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Turkish Journalist Jailed For Terrorism Was Framed, Forensic Report Shows (vice.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: Turkish investigative journalist Baris Pehlivan spent 19 months in jail, accused of terrorism based on documents found on his work computer. But when digital forensics experts examined his PC, they discovered that those files were put there by someone who removed the hard drive from the case, copied the documents, and then reinstalled the hard drive. The attackers also attempted to control the journalist's machine remotely, trying to infect it using malicious email attachments and thumb drives. Among the viruses detected in his computer was an extremely rare trojan called Ahtapot, in one of the only times it's been seen in the wild. Pehlivan went to jail in February of 2011, along with six of his colleagues, after electronic evidence seized during a police raid in 2011 appeared to connect all of them to Ergenekon, an alleged armed group accused of terrorism in Turkey. A paper recently published by computer expert Mark Spencer in Digital Forensics Magazine sheds light into the case after several other reports have acknowledged the presence of malware. Spencer said no other forensics expert noticed the Ahtapot trojan in the OdaTV case, nor has determined accurately how those documents showed up on the journalist's computer. However, almost all the reports have concluded that the incriminating files were planted. "We are not guilty," Baris Pehlivan told Andrada Fiscutean via Motherboard. "The files were put into our computers by a virus and by [attackers] entering the OdaTV office secretly. None of us has seen those documents before the prosecutor showed them to us." (OdaTV is the website Pehlivan works for and "has been critical of the government and the Gulen Movement, which was accused by Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan of orchestrating the recent attempted coup.") In regard to the report, senior security consultant at F-Secure, Taneli Kaivola, says, "Yes, [the report] takes an impressive level of conviction to locally attack a computer four times, and remotely attack it seven times [between January 1, 2011, and February 11, 2011], as well as a certain level of technical skill to set up the infrastructure for those attacks, which included document forgery and date and time manipulation."
If you are arrested and CHARGED you done it! else they'd not have arrested and CHARGED you!
Sick people!
And war hawk Hitlery will see to it !
In paranoid dictatorships like Turkey (yes, I know they have all the forms of democracy, but get serious), "terrorist" is a euphemism for "perceived opponent of the state."
The usual definition of the term -- i.e., a person or group who engages in violent acts for political effect, does not apply. Violence is not required, neither threatened nor carried out. Evidence is not required - it can either be manufactured, as apparently was the case here, or else the lack thereof is simply ignored. Actual opposition to the state is not even required - just fear by the state that the opposition might be there.
For a while it looked like Turkey would be the one exception to the rule that majority-Muslim states cannot have democracy. Apparently, that was only a brief and partial state, not a stable situation. So sad.
For the last century America has engaged in realpolitik, propping up and supporting reprehensible regimes and tyrants like in Turkey. It always backfires. Today Hillary seeks Kissinger's endorsement as a super-statesman but the long term damage he did to America's reputation and the millions killed as a result are a stain on America's reputation. http://www.alternet.org/world/... https://theintercept.com/2016/...
Please America, end the realpolitik. Spread American values. Americans are not the only people in the world who deserve rights.
For a while it looked like Turkey would be the one exception to the rule that majority-Muslim states cannot have democracy.
So presumably you're not counting (post-Suharto) Indonesia as a democracy.
Previously, under its Kemalesque regimes, Turkey was not a democracy. It was a military backed authoritarian regime, which was benevolent enough in that it cared for the well being of its people, recognized Islam as a problem, and therefore did what it could to supplant the cult of Mohammed w/ the cult of Ataturk. But they never developed a pluralistic culture that embraced all their differences - religious (Armenian), cultural (Kurds) and the end result was that people either had to swear by Ataturk or by Islam.
Also, under Erdogan, Turkey has been busy rediscovering its Turkic roots, and celebrating Turkic empires of the past - be it the Ottomans, Seljuks, Khwarezmids, Tatars, Timurides, Moghuls... All of those were Islamic empires. The Ottomans were a caliphate, while all the others were major champions of Islamic Jihad against non-Muslims anywhere around them. So this revivalism of Turkic culture has also been accompanied by a revival of Islam. On top of that, there's been the Shia-Sunni clash b/w Iran/Iraq/Syria vs Saudi Arabia/Qatar, and Turkey has another opportunity to lead the Sunni world, which it's grabbed w/ both hands.
And as a Muslim country, Turkey would never describe a Jihad as terrorism. Terrorism is any opposition to Erdogan, be it by the Kurds (PKK), Fatehullah Gulen or anyone else in Turkey opposed to him
You mean "hackers" don't know how to use the "touch" command?
to keep turkish evil maids from planting files.
How did Mr Spencer got access to the evidence, that is, the PC?
The story suggests the journalist was framed, but by who? If it was by Turkish government, then why did it let a third party had the opportunity to review the fake evidences?
the rule that majority-Muslim states cannot have democracy.
Similarly to the Catholic fanaticism which prevents Spain to have a measure of rule of law even today as long as the fascists and their off-spring live and work in the politics?
The US propped up Stalin and the Soviet Union? Are you retarded? You're one of those special people aren't you? Stop listening to Alex Jones and RT conspiracy junk it will warp your fragile little mind.
Has it become Slashdot official policy to not mention Microsoft windows in relation to remote access trojan malware?
.. said he and his team .. examined BarıÅY Pehlivanâ(TM)s computer using a technique they developed to deal with sophisticated tampering of evidence."
"Spencer
'It's called "Anchors in Relative Time," which means putting events logged by computers such as startups and shutdowns in chronological order, regardless of any associated dates and times that might had been altered by attackers'. ref
Any evidence that Gen Franco and his supporters were inspired by the Inquisition and the Catholic zeal of Ferdinand & Isabella?
I'd thought Franco was somewhat more modern in his zeal. I haven't heard any notion relating to a connection to so far into history, but then again, the Nazis were brought up in romance of the Teutonic atmosphere celebrating the German strength through the Roman defeat of 9CE. National romanticism were in fashion before the wars. Hence Franco's admiration of F&I wouldn't be a surprise.
The next step is, of course, to dispense with the need for forensic "evidence" on people's computers and do this fully with "intercepted" communications. And here is the real danger of a surveillance-state: They can send anybody, any time to prison for as long as they desire, and there is no possibility to defend yourself unless they screwed up massively (as they did in the case at hand).
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
I was thinking of going in holidays in Turkey a few months ago...I think I will pass the opportunity.
So how exactly do you forensically determine files were copied onto a computer by someone after removing the HDD and then returning it? I am sure that could of happened but how the fuck would you ever tell?
while reading this article, it realized that it could be possible to create filesystem feature which would not encrypt but sign all files when password is provided during mounting, otherwise fs would work in read only mode, this feature could prove that files where created by owner of password and planting evidence like this would be impossible and this would not break any laws, the fs contents are always accessible in read-only mode without password. maybe something like this already exists?
He has no respect for the rule of law, except as he defines law. Yet he thinks he can shoehorn his country into the EU. If that's not delusional, then it's an awfully good imitation.
The recent coup attempt: given the speed with which he reacted, and the precision with which his government identified and arrested tens of thousands of people...is it just possible that the entire coup was a false flag operation? Perhaps it was planned and instigated by Erdogan, as a means to justify this massive cleanup operation?
Posting AC, because I live in one of the seven countries where calling Erdogan delusional is, quite literally, a crime.
No, what he probably said is it takes an impressive level of conviction to attack &c. The pattern is "it takes X to Y" where "it" stands for "to Y". Before expanding pronouns try to understand the sentence first.
More than 60 Yemeni civilians have been killed in at least five attacks on civilian areas since the new bombing campaign began. On August 13, the coalition bombed a school in Haydan, Yemen, killing at least 10 children and injuring 28 more. Lieu released a statement two days later, harshly condemning the attack. “The indiscriminate civilian killings by Saudi Arabia look like war crimes to me. In this case, children as young as 8 were killed by Saudi Arabian air strikes,” he wrote. “By assisting Saudi Arabia, the United States is aiding and abetting what appears to be war crimes in Yemen,” Lieu added. “The administration must stop enabling this madness now.” https://theintercept.com/2016/...
Iraq is a democracy too (now) -- an example of why democracy isn't necessarily a good thing for a developing country with deep internal tensions.
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is what I'm curious about. How many people have been framed by having criminal material put on their computers and what not? And papers left in their file cabinets before the digital age? Photos of them manipulated, etc?
Mossad.
It's historical. That Jews had been persecuted in most places in Europe, and there was no compelling reason for the few places that did not persecute them to take them all in e.g. no reason why the Netherlands would have had to take in Jews from Russia, Germany and other places in Europe. While there was a zionist movement after WWI, what gave it impetus was the holocaust. That, and also the not so minor fact that they lived as dhimmis when they were a part of Muslim entities, be it the Ottoman empire or the sultanate of Egypt.
Lutherans did in effect get countries of their own - Prussia, and then the Nordic countries. And England under Elizabeth I. Sikhs - while they were persecuted in the 17th & 18th centuries, they've been pretty well accommodated in independent India, except for the riots in 1984. Jains have morphed into an ultra vegetarian (but not vegan) sect of Hinduism.
faggots.
Persians? The correct term is 'Iranians'. Persia - as was historically understood - was what is today the Fars province of Iran. Includes Shiraz. The ancient Median and Achaemenid empires, which were centered around Persepolis/Pasargadae, et al were Persian. The Parthian empire was what's today Khorasan. The different Islamic dynasties that ruled Iran, none of them were Persian They were either based in Khorasan or Isfahan or Teheran. None of which are in 'Persia'.
I could ignore the AC, but what the heck!!!
I never said anything about a 'Clash of Civilizations'. For the simple reason that Islam is not a 'civilization'. I did say that Islamic countries can't have the things you describe - a liberal, democratic system that's capable of being self critical and thereby do all the things you mentioned. Reason? Islam itself!!!
To be capable of self-correcting and self-adjusting, the core values have to be capable of self-criticism. The reason it's not possible among the Arab and Turkic people is not their race/culture - it's the underlying kernel of all that - their religion - Islam!!! Islam declares itself to be perfect and above all criticism, and this is something very well laid out in Islamic texts.
First of all, nobody is allowed to be critical of anything that is considered as endorsed by Mohammed. As a result, no criticism of Islam is ever allowed. Once that is the baseline, there is nothing preventing other parameters from being above reproach - be it 'Turkishness' or 'Arabness'. Thereby, trying out any social reform that flies in the face of either Islamic supremacy, or even under that, Turkish supremacy (over Kurds or Armenians) e.g. any Turks condemning the Armenian genocide - would be considered treachery by the larger Turkish population, and even heresy, given that Armenian are Christians and Turks Muslims. This condemnation of self-criticism as treason is something first laid down in Islam, and then percolates to other aspects of Muslims, be it their ethnicity, culture and other attributes.
The Soviet attempt at doing this was laughable. For instance, on the Amur River, which is their border w/ Manchuria, they have a JAR - Jewish Autonomous Republic, which they had created to be a homeland for Russian Jews. Most Russian Jews (who've not already migrated to Israel) live where most other Russians live - in Moscow, St Petersburg and other major cities, while the population of JAR is overwhelmingly Russian Orthodox. Hardly an Israel within Russia.
In fact, since the breakup of the USSR, there have been border disputes within the stans. Take one example - Uzbekistan vs Tajikistan. Both claim the cities of Samarqand and Buqhara, and both are right. Ethnically, about half the people of those cities are Tajik, and half are Uzbek. Historically, those cities were the capitals of the Samanid empire, which Tajikistan claims as its foundation, while they were also capitals of the Shaibonid empire, which was the foundation of the Uzbek nation. Oh, and then there was Khwarezm, which the Soviets defined as an autonomous republic within Uzbekistan, even though historically, it has more connections w/ Turkmenistan, with its former capital of Qonyeurgench, as well as major historical cities like Merw. In short, the Soviets made a mess of trying to divide them - they might as well have just kept a single Soviet Turkestan - the way it originally was, and make something like Alma Ata or Tashkent its capital. And make Tajikistan separate, and give them Samarqand, while leaving Buqhara in Turkestan.
Also, the Soviets forgot about ethnic identities when Nikita Krushchyev decided to gift Crimea to Ukraine - something that didn't go down well when the Soviet Union unravelled, and that difference now did matter.
Ergenekon is not "an armed group", it's the Deep State - alliance between secret service, far-right politicians, some high-ranked officials, some big business representatives, and organized crime, all more or less under CIA control, in order to "fight communism".
It's standard procedure in all NATO, but pushed to unprecedented levels in Turkey (even more than in Italy), and fell under the spotlights with the Susurluk car crash in 1996.
So the Ergenekon trials were a very important step in the democratization of Turkey, as many AKP voters did vote for AKP not because of its islamist program but because they saw it as the only force able to tackle the Deep State.
Now that Erdogan is backing away from the democratization process and alleging that Ergenekon trials were misconducted by Gülen sympathizers in the Judicial branch, such revelations come at a very opportune moment...
It doesn't mean that this forensic expertise is false, but they need to bring proofs, not "we say so so it is so"...
Without auditable proofs, the whole story should be taken with a grain of salt.
...a certain level of technical skill to set up the infrastructure for those attacks, which included document forgery and date and time manipulation.
You think forgery and date-time manipulation is easy for a digital record? No. No. It's very very difficult and requires you to level up your skilz before you can do it.