News of the World

[kyonides]

DOJ: Libyan Suspect in 1988 Lockerbie Bombing in US Custody

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) confirmed on Dec. 11 that the Libyan intelligence official accused of making a bomb that destroyed a Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 was arrested and is in U.S. custody.
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Mas’ud is now the third Libyan intelligence official charged in the United States in connection with the Lockerbie bombing, but he would be the first to stand trial in a U.S. courtroom. It’s not clear if Mas’ud has a lawyer.

Pan Am Flight 103, which was heading to New York from London, exploded over Lockerbie, causing the deaths of all 259 people on board the plane and another 11 on the ground, in what’s considered the deadliest terrorist attack in the United Kingdom. Among the 190 Americans on board were 35 Syracuse University students flying home for Christmas after a semester abroad.

Scotland’s Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service issued a statement on Dec. 11 about Mas’ud’s arrest by saying that “the families of those killed in the Lockerbie bombing have been told that the suspect … is in U.S. custody.”

Automaker Stellantis to Idle Illinois Plant, Citing Rising Electric Vehicle Production Costs

Automaker Stellantis will indefinitely idle an assembly plant in Illinois that employs around 1,350 workers, the company said, citing the challenge of rising costs related to the electric vehicle (EV) market and other factors.

The site, which will be idled beginning in February 2023, manufactures the Jeep Cherokee SUV. Stellantis, the parent company of Chrysler, Dodge, and Jeep, said it might not resume operations at the site as it considers alternative options.
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Tim Ferguson, shop chairman for United Auto Workers (UAW) union Local 1268, which represents the Illinois plant’s hourly workers, cited company documents to claim that Cherokee production is being shifted to Stellantis’s Toluca plant in Mexico and that the firm intends to close the Belvidere plant.

Amsterdam-based Stellantis insists that it’s looking at repurposing the Illinois facility but didn’t reveal any concrete plans. Cindy Estrada, vice president of UAW, criticized Stellantis for receiving “billions in government incentives” to transition to clean energy while failing to invest that money into “our communities.”

The carmaker had said it plans to invest more than 30 billion euros ($31.6 billion) through 2025 to electrify its vehicle lineup.

Chinese Surveillance Technology Aids Iranian Regime As Tehran Clamps Down on Protesters

Iran is facing increasing nationwide protests since the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who died on Sept. 16 in suspicious circumstances after her arrest for allegedly improperly wearing her hijab.

The Iranian regime has harshly clamped down on the protesters, and is reportedly aided by Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) surveillance technology in this suppression campaign.
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Researchers have termed this “digital authoritarianism.” A 2021 Freedom House report ranked Iran the one of the worst environments for internet freedom, second only to China.
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Iran’s Supreme Council of Cyberspace temporarily banned Instagram, the country’s most popular social media platform, during the protests. Telegram, a messaging app, was earlier banned in 2018 because it encouraged anti-regime protests.
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The news was later quoted by Tehran Bureau, a foreign-based independent Iranian media. “Such technologies, produced in China, are capable of picking individuals out of crowds, even at night, and can be used by the regime to build cases against protesters or women who break the dress code,” reported Tehran Bureau on Sept. 30.

At least eight Chinese companies sell technology to the Iranian regime that is used to surveil its citizens, the report said. These are Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology, Huawei Technologies, ZTE, Zhejiang Dahua Technology, Tiandy, Tencent, Zhejiang Uniview Technologies, and FiberHome Telecommunication Technologies.
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Iranwire, a diaspora and citizen-run news website said that the Iranian Interior Ministry in 2020 bought CCTV equipment manufactured by the Chinese company, Dahua Technology. Surveillance tech firms Dahua and Hikvision helped the Chinese communist regime set up its surveillance network to repress Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang. Both were added to a U.S. trade blacklist in 2019 over their roles in adding Beijing’s rights abuses in the region.

White House: Russia Would Not Release Ex-Marine Paul Whelan in Prisoner Swap

On Sunday morning, Kirby said that trading Whelan was “never a choice posed by the Russians” and that the Biden administration could only exchange Griner for Bout under the agreement. Whelan was detained in 2018 and was given a 16-year prison term.

“They treat Paul differently because of these sham espionage charges,” Kirby told Fox News on Sunday. “He is put in this special category by the Russians.”

Last week, Whelan told CNN via phone that he was “greatly disappointed” and said that more should be done to secure his release. He said he was pleased that Griner, who was jailed on drug possession charges, was sent back to the United States.
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But Kirby disputed those claims and said that “until the very end we were making efforts to try to get both of them out but there was no way to get there.”
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Bout’s release in exchange for Griner was panned by Republicans and even some high-ranking Democrats. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, indicated that he wasn’t happy with the move.

4 Charged Over Alleged EU Corruption, Bribery Campaign by ‘Gulf Country’

The four unnamed individuals are among six taken to be questioned by Belgian police following raids that began across 16 properties in the capital city of Brussels on Dec. 9, officially international anti-corruption day.

Those raids—during which police reportedly seized computers, mobile phones, and €600,000 ($633,500) in cash—were the result of an investigation that started in mid-July 2022 regarding an alleged criminal organization infiltrating the EU parliament and attempting to interfere with political decisions.

Investigators “suspected a Gulf country (of influencing) the economic and political decisions of the European parliament,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

Belgian media identified the Gulf country in question as Qatar, which has repeatedly come under fire over reports of alleged corruption, including claims that it bribed officials to host the 2022 World Cup. Qatar has denied such allegations.
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While authorities did not identify the individuals detained during the weekend raids, local media reported that at least one is a member of the European Parliament and another is a former EU lawmaker.
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"Two persons have been released by the investigating judge.”
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European Parliament vice-president Eva Kaili, who is a member of the Greek Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D), was said to be among those detained and charged.

In November, Kaili praised Qatar for being a “frontrunner in labor rights,” abolishing kafala (the sponsorship system of immigrants), and reducing minimum wage. She took aim at EU members who she accused of “bullying” Qatar and accusing “everyone that talks to them or engages [with them] of corruption.”

In a statement on Dec. 10, the Socialists and Democrats Group said the party had suspended Kaili, effective immediately, in response to the ongoing investigations.

"No, it was not Qatar."
Then we find out that one of the suspects or targets had praised Qatar for things that aren't even true.

New Zealand Imposes Travel Bans on 22 Iranian Security Guards

The New Zealand government has placed travel bans on 22 Iranian security guards, including members of the morality police, who are connected to the death of Mahsa Amini and the violent response to protests that it sparked.
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The individuals affected by the ban include Hossein Salami, commander in chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC); Gholam-Reza Soleimani, commander of the Basij (paramilitary force); Hossein Ashtari, commander of the police; and Mohammed Rostami, head of the morality police.

The prime minister indicated that more bans may follow, and those affected will not be allowed to enter or transit in New Zealand.

Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta said the bans sent a “strong message” that New Zealand does not tolerate the violent suppression of protests and denial of human rights in Iran.
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The country has supported multilateral efforts, such as those of the U.N. Human Rights Council, and has also suspended its human rights dialogue with Iran indefinitely.

New Zealand established its human rights dialogue with Iran in 2018 in hopes of advancing its human rights concerns.

I'm not against sanctioning such   creeps, but who said they ever wanted to fly to New Zealand in the first place?