Tag: secrecy

US Universities Don’t Like Unmasking Their Foreign Donors. A New Trump Order Aims To Make Them.

For decades, federal law has required U.S. universities to disclose the sources of large foreign donations to the federal government. But the Biden administration sparsely enforced the law, allowing foreign nationals from adversarial countries to funnel cash to top American schools and stay anonymous.

In some cases, it’s unclear whether the schools themselves are keeping close track of the foreign money they accept. In early February, the Washington Free Beacon filed state records requests with 11 public universities for the identities of foreign donors that gave the schools more than $20,000 in the past two years. Some, like the University of California, Los Angeles and University of Michigan, said it would take months of searching or more than $1,500 in fees to provide an answer.

That won’t fly with President Donald Trump, who last week signed an executive order outlining more robust enforcement of the Higher Education Act of 1965’s foreign donor disclosure requirements. In some cases, it already appears to be spurring action. Another recipient of the Free Beacon‘s records requests, the University of California, Berkeley, for weeks did not respond. On Friday, shortly after Trump signed the order and launched a foreign funding investigation into the school, it sent a list of major foreign donors from 2023 and 2024.

Trump’s order calls on Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to “take appropriate steps to reverse or rescind any actions by the prior administration that permit higher education institutions to maintain improper secrecy regarding their foreign funding,” a reference to the Biden administration’s unusual policies that shielded foreign donors. Historically, the Department of Education disclosed foreign donor names in a public database. During the Biden administration, it stopped publishing names, instead only releasing the countries where each donation came from.

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Tulsi: Assassination Docs on RFK Sr. and MLK Jr. To Be Released Soon

Important documents related to the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy Sr. and Martin Luther King Jr. will be released “in the next few days,” according to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.

The documents, which have spent “decades” in storage, are currently being scanned for release, Gabbard revealed during a public cabinet meeting with President Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Sr.’s son, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is now Secretary of Health and Human Services.

“We’ve been scanning—I’ve had over a hundred people working around the clock to scan the paper around RFK, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination, as well as Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination,” Director Gabbard said. 

“These have been sitting in boxes in storage for decades, they have never been scanned or seen before. We’ll have those ready to release here in the next few days.”

In response to the announcement, RFK Jr. said he felt, “very gratified.”

RFK Sr., brother of President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles in June 1968, after he had won the Democrat presidential primary. The official story that RFK Sr. was killed by a lone gunman, Sirhan Sirhan, has been the subject of intense dispute, just like the circumstances of President Kennedy’s assassination.

In January, President Trump signed an Executive Order to declassify records related to the assassinations of President Kennedy, RFK Sr. and MLK Jr.

After two attempts on his own life during the 2024 presidential campaign, President Trump also vowed to create a commission into presidential assassinations. He said it would be dedicated to RFK Jr.

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Secretive Billionaire-Filled City in California Is One You’ve Likely Never Heard of—Because Residents Don’t Want You To

Tucked into the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains is a tiny California town that is home to approximately 1,000 people and just 355 houses—yet it is also one of the wealthiest ZIP codes in the country, with many of its residents boasting either billionaire or multimillionaire statuses.

But unlike Beverly Hills or Bel-Air, the odds are that you have never heard of Bradbury, CA—largely because the wealthy and very secretive people who live there prize their privacy above all else, helping to turn the tony enclave into a veritable sanctuary for high net-worth individuals who want to hide their lives from prying eyes.

According to the Census Bureau‘s 2023 statistics, 39.5% of households in the community, which is bordered by Monrovia and Duarte and is located just a 20-minute drive east of Los Angeles, earn more than $200,000.

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REDACTED: Crossfire Hurricane answers remain blacked out years after Trump declassification order

Key documents from the FBI’s politicized Crossfire Hurricane investigation into false allegations of Trump-Russia collusion remain hidden from public view, but a new order from President Trump will reveal more answers — and documents already obtained by Just the News provide clues on what is to come.

Just the News obtained a portion of the Crossfire Hurricane documents slated for declassification in January 2021, although the majority of the FBI records remain out of the public’s reach due to the Justice Department thwarting Trump. The documents revealed by Just the News in 2021 were interesting both for the new details they revealed and for what remained. Large sections still remain blacked out and hidden from public view behind ongoing redactions.

The declassified documents included transcripts of intercepts made by the FBI of Trump aides, a declassified copy of the final FISA warrant approved by an intelligence court, and the tasking orders and debriefings of the two main confidential human sources, Christopher Steele and Stefan Halper, who the bureau used to investigate whether Trump had colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 election.

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UK Tribunal Blocks Government’s Attempt to Keep Apple Surveillance Case Secret

With a necessary reality check, a UK tribunal has told the government that, no, it cannot hold a secret legal battle against Apple over encryption. The Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT), the body meant to oversee the country’s surveillance powers, has dismissed efforts by the Home Office to keep the entire case hidden from public view. And in doing so, it has delivered a quietly important win for press freedom and digital rights. Although, things are far from over.

The case revolves around Apple’s Advanced Data Protection system, or ADP. It’s a security feature that gives users the option to encrypt their iCloud data in a way that even Apple itself cannot access. Not through a backdoor, not with a master key, not at all. It’s the kind of robust end-to-end encryption that governments around the world have grown increasingly nervous about.

The UK, it turns out, is no exception.

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Secretive Russian military satellites release mystery object into orbit

A trio of secretive Russian satellites launched earlier this year has released a mysterious object into orbit, sparking interest among space trackers and analysts.

The three satellites, designated Kosmos 2581, 2582 and 2583, launched on a Soyuz-2.1V rocket from Plesetsk cosmodrome early on Feb. 2 (GMT). Since then, the satellites, whose purpose is unknown, have displayed interesting behavior, while in a near-polar orbit roughly 364 miles (585 kilometers) above Earth.

In March, the satellites appeared to be conducting potential proximity operations, or maneuvering close to other objects in space, according to Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist and spaceflight activity tracker.

Following this, the U.S. Space Force cataloged a new object in orbit, which was possibly released by Kosmos 2581 on March 18.

Russia has provided no details about the satellites and their mission. Many Kosmos missions are classified.

The released object could be used for a number of objectives, including military experiments, such as satellite inspection or target practice, testing technology for docking or formation flying. It may also be a scientific payload or even the result of an unintentional fragmentation, though this would usually result in numerous pieces of debris.

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New FAA Rule Allows Private Jet Owners To Hide Travel Information From Public

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is implementing a data privacy policy that allows people with private jets to hide travel information from the public.

“Private aircraft owners and operators can now electronically request that the FAA withhold their aircraft registration information from public view,” the agency said in a March 28 statement.

“Starting today, they can submit a request through the Civil Aviation Registry Electronic Services (CARES) to withhold this information from public display on all FAA websites.”

In its statement, the FAA said the data protection decision was taken based on a privacy provision included in the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024.

The provision allows aircraft owners to request that certain personally identifiable information not be made publicly available via FAA websites.

“The FAA will publish a request for comment in the Federal Register to seek input on this measure, including whether removing the information would affect the ability of stakeholders to perform necessary functions, such as maintenance, safety checks, and regulatory compliance,” said the agency.

“The FAA is also evaluating whether to default to withholding the personally identifiable information of private aircraft owners and operators from the public aircraft registry.”

While some say that such trackers allow people to record carbon emission info, there have been concerns that monitoring aircraft movements puts at risk the people who use that mode of transportation, often high-profile individuals.

The new rule could negatively affect jet trackers that use FAA information as a key source to track and report flight details of famous personalities.

In December 2023, attorneys for Taylor Swift issued a cease-and-desist letter to a university student, blaming his automated tracking of her private jet travel for revealing the celebrity’s whereabouts to stalkers.

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Butler Assassination Attempt Documents Locked Down in Congressman Kelly’s Office, as Case Goes Cold on Link to ‘Crooks’

Republican Congressman Mike Kelly who Chaired the Congressional Task Force investigating the July 13th attempted assassination of Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, whines about law enforcement withholding important data, but he also continues to face scrutiny for withholding critical investigative documents from the public.

AbleChild contacted Congressman Kelly’s office requesting a copy of the PA State Police Report and a copy of the Allegheny County Coroner’s Autopsy on Thomas Matthew Crooks and was told to “FOIA it.”

Why should any American have to FOIA reports that were obtained during a Congressional Task force investigation? In addition, there are no laws preventing their release.

The documents were used to complete the investigative report. Why should Congressman Kelly have the final say in what Americans are allowed to know about the Butler assassination attempt?

The American taxpayers paid for the Task force to conduct the investigation and should be entitled to see all the documents collected as part of the investigation. The Congressman’s office is well aware that any FOIA request could take months, if not years, to get a response.

Make no mistake, Kelly’s refusal to release requested documents raises serious concerns about transparency and accountability in this high-profile case.

Unfortunately, despite the Task force’s efforts in its final 180-page report, no specific information identifying the alleged shooter and motive for the attack has been made public.

Talk about waste and abuse. The Task force “investigation” produced literally no new information about who the shooter is and why the attack occurred. It didn’t even provide physical evidence to prove the alleged shooter was Thomas Crooks.

Given the admittedly “insubstantial” report, Chairman Kelly blames law enforcement for refusing to provide requested information.

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Sensitive British Military Papers Found Strewn Across Street

Britain’s defense ministry said Friday it had launched an urgent probe after a football fan found piles of sensitive military papers strewn across a street in northern England.

Newcastle United supporter Mike Gibbard said he stumbled across the documents on his way to a game in the city on March 16.

The army papers — some marked “OFFICIAL – SENSITIVE” — were spilling from a black bin bag and “spread all the way up the road,” Gibbard said on BBC Radio Newcastle on Friday.

“I peered down and started to see names on bits of paper and numbers, and thought ‘what’s that?’” he said.

The BBC said the papers — many of them torn — included details about soldiers’ ranks, emails, shift patterns, weapon issue records, and access information for military facilities.

One sheet was headed “armoury keys and hold IDS codes,” an apparent reference to an intruder detection system.

The broadcaster said several documents appeared to relate to Britain’s largest army garrison, Catterick, but security consultant Gary Hibberd told AFP the information risked compromising wider national security.

“The impact and scale of this is quite big — it’s not just a blunder. This will be investigated within highest levels of the military,” Hibberd said.

A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: “We are looking into this urgently and the matter is the subject of an ongoing internal investigation.”

They confirmed that “documentation allegedly relating to the department was recently handed in to the police.”

Northumbria Police told AFP that officers had been alerted to the find in the Scotswood district and had since passed on the papers to the defense ministry.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Keir Starmer said, “appropriate action will be taken in response to any potential information breach.”

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Feds Investigating Maine DOE Over Allegations That Schools Are Hiding Gender Transitions from Parents

The U.S. Department of Education has launched an investigation into the Maine Department of Education over allegations that schools in the state may have violated federal law by hiding student gender transitions from parents.

The probe, announced on Friday, will look for breaches of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

The U.S. D.O.E. said in a press release:

This investigation comes amid reports that dozens of Maine school districts are violating or misusing FERPA by maintaining policies that infringe on parents’ rights. The districts’ policies allegedly allow for schools to create “gender plans” supporting a student’s “transgender identity” and then claim those plans are not education records under FERPA and therefore not available to parents.

This action, alongside SPPO’s investigation initiated yesterday into the California Department of Education, is in furtherance of U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon’s directives to strengthen FERPA enforcement by taking action against schools misusing FERPA and clearing the backlog of complaints submitted to SPPO that accumulated under the Biden Administration.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Education said in a statement, “We take seriously any allegations that schools or state agencies may be denying parents their lawful rights to access their children’s education records. This investigation will determine if Maine’s policies and practices align with federal law.”

“Parents and guardians have the right to access their child’s education records to guide and safeguard their child’s mental, emotional, and physical well-being. Any policy to the contrary is both illegal and immoral,” said Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. “A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to meet with several young people who shared their detransitioning stories. It is deeply concerning to hear that teachers and school counselors in Maine are reportedly encouraging and helping students to undergo so-called ‘gender transitions’ while keeping parents in the dark. The Trump Administration will enforce all federal laws to safeguard students and families.”

Parents Defending Education Founder and President Nicole Neily said of the investigation, “Under the previous Administration, we were fighting to protect our children from irreversible ‘sex changes’ – a path too often facilitated by school personnel who we entrusted with our children. We are proud to stand with President Trump and Secretary McMahon to hold school districts accountable and ensure no child is socially transitioned behind parent’s backs by teachers or administrators,”

Maine’s Department of Education has not yet issued a statement addressing the matter.

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