Tag: secrecy

FBI still hiding key Russiagate details, newly released document shows

As Donald Trump re-enters the White House on a pledge to end national security state overreach, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is still hiding critical details on the Russia conspiracy investigation that engulfed his first term.

In response to a Freedom of Information request that I filed in August 2022, the FBI on December 31, more than two years later, released a heavily redacted copy of the document that opened an explosive and unprecedented counterintelligence probe of the sitting president as an agent of the Russian government.

The Electronic Communication, dated May 16, 2017, claimed to have an “articulable factual basis” to suspect that Trump “wittingly or unwittingly” was illegally acting on behalf of Russia, and accordingly posing “threats to the national security of the United States.” The FBI’s “goal,” it added, was “to determine if President Trump is or was directed by, controlled by, and/or coordinated activities with, the Russian Federation.” It additionally sought to uncover whether Trump and unnamed “others” obstructed “any associated FBI investigation” – a reference to Crossfire Hurricane, the initial FBI inquiry into the Trump campaign’s suspected cooperation with an alleged Russian interference plot in the 2016 election.

While Crossfire Hurricane, which was formally opened on July 31, 2016, had by that point focused on members of Trump’s orbit, the May 2017 probe was specifically targeted at the president himself during his fourth month in office. The investigation of Trump was undertaken at the behest of then-acting FBI director Andrew McCabe, one week after Trump had fired his former boss and mentor, James B. Comey.

According to the declassified document, McCabe’s decision was approved by FBI Assistant Director Bill Priestap, who had also signed off on the opening of Crossfire Hurricane; and Jim Baker, the FBI general counsel. Baker was a longtime friend of Michael Sussmann, a lawyer for the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton, and a key figure in the dissemination of Clinton-funded disinformation to the FBI that falsely tied Trump to Russia. In his FBI role, Baker personally circulated the conspiracy theory, manufactured by “researchers” working with the Clinton campaign, that the Trump campaign and Russia were communicating via a secret server. After leaving the FBI, Baker served as deputy general counsel at Twitter, where he backed the company’s censorship of reporting on the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop, based on yet another conspiracy theory that the laptop files were Russian disinformation.

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Collapsing Empire: RIP CIA Front’s ‘Overt Operations’

In recent months, a remarkable development in the Empire’s decline has gone almost entirely unnoticed. The National Endowment for Democracy’s grant database has been removed from the web. Until recently, a searchable interface allowed visitors to view detailed records of Washington-funded NGOs, civil society groups, and media projects in particular countries – covering most of the world – the sums involved, and entities responsible for delivering these initiatives. This resource has now inexplicably vanished, and with it, enormous amounts of incontrovertible, self-incriminating evidence of destructive US skullduggery abroad.

Take for example NED grant records for Georgia, the site of recent repeated colour revolution efforts, at the forefront of which were Endowment-bankrolled organisations. While still accessible via internet archives, they were deleted during the summer. Today, visitors to associated URLs are redirected to a brief entry simply titled “Eurasia”. The accompanying text describes in very broad terms the Endowment’s aims regionally and the total being spent, but the crucial questions of where and on what aren’t clarified. In a comic hypocrisy too, the blurb boldly states:

“The heart of NED’s work in the region is the need to maintain access to objective information for local populations. Across the region, government actors are attempting to limit the space for citizens to distribute information and communicate freely online.”

Resultantly, independent academics, activists, researchers, and journalists have been deprived of an invaluable resource for tracking and exposing the Empire’s machinations. Yet, the Endowment incinerating its public paper trail can only be considered a significant victory for these same actors. NED’s explicit and avowed raison d’être was to do publicly what US intelligence did – and in many cases still does – covertly. Now, after 40 years of wreaking havoc worldwide in service of the Empire, the CIA front has been forced underground, defeating its entire purpose. How long can it now survive?

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Police Bodycam Footage Is Going Behind a Paywall

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed into law on Thursday changes to the state’s public records statute that allow law enforcement agencies to charge hundreds of dollars for body camera footage. Though such videos are central to watchdog reporting and police oversight, Ohio opted to join a handful of states that have made it easier for cops to put a steep price tag on transparency.

“Public bodies should be in the business of making it easier — not harder — for the public and the press to access important government records like body worn camera footage,” said Gunita Singh, an attorney at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. “There’s no need to impose vast sums of money onto requesters doing their part to foster transparency and accountability.”

Over the past decade, more law enforcement agencies have deployed body cameras — and the footage they provide has become central to covering cops and stemming police brutality. At the same time, law enforcement agencies and police unions have begun complaining about the time and expense of turning these videos over to the public when requested. Some states have responded by authorizing fees for processing footage: In 2023, Arizona passed a law allowing charges up to $46 “per video-hour reviewed.” In 2016, Indiana authorized fees as high as $150 per video.

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State Department is Sued for Withholding Records on Censorship Efforts

The Functional Government Initiative (FGI), a government watchdog, has filed a lawsuit against the State Department, seeking critical documents related to its controversial censorship activities. At the heart of the case is the now-disbanded Global Engagement Center (GEC), an agency accused of using taxpayer dollars to suppress free speech and support efforts to blacklist media outlets.

We obtained a copy of the complaint for you here.

FGI’s legal action follows months of non-compliance from the State Department regarding Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests that aimed to uncover communications about censorship grants issued during the Biden administration.

FGI’s FOIA requests sought records from several State Department divisions, including:

The Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy: The request focused on discussions related to the European Union’s Digital Services Act and communications with the White House. FGI alleges the records would shed light on whether US officials were involved in discussions about EU censorship policies.

The Global Engagement Center: Similar to the first request, this inquiry sought records about the Digital Services Act, involving specific officials and communications with external organizations.

Internal Press Guidance: FGI requested records related to a New York Post article published on September 13, 2024. The article reportedly referenced internal press guidance, and FGI sought to uncover records detailing its preparation, implementation, and related communications involving key officials.

The lawsuit alleges that despite acknowledging receipt of the FOIA requests, the State Department failed to produce any records or claim exemptions. “Defendant has failed to comply with the time limit set forth…” the complaint states, adding that FGI has exhausted all administrative remedies.

The nonprofit argues that the requested documents could provide critical insights into State Department activities, including its approach to EU regulations and responses to media inquiries. “FGI is being irreparably harmed by reason of Defendant’s unlawful withholding of requested records,” the complaint asserts.

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Secretive Shadow Banks Utilize Innovative BoE Tool Amid Financial Scrutiny

The Bank of England (BoE) has recently launched a new financial facility aimed at providing support to non-bank financial institutions, commonly known as shadow banks. However, details regarding the identities of these shadow banks remain shrouded in secrecy, raising concerns and interest in the financial community. The introduction of this tool marks a significant step in the BoE’s efforts to monitor and enhance financial stability within the market.

This newly developed tool enables these shadow banks to access liquidity while avoiding the transparency obligations typically mandated for traditional banking entities. This move has sparked a debate about the potential risks involved, particularly regarding the systemic stability of the financial ecosystem, as more entities operate outside the purview of regulatory scrutiny.

According to the BoE, the initiative aims to foster resilience in the financial sector, a goal that gains importance amid escalating economic pressures. As non-traditional banks increasingly play a pivotal role in the economy – providing credit to businesses and consumers alike – their operations have come under increased scrutiny from regulators concerned about risk management and leverage.

Despite the advantages, the decision not to disclose the identities of the accessing shadow banks has led to questions about accountability and risk assessment. The lack of transparency could hinder regulators’ ability to gauge potential vulnerabilities in the financial system and act preemptively in the event of instability.

The BoE is insisting that the tool will be pivotal in shielding the economy from monetary shocks and broadening its surveillance capabilities. However, the financial community is divided on whether this approach is conducive to fostering a sound financial environment or if it would exacerbate the challenges associated with non-bank financial entities operating in the shadows.

As the K-shaped recovery from the pandemic continues, the implications of this new facility could be profound. Observers are keenly watching how this development unfolds, especially given that shadow banks often emerged as lending sources during economic downturns. Nonetheless, their rise also invites cautious examination regarding the inherent risks that accompany their operations.

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Who Is Wei Cai, German Public Health’s ‘Hidden’ Scientist from Wuhan?

So, who exactly is Wei Cai, the scientific staff member of Germany’s public health authority, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), who, as revealed in hitherto hidden minutes of the institute’s “COVID-19 Crisis Group,” comes from none other than Wuhan? And when I say “hitherto hidden minutes,” I mean hidden precisely in the ostensible leak of the unredacted “RKI Files.” For, as I discussed in a recent article, the file in question was not included among the supposedly “complete minutes” assembled by Aya Velazquez, the prostitute-turned-journalist and anti-Covid-measure activist who unveiled the documents at a highly-publicised press conference in Berlin on July 23rd.

As discussed in a postscript to that article, although I have asked her, I have not received a coherent answer from Velazquez as to how she could have overlooked these minutes, which are indeed the minutes of the very first RKI “crisis group” meeting of which we have a public record.

Be that as it may, the reason why the revelation of the RKI’s link to Wuhan is important – and why German authorities may have preferred that it remain secret – is because, as I have documented in, among other places, my ‘The Greatest Story Never Told,’ Germany in fact had a very active publicly-funded research partnership in virology with several research institutions in Wuhan, including the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).

Indeed, the German-Chinese virology network, known as the “Sino-German Transregional Collaborative Research Centre” or TRR60, gave rise to a full-fledged German-Chinese virology lab, not only right in Wuhan but indeed right in what is regarded as the area of the initial outbreak of Covid-19 in the city. For this and other (microbiological) reasons outlined in my ‘The Smoking Gun in Wuhan,’ the members of the German-Chinese virology partnership ought to be prime suspects in any genuine investigation into a possible laboratory origin of SARS-CoV-2.  But, instead, they have been completely ignored in favour of suspects in far-off places like Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

The below photo shows various members of the partnership, as well as associated German and Chinese luminaries in the field of virology. It was taken in 2015 at a “Sino-German Symposium on Infectious Diseases” in Berlin organised by the German Co-Director of TRR60, Ulf Dittmer. Dittmer is the bald man in the middle of the picture. None other than Christian Drosten, the German designer of the ‘gold standard’ SARS-CoV-2 PCR test, and Shi Zhengli, the WIV’s renowned bat coronavirus expert, can be seen together in the lower left-hand corner of the picture.

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Deadly USS Liberty Attack Records Remain Secret – For Now

On November 21, 2024, Senior Judge Marsha J. Pechman of the US District Court for the Western District of Washington issued what seems likely to be her final order in Kinnucan v. National Security Agency et al. The order came more than four years after the federal case was first filed in September 2020. The suit was brought to obtain records the NSA, Central Intelligence Agency, and the Defense Intelligence Agency had failed to release despite a series of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests concerning the USS Liberty (AGTR-5).

On June 8, 1967 – three days after Israel initiated the Six-Day War by attacking Egypt – Israeli forces launched a combined aerial and naval assault on the Liberty. Lasting over an hour, the unprovoked attack killed 34 Americans and wounded more than 170 others. The Israeli government would claim that the attack was the result of mistaken identity. More than 57 years after the attack, the FOIA lawsuit revealed new details and, more importantly, it made it clear that the US government is still refusing to release hundreds of pages of documents concerning the assault.

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FDA must disclose more COVID-19 vaccine records, US judge rules

A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to publicly disclose more information underpinning its authorization of COVID-19 vaccines, after failing to persuade the court to end the public records lawsuit.

In a ruling, opens new tab on Friday, U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman in Fort Worth, Texas, ordered the agency to produce its “emergency use authorization” file to a group of scientists who wanted to see licensing information that the FDA relied on to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine.

“The COVID-19 pandemic is long passed and so has any legitimate reason for concealing from the American people the information relied upon by the government in approving the Pfizer vaccine,” wrote Pittman, appointed in 2019 by then-President Donald Trump.

The lawsuit, filed in late 2021, attracted attention after the FDA said it could take decades to process and disclose records to Public Health and Medical Professionals for Transparency, the group that brought the case.

The FDA declined to comment.

Attorney Aaron Siri, representing the Public Health and Medical Professionals for Transparency, welcomed Pittman’s order.

“The FDA clearly lacks confidence in the review that it conducted to license Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine because it is doing everything possible to prevent independent scientists from conducting an independent review,” Siri said.

He said the agency was “hiding from the court and the plaintiff one million pages of clinical trial documents from the COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials.”

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Bank of England announces it will keep the names of non-bank financial institutions it bails out a secret

On Monday, the Bank of England announced it will hide the identities of any pension funds, insurers or hedge funds bailed out to avoid the stigma.  This new policy of secrecy to protect banks’ identity will begin in 2025 when the central bank launches its Contingent NBFI Repo Facility.

Also in 2025, the final parts of Basel III will be implemented.  Basel III introduces bail-ins, where account holders rather than the government bail out a failing bank.

But that’s not all. In the “second half of this decade,” i.e. any time from 2025, is “the earliest” the Bank of England would issue a central bank digital currency.

In the past, wars and oil embargoes have been used to justify implementing new global financial systems.  Could we be seeing signs they are preparing for a crisis that they won’t let go to waste?

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The US government must come clean about UFOs 

Last month’s congressional hearings on unidentified anomalous phenomena — UAP, the government’s new name for UFOs — could be characterized as a tale of two testimonies.  

The first hearing was before two subcommittees of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee and included sworn statements by myself, a former NASA official, an investigative journalist and Luis Elizondo, a former senior leader of the Pentagon’s secret UAP office, known as the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program.

Elizondo was unequivocal about UAP: They are real, of nonhuman origin, represent advanced technologies that are monitoring sensitive military installations around the globe, and information about them is being withheld by the U.S. government from members of Congress and the public.

In my testimony, I backed up Lue’s statement and commended his courage and that of other former government UAP witnesses and whistleblowers who have spoken out. I also described my personally witnessing a now-declassified UAP video captured by the infrared sensor on a Navy fighter jet during a training event off the East Coast in 2015.  

The second UAP hearing took place a week after the first and featured Jon Kosloski, the director of the Pentagon’s UAP Office. Kosloski testified before the chairwoman and ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities. He too spoke in no uncertain terms, stating that his office, also known as the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, has discovered no verifiable evidence of activity, technology or beings of extraterrestrial origin. 

Additionally, Kosloski provided the results of a technical analysis of the very UAP video I described during my testimony a week prior. The UAP in the video has been called the “Go Fast” due to the relatively high apparent velocity it exhibited. Kosloski, however, concluded that the UAP was in fact not traveling very fast, therefore inferring that it was not anomalous in nature.  

Such a conclusion is suspect: not only did Kosloski’s office fail to interview the Navy aviator who captured the video, but the office’s director also neglected to address the context of this UAP observation, which I provided to the House subcommittees. Namely, the object’s speed was not of primary concern — the real issue was that it was one of a “fleet” of many UAP causing multiple near mid-air collisions with the Navy aircraft in the area.  

Moreover, the Department of Defense has yet to identify the origin, intent and physical mechanisms of these anomalous objects. This is concerning because these UAP presented such a significant flight safety threat that the four-star admiral overseeing the exercise nearly shut it down. Given these gaps in information and the timing, one must wonder if Pentagon’s analysis of the “Go Fast” video was presented in an attempt to directly debunk my testimony only days earlier.

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