Tag: secrecy

ICE Doesn’t Want You To Know Why They Bought a Phone Cracking System

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is quietly building up its ability to spy on Americans’ phones. Earlier this month, the agency activated a $2 million contract with Paragon, a service that offers the ability to remotely hack into someone’s phone. Last week, ICE entered into an $11 million contract for Cellebrite devices, which allow agents to break into a locked phone in their physical possession.

And they don’t want you to know why. The justification for the no-bid contract states that ICE’s Cyber Crimes Center “has a need for Universal Forensic Extraction Devices (UFEDs) and related services for investigative purposes. Specifically, the Government requires the capability to perform logical, file system, physical, and password data extraction for mobile electronic devices.”

Every other substantive paragraph in the document is redacted, to an almost comical degree. “Cellebrite’s unique capabilities are that they are the only brand product/service that ██████████,” read one paragraph. “Cellebrite remains the most effective solution for ██████████,” reads another.

The Cyber Crimes Center is attached to Homeland Security Investigations, the section of ICE that handles organized crime rather than day-to-day deportations.

Cellebrite is not keen on revealing its capabilities; in a leaked training video, Cellebrite representatives asked police to keep the use of their devices “as hush hush as possible.” But ICE’s justification even censors details about competing products the agency looked at. “Similarly, ██████████ offers ██████████. None of these tools provide ██████████ needed to handle ██████████,” the document reads.

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All Analysis and Records Withheld on DoD’s Own Released UAP Footage

The Department of Defense (DoD) has denied a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking records connected to the review, redaction, and release of a UAP video published by the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) earlier this year.

The request, filed May 19, 2025, sought internal communications, review logs, classification guidance, legal opinions, and technical documentation tied to the public posting of the video titled “Middle East 2024.” The video, showing more than six minutes of infrared footage from a U.S. military platform, was released in May 2025 and remains unresolved by AARO.

The DoD confirmed that responsive documents exist, but a September 19, 2025, final response stated that all records are being withheld in full.

The denial cited multiple FOIA exemptions, including:

  • Exemption (b)(5): covering deliberative inter- and intra-agency material.
  • Exemptions (b)(7)(A), (B), (C), and (E): law enforcement provisions shielding records that could interfere with enforcement proceedings, risk an unfair trial, invade personal privacy, or reveal law enforcement techniques.

AARO described the video as depicting “an apparent thermal contrast within the sensor’s field of view” that may be consistent with a physical object, but noted that without corroborating data, “the available data does not support a conclusive analytic evaluation.”

The Pentagon’s decision continues a recurring pattern in UAP transparency efforts: footage may be released for public viewing, but records explaining the deliberations and analysis behind such releases remain withheld.

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Former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund Reveals He Was NEVER Told About FBI’s 274 Plainclothes Agents in Jan. 6 Crowd – Despite Meeting with Agencies the Night Before

The cover-up just got exposed.

Former Chief of the U.S. Capitol Police, Steven Sund, revealed in an interview with John Fawcett on The Great America Show Friday night that he was never told by the FBI that hundreds of their agents were deployed inside the Jan. 6 crowds.

How is it possible that the top cop in charge of protecting the U.S. Capitol, the man responsible for securing Congress, was left in the dark about something this massive?

On Thursday night, the FBI finally admitted that it had 274 plainclothes agents inside the massive Trump crowds on January 6, 2021 — hundreds more than previously reported.

The Blaze reported that congressional sources claimed this was “not necessarily a surprise,” since the FBI often embeds counter-surveillance personnel at large events. But what is shocking is the FBI’s steadfast refusal for years to disclose their true level of presence at the Capitol.

Even worse, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Inspector General declared in an 88-page report released in December 2024 that the FBI had “no undercover employees” inside the Jan. 6 crowds. That claim now looks like another brazen lie.

Former FBI Director Chris Wray lied and lectured House Republicans for accusing the FBI of planting informants/operatives/agents inside the massive crowd of Trump supporters on January 6, 2021.

FBI Director Christopher Wray testified before Congress in July 2023 that he “does not believe” undercover FBI agents were present at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Wray’s statement came during a tense exchange with Representative Andy Biggs (R-AZ), who specifically asked about the number of undercover agents in the Capitol vicinity on the infamous day.

“I’m not sure there were undercover agents on scene,” Wray responded to Biggs. “As I sit here right now, I do not believe there were undercover agents on.”

Biggs wrote on Twitter that “Wray will be held accountable for this lie.”

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Massie Secures House Vote to Release Epstein Files, Defying GOP Leadership and Unleashing Grassroots Fury

Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie is turning up the heat on Washington’s most sensitive secrets, claiming he’s just shy of forcing a public vote to release the federal investigation files on Jeffrey Epstein—the notorious sex offender and financier whose web of blackmail left the country’s ruling class sweating bullets.

Massie’s campaign, derided by party bosses but cheered by Epstein’s victims, now rides the momentum of the Arizona special election which sent Democratic candidate Adelita Grijalva to Congress—Grijalva promised to sign Massie’s petition, giving him the magic number: 218.

Washington Panic Over Epstein Files

At a community forum in northeastern Kentucky, Massie didn’t mince words. Both Arizona candidates pledged their support, and with Grijalva’s victory, the discharge petition is locked and loaded. Now, as Massie put it, not even Republican leadership can duck responsibility: “We’re going to force a vote on releasing those files.”

But the Republican congressional brass, led by Speaker Mike Johnson and Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, want no part of this grassroots insurrection. Massie says party leadership is “in full panic,” with pressure and threats raining down on co-signers.

According to Massie, any attempt to use obscure parliamentary gimmicks to block the vote would itself require 218 representatives—throwing everyone into the headlights: “If you participate in that vote to sideline the discharge petition, now you’re part of the coverup.”

Hall passes? “This is an 80-20 issue,” Massie said, suggesting Speaker Johnson might let some members side with transparency—if only to save face with angry constituents.

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DoD Redacts Nearly All Records Explaining AARO’s Use of Law Enforcement Exemption for UAP Files

The Department of Defense (DoD) has released a set of heavily redacted emails in response to a FOIA request seeking records that would explain why AARO and UAP materials are now being largely withheld under FOIA Exemption (b)(7). This exemption is intended for “law enforcement” records, raising questions about how it applies to AARO, which is not a law enforcement body.

The release was supposed to show the internal decision-making behind this new practice. Instead, nearly all substance was withheld, and more than 95%+ of the content is either blacked out or withheld in full. The result is another chapter in a growing saga of secrecy surrounding AARO, FOIA, and UAP records.

This issue has now persisted for more than two years. The Pentagon’s Public Affairs office, through spokesperson Susan Gough, continues to refuse to answer The Black Vault’s roughly four dozen inquiries and follow-ups over the course of 27 months sent to her about how this exemption can be legally justified.

The September 18, 2025, release (case 24-F-0154) consisted of 23 pages. Three pages were withheld in their entirety under Exemption (b)(5), while the rest were redacted under (b)(5) and (b)(6).

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School district may have ‘intentionally deceived’ parents on girl’s gender transition, judge rules

AMichigan school district may have violated the due process rights of parents by “actively concealing” their daughter’s identification as a boy, referring to the girl by her given name with parents and her “masculine” name at school, a federal judge ruled, exacerbating conflicts in the lower courts that may trigger Supreme Court review.

U.S. District Judge Paul Maloney, known for siding with a school district that banned students from wearing “Let’s Go Brandon” sweatshirts, greenlit Dan and Jennifer Mead‘s Fourteenth Amendment claims against Rockford Public School District for violating their “fundamental rights as parents” and “deprivation of liberty without due process.”

He dismissed the Meads’ free exercise claim, however, saying surreptitious social transitions don’t “compel students (or their parents) to believe or do anything,” contrary to the mandatory exposure to LGBTQ “storybooks,” compelled school attendance and flag-salute requirement struck down by the Supreme Court in precedents from the 1940s to this year.

The President George W. Bush nominee noted the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is binding on him, last month upheld an Ohio gender identity school restroom policy as “facially neutral” in a challenge by Muslim and Christian students. (Their only potential relief was damages, since Ohio mandated restroom access by sex during the case.)

The 1st Circuit, which oversees Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine and Rhode Island and has no Republican-nominated judges, reached the opposite conclusion as Maloney on parental rights and due process earlier this year, prompting parents Stephen Foote and Marissa Silvestri to petition the Supreme Court.

Several friend-of-the-court briefs are backing the Massachusetts parents, including detransitioners who abandoned transgender identities after medicalization and a prominent transgender child psychologist who argues parents are integral to transitions.

The 3rd Circuit, covering Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey, heard a similar case this summer and already has precedents upholding parental authority, including an opinion joined by future Justice Samuel Alito on “actions that strike at the heart of parental decision-making authority on matters of the greatest importance.”

George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley called Maloney’s ruling “potentially precedent-setting” on parental rights in public schools. He highlighted Maloney’s finding that the Meads’ allegations “show some amount of coercion or interference” from the district, implicating their right to make “fundamental decisions” for the girl.

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‘Socialist Rifle Association’ attempts to hide names of leaders after members linked to string of violent attacks

A group called the Socialist Rifle Association, made up of over 10,000 members has been conducting training for socialist and transgender extremists, and the group has now been linked to four major crimes, according to an investigation from the Daily Wire. As the report has been published, the leadership on their website appear to have attempted to hide their names.

As the report from the outlet was released this week, the leadership link on their website has been redirected to the music video for Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up, in a move commonly known as a Rick Roll. However, archives of the website as of August 14 this year still display the names and contact information of the leadership officers in the organization.

The president goes by the first name of “Hope” and identifies with “she/they” pronouns. Many others on the leadership list use “they/them pronouns, indicating those in leadership of the socialist organization identify as transgender or nonbinary. The rest of the leadership only goes by their first names as well. 

According to the investigation from the Daily Wie, members of the Socialist Rifle Association get membership cards with the quote, “Any attempt to disarm workers must be frustrated, by force if necessary,” with a picture of Karl Marx. They stock up on rifles and other gear. A common logo used by the group is the transgender flag with the phrase “defend equality.” However, the videos presented by the group do not look like they are training for self-defense, but for combat.

The crimes that were linked to the group include the shooting of correctional officer in Texas on July 4, when a group of militants opened fire on DHS officers near an ICE facility in Alvarado, Texas. Benjamin Hanil Song, who was charged with shooting an officer in the neck, is part of the Socialist Rifle Association’s Dallas-Fort Worth chapter.

Paul Hyon Kim, the suspect charged with setting fire to and shooting up five Teslas in Las Vegas, also appears to be a member of the organization. Court documents said, “Kim has an Instagram page where he follows the Socialist Rifle Association’s page. In a post from October 2018, on the Reno Socialist Rifle Association’s Instagram page, is a picture of a subject that appears to be Paul Kim training with firearms.”

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SpaceX Starlink satellite photobombs orbital view of secret Chinese air base

One of SpaceX’s broadband-beaming Starlink satellites has been captured overflying a top-secret airbase in China that was photographed by a private American Earth-observation satellite.

The unexpected satellite alignment above Dingxin Airbase in the Gobi Desert of western China took place on Aug. 21 and created a range of unusual effects in the high-resolution image. Dingxin Airbase, which provided a backdrop for the orbital encounter, is one of the most secretive military locations in China, known for conducting complex fighter jet drills and bomber exercises, and supporting development of new military drones.

The visible-light photo, taken by one of Maxar Technologies’ WorldView Legion satellites orbiting at an altitude of 312 miles (518 kilometers), shows what appears to be a fleet of fighter jets resting on the ramp adjacent to the runway surrounded by brown, arid soil. In the upper-left corner of the image, a ghostly oblong shadow appears in the picture with a silver-colored middle section and two darker-colored arms stretching to the sides.

The photobomber is a satellite — specifically, one of SpaceX‘s Starlink internet satellites, which Maxar identified as spacecraft number 33828. The mirror effect comes from a trio of rainbow-colored reflections of the satellite, which enliven the drab desert surface below.

Susanne Hake, Maxar’s general manager for U.S. government, who posted the image on LinkedIn, described the colorful reflections as a “pan-sharpening spectral artifact,” caused by the extremely high speeds — around 5 miles (8 kilometers) per second — at which the two satellites passed each other.

“Essentially, our imaging system was merging high-resolution black & white data with color data while the Starlink zipped past at orbital velocity,” Hake wrote in the post. “Physics turned a technical imaging challenge into accidental art.”

Hake added that, although the orbital encounter underscores how crowded near-Earth space has become, the incident was more of a spectacular rarity than a concern for safety or image quality.

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SHOCK TESTIMONY: U.S. Air Force Veteran Reveals He Witnessed a Silent 100-Foot TRIANGLULAR UFO at Langley AFB — Shot Into the Sky in Seconds

Congress heard jaw-dropping testimony today during the Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets’ hearing titled “Restoring Public Trust Through UAP Transparency and Whistleblower Protection.”

Task Force Chairwoman Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) blasted the federal government and intelligence community for deliberately keeping Americans in the dark about Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs).

Luna stressed the danger of stonewalling the public, warning that UAP secrecy directly undermines U.S. national security and erodes trust in our Republic.

U.S. Air Force Veteran Dylan Borland, a former geospatial intelligence specialist for the U.S. Air Force and senior defense analyst for BAE Systems and Intrepid Solutions, described a chilling 2012 encounter while stationed at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia.

At approximately 1:30 a.m., Borland reported witnessing a massive, 100-foot equilateral triangular craft silently emerge near the NASA hangar on base.

After reporting the incident, Borland revealed that his professional career was deliberately obstructed after his experience.

He says government agencies manipulated his security clearance, falsified records, and blacklisted him to prevent him from continuing to work in the intelligence community.

He went further, disclosing that he had been exposed to classified details of the UAP Legacy Crash Retrieval Program, a program he alleges is hiding recovered craft and technologies of unknown origin from both Congress and the American public.

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Greene says she got ‘a lot’ of pushback from White House over Epstein discharge petition

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said she got “a lot” of pushback from the White House over supporting a discharge petition aiming to force the administration to release all of the documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. 

“Oh, I got a lot of pushback. I got phone call after phone call last night. They didn’t want me to sign the discharge petition. They want to focus on the Oversight [Committee] investigation. They hate Thomas Massie more than they can hate any Democrat, which makes no sense to me. And they don’t want to work with Democrats at all,” Greene, an ally of President Trump, said during her Wednesday appearance on Real America’s Voice “Bolling!” 

Greene, who has disagreed with some of the administration’s positions before, told host Eric Bolling that she does not blame the president, but some of his staff. 

“Eric, you and I both know any president is insulated and in a cone of information based on the people that work directly with him, and I don’t think they’ve informed him on what a big deal this really is,” Greene said. 

The Georgia Republican, who is one of the four members of the House GOP conference who signed on to the petition spearheaded by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), said she told Trump Wednesday morning to host Epstein’s survivors at the White House.

“I want him to be the hero and champion of this issue,” she said. “And I want him to fight for these women, because I know him to be a fighter.” 

Trump dismissed the pressure to release the files regarding Epstein, arguing it is a push to distract from the achievements of the administration.

“But it’s really a Democrat hoax, because they’re trying to get people to talk about something that’s totally irrelevant to the success we’ve had as a nation since I’ve been president,” Trump said Wednesday.

Greene said Wednesday, “It’s not a hoax, because Jeffrey Epstein is a convicted pedophile. That takes away the whole hoax things. It’s not a hoax. It’s not a lie.” 

Lawmakers hosted Epstein victims on Capitol Hill, where they urged Congress to act. Some of the Epstein accusers spoke with members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which is conducting its own probe regarding the Epstein case, behind closed doors for more than two hours Tuesday. 

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