Thread by @karolcummins

2016: Andrés Sepúlveda rigged elections throughout L Am for almost a decade.

His boss: Juan José Rendón, a Miami-based pol consult’t aka the Karl Rove of Latin Am.

2015: Colombian media reported that Rendón worked for Trump’s prez campaign—both denied.🤔 bloomberg.com/features/2016-…

Sepúlveda wrote a software program, called Social Media Predator, to manage & direct a virtual army of fake Twitter accts.

The software let him quickly change names, profile pictures, & bios to fit any need.

bloomberg.com/features/2016-…

📌Sepúlveda found he could manipulate the public debate as easily as moving pieces on a chessboard.

cc @WizardEightThem interesting 2016 article.
bloomberg.com/features/2016-…

Interview with Colombian hacker Andrés Sepúlveda

H/T @lincolnsbible
medium.com/@erin_gallaghe…

Karen McDougal, the ex-Playmate and the Latin American political operative J.J. Rendón:

An episode in the push to profit from an alleged affair with Trump

H/T @LincolnsBible

#Sepulveda
#Rendon

Rendón is a political force in L Am, often likened to Karl Rove. Critics cast him as a master of campaign dirty tricks.

He has been accused of deploying hackers whose strategies resemble those used by Russia in the 2016 U.S. campaign.

H/T @LincolnsBible
washingtonpost.com/investigations…

Andrés Sepúlveda, claimed that Rendón hired him repeatedly to commit a wide variety of crimes to affect the outcomes of elections, including installing malware, hacking websites, creating fake profiles, & digitally spying on opposition candidates.

H/T LB
news.vice.com/en_us/article/…

“My job was to do actions of dirty war and psychological operations, black propaganda, rumours – the whole dark side of politics that nobody knows exists but everyone can see,” said Sepulveda.

H/T @LincolnsBible
theguardian.com/world/2016/mar…

Sepúlveda’s claims are contested by Juan José Rendón, the Miami-based political consultant who allegedly hired the hacker.

In Mexico, he reportedly had a $600k budget to undermine the campaigns of Peña Nieto’s two main opponents

H/T @LincolnsBible
theguardian.com/world/2016/mar…

“He is delusional,” Rendón said in a phone call. “All the things he describes are exactly like the TV show Mr Robot.”

H/T @LincolnsBible

#MrRobot

theguardian.com/world/2016/mar…

Notorious computer hacker Hector Monsegur aka ‘Sabu’, whose exploits is said to have inspired the TV show “Mr. Robot.”

Sabu is a key member of the hacking group known as Anonymous and a founder of its elite “LulzSec” unit.

#MrRobot
nypost.com/2018/02/25/rea…

Sabu & his hacker collective helped launch cyber attacks on government and corporate targets including the US Senate, the FBI and major credit-card companies.
nypost.com/2018/02/25/rea…

📌Sepulveda’s team are said to have installed malware at the HQ of the two oppo candidates, which let them monitor phones & computers

📌Sepúlveda reportedly could see speech drafts, meetings plans & campaign schedules as they were typed into the keyboard.
theguardian.com/world/2016/mar…

📌Using this information, Sepulveda used a “virtual army” of fake Twitter accounts to direct public debate towards subjects that would strengthen Peña Nieto – for example by acclaiming his plan to crack down on drug violence – or embarrass rivals.

theguardian.com/world/2016/mar…

Sepúlveda brought high-quality fake accts that had been maintained for more than a year to make them look genuine, as well as generating 30k low-end Twitter bots that bumped up numbers of “likes” & “follows”, thereby creating memes & shaping discussion.

theguardian.com/world/2016/mar…

📌📌”When I realized that people believe what the internet says more than reality, I discovered that I had the power to make people believe almost anything,” he told Bloomberg.

theguardian.com/world/2016/mar…

📌📌To varying degrees, he said he applied similar tactics in other elections over an eight-year period in in Venezuela, Nicaragua, Panama, Honduras, El Salvador, Colombia, Costa Rica and Guatemala.
theguardian.com/world/2016/mar…

📌One of Rendón’s Instagram posts is a photo of himself speaking with former U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in January 2017.

📌Would Rendón support military intervention in Venezuela? “Yes, but only as an extreme solution,” he says.
ozy.com/provocateurs/m…

Does Rendon work alone?

📌Not according to La Jornada's Jaime Avilés, who in 2001 reported that Rendon is part of a larger group of political consultants that is directed from Miami and operates all over Latin America:
bananamarepublic.com/2013/08/21/wit…

📌Over the years Rendon has left a trail of sleaze, dirty tricks and rumor campaigns all over the continent, with threats to bloggers, journalists and opponents thrown in the mix for good measure.
#Rendon
#Sepulveda
bananamarepublic.com/2013/08/21/wit…

📌📌Juan José Rendón, a Miami-based political consultant linked to sabotage and manipulation of Latin Am elections, claims that Trump’s presidential campaign approached him, but he turned them down. Senior Trump staff members denied awareness of Rendón.🙄
fortune.com/2016/04/09/tru…

🌰Pegasus🌰

📌Saudi Dissidents Hit With Stealth iPhone Spyware Before Khashoggi's Murder #Pegasus
forbes.com/sites/thomasbr…

📌Israel signed off on sale of phone spying tool to Saudi Arabia — report

📌Washington Post cites US officials who say export of NSO's Pegasus program was approved despite hesitation from some Israelis over selling sensitive technology to Arab country
timesofisrael.com/israel-okayed-…

📌Israel Authorized NSO's Sale of Spyware to Saudi Arabia

📌$55 million. How does the Pegasus spy program purchased by Saudi Arabia from Israel work?
haaretz.com/israel-news/re…

#Pegasus

https://twitter.com/lincolnsbible/status/1097593675046039554?s=21

#ProjectRaven

https://twitter.com/karolcummins/status/1090675317482577920?s=21

#KarmaSpyTool

https://twitter.com/karolcummins/status/1090671189662416897?s=21

📌Folks, we aren’t living in Kansas anymore.

📌We are living in the wild, wild, west world of technologic advances & exploits utilized by hackers, dirty tricker political operatives, & hostile foreign gov’ts.

📌We are hacked, micro targeted, psyoped, influenced by bad actors

@threadreaderapp unroll please and thank you.

#Sepulveda
#Rendón
#Sabu
#Anonymous #Occupy
#LulzSec
#Pegasus
#ProjectRaven #Snowden
#TheKarmaTool