Israel's growing links with China concern Washington

It is no secret that growing economic relations between Israel and China are raising concerns in Washington, despite internal warnings in the occupation state that Beijing is exploiting these ties to obtain military and security technology through secret means. The echoes of a Chinese cyber-attack on Israel still reverberate.

Between 2007 and 2020, China invested $19 billion in Israel, including $9 billion in technology and $6 billion in infrastructure. The annual trade flow between the two has also increased from $12 billion to $15 billion, making China Israel's third-largest trading partner after Europe and the United States. However, since 2018, there has been a decline in Chinese investment in Israel, as has happened elsewhere, although China's interest in Israeli technology has been demonstrated through Beijing's endeavour to send academics to Israel, buy companies and establish research and development centres.

Nevertheless, China has intensified its economic, political and military activities vis-à-vis Israel, with a more assertive and sometimes even aggressive policy. The Americans have sensed the dangers and challenges of the growing links between Tel Aviv and Beijing, most importantly the large scale transfer of technology and skills, in addition to economic incentives to promote political objectives, espionage and foreign influence.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210823-israels-growing-links-with-china-concern-washington/

“Revelations of Carter’s Former Advisor : ‘Yes, the CIA entered Afghanistan before the Russians…’” (1998)

Originally published: David Gibbs Blog by Le Nouvel Observateur (International Politics 37, no. 2, 2000, pp. 241-242. ) - Posted Aug 19, 2021

The Brzezinski Interview with Le Nouvel Observateur (1998)

Question: The former director of the CIA, Robert Gates, stated in his memoirs that the American intelligence services began to aid the Mujahiddin in Afghanistan six months before the Soviet intervention. In this period, you were the national security advisor to President Carter. You therefore played a key role in this affair. Is this correct?

Brzezinski: Yes. According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the Mujahiddin began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan on December 24, 1979. But the reality, closely guarded until now, is completely otherwise: Indeed, it was July 3, 1979 that President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And that very day, I wrote a note to the president in which I explained to him that in my opinion this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention [emphasis added throughout].

Q: Despite this risk, you were an advocate of this covert action. But perhaps you yourself desired this Soviet entry into the war and looked for a way to provoke it?

B: It wasn’t quite like that. We didn’t push the Russians to intervene, but we knowingly increased the probability that they would.

Q: When the Soviets justified their intervention by asserting that they intended to fight against secret U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, nobody believed them. However, there was an element of truth in this. You don’t regret any of this today?

B: Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter, essentially: “We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war.” Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war that was unsustainable for the regime, a conflict that bought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire.

Q: And neither do you regret having supported Islamic fundamentalism, which has given arms and advice to future terrorists?

B: What is more important in world history? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some agitated Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?

Q: “Some agitated Moslems”? But it has been said and repeated: Islamic fundamentalism represents a world menace today…

B: Nonsense! It is said that the West has a global policy in regard to Islam. That is stupid: There isn’t a global Islam. Look at Islam in a rational manner, without demagoguery or emotionalism. It is the leading religion of the world with 1.5 billion followers. But what is t h ere in com m on among fundamentalist Saudi Arabia, moderate Morocco, militarist Pakistan, pro-Western Egypt, or secularist Central Asia? Nothing more than what unites the Christian countries…

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/56738.htm

https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/FDA-Letter-Final_Pfizer-LOA-to-issue-with-BLA-approval-08.23.21_v2.pdf

Interesting Vaccine comments from Vladimir Putin…

“Vaccination is the main weapon against the spread of the virus. Importantly, no one should be forced to get a jab. Pressure, where people may lose their jobs, is even less acceptable. People must be convinced of the need to get the vaccine. This must be done persistently and respectfully. People should be convinced of the need to get vaccinated in order to save their lives and health, and to protect their loved ones,” said Vladimir Putin, speaking at the United Russia party congress on Tuesday.

https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/interesting-vaccine-comments-from-vladimir-putin/

Botnet targets hundreds of thousands of devices using Realtek SDK

A Mirai-based botnet now targets a critical vulnerability in the software SDK used by hundreds of thousands of Realtek-based devices, encompassing 200 models from at least 65 vendors, including Asus, Belkin, D-Link, Netgear, Tenda, ZTE, and Zyxel.

The security flaw that IoT Inspector security researchers found is now tracked as CVE-2021-35395 and was assigned a 9.8/10 severity rating.

It impacts many Internet-exposed wireless devices ranging from residential gateways and travel routers to Wi-Fi repeaters, IP cameras, and smart lightning gateways or connected toys.

Attacks began only two days after public disclosure

Since the bug affects the management web interface, remote attackers can scan for and attempt to hack them to execute arbitrary code remotely on unpatched devices, allowing them to take over the impacted devices.

While Realtek shipped a patched version of the vulnerable SDK on August 13, three days before IoT Inspector security researchers published their advisory, this gave very little time to vulnerable device owners to apply the patch.

As network security firm SAM Seamless Network discovered, a Mirai botnet began searching for devices unpatched against CVE-2021-35395 on August 18, only two days after IoT Inspector shared details of the bug.

"As of August 18th, we have identified attempts to exploit CVE-2021-35395 in the wild," SAM said in a report published last week.

SAM says that the most common devices using buggy Realtek SDK targeted by this botnet are Netis E1+ extender, Edimax N150 and N300 Wi-Fi routers, and Repotec RP-WR5444 router, mainly used to enhance Wi-Fi reception.

Botnet updated to target new devices

The threat actor behind this Mirai-based botnet also updated their scanners more than two weeks ago to exploit a critical authentication bypass vulnerability (CVE-2021-20090) impacting millions of home routers using Arcadyan firmware.

As Juniper Threat Labs researchers revealed at the time, this threat actor has been targeting network and IoT devices since at least February.

"This chain of events shows that hackers are actively looking for command injection vulnerabilities and use them to propagate widely used malware quickly," said Omri Mallis, chief product architect at SAM Seamless Network.

"These kinds of vulnerabilities are easy to exploit and can be integrated quickly into existing hacking frameworks that attackers employ, well before devices are patched and security vendors can react."

The complete list of affected devices is too long to embed here, but it can be found at the end of the IoT Inspector report.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/botnet-targets-hundreds-of-thousands-of-devices-using-realtek-sdk/

The FDA Has Proved Itself to be a Totally Corrupt and Criminal Organization

As I predicted, the corrupt US Food & Drug Administration (FDA), allegedly a regulatory agency but in actuality an agent for Big Pharma and agri-business, has, according to news reports, given final approval to Pfizer’s Covid “vaccine.” (Why only Pfizer’s? Is there favoritism at the FDA?) The FDA congratulates itself declaring the “vaccine” a “milestone as we continue to battle the COVID-19 pandemic.”

In one of the worse and most transparent lies ever told by a US government agency, the FDA said:

“The FDA’s approval of this vaccine is a milestone as we continue to battle the COVID-19 pandemic. While this and other vaccines have met the FDA’s rigorous, scientific standards for emergency use authorization, as the first FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccine, the public can be very confident that this vaccine meets the high standards for safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing quality the FDA requires of an approved product,” said Acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock, M.D. “While millions of people have already safely received COVID-19 vaccines, we recognize that for some, the FDA approval of a vaccine may now instill additional confidence to get vaccinated. Today’s milestone puts us one step closer to altering the course of this pandemic in the U.S.”

Notice the last two sentences to which I added emphasis. The purpose of the approval is to convince those resisting inoculation with an extremely dangerous and totally ineffective “vaccine” to submit and take the shot.

As so many experts, men and women with scientific and medical knowledge far beyond what the FDA, CDC, NIH, WHO can muster, have stressed, the scientific evidence that does exist proves beyond all doubt that the mRNA vaccines fail to protect and actually enable the virus to escape the immune response, thus creating variants that infect the vaccinated. No evidence exists that supports the FDA’s claims.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/fda-proved-totally-corrupt-criminal-organization/5753973

America Just Banned Russian Ammo Imports. Let’s Be Honest About Who’s Really Being Restricted.

On August 20, 2021, the US Department of State banned Russian ammo and firearms importation into the United States. The ban, a minimum of 12 months, begins September 7 of this year.

The words of Milton Friedman come to mind: “Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.”

Two weeks to flatten the curve, anyone?

Why the ban, and why NOW?

According to the bill, the ban on Russian ammo is due to the Russians’ use of the chemical agent Novichok to poison Alexei Navalny in August of 2020. These recent sanctions would be the second set imposed on Russia for the use of a chemical agent.

On August 8, 2018, five months after the Novichok poisoning of Sergey Skripal and his daughter, the US government agreed to sanction Russian banks and exports. However, the Trump administration never implemented sanctions set for August 27, 2018. [source]

The poisoning of Navalny happened a year ago, in August 2020. NOW, the US Government takes action?

If that’s the case, why did we stop at Russian ammo and arms?

This author feels the reason given by the government is to ensure that advocates of The Constitution will find it difficult to argue against such a policy.

“But we thought you didn’t like communism? Why do you want to trade with our enemies?”

Why not a complete embargo? That would be the logical step. And if we’re genuinely concerned about the development and use of bioweapons and chemical agents, why are we still trading with other nations?

What will this Russian ammo ban mean for Americans?

Within my area, there’s been a drastic shortage of ammunition for months now. Local gun stores often only have steel-cased Wolf ammunition on the shelves. When one’s not able to buy anything else, the Russian steel case will have to do.

https://www.activistpost.com/2021/08/america-just-banned-russian-ammo-imports-lets-be-honest-about-whos-really-being-restricted.html

Apple Promotes Hookup Apps to Children, Report Finds

The tech company refuses to share user age data with app developers

Apple promotes dating apps to children and withholds information about underage users from app developers, according to a report.

The Tech Transparency Project found that Apple actively promotes pornographic content and apps like Tinder to users it believes are underage. The report, released Wednesday, focused on popular apps in the "Lifestyle" category, with names like "Adult Hook Up & Friend Finder" and "Hahanono—Chat & Get Naughty." In at least one case, Apple hosted an app for "one-night stands" that allowed users to set their age as 14.

The report comes as Apple attempts to prevent users from endangering minors. The company recently announced it will scan all iCloud photos to search for child pornography, frustrating privacy advocates who say Apple should enforce its own rules about showing inappropriate content to minors rather than search the photos of its users.

Although Apple's terms of service formally prohibit pornography, the report found users Apple believes to be 14 can download apps that open directly onto pornography with no age filter. Users must create an Apple ID that includes their age to access the App Store. Underage users aren't barred from downloading adult content, however. It appears that Apple does not in any way use the age of users to determine what content to serve them.

The report found that other big tech companies share more age data with apps, making it easier for those apps to ban underage users. According to the report, the Tech Transparency Project "used an underage Facebook account with the same name and age as the simulated minor, and in two-thirds of the cases, Facebook blocked the attempted registration, evidently because the user wasn't old enough."

The report's authors say Apple could take a variety of routes to reduce pornography and dating-app access for minors, including by a permanent ban of underage users. Dating apps have publicly asked Apple to alert them when an underage user downloads an app, but Apple has refused to provide that information.

Apple has total control over what apps can be installed through their App Store. The company has long defended the closed system as essential for both user privacy and the protection of minors. But the pornographic and hookup apps Apple promotes to children raise questions over the value of that closed system.

Apple takes 30 percent of fees paid on most apps in the App Store, although it has struck deals with larger companies like Amazon to charge less. According to the chief legal officer of the dating app Match, Apple executives said the app should be grateful Apple doesn't take all of its revenue.

Critics say Apple's closed ecosystem is anti-competitive and easily abused. The Chinese government has successfully pressured the company to ban apps that mention Taiwan or allow open access to the Internet through VPNs. Industry groups are lobbying state legislatures to force Apple to allow downloads from outside its app store, which as of now are banned.

Apple's refusal to limit adult apps to an adult audience could frustrate Senate Republicans, who have emphasized protecting children in their salvos against big tech companies. In an interview with the Washington Free Beacon, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R., Tenn.) attacked YouTube for showing harmful content to children.

https://freebeacon.com/media/apple-promotes-hookup-apps-to-children-report-finds/

ABC News producer sues network, former top ‘GMA’ exec for sexual misconduct, allowing toxic work environment

'We now know George Stephanopoulos was fully aware that his top producer was accused of sexual assault yet all he did was refer the accuser to managers who did not act,' an ABC insider said

An ABC News producer filed a lawsuit Wednesday against former "Good Morning America" star producer Michael Corn, accusing him of sexual harassment and fostering a toxic work environment.

The bombshell suit filed in New York Supreme Court, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal and confirmed by Fox News, alleges that the ex-ABC News figure assaulted "GMA" producer Kirstyn Crawford, 31, during a 2015 business trip to Los Angeles.

"While in an Uber to their hotel, Corn pulled Crawford’s head into his chest and began kissing her and rubbing her legs," the lawsuit alleges. "Each time Crawford tried to pull away, Corn pulled her right back. Later that evening, after Crawford believed she had escaped to her hotel room, Corn came to Crawford’s room for the express purpose of attempting to have sex with her."

The lawsuit also claimed Corn – who abruptly left ABC in April – sexually assaulted another ABC employee that reported to him, Jill McClain, who is not listed as a plaintiff. It alleges that Corm "assaulted McClain on two separate occasions—once on a redeye flight from Los Angeles to New York, and once in London—both times while traveling with McClain" for business.

"Corn groped McClain’s vagina over her jeans on an airplane, pinned her down on a hotel bed, pulled down the top of her jumpsuit, and fondled her bare breasts," the lawsuit claims. "Both Plaintiff and McClain were traumatized and rendered incapable of reporting the incidents for fear of losing their jobs, since Corn was their supervisor."

Corn denied all wrongdoing in a statement to the Wall Street Journal. "He said he would be defending himself ‘vigorously,’" the WSJ reported.

The suit also names ABC as a defendant, alleging the Disney-owned company failed to act after receiving complaints about the former "GMA" executive producer.

ABC denied the claims and plans to address them in court.

"We are committed to upholding a safe and supportive work environment and have a process in place that thoroughly reviews and addresses complaints that are made. ABC News disputes the claims made against it and will address this matter in court," an ABC spokesperson told Fox News.

https://www.foxnews.com/media/abc-news-producer-sues-network-former-top-gma-exec-for-sexual-misconduct-allowing-toxic-work-environment

‘Breakers Of Titans’ Attacked Eight US Supply Convoys In Different Parts Of Iraq

On August 24, pro-Iranian Saryat Qasim al-Jabbarin [The Breaker of Titans Company] attacked eight convoys carrying logistic supplies, equipment and vehicles for the US-led coalition in different parts of Iraq.

Two supply convoys came under attack in the central province of Babylon, two in southern province of al-Diwaniyah, two near the capital Baghdad, one in the southern province of al-Muthanna and another convoy in the southern province of Dhi Qar.

All eight convoys were targeted with explosive devices, some of which were equipped with explosively formed penetrator charges.

A video showing only four of the eight attacks which took place on August 24 was released by Saryat Qasim al-Jabbarin.

According to the Sabereen News, some of the targeted convoys were moving Humvees and an unidentified type of MRAP [Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected] vehicles to US bases in northern Iraq. The US-led coalition was likely planning to move the vehicles, specifically the Humvees, to northeastern Syria later on.

Saryat Qasim al-Jabbarin is one of several pro-Iranian Iraqi groups which emerged following the assassination of Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, Deputy-Commander of the Popular Mobilization Units, and Iran’s Quds Force Commander Maj. Gen. Qassim Soleimani.

The attacks on US-led coalition supply convoys and bases in Iraq will likely go on as long as Washington is determined to keep its forces in the country. On August 25, another attack targeted a supply convoy in al-Diwaniyah.

https://southfront.org/breakers-of-titans-attacked-eight-us-supply-convoys-in-different-parts-of-iraq-video/

FBI raids Detroit's city hall and council members' homes in corruption probe

Detroit — FBI agents were executing search warrants at the homes of Detroit City Council members Janeé Ayers and Scott Benson and at the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center on Wednesday morning, the latest escalation of a federal corruption investigation that has already led to charges against Councilman André Spivey.

The exact focus of the investigation and what led investigators to execute the raids Wednesday were unclear, but it comes amid lingering questions about federal investigations focused on corruption within municipal towing contracts and bribes paid to rig demolition contracts in Detroit backed by federal money. Search warrant documents listing probable cause to search the locations remained sealed in court Wednesday.

The raids represent the largest federal investigation into City Hall corruption in the eight years since former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was convicted of racketeering conspiracy charges and sentenced to 28 years in federal prison. President Donald Trump commuted the sentence in January.

“The citizens of Detroit have a right to a city government that’s free of corruption,” Timothy Waters, special agent in charge of the FBI's Detroit office, told reporters outside the municipal center after more than a dozen special agents were spotted leaving the building with boxes of evidence.

No charges have been filed Wednesday, however, the FBI is collecting evidence to present to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Waters said.

It was unclear which offices were raided but a source familiar with the investigation said investigators did not search Mayor Mike Duggan's office or executive suite.

In recent years, FBI corruption investigators have focused on Macomb County politics, and secured more than a dozen convictions before returning their focus to Detroit politics.

More

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2021/08/25/fbi-raids-detroits-city-hall-and-council-members-homes-corruption-probe/5584365001/

HYPOCRISY ALERT: Harris Praises McCain at Memorial Service in Vietnam

Alleged Vice President Kamala Harris praised late Senator John McCain today at the site in Vietnam where his plane was shot down more than 50 years ago.

Harris called McCain “an extraordinary American” and “a hero” who “always fought for the best of who we are.”

McCain must have done a lot of hero-ing since his death in 2018, because the same man who Harris said was “so courageous and really lived the life of a hero,” was once compared by the Left to “Hitler, Satan and Jeffrey Dahmer.”

Here’s the “Harris Praised McCain” clip from C-SPAN if you can stomach it.

Harris is just following in her boss’s footsteps. “All politics is personal,” Biden said at McCain’s memorial service. “It’s all about trust. And I trusted John with my life.”

But all that is over now that McCain is dead.

When then part-time U.S. Senator Barack Obama was running against McCain for president in 2008, the Illinois Democrat called McCain “out of touch, out of ideas, and running out of time.”

And that’s one of the nicest things said about the Republican “maverick” that year.

ASIDE: I’m no fan of John McCain, but I’m even less a fan of Democrat hypocrisy. I’m a busy man.

Back when he was running for veep alongside Obama, Presidentish Joe Biden said that “the Bush-McCain foreign policy has dug us into a very deep hole, with very few friends to help us climb out.”

Even POLITICO was forced to admit that year that “the Project for Excellence in Journalism’s researchers found that John McCain, over the six weeks since the Republican convention, got four times as many negative stories as positive ones.”

But all of that is nothing compared to the insults hurled by lefties in the private sector, who see no need to wear a mask of civility.

GQ’s Drew Magary called McCain “the perfect American lie” in a 2017 essay, saying he was “a fraud” who has “never done the right thing.”

McCain has been called “a reactionary, bloodthirsty war hawk,” “an angry man” who was “too old” to run for president (even though he was younger in 2008 than Biden was in 2020).

But you know the Democrats’ drill: The only good Republican is a dead Republican.

https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2021/08/25/hypocrisy-alert-harris-praised-mccain-at-memorial-service-in-vietnam-n1472501

Convicted Child Molester Arrested After Illegally Entering the U.S.

CALEXICO, Calif. – U.S. Border Patrol agents assigned to the El Centro Sector arrested an undocumented individual with a prior conviction for a sexual offense on Tuesday evening.

The incident occurred at approximately 9 p.m., when agents apprehended an undocumented individual within minutes after illegally entering the United States in the city of Calexico.

The individual was arrested and transported to the El Centro Sector Processing Center to be processed accordingly.

Records checks revealed that this individual is a registered sex offender that has a previous felony conviction for child molestation out of Gwinnett County, Atlanta, Georgia. Furthermore, the individual had been previously removed to their country of origin.

In fiscal year 2021, which began Oct. 1, 2020, El Centro Sector Border Patrol agents arrested and/or removed 38 individuals either convicted or wanted on sexual offense charges.

https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/local-media-release/convicted-child-molester-arrested-after-illegally-entering-us

=Mississippi Pharmacist and Louisiana Marketer Plead Guilty to More Than $180 Million Health Care Fraud Scheme

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/mississippi-pharmacist-and-louisiana-marketer-plead-guilty-more-180-million-health-care-fraud

Co-Founder And Former CEO Of Palo Alto-Based Start-Up Technology Company Headspin Charged With Securities Fraud And Wire Fraud

https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/co-founder-and-former-ceo-palo-alto-based-start-technology-company-headspin-charged

Attorneys And Doctors In New York Charged With Defrauding Businesses And Insurance Companies Of More Than $31 Million Through Trip-And-Fall Fraud Scheme

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/attorneys-and-doctors-new-york-charged-defrauding-businesses-and-insurance-companies

PRAY FOR EACH OTHER