Biden Rejects Trump’s Executive Privilege, Orders Release of White House Logs to January 6 Committee

Joe Biden rejected Trump’s claims of executive privilege and ordered the former president’s White House logs to be released to the January 6 Committee.

The visitor logs will show who was allowed to enter the White House on January 6.

In a letter to the National Archives, White House counsel Dana Remus argued that Joe Biden “voluntarily discloses such visitor logs on a monthly basis.”

Joe Biden however spends every weekend in Delaware where there is no record of visitors and Psaki refuses to disclose who Biden secretly meets with every weekend while he is away from DC.

“The President has determined that an assertion of executive privilege is not in the best interests of the United States, and therefore is not justified, as to these records and portions of records,” Biden’s counsel Dana Remus wrote in the letter dated Feb. 15.

AP reported:

President Joe Biden is ordering the release of Trump White House visitor logs to the House committee investigating the riot of Jan. 6, 2021, once more rejecting former President Donald Trump’s claims of executive privilege.

In a letter sent Monday to the National Archives, White House counsel Dana Remus said Biden had considered Trump’s claim that because he was president at the time of the attack on the U.S. Capitol, the records should remain private, but decided that it was “not in the best interest of the United States” to do so.

Biden has already made clear that he is not invoking executive privilege concerning the congressional investigation unless he absolutely must. Biden has waived that privilege for much other information requested by the committee, which is going through the material and obtaining documents and testimony from witnesses, including some uncooperative ones.

The National Archives raided Mar-a-Lago last month and retrieved 15 Trump White House record boxes, according to the Washington Post.

It turns out all they found in the boxes were gifts, mementos and letters to Trump from world leaders.

Every recent presidential administration has had some Presidential Records Act violations, but the National Archives is now asking the DOJ to harass Trump with another investigation.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/02/biden-rejects-trumps-executive-privilege-orders-release-white-house-logs-january-6-committee/

Russia mocks Western media for wrong ‘invasion’ predictions

Numerous outlets had suggested that Moscow would invade Ukraine on Wednesday morning

The spokesperson for Russia’s foreign ministry has jokingly asked Western “disinformation media” outlets to publish the future schedule of Moscow’s “invasions,” after the previous prediction of a military incursion into Ukraine passed without incident.

Writing on Telegram, Maria Zakharova poked fun at American and British outlets, which had suggested that Russia would launch an invasion at various times on Wednesday morning. Those forecasts proved to be wrong.

“A request for US and UK disinformation media like Bloomberg, The New York Times, The Sun, etc. Please announce the schedule of our ‘invasions’ for the coming year. I would like to plan a vacation,” Zakharova joked.

Since late October, Western media outlets have suggested that the Kremlin is planning an invasion of Ukraine. In the last few weeks, suggestions that a war is imminent have become more frequent. This claim has been repeatedly denied by the Kremlin, and has also been played down by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

On Tuesday, British tabloids The Sun and The Mirror published claims that Russia was planning to invade Ukraine on Wednesday morning. After this deadline passed, The Sun changed its headline to state that war could begin “at any time.”

American outlet Bloomberg, which had previously mistakenly reported that an invasion had already begun, suggested Russia could attack on February 15, citing anonymous officials. This date also passed without incident.

Speaking on Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov slammed invasion predictions as “genuine information terrorism” and claimed that all troop movements near the Ukrainian border were part of planned drills.

https://www.rt.com/russia/549514-moscow-mocks-western-media/

Police investigating Prince Charles’ charity

British law enforcement said they’ve already received a number of “relevant documents” from The Prince’s Foundation

London’s Metropolitan Police has announced an investigation into media allegations that one of Prince Charles’ charities offered a Saudi businessman honors and citizenship in exchange for lavish donations.

According to a report by the Sunday Times in September, Saudi Arabian billionaire Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz was knighted in 2016 with the assistance of Charles’ aides after giving money to projects supported by the eldest son and heir of Queen Elizabeth II.

Those revelations had prompted Michael Fawcett, a close aide to the prince for decades, to resign as head of The Prince's Foundation in November.

The Met said in a statement on Wednesday that it had launched an investigation into alleged offences under the Honors (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925 after its Special Enquiry Team carried out an earlier assessment “which has included contacting those believed to hold relevant information.”

The police force said it had already contacted The Prince’s Foundation in light of that assessment, and the organization has furnished “a number of relevant documents.” There have been no arrests or interviews under caution as part of the investigation, the statement added.

Responding to reports of the investigation, a spokesperson for the senior royal said the “Prince of Wales had no knowledge of the alleged offer of honors or British citizenship on the basis of donation to his charities.”

Clarence House – Charles’ official royal residence – said earlier that it would “of course” be willing to assist any inquiry carried out by police.

News of the investigation came a day after the queen’s second son, Charles’ brother Prince Andrew, had agreed a financial settlement with Virginia Giuffre over her lawsuit. Giuffre had accused Andrew of sexually abusing her when she was a teenager.

https://www.rt.com/news/549584-prince-charles-charity-honors-police/

Ottawa's "Freedom Convoy" Protesters Dig In As Canadian Government Suffers 'Alex Jones' Moment

Facing nearly a dozen separate "Freedom Convoy"-inspired protests that seemed to be springing up faster than police and his government could disperse them, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked a national emergency to implement sweeping police powers late Monday.

Yet, protesters and their supporters continued, as protesters in Ottawa "dug in", while new demonstrations sprung up in Alberta and Manitoba, but by Tuesday, Trudeau and his government had clearly had enough. They needed a new scapegoat. Enter, 13 "demonstrators" who were arrested purportedly due to their involvement with the Coutts blockade. Police claimed they seized "13 long guns and a large quantity of ammunition in an early-morning raid targeting three trailers that were part of a blockade".

Canada's Public Safety Minister, Marco Mendicino said as much during a press briefing on Tuesday.

"There have been those who have tried to characterize these illegal blockades [as being] about vaccines and mandates and fatigue with the pandemic. That is not what is driving this movement right now,” Marco Mendicino, Canada’s Public Safety Minister, said at a news conference Tuesday.

"What is driving this movement is a very small, organized group that is driven by an ideology to overthrow the government through whatever means they may wish to use,” he said.

In what sounded like the preamble to another "Alex Jones" moment, some "national security experts" have asked the Canadian government to provide more "clarification."

Mendicino’s comments led some national security experts to call on the government to provide clarification. “I do think that it behooves the government to explain themselves, to the extent that they can, while maintaining national security,” said Leah West, a national security expert at Carleton University in Ottawa.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/ottawas-freedom-convoy-protesters-dig-canadian-government-suffers-alex-jones-moment

JP Morgan Is Now Open For Business In The Metaverse

Nearly five years have passed since Jamie Dimon called bitcoin "a fraud" and joked that he would fire any JP Morgan employee found to have purchased any digital tokens.

And yet, here we are.

Bloomberg reports that JP Morgan has opened its first office in the metaverse, in Decentraland, the browser-based one of several "metaverse" platforms, which is backed by Digital Currency Group (which also created the Greyscale Bitcoin Trust). What they're calling the "JP Morgan lounge" was reportedly set up by Onyx, JPM's blockchain unit (did Dimon sign off on that?)

JPMorgan Chase & Co. has a lounge in the metaverse: Visitors are greeted by a digital portrait of Jamie Dimon and a roaming tiger. Walk upstairs and you’ll see an executive’s presentation on the crypto economy.

The lounge is located at the Metajuku mall in Decentraland, a browser-based metaverse backed by the Digital Currency Group. Onyx, JPMorgan’s blockchain unit formed in 2020, set up the lounge as it released a paper on how businesses can explore opportunities in the metaverse.

Dimon's presence is just one example of how JPMorgan is "the first Wall Street bank to launch a presence in the metaverse." According to Bloomberg, the bank has been "a proponent of blockchain technology and its use in financial transactions" for years, Bloomberg claims, before citing "JPM Coin" as evidence. Perhaps Bloomberg has forgotten about Dimon's denunciations? Last we heard, Dimon said he remains "a skeptic" about cryptocurrenices.

https://www.zerohedge.com/crypto/jp-morgan-has-opened-its-first-branch-metaverse

Police Begin Towing ‘Freedom Convoy’ Vehicles at Wellington Parliament

An anti-mandate protest in New Zealand inspired by the Canadian “Freedom Convoy” swelled in numbers on Wednesday on Parliament grounds in Wellington, authorities said.

“There has been an influx of protesters at Parliament today, including children. However, the crowd had been orderly,” Richard Chambers, an assistant police commissioner, said during a news conference.

“This is a very complex situation and we are mindful of the tactics we need to take so that the situation is not escalated,” he added. The commissioner estimated there were about 450 vehicles blocking the site.

https://www.ntd.com/police-begin-towing-freedom-convoy-vehicles-at-wellington-parliament_740840.html

Northern Ireland Lifts Lockdown Rules as South Considers Similar Loosening

Northern Ireland has lifted almost all of its remaining COVID Lockdown rules, with authorities in the south of the island also considering easing a raft of measures.

Northern Ireland scrapped almost all of its restrictions as of Tuesday afternoon, sweeping away rules including mandatory mask-wearing introduced in reaction to the Chinese Coronavirus.

The relaxation comes as authorities in the south also eye-up a further relaxation of lockdown rules, including putting an end to the mandatory wearing of masks in schools.

According to a report from the Belfast Telegraph, the vast majority of legal COVID restrictions in place in Northern Ireland were scrapped, including various regulations mandating the wearing of masks in shops and on public transport.

Also scrapped are rules mandating the use of COVID certs for nightclubs and indoor unseated gatherings of more than 500 people, as well as an end to track and trace regulations targeting businesses in the region.

Meanwhile, measures relating to testing and self-isolation will remain in place, while the region’s Department of Education has so far not made clear whether rules surrounding social distancing and the mandatory wearing of masks in schools will be maintained.

Instead of relying on restrictions being mandated in law, authorities are now aiming to use non-binding guidelines to encourage individuals to voluntarily help curb the spread of COVID-19.

“With the reduced threat from the Omicron variant, we can move away from an emergency and legalistic framework to a new approach where making safer choices is embedded in our daily lives,” said Northern Ireland’s Health Minister, Robin Swann.

“So please do not jump the gun and start behaving as if the pandemic is over,” the pro-UK Unionist asked the public. “That is not the case.”

However, while Swann also warned that a new variant may emerge necessitating the reintroduction of restrictions, he admitted that with the collapse of Northern Ireland’s devolved government, reimplementing lockdown laws would be extremely difficult.

“As ministerial colleagues will be aware I intend to ensure that the Department of Health retains temporary powers under public health legislation to act in response to urgent need,” Sky News reports the health minister as saying. “But I am aware that even with these powers in place, it is hard to foresee the circumstances under which they could be exercised, if the executive is not restored.”

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2022/02/16/northern-ireland-lifts-lockdown-rules-as-south-considers-similar-loosening/

Shanghai Neighbor Shuts 15 Highway Entrances in Coronavirus Lockdown

Suzhou, a Chinese industrial hub located 49 miles west of Shanghai, shut down 15 of its highway entrances on Tuesday as city officials scrambled to contain a local Chinese coronavirus epidemic.

“On Tuesday it [Suzhou] closed 15 highway entrances and required drivers and passengers leaving through others to have proof of negative test results within 48 hours,” Reuters reported on February 15.

Suzhou began restricting travel out of the city on Monday when local Chinese Communist Party officials forbade all of Suzhou’s residents from leaving the community for nonessential reasons. The decision came after health authorities allegedly detected just eight new Chinese coronavirus cases among Suzhou’s population of 10.72 million.

“Suzhou residents are required to stay home, avoid gathering and wear masks. They are asked to avoid leaving the city unless it is absolutely necessary,” Shine, Shanghai Daily‘s online news platform, reported on February 14.

Officials in charge of Shanghai’s Metro Line 11, which links the metropolis of nearly 25 million to Suzhou, halted some of the rail line’s service on February 14. The metro suspension extended to all bus and subway lines connecting Shanghai to Suzhou and remains in place indefinitely.

Suzhou, like Shanghai, serves as a vital tech industry center for China. The city hosts roughly 100,000 multinational companies and manufacturing plants in its Industrial Park. Foreign firms such as Samsung (a South Korean electronics giant), United Microelectronics Corporation (a Taiwanese semiconductor company), Eli Lilly (a U.S.-based pharmaceutical company), and Bosch (a German multinational engineering and tech company) maintain factories in Suzhou.

“We expect a short-term impact on our manufacturing and logistics operations in Suzhou,” Bosch said in a statement to Reuters on February 14. A company spokesman further revealed “local office staffers were working from home.”

https://www.breitbart.com/asia/2022/02/16/shanghai-neighbor-shuts-15-highway-entrances-in-coronavirus-lockdown/

How Much? Angry UK Reaction to Prince Andrew Settlement with Virginia Giuffre

British Royal Family member Prince Andrew drew scorn and ridicule Wednesday asdetails emerged of his sexual assault lawsuit settlement in the U.S. for an eye watering £12 million ($U.S. $16.3 million).

One unanswered question that is driving the public response is who exactly is picking up the tab. Is it his mother the Queen, Prince Andrew personally or will the funds come directly from taxpayers via the public purse.

The duke receives a Royal Navy pension and a stipend from the Queen’s Duchy of Lancaster income as his sole means of support.

As Breitbart News reported, the lawyer for accuser Virginia Giuffre revealed Tuesday that both parties had settled out of court, sparing Andrew the public humiliation of a trial. The precise financial details were not revealed.

Giuffre alleges she had sex with Andrew when she was 17 and a minor under U.S. law, after meeting him through the late disgraced U.S. financier Jeffrey Epstein.

The prince has not been criminally charged and has denied the allegations although he has payed a high cost in losing the trust both of the public and his former military colleagues.

The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported Andrew was to pay the bulk of the settlement to Giuffre and £2 million to a charity for victims of sex trafficking.

British media said the prince was now “finished”, and called on him to withdraw entirely from public life, after he was already stripped of his honorary military ranks and the title of “His Royal Highness”.

“A man truly determined to clear his name of such heinous allegations would have fought tooth and nail… and then, if he won, tried to rebuild his life,” said an editorial in the Sun.

“That is all over. Andrew is finished — undone by his insufferable arrogance, entitlement and staggering naivety.

“He must retreat entirely from public life and live out his retirement in ignominy,” it added.

British commentators also ridiculed Andrew for claiming he had never met Giuffre, querying why he had agreed in that case to settle for such an apparently large amount, and pointing to a photograph of the pair together when she was 17.

Mark Stephens, a media specialist at law firm Howard Kennedy, told BBC television “Andrew is going to have to confirm that the public hasn’t paid this, because that threatens to have wider implications for the Royal Family”.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2022/02/16/how-much-angry-uk-reaction-to-prince-andrew-settlement-with-virginia-giuffre/

Leftist Group Obtained $158 Million in Taxpayer Funds to Help Illegal Aliens not Face Deportation

A left wing group that is categorically opposed to immigration enforcement was able to obtain a $158 million taxpayer-funded contract to assist unaccompanied minors avoid deportation.

Specifically, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) granted the Vera Institute of Justice this allotment of money. This institute is a leftist nonprofit that supports defunding the police. They received the contract in 2021 “provide immigration related legal services to unaccompanied minors,” per a report by USASpending, a federal contract database.

“The Vera Institute of Justice is a behemoth progressive nonprofit based out of New York City with well over a $140 million budget, which they use to fund a slate of progressive causes and initiatives across the country,” Jason Hopkins, an investigative associate with the Immigration Reform Law Institute, said to Fox News. “Whether that be criminal justice reform, bail reform and also immigration.”

Hopkins claimed the institute receives roughly half of its funding from the federal government. From July 1, 2019, and June 30, 2020, almost $137 million of the non-profit’s $174 million in revenue was from government grants, per the institute’s most recent tax documents.

“The $158 million is just the latest in the hundreds of millions that they provided to Vera for their services,” Hopkins stated.

The contract hasn’t been previously reported. It started on March 30, 2021 and could potentially end on March 30, 2022.

Right when the contract went into effect, HHS diverted $2 billion originally allocated for health initiatives, which included expanded Wuhan virus testing, to help tackle the growing border crisis.

On an annual basis, “thousands of immigrant children are placed into court proceedings in which government prosecutors seek to deport them unless those children can prove they have a right to stay in the United States,” a Vera Institute spokesperson told Fox News Digital.

“Many children face these immigration proceedings alone,” she added. “Many children have legal options that establish their ability to remain in the United States (such as refugees, trafficking victims, and survivors of crime and abuse), but these options are nearly impossible to access without the assistance of trained attorneys. Other children require legal assistance to seek to voluntarily repatriate to their countries of origin.”

https://www.blacklistednews.com/article/81793/leftist-group-obtained-158-million-in-taxpayer-funds-to-help-illegal-aliens-not-face.html

https://twitter.com/lawyer4laws

Cambodia to implement full Internet surveillance through single national data gateway

Cambodia’s new Chinese-style National Internet Gateway is planned to come online on February 16 and will funnel all web traffic to, from and within the country through a state-controlled data point, exposing it to comprehensive government surveillance.

The move that is feared to have a strong negative impact not only on freedom of speech, but also on media and businesses in the country.

All Internet service providers in the country are required to route their traffic through the gateway. Revocation of operating licenses or the freezing of bank accounts are among penalties for non-compliance. Additionally, all incoming traffic to Cambodia will be subject to censorship.

In the name of “social order, safety and traditions…”

Government spokesman Phay Siphan insisted the new Internet gateway was needed to “crack down on cyber-crime, maintain national security and collect revenue.”

All websites that “adversely affect national revenue, safety, social order, morality, culture, traditions and customs” would be blocked, he said, adding that “Cambodians need to understand that freedom of expression comes with responsibilities” and that “insulting or manipulating information can affect national security or individuals’ reputations.”

However, critics of the “Great Firewall” say that it is not about such censorship, but about control. A Human Rights Watch analysis of the gateway suggests it would “allow the government to monitor all Internet activities and grant the authorities broad powers to block and disconnect Internet connections.”

The surveillance gateway comes a year before Cambodia’s general elections in 2023 with a view on how particularly social media and other Internet channels have been effective in expressing and organising opposition, most recently in Thailand and Myanmar.

Setback for nascent digital economy

Jeff Paine, managing director of the Asia Internet Coalition, a regional lobbying group, said the gateway “will restrict Cambodians’ ability to access a free and open Internet and greatly harm the country’s nascent digital economy.”

Apart from an adverse impact on companies and digital entrepreneurship, the gateway will also not help attracting skilled expats and digital nomads to the country, others say.

https://investvine.com/cambodia-implements-full-internet-surveillance-through-single-national-data-gateway/

https://investvine.com/cambodia-implements-full-internet-surveillance-through-single-national-data-gateway/

Organ Trafficking: The Unseen Form of Human Trafficking

Organ trafficking, a lucrative global illicit trade, is often a lesser discussed form of human trafficking among anti-human trafficking stakeholders due to its intricate and often stealth nature. Trafficking sex and/or labor are the more commonly thought of forms of human trafficking among public policy leaders and general awareness campaigns. However, organ trafficking holds a critical place with transnational organized crime groups due to high demand and relatively low rates of law enforcement.

Organ traffickers profit in the shadows, while their destructive medical footprint is the only thing that is felt. It leaves vulnerable populations, aka “donors,” and first world beneficiaries, aka “recipients,” open to severe exploitation and a lifetime of health consequences.

This form of illicit trade also leaves the private sector, in particular the financial industry, susceptible to being an unknowing conduit for its facilitation. Although, with the right training and raised awareness, financial institutions may play a pivotal role in unmasking organ traders by way of the financial trail they leave behind.

Low Supply, High Demand

When describing organ trafficking, there is often confusion as to how this crime can happen. Global Financial Integrity (GFI) estimates that 10 percent of all organ transplants including lungs, heart and liver, are done via trafficked organs.1 However, the most prominent organs that are traded illicitly are kidneys, with the World Health Organization (WHO) estimating that 10,000 kidneys are traded on the black market worldwide annually, or more than one every hour.2

On their own, these numbers can be stark; however, when compared to average wait times for organs in developed countries, one can start to better understand the demand being diverted to black markets. In Canada, it is estimated that the average wait time for a kidney is 4 years with some waiting as long as 7 years.3 In the U.S., the average wait time for a kidney is 3.6 years according to the National Kidney Foundation.4 In the U.K., wait times average 2 to 3 years but could be longer.5

Hiding in Plain Sight

Once obtained, trafficked organs can be transplanted to recipients in the most reputable of hospitals in major cities throughout the world but makeshift operating rooms in houses have often been the clandestine locations for such transplants.

Traffickers orchestrate the recruitment of the donor often from a place of vulnerability, and victims are not necessarily properly screened for their qualifications to be a healthy donor. Desperate patients in need of an organ may fall prey to a trafficker who could be posing as a “reputable” representative of an altruistic organ matching organization. Financial exploitation plays a key part in both sides of this scenario. In addition, organ traffickers could also be involved in other forms of human trafficking, such as sex and/or labor trafficking. Cases are emerging where an organ donor may have been a victim of sex trafficking and/or labor trafficking as well as a victim of organ trafficking, creating a multi-level equation of exploitation. The term “transplant tourism” is often utilized in describing this crime, as defined by the Declaration of Istanbul:

“…travel for transplantation that involves organ trafficking and/or transplant commercialism or if the resources (organs, professionals and transplant centers) devoted to providing transplants to patients from outside a country undermine the country’s ability to provide transplant services for its own population.”6

https://www.acamstoday.org/organ-trafficking-the-unseen-form-of-human-trafficking/

Popular antibiotics linked to growing number of suicide deaths, patients unaware of side effects

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8H1BpBJwvLU

Judge temporarily blocks Air Force from punishing unvaccinated officer

A federal judge issued a restraining order on Tuesday, temporarily blocking the Department of Defense and the U.S. Air Force from enforcing their COVID-19 vaccine mandate against an Air Force officer.

The Thomas More Society, a nonprofit law firm that handles religious liberty cases, had filed the lawsuit last month on behalf of the Air Force officer, who has served for more than 25 years.

The officer had submitted a religious exemption request to the vaccine. By December, the Air Force had denied her exemption request, as well as her appeal, and gave her less than one week to choose between getting the vaccine, submitting a retirement request, or signifying in writing that she was refusing the vaccine mandate. She was further informed that refusing the vaccine order would be punishable under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) and “continued refusal will result in involuntary reassignment to the Individual Ready Reserve without pay, benefits, or regular responsibilities.”

In his order, Judge Tilman Self of the U.S. District Court for Georgia’s Middle District, summarized the rejection the female Air Force officer received from her chain of command as “your religious beliefs are sincere, it’s just not compatible with military service.”

Self wrote, “Although the Air Force claims to provide a religious accommodation process, it proved to be nothing more than a quixotic quest for Plaintiff because it was ‘by all accounts, . . . theater.’”

Self noted that throughout the officer’s efforts to get a religious accommodation, the Air Force had not approved a single religious accommodation request. Self also noted that only in the past week had the Air Force granted their first religious accommodations to the COVID shots, well after the female officer was faced with the decision to take the vaccine, retire, or face potential adverse actions as a refuser.

In addition to her religious objections to the vaccine, Self said the plaintiff officer had contracted COVID-19 in December 2020, and then she tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies both in January 2021 and nearly a year later in December 2021, indicating she had enduring natural immunity.

Despite her enduring antibodies, Self wrote that “when it comes to Plaintiff’s argument about natural immunity, [the Air Force] offer nothing in rebuttal other than claiming that she misreads the relevant regulations.”

In his decision, Self granted a preliminary injunction blocking the Department of Defense Military Mandate, the Air Force Military Mandate, and the Air Force Military Order against the female officer and from taking any adverse action against her, including forcing her to retire.

In issuing his order, Self repeatedly cited language from another case, Navy SEAL 1 v. Biden, in which a Navy and Marine officer have also been granted a preliminary injunction against the military vaccine mandate.

https://americanmilitarynews.com/2022/02/judge-temporarily-blocks-air-force-from-punishing-unvaccinated-officer/

Report: Israel Lobbying Biden to Redesignate Yemen’s Houthis as Terrorists at UAE’s Behest

Aid groups warn the designation would push more Yemenis into starvation

Israel is pressing the Biden administration to redesignate Yemen’s Houthis as a “foreign terrorist organization” at the behest of the UAE, The Times of Israel reported on Tuesday, citing two unnamed officials.

Abu Dhabi has asked President Biden to redesignate the Houthis after the Yemeni group launched attacks on the UAE. The Times report said that the UAE has enlisted the help of Israel.

The Trump administration designated the Houthis as terrorists as one of its last foreign policy moves. The designation was quickly reversed by President Biden since aid groups warned it would make it harder to deliver food aid to Yemen’s starving civilian population.

Conditions have only gotten worse in Yemen over the past year, and aid groups are again strongly warning against the designation. The UAE portrays the Houthis as terrorists, but the recent attacks are clearly a response to Abu Dhabi’s role in the US-backed Saudi-led coalition that has been waging war on Yemen since 2015.

In recent months, the coalition escalated its air war in Yemen. As a result, January was the most violent month for civilians in Yemen since 2016.

An Israeli official portrayed the Houthis as an Iranian proxy and said the designation would curb Iran’s “reckless” influence in the region. “We’re not doing this only for the Emiratis. We believe such a step is in everyone’s interest,” the official said.

While Iran supports the Houthis politically, it’s not clear how much military support the Iranians provide the Yemeni group, if any. Yemen has been under blockade since 2015, making it difficult to get weapons inside the country.

In January, Biden said redesignating the Houthis was “under consideration.” Last week, Axios reported that the White House held a meeting on the possibility of putting the Houthis back on the terror list. The report said members of the National Security Council are warmer to the idea, as opposed to the State Department, which favors targeted sanctions against Houthi leaders.

https://news.antiwar.com/2022/02/15/report-israel-lobbying-biden-to-redesignate-yemens-houthis-as-terrorists-at-uaes-behest/

Pelosi warns Russia that a Ukraine invasion is ‘an assault on democracy’

A Russian invasion of Ukraine would mark not just a violation of the Eastern European country’s sovereignty, but an attack on democracy as a whole, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday.

“An assault on Ukraine is an assault on democracy,” the California Democrat told ABC’s “This Week.” “The loss of life, the damage, the collateral damage to civilians, to military and the rest are severe if he decides to invade.”

The comments came as Russian forces continued to do drills and maneuvers near the border with Ukraine through the weekend.

About 130,000 Russian troops are gathered there, prompting fears of an imminent invasion, though Russia’s strongman President Vladimir Putin insists he has no such plans. He’s been calling for assurances that Ukraine, a former member of the USSR, will never join NATO, among other measures.

U.S. officials have responded with threats of severe sanctions.

“If he decides to invade, the mothers in Russia don’t like their children going into what he’s had to experience [the] — forgive the expression — body bags from the moms before, so he has to know that war is not an answer,” Pelosi said. “There’s very severe consequences to his aggression, and we are united in using them.”

https://americanmilitarynews.com/2022/02/pelosi-warns-russia-that-a-ukraine-invasion-is-an-assault-on-democracy/

Palestinian woman demands trial of Israeli soldiers for sexual assault

A Palestinian woman has called for the trial of six Israeli officers who, it is alleged, sexually assaulted her during a search in 2015, Arab48 has reported. An investigation into the conduct of three Shin Bet security staff and three army officers was closed about 10 months ago due to lack of evidence, despite some admitting to the allegations under questioning.

The woman, whose identity has been withheld by Haaretz due to security concerns, says that a Shin Bet commander ordered two female soldiers to take her aside and conduct a body search. The soldiers removed her clothes and probed her private parts. According to the report, both the Shin Bet commander and an Israeli army officer were present while this took place.

The Palestinian woman made a complaint at the time. Nevertheless, she was sentenced to two years in prison after being convicted of minor offences.

"What happened harmed the body, soul and dignity of the Palestinian woman who wants justice that the military prosecution stole from her," said the director of the legal department at the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI). "The military prosecutor's decision to close the file is wrong and unacceptable, because these actions not only violate the United Nations Convention against Torture, ratified by Israel, but also establish the suspicion of serious crimes against the legal system, including rape and indecent acts."

The Palestinian woman alleges that the acts constituted rape and sodomy and is demanding that all of those involved be charged with both crimes. In her appeal filed by PCATI, it is pointed out that it is "outrageous and unbearable" for no one to be punished even when "there is no dispute that acts that constitute rape and sodomy were committed" and "there is sufficient evidence."

According to Haaretz, the doctor and female soldiers apparently admitted inappropriately handling the Palestinian woman's private parts and the company commander admitted giving the order. The appeal document insists that even if an order to this effect was given by a senior officer, it is no defence, "because the order was clearly illegal and under no circumstances should have been followed."

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220216-palestinian-woman-demands-trial-of-israeli-soldiers-for-sexual-assault/

Pelosi at Knesset: US, Israel are together in fight against Iran terror, nuke threat

Leading delegation of Democrats, US House speaker says security bond between two nations is ‘ironclad’ and Israel’s creation ‘greatest political achievement of the 20th century’

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a ceremony at the Knesset on Wednesday that the United States and Israel are allied in the face of the threat from Iran.

“We are together in the fight against terrorism posed by Iran, both in the region and also its nuclear development. The nuclear threat by Iran is a global one. It is a threat to the world,” Pelosi said.

“Israel’s proximity to Iran is a concern to all of us and a responsibility for all of us,” she said.

Talks aimed at restoring the 2015 Iran nuclear deal are continuing in Austria and in an unusual step, Israeli diplomats traveled to Vienna to meet Tuesday with negotiators involved. Israel is not a party to the discussions, and has said it reserves the right to act as it sees fit against Iran’s nuclear program regardless of the negotiations’ outcome.

Pelosi is leading a congressional delegation on a visit to Israel and is joined by fellow Democratic Congress members Adam Schiff, Ted Deutch, Barbara Lee, Bill Keating, Eric Swalwell, Ro Khanna and Andy Kim.

Pelosi described it as a “high-powered and very diverse” set of lawmakers, all of whom are supporters of Israel.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/pelosi-at-knesset-us-israel-are-together-in-fight-against-iran-terror-nuke-threat/

Judicial Watch: Records Reveal Tech Operatives Allegedly Used by Hillary Clinton Campaign to Spy on Trump WH Had Contract with Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

Judicial Watch announced today that it received 127 pages of records from the Georgia Institute of Technology of communications among four individuals. These records reveal that the individuals, who are mentioned in the Durham probe indictment of Michael Sussmann, worked with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) from 2016-2021. The documents also suggest the group was interested in targeting then-Trump campaign adviser Steve Bannon.

Judicial Watch obtained the records through an October 13, 2021, Georgia Open Records Act request for records of communication among Rodney Joffe, April Lorenzen, David Dagon, and Manos Antonakakis.

According to The New York Times:

Mr. Durham used a 27-page indictment to lay out a far more expansive tale, one in which four computer scientists who were not charged in the case ‘exploited’ their access to internet data to develop an explosive theory about cyberconnections in 2016 between Donald J. Trump’s company and a Kremlin-linked bank — a theory, he insinuated, they did not really believe.

***

The indictment’s “Originator-1” is April Lorenzen, chief data scientist at the information services firm Zetalytics. Her lawyer, Michael J. Connolly, said she has “dedicated her life to the critical work of thwarting dangerous cyberattacks on our country,” adding: “Any suggestion that she engaged in wrongdoing is unequivocally false.”

The indictment’s “Researcher-1” is another computer scientist at Georgia Tech, Manos Antonakakis. “Researcher-2” is Mr. Dagon. And “Tech Executive-1” is Mr. Joffe, who in 2013 received the F.B.I. Director’s Award for helping crack a cybercrime case, and retired this month from Neustar, another information services company.

In a court filing last week, Durham alleged this operation directly spied on Trump tower, Trump’s home, and the Trump White House by exploiting “access to non-public and/or proprietary Internet data.”

The anti-Trump operation used the “assistance of researchers at a U.S.-based university who were receiving and analyzing large amounts of Internet data in connection with a pending federal government cybersecurity research contract.”

On November 18, 2016, a redacted email address writes on “behalf of Manos Antonakakis” to two Georgia Tech officials in an email titled “Signed DARPA Contract:”

Judicial Watch announced today that it received 127 pages of records from the Georgia Institute of Technology of communications among four individuals.

https://www.judicialwatch.org/documents/georgia-tech-sussmann-november-2021/

More

https://www.judicialwatch.org/tech-operatives-hillary-clinton-campaign/

DARPA was in on it

Massachusetts judge blocks Boston's COVID-19 vaccine mandate

The judge's injunction will prevent the firing of union workers and first responders who have opted not to get vaccinated.

A Massachusetts Appeals Court judge has blocked Boston's COVID-19 vaccine mandate for municipal employees, in response to a suit brought by unions that represent first responders.

Justice Sabita Singh of the Massachusetts Appeals Court on Tuesday temporarily blocked the mandate from going into effect, prevents union workers from getting fired for failing to comply with the mandate.

Workers will for now be able to opt for routine testing instead of vaccination.

The suit and court decision is in response to a mandate by Democratic Mayor Michelle Wu that all 19,000 city employees be vaccinated by Jan. 15, which was followed by negotiations between the mayor's office and the unions about enforcement.

The crux of the lawsuit by the Boston Police Superior Officer Federation, the Boston Police Detectives Benevolent Society, and the Boston Firefighters Union Local 718, is that the mandate violates part of the collective bargaining law with the city.

A coalition of city workers, Boston First Responders United, opposed to the mandate, saying it stands with the judge's decision and thanks the plaintiffs for "representing their respective members by showing a willingness to engage in litigation to preserve workers rights."

https://justthenews.com/government/courts-law/massachusetts-judge-blocks-bostons-covid-19-vaccine-mandate

Hmmm a Mexican???

Individual Pleads Guilty to Acting Within the United States on Behalf of Russian Government

A Mexican national, who was residing in Singapore, pleaded guilty yesterday to acting within the United States on behalf of a foreign government without notifying the Attorney General.

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/individual-pleads-guilty-acting-within-united-states-behalf-russian-government

>>15643081

>>15642731 Virginia Giuffre lawsuit settlement in the U.S. for an eye watering £12 million ($U.S. $16.3 million).

30% of her patients were vaccine complications

"I have to speak out."

Dr. James points to peer-reviewed studies and surveys that show the VAERS system is off by a factor of 100, and says this matches her own experiences.

Dr. James estimated that in her intensive care unit in New York City, or ICU, with a major medical chain, she sees 30% or more who clearly have complications after having received the vaccine. "There is clearly an increased risk of strokes, heart attack, blood clots, autoimmune issues, arterial issues, and neurological issues associated with the vaccine that are not being tracked because politics is demanding that the vaccine be considered perfect. The risks go all the way up to death. People are suffering major adverse reactions and I have no doubt many are dying from these vaccines but we can't discuss this openly without fear of political consequences.

https://pandemicfacts.info/

Former prime minister Stephen Harper is working with former leaders of three major intelligence agencies the Mossad, the CIA and MI5 in a Canadian private investment company.

Stephen Harper joined ex-spymasters in company investing in Israeli security tech

Former PM is a partner at firm that includes some of the world's top former intelligence executives

Former prime minister Stephen Harper is working with former leaders of three major intelligence agencies — the Mossad, the CIA and MI5 — in a Canadian private investment company.

AWZ Ventures invests in Israeli cybersecurity, intelligence and physical security technologies.

Despite the many prominent individuals behind it, the company remains low-profile in Canada.

The head office of AWZ (pronounced Oz) Ventures is at 20 Eglinton Ave. West in Toronto, on the 10th floor of an office tower at the corner of Yonge Street.

Harper is one of AWZ's partners and president of its advisory committee.

A glance at the company's website shows that, along with the former prime minister, AWZ has assembled an impressive list of leaders from the counter-intelligence and business worlds.

According to his bio, the company's founder and managing partner, Yaron Ashkenazi, served for a decade in the Israeli Security Agency (ISA) VIP Protection Division, leading teams that protected several Israeli prime ministers.

Edward Sonshine, founding partner of AWZ and chairman of the board, is the founder of RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust, which owns the building that houses AWZ Ventures.

Former Conservative public safety minister Stockwell Day is also involved with the company.

AWZ Ventures has recruited former executives of the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency. They include Haim Tomer — who spent more than 30 years with the agency, serving as head of Mossad's intelligence, counter-terrorism and international divisions — and Gary Barnea, a former deputy director of Mossad's special operations division.

Richard Fadden, former director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and a former national security adviser to Harper, also works for the company.

Fadden sits on AWZ Ventures' advisory committee. In an interview with Radio-Canada, he described the business philosophy of founder Ashkenazi, who he said reached out to him after attending a conference where Fadden was a speaker.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/stephen-harper-fadden-israel-awz-cybersecurity-1.5989054