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ZPMC is the largest manufacturer of cranes in the world. Its assembly yard is a vast facility on Changxing Island at the mouth of the Yangtze River in Shanghai. The massive yard has ample layout space to fabricate and assemble the iconic container cranes seen at ports around the world. Typically, the cranes are shipped assembled, and the ZPMC yard has a large wharf to load them onto specially designed, heavy-lift ships and then deliver them all over the world.
The ZPMC cranes are replete with similar cameras that analysts in China could use to count and examine shipments. Signals could also be sent to the cranes to make them potentially unsafe or inoperable.
In the new guidance, the Coast Guard “will have the express authority to respond to malicious cyber activity in the nation’s MTS [Marine Transportation System] by requiring vessels and waterfront facilities to mitigate cyber conditions that may endanger the safety of a vessel, facility, or harbor.”
In May 2023, the first reports of a Chinese cyberattack on critical infrastructure were made public by Microsoft, which said in a statement that the “Volt Typhoon campaign is pursuing development of capabilities that could disrupt critical communications infrastructure between the United States and Asia region during future crises.”
The DHS Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) made initial comments, and then a quiet time ensued—most likely because the U.S. government was convening working groups to study, assess, and make recommendations.
Starting in December 2023, the public comments of CISA Director Jen Easterly, FBI Director Christopher Wray, and the new Cyber Command/National Security Agency Director General Timothy Haugh began to reveal the outcome of this analysis period, and the officials were ready to share the findings in a loud, vocal, and unequivocal manner in multiple appearances before Congress and in public statements.
Mr. Wray was more precise when he said, “It’s difficult to know the intent of the preparation, but it was aligned with China’s broader goal to stop the United States from defending Taiwan.”
The removal of Chinese “spy cranes” and the fortification of American ports have led the Chinese to surge Volt Typhoon to ensure that they have diversity in all possible aspects of U.S. critical infrastructure.
All viewpoints are personal and do not reflect the viewpoints of any organization.
This article first appeared in Epoch Times and was reprinted with permission.
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The Bahamas are mostly known as a resort or cruise destination, only 90 miles to the right of Miami. Not well known is that the Bahamas have become one of the key locations for Chinese Communist Party Adventurism in the Americas as China exploits a disinterested U.S. Government and State Department. When I was in the Bahamas in late 2019, I went out of my way to talk to locals and see what was on their mind. There were two common themes: The first was that the Chinese Communists were thugs. The second one was, where are the Americans? In late 2023 I spent a number of days in Panama with Michael Yon and Ann Vandersteel to understand the extent of Chinese mischief in Panama. Funny – asking a Panamanian on the street would get almost an identical response to the Bahamians five years earlier.
In January of this year, the State Department put out an alert that rattled the islands and peeled back the illusion of conch soup restaurants, carefree citizens, and peaceful resorts. The State Department Alert was a “Level II Alert” on increased violence and murders in the Bahamas. In the first 24 days of January 2024, 18 murders occurred. So what is going on? When a U.S. Government Inspector General was appointed for Ukraine, suddenly Haiti collapsed (again) into unprecedented violence. It was no coincidence. Haiti is an international focal point for money laundering and human trafficking and business picked up with a sudden higher-level scrutiny of Ukraine. Haiti is only a short boat ride a few hours from the Bahamas. The Bahamas has become ungoverned space and as violence grips the islands, the clear winner is obvious: China
The violence is now targeting members of the ruling elite of the Bahamas. On March 29, 2024, former member of Parliament, Don Saunders was gunned down while at a Restaurant in Gambier Village, nine miles to the west of the capitol city of Nassau and just above the international airport. After being shot, he was robbed of the keys to his car and the killers drove off in his car. Mr. Saunders was the deputy of the Free National Movement Party, the minority party in the Bahamian Parliament and the center right party. The FNM Party is the group most active and vocal in challenging the Chinese domination of the Island. This was the 35th homicide in the Bahamas in 2024.
This murder has rocked the Bahamas. The party stance of the FNM while Chinese interests dominate the large archipelago of islands, that has a population of just over 400,000, is hard to overlook. Gun ownership in the Bahamas is the highest in the Caribbean and owning a weapon is regulated but allowed. According to the Royal Bahama Police, 90% of the weapons confiscated come from Florida. As a branch and sequel to Fast and Furious in Mexico, the Biden Team seems to be enabling lawsuits by neighboring countries including the Bahamas against American gun makers as a proxy war against the American Second Amendment. The mass violence and collapse of society in Haiti is only a few hours by boat away from the southern end of the Bahamas, so guns and bad people from Haiti enabling the growing chaos in the Bahamas should not be overlooked.
China is ever presentin theresort industry and infrastructure projects like thegift of a $30M grant to build a national stadium. The largesse of such gifts is overpowering to the small population of the Bahamas and the ruling Progressive Liberal Party. Huawei is the leading provider of information technology and networks to the Bahamas. Essentially the entire island is networked by Huawei up to the Internet Access Points at the undersea cable coming from Miami.
Where Huawei goes so does the Chinese capability to monitor, a job that the newly established Chinese Cyberspace Force will prioritize with their footprint in the Bahamas, a short undersea cable ride to the National Access Point of the Americas in downtown Miami. China is leading the multi-billion-dollar development of the Baha Mar Resort, which is years behind schedule, but also includes the British Hilton Colonial Hotel in downtown Nassau, across the street from the American Embassy. The Chinese overpowering presence and exclusion of Bahamian citizens from much of the infrastructure work does not endear the Chinese to much of the Bahamian population.
While General Laura Richardson, the Commander of Southern Command in Miami has warned repeatedly of the Chinese control of the Bahamas, U.S. State Department has apparently missed the memo. There is no U.S. Ambassador to the Bahamas, only the lesser position of “Chargé D’Affaires” which translated means, America does not care enough about the Bahamas to have a real Ambassador. The Foreign Service Officer encumbering this neutered position is Jason Crosby who has a most unusual and atypical background, coming from the Diplomatic Security Service Office. Jason should know better and should 24/7 be driving China out of the Bahamas.
The U.S. Navy has a large and sensitive facility in the Bahamas used for submarine training and research. The ones and zeros of all the data from this facility transit the Huawei IT pipes as they travel to Miami. With the growing alarm over Volt Typhoon, the Chinese cyber-attacks on American critical infrastructure, creating a non-Chinese IT backbone for the Bahamas including the rip and replace of Huawei is intuitive. The average Bahamian gets it and asks, “where are the Americans?”. That is a great question and one more reason November 2024 is so important.
The post The Bahamas are becoming Haiti, only closer appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
For the time being, additional military aid has been approved to Ukraine. At the next possible opportunity though, there should be a move by Congress, or a new Administration to apply control measures to this aid to bring it in alignment with how U.S. military aid is normally applied.
The Ukraine War should be looked at as the first of several regional conflicts implemented against American under the “No Limits” agreement between Xi and Putin to topple America. But at the same time, there are serious and fact-based concerns with money laundering, fraud, and corruption in Ukraine.
Russia is the major tributary state of China in the Chinese Communist Party’s move to defeat America. Russia should be looked at as neither friend, nor enemy – instead they are a totalitarian regime with nuclear weapons, that has chosen to align itself with China.
There was a period when world history could have been changed and a historic rapprochement with Russia established. That was the 1990s, when Russia was teetering on the verge of collapse.
For some inexplicable reason, Secretary of State Madeline Albright and company in the Clinton Administration chose to bravely step forward and kick Russia in the teeth when Russia was on its knees. So unfortunately, that ship has sailed, and Russia is on the Chinese Team and China intends to topple America through Unrestricted Warfare.
The role of the Inspector Generals (IGs) in U.S. Departments and Agencies is very important. Not well understood is that IGs often are armed, badged, and have arrest authority. One reason for this is that when investigating malfeasance, even darker and capital misdeeds may be uncovered. In Iraq and Afghanistan, there were robust IG efforts that uncovered multiple instances of grotesque fraud, waste, and abuse.
An IG has now been appointed for Ukraine. That is good news. This happened last fall in October 2023. It is interesting that once the appointment of a part time IG for Ukraine happened, Haiti suddenly performed assigned duties flawlessly and re-collapsed.
Haiti is where the Clinton’s learned the art of money laundering, but by the Obama-Biden era, the realization was that Haiti did not scale. This is why the Obama-Biden Team started seeking larger scale opportunities like Panama, Malta, and Cyprus.
In the early days of the Russian invasion in 2014, the Obama Team couldn’t have cared less about Ukraine – until they realized the vast scale of money laundering opportunities. Then they were suddenly all in.
The current arrangement is that the DOD IG is dual hatted as the Ukraine IG. This unacceptable – Ukraine needs a dedicated IG. In my efforts on election integrity, I’ve become far more learned on IG-like capabilities within the states.
I’ve been a bit shocked – most states have a nascent IG function, if any at all – most often it’s an additional duty buried in the State Patrol. More States should have a far larger and more robust IG operation.
The unwillingness of Congress to assign equal or greater importance of securing the Southern, and now Northern Border is insulting to most Americans. If the American homeland border was secure, there would be far greater willingness of the American people to consider condition-based support for Ukraine.
10,000 Americans a month are now dying from Fentanyl made in Mexico, by the Cartels, under Chinese supervision, with 100% of the formulary components coming from China. Almost all Fentanyl comes across the Southern Border.
120,000 dead Americans a year is greater than all the American combat deaths from forty years of combat in Vietnam combined with the entire War on Terror. Everyone reading this likely knows a friend or family affected by Fentanyl.
New York, Philadelphia, and San Francisco now have large No-Go zones due to the Fentanyl Apocalypse. In addition, the flood across the border consists of multiple Brigades of Chinese Special Operators who immediately converge on high cash operations like “legal cannabis”, massage parlors, casinos, abortion clinics, and similar ventures.
Globalists and Deep Staters want Government Digital Currency so they can control society and behavior – but they like the carve out and will maintain these high cash operation exceptions that can be locally-skimmed and used as mini-Ukraines and mini-Haitis for tactical de-stabilization activities (such as the “Palestinian” Protests).
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan is back in Yale lecturing mode as he talks down to the Defense Industrial Base. “Defense industry ‘still underestimating’ global need for munitions” is Jake’s talking point.
Jake has never run anything except his mouth and wouldn’t know an assembly line from a hole in the ground. Newsflash to Sullivan, the Defense Industrial Base would gladly churn out more weapons to replenish American stocks and actually give the Taiwanese the arms they’ve already paid for – if a contract was signed.
The reality is that the negotiation of contracts is significantly lagging. No one expands production without signed contracts. We don’t need a forever war defense industrial complex, but we do need the world’s best Arsenal of Democracy 2.0 to build up American readiness so that a greater worldwide conflict with China and Chinese proxies is deterred.
We just blew $1B worth of ordnance defending Israel against Iran, the second biggest Chinese proxy, which worked well and was worth the investment. The game is on, and the stakes are mortal in the world showdown with China. But unchecked largess flowing to Ukraine is not helpful to American interests and condition-based aid must be resolved at the earliest possible moment. PS – another condition of the aid – full revelation of the extent and role of Government provocateurs in J6 and nullification of all J6 prosecutions.
The post COL John Mills (ret): Conditions for Current and Future Ukraine Aid appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
The battle of Columbia University is underway in New York City as “Palestinian Protestors” have created a swath of ungoverned space. Jason Rantz, a Seattle talk radio personality, said, “There’s a new autonomous zone, this time at Columbia University and it’s fueled by hatred of Jews. The longer the university allows it to stand, the more difficult it will be to dismantle — and the more hate it will foment.” Jason has experienced first-hand the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone that has contributed to a Seattle now in decline.
“Palestinian Protestors” are the latest fad of the angry outrage movement. The tone and tenor is ugly and hostile to Jewish students and faculty. Any attempt to counter-protest is met with violence or ejection from Campus. Professor Shai Davidai has been barred from campus by officials since they cannot assure his safety. Prohibiting Jewish faculty, staff, and students for their own safety is twisted and perverted logic. The violence at Columbia is rapidly spreading to other campuses. Texas Governor Greg Abbot oversaw a firm response at University of Texas Austin when radicals tried to shut the campus down. Arrests were actually made at UT Austin, a departure from years of officials in many cities failing to provide civil order.
The sudden rise in violence on college campuses is occurring while key national security officials have been giving stark warnings to the American public. FBI Director Wray has been quite histrionic about an impending ‘coordinated terror attack’ with the threat at a ‘whole other level’. Wray’s warnings seem dire and he has been disingenuous on several topics, but this call to red alert seems authentic. It is not well known, there is Intelligence Community Directive (ICD) 191, Duty to Warn. Under ICD 191 there is a legal obligation of officials (i.e. Wray) to provide a warning regarding threats to specific individuals or groups of intentional killing, serious bodily injury, and kidnapping. Wray and other senior officials are likely triggered by their legal obligations under ICD 191.
Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (DHS CISA) Director Jennifer Easterly has been equally dramatic with her comments of “aggressive cyber operations” by China that can not only take down infrastructure but also “induce societal panic,” which seems to acknowledge what Dr. Malone and others were correct about the mass psychosis of the Wuhan bio-lab, COVID, and the vaccine scam. General Haugh, Director of National Security Agency and Cyber Command has pointed out that China was securing access to the United States’ critical networks before a direct confrontation between the two countries would occur. Translated, China is preparing for war. Is the sudden initiation of the Summer of Love 2024 related to Chinese Communist malign activities or the warnings from U.S. Government officials? If nothing else it provides additional chaos and distraction which provides a smokescreen.
The violent “Pro-Palestinian” outrage mobs have a lineage to the Summer of 2020. Black Lives Matter and Antifa were replete with those who were easily triggered by social justice messaging. There was also a disturbing intersection between these groups and public-school faculty and staff. Since 2020 these same personalities have shape shifted into drag show activists, violent transgender militants, the squatter movement, and now “Palestinian” activists. Getting paid to protest, why not become part of the Social Justice rent a mob? It’s a great gig if you can get it, and it’s quite easy to get.
China has the Digital Twin Strategy that helps TikTok fine tune their feed to address the positive and negative affirmation of the individual easily influenced by outrage postings. Using Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, and Big Data analytics, TikTok can deliver tailored messages to their 1 billion plus users. For Taiwan Election Interference, it was estimated that 10% of the TikTok messages were tailored to the individual. At 1 billion users, TikTok can deliver 100 million tailored message streams and weight them toward the American audience – that is a lot of influence. Who is paying the money to this street violence cadre in America for their violence? Chinese Communist Groups, Hamas (which is Iran, which is China), American non-profits receiving U.S. Government grants, and Soros/Arabella dark money. Big Media has surged their army of Soros Funded Fact Checkers to help hide the evidence trail on this connection.
The seminal difference between 2020 and 2024 is the flood of Chinese military age males coming across the unsecure southern border. Chinese operators were out on the street in 2020 enabling societal panic over the COVID narrative, but stayed discrete. Another lesson learned by Taiwan was that advanced social media use by China still heavily utilizes on the ground collaborators to fine tune, correct, and spread the social messaging. After 2020, Chinese nationals became bolder and started to create the secret Chinese Police Station Infrastructure in America which has been somewhat degraded, but not totally shut down by the FBI. Chinese illegals also set up the bio-lab discovered in California and are routinely challenging the security at sensitive U.S. Government facilities.
Chinese illegals have been pivoting toward “legal cannabis”, drawn by the high cash nature of the un-bankable cannabis proceeds and are killing each other. This situation is becoming pervasive across America. With the surging rise of malign activities performed by Chinese operatives inside of America and the clarion call of multiple national security leaders on imminent, coordinated mass casualty events, not drawing a line, at least in pencil, between the sudden rash of “Palestinian” protestors and the flood of Chinese military age males across the southern border is foolish.
The post Summer of Love 2024 Violence Makes an Early Appearance and is Spreading Fast appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
A well-attended press conference took place at the National Press Club in Washington on April 8. Experts shared the essential learning points on how Taiwan conducted a successful presidential election in the face of a concerted, malign influence campaign waged by communist China through online methods enabled by collaborators inside Taiwan.
Russell Hsiao, executive director of the Global Taiwan Institute, led a panel of experts that included Yang Shun-Ching of Doublethink Labs, Yu Chihhao of Taiwan Information Environment Research Center, Eve Chiu of Taiwan Fact Check Center, Billion Lee of Cofacts, and Liu Wen-Ping of the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau.
Social media, laced with artificial intelligence-enabled manipulations of media, were the tip of the spear of the Chinese efforts. TikTok was the most malign of the Chinese social media campaigns, but often, there was strong synchronization of messaging across YouTube, Douyin (China’s domestic version of TikTok), and TikTok itself.
Ms. Chiu showed examples of this messaging. U.S. political figures such as presumptive GOP nominee and former President Donald Trump and Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.) had their English language and Mandarin-translated voice tracks altered.
One of the AI-altered TikTok videos with Mr. Wittman showed him voicing support for Democratic Progressive Party candidate William Lai, while the original video clip showed the congressman talking about Ukraine—meaning that the altered video had been manipulated from a totally different topic.
Influencers also played a key role on TikTok and repeated the same talking points between the different influencer personalities. Mr. Yang presented an example of a TikTok influencer who had previously focused on fashion and started sharing messages questioning the integrity of the Taiwanese election process and alleging electoral fraud.
The psychological operation and cognitive warfare campaign objective of the Chinese flow of messages was primarily intended to favor the Kuomintang party through a focus on fear, doubt, and divisiveness.
One of the ugliest and most pernicious themes pushed were smears of the growing Indian population doing high-tech work in the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. chip factories and other labor categories such as construction. The messages were intentionally designed to create fear that Taiwanese women would be targeted in sexual assaults by this imported labor that has become necessary because of labor shortages and low birth rates in Taiwan.
One curious theme was the planted messages that U.S. pork was contaminated, low quality, or had other negative attributes. This theme was perhaps a double-edged sword or not fully thought out. The Chinese population depends heavily on U.S.-imported pork. Should the Chinese not trust U.S. pork or the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)?
One semi-comical attempted smear was aimed at Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen and looked like a typical American political attack ad, in which her picture in color would be reshown in black and white with vague intimations that some sinister secret double life was being led, yet with scant detail behind the allegation.
What was common among the presenters was respect for the difference between political dissent and willful malign Chinese interference. One important observation from Mr. Liu was the key role that on-the-ground collaborators played. They helped focus, clarify, distribute, and adjust the messaging. The money trail seemed to be the primary evidence for identifying Chinese collaborators.
During the press conferences before the January Taiwanese election, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu cited multiple arrests for violating Taiwanese laws forbidding the acceptance of foreign money for political activities. The Taiwanese showed a remarkable ability to discriminate their activities and allow political discourse to occur while successfully identifying and interdicting malign CCP influence operations.
The Taiwan experience is rich with lessons learned that can be applied to the upcoming U.S. presidential election. In Taiwan, there appears to be a healthy respect for and appreciation of the vital necessity for an election process that is as clean as possible. The comments on how highly the Chinese valued on-the-ground collaborators to refine the effectiveness of their cognitive warfare campaign bring even more concern, focus, and action that should be applied to the relentless surge of Chinese nationals who appear to be military operators streaming across the southern border into the United States.
All viewpoints are personal and do not reflect the viewpoints of any organization.
This article first appeared in Epoch Times and was reprinted with permission.
The post Taiwan Sets the Bar on Respecting Freedom of Speech While Shutting Down Chinese Election Interference appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
The afternoon, evening, and morning of April 13 and 14, 2024 displayed one of the largest ever missile barrages from one non-contiguous country to another when Iran attempted to devastate Israel. Most of the 350 plus drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles were fired from Iran – a first, but some were launched from Yemen. Iran started off the whole event with perhaps a deception operation.
Naval commandos from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC, which is a designated terrorist organization by the U.S. Government) conducted a “fast rope” operation off of helicopters to seize the Merchant Vessel Aries in the Straits of Hormuz. This was the same tactic used in November of 2023 to seize another ship, the Galaxy Leader, in the Red Sea which initiated the continuing naval war in the Middle East. The Iranians seem to be studious in the business forensics of ship ownership – both ships trace to Israeli businesses. The possible deception operation did little to distract from the missile volley that started in the afternoon.
The breakout of the different weapons launched at Israel were given by Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari who said Iran fired 170 drones, more than 30 cruise missiles and more than 120 ballistic missiles. There has been an update, the numbers of weapons now appear to be 350. A brief Wall Street Journal posting also hinted at a number of possible take aways. According to three Administration Officials, “Roughly 50% of the ballistic missiles fired by Iran failed to launch or crashed before reaching their target”, and “So much for the vaunted ballistic-missile capability of Iran,”. These “talking on background” comments hint at three important take aways.
First, the possibility of “Five Eyes Plus” coordinated cyber efforts to disrupt the Iranian launch process. The liquid fueled ballistic missile inventory of Iran is still significant and the fueling process, especially in underground, bunkered spaces, is dangerous even during peacetime training conditions. The wrong valve turned the wrong time could be catastrophic. Second, the comment seemed to be a pre-emptive attempt to undermine any Israeli counterstrike. Third, the Beltway tradition of talking on background to influence the story is alive and well. In addition to a possible projection of cyber capabilities, the turkey shoot of Iranian launched drones and missiles was stunningly effective and showed extraordinary coordination between American, French, British, Jordanian, Saudi, United Arab Emirates and Israeli air to air and ground to air defense shield that was magnificent.
The Iranians tried to make something out of the quashing of their historic barrage. The Chief of the Iranian General Staff, Gen Mohammad Bagheri, said the attack was a “a well-planned attack with appropriate design … that neither the Iron Dome nor the missile defence shield of the Zionist regime could significantly counter. This operation achieved its goal.” Not taking away from the overwhelming success in defeating the initial attack by Iran, the dithering interference and foot dragging by the Biden Administration only provides a strong message of lack of resolve and clarity that enables Iran.
The Biden Administration policy on the situation is one word: “Don’t”. This word seems more aimed at Israel than Iran since Iran conducted the onslaught despite Biden’s strong use of the word, “Don’t”. Inexplicably, the Biden Administration is still waiving and releasing $10B more in frozen Iranian assets. Iran is dependent upon this lifeline of unfrozen funds to survive. The Biden Team seems to not understand negotiations and negotiation advantage with an uncooperative adversary. Paying the other party and then expecting cooperation defies best practices of negotiations. It should always be pay for performance, not expectation of performance. Iran’s Government is officially listed as an “Adversary Government” in U.S. Law, yet the Biden Team incentivizes bad behavior by Iran.
It was a remarkable night, but a perfect score does not equal winning. The Middle East violence is growing and should be looked at as a coordinated front in the worldwide conflict that is ongoing and growing. Ukraine was Putin’s contribution to the “No Limits” partnership to topple America, October 7 was Iran’s portion of the “No Limits” deal. The Middle East Front started with the bloody Hamas attack into Israel, but then followed in November 2023 with the broad assault on Merchant shipping in the region, and now is in its third phase with the missile assault on Israel.
The Biden Team is not connecting the dots on what is going on and is attempting to transactionally tamp down on the coordinated mayhem by micro-managing Israel, and appeasing Iran. The Iranian government would not exist if it was not for the continual release of funds by the Biden Team and Chinese purchases of Iranian oil (and the large “advisory” presence of Chinese personnel in Iran). The overwhelming success of the coordinated first night of defense of Israel was historic but should not be looked at as victory or success in the big picture. It was a good night but it is just the next phase on the continuum of a world at war. We’ve shifted from the 1938 period to the 1939 phase on the pathway of World War III. Biden is playing Chamberlain flawlessly.
The post Impressive Night Defending Israel Sullied by Biden Administration Enablement of Conflict appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) is dead for the time being, due to the leadership of presumptive nominee, former President Donald J. Trump. President Trump, of all Americans, knows best and first-hand the weaponization of FISA, especially through Section 702 of the 2008 Amendment to the FISA Act. 2008 was a seminal year which was not coincidental. It was the first official year of the modern mass surveillance environment created by the inauguration of the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative (CNCI), started by the Bush Administration, greatly expanded and weaponized by the Obama Administration.
CNCI brought together designs, operational concepts, technology, and most importantly – the marriage and collusion of Big Tech and Big Government. It was created lawfully – but the magic was intoxicating and irresistible – especially for those seeking domestic political advantage. The Director of National Intelligence’s (DNI) public facing infographic was meant to sell Section 702, but actually has some language that is alarming and indicts the effort. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are “compelled” to cooperate – that doesn’t sound right. The “compelled” language also reveals something – the ISPs wanted indemnification – and if you received the email (lead picture), that is their indemnification, but it also means the Intelligence Community is possibly sitting on your home computer watching the Chinese sit on your home computer. What could possibly go wrong?
Another alarming admission of guilt from the DNI infographic related to the need for 702 authorities, according to the DNI product, the old process didn’t work “because the government couldn’t always meet the probable cause standard” – but it was ok because 702 only did mass surveillance on foreign persons outside of the US. That is a bit of word art, 702 allowed the concept of collect first, then mask out American Citizens. However – they’ve already been caught in the net. Masking isn’t a perfect process, analyst’s eyes have already seen or heard something they weren’t supposed to, and data might be found that answers a question. This means the IC might know something on an American Citizen they can’t use in court, but they can back their way into the same evidence via other means.
Susan Rice, the Obama National Security Advisor from 2013 – 2017 used unmasking (or pre-masking?) of 702 collections to help start the Russia fraud in early 2016. Charles McGonigal, the disgraced and convicted former Director of Counterintelligence for the FBI’s New York Office was likely part of this as well as the Clinton Campaign. Trump Advisors General Michael Flynn, George Papadopoulos, Carter Page, and others were targeted by the Susan Rice led group which also likely shared information with Jake Sullivan, a top advisor to the Clinton campaign for their portion of Russia Gate. This was unconstrained political warfare with no punishment or accountability – FISA failed to prevent this abuse and failed the nation.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken created the infamous “51 Intelligence Officer” letter used to throw the 2020 election by claiming the Hunter Biden Laptop was Russian disinformation. Eight in Ten Americans felt this fraud changed the outcome of the election. Many of these 51 Intelligence Officers had benefitted from years of 702 collections and many knew that Hunter’s laptop was not Russian disinformation. These 51 lied when they signed Blinken’s letter. What did they lie about when they handled the volumes of 702 data?
These 51 signed the Blinken fraudulent letter citing their former positions and titles which should make them chargeable under 18 USC 1001, False Statement by a Federal Official. The 51 Intelligence Officer letter was the tipping point of trust in the Federal Government, yet many of these 51 had deep ties to 702. If they lie to throw an election and rob the American people, abuse of 702 is nothing. No one is watching them, and those that are supposed to be watching cannot be trusted either.
The call for ending Section 702 and resetting of the entire FISA environment goes well beyond the MAGA movement. The Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Brennan Center, neither in the MAGA camp, are both for FISA reform. But FISA reform is not enough. The rot inside the IC and Federal Law Enforcement is deep and requires massive surgery to the extent that the institutions need to be dissolved and started over again.
Senator Frank Church ran an investigation in the 1970s that helped address some of the most egregious parts of the bad behavior of the IC. The CIA still refused to release significant portions of the Kennedy assassination though, which they still do to this day. Complete transparency and accountability is needed which includes officials being investigated and charged if appropriate. The Watchers can’t be trusted, nor those watching the Watchers. Adding more Watchers is not the answer. The entire institutions must re-set from the ground up. America First needs the world’s best Intelligence and Law Enforcement, but the American Citizen is to be protected from the foreign threat, not surveilled nor have their elections thrown.
The post Time for a re-set on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and Section 702 Intelligence Collection appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
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