11 Jul, 2023 09:58

FBI colluded with Ukraine in social media crackdown – lawmakers

The bureau failed to properly vet information provided by Kiev, the US House Judiciary Committee says

The FBI cooperated with Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) to clamp down on social media accounts disseminating alleged “Russian disinformation,” but ended up flagging pages run by the US State Department and American journalists, a report by the House Judiciary Committee has revealed.

Released on Monday, the report accused the FBI of not properly vetting lists of accounts provided to it by the SBU before sending them to the likes of Meta, Google, and Twitter.

As a result, the two agencies “flagged for social media companies the authentic accounts of Americans, including a verified US State Department account and those belonging to American journalists,” and requested that those pages be deleted, the document read.

On some occasions, the FBI followed up to ensure that “these accounts were taken down,” according to the report, which was based on documents subpoenaed from Meta and Alphabet in February.

In one of the SBU’s lists forwarded by the FBI to Meta, the official Russian-language Instagram account of the US State Department was described as “distribut[ing] content that promotes war, inaccurately reflects events in Ukraine, justifies Russian war crimes in Ukraine in violation of international law,” the report stated.

CNN pointed out that Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, apparently did not comply with the request to delete the State Department page.

Another moderation request filed to Facebook by the US domestic security agency included a roster of 5,165 accounts, the House Judiciary Committee said.

The report cited an email by a senior Twitter employee who indicated to the FBI that “a few accounts of American and Canadian journalists” were on one of the lists sent to the company by the agency.

Alphabet platforms Google and YouTube were also approached about censoring alleged pro-Russian accounts. A high-ranking member of Google’s cybersecurity team told the authors of the report that the company had been “deluged with various requests” for the removal of content, mainly from “the Ukrainian government, other Eastern European governments, the European Union, and the European Commission.”

The House Judiciary Committee suggested that theFBI had “violated the First Amendment rights of Americans and potentially undermined our national security” through its partnership with the SBU, claiming that the latter had been “infiltrated by Russian-aligned actors.”

The author of the paper noted the purge within the SBU by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky last summer, which saw the agency’s head sacked and hundreds of criminal cases launched against employees on treason charges.

The report was released ahead of FBI Director Christopher Wray’s testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, which is scheduled for Wednesday.

A Judiciary Committee aide told CNN that the Republicans on the panel are planning to question Wray about the content of the paper and use it to claim that the FBI interferes in free speech.

https://www.rt.com/news/579523-fbi-ukraine-meta-twitter/

PN>>19165055 Liar Mike Pence Gets Huffy When Voters Confront Him about the 2020 Election

Liar Mike Pence Gets Huffy When Voters Confront Him about the 2020 Election

Things got heated between Mike Pence and a Trump supporter during an Iowa campaign stop this week. The Trump voter confronted Pence over his dereliction of duty in not returning the disputed slates of electors back to the swing states.

She also notes that Joe Biden would not be in the White House right now, if Pence had not been a coward but had instead answered the call of history on January 6, 2021. Pence’s cowardice has forever altered the course of American history.

Naturally, Pence got huffy with the voter and started lying through his teeth again.

We’ll show you the video of the confrontation below, but we cannot stress this enough: Every word that comes out of Pants-on-FirePence’s mouth is either a flat-out lie or a half-truth based on deception.

Mike Pence continues to say that he had no authority to send dueling slates of electors back to the swing states, under the Constitution. That is a deceptive statement crafted by his lawyers and political consultants to hide the truth.

Mike Pence did not have the authority “under the Constitution” to do that. He had the authority to do it under the Electoral Count Act.

The 1876 presidential election between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel Tilden was contested. There was widespread suspected voter fraud in multiple states. All of those states sent dueling slates of Republican and Democrat electors to Congress for the certification of the election. Nobody knew what to do, because the Constitution doesn’t mention what to do in the case of widespread voter fraud. Congress was deadlocked for weeks trying to decide who was supposed to be the new president. It was a hot mess, but eventually Hayes was declared the winner by one electoral vote.

In response to that contested election, Congress pass the Electoral Count Act in 1887. This act specifically gave the vice president the authority to send contested elector slates back to the states, so that the individual states can sort everything out. That can be done by holding recounts, audits or even do-over elections, especially if the voters had no confidence in the outcome of a race.

Mike Pence did not have authority under the Constitution to send votes back to the states.He absolutely did have the authority to do it under the Electoral Count Act. Pence must think that no one has heard of Wikipedia, to think he can get away with playing these word games.

Back in the run-up to the counting of the votes on January 6, Pence claimed he did not have authority to send the votes back under the Electoral Count Act. If that was true, then why did the Democrat-controlled Congress suddenly amend the Electoral Count Act last year? They specifically amended it to strip away the vice president’s power to send dueling slates of electors back. That actually happened.

“He didn’t have the power, but then they amended the law to take that power away from him!”

What?!

Do you remember all of that research that indicates that a lot of politicians have sociopathic traits? I couldn’t help but think of that when watching the smarmy and self-righteous coward Mike Pence stand there and lie to this lady’s face. Her concerns were legitimate and truthful and heartfelt. Pence screwed America over in a monumental way, by failing to answer when history called. For shame!

I’m not exaggerating in the least.

Every statement that Mike Pence makes in his lengthy and huffy response to a voter’s legitimate concerns is false. It’s not even close. What he says is 180 degrees opposite from the truth.

Watch video

https://www.americanlibertyreportnews.com/articles/liar-mike-pence-gets-huffy-when-voters-confront-him-about-the-2020-election/

>>19165957

I hate this guy invoking the name of God when he lies his ass off!

12 Jul, 2023 12:02

Russia’s top spy reveals topics of secret talks with CIA

The Wagner mutiny served as a “pretext” for CIA Director William Burns to discuss the Ukraine conflict, Sergey Naryshkin believes

It was Ukraine, rather than the mutiny of Russian private military company Wagner, that was the main subject of talks between CIA Director William Burns and Sergey Naryshkin, the head of Russia’s foreign intelligence service SVR, the Moscow official told media on Wednesday.

The phone call between the two intelligence chiefs took place in late June and was first reported by Western media, including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. The outlets said Burns wanted to assure his Russian counterpart that the US government had nothing to do with the then-ongoing mutiny by businessman Evgeny Prigozhin, the commander of the private military force.

The issue was indeed discussed, but Naryshkin believes that “it was, to a large degree, a pretext, because the main part of the conversation focused on the issue of Ukraine,” according to his interview with TASS. The call lasted for over an hour, he recalled.

“We considered, debated what we should do with Ukraine,” the Russian official said.

Contrary to some speculation in the press, the two didn’t discuss the CIA director’s visit to Kiev, which he’d made earlier in that month, the SVR chief added.

Naryshkin and Burns met in person in November 2022 in Ankara. The Russian spy chief also told TASS that he was open to further, similar contacts.

Burns, who is 67, is a career diplomat who held the office of the US Ambassador to Moscow in the 2000s and, later, several top-level positions in the State Department. US President JoeBiden reportedly relies on the man to convey important messages to Moscow privately.

https://www.rt.com/russia/579592-naryshkin-burns-phone-call/

12 Jul, 2023 11:01

Kiev mistrusts G7 security guarantees – defense minister

Aleksey Reznikov said he wants to see “details and prices” of the support offered to his country in lieu of NATO protection

Ukrainian Defense Minister Aleksey Reznikov has expressed skepticism over security guarantees that G7 nations are set to offer Kiev, after NATO’s failure to chart a roadmap to membership for Kiev.

The club of leading economies is to issue a declaration of support for Ukraine on Wednesday, which includes security assistance commitments. The document is to be issued on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Lithuania. Reznikov wants to see “details and prices” of the proposed G7 pledge before drawing conclusions, he told The Telegraph newspaper.

“After the Budapest Memorandum, we will not believe or not just trust paper without any cost,” he explained.

The document he referred to is one of three signed in 1994 by the US, UK and Russia with three newly independent former Soviet republics, which used to host nuclear weapons.Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukrainewere given security assurances and support for their territorial integrity by the other signatoriesin exchange for having non-nuclear status. Under the pact, Soviet atomic weapons inherited by those three countries were handed over to Russia.

Kiev claimed that the US, UK and Russia failed to meet their obligations in 2014, when Crimea voted to break away from Ukraine following a Western-backed armed coup in Kiev, and rejoined Russia. Moscow called the change a legitimate expression of Crimeans’ right to self-determination, while Kiev and its Western allies consider the region to be illegally occupied. However, the Western signatories have argued that the memorandum was a political declaration rather than a binding commitment.

Ukraine asked NATO to offer it a roadmap to membership during this week’s summit of leaders in Lithuania. The US-led military bloc declined, and instead offered to let Kiev skip the Membership Action Plan phase. Ukraine will still need to meet the regular conditions for a candidate to be invited.

Zelensky blasted the outcome as “unprecedented and absurd” on Tuesday, before the final NATO communique was released. The president’s tweet infuriated the US delegation, according to sources cited by The Washington Post, as it was perceived as a last-ditch attempt to pressure the alliance into taking a decision more favorable to Ukraine.

Reznikov is part of the Ukrainian delegation headed by the president, attending the event in Lithuania. The minister met several Western defense officials andsigned an agreement on the trainingof Ukrainian personnel in theuse of Western-made fighter jetsduring the first day of the event.

https://www.rt.com/russia/579589-reznikov-g7-guarantees-prices/

12 Jul, 2023 12:17

US sanctions pro-Russian intelligence chief

Serbia’s Aleksandar Vulin has been targeted by Washington for supporting Moscow, President Aleksandar Vucic has claimed

The US has sanctioned the head of Serbia’s intelligence service, Aleksandar Vulin, accusing him of corruption and involvement with an arms dealer. In response, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic claimed Washington is targeting Vulin purely for his pro-Russian stance.

The US Treasury Department announced the sanctions on Tuesday, describing the Serbian intelligence chief as abusing his position “for personal gain while undermining effective and democratic governance in the Western Balkans.”

According to US authorities, Vulin is implicated in the drug trade and has aided arms dealer Slobodan Tesic, as well as “[using] his public positions to support Russia, facilitating Russia’s malign activities.”

Any property or assets in the US belonging to Vulin will now be seized by the government.

According to the statement, individuals and businesses are also prohibited from engaging in any transactions with the Serbian official, as well as providing him with goods or services.

Commenting on the decision, Serbian President Vucic insisted on Wednesday that the measures “have not been imposed on Aleksandar Vulin for any crime, corruption or anything.”

“The sanctions were imposed because of his position toward the Russian Federation,” he claimed.

Speaking last July to Serbia’s Pink TV while serving as interior minister, Vulin claimed that the West was pressuring Belgrade to abandon its independent foreign policy.

The official warned that should Serbia agree to impose sanctions on Russia, the West would go on to demand that Belgrade provide weapons to Ukraine, and eventually request troops “for conflicts with Russia.”

Serbia is one of the few European countries that have refused to impose punitive measures on Moscow over the conflict with Ukraine. Belgrade has also declined to supply arms to Kiev, instead striving to maintain neutrality.

https://www.rt.com/news/579591-us-sanctions-serbia-intel-chief-russia/