Tag: kill

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World News

Haitian Ex-Intelligence Officer Gave Order to Kill President, Colombia Says

Haitian Ex-Intelligence Officer Gave Order to Kill President, Colombia Says

Colombian officials on Friday identified a former Haitian intelligence official as the man who ordered two former Colombian soldiers to kill Haiti’s president, Jovanel Moïse, this month.

The ex-intelligence official, Joseph Felix Badio, had first told two Colombian soldiers that they would be “arresting” the president, Gen. Jorge Luis Vargas, the head of Colombia’s national police, said at a news conference.

But a few days before the operation, he said, the plan changed. Mr. Badio told the former soldiers, Duberney Capador and Germán Alejandro Rivera Garcia, that “what they had to do was assassinate the president of Haiti,” General Vargas said.

Colombian officials did not describe the source of the information. Earlier this week Colombian intelligence and foreign ministry officials told The New York Times that they had not been able to interview the Colombian suspects.

Haitian police have issued a “wanted” notice for Mr. Badio’s arrest, accusing him of murder. The Haitian police also accuse him of organizing logistics, procuring vehicles and coordinating the operation of the assassination squad.

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Politics

Crushing Dissent: The Saudi Kill Workforce Behind Khashoggi’s Dying

Crushing Dissent: The Saudi Kill Team Behind Khashoggi’s Death

WASHINGTON – Seven Saudis who were involved in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi were part of an elite unit tasked with protecting Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. This emerges from a released report on the attack published on Friday. The New York Times has linked the group with a brutal campaign to suppress disagreements at home and abroad, citing interviews with American officials who read intelligence reports on the campaign.

The role of activists from the so-called Rapid Intervention Force (RIF) in the assassination of Khashoggi helped bolster the case by American intelligence that Prince Mohammed approved the operation. “Members of the RIF would not have participated in the murder without the consent of the Crown Prince,” the report said.

The group “exists to defend the Crown Prince” and “only responds to him,” the report said, and on Friday the Treasury Department appointed the Rapid Intervention Force for economic sanctions for its role in the Khashoggi assassination.

Here’s something about what is known about the device:

The assassination of Mr Khashoggi was just one particularly monstrous operation that included members of the group. The Rapid Intervention Force appears to have begun its violent campaign in 2017, the year Prince Mohammed pushed his elder rival aside to become heir to the Saudi throne.

According to American officials, the group has carried out dozens of operations both inside and outside the kingdom – including the forcible repatriation of Saudis from other Arab countries. The group also appears to have been involved in the detention and abuse of prominent women rights activists who campaigned for the kingdom’s driving ban on women to be lifted. One of them, Loujain al-Hathloul, was arrested in 2018 and only released this month.

Another of the women arrested by the group, a university professor, attempted suicide after being subjected to American torture in 2018 after being subjected to psychological torture. Some of the inmates were temporarily held in an opulent palace owned by Prince Mohammed and his father, King Salman.

The group was so busy that in June 2018 their field commander asked an advisor to Prince Mohammed whether the Rapid Intervention Force could receive rewards for Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan, according to American officials Read the intelligence report mentioning the request.

The group was overseen by Saud al-Qahtani, one of the Crown Prince’s best aides, who served as media tsar for the royal court. One of Mr. al-Qahtani’s jobs was to manage the kingdom’s “troll farms” – organizations that used legions of online bots and avatars to stifle the voices of prominent critics like Mr. Khashoggi. The intelligence report released on Friday referred to a quote from Mr. al-Qahtani in 2018 that he “did not make any decisions without the consent of the Crown Prince”.

American officials said the Rapid Intervention Force field commander was Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, an intelligence officer who often traveled overseas with Prince Mohammed. Another member of the team, Thaar Ghaleb al-Harbi, was a member of the Saudi Royal Guard, who was promoted for valor in an attack on one of Prince Mohammed’s palaces in 2017.

In the released report on Friday, all three men were named as part of a group of 21 people who “participated in, ordered, or otherwise complicit in, or were responsible for the death of Jamal Khashoggi on behalf of the Crown Prince.”

The Saudi government has long denied that Prince Mohammed played a role in the assassination of Mr Khashoggi and has brought eight men to justice. The government never published the names of the defendants.

In September, a Saudi court announced that five of the men had been sentenced to 20 years in prison and three others had fewer sentences. Some of the accused had originally received death sentences, but those were overturned after one of Mr Khashoggi’s sons said publicly that he and his siblings pardoned the men who killed their father.

It was unclear whether members of the Rapid Intervention Force were tried or convicted, but Mr al-Qahtani was publicly exonerated by the Saudi government because prosecutors said there was not enough evidence to back him up in the murder of Mr Khashoggi Court.

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Politics

Professional-Trump rioters supposed to kill Pence and members of Congress

Pro-Trump rioters intended to kill Pence and members of Congress

Pro-Trump supporters storm the U.S. Capitol following a rally with President Donald Trump on January 6, 2021 in Washington, DC.

Samuel Corum | Getty Images

Federal prosecutors said in a new trial there was “strong evidence” that the pro-Trump rioters who invaded the US Capitol last week intended to “trap and murder elected officials in the United States government “including Vice President Mike Pence.

Prosecutors also noted on the file that “news reports suggest that the siege of the US Capitol may just be the beginning of potentially violent actions by the president [Donald] Trump’s supporters. “

The filing by the office of U.S. Arizona Attorney Michael Bailey called on a judge Friday to arrest Jacob Chansley, one of the most notorious rioters, on Jan. 6 without bail. He plans to return to Washington next week for the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden.

“Chansley is a self-appointed leader of the QAnon,” a group of conspiracy theorists who believe that many US lawmakers are part of a ring of child molesters and satan worshipers.

Bailey’s office said Chansley, wearing a complexion and a hat with horns, ran to a Senate podium “where Vice President Pence had presided only minutes earlier and started posing” to be photographed by other rioters.

Pence chaired a joint congressional session that day to officially confirm the election of Biden as president.

A protester yells in the Senate Chamber in Washington, DC on January 6, 2021.

Win McNamee | Getty Images News | Getty Images

“Strong evidence, including Chansley’s own words and actions at the Capitol, supports that the Capitol rioters’ intent was to capture and murder elected officials in the United States government,” prosecutors wrote on their file.

“Chansley left a note on the podium of the Senate Chamber where Vice President Mike Pence had presided over the meeting minutes earlier warning, ‘It is only a matter of time, justice will come.’ “”

Prosecutors said that when the FBI questioned Chansley about the meaning of his words, he “did a long disgrace in which he described current and former United States leaders as infiltrators, particularly Vice President Mike Pence”.

“He said he was able to get into the United States Senate in DC ‘by the grace of God’.” Chansley said he was glad he was in the Vice President’s chair because Vice President Pence is a traitor to child trafficking, “the file said.

While Chansley alleged that he did not mean the note as a threat, “the government disagrees,” the file reads.

A protester holds a mannequin with a noose “traitor” written on it during a protest at the Washington Monument in Washington, DC, the United States, on Wednesday, January 6, 2021.

Victor J. Blue | Bloomberg | Getty Images

The prosecutor noted, “Chansley has also expressed an interest in returning to Washington DC for the inauguration and later told the FBI, ‘I’ll still go, you’d better believe it.’ “”

“‘Sure I’d want to be there, as a protester, as a protester, f–‘ a ‘,” he said, according to the file.

In a video interview outside the Capitol when he and other rioters were leaving the complex, Chansley said he had left the Senate and “the cops just walked out with me.”

He also said the mob would leave because Trump posted a message asking them to do so and that the rioters “won” the day.

“We won by sending a message to the Senators and Congressmen. We won by sending a message to Pence: If you don’t … do what your oath is, if you do they don’t keep it. ” Constitution, we’ll remove you then, but one way or another, “Chansley said.

Trump was charged Tuesday by the House of Representatives for instigating the mob that stormed the Capitol complex following a rally on the Ellipse calling on supporters to help him reverse Biden’s election.

Also on Friday, the New York Times reported that the FBI is investigating 37 people in an investigation into the riot murder of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick.

The Times cited an FBI memo sent to the private sector and others.

This is the latest news. Check for updates again.

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Business

Individuals will ‘attempt to kill us,’ says GOP lawmaker on going in opposition to Trump

People will 'try to kill us,’ says GOP lawmaker on going against Trump

Michigan Republican Congressman Peter Meijer was one of only nine new GOP lawmakers who voted to uphold the November 3 election results. He told CNBC’s The News with Shepard Smith that his life may now be in danger.

“We are aware that this was a vote that has endangered our security and I assume that there will likely be more political violence in the future,” said Meijer. “My expectation, and the expectation of some of the people I speak to who are trying to vote our conscience about it, there will be people trying to kill us and that is what we have to deal with every day.”

Meijer added that this threat of violence, in turn, has forced and will continue to intimidate some of his Republican counterparts into voting on the Trump administration’s side. In a comment, Meijer wrote that another lawmaker protested President-elect Joe Biden’s victory over fears that President Trump’s supporters would come after his family.

“That was what weighed on the colleague’s conscience and the last thing that person said to me was concern for the safety of that person’s family if that person voted to confirm the election,” Meijer said. “That’s where rhetoric got us. That’s the level of fear that was created.”

The House of Representatives is now on the verge of indicting Trump for the second time. The House Democrats introduced an impeachment article accusing Trump of inciting the insurgent mob that stormed the Capitol last week. Five people died, including a police officer.

The article accuses Trump of “showing that if he is allowed to stay in office, he will remain a threat to national security, democracy and the constitution.” The vote on impeachment is scheduled for Wednesday. Meijer said he is “thinking hard about” indicting Trump.

“I’ve had colleagues who objected, timing concerns, process concerns, and reception concerns,” said Meijer host Shepard Smith. “I haven’t heard anyone raise concerns on the matter and I believe the president’s actions last Wednesday disqualified him and made him unfit for office.”

Sources said minority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) told House Republicans on a conference call that President Trump had some responsibility for the deadly uprising. Meijer said the future of the GOP was in balance. He added that the Republican Party faces the lie that November 3rd was a landslide victory for Trump and that many Republican voters were deceived by those in power.

“Instead of telling people in America and their supporters what to hear, too many politicians have told us what to hear,” Meijer said. “That kind of reactive leadership will never turn the Republican Party into a party trusted to rule this country again, and we need to fix it.”