Month: September 2024

A federal indictment unsealed on Wednesday alleges that a Tennessee-based media company which played home to several prominent right-leaning online commentators was secretly a Russian government-backed influence operation. The company is accused of receiving nearly $10 million from employees of Russia Today (RT), a Russian state-backed media company, as part of “a scheme to create and distribute content to U.S. audiences with hidden Russian government messaging,” according to Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Tenet Media worked with American conservative or heterodox media figures, including Dave Rubin, Benny Johnson, Tim Pool, and Lauren Southern, who variously present themselves as independent journalists, documentarians, and political commentators. Not all of them immediately commented on having been publicly linked to a foreign propaganda site, but Johnson soon tweeted that he and other influencers had been “victims in this alleged scheme.” In his own tweet, Pool echoed that line, writing, in part, “Should these allegations prove true, I as well as the other personalities and commentators were deceived and are victims.” Rubin, too, described himself as a victim, adding, “I knew absolutely nothing about any of this fraudulent activity. Period.”

The indictment, filed in the Southern District of New York, alleges that RT and two specific employees, Kostiantyn “Kostya” Kalashnikov and Elena “Lena” Afanasyeva, worked to funnel money to Tenet Media as part of a series of “covert projects” to shape the opinions of Western audiences. RT has faced cancellations and sanctions in the United States, Europe, Canada, and the UK after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; federal authorities allege those travails led the company to instead create more covert means of influencing public perception.

While Tenet is only referred to in the indictment as “U.S. Company 1,” details made it readily identifiable. The indictment alleges that Tenet’s coverage “contain[ed] commentary on events and issues in the United States, such as immigration, inflation, and other topics…consistent with the Government of Russia’s interest in amplifying U.S. domestic divisions.”  

The indictment also alleges that not everyone affiliated with Tenet was unaware of the scheme, stating that “Founders 1 and 2” of the company knew the source of their funding. The founders of Tenet Media are Lauren Chen and her husband; Chen is a conservative influencer and YouTuber who’s hosted a show on Blaze TV and who’s affiliated with Turning Point USA. Her husband, Liam Donovan, identifies himself on Twitter as the president of Tenet Media. 

The indictment alleges that the RT officials and Founders 1 and 2 “also worked together to deceive two U.S. online commentators (“Commentator-I” and “Commentator-2″), who respectively have over 2.4 million and 1.3 million YouTube subscribers.” Dave Rubin has 2.4 million YouTube subscribers, while Tim Pool has 1.37 million.

The indictment indicates that even some of the people working at Tenet found their content heavy-handed. On February 15 of this year, Afanasyeva, using the name Helena Shudra, shared a video in a company Discord channel of what the indictment calls “a well-known U.S. political commentator visiting a grocery store in Russia.” While he’s not named in the indictment, it clearly matches Tucker Carlson, who toured such a grocery store, declaring himself slackjawed in wonder at how nice it was.

“Later that day,” the indictment adds, “Producer-I privately messaged Founder-2 on Discord: ‘They want me to post this’—referencing the video that Afanasyeva posted—but ‘it just feels like overt shilling.’ Founder-2 replied that Founder-I ‘thinks we should put it out there.’ Producer-I acquiesced, responding, ‘alright I’ll put it out tomorrow.’”

Tenet’s recent content on sites like YouTube, Twitter, and TikTok has been heavily larded with critical commentary about Kamala Harris. Conservative political commentator and documented plagiarist Benny Johnson, for instance, recently starred in a video about her “empty words.”

The allegations against Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva, who are charged with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) and conspiracy to commit money laundering, were part of a broader effort against what US authorities allege were Russian influence sites seeking to subvert the elections. Earlier on Wednesday, the Justice Department announced it had seized 32 internet domains used in what they called “Russian government-directed foreign malign influence campaigns.” 

At an Aspen Institute event on Wednesday afternoon, a DOJ official, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, said the Russians charged in the case “used American-based individuals and entities to exploit, frankly, our free society to try to undermine our election,” including by deploying “unwitting influencers to push Russian propaganda and pro-Russian messaging.” 

One of the last things Tenet posted on their social media sites before the indictment was unsealed concerned—ironically enough—a government employee accused of secretly acting as a foreign agent. Tenet posted a video of Linda Sun, a former aide to New York governors Andrew Cuomo and Kathy Hochul who has been charged with using her position to benefit the Chinese government. Tenet seemed to suggest that a few words Sun offered on a video call endorsing diversity, equity, and inclusion measures were part of an alleged foreign-backed messaging plot.

“Why would the Chinese government want to push DEI in America?” a tweet from Tenet read.

Abby Vesoulis contributed reporting.

Update, September 4: This story has been updated to include Johnson, Rubin and Pool’s comments.

New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art expelled an attorney for the Cambodian government from a Tuesday meeting between museum officials and the representatives of Cambodia’s culture ministry, heightening tensions in a yearslong campaign to press the museum to return Khmer treasures to their home country.

The attorney, Brad Gordon, has been one of the most prominent faces of Cambodia’s national effort to trace lost ancient artifacts looted during years of turbulent civil war. Gordon has worked for the Cambodian government in that capacity for a decade. Many of the pieces were trafficked to the United States and other Western nations and sold to ultrawealthy art patrons and some of the world’s largest museums, including the Met.

Officials from Cambodia’s Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts visited the Met on Tuesday as part of a U.S. State Department program that provides tours of U.S. institutions for foreigners. While the Cambodian delegations’ itinerary included stops at multiple American museums, their visit to the Met held special significance — and sensitivity — because of Cambodia’s extensive push to reclaim cultural objects from the museum.

In recent years, the museum’s Cambodian pieces have been a focal point of increasing scrutiny on the Met’s collection by journalists and law enforcement. In 2021, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and its partners began asking the Met questions about more than a dozen pieces in its collection that had passed through the hands of accused antiquities trafficker Douglas Latchford or his associates. This followed a long run of attention from online sleuths, including the Chasing Aphrodite blog. Latchford was indicted in 2019 by federal prosecutors in New York and accused of helping orchestrate the large-scale looting of Cambodian cultural heritage decades ago. Latchford died in 2020 before the case against him proceeded.

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In March 2023, ICIJ and media partners found at least 1,109 pieces in the Met’s collection that were previously owned by individuals who had been either indicted or convicted of antiquities crimes. The museum subsequently hired a team of researchers to vet its collection, and in December it announced it would repatriate more than a dozen works to Cambodia. But that didn’t end the saga. The Cambodian government claims that dozens more of its stolen treasures remain in the Met’s collection, and it wants them back.

Gordon said that when he arrived at the Met on Tuesday, he was led to a conference room where the Cambodian delegation would meet with Met officials. Immediately upon arriving, he said, two Met attorneys approached him and asked to speak with him privately outside the conference room. He said he was then asked to gather his belongings. From there, the officials told Gordon he was barred from the meeting before a guard escorted him out of the museum, according to his account.

A Met spokesperson said that Gordon had not been invited to the meeting and was “asked politely to leave.” The spokesperson said that afterward, “The Met continued amicable discussions with their Cambodian colleagues, including a gallery tour and agreement to meet further to expand cooperation.”

Among the planned attendees at the meeting was Lucian Simmons, the Met’s new head of provenance research. Last year the museum hired Simmons to lead a team of researchers to scour and identify potentially problematic pieces in the museum’s collection. Simmons’ hiring was portrayed in the press as a sign of the museum bolstering its approach toward addressing concerns over trafficked art in its sprawling collection.

Gordon said that the exact agenda of yesterday’s meeting was unclear but related to conservation issues. He told ICIJ that he had been specifically asked to join the meeting by H.E. Hab Touch, a senior official in the Cambodian culture ministry, who is leading the delegation.

“As you know, we are in the midst of negotiations for the return of additional stolen artefacts from the Met,” Gordon said in an email to several State Department officials that he shared with ICIJ. He added that because the situation with the Met was delicate, the Cambodian delegation had been “very clear that they wanted me as their counsel to be present” in the meeting.

Gordon said he pleaded with the Met to let him stay in the meeting, with a member of the delegation even calling Cambodia’s minister of culture to affirm the importance of his attendance. Gordon added that the Met officials offered no explanation for his expulsion apart from saying it was a State Department meeting.

“After the MET rejected the Minister’s request for me to attend, I agreed to leave,” Gordon told the State Department. “I have never felt so humiliated in my life.”

The campaign is drawing to a close for Algeria’s presidential election this weekend. The only real unknown is how many voters will turn out. 

Tuesday was the final day of campaigning for the vote on Saturday, 7 September, with a media blackout to be imposed from Wednesday. The outcome is largely predictable – Incumbent President Abdelmadjid Tebboune willsecure his re-election with a majority of votes in the first of the two rounds of voting. We’ve expected, this election has proceeded without any surprises. In this country, elections tend to be meticulously orchestrated and tightly managed. Tebboune has the support of the administration as the incumbent president.He has eased relations with Algeria’s powerful military. He is also expected to benefit from a change in the election schedule, which left his rivals with less time to campaign. Originally scheduled for December, the poll was brought forward because of what the President called the current international situation and the dangers looming over Algeria.

The country typically avoids holding elections in the summer, when intense heat makes campaigning difficult – but this year’s campaign kicked off in mid-August.

While campaign staff would usually head out into streets and markets to talk to voters, in recent weeks they have tried to meet voters in their homes.

The opposition has complained of intimidation, with dozens of people arrested last month over alleged election fraud and three would-be candidates placed under judicial supervision.

The opposition leader, Fethi Ghares, was detained last week. He stands accused of insulting the president and spreading disinformation online.

 the so-called ban on leaving the national territory (ISTN), rarely justified by a court decision, affects hundreds of activists, journalists, businessmen and politicians.

A prominent figure on Algeria’s secular left, Ghares was involved in the 2019 Hirak movement, the series of mass protests that led to the ousting of long-time president Abdelaziz Bouteflika. His party, the Democratic and Social Movement, succeeded the Algerian Communist Party, but was banned in February 2023.

“The situation is disastrous because civic space and freedoms have been reduced over the years since the start of the Hirak and there are strong reasons to believe that the situation could potentially get worse. 

It is very difficult to do politics in Algeria. and to exist as an opponent. Some journalists or even citizens who have published posts on social media can get arrested.

A lot of people still fear repercussions and do not speak to journalists, for instance, because they are afraid for their safety. People ultimately do not make comments on politics in public, or say things that are a little general.

However Algeria’s political system itself is evolving, and is no longer set around this duality between the armed forces and the political power. Civilians are trying to have a role.

With members of the opposition calling for a boycott, however, some voters are refusing to participate. This is an authoritarian regime that does not respect the rules of democracy. Every Algerian knows the outcome of this election in advance. The current regime fully assumes its authoritarian natureAuthoritarian laws justify the repression of political opponents. In 2021, the Algerian authorities amended the penal code to qualify as a terrorist act and sabotage “any act targeting the security of the state, national unity, stability and the normal functioning of institutions”through actions that “work or incite by any means whatsoever to access power or change the system of governance by non-constitutional means and to undermine the integrity of the national territory.

Article 97 of the penal code, for example, prohibits any type of gathering, while the 2012 laws relating to political parties and associations subject the formation of an NGO or a political party to prior government approval.

In 2023, a new milestone in the restriction of freedom of expression was reached with the adoption of a law on information that bans Algerians with dual nationality from owning or being shareholders in a media outlet in Algeria.

Algerian election campaign marked by social pledges and claims of unfair play.

The last presidential election of 2019 was widely boycotted, resulting in low turnout that undermined the legitimacy of Tebboune’s victory.

The president and his supporters are hoping to up participation this time round.

The public appears to be responding positively to Tebboune’s leadership and policy decisions. The crucial question now is whether this level of support will endure, and what the implications of another five years under Tebboune’s leadership will be for Algeria’s future.”

But In its sixty-two-year modern history, Algeria has never witnessed a smooth transfer of power from one president to another.

The country’s first post-independence president was deposed in a military coup after just three years in office. The coup leader, Houari Boumediene, ruled with an iron grip for more than a decade, entrenching a system of military rule with a thin civilian façade that has endured ever since.

His successor, Chadli Bendjedid, elected in 1979, ruled until an oil price slump obliged the state to curtail social spending, provoking a crisis. His solution, a hasty political opening, nearly delivered the country to an extremist Islamist party. To prevent that outcome, the army seized power in 1992, triggering a civil war. The military tapped independence hero Mohamed Boudiaf—but soon regretted its choice when he launched ambitious anti-corruption and reform campaigns that threatened its interests. After just five months in office, Boudiaf was assassinated on live television by his own bodyguard. the army’s hand-picked candidate, former Foreign Minister Abdelaziz Bouteflika, won an election intended to turn the page on Algeria’s “dark decade.” He was reelected three times and, despite being incapacitated by poor health, remained le pouvoir’s default pick in 2019.

Tebboune, a former regional governor, housing minister, and failed prime minister—who holds the distinction of being Algeria’s shortest-serving premier, lasting less than three months in 2017—emerged as the army’s anointed pick in the controversial polls, which protesters boycotted. He was elected amid record-low turnout.

The Military Establishment:

• Role in Elections: The military in Algeria has historically played a significant role in the country’s politics. While they may not publicly endorse a specific candidate, their support is crucial for anyone aspiring to hold the presidency. They are likely to back a candidate who aligns with their interests and can ensure stability. This will be the  incumbent President Abdelmadjid Tebboune.
• Potential Candidates: If the military perceives a candidate as a stabilizing force or someone who will maintain the status quo, they are more likely to support that person, either overtly or behind the scenes.

More on this story: Military rift hits Algerian chief of staff

2. The National Liberation Front (FLN):

• Support Base: The FLN, the party that led Algeria to independence, has been a dominant political force in the country. However, its influence has waned in recent years due to internal divisions and public dissatisfaction.
• Alliances: The FLN may support a candidate who promises to revitalize the party or someone who represents the traditional power structure in Algeria.

3. Islamist Parties:

• Influence: Islamist parties, such as the Movement of Society for Peace (MSP), have a substantial support base, especially among those dissatisfied with the current system. They are likely to support a candidate who promises reforms that align with their religious and political goals.
• Unity or Fragmentation: Islamist parties in Algeria have a history of both uniting and fragmenting, so their support could be split among different candidates, depending on who best represents their interests.

4. Civil Society and Protest Movements:

• Hirak Movement: The Hirak protest movement, which began in 2019, represents a significant force in Algerian politics. It includes a broad coalition of civil society groups, activists, and ordinary citizens demanding systemic change.
• Support for Reformist Candidates: This movement is likely to back candidates who advocate for genuine reforms, transparency, and an end to corruption. However, they may also call for a boycott if they believe the elections are not free and fair.

5. International Actors:

• France and Other Foreign Powers: Algeria’s former colonial power, France, as well as other countries, may have an interest in the outcome of the elections. While they may not openly endorse candidates, their diplomatic actions and relationships could indirectly influence the election by signaling preferences for stability or reform. We assured This is incumbent President Tebboune.
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6. Incumbent or Government-Backed Candidates:

• Government Support: Candidates backed by the current government or those perceived to be close to the existing power structures, including the presidency and the ruling party, are likely to receive support from state institutions and resources.This is incumbent President Abdelmadjid Tebboune.
• Public Reception: However, public perception of these candidates could be mixed, especially if they are seen as representatives of the status quo, which has been a source of frustration for many Algerians.

7. Youth and First-Time Voters:

• Decisive Factor: Algeria has a young population, and youth voters could play a crucial role in the elections. Their support may go to candidates who address issues like unemployment, education, and social justice.
• Support for Change: Given the disenchantment with traditional politics, younger voters might gravitate toward newer, more progressive candidates who promise change.

The support in Algeria’s elections will depend on how various candidates position themselves in relation to the military, political parties, civil society, and the general public’s demands. The military’s role is pivotal, but the influence of protest movements and the public’s appetite for reform will also shape the election’s dynamics.