Category Archives: Biden administration

A little bit more About that Harris Joy Campaign

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In her recent campaign speech in Arizona, VP Kamala said there is hard work to do and WE ARE GOING TO DO IT WITH JOY. A joyful campaign…a peculiar description.

It has been reported and righty so that Kamala has complete disdain for Prime Minister Netanyahu and is clearly on the side the the Palestinians. Associated Press revealed that Kamala and her team have met often secretly with ‘uncommitted’ voters especially in Michigan. Only in the last few days did she meet with the mayor of Dearborn, Michigan, Abdullah Hammoud who applauded the October 7 attack on Israel…How is that for JOY?

Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud announces $30 million investment in the ...

While the DNC hosted in Chicago is full of protestors including anti-capitalists and pro-Hamas, Palestinians and even communists….check this out….about JOY.

Now, exactly where did this ‘joy’ thing originate? well let us go back to 1933 in Germany shall we? Well upon a little digging….check this out.

In part:

Nazi leaders hoped that the athletic and cultural programs of “Strength through Joy” would improve the health and productivity of the German workforce while easing class tensions within the so-called “national community” (“Volksgemeinschaft”). Providing organized alternatives to unstructured leisure time, the first “Strength through Joy” programs focused on filling workers’ evening and weekend time with classes, concerts, theatrical performances, art exhibitions, and sporting events.2 The program also began providing cheap vacation packages to German workers in 1934, but ambitious plans to expand German mass tourism further were abandoned in 1939 with the beginning of World War II.3

The featured photograph shows a “Strength through Joy” event held on the outskirts of Berlin on April 24, 1937. A large group of adults and children are gathered on the popular public beach at Strandbad Wannsee to perform exercises led by a “Strength through Joy” representative holding a bullhorn.4 The public beach facilities shown in this photograph were first constructed during the Weimar Republic (1918–1933) as part of a growing movement toward outdoor recreational activities that would greatly influence Nazi-era public health policies.5

Within months of the establishment of the Nazi regime in early 1933, local officials and business owners began banning Jews from public swimming pools.6 Strandbad Wannsee barred Jews from its beach and its public programs later that summer. As the first Nazi-era acts to exclude all Jewish Germans from public spaces, these prohibitions became a precedent for the increasing marginalization and segregation of Jews from German public life. 

Although Jews were barred from visiting Strandbad Wannsee under the Nazi regime, the beach continued to be a popular getaway for Berlin’s “Aryan” citizens—even during the last years of World War II. In fact, Strandbad Wannsee has remained a popular destination for generations of Berliners ever since the years of the Weimar Republic. The sun decks and walkways on the upper level of the buildings in the featured photograph have fallen into disrepair over the decades, but these very same facilities at Strandbad Wannsee continue to offer public recreation courses to Berlin-area beachgoers.

***
Where would some of this creepy stuff come from…what is the basis? Well have you met Phil Gordon, her national security advisor?Phil Gordon, le plus europhile du clan de Kamala Harris - Le Temps

US Vice President Kamala Harris is stonewalling a congressional inquiry into her national security adviser Phil Gordon’s ties to an Iranian government influence network in the US, according to the Washington Free Beacon.

The network known as the Iran Experts Initiative was exposed in a joint investigation by Iran International and Semafor last September.

Last month, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) initiated an investigation into Gordon’s ties. The inquiry focuses on Gordon’s longstanding association with Pentagon official Ariane Tabatabai, a senior Department of Defense official involved in an Iranian government operation to expand Tehran’s influence in the United States.

Harris did not respond to an August 9 deadline from Cotton and Stefani to explain Gordon’s ties to Tabatabai and the pro-Tehran network.

“You failed to respond by my deadline or to appropriately address this threat to national security emanating from your staff,” Cotton wrote in a letter to Harris on Thursday.

“The presence of such an obvious security risk in your inner circle should have elicited your utmost attention. It raises the question of whether you’ve been aware of Mr. Gordon’s possible links to the Iranian regime and simply find your policies aligned enough with Tehran’s interests that ties to that regime don’t concern you.”

Earlier this month, top lawmakers overseeing US foreign policy threatened to subpoena the State Department following the agency’s failure to provide information about suspended Iran envoy Robert Malley.

In a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Jim Risch and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul expressed deep frustration with the State Department’s lack of transparency regarding the suspension of Robert Malley’s security clearance.

Malley was appointed by President Joe Biden in early 2021 to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, advocating for sanctions relief in exchange for nuclear restrictions. Despite efforts, the deal has not been reinstated since Trump’s 2018 withdrawal. In April 2023, Malley was placed on leave and had his security clearance suspended. Iran International first reported the incident two months later, but the State Department blocked all attempts to find more information about Malley’s case. source

*** Where is the joy now? C’mon readers…we all have work to do.

The Taliban Parades with $85B of American Military Gear

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On the third anniversary of the disgusting withdraw from Afghanistan, the Taliban took the day to celebrate and host a parade at the former U.S. military base, Bagram. Not only does it remain humiliating but the parade includes helicopters including Blackhawks.

On and by the way….who was invited to attend? Yes…Chinese and Iranian officials.

There are likely no words from the veterans, the lost souls and the survivors that would express the emotions they feel. Remember this travesty as you are told that Kamala Harris was the last person in the room with Biden when this decision was delivered.

The Taliban are marking their third annual “victory” parade on August 14th, commemorating the day in 2021 when U.S. troops withdrew, leaving behind a significant amount of military equipment. pic.twitter.com/TPRJ4Jp8Zo

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) August 14, 2024

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pic.twitter.com/QT7xrjSloH

— Graham Allen (@GrahamAllen_1) August 14, 2024

While the Associated Press barely mentioned the parade, at least Voice of America had to following:

Islamabad — The Islamist Taliban marked the third anniversary Wednesday of recapturing power in Afghanistan with a public holiday and a televised military parade at the former U.S.-run Bagram airbase, among other symbolic events.

The so-called “victory day” celebrations occurred amid ongoing global criticism of the Taliban government, known as the Islamic Emirate, for allegedly creating “the world’s most serious women’s rights crisis” and making impoverished Afghanistan the only country where girls are banned from education beyond sixth grade.

UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters fly during a military parade to mark the third anniversary of the withdrawal of US-led troops from Afghanistan, in Bagram Air Base in the Parwan Province of Afghanistan, Aug. 14, 2024.
UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters fly during a military parade to mark the third anniversary of the withdrawal of US-led troops from Afghanistan, in Bagram Air Base in the Parwan Province of Afghanistan, Aug. 14, 2024.

The ceremony at Bagram, around 40 kilometers north of the Afghan capital, Kabul, featured a 21-gun salute and speeches from top Taliban leaders, with thousands of people in the male-only audience, including foreign diplomats.

The then-insurgent Taliban swept back to power on August 15, 2021, as the U.S.-led international forces withdrew from the country after their involvement in the Afghan war for almost 20 years.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban-appointed deputy prime minister for economic affairs, inspects the honor guards during a military parade, in Bagram Air Base, Aug. 14, 2024.
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban-appointed deputy prime minister for economic affairs, inspects the honor guards during a military parade, in Bagram Air Base, Aug. 14, 2024.

The Taliban’s prime minister, Hassan Akhund, stated in a message read by his chief of staff, “Allah granted the Mujahid nation of Afghanistan a decisive victory on this date over an international arrogant and occupying force.” Akhund, largely considered a figurehead, was absent from Wednesday’s event.

Akhund’s message said that the Taliban government “has the responsibility to maintain Islamic rule, protect property, people’s lives, and the honor of our nation.”

De facto Afghan Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani addressing the Bagram ceremony just outside Kabul Aug 14, 2024, to mark the 3rd anniversary of the Taliban takeover.
De facto Afghan Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani addressing the Bagram ceremony just outside Kabul Aug 14, 2024, to mark the 3rd anniversary of the Taliban takeover.

The de facto Taliban government, not formally recognized by any country, cited the national solar calendar for marking the anniversary of “Afghanistan’s victory and freedom” from the U.S.-led “occupation” a day early.

Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, wanted by the United States for terrorism with a $10 million bounty for his arrest, also addressed the Bagram event, urging global cooperation and engagement with the Taliban administration.

“My message to the international community is that there is no need for dismay over the fact that you took our independence, and we reclaimed it successfully,” Haqqani said, without naming any country.

“We do not want to hold anyone accountable. We have created favorable circumstances and have good intentions for them to cooperate with us in rebuilding Afghanistan, similar to how they helped during the occupation,” he said.

Haqqani ran his network of militants, staging high-profile suicide bombings and other deadly attacks in support of Taliban insurgents on American and NATO forces during their presence in the war-torn South Asian nation.

The Bagram parade was also an opportunity for the Taliban to showcase the military hardware, including tanks, helicopters, and Humvees, left behind by U.S. and NATO forces.

Taliban Military Vehicles are seen during a military parade to mark the third anniversary of the withdrawal of U.S.-led troops from Afghanistan, in Bagram Air Base, Aug. 14, 2024.
Taliban Military Vehicles are seen during a military parade to mark the third anniversary of the withdrawal of U.S.-led troops from Afghanistan, in Bagram Air Base, Aug. 14, 2024.

Taliban leaders boasted about their conquest and subsequent achievements, such as establishing “peace and security” and an Islamic system in line with their harsh interpretation of Islam, but none of them responded to allegations of human rights abuses, particularly their sweeping curbs on women’s rights. They did not discuss hardships facing millions of Afghans.

The United Nations and international aid agencies have ranked Afghanistan as one of the world’s “largest and most complex” humanitarian crises. They estimated that 23.7 million Afghans, more than half women and children, need humanitarian relief.

An Afghan man sells Taliban flags along a street on the eve of the third anniversary of Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, in Kabul on Aug. 13, 2024.

SEE ALSO:

Aid groups: Afghanistan at risk of becoming ‘forgotten crisis’

A group of 29 U.N. experts Wednesday jointly called for “stronger and more effective” international action to address the deteriorating human rights situation in Afghanistan.

“We stress that there should be no move to normalize the de facto authorities unless and until there are demonstrated, measurable, and independently verified improvements against human rights benchmarks, particularly for women and girls,” the Geneva-based experts said in a statement.

In a separate joint statement this week, international non-governmental organizations warned of a growing aid funding gap.

Speaking ahead of the three-year anniversary of the Taliban takeover, a top U.N. official on Tuesday urged the world to support Afghan women’s fight for freedom.

FILE - A Taliban fighter stands guard as women wait to receive food rations distributed by a humanitarian aid group, in Kabul, Afghanistan, May 23, 2023.

SEE ALSO:

UN expert condemns Taliban ‘crimes’ against Afghan women, girls

“Three years’ worth of countless decrees, directives, and statements targeting women and girls – stripping them of their fundamental rights, eviscerating their autonomy,” Alison Davidian, the U.N. Women’s country representative in Afghanistan, said while sharing details of the latest survey.

She referred to religious edicts the reclusive Taliban supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, has issued over the past three years to govern the crisis-hit country, most of them leading to restrictions on the freedom of Afghan women and girls. Akhundzada rarely leaves the southern city of Kandahar, regarded as the country’s de facto capital.

“To date, no woman in Afghanistan is in a leadership position anywhere that has influence politically at the national or provincial level. When Afghan women are engaged in the Taliban’s structures, their roles are largely about monitoring the compliance of other women with their discriminatory decrees,” Davidian told reporters in New York.

“We must continue to invest in women. Nothing undermines the Taliban’s vision for society more than empowering the very part of the population they seek to oppress,” she stressed.

Human Rights Watch reiterated its call for the global community to press the Taliban to remove curbs on women.

“The third anniversary of the Taliban’s takeover is a grim reminder of Afghanistan’s human rights crisis, but it should also be a call for action,” said Fereshta Abbasi, the U.S.-based watchdog’s Afghanistan researcher.

Zabihullah Mujahid, chief Taliban spokesperson, talks with reporters in Doha, Qatar, June 30, 2024.

SEE ALSO:

Taliban call on West to build deeper ties, ignore curbs on women

The Taliban have dismissed criticism of their government as interference in internal matters of Afghanistan, saying their policies are aligned with local culture and Islam.

Terrorism-related international sanctions on many top Taliban leaders, isolation of their administration, and continued suspension of foreign development aid have made it difficult for Kabul to address deepening economic troubles.

The World Bank reported in April that the aftermath of the Taliban takeover had seen a stark decline in international aid, leaving Afghanistan without any internal growth engines and leading to “a staggering 26 percent contraction in real GDP.”

 

DHS in Non-Compliance of DNA collection of Unlawful Immigrants

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IMPORTANT UPDATE: Whistleblowers feel heard and validated by the overwhelming support on

@X

. Whistleblowers report “radio silence” from

@CBP
@DHSgov

leadership. They say they feel “uneasy” about further retaliation. That said, whistleblowers remain committed to ensuring the DNA law is fully complied with and the public is not endangered.

@CBP

has disputed their retaliation claims. In response to the investigation, I can report immediate outreach from a house committee with oversight.

Iran’s Mint Sandstorm, are you a Victim?

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So, a senior official in the Trump campaign was the victim of an email phishing trick and it worked….countless emails were hacked/stolen and began to be distributed. Microsoft has confirmed this and several Iranian cyber signatures from previous hack are providing some pretty good attributions to Iran as the hackers. But no worries, the FBI, likely the Pittsburgh office as agreed t investigate.

Just last night after some recent promoting the SPACES event hosted by Donald Trump and Elon Musk was delayed for an estimated 45 minutes due to a DDOS hit. Again, that too had the signature tactics of Iran. Mint Sandstorm Campaign's Targeted Cyber Attacks on Middle Eastern Experts source

Per CSOOnline in part:

The hackers allegedly obtained sensitive data as a result of a successful phishing campaign against Trump officials. Cheung cited the Microsoft report which said in June 2024, Mint Sandstorm, a group run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC) intelligence unit, sent a spear-phishing email to a high-ranking official of a presidential campaign from a compromised email account of a former senior advisor.

“On Friday, a new report from Microsoft found that Iranian hackers broke into the account of a ‘high ranking official’ on the US presidential campaign in June 2024, which coincides with the close timing of President Trump’s selection of a vice-presidential nominee,” Cheung added. More here.

In part:

Threat actor Mint Sandstorm, believed to be linked to Iran, has been observed using bespoke phishing lures to attack high-profile targets while leveraging a new custom backdoor called MediaPI.

In a Jan. 17 blog post, Microsoft Threat Intelligence said the attacks were on individuals working at a high level on Middle Eastern affairs at universities and research organizations in Belgium, France, Gaza, Israel, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The Microsoft researchers said Mint Sandstorm — also known as APT35 and APT42 — used legitimate, yet compromised accounts to send phishing lures. The researchers said Mint Sandstorm continues to improve and modify the tooling used in targets’ environments, activity that might help the group persist in a compromised environment and better evade detection.

“Based on the identities of the targets observed in this campaign and the use of lures related to the Israel-Hamas war, it’s possible this campaign is an attempt to gather perspectives on events related to the war from individuals across the ideological spectrum,” wrote the researchers.

Mint Sandstorm operates as a state-sponsored actor from Iran and, as a result, serves government agency and potential military objectives, explained Balazs Greksza, threat response lead at Ontinue. Greksza said the group employs tactics such as watering hole attacks and phishing emails, to target governments, NGOs, private entities, and academia for espionage. They often pose as journalists, government officials, or academics on social media and their primary objective is to get hold of sensitive information.

“Actors like APT35 have primary goals around geopolitics, national security, counter-intelligence,” said Greksza. “As openly shared by different intelligence agencies in the past, intelligence goals may shift rapidly based on the needs of national interests, current political and military leadership and their decision and intelligence needs.”

Ngoc Bui, cybersecurity expert at Menlo Security, added that the deployment of the custom backdoor MediaPI, along with the use of other tools like MischiefTut, indicates a shift in the operational tactics of Mint Sandstorm, marking an evolution in their cyber espionage capabilities.

***

This all begs the question, just exactly what is being done to not only protect a political campaign and election, but every website or American out there from Iran, Russia, China or North Korea and their team of hackers?

CSOOnline goes on to read –>

Iran, found extremely capable in the past of conducting cyberattacks against its foes in the Middle East, earlier in 2022 had threatened to avenge the killing of General Qassem Soleimani by the United States in a drone strike ordered by the Trump administration.

During this time, among many other efforts, Mandiant reported that the news site EvenPolitics, a Tehran-controlled disinformation site, had published articles covering the 2022 US midterm elections. An inauthentic amplification network promoting the site was taken down by the X platform that same year, yet EvenPolitics continues to operate, releasing approximately ten articles per week.

Microsoft, in its report, added that Iranian cyber-enabled influence operations “have been a consistent feature of at least the last three US election cycles”.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations, in response to inquiries about the Trump campaign’s allegations, denied any involvement. Speaking to The Associated Press, the mission stated, “We dismiss these reports entirely. The Iranian government has neither the capability nor the intention to interfere in the United States presidential election.”

Have you Met John Mark Dougan, a Former Florida Deputy Sheriff?

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I continue to see friends on Facebook and a few other social media sites claiming that Ukraine’s President Zelensky and his wife are using millions if not billions of U.S. aid money to buy fancy cars and mansions….ehhh….c’mon people do that work please and stop getting punked by a former Marine and sheriff deputy from Florida that too fled to Russia….yes…fled and he is loving his deep fake life there and you are helping him win the bot/disinformation/propaganda war…and many members of Congress have bought into all this….but save yourself the humiliation and read on…

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It is not just here in the United States by the way…Europe is getting pummeled too:

The article looks real enough, though petrolheads may note the misspelling of Tourbillon. It even cites as evidence a video recorded by a dealership employee describing the supposed sale, and a picture of a Bugatti invoice for €4.5 million made out to Mrs. Olena Zelenska. If you were under any doubt, the site’s name should lay your fears to rest: Verite Cachee or, in English, hidden truth.

In fact, the video is a deepfake, the invoice is falsified, and the entire site is part of a Kremlin-linked influence operation, using AI-generated content to deliver a payload of Russian talking points. The false attack on Zelenska was designed, it seems, to hint at corruption.

Veritecachee.fr is one of two sites set up less than two weeks after French president Emmanuel Macron announced a surprise election, the other called France en Colere (Angry France). The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) and the Tow Center have connected both to a network of websites linked to John Dougan, an American former police officer now living in Moscow and known for spreading Kremlin-backed disinformation. This network was first identified by researchers at Clemson University in December last year.

Even as this Dougan-affiliated network has targeted the French election, another Russia-linked disinformation operation, unmasked by French authorities earlier this year, has ramped up its activity in Europe. In June, the “Portal Kombat” network launched ten new sites, mostly aimed at Europe. Another five targeting Eastern Europe were set up in April and May. Read it all here for further context. Zelensky just bought a brand new $4.5 Million Dollar Bugatti for his ...

*** In part below:

It starts with a NewsGuard analyst happening upon what appeared to be a fledgling Washington D.C.-based news site promoting Russian propaganda. Unbeknownst to her, this was six months after her boss and his family had been threatened in a YouTube video that included an aerial shot of his home and calls to his unlisted phone number by a Russian disinformation operative working from a studio in Moscow. It turns out that this D.C. website, those threats to NewsGuard’s co-CEO, and what NewsGuard discovered were dozens of similar hostile information operations — including a “documentary” that the Russians used as an excuse to invade Ukraine — were all orchestrated by the same man — John Mark Dougan, a former Florida deputy sheriff who fled to Moscow after being investigated for computer hacking and extortion.

As of this writing, NewsGuard has discovered 167 Russian disinformation websites that appear to be part of Dougan’s network of websites masquerading as independent local news publishers in the U.S. and 15 films on Dougan’s since-removed YouTube channel. Ranging from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky siphoning off money meant to aid the war against Russia so he could buy an estate in England owned by King Charles, to a non-existent U.S. bioweapons lab in Ukraine being the reason the Russians had to invade that country, these concocted stories have been amplified on social media accounts to reach a broad global audience of more than 37 million views—including 1,300,000 views of just the narrative about Zelensky buying the king’s estate.

As a journalist based in Washington who scrutinizes the credibility of news outlets as a profession, I was familiar with the landscape of trusted local publications in the area. DCWeekly did not appear to be one of them.

I first noticed the site when it published an article reporting that the Ukrainian Azov Battalion was recruiting in France. It carried the byline “Jessica Devlin,” who was described as a “distinguished and highly acclaimed journalist.” Another scoop: The U.S. had bought a mansion for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Vero Beach, Florida.

Everything about the website and these articles was a red flag: The site presented itself as a credible new local news source yet was propagating fabricated narratives that smelled of Russian influence.

It turned out that “DCWeekly” is not actually based in the nation’s capital. Nor is “Jessica Delvin” a real person. As uncovered by researchers at Clemson University, the site operates from Moscow, hosted on an IP address belonging to John Mark Dougan.

His is a name I would come to know well over the coming months.

In further briefings, I learned that Dougan, a former marine, had been an officer in the Sheriff’s Department in Palm Beach County, Florida, until 2016, when he fled to Russia and was granted asylum after being targeted in a computer hacking scheme. Since then, I was told, he had become well known to the FBI and, as they put it, “our sister security agencies” as a Russian operative who specialized in producing some of the Russians’ most elaborate disinformation campaigns and narrating them as if he were an independent American journalist. 

Relatedly, it appeared that the aerial video of my home in Dougan’s video was not a simple Google satellite shot. Instead, it had probably been taken by a drone that someone had hired. [Dougan denies this; see below.] I was also told that those same sister agencies reported that Dougan was still in Russia. “So he poses no imminent threat to you,” the lead agent on the case said.

But he knows where I live and the Russians must have people all over the United States, I said. And he must have followers here on his YouTube channel that could act on their own. The FBI agents agreed. This was more serious than a few random crank emails. In a meeting a few days later with three agents and my wife sitting at our dining room table, we agreed on a multifaceted security plan to be implemented by a private security company.

I now live in a home surrounded by twelve motion-detecting security cameras, monitored remotely by the security service, and filled with dead-bolt window and door locks and other reminders of Dougan’s video—which produced multiple new death threats.

***

Related reading from the BBC