dynamic. A few days later, Lin Haifeng and some friends went to Lijiang to play, and after dinner that day, Lin Haifeng suddenly fell to the ground unexpectedly. After being taken to the hospital, there was no sign of life, and everyone suspected that “food poisoning” caused the tragedy. “He himself did natural medical treatment, and probably thought he could get out, so he didn’t go to the hospital.” The man lamented.　

He was originally not known to the public, but because of the “master of natural remedies”, “fasting and detoxification regimen”, “nutrition expert of China Longevity Expert Group” and associated with premature death, countless middle-aged and elderly people fell into endless thinking.


https://www.laitimes.com/en/article/4kby_4kww.html

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