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Home Front: WoT

Stabbing of Palestinian American in Texas meets hate crime standard, police say

2024-02-10

BLUF: Drunken idiot challenges truck full of excitable young men returning from yet another pro-Hamas rally; trouble ensues, CAIR demands Soros DA José Garza label it a hate crime.

[IsraelTimes] Authorities say Bert James Baker tried to rip flagpole with a keffiyeh scarf reading ’Free Paleostine’ off vehicle in which 23-year-old Zacharia Doar was riding.

The stabbing of a 23-year-old Paleostinian American who advocates say was attacked near the University of Texas campus while riding in a truck displaying support for Paleostine merits the label of a hate crime, Austin police announced Wednesday.

Bert James Baker, 36, was arrested following the Sunday evening attack on Zacharia Doar, who was hospitalized. Baker was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Police said Wednesday that their Hate Crimes Review Committee had determined that the stabbing met the definition of a hate crime. They have provided that information to prosecutors, who will make the final decision on whether to enhance the offense.

The Travis County District Attorney’s Office said Wednesday that they are in the process of receiving the evidence from police and "look forward to working with them."

Doar was one of four Moslem Americans who were in the truck, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations

... the Moslem Brüderbund's American arm ...
(CAIR), which said Baker allegedly tried to rip a flagpole with a keffiyeh scarf reading "Free Paleostine" off of their vehicle. CAIR said the four had previously attended a pro-Paleostinian protest.

An arrest affidavit said that Baker, who was on a bicycle, rode up to the truck Doar and three others were riding in, opened the tailgate and doors and yelled racial slurs at them. The group exited the truck and approached Baker, who punched Doar in the shoulders, the affidavit said. A fight ensued, with Baker eventually pulling out a knife and stabbing Doar in the rib, the affidavit said.

When Baker was interviewed by police, he said he was an alcoholic and had more to drink that day than he normally did, the affidavit said.

Is drunken bicycle riding even possible?

Baker was being held in jail on Thursday on $100,000 bond. Jail records did not list an attorney for him.

The Austin Chronicle adds:

On Sunday, thousands traveled from across the state to rally for a ceasefire in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
The second statewide protest organized by the Austin for Paleostine Coalition drew an estimated 10,000-15,000 people to the south lawn of the Capitol. Nizar Doar, his son Zacharia, and three friends had driven in from Dallas for the protest, and late on Sunday, Nizar was on his way back. "I just left my son in good condition. I told him, ’Let's go to Dallas, I will pay for your dinner, you and your friends, I want you to come with us.’ They're young, they decided to try the good food in Austin. They stayed. An hour and a half, hour and 45 minutes [into the drive] and I get a terrible call saying, ’Uncle, you have to turn back.’"

Nizar’s 23-year-old son Zacharia had been attacked and stabbed by 36-year-old Bert James Baker around 7pm as he and his friends were leaving the protest. At Nueces and West 26th Street, Baker allegedly approached their car on a bicycle and tried to rip a flag pole with a keffiyeh scarf reading "Free Paleostine" off the car, then screamed the N-word and pulled Zacharia from the car.

What does “the N word” have to do with Palestinians? Our drunken knifeman is very confused.

The other three got out of the car to fight Baker off, who then allegedly stabbed Zacharia with a knife, breaking his rib. Zacharia underwent a successful surgery and is currently recovering in a hospital, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

Link

-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-

Last gasp of the neo-cons

2023-09-03

[HotAir] The Washington Post on August 15, 2023, in a story by Mariana Alfaro, writes about Bill Kristol’s launch of "Republicans for Ukraine," which is using a $2 million ad campaign "to get congressional Republicans to commit to continue funding aid for Ukraine ahead of what is likely to be a lengthy appropriations fight."

The odd thing is that the noted Conservative public intellectual, founder of the now-defunct The Weekly Standard, has been a vehement NeverTrumper since 2016 — going so far in 2020 as to register as a Democrat and endorse Joe Biden. So it’s puzzling that he continues to refer to himself as a Republican.

According to Alfaro, advertisements, which will include "testimony" from pro-Ukraine Republican voters, will appear on television, billboards, and online. After two decades of promoting failed and costly wars and interventions, Kristol and what is left of the neoconservative movement are making a last gasp at relevance by once again promoting American involvement in another war.

Fortunately, neoconservatives are a dying breed in American politics. At least in the Republican Party. Having achieved relevance in the latter stages of the Cold War by breaking with the Democratic Party (where most of them came from) and supporting President Ronald Reagan’s policies that won the Cold War, the neoconservatives spent much of the post-Cold War world finding new "monsters to destroy" (to use the famous phrase of John Quincy Adams). They first picked Saddam Hussein in Iraq. But after the U.S. military achieved a quick victory on the battlefield in 1991 and forced Iraqi forces to leave Kuwait, the neoconservatives criticized the Bush 41 administration for not toppling the Iraqi regime. During the Clinton administration, the neocons were ardent champions of U.S. intervention in the Balkans. Then, after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the neoconservatives persuaded the George W. Bush administration not only to retaliate against our enemies in Afghanistan but to declare a "Global War on Terror" and launch a crusade to democratize the Arab regimes of the Middle East. Bush 43, backed by the neoconservatives and using Wilsonian rhetoric, preemptively attacked Iraq, overthrew the heinous Hussein regime, declared "victory," and then needlessly expended the lives of American soldiers and American treasure in failed efforts to remake the Middle East in America’s image.
As I understand it, at the time Americans were given - essentially identical - advice by the Saudi King and the Israeli PM: "Now find a nice (one who'd remember what happened to Saddam) Sunni general and make him the new boss." But no, Americans had to play at Democracy - ignoring the fact that Shia are the majority and the only organized Shia are the ones owned by Iran.
At the same time that the neoconservatives promoted the democratization of the Middle East, they also urged the Bush 43 administration to expand NATO closer to Russia’s border, ignoring the prudent counsel of Bush 41 Secretary of State James Baker (who told Russian leaders that NATO would not expand if Russia didn’t contest German reunification), and Russian expert and elder statesman George F. Kennan who presciently warned that NATO expansion would revive the worst aspects of Russian nationalism and imperialism.
Basically, they've convinced Russia that it's 17th century again - the Time of Troubles.
Bush 43 not only expanded NATO further (Romania, Estonia, Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia were given membership in 2004, while Albania, and Croatia were invited during the Bush 43 administration but formally joined in 2009), he also publicly called for Ukraine and Georgia to join the alliance. The neocons also urged U.S. intervention in Syria and Libya in 2011 as part of their championing of the so-called "Arab Spring," which led not to democracy but instead to anarchy, chaos, and increased Russian and Chinese influence in the region.

Link

Government Corruption

Durham bombshell: Prosecutor unveils smoking gun FBI text message, 'joint venture' to smear Trump

2023-04-01

[JUSTTHENEWS] Special Counsel John Durham is revealing new smoking gun evidence, a text message that shows a Clinton campaign lawyer lied to the FBI, while putting the courts on notice he is prepared to show the effort to smear Donald Trump
...Oh, noze! Not him!...
with now-disproven Russia collusion allegations was a "conspiracy."

In a bombshell court filing late Monday night, Durham for the first time suggested Crooked Hillary Clinton
<q>Crooked Hillary</q> Clinton

...former first lady, former secretary of state, former presidential candidate, Conqueror of Benghazi, Heroine of Tuzla, formerly described by her supporters as the smartest woman in the world, usually described by the rest of us as The Thing That Wouldn't Go Away. Politix is not one of her talents, but it's something she keeps trying to do...
's campaign, her researchers and others formed a "joint venture or conspiracy" for the purpose of weaving the collusion story to harm Trump's election chances and then the start of his presidency.

"These parties acted as 'joint venturer[s]' and therefore should be 'considered as co-conspirator[s],'" he wrote.

Durham also revealed he has unearthed a text message showing Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann falsely told the FBI he was not working on behalf of any client when he delivered now-discredited anti-Trump research in the lead-up to the 2016 election. In fact, he was working for the Clinton campaign and another client, prosecutors say.

The existence of the text message between Sussmann and then-FBI General Counsel James Baker was revealed in a court filing late Monday night by Durham's team. Prosecutors said they intend to show Sussmann gave a false story to the FBI but then told the truth about working on behalf of the Clinton campaign when he later testified to Congress.

"Jim — it's Michael Sussmann. I have something time-sensitive (and sensitive) I need to discuss," Sussmann texted Baker on Sept. 18, 2016, according to the new court filing. "Do you have availability for a short meeting tomorrow? I'm coming on my own — not on behalf of a client or company — want to help the Bureau. Thanks."

Prosecutors said the text message will become essential evidence at trial to show Sussmann lied to the FBI.

You can read the court filing.

Link

Government Corruption

Trilateral Commission Declares 2023 ‘Year One' of the New World Order

2023-03-29

[News With Views] "Countless people ... will hate the new world order, be rendered unhappy by frustration of their passions and ambitious through its advent and will die protesting against it. When we attempt to estimate its promise we have to bear in mind the distress of a generation or so of malcontents, many of them quite gallant and graceful-looking people." -H.G. Wells, The New World Order (1940), p. 129.

"The nation-state as a fundamental unit of man’s organized life has ceased to be the principal creative force: International banks and multinational corporations are acting and planning in terms that are far in advance of the political concepts of the nation state.... A global human conscience is for the first time beginning to manifest itself.... [W]e are ... witnessing the emergence of transnational elites ... composed of international businessmen, scholars, professional men, and public officials. The ties of these new elites cut across national boundaries, their perspectives are not confined by national traditions, and their interests are more functional than national. These global communities are gaining in strength and ... it is likely that before long the social elites of most of the more advanced countries will be highly internationalist or globalist in spirit and outlook." -Zbigniew Brzezinski, Between Two Ages: America’s Role in the Technetronic Era (1970), pp 56-59.

"For more than a century ideological extremists at either end of the political spectrum have seized upon well-publicized incidents ... to attack the Rockefeller family for the inordinate influence they claim we wield over American political and economic institutions. Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as "internationalists" and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure—one world, if you will. If that’s the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it." -David Rockefeller, A Memoir (2002), p. 405.

"Today, a new dividing line exists in politics and society. It is the division between globalism and nationalism, between cooperation and protectionism, between embracing the new and preserving the old." -Klaus Schwab, World Economic Forum Annual Report, 2022.

Well, it’s happened. At a confab in New Delhi, India, its Annual Plenary Meeting (March 10-12), the Trilateral Commission declared 2023 ’Year One’ of the New World Order.

One speech comes to our attention courtesy of James Baker, who served in the (Trilateral Commission controlled) Carter administration and is described as having served on the Pentagon’s Office of Net Assessment. Baker did not identify the speaker. Apparently doing so would have violated Commission rules. In any event, this is what the speaker said:

Link

-Great Cultural Revolution

Former top Twitter exec: We've used 'visibility filtering' to suppress certain political content

2023-02-13

[JustTheNews] Former Twitter executives who worked for the company when the Hunter Biden laptop story was censored on the platform were in the hot seat on Wednesday at a marathon House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing on "Protecting Speech from Government Interference and Social Media Bias."

The committee's chairman, James Comer, alleged that Big Tech giants such as Twitter are "under the control of people who are hostile to the fundamental American principles of free speech" and have colluded with federal agencies to censor stories embarrassing to President Joe Biden and his family.

"We owe it to the American people to provide answers about this collusion to censor information about Joe Biden's involvement in his family's business schemes," Comer said at a committee hearing on censorship in America with former executives from Twitter.

Comer said his investigators had substantiated that there was "coordination between the federal government and Big Tech to restrict protected speech and interfere in the democratic process" that began even before Twitter famously censored New York Post stories in October 2020 about the contents of Hunter Biden's now infamous laptop.

"In the months leading up to the laptop story, the FBI advised senior Twitter executives to question the validity of any Hunter Biden story," he said. "We also know that one of the witnesses before us today participated in an Aspen Institute exercise in September 2020 on a potential 'hack and dump' operation relating to Hunter Biden. Other Big Tech companies and reporters attended as well.

"This exercise prepared them for their future collusion to suppress and delegitimize information contained in Hunter Biden's laptop about the Biden family's business schemes."

Censorship of such stories in the midst of a presidential election might in earlier generations have been unthinkable but Comer said it was made possible by troubling biases in the leadership of Big Tech companies.

"Many social media platforms are under the control of people who are hostile to the fundamental American principles of free speech and expression protected in the U.S. Constitution," he said. "We've witnessed Big Tech autocrats wield their unchecked power to suppress the speech of Americans to promote their preferred political opinions. Twitter was once one of these platforms — until Elon Musk purchased the company a few months ago ...

"In the past, Twitter's employees made censorship decisions on the fly, often not following the company's own publicly stated policies. It worked hand-in-hand with the FBI to monitor the protected speech of Americans — receiving millions of dollars to do so."

James Baker, former deputy general counsel at Twitter, argued that Twitter was not working as a state actor.

"I think the best reading of the law is that as a private entity, the First Amendment protects Twitter and its content moderation decisions," he said.

Baker said he wasn't aware of unlawful collusion.

"Moreover, I'm aware of no unlawful collusion with or direction from any government agency or political campaign on how Twitter should have handled the Hunter Biden laptop situation," he said.

Ohio GOP Rep. Jim Jordan asked Baker if he ever talked to the FBI about the Hunter Biden laptop.

"I don't recall speaking to the FBI at all about the Hunter Biden matter, laptop," Baker said.

Vijaya Gadde, former chief legal officer at Twitter, said the company had received inquiries from federal agencies to remove certain content from the platform. She didn't specify if the laptop story was one of them.

She acknowledged that Twitter uses labels such as "do not amplify" to ensure the platform does not recommend certain tweets to users for engagement. She elaborated on ways that Twitter filtered content during her time with the company, describing it as visibility filtering.

"There was an ability of preventing something from appearing in one of the tabs of search results," she said.

Tennessee GOP Rep. Tim Burchett wrote on Twitter after his questioning that the labels like "do not amplify" equated to censorship.

Jordan was able to confirm with Yoel Roth, former head of trust and safety at Twitter, that accounts that have been tagged for content filtering are not informed about it.

Comer said it was troubling that Twitter was "a private company the federal government used to accomplish what it constitutionally cannot: limit the free exercise of speech."

The committee's ranking member, Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin said Twitter had the right as a private company to censor stories like the Hunter Biden laptop New York Post report.

Roth said that he personally had advocated against taking the Hunter Biden laptop story off of Twitter.

"Twitter made a mistake," he said. "I’ll be the first to admit that we didn’t always get it right. Individual content moderation decisions will always be contentious, and reasonable minds can differ about whether a specific choice was right or wrong."

Wednesday's hearing was only part one of the committee's investigation into political bias at social media platforms.

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Government Corruption

Grassley Details How a ‘Triad' of Media, FBI, and Dems Tried to Thwart Investigation into the Biden Family's Corrupt Business Dealings

2023-02-11

[American Greatness] In testimony before the House Judiciary Committee’s first hearing on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) detailed how a "triad" of partisan media, FBI, and Democrats used disinformation from a Russian agent to smear their investigation into Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings.

In addition to Grassley, the committee on Thursday heard from Senator Ron Johnson (R- Wis.), Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), former U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, former FBI agent Thomas Baker, Professor Jonathan Turley, and former FBI agent Nicole Parker.

"In the past few years, I’ve never seen so much effort from the FBI, the partisan media, and some of my Democrat colleagues to interfere with with and undermine very legitimate congressional inquiries," Grassley said at the beginning of his testimony.

As one glaring example of this, Grassley cited the FBI’s corrupt Crossfire Hurricane investigation that sought to torpedo Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign for president, and when that failed, hobble his presidency and punish his associates.

"Bit by bit, piece by piece, it’s been deconstructed and shown to be a politically motivated investigation," he testified.

The senator said that the most recent example of the "triad at work" involved their attempts to undermine his and Sen. Johnson’s investigation into Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings, which began in August of 2019. At the time, Grassley was the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Johnson was chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

Link

Government Corruption

Ex-Twitter executive admits 'mistake' censoring Post's Hunter Biden scoop; House Oversight warns of Twitter/FBI arrests

2023-02-09

Golly. Thanks, dude — that really doesn’t help.

[NYPOST] A former top Twitter executive acknowledged to politicians Wednesday that the social media giant "made a mistake" in suppressing The Post’s bombshell October 2020 stories on Hunter Biden

...son of President Joe: cashiered from the Navy, a crackhead, wheeler dealer, leg humper, horn dog, and general all around ne'er do well. We're supposed to feel sorry for him...
’s laptop.

Vijaya Gadde, who received a $12.5 million severance package when she was fired as policy director in October by new Twitter CEO Elon Musk, testified before the House Oversight Committee that The Post’s reporting was censored in large part because photos from Hunter’s laptop "looked like they may have been obtained through hacking."

"In 2018, we had developed a policy intended to prevent Twitter from becoming a dumping ground for hacked materials," she said before adding: "It became clear that Twitter had not fully appreciated the impact of that policy on free press and others."

"In hindsight, Twitter should have reinstated The Post account immediately," Gadde went on.

Does that mean you’ll voluntarily give back the $12.5mil you really oughtn’t have taken, given your abysmal performance in that role, or should Mr. Musk sue you for it, based on your confession?

Courtesy of Skidmark:

House representative warns Twitter execs they could go to jail; FBI responds to allegations of censorship

[FoxNews] House Rep. Clay Higgins warned former Twitter executives on Wednesday of possible arrest for interfering with 2020 presidential election.

Former Twitter executives who met with the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday were given a stern warning from one representative, who said arrests were coming their way.

The purpose of the hearing was to address how Twitter blocked the sharing of a report on Hunter Biden’s laptop by the New York Post prior to the 2020 election.

Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said in May 2021 that blocking the Hunter Biden story was a "total mistake."

Still, during questioning, several members of the House Oversight Committee, including Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., were firm in their questioning of the representatives who appeared on Wednesday.

Higgins told Twitter’s former Head of Trust and Safety Yoel Roth, former chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde, former Twitter deputy counsel James Baker and Anika Collier Navaroli, a former employee at Twitter, that the bottom line was the FBI had the "Biden Crime Family" laptop for a year, knowing it was leaking and that those leaks would hurt the Biden campaign.

Higgins accused the FBI of using its relationship with Twitter to suppress criminal evidence against Joe Biden, a month before the 2020 election.

"You, ladies and gentlemen, interfered with the United States of America 2020 presidential election, knowingly and willingly," Higgins said. "That’s the bad news, it’s gonna get worse because this is the investigation part. Later comes the arrest part. Your attorneys are familiar with that."

The FBI rejected the characterization of an inappropriate relationship with Twitter and issued a statement in response to Higgins' comments.

"The FBI does not instruct or direct any social media company to censor an account or remove information from their platform. In carrying out its law enforcement mission, the FBI receives voluntarily provided information from these companies, when the company believes there is a serious risk of death or serious physical injury," the FBI said in a statement obtained by Fox News correspondent David Spunt.

"In addition, the FBI also shares identified malign foreign influence information with these companies. The information we provide in these circumstances is specific to foreign actors — such as Russia, China, and Iran and their activities, we do not provide information based on content or narratives without attribution to a foreign actor. We may also alert social media companies about intentional attempts to post disinformation about voting times, places, or dates, which may be a federal crime. Private sector entities independently make decisions about what, if any, action they take on their platforms and for their customers in response to information we share."

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Cyber

Spooks in Silicon Valley: Flow of U.S. intelligence analysts into Big Tech jobs raises alarm

2023-01-25

[JustTheNews] Those who once served to protect the nation are now using their intel smarts to regulate speech in America.

As Congress and the courts delve deeper into federally sanctioned censorship by Big Tech, a troubling revolving door has emerged between the U.S. intelligence community and the Big Tech giants on the front lines of one of the fiercest battles over free speech in modern American history.

A Just the News review of LinkedIn employment histories of senior Big Tech executives found that at least 200 former workers of the Central Intelligence Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Security Agency, National Security Council and Homeland Security Department have landed Silicon Valley jobs, many within content moderation units regulating supposed "disinformation" and disproportionately throttling news and opinion deviating from approved, left-tilting norms.

These individuals range from Aaron Berman, who spent a decade and a half as a CIA analyst before joining Facebook parent Meta as product policy manager for disinformation, to James Baker, the former FBI general counsel recently fired by Elon Musk as Twitter's chief lawyer over a spat about prior review of "Twitter Files" releases exposing past censorship by the platform. Baker was one of the key FBI figures involved in obtaining a FISA warrant based on the now-debunked Steele dossier to surveil onetime Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.

The spooks-to-Silicon-Valley pipeline has sent an army of federal agents, intel analysts and even psychological operations experts once trained with taxpayer money to fight foreign enemies or capture big criminals into higher-paying private sector jobs where those same skills now target Americans' opinions in the name of fighting "disinformation."

None of the former intel world employees contacted by Just the News returned phone or email requests for comment. But in videos posted online, some acknowledged they are part of a new vanguard of Big Tech censors operating in a world where there is little consensus about what should be done and what is legal.

"There is very little agreement whether we should be leaving more content up or taking more content down," Berman said in a video posted on Meta's site. "With any particular rule or issue that we're looking at where something has come up, where the rules are not 100 percent clear, we're not going to make everybody happy."

Berman, whose LinkedIn biography boasts he used to prepare the presidential daily brief at the CIA, acknowledged there is some discomfort in the power he now wields in his new role in Big Tech to decide the difference between "harmful content" and free speech.

"It's a balance," he said in the video. "I think it should make me uncomfortable, and all of us who do this work."

Some of the federal intel veterans are less inhibited about expressing biases. For example, Nick Rossmann, former CIA analyst and current senior manager of Trust & Safety at Google, overtly supported defeated 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, said Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner should be strangled and declared, "Anti-vaxxers are like Nazis."

During the COVID-19 outbreak, Rossmann even seemed to wish death on elderly Trump voters, tweeting, "I hope they cough on their grandparents, who voted for Trump, & get to rot."

Jacqueline Lopour, another Hillary Clinton supporter and former CIA analyst — she served for 10 years in the agency — is currently Google Senior Manager, Intel Collection, Trust & Safety. In that capacity, she manages "Intel operations spanning multiple threat verticals, including violent extremism, cyber threats, misinformation, hate speech, spam, fraud, security and privacy, and more," according to her LinkedIn bio.

In a 2017 Canadian Broadcasting Company interview, Lopour invoked her CIA experience to uncritically vouch for the agency's assessment that Russia meddled in U.S. politics to tip the 2016 election in favor of Donald Trump, saying, "They [Russia] deliberately released the DNC information to @wikileaks ... with the specific motivation of helping Trump get elected."

Further LinkedIn profile checks revealed several other key members of Big Tech teams who served in either the Department of Defense, CIA, FBI, NSA, or DHS. The growing pipeline of intelligence and law enforcement officials was previously documented in detail by an anonymous Twitter account posted by the user @NameRedacted247 in a 30-part Twitter thread.

Former President Donald Trump weighed in on the issue with a video message, touting his proposal to end the revolving door between the Deep State" and the "tech tyrants" by imposing "a 7-year cooling off period, before any employee of these powerful agencies is allowed to take a job at a major platform."

Recent reporting "shows the FBI and other rogue agencies have been systematically colluding with former national security officials placed in high positions at Twitter and very likely other companies to advance their censorship regime," said Trump.

"This anti-American effort," he went on, has been "working to silence dissenting opinions on COVID and crucial issues in public health and on the [2020] election." The suppression of dissenting doctors and health experts "had nothing to do with science" or "saving lives," he alleged. "This was about government working with powerful corporations to seize power over you, the American people."

Twitter currently employs at least 10 former FBI agents, according to LinkedIn profile checks performed by Just The News.

Just the News reached out to several former members of the intelligence community now employed by Big Tech for comment but has received no replies.

Just the News also reached out to Facebook, Google, and Twitter, along with the FBI, NSA, and DOD, but only received a brief response from the CIA which read, "CIA's intelligence mission is foreign focused, and the Agency at all times abides by US laws, regulations, and executive orders that prohibit unlawful collection related to US persons."

The FBI field office in Washington, D.C. refused to comment directly, while the NSA recommended reaching out and questioning each Big Tech firm individually.

Link

Home Front: Politix

Top Republican writes to Treasury Secretary demanding information about Biden family's suspicious business deals and asks Twitter executives to testify next month on suppression of the Hunter laptop story

2023-01-12

[Daily Mail, where America gets its news]

James Comer (R-KY), chair of the House Oversight Committee, requested to see the Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) that were flagged by U.S. banks regarding the financial activity of the Bidens

Comer's committee is probing the president's knowledge and role in the financial activity and 'whether he has compromised our national security'

The Kentucky Republican also sent letters to former Twitter execs Vijaya Gadde, who served as chief legal officer, Yoel Roth, former global head of trust & safety, and James Baker, former general counsel, informing them they were requested to testify on Feb 6

'Your attendance is necessary because of your role in suppressing Americans' access to information about the Biden family on Twitter shortly before the 2020 election,' Comer wrote

Last month with the takeover of Elon Musk came the 'Twitter Files' which revealed how a group of top executives at Twitter came to the decision to censor the Hunter Biden laptop story first reported by the New York Post.

Comer's letters follow Tuesday when the Oversight Committee launched a pair of investigations into President Biden's handling of classified files that were found at his think tank office just before the midterms.

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Government Corruption

When The FBI Attacks Critics As "Conspiracy Theorists", It's Time To Reform The Bureau

2022-12-27

[ZERO] Below is my column in the Hill on the need for a new "Church Committee" to investigate and reform the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) after years of scandals involving alleged political bias. In response to criticism over its role in Twitter’s censorship system, the FBI lashed out against critics as "conspiracy theorists" spreading disinformation. However, it still refuses to supply new information on other companies, beyond Twitter, that it has paid to engage in censorship.

"Conspiracy theorists ... feeding the American public misinformation" is a familiar attack line for anyone raising free-speech concerns over the FBI’s role in social media censorship. What is different is that this attack came from the country’s largest law enforcement agency, the FBI — and, since the FBI has made combatting "disinformation" a major focus of its work, the labeling of its critics is particularly menacing.

Fifty years ago, the Watergate scandal provoked a series of events that transformed not only the presidency but federal agencies like the FBI. Americans demanded answers about the involvement of the FBI and other federal agencies in domestic politics. Ultimately, Congress not only investigated the FBI but later impanelled the Church Committee to investigate a host of other abuses by intelligence agencies.

A quick review of recent disclosures and controversies shows ample need for a new Church Committee:

The Russian investigations

The FBI previously was at the center of controversies over documented political bias. Without repeating the long history from the Russian influence scandal, FBI officials like Peter Strzok were fired after emails showed open bias against presidential candidate Donald Trump. The FBI ignored warnings that the so-called Steele dossier, largely funded by the Clinton campaign, was likely used by Russian intelligence to spread disinformation. It continued its investigation despite early refutations of key allegations or discrediting of sources.

Biden family business

The FBI has taken on the character of a Praetorian Guard when the Biden family has found itself in scandals.

For example, there was Hunter Biden’s handgun, acquired by apparently lying on federal forms. In 2018, the gun allegedly was tossed into a trash bin in Wilmington, Del., by Hallie Biden, the widow of Hunter’s deceased brother and with whom Hunter had a relationship at the time. Secret Service agents reportedly appeared at the gun shop with no apparent reason, and Hunter later said the matter would be handled by the FBI. Nothing was done despite the apparent violation of federal law.

Later, the diary of Hunter’s sister, Ashley, went missing. While the alleged theft normally would be handled as a relatively minor local criminal matter, the FBI launched a major investigation that continued for months to pursue those who acquired the diary, which reportedly contains embarrassing entries involving President Biden. Such a massive FBI deployment shocked many of us, but the FBI built a federal case against those who took possession of the diary.

Targeting Republicans and conservatives
Recently the FBI was flagged for targeting two senior House Intelligence Committee staffers in grand jury subpoenas sent to Google. It has been criticized for using the Jan. 6 Capitol riot investigations to target conservative groups and GOP members of Congress, including seizing the phone of one GOP member.

The FBI also has been criticized for targeting pro-life violence while not showing the same vigor toward pro-choice violence.

Hunter’s laptop

While the FBI was eager to continue the Russian investigations with no clear evidence of collusion, it showed the opposite inclination when given Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop. The laptop would seem to be a target-rich environment for criminal investigators, with photos and emails detailing an array of potential crimes involving foreign transactions, guns, drugs and prostitutes. However, reports indicate that FBI officials moved to quash or slow any investigation.

The computer repairman who acquired the laptop, John Paul Mac Isaac, said he struggled to get the FBI to respond and that agents made thinly veiled threats regarding any disclosures of material related to the Biden family; he said one agent told him that "in their experience, nothing ever happens to people that don’t talk about these things."

The ’Twitter Files’
The "Twitter Files" released by Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, show as many as 80 agents targeting social-media posters for censorship on the site. This included alleged briefings that Twitter officials said was the reason they spiked the New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story before the 2020 election.

The FBI sent 150 messages on back channels to just one Twitter official to flag accounts. One Twitter executive expressed unease over the FBI’s pressure, declaring: "They are probing & pushing everywhere they can (including by whispering to congressional staff)."

We also have learned that Twitter hired a number of retired FBI agents, including former FBI general counsel James Baker, who was a critical and controversial figure in past bureau scandals over political bias.

Attacking critics

It is not clear what is more chilling — the menacing role played by the FBI in Twitter’s censorship program, or its mendacious response to the disclosure of that role. The FBI has issued a series of "nothing-to-see-here" statements regarding the Twitter Files.

In its latest statement, the FBI insists it did not command Twitter to take any specific action when flagging accounts to be censored. Of course, it didn’t have to threaten the company — because we now have an effective state media by consent rather than coercion. Moreover, an FBI warning tends to concentrate the minds of most people without the need for a specific threat.

Finally, the files show that the FBI paid Twitter millions as part of this censorship system — a windfall favorably reported to Baker before he was fired from Twitter by Musk.

Criticizing the FBI is now ’disinformation’

Responding to the disclosures and criticism, an FBI spokesperson declared: "The men and women of the FBI work every day to protect the American public. It is unfortunate that conspiracy theorists and others are feeding the American public misinformation with the sole purpose of attempting to discredit the agency."

Arguably, "working every day to protect the American public" need not include censoring the public to protect it from errant or misleading ideas.

However, it is the attack on its critics that is most striking. While the FBI denounced critics of an earlier era as communists and "fellow travelers," it now uses the same attack narrative to label its critics as "conspiracy theorists."

After Watergate, there was bipartisan support for reforming the FBI and intelligence agencies. Today, that cacophony of voices has been replaced by crickets, as much of the media imposes another effective blackout on coverage of the Twitter Files. This media silence suggests that the FBI found the "sweet spot" on censorship, supporting the views of the political and media establishment.

As for the rest of us, the FBI now declares us to be part of a disinformation danger which it is committed to stamping out - "conspiracy theorists" misleading the public simply by criticizing the bureau.

Clearly, this is the time for a new Church Committee - and time to reform the FBI.

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Government Corruption

Elon Musk: "Almost Every ‘Conspiracy Theory' That People Had About Twitter Turned Out To Be True" (VIDEO)

2022-12-26

[Gateway] "To be totally frank, almost every conspiracy theory that people had about Twitter turned out to be true. Is there a conspiracy theory about Twitter that didn’t turn out to be true? So far, they’ve all turned out to be true. If not more true than people thought."

Elon Musk has begun releasing Twitter files exposing what was really happening at Twitter.

Then-Twitter Deputy General Counsel James Baker was involved in the decision to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story on Twitter.

This is despite the fact it was known the materials weren’t hacked.

Baker was fired by Elon Musk.

The Gateway Pundit previously reported:

One of the Twitter executives involved in the decision to suppress the Hunter laptop story in October 2020 was none other than former FBI lawyer James Baker.

Baker ’resigned’ from the FBI in 2018 and began working for Twitter in June 2020.

James Baker, Twitter’s Deputy General Counsel at the time, advised Twitter execs to block access to the Hunter Biden laptop story even though they knew the materials were not hacked.

Twitter was in constant contact with the FBI over the content on Twitter.

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Government Corruption

Are FBI And CIA Agents ‘Sheep Dipped' At Twitter And Other Tech Companies?

2022-12-20

[The Federalist] According to the latest drop of "Twitter Files" from Michael Shellenberger, "As of 2020, there were so many former FBI employees — ’Bu alumni’ — working at Twitter that they had created their own private Slack channel and a crib sheet to onboard new FBI arrivals." It appears that Twitter still has 14 employees on the payroll who worked at the FBI and CIA.

The problem isn’t just confined to Twitter. My colleague and Federalist contributor Ben Weingarten recently wrote an article for the New York Post, "Inside revolving door between Democrat Deep State and Big Tech."

In addition to covering what was happening at Twitter, Weingarten details a broader number of suspicious links between Silicon Valley and U.S. intelligence agencies. Given the near-constant string of deep-state scandals and social media censorship we’ve endured in recent years, a big question we should all be trying to answer right now is, "What exactly are all these spooks doing at tech companies?"

So far, the answer appears to be: "They’re almost certainly up to no good." After the first batch of "Twitter Files" dropped, it was revealed that Elon Musk fired Twitter Deputy General Counsel James Baker. Prior to going to work at Twitter, Baker was a top lawyer at the FBI from 2014 to 2017. In that capacity, he played a significant role in shepherding FBI’s baseless and illegal Russiagate investigation.

In fact, it’s probably safe to assume one of the reasons Baker exited the FBI was to dodge any accountability for the FBI’s reckless and politically motivated attempt to investigate the president of the United States. Twitter was a pretty soft landing.

Or at least it was, until it was revealed that Baker, who was still employed at Twitter as of a few weeks ago, got fired after he intercepted the internal company communications Musk was giving to journalists Matt Taibbi and Bari Weiss to expose the censorship and misdeeds of the company’s previous management. Nobody has quite figured out what he was doing, but there’s widespread speculation Baker may have removed Twitter communications with the FBI or other damning info before it could become public.

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