Pentagon Sends 700 Military Personnel Aid for Maui Recovery

The Pentagon has deployed around 700 personnel in Maui to assist in recovery following the devastating wildfires ravaging the region.

The Department of Defense (DoD) has 691 personnel on the ground in Maui who are engaged in planning, synchronizing, and coordinating support to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the state of Hawaii. The workforce is engaged in the transportation of cargo, personnel, supplies, and equipment, and standing by for aerial fire suppression. The DoD is also providing support for billeting, life support, and hygiene facilities for federal emergency workers.

Search and rescue teams are currently conducting searches over wide areas. Two CH-47 Chinook helicopters are aiding in fire suppression with water buckets. Joint Task Force (JTF) 5-0 is engaged in 24-hour security operations in the town of Lahaina, along with maintaining traffic control points.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has transported 32 FEMA generators to Maui. Six forensic anthropologists are involved in gathering and identifying human remains.

The military is also expected to take part in engineering and damage assessment as well as rebuilding efforts.

“I want to reiterate our commitment to the residents of Maui County and the broader Hawaiian community. The combined strength of our military and civilian partners is making a significant impact on the ground, and I’m immensely proud of every individual contributing to these efforts,” Army Brig. Gen. Stephen F. Logan said during a press conference on Friday.

Over 1,000 federal responders are currently in Maui, including 350 members from the search and rescue team together with the canine squad. Almost 6,000 survivors of the wildfires have registered for federal assistance.

Survivors who are yet to register for assistance can do so by visiting disasterassistance.gov, calling 1-800-621-3362, or via the FEMA app.

Emergency Head Resigns

According to the County of Maui, there were 114 confirmed deaths as of Aug. 18. The most destructive of the fires in Lahaina has been 90 percent contained. It has burned through an estimated 2,168 acres of land. The Olinda fire that burned around 1,081 acres is 85 percent contained.

“When a fire is 100 percent contained, it does not mean it has been extinguished. It means that firefighters have the blaze fully surrounded. A fire is declared ‘extinguished’ when fire personnel believe there is nothing left burning,” the county clarified.

The exact number of missing people in the Maui fire is unclear as thousands are displaced, and search and rescue missions are ongoing. FEMA has declined to give an estimate of the number.

https://www.ntd.com/pentagon-sends-700-military-personnel-aid-for-maui-recovery_937347.html

NYT: DOJ Planned to Let Hunter Biden Off the Hook Until Whistleblowers Emerged

The Department of Justice (DOJ) planned to let Hunter Biden off the hook without charges until two whistleblowers came forward to expose political interference in the investigation, despite the claims of Attorney General Merrick Garland.

The New York Times exposed the inside dealings of Hunter Biden’s attorneys with senior officials at DOJ, who had constrained U.S. Attorney for Delaware David Weiss even as Garland was testifying to Congress that Weiss had full authority to act in the case.

The Times reported that not only did the whistleblowers stop the cover-up, but that Hunter Biden’s lawyers now want them to be prosecuted for speaking out against his special treatment — a violation of President Biden’s promise to protect whistleblowers:

Now, the I.R.S. agents and their Republican allies say they believe the evidence they brought forward, at the precise time they did, played a role in influencing the outcome, a claim senior law enforcement officials dispute. While Mr. Biden’s legal team agrees that the I.R.S. agents affected the deal, his lawyers have contended to the Justice Department that by disclosing details about the investigation to Congress, they broke the law and should be prosecuted.

Earlier this year, The Times found, Mr. Weiss appeared willing to forgo any prosecution of Mr. Biden at all, and his office came close to agreeing to end the investigation without requiring a guilty plea on any charges. But the correspondence reveals that his position, relayed through his staff, changed in the spring, around the time a pair of I.R.S. officials on the case accused the Justice Department of hamstringing the investigation. Mr. Weiss suddenly demanded that Mr. Biden plead guilty to committing tax offenses.

…

As the testimony from the I.R.S. agents took hold, Mr. Biden’s legal team felt the ground shift beneath them. The U.S. attorney’s office suddenly went quiet.

Read the full article here.

Key figures that emerge from the Times narrative are Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf, who has been accused of interfering on Hunter Biden’s behalf; and Christopher J. Clark, a well-connected lawyer for Hunter Biden.

The whistleblowers, IRS Criminal Supervisory Special Agent Gary A. Shapley Jr. and IRS Special Agent Joseph Ziegler, told the House of Representatives that prosecutors would not let them pursue Hunter Biden’s tax crimes, and had sometimes tipped off the president’s son about impending searches or interviews.

The result was a “sweetheart” plea deal that would have prevented Hunter Biden from being investigated further — until federal judge Maryellen Noreika, a Donald Trump appointee, balked.

Earlier this month, Garland named Weiss a Special Counsel in the case, raising suspicions that his real purpose was to continue the cover-up. Charges were withdrawn from Noreika — ostensibly to be pursued elsewhere, but possibly to avoid her jurisdiction.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/08/20/nyt-doj-planned-to-let-hunter-biden-off-the-hook-until-whistleblowers-emerged/

Mass murderer sues Norway over ‘extreme’ sentence

Anders Behring Breivik is serving Norway’s longest prison term, 21 years, for killing 77 people in 2011

Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik has sued the state for violating his human rights by keeping him in “extreme” isolation, his lawyer, Oeystein Storrvik, told Reuters on Friday.

“He’s suing the state because he has been in an extreme isolation for 11 years, and has no contacts with other people except his guards,” Storrvik explained.

Breivik is serving the longest sentence possible under Norwegian law - 21 years - for killing 77 people in a combination mass shooting and truck bombing in July 2011 in the worst peacetime atrocity in the country’s history. Judges have the option to extend his sentence if he is deemed to be still a threat after that period.

After serving the first nine years of his sentence in Skien prison and reportedly tiring of the monotony of his surroundings, Breivik was moved to Ringerike prison last year, where he remains under maximum security conditions - including, according to his lawyer, solitary confinement.

“We hoped that there would be better conditions and that he could meet other people,” Storrvik lamented.

An appeals court in 2017 overturned a lower court’s decision that the conditions of Breivik’s confinement in a three-room cell violated his rights. In 2016, an Oslo court had found separating him from other prisoners due to the threat he allegedly posed amounted to “inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”

The state maintained at the time that Breivik “still wants to inspire others” and thus must be kept from other prisoners and the outside world. However, his living conditions are comparatively cushy compared to the US, where solitary cells are less than a quarter the size of his own three-cell suite.

The convicted terrorist is permitted to play video games, use the computer (without internet), work out with gym equipment, and read books and newspapers, as well as to study toward a degree in political science. He is even allowed to send and receive letters, though many of these end up censored if prison staff feel they could incite hate crimes.

While Breivik applied for parole last year, his application was rejected when the court found he still posed a threat to society. The judge ruling he lacked empathy and compassion for his victims and had not changed since committing the shocking murders after he attempted to defend his actions in gunning down dozens of mostly-teenage victims at a Labour Party youth camp on the island of Utoya, claiming most of those affected were not children but people in “leadership positions.”

Breivik’s latest lawsuit is expected to be heard in Oslo district court next spring, his lawyer said.

https://www.rt.com/news/581519-breivik-sues-norway-extreme-isolation/

More chilling threats against our client. @nytimes

again reporting Biden family attorneys lobbying @TheJusticeDept

to prosecute IRS #whistleblowers instead of the President’s son.

https://twitter.com/JsnFostr/status/1693120581137215875

YouTube Joins Prosecution Of Donald Trump

YouTube, owned by Google’s parent company, is scrubbing evidence from the web that exonerates Donald Trump in the criminal case that alleges the former president incited or conspired demonstrators to storm the Capitol building on January 6, 2021.

A focal point of the left’s conspiracy theory against Trump is that he incited the crowd during his speech at the Ellipse on January 6, 2021.

Footage recorded of Trump’s speech at the Ellipse on January 6 filmed confirms the plurality of demonstrators in the crowd could not even hear what Trump was saying.

The video proves that President Trump incited no one, called for no riots, no storming or taking of the Capital and that he asked the American people to be peaceful in their God-given right to peacefully protest.

As news of an indictment of Trump became widespread, YouTube removed the video after it sat on the site for 22 months, along with other videos that showcase the extent Trump’s speech was inaudible to protesters.

The attorney who recorded and posted the footage, Jonathon Mosely, received notice from YouTube that the video was removed because it contains “misinformation.” Mosely appealed the censorship again last week, noting that he personally filmed the scene, that it is the footage he himself recorded and the content is therefore not misinformation. But YouTube denied the appeal and it remains deleted.

Mosely, who previously represented Oath Keeper Kelly Meggs and Proud Boys leader Zachary Rehl, warns “YouTube is trying to help America’s modern ‘Inspector Javert’ Jack Smith convict Donald Trump.”

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/08/youtube-joins-prosecution-donald-trump/