20 Apr, 2023 09:29

Ex-Russian counterspy chief reveals how Hitler tried to assassinate Stalin

Turncoats posed as agents of the SMERSH counterintelligence service in an attempt to get close to the Soviet leader

A family of Nazi spies on a mission to assassinate Joseph Stalin impersonated the very people tasked to identify them – agents of the military security service SMERSH, a veteran Russian counterintelligence officer has said in an interview.

SMERSHwas a Soviet wartime organization, the name of whichtranslates as “death to spies.” It was created in 1943, after the tide had turned against the Axis invaders, and the leadership of the USSR needed greater focus on collecting fresh intel for planning offensive operations and stopping would-be saboteurs.

Wednesday marked the 80th anniversary of the creation of SMERSH. Rossiyskaya Gazeta spoke on this occasion to Col. Gen. Aleksandr Bezverkhniy, a former Russian counterintelligence commander and enthusiast of the history of clandestine operations.

The plot to assassinate Stalin was hatched byOperation Zeppelin, Nazi Germany’s effort to recruit Soviet citizens and use them against the USSR. The would-be killers were amarried couple, who posed as Pyotr Tavrin, the deputy commander of a SMERSH department in the Baltic, and his typist Lidia Shilova.

The duo was intercepted by agents of the NKVD, the state security service. Their SMERSH cover, which Bezverkhniy called “unique,” was blown after a grenade launcher, a radio-triggered bomb, dozens of rubber stamps and other spy gear was found hidden in their vehicle.

Theirinterception in September 1944proved to be a boon for real SMERSH agents, who pumped them for information and launched a “radio game.” The term, which Soviet intelligence borrowed from their opponents, refers toplanting disinformationor eliciting actionable intelusing the radios of captured spies.

The game exploiting Tavrin and Shilova lasted till April 1945, when “their” last message was transmitted. SMERSH later found that reports about the agents’ supposed progress in getting closer to Stalin were considered true by the Germans until the end.

During wartime,SMERSH reported catching over 30,000 spies, 3,500 saboteurs, and 6,000 terrorists, Bezverkhniy told the newspaper, citing archive records. Ironically, some of the successes were due toGerman forgery skills being too good.

Fake papers were often of better quality than the real deal, so SMERSH manuals told operatives to look forparticularly good photographsin IDs to root out turncoats. Another classic example wasGerman paperclips, which were made from stainless steel and did not leave rust marks on papers, unlike Soviet ones.

SMERSH was disbanded in 1946, when its expertise on action behind enemy lines was no longer needed due to the conclusion of the war.

https://www.rt.com/russia/575048-smersh-anniversary-stalin-asssassination/

20 Apr, 2023 05:31

Western countries dodging Russian oil ban – report

EU and G7 nations have found a loophole to bypass their own restrictions, research has claimed

Western states that have banned direct purchases of Russian oil are now buying itindirectly from third countries, a report from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) claimed on Wednesday.

In December, the EU, G7, and allied countries imposed an embargo and a $60-per-barrel price cap on Russian oil. Similar restrictions were introduced in February for exports of Russian petroleum products.

While the so-called ‘price cap coalition’cracked down on crude imports, it has increased purchases of refined productsfrom “oil-laundering” countries, CREA claims.

The EU, Australia, and most of the G7 countries imported acombined $45.9 billionworth of oil products from countries that have become the largest buyers of Russian crude in the 12 months since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine, the report stated.

According to CREA, “among the price cap coalition, the largest importer of oil products from the laundromat countries was the EU,”with imports reaching $19.4 billion since last February. Australia reportedly purchased $8.8 billion worth of refined crude in the 12-month period, followed by the US with $7.2 billion, the UK with $5.5 billion, and Japan with $5.2 billion. The highest proportions of imported oil products into price cap coalition countries were for diesel (29%), jet fuel (23%), and gasoil (13%).

China’s monthly exports of oil productsto the EU and Australia spiked far above historical levels in late 2022, the Finland-based research center revealed.

According to the report, which is based on ship-tracking data, the price cap coalition countriesramped up importsof refined oil products fromChina by 94%,Turkey by 43%, the United Arab Emirates by 23%, Singapore by 33%, and India by 2%.

“The price cap coalition countries are responsible for the vast majority of the increase in laundromat countries’ exports of oil products,” CREA said. It claimed that56% of Russian oilshipped to new destinations “has been transported by vesselsowned and/or insured” by Western nations.

(Sanctions don’t work! The hypocrites knew this, fake political posturing.)

https://www.rt.com/business/575011-russian-oil-price-cap–eu-g7/

20 Apr, 2023 08:38

Dozens crushed to death at charity event

The stampede in the Yemeni capital took place during the Muslim holiday of Ramadan

At least 78 peoplehave beenkilled in a stampedeat a charity event in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, on Wednesday. The country has been ravaged by more than eight years of war between Saudi-backed Sunni and Iran-backed Shiite Houthi forces, in a conflict recognized by the UN as one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises.

Local businessmenwere reportedlyhanding out gifts at a schoolto mark the Muslim holy month of Ramadan when the crush began, according to the Houthi-controlled Interior Ministry, which blamed Saudi Arabia for the tragedy. It further accused Riyadh of triggering a severe humanitarian crisis by imposing a blockade on the war-torn country.

According to AFP, citing a Houthi security official, more than 300 people sustained injuries in the incident. Yemen’s Al Masirah TV channel reported that 13 people were in critical condition.

Eyewitnesses told the media that Houthi militiamen had tried to control the crowd, including by firing shots in the air, although their efforts proved ineffective.

The Shiite movement that controls large swathes of Yemen accused eventorganizers of holding a “random distribution” of fundswithout due coordination with the authorities.

According to the Interior Ministry, two businessmen have been arrested and an investigation has been launched. Officials have also announced that they will pay compensations to the bereaved families and those injured in the stampede.

Commenting on the broader context of the incident, Mohamed Ali al-Houthi, head of the Houthi Supreme Revolutionary Committee, wrote in a series of tweets that the “countries of the US-British-Saudi-Emirati aggression and its allies” are responsible for the tragedy, and for the “bitter reality that the Yemeni people live in because of the aggression and blockade.”

He also called for the blockade of the country to be lifted.

According to the UN, over 24 million people in Yemen – 80% of the population – are in need of humanitarian aid and protection. It is estimated that almost 400,000 people have died as a direct or indirect result of the war in Yemen since 2015, with more than half being victims of hunger and inadequate healthcare.

https://www.rt.com/news/575042-scores-killed-stampede-yemen/

20 Apr, 2023 03:41

US pressuring African state to mend ties with Israel – Axios

Washington has maintained a military presence in Niger for the better part of a decade

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Niger’s president to normalize relations with Israel during his trip to Africa in March, according to Axios. The two countries officially severed ties in 2002 over Israeli military action in the Palestinian territories.

In talks with Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum last month, Blinken pressed him to “move toward normalizing relations” with Israel, Axios reported on Wednesday, citing two US and Israeli officials.

Blinken later briefed Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen on the discussions, the officials said, noting that Cohen proposed inviting Niger to the next Negev Forum, a yearly event involving the US, Israel, and Arab states such as Bahrain, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Morocco.

Multiple unnamed Israeli officials also said Niger’s leadership is open to “warming ties with Israel,” but claimedthey hoped for “deliverables” in return from Washington.

Though Blinken is the first US secretary of state to visit the country since it gained its independence from France in 1960,Niger is nevertheless a major US security partnerin the Sahel – a region stretching across Africa south of the Sahara Desert.

After investing $110 million to construct a massive drone base in the country in 2016, Washington has continued to pour large sums of security and humanitarian aid intoNiger, making it the “largest recipient of State Departmentmilitary assistance in West Africa,”according to a department fact sheet. US troops have operated in Niger intermittently throughout the War on Terror, and were deployed there under a broad ‘status of forces’ deal in 2013.

During his visit, Blinken announced a $150 million aid package for Sahel nations, including Niger, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Burkina Faso, bringing total US assistance to the region to$233 million in 2023.

Relations between Israel and Niger have long been rocky. After cutting ties in 1973, ties warmed in the wake of the 1996 Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization. However contacts were again cut after renewed Israeli fighting with the Palestinians in 2002. They have kept no formal diplomatic ties since.

Israel has normalized relations with several Arab or Muslim-majority states in recent years under theUS-brokered Abraham Accords, including Bahrain, the UAE, Sudan, and Morocco. However, some countries in the region, such as Oman, have said they are not ready to resume ties until Israel achieves peace with the Palestinians under a two-state solution, which appears unlikely in the near term as violence continues to grip the occupied territories.

https://www.rt.com/africa/575037-us-pressure-niger-israel/

19 Apr, 2023 22:45

US military drone saw UFO over Middle East – Pentagon

The “metallic orb” is the first spotted by an unmanned craft

The Pentagon on Wednesday declassified a video shot by a US MQ-9 Reaper drone after it encountered an unidentified flying object zooming over the Middle East. The incident, which wasreported last year, is thefirstsuch encounter by an unmanned aircraft with what the military has renamed Unexplained Anomalous Phenomena (UAP).

Explaining the video’s contents during a Senate hearing, Sean Kirkpatrick, director of the Pentagon’sAll-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO),listed the attributes of the bright and shimmering “metallic orb” the military drone saw.

“Silver. Translucent. Metallic. 10,000 to 30,000 feet[in the air] with apparent velocities from thestationary to machto no thermal exhausts usually detected,” he said, noting the object had behaved “consistent with other ‘metallic orb’ observations in the region.”

In the past, a human observer has been all but required for UFO sightings, as human judgment was previously required to determine whether a craft’s movement exceeded the range of what was possible with existing technology. However, theReaper’s camera was able to trackand follow the orb without a human pilot present.

Kirkpatrickdid not rule outthat the orb could be “adversary breakthrough technology,” but said it could also fall under the heading of“known objects or phenomena” or “extraterrestrials.”

Most of the time, however, the AARO manages to determine what its airborne quarry is, Kirkpatrick told the Senate, hinting he had even tipped off the Defense Department and intelligence officials that theUS’ foreign adversaries had technology Washington was totally unaware of.

TheAARO was established in Julywith the aim of uniting all Defense Department and other federal agency efforts to detect, identify and attribute “anomalous, unidentified space, airborne, submerged, and transmedium objects.” The department was established after a Senate bill the previous year demanding US intelligence agencies spill their guts about “unidentified aerial phenomena” left legislators with more questions than answers

https://www.rt.com/news/575035-pentagon-drone-ufo-orb-senate/

Fake picture

NIH and CDC Directors TestiLie to Congress

April 19, 2023

♦ National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Lawrence A. Tabak officially took office on December 20, 2021. Previously Tabak served as the Principal Deputy Director and the Deputy Ethics Counselor of NIH since August 2010. Today he was asked about the origin of SARS-CoV-2, commonly known as Covid-19. Mr. Tabak claims he has no idea where the virus came from.

– Non pretending version: Tabak knows exactly where it came from and is protecting Anthony Fauci.

♦ Rochelle P. Walensky, is the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Today Ms. Walensky was asked if her prior claims of vaccinated people not being able to spread or transmit the COVID-19 virus were accurate. Walensky clams the statementswere accurate at the timethey were made (March ’21).

– Non pretending version: the entire predicate of the govt vaccination mandate rests on the vaccine stopping the spread of COVID-19. The vaccine stopping transmission was a lie when Walensky said it in March ’21, and it is a lie she must maintain in 2023 because the OSHA mandate could not have existed without it. WATCH:

Michael P Senger

@michaelpsenger ·Follow

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky tells Congress thatvaccinated individuals can, in fact, spread COVID, contrary to her earlier statements, attributing this change to “an evolution of science.”

(“The People of the Lie” versionof truth will not work anymore! Let’s see what comes of them.)

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2023/04/19/nih-and-cdc-director-testilie-to-congress/

https://youtu.be/gaHPGzTlAH8

Rasmussen Poll: One-in-Three Americans ‘Strongly’ Back Transgender Beer Boycott

Neil Munro20 Apr 2023

Transgenderism is so toxic to many Americans that50 percent of middle-income earnersare less likely to buy Bud Light beer because the brewer hired a pro-transgender man to change the beer’s public image.

The good news for ordinary Americans — the bad news for the beer company’s accountants — was spotlighted by a Rasmussen poll of 1,041 adults, released on April 18.

Roughlyone-third of people in each income groupsay they “strongly support” the boycott, said the poll.

Fifty-four percent of Americans support a Bud Light boycott, including 53 percent of men, 57 percent of white respondents and 66 percent of Republicans, and 57 percent of people under age 40. Roughly one-third of people in each income group say they “strongly support” the boycott.

Just 18 percent “strongly oppose” a boycott, including 30 percent of Democrats and 11 percent of Republicans. Overall, a plurality of Democrats say they support the movement, 44-43.

The boycott may be biting nationwide. A TV station in Montana reported on April 19:

Aaron Swain is the owner of the Red Door in Billings and is one of many local bars that have seen Bud Light sales plummet ever since the beer giant teamed up with transgender TikTok influencer Dylan Mulvaney during March Madness.

“We have seen a decline month to date. The first 18 days of April versus the first 18 days of March, we’re down 38% on Bud Light,” said Swain Wednesday.

The boycott was triggered when Anheuser Busch hired transgender advocate Dylan Mulvaney to market Bud Light beer, even though Mulvaney is a prominent — and unhappy — advocate for the revolutionary campaign to deny the two sexes.

When the ad was announced,“5,600 news articles were published about the controversy in two weeks,” Axios.com reported on April 18. “The news received over 6 million social interactions (likes, shares, comments), according to NewsWhip data.”

The poll spotlights Americans’ deep opposition to Mulvaney’s transgender ideology, which seeks to outlaw civic and legal distinctions between men and women, and boys and girls.

The revolutionary change would suppress the public’s civic recognition of the different and complementary heterosexual needs of the two sexes. That suppression would create many opportunities for government officials and their political allies to manage the resulting civic conflicts and personal damage for their economic and political advantage.

GOP politicians are increasingly unified in opposition to the transgender push, and many polls show that most moderate swing voters oppose the fast-expanding transgender ideology.

Since the disastrous marketing decision, the beer company has tried to maneuver out of the PR meltdown without further angering beer drinkers — or the many influential pro-transgender advocates in President Joe Biden’s administration.

“We never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people,” said the company’s CEO. “We are in the business of bringing people together over a beer.”

However, eventhis symbolic retreat has prompted complaints from pro-transgender elites.

“This is not a gaffe — it’s a betrayal,” said Ben Schott, Bloomberg Opinion’s advertising and brands columnist. He continued:

Bud Light sought out a controversial influencer in a dangerously polarized space, with neither the wisdom to plan for a backlash nor the bravery to stand by its partner. Kicking a hornet’s nest for clicks and giggles before cowardly running away is no way to elevate a brand or promote a cause.

The controversy has also seeped into politics even as the company is spending to revive its non-political branding:

Bud light started a conscious and conscience revolution!

https://www.breitbart.com/economy/2023/04/20/rasmussen-poll-half-of-americans-back-transgender-beer-boycott/

Report: Democrat Rep. Dan Goldman Made Hundreds of Stock Trades Despite Pledge to Form a ‘Blind Trust’

Jordan Dixon-Hamilton19 Apr 2023

Democrat Rep. Daniel Goldman (NY) has made nearly 500 stock trades since entering office in January, despite previously pledging to form a “blind trust” to shield himself from financial conflicts of interest, Raw Story reported.

Goldman described himself as a “strong advocate for anti-corruption” and pledged to put his stock portfolio in a blind trust while campaigning to represent New York’s 10th congressional district, an area that encompasses the New York Stock Exchange.

Goldman said during an August debate:

The fact of the matter is I have spent my entire career in public service, taking down gun traffickers, fighting against corrupt individuals, being a strong advocate for anti-corruption, and then obviously being in the trenches protecting and defending our democracy. So whatever you want to reference, I was in a blind trust with all my money when I was a prosecutor. I will put my money in a blind trust as a congressperson.

Despite his promise, Goldman, one of the wealthiest members of congress with an estimatednet worth of up to $253 million, has yet to follow through on his promiseto create a blind trust nearly four months after being sworn into office.

Goldman has bought or sold shares of individual stocks more than 480 times since January, Raw Story reported. Some of Goldman’s stock purchases include banking firms, defense contractors, and tobacco companies.

For example, Goldman purchased up to $15,000 worth of shares in Credit Suisse Group, “the troubled Swiss bank that congressional investigators have recently accused of helping Americans commit tax fraud,” according to Raw Story.

He purchased up to $50,000 in Lockheed Martin Corporation and L3Harris Technologies. Goldman also sold up to $50,000 each in both Raytheon Technologies Corporation and Northrop Grumman Corporation. He also sold between $100,000 and $250,000 in Tesla stock before rebuying up to $50,000 of it.

Representatives from Goldman’s office defended the stock purchases by saying the congressman has “initiated the process of entering into a blind trust.”

Goldman spokesperson Simone Kanter toldRaw Story:

Congressman Goldman is not involved in trading stocks in his portfolio, which is managed entirely by an investment adviser. As he promised to do, immediately upon being sworn in, the congressman initiated the process of entering into a blind trust. This process is ongoing in coordination with the House Ethics Committee, and House Ethics has provided a timeline of up to one year for completion.

AlthoughGoldman has made nearly 500 stock trades in his first few months in office,Kanter said he “supports legislation that would prohibit members of Congress from trading individual stocks.”

In 2011, Breitbart News senior contributor and Government Accountability Institute (GAI) President Peter Schweizer rocked official Washington with his investigative revelations of insider trading by members of Congress.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/04/19/report-democrat-rep-dan-goldman-made-hundreds-of-stock-trades-despite-pledge-to-form-a-blind-trust/

Democrat Pushes Legislation to Invite Walt Disney World to Move to North Carolina

Alana Mastrangelo19 Apr 2023

Disney/Jerod Harris/Getty Images for Vox Media

Disney/Jerod Harris/Getty Images for Vox Medianone

2:19

North Carolina State Senator Michael Garrett (D-Guilford County) has filed Senate Bill 594, the “Mickey’s Freedom Restoration Act,” which would invite Disney World to move its entities to the Tar Heel State, according to a reportby WGHP.

This comes after Disney declared war on Florida last year when it caved to a small group of radical-left employees who demanded the company publicly condemn the Sunshine State’s anti-grooming legislation, the Parental Rights in Education law.

The Walt Disney Co. promised to fight the anti-grooming legislation, even after it was passed, calling it a “challenge to basic human rights.”

In response to this, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) stripped Disney of its self-governing privileges in the Orlando area, a valuable perk the company enjoyed for nearly five decades.

Now, Garrett and other North Carolina Democrats are mulling over ways to get Disney to move to North Carolina, and asking for $750,000 starting in July, WGHP reports.

In a press release,Garrett complainedabout howNorth Carolina lost business after the “bathroom bill” passed, suggesting he would like tosee Florida lose businessover itsanti-grooming legislation.

“North Carolina is a great place to do business,” he said. “Politicians who put their state’s economy at risk to boost their own selfish political ambitions are a liability.”

“In North Carolina, we’ve learned this lesson the hard way. When HB2, the so-called ‘bathroom bill’ passed, other states capitalized on our state’s disgraceful misstep,” Garrett added.

TheState Senator went on to bizarrely refer to Disney, which has declared war on children in Florida, asa company “seeking refuge.”

“I welcome The Walt Disney Company and all other businesses seeking refuge from theculture war madnesscurrently gripping the great state of Florida,” Garrett said. (This guy needs to be investigated?)

Garrett also mentioned, “We haven’t spoke to Disney yet. They were just notified today of the legislation.”

(According to this guy money for the state is better than being anti-groomer. How do these people ever get elected? No way on the planet that Disney will move to NC. Political posturing does not make a state a better place.)

https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2023/04/19/democrat-pushes-legislation-to-invite-walt-disney-world-to-move-to-north-carolina/

Republicans Drop $1 Million in West Virginia Targeting Joe Manchin

Jacob Bliss19 Apr 2023

One Nation, an outside political advocacygroup linked to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell(R-KY), is dropping a million-dollar advocacy ad in West Virginia, targeting Sen. Joe Manchin (D) for “falling in line with D.C. liberals” on climate policies.

The million-dollar ad drop over 18 months out from the election shows that the Republicans are willing to spend a lot of cash in West Virginia.

The ad — which will run statewide on broadcast and cable television in addition to radio and digital — highlights the effect that the Inflation Reduction Act had on West Virginia’s jobs after it passed. Manchin, who has recently been outspoken about the impact of radical left-wing environmental policies such as ESG, was the “chief architect” of the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act.

“One hundred thousand West Virginia jobs are at risk thanks to Senator Joe Manchin falling in line with DC liberals to pass Joe Biden’s inflation Reduction Act,” the ad narrator said.

“Biden and Manchin’s IRA will supercharge the U.S. moving away from fossil fuels … And with Joe Manchin’s help, it could cost West Virginia at least 100,000 jobs,” the narrator added. “Tell Senator Manchin to fight for West Virginia jobs, not DC liberal climate policy.”

One Nation President and CEO Steven Law stated in a press release that “Senator Manchin sided with President Joe Biden and Washington liberals to pass a trillion-dollar climate law that will hurt West Virginia workers and their families.”

“The so-called ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ will hurt Americans’ quality of life in a lot of ways, and One Nation will continue to advocate against bad policies promoted by lawmakers like Senator Manchin,” Law added.

Manchin, who used to be one of the more popular senators, hasbecome one of the least popular, next to McConnell.The latest Morning Consult poll found that55 percentof West Virginia voters view himnegatively.

Additionally, the UVA Center for Politics marked West Virginia’s U.S. Senate seat as “Lean Republican” in the first set of projections for the 2024 cycle. Sabato’s Crystal Ball Managing Editor Kyle Kondik noted that starting the incumbent as an “underdog” with the “Lean Republican” rating is “fairly unusual.”

The projection further explained that this rating is partially due to Manchin being undecided on reelection and the state’s political landscape changing since he last ran.

In 2018 when he ran for reelection, he won by roughly three points against state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey (R) in a good midterm year for Democrats, but the state has become redder over the years. During the 2020 presidential election, formerPresident Donald Trump won the state by roughly 40 points.

(Kind of weird McConnell group going after Manchin since him and his group do the same as Manchin. I guess they smell blood in the water and want to replace him with a corrupt RINO. They need to include his statement at WEF, that“the US has a problem because we have a free press”, if they want to be effective!)

https://www.breitbart.com/2024-election/2023/04/19/republicans-drop-1-million-west-virginia-targeting-joe-manchin/