8% of Chicago's City Council Are Currently Out On Bond
Chicago has a city council with 50 Aldermen. Four are currently out on bond. The list may grow in the next 30 days…. We kid you not. The two pictured on the left are former Chicago police officers..
https://nalert.blogspot.com/2019/05/8-of-chicagos-city-council-are.html
US military complex is a ‘malignant virus’ that's evolved to defend itself – Andrew Cockburn
The US military industrial complex has grown into a self-sustaining organism with an immune system that attacks and smothers any threat to its food supply – the taxpayers' money, writes renowned defense analyst Andrew Cockburn.
Cockburn outlines the process that allows US defense contractors to thrive despite repeatedly missing deadlines and producing overpriced, subpar equipment. The system has evolved to be very good at defending itself – while leaving the country, “in reality so poorly defended,” he writes in his latest think piece for Harper's Magazine titled ‘The Military-Industrial Virus: How bloated defense budgets gut our armed forces’.
Cockburn, whose 40+ years of experience include numerous books and publications on the US' military complex, its foreign wars and adversaries, looks at the current state of America's armed force – from the overpriced “disaster” that is the F-35 fighter, to the few “dilapidated” minesweepers, to faulty personal protection and radios American soldiers are equipped with – and compares it to the exorbitant defense bills the taxpayer has to foot.
The MIC is embedded in our society to such a degree that it cannot be dislodged, and also that it could be said to be concerned, exclusively, with self-preservation and expansion, like a giant, malignant virus.
The system's “beauty,” he ironically points out, “lies in its self-reinforcing nature.” Every new system, weapon, or piece of equipment, costs up to twice as much as the one it's built to replace, and is often either plagued by bugs that have to be fixed (for additional money), or is straight-up worse than the predecessor. Busted deadlines and post-rollout fixes then inflate the costs even further, lining the defense contractors' pockets.
With this in mind, defense spending has been growing at a steady pace since World War II, and when there's talk of slashing that growth, a perceived 'threat' emerges to justify bumping it up. This was the case with the “fraudulent specter” of the “missile gap” with the Soviet Union during the Cold War, or the war in Vietnam.
https://www.rt.com/usa/459505-us-military-industrial-virus/
German Government Classifies as Secret Number of ‘Refugees’ Arriving By Plane
Figure was as high as 30 per cent a year ago.
The German government has made secret the number of “refugees” arriving in the country by plane after previous figures showed it was as high as 30 per cent.
The idea of refugees risking their lives to flee war torn countries, whether by land or even more dangerous boat journey, has been popularized by the media.
However, at least a third of asylum seekers who enter Germany do so via a quick flight.
Previous figures released a year ago by the Federal Ministry of the Interior showed that 30 per cent were arriving by air.
In an attempt to discover which European countries were allowing migrants to continue on to Germany, AfD MP Leif-Erik Holm attempted to get up to date numbers.
However, he was told that the German government now considers this information to be a “secret classified matter” in the interests of “state welfare”.
Holm can view the numbers privately in the Bundestag but cannot reveal them to the public. He asserts that this has been done to deliberately hide the true number of asylum seekers arriving by plane from the public.
The AfD MP is demanding to know how asylum seekers are allowed to be waived through airports and board planes destined for Germany without papers or visas given the obvious security threat this represents.
Holm has now asked Interior Minister Horst Seehofer to “end his blockade and secrecy policy immediately” by telling the public the true numbers of refugees arriving by plane.
https://summit.news/2019/05/15/german-government-classifies-as-secret-number-of-refugees-arriving-by-plane/
France Takes Unprecedented Action Against Reporters Who Published Secret Government Document
JOURNALISTS IN FRANCE are facing potential jail sentences in an unprecedented case over their handling of secret documents detailing the country’s involvement in the Yemen conflict.
Earlier this week, a reporter from Radio France and the co-founders of Paris-based investigative news organization Disclose were called in for questioning at the offices of the General Directorate for Internal Security, known as the DGSI, an organization that is tasked with fighting terrorism, espionage, and other domestic threats, similar in function to the FBI in the United States.
The two news organizations published stories in April – together with The Intercept, Mediapart, ARTE Info, and Konbini News – that revealed the vast amount of French, British, and American military equipment sold to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and subsequently used by those nations to wage war in Yemen.
The stories – based on a secret document authored by France’s Directorate of Military Intelligence, which was obtained by the journalists at Disclose – highlighted that officials at the top of the French government had seemingly lied to the public about the country’s involvement in the war. They also demonstrated the extent of Western nations’ complicity in the devastating conflict, which has killed or injured more than 17,900 civilians and triggered a famine that has taken the lives of an estimated 85,000 children.
The French government did not want the document to be made public and officials were furious when its release made headlines around the world. Not long after it was published, Disclose’s co-founders Geoffrey Livolsi and Mathias Destal, along with Radio France reporter Benoît Collombat, were asked to attend a hearing at the DGSI’s headquarters in northwest Paris.
More
https://theintercept.com/2019/05/17/france-takes-unprecedented-action-against-reporters-who-published-secret-government-document/
Iran not seeking escalation in region, but will defend itself: Tehran's UN envoy
Tehran's ambassador to the United Nations says Iran will not take steps towards the escalation of tensions in the Middle East, but will stand ready to defend itself against any act of aggression, as the US builds up its military presence in the region amid tensions with Tehran.
In an interview with America's National Public Radio (NPR) released on Thursday, Majid Takht-e Ravanchi said a military conflict in the Middle East will be in the interest of no one, neither the United States nor Iran and other regional states.
"We are not interested in the escalation of tensions in our region, because if something goes wrong, everybody will lose, including Iran, including the US, including all the countries in the region," said the senior diplomat.
Takht-e Ravanchi added that Iran does not consider war as "an option," but it will have to be prepared to face any action against its forces and defend the country's territorial integrity and sovereignty.
He also referred to remarks by Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei that Iran was not after a military confrontation, saying, "We are not going to prepare anything for a conflict and this is being said at the highest level of our system."
Tensions mounted between Tehran and Washington last May, when US President Donald Trump pulled his country out of a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran — named the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — and re-imposed harsh bans against the Islamic Republic in defiance of global criticisms.
Those tensions saw a sharp rise on the first anniversary of Washington's exit from the deal as the US moved to ratchet up the pressure on Iran by tightening its oil sanctions and sending military reinforcements, including an aircraft carrier strike group, a squadron of B-52 bombers, and a battery of patriot missiles, to the Middle East.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/05/16/596109/Iran-US-Escalation-Tensions
24th International Catholic-Jewish meeting focuses on migrants
Held biennially since the 1971 Vatican declaration of 'Nostra Aetate,' high ranking Catholic clergy members and Italian leaders me with Jewish activists to combat hate together.
Pope Francis, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, Chair of The International Jewish Committee on Inter-religious Consultations [IJCIC] Rabbi Daniel Polish, Israel's ambassador to the Holy See Oren David and high-ranking Catholic clergy and Jewish leaders attended the 24th International Catholic-Jewish Liaison Committee Meeting which took place in Rome between Monday and Friday.
Citing appreciation for the decision of this year's meeting to focus on refugees, the Pope supported “the fight against the troubling recrudescence of antisemitism" as well as "concern for the persecution of Christians,” IJCIC reported.
Delegates met refugees currently living in Italy when they visited the Sant'egidio community in Rome. Harking to the words of Pope Francis urging Catholics to "welcome and protest," the community created in 2016 "The Humanitarian Corridors" in war-torn Syria. With the help of the Italian Protestant churches, it has aided roughly one thousand people.
The growth of antisemitism around the world, witnessed by the tragic shooting attacks in synagogues in Pittsburg and Poway in the US, was discussed as well as the attacks against Christians in Sri Lanka.
https://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/24Th-International-Catholic-Jewish-meeting-focuses-on-migrants-590005
Missouri House Passes Strict Anti-Abortion Bill
Though it's not quite as strict as the law that Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey just signed into law, an anti-abortion bill passed by lawmakers in Missouri on Friday would ban abortions after more than eight weeks. And with the state's governor poised to sign it, Missouri is about to become the latest state to pass a restrictive abortion law as Republicans angle to get the issue back in front of the Supreme Court.
Missouri's Republican-controlled House passed the bill, HB 128, with a 110-44 vote on Friday, one day after the Senate passed a similar bill. The bill would make it illegal for a woman to get an abortion after the eighth week of pregnancy.
Doctors who violate the law would face a Class B felony, punishable by up to 15 years in prison (which isn't nearly as much as the 99 year maximum in Alabama).
Like the Alabama bill, Missouri's bill doesn't allow exceptions for rape and incest.
The bill now travels to the desk of Missouri Gov. Mike Parson, who is expected to sign it into law in about a week. Missouri would then join Ohio, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama and a handful of other states in passing restrictive abortion laws designed to provoke legal challenges that will, presumably, ultimately be adjudicated by the Supreme Court.
Pro-choice advocates are terrified that the Supreme Court might invalidate Roe v. Wade as soon as next year, and with more states expected to pass restrictive abortion laws, President Trump is already delivering on one of the promises he made to the evangelicals.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-05-17/missouri-house-passes-strict-anti-abortion-bill
BDS is antisemitic rules German Bundestag in landmark vote
Germany is the first country in the European Union to rule that the BDS movement is antisemitic.
In a landmark vote the German Bundestag ruled on Friday that the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement is antisemitic, calling on German Federal offices and bodies not to collaborate in any way with events that advocate to boycott or delegitimize the Jewish state.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated the Bundestag on its “important decision to recognize BDS as an anti-Semitic movement and that it is forbidden to support it."
Germany is the first EU member state to equate the BDS movement with antisemitism.
"I particularly appreciate the Bundestag's call on Germany to stop funding organizations that work against the existence of the State of Israel," Netanyahu said, "I hope this decision will lead to concrete action and I call on other countries to adopt similar legislation."
Minister of Strategic Affairs Gilad Erdan reacted to the decision by calling it "an important step in the war against the boycott and the new antisemitism" and argued that "the true face of the boycott movement had been exposed."
He called on other countries in the European Union to follow Germany.
The spokesperson of the Foreign Ministry Emmanuel Nahshon also lauded the decision. In a tweet he noted the large majority that supported the resolution.
We welcome the @Bundestag resolution,adopted by a large majority, against #BDS.The German parliament recognized the anti Semitic nature of #BDS and its illegitimate boycott activities. This is an important step which we hope will be adopted by other European legislative bodies.
— Emmanuel Nahshon (@EmmanuelNahshon) May 17, 2019
Acting Foreign Minister Israel Katz said, "The German parliament has ruled that [BDS] is an anti-Semitic movement, which promotes an illegal boycott against Israel. This is an important step. We hope that other countries in Europe will follow suit."
Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein tweeted: "Thank you #Bundestag! For the courageous and important decision! BDS is a dangerous, antisemitic movement. You are the first, but many others will follow in your footsteps. Thank you, Bundestag President my friend Wolfgang Schäuble, for your efforts."
Thank you #Bundestag! for the courageous and important decision! BDS is a dangerous, antisemitic movement. You are the first, but many others will follow in your footsteps.
Thank you, Bundestag President my friend Wolfgang Schäuble, for your efforts.
— Yuli Edelstein (@YuliEdelstein) May 17, 2019
Blue and White's Yair Lapid said, “The decision by the Bundestag to label the BDS movement antisemitic and call on the German government to oppose all forms of BDS is an important and just step. BDS is the modern manifestation of an ancient hatred. Now is the time for the rest of Europe to follow Germany’s lead.”
Israel's Ambassador to Germany Jeremy Issacharoff tweeted,"The Bundestag has just adopted a Resolution condemning BDS and Anti-Semitism by a wide margin. We welcome this initiative by its sponsors. It has broader European significance given that BDS makes no attempt to build coexistence and peace between Israel and all of its neighbors."
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/German-Bundestag-rules-BDS-is-antisemitic-589999
Televangelist Pat Robertson Says Alabama's "Extreme" Abortion Law "Goes Too Far"
This week, multiple southern states have moved to ban abortion under very strict penalties, sparking backlash across the country.
As The Mind Unleashed reported earlier this week, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signed HB314 into law, a bill that outlaws nearly all abortions, giving no exemption for cases of rape or incest. The bill also reclassifies abortion as a Class A felony, which is punishable by up to 99 years in prison for doctors who perform the procedure.
The bill was so harsh that it even had some unlikely conservative critics, including televangelist Pat Robertson. Robertson is strongly against abortion, but believes that the law goes too far and is simply not reasonable enough to overturn Roe vs. Wade in the supreme court.
“I think Alabama has gone too far. It’s an extreme law and they want to challenge Roe vs. Wade but my humble view is that this is not the case we want to bring to the Supreme Court because I think this one will lose… The Alabama case, God bless them, they’re trying to do something, but I don’t think that’s the case that I’d want to bring to the Supreme Court,” Robertson said on his show “The 700 Club,” according to The Hill.
While it seems Robertson is merely objecting to the law for strategic reasons, if one of the most extreme conservative figures in the country understands that this is an extreme law, it should make advocates of this legislation reconsider their support.
https://themindunleashed.com/2019/05/televangelist-pat-robertson-says-alabamas-extreme-abortion-law-goes-too-far.html
Newly Released FBI Docs Shed Light on Apparent Mossad Foreknowledge of 9/11 Attacks
New information released by the FBI has brought fresh scrutiny to the possibility that the “Dancing Israelis,” at least two of whom were known Mossad operatives, had prior knowledge of the attacks on the World Trade Center.
NEW YORK — For nearly two decades, one of the most overlooked and little known arrests made in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks was that of the so-called “High Fivers,” or the “Dancing Israelis.” However, new information released by the FBI on May 7 has brought fresh scrutiny to the possibility that the “Dancing Israelis,” at least two of whom were known Mossad operatives, had prior knowledge of the attacks on the World Trade Center.
Shortly after 8:46 a.m. on the day of the attacks, just minutes after the first plane struck the World Trade Center, five men — later revealed to be Israeli nationals — had positioned themselves in the parking lot of the Doric Apartment Complex in Union City, New Jersey, where they were seen taking pictures and filming the attacks while also celebrating the destruction of the towers and “high fiving” each other. At least one eyewitness interviewed by the FBI had seen the Israelis’ van in the parking lot as early as 8:00 a.m. that day, more than 40 minutes prior to the attack. The story received coverage in U.S. mainstream media at the time but has since been largely forgotten.
The men — Sivan Kurzberg, Paul Kurzberg, Oded Ellner, Yaron Shimuel and Omar Marmari — were subsequently apprehended by law enforcement and claimed to be Israeli tourists on a “working holiday” in the United States where they were employed by a moving company, Urban Moving Systems. Upon his arrest, Sivan Kurzberg told the arresting officer, “We are Israeli; we are not your problem. Your problems are our problems, The Palestinians are the problem.”
For years, the official story has been that these individuals, while they had engaged in “immature” behavior by celebrating and being “visibly happy” in their documenting of the attacks, had no prior knowledge of the attack. However, newly released FBI copies of the photos taken by the five Israelis strongly suggest that these individuals had prior knowledge of the attacks on the World Trade Center. The copies of the photos were obtained via a FOIA request made by a private citizen.
https://www.mintpressnews.com/newly-released-fbi-docs-shed-light-on-apparent-mossad-foreknowledge-of-9-11-attacks/258581/
https://www.scribd.com/document/46173840/Dancing-Israelis-Police-Report
https://archive.org/details/DancingIsraelisFBIReport/page/n32
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H20Naj176M0
https://web.archive.org/web/20020802194310/http://abcnews.go.com/sections/2020/DailyNews/2020_whitevan_020621.html
https://www.scribd.com/document/409691150/FOIA-Release-of-9-11-Dancing-Israelis-thru-the-FBI
https://twitter.com/DualCitiznPepe
https://archive.org/details/DancingIsraelisFBIReport/page/n19
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A cover-up certainly seems to have happened to some extent, between the destruction of records of the investigation and the fact that official conclusions of the investigation do not add up. In the latter case, the FBI — in a file dated September 24, 2001– officially stated that they “determined that none of the Israelis were actively engaged in clandestine intelligence activities in the United States.” However, that conclusion was directly contradicted by U.S. officials a year later and by the fact that Israel’s own government subsequently acknowledged that the five Israelis had indeed been involved in “clandestine intelligence activities in the United States.”
In addition, the new FOIA release of the photos suggests that another FBI conclusion — that “none of the pictures developed from the film found inside the 35-mm camera depicted the twin towers prior to the attack” — was inaccurate. This may explain why the images released via the recent FOIA request were heavily edited leaving details in the background greatly obscured, making it impossible to determine whether the photos were taken prior to or during the attacks based solely on the state of the towers.
“Tourists” with cash-stuffed socks, box cutters, and explosives?
Beyond the photos and observed activities of the so-called “Dancing Israelis,” it is worth revisiting several other suspicious circumstances linked to their arrest that clearly show that the men in question were hardly the “tourists” they had claimed to be. One often cited example is the fact that one of the men, Oded Ellner, had a “white sock-like sack filled with $4,700 in cash,” as well as maps of the city with certain places highlighted, and box cutters. In addition, the van in which the Israelis were arrested was “oddly” lacking “equipment typically used in a moving company’s daily duties,” according to the FBI, and residue of explosives was found in the van.
Of the explosive residue, the declassified FBI report states:
A search of the van and individuals was conducted at the time of the vehicle stop. The vehicle was also searched by a trained bomb-sniffing dog which yielded a positive result for the presence of explosive traces. Swabs of the vehicle’s interior were taken, and those samples were sent to the FBI laboratory for further analysis. Final results are still pending.”
Cont. from images:
In addition, also on the day of the September 11 attacks, Netanyahu — who at the time was not in political office — held a press conference in which he claimed that he had predicted the attacks on the World Trade Center by “militant Islam” in his 1995 book, Fighting Terrorism: How Democracies Can Defeat Domestic and International Terrorism. In that book, Netanyahu had posited that Iranian-linked “militants” would set off a nuclear bomb in the basement of the World Trade Center.
During his press conference on the day of the attacks, Netanyahu also asserted that the 9/11 attacks would be a turning point for America and compared them to the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. Netanyahu’s statement echoes the infamous line from the “Rebuilding America’s Defenses” document authored by the neoconservative think tank, the Project for a New Ameican Century (PNAC). That line reads. “Further, the process of transformation [towards a neo-Reaganite foreign policy and hyper-militarism], even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event — like a new Pearl Harbor.”
Then again, years later In 2008, the Israeli newspaper Maariv reported that Netanyahu had stated that the September 11 attacks had greatly benefited Israel. He was quoted as saying: “We are benefiting from one thing, and that is the attack on the Twin Towers and Pentagon, and the American struggle in Iraq.”
Indeed, it goes without saying that the aftermath of 9/11 — which involved the U.S. leading a destructive effort throughout the Middle East — has indeed benefited Israel. Many of the U.S.’ post-9/11 “nation-building” efforts have notably mirrored the policy paper “A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm,” which was authored by American neoconservatives — PNAC members among them — for Netanyahu’s first term as prime minister.
That document calls for the creation of a “New Middle East” by, among other things, “weakening, containing, and even rolling back Syria” and “removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq — an important Israeli strategic objective in its own right.” As is known now, both of those main objectives have since come to pass, each with strong Israeli involvement.
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House approves anti-LGBT discrimination Equality Act
The House on Friday for the first time approved legislation banning anti-LGBT discrimination in a 236-173 vote.
Every Democrat voted for the measure, as did eight Republicans.
The Equality Act would expand the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Fair Housing Act to ban discrimination in employment, housing, jury selection and public accommodations based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
“This legislation will provide members of LGBTQ Americans protections from being denying medical care or being fired or thrown out of their homes,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said on the floor ahead of the vote.
He said the bill would expand the definition of “who is understood to be included in the Declaration of Independence.”
Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), a civil rights leader, applauded the legislation for continuing efforts to fight discrimination in the United States.
“Today on this day we have an opportunity to send a message now to help end discrimination in our country and set all of our people free,” Lewis said.
The measure, spearheaded by Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.), was expected to be approved but faced opposition from conservatives, who said it would infringe upon people’s religious liberties.
Opponents argued the bill “is anything but equalizing,” in the words of Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.).
“In fact, this bill legalizes discrimination — government imposed top-down discrimination against those with time-honored views of marriage and gender,” she said in remarks on the floor ahead of the vote.
GOP Reps. Susan Brooks (Ind.), Mario Diaz-Balart (Fla.), Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.), Will Hurd (Texas), John Katko (N.Y.), Tom Reed (N.Y.), Elise Stefanik (N.Y.) and Greg Walden (Ore.) all opted to vote with Democrats.
More than 200 businesses, including Facebook, Google, Hilton and JPMorgan Chase, backed the measure. Groups opposing it included the Heritage Foundation and the Family Research Council.
The Heritage Foundation alleged the bill would “force employers and workers to conform to new sexual norms,” “force hospitals and insurers to provide and pay for these therapies against any moral or medical objections” and “lead to the erasure of women.”
The bill faces an uphill battle in the Republican-controlled Senate, where it is unlikely Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) will bring the measurer up for a vote.
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/444281-house-approves-anti-lgbt-discrimination-bill
“Treason!” – Barr Finds “Government Power Was Used To Spy On American Citizens
Barr told WSJ that "government power was used to spy on American citizens…I can't imagine any world where we wouldn't take a look and make sure that was done properly."
In his first pair of interviews since being sworn in, Attorney General Barr told Fox News and WSJ that he was pursuing the investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe – an investigation he has tasked
John Durham, the US Attorney from Connecticut, with leading – because Americans need to know whether the government “put a thumb on the scale” to try and undermine President Trump both during the campaign and during the first two years of his term, just like “we need to ensure that foreign actors don’t influence the outcome of our elections.”
Separately, he told WSJ that “government power was used to spy on American citizens…I can’t imagine any world where we wouldn’t take a look and make sure that was done properly.”
Barr has doubled-down on using the term ‘spying’, which has angered Democrats, after first using it during Senate committee testimony from April 10, where he uttered the now-infamous phrase “I think spying did occur.”
The AG has declined to elaborate on what prompted these concerns, though he has said he’d be interested to see the underlying intelligence that sparked the FBI decision, in the summer of 2016, to open a counterintelligence investigation. At this point, Durham’s review isn’t a criminal investigation, and Barr hasn’t offered a timetable for when the investigation might be completed. Ultimately, the probe could lead to changing FBI protocols involving investigations into political campaigns.
Appearing to respond to Barr’s interviews, President Trump declared that his campaign was “conclusively” spied on.
https://theduran.com/treason-barr-finds-government-power-was-used-to-spy-on-american-citizens/
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/barr-russia-probe-trump-dossier
Texas CBP Seizes Heroin Worth $1 Million
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents at the Laredo Port of Entry seized a load of heroin valued at $1 million Tuesday. The 19 year old Mexican national was attempting to cross into the United States before he was stopped at the Juarez-Lincoln International Bridge. According to a press release, CBP discovered 27 packages totaling 48 pounds of alleged heroin from the man’s 2006 Ford pickup. This seizer had an estimated street value of $1,109,000, according to CBP.
“I congratulate our frontline officers for their firm commitment to carry out the CBP mission and protect the public from illegal narcotics,” said Laredo Port of Entry Director Albert Flores.
According to CBP, the driver is now in U.S. custody and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement-Homeland Security Investigations will look into his case.
According to CBP data, 5,205 pounds of heroin was seized in FY18 and 2,708 pounds of heroin has been seized in FY19.
https://saraacarter.com/texas-cbp-seizes-heroin-worth-1-million/
Abortion Records Evidence Raniere Had Sex With Camilia When She Was 13
Keith Alan Raniere has been indicted on charges of racketeering conspiracy, racketeering, forced labor conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, sex trafficking conspiracy, sex trafficking, and attempted sex trafficking.
The racketeering charge includes predicate acts of conspiracy to commit identity theft, conspiracy to alter records for use in an official proceeding, money laundering, trafficking and document servitude, state law extortion, visa fraud, sex trafficking, forced labor, sexual exploitation of a child, and possession of child pornography.
He is now on trial.
Raniere submitted a motion to preclude the introduction of all evidence pertaining to abortions. He evidently ordered dozens of abortions for the women he ruled and the government wants to introduce that as evidence of the kind of racketeering enterprise he led.
Raniere’s lawyers argue that the introduction of evidence pertaining to abortions would serve “solely [to] inflame the jury” because abortion is “one of the most contested issues facing this country.’
But Judge Nicholas Garaufis ruled he will not exclude all evidence on abortions.
He reserved judgement on one particular, thorny bit of evidence concerning an abortion Camilia had.
Camilia, as reader know, is the 15-year-old girl Raniere photographed nude in 2005.
The Government contends the evidence that shows Camilia had an abortion when she was 18 will help them prove Raniere had a sexual relationship with her before she was 18.
The government has medical records of Camilia’s abortion. These records include images of pregnancy tests and sonogram photos.
[Raniere was known to require his women to carry sonogram photos of their unborn baby [or fetus] he ordered aborted. The late Pam Cafritz, for instance, desperately wanted to have a baby, but was repeatedly ordered to abort by Raniere. One time, after an abortion, he ordered her to carry around the sonogram pictures in her purse.]
The judge writes in his memo that Camilia’s [AKA Jane Doe #2] medical “records also contain a statement to the effect that Jane Doe 2 had been with her current partner for five years” at the time of her abortion.
This is a big revelation. Let’s do some math.
https://frankreport.com/2019/05/16/abortion-records-evidence-that-raniere-had-sex-with-camilia-starting-when-she-was-13-not-15/
Prosecution Claims Emiliano Salinas Is a Criminal Co-Conspirator in NXIVM
As Frank Report readers know, Tuesday was a day off for the trial in the case of the U.S. v. Raniere because one of the alternate jurors was sick that day.
But it was definitely not an off day in terms of big news coming out of the trial.
That’s because, as previously reported, the presiding judge, U.S. District Court Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis, held a hearing that day to hear arguments from both sides as to whether the prosecution should be able to introduce various documents they found in the basement of Nancy Salzman’s home through Task Force Officer Charles B. Fontanelli – or whether it would have to call Kristin Keeffe as a witness to do that.
https://frankreport.com/2019/05/16/prosecution-claims-emiliano-salinas-is-a-criminal-co-conspirator-in-nxivm/
Syrian Air Defenses Down Projectiles Fired From Israeli-Controlled Territory
According to Syrian state media, Syrian air defenses have intercepted projectiles coming from Israeli-controlled territory.
The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported late Friday night that air defense systems had intercepted "luminous objects coming from the occupied territories, shooting down a number of them."
"Our anti-aircraft systems monitored hostile targets that came from the direction of Quneitra and intercepted them," a Syrian military official told reporters.
Video footage shot on a cell phone in Damascus showed anti-air missiles intercepting at least one target. According to the poster, multiple explosions were heard in the southwest of the city, which is closest to Israel.
#Syria: first video showing Air Defenses firing at "hostile targets" coming from #Israel. Multiple explosions heard in SW. #Damascus province. pic.twitter.com/YZAsGcdyEo
— Qalaat Al Mudiq (@QalaatAlMudiq) May 17, 2019
One observer captured a photo of the "hostile objects."
the "hostile objects" in #Damascus sky, tonight #Syria pic.twitter.com/yJYVSY2nF1
— Yosef Yisrael (@yosefyisrael25) May 17, 2019
A political analyst reported Israeli warplanes had targeted two sites belonging to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) located south and southwest of the Syrian capital.
#BREAKING #NOW
Preliminary information refers to the targeting by Israeli warplanes of at least two sites belonging to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards south and south-west of the Syrian capital #Damascus.#Syria #Israel #IDF #IAF #Russia #Iran #IRGC pic.twitter.com/10cNqjz4C6
— Eva J. Koulouriotis — (@evacool_) May 17, 2019
Last month, Syria accused Tel Aviv of carrying out an airstrike against military bases in Masayef, in northwestern Syria's Hama province. In the previous month, seven Iranian servicemembers were killed during an Israeli airstrike near Aleppo International Airport.
https://sputniknews.com/news/201905171075102011-Syrian-Air-Defenses-Down-Projectiles-Fired-Israeli-Controlled-Territory/
https://sana.sy/en/?p=165835
Looks like Israel is firing missiles to save their terrorist proxies from Russian attack
Syria says its air defenses intercept several Israeli projectiles
Syrian army says its air defense units have brought down several projectiles fired from Israeli-occupied territories.
Syria’s official news agency SANA, citing its correspondent, said that the Israeli aerial aggression occurred on Friday night.
Other reports, quoting some residents in the Syrian capital, said several loud explosions were heard near Damascus.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/05/17/596201/Syria-Israel-projectiles-Damascus-airstrikes
Trump To Dump Thousands Of Migrants In Broward, Palm Beach Counties
The Trump administration is about to release hundreds of migrants caught along the southern border into Florida's Broward and Palm Beach counties, according to local officials.
According to Broward Mayor Mark Bogen and Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, there will be two weekly planeloads of immigrants, starting in about two weeks, according to what they were told to expect. The 270 weekly passengers, or just over 1,000 per month, will be split equally between the two counties, according to the Sun-Sentinel.
That said, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) along with local members of Congress and Florida's two Republican senators haven't heard a thing about the plan.
"The governor’s office was not informed of this decision," said DeSantis' spokeswoman in an email to the Sentinel, adding "Florida counties do not have the resources to accommodate an influx of illegal immigrants."
In an afternoon news conference organized after the news broke, Sheriff Bradshaw said the Miami border patrol operations chief “came up” to talk to him about it earlier this week. -Sun-Sentinel
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-05-17/trump-dump-thousands-migrants-broward-palm-beach-counties
Key Saudi Paper Urges US to Attack Iran
Saudi officials try to blame Iran for Yemeni drones
The Arab News, a major English-language Saudi Arabian newspaper owned by Saudi Prince Turki bin Salman (brother of crown prince Mohamed bin Salman) has long been treated as virtually an official government mouthpiece. This is becoming particularly important Thursday, as the front page of the paper advocated that the United States attack Iran.
The editorial, ominously titled “Iran must not go unpunished” begins with the declaration that “nobody wants war,” and then argues throughout about how vital it is that the US launch such a war, even if it is just a limited war involving US missile strikes.
They argue that President Trump has already set a precedent for this sort of war in Syria, and present a US attack as “retaliation” against Iranian threats. Those threats are being publicly scoffed at across Europe, and seemingly in other countries where the government doesn’t believe it has a vested interest in seeing the US attack a regional rival.
As this is going on in the Saudi press, Saudi government officials are taking this week’s drone attack, from Yemen’s Houthi movement, and trying to pin the entire thing on Iran, claiming that it proves Iran are “terrorists” and are carrying out an expansionist agenda.
Saudi officials have tried to tie the Houthi movement to Iran from the war’s beginning. Initially, it was meant to justify attacking the Houthis on the grounds that it would hurt Iran. Now, however, officials are hoping it swings both ways, and that years of hostility fostered by the Saudi-led invasion of Yemen can be parlayed into more direct hostilities with Iran.
https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/saudi-state-aligned-paper-urges-u-s-surgical-strikes-on-iran-1.7249133
https://news.antiwar.com/2019/05/16/key-saudi-paper-urges-us-to-attack-iran/
Israel Folau officially sacked by Rugby Australia
https://wwos.nine.com.au/rugby/israel-folau-sacked-by-rugby-australia-after-controversial-instagram-post/104eb676-b288-4511-9e42-5a4e27c7f783
For posting the truth!
You Can’t Watch This: Documentary Exposes Censorship As Big Tech Faces Antitrust Action
As the push-back against Big Tech gains steam, a new documentary is revealing the true story behind the deplatforming of prominent conservative voices like Alex Jones, Laura Loomer, and Paul Joseph Watson.
Five high profile conservatives vanished from the internet overnight. Now, a major movie explores the wave of censorship silencing conservative voices. Coming May 15 🍿🍿🍿 #YouCantWatchThis pic.twitter.com/w7v18uS6Pi
— You Can’t Watch This Movie (@CensorshipMovie) May 12, 2019
The White House recently launched a tool for individuals to report political censorship by Big Tech.
The Trump Administration is fighting for free speech online.
No matter your views, if you suspect political bias has caused you to be censored or silenced online, we want to hear about it! https://t.co/9lc0cqUhuf pic.twitter.com/J8ICbx42dz
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 15, 2019
Free speech in America depends on you taking action to defend your rights.
https://www.activistpost.com/2019/05/you-cant-watch-this-documentary-exposes-censorship-as-big-tech-faces-antitrust-action.html
Prescription For Violence: The Corresponding Rise of Antidepressants, SSRIs & Mass Shootings
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), a mass murder occurs when at least four people are murdered, not including the shooter, over a relatively short period of time during a single incident. Over the last 30 years, the United States has seen a significant increase in mass shootings, which are becoming more frequent and more deadly.
Seemingly every time a mass shooting occurs, whether it’s at a synagogue in Pittsburgh or a nightclub in Orlando, the anti-gun media and politicians have a knee-jerk response – they blame the tragedy solely on the tool used, namely firearms, and focus all of their proposed “solutions” on more laws, ignoring that the murderer already broke numerous laws when they committed their atrocity.
Facts matter when addressing such an emotionally charged topic, and more gun control legislation has shown that law-abiding Americans who own guns are not the problem. Consider the following: The more gun control laws that are passed, the more mass murders have occurred.
Whether or not this is correlation or causation is debatable. What is not debatable is that this sick phenomenon of mass murderers targeting “gun-free zones,” where they know civilian carry isn’t available to law-abiding Americans, is happening. According to the Crime Prevention Research Center, 97.8 percent of public shootings occur in “gun-free zones” – and “gun-free zones” are the epitome of the core philosophical tenant of gun control, that laws are all the defense one needs against violence.
Therefore, when the media and politicians focus their ire on guns, specifically what types of guns are used, such as AR-styles, carbines, semi-automatics, and “high capacity” handguns, in the wake of such tragedies the American public are being intentionally drawn into an emotionally charged debate about legal gun ownership (irrespective of whether the murderer’s gun was legally or illegally obtained). This debate leads them away from the elephant in the room and one of the real issues behind mass shootings – mental health and prescription drugs.
Ignoring what’s going on in the heads of these psychopaths not only allows mass shootings to continue, it leads to misguided gun control laws that violate the Second Amendment and negate the rights of law-abiding U.S. citizens. As Jeff Snyder put it in The Washington Times:
“But to ban guns because criminals use them is to tell the innocent and law-abiding that their rights and liberties depend not on their own conduct, but on the conduct of the guilty and the lawless, and that the law will permit them to have only such rights and liberties as the lawless will allow.”
Violence, especially random violence, is a complex manifestation of various thoughts, feelings, and external factors. When a multivariate analysis of these factors is conducted, it becomes apparent that it’s not just mental health issues that are leading to such an increase. There may be an underlying substance which plays a role in a high percentage of these violent acts – the use of prescription antidepressants, specifically selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs.
At first glance, it makes sense that those involved in mass shootings may be taking antidepressants, as they’re clearly suffering from some sort of mental health issue. But the issue with SSRIs runs much deeper than just a random mental health break. These drugs are a prescription for violent crimes, and that’s a story the anti-gun media and politicians don’t want to talk about.
More
https://ammo.com/articles/ssri-antidepressants-mass-shootings-violent-side-effects
US Judge Orders Release of Four Activists Arrested at Venezuela's DC Embassy
A US federal judge has ordered the release of four anti-war activists arrested inside the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington, DC, on Thursday. They will reappear in court on June 12.
US police carried out a raid of the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington, DC, Thursday morning, arresting four activists from the Embassy Protection Collective who had lived inside the building for over a month. Kevin Zeese, Adrienne Pine, Margaret Flowers, and David Paul appeared in a DC federal courthouse Friday, where they were charged with "interference with certain protective functions."
https://sputniknews.com/news/201905171075102684-Judge-Orders-Release-Four-Activists-Arrested-Venezuelan-Embassy/
Notable
US Foreign Policy: Endless Psy-Ops Against the Whole Planet
To say the US conducts "foreign policy" is patently a misnomer. US policy is nothing short of low-intensity warfare against the whole planet. Its "foreign policy" is nothing more than a continuous program of psychological operations.
An important element of this colossal corruption of politics is America’s so-called news media which plays a crucial role in concealing and propagating the psy-ops.
Just look at US conduct over the past year with regard to geopolitical rivals, foes and even supposed allies. American behaviour is that of a hegemon and tyrant that brooks no dissent. Ultimatums, economic sanctions, threats of punishments, threats of annihilation, actual military intimidation. These are all forms of aggression or low-intensity warfare. In the case of Iran or Venezuela, the warfare is approaching the brink of all-out violence.
To think this is a development peculiar to the Trump presidency is a grave mistake. US foreign policy was always prone to aggression and warfare, certainly since the Second World War. Ever since the GW Bush administration in the early 2000s, the US has degenerated into a permanent state of aggression, often involving waging simultaneous wars. Now under Trump, US belligerence is manifest in every aspect of policy. It has become all-consuming.
For the US, there seems to be no longer any diplomacy or foreign relations. It’s a winner-demands-all attitude underpinned by the latent or sometimes not-so-latent threat of military destruction. In short, the US is behaving as a fascist power. There’s no frills or cosmetics to hide the ugly truth of it. It’s simply full-on fascist power in your global face.
Washington threatens China with economic torpedoes if Beijing doesn’t do as Washington demands to rectify America’s own internal economic failings. Beijing is labelled a cheat, telecom spy and backslider by boorish American politicians whose slanderous claims are amplified by the US media, rather than critically examined. In addition, the US sends warships to Chinese territory by way of reinforcing the threat.
https://russia-insider.com/en/us-foreign-policy-endless-psy-ops-against-whole-planet/ri27060
Netanyahu’s Acts of Provocation and Destruction Including Violence against Civilians Constitute Both a War Crime and Terrorism
United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 was adopted on 23.12.2016. The resolution passed in a 14–0 vote by members of the U.N.S.C. including four parties having power of veto: China, France, Russia, and the United Kingdom.
It reaffirmed that Israel’s establishment of settlements in Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, had no legal validity, constituting a flagrant violation under international law and a major obstacle to the vision of two States living side-by-side in peace and security, within internationally recognized borders.
The Council reiterated its demand that Israel immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem. It underlined that it would not recognize any changes to the 4 June 1967 lines, including with regard to Jerusalem, other than those agreed by the two sides through negotiations.
It further called for immediate steps to prevent all acts of violence against civilians, including acts of terror, as well as all acts of provocation and destruction.
The resolution states that all measures aimed at changing the demographic composition and status of Palestinian territories occupied by Israel, including construction and expansion of settlements, transfer of Israeli settlers, confiscation of land, demolition of homes and displacement of Palestinian civilians are in violation of international humanitarian law, Israel’s obligation as the occupying Power according to the Fourth Geneva Convention, and previous resolutions.
This is also the (nuclear-armed) government that is currently inciting the Trump administration of the United States to attack the (non-nuclear) sovereign nation of Iran in a bid to impose Israeli regional dominance. It must not succeed because that would almost certainly escalate into a global, nuclear conflict that could end in worldwide devastation.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/netanyahus-acts-provocation-destruction-including-violence-civilians-constitute-war-crime-terrorism/5677721
The Mali-Burkina Faso-Niger Border Triangle Is the New “Syraq” (Syria-Iraq)
Terrorist groups in West Africa are dangerously trying to transplant the “Syraq” model of transnational destabilization to the Mali-Burkina Faso-Niger border triangle in order to turn it into a similarly lawless region like the frontier between those two aforementioned Mideast states used to be during the height of Daesh’s so-called “caliphate”, with this terrifying development proving that France’s 2013 military intervention in Mali has been a total failure as well as threatening to cause another Migrant Crisis to crash into Europe.
The “West African ‘Syraq’”
Terrorists thought to be affiliated with either Al Qaeda or Daesh ambushed Nigerien troops near the Malian border not far from the capital of Niamey and ended up killing at least 28 of them in a horrifying attack which bodes very negatively for the West African region as a whole. Terrorist groups in this part of the continent are dangerously trying to transplant the “Syraq” model of transnational destabilization to the Mali-Burkina Faso-Niger border triangle after a spree of attacks in this area over the past several months showed that it’s becoming just as lawless as the frontier between those two aforementioned Mideast states used to be during the height of Daesh’s so-called “caliphate”. This terrifying development poses very serious security risks for Europe because of the chance that it could quickly spiral out of control and catalyze another large-scale Migrant Crisis, thus potentially drawing it deeper into mission creep as it seeks to preemptively thwart this scenario.
Different Crisis, Same Origins
The origins of the growing West African terrorist crisis are identical to the Mideast one in that they can both be traced back to a US-led war on a regional leader whose destruction destabilized nearby fragile states and created a fertile ground for unconventional threats to take root. The US’ 2003 War on Iraq preceded the Hybrid War of Terror on Syria that led to Daesh’s rise, just as the 2011 NATO War on Libya triggered the large-scale exodus of highly trained and battle-hardened Tuaregs back to Mali where they quickly got to work carving out the separatist state of “Azawad” that was later hijacked by Islamic militants. The key difference, however, is that the Mideast states were always comparatively more stable than the West African ones, which is why the geographic scope of destabilization in the former was more limited than in the latter. Furthermore, while the Kurds have historically been a transnational issue in the Mideast, their Tuareg structural counterparts in West Africa were more historically successful in their campaigns precisely because of the said state weaknesses.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/mali-burkina-faso-niger-border-triangle-new-syraq/5677712
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