Tag: corruption

Terrorism and Kosovo Independence: NATO’s Aggression in 1999. “The First Legalized European Mafia State”

25 years commemoration of NATO’s military intervention against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (the FRY) in March−June 1999 once again opened the question of the Western foundation for Kosovo’s secession from Serbia and its unilateral proclamation of a quasi-independence in February 2008. Kosovo became the first and only European state today that is ruled by the terroristic warlords as a party’s possession – the (Albanian) Kosovo Liberation Army (the KLA). This article aims to investigate the nature of NATO’s war on Yugoslavia in 1999 which has as an outcome the creation of the first terroristic state in Europe – the Republic of Kosovo.  

Terrorism and Kosovo Independence

The KLA terrorists with support from the US and the EU’s administrations launched full-scale violence in December 1998 for the sole purpose of provoking NATO’s military intervention against the FRY as a precondition for Kosovo secession from Serbia hopefully followed by internationally recognized independence. To finally resolve the “Kosovo Question” in the favor of the Albanians, the US Clinton administration brought two confronting sides to formally negotiate in the French castle of Rambouillet in France in February 1999 but in fact to impose an ultimatum to Serbia to accept de facto secession of Kosovo. Even though the Rambouillet ultimatum de iure recognized Serbia’s territorial integrity, the disarmament of terroristic KLA and did not mention Kosovo’s independence from Serbia, as the conditions of the final agreement were in essence highly favorable to the KLA and its secessionist project towards independent Kosovo, Serbia simply rejected them. The US’s answer was a military action led by NATO as a “humanitarian intervention” in order to directly support the Kosovo Albanian separatism. Therefore, on March 24th, 1999 NATO started its military operation against the FRY which lasted till June 10th, 1999. Why the UN’s Security Council was not asked for the approval of the operation is clear from the following explanation:

“Knowing that Russia would veto any effort to get UN backing for military action, NATO launched air strikes against Serbian forces in 1999, effectually supporting the Kosovar Albanian rebels”.[1]  

The crucial feature of this operation was a barbarian, coercive, inhuman, illegal, and above all merciless bombing of Serbia for almost three months. Nevertheless, NATO’s military intervention against the FRY – Operation Allied Force, was propagated by its proponents as a purely humanitarian operation, it is recognized by many Western and other scholars that the US and its client states of NATO had mainly political and geostrategic aims that led them to this military action. 

The legitimacy of the intervention in the brutal coercive bombing of both military and civilian targets in Kosovo province and the rest of Serbia became immediately controversial as the UN’s Security Council did not authorize the action. Surely, the action was illegal according to international law but it was formally justified by the US administration and the NATO’s spokesman as legitimate for the reason that it was unavoidable as all diplomatic options were exhausted to stop the war. However, a continuation of the military conflict in Kosovo between the KLA and Serbia’s state security forces would threaten to produce a humanitarian catastrophe and generate political instability in the region of the Balkans. Therefore, “in the context of fears about the ‘ethnic cleansing’ of the Albanian population, a campaign of air strikes, conducted by US-led NATO forces”[2] was executed with a final result of the withdrawal of Serbia’s forces and administration from the province: that was exactly the main requirement of the Rambouillet ultimatum. 

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Judge Quashes Felony Murder Charges Against Former Houston Cop Whose Lies Led to a Deadly 2019 Drug Raid

It has been more than five years since Houston police officers killed Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas, a middle-aged couple falsely implicated in drug dealing, after breaking into their home on Harding Street. That raid was based on a fraudulent search warrant affidavit in which veteran narcotics officer Gerald Goines described a heroin purchase that he later admitted never happened. Efforts to hold Goines accountable for his lethal dishonesty hit another roadblock last week when a Harris County judge dismissed two felony murder charges against him.

The Harris County District Attorney’s Office charged Goines with two counts of felony murder in August 2019, seven months after the Harding Street raid. According to its complaint, Goines committed “the felony offense of Tampering with a Government Record, and while in the course of and [in] furtherance of the commission of said offense did commit an act clearly dangerous to human life”—i.e., “making forcible entry into a residence by armed peace officers through the use of a ‘no knock’ search warrant based on false information provided knowingly by the defendant,” thereby causing the deaths of Tuttle and Nicholas.

A grand jury backed those charges in an indictment issued on January 15, 2020, and District Court Judge Frank Aguilar declined to dismiss them. But District Court Judge Veronica Nelson, who took over the case this year after Aguilar was suspended because of a domestic violence arrest, was persuaded by Goines’ claim that the charges did not adequately specify the underlying felony.

Prosecutors cited Section 37.10 of the Texas Penal Code, which makes it a third-degree felony to tamper with a government record in any of six ways. Because the indictment did not say exactly how Goines had violated that statute, his lawyers argued, it impaired his ability to mount a defense. “It doesn’t give us adequate notice of what it is specifically that we have to defend against,” said Mac Secrest, one of Goines’ attorneys.

“The Harris County District Attorney’s office is shocked and tremendously disappointed  that a judge would choose to revisit this issue, knowing that her predecessor had already ruled the defendant’s position meritless,” the office said in response to Nelson’s ruling. “The office is considering all its options, including amending the indictment, with an eye towards trying this case as soon as possible to ensure justice for the victims of these crimes.”

The state case against Goines had been scheduled for trial in June. Nelson’s decision could delay the trial by a year or more, depending on how long it takes to appeal the ruling and/or seek a new indictment. Goines also faces federal civil rights charges in connection with the Harding Street raid, but there has been no apparent movement in that case since the indictment was announced in November 2019.

Two other defendants in the federal case have pleaded guilty. Patricia Ann Garcia, a neighbor whose phony tip prompted Goines’ investigation of Tuttle and Nicholas, pleaded guilty to making false reports in March 2021 and was sentenced to 40 months in prison. In June 2021, former Houston narcotics officer Steven Bryant, who had backed up Goines’ fictional account of arranging for a confidential informant to buy heroin from Tuttle, pleaded guilty to falsifying records and obstructing the resulting federal investigation. He has not been sentenced yet.

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The Associated Press Gaslights Struggling Americans, Claims Lower Prices Would Actually Be a Bad Thing

The Associated Press (AP) is running cover for the rampant inflation experienced under Joe Biden by claiming that falling prices would actually be a bad thing.

In an article by the AP’s economics writer Paul Wiseman, he makes the case that lower prices would be worse for the economy as it is a sign of deflation:

Wouldn’t it be great if prices actually fell — what economists call deflation? Who wouldn’t want to fire up a time machine and return to the days before the economy rocketed out of the pandemic recession and sent prices soaring?

At least prices are now rising more slowly — what’s called disinflation. On Friday, for example, the government said a key price gauge rose 0.3% in February, down from a 0.4% gain in January. And compared with a year earlier, prices were up 2.5%, way down from a peak of 7.1% in mid-2022.

But those incremental improvements are hardly enough to please the public, whose discontent over prices poses a risk to President Joe Biden’s re-election bid.

Wiseman goes on to make the case that prices going back to what they were before Biden took office would have a detrimental impact:

“Most Americans are not just looking for disinflation,’’ Lisa Cook, a member of the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors, said last year. “They’re looking for deflation. They want these prices to be back where they were before the pandemic.’’

Many economists caution, though, that consumers should be careful what they wish for. Falling prices across the economy would actually be an unhealthy sign.

“There are,’’ the Bank of England warns, “more consequences from falling prices than meets the eye.’’

Deflation is, of course, a well known phenomenon that can have serious negative economic consequences. However, what most Americans probably wish for is that inflation had never been allowed to skyrocket in the first place, instead remaining at a healthy level of between one and two percent.

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Prison Phone Companies Involved in Scheme to Ban In-Person Jail Visits, Lawsuit Says

Two lawsuits filed by an activist organization allege a conspiracy between county governments in Michigan and prison phone companies. This conspiracy has involved a “quid pro quo kickback scheme” that eliminated in-person visits at prisons to boost profits for the companies, the litigation claims. As part of the scheme, a portion of those profits were allegedly then shared with the county governments.

The Civil Rights Corps, a non-profit that describes itself as “dedicated to challenging systemic injustice in the United States’ legal system,” recently filed the two lawsuits, which allege a similar scheme in both St. Clair and Genesee counties in Michigan. These arrangements involved business relationships with the county sheriffs of St. Clair and Genesee that were predicated on the elimination of in-person prison visits. Under the new systems, visitors to the jails had to pay for phone calls with the incarcerated, and the money from those calls was then shared between the providers and the counties, the lawsuit alleges.

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A 5th Albuquerque Cop Resigns Amid Widening DWI Corruption Scandal

Another Albuquerque police officer resigned last week amid a widening scandal involving cops who allegedly conspired with a local defense attorney to make drunk driving cases disappear in exchange for payoffs. Joshua Montaño, who had been employed by the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) for 19 years, is the fifth officer to quit after being placed on administrative leave. His March 20 resignation letter, which City Desk ABQ obtained through a public records request, sheds light on the extent of the alleged corruption within the APD’s DWI unit, the subject of an ongoing FBI investigation as well as an APD probe.

“When I was put on administrative leave, I thought there would be an opportunity for me to talk to the department about what I knew regarding the FBI’s investigation,” writes Montaño, who missed several scheduled interviews with APD investigators prior to his resignation. “I thought there would be a time [when] I could disclose what I knew from within APD and how the issues I let myself get caught up in within the DWI Unit were generational. I thought there would be a time where I could talk about all the other people who should be on administrative leave as well, but aren’t.”

Montaño says he ultimately decided against cooperating with APD investigators. “In order for me to talk to the City about what I knew,” he writes, “I needed to not be the City’s scapegoat for its own failures.” He complains that Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina, who has promised to “make sure that we get to the bottom of this” but is himself under investigation for causing a February 17 accident that severely injured a driver whose car he broadsided, “has made it seem like there are just a few bad officers acting on their own.” That is “far from the truth,” Montaño says.

Among other things, the FBI reportedly is investigating claims that officers deliberately missed court dates, resulting in the dismissal of DWI cases. But according to Montaño, “officers all know that our attendance, or non-attendance, at Court is watched over and monitored.” While “I take responsibility for my actions,” he says, the responsibility for the alleged misconduct extends up the chain of command and more than a few years back in time.

Medina “has made numerous public statements concerning APD’s knowledge of the FBI’s investigation of various APD personnel and made commitments to complete parallel investigations,” Montaño’s lawyer, Thomas Grover, writes in a separate letter to the department. “However, as is evident in the investigations of Ofc. Montano, the department responded to the FBI’ s inquiries in a manner that is haphazard at best and artificial at worst.”

Although Montaño wanted to share “his knowledge of how widespread the issues of concern to the FBI are, how far up the supervisory chain they go, and other personnel they involve,” Grover says, he “could not provide such a statement because of the myriad of deficiencies APD plagued its investigations of him, and presumably others, with. From procedural errors concerning notice requirements to police officers, to timeline violations by APD, it seems at every turn, the department could not follow basic practices for internal affairs investigations.”

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SPY AGENCIES SKEWED INTEL TO PLEASE TRUMP, AND OBAMA TOO

U.S. INTELLIGENCE SKEWS its findings to find favor with both Republican and Democratic policymakers, including former presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama, a sweeping new study by the Pentagon-backed RAND Corporation finds. The study draws on interviews, some anonymous, with nearly a dozen current and former U.S. intelligence officials and policymakers.

Despite the popular “deep state” characterization of the intelligence community as a rogue army running roughshod over elected leaders, the study concludes the exact opposite. It portrays an intelligence community that naturally tilts its reports and forecasts to curry favor with presidents and their high-level policymakers in Washington, regardless of party or issue. 

“Policymakers most frequently introduce bias in intelligence assessments from a desire to minimize the appearance of dissent, while the IC” — intelligence community — “tends to introduce bias through self-censorship,” the report says.

The study, “Has Trust in the U.S. Intelligence Community Eroded? Examining the Relationship Between Policymakers and Intelligence Providers,” was sponsored by the Pentagon.

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COP CORRUPTION: San Antonio police found to be protecting HUMAN SMUGGLING as side gigs for extra cash

Corrupt police officers in Texas are engaged in human smuggling operations for which they are being paid on the side and apparently off-duty – but while still wearing their official police uniforms, mind you – to run cover for the treasonous non-governmental organizations (NGOs) helping illegal migrants invade America.

TENET Media conducted an investigation into the San Antonio Police Department (SAPD), whose officers were seen guarding a migrant camp and working inside the tents on behalf of NGOs. Note: The officers you will see in the following video footage are being paid on the side to support human smuggling.

“NGOs are facilitating human smuggling of migrants into America,” TENET Media reports. “You actually have a San Antonio Police Department car watching as a lookout, basically guarding this area.”

“They’re taking side contracts in relation to these NGOs and are actually being paid a significant amount to guard this area – and they’re in their official San Antonio PD uniforms, to top it off, with their San Antonio PD cars as well.”

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“Capitalism Has Failed”

Today, more than at any time previously, Westerners are justifying a move toward collectivist thinking with the phrase, “Capitalism has failed.”

In response to this, conservative thinkers offer a knee-jerk reaction that collectivism has also had a dismal record of performance. Neither group tends to gain any ground with the other group, but over time, the West is moving inexorably in the collectivist direction.

As I see it, liberals are putting forward what appears on the surface to be a legitimate criticism, and conservatives are countering it with the apology that, yes, capitalism is failing, but collectivism is worse.

Unfortunately, what we’re seeing here is not classical logic, as Aristotle would have endorsed, but emotionalism that ignores the principles of logic.

If we’re to follow the rules of logical discussion, we begin with the statement that capitalism has failed and, instead of treating it as a given, we examine whether the statement is correct. Only if it proves correct can we build further suppositions upon it.

Whenever I’m confronted with this now oft-stated comment, my first question to the person offering it is, “Have you ever lived in a capitalist country?” That is, “Have you ever lived in a country in which, during your lifetime, a free-market system dominated?”

Most people seem initially confused by this question, as they’re residents of either a European country or a North American country and operate under the assumption that the system in which they live is a capitalist one.

So, let’s examine that assumption.

A capitalist, or “free market,” system is one in which the prices of goods and services are determined by consumers and the open market, in which the laws and forces of supply and demand are free from any intervention by a government, price-setting monopoly, or other authority.

Today, none of the major (larger) countries in what was once referred to as the “free world” bear any resemblance to this definition. Each of these countries is rife with laws, regulations, and a plethora of regulatory bodies whose very purpose is to restrict the freedom of voluntary commerce. Every year, more laws are passed to restrict free enterprise even more.

Equally as bad is the fact that, in these same countries, large corporations have become so powerful that, by contributing equally to the campaigns of each major political party, they’re able to demand rewards following the elections, that not only guarantee them funds from the public coffers, but protect them against any possible prosecution as a result of this form of bribery.

There’s a word for this form of governance, and it’s fascism.

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Missouri AG Andrew Bailey Files Lawsuit Against Media Matters for Refusal to Cooperate with State Investigation and Turn Over Documents Related to Twitter-X Fraud Investigation

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey filed suit on Monday against Media Matters for America for refusal to cooperate with a Missouri State investigation.

This comes after AG Andrew Bailey sued Media Matters in December for violating state consumer protection laws and defrauding Missourians.

AG Andrew Bailey accused Media Matters of using fraud to solicit donations from Missourians in order to bully advertisers.

Attorney General Andrew Bailey made this explosive accusation, “We have reason to believe Media Matters used fraud to solicit donations from Missourians in order to bully advertisers into pulling out of X, the last platform dedicated to free speech in America.”

The Missouri Attorney General did not hold back in his attacks on Media Matters alleging the enemies of free speech, like Media Matters for America, are attempting to kill Twitter-X because they cannot control it now that Elon Musk took over. Bailey added, “I’m fighting to ensure progressive tyrants masquerading as news outlets cannot manipulate the marketplace in order to wipe out free speech.”

Media Matters for America (MMFA) refused to turn over court ordered documents so on Monday Attorney General Andrew Bailey filed lawsuit against MMFA for their refusal to cooperate in the state’s investigation.

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Staten Island’s ‘power couple’ District Attorney and top judge are accused of double dipping into taxpayer funds by collecting government salaries AND pensions at the same time

A Staten Island ‘power couple’ comprised of a district attorney and state Supreme Court justice have come under fire for discreetly filing for retirement while continuing to collect yearly salaries.

Michael McMahon, the district attorney of Richmond County, and Judith McMahon, a justice for the Supreme Court’s 13th Judicial District, are being paid six figures while collecting hefty government pensions, according to public records.

The husband-and-wife duo are suspected to be pulling in more than $600,000 in collective gross income.

DA McMahon covertly retired on December 30, 2023, according to a payroll notice independently verified by DailyMail.com.

However, he remained the borough’s chief prosecutor, with a subsequent payroll notice listing him as  ‘appointed’ from January 2 to January 19.

Public records show his yearly salary as $212,800, meaning his annual pension, which has not been disclosed, could be upwards of $127,000.

In a statement to the New York Post, a spokesperson for DA McMahon admitted that he retired last year and subsequently continued to serve as Staten Island’s highest-ranking law enforcement official.

‘After 30-plus years in public service to the people of New York, DA McMahon submitted his retirement papers at the end of 2023 but of course continues to serve as Richmond County District Attorney,’ the representative said.

‘It’s quite frankly a no-brainer for those in public service, as not retiring when you are eligible puts your family at risk to receive no pension at all if you were to die.’

The district attorney’s office declined to share the cost of his pension.

DA McMahon was officially sworn in for his third term on January 2 by none other than his wife. Photos from the ceremony show the pair beaming at each other.

The DA ran unopposed for re-election this past November, pitching himself as a ‘common-sense Democrat’ in a heavily red county.

‘He’s pretty universally beloved,’ a Staten Island Democratic operative told City & State last year. ‘It is fascinating though – you would think any Republican with a pulse could win.’

Justice McMahon retired even earlier than her husband, effective December 31, 2022, according to public records.

She receives a $210,900 annual salary while collecting a $122,916 pension.

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