Someone is buying up old decrepit tankers, turning off any tracking electronics, and pushing huge amounts of Russian oil into Asia.
Industry insiders estimate the size of that “shadow” fleet at roughly 600 vessels, or about 10% of the global number of large tankers. And numbers continue to climb. …an estimated 25 to 35 vessels are being sold per month into the shadow fleet, according to another senior executive at an oil trading firm. Global Witness, a nonprofit, estimates that a quarter of oil tanker sales between late February 2022 and January this year involved unknown buyers, roughly double the proportion the previous year.
While allegedly hard to identify by modern standards, at the same time the age of the vessel and the fact that it is dedicated to carrying Russian oil makes it classically simple to find, track and… disrupt or disable.
There’s an interesting detail in the reports trying to expose “Team Jorge“.
An investigation by 30 media outlets, including the Guardian and Der Spiegel, has claimed to have exposed a team of freelance units based in Israel who disrupt elections and manipulate public opinion using disinformation campaigns.
[…]
“We are now involved in one election in Africa … We have a team in Greece and a team in [the] Emirates … You follow the leads,” Hanan said in one secretly filmed meeting quoted in the Guardian. “[We have completed] 33 presidential-level campaigns, 27 of which were successful.”
While some speculate the interview itself is full of disinformation, it’s also unusual for someone to admit six campaigns failed. Either that’s top shelf lying, or it’s the kind of honesty shared from real expertise.
Digital mercenaries.
Given that the accused Israeli head of the operation is allegedly 50 years old, he’s surely steeped in the disinformation of 1990s Intifada, not to mention the legendary tactics of Orde Wingate in Middle East operations.
For what it’s worth, this is the sort of thing I warned about a decade ago in my 2012 Big Data presentation at BSidesLV — use of disinformation on mobile devices to swing political outcomes.
Back then I framed it as the Loch Ness monster problem, to highlight information integrity vulnerability that has a long precedent.
Modern information warfare today is exactly where we should have expected it to be.
The philosophy of Martin Buber (1878–1965) is foundational to modern thinking about trust.
In the years following WWI, as a minority being oppressed by the rise of violent racist nationalism, he argued one’s self is constructed in how communication is made with an other.
His book “I and Thou” (originally German “Ich and Du”, translated to English in 1937) explained a way of life that emphasized care for others and building trusted partnerships.
Considered to be one of the most important books of Western theology since its original publication in 1923, Martin Buber’s slender volume I and Thou influenced the way theologians, philosophers, and laymen think about the meaning of the relationship between human life and God. Heavily influenced by the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche, Buber unites the proto-existentialist currents of modern German thought with the Judeo-Christian tradition, powerfully updating faith for modern times.
1923… 2023. A centennial edition is available with the original translation.
Buber cited the informal you (German “du”) as carrying a certain authorization, such as the links between close friends, close relatives and…with God. These are the “I and Thou” he speaks about, contrasted with detachment of “I – It” relations (objects for use).
Relation is reciprocity, to put it simply.
Whereas establishing and sustaining mutual trust was an important point of exploration, God was given a sustained connection “as the Eternal Thou”. Relations thus are not just for humans, they are meant for any or all “others” spanning flora, fauna and even the Divine.
Try thinking about Buber the next time you start work on OpenID Connect projects.
Or as I joked back in 2015, the world would be a much better place if investor money had poured into “Buber as a service” instead of an obviously harmful “I – It” business model of Uber.
Fuentes capped off his [Nazi petition to eradicate satanism, feminism, liberalism, and Judaism] by saying it was “a long way of saying I love Hitler” while the crowd chanted “Christ is king.” The speech was held at a Residence Inn by Marriott in National Harbor, Maryland.
Related:
2023: Black male guest pulled from Marriott room and evicted after white woman on staff disliked his words to her in the lobby
2022: Marriott hosts white supremacist group celebrating Russian invasion of Ukraine
2022: Marriott hosts anti-LGBTQ hate group’s national conference
2021: Westin Hotel Discriminated Against Jewish Singer Then Hired a Neo-Nazi Security Firm
2021: Marriott International puts a stop to a Uyghur conference (Muslims)
2020: Black guest told to “get the f- off the property” by Marriott manager.
2020: Marriott tells Black guests they can’t gather there because “we don’t want that type of business”
2017: Marriott hosts hate group conference (anti-Muslim)
2017: Marriott calls police to remove demonstrators covering up the hotel’s swastikas
2016: Marriott call police to arrest guest for wearing a “thawb” (Muslim)
2010: Marriott says no to Muslim conference, cancels event with refund
2005: Marriott International puts a stop to an “event” at Bethesda North Marriott Hotel and Conference Center celebrating the Iranian Revolution (Muslims)
Marriott seems more than ready to discriminate. Blacks reportedly are being made uncomfortable, speech policed, told to leave…Muslims have their events cancelled, their clothing policed. Meanwhile hate groups find the hotel bends itself over backwards to be seen as an “inclusive” and “hospitable” destination for white nationalist violent extremism.
It reads like a Chappelle Show skit.
You might think complaints to management could get someone’s attention, until you read about Marriott work culture.
Management began a team-building exercise by requiring employees to bring in photos of themselves as babies to see if their colleagues could guess who they were…. Robinson said that it would be pointless for him to participate in the exercise because he was the only black person in the office, the suit states. When Robinson’s sales manager heard his explanation, she balked and said she would pick a photo for him and showed him a depiction on her computer of the Buckwheat character…
“Nobody would call the police on a chalk brigade…” [stated Mark Geall, hotel owner. The police didn’t hesitate to call him a liar:] “The complaint to our officers was regarding a group of people on the property who were using chalk to draw outside.”
To set the scene, Geall’s Marriott had hate symbols prominently displayed on new construction and whined it was very hard to prevent or remove swastikas. When a group showed up with chalk to easily and quickly display “messages of love and unity” instead — peacefully protest the blatant hate symbols — Marriott rushed law enforcement in to fight like they had some kind of emergency — violently defend their swastikas.
There seems to be an attitude of relaxed stupor hosting and promoting white nationalist hate speech, yet when people show up with even a hint of views the hotel dislikes (e.g. Islam, Judaism, anti-racism) Marriott jumps with heavy handed threats and censorship.
Hatewatch spoke with a hotel staff member prior to the event in a phone call on the afternoon of March 4. Hatewatch asked if Nick Fuentes and the America First Foundation were scheduled to hold an event that day, and the staffer confirmed.
A guard for a Marriott hate group event wears “America First” and “Ye” markers of Nazism. Source: Ford Fischer
“It’s easier to hate than it is to learn… Nobody who has chosen the easy path of hate has gotten to the end of the road and said, ‘What a life.’ No. They die as miserably as they lived.”
