The remains of 40 bodies, including some with their hands tied behind their backs, were found in shallow graves in Buckingham (SWNS)

The remains of 42 bodies, including some with their hands tied behind their backs, have been found in shallow graves on a building site.

The grisly remains form a potentially important archaeological discovery – with theories suggesting they could date back to Anglo-Saxon times or the English Civil War. It is also possible that they could be the bodies of criminals who were hanged on the gallows.

The 42 skeletons were found during ground works for a development of 72 retirement flats on former farmland in Buckingham.

The discovery comes just weeks after the graves of dozens of “high-status” Romans were found in Somerset during building work for a new school.

The company behind the development, Brio Retirement Living Holdings, part of property firm company Places for People, has been accused by local historians and residents of not declaring the discovery, which was made several weeks ago.

The company commissioned an archaeological investigation of the site as a condition of winning planning permission following a battle over several years.

But campaigners claim nobody has yet seen such a report, including Bucks County Council's Archaeological Service (BCAS).

District and town councillor Robin Stuchbury said: “This find is of great historical significance to Buckingham and it should not be hushed up.

“I am aware that the bodies were found in December. There were more than 40 of them and they had their hands bound behind their backs, which infers they were prisoners of some kind.”

Speculating on how the bodies ended up in the shallow grave, he added: “They could date from Anglo Saxon times, when there were killings in Buckingham, or from during the Civil War, which also saw casualties. Or they could be criminals who were hanged on the gallows in the town.

“The fact is, we have a right to know. This is part of our history.”

Read more https://www.yahoo.com/news/remains-bodies-found-new-development-farmland-100000830.html

>>8047540

Sounds like meme time for Gaetz with a HAMMER is in order

Top U.S. officials to spotlight Chinese spy operations, pursuit of American secrets

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An aggressive campaign by American authorities to root out Chinese espionage operations in the United States has snared a growing group of Chinese government officials, business people, and academics pursuing American secrets.

In 2019 alone, public records show U.S. authorities arrested and expelled two Chinese diplomats who allegedly drove onto a military base in Virginia. They also caught and jailed former CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency officials on espionage charges linked to China.

On Thursday, U.S. Attorney General William Barr, FBI director Christopher Wray and U.S. counterintelligence chief William Evanina will address a Washington conference on U.S. efforts to counter Chinese "economic malfeasance" involving espionage and the theft of U.S. technological and scientific secrets.

China's efforts to steal unclassified American technology, ranging from military secrets to medical research, have long been thought to be extensive and aggressive, but U.S. officials only launched a broad effort to stop alleged Chinese espionage in the United States in 2018.

"The theft of American trade secrets by China costs our nation anywhere from $300 to $600 billion in a year," Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, said in advance of Thursday's conference.

The Chinese embassy in Washington rejected the U.S. allegation as "entirely baseless."

"The people-to-people exchange between China and the US is conducive to stronger understanding between the two peoples and serves the fundamental interests of our two countries," it said in an emailed statement.

Of 137 publicly reported instances of Chinese-linked espionage against the United States since 2000, 73% took place in the last decade, according to the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

The think-tank's data, which excludes cases of intellectual property litigation and attempts to smuggle munitions or controlled technologies, shows that military and commercial technologies are the most common targets for theft.

In the area of medical research, of 180 investigations into misuse of National Institutes of Health funds, diversion of research intellectual property and inappropriate sharing of confidential information, more than 90% of the cases have links to China, according to an NIH spokeswoman.

One main reason Chinese espionage, including extensive hacking in cyberspace, has expanded is that "China depends on Western technology and as licit avenues are closed, they turn to espionage to get access," said James Lewis, a CSIS expert.

In late January alone, federal prosecutors in Boston announced three new criminal cases involving industrial spying or stealing, including charges against a Harvard professor.

Prosecutors said Harvard's Charles Lieber lied to the Pentagon and NIH about his involvement in the Thousand Talents Plan - a Chinese government scheme that offers mainly Chinese scientists working overseas lavish financial incentives to bring their expertise and knowledge back to China. They said he also lied about his affiliation with China's Wuhan University of Technology.

During at least part of the time he was signed up with the Chinese university, Lieber was also a "principal investigator" working on at least six research projects funded by U.S. Defense Department agencies, court documents show.

A lawyer for Lieber did not respond to a request for comment.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/top-u-officials-spotlight-chinese-110238123.html

AG Barr Requires FBI to Obtain His Approval Before Investigating 2020 Candidates

Attorney General William Barr has issued a memo requiring the FBI to obtain approval from Barr himself before conducting any investigation into any 2020 presidential election candidate.

“In certain cases, the existence of a federal criminal or counterintelligence investigation, if it becomes known to the public, may have unintended effects on our elections,” Barr wrote in the memo, which was obtained by the New York Times. The attorney general went on to emphasize that “we also must be sensitive to safeguarding the department’s reputation for fairness, neutrality and nonpartisanship.”

The memo establishes certain requirements for the FBI and other agencies under the purview of the Justice Department to meet before opening a “politically sensitive” criminal or counterintelligence investigation against candidates or donors. Barr must personally give approval for investigations into presidential and vice presidential candidates, as well as their respective senior staffs.

The move follows Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report on the FBI’s obtainment of a FISA warrant against former Trump-campaign adviser Carter Page as part of the agency’s investigation into suspected collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian agents. The report detailed various errors and material omissions in the FBI’s initial application for a FISA warrant and subsequent renewals.

“We identified multiple instances in which factual assertions relied upon in the first FISA application were inaccurate, incomplete, or unsupported by appropriate documentation, based upon information the FBI had in its possession at the time the application was filed,” the report read.

The FBI in 2016 carried out investigations pertaining to both presidential candidates. While the Trump campaign was investigated for possible connections to Russia, a claim that the Mueller Report subsequently found to be based on insufficient evidence, the bureau in October 2016 also reopened its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server for classified messages.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/ag-barr-requires-fbi-obtain-132653032.html

==Why the World Should Really Fear North Korea's Tunnels–

Key point: The U.S. military is also preoccupied by tunnel-fighting scenarios on the Korean Peninsula

On November 15, 1974 a squad of South Korean soldiers stationed near Korangpo-ri, on the Korean demilitarized zone, noticed steam rising from the earth’s surface near to where they were camped out.

Lt. Col. Michael Wikan, who served as a G-3 operations officer in Korea, recounted what happened next in the book Espionage and the United States During the 20th Century, by Thomas Murray:

one of the ROK soldiers with sharp eyes noticed the heat waves rising from the ground and went to the location to investigate. When he heard voices up from the small hole, he fastened his bayonet to his rifle and probed—and more earth crumbled. When he fired his rifle into the hole, a volley of North Korean bullets flew back at him from the tunnel—and then silence. The South Korean squad reported the incident and dug a hole to open the tunnel, but no one entered.

South Korean troops across the 160-mile-long DMZ had overheard explosions and subterranean activity for over a year, and noticed heavy digging equipment moving around on the North Korean side of the border. This, however, was the first tunnel to be located—but nobody was in a rush to find out what was inside.

Five days later, the United Nations Command dispatched U.S. Navy Cdr. Robert M. Ballinger and Marine Maj. Anthony Nastri to inspect the tunnel. Because protocol required that they remain unarmed, they were escorted by troops led by Korean Marine Maj. Kim Hah-chul. All three officers were veterans of the Vietnam War. Wikan continues:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/why-world-really-fear-north-113000907.html