The Economist Propagandizes For Al Quaeda’s Narcotics Policy

The Economist Propagandizes For Al Quaeda’s Narcotics Policy
Written by Eric Zuesse
14.07.2026
 

As I have previously documented, U.S. President Barack Obama personally selected Al Qaeda in Syria to lead in his operation to overthrow the President of Syria Bashar al-Assad, whom even the U.S. Government’s own hired polling organization had found to be the top-preferred person by Syrians to be their nation’s leader — and that Syrians overwhelmingly disapproved of Al Qaeda and blamed the U.S. Government as having created it.

Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, now called al-Sharaa, had been the al-Qaeda leader in Syria who ruled Syria’s Idlib province, which was the place to which Assad’s government had been bussing all surrendered jihadists they had captured. When 

Assad was overthrown on 8 December 2024, that was done by Jolani’s forces pouring down from Idlib into Damascus. 

Jolani was an agent of the U.S. Government.

Here is from my 4 September 2018 “How U.S. Government Relies on Lying Media”:

    For years, Syria’s Government has been liberating increasing numbers of cities and towns and villages, from the approximately one hundred thousand jihadists that have been fighting in Syria to overthrow and replace their Government. Those jihadists have been supported by the US Government in this overthrow-effort. Most of the jihadists were recruited into Syria as fundamentalist-Islamic (actually fundamentalist-Sunni-Islamic) mercenaries, by the US coalition, which have worked with Al Qaeda’s Syrian branch to train and arm these jihadists, for them to serve as the US coalition’s boots-on-the-ground, to overthrow Syria’s non-sectarian Government. The US coalition aim to install in Syria rulers who have been selected by the fundamentalist-Sunni Saud family, the world’s wealthiest family, who own Saudi Arabia, and who want to control also Syria.

    Tens of thousands of jihadists have surrendered to the Syrian Government and been bussed by the Government into Idlib Syria — those were the surviving jihadists who chose surrender and relocation to Idlib, instead of immediate death at the hands of the Syrian Government, and of its allies, Russia and Hezbollah.

    Ever since the start of the Syrian Government’s operation to transport surviving jihadists to Idlib, there has been a question as to what would be done with them: either to free them to go back to their home countries or to any country that will take them, or else to slaughter them. The expectation has increasingly become that they will be slaughtered, because no peaceable land wants them, and because even the US and its allies say that they want to kill all jihadists. America’s 

Islamic allies, such as the royal Saud family, say that jihadists need to be educated to convert away from jihad, but everyone knows that with only rare exceptions, that’s impossible to do — and the countries that claim to be doing it are secretly funding jihadists such as Al Qaeda abroad.

    There is evidence that most Syrians want the jihadists to be slaughtered. The British polling firm Orb International’s 2014 Syrian poll asked “Q5. Who do you feel best represents the interests and aspirations of the Syrian people?” The top two most-favored choices were: “The Assad Government” 35%, and “Political Opposition” 21%. Both of those are secular, not sectarian. All of the armed groups who were trying to overthrow Assad wanted Sharia law, and they were supported by only 27% of Syrians, but they were supported and armed and trained by all of the US international coalition.

    A year later, Orb polled again, and found (“Table 3”) that 47% of Syrians in 2015 said that Assad had a “positive effect” on the country; 43% said Iran did; 37% said “Arab Gulf Countries” (the US Government’s allied nations against Syria) did; 36% said “Free Syrian Army” (America’s proxies or boots-on-the-ground fighters in Syria) did; 35% said “Nusra Front” (Al Qaeda in Syria, which trained and led the Free Syrian Army) did; 26% said the “Syrian Opposition Coalition” (America’s other proxy fighters to overthrow Assad) did; and 21% said “Islamic State” (ISIS or ISIL, or simply “IS”) did. 

76% said IS had a “negative effect” on Syria. IS was hated by Syrians, but apparently not as much as US was hated by them: When Syrians were asked “to explain the presence of ISIL in Iraq/Syria” 82% answered (Table 26) that the explanation “is US.” Syrians might not have agreed on whom they supported, but they agreed overwhelmingly that America was their nation’s enemy. And it is. Syrians don’t want to be ruled by stooges selected for them by the Sauds. 

But that’s whom the US coalition lined up to rule them. Except that Russia decided not to accept it. And now Pompeo is warning Russia (which is legally in Syria at the request of the Government, while the US itself is only an invading power there) to give up and let Syria be conquered by America’s proxies.

    Furthermore, the 2015 Orb poll (Table 4) also found that Idlib was the region of Syria which had the lowest percentage of its inhabitants (only 4% — versus 47% in the nation-at-large) supporting Assad. Table 6 there shows that 35% of Idlib’s residents supported ISIS. Table 7 shows that 70% of Idlib’s residents supported Nusra (Al Qaeda in Syria). So: when Assad made the decision to relocate surrendered jihadists to Idlib, he knew that he was sending them to the Governorate that’s far more supportive of the jihadist cause than any other area of Syria is. Only a tiny portion of Idlib’s residents oppose jihadists. And, now, suddenly, to America’s Mike Pompeo, all of the people in Idlib are somehow (as he suggests, but is sly enough not to state outright) refugees.

    Orb’s 2018 poll of Syrians reported that, “Only 26% think that the influence of the International Coalition has been positive, and 69% think their influence has been somewhat or strongly negative. A further 57% think The West has played a negative role.” Orb, the pollster — since it’s allied with the US instead of with Syria — also blamed Assad, instead of blaming Trump, for the worsening situation their latest poll found in Syria. Orb’s 2018 report says: “Whether or not an Assad victory is good for the future of the country is wide open — Although 39% agree that the country is heading in the right direction, this is a large drop since 2017 when 57% agreed with this statement.” Between 2017 and now, most Syrians, just like most Americans, became disillusioned that Trump really was going to let Syria win the war that the US Government has been waging against Syria ever since 1949 and which exploded into the open once Obama came into the White House. During the past year, it has become increasingly clear that Trump is continuing and even escalating this war; so, of course, Syrians, who know that the US is their enemy, don’t think “that the country is heading in the right direction.” Like Americans, the people in Syria had believed Trump’s lies about what his intentions regarding Syria were. 

They know better now.

    Furthermore: Pompeo’s allegation that “The 3 million Syrians who have already been forced out of their homes and are now in Idlib,” is itself blatantly false, because the population of the entire region — and not just of the city of Idlib — is only 1.5 million, and far fewer than 100,000 have been added to that population by Syria’s bussing all of the surrendered jihadists there.

In service to the U.S. imperial regime, The Economist, on July 9th, headlined “Ahmed al-Sharaa is quashing Syria’s vast captagon trade”, and opened: “Among Bashar al-Assad’s many crimes as Syria’s dictator was turning his country into a narco-state. Captagon, an amphetamine, became Syria’s largest export. Mr Assad’s neighbours resented his role as drug-pusher-in-chief. To their relief, Ahmed al-Sharaa, Syria’s new president, seems eager to stem the flow of captagon in the region.”

Today I had this conversation with ChatGPT:

    “What was Assad’s policy on captagon?”

    Officially, the government of Bashar al-Assad denied any involvement in the Captagon trade. Assad repeatedly portrayed Syria as a victim of drug smuggling rather than a sponsor of it. During Syria’s rapprochement with Arab states in 2023, Damascus publicly promised greater cooperation against narcotics trafficking and participated in regional discussions about border security and drug interdiction.

    However, there is a sharp distinction between the Assad government’s public policy and what numerous governments, journalists, and researchers concluded was happening in practice.

    The broad consensus among investigations by governments and major news organizations is that:

        By roughly 2018–2024, Syria had become the world’s largest producer of illicit Captagon.
        Production was concentrated in regime-controlled territory.
        The trade generated billions of dollars annually and became one of Syria’s most important sources of foreign currency after years of sanctions and economic collapse.
        Key elements of the Syrian state — including members of the security services and military — were alleged to have protected or directly participated in production and smuggling. Many reports specifically identified Assad’s brother, 

Maher al-Assad, commander of the Fourth Armored Division, as a central figure.

    As a result, the United States and several allies adopted sanctions targeting individuals and networks allegedly involved in the trade. In 2024, the U.S. Congress enacted the Illicit Captagon Trafficking Suppression Act, whose findings state that:

        industrial-scale Captagon production occurred in areas held by the Assad regime,
        “elements of the Government of Syria” were key drivers of production and trafficking, and
        ministerial-level officials were complicit.

    Why would the Assad government tolerate or encourage it?

    Analysts have generally proposed three overlapping explanations:

        International sanctions and the destruction of Syria’s economy sharply reduced legitimate export earnings. 

Captagon became a lucrative alternative source of hard currency.
        Profits reportedly financed military units, intelligence services, and allied militias, helping sustain the regime during and after the civil war.
        Diplomatic leverage.Some analysts argued that Damascus used its ability to reduce—or threaten to continue—the flow of Captagon as a bargaining chip in negotiations with neighboring Arab states seeking normalization of relations.

    Did Assad ever announce a policy of promoting Captagon?

    No.

    There is no public policy document or official declaration in which Assad stated that Syria would produce or export Captagon. The alleged policy is inferred from evidence collected by governments, sanctions investigations, law-enforcement seizures, investigative journalism, and, after the fall of Assad’s government, the discovery of numerous production facilities in areas formerly controlled by regime forces.

    So, in summary:

    Official policy:deny involvement, condemn drug trafficking, and promise cooperation against it.

    Widely reported de facto policy (according to Western governments, many Arab governments, and extensive investigative reporting) : tolerate or actively support industrial-scale Captagon production through regime-linked military and security networks as a source of revenue and political leverage.

The Economist is presenting not news-reporting but propaganda to make it appear that Assad — the person that the empire overthrew — ran Syria’s capatagon trade instead of increasingly tolerated and then worked with it to supply needed funds to be able to continue its war against the jihadists and their U.S.-and-allied backers.

Furthermore, there is this: tandfonline.com

Captagon and conflict: Drugs and war on the border between Jordan and Syria

10 January 2024, Christina Steenkamp, Mediterranean Politics journal

    ABSTRACT

    Captagon is an illegal amphetamine that is widely used in the Middle East. Since the civil war started in 2011, Syria has become an international hub for Captagon production. A main Captagon trafficking route runs from Syria to the Arabian peninsula via Jordan. This has caused increasing domestic consumption of Captagon in Jordan. This article asks how Captagon trafficking and use in Jordan intersects with war in Syria and its wider impact. It illustrates how drug trafficking can be the product of violence and can also become a conduit for further violence. The article firstly analyses the drugs-conflict nexus in Syria and emphasizes Captagon trafficking as a new case study to this literature. It unpacks the role of the state in the crime-conflict nexus. The second half of the article draws on critical border studies literature to illustrate how the illegal Captagon trade has increased violence by contributing to an increasingly militarized border, with significant consequences for the communities who live and work there. The study concludes by considering the implications of Captagon trafficking for peace and stability in Syria and the region.

On 19 May 2011, Obama said “President Assad now has a choice: he can lead that transition, or get out of the way.”

On 18 August 2011, he said “For the sake of the Syrian people, the time has come for President Assad to step aside.”

As I documented in my 9 November 2015 “The Uprising Against Assad Was Engineered in Washington”, even when Obama entered office in January 2009 he had been wanting Assad to be overthrown. Moreover, he selected as his CIA chief John Brennan, who since 2009 had been constantly communicating with Prince Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud — the man who had funded at least two of the Saudi handlers of at least two among the 15 Saudis among the 19 hijackers on 9/11 and donated to Al Qaeda — who had led the Saud family’s operation to get the U.S. Government to oust Assad, ever since Saudi King Abdullah in 2011 had decided to get Assad overthrown.

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s latest book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.

Stopping spam calls on your mobile phone

Stopping spam calls on mobile phones

By Chidanand Tripathi
@thetripathi58

May 31, 2026

A woman walked into Verizon ready to change her phone number after 12 years.

She was getting 47 spam calls a week. Robocalls at 7am. Scam texts during meetings. Voicemails in Mandarin selling fake insurance.

She had blocked 200+ numbers. Reported them to the FTC. Downloaded three different spam apps. Nothing worked.

The calls kept coming.

She filled out the number change form and slid it across the counter: "I just want a clean start."

The rep looked at the form, then back at her phone.

"Before you lose your number forever, let me show you something. Your number isn't burned. It's exposed. There are 18 ways they're tracking you right now. The carriers won't tell you this because the data broker ecosystem pays them. Let's fix it."

Here's what he showed her in the next 11 minutes:

1. The "Decline Button" Trap

The Situation: Your phone buzzes. It’s an unknown number from a state you don't live in. Annoyed, you immediately hit the red "Decline" button. You think you are asserting control, rejecting the interaction, and protecting your valuable time.

The System: You need to realize that modern autodialers are not humans sitting in a cubicle hoping for a chat. They are predictive algorithms looking for a single data point: a human signal. When you hit decline, a SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) response is sent back to the server in milliseconds. You just sent an instant, undeniable confirmation that this phone number has a live, active human attached to it who is currently looking at their screen.

Why it works: The algorithm immediately upgrades your number from "unverified" to "premium active target." You will now be sold to other scammers for a higher price. The solution? Let it ring. Let it go to your voicemail organically. Do not press a button. Give them zero biological or digital response. You stay completely invisible to the detection algorithm.

The Takeaway: Stop confirming your existence. Start ghosting the machines.

2. The "STOP" Text Illusion

The Situation: You receive a generic, poorly spelled text message about a "locked" Amazon account or a delayed USPS package. At the bottom, it says "Reply STOP to opt out." You angrily type S-T-O-P and hit send, thinking you've legally forced them to leave you alone.

The System: Legitimate, highly regulated marketing agencies are bound by the TCPA (Telephone Consumer Protection Act) to honor your opt-out request. Offshore scammers operating out of unregulated jurisdictions use "STOP" as a tripwire. When you reply, the automated system logs a massive victory. It proves the number is active, the user reads SMS messages from unknown senders, and the user is willing to engage. Your number’s value on dark web marketplaces just skyrocketed.

Why it works: You must never engage with unsolicited texts. Do not reply. Do not click. Instead, swipe left on the message and hit "Delete and Report Junk." This action bypasses the scammer entirely and feeds the metadata directly into your carrier-level spam filters, helping to poison the scammer's infrastructure.

The Takeaway: Regulatory compliance is a myth in the criminal underworld. Silence is your only true shield.

3. The Voicemail Greeting Goldmine

The Situation: You set up your voicemail years ago to be polite and professional. It says, "Hi, you've reached Sarah Smith. I can't come to the phone right now, but please leave a message..."

The System: Advanced robocalls are no longer just leaving pre-recorded audio; they are equipped with voice-recognition and scraping software. When they hit your voicemail, they digitally record your greeting. In just a few seconds, they scrape your unique voice data, confirm your gender, and verify your exact full name. This enriched data profile is then repackaged for devastating spear-phishing attacks. They will use your name to target your elderly relatives, claiming "Sarah" is in trouble.

Why it works: You are giving them the keys to your identity for free. Switch back to the robotic, default carrier greeting immediately. "The number 5-5-5-0-1-9-9 is not available." Give the machines absolutely zero personalized data, zero names, and zero voiceprints to scrape.

The Takeaway: If the algorithm doesn't know who you are, the scammer doesn't know how to manipulate you.

4. The Native OS Firewall

The Situation: You rely on expensive, third-party apps from the App Store to block incoming spam calls, but your phone is still ringing during dinner. You feel completely helpless.

The System: Both Apple and Google have built incredibly powerful, deep, hardware-level firewalls straight into your phone’s operating system but they are turned off by default. Data brokers and telemarketers are terrified of these features. Apple calls it "Silence Unknown Callers." Android calls it "Block unknown callers."

Why it works: When you toggle this switch on, the phone checks the incoming caller ID against your saved contacts, your recent outgoing calls, and your email/Siri suggestions. If there is no match, the phone never even rings. The call is instantly and silently routed to voicemail. You will simply see a silent notification pop up. The scammer's autodialer registers a "no answer" and moves on.

The Takeaway: Lock the digital front door. Make the scammers use the mail slot.

5. The Loyalty Program Data Leak

The Situation: You are checking out at the grocery store, the pharmacy, or a sporting goods store. The cashier asks for your phone number to save you $1.50 on paper towels or to give you "rewards points." You punch it into the keypad without a second thought.

The System: Giant retail corporations aren't giving you a discount out of the kindness of their hearts; they are buying your consumer data at a massive discount. They tie your private phone number to your hyper-specific purchasing habits, dietary choices, and medical needs. They then sell this comprehensive profile to massive data aggregators like Acxiom or Experian. Once your number enters this aggregated ecosystem, it becomes de facto public domain for aggressive telemarketers.

Why it works: Stop trading your long-term digital privacy for a 5% discount on snacks. Start using a fake number at the register. Use your childhood landline that no longer works, a random local business number, or a dedicated, free Google Voice number that you never actually check.

The Takeaway: Your data is worth infinitely more than their "exclusive" rewards.

6. The "Neighbor Spoofing" Psychology

The Situation: Your phone rings. You look down and see a number that shares your exact local area code, and even the next three digits (the prefix). You answer it, assuming it must be your local pharmacy, your kid’s school, or a neighbor down the street.

The System: Scammers don't use real phones; they use Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) software running on servers halfway across the world. They use dynamic spoofing algorithms to mask their real origin. The software analyzes your phone number and automatically generates a fake caller ID that matches your prefix. They are weaponizing the psychology of proximity. They know humans are wired to trust things that look familiar and local.

Why it works: You have to re-train your brain to recognize the pattern. If you don't have the number explicitly saved in your contacts, a hyper-local similarity is actually a massive red flag, not a green light. Let it go to voicemail. A real neighbor will leave a message.

The Takeaway: Proximity is the oldest and most effective trick in the social engineering playbook.

7. The Single-Sign-On (SSO) Tax

The Situation: For convenience, you use your primary, real phone number as your 2-Factor Authentication (2FA) recovery method for Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and various retail websites.

The System: Major platforms experience massive data breaches constantly. When a platform is compromised, your phone number is leaked directly alongside your email address and hashed passwords. This data is instantly dumped into massive, searchable databases on the dark web used by SMS scammers. Furthermore, relying on SMS for security leaves you vulnerable to "SIM swapping," where a hacker convinces your carrier to port your number to their phone, giving them access to all your bank codes.

Why it works: Stop using text messages for security. Switch to a dedicated Authenticator app (like Authy, Duo, or Google Authenticator) or a physical hardware key (like a YubiKey) for your 2FA. Go into your social media profiles today and scrub your phone number from the account settings entirely.

The Takeaway: SMS is not a security feature. It is a massive exposure point.

8. The Virtual Number Shield

The Situation: You are trying to get a quick quote for car insurance, sign up for a local gym trial, or download a whitepaper online. The web form demands a phone number before you can click "Submit." You type in your cell number.

The System: Ninety percent of these sites are not actually service providers; they are "lead generation" fronts. Their entire business model is to harvest your phone number and sell it as a "hot lead" to 50 different aggressive contractors, insurance agents, or salespeople within milliseconds of you hitting submit. Your phone will start ringing before the webpage even finishes loading.

Why it works: You need to compartmentalize your digital life. Download an app like Google Voice, Burner, or Hushed immediately. Generate a secondary, disposable "junk" phone number. Give this burner number to any business, web form, or person you do not deeply, personally trust. You can mute the burner app entirely and check it only when you want to.

The Takeaway: Treat your real cell phone number exactly like your Social Security Number. Protect it ruthlessly.

9. The App Permissions Sweep

The Situation: You are bored and download a free flashlight app, a custom keyboard, a horoscope reader, or a cheap mobile game. Upon opening it, a pop-up asks for access to your Contacts. You blindly click "Allow" just to get to the game faster.

The System: The developer's actual business model has absolutely nothing to do with the game you are playing. They are a data brokering front. The second you hit "Allow," their script scrapes your entire address book. They vacuum up your personal phone number, along with the names, numbers, and emails of your family, your boss, and your friends. They bypass any privacy settings you have by exploiting your permissions, and they sell the entire network graph.

Why it works: You must audit your phone's app permissions today. Go to Settings > Privacy > Contacts. You will be horrified by what has access. Turn off access for literally anything that isn't a dedicated, trusted messaging or phone app. 

A calculator does not need to know who your mother is.

The Takeaway: Free apps are never actually free. You are paying for them with your entire network's private data.

10. The "Press 1 to Speak to an Agent" Mistake

The Situation: You answer a robocall by mistake. A recorded voice tells you about an expired car warranty. You get furious. The recording says, "Press 1 to speak to an agent to be removed from our list." You smash the '1' key, ready to scream at a human being.

The System: You just fell for a devastating compliance trap. By pressing a button on your dial pad, you interacted with their Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system. You signaled to the algorithm that you are a highly reactive, compliant individual who actively listens to and follows audio prompts. While you do get transferred to a human, your number is simultaneously escalated on the backend to a "premium, highly gullible" scam list. You will now be targeted by much more sophisticated, high-effort scams.

Why it works: If you accidentally answer a spam call and realize it's a recording, hang up immediately. Do not navigate their menus. Do not attempt to reason with, yell at, or outsmart a machine.

The Takeaway: Your anger is just another measurable metric to them. Keep your emotions to yourself.

11. The WhatsApp/Telegram Sync Leak

The Situation: You use secure, end-to-end encrypted messaging apps like WhatsApp, Telegram, or Signal because you care about privacy. However, you leave all the app settings on their factory defaults.

The System: End-to-end encryption only protects the contents of your messages, not your metadata. Scammers write automated scripts to generate millions of random phone numbers and ping them continuously against WhatsApp and Telegram servers via their APIs. Because your settings are on default, anyone in the world who pings your number can instantly see your high-res "Profile Picture," your "Last Seen" online status, and your "About" bio. This instantly verifies your number is active, tags your face to the number, and allows them to reverse-image-search you to find your LinkedIn or Facebook.

Why it works: Open your messaging app's privacy settings the moment you read this. Change your "Profile Photo," "Last Seen," "Online Status," and "About" settings to "My Contacts Only."

The Takeaway: Encryption secures the conversation. You have to secure the perimeter yourself.

12. The "Hello? Hello?" Voice Print

The Situation: You answer a call from an unknown number because you are expecting a delivery. You hold the phone to your ear. There is nothing but dead air. Annoyed, you say, "Hello? Who is this? Yes, I'm here."

The System: This is not a bad connection. Scammers use deliberate, programmed silence to force the human to speak 

first. They are actively recording the line. The moment you speak, especially if you say a clear word like "Yes" or "Hello," they capture a high-quality audio sample of your vocal frequencies. They use readily available AI tools to clone your voiceprint. They will then use this synthetic clone to bypass voice-biometric security at your bank, or call your grandparents sounding exactly like you, begging for bail money.

Why it works: If you absolutely must answer a call you aren't sure about, hold the phone to your ear and say absolutely nothing. A real human on the other end will eventually say "Hello?" A bot is programmed to wait for audio input; if it gets 3 seconds of dead silence, it assumes it hit a dead line and will automatically hang up.

The Takeaway: In the digital age, he who speaks first, loses the data.

13. The Email Signature Scraping

The Situation: You are a dedicated professional. To make sure clients can always reach you, you put your direct mobile phone number at the very bottom of your email signature, alongside your title and company logo.

The System: Think about the lifecycle of an email. Over the years, your emails are replied to, forwarded, BCC'd, and stored in thousands of different inboxes across dozens of companies. It is a mathematical certainty that at least one of those people will have their email server hacked or compromised. When hackers breach an Exchange server, they deploy scraping bots that read every single stored email specifically looking for phone numbers and email addresses to steal. Your number is extracted from the signature block and sold in bulk.

Why it works: Remove your direct, personal cell line from your public email signature immediately. Use a main company switchboard line, a dedicated virtual VoIP number, or better yet, a clickable meeting booking link (like Calendly) that requires them to schedule time without ever seeing your actual digits.

The Takeaway: Your professional courtesy is an absolute gold rush for scraping bots.

14. The Venmo/CashApp Public Ledger

The Situation: You split a pizza with friends, pay your roommate for utilities, or buy a coffee using Venmo or CashApp. 

You leave the transaction privacy settings on the default "Public" mode because it's fun to see what emojis your friends are using.

The System: Financial applications with public feeds are heavily monitored and scraped by sophisticated social engineering scammers. By analyzing who you pay, who pays you, and the frequency of those transactions, they map out your intimate social graph. They cross-reference these names with data broker sites to find your phone number. 

Suddenly, you get an urgent, panicked text message from an unknown number posing as your best friend "Mike" who you just publicly paid for pizza yesterday claiming he dropped his phone in a lake and needs emergency cash wired to a new account.

Why it works: Go into your financial apps and set all past and future transactions to strictly "Private." Furthermore, remove your phone number from public visibility or searchability within the app's privacy settings.

The Takeaway: Your financial network is a literal roadmap to your real life. Hide it immediately.

15. The "Smishing" Link Payload

The Situation: You receive a terrifying text message stating that your bank account is frozen, your Netflix is suspended, or a package is undeliverable. It includes a short link to "verify your identity." You are smart enough not to type in your password, but you click the link just to see what the website looks like.

The System: The attack is called "Smishing" (SMS Phishing), and the payload is delivered the millisecond you click. That short link is uniquely generated and tied exclusively to your phone number. When you click it, a tracking pixel fires on the scammer's server. Without you entering a single keystroke, you have confirmed to the scammer that your number is 

active, tied the phone number to your current IP address/physical location, logged your exact device type (iPhone vs Android), and recorded your browser version.

Why it works: Never, under any circumstances, click a link inside an unsolicited text message. If you are genuinely worried about your bank or a package, close the text app, open your web browser, and manually type in the official, verified URL of the company yourself.

The Takeaway: You don't have to fill out a form to be hacked. The click itself is the compromise.

16. The Data Broker Aggregation

The Situation: You assume that the scammers calling you are just running random number generators, hoping to get lucky by dialing every combination of digits. You think you are completely anonymous.

The System: The reality is much darker. Multi-billion dollar data broker companies (like Whitepages, Spokeo, 

LexisNexis, and Radaris) have legally scraped decades of your public records. They take your property deeds, voter registrations, marriage licenses, and court records, and they inextricably link them to your cell phone number. They package this massive, detailed dossier and sell it to anyone with a credit card. Scammers buy these profiles to craft highly targeted, personalized attacks that mention your home address, your age, and your relatives' names to terrify you into compliance.

Why it works: You must actively fight to scrub your footprint. Use a professional data removal service (like DeleteMe, Incogni, or Kanary) to constantly monitor and delete your profiles, or spend a weekend manually submitting CCPA/GDPR opt-out requests to the top 20 data brokers yourself.

The Takeaway: You are not a random, anonymous target. You are a highly detailed, legally purchased profile. Erase it.

17. The FTC Do Not Call Registry Paradox

The Situation: Desperate to stop the madness, you proudly register your phone number on the federal government's National Do Not Call (DNC) list. You sit back, assuming the law will protect you and the spam will finally stop.

The System: The DNC list was designed in 2003 and only stops legitimate, law-abiding American corporations who actually fear FTC fines. Illegal, offshore criminal syndicates operating out of unregulated call centers do not care about 

American laws. In fact, it is widely known in the cybersecurity community that hackers steal downloaded copies of the DNC list and sell it to scammers. Why? Because the DNC list is essentially a massive, verified, pristine directory of highly active, human-operated phone numbers. You essentially raised your hand and said, "I am here."

Why it works: You should still register for the DNC list to kill the annoying but legal corporate telemarketing calls, but you must completely adjust your expectations. Do not rely on it for security. Rely entirely on your OS-level firewalls (Tip #4) for the real, malicious threats.

The Takeaway: Rules only stop rule-followers. To a scammer, a government protection list is just a highly curated menu.

18. The Hidden Carrier Spam Filter

The Situation: You pay AT&T, Verizon, or T-Mobile $80 to $120 a month for premium 5G cell service. Yet, you feel like they are doing nothing to stop the onslaught, leaving you to rely on ignoring your phone or downloading third-party tools.

The System: The major telecom carriers actually possess massive, incredibly powerful network-level blocking capabilities utilizing protocols like STIR/SHAKEN (which verifies the cryptographic signature of the caller). However, they intentionally do not enable the strictest filters by default. They are terrified of the legal liability and customer rage of a "false positive", accidentally blocking a call from your doctor, your kid's school, or an emergency dispatcher. Because of this fear, they let the spam pass through to your device and put the burden of blocking it on you.

Why it works: You have to force their hand. Download your specific carrier's proprietary, free security app (Verizon Call Filter, AT&T ActiveArmor, or T-Mobile Scam Shield). Open the app, dive into the settings, and manually override their conservative defaults. Toggle the block settings to "Maximum," "High Risk," or "Send All Spam to Voicemail." This intercepts the call at the network tower before it ever reaches your phone's physical hardware.

The Takeaway: Make the telecom giants do the heavy digital lifting that you pay them for every single month.

19. The "Clean Start" Illusion (The Conclusion)

The Situation: After 11 minutes of listening to this, the woman stared at the Verizon rep, completely overwhelmed but finally understanding the mechanics of the machine that was hunting her. She looked down at the number change form she had filled out earlier. She still felt the urge to just burn it all down and start over with a brand new set of digits.

The System: The rep gently tapped the paperwork on the counter. "If I process this form and give you a new number today," he explained, "it is not actually 'new.' It is a recycled number from someone who likely just abandoned it for the exact same reasons you are standing here right now. You are inheriting their spam."

But it gets worse. Even if the number was miraculously clean, the moment she updated her bank app, ordered a package from Amazon, or logged into her social media on the same physical device, the data broker algorithms would instantly link her "new" number to her old identity profile. The digital connective tissue is too strong. Within 72 hours, the robocalls would find her all over again. Changing your number doesn't erase your digital footprint; it just adds a new address to the same old file.

Why it works: You cannot outrun the modern data economy by simply changing your digits; you can only outsmart it by fundamentally changing your digital behavior. The woman realized that by implementing the 18 steps the rep had just shown her, she wasn't just downloading a band-aid app she was methodically starving the data broker ecosystem of the behavioral signals it needed to target her. She was closing the loopholes, locking the digital doors, and removing herself from the menu. She was becoming a digital ghost.

The Takeaway: The woman slowly reached out across the glass counter, picked up the number change form, and tore it in half. She didn't need a new number. She just needed a new defense. She picked up her phone now locked down, silent, and fortified and walked out of the store. Her phone didn't ring once on the drive home.

Privacy isn't a setting you are given by default. It is a perimeter you have to aggressively take back.

Dystopian world is setting in...

Today in Dystopia
Caitlin Johnstone
Jul 7, 2026

Today in dystopia Americans are becoming increasingly outraged by the ubiquitousness of Flock’s AI-assisted surveillance cameras throughout US cities. Flock officers getting caught in lies and viral video footage of police abusing their access to the technology have contributed to the outcry, with public vandalism of the cameras taking place with increasing frequency in public spaces.

Today in dystopia the German government is moving to ban workers from calling in sick by phone in order to boost the economy by reducing the amount of sick leave being taken by corporate employees. New regulations would require a certified in-person doctor’s visit on the very first day of sick leave. They’re just coming right out and saying that the public exists to serve the corporations now.

Today in dystopia we’re starting to see videos of quadrupedal robots firing guns with accuracy and minimal recoil. I know we’ve been calling these things “robot dogs” this whole time, but it is a bit of a misnomer when we’ve known from the beginning they were only ever intended as an all-terrain carrying system for autonomous weapons to suppress revolutions.

Today in dystopia YouTube is warning British content creators that proposed UK laws will result in decreased visibility of their videos on the platform, as the new rules would require the amplification of authorized narrative managers like the BBC above independent voices who may not regurgitate the official narratives of the empire.

Today in dystopia the entire western power structure is aggressively pushing the agenda to restrict children’s access to online pornography and social media platforms, which sounds fine until you realize that these laws are unenforceable without massive expansions in the government’s ability to track the internet use of everyone regardless of age. A major age verification law recently passed a House vote in the United States, despite resistance from online rights advocates and watchdog groups.

Today in dystopia the EU has authorized the criminal prosecution of anyone who shares videos from RT online due to sanctions placed on Russia following the invasion of Ukraine. European private citizens can now wind up doing actual jail time if they share RT videos on their own personal website under this new development.

Today in dystopia the president of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola is deploying a rarely used procedure in an effort to force through a controversial authoritarian internet surveillance law called Chat Control which has already been voted down by EU lawmakers. Metsola even cut off the microphone of a German MEP who attempted to argue against the move. Critics of Chat Control say the proposed laws, though ostensibly designed to curb distribution of child sexual abuse material online, would lead to the indiscriminate scanning of virtually all types of electronic communications throughout Europe.

@POLITICOEurope
MEPs voted down a bill to fight child sexual abuse material in March. Now European Parliament President Roberta Metsola is asking them to vote again — using a rarely invoked procedure. 🔗 politico.eu/article/robert…Jul 6, 2026

Today in dystopia Australian “eSafety commissioner” Julie Inman is saying she wants the authority to prevent favored users from receiving large numbers of angry comments on social media, formally requesting a “notification power” which would enable her to demand that social media platforms suspend accounts who are contributing to “an avalanche of online hate” for an Australian deemed worthy of protection. Australian government officials and other high-profile public figures frequently find themselves “ratioed” by hostile comments from Australians who disagree with them; Inman’s proposal would conveniently bring an end to this type of public square accountability.

Today in dystopia activists have constructed an open-sourced website called Israel Exposed — War Crimes Archive to house video footage of Israeli atrocities in Gaza, because they know there’s going to be an ongoing effort to permanently erase the footage from every corner of the internet.

Today in dystopia top Israeli ministers have been openly and explicitly admitting to the premeditated elimination of entire Shia villages in Lebanon, but the entire western political/media establishment refuses to call it ethnic cleansing. This is because western politicians are empire managers, and western news broadcasters are propagandists.

Today in dystopia the governments are getting more and more secretive while forcing the public to become more and more transparent as our rulers construct a panopticon of surveillance systems all around us and develop robot armies to murder us if we ever try to turn against them. They are doing this while rapidly eroding our freedom of speech and rapidly shrinking our ability to find unauthorized information online, and while continuing their murderous atrocities around the globe to ensure the continuation of their planetary domination.

The longer we wait for revolution, the more weapons they’ll have in place to stop us.

Trans-Siberian Railway

 📆 On June 14, 1891, the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway began, which became the longest railway not only in Russia, but throughout the world.

🛤 Its length (from Moscow to Vladivostok) is more than 9 thousand kilometers. After its construction, for the first time in the history of Eurasia, anyone could quickly get from the European part to the Asian part.

🇷🇺 Today, the railway continues to play a key role in the Russian transport system. It is being upgraded and expanded to meet modern requirements.

Trans-Siberian Railway has 20 subjects of Russia and 5 federal districts, and it also crosses 3901 bridges on its way.

Israel launches global 'smear machine' to meddle in elections

An Israeli company BlackCore ran digital interference operations targeting elections in France, the US, Scotland, Angola and Togo, according to Viginum, France's official disinformation watchdog.

🇫🇷 French case

In March 2026, BlackCore targeted 3 mayoral candidates from France's hard-left party, La France Insoumise (France Unbowed), in Marseille, Toulouse and Roubaix.

The smear campaign used fake websites, AI-generated images, and hundreds of inauthentic social media accounts to falsely accuse candidates of criminal allegations, including sexual assault and rape.

French prosecutors have opened an investigation. The charges include espionage, electoral interference, and online terrorism offences.

🌍 Global network

🏴 Viginum identified 256 fake accounts that generated 1,400 coordinated comments attacking Scotland's First Minister John Swinney.

The attacks focused precisely on his pro-Palestinian position. Swinney had described the situation as a "man-made humanitarian catastrophe" and suggested genocide might be unfolding in Gaza.

🇺🇸 In New York, the target was Zohran Mamdani, a self-described socialist and open Palestine supporter who won the 2025 mayoral election. BlackCore interfered using the same "modus operandi" seen in France.

🇦🇴🇹🇬 French officials confirmed BlackCore ran operations in Angola and Togo, though specific targets and methods remain undisclosed.

🔍 Who Is BlackCore?

Before the company wiped its entire online presence following media inquiries, BlackCore described itself as "an elite influence, cyber, and technology company built for the modern era of information warfare".

It claimed to provide governments and political campaigns with "cutting-edge strategies, advanced tools, and robust security to shape narratives".

The company's digital footprint was traced to servers in Britain, Germany, Finland and Lithuania. It presents itself as a private contractor. The question of who paid for these operations remains open.

🤢 Diplomatic fallout

France has formally requested an official explanation from Israel.

"I do not doubt for a single instant that if a French private group, from French soil, had engaged in foreign digital interference in Israel, they would have done the same to its ambassador on site," PM Sebastien Lecornu put it directly.

The Israeli embassy in Paris said it was waiting to receive details from the French probe and denied any intention to interfere in French politics.

US has always bent rules to suit itself

The popular journalist Palki Sharma has told RT India that policy is more influenced by mood swings in the Trump administration

RT, 12 Jun 2026

The United States created the so-called “rules-based order,” but breaks it with impunity as those norms were always meant for “other people,” popular Indian journalist Palki Sharma has told RT.

Washington has always taken a capricious attitude towards complying with that system, Palki Sharma told RT India in the weekly ‘India, Russia and the world’ podcast.

“The US made the rules, but did the US follow those rules? I think it’s as mythical as the US Army fighting aliens in Hollywood films,” she said. “The US has always bent rules to suit itself.”

Sharma said the US remains the biggest military power in the world and its largest economy, and it is miles ahead of competitors in technological advancement.

“What has cracked is this veneer of invincibility. The world has begun to entertain ideas that there could be an alternative,” she said.

“The dollar will remain the big currency for the foreseeable future. But the very talk of de-dollarization unsettles Washington,” she noted.

Whether the US acknowledges it or not, the wars it has entered “have shown them the limits of their military power.”

“You can drop bombs left, right, and center and yet not win,” she said, citing the conflict with Iran, which “the US is losing as I see it.”

“The Americans thought that Iran will be a Venezuela. Iran is not a Venezuela. You cannot go and abduct their president or kill their president and then have the rest of the system succumb,” Sharma, whose show ‘Vantage’ is popular in India, said.

Iran has prepared for this eventuality for more than two decades, she said of the US-Israeli attacks on the country. Tehran is definitely bruised and battered, “but in terms of the political outcomes of this war, Iran has emerged stronger.”

She pointed out that India’s ties with Russia have stood the test of time. “The relationship with Russia has endured because there is a [level of] maturity,” she said.

The rise of China as a dominant force can’t be wished away, she said. “There is no other manufacturer like China that can deliver on the scale at which China does,” Sharma said.

25 POLIO TRUTH TWISTS

25 WAYS THE TRUTH ABOUT POLIO WAS TWISTED

1. “Polio” was never a fixed diagnosis — it was a label that changed.

2. Change the definition… and you change the numbers.

3. In the 1950s, the criteria for “polio” became much stricter.

4. That alone reduced how many cases could be counted. If someone got the polio shot, they would no longer diagnose “polio” when they became paralyzed.

5. Paralysis didn’t suddenly stop — it got renamed.

6. Same symptoms… different diagnosis.

7. Guillain-Barré. Transverse myelitis. Aseptic meningitis.

8. New name = not counted as polio.

9. A broad category called Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP) grouped many paralysis cases together.

10. That made it easier to shift cases out of the “polio” column.

11. After the vaccine rollout, the definition got even more specific.

12. If a case didn’t match the new definition exactly…

→ it wasn’t labeled polio.

13. Even if the paralysis looked the same as before.

14. Same condition… different label.

15. Different label… different statistic.

16. That’s how numbers drop on paper.

17. Ralph Scobey warned that classification changes were misleading the public.

18. Morton Biskind pointed to toxic exposures being ignored.

19. At the same time, chemical use was widespread and increasing.

20. Instead of expanding investigation… the focus narrowed.

21. One explanation was pushed.

22. Others were pushed aside.

23. Media repeated the same storyline until it became “truth.”

24. Most people never question how data is defined or counted.



25. What looks like polio disappearing can be relabeling, reclassification, and a controlled narrative.