U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged the international community to support the Venezuelan people and recognize the interim government of opposition leader Juan Guaido as he stands up to disputed President Nicolas Maduro.

“Now it is time for every other nation to pick a side,” Pompeo told the U.N. Security Council during a rare Saturday morning session. “No more delays, no more games. Either you stand with the forces of freedom or you’re in league with Maduro and his mayhem.”

 

Several European governments, including Britain, Spain, Germany and France, said Saturday they would recognize the 35-year-old Guaido as president if no election is called within eight days.

The United States requested the Security Council meeting. Pompeo was accompanied by his newly appointed special envoy for Venezuela, Elliott Abrams.

 

Pompeo called the Maduro regime an “illegitimate mafia state” and criticized countries including Russia, China, Iran and Cuba for supporting him.

 

Russian envoy Vassily Nebenzia shot back that regime change is “a favorite geopolitical game of the United States,” and he asked Secretary Pompeo directly whether the Trump administration plans to militarily intervene in Venezuela.

 

“Does that mean that the United States is ready to use military force against a sovereign state under a bogus pretext?” Nebenzia asked. “It is here in this room that we need to hear a clear answer: whether Washington intends once again to violate the U.N. Charter?”

 

Pompeo offered no response at the meeting and sidestepped a reporter’s question about it during a brief interaction with the press, saying he would not speculate on what the U.S. would do next.

 

Venezuela held presidential elections on May 20, 2018. Many voters boycotted, saying the polls were not free and fair. Several opposition members also were prevented from running. Incumbent president Maduro won with nearly 70 percent of the vote, but the results have been challenged both domestically and abroad. He was sworn in for a second six-year term on January 10.

On January 23, the democratically-elected National Assembly — which is controlled by the opposition — declared Maduro’s rule illegitimate. Invoking constitutional provisions, National Assembly leader Guaido declared himself interim president until there are new elections.

 

Maduro has accused Washington of instigating a coup d’état and told U.S. diplomats to leave the country. His foreign minister traveled to New York for the Security Council meeting.

 

Minister Jorge Arreaza told the council that despite Washington’s intervention and tweets from Secretary Pompeo and Vice President Mike Pence that he said incited and support the opposition and urge security forces to defect from Maduro, his government is still willing to talk to Washington.

 

He also dismissed the eight-day deadline from the Europeans.

 

“Europe is giving us eight days?” Arreaza asked with incredulity. “Where do you get that you have the power to establish a deadline or ultimatum to a sovereign people?”

 

He also took a swipe at Washington for past interventions in Iraq and Libya and the Trump administration’s recent announcement that it will pull its small military force from Syria.

 

“You recall what happened with Saddam Hussein or [Moammar] Ghadafi. Despite all assurances, they were killed,” he noted. “The United States is withdrawing forces from Syria, are they going to try to start a new war in Latin America? In Venezuela? We are not going to give them that satisfaction.”

 

Several Latin American countries sent envoys to the meeting.

 

Peru, a Security Council member, said it has been directly affected by the exodus of some 3 million Venezuelans fleeing the violence and humanitarian crisis. It has received 700,000 refugees.

 

Colombia, which has taken in more than 1 million Venezuelans, sent its foreign minister.

 

Carlos Trujillo asked the council to help his country address the refugee crisis and support the delivery of humanitarian aid to Venezuela. He also appealed to the council to protect opposition leader Guiado and members of the national assembly. He urged new free and fair elections.

 

But other Latin American countries, including Bolivia and Cuba, came to express support for Maduro.

 

The United Nations political chief Rosemary DiCarlo warned council members that the situation is “cause for serious concern.”

 

“The protracted crisis in the country has had a grave impact on the population, with high levels of political polarization, growing humanitarian needs and serious human rights concerns,” DiCarlo said.

On Friday, U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet called for talks to defuse the political tensions in Venezuela, saying that the situation “may rapidly spiral out of control with catastrophic consequences.”

Fern Robinson contributed to this report.

 
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Three militia members convicted of taking part in a foiled plot to massacre Muslims in southwest Kansas were sentenced Friday to decades in prison during an emotional court hearing in which one of the targeted victims pleaded: “Please don’t hate us.”

U.S. District Judge Eric Melgren sentenced Patrick Stein, the alleged ringleader, to 30 years in prison and Curtis Allen, who drafted a manifesto for the group, to 25 years. Gavin Wright, who authorities said helped make and test explosives at his mobile home business, received 26 years. The plot was foiled after another militia member alerted authorities.

Melgren dismissed defense attorneys’ request that he take into the account the divisive political atmosphere in which the men formed their plot to blow up a mosque and apartments housing Somali immigrants in the meatpacking town Garden City, about 220 miles (355 kilometers) west of Wichita, on the day after the 2016 election.

“We have extremely divisive elections because our system is to resolve those through elections and not violence,” Melgren said.

Immersed in right-wing media

Stein’s attorneys have argued that he believed then-President Barack Obama would declare martial law and not recognize the validity of the election if Donald Trump won, forcing militias to step in. Stein’s attorneys noted that during the 2016 campaign, all three men read and shared Russian propaganda on their Facebook feed designed to sow discord in the U.S. political system.

Attorney Jim Pratt told the judge that for years Stein had immersed himself in right-wing media and commentators, who normalized hate. But Melgren was openly skeptical, telling Pratt: “Millions of people listen to this stuff, whether it comes from the left or the right.”

Somali immigrants testify

Prosecutors presented video testimony from some Somali immigrants who were the targets of the bombing. In one clip, Ifrah Farah pleaded: “Please don’t kill us. Please don’t hate us. We can’t hurt you.”

Allen, 51, choked up as he addressed the judge, prompting his attorney to step in and finish reading a prepared statement in which Allen offered “my sincere apologies” to anyone who was frightened and asked for their forgiveness. But Stein, 49, apologized only to his family and friends, and the judge noted when sentencing him that, unlike Allen, he had shown no remorse.

Wright, 53, apologized to the court, saying the plot is “not who I am.” He also apologized to the immigrants who lived at the apartment complex. The judge later said Wright’s courtroom statement showed he was still in denial about what he did, adding that he did not buy that there was any remorse on Wright’s part.

Melgren sentenced Stein to 30 years for conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and 10 years for conspiracy against civil rights. He sentenced Allen and Wright to 25 years for conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and 10 years for conspiracy against civil rights. Those sentences will run concurrently. Wright also got an additional year to be served consecutively for lying to law enforcement, bringing his total sentence to 26 years.

The judge told all three men that the planned attack was worse than the Oklahoma City bombing because the Garden City plot was motivated by hatreds of race, religion and national origin.

Plot thwarted

The Kansas plot was thwarted when militia member Dan Day tipped off authorities to escalating threats of violence. He testified at the men’s trial last year that Stein started recruiting others to kill Muslim immigrants after the June 2016 mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, by a gunman who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group.

Recordings that prosecutors played for jurors last April portrayed a damning picture of a splinter group of the militia Kansas Security Force that came to be known as “the Crusaders.”

Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker in a news release called the sentences “a significant victory against hate crimes and domestic terrorism.”

“These defendants planned to ruthlessly bomb an apartment complex and kill innocent people, simply because of who they are and how they worship,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said.

The sentencing hearings for the men came a day after two members of an Illinois militia known as the White Rabbits pleaded guilty in the 2017 bombing of a Minnesota mosque, admitting they hoped the attack would scare Muslims into leaving the U.S. No one was injured in that attack.
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It is especially difficult for people with disabilities to find opportunities to develop skills and make a living. But a program in Washington is helping artists with special needs get the kind of training they need to develop their skills and earn an income. Rendy Wicaksana tell us more about the non-profit group, Art Enables and the people it helps.
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With the longest shutdown in U.S. history officially over, here’s a look at how the federal government will get back to regular business:

When will federal workers get paid?

 

It’s unclear at this time. The White House tweeted that it will be “in the coming days.”

 

Some 800,000 workers were furloughed or required to work without pay. They will receive back pay.

 

While the Trump administration is promising to pay federal workers as soon as possible, a senior official says agencies are in charge of their own payroll issues and workers should check with their departments for details about when the back pay will arrive.

 

Guidance provided for workers during a previous shutdown in 2013 said that any hours worked prior to the lapse in federal funds would be provided in the next regularly scheduled pay day. Pay for hours worked after the lapse in federal funds would not occur until funding “is provided.”

 

The Office of Management and Budget instructed agencies Friday night to ensure they had adequate staff on hand to support payroll processes and to answer employees’ benefit questions as they return to work.

 

How soon before the Smithsonian museums reopen?

The Smithsonian tweeted that all of its museums and the National Zoo will reopen Tuesday, Jan. 29 at their regularly scheduled times.

What about the national parks?

 

Many remained open during the shutdown, but at reduced staffing levels. Theresa Pierno, president and CEO for the National Parks Conservation Association, said some parks suffered “terrible damage” during the shutdown. One of the first jobs for park workers will be to assess that damage.

 

“The damage done to our parks will be felt for weeks, months or even years,” she said.

 

P. Daniel Smith, Deputy Director of the National Park Service, said “the National Park Service is preparing to resume regular operations nationwide though the schedule for individual parks may vary depending on staff size and complexity of operations.

 

“Many parks which have been accessible throughout the lapse in appropriations remain accessible with basic services,” he said. “Visitors should contact individual parks or visit park websites for their opening schedules and the latest information on accessibility and visitor services. Some parks which have been closed throughout the lapse in appropriations may not reopen immediately, but we will work to open all parks as quickly as possible.”

Will air travelers get a break soon, too?

The shutdown had become a source of growing alarm for travelers and airlines. The absence rate among airport screeners peaked at 10 percent last weekend, meaning longer lines. On Friday, the absence of six air traffic control workers contributed to massive delays along the East Coast. LaGuardia Airport in New York and Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey were particularly affected, and delays rippled outward from there — about 3,000 late flights by midafternoon. The end of the shutdown should relieve those problems. That said, the Transportation Security Administration has emphasized that the large majority of passengers haven’t suffered from the shutdown. The TSA said that only 3.7 percent of travelers screened Wednesday — or about 65,000 people — waited 15 minutes or longer.

When will the president deliver his state of the union address?

 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she will discuss a date with President Donald Trump once the government is open. She did not provide any further details Friday, except to say, “I’ll look forward to doing that and welcoming the president to the House of Representatives for the State of the Union.”
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The Associated Press has found that researchers who reported the role of Israeli spyware in the targeting of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s inner circle are in turn being targeted by international undercover operatives. 

Twice in the past two months men masquerading as socially conscious investors have lured members of the Citizen Lab internet watchdog group to meetings at luxury hotels to quiz them for hours about their work exposing Israeli surveillance.

Citizen Lab Director Ron Deibert on Friday described the stunts as “a new low.”

Who these operatives are working for remains a riddle, but their tactics recall those of private investigators who assume elaborate false identities to gather intelligence or compromising material on critics of powerful figures in government or business.

Full story

The researchers who reported that Israeli software was used to spy on Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s inner circle before his gruesome death are being targeted in turn by international undercover operatives, The Associated Press has found. 

Twice in the past two months, men masquerading as socially conscious investors have lured members of the Citizen Lab internet watchdog group to meetings at luxury hotels to quiz them for hours about their work exposing Israeli surveillance and the details of their personal lives. In both cases, the researchers believe they were secretly recorded.

Citizen Lab Director Ron Deibert described the stunts as “a new low.”

“We condemn these sinister, underhanded activities in the strongest possible terms,” he said in a statement Friday. “Such a deceitful attack on an academic group like the Citizen Lab is an attack on academic freedom everywhere.”

Who these operatives are working for remains a riddle, but their tactics recall those of private investigators who assume elaborate false identities to gather intelligence or compromising material on critics of powerful figures in government or business.

A leading role

Citizen Lab, based out of the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, has for years played a leading role in exposing state-backed hackers operating in places as far afield as Tibet, Ethiopia and Syria. Lately the group has drawn attention for its repeated exposes of an Israeli surveillance software vendor called the NSO Group, a firm whose wares have been used by governments to target journalists in Mexico , opposition figures in Panama and human rights activists in the Middle East.

In October, Citizen Lab reported that an iPhone belonging to one of Khashoggi’s confidantes had been infected by the NSO’s signature spy software only months before Khashoggi’s grisly murder. The friend, Saudi dissident Omar Abdulaziz, would later claim that the hacking had exposed Khashoggi’s private criticisms of the Saudi royal family to the Arab kingdom’s spies and thus “played a major role” in his death.

In a statement, NSO denied having anything to do with the undercover operations targeting Citizen Lab, “either directly or indirectly” and said it had neither hired nor asked anyone to hire private investigators to pursue the Canadian organization. “Any suggestion to the contrary is factually incorrect and nothing more than baseless speculation,” NSO said.

NSO has long denied that its software was used to target Khashoggi, although it has refused to comment when asked whether it has sold its software to the Saudi government more generally.

The first message reached Bahr Abdul Razzak, a Syrian refugee who works as a Citizen Lab researcher, Dec. 6, when a man calling himself Gary Bowman got in touch via LinkedIn. The man described himself as a South African financial technology executive based in Madrid.

“I came across your profile and think that the work you’ve done helping Syrian refugees and your extensive technical background could be a great fit for our new initiative,” Bowman wrote.

Abdul Razzak said he thought the proposal was a bit odd, but he eventually agreed to meet the man at Toronto’s swanky Shangri-La Hotel on the morning of Dec. 18. 

The conversation got weird very quickly, Abdul Razzak said.

Instead of talking about refugees, Abdul Razzak said, Bowman grilled him about his work for Citizen Lab and its investigations into the use of NSO’s software. Abdul Razzak said Bowman appeared to be reading off cue cards, asking him if he was earning enough money and throwing out pointed questions about Israel, the war in Syria and Abdul Razzak’s religiosity.

“Do you pray?” Abdul Razzak recalled Bowman asking. “Why do you write only about NSO?” “Do you write about it because it’s an Israeli company?” “Do you hate Israel?” 

Shaken after meeting

Abdul Razzak said he emerged from the meeting feeling shaken. He alerted his Citizen Lab colleagues, who quickly determined that the breakfast get-together had been a ruse. Bowman’s supposed Madrid-based company, FlameTech, had no web presence beyond a LinkedIn page, a handful of social media profiles and an entry in the business information platform Crunchbase. A reverse image search revealed that the profile picture of the man listed as FlameTech’s chief executive, Mauricio Alonso, was a stock photograph. 

“My immediate gut feeling was: `This is a fake,”‘ said John Scott-Railton, one of Abdul Razzak’s colleagues.

Scott-Railton flagged the incident to the AP, which confirmed that FlameTech was a digital facade.

Searches of the Orbis database of corporate records, which has data on some 300 million global companies, turned up no evidence of a Spanish firm called FlameTech or Flame Tech or any company anywhere in the world matching its description. 

No records

Similarly, the AP found no record of FlameTech in Madrid’s official registry or of a Gary Bowman in the city’s telephone listings. An Orbis search for Alonso, the supposed chief executive, also drew a blank. When an AP reporter visited Madrid’s Crystal Tower high-rise, where FlameTech claimed to have 250 sq. meters (2,700 sq. feet) of office space, he could find no trace of the firm and calls to the number listed on its website went unanswered.

The AP was about to publish a story about the curious company when, on Jan. 9, Scott-Railton received an intriguing message of his own.

This time the contact came not from Bowman of FlameTech but from someone who identified himself as Michel Lambert, a director at the Paris-based agricultural technology firm CPW-Consulting.

Lambert had done his homework. In his introductory email , he referred to Scott-Railton’s early doctoral research on kite aerial photography — a mapping technique using kite-mounted cameras — and said he was “quite impressed.”

“We have a few projects and clients coming up that could significantly benefit from implementing Kite Aerial Photography,” he said.

Like FlameTech, CPW-Consulting was a fiction. Searches of Orbis and the French commercial court registry Infogreffe turned up no trace of the supposedly Paris-based company or indeed of any Paris-based company bearing the acronym CPW. And when the AP visited CPW’s alleged office there was no evidence of the company; the address was home to a mainly residential apartment building. Residents and the building’s caretaker said they had never heard of the firm.

Whoever dreamed up CPW had taken steps to ensure the illusion survived a casual web search, but even those efforts didn’t bear much scrutiny. The company had issued a help wanted ad, for example, seeking a digital mapping specialist for their Paris office, but Scott-Railton discovered that the language had been lifted almost word-for-word from an ad from an unrelated company seeking a mapping specialist in London. A blog post touted CPW as a major player in Africa, but an examination of the author’s profile suggests the article was the only one the blogger had ever written.

When Lambert suggested an in-person meeting in New York during a Jan. 19 phone call , Scott-Railton felt certain that Lambert was trying to set him up.

But Scott-Railton agreed to the meeting. He planned to lay a trap of his own. 

Anyone watching Scott-Railton and Lambert laughing over wagyu beef and lobster bisque at the Peninsula Hotel’s upscale restaurant on Thursday afternoon might have mistaken the pair for friends. 

Spy vs. Spy

In fact, the lunch was Spy vs. Spy. Scott-Railton had spent the night before trying to secret a homemade camera into his tie, he later told AP, eventually settling for a GoPro action camera and several recording devices hidden about his person. On the table, Lambert had placed a large pen in which Scott-Railton said he spotted a tiny camera lens peeking out from an opening in the top. 

Lambert didn’t seem to be alone. At the beginning of the meal, a man sat behind him, holding up his phone as if to take pictures and then abruptly left the restaurant, having eaten nothing. Later, two or three men materialized at the bar and appeared to be monitoring proceedings. 

Scott-Railton wasn’t alone either. A few tables away, two Associated Press journalists were making small talk as they waited for a signal from Scott-Railton, who had invited the reporters to observe the lunch from nearby and then interview Lambert near the end of the meal.

The conversation began with a discussion of kites, gossip about African politicians, and a detour through Scott-Railton’s family background. But Lambert, just like Bowman, eventually steered the talk to Citizen Lab and NSO. 

“Work drama? Tell me, I like drama!” Lambert said at one point, according to Scott-Railton’s recording of the conversation. “Is there a big competition between the people inside Citizen Lab?” he asked later.

Working off cue cards

Like Bowman, Lambert appeared to be working off cue cards and occasionally made awkward conversational gambits. At one point he repeated a racist French expression, insisting it wasn’t offensive. He also asked Scott-Railton questions about the Holocaust, anti-Semitism and whether he grew up with any Jewish friends. At another point he asked whether there might not be a “racist element” to Citizen Lab’s interest in Israeli spyware. 

After dessert arrived, the AP reporters approached Lambert at his table and asked him why his company didn’t seem to exist.

He seemed to stiffen.

“I know what I’m doing,” Lambert said, as he put his files — and his pen — into a bag. Then he stood up, bumped into a chair and walked off, saying “Ciao” and waving his hand, before returning because he had neglected to pay the bill. 

As he paced around the restaurant waiting for the check, Lambert refused to answer questions who he worked for or why no trace of his firm could be found.

“I don’t have to give you any explanation,” he said. He eventually retreated to a back room and closed the door.

Who Lambert and Bowman really are isn’t clear. Neither men returned emails, LinkedIn messages or phone calls. And despite their keen focus on NSO the AP has found no evidence of any link to the Israeli spyware merchant, which is adamant that it wasn’t involved.

The kind of aggressive investigative tactics used by the mystery men who targeted Citizen Lab have come under fire in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse scandal. Black Cube, an Israeli private investigation firm apologized after The New Yorker and other media outlets revealed that the company’s operatives had used subterfuge and dirty tricks to help the Hollywood mogul suppress allegations of rape and sexual assault. 

Steered toward controversial comments?

Scott-Railton and Abdul Razzak said they didn’t want to speculate about who was involved. But both said they believed they were being steered toward making controversial comments that could be used to blacken Citizen Lab’s reputation.

“It could be they wanted me to say, Yes, I hate Israel,' orYes, Citizen Lab is against NSO because it’s Israeli,”‘ said Abdul Razzak.

Scott-Railton said the elaborate, multinational operation was gratifying, in a way.

“People were paid to fly to a city to sit you down to an expensive meal and try to convince you to say bad things about your work, your colleagues and your employer,” he said. 

“That means that your work is important.”  
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