Tag Archives | internal security forces

The Scary Case of Ziad Itani

By Rami on March 4, 2018 in Social, Telecom, Theater

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!

This Sums Up The Hypocrisy in Our Society

By Rami on June 22, 2015 in Lebanon

Every now and then photos like the one above surface on the internet and people start showering the Lebanese police and governmental employees in general with criticism.

No one is sure yet how authentic this photo is since the ISF hinted on twitter that the policeman might have done this stunt on a closed highway as part of some training. It would be really ugly if it turns out to be true, I mean this is the kind of stuff you expect zouzou ebba guys to be pulling on the highway, so having this officer acting the same way is just plain unacceptable…!

But thinking about the photo and the reactions it got for a moment make you realize it actually sums up the hypocrisy in our society…

The man is basically in charge of fining those who violate the law by performing such stunts, yet he enjoys doing them himself! Likewise, we tweet myriads of photos showing ISF officers texting on duty, while we fail to drop our phone when driving. We even argue that the new traffic law should allow us to check our phone on red lights!

We report tens of ISF officers on motorcycles without helmets, yet we also hate to wear them because it’s too hot and they mess our hair! We also break twitter writing about people bruning red lights around the city, but we are of course allowed to do it after 10PM because we know better. Oh and the best of all we also hate when people take advantage on us through “wasta”, but we absolutely have no problem using the same “wasta” to break the rules too!

So yeah, the photo is still ugly, and the officer still deserves to be punished for it, but next time you see something similar, don’t react as if it’s something out of this world, because what you will be seeing is just a reflection of this hypocrite society we live in.

The Internal Security Forces rewarding seat-belt users

By Rami on December 24, 2014 in Lebanon

noel isf

The minute I saw this photos on twitter I knew it was some kind of a media stunt by the Lebanese Internal Security Forces. And the first thing that came to my mind was that they should have been working to ease the traffic congestion over the past few days instead of taking photos with Santa. But now that I saw the video I think it was a nice move.

In a country where people honk at you at a red light, I personally would have loved to get rewarded by the ISF for wearing the seatbelt!

Yeah right!

By Rami on July 17, 2014 in Lebanon

The ISF can forever claim that they have their “own ways” to stop these stupid motorbikers. But in fact nothing is being done that even 12 years old kids now do wheelies on the streets!

photo via YASA

Kidnapping is the new profitable business in Lebanon

By Rami on March 4, 2013 in Lebanon

mokdad clan

Check out this interesting report in Al-Safir today about the recent kidnapping incidents that happened over the last year in Lebanon. So far, the responsible groups for these kidnappings were able to collect more than $16 million out of 19 operations, moreover one gangster is even coordinating these operations from inside Roumieh Prison where he’s arrested!

And it doesn’t seem like kidnapping for ransom is going to stop anytime soon, due to the fact that the kidnappers belong to well known large crime families in Bekaa, so arresting few members will not eventually put an end to the whole thing. In addition, these groups just seem to have a strong appetite for making big money.

More on the data requested by the Information Branch

By Rami on December 5, 2012 in Lebanon

I just noticed Elnashra has published some classified communications between the interior miniter Marwan Charbel and prime minister Najib Mikati showing the data the Information Branch has requested following the assassination of General Wissam El Hassan.

In all of those documents the Information Branch is requesting the below types of data from the two mobile operators in Lebanon (Alfa and Touch), while there’s no mention of any ISP such as Cyberia, IDM, and the alike.

List of websites we visit along with all the information we submit to these websites including usernames and passwords. (It’s relatively difficult to obtain these information if HTTPS is enabled)
Copies of exchanged e-mails and chat sessions.
Recordings of calls made through VoIP applications.
List of downloaded apps.
Call detail records
SMS records.

So unlike what has been circulating in the past few days, and judging from the content of these communications, the Information Branch is only interested in data logged by mobile operators and not ISPs. In addition, there was no explicit interest in obtaining Facebook credentials as the media was reporting.

Anyway I still find it disturbing to know that mobile operators might not be only keeping track of visited websites, but also of submitted information, e-mails, chat sessions, and even VoIP calls recordings! And it seems like they’re really doing so since the telecommunications minister never claimed those records do not exist and instead is just rejecting the Information Branch’s requests.

P.S: I found it weird that some communications were dated August 18th 2012, and got received by the office of the prime minister on the same day, even though they’re requesting data from the period starting September 13th 2012 and ending November 10th 2012. It’s like asking for data from the future!

Getting arrested sounds fun now

By Rami on May 18, 2012 in Lebanon

For the first time in its history, 610 young girls made their way into the Internal Security Forces after announcing its will to recruit female volunteers earlier.

The video below shows the result of a 2 months training that 200 girls have received, and as you can see many of them are quite good looking! Getting arrested now seems like a pretty cool idea eh?!

On a serious note, I totally respect these women and believe that they’re much needed in our country.

Lebanese arrested for hacking e-mail accounts

By Rami on January 9, 2012 in Lebanon

I actually found this news a bit surprising because it’s the first time for me to read about people getting arrested for hacking e-mail and Facebook accounts in Lebanon.

The department of Public Relations at the ISF General Directorate announced that investigations were carried out by the Cyber Crime and Intellectual Property Rights Bureau Unit based on more than 70 complaints filed by citizens regarding stolen and hacked electronic accounts (e-mail and Facebook among others). The hackers blackmail the account owners and steal their identity to get large sums of money.

During inquiries, the first man admitted to having carried out acts of piracy and stolen around 600 emails, blackmailing their owners and stealing their identity to get large sums of money by transferring recharge card dollars to cellphones and selling them. These amounts reached around $200.000 and all the electronic equipment used was seized. Source

Still, the police might have chased these two because they went so far with the blackmailing they did.

Anyway, I personally know some people who do such things just for the fun of it. They go to some cafe offering wireless internet for the purpose of “stealing” Facebook session. Some tools to use in the process are widely available and are pretty easy to use if you have enough IT knowledge.

These people better know that things can turn really bad now that the Cyber Crime unit out and about. So unless you know how to really cover your tracks, just keep away from these stuff!

Lebanese police running a red light

By Rami on December 19, 2011 in Lebanon

The below photos were taken in Tallet El-Khayyat showing a police car running a red light. Definitely not a shocking scene as we’re all used to the reckless driving by the police in Beirut, but it’s cool to have their actions documented by Cheyef 7alak now!

And I know, they can always justify that by saying it was an emergency!

Footages of the internal security forces breaking into a BMW

By Rami on March 15, 2011 in Lebanon

An anonymous reader sent me these 2 videos showing members of the Lebanese internal security forces breaking into a BMW and driving it away to probably clear the street for a convoy or something…

Knowing that the authorities collect the phone number of all car owners in Lebanon, couldn’t they have looked up the owner’s phone number through his plate number and told him to just come and park it somewhere else? Or why not using a car carrier to move it away instead of breaking into it?

Also, notice how easy it is to steal a car, the whole thing doesn’t take more than a couple of minutes!

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