Europe-wide Operation Nabs 166 Crime Suspects from South-East Europe

More than 8,800 law enforcement officers across Europe arrested 166 people in a joint operation against organized and serious international crime originating from South-East Europe (SEE), Europol said in a statement on Wednesday.

Officers from 34 countries, including European agencies: Europol, Eurojust and Frontex, as well as international and institutional partners such as Interpol, UNODC, PCC-SEE, CCWP and PA/2019, joined forces during the four-day operation to combat illegal immigration and the trafficking of firearms and drugs.

The operation was brought together by EU members Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and non-EU member states Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Ukraine, United States.

“During the span of the action week, more than 390,000 individuals and 44,000 vehicles were checked at cross border locations and in suspected hotspots for criminal trafficking,” read the statement.

Such enhanced controls and intensified surveillance have led to the arrests in several European countries.

Police arrested 17 people for firearms trafficking or illegal possession of firearms; 73 for migrant smuggling or illegal immigration; 37 for drug trafficking; seven for firearms and drug trafficking; 12 for document fraud; one based on an international arrest warrant and 19 for crimes not related to the joint operation.

During the operation, police also seized “51 weapons of different types and 47 kilograms of a variety of drugs,” according to Europol.

“Criminals from the South-East Europe region are increasingly expanding their network of influence,” Jari Liukku, the Head of Europol’s Serious Organized Crime Centre, said.

He added that Europol is committed to “working closely with this region and supporting an international coordinated and mutually supportive approach for tackling serious and organized crime.”

https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/13191-europe-wide-operation-nabs-166-crime-suspects-from-south-east-europe

Pakistan Arrests Opposition Leader over Money Laundering

Pakistani authorities on Monday arrested the leader of the country’s opposition on charges of corruption, prompting hundreds of his supporters to protest against the latest arrest of a top opponent by the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Shehbaz Sharif, 69, was arrested in the eastern city of Lahore when the court rejected his bail plea in a money-laundering case. He has denied the allegations against him and claimed that the assets being investigated belong to his relatives.

During the hearing, supporters of his PML-N party chanted slogans against Khan, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and the country's powerful military.

It is the second time the NAB, the country’ anti-corruption watchdog, has ordered the arrest of Sharif, the younger brother of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Two years ago, the NAB accused him of having illegally awarded contracts for a social housing project when he was chief minister of the Punjab province.

Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was removed from his post in July 2017 by the country’s Supreme Court after the Panama Papers leak revealed that he owned luxury apartments in London.

He was sentenced to 10 years in prison for graft but was granted bail on medical grounds last year. He is currently living in Britain, where he is receiving medical treatment.

Khan’s government is pushing for the ex-PM’s return to Pakistan so that he may continue serving his jail sentence.

Nawaz Sharif commented on his brother’s arrest on Twitter, calling the move a disgraceful tactic that “will not make us bow down."

The younger Sharif is yet another opposition politician who was arrested over graft by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) before a formal case was launched.

NAB’s pre-arrest powers have been repeatedly criticised by the opposition, the Supreme Court and Human Rights Watch.

https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/13189-pakistan-arrests-opposition-leader-over-money-laundering

German Government Reportedly Decides to Tighten Screws on Huawei Amid Push From US

The development comes as media reports say the Trump administration is pressuring Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel to bar Huawei from developing the country’s 5G network. The Trump administration has long maintained that the Chinese tech giant poses a threat to the national security of the US and its allies.

The German government has reached an agreement on an IT security law that will tighten the screws on the Chinese telecoms giant Huawei, Reuters reported, citing unnamed government sources. According to them, the new agreement stops short of banning the company from developing the country’s 5G network, but it raises the bar, making it very hard for Huawei’s candidacy to be approved.

Sources told Reuters that the deal requires the country’s cybersecurity watchdog and intelligence services to assess whether a vendor is trustworthy, as well as extends the scrutiny of a vendor’s technology, such as the radio access network (RAN), which is used to power 5G services.

The spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel declined to comment on whether the standards would apply to all vendors. The Interior and Economy Ministries said the discussion on the ongoing legislation is continuing.

"We hope that cabinet can adopt this in October, or at the least in November", one coalition source told Reuters.

It is unclear how the situation will develop further, because Germany’s leading mobile network operator Deutsche Telekom’s 5G network, which uses Huawei equipment, is set to be completed by the end of the year, when the legislation may be passed into law.

The country’s other mobile network operators, which are also clients of Huawei, have previously warned that replacing the company’s equipment will be costly.

Sitting on Two Chairs

Germany is one of the last targets in the Trump administration’s campaign against Huawei. The Republican president has steered the United States on a confrontational course with China ever since he entered the Oval office. The Trump administration claims that Huawei, the world’s largest manufacturer of mobile telecommunications equipment, poses a threat to the national security of the United States and its allies because it spies on its customers at the behest of the Chinese government, a claim that Huawei and Beijing deny.

Following pressure from Washington, one by one US allies have refused or voiced unwillingness to do business with Huawei. Experts say that Merkel and her government wanted to find a compromise that would satisfy both the Trump administration and Huawei. However, government sources who spoke to Reuters said that although the new strategy stops short of banning Huawei, it will eventually smother the Chinese giant.

"The final outcome is the same", a security official told Reuters.

https://sputniknews.com/world/202009301080623906-german-government-reportedly-decides-to-tighten-screws-on-huawei-amid-push-from-us/

Turkey’s Foreign Policy During The Erdogan Era

Turkey’s foreign policy since the Justice and Development Party (AKP) led by Recep Tayyip Erdogan assumed power in 2002 has undergone several major and abrupt changes over time, partly due to changes in regional and global geopolitical developments and partly due to domestic factors and perceptions of Turkey’s interests and how they can best be achieved at any given moment.

Introduction

After being on the losing side in World War I the Ottoman Empire was unscrupulously carved up by the victors of World War I, with many areas previously under the control of the Ottoman Empire being invaded and occupied by British and French armed forces, often acting with the assistance of local proxy militias. As in Africa and other regions, the British and French subsequently decided the location of many of the current borders based on their own imperial ambitions, resulting in numerous disputed areas. The Encyclopedia Britannica states of the Treaty of Lausanne of 1923:

The treaty recognized the boundaries of the modern state of Turkey. Turkey made no claim to its former Arab provinces and recognized British possession of Cyprus and Italian possession of the Dodecanese. The Allies [i.e., Britain and France] dropped their demands of autonomy for Turkish Kurdistan and Turkish cession of territory to Armenia, abandoned claims to spheres of influence in Turkey, and imposed no controls over Turkey’s finances or armed forces. The Turkish straits between the Aegean Sea and the Black Sea were declared open to all shipping. LINK

The Post World War II – Cold War Period

Turkey remained neutral during World War II and afterwards allied with ‘the West’, joining NATO in the early 1950s. In accordance with its strong pro-West alignment, Turkey was the first majority Muslim State to recognize Israel with which it also had close military and intelligence links – including joint military training exercises in Turkey involving Israeli aircraft – until relations began to deteriorate during the Erdogan presidency, particularly after around 2009 as Turkey sought to establish itself as a leader of the Muslim world (while Erdogan was still prime minster). They further worsened following the Israeli interception and commando attack on the 2010 Gaza Freedom Flotilla during which the Israeli commandos killed ten unarmed people, most of whom were Turkish citizens.

Although Turkey was a staunch NATO ally (which included embedded ‘Deep State’ covert military and intelligence ties related to the Gladio stay-behind forces), during the 1990s it began to adopt a more independent foreign policy and refused permission for NATO (US) military assets stationed at the Incirlik Air Base to be used against Iraq during the second attack against Iraq in 2003.

The summary of Turkey’s foreign policy since World War II by Encyclopedia Britannica is worth quoting at length, as it describes many of the issues that remain at the centre of ongoing disputes and conflicts and demonstrates that, while Turkey’s foreign policy has become more aggressive and military-oriented under Erdogan and the AKP, there is also a substantial degree of continuity based on deeply ingrained perceptions and objectives among Turkey’s military leadership in particular but also among a substantial part of the wider population:

From the era of Atatürk and Turkey’s foundation, its foreign policy has been markedly oriented toward the West. Though it remained neutral throughout most of World War II, it sided with the Allied powers when it eventually entered the war. In the postwar era Turkey took on more active engagement with the West…

Cracks in Turkey’s relationship with the West emerged when the West failed to intervene in Cyprus after an attempted coup in 1974. Thereafter Turkey broadened its relations beyond the West, including a friendship agreement with the Soviet Union in 1978, while Cyprus and sovereignty disputes in Aegean Sea remained a major impediment to its relations with the West well into the 21st century…

Until the 1960s, Turkish foreign policy was wholly based on close relations with the West, particularly the friendship of the United States. Turkey sent troops to fight in the Korean War and joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO; 1952) and the Central Treaty Organization (1955). This Western-oriented policy derived from Turkey’s fear of its enormous northern neighbour, the Soviet Union, from its dependence on U.S. military and economic aid, and from its desire to be accepted as a secular, democratic, Western state. After 1960, however, this policy came into question as a consequence of East-West détente, the rise of economic and political cooperation in western Europe, and the growing economic importance of Middle Eastern countries…

More Long read heavily sauced use link:

https://southfront.org/turkeys-foreign-policy-during-the-erdogan-era/

AMNESIA?: James Comey has convenient & MAJOR memory lapses during testimony

Former FBI Director James Comey couldn’t remember much during his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. He only knew what he read recently in news reports, he said. He didn’t answer questions directly.

The hearing with Comey was finally called by Chairman of the Committee Sen. Lindsey Graham, of South Carolina. He had been promising this testimony since before he took over as Chairman of the Committee.

The hearing, Graham has said, was to gain clarity of the FBI’s decision making in the early days of the probe. Moreover, he said they would be questioning the inaccuracies in the bureau’s FISA court filings, the secret court that grants or denies the bureau warrants to spy on Americans. Years of investigations by journalists, like me and others, along with intensive Congressional hearings and document disclosures by the intelligence community has painted a dangerous picture of malfeasance and corruption in America’s bureaucracy.

The weaponization of the nation’s most trusted agencies and the warrants used to monitor a political opponent by Democrats violated the very rights our founding fathers established when the American republic was founded.

What happened to Carter Page, a Trump campaign volunteer, and what happened to President Donald Trump should never happen again. The FBI appears to have relied on false Russian disinformation planted in an ex British spy’s debunked dossier. Further, evidence sheds light on the fact that senior members of the FBI actually knew this all along.

Yet, those who violated the law, like Comey and his many minions, have yet to pay a price for what they’ve done. They have yet to be held accountable by the Justice Department or anyone else for that matter. Instead, they thumb their noses at the American people and make millions on books, as contributors for cable news outlets and plan for a future they hope will end with former Vice President Joe Biden as President.

They continue to spew lies, as did Comey in today’s hearing, which in my opinion was nothing more than political theater. Although, thankfully some of the Senators for historical record asked the right questions.

The best outing of Comey’s memory failure came at the questioning by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. It wasn’t surprising to watch Comey try to dodge Cruz’s well thought out questions.

Its Comey’s own seemingly arrogant manner that makes him so obvious. It’s how he and the rest of Washington’s bureaucratic elites see themselves. They are special. Beyond reproach, they think. In fact, it drips off their skin like a cool sweat on a humid day and glistens so everyone can see and smell it.

https://saraacarter.com/amnesia-james-comey-has-convenient-major-memory-lapses-during-testimony/

Fact Check: Biden Claims ‘No One Has Established’ There Is ‘Fraud Related to Mail-in Ballots’

CLAIM: Joe Biden (D) claimed that “no one has established” that there is fraud related to mail-in voting.

VERDICT: FALSE. There have been several well-documented examples of fraud and error in relation to vote-by-mail.

During a discussion on accepting the results of the election and the increase in mass vote-by-mail, Biden proclaimed that “no one has established, at all, that there is fraud related to mail-in ballots — that somehow it’s a fraudulent process.”

“It’s already been established,” Trump quipped, prompting Biden to say that Trump had “no idea what he’s talking about.”

Despite the former vice president’s claim, there are numerous instances of fraud and error related to vote-by-mail, as Breitbart News has extensively detailed over the months.

This month, for example, several mailed-in ballots in Wisconsin were discovered in a ditch alongside other mail. Recently in Virginia, 1,000 people who requested absentee ballots received two in the mail; and over the summer, a dead cat in Atlanta received a voter registration form by mail.

Also over the summer, two Paterson, New Jersey, councilmen and two men linked to a councilman’s campaign were charged with

“election fraud, mail-in voting fraud, and illegal possession of mail-in ballots,” as Breitbart News extensively detailed.

Additionally, a local TV station conducted an experiment over the summer, which further exposed the flaws in the vote-by-mail system. They sent 100 “‘mock ballots’ from across the city to a P.O. box set up specifically for the test.” The experiment found that just 97 percent of the ballots arrived, leaving three percent of voters effectively “disenfranchised by mail.”

Last month, a Democrat operative stated that anti-Trump United States Postal Service (USPS) workers will “sometimes help election fraudsters by throwing in the garbage mail-in ballots from Republican-heavy neighborhoods.”

Additionally:

New York City officials mailed absentee ballots with the incorrect names and addresses on the return envelopes.

Michigan clerks had to reject 10,694 primary ballots because the voters were deceased.

Hundreds of New Jersey Republicans received mail-in primary ballots featuring Democrat candidates.

A mail carrier in Virginia’s Pendleton County pleaded guilty to election fraud for “altering the party affiliation on absentee ballot request.”

Over 1,600 New Jersey primary ballots were discovered in a “mislabeled” bin after the election.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/09/29/fact-check-biden-claims-no-one-has-established-there-is-fraud-related-to-mail-in-ballots/

ASSANGE HEARING DAY SEVENTEEN—US Intel Spying on Assange Detailed in Court, Including Plans to Kidnap or Poison Him

United States intelligence discussed plans to kidnap or poison Julian Assange, the court was told on Wednesday.

After the prosecution said it was unable to do checks on the two anonymous witnesses from the UC Global case in Spain, defense attorney Mark Summers read out the testimony in court a day earlier than had been expected.

The first witness described how he worked for David Morales, founder of UC Global, and was a 50 percent owner. The witness discussed how in July 2016 Morales insisted on going alone to a security conference in Las Vegas.

When he returned to the Spanish offices, Morales spoke of a “flashy” contract with the Sands casino, owned by billionaire Sheldon Adelson to provide security on Adelson’s yacht. The witness said it did not make sense because the yacht already had security.

Morales told the office that the company, which had only one contract, to provide security at Ecuador’s London embassy, was now “playing in the big leagues.” He said the firm had “switched over to the dark side” in working with his “American friends” who will “get us contracts all over the world.”

The witness said he learned that Morales had an “illegal contract to get sensitive information about Julian Assange and the president of Ecuador.”

The witness said that Morales’ contact in Las Vegas was Zohar Lahav, the Israeli-American vice president for executive protection at Las Vegas Sands. Lahav had “agreed to cooperate with U.S. intelligence to provide them with information about Assange,” anonymous witness one testified.

UC Global had been using security cameras at the embassy that did not provide audio and daily reports were written by UC Global staff from London. “The parallel agreement with the U.S. authorities required that these reports would be sent to ‘the dark side,'” as Morales called it.

Morales traveled twice a month to bring these reports to his “American friends” in the U.S. The witness said, “I asked who the American friends were and he said U.S. intelligence. When I asked him specifically who, he cut me off.”

https://consortiumnews.com/2020/09/30/live-updates-assange-hearing-day-seventeen-us-intel-spying-on-assange-detailed-in-court-including-plan-to-kidnap-or-poison-him/