journalism

Fort Russ exclusive: Cossack Media Group on the frontline of Donbass journalism

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Fort Russ Exclusive –
February 8, 2017 –
By Alexey Degtyarev for Fort Russ – copy edited by J. Arnoldski – 
 
 
 
Alexey Degtyarev is the editor in chief ofCossack Media Group‘s Cossack Radio based out of the town of Stakhanov in the Lugansk People’s Republic. In this exclusive piece for Fort Russ, Degtyarev introduces the origins, mission, and operations of Cossack Media Group, and summarizes the situation on the frontline in Donbass over the past week. – J. Arnoldski 
 
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The History, Founding, and Activity of Cossack Media Group
Cossack Media Group began to form back in 2014, the year that the war began, when events in Donbass began to take a cardinal change and the residents of Lugansk and Donetsk started to fight back against the Ukrainian army. Whereas they lacked a sufficient number of small arms and possessed no heavy military equipment at all, the Ukrainian military had a sufficient number of both. However, the militia forces, which have now evolved into the DPR and LPR Army, were able to repel the superior enemy.
The idea of creating Cossack Media Group appeared quite simply. It was based on the realization that we, the republics of Donbass, were winning in combat but at the same time we were suffering defeat in the information war. In August 2014, it was decided to start Cossack Radio to broadcast and communicate to people the truth of the situation on the front – truth that is distorted by the Ukrainian media. In 2014, a particularly acute shortage of truthful information spread among people in Donbass. We tried to correct this deficiency. Thus, after the start of the broadcast of Cossack Radio, soldiers started bringing video materials to the studio which confirmed the shelling of residential areas in the Lugansk region (for the Ukrainians themselves, “their homeland”) by UAF forces. More and more video material appeared, so we decided to create a channel on Youtube, New Channel of Novorossiya, and start broadcasting it in the city of Stakhanov and nearby towns. 
 
The Youtube channel, in addition to information problems stemming from the situation facing cable and landline TV, was designed for security purposes in order to inform the local population about the shelling by the Ukrainian army. The Youtube channel reported the true situation in the cities, towns and villages of Donbass to the international community. At the beginning, there were also objective reasons that led to the creation of a Youtube channel such as the lack of technical equipment and specialists, etc needed for a real TV channel. The correspondent network of our television was just beginning to unfold. This is an expensive task, so things are going slower than we would like.
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Intercept report on the FBI; massive trove of documents unmask agency’s shady tactics, reveal FBI’s concern about racism in nation’s police forces

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From RT

January 31, 2017

FBI ‘secret rules’ revealed: Massive trove of documents unmask agency's shady tactics
Screenshot of The Intercept’s investigation, ‘The FBI’s Secret Rules’
A new report published by the Intercept reveals the FBI’s wide-ranging powers from the surveillance of journalists to the treatment of informants after the investigative news site acquired a trove of confidential FBI documents.

The 11-part series led by Intercept reporter Cora Currier sheds light on the bureau’s vast secret powers, following a months-long study of confidential documents.

The papers include the FBI’s governing rulebook, known as the DIOG, and classified policy guides for counterterrorism cases and handling confidential informants.

The investigation exposes the FBI’s spying on journalists, its deportation of immigrant informants when they are no longer of use, and other instances of invasive surveillance on targets without need to show suspicion of wrongdoing.

Glenn Greenwald

✔@ggreenwald

Among the key findings revealed by these previously secret FBI docs https://theintercept.com/2017/01/31/secret-docs-reveal-president-trump-has-inherited-an-fbi-with-vast-hidden-powers/ …

4:47 AM – 31 Jan 2017

Spying on journalists

The Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide reveals the alarming powers the FBI has to spy on journalists. Classified rules dated from 2013, show that agents need approval from only two internal officials to gain access to a journalist’s phone records with a National Security Letter.

The FBI’s general counsel and the executive assistant director of the bureau’s National Security Branch are required to sign off on the NSL, according to the document. This allows the agency to bypass the normal procedure of going to the courts for a subpoena or search warrant before accessing the information.

If the FBI is trying to uncover a confidential media source by targeting the journalist, it requires additional approval from the assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s National Security Division. However, if they are trying to identify a leaker by targeting the records of the potential source, and not the journalist, the Department doesn’t need to be involved.

Edward Snowden

✔@Snowden

Revealed: An 11-part investigation into the agency that shifted the election. Based on 1000+ secret @FBI documents. https://theintercept.com/2017/01/31/secret-docs-reveal-president-trump-has-inherited-an-fbi-with-vast-hidden-powers/ …

6:58 AM – 31 Jan 2017
Photo published for Secret Docs Reveal: President Trump Has Inherited an FBI With Vast Hidden Powers

Secret Docs Reveal: President Trump Has Inherited an FBI With Vast Hidden Powers

Long-sought confidential documents shine a bright light on the powers of this law enforcement agency at the beginning of an era highly likely to be marked by vociferous protest and reactionary state…

theintercept.com

The 2013 NSL rules for the media mention only telephone toll records.

Thousands of NSLs are issued by the FBI each year often targeting tech companies for data on a user’s internet usage and browsing history. These come with a gag order forbidding the company to disclose the request until the FBI lifts the order.

A spokesperson for the FBI, Christopher Allen, would not confirm to The Intercept if the rules had been changed since 2013 but said that they are “very clear” that “the FBI cannot predicate investigative activity solely on the exercise of First Amendment rights.”

READ MORE: Twitter reveals details of 2 FBI national security letters after gag order lifted

FBI treatment of informants

A number of documents reviewed by the Intercept raised concerns about the civil liberties of people sought out as informers. The Confidential Human Source Policy Guide, a classified FBI manual dated September 21, 2015, outlines the process agents must follow in recruiting, handling and separating themselves from informants.

Practically anyone can be targeted as a potential informer – even minors without the knowledge of their parents – if permission is granted from supervisors, according to the manual. Agents are advised to investigate possible informants and gather information on them which can be used to pressurize them if they are unwilling to comply.

Agents can also covertly recruit informers online, using an alias and disposable email, but are allowed to provide a limited amount of information.

RT

✔@RT_com

FBI blames ‘hostile entities’ on decision to withhold information on iPhone hack https://on.rt.com/81wt 

12:13 AM – 31 Jan 2017
Photo published for FBI blames ‘hostile entities’ on decision to withhold information on San Bernardino iPhone hack —...

FBI blames ‘hostile entities’ on decision to withhold information on San Bernardino iPhone hack —…

The FBI has defended its decision not to reveal how it hacked the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone, citing security considerations. The technique could be used by “hostile entities,” it said in court.

rt.com

The guide devotes a whole chapter to the topic of immigration. Agents are prohibited from working with informants who do not have legal immigration status so are required to assist with this process by liaising with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) before recruiting them as an informer.

However, according to the manual, this is more often than not “temporary immigration relief” and, once they are of no more use to the bureau, agents are ordered to assist ICE in finding them.

“If the [informant]’s location is unknown, the [FBI agent] must work with ICE to locate the individual,” the classified manual reads.

The guide also reveals details of two programs which widen their scope regarding immigrants who can be of a benefit to the agency.

One allows agents to bring “inadmissible or deportable” informants into the US while the other allows an immigrant who otherwise would not be allowed to leave the country and return, to go to another country on FBI business and be permitted US re-entry.

Complaints of the FBI using immigration status as leverage to recruit informants have surged in recent years, according to the Intercept.

https://www.rt.com/usa/375818-fbi-secret-rules-powers/

Petition: Don’t imprison Amy Goodman or Deia Schlosberg for journalism

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From David Swanson.org

October 16, 2016

I’ve started a petition to the State of North Dakota that I would imagine and hope just about everyone would want to sign.

Don't Imprison Amy Goodman for Journalism

Here’s the whole text of the petition:

Drop the illogical and illegal charge of “rioting” that you have brought against Amy Goodman for her commission of an act of journalism. Similarly, drop the felony charges you have brought against documentary film maker Deia Schlosberg who filmed activists shutting down pipelines.

Amy Goodman filmed and reported on violent attacks on protesters of the construction of a new pipeline in North Dakota. The state of North Dakota, in its infinite wisdom, tried to figure out a crime to charge her with. Espionage would have been a tough sell, although Goodman had committed the same offense as Julian Assange or James Risen, namely journalism. Trespassing was originally the offense settled upon. When it became clear, however, that that couldn’t stick, North Dakota’s genius prosecutors simply switched the charge to rioting. After all, what is rioting if not filming and reporting on violence?

Well, Dictionary.com says rioting is “a disturbance of the public peace by three or more persons acting together in a disrupting and tumultuous manner in carrying out their private purposes.” But Amy Goodman is not three or more persons. She didn’t disrupt anybody or do anything in a tumultuous manner. And she was carrying out a public service. In fact it was the one public service protected by the U.S. Constitution (or theoretically protected thereby). The First Amendment states:

“Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom … of the press.”

That’s supposed to apply to North Dakota as well. But the First Amendment only means anything if it is protected when threatened. That’s why I’d like everyone who thinks journalists who do their jobs in North Dakota should stay out of prison should sign this petition.

Also in North Dakota (as well as in Minnesota and Montana and Washington) five activists recently used emergency shut-off switches to shut down five active fossil fuel pipelines. They notified the pipeline owners, shut the pipelines down in remote locations, and then waited lengthy amounts of time for the police to arrive and arrest them. They believed that in fact the destruction of the earth’s climate constitutes an emergency. They also asked journalists to document their actions.

The activists expected to face criminal prosecution and in fact are facing the possibility of years in prison. Two of them discuss their actions on my radio show this week. Obviously by interviewing them on my show I am not committing any crime. Obviously any listener is free to conclude that they acted morally or immorally, free to remain undecided, free to seek out additional sources of information, free to create their own podcast explaining why I’m a fool, etc.

But in North Dakota, Deia Schlosberg, who simply filmed what happened, was “held for 48 hours before being allowed to speak to a lawyer. The authorities confiscated her footage. She is now charged with three counts of felony conspiracy and faces a possible sentence of up to 45 years.”

If you can’t recognize why this is a dangerous development, let me add an additional concern. If this sort of violation of freedom of the press were learned of in a nation targeted by the Pentagon for overthrow, it would be used by the U.S. media to justify a bombing campaign. With the rapid militarization of domestic police, what if the Pentagon were to forget that it isn’t supposed to bomb North Dakota?

Perhaps that’s a bit unlikely, but let’s not take any chances.

http://davidswanson.org/node/5313

The Pentagon targeted the hotel where journalists were staying in Baghdad during the Gulf War. There have been other attacks on journalists. It’s already happened. It will just get worse until we say “no more” in words and actions.