Amazon, Google, Microsoft Among US Companies Offering Internet Services To Blacklisted Surveillance Companies In China

Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and other U.S. entities have been accused of providing web services to blacklisted Chinese surveillance companies, according to a report Thursday. These firms were found to be using their technology to aid “China’s campaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention, and high-technology surveillance against Uighurs, Kazakhs, and other members of Muslim minority groups” and have been blacklisted from accessing American tech as of October 2018.

The report came from Top10VPN, a London-based outlet dedicated to researching privacy in the Internet Age. It found that these major companies, and some smaller U.S. firms, have been providing “essential web services” to these Chinese outfits, including website hosting email services, and authentication software.

“Through providing essential web services to these controversial companies, U.S. firms are playing a part in the proliferation of highly invasive surveillance products that have the potential to undermine human rights around the world,” said Simon Migliano, Top10VPN’s head of research.

Amazon and Google are specifically accused of providing services to blacklisted companies, Dahua Technology and Hikvision. Microsoft is allegedly providing services to two major A.I. startups, SenseTime and Megvii. Overall, Google was found to have supported the most companies at nine, followed by Amazon with seven, and Microsoft with four.

Alongside these tech juggernauts, smaller companies like GoDaddy, NortonLifeLock, Stackpath, and GeoTrust are among the other U.S. companies named in Top10VPN’s report. Twitter and Facebook were also mentioned for providing these blacklisted firms with content delivery systems.

These companies have been accused by the U.S. government of aiding the Chinese government in its detention of Muslim groups in Xinjiang, an autonomous region on China’s westernmost edge. Approximately 1.5 million Muslims have been held in detention camps and subjected to widely condemned human rights abuses. Some of these camps have reportedly even engaged in “re-education” therapies.

https://www.ibtimes.com/amazon-google-microsoft-among-us-companies-offering-internet-services-blacklisted-2981319

Dems Block China Investigation Even After Communist Regime Threatens U.S. Senators by Name

This week, House Democrats whose colleagues rushed to investigate President Donald Trump’s coronavirus response amid the ongoing pandemic once again refused to give the green light to an effort to investigate China’s lies and malfeasance regarding the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic. Democrats blocked the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis from investigating China’s malfeasance.

“Coronavirus Committee Dems won’t let us investigate China’s cover-up,” House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) tweeted. “Why? – China’s lies caused global suffering & economic devastation – China undermined our efforts to combat the virus – China is reportedly trying to steal our vaccine research They must be held accountable.”

Republicans on the committee have repeatedly asked about opening an investigation into China. Lauren Fine, Scalise’s communications director, told PJ Media that in a hearing on Thursday, Republicans on the committee again asked about looking into China, and Democrats again refused them.

“It’s disappointing—but not surprising—that Congressional Democrats have harsher words for President Trump, rather than the Communist Chinese regime responsible for wreaking havoc against our citizens and the rest of the world,” Fine told PJ Media. “Republicans on the Select Committee on the Coronavirus Crisis will continue to press for answers on the origins of this crisis and accountability from the Chinese government and World Health Organization for their deception, and would urge Democrats to put their personal vendetta against President Trump aside to join us in this effort.”

Indeed, the effort to block a China investigation seems predicated on the rush to blame Trump for the crisis and ignore the horrific abuses of the Chinese Communist Party. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), perhaps the central figure in Democrats’ impeachment of President Donald Trump, began circulating draft legislation to investigate Trump’s response to the coronavirus. He claimed the investigation is “not an exercise in casting blame or scoring political points,” but Republicans are naturally skeptical.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/tyler-o-neil/2020/05/23/dems-block-house-investigation-into-chinas-coronavirus-lies-and-malfeasance-n421900

VIPS MEMO: To the President—Avoid Hostilities Over Iranian Fuel Shipment to Venezuela

The Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) urges Donald Trump to avoid the slippery slope toward armed conflict as an Iranian oil tanker nears Venezuela on Sunday.

May 22, 2020

MEMORANDUM FOR: The President

FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS)

SUBJECT: Avoiding Hostilities Over Iranian Fuel Shipment to Venezuela

Mr. President:

Recent U.S. rhetoric and actions against Venezuela — most immediately regarding Iran’s shipping of gasoline desperately needed during the pandemic — puts the U.S. at risk of an outbreak of dangerous and almost certainly counterproductive hostilities, not only in the Caribbean, but also in waters closer to Iran. As five Iranian tankers approach Venezuela, with the first due to arrive Sunday, hardliners in both Washington and Iran would relish a chance to give a bloody nose to the other side, but it may not be that simple.

While the U.S. can invoke the Monroe Doctrine in Latin America, geography trumps doctrine. True, the U.S. holds the upper hand in the Caribbean. It does not have tactical advantage in the Persian Gulf — despite the formidable amount of U.S. weaponry already deployed in the area. We believe there is a good chance Iran will pick the Gulf as the place to retaliate for any quarantine or more warlike actions off Venezuela.

As former intelligence officers and other national security practitioners with many decades of experience, we understand the frustration your Administration feels as its “maximum pressure” campaign to remove Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro enters its 17th month without much progress. Our purpose is not to defend Maduro, whose economic performance has alienated many and compounded Venezuela’s problems. Rather, we wish to ensure that you are aware of the possible pitfalls of the general threatening to use “maximum pressure” and “all means necessary” to effect “regime change” in Venezuela. In our view, any U.S. attempt to interdict access of the Iranian ships to Venezuela will be widely seen as an act of war. It could conceivably lead to unprecedented retaliation in places as far away as the Persian Gulf — events that the U.S. will not be able to fully control.

Inside Venezuela, U.S. sanctions and other policies are inflicting significant suffering, and the threat to continue “maximum pressure” even during the pandemic has had a significant psychological impact. It has pushed many Venezuelans eager for change to close ranks with the government and blame mostly the U.S. for their troubles. Nationalism and fear of foreign intervention are strong drivers in countries like Venezuela. The Venezuelan economy was already a shambles due to government mismanagement and corruption. But blocking the country’s ability to sell oil, to access accounts and reserves overseas, and to engage in normal trade have had a devastating impact on the Venezuelan people — the more so as the corona virus takes its toll there.

https://consortiumnews.com/2020/05/22/vips-memo-to-the-president-avoid-hostilities-over-iranian-fuel-shipment-to-venezuela/

Ignoring Warnings, Mich. AG Sued to RAISE Lake Level Ahead of Dam Break—to Protect Mussels

In her ongoing audition to be Joe Biden’s veep pick, Michigan Governess Gretchen Whitmer all but convicted a private dam owner for the disastrous floods that struck the middle of the state last Wednesday.

However, it wasn’t the dam company that was trying to save a few clams—it was Whitmer’s radical attorney general, Dana Nessel.

Nessel was suing the dam company to raise the lake level three feet in order to save mussels—both endangered and common—and in their response, the dam company cited safety as a reason for not doing so.

But to Dana Nessel, who is also suing to keep Michigan’s chilly Upper Peninsula from having a reliable source of propane, citing an imaginary concern over a pipeline across the Straits of Mackinac, people come second. A distant second.

As Michigan-based Bridge Magazine reports:

For decades, federal regulators demanded changes to the design of the Edenville Dam to make it more likely to withstand heavy rains and avoid flooding.

So when Michigan regulators assumed oversight of the dam in late 2018 after its owners lost their federal license to generate energy, they took action.

To protect mussels.

Three weeks before the 96-year-old dam failed this week amid heavy rains and caused the worst flood in Midland history, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel sued its owner, alleging it illegally lowered Wixom Lake in 2018 and 2019, killing “thousands if not millions, of freshwater mussels.”

“Defendants wrongfully exerted dominion over the freshwater mussels and caused their death which denies and is inconsistent with the state’s right to them,” state lawyers wrote in an April lawsuit.

“Exerted dominion”? Who are they suing, Adam? Eve? Wrong Eden, Dana.

Well, now they might need to enlist Noah.

The genesis of this dispute is complex, going back to the 1920s when private utilities were more common and the dams along the four manmade lakes in the Tittabawassee River were used as a primary power-generation source for the community. Friends with property there tell me there has been plenty of tension between the dam owner and residents since at least the 1990s.

But there is no denying certain basic facts—and another example of the priorities of environmentalists when it comes to human life.

https://pjmedia.com/columns/david-forsmark/2020/05/22/ignoring-warnings-mich-ag-sued-to-raise-lake-level-ahead-of-dam-break-to-protect-mussels-n418055