A long-standing lawsuit holding Twitter responsible for the rise of ISIS got new life today, as plaintiffs filed a revised version of the complaint that was struck down earlier this month. In the new complaint, the plaintiffs argue Twitter’s Direct Message service is akin to providing ISIS with physical communications equipment like a radio or a satellite phone.
It’s the plaintiffs’ third attempt, after two previous complaints were struck down by the judge. In each instance, the judge gave the plaintiffs 20 days to file a new complaint responding to the reasoning of the dismissal.
The latest complaint is largely the same as the one filed in January, but a few crucial differences will be at the center of the court’s response. The complaint still centers around David Shields, a military contractor killed in Jordan by an ISIS-linked attack, but now Shields’ family is joined by the family of James Damon Creach, a fellow contractor who was killed in the same attack.
The plaintiffs also offer new arguments for why Twitter might be held responsible for the attack. In the dismissal earlier this month, District Judge William Orrick faulted the plaintiffs for not articulating a case for why providing access to Twitter’s services constituted material aid to ISIS. “Apart from the private nature of Direct Messaging, plaintiffs identify no other way in which their Direct Messaging theory seeks to treat Twitter as anything other than a publisher of information provided by another information content provider,” the ruling reads. At the same time, the judge found that the privacy of those direct messages “does not remove the transmission of such messages from the scope of publishing activity.”
The new complaint includes some language that might address that concern, explicitly comparing Twitter to other material communication tools. “Giving ISIS the capability to send and receive Direct Messages in this manner is no different than handing it a satellite phone, walkie-talkies or the use of a mail drop,” the new complaint reads, “all of which terrorists use for private communications in order to further their extremist agendas.”
The clearest legal distinction between a Twitter account and a satellite phone comes from the Safe Harbor clause, which generally protects service providers from liability for data hosted on their network. After the earlier dismissal, Brookings Institute scholar Benjamin Witters argued against protecting Twitter under the Safe Harbor clause, claiming that the current reasoning would also protect companies that actively offer services in support of terrorists. It remains to be seen whether that argument will find favor with the court.
In a post earlier this month, Twitter claimed to have suspended 235,000 accounts over a six-month period for connections to violent extremism. Reached by The Verge, the company declined to comment.
Up to 40 ISIS militants killed by a Russian bomber
By Merieme Arif, Holly Yan and Jim Sciutto CNN
(CNN)
Russia said one of its airstrikes in Syria killed ISIS spokesman Mohammad al-Adnani — a claim that a US official called preposterous.
On Wednesday, Russia’s Ministry of Defense announced it killed the terror leader on the ministry’s official Facebook page. It said Adnani was one of up to 40 ISIS militants killed by a Russian bomber in Aleppo province.
“It would be laughable but for the very real humanitarian suffering Russia has inflicted,” the defense official said Wednesday. “We stand by the statement we made yesterday. We conducted a strike that targeted al-Adnani. We are assessing the results of that strike.”
On Tuesday, ISIS announced Adnani’s death in a rare public statement. His death marks the highest-profile killing yet of an ISIS member.
A key deputy to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, he was floated to be his successor should anything happen to Baghdadi.
A statement from ISIS’ Amaq news agency on Tuesday said Adnani died while inspecting military operations in the area of Aleppo. ISIS has not revealed his cause of death and said it was “determined to seek revenge” for the killing.
“After a journey filled with sacrifice and fight against non-believers, the Syrian Gallant knight, Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, joined the convoy of martyr leaders,” ISIS said.
“To the filthy and coward nonbelievers and to the holders of the Christ emblem, we bring the good news, which will keep them awake, that a new generation in the Islamic State … that loves death more than life … this generation will only grow steadfast on the path to Jihad, stay determined to seek revenge and be violent toward them.”
‘Significant blow’
Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said Tuesday that while the results of the US-led coalition’s airstrike against Adnani were not clear, his “removal from the battlefield would mark another significant blow to ISIS.”
“Al-Adnani has served as principal architect of ISIS’ external operations and as ISIS’ chief spokesman. He has coordinated the movement of ISIS fighters, directly encouraged lone-wolf attacks on civilians and members of the military and actively recruited new ISIS members. The U.S. military will continue to prioritize and relentlessly target ISIS leaders and external plotters in order to defend our homeland, our allies and our partners, while we continue to gather momentum in destroying ISIL’s parent tumor in Iraq and Syria and combat its metastases around the world.”
More than a spokesman
As spokesman, Adnani was the group’s most prominent face, the first to announce the ISIS caliphate even before Baghdadi did.
But he was much more than a spokesman, CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank said.
Adnani was well-known for ordering operatives to attack countries participating in the coalition against ISIS. Western intelligence believes he had command responsibility for the November 2015 Paris attacks.
He is believed to have carried out those orders as one of the ISIS leaders overseeing its security service, known as Amniyat, which includes the external operations unit tasked with international attacks on the West. As such, the external operations unit reported up to Adnani.
A number of ISIS followers and members captured and questioned in the last two years, including French jihadists Faiz Bouchrane and Reda Hame, have attested to Adnani as head of the Amniyat.
“In some ways he’s a more dangerous figure than Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, because he’s believed to be overseeing the external operations division of ISIS, and that’s the part of ISIS which threatens the West, which carried out the attacks in Paris, which could one day carry out an attack in the US on a significant scale,” Cruickshank said.
First to declare ISIS caliphate
Adnani has been with ISIS since its beginnings and was close to Baghdadi, CNN’s Nic Robertson said. In June 2014, he was the first to declare a caliphate for parts of Syria and Iraq, indicating ISIS’ aim to become a governing entity and not just a terrorist group.
Born in Syria in 1977, Adnani was the most senior Syrian in ISIS, a trait that some analysts say may have counted against him in a leadership bid among the Iraqi-led terror group.
The US State Department officially labeled Adnani a terrorist in August 2014 and put a $5 million bounty on his head. It described him as “the official spokesman for and a senior leader” of ISIS, a position he obtained after becoming one of the first foreign fighters to oppose US-led forces in Iraq.
He was arrested in May 2005 in Anbar province and is believed to have spent some time between 2005 and 2010 at the US detention facility Camp Bucca.
After his arrival in Syria, he was appointed deputy of Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani, leader of the Islamic State of Iraq for the northern province, then as the security leader before assuming a key role in external operations for ISIS, according to the UN Security Council.
‘Crush their heads with rocks’
“He was the mouthpiece of ISIS. He said things like, ‘If you can’t shoot them, then stab them, and if you can’t stab them, then crush their heads with rocks. If you can’t do that, then drive your cars, your vehicles, to kill them,” Robertson said.
“He absolutely tried to maximize every opportunity to instill fear in Syria and Iraq and the international community and send fighters overseas to attack.”
Adnani said ISIS supporters in the West had a religious duty to launch lone-wolf attacks, a move analysts call a game changer that may have inspired attacks in North America, Europe and Australia.
“He was the strategic leader of the organization, especially when it comes to attacks on the West,” said journalist Graeme Wood, Edward R. Murrow Press Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. “To have that voice destroyed is a serious blow to the organization, probably the most significant kill that the enemies of the Islamic State have perpetrated since its declaration of the caliphate.”
Uzbek authorities insist that President Karimov, 78, is in a stable condition in hospital after suffering a brain hemorrhage Natruskin/Reuters
Is Islam Karimov, the ruthless dictator who has ruled Uzbekistan for 25 years, dead or alive?
Uzbek authorities insist that President Karimov, 78, is in a stable condition in hospital after suffering a brain haemorrhage at the weekend, reportedly after drinking vodka toasts to the country’s Olympic medallists.
Yet a host of well-informed regional experts and analysts, citing insider sources, are equally adamant that Mr Karimov is dead. Analysts are concerned that his death could trigger instability in Uzbekistan, a mainly Muslim country of 32 million people that borders Afghanistan.
“It’s a fact,” Daniil Kislov, editor of the well-respected Ferghana
Russian citizen Sergei Mironov, who was detained in Armenia following a request by the United States and later released, will return to his home country on August 31, his lawyer Karen Nersesyan said Tuesday.
On Saturday, Mironov, 33, was detained in the Armenian capital, Yerevan. US authorities suspect Mironov of laundering $50,000 and of an illegal technology transfer.
“Mironov has a round-trip ticket. He has a return ticket for tomorrow, for August 31. If the prosecutor’s office does not summon him, we will leave for Russia,” Nersesyan told RIA Novosti, adding that no summons has been received so far.
On Monday, the court denied the request of the prosecutor’s office for Mironov’s provisional detention. The prosecutor’s office may file an appeal against the court ruling within five days.
“Rwanda is currently the largest exporter of Coltan, providing 50% of tantalum worldwide. Coltan is a mineral dull metal that is a combination of columbite and tantalite, refined for the production of tantalum”. [ an essential component of computers and cell phones]
Rwanda does not have reserves of coltan. All the coltan that it has been exporting is from Kivu in the Eastern Congo. This is one of the most war-torn regions in the world. Since 1996 between 8-11 million people have lost their lives in an on-going scene of murder. How is it that Rwanda fares so well with its coltan exports when the area from where it is mined, is a scene of chaos?
Because since 1996 the Congo has been occupied by the governments of its neighbours – Rwanda and Uganda. These countries in compliance with their proxy government in Kinshasa lead by Joseph Kabila, have infiltrated and manipulated Congolese establishments and institutions, primarily the military. Congo functions for the benefit of its political elite and that of Rwanda and Uganda.
“Many cottage industries and small companies and mining cooperatives, which represent nearly 80% of minors in the country, will be able, for the first time, to directly sell their minerals to a local foundry instead of agents,” says -he. (Frank Balestra, CEO of AB Minerals Corp)
“The reason most African mineral resources are exported in the raw state is the low level of industrialization in the local area. Bringing coltan treatment directly to the region will raise the country’s industrialization and the mining industry in Rwanda and East Africa. “
The coltan mines are not in Rwanda or East Africa. The mines are in the Congo. This is typical of the lies from the mainstream media.
The excerpt above misleads you to think of unindustrialized Africa, small scale/artisanal mining operations conducted by hand. That is not the case. Nor is it the case that local communities will benefit from this enterprise. Most of the local communities are already dead.
The following is from a journalist, Keith Harmon Snow, who has spent several years on the ground in the Democratic Republic of Congo :
Similarly, there is also no mention by Reuters of the vast tracts of mineral-rich land that have been stolen and cleared of Congolese people by western mining companies like Banro Gold Corporation [5], Metallurg [6],l Casa Minerals [7], or Alphamin [8], the western mining firm that has captured massive concessions in North Kivu……
There are allegations that Mai Mai Cheka [warlord] has colluded with Alphamin Resources Corporation to terrorize and displace artisanal Congolese miners.[22] Meanwhile, several of the concessions stolen from Congolese people by Alphamin remain under ‘Force Majeure’ — a formal declaration, agreed to by the Congolese government in Kinshasa, establishing that the mining operations cannot proceed due to unforeseen circumstances.
Alphamin Resources Corporation is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, and staffed with all white directors from North America, Europe and South Africa. Alphamin controls vast tracts of North Kivu, mining concessions rich with tin, gold, coltan and copper, the largest of which is the Bisie Mine.[23] The foreign control would not be possible without first neutralizing and/or eliminating the Congolese landowners. Western mining companies achieve pacification and land control by any means necessary.
Thousands of Congolese artisanal miners have suffered loss of livelihood or life due to the occupation of large mining concessions by Alphamin, and the concomitant pacification of the communities through direct violence. Artisanal miners have attacked Alphamin mining operations, and Cheka forces have attacked artisanal mining camps, and artisanal miners have attacked Alphamin operations after being themselves attacked by Cheka forces (that they believe to be aligned with Alphamin).[24]
“Of course, many local miners have to leave their communities since those big companies come with papers and authorizations from Kinshasa.” The unnamed Congolese official has visited many Kivu mining areas over the past 20 years. “In North Kivu it is Mining Processing of Congo, and just like with Banro Gold in Twangiza in South Kivu: they claim the right to receive ‘security’ assured by FARDC.”[25] (FARDC are the Congolese Military Forces)
The conflict in the DRC is presented as confusing- who is killing who and who are the good guys and who are the bad guys and are the guys who started out good, now run by the bad guys.There are over 10 names of fighting factions in Kivu. But in reality the majority of these groups are a name changing game where a group is re-branded and presented as the new threat after the` good `guys have defeated the bad . This is a British military tactic of counter-insurgency which was written about in 1960 in a book titled Gangs and Counter Gangs by General Sir Frank Kitson who describes the British infiltration of the Mau-Mau during the Kenyan rebellion.
The same tactics are being used today in Syria with the re-branding of terrorist militias who were originally created, trained and funded by the CIA and British Intelligence. Source: http://21stcenturywire.com/
As is the case in Syria, Western backed `humanitarian` NGOs produce propaganda and lies for the press and deceive the Western public into supporting humanitarian interventions ; the same is happening in the Congo.Hollywood film stars act for the billionaire `philanthropists` who fund the US State Department and its War Machine.
The Rwandan coltan processing plant is the culmination of 25 years of political machinations that have had one primary goal. That goal is the annexation of Kivu by Rwanda and the balkanization of the largest and most -resources rich country on Earth whose people are officially the second poorest nation . The estimated un-tapped wealth of the Congo stands at $24 trillion.That figure does not include revenue from agriculture, water or hydro-electric which has the potential to provide power for all of southern Africa and to be the continent`s bread basket.
President Mobutu Sese Seko who was placed in power by foreign hands after the assassination of the country`s first and last genuinely democratically elected leader – Patrice Lumumba- was famous for saying : “Apres moi,La Deluge.” ( After me, The Flood.)He was spot-on.
Rwanda has been used as an axis of control and the conduit for for the privatization of Congo`s resources.Rwandan President Paul Kagame is a puppet of the financial cabal who operate from Westminster and Washington. The extractive industries whether they are Canadian or Australian are all satellite corporations for the City of London and invariably directly linked to the Rothschild family.
The Rothschilds also control BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, the two biggest global miners, as well as Royal Dutch/Shell, BP and Bank of America …..Anglo-American is the world’s third largest mining company. It is controlled by the Rothschilds and South Africa’s Oppenheimer family. It owns both Engelhardt – which enjoys a near monopoly in global gold refining – and the DeBeers diamond monopoly. [ Source: https://hendersonlefthook.wordpress.com/2015/12/26/the-house-of-rothschild/]
The sheer horror of Congo`s last years are mirrored in other African states such as Somalia and The Sudan. There is a pattern of genocide by warlords, mass starvation and `humanitarian` occupation by the UN. The Sudan has already been balkanized and the phony state South Sudan was officially recognized in 2011.
Within days of declaring itself a sovereign nation, South Sudan’s state oil company, Nilepet formed a joint venture with Glencore International Plc to market its oil. Glencore is controlled by the Rothschilds. The PetroNile joint venture will be 51 percent controlled by Nilepet and 49 percent by Glencore. Source:https://hendersonlefthook.wordpress.com/2015/10/22/rothschilds-glencore-south-sudan-oil-grab/
Somalia has also been balkanized with the formation of phony Somaliland and Puntland, both strategic oil-rich regions.
In 2011 Herman Cohen gave an interview which outlined the agenda for the Congo. In the interview he predicted that Kivu would be annexed by Rwanda. Herman Cohen does not have a crystal ball, he is a part of the System – the financial criminal empire.
APARECO is the largest Congolese political party outside of the DRC. It has been documenting Congo`s occupation since 1996. In their Political Declaration they attest to the US Government`s role in the Congo. The following is an automatic translation from French :
The statements of Mr. Herman Cohen, former American Deputy Secretary of State for African Affairs, made in 2011, affirming that “the American State Department already considered the Kivu as being part of Rwanda.” These words of Mr. Cohen were supported by a confidential note from the American Embassy in Kinshasa relayed by Wikileaks confirming that “the American diplomatic mission is in the process of identifying those who are for or against this theory (of the Balkanization) that the United States is listed among those who support the aggressors of the DRC and that American interests are supposed to support the efforts of Rwanda to annex Kivu and monopolize the resources of the region. »
In November 2012, some diplomats at the UN as well as a part of the international press reported undeniable acquaintances and even some proven duplicities between senior officials of the Obama administration and the Rwandese government.
Also, during the debates in the Security Council, Susan Rice and Mr. Anthony Lake, member of the National Security Council and former head of the CIA, have never hidden the American administration’s position in favor of the regime of Paul Kagame.
In fact, Madam Rice has more than once blocked or delayed the publication of the reportof UN experts describing, with great details, the support of the Rwanda to militias operating in the Kivu , in the sole purpose of preventing Paul Kagame and his regime to be explicitly accused by the Security Council . And in his article of December 10, 2012, journalist Helene Cooper of The New York Times explained the existence of a conflict of interest because Susan Rice had Paul Kagame as a “client” when she worked for the firm for strategic intelligence “intelligence” at the same time as Anthony Lake.
Johnnie Carson, another former American Deputy Secretary of State for African Affairs had thrown a big spanner in the works before The Brookings Institute in February 2013affirming that the recipes of peace applied in Yugoslavia and Sudan should also be applied in the DRC (sic).
Finally in 2007, French President Nicolas Sarkozy , in his turn made a troubling statement supporting the thesis of the balkanization of the DRC saying that ” Rwanda is the country with the dynamic demography and has a small area while the issue of DRC is of being a country of vast size and the strange organization of border wealth. How , in this region of world , we share space, resources are shared and we agree to understand that geography has its rules , that countries rarely change addresses and must learn to live side by side to the others? “
For APARECO , it is obvious that all these statements and allusions made by senior American and European politicians who have had to hold high responsibility in treating burning issues such as the multiform conflicts of African Great Lakes , reveal unequivocally the active complicity of the West in the plot in place for balkanization of DR Congo.
is to replace the now de- populated Eastern congo with foreign nationals who will have an allegiance to the Tutsi government of Rwanda. The Tutsi elite consider themselves Semitic but in an extremist manner that mirrors the Zionist elite of the Israeli government and that of prominent financiers and political figures in America. Paul Kagame has recently done a deal with Benjamin Netanyahu. Rwanda will be paid to take in unwanted African Jews from racist Israel. These immigrants will replace the depleted population of Kivu.
The following in bold is automatic translation :
On the other hand, the presence of the Falashas in Kivu would serve as a political cover for the Rwandan occupation will be sidelined. Car, sous l’influence des lobbies juifs internationaux, toutes les actions de revendication et de résistance de la part des Congolais contre l’occupation de leurs terres seront présentées au monde comme étant la manifestation de l’antisémitisme primaire qui entraineraient des sanctions des Nations Unies! For under the influence of international Jewish lobbies, all industrial action and resistance from the Congolese people against the occupation of their lands will be presented to the world as the manifestation of primary anti-Semitism that would result in United Nations Sanctions! On verrait alors le Conseil de sécurité de l’ONU très hypocritement pour cautionner la balkanisation qui en résulterait de toutes ces manœuvres méphistophéliques, prendre des résolutions pour créer des zones tampons entre le reste de la RDC et la partie balkanisée en arguant vouloir protéger la sécurité des Falachas qui serait gravement menacée par des Congolais. We then see the UN Security Council to endorse hypocritically Balkanization that would result from these mephistophelic maneuvers, pass resolutions to create buffer zones between the rest of the DRC and the balkanized part by arguing wanting to protect the safety the Falashas would be seriously threatened by the Congolese. Et, selon un scénario désormais classique, quelques années plus tard, le même Conseil de sécurité sanctionnerait définitivement par résolution, l’autodétermination des pans entiers du territoire national occupés. And, according to a now classic scenario, a few years later, the same Security Council sanction by finally solving, self-determination of large parts of the occupied territory. On assistera alors à l’émergence soit d’une fédération ou d’une confédération entre le Rwanda et le (nouveau) « pays des Falachas » soit encore à l’émiettement voire la disparition pure et simple de l’actuelle RDC réduite en portion congrue du fait des sécessions successives proclamées çà et là par les différentes provinces, sous la pulsion des mêmes lobbies mafieux. There will then be the emergence of a federation or confederation between Rwanda and the (new) “country of Falashas” is still in the crumbling even the complete disappearance of the current DRC reduced portion congruous because of the successive secessions proclaimed here and there by the provinces, under the impulse of the same mafia lobbies.
Revived lawsuit says Twitter DMs are like handing ISIS a satellite phone
ThereAreNoSunglasses 