Pieter Friedrich's Involvement In Greta Toolkit Case: Delhi Police revealed a new name in the Greta Thunberg toolkit case. Delhi Police said that Pieter Friedrich was responsible for planning the hashtags, which personalities to tag, and how to propagate the contents of the toolkit. Delhi Police has said that he was the resource person for Disha Ravi, Nikita Jacob and Shantanu.
While Police have arrested Disha Ravi from Bengaluru, Nikita Jacob and Shantanu are absconding and have filed a plea in the high court to save themselves from arrests. A non-bailable warrant has already been issued for them as Delhi Police revealed that they were the co-authors of the toolkit Google document which was made to incite a Twitter storm and physical violence on January 26 during the Farmers' tractor rally.
Who is Pieter Friedrich ?
Pieter Friedrich is a companion of Khalistani terrorist Bhajan Singh Bhinder who has also worked for ISI. Pieter Friedrich was responsible for planning the hashtags, which personalities to tag, and how to propagate the contents of the toolkit. Friedrich has been on the radars of Indian security agencies since 2006. Delhi Police said, "Pieter is an associate of BS Bhinder...Whether Disha and Nikita were in touch with Pieter directly or not is subject to investigation,"
DCP (Cyber Cell) Manishi Chandra said Friedrich is an "active proponent of Khalistan" and has been on the radar of security agencies since 2006.
“Pieter Friedrich has been on the radar of Indian security establishment since late 2006 when he was noticed in the company Bhajan Singh Bhinder alias Iqbal Choudhury,” Chandra said. Bhinder is associated with the K2 (Kashmir-Khalistan) desk of Pakistan’s spy agency ISI.
Chandra further said that Bhinder was a ‘Person of Interest’ for the United States Drug Enforcement Administration for quite some time. “As of now, he’s running psyops (psychological operations),” he added.
Friedrich was central to an investigation regarding the info-war against India.
According to a report by media watchdog the Disinfolab, Friedrich was a crucial resource person in the farmers’ protests, whose name was dropped accidentally by Thunberg in the toolkit.
The Disinfolab report titled "THE UN-ENDING WAR: From Proxy War to Info-War against India", notes that it turns out, it was an elaborate design, that was underplayed since 2007. It involved a slew of shady companies in the US, fake foreign experts, and even ghost entities.
The linkages of the mastermind could be traced back to a major terror plot hatched against India in the 1990s in collusion with ISI.
While taking the cover of Khalistan, the network works for Pakistani interests. The key players on the scene during the 1990 bombing plans are still around and connected.
The network was targeting Indian interests on a global scale, including even Indian origin American politicians.
The story also decodes how some of the most prolific and influential people in India – from media to journalists and intellectuals - provided a nourishing eco-system to the network in damaging Indian interests, as per Disinfolab.
Disinfolab said the name of one of the key players of their story came up in the toolkit dropped accidentally by Thunberg. The toolkit had mentioned a foreign expert as a resource point – Pieter Friedrich.
“Experte für Südasien-Angelegenheiten (Expert in South Asia affairs). I believe in bold, factual, aggressive & adversarial journalism,” reads his Twitter bio. He had joined Twitter in October 2018.
He has also tweeted in support of Disha Ravi's release.
According to www.patreon.com, a website purportedly belonging to him, Friedrich claims he is an author, activist, speaker, and traveler. The website reads, “Pieter specializes in the analysis of historical and current affairs in South Asia. He engages with issues such as human rights, supremacist political ideologies, ethnonationalism, the politicization of religion, authoritarian government structures and policies, state-sponsored atrocities, and the need to unify around doctrines of liberty,."
His website says, “Pieter has lectured at Columbia University, Stanford University, UC Berkeley, UC Los Angeles, Carleton University, and St. Stephens College. A staunch advocate for religious liberty and interfaith cooperation, he has spoken at mosques, gurdwaras, churches, and viharas. He has travelled and lived in Europe and Asia.”
Friedrich has also mentioned creating awareness about RSS activities in India & abroad.