Tuesday, July 15, 2025

Polaris of Enlightenment

Israeli hacker group claims to have rigged over 30 national elections abroad

Published 19 February 2023
– By Editorial Staff
Tal Hanan is very proud of his manipulation business.
3 minute read

The Tel Aviv-based hacker group is led by 50-year-old Tal Hanan, who has a background in the Israeli Special Forces. Believing that the journalists who meet with him are in fact potential clients, he boasts of influencing election campaigns around the world and of hacking into accounts, using bot armies and variously sabotaging political opponents on behalf of his clients.

Tal Hanan refers to himself as “Jorge” in his shady work at the anonymous office outside Tel Aviv. His group’s work includes creating tens of thousands of fake social media accounts – which are then used to spread disinformation in order to influence election results. For a fee, Gmail and Telegram accounts can also be hacked to gain access to potentially sensitive information that could be used politically.

Several major media outlets, including Haaretz, The Guardian and Der Spiegel, have jointly made the revelation – which includes journalists meeting Tal Hanan and pretending to be consultants working for a regime in an unstable African country seeking help in delaying an election. The journalists also secretly filmed the entire conversation.

According to the review, Tal Hanan and his team have been manipulating political elections for over 20 years, hired by intelligence agencies, political parties and private companies to secretly manipulate public opinion – in developing countries in Africa and Central America – but also in the US and Europe.

One of the “services” it offers is a software package that “controls a large army of thousands of fake social media profiles on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Telegram, Gmail, Instagram and YouTube” that can be used to manipulate public opinion.

If this is not what the customer is looking for, Tal Hanan’s group can also gather intelligence on political opponents – including by hacking their accounts on various platforms. He also boasts that it has managed to “plant material on legitimate news sites” – which then gets very wide distribution through the software and can be used to sway opinion.

 

The professional election manipulator tells the journalists that much of the company’s strategy is to disrupt or sabotage opponents’ political campaigns – including allegedly ordering sex toys to a male politician’s home in order to make his wife think he was cheating on her.

“The revelations could cause embarrassment for Israel, which has faced growing diplomatic pressure in recent years over its export of cyber weapons that undermine democracy and human rights”, the paper writes, pointing out that Tal Hanan appears to have collaborated with at least one Israeli security and intelligence firm (Demoman International) that is also highlighted by the Israeli defence ministry on a website that promotes Israeli defence exports.

According to him, his team consists of former government personnel with “expertise” in finance, social media campaigns and “psychological warfare” – and it carries out its work from six offices around the world. During the meeting with journalists, he also boasts that his team is currently “involved in an election in Africa” and that it has rigged 33 national elections – 27 of which the sabotage is said to have been “successful”. He also claims to be involved in “two major projects in the US”.

The paper notes that it’s hard to tell if all the claims are really true – or if it’s just bragging a little extra to attract potential customers. It also reveals that it charges hundreds of thousands of dollars for its services and that it secretly influenced the 2015 Nigerian presidential election with the now-defunct British consultancy Cambridge Analytica, among others.

One of the most important things is to create antagonism between the right people, Hanan explains, showing how he can send fake messages from politicians or high-ranking political officials to create conflict.

When confronted by the magazine before publication of the revelation, he says he “did nothing wrong”.

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Over 100 killed in Gaza over the weekend

The situation in Gaza

Published yesterday 16:01
– By Editorial Staff
Ruins after bombings in Gaza, archive image.
1 minute read

On Saturday alone, at least 70 people were killed in Gaza and 208 were injured, reports the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

At least 40 more people were killed in new attacks on Sunday, including six children who were killed at a drinking water distribution point, according to a spokesperson for Gaza’s civil defense authority to AFP. Representatives from Al-Awda Hospital confirm that they received ten bodies following an Israeli attack on a water collection point in nearby Nuseirat. Hospital staff estimate that the actual death toll is 129 and that 33 of those killed were queuing for humanitarian aid.

The Israeli military, which has recently intensified its operations in Gaza, has according to Defense Minister Israel Katz received orders to establish a concentration camp that they refer to as a “humanitarian city” in the southern part of Gaza, where they aim to eventually house Gaza’s entire population.

According to health authorities in Hamas-controlled Gaza, the death toll now exceeds 58,000 people.

North Korea declares “full support” for Russia

The war in Ukraine

Published yesterday 12:58
– By Editorial Staff
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during their meeting in Wonsan, North Korea.
1 minute read

North Korea is providing its “unconditional support” to Russia in the war against Ukraine. This was declared during a meeting between Kim Jong-Un and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Wonsan on Saturday, according to North Korean state media.

Kim Jong-Un informed Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that the country stands ready to provide strong assistance in the conflict against Ukraine during a meeting that took place on Saturday in the coastal town of Wonsan on North Korea’s east coast, a location that the country has recently attempted to market as a tourist destination.

According to the North Korean news agency KCNA, Kim Jong-Un told Lavrov that North Koreans have “expressed full sympathy and support for all the measures taken by the Russian government to remove the root cause of the Ukrainian conflict”.

The North Korean leader is also said to have expressed his “firm conviction that the Russian army and people” will triumph and “achieve the sacred cause of defending the country’s dignity and fundamental interests”, KCNA reports.

Before the meeting with Kim Jong-Un, Lavrov met with his North Korean counterpart, Foreign Minister Choe Son-Hui, earlier in the day.

Deepened military cooperation

Lavrov’s visit to North Korea marks increasingly extensive military and political ties between the two countries, which have accelerated in connection with the war in Ukraine.

Pyongyang has previously sent thousands of soldiers to the Russian border region of Kursk to participate in fighting against Ukrainian forces that occupied parts of the area.

War hawk: Trump will send “record amounts of weapons” to Ukraine

The war in Ukraine

Published yesterday 11:05
– By Editorial Staff
War hawk Lindsey Graham with Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo to the right in a meeting in Helsinki, Finland in August last year.
2 minute read

The US will send more weapons than ever to Ukraine. These are the tones being heard around the Trump administration as NATO chief Mark Rutte now visits Washington.

A large part of Trump’s voter base is generally considered to be voters who voted for him in hopes that he would reduce US involvement in foreign wars, partly because he promised during the campaign that he would end the war in 24 hours. However, these promises seem to be becoming increasingly distant for the American president.

On Monday, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte is scheduled to meet Trump in Washington, and Rutte can be pleased that more weapons than ever are now heading to the war in Ukraine. This according to information from, among others, the neoconservative war hawk Lindsey Graham, Republican senator and close ally of the Trump administration.

In the coming days, you’ll see weapons flowing at a record level to help Ukraine defend themselves, says Graham on CBS’s program “Face the Nation”.

European countries foot the bill

A central part of the escalation is that NATO countries, including Sweden, have pledged to increase their weapons purchases, which in practice are largely procured from the American military-industrial complex.

Graham believes that the US escalation of weapons deliveries to the war in Ukraine is part of a “massive effort” to force Russian President Vladimir Putin into peace negotiations. It should be added that Russia has in many different contexts over a long time emphasized that they have been open to negotiations as well as being open about their peace conditions, which primarily revolve around guarantees of Ukraine’s neutrality.

Trump has signaled that he will make a “major statement” about Russia during the day.

FBI official in audio leak: “Law enforcement turned a blind eye” to Jeffrey Epstein

The Epstein case

Published 13 July 2025
– By Editorial Staff

3 minute read

A high-ranking FBI official accuses the justice system of having “turned a blind eye” to Jeffrey Epstein in a leaked audio recording. Rami Hasan, a senior FBI official, says that “you can see where the law enforcement either turned a blind eye… or missed things (on Jeffrey Epstein)”. In the same recording, he describes the FBI as “a shit show”.

The statements come as the Trump administration’s handling of Epstein documents draws sharp criticism from both the president’s supporters and opponents, after Attorney General Pam Bondi previously promised to release extensive material that is now claimed not to exist.

Internal criticism of FBI’s Epstein investigation

In the leaked audio recording, published by O’Keefe Media Group, Hasan says:

– You can see where the law enforcement either turned a blind eye… or missed things (on Jeffrey Epstein).

Jeffrey Epstein was the American-Jewish financier who was accused of extensive sex trafficking of minors before he suddenly died in his cell in 2019 while awaiting trial.

– There is opportunities there, just from like hearing and listening, Hasan says in the recording according to O’Keefe Media Group regarding the investigation.

When asked if he believes Epstein was murdered, Hasan responds:

– I think he just killed himself… I mean, even the FBI came out and said he killed himself.

Hasan also commented on how government officials allowed influencers and internet personalities to distribute Epstein-related documents, which he called “messy” and said lacked clarity and professionalism.

Scandals surrounding the Epstein case

Jeffrey Epstein, who reportedly died in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York in August 2019 while awaiting trial, has become the subject of extensive questioning regarding the circumstances of his death. The official conclusion that he committed suicide has faced widespread criticism and been surrounded by mysterious circumstances.

In July, the Department of Justice and FBI released a joint report claiming that there is no longer any “client list” of Epstein’s alleged co-conspirators, and that there is also no evidence that he was murdered. The report also established that no further charges are expected in the case.

Criticism of Bondi’s handling

Hasan’s statements come as Attorney General Pam Bondi faces growing criticism for her previous claims about Epstein material. In February, Bondi admitted in a Fox News interview that she had a “client list” on her desk that she would review. Later, she claimed that the government had “tens of thousands” of Epstein-related videos in its possession involving sex with children.

These statements directly contradict a recently presented report from the Department of Justice and FBI, which now conversely claims that no such client list exists at all, and that all available investigative material has already been accounted for.

Internal conflicts at the FBI

Tensions have also reached the FBI’s leadership. According to Fox News, a heated discussion arose between FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino and Attorney General Pam Bondi at the White House on Wednesday regarding the handling of Epstein files.

Both Bongino and FBI Director Kash Patel had previously, before taking their current positions, questioned the official version of Epstein’s death. Since taking their posts, however, they have publicly maintained that Epstein took his own life.

When President Trump was asked about the Epstein case during a government meeting this week, he said irritably: “Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?” and called the deceased financier “a creep”.

Source behind the leak

O’Keefe Media Group was founded by James O’Keefe after he left Project Veritas in 2023. The FBI and the US Department of Justice have reportedly been contacted by O’Keefe Media Group regarding Hasan's statements, but have not yet commented on the leak.

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