John Scott-Railton Profile picture
Feb 11, 2021 8 tweets 6 min read Read on X
NEW: in November Jessica Watkins was training a paramilitary group to be "fighting fit" while "awaiting direction" from President Trump.

By December 29th, a text exchange showed she perceived that Trump had given the signal.

Per: Gov detention memo.

h/t @ryanjreilly THREAD ImageImage
2/ Folks will remember Jessica Watkins as part of the disciplined "stack" of #Oathkeepers moving up to the #Capitol doors, then forcing entry.

Video: @rstevensbrody
3/ The Gov memo begins by highlighting the call for action made by #OathKeepers leader Elmer Stuart Rhodes on their website.

I'm including a screenshot of it: "TAKE AMERICA BACK. BE THERE. WILL BE WILD." ImageImage
4/ “I need you fighting fit by innaugeration.” [sic]

In October, Watkins was actively recruiting new militia members for the operation.

And discussing the need to "go underground" if Biden came into power. Image
5/ 🚨CHILLING: The Jan6 Quick Reaction Force was "our Law Enforcement members of Oathkeepers".

Context: The group had a planned armed QRF outside DC during previous protests that would "await...orders to enter DC under permission from Trump" and then bring in weapons. ImageImageImage
6/ NEW pic: memo shows cluster of #Oathkeepers bunching inside the #Capitol, seen on what looks like Capitol CCTV. Watkins is highlighted with a yellow arrow. Image
7/ Reminder: Watkins was not alone.

-Indicted alongside vets Thomas Caldwell & Donovan Crowl.
-Participated in an #Oathkeepers "leadership only" phone conference & passed along directives.
- Apparent coordination among other Oath Keepers👇
-Etc.

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8/ The memo's factual background finishes with mention of Elmer Stuart Rhodes' disturbing "Warning Order" from January.

I tweeted a bit about it at the time👇 Image

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More from @jsrailton

May 6
BREAKING: jury awards massive $167 million in punitive damages against spyware company NSO Group.

Precedent-setting win against the notorious #Pegasus spyware maker.

Congratulations to @WhatsApp on sticking this case through since 2019. Some thoughts 1/
2/ After years of every trick & delay tactic it only took a California jury one days deliberation to the heart of the matter:

NSO makes millions hacking mostly-🇺🇸American tech companies... so that dictators can hack dissidents.

Their conduct deserved to be punished.
3/ NSO Group emerges from the trial severely damaged.

The verdict ($167,256,000 punitive, $440K+ compensatory) is big enough to make your eyes water.

The case is ALSO a huge blow to NSO's secrecy, with their business splashed all over a courtroom.

This will scare customers...
Read 14 tweets
May 1
Friends don't let friends get their eyeballs scanned to buy a coffee.

Sam Altman's Orwellian "Tools for Humanity" says this dystopia machine could help distinguish between #AI agents & humans... or verify at Point of Sale..or..?

Looks to me like a big biometric data grab 1/ Image
2/ Surely they didn't just start with the idea of invasively harvesting eyeball scans...and then look around for potential justifications.

And then add in some AI hype.

Right? Image
3/ Throwback to Tools for Humanity's previous (but non-portable, guys!) eye-scanning thing: WorldCoin.

Remember that? A global biometric data grab rife with documented exploitation in Africa & Latin America.

Still not clear what real value it delivered to the ppl who gave up their biometrics.Image
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Read 4 tweets
Apr 28
Fear is dictatorship glue.

You can't imprison everyone with a dissenting thought.

Or inconvenient factual observation.

But fear teaches self censorship. It's a scalable system of control.

The autocrat's challenge is to keep the fear going. 1/ A detention center’s interrogation rooms — Untersuchungshaftanstalt Hohenschönhausen, Vernehmungstrakt (2004) (© Daniel & Geo Fuchs) Image source: https://hyperallergic.com/151019/mundane-horror-in-abandoned-stasi-spaces/
2/ In the 20th century, keeping fear alive required massive human investment.

Informants... archives...exemplary punishments... information control.

Looked like a linear scale.

A post-cold war school of thought said: once everyone is connected, these systems won't work. Hohenschönhausen investigation prison: monitoring room Daniel & Geo Fuchs  Via https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/stasi-secret-rooms-communist-east-germanys-eerie-interrogation-cells-haunted-prisons-1467734
BStU Zentralarchiv Berlin archives (2004) (© Daniel & Geo Fuchs)  URL: https://hyperallergic.com/151019/mundane-horror-in-abandoned-stasi-spaces/
"There are several images of staged Stasi arrests carried out for training purposes. Dissidents, in some case already serving long prison terms, were sometimes made to re-enact their own arrest for the camera.  " Simon Menner BSTU Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-23986385
3/ But tech isn't, by nature, a dictatorship antidote.

It can be an expedient.

Just ask China.

In 20 years the CCP empirically developed technologies & private sector partnerships for scaling fear and self censorship to >1.4 billion ppl.

Log scale. A display shows surveillance technology capable of analyzing body motion for specific actions like fighting, theft or fall during Security China 2018 in Beijing, China, Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2018.  Photo/Ng Han Guan
Surveillance cameras are mounted on a post at Tiananmen Square as snow falls in Beijing, China, on Thursday, Feb. 14, 2019. Qilai Shen  https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/15/huawei-ai-firms-filed-to-patent-tech-that-could-identify-uighurs-report-says.html
Read 6 tweets
Mar 19
🚨NEW REPORT: first forensic confirmation of #Paragon mercenary spyware infections in #Italy...

Known targets: Activists & journalists.

We also found deployments around the world. Including ...Canada?

And a lot more... Thread on our @citizenlab investigation 1/Image
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2/ So #Paragon makes zero-click spyware marketed as better than NSO's Pegasus...

Harder to find...

...And more ethical too!

This caught our attention @citizenlab & we were skeptical.

By @iblametom forbes.com/sites/thomasbr…Image
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3/ We got a tip about a single bit of #Paragon infrastructure & my brilliant colleague @billmarczak developed a technique to fingerprint some of the mercenary spyware infrastructure (both victim-facing & customer side) globally.

So much for invisibility.

What we found startled us.

citizenlab.ca/2025/03/a-firs…Image
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Read 18 tweets
Feb 6
BREAKING: #Paragon reportedly terminates spyware contract with #Italy.

Right on heels of reported targeting of journalist & activists in Italy.

BIG DEAL: puts Italian government in the hot seat, since they denied knowing about it only hours ago.👇
Image
2/ Read this slowly.

The implication is clear: the Italian government was a #Paragon customer & had their contract terminated...

Even as @GiorgiaMeloni's office was issuing denials.

Likely to make the scandal worse.

Exceptional reporting from The Guardian
theguardian.com/technology/202…Image
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3/ Big picture:

#Paragon's carefully constructed image of being a clean mercenary spyware company that wasn't susceptible to abuses has been replaced by a more familiar tale of...

Abuses...

And #Italy is now saddled with an unfolding crisis around spyware abuse.
Read 7 tweets
Feb 1
NEW: @WhatsApp says Israeli mercenary spyware company #Paragon targeted scores of users around world.

The infection happened with no interaction. No link to click or attachment to open.

This is called a "zero-click" attack.

WA says targets included journalists & members of civil society.

They dismantled the attack vector & notified users.

Good.

We at @citizenlab shared some info instrumental to their investigation of the vector.

This is a BIG deal. Here's why 1/Image
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2/ For a few years the only source of information about #Paragon... has been Paragon.

They marketed themselves as the anti-NSO.

(NSO makes the notorious #Pegasus spyware)

It's easier to frame yourself as virtuous in the spyware game if nobody can look over your shoulder.

By @iblametom
forbes.com/sites/thomasbr…

By @RonanFarrow
newyorker.com/magazine/2022/…Image
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3/ Late last year, partly on the strength of their promised virtue #Paragon seemed closer than ever to landing the industrys juiciest of prices.

Market access into the USA.

This is the goal of a lot of spyware companies & their investors...

At the time, there simply were no pesky reports on Paragon that showed anything might be other than rosy.

Story @criticalvas
wired.com/story/ice-para…Image
Read 12 tweets

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