GOP Lawmakers Request Information About Chinese-Owned Drones Used To Enforce Lockdowns

A group of Republican lawmakers, led by Rep. Matt Gaetz, FL, sent a letter Wednesday, obtained by SaraACarter.com, to the Director Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Christopher Krebs and to the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Katharine Sullivan asking them to provide information about state and local law enforcement’s use of Chinese-government owned drones to enforce coronavirus-related lockdowns.

“We respectfully write to request information about state and local law enforcement use of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) produced by Da Jiang Innovations (DJI), a Chinese company that accounts for nearly 80 percent of drone sales in the United States,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter. “In response to the coronavirus epidemic, DJI has donated drones to state and local law enforcement entities to purportedly assist with social distancing enforcement. Although federal law enforcement agencies have warned of potential information security concerns with DJI drones, it is not clear whether state and local law enforcement agencies are fully aware of these issues.”

The letter notes a Homeland Security Investigations alert issued in 2017 warning that DJI’s drones were “[l]ikely providing U.S. critical infrastructure and law enforcement data to [the] Chinese government.” Further, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement department “assesse[d] with high confidence [DJI] is selectively targeting government and privately owned entities within [infrastructure and law enforcement sectors] to expand its ability to collect and exploit sensitive U.S. data.”

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued a similar alert in May 2019, the letter stated, saying the drones posed a “potential risk of an organization’s information.”

Many federal government agencies banned the drones over the security concerns, including the U.S. Army in 2017, and, more recently, the Interior Department “temporarily retired” the drones. Additionally, the National Defense Authorization Act banned the U.S. military use and the purchase of China’s drones.

The alarms sounded by the federal government, however, appear to be dismissed amid the coronavirus pandemic and Gaetz has been vocal on the issue. The letter pointed to DJI’s donation of 100 drones for “45 police, fire and public safety organizations in 22 states.”

The group requests the following information from the top officials:

“1. What, if anything, is the Department’s role in providing technical assistance and guidance to states and localities that have purchased or received DJI products;

1. Has the Department issued any new alerts since CISA’s May 20, 2019, warning that

Chinese-made drones present a “potential risk of an organization’s information?” If so, please provide the Committee with information and documents regarding any such alert; and

1. Please explain whether the Department is monitoring DJI’s recent provision of drones to state and local law-enforcement agencies during the coronavirus pandemic and what actions, if any, the Department is taking in response.”

The Republican lawmakers are asking that their questions be answered “no later than 5:00 p.m. on May 27, 2020. “

https://saraacarter.com/gop-lawmakers-request-information-about-chinese-owned-drones-used-to-enforce-lockdowns/

Trump on Unmasking: ‘This Was All Obama, This Was All Biden’

In a preview of an interview set to air during Thursday’s broadcast of Fox Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria,” President Donald Trump sounded off on the recently unveiled circumstances of the prosecution of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.

According to Trump, the previous administration and the FBI were targeting him, and he said it was a plan that went all the way to the upper echelons of the federal government, which included Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

“They weren’t after General Flynn — they wanted him to lie about me, make up a story,” he said. “And with few exceptions, nobody did that. There were many people, I watched K.T. McFarland the other day, I watched where she was, ‘knock-knock FBI,’ you know, the FBI, this was all Obama, this was all Biden. These people were corrupt, the whole thing was corrupt, and we caught them, we caught them. And what you saw just now, I watched Biden yesterday he could barely speak. He was on ‘Good Morning America’ right? He said he didn’t know anything about it, and now it just gets released right after he said that. It gets released that he was one of the unmaskers. Meaning he knew everything about it, so he lied to your friend George Stephanopoulos.”

https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2020/05/13/trump-on-unmasking-this-was-all-obama-this-was-all-biden/

UPDATE: Crooked Judge Sullivan Appoints Anti-Trump Judge John Gleeson to Decide Flynn Case After He Pens “The Flynn Case Isn’t Over Until the Judge Says Its Over”

The Barr Justice Department dropped its case against General Mike Flynn last Thursday after bombshell documents were released that proved he was framed by Comey’s FBI.

This was a major win for justice in America after General Flynn was targeted and destroyed by the Obama deep state for daring to speak out against the former failed president.

But on Tuesday the Clinton-appointed Judge Emmet Sullivan made a dirty, political move to delay justice for General Mike Flynn.

Judge Sullivan extended the case by soliciting amicus briefs to allow for public comment on Flynn’s criminal case.

Judge Sullivan today appointed retired Clinton appointee judge John Gleeson to argue against the government’s motion to dismiss the charge against Flynn!

This is unheard of!

First the attorneys for the Mueller team withheld Brady evidence from General Flynn for over a year and now this crooked judge won’t acquit!

These Democrats are complete crooks!

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/05/update-crooked-judge-sullivan-appoints-clinton-judge-john-gleeson-decide-flynn-case-pens-flynn-case-isnt-judge-says/

"My Job Is To Make Syria A Quagmire For The Russians": CIA Doctrine Made Official Policy

Like with the disastrous Iraq quagmire years before the US war machine came to Syria under Obama, Washington's rationale and justification for occupying the Syrian Arab Republic has shifted and changed drastically multiple times over.

When ultimately what started as US covert regime change efforts targeting Assad failed (based ostensibly in "protecting civilians"), the official mission then conveniently switched to 'defeating terrorism' — though of course this meant turning on the very jihadists the US armed and trained in the first place. Then the Kurds became the proxy flavor of the month, which also happened to have control of all the major oil and gas fields in the country's east ("secure the oil!" - Trump has repeatedly echoed of late).

When the Islamic State collapsed and became just another underground insurgency like its al Qaeda cousin, the ever-hawkish national security state establishment argued that Trump must not pull troops out because of 'Iranian expansion'.

But now that the myth that somehow Assad and the Syrians just want to hand their sovereign country over to their allies the Iranians has also largely fallen away (remember that Baathist Syria is a secular Arab and multi-confessional state, while Iran is a hardline Shia Islamic theocracy), a new official - and it might be added, provocative - US administration rationale has been concocted.

Washington now says it's all about defeating the Russians. While it's not the first time this has been thrown around in policy circles (recall that a year after Russia's 2015 entry into Syria at Assad's invitation, former CIA Deputy Director Mike Morell admitted in a TV interview he views that the US should be in the business of "killing Russians and Iranians covertly").

And now the top US special envoy to region, James Jeffrey, has this to say on US troops in Syria:

“My job is to make it a quagmire for the Russians.”

Ironically, Jeffrey's official title has been Special Envoy for the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIL, but apparently the mission is now to essentially "give the Russians hell".

https://youtu.be/OJ3fTFHQ0KA

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/my-job-make-syria-quagmire-russians-top-us-envoy