Tag Archives | cybercrime bureau

“W Ma Tallet Colette” – A Big Middle Finger in The Face of The Authorities

On November 23rd 2017, Ziad Itani was arrested and accused of collaborating with an Israeli Mossad agent to plot the assassination of minister Nohad Machnouk and former minister Abdel Rahim Mrad, and it wasn’t until March 2018 that we learnt he was in fact a victim of false evidences. The whole thing turned out to have been arranged by the former head of the cybercrime bureau simply because he dared taking a screenshot of a tweet she liked.

A year later, and instead of emerging as a broken man, Ziad Itani collaborated with Khaled Soubeih to illustrate what he has gone through in a new play titled “W Ma Tallit Colette” that started showing last month at Metro Al Madina. I watched it on Tuesday and totally loved Itani’s performance in it.

Everyone knows the story, Ziad made several TV appearances to tell what really happened, and all the media outlets that originally bashed him for “being a traitor” have also later spoken about the truth. Still, watching the development of events on stage was captivating the whole time. You will be amazed at how a worthless and stupid evidence can lead the interrogators to extort a confession from Itani over something he never did, and the process will make you loathe the authorities.

Throughout the play, Ziad expresses everything he felt during detention, and he will make you understand how vulnerable can anyone get in a similar situation. One scene will even seriously stress you as Ziad tell about the thoughts that were going through his mind in his solitary confinement. Still, the play absolutely qualifies as a comedy and the cast will make you laugh during the whole two hours. The best of all though is that you will leave feeling that Ziad Itani emerged from this case as strong as he can be, an gave one big middle finger to the corrupt authorities and those who unlawfully wanted to put him behind bars.

Needless to say, I recommend you go watch it. You can check the showtimes on MetroMadina.com and book your tickets from AntoineTicketing.com.

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The Scary Case of Ziad Itani

I’ve been reading the recent articles about Ziad Itani and Colonel Suzan El Hajj and I couldn’t believe how fucked up the story is (given it is really true). The whole thing of course can’t but make you wonder how low can some officials get with their corruption and how easily can they actually get away with it!

All Colonel Hajj had to do to get Itani in prison was to fabricate a case accusing him or collaborating with Israel by claiming that the IP address of one of the people he was messaging on Facebook was traced back to Israel. However, this shows a big flaw in the way the ISF and other related governmental institutions work to pursue suspects.

How does tracing work?

When needed, Facebook and other social network websites disclose accounts records to governments to help them identify their owners in the cases where accounts are used with bad intent (check their terms here). The most important info they can provide is basically the IP address related to the suspect account. Governments can then check with their local ISPs in order to identify the identity of the person behind that IP.

In the case of Itani, articles are claiming he was not communicating with anyone in Israel, on the other hand what Hajj did was simply fabricating a false feedback from Facebook reporting that one of the account he was talking to was traced back to Israel. And this is where basically someone fucked up big time by not checking the authenticity of such information! Account records at Facebook CANNOT be forged, so whoever wan handling the investigation was Itani could have easily confirmed the claim by inquiring Facebook again.

It could happen to anyone

The reason Itani was framed for was purely personal. Colonel Hajj thought he was the reason she was ousted from the cyber crime bureau and it was almost the end for him. This means anyone can end up with a similar fate for criticizing some official or a well connected person. And worst of all, the authorities can convince the masses of any case just like they did with Itani.

The media and Radwan Mortada are to blame

The minute Ziad Itani was arrested the whole investigation with him was being leaked to Al Akhbar newspaper through one of their journalists named Radwan Mortada (here and here). Throughout the whole thing that guy was acting like an official spokesperson to the State Security department, and his articles made him sound like he was actually present during the interrogations.

All other media outlets were eventually picking his stories and this played a big role in actually convincing us Ziad Itani was really collaborating with Israel.

What’s next for Ziad Itani?

I don’t know what’s next for him, those who did a bad job authenticating the evidences should know better. Officials promised he will be released on Monday, but who will compensate him for the months he spent in prison? Who will make it up for his wife and little daughter? Who will restore all the damage done to his reputation? And who will erase all the bad articles about him everywhere on the web which will eventually haunt him forever?

What I’m certain of though is that officials elsewhere would be resigning over such scandal instead of capitalizing on it for political gain in the upcoming elections!

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