Thread by @nimkef

2014

Issam Salah Hourani, his brother Devincci and his brother-in-law, Rakhat Aliyev were the targets of a campaign to denounce the 3 as “murderers, responsible for the torture, drugging, beating, sexual assault & death of Anastasiya Novikova, in 2004

globalfreedomofexpression.columbia.edu/cases/hourani-…

[Note: Here's another interesting case involving Issam Salah Hourani, his brother Devincci]

https://twitter.com/nimkef/status/1420948023304237058?s=20&t=XVJ-gsVpUk8CwQgPhHLk0w

Ms. Novikova, a television presenter for NTK television in Kazakhstan, fell to death from her Beirut apartment which was investigated and declared a suicide by the Lebanese authorities.

At the behest of her parents, the Kazakhs launched an investigation and claims were later brought against Rakhat Aliyev, Issam Salah Hourani, and Devincci Hourani in both countries for alleged involvement in her death but the proceedings were never concluded

The individual or individuals – referred to as “the Client” – behind the campaign were not identified, but it became known that an individual, Dr. Waller, was hired for approximately US$500,000 to manage and direct the campaign.

https://twitter.com/nimkef/status/1421178090890334212?s=20&t=xiRx-6YK78Em-WPh4aU5zw

Waller in turn hired his fiancee, Ms Blair & 2 other individuals, Mr Thomson & Mr McCarthy, and used a company under his own control, Psybersolutions, to carry out the campaign. Thomson, McCarthy, Blair, Psybersolutions and Waller were listed as defendants in this matter.

The campaign involved two street demonstrations in London on 19 June 2014 and 16 Nov 16 2014 in which paid protesters “held up banners and placards and shouted slogans”.

The June demonstration was held to mark the 10th anniversary of Novikova’s death, and included a staged candlelit vigil which Waller used for YouTube campaign material.

The campaign used various social media websites to distribute information about the allegations against Hourani and the other two targets.

Stickers with “Justice for Novikova” were also distributed near Hourani’s London home, and the social media campaign encouraged people to print their own stickers and posters.

Notably, the banners demonstrated during the protests had clearly identifiable photos of Hourani and the other targets with the word ‘Murderer’ written on them

At the end of the trial Hourani sought an additional order to compel Waller to reveal the identity of the individual/s who paid him to undertake the campaign.

After Behrends’s death, I asked J. Michael Waller, who had known him since the 1980s, to explain the transformation of a Soviet hawk into something of a Russia gadfly. Waller said this was just an extension of Behrends’s Cold War work

H/T @arapaho415

nymag.com/intelligencer/…

“Paul did some back-channel work, which was one of the reasons why he would meet with so many controversial and disreputable people. Because somebody had to,” Waller said.

“He would build these relationships partly because he’s a contrarian and very sociable and very curious, but also because he knew in the national interest somebody had to be a bridge of communications.”

Another death from a fall

https://twitter.com/arapaho415/status/1428543536379559936?s=20&t=xiRx-6YK78Em-WPh4aU5zw