Mafia cops probe mysterious ‘Black Death’ group known for ‘dark web’ abductions over kidnap of Brit model – who was only released because she is a mum
The shadowy organisation allegedly operate in eastern Europe and are said to deal in ‘assassinations, bombings and arms dealing’
ANTI-mafia cops are probing whether the shadowy crime syndicate known as the Black Death is behind the kidnapping of a British model.
THE Black Death group has been named as a sinister sex slave syndicate behind the kidnapping of British model Chloe Ayling.The mum-of-one, 20, has spoken of how she was drugged, handcuffed and stuffed in a suitcase while being held captive for six days after being lured by the promise of a £600 photoshoot.
Who are the Black Death Group?
The so-called Black Death group is an organisation operating deep within the “dark web” rumoured to be responsible for a network of kidnapping and people trafficking.
Although rumours of its existence have circulated for several years, the kidnapping of Chloe Ayling in Milan is believed to be the only crime authorities have publicly linked to it.
The name is notorious on sections of the internet due to the scale and depravity of its offending, though it’s not clear if its photos touting women for sale are authentic, nor if it is as proficient as it claims to be.
It’s claimed that users of the “dark web” pay huge fees to buy women who have been kidnapped from across Europe.
A 2015 article by Vice’s Motherboard stated their reporter had found images of women chained up with the victim being offered for sale £115,000.
Briton Ryan Lock killed himself in Syria to avoid being captured by IS
The British chef, who travelled to Raqqa to fight against IS, wanted to avoid capture or torture at the hands of the terror group.
A British man who travelled to Syria to fight against Islamic State shot himself to avoid a “painful and frightening death”, an inquest has heard.
Ryan Lock, from Chichester, died last December fighting alongside Kurdish forces in Raqqa.
The 20-year-old had only been in the war-torn country for four months, and he died from a single gunshot wound to the head.
Mr Lock had been seriously injured in battle and was surrounded by IS fighters when he decided to kill himself to avoid being captured or tortured.
His mother, Catherine Lock, had no idea that her son was planning on travelling to Syria. Instead, she thought he was going backpacking around Turkey.
She said: “He just said that he had planned this for ages and that he had time off work. He said he would be going for a few weeks, maybe a month.
“And when I found out he was going to Turkey I said: ‘You do realise that’s right next to Syria, where there is a war.’
“I hadn’t twigged that was exactly his plan, to head to Syria.”
A day after Mr Lock arrived in Turkey last August, he told his mother that he had signed up to fight for the People’s Defence Units (YPG), a Kurdish military force.
She contacted the police immediately and continued to stay in contact with her son on Facebook Messenger, where he regularly posted pictures of himself during his military training.
Dear Friends and fellow travelers my ten year old son Jude is very upset that he only has 28 subscribers to his developing You Tube channel and asked his dad to help get him some more.
Therefore if you have a moment to spare and want to make a wee fella very happy please click the link below to subscribe to his channel.
I’ve spent a bloody fortune on camera’s, lights, puppets and all sorts and I would like to see some results and if getting him more subscribers encourage him we’ll all be happy!
Heartbroken at the death of my beloved father in law Roy , who passed away after a long and cruel soul destroying illness. Your free of pain and suffering now and its time to Fly among the heavens and find answers to questions no mortal man can ever know.
I posted this question on Twitter yesterday after a few people people pulled me up for calling it Potato Bread and not a Tatti Scone. I had been blogging about food I like and the wife found gross and naturally I included my childhood favorite Potato Bread .
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And so the debate began.
To date the Scottish vote is embarrassingly in front with a whopping 5.6 k votes and the Northern Ireland vote is a shameful 235 – and this must be put right.
If you would like to vote and address this outrageous imbalance go to my Twitter page @bfchild66 and look for the Tweet in question or click the link below.
Lets settle this – is this Potato Bread or Tattie Scone?
Retweet = Potato Bread
Like = Tatti Scone pic.twitter.com/arHnUxHEI1
The motto has been used by twelve elite special forces units around the world that in some way have historical ties to the British SAS.
An early statement of the idea is ‘τοῖς τολμῶσιν ἡ τύχη ξύμφορος’ (“fortune favours the bold”) from the Ancient Greek soldier and historian Thucydides.
. ‘C Squadron (Rhodesia) Special Air Service’ Mil. Abbrev. ‘C Sqn SAS’. Later ‘Rhodesian Special Air Service Regiment’ in Kabrit Barracks, Salisbury (now Harare)
She is most notable for her characteristic emotional and sometimes vitriolic tone, described as “passionate”, “vaguely menacing”, and “aggressive”. Ri made the official announcements of the deaths of Kim Il-sung in 1994 and Kim Jong-il in 2011. In a news report by CCTV News on 24 January 2012, Ri announced her retirement as chief newsreader at KCTV. She has periodically reappeared on television in the years since, typically to make an announcement regarding the country’s militaristic developments.
Ri was born in 1943 to a poor family in Togchon, Gangwon, Japanese Korea. She was cultivated by the North Korean government because of her background of abject poverty, which is considered a sign of political trustworthiness in the country. Ri studied performance art at Pyongyang University of Theatre and Film and was recruited by KCTV.
Career
Ri began work onscreen in 1971, became chief news presenter of KCTV in 1974, and was consistently on‑air from the 1980s. Her career was unique for its longevity; while many at KCTV were demoted or purged, her career was never interrupted. After retiring in January 2012, she came out of retirement especially to announce that North Korea claims to have carried out an H-bomb detonation in January 2016 and that North Korea had launched a missile in February 2016. She also announced the nuclear test of September 2016.
Style
Ri has received high acclaim from the North Korean authorities for her resonant voice, impressive mood and outstanding eloquence. She is known for her melodramatic announcing style. She often speaks in a wavering and exuberant tone when praising the nation’s leaders, and conversely with visible anger when denouncing the West.
According to Brian Reynolds Myers, a professor at Dongseo University and an expert in North Korean propaganda, her training in drama serves her well, given the large amount of showmanship that is typical of North Korean broadcasting.
When she made the official announcement of Kim Il-sung’s death in 1994, Ri was visibly crying during the broadcast. Likewise, when she announced Kim Jong-il’s death in 2011, she was seen holding back tears. Her melodramatic style has been parodied in the character of Kim Bong Cha, a North Korean correspondent on The Noose.
Ri usually appears wearing either a pink, Western-style suit or in a traditional Korean hanbok
The attack began on Friday, 12 May 2017, and within a day was reported to have infected more than 230,000 computers in over 150 countries. Parts of the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS), Spain’s Telefónica, FedEx and Deutsche Bahn were hit, along with many other countries and companies worldwide.
Shortly after the attack began, Marcus Hutchins, a 22-year-old web security researcher from North Devon in England, who blogs as “MalwareTech”, discovered an effective kill switch by registering a domain name he found in the code of the ransomware. This greatly slowed the spread of the infection, effectively halting the initial outbreak on Monday, 15 May 2017, but new versions have since been detected that lack the kill switch.
Researchers have also found ways to recover data from infected machines under some circumstances.
WannaCry propagates using EternalBlue, an exploit of Windows’ Server Message Block (SMB) protocol. Much of the attention and comment around the event was occasioned by the fact that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) had already discovered the vulnerability, but used it to create an exploit for its own offensive work, rather than report it to Microsoft.
However, many Windows users had not installed the patches when, two months later on May 12, 2017, WannaCry used the EternalBlue vulnerability to spread itself. The next day, Microsoft released emergency security patches for Windows 7 and Windows 8.
Those still running older, unsupported versions of Microsoft Windows, such as Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, were initially at particular risk, but Microsoft released an emergency security patch for these platforms as well. Almost all victims of the cyberattack were running Windows 7, prompting a security researcher to argue that its effects on Windows XP users were “insignificant” in comparison.
Within four days of the initial outbreak, security experts said that most organizations had applied updates, and that new infections had slowed to a trickle.
Several organizations released detailed technical writeups of the malware, including Microsoft, Cisco, Malwarebytes,Symantec and McAfee.
The “payload” works in the same fashion as most modern ransomware: it finds and encrypts a range of data files, then displays a “ransom note” informing the user and demanding a payment in bitcoin.
It is considered a network worm because it also includes a “transport” mechanism to automatically spread itself. This transport code scans for vulnerable systems, then uses the EternalBlue exploit to gain access, and the DoublePulsar tool to install and execute a copy of itself.
WannaCry
Screenshot of the ransom note left on an infected system
Date
12 May 2017 – 15 May 2017
(initial outbreak)
Location
Worldwide
Also known as
Transformations:
Wanna → Wana
Cryptor → Crypt0r
Cryptor → Decryptor
Cryptor → Crypt → Cry
Addition of “2.0”
Short names:
Wanna → WN → W
Cry → CRY
The software contained a URL that, when discovered and registered by a security researcher to track activity from infected machines, was found to act as a “kill switch” that shut down the software before it executed its payload, stopping the spread of the ransomware. The researcher speculated that this had been included in the software as a mechanism to prevent it being run on quarantined machines used by anti-virus researchers;
he observed that some sandbox environments will respond to all queries with traffic in order to trick the software into thinking that it is still connected to the internet, so the software attempts to contact an address which did not exist, to detect whether it was running in a sandbox, and do nothing if so. He also noted that it was not an unprecedented technique, having been observed in the Necurs trojan.
On 19 May, it was reported that hackers were trying to use a Mirai botnet variant to effect a distributed attack on WannaCry’s kill-switch domain with the intention of knocking it offline. On 22 May, @MalwareTechBlog protected the domain by switching to a cached version of the site, capable of dealing with much higher traffic loads than the live site.
EternalBlue exploits a vulnerability in Microsoft‘s implementation of the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol. This Windows vulnerability was not a zero-day flaw, but one for which Microsoft had released a “critical” advisory, along with a security patch to fix the vulnerability two months before, on 14 March 2017.
The day after the WannaCry outbreak Microsoft released updates for these too.
DoublePulsar
DoublePulsar is a backdoor tool, also released by The Shadow Brokers on 8 April 2017,[35] Starting from 21 April 2017, security researchers reported that computers with the DoublePulsar backdoor installed were in the tens of thousands By 25 April, reports estimated the number of infected computers to be up to several hundred thousands, with numbers increasing exponentially every day.
The WannaCry code can take advantage of any existing DoublePulsar infection, or installs it itself.
Attribution
Linguistic analysis of the ransom notes indicated the authors were likely fluent in Chinese and proficient in English, as the versions of the notes in those languages were probably human-written while the rest seemed to be machine-translated.
This could also be either simple re-use of code by another group or an attempt to shift blame—as in a cyber false flag operation; but a leaked internal NSA memo is alleged to have also linked the creation of the worm to North Korea.
North Korea itself denies being responsible for the cyberattack.
Cyberattack
Map of the countries initially affected
On 12 May 2017, WannaCry began affecting computers worldwide, with evidence pointing to an initial infection in Asia at 7:44am UTC. The initial infection was likely through an exposed vulnerable SMB port, rather than email phishing as initially assumed.
When executed, the malware first checks the “kill switch” domain name;[c] if it is not found, then the ransomware encrypts the computer’s data,[58][27][59] then attempts to exploit the SMB vulnerability to spread out to random computers on the Internet, and “laterally” to computers on the same network.
As with other modern ransomware, the payload displays a message informing the user that files have been encrypted, and demands a payment of around $300 in bitcoin within three days, or $600 within seven days. Three hardcoded bitcoin addresses, or “wallets”, are used to receive the payments of victims. As with all such wallets, their transactions and balances are publicly accessible even though the wallet owners remain unknown.
As of 14 June 2017, at 00:18 ET, a total of 327 payments totaling $130,634.77 (51.62396539 XBT) had been transferred.
Organizations that had not installed Microsoft’s security update were affected by the attack. Those still running the older Windows XP were at particularly high risk because no security patches had been released since April 2014 (with the exception of one emergency patch released in May 2014). However, on the day after the outbreak, an emergency, out-of-band security update was released for XP and Windows Server 2003.
A Kaspersky Labs study reported that less than 0.1 percent of the affected computers were running Windows XP, and that 98 percent of the affected computers were running Windows 7. In a controlled testing environment, the cybersecurity firm Kryptos Logic found that they were unable to infect a Windows XP system with WannaCry using just the exploits, as the payload failed to load, or caused the operating system to crash rather than actually execute and encrypt files. However, when executed manually, WannaCry could still operate on Windows XP.
Defensive response
Several hours after the initial release of the ransomware on 12 May 2017, while trying to establish the size of the attack, a researcher known by the name MalwareTech accidentally discovered what amounted to a “kill switch” hardcoded in the malware.
Registering a domain name for a DNS sinkhole stopped the attack spreading as a worm, because the ransomware only encrypted the computer’s files if it was unable to connect to that domain, which all computers infected with WannaCry before the website’s registration had been unable to do. While this did not help already infected systems, it severely slowed the spread of the initial infection and gave time for defensive measures to be deployed worldwide, particularly in North America and Asia, which had not been attacked to the same extent as elsewhere.
On 16 May 2017, researchers from University College London and Boston University reported that their PayBreak system could defeat WannaCry and several other families of ransomware.
Within four days of the initial outbreak, security experts were saying that most organizations had applied updates, and that new infections had slowed to a trickle.
It was discovered that Windows encryption APIs used by WannaCry may not completely clear from memory the prime numbers used to generate the payload’s private keys, making it possible to potentially retrieve the required key if they had not yet been overwritten or cleared from resident memory.
This behaviour was used by a French researcher to develop a tool known as WannaKey, which automates this process on Windows XP systems. This approach was iterated upon by a second tool known as Wanakiwi, which was tested to work on Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 as well.
The scale of the attack and subsequent exposure of vulnerabilities prompted Micosoft to release new security updates for older versions of Windows that are no longer supported, including for Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP Embedded and Windows 7 Embedded In a statement regarding the matter, the head of Microsoft’s Cyber Defense Operations Center, Adrienne Hall, said that
“Due to the elevated risk for destructive cyber-attacks at this time, we made the decision to take this action because applying these updates provides further protection against potential attacks with characteristics similar to WannaCrypt [alternative name to WannaCry]”.
Advice on ransom
Experts advised against paying the ransom due to no reports of people getting their data back after payment and as high revenues would encourage more of such campaigns.
Impact
The ransomware campaign was unprecedented in scale according to Europol, which estimates that around 200,000 computers were infected across 150 countries. According to Kaspersky Lab, the four most affected countries were Russia, Ukraine, India and Taiwan.
The attack affected many National Health Service hospitals in England and Scotland, and up to 70,000 devices – including computers, MRI scanners, blood-storage refrigerators and theatre equipment – may have been affected. On 12 May, some NHS services had to turn away non-critical emergencies, and some ambulances were diverted.
In 2016, thousands of computers in 42 separate NHS trusts in England were reported to be still running Windows XP. NHS hospitals in Wales and Northern Ireland were unaffected by the attack.
Nissan Motor Manufacturing UK in Tyne and Wear, England, halted production after the ransomware infected some of their systems. Renault also stopped production at several sites in an attempt to stop the spread of the ransomware.
The attack’s impact is said to be relatively low compared to other potential attacks of the same type and could have been much worse had a security expert, who was independently researching the malware, not discovered that a kill-switch had been built in by its creators or if it had been specifically targeted on highly critical infrastructure, like nuclear power plants, dams or railway systems.
According to Cyber risk modeling firm Cyence, economic losses from the cyber attack could reach up to $4 billion, with other groups estimating the losses to be in the hundreds of millions.
EternalRocks
Via a honeypot mechanism, Security researcher Miroslav Stampar detected a new malware named “EternalRocks” that uses seven leaked NSA hacking tools and leaves Windows machines vulnerable for future attacks that may occur at any time. When installed, the worm names itself WannaCry in attempt to evade security experts.
Reactions
A number of experts highlighted the NSA‘s non-disclosure of the underlying vulnerability, and their loss of control over the EternalBlue attack tool that exploited it. Edward Snowden said that if the NSA had
“privately disclosed the flaw used to attack hospitals when they found it, not when they lost it, the attack may not have happened”.
British cybersecurity expert Graham Cluley also sees “some culpability on the part of the U.S. intelligence services”. According to him and others :
“they could have done something ages ago to get this problem fixed, and they didn’t do it”.
He also said that despite obvious uses for such tools to spy on people of interest, they have a duty to protect their countries’ citizens. Others have also commented that this attack shows that the practice of intelligence agencies to stockpile exploits for offensive purposes rather than disclosing them for defensive purposes may be problematic.
Microsoft president and chief legal officer Brad Smith wrote, “Repeatedly, exploits in the hands of governments have leaked into the public domain and caused widespread damage. An equivalent scenario with conventional weapons would be the U.S. military having some of its Tomahawk missiles stolen.”[104][105][106] Russian President Vladimir Putin placed the responsibility of the attack on U.S. intelligence services, for having created EternalBlue.
On 17 May, United States bipartisan lawmakers introduced the PATCH Act that aims to have exploits reviewed by an independent board to:
“balance the need to disclose vulnerabilities with other national security interests while increasing transparency and accountability to maintain public trust in the process”.
The United States Congress will also hold a hearing on the attack on June 15. Two subpanels of the House Science Committee will hear the testimonies from various individuals working in the government and non-governmental sector about how the US can improve its protection mechanisms for its systems against similar attacks in the future.
A cybersecurity researcher, working in loose collaboration with UK’s National Cyber Security Centre, researched the malware and discovered a “kill switch”. Later globally dispersed security researchers collaborated online to developopen source tools that allow for decryption without payment under some circumstances. Snowden states that when “[NSA]-enabled ransomware eats the Internet, help comes from researchers, not spy agencies” and asks why this is the case.
Other experts also used the publicity around the attack as a chance to reiterate the value and importance of having good, regular and securebackups, good cybersecurity including isolating critical systems, using appropriate software, and having the latest security patches installed.Adam Segal, director of the digital and cyberspace policy program at the Council on Foreign Relations, stated that:
“the patching and updating systems are broken, basically, in the private sector and in government agencies”.
In addition, Segal said that governments’ apparent inability to secure vulnerabilities
“opens a lot of questions about backdoors and access to encryption that the government argues it needs from the private sector for security”.
“the current attacks show how vulnerable our digital societyis. It’s a wake-up call for companies to finally take IT security [seriously]”.
The effects of the attack also had political implications; in the United Kingdom, the impact on the National Health Service quickly became political, with claims that the effects were exacerbated by Government underfunding of the NHS; in particular, the NHS ceased its paid Custom Support arrangement to continue receiving support for unsupported Microsoft software used within the organization, including Windows XP.
Others argued that hardware and software vendors often fail to account for future security flaws, selling systems that − due to their technical design and market incentives − eventually won’t be able to properly receive and apply patches. The NHS denied that it was still using XP, claiming only 4.7% of devices within the organization ran Windows XP.
Petya virus – is it ransomware and which companies have been hit by the global cyber attack?
It’s locking users out of their computers and demanding a payment from them.
A CYBER attack dubbed “Petya” has hit computer servers around the world crippling companies in Britain, Europe and Chernobyl.
What is the Petya?
Petya is a malicious software which targeted victims in the UK, Europe and the US with computer screens warning that their files and systems would be destroyed if they did not send the equivalent of about £300 in bitcoin.
Travis Farral, director of security strategy at tech firm Anomali, said: “This is a global attack. Just like WannaCry, organisations are locked out of their networks and a fee demanded to decrypt files.
“Bitcoin payments are currently already at $2,000+ already. But it’s essential that victims understand that payment may not actually allow them to access their data, and may just fund hackers to commit further crimes.”
The cyber-assault is particularly severe because it is understood that just 10 out of 61 antivirus programs are capable of tackling it.
The source of the attacks was not immediately clear.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi says the destruction of an ancient mosque in the city of Mosul is “an official declaration of defeat” by so-called Islamic State (IS).
Iraqi forces say IS blew up the Great Mosque of al-Nuri and its famous leaning minaret as jihadists battled to stop advancing pro-government troops.
IS said American aircraft had destroyed the complex, a claim denied by the US.
Aerial photographs show the complex largely destroyed.
The mosque, which was more than 800 years old, was where in July 2014 IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi demanded allegiance in his first and only public appearance following the declaration days earlier of a “caliphate”.
The mosque’s destruction has brought widespread condemnation.
Lazare Eloundou Assomo, deputy director of the UN’s cultural organisation Unesco, said the “iconic” mosque could have helped foster “reconciliation and peace” in Iraq in future.
What happened to the Great Mosque?
The Iraqi commander in charge of the offensive to retake Mosul said troops were within 50m (160ft) of the mosque when IS “committed another historical crime”.
Footage released by the Iraqi forces shows the ancient landmark being demolished.
A caliphate (Arabic: خِلافة khilāfa) is an area containing an Islamic steward known as a caliph (Arabic: خَليفة khalīfah pronunciation (info. • help))—a person considered a religious successor to the Islamic prophet, Muhammad (Muhammad ibn ʿAbdullāh), and a leader of the entire Muslim community.
Isis chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi appears in first video
July 214
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of Islamist militant group Isis, has called on Muslims to obey him, in his first video sermon.
Baghdadi has been appointed caliph by the jihadist group, which has seized large swathes of Iraq and Syria.
The video appears to have been filmed on Friday during a sermon at the al-Nouri Mosque in Mosul, northern Iraq.
It surfaced on Saturday amid reports that he had been killed or wounded in an Iraqi air raid.
It was not clear when the attack was supposed to have taken place.
In the sermon, at Mosul’s most famous landmark, Baghdadi praised the establishment of the “Islamic state”, which was declared by Isis last Sunday.
Experts say the reclusive militant leader has never appeared on video before, although there are photographs of him.
“Appointing a leader is an obligation on Muslims, and one that has been neglected for decades,” he said.
He also said that he did not seek out the position of being the caliph, or leader, calling it a “burden”.
“I am your leader, though I am not the best of you, so if you see that I am right, support me, and if you see that I am wrong, advise me,” he told worshippers.
It was famous for its leaning minaret, which gave the city its nickname “the hunchback” (الحدباء al-Ḥadbāˈ). Tradition holds that the mosque was first built in the late 12th century, although it underwent many renovations over the years. Most of it was destroyed on 21 June 2017, during the Battle of Mosul. Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) claims that the USA destroyed it, while Iraqi troops claim ISIS was responsible. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi stated that the destruction of the mosque was ISIS’ “declaration of defeat.
It was famous for its leaning minaret, which gave the city its nickname “the hunchback” (الحدباء al-Ḥadbāˈ). Tradition holds that the mosque was first built in the late 12th century, although it underwent many renovations over the years. Most of it was destroyed on 21 June 2017, during the Battle of Mosul. Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) claims that the USA destroyed it, while Iraqi troops claim ISIS was responsible. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi stated that the destruction of the mosque was ISIS’ “declaration of defeat”.
Tradition holds that Nurettin Zengin (Nur ad-Din Zangi in Arabic) the Turkish atabeg built the mosque in 1172–1173 during the Abbasid Caliphate, shortly before his death. According to the chronicle of Ibn al-Athir, after Nur ad-Din took control of Mosul he ordered his nephew Fakhr al-Din to build the mosque:
[Nur ad-Din] rode in person to its site and viewed it. He climbed the minaret of the mosque of Abu Hadir, looked down on the site of his mosque and ordered that the neighbouring houses and shops should be added to the land that he viewed but that nothing should be taken without the willing agreement of the owners. He put the Sheikh Umar al-Malla in charge of the project, a pious and good man. The properties were purchased from their owners at most substantial prices and the construction began, on which large sums were expended. The building was completed in the year 568 [i.e. AD 1172-3].
In 1511, this mosque was extensively renovated by the Safavid Empire.
Minaret
The minaret and mosque in 1932
The mosque was well known for its leaning minaret, known as al-Hadba’ (“the hunchback”). Grattan Geary, a 19th-century traveler, described the minaret’s appearance:
It is several feet out of the perpendicular, though it starts fair from the ground, and at the top, before putting on its gallery and dome, it regains an erect posture. Its attitude is that of a man bowing.
When the cylindrical minaret was built it stood 45 metres (148 ft) high, with seven bands of decorative brickwork in complex geometric patterns ascending in levels towards the top. By the time the traveler Ibn Battuta visited in the 14th century it was already listing and had acquired its nickname.
The design of the minaret follows a form originally developed in neighboring Iran and Central Asia and shares similarities with other minarets in northern Iraq, such as those in Mardin, Sinjar and Arbil.
According to local tradition (which resolutely ignores chronology), the minaret gained its tilt after the Prophet Muhammad passed overhead while ascending to heaven. The minaret bowed itself in reverence but could only regain its balance after its top joint had been kinked in the opposite direction. According to local Christian tradition, however, the mosque’s tilt was due to its bowing towards the tomb of the Virgin Mary, reputedly located near Arbil.
Modern history
Both the mosque and its madrasa were dismantled and reassembled in 1942 in a restoration programme undertaken by the Iraqi government. The minaret remained unrestored, although attempts were made in 1981 by an Italian firm to stabilise it. The bombing of Mosul during the Iran–Iraq War in the 1980s broke underground pipes and caused leaks under the minaret that further undermined it. The lean later worsened by another 40 centimetres (16 in).
The cause of the lean was disputed – some have blamed the prevailing wind – but local officials have attributed it to the effects of thermal expansion caused by the heat of the sun, causing bricks on the sun-facing side to expand and progressively tilt the minaret. In recent years cracks proliferated along the base of the minaret, which leant nearly 3 metres (9.8 ft) off the vertical. It was listed by the World Monuments Fund as a site of concern due to the ongoing risk of collapse.
The structure was targeted by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant militants who occupied Mosul on 10 June 2014, and previously destroyed the Tomb of Jonah. However, residents of Mosul, incensed with the destruction of their cultural sites, protected the mosque by forming a human chain and forming a resistance against ISIL.
Rather than destroying the site, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi appeared during a Friday prayer in this mosque on 4 July 2014 to declare the formation of a new caliphate.
The mosque, including its minaret, was destroyed in June 2017 – according to the Iraqi Prime Minister, by ISIS fighters.
Destruction
By June 2017, the Battle of Mosul had progressed to the stage that ISIL-controlled territory in Mosul was limited to the Old City area, which included the mosque. On 21 June 2017, Iraqi government forces reported that the mosque had been blown up by ISIS forces at 9:50 PM and that the blast was indicative of bombs being deliberately placed to bring it down .
ISIL’s propaganda ministry Amaq claimed an airstrike by the United States is responsible for the destruction, but this claim does not appear to be substantiated by any information. Iraqi forces were within 50 meters of the mosque before the explosion which appears to have been an attempt to kill members of the approaching army by members of ISIL. Aerial photos of the destruction were released by the Iraqi military a few hours later.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi stated that the destruction of the mosque was ISIS’ “declaration of defeat”. BBC News journalist Paul Adams wrote of the mosque’s destruction as ISIS’ “final act of angry defiance before finally losing their grip on Mosul”
Mr Trump said that a “lot of bad things happened” to Mr Warmbier, but added: “At least we got him home to be with his parents, where they were so happy to see him, even though he was in very tough condition.”
President Trump said Mr Warmbier’s death had deepened his administration’s resolve “to prevent such tragedies from befalling innocent people at the hands of regimes that do not respect the rule of law or basic human decency”.
“The United States once again condemns the brutality of the North Korean regime as we mourn its latest victim.”
South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in told CBS News on Tuesday it was “quite clear” that North Korea had “a heavy responsibility in the process that led to Mr Warmbier’s death”.
Otto Frederick Warmbier (WARM-beer; December 12, 1994 – June 19, 2017) was an American college student who was imprisoned in North Korea from January 2016 to June 2017 after being convicted of “hostile acts” against the country. Warmbier, then 21 years old, confessed to stealing a political propaganda poster and was sentenced to 15 years’ hard labor.
The United States made diplomatic efforts to seek Warmbier’s release. A U.S. State Department spokesman said Warmbier’s harsh sentence was a response to U.S. sanctions against North Korea for its nuclear activities. According to his father, Warmbier’s confession was forced, and he was abducted by the North Korean government for political purposes.
Warmbier fell into a coma in North Korea and was released in June 2017, after nearly 18 months there. According to North Korean authorities, Warmbier’s coma was a result of botulism and a sleeping pill, but U.S. physicians cast doubt on that claim. Warmbier arrived in Cincinnati, Ohio, on June 13 and was taken to University of Cincinnati Medical Center for immediate evaluation and treatment. He was diagnosed with
Otto Warmbier was born on December 12, 1994, to Fred and Cindy (née Garber) Warmbier and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, to a family of American-Jewish descent and was one of three children in the family.
His father, Fred Warmbier, owns his own business, a metal-finishing company, that was featured in Forbes for its rapid growth in 2015. In 2014, he contributed to the The New York Times‘ blog titled You’re the Boss about running a small business. Otto worked as an intern at the company from 2010 to 2013.
Otto was a brother of the Theta Chi fraternity. He was active in the Hillel Jewish campus organization at the University of Virginia, and had visited Israel in a Birthright Israelheritage trip for young Jewish adults. He had two younger siblings.
Fred Warmbier stated that his son Otto was traveling in China at the end of 2015 when he saw a company offering trips to North Korea. He decided to go because he was adventurous, according to his father, who accused the tour operator of specifically targeting young Westerners with slogans like,
“This is the trip your parents don’t want you to take!”
Fred Warmbier said the China-based tour operator, Young Pioneer Tours, advertised the trip as safe for U.S. citizens. Danny Gratton, an adventurous British sales manager, met Warmbier in Beijing as the two boarded the tour flight to Pyongyang. The two struck up a friendship and were roommates on the trip. They stuck together from the time they got to Pyongyang until Warmbier was arrested.
Warmbier traveled to North Korea for a five-day New Year’s tour of the country organized by Young Pioneer Tours. Ten other U.S. citizens were in his tour group.
During his stay at the Yanggakdo International Hotel in Pyongyang, Warmbier allegedly stole a propaganda sign from a staff-only floor of the hotel. The poster said,
“Let’s arm ourselves strongly with Kim Jong-il‘s patriotism!”.
Harming such items with the name or image of a North Korean leader is considered a serious crime by the government.
A video purporting to show the theft was released by state-run Korean Central News Agency on March 18, 2016. In the 18-second low-resolution video, an unrecognizable figure removes the sign from the wall and places it on the floor, leaning it against the wall. This action is shown twice, followed by a higher-resolution picture of the sign on the wall. The face of the person removing the poster is not seen during the video clip.
Arrest and conviction
On January 2, 2016, Warmbier was arrested for theft just prior to departing North Korea from Pyongyang International Airport. Gratton witnessed the arrest.
“No words were spoken. Two guards just came over and simply tapped Otto on the shoulder and led him away. I just said kind of quite nervously, ‘Well, that’s the last we’ll see of you.’ There’s a great irony in those words. That was it. That was the last physical time I saw Otto, ever. Otto didn’t resist. He didn’t look scared. He sort of half-smiled.”
The others in his tour group left the country without incident. His crime was described as “a hostile act against the state” by the North Korean news agency KCNA.
Warmbier was tried and convicted for the theft of the propaganda banner from a restricted area of the hotel. His trial included his confession, CCTV footage, fingerprint evidence, and witness testimony.
In a press conference on February 29, 2016, Warmbier repeated his confession that he had stolen the banner to take back to the United States. He said he stole it for the mother of a friend who wanted it as a souvenir to be hung on the wall of a church in his hometown of Wyoming, Ohio. He said that she offered him a used car worth $10,000 as payment, and that if he was detained and didn’t return, $200,000 would be paid to his mother in the form of a charitable donation. Warmbier said he accepted the offer because his family was
“suffering from very severe financial difficulties”.
He also said he was encouraged in committing his act by his desire to join the Z Society, a “semi-secret ring society” and philanthropic organization at the University of Virginia.
Warmbier read the following statement at his trial:
I never should have allowed myself to be lured by the United States administration to commit a crime in this country. I wish that the United States administration never manipulate people like myself in the future to commit crimes against foreign countries. I entirely beg you, the people and government of the DPR Korea, for your forgiveness. Please! I have made the worst mistake of my life! Please! Think of my family.
On March 16, 2016, two hours after U.S. envoy Bill Richardson met with two North Korean diplomats from the United Nations office to press for Warmbier’s release, Warmbier was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. Human Rights Watch called the sentencing “outrageous and shocking”, while U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said that it was clear that North Korea used arrested American citizens for political purposes despite its claims to the contrary.
Sometime in the month following his trial, Warmbier suffered an unknown medical crisis that caused severe brain damage. His condition was not conveyed to anyone outside North Korea, and Swedish envoys who represent the United States’ interests in North Korea were not able to see Warmbier after March 2016.
In May 2017, Warmbier’s father said he and his wife wanted their son to be part of any negotiations between the United States and North Korea.
Release
On June 12, 2017, Rex Tillerson, the United States Secretary of State, announced that North Korea had released Warmbier. Tillerson also announced that the U.S. State Department secured Warmbier’s release at the direction of President Donald Trump. Tillerson said that the State Department continues discussing three other detained Americans with North Korea.
Warmbier’s parents told The Washington Post that Warmbier was medically evacuated, saying they were told by North Korean officials that Warmbier had contracted botulism sometime after his trial and had fallen into a coma after being given a sleeping pill. They learned he was in a coma only one week before his release. Richardson was in contact with the family and said Warmbier urgently needed medical attention.
Prior to his arrival, a doctor with the Cincinnati Health Department discussed Warmbier’s case and expressed skepticism over the claim that botulism or a sleeping pill caused the coma. His father reported that he had received a call from President Trump at his home asking about the welfare of his son and the family. He also reported that Tillerson and U.S. special representative Joseph Y. Yun had made the transition possible.
Medical condition and death
On June 15, 2017, physicians at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center stated that Warmbier had suffered extensive brain damage, which is consistent with a cardiopulmonary event rather than a head injury, and there was no sign of physical abuse.
Warmbier’s father held a press conference that day, but declined to answer a reporter’s question as to whether or not the neurological injury was caused by an assault, saying he would let the doctors make that determination. He stated that they did not believe anything the North Koreans had told them.
Neurologist Daniel Kanter, director of the neurocritical care program at University of Cincinnati Medical Center, said on June 15 that Warmbier was in “a state of unresponsive wakefulness”—a condition commonly known as persistent vegetative state. He was able to breathe on his own, and blink his eyes, but otherwise did not respond to his environment. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed he had suffered extensive loss of brain tissue throughout his brain.
Kanter stated that Warmbier’s brain injury was typical of a cardiac arrest that caused the brain to be denied oxygen. Doctors also said that they did not find any evidence of physical abuse or torture; scans of Warmbier’s neck and head were normal outside of the brain injury.
Doctors said they did not know what caused the cardiac arrest, but that it could have been triggered by a respiratory arrest.
Brandon Foreman, a neurointensive care specialist at the hospital, confirmed that there was no sign of a current or past case of botulism, which can cause paralysis but not a coma.
Medical records from North Korea showed that Warmbier had been in this state since April 2016, one month after his conviction. During his release, the North Koreans provided a disk containing two MRI brain studies, dated April and July 2016 showing damage to the brain.
He seemed well nourished. Fred Warmbier expressed anger at the North Koreans for his son’s condition, saying,
“There is no excuse for any civilized nation to have kept his condition secret, and denied him top-notch medical care for so long.”
Warmbier died in the hospital at 2:20 p.m. on June 19, 2017, at the age of 22. His parents and two siblings survived him. His family issued a statement expressing their sadness, thanking the hospital staff for their actions.
President Trump later issued a statement regarding Warmbier’s death, “There is nothing more tragic for a parent than to lose a child in the prime of life. Our thoughts and prayers are with Otto’s family and friends, and all who loved him
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