Ted Cruz Sounds the Alarm: Deep State Staffers at Treasury and State Working Behind Trump’s Back to Preserve Obama’s Iran Nuke Deal

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) sounded the alarm on Wednesday and said that staffers at the Treasury and State Departments are tirelessly working behind President Trump’s back to preserve Obama’s Iran nuke deal.

Ted Cruz accused many senior Trump administration officials of continuing to give Tehran waivers allowing the terrorist-supporting regime to conduct nuclear tests at a military bunker that holds Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

Cruz said “Deep State” in the Treasury and State who are giving these waivers are undermining President Trump.

“If these reports are indeed accurate, then it is a temporary victory for the deep state staffers at Treasury and State who continue working tirelessly to preserve the Obama Iran deal rather than implementing the president’s directive,” Cruz said. “I will continue to work towards permanently ending the nuclear deal, including by exercising Congress’s important oversight responsibility to ensure the implementation of United States policy.”

“I hope these reports turn out to be wrong,” Cruz said. “The president has correctly ordered his administration to halt implementation of the catastrophic Obama-Iran nuclear deal. These waivers are part of the deal, and allow the Ayatollahs to build up their nuclear program, including at Fordow, a bunker they dug into the side of a mountain so they could build nuclear weapons.”

Ted Cruz and other Iran hawks in Congress have been pressuring the State Department to end the waivers for several months, reported Adam Kredo.

The waivers are allowing Iran to continue business as usual marching forward to develop a fully functioning nuclear weapon.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/07/ted-cruz-sounds-the-alarm-deep-state-staffers-at-treasury-and-state-working-behind-trumps-back-to-preserve-obamas-iran-nuke-deal/

US Treasury Sanctions Iran Foreign Minister Zarif

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has lambasted the United States for what he claimed was a policy failure in the Middle East and urged its president to engage in diplomacy.

Zarif has also urged US President Donald Trump to reject the "thirst for Forever War" of his national security adviser, John Bolton, and choose the path of diplomacy, which he said equaled prudence and was not a weakness.

The United States imposed sanctions on Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Zarif, the US Department of the Treasury said in a news release on Wednesday.

"The following [IRAN-EO13876] entries have been added to [Office of Foreign Assets Control's (OFAC)] [Specially Designated Nationals (SDN)] List: ZARIF KHONSARI, Mohammad Javad (a.k.a. ZARIF, Mohammad Javad; a.k.a. "ZARIF, Javad"), Iran; DOB 08 Jan 1960," the release said.

https://sputniknews.com/us/201907311076421819-us-treasury-sanctions-iran-foreign-minister-zarif/

Israeli Pesticides Contaminating Gaza Crops

A new report by the group ‘Forensic Architecture’ has found that widespread pesticide contamination from Israel into Gaza has occurred over decades, severely impacting the food grown in Gaza.

The full report follows below:

Staging the terrain

Over three decades, in tandem with the Madrid and Oslo negotiation processes, the occupied Gaza Strip has been slowly isolated from the rest of Palestine and the outside world, and subjected to repeated Israeli military incursions. These incursions intensified from September 2003 to the fall of 2014, during which Israel launched at least 24 separate military operations targeting Gaza, giving shape to its surrounding borders today.

The borders around Gaza—one of the most densely-populated areas on Earth—continue to be hardened and heightened into a sophisticated system of under- and overground fences, forts, and surveillance technologies. Part of this system has been the production of an enforced and expanding military no-go area—or ‘buffer zone’—on the Palestinian side of the border.

Since 2014, the clearing and bulldozing of agricultural and residential lands by the Israel military along the eastern border of Gaza has been complemented by the unannounced aerial spraying of crop-killing herbicides.

This ongoing practice has not only destroyed entire swaths of formerly arable land along the border fence, but also crops and farmlands hundreds of metres deep into Palestinian territory, resulting in the loss of livelihoods for Gazan farmers.

More

https://www.globalresearch.ca/report-israeli-pesticides-contaminating-gaza-crops/5685205

DOJ and FBI Show No Signs of Correcting Past Untruths in Their New Attacks on Encryption

Last week, Attorney General William Barr and FBI Director Christopher Wray chose to spend some of their time giving speeches demonizing encryption and calling for the creation of backdoors to allow the government access to encrypted data. You should not spend any of your time listening to them.

Don’t be mistaken; the threat to encryption remains high. Australia and the United Kingdom already have laws in place that can enable those governments to undermine encryption, while other countries may follow. And it’s definitely dangerous when senior U.S. law enforcement officials talk about encryption the way Barr and Wray did.

The reason to ignore these speeches is that DOJ and FBI have not proven themselves credible on this issue. Instead, they have a long track record of exaggeration and even false statements in support of their position. That should be a bar to convincing anyone—especially Congress—that government backdoors are a good idea.

Barr expressed confidence in the tech sector’s “ingenuity” to design a backdoor for law enforcement that will stand up to any unauthorized access, paying no mind to the broad technical and academic consensus in the field that this risk is unavoidable. As the prominent cryptographer and Johns Hopkins University computer science professor Matt Green pointed out on Twitter, the Attorney General made sweeping, impossible-to-support claims that digital security would be largely unaffected by introducing new backdoors. Although Barr paid the barest lip service to the benefits of encryption—two sentences in a 4,000 word speech—he ignored numerous ways encryption protects us all, including preserving not just digital but physical security for the most vulnerable users.

For all of Barr and Wray’s insistence that encryption poses a challenge to law enforcement, you might expect that that would be the one area where they’d have hard facts and statistics to back up their claims, but you’d be wrong. Both officials asserted it’s a massive problem, but they largely relied on impossible-to-fact-check stories and counterfactuals. If the problem is truly as big as they say, why can’t they provide more evidence? One answer is that prior attempts at proof just haven’t held up.

Some prime examples of the government’s false claims about encryption arose out of the 2016 legal confrontation between Apple and the FBI following the San Bernardino attack. Then-FBI Director James Comey and others portrayed the encryption on Apple devices as an unbreakable lock that stood in the way of public safety and national security. In court and in Congress, these officials said they had no means of accessing an encrypted iPhone short of compelling Apple to reengineer its operating system to bypass key security features. But a later special inquiry by the DOJ Office of the Inspector General revealed that technical divisions within the FBI were already working with an outside vendor to unlock the phone even as the government pursued its legal battle with Apple. In other words, Comey’s statements to Congress and the press about the case—as well as sworn court declarations by other FBI officials—were untrue at the time they were made.

Wray, Comey’s successor as FBI Director, has also engaged in considerable overstatement about law enforcement’s troubles with encryption. In congressional testimony and public speeches, Wray repeatedly pointed to almost 8,000 encrypted phones that he said were inaccessible to the FBI in 2017 alone. Last year, the Washington Post reported that this number was inflated due to a “programming error.” EFF filed a Freedom of Information Act request, seeking to understand the true nature of the hindrance encryption posed in these cases, but the government refused to produce any records.

But in their speeches last week, neither Barr nor Wray acknowledged the government’s failure of candor during the Apple case or its aftermath. They didn’t mention the case at all. Instead, they ask us to turn the page and trust anew. You should refuse. Let’s hope Congress does too.

https://www.activistpost.com/2019/07/doj-and-fbi-show-no-signs-of-correcting-past-untruths-in-their-new-attacks-on-encryption.html

World famous celebrities take more than 100 private jets to Google-hosted climate change summit

'…highly ironic'

World famous actors, leaders, and business titans have flocked to a luxurious Sicilian resort this week to discuss climate change at a Google-hosted summit — but will undoubtedly leave their mark on the climate in the process.

Former President Barack Obama, actor Leonardo DiCaprio, and even Prince Harry are expected to attend the summit, which has been dubbed "Google Camp."

"Everything is about global warming, that is the major topic this year," a source told the New York Post of the summit's agenda.

In a palpable turn of irony, Italian media reported officials expect attendees to bring 114 private jets to the summit; 40 had already arrived by the weekend. Climate change advocates claim jet airplanes expel tons of ozone-eroding greenhouse gases, which they say contributes to global warming.

According to calculations by the Post, 114 jet flights from Los Angeles to Palermo, Italy — where the Falcone Borsellino Airport is located — would expel an estimated 100,000 kilograms of CO2, a known greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere.

Many of the attendees are even expected to stay on mega-yachts.

"Google Camp is meant to be a place where influential people get together to discuss how to make the world better," an attendee told the Post. "There will likely be discussions about online privacy, politics, human rights, and of course, the environment, which makes it highly ironic that this event requires 114 private jets to happen."

Others who are expected to attend include Katy Perry, Orlando Bloom, Mark Zuckerburg, Tom Cruise, Bradley Cooper, among a host of other internationally-known influencers. Past attendees include the likes of Madonna, Oprah, and Michael Jordan.

All attendees were personally invited by Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. The duo have hosted the private summit since 2012, according to Forbes.

https://www.theblaze.com/news/world-famous-celebrities-take-more-than-100-private-jets-to-google-hosted-climate-change-summit

>>7281261

Fuck off Rabbi

Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg to Hold Public Event in Tel Aviv

At the event, Sandberg will be speaking to Rachel Ben Shoshe, who heads the local office of her organization Lean In, which is focused on promoting gender equality in the workforce

Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg will hold an open-to-the-public event in Tel Aviv on August 14, during a family visit to Israel. The event is dedicated to the launch of the local office of Sandberg’s organization Lean In, which is focused on promoting gender equality in the workforce.

At the event, Sandberg will be speaking to Rachel Ben Shoshe, who heads Lean In’s local office. The conversation will focus solely on the organization’s activities, Ben Shoshe said Wednesday in a phone interview with Calcalist. A Q&A will take place following the talk.

Sandberg joined Facebook in 2008, after working for Google and the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3767421,00.html

Trump Directs Secretary of the Navy to Rescind Navy Achievement Medals Given to Overzealous Prosecutors in Eddie Gallagher Case

President Trump on Wednesday directed the Secretary of the Navy to immediately withdraw and rescind Navy Achievement Medals given to the overzealous, unethical Obama-era prosecutors who targeted decorated Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher.

“The Prosecutors who lost the case against SEAL Eddie Gallagher (who I released from solitary confinement so he could fight his case properly), were ridiculously given a Navy Achievement Medal. Not only did they lose the case, they had difficulty with respect to information that may have been obtained from opposing lawyers and for giving immunity in a totally incompetent fashion. I have directed the Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer & Chief of Naval Operations John Richardson to immediately withdraw and rescind the awards,” Trump said.

“I am very happy for Eddie Gallagher and his family!” Trump added in a third tweet.

The Prosecutors who lost the case against SEAL Eddie Gallagher (who I released from solitary confinement so he could fight his case properly), were ridiculously given a Navy Achievement Medal. Not only did they lose the case, they had difficulty with respect….

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 31, 2019

….I am very happy for Eddie Gallagher and his family!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 31, 2019

US Navy prosecutors accused decorated US Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher of premeditated murder over the stabbing of an injured 15-year-old ISIS terrorist in Mosul, Iraq in May of 2017.

Gallagher denied the charges and the entire case was turned upside down in June when a combat medic testified that he, not Eddie Gallagher killed the ISIS fighter.

Special Operator 1st Class Corey Scott, a SEAL Team Seven medic, testified to shocked trial observers in a Naval Base courtroom in San Diego, California that he killed the ISIS fighter by asphyxiation.

And a jury earlier this month found Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher not guilty of war crimes.

Even though Gallagher was cleared of murder charges, the jury sentenced him to reduced rank and partial pay because he took a photo with a dead ISIS terrorist.

Eddie Gallagher has served 19 years in the US Navy, 8 tours, 6 of which as an elite special forces operator — he was ranked as the top SEAL chief and his platoon ranked as the top SEAL platoon.

In addition to pulling the Navy medals from the prosecutors, President Trump should promote Eddie Gallagher back to his previous position.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/07/just-in-trump-directs-secretary-of-the-navy-to-rescind-navy-achievement-medals-to-overzealous-prosecutors-in-eddie-gallagher-case/

>>7281370

Trafficking people: How Venezuelans are becoming victims of sexual exploitation in Brazil

BOA VISTA, Brazil – This Tuesday, when the World Day to Combat Trafficking in Persons is celebrated, Brazil does not have much to celebrate, being the destination of a growing flow of Venezuelan women brought here for the purpose of sexual exploitation. After all, what does the country need to do to combat this problem more effectively?

With a deep economic crisis that has been affecting the country for years, Venezuela has seen a sharp migratory flow of its citizens to several neighboring countries. In situations of misery and despair, many of these migrants end up in a series of difficulties of different kinds throughout this endeavor, and sometimes the dream of a better life elsewhere turns out to be the worst of nightmares.

Among Venezuelan women trying to escape problems in their homeland, a significant portion of them are often enticed by criminal networks that, taking advantage of their fragile situation, recruit them for sexual exploitation in countries such as Trinidad and Tobago, Colombia. and Brazil. Deluded by promises of work or food security, they become easy targets for these opportunistic outlaws. Only in Roraima, the Brazilian state that serves as the main gateway for Venezuelan immigrants, cases like these have increased 30% since the beginning of this year, according to the Civil Police.

Érica Kaefer, project coordinator of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) representation for Brazil, explains that both international instruments and Brazilian law provide for different types of activities related to human trafficking.that can be classified as a crime, from forced labor to organ removal. In common, they all go through the recruitment, transport, transfer, shelter or receipt of persons by various means – such as threat or fraud – for exploitation purposes. According to the expert, it is quite common, when thinking about this type of violation, to imagine recruiters as individuals belonging to a large mafia or international organization. But the truth is that in most instances there are people very close to the victims involved, including family members.

In the case of Brazil, Kaefer points out that this issue of trafficking in persons is a serious problem with regard to transnational crimes as well as internal crimes.

“When you think of trafficking, you always think of international trafficking in persons, but trafficking can also be within the same country. It is even a reality in the context of Brazil,” she said.

According to the IOM representative, the prevalence of international trafficking in persons is very difficult to measure due to underreporting and insufficient data, but it can be said to occur in all regions and all countries of the world. However, certain associated factors can contribute significantly to a higher or lower intensity of this type of practice.

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“Countries that are facing extreme poverty, inequality, violence, gender inequality or even crises, forced migration, environmental disasters can further accentuate the vulnerability of those people, whether they are migrants or not.”

https://www.fort-russ.com/2019/07/trafficking-people-how-venezuelans-are-becoming-victims-of-sexual-exploitation-in-brazil/