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Tuesday, July 9, 2024

Former Israeli hostage sues US non-profit employing ‘Hamas operative’ who held him captive

A former Israeli hostage freed last month in a daring Israel Defense Forces raid in Gaza is suing a US non-profit which employed his Hamas operative captor as a war correspondent, The Post has learned.

Almog Meir Jan, 22, filed the lawsuit Tuesday in Seattle federal court against People Media Project, a non-profit based in Olympia, WA.

The organization runs a pro-Palestinian news website and had frequently published the work of Abdullah Aljamal, a Gaza-based journalist and former spokesman for the terrorist organization. He began writing articles for the website in May 2019, according to court filings.

“It is indisputable that defendants provided Hamas operative Aljamal, whose connections to Hamas were publicly known, with a US-based and taxpayer subsidized platform to publish Hamas propaganda and to pass the material off as independent journalism,” the lawsuit says.

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“Moreover, the compensation defendants paid Hamas operative Aljamal for his propaganda directly enabled him to imprison plaintiff in his home.”

Jan was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7 last year while he attended the Nova Music Festival. He was held hostage for 246 days, along with Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 41, at Aljamal family’s home in Nuseirat, according to the Israeli Defense Forces.

Jan claimed he was “abused and mistreated” by his captors, according to legal papers.

Aljamal, who wrote articles for the website lamenting the evils of war and had also worked as a spokesman for the Hamas Ministry of Labor, continued to have his work published by the Palestine Chronicle until just before the June 8 rescue operation.

He and his family were killed during the raid, according to reports.

Hours after the hostage rescue, the website tried to distance itself from Aljamal, changing his status from “correspondent” to “freelance contributor.”

US entities which knowingly provide material support to terrorist organizations could be in violation of terrorism laws and subject to criminal penalties. Hamas was designated a terrorist organization by the US Department of State in 1997, ten years before it seized power in Gaza.

Two board members of the non-profit are also named as defendants in the lawsuit. Ramzy Baroud, editor-in-chief of the Palestine Chronicle, is also a non-resident scholar at the University of California Santa Barbara’s Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies and a Senior Research fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA).

CIGA hosted a conference in 2021 that was sponsored in part by Hamas and is directed by Sami Al-Arian, who has been convicted of terrorism-related crimes and deported from the US.

John Harvey, who describes himself as a Buddhist priest and is also on the board of the group, is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit. He incorporated the People Media Company in 1999, according to public records.

In 2007, he began a campaign to designate Rafah in Gaza as a sister city to Olympia, WA, where he is based, according to the lawsuit. The idea has been rejected by local officials in Washington numerous times.

Neither Harvey nor Baroud returned The Post’s requests for comment Tuesday.

More than 200 Israelis were kidnapped and 1,200 died in the unprecedented Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

https://nypost.com/2024/07/09/world-news/former-israeli-hostage-sues-us-group-that-employed-captor/

15 women found sleeping on floor of bare Texas home were trafficked for ‘forced labor’: police

Four people have been arrested in Texas for running a “forced labor” scheme from an unassuming home on a quiet block, leaving neighbors stunned.

Fifteen women were found living in a home in Princeton — about 45 miles northeast of downtown Dallas — following a welfare check where they were forced to sleep on the floor when they weren’t working, according to Fox 4 News.

There was essentially no furniture in the home — just blankets and a bunch of computers and other electronics, police said in an announcement Monday.

The women were reported to police by a pest control company that was called to the home for bedbugs, according to an affidavit obtained by the outlet.

The inspector noted that “each room… had 3-5 young females sleeping on the floors” and said there were “large amounts of suitcases.”

Chandan Dasireddy, 24; Dwaraka Gunda, 31; Santhosh Katkoori, 31 — all of Melissa, Texas — and Anil Male, 37, of Prosper were arrested in March and charged with human trafficking.

Police said the women were forced to work for Katkoori and several programming shell companies owned by him and his wife, Gunda.

A search of the home revealed several laptops, cell phones, printers and fraudulent documents.

Investigators later learned that the forced labor operation included multiple locations in Princeton, Melissa and KcKinney with dozens of victims — including adult males. Additional electronics and documents were seized from other locations.

Princeton Police Sgt. Carolyn Crawford told Fox 4 that “over 100” people were involved — more than half of whom are victims.

More arrests are expected, cops said.

“How we came across this situation was very unique,” Princeton Police Chief James Waters said. “[Investigators] would unravel just a multitude of other clues and a multitude of other scenes that was going out there.”

The neighborhood is shocked such an operation was happening on their street.

“I would’ve never thought that something like this was going on like a few houses down from mine,” neighbor Herbert Logan said.

Another neighbor, Steven Watkins, said he had “no idea about anything.”

“What was going on before we even moved in here? It’s kind of really dark to think about,” he said.

Police would not disclose where the victims are from or if they ever tried to escape.

https://nypost.com/2024/07/09/us-news/15-women-found-living-in-bare-texas-home-were-victims-of-a-forced-labor-scheme-police/

'DOJ disrupts Russian ‘bot farm’ used to spread disinformation'

Federal law enforcement shut down a Russian disinformation campaign backed by the Kremlin and operated by state-controlled media, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Tuesday.

The DOJ said a “bot farm” network of nearly 1,000 accounts on the social media platform X used artificial intelligence (AI) to spread disinformation favorable to the Russian government.

“Today’s actions represent a first in disrupting a Russian-sponsored Generative AI-enhanced social media bot farm,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement. “Russia intended to use this bot farm to disseminate AI-generated foreign disinformation, scaling their work with the assistance of AI to undermine our partners in Ukraine and influence geopolitical narratives favorable to the Russian government.”

The network was orchestrated by a Russian individual who previously worked as the editor-in-chief of RT, the Russian state-controlled media outlet that has a notable presence in the U.S., the Justice Department said.

“Since at least 2022, RT leadership sought the development of alternative means for distributing information beyond RT’s standard television news broadcasts,” the DOJ said in a statement. “In response, Individual A led the development of software that was able to create and to operate a social media bot farm.”

The FSB, the Russian intelligence service, also had access to the network, the DOJ said. Fake accounts on the network would pose as Americans and publish statements favorable to Russian political goals.

While the network was only operating on X, a joint cybersecurity advisory issued by U.S., Dutch and Canadian intelligence agencies said the Russians intended to expand operations to other social media platforms.

The cybersecurity advisory recommends social media platforms to better police bot networks and stay vigilant to the presence of foreign intelligence operations, and it provides specific technical details of the network.

“We support all civic engagement, civil dialogue, and a robust exchange of ideas,” Gary Restaino, a federal prosecutor, said in a statement. “But those ideas should be generated by Americans, for Americans. The disruption announced today protects us from those who use unlawful means to seek to mislead our citizens and our communities.”

The Hill has reached out to X for comment.

https://thehill.com/policy/technology/4762872-doj-russian-bot-farm-disinformation/

Youngkin orders Virginia schools to go cellphone-free

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) on Tuesday ordered schools in his state to go cellphone-free, as similar bans on technology take hold in schools across the country.

Youngkin issued the executive order directing the Virginia Department of Education to draft guidance for public schools to adopt cellphone-free policies. The department will also work with teachers, parents, students and other leaders to create procedures “that establish the age-appropriate restriction or elimination of cell phone use during instructional time.”

The goal of the order is to limit the amount of time students are “exposed to addictive cell phones and social media” and to reduce distractions in the classroom, Youngkin said in a statement.

“This essential action will promote a healthier and more focused educational environment where every child is free to learn. Creating cell phone and social media-free educational environments in Virginia’s K-12 education system will benefit students, parents, and educators,” Youngkin said.

“It also kicks off the robust conversations among parents, students, teachers, and school and community leaders necessary to design and implement these policies and procedures at the local level,” he added.

The Virginia Department of Education has until Aug. 15 to publish their draft guidance and will issue its final guidance in September. School districts will need to adopt the cellphone-free policies by Jan. 1, 2025.

Youngkin’s order comes weeks after Surgeon General Vivek Murthy sounded the alarm again on the risks social media can pose to adolescents. Murthy warned in a separate advisory last year that social media is contributing to the youth mental health crisis.

Virginia is just the latest to implement a cellphone ban in schools. New York City is looking to ban cellphones in schools, while the Los Angeles school district approved a cellphone measure last month. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) also said last month that he supported restricting cellphone use in schools.

https://thehill.com/homenews/education/4762469-virginia-cellphone-ban-schools-youngkin/

Idaho governor executive order to tighten up voter registration rules

Idaho Gov. Brad Little (R) announced an executive order Tuesday to tighten up voter registration in the state ahead of the election this fall.

The order, called the Only Citizens Will Vote Act, will allow the Idaho secretary of state to “take all necessary steps” to prevent noncitizens from registering to vote.

“Idaho already has the most secure elections in the nation, and we’re going to keep it that way,” Little said. “My executive order – the ONLY CITIZENS WILL VOTE Act – directs Secretary of State Phil McGrane to work with local county clerks to scrub our voter rolls and make sure Idaho’s elections do not fall prey to the consequences of Biden’s lawless open border.”

Under the new order, the Idaho secretary of state will review the state’s voter rolls with local police and the transportation department to identify anyone who is not a citizen. The secretary of state can also work with the Department of Homeland Security to verify citizenship status and then remove the individual from the registration.

The secretary and county clerks will submit an annual report to Little on their efforts to “prevent and remove non-citizens from Idaho’s voter rolls.”

The order also prohibits state agencies from providing voter registration information to noncitizens.

Little said the executive order was signed as a means to fight back to the “Left Coast states and the Biden Administration” as “more and more people pour across our lawless open southern border illegally.”

Federal law prohibits noncitizens from voting in federal elections, but some places across the country have allowed noncitizens to vote in more local races.

Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane said in a statement that there already are great voter security mechanisms in place in Idaho, but more can always be done.

“Across Idaho’s 44 counties, we have excellent mechanisms in place already to ensure non-citizens do not vote in Idaho, but there is always more we can do to make sure only citizens will vote,” McGrane said.

The secretary told the Idaho Statesman that because it’s already illegal for noncitizens to vote in Idaho, he initially felt that further action wasn’t necessary.

He’s since changed his mind, joining Little on the order, and said the legality of noncitizens voting hasn’t stopped his concerns.

“We’re seeing a rise and a push more about people’s confidence in elections tied to the news about immigration,” he told the outlet.

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/4763107-idaho-executive-order-voter-registration-rules/

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