Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s Husband Partly Owned a Chinese Company That Sold Spyware to U.S. Military

Peter Schweizer’s new book Red-Handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win tells the story of how Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-CA) husband Richard Blum was part owner of a Chinese firm that allegedly sold computers with spyware chips to the U.S. military. The military has never been able to calculate how much sensitive data these computers allowed China to steal.

A hefty chapter of Red-Handed is devoted to tracking Feinstein’s long and expensive relationship with Communist China. The senator has made herself very, very useful to Beijing — so useful that she actually tried to excuse the Tiananmen Square massacre by suggesting China only called in combat troops to murder thousands of demonstrators because it ran out of cops.

In a total coincidence that could not possibly have been related in any way to Feinstein’s friendship with the tyrants of Beijing, her husband did a great deal of lucrative business with Chinese companies, including entities run by the Communist government and linked to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

One of those deals saw Blum becoming a major investor in a computer company that was founded by researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), an institution tied to both the Chinese government and the PLA. The company was originally called Legend, but is better known by its second name, Lenovo.

https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2022/01/26/revealed-sen-dianne-feinsteins-husband-partly-owned-a-chinese-company-that-sold-spyware-to-u-s-military/

US explains why it asked Russia not to make its security response public

Diplomacy thrives in darkness, Washington appears to suggest

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has revealed a list of diplomatic requests sent to his counterpart in Moscow in response to Russia’s security proposals, describing the paper as a “serious diplomatic path forward, should Russia choose it” during a Wednesday press conference.

However, while he restated several of Washington’s talking points with regard to the confrontation over Ukraine, he declined to go into specifics, arguing that “diplomacy has the best chance to succeed when we provide space for confidential talks.”

Russia-US security talks close with both sides citing major differences

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Russia-US security talks close with both sides citing major differences

The top US diplomat described the document as addressing “core principles” that Washington is determined to uphold, such as “Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and the right of states to choose their own security arrangements and alliances.”

Other issues covered included “reciprocal transparency measures regarding force posture on Ukraine,” “measures to increase confidence regarding military exercises and maneuvers in Europe” as well as “arms control related to missiles in Europe,” and “a follow-on agreement to the START Treaty that covers all nuclear weapons.” The US and Russia last year extended the New START Treaty by five years, meaning the last remaining arms reduction agreement between the two nations will expire in February 2026.

Blinken insisted the US was “open to dialogue” and would “prefer diplomacy” – but only “if Russia de-escalates its aggression toward Ukraine” and ceases what he called “inflammatory rhetoric.” He explained that NATO had developed and delivered its own paper while insisting the alliance’s document fully reinforced the US’ own and that there was “no daylight” between the country and the transcontinental alliance it controls.

Despite the diplomacy-centered rhetoric, however, the secretary of state boasted the US had provided more weapons to Ukraine in 2022 than in any previous year, as well as authorizing its NATO allies to transfer their own weaponry to the supposedly-imperiled Eastern European nation. The US and NATO have also moved or activated thousands of troops and other military resources in the area in the event of what they insist is a near-inevitable invasion by Russia.

Blinken met with Russian FM Sergey Lavrov last week to discuss the comprehensive list of security guarantees Moscow delivered last month, but the State Department took a confrontational pose on Monday, announcing that it would not make any “concessions” to Russia that did not benefit both nations. One particular sticking point has been Russia’s insistence that NATO cease expansion eastward, a guarantee Washington has thus far refused to consider.

The US Secretary of State added that he expects to speak with his Russian counterpart again “in the coming days.”

https://www.rt.com/news/547453-blinken-response-russia-security-ukraine/

Special task force to tackle ‘radicalization’ on Telegram

German police says ‘radicalized’ critics of government and vaccines use platform to conspire

Telegram is being used to target government officials, scientists and doctors over their handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt, BKA) said on Wednesday.

BKA accused the encrypted messaging platform of becoming “medium for radicalization” and announced a crackdown.

“The coronavirus pandemic in particular has contributed to people becoming radicalized on Telegram, threatening others and even publishing calls to murder,” BKA president Hol­ger Münch said in a statement.

“The rule of law must resolutely counter this worrying development. We aim to work with Telegram, but we will take action even if Telegram does not cooperate,” he added.

As part of this effort, the BKA has set up a task force to investigate users who post such content on the platform, with the goal of identifying and prosecuting them. Together with criminal police agencies of German federal states, the BKA will also seek Telegram’s cooperation on investigating “politically motivated crime” and approving its “deletion suggestions.”

https://www.rt.com/news/547464-germany-telegram-political-crimes/

Canada to boost troops on ground in Ukraine

Ottawa further expands its military presence on Ukrainian soil citing alleged “Russian aggression”

Canada announced on Wednesday that it would extend its mission to support the Ukrainian Armed Forces by three years and would provide an extra 60 soldiers, with the possibility of raising boots on the ground to as high as 400.

While 200 Canadian military personnel are already stationed in Ukraine, another 60 will be deployed in the coming days, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced.

“The biggest contribution that Canada can make to Ukraine right now is people,” claimed Defense Minister Anita Anand, who revealed that the country had “trained over 30,000 Ukrainian soldiers.”

“We should not underestimate the importance of this training mission,” she said.

Canada is also sending non-lethal aid to Ukraine and will share intelligence with the country as the United States and its allies continue to express fear over a hypothetical Russian ‘invasion’.

Trudeau said on Wednesday that Canada had “always been a friend to Ukraine” and would “always be there with the necessary supports.”

Revealing that Canada would also provide Ukraine with a $120 million loan, Trudeau said his country was “happy to be there to reinforce the resilience and strength of Ukraine’s economy faced with Russian destabilization.”

Defending Canada’s decision not to follow the example of the US and UK and send lethal aid to Ukraine, Trudeau argued that “the solution to this tension should be diplomatic.”

Last week, a small team of Canadian special forces was reportedly deployed to Ukraine to “develop evacuation plans for Canadian diplomatic personnel in the event of a full-scale invasion,” according to Canada’s Global News.

Moscow has repeatedly denied claims that it intends to invade Ukraine. Kiev’s foreign minister Dmitry Kuleba on Wednesday also appeared to brush off reports of an “imminent” invasion, telling media that the number of Russian troops stationed near the border with Ukraine was “insufficient for a full-scale offensive.”

https://www.rt.com/russia/547467-canada-boost-troops-ukraine/

Report: Capitol Police Are Spying On Members Of Congress And The Americans They Meet

As part of their job in screening visitors to the U.S. Capitol (should the complex ever re-open to the public, that is), U.S. Capitol Police often rummage through backpacks and purses. Lately, they may also be rummaging through more than that: your tax records, real estate holdings, and social media posts. All without your knowledge.

Besty Woodruff Swan and Daniel Lippman broke the details this week of a new Capitol Police initiative that involves deep dives into the speech, background, and lifestyle details of who members of Congress are meeting with, including donors, Hill staff, mayors, state legislators, and other Americans exercising their First Amendment right to petition their government.

In one example Swan and Lippman cite, a donor meeting attended at a private home by Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, meant the homeowner and attendees had their social media scrutinized and evaluated for foreign contacts by Capitol Police. A donor meeting with Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., the House Republican whip, received similar treatment. The Capitol Police were directed to “search for any information about event attendees, including donors and staff, ‘that would cast a member in a negative light.'”

In both cases, the lawmakers and the attendees were unaware these checks were taking place.

All of this is occurring under the guise of the “enhanced security measures” deemed necessary after the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. However, it is unclear how such measures would have actually prevented the Jan. 6 events in the first place.

The Capitol Police have provided no detailed justification. Nor have they said what they are doing with the records, how long those records are being stored, or what other purposes they have. The agency is only subject to congressional oversight — not to public records requests.

One can imagine how easily these searches could become politicized: Personal details on Capitol Hill staff, state legislators, or donors are dispersed to partisans and suddenly leaked at an opportune political moment by some agency conveniently immune to the Freedom of Information Act and subject to limited oversight. After the aggressive leaking, spinning, and shaming that bureaucrats engaged in during the Donald Trump years, we’ve seen what’s possible.

This practice also comes dangerously close to burdening the free exercise of political speech, which includes the right to petition the government “for a redress of grievances” without fear of reprisal. As Rep. Kelly Armstrong, R-N.D., a former criminal defense attorney, pointed out to Swan and Lipmann, these measures also walk right up to the line of “spying on members of Congress, their staff, their constituents and their supporters.”

“Anybody involved with implementing this without making it known to the actual members of Congress should resign or be fired immediately,” Armstrong went on. “And I’m not big on calling for resignations.”

https://thefederalist.com/2022/01/26/capitol-police-spying-on-members-visitors-is-more-ruling-class-safety-theater/