http://archive.is/F44Eb

The German news magazine Spiegel has been plunged into chaos after revealing that one of its top reporters had falsified stories over several years.

The media world was stunned by the revelations that the multi award-winning journalist Claas Relotius had, according to the weekly, “made up stories and invented protagonists” in at least 14 out of 60 articles that appeared in its print and online editions, warning that other outlets could also be affected.

Relotius, 33, resigned after admitting to the scam. He had written for the magazine for seven years and won numerous awards for his investigative journalism, including CNN Journalist of the Year in 2014.

Earlier this month, he secured the German ‘Reporter Preis’ (Reporter of the Year) for his story about a young Syrian boy, which the jurors praised for its “lightness, poetry and relevance”. It has since emerged that all the sources for his reportage were at best hazy, and much of what he wrote was made up.

The falsification came to light after a colleague who worked with him on a story along the US-Mexican border raised suspicions about some of the details in Relotius’s reporting having harboured doubts about him for some time.

The colleague, Juan Moreno, eventually tracked down two alleged sources quoted extensively by Relotius in the article, which was published in November. Both said they had never met Relotius. Relotius had also lied about seeing a hand-painted sign that read “Mexicans keep out”, a subsequent investigation found.

Other fraudulent stories included one about a Yemeni prisoner in Guantanamo Bay, and one about the NFL star Colin Kaepernick.

In a lengthy article, Spiegel, which sells around 725,000 print copies a month and has an online readership of over 6.5 million, said it was “shocked” by the discovery and apologised to its readers and to anyone who may have been the subject of “fraudulent quotes, made-up personal details or invented scenes at fictitious places”.

The Hamburg-based magazine which was founded in 1947 and is renowned for its in-depth investigative pieces, said Relotius had committed journalistic fraud “on a grand scale”. It described the episode as “a low point in Spiegel’s 70-year history”. An in-house commission has been set up to examine all of Relotius’ work for the weekly.

The reporter also wrote for a string of other well-known outlets, including the German newspapers taz, Welt and the Frankfurter Allgemeine’s Sunday edition.

Die Welt tweeted on Wednesday: “He abused his talent”.

Relotius told Spiegel he regretted his actions and was deeply ashamed, the magazine said. “I am sick and I need to get help,” he was quoted as saying.

Moreno who has worked for the magazine since 2007 risked his own job when he confronted other colleagues with his suspicions, many of whom did not want to believe him. “For three to four weeks Moreno went through hell because colleagues and those senior to him did not want to believe his accusations at first,” Der Spiegel wrote in an apology to its readers. For several weeks, the magazine said, Relotius was even considered to be the victim of a cunning plot by Moreno.

“Relotius cleverly rebuffed all the attacks, all of Moreno’s well-researched pieces of evidence … until there came a point when that didn’t work any more, until he finally couldn’t sleep any more, hunted by the fear of being discovered,” the magazine wrote.

Relotius, it added, finally gave himself up last week after being confronted by a senior editor.

In his confession to his employer, he said: “It wasn’t because of the next big thing. It was fear of failing.

“My pressure to not be able to fail got ever bigger the more successful I became.”

The magazine which is one of Germany’s most prominent news organisations is now trying to rescue its reputation amid fears a magazine already challenged by the problems in the German newspaper industry will struggle to recover.

“All [his] colleagues are deeply shattered,” the magazine wrote. In particular, it said, in the department, ‘Society’ in which he worked “[his] colleagues are astounded and sad … the affair feels like a death in the family”.

I think this could have all been avoided if Corbyn had of watched some youtube.

Sorry. I'll let you get back to your self-flagellation and guilt.

JFK was willing to die in order to do what he thought was right.

Are you willing to die for what you believe in?

Can I get an English translation?

How about you make it interesting. If you are wrong you can't post in the Political forums until May.

That only makes sense if he was a CIA asset.

The US isn't going to toss the Saudi's under the bus for one reporter.

I'd just ignore him. He doesn't really add much.

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/justin-trudeau-is-trying-to-get-canada-out-of-a-multi-billion-dollar-saudi-arms-deal/ar-BBR4usg?OCID=ansmsnnews11

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is trying to pull Canada out of a multi-billion dollar arms deal with the Saudis, he said in an interview aired Sunday.

"We are engaged with the export permits to try and see if there is a way of no longer exporting these vehicles to Saudi Arabia," he told local network CTV, without elaborating. The deal, worth $13 billion, would supply the Saudi military with armored vehicles manufactured by General Dynamics' Canadian division.

His comments represent an evolution in Ottawa's stance toward Saudi Arabia. In March of this year, the prime minister defended the deal for the armored vehicles, saying that honoring the contract, which was made under a previous government, "fully meets our national obligations and Canadian laws."

And in October, Trudeau said that he didn't want to leave Canadians holding a "billion-dollar bill because we're trying to move forward on doing the right thing." He said that losing the deal would cost Canada $1 billion Canadian dollars, or $750 million, but also said that his government could freeze exports for certain weapons if it found they'd been misused. Among the vehicles slated for export, dozens are described as "heavy assault" and equipped with cannons, according to documents obtained by Canadian media.

The potential decision is one that a few other governments have either taken up or are considering in the aftermath of the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Khashoggi, a U.S. resident frequently critical of the powerful Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was murdered by Saudi government operatives in the Istanbul consulate on October 2. The CIA has concluded the crown prince directed the murder, an allegation Riyadh fiercely denies.

The killing triggered international outrage, and led a number of investors to suspend their work with Riyadh, though still more have so far chosen to carry on business as usual.

It also put renewed spotlight on the Yemen War, where a Saudi-led bombing campaign has contributed to tens of thousands being killed. The UN, which calls Yemen the world's worst humanitarian crisis, says that the Saudi airstrikes are responsible for the majority of civilian deaths.

Trudeau's intended move would follow the decisions of Germany, Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands, all of whom have announced a halt to arms sales to the kingdom. Last August saw a heated spat between Saudi Arabia and Canada after the latter criticized the former's human rights record, resulting in Riyadh handing down a series of diplomatic sanctions on the Canadians and expelling its ambassador in the country.

Saudi Arabia is the planet's largest weapons importer, and its purchases have exploded in size since it began its intervention into Yemen in 2015. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), 17 percent of all its weapons purchases since 1952 reportedly took place in the last three years.

Last week, U.S. Senators voted overwhelmingly to both condemn the Saudi crown prince as complicit in Khashoggi's death, and separately to call for ending U.S. support of the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen. The U.S. currently provides logistical support, mid-air refueling, targeting training and intelligence to the Saudis.

And as Congress enters into session in January with a Democratic-majority House of Representatives, Riyadh is set to face more opposition than before, despite having a staunch ally in the White House.

Saudi Arabia issued an unusually strong rebuke of the U.S. Senate resolution on Khashoggi Monday, saying it "rejects any interference in its internal affairs, any and all accusations, in any manner, that disrespect its leadership ... And any attempts to undermine its sovereignty or diminish its stature."

I wonder what the Saudi's did that got the Americans so pissed.

I was going to post this the other day. Supposedly it was to replace an old law with landlines which doesn't make money anymore.